This Month ( 



(Continued from 

 page 3) 



) 



union in refusing to adjust wage scales illustrates the problem. In 1929 

 when milk producers were receiving $2.75 per cwt. for all their Class I 

 milk and the consumer paid 14 cents a quart, drivers had a minimum 

 wage scale of $50 a week plus commissions. Today producers in the Chi- 

 cago milk shed are getting only $1.47 per cwt. for 80 per cent of their 

 Class I milk. The retail price today varies from eight to 11 cents a quart, 

 yet the drivers' minimum wage scale is $48 a week plus commissions. 

 And what is the result.' Half of Chicago's milk supply is being distributed 

 through stores. A large percentage of the drivers have lost their jobs and 

 their buying power. 



Organized producers at Chicago and other Illinois markets have done 

 a fine piece of work in bargaining for fair prices. They have resisted with 

 considerable success constant encroachments on the dairy farmers' income. 

 But they need the help of an umpire. The public interest in milk is such 

 that arbitration and regulation rather than strikes and turmoil appears to 

 be the best solution to the problem. 



Milk control legislation in Illinois is by no means dead. It will con- 

 tinue to be a live issue until the fluid milk producers of the state are assured 

 of payment for their product based on honest weights, tests and quality 

 with a reasonable premium over the condensed and butterfat market to 

 compensate for higher costs of production to meet city health regulations. 



Another measure of importance to farmers that called for strenuous 

 efforts to secure enactment was known as the amendment to the State 

 Plumbing Act. This Act, passed by the General Assembly of 1935, made 

 it unlawful for any citizen to do any type of plumbing except under the 

 supervision of a licensed plumber. 



At the time of the passage of this act, its proponents claimed it was 

 solely directed as a public health measure. It was not long thereafter that 

 farmers in different areas of the state were being threatened with, if not 

 actually prosecuted, for violation of the statute when doing nothing more 

 than laying or relaying water pipes having to do with a supply of water 

 for livestock. 



The high cost of securing licensed plumbers in many areas made 

 their services prohibitive for this very simple type of work. In several 

 counties of the state there are no licensed plumbers. 



The lAA prepared and sponsored an amendment to this act which 

 would exempt the owners of property outside of cities, incorporated 

 towns, villages and sub-divided property from the provisions of the act. 

 It was on this issue a fight was waged and the bill finally passed by a bare 

 majority of each House of the General Assembly. 



I cannot understand how any legislator can successfully justify his op- 

 position to this amendment. Had the opponents been successful, the re- 

 sult would be to make law violators out of hundreds of farmers for per- 

 forming what is considered by them a very simple task and one that is 

 common to thousands of farms particularly in the livestock and dairy 

 regions of Illinois. 



As disclosed in the Legislative Report there were many bills before 

 the General Assembly directly affecting the interests of farm people but 

 the two I have mentioned resulted in the lines being more tightly drawn 

 between supporters and opponents, and therefore better reflect the atti- 

 tude of legislators toward the interests of farmers. 



After carefully scrutinizing the voting records of their representatives, 

 (Concluded on page 5> 



The National Cornhusking Contest 



will be held, Nov. 3, on land farmed 

 by F. H. Leonard, Douglas County, 

 Kansas. 



Six cents a bushel annual storage payment 



will be advanced by the Commodity Credit 

 Corporation to farmers who build additional 

 crib room to continue storage of I9J7-38 

 sealed corn. Loans expire Aug. 1 and are 

 subject to renewal for another year at the 

 option of the borrower. If loans are not 

 renewed, reports indicate that sealed corn 

 is to be delivered to the government after 

 Sept. 1. 



A. R. Brooks, Henderson county, 



says he never liked the idea of his 

 cream profits going into the hands of 

 Eastern stockholders and capitalists. 

 Now he sends his cream to the Pro- 

 ducers' Creamery of Galesburg and the 

 profits come back to him. 



Ruth Mariam Harber, LaSalle county, 



and Charles D. Long, Edgar county, 

 4-H Club members, received state hon- 

 ors when they were selected for leader- 

 ship training scholarships to the Amer- 

 ican Youth Foundation camps. The 

 girls' camp opened July 31 near Shelby, 

 Michigan, and extends through Aug. 

 13. Boys' camp is slated for Aug. 14-17. 



A road of concrete mixed with soil is 

 being built on the Logan-Menard coun- 

 ty line near Middletown. 



Some IftOO tenants in the United Slates 



had purchased farms up to June 50. 1939 

 under the Jones Farm Tenant Act. Repay- 

 ments begin when the tenant has been in 

 possession of his farm for a year. Install- 

 ments were due on 690 loans as of Mar. 31, 

 1939- Loans averaged Si339 each. 



A 74-year-old sale account book of 

 the late W. T. Keenan, pioneer com- 

 mission man on the Chicago livestock 

 market, was recently discovered. He 

 made the fifth and sixth sales of stock 

 from the first trainload delivered to the 

 market Dec. 25, 1865. Sales were 

 made both by the pound and by the 

 head. Cattle sales averaged $8 per 

 cwt., sheep $7, and hogs $9.40. A tax 

 of one-tenth of one per cent was de- 

 ducted from the gross proceeds of 

 every sale to help pay the costs of the 

 Civil War. 



As we go to press the CIO packing house 

 workers union is threatening a strike in the 

 meat packing industry. Meantime AFofL 

 meat cutters say they will strike if the 

 packers recognize the rival CIO union. 

 Packers claim that they are paying the 

 high.:st wages in history, that working con- 

 ditions were never better, hours are well 

 within the limits of the Wage and Hour 

 Act and all employees in service two years 

 get a vacation with pay. 



L A. A. RECORD 



