to her husband. This lovely and gra- 

 cious lady was well known to those 

 who attended annual meetings. She 

 had a deep interest in farm people and 

 rural life as she was born and reared 

 on a farm one and one-half miles from 

 the present Smith home. 



When Mr. Smith came to make his 

 great decision to retire as lAA presi- 

 dent, he counseled with no one but his 

 wife. Her reply to the question of re- 

 tirement was, "As you know, Earl, I 

 never wanted you to be president of the 

 Illinois Agricultural Association be- 

 cause it would take you away from 

 home. But now that it has been your 

 life for 20 years, you alone must make 

 the decision." 



There is often inspiration to be found 

 in the biographies of American leaders 

 because they are tributes to the tradi- 

 tions of the nation which places no 

 limit on the heights a man may reach. 

 In America a man can be as great as 

 his capacities permit. 



Such is the story of Earl C. Smith. 

 He is a farmer by choice. Born Feb. 

 19, 1886, in Pittsfield, Pike county, the 

 son of Annie Clemmons and William 

 Thomas Smith, his parents were native 

 rural people of Illinois. His parents 

 moved to Tennessee when Mr. Smith 

 was five years old because of his 

 mother's health which could not with- 

 stand the rugged winters. During 

 summer vacations, his parents each year 

 returned to Pike county where they had 

 farming interests and lived in a cot- 

 tage on one of the Smith farms near 

 Detroit. 



It was during these visits that Mr. 

 Smith decided that when he reached his 

 majority he would be a farmer as he 

 was particularly interested in livestock. 

 In school, Mr. Smith showed particular 

 aptitude for mathematics, and com- 

 pleted the highest book in this course, 

 which at that time was calculus, in his 

 second year at American University of 

 Harriman, Tenn. But Mr. Smith dis- 

 liked foreign languages, particularly 

 Latin, even though his father was a 

 teacher of these subjects and a learned 

 scholar in Greek. 



Because of this dislike of foreign 

 languages, which in those days was an 

 important part of the curriculum, Mr. 

 Smith left school and went to work at 

 the age of 16. He worked for several 

 years first as a shipping clerk for a 

 wholesale grocery and later as a sales- 

 man on the road for the company. 

 Even at this age, Mr. Smith enjoyed 

 business success because of his ability 

 with figures, but he didn't like the 

 work. He wanted to be a farmer. He 

 saved some money and he decided he 

 would go into business for himself and 

 rent a farm. 



Thus at the age of 21, he returned to 



This scene is from the 1943 lAA annuel 

 meeting and shows Mr. and Mrs. Smith 

 looking with admiration on the beautiful 

 clock presented to the lAA leader by 

 niinois Farm Bureau members as a token 



Pike county and started out as a tenant 

 farmer. Two years later he married a 

 Pike county girl, Mary Sanderson, and 

 purchased the home place that was 

 settled by his grandfather, W. A. 

 Clemmons in 1838. Mr. and Mrs. 

 Smith have maintained their home there 

 for the past 35 years. They have estab- 

 lished a modern farm home, the kind 

 of a home they dreamed about when 

 they were first married. To Mr. Smith, 

 this home is a symbol of the kind of 

 farm life that he has been fighting to 

 secure for farmers for the past 20 years. 



Today, the man who started out rent- 

 ing land, owns and operates 800 acres 

 of land in Pike and Scott counties. He 

 also operates for non-resident brothers 

 and sisters an additional 600 acres of 

 land. : ' ■ ; ;, 



While Mr. Smith has often been 

 labelled a "corn farmer" because of his 

 belief that the stabilization of grain 

 prices makes for greater stabilization in 

 the prices of cattle, hogs, dairy prod- 

 ucts and poultry, and while raising 

 rather substantial amounts of corn, 

 oats and alfalfa, he is in reality a live- 

 stock farmer. During the 38 years he 

 has been on the farm, cattle and hogs 

 have consumed not only all of the grain 

 and hay produced on the land, but at 

 least an equal amount of grain that was 

 purchased. The livestock operations 

 have added greatly to the improvement 

 of the land, as any one of Mr. Smith's 

 neighbors will testify. Mr. Smith also 

 was one of the first farmers in Pike 



of their appreciation ior his serrices. li 

 members have copies oi the December 

 1943 lAA RECORD they would be inter- 

 ested in again reading the tribute which 

 Vice-President Defrees gave at that time. 



county to use limestone and sweet 

 clover in building up soil fertility. 



Mr. Smith came up through the 

 Farm Bureau ranks to the presidency 

 of the lAA. He first served on the 

 Pike County Farm Bureau executive 

 committee as representative from De- 

 troit township in 1920, was elected 

 vice-president in 1921, and president 

 in 1922. In 1923 he was elected to the 

 lAA board of directors to represent the 

 20th Congressional district. He served 

 as director until 1926 when he was 

 named as lAA president to succeed 

 Sam H. Thompson, Adams county. He 

 was elected to the board of the Amer- 

 ican Farm Bureau Federation in 1931 

 and was named vice-president in 1936. 

 He has served as chairman of the policy 

 making committee of the AFBF since 

 1933. Volumes could be written on his 

 contributions in the latter position. 



Under Mr. Smith's leadership the 

 membership of the lAA has grown 

 from 45,600 to 115,651. Twelve sep- 

 arate business corporations have been 

 organized and all have been outstand- 

 ingly successful. During his term of 

 office the net worth of the organiza- 

 tion has grown from $273,606 to Sll - 

 272.000. The lAA and its affiliated 

 service corporations, all of which oper- 

 ate under a Management Corporation 

 of which Mr. Smith was president, now 

 have total assets approximating .'^^0.- 

 000,000. Mr. Smith was a director of 

 1 2 corporations serving farm people, 

 president of seven and vice-president 

 {Continued on paf^e 46) 



DECEMBER, 1945 



21 



