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FANCIERS' JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 



nor was it the proper or most feasible plan to make a " Nation- 

 al Standard." The moment a standard becomes the act of any 

 particular society or association it is local and not general or 

 universal in its character, and is binding only on the organ- 

 ization from which it emanates, and the moment it attempts 

 to stretch its authority over other bodies or individuals it 

 usurps power. In this country the people are the source of 

 power or sovereign. It is the people in general convention 

 assembled, or by their delegates, that legitimate power orig- 

 inates. It is this agency which frames and changes our 

 constitutions. It is the foundation of our fundamental codes. 

 It is this that gives them existence, vitality and nationality. 



"This is true liberty, where free-born men 

 Having to advise the public may speak free, 

 Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise : 

 Who neither can nor will may hold his peace. 

 What can bejuster in a state than this? " 



A general convention of the poultry men of this country 

 is the only legitimate body to erect a national standard and 

 whatever emanates from such a body must be recognized 

 as authority throughout the whole country, and binding on 

 all, since it may be called the work of each man individually 

 by his representatives. Therefore I say it is no one's busi- 

 ness but their own, if a number of gentleman choose to as- 

 semble and organize themselves into an association and to 

 call it by whatever name they please, no matter how inap- 

 propriate the name may be, to designate the character of the 

 association. Now, is it anybody's business but their own if 

 they see fit to make a standard for their own use, and cau- 

 tion people that it is their " exclusive property," and place 

 what price upon it they please. Those that are not mem- 

 bers of the association are not obliged to purchase it and 

 they have no right to complain of its price or the manner 

 of its getting up. It is of no use to parties outside of the 

 organizations, since it is no authority for them, nor is it 

 binding upon them. Being the private property of the 

 association it is of no efficiency beyond its own walls. 

 It is local — not national. But when any local institution at- 

 tempts to foist a standard of its own making upon the poultry 

 fraternity of this country nolentes volentes, we have not only 

 a right to complain of but to resist such an assumption of 

 power. The appellation of national does not make it so. 



The name adds nothing to its authority. It is illegitimate 

 ab initio. It has not the sanction of the breeders of the 

 whole country — they have not been regularly represented. 

 If the call at Buffalo had been for a general convention of 

 the poultry men of the country, and had stated clearly the 

 objects of the convention, and the poultry men had been 

 regularly represented by their delegates, we should have 

 had a legitimate and binding power, and whatever standard 

 they may have adopted would have been "The National 

 Standard of America." 



It appears by the proceedings of this Association at Buffalo, 

 that its presiding officer, in his opening speech to his brother 

 fanciers, took occasion to extend a cordial invitation to every- 

 body present to join the Association, and that the delegates 

 who were sent there for one of two objects — to meet in 

 general convention to revise, amend and establish a national 

 standard, which I believed was the real purpose of their 

 constituents — did for some cause or other unite themselves 

 to the American Poultry Association, and transferred and 

 set over to said association some of the most precious rights 

 and privileges of their respective societies, and thereby 

 making their respective societies amenable to the rules and 



regulations of their " head centre." We also find it stated 

 in the proceedings that the real business of the day was the 

 establishing of a standard of excellence, to be vised " exclu- 

 sively " by the association in the award of prizes. This is 

 one of the most remarkable transactions that ever came un- 

 der my observation ; a class of delegates representing most 

 of the poultry societies of the country meet at Buffalo, and! 

 in a body join another association and delegate to it most off 

 the powers pertaining to their own respective organizations.. 

 The standard adopted is exclusively the standard of this asso- 

 ciation, and is not binding on other societies, and cannot be 1 

 used by them without first obtaining the consent of the 

 American Poultry Association. And so very jealous were" 

 they of this right that one of the delegates, before proceed- 

 ing to business, moved that " the doings of the association 

 with respect to the standard should be the exclusive property 

 of the association." So that not only the standard but all 

 acts in relation to it was emphatically declared to be their 

 exclusive property. Probably this was done to prevent Hal- 

 sted from getting out & patent right to his report on French 

 and Spanish fowls and lop-eared rabbits. I do not see 

 anywhere in the proceedings at Buffalo any disposition or 

 effort to make a national standard. They have a child of 

 their own creation, and they seem to have named it before 

 it was born. They do not seem to have taken it much at 

 heart whether it was a legitimate child or a bastard. It 

 seems to me rather ungracious to abuse another person's- 

 child, no matter how ugly its features or grotesque its dress. 

 It is only a baby still in swaddling cloths, and we cannot 

 very well prejudge its intelligence or predict its duration 

 of life. Isaac Van Winkle. 



OBJECTIONS TO THE STANDARD. 



BY GEOKGE P. BTJRNHAM. 



It was not my intention, originally (and I have not 

 changed my purpose now), to enter into any controversy — 

 and, least of all, into personalities — in my strictures upon 

 the new " standard " question. I have no time to devote to 

 replying to the defenders of this work ; and with the indi- 

 vidual opinions of these gentlemen I have nothing whatever 

 to do. There is a general principle involved in this matter, 

 however, to my way of thinking, and upon general princi- 

 ples only have I yet (or shall I hereafter), have anything to 

 offer upon this topic. . 



My opinion is as good as another's — no better. The judg- 

 ment of Mr. A, Mr. B, or Mr. C, is worth precisely what 

 he may contrive to make it with the public. Fanciers and 

 breeders will accept the expression of such opinions at pre- 

 cisely their true value, come from whom they may. I have 

 not argued this question, and I do not propose to. I have 

 stated plain/acte simply as they appear to my limited vision, 

 and if others can gainsay these assertions and propositions, 

 all right, I am content. 



I have spoken of no man, individually, as being responsi- 

 ble for, or concerned in, the results of the labors of the late 

 poultry convention which decided this " standard," but thus 

 far have written about the doings of the public body and 

 its committees, who so hastily arrived at the incomplete, 

 erroneous, and unacceptable conclusions embodied in the 

 pamphlet put forth by the convention at Buffalo. All this 

 I did, and have the right to do, in a respectful way. If my 

 language is more earnest and pointed than may prove pal- 

 atable to some of these gentlemen, I have to assure them 



