RESOLUTIONS 



Adopted By Board of Delegates at 30th Annual 

 Meeting of lAA in Chicago, Dec. 1. 1944 



FOREWORD 



THE Illinois Agricultural Association 

 has rounded out its first thirty year 

 period. The Association was born dur- 

 ing the violent stresses of World War 

 I. These days of World War II are 

 measuring its virility. This hour is the 

 high water mark of its strength, its in- 

 fluence and its membership. From its 

 farm homes have moved out onto the 

 fronts of the world their legions of 

 young men and women. Other legions 

 upon the home front have sustained 

 those in active service. 



Of first moment is that we decisively 

 overwhelm those with whom we are at 

 war. Our ultimate faith in this cause 

 will not diminish, and the day will 

 come when there will be restored peace 

 again among the nations of the world. 

 With that day, new problems will 

 arise. Young men and women from 

 the Armed Services will come back in- 

 to our homes and into our communi- 

 ties, and hese they must find the fairti 

 and the freedom for which they 

 fought. We pledge our organization 

 to use its every effort in this period of 

 readjustment to maintain a free econ- 

 omy where every willing person will 

 find an opportunity to work or to build 

 an enterprise of his own. Agriculture 

 does not charge industry with having 

 the full responsibility of creating full 

 employment. Agriculture will join 

 with business, whether large or small, 

 in performing this task. 



I. AGRICULTURE IN.THE 

 NATION'S ECONOJrtY 



Employment, production and na- 

 tional income must be stabilized at a 

 high level in order to service the na- 

 tional debt and to maintain free enter- 

 prise and democratic government in 

 America. We believe that full and 

 continuous national prosperity cannot 

 be maintained without a prosperous 

 agriculture. Agriculture is the largest 

 single buyer of the products of mills, 

 factories and mines and of the services 

 of railroads and many other industries 

 serving agriculture. We, therefore, 

 strongly urge that all groups in the for- 

 mulation of postwar plans and policies 

 give full recognition to the importance 

 of sustaining agricultural purchasing 

 power by maintaining farm prices and 

 agricultural income at a high level. 



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II. AGRICULTURAL ADJUSTMENT 

 ACT 



The Agricultural Adjustment Act 

 must be preserved for aggressive use 

 by American agriculture in the recon- 

 version period. It is imperative that 

 our economy during this period have a 

 sustained agriculture. The existing 

 parity formula should be maintained. 

 Existing commodity loan bases should 

 not be disturbed. The marketing agree- 

 ment provisions of the act should be 

 extended and a larger use of such pro- 

 visions made by producers of crops and 

 commodities authorized under the mar- 

 keting agreement sections. Economy 

 should be effected in the administration 

 of the act. Greater decentralization, 

 consistent with effective administration, 

 should obtain and the general admini- 

 stration of the act should be placed by 

 the Congress under an independent 

 non-political board. 



III. HOG PRICES 



Chaotic conditions in the hog mar- 

 ket during the past year and in recent 

 weeks have been brought about by ill 

 conceived regulations of governmental 

 agencies. Failure on the part of these 

 agencies to properly interpret, admin- 

 ister and enforce the act of Congress 

 providing for price supports and con- 

 trols has afforded meat packers and 

 others the opportunity to circumvent 

 the intent and purpose of the law re- 

 sulting in millions of dollars of loss to 

 hog producers. 



Hog producers through their organ- 

 izations on numerous occasions have 

 submitted definite plans to OPA, WFA 

 and the Director of Economic Stabiliza- 

 tion to eliminate these abuses and to 

 carry out the intent and purpose of 

 Congress. These plans have not been 

 accepted. We concur in the position 

 taken by the Joint Livestock Commit- 

 tee, consisting of 130 livestock or- 

 ganizations, and by the Board of Di- 

 rectors of the American Farm Bureau 

 Federation which was submitted in 

 July, 1944. We particularly emphasize: 



(1) Ceilings: If ceilings are con- 

 tinued they should be adjusted for in- 

 creases in the cost of production. There 

 should be only one ceiling for all 

 weights and classes of butcher hogs. 

 We urge the OPA to investigate the 

 cut out value of hogs to determine the 

 proper relationship between the ceil- 



ings on live weights and the ceilings 

 on wholesale and retail cuts. 



(2) Subsidies; We continue our op- 

 position to the use of subsidy payments 

 in lieu of fair market prices. We in- 

 sist that any reduction below the ceil- 

 ing in prices paid producers should be 

 accompanied by a proportionate reduc- 

 tion in the subsidy paid to packers. 



IV. INCOME TAX EXEMPTION 

 FOR FARMER COOPERATIVES 



For years it has been a national 

 policy that every reasonable encourage- 

 ment should be given to the organiza- 

 tion and maintenance of a strong and 

 effective farmer cooperative system for 

 service to farmer producers in the mar- 

 keting of their commodities and in the 

 purchasing of supplies needed by them 

 in production. The Internal Revenue 

 Code provides for exemption from tax- 

 ation of savings and earnings realized 

 from member business of a farmer co- 

 operative. Revenue exemption pro- 

 visions are strictly construed. Such 

 farmer cooperatives as have elected to 

 receive and maintain complete exemp- 

 tion must currently distribute in large 

 part their savings and earnings if such 

 right of exemption is to be maintained. 

 Farmer cooperatives not claiming com- 

 plete exemption but desiring to keep 

 free from taxation earnings and sav- 

 ings from member business, must like- 

 wise in large part currently distribute 

 earnings and savings on member busi- 

 ness to those entitled to such distribu- 

 tion. 



All exempt farmer cooperatives are 

 now required to file an annual infor- 

 mational return. This should be a 

 wholesome obligation upon such farm- 

 er cooperatives. The filing of such in- 

 formational return, should entitle such 

 farmer cooperatives making such an in- 

 formational return to the protection of 

 the statute of limitations now available 

 to corporations making a tax return. 



The Association has supported and 

 will continue to support the right of 

 income tax exemption to farmer co- 

 operatives doing business only with 

 their producer members. The Asso- 

 ciation has supported and will continue 

 to support farmer cooperatives not 

 operating as exempt corporations in 

 their right to make deduction of their 

 member patronage earning distribution 

 to members without the application of 

 an income tax on such distribution. 



V. FARM CREDIT 



We reaffirm our support of the pur- 

 poses of the Farm Credit Administra- 

 tion as embodied in the Farm Credit 

 Act of 1933 and place special emphasis 

 upon the cooperative principles empha- 

 sized therein. We stand unalterably 

 opposed to any administrative procedure, 



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