Public Aid — Historical. 
355 
money on the credit of the city and to meet payments on such 
loans by an annual tax of one per cent, on the real estate within 
the corporate limits: — Provided, however, that if any year the 
exigency of the case shall require it, such tax may be increased 
to any rate not exceeding - per cent, on such assessed 
value. Finally, every person who paid the tax was entitled to 
receive from the city treasurer a tax receipt exchangeable for 
railroad stock. 
A meeting similar to this was held at Galena on the seventh 
of the same month. 1 The president of one of the railroad 
companies proposed a new plan to raise “wind” for the pros¬ 
ecution of his favorite enterprise. It was proposed that the 
counties along the route should tax themselves three per cent, 
for one year or one per cent, for three years on all taxable 
property. Thus the tax payers would become stock-holders. A 
bill similar to that adopted in Milwaukee, was proposed. The 
same president “went into the street one fine day, amongst the 
farmers who were selling wheat and obtained more than twenty 
thousand dollars” in stock subscriptions. 2 3 He had raised 
“wind. ” The tale of farm mortgages is a long and doleful 
recital. Not only were unsuspecting farmers led to mortgage 
away their farms, but city and town officials became the victims 
of false presentations which later involved their communities in 
endless difficulties. Appeals for aid, usually manipulated by 
railroad directors, came from all quarters and in a great variety 
of forms. “Good policy requires that it (the railroad) should 
be kept subject to the control of our own citizens. It must be 
kept from the hands of eastern capitalists, or else it will 
oppress instead of benefit the people. . . . We hope the 
farmers in this county will take an interest in the road, suffi¬ 
cient at least to give them the control and management of the depot at 
this place* ” “Let the farmer subscribe his stock, and his wheat, 
pork, team-work, and anything he produces may be applied to its 
payment,—not a cent of money need be raised in the county. 
1 Of course, Galena is in Illinois, geographically, but it was very closely 
connected with Wisconsin affairs at this time. 
3 Grant County Herald , November 6, 1847. 
8 Waukesha Democrat » quoted in Sentinel , June 8, 1849. 
