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Page Eight 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



December, 1930 



^^ I IjIjINOIS 

 CCLTVRAL ASSOCIA 



RECOrliy 



To tdvoHce the 'nrpose for vbich the f'rm Bureau was organized, 

 nr.ilf.ty, to promote, protect and represent be business, economic, political, 

 Im* edyational interests of the farmers O] Illinois and the nation, 

 Intd to develop agriculture. 



Editor, George Thiem 



Publishea ?nce a month by the Illinois Agricultural Association, 

 at !?'• So. Fil'h St^ Marshall, III. Adress all communications for pubti- 

 cat'on tc Editorial Office, 608 So. Dearborn St., Chicago, 111. Entered as 

 seco'd-class matter June 16, 1930, at the post office at Marshall, 111., 

 anr'" the Act of March 3, 1879. Accepted for mailing at special rate of 

 oo«tage ,<>ovided for in Section 412, Act of Feb. 28, 1925, authorized 

 Oc:. 27, 1925. The individual membership fee of the Illinois Agricultural 

 Association is five dollars a year. The fee includes payment of fifty cents 

 I'X subscription to the Illinois Agricultural Association Record. Post- 

 t''^ster: In returning an uncalled for missent copy please indicate key 

 dUiiiber on address as is required by Isw. i . 



OFFICERS ! 



President. Earl C. Smith.. 



Vice-President, A. R Wright- 

 Secretary, Geo. E. Metzger 



Tteasurer, R. A. Cowles 



-Detroit 

 -Varna 



Chicago 



-Bloomington 



in to iith_ 



12th 



13th 



14th 



ISth J 



1 6th 



17th 



BOARD OF DIRECTORS 



(By Congressional District) 



H. C Vial, Downers Grove 



G. F. Tullock. Rockford 



C. E. Bamborough, Polo 



M. G. Lambert. Ferris 



-A. N. Skinner. Yates City 



18th_ 

 19th_ 



20th_ 



-Geo. B. Huller, Washington 



Geo. J. Stoll. Chestnut 



W. A. Dennis. Paris 



.-C. J. Cross, Atwood 



2Ut_ 



»?i,o 



!3rd 



24th..._ 



-Charles S. Black, Jacksonville 



Samuel Sorrells, Raymond 



Frank Oexner, Waterloo 



W. L. Cope, Salem 



Charles Marshall 



Fred Dietz, De Soto 



Comptroller- 

 Finance.. 



DEPARTMENT DIRECTORS 



Fruit and Vegetable Marketing- 

 Grain Marketing 



Information- 



Insurance Service- 

 Legal Counsel.. 



.-J. H. Kelker 



R. A. Cowles 



A. B. Leeper 



-Harrison Fahrnkopf 



George Thiem 



-V. Vaniman 



Limestone- Phosphate 



Live Stock Marketing- 

 Office 



Organization- 



Produce Marketing 



Taxation and Statistics- 

 Transportation.... 



■Donald Kirkpatrick 



J. R Bent 



Ray E. Miller 



C. E. Johnston 



G. E. Metzger 



-F. A. GouRler 



i. C. Watson 

 . J. 



ASSOCIATED ORGANIZATIONS 



Quasey 



Country Life Insurance Co. 



Farmers Mutual Reinsurance Co. 



Illinois Agricultural Co-operatives Ass'n 



Illinois Agricultural Mutual Instwance Co.- 



Illinois Farm Supply C- 



Illinois Grain Corp, 



_L. A. Williams, Mgr. 



-...J. H. Kelker, Mgr. 



F. E. Ringham, Mgr. 



..A. E. Richardson, Mgr. 



-L. R. Marchant, Mgr. 



Midwest Grain Corp 



Soybean Marketing Assn 



Harrison Fahrnkopf, Mgr. 



Chas. P. Cummings, Genl. Mgr. 

 ;. H. Lloyd, Mgr. 



The Farmer and His Job 



'T*HE farmer must help himself. The government can't 

 JL do much for him. 



This is the doctrine preached by many a man wherever 

 and whenever the farm problem comes up for discussion. 

 Nearly everyone takes a kindly interest in the farmer and his 

 troubles, although for the moment attention has been di- 

 verted to the centers of population where the armies of un- 

 employed are rightfully receiving most of the sympathy. 



The farmer has come to believe that he must help himself, 

 although he insists that so long as the government extends 

 privileges to various groups by means of the protective 

 tariff, immigration law, federal reserve act, etc., that agri- 

 culture be given a seat at the table of privilege. 



There are a host of people who have sympathized with 

 farmers over their difficulties and who even admit the justice 

 of and need for "equality for agriculture." Yet when the 

 farmer starts to follow the advice of his well wishers by 

 helping himself in his own way these same people change 

 their attitude. When farmers seek to eliminate some of the 

 waste in distribution, for example, by developing co-opera- 

 tive marketing, certain middlemen and their allies leave no 



' ."to.. :s -".turned to head ofif any progress in that direction. 

 This conditioii ':»'as clearly pointed out by President Smith 

 in his address before the recent annual Farm Hureau conven- 

 tion at Boiiton. 



When the farmer through organizati . ;i so-.'oh: to lower 

 his costs by providing certain services for hims^ such as 

 insurance and co-operative buying, he was n(>:-i i":e less 

 criticized for his activity. Those who had already s:abl.!.-Sed 

 these services immediately felt and claimed, directly oi in- 

 directly, that they had an exclusive and God-giveii right to 

 render the given service at their own prices and on their 

 own terms. 



ITie farmer has no business doing this nor d-^ir.g chit, they 

 said. "Let him stick to marketing," says the insurance man; 

 "that's where he can make the best showing." 



"The present system of marketing is perfect and cannot 

 be improved upon," says the commission man. "Let the 

 farmer develop his insurance and oil business where the op- 

 portunities are greater." And so it goes. . \ 1 : " , . ■ 



When the Farm Bureau was young and weak, and con- 

 fined its activities to preaching the "two-blades-of-grass" 

 doctrine, it was lauded to the skies and patronized by many 

 a commissioi. man, merchant and trader. But when it put 

 on long pants and directed its attention to larger problems 

 influencing the farm income and outgo, it lost favor with 

 some of its old allies. 



Everyone loves the farmer as a customer, but when he 

 stops being a customer, he loses some of his friend.^, ""lio 

 can blame him, then, for believing that many ot his busi- 

 ness friendships have the dollar sign tied to them; for in- 

 coming painfully aware of the selfishness of humanity; tor 

 judging many of his critics with these things in mind. 



The farmer has come to assume a philosophic attitude to- 

 ward life and his fellow man, determined to do the best he 

 knows how to help himself and his industry, recognizing the 

 necessity for hewing away at the job letting the chips fall 

 where they may. 



Lessons from the Official Vote 



THE official vote on the proposed revenue amendment in 

 the last election reveals that less than half the voters 

 expressed themselves on this important question. 



The total number of votes cast in the election was 2,352,- 

 696. Of this number 513,661 voted against the amendujent, 

 371,812 voted for it. To have passed the amendment would 

 have required a majority of all votes cast or 1,166,349. 

 Thus it was overwhelmingly defeated. 



Four years ago when the Illinois Agricultural Association 

 supported the tax amendment proposed then, the vote was 

 651,768 for it, and 476,45 5 against. It is reasonably «fe 

 to assume that the position of organized farmers against 

 the measure submitted in the last election was largely re- 

 sponsible for an overturn of nearly 280,000 votes. 



The fact that the proposal appeared on the main ballot 

 this year instead of on a separate ballot did not seem to help 

 it any. _ While 1,128,223 voted on the measure in \926, 

 only 885,473 voted on the proposal this year. 



Both the recent vote and that of four years ago indicate 

 the extreme difficulty of passing any kind of an amendment, 

 because of the large number who invariably fail to express 

 themselves on important questions of public policy. This 

 fact is all the more reason why strenuous efforts must be 

 made in the coming General Assembly to establish a more 

 equitable taxing system under our present constitution. 



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