2 7 2 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



tee of Eleven, the Wool Growers' Committee, the Sugar Beet Growers' 

 Committee, and other commodity groups appointed from time to time. 

 One of the big objectives of the department of cooperation was to unite 

 the local commodity cooperatives into a national marketing program. 41 



Other divisions included the legal and transportation department, the 

 financial department, and legislative department. The first sought to better 

 the quality of service furnished by the railroads to the farmers, to prevent 

 excessive freight rates, to study the problems of railroad regulation, and 

 to obtain a better allocation of freight cars for the farmers. The second 

 collected dues, made settlements with the state federations, and tended 

 to the usual routine of bookkeeping and accounting. Extremely impor- 

 tant, and by no means to be minimized, were the activities of the legisla- 

 tive department in Washington. This office kept in touch with legislative 

 matters, compiled statistics and information on legislation that affected 

 agriculture, and arranged for hearings on bills affecting farmers' interests. 42 



Likewise, far more typical of the methods of large business than of the 

 general run of farm organizations were the salaries paid to the officials 

 and the budget appropriations made. The salary of President James 

 Howard was placed first at $15,000 and later at $12,500; that of the vice- 

 president was fixed at $25 per day and expenses while working for the 

 Bureau. The secretary and the Washington representative drew at first 

 $12,000 and then $10,000 a year. For 1920, the national body was reported 

 to have had funds amounting to about $20O,ooo. 48 



The growth of its membership in 1920 and 1921 was meteoric. On 

 March 4, 1920, the national organization claimed a membership of 456,000, 

 with twenty-eight affiliated state federations. On June i, 1921, the member- 

 ship was 1,052,114 and the states belonging to the national organization 

 totaled forty-three. About half a dozen states Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, 

 Michigan, and Indiana claimed more than half the membership. Of 

 these six states, the membership of the first two was to remain consistently 

 large. 44 



41. Ibid., p. 9. 



42. Ibid., pp. 9-10. 



43. R. P. Crawford, "The Farmer Organizes," American Review of Reviews, 

 LXI (June, 1920), pp. 632-34. 



44. American Farm Bureau Federation Weekly News Letter, June 2, 1921; Rus- 

 sell, in Rural Sociology, II (March, 1937), p. 33. 



