Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1910-03-23
HOW TO BOOST IOWA.
General Passenger Agent of Great
Western Tells How To Do 1t In
Address at Des MOines.

agent of the Chicago Great Western
railroad, at the annual dinner of the
Des Moines Commercial Club. To two
hundred representative business men
he pounded the question of keeping
Iowans at home and declared that
all Iowa needed to develop was to
keep the young men in Iowa, for the
northwest offers no such opportuni-
ties as are to be found here.
Rotation of crops and a more in
tensive and diversified farming were
advocated by Mr.. Craig. He said that
| the trouble in Iowa was not that
each farmer hasn't sufficient land
but that he has too much. Twenty
acres is sufficient if cultivated in
tensively, he said; eighty acres is
plenty, 800 acres is too much and
$40 acres is a calamity.
Il have noticed in an investigation
in your state that there is no rotation
of crops here" he said. Iowa with
out doubt is the king of coru states,
| but it cannot remain so unless you
rotate and adopt more diversified
farming. l have found where this
has been done that the yield to the
acre has doubled and in some pla-
ces more than three times as much
All during his address Mr.. Craig
urged IOwans to stay in Iowa where
the opportunities in every respect
are greater than the new sections.
And he urged the people here to ad-
vertise the advantages of Iowa and
told the business men not to worry
about the prosperity of the city, as
"a -,
en- the farms.
Mr.. Craig said in part:
Where less than seventy years
ago there were but 43,112 people in
Iowa, in 1905 your population had
grown to 2,21O,05O, and instead of
there being about one and One-quar-
ter miles of area for each person
there is now but about sixteen acres
for each individual. Seventy years,
a period hardly worth mentioning in
the worlds history has reduced the
visible supply of land in this state
from 500 acres per person to less
than sixteen acres. While it is true
that Iowa's population has not been
increasing of late years, except the
newer portions, and some might ar
sue that because Of this decrease
there is no need for concern over
the subject of reduced size of farm
units, it is true, nevertheless, that
the subject is a live one and under
present conditions Iowa's population
must soon, if it has not already, be-
gin to increase.
In the first place, there are no
longer the large areas of cheap lands
to the west and northwest, and the
large emigration from the state can
not much longer continue, and then
your excess population must largely
stay at home; and secondly, because
it is time that the people of Iowa
should realize that they have been
| spending millions of money every
year to bring to maturity young men
and women who as soon as they are
capable of self-support, have taken
their patrimony and gone to other
states.
How much has it cost Iowa to
bring into the world, care for, clothe,
educate and endow many thousands
of young men and women, for
what?--only to go west and enrich
other communities. For twenty
years, to my own knowledge, this
state has been the chosen grounds
for work for those endeavoring to
get people to move to other sections
of this country and to Canada. Why
did they find the work profitable
here? Because your people are
Americans, because there is almost
no illiteracy here, because, as a
class, your are prosperous and have
money as well as health and strength.
In short, have those attributes which
make for the best American citizen
ship, and that is what the newer
states to the west as well as our
Canadian neighbors to the north are
looking for. Why let this continue?
Why not keep these working ma
chimes and money at home? Is there
any good reason why it cannot be
done? To visitor to your state
there appears 10 be none. The fame
CT Iowa as an agricultural state is
as broad as is the spread of enlight-
ened and educated people Your eli
matte conditions are more favorable
than in many places. You have good
schools, homes, libraries and public
buildings. Your government is reas-
| CHdDI6 anu just. men WHY w youi
people leave you? No reason that
can see but the lust for land. and
that can be satisfied inside of the
| confines of your own boundaries for
many years to come.
"You city men have everything to
gain by prosperous conditions On the
! farm. The beginning of everything
we eat and wear, the raw product,
comes from the soil, and the products
of the earth are the only original
sources of wealth.
Until the tiller of the soil and the
miner delivers to you the fruits OF
his labor you cannot even make a
beginning in the city So as you
men of the city through your bust
ness competition have learned to be
leaders and do things you must make
use of the talent for origination and
leadership city life has given you to
induce an increase in your original
source of supply. Do not worry
about the prosperity of the farmer.
What you need to do now is to find
a way to keep your Iowa people
home and to teach those already on
the farm the lesson of A little farm
we'll titled
1t is not more land that farmers
want, 1t is less land and better TILED
land and a knowledge of how to re-
enrich the land by rotation of crops
and the avoidance of impoverisn-
ment of the land by repetition of the
same crop year after year. The far