TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 449 



ADDRESS BY E. H. CUNNINGHAM 

 Field Worker 



Gentlemen: 



I'll promise you right here in the beginning that you are not going to get 

 any more out of me than the actual time allowed in the program. For 

 you are not here to listen to mere talk. You are here for business. You 

 want to know, not so much what has happened as what is, going to 

 happen. 



Mr. Wooters assigned me a part in this big campaign. So I helped, in 

 a small way, to bring about the consummation in the shape of a big 

 membership. If there is any honor in it there is honor enough for every- 

 body. And gentlemen, if there is anybody entitled to credit it is the 

 men that actually brought home the bacon; the men who stood up against 

 the wire fence and hung onto you fellows until you came across. They 

 are the ones who put this big thing over. 



The part assigned to me was a sort of preliminary work, to go into the 

 counties and meet with the boards of directors of the farm bureaus of 

 the state. Sometimes they were hard to find. If there is a place in Iowa 

 that is not on the map Mr. Wooters sent me there. And I had to walk part 

 of the time to get there. 



So I went out and met these boards of directors. I was about to say 

 boards of supervisors, and in one instance I did meet the supervisors. 

 These meetings were beneficial in one way at least — it gave the directors 

 an opportunity to get acquainted with each other. That is not overstat- 

 ing the fact. The average farmer was not supposed to have a great 

 deal to do with the proposition, but assumed, naturally, that the mem- 

 bers of the boards of directors knew what was doing and what was 

 wanted. But we were to learn that some of the boards had never heard 

 of us, knew nothing about the movement, or what was doing, consequently 

 were not getting anywhere. 



This is not said to reflect on anybody, gentlemen, but merely to show 

 the condition that existed in some counties. And now, speaking frankly, 

 unless that big drive that resulted in this great organization has changed 

 your minds and given you new ideas of the federation as a farmers' or- 

 ganization; if you are going to slip back into the rut in which I found 

 some of these boards of directors, this thing will come down with a thud 

 and you will be smothered underneath it. 



It was the psychological moment for this organization. Farmers 

 everywhere were thinking alike on the proposition. They realized that 

 necessity had driven them to a position where they would have to take a 

 definite stand in behalf of their own interests. They were ready for it. 

 Some held back, at first, on the $5 membership. It looked pretty big, 

 but on the whole they did very well. I am mighty proud of Iowa and 

 the Iowa farmer. 



We went out and sold this proposition of organization as a salesman 

 sells goods. And speaking about salesmen — let me tell you an incident 

 of the campaign: 



In a certain county they were giving a banquet preparatory to the 



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