EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VII 405 



American flag or the American colors. The crudest band that ever 

 undertook to play anything would undertake a selection from Lohengrin 

 or some other great opera rather than take a chance on "America*' or 

 "The Star-Spangled Banner." That is why we have to hold these mis- 

 sionary meetings. 



I say, God bless the United States! It is the only place where you 

 have room to spread yourself, where you have inspiration to do big things. 

 There are only two places in the world where a man is free. One is on 

 the boundless prairies, where he can say and do things out loud, and 

 the other is in the vastness of a great city like London. Abraham Lincoln 

 was a child of the prairies; he was free. William Booth was a free man 

 in the midst of the multitude; and in our past half century there have 

 been no names to surpass those of Lincoln and General William Booth. 



My friends, the thing that we can all do is to promote loyalty and 

 enthusiasm in our neighborhoods. While I am chairman of the Council 

 of Defense for the state — a sheriff, as I call myself, for the state, 

 vvorking without compensation, and without a particle of authority, you 

 can all do just as njuch without authority as with it. I am glad to do 

 what I can, because I am not killing any Germans, much as I would 

 like to. There are none around here that I would like to kill; but I 

 would like to reform a great many. A.11 I want to know is that a man is 

 for the old United States of America — if he is, I am for him. If he is 

 against the United States, I will be very glad to furnish him money to 

 buy a ticket and send him back to the country from which he came. I 

 want you to understand that against all comers — Germans, Swedes, 

 Italians, Danes, Greeks, and all other people and all other countries — 

 I am for the United States, seven days in the week. May the God of 

 Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Cromwell, Milton, Washington and Lincoln, guard, 

 guide, protect and defend thru all the coming ages this great free republic 

 of the western world! 



The Toastmaster: We have heard from a member of the Food Admin- 

 istration who has been carrying on some conservation work. We are go- 

 ing to ask Professor Bliss who has been at the head of that work in this 

 state, to tell us about it. 



Professor- Bliss: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I have 

 attended the meetings of the Corn Belt Meat Producers' Association 

 for a number of years, but I have never attended one that I have en- 

 joyed more, nor from which I have received more profit than the one 

 today. I am sure that every member will go back home determined to do 

 all that he can in his locality to help Uncle Sam in the present crisis. 



Mr. Wallace has stated that I have had something to do with our food 

 conservation campaign in this state. I may say that I am connected 

 with the Agricultural Extension Department at Ames, as most of you 

 know, and that department in the present war is the official representa- 

 tive of the United States Department of Agriculture and of the govern- 

 ment in food production work. Immediately upon the outbreak of the 

 war, we began studying and planning as to how we could best carry on 



