ILLINOIS AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION RECORD 



To advance the purpose for which the Farm Bureau teas organized, namely, 

 to promote, protect and represent the business, economic, social and educa- 

 tional interests of the farmers of Illinois and the Nation, and to develop 

 agriculture. 



THE STATE FAIM 

 BUREAU PUBLICATION 



WHICH ROAD? 



DURING and immediately following World War I a 

 premium price was paid for cereal grains. Farmers 

 were urged to plow up every possible acre to produce 

 corn and wheat to feed the hungry people of the world. 

 We were assured that the export mar- 

 ket would last for many years. Ex- 

 perts told us that the shell torn fields 

 of Europe could not be restored to 

 normal production for several years. 

 Many of us remember quite vividly 

 how far wrong were these predictions. 

 We had underestimated the re- 

 markable ingenuity and determination 

 of the European farmers. Within a 

 matter of months European agriculture 

 was producing at near self-sufficiency 

 levels. Too late we found that we had converted our agri- 

 culture to a cereal grain producing structure. We had en- 

 couraged our consumers to reduce their consumption of 

 meat and livestock products in favor of cereal foods. Great 

 grain surpluses accumulated. To a considerable extent 

 the disaster which engulfed agriculture during the twenty 

 years from 1921 to 1940 was chargeable to these basic errors. 

 Today we are being urged and possibly will be forced 

 to pursue the same course. Much of the same reasoning is 

 being used today. We are told that there will be a con- 

 tinuing demand for our grain in the foreign market for 

 many years. Government experts tell us that many more 

 people can be fed from the products of an acre of land if 

 the grain is used as cereal foods, rather than being fed to 

 livestock and the livestock products used for food. 



Several city newspapers and propaganda-spreading na- 

 tional magazines have branded farmers as heartless and 



dju f-^reiident C^naried v.5. ^numan 



selfish because "they permit hogs to eat the grains that 

 should be filling the stomachs of star\'ing children". Con- 

 trary to actual facts, the American farmer has been charged 

 with grain hoarding and waste. U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture figures disprove these charges as the spring holdings 

 of grain by farmers are in reality far below normal. Gov- 

 ernment planners themselves are to blame if too much grain 

 has been fed to livestock, as they alone could have changed 

 the controlling price relationships long ago. 



What is the picture today.' Apparently having de- 

 cided that our livestock industry must be sacrificed, the 

 planners have issued another order! Grain and feed prices 

 have been incteased out of all proportion to the price of 

 livestock. If these price adjustments were needed, they 

 should have been made last fall while farmers had posses- 

 sion of the grain, or postponed until the start of the new 

 crop movement. In any case, adjustment of livestock prices 

 to prevent undue liquidation of breeding herds is now im- 

 perative. Unless corrective measures are taken immediately, 

 these drastic grain and feed price increases may be the be- 

 ginning of the same road to ruin we followed at the close 

 of World War I. 



Normally our livestock population ser^'es as a huge ever- 

 normal granary. Livestock feeding is the cushion that ab- 

 sorbs the surplus grain crops and carries them over so that 

 the people have plenty of food during short crop years. 

 Once our breeding flocks are depleted and the public be- 

 comes educated to eating cereals in the "absence of animal 

 product foods, it requires many years to recover a normal 

 balance. For the future welfare of all the Nation, we must 

 not permit those who plan to make the same series of mis- 

 takes that were made after the first World War. 



JUNE, 1946 • VOLUME 24, NUMBER 6 



ILUNOIS AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION 

 OFFICERS 



President. Charles B. Shumon Sullivan 



Vice-President. Floyd E. Morris Buffalo 



Secretary. Paul E. Mathias Hinsdale 



Field Sec, Geo. E. Metzger Chicago 



Treasurer, R. A. Cowles Bloomington 



Asst. Treas., A. H. Wright Varna 



Comptroller, C. C. Chapelle Chicago 



General Counsel, Donald Kirlcpatriclc Chicago 



BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

 (By Congressional Districts) 



1st to llth. Harvey W. Adair. Chicago Hts. 



12tli. C. I. Elliott. Streator 



13&....- Homer Curtiss, Stockton 



UOl Otto Steffey. Stronghurst 



ISO. Ronald A. Holt, Galva 



ISth. Russell V. McEee, Varna 



ITtll Charles Louritzen, Roddick 



18th _ John T. Evans. Hoopeston 



19th Milton W. Warren, Mansfield 



20th..- - K. T. Smith, Greenfield 



21st Dan L. Clarke, New Berlin 



22nd. _ J. King Eaton. Edwardsville 



23rd _ Chester McCord, Newton 



24th. Lyman Bunting. Ellery 



25th August G. Eggerding. Red Bud 



DEPARTMENT DIRECTORS 



Dairy Marketing Wilfred Shaw 



Fruit and Vegetable Marketing L. L. Colvis 



Grain Marketing George H. litner 



Legal Donald Kirkpatrick 



Live Slock Marketing S. F. Russell 



Office - C. E. lohnston 



Organization O. D. Brissenden 



Produce Marketiag _ F. A. Gougler 



Publicity Creston Foster 



ReseoTcn and Taxation L. H. Simerl 



Rural School Relatioiu lohn K. Cox 



Sales Service _ W. P. Sandford 



Special Services Roy P. Johnson 



Transportation-Claims G. W. Baxter 



Young People's Activities Ellsworth D. Lyon 



ASSOCIATED ORGANIZATIONS 



Country Life Ins. Co Dave Mieher, Mgr. 



Country Mutual Fire Co. I. H. Kelker. Mgr. 



Country Mutual Casualty Co.... A. E. Richardson. 



Mgr. 



111. Agr. Auditing Assn C. E. Strand. Mgr. 



111. Agr. Service Co Donald Kirkpatrick, Sec. 



111. Co-op Locker Service C. F. Musser, Mgr. 



111. F. Bur. Serum Assn S. F. Russell. Sec.-Mgr. 



111. Farm Supply Co C. H. Becker. Mgr. 



111. Fruit Growers' Exchange L. L. Colvis, Mgr. 



111. Grain Corporation Frank Haines, Mgr. 



111. Livestock Mktg. Assn. H. W. Trautmann, Mgr. 

 111. Milk Producers' Assn. Wilfred Shaw. Mgr. 

 Prairie Farms Creameries J. B. Countiss, Mgr. 

 III. Wool Mktg. Assn. S. F. Russell, Sec.-Mgr. 



Director of information, Creston Foster. Asst. Editor, James C. Tliomsen. 



The Illinois Agricultural Association RECORD is published monthly except August by the Illinois Agricultural Association at ISOl W. Washington Road. 

 Mendota, 111. Editoriol Offices, 608 So. Dearborn St., Chicago. 111. Entered as second class matter at post office, Mendota, 111.. Sept. 11. 1336. Accept- 

 ance for moiling at special rate of postage proi^ded in Section 412, Act of Feb. 28, 1925, authorized Oct. 27, 1935. Address all communications for 

 Bublication to Editoriol Offices, Illinois Agricultural Association RECORD. 608 So. Dearborn St.. Chicago. The individual membership fee of the 

 linois Agricultural Association is five dollars a vear. The fee includes payment of fifty cents for subscription to the Illinois Agriculturol Association 

 RECORD. Postmaster: Send notices on Form 3578. Undeliverable copies returned under Form 3579 to editorial offices, 608 So. Dearborn St., Chicago, HI. 



JUNE. 1946 



