More Than 300 Attend ^ 

 lAA Dinner to 4-H Champs 



Honoring State winners in Illinois 4-H 

 Clubs, a complimentary dinner was given 

 by the Illinois Agricultural Association at 

 the Great Northern Hotel in Chicago, 

 December 2, during International week. 

 A crowd of 308 attended. 



Following a turkey dinner, Paul E. 

 Mathias, corporate secretary of the lAA, 

 welcomed the group in which he called 

 attention to the fact that farming offers 

 as great an opportunity to farm boys and 

 girls for a successful and happy life as 

 any other business. "There is a real 

 need," he said, "for keeping the best 

 leadership and brains on the farm." 



Dorene Hieser, 4-H Club member 

 from Tazewell County, responded by 

 saying, "The I. A. A. and affiliated groups 

 have been leaders in making rural life 

 happier, more secure and worthwhile. 

 We, as 4-H Club members, are being 

 trained for the future, and it will be up 

 to us to carry on your work. With the 

 help and guidance of an organization 

 such as yours, we should be able to 

 reach the goal that has been set for us, 

 and in return, pass on to those of to- 

 morrow even greater opportunities." 



Dean H. W. Mumford of the College 

 of Agriculture, University of Illinois, was 

 the main speaker. He stated that the 

 youth today had before him an open 

 road. This is particularly true of 4-H 

 Club boys and girls. 



"You are important individuals," Dean 

 Mumford said. "Get rid of your in- 

 feriority complex — but at the same time, 

 do not get a superiority complex. 



In speaking of the road of life. Dean 

 Mumford asked the group, "Will you 

 slow down to meet the curves.'* Happy 

 successful living often is the result of 

 traveling over the rough road rather than, 

 the smooth. 



"The opportunities ahead are much 

 greater than those behind us," he added. 

 "We have the greatest government in 

 the world .... and I know of no state 

 in the United States which holds as great 

 opportunities to young people as Illi- 

 nois." 



C. E. Bamborough of Polo represented 

 the board of directors. 



State 4-H Club winners were presented 

 to the crowd by Mary A. McKee and E. I. 

 Pilchard, specialists in Junior Club Work 

 for the University of Illinois. The win- 

 ners included: 



Jesse Allen and Glenn Anderson, Ford 

 County; Charles Barshinger, DeKalb; Charles 

 Bennett, Livingston; Tilman Blunier, Wood- 

 ford ; Ivan Bossert, Kankakee ; Marion Clay- 

 berg and Doris Taylor, Fulton; Raymond 



French, Russell Litchfield, Wayne Wilson, 

 Phyllis Read and Shirley Knoll, Marshall-Put- 

 nam; Webster Gehring, Knox; Robert Hamil- 

 ton and Robert Harris, McDonough; J. Oren 

 Kuhn, LaSalle. 



Alvin Mavis, Francis Potts and Robert Sum- 

 mers, Sangamon; Kenneth Paarlberg, Cook; 

 James Reid and Frances Gale, Winnebago; 

 Harold Rogers, Menard; Harold Reusch, Jo 

 Daviess; Paul Safford, Edgar; Herman TirAm, 

 Kankakee; Rudolph Wagner, Grundy; Mar- 

 garet Chamberlin and Audrey Wilson, Coles; 

 Ruth Plapp, DeKalb; Mary Lu Meyers and 

 Dorothy May, DeWitt; Marjorie Ann Hagen, 

 Grundy; Charlotte Elmore, Jackson; Marjorie 

 Kane and Harriet Edwards, Lake; Shirley 

 Knoll, LaSalle; Mary Blackburn, Marion. 



Constance Kircher, Pike; Marian Boardman, 

 Rock Island; Louise Densch, Saline; Inez 

 Biehler, Shelby; Ruth Crosman and Dorene 

 Hieser, Tazewell; Jesse L. Finley, Vermilion; 

 Esther Palmer and Bessie Kennedy, Will, and 

 Ruth E. Mitchell, Williamson. 



The Illinois delegation to Club Camp at 

 Washington, D. C, was announced as Harold 

 Morine of Marshall-Putnam, Charles Norton, 

 Bureau, who was second in the 1936 lAA 

 calendar essay contest, Phyllis Goodwin. Will 

 County and Lucille Hiller, Jackson County. 



A. F. B. F. Convention 



"S 



F there is one message that 

 I would like to leave with 



the farmers of America it is 



this: stick to your friends, stick to your 

 program. Stand by those who have 

 made a program possible." 



So spoke Congressman Marvin Jones, 

 chairman of the House Committee on 

 Agriculture before the annual conven- 

 tion of the American Farm Bureau 

 Federation in sunny California Dec. 9- 



And so did the Federation follow the 

 advice of Rep. Jones by scheduling 

 many an old friend to speak at the 

 convention, by reaffirming the same 

 policies and program adopted in earher 

 conventions, and by paying tribute to 

 those friends and leaders in public life 

 who made substantial enactment of the 

 Farm Bureau program possible. 



The convention plumped for produc- 

 tion control to maintain fair price levels 

 for farm products, announced its sup- 

 port for amendments to existing laws 

 or new legislation if necessary, to at- 

 tain this goal. 



On the tariff, the delegates came out 

 for only such tariff protection for 

 American farm products as is needed to 

 protect the home market from com- 

 peting imports that force prices below 

 parity levels. 



It advocated reduction of excessive 

 industrial tariffs, storage of seasonal 



crop surpluses so as to withhold them 

 from market channels, and federal 

 warehouse loans on commodities. 



Extend the authority now given the 

 President to revalue gold until a mon- 

 etary authortiy is created; let congress 

 exercise its obligation to regulate the 

 currency and maintain a managed cur- 

 rency said another resolution. 



Continuance of the 3^/2 P^r cent rate 

 on federal farm loans, opposition to 

 truck regulation that increases farmer's 

 transportation costs, opposition to di- 

 version of motor fuel taxes from road 

 use, were advocated or expressed. Re- 

 affirmed was the lengthy tax resolu- 

 tion adopted in 1933 (limit property 

 taxes, base taxation according to income, 

 retire the public debt, economy, elim- 

 inate tax exempt securities, etc.). Rec- 

 ommended for further study was the 

 subject of crop insurance. 



Hog cholera serum manufacturers 

 operating under AAA amendments pro- 

 viding for marketing agreements have 

 been fixing prices. This farmers would 

 stop by repealing the amendments, pre- 

 vent others from thus increasing the 

 cost of farming operations. 



Recommended was a delay in the tak- 

 ing over of soil conservation adminis- 

 tration by the states until July, 1940, 

 when "sufficient experience may be had 

 to point more clearly the essential fac- 

 tors that sho.uld be included in neces- 

 sary state legislation." 



Against monopoUes, for rural electri- 

 fication, for the use of TVA in making 

 cheaper farm fertilizers, for child labor 

 amendment, for world peace were other 

 resolutions. 



President Edward A. O'Neal glori- 

 fied the achievements of organized 

 farmers and the Farm Bureau in par- 

 ticular in his annual address. He 

 charged industrial monopolists were 

 guilty of practicing the philosophy of 

 scarcity, called the Farm Bureau pro- 

 gram one of production for abundant 

 use at parity prices, eulogized the Farm 

 Bureau setup ("agriculture in the coun- 

 ty all under one roof") in Illinois, 

 broadly hinted that agriculture would 

 support an amendment to the Federal 

 Constitution if needed to maintain parity 

 prices for farm products. 



On this latter subject O'Neal said, 

 "if the fundamental objectives of our 

 program cannot be obtained under the 

 Constitution as now interpreted by the 

 Supreme Court, then I am convinced 

 that our farmers are going to demand 

 whatever changes in our Constitution 

 are necessary to restore economic jus- 

 tice to agriculture." 



Delegates from New York, never 

 sold on production control because 

 eastern dairymen buy corn belt feeds, 

 nevertheless went along. 



JANUARY. 1937 



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