No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 161 



M hen we come together as a "Union" we come together with a vital 

 connection, wliich means that every one of us stands for the welfare 

 of every other member of this association and that our life work will 

 be in that direction. 



It is this great theory which underlies all progress in human af- 

 fairs. The power of the world lies in organisms, and the success of 

 the world's progress lies in organizations. Life ie one grand i)ano- 

 rama in illustration of this great fact; from the microbe which lies 

 at the very bottom of matter, scarcely knowing whether it lives or 

 dies, up to man himself, creation's crowning glory, the organism 

 made uj) of a million of parts with an intellect shining from under- 

 neath his brow like a spark struck from the burning essence of its 

 God. Groping, as we all must, in our weakness, in the dark myste- 

 ries of our little lives, we shall finally enter into the Divine wisdom 

 which shall come to us in the after world. 



Having entered upon this association, it seems to me that as dairy- 

 men it would be well to take a more comprehensive view of its pro 

 gress of ideas. Ideas, Napoleon says, are like an army; if you do 

 not keep up to them, they will march over you. This is the spirit 

 which is leading onward everywhere to-day. The imagination in 

 seeing what may be in reserve for future generations grow'S almost 

 wild in delirium in contemplating the development of co-operation 

 which prevails everywhere. One century of American experience 

 iji organism, on which this nation was founded, has been enough to 

 prove to this generation and to the world that individual competi- 

 tion is a failure. Out of that century of experience has grow'n that 

 magnificent law which we must all now acknowledge, that competi- 

 tion is the law of death and cooperation the law of life. When we 

 reflect that the learning of this lesson has cost this American people 

 but one single century of experience, we realize that it is a little price 

 to pay compared with what the world's nations have paid for lessons 

 they have often learned; and we have reason to be thankful to that 

 Almighty Teacher of the universe who has given this lesson in so 

 short a time; especially, when we remember that out of His hand the 

 ages fall like grains of sand. 



We are standing now upon the threshold of a century which marks 

 the coming of the kingdom of cooperation among men. Around the 

 co-operative idea I believe will, in the future, crystallize forces whose 

 acute angles will cut through all this world's time-hardened philoso- 

 phy, and leave a fracture, so bright and clear, that even the lowliest 

 of men may look up and see through it, God's own eternal truth. Yet 

 a little while, and men will begin to see around them on every hand 

 the warm glare of that bright light of the after world, w'hich must 

 fall as warmly on the humble cot of the lowliest worker as it ever 

 fell on kingly palaces. In the upward movement of those mighty 

 11—6—1901 



