Illinois newspaper directory. History of the Illinois press association

Illinois Newspaper 1)iri< iorv and Historymembers. I •-till retain a very friendl) feeling for the members of the profession. I havefor the List four years been a member .it the State Legislature, and have been alwaysready to do anything iii my power to advance the interests of the editorial and publishingfraternity of the state. I thank you for your kindness."J.H. Kellogg said: "I was a member of this association in 1869, three years laterthan my friends Griggs and Stelle and Charles Holt. I attended the open meeting of theassociation whenever I could. Perhaps that meeting may not be well known to a goodmany of the younger members here, but the older members will recollect it. I was employedat Springfield, but not as my friend Griggs here, as a member of the legislature.I was requested by the executive committee of the association to assist some in securingthe passage of an act which is known as a bill requiring the treasurers and other menhaving money of the county, to publish notices or statements in the papers. Snivel)' andmyself were the executive committee connected with that affair. We succeeded ingetting the bill passed, but it was by such a close shave that it was not until twenty-fourhours afterwards that the Speaker of the I louse declared the bill passed. We could getthe bill through the Senate easily enough. The trouble was to get it through the House,for the reason that in the membership of the House, as it frequently occurs, there werethose who had been members of the Board of Supervisors, and were opposed to anythinglike requiring the treasurer to publish notices, and making it cost the county so much.These men who had been members of the Board of Supervisors were hard to get to votefor it. We finally got the bill through the committee, and got it before the House. Itrequired 77 votes to pass it. We failed the first time but got a re-consideration. It cameup a second time, which was the final vote. Just as the vote was being taken. Snivel)'and 1 were standing one on one side of the house and the other on the other to see thatno member slipped out without voting before the vote was called. We wanted to urgethem in a friendly way to stand up anil vote for this bill like men. I had a friend inthe 1 louse from Schuyler county, who had promised Snively and me both that he wouldvote for it. Well just as his name was called he stood up and voted; as he wasn't a veryfine public speaker his voice was indistinct, and the clerk understood him to vote no,and I understood him to vote no. After voting he went out, he was only waiting forthe bill to come up miJ to vote before he went. Well there were only 76 votes in favorof the bill. Snively's and my hearts dropped down as tar as they could. In the course ofthe afternoon, we hunted up this man ami he said he had voted aye. We told him theclerk had it he voted no. He promised he would get up and state before the House thathe had voted aye. We told the Speaker about it and he said if that were true and theman would declare he had voted aye, he would declare the bill passed. The memberfrom Schuyler did so and the Speaker said, 'I declare the bill passed.' I never learneduntil today that it had become inoperative. I declare to you that it is not right."Others who spoke were Mr. Stelle, Charles Holt, S. Y. Thornton, Charles Crandall,and J.W. Bailey. The President made the following remarks:"Some time ago our committee held a meeting and decided to do away with theformal banquets of the association. We decided to give these up and have an informalreception. We will have an informal reception here tonight, and there will be severalhundred people with us. There will be some responses by members of the association,and by the Chicago Press Club. We base the Imperial Quartet of Chicago with us.and also a zither club."At the Thursday evening meeting Prof. John W. Cook spoke on "The CountryPress, The Public Schools and Their Relation To Provincialism—A Lesson of the Fair."He asked, "Why is it not entirely practical for the rural press to effect some sort oforganization by which university extension shall reach the farmer boy and girl?"