358 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



the germ was planted from which has grown this wonder- 

 ful combination of commonwealths known as the Ameri- 

 can Republic. That is the great historic center of 

 America. Wilmington is the explosive center, and I 

 have been told, and I thought, till I heard Mr. Charles 

 Emery Smith's speech tonight, that solemn old Phila- 

 delphia is the center of gravity. I shall take that back, it 

 is the center of wit, humor, and of logic as well. The 

 center of agriculture of this country is Iowa. That is no 

 laughing matter either. 



I remember, Mr. ex-Postmaster General, that when you 

 had an exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, Iowa was 

 called upon to make an exhibit there, and the best ex- 

 hibit we made in that city was a collection of thirty or 

 forty glass jars, higher than I could reach and about a 

 foot in diameter, each filled with a section of Iowa soil, 

 just as it came ; so the people of this country could look 

 on it and see what soil is like that needs no fertilizer. 

 That same exhibit was taken to the Chicago Exposition 

 and set up there. There was nothing better that we 

 could send, although we did many other good things. 

 One day a careless fellow was wheeling a truck around 

 among those glass jars. He struck one of them, broke it 

 and scattered the precious soil around for ten or fifteen 

 feet. After a few minutes a New England gentleman 

 came by with his daughter. She held up her skirts and 

 started to walk through that dirt but the old gentleman 

 said, "Mary, Mary, don't step in that; that is Iowa soil; 

 it will make your feet grow. ' ' 



I am reminded tonight that we often gain by looking 

 backward. The first invention of steam traction was what 

 is now known as the automobile, then called a road en- 

 gine. That preceded the railroad, and Leitch Ritchie, in 

 one of his books, learnedly discussed the problem as to 

 whether a railroad that was then being projected from 



