Page Eight 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



THI 



I LiLiIIMOIS 



CCLTVRAL ASSOCIA 



RECORO 



Ta mdomne* thm parpot* for which th» Farm Bureau warn organized, 

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

 poiiticai, arid educational interemtt of the farmere of fllinoie and the 

 nation, and to develop agriculture, 



PnbUshed once a month at 404 North Wesley Ave., Mount Morris, 

 Illinois, by the Illinois AKricaltoxal Association. Edited by Department 

 of Information, E. G. Thiem, Director, 608 South Dearborn Street, 

 Chieaso, Illinois. Entered aa second-class matter October 20, 1926, at 

 the post office at Mount Morris, Illinois, under the Act of March S, 1879. 

 Accepted for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Sec- 

 tion 412. Act of February 28. 192S, authorized October 27, 1925. The 

 individual membership fee of the Illinois Agricultural Association is 

 five dollars a year. The fee includes payment of fifty cents for sub- 

 scription to the Illinois AomcuLTintAL Association Rbcord. Post- 

 master: In returning an uncalled for or missent copy please indicate 

 key number on address as is required by law. 



OFFICERS 



President, Earl C. Smith Detroit 



Vice-President, Frank D. Barton Cornell 



Treasurer, R, A. Cowles Blootnington 



EXECUTIVB COMMITTEE 



(By Consreasiotial District*) 



1st to 11th H. C. Vial, Downers Grove 



I2th G. F. Tullock, Rockford 



13th C. E. Bamboroush, Polo 



I4th , M. G. Lambert, Ferris 



ISth A. N, Skinner, Yates City 



16th A. R. Wright, Varna 



17th Geo. J. Stoll, Chestnut 



18th R.F. Karr, Iroquois 



l»th , J. L. Whisnand, Charleston 



10th Charles S, Black, Jacksonville 



21st ,1 Samuel Sorrells, Raymond 



12nd Frank Oexner, Waterloo 



13rd W. L. Cope, Salem 



14th Charles Marshall, Belknap 



2Sth .' Fred Dietz, De Soto 



DIRECTORS OF DEPARTMENTS 



Business Service Geo. R. Wicker 



Dairy Marketing 4 A. D. Lynch 



Limestone-Phosphate J. R. Bent 



Finance R. A. Cowles 



Fruit and Vegetable Marketing A. B. Leeper 



GeneralOtTice J. H. Kelker 



Information E.G. Thiem 



Insurance Service , V. Vaniman 



Legal Counsel Donald Kirkpatrick 



Live Stock Marketing Ray E. Miller 



Ch^anization ', G. £. Metzger 



Poultry and Egg Marketing' F. A. Gougler 



Taxation and Statistics ', J. C. Watson 



Transportation L, J. Quasey 



The Corn Belt Uprising 



SEVERAL months ago, administration leaders were 

 consoling themselves with statements to the effect 

 that the cry from the West for equality for agriculture 

 emanated from a small group of orgranization and politi- 

 cal leaders. Secretary Jardine told New York business 

 men a year ago when speaking of the Corn Belt agitation 

 that "a small pack of wolves could make a lot of noise," 

 President Coolidge has been assured by his advisers from 

 time to time that the farmers are not for the McNary- 

 Haugen type of farm relief, that the fight for the bill is 

 being made by only a handful of men for political pur- 

 poses. 



Overnight, it seems that the Corn Belt picture to the 

 down-easterners has changed. Farmers' mass meetings at 

 Clinton, Iowa, Springfield, Galesburg, DeKalb, Champaign, 

 and Taylorville, Illinois, and at other points in adjoining 

 states have awakened the country to the fact that the 

 West is in earnest. 



Farmers are patient and long-suffering. But the Presi- 

 dent spilled the beans in his ill-conceived, bitter denuncia- 

 tion of the farmers' request for equal opportunity legis- 

 lation. The resentment it a»oused was to be expected. 

 These uprisings merely reveal what has been ^apparent 

 for years to those who know the true situation. 



Judging from the sentiment expressed at these mass 

 meetings, it would not be surprising to see a coalition, bi- 

 partisan ticket placed in the field that the South and West 

 would support unless the major parties nominate men 

 acceptable to the voters of these great sections. The Mid- 



dle West has no hope of getting a square deal from Cool- 

 idge or Hoover. These men undoubtedly are dominated 

 by the selfish industrial interests of the East and by the 

 exchanges and dealers handling farmers' products. What 

 the Republican Party does at Kansas City this week may 

 determine to a large extent its future power and influence 

 in the section of its birth. 



The Tail Wags the Dog 



HOW the populous industrial east, comprising a very 

 small area of the United States but with a native 

 son in the strategic position of chief executive, dictated the 

 agricultural policy of the nation for a period of five years, 

 will go down in history as one of the ironies of a so-called 

 democratic form of government.- 



Even a casual observer of the map on page 7 is struck 

 at once with this great truth. Never have we had a more 

 vivid example of how the tail may wag the dog. It 

 causes us to wonder whether we actually have a govern- 

 ment of the people, by the people, and for the people that 

 Lincoln dwelled upon in his Gettysburg address. 



Such an unwarranted encroachment by the executive on 

 the legislative branch of the government as we have seen 

 in the two McNary-Haugen vetoes never was contemplated 

 by the framers of our constitution. Nor did they assume 

 when they provided for a supreme court that the executive 

 and a cabinet member would usurp the function of pass- 

 ing upon the constitutionality of measures. 



To do anything effective for agriculture in a national 

 way is a bold undertaking. Shortly before his death. Presi- 

 dent Wilson lamented the fact that the agricultural prob- 

 lem was still unsolved. He admitted it was the greatest 

 of all and the most difficult of solution. We have heard 

 expressions of admiration for the "courage" President 

 Coolidge showed in using his veto power. This is super- 

 ficial reasoning. It requires much more courage to launch 

 an untried plan, such as was embodied in the farm sur- 

 plus bill, than to do nothing. It is deplorable that the 

 President passed up a great opportunity. His administra- 

 tion has not been barren of useful works. But on the 

 great national issue of bringring about equality for agricul- 

 ture it has failed almost completely. 



Farming As Is 



STRAWBERRIES are rotting on the ground in South- 

 ern Illinois for want of a market says A. B. Leeper, 

 manager of the Illinois Fruit Growers' Exchange. At 

 11.75 a crate, less than 8 cents a box, the growers can not 

 afford to pay for picking, packing, and the freight to mar- 

 ket. 



Large shipments of berries from Kentucky and Missouri 

 and the fact that there was no market Decoration Day 

 combined to bring about a glut on all markets. We are 

 told that holidays cost the fruit and vegetable growers of 

 America hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. 



The producer of perishables is continually faced with the 

 hazard of unprofitable prices in a season of flush produc- 

 tion. Canning plants are reducing this hazard in many 

 communities, but in others the possibility is ever present. 

 The biggest single item of expense in marketing is freight 

 which for years has increased steadily, along with other 

 fixed charges. 



Theoretically, co-operative marketing might solve this 

 problem if the growers over the country were closely or- 

 ganized so as to feed the market only what it could con- 

 sume at profitable prices to the producers. Practically 

 there is little hope for such a Utopia with the producing 

 (Continued on page 11) 



W. 



