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I. A. A. Record— April, 1934 



-Is a man ever justified in not sign- 

 ing the corn-hog reduction program 

 or other government crop adjustment 

 plans? • 



* - : f 



Obviously the answer is "yes." No 

 program or plan is perfect. The corn- 

 hog program is a great benefactor to 

 the industry but it does not fit every 

 case. If applied universally it would 

 work a hardship on such producers 

 whose acreage or crop of the basic 

 commodity in the base period for va- 

 rious reasons has been greatly reduced 

 if not entirely eliminated. ^ 



A Farm Bureau member from 

 Henry county presents a case in point. 

 He writes rather critically about the 

 corn reduction plan, because, as he 

 states, he has plowed up only 25 to 

 30 per cent of his farm keeping the 

 balance in grass anfl legumes to con- 

 serve and build up soil fertility. In 

 the meantime, he says, his neighbors 

 have "torn up" from 75 to 90 per cent 

 of their land and put it into cultivated 

 crops. His neighbors and others, not 

 he, he contends are responsible for 

 price-depressing surpluses. Therefore, 

 he asks "am I less an American and 

 a good citizen if I fail to sign up to 

 reduce my small acreage another 20 

 per cent when I already voluntarily 

 have cut production 30 to 40 per 

 cent?'* ' 



How would you advise this man? 

 it seems to us that he should not be 

 criticised for not signing the contract 

 since the program already penalizes 

 him, in comparison, whether or not he 

 goes along. We can suggest, how- 

 ever, that he fill out the work sheet 

 and discuss his case with the local 

 production control committee. By so 

 doing he shows his good faith and 

 good intentions. And if he doesn't 

 use the opportunity to increase pro- 

 duction, hoping to take advantage of 

 the prospective rise in prices, it would 

 seem that he fulfills his obligations. 



Such cases as this indicate the value 

 of giving certain discretionary powers 

 to production control associations. If 

 a man has his hog base destroyed by 

 cholera or otherwise, if the peculiar- 

 ities of the weather or crop rotation 

 system have resulted in an abnormal- 

 ly low acreage of corn, wheat or cot- 

 ton in the base period, allowance 

 might well be made for such abnor- 

 malities. 



Judgment should always be tem- 

 pered with practical consideration and 

 common sense. By frankly discussing 

 their situations with the local com- 



At the Annual Conference of Illinois Farm Supply Company, Danville 



ttiittees, such producers as the one 

 mentioned can avoid adverse criticism 

 and make a contribution toward per- 

 fecting adjustment programs in the 

 years to come. — E. G. T. :, ' 



L. A. WILLIAMS 



1 220 Hear L. A. Williams 

 At Stephenson Co. Meeting 



Picking at random from among the 

 many county wide meetings addressed 

 throughout the state by L. A. Wil- 

 liams, manager of Country Life, one 

 of the most outstanding to date was 



, that held at Free- 

 ' ::^^^^; .< . : port, March 8th, 



when 1,220 Steph- 

 enson Countyites 

 occupied every 

 available seat in 

 the Consistory 

 theatre, of which 

 134 were brand 

 new Farm Bureau 

 members, 106 of 

 whom had signed 

 up two days be- 

 fore the meeting. 

 Just before Mr. Williams began his 

 address on the value of organization 

 and its part in the recovery program, 

 he was presented with 134 new mem- 

 berships. The crowd was responsive 

 and demonstrated the enthusiasm that 

 is sweeping through the state for a 

 more solid organization to further the 

 cause of agriculture. 



Kelsye Baylor, who is not only the 

 leading pilot in the Country Life 

 "Aeroplane Race," but is an excellent 

 master of ceremonies, introduced the 

 Swiss Yodelers from Brodhead, Wis- 

 consin, who gave several selections. 

 Interspersing the talks by various 

 county officials, a number of mono- 

 logues were given which were well 

 received by the crowd. Mr. Williams 

 is and has been doing effective work 

 on the platform throughout the state 

 in behalf of organization as the solu- 

 tion to farmers' problems. He appre- 

 ciates the fact that establishment of 



parity prices for farm products, a fair 

 taxing system, and a better economic 

 position for the industry are the big 

 objectives organized farmers must 

 fight for. ^■■■•■■-- \:.-.;:^ •;■:• -^^.^--^ ...:i:i---\':: 



Farm Supply Refund Is 

 Above National Average 



For comparison with the achieve- 

 ment of Illinois Farm Supply Com- 

 pany in doing a $6,000,000 business 

 during 1933 and returning an average 

 of 14 cents out of each dollar to mem- 

 ber patrons in the form of patronage 

 dividends, a recent Washington report 

 on farmer-owned petroleum co-ops. 

 should be of interest to Illinois farm- 

 ers. ■ '■■■'■ ■"'■' " "' ■" ■'■ " ■' '-' ' " ■■'■■•■ 

 T. "Farmer co-operatives," states the 

 article, "did a total business of $35,- 

 000,000 during 1933 according to fig- 

 ures compiled by the co-operative di- 

 vision of the Farm Credit Adminis- 

 tration. Formation of these associa- 

 tions, which today total about 600 has 

 been one of the outstanding develop- 

 ments of the farmer co-operative 

 movement during recent years. Nearly 

 500 of these were organized in the last 

 seven years, . . . Minnesota leads all 

 other states in number of associations 

 followed by Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska 

 and Indiana in order named. It is esti- 

 mated that in all, about 350,000 farm- 

 er members own and control these or- 

 ganizations. 



"According to data assembled by the 

 co-operative division of the Farm 

 Credit Administration, 52 associations 

 in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa did 

 a total business of $2,600,000 in 1933. 

 . . . The average net earnings of each 

 was about $5,000. About 10 cents was 

 returned for every dollar's worth of 

 gas and oil the member bought from 

 his association." 



Illinois farmers know by this time 

 that their 54 County Service com- 

 panies did a total business of $6,000,- 

 000 in 1933, with patronage refunds of 

 (Continued on Page 18, Col. 1) 



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