fage Six 



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THE 1. A. A. RECORD 



I Li 1j I N Ql S 



RECORD^ 



To advance thm purpow* for which the Fefrm Bureau wae organized, 

 namely to promote protect and repreeent the bueineaa, economic, 

 political, and educational intereute of the tarmere of lllinoia and the 

 nation^ and to develop agriculture, 



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

 Illinois, by th; Illinois Agricultural Association. Edited by Department 

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

 Chicasro, Illinois. Entered as second>class flatter October 20. 1925, at 

 the post office at Mount Morris, Illinois, unda- the Act of March 3, 1879. 

 Accepted for mai'inE at special rate of pqstaKe provided for in Sec- 

 tion 412, Act of February 28, 1925, authorijied October 27. 1925. The 

 individual membership fee of the Illinois Agricultural Association is 

 five do'lars a year. The fee includes paympnt of fifty cents for sub- 

 scription to the Illinois Agricultural Association Record. Post- 

 master: In returninK an uncalled for or ntissent copy please indicate 

 key number on address as is required by law. 



OFFICERS 



President, Earl C. Smith .j, 



Vice-President, Frank D. Barton 



Treasurer, R. A. Cowles 



Detroit 



Cornell 



. Bloominston 



1st to 11th. 



12th 



13th 



14th 



15th 



16th 



17th 



18th 



19th. 



EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 



(By Congressional Districts) 



H. C. Vial, Downers Grove 



.G. F. TuUock, Rockford 



.C. E. Bamborough, Polo 



. . .M. G. Lambert, Ferris 



.A. N. Skinner, Yates City 



A. R. Wright, Vama 



. . .Geo. J. StoU, Chestnut 



R. F. Karr, Iroquois 



, L, Whisnand, Charleston 



20th. Charles S. Black, Jacksonville 



Samuel Sorrells, Raymond 



Frank Oexner. Waterloo 



W. L. Cope, Salem 



21st. 

 22nd. 



23nl ^ _. .„ .... 



24th 1 3>arles Marshall, Belknap 



25th Fred Dietr Pe Soto 



DIRECTORS OF DEPAR 



Business Service 



Dairy Marketing 



Limestone-Phosphate 



Finance 



Fruit and Vegetable Marketing 



General Office 



Information 



Insurance Service , . . . 



Legal Counsel 



Live Stock Marketing 



Organization . . , 



Produce Marketing 



Taxation and Statistics 



Transportation 



T^l 



lENTS 



Geo. R. Wicker 



A. D. Lynch 



J. R. Bent 



R. A. Cowles 



A. B. Leeper 



J. H. Kelker 



E. G. Thiem 



V. Vaniman 



Donald Kirkpatrick 



Ray E. Miller 



G. E. Metzger 



F. A. Gougler 



J. C. Watson 



L- J. Quasey 



Only Half Sol4 



ONE of the weaknesses of the Farhi Bureau movement 

 in Illinois is that Farm Bureau service is only half 

 sold: Even our members are not awatre of the aid the or- 

 ganization has to offer. When this service is forcibly re- 

 vealed and emphasized, requests for help are proportion- 

 ately increased. 



Early this fall our director of transportation addressed 

 the annual meeting of one of the goutheastem County 

 Farm Bureaus. In his talk the I. A. A. representative 

 merely called attention to the service available from his 

 department. He told of the contacts the department had 

 with public utilities and agencies which serve farmers. 



Prior to that time there had been only periodic re- 

 quests for transportation service from that county. With- 

 in the next few weeks, 10 different calls for help, some 

 involving individual cases and others involving entire 

 communities, were received. These included freight loss 

 and damage claims, fence repair and right-of-way dis- 

 putes, state highway culvert complaint, dangerous cross- 

 ing complaint, request for information and advice on con- 

 tracts, claim against railroad for wrecking auto, and an 

 appeal for aid from telephone subscribers in one section 

 of the county because of poor service. 



The farm adviser of that county in a recent letter said: 

 "I believe that your talk at our annual meeting went 

 home to our people out on the farms of this county for 

 there has been about a 1000 per cent increase in requests 

 for service from your department during the past two 

 months." i 



A Candid Analysis 



THE candid analysis of the agrricultural situation pre- 

 sented by Economist Virgil Jordan before the 

 American Farm Bureau Federation convention last week 

 must have been a sharp blow to the farm prosperity sales- 

 men from whom we have heard so much of late. 



Said Jordan, "I must emphatically challenge the view 

 that there has been any fundamental improvement in the 

 economic position of American agriculture during the 

 past six years. The official statistics of the Department 

 of .Agriculture .... prove this up to the hilt." 



We take no especial delight in stating that agriculture 

 as a whole is a long ways from prosperity's door. But 

 the ostrich does not better his plight by sticking his 

 head in the sand. He would do better to face the enemy 

 and use such weapons as he has to protect himself. 



Two Ways of Self Help ^ 



DEFINITE accomplishment has marked the path the 

 Farm Bureau has trod in Illinois. One cannot review 

 the Farm Bureaus' and I. A. A.'s activities during 1928 

 without concluding that the results justify the effort and 

 money expended. A summary of the year's work will ap- 

 pear in the Record next month. 



Certain emphasis during recent years has been given 

 to savings, that is to making the farmer's dollar go far- 

 ther. Some of our friendly critics have intimated that 

 we are getting out of pur field by so doing. Mutual in- 

 surance and co-operative buying and selling agencies have 

 been frowned upon by the opposition, yet such service is 

 demanded and widely appreciated by farmers. It has been 

 instrumental in giving stability to organized agriculture 

 in Illinois. The I. A. A. contends that it is just as neces- 

 sary that hard earned money be spent wisely and care- 

 fully after receiving it as it is to increase the income. It 

 is equally as important to reduce costs of production as 

 it is to increase prices. A profitless business can be im- 

 proved by both means. 



Our efforts of a business nature are predicated upon 

 the belief that we can serve ourselves through coopera- 

 tion more efficiently and at less cost than can private en- 

 terprises. When this ceases to be true such activities 

 will be abandoned. The greatest possibilities for improv- 

 ing the farmer's financial condition undoubtedly lie in the 

 direction of securing a larger share of the consumer's 

 dollar and an American price for farm products. But 

 thinking farmers will never cease to use every means to 

 cut costs of production. That is the surest road to finan- 

 cial independence. i 



. %. 



The Golden Calf i 



THE story of the seven dollar a pound baby beef club 

 calf fed by Clarence Goecke of Iowa is likely to give 

 great impetus to 4-H club work. The income approxi- 

 mating $10,000 brought by "Dick" to his youthful owner 

 represents a small fortune. The money side of club proj- 

 ects is important but far greater are the moral qualities 

 and business training developed by the successful handling 

 of such enterprises. ^ 



The I. A. A. and the Farm Bureaus are deeply inter- 

 ested in the farm boys and girls of Illinois for the future 

 of Illinois agriculture depends on them. Perhaps no in- 

 fluence outside of home and school is working so assidu- 

 ously toward developing leadership and business sense in 

 the farmers of the future as the 4-H club. Boys and 

 girls are the most important crop on the farm. As such 

 they will bear careful and painstaking cultivation. In 

 honoring the boy and girl club champipns at its annual 

 dinner for the Illinois winners the Association seeks to 

 encourage this noble activity. 



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