MERICAN ECONOMY 

 'J^FAIR FARM PRICES 



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By JIM THOMSON 



Ass't Editor, lAA RECORD 



will remain high during the greater part 

 of this year. 



More than 80 speakers addressed the 

 10 special commodity conferences, other 

 meetings and the general sessions of the 

 convention. Talks ranged from atomic 

 energy's meaning for the future of agri- 

 culture to problems along such lines as 

 insurance, farm youth organization, and 

 Farm Bureau membership. 



Twenty-three resolutions were adopted 

 by the delegates to the convention, from 

 the farmer's stand on international co- 

 operation to an expression of appreciation 

 to retiring President O'Neal for his 16 

 years of leadtrship with the organization. 



Among the more important of the reso- 

 lutions was the reiteration of the AFBF's 

 stand on parity — the relationship be- 

 tween prices farmers get for the things 

 they sell and the prices they pay for the 

 things they buy. 



"We favor the retention of the present 

 parity formula with adjustments among 

 various agricultural products according to 

 price relationships which existed between 

 the various products on the basis of a 

 10-year moving average." 



Turning to the farm program, the 

 AFBF warned: "We must not allow the 

 existing national prosperity to lull us into 

 a false sense of security, nor confuse our 

 thinking, nor delay our work on a long- 

 range agricultural program Farm- 

 ers have learned through bitter experience 

 that an effective national farm program 

 is essential. . . .to maintain agriculture 

 on a basis of economic equality with in- 

 dustry, labor and other segments of our 

 economy." 



Pointing out that it wants the old pro- 

 gram refined rather than junked, the 

 Federation declared: "Agriculture has 

 too much at stake to depend upon some 

 new and untried farm program that 

 would endanger the balanced relation- 

 ships between agriculture and other seg- 

 ments of our economy." 



On the question of controls, the resolu- 



FEBRUARY. 1948 



Dean H. P. Rusk (right) of th* Unl vanity 

 of Illinois College of Agriculture receives 

 from Retiring President O'Neal the Amer- 

 ican Farm Bureau Federation gold medol for 

 distinguished service to agriculture. 



A group of Illinois farmers and Jock Hewlett (right), organlEotion director for 

 Illinois, admire Illinois' accomplishments at AFBF convention. 



The general view (above) of a session of the AFBF convention In Chicago shews ChorlM 

 F. Kenering, former research director of General Motors Corporation, speaking. 



