AMERICAN FEDERATION OF FARM BUREAUS 289 



includes the following: Farmers' National Legislative Council: 

 American Society of Equity; The Gleaners; The National Dairy 

 Union; National Creamery Butter Makers Association; American 

 Association of Creamery Butter Manufacturers; Rural Credit 

 League of America; the Postal Express Federation. 



(b) The National Board of Farm Organizations. This Feder- 

 ation was formed in Washington in 1917. It is laboring to secure 

 a Temple of Agriculture in Washington, as the home of the organ- 

 ization. Conferences are held from time to time; policies are 

 formulated and adopted; propaganda for or against legislative 

 measures is carried on. Advice is given to the president of the 

 United States on matters concerning the farmers' welfare. Pro- 

 tection is given to the farmeis' interests. The published list of 

 affiliated societies includes the following: (1) Farmers' Educational 

 and Cooperative Union of America (generally known as the 

 Farmers' Union); (2) National Council of Farmers' Cooperative 

 Associations; (3) National Dairy Union; (4) Pennsylvania Rural 

 Progress Association; (5) National Agricultural Organization 

 Society; (6) National Conference on Marketing and Farm Credit 

 (which met in Chicago in 1914, 1915, and 1916); (7) Farmers' 

 National Congress; (8) National Milk Producers' Federation; (9) 

 Federation of Jewish Farmers of America; (10) Farmers' Society 

 of Equity. Of the above ten organizations not all are active. And 

 the American Society of Equity, as a national body, is not affiliated 

 with the above federation. These two federations of farmers 

 Farmers' National Headquarters and the National Board of Farm 

 Organizations are both located in Washington, but they do not 

 work together. Both represent very earnest attempts to organize 

 a federation from the top down. It is a very difficult matter to 

 organize a federation of farmers from the ground up from the 

 individual farmer, through his local unit, up through the State 

 body into a national federation or council, following the example 

 of the political organization of our government. The County 

 Agent movement, with its supporting Farm Bureau, prepared the 

 way for such a democratic organization. 



(c) American Federation of Farm Bureaus. A separate chap- 

 ter (XXI) is reserved for a discussion of the County Agent move- 

 ment, and in that chapter the County Farm Bureau is described 

 as the organization of farmers within the county which has imme- 

 diate charge of the County Agents' work. The Farm Bureau, 

 therefore, may be briefly described here, in anticipation, as a 

 voluntary organization of individual farmers, supported by the 



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