406 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



want them to do. Did you people in years gone by notice any- 

 thing about, or ever see the word "farmer" in any of the pro- 

 ceedings, or any of the news items that came from the Congress 

 of the United States until the last year and a half? I don't 

 think you ever did. Today the papers are full of news items 

 from Washington, and almost every one of them has some refer- 

 ence made to the farmer — the farmer wants some legislation, 

 and the senate is unanimous in trying to get it for them. There 

 are one or two men that are not unanimous on our side, but they 

 are being snowed under. Just the other day they passed a reso- 

 lution reviving the War Finance Corporation. Now, we wanted 

 that done ; we didn't think it could do any harm and we thought 

 it might do some good. They passed that resolution, — the house 

 passed it, the senate passed it, and President Wilson vetoed it, 

 but it was immediately passed over his veto. (Applause) One 

 of the important things that I believe the farmers of the United 

 States need is to take care of their interests inside of the United 

 States, and to do that at the present time it seems to me absolute- 

 ly necessary that we have a protective tariff that will protect 

 the farmers' products. (Applause) We are going to get that 

 tariff because our organization reaches to every corner of the 

 United States, and the farmers are going to be unanimous in the 

 demand for that protection. There isn't any reason why the 

 wool growers of the United States should have to compete 

 against the wool growers of the world right now. We produce 

 about 340-million pounds of wool in the United States annually ; 

 we have imported 400-million in the past year. England at the 

 present time has 900-million pounds, and south of the equator, 

 they tell me, there is stored 1-billion 500-million pounds of wool. 

 What show have the sheep growers in the United States with 

 1 ^-billion pounds of wool facing us across the ocean which can 

 be quickly placed on the markets of the United States? It is time 

 for us to look after those things, inasmuch as the other inter- 

 ests of the United States have been protected and are being 

 protected. 



The automobile industry has a tariff against the importation 

 of automobiles, as we found out at our office in Ames a few 

 nights ago from a young man who came down from Canada. He 

 and his wife and little girl got into a car that he had bought and 

 came down to the United States. He came down to the college 

 and is now working on the college farm. He told Mr. Cunning- 

 ham that when he got to the American line he was stopped by 



