THE ILLINOIS AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION RECORD 



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To advance the purpose for which the Farm Bureau was organized 

 namely, to promote, protect and represent the business, economic, political 

 and educational interests of the farmers of Illinois and the nation, and 

 to develop agriculture. :, • . 



FEBRUARY, 1938 

 VOL 16 NO. 2 



Published monthly by the Illinois Agricultural Asso- 

 ciation at 1501 West Washington Road, Mendot^ III. 

 Editorial Offices. 6C8 So. Dearborn St., ChicagoA 111. 

 Entered as second class matter at post ofTice, Mendota, 

 Illinois. September U. 1956. Acceptance for mailing 

 at special rate of postage provided in Section 412. Act oi 

 Feb. 28. 1925. authorized Oct. 27. 1935. Address all 

 communications for publication to Editorial Offices, Illinois 

 Agricultural Association RECORD, 608 So. Dearborn St.. 

 Chicago. The individual membership fee of the Illinois 

 Agricultural Association is five dollars a year. The fee 

 includes payment of fifty cents for subscription to the 

 Illinois Agricultuial Association RECORD. Postmaster: 

 Send notices on Form 3578 and undctiverahle copies 

 returned under Form 3579 to editorial offices, 608 S. 

 Dearborn St.. Chicago. 111. 



Editor and Advertising Director, E. G. Thicm ; Assistant 

 Director and Ass't. Editor. Lawrence A. Potter. 



Illinois Agricultural Association 



Greatest State Farm Organization in America 



OFFICERS 



President, Earl C. Smith Detroit 



Vice-President, Talmage DeFrkes Smithboro 



Corporate Secretary, Paul E. Mathias Chicago 



Field Secretary, Geo. E. Metzger Chicago 



Treasurer, R. A. CowLES Btoomington 



Ass't Treasurer, A. R. Wright Vama 



BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

 (By Congressional District) 



1st to 11th E. Harris, Grayslake 



12th E. E. Houghtby, Shabbona 



13th Leo M, Knox, Morrison 



Nth Otto StefFey, Stronghurst 



15th M. Ray Ihrig, Golden 



I6th Albert Hayes, Chillicothe 



17th _ C. M. Smith, Eureka 



18th W. A. Dennis, Paris 



19th Eugene Curtis, Champaign 



20th K. T. Smith, Greenfield 



21st .Dwight Hart, Sharpsburg 



22nd A. O. Eckert, Belleville 



23rd Chester McCord, Newton 



24th Charles Marshall, Belknap 



25th August G. Eggerding, Red Bud 



DEPARTMENT DIRECTORS 



Comptroller R. G. Ely 



Dairy Marketing Wilfred Shaw 



Field Service _ Cap Mast 



Finance R. A. Cowles 



Fruit and Vegetable Marketing ..H. W. Day 



Legal and General Counsel Donald Kirkpatrick 



Live Stock Maiketing Sam F. Russell 



Office C. E. Johnston 



Organization G. E. Metzger 



Produce Marketing F. A. Gougler 



Publicity George Thiem 



Safety C. M. Seagraves 



Soil Improvement John R. Spencer 



Taxation and Statistics J. C. Watson 



Transportation-Claims Division G. W. Baxter 



Young Peoples Activities Frank Gingrich 



ASSOCIATED ORGANIZATIONS 



Country Life Insurance Co Dave Mieher, Sales 



Manager; Howard Reeder, Home Office Mgr. 

 Farmers' Mutual Reinsurance Co.. -J. H. Kelker, Mgr. 



Illinois Agr. Auditing Ass'n C. E. Strand, Mgr. 



Illinois Agr. Mutual Ins. Co.. .A. E. Richardson, Mgr. 



Illinois Agr. Service Co Donald Kirkpatrick, Secy. 



III. Farm Bureau Serum Ass'n S. F. Russell, Secy. 



Illinois Farm Supply Co L. R. Marchant, Mgr. 



Illinois Fruit Growers' Exchange.. ..H. W. Day, Mgr. 

 Illinois Grain Corporation.. Harrison Fahrnkopf, Mgr. 



III. Livestock Marketing Ass'n Sam Russell, Mgr. 



Illinois Milk Producers' Ass'n Wilfred Shaw, Mgr. 



Illinois Producers' Creameries.. ..F. A. Gougler, Mgr. 

 J. B. Countiss Sales Mgr. 



GEORGE THIEM, Editor 



MICHIGAN BLVD. BRIDGE 

 Looking North, Chicago. 



^^^^ HE constitutionality of the 

 ^^— -^^ Guffey- Vinson coal price- 

 ^^ fixing act, press reports 

 state, will be attacked by the State of 

 Illinois to protect the Illinois coal 

 industry. Governor Horner is re- 

 ported as saying that the rules and 

 prices fixed by the national bitumi- 

 nous coal commission are causing Il- 

 linois to lose its coal markets. The 

 Peoria Association of Commerce 

 charges that many of their indus- 

 tries have been developed because 

 of low cost coal from nearby mines, 

 and that under the arbitrary price- 

 fixing schedule worked out by the 

 coal commission, local coal prices are 

 raised more than others. Their nat- 

 ural advantages are thus being swept 

 away. . - 



The motives behind this measure 

 no doubt are worthy. It was en- 

 acted to raise the income of the coal 

 miners who are in the low income 

 group, to restore reasonable prices in 

 a chaotic cut-throat market. Farm- 

 ers, of course, have an interest in 

 more and more workers, especially 

 those in the low income groups, get- 

 ting good yearly wages. The board 

 of delegates at the recent lAA con- 

 vention in Springfield so expressed 

 themselves. But in these times, with 

 11,000,000 unemployed, the big 

 problem is not so much one of boost- 



ing wages as it is to increase employ- 

 ment. It is imperative that we find jobs 

 for heads of families — not the kind 

 of jobs nor the pay necessarily all 

 would like to have, but jobs to provide 

 food and shelter. Raising the price of 

 coal is bound to reduce consumption 

 and result in fewer jobs; in fact re- 

 ports show that thousands of Illinois 

 miners have been and will be laid off 

 because of reduced consumption and 

 price advantages given to other coal 

 mining areas. 



The Guffey-Vinson coal act is an- 

 other example of the many artificial 

 measures that increase the cost of the 

 things farmers buy. The recent con- 

 viction of the major oil companies for 

 monopolistic practices in fixing the 

 prices of gasoline and petroleum prod- 

 ucts is another current example. The 

 industrial tariff has been an offender 

 in this regard since George Washing- 

 tons time. A thousand others might be 

 mentioned. * .; 



Higher prices for coal means higher 

 cost of production and higher prices for 

 industrial products all along the line. 

 And unfortunately this comes at a time 

 when organized farmers have supported 

 a program to increase agricultural pro- 

 duction and maintain an abundance of 

 farm supplies to protect city consumers 

 against short crops and high food 

 prices. 



Farmers have a deep interest in 

 boosting industrial production and em- 

 ployment because their home market is 

 their best market. They have observed 

 that farm prosperity and the full din- 

 ner pail in the industrial centers go 

 hand in hand. In his clean cut analysis 

 of farm and city interdependence, de- 

 livered at the recent lAA convention. 

 Dr. Louis H. Bean asserted that we 

 need fully 100 per cent more industrial 

 activity than we now have if unem- 

 ployment is to disappear and farm 

 prices and farm incomes restored." 



Industry today needs to find ways 

 and means of reducing industrial prices 

 to put them on a parity level with re- 

 duced farm prices. By so doing farm- 

 ers will buy vast quantities of indus- 

 trial products and provide jobs for hun- 

 dreds of thousands of city workers. Or- 

 ganized Illinois farmers are opposed to 

 all artificial acts, such as arbitrary wage 

 and hour legislation (except when ap- 

 plied to women and children) that tend 

 to widen the existing disparity between 

 farm and non-agricultural prices. For 

 unless such disparities are removed this 

 nation never can and never will have 

 any permanent prosperity. — E.G.T. 



FEBRUARY, 1938 



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