374 TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 



The past year has been most trying to all engaged in these activities. 

 Early in the year there appeared to exist amongst the membership a 

 spirit of indifference, brought on no doubt by the continued low prices for 

 farm products, which was causing the strongest hearted to falter. Added 

 to this was the well directed campaign of false and malicious propa- 

 ganda carried on by those who were unfriendly to the organization and 

 sought to capitalize the discontent into active opposition to the County 

 Agent. The last four months have brought a complete reversal of senti- 

 ment on the part of the public, which has come to recognize the absurd- 

 ity of the arguments used against the organization. The Farm Bureau 

 membership is now more firmly grounded and its value to the business 

 of agriculture more firmly established than ever before. The County 

 Agents as a whole have been efficient in their work, and a constructive 

 influence in every community. The County Agent should be encouraged 

 in every effort to carry on. The opposition has not ceased. It in fact 

 has doubled its efforts, and we must meet the issue squarely. 



TRANSPORTATION PROBLEMS 

 BY C. B. HUTCHINGS 



We are thinking a great deal about transportation and agriculture to- 

 day. You have had your attention called to the importance of agriculture 

 itself, to the capital investment in it, which aggregates $78,000,000,000. 

 After agriculture we can set up against that figure as the nation's sec- 

 ond industry that of transportation. 



You have all heard of the valuation fixed on the railroads by the Inter- 

 state Commerce Commission as being in excess of $18,000,000,000, and 

 we are told that since that time improvements will bring the figure up 

 close to $20,000,000,000. But the railroads are not our only means of trans- 

 portation, and so we have to add to that figure the value of motor trucks, 

 improvement of highways, waterways, water terminals, steam ships, etc., 

 and when you have gotten all through with these various facilities of 

 transportation you have run that figure up to $40,000,000,000. So these 

 two, agriculture and transportation, are the nation's leading industries. 



One hundred years ago the farmer who lived twenty-five miles from 

 market did one thing and one thing only — he provided for his own living. 

 He had no way to ship out the surplus. But today you men of Iowa find 

 your markets 100, 500, 1,000, or perhaps 4,000 miles away, because you 

 have available means of transportation that will take your produce to 

 those markets. Industry and transportation are inevitably woven to- 

 gether, and agriculture as the nation's leading industry is deeply inter- 

 ested in it. 



Have Two Ends in View 



It has been our endeavor to co-operate with all who will co-operate with 

 us in securing justice for the farmer. We have worked with the state 

 railroad commissions to a marked degree. I am- frank to say to you, not 

 merely because I am in the State of Iowa but because it is a fact, that 

 the Iowa Commission and the Iowa representatives have been working 

 as cordially with us as any two people could work together. I want to 



