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FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 95 



not have faith in their own community, and if I did not 

 have unbounded faith in Egypt I would not be up here 

 tonight, asking you to come down and see us. 



We live down there, and we fought the battle with 

 nature. We felled our forests, dug and dredged our 

 ditches, tiled out our gumbo, and have made wonderfully 

 productive farms where nature did so much of it for you. 

 We have really something down there to show you, and 

 we are mighty anxious to have you come down and see 

 us and see for yourself, because I have abiding faith in 

 the community from where I come, and when I find out 

 and in my own mind I am convinced beyond all balance 

 of reason that Harrisburg is not the best city in Illinois, 

 I am going to move to Galesburg or somewhere else. 



Recently I was in the national office of the National 

 Rotary Club, and the secretary handed me a letter from a 

 man who said: ''Dear Sir: I live in a town with a popu- 

 lation of eighty.'' Comprehend the figure, will you? "We 

 have a postoffice," he said, "sl blacksmith shop and one 

 store. I wonder if by some means we could have a Rotary 

 Club down here, to boost my town." I wish I had three 

 fellows like that! 



One day I was on a train going up to Galesburg to 

 deliver an address before the Chamber of Commerce. It 

 was on Sunday and I had an American magazine and was 

 reading some article, and I was kidding myself with the 

 thought that there was nobody on that train who knew 

 Charley Taylor. Somebody slapped me on the back and 

 said, "Charley, where are you going?" And I said, "I am 

 going up to Decatur." A woman was sitting behind me, 

 and she said, "I am going to Decatur." Then she said, "I 

 live in Decatur," and lifted her head. *Tt is a beautiful 

 city, it has a population of fifty-one thousand." And I said, 

 do you mean to tell me that the population of Decatur is 

 fifty-one thousand? This book says it is thirty-one thou- 

 sand. "But that is a misprint," she said, "the population 

 of my community, sir, is fifty-one thousand." I would 

 rather hear a man lie about his community and boost it, 

 than to tell the truth about it and knock it. (Applause.) 



