TWELFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV 135 



Now, if these statements are accepted as facts, and I believe they will 

 be quite generally, then there can be but one conclusion to arrive at so far 

 as the farmer and stockman are concerned, and that is that there is a de- 

 mand and necessity for such an organization. Then, if there is such ne- 

 cessity, the organization must be supported by somebody. Then the ques- 

 tion comes direct to the farmers and stockmen, who are being protected 

 by and receiving the benefits from the work of this association: Are you 

 each one, singly and collectively, willing to do your part and contribute 

 a small amount each year to maintain this worthy organization? I know 

 that each one of you wishes to do his part and would not think of slip- 

 ping through on the other fellow's liberality. But so many just neglect 

 to contribute, and in this way place the burden on a few. • 



I remember I said to a member whom I approached during the summer 

 for a pledge: "Do you feel that you can give five dollars a year to this 

 association? "Well," he said: "I think I can, for it is the best investment 

 I ever made, and I have gotten larger returns on the money I put into 

 that association than anything else. Why," he said, continuing, "a man 

 doesn't have to get very much protection from this organization to get 

 five dollars a year out of it. The satisfaction of knowing that I have 

 someone looking after and protecting my interests is worth all it costs 

 to me." 



This is certainly the right spirit and the correct view to take of this 

 association, and if our farmers generally would take this view, what a 

 formidable organization you v/ould have. 



Did you ever stop to consider that the strength of your organization is 

 in its membership and not in its oflScers? That if you had ten thousand 

 members you would be ten times as strong as if you only had one thou- 

 sand, and that your influence for good would be ten times as great, and 

 that you could accomplish much easier the things you go after? 



Now, I have gone into the work done by your association quite gener- 

 ally; not alone for the benefit of those present, but for those farmers who 

 do not attend these annual meetings, with the hope that we may succeed 

 in interesting them in this work and inducing them to join our ranks and 

 help make a good organization better. The Corn Belt Meat Producers' 

 Association has shown that it can get powerful results for the farmer and 

 stockman. Then, my friends, why not join in with it and make it the 

 organization it deserves to be? Throw your infiuence and support with 

 the men who have been fighting your battles for you, and they will ap- 

 preciate it and you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you are 

 doing your best to help the work along. 



Now, just a word about Iowa, the greatest agricultural state in the 

 Union; the state that produces forty per cent of the live stock shipped to 

 the Chicago market; the state that has more fertile acres, with less waste 

 land, than any other; the state that has the most progressive lot of farm- 

 ers as a whole; the only state in the corn belt that has a corn belt associ- 

 ation that does things and protects the farmers and feeders of this splen- 

 did commonwealth. 



We have a band of men headed by Professor Holden, working in our 

 agricultural college, working for a greater Iowa, and I have been wonder- 



