404 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



much — they are not sustaining quite that much now, but they 

 are answering the purpose. Why? Because the government of the 

 United States is behind the proposition. 



Now, the combined wealth of the farms of the United States 

 today is, perhaps, 40-billion dollars — somewhere in there, I don't 

 know just what, but it is a big sum of money. Whether it is 40- 

 billions or 50-billions, it doesn't make very much difference, but 

 the wealth of the farmers of the United States, I think, is equal to 

 the balance of the wealth of all the rest of the United States put 

 together — the railroads, the commercial interests, the banks, and 

 all of them. 



Now, when you get ready to finance your proposition, when 

 you get these warehouses filled with grain, when you get the 

 storage houses all over the country filled, why cannot you issue 

 some pieces of paper and let the renter and the other fellows who 

 cannot carry this paper get their money to do business with? It 

 can be done. (Applause). So what is the use of worrying about 

 the financial end of the proposition? I think the banks of the 

 United States will see the proposition in the proper light and 

 come along and co-operate with us nicely on that question. 



Say, people, do you know that one of the big things we have 

 done ; one of the big results we have gotten from this organiza- 

 tion, and it is worth all that it has ever cost us, and worth as 

 much as it will cost us in many years, is the fact that every other 

 interest on the face of this earth wants to get in bed with us; 

 (Applause) and I am in favor, with a few reservations, of allow- 

 ing, occasionally, one of those fellows to sleep with us over night, 

 because I believe it will do them good. (Laughter and applause). 



I cannot take up too much time on these different points, be- 

 cause I want to hit the high spots on a few more, and I am not 

 supposed to talk to you more than twenty minutes, and I have 

 talked more than that now. 



But the legislative work of the Federation is no small item. 

 The American Farm Bureau Federations have checked a good 

 many projects that would have cost you men in Iowa more money 

 many times over than you have already paid, or will pay, for 

 your Farm Bureau dues. There has been strenuous effort by 

 the interests to get rid of the excess profits tax. They have been 

 trying to shoulder it over onto the farmer; they have been trying 

 to shoulder it anywhere just so it left their shoulders, and they 

 have been working hard, and they would have had all th^se 



