LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



CRASHING PRICES MAKE 

 CHANGES IMPERATIVE 



Crashing farm prices recently cost farm- 

 ers millions upon millions of dollars. Nearly 

 a month after the price landslide started on 

 the farm, farmers were still waiting for some 

 reaction to set in that would bring down 

 their costs of operation. 



There was some reduction in the cost of 

 the feed farmers had to buy, but everything 

 else remained at inflated levels. Wages paid 

 to hired men, and farm machinery and fertil- 

 izer prices showed no indication of scaling 

 off. Federal taxes will remain at confiscatory 

 levels, as there is no indication at Washing- 

 ton that the costs of government will be re- 

 duced, as a forerunner to the general tighten- 

 ing up that will have to follow diminishing 

 farm returns. 



Farmers will not object to taking the 

 lead in suffering unjustified losses in income 

 — they are accustomed to it through long 

 and bitter experience — provided the cuts 

 they have suffered become general all along 

 the line. 



One of the excuses for the slash in farm 

 prices, the experts say, is the probability of 

 abundant crops in Europe. More food there 

 means reduced demand for the produce from 

 American farms. 



If conditions are so much better overseas 

 than had been anticipated, there will be less 

 need for so many billions in American gifts 

 of food, machinery and what not. The 

 slashing of a few billions from the ERP, 

 and a conscientious pruning of bloated 

 federal payrolls will go a long way in adjust- 

 ing federal expenditures to the scale the 

 farm price slash has ordained. 



The crash of farm prices should be a 

 warning to farmers to revise their ideas as 

 to the advisability of a super-abundance of 

 production. It might be possible on the 

 average farm to reduce production con- 

 siderably with no loss in net income. Boarder 

 cows are a loss, but they require a lot of 

 work and feed, and their production helps 

 to fill, and crowd down, the market for 

 butterfat. 



Farmers certainly cannot afford now to 

 pay semi-skilled workmen, such as carpenters 

 or painters, $1.50 to $2.50 an hour, when 

 they are working at food production at 50 

 cents an hour. 



Wiring, plumbing, carpentry, machinery 

 repair — these are things the average farmer 

 can do for himself — things he no longer 

 can afford to hire. Time spent in food 

 production can now be spent to excellent 

 advantage on jobs such as these. 



The period of belt-tightening has started 

 on the farm, so as sure as night follows 

 day it will follow in every line of endeavor, 

 but the shrinking process is always months 

 and sometimes years in developing else- 

 where. Farmers can hasten the levelling-off 

 period by watching their outlays for over- 

 priced labor and over-priced merchandise. 

 Buying their volume farm supplies through 

 their Farm Bureau Service company dealers 

 will mean many dollars saved at the end of 

 the year. 



The Farm Bureau is working on national 

 and state levels to block the effects of the 

 price debacle and everything will be done 

 that can be done to influence an upward 

 swing. 



Minnesota Farm Bureau 

 St. Paul, Minnesota 



Frank Hainei 



Illinois Grain Sales 

 Manager Retires 



FRANK HAINES, sales manager of 

 Illinois Grain Corporation, retired 

 after 10 years with the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association af- 

 filiated grain broker- 

 age company on 

 March 1, 1948. He 

 had been associated 

 with the company 

 since its organization 

 in 1938. 



Haines has been 

 a member of the 

 Chicago Board of 

 Trade since 1912. 

 Before becoming as- 

 sociated with Illinois 

 Grain, Haines was with the firm of J. 

 H. Dole and Company for 35 years. 



He served as vice-president and man- 

 ager of Illinois Grain Corporation from 

 1938 until January 1947 when he became 

 vice-president and sales manager. 



Illinois Grain flourished under Haines 

 managership. During the years he served 

 the organization, it handled 174,000.- 

 000 bushels of grain and soybeans. 



Adolph Slumpf (ri9ht) ilgns wp Monro* 

 Cotinty Form Bureau's lOOOrii mombor. 

 It's his son, Charles, who started farming 

 last August after war service in Europe. 

 Mrs. Charles Stumpf witnesses the signing. 

 The signing of the lOOOth member came on 

 the day before Monroe's 30th anniversary. 



COVER SERIES 



W OULD it be possible to secure the series 

 "of front cover pictures illustrating his- 

 toric and picturesque Illinois scenes of 

 Record-Illinois Agricultural Association? 



Mrs. Mabel Doneghue, Regent of Macomb 

 Chapter of D.A.R. thinks these pictures 

 would add so much to our history book of 

 the chapter. 



I have been able to secure the Lincoln 

 Home and the Lovejoy Monument. We de- 

 sire the full set with the historic account of 

 each. 



Mrs. Perle B. Fisher, Historian 

 Gen. Macomb Chapter, D.A.R. 

 McDonough County 



THE 11th of our series of historical and 

 picturesque Illinois covers is one of the 

 most unusual buildings in the state. It is 

 the Bahai temple at Wilmette in Lake 

 county. This structure is the central shrine 

 and house of worship of the followers of 

 Baha'u'llah in North America. 



Baha'i means simply "a follower of Baha'- 

 u'llah," who in 1863 announced in Persia that 

 he was the chosen manifestation of God for 

 this age, and began preaching a doctrine of 

 unity of all peoples and all religions. The 

 Baha'i temple was started in 1912; will not be 

 completed until 1953. It is 161 feet high; 

 152 feet in diameter; will cost more than $2,- 



000,000 when completed 



Record 



Front 



Seating capacity 

 will be 1600. 



The temple is a blend of eastern and western 

 architecture. The nine sides signify the nine 

 great world religions. Outer design is influ- 

 enced by the symbolism of religion. The 

 Baha'i faith has no professional clergy. It 

 teaches that all the great prophets were in- 

 spired by the same God; that we all worship 

 the same God. Using the sacred scriptures of 

 all religions in their teachings, the Baha is say 

 they wish to "glorify the divine truth under- 

 lying all revealed faiths." 



APRIL, 1948 



