130 



He said, "I come to town and watch and when they stick their heads in 

 the alley and meow I shoot them." [Laughter.] 



If there is nothing further we will adjourn. Don't forget we will have 

 a band this evening at seven o'clock. Come early and hear the music. 



THURSDAY EVENING SESSION. 



February 23, 1922, 7:15 o'clock P. M. 



Music High School Orchestra 



Boys' and Girls' Glee Club Monmouth College 



Cornet Solo Fred Stanton 



PRESIDENT MANN: Agriculture had a friend in court without know- 

 ing it and at a time when agriculture needed it. We have that friend here 

 and I want to introduce to you Hon. Carl Vrooman, formerly Assistant 

 Secretary of Agriculture, who will now address you. 



FEEDING THE WORLD. 

 (Hon. Carl Vrooman.) 



While out on the farm one day I came across the son of a tenant of 

 mine working in the field. "What time do you get to work in the morning?" 

 I asked. "About six o'clock." "And what time do you knock off at night?" 

 About six o'clock." "And what do you get for sweating all day in the hot 

 sun?" He looked up astonished. "Get?" he said, get? Nothing if I do 

 and hell if I don't." 



I used to say that this boy's remark epitomized the condition of the 

 farmer for thousands of years preceding the advent of scientific agriculture. 



But today the situation has changed. During 

 the past year or two one could lose money 

 faster farming than he could loafing. It has 

 been a case of "nothing if you don't and hell 

 if you do." 



During the war I was proud to be able to 

 tell how Amercian agriculture had been mobil- 

 ized to feed the hungry mouths of the world. 

 I not only was proud to be able to tell that 

 story in this country where I had the privilege 

 of speaking to farmers and business men's 

 organizations in some forty-two states of the 

 Union, but I was still prouder to be able to 

 tell that story in England and in France. 

 They knew "over there" the wonderful story 

 of how we had mobilized cannon, fighting men, 

 ships of war and all the other war parapher- 

 nalia, they had heard how by economy and self 

 denial the American people under Mr. Hoover's 

 leadership had saved forty million dollars 

 worth of food, but they had not heard how by 

 toiling early and late, by plowing up pastures 

 and "mining the soil" the farmers of America 

 had increased the nations food production, not 

 merely forty million or four hundred million 

 but one thousand million dollars worth. Long 

 before we sent a single battleship abroad, long before we sent a single 

 doughboy over there, we had mobilized six million farmers in the fields 



Hon. Carl Vrooman 



