Thirty-fourth Annual Convention. ^^ 



liberty pole? We either found it in a deep valley where the hills 

 on either side compelled that little tree to shoot up and up until 

 it crowded its head up to the sun, or we found it where it strug- 

 gled with tall trees and still had enough sun to live, and fight 

 sun. The Anglo-Saxon has not been burned enough so as to 

 Take the trees on the prairie, how do they grow? By the same 

 law they have to spread out and stay themselves to resist the 

 blast, and sometimes they will vary according to the prevailing 

 winds; that illustrates the law of environment. Race prejudice 

 is based on what? A black man is the son of the torrid zone, 

 he has a skin that will resist heat and some make it alone a 

 social barrier. I have been South and I have come to respect 

 the southern man because I know how he is situated. I know 

 his prejudices and know what they mean in the human mind, 

 and I also know that there is in the South something more than 

 color which enters into the race question there, buL when you go 

 back of it all it is a testimony of environment. , In Minnesota 

 we have a great many Scandinavians and I sometimes tell them, 

 "Your flaxen hair is the testimony of the northern rays of the 

 and shoot itself up. That illustrated the law of environment, 

 get rid of the fair skin." 



I felt the force of this law until I got thoroughly imbued 

 with the idea. I rarely looked upon anything without .saying, 

 "what caused that?" and I want to tell you what a happy day it 

 was when I first discovered this in relation to dairy cattle. In 

 the early morning I took my lantern, hung it up in a section 

 where I had my ten cows (each man had ten cows to milk). I 

 took great care of my cows and they were comfortable. I was 

 milking and while I was milking that thought came to me — 

 "what is the law of environment that has made the dairy cow 

 as she is?" I said, "I' have got it. I have it; we draw all the 

 milk from the udder that we can, then we call on Nature for 

 more milk, : which Nature provides to sustain her young." The 

 milkman is a second-hand calf! 



Now follow me and see how clear it is. There is no force 

 in Nature so strong as this great procreative force. Nature 

 said, "Here, that youngster down there is lacking food, we must 

 have more food, more milk." We must have more blood, we 

 must have more feed, and a bigger place for the feed. There 

 you have it. Here is the law of development. It starts here 



