AMERICAN FARM BUREAU FEDERATION 267 



tion into existence. Finally, arrangements were made to hold a meeting 

 in Chicago on November 12 and 13, ipip. 32 



The November meeting brought to the surface differences over policies 

 to be adopted. There were present some 500 delegates from thirty-six 

 states. Of these 220 were from Illinois, 32 from Iowa, 16 from Indiana, and 

 anywhere from i to 8 representing each of the other states. The issues 

 included matters of representation, finances, the name to be adopted, and 

 whether the organization was going to be commercial and legislative or 

 strictly educational in character. 



Perhaps most easily settled was the question of the name. While the 

 Illinois delegates proposed that the organization be called the National 

 Farmers' Association, it was the name American Farm Bureau Federation 

 that was finally adopted. 33 



A considerably thornier problem, however, revolved about the matter 

 of whether the policy of the newly formed group was to be commercial 

 and legislative or exclusively educational. Harvey J. Sconce, the president 

 of the Illinois Agricultural Association, stressed the lurking dangers of 

 radicalism and the need for better farm management and more efficient 

 methods of distribution. S. L. Strivings of New York pointed to the 

 divergent agricultural interests of the farmers, which made it difficult 

 for them to be coordinated into a national body, and asked that special 

 consideration be given to the building of a structure that would help 

 stabilize the nation and promote loyalty and sanity. 34 James R. Howard, 

 the president of the Iowa Farm Bureau and later of the national federa- 

 tion, believed that the differences of the agricultural interests of the nation 

 were superficial at best and that the need of the farmers was for an or- 

 ganization that struck out from the shoulder. In the end the views of 

 the western Middle West generally prevailed. According to the preamble, 

 the object of the organization was "to correlate and strengthen the farm 

 bureaus of the several states and to promote, protect and represent the 

 business, social, economic, and educational interests of the farmers of 

 the nation." 35 



32. True, A History of Agricultural Extension Wor\, p. 160; Kile, The Farm 

 Bureau Movement, p. 113. 



33. True, A History of Agricultural Extension Wor\, p. 161. 



34. Kile, The Farm Bureau Movement, pp. 116-18. 



35. Chicago Daily Tribune, November 14, 1919. 



