IS a 



a 



rgaiiization 



/# 



Editor's Note 



Farm Bureau as it looks to a non- 

 farmer is pictured 'in the following 

 abridged speech by Dr. D. E. Undstrom, 

 professor of rural sociology at the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois, given at the recent 

 annual meeting of the Douglas County 

 Farm Bureau. We feel it has a great 

 deal of merit and interest for all farmers. 

 Dr. Undstrom is a long-time associate 

 member of the Champaign County Farm 

 Bureau. 



The fact that your organization was 

 able to secure appropriations for farm- 

 to-market roads so that you now can 

 drive over all-weather roads to market, 

 to school, to church, gives you the kind 

 of service and satisfaction that I think 

 few of us can count in terms of dollars 

 and cents. 



Tax assessment equalization is reported 

 in your own annual report of the Illi- 

 nois Agricultural Association to save 

 farmers from 10 to 30 per cent on real 

 estate taxes. If you paid $300 in real 

 estate taxes before, this can mean a saving 

 of as much as $90 in taxes to you: With 

 the enlargement of our taxing bodies to 

 include town and country people, it is 

 increasingly important that the farmer's 

 property be taxed on a fair basis — the 

 same basis as the townsman's property. 



The establishment of price policy laws 

 can mean the difference between a real 

 profit and a real loss on an individual 

 farm in a single year. 



Other important services which are 

 provided by your organization are legisla- 

 tion for township consolidation for road 

 purposes; the limiting of taxation above 

 the maximum legal limit, without refer- 

 endum to 10 to 15 per cent above that 

 legal limit; the giving to rural people of 

 a voice in the administration of the hos- 

 pital authority (rural people can now by 

 petition of 10 per cent ask for a separate 

 vote on the establishment of a tax sup- 

 ported hospital;) and the establishing of 

 laboratories for testing for Bang's dis- 



ease, which may result in the elimination 

 of the dreaded undulant fever. 



The Illinois Agricultural Association 

 provides services in safety and public 

 health. Help has been given in re- 

 organizing rural schools. 



The educational services which are 

 most difficult to count in terms of dollars 

 and cents often result in the highest re- 

 turns. The Farm Bureau in Illinois, 

 through its county relationships to the Ex- 

 tension service, has a direct avenue to 

 the research findings of the University of 

 Illinois agricultural experiment station. 



Not the least important — possibly the 

 most important — is the work done relat- 

 ing to soil use and care. The farmers of 

 the state have set up dd soil-testing 

 laboratories in Illinois to give farmers an 

 opportunity of determining exactly what 

 they need in the way of limestone, phos- 

 phate, and potash. 



Studies in human and group relation- 

 ships have just gotten underway at the 

 agricultural experiment station, and we 

 know only too little about how to live 

 one with the other. It is even more diffi- 

 cult to measure the value that may come 

 out of such things as improved rural 

 schools, the adequate protection of health 

 — which can mean the difference between 

 life and death in a farm family — and the 

 improvement of rural community life 

 through better churches, better libraries, 

 more efficient local government, and 

 social welfare and recreation that will 

 mean happiness to the families. 



These cannot be measured in terms of 

 dollars and cents. Nor can the value of 

 organizations for youth and adults in the 

 community be measured in money. 4-H 

 clubs do make money for the boys that 

 take part. Many a boy has been able to 

 start in farming as a result of his earn- 

 ings through his 4-H club projects. 



The greatest value in 4-H club work, 

 however, is the development of character 

 and ability. Nor can members of our 

 Rural Youth organizations measure what 

 they get in terms of dollars. A Rural 

 Youth group can give new life and new 

 promise to the youth who are members. 

 The Home Bureau organization has more 

 than improved farm women's cooking 

 ability; it has made them sensitive to the 

 needs of the family, and the community 



and brings to the family many benefits 

 which could not be brought otherwise. 



These are only a few of the benefits of 

 the organization and related organizations 

 of which you are a part. You must 

 recognize, however, that the man who 

 gets the greatest benefit is the man who 

 not only regularly pays his dues, but the 

 one who goes out to help build the or- 

 ganization. 



The Farm Bureau in your county, the 

 Illinois Agricultural Association in Illi- 

 nois, and the American Farm Bureau 

 Federation in the United States, have 

 come to be important organizations in 

 the life of every farmer, for not only do 

 benefits come to the Farm Bureau mem- 

 bers themselves, but benefits in the way 

 of public services, educational services, 

 social and cultural services come to all 

 farmers in the community. 



You cannot improve the poad past 

 your house and not improve the road past 

 the house between you and the hard road. 

 Thus your neighbor, who may not have 

 helped to make the organization that 

 helped to secure the appropriations that 

 helped to build the road, gets the bene- 

 fit of the organization, even though he is 

 not a member of it. There are many 

 other ser%'ices and benefits that this non- 

 member gets. It is the task of those of 

 you who are members to get him to ap- 

 preciate that he also benefits even though 

 he does not help support the organiza- 

 tion. One of the great concerns of the 

 leadership of the Farm Bureau in Illinois 

 and in the United States, it seems to me, 

 is to be sure that the average member 

 has the opportunity to help decide on the 

 policies that are made by the organiza- 

 tion. This can be done most effectively 

 by the setting up of local community or- 

 ganizations and the holding of local meet- 

 ings in which the policies of the organi- 

 zation are fully discussed and the reac- 

 tions of the members to these policies are 

 secured by vote; then these reactions 

 should be relayed to the county Farm 

 Bureau board and to the state board by 

 the elected representatives of the locaJ 

 group. 



The Farm Bureau is a great organiza- 

 tion; it can be kept great by being kept 

 close to the people — their wishes, desires, 

 and their interests. 



APRIL. 1948 



