Page Twelve 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



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IN a previous issue of the RECORD 

 we attempted to give our impres- 

 sions gained on an automobile trip to 

 Yellowstone and Glacier National 

 Parks, of the federal government's 

 western land policy, and its effect on 

 corn belt agriculture. 



During the journey over the great 

 plains and through the mountains we 

 saw several of the more important land 

 reclamation projects including North 

 Platte and Shoshone in Nebraska and 

 Wyoming, Sun River, Milk River, and 

 Lower Yellowstone in Montana. In 

 addition, we observed that millions of 

 acres of grazing lands had been brought 

 under cultivation by dry land farmers, 

 largely as a result of governmental in- 

 fluence. Ambitious western railroads, 

 anxious to build up their income haul- 

 ing farm products, strongly supported 

 and helped initiate the acreage-exten- 

 sion, surplus-producing program. 



1 On further investigation of federal 

 reclamation w.ork we find that the Re- 

 clamation Act was approved June 17, 

 1902. "Congress passed this act," de- 

 clares the Bureau of Reclamation, "in 

 order that large areas of lands suitable 

 for irrigation farming in arid states 

 might provide homes for citizens, in- 

 crease the agricultural area of the coun- 

 try, and make beneficial use of two of 

 its national assets, land and water." 

 There you have the government's pol- 

 icy during the last 30 years set forth 

 in bold relief. Agriculture has been 

 regarded as a way of living, not as a 

 business or an industry subject to the 

 same economic laws as any other busi- 

 ness or industry. 



It was inevitable that sooner or later 

 agriculture would develop an acute pain 

 in the stomach from too much food. 

 "Farming in the United States was not 

 on a satisfactory basis before the r/ar," 

 said President Hoover in one of his 

 campaign speeches. How could it be 

 with farm production being, stepped up 

 blindly without regard to what the 

 market would take at a profitable price? 



' There are 25 gigantic federal irriga- 

 tion projects located in whole or in 

 part in 15 of our arid western states. 

 On June 30, 1924, 22 years after the 

 passage of the Reclamation Act, a vol- 

 ume of water had been impounded in 

 reservoirs or diverted from regular 

 stream channels sufficiently large to ir- 

 rigate 1,718,400 acres of project lands 

 and to furnish supplemental irrigation 



SAN<iA>IO.\ AXD MOXTGOMKRY F. H. TKAMS I»I,AY XIOUT nASKBAI-L 

 Fiiriii llurrnn tpnniN from SnnKnnion iinti MontKoiiirry <-«iintieM initintrd 

 niKht bnNebnII in the SInte Fnrni Riirrnii l.nKiir Mc«pr:il wrekK nKO nhen they 

 lilayeil iin "nfter ilnrk" Kiinie on the Three-I l^eiiKiie ilinnionil at Springfield. 

 lOnrI ('. Smith. 1. A. A. iirpKiilent. thretv the lirNt hall to xlnrt the Kame. The 

 •liamond tvnx made liKht an day hy ponerfiil eleetrie lamiiN. 



under the Warren Act of 1911, to 

 1,213,700 acres of land having an in- 

 sufficient water right for full crop pro- 

 duction. Since that time there has 

 been considerable additional develop- 

 ment. 



All this competition to the cornbelt 

 farmer was financed by the government 

 without interest. The Act of 1902 

 provided that funds obtained from the 

 sale of public lands in 16 of the arid 

 western states should be used for the 

 examination and construction of federal 

 reclamation projects. Soon after the 

 act was passed construction work be- 

 gan. Within a few years all the funds 

 made available were gone and an ad- 

 ditional sum of $20,000,000 was ap- 

 propriated. Further appropriations 

 were made from time to time to water 

 more acres, grow more crops and pro- 

 duce more cheap food. 



The Reclamation Act and amend- 

 ments thereto provide that those who 

 settle upon reclaimed lands need not 

 pay any interest on the money invested 

 in construction work necessary to make 

 water available to the farmer. The 

 original practice was to divide each 

 farmer's assessment into ten yearly in- 

 stallments. More recently the pay- 

 ments have been divided into 20 yearly 

 instalments without interest, and the 

 government has had difficulty in col- 

 lecting because of low prices for" 

 wheat, barley, sugar beats, oats, corn, 

 alfalfa aad beans grown on these irri- 

 gated lands. 



In effect, the federal government has 

 been in the farming business, assisting 

 in creating farm crop surpluses, since 

 'he dawn of the 20th century. It ap- 

 parently felt that population would 

 grow faster than the food supply; 

 that agricultural expansion was a good 

 thing fcr the country. The middle- 

 men, speculators and the railroads 

 never uttered a word of protest at the 

 government's efforts in stimulating 

 agricultural production. It was alright 



with them to see the business of estab- 

 lished farmers in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, 

 Missouri and other mid-west states un- 

 dermined by government subsidy to a 

 new group of competitors on land that 

 had better remained idle. But it's all 

 wrong now for the government to help 

 solve the problem it assisted in creat- 

 ing; to aid the farmer in regulating and 

 controlling the production and market- 

 ing of his products. It is, to hear them 

 tell it. E .G. T. 



Elect Directors 



Directors elected at the annual meet- 

 ing of the stockholders of the Illinois 

 Grain Corporation on September 2 in 

 Chicago were as follows: J. C. Sailor, 

 John Stout, Claude Thorpe, E. E. 

 Stevenson, G. C. Johnstone, Warren 

 Watson, O. G. Anderson, Chas. 

 Schmidt, B. L. Baird, Bert Loudenbach, 

 Carl P. Griffiths, Ralph Mills, J. Fred 

 Romine, and Geo. J. StoU. 



Routine business and recent develop- 

 ments toward becoming established as 

 a regional grain marketing agency for 

 the State of Illinois were discussed. 



Representatives from a majority of 

 the stockholder members attended the 

 meeting. 



Opens St. Louis Office 



THE Mid- West Grain Corporation, 

 sales agency for the Illinois Grain 

 CorfKjration, representing the Federal 

 Farm Board plan of grain marketing in 

 Illinois, opened a branch office in room 

 5 14, Merchants Exchange building, St. 

 Louis, Mo., on September 4. 



Geo. C. Martin, an experienced grain 

 man and formerly president of the St. 

 Louis Merchants' Exchange, has been 

 employed to manage the St. Louis of- 

 fice. 



Mr. Martin will handle all grain 

 shipped to the Illinois co-operative at 

 St. Louis serving all members and farm- 

 ers' elevators in that territory, and fur- 

 nishing St. Louis cash market bids. ; 



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