REPORT OF IOWA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION 415 



this represents 1,500 carloads of food products for every day in the year, 

 holidays excepted. Think of the wealth that that represents! It brought 

 back to this nation about two billions of dollars. That gi-eat quantity 

 of exports constituted about one-half of our exports, and every one knows 

 that the strength of the nation lies largely upon its exports, and for that 

 reason, and for the additional reason that we want to have a good outlet 

 for our surplus farm products, it is important that we shall retain the 

 export market as far as we can. Europe wants our food products, but 

 at prices that are just a little better than they have to pay for food 

 products from other sources. We have supplied a great quantity in years 

 past on this basis, and we are supplying a great quantity now. 



The worst suggestion that I have heard of in connection with caring for 

 our surplus, or preventing a food surplus of the same kind in the future, 

 is that we should reduce the agricultural educational activities of three 

 agencies — the agricultural college, the county agents, and the agricul- 

 tural journals. Such a plea is a plea for ignorance, and I do 'Dt believe 

 it ever has been made by many, if any, real Iowa farmers. We did not 

 have too much knowledge four years ago when we were sweating blood 

 to produce the last pound and the last bushel that we could from our 

 fields and from our animals. 



Wliy was it that we lost our splendid foreign market on cheese? Forty 

 years ago we were exporting 140 million pounds of cheese a year, regu- 

 larly, but just before the war broke out it had fallen to about three million 

 pounds, and now we have got it back to only ten million, and it was 140 

 million. Where has the market gone? We like to pat ourselves on the 

 back and say "This is a great nation; our population has increased so 

 much that we are eating all our cheese and we have nothing to export." 

 But why did not the output of cheese increase with the population? For 

 the simple reason that our good neighbors to the north studied cheese 

 making and started their little dairy schools all over the country, and 

 they taught every maker how to make good cheese just a little bit 

 cheaper than we could make it, and they sent their cheese over to the 

 European markets and took those markets away from us. And you know 

 of many other products that could be referred to in the same manner. 

 Why, do you know — you do know — that at different times during the past 

 decade our country has imported for our consumption potatoes, butter, 

 cheese, meats — even corn and eggs, from foreign countries. 



The country that knows the most about the production of any kind 

 of a product and can produce it at the lowest cost, is the one that has a 

 great advantage over every other country. All foreign countries are 

 watching us intently. They want not only to take the foreign markets 

 away from us, and they are developing their educational campaigns to 

 that end, but they want to com^ in here and take our home markets away 

 froni us. We say we can protect ourselves with tariffs, and we can to 

 a certain extent, but not in a satisfactory manner. We say some other 

 country is using cheaper labor than we have and therefore they have an 

 advantage over us. True. Over in China they have cheap labor, and 

 their system of transportation is something like this: A coolie takes 

 100 pounds on his back and travels 20 miles between sunrise and sunset. 

 That is a day's work — 100 pounds, 20 miles, or one ton one mile; and I 



