8 



DRY- FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



I am glad we have our Governor from our sister state of Colorado 

 here today, and we are glad he is coming over to Kansas. We hope he wili 

 be so pleased with Kansas that when he goes back to Colorado, he will 

 then decide to come back to Kansas and be one of us. I extend that same 

 invitation to all of you.. We hope you will fall in love with our state, and 

 while other states will lose by your absence, yet grand old Kansas will be 

 gratified by your presence. 



Speaking about our resources a little more, the last year was a happy 

 one in our great state — a year that raised nearly 200 million bushels of 

 wheat and at the same time over 100 million bushels of corn, and with fine 

 livestock growing thick as mosquitoes! We have gas as well as coal, lime, 

 zinc and lead, and our poultry industry created 47 million dollars' worth 

 of wealth, 7 million dollars more than the annual gold output of the United 

 States. So we think it is peculiarly fitting that you come to a state rich in 

 agricultural pursuits and that we have those natural resources, but we 

 want more men to come to our great state of Kansas. We expect to be 

 the first state that will build the connecting link in the great transcon- 

 tinental road and make an ocean-to-ocean highway. Our good people are 

 impressed with these ideas and we are living up to this idea and it is a 

 high ideal, and your dry-farming, too, will be enlarged, which is not only 

 a splendid thing in itself but in every interest, and you will teach the men 

 and women how to live — even going into detail, as to how to fertilize and 

 enrich the ground and teaching the wonderful effect of your methods on 

 Way and Rome became the center of civilization. Men came to this state 

 our great country. And so, instead of circumscribing and putting a limit 

 to that which means much to the world, a Dry-Farming Congress, your 

 activities have become more prominent and as they become wider and better 

 known the benefits will be that much better. 



My time is limited and I am just here as executive of this state to 

 welcome you to our grand old state of Kansas. Caesar built the Appian 

 Way and Rome became the center of civilization. Men came to this state 

 years ago, and have developed it until today we are the greatest state in 

 the universe. So, as executive of our state, I am proud of what our farmers 

 are doing, and they are doing a great, great work in this state. We have 

 the greatest system of public schools in the world. We have a most wonder- 

 ful enrollment in our public schools. Kansas, with half of the population of 

 some of the other states, has 6,000 enrollment in the University and Agri- 

 cultural College. Last year we only had 676 paupers in Kansas. 



Is it a wonder that we are proud of our great state? And again as 

 executive of our state, I welcome you to Kansas, with a soil as fertile as 

 the Valley of the Nile, as full of possibilities as the Garden of Eden, and as 

 wonderful as an all-wise Creator could fashion it. 



CHAIRMAN SOUTHWARD: 



If any of you have any doubt as to the state of Kansas being the 

 greatest state in the world, I know that doubt has been dispelled, but Kan- 

 sas would not be Kansas if it were not for Wichita. Today most of the 



