ANNUAL EXHIBITION—OPENING ADDRESS. 
125 
they may console themselves with this—that they bear com¬ 
pany with the greatest monarchs and wisest practical states¬ 
men of the world. 
If, leaving the main question, we occupy ourselves with de¬ 
tails, it is not unlikely that nearly every industrial organiza¬ 
tion in the country wilf be found less than absolutely perfect. 
But if their policy and practice are in some respects obnoxious 
to criticism, it is less their fault in most cases than their misfor¬ 
tune ; for the want of suitable aid from the state often necessi¬ 
tates the. adoption of plans, and the introduction of features 
that find as little real favor with those who conduct such asso¬ 
ciations as with those who so persistently misrepresent and 
abuse them. 
There ought to be appreciation enough of the worthy and 
important objects they seek to accomplish, to insure a support 
sufficient to enable them to rise superior to the necessities that 
now compel the adoption of measures they themselves reluc¬ 
tantly approve. And when the affairs of state come to be 
shaped and regulated by men of practical wisdom as well as 
true patriotism—when, in a word, the men of state come to be 
statesmen, instead of mere partizan politicians—our industrial 
organizations will doubtless enter upon a new career and better 
iulfill their mission than heretofore. / 
But I must not allow these regrets to occupy my mind to 
the exclusion of all thoughts of the good degree of success that 
even now characterizes the efforts of a very large number of 
industrial organizations like ours, and of the cordial and noble 
manner in which numbers of our most influential citizens have 
rallied to their support. Your presence, members and friends 
of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, is most grateful 
to us who are immediately responsible for the administration of 
its affairs, and we are glad to find in it an earnest of yet 
greater prosperity in the future. 
On behalf of the society, I thank you, fellow citizens, and 
especially those of you, who, at some sacrifice of private in¬ 
terests, have come up to the place of annual re-union with the 
definite purpose of helping, by every means in your power, to 
