FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 81 



Department of Agriculture. It was in the hands of others, 

 and I am informed that representatives of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture assisted in the drafting of that 

 bill. It was passed and became a law. 



There was a special reason for their wanting that 

 clause in that bill. It was inserted and it passed. It seems 

 conditions now are not exactly as some anticipated they 

 would be, but in order to comply with the law, in order 

 to protect the state of Illinois, in order to protect the Illi- 

 nois state treasury, but above all I would say in order to 

 comply with the Illinois statutes, the state department of 

 agriculture has taken charge of the tuberculosis eradica- 

 tion program in Illinois. 



You have heard a great deal of talk about protests, 

 about resolutions being passed by this organization and 

 that organization protesting against the state department 

 taking charge of this work, and I will just say in connec- 

 tion with that, that whether the men who did those things 

 were so ignorant of the fact that they were not in a posi- 

 tion to take any such action, or those actions were mali- 

 cious, I don't know which, but you will see on the face 

 of it how ridiculous it is for an agricultural organization of 

 any type to pass a resolution protesting against a state 

 department complying with the state law; and in this con- 

 nection I may just as well read section twenty -seven of the 

 Bovine Tuberculosis Eradication law of the State of Illinois; 



"The State Department of Agriculture is 

 hereby charged with the enforcement of the pro- 

 visions of this Act" 



and that Act covers the whole co-operative program. A 

 few months ago while I was in Washington I talked this 

 thing over with Dr. Moler, the chief of the Division of 

 Animal Industry of the United States Government. The 

 doctor indicated to me that under our present statute a 

 change would have to be made. The doctor suggested that 

 when it was necessary to make that change he would sign 

 an agreement to that effect. 



On January 16, 1926, Dr. Moler signed such an agree- 



