Strip Mines Are Stripping 

 Away Land Values 



Landowners Alarmed Over Destruction of Taxable Property 



3^°l 



jONSTER shovels, the largest 

 their kind, work day and 

 night in all parts of Illinois. 

 Farms, sections and townships in their 

 paths are torn away. Earth is piled in 

 great mounds and is no longer valuable. 

 Like animals that root or dig, these giant 

 engines of commerce search for food. 

 And their food is coal. 



With the return of industrial activity 

 there is a demand for cheap fuel with 

 which to operate factories. Deep under- 

 ground mining is expensive save where 

 the coal lies in thick veins and is of 

 good quality. Where coal veins are only 

 two or three feet thick and are less than 

 40 feet below the surface, strip mining 

 is profitable. Much of the coal in Illi- 

 nois is located in shallow veins less than 

 60 feet below the surface. 



Barren Hills Left 



In strip mining the earth is torn away 

 with great electric, Diesel -electric, or 

 steam shovels leaving deep narrow pits 

 at the bottoms of which lies coal. Tracks 

 are laid into the pits and standard rail- 

 way cars are run into the pits to be 

 loaded with coal. 



After the great shovels have done their 

 work, all that Is left of the once fertile 

 farms is a series of barren hills and 

 gullies unfit for any use. But the ser- 

 ious problem resulting from strip min- 

 ing is not the destruction of farm land, 

 it is one of tax readjustment. 



Farmers living in the area of strip- 



BIG CRANES TEAR AWAY 

 at Mother Earth searching for coal. 



ping operations must continue to support 

 their local governments, roads and 

 schools. They must pay the tax bill from 

 the lands that were not used as mines. 

 Each year this bill grows larger as the 

 shovels destroy ever increasing amounts 

 of farm land. Each year the shovels move 

 into new areas and more and more farm- 

 ers are asked to pay the cost of govern- 

 ment from fewer acres. 



Coal mining operators want to buy 

 more land as their present holdings be- 

 come worked out. Landowners know 

 that if they do not sell, to them their 

 taxes will be increased. Nearly always 

 the coal companies are able to buy the 

 land they need to expand operations. In 

 Grundy county last year land was sold 

 for mining purposes at from $70 to $125 

 per acre. 



Delegates to the lAA convention in 

 Chicago in January, recognized the ser- 

 iousness of the problem and asked that 

 a committee be appointed to study the 

 situation. 



Counries now collecting material to 



be sent to the flood area are urged to 

 report their progress to A. R. Wright 

 at the lAA offices. They will be in- 

 formed where to send their contribu- 

 tions in order to reach farmers who are 

 in serious need of the feed. Many 

 counties have already reported excel- 

 lent progress in their flood relief pro- 

 grams. 



A NO MAN'S LAND 

 is the result with earth piled high, ruined 

 forever. 



GIANT SHOVELS LIKE 

 big animals rooting in the ground for food. 



Flood victims on farms in Saline 



county are feeding their livestock feed 

 sent to them by truck from the Piatt 

 Farm Bureau, February 24. Fourteen 

 loads of grains and hay made up the 

 first shipment. Farm Bureaus of other 

 counties are sending additional feeds 

 to other counties in the flooded area. 



Champaign County Farm Bureau 



sent 30 truck loads of feed to flood 

 stricken counties. Fifteen of these 

 truck loads were distributed by the 

 Massac County Farm Bureau to farmers 

 who need feed for their livestock. The 

 remainder of the consignment from 

 Champaign county went to Golconda 

 for distribution by the Pope-Hardin 

 Farm Bureau. 



W. K. Mason, Buda, age 80, joined 



the Bureau County Farm Bureau on 

 February 19, reports George D. 

 Springer, county organization director. 

 Charles Bitting who signed him claims 

 the distinction of signing the oldest 

 new member in the state. 



Tile business men of Henry ran a 



full page ad in the local News-Repub- 

 lican congratulating the Marshall-Put- 

 nam Farm Bureau on its plans for secur- 

 ing a permanent home of its own in 

 Henry. 



MARCH, 1937 



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