356 Meyer—Early Railroad Legislation in Wisconsin. 
Instead of expending half the value of his wheat in getting it 
to market, the farmer can invest it in stock, which will be avail¬ 
able and profitable, and by this means forward a work which 
will bring a market to his door and enhance all his possessions 
an hundred fold.” 1 Again, “We take no narrow, selfish view- 
on this subject. It is to be hoped that every man in the mines 
will take stock in this railroad, and unite in aiding the grand 
enterprise of binding together with iron the Atlantic and the Mis¬ 
sissippi. 2 In a lengthy address 1 by Chancellor Lathrop of the 
University of Wisconsin, delivered at Janesville before the State 
Agricultural Society, the speaker said: “Farmers of Wisconsinl 
You cannot afford to let these great enterprises languish and 
die. If private enterprise can not reasonably build the road, 
public credit can. Your potential voice makes the laws — it 
makes constitutions — aye, and unmakes them too. I do not 
say that you can find a Clinton —such a man is God’s benison 
on an age — but you can have roads. Where there is an iron 
will there is an iron way. ” 3 An article prepared by the Madi¬ 
son Argus 4 urges the farmers to favor a county (Dane) subscrip- 
a 
tion of one hundred thousand dollars, and by a long array of 
figures proves (?) that even if the subscription were made a gift 
to the railroad, it would be a net gain of two dollars and ten 
cents per acre for the farmer. These popular meetings were 
usually so well managed that opposition and dissent did not se¬ 
cure much foot-hold. But now and then a voice of warning was 
heard, and as early as 1854 a committee report to the legisla¬ 
ture presented quite a strong argument against the passage of 
laws authorizing aid. “ The railroad fever is raging at Madi¬ 
son. The legislature is beset with applications for charters, and 
wearied by the importunity of lobby members —as if trains of 
flying cars could be legislated into existence. The most extrav¬ 
agant estimates are made of the probable value of railroad 
stock. In imagination, every acre of land from Walker’s Point 
1 Rock County Badger , quoted in Sentinel , June 21, 1849. 
2 Grant County Herald , November 6, 1847. 
3 Sentinel, November 20, 1851, contains the speech in full. 
4 Sentinel, December 2, 1851. 
