PROCEEDINGS STATE AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION 77 



FARM BUREAU AT THE FAIR. 



Monday, August 29th, Farm Bureau Day at the Iowa State Fair, was 

 a red letter day to thousands of Iowa farmers who came to Des Moines 

 to listen to farm bureau gospel and to talk over the times with their 

 fellow-farmers of the state. In some respects, it was a great success, 

 while in others it was disappointing. All admitted that great progress 

 had been made from the day three or four years ago when only five or 

 six tents were to be found in the farm bureau camp on the hill, to the 

 present when the section was crowded, but there was some disappoint- 

 ment evident because of the small attendance this year. But that was 

 characterized as but a reflection of the present condition of the farmer. 



The program was ample and occupied the entire day, begnining shortly 

 after 9 o'clock in the morning at the big assembly tent below the poultry 

 building. It was largely inspirational in character, backed up in degree 

 by an undercurrent of determination to stand fast and hold together 

 during this period of crisis for the farm bureau movement. 



C. W. Hunt, president of the Iowa State Farm Bureau Federation, was 

 the opening speaker. He recounted the deplorable condition of agri- 

 culture today in a few terse comments. Agriculture he characterized as 

 the basic industry of all in our economic life. "If it fails," he said, 

 "all will fail." And the crowd agreed with that cryptic remark. 



"It will fail," the speaker warned, "unless we get better remuneration 

 for the products we raise than we get today. We have reached the peak 

 of land values now; the time is gone when we can afford to sell our 

 products for less than the cost of production. The price level of prod- 

 ucts must be raised, if we are to pay our debts; it must go above the 

 pre-war level — I am not prepared to say how much — but it is away 

 below that level today." 



He then turned his attention to the farm bureau movement and the 

 chance of the movement solving the economic tangle now confronting 

 the farmer. "The time has come in this critical period for the farm 

 bureau when we have got to fight, and when we win, as we will, the 

 other interests who are now opposing us will find that we are not hurt- 

 ing them. The danger of the present — the real danger — is from poison 

 'on the inside. And let me tell you now that if we fail — if this farm 

 bureau movement goes down — we will make a race of peasants!" 



Mr. Hunt outlined what he considered to be the chief accomplish- 

 ments of the Iowa federation to date — its own justification for its 

 existence, as being: (1) The accumulation of statistics on the cost of 

 production on Iowa farms, and he mentioned several instances where 

 these statistics had been used effectively by the farm bureau; (2) the 

 fact that the federation had stopped the move by Federal Reserve Bank 

 oflicials to force liquidation of farm debts a year ago. "If that program 

 had gone through," he said, "75 per cent of the Iowa farmers would be 

 bankrupt today and 90 per cent of the banks would have closed their 

 doors"; (3) legislative accomplishments, in the way of 18 bills passed 

 out of 23 introduced in Iowa legislature. 



Mrs. Richardson, of Pella, la., followed Mr. Hunt as representative 

 of Iowa farm bureau women. Mrs. Richardson made probably the most 

 effective speech of the day. She held the crowd in a blistering heat 



