SOURCE: Beveridge, Albert J. “Address by Albert J. Beveridge.” In In Honor of James Whitcomb Riley: A Meeting of Indiana State Teachers' Association, pp. 10-18. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1906.

In the following speech, Indiana Senator Beveridge's hails Riley as “the people's poet,” suggesting that Riley is not only a Hoosier poet but has a universal appeal.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen—It would seem that Indiana and the Middle West, the center of the republic geographically, the center of the republic numerically, is becoming the center of the republic intellectually. Only in America could the center of culture follow close on the heels of the moving center of population; because only in America is learning equally distributed among the people, so that where the center of population is, the center of intelligence must be.

At any rate Indiana at this hour is giving more creative literature to the...