DEAN RUSK LAUDS 

 FARM BUREAU 



AT 

 SMITH AWARD 



* * * 



SINGULAR tribute to the Farm Bu- 

 reau movement and the men who 

 made it what it is today was paid by 

 Dean H. P. Rusk at the annual meet- 

 ing of the IHinois Farm Managers and 

 Rural Appraisers Association held in 

 conjunction with Farm and Home 

 Week at the University of Illinois. 



Dean Rusk's compliments came dur- 

 ing the presentation of a plaque by 

 the association to Earl C. Smith, former 

 president of the Illinois Agricultural 

 Association, in appreciation of his out- 

 standing service to agriculture. 



O. D. Brissenden. lAA organization 

 director, received the plaque for Mr. 

 Smith, who was in Florida at the time 

 of the managers and appraisers meeting. 



'In no other state," declared Dean 

 Rusk, has farmer support of the ex- 

 tension program equaled farmer sup- 

 port in Illinois — in no other state have 

 farmers put into the program as much 

 money, time and energy. 



"Under the Illinois system of farmer 

 sponsorship and participation in man- 

 agement and finance, this program 

 (Farm Bureau) soon brought into close 

 working relationship the most forward- 

 looking farmers of each county. It was 

 inevitable that when such men were 

 banded together for the study of agri- 

 cultural interests, and for the promo- 

 tion of these interests, they should rec- 

 ognize important problems outside the 

 production field. 



"The determination to do something 

 about these economic problems," Dean 

 Rusk continued, "led to state and na- 

 tional organizations of the Farm Bureau 

 and to the beginning of the most 

 powerful farm movement this coun- 

 try has ever known. 



"The strength and force of the Farm 

 Bureau movement did not come all at 

 once or by accident," he said. "It grew 

 in strength and accumulated greatness 

 as local, county, state and national 

 leaders forged to the front. 



'"While it is true that a great move- 

 ment once under way does much to de- 

 velop its own leadership, it is also true 

 that the momentum and influence of 

 most worth-while movements depend 

 upon the caliber of the men who spon- 

 sor them. 



{Courier Photo i 



Award made to Earl C. Smith, fonner lAA 

 president, for outstanding contribution to 

 agriculture is received by O. D. Brissen- 

 den, lAA organization director, from Dean 

 H. P. Rusk, College of Agriculture. Plaque 

 was presented in Urbana during Farm 

 and Home Week by the Hlinois Farm Man- 

 agers and Rural Appraisers Association. 



Great movements do not make great 

 men out of mediocre material — rather 

 they tend to uncover latent greatness 

 and to develop it. 



"You will agree," Dean Rusk stated, 

 "that no organization has spoken more 

 clearly or more effectively in the public 

 forum and in the legislative halls than 

 has the Illinois Agricultural Associa- 

 tion. 



"He was no common man who rose 

 from the ranks to the leadership of this 

 great organization and who was re- 

 turned to this important position year 

 after year for two decades. Earl C. 

 Smith is indeed an uncommon man. 



"His fame will grow as the years lend 

 perspective to his work and as the his- 

 torian assesses the man and evaluates 

 his influence on our times. The Illinois 

 Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers 

 Association not only honors Mr. Smith 

 but honors itself by presenting this 

 handsome plaque to him in apprecia- 

 tion of his outstanding service to agri- 

 culture. 



"The engraving reads as follows: 'To 

 Earl C. Smith in recognition of his 

 many years of faithful service to the 

 farmers of Illinois and organized agri- 

 culture the Illinois Farm Managers and 

 Rural Appraisers Association presents 

 this plaque February 15, 1946.' 



"On behalf of the association," Dean 

 Rusk continued, "I take a great deal of 

 pleasure in presenting this plaque to 

 Mr. Smith's representative, and I charge 

 you, Mr. Brissenden, to deliver this to 

 Mr. Smith with the heartiest congratu- 

 lations of the membership of this asso- 

 ciation and the best wishes of all of us." 



M. C. Gregory 



During the past 40 years agricultural em- 

 ployment decreased 15 per cent and produc- 

 tion per farm worker increased 86 per cent. 



MERRILL GREGORY 

 ASSISTANT EDITOR 



OF 

 WALLACE'S FARMER 



* • • 



Lt. Merrill C. Gregory, who has been 

 on leave of absence from his job as edi- 

 tor of the lAA Record since September 

 of 1941 while serv- 

 ing in the armed 

 forces, has accepted 

 the position of as- 

 sistant e d i t or of 

 Wallace's Farmer 

 and Iowa Home- 

 stead. W a 1 la c e ' s 

 Farmer is published 

 in Des Moines, la., 

 Lieutenant Gregory's 

 home town. 



Lieutenant Greg- 

 ory returned in Janu- 

 ary from the European theater where he 

 had been serving in the Signal Corps 

 since the first of 1945. He held the 

 rank of first lieutenant at the time of 

 discharge. 



Lieutenant Gregory entered the Army 

 in 1941 as a private and later was made 

 a sergeant while serving as chief censor 

 on detached duty at a radio station in 

 Hawaii. After more than two years in 

 the Pacific he entered Officers Candidate 

 school and was commissioned a second 

 lieutenant in 1944. Early in 1945 he 

 was sent to Europe and saw action in the 

 final phases of the war on the Western 

 front. 



Lieutenint Gregory, a graduate of the 

 Missouri School of Journalism, joined the 

 lAA staff as editor of the Record in 

 January, 1940. Prior to 1940, he was as- 

 sistant editor of the Nation's Agricul- 

 ture, AFBF publication for two years. He 

 also served for a time as assistant editor 

 of Prairie Farmer and handled publicity 

 for the state rural electrification commit- 

 tee in Springfield. 



Merrill is the son of the late Clifford 

 V. Gregory, one of the greatest farm 

 editors of his time who did more than 

 any other one editor to build Farm Bu- 

 reau and to champion farmers' rights. He 

 was active in the McNary-Haugen fight 

 and helped to write the first AAA. Cliff 

 Gregory was one time editor of Prairie 

 Farmer and later associate publisher of 

 the Wisconsin Agriculturist and Farmer. 

 He died Nov. 18, 1941, at the age of 58. 



I N S 



C 



Elementary rural school population de- 

 creased 72 per cent from 1880 to 194}. 



About 85 per cent of the wood used in 

 Illinois now is being imported from other 

 states. 



14 



L A. A. RECORD 



