Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-11
REGION OF WONDERS
Fertile Mississippi Valley and
Its Future.
A GLOWING PEN PICTURE
By Representative Robert G. Cousins
of Iowa.
DREAMS BEING VERIFIED
Constant, Inexhaustible and Stipend
Gus Production Of Section-Mills
and Factories Springing Up.
GLOWING PEN PICTURE
BEING
VERIFIED

As yet little of the romance of our ro-
mantle country attaches to the Mississ-
sippi region. 1t has been the land OF toll
and product. Although rich In reminis-
cences dear to its inhabitants. no poet
or historian has yet arrived to sing the
song Of the Father Of Waters or to give
to literature an immortal contribution.
They have been too busy. The forest
had to be cleared. Cabins, school houses
and churches had to be built. roads to be
made, sloughs to be drained. Luxury
must wait.
The earlier settlers, the pioneers, were
not climate-seeking dilettani with two
servants and one lung. The forest
sturdy men who came to stay and mothers
whom the Almighty made for great ma
ternity Their inspiration was the hope
of homes; to toll In daylight and with the
independence of king; to sit at night
time amid their families and say to neigh
Dor or to stranger who knocked upon the
door Come In"
Such was the character of men who left
doubt and fear upon the powders Of the
east and packed their things and started
for the Mississippi valley. 1t was not q mad,
excited rush for gold mines 1t was de-
10 come and toll. And the people who ac-
cepted the bidding. were those who knew
that everlasting truth of time and Of eter-
nifty: There Is no excellence without
great labor"
Perhaps no region Of America demanded
so much of toll. SO much Of hardship, so
much of patience and SO much of strength
as did the region Of the Mississippi And,
great as were its demands for all those
sacrifices, 1t offered to the settler little of
the glamour and the luxuries of life. 1t
offered no metropolis where art and music
dwelt. No palaces were promised, no
place for Incidence to dream. There were
the blue sky and the gracious rain. the
fertile soil and the temperate sunshine,
and. of course, there were spreading for
ests Of the sturdiest oaks and running
streams between the undulating hills and
cowslips In the sloughs and wild red
strawberries coloring the wheels Of We
hicles carrying pioneers from frontier post
to cabin settlements. God always marks
the best of earth with these. And there
were ratlesnakes In upland grass and In
dams in the sheltering woodland: and even
Indians proved they knew q good thing
when they saw It by uttering with enthusi-
asm: Iowa." when they crossed the Mis-
sissppi.
A Region Of Wonders.
So much for people and for settlements.
What results and what the future?
During the lifetime Of the father and
the son. the settler and offspring, this re-
gion has been thought Of as 1.-The west"
sometimes 1.-THE wild and woolly west"
Today its percentage of illiteracy is far be-
low the average and Its percentage of
crime as well. The common school sys-
tenn of Its various states is unsurpassed,
while its colleges and higher institutions
Of learning are striding rapidly to the
front. Its representation in the councils
Of the nation stands at the very head in
both houses Of Congress and the food
products of this region of the Mississippi
- III 30 ~ D,,rl
are the greatest and most unfailing Of all
Products Of tho Section.
Corn is king of products. because II makes
strongest and the brainest people live. Talk
about your sea food-oysters. crabs and lob
sters and all the other scavengers that
creep and crawl-they'll do for change.
but men who work need meat, like sirloin
steak and mutton chops and bacon.
Three of the Mississippi valley statesLIlli-
nois, Iowa. Missouri-produce year after
year nearly third of the total corn crop
of our country. The states of the Missis-
sippi region produce more than half of the
total corn crop. This region produces about
half of the entire wheat crop Of the United
States. 1t produces two-thirds of the oat
crop; nearly three-fourths of the barley
crop and nearly half the rye.
Nearly half the horses of America are
In the Mississippi valley and nearly half
the cattle Five states of the Mississippi
region-Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri
and Illinois-have something less than a
third of the cattle of the country, and the