Governor Boies and Fellow-citizens—I accept in the same cordial and friendly spirit in which they have been offered these words of welcome spoken on behalf of the good people of the great State of Iowa. It gives me pleasure in this hasty journey to pause for a little time in the city of Ottumwa. I have had especial pleasure in looking upon this structure and the exhibits which it contains. It is itself a proof of the enterprise, skill, and artistic taste of the people of this city of which they may justly be very proud. I look about it and see that its adornment has been wrought with materials that are familiar and common, and that these have assumed, under the deft fingers and artistic thoughts of your people, shapes of beauty that are marvellously attractive. If I should attempt to interpret the lesson of this structure, I should say it was an illustration of how much that is artistic and graceful is to be found in the common things of life; and if I should make an application of the lesson, it would be to suggest that we might profitably carry into all our homes and into all neighborly intercourse the same transforming spirit. The common things of this life, touched by a loving spirit, may be made to glow and glisten. The common intercourse of life, touched by friendliness and love, may be made to fill every home and neighborhood with a brightness that jewels cannot shed. And it is pleasant to think that in our American home-life we have reached this ideal in a degree unexcelled elsewhere.
I believe that in the American home, whether in the city or on the farm, the American father and the American mother, in their relations to the children, are kinder, more helpful, and benignant than any others. [Cries of "Good! Good!" and cheers.] In these homes is the strength of our institutions. Let these be corrupted and the Government itself has lost the stone of strength upon which it securely rests.
(Here, by some accident of arrangement, the water of an artificial waterfall immediately behind the President was turned on, and the rush and roar of the water drowned his voice almost completely.)
I have contended with a brass band while attempting to address a popular audience, but I have never before been asked to speak in the rush and roar of Niagara. [Laughter and cheers.] I think if I were to leave it to this audience whether they would rather see that beautiful display and hear the rippling of these waters [pointing] than to hear me, they would vote for the waterfall. [Cries of "No, no!" and "Shut off the water!">[
(At this point the management succeeded in finally turning off the water so that the deafening noise ceased.)
I had supposed that there were limitations upon the freedom of this meeting this afternoon, both as to the Governor and myself, and that no political suggestion of any sort was to be introduced into this friendly concourse of American citizens; and I think both of us have good cause for grievances against the prohibitionists for interrupting us with this argument for cold water. [Great laughter and applause.]
It is quite difficult, called upon as I am every day, and sometimes three or four times a day, to make short addresses with the limitations that are upon me as to the subjects upon which I may speak, to know what to say when I meet my fellow-citizens. I was glad to hear the Governor say that Iowa is prosperous. We have here a witness that it is so. It offers also, I think, a solution of the origin of that prosperity, and suggests how it may be increased and developed. We have in this structure a display of all the products of the farm, and side by side with it a display of the mechanic arts. I think in this combination, in this diversity of interest and pursuit, in this mutual and helpful relation between the toilers of the soil and the workers in our shops, each contributing to the commonwealth and each giving to the other that which he needs, we have that which has brought about the prosperity you now enjoy, and which is to increase under the labors of your children to a degree that we have not realized. The progress in the mechanical arts that men not older than I have witnessed, the application of new agencies to the use of men within the years of my own notice and recollection, read like a fairy tale. Let us not think that we have reached the limits of this development. There are yet uses of the agencies already known to be developed and applied. There are yet agencies perhaps in the great storehouse of nature that have not been harnessed for the use of man. The telegraph, the telephone, and the phonograph have all come within the memory of many who stand about me to-day. The application of steam to ocean travel is within the memory of many here. The development of our railroad system has all come within your memory and mine. The railroad was but a feeble agency in commerce when my early recollection begins; and now this great State is covered with railroads like a network. Every farm is within easy reach of a shipping station, and every man can speak to his neighbor any day of the week, though that neighbor live on the opposite side of the globe. Out of all this what is yet to come? Who can tell? You are favored here in having not only a surface soil that yields richly to the labor of the farmer, but in also having hidden beneath that surface rich mines of coal which are to be converted into power to propel the mills that will supply the wants of your people.
Now, my friends, thanking you for the kindness with which you have listened to me, expressing again my appreciation of the taste and beauty of this great structure in which we stand, and wishing for Iowa and all its citizens the largest increase of prosperity in material wealth, the most secure social order in all their communities, and the crowning blessing of home happiness, I bid you good-by. [Prolonged cheering.]