872 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



to seize his opportunities. It matters not wtiether he is born in a cabin 

 or a mansion, if he only learns that character is success and there is no 

 other, for I believe to have a good moral character is the high- 

 est success a young man can attain and the work of making 

 it the noblest work on earth. At the time of the Chicago 

 fire many men lost every dollar they possessed. but were 

 soon, into business again, because the commercial agencies said they were 

 honest and industrious. This record was as good as a bank account. 

 Character was the con which enabled penniless men to buy thousands of 

 dollars worth of goods. Their characters did not burn up with their 

 stores. The best part of them was beyond the reach of fire. Capacity 

 has much to do with young men's possibilities, one will succeed where 

 another will fail. One is born with good business abilities and resolute will 

 power that will say "I will find a way or make one," while the other sim- 

 ply drifts along. I believe there is much in environments before birth, 

 and if the people only understood how this generation has the destinies 

 of the next generation in their hands they would improve the next gener- 

 ation much more than they will. Men will spend any amount of money 

 and time trying to improve their stock by caring for the dams in the best 

 manner possible, but who ever hears of one that tries to improve the 

 immort£,l souls trusted to his care by making everything as pleasant as 

 he can for the prospective mother of his children, and the reason that he 

 does not is because he does not know the effect upon his children. I am 

 glad that our grand and glorious President Roosevelt has had the courage 

 to speak in public upon this important subject. Never before have we 

 had an official in high standing that has dared, or at least that ventured 

 to speak on the subject of improving the human race, and yet nothing 

 will pay half so well financially and spiritually in this world and the 

 world beyond. You can not look into the mind of your boy and read the 

 secret message and intentions placed there by the Divine hand. He may 

 not be intended for a farmer. It is no reason because you are one that 

 he should be. Many a boy's aspirations and inclinations have been 

 silenced forever by ignorant parents persecuting them by calling them 

 shiftless and lazy when they were as is often said, "round boys in square 

 holes" and did not fit, and no one can be ideally successful until he finds 

 Ms place. A boy will seldom decide on his occupation before he is six- 

 teen, and then he is very uncertain what his calling is. But while he is 

 ta this uncertain stage don't disgust him with farm life by constantly 

 complaining about failure of crops and hard times if you wish to remian 

 OQ the farm. 



So many are now telling young men there is no chance for them in 

 Eowa, they will have to go west or to Canada. The west may have some 

 advantages that Iowa has not, but I venture to say that Iowa has more 

 that the west has not. We are in the best portion of the earth; from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific there is no better country than ours. We have 

 the best soil and the greatest returns for the least labor and expense. 

 Much of the eastern states is barren and rocky and must be fertilized and 

 maob of the west is parched and dry. You would not be surprised that 



