HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



537 



utive Committee. They must make all reports 

 to the Executive Committee, are responsible to 

 that committee, and hold their offices by the 

 power and command of that committee. In the 

 second place he found the office was located at 

 Independence, and that aside from its being the 

 office of the Hereford Association it was the 

 office of the Treasurer, and also of the Hereford 

 cattle breeding firm of which the Treasurer was 

 the active partner. 



Further, it was discovered that the funds of 

 the Association were kept in the private bank 

 accounts of the Secretary and Treasurer, and 

 that the machinery of the Hereford office was 

 used to conduct the private commission busi- 

 ness of the Secretary and the business of the 

 Treasurer's firm. Further investigation showed 

 a lack of system in the methods of the office, 

 and particularly a very lax and unbusinesslike 

 system of accounts. Still further investigation 

 showed the unregistered bonds, equivalent to 

 greenbacks, added to the cash in the hands of 

 the Treasurer. Having the best of will, and 

 we may say without fear of contradiction, a sin- 

 cere friendship for both the Secretary and 

 Treasurer, Mr. Smith was extremely reluctant 

 to take action, but being himself an expert ac- 

 countant and a business man, experienced with 

 and high in the esteem of great corporations, 

 he felt that action on his part was a duty, and 

 thus he conferred with his friend, Mr. Henry, 

 also a business man of high standing and fa- 

 miliar with corporations. In the kindliest and 

 friendliest way possible they quietly but plainly 

 laid some of the facts as they saw them before 

 both Secretary and Treasurer, suggesting vari- 

 ous changes in the system of accounting in both 

 Secretary's and Treasurer's office, and insisting 

 that the Treasurer should at once exchange the 

 unregistered bonds, that were as negotiable as 

 greenbacks, for bonds registered in the name 

 of the American Hereford Breeders' Associa- 

 tion; such bonds not being transferable with- 

 out the signature of the President in addition 

 to that of the Treasurer of the Association. 

 Wilfully misconstruing the motives and dis- 

 trusting the evident faith and good-will of 

 Messrs. Smith and Henry, the Executive Com- 

 mittee appointed two breeders, neither of whom 

 were accountants, as an auditing committee to 

 pass upon the accounts of the Association, 

 which committee made a report dated January 

 12, 1898. We do not call in question the hon- 

 esty of that report, and it is not particularly 

 our intention to call in question the honesty of 

 the existing administration, but we do say that 

 the appointment by the Executive Committee 

 of an auditing committee to pass upon their 



own work is a farce too silly, after sober 

 thought, to be countenanced by a body of men 

 as intelligent as the members of the Hereford 

 Cattle Breeders' Association. 



We need not prolong the details of this mat- 

 ter, and would not have presented it at all in 

 this, a history of Hereford cattle, were it not 

 for our firm belief that the Hereford breed of 

 cattle is to be the prevailing and leading breed 

 in the improvement of the world's beef cattle; 

 and that being the case, that the organization 

 of the breeders of Hereford cattle must wield 

 great influence upon the breed, and therefore 

 any failures and mistakes would, in the end, 

 have a bad effect upon the beef interest of the 

 country, and therefore upon its agriculture. 



We feel that most members of the American 

 Hereford Cattle Breeders' Association take too 

 lax a view of their duties and responsibilities, 

 and of their individual importance in the great 

 work of uplifting American agriculture. We 

 say this with the welfare of the breeders of 

 Hereford cattle sincerely at heart. We say this 

 because the members of the American Hereford 

 Cattle Breeders' Association annually receive 

 from the Secretary a circular letter announcing 

 the date of annual meeting and giving copies 

 (sanctioned by the Executive Committee) of 

 rules to be adopted or rejected at the coming 

 meeting, and accompanying this they receive a 

 blank proxy, and too little importance has been 

 attached by members to those proxies. The 

 great majority of the proxies fell into the waste 

 basket, with the proposed rules, members 

 promptly deciding there was nothing to be done 

 at the meeting to interest them, or to be worth 

 the expense incurred in attending. This would 

 be well were it not that other members, noting 

 the name of the Secretary printed in large let- 

 ters at the head of the proxy, have felt that 

 some attention should he paid to it, and though 

 taking no personal interest in the meeting have 

 endorsed their name on the proxy and returned 

 it to the Secretary; and enough have usually 

 done this to place the power in the hands of 

 the Secretary to accomplish at the meeting 

 whatever his will might be, regardless of the 

 will of those Hereford breeders who think 

 enough of the Hereford breed and its organiza- 

 tion to pay their money to attend the meeting 

 in person. These proxies the Secretary would, 

 of course, divide among the Executive Commit- 

 tee trio, and their clique, in order that on the 

 face of the returns the power of one man might 

 not be too offensively visible. 



We are glad that we can say that in most 

 instances this power has been used in the inter- 

 est of projects redounding ultimately to the 



