Exhibition of 1872—Opening Address. 145 
let us see to it that the race course does not absorb such undue 
attention as to discourage those unobstrusive but substantial indus¬ 
tries upon whose fostering care depends the permanent prosperity 
of our society and the real welfare of the state. They who would 
administer the affairs of the society wisely in these respects, must 
not see too narrowly. They must take broad and impartial views 
of the whole field, and give to each interest the encouragement 
its importance demands. 
Touching the office of the society as a collector, digester and 
diffuser of information relative to the several branches of our 
state industry, I find it the more easy to speak freely because that 
important duty has almost exclusively devolved upon another 
than myself, and for at least a dozen years has been so well per¬ 
formed that none but words of high commendation can be justly 
spoken of it. 
In all, we have published ten volumes of what we call the 
Society’s Transactions. These volumes, besides the good they 
have accomplished at home, have found their way into the lead¬ 
ing libraries of this country and of Europe, and are now eagerly 
sought by various industrial and scientific societies and institu¬ 
tions, in all parts of the world. They are not only the authorita¬ 
tive representations of the resources and industry of Wisconsin, 
they also serve to mark for the political economist, social philoso¬ 
pher and historian, of whatever country, the height to which our 
state has risen in the scale of material, and even social develop¬ 
ment. , They also abound in information and doctrine of the most 
universal application. Together, they contribute a series of re¬ 
ports to which any member may properly, and with pride, assign 
a conspicuous place in his library. 
It is a ground of congratulation that the late legislature, by a 
vote entirely unanimous, saw fit to provide for the issue of the last 
and all subsequent volumes of our transactions in editions of five 
thousand copies, instead of three thousand, as heretofore. 
Financially considered, this society has been no less successful. 
It has never failed to pay promptly every dollar awarded in pre¬ 
miums, nor to meet every other obligation. For a time it received 
three thousand dollars from the state treasury per annum, in aid of 
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