J. F. Jones: I second the motion.
President Reed: It is moved and seconded that Mr. Patterson be appointed to represent us before congress in connection with the appropriation.
Mr. Patterson: If everyone on the committee could go to Washington as soon as we can get at the House committee for a hearing, that would be the way to get action on the matter. Of course, the endorsement of the Association is good, and if you could get a committee of some one who could go down and help re-enforce it, there, we would appreciate it very much.
President Reed: I think the incoming president will be one who will be going down. If he will come forward, I am ready to turn over the gavel.
At this point, Mr. Linton, the newly elected president, took the chair.
President Linton: Ladies and Gentlemen I am sure that you will all concede that I have not sought official position, and no one could have been more surprised than I, when I was presented with the report of your committee. I have been much interested in the work that is being carried on by this association; and of course if I can be of any value to the association or to the cause in the position of president during this particular year, why I accept that duty. But I would like to impose one or two conditions. I know that your hearty co-operation will be given. That would be one condition. But I am sure that each and every one of you can assist in adding greatly to the membership of this organization. We should at least have fifty members in each state within our jurisdiction. That would mean, perhaps one-half of the states in the Union. That would mean one thousand members. Now, in accepting this position, I am going to ask each and every active member through his friends and acquaintances to solicit and secure twenty-five members. Now, I will double that amount, and agree during the year, to add fifty good members to the association. That means over one thousand during the year, and that is one goal that I hope we can reach during this particular year, 1920. So far as the growing of nuts is concerned, so far as the details connected with the work that you have been engaged in is concerned, I propose leaving those things to those whom I consider experts, Dr. Morris, our friend Reed from Washington, and others that I might name; but the particular lines that I would like to follow this year, gentlemen, and what I hope to receive your earnest support in is an addition to your membership so that it may exceed a thousand; and assistance in legislation throughout the country along the line that we have worked out in our peninsular state of Michigan. I am glad that you decided upon Washington as the place of the next meeting, and as I have intimated in my remarks heretofore, I believe we have there a Michigan Senator who will assist in national legislation along the lines that we desire, because they are right ones; and in his position as chairman of the committee on post offices and post roads of the country, being at the head of the highway legislation, there is no man in the United States as competent to help us along that line, and I feel sure that we will get that assistance and support. With these few lines I will close, and I sincerely hope you have not made any mistake at this session; and when we have rounded up our year's work, that we can all say it has been a successful one. I thank you. (Applause). The committee on Federal Aid that the incoming president was to appoint, I will name as follows: J. M. Patterson, Dr. Morris, Dr. Kellogg, Mr. Littlepage, Mr. Bixby, Mr. Jones and Mr. McGlennon.
Mr. Bixby: Senator Penney would like to say a word.
Senator Penney: I hadn't any intention of saying a word. But I am particularly pleased that you elected my friend, Mr. Linton, as president of the organization. I have known him a good many years, and I know he is an industrious worker. In anything that he undertakes to do, you will always see results. I am sure that in the lines which he has expressed himself as being anxious to cover, your membership, the matter of legislation, I am sure that you will see some results that will be very gratifying to the Association. I do not know as there is anything further I wish to say. But I have been very interested in these meetings. I am not a nut grower, and I hardly know one nut from another, excepting that I am like the squirrel, if I get hold of a good nut I like to eat it; but I have certainly learned a lot of things from this association, and I am very pleased to be present.
President Linton: I am going to ask Senator Penney to become a member of this association.
Mr. Bixby: He is a member.