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I. 



President Edward A. O'Neal with Ben 



Kilgore. asaislont to the AFBF president, 



and R. B. Corbett, new secretair-treaaurer, 



at the AFBF annual meeting. 



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These men said that at first they thought 

 the midwestern farmers were holding out 

 on them on corn, but they soon realized 

 this was not true when they found corn 

 belt farmers had to feed corn to their 

 hogs in order to get parity for their 

 grain. Several delegates reported they 

 would be glad to pay up to |l.30 to 

 $1.40 for corn since they were already 

 paying the equivalent of that for wheat, 

 barley and other com substitutes. 



W. P. Thorpe, president of the New 

 Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau, said 

 he would guess that 50 per cent of last 

 year's crop of feeders is still on the 

 range because WFA slaughter regula- 

 tions and OPA ceilings practically froze 

 cattle on the New Mexico range. 



Emphasis was placed on an effective 

 public relations program for the Farm 

 Bureau and the need to maintain after 

 this war an agricultural program that 

 will give our boys who come back to the 

 farm a decent way of life. 



The latter point was emphasized at the 

 dairy conference by A. H. Lauterbach, 

 general manager of the Pure Milk As- 

 sociation, who proposed that the best 

 features of the AAA and the old Mc- 

 Nary-Haugen plan of the 20's be com- 

 bined to give the farmer control over 

 the marketing of his products. 



Delegates at the forum also stressed 

 the importance of further strengthening 

 farm cooperatives. At the service co- 

 operative conference, Donald Kirkpat- 

 rick, AFBF and lAA general counsel, 

 predicted that cooperatives would meet 

 the situation if federal income tax laws 

 are revised to assess for taxation earnings 

 and savings of cooperatives. He pointed 

 out that cooperatives would cut prices. 

 In this way farmers would get the 

 same return as they do from patron- 

 age dividends. He said co-ops hesitated 



to do this because of business hazards and 

 also because of the confusion that would 

 result in a cut price program that would 

 disturb reasonable price structures. 



Views expressed at the commodity con- 

 ferences were in close agreement with 

 the annual address of President Edward 

 A. O'Neal, other main guest speakers 

 and the convention resolutions. 



S,iid President O'Neal, "When the 

 economic history of this period in our 

 national life is being read by the next 

 generation, I wonder if the people then 

 will not be puzzled to read that in the 

 year when national income reached the 

 highest record in all previous history, one 

 of the most controversial issues w.is 

 whether or not subsidies should be paid 

 by the federal government to the con- 

 sumer." 



He advocated heavier taxation and 

 more equitable taxation to halt the in- 

 flationary spiral and to make people 

 conscious of the tremendous national 

 debt that is growing rapidly. 



On the question of foreign relations, 

 he said, "I feel deeply that we won the 

 war but lost the peace as a direct re- 

 sult of a mistaken policy of isolationism, 

 and that that disaster must not be re- 

 peated. . ." 



Congressman Everett M. Dirksen, Pekin, 

 influential member of the sub-committee 

 on agricultural appropriations, declared 

 that there is no such thing as a farm 

 bloc in Washington, but that it was a 

 convenient name applied to represent- 

 atives from agricultural states who do 

 not always agree among themselves, nor 

 with organized agriculture. However, 

 he added, these agriculture representatives 

 endeavor to do the best job possible in 

 meeting the needs of rural people con- 



President Earl C. Smith reports as chair- 

 man of the AFBF resolutions committee. 



O. D. Brissenden, lAA organization direc- 

 tor, accepts AFBF award for the state 

 Farm Bureau having the highest ratio of 

 paid up members to total number oi farms 

 recorded in the state by the 1940 census, 

 from President O'Neal. The ratio was 44 

 per cent. 



Tir 



sistent with the general welfare of Amer- 

 ica. 



Chester C. Davis, president of the 

 St. Louis Federal Bank, and former head 

 of the WFA, warned that if organized 

 agriculture is to keep its hold on public 

 confidence, it must state clearly the 

 determination of farmers to prevent a 

 general rise in the nation's food costs. 

 He declared thif he did not believe "that 

 the general use of Treasury subsidies 

 is necessary either to keep food prices 

 from advancing further or to secure down- 

 ward adjustment in the case of commod- 

 ities when consumer prices are higher 

 than necessary to get production and re- 

 ward the producer." 



H. L. Wingate, president of the Geor- 

 gia Farm Bureau, gave an interesting .ac- 

 count of his experiences in wartime Eng- 

 land, where he spent a month as guest 

 of the British government. He 'went 

 as the official representative of the Amer- 

 ican Farm Bureau Federation. \i.'in- 

 gate reported that Great Britain had a 

 long-time pricing program for agricTjIture, 

 and many British farmers had a better 

 idea what they were gomg to get for 

 their products in 1945 than American 

 farmers did for 1944. 



Other main session speakers were: W. 

 A. McLeod, president of the Canadian 

 Federation of Agriculture: H. E. Bab- 

 cock, chairman of Governor Dewey's 

 New York State Food Commission, and 

 John Brandt, president of the National 

 Cooperative Milk Producers Federation. 



One of the highlights of the AFBF 

 convention evening programs w.is the 

 story of war told by Lt. Richard Kelly, 

 Lt. J. A. Walsh (j.g.). and Shipfitter 

 Raymond Johnson 2 c, all of the Navy. 

 The latter, who wore ribbons for many 

 campaigns and eng.tgements. including 

 the Nixy Cross, gave an account of his 

 experiences which brought farm folks 



JANUARY. 1944 



