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Building Membership 



Subject at 5 Meetings 



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Railroad Officials TeU How They 

 Maintain Personnel, Service 



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How to build organization, the im- 

 portance of personnel, serving the 

 member after he has signed, and the 

 new record system occupied the ma- 

 jor interest of organization directors, 

 committees, farm advisers, and office 

 secretaries in five district meetings 

 held at Jacksonville, DeKalb, Peoria, 

 Centralia and Danville during the 

 month of June. Secretary George E. 

 Metzger and V. Vaniman, director of 

 organization service, attended and di- 

 rected the program at all conferences. 



P. J. O'Shaugnessy, personnel di- 

 rector of the Rock Island lines, and 

 J. W. Kern, divisional superintendent 

 of the Illinois Central Railroad, ad- 

 dressed the Peoria and Centralia meet- 

 ings on June 7 and 8 respectively. 



/*One common enterprise on the 

 Rock Island is service," said Mr. 

 O'Shaugn^essy. "All of us must con- 

 tribute to this one end. We try to 

 make people delighted and comfort- 

 able. To do this it is of first impor- 

 tance that we like our jobs. I like to 

 feel that my job is important and 

 very much worth while. It seems to 

 me that you people are doing the 

 most important job in the world, 

 helping the farmer — the man who 

 feeds the world. Yours is the noblest 

 work to which you can devote your 

 time. The money you earn is not im- 

 portant if you are rendering a real 



service. 



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Need Credit Unions 



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Mr. O'Shaugnessy is also president 

 of the National Association of Cred- 

 it Unions. **The time will come," he 

 said, "when the Farm Bureaus in 

 Illinois like in other states will or- 

 ganize co-operative credit unions as a 

 service to members. The damnable 

 unrestrained usury now being prac- 

 ticed in this country is one of the 

 curses of civilization," he said. "Farm- 

 ers as well as town and city people 

 are paying up to 42 per cent annual 

 interest. They pay because there is 

 no other place to go." 



The speaker stated that the policy 

 of the road is to treat every employee 

 with kindness and consideration and 

 to give every customer a dollar's worth 

 of service for each dollar spent. Per- 

 sonal records are kept of every em- 

 ployee. Each seeks to keep his record 

 clean. The road maintains a pension 

 system with a stipulated retirement 



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FRANK BUTLEB OF LEE COUKTY 



Volunteer Farm Bureau Solioitor and a new 

 member himself who aiffned 24 memberg in the 

 I. A. A. and Lee County Farm Bureau during 

 the Mobilization Campaign. 



income for each employee when he 

 reaches a certain age. There are now 

 1200 on this list. .r. . v - : 



Complete Records • ^ 



Mr. Metzger and Mr. Vaniman ex- 

 plained that each county organization 

 director will be required to make a 

 complete record of membership and 

 collections as of the day he assumes 

 office. This report must be accurate. 

 The tabulator machine in the I. A. A. 

 offices will record this information, 

 and regular reports from the coun- 

 ties will keep the record system up 

 to date. Information can readily be 

 taken off the cards each month quick- 

 ly and accurately. Copies will be 

 mailed to the counties showing in- 

 dividual membership standing and 

 other information. 



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One of our cardinal principles in 

 maintaining the morale of our or- 

 ganization is to be fair, impartial, and 

 attentive to all suggestions of our 

 employees no matter how trivial, J. 

 W. Kern of the Illinois Central Rail- 

 road said in addressing the Centralia 

 meeting. "We try to show apprecia- 

 tion and recognition wherever out- 

 standing service is performed,*' he 

 continued. "Also when a mistake is 

 made we bring the facts to the atten- 

 tion of those involved. It doesn't cost 

 anything to listen. We get many val- 

 uable suggestions for improving our 

 service from employees." 



Impromptu talks and remarks were 

 made by county advisers, office secre- 

 taries and organization directors. , 



Observations 



(Cont'd from Page 9, Col. 3) 



debtor would retain possession of the 

 farm and pay a reasonable yearly 

 rent fixed by the court. Other pro- 

 visions for scaling down farm indebt- 

 edness are included. 



This bill attempts to wipe out the 

 serious unfairness to farm debtors 

 resulting from the sharp decline in 

 prices. It seeks to make amends for 

 the failure of inflationary measures 

 up to now to re-establish substantially 

 higher price levels so as to ease the 

 debt burden. Whether or not it obtains 

 the presidential signature, the injury 

 to debtors resulting from deflation 

 will not be corrected until needed re- 

 flation, or legislation of this char- 

 acter applying to all debts (not only 

 farm debts) is enacted. >,. ^.v, : 



With approximately 55,000,000 bu. 

 of corn sealed in Illinois as a result 

 of the corn-loan program, the value; 

 of this project to corn-belt farmers is 

 considerably enhanced by the recent 

 advance in prices. With corn selling 

 at country points in excess of 50 cents 

 per bushel, the corn under seal alone 

 is worth at least 8^^ million dollars^ 

 more than it was when the loans 

 were initiated. The insistent demand 

 of organized farmers made possible 

 this splendid service. The advance in 

 price will benefit farmers rather than 

 speculators. In the event of a short 

 corn crop, which seems probable, the 

 stored corn also will be a great boon 

 to livestock feeders — E. G. T. 



Farmers' Week At World's 

 Fair Set For Aug. 11-18 



Farmers' Week at Chicago's Cen- 

 tury of Progress Exposition will be 

 celebrated beginning Saturday, Au- 

 gust 11, and ending Saturday, Au- 

 gust 18. A number of County Farm 

 Bureaus are planning tours to the 

 Fair for this week. 



Exhibitors will co-operate by giving 

 special emphasis to those exhibits re- 

 lated to agriculture or involving the 

 use of farm products. More detailed 

 announcements regarding speakers 

 and various events will be made later; 



McLean County Farm Bureau, now 

 in the midst of its regular three-year 

 membership sign-up, reported more 

 than 1,500 members signed at the 

 close of the first week. Approximate- 

 ly 500 attended the school of instruc- 

 tion for solicitors June 11. Donald 

 Kirkpatrick, general counsel of the 

 I. A. A., addressed the first report 

 meeting June 14. » ■ • -' . 



A. B. Culp is county organization 

 director, George Clark, chairman of 

 the organization committee. ^ ; >: 



'^^-•■-'■•y--!^'^^--:^^ A. A. RECORD 



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