Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1921-10-12
FARM BUREAU
meet AT CALMAR
Large Crowd Present at the Fourth
District Meeting Held Last
Wednesday.
MANY IMPORTANT
DISCUSSIONS UP
Main Object of the Meeting Was
To Prepare for the Member
ship Drive Opening
Today.

A meeting of the Fourth District
of the Iowa Farm Bureau was held
in Caimar on Wednesday, October
5th. Officers, directors, co-operators
and Interested members were pre-
sent. 4. S.Fisher of Edgewood, Iowa,
director for the district, presided at
the meeting and C. w. Hunt, presi-
dent of the Federation, and +. f.
Graft representative of the Exten-
sion Department, were present to
address the audience.
The forenoon was spent in round
table discussion, during which time
great many interesting points in
Farm Bureau work were brought
out The main object of the meet
ing was to prepare for the member
ship drive which is to be conducted
Octo Der 18th throughout the state.
1t is Thought, however, that the
drive may be somewhat delayed in
Winneshiek county, as many of the
farmers are busily engaged in their
corn husking operations. The point
was brought out by chairman Fisher
and emphasized by President Hunt
and others in the meeting that
many farmers, some Of them MEM
bers of the Farm Bureau, have been
saying that the Farm Bureau has
not accomplished anything. Chair
man Fisher brought out the fact that
this aas only said by persons whc
were prejudiced or had not taken
the time to investigate what was
being done. The fact was emphasiz-
ed that the Farm Bureau is estab-
lished on business principles and the
reason that many say it has not been
accomplishing anything is due to the
fact that all of their activities have
begun at the bottom of things. The
reason many farm organizations
have failed before was because they
were founded by radicals or through
spite or jealousy. The slogan of
the Farm Bureau is that farmers
should tend to their own business,
which is production and marketing.
"If the chief object were to deal
in crackers, shoestrings, etc, it
would not be necessary to have an
organization of a million and half
members as the organization now
has," said Mr.. Fisher. The value of
strong organization was emphasize
ed by Mr.. Hunt by pointing out how
j the organization worked in defeat
ing the Day Light Saving Law, even
after its repeal had been vetoed by
President Wilson.
The referendum vote taken by
the Farm Bureau on the Nolan bill
also emphasized that if the organi-
cation is to accomplish the things
which it was intended to, the real
organization must begin out in the
school districts and townships lead
| ing up through the county and state
to the national organization.
The sentiment among those pre-
sent seemed to be that this is no
time to build roads and other pub
lie works and that steps should
be taken whereby the tax payer
might have more to say in regard to
what his taxes were spent for than
at the present time.
General enthusiasm over the ac-
complishments of the past year ex-
pressed by all present. 1t was gen.
orally conceded that if all farmers
would take the effort to familiarize
themselves with the accomplishments
of the organization during the past
year that all farmers would be mem
bers of the organization.