Page Four 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



September, 1932 



,,7..'-, . . County Winners Who Competed in State Contest, Springfield. Aug. 26, 



Farm Bureau Day Draws Record Crowd 



Mercer County Girl Wins Country Life Queen Contest, Lake County Second 



MORE than 2,000 Farm Bureau 

 members and their guests as- 

 sembled in the huge Farm Bureau 

 headquarters tent at the Illinois 

 State Fair, Friday, August 26 to 

 help celebrate Farm Bureau Day. 

 Attendance at the fair this year 

 was said to be a record for recent 

 years. 



':'■ The feature of the day was the 

 Country Life Queen Contest which 

 was won by Miss Louise Laughead 

 of Mercer county, a pretty brunette 

 and a popular choice for the honor. 

 Leona Bloom of Lake county, an- 

 other charming dark-haired girl, 

 placed second. -v ; v 



Miss Laughead was presented 

 with the crown by Harvey J. Sconce, 

 former president of the Illinois Ag- 

 ricultural Association, and now con- 

 nected with the agricultural di- 

 vision of the Century of Progress 

 Exposition. 



He served on the committee of 

 judges with Miss Gay Lee of Sta- 

 tion KMOX, St. Louis; and Robert 

 B. Irwin, manager of the Spring- 

 field Chamber of Commerce. Mr. 

 Sconce announced that he hoped 

 to have a similar contest in con- 

 nection with the Century of Prog- 

 ress Exposition next year. 



> Thirty-five girls between the ages 

 of 16 and 25 competed in the con- 

 test. Thelma Reeder of Johnson 

 county and Dorothy Laymann, Pope 

 county, were absent. 



The girls mounted the long T 

 shaped platform singly, moving 

 from one end to the other and back 

 again to their corner of the tent so 

 as to give the judges and audience 

 ample opportunity to make their 

 placings. The procession required 

 about 40 minutes after which all 

 of the contestants came out to form 

 a long line stretching from one end 

 of the tent to the other. 



V. Vaniman, director of insurance 

 service for the I. A. A., had charge 

 of the contest, and explained its 

 purpose to the large audience. 



"The Country Life Queen Contest 

 is designed to honor and reveal the 

 fine culture and young womanhood 

 found in rural Illinois," he said. 

 "Should agriculture develop a cul- 

 ture of its own emphasizing qual- 

 ities of modesty, gracefulness, nat- 

 uralness, charm, poise, etc., or 

 should it derive it from the cities? 



What Is Culture? 



"Real culture develops self-confi- 

 dence and independence of environ- 

 ment and circumstances. One of our 

 great pyschologists states that un- 

 cultured people live in the world 

 without being conscious that to be 

 alive at all is one grand mystery. 

 Culture has the faculty of enabling 

 us to be happy in the only way 

 wherein most human beings can be 

 happy — in complete defiance of 

 their surroundings. Like charity de- 

 fined by St. Paul, culture is not 



proud, majestic, pompous, nor im- 

 posing, it does not show itself at 

 all." 



The contestants were judged on 

 naturalness, personality, poise, 

 gracefulness, sincerity, and similar 

 qualities The contest was in no 

 sense a beauty contest as is com- 

 monly conducted under that name. 

 It was initiated to give emphasis 

 to the development of qualities ad- 

 mired by all in womanhood. 



The young women in the contest 

 were chosen as representatives from 

 their respective counties on the 

 basis of character, intelligence, 

 naturalness, poise, gracefulness, all 

 of which to a large extent can be 

 developed. 



Developing People 



A frequent criticism heard on 

 every hand is that the human race 

 devotes more time and attention 

 to breeding finer specimens of do- 

 mestic animals and livestock than 

 it does to the development of peo- 

 ple. We have to go back thousands 

 of years to the Spartans and Greeks 

 to find examples of serious effort 

 and intelligence applied toward de- 

 veloping human perfection. Only 

 within comparatively recent years 

 have the American people given 

 much attention toward growing 

 healthier children through scientific 

 diet and health practices on a wide 

 scale. And health is a first requisite 



