For his students, Dr. Horace Clyde Filley aroused an interest in economic and social problems related to agriculture and rural life. His students received invaluable insight regarding business aspects of farming and problems to solve in creating satisfactory agricultural government policies. He authored of three books; published over 100 farm magazine/periodical articles; and co-authored over 20 bulletins. Many later studies in farm management confirmed the soundness of Dr. Filley’s work during the pioneer period in farm management research.
I have been given the pleasant assignment of presenting a brief tribute to one of Nebraska’s outstanding sons. I find it difficult, however, to review, in the few minutes allotted me, the contributions and accomplishment which constitute the reasons for honoring Dr. H. Clyde Filley today.
Horace Clyde Filley was born and reared on a Gage County farm near Filley, a town named for his father’s cousin, Elijah Filley. Clyde’s parents, Elmore Chauncey Filley and Annette Foster Filley, came to Nebraska from south Michigan in the spring of 1874. Like most other young couples who came to Nebraska in the early years, they were in quest of opportunity and hoped that within a few years they would own a fertile farm with a commodious house and adequate shelter for livestock, grain and hay, and that within the community there would be a school for the children and a church for everyone. Unfortunately for the early pioneers, the coming of prosperity was delayed by drouth, grasshoppers, and the low purchasing power of farm products.
Grim tragedy struck the Elmore Filley home before Clyde was a year old. His father contracted typhoid fever and passed away after a short illness. His mother, with typical pioneer courage, decided to remain on the farm instead of returning to Michigan. This decision was fortunate for Nebraska. It is doubtful if Dr. Filley would have made his contributions to the development of Nebraska, if he had grown up in another state.
Mrs. Filley rented the farm to a trusted friend and neighbor, Henry Seabury, who, a few years later, became Clyde’s stepfather. Mr. Seabury was a progressive farmer, an expert horseman, an excellent manager, and highly skilled in the arts of agriculture.
Young Clyde admired his stepfather and acquired a love for the soil and for livestock which has not diminished through the years. He grew up in a fine Christian home in a good community. Integrity, industrious habits, loyalty, and service to others - these are qualities of character that Clyde acquired early in life.
Dr. Filley’s formal education began in a one-teacher rural school. When he was twelve years of age, a wise teacher recognized his scholastic ability and recommended that he be sent to the village school, which offered a better educational program than the one-teacher school. His parents agreed and arranged for him to make the transfer. After graduating from the tenth grade at Filley, he entered the Peru State Normal School, where in three years, he completed the last two years of high school and the two year of college work then offered at Peru.
Following his graduation from Peru, Dr. Filley began his long and successful career as a teacher. His first position was principal of the school at Staplehurst, Nebraska, which was followed by a year as principal of the school at Genoa, Nevada, a picturesque village located near the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
In the autumn of 1901, Clyde Filley entered the University of Nebraska, the institution which was to become the center of his career. Lured by a desire for new experiences and the hope of gaining a little “unearned increment” from a rise in land prices, he had filed on an Oklahoma homestead the preceding June. He used vacations to fulfil residence and improvement requirements, and was able to make final proof before he graduated from the University in June, 1903.
During the following summer, Clyde clerked in the general merchandise store of a long time friend, P.T. Lewellen of Filley, and in September went to Bancroft, Nebraska, as principal of a seven teacher village school. After three years at Bancroft which was high-lighted by the erection of a new brick school building, he was elected Superintendent at Albion. In the autumn of 1909, he returned to the University as a graduate student and registered for courses in agricultural subjects.
Clyde’s stepfather, Henry Seabury, died in February, 1910, following a long illness. During the last three months of the second semester, Clyde spent the major part of his time on the Seabury Farm near Beatrice, and commuted to Lincoln once or twice a week to classes. In July he acceded to the urging of many Gage County friends and became candidate for the legislature. He was nominated in the August primaries, and even though his work at the University prevented him from making a systematic campaign, he was elected in November by a large majority.
So far as I have been able to learn, Clyde Filley is the only person ever elected to the State Legislature while he was a student at the University of Nebraska. Few persons have the courage to combine graduate work with service in the legislature and the operation of a farm. Young Filley accepted the challenge because he saw an opportunity to serve his home community and the state.
Few sessions of the Nebraska legislature have been presented with as many important measures as came before the legislature that convened in January, 1911. Among those that passed were a proposed Amendment to the State Constitution for the Initiative and Referendum, a bill placing many of the state institutions under a Board of Control, a bill making provision for the organization of cooperative companies, and a bill to establish a School of Agriculture in southwestern Nebraska.
A bill which passed the Senate but failed by a narrow margin to pass the House would have consolidated the major part of the teaching activities of the University of the College of Agriculture campus. Filley of Gage was one of the members who visioned the future growth of Lincoln and the disadvantages to the University and to the city of Lincoln of retaining as the main campus, an area that was surrounded on three sides by railway yards and on the fourth side was only three blocks from the retail center of a growing city.
A hotly debated measure which Representative Filley opposed would have removed the state capital to a point located nearer to the geographical center of the state than Lincoln. The bill was defeated by a narrow margin.
Three of the bills introduced by Mr. Filley were concerned with education. None of the three was passed. In fact, very few bills introduced in the 1911 session by members of the minority party were passed. Bills with the same objectives as the three that failed in 1911 were passed within a few years.
In June 1911, H. Clyde Filley received his Master of Arts degree from the University, having majored in Agronomy and Farm Management and minored in Animal Husbandry. He returned to Beatrice the afternoon of Commencement Day, expecting to give full time to the operation of the Seabury Farm which he had been able to visit only on week-ends during the preceding nine months.
In mid-September, Professor Pugsley, who had been transferred from Chairman of the Department of Agronomy and Farm Management to the dual position of Superintendent of Farmers Institutes and Chairman of the Department of Farm Management, offered Mr. Filley a position as Instructor in Farm Management. A prompt decision was imperative because first semester classes would begin in about ten days. After considering the advantages and disadvantages of the unexpected offer and consulting with Creta Warner of Roca who was soon to become Mrs. Filley, he decided to accept the position. Gage County lost a well trained capable farmer and citizen, but the University gained a staff member who was to remain for 38 years and make a significant contribution to the development of the University.
Mr. Filley became the first staff member giving full time to farm management. Under his able leadership, the Department grew. In 1911-12 only four courses were offered, all taught by Mr. Filley, who also taught a course in farm management in the School of Agriculture. When he was retired in 1949, 29 courses were offered in the Department. The influence of the department grew proportionally. Mr. Filley was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1912 and to Professor and Chairman of the Department in 1914. In 1919 the name was changed to Department of Rural Economics. This was in keeping with the broadened scope of the field covered. Courses in marketing, cooperation, rural sociology, land use, and national economic policies were added to the courses in farm management, farm law and farm accounts that were taught in 1911.
Professor Filley continued to be an university student for many years after he became a staff member. He registered for courses in economics, business management, geography and agronomy. Later he was granted a leave of absence by the University in order that he might contribute his graduate work at the University of Chicago and the University of Minnesota. He was granted the Doctor of Philosophy degree by the University of Minnesota in 1934.
One of Dr. Filley’s outstanding contributions has been in the field of teaching. He was an excellent lecturer and an inspiring teacher. He aroused an interest in the economic and social problems related to agriculture and rural life. Most of his students received their first insight in his classes into the business aspects of farming, and intricate route traveled by farm products from the producer to consumer, and the many problems that must be solved in working out a satisfactory government policy for agriculture. He hoped that his students would become true scholars and encouraged many to continue in graduate work. Some of his students became farmers, but a large number entered a great variety of fields - business, the professions, and public service - and are a living testimony of the sound training that they received.
Dr. Filley’s interest and influence with students was not limited to the classroom. His door was always open to anyone who sought his help, regardless of the pressure of other work. He helped students find employment so that they could stay in school, sometimes made small loans when they were hard pressed, counseled with them regarding countless problems, and with Mrs. Filley as the gracious hostess, the Filleys entertained many students in their home.
For more than 30 years, Dr. Filley was chairman of the faculty committee for Alpha Zeta, honorary agricultural fraternity. In recognition of his unselfish service and wise counsel, the Chapter presented Dr. Filley with an Alpha Zeta Advisor’s plaque following his retirement from the University. This is an indication of the esteem in which he was held by the students who knew him best.
Another important contribution of Dr. Filley to the University and the state was his activity as a public speaker. Training in the Speech Department and participation in literary societies in his home community, at Peru, and the University of Nebraska provided excellent experience in speaking to an audience. He became a popular and much sought public speaker from the very beginning of his services at the University.
Farmers Institutes, usually lasting only one day in the smaller community centers and two days in the county seat towns and other larger centers, covered a considerable part of the state during the fall and winter months prior to the time that the Agricultural Extension Service became firmly established. Agricultural Short Courses, which usually began Monday evening and ended Friday afternoon, were held in communities that were interested in getting more information than could be given in two days. Professor Pugsley added Mr. Filley to his Institute staff on a part time basis. By scheduling his classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Professor Filley could spend an evening or a day at an Institute without missing any of his University classes, or three days at a Short Course and need a substitute for only one day. He spoke to farm audiences in many communities. He often spent the hours when he was not on the program, in visiting the schools and speaking to the student body. He spoke to thousands of high school students during his early years on the University staff. There is no record of the number who came to the University as a result of these visits, but they were undoubtedly a factor in the gradual growth of the student body.
Dr. Filley always had a message for his audience, and he delivered his message fearlessly in a clear and forceful manner. Until the close of his 38 years of active service, he continued to be one of the University’s most popular speakers for civic clubs, school commencements, church meetings, and for state and local agricultural meetings. Thousands listened to his voice with interest and respect on a wide range of topics.
Closely related to his contributions as a speaker are his writings. He is the author of three books. Cooperation in Agriculture was one of the early textbooks on cooperation. It grew out of a series of multigraphed lessons developed by Dr. Filley to supplement the textbook that he used. New copies are no longer available but it continues to be used for reference. The Wealth of the Nation was published in 1945. In this book the author sets forth the basis for the wealth and prosperity of the United States and the things that are essential to keeping the national economy sound and strong. A third book, Every Day Was New is classed as an autobiography, but it is actually much more than a biography, because it presents a vivid and delightful description of life in Nebraska during the three-fourths of a century that ended in 1949. Dr. Filley is now working on a fourth book-length manuscript which is chiefly concerned with life in a Gage County community during the pioneer years.
Dr. Filley is also author or co-author of about twenty Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station bulletins, of several Extension bulletins, and of more than 100 articles published in farm magazines and other periodicals. His first bulletin reported a farm management study in southeast Nebraska. The picture on the cover, five horses pulling a gang plow, is somewhat out of date, but the principles set forth and the factors influencing farm earnings are as applicable today as they were in 1916. The results of many later studies in farm management have confirmed the soundness of Dr. Filley’s work during the pioneer period in farm management research.
Effects of Inflation and Deflation Upon Nebraska Agriculture, 1914-1932 is a notable contribution to our knowledge of the forces that affect farm income. The statistical tables given in the bulletin cover a sufficiently long period to show the effects of periods of inflation and deflation on the economy of a country.
Less auspicious than books and bulletins, but of great importance to the University has been Dr. Filley’s correspondence, he wrote 2,000 or more letters a year for over 30 years in reply to requests from farmers to help with their problems. His wide knowledge, experience and sound judgment enabled him to give satisfactory answers to difficult questions. This correspondence added immeasurably to the good will toward the University of Nebraska and gained for Dr. Filley the respect of many men and women who have never met or seen him.
The farmers of Nebraska have sought Dr. Filley’s help and guidance on a great variety of problems. He helped many of the early cooperative companies get off to sound start through personal conference with directors and other members, and a bulletin entitled Cooperation, published by the Agricultural Extension Service. In the early 1920’s, at the request of a group of men interested in cooperation, he drafted a bill providing for the incorporation of cooperative associations having capital stock, and to repeal the then existing law. The bill was introduced in the legislature, was passed as written, and has remained in force since that time. He also worked with the committee that formulated a bill providing for the incorporation of cooperative associations without capital stock. He later prepared Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws suitable for cooperative elevator companies, livestock shipping associations, and other types of cooperative endeavor.
Dr. Filley has worked with many farm organizations and with hundreds of individual farmers. Since 1933, his closest association has been with the Grange. He served as Overseer of the State Grange for 17 years and was elected State Master in 1950. During his six years as State Master, the Grange made great progress. Numerous Subordinate Granges were organized and the membership in Nebraska increased rapidly. He is now a member of the Executive Committee of the State Grange.
Mr. Filley’s contributions to agriculture, particularly in marketing, have been recognized far beyond the boundaries of the state. In 1913, he was one of the Nebraska representatives at the First National Conference on Marketing and Farm Credits. He served as Field Agent in Marketing for the Federal Department of Agriculture from 1916 to 1922 on a part time basis. The Department wanted to promote interest in farm marketing. The position of Field Agent gave Dr. Filley many opportunities to talk with farm groups on marketing problems.
In the autumn of 1920 and early 1921, a committee of 17 members appointed by James R. Howard, President of the American farm Bureau Federation, formulated a plan for marketing grain. The agency that would handle the grain was named the U.S. Grain Growers. Nearly 800 farmers assembled in Lincoln on March 21 to listen to an explanation of the proposed plan by members of the committee. It was an enthusiastic gathering. Clyde Filley was elected secretary of the meeting and near the close of the afternoon session was elected to membership on the seven man delegation who would represent Nebraska farmers at the Ratification Meeting that would be held in Chicago in early April.
Professor Filley took an active part in the Ratification Meeting and aided the cooperative elevator group in preventing the adoption of a compulsory pooling program. In March, 1922, he represented the Fourth Nebraska Congressional District in the First Annual Meeting of the new company, and later played an important part in exposing the weaknesses inherent in attempted monopoly control by farmers of the products they produce.
In the autumn of 1934, Dr. Filley was invited to serve as Economist for a commission appointed by the Farmers National Grain Dealers Association “to inquire into agencies, laws, and regulations affecting grain prices.” He met with the Commission in Chicago for two weeks in December and helped formulate an action program. Beginning in early January, the Commission held hearings in Chicago, Springfield, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Winnipeg and Washington.
Dr. Filley examined nearly all of the 119 witnesses who appeared before the Commission and prepared a 20,000 word report of the findings. The hearings, which consisted largely of questions and answers, were published in a volume of 480 pages. This book contains more first hand information concerning the forces that affect grain prices in a free market and the services performed by the various marketing agencies than is given in any other publication that I have seen. Nearly every occupation interested in grain marketing was represented. An edition of 30,000 copies of the pamphlet containing the Finding was soon exhausted.
One outstanding characteristic of Dr. Filley is his boundless energy. He has never been limited by an eight hour day or a 40 hour week. I have never known a man who worked with more enthusiasm or greater energy. He spent countless evenings and weekends in the office in order to complete some pressing task. I recall the comment made some years ago by a mutual friend, who said, “I told Clyde five years ago that if he did not slow down he would kill himself, but you know, he looks healthier today than he did then.”
Dr. Filley’s interests are not limited to his professional work. He is a family man - a devoted husband and father. He established for his family the kind of home environment that he had experienced in an earlier day. Mrs. Filley is a graduate of Chicago Art Institute and in addition to her duties as homemaker and her participation in community life, she has added much to the enjoyment of life for many friends and neighbors with her art work.
The Filleys have one son and three daughters. The son, Vernon, is a graduate of the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, and has had four additional years of surgical training. He is now a busy physician and surgeon in Pratt, Kansas. The daughters - Marjorie, now Mrs. John Stover; Edith, now Mrs. Carroll Garey; and Dorothy, now Mrs. Edward Schwartzkopf - started their careers as highly successful high school teachers following their graduation from the University of Nebraska, and each taught later in a University.
Dr. Filley’s interest in the church dates back to the Methodist Sunday School in Filley. He has been an active member of Warrant Methodist Church for many years, taught a Sunday School class the major part of the time, served as Sunday School Superintendent for eight years, and as Secretary of the Board of Trustees for over 20 years. He was a member of the Board of Bryan Memorial Hospital for 20 years and president for seven years. He is now vice-president of Bryan Hospital Foundation.
He has been a member of the Board of the Union National Life Insurance Company for almost the entire life of the company, a member of the Executive Committee for nearly 20 years and Economist since he was retired by the University. He has been active in numerous local and national organizations, including the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, American Economic Association, American Farm Economic Association, Masons, Gamma Sigma Delta, Nebraska Historical Society, Native Sons and Daughters of Nebraska, American Association of University Professors (Nebraska Charter), Interprofessional Institute (Lincoln Chapter), and Nebraska Writers Guild. He served one or more terms as president of each of the last four organizations mentioned.
The Native Sons and Daughters of Nebraska recognized Dr. Filley at their annual meeting in 1955, by presenting him with a plaque appropriately inscribed:
For Distinguished Contributions
To His Nebraska
DR. H. CLYDE FILLEY
Author - Educator - Leader
This is an outstanding honor for only two other such awards have been made by this organization.
One more activity must be mentioned. Dr. Filley served as secretary-treasurer of the Nebraska Hall of Agricultural Achievement for 25 years. He worked with his usual enthusiasm at the task of promoting the activities of the Hall in order that outstanding contributions to agriculture should be recognized, recorded and preserved. His father’s cousin, Elijah Filley, was recognized by the Hall in 1924. It is eminently fitting that the name and record of H. Clyde Filley should be added to Nebraska’s honor roll.
Many interesting events in the life of Dr. Filley and many of his contributions to education and the public welfare have been omitted in writing this brief biography; but, fortunately, the things that are omitted as well as those that are mentioned are written in the hearts and minds of his students, co-workers, friends and neighbors, and the people of Nebraska who have gained knowledge, hope and inspiration from his life, the ideals which guided him, and the ideas that he taught.
