140 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



I was especially interested in what Dr. Peters said about 

 tuberculosis legislation. I am not going to enter into a discus- 

 sion. During the past number of years I have represented farm- 

 ing communities in the northern portion of this State and before 

 that, other organizations who were studying this same question 

 of diseases of domestic animals. These dairy interests were 

 suffering because of the conditions in the northern part of Illi- 

 nois and as covered by the resolutions referred to the directors. 

 The reason you do not have as much trouble here is because you 

 are further from a big city. We are so near Chicago that every 

 man there engaged in the milk business or raising any crops has 

 two sides of the question which he is up against all of the time: 

 One is the state and the other bang up against the ordinance of 

 the city of Chicago. Often its health department. So the prob- 

 lem has been double with us. 



We have differed a great deal but we have never differed on 

 one proposition. That is, that the farmer of Illinois, the dairy- 

 man, should be protected by the State in so far as the laws of 

 this state, conservatively drawn, and then wisely administered, 

 could care for his interests, and promote this industry. 



When we speak of the legal side of things relating to the 

 farmer it is almost like reaching out into the air to get a hand 

 full. The same of water; you close your hand and draw it 

 from the water and it is empty. It is a vague general proposi- 

 tion. I will be very brief and touch on two questions and then 

 I am done. 



All through these years, Mr. President, wherever I have 

 represented the farming community, it has been our purpose and 

 plan that the farmers themselves should act upon their commit- 

 tees. That the farmers themselves should hold the offices. That 

 the farmers themselves should go before the health department 

 or any other department of the city, and there present their own 

 case. I speak of this thing seriously because the trouble has 

 been in the history of the organization of farming communities, 

 from the time our ancestors walked out of Eden and immediately 

 proceeded to get into trouble, that wherever a farmers' organiza- 

 tion has been invaded from the outside, either one of two things 



