594 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



comfort depends upon our intellectual qualifications, let us adapt ourselves 

 to surrounding conditions and be among those who shall survive. If we 

 ourselves have not had the advantage of an education beyond the common 

 school, let us not stand in the way of the mental progress of our children. 

 Let us encourage them to earn their own way through school, if necessary— 

 they can do it. Every able bodied boy or girl can find a way to attend col- 

 lege if he will determine to do so. Indelibly impress upon the minds of 

 your boys and girls the old, tried and true motto, ' 'Where there's a will, 

 there's a way." Encourage them to go to school. Nearly all farmers are 

 able to give their children an education, but, not all, quite realize the impor- 

 tance thereof. They say, "My boy is going to stay on the farm, the schools 

 can teach him nothing about farming. I never attended an agriculture col- 

 lege and I have made a good living, so can he." They point to a few men 

 like Abraham Lincoln, John Jacob Astor and scores of other self-made men 

 who did not have the advantage of an early education but who became emi- 

 nently successful. That is all true, but remember that since the time those 

 great men lived, and while they lived, millions of people have died who 

 would have been vastly helped by educational advantages. We seldom 

 read about the poor and the ignorant; it is the few successful people who 

 are constantly held up before us as examples, and that is right, we should 

 aim high. Emerson said: ' 'Hitch your wagon to a star." It would not be 

 to our advantage to extol the unpatriotic man, the unsuccessful man nor 

 the inebriate. 



There is greater need for education today than there was in the days of 

 Lincoln or in the days of our earlier patriots. Greater need for education 

 exists today than ever before existed in the history of the world. Why is 

 this? What may be the reason? Why was it necessary in the early days 

 when our forefathers were barbarians that they should be strong and vigor- 

 ous men and women? You answer, ' 'because they were in a continual state 

 of war with their neighbors." Exactly. When our fellow men are physi- 

 cally strong and vigorous and they use that strength in subjecting us to 

 their will, it is quite evident that we too must be physical giants if we hope 

 to hold our own. Today, as in the early history of our race, man has to 

 meet man in the battle for life, the law of the survival of the fittest still 

 reigns supreme. You must be the equal of your neighbor or he will outdo 

 you in the race for bread and'butter. Oar neighbors of today, however, 

 are not physical giants but they are mental giants and we must be their 

 equals if we expect to remain in the race. Is there any escape from this 

 struggle for mental supremacy? Positively none. A battle royal is raging 

 n the midst of a peaceful population and your children will be forced to 

 enter the arena when the proper time arrives. Prepare them'for the strug- 

 gle; educate your boy; educate your girl and educate yourselves. 



Some^ons asks, " Who are those gladiators whom the boys and girls in 

 the quiet rural districts must meet when they enter the industrial field, the 

 field of production?" They are the people of the world. They are not con- 

 fined to the United States, they are not confined to America nor are they 

 confined to Europe and America but they are the people of the entire world. 

 Competition today extends to the remotest corner of the earth. Civilized 

 man is in competition with uncivilized man. The man of many needs and 

 nececssities is in competition with the man of but few needs. Those who 



