The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-04-17
IOWA IS STATE
. WORTHY OF PRAISE
II Has Really Been Discovered Only
Eishty-six Years and in That
Time Wilderness Has Been
Made Productive.
FRENCH FIRST SAW 1T
Explorers Sailed Down River TWO
Hundred Years Aso-There Were
Many Red Men With Whom
Pioneers Fought
FRENCH FIRST SAW IT

It was only eighty-sx years ago
/ that Iowa was really discovered.
What we have done here in making
farms and building towns has all been
| done within the space OF one generous
| lifetime. Iowa was wilderness, 1uii
of fighting Indians and wild ANIMALS
when my grandfather and your
grandfather were boys.
OF course, it was nearly two hun
dred and fifty years ago when those
French explorers, Marquette and
Joliet, padded their canoes down the
Wisconsin river to the Mississippi,
and first saw this land we now cali
Iowa They were the first white men
to see our beautiful country-but 1t
was many years later before other
white men came and began trading
with oir Iowa Indians. And 1t was
mot until 1888 that white men actually
began to settle permanently in Iowa
and pillow up its wonderful soil.
! These early settlers were disliEed
by the Indians, and there were many
fights between them, where both
settlers and Indians were killed. The
principal tribes were the Sacs and
Foxes, the Sioux and the Winneba-
goes. A fierce battle occurred at
Fort Madison-and there was an
awful massacre of whites by the In
dams at Okoboji, in northwestern
Iowa.
| Slowly but surely the Indians were
crowded out and the hills and val
lleys that used to be the home of deer
and wild turkeys began to produce
i wheat and corn and oats. There were
no roads in Iowa eighty-six years ago
not even any wagons. There were
no schools, no churches, no towns
nothing but wilderness.
| Think Of Iowa Today.
/. Now think of Iowa today; what
wonderful progress has been made.
These thirty-five million acres that
comprise Iowa used to produce moth
ing but deer meat and furs and tur.
key feathers; now they produce crops
every year that are worth nearly two
billion dollars-or enough money to
pay all the expenses in peace time Of
: our national government in all Of the
forty-eight states, and in Alaska,
Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philip
ipines.
! The old Indian trails have become
railroads. The wigwams OF the In
.dians have become stores and homes
! and business buildings of brick and
stone and cement. The OK cart has
become an automobile-and there are
more automobiles in Iowa than in any
other land area Of equal population.
We have an auto for each seven Of
our people-or enough to give every
man, woman and child in Iowa a ride
at the same time.
| The eagle that used to soar above
these prairie lands of ours has given
way to the airplane. More than one
hundred airplaneS are now owned by
Iowans, and within another year or
50 we will see them most any day, in
most any county, sailing through cur
wonderful Iowa sky.
! Tie trail of the prairie schooner
has finally become a paved coun-
try road-or at least it has in
4twenty-six Iowa counties where the
people have voted for paved roads
/ within the past six months. More
counties will vote this winter-and
more next summer. Soon all our
counties will have voted for paved
from town to farm, or from farm to
town, any day in the year, rain or
shine. Truly, Iowa will then be a
paradise.
Pioneers Had Foresight.
Those early pioneers knew that
their children must have schools
and little red school houses were
built on the hills. At first there was
only one school house in a county
then there were three or four To
tday the little red school house, with
Z it's one room and it's drum heater, is
i fast giving way to the modern con.
tsoljdated school, with it's gymnasium,
its model kitchen, its auditorium and
all its facilities for giving to the
farmers children just as complete an
education as can be had in a city or
a large town. When the paved roads
are built we will have no difficulty
going to or from school-because
there will be no mud.
There are 490,500 families now liv-
ing in Iowa. OF these 1886, 900, or SO
percent own their homes. This means
happy families and material pros
iperity-both of which are necessary
! if we are going to enjoy life and
/ grow up to be good citizens.
/, Every year there is more sunshine
/ in Iowa than there is in California.
( Iowa has never had crop failure.
| Einety-nine out Of every 100 Iowans
can read and write; the highest per-
( centage of literacy in any state-or
! of any equal area in the world. Iowa
! spends s25,000,000 every year for her