188 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



NEEDED DAIRY LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS. 



D. W. WILLSON, EDITOR DAILY EEPORT, ELGIN. 



}Ir. President, Ladies and Gentlemen and Members of IlUnoii 



State Dairy Association: 



Your Secretary has asked me to take up the subject that 

 you will find on your program: "Dairy Legislation in Illi- 

 nois." The five words in this one sentence mean very much 

 to every producer of milk, every manufacturer of butter and 

 every consumer of dairy products. It would be somewhat 

 useless for me at this time to undertake to go into all of the 

 details regarding needed dairy legislation in this great State 

 of ours, but I may, in the short space that I will give to this 

 matter, take up some of the most necessary things in a legis- 

 lative way for this great and universal class of people in the 

 commonwealth of Illinois. 



As many of you know, I have been in the fight for dairy 

 legislation in connection with not only the State, but with 

 the nation, for a number of years. The organization of the 

 National Dairy Union some three years ago had for its objects 

 the securing of legislation to prevent the fraudulent sale of 

 adulterated dairy products. What has been done along that 

 line both in States and in the National Legislature is to many 

 of you an open book; but to many who will listen to me to- 

 night, it is not well known, and it may not be out of place 

 for me to give a short outline of what has been accomplished 

 along that line since the organization of the National Dairy 

 Union. A little preliminary discussion may also aid in a 

 better understanding of the difficulties that were encountered 

 and the obstacles that had to be overcome. The adulteration 

 of dairy products is not a new idea, and the adulteration does 

 always occur by the manipulation of the men who are hand- 

 ling the products. Sometimes it occurs before the milk is 

 received from the cow, and the men who adulterate the milk 

 whether in the pail or in the can, ought to suffer a penalty; 

 but such is not always the case. 



Dairy legislation in this country had its origin about 1880. 

 The development of co-operative and concentrated dairying in 

 the shape of combined creameries and cheese factories, where 



