*'\ 



The 



DlitKHs A^ctdtural Assodatioii 



RECORD 



PubliBhed monthly by the IlllnoU Agricultural Aaooclatlun at 10& 80. Ifaiu bUvet, isiiencer, lua. bitiitorlal Offlcea, 608 So. Dearborn St., Chicago, 111. 

 Entered a« second class matter at post office, Spencer, Ind. Acceptance for mailing at special rates of postage provided in Section 412, Act of Feb. 28. 

 192S, authorized Oct. 27, 1826. Address all communications for publication to Editorial Offices, Illinois Agricultural Association Record, 808 So. 

 Dearborn St., Chicago. 



Number 12 



DECEMBER, 1932 



Volume 10 



Annual Meeting Jan. 25-26-27 



Peoria Connected With Early History of I. A. A., Many Will Recall Meetings 



of 1919 and 1920 



WHEN the organized farmers of 

 Illinois gather at Peoria Jan- 

 uary 25-26-27 for the eighteenth an- 

 nual meeting of the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association and meetings of 

 many associated companies, it will 

 remind some of the pioneers in the 

 movement of the historic meeting 

 in this same city in January 1919. 



It was in Peoria 14 years ago that 

 the founders of the I. A. A. decided 

 to make it a live membership or- 

 ganization with a broad program of 

 service rather than a loose federa- 

 tion of County Farm Bureaus. At 

 that memorable meeting 120 men 

 made personal pledges of $100 each 

 to underwrite the 

 employment of a 

 secretary, the estab- 

 lishment of an of- 

 fice, and the in- 

 auguration of a joint 

 membership cam- 

 paign throughout 

 the state. 



The first I. A. A. 

 office was set up in 

 a couple of small 

 rooms at 1103 Edison 

 Building, across 

 from the Federal 

 Building in Chicago. 



At the end of the 

 year, the organiza- 

 tion committee re- 

 ported that 40,551 

 members had been 

 secured through 

 membership c a m- 

 paigns in 33 coun- 

 ties. The following 

 year, 1920, this figure 

 had been more than 

 doubled and since 

 then the I. A. A. has 

 been one of the 

 largest and strongest 

 state farm organiza- 

 tions in America. 



uary, 1920, to review the year's ac- 

 complishments, one of the interest- 

 ing subjects discussed was the boy- 

 cott of eggs, butter, and other farm 

 products by city housewives, and 

 the nation-wide publicity given the 

 High Cost of Living. 



"Because there is a lot of com- 

 ment about the farmer being to 

 blame for the high cost of living," 

 the Publicity Department reported, 

 "the I. A. A. fed two families in 

 Chicago for a week, kept strict ac- 

 count of what that family ate, and 

 what it cost them. The products 

 were traced back to see how much 

 the farmer got. Out of the four 



The H. C. of L. 



''"'■' When the mem- 

 bers met in Peoria a 

 year later in Jan- 



PERE MARQUETTE HOTEL, PEORIA 



Headquarters L A. A. Annual Meetinj; Jan. 25-26-27. The last I 

 Convention was held in this city in Jaunary 1927. 



main necessities of life which come 

 direct from Illinois farmers — ^meat, 

 bread, milk, and potatoes — ^the 

 farmer gets 42 per cent, and others 

 get 58 per cent," said the report. 

 "In the case of bread, the farmer 

 gets 3.1 cents for the wheat in a 10 

 cent one-pound loaf which means 

 that if he gave his wheat for noth- 

 ing bread would still cost about 

 seven cents a loaf. Carrying It out 

 further it would mean a reduction 

 of 75 cents per bushel for wheat to 

 make a one-cent reduction in a loaf 

 of bread." 



How different is the picture to- 

 day? The low cost of living and the 

 lowest price for farm 

 products in the 

 memory of living 

 men will character- 

 ize the economic 

 situation as d e 1 e- 

 gates and members 

 gather from the 102 

 counties of Illinois in 

 January 1933. 



In welcoming the 

 delegates to Peoria, 

 his home county, at 

 the annual meeting 

 on January 13, 1920, 

 Zealy M. Holmes, 

 then A s s o c i a t ion 

 vice-president, struck 

 one of the keynotes 

 of the convention 

 when he said: 



"What we want 

 and expect is that 

 the price of farm 

 products can be sta- 

 bilized so after pro- 

 ducing the crops we 

 can in return re- 

 ceive the cost of pro- 

 duction plus a rea- 

 sonable profit. 



"In the contracts 

 our government 

 made with other in- 

 dustries during the 

 war, they allowed 

 cost plus a certain 

 (Cont'd, p. 4, col. 3) 



A. A. 



