Sidelishts on the Peoria 

 Mass Meeting 



By the Editor 



Practically every County Farm Bu- 

 reau president in Illinois was there but 

 not all were able to reach the platform 

 where chairs were reserved. Every en- 

 trance was jam packed 20 to 30 men 

 deep long before the program started. 



It was a get-together of Illinois agri- 

 culture. Dean Mumford and J. C. Spit- 

 ler of the College of Agriculture, Uni- 

 versity of Illinois, Director Walter \V. 

 McLaughlin and Ass't. Director J. H. 

 Lloyd, Senator Simon E. Lantz of Wood- 

 ford county, dean of the farmer mem- 

 bers of the state legislature (invited 

 also were Senator Lohman and chairmen 

 of the House and Senate agricultural 

 committees), presidents and managers of 

 most of the co-operative organizations 

 and commodity groups in Illinois, Sam 

 H. Thompson, former president, W. R. 

 Ogg, secretary, and Sidney Rubinow. 

 publicity director of the A. F. B. F., and 

 many others in addition to the speaker.* 

 sat on the platform. 



The Associated Press had a special 

 reporter there from the Chicago office to 

 broadcast news of the meeting to the 

 world. United Press and International 

 News Service were represented by local 

 correspondents. The Peoria papers. 

 Journal, Star, and Transcript did a good 

 job of reporting the convention carrying 

 almost a full page of pictures and giv- 

 ing the meeting front page streamer 

 headlines. 



"We had pretty nearly as many people 

 here listening to the radio as you had 

 down at the armory," said the manager 

 of the Pere Marquette Hotel. Many 

 women who came to the meeting with 

 their husbands went shopping. 



L. E. Birdsall of Whiteside county, 

 member of the I.A.A. board in 1921, and 

 his daughter Ruth, were among those 

 unable to get into the armory. They 

 heard the program through the loud 

 speakers outside. 



Many a county delegation came be- 

 decked with ribbons and banners ex- 

 pressing their determination to "Keep 

 Prices Up" through retention of the 

 AAA, the processing tax, and crop ad- 

 justment. 



A. E. Richardson and Robt. A. Cowles 

 met Secretary Wallace at 95th St., Chi- 

 cago, where the B. & O.'s Capitol Limit- 

 ed made a special stop, and drove him to 

 Peoria. ._'■ - 



Floyd Keepers, managing editor, rep- 

 resented Prairie Farmer. Editor Clif- 

 ford V. Gregory was away on important 

 busines.s in Indianapolis. Frank Ridgway, 

 agricultural editor reported the meeting 

 for the Chicago Tribune. Bill Drips, ag- 

 ricultural program director of the Na- 

 tional Broadcasting Company was an- 

 other visitor. Ed Bill's station. WMBD, 

 of Peoria broadcast the speeches and 

 made it possible for many unable to get 

 in, to hear the program through auto- 

 mobile radios, in and about hotels, radio 

 .stores, restaurants, etc. 



If it hadn't been for the weather man, 

 the meeting probably would have been 

 held outdoors in the Three-I League 

 baseball park, or in one of the public 

 parks where everyone could see the 

 speakers and have standing room at 

 least. The forecast was for intermittent 

 showers throughout the day. No one 

 knew there would be 16,000 and more 

 people there. 



"Yes I was there with the rest of you 

 nearby farmers on the outside of the 

 Peoria armory looking in," wrote Editor 

 McNaughton in the Pekin Daily Times. 

 "But we got to see all the speakers 

 from the doorway; and by joining a 

 crowd in a beer tavern or about parked' 

 autos with radios we could hear the 

 speeches. Say, there is no doubt about 

 the way the farmers feel about the agri- 

 cultural program. When the vote was 

 called for, 15,999 voted for the AAA and 

 1 against it. Maybe the one was one of 

 the 'fat boys' as Secretary Wallace called 

 them, 'fine Christian gentlemen but fat- 

 fat in the head'. 



"Last night after the meeting some- 

 one asked, 'what was the purpose of the 

 meeting.' As I get it, the purpose was 

 as follows: Anything you start no mat- 

 ter how good soon develops a lot of 

 knockers. Start Dollar Days and pretty 

 soon some merchants are kicking on it. 

 Our system of free schools was nearly 

 kicked to death. So the AAA has de- 

 veloped some vigorous kickers. 



Commodity Dollar 



The American Farm Bureau 

 Federation recently announced that 

 it will carry the figh^ to the floor 

 of the senate if necessary to put 

 the Goldsborough commodity dol- 

 lar amendment in the Banking Act 

 of 1935. 



"We feel that progress has been 

 made in educating both the con- 

 gress and the public as to what 

 President Roosevelt meant when 

 he said: 'I want a dollar with the 

 same purchasing and debt-paying 

 power during a generation' ", said 

 Chester Gray, Washington repre- 

 sentative of the AFBF. 



The Banking Act is now before 

 a sub-committee in the senate com- 

 mittee on banking and currency. 



"On the other side are some men who 

 think they can make more off pork, flour, 

 tobacco, cotton, oil, and breakfast foods 

 if the farmers prices are kept DOWN 

 even if it keeps the farmers in poverty. 

 Facts are about all the acres farmers 

 are holding idle are the ones they used 

 to produce crops to ship to Europe. Now 

 Europe has quit buying." 



Rev. W. L. Barnes, pastor of the 

 Methodist Church at Green Valley says 

 he was victimized by pickpockets at the 

 big meeting. They took his wallet con- 

 taining $190 which he was taking to 

 Delavan to pay for a monument for his 

 mother's grave. Wherever there's a big 

 crowd you'll always find pickpockets 

 and Peoria undoubtedly has its share 

 of the light-fingered gentlemen. If, by 

 chance, anyone found the wallet please 

 return it to Rev. Barnes. 



"It was one of the greatest meetings, 

 if not the greatest, I ever attended", 

 said Don Geyer, manager of the Pure 

 Milk Association. "Earl Smith did a 

 swell job of presiding. There's no ques- 

 tion about how Illinois farmers feel 

 about the crop adjustment program." 



"Everything I have heard about the 

 meeting from farmers has been very 

 favorable", writes J. W. Whisenand, 

 Peoria county farm adviser. "Probably 

 85% of the Peoria business men don't 

 know a single farmer personally. They 

 get too much of their farm news from 

 the metropolitan papers. I think they 

 were a little surprised to learn that any 

 farmers were in favor of the AAA pro- 

 gram. They had an idea that farmers 

 were all pressed under the heel of Dic- 

 tator Com Wallace." 



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L A. A. RECORD 



