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EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 



(By Congressional Districts) 



1st to 11th H. C Vtal, Downers Gro»e 



12th G. F. TuUock, Rockford 



13th C. E. Bamborough, Polo 



14th W. H. Moody, Port Byron 



15th A. M. Skinner, Yates City 



16th ■. A. R. Wright , Varna 



17th .....Geo. J. StoU, Chestnut 



18th R. F. Karr. Iroquois 



19th J. L. Whisnand, Charleston 



20th Charles Borgelt. Havana 



21st Samuel SorrelJs, Raymond 



22nd Frank Oexncr. Waterloo 



ZJrd W. L. Cope, Salem 



24th Charles Marshall. Bellcnap 



2Sth Fred Dieti, De Sota 



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OFFICERS , 



President, Earl C. &aiith Detroit 



Vice-President, Frank D. Barton Cornell 



Treasurer. R. A. Cowle* Blootninston 



Secretary, Geo. A. Fox Sycamore 



1 LiLilNOIS 



CCLTUBAL ASSOCIA 



RECORiy 



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To advance the purpose for which the farm bureau was orgart' 

 ixed, rutmely to promote, protect and represent the business, 

 economic, social and educational interests of the farmers of 

 Illinois and the nation, and to develope agriculture. 



DIRECTORS OF DEPARTMENTS 



Business Service V. Vaniman 



Co-operating Accounting Geo. R. Wicker 



Dairy Marketing A. D. Lynch 



Farm Supply J. R. Bent 



Finance R. A. Cowles 



Fruit and Vegetable Marketing A. B. Leeper 



General 0£Fice J. H. Kelker 



Information E. G. Thiam 



Legal Counsel Donald Kirkpatrick 



Live Stock Marketing ^.^ Wm. E. Hedgoock 



Organization T. G. E. Metzger 



Poultry and Egg Marketing F. A. Gougler 



Taxation and Statistics J. C WatsCHi 



Transportation L. J. Quasey 



Published once a month at 404 North Wesley Ave.. Mount Morris, niinois, by the Illinois Agricultural Association Edited by Department of Information, E. G. Thiem. Director, 608 South Dearborn Street. 

 Chicago, lUinois. Entered as second-class matter October 20. 1925, at the post office at Mount Morris Illinois under the Act of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailinK at special rate of postage provided for in Section 

 412, Act of February 28. 1925. authorized October 27. 1925. The individual membership fre of the Illinois Agricultural Association is five dollars a year. The fee includes payment of fifty cenU for subscription to the 

 Illinois AoaicuL-ruBAi. Asbociatiom Rkcoro. Postmaster: In returning an uncalled (or or roissent copy, please indicate key number on address as is required by law. 



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i Government Price Fixing 



TI:E current issue of Dun's Review has the fol- 

 1< iwing to say on recent trends in the steel indus- 

 try: "That competition for business is keen in 

 some lines is shown by is^'-t^M price concessions, 

 yet the price situat'"., biiiadl.v \ i. \ is firmer than 

 was the . ' i i"- r ■ year. Meanwhile basis 

 pijr '! ■'^-;..V| >y turi.-ce, has been advanced 50 cents 

 a 1 , • Ion maxes a rise of $1 a ton in that grade 

 .<!u. >j the middle of March." 



As a matter of fact the price of pig iron jumped 

 .50 c(nts a ton within a few days after President 

 Coolidge raised the tariff 50 per cent on this corn- 

 modi y. Simultaneously, common stock of the Steel 

 Corporation began a steady rise. On April 1, Chi- 

 cago newspapers heralded this fact in headlines as 

 folios rs: ("STEEL COMMON LEADS STOCKS 

 TO K IGHER LEVELS") "The United States Steel, 

 common's impressive strength was the feature of 

 the stock market today. Rising to a new record 

 of 16 71/2 and ending the day at 167 for a net gain 

 of 21/8 points, its leadership enabled the market to 

 give a good account of itself. The consistent 

 strength of this stock doubtless in anticipation of 

 the annual meeting on April 17 has brought strong 

 repoits of the possibility of an extra dividend on 

 the o d steel shares before stockholders are called to 

 vote on the 40 per cent stock dividend." 



Now pig iron has advanced another 50 cents. It 

 must be comforting for officials of the U. S. Steel 

 Corporation to know that they can go down to 

 Washington whenever they choose and secure the 

 aid of a benevolent (to industry) administration in 

 fixinj; prices so they can make a profit. The steel 

 price situation n;ay be "firmer than earlier in the 

 year, ' Mr. President, but the agricultural index is 

 still at 80. 



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both 



ably 



and 



accoiti 



to thje 



slaug 



aside 



Thb 

 our 

 state 

 $231, 

 istrat 

 Total 

 March 

 free 

 tion 



It 

 of 



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 time 



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Afore Advice 



IN a speech recently delivered before a group of 

 farmers and townspeople at Sidell, 111., Presi- 

 dent T. C. Powell of the C. and E. I. R. R. told the 

 farmers that the only way to solve their problem 

 is to do as the railroads have done. 



"There is a close analogy between the problem of 

 the farn^er and the problem of the railroad," said 

 the speaker, "because both are dependent upon vari- 

 ous and fluctuating demands, and upon uncontroll- 

 able competition, and upon the weather. 



"But the railroads attack the problems at the 

 source, because being forced to deliver a certain 

 produce, namely transportation, at a price fixed by 

 public authorities, and therefore beyond their con- 

 trol, the railroads must start with this factor of 

 delivered price and work back to the origin of all 

 products: namely, the human factor, represented 

 by labor and intelligent administration. 



"The application of this principle to farming and 

 the adoiition of intensified cultural methods, di- 

 rected toward the production of diversified items in 

 marketable quantities, is, in my opinion, the only 

 way to solve the farm problem." 



We presume all this means that the farmer isn't 

 efficient; that if he could make two blades of grass 

 grow where one grew before he would be prosper- 

 ous. As an analyst of the farm problem, Mr. Pow- 

 ell (or his speech writer) is a good railroad man. 

 The analogy between the farmer and railroads 

 doesn't hold good because the railroads have a guar- 

 antee of prices for their product, transportation, 

 from the Interstate Commerce Commission. They 

 are furtlier protected to a large extent from cut- 

 throat competition by the same body. The Com- 

 mission ixes freight and passenger rates to enable 

 the railroads to earn 5% per cent interest on their 

 investments. It is true that not all of the carriers 

 do this ^ve\\. Some do better. 



Finishing The Job 



LLjINOIS has been engaged in a great war to 



drive tuberculosis, the most dreaded plague of 



man and beast, out of the state. It has prob- 



spent upwards of $10,000,000 of both state 



:ederal funds in the last eight or ten years to 



plish this end for livestock alone. The cost 



farmer and herd owner whose cattle were 



slaugjhtered aggregates many times this amount 



from what he received in indemnities. 



battle is not won yet although more than half 



ctttle are tested. Since July 1, 1925, alone, the 



has paid $980,511.78 of its own claims and 



575.37 of federal claims. Expenses of admin- 



istrallion during that time amounted to $133,828.05. 



claims and expenses paid and pending on 



1, 1927, aggregated $1,462,790.20 leaving a 



' )alance of the $2,000,000 biennium appropria- 



$573,209.80. 



well that the state is committed to the task 

 finishing this most important work. It would 

 xpedited to the advantage of all if the needed 

 ind money were budgeted, the necessary ap- 

 propriations made, and all efforts centered on finish- 

 ing the job in a definite period of time. It can be 

 done. 



Mr. PoweH tells us that farmers must do as the 

 railroads have done to solve their problem. If they 

 followed his advice, farmers would demand that 

 Congress fix minimum prices'on farm products, and 

 limit competition so they could earn a fair rate of 

 interest on their investment. The realization of 

 such benevolence, even were it possible, is far be- 

 yond the expectation of the most sanguine of us. 



We Succeed By Trying 



THE numerous reductions in farm land valua- 

 tions for tax purposes over Illinois is a further 

 tribute to the value of organization. In nearly 

 every case^ these reductions come following the ap- 

 pearance of farm bureau tax committees before the 

 county assessors and boards of review with facts 

 and figures showing that farm lands were discrim- 

 inated against. The very fact that prior to 1920 

 there was a marked discrepancy in most of the 

 counties over the state between urban and rural 

 valuations, to the disadvantage of the latter, is 

 proof enough of the farmers' need for represprifq- 

 tion. Before the farm bureaus and the I. .A 

 were organized no agency was doing this woin. for 

 him. He wasn't around when the taxes were levied. 

 Occasionally a farmer got on the county board of 

 review. But then he was usually in the minority, 

 and granting that he knew about inequalities in 

 tax matters, he had no organization behind him to 

 get a hearing. 



For seven years, the I. A. A. has fought for equal- 

 ity in taxation. During that time taxes may have 

 gone higher but at least the farmer has seen other 

 interests pay more nearly their share of the cost 

 of government. The work is not done yet. It will 

 not be done so long as there is tax dodging and con- 

 trol of boards of review and assessors by corpora- 

 tions and moneyed interests. Another way to help 

 this whole situation is for farmers to use their in- 

 fluence in placing men on county boards of review 

 who will represent them. 



RADIO STATION WJJD AT MOOSEHEAKT 



I Why The Strong Butter Market? 



FARMERS who sold their cream in March this 

 year sold their butter fat on the basis of a but- 

 ter market which averaged 49.4 cents. This is a 

 new record for March since war time. Consider- 

 ing the scarcity of butter, retail prices have not been 

 exorbitant. Consumers have not paid more than 

 58 or 60 cents for butter. Oleo put the brakes on 

 too high a retail price, says Art Lynch, our dairy 

 marketing director. 



But what brought about the strong market? 

 Nothing more nor less than the fact that the stor- 

 age holdings of March 1, 1927, set a new low record 

 for 12 years. As a result farmers have been get- 

 ting eight cents more per pound for butter fat than 

 last year. This is one of the clearest illustrations 

 of what surplus control as provided in the McNary- 

 Haugen bill can do for the farmer. The small 

 ,' amount of butter in storage a year ago — some 26,- 

 000,000 pounds — could have been given away or 

 dumped into the ocean without notice while the one 

 billion or more pounds that went into consumptive 

 channels brought five or ten cents a pound more. 





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