TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III 205 



faster and faster, the motor roaring, and the momentum shaking the 

 whole building with its fury, old Nat turned to me and said, "This is too 

 much for me," so we got down and started for the grandstand. The bands 

 were playing and there was the usual amount of noise and confusion of 

 the state fair, with hundreds and thousands, and scores of thousands of 

 people going this way and that, and presently I found myself walking 

 alone, and I turned around and looked back and there they were with their 

 heads all together like birds, and in answer to my question of "What's 

 the matter?" I learned there was too much noise, too many people, too 

 much excitement; they wanted to get back on Bear Creek, and I said, 

 "What's the matter?" and they said, "When does the train start for 

 home?" 



That is what happens at the state fair — so many people, so many exhib- 

 its, so much excitement, that it almost is too much for some of the com- 

 mon people of Iowa. 



Well, gentlemen, in this matter of agriculture, we are in wonderful 

 times, very trying times, and all over Iowa the thought is unanswered 

 with regard to the tremendous slump that has occurred in farm values. 

 Now, remember this, gentlemen, you may think this is wrong, or that is 

 wrong, or the other thing is wrong but we are suffering in the state of 

 Iowa with the rest of the world as the result of the greatest piece of 

 fratricidal strife in the history of the world and one great big word 

 could be written on the wall as an explanation of our difficulties, and 

 that would be the word "WAR." In this complex time the thing for us 

 to do is to hold ourselves steady; let us not get excited too much; let's 

 be steady until this turmoil, this milling, milling, milling, has stopped. 

 You farmers know what it is when cattle mill. The world is milling, so 

 let us stand steady here in Iowa and whatever may be said of Iowa, it is 

 the safest, the most prosperous land in all the world today. We must 

 wait for world reorganization. And tonight in this city there will be held 

 later a meeting by one of the very greatest organizing geniuses of the 

 world, and since he cannot speak to you, let me do it, inadequately as I 

 may do it, in his stead. He comes to you and to me bringing to your 

 safe homes, to bring to your not yet exhausted pockets, to bring to the 

 farms and the people of Iowa who are yet safe in their lives and in their 

 families, he is bringing the call of 3,900,000 children who are to be the 

 fathers and mothers of the days just ahead of us, and we are all inter- 

 ested. Why, today, gentlemen if we had Europe busy, if we had Europe or- 

 ganized and doing business, every ounce of food that was produced in 

 the state of Iowa, all the excess would be in great demand, and I think you 

 would be getting double the price for it that you are offered today for 

 the products of the farms of Iowa. But the point I make is, let's hold 

 steady — we owe it to our time, and if we cannot keep steady, what people 

 in the world can? 



Now, that doesn't mean that there aren't things that we can do. There 

 are things that we can do, and that we must do to better agricultural 

 conditions, even here in this great favored state, but remember, gentle- 

 men, let's be certain of this, there can be no question about it, that we 

 have 110,000,000 population in the United States; we have a great sec- 



