Thirty-fourth Annual Convention. ^^^ 



the dairymen of the future will be compelled to know their raw 

 material costs before they can intelligently place a price on it 

 and have any idea as to whether he is getting a profit or not. 



It is not enough that we take the town pump, poisonous 

 preservatives and oleomargarine away from you as competitors, 

 it is your place now to find out if you cannot produce your pro- 

 duct for less money and I know it can be produced for less 

 money; the statistics anywhere available in this or any other 

 country show that and the men gathering these statistics have not 

 done it for fun, they have gotten at the good hard facts, and the 

 best of these hard facts have been laid before you this afternoon. 

 I listened here to what I consider the most interesting, the most 

 instructive and the most valuable discussion of the simple, prac- 

 tical way of getting at the cost of dairy products. Take these 

 things home, mull them over and make up your minds that there 

 are enough of you here to form such an association. It only 

 takes twenty-five to thirty of such dairies as you have, and I 

 don't know of any place better fitted to set the people of Illinois 

 an example of what can be done in fiinding out the cost and plac- 

 ing the dairy business on an intelligent basis, than this communi- 

 ty right here. I hope you will take that matter up and act on it, 

 and while I will not say that I can lend you much assistance 

 through our office still I think I can, and I want to urge, you to 

 get together and talk this matter over. Take it up with the 

 Dairymen's Association, take it up with the Dairy and Food 

 Department, and I believe we can get at least one good associa- 

 tion started. If we cannot do anything else, we will steal this 

 fellow from Michigan a little while and if he will not be stolen 

 I will go over and borrow him. Now we have to get this thing 

 going because I know it is the right thing to do and that is why 

 we ought to do it. Do not talk about wanting more money for 

 your milk, make it from the other end. It does not make any 

 difference what you get for it if it costs you more to produce 

 it, then you are a loser. Produce it for less money. 



There are a good many other things that could be said, but 

 before closing I want to again refer to oleomargarine. We had 

 great difficulty, as I explained, in having that law upheld. The 

 hotbed of that business is in Chicago. Chicago is the hardest 

 place in the world in which to reach the public, especially on this 

 subject. There are several reasons for this and perhaps one may 



