Part 1 (1/2)

Prairie Gold.

by Various.

Preface

This volume, from the land of the singing corn, is offered to the public by the Iowa Press and Authors' Club as the first bit of co-operative work done by Iowa writers. The antic.i.p.ated needs of the brave men who have given themselves as a human sacrifice to the establishment of a world-wide democracy, make a strong heart appeal, and the members have come together in spirit to do their bit toward the relief of suffering.

Many members of the club could not be reached during the short time the book was in the making; others doing work every day on schedule time had no opportunity to prepare ma.n.u.script for this publication, while still others preferred helping in ways other than with their pens.

The whole is a work of love and representative of the comrades.h.i.+p, the spirit of human sympathy, and the pride of state, existent in the hearts of Iowa authors, artists, playwrights, poets, editors and journalists.

_Officers of the club for 1917-18:_

Hamlin Garland, Honorary President.

Alice C. Weitz, President.

J. Edward Kirbye, First Vice President.

Nellie Gregg Tomlinson, Second Vice President.

Esse V. Hathaway, Secretary.

Reuben F. Place, Treasurer.

_Editorial Board:_ Johnson Brigham.

Lewis Worthington Smith.

Helen Cowles LeCron.

The Creed of Iowa--

I believe in Iowa, land of limitless prairies, with rolling hills and fertile valleys, with winding and widening streams, with bounteous crops and fruit-laden trees, yielding to man their wealth and health.

I believe in Iowa, land of golden grains, whose harvests fill the granaries of the nation, making it opulent with the power of earth's fruitfulness.

I believe in Iowa, rich in her men and women of power and might. I believe in her authors and educators, her statesmen and ministers, whose intellectual and moral contribution is one of the mainstays of the republic--true in the hour of danger and steadfast in the hour of triumph.

I believe in Iowa, magnet and meeting place of all nations, fused into a n.o.ble unity, Americans all, blended into a free people. I believe in her stalwart sons, her winsome women, in her colleges and churches, in her inst.i.tutions of philanthropy and mercy, in her press, the voice and instructor of her common mind and will, in her leaders.h.i.+p and destiny, in the magnificence of her opportunity and in the fine responsiveness of her citizens to the call of every higher obligation.

I believe in our commonwealth, yet young, and in the process of making, palpitant with energy and faring forth with high hope and swift step; and I covenant with the G.o.d of my fathers to give myself in service, mind and money, hand and heart, to explore and develop her physical, intellectual and moral resources, to sing her praises truthfully, to keep her politics pure, her ideals high, and to make better and better her schools and churches, her lands and homes, and to make her in fact what she is by divine right, the queen of all the commonwealths.

--_J. Edward Kirbye._

The Wind in the Corn