June, 1932 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Page Nine 



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>• >» 



, 



V 



In Union There is Strength 



LESS THAN ten per cent 

 of the farmers of the 

 United States are members 

 of any co-operative organ- 

 ization. There are approx- 

 imately 210,000 farmers in 

 Illinois of which about 30 

 per cent are organization 

 members. About 25 per cent 

 of the farmers of Brown 

 county are members of the 

 county Farm Bureau. 



Clayton L. Patterson, editor and pub- 

 lisher of the Brown County Press, Mt. 

 Sterling, III., who wrote the accompany- 

 ing editorial, served for fifteen years as 

 executive secretary of a trade association 

 in Chicago before entering the news- 

 paper business. "I feel that I know some- 

 thing of the value of organized effort," 

 he writes in granting permission to re- 

 print his discerning statement. 



fluence would be unlimited. 

 They could elect or defeat 

 presidents and legislators, 

 make or destroy political 

 parties, dominate the con- 

 trol of transportation and 

 distribution and fix the 

 prices of food and clothing 

 as well as machinery and 

 power. Organize the agri- 

 cultural industry of the 

 country and the farmer 



The farmer is not naturally gregarious, would be the czar of trade and commerce, 



The very nature of his occupation tends to no longer its victim. 



make him a more or less solitary individual, A Brown county farmer, no matter what 



independent, inclined to depend upon his own his economic situation may be, can in one year 



efforts for success, rather than upon a united save considerably more than the cost of a 



or co-operative activity. year's membership in his county Farm Bu- 



But this natural instinct has been changed reau through rebates on the purchase of gas 

 to some extent in recent years, due to closer and oil ; through increased prices for his 

 contact with his fellow-man, through the in- dairy products ; through higher market 

 fluence of rural free delivery of mail, hard prices for his livestock and through less 

 roads, the radio, the daily paper, the auto- costly insurance on farm property, life and 

 mobile, and last but not least, the college automobile. A year's Farm Bureau member- 

 trained agriculturists. The farmer today ship pays for itself and enables the agricul- 

 takes a far more active interest in the affairs tural industry of county, state and nation 

 of the community than formerly and his to function as a whole for the advancement 

 occupation no longer isolates him from social of individual interests, 

 influences. - ■.: ' -> ^^ : •■/■■/^'■^;-r'- ■■\'^-■'■ ^■-- ■' ■ -^ -^^y-:'"--.,;,--^ •)'-^ ::-. There has never been a time in the history 



We need only to compare the condition of our country when every farmer in this 

 of the laborer today with that of fifty years country should more firmly stand shoulder to 

 ago to be convinced of the effectiveness of shoulder with his fellow husbandmen for the 

 organization. There is no influence in gov- upbuilding of the industry of which he is a 

 ernment, in business, in politics, in com- part and upon which he depends for a liveli- 

 merce today as great as that of organized hood and he can best play his part in the 

 labor. Industries have been compelled to game of existence between agriculture, 

 organize to maintain their position as be- manufacturing and commerce by becoming a 

 tween employer and employe. Bankers, member of his county Farm Bureau, co- 

 manufacturers, musicians, government em- operating with state and national organiza- 

 ployes, railroad men, sailors, all are organ- tions, working for the recognition of agn- 

 ized for their own protection and welfare culture as a basic industry of the country, 

 and the promotion of the best interests of The Illinois Agricultural association has 

 their industry or trade. demonstrated its ability, its strength, its 



Farmers, who are both producers and wisdom and its economy of operation with 



laborers, have been slow to realize the but thirty per cent of the farmers of Illinois 



strength of organized effort, and because of on its membership roster. The county Farm 



lack of centralized and directed effort, have Bureaus are the county branch of the state 



been the football of politicians and unwilling organization. When one hundred per cent of 



victims of both organized capital and labor, the Illinois farmers join their county Farm 



The number of farmers in the United Bureau, the farmers of Illinois will play an 



States far exceeds that of any other single important part in the affairs of the state 



industry or organization. If farmers were and their membership fee will be returned 



organized to the same extent as are the to them a hundred-fold. 'j- 



manufacturers, bankers, merchants and "So it's all for each and each for all. 



workers of the country, their power and in- United, we stand ; divided, we fall." 



