180 TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III. 



drawn at the bank, but this in itself did not shake the faith that they 

 had in their state and in the government of the United States. And while 

 promises of relief and legislation came from various quarters and greatly 

 encouraged and in many instances did assist in partially relieving cer 

 tain conditions, yet they made up their minds that the farmers' economic 

 problem would finally be solved by work and energy with close application 

 to the saving of their hard-earned money, and hoping at the same time 

 that should the wisdom of congress open up a market with the East, 

 lower the freight rates and reduce any unnecessary taxation, they would 

 regard it as a great assistance and a grateful benediction. 



Many of our farmers and breeders viewed the situation from another 

 angle and went about their work, though handicapped, and as they had 

 lived to see the tide of prosperity come and go, they resolved in their 

 minds that they might be ungrateful for past blessings and benefits if they 

 should come to believe that it was meant for them always to live in a high 

 period of prosperity. This class concluded that they could not expect 

 to use the reaper all of the time in season and out of season, but for the 

 permanent endurance of their business it would be just as well that a 

 check of inflated prices should come, in order to relieve some of their 

 fields of the thistles that had grown and been overlooked during the 

 period of high prices, and finally by experience bring the conditions into 

 a state of affairs, through various causes, where the farmers' products 

 will continuously bring a fair profit, and the profits which he has to pay 

 for necessities will vary in proportion to the profits which must fall to 

 him. It is very difficult to think of a law to be passed by congress or 

 the state legislature which will not in some degree affect the permanent 

 agriculture of this country. It is the wise statesman who will ever bear 

 this in mind when in dealing in any legislation affecting the welfare of 

 this country that the building of such laws must be aimed to protect its 

 greatest industry, agriculture, and not detract from a reasonable profit 

 to the producer. We will never have a satisfied condition until the farmer 

 is able to reap a reasonable profit for his labor. 



I cannot refrain from calling attention to the extreme loyalty of the 

 Iowa farmers. The world's greatest poet and delineator of character 

 once said: "Blow, blow, thou wintry blast, thou are not so unkind as man's 

 ingratitude." Never, my friends, never were the words of that learned 

 poet brought more forcibly to mind than on last November election when 

 the farmers of Iowa, bowed down with taxes and disappointments, marched 

 to the polls of this state and paid a debt of gratitude which they owed 

 the boys who shared the discomforts of the World's War. This will stand 

 out in the future history of Iowa as one of the monuments of gratitude 

 of its people. 



The farmers and breeders of Iowa went back to their plows and herds 

 under such conditions. They voted a bonus to our boys, believing in the 

 faith of their state and government. That same faith in the people and 

 the constitution of the United States will keep Iowa at the head of the 

 states of this union, bearing as its motto, agriculture. 



I have always been pleased to represent this state in the association 

 of one of its principal breeding industries. It has always been my 



