CORRESPONDENCE. 
155 
picion was reduced to a certainty by protests being filed against 
them by many of the best members of the profession in the State. 
Such was the Board’s status under the old law or prior to 
January i, 1900. Now, what would any competent and con¬ 
scientious Examining- Board do in the presence of these appli¬ 
cants, these facts, and these protests ? What would I do ? I 
would say : “ Gentlemen, I am here to safeguard the highest 
interests of the veterinary medical and surgical profession in 
the State of Illinois. Prior to January 1, 1900, the law leaves it 
optional with the Board whether it shall license you after three 
years’ practice without an examination, but, against each of you, 
gentlemen, there are lodged and on file here some very emphatic 
protests from the profession against your being licensed, and 
thus, the Board by this act of the profession, must exercise its 
discretion and subject each of you to an examination.” 
But the Board, after January 1, 1900, as we have noted, 
promised in effect : “ Never to be caught in another scheme or 
scrape and to never let another guilty man escape.” The Bible 
declares: “ He that knoweth his duty and doeth it not shall be 
beaten with many stripes.” But they grew gradually and 
greatly worse, fell from grace, lost their religion, and became so 
ungodly that they actually sold licenses to practice veterinary 
medicine and surgery to every trifling devil that applied and 
paid the fee. This latter was “ the alpha and omeg a,” the be¬ 
ginning and the end, the first and the last and the “ sine qiia 
nonf that is, without which there is nothing. Judas Iscariot 
sold the Saviour for 30 pieces of silver, but this Board sold out 
the veterinary profession in the State of Illinois for 20 pieces. 
Judas had the decency to go out and hang himself, but this 
Board hesitates even after our committee has made its duty 
plain. When the devil took the Saviour up on the mountain 
and offered him all the kingdoms and glory of the world if he 
would set aside principle and fall down and worship him, what 
do you think, under the circumstances, would have been the 
status of this Board? Why, each mother’s son would have 
gone down on his knees, for the first time in his life, with hands 
up, offering to sell his soul to the devil for half the sum. My 
reason for expressing this belief is because I know they have 
sold themselves to a bigger fool than the devil for a devilish 
sight smaller sum. 
Notwithstanding all this, there is something about this 
Board we must admire ; under the terrible rain of shot and 
shell our committee was forced to focus upon them they only 
