, 1884-12-16
WHICH SHALL IT BE2
A Conundrum Propounded by the
National Association.
The st. Louis Gathering and the
Country's CattIemen.
How a Sectional Meeting Usurped
National Prerogatives.

anu 4uOihao tufBi 0ccTcldTls
The National Ca~ttlegrowers' Association
of America held the first convention under
the call of the Honorable Commissioner Of
Agriculture. and formed its preliminary
organization on November Is, 1888.
This vas the first national convention Of
cattlemen ever held in the United States.
1t bad a definite object and a permanent
character. There were present represen-
tative men from twenty-five States and
Territories, about equally divided between
the ranch interests Of the West and the
breeding interests of the great Middle and
Eastern States.
This convention appointed permanent
officers. It appointed an executive com
mittee to go to Washington and solicit the
legislation covered by the resolutions then
adopted.
The officers were ordered to call a Sec
ond convention to meet in November,
1884, to complete the permanent organiza-
ton, to hear the report of this committee
and to take such further action as might
seem necessary.
The second convention met November
Is and IA. 1884, most of the delegates of
1888 and others from sections of the
country not previously represented, being
pre- .ent.
The Executive Committee reported that
after much labor in explaining to the pub
lie men of the Eastern States the wants
of the cattle interests and the especial
needs of the West, they met a cordial and
intelligent reception and secured the pas
sage Of the Animal Industry Bill. They
were assured that should the Department
of Agriculture show, at the close of the
year, intelligent and valuable work ac-
complished, Congress would enlarge the
scope Of hat Department and supply the
funds necessary to make it effective.
The convention then appointed a new
committee to continue the work in Wash
ington.
Concerning the St. Louis convention
circular says in substance: January Is.
1884, a circular signed by a live stock
commission firm doing business in East
ST. Louis, was issued for a Cattlemen's
Convention to be held in St. Louis. No
date was fixed, but the object was stated
to be the formation of a National Asso-
cation of cattlemen. The Secretary of
the Association formed in 1883 sent a let
ter to the promoters of the new ~organiza-
ton, inviting them to unite with the
movement on a full and fair representa-
ton. They refused. St Louis, Novem-
Der IT, was the time and place afterward
selected Secretary Sturgis wrote again
stating that the body he represented was
still willing to cooperate by calling the
meeting of this year at st. Louis, but OBJ
serving that the date assigned was incon-
v%enient, because of the Fat Stock Show
and the meeting of various associations
in Chicago at the same time. The propo-
sition to name a later date was also de-
clined by the ST. Louis managers aud the
Secretary of the National Association
having no alternative, called the second
annual meeting. At this meeting a con-
ference committee was appointed to visit
the St. Louis Convention and about one
hundred of the members present resolved
to attend.
Continuing, the circular says: They
found by the deliberate expressions Of the
controlling delegates upon the floor of the
convention and in the committees formed
for credentials and permanent organiEa-
ton, that the convention was held solely
10 express the views and further the in
terests Of the cattlemen of the extreme
West and Southwest; that the cattle in
terests OF the Middle and the Eastern
States were held to lie unimportant, and
even antagonistic to the objects of the con-
v%ention; that no delegates we're desired
from any State east of the Mississippi
river, and that such triAing representation
as might be allowed to them would be
permitted as a matter Of courtesy and not
of right 1t was explicitly to be a ranch
mems convention, and no other branches
of the vast cattle interests of the United
States were desired to participate. By
the report of the committee on credentials
over two hundred delegates from Eastern
States, among them a number of gentle
men especially appointed under the invi-
tation of the st. Louis by Gov