30 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
to a liberal exemption law in other states have been deterred 
by our own tax on machinery from putting large sums of 
money into manufacturing enterprises here. 
Under a liberal public policy, Wisconsin may early become 
the leading manufacturing state of the west. 
A JUDICIOUS LIBERALITY IN THE PROMOTION OF INTERNAL 
IMPROVEMENTS 
Is essential to the industrial and social development of any 
state or country. Railroads, good country roads, shipping fa¬ 
cilities, telegraphs—these are the agencies that stimulate indus¬ 
try, quicken the pulse of commerce, diffuse intelligence and 
bind a people together in relations of sympathy and friendly 
co-operation. 
If the railroad history of Wisconsin presents a few chapters 
that we would gladly expunge, for the reason that they are a 
record of public corruption and private ruin, it nevertheless 
makes a summing up of fiscal achievements to which we may 
refer with becoming pride and satisfaction. Few, if any, states 
can show larger results in this department of public enterprise ; 
and probably none can point to a greater number of important 
railroad enterprises now in progress. Every measure of legis¬ 
lation looking to the encouragement of such improvements, 
without jeopardizing the security and future prosperity of the 
counties and lesser communities, should have the hearty sup¬ 
port of every citizen. 
It should also be the policy of the state to do everything 
properly within its power to insure the construction and im¬ 
provement of wagon roads. Roads of this kind are a prime 
necessity of the people. They retard the progress of individ¬ 
ual and public improvement if bad, and greatly accelerate it if 
good. 
The country roads of Wisconsin are neither the best nor yet 
the worst; but we risk nothing in saying that they are far in¬ 
ferior to what they ought to be, especially in view of the favor- 
