I(i« IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



nirmiug changes to a profession of the brain rather than a labor of the 

 hand, the question of keeping the college man on the farm will find a ready 

 answer. 



One of the chief departments in organizing a great exposition is pub- 

 licity. Probably this one department causes more anxiety and thought than 

 any other. From what wo have seen and heard of the journalists of 

 Iowa, we are led to the conclusion that you are blessed with a great, 

 energetic, untiring class of men, who are an honor to your commonwealth. 

 In their personal contemplation we are reminded of the words of Henry 

 Grady, who said: 



"I have seen the field of journalism so enlarged, its possibilities so 

 widened and its influence so extended, that I have come to believe earnestly 

 that no man, no matter what his calling, his elevation, or his opportunity, 

 can equal in dignity, honor or usefulness, the journalist who comprehends 

 his position, measures his duties and gives himself entirely and unselfishly 

 to his work. But journalism is a jealous profession and demands the 

 fullest allegiance of those who seek its honors and emoluments. Least of 

 all things can it be made the aid of a demagogue, or the handmaid of the 

 politician. The man who uses his journal to subserve his political am- 

 bitions or writes with a sinister or personal purpose, soon loses his power 

 and had best abandon a profession he has betrayed." 



How true these prophetic words are to the journalists of the present. 

 We endeavor to pay them a small pittance, and how small it really is, 

 when we consider their increasing devotion to their state fair and exposi- 

 tion for which, in nine cases out of ten, they devote space for article after 

 article to bring it to the attention of their readers without hope of reward 

 other than that satisfaction experienced by each of us in the performance 

 of some good deed well done. 



From the poem read by Mr. W. B. Powell, of Pennsylvania, before the 

 Farmers' Congress at Raleigh, N. C, last month, it seems as though he, 

 in part, takes issue with my conclusion, as prior to the reading of the 

 following "rhymelet" he stated that there were all kinds of editors, just 

 as there were all kinds of men; for instance, he said there was the mean 

 man, the very mean man, the devilishly mean man and the damned mean 

 man: 



"When Satan commenced his devilish work 

 Of cracking jokes and slinging dirt, 

 And punching folks in tender spot 

 With probes full long and sticks red hot. 

 He chose the printer as helping mate. 

 And linked his pen with fun and hate. 

 And to make it seem the more sublime 

 He oiled his tongue with wit and rhyme. 

 Then bade him drive his quill with might 

 And use his tongue throughout the fight. 

 So thus he has subdued the men 

 With printer's ink and printers' pen. 



