Missouri Country Life Conference. 159 



thousand bankers present, and Jordan did himself and Missouri 

 full justice. 



There is no question about the value of demonstration work, 

 yet many of the farmers are inclined to think that any one that 

 comes out of some college or any one who suggests new ways is 

 not worth listening to, and that he will not have anything to do 

 with "new-fangled ideas." Those farmers are falling to the 

 rear like all other standpatters (laughter) — I don't mean that 

 in any political sense, either — that did not enter my mind. But 

 you know the world moves and a great many people don't move 

 with it. You know some say, "Well, my father did so and so — 

 it's good enough for me," and all that sort of thing. You know 

 the man who does a thing because his father did really doesn't 

 stand where his father stood because the world has been moving 

 all the while. "Father" may have stood pat but the world 

 doesn't, and we don't have to prove now that "it moves." Sam 

 Jordan points the moral very well. He tells how he went into a 

 certain community here in Missouri, where you have some 

 farmers of the same kind we have in some other places, and that 

 farmer said, "Well that is all right; you cannot tell me anything 

 about these new-fangled notions," and they were talking then 

 about seed corn. Jordan said, "Well, my friend, you will find 

 you have to test seed corn;" no question about that. The only 

 question is whether you are going to test it in the box, in the 

 house during the winter, or if you are going to test it out in the 

 field. When you test it out in the field you are going to find a 

 good many seeds did not germinate and, maybe, a five or ten- 

 bushel loss in yield per acre. And so a good many "stand- 

 patters" are being jarred loose and things are moving and they 

 are moving gloriously. I congratulate you on this splendid 

 meeting. It is good to be here. 



