332 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



these representatives of the people will hold the associations responsible 

 for results, and they ought. 



The colleges, the stations, the fairs and the press are all educators, 

 and we can not do without them, but they serve the people, while the 

 associations are the people themselves. I would not say a word against 

 the efficiency of the college and stations, the fairs or the press; far from 

 that, they ai"e powerful agencies of progress. They have been estab- 

 lished and supported by the people to do each a particular thing. It is, 

 therefore, for the people to sustain them. They may and should criticise 

 them, make them better if they can, reorganize them if they must, but 

 they must support them, and if they expect results they must support them 

 well, for this business of advancing agriculture is an expensive business. 



These agricultural organizations, therefore, are the typical represent- 

 atives of the people in matters agricultural, and they can not if they 

 would escape their responsibility. If agriculture is not developing as it 

 should in Illinois, Indiana, or any other State, we may say the press is 

 inefficient, the fairs badly managed, the college and the station lazy or 

 incompetent — we may say all these things, and they may be true, but in 

 the last analysis the agricultural organizations are chargeable for the 

 conditions, and they can not shirk the responsibility. 



These associations are chargeable with the conditions, whatever they 

 are, because they represent presumably the foremost men in agriculture; 

 they have effected prganizations presumably to some purpose and they 

 have taken names that carried with them inevitable responsibilities. 

 They are responsible for conditions, whether good or bad, because in this 

 country the people constitute the court of last resort, and right or wrong, 

 we and everybody must abide the final verdict. 



Because in this coimtry the people are sovereign and they alone can 

 say what shall and shall not be done, what taxes shall be levied and for 

 what purposes, what new enterprises shall be imdertaken and what shall 

 be abandoned — for this reason, if for no other, a voluntary as.sociation of 

 the people, with a formal organization and a name, not only constitutes a 

 power for work, but it accepts more responsibilities than can be laid on 

 any public officer by the vote of his constituents. 



But when a body of progressive farmers organize in the name of live 

 stock, for example, they take upon themselves the duty as well as the 

 privilege not only of supporting existing agencies for the advancement of 

 this interest, but even of effecting reorganization and of Instituting now 

 agencies for this advancement. 



You of these associations may be taught many things as individuals 

 by college and station men, by editors and reporters, and they would not 

 do their duty if they did not tell you things you had not known before. 

 They may therefore conlriI)ute to your education and success in business; 

 that Is wliat you keep them for. They may advise, admonish, urge or per- 

 suade you as individuals or as an organization, but they can not dictate 



