FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART V. 279 



back part of de church put in de hat am genuine." The National Dairy 

 Union has a surplus in its treasury, or rather accessil)le, provided the 

 $9,000 we have out among the bututer-makers and others who have under- 

 taken the sale of our books is accounted for. 



For the book hundreds of butter-makers have done their part well. 

 Others have received consignments from us, express prepaid, and re- 

 turned them "collect" without even opening the package, not only failing 

 to do anything for us, but practically eating up the efforts of others. As 

 a matter of fact, your secretary has become weary of spending a dollar to 

 collect a dollar, having at the end of the year only a few hundred dollars 

 ($473.78) in the treasury and a few thousand dollars of anticipation and 

 promises. Not only is there no satisfaction in wasting time in this way, 

 but this fruitless work is very likely to create the impression that there 

 may be a leak somewhere, particularly when it is shown that without 

 any active fight on hand more than $12,000 have been spent in a year. 

 There are many who do not stop to consider the fact that the National 

 Dairy Union has been run during the past year almost as a business 

 venture, that it has printed vi book and put it on the market at prices 

 lower than any private individual or firm could have afforded to have 

 done it, and that more than 75 per cent of the organization's expendi- 

 tures have been in the production and handling of this book, yet I would 

 not think for a minute of bringing this report before this meeting without 

 first having submitted the records of my office to an auditing committee, 

 appointed by the president of an outside interested organization, who has 

 been afforded every. facility to verify every item which goes to make up 

 the various totals* and who will report his findings here tonight. 



In conclusion, I desire to say, as you may readily understaand, that 

 I am weary of this work. I have held the office of secretary of the 

 National Dairy Union for six years. Five years of this time has been 

 spent in the most aggressive warfare ever undertaken by any organiza- 

 tion. We passed an anti-color bill in the Illinois legislature in 1897 only 

 after an almost hand-to-hand fight in the Senate and having our bill stolen 

 in the House, because in the State of Illinois the city of Chicago holds 

 more than ,33 per cent of the representation, which is solid against any- 

 thing the agricultural interests may want. In the spring of 1899 we 

 passed a bill creating the illlinois food commission to enforce the law of 

 1897, We then began our active work • in behalf of the national law, 

 which required three years of effort, the history of which you are familiar 

 with. We now have before us vexatious legal and technical questions 

 which are to those in places of responsibility like an aching tooth; they 

 don't take a great deal of actual physical effort or time, but they keep 

 one in a frame of mind and suspense which prevents him doing much of 

 anything else. 



How we are going to get along without Grovernor Hoard I do not 

 know. His name was a source of confidence in the organization and his 

 counsel a continuous balance wheel. It was he who gave your secretary 

 his first insight to what is necessary in securing legislation in behalf of 

 the farmer. So long as his name remained at the head of the organiza- 

 tion he could not escape the responsibilities entailed. Governor Hoard 



