PART V 



Fourth Annual Convention, Iowa Farm Bureau 



Federation, Des Moines, Iowa, January 



11-12, 1923 



EXCERPTS FROM THE OPENING ADDRESS 



BY PRESIDENT C. W. HUNT 



The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation has justified its four years of ex- 

 istence, four years that tried the metal of the farmer to the limit of en- 

 durance. It has demonstrated to the world that its mission was to pro- 

 mote and protect the interests of the Iowa farmer. The organization 

 came into being when every one was drunk with the seeming prosperity 

 that followed in the wake of war. Speculation was in the air, and every- 

 one breathed its intoxicating aroma. Promoters seized the opportunity 

 to induce the Iowa farmer to invest his money and liberty bonds in 

 questionable stock and worthless securities, with the result that millions 

 of dollars were taken away from agriculture and squandered. It was your 

 state organization that first sensed the danger, and its influence in sound- 

 ing the alarm through the county Farm Bureaus was an important factor 

 in bringing an end to this unexampled period of extravagance and 

 financial waste. 



Cost Accounting Project Proves Value 

 Believing in the theory that the thrifty and industrious farmer is en- 

 titled to cost of production plus a fair profit, the Iowa Farm Bureau 

 Federation, co-operating with the Iowa State College, took up the study 

 of cost accounting on the farm. Today we have three years of cost-of- 

 production figures on Iowa farms that have furnished an unanswerable 

 argument to convince the rest of the world that the farmer must have 

 a higher price level and a larger buying power or go under. 



These figures were introduced as evidence by Secretary Cunningham 

 and Dr. E. G. Nourse of the Iowa State College, and clinched the argu- 

 ment before the Interstate Commerce Commission hearing in the grain 

 rate reduction case, and were largely responsible for a reduction of 11 V2 

 per cent in freight rates on grain and hay. 



Legislative Activities Many and Effective 

 In the field of legislation the Federation was instrumental in defeating 

 a measure which would have placed a large additional burden of taxes 

 upon farm lands; it defeated the enactment of a sales tax; declared 

 that taxes should be paid out of income, instead of out of capital; 

 legalized co-operative marketing, in order that farmers might co-operate 

 in selling their products without danger of being jailed; provided financial 



