CUL.TU 



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7^1 JO A4IS- 



i-Vaa,; 





Volume 5 



Issued Every Month for 63,000 Thinking Farmers — March, 1927 



No. 3 



"THE ISSUE WILL NOT DOWN," IS WEST'S REPLY TO COOUDGE VETO 



AUTO INSURANCE GOES INTO FORCE APRIL 1 



J. P. Gibson, Jr. 

 Employed To Direct 

 Affairs Of Company 



Goal In Sight As Counties 

 Put In Last Licks For Quotas 



ALL auto insurance policies in the 

 Illinois Agricultural Mutual 

 Insurance Company will go into 

 force April 1 when the nc«r mutual 

 is officially launched. 



This decision by the directors fol- 

 lowed insistent demands from over 

 ' the state that the company start 

 functioning at an early date. With 

 the announcement came the pre- 

 diction by Vernon Vaniman, pro- 

 motional manager, that between 

 3500 and 5000 policies would be in 

 by April 1 so as to insure the suc- 

 cessful inauguration of the new 

 ser-.-ice to members of the I. A. A. 



New Man Employed 



J. P. Gibson, Jr., of the Security 

 Mutual Casualty Co., Chicago, who 

 has been identified with various in- 



surance organiza- 



^^^^^^ tions since h i s 



^^^^^Plty graduation from 



^ ^ Beloit College in 



^^■^^ 1917, was em- 



^^^^ViPk f ployed at the last 



^^^^H^ directors' meet- 



^^^^^\ ing to take 



^^^^Kk^. charge of the of- 



^^^^^E^ fice work con- 



^^H^^F ^^ nected with the 



^^ft A ^^^ new mutual. V. 



^^^ Vaniman will 



J. P. Gibson, Jr. continue as field 



director. 

 Mr. Gibson was bom in 1896 and 

 reared in Wisconsin. At Beloit Col- 

 lege he made Phi Beta Kappa and 

 secured his B. A. degree just prior 

 to enlisting in the Navy from which 

 he was released as Ensign in March, 

 1919. Then followed two years' 

 service with the Federal Mutual 

 Liability Insurance Co. of Boston, 

 Mass., a similar period with a Rock- 

 ford, Illinois, real estate firm as in- 

 surance agent, during which he 

 passed the Casualty Actuarial ex- 

 aminations, and since 1923 Gibson 

 has been identified with the Security 

 Mutual Co., as actuary and in 

 charge of the reinsurance depart- 

 ment. He married the daughter of 

 Circuit Judge A. E. Fisher of Rock- 

 ford, in 1926. 



Winnebago in Lead 



Winnebago county was still in the 

 lead with the most policies signed 

 at time of going to press. With 

 more than 240 applications signed 

 this county had 146 per cent of her 

 quota. Quota equals 20 per cent of 

 the farm bureau members in the 

 county. La Salle county members 

 turned in 154 applications on Feb. 

 28, which equals 78 per cent of her 

 quota. 



The plan of writing a "no value 

 policy" and paying the actual value 

 of the car at the time of the loss 

 by fire or theft is meeting with gen- 

 erl approval, according to Vaniman. 



"The county farm bureaus are 

 now beginning to feel that building 

 a strong company is a matter of 

 loyalty," he says. "It is a question 

 of each farm bureau doing its part 

 to make the new mutual a success." 



Wisdom of I. A. A. In 

 Opposing Grain Co. 

 Upheld In Decision 



Armour Grain Co. Charged 

 With Falsifying Records 

 and Changing Grain Sam- 

 ples 



O CourKwy Sorippa-Howkrd Papen 



MORE light was shed on the 

 $26,000,000 lemon known as 

 the Grain Marketing Co., offered 

 farmers by the large terminal ware- 

 house operators two years ago, by 

 the recent finding of E. E. Brown, 

 arbitrator that the Armour Grain 

 Co. had fraudulently changed rec- 

 ords and grain samples in an at- 

 tempt to swindle the company out 

 of approximately $3,000,000. 



This finding coming soon after 

 the charge and investigation involv- 

 ing the Armour Co. for the alleged 

 dumping of screenings into rye has 

 shaken the Board of Trade and the 

 entire grain business to its very 

 foundations. 



Condemned It 



At the time Grain Marketing Co. 

 stock was offered farmers and 

 farmer elevators of Illinois by John 

 Coverdale, Gray Silver and others, 

 the Illinois Agricultural Association 

 investigated the company and ad- 

 vised its members against invest- 

 ing money in the doubtful venture. 

 Sam Thompson, then president of 

 the I. A. A. and a director in the 

 American Farm Bureau Federation 

 stood out against the federation's 

 endorsement of the proposal. As a 

 result of the combined opposition 

 of the I. A. A. and Prairie Farmer 

 in Illinois, and the Indiana Farm 

 Bureau in Indiana, the stock sale 

 fell flat and the new so-called farm- 

 er's cooperative remained in the 

 hands of the Armour Grain Co., the 



Put Winnebago Over 



14,000 Word Message Of President Blindly 

 Rehashes Old Arguments Previously Answered 

 InBoth House and Senate Debate On FarmBills 



Executive Committee of 22 Retaliates With Broadside 

 Against 14 Points of Presidential Document Pointing Out 

 Its Weaknesses and False Assumptions I " 



A DISTINCT but undemonstrative wavt of indignation 

 swept over the great agricultural west following Presi- 

 dent Coolidge's veto of the McNary-Haugen bill on Friday, 

 Feb. 25. Almost simultaneously his signature was given to 

 the branch banking bill gi\ing the federal reserve system 

 perpetual existence in the law and promoting centralized 

 banking. And the same day the tariff was raised on pig 

 iron to the limit. 



In the opinion of careful observers, no series of acts 

 could more clearly illustrate how firmly entrenched is big 

 business and the industrial East in the good graces of the 

 administration, and how indifferent is the same administra- 

 tion to the needs of the farmer. 



The 14,000 word apology for vetoing the McNarj-- 



=^ Haugen bill raises a great many 



false issues, sets up imaginary evils 

 and harmful influences credited to 

 the proposed legislation, and calls 

 it class legislation. 



The Executive Committee of 22, 

 in an 8000 word 'reply to the veto 

 message, has the following to say : 



"The President holds the bill to 

 be unconstitutional, but his other ob- 

 jections are so numerous that the 

 question of constitutionality can be 

 waived in considering his message. 

 He makes it clear that he would not 

 have approved the bill even if its 

 validity under the Constitution were 

 beyond question. In passing, how- 

 ever, it may be observed that the 

 President is no better constitutional 

 authority than many Members of 

 the Senate and House who supported, 

 the measure. It is the function of 

 the court to decide this point, al- 

 though the veto prevents a test at 

 this time. 



Replies to Veto 



Homer Hitcbcock 



When the Winnebago County 

 Farm Bureau decided to take on the 

 new mutual auto insurance project, 

 the executive committee gave the 

 job of selling policies to gain its 

 quota, to Homer Hitchcock, one of 

 their own number. Hitchcock farms 

 near Pecatonica, but he is at his 

 best explaining the intricacies of 

 an insurance policy. Winnebago 

 turned in 220 policies in short order, 

 and Hitchcock is responsible for 

 most of them. 



Rosenbaum Grain Corp., and Rosen- 

 baum Brothers. 



Half of the Grain Marketing 

 Company stock is owned by the 

 Armour Grain Co., and the rest dis- 

 tributed between the Rosenbaum 

 Grain Corp., Rosenbaum Brothers; 

 and smaller holders. The failure of 



The President's veto of the 

 McNary-Haugen Bill is a repu- 

 diation of the platform upon 

 which he was elected which 

 promised the farmers of 

 America legislation necessary 

 to give them economic equal- 

 ity, and which would safe- 

 guard the future of our basic 

 industry, "American Agricul- 

 ture." The principles upon 

 which this legislation is 

 founded have many precedents 

 and will continue to gain in 

 favor as in the past. 



Regardless of the attitude 

 of any individuals, a majority 

 of the American people can be 

 depended upon to rally in sup- 

 port of any sound program 

 when its justice and fairness is 

 understood. 



In the meantime, the Presi- 

 dent and his advisors carr>' 

 full responsibility for the de- 

 lay in restoring agriculture to 

 its rightful position in our 

 National life. 



the company with a loss of approxi- 

 mately $2,400,000 is charged en- 

 tirely to the Armour Grain Co. 

 which delivered low grade wheat on 

 purchases when orders called for 

 higher grades. 



George E. Marcy, chairman of 

 the board of directors of the Arm- 

 our Co., and George Thompson, 

 superintendent in charge of eleva- 

 tors have both resigned leaving only 

 John Kellogg, president as a re- 1 

 maining officer. Testimony by 

 Frank Crombie, superintendent of j 

 the Northwestern elevator who told | 

 how the grain samples were switched 

 to falsify grades was mainly respon- 

 sible for the decision by Brown ask- 

 ing the Armour Co. to pay the Mar- 

 keting Company $3,000,000. j 



What of the Tariff? 



It it difficult to understand how such sn 

 advocate of the hiirh protective tariff as 

 the President can employ some of the 

 arguments that appear in the mesace. He 

 says : 



"The bill sinRlen out a few produrtu 

 chiefly sectional and proposes to raise the 

 prices of those regardless of the fact that 

 thousands of others • * • would be di- 

 rectly penaliied." 



Airain: 



"The so-called equalization fee is not a 

 tax for purposes of revenue in the ac> 

 cepted sense. It is a tjut for the special 

 benefit of particular Kroup». * * * Its real 

 efert is .an emploirment of the coercive 

 powers of novemment to the end that cer- 

 tain special frroups * * * may profit tem- 

 porarily at the expense of * * * * the 

 community at lance." 



Aeaio: 



"The bill would impose the burden of its 

 support to a larire degree upon those who 

 would not benefit by it." 



Again: 



"It runs counter to the well-cronsidered 

 principle that a healthy economic con- 

 dition is best maintained thronrh a free 

 play of competition." 



Surely the President recognizes that 

 every word above quoted is fully as 

 strong an argument against the protec- 

 tive tariff as against the McNary-Haugen 

 bill. 



The surprising khing aboat the message 

 is that it offers no reasons against the bill 

 that were not used by partisan and emhit* 

 tered opponents on the floor of Senate rtr 

 House and answt-red to the satisfaction of 

 a majority of both parties in each body. 

 In fact, most of the massage is substan- 

 tially ide&tioal with parts of apeechea 



