168 Wisconsin state agricultural society. 
pursue the different kinds of handicraft. Many are the men who, 
in the quiet hours of night, while common laborers are wrapt in 
slumber, tax brain and vital force to develop ideas which shall 
give direction to a nation’s thought and a nation’s life. These 
also are laborers, and form part of the great industrial corps. 
But what we witness here indicates particularly, the progress 
of the so called industrial classes. 
In the last few centuries, progress has been made by all ranks 
in society, but a far greater advance has been made in the intellec¬ 
tual and social status of the different classes engaged in manual 
labor, than in that of the classes occupied with the pursuits of 
literature, statesmanship and professional life. 
Three hundred years ago, the common laborers of England and 
Germany were in a condition of extreme degradation. Many of 
them passed their lives in rude hovels, destitute of floors, and of 
every article an American would call furniture. Straw laid upon 
the ground formed the carpet by day and the couch by night, and 
this cheap and abundant material was not wasted by frequent 
changes. In many other countries of Europe, their condi¬ 
tion was still worse. They furnished muscle — others supplied 
thoughts. The laborers of America have always stood pre¬ 
eminent in regard to intellectual and social privileges, yet their 
advancement in the last fifty years has been marked, I had almost 
said marvelous. In every part of the country, are farmers and me¬ 
chanics who have made large attainments in knowledge, and whose 
homes give unmistakable evidence of affluence, enterprise and 
mental culture. In a word, the world has moved — slaves have 
been liberated, serfs elevated, labor crowned with wreaths of 
honor, and laborers introduced to the fruitful fields of science, the 
higher realms of thought. 
The varied display of products now before us, whether of the 
spade, the plane, the needle or the pencil, strikingly illustrates 
the correlation of interests in civilized and progressive society. 
The toilers at the plow, the forge, the loom and the easel; the tar 
at the mast head, the banker at his desk and the scientist with 
his fossils, render reciprocal support in the struggle of life. Strike 
down a single branch of industry, many others suffer; give to 
one, by legitmate means, new life, others are vitalized. 
