SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VIII 479 



Well, for a time, as might have been expected, we felt pretty badly 

 cut up over the showing. What did it mean, anyway, that slump of 

 seven thousand people? What had become of them? After the first keen 

 edge of mental misery and humiliation had become somewhat dulled and 

 we were able to look our accusers suuarely in the eye we began a search 

 for reasons. They weren't hard to find. In fact, they were all about us, 

 ready for use, and some of our neighboring commonwealths, especially 

 those to the west, knowing them, had doubtless snickered gleefully in 

 their sleeves while taunting us with race suicide and other shortcomings. 



The population of Iowa in 1900 was 2,231,853; in 1910 the federal 

 enumerators could find only 2,224,771, a loss of 7,082 for the ten-year 

 period. Now, it will be recalled that it was during this same decade that 

 Iowa land values enjoyed such extraordinary appreciation. Prices ad- 

 vanced by leaps and bounds. It was amazing. Naturally the period 

 marked by signal activity on the part of land agents and real estate 

 promoters. The state was infested with them, also pestered with them. 

 They were thicker than flies about a garbage can in August and exceed- 

 ingly industrious in pushing the claims of cheap lands in other states. 

 Every community harbored a nest of them, hustling day and night to 

 induce Iowa farmers to sell their holdings and invest elsewhere, south- 

 west, west and northwest. 



Thousands of Iowa owners sold out and for a few years there was an 

 exodus from the state like unto a certain memorable hike from Egyptian 

 territory, inaugurated under different conditions, but with practically 

 the same end in view, namely. The Promised Land, only, in this case 

 instead of "promised by God" the emigrants had only the word of an 

 agent, which not infrequently proved unreliable. 



"Moving time" in spring witnessed the departure of entire train loads 

 of home seekers bound for the much-touted localities of cheap land. The 

 agents waxed fat on commissions. Many an individual with no other cap- 

 ital than an unlimited supply of nerve and a vocabulary rich in descrip- 

 tive adjectives feathered his nest and moved over upon Easy Street to re- 

 side the balance of his days. And to this day no man knows just how 

 much good Iowa money, how many good Iowa citizens and how much 

 Iowa live stock went forth to swell the coffers and aid in the development 

 of the resources of Canada, Montana, the Dakotas, Idaho, Colorado, Texas 

 and other states. One and all they are heavily obligated to the Hawk- 

 eye state for material favors received and unlimited assistance rendered 

 in their call for development. 



At that time Iowa had thousands of small farmers located upon tracts 

 of forty, sixty and eighty acres. They had been grubbing along for 

 years in a discouraging way. They stayed because they had to, for land 

 wasn't "moving" to any appreciable extent. Prices for farm products 

 and live stock were low, some years actually less than the cost of pro- 

 duction, even on comparatively cheap land and with cheap labor. Their 

 accumulations consisted mostly of mortgages, families and grouches. 

 Their needs in the way of more land and wider incomes were pressing. 

 So were the holders of the mortgage. Other and newer states seeking 



