360 Wisconsin state agricultural society. 
of Europe, they came to the conclusion that their only salvation 
consisted in railroad communication; hence they bent all their 
energies in the direction of building railroads, subscribed all the 
money they could raise, mortgaged their farms, and gave town and 
county aid to assist in building the roads. While the roads were 
in course of construction, the large number of laborers necessary 
to build them, together with the increased population brought in¬ 
to the cities and villages along the lines of the roads for the time 
being, consumed a large portion of the surplus products of the far¬ 
mers. But with the villages came the corresponding number of 
agriculturalists, and when the roads were completed, and the la¬ 
borers had removed to other points, these new farmers had sur¬ 
plus food to sell, but no home markets, their railroad stock passed 
into other hands under a foreclosure of mortgage and their con¬ 
dition was about as helpless and deplorable as before the roads 
were built. 
As the cry of quick transportation was raised twenty years ago, 
so now we have the cry of cheap transportation. I propose to show 
in the following pages that whilst quick transportation has not 
remedied all the evils complained of, neither can they be entirely 
remedied by cheap transportation alone. The individual who 
claims that our railroad system, even under its present manage¬ 
ment, is not of incalculable benefit to the farmer, certainly is not 
wise. The present roads furnish us with passenger rates that are 
within the reach of every one. They also furnish us with the 
means of exchanging all the more highly concentrated articles of 
production at reasonable cost. For instance, the amount charged 
by our railroad companies for the transportation of a yard of 
broadcloth is so inconsiderable when compared with the cost of 
the same, that it is not felt by the consumer. It is only in those 
articles where the cost of transportation comes nearer to the ori¬ 
ginal cost of the article that the pressure is more keenly felt. 
There are numerous theories adduced to remedy the evil, and yet 
they all look to a single object, namely, legislative control of the 
railway system of the United States. The Hon. M. H. Carpen¬ 
ter labored long and earnestly before the farmers of Winnebago 
county, Illinois, at their fair at Kockford, last fall, to convince 
them that congress had the exclusive right to regulate the cost of 
