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THE I. A. A. RECORD 



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Page Seven 



Eighty farm bureaus are now writ- 

 ing auto insurance in the Illinois Agfri- 

 cultural Mutual. Applications totaling 

 3570 were in the office the first week 

 in May. Ten thousand applications by 

 Aug. 1 is the goal of V. Vaniman in 

 charge of promotional work. 



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Farm crop hail insurance signed up 

 to date totals $62,000. The goal set 

 by the Farmers Mutual Reinsurance 

 Co. for the season is $4,000,000. 



Fruit and garden truck hail insur- 

 ance written the first of May amount- 

 ed to $264,700. Cancellations due to 

 frost totaled $45,000, leaving a net of 

 $219,700. 



The Illinois Farm Supply Co., has 

 already handled 18 cars of kerosene, 

 13 cars of gasoline, and six cars of 

 lubricating oils, besides miscellaneous 

 supplies and equipment. The company 

 was incorporated Mar. 7, 1927, under 

 the cooperative marketing act of 

 1923. Officers are M. G. Van Buskirk, 

 president; G. F. TuUock, vice-presi- 

 dent; A. R. Wright, secretary, and R. 

 A. Cowles, treasurer. The Board of 

 Directors includes the president, vice- 

 president, secretary, and E. D. Law- 

 rence, M. G. Lambert, W. A. Dermis, 

 L. R. Marchant, Harry Jewell and 

 Sam Sorrells. Membership contracts 

 are now being received from the local 

 farm bureau oil companies about the 

 state. , .V ■■ --^ :i. 



Twenty-one limestone quarry com- 

 panies have signed agreements with 

 the I. A. A. providing a 10c per ton 

 discount to all farm bureau members. 

 Phosphate companies will continue to 

 operate under an agreement similar to 

 that of last year. Shipments of phos- 

 phate so far this year have been slight- 

 ly heavier than in 1925 and 1926. 



Higher limits of coverage tor public 

 liability damage will probably be made 

 available soon to auto owners by the 

 Illinois Agricultural Mutual Insurance 

 Co., at small additional cost. Reinsur- 

 ance in larger companies makes these 

 higher limits possible without jeopar- 

 dizing the success of the company. 



The I. A. A. auto insurance company 

 placed 2939 policies ip force during 

 April. Premium deposits during the 

 month amounted to $29,520; policy 

 fees $14,685; surplus shares $34,990. 

 Premiums earned against which losses 

 and expenses for the month may be 

 charged were $4,382. 

 . Twenty-three claims were reported 

 with losses incurred of $1,357.56, or a 

 loss ratio of 31 per cent. Fifteen 

 claims came under collisions, five un- 

 der property damage and one each un- 

 der public liability, and fire and theft. 



Communitj/ High Schools and Taxes 



TOWNSHIP and community high 

 schools in Illinois increased from 84 

 in 1923 to 495 in 1924. During the 

 same period the enrollment and cur- 

 rent expenditures of these schools in- 

 creased 425 and 800 per cent respec- 

 tively. In 1923, the rural districts in- 

 cluded in 210 townships and commun- 

 ity high school districts, comprised 37.- 

 68 per cent of the school population, 

 furnished 30.41 per cent of the high 

 school enrollment, paid 56.44 per cent 

 of the high school taxes, and received 

 only 22.28 per ceht of the estimated 

 net income of the people in the dis- 

 tricts. This is the striking informa- 

 tion revealed in a study entitled, "The 

 Distribution of the Tax Burden of 

 Township and Community High Schools 

 in Illinois," by Carl Althaus, now as- 

 sistant professor in the University of 

 Kansas who completed an exhaustive 

 investigation under commission from 

 the Educational Committee of the L 

 A. A. in 1923. : Vv: Vv 



Area Varies 

 The area of the 210 districts on 

 which the study is based ranged from 

 12 to 120 square miles, the average 

 being 49 square miles. In the study 

 the common school district in which 

 the high school building is located is 

 considered urban, and the remainder of 

 the territory is considered rural. The 

 chief motive for combining the rural 

 and urban districts for high school pur- 

 poses was the financial motive. In over 

 half of the 210 township and com- 

 munity high school districts the urban 

 districts contained a potential major- 

 ity of the legal voters of the proposed 

 districts. Thus it was possible under 

 the laws which required a favorable 



majority vote for the urban districts 

 to vote the rural districts into the 

 high school districts even if the rural 

 people wer^ opposed to being included 

 in a township or comunity high school 

 district. 



Property subject to taxation in Illi- 

 nois can be classified into four classes: 

 lands, village and city lots, personal 

 property, and railroad property. In 

 1923, 46.64 per cent of the total tax 

 burden of township and community 

 high schools was placed on lands while 

 lots, personal property, and railroad 

 property carried 22.51, 19.05 and 11.80 

 per cent respectively. 



Taxed Unequally 



"From these data it appears that 

 the rural districts are taxed out of 

 proportion to the benefits they receive, 

 or their ability to pay," stated Althaus 

 in summarizing his study. "The dis- 

 proportionate distribution is more 

 marked in some districts than others, 

 yet the conditions are so general that 

 it appears that the general property 

 tax which operates in all the districts 

 is the cause for the conditions revealed 

 by this study. The general property 

 tax in Illinois has actually broken down 

 for it causes inequalities between ter- 

 ritories, types of property, size . of 

 property and classes of people." The 

 author has submitted his stjjdy for a 

 doctor's degree at the University of 

 Chicago. The 100 page book embody- 

 ing the study complete with charts and 

 figures is just oflF the press. Its price 

 is $1.00 each. Copies may be had by 

 writing the Illinois Agricultural 'Asso- 

 ciation, 608 So. Dearborn St., Chi- 

 cago, enclosing clieck. 



Culp and Hlgglns Hired 



AB. CULP of Woodford county 

 • and F. M. Higgins of LaSalle 

 county have been employed as assistant 

 directors of organization for districts 

 five and six under the new organization 

 plan adopted by the Association. Mr. 

 Culp, who started work May 1, will 

 have direct charge of membership 

 work in the counties of McLean, De- 

 Witt, Logan, Menard, Sangamon, 

 Mason, Piatt, Champaign, Vermillion, 

 and Douglas. 



Mr. Culp is a charter member of the 

 Woodford County Farm Bureau. He 

 started soliciting for the I. A. A. in 

 1919 and has been at it almost contin- 

 uously since then. He will make 

 Champaign his headquarters where his 

 son will enter the University of Illi- 

 nois. 



F. M. Higgins of LaSalle county is 

 a journalist-farmer with 20 years of 

 newspaper experience, and a consider- 

 able career of farming back of him. 

 Higgins became active in farm bureau 

 work early in the history of the or- 

 ganization. Following the death of his 

 wife in 1918 he returned to his LaSalle 

 county farm to live with his daughter 



and son-in-law. He joined the LaSalle 

 County Farm Bureau in June, 1918, 

 where he has been a staunch supporter 

 continuously since that time. In 1922 

 he started out as a special solicitor for 

 the I. A. A. His knowledge of the 

 farm bureau and his firm personal con- 

 •vittions of the need for a powerful 

 farm organization led to his success 

 wherever he went. In the spring of 

 1924, Higgins left for Nebraska where 

 he spent a year in charge of organiza- 

 tion work for the Nebraska Farm Bu- 

 reau Federation. j 



He will have direct; charge of or- 

 g^ization work in the counties of 

 Christian, Shelby, Moultrie, Coles, 

 Edgar, Cumberland, Effingham, Clay, 

 Jasper, Richland, Lawrence, Crawford, 

 arid Clark. His headquarters will 

 probably be Mattoon. .,, 



Sixty-seven out of 86 counties whose 

 membership expired in the past year 

 have been reorganized with a substan- 

 tial increase in membership in many 

 counties. Losses were sustained in the 

 Chicago dairy district. The counties 

 of Clay, Clinton, Cumberland, Galla- 

 tin, Iroquois, Pope, and Wayne will 

 renew their memberships in 1927. 



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