448 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Dickinson county has the honor of having the liighest percentage of 

 farm bureau members compared to the number of farmers in the county — 

 98 per cent of the farmers in the county having joined the farm bureau. 

 Records are being broken so rapidly that it is pretty hard to speak with 

 any degree of certainty as to what exists at the present time. 



Over in IMarsliall county when your honored president's township re- 

 ported tliat every man in the township was a member of the farm 

 bureau, and that over .^lO.OOO had been contributed in the county, we all 

 thought it was wonderful. But along comes Tama county today saying 

 they, too, have one township with a 100 per cent membership, while the 

 county has contributed $12,750 to the special fund. 



I like that word "contribution" better than "donation." We contribute 

 to anything we are vitally interested in, and we donate to something that 

 is a sort of charity enterprise. The contributions to the special fund run 

 from $3,000 to $350,000. We feel that this is one thing that has shown 

 in a better way, perhaps, than any other, the enthusiasm that is back 

 of this great movement; because when men believe in a thing they are 

 not only glad to become members of it, but they are willing to con- 

 tribute their service and to back it with their money. 



Gentlemen, I feel that this is the opportunity for us as a group to do 

 something that is worth while. We need this great fund that has been 

 raised. Some, perhaps, think it an enormous fund. I was holding a 

 booster meeting the other day in a certain county and said, "Now, if there 

 is anybody here who would like to ask any questions, I will try to 

 answer them." 



One good old soul got up and asked, "I wonder what you fellows are 

 going to do with all that money when you get it?" He was worrying 

 like everything. 



And I replied, "1 don't know how we are going to do the big things that 

 will come up with little dabs of money. Do you know how much the 

 railroad brotherhoods are raising to put through legislation they are in- 

 terested in? Have you heard how much the packing interests are 

 putting into their advertising campaigns? And would you compare these 

 interests with the farmers of the great State of Iowa the capital they 

 have invested and the things they have to do?" 



As a group of business men we should have our paper that will keep 

 us informed as to where we are and what we are doing. It will help 

 to hold us together, to keep us in close touch. It is going to take money 

 to do that. When you men go out in your counties in this clean-up cam- 

 paign I hope you will bear down upon that phase of the work. In the 

 beginning our organizers were instructed that their joy might be full 

 when they asked for these contributions. Some of them took it literally 

 and they brought home the bacon. It is a good thing for me or any other 

 man to have added something from his store to this great movement. If 

 we do that our hearts will be in it. Now, gentlemen, it has been a 

 pleasure for me to tell you some of the things that have been done, and 

 I thank you for your attention. 



