8 ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



Political economists -have divided society, I believe, into two great classes, 

 both of which are represented here to-day. You represent one, and I have 

 the honor to represent the other,— the producers and the consumers. Now, 

 it may not be patent altogether to you why a representative of the latter 

 class should be called upon to address words of welcome to a body who are, 

 pre-eminently, the producers of the land. And yet, I beg you to allow me to 

 suggest that, however mistaken the committee may have been in the person 

 selected, they were right ia their principle of action; for, surely, if any one 

 should hail with delight the gathering of a dairymen's association of pro- 

 ducers, as you are, it surely is the consumer. And, especially, it is true, since 

 you are met together for three purposes : For deliberating, first, as to how, 

 without greater expenditure, you may increase the quantity, improve the 

 quality of your products, and also lessen the price. And allow me to say, as 

 a consumer, that I am specially gratified to find that the consideration of this 

 latter subject is to be first brought up for your consideration. Therefore, as 

 a representative of a large class of consumers, I extend to you a most hearty 

 welcome. 



I notice upon your programme the name of his excellency, the governor of 

 this state, toge her with many other distinguished names,— the names of 

 men who are not directly associated with the interests you represent. And 

 yet I am not surprised to find them here, for we are members one of another; 

 and, in the broadest and truest sense, whatever is the interest of one class of 

 society, is, or ought to be, the interest of all classes of society. 



Society is a vast net-work of interwoven interests. All trades, all profes- 

 sions, all industries are very closely linked together in the inter-dependence 

 one upon the other. We nre, then, associated in a common interest when we 

 are m^t together in this capacity to-day. 



Society, in its complexity, is perfect; or, we may refer to this figure to 

 show our relationship lo each other. If, with the human organization, the 

 heart may not say to the lungs, ''I have no need of thee," or the hands say 

 to the feet, ''I have no need of thee; " no more can one profession say to 

 another, or one branch of industry sny to another, "I have no need of thee." 

 Society, in its complexity, is perfect only in that which every part of society 

 supplies. 



Our homes, in their furnishings, our homes, in their ornaments and com- 

 forts, as well as in their necessities, are the productions of the four quarters 

 of the globe. Go, to-day, into almost the humblest home that you can find, 

 and you wi'l find in that home that the comforts of life have been increased 

 by the contributions of all soils and all climes. In the home of the present, 

 the four quarters of the globe are represented. Our bread comes from the 

 north, our apparel from the east and from the south, our teas and our coffees 

 from Brazil, Japan, and China, and the spice of our living from the islands 

 of the sea, — the sea, once a barrier between nations ; from the recognition of 

 the fact that we can be mutually helpful to each other, the sea that separated 

 nations of ihe earth has become the highway of the world. 



Our civilization of the present, of which we are so justly proud, has been 

 developed from the recognition of the principle of the inter-dependence of 

 one class of men upon another, one profession upon another, of one branch of 

 industry upon another. 



