Poor Relief— A Serious 

 Problem 



(Continued from page 7) 



lied almost wholly upon Federal and 

 State fluids, thereby securing more 

 than their share of the State Retailers' 

 Occupational tax used for relief and 

 large direct appropriations from the 

 State treasury for the same purpose. 



Meanwhile most townships, while pay- 

 ing their full share of occupational taxes 

 and appropriations for relief, were levy- 

 ing heavy taxes for relief of their own 

 destitute, many requiring tax rates of 

 40 or 50 cents, or even more. The taxes 

 extended therefor often amounted to sev- 

 eral dollars per capjta of their entire 

 popMCation. 



In 1934 and especially in 1935, town 

 meetings in many townships, following 

 the example of the counties which were 

 evading their duty, substantially reduced 

 their levies for relief. Senate Bill No. 10 

 is intended to correct this tendency. If 

 allowed to continue it would not only in- 

 crease the inequalities in local taxes for 

 relief, but as evasion became more gen- 

 eral, would probably result finally in the 

 levy of little or no local taxes for relief. 



Will Reduce Need 



Recent legislation providing for old 

 age pensions and for additional Federal, 

 State and local funds for assistance to 

 the blind and to dependent children, when 

 fully in effect, will substantially reduce 

 the funds needed for other forms of re- 

 lief. For this reason it is probable that 

 all necessary funds for relief of destitu- 

 tion can be provided by a tax levy of less 

 than 30 cents in most rural townships, 

 including many having villages or even 

 small cities, and perhaps including some 

 commission-governed counties. 



Such townships and counties as levy 

 less than the 36 cent rate will not be 

 eligible to allocations of relief funds 

 from the State Retailers' Occupational 

 tax and from direct appropriations from 

 the State treasury. The fairness of this 

 provision has been questioned in some 

 rural counties and townships in the be- 

 lief that such taxing districts are entitled 

 to a fair share of such State funds. They 

 sometimes urge that their fair share of 

 such State funds would provide all needs 

 necessary for relief in their taxing dis- 

 tricts. 



Such complaints are made by people 

 who do not appreciate the necessity of 

 requiring local relief taxes as the only 

 effective means of arousing local interest 

 in and securing better administration of 

 relief. The people of such taxing districts 

 are fortunate in being able to handle 

 their own relief problems with a lower 

 tax rate than others must levy. 



The people of the rural townships and 



MR. AND MRS. J. M. ELY 

 "She teas the girl on the next farm." 



With Our County Farm 

 Bureau Presidents 



GRUNDY county in northeastern Illi- 

 nois is small in area but few coun- 

 ties have as high a percentage of 

 rich, black level land. Grundy was one 

 of the first counties to organize a Farm 

 Bureau. It has pioneered in growing 

 sweet clover, developing a heavy short- 

 growing variety known as Grundy Coun- 

 ty white biennial. 



When farmers in Grundy county back 

 about world war time decided to organ- 

 ize a Farm Bureau, J. M. Ely who re- 



counties have been paying and must con- 

 tinue for some time to pay State relief 

 taxes for the benefit of other commu- 

 nities that cannot unaided carry their 

 entire burden. Several proposals, thus 

 far successfully opposed by the I. A. A. 

 and others, have been made to require 

 additional State taxes for this purpose. 



Centralized administration of relief 

 has proved successful in preventing suf- 

 fering from destitution. It has not proved 

 successful in dealing with the undeserv- 

 ing who refuse jobs in industry or ag- 

 riculture because they prefer relief either 

 without work or with the light work so 

 often permitted on work relief jobs. 



In dealing with such people and in 

 handling relief with economy, adminis- 

 tration by local officers who know their 

 own people and are under the observa- 

 tion of local taxpayers, should usually 

 prove better. Wherever such administra- 

 tion fails, it will usually be the fault of 

 the citizens. If it is the fault of the local 

 officials, the citizens have the remedy in 

 the ballot. ,. • -.. ,,.v..-. 



sides north of Mazon was one of the 

 first to get in. A good farmer interested 

 in growing better crops and l.vestock 

 he, along with Harry Hough and other 

 leaders, saw the value of the new move- 

 ment. Since then Grundy has had a 

 thriving county organization. 



Mr. Ely was elected to the board of 

 directors in 1925, chosen for president 

 three years ago. He is a solid con 

 servative man with an appreciation of 

 humor that stands in good stead when 

 there are knotty problems to work out in 

 the Farm Bureau office or on the farm. 



Apologizing for his dressed up appear- 

 ance he said: "I'm just home from a 

 funeral. You seldom see me in anything 

 b'lt old clotheK. Out here working most 

 of the time. It's getting so whenever I 

 dress up, they say, 'There goes Ely, 

 must be another funeral today.' " 



Ely and his married son who lives 

 down the road operate 440 acres of 'and 

 Last year the com mads 64 bu. The oatt 

 were so heavy and tangled that "it hard- 

 ly paid to harvest them," he said. "We 

 couldn't get them cut with all the wet 

 weather." 



So'l conservation is nn -^Id story on 

 the Ely farm. "It's what I've done all 

 my life," he said. "It'll be no problem for 

 us to go along with the new progfram." 

 Corn, oats, soybeans, and sweet and red 

 clover are the principal crops in the ro- 

 tation. 



A good deal of the corn goes into the 

 purfbrcd Duroc Jersey hogs. Mr. Ely 

 thinks the purebred hog business is about 

 washed ur. "I sold boars for $25 last 

 December," he said, "and the barrows 

 brought $37.50 in February. We vacci- 

 nate our own pigs with Farm Bureau 

 serum." 



The Elvs fieure that Aladdin gasoline, 

 (Continued on page 23) 



I. A. A. RECORD 



