214 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



has been actually issued and paid for. Every share has been paid 

 for in that organization except a very few. When the stock was 

 bought from Mr. Wallace, who had the register, there were a few 

 stockholders outside that, and to them was given stock in the new 

 association for their old. During their existence they have paid to 

 their members 85 per cent of the capital stock in dividends. It has 

 not paid any dividends for quite a number of years, but it is not a 

 pauper as some people would have you think. It has cash assets, all 

 of them good, of about $58,000. The American Trotting Horse 

 Breeders Association was organized a number of years ago as a stock 

 company, and it was organized for the purpose of promoting 

 breeding. The thing they have done is to promote two futurities, and 

 they have been very painstaking and careful, and I think can give 

 a good account of their stewardship. They also tried to publish a 

 paper, and still do, a small sheet, about once a month to their mem- 

 bers. They make a statement of their trust fund, but no statement 

 I have ever seen of the general fund. It is these four associations 

 that it is proposed to amalgamate. There are several questions in 

 relation to this question of amalgamation that should be thoroughly 

 considered. The American Trotting Association has the largest 

 number of members ; it has, outside of the Registry Association, the 

 most funds ; it is the only one of the four associations in which 

 there is anybody present at the annual meetings that takes any inter- 

 est and discuss live topics; it is the only democratic organization 

 of the four; it is the only one that owns its own home; it is the 

 only one that owns Liberty Bonds ; 95 per cent of its membership 

 is within a night's ride of Chicago, its headquarters. If it is the 

 desire of the members of the American Trotting Association for 

 amalgamation, they should not only give their views with relation 

 to amalgamation, but they should also say whether they desire the 

 office removed to San Francisco, New York, or whether it shall re- 

 main in the middle west. They should state what kind of new 

 organization they want, whether a stock company or a company 

 devoid of capital stock and a mutual as they have now. They should 

 also say whether they want their funds used for buying of the stock 

 of the corporations. 



I wish you gentlemen interested in this matter would think it 

 over thoroughly, and I would like, as I am through speaking now, 

 those who are members of the American Trotting Association 

 whether they are in favor of amalgamation. * * * j ^on't see 

 anybody here say they are in favor of amalgamation. 



