"It is with a reverence such as is stirred by the head waters of some mighty river that one looks back," to the beginnings of Iowa history and contemplates the wonderful transformations and unparalleled developments that have taken place, all within the brief period of three score years and ten. Within the memory of men still living a new commonwealth has been born, nourished, matured. Vast prairies have been Vast prairies have been turned into innumerable farms. Corn, oats, wheat, rye, timothy and blue-grass have taken the place of wild vegetation. Swamps have been made to produce cereals instead of malaria. Forests have been cleared or, alas too often, ruthlessly destroyed. Oaks have been hewn into lumber, logs, rails, posts and cord-wood. Prairie chickens, quail, grouse and deer have disappeared; and cattle, sheep and hogs now cover a thousand hills. The ox-cart and cradle are no more. Log-houses are relics. A stake-and-rider fence is rarely seen. Stage-coaches have given place to parlor cars and mail coaches. The mill on the stream is silent; for the powers of water and of wind have surrendered to the powers of steam. Villages, towns and cities everywhere add to the evidences of a growing civilization. Schoolhouses, churches, colleges, and a State University bespeak culture. Marvelous growth! Unparalleled development! Inspiring evolution!

The truth is that here under western skies have been laid the foundations of a mighty Commonwealth,-a Commonwealth that is just becoming conscious of vast material

resources, limitless soul-power, a glorious history, and a future of boundless possibilities. Our people are just beginning to realize that Iowa is no longer a child of the frontier, but a mature, rich, energetic, and an eminently sane and healthy Commonwealth.

As the biography of a great man is eagerly read, so the history of a great Commonwealth becomes a subject of intellectual interest. To-day the history of Iowa has its enthusiastic, thoughtful readers. Men and women have a yearning desire to learn more about the origin, the growth, and the development of this western Commonwealth. They are eager to trace its social and political progress, and to note the steps by which institutions, principles, and ideals have come to be what they are. Nor is the history of Iowa studied as a catalogue of facts chronologically arranged. On the contrary, the history of our Commonwealth is viewed as an evolution-a chapter in the evolution of American civilization—a product of progressive history.

The

Of course the history of Iowa's evolution has not yet been written. Before it can be fully and accurately told, many years must pass. "At present there is not a chapter of the record that is wholly finished. manuscript is already worn with erasures, the writing is often blurred, the very language is uncouth and strange. Yet even now the outline of a continuous story is beginning to appear-a story whose chief credential lies in the fact" that it has been lived out by a plain, unpretentious, democratic