The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-11-10
Harks Back Over Twenty Years.

| HdTkS OdCk UVeD twenty Tears.
That Mankato is receiving consider
able favorable advertising on account of
the meeting which will be held in this
city next week by the butter and cheese
men, is apparent from the large num-
Der of friendly notices and articles APP
pearing in the press over the northwest.
One of the prominent dairy papers of
national reputation, Hoard's Dairyman,
recalls the first meetings of the butter
makers in Mankato. An advance copy
of an article which will appear in that
publication next week, has been for.
warded to The Free Press. 1t reads as
| follows: ~ k.Es
'The Minnesota Butter and Cheese
makers association will meet at Man
kato this week. We wish the boys
could have seen another meeting held in
that city in 1928. 1t was in the days
of Minnesota's deepest depression from
wheat growing. The senior editor of
The Hoard's Dairyman was president of
the Northwestern Dairymen's associa-
ton. Judge Burchard of Wisconsin, the
land agent of the Chicago and North
western railroad and Mr.. Knapp, assis-
tant general freight agent of that road,
came to Lake Geneva, Wis, to attend a
meeting of the Northwestern.
''They urged with great force that the
next meeting of the association be held
at Mankato. They drew a vivid picture
of the distress that had fallen ON the
farmers of that state, and the railroad
companies foresaw that something must
be done at once, to change the current
of affairs, or they would be in like
condition with the farmers. The deci-
sion of locating the next meeting was
left to the president. He asked the
Chicago, Milwaukee and st. Paul Rail
way company and the Northwestern
Railway company to give him fifty pas
ses each, so that he might take the ex-
ponents of Illinois and Wisconsin dairy
ing to Minnesota.
''The meeting was a grand success,
over 1900 daily attendance, and the To-
cal management were obliged to resort
to tickets in order to give the farmers
chance to attend. The next year, an
other record breaking convention was
held at Mankato by the Northwestern
Dairymen's association, and the ground
broken the winter before, was well har-
rowed over The railroad companies
pursued the same liberal policy, for
those were the days when they were
anxious to do business for the people,
rather than for big corporations.
"a wonderful impetus was given to
the progress of dairy thought in Mime
sofa by these two great meetings; in
deed, we may say they were the initial
impulse to all that has since followed.
The senior editor wonders if the meet
ing this week will be greeted by as
hungry a lot of hearers, as was the
great meetings of 1923. However, all
had the power of agitation in thought
and purpose, which has made the COW
the queen of the North Star state.
"The old Northwestern Dairymen's
association has lapsed into its grave.
While it lived, it did grand pioneer
work in behalf of this industry, that is
now bringing millions upon millions of
dollars to the states of Illinois, Iowa,
| Wisconsin and Minnesota"
The writer of the above article is
former governor of Wisconsin, one of
the men who have always shown a
deep interest in the buttermaking in
dustry. He speaks truly of the meet
ings held more than twenty years ago
in Mankato. From those gatherings
sprung the great industry which has
given Minnesota her reputation round
the world as the most important but
termaking state. As result of those
gatherings thousands of creameries have
been built up and the cow has been Civ
en- prominent place in the Industrial
development of this grand common
wealth. That the coming convention
will be successful one there is not a
shadow of a doubt. Mankato citizens
can do much to make the stay of the
visitors a most pleasant one, and they
will feel like coming to Mankato again.
The sale of Blue Earth county land