The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1911-11-16
Boosting for Iowa.

| C. H. Thomas, of Kent, who has
been in Colorado and Idaho for the
past two weeks, has returned home.
He has lost none of his enthusiasm
for and faith in Iowa. when one
visits the west" he said to an Adver-
tiser representative, land asks of the
people he meets there the familiar
question Where are you FROM? he
is in doubt no longer as to why Iowa
lost in population during the last
decade The very cream of the pop
ulation that has swept into Colorado,
California, Idaho and the great
northwest has been drawn more
largely from Iowa than any other
state. The Hawkeye state has been
by far the heaviest contributor. Iowa
had the money and their advertising
agencies have been busy among our
people with their alluring stories of
climate where people are said to
never grow old, where land is cheap,
and the first years crop they promise
will pay for home for the landless,
soil they would have you believe
that you have but to tickle it with a
hoe and it will laugh with harvest;
that will expand your bank account
to point where the care of it will
practically constitute your only wor-
ry in life.
"This is all very fine, if it were all
true. l would not appear in any
sense as knocker It+is a great coun-
try with great future. l am par
ticularly impressed with the product
ivity of the great Snake River valley
in Idaho with it's immense crop of
potatoes, sugar beets, hay, grain and
apples.
| but if we were to cultivate, spray
and care for our orchards in Iowa as
they do in the fruit lands of the
west, we would soon occupy front
place as an apple producing state,
for the Iowa apple ripened by the
rain and sunshine of our prairie
state has a finer flavor than any
have ever tasted that had been pro-
duced on western irrigated land.
"But, distance lends enchantment
to the view,' that is not always sur
rounded with frame of gold when
you come into actual contact with it
and it is touched by the harder lines
of daily experience and fact. Some
succeed and some fail in the west,
just as they do here, and I do not
believe that the average of success
is any greater there than here. Be-
sides they do not yet have in the in
ter mountain agricultural sections
many of the privileges that our peO-
pie enjoy and that make life worth
while. They are a long way from
the great markets and transportation
charges are very high and interest
rates are also very high both on short
time loans and on land mortgages.
Then their good lands, and I want to
emphasize that word good, are as
high or higher than in Iowa.
"Some of their present drawbacks
will be overcome in time. They have
great country and a great unde-
veloped future. So has Iowa and
never appreciated the latter's posi-
bilities and it's privileges as much as
l do now after this last trip through
the west. They beat us in some
things, and we beat them in others.
,, Portions of Colorado may beat us
part of the year in climate, and the
scenery in the Rockies is grand and
inspiring, but after a season among
these piles of barren rocks, we
should see just as beautiful picture
in the green and golden fields of
Iowa in June and July. Our great
fields of corn and our blue grass pas
lures that finish the finest horses,
cattle and hogs in the world, look
better than ever to me. Why, our
poultry products that are only "a
side issue" in Iowa, receiving only
such care and development as our
women folks can spare the time from
their other duties, are worth more
than the gold and silver dug from all
the mines in either Colorado or Cali
fornia annually.
iowa does not need to take
back seat for any state in the union
for varied life sustaining, material
resources and if her people will unite
in advertising and boosting these in
the next ten years as other states
are doing theirs, we will be able to
show a large increase in population
in the next federal census, instead
of loss. Count me booster for