I 



of 150 Barred Rocks. She has in her 

 the industry, thrift, and pioneering 

 spirit of her ancestors who settled 

 near Alliance in northwestern Nebras- 

 ka where she was born. It was there 

 Mrs. Davie met her husband, who, 

 like many a young man, wanted to 

 see something of the West before 

 settling down for a serious business 

 of making a living and rearing a 

 family. 



Mr. Davie doesn't hesitate to give 

 credit to the Farm Bureau for the 

 benefits it has brought him. The coun- 

 sel of the Farm Advisor, he'll tell you, 

 has been valuable in working out a 

 profitable crop rotation system in im- 

 proving his livestock and in maintain- 

 ing soil fertility. He appreciates the 

 money-saving Farm Bureau insurance 

 and oil services. The Davies have in- 

 surance policies in the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Mutual, Farmers Mutual and 

 Country Life. 



But surpassing these in importance, 

 Dan Davie believes, is the influence 

 farmers can exert through organiza- 

 tion looking toward a permanent solu- 

 tion of the farm surplus and price 

 problem. By thinking and working 

 together, he says, farmers can achieve 

 far greater things in the future than 

 they thus far have accomplished. 



— Editor. 



President 

 Smith 



(Continued) 



the "Service Board", where every reasonable 

 approach to their respective problems has 

 been carefully considered. 



Although largely developed previous to 

 and during depression years, each company 

 continues without debt of any kind or 

 character and, with the exception of the 

 Illinois Livestock Marketing Association, 

 each company has its capital intact, has met 

 all capital obligations, in many cases has re- 

 turned large patronage dividends, and, in 

 addition, has added substantially to its 

 surplus. 



Credit Due Members 



Credit for this splendid record is largely 

 due the members of the Farm Bureau move- 

 ment of Illinois, because of their continuing 

 interest, support and confidence. I should 

 not and do not overlook that much credit 

 for the continued success of these companies 

 is due to the untiring and capable efforts 

 of the respective managers and others carry- 

 ing differing degrees of responsibility 



I have no misgiving nor am I uneasy as 

 to the relationship existing between the 

 respective corporations and the Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Association at the state office. 

 Sometimes I hear, however, that some of 

 these services as administered in some of 

 the counties have a tendency to ignore the 

 influence of the Farm Bureau or to resent 

 suggestions directed toward the policy of 



their operation. It is only natural that 

 throughout the years changes have frequently 

 taken place in the directors selected by the 

 membership to guide the program and per- 

 sonnel of the County Farm Bureaus and the 

 Illinois Agricultural Association. It is not 

 surprising that we learn from time to time 

 of directors who are not fully informed as 

 to the well established relationship and the 

 control features provided for the Farm 

 Bureaus in the early days of the organization 

 of these business corporations. May I sug- 

 gest to the delegates and all leaders and 

 representative members in attendance that 

 they take such time as is required to review 

 these established relations and lines of re- 

 sponsibility. By keeping all those charged 

 with the responsibility of directing policies 

 of the Farm Bureau movement currently 

 informed as to these protective factors, no 

 one need feel uneasy or restless in looking 

 forward to the relations of the future, even 

 though the operations of these companies 

 may become much larger than they are at 

 the present time. 



Not only is it well to keep informed on 

 past developments and any change in rela- 

 tionships made necessary by current condi- 

 tions, but each County Farm Bureau Board 

 of Directors should be keenly conscious of 

 its responsibilities for the general direction 

 of administrative policies of the service 

 institutions in their respective counties. This 

 is equally true of every activity that carries 

 the official support of the Farm Bureaus or 

 the Illinois Agricultural Association. 



We should not forget that had it not been 

 for the Farm Bureau movement of this 

 nation, there would not have been an Agri- 

 cultural Adjustment Act. Neither would 

 the farmers have been prepared when the 

 Adjustment Act was invalidated to secure 

 the passage of the Soil Conservation and 

 Domestic Allotment Act of 1936. 



We Are Responsible 



Are we not as an organization responsible 

 to the farm people of Illinois for general 

 policies of procedure exercised in the ad- 

 ministration of such laws? If we carry this 

 responsibility, we must exercise the organi- 

 zation's influence in seeing that such laws are 

 administered in line with the statement of 

 purposes and policies as enunciated in the 

 laws themselves. We must never forget 

 that the average business is no better than 

 its management. It is equally true that no 

 law can be better than its administration. 

 As an organization, we carry tremendous 

 responsibility to be ever vigilant in discharg- 

 ing these duties and responsibilities in a 

 constructive, helpful way 



Policies of eovernment and laws are sub- 

 ject to constant change. They may be de- 

 flected from a true course in one way or 

 another by this or that pressure group 

 determined to serve its particular interest. 

 Shall we not, therefore complete the organi- 

 zation of the most stable group of citizens 

 in our national life and thus more effectively 

 move forward in the support of the highest 

 ideal of a democracy — equality of op- 

 portunity for all? 



We Have Come Thru 



When the history of this generation is 

 written, Illinois farmers will be proud of 

 the constructive influence they have given to 

 the development of sound policies for the 

 welfare of the state and nation. We have 

 come through hard and discouraging years 

 with an increased membership and with 

 firm conviction as to the ultimate and perma- 

 nent solution of our major problems. As an 

 organization, county, state and nation wide, 

 we are engaged in building a national agri- 

 cultural policy that we believe necessary to 

 avoid a famine of cash income when farmers 



produce too much and a feast of high prices 

 when we produce too little. I fully appre- 

 ciate the tremendous difficulties involved in 

 leveling off the peaks and valleys in price 

 curves, yet this problem presents a challenge 

 to organized farmers to find a solution. 



In many respects organizations are not 

 unlike individuals. When inscriptions are 

 written on the archives of memory, little 

 will be thought or said of our material suc- 

 cess; instead, thereon will be engraved the 

 contribution our organization has made to- 

 ward the betterment of mankind through 

 loyal, intelligent service, whether in the 

 community, in the state, or in the nation. 

 The Farm Bureaus and the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association are rededicated to this 

 service. 



Consumer 

 Cooperatives 



(Continued) 



but relationship with labor and of setting up a 

 two arm joint arbitration board, one a con- 

 sumer labor board and the other a consumer 

 cooperative farm board. All questions of 

 relationship are referred to these boards and 

 there is seldom occasion when they are not 

 amicably worked out in a sensible way. 



The consumer cooperative movement in Den- 

 mark, like the consumer marketing movement, 

 is almost entirely a farmer movement. The 

 cooperative wholesale society in Denmark 

 probably has eighty per cent farmer owner- 

 ship. It is a farmer movement owned by the 

 same people, not the same company. But 

 the store and village are owned by the same 

 people who own the egg packing plant or 

 cream plant or baking factory, so the question 

 of relationship does not arise there. . . . 



I cannot possibly imagine the cooperative 

 commonwealth idea, the collective ownership 

 of farms, the total elimination of private prop- 

 erty. I cannot imagine those ideas taking 

 hold among the farm people of America. I 

 am not clever enough to visualize the kind 

 of rural civilization, if any, we would have 

 if we did follow out those theories. But. at 

 any rate, I think we ought to understand it. 

 I think we can go farther than that. I think 

 with the influence that organized agriculture 

 has in this country we can perhaps use that 

 influence as occasion arises to try to turn the 

 consumer cooperative line of thought and ac- 

 tion in this country from the English and 

 Scotch theory over to the Swedish theory. . . . 



Not A Cure-all 



Consumer cooperation is not going to be a 

 cure-all for all the ills of human existence and, 

 in particular, it is not going to solve the 

 farm problem. Even if we were to follow 

 entirely the philosophy of the Swedish people 

 or the plans of the Swedish people in their 

 consumer cooperative enterprise, even then it 

 is not a solution of the farm problem. The 

 farm problem still remains a problem for 

 farmers to solve through their cooperative 

 marketing organizations, through their own 

 farm organizations and in their own way. 



I hope I shall not live to see the day when 

 the farmers of America are as helpless to help 

 themselves as the farmers of Great Britain, 

 almost completely unorganized, found them- 

 selves when the depression came along and 

 hit them. So let us watch this new rooster 

 in the barnyard. Let us not get out the ax 

 and chop off his head. . . . 



We are accustomed to competition in Amer- 





32 



I. A. A. RECORD 



