TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 399 



I want to impress upon your minds this morning that this 

 Farm Bureau organization, or federation, that has sprung up here 

 like a mushroom in the night, that has yet scarcely had time to 

 learn to walk, is destined to be the greatest organization of its 

 kind, or of any other kind, known to the world. I believe that 

 firmly and thoroly ; that this organization is going to live, it is 

 going to grow, it is going to get the desired results for a class that 

 has never had a word to say about the disposal of the wealth 

 which they had been producing for these thousands of years. 

 The farmers never have had anything to say about marketing the 

 products they produce. Why should they have anything to say? 

 They have never been in a position where they could talk, and 

 talk effectively, until we had started this nation-wide organiza- 

 tion. 



The American Farm Bureau Federation has a big job on its 

 hands. It has the problem of organization that is nowhere near 

 completed ; but when we stop and remember that it is only nine 

 months old, or about that at this time, and when we realize that 

 there is something like 1,500,000 farmers embraced within the 

 membership of that Federation, we realize that it is growing and 

 growing fast. It reaches from the Atlantic ocean to the Pacific; 

 it reaches from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian line; 37 

 states, I understood, have now joined the American Farm Bureau 

 Federation ; but there is a big work in organization yet to go on. 



When you people are inclined to find a little fault with the Fed- 

 eration, that it is not moving quite fast enough, stop and consider 

 some of the problems in organization that the Federation still has 

 to accomplish ; think about John Coverdale, secretary of that 

 Federation, reaching 48 states in the United States, superintend- 

 ing and supervising that organization work. It is some problem 

 and it is some work, but it is going to be accomplished and ac- 

 complished well. 



We have builded on a sound foundation. We have grown from 

 the ground up, and we have a connection now from any farm in 

 Iowa clear along the line, from the township, county, state and 

 nation. We are connected by a tie that cannot and will not be 

 severed ; and for that reason, and for the further reason as I 

 stated a while ago, we are going to get results, we are going to 

 grow, flourish and prosper. 



Now, the American Federation has done some very good work 

 on transportation. They have a bureau of transportation that 



