166 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Mr. ■Wallace : That is just as a gentleman here said : when the 

 people get a little rich they have to go to town. When the peo- 

 ple in town get rich they come to Des Moines. When a fellow gets 

 too big for Des Moines he goes to Chicago. When Chicago will 

 not hold him any longer he goes to New York. Then he trades 

 off one of his girls for a title and goes to Europe. I know just 

 all about you. The man who goes to town first has a session with 

 his wife. He says: 



"Susan, how much did we spend last year^ how much actual 

 cash did we pay out for the house and our ordinary clothes?" 



"Well," says Susan, "I will figure it up in the next week." 



Saturday night she tells him it was about $200. 



"Well," he says, "I have been offered $4 an acre rent for the 

 farm; do you think we could live on $600?" 



' ' Sure, ' ' she replies. 



"Do you want to go?" 



"Sure!" 



"We can educate the children and you can attend prayer meet- 

 ing and the church." 



And they go ; and everything is fine for a little while. But he 

 finds that in spite of all that he can do, he is living higher than 

 he used to in the matter of clothing and incidental expenses. He 

 finds his children want a little more; his wife wants a little bet- 

 ter dress; and he wants better clothes. Then he finds at the end 

 of the year that he is a little back. He wants a half dollar an 

 acre more rent, and he finds Scripture proof for it. "If any man 

 provide not for his own household, he hath denied the faith and is 

 worse than an infidel. ' ' Then he gets mad, and gets out of humor 

 at the town, because they want to tax him for street improve- 

 ments, and make him put a cement sidewalk in place of the 

 old board sidewalk ; and .then he takes to him two or three other 

 disgruntled fellows like himself, and sits down and laments over 

 the evils of the times. He eats just as much as he did before, and 

 lie gets trouble in the lowerhouse. And then he thinks he does- 

 n't need to read any more about farming, and he stops Wallaces' 

 Farmer, and gets into trouble with the upper house ; and the 

 statistics show that he died before his time because he ate too much 

 and didn't have the stimulus that comes from being required to 

 watch and study the processes of nature. His children come to 

 Des Moines. Dozens of them here are motormen and conductors 

 on street cars, and having the hardest kind of work to make 

 a living; and they are obliged to shut down on more than one or 



