Missouri Country Life Conference. 215 



lifetimes can learn a great deal. We are here to try to find out 

 what each has found out, and if we can make the combination wc 

 shall have more knowledge than we did have. As I said on 

 another occasion, we are here to collect ideas and carry them 

 home with us, provided we have anything to take them in. 



The subject that I talked about a little while this afternoon 

 and agreed to continue tonight was "Things that Make Life in 

 the Country Worth While." And the things that make life 

 most worth while are those things that have made the most 

 lasting impressions on our minds for good and for good service. 

 I will repeat, those things that have made the most lasting im- 

 pressions from childhood to the present day are no doubt the 

 things that happened on the farm during our lifetime there. 

 These impressions have been made for good or ill, as the case 

 may be. If they have been made for good, we agree that they 

 have come from the very fountainhead or foundation of the 

 civilization of this country, which is the American farm home. 

 It has been my privilege to be in a great many places in the last 

 few years, and I have tried always to have a definite object in 

 view wherever I w^as working. 



It may seem strange to you that the bankers' associations 

 almost all over the country have invited me to come and make 

 talks at their conventions. I have talked to every group in the 

 State of Missouri. I have talked to them at two of their State 

 meetings; I have talked to the Michigan State Bankers' Asso- 

 ciation at Lansing. I had to refuse the Illinois State Bankers 

 at Chicago on account of a conflicting date. I have talked at 

 both of the agricultural conferences that have been held by the 

 agricultural committees of various state banking associations in 

 Kansas City and at St. Paul. I have talked to two or three 

 groups in Kansas and one or two in Oklahoma, and talked to 

 the American Bankers' Convention at Boston, and when I began 

 talking to the bankers I said to them at that time that I believe 

 I am assuming to talk to you about an unpopular theme. I was 

 a little bit afraid I would not get any applause because I believed 

 I was talking to them about an unpopular thing. However, it 

 proved to be the very reverse, and it has been my observation 

 that every intelligent interest in this country is today looking 

 toward the betterment of farm life and the upbuilding of the 

 farm home. The various state bankers' associations — I believe 

 every one of them in the United States at this time have a com- 

 mittee on agricultural betterment. 



