Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1913-09-03
THE MATTER WITH IOWA.
Pertinent Reply of an Iowa Newspa.
per Man to One Who Became
Rich From iowa Soil.


boost for their own communities and
for their state, and they pass the
good words along which are said by
enc another.
The editor of the Whittemore
Champion, Mr.. T. J. White, has at
tracted tie attention of Iowa editors
recently by his reply to a letter from
a former Iowa farmer who sold a
bfO-acre farm near Whittemore
three or four years ago and moved
to Oregon. This Iowa farmer wrote
back to Editor White, under date of
June Sd, and among other things he
said:
Talk about Oregonians being
web-footed-I should like to know
what is the matter with Iowa? Thir-
teen inches of rain in two months.
Gee! but I'm glad to be living in
Gods country, with no extremes,
such as floods, cyclones, thunder
storms and billiards.
This raised Editor Whites wrath.
He wrote column and a half in re-
ply to this mans letter. He began
his reply as follows:
| IF the above did not come from
a man, who, to say the least, was
treated very kindly in Iowa in fl
nancial way, man who made a
profit of more than $4,000 on an
Iowa farm in period of eleven
years, and at that man whose abil-
ity as a farmer was rated above the
ordinary, we perhaps would be in
clined to overlook this little slam,
and to the query, What's the matter
with Iowa?' simply say, She's all
| right
Editor White goes on to say that
this man sold his 640-acres of Iowa
land at 500 per acre, and the pur-
chasers made fortune by re-selling
1t at S110 per acre. The land has
risen $40 per acre since then. Last
year the actual cash receipts from
this farm were S7,457.55, not count
ing the profits on cattle, hogs, poul-
try and dairying, which would prob
ably add $4,000. This is only one
farm in Godforsaken old Iowa.
What's the matter with Iowa?"
| continued Mr.. White. We'll, let's
see-1912 was not much of a sheep
year, and Iowa never laid any great
stress on raising sheep, but we find
! the government statistics claim that
i'll 1912 Iowa's sheep were worth
twice over the entire Oregon apple
crop of 1910. Iowas hens and eggs
we're worth more than all the lumber
lath and shingles turned out from
Oregon lumber mills in 1910. The
value of Iowa's eggs alone equaled
all the gold mined in California.
And speaking of apples that reminds
me that lowa's Jonathans and
Grimes Golden have taken the blue
ribbon away from all competitors,
| Oregon included, for the past three
years, and at the Worlds Fair in
st. Louis in 1904, an old neighbor
of yours won the silver medal, Sec
ond prize for his exhibit of different
varieties Of apples. OF course, we
do not set up as an apple state, but
simply mention these facts to let
| you know that we know them.
What's the matter with Iowa?
Say, Mr.. Wallace, if we had all the
hogs we raise each year in this wat
er-soaked, blizzard-scourged, cy-
clone-swept, bankrupt state, We
could get enough for them to es-
tablish 17S department stores such
as Montgomery Ward has, and have
enough left to begin raising another
crop next year; and the horses are
worth more than four times the
amount of silver mined in the United
States, Alaska, the Philippines and
Porto Rico in 1912. But at that, We
don't need horses very bad in Iowa.
as there is an automobile for every
| forty-five inhabitants, and perhaps
by next fall we will make it unani-
nous and all have one.
Editor White pointed out that the
thirteen inches of rainfall caused but
little inconvenience, that corn is
now growing rapidly, pastures are
fine, and the hay crop hummer
and continued:
Whats the matter with Iowa?
When it comes to raising corn, Iowa
is surely all right. Now, listen;
last year the few 'nubbins' we raised
here in Iowa would equal in value
all the gold taken out of Alaska dur
ing the last ten years. 1t was eight
times the value of the gold mined in
Colorado in 1912, and it would have
furnished sufficient capital to buy
all of Colorados crops and manu-
featured products last year, and this
is in no sense making light of Alas
ka's gold production, or Colorado's
crops or manufactured products
either. We simply use this as a
comparison, and we had to get some
thing mighty big to compare lowa's
corn crop with. Then, too, you can
take gold out of the ground but
once corn comes every year.
Whats the matter with Iowa?
Blamed if we know, unless 1T would
be that Iowa is first in the tillable
soil area, first in the value OF nipple
ments on the farm. first in total pro-
ducts from the soil, first in the num-
Der Of banks, first in the lowest per-
centage of illiteracy, first in the
number of horses, first In oat crop,
and almost first in the hay crop, po-
tatoes and dairy COWS. 1t is also
first in coal production west OF the
Mississippi river, except Colorado.
Now, OF course, Iowa may have
other faults; for instance, 1t may
be held up against her that land val
ues advanced at the rate OF almost
half a million dollars per day during
the period from 1900 TO 1910, and
there was an increase of more than
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