FOURTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART II 193 



is possible in the world, what is possible with reference to our material 

 interests. I think that no man who goes over the grounds during our 

 State Fair can go away without feeling that he has acquired a large 

 fund of information that he has added to his general information of 

 conditions in this State and in the country at large. 



The accountant's report refers to an original appropriation that was 

 made for the State Fair of $50,000 as a starter, if I may so express it. 

 The report further says that some frame buildings were built out of that 

 $50,000 as a beginning. It says that since 1902 there have been permanent 

 buildings erected, and grounds bought to the amount of $419,000. That 

 means from appropriations made by the state of Iowa, as I understand 

 the report. In other words, that there has been an appropriation through 

 these years of, on an average, $38,091 per year to the development of this 

 great institution that we call the State Fair. There were some objections 

 to these appropriations in the general assemblies where they were con- 

 sidered but I do not believe that there is a man who was a member of the 

 legislature, or who was a member of the appropriations committee or 

 either house who recommended these appropriations, that would for a 

 single instant raise a voice in protest now. You have no doubt noticed, 

 gentlemen, that while everything always goes forward under protest, that 

 there is always opposition to every move forward, it does not make any 

 difference what it is, yet when the thing itself is accomplished for the 

 public good, every man who has opposed eventually falls in line and 

 says that it was a fine thing to do. May I not ask you, with reference 

 to your educational institutions, when protests have gone up against the 

 policy of the legislature with reference to them, is there a man now any- 

 where in Iowa who will visit our educational institutions, our great in- 

 stitution here at Ames that is absolutely of incalculable value to this 

 state, — is there a man now who goes there, through these buildings, over 

 that campus, investigates and sees the work that is being done there, 

 sees what it has been to the state of Iowa, what it will be in the future, 

 in its extension courses, and every other way; is there a man anywhere 

 that will say that what was done ought not to have been done? Is there 

 a man who will go to the great university of this state and' see what is 

 there, the hundreds, even thousands of young men and women who are 

 receiving an education there, a university which will now^ begin lo 

 compare in value and the extent of its work with any other in the Miss- 

 issippi Valley; is there a man who will now say that the appropriations 

 of the legislature that w'ere made in behalf of that institution ought not 

 to have been made? I want to say, gentlemen, that within ten or twelve 

 years this state has made its educational institutions. It has made both 

 of these institutions that I have referred to. It has made the institution 

 down at Cedar Falls within eleven years. More than eleven millions of 

 dollars have gone into these institutions in the last twelve years and the 

 people of this state, I think, are proud of the fact that this has been 

 done. lowans do not want to live in a state that is behind any other 

 state. Iowa does not want a state that is not equal in educational ad- 

 vantages to any other state. There is no state that is richer in the pres- 

 ent, or in its prospects for the future than Iowa is. And let us have 



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