EDITORIAL 



1945 Membership Goals 



THE 1945 membership goals, totalling 117,000, set 

 county by county last year in the Membership Main- 

 tenance conferences, are now within 7000 of final 

 achievement. Steady progress since the 100,000-member 

 mark was reached in November of 1943 has brought Farm 

 Bureau membership in the state to the total of approxi- 

 mately 110,000 as of February 15, 1945. 



That the goals can and should be reached by Septem- 

 ber 30, 1945, the end of the current fiscal year, is agreed to 

 by organization workers in all parts of Illinois. Surely 

 there was never a more opportune time to build Farm Bu- 

 reau membership to new record highs. 



Farmers realize as never before that this is, and will 

 continue to be, an organized world, in which the individual, 

 as such, can exercise only partial control over his own des- 

 tiny. Farmers recognize, too, the services which the Farm 

 Bureau, on county, state, and national levels, has rendered 

 to agriculture, and is in a position to render in the future. 

 These convictions, taken together, have led to unusual re- 

 sults in every Illinois county where a membership cam- 

 paign has been staged this winter. 



The results of January campaigns are especially strik- 

 ing. Iroquois county's remarkable record of 242 new 

 members signed in a January campaign tops the list nu- 

 merically; but equally striking are DeKalb's 175, Bureau's 

 165, Marion's 134, Fulton's 129, Franklin's 100, Craw- 

 ford's 96, and Jasper's 87. These are but a few of the splen- 

 did totals registered by enthusiastic volunteer workers, call- 

 ing on their neighbors and extending the invitation to join 

 Farm Bureau to them. 



Let us all work during the balance of the year to 

 achieve the long-range goals, and to "Make Farm Bureau 

 forever strong. " 



The Red Cross is at His Side 



THE American Red Cross War Fund campaign of 1945 

 is now in progress. National goal for the drive to be 

 held throughout the month of March is 200 million 

 dollars. 



The Red Cross is serving in every theater of war and 

 with every command. Red Cross workers also are on duty 

 at scores of out-posts over the world and are giving aid to 

 wounded men in hospitals in the major battle areas and 

 in the United States. In every invasion during the past 

 year, the Red Cross has either gone in with the troops, or 

 has followed within a very short time. 



American Red Cross workers have packed more than 

 10 million parcels for shipment to American prisoners of 

 war in enemy territory. Many of those now being freed 

 from German prison camps by the advance of Allied armies 

 have told what these welcome packages have meant to 

 them. 



Funds of the American Red Cross have also paid for 

 nearly 180,000 medical kits with first aid requirements for 



100 men for thirty days; for 60,366 capture parcels with 

 basic toilet needs and comforts for newly captured prison- 

 ers; for millions of cigarets and for 4000 garden seed kits. 



More than 10 million pints of blood have been col- 

 lected by the Red Cross since the beginning of the Blood 

 Donor Service in February, 1941. Thousands of wounded 

 American fighters owe their lives to this service. 



These are only a few of the contributions made b} 

 the Red Cross in addition to its regular nursing and disaster 

 relief on the home front. i 



Today the American Red Cross is remaining at the 

 side of the serviceman on the home front as well as the 

 battlefront. It is giving advice and assistance to returning 

 veterans in filing claims for government benefits, supply- 

 ing information regarding legislation applying to veterans 

 and their families, and, in some instances, giving financial 

 aid during the period claims are pending. 



Pointing out that the activities of the Red Cross dur- 

 ing recent years have combined closely to identify it with 

 rural life in America, the American Farm Bureau Federa- 

 tion has issued this statement : 



"The American Farm Bureau Federation again is 

 happy to call to .the attention of its members the forthcom- 

 ing Red Cross War Fund campaign and to urge every mem- 

 ber to give it wholehearted support through the organiza- 

 tion's local chapters." 



This is your Red Cross and through it you can do 

 your share in human kindness and blunt somewhat the 

 horror that is war. 



To Restore Bargaining Power 



THE purpose of the Illinois Agricultural Association 

 livestock marketing committee has been stated as fol- 

 lows: "To develop ways and means whereby the bar- 

 gaining power of the livestock producer in the sale of his 

 livestock can be restored and maintained. " 



A subcommittee to study the coordination and avail- 

 ability of cooperative marketing agencies in the state began 

 its work February 8. This is a logical first step in the de- 

 velopment of an improved program. Fully available and 

 fully coordinated cooperative marketing agencies would 

 mean that no producer would be without the protection 

 on price and service that a cooperative can provide. 



Only through such means, plus adequate field serv- 

 ice, adequate and reasonable transportation, and good buy- 

 ing service of stockers and feeders, can the farmer enjoy 

 that full bargaining power which he needs to market his 

 livestock advantageously. Only with such bargaining 

 power on his part can there be a truly free market, one 

 which will reflect accurately the interplay of the forces of 

 supply and demand, and give him a dependably fair price. 



The project upon which the Livestock marketing com- 

 mittee is embarked is indeed of vital importance to the fu- 

 ture of Illinois agriculture. 



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L A. A. RECORD 



