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CULTURAL ASSOCIAIBn 



Publishetl twice a month by the llUnoia Agricultural 

 Association, 6Q8 South Dearborn Street, Chicaffo, lUinola, 

 Edited by Department of Information, H. C. Butcher. 

 Director. 



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

 office at ChicaKO, Illinois, under the act of March », H7». 

 Acceptance for maillnB at special rates of postare pro- 

 vided for in Section llOJ, Act of October 3, 1917, author- 

 Ised Oct. 31, 1981. ._ ^_____ 



The individual membership fee of the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association is five dollars a year. This fee includes 

 payment of fifty cents for subscrlptiom to the Illinois Ag- 

 ricultural Association Record. 



OFFICERS 

 President, S, H, Thompson, Qnincy. 

 Vice-President, C. B. Watson, DeKalb. | ■ 

 Trea.snrer, R. A. Cowlea. Hloomlngton. 

 Secretary, Geo. A. Fox, .Sycamore. 



EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

 Bj Congressional Districts 



nth Jacob Olbrleh, Harvard 



12th G. F. TuUock, Rocktord 



13th C, E. Bamborough, Polo 



14th W. H. Moody. Port Byron 



15th H. E. Goembel, Hooppole 



16th A. R. Wright, Vacna 



17th F. D, Barton, Cornell 



18th R. F. Karr, Iroquola 



19th J. L. Whlsnand, Charleston 



ZOth Earl C. Smith, Detroit 



21«t Samuel Sorrells, Raymond 



22nd Stanley Castle, Alton 



23rd J. E. LIngenfelter, Lawrencevllle 



24th Curt Anderson, Xenia 



28th Vernon Lenley, Sparta 



Directors of Departments 

 I. A. A. Office 



General Office and Asalstant to Secretary, J. H. Kelker; 

 Organization, G. E. Metzger; Information, H. C. Butcher; 

 Transportation, L. J, Quasey; Statistics, J. C. Watson; 

 Finance, R. A. Cowles; Fruit and Vegetable Marketing, 

 A. B.-Leeper; Live Stock Marketing, C. A. Stewart; 

 Dairy Marketing, A. D. Lynch: Phosphate-Limestone, 

 J..R. Bent: In charge Poultry and Egg Marketing, F. A. 

 Gougler; special representative on Tuberculosis Eradi- 

 cation, M. H. Petersen. 



Chicago Producers Going Strong 



Continuing its lead, the Chicago Producers' 

 handled 349 ears of livestock during the week of 

 April 19-25. This was 7.4 per cent of the total 

 receipts for the week at the yards after deducting 

 shipments direct to packers. 



The minou Agricnitural Aatodation Record 



May S, 1924 



Truth-in-Fabric up 22 Year*. 



Gray Silver, Washington representative of the 

 A. F. B. P., reports that after 22 years of "hem- 

 ming" and "hawing" on the Truth-in-Fabric bill, 

 there is now a possibility of its paiwage. Mr. 

 Silver recently appeared before the House Inter- 

 state and Foreign Commerce committee and told 

 why producers and consumers want the bill 



"Eqaalixation Fee" Instead of "Scrip" 



The "scrip" feature of the McNary-Haugen 

 biU, which caused so many queries and complaints 

 froitt various groups throughout the United States, 

 was taken out of the bill by the Committee on 

 Agriculture and a stronger and more definitely 

 conclusive amendment added in its place by a vote 

 of 14-6. 



Following is the section of the bill establishing 

 the ""equalization fee": 



Section 202 (c) "The corporation shall ascer- 

 tain the standard unit of weight or measure 

 by which each such commodity is commonly 

 sold or traded in. in the terminal markets 

 of the United States, and shall determine 

 the amount to be collected in respect of 

 each sale or other disposition (as defined 

 in section 206) of such unit, as hereinafter 

 provided. Such amount is hereinafter re- 

 ferred to as. the "equalization fee," The 

 corporation shall publish, in each terminal 

 market, the amount of the equalization fee. 

 at the same time and in the same manner 

 as it publishes the ratio price for each 

 basic agricultural commodity." 

 Receipts to be GiTen 

 Receipts are to be given to each producer for the 

 amount which he contributes toward caring for 

 the loss sustained in selling the entire surplus 

 abroad. Following is the clause covering that 



iKiint : , 



Section 20S: (a) "Whenever a special 

 emergency in respect of any agricultural 

 commodity has been ascertained and pro- 

 claimed and until the termination thereof, 

 under section 2. the equalization fee shall 

 be paid, under such regulations aa the 

 .corporation shall prescribe, by every pro- 

 ducer (or the person making the sale on 

 his account) upon every sale or other dis- 

 position (as defined in section 206) of 

 such agricultural commodity by or on ac- 

 count of such producer, (b) The corpora- 



tion may by regulation require the pur- 

 chaser of any such agricultural commodity 

 to collect such equalization fee from such 

 producer, and may require such purchaser 

 to issue to such producer a receipt there- 

 for, which shall be evidence of the par- 

 ticipating interest of the producer in the 

 equalization fund for the commodity. The 

 corporation may, in such case, prepare and 

 issue such receipts and prescribe the terms 

 and conditions thereof — - — ." 



What M the McNary-Haugen BiU? 



We find that many people do not understand the 

 McNaiy-Haugen biU. It is often condemned be- 

 cause it is said to be too complicated. It is not 

 complicated. Read the following explanation of 

 the bilL It tells the whole story siniply and clearl}'. 

 Then write your Congressman and tell him to get 

 busy and help the McNary-Haugen bill become a 

 law. If you have written him once, write again. 

 This is an issue. Will agriculture be recognized 

 or will it be made subservient to industry 1 



Excepting cotton, the crops of which we produce 

 a surplus for export are selling at less than cost 

 of production to the profound distress of our farm 

 population. Cotton, for the moment in a different 

 case, is usually in the same situation. This re- 

 sults from a fundamental failure in our economic 

 system which can be cured by the principles of the 

 McNary-Haugen bill now before the Congress, and 

 not otherwise. 



When there is a surplus of any product, it is 

 elementary economic law that the price of the sur- 

 plus fixes the price of the whole product. We have 

 to sell our surplus crops abroad, where they come 

 into competition with the crops of other countrj^ 

 operating on standards of cost, price and living 

 very much lower than ours. Our surplus (and hence 

 our whole crop is, therefore, sold at an European 

 price level well below our own. These crops are the 

 only American products whose domestic price is 

 fixed by world conditions at a level far below that 

 of the home market 



Industry Is Protected 



On the products of industry, the protective tariff 

 keeps out cheap foreign competition and maintains 

 an American plane of prices much above the world 

 level. These are the prices that make the farmer's 

 cost — they are the prices he must pay for all that he 

 buys and a large portion of the population being 

 dependent on agriculture, he buys everything. 

 Herein lies a great injustice. Our tariff makes the 

 farmer buy in a protected market and pay a high 

 American price for all that he buys. The surplus 

 makes him sell his whole crop (of those products 

 of which we export a surplus whether for domestic 

 or foreign consumption) in a free trade market at 

 a world price much lower than the general plane of 

 protected American prices for what he buys. 



Before the war this burden was not too heavy 

 because the world level was more nearly the Ameri- 

 can level. As a result of the war the markets of 

 the world were demoralized and depressed by debt, 

 taxes, and inflated currencies until the spread be- 

 tween the American and the world price planes 

 became so great as to make it no longer possible 

 for our farmer to stand the burden of selling on 

 the basis of an Argentine peasant and buying on 

 the basis of an American citizen. No class of our 

 people should be asked to endure such an inequity. 

 We cannot help it by giving the farmer a higher 

 tariff on export farm products because, since we 

 export more than we import a tariff on export 

 crops would not cure the ill, even if we raised it 

 to the point of complete exclusion. There is only 

 one practicable course and this is proposed by the 

 McNary-Haugen bill. 



Bill to Equalize Buying Power 



This bill says: "The farmer's export crops 

 ought to have a buying power equal to that which 

 they had before the war, that is, the price of wheat, 

 for instance, ought to bear at least the same ratio 

 to the average general price index of all commod- 

 ities as it bore before the war. ' ' To effect this, the 

 bill gives the farmers a corporation, authorized to 

 go into the American market and buy quantities of 

 such export crops as are selling at less than pre- 

 war exchange value until the price rises high 

 enough to bear the pre-war relation to the general 

 price index. Whenever this happens the corpora- 

 tion stops buying and it only buys when, and as 

 long as, the price is below that ratio. When the 

 price is equal to or above that ratio, the corporation 

 does nothing. This insures the pre-war exchange 

 level and permits prices to go freely above that level 

 as far as economic forces will send them. 



Of course, it results that the corporation will 

 thus buy up all the supply in excess of domestic 

 demand — which is to say, the surplus at the pre- 

 war relation. Its sole function is to skim off this 

 surplus from the domestic market, leaving equality 

 of supply with demand ta determine price. There 



is only one thing to do with this surplus — sell it 

 abroad and at a price less than the price the cor- 

 poration paid by just so much as the world general 

 price level is less than the American general price 

 level. Who shall stand this loss? 



Fanner Himself Stands Loss 

 The bill charges it back to the farmer by re- 

 quiring that he accept, as a small fraction of the 

 much increased purchase price vouchsafed by the 

 bill, a few cents in certificates like the "partici- 

 pating certificates" of the cooperatives. It affords 

 a fund to absorb the loss on the surplus and to 

 pay the expenses of the corporation. At the end 

 of the year, when this loss and expense have been 

 accurately determined, the remainder in the fund 

 is returned to the farmer by redeeming the certifi- 

 cates pro rata. 



As an example, suppose we raise 850,000,000 

 bushels of wheat and the domestic demand is 700,- 

 000,000 bushels. If the Liverpool price is $1.00 per 

 bushel, the farmer, without the McNary-Haugen 

 bill, gets $850,000,000 for his crop, notwithstanding 

 the fact that a price of wheat in America which 

 would give wheat its pre-war purchasing power 

 would be $1.50 per bushel. At the latter rate the 

 farmer should have gotten $1,275,000,000 and. 

 while he ought not to expect more than the world 

 price for his- surplus, he has a right to expect pre- 

 war purchasing power for his domestic crop — that 

 is what everybody else gets for what they earn or 

 sell in the domestic market. Exactly this is what 

 the McNary-Haugen bill gives him. For ever>- 

 bushel he sells under that bill, he receives the pre- 

 war exchange rate — now about $1,50 per bushel, 

 a small frai^tion of which is paid in certificates. 



How Corporation Functions 

 The corporation keeps the price to that figure 

 by buying up the surplus at that figure. Of this 

 $1.50 about $1.38 would be in cash — 38 per cent 

 more than he now gets — and 12 cents in certificates. 

 But the operation entails a loss to the* corporation 

 of 50 cents a bushel on the 150,000,000 bushels sold 

 abroad, amounting to $75,000,000. This loss (ah«ut 

 9 cents per bushel on the whole crop) is paid out 

 of the certificates fund and the other three cents is 

 returned to the farmer by redeeming the certificates. 

 Instead, therefore, of receiving (as he does without 

 the bill) $850,000,000 for his entire crop ($1.00 

 per bushel) the bill gives him $1,050,000,000 for 

 the portion sold at home (750,000,000 x $1.50) and 

 $150,000,000 (150,000,000 x $1.00) for the portion 

 sold abroad or $1,200,000,000 for his whole crop— 

 $1.41 per bushel as an average price on the whole 

 — an increase of 41 per cent over the price with- 

 out the bill. This is all there is to the McNary- 

 Haugen bill. Exactly the same principles apply 

 to other export commodities, and in executing its 

 functions, the corporation sets up no new mechan- 

 ism and duplicates no existing facilities. The de- 

 tails of its operation will be more particularly 

 demonstrated in considering the objections that 

 have been suggested. 



EVERYBODY ELIGIBLE IN 

 LIARS' CONTEST 



Just for fun, the editor is going to start 

 a campaign to see who's the biggest liar 

 amongst tiie I. A. A. Record readers. 



Here's ours for a starter: 



A man got on a crowded elevator at ,the 

 45th floor and soon after.it started, some- 

 thing broke and the elevator began a me- 

 teoric plunge for the bottom. Women 

 fainted, strong men screamed and the ele- 

 vator boy died from fright. The one man 

 who had gotten on at the 45th floor kept 

 his presence of mind. As the car shot 

 downward, ever gaining momentum as it 

 sped toward the bottom past the 30th, 25th, 

 20th, 10th, and 5th floors, the Irishman 

 be-thought himself as to how to save his 

 Ufe. The thought came as the falling ele- 

 vator zipped by the 3rd floor at a 50 foot 

 per second rate. 



Just as the car struck the cement bottom 

 and plunged the dozen passengers into 

 emaciated oblivion, the Irishman jumped 

 upward with a mighty leap. Being in mid- 

 air when the elevator crushed against the 

 cement bottom, he was not killed. In fact, 

 the only injury he sustain^ was from 

 striking his forehead on the top of the cage. 



Let's see how big a lie you can tell. Send 

 'em to H. C. Butcher, care of the I. A. A., 

 608 South Dearborn St, Chicago. The 

 biggest Ues will be published. 



M 



