174 TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III. 



So our people were great then and our people are great now. The fact 

 is this, that you have everything in Iowa that you have had in the years 

 gone by, and as I listened to one of the speakers this morning I learned 

 you have increased your crops by some 57 per cent during the past year. 

 Really the glory of Iowa is just beginning. When you go downstairs, go 

 down the big stairway and turn around and look at that glorious picture 

 which speaks of the future growth of this state. Then as you go down 

 just look up between the two pillars and behold these words: "Iowa— 

 my eyes have been permitted to behold but the beginning of her glory." 

 As you look at that just simply think, "Well now, it is all right for us to 

 be grouchy, but we have got the greatest state in the union, let's just smile 

 once in a while." We all just want to realize the fact that we are now 

 as happy and as contented as we want to be and as we believe. I don't 

 think for one moment we ought to be grouchy. 



There are some things I want to talk to you about this morning from the 

 standpoint of agriculture. You have all listened to a great many things 

 with reference to agriculture, and of course agriculture, as you know 

 and as I know, is the basic industry in America, in Iowa for instance. 

 I have sometimes listened to men speaking and talking about different 

 things in this state, and there has come to me this thought, that con- 

 tinually the business men of the state, and those with wealth and those 

 who operate various industries in the state, should remember that 51.5 

 per cent, and more, that is the minimum, of the wealth of Iowa is invested 

 in the Iowa farms. In addition to that there is another large percentage 

 invested in the farm machinery, the farm stock and the farm crops. When 

 you have two-thirds of the wealth of this state in one great industry you 

 can begin to realize that that industry is entitled to the consideration of 

 every citizen in the state, whether he is high or whether he is low, whether 

 he lives on a farm or not. I have said in the past few years that I believe 

 that in ten or fifteen years from today, unless this great work which has 

 been referred to this morning continues to grow, the question is going 

 to be how are you going to keep the boys and girls out there digging 

 in this soil and planting the crops so that you and I and our children and 

 our children's children may enjoy the foodstuffs with which to sustain 

 life. So I say agriculture is the basic industry of the union and I say it 

 is entitled to consideration in all its needs that come up. And I don't 

 blame the farmer, I don't blame that man who is interested in agriculture 

 for complaining about conditions when those conditions force him to a 

 situation of operating his farm at a loss, whereas on the other hand, 

 corporations such as the Standard Oil can declare from 400 to 1600 per 

 cent stock dividends in the year. He is entitled to feel sometimes that 

 perhaps everything is not just exactly as it ought to be. But through it 

 all it seems to me this thought ought to come to the farming elements of 

 Iowa, that it is by sound, sane thought that you are going to accomplish 

 the real results sought; not by getting together and saying this is wrong 

 and the other thing is wrong, but by getting down to brass tacks and 

 working the problem out in a sane and scientific manner. 



I believe that in the future in Iowa the agricultural department has a 

 chance to grow, and grow until it is so great as to include things that 



