Remarks in Fairmont, Nebraska

My fellow citizens:

I want to thank you all for coming. Let me say a word first of greeting to the men of the Grand Army, and say how I appreciate their having turned out to greet me; then to you, my comrades of the National Guard, to you who furnished the men in '98, who volunteered to show that the sons of Nebraska could do in the Philippine Islands what their fathers had done in the great days from '61 to '65. You of the Grand Army did the big job, while ours was a little one, but we did it all right. You did not have to have any complaint about there not being a big enough war, there was lots from '61 to '65; with us there was not enough to go around. I want to thank those, and then I want especially to thank the school children, from whom I have received these flowers.

I have just come through Nebraska, seeing the prosperity which you now so abundantly have; seeing in the far-west of the state the ranches, here the farms, and I want to congratulate you on the diversification of crops. I congratulate you on all your crops, but the best crop of all is the children.