104 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



cent democratic. I have been told that already as a very, 

 very small lad he had a very keen sense for possession, 

 and one day his father said to his mother, **I am going to 

 find out v^hat vocation our boy is going to choose when he 

 grows up. I am going to take a Bible, an apple and a sil- 

 ver dollar and place them on the parlor table and then 

 tell him to go in and take his choice. If he chooses the 

 Bible we will make a minister out of him; if he eats the 

 apple we will make a dairyman out of him, and if he 

 pockets the silver dollar we will make a merchant out of 

 him.'' So he told Willie to go in and look over the three 

 articles placed on the table and select his choice. A little 

 later when his father and mother entered the parlor, they 

 found Willie sitting on the Bible, eating the apple and he 

 had put the silver dollar in his pocket. His father shook 

 his head and said, *'Our boy wants everything, let us make 

 a politician out of him." (Laughter.) 



W. S. is not only a successful politician, he is also a 

 successful dairyman, and while he has not succeeded in 

 changing the political complexion in Knox and Warren 

 counties, he has done good fine work and for the good of 

 a far greater cause than political partisanship. 



The Company that I have the honor of representing 

 have spent twenty-five years in development work in the 

 western and central Illinois districts, and during those 

 twenty-five years we have seen lots of changes, and we 

 have seen the industry grow. We have seen it double and 

 treble until today the dairy industry is the most important 

 branch of American agriculture, distributing nearly three 

 billion dollars' worth of money annually to the producers. 



This tremendous growth has been brought about 

 through the efforts of our agricultural schools, through 

 associations like this and similar organizations, and also 

 I don't think I am saying too much when I say it is also 

 due to the unselfish efforts of men who have had a vision 

 of the industry, who have had the best interests of the 

 industry at heart, and to the constant information and edu- 

 cation from those sources to producer, distributor and con- 

 sumer alike, thereby making it possible to market a greater 

 and greater dairy crop each succeeding year. 



