.282 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



know you will be disappointed because I am not nearly so nice a man as 

 Colonel Kraschel. He is a great deal younger than myself and knows 

 more about it. Moreover I never could make a speech like an auctioneer 

 anyhow. But I was so delighted with what Governor Clarke said that it 

 was worth all my time coming here and listening to it. I like to hear 

 these addresses, my fellow citizens, that reach right down into the heart 

 and soul of men. The greatest product of earth, the greatest product 

 that ever will be on earth is man himself; and the greatest failure that 

 will ever be on earth, if it comes, and God forbid that it should ever 

 come, will be a failure of the United States of America to produce great 

 men. You want to keep in mind always and constantly the fact that we 

 live under a government that is peculiarly our own, that everything from 

 one end of the country to the other is governed by the people, and they 

 are going to govern it more than they have heretofore. And when you 

 think what a task that means for the people to undertake — to give atten- 

 tion to policies and the direction and the purposes of the great national 

 government, and of every state government, and of every municipality, 

 and of every county, and then his own private affairs and certain govern- 

 mental functions that are about him, like schools and things of that kind, 

 it requires great men to maintain a great country like this. And if it 

 should come to pass, which in all probability it will within the next half 

 century, that we will have two. hundred million people within the present 

 boundaries of our country, then the government must be still greater, 

 still better and still more nearly perfect. I wish you w'ould understand 

 too that the whole purpose of all free government — the whole purpose 

 of every civic institution, is or should be the making of men. It is not 

 worth anything if it does not do that. And we are learning something 

 in this country pretty rapidly and I am glad that men like Governor 

 Clarke are pounding it into our hard heads, and that is that a government 

 has got to have some other function in addition to merely being a police- 

 man; that it has got to help in the development of its people everywhere. 

 You want to bear in mind also, my friends, that you ought to be, and 

 we must be learners all our lives. It is right to be learners in school, 

 it is proper there, but there ought never, and there must never come a 

 time in your history that you are not learning and seeking to learn, 

 that which helps you, and not only you but everybody else. We 

 want to learn another thing, and that is, if we expect to make any 

 really great progress in this country we must elevate all the people. 

 It is not worth while for us to think that we can build up, by our pro- 

 fession or our calling, ourselves, and forget those in any other calling or 

 profession or any other business. We can not do that because when we 

 begin to do tiiat, the fact that tliey are dropping will bring us down also. 

 In other words, it is the intention, I think, of the great "I Am" that 

 when humanity develops along proper lines it will lift tho whole race, 

 and all its institutions ought to be directed toward that end. 



Now, what is a county fair? Its possibilities are great — tremendously 

 great. You want to bear in mind tliat we are a social people. Hardly a 

 man, if he were living, and we would doubt liis sanity, would be willing to 

 witlidraw liimsrlf from his social life and separate himself and live in 



