March, 1933 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Page Seventeen 



Smith and Kirkpatrick 

 At Country Life Banquet 



400 General And Special Agents 



Gather For Annual Roundup 



at Peoria 



EARL C. SMITH 



FOUR hundred general and spe- 

 cial agents of Country Life In- 

 surance Company warmly wel- 

 comed President Earl C. Smith and 

 Donald Kirkpatrick, general coun- 

 sel, at a banquet held in the Pere 

 Marquette Hotel, Peoria, February 

 21. The dinner marked the high 

 point of the annual "round-up" of 

 Country Life agents. Mr. Smith and 

 M r . Kirkpatrick 

 were not only the 

 honored guests 

 but also the prin- 

 cipal speakers. 



The annual 

 "round-up" open- 

 ed on the morn- 

 ing of February 

 21 and continued 

 through the aft- 

 ernoon of the 

 following day. It 

 was the largest 

 and most enthu- 

 siastic meeting 

 of its kind held in the history of 

 the Company. L. A. Williams, man- 

 ager, presided. 



In his address Mr. Smith traced 

 the history of the Company, telling 

 how the Illinois Agricultural As- 

 sociation in 1927 decided to foster 

 such a company in response to de- 

 mand from members, the long and 

 laborious preliminary steps neces- 

 sary before the Company finally 

 came into being, and of the stock 

 setup and control worked out by 

 Mr. Kirkpatrick to keep its owner- 

 ship within the Farm Bureau move- 

 ment. Special tribute was paid to 

 Vernon Vaniman, who directed the 

 original "selling" campaign with 

 the result that the necessary stock 

 was oversubscribed, and to L. A. 

 Williams, under whose direction 

 the growth of . the Company in 

 strength, in prestige, and in the 

 amount of insurance in force has 

 been continuous. 



"Every member of the I. A. A. is 

 proud of Country Life," Mr. Smith 

 said, "because from these small 

 beginnings it has flourished and 

 grown until it commands the at- 

 tention and respect of the oldest 

 companies in the insurance field 

 and because of the outstanding 

 position it occupies, not only as an 

 insurance company, but also as a 

 truly successful agricultural co- 

 operative." 



The speaker's mind was never far 

 from the needs and problems of 

 present day agriculture, however, 

 and he brought a message of opti- 

 mism to the guests who were al- 



most to a man practical farmers. 



"I believe the bottom has been 

 reached," Mr. Smith said, "and that 

 from here on we may begin to note 

 improvement. I am confident that 

 existing farm problems eventually 

 will be ironed out and brought to 

 a successful solution." 



He stressed the importance of 

 complete organization among the 

 farmers of the nation as a means 

 of obtaining a voice in the settle- 

 ment of agricultural problems and 

 said that through organization the 

 entire country may be impressed 

 with the true importance of the 

 farmer in the economic scheme of 

 the nation. Through organization, 

 he said, it can be clearly demon- 

 strated that the first necessity is to 

 restore the prosperity of agriculture 

 as a means to restoring the pros- 

 perity of every other class in 

 America. 



Mr. Kirkpatrick paid an eloquent 

 tribute to the memory of George 

 Washington, whose birthday was 

 the following day. He stressed the 

 importance of team work in any 

 cooperative organization and show- 

 ed how no one aspect of a coop- 

 erative group could be permitted to 

 prosper at the expense of another 

 but that all must bear their full 

 share of the burden and accept full 

 responsibility if success is to be 

 achieved. 



He emphasized the importance of 

 life insurance in general to the peo- 

 ple of the United States and showed 

 how it forms an extremely im- 

 portant part in the financial struc- 

 ture of the country. He likewise 

 stressed the importance of life in- 

 surance service in the I. A. A. pic- 

 ture and pointed with pride to the 

 record the Company has made. 



At the other sessions of the 

 "round-up" speakers were for the 

 most part members of the Country 

 Life organization, their subjects 

 being matters of interest to the 

 agents, and discussions of the 

 agents' problems. W. K. Braasch, 

 sales engineer, of Chicago and A. 

 R. Jaqua of Cincinnati addressed 

 the agents on insurance subjects. 

 Mr. Williams opened the meeting 

 with a talk on "The Importance of 

 a Purpose," and other speakers and 

 leaders of the discussions included 

 Dr. John Boland, medical director, 

 C. C. Ramler, Dave Mieher, Bernard 

 Mosier, M. E. Roberts, H. O. Henry, 

 G. R. Williams, V. Vaniman and A. 

 E. Richardson. 



The Illinois Agricultural Holding 

 Company recently declared and 

 paid a dividend of $48,000. Approxi- 

 mately 10,000 checks were mailed 

 out. 



This distribution is another ex- 

 ample of the value of co-operative 

 effort among Farm Bureau mem- 

 bers. 



Walter W. McLaughlin 

 Director of Agriculture 



Walter W. McLaughlin, former 

 farm adviser in LaSalle county, was 

 recently appointed state director of 

 agriculture by Governor Homer. 



McLaughlin is a native of Ma- 

 rion county, Illinois, where he re- 

 sided until he started to school at 

 Southern Illinois Normal college, 

 Carbondale. After graduating there 

 he taught country school for three 

 years before entering the University 

 of Illinois in 1913. Out of college 

 during the war, McLaughlin re-en- 

 tered the State University in 1920 

 where he secured his bachelor's de- 

 gree in the College of Agriculture. 

 He worked in LaSalle county seven 

 years, first as assistant farm ad- 

 viser then later as adviser. 



During recent years McLaughlin 

 was employed as farm manager for 

 the Citizens National Bank at De- 

 catur. More than a year ago he 

 joined Dudley C. Smith and Frank 

 D. Baldwin in organizing Decatur 

 Farm Management, Inc. which has 

 been supervising approximately 17,- 

 000 acres of land in Macon and ad- 

 joining counties. 



McLaughlin's appointment is a 

 popular one, and he is assured of 

 securing the good will and co-op- 

 eration of agricultural interests 

 throughout the state. 



1 200 Attend Sanitary 



Milk Producers Meeting 



More than 1,200 milk producers 

 attended the annual meeting of 

 Sanitary Milk Producers, at St. 

 Jacob Feb. 23 reports Sec. Geo. E. 

 Metzger, who attended the meet- 

 ing. 



An active discussion was had on 

 the question of establishing surplus 

 plants in the country. At current 

 prices, farmers are receiving less 

 for surplus milk after paying truck- 

 ing charges, than they would re- 

 ceive were the milk condensed or 

 separated and the cream churned 

 into butterfat. 



Dr. Arthur E. Holt of the Chicago 

 Theological Seminary was the prin- 

 cipal speaker at the gathering rep- 

 resenting 9,000 members of the As- 

 sociation. 



Soyo 



il Paint at 

 Century of Progress 



The Illinois Farm Supply Com- 

 pany recently announced the sale 

 of more than 400 gallons of Soyoil 

 paint to the Century of Progress 

 Exposition. 



The paint will be used both In- 

 side and outside in covering the 

 walls of the Illinois Host building. 



