Page Fourteen 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



February, 1932 



Country Life Ins. Co. 



Makes Big Gain in '31 



Adds Nearly $9,000,000 to Business 

 ; - In Force, Doubles Assets ^^ 



COUNTRY Life Insurance Company 

 finished its third year with ap- 

 proximately $44,000,000 of business in 

 force, according to the annual report 

 of Manager L. A. Williams given at the 

 annual convention. 



This company, sponsored by the Illi- 

 nois Agricultural Association and the 

 County Farm Bureaus, and owned and 

 controlled by the 60,000 Farm Bureau 

 members of the state, gained $9,000,000 

 in paid for business in 1931 to lead all 

 Illinois companies and to place well to- 

 ward the top among the 338 companies 

 for actual gain in business. 



Lo*w Lapse Rate 



, Not only did the 1,100 agents write 

 a good volume of business, but the lapse 

 of poHcies was held down to 8.5 per 

 cent, which is considered vmusually low 

 in a year like 1931, Mr. WilHams said. 

 A regular monthly gain in new business 

 is shown by the report. There were two 

 months during the year in which regu- 

 lar business written exceeded $2,000,- 



000. . . ^. ■:'■/-■:.■'■--■.■ ...■..;'■ 



Dividends paid out in 1931 to policy- 

 holders totaled approximately $46,000, 

 a distribution made one year earlier 

 than the guarantees in the policy. This 

 was due partly to the low death claim 

 figure, which was only $130,000 for 

 the year. 



Assets Are Doubled 



The assets of the company are now 

 well over $1,000,000, or double the as- 

 sets a year ago. More important than 

 this, however, is the fact that the assets 

 are in the most liquid form possible, Mr. 

 Williams said. Highest type bonds con- 

 stitute the entire holdings of Country 

 Life. 



"Although the company was organ- 

 ized at the beginning of the worst finan- 

 cial crisis in history, the more credit 

 is due it for the great record made dur- 

 ing such a time," he said. "Fortunately, 

 life insurance came through this finan- 

 cial strain with flying colors, and proved 

 that it could weather the worst of 

 storms and maintain the highest known 

 security for its policyholders." 



Actuary's Statement 



Lynn A. Glover, president of L. A. 

 Glover & Company, actuaries for the 

 company, made the following statement 

 regarding Country Life: 



"It is very gratifying, in reviewing 

 the progress of Country Life through 

 the stormy year of 1931, to see the 

 company forging steadily forward, es- 



tablishing new records in growth, per- 

 sistency of business, and establishing 

 itself more firmly as a conservative 

 financial institution. Deriving its sup- 

 port entirely from the citizens of Illi- 

 nois, it seems remarkable that in twelve 

 months the company has doubled its 

 assets, paid dividends to its policy- 

 holders, increased its surplus practi- 

 cally $100,000, and actually gained 

 $8,500,000 to a total paid for amount of 

 insurance outstanding of $43,768,000. 



"The wisdom of its ultra-conservative 

 investment program has been justified 

 by the fact that not one security held 

 by the company has defaulted in inter- 

 est or principal. Its mortality gains con- 

 tinue to prove the wisdom and care 

 exercised in the selection of the com- 

 pany's risks. 



"The continued confidence of the 

 people in Country Life, evidenced by 

 its growth and the persistency of its 

 business is well merited, and the man- 

 agement is to be congratulated upon the 

 business-like, conservative and economi- 

 cal record it has estabHshed." 



inois Grain Corp. Closes 

 Year with 80 Elevators 



Red Top Seed Growers Exchange 

 Gains in Membership . ; ~ , 



Grain Co-ops. Choose 



.Advisory Connmittees 



Ballots have been mailed by the Farm 

 Board to approximately 3,500 co-opera- 

 tive associations who have been asked 

 to establish new advisory committees 

 for wheat and coarse grains. Elections 

 were scheduled to be held January 26 

 at the offices of the Farmers National 

 Grain Corporation, Chicago. The new 

 committees will serve for one year be- 

 ginning February 1, 1932. • 



The co-operatives will select seven 

 members for each of the committees as 

 provided in the Agricultural Marketing 

 Act. Five will be chosen by districts 

 and the other two who "shall be experi- 

 enced handlers or processors of the com- 

 modity, will be chosen at large." 



Members now serving on the wheat 

 advisory committee include George S. 

 Milnor, Chicago; Bert Lang, St. Louis; 

 F. J. Wilmer, Rosalia, Washington; 

 John Manley, Enid, Oklahoma; William 

 Settle, Indianapolis; J. A. Schnitzler, 

 Froid, Montana; and E. G. Tharp, Pro- 

 tection, Kansas. 



Members of the present coarse grains 

 advisory committee are S. J. Cotting- 

 ton, Stanhope, Iowa; George S. Milnor, 

 Chicago; James Murray, Chicago; Way- 

 land Magee, Bennington, Nebraska; Earl 

 C. Smith, Detroit, Illinois; C. E. HuflF, 

 Chicago; and L. J. Taber, Columbus, 

 Ohio. 



Taking advantage of price decreases, 

 Japan has increased importation of 

 American raw cotton and now ranks 

 ahead of Germany as the best market for 

 this product. 



TPiE Illinois Grain Corporation, a 

 regional co-operative, closed the year 

 1931 with a membership of more than 

 80 co-operative elevators, representing 

 an annual volume of 14,000,000 bushels 

 of grain, Harrison Fahrnkopf, director 

 of grain marketing for the Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Association, said in his annual 

 report for 1931 released on January 28 

 at Rockford. 



At the beginning of the year there 

 were only 32 member elevators, han- 

 dling 5,500,000 bushels of grain, he 

 said. In outlining the set-up he ex- 

 plained that the organization requires 

 local elevators to operate as full co-oper- 

 atives conforming to the Capper- Vol- 

 stead Act to be eligible for membership. 



Outstanding Year 



"In grain marketing, the year 1931 

 will stand out from all past years in 

 that for the first time we have gone 

 through a full period of 1 2 months with 

 a state-wide and nation-wide machine 

 at the service of the individual producer 

 through his local co-operative," Mr. 

 Fahrnkopf said. "The elevators which 

 have taken action to become members 

 of the Illinois Grain Corporation might 

 be considered as pioneers in the move- 

 ment. They have given loyal support 

 to the state regional and to the Farm- 

 ers National Grain Corporation." 



Membership Grow^s 



Mr. Fahrnkopf also told of the 

 growth of the Egyptian Seed Growers 

 Exchange at Flora, 111., another co-oper- 

 ative to which he gave considerable 

 time during the year. This organiza- 

 tion showed a marked increase both in 

 membership and in the quantity of red 

 top seed handled, he said. 



953 New Members . • 



"Nine hundred and fifty new mem- 

 ber-growers were added to the Exchange 

 during the year," his report stated. "The 

 total is now 2,738 members. Although 

 final records are not yet obtainable, the 

 organization handled in 1931 one of the 

 largest volumes of seed in its history. 

 New cleaning machinery has been added 

 to the plant and the exchange received 

 the crop through 2 5 receiving points. 

 Nine bonded warehouses are being used 

 to handle the red top. C. H. James 

 became manager of the co-operative last 

 May." The red top seed co-operative 

 is the only one of its kind in the world. 

 Southern Illinois farmers grow around 

 90 per cent of the red top seed pro- 

 duced in the United States. :■»;; 



