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Let*s Use Our Talents 



President Edw. A. O'Neal Lauds Illinois Members For 

 Building Largest farm Bureau 



EDWARD A. O'NEAL, president of 

 the American Farm Bureau Federa- 

 tion, speaking Thursday morning, 

 Jan. 31 before the general session in the 

 High School Auditorium, Quincy, paid 

 tribute to the magnificent accomplish- 

 ment of Farm Bureau work^s and lead- 

 ers of Illinois in building the largest 

 state Farm Bureau in the nation, say- 

 ing: "You have set an example to the 

 nation of how effectively farm people, 

 through organization,; can proceed to 

 solve their problems. The foundation of 

 your success is the set-up and operations 

 of your County Farm Bureaus. There 

 you farmers have gone close to the grass 

 roots in organizing to look after the 

 business of farmers — educational, social 

 and economic. 



"Your serVice organizations have been 

 an outstanding success, set up and op- 

 erated on sound business principles. You 

 have given a thrilling and inspiring dem- 

 onstration to farm people and to the 

 nation of, the economic soundness and 

 effectiveness of farmer ownership and 

 farmer control of cooperatives in big 

 business. You have neither restricted 

 the scope of your service to purely agri- 

 cultural efforts nor have you slighted 

 your mission as the voice of agriculture 

 by concentrating all your energies on 

 business activities. You have made your 

 business activities the servants of your 

 organization instead of its master. 



"Your membership growth has been 

 phenomenal and is a remarkable tribute 

 of confidence in the Farm Bureau on the 

 ipart of the farmers in Illinois. 



Three Responsibilities 



"The Farm Bureau," said Mr. O'Neal, 

 "has three great responsibilities to farm 

 people and to the nation. First, to play 

 the proper part in molding and gruiding 

 public policies in state and nation; sec- 

 ond, to formulate and help carry out an 

 • effective program to meet the needs and 

 promote the welfare of American agri- 

 culture, and third, to build still stronger 

 its organization of farm people." 



In discussing the first point he stated: 

 "In the early days of our nation, farmers 

 constituted the predominant part of our 

 population and took ' a leading part in 

 shaping public affairs. They did a mag- 

 nificent job btit their problems were quite 

 different from ours today. Today thra-e 

 is no longer any frontier to absorb sur- 

 plus workers in the cities. We can no 

 longer solve our problems of growth by 



FEBRUARY. ItSS -y''-'\ '■':■. -''^ '-■'', 



opening up new landed domains. We in 

 this generation must learn how to take 

 the resources we have and organize and 

 use them most effectively." 



Parable Of TalenU 



Illustrating his point, President O'Neal 

 quoted the parable of the talents, liken- 

 ing the faithful servants who had zealous- 

 ly utilized their talents to those farmers 

 today who are taking advantage of the 

 opportunities lying before them. 



"Our leading farmers saw the neces- 

 sity of organization to meet their prob- 

 lems," Mr. O'Neal continued. "The un- 

 organized farmers had no voice in the 

 councils of the state and nation. To meet 

 this need, the Farm Bureau came into be- 

 ing and today in a great majority of the 

 counties and states of the nation, this 

 organization is functioning as the voice 

 of agriculture. 



"As one of our friends has recently so 

 well expressed it: 'We have taken 

 theories, hammered them into policies 

 and the policies into legislation, and the 

 legislation into better living standards 

 for the farm people.' 



"As your distingruished former Gov- 

 ernor, Frank O. Lowden, has so well 

 said: 'The most helpful movement of 

 modern times in agriculture is ,the Farm 

 Bureau. ... I have more faith in an im- 

 proved and permanent agriculture 

 tnrongh the agency of the Farm Bureau 

 than in any other single agency we 

 have.' " 



He listed the major objectives of the 

 Farm Bureau's national prog:ram as fol- 

 lows: 



1. A commodity dollar which would 

 eliminate inequality in the nation's 

 financial system. 



2. Steps through the Agricultural Ad- 

 justment Administration to reduce 

 the cost of distribution and to give 

 parUy between farm prices and in- 

 dustrial prices and wages. 



3. Correction of inequalities in the tar- 

 iff system that agriculture will en- 

 joy benefits equal with industry so 

 that foreign outlets for farm prod- 

 ucts will be restored. 



4. Effective control of farm commod- 

 ity exchanges to protect farmer-pro- 

 ducer and consumer. 



5. Development of commodity storage 

 on the farm. 



fi. Strengthening and developing of 



Part of the onwd laaTinr HIch Bobool kaOdiac 

 wherv mun seisioni wer* held. 



credit facilities with lower interesi 

 rates. 



7. Correction of the inequitable tax 

 burden borne by agriculture. 



8. Formulation and application of a 

 sound national land prog^-am. 



9. Correction in social and educational 

 opportunities in rural life as com- 

 pared to urban life. 



10. Strengthening the voice of organ- 

 ized agriculture through more com- 

 plete organization. 



"I plead with you, the staunch leader- 

 ship from the heart of the combelt, to 

 tell America in no uncertain terms that 

 we must have action on these major ob- 

 jectives," declared the Farm Bureau 

 leader . . . "The Adjustment Act is ours 

 and we demand necessary amendments 

 to perfect' its purposes," said Mr. O'Neal, 

 and warned that farmers would have a 

 real fight to obtain these amendments 

 on account of the opposition of proces- 

 sors and distributors. . . , 



Demand Foreign Ontfota 



"The tariff laws must be written for 

 the benefit of the farmer. Basic Amer- 

 ican agriculture cannot live on a na- 

 tionalistic basis and therefore we demand 

 foreign outlets for our surplus agrricul- 

 tural commodities. Let's follow the plan 

 given us by President Roosevelt at our 

 annual meeting in Nashville, that more 

 of our export trade must be paid for by 

 increased imports. To do this, let's fol- 

 low Yankee Trading as advocated by 

 George Peek. At his request, the Com- 

 mittee of the National Agricultural Con- 

 ference is advising with him on building 

 up exports for a g"r {cultural com- 

 modities. . . . 



"The 50 million rural people of Amer- 

 ica are holding us responsible to attain 

 these measures for their well-being, but 

 how can we accomplish these things with- 

 out a strong militant membership?" 

 queried Mr. O'Neal. "This brings us to 

 the third great responsibility — to birild 

 (Continued on page SO) 



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