THIRTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 223 



The property loss represents not less than another half-billion dollars, 

 making a billion dollars in all. 



This exodus of people has meant the loss of strong men and women 

 and their influence and helpfulness in upbuilding Iowa. But worse yet, 

 it has meant a black-listing of Iowa in the census reports, if I may use 

 that word and it is not too harsh. In the population records Iowa has 

 dropped to the bottom because this exodus has brought about this fact: 

 Of all the states in the union, Iowa is practically the only one to show 

 a loss of population in the period from 1900 to 1910. There is no use of 

 dwelling upon these figures. They are stamped indelibly upon the mem- 

 ory, and the shame of them is fresh in the feelings, of every loyal 

 lowan. 



The second story indicates that in all these years there has been a tre- 

 mendous outflow of Iowa money to buy goods elsewhere and consequent- 

 ly that there has been less buying of homemade goods than there ought 

 to be. It is difficult to estimate how much money Iowa folks send away 

 from the state thus needlessly each year. It is safe to say, however, that 

 it amounts to many millions every year. 



There would be wonderful results for Iowa industries if Iowa folks 

 bought in Iowa the goods that are produced in Iowa. I wonder how 

 many of you ever made a study of the manufacturing statistics of the 

 state. I v/onder how many of you have any idea how many different 

 things you might buy in the state if you wanted to. Iowa manufactures 

 a variety of articles almost beyond belief, numbering 500 or 600 different 

 things. The products manufactured in Iowa in 1910 were worth $335,000,- 

 000. Our farms, of which we boast most properly, produced grain crops 

 in that same year worth $362,000,000. Those figures ought to convince 

 you that there is not so great a difference in importance between Iowa's 

 industries and Iowa's agriculture as we generally believe there is. It is 

 because we do not know, that we persist in saying that Iowa is not a 

 manufacturing state. It is because we have not opened our eyes to the 

 development of Iowa industries. It is because we do not understand and 

 appreciate v/hat our manufacturers can do, that we send our money to 

 help build factories, outside the state and to encourage industry else- 

 where. If our money had not gone all the years to buy goods elsewhere, 

 if it had not been invested in factories elsewhere, Iowa would have even 

 greater industries than it has today. 



Last summer I heard an Indiana woman speak to an Iowa audience 

 upon the rural life question as it concerned the matter of improving the 

 rural districts. She made this striking statement: "If you people of 

 Iowa would only spend in Iowa the money you made in Iowa, it would 

 indeed be a garden of Eden." Let us give those striking words broader 

 application. If we people of Iowa would spend for Iowa goods and Iowa 

 products the money that we get from Iowa soil and from Iowa labor, this 

 commonwealth would indeed be vastly greater in agriculture and in- 

 dustry than it is at the present time. 



Because we do not know, because we do not appreciate either the agri- 

 cultural or the industrial resources of the state, we have lost hundreds 



