Iowa is indeed a remarkable state and her people a peculiar people. We have but few drones in the hive. Our population is made up of simply the young and the strong and the enterprising of the other states that have come hither to build up their personal fortunes, and who have at the same time laid well and strong the foundations of a great state. There is scarcely a college or university of any of the older states that is not well represented in our men and women. We have come together here and what one did not know he has learned from his next door neighbor. All have contributed something to the common fund of knowledge and enterprise. We have now built our own schoolhouses and colleges, and today we have a less per cent of illiteracy than any other state in the Union. But there is one burden on my heart and one thought I desire to express: What is the future to be? Are we giving to the state the children that may worthily fill our places and take up and carry forward the work that we have begun? The highest duty that we owe to the state is to furnish to it in our children that perfect type of manhood that will constitute its true glory. What signifies this accumulation of wealth, these fine buildings, this beautiful architecture, if our sons are to be profligates and the accursed saloon is to destroy all the fruit of our toil. The time has come when as citizens and as fathers we must seriously address ourselves to this problem of our civilization. I came to Iowa more than thirty years ago. I formed many warm attachments among the young men, then just beginning life. I remember the pride and hope that these young men and their then young wives had in their children. As I visit the older towns where these men have lived and won honorable distinction I have inquired for their children. Alas! Too often it is a sad story and a painful remembrance, and I have asked myself the question, is this always to be so? And is there no help?