288 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Chicago and audit these accounts. We will then issue a report 

 to all our supporters'giving the result of their work. 



The Secretary : In explanation, I would say that the officers 

 of the National Dairy Union, while no formal arrangements have 

 ever been made for auditing the books, on their own volition 

 called upon the Elgin Board of Trade, the members of which own 

 a large number of creameries in Southern Wisconsin and North- 

 ern Illinois, to appoint a committee from their organization to 

 come in last November and audit the books of this organization 

 No matter how much confidence you have in the officers of your 

 organization, or anything of that kind, it is necessary for us to 

 run this organization in a way that will keep the confidence of 

 those interested. We must have everyone interested know how 

 the business is run, and we must have our report substantiated 

 by the report of disinterested people with a full explanation of 

 what has been done in order that there may be absolute con- 

 fidence in the organization. The way to do that, as they say 

 about honesty, the way to keep a man honest is to give him no 

 opportunity to be otherwise, not that we think the officers of this 

 association would be otherwise, but we don't want to give any- 

 one an opportunity to question it, because the minute there is a 

 question as to funds of this organization, it would put such a 

 damper on the organization that it would kill the whole thing. 



One of the secrets of our success for the past ten years is the 

 fact that we have taken people into our confidence all the time, 

 and made it clear just what was being done with the funds, and 

 giving them every opportunity in the world to investigate re- 

 ceipts and expenditures. 



The President : I want to say a word of explanation and it 

 will not take a minute. When I was sitting there I saw Brother 

 Moore shake his fist at me, and I knew it was about our 

 creamery directory. I went to work to get out a directory 

 and knew very little about doing it and supposed the directory 

 was all right; but I want to say that we had nine hundred 

 orders for that directory before it was out of the printers' hands, 

 and the beauty of it is that while the commission men knew they 

 were not worth much everyone took his medicine, and we expect 

 them to do the same next year. 



W. S. Moore: I accept your explanation, Mr. President, 

 but that is not what I arose for. I move that the secretary's 

 report be referred to the executive committee for auditing. 



Motion duly seconded and carried. 



