Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - New Ag Building Speech [PAGE 6]

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Land tenure, both from the standpoint of general welfare and the most efficient and satisfactory relationship between landlord and tenant, is a question of growing importance in this state. The mechanism of credit, from the standpoint of the needs of agriculture and the extent and kind of credit which can safely be employed by farmers, is a subject for more careful inquiry. More than to any other agency, training in the use of credit by farmers has been left to the local banker, who in many instances has not assumed the obligation or has not had the courage of his convictions or the knowledge of agriculture to be a wise counselor. Those who have been capable and willing to discharge their responsibility have contributed a service for which they are not likely to receive adequate recognition. More scientific methods for land valuation are needed for the purposes of purchase, for cost studies, for taxation, and for credit. Much remains to be done in determining the character and bearing of taxation in relation to the farmer's welfare and his contribution to public expenses as compared with the contributions of other classes. The question of transportation is most certainly one which has a very direct bearing on the farmer's ecomonic environment. When the producer receives but one-half to one-third of the consumer's dollar, it is time for farmers, and for these institutions that serve agriculture, to interest themselves in the problems that center around the marketing and distribution of farm products. Whether or not the farmer will be able to get cheaper transportation, I do not know; agriculture unquestionably needs it, and dependable information which would help the farmer to form an intelligent opinion upon which to act should be available to him. The greatly increased transportation costs suggest not only an interest in cheaper transportation but also a thoro study of the possibility of encouraging the extension of manufacturing industries in Illinois in order to bring consuming centers nearer centers of production. But little has been done to secure complete information concerning the food product requirements of cities, such as Champaign and Urbana, for example, from what sources these products come, and the feasibility of supplying these cities from contiguous producing areas. Nearly everybody but a disinterested institution for research has taken a hand in informing the farmer what effect various tariff policies have on the farming business. He would like to know the bearing of trade and tariff policies on the prices of farm products and the things he has to buy, but he has been misled so often that it is no wonder that he has grown distrustful and suspicious. Indeed one of the important services of the economist is to correct the misrepresentation and false generalizations which are constantly being made by the ill-informed and the designing propagandist* The farmer will form an intelligent opinion and will act individually and collectively on the basis of that opinion when, and not until, the sources of his information are dependable.

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