14 



I. A. A. RECORD— July, 1933 



Hear Watson On Tax, 



^ ^^ Road Bills in 17th 



Prof. Case, Cherrill and Others 

 Speak at Bloomington 

 Conference 



E. D. LAWRENCE 



THE chief concern of the Illinois 

 Agricultural Association is to 

 insure that any new revenue 

 legislation proposed at Springfield 

 contain features similar to those in 

 the previous sales tax bill providing 



for replacement 

 of property taxes, 

 John C. Watson, 

 director of tax- 

 ation, told Farm 

 Bureau leaders at- 

 tending the 17th 

 district confer- 

 ence at Blooming- 

 ton May 27. 



Mr. Watson 

 called attention to 

 the fact that un- 

 constitut i n a 1 

 features of the previous sales tax bill 

 were placed there originally without 

 any effort on the part of the I. A. A. 

 He also reported on the progress of 

 the bill now being sponsored in the 

 legislature which provides for a prop- 

 erty tax on income from intangible 

 property. As this is written this bill 

 has passed the senate and lies in the 

 House Committee on Revenue. The 

 revenue received from the application 

 of this measure will go to all taxing 

 bodies that receive the general prop- 

 erty taxes, and the regular tax rates 

 will apply. ■"v.\.':' ;'•-■:/ _ ! 



Other Legislation 



Mr. Watson also reported on other 

 measures including road bills, and ex- 

 plained the amendments which protect 

 the interests of farmers in future road 

 building. He explained that the I. A. 

 A. is backing the revenue amendment 

 to give the legislature broad powers 

 toward developing a new system of 

 taxation. 



Prof. H. C. M. Case of the Illinois 

 College of Agriculture, discussed the 

 farm mortgage situation and the plans 

 of county debt conciliation com- 

 mittees. He showed that the total 

 farm debt tripled during the period 

 1910-1928 and now totals about $12,- 

 000,000,000. About 40 per cent of the 

 farms of the country are mortgaged 

 with an average of about $15,000 per 

 farm. In Illinois the average mortgage 

 indebtedness on farms that are mort- 

 gaged is about $7,500, the annual in- 

 terest payments on which total about 

 $500,000,000. 



S. C. Cherrill of the Illinois Live- 



stock Marketing Association pointed 

 out that a large proportion of the live- 

 stock grown in the United States is 

 processed by comparatively few firms 

 and that sales are made on the ter- 

 minal markets by a large number of 

 commission men. This situation, he 

 said, results in a market where the 

 chief advantage rests with the buyers. 

 The large processors have an organ- 

 ization operating in all the large mar- 

 ket centers. Thus they are able to take 

 advantage of the situation and buy 

 livestock at the lowest possible price. 

 In order to compete, farmers also 

 must have a large organization to 

 give them bargaining power. It should 

 be so set up that it will be possible 

 to co-ordinate selling operations on 

 the various markets and raise low 

 spots existing on any day. 



Cherrill discussed the direct mar- 

 keting problem and showed how the 

 State Marketing Association is at- 

 tempting to meet it by the organiza- 

 tion of co-operative concentration 

 points. 



A. B. Culp told what community in- 

 formation committees were doing in 

 many counties and called attention to 

 the influence of this work on member- 

 ship. 



Forrest Fairchild, manager of the 

 Farmers Co-operative Creamery stated 

 that the local plant had been operat- 

 ing at an annual rate of 1,600,000 

 pounds of butter during the last two 

 weeks. He said it would be necessary 

 to install another vat and also an ad- 

 ditional churn, and to operate at least 

 20 hours daily to manufacture the 

 large quantity of butterfat being re- 

 ceived. ,; •■■ ■•.^., . \.:. ■■. • ■ 



The conference was presided over by 

 Director Ernest D. Lawrence. W. F. 

 Purnell of Ford county acted as sec- 

 retary. After the meeting the group 

 inspected the Bloomington concentra- 

 tion point operated by the Illinois 

 Livestock Marketing Association. 



Settle For $ 1 00 More 



Than Original Offer 



A settlement for $175 to cover 

 loss of a two-year old colt, injury to 

 two other horses, and veterinary fees, 

 was secured by the I. A. A. Claims 

 Department recently for Albert Char- 

 lier of LaSalle county recently. 



The above sum is $100 more than 

 the original offer of the railroad com- 

 pany to Mr. Charlier. 



Two colts and an older horse broke 

 through the defective railroad fence 

 along the right-of-way and were hit 

 by a passing train. 



Wool Marketing 



(Continued from page 13) 



ing and other cooperative enterprises. 

 There will be some seasons in any 

 pooling plan of marketing when some 

 individuals will get more selling on 

 the outside than they would in the 

 pool but on the average the man 

 who will market his wool through a 

 pool whether in Illinois or any of the 

 other states where pools are conducted, 

 over a period of ten years, will secure 

 more dollars through the pool than he 

 will selling as an individual. Not only 

 that, but constant pooling on the part 

 of a majority of the growers would 

 raise price levels for everybody and 

 reduce marketing expense. 



.,; The 1932 Pool r J ^ 



In 1932, especially, at shearing time 

 prices for wool were very low. This 

 condition continued for a period of 

 two or three months. In some coun- 

 ties wool was sold for as little as 5c 

 per pound. In other counties buy- 

 ers refused even to bid on the com- 

 modity. Last year the Illinois 

 Livestock Marketing Association 

 made a cash advance of 7c per 

 pound. Final returns resulted in a net 

 to producers of good wool of around 

 9c per pound. Most of the 1,300 con- 

 signors in last year's pool were well 

 satisfied. There were a few, particu- 

 larly those who had fine wool or burry 

 wool, who were dissatisfied. There 

 were some who could have got more 

 money outside of the pool than they 

 did in the pool but on the whole the 

 1932 Illinois wool pool resulted in 

 higher prices to the wool growers of 

 Illinois and contributed somewhat to 

 supporting price levels in general. 



There have been few seasons in 

 which the circumstances were more 

 favorable for the cooperative plan of 

 marketing wool than they have been 

 in 1933. A tendency on the part of the 

 growers to withhold their wool this 

 season would have actually resulted in 

 increasing returns to Illinois farmers 

 of approximately a half million dol- 

 lars. We always hear about the cases 

 when the cooperative gets less money. 

 It would be refreshing to hear from 

 some of these same persons who got 

 8, 9 and 10c, this year when they 

 could have secured much more co- 

 operatively. 



There is a valuable lesson to be 

 learned from our experience in wool 

 marketing in 1933. It merely furnishes 

 further evidence of the fact that the 

 producer holds the key to his mar- 

 keting problem. Acting collectively he 

 can answer to his own advantage the 

 problems of price and marketing costs. 

 Acting individually he never can. 



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