FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART V. 239 



policy. That is the policy of this country; it has been' the policy of the 

 country since its birth, so far as it concerns foreign nations. Now, why 

 ought it not be the policy of the State of Iowa to create these markets 

 in our own cities, and these homes of industry upon our own prairies? 



It is something that is worth thinking about and it is not imprac- 

 ticable. It simply needs the united forces of intelligent effort to accom- 

 plish it. It is not a war upon our transportation companies. I look 

 upon them as the great arteries of commerce and indeed the pioneers of 

 prosperity, and I for one should not under any circumstances suggest 

 any course that would bring misfortune or adversity to them, because 

 without them and the help they give to the business of this great country, 

 we could not exist a single fortnight. But I do quarrel, and I leave it 

 with you, — I do quarrel with the adjustment of these rates that pre- 

 vent the State of Iowa from obeying an economical law of production, 

 viz. that our raw material shall be turned into the finished product 

 adjacent or approximate to the fields in which this raw material is 

 produced. (Applause.) 



I have said a great deal more than I intended to, but it is one of 

 the questions which the future will require you to answer, and while 

 we are not jealous of the prosperity of Illinois, or of Nebraska, or of 

 Missouri, I think we have a right to look to our own interests first, 

 and I commend this subject for your thought and for such discussion 

 in the future meetings of your association as you think its merit or its 

 importance entitle it to. 



Now just one word more upon an entirely different subject and I 

 shall finish. It is a great wonder that I have not fioated off into a 

 Republican speech before this time; but I have been making Republican 

 speeches for two and a half months now. until my mind is saturated 

 with that kind of thought, and I am going to make a reference to a 

 political subject. Not partisan — not partisan. 



You have heard a good deal in the last year or two in this State 

 about "stand pat." I am not a "stand patter", as you all know. I am 

 not using the subject in reference to tariff, not at all. I want to com- 

 pliment you because you are not "stand patters" in the business in which 

 you are engaged. There are a few great principles true yesterday, true 

 today and they will be true tomorrow, upon which we must stand pat; 

 but their application to the affairs of men change, changes with tho 

 rising of each sun, and what I am. prouder of than anything else is that 

 this association and all the associations throughout this State and other 

 states of the Republic are moving on, moving on under the impulse of 

 higher thought and of greater knowledge; moving on with safety under 

 the illumination which brightens and lightens the path of the workman 

 and the thinker of this day. Because the great danger (if there is a 

 danger in this country, and I am not a pessimist about the future of 

 this country; I have no more doubt about it than I have of my ov^n 

 existence), but if there is any danger at all that is plain in our path over 

 there, it is because we have come to think that the work of the world 

 has been done, that we can securely rest upon the achievements of our 

 ancestors or contemporaries. We come insensibly sometimes, in the 

 very flood of great prosperity, to think that all has been done that 



