IOWA 



3033 



IOWA 



,OWA, a north-central state of the Amer- 

 ican Union, was named for a tribe of Sioux 

 Indians who in the early years of the eight- 

 eenth century inhabited the prairies which 

 make up the present state. Popularly, Iowa 

 is known as the HAWKEYE STATE, probably in 

 allusion to an early editor who, because of his 

 genius for spying out news, was called "Old 

 Hawkeye." As its flower the state has chosen 

 the wild rose, the choice being made by the 

 legislature and not, as in many states, by the 

 school children; and anyone who has traveled 

 through Iowa in the late spring or early sum- 

 mer will admit the wisdom of the choice. 



Size and Location. In size Iowa ranks among 

 the states as the twenty-fourth in area. It is, 

 roughly speaking, a rectangle, though very 

 irregular on its east and west sides; it has 

 north-and-south length of 205 miles, a great- 

 est east-and-west breadth of 310 miles, and 

 area of 56,147 square miles. The state 

 nearest it in size is Illinois, which is less than 

 150 square miles smaller. It is nearly one- 

 fourth the size of the Canadian province of 

 Saskatchewan. 



North of Iowa is Minnesota; west are South 

 Dakota and Nebraska, the latter separated 

 from it by the Missouri River; south is Mis- 

 souri, and east are Wisconsin and Illinois, from 

 fhich it is separated by the Mississippi. 

 Its People. In population Iowa, with 2,224,- 

 inhabitants in 1917, ranks fifteenth among 

 the states. It has an average density of forty 

 the square mile and is more evenly settled 

 any other state. However, it showed a 

 light decrease in population between 1900 and 

 1910, the only one of the states that did so, 

 id later estimates show that the tide has not 

 irned in the opposite direction. People have 

 ;ttled in the state in decreasing numbers in 

 le last two decades because of the opening up 

 )f the great Canadian farm lands. Settlers 

 ive been attracted to the Dominion, for land 

 there is much cheaper than the rich, cultivated 

 Iowa sections. Iowa has been one of the states 

 which immigrants have found fairly inviting, 



and almost thirteen per cent of its population 

 is foreign born, while over twenty-nine per 

 cent is native born, but of foreign parentage. 

 Between three hundred and four hundred 

 Indians live on a reservation in Tama County, 

 but these are not Iowa, but Sac and Fox 

 Indians. They are in a very backward condi- 

 tion, refusing to take advantage of any means 

 of progress. 



More than two-thirds of the people live 

 under rural conditions, but this proportion is 

 gradually changing, for while the city popu- 

 lation is steadily growing, the rural is decreas- 

 ing. Iowa farmers have been extremely pro- 

 gressive, and were among the first to avail 

 themselves of those advantages good roads, 

 automobiles, telephones, agricultural clubs 

 which have done away with isolation and 

 monotony. There are no great metropolitan 

 cities, and only eight with a population of 

 25,000 or over. Of these the largest is Des 

 Moines, the capital. Others are Sioux City, 

 Davenport, Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, Council 

 Bluffs, Waterloo and Clinton. Each important 

 city of the state is described under its title in 

 these volumes. 



Religion. The Rofnan Catholic Church is 

 the strongest, possessing more than one-fourth 

 of the total church-membership of the state. 

 Of the Protestant churches the Methodists are 

 the most numerous, and have more members 

 than all the other denominations combined, 

 except the Lutherans. The strength of the 

 Lutheran Church is accounted for by the num- 

 ber of Germans and Scandinavians who have 

 made their homes in the state. 



Education. Educationally, Iowa stands in 

 the very front rank among the states, and its 

 percentage of those unable to read and write 

 is lower than that of any other state only 1.7. 

 The permanent school fund is very small for 

 so large a state, for the public lands set aside 

 by Congress in the early years for the support 

 of the schools were sold at a ridiculously low 

 figure from $1.25 to $5.00 an acre for some 

 of the richest land in the state. This fund in 



