Missouri Country Life Conference. 157 



over this country, and Doctor McNutt, who will talk ta you 

 tonight, will give you that side of the matter. 



In the same way that we told the story to the bankers about 

 the improvement of the schools we have told stories, numbers of 

 them, which you know and I will not take the time to repeat now, 

 with reference to the farmers who are very particular to see they 

 have water tanks, heaters in their water tanks to keep the stock 

 water from freezing, and every kind of modern machinery out 

 and around the barnyard and in the barn to properly help them 

 in carrying on the work over the farm, and yet, with all the 

 running water and other conveniences in the barn and out in the 

 various lots, in too many instances the farm wife has to go out 

 these cold winter mornings and break the ice around the pump 

 and thaw the pump out in order to get water into the house. 

 There are too many of these things we are overlooking and that 

 we must not overlook in the time to come or we will pay dearly 

 for them. 



I want to say just a word further with reference to the 

 banker's work to which I referred. The time has come, long 

 since, and more of us are realizing it in these late days, that 

 every organization and every man who has reached position in 

 his community owes it a public duty, whether in the meagerly 

 settled section of the country, whether in town or in the city, if 

 that community has done something for him, or from it he has 

 been able to accumulate mental or material values, he ought 

 to use that ability, or a certain portion of it, for the good of and 

 to pay his obligation to that community. In other words, he 

 must justify his existence and his talents. 



When men get together in organizations, those organiza- 

 tions must show that they have some real purpose in life, and 

 they ought to be of service in the community or state, as the 

 case may be. So it occurred to some of us a number of years 

 ago in the State of Illinois that the great Illinois Bankers' Asso- 

 ciation ought to stand for something in the commonwealth and 

 be a power working for its welfare. We used to have meetings 

 every year, some good addresses and a good dinner, all that sort 

 of thing, and then adjourn and go home. It occurred to us 

 that agriculture was our greatest industry and our success was 

 dependent upon its well-being. We looked into the matter, 

 found that about sixty-five per cent of our bankers were farm 

 owners and concluded that the Bankers' Association ought to 



