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- ADDRESS OF C K STAHLY A* to Thresheraaea Woodstock Meeting at r. Chairman, Ladies and Brother Thresh*.rmen: I cant make a flowery address as the judge has done. I haven't been on the floor thirty years and I get a little shakey when I get called upon to talk to a body like this. I could better talk to you one at a time along any point of the threshing' machine out in the corner of the field. I am glad we had with us this after­ noon the judge. I am also glad that so many of you are here and that one gentleman had the right idea and brought his wife along. If more of us would bring our wives along the association would be a stronger organ­ isation. It is a fact that we do not get enough for our work We haven't had enough for years and years gone by. I have been in the busi­ ness only twelve years. I dare say t hat "there are men within the sound of my voice in the same boat. Why should it be? The man who feeds the World, the man who makes it possible for the bankers to sit in their offices, tiMMnan who makes it possible for the president to sit in Washington. "We need organization. We not only need state organization, but we need county organization, which I will explain a little later. You gentle­ men, I am informed, are badly in need of a county organization. I dare say there are men here today who did not receive pay for half they threshed last year. You know when you thresh by -sacks you- can never tell how big the sacks are; Weight is the only way to thresh. Some fellow might have a weigher and do the same thing over again. Please stop and figure with me for a minute. Suppose you thresh 2000 bushels and give four pounds on a standard bushel. You have given him 8000 pounds. We will figure it down to bushels and I be­ lieve we find it to be 250 bushels. 250 bushels, if you are getting 2c a bushel, means something like $4.00. That will pay the wages of one man and for ten days you have given away over $40.00. Do you get the idea? You din see what it costs again, when you go to settle up a bill something like $25.85. Weil, when the farmer goes to write the check you might as well made it 76c. Did you ever stop to think and figure what you have given along that line? It amounts to a large sum in a year. When the farmer goes to the elevator, the ele­ vator man does not knock off a cent. Why not the threshermen do the same ? Why not the thresherman walk down the streets the hsnn!6?t man in the county? Let's have organ­ ization. You talk about having a lien law. It will cost $600.00 to get a bill thru. "Many of you, no doubt, cannot realize that, but we must have a man down there watching all the time. Now at this coming legislature, which meets this fall, we expect to put this bill up, but we are going to have a man or two down there. If you men come into the organizatibn, take an interest in it, help build it up, we will try and see that all your bills do not fall on you. Again, Illinois has not a road law for the threshers. We are forty-five years behind. We no longer think as we used to, we no longer do as we used to. Our road law stands as it did thirty years ago. We also want to get a bridge law and a road law thru. We have one drafted. We want to make it stronger. But when wr est that bill thru we expect ta| • ^ change Our constitution so that the Illinois Brotherhood of Threshermen will pay half the expenses. I don't lenow whether you'men know it, but I presume each and everyone of us violate the road law every time we haul our threshing machine around. If you have followed the statutes you know that we are compelled to keep a man 300 yards ahead of our engine. Where is the man ahead of the auto­ mobile? They can go down the road at any speed they want to, providing the auto cop doesn't get after him. Why should we have a man here to try to protect the interest of the other fellow and let the auto man do as he pleases ? The average thresherman is more courteous than the average autmobile driver. Why ? It is second nature to stop when you see a horse and buggy coming. Now that's a law we wish to appeal. Again you violate the law when you blow the whistle. The automobile driver can blow the whistle every foot of the road, still he has a perfect right to do this. We propose to appeal that law. Let us look at the bridge situation. Illinois has so far the poorest bridge laws in the United States. It should not be so. I am downcast because Illinois has such poor bridge laws for the threshers. They are not compelled to build a bridge to carry the threshing machine. Why should the thresher- men who produces the bread and but­ ter of the world not be allowed to do these things when the automobile man can tear up the roads and bridges ? We propose to tear up this law and produce one without any tonnage clause. Today we can help along anything in that line. We are going to help you, but first you must help us before we can put that thing across. "I am here this afternoon at the solicitation of Mr. Davis to help or ganize MeHenry county. I believe they did not state what office I held. I was elected secretary of the Illinois Brotherhood of Threshermen and re­ elected to that position last fall. But, gentlemen, the situation is serious. 1 am not here today to apologize for anything. I would say, it has come home to me that this organization de­ mands drastic measures. There are men in every organization who hang back when it comes to joining. If there are any of those here this aft­ ernoon bring them to me. Dont you go outside that door and say "It won't do me any good." How do you know ? You have gimply plodded along to get the threshing done and make a few dollars and in many cases you failed. Why? Because you did not take the other fellow into consideration. Have you done it? Are you going to do it? It is time for you to move ahead. You can't get anywhere sitting there in the seat. Are you willing to help? Hasn't some fellow slipped a bag on you when your back was turned? We are afraid of organizing because we are so crooked that we can't turn our back for fear of stealing our own tools. This is true. We are all in the same boat. Are you going to float down or up the stream? Are we going to dress our wives and children like other people ? How do you fed when you see how your wife and children have to dress? Spend a year organ­ ising in Illinois and I will guarantee Dr. Dawson of Wauconda that some of you folks will be ready our streets Monday. to throw in your dollars. » Mrs. Philip Hauprish has been "Talk to a crowd of men like you sick for the past few days. see any object in not lining up with -.:, the men for protection. The bankers^., the lawyers, the steel magnates, etc^r.. •• are organized. Yet the threshers whp, feed the world still hang back. Why£ I know not. I cannot answer thf question. I have put in eight years* in organization. It is mighty di%. couraging to send out thousands <m copies of the state convention prtfcv gram and have only 500 present. K you realize as the Threshermen fll Illinois realize what it costs me to ^ speak all over the state to do thin . organizing, what it means for me to ... leave my work for $5.00 a day Ml not get much of an organization either. Almost every year I have had my machine in shape by this time. Why? I have been working ? to your interest and try to make a lit^ ing, too. It keeps Sne pretty busy* I was to meet the state food admin* - istrator. I didn't make connections. This year the government has taken a hold of this threshing business. I would expeet before this that evety * thresher in Illinois would get a que*- tionaire to fill out concerning hit machine to be sent back to the county food administrator. In our county, unless it came since I left it has not come. But now then it is up to yon , men whether or not you will organinte : I have got to make a living and lif up something besides and I don't pur­ pose to do for men and their inter- ests when they are not interested to themselves. "Of course it is easier to raise t$i(r; price in a body then singly. Get an up-to-date machine and keep it in the best condition and you will have no trouble getting the price. It is easier to raise an organization. Adopt the constitution and by-laws. Copies of these will be furnished by the Illindis Brotherhood association. I would suggest that you adopt the name of your county for the association name. Elect a vice president and a treasurer and appoint an executive committee**. Jumps From Window r ; ^ Richmond "Gazette: Last taip night Doris, the nine-year-old daugh­ ter of Mr. and Mrs. H. P. Wharton of Ringwood, jumped from a window oil the second floor of their residence and >xcept for a few bruises and scratches was uninjured. It was all on account )f a dream. Doris had accompanied her father to see the Sparks circus at McHenry the evening before and had •eturned late at night. In her dream* she imagined that burglars or ma* rauders of some kind were entering the room and made a hasty exit thro Jie window, jumping to the ground some fifteen feet below. Her imag­ inings had been so real that even when awake she could not convince herself that it was only a dream. She - reported her trouble to the night watchman at the Bowman factory and he, in company with another man* went to look up the burglars. Mr. and Mrs. Wharton had been sleeping peacefully thru it all and of courae knew nothing of tike incident imti mwkwSD BJ taw wSSm* w the worse for the experience, whidh might have resulted in serious injury. QUARTER OF A CENTURY W •M Clipped From The PlaindeaHg ef Twenty-tve Yeara Age and have nine men join. Such a %c. . •-% W. E. Wire, county superintendent ^ A »Hing happened to me down in the of schools, was a caller here Mondaf, southern part of the state not long ago. Died, Tuesday morning at her southern part of the state not long ago. _ _ So you can see that all over the state home in West McHenry, Mrs. J. S. are taking up the Bsggetti v - r'W\ aq-s. Mi