i 



"I quit taking it," was the comment 

 (with a knowing smile) of a thoughtful 

 western Illinois Farm Bureau member. 

 He was speaking of a certain Chicago 

 daily I had mentioned. This "newspaper" 

 has abandoned all pretense of keeping 

 its news and editorial columns separate. 

 Much of the news it prints is highly col- 

 ored and usually covers only that which 

 is favorable to the paper's policies. It 

 has degenerated into a propaganda sheet 

 for the commission men, the grain trade 

 and the reactionary element of both po- 

 litical parties. No wonder thousands of 

 former subscribers have "quit taking it." 

 The growing skepticism of readers of 

 big city dailies is a most hopeful sigfn. 



The best news you read nowadays is 

 on the financial paees. The editorial 

 columns and the political news writers 

 may be forecasting calamity. But the 

 business news items tell a different 

 story. 



You read that the International Har- 

 vester Co. is spending a million dollars 

 at Moline modernizing its farm equip- 

 ment p'ant. That means jobs for work- 

 men. Money to buy bread and butter, 

 ham and eggs, clothing and maybe a sec- 

 ond hand flivver. The automobile indus- 

 try, says another dispatch, is spending 

 some $100,000,000 in plant expansion. 

 The steel mills at South Chicago and 

 Gary are running at 48 per cent of ca- 

 pacity. That means a profit, much more 

 encouraging than the 20 per cent of two 

 years ago. 



"Cheerful Trade Outlook Sends Stocks 

 Higher," is another head line. "Ticker's 

 Buzz is Music to LaSalle Street," tells 

 you that more people are ,taking a flyer 

 on the stock market. They quickly for- 

 get the past. The telephone companies 

 report a pickup in Jong distance calls. 

 Corporations are raising their dividends. 

 The bond market is higher than a cat's 

 back. Rising prices for real estate are 

 putting new life into mortgage loans 

 and real estate bonds. No question that 

 better times are returning. 



What started all this? Different peo- 

 ple will give you different answers. 

 Higher prices for farm products probably 

 comes first. Farmers are trading com 

 and hogs, wheat and milk, beef, cotton, 

 rice, and truck crops for farm machinery, 

 automobiles, lumber, cement, wire fence, 

 paint, trips around the country, and a lot 

 of other things. The exchange value of 

 farm products is much higher than it 

 was — not what it should be yet, but much 

 better. 



SEPTEMBER, 1935 



You read about the strike of Detroit 

 housewives against the price of meat. 

 Hogs are scarce on the market just now 

 and the price is good if you have hogs 

 to sell. But even today's hog prices do 

 not justify 40c pork chops and 50c ba- 

 con. The housewives better look into 

 packers, wholesalers, and butchers "per- 

 centages." My wife tells me that bacon 

 and beef prices vary as much as 10c to 

 12c a pound for the same quality at 

 neighborhood shops. The cost of handling 

 is too high. 



Editor Comments On 



Earl Smith Address 



This price question is important. Peo- 

 ple rebel either openly or silently when 

 the price they get or pay is out of line. 

 When com was 15c and wheat 40 farmers 

 who could afford to held on. They struck. 

 And no strike yet staged can compare 

 with the buying strike farmers unob- 

 trusively put on in 1932 and early '33. — 

 E. G. T. 



The Farmers Equity Union News 

 published at Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, 

 recently reproduced part of the address 

 of President Earl Smith before the Chi- 

 cago Association of Commerce last 

 spring. 



Commenting editorially on the state- 

 ment which shows the inter-relationship 

 between agriculture and industry and the 

 need for restoring farm buying power 

 the editor says: 



"It is important that our readers study 

 the above article by Earl C. Smith, as 

 this article gives us the facts as to how 

 agriculture affects business and labor. 

 These are the important figures that 

 prove to us that agrriculture is the log 

 that is holding the country from natural- 

 (Continued on Page 11) 



Among Our County Farm Bureau Presidents 



If you want to do a little friendly 

 "boss tradin", more than likely you'll 

 get an enthusiastic reception if you 

 look up A. B. Schofield, the hand- 

 some, ruddy-complexioned president 

 of the Ford County Farm Bureau. 

 For next to keeping in close touch 

 with everything that's going on in and 

 about the Farm Bureau, and lending 

 a helping hand 

 here and there, 

 Schofield enjoys 

 raising and oc- 

 casionally trad- 

 ing and selling 

 horses. He al- 

 ways has a few 

 purebred B e 1 - 

 gians around 

 and his love of 

 good horse flesh 

 is matched by 

 his industry in 

 maintain i n g a 

 well-k e p t 280 

 acre grain and 

 livestock farm west of Paxton where 

 his neat, painted buildings may be 

 seen from the paved road. 



Mr. Schofield was bom in Woodford 

 county, Illinois where he attended 

 country school and later the £1 Paso 

 High School. As a young man he 

 worked for several years as city 

 salesman for an oil company in Pe- 

 oria. His inherent love of the farm 

 later asserted itself when he and Mrs. 

 Schofield moved to a 160 acre grain 

 and livestock farm in Rusk county, 

 northern Wisconsin. 



Desiring to farm on a larger scale 

 he later moved to the Mississippi bot- 

 toms near Gorham in Jackson county, 

 Illinois where he operated 1,200 acres 

 devoted largely to grain, cotton and 

 hay. Mr. Schofield was probably the 

 first man in Illinois to grow rice. His 

 experimental field of six to seven acres 



A. B. BCHOFIEU) 



yielded 97 bushels to the acre. After 

 the rice was up the field was flooded 

 with water obtained from a nearby 

 railroad supply tank. Hundreds of 

 people came to Gorham to see the 

 crop as it approached maturity. 



The Schofield farmstead at Gorham 

 was in the direct path of the tornado 

 which swept through southern Illinois 

 in March 1924. All of the buildings 

 were destroyed at a considerable loss 

 but fortunately the family escaped 

 with their lives. The next year he 

 moved to Ford county where he has 

 resided for the past 10 years. 



Mr. Schofield was elected to the 

 board of directors of the Farm Bu- 

 reau eight years ago. His leadership 

 and aggressiveness was at once recog- 

 nized by his election as president a 

 year later. He has been a member 

 of his local school board for 15 years, 

 is a member of the high school board, 

 president of the Ford County Serv- 

 ice Co., president of the county ware- 

 house board, was president of the Pro- 

 ducers Creamery of Champaign dur- 

 ing its organization, and is chairman 

 of the county debt conciliation com- 

 mittee. He also served on the I. A. 

 A. board for two years beginning in 

 1931, is a member of the Ford County 

 Board of Review and for several years 

 Tias served on the Illinois Farm Bu- 

 reau Serum Association board. 



As a member of the Paxton Service 

 Club, Schofield has done much to ac- 

 quaint the business men of his town 

 with the work of the I. A. A. and 

 Farm Bureau, and with the various 

 production adjustment programs. He 

 is a member of the Baptist Church. 



The Schofields have three children. 

 John will be a junior at the Univer- 

 sity of Illinois next year; Helen oper- 

 ates a dress shop in Paxton, and Mil- 

 ton is a senior in the local high schooL 



