January, 1932 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Page Eleven 



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Job of Rural Pastor to 



Co-operate with Farmer 



Father Nell of Effingham County 



Sees Need of Arousing Farmer 



To Action 



PostofPrce Salaries 



CO-OPERATION between the par- 

 ish and the Farm Bureau is a prac- 

 tical parish activity and will in no way 

 detract from the religious leadership of 

 the pastor, declared Rev. George M. 

 Nell, director of parish activities ser- 

 vice, Effingham, Illinois, at the second 

 National Farm Women's Conference in 

 Chicago December 4. 



He said that the big job in improving 

 the condition of the farmer today is 

 to arouse him to ac- 

 tion, *and it is here 

 that the thousand 

 rural parishes scat- 

 tered throughout the 

 country have an op- 

 portunity to furnish 

 much of the needed 

 equipment, power 

 and leadership. 



"It is a wonderful 

 opportunity," Father 

 Father Nell N^ll said, "and we 

 will be hurting our- 

 selves and our cause, as well as holding 

 back the farmers' progress, if the rural 

 churches fail to act." — ;■■•' , '" 



Pointing to the Farm Bureau as the 

 strongest and most widespread of the 

 farm organizations, he said: "It is the 

 farmer's own organization, organized 

 into county units which the farmer can 

 locally control and dominate. These 

 county units are in turn organized into 

 state agricultural associations, controlled 

 by County Farm Bureau delegates. 

 These state units are organized into the 

 American Farm Bureau Federation, con- 

 trolled by state delegates. 



Father Nell is emphatic in his belief 

 that religion will not suffer through 

 this type of parish activity. "The peo- 

 ple will follow the religious leadership 

 of their pastor all the closer for enthu- 

 siastically following him in outside mat- 

 ters," he explained. "Furthermore, the 

 pastor's rehgious leadership will be im- 

 proved through the practice he gets in 

 these non-religious affairs. Besides, his 

 viewpoint will be broadened, and he 

 will understand his people better as they 

 understand him better." 



Editor, I. A. A. RECORD: f\ uV 



For many years the postal employees as well 

 as many other public ofBcials and employees 

 have been paid unnecessarily high salaries at the 

 expense of needy and oppressed people. Now 

 that the depression is on it seems that these 

 salaries should be greatly reduced, as living costs 

 also have been cut. 



But we are told now by the postmaster- 

 general that we have a huge deficit and recom- 

 mends that the postal rates be raised to take 

 care of this and keep others from occurring. 



Now if these postal employees were being 

 properly paid there never would have been a 

 deficit. Why not reduce these salaries to the 

 proper level and let a surplus instead of a deficit 

 exist? Both political parties have been to blame 

 for this waste of money and both should now 

 unite in this salary reduction and keep down 

 any further * rate increases and let this be a 

 government of, for and by the people. I believe 

 that all farm organizations and farm papers 

 should get busy and demand this reform. 



F. J. McNair. 



Hamilton County, 111. ■■'','" 



I 



> 



An increase in butter production in 

 Canada, virtual cessation of Canadian 

 exports of cream and milk to the 

 United States, and the higher Canadian 

 tariff on butter are the latest develop- 

 ments in the dairy world, according to 

 the U. S. Bureau of Agricultural Eco- 

 nomics. 'V ■ ;, 



Farmer Must Educate 



City People: Dr. Holt 



Secret of Prosperity Is to Keep 

 Fanner Able to Buy Goods 



THE problem of the farmer today is 

 that of educating city people to the 

 needs and rights of agriculture in the 

 affairs of the nation, declared Dr. A. E. 

 Holt of the Chicago Theological Sem- 

 inary at the National Farm Women's 

 Conference in Chicago, December 4. 



"It may be that the inability of the 

 American farmer to buy will reveal to 

 the city man that the formula for his 

 prosperity is to keep the farmer able to 

 buy his goods," he suggested, "and that 

 prosperity comes when men get rich to- 

 gether and not off of each other." 



Organization activities along the lines 

 advocated by the Farm Bureau should 

 be developed. Dr. Holt declared. "These 

 organized rural communities, thorough- 

 ly democratic, completely co-operative 

 and possessed with the spirit of com- 

 mon welfare, should be given every en- 

 couragement," he said. 



Dr. Holt insisted that the farmer's 

 right to market his goods should paral- 

 lel the laborer's right to dispose of labor, 

 a true self-determination being accorded 

 to both. It is their right to market sur- 

 plus labor and surplus farm products in 

 an orderly manner. 



"No attempt at industrialized farm- 

 ing which does not conserve all the hu- 

 man value of lagriculture along with the 

 more efficient production of crops, 

 should be favored," he said. 



Dr. Holt summarized the problem be- 

 fore American Agriculture today as 

 first of all the development of i 

 planned program, and second, such a 

 vigorous education of public opinion 

 that the nation will accept it. - 



How to Improve Farm 



Home and Community 



Chief Subject Discussed at National 

 Farm Women's Conference, 



■■>■■■■' {•■r'- ■'■■:■':■.,";-■::■>: Chicago .-■':":;■. ■" 



A SURVEY of the American farm 

 home, its surrounding community 

 and how to improve them was the gen- 

 eral subject considered at the two-day 

 National Farm Women's Conference 

 held in connection with the American 

 Farm Bureau Federation convention in 

 Chicago December 4 and 5. : - 



In addition to the long list of Farm 

 Bureau officials who appeared on the 

 program, talks covering various angles 

 of the subject were made by C. A. 

 Cobb, editor of the Progressive Farmer, 

 Atlanta; Dr. Arthur E. Holt, Chicago 

 Theological Seminary; Reverend Father 

 George Nell of Effingham, Illinois; John 

 Callahan, superintendent of education, 

 Wisconsin; Ella Gardner, Children's 

 Bureau, U. S. Department of Labor; 

 Mrs. John E. Gardner of the Frontier 

 Nursing Service; Mrs. C. V. Biddle, 

 Knoxville, Tennessee; Mrs. Spencer 

 Ewing, Bloomington, and others. 



Mrs. Biddle, who is active in musical 

 work in her home state and an accom- 

 plished singer and song leader, spoke on 

 the subject, "Community Chorus Work 

 in Tennessee." She is a sister of President 

 Earl C. Smith. Mrs. Biddle led com- 

 munity singing during the women's 

 conference, served as one of the judges 

 of the quartette contest, and sang sev- 

 eral solos during the A. F. B. F. con- 

 vention the following week. 



Secretary George E. Metzger of the 

 I. A. A. appeared on the women's con- 

 ference program Saturday morning to 

 discuss how improvements in the rural 

 community can be brought about 

 through organization. George Thiem, 

 director of publicity, told how adver- 

 tising and publicity might be used more 

 effectively to gain the desired ends. 



The women's conference was organ- 

 ized by Mrs. Charles W. Sewell, director 

 of home and community work for the 

 A. F. B. F. It was well attended by 

 both men and women. 



A committee representing the Adams 

 County Shippers' Association recently 

 visited the livestock marketing concen- 

 tration points at Danville, Champaign 

 and Decatur to get a view of the new 

 marketing system in operation. Several 

 counties are considering the reorganiza- 

 tion of their marketing., machinery on 

 the concentration point plan. At pres- 

 ent there are ten counties in the state 

 organized or being organized on this 

 basis. 



