McARTHUR, William "Bill"

MCARTHUR, ONEIL

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 11/11/2014 at 01:07:15

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Saturday, July 13, 1940, Page 16

THEY STARTED HERE
No. 17 in a Mason City Series of Success Stories

WILLIAM "BILL" McARTHUR, National Farm Leader

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It has often been charged that one of the big faults in our government today is that its administration is in the hands of men who have not had practical experience with the work they are trying to direct and that they have had no previous success in their fields.

But there is at least one man high up in the administration of the people's affairs who cannot be so charged. He is William McArthur of Mason City, who has risen to his present important positition in the department of agriculture as a man who has had valuable training and experience in all the fields of endeaver his work encompasses.

Mr. McArthur is now chief of the commodity loan and crop insurance section of the north central division of the AAA, a job which puts him at the head of the corn loan program in the 10 states which produce practically all the commercial corn in the United States. In addition he handles the commodity loans in that area for wheat, barley, rye and other grains.

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Mr. McArthur was born [July 15] 1886 on a large farm upon which the McArthur family still lives, north of Mason City. He was one of eight sons and daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Dan McArthur.

He was educated in a nearby country school through the first seven grades and then came to Mason City to continue on through high school and take some work at Midland Normal School here.

Following this schooling he went to Iowa State college [present-day Iowa State University at Ames], where he first met a man with whom he was later to become closely associated in agricultural work, Henry A. Wallace. Both men graduated in the class of 1910 with bachelor of science degrees.

In a short time Bill McArthur had a job managing a string of farms in Oklahoma and he quickly showed the grasp of agriculture and a conception of the work that later was to make him a highly successful "dirt farmer" as well as agricultural leader and administrator.

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In December, 1911, the young man returned from the southwest to marry a girl he had known since early childhood, Miss Avice L. O'Neil of Clear Lake.

Then two years later, his father was killed in an accident and it was necessary for the Mason Cityan to return home to help car for the large McArthur farm.

In the years that followed Bill McArthur worked hard and his efforts showed in appearance of the farm and the success of his work.

But the hard working young farmer didn't devote his entire time to his farm, for he took an interest in civic affairs and even in a further education. And he believed in pioneering - looking for something new that might aid the farmer in his business.

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This desire for more education, coupled with his tendency to pioneer, led in 1923 to an M. S. degree from Iowa State college in recognition of early work done with soy beans. This work was some of the first done in the middlewest with the Asiatic plant.

Bill McArthur was a believer in the collective efforts of agricultural workers and did much to further the farm cause in the years to come. He served three years as president of the North Iowa fair, was active an d held office in Farm Bureau work, was the first president of the United Farm Organizations of Cerro Gordo county, served as president of a co-operative livestock shipping group and was a director of the Iowa Beet Producers association.

In addition he was one of the first men to be chosen for the master farmer award given by Wallace's Farmer to outstanding men in the field of agriculture. And he was active in farm insurance work, serving for several years as president of the American Farmer's Mutual Fire Insurance and American Farmer's Mutual Life insurance companies, both of Des Moines. He left these two companies only when his job in Washington forced him to relinquish them.

At the same time he was continuing good farming - especially with an eye to the future - and his cattle and corn both were prize winners. He was and still is a raiser of purebred cattle and hogs, although his present work keeps the large part of the purebred animal out of his hands and in those of his son, Dan, who operates the large farm here.

Seed corn was a hobby of the local man long before hybrid corn brought general attention to breeding and selection of corn.

In 1932, when farmers were in desperate straits at the depth of the depression, Mr. Mc Arthur entered politics by declaring himself a candidate for state senator from the 43rd district comprising Cerro Gordo, Hancock, and Franklin counties. He was elected and served four years.

In the meantime, during his first term in office, Bill McArthur continued his efforts on behalf of agriculture amd was a member of the consumers national committee of 25 men who originated the corn hog program in 1933.

Then he served on the Iowa state corn hog committee for its first two years and had much to do with the groundwork laid during that formative period.

[In response to failing farm prices of 1932, the hog corn program was an effort to reduce production of large agricultural surpluses with compensation to farmers who complied under the provisions this Agricultural Adjustment Act. The demolition of brood sows and young pigs brought quite a bit of protest, but useable meat was distributed through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration to those in need.]

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This work placed the Mason Cityan in line for an appointment to the AAA setup and he became senior administrative office to direct the corn loan program in North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin and Minnesota.

The field work grew considerably and in time he found himself handling both the field work and the present job he now has as head of the commodity loan and crop insurance section of the north central division.

Now, after having been in the work since he helped originate it seven years ago, Mason City's Bill McArthur has risen to one of the top positions in the AAA, one of great responsibility as one of the most important men in the agricultural affairs of 10 of the country's leading farm states. The states are are Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota.

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He also has charge of the loans on a large amount of wheat, 35,000,000 bushels last year, and helps formulate loan policies. Much of his work is administrative rather than formualtive, however.

Mr. and Mrs. McArthur now live in Alexandria, Va., just across the Potomac river from Washington, although they still consider themselves as Iowans and Mason Cityans.

And there in the nation's capital city Bill McArthur is putting his wide knowledge and training to the best effect in the fight to put agriculture back on its feet. And it is probable that men of his type - men with practical experience and whose hands still show the effects of farm labor just as do Bill McArthur's - will be needed badly in the days to come.

For agriculture still faces a struggle and every able man will be needed to help weather the economic storm that looms the close of the war. But if every farm leader has the background and experience of Bill McArthur agriculture needs have no fears.

NOTE: William McArthur died on October 22, 1953, and was interred at Elmwood-st. Joseph Cemetery, Mason City, Iowa.

Photograph courtesy of Globe-Gazette

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, May of 2014

Cerro Gordo Biographies maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
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