240 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ought to be done, and it is to dispel that thought, or rather that illusion^ 

 that you will allow me a concluding word. 



You have heard, I suppose, a great many times, some ambitious and 

 glowing Fourth of July orator declare that the age of experiment in the 

 Republic had passed; that when Grant refused the sword which Lee 

 offered him at Appomattox it became an equal structure in the archi- 

 tecture of nations. Now I would not for the world clip the wings of 

 any imaginative orator; I would not for the world dampen the enthusi- 

 asm of any lover of his country, but let me say to you that the age of 

 experiment has not passed, it never will pass and it never ought to 

 pass, because the very moment that the faith and futurity of this 

 great country of ours do not depend upon the intelligence and con- 

 scientious performance of the duties of citizenship, that moment we 

 have begun a decadence that will end only in the failure of the fairest 

 experiment in free government that the annals of the human race have 

 ever seen. 



Therefore I say to you, not only with respect to the material thiug<5 

 of life, not only with respect to the business in which you are engaged, 

 but with respect to those higher duties which affect not only yourself 

 but your fellow men as well, which affect not only the present moment 

 but the future as well, be as diligent, be as progressive, be as alert in 

 the discharge of these high duties as you are alert and coscientious in 

 the discharge 'Of these things which affect your immediate profession 

 or avocation. 



Remember that in this growth of which we are so proud, and of 

 which we are a part and to which you have contributed, we have devel- 

 oped problems the like of which our forefathers never knew. This great 

 prosperity in which we all so much rejoice and which we so fervently 

 pray may be continued, this great prosperity is thundering into your 

 ears and mine, questions that must be answered — must be answered right 

 if we are to preserve even what has been so sacredly handed down to 

 us by our forefathers, I am glad it is so. I am glad that you must 

 tight in order to preserve yourselves. I am glad that it is necessary 

 that you should be active in order to accomplish victories, or even 

 enjoy those which have been accomplished. And these problems.— I 

 will not mention them now because they are floating through our minds 

 all the time, — you can not take up a paper but that you will see them set 

 in every column; you can not read a periodical but that you will con- 

 tinually hear these questions humming and drumming in your ear.— 

 and how are we to answer them? By shrinking cowardly back and 

 saying that we stand upon and by what has been already said and al- 

 ready done? No! Every day creates not only its conditions but it 

 creates its difficulties as well, and while you are going about in this 

 world attending to your own affairs remember that you have to attend 

 to somebody else's affairs, too. The school of which I spoke a few 

 moments ago, it may, — possibly its dominant need is to teach John how 

 to take care of himself. I am now talking of a larger school, a post 

 graduate university, the university of life in which we have to teach 

 John not only how to take care of himself but how to take care of others 

 as well. 



