Farmers National Annual Meeting 



ES. A. O'HEAL 



ORGANIZED farmers have just 

 made a start on the road to 

 equality for agriculture, Edward 

 A. O'Neal, president of the American 

 Farm Bureau Federation, told stockhold- 

 ers of the Farmers National Grain Cor- 

 poration at their sixth annual meeting in 

 Chicago September 17. It was a har- 

 monious session. OflScers and directors 

 were re-elected. 



Tracing the history of the farmer.-;' 

 fight for equality growing out of eco- 

 .;; ',. nomic condition.* 



following the World 

 War, he stated that 

 co-operative market- 

 ing by itself was not 

 a solution to farm- 

 ers' problems. "The 

 Agricultural M a r - 

 keting Act was help- 

 ful to the co-opera- 

 tive movement," he 

 said, "but it was 

 merely a palliative. 

 It did not get at tkt 

 roots of the farmers' problems. Our 

 philosophy on co-operative education has 

 been wrong. Co-operative production and 

 co-operative adjustment are necessary to 

 supplement co-operative marketing." 



Reviewing the great effort made by 

 the Farm Bureau movement beginning 

 in 1&19 to develop co-operative market- 

 ing, Mr. O'Neal disclosed how it had 

 failed essentially in bringing about parity 

 prices because it could not control the 

 non - CO - operating, unorganized farmer 

 who broke down the efforts of the co- 

 operators. 



"Every worthwhile achievement or- 

 ganized farmers have gained during the 

 past 50 years," he said, "was the result 

 of political action." He illustrated by 

 pointing to efforts of the Farm Bureau 

 Federations at Houston and Kansas City 

 in 1928 to secure definite commitments 

 and effective agricultural planks from 

 parties and candidates toward establish- 

 ing parity prices for farm products. 



Co-operative marketing has made its 

 greatest advancement, he said, where 

 membership in the general farm organ- 

 izations is strongest. The greatest con- 

 tribution the co-operatives could make 

 toward their own advancement, he con- 

 tinued, is to get farmers to join the 

 general farm organizations. 



Referring to the Commodity Exchange 

 bill which failed of passage in the last 

 session of Congress, the only major bill ' 

 the American Farm Bureau supported 

 that did not get through, he said it would 

 have been enacted if farmers in the 

 south, particularly in South Carolina, the 



home of Sen. Smith, chairman of the 

 Agricultural Committee, were better or- 

 ganized. 



In his annual report President C. E. 

 Huff of Farmers National criticized im- 

 ports of some 83,000,000 bushels of grain 

 for which he said "no need existed." In- 

 telligent control of grain imports when 

 imports are needed, and proper distribu- 

 tion of the total domestic supply when 

 surplus and deficit areas exist formed 

 the central theme of his address. 



During the past fiscal year Farmers 

 National met aM its obligations to credi- 

 tors. While the Corporation suffered a 

 loss of $224,735.81 on a little less than 

 90,000,000 bushels of grain handled, the 

 Corporation continues in strong financial 

 condition with surplus and reserves in 

 excess of $786,000 with unimpaired capi- 

 tal stock of $993,200. Employees num- 

 ber 700 or 474 less than two years ago 

 and the total yearly payroll is less by 

 $1,009,572.24 than two years ago. Dur- 

 ing August the company handled more 

 than 18,000,000 bushels of grain and 

 made a substantial profit. 



"Net profits in a co-operative are not 

 the main motive nor the greatest benefit," 

 said Mr. Huff, "but they are soundly es- 

 sential. We shall plan and hope for 

 profits, but we shall in the meantime 

 try to make service to growers certain." 



Mr. Huff recommended a national con- 

 ference of leaders in co-operative pro- 

 ducer and co-operative consumer groups 

 to work out a basis for mutual under- 

 standing. He warned of the danger of 

 allowing producers and consumers to be 

 played against one another politically by 

 those who expjoit both groups. 



Referring to the report of the McNary 

 Committee on the Federal Farm Board 

 he said: "It is filled from beginning to 

 end with misstatement of facts or mis- 

 leading interpretations and inferences." 



F. W. Peck, Commissioner of the Bank 

 for Co-operatives, gave an interesting 

 and timely address in which he pointed 

 out essentials of successful co-operative 

 enterprise. "The only effective reply to 

 attacks," he said, "is successful perform- 

 ance. Co-operatives must improve their 

 public relations because they are quasi- 

 public institutions and have a public re- 

 sponsibility." 



In the morninjr session. Senator U. C. 

 Wil'iamson, president of the Ameiican 

 Cotton Co-operative Association, made a 

 stirring appeal for continued co-opeia- 

 tion of farmers from the South and West. 

 "We must not let anything come between 

 us," he said. "When- Dr. Wm. E. Dodd 

 told the American Farm Bureau con- 

 vention four years ago that agricultural 

 salvation lay in an alliance of farmers 

 from the South, North and West he was 

 indeed prophetic." | 



Resolutions were adopted supporting 

 the AAA, urging passage of the Com- 

 modity Exchange Bill in the next session 

 of Congress, calling for export by the 

 AAA of burdensome surpluses of non- 

 milling wheat in the Pacific Northwest 

 and asking that a continuation of present 

 efforts be made to bring cost of manage- 

 ment and personnel of the Corporation 

 to a level commensurate with effective 

 and sound operation. 



C. E. Huff of Kansas was re-elected 

 president, G. C. Johnstone of Illinois, 

 first vice-president; and L. L. Hague of 

 Oklahoma, secretary. 



EROSION CONTROL DAM BUILT AT A COST OF ABOUT $200, MORE THAN 10 YEARS 

 «go on L S. Glasgow Farm in Peoria county. A ravin* of (rom six to alght foat daap above 

 the dam has completely filled stopping further gullying. 



I. A. A. RECORD 



