Pag«2 



The IlUnoi* Atricaltwml AModatioa Raoovd 



April 2S, 192S 



VU\L ASSOCIA 



RECORiy 



Published evtrr other Saturday bj the IlllnoU Asrlraltunl 

 Association, sot South Dearborn Street, Chlcaco, nimols. Bd- 

 Ited by Department of Infor mation, H. & Butcher, Plr«et«r. 



Entered as second class matter Oct. 10, 1921, at the post oflk* 

 at Chicago. Illinois, under the act of March 3. 1«79. AcceptAIies 

 for mailing at special rates of postage provided tor in Sectloa 

 nOJ. Act of October S, 1917. authorized Oct. II. 1911. 



The IndiTlduaJ membership fee of the Illinois Arrlcultural As- 

 sociation is five dollars a year. The fee Includes payment of 

 fifty cents for supscription to the niinols Agricultural Asso- 

 ciation RxcoBii 



i ^ — 



Postmaster: In returning an uncalled-for or mlsaent copy, 

 please indicate key number on address as Is required by lajsr. 



OFFICERS 



I*re8i<lent, S. H. Thompson, Quincy. 

 Viice-President, H. E. Cloeiiibel. Hooppole. 

 Treasurer, K. .\. Cowles, Bluoiiiington. 

 Secretnry, Geo. A. Fox, Sycamore. 



ELXECUTIVE COSOIITTEK V 



By ("oii):res.<!lonal Districts I 



11th William Webb, Route One, Jollet 



12th G. F. Tulla«k, Roekford 



13th C. E. Batnborough, Polo 



14th W. H. Moody, Port Byron 



15th B. H. Taylor, Rapatee 



16th, A. R. Wright, Varna 



17th ..P. D. Barton, Cornell 



18th R..F. Karr, Iroquoli 



19th J. L. Whisnand, Charleston 



20th , Ear! C. Smith, Detroit 



21at Samuel Sorrells, Raymond 



22nd Stanly Castle, Alton 



23rd \ W. L. Cope, Salem 



Curt Anderson, Xeitla 



'25th...Vv^. .J R. K. Lpomit, Makanda 



N Directors of Departments 

 K I. A. A. Office I 



General Ofnae\and Assistant to Secretary, J. H. Kelker; Cr- 

 ganization, gI /E. Metzger; Information, l-t. CT Butcher; Trans, 

 portation, L,Hd. Quasey; Taxation and Statistics, J.C.Watson; 

 Flnance,.^Hr A. Cowles; Fruit and Vegetable Marketing, A. B. 

 Live Stock Marketing, Wm. E. Hedgcock; Dairy 

 Marketing, A. D. Lynch; Phosphate-Limestone, J. R. Bent; 

 in charge Poultry and Egg Marketing, F. A. Gougier; special 

 representative on Tuberculosis Eradication, M. H. Petersen; 

 Legal Counsel, Donald Kirkpatrlck; Co-operative Accounting, 

 Geo. R. Wicker. i 



THE RECORD'S PLATFORM '" 



Advance Ui4 purpose for tahich the Farm Bureau wnu organistd, 



namely^ to promote^ protect artd represent the business, economic, 



social and e€lucational interests of the fanners of Illinois and the 



nation, and to develop agriculture. 



Another Voice on the Geu Tax 



George Wf. Hiiiman, a writer of editorials of the Ar- 

 thur Brisbane type, and who also enjoys ability which 

 enables, him to put his thoughts into writing in suchi a 

 way that bi? city papers from New York to San Frajn- 

 ci.seo print them, not long ago said some things abo|ut 

 the gas tax which strike a sympathetic chord for the 

 farmer. It was entitled : "Why People Want the Glas 

 Tax." It i'oUows: 



In comiuitn with farmers in other states, the Illinois 

 Agricultural A.ssociatiou is demanding a gasoline tax. 

 The as.soeiation is to appc^ to the Springfield legisla- 

 ture tomorrow to enact su<jh a tax into law. That is the 

 morning's news. [ 



The idea, of course, is ; that as long as the country 

 spends five or six hundred [millions a J-ear on autoraob|le 

 roads, the j) arsons who usel the roads should pay a large 

 part of the !ium. 



This does not look hke a big business proposition, yet 

 ill a way if is. If all the ga.soliue used in motors tbis 

 jear were tj be taxed 2 «ents a gallou, the collectioh.s 

 would come to something I like $l'25,0OO,0OO or perhaps 

 $150,000,00(^. i 



Gasoline Easy to Tax 



Xow, perhaps a tliird of the gasoline used in motors 

 is bought by the farmers themselves. They own mqre 

 than four inillion of the motor cars, and many trucks 

 and tractors besides. How does it happen then that they 

 " ure for a taix that will bear heavily mi them! There is 

 lid list of reasons, but it is possible to guess a few. 



Plainlyj ibe cost of gasoline is not a great burdlen 

 • .iiipared T^ith other living costs just now. If other 

 iw -essities df modem life had gone Up in price only as 

 iirui'h as gasoline since the war. most persons would be 

 living twice as easily and saving twice as much as now. 



While gasoline has risen but 17 per cent since 1913, 

 wheat has gone up 811 per cent, meats 40 per cent, sh(^e8 

 80 per cent, coal 100 per cent and the building materials 

 that help mnki' tlie liigh rents, 90 per cent. j 



Gas Tax No Hardship 



All together, the things we live by cost us half as milch 

 again as in 1913, and then some. Meantime, gasolme 

 shows only a third of this general increase in price. 

 Therefore, to put a tax of 2 cents a gallon, or even more, 

 ^on gasoline would not cause great hafrdship— that is, as 

 compared With the other hardships of high prices ahd 

 high costs of living just now. 



That is not a conclusive reason but a fairly popular 

 one. Anotlker reason is that, if the gasoline tax were 

 used to build highways, it would come to pass that tjhe 



pteople who use the new roads would be helping pay for 

 them. 



Suppose half the families in the United States have 

 motor cars and the other half have none. That is about 

 the case. Isn't it fairer then that the half who have 

 motor ears should contribute largely to the cost of the 

 motor roads, rather than that all families should -con- 

 tribute, whether they have cars or not! 



Road Users Pay • 



By means of the gasoline tax the road users would 

 be compelled to pay. By means of bond issues and gen- 

 eral taxes, everybody is compelled to pay, whether he is 

 a road user or not, whether he rides in a motor car, takes 

 a street car, or walks. 



The fanner thinks he is robbed and oppressed by local 

 taxes. He is — in most cases, he is. He wants to get out 

 from under the highway taxes. If he doesn't escape 

 some of the present tax biirdeus, if he doesn't get relief 

 soon from the local taxation on his acres, says Dr. Ely 

 of Madison university, he is likely to be impoverished or 

 bankrupted. In parts of the Northwest, the farmer pays 

 III ta.xes nearly two-thirds of what he can rent his farm 

 for. It is from this sort of wild taxation that the gaso- 

 line jtax for hard roads would give the farmer some relief. 



' Wouldn't a Gas Tax Help? 



There are other arguments. Should motorists from 

 one state use up the roads in another state without pay- 

 ing a cent for the privilege f And, if they are to pay at 

 all, what easier method is there than to pay every time 

 they take in gasoline T 



Can there be any end to tax-exempt bonds as long 

 as states issue such bonds by the ten million for the con- 

 struction of hard roads t And will such bond issues 

 be ended unless some other means, like a gaoline tax, be 

 used to bring in at least part of the money t 



Ite Htindi Are Tied 



There can be no substantial reform looking to an 

 e<|ualization of the tax burden while the legislature has 

 its hands tied as it has under the present constitution 

 of the state. 



The present coiistitution was adopted in 1870, five 

 years after the Civil War. We are not spending our 

 money now like we did in Civil War days, even though 

 we wish we could. Neither are we earning money now 

 in the same manner as it was earned in 1870. 



Things have changed. Bonds and a thousand and 

 one other intangibles have sprung into great use since 

 1870. There is a greater proportion of wealth invested 

 in bonds and other intangibles today than there was in 

 1870 — or even 10 years ago. 



The World War educated people to buying bonds 

 through the Liberty bonds. They have been buying 

 bonds like hot cakes since then, and for more than one 

 reason. 



One reason is that they are easier to hide from tax 

 assessors than investments in real estate and visible 

 property. That is an illustration of classification of 

 property according to visibility. Real estate, and es- 

 pecially farm property, is visible to the assessor, conse- 

 (^uently it gets caught. It is the visible things that pay 



li.OSt. 



In the present day. people are coming more and more 

 to expect no relief from under the present constitution. 

 The proposed amendment embodied in Joint Resolution 

 No. 4 introduced by Senator Lantz provides for an 

 amendment to the revenue section of the constitution 

 which will make it possible to permit the taxing of in- 

 comes. If money to run the government can be raised 

 by taxing incomes, all the better for farmers and other 

 owners of real property. The proposed amendment does 

 not in itself establish any new form of tax, but it simply 

 unties the hands of the legislature and enables them to 

 I>a.ss laws adapting the levying of taxes to changed eco- 

 nomic conditions. 



Farmers and home-owners should get behind the Lantz 

 resolution if they expect to have their tax burden prop- 

 erly distributed. The legislative committee is especially 

 desirous that farmers write, wire or see their senators 

 and house members urging them to support this amend- 

 ment. 



' The Foar G'a and the Five M'e 



Illinois has a cream marketing problem as well as a 

 good many others. 



Each year Illinois farmers sell about $17,000,000 

 worth of cream. That is enough money to build a Keo- 

 kuk dam every year and a half from Illinois cream 

 checks. 



Illinois farmers market their cream manv ways. Some 

 of them have taken advantage of collective bargaining 

 methods and have sold together, thereby increasing their 

 incomes. 



A. D. Lynch, our dairy marketing director, says Illi- 

 nois farmers can save or make a heap of money by form- 

 ing cream bargaining associations. 



The average butter fat price received by Illinois 

 farmers in October, November and December of 1924, 

 with both co-operative and private creamery prices 

 taken, was 34.6 cents, according to Mr. Lynch. This 



figure was compared with the prices received in 12 other 

 states the same date. 



In Ohio it was found that the farmers were getting 

 at private stations 4.4 cents per pound fat more than 

 the farmers in other sUtes were getting at private sta- 

 tions during the same period. The reason is that Cttiio 

 has 88 co-operative cream stations in the state, Mr. 

 Lynch finds. There are a good many less than that in 

 / all the other 12 states which participated in the price 

 comparison. 



The averages paid in the 12 states were brought to- 

 gether by the dairy department of the Ohio Farm Bu- 

 reau Federation with results as follows: 



Ohio 385 cents Iowa 34.6 cents 



Michigan 38.2 Kansas 34.5 



Minnesota 37.1 North Dakota . .33.4- 



Indiana 35.8 South Dakota . ..33.5 



Kentucky 35.5 Missouri 32.8 



Illinois 34.6 Nebraska 30.8 



Oklahoma 29.3 cents 



Illinois farmers could get more money if they were 

 organized. Where there is not enough volume of cream 

 in a community to support a farmer-owned co-operative 

 creamery, it has been found desirable to form a cream 

 selling organization. About five hundred cows are 

 needed and it requires very little capitaL 



As a rule a building can be rented where the cream 

 from these 500 cows can be weighed and tested by the 

 farmers' own man. The equipment required need not 

 cost more than $300. Mr. Lynch says that some cream 

 clubs raise this amount by memhership fees, while others 

 have started off by borrowing money at the bank. This 

 kind of an arrangement is known as a cream bargaining 

 association. After the cream from the minimumfH^- 

 quirement of cows is signed up, the total volume is sold 

 to the highest bidder. 



The Ford County Farm Bureau started one at ^axton 

 last year. Farmers in it not only received the market 

 price but at the end of the year paid a patronage divi- 

 dend of 2.3 cents per pound. 



Mr. Lynch says any group of farmers that have the 

 four G's and the five M's can make a go out of a cream 

 bargaining association. These are grit, git, guts and 

 gumption, and men, milk, money, minds and marketing. 

 To make the score even all around, the editor hereby 

 adds "glue" to the first set, because they've got to 

 stick. 



The biggest question to settle before starting a cream 

 bargaining association, according to Mr. Lynch, is "Will 

 you work with your neighbor?" 



The I. A. A. is prepared to help fanners solve their 

 cream problems. i , 



_^ . I I N 'C.t^ 



The Ga$ Tax Should Replace, Not Add 



Illinois is now the only state west of New York not 

 having a tax on gasoline. 



This statement can be made with the qualification that 

 Minnesota will without doubt enact some kind- of a gas 

 tax in this session of its legislature. Both branches of 

 the Minnesota General Assembly have passed bills, but 

 in the House it was two cents while the Senators wanted 

 two and a half cents. 



Ohio, which has been in doubt, has definitely adopted 

 it. The Governor vetoed the bill, but it was passed over 

 his veto in company with 33 other bills which he wished 

 to keep from passing. 



If all the good points favoring the adoption of a gas 

 tax in Illinois were cast aside for the moment, should 

 our legislators leave this state to be overridden by mo- 

 torists from everj- other state without them paying some 

 small portion of the road expenses? 



And with the insistent demand for tax reduction from 

 all parts of the state, could the legislators consistently 

 enact a gas tax as an additional tax? 



Illinois will eventually have a gasoline tax, of that 

 there is little doubt. The question is whether it will 

 come as an additional tax or as a replacement tax. 



As has been stated before, the Illinois Agricultural 

 Association is for the gas tax in lieu of the county high- 

 way tax. That is the main requirement in the Cuthbert- 

 son bill. Are you actively supporting itt 



Where They Are Really Uting Lime 



Last year the farmers of Illinois used 500,000 tons of 

 limestone on their soils. This is one-fourth of all that 

 was used on all the soil of the United States. This rec- 

 ord doesn't mean that Illinois is a particularly sonr 

 state, but it does mean the Illinois Agricultural Associa- 

 tion has carried on an organized campaign to getiarm- 

 ers to apply the needed soil correction.' — Pacific Rural 

 Press, San Francisco, Calif. . 



EaMtemera Like Thia Kind ' 



The Illinois Agricultural Association has taken steps 

 to help thte farmers of the five counties hardest hit by 

 the tornado. That's the kind of farm relief with whieh 

 everybody is in sympathy. — Philadelphia Public Ledger. 



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