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stock show. For a long time the State Board of Agriculture 

 stood firm; the president notified those gentlemen that they 

 could have no room in the national dairy show tor the reason 

 that there was no room for them. The board stood firm until 

 the last moment and until it was made apparent to them that the 

 great Stock Grower's Association of the country and its proto- 

 type of Sangamon county, Illinois, aided by stock yards oper- 

 ators and the bouncer from the foot of LaSalle street, were 

 there with hands on their throat, saying, " You will have to ad- 

 mit oleomargarine and butterine or you will not have a fat-stock 

 show, except at the cost of bankruptcy and ruin." 



We have to have meat; we have to have beef; we have to 

 have butter. The dairymen of Illinois and of the entire country 

 are liberal and intelligent enough to understand those interests 

 stand or fall together. 



And further, a widely-spread argument that the action of the 

 board in refusing oleomargarine entrance to the building, would 

 be acting against the best interests ot the cattle men and hog rais- 

 ers, because it diminishes the value of stock, is a very specious argu- 

 ment. There isn't anything in it. Beef products have been low, 

 very low, and they will remain low for some time to come, and 

 the reason is not because the oleomargarine law is in force. The 

 western supply became so great the range got so crowded and un- 

 profitable, the ranchmen in debt, the banks got anxious and nerv- 

 ous about getting their money and commenced crowding them to 

 the wall, saying : " Here, Mr. Ranchman, we must have that monev 

 or bust; you have to get it for us if you sell every hoof you have 

 on the ranch." And every hoof on the ranch has been 

 coming to. market as fast as steam could get them there and this 

 is the chief reason why cattle have sold low. For three years past 

 it has been the hardest kind of work to raise beef, at remunerative 

 figures, and during two years of that time oleomargarine was on 

 its highest pinnacle. Did that increase the value of stock ? Look 

 up your market quotations, they will tell the story. 



I want to present to your association a document which may 

 be of interest in this matter. It a portion of a private letter from 



