The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1921-12-01
FARM BUREAU IS
PAYING ITS WAY
OF FARMERS PRODUCES =
MUCH EVIDENCE
FIGHTING HARD FOR FREIGHT SLASHES
President Tom Maher Says You Can't
Expect Bug Specialist To
Sell Potatoes.

L. l.. Burdick of Fargo, n. d., and
counsel for the U. S. Grain Growers,
Inc, produced the evidence to prove
that the Farm Bureau has paid its way
five times this year and will continue
to lead in American farm organization,
at the annual Brookings County Farm
Bureau meeting held November % at
the college auditorium in Brookings.
Mr.. Burdick said in part: People
who forget agriculture soon find that
their country goes back. The indus
trial east, which is the big factor in
our government today does not know
the true conditions of agriculture.
We must organize and stay organized
to present our case before congress.
Farmers have a right to organize to
sell their own products, and they must
do it if farming is to return a good
living. Denmark spent millions of,
dollars before they learned co-opera-
tive marketing. 1t is costing the farm
ers something to establish co-opera-
tive marketing in the United States
for we have to compete with organized
business enterprises.
1.-The American Farm Bureau has
helped to reduce freight rates, get
better finance, establish equitable tar
if, consider justly taxation problems
and organize to market their W
products. There vas a saving TO
every farmer in America of $50 when
All ,,o;Ir~oI ,yo1,ofinpc unra ont ri
700, 000, 900. The Esch-Cummins bill
provided railroads should receive six
per cent interest on their investments.
Practically all State Farm Bureaus
presented actual evidence of the inc.
quality and high freight rates prevail
ing in the United States. The present
10 per cent cut amounts to $40, 900 900
saving to farmers on unshipped farm
products.
The deep waterway route through
the Great Lakes would bring ocean
going ships over a thousand miles
nearer to the central states and cut
shipping costs eleven cents per bushel
on wheat. The east is against this
movement.
"The old saying has been that any
one who fails in business can go on
the farm Farming must be put on
a higher plane, and no one but farm
ers can do it. OF course, no farmer
can be forced into bankruptcy. 1t
must be voluntary. A man asked me
in North Dakota what it would cost
to go into bankruptcy. l told him $3.50.
He said, L shall have to go home and
farm another year The Ninth Fed
eral bank is the most responsible for
the financial troubles we have today.
Farmers were made to pay up at a
time when credit was most needed.
1t caused the marketing Of more farm
products in a shorter period than ever
before. The Capper-Volstead bill is
simply to give cooperative marketing
the backing of the government and to
legalize patronage dividends.
"The farmer wants protection on his
products the same as manufacturers
receive today. There is not a team
strong enough in Fargo to haul hides
enough to buy a set of harness for the
team and another team. A man in the
South cannot carry enough raw cotton
on his back to buy a pair of B. V. D.. s..
"The farm mortgages of this country
have just recently raised from $780,
100000 to $4,000, OOO, 900.
There are 5000, 900 men out of en-
polyment today because the farmer
cannot buy. Three-sevenths CT all
steel products, so per cent of leather
goods and 60 per cent of textiles manu-
featured in the United States are pur-
the United States is affected by the
farmers business. Ninety-ive per cen
of the people who live in the 26-mile
strip along Lake Michigan and six
blocks wide deal in farm products"
J. S. Jones, director of organization
for the Minnesota Farm Bureau, told
how Minnesota is actually marketing
it's own products, and how the strong
cooperative marketing organizations
are being successfully developed.
There are 631 cooperative creameries
and 1900 cream stations in Minnesota.
Creameries are making all different
grades of butter. Two hundred sew
enty-ive creameries have combined in
Is units. Two units are in operation.
All creameries in n unit sell and
ship the same grades of butter. This
has resulted in prices of one. and
th~ree-fourth cents above New York
extras OF four cents a pound above
the other c~o-operatives. Butter made
at cooperative creameries Is not being