Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1912-12-11
Synopsis of Address by Rev. w. Nj.
White of Cedar Rapids.
WHAT STATE HAS TO ADVERTISE
Agricultural and Commercial Facili-
ties of Great State, Which Should
be Made Known to the World.

tise. A task worthy of the best there
is in any man and one in which the
present speaker finds peculiar pleas
ure. | am an adopted child, but a
son, in whose veins flows the red
blood of ar enthusiastic devotion as
ever coursed the arteries of the ma
tive born.
/ have accepted the task assigned
me tonight because believe in Iowa;
believe in Iowa's people; | believe
in Iowa's commercial gospel to the
world. Believing as | do with all my
heart in this, yet upon the brink,
Just here / tremble. The heart beats
fast, / feel a weakening OF the knees
NOT that / am a coward but / APP
preciate, as i never before realized,
the height and depth, the length and
breadth of Iowa's greatness. My pen
and tongue are inadequate to tell the
full story, as it should be told to a
waiting and anxious world of all that
Iowa can and should apply in meet
ing the needs of mankind.
That we may the better understand
and appreciate what our state can
and does produce, let us tarry few
moments and ask who we are.
Our very name, Iowa, is one of
beauty and significance. 1t comes to
us from the aboriginal inhabitants,
quainted with the native tribes and
their languages-that the word as
used by the natives, signified, This
is the land" Surely it is true for
pre-eminently among her sister states
Iowa is the land"
Iowa was first seen by white men
in the summer of 1913. So enraptur-
ing were the descriptions given of
the Father of Waters and the
beauties of the treeless land border
ing it, that an educated missionary,
then laboring at Mackinaw for the
conversion of the Indians became pos
sessed of an intense desire to explore
it.
Of the thoughts and emotions of
the men, at that time forming the
vanguard of our present day Chris
tian civilization in the central west,
we have no record. We are left to
imagine. Looking across the Faith
er of Waters the first Iowa prairie
they beheli was that on which the
town of Gutenberg was built. In
all that varying scenery they saw no
sign of human form or habitation.
1t is said that they rode on the river
four days before the first sign of hui
man inhabitant was seen. Then they
beheld human footprints in the sand.
How changed now, from then. Splen-
did cities, beautiful towns, farms,
rich, productive, famed worldwide.
Iowa was opened for settlement
in 1888. Three years afterwards the
Ildd lilti CdAoOd w @bocp'
The census of 1850, but seventeen
years after the first cabin was built
IN it's permanent settlement, reported
a population of 1924 free men and
women. The census for 1905 gave a |
population of 2,200,192. This great
and growing population is centrally
located in the union of the states |
One thousand miles from the Allan
tic seaboard and fifteen hundred mile
tic seaboard and fifteen hundred |
miles from the Pacific coast, four
hundred miles from the British pos
sessions ON the north and a little |
more than seven hundred miles TO |
the south lies the Gulf of Mexico
thus, Iowa has only to extend her |
arms bit and size touches with ease
THE four corners of the earth. In
calculable is the security its location |
affords, the markets it assures and |
the commercial advantages that must
ever accrue to it's citizens. Some one |
has well and truly said that, Iowa
is not only princely in its area and /
highly favored in its geographical To-
cation, but ii is winsome in its topo-
graphy. The early school book maps
may have placed Iowa in the Great
American Desert" but if this beauti-
full and fertile state was ever des
ert, then surely it was that one of
which the prophet spoke when he
said The wilderness and the solitary
place shall be glad for them and the
desert shall rejoice and blossom as
the rose. The glory of Lebanon shall
be given unto it and the eXcellency OF
sharon" No grander trees ever grew
grew on Lebanon than now adorn
iowa homes, and NO more beautiful