I. A. A. RBCORD^November, 1933 



13 



Let's All Do Our Part 



Radio Address Delivered By Donald Kirkpatrick, General 



Counsel, Illinois Agricultural Association, 



Station WLS, October 1 1 



w- 



THE mobilization campaign now 

 under way throughout the state 

 is not a movement to build a 

 powerful organization for the sake of 

 organization. Organization is not an 

 end in itself. It is merely a means 

 to an end — a means to accomplish cer- 

 tain things that can be achieved in 

 no other way. 



George Bernard Shaw, the British 

 philosopher, once said: "Every time a 

 law Is passed the national income is 

 redivided." Farmers have come to 

 learn the truth of this statement by 

 . ., bitter experience. 

 , , Because farmers comprise a sub- 

 stantial part of the tax-paying class 

 they have a large stake in govern- 

 ment. What the General Assembly 

 ■ and the Congress does affects all of 

 us, our business, our income, our 

 ;. .:;;', standard of living. Because legisla- 

 tion is often influenced by money and 

 organization, because laws frequently 

 take money away directly or indi- 

 rectly from one group and give it to 

 another, is reason why farmers com- 

 prising a minority of all the people, 

 ^A - .• ■ ■ must stand together to protect their 

 industry or take the consequences. 



The Special Session 



We have a current illustration of 

 what I mean in the special session 

 of the Illinois General Assembly now 

 convened at Springfield to consider 

 unemployment relief. The State Relief 

 Commission, we are told, is out of 

 funds and requires $30,000,000 to op- 

 erate between now and July 1, 1934. 

 Most of this sum it is generally con- 

 ceded will be spent in Chicago and 

 Cook county. The question is not 

 whether destitute people shall be given 

 food and shelter, but how shall the 

 r funds be raised. Every farmer, every 

 land owner and every property tax- 

 payer in downstate Illinois will be af- 

 fected by the way this problem is 

 finally settled. ;-■>!?-->? 



The Illinois Agricultural Associa- 

 tion has believed from the beginning 

 that care of the poor and destitute is 

 primarily a local problem; that money 

 for poor relief should be raised for the 

 / . J. most part in the community where 

 needed. Downstate counties under the 

 township form of govemmerit have 

 to a large extent been caring for their 

 own unemployed through levying 



taxes in each township for this pur- 

 pose. Although the Illinois Emergency 

 Relief Commission has been in exist- 

 ence for approximately two years, 32 

 downstate counties have taken care of 

 their own destitute people entirely at 

 their own expense. Others have asked 

 for and received comparatively small 

 amounts from the State Relief Com- 

 mission. Very little of the funds given 

 any county have been used in rural 

 areas. 



Under our present statutes Chicago 

 and Cook county, and the commission- 

 governed counties in downstate Illi- 

 nois do not have sufficient authority 

 to levy taxes locally for this pur- 

 pose. They do not have the same 

 right and opportunity to care for their 

 own through property taxation. As a 

 result, Chicago and Cook county 

 leaders have made successful efforts 

 to place the burden not on their own 

 people but on the people of the entire 

 state and nation. 



$75,000,000 Taken 



Altogether a total of more than $75,- 

 000,000 has been taken from present 

 and future road funds in Illinois for 

 direct unemployment relief. Chicago 

 and Cook county got most of it. Yet 

 there are still 70,000 miles of unim- 

 proved farm-to-market roads in Illi- 

 nois. And when roaJ and gas tax 

 funds are diverted to other uses, it 

 means loss of unemployment and more 

 taxes on property if these roads are 

 ever to be improved. 



Now it is proposed by Chicago ad- 

 ministration leaders that an additional 

 state tax levy of $38,000,000 be author- 

 ized on all Illinois property next year 

 in the interest of unemployment relief. 

 If a proposed bond issue of $30,000,000 

 payable out of gas tax funds is ap- 

 proved by the voters in 1934, the levy 

 against property will not be necessary. 

 But what if the bond issue fails? 

 There '^is nothing certain about the 

 people of Illinois approving such a 

 proposal. Many legislators sejiously 

 doubt its passage. 



The State Relief Commission has 

 asked for this sum to carry on its 

 work up to July 1, 1934. Where are 

 funds to come from after that? No 

 one has indicated. Presumably the 

 road fund will be raided again. Chi- 

 cago "apparently is determined to con- 



tinue indefinitely taking all the money 

 it can pry loose from road funds and 

 from the federal and state govern- 

 ment. When will it start raising its 

 own relief funds at home as many 

 rural communities are doing? Prob- 

 ably not until the people from rural 

 Illinois stand together and call a halt. 

 It is one thing to assist a commu- 

 nity in its relief work after it hap 

 made a serious effort to help itself. 

 It is another thing for all the people 

 of the state to run the risk of pay- 

 ing $38,000,000 additional taxes to aid 

 a community which makes absolutely 

 no effort whatsoever to discharge its 

 responsibility. -• .• 



" 15 Billion Untaxed 



Only this week Mayor Kelly of 

 Chicago told how millions of dollars 

 had been brought to Chicago by vis- 

 itors to the World's Fair. More than 

 a year ago competent authorities 

 testified in Judge Jarecki's court that 

 there were approximately $15,000,-: 

 000,000 of untaxed intangibles, mostly 

 stocks and bonds, lying in Chicago 

 and Cook county strong boxes. Here 

 we have a picture and evidence of 

 great wealth in the metropolitan area; 

 yet practically nothing has been done 

 in this city to raise funds for its poor 

 people. :.?} ? 



For this reason the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association is supporting a 

 series of bills that lay the same man- 

 datory duty upon the City of Chicago 

 and upon the townships outside of 

 Chicago in Cook county to levy taxes 

 for poor relief and give the same tax- 

 ing power therefore that now exists 

 in 85 counties of the state. These bills 

 introduced by Sen, Lantz and up for 

 final vote in the senate also give an 

 additional tax rate up to 15 cents to 

 the commission - governed counties 

 downstate to be used exclusively for 

 poor relief. 



All such additional taxes both in 

 Cook county and in the commission- 

 governed counties are to be paid over 

 to the State Unemployment Relief 

 Commission. In all such counties the 

 Commission is required to spend in 

 each taxing unit taxes collected there- 

 in for relief. 



We believe the position of the Illi- 

 nois Agricultural Association in sup- 

 port of the Lantz bills is eminently 

 sound and fair. The same position 

 was supported by President Roose- 

 velt last week in addressing the 

 American Legion convention in Chi- 

 cago when he said: 



"If he (the individual) has not the 

 wherewithal to take care of himself it 

 is first of all the duty of his commu- 

 nity to take care of him." 



Many are predicting that until 



