160 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



One of the gratifying features of the situation in this state is the 

 harmony and teamwork that prevails upon the part of all of the fair 

 managers. I think that one of the best features that comes out of these 

 annual meetings is the coming together of the fair men that attend these 

 meetings* I am glad that you are considering ways and means by which 

 a larger representation can be brought here from year to year, and hope 

 that every fair management in the state will be represented here. 



I don't think there has ever been a time in this or any other country 

 where the county and local fairs were as important a factor in the com- 

 munities they serve as they are today. Instead of letting up on the fair 

 program, or postponing them as has run through the minds of some at 

 the beginning, the fairs have demonstrated their place and they have 

 demonstrated they are a most important factor in protecting the interests 

 of the country in this great crisis. And my prediction is that next year 

 you will have greater support than ever before. 



I think you ought to go home and prepare for an intensive program 

 of the best methods that the fair can bring out in aiding production. 

 This country is face to face with a great crisis. The greatest in the his- 

 tory of the nation, and we are proud of the young men that are going into 

 the army and into the navy. Next spring we will have a million men 

 over in Europe in uniform, and we know as we see those young men 

 going out from the various communities, and as we see them going into 

 the camps, there is no question as to what they will do when they get 

 "over there," and there is no question of. whether they will be true, or not. 

 The great big problem we are going to have to face in this country is 

 what we are going to do to support and fit those armies and furnish them 

 munitions in order to make their work most effective, and if we don't 

 do that, we had a thousand times better never send them there. This 

 country is just now coming to the real test on the part of the people that 

 are at home. 



This past year emphasis was not made on the communities and upon 

 the matter of production as it will be in the year to come, and the real 

 test is coming upon the country this coming season. We talk about in- 

 creasing production, and I hope we may, but I am very much afraid un- 

 less we have more than normal conditions, more favorable conditions than 

 normal, that we will have a very hard task to maintain production on 

 both crops and livestock, and especially on livestock. There will be 

 such a shortage of labor on the farms that the tendency will be to re- 

 duce the labor of growing livestock to a minimum and to apply the energy 

 upon the fields, and unless a strong effort is put forth there will be a 

 great many acres of land in this state and every other state very poorly 

 cultivated, if it is cultivated at all, and there will be great difficulty in 

 saving the crops. Therefore our part is to do at home the part that 

 devolves upon us, while the young men who are wearing the uniform are 

 bearing their difficulties on the firing line. 



I picked up a magazine in an Indian school a few weeks ago, and on 

 the first page of the magazine were the words, "The Government expects 

 every Indian to do his duty." This is a slogan for us — The Governent 

 expects every one of us to do his duty. And the man who fails to do his 



