Other Opinions 



From Marshall, III. Herald 



By Harry B. Potter. Editor 



WHEN THE FARMER gets good 

 prices for the things he raises, then 

 every individual in the country is more 

 prosperous, factories are booming; but 

 when the farmer is not getting his fair 

 share of the national income, factory 

 hands are turned out on the street and 

 relief rolls get larger. 



THIS STATE- 

 MENT is not mine, 

 except as I tried to 

 express an idea I 

 heard Earl C. Smith 

 present last Friday. 

 I WAS TO DRIVE 

 160 miles before I 

 got home, and the 

 purpose of the trip 

 was almost solely 

 that I might again 

 hear Earl Smith, 

 H. B. POTTER ^^^^ militant, logical 



leader of Farm Bureau members of Illi- 

 nois, as he spoke before the picnic in 

 Vermillion County. 



THIS IS WHAT happened: I arrived 

 at the picnic grounds at 1:30, just a 

 few minutes before Smith took the plat- 

 form, without having had a chance to 

 eat; I stood while he spoke, and as he 

 concluded I looked at my watch! he had 

 spoken two hours; I neither regretted 

 standing nor listening — my trip was 

 worth while. 



WHILE thinking of the things he 

 said, as I sat in an easy chair at home, 

 I picked up "The American People," a 

 history textbook by David S. Muzzey, 

 now being used in Marshall Township 

 High School, and started to read. 

 SUDDENLY MY EYES fell on this: 

 Whether the government should, 

 and how much it could, help the 

 farmers' situation by further legis- 

 lation are questions on which ex- 

 perts disagree. But the serious 

 truth remains that unless the ag- 

 ricultural class of the nation is 

 sound, prosperous, and contented, 

 all our great industrial and com- 

 mercial wealth is threatened. For 

 . the farm is still the basis of the 

 .' nation's prosperity. 



YES, Brother, and it will remain so! 

 ■ CLARK COUNTY'S biggest commer- 

 cial interest is the farm factory, and al- 

 ways will be; the same is true of Cook 

 County. 



I LISTENED, as I say, with much 

 interest to Smith as he told how the 



McNary-Haugen bill and the AAA were 

 measures sought by organized agricul- 

 ture to help the farm factory do what 

 the machinery factory could do — control 

 the surpluses; 



HOW the triple A, imperfect as it is, 

 was being corrected from an emergency 

 measure to a permanent policy for agri- 

 culture by simplifying it. and extending 

 it where necessary; 



HOW^ over the past ten years the con- 

 gressmen of both parties from down 

 state Illinois had voted for these agri- 

 cultural measures, so the farm bills were 

 not political measures and he spoke in- 

 dignantly of any attempt, within the 

 organization of the farm bureau or out- 

 side, to make a political football of 

 the farmer issues. 



TO GET for the country what the 

 country must have from farmers (gen- 

 eral prosperity), he urged greater and 

 greater interest in organized agricul- 

 ture. 



THE LINES are drawn, he said, and 

 we have much farther to go in getting 

 what we call parity; "we can do it only 

 by organization that will protect us 

 against the misinformation that is 

 spread, intentionally and unintentionally, 

 to the detriment of our programs." 



SMITH said that the AAA was the 

 best thought of the farm organization 

 leaders of the nation, and paid high com- 

 pliment to President Roosevelt for keep- 

 ing the campaign promise he made on 

 this issue — that of letting organized ag- 

 riculture decide. 



AT THE SAME TIME he deplored the 

 taxes in Illinois, citing particularly the 

 attempt now to have the boards of su- 

 pervisors levy for relief; when the extra 

 Ic occupational tax was collecting four 

 times any previous township levies and 

 when it was a promise that this Ic would 

 be used solely for relief and would be 

 sufficient. 



EARL C. SMITH has been pulled from 

 his farm to lead the agriculture of Illi- 

 nois; he has been serving for ten years. 



HE CLAIMS no perfection, and I think 

 I can see that he would like to benefit 

 all farmers. 



IT IS A PITY that all farmers can- 

 not see the value of organization, par- 

 ticularly when the leadership is such as 

 Smith represents. 



AND I SAY THIS, even though on all 

 points at issue I cannot agree with him. 



ILLINOIS is lucky! 



er look for information, advice, and col- 

 lective action? 



A number of years ago, the farmer, 

 traditional individualist, would have had 

 no answer. 



Eventually, however, farming was 

 raised from a desultory occupation to a 

 genuine industry. Farmers realized that 

 the same rules applied to their craft 

 as they did to others. Problems to be 

 solved and measures to be urged called 

 for united efforts. The lone f aimer soon 

 found himself fighting a losing battle 

 without the guidance of the thought and 

 energy of the best men in his business. 

 The farmer found that without co-opera- 

 tion his hopes for the life that agri- 

 culture would give to him could never 

 be realized. 



Today there is the Farm Bureau. In 

 .\dams county there is tho Ac'ams Coun- 

 ty Farm Bureau. This orgarization is 

 the farmer united for the best that agri- 

 culture can give to society and especially 

 to those who themselves live and work 

 on the farm. Its activities embrace every 

 phase of farm life. Its program is pi-ac- 

 tical. Its record shows achievfment. 



During the coming week the Farm 

 Bureau is going out on its mission of 

 interesting farmers in the need of com- 

 mon and combined effort in meeting the 

 farmers' problems. Surely in this age the 

 value of intelligent planning in one'? 

 business needs no new emphasis. 



The Farm Bureau should find its old 

 members back in the fold with many 

 new to welcome before the campaign 

 closes. — Quincy Herald-Whig. 



The Farmers United 



THE business man belongs to his 

 trade association, the worker to hia 

 craft union, the soldier to the 

 Legion. Each looks for guidance to the 

 united effort of men whose welfare de- 

 pends upon the same enterprises. 

 To what organization does the farm- 



1935 Farm Crops 



The estimated yield of corn in the 

 United States was placed as of Sept. 1 

 at 2,183,755,000 bushels by the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture. The forecast 

 for Illinois was 273,204.000 bushels 

 which compares with 140,700,000 bu. 

 last year. 



United States winter wheat produc- 

 tion for the year was estimated at 431.- 

 709,000 bushels and spring wheat 162,- 

 906,000 bushels or a total of 594,615,000 

 bushels. This is approximately 100,000,- 

 000 bushels more wheat than the 1934 

 crop. 



This year's production of oats is esti- 

 mated at 1,181,692,000 bushels or more 

 than double last year's production, bar- 

 ley 283,339,000 bushels, again more than 

 twice last year's, apples 167,864,000 bush- 

 els which compares with 120,670,000 

 bushels in 1934, and peaches 52.200,000 

 bushels against 45,665,000 last year. 



It is estimated that nearly (three- 

 fourths of the Illinois corn crop re- 

 quired favorable weather without kill- 

 ing frost up to the first of October for 

 full maturity. 



OCTOBER. 1935 



