Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Remarks at the Dedication of the American Hereford Building, Kansas City, Missouri.

October 16, 1953

Mr. President, Senator Darby, many distinguished guests, and my friends:

I think I scarcely need use up your time to try to tell you how honored I feel at being in this company. In the first place, this is my section of the world. At least, it is that section that I feel I have the greatest right to claim. Whenever I get again the ground of these great plains beneath my feet, I feel differently than I do anywhere else. And so, with you, although there may not be a face in the throng that I recognize, I feel at home--and I hope you will allow me to do so.

Now, when I had the distinction of receiving an invitation to participate in the dedication of this building, I thought that your president, your association, was really making a mistake. Had they been dedicating a building to the old mossy horn that still roamed the plains when I was still on the farm, I would have seen some aptness to the invitation. But there were many things about this particular one that puzzled me. You know when the old scrub cattle of the prairie began to disappear, when I was a very young boy, there were all sorts of new breeds appearing--Shorthorns, Angus, this white face, and the Galloway. Whatever has happened to the Galloway? He was a big black cow, you know, bigger than that Angus, and sort of woolly-haired. And the people who advocated him said he was going to give a lot of milk and a lot of beef, too, and was going to be a better cow than any of the rest.

But the white face seems, at least, in this section, to have taken over very greatly. I went to central Kansas today, and I noticed, in all the time I was on the ground, I saw only one herd that was not of the white faced breed. There was still someone who believed that the Black Angus was the best.

Now, one of the puzzling things about this white face when it appeared, none of us knew exactly how to pronounce the name; and I confess that all these years it never occurred to me to look it up exactly. But just before I came out here, I got a very cultivated gentleman, and I said, "How do you pronounce this word now, correctly?" And I carefully drove myself to say "Hairford." And that's what I came over here to say, but I have learned from your president that it's "Herford"; and now I feel natural and it's "Herford" from now on.

And there is another thing. Those of us, in those days when I was undoubtedly reflecting the opinion of my elders, because I certainly didn't have any opinion myself about the matter, confidently talked about the fact that the old scrub range cow would always hold its own, that these new-f angled, fancy animals coming in from abroad and elsewhere just didn't have what it took to make a living in the short-grass country.

Well, it shows you how wrong people can be, when they prophesy against progress. Those few herds that were scattered all through this country, down through Oklahoma and all of the other regions around here, have multiplied until if they were not all white face, they are all blooded cows. They are a heavy beef cow. They are producing this country's food on far less than that old scrub did. As a matter of fact too much of that cow went to horns and legs--that's about all there was to it, just enough body to connect the two. And when one of them took after you, you knew how fast they could go, too!

Now, this has grown into a tremendous industry. I saw today a statistic that every day the United States eats 33 million pounds of beef. When we begin to talk about statistics, we talk about something that is of the utmost importance to the United States. This great and wonderful living that we have has featuring among other things the finest diet in the world--and the Hereford produces most of it.

In any event, that industry has now reached the proportions that everything that affects it is of interest to the entire United States. If cattlemen are in trouble, and certainly in the drought areas and all over they are, it is not merely the cattlemen that Government and all the rest of us must think about, we must think about the welfare of all the United States. We must approach all our problems in that way.

And so, regardless of my ignorance about all of these different breeds, from "Old Anxiety" and "Domino 99th," and all the rest of them, right down to the present, in spite of the fact that I don't know where the Galloway went or why the Shorthorn seemed to disappear or anything else, I do think there is one factor that makes it fitting that I should have the honor to read the words on this tablet and to cut the ribbon: that is, in the Office that has been entrusted to me for these years, I do represent the feeling, the convictions, of the United States. And those feelings and convictions are that this great Hereford industry is of transcendental importance to all of us.

And now, let me just read the words that are on this plaque:

"This monument erected as a tribute to the faith of the Pioneers, and the determination of the men who have carried on, to establish the Hereford Breed as leader in the beef cattle world. "Dedicated October 16, 1953 ."

And before I cut this, wouldn't it be interesting to know what some of those old cattlemen--that drove their cattle from the south of Texas up that Chisholm Trail to Abilene--what they would think, if today they could see the great building erected to the honor of cattle--the successors to the ones that they drove up here.

And so I have the honor to dedicate this building to the usefulness, to the welfare of the Hereford Association of America.

Note: The President spoke at 7:50 p.m. In his opening words he referred to Herbert A. Chandler, President of the American Hereford Association, and Harry Darby, former Senator from Kansas. Following the ceremonies the President attended the American Royal Livestock and Horse Show in Kansas City.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Remarks at the Dedication of the American Hereford Building, Kansas City, Missouri. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/232198

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