see. I bespeak for the many who can not extend the invitation themselves, a hearty invitation to every one of you who comes from foreign lands, to spend as much time with us as your circumstances may permit, to the end that you may see that which most interests you. I am sure that all who are here share in this invitation. With so many opportunities and so much going on, we have found that the only way to inform you of these activities is to embody them in this printed program, and place it and other information in the envelope which has been handed to each of you who has registered. May I remind you that the committee for Washington and vicinity has arranged for an excursion to Mount Vernon this afternoon, when you will be the guests of this commitee, under the leadership of Mr. Ivan C. Weld, and the group of men who are assisting him. In Philadelphia, you will be the guests, from the time your train stops on Thursday morning until you leave, of the dairy interests of the Quaker City, where the producers and distributors of dairy products will join hands in a hospitality which I am sure you will all enjoy. In Syracuse, the chamber of commerce and the dairy leaders of New York State will do all in their power to make you comfortable and your sojourn pleasant. Do not forget to look over your coupons, and file those relating to the activities you wish to join in. The several committees must know how large to make the cake and how many "Fords" to provide. (At this point a selection was rendered by the Marine Band.) (The delegates arcse and applauded as Secretary Hoover came upon the platform.) President VAN NORMAN. I said earlier in the program something of the relation of our great industry to human welfare. Out of the recent war have grown some very instructive facts. We are fortunate to-day that we are to have brought to us a message growing out of that side of this terrible conflict. We are to have that message brought to us by a man whose name is known to all of us for his wonderful ability to coordinate the effort of an immense number of people, a man who views this great industry of curs from two standpoints that of the cold eye of business and commerce, by virtue of his office in our Government as Secretary of Commerce, but infinitely more important than that, he views this great industry of ours from the standpoint of its relation to human life and human health and the making of a larger proportion of coming generations well and strong. It is indeed an honor to our industry, and it is an honor to us who have privilege of being here, that we are to hear this morning from the Hon. Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce. (The delegates arose and applauded.) DAIRY PRODUCTS' PLACE IN IMPROVEMENT OF HUMAN HEALTH. HERBERT C. HOOVER, Secretary of United States Department of Commerce, and president, American Child Health Association. I am indeed glad to participate in the official welcome of our Government to you in this conference. We believe that these conferences have a fundamental value in the whole of the problems of the world, that the gathering together of men and women who are interested in these, the fundamental things of human life and health and comfort, are a real contribution to progress. You represent a great many associations in all parts of the world, devoted to the promotion of this great industry. The functions of the organizations you represent are not alone those of the promotion of the welfare of agriculture, nor alone those of the production of a better food supply, but you have a treble function, and that is the function of human welfare, because upon this industry, more than any other of the food industries, depends not alone the problem of public health, but there depends upon it the very growth and virility of the white races. The exhaustive researches of nutritional science during the last two decades have, by the demonstration of the imperative need of dairy products for the special growth and development of children, raised this industry to one of the deepest national and community concern, for, as I have said, it is not alone the well-being of our people but it is the very growth and the virility of our race to which you contribute. If any further demonstration were needed than the results of scientific research, as to the importance of dairy products in our national diet, the experience of the American Relief Administration, of which I had the honor to be chairman, in its work of provision of the necessary food supply first and last to over 12,000,000 children in various famine areas of Europe, could be drawn upon for literally volumes of confirmation. The feeding of these masses of undernourished children demonstrated from the outset that there was no substitute for milk, and that while a very wide range of alternatives existed among other foodstuffs, this particular commodity was absolutely essential for their restoration to health and their maintenance. It is perhaps interesting to note that this organization and its allied organizations exported from the United States, for the use of these children, upward of 500 millions of pounds of condensed milk during the period of the war and reconstruction. It could be very well said that the saving of these millions of children was accomplished only by virtue of the strength, the resilience, of the American dairy industry. The war greatly disrupted all agricultural production, and in no case more than dairy production. There was not only the great depletion of cattle in Europe but even more destructiveness, for the human animal under food pressure at once substitutes the production of bread grains for feed and thus reduces the productivity of his herd. It is but a part of the story of these disruptions that the United States started from no consequential pre-war exports of condensed milk, and yet has shipped to Europe a total of over 2,000,000,000 pounds up to last year. Nor has the world yet recovered its equilibrium in dairy production, for the supplies from many countries in central and eastern Europe are far below pre-war normal, a pertinent evidence indeed of the lower standards of living throughout the whole of that area. It is a safe generalization, I believe, from a nutritional point of view, that the world is to-day overproducing bread grains and underproducing dairy products and consequently the feed grains and other animal foods. With the partial recovery of Europe the exports from the United States have steadily declined, but I am happy to say that the steadily increasing consumption of dairy products at home, due both to the increase in our standard of living from full employment of our workers and from a better understanding of the value of dairy products, has enabled our dairy farmers to weather the storm of agricultural reconstruction rather more satisfactorily than the producers of breadstuffs and other agricultural produce. Despite the increase in consumption in the United States during the last decade, I believe that any analysis of this subject will indicate that we are yet far below the intake of dairy products which would maintain the maximum results in health and the development of our children. The shift in the proportion of our population from the farms to the towns through the vast industrialization of our country has imposed this problem upon us. By the nutrition of hundreds of generations, the fate of the white races is indissolubly linked with their cattle. It is natural enough, and easy enough, to furnish children with ample milk supplies upon the farm. It is infinitely more difficult to induce our urban populations to consume a sufficiency of milk and to do so under hygienic conditions, for it requires the education not alone of children but of parents; it requires the substitution of foodstuffs that are in appearance, at least, more expensive for those that are less expensive. It is necessary to make this substitution on a basis of reason rather than on a basis of quantity and appearance. There is nothing of more importance to our American public to-day than the realization of this primitive necessity of the nutrition of children and the responsibilities of the entire community for it. You will hear a great deal in these sessions as to the effort being made to reenforce the consumption of our dairy products. I have the honor to be the president of the American Child Health Association, an organization devoted to problems of children's physical welfare. That association is engaged at the present moment in carrying on at a very large annual expense an actual demonstration in four typical localities of the United States of what shall be done in the matter of children. These demonstrations are conducted in cooperation with the medical profession and the public officials of those localities. As far as the demonstrations have gone to date, they show that even in moderate-sized and semiagricultural towns, our consumption of milk by children is less than one-half what it should be. That association, besides seeking to build up in certain localities a demonstration of the ideal of child health, is now about to undertake, so far as its resources will permit, a systematic survey of the different communities in the United States with regard to their status in the care of children. Their first criterion in the judgment as to the performance of a community of its duty is a study of its milk supplies, both as to quantity and purity. That association hopes to grade the different towns in the United States as to whether or not they are satisfying their public officials, with the hope that an exhibit of the relative performance of different communities may induce a proper attention to their most vital of problems. Now I scarcely need to dwell on the importance of the economics of the dairy industry, from the point of view of agriculture itself. Indeed the dairy industry from the point of view of the Secretary of Commerce, is the great balance wheel on agriculture. There have been a great many changes in the past few years, but by far the largest proportion of these 23,000,000 dairy cows that we possess in America are maintained in small herds of under 10 cows each. For the most part, they are supported by the by-products of agriculture. They secure a profitable employment to the farmer's labor during the year. The development of mechanical devices in the last two decades, in the shape of hand separators and the motor truck, the development of the cooperative centralized creameries, have all contributed to an extension of the dairy industry to regions that are remote from urban areas, and have greatly added to the security of the entire agricultural industry. There is, in the possibility of increasing the consumption of dairy products, an element of solution to many of the present agricultural problems. As I have said, world agriculture has come out of the war thoroughly unbalanced. We are overproducing bread grains beyond any possibility of consumption in the world at the present moment. To bring about an increase in the consumption of dairy products is not only a health question but it will also lend a substantial hand to agriculture in the conversion from bread grains to feed, and in this fundamental increase in living standards an actual gain can be made for the total consumption of agricultural produce. By so doing, we will be promoting not alone the interest of agriculture, but we will be promoting the interest of public health and the virility of our race. One of the purposes of your body is, no doubt, to improve the method and well-being of agriculture itself. This is indeed a great purpose. It has another great purpose, to improve the conditions surrounding dairy production and the hygiene of its distribution. It has an even greater purpose than this, as I have said before-that is the inculcation of the need and the necessity for an increase in the use of milk by our children as a fundamental contribution to the strength and future of the white race. Thank you. [Applause.] President VAN NORMAN. We have another communication we will ask Mr. Greene to read for us. Secretary GREENE. The communication is as follows: OCTOBER 1, 1923. MY DEAR PROFESSOR VAN NOBMAN: Finding that public engagements make it impossible for me personally to welcome the delegates to the World's Dairy Congress at their opening session, I am writing to ask if you will express my gratification that so many delegates have accepted the inviation to this gathering. I learn that in response to the invitation extended by the President on the authority of the Congress, representatives will be present from 40 nations. This is surely an auspicious showing, for it can not fail to be of real accomplishment as the result of bringing together so large and representative a gathering of people speaking for the world's interest in one of its foremost industries. The universal use and widespread commerce in dairy products have so far developed that the welfare of the industry in every country is of concern to every other. 18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE WORLD'S DAIRY CONGRESS. Through such a gathering as this the researches of science are made available to all the world. The knowledge of inventions and labor-saving devices is exchanged to the advantage of all; yet more important is that attention will be focused by such a gathering upon the health-giving and growth-promoting qualities of milk and its products. Your deliberations will not fail to be instructive and interesting. I wish to express the hope especially that those who have come among us from abroad may find their stay agreeable and profitable, and that they may return home in safety, with the feeling that they have been more than repaid for their journey. Most sincerely yours, [Applause.] CALVIN COOLIDGE. President VAN NORMAN. We will have an announcement to make at to-morrow's session concerning an invitation to meet the President. (President Van Norman then made announcements concerning the excursion to Mount Vernon.) President VAN NORMAN. I will ask the secretary to read this cablegram. (Secretary Greene read the cablegram.) MILAN. Committee of the International Dairy Exhibition, Milan, April, 1924, send applauses and wishes to World's Dairy Congress. [Applause.] GORINI, President. President VAN NORMAN. Announcement is made that the Capitol will be open Wednesday evening from 7.30 to 10. Delegates from abroad and at home who may desire to visit the Capitol at that time are invited to do so and are urged to go as nearly 8 o'clock as possible, and that as many as possible go at the same time in order to facilitate their conduct through the Capitol. All those not resident in the United States are invited to assemble outside this building for the taking of a photograph of the foreign delegates, immediately on the conclusion of this meeting. The official photograph of all the delegates will be taken at the White House and at an hour to be announced to-morrow. The President has consented to be" shot " with us. [Applause.] To-day we have complied with the formalities. To-morrow is the business session. You must get up a little earlier to-morrow. The chairman of the program committee wants to see you here to-morrow at 9.30. There won't be any music; it will be business from the very beginning. I wish to make announcement of the banquet this evening as guests of the Washington committee. I hope you have all put in your slips, er will do so, to let them know that you will be there. Mr. Secretary, is there anything further? Secretary GREENE. Nothing that I know of, Mr. President. |
