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THE TRADITIONAL lack of interest 

 in proposed changes to the state 

 constitution caused the Gateway amend- 

 ment to suffer a 3 to 1 defeat at the 

 Nov. 5 general election, a record of 

 the official vote released recently would 

 indicate. 



The measure carried in De Kalb, Du 

 Page, Effingham, Ford and Kendall 

 counties and only by small majorities. 



The proposed amendment would 

 have passed with an overwhelming 4 to 

 l^majority if only the votes for or 

 against the measure were counted. The 

 official record shows 3,619,322 voted 



in the election, 1,273,653 voted for, and 

 368,108 voted against the measure. It 

 was the balance of 2,345,669 non- 

 voters who killed the bill. 



Reports from counties received by 

 Roy P. Johnson, lAA director of special 

 services, indicate that 5,000 or more 

 Farm Bureau members helped to publi- 

 cize the Gateway and encouraged rural 

 voters to take a stand for the measure. 



Only about one-third of Cook county 

 and one-half of downstate voted on 

 the amendment. (See table). In 

 1932 the proposed amendment was de- 

 feated by a similar majority of non- 

 voters. Those who did not vote were 



COUNTY VOTE ON GATEWAY AMENDMENT 



counted as voting against it. 



Kendall is credited with conducting 

 one of the best campaigns. The measure 

 carried in every precinct and passed the 

 county by.a 59 per cent majority. Farm 

 and Home Bureau cooperated closely 

 and many women worked in the pre- 

 cincts. 



Although the bill was defeated prim- 

 arily because of the indifference of the 

 city voter, the measure passed in De 

 Kalb county which is dominated by the 

 vote of DeKalb and Sycamore, cities 

 totaling 15,000 in population. Farm 

 Bureau and civic leaders worked closely 

 together to pass the measure. 



In Ford county 56 per cent voted for 

 the bill. Here it also took the city as 

 well as the farm vote to win. 



By and large, however, the city over- 

 whelmed the rural vote. In Jackson 

 county 13 out of 14 rural precincts 

 carried the proposed amendment while 

 the city vot^ defeated the measure by a 

 count of 9,734 to 4,454. 



Outstanding work was done in St. 

 Clair and LaSalle by Emmet Keim and 

 Earl Hays, organization directors for the 

 two counties. i;-s -■ 



Both counties were completely 

 covered with publicity on the amend- 

 ment and the organization directors 

 helped to coordinate the Farm Bureau 

 campaigns with those of civic groups. 

 In LaSalle county 220 precinct volun- 

 teers worked to. pass the amendment. 



SEE YOU IN ST. LOUIS 

 NEXT NOVEMBER I 



ST. LOUIS, MO., has been selected 

 by the board of directors as the 

 site of the 33rd annual meeting of the 

 Illinois Agricultural Association. Plans 

 for the convention, which will be held 

 the week of November 17, were dis- 

 cussed by the board at a recent meeting. 



It will be the first time in seven 

 conventions that the annual meeting of 

 the lAA will be held outside Chicago. 

 During the war years, the shortage of 

 housing and the government's ban on 

 unnecessary travel caused the Associa- 

 tion to confine meetings to Chicago. 



Holding the meeting in St. Louis 

 will give farmers from the southern 

 part of the state a better chance to 

 attend. Southern Illinois Farm Bureau 

 people responded admirably to the in- 

 vitation to attend the lAA annual con- 

 vention in St. Louis in January, 1941. 

 The meeting was the 25th or Silver 

 Anniversary of the founding of the 

 lAA and brought out the largest crowd 

 in the organization's history up until 

 that time. . , 





L A. A. RECORD 



