136 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



states are able to beat us. That doesn't speak very well for Iowa. AVe 

 are too willing to sit back and think everything is all right. We are 

 not working hard enough collectively, and even individually we are not 

 doing so well. 



I am glad to know that in Iowa we have a county fair organization, 

 tecause I believe .that body is needed to produce the best that there is 

 in Iowa in a manufacturing way, in a business way, and in an agricul- 

 tural way. I don't believe there is any place in the world that has the 

 opportunity that the people of the state of Iowa have, but while we have 

 rested back contentedly we lost one good man in fair work, and now the 

 state of Minnesota has lost this same man to the business men of New 

 England; and we will have to watch ourselves again or Minnesota will 

 be stealing again from Iowa. I believe the state ought to get behind the 

 county organizations and probably the district fairs, because they bring 

 out competition and make the people strive hard to meet one another 

 and to rival one another. That brings out the best there is in men, and 

 I am in hopes that the county organizations of Iowa will be greatly in- 

 creased and hope that the friendly rivalry will be taken up between the 

 different counties and different communities and try to work to see which 

 one can match the other with products of the soil and factory and hand. 

 We need co-operation between counties and between communities and 

 between cities. As it is now, every fellow is out for himself; every 

 county fair has had until recently to fight its own battles, but it is the 

 beginning of the end. 



We are great in Iowa to cry about taxes; we think we are taxed to 

 death, and some one in the legislature will cry about taxes; and yet did 

 you ever stop to think that the great state of Iowa, with its county fairs, 

 its state institutions and its militia and courts, its pioneer institutions 

 and its oil-testing department, and the services of the health bureau, 

 and all the thousand-and-one activities, did you ever stop to think that 

 the taxes of the people by direct taxation are less than the sum which 

 the township taxes the people for the pretense that they are going to do 

 something on roads. The whole state of Iowa costs but four and one-half 

 mills, and yet the township collects five mills for dragging the roads. 

 When a man talks about the high state taxes he forgets all about the 

 little township back home. We want the people to appreciate what state 

 taxation means. It is a shame to think that the state of Iowa, with all 

 its activities, has to use so much time combating pviblic opinion that its 

 taxes are too high, when in fact it taxes the people less than the town- 

 ship does. Until you reach that view which takes into consideration 

 these things, there will be no progress made in a true sense in the state 

 of Iowa. The county, district and state fairs do not do all the work they 

 ought to, and we have got to help the people of Iowa understand the 

 taxation problem and see where the money of the state of Iowa goes. 



