176 Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
evil. The correct observer of events must, however, acknowledge 
the change that is going on, and although many of us are apt to 
become impatient at the slowness of the growth of a higher intel¬ 
ligence and a greater development of intellectual power, yet the 
most ascetic, must admit, that a rapid progress is being made, and 
the independent action of the few gives good ground for hope, that 
in the better cultivation and broader range of thought now being 
manifested by our people, the evil of which I complain, will be lost 
in the practically educated minds that will control the future. But 
feeling deeply the obligations you owe to your class and your coun¬ 
try, I cannot but grieve, at this time, for the want of that intelli¬ 
gent concert of action, that is so necessary to secure the possibili¬ 
ties that have been presented to you. The allegation of the para¬ 
sites of corporations, that farmers are opposed to new commercial 
advantages is not true; there is not a farmer in this State or any 
other who holds such opinions, and none, but are pleased when any 
arrangements are made that increase the facilities of commerce and 
develop the wealth of the country. And the expressed determina¬ 
tion to control corporations has grown out of no such contracted 
idea, but is rather the outgrowth of a tyranny and heartlessness in 
their management, that taxed the people unmercifully and discrim¬ 
inated in favor of friends at the expense of the public good. 
And this control, though perhaps, sought to be obtained through 
a crude and illy digested law, yet had coupled with the wish for self 
protection, a sense of justice to the stock and bondholder, and from 
the first there has been a growing desire to exercise the power with 
prudence in accordance with the best interests of the State. A full 
expression of this is, but to be just to ourselves, and if mistakes 
have been made and criminations and recriminations indulged in, 
the sooner you take the dignified and honorable position due to 
your class, the better for all concerned, yielding nothing to fraud, 
force or chicanery, but dealing in righteousness and justice with 
the great interests at stake as becomes men who hold the power of 
the State in their hands. Believe me, this is no pleasant task to 
perform; I feel the delicacy,*the particular delicacy, that attends 
this question, and I know how ambitious men may again teach 
some of you to look upon such ideas as these with suspicion, but 
niv interest in and respect for you, impel me to dare to speak 
the truth, and it is necessary, it seems to me, to bring to your no- 
