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ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



it much or little, in one direction or the other. We are either helping to 

 build up or helping to tear down; we are either pushing forward the 

 wheels of progress or retarding those who are. 



The Farmers' Institute, as a social institution, is an organized effort 

 to help to up-build; its influence ;b on the right side and its tendencies 

 In the right direction. To become eminently successful in any calling, 

 there must be first, respect for the work and those engaged in it; 

 •second, a thorough knowledge of its relations to other callings, and 

 third, enthusiasm in its prosecution. These three things the Farmers' 

 Institute is helping the farmer to attain. 



The Farmers' Institute teaches the farmer a higher respect for him- 

 self and for his fellow farmers. It teaches him that he is, in many cases 

 tie can be and ought to be as well educated, as thoroughly informed on 

 social and political matters, as cultured and refmed as the members of 

 any other profession or calling. It is teaching the farmer that he is 

 essentially a business man, and as a business man he has greater oppor- 

 tunities of conducting his own business in his own way, and for his own 

 rpurpose than any other man. He is not subject to the limitations and 

 dictations of any syndicate or combination of trade or capital, or of any 

 monopoly or trust. Neither is he bound by any union which can decide 

 iiow many or how few hours he can work, and how much he can earn in a 

 ^ay, or for whom he can work or whom employ. And yet, while the 

 farmer is more independent in many ways than any other business man, 

 the Farmers' Institute is teaching him that he is still only a factor in 

 the great business transactions of the world and that his greatest success 

 is to be attained not by independent, purely selfish action, but by becom- 

 ing a part of the business world, and by co-operative effort with his fel- 

 low man. 



The savage, only, is independent. As people advance in civilization 

 they are brought together through the channels of commerce and trade; 

 they become more and more dependent one upon another.. The greater 

 the number of industries and trades, the more complete the divisions of 

 labor, the more extensive and the cheaper the means of transportation. 



