FARM BUREAU: RELATION TO COUNTY AGENT 231 



choose the farm bureau and most of the women the home 

 bureau. Each department has jurisdiction over all mat- 

 ters which concern it alone. Each department elects an 

 executive committee of its own, fixes its own fee, deter- 

 mines that part of its program which affects its own 

 members primarily, and generally administers its own 

 work. 



All matters of common concern are passed upon by the 

 general committee, which is composed of the executives 

 of both departments, equal in number, together with one 

 other member chosen by both. All budgets of proposed 

 receipts and expenses, the employment of all agents, joint 

 programs, as junior work, recreation, etc., are considered 

 as matters of common concern, and are decided upon by a 

 committee of the whole association. There is one treas- 

 urer who pays all bills which are in accordance with the 

 authorized budget, upon the order of the respective com- 

 mittees signed by the president. The farm bureau chair- 

 man is usually but not necessarily president of the 

 combined association. The essentials of this plan are in- 

 corporated in the New York law. 



It is yet too early in the history of this movement to 

 say what plan will prove best. That both the Illinois and 

 the New York plans are working is evidenced by the fact 

 that each state has a paid-up membership of about twenty- 

 five thousand women, each of whom pays a fee of one 

 dollar, and by the addition of several new county organi- 

 zations since the war at a time when many counties in 

 other states are dropping the work. Whatever the specific 

 plan is, it is absolutely essential that the principles of 

 self-help and freedom of initiative for women be embodied 

 in it. 



