LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



IMPASSABli ROAOS 



WE were impressed by your article concerning 

 rural roads in the May issue of the lAA 

 Record. We feel a need to mention our 

 situation. 



The seven landowners on this side road 

 pay road tax for others' use. We have paid 

 our share of interest and principal for $20.- 

 000 in bond issues. A $100,000 county bond 

 issue was voted last fall. Our township voted 

 more than four to one against it. but were 

 going to help pay it. 



This 11/2 tnile of dirt road is practically im- 

 passable for cars about 7 months of the year. 



After years of false promises of improve- 

 ment a road commissioner was elected in April. 

 1943, whose efforts opened a mile of new 

 road in place of a narrow lane where broken 

 and washed-out bridges were almost beyond 

 crossing in safety. 



This public official was taken fatally sick 

 the first of July, 1943, and no official has 

 taken any interest since. When they are told 

 this great ditch across the road should be re- 

 paired before winter they simply ignore it. 



The road can't be said to have ruts — they 

 long ago passed into great ditches and holes. 

 At best, it is really unsafe for cars, and when 

 muddy or frozen, keeping off is the solution 

 Several cars have been damaged, one recently 

 costing a $40.00 repair bill. 



Gravel from a bank on one of the farms has 

 been offered free, for 7I/2 years. A substan- 

 tial donation of money has been offered. They 

 will not spread the gravel. 



The new road section, made 4 years ago, 

 has never even been graded since. Drainage 

 water from fields has stood on parts of it for 

 months at a time. 



Why should we have nothing for our road 

 tax money.' The ballot box is not the answer 

 What can we do? 



(Name withheld) 

 Brown County 



ONf-ROOM SCHOOL 



ALTHOUGH I've had very little experience 

 as a teacher and none as a professor of 

 education, I was reared in the country, edu- 

 cated in a rural school, and indulged in eight 

 years of courses in college and university, and 

 I want to say that if the statement that gradu- 

 ates of one-room schools seldom go further 

 than the little village high school is true, my 

 home community and others I know of must 

 be mighty exceptional. 



And I can think of a good reason, too, why 

 fewer rural pupils than urban pupils should 

 continue beyond high school. The average 

 rural pupil at 18 already has a sound training 

 in an excellent occupation from helping his 

 parents and neighbors which fits admirably 

 with the courses and activities given by his 

 local high school or farm adviser, home eco- 

 nomics adviser and other leaders of rural ac- 

 tivities. 



And he, or she, is likely to find a place 

 ready and waiting upon completion of the 

 high school course. Parents often dread to 

 see the children go away to college and uni- 

 versity because they tend to become enamored 

 of the white collar life and not see its inade- 

 quacies and disadvantages until it is too late. 



I question whether the consolidated grade 

 school is really better for our country in the 

 long run. Social welfare workers have learned 

 that it makes for a better society if orphans 



arc put in good honit> rdibct than kept in 

 institution.s, even though surrounded by ex- 

 perts. 



Educators admit that the home is tending to 

 become merely an economic unit, and that the 

 school must try to make for the mounting de- 

 ficiencies of modern home life. Why then. 

 I ask you are thev abolishing through their 

 propaganda THE ONE TYPE OF SCHOOL 

 THAT IS MOST LIKE AN OLD FASH- 

 IONED FAMILY? Granted that the one 

 room school building is likely to be inferior 

 and equipment inadequate, the contact between 

 teacher and pupil in the one-room school is 

 much closer. A cit>' cousin of 13 mentioned 

 that fact the first time she ever visited our 

 rural school. 



The trouble is we have a weakness for doing 

 things en masse. We feel that if there is the 

 tramp of many feet, staff meetings where they 

 talk jargon, questionnaires put out by "ex- 

 perts", etc.. the most possible is being accom- 

 plished. But it is the contact between the 

 child and the adult of sympathy, humor, com- 

 mon sense and active idealism that is a 

 hundred times more important than all else 

 together. 



And what if teaching is not regarded as a 

 life time profession? We need more good 

 homes and ex-teachers are superior home 

 makers and parents. 



L. C. Olin 

 Champaign, III. 



COVER PICTURES 



Am making a scrap book of your cover 

 pictures and I find I have lost the March 

 1947 Record. Would it be possible to get it 

 now? Please let me know. 



Miss Jessie Lee 

 livingston County 



Here's Your Grain 

 Marketing Plan 



iCiintinued from page 9) 



where it will be unloaded into the new 

 200,000 bushel elevator of Indiana 

 Grain Cooperative. The grain will go 

 from this elevator at Decatur, Ala. to 

 a large feed mill owned and operated 

 by the Southern States Cooperative 

 group. 



The first barge of corn destined for 

 Decatur, Ala., left Havana River Grain 

 Company dock on Sept. 11. 



Prairie Grain Company organized 

 about two years ago and has acquired 

 building sites at Hennepin. Lacon and 



Ottawa. A 125,000 bushel elevator is 

 now under construction at Hennepin. 

 As this article is written, concrete is 

 being poured at the Hennepin site. 



Steel and lumber is on the ground 

 at Lacon and construction will begin 

 at this site at once. 



The Ottawa site will be developed 

 within the next few months depending 

 on the progress made at Hennepin and 

 Lacon. 



The Producers River Grain Company 

 at Morris, will serve Grundy, Iroquois, 

 Livingston, Kendall, La Salle and parts 

 of Ford, Will, Kankakee and DeKalb 

 counties. It plans to either purchase 

 and operate the elevator now owned 

 at Morris by Illinois Grain Corpora- 

 tion, or build a new river house. 



A series of district Farm Bureau 

 meetings was completed at DeKalb 

 Sept. 9. 



NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING 



COUNTRY MUTUAL FTRE 



COMPANY 



To all Policyholders and Members. 

 Notice is hereby given that the an- 

 nual meeting oi the members oi 

 Country Mutual Fire Company virill 

 be held in the Jefferson Hotel, St. 

 Louis, Missouri, on Tuesday, the 18th 

 day of November, 1947, at 10:00 A.M. 

 to receive, consider and if approved, 

 ratify and confirm the reports of the 

 officers and the acts and proceed- 

 ings of the Board of Directors since 

 the last annual meeting of members 

 of the Company; to elect three di- 

 rectors for a term of three years, to 

 elect two directors for a term of one 

 year and for the transaction of such 

 other and further business as may 

 come before the meeting. 



Geo. F Hayes, Secretary 



NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING 



ILUNOIS WOOL MARKETING 



ASSOCIATION 



Notice is hereby given that the 

 annual meeting of the shareholders 

 and members of Illinois Wool Mar- 

 keting Association will be held on 

 Tuesday, the 18th day of November, 

 1947, at the hour of 9;30 A.M. in the 

 DeSoto Hotel, St. Louis, Missouri, 

 to elect directors for the succeeding 

 year; to receive and if approved, 

 confirm the report of the Board of 

 Directors of the Association for the 

 fiscal year ending September 30, 

 1947; to consider and if approved, 

 ratify and confirm all of the acts and 

 proceedings of the Board of Directors 

 done and taken since the last an- 

 nual meeting of the shareholders 

 and members of the Association; 

 and for the transaction of such fur- 

 ther and other business as may 

 properly come before the meeting 

 S. F. Russell, Secretary 



I 



22 



I. A. A. RECORD 



