February, 1933 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Page Nineteen 



Mefzger Tells How $4.50 



duced from seven to four cents per 

 , L*c ic J. "^^1®- Every possible economy has 

 Membership Fee Is opent been made where it would not in- 

 terfere with service to members. 



Compares I. A. A. Service Pro- 

 gram To Machine Capable 

 of Benefiting More 

 Members 



COMPARING the services and as- 

 sociated companies established 

 by the I. A. A. to a great machine 

 designed to divert part of the profits 

 from the sale of farm products and 

 the purchase of 

 farm supplies to 

 Illinois farmers, 

 Secretary George 

 E. Metzger in his 

 annual report 

 said, "the ma- 

 chine is large, 

 and it may need 

 refining in some 

 parts, it may need 

 more skilled me- 

 chanics to handle 

 its operation but 

 GEO. E. METZGEK jt is Capable of 



serving many 

 thousands of Illinois farmers in a 

 much better way than they are now 

 being served. We must develop a 

 program of organization and edu- 

 cation to inform members and non- 

 members how they can benefit 

 through taking advantage of these 

 services." 



He urged that farmers use the 

 co-operative selling agencies so as 

 to increase the volume of products 

 handled that the full benefits of 

 organized bargaining power may be 

 realized. 



Expenditures Cut 25% 



Commenting on membership dues 

 he said, "A great deal of thought 

 has been given to this question by 

 sincere friends of the organization. 

 Enemies of the Farm Bureau move- 

 ment, too, have advocated reduced 

 dues knowing that the most effec- 

 tive way to cripple the organization 

 is by decreasing its income. Officers 

 and directors of the Association 

 have not been unfriendly to sug- 

 gestions for cutting expenditures. 

 Substantial cuts have been made in 

 our operating expenses. Salaries 

 and operating expenses have been 

 reduced more than 25 per cent. But 

 an analysis of the pay roll and total 

 expenditures of the organization 

 shows that if all salaries were cut 

 out and the staff paid nothing for 

 its services it would reduce the 

 total expenditures of the Associa- 

 tion only 24.4 per cent. This would 

 lower the total fee only about one 

 dollar. 



"A substantial item of expendi- 

 ture in your Association is that of 

 travel. Railroad rates have not de- 

 creased. In the operation of auto- 

 mobiles the allowance has been re- 



Salaries Less Than Fourth 



"It may be of interest to the dele- 

 gates and members to know how 

 the $4.50 dues in the I. A. A. are 

 spent; Salaries constitute 24.4 per 

 cent of the Association's expense; 

 travel, 4.6 per cent; clerical help, 

 10 per cent; annual meeting, 3.2 

 per cent; travel and subsistence of 

 the board of directors, 2.4 per cent; 

 expense of advisory committees, .6 

 per cent; finance committee, .5 per 

 cent; general conferences, one per 

 cent; district conferences, .2 per 

 cent; county meetings, .4 per cent; 

 per diem, travel and office expense 

 of the president, 2.8 per cent; sec- 

 retary's office, 5.6 per cent; treas- 

 urer's office, 5.4 per cent; comp- 

 troller, .3 per cent; legal service, 5.4 

 per cent; marketing program, 15.01 

 per cent; organization, 28 per cent; 

 publicity, including publication of 

 Record and Illinois Section of Bu- 

 reau Farmer, 8.2 per cent; taxation 

 department, 3.9 per cent; trans- 

 portation, .8 per cent. 



How Dues Are Spent 



"The $4.50 membership fee wHen 

 split up among the various activ- 

 ities and departments of the As- 

 sociation is as follows: 



Annual meeting, 1932 $ .174 



Board of directors' travel and 



subsistence 129 



Advisory committee work 03 



Finance Committee 026 



General Conferences 052 



District Conferences 01 



County Meetings 014 



Maintenance of President's 



Office 153 



Secretary 305 



Treasurer and his office 289 



Comptroller 018 



Department of Taxation 209 



Record, Bureau Farmer, Pub- 

 licity 441 



Legislative Program 106 



Organization and Membership 



Maintenance 1.51 



Limestone -Phosphate Depart- 

 ment 144 



Business Service 02 



Clerical help 59 



Rent 267 



Marketing 816 



Legal Service 288 



Transportation 044 



General Office 108 



"Our experience shows that a re- 

 duction in membership does not in- 

 crease the number of members. 

 When counties, or states, have de- 

 creased membership fees they have 

 usually lost members rather than 

 gained because of the almost im- 

 mediate reduction they necessarily 

 had to make in their service pro- 

 gram. Experience in the middle 

 west during the past six years has 

 proved that the states with the 



higher membership fees have re- 

 tained the higher number of mem- 

 bers. It seems that farmers don't 

 care to belong to an organization 

 offering little or no service even 

 though the membership fee is small. 



"In a few counties in the state 

 nearly 70 per cent of the farmers 

 residing therein are members of the 

 Farm Bureau. An increase of 10 

 per cent in the membership in those 

 counties is probably all that can 

 reasonably be expected. On the 

 other hand, we have a few coun- 

 ties where it would seem possible to 

 increase the membership 200 per 

 cent. It does not seem unreasonable 

 to expect that 100,000 farmers in 

 Illinois should be carrying member- 

 ship in the organization. 



"We have built a fine machine of- 

 fering real benefits to the farmers 

 of this state. Let us make every ef- 

 fort in the coming year to use this 

 machine to greater capacity and ex- 

 tend the benefits to a larger num- 

 ber of members." 



Newspaper Men 



At The Convention 



Peoria newspapers did a good job 

 of covering the convention. The 

 Journal was represented by Flaher- 

 ty and Kinsey, the Transcript by 

 Maggenheimer and Perry, and the 

 Star by Mr. Johnson. Photogra- 

 phers were on hand from all three 

 newspapers. 



Floyd Keepers, managing editor, 

 covered the meeting for Prairie 

 Farmer. 



Gifford Ernest of the Chicago 

 News and Paul Potter of the Chi- 

 cago Tribune reported the conven- 

 tion for their respective papers. Bob 

 Howard of the Associated Press, 

 Chicago sent the news out over the 

 wires to all dailies in and beyond 

 Illinois having A. P. service. How- 

 ard is a son of J. R. Howard of Iowa, 

 first president of the American 

 Farm Bureau Federation. Flaherty 

 took care of the Chicago Herald 

 Examiner and Johnson filed stories 

 for the International News Service. 



Farm Supply Co. Officers 



Officers elected by the board of 

 directors of the Illinois Farm Supply 

 Company at their recent meeting 

 were: Fred E. Herndon, Macomb, 

 president; Geo. F. Tullock, Rock- 

 ford, vice-president; E. E. Steven- 

 son, Streator, secretary; and R. A. 

 Cowles, Bloomington, treasurer. 



Directors who will serve in the 

 coming year are Grant Broster, 

 Grayville, J. M. Eyman, Warrens- 

 burg, Frank J. Flynn, Woodson, 

 Fred E. Herndon, Macomb, H. A. 

 Keele, Chesterfield, H. R. Neal, 

 Lawrenceville, T. J. Penman, York- 

 ville, E. E. Stevenson, Streator, and 

 Geo. F. Tullock, Rockford. 



