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 ClJLTIUa^AlL ASS®CflMi®N 

 "RECORPr^lr- 



Published twice a month by the Illinois Axricultural Association, 

 608 South Dearborn Street, ChicaKO, Illinois. -Edited by Depart- 

 ment of Information. E. L. Bill, Director. ' 



Entry as second class matter Oct. 10, 1921, at the post oflice at 

 Chicago, Illinois, under the act of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for 

 mailing at special rates of posuge provided for in Section 1103, 

 Act of October 3, 1917, authorized Oct. 31, 1921. 



The individual membership fee of the Illinois Agricultural Asso- 

 ciation is five dollars a year. This fee includes payment of fifty 

 cents for subscription to the Illinois Agricultural Association Record. 



OFFICERS 

 j President, S. H. Thompson, Quincy. 



Vice-President, A. O. Eckert, Belleville. 

 Treasurer, R. A. Cowles, Bloomington. 

 Secretary, Geo. A. Fox, Sycamore. 



EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

 By Congressional Districts 



11th Henry McGough, Maple Park 



12th G. F. Tullock, Rockford 



13th C. E. Bamborough, Polo 



14th ;. W. H. Moody, Port Byron 



ISth H. E. Goembel, Hoopole 



16th. D. G. Reder, Mendota 



17th... F. D. Barton, Cornell 



18th C. R. Finley, Hoopeston 



19th D. J. Holterman, Sadorus 



20th Earl C. Smith, Detroit 



21st E. L. Corbin, Carlinville 



22nd Stanley Castle, Alton 



23rd , . . -^ Carleton Trimble, Trimble 



24th Curt Anderson, Xenia 



, 25tfa Vernon Lessley, Sparta 



Directors of Departments 

 I. A. A. Ofice 

 General Office and Assistant to Secretary, J. H. Kelker: Organiza- 

 tion. G. £. Metzger; Information, E. V. BUI; Transportation, L. J. 

 Quaisey: Statistics, J. C. Watson; Finance, EL A. Cowles; Prmt 

 and Vegetable Marketing, A. B. Leeper; Live Stock Marketinc, 

 C. A. Stewart; Dairy Marketing, A. D. Lynch; Poultry and Egg 

 Marketing. J. D. Harper ; Phosphate-Limestone, J. R. Bent ; Legal, 

 Newton Jenkins. 



DOLLARS IS NOT THE ONLY MEASURE 



All of us like to see the results of the farm bureau 

 set down in terms of cold dollars and cents saving, 

 but the projects that can be figured in money saved 

 are not always the projects that mean the most for 

 agriculture. 



There is the packer control law and the grain 

 exchange futures act, both designed to make fair 

 play for the producer, with the government as 

 referee. Your officers believe they mean much to 

 agriculture, but there is no way of measuring the 

 benefit in money saved. 



The new filled milk law prevents the manufacture 

 and sale of milk substitutes in Illinois. Illinois 

 dairymen do not compete with cocoanut milk now. 

 The truth-in-advertising law put a stop to butter 

 substitutes sailing under the flag of the dairy cow. 

 It prevents the use of dairy terms and names in 

 advertising substitutes for dairy products. 



The Illinois wool pool is another example. Our 

 pool along with the pools from other states has 

 helped to bring about orderly marketing of wool. 

 It has prevented a break in wool prices, the Live- 

 stock Marketing Department says. It would be a 

 guess to try to determine the value oi this work in 

 doUars and cents. 



The advice given one county by the Limestone- 

 Phosphate Department on the question of opening 

 up a local limestone quarry, saved farmers of that 

 -county from going forward on a project that would 

 ultimately fail. 



The very fact that there is a farm bureau looking 

 out for agricultural interests has a moral effect, 

 or at least many believe that it has, but there is 

 no wayrto measure the value. ! 



Illinois Agricultural* Attsoci>t'ion Record 



January 5, 1924 



THE COMMUNITY CLUB 



The local commimity club and local leadership 

 are two great helps to the farm bureau, several 

 .counties say in telling about their reorganization 

 experience. Leadership is responsible for one- 

 fourth of the membership of Moultrie county being 

 in Marrobone township. W'e are told by a White- 

 side county man that the local club is the very heart 

 and soul of the farm bureau. In Knox county the 

 largest membership is in the neighborhood of a rural 

 church where the pastor is the leader of the 

 community. 



Is it true that the farm bureau is going good in 

 the community where there is a good community 

 organization ? Does a commimity club help to 

 develop leadership? In what townsliip do you have 

 the largest membership and what is the reason for 

 it? Tell us about your commimity club and what 

 •t has done for the farm bureau. 



WATCHING FARMERS' TRAFFIC 

 PROBLEMS 



You know there is a continual change going on 

 in freight rates and rulings. Hearings are going 

 on before the Interstate Commerce Commission and 

 state commerce bodies. Every week or two a new 

 tariff schedule is issued showing the changes made. 



Practically every interest has a department watch- 

 ing every change, studying its particular problems 

 and plugging for its side. A change in the brick 

 freight rates in Iowa may mean all the difference in 

 the world to cement interests of Illinois. Their 

 transportation department knows all about it the 

 minute a change is mentioned, and is right after it 

 with all the facts and arguments. 



In the scramble of interests to protect themselves, 

 you can guess what happens to the interest that is 

 not continually studying and working on the prob- 

 lem. That is just what has happened to farmers 

 for a long time. Outside of hollering pretty loud 

 when we get hurt, not much work has been done 

 on the freight rate problem until the last few years. 



The purpose of the I. A. A. Transportation 

 Department is to be on deck where there is an issue 

 that affects Illinois fanners. This year the depart- 

 ment attended some eighty hearings, conferences 

 and various meetings concerning traffic matters. On 

 another page the result of this work is told about. 



The new lower rate on mixed carloads of live- 

 stock is an outstanding example. A lot of time was 

 put on the case to lower the minimum weight of a 

 carload of hogs necessary to pay freight on, but 

 Illinois did not get the decrease in this instance. 



A reduction was obtained from the Wabash on 

 cattle and hogs from points west of the Illinois river 

 to East St. Louis. A grazing-in-transit privilege 

 was obtained from the Rock Island railroad for all 

 points on that road in Illinois oh stock shipped from 

 Montana. A transit privilege on red top seed was 

 secured at Flora. Four East St. Louis terminal 

 roads sought to relieve themselves of the provision 

 made for icing service. The department took up the 

 case with the Interstate Commerce Commission and 

 Illinois Commerce Commission and the case was 

 dismissed. , 



Right now the department is fighting a proposed 

 increase in fruit and vegetable freight rates, and 

 also working against a proposed decrease in rates 

 of dressed meat products, which would drive east- 

 em buyers out of our livestock markets, the 

 department maintains. 



These are a few of the outstanding examples. 

 The problem is not always in lowering rates. Some- 

 times it is in preventing a higher rate, sometimes 

 it is checking up on a road that has not put a new 

 rate or ruling into practice, and often it is securing 

 a so-called privilege on a certain product for a 

 territory. 



ORGANIZATION IS THE ANSWER 



"If agriculture is ever to accomplish anything 

 either in shaping revenue laws which will be 

 fair to farmers, or in securing an honest and 

 effective administration of fair revenue laws, it 

 can only be done by organization." 



That is what John C. Watson told the Ameri- 

 can Farm Bureau annual meeting in Chicago. 

 And further on this subject he said: 



"Legislation nearly always operates to the 

 advantage of those who are least able to resist. 

 The administration of the law is subject to the 

 same influences. It is entirely proper and neces- 

 sary, therefore, that farmers' organizations should 

 make taxation one of their projects. It is the only 

 way by which farmers can find out the facts, 

 give them the necessary publicity, formulate 

 sound policies, secure fair legislation, defeat 

 unfair legislation and establish efficient admin- 

 istration. 



"The program is not a temporary one, but a 

 continuous performance. It will cost money to 

 maintain the program, but it should save farm- 

 ers a hundred times, perhaps a thousand times, 

 as much as it costs." 



NO LUCK ABOUT IT 

 The total assessed valuation of farm land for 

 tax purposes in 99 counties was decreased 

 $106,(XX),000 in 1923, as compared with valua- 

 tions of 1922. 



It is estimated that this decrease in valuation 

 will make a reduction of at least $2,000,000 in 

 taxes paid by land owners. 



There was no good luck about it. It is the 

 result of hard work by many people, the result 

 of organized effort of farmers. It first started 

 three years ago when the I. A, A. began to study 

 taxation, thinking there might be some need for 

 farmers to spend some time on this problem. At 

 the beginning of 1923 it was apparent that 

 assessed valuations of farm lands were higher, 

 according to their real value, than assessed valua- 

 tion of town and city lots. 



Then the work of getting the proof started. 

 Dozens of farm bureau people spent weeks in 

 county court houses making inviestigations to 

 get the actual figures. The assessors were first 

 approached. • Then the question was " taken up 

 with county boards of review and later with 

 the State Tax Commission. The proof of a real 

 case was made by the farm bureau. Often the 

 farm bureau men had more facts at hand than 

 the tax bodies, both county and state. 



More than the reduction of $2,000,000 is the 

 example of what is possible to do through organ- 

 ized effort. It is a starter, just half the reduction 

 which should have been made this year, and it 

 is only one of several problems connected with 

 the whole taxation question. It is reason to be 

 encouraged, to go forward and finish the job. 



PROVIDING FOR THE FUTURE 



Every month the Rock Island Co-operative Dairy 

 Company deducts three per cent of the net amount 

 . due to the producer-members to place in an emer- 

 gency ftmd. This fund will be kept growing until it 

 reaches an amount equal in volume to the largest 

 previous month's volimie of business. While it 

 remains the property of the producer, it is the inten- 

 tion of the company to invest the money for him in 

 good bonds or liquid securities. 



Why do^this ? The president of the "co-op" says, 

 "It is because we are not building for today alone 

 but for the future. We want a good reserve just 

 as a bank or^any other sound business institution 

 has a reserve."; ' 



For example — if there are bad accounts or some' 

 calamitous emergency arises, this fund is available 

 without causing undue burden upon the producers 

 who are selling at the time. When a producer goes 

 out of the milk business or withdraws from the com- 

 pany for any reason, his pro-rata share of the 

 emergency fund is paid him as soon as it has reached 

 its required volume. In addition to this emergency 

 fund, the company has its other reserves, for depre- 

 ciation of plant and equipment, interest, taxes, 

 insurance, dividends, and other overhead items. 



$115,000 IN COMMISSIONS RETURNED 



Illinois farmers shipped approximately 19,000 

 carloads of livestock to the four Producers Com- 

 mission Companies at Chicago, Peoria, East St. 

 Louis and Indianapolis, in 1923. 



The rebates on commission charges to Illinois 

 farmers for the year will be in the neighborhood 

 of $115,000. 



$67,000 SAVED ON LIVESTOCK FREIGHT 



The new lower freight rate on mixed carloads 

 of livestock was in effect the last three months 

 of 1923, After considerable figuring it was esti- 

 mated that the reduction is saving Illinois 

 farmers $6.00 per carload. Illinois farmers ship 

 in the neighborhood of ^5,000 mixed carloads of 

 livestock per year. 



If one-fourth of the livestock was shippet 

 during the last three months of the year, the cash 

 saving was $67,000. If the ruling remains in 

 effect all of this year, the saving will be $270,000. 



