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Publiihed month); bj the Illlnoli Afrtcultunl AuoeUUon u 4M North Weiltgr An., Mount Morrii, ni. ttitond u Moond-elaH aottir it pott-«fltoo ot Uamt Manto. 111.. 

 Oct. 20, 1925, under the Act ot Mar. 3. 1879. Acceptanco for nullim it fpeeUl nU of poeUw prorlded la Boetloo 411, Act at >M. U. IMS. >utlarln4 Oet. IT. UU. 



Number 10 



OCTOBER, 1929 



Volume 7 



September Picnics 



Wind Up '29 Season 



District Gatherings Held at Sand- 

 wich, Kanitaicee, and Morrison 



THE list three district Farm Bureau picnics 

 held at Sandwich, Kankakee, and Morrison 

 demonstrated that mid-September is not the 

 ideal time for holding outdoor gatherings of this 

 kind. In each case the weather was cool and 

 the crowds comparatively small. The Kankakee 

 picnic was all but rained out although a crowd 

 estimated at nearly 1,000 assembled after the 

 rain to hear the president of the Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Association, Earl C. Smith, Don Geyer 

 of the Pure Milk Ass'n, Mrs. Homer John- 

 son, president of the Home Bureau Federation, 

 and others. Ex-govcrnor Len Small, president 

 of the Kankakee County Farm Bureau, or 

 rather the soil and crop improvement associa- 

 tion as it is known locally, was generalissimo 

 of the day. After a short appropriate speech 

 in which he welcomed the visitors to the new 

 park and Kankakee county he introduced the 

 speakers. 



Farmers* Park 



The picnic was held in a beautiful grove on 

 the wooded banks of the picturesque Kankakee 

 River only a mile and a half from the heart 

 of the city. The 20-acre plot has been taken 

 over by the versatile farm adviser John Collier 

 and the Kankakee county soil and crop associa- 

 tion as a farmers* park. It was leased from 

 the governor. The plot is being smoothed off 

 and already a creditable baseball diamond, a 

 new band-stand and speaking platform, and 

 other necessary conveniences have been estab- 

 lished. Several concerts have been played by 

 the soil and crop band in the natural amphi- 

 theatre beside the rippling waters of the Kan- 

 kakee. 



All the usual appendages of a district picnic 

 were on the program. The quality and clarity 

 of the hog, chicken, and husband callers' fa- 

 vorite intonations were not damaged by the 

 weather or the lack of a great surging audience. 

 The lusty call of A. J. Pallissard who summons 

 the pigs regularly from the back acres on his 

 farm near St. Anne put him down as the mas- 

 ter hog caller of the day which adds to his 

 previously won laurels of master farmer. 



The Kankakee County Farm Bureau nine 

 had little difficulty in beating the Lasalle 

 county boys by the one-sided score of 14 to 0. 

 Henry Hulse of Cissna Park was the champion 

 horseshoe thrower. 



A Little Soft Food 



J. F. Porter, president of the Tennessee Farm 

 Bureau Federation, made a good speech at the 

 12th district picnic held on the Sandwich Fair. 

 Grounds in DeKalb county. The day was, 

 nearly ideal for an outdoor program. The 



I. A. A. MEETING 

 The 15th annual meetiof of the Illi- 

 nois Agricultural Association will be 

 held on January 29-30-31, 1930. 



Mark these dates on your calendar. 

 An unusually attractive program is 

 being arranged. It will probably be held 

 at Springfield. 



Watch for further announcements. 



crowd which numbered several thousand filled 

 the grandstand comfortably. The national 

 champion high school band from Belvidere en- 

 tertained throughout the day. 



Mr. Porter was conservative in his remarks 

 with reference to the new legislation culminat- 

 ing in the federal farm board. Being a demo- 

 crat from Tennessee might explain part of his 

 skepticism but many a spectator winked know- 

 ingly when he summed it all up by saying, "we 

 asked for a seat at the table but we got a high 

 chair and a little soft food." ,. 



Attentive Audience 



The most attentive audience that ever at- 

 tended a farmers' picnic heard Earl Smith make 

 perhaps the best speech of his career out on 

 the Morrison fair grounds in W^hiteside county 

 on Sept. 14. Most picnic audiences are any- 

 thing but attentive. All this was accomplished 

 in spite of the fact that a hotly contested base- 

 ball game was in progress between Whiteside 

 and Stephenson counties during the speaking 

 program. A couple of thousand people came 

 out. The day was bright, sunshiny, and cool. 

 Lee county's Farm Bureau nine defeated Carroll 

 county in the morning baseball game while 

 Stephenson nosed out Whiteside 7 to J in the 

 10-inning afternoon contest. 



The district picnics this year were not as 

 well attended as those held in the previous 

 season. The nearest approach to the state I. 

 A. A. picnics held in previous years was the 

 gathering at Monmouth in Warren county. All 

 the counties in the 14th district supported that 

 picnic by calling off their county picnics and 

 urging their members to make the drive to 

 Monmouth. 



In a number of other districts, 90 to 95 per 

 cent of the picnic Towds apparently came from 

 the county playing host while the adjoining 

 counties sent their farm advisers and a few 

 Farm Bureau directors to lend atmosphere and 

 dignity to the occasion. 



The district picnics have not succeeded in 

 displacing the county gatherings, at least in the 

 majority of cases, and unless all the Farm 

 Bureaus work together wholeheartedly as was 

 done in the 14th at Monmouth, the so-called 

 district picnic will be little if any more than 

 a county picnic with a sprinkling of outside 

 "guests." 



«L^AR 

 -■- iz 



Income Only Measure t ' 

 ]; of AbiUty to Pay 



Farmers Not Pleased With Delay in 

 Getting Fair Tax System 



'ARMERS and urban business men real- 

 today as never before that an indi- 

 vidual's prosperity and tax-paying ability ii 

 measured by his profits, not by his inventory 

 or physical holdings," Sunley M. Powell, Mich- 

 igan farmer, told the conference of the Na- 

 tional Tax Association at Saranac Lake, New 

 York, recently. 



"It cannot be denied that a carefully pre- 

 pared income tax is the most equitable tax yet 

 devised. It accurately measures the individ- 

 ual's ability to pay. It is extremely flexible 

 from year to year, reflecting precisely the 

 financial fortunes of each taxpayer. An in- 

 come tax never confiscates any man's property. 

 In lean years it does not howl like a devour- 

 ing wolf at the door as does the property tax. 



Progress Too Slow 



"The record of the Natioiul Tax Associa- 

 tion in supporting the principle of income 

 taxation is long and well known. Yet I "want 

 to give warning that the farm sentiment in 

 favor of income taxation is by no means satis- 

 fied with the progress that has been made up 

 to the present. 



"Our farmers will not be content with an 

 income tax which represents but an insignifi- 

 cant proportion of the total state and local 

 revenues. Instead, they look forward to the 

 day when income taxes will supplant the prop- 

 erty tax as the chief source of revenue. They 

 are aware that it required the intervention of 

 the Federal government to bring the inheritance 

 tax to its present highly productive state and 

 they are going to demand that means be de- 

 vised for increasing the revenue possibilities 

 of state income taxes without creating a situa- 

 tion wherein a few backward states can offer 

 an asylum to wealth which seeks to evade 

 the levy. i 



Many Pay Nothing ' 



"It often appears that farmers and other 

 sober-minded, law-abiding citizens pay taxes 

 way beyond the benefits received or their finan- 

 cial ability as measured in net income. Mean- 

 while, thousands of reckless, law-breaking in- 

 dividuals pay no taxes, although they directly 

 and indirectly cause the various units of gov- 

 ernment a large amount of expense. This is 

 a situation which is admittedly difficult to 

 remedy, but which should be ever kept in 

 mind in outlining our fiscal policies. Per- 

 haps some form of a poll tax might to a slight 

 degree meet this perplexing problem. 



"The experience of a number of states \ lui 

 (Continued on page 9) 



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