The Court held that, under the Packers and Stockyards Act, the Secretary of Agriculture had the authority and he properly determined the reasonable rates for services rendered by market agencies.

[1] The Packers and Stockyards Act provides the Secretary of Agriculture the authority to set rates to be paid by agencies for services rendered.

[2] In the early 1930s the Secretary of Agriculture became concerned that the Fred O. Morgan Sheep Commission Company[3] and other agencies doing business at the Kansas City Stockyards were charging unreasonable rates for services rendered.

Three months after assuming office, Wallace issued an order setting maximum rates to be charged by market agencies for their services at the Kansas City Stockyards.

This case involved the return of payments made between 1933 and 1937 in excess of a reasonable rate properly determined, and agreed by both parties, in 1937.

The agencies introduced into evidence a letter Wallace wrote to the New York Times following the Court's 1938 decision stating his extreme disappointment that opinion.

[1] In 1941, the Supreme Court heard its fourth cases between Henry A. Wallace, the Secretary of Agriculture, and Fred O. Morgan Sheep Commission Company with other agencies doing business at the Kansas City Stockyards.

The Court also determined that the expressed strong views by Wallace in his letter to the New York Times did not unfit him for exercising his duty in the subsequent proceedings.

Finally, the Court held that the Secretary of Agriculture, as a high-ranking official, should not be called upon to question and defend the basis for his decision.