served to keep from utter extinction the vital spark of some which only "live at a poor dying rate," but as these public appropriations are comparatively small and do not go to individual, but to public account, they may be set down as innocent of intention, though I do not approve of the practice; and I believe that the time has come for a revision of the whole subject of appropriation of public money to agricultural societies, unpopular as it may be to broach such an opinion in this Convention.

Within the last few years the question is often and earnestly propounded. What can we do to keep up the life and usefulness of our agricultural fairs? The old expedients, they say, are worn out. Some people do not approve of the sensational expedients of balloon ascensions, firemen's parades, Weston walkings, horse races, and the like. But most country people come to fairs to be amused as well as instructed. Their daily life is among horses, cattle, potatoes and other farm stuff, and they come to see things that are more extraordinary than they see every day at home. So it has become a serious question how to keep up the interest and usefulness of our public exhibitions.

Another difficulty to be met has been the uncertainty of the weather, which is sometimes very fair, and sometimes very unfair during the days set for exhibition, making the comfort of visitors and the financial condition of the society very much a of matter uncertainty, and often of serious embarrassment.

Recognizing all the foregoing facts and conditions, there has been inaugurated within a few years a system of more permanent expositions, covering a much longer space of time, and by the use of extensive and substantial buildings, securing the goods on exhibition, from all stress of foul weather and the visitors inconveinence by both foul weather and an uncomfortable press of people at any one time.

Of course this exposition system is only applicable to large cities, but where it can be put into operation, it has so much to commend it, and with so few of the natural drawbacks always attendant upon these occasions, that I feel constrained to urge it upon the attention of all whom it may concern. The grand expositions at Cincinnati the last two seasons have exceeded in extent, variety and excellence any similar fair of the American Institute in New York, while the like expositions held last season in Louisville and Memphis are worthy of all commendation. And now the city of Cleveland-the Queen of the Lakes-might safely venture to enter into friendly rivalry with the Queen City of the River, in an exposition which neither Boreas or Pluvius (our two ruling divinities in the Lake Shore region) could interrupt, while Columbus, the heart and capital of our most glorious State, under the eye and hand of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture, could institute an exposition, which should as far exceed any of its former itinerant, gusty, dusty, sloppy attempts, as Gilmore's great coliseum concert was more than a hand-organ on a street corner.

In the matter of comfort, satisfaction, convenience and economy, the permanent exposition system has every advantage over the four-day out-door system. In the four-day system we have really but two show days; then comes the hurry and scurry, the haste and waste, the jamming (and d-ming) of going to the fair. Railroad trains are overloaded, off time, wrecked; people killed; the articles for exhibition are only fairly in place before the time for their removal. People are excited, and in the throng of the occasion do not see half there is to be seen, or see well what they do see. Hotels are over crowded, and discomfort and extortion are the consequence. People are in a stew from the time they leave home till they get back home again, and protest they will never go to such a place again (though of course they do).

Now the fault is in the system, and not in the thing itself. Under the more permanent exposition arrangement, the articles are in place when the show opens, advantage

ously arranged for inspection, and secure from the ravages of the storm and the gentle violence of the sun. Visitors can club together by neighborhoods, for company's sake, and choose any day in the range of four or five weeks, when it will suit their convenience to attend; they get excursion rates on the railroads, and are not obliged to pay extortionate prices for the privilege of discomfort at hotels; they see everything at their leisure and at best advantage; they go home satisfied, and say they will go again next year.

That is the difference.

And as another important consideration, the revenues of the concern are safe and abundant, while a few such little eccentricities of weather as we experienced at the great gatherings of Mansfield and Cleveland last September, would leave our boats on a sand bar, not easy to tide over.

The necessity for carrying the State Fair to every man's door (as Maj. Jack Downing proposed to carry the government in a one horse wagon, in Jackson's time), if it even did exist, has now gone by. The wealthy and prosperous corporations at Cleveland and Cincinnati have supplied the local demand at the two extremes of the State, and with our railways threading the State in all directions, people who care to look upon a firstclass exhibition, can easily make their way to either of those places or to Columbus, and be satisfied.

Another matter for serious consideration in the management of agricultural fairs is the system of premiums. A good many people take a sensible view of the use of premiums, and think more of the honor of success than the cash value of what they win. But there are a good many others who think otherwise. They figure it all out as a matter of dollars and cents; and calculate loss and gain just as they would if they were going to market. It is to cater to the greed of such people that large purses are offered, and the treasury of the society is often impoverished or made bankrupt. Such competitors have demoralized the idea of premiums, and turned into a matter of money what was intended to be a testimonial of merit. When men take their stock or goods to market, it is all well enough to go in for the best price, since the profit of their labor is the thing they are after; but in a competition at a fair, the meed of excellence is the best prize a man can have, and the question of dollars is the meanest view he can take of it. But you will say, "If we do not offer large purses we cannot draw the fastest horses," and the like. Very well; let us leave the turf to the jockey clubs and gamblers Agricultural fairs were instituted for better purposes, and if they cannot be made to succeed on their own merits, let them die.

Good and useful as our agricultural exhibitions are, still they are not unmixed with evil; and in view of all the discomfort, expense, waste, loss and demoralization which are experienced at our large gatherings, I have sometimes thought that the bad overwent the good. But this need not be so, and the remedy is in our hands to correct the evil. To call your attention to some of these facts has been my object in presenting this brief address.

Major J. M. Millikin offered, in connection with the third topic, the following resolution :

Resolved, That the Legislature of Ohio be requested to enact such laws limiting the cates of fare for passengers, and the charges for the transportation of property on the railroads of the State, as will protect travelers and shippers from discriminations and oppressive charges.

Resolved, That this Convention approve the principles of the bill introduced into the

Congress of the United States by the Hon. Samuel Shella barger, of Ohio, to amend an act entitled "An act to facilitate commercial, postal, and military communication among the several States, approved July 15, 1866," and do respectfully ask Congress to enact said bill into a law before the termination of the present session.

Action upon the resolutions was postponed until the afternoon session. The following nominations were made to fill the five vacancies in the State Board of Agriculture:

L. B. Sprague.

D. C. Richmond..

J. C. Stevens...

S. Harmount.

R. Joslyn

J. Buckingham
Dr. J. A. Warder

J. O'B. Renick.

S. N. Titus....

Edwin Phelps..

Clarke county.

Erie county.
.Hardin county.

Tuscarawas county.

..Shelby county.

Muskingum county.

Hamilton county.

Franklin county.

Meigs county.

.Defiance county.

The fourth topic was then taken up, when J. C. Stevens, of Hardin, read the following paper :

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION: There is nothing that tends to beget so lively an interest in agriculture, and a disposition to regard it as an honorable calling, as the fact that the government is lending its aid, and assisting in making it the most honorable, as it is the most useful, calling of man. Every interest and industry should challenge and receive the attention and support of the law-making power in proportion to its ability to supply the wants of the people. A class that is usefully and honorably employed in cultivating the earth, and forwarding objects bene ficial to mankind, should not only be rewarded with active employment, health and competence, but as high a place in state and nation as is assigned to any class of people.

In the most enlightened nations, ancient and modern, agriculture and the mechanic arts have occupied the highest place in public esteem. The ancient Egyptians held in great respect the husbandman, shepherd and artificer. In the most prosperous days of Egypt, no profession was considered as groveling or sordid. All classes of productive industry were equally noble with those of the most elevated in rank and titles.

The Persian government and kings have bestowed an unusual amount of care and attention to agriculture. One of the king's first cares was to make husbandry flourish, and the owner of whose estates were the best cultivated had the most of his favor. Officers were appointed at a very early day for the regulation of not only the military but agricultural departments. They were both protected with the same degree of affection.

One of the chief objects of Gelon, king of Sicily, and his administration, was to make the cultivation of the lands to be considered an honorable employment. He animated the husbandman by his presence; and, Plutarch says, his intention was not merely to make the country rich and fruitful, but also to exercise his subjects, to accustom and inure them to toils, and by that means to preserve them from a thousand disorders which inevitably follow a soft and indolent life. We are all familiar with the fact that Rome remained free, prosperous, and her people happy, so long as the cultivation of the

soil was regarded honorable, and the cultivators thereof had an interest therein. But whenever the title passed into the hands of the few, the incentives to industry and quiet life were gone. Farming was no longer regarded as an honorable occupation; idleness, crime, and disorder prevailed, until the terrible calamity overtook her that awaits all nations and individuals that hold honest manual labor in contempt or disreputable.

It is quite unnecessary for me further to allude to the high esteem in which agriculture has been held by the most intelligent nations of ancient and modern times, but I must quote the noble encomium of Socrates, who represents it as the "employment of all others the most worthy of man, the most ancient, and the most suitable to his nature; as the most common nurse of all ages and conditions of life; as the source of health, strength, plenty, riches, and a thousand sober delights and honest pleasures; as the mistress and school of sobriety, temperance, justice, religion, and, in a word, of all kinds of virtues, both civil and military."

Seeing then, gentlemen, that other governments and rulers have regarded our calling honorable and worthy the highest place in public esteem, is it not right and highly proper that organizations promotive of the agricultural interests of this great country should be recognized in the State Constitution to be revised this season? Farming being the sheet-anchor of State and national prosperity, should it not occupy the highest place both in state and at our federal capital? There should not only be suitable buildings for the assembling of agricultural societies, but a department of agriculture, ranking as high, or even higher, than any department of government; men in charge thereof distinguished for their learning in all the arts and sciences pertaining to agriculture and the mechanic arts; men who can readily see the wants and objects of our system, and with capacity to devise the means, and influence to secure a remedy for the evils, to the end that we may keep in advance of the civilized and enlightened nations of the globe. Agriculture being the source from which quite all our material wants are supplied, is it not a subject worth the zealous care of the law-making power ? Let the Government furnish suitable legislative encouragement to our progressive industries, and the farmer and mechanic will keep pace with the enlightened age in which we live; and the day is not far distant (with a proper use of the powers within our reach) when we will make new discoveries, new improvements and inventions, that will lighten the hardships and toils of the mechanic and husbandman, and those that follow us realize that their lots have fallen in pleasant places, and we rewarded for our good works.

Whenever the government fails to offer suitable legislative encouragement to the great interests that underlie all others, then we may bid farewell to our free institutions and boasted liberties.

On motion of S. Harmount, the Convention then took a recess until 2 P. M.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

The Convention re-assembled at 2 P. M., President Buckingham in the chair.

The resolutions offered at the forenoon session by Major J. M. Millikin were taken up, in support of which he spoke as follows:

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION: I have introduced these resolutions for the purpose of commending the general subject to which they refer to your attentive consideration. They are presented in no captious or unkind spirit, but

from a strong conviction that the "public welfare" demands careful, appropriate and efficient legislation, with as much promptitude as may be compatible with the magnitude of the interest involved, and the just rights of all parties concerned.

The public mind in many States is greatly excited upon this subject. There is no part of the country, and no class of our people, closely connected in business transactions, who do not complain, to some extent, of great hardships, of unjust discriminations, and ruinous rates of charges, imposed by railroad companies. All concur in the opinion that legislative authority, which has so long and so culpably remained dormant upon this subject, should be speedily exercised, in carefully investigating all causes of complaint, and in maturing and enacting such regulating laws as experience and wisdom may deem necessary, and as will scrupulously guard the rights of corporations, and protect the public from grievous and unjust exactions.

In Ohio, the manifestation of indignant feeling has been less violent and less denunciatory against railroad management than it has been in other States. Notwithstanding the very decided convictions of our people, they have generally possessed themselves in patience, under the very delusive hope that the great promised regulator, competition, would soon work most marvelous changes in the price of freights, and give general relief from all the many afflictions which our citizens had so long been compelled to endure. To their utter dismay, they are realizing the unwelcome truth that consolidation and combination have literally swallowed up competition. Competition has produced no permanent, substantial results. It was not only ephemeral, but utterly impotent, and those who had vainly hoped for permanent relief through its agency, are now suffering from the crushing and remorseless power of consolidation and combination, firmly united.

Other communities have not been so spiritless and inactive as the long-suffering people of Ohio. The West and the North-west are active, vigilant, and determined. They are manifesting a will and a power that will prove irresistible. In Illinois, the people are determined to have speedy and effective relief from the hand of the oppressor. They have incorporated in their new Constitution provisions clearly defining the rights and privileges of corporations. The Legislature has passed laws in conformity with said constitutional provisions, to save their people from onerous oppressions, and created a Board of Railroad Commissioners, which has prescribed duties to perform, and which is backed with the requisite authority of the State, so that it can take cognizance of all infractions of the laws, and bring offending violators to answer for their wrongs.

But again the power of combination is invoked. The railroads decline to submit to either the statutes or the provisions of the Constitution. They have rebelled, and are now united in a combined effort to resist the binding force of constitutional and legislative autobrity. Hence the unusual excitement prevailing in that State, and the strong manifestation of a fixed purpose to have railroads subjected to the same supervisory legislative authority that turnpikes, canals, or other classes of corporations, as well as citizens, are very wisely required to submit to Agricultural and horticultural societies, farmers' clubs, and the extensive organization of "Patrons of Husbandry," which is a new and as yet undeveloped power in the West, are every where demanding that the power of the people shall be sustained, and solemnly announcing that the rights and privileges of railroads are not superior to, but amenable to legislative authority.

The same sentiment is found every where to exist. Thoughtful and considerate men have the deep conviction that the impending question, whether railroad combinations or rights are to be the controlling power in the land, must soon be definitely determined Legislative supremacy, exercised within the limits of constitutional authority, over corporate organizations, must be thoroughly recognized and established, or we will soon