Use Alcohol From Corn In A 

 Motor Fuel Blend 



That's What Corn Belt Farmers Would Like To; See Done 



EVERYONE favors a wider outlet for 

 industrial alcohol made from com 

 and other farm products, as a mo- 

 tor fuel ingredient unless it be the big 

 producing oil companies. Now all that 

 remains is to develop sound, feasible 

 practicable methods for carrying out such 

 a plan. 



This is the impression we gained from 

 attending the alco-gas motor fuel meet- 

 ing in the gymnasium of Illinois Wes- 

 leyan at Bloomington, Monday, Feb. 11. 



The widespread interest in the move- 

 ment is indicated by the attendance of 

 some 1200 people, mostly Illinois farm- 

 ers although representatives and speak- 

 ers from other states were there too. 

 Chemists and congrressmen, bankers and 

 business men, college professors and 

 journalists, as well as farmers gathered 

 to express their interest in developing 

 profitable non-food uses for surplus farm 

 products. 



It has been definitely proved that alco- 

 gas containing 10 to 26 per cent alcohol 

 is a superior motor fuel. The tests con- 

 ducted sometime ago at the suggestion 

 of the I. A. A. by Illinois Farm Supply 

 Company and the county service com- 

 panies established this fact. 



Now the question is: "Is it wise for 

 agriculture to embark upon a surplus- 

 producing program to provide compara- 

 tively cheap corn and other products for 

 alcohol factories, and, if so, is it politi- 

 cally possible to pass legislation to bring 

 about the blending of com alcohol with 

 gasoline for motor fuel?" 



Reserves Declining 



W. W. Buffum of the Chemical 

 Foundation, New York City declared in 

 his address that our annual reserves of 

 petroleum are rapidly declining. He of- 

 fered as evidence the statement of a 

 British industrial leader, that within a 

 few years the United States would be 

 compelled to look to the British empire 

 which controls 75 per cent of the world's 

 supply, for its petroleum. 



If this statement is true, there may be 

 good reason for the federal government 

 to intervene as an oil conservation meas- 

 ure to compel blending of gasoline and 

 alcohol for motor fuel. 



Dr. Leo Christensen of Iowa State Col- 

 lege assured his audience that power 

 alcohol from farm products may be used 

 as a means of controlling surplus — that 

 alcohol and gas can be mixed successfully 

 to make a superior fuel as good or bet- 



ter than gasoline in easy starting, mile- 

 age, and clean combustion. He claimed 

 for the blend less tendency toward de- 

 tonation and smoother performance. 



President Earl C. Smith, the first 

 speaker introduced by Chairman James 

 Gray of the Bloomington Association of 

 Commerce, expressed the real interest of 

 the I. A. A. in developing non-feod uses 

 for farm products. He pledged the sup- 

 port of the association to any sound, 

 practical plan offering an opportunity to 

 raise and maintain the price of com and 

 other farm products at parity price levels. 



Big Companies Obstruct 



William J. Hale, consulting chemist of 

 Washington, dwelled at length on the 

 need for developing new industries to 

 relieve unemployment. He and others 

 branded the big oil companies as ob- 

 structionists who are trying to prevent 

 the farmer from putting through an 

 alcohol motor fuel program. Mr. Hale 

 envisioned great opportunities in develop- 

 ing new uses for lower and lower cost 

 alcohol made from corn, potatoes and 

 other farm products. 



Congressman Everett Dirksen of Pekin 

 spoke briefly and was cheered when he 

 said: "When we develop a sound, work- 

 able program for the use of industrial 

 alcohol for farm products, let's not be 

 afraid to stand up and fight for it." 



F. W. Hanna, vice-president of the 

 Power Alcohol Association of Iowa, de- 

 clared that farmers have been robbed 

 of $20,000,000,000 in the past 16 to 17 

 years through inequalities between farm 

 and industrial p-ice levels. He expressed 

 the belief that possibilities for develop- 

 ing wider outlets for farm products 

 through foreign trade were rather re- 

 mote and that unless we continue the 

 AAA program of curtailed production it 

 would be necessary to develop industrial 

 uses for farm products. 



Resolutions were passed endorsing 

 state and national legislation to promote 

 the use of power alcohol from com and 

 other farm products, and to develop new 

 non-food uses through chemical research 

 for domestic farm products. 



Members of the Resolutions Commit- 

 tee were Eugene Funk, Robert Heiple, 

 Robert A. Cowles, R. J. Laible. 



Banners decorated the stage declaring 

 that "Alco-Gas is Practical," "Alco-Gas 

 Works— We've Tried It." "Our Alcohol 

 Will Help Agriculture and Industry." 



A legislative c mmittee was appointed 



to devise ways and means for furthering 

 the program through legislative action. 

 This committee which met Monday morn- 

 ing, February 11, made the following rec- 

 ommendations: that state legislatures 

 enact measures based upon the principle 

 of tax differentials between alcohol-gas- 

 oline blends and gasoline; that such legis- 

 lation be enacted by interpolating suit- 

 able and adequate sections into the 

 present gasoline tax laws; that the blend 

 be not more than a 10 per cent blend of 

 alcohol with gasoline; that legislatures 

 define alcohol for blending as 199 proof 

 ethyl alcohol made from farm products 

 grown within continental United States; 

 that the tax differential be not less than 

 1 H cents per gallon in favor of the blend 

 as agrainst gasoline; that congress enact 

 suitable legislation leading to the use of 

 power alcohol with gasoline throughout 

 the United States as a relief measure 

 for the disposition of farm surplus rates. 

 Members of the legislative committee 

 are: Wm. W. Buffum, Chemical Founda- 

 tion, New York City; Philip A. Tomek, 

 David City, Nebraska; F. W. Hanna, An- 

 keny, la.; Congrressman Everett M. Dirk- 

 sen, Pekin, Illinois; E. D. Lawrence, di- 

 rector, I. A. A., Bloomington, Illinois; 

 Harry Miller, Moscow, Idaho; and H. A. 

 Robinson, Yankton, S. D. — E. G. T. 



Soybean Growers Eye 



'35 Market Outlook 



Spurred on by good prices for the rec- 

 ord crop of 9,600,000 bushels of soybeans 

 produced last year in Illinois, members 

 of the Soybean Marketing Association 

 will gather in the Orlando Hotel, Tues- 

 day, March 5, to consider marketing 

 plans for 1936. 



The State College of Ag^riculture esti- 

 mates that Illinois produced 54 per cent 

 of the national crop last year which was 

 6,000,000 bushels more than the 1933 

 crop. The drouth unquestionably offered 

 the chief stimulus to the increased soy- 

 bean acreage. Thousands of farmers who 

 never before had grown this crop, planted 

 soybeans for hay when their clover seed- 

 ing was killed by dry weather last spring. 



The demand for seed during recent 

 months has been an important factor in 

 the steady advance of soybean prices. 

 The fact that a large acreage was cut 

 for hay due to the general failure of 

 forage crops, is credited with advancing 

 the price of beans early last fall. Wide- 

 spread publicity showing the advantages 

 of soybean hay in drouth relief areas had 

 an important bearing on the wide de- 

 mand for seed. Diseases and insects rare- 

 ly damage soybeans and this fact has 

 increased the popularity of the crop in. 

 the central west. The small flaxseed crop, 

 too, and shortage of linseed oil turned 

 manufacturers toward soybean oil as an 

 ingredient in paint mixtures. 



18 



I. A. A. RECORD 



