ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
6 3 
I iuch the larger portion of it is raised in these Western and North¬ 
western States. The profit of raising depends on the rate of freight, 
ery largely. We know that for the past year it has cost as much to 
arry grain, say 150 or 200 miles inland, to the lake by rail, as from 
he lake ports to the seaboard. The amount saved to the people by 
le building the Hennepin canal and the enlargement of the Michigan 
anal, would very soon pay for its construction. This great improve- 
| ~ent commends itself to the agriculturist and the manufacturer, and 
e of the Northwest must insist upon its being done without delay by 
e general government. I expect to see the day, not far in the future, 
hen ships laden with the products of the Northwest will pass 
rough this proposed canal from the Mississippi river to the lakes, 
he railroad interest in our State is an immense one,—we have 8,314 
iles of road in the State, which have cost in their construction, not 
5S than three hundred and twenty millions of dollars. They earn 
)Out fifty millions of dollars per annum, and their expenses are about 
irty millions per annum. They employ, in the State, forty thousand 
nen, to whom they pay twenty millions of dollars a year. Our State 
is more thoroughly supplied with railroads than any other, perhaps, 
nd our level, rich soil makes it necessary, in the interest of the peo- 
>le, that we should be well supplied, as in much of the year it is diffi- 
ult to market our products by hauling over the common wagon roads. 
The amount of capital invested, the number of men employed, and 
he value of the railroads to all the people and to all business, claim 
or them a lair recognition and fair treatment at the hands of the peo¬ 
ple. We depend mainly upon iailroads to take our products to 
narket. The farmer, in these days of fast living, would have a sorry 
ime of it without the railroad. While they are a power for good, 
hey may become oppressive, and hence the reason why the State lays 
ts hands upon them and says to those in control, “you may operate 
mur roads for reasonable charges and profits, but you shall not extort 
md become a power for oppression.” We have had quite a struggle 
n this State and country on the question of the power of the State to 
•egulate railroads. In the days when we had no railroads and men 
wanted charters from our Legislatures to build roads, they got them 
with any provision they desired to write in the bills. The time came 
vhen the people thought they were oppressive,—the struggle as to the 
question of the State regulating them began. The question got into 
rnr Constitutional Convention, then into the Legislature, then into the 
:ourts, and step by step we have been settling the relative rights of the 
)eople and the roads, until to-day our Railroad Commission make and 
publish new schedules of rates under the law, and for the first time in 
rnr history the leading roads, without delay, make their schedules to 
conform to the rates fixed by the Board. Great progress has been 
nade in the right direction. I hope, as these questions pass by as set- 
led, over which the people and roads have differed, greater harmony 
>f interest will prevail between the producers and the common carri- 
rs of the country. 
It is, perhaps, not out of place for me to say a word about the 
>resent financial condition and the expenditures of our State. It no 
onger owes any bonded debt. A few of its bonds are still out, but 
