68 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



fully it has grown and what great prosperity the state has had 

 in the years gone by; and when we realize that Iowa is purely an 

 agricultural state, and that the great wealth has come from the 

 farmers, it is not, as I said before, to be wondered at that the 

 business men of every section of the state are interested in your 

 meetings. They are interested in all that you accomplish, for, 

 when you succeed, they have a chance to succeed; when you fail 

 they are certain to fail. Whenever the farmers of our country are 

 succeeding, then the merchants and manufacturers are succeeding. 

 The business men of every line or calling have a chance to succeed 

 when the farmers do, but when they go down in adversity, all other 

 lines are bound to go down with them. 



We are all proud of the citizenship of the great state of Iowa. 

 Last year we produced in live-stock alone more than 40 million 

 dollars above any state in the union. This has been largely brought 

 about because of the intelligence which the stock men have put 

 into their work. If we had the old scrubby cattle we used to 

 have when I first came to Iowa, no such showing could be made. 

 When the farmers last year produced about 100 million dollars 

 worth of corn — a sum well nigh incomprehensible, to be added to 

 the wealth of the great state of Iowa — the bulls and bears of Wall 

 street may have their wrangles — but when the farmers of Iowa who 

 are tilling the soil put their best thought and energy into it, it is 

 not going to affect Iowa so much ; they can go on and gamble and 

 for a time affect the business interests, but so long as the soil pro- 

 duces abundantly under the guidance of intelligent men and 

 women Iowa will be all right. 



We are proud to welcome you here today, because you men here 

 have done so much to distinctly put Iowa above every other state 

 in the union by the grand exhibits you are making every year at 

 our state fair. It has been my fortune to travel from the east to 

 the west, from one ocean to the other, several times in the last few 

 years, but I have heard Iowa talked about every place I go — 

 that you men make the best exhibition of stock in any state of 

 the union. These are things, friends, we feel proud of, and we 

 feel it is a great pleasure to welcome you to our state. 



I hope Des jMoines is doing what she should to encourage these 

 things and will do her part to make your work as easy as possible. 

 It will always be hard work ; nothing worth having can be had with- 

 out effort. No man succeeds in life, only when he is willing to 

 pay the price. No farmer succeeds, only as he is willing to pay 

 the price and finds out what is the very best for him to do. 



