Farmers' Week in Agrivullural C(jll(:(je. 117 



to make a purchase or whether we are putting a dollar into our pocket 

 as a result of a sale. 



Ninth — Poultry products possess intrinsic merit as human food. 

 They are not merely considered as luxuries, but are necessaries in feeding 

 the human race. Eggs and poultry, the same as beef, wheat and corn, 

 are staple food products. The business that has to do with the produc- 

 tion of human necessities possesses stability. Moreover, eggs and poultry 

 possess added qualities of digestibility and attractiveness which place 

 them in a special class with milk among the few articles which especially 

 tickle the palate of man, and which invalids can only use. Because of 

 this great commercial value of poultry and eggs as as a human food, a 

 state is especially justified in fostering the development of the poultry 

 industry. 



Tenth — State aid to develop the poultry industry is not paternalism. 

 By helping the poultrymen to grow more and better poultry every other 

 industry, profession and trade is helped. They are all to a large ex- 

 tent dependent upon the farmer. 



Eleventh — It is the duty of the State to try to prevent financial loss 

 and to help make every legitimate business prosper. By educating the 

 poultrymen how- to keep poultry more profitably and thus prevent loss, 

 the State is practicing the sound policy of considering education as a 

 form of insurance and thus is doing what every great business concern 

 would do to guard against loss and waste. The underwriters inspect 

 elevators and safety fire appliances and the efficiency of fire departments. 

 States supervise banks to insure efficiency and guard against loss. Why, 

 then, should not the State safeguard its agricultural interests against 

 waste and unprofitableness in management? The best investment for 

 an individual or a corporation or a state to make is in education which 

 will insure efficiency. Money spent for education should be looked upon 

 by an individual or by a state or a nation as paying the premium on an 

 insurance policy with annual benefits and dividends to be derived im- 

 mediately and to continue through life. 



Twelfth — It requires special training and education to meet competi- 

 tion between men, states and nations. That man or nation will mn out 

 in the long run, other things being equal, who is best educated. If Illi- 

 nois educates her poultrymen so that they produce a better quality of 

 poultry, breed more intelligently, feed more successfully, build poultry 

 houses more economically and rear more skillfully and market more ex- 

 tensively, the Illinois poultrymen will be selling pure-bred eggs and 

 stock to the people of Missouri for breeding and egg production and pos- 

 sibly also for consumption, unless Missouri gives her poultrymen an 

 equal opportunity for education. 



