m 



long distance phone and said that he wished to extend the courtesies to all 

 the officers, the delegates and the directors of the Illinois Farmers' Institute. 



Now, my friends, 1 just want to say a few words to you folks. I want 

 to give you a little something to think about. I know that there is not a 

 man in this audience who is not a booster for his Farm Bureau. But many 

 are beginning to wonder what we are going to do with some of the fellows 

 whose three years are up. Are we going to get them to sign again or not, 

 that is the question that is confronting us today. 



There are many who have studied this situation more thoroughly than 

 others and we can see the improvement the Farm Bureau has done, and the 

 other different farm associations. I just want to emphasize this fact, that 

 this farm bureau work, the U. S. Grain Growers, and all this co-operative 

 work that we are hearing so much about is a matter of education and we 

 must look to our young people on the farms to carry the work on. We farm- 

 ers take very good care of our live stock, but I must say that we are neglect- 

 ing one of the most valuable and essential products on our farm, and that 

 is our growing boys and girls. [Applause.] 



I tell you, my friends, when the boy and girl leaves the eighth grade 

 school in the country and they are growing into young womanhood and 

 manhood, that is the most essential time of his or her life. It is right then 

 that he or she is going to begin to form ideas of what they are going to do 

 in the future. If you have some organization to take the place of their 

 school work in which they can carry on their education you are going to 

 get somewhere with those young people. 



I am speaking from experience, my friends. I am speaking with every 

 degree of sincerity. I have watched the Grange in my own county. I have 

 been a member of the Turkey Hill Grange since I was sixteen years old. 

 A boy or girl can join at fourteen. Your farm bureau is all right, it is 

 wonderful, but I will put this question right before you: Does it hold the 

 interest of the young boy or girl on the farm? Does it do that? It is all 

 right for the parents. 



Now remember this, my friends, it is not only the dollars and cents 

 that we get out of life as we go along. We must have a little fun as we 

 go through life. If we are going to live in the country, if we are going 

 to ask our young people to stay in the country so we can carry on agricul- 

 ture, so we can carry on these wonderful things that we are trying to ac- 

 complish we must provide some entertainment, we must make things worth 

 while for these young people, or we can not blame them for passing out of 

 our lives. 



That is where the Grange comes in. We have in St. Clair county a farm 

 bureau with over eighteen hundred members, and of these eighteen hundred 

 members there are almost nine hundred members who are Grangers. I 

 wish to make the statement right here that the head of every family that 

 belongs to the farm bureau, every head of the Grange is a member of the 

 farm bureau; and I will also make a statement on top of that that at the 

 expiration of the three years these members are going to come right back 

 and sign up for three more. It is a matter of education. That reminds me 

 of a little story. Three or four persons were carried before St. Peter. St. 

 Peter looked down upon the first and said, "My friend, what did you do 

 down on earth that you ask admittance here?" He threw out his chest and 

 said, "I administered to the sick. I brought forth the new born babe. I 

 was a doctor." The next man came up and was asked, "What did you do 

 down on earth?" That man threw out his chest and said, "I gave counsel to 

 my fellow man. I gave him advice in times of trouble. I was a lawyer." 

 The next man came up and St. Peter said, "What did you do down on earth?" 

 And he said, "When my country entered conflict with another country I 

 went on the field of battle and I faced death bravely. I was a soldier." 

 And then way out at the end of the line there was a little old woman came 

 forward, and St. Peter said, "My good woman, what did you do down upon 

 earth?" She said, very timidly, "It was I, it was I that made it possible 

 for these men to do the things down on earth that they did. I was a school 

 teacher." It is a matter of education, my friends. 



