THIRTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV 165 



evening, and to see the interest that is manifest in our association, that 

 men have come here from all over the state to attend this annual gath- 

 ering and this annual banquet. 



I might just say here that this is the fourth one of these annual 

 banquets that we have held, and every one gets better, and at every- 

 one the attendance gets larger. So we feel that we are growing in inter- 

 est, and, as I suggested this evening to one of our friends, we are becom- 

 ing more conspicuous year after year as an organization. 



Nine years ago this organization was formed. Just about this time 

 in the year, as I remember. This organization, I think, was not formed 

 to take undue advantage of anybody, of any corporation, of any concern. 

 If I have a proper conception of the object of this organization, it was 

 simply to protect and safeguard the farmers' and sto.ckmen's interests 

 of the state of Iowa, and I think that the organization has attended 

 strictly to business, and I think that we have enjoyed some beneficial 

 results that have been done through this organization, and that this 

 meeting tonight clearly demonstrates that fact and the interest that is 

 manifested by you men who have come here to take part in this annual 

 gathering. And if the organization is continued along the same lines, I 

 know of no reason why any serious objection should be raised to it, be- 

 cause we have learned one thing, gentlemen, and that is as individ- 

 uals we do not count for much any more. If we desire to accomplish 

 anything of any great importance affecting our own interests, it l30- 

 comes necessary for us to .co-operate, to organize, to unite, to associate 

 ourselves together in a way that we can bring a united effort to bear on 

 certain interests, on certain measures, on certain committees, on certain 

 commissions; and questions of that character that we take up we must 

 take up in this way if we secure the desired results. And I think this 

 association has demonstrated the fact that it can produce some very 

 beneficial results to the farmers and live stotk interests of the state if 

 it is properly handled and conducted along the lines which I believe it 

 was originally intended that the organization should be conducted along. 

 We have with us this evening a man who has been preaching co-op- 

 eration and soil fertility and diversified farming and all of these ques- 

 tions that confront the farmers and the stockmen today, for the last 

 twenty-five years, possibly longer, in the state of Iowa, a man whom 

 we all love to honor and to listen to, a man, I might truthfully say, at 

 whose feet most of us have sat and drank in the knowledge that he has 

 imparted to us ever since we have been struggling to make a livelihood 

 for ourselves and to care for our families, and tonight the first speaker 

 on the program that I am going to introduce is that gentleman. Uncle 

 Henry Wallace. (Applause.) 



Mr. Henry Wallace: Mr. Chairman and Fellow Stockmen— It is a 

 very great pleasure for me to meet you tonight. I believe I have met 

 you almost every year. I know this association from its beginning. I 

 had something to do with the founding of it, and of the guiding of it in 

 its earlier years. And while you have been deliberating over your ban- 

 quet, I have also been deliberating. I have been wondering whether 

 you really know the important position that you oc<;upy in the state of 



