follows: "You farmers must control 

 production. Everyone else does. Why 

 go on producing more when you don't 

 know what to do with it?" 



Mr. Douglas of McLean county said: 

 "Farmers need a production control pro- 

 gram. Ninety per cent will go along 

 voluntarily. If we get parity prices we 

 won't need benefit payments. No one 

 should be allowed to rob the soil." 



Douglas said that a three-year study 

 among Farm Bureau-Farm Management 

 cooperators showed that on $150 an acre 

 land it cost approximately $22 an acre 

 to grow com. 'The ten-year average yield 

 in McLean county, he asserted is 361/^ 

 bushels an acre, which means an average 

 cost of a little over 60 cents a bu. If 

 production goes down to 25 bushels an 

 acre, the cost goes up to 88 cents a 

 bushel. And if the yield advances to 

 50 cents a bushel, the cost goes down to 

 44 <*nts. 



Chester A. Faulkner, Lake county 

 dairyman said: "Dairy farmers want 

 production control, also' a corn loan pro- 

 gram. When the grain and livestock 

 farmers get fair prices they stay out of 

 the dairy business and that helps us. " 



It Made No Difference 



A member of the Flat Glass Workers' 

 Union from Ottawa, LaSalle county, said: 

 "1700 members of our Union are on 

 record endorsing the loan of $1.00 on 

 corn and $1.50 on wheat. I can't see 

 any difference in the cost of living in 

 Ottawa since com dropped from $1.31 

 to 43 cents a bushel." He favored the 

 commodity dollar. 



Owen Stuckel, McDonough county, 

 who has reached his three score years and 

 ten, spoke for the Pope-McGill bill. 



C. F. Castleman, Peoria county, who 

 has been farming since 1893 said: "There 

 is too much fluctuation in price. I be- 

 lieve each farmer should take care of his 

 own surplus and cut down his production 

 to maintain reasonable prices." 



At this point Senator Thomas talked 

 about the deflation of 1920 when he said 

 the party in power took steps to reduce 

 prices by taking $100,000,000 of money 

 a month out of circulation. 



Everett B. Kane, Peoria county, spoke 

 for the pending surplus control legis- 

 lation. He recommended that the gov- 

 ernment take marginal land out of pro- 

 duction. 



Dan Thompson, LaSalle county, said: 

 "We need a $1.00 a bushel loan on 

 com." 



Ben Brandmeyer, Albers, a world war 

 veteran, spoke vigorously for a crop sur- 

 plus control bill. He said the yield on his 

 farm had been more than doubled with 

 limestone and legumes. 



Roy L. Sharrow, Adams county, said: 

 "We farmers feel we ought to have a fair 

 price. We're going to fight until we get 



Oldest Living Blacksmitii 

 Discovered in Clarlc GonnlY 



DAN ELLINGTON 

 "Hia fcrthsr plowed com with oxen." 



it. We believe in soil conservation, which 

 should be part of a permanent program. 

 There is too much fluctuation in corn 

 prices. If the government will help bal- 

 ance the farmer's budget, we'll help 

 balance the budget of the government." 



Fred Goebe, Washington county, said: 

 "The farm problem is a price problem. 

 Prices are too low now. We need surplus 

 control legislation." 



Floyd Morris, secretary of the Sanga- 

 mon Gjunty Soil Conservation Associa- 

 tion, answered critics who sought to pre- 

 vent farmers from speaking who had 

 \helped administer the soil conservation 

 phDgram. "I have spent a good deal of 

 time away from my farm, against my per- 

 sonal wishes," he said. "My time could 

 have been more profitably put in at home. 

 I challenge anyone to deny that farmers 

 in our county have not received full value 

 for what they have paid me for my work 

 as a member of the Soil Conservation 

 Committee." 



James H. Mullen, McDonough county, 

 favored the Pope-McGill bill, opposed 

 sf>eculation, and declared that farmers 

 must prevent seasonal surpluses from 

 driving down prices. 



A witness named Hall, Grundy county, 

 opposed production control, but wanted 

 cost of production. He said he was for 

 the Thomas-Massingale bill. He charged 

 that one of his neighbors lied in report- 

 ing his soil-depleting acreage in the soil 



V ^y OWN in Orange Township, 

 ^^/ J Qark County, Illinois, is Dan 



- J y F. Ellington, a bladcsmith who 

 is still at his work, probably the oldest 

 blacksmith still giving service in the state, 

 reports R. L. Ash, Qark County farm 

 adviser. Ellington 861^ years old, was 

 born May 9, 1851, recalls many incidents 

 during the Civil War. Mr. Ellington's 

 many friends call him "Daniel Boone." 

 He farmed until he was forty years old. 

 His father was a cabinet maker who also 

 made looms and spinning wheels. Dan 

 had the desire to follow his father's trade 

 and moved from the farm for that reason. 



The shop still used by Dan is made 

 of logs and pins, but faced with rough 

 sawed oak boards. The work benches 

 show years of wear as evidenced by drill 

 bit holes and dips in the plank. The 

 work in the board floor, if it could speak, 

 would tell of many wagon wheels re- 

 paired, spokes shaved and fellies fash- 

 ioned out of plank. 



Dan recalls the time when three yokes 

 of oxen were used in breaking prairie 

 sod. His father used a yoke of oxen on a 

 double shovel plow to cultivate com. Mr. 

 Ellington has never shot a deer, but the 

 first orchard his father set out was killed 

 by deer. However, Dan enjoys hunting 

 small game and is a good shot according 

 to the neighbors. 



conservation program. J. F. Buck, county 

 chairman, came forward and challenged 

 him to give the man's name, and he 

 would run it down. Hall gave a name and 

 Buck promised to take the necessary steps 

 to get back any money obtained illegally. 



Fred J. Hempen, Clinton county, said: 

 'We need this bill." 



August Sachtleben, Washington coun- 

 ty, commented: "I'm in favor of the sur- 

 plus bill. It is crop insurance and we need 

 it." 



Lawrence Langford, Edgar county, 

 okehed surplus control legisladon. So did 

 Lawrence Podt of Montgomery who said 

 that farmers didn't want benefit pay- 

 ments but they did want fair prices. C. 

 G. Oakes, Christian county, said that the 

 Farm Bureau was the only organization 

 that was ready to carry out a control 

 program. "Farmers shouldn't go along 

 with any political party but should sric£ 

 to principles," Oakes said. 



The session came to a close late Satur- 

 day afternoon. The Senators announced 

 they would go to Washington immedi- 

 ately after the last hearing at Jefferson 

 City, Mo. and start to work on a biU. 



1 



L A. A. RECORD 



