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What's Going On 



At Springfield 



Triick Bills, Relief, Milk Control, Dog Tax, 



and Others Interest Farmers 



\/^^RUCK legislation that would 

 /^ put all truck of)erators and 



^^ owners, including farmers, into 

 something resembling a straight jacket 

 came up for hearing last week at a joint 

 session of the road and bridge and motor 

 vehicle committees in the House. 



Every farmer owning a truck, if these 

 bills pass, would be required to get a 

 permit in addition to his present state 

 license, and makie another report to the 

 state every time fhe decided to trade or 

 change his truck.f 



But that isn't all. Under the bills in 

 their present form, a farmer would have 

 to get a permit before he could haul seed 

 or feed, or a piece of machinery over the 

 highways with a trailer or rubber-tired 

 wagon hooked behind his automobile. 



And still worse, the bills provide for 

 setting minimum trucking Tates, limit the 

 radius in which a local trucker can op- 

 erate to 50 miles, and would make it 

 necessary for farmers living close to Chi- 

 cago to hire a trucker classified as a 

 "metropolitan trucker" to haul his live- 

 stock and grain to market. 



An oflFicial statement presented by the 

 Illinois Agricultural Association to the 

 conference endorsed the safety 'provisions 

 of these bills (H.B.I 5 1-1 56) ' requiring 

 periodical certificates that the brakes, 

 lights, horns, etc. are in working order, 

 okeh'd limiting the hours of truck drivers 

 to 15 on continuous duty and 12 hours 

 of continuous driving with eight hours 

 for rest, and spoke favorably of pro- 

 visions requiring public liability and 

 property damage insurance and the name 

 of the owner painted on the truck. But 

 the provisions which would gum up the 

 trucking industry with a lot of red tape, 

 needless expense, and increased trans- 

 portation costs to farmers and others, the 

 lAA vigorously opposed. Organized 

 farmers believe that the safety provisions 

 of the bill, if enforced, will protect the 

 public against irresponsible truck opera- 

 tors and remove some of the destructive 

 competition in the industry. 



Another important measure thrown 

 into the hopper is the state milk control 

 bill sponsored chiefly by organized milk 

 producers represented by the Illinois Milk 

 Producers Association. This bill got a 

 lot of attention. It would establish a 

 state milk control board such as are now 

 operating in some 20 other states with 



authority to straighten out chaotic mar- 

 ket conditions on invitation from two- 

 thirds of the producers within a milk 

 marketing area, investigate costs of pro- 

 duction and distribution, bond and li- 

 cense dealers, hold hearings, arbitrate 

 disputes between producers and distribu- 

 tors, and set minimum prices to producers 

 if and when such action seems necessary. 

 In emergency periods, there is also a 

 provision for setting minimum retail and 

 wholesale milk and cream prices but the 

 length of such emergency periods shall 

 not exceed 60 days in any calendar year. 



At its March meeting the lAA board 

 of directors approved recommendations 

 of its Public Relations Committee op- 

 posing a bill that would institute organ- 

 ized betting at county fair horse races. 

 County fairs, the lAA holds, are essen- 

 tially agricultural and hand-craft exhibi- 

 tions and should not be commercialized 

 by a system of gambling. The lAA will 

 not support increased dog taxes, although 

 it sympathizes with efforts to protect 

 sheep against dogs, for in many localities 

 dog taxes are not collected now. In- 

 creasing the tax might mean less revenue 

 rather than more. 



Other measures the lAA board voted 

 to oppose are: increasing circuit court 

 judges from three to four in all circuits, 

 increased appropriations for a new mil- 

 lion dollar state office building and for 



SPORTS FESTIVAL ON THE WAY 

 And Edwin lansen, Oliver Emmerich and 

 Charles Brunner, members of the Jasper 

 County Rural group, are getting in some 

 early practice for the square dance band 

 contest They are shown in a jam ses- 

 sion at the community hall where they 

 often play all night for dances. Prize 

 candid shot by Edith Feldhake. 



increased salaries for department heads 

 in state civil service, abolishing use of 

 rock crushing equipment from state in- 

 stitutions and restricting use of crushed 

 rock to the state rather than allowing 

 township and county governments to get 

 such stone for roads and bridges, increas- 

 ing salaries of county highway super- 

 intendents by state law, increasing the 

 percentage of road and bridge tax going 

 to the cities and villages from 50 to 

 70%. 



Approval was given bills repealing the 

 state statute. which consents to acquisition 

 of land by the United States in Illinois 

 for purposes other tjjan post offices, 

 court houses, customs houses, arsenals, 

 etc. The Association holds the view 

 that the state should be consulted 

 before the federal government proceeds 

 on a project such as Crab Orchard Creek 

 dam and lake in Williamson county. 



A measure to protect bona fide pro- 

 ducers of Grade A milk against false ad- 

 vertising of others was approved, also 

 one prescribing minimum sanitary re- 

 quirements for milk production on farms. 

 The lAA withheld its endorsement from 

 road bills that provide for issuing $80,- 

 000,000 of tax anticipation warrants, half 

 of which would go for secondary roads 

 downstate, and $40 millions to pay two- 

 fifths of the cost of constructing trunk 

 highways in Chicago and Cook county. 

 The Association expressed the view "that 

 we should be assured of sufficient funds 

 to properly maintain the present state 

 highway system before endorsing the 

 proposed program." 



What the Members Say 



I believe that if copies of the article, 

 "Bob Seely — Township Road Com- 

 missioner", appearing in the March lAA 

 RECORD were placed in the hands of 

 every township road commissioner in Illi- 

 nois it might prove of great value. 



Raymond Buker, 

 Ogle county. 111. 



W. B. Richards citrus grower of Mait- 

 land. Florida, and former county farm ad- 

 viser in Kane coimty, Illinois, writes that he 

 is assisting in organizing a growers' asso- 

 ciation there. 



"I have been much interested after read- 

 ing the RECORD and your last annual re- 

 port of the continued progress the I.A.A. 

 and Farm Bureau are making in Illinois. 

 I had lost touch during the past few years 

 with the work as I had not been getting any 

 publications to speak of from that section 

 of the country. We are making progress 

 with our citrus growers' organization but 

 only time will tell how effective it will be. 

 Everything points now to a very successful 

 organization." 



"Remember me to any of the old gang 

 you may chance to see. I note there are a 

 number of them still active in the work 

 both in the lAA and counties of the state." 



A Successful farmer 

 in his job — has a 

 simply making money. 



— \one who is happy 

 broader vision than 



I. A. A. RECORD 



