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Q. If the railroads are guaranteed so much Income on their money 

 why should not the farmers be guaranteed the same? 



Mr. MATHENY: That is a question you will have to ask Congress, 

 not me. How would it be if the government, with all of its politics, under- 

 took to establish a board to make a valuation of your farm, if the govern- 

 ment had accountants to determine what it costs you to operate, and the 

 government guaranteed you four and a half percent on the money that 

 you had invested in lands, machinery and property? Not so bad? 



Q. If that applies to the farmers the same as the railroads where 

 would you get the money to pay the bill? 



Mr. MATHENY: I don't know. You would hardly get it from the rail- 

 roads. The railroads are organized, so is the railroad labor. 



Q. Mr. Chairman, I do not wish to ask any question, but it seems to 

 me, as you have said, that this is one of the most important papers that 

 we have had, and if we could be permitted to have it printed and send it 

 out to our farmers it would do some good. In this audience there probably 

 isn't more than three or four representatives of each county in the state. 

 Down in our county we have had a dispute recently by one of the agents 

 and a representative of the Chicago Board of Trade, and they ' seemed to 

 be fairly well divided on that question. I don't know what we are going 

 to have unless we can get this thoroughly before our people. 



Mr. MATHENY: Mr. Thorne and I are lawyers and as lawyers we 

 probably do not bear as high a reputation as some other class of society, 

 but we are really interested in this movement. We want to help the farmers 

 if we can. I thank you. 



PRESIDENT MANN: Well, it is true that some lawyers are getting 

 in a little bad, but we don't have that opinion of Mr. Thorne, or Mr. Matheny 

 either. 



When we want to find the last word in any new thing we go to Kanka- 

 kee and ask John Collier. Now we have been talking about marketing, 

 distribution of food and production all day. We now want to consider 

 some of those things in a more direct way, not only for the farmer, but 

 for the farmer's wife. John has got something started in Kankakee that 

 is going to run over if he isn't careful. We want him to tell us about it. 

 Come up, John, and tell us what you are doing about it. 



KANKAKEE COUNTY FARMERS' MARKET. 

 (John 8. Collier) 



During the economic depression of the past year a great many farmers 

 have found that their only sources of revenue to help keep up groceries, 

 clothes and incidental expenses around the home was derived from butter, 

 eggs and such other products as they could, from time to time, sell. They 

 soon discovered that the people who were buying their products in town 

 were paying about twice as much as the farmers were getting. 



This Market was started about two years ago in a small way but 

 was not very successful because of no organized body at the head of it. 

 Last August, the Farm Bureau called a great many of the people together 

 that we thought would be interested in starting a Farmers' Market, and 

 talked over the plan. The first, thing to be done was to give the people 

 some idea as to how to prepare their products so as to make a presentable 

 showing. Candling of eggs was taken up, and how to bring eggs on the 

 Market so the consumer could buy them and carry them home. A one-day 

 short course on butter making was held by a practical butter maker and 

 the women from over the county who were making butter came to this 

 school, and got all the information they could on the ways to make butter. 

 These women were then given to understand that if their butter was up 

 to a certain standard they could be advertised as makers of good butter. 

 A meat cutter was then brought in to show how to cut up pork and tell 

 the value of the different pieces of veal, mutton and beef. This was a 

 most interesting demonstration for the farmers as they soon learned how 



