March, 1932 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Page Nineteen 



Honesf Dollar, More Cash 

 Needed for Prosperity 



Gregory Suggests Ways to Start 



Wheels of Progress to 



Better Times 



C. V. Gregory 



THE real cause of the decline in 

 prices, which is responsible for most 

 of the farm ills today, is traceable to the 

 shortage of money in circulation, ac- 

 cording to C. V. Gregory, editor of 

 Prairie Farmer, one of the principal 

 speakers at the recent I. A. A. annual 

 meeting, Rockford. 



Mr. Gregory pointed to the fact that 

 money is affected by supply and demand 

 just as anything else. 

 When it is plentiful 

 it is worth less. 

 When money is 

 scarce it will buy 

 more commodities 

 and the price of 

 commodities declines. 

 To restore the 

 confidence of the 

 public, he says, the 

 country must get 

 back on a basis of 

 honest money. 



"While the value 

 of any one commodity will always 

 change to reflect changes in supply and 

 demand, we have the right to expect 

 that the purchasing power of the dollar 

 will always be the same in terms of 

 average commodity prices," he states. 



. Buying Power Gone 



"It now takes so much of our prod- 

 ucts to pay debts, taxes and fixed ex- 

 penses that there is little left to buy 

 commodities. We cannot open fac- 

 tories, put men back to work, and get 

 back to producing and exchanging com- 

 modities on a normal basis until the 

 purchasing power of the people is re- 

 stored to somewhere near normal." 



This may be done, according to Mr. 

 Gregory, either by reducing debts by 

 bankruptcy and default, reducing taxes 

 by the process of cutting down govern- 

 ment expenses, and lowering wages and 

 other fixed expenses in line with the 

 present price level, or by raising the 

 commodity price level to somewhere 

 near what it was in 1929. The first 

 would take from five to ten years; the 

 second might be done very quickly. 



He points out three things the Fed- 

 eral Reserve System can do to start 

 prices upward: make open market pur- 

 chases of government securities, lower 

 rediscount rates, and broaden the re- 

 discount policy. If these measures do 

 not start prices upward, he suggests 

 that the dollar be devalued or that fur- 

 ther steps be taken to inflate currency. 



"This country was built up by cour- 

 ageous, ambitious people who were not 

 afraid to work and take a chance," Mr. 

 Gregory said. "Most of the producers 

 of the country are debtors. It is that 

 class of people who are hurt worst by 

 declining prices. Every dollar of debt 

 in 1929 has become $1.46 in terms of 

 the commodities that must be produced 

 to pay the debt. When all the public 

 and private debts in the country have 

 been paid on the basis of 1929 dollars, 

 we will still have 80 billion more to pay. 

 No loan shark ever dreamed of legalized 

 robbery in such terms as that." 



DeFrees Is Only New 

 Member of I. A. A. Board 



Smith Is Named Member 

 Coarse Grains Committee 



Earl C. Smith, president of the Illi- 

 nois Agricultural Association, was re- 

 elected a member of the national Coarse 

 Grains Advisory Committee January 28, 

 according to an announcement from the 

 Federal Farm Board. The committee, 

 composed of seven members, will serve 

 for one year beginning February 1, this 

 year. 



Other members of the coarse grains 

 committee are as follows: Jess W. Wade, 

 secretary of Inter-Mountain Grain 

 Growers, Ogden, Utah; Joseph Ihde, 

 president of American Wheat Growers 

 Associated, Inc., Aberdeen, South Da- 

 kota; J. M. McNally, director of Farm- 

 ers Westcentral Grain Company, Oma- 

 ha; L. J. Taber, Master of National 

 Grange, Columbus, Ohio; George S. 

 Milnor, vice-president and general man- 

 ager of the Farmers National Grain 

 Corporation, Chicago; and James Mur- 

 ray, vice-president of the Quaker Oats 

 Company, Chicago. 



I. A. A. Board Names 



Meeting Dates for '32 



All regular meetings of the Board of 

 Directors of the Illinois Agricultural 

 Association during 1932 will be held 

 at the office of the Association at 608 

 South Dearborn street, Chicago, on the 

 Friday following the second Monday of 

 each month, unless otherwise ordered, 

 it was determined at the February 

 meeting of the Board. 



The Board will meet on the following 

 dates: March 18, April IS, May 13, 

 June 17, July 15, August 12, Septem- 

 ber 16, October 14, November 18, and 

 December 16. 



President Earl C. Smith made the fol- 

 lowing committee appointments at the 

 February session of the Board: 



Finance — A. R. Wright, Varna; M. 

 G. Lambert, Ferris; and C. J. Gross, 

 Atwood. 



Mr. DeFree* 



TALMAGE DeFREES of Smithboro, 

 Bond county, serving his second 

 term as president of the Bond County 

 Farm Bureau, was the only new mem- 

 ber of the I. A. A. 

 board elected at the 

 recent annual con- 

 vention in Rockford. 

 Re-elected were Geo. 

 I\ Tullock, M. G. 

 Lambert, Geo. M. 

 Muller, W. A. Den- 

 nis, Chas. S. Black, 

 and Chas. Marshall. 

 Mr. DeFrees suc- 

 ceeds Frank G. Oex- 

 ner of Monroe coun- 

 ty who retired as di- 

 rector from the- 22nd district. 



Mr. DeFrees was born within two 

 miles of his present home where he op- 

 erates a 240-acre fruit and dairy farm. 

 He has been a member of the Bond 

 County Farm Bureau for the past 12 

 years, is a director in the Illinois Fruit 

 Growers Exchange, and in the past sea- 

 son shipped 22 cars of fruit co-opera- 

 tively through the latter organization. 

 As a young man Mr. DeFrees secured 

 an appointment to the U. S. Naval 

 Acadamy at Annapolis, but circum- 

 stances arose that made it impossible for 

 him to go. His only brother, who went 

 in his place and graduated at Annapolis 

 in 1900, has had many promotions. He 

 is now in the War College at Boston 

 receiving special training preparatory to 

 becoming an admiral in the navy this 

 spring. 



Mr. DeFrees attended Greenville Col- 

 lege near his home, and later was edu- 

 cated at Drake University, Des Moines, 

 and at the University of Chicago. 



As one of the outstanding farmers of 

 southern Illinois, he was awarded the 

 Master Farmer medal by Prairie Farmer 

 in 1930. Mr. DeFrees is an able plat- 

 form speaker and has been prominent 

 for years in the Farm Bureau and other 

 agricultural organizations in southern 

 Illinois. 



Organizatioti-Information — C. E. 



Bamborough, Polo; Talmage DeFrees, 

 Smithboro; W. A. Dennis, Paris; and 

 Farm Adviser J. E. Harris, Aledo. 



Marketing — Samuel Sorrells, Ray- 

 mond; Harold C. Vial, Downers Grove; 

 A. B. Schofield, Paxton; W. L. Cope, 

 Salem; and Farm Adviser R. J. Laible, 

 Bloomington. 



Financial Business Service — George 

 F. Tullock, Rockford; Fred Dietz, De- 

 Soto; Charles Marshall, Belknap; and 

 Farm Adviser C. E. Johnson, Watseka. 



