156 Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
western States, where the farmers have a large or controlling in¬ 
terest, they should organize, and instruct their representatives in 
the lower house of Congress to authorize and provide for a double¬ 
track railway from New York to St. Louis, with laterals reaching 
to Chicago and Cincinnati;-such road to be either owned or con¬ 
trolled by the government, to be built and operated as economically 
as possible, the rate of freights to pay the running expenses and 
seven per cent, upon the actual capital invested, and no more. Sup¬ 
pose, further, that these representatives in Congress understood dis¬ 
tinctly that behind these petitions stood the great mass of the farm¬ 
ers; that they were honest and intelligent, and in sober earnest; 
that they could be neither duped nor humbugged, nor trifled with 
in any way; what think j-ou would be the result? I will not say 
that such a law would be passed and the road commenced inside of 
six months, but I have no hesitation in saying that there would 
within that time be more patriotic speeches made in the interests 
of agriculture than have ever been heard upon that subject in Con¬ 
gress from the birth of our nation down to this hour. 
I have supposed this case because it seems to me to be the most 
feasible way of at least beginning to solve the problem of trans¬ 
portation. It seems to me to be practical and to be a point to 
which we must come sooner or later; and it is a move which must 
be made and carried on in the interest of agriculture. To inaugu¬ 
rate and carry out such a plan as this requires intelligent study 
and careful thought, and a general movement of those interested 
in the products of the soil. It might require us to send more first- 
class farmers to Congress and fewer second- or third-rate lawyers. 
If he should be really a first-class farmer, he would not be spoiled 
by going there. The second- or third-rate lawyer is apt to be ruined 
for any business by the time his term expires, so that even here the ' 
community, as far as affected in any way, w'ould be the gainer. 
Gentlemen, the statistics show this to be a very important ques¬ 
tion to the farmers, and demands our most careful attention. The 
census of 1870 shows our population to have been at that time 
38,558,371. More than one-half @f the entire population was then 
engaged in the different branches of agriculture. The total valua¬ 
tion of property at that time was $14,178,986,733. Of this vast 
sum, farms and farm implements were valued at $9,599,682,290, or 
