Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1920-12-15
JOINING THE
FARM BUREAU
Illinois Farmer Has Some Good
Things to Say About Joining the
Bureau, Reproduced From
Prairie Farmer
GIVES SOME
SUBSTANTIAL FACTS
Proposition is to Make Life on the
Farm Profitable and Pleasant.
Thousands are Joining


1000 farmers individually, and be-
lieve | have heard all possible and
impossible reasons, but not one real
reason for not joining. If there are
any excuses ] have not heard, will
put a premium on them. ! shall at
tempt to name some of the most
common excuses and answer them.
/. Farmers won't stick"
No, not if they all act like you.
Who are sticking" the 80 per cent
who join or the 10 per cent who
don't? What are you doing to help
them stick?
2. mot yet, / will wait to see
how it comes out"
Yes, you want George" to do it
for you, want your neighbor to do
the risking for you and have the or
ganization become dead sure, pro-
fitable thing. Then you will jump
in for free ride, patting yourself
on the back and saying 1--WE did it
at last" Is this fair, manly and
neighborly?
3. ~ have been bit too often. ]
don't want to repeat it."
Exactly, when a slick talking
stranger comes around, you buy
shares in almost anything, but when
your neighbor brings around to you
a state organization, of whom you
have been notified by letter from
your farm advisor, by local posters,
by big ads in your local papers,
then for once yeu become skeptical.
Why not hook up with the real
thing once in your life.
a. at costs too much to belong"
Shame on US farmers. A common
laborer, a boot-black, or a street.
sweeper pays $40 to $50 per year to
belong to his organization to protect
his interests. Is our business, our
family not worth one-third what the
other fellow pays? All he sells is his
work. We farmers not only sell our
work, our wife's and our children's
work, not eight, but often 16 hours
per day, but we sell our crops and
livestock. We have, 100 times as
much invested. We ought to blush
with shame, and are getting just
what we deserve: longer hours and
less pay than any other class of men
in u. S. A. What will it take to
wake US farmers up?
5. "Too many officers, and too
big salaries for men travelling around
doing nothing"
Are. we farmers pinheads, cheap
skates, or 10 cent bunch? All other
industries pay their officers two to
six times the salary our servants
are getting. As long as we expect
something for nothing, we will not
get it. We all have got to pay the
price. A laborer is worth his hire.
The question is not what he costs,
but what he makes US.
6. "Don't believe in organization"
Believe in it or not, it is here to
stay. We must take the work as it
is, not as we would wish it to be.
Organization is power, is beneficial
to the ones who use it. We farmers
have tried to get along 20 years
without organization. And we have
paid the cost, an enormous cost. We
are the only class with something to
sell, but nothing to say about the
price of it.
z. "Have got along in the past
without organization, can do so in
the future"
Perhaps or perhaps not. But is
it business. Because our forefathers
cut and bound their grain by hand,
is no reason we should do the same.
Times and conditions have changed,
are changing right along. We have
got to keep step or get left.
8. "Can't afford to join.''
If you can't afford to spay SIS to
your organization, how in the name
of common sense can you afford
to be robbed year in and year out,
of hundreds of dollars when you
sell and buy, by the middlemen, the
spectators and profiteers? The
question is not can you afford, but
can you afford not to join? You may
fool yourself, believing you are saw
ing the membership fee by not join
ing, but bear in mind that it is the
dearest SIS you ever saved. Today
80 to 80 per cent of your brother
farmers say: "We are letting 90 of
the SIS to save $780," We are here
not to beg, but to help you to in
vest SIS that will bring greater re-
turns on the investment than any
other money you ever invested in
your life; in the way of just prices
for what you have to sell or buy and
more just laws to agriculture, as
well as many other things.
Last, but not least, we are here To