Helping the Farmer Help HimseH 



REX TTIGWBLL 



THERE is a man over in Vermilion 

 County who knows what the Re- 

 settlement Administration can 

 mean to a farmer temporarily down on 

 his luck. 



Harry Brown (of course, this is not 

 his real name) is a corn specialist. Not 

 many years ago he 

 won first prize with 

 his corn exhibit at 

 the International 

 Livestock Exposition 

 and was chosen 

 "Corn King" of Hli- 

 nois. As long as it 

 depended on hard 

 work and ability, 

 Harry was sure to 

 succeed. 



But by 1934, years 

 of 15-cent com had 

 wiped out his working capital. In that 

 year, prices were at last rising to a rea- 

 sonable level, but Harry no longer had 

 the animals, tools and seed necessary 

 to raise a crop. 



Faced with the immediate prospect of 

 going on relief, Harry applied to the 

 Government for a loan. The Government 

 loan supervisor saw that Harry was run- 

 ning his farm on the most economical 

 lines. He heard from neighbors that 

 Harry was reliable and hardworking. 

 It was clear that Harry's bad luck was 

 no fault of his own. So the Government 

 loaned him $600, with which he bought 

 two mares, two cows, a sow, a hundred 

 bushels of corn, six tons of hay, five 

 bushels of seed corn, thirty bushels of 

 soy bean seed, and some equipment. He 

 got his own subsistence from livestock 

 and garden products and concentrated 

 on producing corn for seed. The next 

 year he had a big yield. He picked over 

 200 bushels of high grade, selected seed 

 com for which he received more than 

 $1.50 a bushel, and still had about 2,000 

 bushels of corn for feed. Today he is 

 well out of the red and easily able to 

 pay back his loan to the Government. 



Take Time to Play 



(Continued from page 8) 

 and to round out a not only profitable 

 but a more enjoyable life on the farm. 



I was very glad to see the I. A. A. take 

 steps to sponsor a Field Day Program 

 for the farm people of Illinois whereby 

 they will have a chance on September 

 fourth and fifth at Urbana to have two 

 days of recreation. I believe that Illinois 

 farm families will want it as an annual 

 event to look forward to with pleasure 

 and as a reward for their summer's 

 work. — O. B. S.. Henderson countv. 111. 



What the Resettlement Administration 

 Is Doing in Illinois and Other States 



By R. G. TUGWELL, Administrator 



SAVED! 

 Threatensd wlih Mortgage Foreclosure, this 

 Family appealed to the Resettlement't Farm 

 Debt Adjustment Bureau at Champaign, III. 

 Now they "own their own home" again and 

 are assured of security. 



Harry's experience is duplicated by 

 that of thousands of other American 

 farmers. During the past year more 

 than 600,000 farmers in temporary fi- 

 nancial difficulties have been helped back 

 onto the road to economic independence 

 with loans and grants totaling nearly 

 $100,000,000. 



But the roots of farm bankruptcy and 

 rural poverty strike deeper into our 

 economic system than the depression in 

 agriculture. In this country there are 

 more than 100,000,000 acres of sub- 

 marginal farmland on which it is physi- 

 cally impossible to make a living. The 

 barrenness of these farm? condemns 

 the 3,000,000 farm people living on 

 them to a life of increasing poverty. 

 While these poverty-stricken familiee 

 are a constant relief burden on taxpay- 

 ers, their vain attempts to wrest a liv- 

 ing from the land only further diminish 

 its productivity. 



The aim of the program of the Re- 

 settlement Administration is to stop this 

 tragic waste of our human and mate- 



rial resources. We have designed our 

 land use program to meet the need — 

 long recognized by farmers and agri- 

 cultural experts — for the retirement of 

 submarginal land. Altogether we are 

 converting some ten million acres of bar- 

 ren farmland to forest, pasture and simi- 

 lar conservational uses. The work of 

 improving this land is giving employ- 

 ment to farmers stranded in these areas. 

 At the same time we are also making^ 

 provision for the resettlement of ten 

 thousand of these families on produc- 

 tive farms which are already under cul- 

 tivation in other parts of the country. 

 Like their Granger forefathers, the 

 farmers of America are using the 

 agencies of the Federal Government in 

 their fight for economic well-being. 



Loans and Debt Adjustment 



The advance which Harry Brown re- 

 ceived is called a rehabilitation loan. 

 These loans range from $50 to $600. 

 They are made to individual farmers who 

 need temporary financial aid in order to 

 replace the working capital which has 

 been wiped out by long years of ag:ricul- 

 tural depression. During the past year 

 more than 8,000 Illinois farmers have re- 

 ceived loans and supplementary sub- 

 sistence grants totaling nearly $2,000.- 

 000. 



Another product of the ten long years 

 of low farm prices is heavy debt. Farm- 

 ers who borrowed money in good times 

 have been unable to maintain payments 

 on the principal, and interest has gone 

 on piling up. Even at prevailing prices 

 many farmers find it impossible to rid 

 themselves of this heavy burden. 



To help farmers in this position, the 

 Resettlement Administration has set up 

 its system of Farm Debt Adjustment 

 Committees. These committees are com- 

 posed of local citizens who are appointed 

 by the Government and who serve with- 

 out pay. The committees intermediate 

 between debtor and creditor in an effort 

 to get a reduction in the debt or an ex- 

 tension of the time in which it may be 

 paid off. This service is available free 

 of charge to any farmer. Between Sep- 

 tember and June, 1,016 Illinois farm- 

 ers obtained reductions in their debts 

 bv this means. Their total indehted- 



AUGUST, 1936 



