112 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



Iowa. We want to reach every home. We want to reach the head of 

 every home, and we want to reach the wife, and we want to reach the 

 children. We want every family to be 100 per cent efficient. That is, 

 that you as the head of the family have a $2 membership, and that your 

 wife have a dollar membership and each child a dollar membership. 

 So that we want every family 100 per cent efficient in this campaign, and 

 a part of the campaign is the service flag. The service flag is a Red Cross 

 flag with a blue border wliich is to be hung in the window of your home 

 or place of business when you join in this campaign, and it is to stay 

 there until Christmas night." The Red Cross has suggested that you 

 put a candle or light behind the flag so that it will show through, and 

 as you drive along the road in town or country you will see this service 

 flag. They have suggested that you put a Red Cross in that flag for every 

 member in your family that has a membership. For instance, a big Red 

 Cross signifies one membership, and if there are four other members in 

 your family who are members, you put a small Red Cross sticker on the 

 flag for each member of your family. The idea is to get a little bit of 

 Christmas spirit for the Red Cross. The Red Cross means patriotism. 

 It is not a time for you or for me to quibble about the time the campaign 

 should be held, to which we are asking you to contribute, but it is up 

 to us to get back of the Red Cross, and get back of the Liberty Loan, and 

 get back of the Y. M. C. A., and get back of the President in the winning 

 of this war. All these things are a means to an end, and our big business 

 io to WIN THIS WAR. I think some of us would make pretty good 

 fighters, but we are above the age and we can't all go to Europe to fight, 

 but we can fight through the American Red Cross and the Liberty Bonds 

 and the Y. M. C. A., and I ask you gentlemen when you go home to enlist 

 for this Red Cross campaign and call up the chairman of your chapter. 

 There are 172 chapters of the Red Cross in Iowa, and all of these chap- 

 ters have branches. I will ask you to call up the chairman of your chap- 

 ter and tell him that you want to get back of the Red Cross in this 

 campaign and that you will do anything you can to help them along. If 

 you have any doubts as to whether you should do it, and you think it is 

 a very hard job, just think of the thousands of young men in our state 

 who have given up their jobs on the farm, and who have given up good- 

 paying positions in offices, to go out and fight for their country. It is 

 your way of fighting. I don't think a family in Iowa should be able to 

 gather around the fireside on Christmas day and say that they are not 

 members of the American Red Cross. I don't believe that many homes 

 in Iowa will be able to say that they are not 100 per cent efficient in this 

 Red Cross campaign. If we get after this thing as we should, there is 

 nothing that can stop us having one million members instead of six hun- 

 dred thousand. 



The Chairman : We have a gentleman with us who is at the head 

 of this great state of Iowa, whom I know to be intensely interested 

 in everything pertaining to Iowa, and who is interested in every- 

 thing that yon are interested in. He is a friend of the fair, and 

 a friend of the people of the state. I take great pleasure in pre- 

 senting to yon Hon. W. L. Harding, governor of the state of Iowa. 



