622 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



this, that a world busy, active, with its hands at the shuttle, at the loom, 

 at the plow, everywhere busy — if this old world were only busy now 

 there would be no difficulty ahead of us. But what does all that disor- 

 ganization mean to you farmers? It means disorganization; it means a 

 Europe that cannot take our products; it means a Europe that threatens 

 the very civic life of the world, and it means that this great thing we 

 are facing — and let's not forget it — is best described by what Sherman 

 meant, only he didn't visualize it — no man could — that is what Sherman 

 meant when he said "War is hell!" Nothing but hell for the world! And 

 so came the treaty, and of our foreign relations I say that this world 

 cannot exist successfully without America's co-operation, with its money, 

 with its organizing power, with its necessity for its great markets (ap- 

 plause) ; cannot exist without them, so that it is the duty of the presi- 

 dent, the duty of Senator Lodge, the duty of every man in the United 

 States senate, to get together on whatever reservations are necessary to 

 put that treaty across, to make this a settled and orderly world. (Ap- 

 plause.) What the future holds for us we cannot know; what it has 

 done for us in agriculture we know something. We know that this great 

 railroad problem has come out of it. Let me speak candidly! I am a 

 candidate for nothing, so that I can speak plainly to you! In this period 

 of two or three years with the returning of the railroads into their nor- 

 mal state, with the settlement of matters in Europe, with the treaty in 

 operation as we hope it may be, we may all of us have to sit tight — we 

 hope we will be willing to give and take a little, remembering this, that 

 this great nation has come to its fruition here and development under 

 the great constitution of the United States, 130 years of a wondrous path- 

 way of progress, with more freedom, more opportunity, more safety, more 

 beauty of life, than is known anywhere in all the world. So let us re- 

 solve here tonight that whatever comes in the days ahead of us, what- 

 ever sacrifices are demanded of us, that we remember the flag with all 

 its great traditions, and that we will be true to the constitution, and 

 whatever reforms we think should be made in the American life, whether 

 thev be economical, social, political, or whatever they may be, they will 

 be sought for and achieved by the orderly processes of the ballot, and 

 under and in accordance with our great fundamental law, that wondrous, 

 that grsat; beneficent constitution of the United States. (Great applause.) 

 I admire this organization for one thing especially — you have attended 

 right to business. I mean by that, you haven't run off after any ism.s; 

 you haven't taken any short cuts; but you have known this, that you 

 had to organize, and it is proper for you to organize; you have brought 

 to your problems the most expert help that you can get, and you haven't 

 run off after some movement which is initiated in this country for polit- 

 ical short cuts, movement whereby one class says, "We will seize the 

 government and operate it for ourselves." If I know anything about the 

 Plumb plan, it was just for that purpose and with that idea. He says, 

 "We will operate the railroads and pay full wages to the employes, and 

 if there is anything left we will give Uncle Sam half of it and ourselves 

 take the other half." And that plan is a recrudescence of organized sel- 

 fishness in this country. (Applause.) What is meant by the nationaliza- 

 tion of mines? It means just the same thing with respect to the mines. 



