TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART I 33 



He had a directness, brevity and force of expression that was laconic. 

 His writings were widely read. His official reports were classic in their 

 line. 



He had a master mind for construction, organization, and administra- 

 tion, but he never overlooked details, nor forgot old associations. He 

 possessed the rare faculty of inspiring men associated with him, and 

 under him, to do their best work. He not only gave all that he had in 

 his rare personality, his great heart and intellect, but he brought out the 

 best in others. It is only a great man that can do this. His influence 

 was never repressive. It was always constructive and inspiring. He did 

 not meddle in the duties assigned to helpers. On the contrary, he trusted 

 them and looked confidently to them for results. His work was strength- 

 ened and made more potent by deep religious conviction. 



He possessed a wonderful faculty of intense application and mastery 

 of any work that he undertook. When, as a young farmer, he was 

 elected to the Iowa legislature, he determined to understand the prin- 

 ciples and practice of parliamentary law. He studied every standard 

 v/ork on the subject, by the farm fireside at night, and in the fields during 

 the day, and he took rank as a parliamentarian, not only on the floor 

 and in the speaker's chair in the Iowa House of Representatives, but he 

 ranked among the leaders in the National House, and he became the 

 parliamentary adviser of James G. Blaine, who was then speaker. 



The same characteristic of intense application and mastery was again 

 manifest when he came to the Iowa State College rather late in life to 

 take up a work that was entirely new to him. This work was undertaken 

 in response to the feeling of dissatisfaction on the part of the agricul- 

 tural interests with the status of the agricultural work at the institution 

 at that time. There were practically no students studying agriculture, 

 and no agricultural work was being given that w^as worthy of Iowa's 

 great industry. This situation was quickly changed. He brought to 

 bear his keen insight, his broad vision and trained mind, and he at- 

 tacked problems of agricultural research and education with all of the 

 application, thoroughness, and zeal, worthy of one of years of service 

 in this special field. 



He not only mastered the problem of putting agricultural instruction 

 and investigation on a sound basis where it took its proper rank, but, 

 in doing so, obtained the best kind of experience and training for the 

 work which he conducted with such commanding skill and ability when 

 he entered President McKinley's cabinet as Secretary of Agriculture, 

 and continued to serve through four consecutive terms under three 

 presidents. 



His work at the head of the national department of agriculture will 

 stand as a monument for all time to come. A member of the United 

 States Senate has well said: "Alexander Hamilton made the Treasury De- 

 partment, and James Wilson made the Agricultural Deoartment." 



