Members and friends of the Society may congratulate themselves, on the
whole, on the treatment accorded it by the state legislature of 1917.
In view of economic and political conditions generally, and of the
local political situation in particular, it was to have been expected
that the legislators would scrutinize our budget estimates with care,
and that enthusiasm for new advances, whether in work or in
appropriations, would be conspicuous by its absence. It is gratifying
to record that the members of the joint finance committee of the two
houses accorded the representatives of the Society an appreciative
hearing and manifested a desire to provide for its activities during
the coming biennium with enlightened, albeit prudent, liberality.
Since the task of presenting the Society’s needs to the legislature
devolves chiefly upon the writer of these lines, the occasion is
gladly improved to acknowledge in particular the broad-minded attitude
of Senator Platt Whitman of Highland, and Assemblyman E. A. Everett of
Eagle River, chairmen of the joint finance committee.
From one point of view, however, the present financial situation of
the Society is far from gratifying. It is running on substantially the
same budget as was first laid down in 1912, and this will, of course,
continue to be the case at least until July 1, 1919. No one who is
mature enough to be reading these lines, need be told that the
purchasing power of a given sum of money has shrunk alarmingly since
1912. In effect, therefore, the Society’s income has decreased in
recent years in proportion as the cost of living generally has
steadily increased. To take a single illustration, the cost of heating
the library building in the year ending June 30, 1916, was (in round
numbers) $5,500; for the succeeding fiscal year it was $7,400; while
the estimates for the year just entered upon call for an expenditure
of $11,000 for this purpose. Obviously the library building must
continue to be heated. It follows, therefore, with the total income of
the Society stationary from year to year, that the additional sum
required for coal must be gained by curtailing other activities of the
Society, which constitute its real excuse for existence. The
importance of this subject is such that a suitable occasion will be
sought later to lay it before our readers in fuller detail.
[Illustration: THE FIRST WISCONSIN CAPITOL AT BELMONT]