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The nteou Atricuhural AMOcutioa Record 



June 6, 1925 



■ L. li I N OIS 



CCLTVBAL ASSOCIA 



RECORO' 



Published every other Saturday by the Illinois Agricultural As- 

 sociation, 608 South Dearborn Street. Chicago, Illinois. Edited 

 by Department of Information, Harry C. Butcher. Director, 



Rnlered aa second cla«a matter Oct. 10. 1921, at the poaf offlee 

 at Chlcaro, Iliinola, under the act of March S, lITt, Aoeastanoe 

 for mailing at apecial ratea of postage provided for to Sectloa 

 nil. Act of October a. 1H7, authorlaed Oct. 11, 1»11. ^ 



The indlTldual membership fee of the Illinois Agrlcultnral As- 

 sociation Is flTe dollars a year. The fee Includes payment of 

 fifty eenta for supscrlptlon to the nilDols Agrloultural Asse- 

 ciatlon Racosa. 



Postmaster: In returning an uncalled-for or mlssent eopy, 

 please Indicate key number on address aa Is required by law. 



OFFICERS 

 President, S. H. Thompson, Qnlncy. 



I Vice-President, H. E. Ooembel, Hooppole. 

 Treasurer, R. A. Cowles, Bloomlngton. 



'Secretar7, Geo. A. Fox, Sycamore. 



EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 



I By Congressional Dlstrlcta 



11th I William Webb, Route One, Jotlet 



12th. 



13th.. 



14th., 



ISth.. 



1«th.. 



17th.. 



18th,. 



1«th,. 



20th.. 



21tt.. 



22 nd. 



23rd.. 



24th.. 



26th.. 



Q. F. Tullock, Rockford 

 ...C E. Bamborough, Polo 

 ,.W. H. Moody, Port Byron 



B. H. Taylor, Rapatoo 



A. R. Wright, Varna 



F. D. Barton, Cornall 



R. F. Karr, Iroquois 



J. L. Whisnand, Charlatton 



Earl C. Smith, Datrelt 



t Samuel Sorralla, Raymond 



Stanly Castis, Alton 



W. L. Cops, Salam 



..Curt Anderson, Xonia 

 R. K. Loomis, Makanda 



Directors of Departments 

 I. A. A. Office 



Gensral OfHcs and Assistant to Secretary, J. H. Kalkar; Or 

 ganlzatlon, Q. E. Metzger: Information, H. C. Butcher; Trana- 

 portation, L. J. Quasey; Taxation and Statistic*, J. C. Watson; 

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

 Leeper; Live Stock Marketing, Wm. E. Hedgcock; Dairy 

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

 In charge Poultry and Egg Marketing, F. A. Qougler; special 

 representative on Tuberculosis Eradication, M. H. Pstsrean; 

 Legal Counsel, Donald Kirkpatriek; Comparative Aoeoiwting, 

 Geo. R. Wicker. 



THE RECORD'S PLATFORM 

 Advance the purpose for which the Farm Bureau was organixed, 

 namely, to promote, protect and represent the business, economic, 

 social and educational interests of the farmers pf Illinois and the 

 nation, and to develop agriculture. 



Secretary Jar dine' a Visit 



HE friendly call of Secretary Jardine at the office 

 of the Illinois Agricultural Association is signifi- 



T 



cant. I 



Those who followed closely the strenuous fight to put 

 over the McNarj'-Haugen bill in the campaign a year 

 ago will retnember that the present Secretary of Agri- 

 culture wa^ verj- much against that particular move to 

 lift agriculture to the economic level of our neighbor 

 classes. 



The I. A- A. was in the front line trenches trying to 

 put the bill! over, and "Bill" Jardine was there trying 

 to keep it ifrom going over. 



There is Jio need of heckling and stewing over what 

 has been done; it is the present and future that con- 

 cerns us. Soth Secretarj- Jardine and the men on his 

 side of the fence and those on the side of the export 

 corporation principle agree that there are certain funda- 

 mental prinpiples which must be solved before agricul- 

 ture can be said to be on a satisfactory basLs. 



How to gelt to that basis is the big problem. President 

 Coolidge'.s Agricultural Conference said the big thing 

 to do is to ijiake the tariff apply to agriculture. Secre- 

 tarj- Jardine was a member of the Conference and is 

 understood lo subscribe to that idea. As Secretary of 

 Agriculture 'he has the opportunity of practicing what 

 he preachedj Making the tariff more effective will help 

 some, but ndt enough. 



In the meantime, he is on the way toward being the 

 most popula^ member of the Cabinet. That is a good 

 thing for agriculture. His personality is a winning one. 

 He made lufuiy friends in Chicago, as he does evCrj' 

 place he go*s. He told President Thompson that he 

 thinks Illin'ots fanners have a question mark after his 

 name. Granted, but it will disappear with the right per- 

 formance, ^ince both the Secretary and the I. A. A. 

 agree on thej basic premise that there is need of some 

 fundamental] patching to re-commission agriculture, 

 there is notnlng but good results to come from working 

 together. \ 



Work together, that's the team — we'll never get any- 

 where if we (Ion 't. It is better to be friends even though 

 there- may l^e some differences of opinion. As Ben 

 Franklin saij: "Tart words make no friends: a spoon- 

 ful of honey jwill catch more flies than a gallon of vine- 

 gar." 1 • I 



Poms It, Senator* ! 



PRACTICAtLY all agricultural states in the Middle 

 West and West have passed resolutions memorializ- 

 ing Congress to form an export corporation or do some- 

 thing along that line for agriculture. 



We are happy to report that the Illinois legislators 

 are also of that same mind. A resolution asking Con- 

 gress to provide an export bounty on wheat, com, hogs 

 and cattle and their by-products "in order to bring these 

 items of farmers' produce to a parity with the products 

 of industrial enterprise" was adopted recently by the 

 House. It was offered by Representative William 

 Adcock of Galesburg, and was approved by the House 

 , Committee on Agriculture. Senate approval is neces- 

 sary before the resolution becomes an official action of 

 the General Assembly. 



The farmers' fight to get equality is never out and 

 never over even though the price index shows agricul- 

 tural prices wofth 90 to 91 per cent of the other fel- 

 low "s. Such a big howl has been made over the farmers 

 regaining prosperity during the jump from a 75 cent 

 dollar to the present "90 center" that if farmers get 

 •back to normal we judge there'll be a prosperity yodel 

 from the metropolitan press loud enough to attract Mars. 



Pae* the Revenue Amendment 



IF the house passes the Lantz Joint Resolution No. 4, 

 as the Senate did recently, and if the people of Illinois 

 vote to accept this amendtoent to the revenue section 

 of the constitution, then Illinois will have a new and 

 up-to-date means of taxation. 



It will take a tremendous amount of work and support 

 to get the necessary votes to put the amendment across 

 with the people, for every voter who doesn't vote casts 

 a negative vote, and that's a tough proposition to over- 

 come. That task lies ahead. 



Anyway, the dope is that the Lantz resolution will 

 pass the House, as it should, and then it will be up to 

 good farm bureau members and others who see the light 

 to get the votes to put it over. 



The adoption of this amendment will give Illinois 

 a system of taxation that will make it possible to relieve 

 farm property of a portion of its unjust burden which 

 it now bears. Real estate can not be classified, and that 

 will meet with approval with farmers as it does with the 

 I. A. A. Mineral lands and lands devoted to reforesta- 

 tion are, and rightly so, permitted to be taxed differently 

 than other real estate. Farmers who own wooded land 

 and which is bearing a tax equal to that imposed on 

 good agricultural] land, will appreciate this much classi- 

 fication. I 



\\-'A Victory Won, Though Defeated 



BY the time this is read, the Cuthbertson gas tax bill 

 will have been defeated or at least shelved. That 

 is the dope. 



According to tpe legislative committee, which is, of 

 course, very close to the situation at Springfield, there is 

 but a bare possibility of the bill being passed at this 

 time. Too many Senators were pledged when elected to 

 oppose any gas tax, no matter what its purpose. Chi- 

 cago opposition, based on prejudice and not merit, is 

 largely responsible. At this writing, about 20 votes are 

 counted as favorable to it and the number needed is 26. 

 "Even though tli|e gas tax is defeated, there is a great 

 deal of recompense in the advance made in the principle 

 advocated by the Ij. A. A. The idea is pretty thoroughly 

 sold that whenever there is a gas tax, it shall take some 

 of the burden oft of property. Illinois farmers will 

 eventually benefit from this principle. If there had 

 not been so many gas tax bills of little value introduced 

 in the legislature kt the beginning of the session, there 

 would 'not have b^en so many hurdles of unpopularity 

 to overcome. If ^he I. A. A. had been given a start 

 with no.handicapj quite likely the result would have 

 been different. i 



No apologies are needed for the gas tax showing in 

 this session of the legislature. In the next session, the 

 I. A. A. position is likely to be defensive rather than 

 offensive for there will be a decided move< to get the gas 

 tax funds applied to hard roads — and with no reduction 

 of property tar— i 



A Little History. 



ACTIONS speak louder than words, especially when 

 words are carefully uttered. 



In the case of the Grain Marketing Company, the 

 $26,000,000 grain merger, the actions speak plainly to 

 those who have followed the unfolding of the gigantic 

 plan to unload millions of dollars worth of partially ob- 

 solete property upon farmers under the guise and label 

 of co-operative marketing. 



Follow the action : When Sam H. Thompson, our 

 president, was a member of the specially created grain 

 committee of the American Farm Bureau Federation, 

 a part of the information available on the then proposed 

 consolidation was withheld from him. Being a banker, 

 and also a farmer of good judgment, he knew |hat such 

 a business deal should not be consummated unless all 

 the facts on the amount and kind of business done by 

 the merging companies could be obtained. He stood pat 

 on this point and all the I. A. A. has backed him up. 



When the I. A. A. took its position of making an im- 

 partial investigation before saying yes or no on the deal, 

 the Grain Marketing Company was asked to furnish 

 independent auditor's reports on each of the merging 

 companies for each of the past five years. This informa- 

 tion was promised by the buying side of the Grain Mar- 

 keting Company. If it had been forthcoming, the I.A.A. 

 would have been able to determine the amount and kind 

 of business engaged in by each of the companies while 

 they were individual operators. This would have shown 

 whether profits came from speculation or from the mer- 

 chandising of actual grain. Such information would be 

 vital to the success of any co-operative. These facts were 

 not forthcoming. 



Follow the next step : When the I. A. A. asked the 

 Illinois Commerce Commission to conduct a public in- 

 quiry into the merger, the dates for the hearings were 

 continually postponed upon . request gf counsel of the 

 Grain Marketing Company. It should^ be made plain 

 here, too, that it was very evident that the counsel rep- 

 lesented the selling interest and not the buying interest. 

 After several postponements. Chairman Frank L. Smith 

 requested that a stipulation be entered into by the Grain , 

 Marketing Company and the Illinois Agricultural Asso- 

 ciation that no stock be sold in Illinois pending the suc- 

 cessful or unsuccessful closing of the deal July 28. 

 Chairman Smith had said that either a stipulation 

 should be agreed upon or the hearing would go forward. 

 A hearing would have brought out some interesting 

 facts regarding actual values of the merged facilities. 



All the way through the selling side of the Grain 

 Marketing Company has refused to come out in the open 

 with the facts. And at the same time they say they 

 have nothing to conceal. Thus actions speak louder 

 than words. 



This history illustrates in a negative way the neces- 

 sity for absolute, frankness in forming a co-operative 

 association. All the members should know what is go- 

 going on and why. 



The Drama Goes On 



SECRETAR'X' JARDINE is going after the Board of 

 Trade trying to get it to control its wide and rapid 

 price fluctuations. He told the directors of the board 

 while he was in Chicago that it is up to them to remedj' 

 their own disease. 



He called fluctuations of 15 cents in one day entirely 

 unreasonable. Farmers everywhere can be heard saying 

 "Amen" to this. 



"It is such evidences of gambling that makes the 

 public think the Board of Trade is a damn nuisance," 

 he is quoted as saying. Amen again. 



The next act of this drama will likely be accompanied 

 with a general shifting of the scenery as a move to com- 

 ply with the Secretar.v's suggestions. If it is nothing 

 more than a gesture, it is to be hoped that the Secretary 

 will take proper steps within his province to segregate 

 and put the brakes on actual speculation. Here is a 

 place where agriculture can be served to great advan- 

 tage for every rapid change in price catches some farmer 

 or group of farmers. 



V 



