Notable Industry Quotes
If all work together, nothing can prevail against them; the only foes they need to dread are the internal suspicions and dissensions.
D.W. Smith
President, National Cattle Growers’ Association, 1884
Why you people in the West do not cooperate more and bicker less?
Levi Leiter wrote to James Pratt of Nebraska after they both attended the 1884 Convention in Chicago .
All of the business industries of the country have been quick to see and seize upon the advantages to be derived from an organization of their forces, but perhaps none of the great industries have been so slow and so inefficient in their organization as has been that one which, in point of numbers and of wealth, is the greatest of them all: the live stock industry.
Much has been said and written in regard to the organization of association which should embrace in one all of the various state and local associations of cattle growers in the United States … Nut there has ever been an unfortunate spirit of distrust and suspicion pervading this greatest of all the industries, which has during many years prevented that concert of action which was so desirable and important.
Of late years, however, we have begun to learn something of the sweet uses of adversity. Foreign governments have discriminated against us from without, and contagious disease have threatened us from within; railroad and stock yards companies have preyed upon us; legislatures and congresses have turned deaf ears to our appeals, and we have been compelled to turn to each other for consolation and support.
Proceedings, Chicago Convention 1884
You know your business better than I can tell you, he said modestly. I was one of those who sentimentally regretted the replacing of the buffalo and the black tailed deer, the elk and the antelope by the long-horned cattle of Texas . But… when I recollect the millions for whom food is cheaper on account of your work, I … am glad of the cattle trade.
General William T. Sherman
Addressing the 1884 National Convention of Cattlemen in St. Louis
There is a great work to be done, but it can only be accomplished by the united, earnest and persistent efforts of cattle owners of the whole country. If all work together, nothing can prevail against them; the only foes they need to dread are internal suspicions and dissension.
D.W. Smith
President, National Cattle Growers’ Association, 1884
A business that had been fascinating to me before, suddenly became distasteful. I wanted no more of it. I never wanted to own again an animal that I could not feed and shelter.
Granville Stuart , Montana
Commenting on the Winter of 1886 – 1887
Right at the threshold, {we} were encountered by rules of order, rules of procedure, rules of precedence, rules of etiquette, and a multitude of other rules hedging about and obstructing all approach to Congress; to violate any one of which was to invite almost certain ruin.
It is not too much to say that our efforts would have been crowned with entire success in the House, as in the Senate, but for the vicious course of one man, who by reason of his official position, assisted by the rules of the House, and favored by the speaker, was able to plant himself squarely across the road over which our bill must pass. It is humiliating to the just pride of America citizens that a single man, ‘puffed up’ with a little brief authority, consumed with egotism, insanely jealous of his official prerogatives, and imbued with that hatred of independent thought and action which has ever characterized small minds elevated to high stations, is able to thwart the wishes of a majority.
The Legislative Committee reporting to the 1887 Convention in Kansas City , admitting that they were disappointed but edified by their lobbying experience in Washington.
In the conduct of range matter, there are numerous questions of common interest to all stockmen of the plains in which our eastern brothers have and take no interest.
Colonel H.M. Taylor of New Mexico at the March 1888 Convention in Denver . Concerning the continuing differences between the East – West
While I see some in this great gathering whose locks are whitened with the struggles of the years agone, it is, however a fact that the majority are in the prime of life, enthusiastic, practical and well satisfied with present conditions… This is the new regime. By reason of it we are prospering as never before. … We shall, however, at this meeting perfect an organization, national in its scope, broad in its objects and absolutely fee from the machinations of policitical promoters. We can have our state and county organization… but it is certainly desirable that once each year we shall all come together as members of the National Live Stock Association of the United States to discuss collectively matters pertaining to the best interest of all individually… We would then be able to speak by authority of the livestock interest of the Union.
John W. Springer
During the Opening Session of the 1898 Convention in Denver
Indeed it would seem that success, the this age of intense competition and clashing of different interest, comes only from association of those having common interest, followed by cooperation, organization, leadership and attention to detail… To awaken and put in action public opinion is the work of local associations. When every good citizen in a county belongs to an association pledged to give his influence, his money, his vote, to the maintenance of the sacred rights of all property, whether large or small, then public officers can be depended upon to do their duty thoroughly… In a democratic community individuals are very powerless… As individuals we can do nothing; combined with lawful purposes, we can accomplish any necessary end… All that is needed is cooperation, organization, leadership and attention to the details, and the world is ours.
J.R. Van Boskirk of Nebraska
At the 1898 Convention in Denver on “The Benefits To Be Derived from State and County Organizations ”
While the work being done is national in scope, the greater part of the cattle of commerce coming from the West has caused a preponderance of membership and interest to be confined to the West.
Charles F. Martin
First Secretary of the National Live Stock Association
The men, or set of men, who are continually looking backward for inspiration; who are chuck full of calamity forebodings; who thrive on opposition to any and all measures; who are constantly quoting ancient history, are not fit to lead progressive, enterprising, 20th century Americans.
John W. Springer
First President of the National Live Stock Association
Let it be understood here and now, that the American stockman proposes to take care of himself, and that he is not supplicant at the doors of the federal Congress for any subsidy, for any bonus or for any policy which seeks ‘forty acres and a mule’.
NLSA President Springer
Addressing the 1903 Convention
Consistency is the hobgoblin of petty minds… Some people look upon a change of mind as though it were a disgrace. To me it is a sign of life. Only the dead never change.
Frank J. Hagenbarth
NLSA President 1904 – 1905
Quoting Emerson and Gladstone he philosophized at the 1905 Convention in Denver
This step was taken with a view of getting the live stock producers united as much as possible. We are more anxious than ever to have individual support as well as support through the different associations. President Murdo Mackenzie
Address on the subject of why the Association needed individuals as well as associations.
Given a little time ranchers would respond to the better prices and increase the supply. But given the nature of the cow, this would take time.
ANLSA President Henry A. Jastro
Explaining to Congress the law of supply and demand in the cattle industry.
Cattlemen demand fair and just treatment – nothing more, nothing less.
First Vice-President Dwight B. Heard of Arizona
Speaking for fair trade before Congress in 1909
We must, by our policies, indicate a broader recognition of the rights of the consumer, and we shall then represent a keener appreciation on the basis of sound business.
… it was an industry responsibility to help housewives with more intelligent utilization of all the edible parts of a beef animal. Consumers perceive beef as being high because they think only of the expensive cuts. Yet the expensive cuts comprise only 20 percent of the carcass; and the other 80 percent, just as nutritious, often goes begging.
ANLSA President Henry A. Jastro
In 1914 speaking up for consumers
The meat inspection system is for the benefit of the entire country – the consumer as well as the producer – and should continue to be made at the expense of the government. This is one of many matters which it is in the province of the Association to carefully watch.
ANLSA President Henry A. Jastro
1914, after fighting off attempts from Congress to withdraw federal funding for meat inspection.
Many experienced men who have given this market situation close attention claim that the good old law of supply and demand has apparently been sidetracked.
ANLSA President Heard
Speaking at the 1916 National Convention
The real issue becomes this: Shall four or five very small groups of men, with unlimited financial power, control the meat supply of 100 million people, exploiting the producer on the one hand and the consumer on the other?
E.L. Burke
Chairman, Market Committee, speaking at the 1916 Convention
This great industry is entitled to an organization that fairly and fully represents the entire industry… the producer of cattle, the feeders of cattle, the producers of hogs and the producers of sheep – not only those on this side of the {Mississippi} river but throughout the country.
Thomas E. Wilson
Speaking at the Kansas Livestock Association in 1919
We are out for what is right, and for nothing but what is right, We want a free American market which every day shall register the value of a consignment of livestock as accurately as the scales register its weight.
ANLSA President John B. Kendrick
1919 championing free markets
Go away from this convention united, … Make your fight on your disagreements within, buy stay with your organization.
Sam H. Cowan, Association attorney addressing the membership at the 26th annual convention in Los Angeles in 1923
Past experience shows that men take up cooperation only when they are forced to do so from motives of self-protection. Every other line of endeavor has learned its lesson except the producers of live stock… agriculture has been the last to see the light, preferring a starved individuality to a well-fed cooperation.
E.L. Burke
Giving the Market Committee report at the 1923 Convention
The interest of the producer and of the packer are so mutually dependent, that harmonious cooperation is essential to the continued development of the industry.
Thomas E. Wilson
President of Institute of American Meat Packer addressing the 1922 Convention in Colorado Springs