26 
IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. 
more solid ocean, and although we may never be able to con- 
trol one or the other, we may better and better adapt ourselves 
to their vagaries as time goes by. 
In view, then, of the present need of our own people, and in 
view of the present status of the world of thought, it does 
seem to me that the necessity of our organization takes on new 
importance. We should, as never before, encourage each 
other to good work, in every way strive to foster the spread of 
science and its methods among the people of this good state. 
We are as the scientific public servants at Washington, a 
“university unorganized,” and while we may guard as zeal- 
ously as may be needed our fellowship, the council of the 
Academy, let us yet welcome to membership everybody in this 
whole state who has within him the impulse of a scientific 
spirit. This fair city of Des Moines surely numbers in its 
population scores of men in all walks of life who have our 
work at heart and who, if organized, might second, as nothing 
else could do, the efforts of this academy. It is one of the 
beauties of scientific investigation that the problems of science 
are about us everywhere. Those about the city of Des Moines 
are quite as interesting, fascinating, no doubt, as any others 
within an equal area on the face of the earth. It remains only 
that men open their eyes and see. A local academy of science 
in this, the capital city, if I may be permitted to suggest, 
would be a wonderful adjunct to this association and stimulate 
in a peculiar way an interest in science everywhere. Daven- 
port has for many years maintained such an institution, famous 
throughout the world. The geologists of Iowa cannot alone 
maintain our work, nor can the botanists, nor the chemists, the 
mathematicians or astronomers, but if all unite, we can develop 
programs of universal interest, and thus more surely attain 
that prestige as an institution which would seem to be in keep- 
ing with the reputation of our state. 
And let us not for a moment fear that our labor is in vain. 
The future of Iowa is hardly dreamed to-day by the most 
enthusiastic of its optimistic citizens. I look forward to the 
time, and that in no distant future, when the center of wealth 
and power in this great republic shall be within 150 miles of 
where we are this evening gathered. It is coming sure as the 
swift revolving years. The Mississippi valley is certain to be 
the empire of the world. When that day comes the faithful 
effort of this Academy will find its own reward. It will then 
