TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III 207 



manufacturers or retailers, or any of these great lines of Industry, in 

 order to have success in any of them, it is necessary and essential that 

 agriculture has every possible encouragement, because it is the founda- 

 tion of American life. So that the first consideration must be for agri- 

 culture, and the problem is not easy; it is not easy to formulate a com- 

 plete program as to what can be done to improve agricultural life here. 



Another thing that will help — we raised this year from direct taxation 

 for expenses, every dollar of it expended in the expenses of maintaining 

 the government, $5,400,000,000. It will help some for agriculture to have 

 the cost of government enormously reduced, as it ought to be here in 

 America, and to that end we must have in the national government what 

 they have in Illinois — we must have a thorough budget system, so that 

 every department of the government will be given just so much money 

 on which to live for the coming year, and hold within that expenditure. 

 The haphazard method of conducting our national government is the 

 most wasteful thing, almost, in the life of the nation. And so legislation 

 may help some in that. 



As I said before, we are all suffering from the war. Gentlemen, let us 

 remember this, that we are in the midst of very great world movements. 

 The white race in the world amounts to only 500 million people. There 

 are black and yellow and brown that amount to 1,150,000,000 people. Do 

 you know that in 1500 there were only 3 million people in the British 

 Isles, a little more than we have in the state of Iowa. That was in 1500. 

 There were in continental Europe only 70 million white people in 1500. 

 And then came the Renaissance, that great period of revival of learning 

 which produced Columbus, which produced the great artists and sculptors. 

 And then came the discovery of America, followed by immigration to 

 America and the subsequent taking of this land in America by the white 

 race, so that today, from that small beginning, we have 500 million 

 whites in the world, with 1,150,000,000 black, yellow and brown in it. Note 

 that fact, we are carrying to those 1,150,000,000 black, brown and yellow 

 people of the world the education of our time.. We are carrying them 

 the material progress of our time, the machinery of our time, the ideas 

 and incentives of our time. We have carried to them that which will 

 multiply their birth-rate enormously as compared with the past. For- 

 merly epidemics and the like was what kept down the dark races. It is 

 very important that this world be organized on a friendly basis, if it is 

 possible to so organize it, and it is important that we should stabilize 

 conditions throughout the world by the use of wise diplomacy in order 

 that we may find a market for the products of the farms of Iowa. 



One thing further and I shall have finished. There came to my home 

 this week my daughter from Minneapolis, with the most amazing grand 

 daughter that you ever heard of, of course (Laughter), and as I held her 

 in my arms today noon — I won't attempt to describe her to you, gentle- 

 men, you know the symptoms; you all know such of you as have grand 

 children — she looked at me with wide-open eyes, looked into my face for 

 what — for what, gentlemen? Whenever I look at her I think of the great 

 army of children who are looking for you and me to do our share in keep- 

 ing and making this world worth while. Can we shut out from our lives 



