We've Got Ourselves a Farm Bureau (No Thanks to You Slackers)

Chas. Chester left Monday for Indianapolis to take a hand in the framing of laws in which the farmers are interested or not interested. He will probably be there all week.

With that "interested or not interested" comment, the Valentine's Day issue of the Gazette took a swipe at the farmers of Hobart Township, who had proven themselves slackers when it came to organizing the new Farm Bureau.

At a meeting in Crown Point on February 1, 1919, several hundred farmers had come together to dissolve the Lake County Farmers' Association and in its place to formally organize the new Lake County Farm Bureau. They elected officers (Alex Boyd of Ross Township being Second Vice President) and directors, and each township reported on its membership figures. The Bureau now boasted a total of some 800 members, but a mere nine of those were in Hobart Township. It was the second-lowest membership in Lake County, beat out only by Calumet Township's six. Other nearby farming areas had done much better; for example, Ross Township had 120 members, West Creek 135, Winfield 65.

The next week's Gazette carried a short article by Hobart Township drive chairman John Larson, Jr., titled, "What's The Matter With Hobart?" — a question he claimed was asked over and over at the organizational meeting, especially since only one of Hobart Township's nine members (presumably John himself) showed up at that meeting. John was given the task of corralling enough of Hobart Township's slackers to elect a township director, hence his Gazette article. He chiding his fellow farmers and urged them to redeem themselves at a meeting in the Hobart library on the evening of February 7.

"A rather small number of farmers" came to that meeting, but they managed to elect themselves a director: William Bach. By the time Charles Chester left for Indianapolis, the Lake County Farm Bureau's total membership had risen to 1,000, Hobart Township's to 15.

I do not know exactly what Charles intended to lobbying for or against. He may have been helping the three Farm Bureau officers who reportedly planned to go to the capitol to "protest against the establishment of a criminal court in Lake county and … against the tuberculosis bill." No, I don't know why the farmers would be against a criminal court, unless it was a matter of higher taxes, nor do I know what the "tuberculosis bill" was — I can only guess that it involved stricter requirements for tuberculin testing of cattle.

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Out of Washington, D.C. came some good news for the farmers — the House agricultural committee was making plans to guarantee the price of wheat for 1919 at $2.26.* If the market price fell below that, the consumer would pay the lower price and the federal government would pay the farmer the difference.

Lake County agricultural agent Virgil Place was making himself useful. He offered advice about the planting of spring wheat, and pointed out that Farm Bureau members could get limestone fertilizer at a reduced price. He also began to urge methodical steps toward improving the dairy cattle of Lake County; with their advantageous location — in the heart of good agricultural land, but also near Chicago's large and thirsty population and its transportation facilities — Lake County's dairy farmers need only organize themselves to improve the breeding, testing and management of their cows "to become noted nationally as a county where exceptionally good, pure bred Holstein cattle are produced."

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*Per bushel, I presume. A newspaper addressing a farming community does not need to specify such things.


Sources:
♦ "Hobart Farmers Elect Directors." Hobart Gazette 14 Feb. 1919.
♦ "Lake County Farm Bureau Organized at Crown Pt. Saturday." Hobart News 6 Feb. 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 14 Feb. 1919.
♦ "News from the County Agent." Hobart News 20 Feb. 1919; 27 Feb. 1919.
♦ "Spring Wheat." Hobart Gazette 7 Mar. 1919.
♦ "What's The Matter With Hobart?" Hobart Gazette 7 Feb. 1919.
♦ "Wheat Price to Stand — Gov't to Pay Difference." Hobart News 13 Feb. 1919.

Farm Bureau Drive

Nobody seems to have any good reason why farmers should not be organized. When men engaged in such work as chimney sweeps, bootblacks, window washers and flat janitors find reasons for organizing unions, and paying a large membership fee thereto, it would seem that the farmer, who is the backbone of the nation, oftentimes working with thousands of dollars' worth of capital, should join hands with his neighbor in an organization which has for its purpose nothing else than the furthering of this interests.

With these words, printed in both of Hobart's newspapers (and, no doubt, in newspapers all over Lake County), Virgil Place urged local farmers to join in the "Farm Bureau movement," the rising effort to create a farmers' union, which would culminate in the formation of the American Farm Bureau Federation later that year.

Virgil's immediate concern was to stir up interest among Lake County farmers. The "membership drive" was set for January 27 through February 1, 1919, with a structure reminiscent of the Liberty Loan and Red Cross drives of the war. Virgil was county chairman; each township in the county had its own leader (Alex Boyd in Ross Township, John Larson, Jr. in Hobart Township) commanding teams who would go out and talk to farmers, explaining the farm bureau concept and urging the farmers to join. The effectiveness of the county farm bureau depended upon membership.

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In another case of farmers looking after their own interests, the regional milk producers' association revived its pre-war plans for its own marketing company, which had been put on hold during the war. This cooperative marketing company was intended to replace the middlemen who now skimmed off some of the farmers' profits as the milk moved to the retailers who sold it to consumers.

On January 14 the milk producers' association called a meeting in Gary. With many dairy farmers from Lake and Porter Counties in attendance, the association's representatives explained how the marketing company was intended to work and asked that the farmers enter contracts with the company for all their milk by February 1, when the company was expected to begin operating.

From there, things moved quickly. Within ten days the Milk Producers' Co-operating Marketing Co.,* headquartered in Chicago, rented space for its local office in Room 242 in the Gary Building at 515 Broadway in Gary. By the end of the month it was in business.

But the 16,500 dairy farmers in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana who belonged to the milk producers' association faced a drop in milk prices early in February. After an all-day conference with milk distributors, the association was able to avert a strike only by agreeing to a price of $3.50 per hundred pounds, instead of the $3.70 the milk producers had wanted. The association explained their compromise by pointing out that distributors already had a surplus of milk, and feed prices had gone down from their wartime highs.

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*Its name varies slightly from one report to another.


Sources:
♦ "Farmers' County Organization." Hobart Gazette 24 Jan. 1919.
♦ "Lake County Farm Bureau Membership Drive Next Week." Hobart News 23 Jan. 1919.
♦ "Marketing Co. Operating." Hobart Gazette 31 Jan. 1919.
♦ "Membership Drive Next Week." Hobart Gazette 24 Jan. 1919.
♦ "Milk Producers' Co-Operating and Marketing Company." Hobart News 30 Jan. 1919.
♦ "Milk Producers' Marketing Company Preparing for Business." Hobart News 16 Jan. 1919.
♦ "News From the County Agent." Hobart News 23 Jan. 1919.
♦ "To Start Operation Feb. 1st." Hobart Gazette 24 Jan. 1919.
♦ "Wholesale Price of Milk For February Takes a Drop." Hobart News 6 Feb. 1919.

Return to the Farm!

No matter what they may have seen in Paree, Lake County veterans were asked to return to the farm. County Agent Virgil Place was doing the asking, on behalf of Indiana's committee on food production and conservation. This was an attempt to solve two problems at once — to keep up the food supply for what remained of the army as well as the European relief effort, and to provide jobs for returning veterans, since the end of the war would probably mean a slackening of industrial work.


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From the Hobart Gazette of January 3, 1919.

Alas, I Must Leave You, You Lousy Ingrates

It seems that Virgil Mood didn't last long after S.J. Craig's departure. The Gazette published his open farewell letter, which seemed divided between regret at leaving those who had welcomed him, and a desire to tell the rest what jerks they were.


(Click on image to enlarge)
From the Hobart Gazette of May 17, 1918.

(The "Garage Building Condemned" story on the page deals with the building where John Chester had his garage. If I find out what went up in its place, perhaps I can locate it. Or maybe somebody can just tell me where the Sela A. Smith building on Main Street was.)

It wasn't until the following July that Lake County got a new agricultural agent, this time some guy named V.A. Place,* "a young man of pleasing personality" who had just finished a three-year term as county agent in Wabash County. He had a great deal of work before him if he wanted to make the office of county agent as interesting as his predecessors had. [Source: "County Agent Appointed," Hobart Gazette 19 July 1918.]

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*I believe he shows up in the 1920 Census as Virgil Place, then 31 years old.