FARM BUREAU: RELATION TO COUNTY AGENT 227 



tried out. A county campaign manager and a few paid 

 solicitors are employed, trained in a school conducted by 

 the state federation. These men give their whole time to 

 working with the voluntary committeemen where their 

 services are needed. During the period of development it 

 has been altogether worthwhile to have committeemen 

 visit their neighbors once a year and talk over the merits 

 and the failures of the work locally. It has been good 

 advertising for the bureau and county agent work and a 

 good education in its fundamentals for both committeemen 

 and members. 



THE SIZE OF THE MEMBERSHIP FEE 



Another problem which is a subject of much discussion 

 just now is the amount of the membership fee in the county 

 association. When the movement first started the fee was 

 almost universally one dollar a year. But as the outlook 

 and the program of the county associations grew and the 

 costs of operation increased, a strong tendency to increase 

 the fee developed. This was brought to a focus by the 

 organization of the national federation. Almost immedi- 

 ately the fees were increased in the majority of the states 

 to five or ten dollars a member, and even to fifteen dollars 

 in one state, a considerable part of which of course went to 

 state and national federations. The more conservative 

 states, although compelled to increase their fees, kept them 

 down to two or three dollars or at the most to five dollars. 

 At the present time, however, the tendency is still strongly 

 toward the larger fee. 



The effect of these increased fees has been the develop- 

 ment of big and ambitious programs, the raising of sal- 

 aries and a general impetus to the movement. This has 

 been accompanied, however, by a more cautious attitude 



