4 o 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
quote a short paragraph from the message of the Governor of 
New York, in 1870; 
“ At the request of the governor of Iowa, I appointed last 
autumn, delegates to a convention held for the purpose of promot¬ 
ing improvements in the navigation of the Wisconsin river, a 
work in which the people of the state have a deep interest, as it 
will make, in connection with our canals, water communication 
complete from the Mississippi river to New York city; canals do 
not, as some say, belong to a past age, nor are they superseded 
and rendered useless by the construction of railroads. Both canals 
and railroads are essential to the full and rapid development, not- 
only of our state, but of our great northwestern neighbors, whose 
interests and prosperity are so firmly interwoven with our own.” 
It is but just to add that our venerable fellow citizen, the Hon. 
Morgan L. Martin, has devoted the best years of his life to this 
great work, and without proper remuneration. 
THE FINANCIAL VIEW OF THE SITUATION. 
In the hour of panic and commercial distress, when cramped 
by a monetary colic, it is but too natural that men in official po~ 
sitions snuff danger through their sense of fear—as often on ac¬ 
count of personal and political consequences as from any other 
cause—and under the high pressure of economy, often neglect or 
refuse to undertake the most necessary and money-saving improve¬ 
ments. At such times as these, it may be safely laid down as a 
rule, that more injury comes to the public faith and interests by 
an over-dose of economy, than often occurs in times of plethora 
( 
and improvidence. Because a merchant may have been unfor¬ 
tunate in some things, that should be no excuse for not paying 
his debts, if he still has the means, or of neglecting improvements- 
that would be the very soul of economy. During our late war 
the people submitted to a strain upon their resources of one mil¬ 
lion dollars per day, which would now net a sum sufficient for this 
great work in four days, or in 14 days, as compared with the 
budget of expenses of 1869—a year of profound peace. If this 
expenditure was to be a waste, or even of doubtful propriety, then 
the doubt and indecision ought to be thrown in the scale of econ¬ 
omy and non-action, but since I have clearly shown that for every 
