EDITORIAL 



The Growing Need For Cash 



^"^^ HE steady expansion of rural electric lines over 

 ^^ — -^ the state is a reminder of the growing dependence 

 ^^ of agriculture on cash income. A century or 

 more ago things were different. Then nearly everything 

 farmers used was produced on the farm — clothing, fuel, 

 candles for light, oxen and horses for power, and food. 

 There was little need for cash. Barter and exchange were 

 common. You could trade butter and eggs, wheat and 

 com for the comparatively few maunfactured articles 

 needed. There was no farm debt to speak of. The farm 

 was relatively independent from the outside world. 



The picture is different today. The horse has largely 

 given way to the the automobile, truck, and tractor. Besides 

 the original cost of the machine, needed motor fuels and 

 lubricants absorb a constant stream of cash. Civilization 

 with all its splendid inventions and manufactured articles 

 to lighten labor has come. We welcome them. No one 

 wants to go back to the old primitive, back-breaking 

 methods. But let us recognize what the change means. 

 The farmer has a much larger stake in maintaining fair 

 prices for his products than before. He is more dependent 

 on a balanced economic system. The exchange value of 

 farm produce has a new meaning. 



And because the farmer has become such an ex- 

 tensive buyer of manufactured goods and services the 

 city industrial worker has a large stake in agriculture, too. 

 His job depends on keeping the farmer as a customer. 

 The task of maintaining balanced prices that result in the 

 most rapid exchange of goods and services between all 

 groups is the biggest problem facing the country. Our 

 future welfare as a nation depends on its solution. 



Deep Rooted 



^^V^ HE 25th anniversary celebration of the DeKalb 

 ^»»— ^ County Farm Bureau and the 20th anniversary 

 ^__y celebration in Morgan county are additional re- 

 minders that the organization has sunk its roots deeply 

 into the life and activity of rural Illinois. 



Commenting on the celebration Sept. 16 in Jackson- 

 ville, the Jacksonville Journal pays tribute to the county 

 organization in words that are applicable to the Farm Bu- 

 reau throughout Illinois. 



"The record of the Farm Bureau is actually a record 

 of the progress of rural life in the county since 1917. Before 

 that time, farming was pretty much an individual affair. 

 Farmers were unorganized, not only in their desire for 

 better soil, better crops and better markets, but for better 

 homes, good roads, broader educational advantages for their 

 children. 



"Organization of the Farm Bureau drew the agricul- 

 tural interests of the county together. From a small be- 

 ginning the Farm Bureau has grown steadily to a member- 

 ship of 1,100. The Farm Bureau today is a vital force in 

 the lives of several thousand adults and children of the 

 community. Constructive programs have been extended 

 to the boys and girls. There are Future Farmers, 4-H Club 

 members and Rural Youth units, all the result of Farm 

 Bureau encouragement and sponsorship. . . . 



"The Farm Bureau has put farming on a business 

 basis. The progressive farmer today not only tills the soil 

 but keeps a set of books which tells the story of his enter- 



prise in black and white. . . . The years of struggle for the 

 Farm Bureau in Morgan county are over. It has sold it- 

 self to practically all persons interested in agriculture. 

 It is a big, live active organization for the benefit of its 

 members and the community. Such an organization is, 

 indeed, entitled to a feeling of pride as its record is held 

 up in review." 



British Farm Policy 



I RE AT BRITAIN has introduced more drastic re- 

 forms to preserve a prosperous agriculture on the 

 British Isles than anything yet attempted in this 

 country. Beginning in 1931 when the British farmer faced 

 ruin, the government sharply increased import duties on 

 farm products, set up production and price control boards 

 for milk, hogs, grain and other products. 



"The effects of all the measures taken have been 

 to raise farmers' prices and to give them a greater sense 

 of security," writes C. S. Orwin, director of the Economics 

 Research Institute, Oxford, in the Countryman. There, as 

 here, critics have insisted that the government has set up 

 producers' monopolies which, both by forcing prices too 

 high and by restricting output, have worked against the 

 public interest. 



More recently steps have been taken to encourage 

 greater production by selling limestone and phosphates 

 to farmers below cost. Treasury grants will be available 

 to improve land drainage. Farmers will be subsidized 

 who produce clean milk. Great Britain realizes the im- 

 portance of its agriculture and its relation to the national 

 welfare. It is committed to a policy of farm prosperity. 



A Good Law 

 ^"^^ HE state of New Jersey has been diverting gas- 

 ^~-^ oline taxes from highway building and mainte- 

 ^J nance. So, under the Hayden-Cartwright A^ of 

 1934, it must suffer the penalty of having its allotment of 

 Federal-aid road funds reduced one-third ($250,000). 

 New Jersey is the first offender. 



'This Act, passed with the support of organized farm- 

 ers, is a sound one. Every diversion of gas taxes is an 

 injustice to those who pay for road building and mainten- 

 ance. Diversion is especially offensive to the farmer be- 

 cause he is dependent on good roads to market his crops. 

 If revenue is required for other government purposes, it 

 should be raised by the entire body of tax payers, not by 

 the highway users. 



Why Not? 



r"^ k ITH granaries, warehouses, and bins filled to 

 V^y 17 overflowing with wheat, cotton, oats, and with 

 j the largest com crop in years ready for harvest, 

 plans are announced for a reasonable limitation of acreage 

 in 1938. Well why not, the roars of the opposition not- 

 withstanding? As President Smith points out in the article 

 on page 4, "every thinking person knows that our national 

 economy is based upon a system of control in industrial 

 prices, wages, and products .... Farm commodities must 

 be given equal treatment and protection or the whole 

 system sooner or later will again collapse." 



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L A. A. RECORD 



