TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III 203 



J. B. Weaver, Des Moines, Iowa. 

 Mr. Toastmaster, and Gentlemen: 



It is a pleasure to me to look into the faces of so many men connected 

 oflacially with the great business of the fairs of Iowa. I am glad to share 

 with you in welcoming in song my old friend and colleague Santee-Claus, 

 who brought you your bill. (Laughter.) I am also glad to see here to- 

 night Uncle Charley from up there at Alta, and to see him looking so 

 comfortable, with a smile on his face. I didn't expect that after the re- 

 cent avalanche of November 6th. (Laughter and applause.) You know, 

 when I met him out in the lobby here a while ago he came close to me 

 and whispered in my ear, "When I came to prepare my statement for the 

 secretary of state, Mr. Weaver, it said 'No contributions and no expen- 

 ditures,' " and he looked so proud, until I whispered in his ear "And no 

 results." (Laughter.) And here is Billy Morrow. They make a team 

 hard to beat. I am glad to see them here, these men who are in their 

 personalities a part of the development of this great state agriculturally, 

 and they have brought honor to the agricultural interests of the state im- 

 measurably. 



Your chairman introduced me briefly, and I have had many introduc- 

 tions like it in my experience. I like the one that an old German gave 

 Senator Spooner on one occasion when he was speaking in his native 

 state of Wisconsin. The introduction was this: "Ladies and Shentlemen, 

 I been askt to introduce Mr. Spooner, who iss to make a speech. I haf 

 did so, and he will now do so." (Laughter.) I saw an interesting intro- 

 duction the other day which I am glad was not given me tonight. It was 

 an introduction given by one introducing Lloyd George. He said, "I have 

 the honor tonight to introduce the prime minister, who comes to answer 

 charges of the bishop with respect to the re-establishment of the Welsh 

 church. In my opinion the bishop is the most unmitigated liar in the 

 world, and I thank God tonight that we have in Lloyd George one who is 

 his equal." (Laughter.) I am glad that I was not introduced thus. 



I will just talk to you briefly, for you have a long program tonight 

 In the matter of fairs, I have been up in western Canada where they are 

 endeavoring to establish a great agriculture, and will succeed, but I tell 

 you those first fairs in Canada were meagre affairs, but they were the 

 beginnings of the injection into the district served by those fairs of the 

 idea of competition, of stimulation, of effort; the expression of the sense 

 of pride of the district in what it can do. They are the beginnings; just 

 such beginnings as I used to see when I was a boy down in Davis county. 

 What a time it was, those fair days. We looked ahead to them with as 

 much anticipation almost as we did to the coming of the circus. Every- 

 body came in a buggy — there wasn't an automobile thought of in the world 

 in those days. They came in buggies and wagons, bedding the children 

 down in the straw with comforters and robes, and perhaps father and 

 mother sitting across a board in the wagon. And so they came to the fair. 

 Those were the pioneer days, the days of the beginnings, gentlemen, the 

 laying of the foundation of that which you have achieved today, wonderful 

 development now in this great complex age, in the life of the state. 



