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Readers are invited to contribute to 

 this column. Address letters to Edi- 

 tor, Room 1200, 608 So. Dearborn 

 St., Chicago. 



Urbana, 111. 

 It was indeed a nice writeup you gave the 

 Farm Advisers who served a long time in 

 Illinois. However, you omitted the name of 

 H. C. Wheeler, Lawrence county. Mr. Wheeler 

 has served in Lawrence county as its only 

 farm adviser starting there May 1, 1920. 

 J. C. Spitler, State Leader 

 Farm Advisers 

 To Mr. Spitler our thanks — Editor. 



'■■ •■•'■■ • •Columbus, Ohio 



Your editorial on Ojnsumer Cooperation, 

 in the August issue, has just been called to 

 my attention. I am most happy to see that 

 you recognize this development even though 

 you seem to have a good many questions 

 about it. 



I am taking the liberty of sending you some 

 material, which I hope you can find the time 

 to look over, because I believe this is one 

 of the coming issues and I believe, as farm- 

 ers, we have more than a passing interest in 

 the movement. I would like to give you 

 some of the reasons that led up to my in- 

 terest in it. 



For some time it has seemed to me that if 

 we face facts, the realization is forced upon 

 us that in spite of all the effort put forth by 

 various Farm Bureaus and others, that we have 

 made none too good progress toward reflect- 

 ing to our members the percentage of the 

 national income farmers are entitled to, in 

 relation to the whole population. You have, 

 of course, seen Secretary Wallace's figures in 

 which he shows that back in 1850 farmers 

 constituted 65 per cent of the total popula- 

 tion in the United States and received 35 per 

 cent of the nation's income. Now, farmers 

 constitute about 24 per cent of the total pop- 

 ulation, but receive only 9V2 P*'' ^^^^ "f 'he 

 income. Measured by any other yardstick, I 

 think you will agree that there is much yet 

 to be done to improve the financial and social 

 position of the people that live on the farm. 



It was with these things in mind that I 

 started to analyze, not only the agricultural 

 situation, but frankly started out to investigate 

 other movements that I thought might help us 

 in this situation. One of my first conclusions 

 seemed to be that we were making too little 

 progress in the distribution of farm products. 

 We have spent tens of thousands of dollars 

 to develop cooperative marketing, so have you 

 folks in Illinois and the Farm Board came in 

 and added millions, and yet can we say today 

 that we made any appreciable dent in reflect- 

 ing to the farmers a greater share of the con- 



BEN BULLINGTON 

 "I Challenge Any Farmer in the State to a 

 Game of Checkers." ." \ ■ 



sumer's dollar. Another matter concerned me. 

 During the time that we have made these con- 

 tributions to the marketing projects of our 

 activities, I found that everything we under- 

 took, as farm consumers, not only proved self- 

 supporting from the beginning, but had con- 

 tributed considerable simis to the marketing 

 work. Therefore, I began to question as to 

 whether or not, for some reasons, consumer 

 action was more potent than producer ac- 

 tion 



Unless I can secure information that hasn't 

 yet come to my attention, I am beginning to 

 believe that farmers alone cannot regulate the 

 present distributive system. The packers, 

 grain merchants and milk distributors are too 

 well entrenched and too powerful. I grant 

 that cooperative marketing has done much to 

 assure proper grades and weights and to some 

 small degree has lowered handling margins. 



HERE HE IS BOYS! 



Ole Oltman, right, checler-playing ace from 

 Whiteside County, who was first to accept the 

 challenge of Ben Bullington of Christian County 

 to beat any farmer in the State in a checkers 

 tournament at the Farm Sports Festival at 

 Urbana, September 4 and 5. He Is shown 

 playing with Farm Adviser Frank H. Shuman. 

 "He beat me easily," writes Frank. 



Ole isn't going to be the only one there to 

 try and vanquish Bullington. Many other entries 

 have been received in this event, and it looks 

 as though it's going to be a free-for-all with 

 no holds barred. Anything goes in the checkers 

 tournament; better come and see it, Saturday 

 morning at Illinois Field. 



but as a solution of the farm problem, I am 

 more and more convinced that cooperative 

 marketing is only one step. 



Murray D. Lincoln 



Secretary, 



Ohio Farm Bureau Federation '".- 



Cook County Fanners 



Get Needed Bridge 



When farmers are organized, they get 

 attention. This was again proved when 

 the transportation division of the lAA 

 got action on a petition by 80 Cook 

 county farmers requesting a bridge across 

 a drainage ditch near South Holland. 



Badly damaged by a heavy truck which 

 crashed into it, the bridge was closed, 

 and for more than a year farmers were 

 forced to use a detour. Efforts were 

 made by these farmers to get the High- 

 way Department to reconstruct the bridge 

 or repair it, but wi'^hout success. 



Then they signed a petition for help 

 and sent it to the lA A. Action was taken 

 and work on th"; bridge started shortly. 

 A letter from John J. Van Drunen of 

 South Holland, Farm Bureau member, 

 says: 



"Just a few words to let you know 

 how we, as farmers, ftel in regard to 

 your work on the Vincennes Avenue 

 road. 



"We all feel highly pleased for the 

 work you have done. The bridge is com- 

 pleted and what a bridge — brand new 

 — much stronger than it ever was, fit for 

 a twenty-five ton load." 



Asks Fair Treatment 



For Grain Co-operatives 



Irving B. Goldsmith, counsel for 

 Farmers National Grain Corporation 

 at a recent hearing advocated rules and 

 regulations under the Commodity Ex- 

 change Act to prevent a grain exchange 

 • from discriminating against co-opera- 

 tives in publishing volume of handlings 

 or giving the press other facts about the 

 business of cooperatives. 



"Cooperatives are asking only fair and 

 equal treatment as among other members 

 of a grain exchange," Goldsmith said. 

 "If the exchange is to publish a statement 

 declaring that volume of business of 

 member X is likely to show an increase, 

 while volume of member Y is likely 

 to show a decrease, then cooperatives 

 have no objections. They do object to 

 bein(j singled out among all members 

 and having their figures published to the 

 world, with interpretations nut upon 

 those figures by the exchange itself. 



If consumer incomes continue to in- 

 crease, within a few yeirs farmers will 

 be getting 50 cents out of every dollar 

 consumers pay for food, says R. W. Bart- 

 lett of the University of Illinois. 



12 



L A. A. RECORD 



