, 1885-04-07

meetings. This delegation was afferwnrd
further increased and presented ;tsalf I,
these meetings 4 harmonious bodv of ove,
fftv of our ablest members
This association has a definite and tan.
gible object in aiding to form and in he.
coming a member of a national oreaniza.
ton. Living and doing business as a ma.
iority of our members do. under a terri.
torial form of government we come more
directly in contact with the central mower
at Washington than is ever the case with
the inhabitants of a state. Territorial
legislatures act under the mowers speci6.
cally granted bv congress. and in the great
questions that affect Ms. to congress- We
must appeal. At the same time we are
not granted a single vote and hardly a
single voice in the national Legislature
To obtain the attention ot congress IN
our interests we must therefore sneak
through the voice of others. In a ma.
tional association we hone to obtain that
medium for the expression of our views
and the needs of our people. In a truly
national association composed of delegates
representing the cattle interests OF every
commonwealth in the Union we shall
have a body of commanding ability.
Inspired by this object your committee
of fifty attended both the Chicago and
st. Louis meetings, and submit the fol.
to be understood as speaking without heat
or prejudice.
At Chicago they found a delegate body
of about TWO hundred representatives
from twenty-six states and territories. in
the main selected with care by the local.
ties from which they came, and the cat
tie interest they represented, and animal
ed by well-defned and definite objects.
The report of the committee which in
January "a went to Washington and Sc
cured the passage of the animal industry
bill was e~loquently presented by the Hon.
j. B. Grinnell. At its close the meeting
adopted unanimously a resolution ap
pointing a conference committee to meet
a similar one to be selected by the
St. Louis meeting for the pur-
pose OF uniting the two bodies.
Filled with a feeling of friendliness and
Tconcession, your committee then went to
St. Louis. The convention there had been
advertised with an expense and magnif-
cence beside which the modest notice Of
the Chicago meeting appeared insigniG-
cant Excursions, banquets, theatres,
were thrown open to the visitors, and pro-
c~essions and bands of music further
amused the leisure hours. The questions
of who provides this enormous sum, and
why it is done, forced themselves at once
on your committee, and the answer was
soon apparent.
The convention met. Eleven hundred
men, it is said, were present, of whom
two thirds were from the states and terri
tories south Of Kansas. It was a mass
meeting SO vast that not one half could
hear any speaker or the rulings of the
chair. Here and there were a few isolated
strangers from the middle and eastern
states, but too few in number to affect the
complexion of the meeting.
The great majority of those present had
evidently como with no more pressing
motive than the inducements of free trans
portation and a merry junketing, and
many of them had evidently never before
sat in a deliberative body. Hundreds
hen heard for the first time the phrase
contagious disease and c~uriously
asked, what is a national association,
and what good will it do p The leaders,
however. were not without certain objects.
One which overshadowed all Others was
the urgent demand that congress should
appropriate money and land for a perma-
nent national highway upon which cattle
could be driven from Texas to the British
possessions. This was urged with such
desperation that the idea was irresistibly
impressed on the spectator that if not
actually the only purpose for which the
majority had come there, it was I'M
q~uestionably the only one in which thew
felt deep interest. The convention was
made completely subservient to this
question, and to cut off possible opposi-
ton, the following steps we're taken. 1t
was announced upon the floor and in the
great committees Of credentials and reso-
l%utions, that this was a ranchman's
convention and that no delegates
were sought or desired from
states east of the Mississippi. To cut
down the representation from the north
and northwest, a call of states for mem
bers of committees was refused. and rep