534 



HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



was passed unanimously in accordance with 

 these assurances. 



That was in the days of individual subscrip- 

 tion before the Association owned the Herd 

 Book, or had any fixed source of revenue. To- 

 day, it is different. With an overflowing treas- 

 ury, the liberality of Hereford breeders should 

 yet show itself in an appropriate monument, 

 expressive of appreciation for the great work 

 Mr. Sotham did. The Shorthorn Association 

 should join in this movement, for Mr. Sotham 

 was ever a friend of their best cattle and solici- 

 tous of the true interests of the Shorthorn 

 breed. Likewise, the Angus had his good will, 

 for they were favorites with him, while the lit- 

 tle West Highlander was probably his ideal of 

 a perfect beef animal. While Mr. Sotham ad- 

 vocated particularly the Hereford breed, it was 

 because, as a breed, they had a higher standard 

 of uniform excellence than any other breed; 

 their standard if equalled at all by any other 

 breed being approached only by its best speci- 

 mens. 



Our own experience at the recent meeting 

 (1899) of the American Hereford Cattle Breed- 

 ers' Association, leads us the more to believe 

 that a man's work may not be appreciated at its 

 full value during his lifetime, or while jealous 

 contemporaries hold the machinery of organi- 

 zation. We fully appreciated Mr. Sotham's work 

 during his lifetime, but, in the stress of the 

 fight, we were unable to stop and bind up his 

 wounds, although it was fully in our heart to 

 do so ; but time presses and waits for no man, 

 and we are thus tardily doing our very best to 

 have the works of Mr. Sotham appreciated. 

 Feeling that Mr. T. F. B. Sotham would ap- 

 preciate this recognition of his father's work 

 for the improvement of American cattle we 

 can state that our unpleasant experience at the 

 recent meeting resulted unexpectedly in one 

 source of gratification, for it led us to confer 

 with Mr. Sotham, through which conference 

 we agreed with him upon the revision and pub- 

 lication of our work, independent of any un- 

 friendly censorship. 



As was known to many members of the Here- 

 ford Cattle Breeders' Association, we agreed 

 with the Executive Committee of the Associa- 

 tion to write a History of Hereford Cattle for 

 the Association. We entered into this work 

 in no narrow mood, but with a love for the 

 labor and a broad feeling of assurance that we 

 were equipped better than anyone else to do 

 this work, and in the firm belief that such a 

 work was needed and would be appreciated. 

 After spending a year upon the work, we found 

 that at our time of life it was a much greater 



and more arduous task than we had estimated ; 

 several years having passed since we had retired 

 from active business. While the money that 

 we had agreed uy)on with the Executive Com- 

 mittee as compensation would have been a con- 

 venience, we, at no time,- felt as though we were 

 working for a money consideration. As we got 

 into the work, reviewing our past struggles and 

 triumphs, we renewed our youth in a revival of 

 our interest in beef cattle improvement. The 

 splendid enthusiasm of the Hereford men at 

 their shows was encouraging. 



When, therefore, we came to the meeting 

 with several hundred pages of manuscript, ready 

 to show what we had accomplished and to out- 

 line what we further wished to do in comple- 

 tion of the work, we suggested to the Executive 

 Committee that we could use a part of the com- 

 pensation, and were pained on meeting the 

 committee to learn that our work was by them 

 considered a mere dollars-and-cents matter, and 

 that even when completed we could have no 

 assurance that the work would be published. 

 At any rate the Executive Committee crawled 

 behind a technicality, and although they as- 

 sumed unbridled authority in many directions 

 in other matters they pleaded that they had no 

 authority to turn over any part of the money 

 until the entire work was completed. 



To show how utterly devoid of sincerity the 

 committee's plea was I would add that a little 

 later, in honeyed phrases, they offered to^take 

 the data and uncompleted work as we then had 

 it, and pay the full amount of money ($500) 

 for it, uncompleted. The design of the Execu- 

 tive Committee ruler was so plainly evident 

 that we would not, under any circumstances, 

 allow our work to go into his hands to be re- 

 vised and edited ; and therefore we resolved to 

 cancel our agreement with the Hereford Asso- 

 ciation. Our friends, however, were not con- 

 tent to let the matter remain in this condition, 

 and it was brought before the meeting, but the 

 Executive Committee, carrying in proxy votes 

 "the power of the Association, was enabled, by 

 an empty subterfuge of alleged business prin- 

 ciple, to defeat what was unquestionably the 

 will of the Association. 



It is beyond our comprehension how the 

 American Hereford Cattle Breeders' Associa- 

 tion continues to submit to the rule of a com- 

 mittee of three men who are known to be domi- 

 , nated by one of its members. The Executive 

 Committee of the American Hereford Cattle 

 Breeders' Association, as now (1899) con- 

 structed, amounts to one-man rule, and accord- 

 ing to the Constitution and By-Laws that man, 

 as the head of the Executive Committee, is the 



