State Parks of Wisconsin 



million dollars a year on its normal schools, more than a million on 

 its great University, that disburses in all nearly $10,000,000 annu- 

 ally. No, the State has ample wealth to supply any feature that is 

 needed for the present or the future. 



Has Wisconsin no future to provide for — a State with a popula- 

 tion of but 30,000 in I840„a million and a half in 1890, two mil- 

 lion in 1 900, and at least two and a half million today ; that can sup- 

 port, even with the present system of agriculture, six and a half mil- 

 lion people ; that has the geographical position, the natural resources, 

 the climate, the enterprise that must inevitably attract a large popula- 

 tion. It seems certain that the State will win to its borders even 

 more than its share of the natural and normal increase of the country' 

 at large. 



The question resolves itself into this: Is Wisconsin going to fol- 

 low the example of the more populous Eastern States and wait until 

 action is difficult, if not impossible, or is it going to learn from their 

 mistakes? In the investigation of 1892 it was found that "Massa- 

 chusetts, as a whole, is shamefully lacking in open spaces reserved 

 expressly for enjoyment by the public. The mountain tops of the 

 interior, the cliffs and beaches of the seashore, and most of the inter- 

 vening scenes of special beauty are rapidly passing into the posses- 

 sion of private owners, who hold these places either for their own 

 private pleasure or for the profit which may be reaped from fees col- 

 lected from the public. Moreover, as population increases, the final 



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