SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VIII 481 



counts satisfactorily for the lesser number of tarm« today compared 

 to ten years ago. 



The difference between 35,575,040, the total acreage f\f the state, and 

 32,951,056, the number of farms of ten acres and more, represents the 

 land occupied by cities, towns, public grounds — not the public highways, 

 which are included with the farm land — and all tracts of less than ten 

 acres. These figures indicate that the drift toward landlordism — if such 

 drift there be — is much less marked than at first appeared. 



To go back to the matter of population. Last year the census Inkers 

 found a total of 2,358,066 persons in Iowa, a gain of 133,295 to be cred- 

 ited to the last five years, enough, surely, to remove forever the odium 

 of that 7,000 slump of the previous ten-year period. Now, then, where 

 and how did we get this material increase; have the wanderers returned, 

 bringing their children and their children's children with them? No; 

 nothing of the kind. An occasional wanderer drifts hack from time to 

 time. For these we put on clean sheets, kill a calf and fill their fam- 

 ished bellies with the fat of the land of whatsoever sort and variety 

 their palates crave — with the single exception of booze, which Iowa has 

 foresworn. We don't say, "I told you sol" and we religiously forego 

 the pleasure, distinctly human, of rubbing it in. 



No. The tens of thousands of strong men and courageous women who 

 severed home ties and went forth to develop other lands stayed put. 

 They made good, always, after the way of lowans. Occasionally one 

 comes back to "visit the old place," but seldom to stay. And they come 

 in huge touring cars, clad in fine raiment and an atmosphere of pros- 

 perity, big of heart, broad of soul and wide of vision, radiating the op- 

 timism characteristic of those who have triumphed over obstacles. 



Go where you will, out there you will find Iowa people, always with a 

 loving word for the state that started them in life. They have been 

 part and parcel of the foundations upon which great and glorious struc- 

 tures have been reared, and no where under the canopy could be better, 

 stauncher and more abiding material have been found. The young man 

 that breezed gaily forth to "take up a claim," a sweet Iowa maid tucked 

 under his arm, has worked a wondrous miracle upon that semi-desert 

 quarter section. He has redeemed it from a state of idleness and non- 

 production and converted it into a home of peace, plenty and wealth- 

 producing possibilities. The warty-fisted boy with patches upon the seat 

 of his pants that tagged at daddy's heels is running the local bank, pub- 

 lishing the city newspaper, or filling any number of other positions of 

 trust and responsibility with honor to himself and credit to Iowa, the 

 state that gave him birth. 



No, they don't come back. Where, then, shall we look for this later 

 augmentation of citizenry? Has it come by natural processes, by the 

 birth route? Partly, but not altogether. The average birth rate in Iowa 

 the last five years was 37,467. This is offset by deaths at the rate of 

 22,020 each year, leaving a net gain of 15,447 a year, or 77,235 for the 



31 



