Your Stake in Iowa's Future: What Prospects for Agriculture and Main Street (1961)

what is your stake in Iowa's future Iowa State University it aims to its Cooperative Extension Service is helping 50,000 Iowans discuss this subject the county extension officers have helped people organized into discussion groups and have provided free materials to help with the subject matter the topics on the last two programs were what do freedom and democracy demand and what does growth require our final discussion will be the next program on what prospects for families and communities today's topic is what prospects for agriculture and main streets in our studio to investigate the question what prospects for agriculture and Main Street we have a group of people representing various occupations they'll be debating this topic in just the same way other small groups are doing and get-togethers all over Iowa meet those to take part in this interchange of opinion mr. Ralph Wilson vice president of the securities savings bank at Marshalltown mrs. Lawrence ever a homemaker from new sheriff mr. Rex Roush a guidance counselor from denison mr. Jack Bouska a farm operation student from Jackson Junction and mr. Tsai worland a farmer from Fort Dodge we now join the discussion on what cost X for agriculture and main streets I believe before we go for any further in this discussion we need to consider what the prospects are for our own community this is everett you are from in Estill County I believe what do you feel about the prospects for an adequate living for farming and business in your area well I think this word adequate is very interesting because we all have a different idea in mind of what we mean by the word adequate I think we cannot paint so completely rosy picture down our way however I would say this that for those whose intent it is to be in agriculture those whose intent is to be a good management person in small business can make their way in our area it is possible to do so well i think in marshall county like in other counties we've had a shrinkage in farms in fact in 1954 we had 20 151 farms in Marshall County and in 1959 that had dropped in 1974 farm which means that a number of farmers are going to be displaced from the farm we've been fortunate in this we have good industry there in marshalltown that's been able to absorb most of that type of workers and I think that it leaves us with a very healthy atmosphere and we we've found this out in checking over some figures the other day we found out that there in manor of the farmers that are still on the farm must be in a little better shape than the previous ones on the average because we had twenty percent less loans to farmers the end of this year than we did in 1959 what's the healthy sign I think that's real interesting I was wondering if mr. ruching Venice's what you're feeling about situation in your area well we've had our problems out there I think it's been more or less of a four-mile social revolution that we're going through we have the declining number of people on our farms we have larger farms sooner or later I know our if this continues that are our business men down on mains are going to sell less overshoes and less clothing less groceries less paint wallpaper the people if they're not out there on the land now we've lost several hundred farmers we may lose more and I think we're concerned about it I think we all should be fortunately we've had several packing houses start in our area and they've taken up some of the slack and employed some of these people and that helps from our territory of the statements in northeast Iowa primarily windsor county we have approximately the same problem that being of farmers increase in size and more people moving off the fun this is bad because people who have to move off these funds have to go fast 100 250 miles in order to seek another job it is therefore I reducing the size of community considerably since there isn'ta any sizable industry to employ people around I think an austere area of the straight up around Fort Dodge first for dads like a lot of other cities who are larger I believe prospects are fairly good on Main Street hunting spot prospects and agriculture are I think they're all right for the fellow who really wants to find my believe that the climbing is going to be a pretty tough job for the next few years is doing take get efficiency and good management I think long run will be alright but I think tell us next few years has to really want to farm to save on the fund I think this is at this point is interesting too that it's hard to lump I all together and say we're all just this way or just this way because as you look at the maps that for instance the extension services without showing the counties which are increasing in population and what has brought them in and those which are decreasing for instance our way we're on the borderline there were I was sort of state of school right now neither leaving North returning to escape where is in an area in Eastern Iowa where the population is rapidly becoming events so our problems really are very different from area to area it's interesting to see that so many of our problems seem to be similar don't you feel though that is an industry comes into an area that that not only benefits the local situation but people in outstanding off the outer parts of the county or benefit of your small towns are benefited well is it shows up for everything it's a good move in the right direction i think i'm wondering if young man from up not too coy oh yeah just what do you think are the opportunities for a young man like yourself and farming or business these days yeah well I feel that there isn't too much opportunity for business however there is some there is good opportunity in farming however this opportunity is limited for amplification it might have and I have all the qualities necessary to have great plans and abilities penetrate your properties large parties are no necessary in order to exist you know what you say interest me Jack because we have four sons and one daughter and your experience Princeton's been coming here to our state and deciding for yourself that you needed that wanted further education is interesting to me because it seems to me that perhaps my own sons might decide upon the same thing was it after you arrived here that it really you began to see if you'd like further education yes I came here display winter quarter farm up of course in order to find out asked if I would live tides or not and after this quarter I feel that is very worthwhile the new I feel like an explorer for you to littlefield one thing you fear of external first I think the biggest drawback for young fella get into farming unless he has a father who is very well-off financially it's just like going into any other business as long as we've increased the size these farms is initial capital outlay is almost prohibitive which is another big worry as I see it in in the farm industry unless you're young farmers are just almost non-existent your average age of the farmer has really crept up there in the last few years I think that's real interesting now I've been listening for this jock telling about getting some more education before going back to farming now as a banker mr. Wilson now if I were coming into the loan money to start farming would I have a better chance if I had had a college education than we haven't really put as much effort as I don't feel on fellas going back in the farming need for being well sing what a good for the man coming in to say is had a Porsche and rana me and animal husbandry would he be a better risk for fighter descending I would say it would be one of the considerations we'd have to take but a college education wouldn't be considered collateral on a bank statement and it would have to be one of the things that we would have to weigh and that surely would help in his chances for success over and above someone who just happened to be forced into it because he lost the job saying the factory I would think we would we would weigh that very heavy after ish you seem to do you do I die I'm sure you do because you're on a payroll down there and the school systems at Venice and there's a locational consular vocational guidance counselor what kind of training do you recommend for a farm boy of town well first of all boys differ in their interests and their abilities and their capacities and it's quite a difficult problem to counsel with these young fellows and it's a quite a responsibility this gets its course in the guidance and by guidance we mean that helping the individual assess their abilities and their liabilities and then try to go ahead and develop themselves just as far as it possibly can now naturally people differ they have different motivations different desires and we don't try to tell anybody what to do we try to show them the different waves and let them make some decisions for themselves I think that a young strong boy like this fellow Jack here who's physically fit as the desire to want a fire and can prepare himself to be a good manager and a good farmer I should go right after I think 10 years from now maybe in less time than that farmers are going to come into their own they're very important part of our economy and I think there's a place for them now then there's other farm boys who do not have the same interests they do not have the chance to have some help from bad at grandpa or someone maybe they should use their background in the selling field of fertilizer see feed or supply to farmer so you see all differ that we have farm boys and small-town boys to we're testing all the time to our schools looking for ability and we're finding some very high ability among these boys and they should be encouraged I think to use those that ability to go into fields of science and engineering and the professions it's possible mask supposing a father is discouraging his son from going into agriculture because he thinks the future doesn't look good do you try to put any pressure or do mean on this boy in he or his dad to try to encourage them to to go into an exceptional I would hesitate to put pressure again the advice of the home however I think the parents have gone through several years of rather unfortunate economic conditions on the farm they all would like to have their children do better than they have and they're prone to think that the grass is greener on the other side of the street and maybe they aren't too well acquainted with the grass on the other side of the street so they should investigate this thing together and certainly I think we should solve their own problems I sometimes wonder if we're meeting our obligation in the school I personally think we should study the possibility of area vocational schools where in each County at least there would be one place where a boy could maybe study in his hometown school for a warning and be transported to a central location somewhere where you could study so many locations such as auto mechanics body and fender work air conditioning carbon green sheet metal bricklaying and whatnot and have it to break down the lines in some way so that they could come back and forth I see no reason why that he couldn't break the lines of reorganization in such a way that through tuition or otherwise these people could be schooled in a homeschool a while for part of a day and then transported somewhere else I just throw that out for your thoughts is this done another states or this is right a new idea and I've heard of this stuff within a city or within the town they were really students for time to go into business brings that's now we're talking about small business business going to say we have some area of technical schools i believe is one here in ames a two-year program where they command and studied two years in the fields of rather technical what you see to have one engineer working you have to have technical assistance and suppliers and helpers but so far that type of screw has taken a very talented youngster you have to be of college calvert i understand it almost to do this type of work i think to there's a similar school with mason city now as far as other states are concerned i'm not too sure i believe they have tried similar things but i think it's something to be considered I think there's a real interesting suggestion you have mr. Rouge now how is an agricultural state and of course another cultural these days we wonder you can we get along better with government health or a government programs we would be better off if we didn't have any now with our menus surpluses and one thing another we assure this is a topic that a lot of you people have some definite ideas on how do you feel about this you think you're better off without any government helper if you have some how about it mr. Wesson well I can say that a number of farmers in the past have been very definitely against any government help in the way of subsidies our programs or what have you but more and more I i think the farmer is realizing that the thing has gotten beyond beyond the scope of just private enterprise and supply and demand and due to the many complexities of the business that that i would say the majority of farmers the top farmers as well as the average farmer realizes that there has to be some kind of government program in order for them to do exist in the economy as we know it today i think you're probably right and that we feel a sense of needing help however i do very much just like this print whereby we we can't do anything for ourselves in other words the government's got to move in on us and tell us how to do it and tell us what to do to me this is not the way our system should go I feel it's a dangerous trend whereby the the idea that back home we don't have gumption enough to figure out our problems for ourselves and the answer to that problem so I am very much discouraged when I see complicated farm problems constantly our farm programs constantly being thrown at us without consideration that back home there's a little sense and that if given the right promotion that we can voluntarily do a lot of things now they're lies we weren't going to agree with it if I'm sure so of course the farmer if he's going to exist in what if he was in an area free competition he could be left on his own but where other groups of our society are bound together by agreement and understanding and we've even seen some things in big industry that are surprised this a little bit here recently seems to me like the farmer is going to have to have some help now whether it's on a voluntary basis or whether we have it on a compulsory basis that's another thing it hasn't worked too well in the past on the voluntary basis I don't think the other hand we don't like the big stick rainbow over our head object you're going you're a young fellow planning on going back into farming you must have some idea that this is going to mean a lot more to You Father than to the week before well I definitely do think the fervor of being in the minority cannot settle these agricultural felons by himself and I feel yesterday these programs a little differently this way of using the past or we'll probably see we can do a new program being a revenue keeping the weight off well I i I'd say this and I'm no expert on it but I think it almost has to be on a compulsory basis I think it has to be on a nationwide basis I don't think we can cut our production of beans and corn save that and let some other part of our country dro that particular commodity when when we know that we can't go and change back into cotton or weekly and I think that a program has to be just as good for the grain farmer as it does for the livestock producers and is good for the tenant as it is to the landlord now I know that's a big order but that's the way it ought be well I i'm wondering i feel that the curse we have had i have a feeling we should where do we go how long do we have government help I mean this I'm wondering about I mean I'm sure that we've had some of the surf but we have accumulated happening because we have actually been encouraged to produce partly after the war by the government so I think that they have some obligation to help us dispose of these surpluses but are we ever going to be looking forward to a free economy is mrs. Everett has said he is he like summer lips and she still isn't so sure that she wants to have too much oh did you start at your feeling that's exactly it i think i think it's a dangerous composition when we begin to say you do this or else i like the idea of the whole farmland retirement I where the government for instance rinse the land and whore farms are taken out I think we're going to see this through education I think this is one of our strongest points is that our farmers need to be educated as to what this could do for instance we're just taking a piddling number of acres out reduction now we should be taking many more momentum they're going to have you're going to have a farm machinery manufacturers hunting day well I imagine they are well we're doing pretty good business up their record well I'm wondering about this because some of these aims of farm programs something we've debated about I've often wondered why we put so much emphasis on production when we probably could put more emphasis on what do we do with it after we've gotten it but I thinks it's there with our government today do you think mister reusch we have much chance of getting an adequate program I mean with you and fewer farmers in the halls of Congress we have less rec centers I mean we have less people representing us I think this is shown in last election bid unless wasn't too important in the lecture well we know where I voted as farmers as far as that goes but we're still an important part of the economy and we have some sympathy among others I feel but I do think there's an agricultural group we should understand if we can't expect price and be allowed to produce all that we want to produce I don't think of the economically sound now the question comes then how are you going to guarantee price without control production it seems to me the whole problem in farm programs is how we're going to get these controls now you mention fact that maybe we should retire whole farms I think mr. Wilson fight the fact it may be a mandatory program of something that was compulsory might have to be done here to control these acres and that's some of the things we're fighting we are not too sure we want we're ready for that type of thing but we certainly have got to face the issue point I'm trying to make use this that we can't have guaranteed prices I don't think without control production in some way I know one of the things that sounds real good to everybody is now we have a lot of hungry people in the world we have a surplus why don't we just the best thing we could do with it was to feed all these people i mean this they would be doing a great service to humanity we'd get rid of our surplus you think we have any possibilities in that area well I think it's mentioned in this very fine fact sheets which have been given to us that this would be very small portion and this doesn't really solve the problem it still comes back through the fact that as technology increases our production is going to increase I believe there was a statement given in there or if twenty or twenty-five percent of our top-notch 25 more percent of our top-notch farmers use the technology available now you have just much more production than we have in other words we're not even using a technology we have to its greatest fullest extent so our problem still goes back to overproduction speaking of that I like to see this tied in with conservation I feel that same way about land retirement that when land is retired it is always ever-present commodity whereby in future need it is there it worries me a little bit to see so much of ours and so much of other fine richland going on the concrete now I suppose this doesn't worry some people but this confuses me because I think we need to consider that our land is one of the greatest resources that the United States has I feel that way now perhaps some of you don't you probably see other things there's one of the greatest resources but I like to see this carefully manage whatever we do at a national program I like to see this the richness of our land carefully managed and I'm not sure that when we're thinking of the almighty dollar all the time but this is what is happening well I think anyone I sticks with people who live on the farm ins work you have this feeling for the soil I mean this is something that's if you like to take care of and virtually like to produce as much from it as you can and this is our real problem with seven or eight percent that we produce for more than we need I think it'd be Persian much more of a problem if we were seven eight percent less than I me with this but I I think that we have two real problems to work out you feel that now we've had a program over a number of years should we just discard that or should we build on it and we've had a lot a lot about school lunches and more help to some of these people who are employed you think any of these avenues have any real problem how about a Jack you you've had some considerations which I'm sure yes I believe this would sell with the summer straight how are you a fuse present systems of taking that out of project production also that I believe you put a ad on the using more food for school lunches and so on and also i think i would it be very advantageous would be finding new outlets and new products which would be would constitute reconstituted out of the farm product if you are raising our give cousin our surplus up i'd like to throw out this as we talk about land retirement of course that means that the father who once occupied that land is no longer there and he is probably competing somewhere in some urban area for a job which perhaps some other one is taking offense because he didn't get the position that this man had how do you think this is going to affect our small businesses and so forth in our towns I I see it down in Oskaloosa and there Sharon we see part-time farmers i'm not sure that i like this trend i think we're in the middle of a change here were in the future will either have full-time farmers or full-time urban growth of people i don't think we're going to see so much of this but i just wonder what's going to happen as he's more and more land retired more and more people are moving into urban areas competing for jobs I don't believe that it's going to create a serious problem in that we're making room for farmers in our community and our packing houses I think probably sixty percent of those people work part time to work in the packing houses now getting to this farm program I shouldn't get worked up about this thing because that that's something that I think I've often had the theory that it may be that were too fat and too full and too late I believe most the people in the world and we're getting closer together all the time either like I shouldn't say this either envy or hate us for what they have and I'd like to give this illustration up in our country we have an Adam's ranch she was six or eight section domoi suppose a man lived in the middle of that ranch and had everything you wanted milk and honey and all the niceties in the world all around outside of him outside the fence our little fellows on 15 acres of land they're hungry how long are they going to stay outside the fence I think this is a real interesting point I we had a young fella from Indonesia living with her several Saturday to Dover mentioned that probably to all the Chinese difference between communism and democracy was do I have enough to eat I mean just this i think has it this is the media has a real challenge anywhere we have and we can't find some way of using the food that we produce and we can produce more there's no doubt about which continuous corn in our area of the states we have found that we can grow foreign continuously on a lot of the land up there and still conservation flex design can be hurt at all because of the fact that you do a good job so i think that there's a real point to be considered than this i'm wondering about has probably gotten away from the small businessman we've been listening to the third in a series of programs on Iowa's future those discussing today's subject on what prospects for agriculture and Main Street have been mr. Ralph Wilson vice president of the security Savings Bank Marshalltown mrs. Lawrence evart homemaker from new Sharon Iowa mix mr. Rex Roush guidance counselor from denison mr. Jack Bouska a farm operation student from Jackson Junction and mr. sie wollen the farmer from Fort Dodge Iowa State University of aims to its Cooperative Extension Service as provided materials for small discussion groups to meet in homes and talk over Iowa's future just as these folks have if you're interested in getting the free discussion aids go to your County Extension Office the next program in this series your stake in Iowa's future will deal with the specific topic what prospects for families and communities it is hoped that these programs will stimulate your thinking on some of the current problems we face they're not being presented to advocate any specific course of action but when people study the problems of a state or nation they are better prepared to guide it as voters as clearly leaders or as legislators and Congressman democracy cannot be taken for granted in today's world each of us has the responsibility to do what he can to preserve you