206 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



tion of the world that cannot produce cattle and hogs and dairy products 

 as we can produce them. People must be fed, so we must do all we can 

 to make conditions better; but be sure that in Iowa we have the essentials 

 of wealth, and those essentials will come back to us if we will hold our- 

 selves steady and not go after false gods. Good times will come back 

 to us and we will take a deep breath again of satisfaction in contempla- 

 tion of the wonderful prosperity of state and the wonders of agricul- 

 ture. I often think of this great Louisiana Purchase and what it has 

 meant to the world. In 1802 Jefferson and his delegates went to Paris 

 to buy a little section of land around New Orleans, and they were of- 

 fered by Napoleon the whole Louisiana Purchase. And what did that 

 mean? Thus were carved from the great domain of the Louisiana Pur- 

 chase, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, 

 Nebraska and Oklahoma in their entirety, and much of the greater part 

 of Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, comprising 640,000,000 

 acres, at a cost of 3 1-3 cents an acre — $15,000,000 for the whole 

 empire — $15,000,000; less in value than two townships in most any 

 county that is represented here at this meeting tonight. Never was any 

 such great section in the world achieved at so low a cost. And what has 

 it done? It has made possible for the surplus populations of this nation 

 to get homes and purchase food for the world, all on this marvelous 

 place that is called the Louisiana Purchase. That is one of the great 

 things achieved in the life of the world, as well as in the life of the nation. 

 I said there may be some things done by legislation, but I think, gen- 

 tlemen, to be perfectly frank with you, that more can be done effectively 

 through organization, through the elimination of that great gap between 

 the man who produces the food and the man who consumes the food. 

 Much more may be done by organization, one balancing the two, legisla- 

 tion and organization, than by legislation, and I welcome this great Farm 

 Bureau movement; I welcome this great movement you are stimulating 

 at the fairs, better conditions on the farm, better production, and all of 

 that, and the marketing question is the great coming problem in agricul- 

 ture, and must have the help of the mo«t intensive organization, as it 

 must have, and such legislation as is possible. What can be done in legis- 

 lation? I have in mind two things — 200,000,000 bushels of corn are avail- 

 able from Argentine — I think it will help some to say that that corn shall 

 not enter in competition with the corn from the farms of Iowa except un- 

 der a proper tariff. I believe in that. (Applause) Another thing, 300,- 

 000,000 pounds of coconut oil is competing with your dairy products — 

 six times as much as before the war; 200,000,000 pounds of soy-bean oil, 

 also a competitor, came into this country — ten times as much as before 

 the war; 427,000,000 pounds of wool came into this country in competition 

 with American wool. Now, gentlemen, some one will answer me, I think 

 not among you, but others will say "Now, Mr. Weaver, by advocating the 

 protection of the American farmer on these products, are you not making 

 for the rest of the people a higher cost of living?" Now, there is one 

 fundamental answer to that proposition, and it is this, that agriculture 

 lies so at the foundation not only of the life of Iowa, but of the life of 

 the nation that in order to have any superstructure of provisions for 



