THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK . BOSTON CHICAGO 
 DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED 
 
 LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. 
 TORONTO 
 
THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES MCCARTHY 
 
 CHIEF. WISCONSIN LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1912 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1912, 
 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and elcctrotyped. Published March, 1912. 
 
 J. S. Cashing Co. Berwick & Smith Co. 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 
 
Co 
 
 THE HARD-HANDED MEN WHO BROKE THE PRAIRIE, HEWED THE 
 FORESTS, MADE THE ROADS AND BRIDGES, AND BUILT LITTLE HOMES IN 
 THE WILDERNESS. 
 
 To THE NORSE LUMBERJACK AND THE "FORTY-EIGHT" GERMAN 
 AND THE MEN OF THE " IRON BRIGADE," AND ALL TOILERS WHO, BY 
 THEIR SWEAT, MADE POSSIBLE OUR SCHOOLS, A GREAT UNIVERSITY, AND 
 ALL THE GOOD THAT IS WITH US. 
 
 TO THE LEGISLATORS, ALWAYS CRITICISED AND NEVER PRAISED. 
 
 "THEY THAT DIG FOUNDATIONS DEEP, 
 
 FIT FOR REALMS TO RISE UPON, 
 LITTLE HONOR DO THEY REAP, 
 
 OF THEIR GENERATION." 
 
 KIPLING. 
 
 241451 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 THANKS to the movement for genuinely democratic 
 popular government which Senator La Follette led to 
 overwhelming victory in Wisconsin, that state has be- 
 come literally a laboratory for wise experimental legis- 
 lation aiming to secure the social and "political better- 
 ment of the people as a whole. Nothing is easier than 
 to demand, on the stump, or in essays and editorials, 
 the abolition of injustice and the securing to each man 
 of his rights. But actually to accomplish practical and 
 effective work along the line of such utterances is so hard 
 that the average public man, and average public writer, 
 have not even attempted it ; and unfortunately too many 
 of the men in public life who have seemed to attempt it 
 have contented themselves with enacting legislation 
 which, just because it made believe to do so much, in 
 reality accomplished very little . 
 
 But in Wisconsin there has been a successful effort to 
 redeem the promises by performances, and to reduce 
 theories into practice. In consequence legislative leaders 
 and reformers pushing legislation in other states write 
 by the hundred to the men in power in Wisconsin ask- 
 ing for information on what has been done. Mr. 
 McCarthy, the chief of the Legislative Reference Library 
 of the Free Library Commission, has written this book 
 primarily to answer such inquiries. His purpose is to 
 
 vii 
 
Vlii INTRODUCTION 
 
 make the book of real service to good government, and 
 this purpose, in my judgment, he has admirably fulfilled. 
 It isji well reason^ ?nd thoughtful exposition of how 
 sane radicalism can be successfully applied in practice. 
 His writings have nothing wEaFever in common with the 
 mere hysterics out of which some well meaning, but 
 not very efficient, radicals seem to get such curious 
 mental satisfaction. Mr. McCarthy not only shows how 
 Wisconsin has proceeded in specific instances to accom- 
 plish specific results, but he has so interwoven his studies 
 of those separate results as to make the volume into a 
 connected whole. Through his account of actual accom- 
 plishment in the field of political and industrial reform 
 in Wisconsin, there runs a strain of philosophy that it 
 would be well for every practical reformer to master. 
 As Professor Simon N. Patten says : " Without means of 
 I attainment and measures of result an ideal becomes 
 || , meaningless. The jrej^jdealist is a pragmatist and an 
 economist. He demands measurable results and reaches 
 \ them by means ina9e~lf^aiiable by economic efficiency. 
 Only in this way is social progress possible." Mr. 
 McCarjjjyjsjwrpose is to impress not only every real 
 reformer, but every capable politician, with the factrthat 
 the people are more concerned about "good works" 
 than about "faith." 
 
 The Wisconsin reformers have accomplished the ex- 
 traordinary results for which the whole nation owes 
 them so much, primarily because they have not confined 
 themselves to dreaming dreams and then to talking 
 about them. They have had power to see the vision, 
 of course ; if they did not have in them the possibility 
 
INTRODUCTION IX 
 
 of seeing visions, they could accomplish nothing; but 
 they have tried to make their ideals realizable, and then 
 they have tried, with an extraordinary measure of 
 success, actually to realize them. As soon as they 
 decided that a certain object was desirable they at once 
 set to work practically to study how to develop the con- 
 structive machinery through which it could be achieved. 
 This is not an easy attitude to maintain. Yet every 
 true reformer must maintain it. The true reformer 
 must ever work in the spirit, and with the purpose, of 
 that greatest of all democratic reformers, Abraham Lin- 
 coln. Therefore he must make up his mind that like 
 Abraham Lincoln he will be assailed on the one side by 
 the reactionary, and on the other by that type of bubble 
 reformer who is only anxious to go to extremes, and who 
 always gets angry when he is asked what practical re- 
 sults he can show. Mr. McCarthy emphasizes the 
 lesson that cheap clap-trap does not pay, and that the 
 true reformer must study hard and work patiently. 
 
 Moreover, Mr. McCarthy deserves especial praise for 
 realizing that there is no one patent remedy for getting 
 universal reform. He shows that a real reform move- 
 ment must have many lines of development. Reformers, 
 if they are to do well, must look both backward and 
 forward ; must be bold and yet must exercise prudence 
 and caution in all they do. They must never fear to 
 advance, and yet they must carefully plan how to 
 advance, before they make the effort. They must care- 
 fully plan how and what they are to construct before 
 they tear down what exists. The people must be given i . 
 full power to make their action effective, and at the JA vl^ 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 time the educational institutions of the common- 
 wealth must be built up in such shape as to give the 
 people the opportunity to learn how to use their power 
 .wisely. Nor must political reform stand by itself. It 
 must accompany economic reform ; and economic reform 
 must have a twofold object; first to increase general 
 prosperity, because unless there is such general pros- 
 perity no one will be well off ; and, second, to secure a 
 fair distribution of this prosperity, so that the man of 
 the people shall share in it. 
 
 In short, this is a book which in my judgment every 
 reformer, just at this time, should have in his hands. 
 All through the Union we need to learn the Wisconsin 
 lesson of scientific popular self-help, and of patient care 
 in radical legislation. The American people have made 
 up their minds that there is to be a change for the better 
 in their political, their social, and their economic condi- 
 tions; and the prime need of the present day is prac- 
 tically to develop the new machinery necessary for this 
 new task. It is no easy matter actually to insure, in- 
 stead of merely talking about, a measurable equality of 
 opportunity for all men. It is no easy matter to make 
 this Republic genuinely an industrial as well as a politi- 
 cal democracy. It is no easy matter to secure justice 
 for those who in the past have not received it, and at 
 the same time to see that no injustice is meted out to 
 trocess^/It is no easy matter to keep the 
 Balance level and make it evident that we have set our 
 faces like flint against seeing this government turned 
 into either government by a plutocracy, or government 
 by a mob. It is no easy matter to give the public their 
 
INTRODUCTION XI 
 
 proper control over corporations and big business, and 
 yet to prevent abuse of that control. Wisconsin has 
 achieved a really remarkable success along each 
 every one of those lines of difficult endeavor7~"lt is a 
 great feat, which deserves in all its details the careful 
 study of every true reformer; and Mr. McCarthy in 
 this volume makes such study possible. 
 
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 IN my capacity as legislative librarian for over ten 
 years in the state of Wisconsin, I have been constantly 
 in touch with the legislation of this state, which now 
 seems to be attracting some little attention throughout 
 the country. The legislative reference department has 
 been besieged by newspaper writers who come here to 
 use the files and records. The recent magazines have 
 contained considerable literature relating to the con- 
 structive nature of this legislation. Every day this 
 department is called upon to answer many questions 
 concerning particular laws or underlying principles. Our 
 time has been taken up to such an extent that it has 
 been deemed wise, after a great deal of deliberation and 
 perplexity as to what should be done with the increas- 
 ing volume of correspondence, to set down a few notes 
 about these laws, and the philosophy upon which they 
 are built as I see it. In doing so I am aware of my 
 limitations. I have done the work hurriedly, without 
 due care as to literary standards. Also, I have been 
 handicapped to some degree because I have been work- 
 ing in this department for the legislators and have taken 
 no part in active politics. 
 
 In the actual toil and drudgery of the legislative 
 session in a clerical capacity I have tried gladly to 
 carry out the will of the men of genius and power who 
 
PREFACE 
 
 composed the Wisconsin legislature. Working under the 
 direction of the legislature, a large part of this legisla- 
 tion, indeed the principal part of it, was constructed in 
 some connection with the department of which I have 
 been chief. Because of my duties as librarian of the 
 legislative reference department and as a member of the 
 faculty of the University of Wisconsin, I can say truly 
 that I have had opportunities to see events in this state 
 perhaps from a different standpoint than any other man. 
 If I show a certain spirit now and then which may seem 
 to cloud my judgment as to certain matters herein con- 
 tained, I crave the reader's pardon on the score that I, 
 a wandering student, seeking knowledge, came knock- 
 ing at the gates of the great University of Wisconsin, and 
 it took me in, filled me with inspiration, and when I left 
 its doors the kindly people of the state stretched out 
 welcoming hands and gave me a man's work to do. 
 
 Without the collaboration of my assistant, Miss Ono 
 Mary Imhoff, these rough notes could not have been put 
 together. She has also prepared the short bibliography 
 which may be found in the Appendix and which will 
 show the inquirer how and where to obtain particular 
 laws or documents. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION . vii 
 
 PREFACE xiii 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE REASON FOR IT i 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 THE SOIL 19 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS AFFECTED BY A PUBLIC 
 
 INTEREST 34 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES ... 88 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 124 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 LABOR, HEALTH, AND PUBLIC WELFARE . . . .156 
 
 xv 
 
Xvi TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VH 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ADMINISTRATION . . . . . . . .172 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 THE LEGISLATURE 194 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 233 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 CONCLUSION 273 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 307 
 
 INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM RESOLUTION . . . 309 
 MEN SERVING BOTH UNIVERSITY AND STATE FOR 
 
 I9IO-II 313 
 
 INDEX 319 
 
ERRATUM 
 
 Page 36 : Quotation credited to the author of The American 
 Commonwealth, beginning " Such was the beginning of the 
 dynasties of absolution" etc., should have been credited to 
 A. B. Stickney. 
 
THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE REASON FOR IT 
 
 THE reason for the Wisconsin legislative program is 
 not hard to find. There is really but one cause and it 
 presents but one problem, which is basic to all others, 
 and no advancement of human welfare or progress of 
 civilization can take place until a solution is found. 
 
 The problem is one with which the whole American 
 people is grappling. It presents no particular mystery 
 nor is it difficult to understand. 
 
 Take up any newspaper. What are the headlines? 
 -Monopoly - Trusts - - Trusts and the tariff - 
 High cost of living Predatory wealth. 
 
 Pick up a President's message. Can there be any 
 doubt about it ? Always the same something strong 
 and oppressive, almost unreachable, in some way entan- 
 gled with courts, lawyers and litigation always having 
 the power to attain its object always possessing FORCE. 
 
 Force? How can these things have Force? Have 
 they armies, guns or the attributes of those who usually 
 possess force? If not, how can they oppress? 
 
 Suppose when you went to buy food the man who had 
 it asked you ten dollars when it was worth only one, and 
 
\ f\ 1 
 
 V I 
 
 2 ? XI : tBE .'WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 putting a gun at your head made you give him the other 
 nine dollars. Would the contracting parties be on equal 
 footing ? One of the parties added Force to the contract 
 to make it favorable to him. Suppose he did not make 
 use of the gun and yet you could not buy the food from 
 any other man, because he had a monopoly and you would 
 be obliged to give him the other nine dollars. Would 
 he not be doing the same thing, adding force to contract ? 
 The only difference is that one time he used a gun and the 
 other time monopoly. Wealth would concentrate quickly 
 in your community, would it not and Force also ? 
 
 Suppose that this condition existed almost universally 
 and that certain people possessed natural monopoly in oil, 
 iron, coal and the necessities of life, and others possessed 
 artificial monopoly in franchises, transportation facilities, 
 patents, etc., is there any doubt that the problem 
 
 * s ^ e same > anc ^ ^ ne cause f it unequal conditions of 
 contract? 
 
 The remedy ? It is easy to say " equalize the condi- 
 tions between these two," but how can it be done? 
 Everything in life is unequal but it is inequality that 
 makes men strive. Can you put a penalty on sturdiness, 
 intelligence or efficiency ? How big must be the force 
 I and how great the inequality? A herd philosophy of 
 absolute equality is foreign to our genius. 
 
 A remedy based upon a philosophy of " the weak to live 
 and the strong to die" obviously cannot serve our pur- 
 
\\\ 
 
 THE REASON FOR IT 3 
 
 pose. History and the common experience of life teach 
 us that adversity has its place in the success of a nation. 
 A man, a plant or a nation cannot be kept in a molly- 
 coddle stage and develop true virility. Pain and strong 
 winds are the friends of nations, as of men. 
 
 The moment we begin to equalize the conditions of j\ \\ t 
 men we are on dangerous ground. The fierce fight of// ' 
 competition must remain; the adventurous spirit 
 fearless attack against great odds is the very soul of th 
 spirit of our people. 
 
 Civilization has not arisen under the hot sun where 
 nature seems too kind. It has its chief seat where the 
 elements and the stubborn soil force men to use their 
 might ; and sheer necessity makes great men and great 
 countries ; but again too much ice and snow stunts life 
 and ambition ; the Esquimaux builds nothing but a snow 
 hut. A temperate zone in business, in which men may 
 live, work and develop the best that is in them for them- 
 selves and for all, must be created and carefully protected. 
 There is a limit to free play. As John Stuart Mill said : 
 
 "Energy and self-dependence are, however, liable to be im- 
 paired by the absence of help, as well as by its excess. It is even 
 more fatal to exertion to have no hope of succeeding by it than to 
 be assured of succeeding without it." 
 
 But can a legislature, even if it were perfect, justly 
 say whether gas should be ninety or ninety-five cents ? 
 
4 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 During a crowded legislative session how can it determine 
 and put into law a schedule of prices for oil and coal or 
 of railroad rates ? Even if this were possible, are we not 
 basing all on the presumption that the legislature is 
 willing and ready to do our will ? It is not so simple as 
 this ; as an editorial in the Chicago Tribune, commenting 
 on recent events in the state of Illinois, expresses it : 
 
 "Before the corporation robber can be suppressed it will be 
 necessary to suppress the corporation incendiary who supports him 
 and the political jackpotter who plays into the hands of both." 
 
 It is not so easy to get regulation from the legislature 
 as it may seem. The people who possess Force use it in 
 this connection as freely as they use it elsewhere, and 
 the legislative machinery is not yet so complete that it 
 always follows the wishes of the people. 
 
 The judges ? Can we turn to them ? Well, the Man 
 in the Street looks dubious when you ask him. This 
 matter of contract in relation to monopoly has some- 
 how been strangely muddled in the courts ; we are still 
 looking in vain for any real relief from that quarter. 
 The truth is, that the judges are like the legislators ; even 
 if they are clear-brained and brave enough, how can they 
 fix the price of gas at ninety instead of ninety-five cents ? 
 What means have they for studying carefully every cog in 
 the great machinery of commerce ? They were not con- 
 stituted for this duty, and as umpires can scarcely assume 
 
THE REASON FOR IT 5 
 
 control of a legislative and administrative problem. 
 Americans do not want their judges to be legislators. 
 
 Yet a frenzy of judicial remedy seems to have seized 
 us. We have all selected our favorite "trust busters," 
 and the newspapers are full of stories of the deeds of 
 these mighty men. The street corner orator yells 
 "Bust them," "Dissolve them," "Imprison them." 
 
 Professor R. T. Ely, in his book on trusts, quotes 
 newspaper headings of twenty years ago as follows : 
 
 "Black Eye for the Trusts Important Decision handed down 
 in Chicago." 
 
 " The Standard Oil Trust has resolved upon dissolution." 
 
 " Pools are hit Hard United States Supreme Court Upholds 
 Sherman Act Decision is a Surprise Virtually Declares all 
 Traffic Agreements Illegal Competition will be Open Man- 
 agers greatly Concerned." 
 
 " Trusts in a Panic Tobacco Combine Makes the First 
 Important Surrender, etc." 
 
 " Trusts Busted Far-reaching Effects of the Supreme Court 
 Decision." 
 
 Familiar friends these, are they not ? 
 As Professor Ely says : 
 
 " Comment on these utterances of the press is scarcely neces- 
 sary to-day. If there is any serious student of our economic life 
 who believes that anything substantial has been gained by all the 
 laws passed against trusts, by all the newspaper editorials which 
 have thus far been penned, by all the sermons which have been 
 preached against them, by all the speeches of politicians denounc- 
 
6 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 ing them, this authority has yet to be heard from. Forms and 
 names have been changed in some instances, but the dreaded work 
 of vast aggregation of capital has gone on practically as heretofore. 
 The writer does not hesitate to affirm it as his opinion that efforts 
 along lines which have been followed in the past will be equally 
 fruitless in the future." 
 
 But the man who has FORCE is the employer of men 
 and women. Little homes and villages and the happi- 
 ness of thousands depend upon him. After all, he is in 
 our midst ; he is a part of us and we cannot " tear him to 
 pieces," "dissolve him," or "bust him." Would stopping 
 the railroad or closing the electric light plant be of any bene- 
 fit to us ? The remedy must be complex and varied. The 
 evils considered here are as old as the world and inherent 
 wherever human frailty meets human strength. They are 
 involved in every human attribute, and no rule of thumb or 
 cut and dried theory can affect them wholly or completely. 
 
 However, there is a difference between a mountain 
 and a molehill, and the great and glaring wrongs can be 
 righted. Relieve the individual from even a little unjust 
 force and he will do the rest. As long as he knows how 
 to fight, is not complacent, nor overwhelmingly handi- 
 capped, the result will never be in doubt. 
 
 No plan can be made which will be successful, even 
 temporarily, unless we probe for sound basic ideas. If 
 this problem of concentrated wealth and power is world 
 wide and world old, let us try to view it in its right rela- 
 
THE REASON FOR IT 7 
 
 tions, in order that our plan for the future may not 
 topple over because its base is not sufficiently broad. 
 
 Every schoolboy knows that nations apparently ^V ? 
 have a childhood, a strong youth and a gradual coming I / . 
 of age and decay. In the youthful period, caste and 
 wealth are not prominent. The righting man of a Saxon y\ \ 
 horde or a Daniel Boone is respected and self-surficient.yy J 
 A man is rated as a man. After a tribe has been settled 
 for a hundred years, we find that a few seem to be in 
 the lead, having land, wealth and power, while others 
 seem to be gradually drifting downward in the scale. 
 Finally, a few hundred years later, we find conditions 
 such as exist in Russia, with concentrated wealth, caste 
 and power on one hand and extreme poverty on the 
 other. As John Boyle O'Reilly once said : 
 
 " A small class in every country has taken possession of property 
 and government, and makes laws for its own safety and the secur- 
 ity of its plunder, educating the masses, generation after genera- 
 tion into the belief that this condition is the natural order and the 
 law of God. By long training and submission the people every- 
 where have come to regard the assumption of the rulers and owners 
 as the law of right and common sense, and their own blind in- 
 stincts, which tell them that all men ought to have a plenteous 
 living on this rich earth, as the promptings of evil and disorder." 
 
 If this has been the course of history, are there not lessons 
 to be learned ? Is there not some way of keeping history 
 from repeating itself ? Is there not some means by which 
 
8 
 
 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 we can maintain the youth of the nation, keep poverty at 
 a minimum, and wealth, caste and privilege from com- 
 manding, conquering and finally destroying the nation ? 
 
 Let us look at this crude diagram. Perhaps it will 
 show how far-reaching the remedy must be. 
 
 In the diagram to the left, marked Stage i, you will 
 notice the word Wealth at the top and the word Poverty 
 
 STAGE 1 
 
 AMERICAN 
 
 PEOPLE 
 
 1850 
 
 STAGE 3 
 
 at the bottom ; between these two extremes is a square 
 representing the American people in 1850. It represents 
 a time in America when the great monopolies had not 
 been formed; when Force in contract did not exist to 
 the extent that it does to-day ; there was plenty, and it 
 was not necessary to use force. Was there not free 
 land, oil, minerals, etc. ? Wherein lay the advantage of 
 monopoly ? 
 
 To the right of this is Stage 2, which is intended to 
 represent conditions in 1912. A small rectangle will be 
 seen directly under the heading Wealth. This shows 
 the change that has taken place. One per cent of the 
 
THE REASON FOR IT 
 
 people now possess over fifty per cent of the wealth. 
 Yet the strong, independent American spirit is still evi- 
 dent in the class represented halfway between Wealth 
 and Poverty; notice the other small rectangle at th 
 bottom the very poor. Does any one maintain that 
 this picture is untrue? Some might consider the rec- 
 tangle representing the very poor too small, but for our 
 purpose to illustrate the basic conditions of society 
 in relation to the Wisconsin idea it will serve very 
 well. 
 
 On the extreme right is Stage 3. It needs no com- 
 ment. The sad history of many a country can be 
 pictured by that little diagram because concentrated 
 wealth means power, caste, privilege, corruption and 
 decay of every ideal, whether of manhood, morals or 
 patriotism. Are not the crumbled remains of what were 
 once prosperous cities scattered in the waste places of 
 the earth sufficient proof of all this? We need not 
 exaggerate this picture, and we cannot. 
 
 With these diagrams before us the question with 
 which we are concerned is, are we following the same 
 path ? Will the slow grind of a hundred years or more 
 lead to the inevitable decay which seems to come to all 
 nations? Are the seeds sown and the causes for decay 
 already with us? Are the corrupting influences of the 
 concentrated wealth of to-day to continue, adding force 
 to force while government and individuals are swept 
 
^y 
 / T I 
 
 10 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 under, until Stage 3 comes into existence? Since the 
 American revolution, throughout the world, and par- 
 ticularly in Europe, there has been such an advance in 
 the science of government and economics, in education 
 and general intelligence, that we are tempted to hope 
 that history may not repeat itself. If that hope is 
 justified, it will be due to the new economic philosophy 
 everywhere guiding the lives of men and nations in the 
 
 old countries. 
 
 1 1 
 
 When one sees Germany, once a country of poor 
 peasants, shot over by every conquering swashbuckler, 
 transformed by the might of intelligence, noble philosophy 
 and keen foresight into a shining example for the rest of 
 the world, we feel certain that our own country cannot 
 long remain indifferent. The world is being aroused by 
 her enthusiasm. England with her crowded cities 
 poverty and discontent stalking everywhere is profit- 
 ing by Germany's experience, and, guided by' her wise 
 Chancellor Lloyd George, is determined to use similar 
 devices to obtain the same results. 
 t While in America Stage 2 has been gradually ap- 
 broaching Stage 3, in Germany, Stage 3 of one hundred 
 and fifty years ago has gradually approached Stage 2 - 
 yes, even Stage i. 
 
 Let us consider one of the ancient cities now deserted 
 and buried. It was, after all, a beehive, and the cause 
 of its decay was a very simple one the drones shirked 
 
THE REASON FOR IT II 
 
 while the workers bore the burdens ; the drones increased 
 and the workers bore more burdens, and so it continued 
 until the workers could bear no more; they became 
 dulled, disheartened and discontented, and the pauper 
 and the proletariat appeared. The drones would do no 
 work, and soon the whole structure came tumbling down, 
 to lie covered with the sands of the desert. Selfish 
 power, bad government and oppression brought about 
 its ruin. Why? Because men forgot that prosperity 
 exists for the benefit of the human being and for no other 
 purpose. If prosperity does not uplift the mass of 
 human beings, it is not true prosperity, however it may 
 be counterfeited by a grand show of fair cities or the 
 glories of its riches. 
 
 Indeed, if there is a magnificent building built in any 
 city which is not, either directly or indirectly, for the 
 purpose of improving the opportunities and increasing 
 the happiness of all the manhood of the country, it is 
 built for no purpose, and were better not in existence. 
 
 This the German knows. This the American, secure 
 still in the mighty phrases of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, glorying in the tarnished grandeur of the Con- 
 stitution, boasting of his riches and the power and 
 might of his material things, has not yet discovered. 
 
 Our civilization, with its wealth and prosperity, must 
 be made to exist for its true purposes the betterment, 
 the efficiency and the welfare of each individual. The 
 
12 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 \ Germans have shown us the way; we need not adopt 
 
 all their methods, but we will do well to accept their 
 
 AA - | philosophy, for there is no patent on it. America must 
 
 w cope with this new devastating influence of wealth 
 sanely and successfully so that greater prosperity and 
 more equitable distribution of its benefits under just 
 laws will result. 
 
 A German prince of the olden time awoke one morn- 
 ing and found that he had no money. He sent for his 
 treasurer, who, in answer to his demand, declared that 
 there was none, that war, robbery, famine and injustice 
 had done their work too well. Alarmed by this reply 
 the prince asked the treasurer what could be done about 
 it, to which he replied: "My lord, we cannot collect 
 taxes unless the farms produce; the farms will not 
 produce unless the farmer works them intelligently; he 
 cannot do that unless he receives a fair profit, protection 
 and an opportunity to live like a man rather than a 
 beast. Give me a portion of the realm; let me keep 
 peace and do justice, and the farmer will produce more 
 and will pay you more taxes." The prince was con- 
 vinced and gave him what he asked. The treasurer 
 drove out the cheating rascals who had acted as judges ; 
 he punished the drunken soldier ; he protected the weak 
 against the strong; he imprisoned the usurer and dis- 
 missed the tax farmer; he provided markets and ex- 
 changes which were honest; he invested heavily in 
 
THE REASON FOR IT 13 
 
 roads and bridges; but best of all he taught the MAN. j 
 He made a better man, a more efficient machine; he |l/l/\> 
 taught him how to be a better farmer; in short, he did ' 
 what our efficiency expert, Mr. Taylor, does to-day in a 
 great factory. To accomplish this he did not hesitate 
 because of expense, yet the investment was good, and 
 after a time the prince received more taxes while more 
 happiness and prosperity came into the land. 
 
 This story and that of the ruined city are one, and 
 the problem they reveal is our problem. It is possible 
 that their solution may be ours. With all these digres- 
 sions in mind, let us return to our diagram. Let us 
 consider the problems which would confront a business 
 efficiency expert. Let us suppose that we are worTung 
 with him and put down the questions which come to our 
 minds. They may help us in reaching a solution. 
 
 How did Stage i become Stage 2 ? To find this out 
 we must consider what is represented by the thin line 
 beneath wealth. 
 
 Who are our richest men ? Are they not the men who 
 have made use of that Force in contract which comes from 
 monopoly, artificial or natural ? The long list of oil mag- 
 nates, railroad kings, etc., certainly seems to prove it. 
 
 Could they have won without Force? Perhaps the 
 strong and intelligent might have done so very slowly, 
 to be sure but the concentration of wealth would not 
 have been so great. 
 
14 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 Are there not bankers, members of the stock ex- 
 changes and middlemen? Yes, but are they not all 
 entangled with Force? Do they not manipulate that 
 mysterious Force in contract? Are not the powers of 
 credit and monopoly practically one ? 
 
 Would it not be well to keep that thin line beneath 
 wealth in Stage 2 from growing? Can it be accom- 
 plished ? 
 
 Why not demand that when monopoly of any kind 
 exists, it shall be restricted to a reasonable gain ? Why 
 not say that it shall not discriminate unjustly nor use 
 its great power against the public welfare ? If monopo- 
 lies possess such Force that one man cannot compete 
 with them, why not let the state all men combined 
 -control them? Why not oppose Force by Force? 
 Is there any other way? When business affects the 
 interests of all, is it not something more than a private 
 matter for the concern of a private individual ? 
 
 Why not take by taxation some of that wealth ac- 
 quired by Force? Why allow idle sons and daughters 
 to waste this wealth ; why not tax them by graduated 
 income, inheritance and increment taxes, so that they 
 bear a burden proportionate to their strength, in order 
 that the burden of maintaining the state shall not fall so 
 heavily on the poor ? Will this be permitted ? Will not that 
 same dreaded Force terrorize our legislators ? They are but 
 human, with business interests and families to support. 
 
THE REASON FOR IT 15 
 
 Why not make public the affairs of monopolies, so 
 that they cannot buy the votes of electors or legislators? 
 Why not limit the power of wealth in elections? It 
 cannot buy the whole people, can it ? If not, why not 
 make our legislators directly responsible to us so that we 
 may watch them ? Why not simplify the whole machinery 
 of nomination and election so that we are certain to 
 elect the men we want men of honesty and strength ? 
 
 But do not the trusts defy our laws after we have 
 passed them ? Who is powerful enough to enforce them 
 for us? The courts? Theoretically, yes, but prac- 
 tically, do we not need something nearer to the legisla- 
 tors a strong right arm of the legislature? Should 
 we not have a vigilant servant who, with the help of 
 trained experts wily enough to cope with every turn, 
 will relentlessly administer and enforce? Should not 
 this servant be a friend of the poorest citizen, a friend 
 to whom in unfair dealings he may turn and receive 
 justice quickly and surely ? 
 
 But the efficiency expert will say that we have omitted 
 the principal problem. The German treasurer in the 
 story went down to the unit the Man. Why <not 
 teach the man to look out for his own interests? We 
 must make him more efficient so that he can plant more 
 and make more. This is a difficult task if he is the 
 slave of economic necessity, because it will necessarily 
 cost money. Truly, but can we not obtain some of 
 

 1 6 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 that money from the graduated taxation of which we 
 have already spoken, or in the way that Lloyd George is 
 getting it? Why not invest something in the farmer 
 and the mechanic so that he will become more efficient, 
 so that he will have a better home, better prospects, 
 and greater skill, which will be an advantage to him in 
 contract? While we are teaching him this, why not 
 teach him how to live so that he may be strong and vig- 
 orous ; why not show him his rights under the law and 
 advise him as to the most advantageous way in which 
 to market his goods, whether it be his skill as a mechanic 
 or his oats ? 
 
 We have followed a long and winding path, Mr. 
 Reader, to show that no one categorical explanation of 
 the Wisconsin idea can be given. 
 
 (Although no definite plan has ever been laid, strangely 
 enough the development of the efficiency of the individual 
 and the safeguarding of his opportunity, the jealous 
 guarding of the governmental machinery from the invasion 
 of the corrupting force and might of concentrated wealth, 
 the shackling of monopoly, and the regulating of contract 
 conditions by special administrative agencies of the people 
 have been under way to some slight extent in Wisconsin. 
 \ Why should not the state be the Efficiency Expert? 
 Should the state stand idle while its lands are despoiled 
 and its people are placed in bondage to a few of its mem- 
 bers? How have the great monopolies gathered their 
 
THE SOIL 17 
 
 power, save by taking to themselves governmental 
 powers because, under a worn-out doctrine of so-called 
 industrial freedom, the government did not utilize all 
 its functions? Is it better to allow such irresponsible 
 parties to have the power of fixing rates and prices rather 
 than the state? Is it better to permit them to make 
 the laws rather than the state? Can they fix market 
 and credit conditions, say who shall be permitted to do 
 business, and in what manner, better than the state? 
 The power to tax is the power to destroy. Shall we 
 allow them to lay whatever tax they see fit upon industry 
 and to shift their own burdens where they will? Shall 
 we allow them, when they are fined for wrong-doing, to 
 shift the fine to the persons who imposed it by the 
 simple process of raising the rates or prices? 
 
 The reader will find no dogmatic conclusions set forth 
 in these pages. He will be disappointed if he expects 
 certain vivid pictures of perfect legislation or adminis- 
 tration or clear-cut philosophy. He will find, on the 
 contrary, a seemly comprehension of the difficulties of 
 the problem as above outlined and a groping after and 
 testing of one device after another to serve in combating 
 the tendencies considered. He will find that patient 
 research and care have been the watchwords used every- 
 where. It will be explained how one piece of machinery 
 made another necessary, how educational, industrial and 
 welfare legislation were deemed the wise and necessary 
 
1 8 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 accompaniment of legislation intended to revolutionize 
 the electoral machinery, which itself became necessary 
 in order to initiate and assure great economic legislation. 
 
 Always he will find the constant harking back to the 
 just regulation of the conditions of contract between the 
 powerful and the weak whenever public interest de- 
 manded it the cause of the supreme struggle with 
 which the movement began and with which every mile- 
 stone is marked. 
 
 And, Mr. Reader, do not think that this program 
 could be started or forwarded on its way for one moment 
 without conflict. It is all very well to talk of construc- 
 tive legislation as if it had been outlined in a blue print 
 by some political science architect, but do not forget 
 for an instant that there was a relentless war in this 
 state for many many years and each advance was made 
 only as a result of that war. The history of that struggle 
 has been told by others. This little book attempts to 
 show what has been the outcome of that struggle and 
 of the combination of circumstances and conditions 
 which made good soil for certain ideas to take deep 
 root. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE SOIL 
 
 ECONOMIC pressure generally results in legislation. If 
 an automobile were driven wildly upon a prairie and 
 neither harmed nor killed any one, there would be no 
 necessity for restrictive legislation. It has been possible 
 for the doctrine of industrial freedom to exist in America 
 for a similar reason. No one demands laws restricting 
 the rights of others in the use of land or minerals when 
 there is an abundance of both. It is only when men 
 touch elbows that laws which narrow and define human 
 freedom come into being. A new country requires 
 capital, and capitalists must have inducements in the 
 form of tremendous gain in order to assume the risk. 
 In a new country, capital is a goddess to be propitiated. 
 It is somewhat surprising, therefore, that the doctrine of 
 the power of the state should spring up in Wisconsin, 
 which in 1900 produced more lumber than any other 
 state in the country. One would scarcely expect that 
 legislation of a type which would lead one to think that 
 its makers believed with Professor Schmoller that the 
 state is "the grandest existing ethical institution" would 
 gain a stronghold in such a community. 
 
 19 
 
\ 
 
 n 
 
 20 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 It is strange that, notwithstanding all the battles, the 
 constructive legislation growing out of these conditions 
 was of such an orderly character, so lacking in danger 
 to prosperity and so harmonious with the social develop- 
 ment of the state. The leaders deserve our commenda- 
 tion because they realized the necessity for this thorough, 
 painstaking construction. Fortunately for them, the 
 character of the people was such that it constituted an 
 element contributing to the advancement of their plans. 
 
 Wisconsin is fundamentally a German state : the 
 Germans were the first to arrive in significant numbers, 
 although they were followed later by a large influx of 
 Norwegians. Both of these peoples from the great 
 Teutonic branches have been noted for their steadfast 
 love of liberty and the systematic way in which they 
 proceed with government. The "forty-eight" Germans, 
 those of the Carl Schurz type, came fresh from a struggle 
 for liberty in the old country, and brought with them 
 as high ideals as any people who ever came to America. 
 Under these influences, the farms of Wisconsin were 
 settled and an orderly, careful government established. 
 A New England stream arriving about the same time 
 brought with it high educational ideals, which endowed 
 the whole Northwest with colleges and institutions of 
 learning. It was under these auspices that the Univer- 
 sity of Wisconsin was founded, having indelibly im- 
 pressed upon it a certain distinction which it has never 
 
THE SOIL 21 
 
 ceased to have, and certain ideals of service which can 
 be found in no other universities to-day, except perhaps 
 in Germany. 
 
 It is significant that among the first regents of the 
 university was Carl Schurz, the great hater of bad 
 government, the enthusiastic, patriotic statesman, the 
 powerful champion of civil service. Instituted as it was 
 by these liberty-loving people, it is not strange that the 
 university should have had as one of its great presidents, 
 John Bascom, a man of the highest type of New England i 
 character. Bascom was an economist ; he was more than 
 an economist. Political economy to him was not a dismal 
 science ; it was a science by means of which order, mo- 
 rality and statesmanship could live ; it had a moral force. 
 
 He declared "that, while the laws of legitimate ac- 
 quisition look to the good of all, and not to the plunder 
 of any, any illegitimate action which violates a higher, 
 a moral law, will usually violate a lower, an economic 
 law, and measure the gains of one by the losses of an- 
 other. There is a harmony of productive action by 
 which the gains of all are secured, and the laws of this 
 harmony are those of Political Economy. Intimately 
 connected with this view, is that by which the harmony 
 of the lower laws of acquisition with the higher laws of 
 morals is seen, and the mutual strength which they lend 
 
 
 
 to each other. The state of highest production not only 
 may be, but must be, the state of highest intelligence and 
 
22 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 A page from the directory of the officers and students 
 in the University of Wisconsin. Note the German and 
 Scandinavian stock! 
 
 Knott, Rodney D., Eau Claire, A Mid i 4445 
 
 Knotts, Frank, Gary, Ind., E 13683 
 
 Knox, Flora R., Milwaukee, L S 4 307 
 
 Knudson, Barney, Algoma, E i 1611 
 
 Knudson, Jeanette L., Madison, L S 4 1797 
 
 Knutson, Martin H., Ridgeway, A 3 2811 
 
 Koch, Harry J., Davenport, la., C C 13982 
 
 Koch, Orville C., Plymouth, C C 23187 
 
 Koch, Oswald T., Osceola, L S 4 4529 
 
 Koch, Vincent W., Janesville, L S 3 Med i 197 
 
 Koehier, Jennie E., Menomonee Falls, H Econ 2 2560 
 
 Koehsel, Minnie C., Madison, L S 3 547 
 
 Koenig, Alfred E., Madison, L S Grad 1026 
 
 Koenig, Ruby E., Two Rivers, L 2 
 
 Koepke, William C., Waukesha, Nor C 3 
 
 Koester, George F., Chicago, 111., L S 2178 
 
 Kohl, Edwin P., Marshfield, L S 31141 
 
 Kohler, Bert M., Chicago, 111., L S 32744 
 
 Kolls, Alfred C., La Crosse, L S 3 Med 1805 
 
 Koltes, Raphael P., Waunakee, L S 2 2672 
 
 Kolinsky, Pete C., Racine, L S 4 L 12864 
 
 Konig, Selma S., Weyauwega, L S 4 4004 
 
 Kootz, Arthur C., Milwaukee, L S 2186 
 
 Korst, Philip B., Janesville, M E 3 2999 
 
 Kottnauer, Edwin H., Milwaukee, Ch E Ad Sp 2 
 
 Kouns, Sarah M., Upper Sandusky, O., L S 2 1488 
 
 Kowyowundjian, Garabet, Racine, E i 
 
 Kozarek, Steven A., Antigo, C E 4 2257 
 
 Kraemer, Edward C. A., Milwaukee, A i 
 
 Kragh, Stella M., Madison, L S 4 2923 
 
 Kratz, Clara, Schleisingerville, M 3 2737 
 
 Krause, Emil F., Sawyer, E i 
 
 Krause, Linnie, Ridgeland, L S 4 
 
 Kraus, Raymond J., Marshfield, E E 3 3036 
 
 Kreis, Elizabeth, Wheaton, 111., L S 1156 
 
 Krell, Samuel A., Madison, C E 4 Adv C 4779 
 
 Kremer, Eugene E., Fond du Lac, L S 4 2864 
 
 Kremers, Roland E., Madison, L S i 
 
THE SOIL 23 
 
 virtue; and the highest intelligence and virtue cannot 
 fail to be productive of the greatest wealth. The in- 
 terests of production are often seen to be so parallel 
 with the path of virtue, as to be more provocative of 
 virtue than virtue herself. The admirable interaction 
 of the laws of the several departments of man's social 
 nature, the mutual support which they render each 
 other, and the general concurrence of their motives, 
 present topics not less suggestive of divine skill than 
 those of the external world." He taught, he philoso- 
 phized, and he left a deep impression upon this state 
 and upon the university. In his classes were men like 
 Senator Robert M. La Follette, Judge Robert G. Sie- 
 becker of the Wisconsin supreme court, and Charles R. 
 Van Hise, now president of the University of Wisconsin. 
 
 On December 13, 1911, memorial services were held 
 for this man at the university. The full tide of his 
 influence was clearly shown at that time, the beginnings 
 of which Bascom himself had lived to see. The follow- 
 ing tributes paid to his memory show the respect for 
 and appreciation of his work and influence. 
 
 Said Judge Siebecker on that occasion : 
 
 " He held to the principle that we are bound in duty to use the 
 school as a means of helpfulness in the world and that every true 
 educational principle takes issue with any system of instruction 
 that omits to call upon the school to take its place in the state as a 
 constructive agency in the highest social economy." 
 
24 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 Dean E. A. Birge said : 
 
 " I question whether the history of any commonwealth can show 
 so intimate a relation between the forces which have governed its 
 social development and the principles expounded from a teacher's 
 desk, as that which exists between Wisconsin and the classroom 
 of John Bascom. No social and political movement is even in 
 part the work of one man or one set of men, and no one who knows 
 the history of Wisconsin can be ignorant that the state was fully 
 alive to the need of economic reform before Dr. Bascom came here, 
 and that it was ready to attempt to put such reform into practice. 
 But it is equally true that no social influence in Wisconsin during 
 the past generation has been more potent than that of Dr. Bascom 
 all the more potent during the quarter of a century in which it 
 has been silent. The social movement of the state has been rapid, 
 sane and just, an unusual and rare combination of qualities. 
 Among the foremost influences that have secured these qualities 
 are those radiating from Dr. Bascom's classroom, appealing first to 
 his immediate students ; less immediately, but still directly, to the 
 many students of the university who did not get to his classroom, 
 and through all these affecting the temper of the people of the state." 
 
 Strange as it may seem, the same philosophy which 
 was being taught in the University of Wisconsin was 
 slowly becoming the dominating influence in Germany. 
 The strength of this theory, even in remote times, is 
 clearly shown in the writings of early German economists. 
 The belief that it pays the state to concern itself in the 
 betterment of human beings and the protection of 
 human welfare, in order that it may receive in return a 
 rich reward from this investment, is not a new one. 
 
THE SOIL 25 
 
 While Germany, shattered by the Napoleonic wars, was 
 striving to solve her problems through methodical dg- 
 velopmejit under the iron hand of Bismarck, Wisconsin, 
 the great German state of this nation, was slowly form- 
 ing, through the university and its teachers, certain 
 ideals which in the future were to have a marked effect 
 upon its legislation. In Germany the scholar was recog- 
 nized and respected as a leader ; in the German univer- 
 sities the lamp of liberty was ever kept burning brightly. 
 It was to the German scholar that Bismarck invariably 
 turned for aid in the development of the legislation 
 which has characterized Germany for so many years 
 past the legislation which built it up from a country 
 of poor peasants to a great nation, second to none in 
 the prosperity and the happiness of its people. While 
 this German movement, with its practical system of 
 economics, was slowly growing and developing in its 
 universities, other economic and political ideals had 
 dominated England and were transplanted to America. 
 Even before the time of Napoleon, there had dawned in 
 England the philosophy of laissez faire. The history of 
 its expansion through the school of Adam Smith and 
 John Stuart Mill, every schoolboy knows. The idea in 
 it of independence and personal and industrial liberty 
 suited our American spirit. The concept that the state 
 should have nothing to do with the affairs of men, that 
 the state was a necessary evil, that men do best when 
 
26 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 left alone, appealed to the men of America, as it did to 
 the immigrants, who rushed to our ports from the coun- 
 tries of Europe, land-hungry and sickened by the laws 
 which had bound them in the old country. It was not 
 strange that the doctrine of industrial liberty took deep 
 root in America and found its way into our law and 
 into the teachings of our professors. While the able 
 and inspiring Professor William G. Sumner, the teacher 
 of President Taft and of State Senator John M. White- 
 head, the great opponent of La Follette, was expounding 
 this philosophy in no uncertain phrases at Yale, while 
 the eastern colleges were everywhere satisfied, both in 
 the law schools and in the courses of political economy, 
 with this doctrine of industrial liberty, there was being 
 evolved in Wisconsin under German influences a new 
 doctrine which did not take form save in humane ways, 
 until after its teacher had ceased his activities. But 
 John Bascom and his economic teaching were not for- 
 gotten; nor were Carl Schurz and his political ideals 
 forgotten. 
 
 In Germany, prosperity had not resulted immediately 
 from the efforts of her economists, and the Germans, flee- 
 ing from the poverty of the old country and arriving on 
 our shores by the hundreds of thousands, were slow to 
 realize the mighty forces at work which were destined 
 to stop that tide and show to all men the wisdom of the 
 new doctrine of the judicious interference of the state. 
 
THE SOIL 27 
 
 When Sumner was in his prime and the eastern col- 
 leges were dominated by his great mental strength and 
 the clearness and force of his lectures and writings, a 
 student left Columbia university and went to Germany 
 to study under Carl Knies and Wagner; there he ab- 
 sorbed the inspiration of New Germany. He saw an 
 empire being fashioned by men regarded in his own 
 country as merely theorists ; he realized that these Ger- 
 mans were more than mere theorists ; that they studied 
 the problem of human welfare; that they were laying 
 the foundations for a great insurance system ; that they 
 foresaw the commercial prosperity of the country built 
 upon the happiness, education and well-being of the 
 human units of the empire; that order, intelligence, 
 care and thought could be exercised by the state. Im- 
 bued with inspiration by these great teachers, this young 
 man returned to America. He walked the streets to 
 obtain employment as a teacher, and after nearly starv- 
 ing, was engaged by a kind Jew as tutor to his children. 
 Finally, after many vicissitudes, he became an instructor 
 at Johns Hopkins university. Gradually the country 
 began to understand that a new teacher had appeared 
 in America. Books on economics were issued which 
 actually seemed to deny the old " wages fund" doc- 
 trine and the theories of value which were promised 
 by the economist in England and in. this country. 
 In fact, many thought that what he wrote was not 
 
28 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 political economy at all; they did not recognize it as 
 such. His books and his articles began to attract 
 attention, probably because people began to feel, in 
 a vague way, that something was wrong with our phi- 
 losophy. 
 
 The captains of industry held sway in our country, the 
 great trusts began domineering our political life, the coun- 
 try began to be more crowded, periods of depression came 
 oftener, and the old doctrine, advocated by Sumner - 
 that the state should not interfere with industrial life 
 was not altogether satisfactory. A group of thinkers 
 began to follow the leadership of this man. Richard T. 
 Ely finally came to the University of Wisconsin as a 
 professor of economics. Here was another singular 
 coincidence. The pupil of Knies and Wagner, coming 
 from Germany with his German political ideals, suc- 
 ceeded Bascom as a teacher of political economy in the 
 German university of the German state of Wisconsin. 
 A curious condition surely! He was regarded as a 
 socialist, and before long was tried by the regents of the 
 University of Wisconsin as a socialist. After great ex- 
 citement, which is still remembered throughout the state, 
 he was acquitted, and the regents in acquitting him gave 
 forth the following statement: 
 
 " In all lines of investigation ... the investigator should be 
 absolutely free to follow the paths of truth, wherever they may 
 lead. Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry 
 
THE SOIL 2Q 
 
 elsewhere, we believe the great state of Wisconsin should ever en- 
 courage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which 
 alone the truth can be found." 
 
 Hence it is not surprising that in the republican plat- 
 form for 1910, after the University of Wisconsin had 
 gone through a trying siege in which its professors were 
 again accused of being socialists and of " interfering in 
 politics," that a political party, dominated by a student 
 of Bascom's, and having in it many of the students of 
 Ely, should have repeated word for word the same 
 phrases which were written seventeen years previous, 
 nor that the class of 1910 should have presented a 
 tablet to the University of Wisconsin, inscribing upon it 
 the following portion of that acquittal : 
 
 " Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry else- 
 where, we believe that the great state of Wisconsin should ever 
 encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by 
 which alone the truth can be found." 
 
 Thus succeeding Bascom and Ely came a long line of 
 young men, many of them of German or Scandinavian 
 stock, who were impressed with the ideas that Ely ex- 
 
 WM. 
 
 pounded at that time. He preached a curious new doc- 
 trine, a "new individualism," that men deserved the 
 right of opportunity and benefited by it ; that it was the 
 duty of the state to preserve to them opportunities ; that 
 the state was a necessary good and not a necessary evil ; 
 
30 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 that the great institution of private property was good, 
 and furthermore existed for public good, but that if any 
 particular part of it did not exist for public good, it 
 should be made to do so. He was practically the organ- 
 izer of the American economic association. The prin- 
 ciples he laid down have extended over the country and 
 are being taught in all the principal colleges ; his pupils 
 have inspired men who have taught others. He has 
 gathered about him in the University of Wisconsin a 
 group of men who have studied with him and received 
 inspiration from him. At a recent meeting of the 
 American economic association it was found that there 
 were present seventy professors or instructors in colleges 
 who at some time in their career had been his pupils. 
 
 The doctrine that the state should have more to do 
 with economic welfare had spread throughout the en- 
 tire country, but in no place had it found better soil 
 nor had greater results than in the German state of Wis- 
 German professors have come repeatedly to 
 r isconsin and have been surprised by the German 
 >irit in the university. Therefore it is only natural 
 that the legislation of Wisconsin should receive an im- 
 petus from men who believe that laws can be so con- 
 structed as to lead to progress and at the same time 
 preserve to the fullest all human betterment ; that the 
 advice of scholars may be sought ; that what has made 
 Germany happy and prosperous may be duplicated in 
 
THE SOIL 31 
 
 Arnerjc a ; that business and human welfare can increase 
 side by side and that the best investment which the state 
 can make is that which makes every home better, for 
 when intelligence goes into the product, that product 
 will win out in the race for the commercial supremacy of 
 the world. If Wisconsin is a prosperous state to-day, 
 there is no doubt that it is largely because of German 
 ideas and ideals, early instituted in the state. 
 
 The Scandinavian element came later, but was ani- 
 mated by the very same ideals. Indeed, they became 
 stimulated in many cases before they came to Wisconsin. 
 Every Norwegian, Swede or Dane who pays a visit 
 to-day to the Scandinavian countries returns an easy 
 convert to the ideals which seem to have dominated 
 Wisconsin during the last decade or more. Many of the 
 leaders are found among the Scandinavians. Many im- 
 portant posts, influential in the guidance of the different 
 commissions, are filled by men who have traditions from 
 the old countries. It is worthy of comment that a 
 Scandinavian statistician was responsible for the de- 
 tailed statistical work of the railroad commission and 
 that another gifted man of Norwegian stock has been 
 the chief means of promoting splendid insurance laws in 
 this state. The Norwegian element is much more active 1 
 than the German in politics ; it is much more aggressive^J^ 
 For many years one of the most talented members of the 
 tax commission has been of that race, and it is not un- 
 
32 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 usual in the legislative body to hear Norwegians, Danes 
 or Swedes quote in debate the high standards maintained 
 in Norway or in the Scandinavian countries. Men fa- 
 miliar with foreign agricultural methods and those trained 
 in the people's high schools of Denmark or in the scien- 
 tific schools of Sweden or Norway are helping to organize 
 county agricultural schools. Behind this Wisconsin move- 
 ment is a great body of tradition, a tradition of orderliness 
 and of scientific methods, a knowledge that things can and 
 should be done by experts in a careful and diligent man- 
 ner and that progress must come, slowly but thoroughly. 
 If we are going to understand Wisconsin legislation, we 
 must fully realize that jthe leaders of it could not be^agi- 
 tators of the type which is seen frequently in other parts 
 of the country. However radical their ideas mayTave' 
 
 been, however original their methods, it was inevitable 
 that legislation should be constructed slowly and cau- 
 tiously. The men who have had the greatest influence 
 in making that legislation what it is, were inspired by these 
 ideals. The peoplejrf Wisconsin would not have supported 
 any wild or extravagant legislative schemes. The stock 
 is^Too sturdy, too cautious ^ and Jpo conservative to be 
 swayed by any revolutionary influence. The leaders had a 
 stubborn, determined people with whom' to deal. They 
 were slow to move, as they are to-day, and it took long 
 patience and fighting to win them, but once moved; they 
 "stayed put." 
 
THE SOIL 33 
 
 It must be remembered that there have been those 
 who believed in the social or educational features, who 
 wavered or halted in the long fight because of certain 
 political legislation hereafter described. There have 
 been some who opposed the political changes, but who 
 are now seemingly acquiescing or even actually approv- 
 ing because of what seems to be fairly good and sane 
 results from the last decade of political innovation and 
 economic regulation. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS AFFECTED BY A PUBLIC 
 INTEREST 
 
 THE railroad was tne first of the great monopolies to 
 need regulation. The settler coming into a new, raw 
 country was absolutely dependent upon transportation 
 facilities; it was natural that he should treat the rail- 
 road like a spoiled child, and it was likewise natural 
 that the railroad should take advantage of him. Human 
 selfishness unless checked will always take such ad- 
 vantage. It must be remembered too that the securing 
 of capital to bring a railroad into new territory was no 
 easy task and the man who did it was entitled to a large 
 reward. Abuse, however, was inherent in the system. 
 
 The farmer had one great Necessity transportation. 
 Transportation was in the hands of a monopoly the 
 railroad. The farmer was obliged to send his grain to 
 market; the railroad, having Advantage on its side, 
 demanded its price. The farmer answered that he 
 could not pay it and have any profit. He appealed for 
 justice and was told that there was common law govern- 
 ing public carriers which would relieve him from extor- 
 tion. With confidence in our constitution and the 
 
 34 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 35 
 
 judiciary, he went before the courts, calling for justice, 
 and demanded his "day in court." He got it, but there 
 were too many days in court. He appealed, and he 
 fought and went from court to court, single handed, 
 always impeded by increasing Necessity. Wiser and 
 sadder, but deeply perplexed, he learned that the vaunted 
 common law was strong in name but a shambling thing 
 in action. He gave up stubbornly; he had been told 
 of the glories of our constitution, and yet he could not 
 but believe that there was something wrong, but re- 
 sented as unpatriotic any such thought. It took a long 
 time for him to learn that if he would live, he must 
 accept the terms of the all-powerful one who could 
 either make or break him ; he learned to do the political 
 bidding of the one who had Advantage. He became a 
 cynic and distrusted the "agitators," of whom he was 
 warned by the agents of the powerful one. 
 
 Turn back through the pages of history, study them 
 well and read the results of this advantage in contract 
 in the old days, as depicted by A. B. Stickney, a railroad 
 president : 
 
 " The managing officers were now potentates, ' railroad mag- 
 nates/ ' railroad kings.' They travelled in state, surrounded by 
 their personal staff, the heads of the different departments, who 
 were almost as important personages as their chiefs. When they 
 visited a town on their lines, the principal business men rushed to 
 greet them. The fat of the land was at their disposal. Merchants 
 
36 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 sent baskets of champagne to the heads of the traffic departments 
 and sealskin jackets to their wives, while on the other hand, special 
 rates were liberally bestowed upon their favorites. Special clerks 
 were required to be wholly employed in issuing free passes. Judges 
 and juries seemed to have a perceptible bias in their favor, the 
 brightest attorneys were retained, and minor officials were glad to 
 grant them favors. The country press was subsidized with passes 
 for editors, their families and their friends." 
 
 A distinguished Englishman, the author of "The 
 American Commonwealth," describing the palmy days 
 of the dynasties, says: 
 
 " These railway kings are among the greatest men, perh ,ps I 
 may say are the greatest men, in America. They have wealth, 
 else they could not hold the position. They have fame, for every 
 one has heard of their achievements ; every newspaper chronicles 
 their movements. They have power, more power that is, more 
 opportunity of making their personal will prevail than perhaps 
 any one in political life, except the President and the Speaker, who, 
 after all, hold theirs only for four years and two years, while the 
 railroad monarch may keep his for life. When the master of one 
 of the greatest Western lines travels towards the Pacific on his 
 palace car, his journey is like a royal progress. Governors of states 
 and territories bow before him ; legislatures receive him in solemn 
 session ; cities and towns seek to propitiate him, for has he not 
 the means of making or marring a City's fortunes ? 
 
 " Such was the beginning of the dynasties of absolution in the 
 management of Western railways (under the conditions of modern 
 civilization the public highways of the land), which have since 
 afflicted the business of the country, and are now, by both a reflex 
 and direct influence, crushing the business of the railway companies 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 37 
 
 as well, and gradually reducing these noble properties to the verge 
 of bankruptcy. Conceived in the womb of usurpation, nurtured 
 by the power of might, these dynasties take no note of the progress 
 of the world of thought or of changed conditions, but, like their 
 Bourbon prototypes, they neither move forward nor backward, 
 they neither learn nor forget." 
 
 How could an individual contend against a force like 
 that? In the words of Chief Justice Ryan, in the first 
 great railroad case in Wisconsin, 
 
 " Their influence is so large, their capacity for resistance so 
 formidable, their powers of oppression so various, that few private 
 perso is could litigate with them, still fewer persons would litigate 
 with them for the little rights or the little wrongs which go so far 
 to make up the measure of the average prosperity of life." 
 
 But a few kept on with the fight, and notwithstand- 
 ing the power of the railroads, the "Granger movement" 
 suddenly took form. Someway or somehow it was 
 realized that the state the whole body of citizens as 
 a unit could collectively accomplish what one man, 
 single handed, could not, i.e. equalize the conditions of 
 contract by placing force against force. This is why the 
 
 Potter law" for the control of railroads was enacted in 
 Wisconsin in the early seventies. That law was a crude 
 attempt ; it was full of long schedules of rates made in 
 a haphazard manner by the legislative committees. It 
 did, however, lay down the precedent that when a force 
 is so great that no one individual can meet it and receive 
 
38 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 fair treatment, justice must be given to that individual 
 / by the aid of the state. 
 
 A weak organization of straw, called by courtesy a 
 railroad commission an elected commission was 
 next established as a sop to public opinion. This did 
 not relieve the situation, but left the complainant still 
 bearing the burden of litigation. 
 
 It was many years before there appeared to again 
 arouse public opinion a far-seeing and persistent fight- 
 ing man, A. R. Hall, to whose memory there is a bronze 
 tablet in the new capitol in Madison. Public sentiment 
 had become so deadened, the railroads had become so 
 powerful in the affairs of business, and the manufac- 
 turers and business men of the state were so fearful that 
 "capital would be driven out of the state" by any 
 restrictive legislation, that A. R. Hall was literally jeered 
 at and laughed down as a crank when he persistently 
 introduced his railroad bills into the legislature. His 
 work, however, was not without results. A stronger 
 movement, led by Robert M. La Follette, now United 
 States Senator, soon awakened the people, swept the 
 state and made La Follette governor. Hall had per- 
 sistently advocated the ad valorem taxation of railroads. 
 This was made an important issue and was finally passed. 
 In this case, what Walt Whitman once said proved true, 
 
 " It is provided in the essence of things that from any fruition 
 of success, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a 
 greater struggle necessary." 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 39 
 
 What was to prevent the railroad from raising the 
 rates in order to provide for the increased taxes ? Some 
 protection was necessary, so in 1903 a bill was intro- 
 duced based upon the Iowa plan, whereby the commis- 
 sion made a schedule of rates for the railroads to follow. 
 This bill was the cause of a severe battle in the legisla- 
 ture, but was finally defeated. The railroad question 
 was made the issue of the next campaign, and the lead- 
 ers determined to make the most perfect law possible. 
 The Iowa plan was abandoned and the country was 
 scoured for advice; the regulative law of all the dif- 
 ferent states and of foreign countries was closely scruti- 
 nized. No more patient study was ever given to any 
 one bill in the history of the state. The leader in all 
 this research was Senator W. H. Hatton, a man of large 
 business interests and great ability. He introduced a 
 1 new princfple and laid down the thesis that it was as 
 much the duty of the state to furnish transportation 
 facilities as it ever had been to make roads or build 
 bridges, and that if the function was delegated to any 
 one, it was the duty of the state to regulate it so that 
 the agent should be required to furnish adequate service, 
 at reasonable rates without discrimination. When the 
 legislature opened Mr. Hatton was appointed chairman 
 of the senate committee on railroads and began his long 
 and patient struggle for the passage of the bill in spite 
 of practically a hostile majority. During this entire 
 
40 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 contest, he was aided by a keen lawyer and able debater, 
 Senator George B. Hudnall, whose vigorous work on 
 this committee is worthy of comment. Draft after 
 draft of the bill was submitted to the railroad attorneys, 
 university professors and to all the experts available 
 whose arguments and criticisms were duly considered. 
 Months went by. Seeing the railroad attorneys con- 
 stantly around the committee, the more radical and im- 
 patient of the legislative leaders began to assert that 
 they were being betrayed. In due season Mr. Hatton 
 presented the bill, which was so strong and fair that no 
 real attack could be made upon it. 
 
 This act is of great importance, for it laid the founda- 
 tion for a series of laws, many of them following its exact 
 language, and it has been considered in detail not only 
 because of its importance, but also to show how patiently 
 and thoroughly Wisconsin acts are prepared. The legis- 
 lature is seldom impatient ; it has recently adopted the 
 expedient of drafting tentative bills, giving hearings and 
 redrafting bills through investigating committees, a long 
 while before the opening of the legislative session. The 
 procedure by which the legislature passed the railroad 
 commission act is now practically a settled policy. A 
 committee is granted plenty of time and expert help if it 
 will produce results, and the legislature is apparently 
 willing to prolong the session to any length in order that 
 it may do its work thoroughly and well. 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 41 
 
 The act covers complete regulation, both as to rates 
 and service, not only of railroads but of all correlated 
 organizations, such as refrigerator lines, sleeping cars, 
 transportation and despatch companies of all kinds, as 
 well as equipment, regulation of passes, mileage books, 
 sidings, switching and terminals; in short, the whole 
 railroad business. The simplicity of its procedure is 
 worthy of note. Senator W. H. Hatton said before a 
 committee at the time of its formulation, "I want this 
 procedure so simple that a man can write his complaint 
 on the back of a postal card, and if it is a just one, the 
 state will take it up for him." 
 
 After all, for what purpose was the whole thing con- 
 structed but that there might be plain justice? Re- 
 versals, demurrers, rules, appeals, errors the whole 
 troop which had clouded the reason of judges and 
 added to the squabbles and fees of lawyers were ex- 
 cluded : 
 
 Said Senator Hatton : " At a hearing before the commission 
 both the complainant and the corporation shall be given full op- 
 portunity to offer testimony of every kind relating to the matter 
 at issue. 
 
 " After any such hearing, if the commission shall find the rate 
 complained of to be unreasonable, immediate relief shall be given 
 and the commission shall fix a reasonable rate to be substituted 
 for the rate found to be unreasonable. The new rate must be 
 submitted to and observed until passed on by the courts and there- 
 after unless it shall be declared by the court to be unlawful, as 
 
42 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 the rate made by the corporation was submitted to and observed 
 until it was declared by the commission to be unreasonable. 
 
 " It would be an injustice to the complainant as well as others 
 who are required to pay the unreasonable rate to allow the matter * 
 to be taken to the courts upon appeal to be tried de novo and allow 
 the old rate, which has been declared to be unreasonable, to remain 
 in force, pending the judicial determination. 
 
 " To try the case anew in the courts, the old rate remaining in 
 force meanwhile, and keep the complaint entangled in litigation, 
 would not only be unjust to him, but would delay the equitable 
 adjustment of rates by deterring others from making complaint, 
 for the majority will submit to wrongs rather than engage in 
 lengthy litigation with wealthy corporations. 
 
 " The complainant having won his case before the commission, 
 should be relieved from further litigation and thereafter the state 
 must defend the acts of the commission, for it is a matter of public 
 concern. Therefore, let any party in interest who is dissatisfied 
 with any order of the commission bring an action in any court of 
 competent jurisdiction against the commission as defendant to set 
 aside any order made by it, fixing any rate, on the ground that the 
 rate made by the commission is unlawful. 
 
 " In trials before the courts, if there is offered any new mate- 
 rial evidence or any different evidence than that offered at the 
 hearing before the commission, the court shall stay its proceedings 
 for fifteen days and remand the case to the commission for rehear- 
 ing. This procedure prevents the withholding of material evidence 
 at the hearing before the commission for the purpose of introducing 
 it at the court trial, thereby securing a reversal of the order and 
 thus discrediting the commission, and it compels the submission 
 of all testimony to the commission for consideration before its final 
 action. At the hearing before the commission the question passed 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 43 
 
 on is the rate made by the utility corporation, and the burden of 
 proof is then upon the complainant, he being the plaintiff, to show 
 by preponderance of evidence that the rate complained of is un- 
 reasonable ; if he succeeds in so doing, then in a court trial, in an 
 action brought by the utility corporation, the question will be on 
 the rate made by the commission and the burden of proof will then 
 rest upon the utility corporation, it being the plaintiff, to show 
 by a preponderance of evidence that the rate made by the com- 
 mission is unlawful." 
 
 The following is that section of the law relating to 
 complaints : 
 
 " Complaints and investigations. Sec. 1797-12. Upon com- 
 plaint of any person, firm, corporation or association, or of any 
 mercantile, agricultural, or manufacturing society, or of any body 
 politic or municipal organization, that any of the rates, fares, 
 charges, or classifications, or any joint rate or rates are in any respect 
 unreasonable or unjustly discriminatory, or that any regulation or 
 practice whatsoever affecting the transportation of persons or 
 property, or any service in connection therewith, are in any respect 
 unreasonable or unjustly discriminatory, or that any service is in- 
 adequate, the commission may notify the railroad complained of 
 that complaint has been made, and ten days after such notice has 
 been given, the commission may proceed to investigate the same 
 as hereinafter provided. Before proceeding to make such investi- 
 gation, the commission shall give the railroad and the complain- 
 ant ten days' notice of the time and place when and where such 
 matters will be considered and determined, and said parties shall 
 be entitled to be heard and shall have process to enforce the at- 
 tendance of witnesses. If upon such investigation the rate or 
 rates, fares, charges or classifications, or any joint rate or rates, 
 
44 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 or any regulation, practice or service complained of, shall be found 
 to be unreasonable or unjustly discriminatory, or the service shall 
 be found to be inadequate, the commission shall have power to fix 
 and order substituted therefor, such rate or rates, fares, charges or 
 classification, as it shall have determined to be just and reasonable 
 and which shall be charged, imposed, and followed in the future, 
 and shall also have power to make such orders, respecting such 
 regulation, practice or service as it shall have determined to be 
 reasonable and which shall be observed and followed in the future. 
 " a. The commission may, when complaint is made of more than 
 one rate or charge, order separate hearings thereon, and may con- 
 sider and determine the several matters complained of separately, 
 and at such times as it may prescribe. No complaint shall at any 
 time be dismissed because of the absence of damage to the com- 
 plainant." 
 
 The following is the simple language in which the 
 great power to fix rates is couched : 
 
 " Commission to fix rates and regulations: procedure. Sec. 1797- 
 14. Whenever, upon an investigation made under the provisions 
 of this act, the commission shall find any existing rate or rates, 
 fares, charges, or classifications, or any joint rate or rates, or any 
 regulation or practice whatsoever affecting the transportation of 
 persons or property, or any service in connection therewith, are 
 unreasonable or unjustly discriminatory, or any service is inade- 
 quate, it shall determine and by order fix a reasonable rate, fare, 
 charge, classification or joint rate to be imposed, observed, and 
 followed in the future in lieu of that found to be unreasonable or 
 unjustly discriminatory, and it shall determine and by order fix 
 a reasonable regulation, practice, or service, to be imposed, ob- 
 served, and followed in the future, in lieu of that found to be un- 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 45 
 
 reasonable or unjustly discriminatory, or inadequate, as the case 
 may be, and it shall cause a certified copy of each such order to be 
 delivered to an officer or station agent of the railroad affected 
 thereby, which order shall of its own force take effect and become 
 operative twenty days after the service thereof." 
 
 The authors of the bill were exceedingly careful to 
 stay within the bounds which hedge about the delegation 
 of legislation. All Wisconsin legislation of this kind is 
 based upon the simple and yet effective device which 
 may be paraphrased as follows : 
 
 1. Rates shall be reasonable. 
 
 2. Our servant, the commission, shall ascertain'whether 
 they are or are not. If they are not, they shall be 
 made so. 
 
 In other words, the plan carefully allows the legis- 
 lature to make the law; the commission does nothing 
 but administer the wish of the masters, the legisla- 
 ture. The commission does not attempt in any way to 
 legislate. 
 
 An understanding of certain expedients and devices 
 used in this law will lead to a clearer view of the prin- 
 ciples underlying the greater part perhaps of the legisla- 
 tion described in what follows. 
 
 Like the railroad commission all commissions are 
 practically appointive. In dealing with complex eco- 
 nomic subjects the legislature lays down general prin- 
 ciples determines the general policy and turns over to 
 
46 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 appointive commissioners the responsibility for the ad- 
 ministration of these principles* "''The appointive method 
 is used because it has been felt that it is just as ridicu- 
 lous to elect a railroad commission as it would be to 
 elect, on a state-wide ballot, a professor of comparative 
 philology at the university. 
 
 The other device that is used, when it is found neces- 
 sary to control an economic factor affected by a public 
 interest, is public bookkeeping. This may take the 
 form of accounting, valuation, etc., but the assumption is 
 that if the state is a partner, it must know all the facts. 
 
 The third great expedient is reliance on the trained 
 expert or, at least, the proper recognition of the fact 
 that the work should be carried on by men who [have 
 acquired ability either by training or by experience. 
 
 The fourth expedient is little understood, and yet 
 is one of the most powerful factors, i.e. the continuing 
 appropriation. The commissions can all be controlled 
 by the majority of the legislature, but are not at the 
 mercy of every whim of the minority. 
 
 Running all the way through the regulative legislation 
 is the same idea the welfare of the statejs the welfare 
 of the individual. Real rights, not theoretical ones, 
 must be guaranteed the individual. The position of 
 the strong and the weak must be equalized by a powerful 
 state intervention, if necessary to the attainment of 
 quick and certain justice. 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 47 
 
 The state is always an interested party. It means 
 merely that when a man is weak he has a big brother 
 to whom he may turn, who judges his case and says to 
 the strong one, "I am here not only as a judge, but also 
 to protect the weak against the strong. The burden of 
 proof is upon you to show that my rulings are unjust. 
 This man cannot make any progress toward real justice 
 in the face of all the difficulties which beset him." And 
 it is not always a single individual who is too weak. 
 As Professor Ely says : 
 
 " How helpless against a combination of railways is the city 
 of twenty-five thousand inhabitants when struggling to do such a 
 seemingly small and entirely right thing as to provide gates at grade 
 railway crossings. The writer has one case in mind. The very mod- 
 est efforts of the city were met with the threat that the railway shops 
 would be removed to a village some thirty miles distant and in an 
 adjoining state. Even the city of Chicago has had a mighty strug- 
 gle, continuing for years, in its efforts to protect life at railway cross- 
 ings. At one time it was proposed by the railways to leave Chicago 
 and build another city in adjacent territory to escape what was 
 regarded by the railways as oppression on the part of the city." 
 
 The following diagram will illustrate the one great 
 central device which has been used over and over again. 
 In Diagram I is shown g, h, i, j, k, /, m small shippers. 
 Each man has to take up individually his particular case 
 against "A" -the railroad, a corporation composed of 
 b, c, d, e and/, that is, a cooperative, collective agency 
 an organized body. The small shippers are obviously, 
 
THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 from an economic standpoint, at a disadvantage against 
 this organization. They also have great difficulty in 
 trying to prove their case before the courts when they 
 have not even publicity as to the facts to help them. 
 
 iD- 
 JO- 
 KD- 
 
 RAILROAD 
 
 DIAGRAM I 
 
 Diagram II shows the establishment of "Z" -the 
 commission. Here we have a cooperative, organized 
 body to deal with the cooperative body "A." After all, 
 the device is similar to that used by labor unions in this 
 country and by the great cooperative farmers' move- 
 ments in Europe and Australia. 
 
 z 
 
 COMMISSION 
 
 
 A 
 RAILROAD 
 
 
 DIAGRAM II 
 
 Now let us consider Diagram III. If it is right that 
 8) h> i> jy k> ^ and m should have somebody to go to, 
 if it is right that "M," who as a shipper having a case 
 relating to a few bales of hay, should have some means 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 
 
 49 
 
 of getting speedy justice, what will we say about "N" 
 and "O," who have had limbs cut off through the care- 
 lessness of "A"? If we have given a remedy to U M' ' 
 for his hay or potatoes, should we not give some certain 
 compensation for "N" and "0" for their limbs? If 
 the principle applies in one case, does it not apply in 
 the other? Here we have the principle of the work- 
 
 z 
 
 COMMISSION 
 
 
 A 
 RAILROAD 
 
 .^fia^ 
 
 DIAGRAM HI 
 
 men's compensation act, but suppose there are others 
 - p, q, and r. "P" is a competitor who has a clear 
 case of unfair discrimination in interstate trade against 
 the steel trust. "Q" is a man who has a patent upon 
 which there has been an infringement by the Standard 
 oil company. "R" is represented in one of the follow- 
 ing cases, which have been taken from a report on the 
 investigation of certain insurance companies. They 
 may be found in the Proceedings of the National con- 
 vention of insurance commissioners held in Milwaukee, 
 August 22, 1911, pages 20-21, 24, 47-48. 
 
50 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 "Claim 31,805. FRANK HARMAN; liability $300. 
 
 "Insured was killed Dec. 5, 1908. He had had a 
 policy in the Columbus Mutual Benefit, which expired 
 Dec. yth. A Phcenix Preferred policy was issued and 
 paid for on Nov. 28th, it being understood between the 
 insured and the agent that the Columbus Mutual Benefit 
 policy would be dropped. At the time of the insured's 
 death, the Phcenix Preferred's agent had possession of 
 both policies. On Dec. gih four days after such 
 death such agent wrote to his company, asking it to 
 send him an indorsement to the effect that the policy 
 was not in force until the Columbus Mutual Benefit's 
 policy expired. The company replied, asking the agent 
 to forward the policy to the home office. The qompany 
 then apparently put an indorsement on the policy in 
 accordance with the suggestion of the agent. The 
 company was sued and defended as per such indorse- 
 ment and won. 
 
 "In the opinion of the committee this was not only 
 fraud but forgery, and those responsible therefor should 
 be presented to the criminal authorities for indictment." 
 
 "Claim 31,958. WILLIAM LINK ; liability $300. 
 
 "Policy concededly issued and paid for. Insured 
 killed in grain elevator, while performing his duties. 
 His widow, who had possession of the policy, delivered 
 it, within two days after the accident, to the company's 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 51 
 
 district manager. The latter then forwarded the policy 
 to the company with a brief memorandum on a slip of 
 paper, saying: 
 
 " ' Will write you to-morrow in regard to this. I don't 
 want to keep it in this office.' 
 
 "The next day the company replied : 
 "You were wise in not retaining anything in your 
 office/ 
 
 "And, later reprimands its manager for sending in a 
 preliminary proof, suggesting that 'it may cause us 
 trouble.' 
 
 "A month later, when written to by the attorney for 
 the claimant, the company states that it is unable to 
 find such a claim and imagines that the widow has 
 made a mistake in the name of the company and re- 
 peatedly thereafter denies that there is any record of 
 such a policy. As a result of this flagrant larceny of 
 the claimant's evidence, the company forces a com- 
 promise of $150, though informed that the claimant is 
 a woman in destitute circumstances, with two small 
 children, one of them but four months old." 
 
 "Policy 89,248. MIKE KORAN; liability $30Q. 
 
 "Insured died from fracture of the skull, March 29, 
 1907. The company, using first one excuse and then 
 another, delayed in every possible way settlement of 
 claim, though its agent writes, on April 18, 1907, that 
 
52 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 there is not a shred of evidence that the policy was 
 delinquent. The beneficiary who could not speak 
 English was thus forced to engage an attorney. So 
 far as the records show, these dilatory tactics were 
 successful and no payment was made." 
 
 " Claim 354,219. ANTON LUND, liability $5000. 
 
 " Policy covered double indemnity. Insured held a 
 traveller's ticket policy and was killed in a railroad wreck. 
 Company had no defence, save late notice, it seems to 
 have been asserted because administrator who was 
 prevented from securing possession of the ticket policy 
 by the coroner who took charge of the insured's body - 
 did not make timely proof. As soon as administrator 
 secured such policy he made proof. Beneficiary later 
 sued company. Company then adopted dilatory tactics 
 in the courts, its legal department writing the local 
 attorney, as follows : 
 
 " ' As I have repeatedly advised you, the company does not de- 
 sire that this case should ever come to trial, and our only intent 
 is to adopt dilatory tactics, file demurrers, etc., and thus force an 
 equitable settlement.' 
 
 And later: 
 
 " ' If you find that you cannot dispose of the suit within this 
 limit ($2,500.00) I think we had better stand <pat awhile longer, 
 putting the trial off as long as we possibly can, and adopting all 
 possible dilatory tactics. ... To be absolutely frank, rather 
 than let this suit go to trial, I would advise the company to pay on 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 53 
 
 the eve of the trial considerable more than the maximum men- 
 tioned.' 
 
 "The local attorney finally succeeded in making a 
 compromise settlement for $2500, the face of the policy, 
 thus evading the double indemnity." 
 
 The horrible thing about all this is that it is so uni- 
 versal. How can we make good citizens out of the 
 fellow-workers of Anton Lund and Mike Koran with 
 such an example before them? Is it any wonder that 
 the "Boss" is triumphant in American politics? Why, 
 the Boss is absolutely needed in a system of this kind ! 
 The Boss can get justice; he has power and sympathy 
 and can strengthen his hold with every appeal for his 
 aid. 
 
 Read the following from an article in Everybody's 
 Magazine true, every word of it. 
 
 "'Somebody's got to get hurt, and that's all there is to it. But 
 there is one thing that makes the boys mad.' The speaker was 
 a lean, quiet, shrewd-looking Scotchman of middle age, proprietor 
 of a tiny lunch room where dinner is served for a quarter. He 
 leaned over the desk, on his right elbow. 
 
 " ' Who ought to pay the damage ? ' With his thumb he pointed 
 to the limp sleeve that hung in place of his left arm. ' There is 
 a law for damages,' he went on, 'and there's plenty of lawyers 
 around the docks who know just how to handle it. These lawyers 
 are employed by the Ship Company, or by some insurance firm 
 that backs the Company, I don't know exactly which. All I do 
 know is that for a good many years while I was at work as a docker 
 
54 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 I watched how they did it. And havin' a feeling, as my good old 
 mither in Scotland would put it, that I was foreordained to get 
 smashed I began to kind of study this damage law by myself, 
 and decided just about what I'd do if the time ever came. 
 
 " ' It did. One afternoon in the bottom of a ship my arm got 
 hit from behind by the end of a big mahogany log.' He paused 
 for a moment, then he added slowly, ' When I come to, down on 
 the dock, I jest kept my eyes shut and shouted, " I won't sign any- 
 thing ! " Being somewhat frivolous-minded from the arm, which 
 was pounding inside like twenty pile-drivers, I made the same re- 
 mark to the ambulance man, and again to the hospital nurse when 
 I come out of the ether that night. Then I got almighty sick. 
 But when the lawyer arrived the next day, my legal mind was 
 ready. 
 
 " ' How.much for my arm ? ' I asked. That started him talk- 
 ing and showing his long lawyer paper. At last he pulled out fifty 
 dollars, and said they were mine if I'd sign and ' have no more 
 trouble at all/ 
 
 " ' " No more trouble at all," I said, speaking sad, " with a family, 
 and no arm to work with, and fifty dollars to live on? " 
 
 " ' Then, as he looked down on me in the bed, his face got lighted 
 by hope, faith, and charity ; he told me how sorry he was. But 
 he said I'd been careless in the eye of the law. 
 
 " ' " This eye of the law," I remarked, " is a just eye for me 
 and the Ship Trust alike." 
 
 " ' " Tries to be," he said. 
 
 " ' " It's a kind eye for my wife and kids," I remarked. 
 
 " ' " Tries to be," he said, looking sorry. 
 
 " ' " And if I don't sign, and sue you in court for five thousand, 
 it'll be a slow eye." 
 
 " ' " Tries to be," he began, but he grinned. " Your case 
 wouldn't even be called for a year," he said, looking sorry. 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 55 
 
 " ' I sat half up on my elbow. 
 
 " ' " And if I go to court with every Tammany chief of the 
 district still a slow eye," I remarked. 
 
 " ' The lawyer jumped, and his face got queer. He took the 
 addresses I gave "him, and went to see my friends. He came back 
 the next day, and grinned kind of sheepish, and offered a thousand. 
 I signed.' 
 
 " Talk with hundreds of men on the docks, and you will find 
 that the Scotchman's opinion, rightly or wrongly, is the opinion 
 of all. But few are as shrewd as he. Nine out of ten get nothing 
 at all, or else settle at once for some beggarly sum. And so, having 
 grown hopeless of this ' just eye/ they long ago started a scheme 
 of their own." 
 
 Good soil for the anarchist and the firebrand, is it 
 not, Mr. Reader ? 
 
 Legal aid bureaus have been established in cities, but 
 on the whole comparatively feeble attempts have been 
 made in Wisconsin or any other place to carry out any 
 definite plan to right some of these wrongs. Does it 
 show that we need some other sort of machinery to-day 
 to meet economic conditions? Does it show a break- 
 down of common justice ? Does it show that we should 
 have some cooperation on the part of the judges in clear- 
 ing up the procedure and the chicanery which has sur- 
 rounded law? Is it not a serious matter that these 
 crude devices above pictured have had to be used be- 
 cause justice could not be obtained and that, because 
 wealth and strength did have in fact such a place in 
 
56 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 our courts, such legislative devices were necessary in 
 order to carry out in these modern days that justice 
 which was guaranteed in our constitution ? 
 
 It may suggest to the reader that not only is our legis- 
 lative machinery, which has been so widely criticised in 
 the past at fault, but that there may be other deep- 
 seated faults which are not being corrected as rapidly 
 as those committed by the legislature, and that the 
 remedy in America does not merely consist of a few 
 laws restricting corporations but that it must go deep 
 down in the education of our lawyers, in the education 
 of our people as to their rights, and in the changes in 
 the forms of our government which will actually meet 
 the economic stress of to-day. 
 
 It is a common thing in the legislative halls for some 
 hoary head, learned in the law, to recite the old phrase 
 "you cannot make men good by law." That may be 
 true, but you can make men comparatively better at 
 least good enough to respect other men's rights. The 
 device shown in the diagrams is as old as history. The 
 state itself is based upon it. Without it civilization 
 could never have existed. To illustrate, imagine a 
 group of savages sitting in a circle feasting; the gaiety 
 is suddenly interrupted by a huge savage who rushes 
 into the circle, seizes the food and runs away with it. 
 We can imagine our savages sitting in a circle, hungry 
 and mourning over the loss of the food. One appeals 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 57 
 
 to the other to rescue the food. One braver than the 
 rest strives to wrest it from the thief and is killed. 
 This occurs perhaps many times until some genius 
 appeals to the desperate crowd, "Let's all go." They 
 do go and pound the marauder over the head. Then it 
 is that the law is made; that the rights of the weak 
 begin to be respected by the powerful; that what an 
 individual cannot do the collective strength of many 
 can do and incidentally in the future the chief offenders 
 will be better men. 
 
 But, says the doubter, will not the time of this com- 
 mission be inonopolized with these cases? Will not 
 Tom, Dick and Harry, every crank who has some 
 imaginary injury, crowd this tribunal until it will be 
 unable to do quick justice ? This is not true, because 
 when there is power enough, certainty enough and 
 punishment enough the offending party will be glad to 
 reach a settlement of some sort. If he has done wrong, 
 the publicity given to that wrong will excite public 
 opinion and the great corporations do not care for more 
 of this excitement than is necessary. Crank cases are 
 easily disposed of, and the case of the really injured is 
 generally settled before it reaches the commission. If 
 courts are complaining of being overburdened, they 
 should take " judicial notice" of the above results of 
 strong, clear, quick action. It is or should be one of 
 the purposes of all law to diminish litigation and to 
 
58 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 increase the number of cases settled amicably out of court 
 by arbitration or by other peaceful adjustment. If the 
 strong did not see so many loopholes in justice to-day, 
 so many chances to wear out the weak by lengthy liti- 
 gation, so many opportunities for appeals, reversals 
 and all the long list of legal barriers built up against 
 the "Man who has not/' there would not be so many 
 cases of this kind in court, the calendars would not be 
 crowded and incidentally, there would be more confi- 
 dence in justice and the servants of the law, and per- 
 haps less anarchy. 
 
 PUBLIC UTILITIES 
 
 The public utility act was the second important law 
 based upon the principles established in the railroad 
 commission act. 
 
 It was a general law, chapter 499, laws of 1907, regu- 
 lating heat, light and water works and telephone com- 
 panies. The street railway law, chapter 578 of the 
 laws of 1907, provided for indeterminate permits, while 
 street railways and telegraph companies were placed 
 under the supervision of the railroad commission by 
 chapter 582, laws of 1907. 
 
 The public utilities are now completely governed in 
 Wisconsin by the railroad commission, an appointive 
 board of three with practically unlimited power to hire 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 59 
 
 experts. Chapter 593 of the laws of 1911 provided for 
 further regulation of stocks and bonds, while physical 
 connection of telephones was required under chapter 546 
 of the laws of 1911. The same policy pursued in the 
 railroad commission law is carried out in the public 
 utility act. Physical valuation is the foundation of it. 
 It will be seen at once that if we have physical valua- 
 tion we are getting at the basis of all regulation. The 
 intangible assets can be separated and the same reasons 
 which justify its use by the railroad commission justify 
 its application to all public utilities. There is no feature 
 in this bill more questioned than the manner of arriving 
 at the valuation, for if the rates are to be based on 
 value, what are its elements? Makers of the law had 
 no greater difficulty than in trying to solve this ques- 
 tion. " Going value/' " Property used and useful," 
 "Cost of the service" are technical and difficult to 
 define. It will be a long time before all the points in 
 this matter can be worked out satisfactorily to the 
 accountants and the public. How fair the commission 
 have tried to be is seen by the following excerpt from 
 an address by Chairman John H. Roemer : 
 
 " There is a tendency on the part of some to regard the repro- 
 ductive cost less depreciation as the only proper basis of capitaliza- 
 tion upon which returns should be computed. This, in most in- 
 stances, would be so unfair that it could probably not be sustained 
 if assailed upon constitutional grounds. Old enterprises, which 
 
60 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 have yielded large profits for many years, could not justly com- 
 plain if their returns should be based upon the present fair value 
 of their physical structure, but when the losses incurred in the 
 developing period of the business of any public utility have not 
 been requited, it would be doing grave injustice to the investors 
 in such concern to so limit the returns upon the capital actually 
 and prudently sunk in the enterprise under economical adminis- 
 tration. We have taken the position, in certain cases, that the 
 losses necessarily incurred in building up the business during its 
 formative period are a legitimate charge against the public and 
 should in such instances be considered in fixing rates. It is my 
 personal opinion that unearned depreciation, unearned interest on 
 the investment, and any operating charges that have not been paid 
 out of operating revenues, from the inception of the enterprise 
 until it reaches the point where the operating revenues are sufficient 
 to pay fair returns on the legitimate investment, are generally as 
 much a part of the value of the active property as interest, taxes, 
 insurance, and other fixed charges incurred during the period of con- 
 struction. The former may often be computed accurately from 
 the records available and constitute the cost of establishing the 
 business on a profitable basis. It is, in fact, the cost incurred in 
 converting the property from a static state to a dynamic state, and 
 forms the monetary measure of going value. Whether the full 
 amount of such losses should be allowed in any given case, depends 
 upon all the facts and circumstances surrounding the same." 
 
 ?The law provides for a system of uniform accounting, 
 especially for construction and depreciation accounts. 
 It is generally thought by the men who drafted this 
 bill that these as well as publicity features were neces- 
 sary protections to the public against the commission. 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 6 1 
 
 Then, again, the municipalities indirectly will have tech- 
 nical help given to them, which otherwise they could 
 not afford. A permanent staff of experts is thus pro- 
 vided so that the municipality can tell upon what basis 
 the commission places its rates. The law also provides 
 for schemes which will be stimulants to corporations, 
 such as sliding scales and other devices of this kind, 
 merely, however, allowing the commission to pass upon 
 these scales. The depreciation accounting was received 
 with open arms by the managers of the companies. The 
 greedy stockholders in a company would press the 
 managers for a higher rate of dividend, who were thus 
 often between the devil and the deep sea. In many 
 cases if they gave this higher dividend they would have 
 to do so from the depreciation fund of the property, 
 whereas, if they did not give it, they were often threatened 
 with dismissal. In this manner both the avaricious 
 stockholder and the crooked politician who would make 
 the same demands of municipal enterprises have been 
 regulated by this law. The commission has just de- 
 manded that the city of Milwaukee set aside $35,000 
 for a depreciation fund for its municipally owned water 
 works. 
 
 One of the most debatable parts of the law is the 
 indeterminate permit. The men in favor of this bill 
 had a hard struggle to include this feature. The fixed 
 period had become so popular and there had been so 
 
62 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 many battles over it that it was very hard to convince 
 the legislature that, if the stocks and bonds were ter- 
 minated at a certain point, the consumers would lose in 
 the end by the term franchise, as the consumers would 
 have to provide for an amortization fund. Under the 
 Wisconsin law corporations were permitted to surrender 
 their franchises and receive an indeterminate permit. 
 It was felt by the authors of this program that with 
 entire publicity and power to fix the service conditions, 
 this was a safe basis upon which to go and would be the 
 cheapest in the long run. 
 
 Judge Marshall of the Wisconsin supreme court in a 
 case involving the validity of this part of the act says : 
 
 " The confusion created during the years preceding the public 
 utility law of 1907 by granting franchises in several different ways, 
 some directly by the state, some by cities as state agencies, some 
 by the state in the main but with power to the various municipal- 
 ities as state agencies to add supplementary features, fitting par- 
 ticular situations, some by the state without regard to local police 
 regulations, and some likewise having such regard, either expressly 
 or by necessary implication, some having contractual features 
 creating doubt in regard to their constitutional status, and some 
 having such features but without doubtful character, many of 
 such matters being, in the ultimate, more or less detrimental to 
 consumers, whether public or private, and proprietors as well, 
 in the whole, created a perplexing situation in respect to har- 
 monious administration. The legislature sought to deal efficiently 
 with this mixed situation, the growth of years, by taking over 
 existing franchises with the consent of owners, compensating them 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 63 
 
 for cooperating to that end by conferring in each case of surrender 
 a new franchise to do the things privileged under the old one with 
 conditions referable only to the law itself, and so providing that 
 subsequent original franchises conferred in whole or in part through 
 state agencies would be likewise referable. The traffic thus sanc- 
 tioned and invited as to existing franchises has been considerable 
 and, as said before, with definite mutual ideas as to the status re- 
 sulting from the exchange. The property interests involved have 
 doubtless been very great, the persons directly and indirectly in- 
 terested large, and the transactions numerous as well. Obvi- 
 ously, any construction of the law running counter to the general 
 view entertained hi such transactions should be avoided if prac- 
 ticable. 
 
 "If we concede, for the case, that, in a reasonable view, the 
 public utility law is ambiguous, looking only at its words, we can- 
 not well so say in the light of the situation the legislature dealt 
 with, as indicated, and the new condition which was evidently 
 desired. It is evident the aim was to displace existing public 
 utility franchises of the nature of those mentioned in the act, so 
 far as that could justly be accomplished, by new direct grants from 
 the state of a uniform character, free from the peculiarities of old 
 franchises, prejudicial to the dominant end in view ; the best ser- 
 vice practicable at reasonable cost to consumers in all cases and as 
 near a uniform rate for service as varying circumstances and con- 
 ditions would permit ; a condition as near the ideal probably as 
 could be attained. 
 
 " It is useless to extend this opinion further for the purpose of 
 picturing the situation dealt with by the legislature. The magni- 
 tude of the task was great. Few, if any, greater have been dealt 
 with in our legislative history. The result stands significant as 
 a monument to legislative wisdom. That such a complicated 
 
64 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 situation has been met by written law in such a way as to avoid 
 successful attack up to this time on the validity of the law or any 
 part of it, and avoid attack at all either upon the law or its admin- 
 istration, except in a very few instances, and secure optional sub- 
 mission by many owners of old franchises to a displacement of 
 their privileges, is quite a marvel ; reflecting credit upon the 
 lawmaking power and the body charged with the onerous duty of 
 administering the statute, and challenging judicial attention to 
 the importance of not, by construction, reading out of the enact- 
 ment any meaning not clearly found there, even to avoid a 
 seemingly unlooked-for disturbing consequence in a particular 
 instance now and then, which would tend to defeat the object 
 of the law. The words of the enactment, dealing as it does with 
 vast private and public interests, should, if practicable, be given 
 a meaning so definite and comprehensive as to prevent any at- 
 tempt to restrict it or extend it so as to continue or renew or pro- 
 mote the detrimental consequences it was aimed to abolish and 
 prevent." 
 
 The corporations did not at once avail themselves of 
 the privilege of exchanging their franchises for the in- 
 determinate permits, but by a law of 1911 they are com- 
 pelled to do so. Says Chairman John R. Roemer in a 
 recent address: 
 
 " This apparent reluctance to make the change, although con- 
 trary to the anticipation of the legislature which passed the law, 
 was not due to any apprehension on the part of the managements 
 that the indeterminate permits were less valuable to the corpora- 
 tions than their secondary franchises, but rather to a doubt as 
 to the power of the corporations to surrender privileges which had 
 been hypothecated to secure outstanding bond issues. Thus, most 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 65 
 
 of the surrenders were made by corporations who were able to 
 secure the consent of the bondholders or who were able to retire 
 or refund their bond issues. It was very evident that many years 
 would be required to carry out the purpose of the law respecting 
 uniformity of franchises throughout the state, and, hence, the 
 recent legislature, acting under the power reserved in the consti- 
 tution to alter or repeal corporate franchises, and under the police 
 power, amended every franchise, making it an indeterminate per- 
 mit. So at present, assuming the validity of the act converting 
 all franchises into indeterminate permits, there is uniformity in 
 franchises throughout the state, and, in consequence, all public 
 utilities are subject to all the provisions of the Utilities Law." 
 
 The Wisconsin law comes out boldly on the point that 
 unnecessary competition costs excessively in the long 
 run and should be eliminated, if possible, especially if 
 other incentives resulting in the betterment of service 
 can be maintained. In fact, the whole idea of this kind 
 of legislation is a frank recognition of monopoly. By 
 chapter 454, laws of 1907, no railroad corporation, which 
 includes street railways, may begin the construction of 
 any line without receiving a certificate of convenience 
 and necessity. Right in line with the same policy are 
 laws to provide for the common use, at a reasonable 
 compensation, of facilities such as poles, conduits, etc. 
 
 The municipal ownership law too has been strength- 
 ened. By using the threat of municipal ownership as a 
 club, municipalities may buy the plants of the companies 
 at a price fixed by the commission. As a general thing, 
 
66 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 it was felt by the men responsible for this regulation 
 that service was the first thing to be sought and if 
 proper service could be attained with a fair return to 
 the corporation, that was all that was necessary. They 
 depended upon publicity and valuation as clubs to 
 achieve this service under these conditions; there is no 
 doubt but that municipalities have a hard time convinc- 
 ing people that they should purchase plants, but the 
 law is so arranged that besides the regulation pursued 
 by the commission, there is constantly hanging over 
 public service corporations the purchase clubs used in 
 connection with the indeterminate permit. It will be 
 remembered that municipally owned plants and private 
 plants are under practically the same terms of control. 
 
 Nothing in this law has excited greater interest nor 
 greater antagonism than this very question of home 
 rule and the relations in general to municipalities. When 
 the public utility act was first proposed there is no doubt 
 but that the public utilities of the state thought they 
 would gain by placing in the hands of some kind of a 
 weak commission, a power which would protect them 
 from the localities. They were constantly in fear of the 
 encroachments of municipal ownership and the concerns 
 which were granted spurious franchises in so-called 
 competition. The outcry was great from the localities 
 but the law was sustained by public sentiment. The 
 friends of the bill answered that the small cities had 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 67 
 
 neither the administrative machinery nor the technical 
 means necessary to discover the conditions and that the 
 centralizing of technical skill which could be of use to 
 all was the only safety for the community at least for 
 the present. 
 
 It is well to note here that the municipality retained 
 the right to compel reasonable extension and good service 
 and to provide ordinances for that purpose, subject to 
 an appeal to the commission as to their unreasonableness. 
 
 Public Utility in Relation to Municipalities 
 
 The peculiarly defenceless position of the ordinary 
 small municipality and the relation of the public utility 
 
 DIAGRAM IV 
 
 commission to the whole question of the control of 
 public utilities is illustrated by Diagram IV. 
 
68 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 Let A be a large gas syndicate having an accounting 
 system that shows every item of the cost of the business. 
 It has scientific experts, technical engineers and a general 
 concentration of intelligence and ability and scientific 
 knowledge; it has a central administrative office. It 
 has also in its employ experts on the legal side of the 
 question, men who are accustomed to investigating the 
 law in all matters relating to this work. 
 
 Let "J3" be a small town which has a gas plant. "B" 
 complains that the gas is of poor quality or too costly. 
 What chance has "B" in fighting this great combination 
 of science and legal ability ? Why, "B" would not even 
 know how to obtain the first expert; it would have 
 neither offices nor organized force to conduct the fight ; 
 it could not examine the books of "A " ; it would be 
 woefully handicapped in its struggle. 
 
 Let the Wisconsin railroad commission be illustrated by 
 "H." The little town "B " can go to "H" and ask for its 
 help. "H" is the state seeing to it that one of its minor 
 branches has fair play. It has a permanent office, a 
 permanent staff of experts, it has the accounting and 
 the legal help to withstand the attacks of "A" and 
 until "B " acquires strength enough to maintain the 
 same staff of accountants and expert help, legal and 
 otherwise, as "H" the theory is that it is far better 
 for "B" to have "#'s" help than to remain in this 
 fight alone. 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 69 
 
 In discussing this matter Senator Hatton has the 
 following to say: 
 
 " While the state has the power to absolutely control all public 
 service corporations, it is well to bear in mind that local municipal 
 government, in so far as practicable, is the true policy to pursue 
 and wise state supervision, when dealing with public utilities sit- 
 uated within the corporate limits of cities, will emphasize this 
 principle rather than ignore or override it. The initiative in all 
 local public utility matters should remain with the local author- 
 ities. The right to review and regulate should be assumed and 
 exercised by the state. 
 
 " There is an intermediate field between absolute control and 
 dictation by the state and absolute municipal control and dicta- 
 tion by the city council. This intermediate field is the proper 
 sphere for the activities of the state commission in regulating the 
 public service utilities situated wholly within the limits of cities. 
 The commission will then occupy the position of a disinterested 
 tribunal rendering expert service, doing that which is not practi- 
 cable for the local authorities to do, such as valuation of plant, 
 uniform accounting, reviewing and acting as arbitrators in matters 
 of rates and in all other disputed matters arising between the mu- 
 nicipalities and the public service corporations. 
 
 " Thus the commission becomes an efficient aid to local control. 
 It enlists active public interest through publicity, thus bringing 
 to bear upon the subject the powerful controlling influence of in- 
 telligent public opinion. It renders assistance to local authorities 
 by furnishing reliable data for use in dealing with the utility cor- 
 porations direct, or in legal contest with it in the courts." 
 
 Professor John H. Gray, a recognized authority on 
 such subjects, has said: 
 
70 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 . " We cannot discuss, for want of suitable data, the economic 
 problems connected with gas supply. We lack completely data 
 for a discussion of the question now talked about so much, namely, 
 public ownership." 
 
 Professor Frank; J. Goodnow of Columbia university 
 
 says : 
 
 " The development of any science of municipal administration 
 js rendered practically impossible because of the absence of all 
 reliable data." 
 
 Despite the forebodings of those who believed that 
 the law would keep localities from establishing municipal 
 plants or buying those already in existence, that it is 
 still possible to take over municipal enterprises is shown 
 by the fact that three water companies have been ac- 
 quired by municipalities and a gas and electric light 
 company is just about to be taken over, while two 
 other cities have applied for permission to purchase 
 water works and will doubtless do so in the near 
 future. If municipal enterprises can be bought in 
 this manner in spite of the tremendous debt limit of 
 cities, it shows that the municipal ownership is some- 
 what of a club outside of any regulation by the com- 
 mission. 
 
 The simple, clean-cut procedure existing in the railroad 
 commission act was copied in this law almost without 
 change. 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 71 
 
 STOCK AND BOND LAW 
 
 The stock and bond law is not as great a necessity in 
 Wisconsin as it would be if there was not physical valua- 
 tion. With physical valuation and a rate based upon it 
 and other elements accompanying it, if a company is 
 greatly overstocked it will have to suffer. As far as 
 the consumer is concerned a stock watering law would 
 be of little concern. Of course that is not true regarding 
 the stock and bond holder. However, the new stock 
 and bond law which applies to every public service cor- 
 poration has the same elements in it which are in evi- 
 dence throughout this legislation, that is, using the device 
 of reasonableness as a standard enforceable by the com- 
 mission. The following sections from that law will illus- 
 trate this : 
 
 " Issue not to exceed amount reasonably necessary. Section 
 1 7 53-4- No public service corporation shall hereafter issue for 
 any purposes connected with or relating to any part of its business, 
 any stocks, certificates of stock, bonds, notes, or other evidences 
 of indebtedness, to an amount exceeding that which may from 
 time to time be reasonably necessary for the purpose for which 
 such issue of stock, certificates of stock, bonds, notes, or other evi- 
 dences of indebtedness may be authorized. 
 
 " Issues for money only; commission's certificate. Section 
 I 753~9- 3- If the commission shall determine that such proposed 
 issue complies with the provisions of this act such authority shall 
 thereupon be granted, and it shall issue to the corporation a cer- 
 tificate of authority, stating : (a) the amount of such stocks, cer- 
 
72 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 tificates of stock, bonds, notes, or other evidences of indebtedness 
 reasonably necessary for the purposes for which they are to be 
 issued, and the character of the same ; (b) the purposes for which 
 they are to be issued, and (c) the terms upon which they are to be 
 issued. Such corporation shall not apply the proceeds of such 
 stock, bonds, notes, or other evidences of indebtedness as afore- 
 said, to any purposes not specified in such certificate, nor issue 
 such stock, bonds, notes, or other evidences of indebtedness, on 
 any terms not specified in such certificate. 
 
 " Consolidations; commission's valuation first required. Section 
 1 7 53-1 1 . 2. No public service corporation shall purchase, directly 
 or indirectly, or in any way acquire the property of any other public 
 service corporation or of any person furnishing service to the pub- 
 lic, for the purpose of effecting a consolidation, except that the 
 property of such corporation or person shall first be valued as 
 provided in subsection 5 of section 1753-9 of the statutes, and 
 then only at a sum not to exceed the value found and determined 
 by the commission and stated in the certificate of authority issued 
 to such corporation for the issuance of stocks, certificates of stock, 
 bonds, notes, or other evidences of indebtedness." 
 
 The commission is given the authority to determine 
 in a scientific way whether certain issues are or are not 
 reasonable, and is also given full power of supervision. 
 It was a difficult law to draft and it may be said to be 
 largely experimental. The court decisions throughout 
 the country have involved the stock watering situation 
 to such a degree that it is very hard to delegate power 
 to a commission, and it is very probable that this stock 
 and bond law goes as far in this matter as the decisions 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 73 
 
 of the courts will permit. The fixing of rates within the 
 state is an easy thing compared with the complex prob- 
 lem of trying to place a valuation upon the assets and 
 expansion and absorbing power of a corporation existing 
 in several states. 
 
 INSURANCE 
 
 The development of insurance legislation under the 
 able management of Herman L. Ekern, the present in- 
 surance commissioner, has been remarkable. It will be 
 observed that the same principles run through insurance 
 legislation, i.e. that the contract conditions must be 
 made plain, the accounting given the proper publicity, 
 the business made public and the cost as cheap as pos- 
 sible, involving as little litigation as possible. No 
 attempt has been made to develop this department to 
 the point reached by the railroad commission act, but 
 the foundation evidently has been laid for a thorough 
 control of the company and the protection of the indi- 
 vidual which is assured under the other act. With the 
 introduction of industrial accident insurance, the depart- 
 ment bids fair to develop into as great an institution as 
 the railroad commission. Certainly as time goes on, it 
 will have to assume some position similar to that of the 
 German department if the kind of legislation which is 
 now being undertaken continues to be enacted. It is 
 the intention of the legislators to make the office of the 
 
74 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 insurance commissioner as important as any in the state. 
 It has been gradually recognized that the problem of 
 poverty and its prevention must centre to a large degree 
 around the question of insurance. 
 
 The advance in insurance legislation cannot be better 
 described than in the words of the commissioner himself. 
 Says Mr. Ekern : 
 
 " The idea underlying the insurance legislation of Wisconsin is 
 that the policy-holder is entitled to have placed before him in in- 
 telligible form the exact facts with regard to his insurance, and to 
 insist that the companies shall, in every respect, live up to the true 
 spirit and intent of their policy contracts, and that insurance should 
 not be permitted where the expenses exceed a legitimate proportion 
 of the insurance benefits furnished. 
 
 " The Wisconsin laws limit the amount which may be added to 
 the premiums of life insurance companies for expenses, and limit 
 the expenses to the amount so collected. The effect of the first 
 requirement has been to lower insurance premiums in this state 
 in some instances as much as $5.54 per $1000 of insurance per year ; 
 and the effect of the latter has been to reduce the expenses gen- 
 erally of insurance companies doing business in the state, so as to 
 enormously benefit, not alone new policy-holders, but old policy- 
 holders, in both their annual and deferred dividends. The money 
 which companies heretofore took from the savings of old policy- 
 holders to pay extravagant commissions and other expenses 
 are now being returned to the policy-holders to whom they be- 
 longed. 
 
 " The Wisconsin law requires that every stock company an- 
 nually relicensed in the state, which purports to transact a 
 participating business, shall file a statement setting forth the share 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 75 
 
 of the policy-holders and the stockholders in the accumulated sur- 
 plus. It was this requirement which was responsible for the with- 
 drawal of the Union Central Insurance Company of Ohio from 
 Wisconsin. It was fully justified by the subsequent action of the 
 company in apportioning to its stockholders almost half a million 
 dollars of surplus which the courts of Ohio finally held they had 
 no power to prevent. 
 
 " This law was also, in part at least, responsible for the with- 
 drawal of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of New York, 
 which, notwithstanding it has in its charter a provision that divi- 
 dends shall be paid above 7 per cent still finds its one hundred 
 thousand dollars of stock valued in the millions. 
 
 " The new law further provides that a statement shall be given 
 to every annual dividend policy-holder every year telling him of the 
 gains and savings of the company during the year from death 
 claims, interest and expenses, and the proportion and amount of 
 each returned to him in dividends in dollars and cents in a manner 
 which he can understand. The interests of deferred dividend 
 policy-holders are safeguarded by requiring an apportionment of 
 the accumulations to any individual policy-holder, and that on 
 request he shall be informed of the amount so apportioned to his 
 credit. 
 
 " Provision is also made for a system of electing the directors 
 and officers in mutual companies of the state, which assures the 
 control to the policy-holders, whenever occasion arises for a change 
 of control. The salaries of officers in mutual life insurance com- 
 panies is limited to $25,000, unless the policy-holders vote a larger 
 amount. Statements are required as to all legislative expenditures 
 and political contributions prohibited. The sale of stock in life 
 insurance companies is prohibited, unless the contract informs the 
 purchaser of the amount of his money to be expended for the pro- 
 
76 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 motion of the company. The law now makes possible the organi- 
 zation of new life insurance companies on a sound and legitimate 
 basis, and later amendments permit the organization of mutual 
 companies for the insurance of employers against their liability for 
 the injury or death of employees and for the insurance of deposits 
 by banks. 
 
 " One mutual employer's liability insurance company is already 
 doing business and others are about to be organized. A com- 
 mittee of the State Bankers' Association is at work formulating a 
 plan for the organization of a bankers' mutual insurance company 
 for the protection of depositors. Provision has been made for the 
 granting of life insurance and annuities by the state in the state life 
 fund on an absolutely safe plan of collecting a sufficient advance 
 premium and returning the savings. The same idea has been 
 extended to fraternal insurance by providing for helping the frater- 
 nal societies to find out where they stand and to get this informa- 
 tion out to their members in the most intelligible form and to bring 
 about as much as possible a more general knowledge of the real 
 principles upon which insurance is based. In all this legislation 
 there are no arbitrary requirements, save only in prohibiting the 
 collection of expense money in excess of a definite proportion of 
 the insurance benefit to be furnished. In other respects, the idea 
 is merely to insist that the policy-holder shall understand his con- 
 tract and the principles on which it is based and the conditions 
 under which it is made, and that the company shall live up to the 
 contract." 
 
 More interesting because more experimental, is the 
 state insurance fund passed as chapter 577, laws of 1911. 
 The following outline of this law, taken from an address 
 delivered before the National convention of insurance 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 77 
 
 commissioners at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 23, 
 1911, by Mr. Ekern, commissioner of insurance, gives an 
 insight into the state life fund. 
 
 " The Wisconsin Legislature of 1911 established a ' Life Fund * 
 for the purpose of granting life insurance and annuities to persons 
 who are within the state or residents thereof. This is to be ad- 
 ministered by the state without liability beyond the fund. The 
 state treasurer is charged with the care of the assets. All other 
 matters relating to such funds are under the supervision of the 
 commissioner of insurance. 
 
 " Policies may be issued to persons between the ages of twenty 
 and fifty years. Life insurance may be granted in sums of $500 
 or multiples not exceeding $1000 until the number of insurants 
 exceeds one thousand, and not exceeding $2000 until the number 
 of insurants exceeds three thousand and not in any event exceeding 
 $3000. Annuities may be granted to begin at the age of sixty years 
 or over in sums of $100, $200, or $300. The same policy may com- 
 bine both a life insurance and an annuity. 
 
 " The statute fixes, the premium which for life insurance must 
 be based upon the American experience table of mortality, with 
 additions for extra hazards, and with interest at three per cent, 
 and with an addition for expenses and contingencies amounting to 
 two dollars per year per thousand dollars of insurance and one-sixth 
 of the value of the insurance distributed equally through the pre- 
 mium payments. 
 
 " The basis for annuity premiums is the British offices annuity 
 tables, with interest at three per cent, with a like one-sixth addition 
 for expenses. 
 
 " There must be a medical examination on every application for 
 life insurance. The medical examiner receives a fee of two dollars 
 
78 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 paid from a deposit made by the applicant. No commissions or 
 fees are paid to any person, except that the person transmitting 
 an application, whether the insured or any other, is entitled to 
 deduct a fee of twenty-five cents from the initial premium payment 
 and any person transmitting any premium may also deduct a fee 
 of one per cent of the premium. These deductions are made by 
 the insured when he transmits his own premium. Every applica- 
 tion must be accompanied by a premium for at least three months. 
 The state board of health and the commissioner of insurance pass 
 upon the applications for insurance. If the application is rejected, 
 the deposit is returned less the fees. If accepted, the premium is 
 paid to the state treasurer and a policy issued signed by the com- 
 missioner of insurance and the state treasurer. 
 
 " Loans may be made to an amount which with interest does 
 not exceed the reserve. On the nonpayment of a premium the 
 sum is charged as a loan so long as the reserve is sufficient. The 
 whole or any part of any loan may be repaid at any time. The 
 policy may be surrendered for cash on any anniversary, after six 
 months' notice in writing. Losses and other payments are passed 
 upon by a board consisting of the state treasurer, attorney general 
 and commissioner of insurance and audited by the secretary of 
 state. 
 
 " Provision is made for a surplus to be made up from fifty per 
 cent of the savings and earnings during the first year of all policies 
 issued and from a contribution reduced by 5 per cent each subse- 
 quent year until the ninth year, and thereafter the contribution 
 to the surplus is 10 per cent. All the remaining surplus is distrib- 
 uted annually to the policy-holders, beginning the first year and 
 continuing every year while the insurance is in force. 
 
 " The accounts are kept by the commissioner of insurance and 
 audited as the accounts of other state officers. Valuations and 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 79 
 
 reports are required the same as from life insurance companies. 
 The bonds of the state treasurer, the commissioner of insurance, 
 of all county, city, village, and town treasurers, and of every state 
 depository, must include a liability for all premiums and other 
 money received for the life fund. Investments may only be made 
 as provided for life insurance companies. The commissioner is 
 given two years to put the act into effect." 
 
 Another decided advance toward state insurance was 
 taken when a state insurance fund to provide for fire 
 loss on state property was created. The provisions of 
 this act were extended by chapter 603, laws of 1911, to 
 cover the property and buildings owned by counties. 
 
 Directly in line with the general principle that ap- 
 pointive experts should administer the law and corre- 
 lated with the short ballot propaganda is chapter 484, 
 laws of 1911, making the insurance commission appoint- 
 ive for a four-year term instead of elective. That the 
 legislature took care to restrict the political activity of 
 any commissioner may be seen by the following excerpt 
 from the law: . 
 
 " Section ig66y. 2. The person so appointed as such com- 
 missioner shall be known to possess a knowledge of the subject of 
 insurance, and skill in matters pertaining thereto. No person ap- 
 pointed as such commissioner shall hold any other office under 
 the laws of this or of any other state or of the United States. Such 
 commissioner shall devote his entire time to the duties of the office, 
 and shall not hold any position of trust or profit, engage in any 
 occupation or business interfering with or inconsistent with his 
 
80 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 duties, or serve on or under any political committee or as mana- 
 ger of any political campaign for any candidate or party." 
 
 At the present time there is a committee of the legis- 
 lature investigating the question of fire insurance. The 
 contracts and conditions of fire insurance need examina- 
 tion, and it is not improbable that legislation will be 
 recommended by this committee along the same general 
 lines as prevail through the whole regulative plan. The 
 private board of fire insurance companies fixes a certain 
 rate for fire insurance. If one thinks that rate extor- 
 tionate, or therefore wrong, what appeal has he? It is 
 simply a question of contract, and he can accept the 
 insurance or not, as he chooses. This seems to be the 
 argument of the legislature. It is quite probable that 
 fire insurance will also be recognized by legislation as a 
 business affected with a public interest to a greater extent 
 than it has been formerly. 
 
 TAXATION 
 
 The tax commission was the earliest of the great com- 
 missions to be formulated in Wisconsin, being created 
 by chapter 206, laws of 1899. It consists of three ap- 
 pointive members and has a joint arrangement with the 
 railroad commission for the use of experts in the rating 
 of property. Gradually all the great corporations have 
 been placed upon an ad valorem basis, so that here, too, 
 physical valuation, with all of its advantages, is basic. 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 8 1 
 
 As has been pointed out before, the fact that the ad 
 valorem system of taxation was applied to railroads pre- 
 cipitated the railroad rate fight in 1903. If railroads 
 were taxed without being regulated as to rates, it was 
 felt that the burden would be shifted to the public. 
 
 The commission has great powers, through which a 
 centralized and uniform state-wide system of taxation 
 has been built up. Local assessors are checked by 
 county supervisors of assessment, who in turn are care- 
 fully instructed by the commission. The money col- 
 lected is retained by the state or apportioned to the 
 localities on a percentage basis. The whole work is 
 based upon actual valuation, and a large corps of en- 
 gineers and experts is employed for this purpose. The 
 law and its methods have been copied by many states. 
 
 Railroad Taxation 
 
 The tax commission makes an annual assessment of 
 all property of railroad companies within the state on 
 the basis of cost of reproduction (new) minus deprecia- 
 tion. The definition of property includes all franchises, 
 rights of way, road bed, tracks, terminals, rolling stock, 
 equipment and all other real and personal property of a 
 company used in conducting the business, but excludes 
 real estate not adjoining the tracks, stations or terminals; 
 grain elevators and coal docks, ore docks, and merchan- 
 dise docks, and real estate not necessarily used in operat- 
 
82 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 ing the railroad are excepted, and shall be subject to 
 taxation like the property of individuals. The true cash 
 value of the railroad property is found by the tax com- 
 mission (chapter 315, laws of 1903). When the value of 
 railroad property has been ascertained, the statute pro- 
 vides that the returns from all the taxes of the state for 
 state, county and local purposes, except special assess- 
 ments on local improvements, shall be aggregated by the 
 tax commission. From the aggregate of the true cash 
 value of the general property of the state as found by the 
 tax commission, and the aggregate amount of taxes, the 
 board computes the average rate of taxation,' which rate 
 so arrived at, constitutes the rate of taxation of all rail- 
 road property. The rate is applied to all railroad com- 
 panies and is to be paid to the state treasurer at stated 
 intervals, and become a part of the general fund for the 
 use of the state. 
 
 On the same basis telegraph companies, express com- 
 panies, sleeping car, freight line and equipment com- 
 panies are assessed by the commission on the actual 
 value of the property in the state, subject to assessment 
 with such change as the character of the property re- 
 quires. All money so collected is part of the general 
 fund of the state. 
 
 Chapter 493, laws of 1905, provides for the taxation of 
 the property of street railways, and electric light, heat- 
 ing and power companies, operated in connection with 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 83 
 
 street railways according to the valuation in substan- 
 tially the manner as in the act for the ad valorem valuation 
 of steam railroads. All other public service com- 
 panies not so operated come under the general assess- 
 ment laws, and taxes therefrom are turned over to the 
 localities. The entire tax from this source is paid to 
 the state treasurer, and 85 per cent is audited and paid 
 back to municipalities. Fifteen per cent (15 %) of the 
 tax is retained by the state and 85 per cent is distributed 
 to the localities through which the lines are operated in 
 proportion to property located and business transacted 
 within the several towns, villages and cities, through 
 which the lines run. Street railways are also taxed at 
 the same rate of taxation as railroad property. 
 
 Income Tax 
 
 Under its administration have been placed the new 
 income tax law as well as the graduated inheritance tax 
 law. Both of these acts have special expert men for 
 the sole purpose of enforcing them. The income tax 
 deserves some slight mention. 
 
 This law (chapter 658, laws of 1911) is now exciting 
 much discussion in the state, and public opinion is quite 
 evenly divided as to its wisdom, but seems to be slowly 
 becoming friendly perhaps as quickly as can be ex- 
 pected for an act of this kind in an American community. 
 It is an honest attempt to supplant the personal property 
 
84 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 tax in an equitable manner. A pamphlet issued by the 
 tax commission prints this section with the following 
 comment : 
 
 " Personal property tax receipts may be of set against income tax 
 when 
 
 " Section 1087111-26. Any person who shall have paid a tax 
 upon his personal property during any year shall be permitted to 
 present the receipt therefor to, and have the same accepted by, 
 the tax collector to its full amount in the payment of taxes due 
 upon the income of such person during said year. Any bank which 
 has paid taxes during any year upon its shares assessed to the in- 
 dividual stockholders thereof shall be entitled, under the provisions 
 of this section, to present the receipt therefor, and have the same 
 accepted by the tax collector to its full amount in the payment of 
 taxes due upon the income of such bank during said year. 
 
 " This section is construed to mean that if a person or corpora- 
 tion has paid a personal property tax, say for the year 1912, the 
 receipt for such tax may be presented to the tax collector in pay- 
 ment of income taxes which have become due in said year. The 
 * taxes due upon the income of such person during said year ' are 
 taxes which are based upon, and the amount of which is determined 
 by, the income of the preceding year. It would therefore follow 
 that the year referred to is not the year in which the income is 
 received, but the year in which the income tax becomes due. In 
 view of the fact that the exemption of intangible personal property 
 provided for by this law does not take effect until 1912, it is believed 
 that the intention of the legislature was to limit the operation of 
 this section to personal property taxes of 1912 and thereafter. 
 This view is strengthened by the next section, which provides that 
 all taxes assessed in 1911 shall remain unaffected by this law. 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 85 
 
 " The general character of the law and the circumstances at- 
 tending its adoption leave no doubt that the income tax was in- 
 tended to be very largely a substitute for the tax on personal prop- 
 erty ; and in pursuance of this policy, stocks, bonds, money and 
 other important classes of personalty are exempted from taxation 
 after 1911. This exemption was in exchange for or in considera- 
 tion of the imposition of an income tax ; and until the income tax 
 becomes operative the exemption has no force. Accordingly a 
 tax on personal property assessed and levied in 1911, but paid, say 
 on January 10, 1912, cannot be used to offset an income tax as- 
 sessed in 1912 and paid, say on December 30, 1912. In other 
 words, the two assessments must be of the same year. To hold 
 otherwise it is believed would amount practically to making the 
 exemption of stocks, bonds, moneys, etc., take effect one year 
 earlier than the date specifically set by the legislature. 
 
 " For analogous reasons taxes paid on personal property in 
 other states cannot be used to offset the income tax of this state. 
 A tax paid on personalty in one assessment district, however, may 
 be used to offset an income tax in another district." 
 
 The rates are low, the exemptions reasonable and 
 70 per cent of the revenue will go into the local treasury. 
 The wording of the administrative portion is very strong 
 with centralization in the tax commission. The assessors 
 will be selected under civil service and no pains have 
 been spared to make the act enforceable and equitable 
 to a high degree. Perhaps no other state in the Union 
 could attempt to install machinery of this sort without 
 political wire pulling or favoritism. This part of the 
 law reads: 
 
86 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 " Assessors of income how appointed. 
 
 " Section loSym-S. 2. Not less than thirty days prior to the 
 first of March, 1912, there shall be selected and appointed by the 
 state tax commission an assessor of incomes for each assessment 
 district in the state, who shall hold office for a term of three years 
 unless sooner removed as hereinafter provided. Such assessor 
 shall be a citizen and an elector of this state, but need not be a 
 resident of the district in which he is appointed to serve ; provided, 
 however, that so far as practicable, preference shall be given in 
 making such appointments to residents of the districts." 
 
 Moneys, debts due and to become due, all stocks and 
 bonds not otherwise specially provided for, are exempt 
 from taxation. The law was declared constitutional on 
 January 9, 1912, by the Wisconsin supreme court. Its 
 advocates do not claim perfection for it ; they admit that 
 it is experimental but fundamentally right. 
 
 Educational 
 
 For common school purposes there is a ^ mill tax 
 levied on general property of the state as determined by 
 the tax commission, exclusive of the property of cor- 
 porations which pay fees or are assessed by the state 
 board. 
 
 For the support of the university there is a tax of f 
 of a mill upon each dollar of assessed valuation of general 
 property of the sta|:e, as determined by the commission 
 (chapter 631, laws of 1911). Under the same law there 
 
THE REGULATION OF BUSINESS 87 
 
 is annually levied and collected for the normal school 
 fund income, J of one mill for each dollar of assessed 
 valuation of taxable, general property of the state as 
 fixed by the tax commission. 
 
 BANKING 
 
 The state has a strong banking code developed with 
 great care. It gives general satisfaction, provides for 
 the utmost publicity and care in its control and in line 
 with all Wisconsin legislation, it recognizes banking as a 
 business affected by a public interest. It does not per- 
 mit private banking which has proved so pernicious in 
 other states. All banks must be public under this act. 
 The result has been that not a citizen of the state has 
 lost a dollar through the state banks since it was enacted 
 into law. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES 
 
 The Primary Election 
 
 THE Wisconsin primary election law, defective as it 
 has been, has perhaps been more examined, criticised 
 and discussed than any other of its kind. 
 
 The reason for the primary is obvious. The pressure 
 brought to bear on conventions by the great economic 
 forces which dominated this country aroused public 
 sentiment and made it necessary to have more direct 
 means of nomination. 
 
 Whatever may be the defects of the direct nomina- 
 tion of candidates, it must be said that with organized 
 and vigilant monopolistic power in existence, a system, 
 by which a few men gathered together to select others 
 who, in turn, selected others as candidates, was so com- 
 plicated and presented so many opportunities for in- 
 fluence or corruption that it had to go. As a business 
 device it would go wrong, as there was absolutely no 
 way of fixing responsibility. The uneasiness felt by the 
 people because those who determined its policies did not 
 represent the real sentiment, had to be pacified in some 
 
 88 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES 89 
 
 way. It was felt that the primary was the means for 
 combating the secret intrigue which skilled corporation 
 employees could sustain in a caucus and convention 
 system. From this point of view it was absolutely 
 necessary and fundamental if any plan for the efficient 
 control of the great dominating influences could be 
 carried out. 
 
 The law was unfortunate in its passage. Several bills 
 were discussed all of which were more or less defective. 
 Finally without due amendment and discussion as to 
 details, the enemies of the bill agreed suddenly to let 
 one of these bills be submitted to the people. For 
 several years it was practically impossible to amend it 
 in the slightest degree. Any proposition to amend it 
 was at once defeated with the explanation : this law has 
 been passed by the people; let us wait and see how it 
 works before we amend it. 
 
 Therefore it had defects which were very serious 
 ones. However it has since been amended and seems 
 destined to remain on the Wisconsin statute books. 
 There are those who believe that some of the state 
 officers should not be included in the primary law. 
 Without a short ballot, it is difficult to judge of the fit- 
 ness of a secretary of state, a state treasurer or an 
 attorney-general. Fortunately there are very few such 
 officers in this state, but in the opinion of many who 
 have studied the question well, in those states which 
 
90 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 have a multiplicity of elective state officers there may 
 be further justification for the above criticism. The 
 remedy may be in the short ballot principle. In the 
 opinion of the writer, the offices of secretary of state, 
 state treasurer and attorney-general should be appointive. 
 The position of insurance commissioner was made ap- 
 pointive in Wisconsin in 1911. There is no question 
 but that the primary election law should have been fol- 
 lowed at once by a corrupt practices act limiting in some 
 way the amount of money to be spent, but it was im- 
 possible to enact such a law at the time the primary 
 law was passed. The primary has sometimes proven 
 too costly because of this grave omission, but the fault 
 lies not with the friends of the primary as they soon saw 
 its defects and session after session tried to remedy 
 them. 
 
 It is evident that the Wisconsin legislature is, on the 
 whole, improving from year to year. There are not as 
 many brilliant leaders as formerly but neither are there 
 as many stupid or corrupt men. The primary seems to 
 elect a middle class average man of independence and 
 intelligence. The old system tended to elect either 
 brilliant, well-known men or those who were merely 
 pawns in the game. Under the primary, individuals 
 announce their intention of becoming candidates and 
 fearlessly run for office. Legislators have often ad- 
 mitted to the writer that they would not attempt to 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES QI 
 
 run for office under the old system. No one has to ask 
 for that privilege now. Bagehot, in his "History of the 
 British Constitution," somewhere says that the best 
 government is that in which there is a limited number of 
 real aggressive leaders and a great many who are will- 
 ing to be led. He points to England as a country of 
 this type. The writer does not agree with that philoso- 
 phy, but nevertheless he must admit that because of the 
 new primary law, there is sometimes so much individual- 
 ism in the Wisconsin legislature that it is difficult to 
 promote business rapidly. There have been occasions 
 when to some extent a lack of unison was evident. 
 Business is not despatched as smoothly as formerly 
 because you have to "show" every man. Each indi- 
 vidual member wants to know about it and talk it over 
 and he is unwilling to accept such leadership as was 
 prevalent under the old system. The boss is not wel- 
 come now. There is more debate and more discussion 
 but the writer considers this an exceedingly healthy 
 symptom, for the results indicate more real intelligence 
 in legislation. 
 
 Although the law is long and involved, it can be sum- 
 marized in a very few words ; the peculiar features of it 
 require a longer description. 
 
 The most noteworthy feature of the primary election^ 
 law is that it is an absolutely direct election, compulsory ! 
 and state wide. It was intended to abolish the caucus] 
 
92 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 and it does* There is no caucus and there is no voting 
 for delegates of any kind, except delegates to the national 
 convention. Chapter 451, laws of 1903, provides for 
 absolute secrecy and a thoroughgoing secret ballot in- 
 corporated into the primary election law. It is what is 
 called the open primary, that is, there is no test of party 
 affiliation. This latter feature is still under fire and has 
 been subjected to great criticism, but the chances are 
 that any attempt to repeal it would be defeated by at 
 least 4 to i in the state. Those who favor it justify 
 their attitude on the basis that although one party may 
 go into another party's primary and nominate its weak 
 man, it more often happens that the independent voter 
 will cast his vote for the person whom he considers to 
 be right, no matter to what party he belongs. The 
 reform and not the party seems to be the main issue in 
 Wisconsin, and there are those who vigorously state that 
 the badge of party loyalty has too long been a mask 
 used in defeating the manifest will of the people. 
 
 The non-partisan spirit generally prevalent in Wis- 
 consin helps the position of those who are adherents of 
 the open primary and aids the accomplishment of the 
 whole program of direct legislation. 
 
 The law applies to all elective offices, except the judges, 
 the state superintendent of public instruction and some 
 minor offices in towns, villages, school districts, etc. It 
 is not generally used in small cities because it is not 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES 93 
 
 very practical, although it may be applied to all cities. 
 The exemption of judges and educational officers is char- 
 acteristic of the Wisconsin non-partisan spirit. 
 
 Finally, delegates to the national convention are 
 elected by the primary and provision is made for a 
 statement of presidential preference. 
 
 The act also contains a provision for second choice 
 which it is hoped will tend to produce a majority or at 
 least something approximating a majority. This law 
 was passed in 1911 after a hard struggle which started 
 the moment the first bill was introduced. Its peculiar 
 features and the philosophy behind it, need some ex- 
 tended discussion, as its great importance has not been 
 fully appreciated throughout the country. 
 
 The second choice law (chapter 200, laws of 1911) is 
 a modification of the system used in Queensland as far 
 back as 1887. 
 
 No better argument in favor of this innovation can be 
 given than that used by Mr. Charles K. Lush, a brilliant 
 newspaper man and author, who has given permission 
 to use excerpts from his pamphlet "An essential amend- 
 ment to the primary law." As this pamphlet is now 
 out of print and the discussion is so exceedingly valuable 
 many extracts from it have been used. It must be 
 remembered in reading it that it was written before the 
 second choice law was passed. However, it is an ex- 
 planation of what was actually later enacted into law. 
 
94 
 
 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 " It is the principle that the nominee of a political party should 
 represent the party principles or policy of the majority of the 
 voters of the party. It prevents the possibility of a man represent- 
 ing the principles of only one-fourth of the voting strength of the 
 party being nominated as the candidate of the party, and in direct 
 conflict with the views of three-fourths of the voters of the party. 
 It was the recognition of this principle that caused the conventions 
 to nominate by majority vote of the delegates instead of by plural- 
 ity. The present Wisconsin primary law prevents a number of 
 candidates representing the majority sentiment as to party prin- 
 ciples from coming into the field as candidates for the nomination 
 for fear the candidate of a minority may be named by receiving 
 a higher vote than any one candidate among the majority candi- 
 dates. The present primary is, in effect, a convention to which 
 every voter is a delegate and in which the candidate receiving the 
 most votes on the first ballot is the nominee. The remedy lies 
 either in the adoption of the second choice amendment ... or 
 by return to the convention system. 
 
 " An effort has been made to make it appear that the second 
 choice system is very complicated. The voter casts one vote for 
 
 BALLOT 
 
 FOR GOVERNOR 
 
 FIRST CHOICE 
 
 SECOND CHOICE 
 
 Adams 
 
 
 
 Brown 
 
 X 
 
 
 Black 
 
 
 
 White 
 
 
 
 Gray 
 
 
 X 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES 
 
 95 
 
 a candidate as his first choice and another for the man whom he 
 would like to see nominated if his first choice cannot be nominated. 
 So far as the voter is concerned there is no complication. 
 
 " Delegates who attend state conventions do not find it compli- 
 cated to vote for their second choice after they find that their first 
 choice cannot be nominated. 
 
 " A diagram of the tally sheet, and of the checking and comput- 
 ing blank will make the second choice proposition clear. 
 
 " Following, is the official tally sheet upon which the first and 
 second choice votes are entered, being called off in this case : ' For 
 Governor, Brown first, Gray second.' Supposing the ballots of 
 one precinct have been called off, the sheet shows as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 FOR GOVERNOR 
 
 OFFICIAL TALLY SHEET 
 
 
 FIRST CHOICE 
 
 SECOND CHOICE 
 ADAM8 BROWN BUCK WHITE GRAY 
 
 
 /w mi flu m w 
 
 
 
 tfU ftlt M 
 
 * on 
 
 
 ADAMS 25 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 
 wwrwnniwnnwmj HI 
 
 fHJ tlH ftH 
 
 
 IftifHl tHl ItH fty 
 
 
 in 
 
 BROWN 43 
 
 15 
 
 
 25 
 
 
 3 
 
 til IVJ ffU IHi 
 
 
 tmmim 
 
 
 1U 
 
 
 BLACK 20 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 nn IHI m au at an at tw & i* 
 im 
 
 tH/ // 
 
 iHinu 
 
 mtMHtU n 
 
 ItUltl 
 
 
 tHl III 
 
 WHITE 55 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 30 
 
 
 8 
 
 im to IHI u 
 
 
 w MINI 
 
 
 II 
 
 
 GRAY 17 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 % 
 
 
 " Carried down the first choice vote, or first ballot of the ' con- 
 vention ' is as follows : 
 
96 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 Adams 25 
 
 Brown 43 
 
 Black 20 
 
 White 55 
 
 Gray 17 
 
 " There being no majority on the count of first choice votes cast, 
 and Gray being the lowest man, he is beaten and out of the race, 
 so those who voted for Gray are entitled to have their votes 
 counted for their second choice, making the result as follows : 
 
 Adams 25 
 
 Brown 43 1 5 5 
 
 Black 20 
 
 White 55 2 57 
 
 " Black is now the low man, and the men who voted for him as 
 their first choice are entitled to have their second choice votes 
 counted for their second choice. Repeated as above brings the 
 following result : 
 
 Adams 25 
 
 Brown 58 15 73 
 
 White 57 5 62 
 
 " There are now only Brown, White and Adams left, and Adams, 
 being defeated and low man, his adherents are entitled to express 
 a second choice and their votes are counted, making the final result 
 as follows : 
 
 Brown 73 o 73 
 
 White 62 10 72 
 
 " It will be seen by studying the above table that Brown made 
 no gain on the final ' ballot ' for the reason that none of the 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES 97 
 
 25 voters who voted for Adams for first choice voted for Brown 
 for second choice. Ten of them, however, voted for White as their 
 second choice, while 15 of them voted for Black as their second 
 choice. These 1 5 second choice votes are not counted for the reason 
 that they were being counted for Adams while he was still in the 
 race, and, before Adams was out of the race, Black was out of it. 
 These voters simply voted for two losers. This explains why, in 
 the above showing between Brown and White their total vote is only 
 145, while there were 160 votes cast in all. But 15 of these votes 
 were cast for Adams and Black, both of whom were low men 
 two losers. 
 
 " This system does not always insure a majority of all votes cast 
 but it does insure the nomination of a candidate who represents 
 the majority sentiment of the party as regards party principles. 
 Let us illustrate by showing what can happen under the present 
 law, where a first choice alone counts and the high man is nomi- 
 nated, all of the rest being ' eliminated.' To begin with, re- 
 member that the present primary is, in effect, a party convention 
 to which all party voters are delegates entitled to one vote on the 
 only ' roll call ' allowed. The man who receives the highest vote 
 on this ' first ballot ' (the primary vote) is the nominee of the 
 party. 
 
 " Let us suppose there were three tariff reform republican candi- 
 dates and one stand-pat republican candidate in a congressional 
 district . . . and 3000 stand-pat republicans. At the primary 
 the result could reasonably be supposed to be as follows : 
 
 A Stand-pat candidate 3000 
 
 B Tariff reform candidate 2500 
 
 C Tariff reform candidate ...... 2500 
 
 D Tariff reform candidate 2000 
 
 H 
 
98 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 " By this result, which is the present system of the highest candi- 
 date being the nominee, the stand-pat republican would become 
 the nominee of the 7000 voters absolutely opposed to the policy 
 advocated by him. Could anything be more absurd than this? 
 
 " Now let us use this same case and apply the second choice rule 
 by which the lowest candidate is ' eliminated ' and not all but 
 the highest ' eliminated ' which is the present primary law. 
 
 " The first count of first choice votes would be as above given. 
 
 " Each voter having expressed a second choice, and D, one of the 
 tariff reform candidates, being the low man, he would be out of 
 the race, so the voters who voted for him for first choice would 
 be entitled to have their second choice votes counted. Now, 
 would they not be sure to be divided between the two other tariff 
 reform candidates men who represented their views on party 
 policy? Suppose they had divided, 1500 of these having been 
 cast for B as their second choice, and 500 for C. The final result 
 would be : 
 
 A Stand-pat republican 3000 
 
 B Tariff reform republican 4000 
 
 C Tariff reform republican 3000 
 
 " B would accordingly be the candidate representing the views of 
 7000 voters, instead of A representing the tariff policy of only 3000 
 voters." 
 
 Mr. Lush holds that a primary law without a second 
 choice simply fosters the power of the boss. He says : 
 
 " This boss, be his leadership for good or for evil, has the power 
 to place candidates early in the field, and then warn other men not 
 to become candidates on the unassailable ground that a number of 
 candidates of the majority faction might split the vote and allow 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES 99 
 
 the solitary candidate of the minority to be chosen as the party 
 nominee. By thus naming the candidate of the majority faction 
 of the dominant party the boss is ' all potential.' " Under the 
 second choice law he holds that (( the leader of the majority faction 
 would have had no such power, for several men of known loyalty to 
 the principles of the majority faction could be candidates, secure 
 in the knowledge that those who voted for them as a first choice 
 would give their second choice to some candidate representing the 
 same principles and advocating the same line of legislation, thus 
 precluding the nomination of the minority candidate. The boss 
 or leader might still properly give his support to some one of the 
 candidates, but it would be plainly a matter of personal preference* 
 and not justified on the ground of safeguarding the rights of the 
 majority to name the candidate of the party." 
 
 Under the primary, without the second choice he 
 holds that: 
 
 " It is necessary that the ' boss/ or leader, should ' eliminate 
 the candidates of the majority before the primaries are held, other- 
 wise the candidate of the minority would be the nominee of the 
 party. Under the second choice feature . . . the voters do this 
 * eliminating ' at the primaries. Until this opportunity of selection 
 is placed in the hands of the people there can be no true represent- 
 ative government." 
 
 No election has yet been held under the law. Its 
 opponents have shown many diagrams to the effect that 
 it will produce quite the opposite effect from that in- 
 tended. In a newspaper election held by a Milwaukee 
 paper the voters seemed loathe to use the second choice 
 
100 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 at all. The opponents of the law claim that it cannot 
 be understood by the average voter, that it will cause 
 all kinds of mistakes and will require a long time to 
 tabulate results. Its supporters admit this last con- 
 tention but maintain that it is not serious and that the 
 tally sheets inserted in the law will make it easily and 
 correctly counted by men of fair intelligence. 
 
 There was added to the primary at the 1911 session, 
 a presidential preference law (chapter 300, laws of 1911). 
 
 " Section 11-26. Names of candidates for president and vice- 
 president may be placed on ballot. 6. For the purpose of 
 enabling every voter to express his choice for the nomination of 
 candidates for president and vice-president of the United States, 
 whenever there shall be filed with the secretary of state a petition 
 as provided by section 30 of the statutes, the names of such can- 
 didates shall be certified to the county clerks, and shall be printed 
 upon the official party ticket used at said election. No signature, 
 statement, or consent shall be required to be filed by any such 
 candidate." 
 
 Corrupt Practices 
 
 Before the law of 1911 was passed, Wisconsin had no 
 limitation on corrupt practices except stringent laws as 
 to bribery and contribution of campaign funds by cor- 
 porations. It cannot be said however, that it was not 
 without defences from corruption. From the moment 
 the publicity features of the railroad commission and 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL" CHANGES IOI 
 
 public utility acts went into effect, a greater caution 
 became necessary in the expenditure of large sums 
 influencing the elections. 
 
 Corrupt practice acts have been passed in many 
 states and have long been in force in England. There 
 are some things however, in the Wisconsin act deserving 
 special attention. The act is remarkable, not only for 
 its restrictive feature that feature is found in many 
 acts but for its relation to other Wisconsin legislation. 
 It was constructed not only with the thought of restrict- 
 ing the use of money but also with the idea, so often 
 used in Wisconsin acts, of insuring equality of oppor- 
 tunity. Taking the Oregon scheme of using a pam- 
 phlet to get the candidates' platforms before the public 
 as a basis, it has developed a law with a certain philoso- 
 phy underlying it. That philosophy may be outlined as 
 follows: there should be equality of opportunity in 
 running for or in holding office ; if this is denied, there 
 arises a governing class able to control election to office 
 through money expended, and there remains a large 
 class which is seldom represented among candidates for 
 office. It is the duty of the state, therefore, to equalize 
 these conditions by not only restricting the amount of 
 money which can be spent by the man of wealth but 
 also to equalize conditions still further by putting means 
 into the hands of the poorer man, whereby his ideas 
 may be placed before the whole people. 
 
102 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 In the words of Senator A. W. Sanborn, a member of 
 the Wisconsin senate for many years : 
 
 " The use of money as a factor, in determining the qualifications 
 of a man to hold a public office, is fundamentally wrong. 
 
 " It is necessary for each voter to have sufficient information, 
 in order for him to determine intelligently to whom his support 
 shall be given. 
 
 " What information is necessary? 
 
 " How shall this information be furnished? 
 
 " Each voter should know who the candidate is, for what prin- 
 ciples he stands, and what his record has been. 
 
 " This information should be furnished and placed in the hands 
 of each voter at public expense. 
 
 " The reason for this is that our government is not based upon 
 property qualifications for voting or holding office. It is based 
 upon manhood suffrage; equality before the law; equality in 
 opportunity; equality in voting power. The elector is selecting 
 a public servant to perform public duties, and if the elector makes 
 a mistake in this selection, he must bear the burden. It is a public 
 duty he is performing, and the entire commonwealth is interested 
 in having each elector receive sufficient information to perform 
 that duty intelligently and well. 
 
 " The qualifications of two men being equal, the power of one 
 with a large amount of money to spend, should be no greater, in 
 securing votes, than the one without money. The amount of 
 money the one has to spend does not add one iota to his qualifica- 
 tions to hold that office. 
 
 " Wherein lies the power of the man with money ? He can 
 bribe. He can influence votes with money. He can buy news- 
 papers. He can indirectly buy the editorial columns of news- 
 papers for the campaign. He can hire a large number of people 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES 103 
 
 to work for him, which implies that they will vote for him for the 
 same consideration. He can prevent others from being candi- 
 dates for the same office. He can hire others to become candi- 
 dates in aid of his candidacy. He can make himself feared and 
 dreaded by the force of power his money gives him. He can prac- 
 tically purchase the office. 
 
 " He does not aid the elector in any manner in determining the 
 qualifications of the candidates ; his purpose is the opposite. 
 
 " The state is interested in securing the services of the man who 
 is best qualified to hold the office, not the man who alone has the 
 most money. 
 
 " If the best qualified man is poor and unable to place in the 
 hands of the voters the necessary information, he cannot be a can- 
 didate, and hence the state is deprived of his services. 
 
 " How can this be remedied? 
 
 "First, Deprive the rich man of some of his powers ; do away 
 with his property qualifications as far as possible ; make him stand 
 on his real qualifications for the office. 
 
 " Second, Let the state aid the man who has no money to assert 
 the power he should have to give him equality in opportunity. 
 
 " In other words, let the state regulate the power of the rich 
 man, by depriving him of the right to use his money in securing 
 office, and aid the poor man so as to place them as nearly as pos- 
 sible on an equality. . . . 
 
 " The law should name the particular purposes for which any 
 money can be used, such as personal travelling expenses, postage 
 for personal letters ; and prohibit all uses of money for any other 
 purpose. 
 
 " Further limit the entire amount so it shall not exceed, under 
 any circumstances, twenty-five per cent of one year's salary of the 
 office for which the person is a candidate. 
 
 " This will tend to give all an equal opportunity. It will, at 
 
IO4 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 least, enlarge the class from which the public servants may be 
 selected, and not limit it to persons of very large wealth only." 
 
 The following are the purposes for which money may 
 be expended : 
 
 " Disbursements authorized by candidates. Section 94-6. i. No 
 candidate shall make any disbursement for political purposes 
 except: 
 
 " (i) For his own personal hotel and travelling expenses and for 
 postage, telegraph and telephone expenses. 
 
 " (2) For payments which he may make to the state pursuant 
 to law. 
 
 " (3) For contributions to his duly registered personal cam- 
 paign committee. 
 
 " (4) For contributions to his party committee. 
 
 " (5) For the purposes enumerated in section 94-7 of the 
 statutes, when such candidate has no personal campaign committee 
 but not otherwise. 
 
 "2. After the primary, no candidate for election to the United 
 States senate shall make any disbursement in behalf of his candi- 
 dacy, except contributions to his party committees, for his own 
 actually necessary personal travelling expenses, and for postage, 
 telephone and telegraph expenses, and for payments which he may 
 make to the state pursuant to law (ipn c. 650). 
 
 " Disbursements authorized by committees. Section 94-7. No 
 party committee nor personal campaign committee shall make 
 any disbursement except : 
 
 " (i) For maintenance of headquarters and for hall rentals, in- 
 cident to the holding of public meetings. 
 
 " (2) For necessary stationery, postage and clerical assistance 
 to be employed for the candidate at his headquarters or at the 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES 105 
 
 headquarters of the personal campaign committee, incident to the 
 writing, addressing and mailing of letters and campaign literature. 
 
 " (3) For necessary expenses, incident to the furnishing and 
 printing of badges, banners and other insignia, to the printing and 
 posting of handbills, posters, lithographs, and other campaign lit- 
 erature, and the distribution thereof through the mails or other- 
 wise. 
 
 " (4) For campaign advertising in newspapers, periodicals or 
 magazines, as provided in this act. 
 
 " (5) For wages and actual necessary personal expenses of pub- 
 lic speakers. 
 
 " (6) For travelling expenses of members of party committees 
 or personal campaign committees (1911 c. 650)" 
 
 The following are the limitations of the expenses of 
 candidates : 
 
 " Disbursements by candidates: amount limited. Section 94-28. 
 i. No disbursement shall be made and no obligation, express 
 or implied, to make such disbursement, shall be incurred by or 
 on behalf of any candidate for any office under the constitu- 
 tion or laws of this state, or under the ordinance of any town or 
 municipality of this state in his campaign for nomination or elec- 
 tion, which shall be in the aggregate in excess of the amounts 
 herein specified, namely : 
 
 " (i) For United States senator, seven thousand five hundred 
 dollars. 
 
 " (2) For representative in congress, two thousand five hundred 
 dollars. 
 
 " (3) For governor, judge of the supreme court or state super- 
 intendent of schools, five thousand dollars. 
 
 " (4) For other state officers, two thousand dollars. 
 
106 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 " (5) For state senator, four hundred dollars. 
 
 " (6) For member of assembly, one hundred fifty dollars. 
 
 " (7) For presidential elector at large, five hundred dollars, and 
 for presidential elector for any congressional district, one hundred 
 dollars. 
 
 " (8) For any county, city, village or town officer, for any judge 
 or for any officer not hereinbefore mentioned, who, if nominated 
 and elected, would receive a salary, a sum not exceeding one-third 
 of the salary to which such person would, if elected, be entitled 
 during the first year of his incumbency of such office. If such per- 
 son, when*nominated and elected, would not receive a salary, a sum 
 not exceeding one-third of the compensation which his predecessor 
 received during the first year of such predecessor's incumbency. 
 If such officer, when nominated and elected, would not receive a 
 salary and if such officer had no predecessor, and in all cases not 
 specifically provided for, twenty-five dollars and no more." 
 
 The most daring and experimental feature of the 
 whole law, which has found no place elsewhere, is the 
 procedure for prosecutions of offenders. This is again 
 based upon a concept already familiar to readers of this 
 book. It strives to give the man who has no money a 
 chance to stand in the court against a wealthy and 
 corrupt man. In arriving at this procedure every kind 
 of device was used to constitute some tribunal outside 
 the courts to care for these cases. The attempts made 
 by other states to establish a special tribunal for such 
 cases have either been declared unconstitutional or 
 would clearly be so under the Wisconsin constitution. 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES 107 
 
 Comparatively few prosecutions have taken place 
 under corrupt practice acts in this country and there 
 are few practical laws which give equality in the long 
 litigation of such cases. This procedure is an honest 
 attempt to provide for prosecution quickly and effec- 
 tively. There are those who doubt the wisdom of it 
 and believe that this law has gone too far in this direc- 
 tion. It provides for investigation in a rudimentary 
 way, suggestive of the investigations authorized by any 
 of the regulative laws of this state. It specifies also 
 that the state may supply special counsel so that the 
 state and not the aggrieved individual says to the per- 
 son who is in apparent error, "We are going to investi- 
 gate this. If we find sufficient cause we are going to 
 prosecute you however many times you may appeal and 
 however far it may be necessary to go in order to punish 
 you and purify our elections." 
 
 The procedure is appended at some length because of 
 its original character and experimental nature. The 
 leaders are seeking and inviting criticisms of it. 
 
 " Prosecutions, proceedings by electors. Section 94-30. i. If 
 any elector of the state shall have within his possession informa- 
 tion that any provision of sections 94-1 to 94-38, inclusive, of 
 the statutes, has been violated by any candidate for which such 
 elector had the right to vote, or by any personal campaign com- 
 mittee of such candidate, or any member thereof, he may, by 
 verified petition apply to the county judge of the county in which 
 
108 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 such violation has occurred, to the attorney-general of the state, 
 or to the governor of the state, for leave to bring a special proceed- 
 ing to investigate and determine whether or not there has been 
 such violation by such candidate or by such committee or member 
 thereof, and for appointment of special counsel to conduct such 
 proceeding in behalf of the state. 
 
 " Leave to bring action. 2. If it shall appear from such petition 
 or otherwise that such candidate, committee or member thereof 
 has violated any provision of this act, and that sufficient evidence 
 is obtainable to show that there is probable cause to believe that 
 such proceeding may be successfully maintained, then such judge 
 or attorney-general or governor, as the case may be, shall grant 
 leave to bring such proceeding and shall appoint special counsel to 
 conduct such proceeding. 
 
 " Special proceedings. 3. If such leave be granted and such 
 counsel appointed such elector may, by a special proceeding brought 
 in the circuit court in the name of the state, upon the relation of 
 such elector, investigate and determine whether or not such candi- 
 date, committee or member thereof, has violated any provision 
 of this act, but nothing contained in this act shall be considered 
 as in any way limiting the effect or preventing the operation of 
 remedies now in existence in such cases. 
 
 " Summons and complaint; service. Section 94-31. i. In such 
 proceeding the complaint shall be served with the summons, and 
 shall set forth the name of the person whose election is contested, 
 and the grounds of the contest in detail, and shall not thereafter be 
 amended except by leave of the court. The summons and complaint 
 in the proceeding shall be filed : .within five days after service thereof. 
 
 " Answer. 2. The answer to the complaint shall be served and 
 filed within ten days after the service of the summons and com- 
 plaint. Any allegation of new matter in the answer shall be 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES IOQ 
 
 deemed controverted by the adverse party without reply, and 
 thereupon said proceeding shall be at issue and stand ready for 
 trial upon five days' notice of trial. 
 
 "Trial; precedence; without jury. 3. All such proceedings 
 shall have precedence over any civil cause of a different nature 
 pending in such court, and the court shall always be deemed open 
 for the trial thereof, in or out of term, and the same shall be tried 
 and determined the same as are civil actions, but the court shall 
 without a jury determine all issues of fact as well as issues of law. 
 
 " Consolidation of proceedings. 4. If more than one proceed- 
 ing is pending or the election of more than one person is investi- 
 gated and contested, the court may, in its discretion, order the 
 proceedings consolidated and heard together and may equitably 
 apportion costs and disbursements. 
 
 " Depositions. 5. The parties to such proceedings may invoke 
 the provisions of sections 4068 and 4096 of the statutes, but two 
 days' notice of the taking of the deposition of any witness shall be 
 sufficient notice thereof. 
 
 " Change of -venue. 6. In all such proceedings either party 
 shall have the right of change of venue, as provided by law in civil 
 actions, but application for such change must be made within five 
 days after service of summons and complaint, and the order for 
 such change shall be made within three days after the making of 
 such application and the papers transmitted forthwith, and any 
 neglect of the moving party to procure such transmission within 
 such time shall be a waiver of his right to such change of venue. 
 
 " Judgment: costs. 7. If judgment is in favor of the plaintiff 
 the relator may recover his taxable costs and disbursements against 
 the person whose right to the office is contested, but no judgment 
 for costs shall be awarded against the relator, unless it shall ap- 
 pear that such proceeding has been instituted otherwise than in 
 
IIO THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 good faith. All costs and disbursements in such cases shall be in 
 the discretion of the court. 
 
 " Judgment of ouster; disqualification; filling vacancy. Sec- 
 tion 94-32. i. If the court shall find that the candidate whose 
 right to any office is being investigated, or his personal campaign 
 committee or any member thereof has violated any provision of this 
 act, in the conduct of the campaign for nomination or election, 
 and if such candidate is not one mentioned in subsection 2 hereof, 
 judgment shall be entered declaring void the election of such candi- 
 date to the office for which he was a candidate, and ousting and 
 excluding him from such office and declaring the office vacant. 
 The vacancy thus created shall be filled in the manner provided 
 by law, but no person found to have violated any provision of this 
 act shall be eligible to fill any office or to become a candidate for 
 any office, candidates for which have been voted for at the primary 
 or election in connection with which such violation occurred. 
 
 " Congressional and legislative offices; proceedings. 2. If such 
 proceeding has been brought to investigate the right of a can- 
 didate for member of the state senate or state assembly or for 
 senator or representative in congress, and the court shall find that 
 such candidate or any member of his personal campaign committee 
 has violated any provision of this act, in the conduct of the cam- 
 paign for nomination or election, the court shall draw its findings 
 to such effect and shall forthwith, without final adjudication, cer- 
 tify his findings to the secretary of state, to be by him transmitted 
 to the presiding officer of the legislative body, as a member of 
 which such person is a candidate. 
 
 " Appeals; stay of proceedings; injunction. 3. Appeals may 
 be taken from the determination of the court in such proceeding in 
 the same manner as appeals may be taken as provided by law in 
 civil actions, but the party appealing shall in no case be entitled 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES III 
 
 to or obtain a stay of proceedings. No injunction shall issue in 
 any such proceeding suspending or staying any procedure therein 
 or connected therewith, except upon application to the court or 
 the presiding judge thereof, upon notice to all parties and after 
 hearing. 
 
 " No bar to criminal prosecution. 4. No judgment entered as 
 provided for herein shall be any bar to or affect in any way any 
 criminal prosecution of any candidate or other person. 
 
 "Special counsel; supreme court. Section 94-33. i. If the 
 judgment of the trial court is appealed from in such proceeding, the 
 county judge, the attorney-general or the governor, who made the 
 appointment of special counsel for the trial court, shall authorize 
 such counsel so appointed, or some other person to appear as special 
 counsel in the supreme court in such matter. 
 
 " Compensation. 2. The special counsel provided for by this 
 act shall receive a reasonable compensation for his services, not to 
 exceed, however, twenty-five dollars per day for the time actually 
 spent in conducting the proceedings in the trial court or upon ap- 
 peal, and not to exceed ten dollars per day for the time neces- 
 sarily expended in preparation therefor. Such compensation shall 
 be audited by the secretary of state, and paid out of the state treas- 
 ury upon a voucher and upon the certificate of the officer appoint- 
 ing such counsel to the effect that such appointment has been duly 
 made, that the person so appointed has faithfully performed the 
 duties imposed upon him, and that the number of days stated in 
 such voucher have been consumed in conducting such litigation and 
 in preparation therefor. 
 
 " Witnesses; incriminating testimony; penalty; perjury. Sec- 
 tion 94-34. No person shall be excused from testifying in such 
 proceeding, or in any proceeding for violation of or growing out of 
 the provisions of this act, on the ground that his testimony may 
 
112 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 expose him to prosecution for any crime, misdemeanor or forfeiture. 
 But no person shall be prosecuted, or subjected to any penalty or 
 forfeiture, except forfeiture of nomination or of election to office, 
 for or on account of any transaction, matter, or thing concerning 
 which he may testify or produce evidence, documentary or other- 
 wise, in such proceeding or examination, except a prosecution for 
 perjury committed in giving such testimony. 
 
 "Expense accounts; failure to file: notification. Section 94-35. 
 The officer with whom the expense account of any candidate 
 for public office is required by any law of this state to be filed, 
 shall notify such candidate of his failure to comply with such law, 
 immediately upon the expiration of the time fixed by any law of 
 this state for the filing of the same, and shall notify the district at- 
 torney of the county where such candidate resides of the fact of his 
 failure to file, and said district attorney shall thereupon prosecute 
 such candidate. 
 
 "Criminal actions; judgment. Section 94-36. i. If any 
 person shall, in a criminal action, be judged to have been guilty of 
 any violation of this act, while a candidate for any office under the 
 constitution or laws of this state, or under any ordinance of any 
 town or municipality therein other than the office of state senator 
 or member of the assembly, the court shall, after entering the ad- 
 judication of guilty, enter a supplemental judgment declaring such 
 person to have forfeited the office in the conduct of the campaign 
 for the nomination or election to which he was guilty of such vio- 
 lation, and shall transmit to the filing officer of such candidate a 
 transcript of such supplemental judgment, and thereupon such 
 office shall be deemed vacant and shall be filled as provided by law. 
 
 " Personal campaign committee; violation; judgment. 2. If 
 any person shall, in a similar action, be found guilty of any viola- 
 tion of this act, committed while he was a member of the personal 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES 113 
 
 campaign committee of any candidate for any such office, the court 
 before which such action is tried, shall immediately after entering 
 such adjudication of guilty, enter a supplemental judgment de- 
 claring such candidate to have forfeited the office in the conduct of 
 the campaign for nomination, or election, to which such member 
 of his personal campaign committee was guilty of such violation, 
 and shall transmit to the filing officer of such candidate a transcript 
 of such supplemental judgment, and thereupon such office shall be 
 deemed vacant and shall be filled as provided by law. 
 
 " Congressional and legislative candidates; judgment. 3. If any 
 person shall, in a criminal action, be adjudicated guilty of any 
 violation of this act, committed while he was a candidate for the 
 office of state senator, member of the assembly, United States sena- 
 tor or representative in congress, or while he was a member of the 
 personal campaign committee of any such candidate, the court, 
 after entering such adjudication of guilty, shall forthwith transmit 
 to the presiding officer of the legislative body as a member of which 
 such officer was a candidate when such violation occurred, a cer- 
 tificate setting forth such adjudication of guilty. 
 
 "Criminal court; jurisdiction. 4. Any court having juris- 
 diction to enter judgment of guilty in any such criminal action is 
 hereby vested with jurisdiction to enter such supplemental judg- 
 ment, transmit a transcript thereof and issue a certificate as pro- 
 vided in this section. 
 
 "Employment of counsel by candidate. Section 94-37. 
 Nothing contained in this act shall prevent any candidate from 
 employing counsel to represent him in any action or proceeding, 
 affecting his rights as a candidate, nor from paying all costs and 
 disbursements necessarily incident thereto. No sum so paid or 
 incurred shall be deemed a part of the campaign expenses of any 
 such candidate. 
 
114 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 " Penalty. Section 94-38. Any person violating any pro- 
 vision of sections 94-1 to 94-38, inclusive, of the statutes, shall 
 upon conviction thereof, be punished by imprisonment in the 
 county jail for a period of not less than one month nor more than 
 one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison for a period of 
 not less than one year nor more than three years, or by a fine of not 
 less than twenty-five dollars nor more than one thousand dollars, 
 or by both such fine and imprisonment ; and no person so convicted 
 shall be permitted to take or hold the office to which he was elected, 
 if any, or receive the emoluments thereof. 
 
 " Appropriation. Section 94-39. A sum sufficient to carry out 
 the provisions of sections 94-1 to 94-39, inclusive, of the statutes, 
 not to exceed the sum of fifteen thousand dollars is appropriated 
 annually out of any money hi the treasury not otherwise appro- 
 priated." 
 
 There is another feature of this act which is novel, as 
 well as experimental. If candidates are limited as to 
 the amount of money which may be spent for literature 
 and notwithstanding this one man is using a newspaper 
 through his financial interest, control or otherwise, 
 equality before the law is practically violated. It was 
 felt that something should be inserted to meet this 
 condition and the following sections relate to this subject : 
 
 "Newspapers and periodicals; paid advertisements. Section 
 94-14. i. No publisher of a newspaper or other periodical shall 
 insert, either in the advertising column of such newspaper or 
 periodical or elsewhere therein, any matter paid for or to be paid 
 for which is intended or tends to influence, directly or indirectly, 
 any voting at any election or primary, unless at the head of said 
 matter is printed in pica capital letters the words ' Paid Advertise- 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES 115 
 
 ment,' and unless there is also a statement at the head of said 
 matter of the amount paid or to be paid therefor, the name and 
 address of the candidate in whose behalf the matter is inserted, 
 and of any other person, if any, authorizing the publication, and 
 the name of the author thereof. 
 
 " Persons financially interested in; statement. 2. Every per- 
 son occupying any office or position under the constitution or laws 
 of this state, or under any ordinance of any town or municipality 
 herein, or under the constitution or laws of the United States, the 
 annual income of which shall exceed three hundred dollars, and 
 every candidate, every member of any personal campaign or party 
 committee, who shall either in his own name, or in the name of 
 any other person, own any financial interest in any newspaper or 
 periodical, circulating in part or in whole in Wisconsin, shall, be- 
 fore such newspaper or periodical shall print any matter otherwise 
 than as is provided in subsection i hereof, which is intended or 
 tends to influence, directly or indirectly, any voting at any election 
 or primary in this state, file in the office of the county clerk of the 
 county in which he resides a verified declaration, stating definitely 
 the newspaper or periodical in which or over which he has such 
 financial interest or control, and the exact nature and extent of 
 such interest or control. The editor, manager, or other person con- 
 trolling the publication of any such newspaper or article, who shall 
 print or cause to be printed any such matter contrary to the pro- 
 visions of this act, prior to the filing of such verified declaration 
 from every person required by this subsection to file such declara- 
 tion, shall be deemed guilty of a violation hereof. 
 
 " Newspaper disbursements prohibited. Section 94-15. No 
 owner, publisher, editor, reporter, agent or employee of any news- 
 paper or other periodical, shall, directly or indirectly, solicit, 
 receive or accept any payment, promise or compensation, nor shall 
 
Il6 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 any person pay or promise to pay, or in any manner compensate 
 any such owner, publisher, editor, reporter, agent, or employee, di- 
 rectly or indirectly, for influencing or attempting to influence 
 through any printed matter in such newspaper any voting at any 
 election or primary through any means whatsoever, except through 
 the matter inserted in such newspaper or periodical as ' paid ad- 
 vertisement,' and so designated as provided by law." 
 
 fj/ Initiative and Referendum 
 
 Statute law must fit economic conditions as Black- 
 stone says "like the clothes on the body." It was 
 feared by those who constructed the Wisconsin initia- 
 tive and referendum resolution (jt. res. no. 74, laws of 
 1911) that if the Oregon plan was adopted, crude legis- 
 lation, which would receive harsh criticism from the 
 courts, would result. Bills, good in concept, but poor 
 in technique, would result, it was thought, from the 
 drafting of bills by groups in different parts of the state. 
 Under the Oregon law these bills would have to be re- 
 jected or incorporated into the statutes without the 
 change of a word or the dotting of an i. Bills submitted 
 to the people should be so worded that a yes or no on 
 the part of the voter is all that is necessary. It was 
 felt that under any other system the voter might have 
 to answer a question like that put to the man who in- 
 sisted that a public speaker answers questions asked him 
 by a yes or no. The speaker asked him in return, 
 " When did you beat your wife last ? Answer yes or no." 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES 117 
 
 Time after time it has been found in the drafting of 
 Wisconsin's strongest laws, that they were somewhat 
 modified under the fire of criticisms made by attorneys 
 and experts appearing before the legislative committees. 
 With sufficient expert help for the legislature there is 
 little to fear and much to gain from strong, clear argu- 
 ment presented by the opponents of a bill. The com- 
 mittee may say frankly that some kind of legislation 
 embodying a certain idea is going to be reported and if 
 the opponents wish it to be sane and workable they 
 will give their best help by reasonable criticism. If 
 they object to a certain actuarial computation made by 
 the statistical experts, the committee, upon being con- 
 vinced, will correct it. The Wisconsin railroad com- 
 mission bill, for instance, was completely redrafted 
 twenty different times. 
 
 The Wisconsin leaders, desiring to retain the advan- 
 tages gained by subjection of bills to severe criticism, 
 provided that any bill, which has been introduced into 
 the legislature within the first thirty days of the session, 
 whether it has passed the legislature or not, may be 
 called out by petition and submitted to the people at 
 the next election. 
 
 The section relating to this procedure follows : 
 
 " A proposed law shall be recited in full in the petition, and shall 
 consist of a bill which has been introduced in the legislature during 
 the first thirty legislative days of the session, as so introduced ; or, 
 
Il8 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 at the option of the petitioners, there may be incorporated in said 
 bill any amendment or amendments introduced in the legislature- 
 Such bill and amendments shall be referred to by number hi the 
 petition. Upon petition filed not later than four months before 
 the next general election, such proposed law shall be submitted 
 to a vote of the people, and shall become a law if it is approved by 
 a majority of the electors voting thereon, and shall take effect and 
 be in force from and after thirty days after the election at which 
 it is approved." 
 
 The same general procedure is applied to constitu- 
 tional amendments, save that 10 per cent is required 
 for an initiated constitutional amendment which has 
 not passed the legislature and 5 per cent for a constitu- 
 tional amendment which has passed one session of the 
 legislature ; whereas 8 per cent is required for either the 
 initiative or the referendum on ordinary bills. 
 
 In order that institutions may not be destroyed by 
 having their appropriations withheld until the results of 
 the election have been ascertained, a state of affairs 
 which caused much opposition to the Oregon amend- 
 ment, the following procedure on emergency bills has 
 been instituted: 
 
 " An emergency law shall be any law declared by the legislature 
 to be necessary for any immediate purpose by a two-thirds vote 
 of the members of each house voting thereon, entered on their 
 journals by the yeas and nays. No law making any appropriation 
 for maintaining the state government or maintaining or aiding any 
 public institution, not exceeding the next previous appropriation 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES 1 19 
 
 for the same purpose, shall be subject to rejection or repeal under 
 this section. The increase in any such appropriation shall only take 
 effect as in case of other laws, and such increase, or any part thereof, 
 specified in the petition may be referred to a vote of the people 
 upon petition." 
 
 The criticism is made that the Wisconsin proposal is 
 no initiative at all; that if the legislator does not wish 
 to introduce the bill he will not do so. The first answer 
 to this objection is that it would be an exceedingly poor 
 bill whose author could not find, among a hundred and 
 thirty-three legislators, one who would be willing to in- 
 troduce it. Again, if a petition containing four or five 
 thousand signatures or the number which is required 
 under the Oregon petition demanding a bill is submitted, 
 it is practically impossible to keep it out of the legisla- 
 ture. The petition may be used if necessary in getting 
 some member to introduce the bill. No strength of the 
 Oregon scheme is lost here. The orderly proceeding in 
 the legislature is retained, and in addition there is an 
 elasticity which is not found in the Oregon law. The 
 petitioners who have secured a legislator willing to father 
 the bill have at their command, through this legislator, 
 the services of the legislative reference department, with 
 its skilled draftsmen, who will aid them in the technical 
 construction of the bill to be introduced. 
 
 Nearly all initiative and referendum plans provide 
 that the legislature may send a competing bill to the 
 
120 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 people, but the Wisconsin plan precludes the legislature 
 sending anything to the people. The opinion is that 
 the legislature should not be allowed to dodge its re- 
 sponsibility but should be made to state its preference 
 by aye or no. It should not be permitted to confuse 
 the situation by sending one or more competing bills to 
 the people. This clears the decks and makes the issue 
 clean cut. Suppose that a strong bill comes before the 
 legislature and that body passes some weak substitute 
 for it; under this plan the people can do one of two 
 things : they can call for a referendum on this weak 
 plan and kill it or they can call out some other and 
 better bill, with whatever strengthening amendments the 
 petitioners may desire, and pass this bill, thus repealing 
 the first bill by superseding it. In any case the legisla- 
 ture cannot dodge the situation ; it must meet its obliga- 
 tions and the roll call before the public. 
 
 After all, it is not unlike the process by which the 
 legislature delegates to committees the power to con- 
 sider bills and to recommend them. The legislature 
 should be a convenience, a committee of the whole 
 people. If it does not fulfill the will of the whole people 
 for some particular reason, the people should have a 
 right to assert their will. If a committee of the legis- 
 lature does not do what the legislature desires, it over- 
 turns the reports of the committee on the floor of the 
 house, modifies it or does whatever it pleases with it, 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES 121 
 
 so under this resolution, the people will allow the legis- 
 lature to act upon the measures as a matter of con- 
 venience. If the legislature passes something which the 
 people do not want, they will overturn that measure if 
 they so desire, or if the legislature fails to pass some- 
 thing which the people do want, they can remove it 
 from the hands of the legislature and refuse to accept 
 the report of the legislature upon the matter. We have 
 in this joint resolution a new principle applied to the 
 initiative and referendum. It does not contain the 
 " direct drive" or " direct legislation" proposition of the 
 Oregon law, but it does contain that which is fully as 
 strong and which has some essential features making the 
 whole proposition more harmonious. It is a strong aid 
 to representative government and at the same time a 
 vigorous method of directly expressing the popular will. 
 An organization which puts a bill before the legislature 
 can take it out just as it was put in, but it must give a 
 public hearing for so many months to all parties in- 
 terested. Naturally if a part of the legislature is de- 
 feated on some big proposition that portion will say to 
 the rest, "We will go out to the people and ask the 
 people's support upon this matter and they will decide 
 between us." 
 
 The initiative and referendum plan herein described 
 has yet to pass the 1913 legislature and be accepted by 
 the people before it becomes a part of the Wisconsin 
 
122 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 constitution. There has been such a demand for copies 
 of this resolution that it is presented in full in the Ap- 
 pendix. 
 
 The recall resolution is very simple and does not in- 
 clude the judges. The legislature and the people in 
 general are so well satisfied with the Wisconsin supreme 
 court that the legislature almost unanimously opposed 
 the insertion of the recall of judges into its resolution. 
 The recall will receive further consideration in a later 
 chapter dealing with the judiciary. 
 
 The proposed recall amendment is as follows : 
 
 " Section 12. The legislature shall provide for the removal by 
 recall from office, by the qualified electors of the electoral district 
 in which any officer is elected, of every public officer in the state 
 of Wisconsin holding an elective office, except judicial officers." 
 
 The laws described in this chapter are the principal 
 ones relating to reform in direct legislation and electoral 
 machinery. Space forbids the description of important 
 laws relating to registration in cities and the betterment 
 of electoral conditions in general. Wisconsin does not 
 require the senatorial pledge nor any form of statement 
 from legislators intended to insure the direct election of 
 United States senators such as has been used in Oregon. 
 It was defeated at the 1911 session of the legislature by 
 a narrow margin because of what was apparently an 
 unexpected return to party lines. It undoubtedly will 
 
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES 123 
 
 be considered later as there seems to be a strong senti- 
 ment in favor of it. 
 
 Wisconsin has not the real Australian ballot, that is, 
 the ballot without the circle which has been used for a 
 long time in Massachusetts and Minnesota and now is 
 being very gradually adopted in other states. It was 
 often recommended by Governor La Follette and at one 
 time was defeated by a 40 to 40 vote. The Social- 
 Democratic party, which is represented by fourteen 
 members in the legislature, are greatly opposed to this 
 form of ballot. This organization believes in working 
 strictly through party lines, in making a program and 
 remaining true to it regardless of individuals. To re- 
 move the circle from the ballot would be striking at the 
 very fundamentals of this party. The tide has always 
 been turned against an Australian ballot bill by the 
 Socialist vote and proposed bills for non-partisan elec- 
 tions in cities have suffered like defeat. A fierce struggle 
 for the enactment of this last named measure is already 
 presaged for the 1913 legislature. 
 
 The electoral machinery is not perfect, but the above 
 is a brief statement of its underlying principles and of 
 what has been accomplished thus far for its improvement. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 
 
 SAYS that great student of Western history, Professor 
 Frederick J. Turner, formerly of Wisconsin, now of 
 Harvard University: 
 
 " Nothing in our educational history is more striking than the 
 steady pressure of democracy upon its universities to adapt them 
 to the requirements of all the people. From the State Universities 
 of the Middle West, shaped under pioneer ideals, have come the 
 fuller recognition of scientific studies, and especially those of ap- 
 plied science devoted to the conquest of nature ; the breaking down 
 of the traditional required curriculum ; the union of vocational and 
 college work in the same institution ; the development of agricul- 
 tural and engineering colleges and business courses ; the training 
 of lawyers, administrators, public men, and journalists all under 
 the ideal of service to democracy rather than of individual advance- 
 ment alone. Other universities do the same things ; but the head 
 springs and the main current of this great stream of tendency come 
 from the land of the pioneers, the democratic states of the Middle 
 West. And the people themselves, through their boards of trustees 
 and the legislature, are in the last resort the court of appeal as to 
 the directions and conditions of growth . . . have the fountain of 
 income from which these universities derive their existence. . . . 
 
 " In the transitional conditions of American democracy . . . 
 the mission of the University is most important. The times call 
 for educated leaders. General experience and rule-of -thumb in- 
 
 124 
 
EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 12$ 
 
 formation are inadequate for the solution of the problems of a 
 democracy which no longer owns the safety fund of an unlimited 
 quantity of untouched resources. Scientific farming must increase 
 the yield of the soil, scientific forestry must economize the wood- 
 lands, scientific experiment and construction by chemist, physicist, 
 biologist and engineer must be applied to all of nature's forces in 
 our complex modern society. The test tube and the microscope 
 are needed rather than axe and rifle in this new ideal of conquest. 
 The very discoveries of science in such fields as public health and 
 manufacturing processes have made it necessary to depend upon 
 the expert, and if the ranks of experts are to be recruited broadly 
 from the democratic masses as well as from those of larger means, 
 the State Universities must furnish at least as liberal opportunities 
 for research and training as the universities based on private en- 
 dowments furnish. It needs no argument to show that it is not 
 to the advantage of democracy to give over the training of the 
 expert exclusively to privately endowed institutions." 
 
 The people of Wisconsin have demanded this effi- 
 ciency and the University of Wisconsin has been noted 
 not only for the philosophy of service to the state which 
 has been maintained but for the practical courses which 
 deal with every factor in the life of the state. That 
 Wisconsin has changed from a wheat-growing state to a 
 great dairy state has been due largely to the fact that 
 the agricultural " short course" in the University of 
 Wisconsin, which has been so popular in the past, has 
 turned out real farmers and real dairymen. In 1905, 
 the University of Wisconsin was placed upon a per- 
 manent mill tax basis. Its appropriations are now con- 
 
126 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 tinuing, so that it can lay plans for the future with a 
 certain hope of maintenance. This does not mean that 
 the legislature cannot modify the plans of the university 
 at any time, but it does mean established continuity/ 
 The wisdom of this is shown by the fact that some of the 
 universities and educational institutions of the country 
 have been in a turmoil of strife because under the so- 
 called budget system their appropriations end every 
 two years. They are helpless under the attacks of 
 politicians and have no way to plan ahead. Freedom' 
 of speech in the university might have been seriously 
 impaired recently had a minority of the legislature had 
 the power to withhold appropriations for the university. 
 It is evident that, if the legislature every two years 
 passes upon the entire appropriation for an existing in- 
 stitution, a small minority of one house is able to threaten 
 or block an institution so that it cannot extend to its 
 fullest usefulness. 
 
 The college of agriculture in Wisconsin has been main- 
 tained as a part of the university, and although the 
 state in its early days wasted its public lands reserved 
 for educational institutions in a reckless manner, the 
 state has been generous and cheerfully borne the burden 
 of paying for a university. During the session of 1911 
 the normal schools also were placed upon a mill tax 
 basis, so that they too have a continuing appropriation. 
 Throughout the state county schools of agriculture have 
 
EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 127 
 
 grown up rapidly. Agriculture has been placed in the 
 high schools, manual training has been provided, state 
 inspection and regulation have been secured and a high 
 order of educational enterprise has resulted. A com- 
 plete industrial program, calling for a separate body to 
 control industrial education and making the most com- 
 plete plan for an educational system which has ever 
 been considered or introduced in any state of this coun- 
 try, was organized by the legislature in its 1911 session. 
 The university extension division is the great, powerful 
 link which connects every part of the university with 
 the individual in the state. It must be remembered 
 that this has a potent influence upon the public and the 
 state and that the influence of the university reaches 
 out into the homes of the state through this extension 
 department by means of its correspondence courses, de- 
 bates, etc., more completely than in any other state. 
 Thus the state through its generous appropriations to' 
 this institution has created a powerful instrument of 
 knowledge, not only on public questions but scientific 
 ones as well. 
 
 Agriculture 
 
 The prosperous agricultural condition in this state 
 to-day stands as the monument to a great genius, 
 William A. Henry, formerly Dean of the School of agri- 
 culture, University of Wisconsin. 
 
128 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 Agricultural instruction has been given at the univer- 
 sity since 1876, but in 1885 the " short course" and the 
 courses which are especially formed for those who did 
 not have the time or educational qualifications to take 
 the long courses, were instituted. These courses have 
 been of enormous help to the entire state; they have 
 been the chief source of the upbuilding of the great 
 dairy industry of the state, now probably second to none 
 in the country. 
 
 In 1890 the course especially adapted for creamery 
 and cheese factory operators was started. Hundreds of 
 young men actually engaged in agricultural pursuits 
 attended these courses every year. In 1908 in addition 
 to farmers' institutes, agricultural field work was started ; 
 demonstrations of all kinds were held throughout the 
 state. Through this whole agricultural extension move- 
 ment, probably a closer relation between the farmers 
 and the agricultural department has been instituted in 
 Wisconsin than in any other state and this is just the 
 beginning. The county agricultural schools have aided 
 this work greatly in recent years and are being rapidly 
 established. The following quotation from a recent 
 report shows how rapidly and how efficiently this work 
 is progressing: 
 
 " Besides supplying the real needs of agricultural instruction 
 in their counties, these schools serve a class of people the county 
 and high schools fail to reach ; they carry on their own lines of 
 
EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 129 
 
 field work among farmers ; they organize cow-testing and grain- 
 growing associations; they furnish assistance in planning and 
 creating farm buildings ; they hold farmers' meetings ; they are 
 the logical centres from which the agricultural field work service, 
 carried on by the State College of Agriculture, radiates." 
 
 The following is a list of some of the work and other 
 activities of the agricultural school of the university : 
 
 It has bred pedigree strains of barley, oats and wheat, 
 which have increased the grain crop of the state millions 
 of dollars. These varieties won the world's champion- 
 ship, 1910-1911, at the national corn show. 
 
 It has produced a kind of corn which can be grown in 
 the northern part of the state. 
 
 It has produced grasses and legumes which formerly 
 could not be bred in the state. 
 
 It has made extensive investigations in the sugar beets 
 in relation to the development of that industry in the 
 state. 
 
 It has found remedies for noxious weeds. 
 
 It has maintained trial orchards in the northern part 
 of the state, so that where formerly very little fruit 
 existed, now all kinds of fruit are growing. 
 
 It has discovered new methods of managing marsh 
 soils. 
 
 It has worked out new methods of cranberry culture, 
 increasing the product of cranberries from one to ten 
 barrels per acre to seventy to eighty barrels per acre. 
 
130 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 It has worked out scientific rations for cattle. Five 
 of the six tests now everywhere used in dairying were 
 discovered by this department. 
 
 The Babcock fat test is used all over the world. The 
 moisture test for butter, the Wisconsin curd test, the 
 Farrington acid test and the Hart casein test are the 
 other great improvements which have been worked out. 
 
 New methods of making cheese, utilizing butter, have 
 been worked out. 
 
 The round wood silo was first used by this station. 
 
 A new system of ventilation for stables now univer- 
 sally used was worked out here. Even new methods of 
 blasting and pulling stumps have been discovered. 
 
 The agricultural department has demonstrations all 
 over the state; grain growing contests, pedigree high 
 grade seed contests are started and directed. 
 
 The fight against tuberculosis in cattle by demonstra- 
 tion has been kept up vigorously. 
 
 Fertilizers and feeding stuffs have been inspected and 
 analyzed. 
 
 A system of stallion registration has already reduced the 
 percentage of grade stallions over 1 5 per cent in the state. 
 
 Tests of soils have been made on hundreds of farms. 
 
 Plans have been made to reclaim 116,000 acres by 
 drainage surveyage within the next five years. 
 
 How astonished a college professor of forty years ago 
 would be if he were told that a college would do all 
 
EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 131 
 
 these things ! Truly we do not have to look in the dic- 
 tionary now for a definition of what is a university. 
 
 The question arises at once, "But isn't all this ma- 
 terialistic? Does the University of Wisconsin spell 
 'cow'?" And what of it? If the boy comes from the 
 farm, and learns at the university how to make that 
 farm more useful and from the scientific methods which 
 he acquires develops more orderly habits of life, if he 
 receives some inspiration which leads to progress or 
 some ideals which lead to good citizenship, is it not 
 worth while? If he because of his scientific knowledge 
 of farming gained in a short course makes money, his 
 sister may be sent to school, probably a luxury which 
 could not have been afforded otherwise. 
 
 In addition to the above an agricultural program has 
 been planned which includes the teaching of agricul- 
 ture in all the rural schools, in the state graded schools, 
 the township high schools, and the county training 
 schools for teachers, and a greater appropriation for 
 university extension and agricultural demonstration, etc. 
 The foundation of all these things has been put into law. 
 
 University Extension 
 
 University extension has long been connected with 
 colleges, but such have been the aristocratic influences 
 of education (and there are no greater aristocrats found 
 
132 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 anywhere than in education) that it has died down in 
 other states until it has become simply a name. 
 
 The increasing spirit in Wisconsin demanded that the 
 university should serve the state and all of its people 
 and that it should be an institution for all the people 
 within the state and not merely for the few who could 
 send their sons and daughters to Madison; thus was 
 brought about the establishment of the extension divi- 
 sion about five years ago. 
 
 The University of Wisconsin during these few years 
 has shown the world what constitutes real university 
 extension. It has accomplished what many schools 
 have tried to accomplish for many years with but in- 
 different results. It made what had been an ideal a 
 practical reality. It actually did and does bring the 
 university to every fireside. It actually has shown all 
 universities a means for shedding the light of knowledge 
 from within its walls to every home. 
 T The distinctive feature of this department is that it 
 has a faculty, an administration and an appropriation of 
 its own. It now spends $125,000 a year. Under the 
 old system of university extension, a professor gave part 
 time at the university and delivered a few sporadic 
 lectures in the field. Under this new extension arrange- 
 ment, professors of the highest rank are sent out into 
 the villages, shops and factories as practically travelling 
 teachers, meanwhile bringing the students in the field 
 
EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 133 
 
 in touch with the university by means of correspondence 
 studies. There are several centers or stations from 
 which the work can expand into the surrounding locali- 
 ties established throughout the state for this work. 
 General divisions with regular faculty are formed at the 
 university, notably in engineering, mathematics, draw- 
 ing, business administration, and to some degree in 
 languages. This is nothing new; private enterprise 
 has been doing this for some time but it is obvious that 
 the state can do more than any private enterprise. 
 Private correspondence schools must make a profit while 
 the state may be satisfied with a profit of improved 
 conditions. The state can well afford to invest vast 
 sums of money, while private enterprise must always take 
 out its dividends. When the state enters into this field 
 the private enterprise cannot long remain a competitor. 
 
 Some idea of how extensive and diverse the work of 
 the University Extension division is can be obtained 
 from the following statistics: 
 
 There are now about 5000 active students taking the 
 correspondence work; ninety-eight professors and in- 
 structors are supervising this work. Besides this there 
 are fifty-seven local classes in organized districts which 
 the professors visit. 
 
 In the department of debating and public discussion 
 about 80,000 articles are lent out annually throughout 
 the state. 
 
134 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 In the department of general information and welfare 
 many institutes are held and much diverse work is done. 
 Under its auspices were conducted the Milwaukee bakers' 
 institutes, the institute of municipal and social service 
 of the same city which ran twenty-one weeks last year 
 and 140 conferences and lectures. The Wisconsin con- 
 ference of criminal law works in connection with this 
 department, as does also the Wisconsin conference of 
 charities and corrections. An anti-tuberculosis exhibit, 
 in cooperation with the Anti-tuberculosis association, 
 was carried on by this department, which reached some 
 112,000 people in this state. In all, nearly 500 lectures 
 were given under this department. This same depart- 
 ment maintains the municipal reference bureau which 
 answers 1500 questions a year from many villages and 
 cities throughout the state and which does much to 
 organize the civic interest of these places. 
 
 The bureau of civic and social centre development is 
 also under this division. A national conference was 
 held at Madison, under the auspices of this bureau, and 
 some sixty-four communities or districts were assisted 
 in bettering social centre facilities. A lecture bureau 
 sent out lecturers last year to some ninety communities 
 in the state, with a total of 153 lectures. 
 
 There are three organized districts of the extension 
 department in the state, one in Milwaukee, one at 
 Oshkosh and one at La Crosse. The one in Milwaukee 
 
EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 135 
 
 has one district representative, four local and travelling 
 instructors, eight local instructors for night classes and 
 four field organizers and thirty-six classes, a good- 
 sized university in itself. These centres are being rapidly 
 developed throughout the state. 
 
 The great public questions of the day are all outlined 
 in these debates. Following are some of the outlines of 
 debates : 
 
 General Statement Discussions Themes Package Libraries. 
 Principles of Effective Debating. 
 Debating Societies, organization and procedure. 
 How to Judge a Debate. 
 
 Constitution for Triangular Debating Leagues. 
 Civic Clubs, organization and programs. 
 Farmers 1 Clubs, organization and programs. 
 Annexation of Cuba, Independence of the Philippines, with refer- 
 ences. 
 
 Closed vs. Open Shop, with references. 
 Commission Plan of City Government, with references. 
 Consolidation of Rural. Schools, Free Text Books, with references. 
 Federal Charter for Interstate Business, with references. 
 Guaranty of Bank Deposits, with references. 
 Income Tax, with references. 
 
 Increase of Navy, Ship Subsidies, with references. 
 
 Inheritance Tax, with references. 
 
 Initiative and Referendum, with references. 
 
 Parcels Post, with references. 
 
 Popular Election of United States Senators, with references. 
 
 Postal Savings Banks, with references. 
 
 Proportional Representation, with references. 
 
136 
 
 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 Recall, with references. 
 
 Restriction of Immigration, with references. 
 
 Simplified Spelling, with references. 
 
 Tariff on Trust-Made Steel Articles, with references. 
 
 Woman Su/rage, with references. 
 
 Criticism of the University 
 
 The university has its endowment from the people 
 and is not seeking endowments from private funds; 
 therefore free speech and service to the state are not 
 
EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 137 
 
 denied. It is true that it has been frequently accused 
 of "ruling the state." But as a general rule the pro- 
 fessors wait until asked before venturing to give an 
 opinion upon a public question; indeed, they are gen- 
 erally afraid of criticism, and it sometimes requires a 
 great deal of urging upon the part of the legislature to 
 obtain their help. During many years of legislative 
 work the writer has found the members of the legisla- 
 ture glad indeed to confer with the expert professor and 
 ask his advice, be it on a question of tuberculosis, the 
 chemistry of gas or the regulation of monopoly. Such 
 professors are often reviled and censured as endangering 
 the life of the university accused of throwing it into 
 politics but never in all that time has the author 
 heard a single comment involving the names of profes- 
 sors who were engaged as well-paid experts by private 
 corporations. No comments were made when a man 
 connected with the university law school, for instance, 
 was registered as the "counsel before the legislature for 
 all public service corporations," and yet at the same 
 time other men whose advice was sought by legislators 
 were attacked fiercely because of unpaid toil. Many at- 
 torneys and scientists of both types have been before the 
 legislature but there has been no criticism of the former 
 class ; indeed they deserved none, as they were all men of 
 high standing and rendered good service before the legis- 
 lature, for which they were well paid by private parties. 
 
138 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 If the legislature may not secure expert service 
 save that paid for by private interests, it will never 
 reach the scientific basis of these great questions now 
 before us which must be solved by the aid of the 
 expert's technical knowledge. The university should ' 
 not be blamed for having men upon whom the legisla- 
 ture may call for advice. They are paid from public 
 funds; why should the public not avail itself of their 
 services ? 1 Certainly the teacher of political science or 
 political economy who is worthy of consultation upon 
 governmental matters can give the students a better 
 idea of those great subjects than some mossback whose 
 theoretical learning was acquired by carefully keeping 
 away from the only laboratory which could be of any 
 service to him. We would not have the diseases of 
 cattle taught by a man who has never dissected a steer 
 or observed the course of disease at first hand. Why 
 then have a professor of political economy, political 
 science, teach classes in governmental matters when he 
 has never worked at the practical solution of any of 
 the great economic or political questions of the day? 
 
 Indeed, it is a healthy sign a sign that a depart- 
 ment of economics or of political science is not sleeping 
 when its men are constantly attacked by those who, 
 session after session, have crowded the legislative halls 
 in opposition to every constructive piece of legislation. 
 1 See Appendix for list of men serving both state and university. 
 
EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 139 
 
 If the legislation has been safe and sane or has been ad- 
 ministered fairly, some of these very men should pause 
 and think and render thanks to the careful professor 
 who has been called in to aid its making or who has 
 assisted in its administration. 
 
 The university has a duty to perform and cannot 
 shirk it. It is being supported out of public funds, and i 
 what better way can it pay its obligation than through 
 the production of good citizens and expert help. Says 
 Professor Turner: 
 
 " But quite as much in the field of legislation and of public life 
 in general as in the industrial world is the expert needed. The 
 industrial conditions which shape society are too complex, prob- 
 lems of labor, finance, social reform too difficult to be dealt with 
 intelligently and wisely without the leadership of highly educated 
 men familiar with the legislation and literature on social questions 
 in other states and nations. 
 
 " By training in science, in law, politics, economics and history 
 the university may supply from the ranks of democracy adminis- 
 trators, legislators, judges and experts for commissions who shall 
 disinterestedly and intelligently mediate between contending in- 
 terests. When the word 'capitalistic classes' and 'the prole-'' 
 tariat ' can be used and understood in America, it is surely time to 
 develop such men, with the ideal of service to the state, who may 
 help to break the force of these collisions, to find common grounds 
 between the contestants and to possess the respect and confidence 
 of all parties which are genuinely loyal to the best American ideals. 
 The signs of such development are already plain in the expert com- 
 missions of some states ; in the increasing proportion of university 
 
140 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 men in legislatures; in the university men's influence in federal 
 departments and commissions. It is hardly too much to say 
 that the best hope of intelligent and principled progress in 
 economic and social legislation and administration lies in the 
 increasing influence of American universities. By sending out 
 these open-minded experts, by furnishing well-fitted legisla- 
 tors, public leaders and teachers, by graduating successive 
 armies of enlightened citizens accustomed to deal dispassionately 
 with the problems of modern life, able to think for themselves, 
 governed not by ignorance, by prejudice or by impulse, but by 
 knowledge and reason and high-mindedness, the state universities 
 will safeguard democracy. Without such leaders and followers 
 democratic reactions may create revolutions, but they will not be 
 able to produce industrial and social progress. America's problem 
 is not violently to introduce democratic ideals, but to preserve and 
 intrench them by courageous adaption to new conditions. Edu- 
 cated leadership sets bulwarks against both the passionate impulses 
 of the mob, the sinister designs of those who would subordinate 
 public welfare to private greed. Lord Bacon's splendid utterance 
 still rings true : ' The learning of the few is despotism ; the learn- 
 ing of the many is liberty. And intelligent and principled liberty 
 is fame, wisdom and power.' 
 
 " There is a danger to the universities in this very opportunity. 
 At first pioneer democracy had scant respect for the expert. He 
 believed that ' a fool can put on his coat better than a wise man 
 can do it for him.' There is much truth in the belief ; and the edu- 
 cated leader, even he who has been trained under present university 
 conditions, in direct contact with the world about him, will still 
 have to contend with this inherited suspicion of the expert. But 
 if he be well trained and worthy of his training, if he be endowed 
 with creative imagination and personality, he will make good his 
 leadership." 
 
EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 141 
 
 The state supported university as now existing in the 
 middle west is to be the most efficient school of higher 
 education the world has ever seen. It cannot help 
 being so. As its cost increases, those who pay the 
 taxes will demand that results be shown and the struggle 
 between old ideals, higher learning and the practical 
 demands of the busy world will cause such a reaction 
 upon reaction that it cannot help producing the real 
 mixture of the ideal and the practical which is so much 
 needed to-day. The by-products of the establishment 
 of a department like the Wisconsin university extension 
 division are perhaps of greater value than the depart- 
 ment itself. The professor comes in contact with the 
 needs of the citizen and tempers his theory to practice 
 and the citizen learns to respect the professor and 
 demands more like him. 
 
 Industrial Education 
 
 Industrial education has been placed under the super- 
 vision of an industrial education board to be composed 
 of three employers of labor and three skilled employees, 
 the state superintendent of public instruction, the dean 
 of the extension division of the university and the dean 
 of the college of engineering at the university. Here- 
 after every child employed between the ages of fourteen 
 and sixteen will have to attend school for five hours a 
 week out of the time of the employer (chapter 660, laws 
 
142 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 of 191 1, chapter 505, laws of 1911). Instead of concen- 
 trating upon a few costly trade schools, the plan is to 
 build up a great system of industrial education for those 
 actually in work; to do something, where nothing has 
 been done to help all the workers; that is, the German 
 continuation school in all its essentials has been incor- 
 porated into the school system of Wisconsin. The whole 
 system is maintained by a special tax and has a special 
 administrative board, as above described, in order that 
 the boy and girl who is actually working may have as 
 good a chance as the boy or girl who does not have to 
 work, but can attend high school or college. Classes 
 are being established as rapidly as possible, so that the 
 special work in which children happen to be will be 
 provided for. It is specifically provided that hygiene 
 and sanitation must be taught in some way (chapter 615, 
 laws of 1911). It is specifically ordered also, that all 
 illiterates under twenty-one years of age must attend 
 evening schools whenever these evening schools can 
 be reached by them, unless excused because of lack 
 of strength (chapter 522, laws of 1911). An attempt has 
 been made to rehabilitate the old system of apprentice- 
 ship by chapter 347, laws of 1911, but it will be noted 
 that the outline of the indenture contains the following 
 which shows the social purpose of this kind of legislation : 
 
 " An agreement between the employer and the apprentice that 
 not less than five hours a week of the aforesaid fifty-five hours per 
 
EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 143 
 
 week shall be devoted to instruction. Such instruction shall in- 
 clude : two hours a week instruction in English, in citizenship, busi- 
 ness practice, physiology, hygiene, and the use of safety devices." 
 
 The boy who is to become a bricklayer, while he is 
 in apprenticeship will be taught not only the mere trade 
 but also some essentials which will prepare him for life 
 and a place in the civic body, giving him the opportunity 
 to broaden his outlook that later he may be able to pass 
 from the ranks of manual skill to the ranks of adminis- 
 trative ability. He will be taught not only brick- 
 laying but architecture, buying and correlated subjects. 
 And so in every industry the same general requirements, 
 subject to approval by the state board of industrial 
 education, must be met. 
 
 A local board of industrial education is also provided 
 and a liberal state aid arrangement is added, the whole 
 machinery constituting the most complete plan of indus- 
 trial education, compulsory in most of its features, 
 which has ever been attempted by any American state. 
 
 That the commission upon the plans for the extension 
 of industrial and agricultural training, appointed by the 
 legislature of 1909 to report in 1911, had a very broad 
 outlook, that it was looking for the improvement of 
 manhood, of womanhood, and of the state, is shown by 
 the following quotation from its report. It is given here 
 
 :ause it is full of the spirit of this state and of the 
 movement herein described. 
 
144 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 " It was the German philosopher Humboldt who said : ' What- ' 
 ever you put into the State you must first put into the schools.' 
 If the industrial education advocated by your committee will 
 lead merely to a better economic man, it will not reach its highest 
 aim. It must be judged by its by-products as well as by its result 
 in dollars and cents. It must be judged by its effect upon the life 
 of the people and upon human happiness and a varying number of 
 our great problems, social and economic and moral, with which 
 we have to deal to-day. To be in its truest sense efficient, it must 
 be a truly democratic education, an education which will fit all 
 the needs of all the people. This does not mean, then, that it must 
 be merely utilitarian, but the effect of it must be such that we can 
 answer definitely the question ; will it improve the moral situation? - 
 Will the boy who is industrially educated under this system be a 
 better man or a better husband? Will he be a better citizen? 
 Will he have a higher sense of moral obligation ? Will be be more 
 truthful, honest ? Will he have a better physique ? Will he be 
 a better factor in our life to-day? 
 
 " It is obvious that in order to make this system so that all these 
 questions can be answered in the affirmative, additions must be 
 made to the industrial program. The Germans have not for- 
 gotten to do this. They are noted as a law-abiding and patriotic 
 people. There is no doubt that the system by which citizenship 
 is taught in the German continuation schools has its effect upon 
 this spirit in that country. 
 
 " In this connection, Dr. George Kerschensteiner of Munich 
 has the following to say : ' ... As you see, professional efficiency 
 is put foremost because those who cannot stand upon their own 
 feet vocationally are unable to help others and prevent them from 
 falling. But in closest contact and intimately related with voca- 
 tional education must go the second aim of our program; t 
 
EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 145 
 
 develop insight into the connection and relation of the interests of 
 all citizens alike, and especially of our country, to take care that 
 that interest manifests itself in the exercise of patriotic self-sacri- 
 fice, justice, self-control, cooperative spirit and rational hygiene, 
 sensible frugal habits of living. If we keep the first aim only upper- 
 most hi our educational endeavors, then there is danger of training 
 up an excessive professional and individual egotism. 
 
 " ' And just here we touch the critical point in our considera- 
 tion of the value of industrial schools and education. If we in- 
 struct the prospective industrial mechanical worker not only in 
 the mechanical-technical part of his trade but likewise introduce 
 him into the mysteries of social and economic conditions, not only 
 of industrial life but with equal interest into the social and economic 
 life of the community and nation of which he is a citizen ; if we 
 train him from early youth to make him feel that he is a part, how- 
 ever small a part, of the larger whole of the nation to which he is 
 inseparably tied by all his interests, then he will be more or less 
 able to counteract and modify, if not to annul, the evil tendencies 
 of modern industrial conditions. 
 
 " ' We should not forget that economic and social conditions 
 are not only the product of natural laws but to no small degree 
 they are the product of the moral and educational standards of 
 the people. . . .' 
 
 " There is no doubt that courses in hygiene, sanitation, pro- 
 tective devices in machinery as well as the courses in citizenship, 
 are indispensable in these schools. They are seldom or never 
 omitted in the best continuation schools abroad. In practically 
 every continuation class in Munich a boy has to take one hour a 
 week of this training for four years. The cumulative effect of 
 f his upon citizenship is very great, as well as upon the health and 
 stamina of the race, and cannot be underestimated. 
 
146 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 " The combating of political corruption, as well as physical 
 disease, is one of the great by-products of this work, the effect of 
 which has not been fully understood in connection with other cor- 
 related movements in Germany. Sanitary conditions of facto- 
 ries, sanitary conditions of homes, progress towards health and the 
 righting of disease, the economies practiced by the cutting down of 
 injuries and of sickness caused by carelessness in factories, the cheap- 
 ening of industrial insurance all come from this source. These 
 are powerful influences which are basic and cannot be omitted. 
 It is but a truism to say that intelligence is aided when disease is 
 curbed and good, cleanly conditions exist in the home. 
 
 " Reformers in America are striving to get some knowledge of 
 why corruption is rampant here. We are fighting political cor- 
 ruption and physical disease at the same time. We may have 
 reform periods or spasms ; we may create temporary organizations 
 for the purpose of reforming government ; we may deliver lectures, 
 or our magazines may lead in pointing out the defects in govern- 
 ment, but we will never get a true sense of obligation to the state 
 until we teach that obligation. If we teach this in college or the 
 high school we will not hit the mark. How can we, when four- 
 fifths of the boys and girls do not go to high school or college ? 
 We never can completely fight disease, political or physical, unless 
 we teach these four-fifths, in some way, how to fight. 
 
 " Our great success in the battle against tuberculosis comes 
 largely from a determined effort to educate our people in a knowl- 
 edge of that disease, its prevention and cure. We can never erad- 
 icate political corruption unless we use the same determination 
 and begin at the time when a young man can be taught something 
 about citizenship. Our lawyers tell us that very little can be done 
 by legislation; that we cannot make people good by law. The 
 Germans look upon the law and the state as great moral forces, 
 
EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 147 
 
 but it is doubtful if the lesson of moral obligation would be any 
 more effective in Germany than it is in this country, unless this 
 same foundation in education exists. 
 
 " Consider tuberculosis for a moment. We had in America a 
 few years ago awful conditions in the slums of our cities. We 
 had what were known as the ' lung blocks.' It was the custom 
 to allow the poor people who had tuberculosis to die in these hor- 
 rible unsanitary tenements without doing anything to eradicate 
 the scourge. If a man was seized with tuberculosis, people said : 
 'Well, what can we do? He will die. We can do nothing.' 
 Scientists had for a long time known that if patients could be 
 segregated and fresh air and cleanliness could be provided, we 
 would stand a good chance of winning the battle against tuber- 
 culosis. That terrible disease had its main seats in the horribly 
 overcrowded sections in our cities, inhabited mainly by immi- 
 grants or the sons and daughters of immigrants. What was done 
 about it in the end ? With desperate odds against us, we began a 
 great campaign of education. We put enormous sums of money 
 into the fight to teach people how to overcome this great plague. 
 Now we are winning the battle and we are driving this disease out 
 of our cities and our country by education. 
 
 " We have eliminated other diseases as the result of this great 
 movement, and as a by-product of our methods. By teaching 
 cleanliness, fresh air, sanitation, we have helped to drive away 
 typhoid fever and pneumonia, and to raise the physical and men- 
 tal standards of our people. Our political disease goes hand in 
 hand with our physical disease. It comes from the same source. 
 It comes largely from the overcrowded, unsanitary districts in 
 our cities. It comes largely from alien population pouring into 
 the country at the rate of over a million a year. However good 
 the stock from which they came, the great majority of our immi- 
 
148 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 grants know very little about the history of our country ; in fact, 
 hardly know what American citizenship is. They come in contact 
 with the worst types of citizenship we have among us ; they see the 
 deference to wealth acquired by corruption, and the general care- 
 lessness of our ideals concerning government. They naturally 
 form their ideals under these conditions. Is it any wonder that 
 when nothing is done to cure political corruption, it should be as 
 rife in these places as tuberculosis ? 
 
 " When an immigrant comes to this shore, he has to wait five 
 years before he is naturalized. In those five years what educa- 
 tion in citizenship does he obtain ? He sees the poor in the slums 
 around him, he realizes the desperate fight for existence, he often 
 finds that his only help in that strife is the political boss or the cor- 
 rupt politician. He cannot help getting a perverted idea of citizen- 
 ship. How can we fight this political tuberculosis and have any 
 success? Does it seem possible that any industrial prosperity 
 which comes from industrial education will be of any real use to 
 us in the future, if conditions similar to these exist ? If we strive 
 to build up prosperity through industrial education without build- 
 ing up the health of the average man or average woman, and with- 
 out building up true citizenship, we will not have really democratic 
 education. Any industrial education without these other factors 
 will be a dismal failure. We may pass all the resolutions we want 
 to, but the only way to cure political corruption in our cities is to 
 cure it in the way we are stamping out tuberculosis by education. 11 
 
 The way in which the university will cooperate with 
 industrial education may be of interest to students of 
 industrial education who are now striving to meet the 
 great problem of how to start a system of this sort. 
 The following excerpt from the report which has now 
 been enacted into law shows how it may be done : 
 
EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 149 
 
 " The university extension division cannot, from its very nature, 
 do the permanent work of the continuation and trade schools. 
 There is a parallel between its methods and work and those of the 
 early church organizations. It was necessary at first to have some 
 kind of missionary work, as perhaps some little local demand be- 
 came evident. Then circuit riders were sent around; men who 
 preached one Sunday in one little town and the next Sunday in 
 another ; the circuits grew smaller as time went on until churches 
 were built, pastors secured, and permanent organizations estab- 
 lished in each town. 
 
 " The university extension work can follow the same method. 
 When little centers are established, permanent buildings erected '' 
 and permanent teachers secured, then the university extension 
 work can be used as a sort of circuit riding organization for the 
 still higher grades of work until the needs of the higher grades are 
 supplied by permanent organization. In this way the university 
 extension work can form the means of building up the whole sys- 
 tem from one which deals even with the needs of a single individual 
 in a little community to a complete system for the whole state. 
 This very elasticity, resulting in a variety of results by which 
 different grades of students and different grades of work can be 
 taken care of, is just what made German industrial education suc- 
 cessful. With a mistaken policy, some of her educational directors, 
 fortunately, however, not the leaders, have recently tried to grade 
 and qualify this work. This has been defeated and the work saved 
 from becoming static. The present system in that country, with 
 local schools adjusted to local needs, with varying degrees of schools 
 from the lowest continuation school through to the highest technical 
 school, has been a far better arrangement for Germany, and for 
 that matter can be a far better method to start with in this state, 
 than that brought about by a more strict classification. . . . 
 
150 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 " It is just this element of elasticity which Privy Councillor Dr. 
 von Steefeld advocates, that makes the extension division of pecul- 
 iar significance. It is fortunate for us at this time that we have 
 this organization in our state. In a state like ours, containing 
 many small villages with one or two manufacturing establishments, 
 the question upon which our whole scheme must fall or must live, 
 is what can we do with industrial education in each little place? 
 The large manufacturer does not have to be discussed. He can 
 teach ; he can gather in his apprentices and train them, but most 
 of the factories or mercantile establishments in Wisconsin are not 
 large enough to manage an undertaking of this kind for themselves. 
 Most of our schools in the northern part of the state, especially 
 in the scattered villages, have not enough money to give any kind 
 of an advanced course. If we cannot give these courses by one 
 means we must give them by another, and the only way in which 
 we can give them and reach out to all, is through the extension 
 division, its correspondence methods and its travelling lecturers 
 and teachers. Professor Person in his book upon industrial edu- 
 cation says : ' Except in those rare instances of highly centralized 
 states which are able to impose upon their people educational 
 systems created de novo, such an institution must be the result of 
 gradual development. When its scope is enlarged to meet new 
 situations, to reach new classes or to train for new activities, this 
 enlargement should be accomplished neither by creating new in- 
 struments unrelated to the general system nor by wholly recon- 
 structing the already existing system. This should be accom- 
 plished by developing new members which fit into the existing 
 system and which become integral parts of it.' 
 
 " Wisconsin is not a highly centralized state and cannot impose 
 upon its people an educational system created de novo. The uni- 
 versity extension division will not interfere in any way with the 
 
EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 151 
 
 existing system, but will add a new member which will dovetail 
 into the gaps in the whole. It will not only fit into the gaps of 
 the whole system, but it will be the medium by which the results 
 of the highest economic research and the results of the best eco- 
 nomic and industrial methods can be added from time to time. 
 It will be a long time in this state before every city of the third or 
 fourth class can have any very efficient higher industrial education. 
 The elementary grades will necessarily be taken care of first and 
 the simple needs administered to. If the spirit in which this report 
 is written be carried out, the greatest number will be served in a little 
 way until something can be done for those who demand more special 
 work. But it is by means of the extension division that these 
 special cases can be taken care of. If a young man outstrips his 
 competitors and by extraordinary brightness devours the educa- 
 tional opportunities of his prescribed district, there will be only 
 one way in most of the cities and villages to take care of him, and 
 that is by allowing him to expand through the extension division." 
 
 Thus the efficiency of the unit is looked after in order 
 that what is done may be well done and will be no 
 sporadic, so-called reform movement. That it will be 
 built on the sound rock of good citizenship and will be 
 safe from fads and fancies not even the rrrost conserva- 
 tive business man can deny. 
 
 The state has a system of normal schools with a 
 separate board of regents, provides liberally for its grade 
 and high schools and is gradually developing plans for 
 betterment. Considering the now unsettled condition of 
 large areas of this state, good work has been done in 
 the county training schools for teachers, the teachers' 
 
152 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 institutes and in the establishment of a good system of 
 regulation and inspection. An investigation is now in 
 progress under the direction of the newly created Board 
 of public affairs with the help of experts from the Bureau 
 of municipal research in New York City, which will 
 result, no doubt, in a thorough readjustment of the 
 system. The means for the enforcement of the truancy 
 laws were greatly strengthened by the 1911 legislature, 
 while severe compulsory education and child labor laws 
 are gradually having good effect. Over fifty laws relat- 
 ing to the betterment of the Wisconsin schools were 
 passed at the session of 1911. 
 
 Lack of space forbids going into many interesting 
 educational developments but a word must be said 
 about the travelling libraries of the Wisconsin free 
 library commission. These boxes of books are sent 
 into every far-away section of the state 'bringing directly 
 to every home in every little community the best litera- 
 ture of the day. They are changed often so that there 
 is always something fresh and new. They have 
 brightened the lives of many toilers and made interest- 
 ing and instructive the long winter evenings in the little 
 homes on the far-away farms as well as added to the 
 volume of intelligence, citizenship and womanhood. 
 The travelling libraries and the public libraries which 
 have followed after them together with the library 
 school, will remain a truly great monument to a great 
 seer and warm-hearted idealist, Mr. Frank A. Hutchins. 
 
EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 153 
 
 CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT 
 
 Although Wisconsin was the third state to take up 
 the work of preserving the forests in a successful manner, 
 it was the first great lumber state to do so. With the 
 lumber baron eager in his desire to waste and destroy, 
 there were many difficulties in the establishment of an 
 efficient department and there is nothing of which the 
 state may be more proud, than of its accomplishment. 
 It has now a reserve of 423,000 acres, and plans are 
 made for a reserve of 2,000,000 acres. It is the pur- 
 pose to preserve the upper waters of the great rivers 
 of the state in order that the water power may be con- 
 served, at the same time helping the wood industry of 
 the state and protecting the beauty of the northern 
 part of the state. The northern part of Wisconsin is a 
 great playground of wonderfully interlaced rivers, lakes 
 and forests. The protection of this region from fire and 
 its redemption because of its effect upon the water power 
 of the future, will save many times its invested value. 
 It has been a difficult fight to maintain this and par- 
 ticularly since the Wisconsin constitution permits no 
 state debt and the state by taxation must pay for this 
 preservation to posterity of the wealth of the state. 
 Wisconsin has dropped from first place in 1900 in the 
 production of forest products to eighth in 1910, a greater 
 loss than any other state. To check this loss is a great 
 
THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 task, for without a state debt the burdens are so heavy 
 upon the tax-bearer that it is difficult to convince him 
 of the wisdom of investing for the future. The ordinary- 
 settler who has a hard time cutting out a little home 
 for himself in the new regions of the state is indignant 
 at the thought of the state taxing him to preserve the 
 forests. However, the total funds for this department 
 now approximate $125,000 for the forestry department 
 and the beginnings of a system of fire wardens and fire 
 protection throughout the state. In spite of all oppo- 
 sition and considering all the circumstances, no state 
 has made a greater advance in this line. So great in- 
 deed has been its progress that the United States 
 government recently established on university land 
 a forest products laboratory for the testing of wood 
 products, an evident appreciation of what has been 
 accomplished. 
 
 Conservation and educational development must be 
 considered together. The schools and the university 
 cooperate in this development and in the education 
 and experimentation which lead to a sound public 
 opinion on these matters. In the debates occasioned 
 by the good roads bill, the university extension depart- 
 ment sent out special debating material on every phase 
 of the question. After a struggle reaching over many 
 years, the bill was finally passed in the 1911 session in a 
 form which will not allow petty sensational politicians 
 
EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION 155 
 
 to control but provides for a scientific distribution of 
 state aid to roads as well as scientific aid in the con- 
 struction of these roads. It will doubtless add millions 
 of dollars to the rural values of this state in a com- 
 paratively short time. It is in line with the other great 
 developments which have been set forth in this book. 
 It shows that the people of Wisconsin are striving for 
 that kind of legislation which will lead to both economic 
 and social results. It will make the country better to 
 live in and make the farmers better in an economic 
 sense. It is a great undertaking for a state which has 
 yet some ten million acres of unoccupied land. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 LABOR, HEALTH AND PUBLIC WELFARE 
 
 UNDER the management of Mr. Halford Erickson, the 
 labor bureau of the state of Wisconsin was developed 
 so that it ranked with that of New York and Massa- 
 chusetts. Sound laws for the protection of life and 
 health were enacted. The child labor law was. a great 
 advance in such legislation. It remained however, for 
 the 1911 session of the Wisconsin legislature to enact 
 a code of labor legislation which puts the work of this 
 body ahead of any other in the country. Besides the 
 numerous laws for the protection of life and health 
 and the better conditions for women in factories, there 
 are two laws which are worthy of comment ; the first of 
 which is the workmen's compensation act, chapter 50, 
 laws of 191 Y The conflict over that act and the pre- 
 vious attempts upon the part of the legislature to modify 
 the laws relating to contributory negligence, co-employ- 
 ment, the assumption of the risk, etc., form an interest- 
 ing page in the history of Wisconsin. This state has 
 only recently become a manufacturing state but the 
 necessity of new conditions is sure to bring legislation in 
 its trail. No doubt the humane spirit prevalent in the 
 state and the whole enlightened attitude of the courts 
 
 156 
 
LABOR, HEALTH AND PUBLIC WELFARE 157 
 
 tended to stimulate activity for betterment. The in- 
 adequacy of all old remedies for personal injuries was 
 apparent to all. The labor bureau under the direction 
 of an expert from the university, made a scientific study 
 of this question, which revealed such startling results 
 that there was evidently but one course to follow, 
 namely, to adopt some form of workmen's compensa- 
 tion or industrial insurance. As Chief Justice Winslow 
 of the supreme court said in the decision recently ren- 
 dered, in which the constitutionality of this law was 
 upheld : 
 
 " Legislate as we may in the line of stringent requirements for 
 safety devices or the abolition of employers' common law defenses, 
 the army of the injured will still increase, the price of our manu- 
 facturing greatness will still have to be paid in human blood and 
 tears. To speak of the common law personal injury action as a 
 remedy for this problem is to jest with serious subjects, to give a 
 stone to one who asks for bread. The terrible economic waste, the 
 overwhelming temptation to the commission of perjury and the 
 relatively small proportion of the sums recovered which comes to 
 the injured parties in such actions, condemn them as wholly inade- 
 quate to meet the difficulty." 
 
 The Wisconsin workmen's compensajioii^ct is an 
 excellent example of the caTfe&Htfay in which the leaders 
 in Wisconsin work. The agitation was started by the 
 labor element. After several years of discussion a 
 committee, headed by an able attorney, A. W. Sanborn, 
 was appointed by the legislature of 1909. This com- 
 
158 THE WISCONSIN -IDEA 
 
 mittee did not hesitate to use the best available aid. 
 Through expert help, the device of depriving the em- 
 ployer of certain of his defences, permitting him to 
 accept certain terms by which he agreed to give com- 
 pensation, was inaugurated. This was a powerful con- 
 stitutional device, more powerful than it seems at first. 
 The employer may, if he wishes, run his establishment 
 under the employers' liability plan and take the risk of 
 a suit for damages in the courts or elect to come under 
 the law by which his common law defences are prac- 
 tically all taken from him. The point is, he is not 
 compelled to accept the compensation plan unless he 
 so chooses but it is obviously to his advantage to do so. 
 New York had taken the other step and enacted a direct 
 law for compensation which was declared unconstitu- 
 tional by the courts because of its compulsory features, 
 involving the taking of property without due process of 
 law. Is it possible under the constitutions of the states 
 or the United States to impose upon an employer the 
 duty of paying to an employee so much for an arm or 
 so much for an eye without having the case come to 
 trial in the courts? 
 
 The Wisconsin men saw that it was not only a ques- 
 tion of the constitutionality but also a question of the 
 prevention of litigation. The question whether the 
 direct or the indirect method will prove most effective 
 in America has not yet been decided, but nine states at 
 
LABOR, HEALTH AND PUBLIC WELFARE 159 
 
 this writing have followed the Wisconsin indirect system. 
 Let us consider for a minute the advantages of this plan. 
 Suppose that the employer does not elect to come under 
 the new law but appears before the court on a question 
 of neglect. The courts will say to him, "Why did you 
 not come in under the act ? If you wanted the protec- 
 tion of the act, all you had to do was to accept its pro- 
 visions." As a result the employer is going to be dealt 
 with harshly because he did not come under the act. 
 Suppose on the other hand, that the employer comes 
 under the act and then tries to quibble or form a case 
 upon a legal technicality. Immediately, the court will 
 say to him, "You accepted the provisions of this act 
 with your eyes open. You accepted the jurisdiction of 
 the arbitration board which is set forth in the act and 
 the standards which it establishes." Consequently 
 there will be a discouragement of litigation and after all, 
 for what is a workmen's compensation act enacted if 
 not to decrease litigation? The legislature abolished 
 the great body of protection, due to legal technicalities 
 and precedents built up around the employer and based 
 the reward upon the findings of this industrial court. 
 The aim of the law is to prevent litigation and an in- 
 direct system accomplishes this more effectively than a 
 direct system. The latter imposing a club over every 
 industry, will have to be carefully construed by the 
 courts and that means litigation in the end. 
 
l6o THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 The men who formed the Wisconsin idea were first 
 confronted in the workmen's compensation act with the 
 problem of taking either the English act or the German 
 system as a basis. At first they were inclined to adopt 
 the English system but they found that if they did so 
 there would be serious complications confronting them. 
 Persons connected with the investigation went to Eng- 
 land and Germany and studied the actual conditions in 
 the great insurance departments, in the hospitals and 
 in the factories. They also compared the conditions of 
 England and Germany and transmitted to the com- 
 mittee their findings. It became apparent that in Eng- 
 land, the entrance of a third party (the insurance com- 
 panies) created a condition which was not a wholesome 
 one. The third party did not care about the laborer or 
 the capitalist; its interest was purely financial; its 
 object was to conduct the business with the least cost 
 possible and to derive the greatest dividends therefrom. 
 A great deal of litigation as well as dissatisfaction was 
 found in England. There the insurance companies had 
 many hangers-on, doctors, lawyers, etc., the cost of 
 whom had to be met in some way, while in Germany 
 the direct relation between the manufacturer and his 
 employee led to a mutual basis of respect. In England 
 it was not uncommon to find that if a certain company 
 had old men in its employ, the insurance companies 
 would raise the rate unless the firm disposed of them. 
 
LABOR, HEALTH AND PUBLIC WELFARE l6l 
 
 The German system, based upon an entirely different 
 idea of a more humane nature, led the manufacturer to 
 keep his employees and to care for them and when they 
 were old they were certain not to be cast out. The 
 mutual good feeling between the manufacturer and his 
 employee was thus greatly enhanced by the German 
 system. Those who studied the conditions in Germany 
 convinced the committee that it would be a wise thing 
 for the state of Wisconsin to adopt as far as possible 
 the German plan. The litigation was less and the 
 courts were especially adapted for the curtailment of 
 litigation. An adaptation of the arbitration court 
 scheme of Germany was practically adopted in the Wis- 
 consin law. The committee went further and recom- 
 mended the adoption of some mutual basis, providing a 
 device in the bill for carrying it out. 
 
 The manufacturers of Wisconsin, mostly of Germanic 
 descent and the employees many of the leaders of whom 
 were also of German descent, gave the utmost coopera- 
 tion in the drafting of this bill. The men sent abroad 
 learned that the splendid system of insurance in Ger- 
 many for sickness, old age, accidents and invalidity was 
 really an asset and not a liability. A German manu- 
 facturer in Cologne gave the writer the following as a 
 basic idea of the new economic philosophy existing 
 there. If in America you want to invest $200,000 in a 
 manufacturing establishment, you put it all in the 
 
1 62 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 factory. It has gradually been found in this country 
 that this is the wrong method ; the right way is to put 
 $100,000 in the plant and $100,000 in the men who run 
 the plant. If you can promise a man who comes into 
 your employ that he will have a clean, bright place in 
 which to work, that he can get married and bring up 
 children because, if he is hurt, you will provide for him ; 
 in old age that he will be cared for; that if he is sick 
 he will receive some benefit from you and that his grow- 
 ing children will receive industrial education which will 
 fit them for the work of society and not leave them 
 drifting, masterless men, you will have no difficulty with 
 your employees. It is not strange that this philosophy 
 was brought into the Wisconsin law for workmen's com- 
 pensation, because the idea had already been adopted 
 that the state must protect and invest in the life and 
 happiness of the individual in order that the greatest 
 prosperity might come from it and that security, peace 
 and happiness are the best foundations of good govern- 
 ment and prosperity. Those who had been taught by 
 John Bascom and Richard T. Ely of the University of 
 Wisconsin understood well these doctrines and accepted 
 them. 
 
 The manufacturers, the working men of Wisconsin 
 and the men who understood the Wisconsin idea, went 
 even further than this. They bethought themselves of 
 the scheme used in the railroad commission act, in the 
 
LABOR, HEALTH AND PUBLIC WELFARE 163 
 
 public utility law and all other similar legislation. If 
 you can make a standard of reasonableness to fix a rate 
 upon railroads, and then establish a body of men to see 
 that the rate is carried out, why can you not apply the 
 same thing to health, life and the sanitation of our fac- 
 tories? So they passed the industrial commission act 
 and gave to the industrial commission the administra- 
 tion of this work. This act, instead of specifying one 
 hundred and one different kinds of belts, nuts and 
 screws which might cause injury, requires all factories 
 and places of employment to be reasonably safe and 
 hygienic. 
 
 The law is considered by many the greatest piece 
 of legislation yet put forth in Wisconsin, and one which 
 may be a long stride toward the solution of the whole 
 industrial accident problem in America. Many hu- 
 mane manufacturers willing to do much for the better- 
 ment of conditions of life and health, are irritated by 
 legislation good in its intention but so awkward in its 
 construction as to be practically unworkable. The fix- 
 ing of standards of life and health is just as easy as the 
 fixing of valuations for rates of the price of gas or any 
 other utility, and it is much better for the manufacturer 
 and the public at large that there be some scientific or 
 expert service in the standardization. This in itself 
 would seem to be a cure for a large part of the lobbying 
 which is now done in the legislative halls. A new in- 
 
1 64 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 vention often makes it impossible for the manufacturer 
 to obey some inflexible and awkward law, whereas a 
 body of scientific men who can fix standards, and re- 
 quire safety devices which are workable, is much more 
 practical. These experts can provide a museum of 
 safety devices all of which are tested and require the 
 employer to use such devices. Think too, of the saving 
 in insurance. The reduction of the cost of the maimed, 
 killed and wounded in any mutual insurance company 
 will show whether the system is to be a success or failure. 
 The actuarial, technical experience gained in this way 
 will be of great use in cheapening the actual insurance 
 in the workmen's compensation act besides providing for 
 the prevention of accidents and more humane and better 
 conditions. 
 
 The following excerpts from the law will indicate how 
 it approaches the general form of the railroad commis- 
 sion and public utility acts. It fixes certain standards 
 for the commission to administer, throws the burden of 
 proof upon those who object to its decisions, and pro- 
 vides a very simple procedure. 
 
 " Section 2394-41. (2) The term ' employment ' shall mean 
 and include any trade, occupation or process of manufacture, or 
 any method of carrying on such trade, occupation, or process of 
 manufacture in which any person may be engaged, except in such 
 private domestic service or agricultural pursuits as do not involve 
 the use of mechanical power. . . . 
 
LABOR, HEALTH AND PUBLIC WELFARE 165 
 
 " Section 2394-48. Every employer shall furnish employment 
 which shall be safe for the employees therein and shall furnish a 
 place of employment which shall be safe for employees therein and 
 for frequenters thereof and shall furnish and use safety devices 
 and safeguards, and shall adopt and use methods and processes 
 reasonably adequate to render such employment and place of 
 employment safe, and shall do every other thing reasonably neces- 
 sary to protect the life, health, safety and welfare of such em- 
 ployees and frequenters. 
 
 " Section 2394-49. i. No employer shall require, permit or 
 suffer any employee to go or be in any employment or place of em- 
 ployment which is not safe, and no such employers shall fail to 
 furnish, provide and use safety devices and safeguards, or fail to 
 adopt and use methods and processes reasonably adequate to 
 render such employment and place of employment safe, and no 
 such employer shall fail or neglect to do every other thing reason- 
 ably necessary to protect the life, health, safety or welfare of such 
 employees and frequenters ; and no such employer or other person 
 shall hereafter construct or occupy or maintain any place of em- 
 ployment that is not safe." . . . 
 
 The commission is empowered : 
 
 " Section 2394-52. (3) To investigate, ascertain, declare and 
 prescribe what safety devices, safeguards or other means or 
 methods of protection are best adapted to render the em- 
 ployees of every employment and place of employment and fre- 
 quenters of every place of employment safe, and to protect their 
 welfare as required by law or lawful orders, and to establish and 
 maintain museums of safety and hygiene in which shall be ex- 
 hibited safety devices, safeguards, and other means and methods 
 for the protection of life, health, safety, and welfare of employees. 
 
1 66 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 " (4) To ascertain and fix such reasonable standards and to 
 prescribe, modify and enforce such reasonable orders for the 
 adoption of safety devices, safeguards and other means or methods 
 of protection to be as nearly uniform as possible, as may be neces- 
 sary to carry out all laws and lawful orders relative to the pro- 
 tection of the life, health, safety and welfare of employees in em- 
 ployments and places of employment or frequenters of places of 
 employment. 
 
 " (5) To ascertain, fix and order such reasonable standards 
 for the construction, repair and maintenance of places of employ- 
 ment as shall render them safe. 
 
 " (6) To investigate, ascertain and determine such reasonable 
 classifications of persons, employments and places of t employment 
 as shall be necessary to carry out the purposes of sections 2394-41 
 to 2394-71, inclusive. . . . 
 
 " Section 2394-59. 2. Every order of the commission shall, 
 in every prosecution for violation thereof, be conclusively pre- 
 sumed to be just, reasonable and lawful, unless prior to the insti- 
 tution of prosecution for such violation an action shall have been 
 brought to vacate and set aside such order, as provided in section 
 2394-68 of the statutes." 
 
 The mutual insurance portion of the workmen's com- 
 pensation is that which makes it really powerful and in 
 the end, economical and just. Every state in this 
 country adopting a workmen's compensation law will 
 have to provide some such arrangement before thoroughly 
 good results can be obtained. 
 
 The following extract from the report of the committee 
 is given at length because of the great importance of this 
 feature. 
 
LABOR, HEALTH AND PUBLIC WELFARE 167 
 
 " Industrial insurance is the name most commonly applied to 
 workmen's compensation acts, and conveys the meaning that there 
 is some plan of insurance. In the first tentative bills of this com- 
 mittee, the plan of insurance was brought forth, but after full and 
 mature discussion it was decided that it would be better to leave 
 the employer free to determine for himself the best means of taking 
 care of the liability created. The committee felt that to lay down 
 a plan of insurance would be to put on a limitation that might 
 handicap employers and leave them at the mercy of a certain class 
 of insurance companies. We recognize the great benefits to em- 
 ployees of what are known as sick, accident and death benefit 
 societies now in effect in many large institutions, and we much 
 prefer to leave this whole matter open in such a way as to encour- 
 age the formation of these sick, accident and death societies. 
 Under section 26 we have given to employers an opportunity to 
 organize, under the laws of this state, mutual insurance 
 companies to carry the new risk. Strong mutual insurance 
 companies clearly have been shown to be the cheapest, safest, 
 and most reliable method by which the risk herein created 
 can be taken care of." 
 
 In this way it was suggested that the German system 
 could be carried out. By modifying an old section of 
 the statute this was easily established in the law. The 
 provisions of the workmen's compensation act relating 
 to this most important arrangement both for the economy 
 and the humanity of the whole scheme, is contained in 
 the following section : 
 
 " Section 2394-26. Nothing in this act shall affect the or- 
 ganization of any mutual or other insurance company, or any 
 
1 68 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 existing contract for insurance of employers' liability, nor the 
 right of the employer to insure in mutual or other companies, 
 in whole or in part, against such liability, or against the liability 
 for the compensation provided for by this act, or to provide by 
 mutual or other insurance, or by arrangement with his employees, 
 or otherwise, for the payment to such employees, their families, 
 dependents, or representatives, of sick, accident, or death bene- 
 fits in addition to the compensation provided for by this act. But 
 liability for compensation under this act shall not be reduced or 
 affected by any insurance, contribution or other benefit whatso- 
 ever, due to or received by the person entitled to such compensa- 
 tion, and the person so entitled shall, irrespective of any insurance 
 or other contract, have the right to recover the same directly from 
 the employer ; and in addition thereto, the right to enforce hi his 
 own name, in the manner provided in this act, the liability of any 
 insurance company which may, in whole or in part, have insured 
 the liability for such compensation ; provided, however, that pay- 
 ment in whole or in part of such compensation by either the em- 
 ployer or the insurance company, shall, to the extent thereof, be 
 a bar to recovery against the other of the amount so paid, and pro- 
 vided further, that as between the employer and the insurance 
 company, payment by either directly to the employee, or to the 
 person entitled to compensation, shall be subject to the conditions 
 of the insurance contract between them. 
 
 " Section 2394-27. Every contract for the insurance of the 
 compensation herein provided for, or against liability therefor, 
 shall be deemed to be made subject to the provisions of this act, 
 and provisions thereof inconsistent with this act shall be void. No 
 company shall enter into any such contract of insurance unless 
 such company shall have been approved by the commissioner of 
 insurance, as provided by law. For the purposes of this act, each 
 
LABOR, HEALTH AND PUBLIC WELFARE 169 
 
 employee shall constitute a separate risk within the meaning of 
 section iSgSd of the statutes." 
 
 It will be noticed that it was by making each em- 
 ployee a separate risk that the old mutual statute was 
 applied to this act. 
 
 Under this section mutual companies are now being 
 formed with a fair degree of rapidity. 
 
 Here then, we have two laws, the workmen's compen- 
 sation act and the industrial commission act, based 
 upon the fundamental Wisconsin idea and made prac- 
 tical by the devices which were used in the railroad com- 
 mission and the public utility act. It will be seen that 
 the same procedure by which the aggrieved party had 
 his right in court under the earlier commission acts, 
 gave the aggrieved party that same remedy under the 
 industrial commission and the workmen's compensation 
 act. After all, it is a court question, a matter of con- 
 tract just as in the railroad and public utility acts. No 
 matter how many rights may be given the employee under 
 any modification of the fellow-servant or contributory 
 negligence doctrine, the poor fellow was obliged to go 
 into court and ask that compensation be given to him. 
 Delay was the inevitable result of going into court. He 
 could engage attorneys to fight the case for him but 
 meanwhile he could starve. The result has been that 
 by the constant appeal from court to court and the 
 slowness of justice, the man who apparently had justice 
 
170 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 on his side, never really received it and either had to 
 compromise or take the moiety which was thrown to 
 him at the end of the litigation. The workmen's com- 
 pensation act is a means of giving not only a certain 
 remedy to the aggrieved party but it is another example 
 of the state standing behind the poorer man in litiga- 
 tion and making smooth the path for him so that he 
 obtains justice. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that the apprenticeship and 
 the industrial education acts already mentioned furnish 
 powerful allies for the above laws. A systematic attempt 
 will be made under these acts to teach workers how to 
 preserve life and health. Without the cooperation and 
 intelligence of the worker himself, much will be lest in 
 the campaign of prevention and the legislative com- 
 mittee on industrial education had this well in mind 
 when they drafted the bills which to-day may be called 
 a part of the above code. 
 
 The state has a well organized Board of health with a 
 vital statistics division which cooperates with the school 
 of medicine at the university through the experts and lab- 
 oratories especially established for research into disease. 
 
 This combination between the university and the 
 Board of health is leading to good results. Already a 
 Pasteur institute has been founded in connection with 
 the state hygienic laboratory at the university. Over 
 two hundred patients have been treated there and all 
 
LABOR, HEALTH AND PUBLIC WELFARE 1 71 
 
 but one have been saved. More than 4250 packages 
 of diphtheria anti-toxin have already been distributed 
 and typhoid anti-toxin is now also being dispensed. 
 Cooperative investigations are constantly being made 
 by these two state organizations. 
 
 Through the efforts of the Wisconsin anti-tuberculosis 
 association a state sanatorium for consumptives was 
 established and at the 1911 session of the legislature a 
 law granting state aid for a county system of sana- 
 toriums was put upon the statute books and the Board 
 of health is making strong efforts to effectually enforce 
 it. A medal which was offered by the International 
 anti-tuberculosis association to the state or country 
 having the best law for the prevention or control of 
 tuberculosis was awarded Wisconsin in 1908. The Board 
 of control with its system for the care of insane and 
 criminal and delinquent classes has been used as a model 
 for several states and is on a high plane. Dairy and food 
 laws have contributed to the cleanliness and quality of the 
 dairy industry of the state and have assured state protec- 
 tion in the matter of food products. J. Q. Emery, the dairy 
 and food commissioner, fortified by chemists from the 
 university, has stood without flinching, a fire of criticism 
 perhaps as great in a way as that directed at Dr. Wiley. 
 The state has expended large sums in all these lines 
 -but it has been well used. Every cent of it is an 
 investment which is now yearly bringing back many 
 times its amount. 
 
CHAPTER VH 
 
 ADMINISTRATION 
 
 IT may seem strange at first glance that the system 
 of appointive offices meets with so much approval in a 
 state where there is such confidence in democracy and 
 where the direct primary election is in favor. This is 
 easily explained; the primary election is practically 
 applied only to the executive officers and to those who 
 legislate and formulate policies. The fact that the in- 
 surance commissioner has been made an appointive 
 officer and that the election of judges and state super- 
 intendent of public instruction does not coincide with 
 the regular political elections, together with the efforts 
 which doubtless will be made in the near future to with- 
 draw the attorney-general, the secretary of state and 
 the state treasurer from political elections, shows that 
 the people are slowly working towards a distinction 
 between those who determine a policy and those who 
 are chosen for administrative or technical skill as 
 servants merely to carry out the will of the people as 
 expressed in the law. Thus the appointive commission 
 is an aid to democracy. There is no inconsistency in 
 these two principles. 
 
 172 
 
ADMINISTRATION 173 
 
 Although the principles of the short ballot have not 
 been acknowledged in this state, the generally accepted 
 principle has been that the legislature determines largely 
 what is to be done and delegates the administration to 
 some technical or scientific body. The apjppintive com- 
 mission is an^ssentig.Hn the Wisconsin jHe,fl. As a rule 
 these commissions are non-partisan or bi-partisan. They 
 are appointed for long periods of time, receive good 
 salaries and are given expert help. In very many cases, 
 these commissions are permitted to fix the salaries of 
 their employees thus further centralizing responsibility 
 with these bodies. They are protected also and this 
 is a very important point by continuing appropriations. 
 
 The commissions are seldom paid small salaries ; they 
 are either 
 
 (1) well paid; or 
 
 (2) not paid at all. 
 
 Well paid commissions, composed of men of talent 
 and honorary or ex-officio commissions with expert 
 help, have proven successful but when the compensa- 
 tion is small, the service is hampered by inefficient men. 
 The writer well remembers one case in the legislature 
 when a small group of men attempted to fix the salaries 
 of a commission just low enough so that very good men 
 could not be secured and yet just high enough to pro- 
 vide jobs which they themselves could afford to accept. 
 
174 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 Unfortunately, there are still some commissions of this 
 kind but they are rapidly disappearing. 
 /^ Good laws are ineffective unless accompanied by good 
 ^administration. Good administration is impossible un- 
 less combined with ordinary business methods and the 
 latter are not compatible with the policy "to the victors 
 belong the spoils." If any praise is due the Wisconsin 
 laws it is probably because of the appointive commis- 
 sions, the non-partisan spirit, the expert and the effective 
 civil service law. The non-partisan spirit has become a 
 tradition. In an overwhelming republican state, at one 
 time the chairman of the civil service commission, the 
 chairman of the tax commission and the chairman of 
 the railroad commission were democrats. Of the mem- 
 bers of the supreme court the majority are, perhaps, 
 democrats. The civil service law and the non-partisan 
 spirit are inherent in the very life of the state of Wis- 
 consin, therefore it is not surprising that congressmen 
 and United States senators from this state have carried 
 the same spirit into national affairs and are found fre- 
 quently "lining up" with one party or the other, as the 
 issue demands. 
 
 It is very natural, considering all the facts previously 
 considered, that civil service should be a doctrine of the 
 state of Wisconsin. 
 
 The German believes in merit. During the session of 
 1911, when certain members tried to repeal the civil 
 
ADMINISTRATION 175 
 
 service law, members from the German districts upheld 
 it strongly. One of the assemblymen from Milwaukee 
 said, "We Germans believe in civil service; we believe 
 in merit and fitness; we believe that men should be 
 educated for administrative duties; we do not like 
 'pull' in state business." There is no doubt but that 
 the German prefers attaining public office under civil 
 service to any other method. It is strange but true, 
 that in the German state of Wisconsin, a German gov- 
 ernor has never been elected, as the old German stock 
 in general dislikes political strife and wire pulling. The 
 German believes that public officials should be educated 
 so we have a great basis for civil service principles in 
 the temperament of the state. 
 
 The power of the commissions as herein outlined must 
 seem to the reader to be fraught with danger. Cen- 
 tralized machinery has been dangerous in the past and 
 continues to be so unless the temptation for political 
 juggling is removed. Such concentration of power 
 should not take place without the addition of the non- 
 partisan spirit and an efficient civil service. Any state 
 which may wish to follow Wisconsin by adopting its 
 highly centralized plan is hereby warned in order that 
 they may have proper conditions in which to establish 
 a scheme which gives so much power into the hands of 
 a few experts. Suppose after having planned these elabo- 
 rate laws calling for statisticians, accountants, actuarial 
 
176 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 experts and skilled workers of all kinds, that there was 
 no standard fixed for these men. Suppose that the 
 politician says to a commission that he knows of a good 
 accountant who is a good political worker it is true, but 
 who has worked in an accounting office and hence had 
 better be employed ; it can readily be seen that the ad- 
 ministration of these laws might be a farce and that the 
 offices would be vacant after every political election. 
 If the Wisconsin program is to be followed, it must be 
 taken in its entirety or not at all. If power is granted 
 at all, it must be given in liberal doses in order that 
 there may be efficiency. Mark well every step in this 
 matter. The commissions are so constituted and the 
 terms of the members are so arranged that no two of 
 them retire within the same year; they are thus pro- 
 tected from the desires of any one governor. They are 
 restricted by carefully worked out methods of book- 
 keeping and publicity and are hedged about by strict 
 civil service requirements and if positions of an expert 
 nature are exempted, they are carefully selected and 
 exemption is grudgingly granted by the legislature only 
 on the grounds of great necessity and upon convincing 
 evidence as to this necessity. 
 
 It may seem that this is a complicated and costly 
 system of government, an undemocratic, bureaucratic 
 government and as such criticisms are not without real 
 value, the whole subject demands some frank discussion. 
 
ADMINISTRATION 177 
 
 There is no infallible kind of government. Commissions 
 do not depend merely upon the men but also upon the 
 checks and spurs which sustain the integrity of the 
 whole system. If it is a scheme although seemingly 
 contrary to our ideas of democracy, which really carries 
 out absolutely and surely the will of the people, it is an 
 aid to democracy. How in this complex, economic life 
 are we ever going to use any other machinery ? We have 
 tried to fix tariff rates by congress and we have found 
 that with the little time and knowledge possessed by 
 each member, with the juggling of interests throughout 
 the country, it seems an impossibility. If rates are 
 being fixed in the chaos and hurry of the legislative 
 session, is it any wonder that the courts have to inter- 
 pret and many times destroy the results of this guess 
 work? Is it any wonder that the business man is 
 afraid of a legislative session when every bolt or screw 
 in his machinery may be regulated by impractical laws 
 or matters of actuarial skill be determined in a few 
 moments in a legislative committee, or the price of gas 
 or some other thing equally scientific, regulated in an 
 equally crude manner ? 
 
 Such a system cannot survive and it is merely a 
 question of what system shall supplant it. That we 
 will have to use a commission system of some sort is 
 shown by the ordinary business arrangements of life. 
 If a city owned a municipal baseball team, imagine 
 
178 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 the city holding a public election to elect a second 
 baseman or attempting to fix certain items of bats and 
 balls ! The only sensible way would be for the city 
 to determine whether or not it would have a baseball 
 team, to set the necessary limit upon expenditures for 
 such a team and to direct the council executing the 
 will of the people, to secure a manager who would be 
 the responsible director. Any common experience in 
 life illustrates the same principle. We must have an 
 administrator for any special line of endeavor and give 
 to him the responsibility ; commission government seems 
 to be the best method to extend the legislative power 
 scientifically, and the only way also of using judicial 
 determination in great economic questions confronting 
 the people. Dislike it as we may, we will have to 
 employ it nevertheless and that more and more 
 frequently as economic life becomes more complex. 
 Indications are that legislation for the future on great 
 economic questions will be based upon a broad deter- 
 mination of policies by a legislative body, the carrying 
 out of which will be intrusted to efficient servants and 
 experts, responsible in every manner to the representa- 
 tives of the people and the people in general. 
 
 There is a form of government still existing here and 
 there in the world whkh gradually is being discarded 
 for the good of all mankind that of the unlimited 
 monarchy. There have been good and great kings who 
 
ADMINISTRATION 179 
 
 have accomplished as much or perhaps more than any 
 republic but the good king died, a tyrant succeeded him 
 and the nation retrograded. The individual may have 
 been right but the system as a system, covering a long 
 period of time, was wrong. The same thing is true of 
 this growth of commissions. They should be circum- 
 scribed by all the checks and balances of representative 
 government. If great power is given to them they 
 should be restricted and made so accountable to the 
 people and their representatives that if they are weak 
 or inefficient the machinery, like that of a republic itself, 
 will be so well constructed that it will tide over such a 
 condition until better men can be secured. A newly 
 appointed commission is usually stronger than one more 
 firmly established when its fight has been won. It is 
 well then to remember that in its creation, its powers 
 should be closely defined and safe guarded, so that it 
 has a continuing strength not wholly dependent on the 
 personality of the commissioners and yet is so checked 
 that the white light of public opinion may penetrate into 
 its innermost recesses at any time. If all the eggs are 
 placed in one basket, it is well to watch that basket. 
 
 The commission plan is not perfect in the opinion W 
 the author and he has stood almost alone in advocatingx 
 certain additions and restrictions. In spite of vigilance, 
 the stiffness and red tape of the bureau may eventually 
 appear. Commissioners may in time have a tendency 
 
l8o THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 toward making their decisions come so safely within the 
 decisions of the courts that no litigation results, because 
 the persons affected are satisfied sometimes too well 
 satisfied. Justice is sometimes more thorough when it 
 involves conflict and it is a healthy sign to see cases 
 contested in the courts once in a while, with the com- 
 missioners on the one side and great corporations on the 
 other. Of course, public sentiment bearing upon the 
 commissions may make them somewhat arbitrary in their 
 methods. If so, the courts will protect the corporations 
 involved. But if a legislative law or a rule of a com- 
 mission is always modified so that it comes within the 
 court decisions and precedents, no progress will ever be 
 made for real justice indeed, it will result in a gradual 
 retrogression and in the end, confidence in the system 
 will be lost. There are certain kinds of progression in 
 legislation, the results of which in relation to constitu- 
 tionality as construed by the courts we cannot fore- 
 tell and occasionally there must be encroachment upon 
 precedent so that the subject may come before the courts 
 in as good an economic light as possible. Similarly, 
 there are certain decisions in commissions which have to 
 be made boldly so that the aggrieved parties will use 
 their entire powerful machinery in the court. The 
 writer believes this to be a wholesome process and no 
 commission should be afraid to boldly progress so that 
 occasionally its decisions will be submitted to the courts. 
 
ADMINISTRATION l8l 
 
 Again, while some commissions may grow sluggish, 
 others may be inclined to become arrogant and bureau- 
 cratic towards their masters the people. There should 
 be some means whereby commissions may be called 
 before the legislature in the same manner in which mem- 
 bers of the English cabinet are subjected to questions or 
 interpellation in the British parliament. 
 
 Sir Courtenay Ilbert, in his book "Parliament; its 
 History, Constitution and Practice," 1911, p. 113, says 
 of this device : 
 
 " Asking questions in the house is one of the easiest methods 
 by which a member can notify to his constituents the attention 
 which he devotes to public affairs and to their special interests. 
 For this and other reasons, the right to ask questions is specially 
 liable to abuse, and its exercise needs careful supervision by the 
 Speaker and those acting under this authority. But there is no 
 more valuable safeguard against maladministration, no more 
 effective method of bringing the searchlight of criticism to bear 
 on the action or inaction of the executive government and its sub- 
 ordinates. A minister has to be constantly asking himself, not 
 merely whether his proceedings and the proceedings of those for 
 whom he is responsible are legally or technically defensible, but 
 what kind of answer he can give if questioned about them in the 
 house, and how that answer will be received." 
 
 A proceeding of this kind would be a protection to 
 both the commission and the public. The writer has 
 often heard some legislator questioning the wisdom of 
 commission administration because of derogatory state- 
 
1 82 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 ments and criticisms which had been presented to. him. 
 If asked why he does not go directly to the commission 
 and find the truth, he invariably replies that when he 
 did go to that office he met a crowd of experts who 
 could prove anything to him and things were so com- 
 plicated that he only made a fool of himself. This man 
 however, would feel much stronger if we adopted the 
 European policy and called the commission before the 
 legislature. He would be bold and they would be on 
 the defence. As Sir Arthur Cunningham of the British 
 home office remarked to the writer, "If old Maggie 
 Malone of County Cork does not receive her old age 
 pension we may be called upon to give the reason." 
 The author witnessed John Burns undergoing a severe 
 test before parliament one day and consequently has 
 great respect for the question as a vigorous expedient 
 to apply to some of these new commissions which are 
 coming into existence, not only in Wisconsin but all 
 over the country. 
 
 In the case of the proposed Interstate trade commis- 
 sion, supplementing the Sherman anti-trust act, the 
 members should be subject to recall by a majority vote 
 of congress. It is the belief of the author that sooner 
 or later such a plan will be developed in addition to the 
 program which has been laid down in Wisconsin. When 
 all is said, there is no sure cure-all in commissions. It is 
 a good thing once in a while not too often for the 
 
ADMINISTRATION 183 
 
 legislature to overturn their rulings. It keeps them 
 active and vigilant, for there is a wisdom in the multi- 
 tude which is greater in the long run, than that of any 
 body of experts or judges. In the legislature there is a 
 certain wisdom and as a result, bulwarks have been 
 built up for the liberty of the human race which no doc- 
 trinaire theory of law or no worn-out precedent can give. 
 Our common law, in a broad sense, came from the cus- 
 toms of the people and it is significant that in the estab- 
 lishment of the modern machinery, which is really put- 
 ting into practice the truest ideals of the common law, 
 there has been more real virility and strength in legisla- 
 tive enactment than there has been in the wisdom of 
 judges. 
 
 When one pauses to consider the long line of sufferers 
 from accidents who have come into the courts of America 
 and remained there for years, the long litigation over 
 the trusts and almost every right which is possessed by 
 the people to-day in theory and not in fact, can we say 
 that the judges have been wise, or that the American 
 legislature has been unwise ? It is true that in thinking 
 of the learning and ability of the judges we may be 
 tempted to say "Here are men versed in the law; why 
 not turn the matter over to them?" There are men in 
 our legislative halls and our colleges who believe that 
 the only legislation is that made by the judges. Upon 
 looking over this whole situation it seems that we should 
 
1 84 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 have renewed confidence in the legislature and the people. 
 After all, there may be some truth in what Talleyrand 
 said to Napoleon: "There is somebody wiser than you, 
 Napoleon and wiser than all your councillors ; and that 
 is everybody." And if we in America do not believe it, 
 we do not believe in representative government. The 
 same general principles apply to any small body how- 
 ever expert it may be. As John Morley says in his 
 "Essay upon Guicciardini " : 
 
 " It is not merely the multitude on whose wisdom you cannot 
 count. . . . Perhaps Burke comes nearest to the mark : ' Man 
 is a most unwise and a most wise being. The individual is foolish. 
 The multitude for the moment is foolish, when they act without 
 deliberation ; but the species is wise, and when time is given to it, 
 as a species it almost always acts right.' ' 
 
 The history of the past, the philosophy upon which 
 this nation is founded should teach us the futility of 
 placing in the hands of any group of men, power with- 
 out responsibility and direct accountability. As experts 
 they are entitled to protection and as we cannot well 
 elect experts, we must select them but their work must 
 always be subject to the great common sense which was 
 recognized by the fathers as existing in popular control. 
 
 No state should attempt the regulation herein de- 
 scribed without securing the highest type of public 
 servant to do the work and it must expect to pay well 
 for it. 
 
ADMINISTRATION 185 
 
 To adopt the Wisconsin plan of controlling the vast 
 interests which are included in these laws, while at the 
 same time paying starvation salaries for experts, would 
 be to invite failure from the moment that these laws 
 were enacted. Nothing in political life to-day, in the 
 opinion of the writer, has done more to bring ineffi- 
 ciency in public service everywhere than the poor 
 salaries paid. We are wondering why the state cannot 
 be as efficient as a private concern when the private 
 corporation will pay three times the amount for like 
 service in public life. No civil service law however good, 
 can cure inefficiency coming from this source. A state 
 can never make something out of nothing. Not only 
 the poor salaries paid but the poor adjustment of salaries 
 is a contributing cause. In Wisconsin fortunately, the 
 great commissions have to a great degree the power to 
 fix the salaries of experts and this has been the means 
 of securing much efficiency. If we give responsibility 
 to commissioners, surely we ought to trust their judg- 
 ment sufficiently to allow them to fix the salaries accord- 
 ing to ability. In the minor ranks of expert ability 
 also, something will have to be done throughout our 
 government to attract to the public service the same 
 efficiency which enters into private business. 
 
 If private business can afford retirement funds for old 
 men, surely it would be a good investment for the gov- 
 ernment to have something similar. If it is not good 
 
1 86 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 policy for the private industry to retain old men and wo- 
 men, worn out in office service and hindering quick, effi- 
 cient results, neither is it good business for the government. 
 Efficiency demands the best and public servants should 
 be as well protected as private servants. Some kind of 
 promotion in every rank of public service should come 
 if public efficiency is to equal that in private service. 
 How ridiculous it is for congress or any state to strive 
 to fix the salaries for the different clerks in different 
 departments by legislative action and yet hold the com- 
 missions responsible for the work of these clerks ! If a 
 great commission is capable of fixing the rates for gas 
 or electricity, surely it is equally capable of fixing the 
 salaries of a clerk or a stenographer, especially when 
 restricted by a civil service law. 
 
 Fundamental to the responsible commission and to all 
 good administration of our laws is a study of the prin- 
 ciples of administration. Our young men must be trained 
 for public service as in the European countries. That 
 there is a science of administration has been seemingly 
 unknown to the American public until very recently. 
 How could it be otherwise with the doctrine of the spoils- 
 man as the most important thing in our public life? 
 The sense of duty, permanency and scientific methods 
 in office had to be realized first. This realization was 
 brought about through the education of the people. 
 
 Few of us realize to what extent preparations are 
 
ADMINISTRATION 187 
 
 made for legislation in Germany. A recent statement 
 by one of the Prussian statesmen shows that half the 
 members, not only of the imperial parliament but also 
 of the various state parliaments, were men who had 
 received some training for their work and most of the 
 officers, in fact nearly all of the administrative officers 
 in Germany, are especially educated for this important 
 work. 
 
 The German university is the usual channel through 
 which this training is acquired, whereas in America the 
 university man is sometimes looked at askance if he 
 utters an opinion upon a public question. In Germany, 
 says a recent report from the German minister of educa- 
 tion, it is the duty of the university "to give opinions of 
 all kinds regarding scientific questions falling within their 
 province, or for working out important problems con- 
 cerning public life." It is not surprising then, that the 
 expert is welcome in a state like Wisconsin where Ger- 
 manic standards and Teutonic blood, whether Scandi- 
 navian or German, are so prevalent. 
 
 The science of administration seems only to have 
 begun in America. The pioneer work done by the New 
 York bureau of municipal research, which is influencing 
 many of the cities of the country and is now touching 
 the federal government through the Bureau of efficiency 
 and economy under the efficient management of Dr. 
 Frederick A. Cleveland, shows us a new field for the 
 
188 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 expert; the expert in investigation as well as in the 
 preparation and the administration of laws. If there is 
 one thing which the Ely school of economics seems to 
 have brought into our life it is the spirit of the German 
 school, which inspires one to look not to theory but to 
 the actual affairs of economic life. So we are looking 
 for advice now, not from discredited followers of the 
 old theory of the classic school but to the teachings of 
 men like John R. Commons, B. H. Meyer or Richard 
 T. Ely. It is true that we are not changing rapidly 
 enough and that we are too prone to take the advice 
 of the undiluted type of professor of the old school who 
 has not been tried in the laboratory of public life and 
 who often proves to be a dangerous man. He who is 
 lost in his theories is often as bad an advisor as the 
 most corrupt politician; his guidance often leads into 
 realms in which there is no real knowledge and which 
 bear no practical relations to real life. A reasonable 
 hesitancy in choosing an expert at the present time will 
 accomplish a great deal for good government. The land 
 is full of men with doctrinaire theories who have never 
 studied the actual problems of government at first hand 
 and who, if received with open arms, may do so much 
 harm to the work of the real student of government 
 that a serious retrogression will occur in the construc- 
 tion of any science of administration. A so-called expert 
 who has not given time and attention to economic ques- 
 
ADMINISTRATION 189 
 
 tions at first hand and who does not possess the very 
 necessary elements of common sense, should be shunned 
 by every true student of government. There is no royal 
 road to true helpfulness the scholar must become 
 useful by strenuous application and be able to prove 
 his theories by the hard facts of actual events. Says a 
 recent article in the Atlantic Monthly: 
 
 " Plato has well stated the expert's view of the matter in saying 
 that when you want to take ship for Delos you hire, not a shoe- 
 maker or some other amiable citizen, but a pilot ; to which the 
 democrat is constrained to answer, ' Most true, O Plato ; but for- 
 give me if I suggest that it is I that am going to Delos, and that 
 the necessity is thereby placed upon me to judge of the pilot's 
 capacity to take me there ; that I am therefore, by this necessity, 
 constrained to seek such evidence as may be convincing to my own 
 humble and limited intelligence, both, upon the one hand, as to 
 whether the pilot is a pilot in truth, and also, upon the other, as 
 to whether he intends to take me to Delos and to no other place. 
 You will, perhaps, remember my cousin who took ship, indeed, 
 for Delos, but was landed in Crete, and my aunt who, having made 
 a similar arrangement, was never landed at all. Forgive me, there- 
 fore, if, with your kind permission, I make a few trifling inquiries, 
 such as in this matter seem to me to be necessary, before I go 
 aboard.' " 
 
 Those who wish to adopt Wisconsin methods in other 
 states should subject all "experts" to a "few trifling 
 inquiries." 
 
 \ The development of a high type of trained expert is a 
 still further necessity when one considers that the lobby 
 
1 90 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 and influences which great corporations have used in 
 the past, in connection with legislative bodies, may be 
 transferred to the accountant. If an accountant com- 
 putes the rate, basing it on an intricate system of valua- 
 tion, cost of the service, etc., the powers that are inter- 
 ested will try to reach the accountant. We should fortify 
 our service by employing men who have had the right 
 instruction; whose teachers were such men as know 
 fire when they see it and who maintain not only the 
 highest ideals of public service but who supply their 
 students with that insight into the methods by which 
 legislation is actually checked or defeated so that they 
 too will know fire when they see it. 
 
 In the choosing of men through civil service it will 
 be well to remember that a civil service commission is 
 subject to all of the frailties of a commission. The whole 
 plan may go wrong if that source is not watched and 
 subjected constantly to the light of public criticism. 
 The kind of examination which must be passed deter- 
 mines in the end a large part of the efficiency of the 
 individual. Fortunately commissions have realized that 
 the ridiculous examinations of twenty years ago when 
 book knowledge was made the standard cannot longer 
 command the confidence of the people and they are 
 gradually modifying examinations so as to bring the 
 elements of personality and executive ability to a greater 
 prominence than mere memory. 
 
ADMINISTRATION igi 
 
 There is still room for improvement, especially when 
 it comes to expert service of a very high order the 
 service which needs men whom the position must seek, 
 the men who will never take examinations. 
 
 At the present time the harmonious cooperation be- 
 tween the Wisconsin civil service and the state commis- 
 sions in selecting men of this type bids fair to solve the 
 problem although in the past there have been some 
 contentions over such matters. 
 
 China is the greatest civil service nation of the world 
 but the spirit of the bureaucratic autocrat or the Chinese 
 scholar must not be allowed to creep in here. There are 
 signs that thinkers in this line and it is particularly 
 true in Wisconsin are alive to this danger and stand 
 ready with remedies for it. Because something went 
 wrong once in some part of the world is no reason why 
 it should go wrong here now indeed quite the reverse, 
 especially when history is studied as carefully as it is 
 to-day. 
 
 Recently we have seen wonderful results from the new 
 studies in business efficiency. Dr. Frederick A. Cleve- 
 land was probably the first man to apply this idea to 
 the administration of governmental institutions. The 
 work of the New York bureau of municipal research 
 showed that certain definite responsibility could be 
 fastened upon public officials, the cost of service stand- 
 ardized and efficiency records established. 
 
192 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 Dr. Cleveland tells of thousands of people watching 
 the record of a baseball game as it was reported on the 
 wall of a newspaper office. These people were standing 
 in the street watching what? Simply an efficiency record. 
 
 Every move of the men on the baseball field was 
 noted, every error and every score recorded. A record 
 of the year's games was kept by means of which the 
 best men stood forth, men recognized as the most effi- 
 cient in baseball. " The lesson for public service is 
 obvious. 
 
 We cannot attempt to regulate railroads or great pub- 
 lic utilities unless our public service is in itself so organ- 
 ized that it has a thorough understanding of the intri- 
 cate systems of cost accounting and efficiency used by 
 these great economic units. We must have efficiency of 
 service in order to assure efficiency in administration. 
 As Professor Ely says, " Apart from the question of the 
 simple difference in economic strength as between the 
 contesting parties, we have the question of skill on the 
 two sides." Now if rules and regulations are to take 
 the place of miscellaneous law, they must be made by 
 trained workers; they cannot be made by ordinary 
 elective officials of the old type; they must be made 
 upon tests, measurements and close observation. This 
 is as much of a science, as great a work and demands as 
 high an education, as any work now known in human 
 endeavor. It is surely a great undertaking for the uni- 
 
ADMINISTRATION 193 
 
 versity to teach administration of this kind, teach not 
 only the accounting principles of it, but the formulation 
 of the legal basis of it, the relations of the jurisprudence 
 and the statute law, and the entire methodical and 
 scientific standardization of efficiency methods. What 
 will work in business will work in the state, if applied 
 with true knowledgeTrf political acieBcer- 
 
 Expert help in administration should be freely recog- 
 nized and men trained for it in our colleges should be 
 used in our government. The state of Wisconsin has 
 frankly recognized the expert in all these matters and is 
 trying to persuade bright young men from the graduate 
 schools of the university to do voluntary work in the 
 study of these different departments, so that they may 
 be prepared to fill their places in this new service for 
 government. This does not mean a change in the 
 making of the law nor the domination of legislation it 
 merely means that there is a capable servant at hand 
 to carry out the decree of the people in an efficient 
 manner. 
 
 Granted that the legislature is fearless and honest and 
 fully able to control the most powerful commission, the 
 question of regulation resolves itself into a half-dozen 
 concrete, vital elements, the accountant, the statis- 
 tician, the actuary, the chemist, red blood and a big 
 stick. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE LEGISLATURE 
 
 IN considering the work and procedure of the legisla- 
 ture, it may be of interest to describe the peculiar con- 
 
 ^ "^^ wfc ****^i^^^*W^B*** - * > ^* i 
 
 ditions in Wisconsin. If the legislative product was to 
 be effective, the actual business methods of the legisla- 
 ture had to be reorganized ; this fact seems to have been 
 recognized by the leaders. The reform of the legisla- 
 ture in this direction has been remarkable ; the credit 
 belongs not to any one faction, for this reform was due 
 primarily to the decided legislative opinion that condi- 
 tions should be improved. Eleven years ago there were 
 about seventy women employed to engross the bills of 
 the legislature in long hand ; there was scarcely a type- 
 writer used. Scraps of paper were often passed up as 
 bills to the speaker's desk. The place was full of useless 
 employees, many of whom never did a stroke of work. 
 It was absolutely impossible to tell how many bills 
 amending a certain section were before the legislature. 
 There were no checks as to accuracy. The halls were 
 crowded with lobbyists. It was easy for a country mem- 
 ber to find an attorney to draft a bill for him for a small 
 fee, especially if the bill was aimed at some corporation 
 
 194 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 195 
 
 which could later be approached by the attorney. 
 There was no organized method of placing information 
 on any particular bill before the legislator, nor was there 
 any impartial or skilled assistance in the drafting of bills 
 for the honest legislator who knew nothing of law. If 
 hearings were held, no one save the lobbyists knew 
 when they were scheduled. The great corporations were 
 obliged to have lobbyists on the ground to keep them 
 informed as to the prospective legislation. If these 
 lobbyists found nothing which would harass their em- 
 ployers, they frequently took the trouble to see that 
 something was introduced which would so embarrass the 
 corporations in order that they might continue to hold 
 their jobs and obtain more money to spend. The "hold 
 up man" was prominent ; one man every session brought 
 a trunk full of " strike" bills to be distributed among his 
 loyal supporters. The hotels and saloons flourished 
 and there was much money in evidence. 
 
 A lobby law was passed which tended to lessen the 
 confusion on the floor. In 1903 male stenographers 
 and printing were substituted for the women copyists, 
 which change resulted in great economy. During the 
 1911 session, the improvement under the strict rules as 
 laid down by the speaker in the assembly was very 
 great and insured orderly and businesslike proceedings. 
 Engrossed bills were printed and placed upon the desk 
 of each member; if a legislator found errors in his bill, 
 
196 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 he could immediately stop its passage to the governor 
 and have them corrected. This reform removed one 
 temptation to corruption. The governor at the same 
 time secured an able attorney to examine bills before 
 he signed them, so that if errors were found, they could 
 be corrected before his signature was affixed. What he 
 actually signed was one of the printed copies of the en- 
 grossed bills which were laid upon the desk of every 
 member. Here were checks against mistakes in the 
 passage and the final product, together with such watch- 
 fulness as would prevent dishonest clerks from insert- 
 ing or removing something at the behest of interested 
 parties. 
 
 With the coming of civil service, the clerical force was 
 at once made more expert and fast, accurate workers 
 were substituted for those who had obtained their 
 positions by political pull. The amendments to bills 
 were also printed and attached to the bills in the files, 
 so that each member had a complete copy of the bill 
 under consideration when he cast his vote. Paper, uni- 
 form in size, was provided and bills were required to be 
 in duplicate upon introduction, so that while one copy 
 was sent to the printer, the other was available to the 
 house. This made it exceedingly difficult to steal, 
 change or mutilate a bill by means of the old tricks of 
 the past. 
 
 A bill drafting department was established in the 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 1 97 
 
 legislative reference department and the following rules 
 laid down so that the draftsmen could not insert jokers 
 into the bills. 
 
 " Rules for the Drafting Room 
 
 "i. No bills will be drafted in the Reference Room. 
 A separate Drafting Room and a separate force have 
 been provided. 
 
 "2. No bill will be drafted, nor amendments pre- 
 pared, without specific detailed written instructions from 
 a member of the Legislature. Such instructions must 
 bear the member's signature. 
 
 "3. The draftsman can make no suggestions as to 
 the contents of the bills. Our work is merely clerical 
 and technical. We cannot furnish ideas. 
 
 "4. We are not responsible for the legality or consti- 
 tutionality of any measures. We are here to do merely 
 as directed. 
 
 "5. As this department cannot introduce bills or 
 modify them after introduction, it is not responsible for 
 the rules of the legislature or the numbering of sections 
 either at the tune of introduction or on the final passage. 
 
 " Legislative Reference Department." 
 
 The committees were gradually altered and adapted 
 to meet the changed economic conditions and the type 
 of legislation which was being passed. The following are 
 the committees in the assembly of the 1911 session: 
 
THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 Standing Committees of the Assembly 
 
 Judiciary 
 
 Courts and procedure 
 
 National and interstate re- 
 lations 
 
 Constitutional amendment 
 
 State and economic better- 
 ment 
 
 Elections 
 
 Taxation 
 
 Excise and fees 
 
 Highways 
 
 Agriculture 
 
 Agricultural exhibitions 
 
 Military affairs 
 Cities 
 
 Towns and villages 
 Counties 
 Capitol 
 Printing 
 
 Charitable and penal insti- 
 tutions 
 Banks 
 Insurance 
 
 Transportation 
 Express, telegraph and tele- 
 phone 
 Workmen's compensation 
 
 Labor and labor conditions 
 
 Welfare of women and chil- 
 dren 
 
 Public health and sanitation 
 
 Purity of commodities 
 
 Fish and game 
 
 Conservation 
 
 Commerce and manufac- 
 tures 
 
 Parks, playgrounds and city 
 planning 
 
 City living conditions 
 
 Country living conditions 
 
 Education 
 
 Vocational education 
 
 Libraries 
 
 Legislative procedure 
 
 Engrossed bills 
 
 Third reading 
 Enrolled bills 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 1 99 
 
 A revision committee was created, with a civil service 
 clerical force, to search all bills for technical errors. 
 Records of sections amended are carefully kept so that 
 confusion and duplication may be avoided. Bills are 
 checked at every stage of passage by the clerks of this 
 committee. 
 
 In order that all parties interested in legislation may 
 he heard, the hearings of committees are by rule, 
 scheduled in advance and a weekly cumulative bulletin 
 is issued showing the exact status of each bill and its 
 history up to the time of publication. This system of 
 notification is not yet perfect but at least the business 
 man or citizen interested in certain legislation receives 
 some warning of hearings upon it. There is no secrecy 
 in connection with these committees; they are com- 
 pelled to report out each bill, with a recommendation 
 together with a record of the ayes and noes of each 
 committee hearing. Committees are all-powerful in an 
 American legislature. The roll-call on a bill before the 
 house does not always tell the story of its opposition or 
 amendment in committee. The Wisconsin rule given 
 below is not faultless but serves as a check upon the 
 power of the committees. 
 
200 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 "JOINT RESOLUTION No. 46, Laws of 1911, Relating to 
 
 hearings before and records of committees of the 
 
 legislature. 
 
 " Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That 
 there be added to the rules, a new rule to read : 2 pa. 
 i. The chairman or acting chairman of each committee 
 of the legislature shall keep, or cause to be kept, a record, 
 in which there shall be entered : 
 
 " (a) The time and place of each hearing, and of each 
 meeting of the committee. 
 
 " (&) The attendance of committee members at each 
 meeting. 
 
 " (c) The name of each person appearing before the 
 committee, with the name of the person, persons, firm 
 or corporation in whose behalf such appearance is made. 
 
 " (d) The vote of each member on all motions, bills, 
 resolutions and amendments acted upon. 
 
 "2. Such record shall be ready and approved before the 
 expiration of ten days after each committee meeting, or 
 at the next regular meeting of the committee. 
 
 "3. Every committee hearing shall be open to the 
 public. 
 
 "4. There shall be filed, in the proper envelope, with 
 every bill or resolution reported upon, a sheet contain- 
 ing the foregoing information as to such bill or resolu- 
 tion, with a duplicate thereof to be filed by the chief 
 clerk numerically by the number of the bill in such form 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 2OI 
 
 as to be most accessible for the use of the members and 
 the public, during the session and at the end thereof in 
 the office of the secretary of state." 
 
 Wisconsin has now added to its other machinery a 
 permanent statute revisor. It is his duty at the close 
 of each session to issue an annual volume bringing the 
 statutes to date and systematically to revise them, 
 chapter by chapter, submitting each chapter as revised, 
 to the legislature for approval. The revisor of statutes 
 and his assistants are now called in by the governor to 
 examine all bills for technical mistakes before he signs 
 them. This adds a further check on mistakes and will 
 doubtless prove a step toward making our statute law a 
 much finer and more dignified code. 
 
 Wisconsin has had a great advantage in its appropria- 
 tion procedure, for all appropriation bills must receive 
 the sanction of the joint committee on finance. This 
 committee has practical control of the amounts appor- 
 tioned and it has become so thoroughly a custom to 
 "uphold" the committee, that its cuts are almost always 
 maintained. This has led to great economy and par- 
 ticularly efficient adjustment of various appropriations. 
 Of course, this committee withholds the bills until it 
 sees their full content and until some estimate of revenue 
 can be made. The committee in recent years has em- 
 ployed clerks and statisticians. Contrary to the custom 
 in nearly all other states, this committee reports these 
 
O:HE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 bills one by one, to the legislature, thus holding control 
 of the situation until the estimate of their amount and 
 the revenue which may be expected is secured. No 
 other attempt at a budget is made. 
 
 The state board of public affairs created by chapter 
 586, laws of 1911, is now outlining a plan whereby esti- 
 mates may be made before the beginning of the session, 
 by which greater accuracy and certainty can be secured 
 during the legislature. 
 
 In the opinion of the writer, Wisconsin has been for- 
 tunate on the whole, in not having what is known as a 
 " budget bill." Trained as a student of economics, it 
 was rather difficult for him to reach this conclusion but 
 a thorough investigation of the procedure in other states 
 and some first hand knowledge of such procedure in 
 foreign countries have convinced him of the wisdom of 
 this plan. The budget bill is considered unwise because 
 it includes so much that is a fruitful source for log- 
 rolling and in nearly all states has to be supplemented 
 by other and more dangerous machinery, such as the 
 power of the governor to veto items in order to do away 
 with riders, the deficiency bill to make up for inevitable 
 mistakes and discrepancies and other similar devices. 
 So much is involved in a budget bill that the members 
 cannot consider the items separately as they should and 
 are inclined to either cut it arbitrarily or accept it as a 
 whole. In Wisconsin each bill must be considered on its 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 203 
 
 merits, fought over and either killed or passed. Noth- 
 ing could be more desirable if at each stage, the mem- 
 bers have before them a statement of the actual finances 
 of the state. The budget bill meaning one inclusive 
 bill containing all appropriations belongs in a respon- 
 sible cabinet government and not in a government such 
 as ours. A cabinet government may present its esti- 
 mates and recommended expenditures and permit the 
 legislative body to fight over them within limits but 
 the administration as a result of its acceptance or rejec- 
 tion, stands or falls, consequently the party member is 
 whipped into line and supports those who make the 
 estimate, unless the protest from public opinion is so 
 great that he dare not do so. If he does not stand by 
 those estimates his party goes out of power and a new 
 administration comes in to make a more acceptable and 
 popular budget. That American states have adopted 
 the budget bill stands as a monument to the stupidity 
 of political economists who have recommended it to 
 American legislatures in the past. 
 
 Wisconsin fortunately never has adopted another plan 
 which has usually accompanied the budget idea as 
 furthered by political economists and accountants and 
 which has no precedent on the face of the earth that 
 is, the idea that appropriations should be made for all 
 state departments merely for a two year period. The 
 inefficiency, corruption and log-rolling which have come 
 
204 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 in many states from this entirely false idea have been 
 excluded from this state in spite of constant pressure to 
 introduce it. Such a plan means minority control of all 
 institutions and departments; it means that every in- 
 stitution or department dies every two years, for unless 
 the appropriation is forthcoming the institution or 
 department must go out of existence; it means that 
 twenty members of a senate if twenty is a quorum 
 may say to the entire legislature, "It takes an affirmative 
 action to pass this money and we can block it. If the 
 institution or department wants this money it will have 
 to accept our terms." That is, the minority dictates 
 the terms. This little joker has not been realized by 
 our wise economists and accountants who have been 
 called upon to help legislatures to better their financial 
 procedure but it has destroyed the spirit of institutions, 
 it has debauched commissions and departments and re- 
 sulted in stagnation in many states. In some states 
 where things are peacefully sleeping, we hear nothing 
 of its influence; but let an institution or commission 
 become really active and note what will happen. The 
 writer has evidence in his possession from many states 
 of its power. He does not wish to be understood as 
 opposing the budget system. On the contrary, he firmly 
 believes that all appropriations together with careful 
 revenue estimates should be laid before the legislature 
 every two years so that an account of the stewardship 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 205 
 
 of commissions and institutions may be made to a cent, 
 but there should be a number an ever-increasing num- 
 ber of institutions on a permanent basis so that the 
 legislature by a majority vote may at any time, raise or 
 lower the appropriation as it sees fit but not by a mi- 
 nority vote. The matter is important and worthy of seri- 
 ous consideration because no state will get sound results 
 unless it provides some permanency for judicial bodies, 
 semi-judicial commissions, such as civil service, railroad 
 commissions, etc., and above all, educational institutions. 
 
 In England especially and in foreign countries in 
 general, although the budget may be considered at 
 stated intervals, many of the most important items are 
 placed on a permanent basis. Even under cabinet gov- 
 ernment in foreign countries which may be changed by 
 public sentiment, there exists no such budget idea as in 
 the American states. Indeed, those countries provide 
 means whereby, if the budget does not pass at all, the 
 departments and institutions still continue. How can 
 the experts in our commissions and the thinkers in our 
 institutions ever be aggressive and wide awake if they 
 always have to be on the defence against a minority? 
 There is no more unwise arrangement conceivable than 
 this plan of having our appropriations completely end 
 every two years. 
 
 Another advantage which has fortunately helped this 
 state is the simplicity of its old constitution. For in- 
 
206 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 stance, in many states it is almost impossible to pass 
 legislation which will withstand the scrutiny of the 
 courts, because of the technical legislative limitations. 
 Many of these are exceedingly trivial, such as denning 
 what should be in the title of a bill. Wisconsin is for- 
 tunate to escape some of these unimportant limitations, 
 although one very perplexing difficulty is constantly 
 arising. In this state there is but one city of the first 
 class Milwaukee. The constitution forbids special 
 legislation so that all its legislation must be made general 
 for cities of the first class. It is practically impossible 
 to draft a law for that city which will certainly stand 
 the test of constitutionality under the complex limita- 
 tions and the numerous court decisions involved. 
 
 Many constitutions provide limitations as to the 
 length of the legislative session; Wisconsin has no such 
 limitation. In spite of cheap clamor concerning the time 
 spent by the legislature in session, this has been a great 
 blessing to the state. With hundreds of laws to be pro- 
 vided any one of which may be tested before the courts 
 for years, it would indeed be foolish to fail to give reason- 
 able time or intelligent care to these bills. It is a good 
 investment in the end. The writer believes it would be 
 a good thing for the legislature to meet immediately 
 after election, organize committees and adjourn for a 
 year ; it would certainly assure more care in the prepara- 
 tion of measures. 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 207 
 
 The Wisconsin legislature meets biennially. The 
 amount of work involved has been so great that the 
 writer believes it will not be long until some kind of 
 annual session will be necessary if hasty legislation is to 
 be avoided. In those states which have sessions limited 
 to sixty or ninety days by their constitutions, there is 
 an excellent opportunity for " jockeying" and great in- 
 ducements for delay, as all bills not previously disposed 
 of must either be passed or killed in the last few hours. 
 Nothing more disastrous to good legislation can well be 
 imagined and the session laws of those states bear out 
 this statement. 
 
 The study of legislative machinery has been of special 
 interest to the author because of his duties as chief of 
 the Wisconsin legislative reference department. Be- 
 cause of many questions from various parts of the 
 country, the following description of the department 
 and its purposes is included. Much of the following 
 has been digested from previous statements but there 
 are occasional digressions to show the actual con- 
 ditions of legislation and the need of a department of 
 this kind. 
 
 We are all aware of the stupendous changes in our 
 economic and industrial conditions which this country 
 has undergone since the constitution was adopted. To 
 meet these conditions our whole theory of government 
 has been strained. 
 
CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITATIONS 
 
 LEGISLATIVE POWER 
 
 208 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 Diagram V may illustrate the problem of modern 
 legislation. Let us assume that this illustrates approxi- 
 mately the conditions when the constitution was first 
 adopted. It will be presumed that the constitutional 
 convention made legislative power and the constitution 
 conform approximately to the actual industrial and 
 
 social needs of soci- 
 ety. This is a rea- 
 sonable supposition. 
 If true, what has 
 since occurred ? 
 
 Diagram VI illus- 
 trates the present 
 relative position of 
 the constitution, the 
 legislative power and 
 DIAGRAM v economic conditions. 
 
 The constitutional power has been increased by the 
 action of the courts and especially by the new force 
 which has grown up, probably not contemplated by the 
 original constitution, namely, the power of the courts 
 to pass upon the constitutionality of laws. The consti- 
 tution in fact, has grown from a small pamphlet into 
 thousands of cases and hundreds of volumes of decisions. 
 These decisions cannot but lessen the power of legisla- 
 tures. It is true that the " constitution cannot be read 
 in a law library" and the increase of the domain of the 
 
 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 209 
 
 police power and of administrative law has somewhat 
 broadened the power of the legislature in certain direc- 
 tions but on the other hand the very mass of interpre- 
 tation is itself a restriction. 
 
 Every word, almost, has received an interpretation or 
 has had its meaning confused by endless decisions. 
 Judge Hornblower in an address in which he decried the 
 
 PRESENT CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITATIONS 
 
 PRESENT LEGISLATIVE POWER 
 
 PRESENT ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 
 
 DIAGRAM VI 
 
 increase of statute law and defended judge-made law, 
 gives us one of the strongest pictures of the difficulties 
 of law making. He says: 
 
 " Experience shows that when rules of law are reduced to statu- 
 tory form the work of interpretation and construction commences. 
 Each word in the statute assumes importance and calls for en- 
 forcement. A ' but ' or an ' and ' becomes as important as the 
 subject or the predicate of the sentence, and sometimes even more 
 important. ... In a statute conciseness, exactness, and pre- 
 p 
 
210 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 cision are sought after, and each article or preposition is as much 
 the will of the legislature and as binding upon the courts as are the 
 nouns and verbs. 
 
 " Human language is at best defective and ambiguous. The- 
 ologians dispute over the meaning of texts of Scripture, and when 
 they have formulated creeds and confessions as setting forth the 
 doctrines of the Scriptures, the dispute begins again over the mean- 
 ing of the creeds and the confessions. So with statutory law. No 
 matter how clear and simple the language may appear at first 
 sight, doubts will arise, ambiguities will be disclosed, inconsis- 
 tencies between different sections will present themselves, and a 
 series of never-ending decisions will be inaugurated, construing 
 and interpreting the statute, till each section becomes overlaid 
 with a body of judge-made commentaries forming a new set of 
 precedents and a new jurisprudence. No greater fallacy is in- 
 dulged in by the advocates of codification than that it will dimin- 
 ish litigation. Statutes breed litigation. Experience demon- 
 strates this. Whatever other merits codifications may have, the 
 diminution of litigation is certainly not one of them. Look at our 
 New York Code of Civil Procedure (our code of practice) with the 
 three bulky volumes of Bliss's Annotations of Decisions construing 
 it, each volume nearly as large as a Webster's Dictionary. Look 
 at the little Statute of Frauds, composed of a few sections with 
 its wilderness of authorities interpreting it. Look at the 
 portion of our New York Revised Statutes on Trusts and 
 Powers, and count the cases in each volume of our Court of 
 Appeals Report construing these few sections. The idea that 
 codification is a remedy for uncertainty in the law and that 
 when the law has been written in statutory form, the layman 
 will be able to read and understand it, is a delusion and a 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 211 
 
 Professor Howard L. Smith is the authority for the 
 following statement: 
 
 " There are in America alone over six thousand volumes of de- 
 cisions of fifty or sixty different tribunals, and these are being added 
 to at the rate of from one to two hundred volumes per annum. 
 The common law is being further developed, illustrated, and made 
 by the courts of Great Britain and all her widespread colonies. 
 The number of volumes of precedents that these add every year 
 to the common law, I have not attempted to compute, but it is 
 certainly appalling. The shelves of our libraries groan under 
 them, and the lawyers are being driven out of their offices by 
 their books. 
 
 " An advertisement of a recent encyclopedia of law boasts that 
 it has 8559 citations on the subject of adverse possession, while its 
 leading competitor has only a paltry 4999. On the subject of 
 abatement and revival it has 5015 and on appeal and error 47,000. 
 Amid this bog of precedents the lawyer of to-day must stumble, 
 groping earnestly, but often vainly, for a clue which shall lead him 
 to the truth. It is probable that the number of citations on the 
 one subject of appeal and error in this encyclopaedia is greater than 
 the real number of precedents on all legal subjects in existence a 
 century ago ; but the mad race of precedents is only begun, and 
 will of course increase in the future in an ascending ratio, until in 
 the near future they will be counted by the tens and the hundreds 
 of thousands or millions. 
 
 " That the lawyer desiring to advise his client as to some simple, 
 readily foreseeable question of law should be obliged to consult 
 hundreds of volumes, and thousands of precedents, perhaps only 
 at the end to find that there is a hopeless division of authority, 
 and that he knew just as much about it in the beginning as at the 
 
212 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 end, is certainly a situation so serious as to demand some remedy, 
 if any be possible." 
 
 If the lawyer has to meet these conditions what can 
 the layman do ? If these conditions are encountered in 
 the interpretation of law, the making of the law is indeed 
 a terrible task. We have an endless circle. We cannot 
 make statute law without consulting this labyrinth; 
 nevertheless we must make it. We must make it even 
 though we only follow public sentiment. 
 
 Our government was founded on the principle that 
 the adaptation of law to economic conditions should be 
 made by the will of the people expressed in legislation. 
 We cannot give this task to the judges; we did not 
 make our government on that basis. Divided courts 
 and reversals have left the lawyer helpless as well as the 
 layman of the legislature. The courts have often in- 
 dulged in reckless use of the power to declare laws un- 
 constitutional on the slightest technicalities. The four- 
 teenth amendment to the federal constitution has been 
 very efficacious in restricting state legislation, as has 
 also the broad interpretation of federal statutes by the 
 federal courts. On the other hand the simple industrial 
 conditions of fifty or a hundred years ago have given 
 place to the present era of wonderful inventions. Nearly 
 every invention and device, economic, commercial and 
 mechanical used in our modern life, has to be met by 
 legislative restriction or control. 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 213 
 
 Under these conditions it is remarkable what progress 
 has been made with our statute law. In spite of all 
 criticism and faults when one looks over our statute 
 law he is amazed that it is so good. When he considers 
 that it was made under the conditions herein described ; 
 when he considers that state after state came into the 
 Union, each making an entirely new constitution, each 
 adopting an entirely new body of laws, he cannot but 
 feel proud of the inherent ability of the American people. 
 The argument is unanswerable. In general legislators 
 have not been corrupt nor have they been inefficient. 
 Our statute volumes are monuments to the ability and 
 common sense of our legislators. No other people under 
 the same conditions could have done so well. 
 
 Representative government must be judged in the 
 end by its product and the immediate tangible product 
 of representative government is the statute. If we are 
 to construct a building to-day and the structure is to be 
 a large one or of any real importance, there must be an 
 architect. If it were built without his services it is 
 probable that the building inspector would order it 
 demolished in order to protect life, health and property. 
 We must have experts to show us practical plans and to 
 arrange for heating, lighting and sanitation. If we do 
 not, disaster is the result. In building the statute which 
 regulates everything in life, is it not the sensible thing 
 to employ an architect and let him work out the plans 
 
214 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 under our general direction and ask him to change them 
 again and again until we are satisfied ? Is this not the 
 right thing to do in order that the plans may be passed 
 upon by the building inspector and that the building 
 may rise fair, noble, fitted for our use and so constructed 
 that it may stand for all time ? 
 
 The courts have acted for a long time as building 
 inspectors. They have been forced to destroy too many 
 structures which were not properly built in the first 
 place. There should be a body of experts to gather 
 information about the laws, to obtain statistics, to draft 
 and redraft through the guidance of the representative 
 of the people, laws which deeply affect the people. 
 There should be some such system whereby the products 
 of democracy may be good and the courts may not be 
 compelled to leave the sphere which the fathers intended 
 they should occupy and go into the untried fields of 
 judicial legislation. 
 
 This is the central main concept of the legislative 
 reference department. The legislative reference depart- 
 ment of the Wisconsin library commission was estab- 
 lished in a small way in 1901. It became apparent at 
 once that the demands of this library were of a peculiar 
 nature which could not be readily met by the ordinary 
 library material or methods. 
 
 A plan was devised which has been since carried out 
 as far as the resources given by the legislature would 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 215 
 
 permit. It was found that there was no cooperation 
 between the different states of this Union in the matter 
 of collecting the history of legislation; the history of 
 what had occurred in Europe or in some state of the 
 Union upon a certain subject of interest to the people 
 of the state was not readily available. An effort to 
 supply this demand was made by collecting such indexes 
 of up-to-date legislation as were published, bills from 
 other states, documents explanatory of legislative move- 
 ments in other states and arranging these by subjects 
 so that they would be at the service of all who desired 
 to see them. It was found that even this material did 
 not solve the problem; it was necessary to clip news- 
 papers from all over the country and to put the clippings 
 in book form, to index them carefully and place them 
 also with the subjects. Our own bills of the previous 
 four sessions were carefully indexed and by noting the 
 subjects of those bills, we anticipated the problems with 
 which the legislature would have to deal. These prob- 
 lems or special subjects were carefully studied in the 
 most minute detail. It was comparatively easy to get 
 laws and court cases but it was far more difficult to find 
 how these laws were administered, to discover the weak- 
 nesses in them and to note as far as possible how they 
 could be adapted to our use in this state. 
 
 Our short experience has taught us many things. We 
 have been convinced that there is a great opportunity 
 
2l6 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 to better legislation through work of this kind that 
 the best way is to help directly the man who makes the 
 laws. Everything which will help him to grasp and 
 understand the great economic problems of the day in 
 their fullest significance, the legislative remedies which 
 can be applied and the legislative limitations which exist 
 is brought to his attention. The legislator is a busy 
 man ; he has no time to read. His work is new to him ; 
 he is beset with routine ; he is obliged to hold conferences 
 with his friends upon political matters; he is besieged 
 by office-seekers and lobbyists and he has no time for 
 study. If he does not investigate for himself, he often 
 is deceived by those who are seeking the accomplish- 
 ment of their own selfish ends. Therefore, we can be of 
 the greatest service to him, if we index, digest and make 
 as clear as possible all kinds of information. 
 
 A large library is likely to fail in this because it is of 
 too general a nature and too cumbersome. Everything 
 in such a department should be directly to the point. 
 It should be a depository for all sorts of documents relat- 
 ing to any phase of legislation from all the states, the 
 federal government and particularly from foreign coun- 
 tries like England, Australia, France, Germany and 
 Canada. Here one would be able to obtain a law upon 
 any subject or a case upon any law very quickly. There- 
 fore, it is very convenient to have this room near a good 
 law library. Books are generally behind the times, so 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 217 
 
 that newspaper clippings from all over the country, 
 magazine articles, court briefs and letters must supple- 
 ment this library and compose to a very large extent its 
 material. 
 
 A trained librarian and indexer, a resourceful person 
 with a liberal education, who is tactful and can meet an 
 emergency is absolutely essential. The material is 
 largely " scrappy" and difficult to classify and should be 
 so arranged that it is compact and accessible. In our 
 work we are not afraid to tear up books, documents, 
 pamphlets, clippings, letters, manuscripts or other ma- 
 terial, put it with the different subjects and minutely 
 index it. Legislators have no time to read large books. 
 The librarian has no time to hunt up many references in 
 different parts of the library; all material upon every 
 subject of legislative importance should be together as 
 far as possible. Complete indexes of all bills which 
 have not become laws in the past should be made. This 
 saves the drawing of new bills and makes the experience 
 of the past cumulative. Records of vetoes, special 
 messages, political platforms, political literature and 
 other handy matter is carefully noted and arranged. 
 
 Digests of laws of the various states on every subject 
 of importance receiving consideration by the legislature 
 should be made and many copies kept for distribution. 
 Leading cases on all these laws, opinions of public men 
 and experts upon, the working of these laws or upon the 
 
2l8 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 defects, technical or otherwise, are carefully indexed. 
 As far as possible in the Wisconsin department the more 
 important subjects with short bibliographies are pub- 
 lished in pamphlet form. 
 
 Such a department must be absolutely non-political 
 and non-partisan. If there is a choice between the 
 establishment of a political department or no depart- 
 ment at all, the latter alternative should be taken with- 
 out question. 
 
 The head of such a department should be trained in 
 economics, political science and social science in general ; 
 he should have a good knowledge of constitutional law 
 but above all, should be possessed of tact and a knowl- 
 edge of human nature. 
 
 There should be a trained draftsman connected with 
 the department a man who is a good lawyer and 
 something more than a lawyer one who has studied 
 legislative forms, who can draw a bill, revise a statute 
 and amend a bill. It is essential that help such as a 
 man of this type can render, be given to the legislator 
 when he desires it. 
 
 Will such a department help in the betterment of 
 legislation ? 
 
 Let us consider for a moment how a law is actually 
 made. John Smith comes to the legislature. He is a 
 good citizen, a man of hard sense and well respected in 
 his community. Suddenly, from the quiet of his native 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 2 IQ 
 
 village, he enters into a new life in a new community. 
 He is worried by office-seekers ; his old friends and ad- 
 visers are not near to help him ; he finds that it is neces- 
 sary to learn the ropes; that if he is to represent his 
 district, he must introduce bills and in some way must 
 push those bills through the legislature. In the first 
 place he must have those bills drafted and since he 
 never drew up a bill in his life, knowing very little of 
 legal technique, he is greatly perplexed. He is con- 
 fronted with two thousand bills on almost as many legal 
 and economic subjects. Complex questions, which have 
 not been settled by the greatest thinkers of to-day are 
 hurled at his head. Even scientific subjects that the 
 chemist, the physician or the man of science find diffi- 
 cult must be met by our John Smith while in the hurry 
 and rush of committee work. If he is honest, he will 
 either attempt to draft the bill himself or pay some 
 lawyer to do it for him ; the easiest way however, is to 
 consult some one else. He finds around him bright 
 men, well paid lawyers, men of legal standing who are 
 willing to help him in every way. It is easy to consult 
 these men ; and often if he does, he is lost. He seldom 
 finds a true friend. They are there for their own interests 
 and John Smith is legitimate prey. It is their business 
 to reach him. If by persistent courage and sterling 
 honesty he pushes his bills to passage, those laws dealing 
 with complex, technical subjects and drawn by a man 
 
220 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 unskilled in law, are often declared unconstitutional by 
 the courts. 
 
 Here then, is the situation. We see the farmer, the 
 groceryman, the country lawyer, the successful manu- 
 facturer, the man of business, all grappling entirely un- 
 prepared, with the problem of making laws that repre- 
 sent every phase of industrial life. A few years ago the 
 simple legislation could be easily handled by these men 
 but now the great problems of the railroads, the tele- 
 graph, the telephone, insurance, and the many complex 
 things of our modern life, make it simply impossible for 
 one man however bright or educated he may be, to act 
 intelligently upon one-tenth of the subjects which come 
 before the legislature. When some new invention comes 
 into being, legislation must deal with it ; when some new 
 situation arises through the growth of new industries, 
 some new law must be made restraining, encouraging or 
 in some way regulating these new conditions. It all 
 goes to show how unfitted is our old representative 
 government to meet the conditions to-day and how 
 utterly helpless any one man is to meet these intricate 
 problems. 
 
 Besides all these difficulties, there are others pre- 
 viously mentioned, one of which is worthy of special 
 attention, namely the great abundance and complexity 
 of judge-made laws. The increasing distrust of the legis- 
 latures by our citizens has resulted in state constitutions 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 221 
 
 which are nothing more than compiled statutes, filled 
 with innumerable restrictions upon the action of the 
 legislator. He is restrained in every way by the federal 
 constitution, by his own state constitution and by the 
 hundreds and hundreds of cases interpreting nearly 
 every word and phrase in every law. Is it any wonder 
 that there is a cry that the supreme court is usurping 
 legislative functions and is defeating the will of the 
 people ? Does it seem right that our legislative opinion 
 should be moulded by private interests because they 
 aUne know how to present their case? Does it seem 
 right that the only help which the legislator receives in 
 his great need is that of the people who are seeking 
 gain from the very laws he is making and who are trying 
 to prevent the making of effective laws ? 
 
 A committee is often a judicial body. It sits in 
 judgment upon private bills. It gives rights and fran- 
 chises that make men wealthy or deprive men of their 
 property. Yet this court hears often but one side of an 
 argument and has no means of investigating the truth 
 or untruth of a single statement made. Not only that 
 but it is subjected in its determination to a hundred 
 influences to which no judge is subjected. Would we 
 permit such a state of affairs in our private business? 
 Would we tolerate it in our judiciary ? Why, the power- 
 ful interests do not have to resort to bribery ! Their 
 experts can win by the irresistible force of argument 
 
222 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 alone. They must hold the balance, for they have the 
 brains of the land and pay well for them. 
 
 Is it any wonder that many good people throw up 
 their hands with joy and say "Thank God ..the legisla- 
 ture is over"? Is it a thing to be joked about? Our 
 papers make fun of the legislature and its " freak" legis- 
 lation but it is a most significant state of affairs when a 
 people lose confidence in its governing body. 
 
 The revelations of graft and corruption of the last 
 few years should convince us all that we must seek a 
 positive remedy of a more fundamental kind than has 
 yet been proposed. If these are the conditions under 
 which our legislative opinion is formed, is it strange that 
 the will of the people is constantly defeated ? Is it any 
 wonder that our laws are poor ? Is it any wonder that 
 the clamor of public opinion is not heard within our 
 legislative halls, and that the making of needed laws 
 goes on so slowly? What is the remedy for all this? 
 We look about us and on the whole find our judiciary 
 composed of able men. Our administrative bodies have 
 not yet reached so high a standard but we are every 
 day developing administrative bodies which are becom- 
 ing more and more fit to take charge of the business of 
 the state but how about the legislature? Does it not 
 seem reasonable that the law which is the expression of 
 the will of the people and upon which good administra- 
 tion is founded, should be scientific should be based 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 223 
 
 upon the best experience of mankind? If our adminis- 
 tration is to be good administration, does it not seem 
 ridiculous that the supreme courts the highest legal 
 talent in our states and our nation should go on day 
 after day, year after year turning out decision after 
 decision upon laws which are often made by men who 
 have never seen a law book, and who have not had the 
 slightest legal help extended to them? Does it seem 
 right that our fundamental law should be left to these 
 haphazard conditions ? Does it seem reasonable that all 
 the talent should be used in interpreting laws, in curing 
 their defects and that absolutely nothing should be done 
 in a scientific way to assist the man who makes them? 
 The construction of the law is a far harder task than 
 the criticism or even the interpretation of it. It involves 
 the interpretation of it; it involves a knowledge of the 
 theory of government and because of the enlarged 
 sphere of government to-day, a sound knowledge of 
 economic conditions. Our legislators can furnish the 
 brains and the will ; all that they need is the technical 
 assistance. 
 
 We have heard a great deal of condemnation of the 
 legislature. It is easy and popular too, to sneer, censure 
 and criticise but we have heard very few suggestions 
 as to a remedy. 
 
 If private forces maintain bureaus of information for 
 representatives, let us have public information bureaus 
 
224 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 open to private and public interests alike. If it is diffi- 
 cult to get information because of the great variety of 
 subjects now coming before our legislators, the only 
 sensible thing to do is to have experts gather this ma- 
 terial. If business interests have excellent lawyers to 
 look after their legislation, the people should secure the 
 same kind of men to help their representatives. If the 
 business interests secure statisticians, engineers and 
 scientific men, the public should do likewise. If great 
 judges and lawyers are constantly working upon the 
 problems of interpretation of laws, surely men of equal 
 ability could well be consulted or retained by the people's 
 representatives in the construction of these laws. 
 
 Now, what do we expect from the successful operation 
 of a system like this ? We hope that all legislation may 
 be made better and be placed upon a more scientific 
 basis. We look upon this as a purely business opera- 
 tion. No one would buy land in Texas without having 
 seen the land. You might buy land in a lake or in the 
 bed of a river if you followed such a plan ; you would at 
 least have some one look up your abstract. But we 
 permit our legislators to copy a Texas statute which 
 may be twenty years old, may have been modified 
 twenty-five times, may be entirely unsuited to our con- 
 ditions and which may be in the end unconstitutional 
 we let our legislators incorporate such statutes in our 
 statute books without a protest. Common sense tells us 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 225 
 
 that we should secure all possible knowledge relating to 
 that statute for the use of our legislators. In this way 
 legislation cannot avoid being improved ; in this way the 
 dearly bought experience of one state is used for the 
 betterment of conditions in another state; the best 
 there is may be culled out from the statutes throughout 
 the country and used for the benefit of our people. 
 
 There is a great outcry against our overloaded consti- 
 tutions. Our constitutions have been purposely over- 
 loaded because the people who made them wished to 
 incorporate certain things which could not be over- 
 turned by the caprice or corruption of legislators. As 
 time goes on, if the people find that the product of 
 legislation is based upon a careful scientific study, they 
 will regain confidence in the legislature and again trust it. 
 
 There is a widespread agitation at the present time for 
 centralization and nationalization, a movement which 
 strives to have one after another of the state functions 
 absorbed by the national government. There is much 
 discussion concerning various forms of federal supervision 
 of one thing or another. As our state laws are gradually 
 improved, a great deal of this agitation will cease, for 
 as yet we have not reached the limit of efficient state 
 activity, nor made a scientific study of expedients. The 
 best laws are those which are of most interest to the 
 men who make the laws, and the only means of saving 
 our local option system of state government, the only 
 Q 
 
226 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 means of keeping the federal government at Washington 
 from controlling our affairs, is to make our state laws 
 better and better. The only way in which they can be 
 improved is to use scientific methods in the making of 
 them. Every improved business method together with 
 technical, clerical help should be secured in order that 
 the man who passes the laws may have at his command 
 the knowledge necessary to make laws good, just and 
 worthy to stand for all time. 
 
 If our state legislature gains in the confidence of the 
 people, in like proportion will our supreme court and 
 judicial bodies profit. Our courts will not feel called 
 upon to make decisions which apparently defeat the will 
 of the people. They will not be obliged to overthrow 
 law after law which has been put upon our statute books 
 by prolonged and patient struggle. Prevention is better 
 than cure, and every effort which can be put into pre- 
 vention in this case will make it easier for our courts 
 to decide upon the true merits of the laws. Decisions 
 based upon technicalities will be less in number and our 
 judiciary will continue to be respected and honored. 
 
 Says the Montana bar association in a recent report : 
 "The time of the court is consumed in hearing discus- 
 sions upon statutory enactments and determining what 
 law is in force and what has been repealed. Litigation 
 is thus delayed, additional expense engendered and the 
 private rights rendered insecure." What is the remedy 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 227 
 
 for such conditions? Do these conditions not demand 
 that the same skill used in interpreting the law shall be 
 used in its construction? 
 
 ; Quite recently we have seen the results of the work 
 of the Armstrong investigating committee in New York. 
 No insurance law ever passed in this country had so 
 much effect upon insurance regulation and that report 
 was made by legislators, not by state officials. There 
 have been objections to the increase of commission gov- 
 ernment and yet this form of government has increased 
 because it has been felt that it furnished the only method 
 of enforcing laws and the only way of administering 
 special duties. And yet this Armstrong committee 
 shows us a way of making laws and of compelling their 
 enforcement better than boards and commissions. If 
 we have some department working with our legislature 
 and have that department between the sessions serve 
 the investigating committees, we can be sure that there 
 is always a check upon the action of our boards and 
 commissions and that there is always at hand a remedy 
 for evil in the hands of the people themselves. They 
 can always ask for an investigating committee for any 
 commission and the report of that committee will prob- 
 ably result in a good, sound law. In England to-day 
 there is a movement to establish a "Permanent staff" 
 for investigating committees intended to accomplish this 
 very purpose. 
 
228 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 At the present time in nearly all of our states, an 
 able lawyer may go before a committee composed of 
 good farmers and merchants and though he may not 
 speak the truth, he will sometimes have that committee 
 absolutely at his mercy. He can tell them privately or 
 in committee that a certain bill is unconstitutional or 
 has been a failure where tried and defy individual mem- 
 bers to answer him ; he has behind him many clerks to 
 gather statistics of all sorts for his use before that com- 
 mittee. What can the individual member of that com- 
 mittee or the committee itself do under those circum- 
 stances? Of course, the committee man does not care 
 to make himself ridiculous and so he states the business 
 in a half-hearted report or acquiesces in the statements 
 of the attorney before the committee. If an entirely 
 non-partisan and non-political department existed, com- 
 posed of men of ability, there is no reason why that com- 
 mittee could not require briefs to be filed by these attor- 
 neys for private interests and invoke the aid of this 
 department. In this case it would be more difficult to 
 deceive by misstatements and the committee member 
 could investigate for himself if he were honest and 
 wanted to do his duty. 
 
 As to our department in Wisconsin, we are not trying 
 to influence our legislators in any way, we are not upon 
 one side or another of any question nor are we for or 
 against anybody or anything ; we are merely a business 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 22Q 
 
 branch of the government. We are not dictating legis- 
 lation but are merely servants of the able and honest 
 legislators of our state, clerks to gather and index and 
 put together the information that these busy men desire ; 
 it is a business proposition. Question after question 
 asked of us by the legislature is investigated in as scien- 
 tific a manner as time and means permit. The legis- 
 lator sometimes does not know where he gets the infor- 
 mation ; the professor of economics, of political science, 
 the public men, the chemist or scholar does not know 
 where it goes. The great body of public men through- 
 out the country can be drawn upon for information to 
 help our legislators. Committees too, realize the worth 
 of this research work and a large number of the bills 
 before them are investigated by this department. Com- 
 mittees working upon abstract and technical subjects 
 have at their command in concise form, letters, opinions 
 and other data from experts all over the country upon 
 the particular subjects in hand. We may not have 
 accomplished much but at least we have done something 
 where nothing was done formerly. The department now 
 has four expert draftsmen during the session at the 
 service of the legislature and about twenty-five librarians, 
 clerks, research workers, etc. 
 
 Has there been criticism ? Yes, but it is chiefly con- 
 fined to this one point; it makes it too easy for a man 
 to draft a bill ! Is it a just criticism to say that the 
 
230 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 carpenter has tools which are too good ? What is really 
 meant is that too many bills are drafted. There are too 
 many bills drafted but there are no more in proportion, 
 considering the great agitation going on in this state 
 than in other states. Indeed they are far less than in 
 the old days when annual sessions were held for the 
 purpose of giving away franchises and passing hundreds 
 of private and local laws. Regulative bills and those 
 of a general nature have increased recently in congress 
 and in every state legislature in this country as well as 
 in foreign countries. It means that democracy now is 
 alert and is trying to demolish the old statutes and install 
 new ones. 
 
 It is a good condition for the country a nation is 
 safer than when too much complacency exists. The 
 deadened or uncivilized nations are the only ones which 
 do not require change in laws. 
 
 As Walter Bagehot says: "There is a diffused desire 
 in civilized communities for an adjusting legislation; 
 for a legislation which should adapt the inherited laws 
 to the new wants of a world which now changes every 
 day. It has ceased to be necessary to maintain bad 
 laws, because it is necessary to have some laws. Civili- 
 zation is robust enough to bear the incision of legal im- 
 provements." England is a good example of the new 
 activity in legislation. 
 
 Any flood of legislation may easily be stopped by the 
 
THE LEGISLATURE 231 
 
 legislators if they determine to consider only the essen- 
 tial and to disregard the remainder. Year after year, 
 the author has offered three suggestions which have 
 been as regularly dismissed. The first of these proposed 
 remedies is the establishment of a legislative rule com- 
 pelling a member to obtain permission by an aye and 
 no vote of the legislature before introducing a bill. All 
 members would then go on record as to whether they 
 wanted to consider the subject of the bill or not. Of 
 course, the party in power would practically make the 
 selection and be responsible for the introduction of the 
 principal platform bills. But the member who comes to 
 an American legislature wants his constituency to realize 
 that he is doing something and the introduction of bills 
 is a sure sign of activity on his part. Custom is so in- 
 grained that it cannot be changed in a day. There are 
 many men who do not care to father half the bills they 
 present but the fellow at home is a good friend and 
 therefore they must be introduced. If such a rule 
 existed how easy it would be to explain to his friend that 
 under the aye and no vote the bill was refused considera- 
 tion. It is merely a matter of self-control which the 
 legislature refuses to exercise. 
 
 The second suggestion was that much of the private 
 and local legislation could be abolished or submitted to 
 some procedure like that of the English private bill pro- 
 cedure. In Wisconsin about six hundred bills could be 
 
232 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 disposed of by this device combined with a proper home 
 rule bill. To-day, in the advanced state of Wisconsin 
 there is a fish commission which scientifically selects 
 plans for the propagation of fish. Every session the 
 legislature has to consider about one hundred and fifty 
 or more fish bills relating to every creek and pond in 
 the state. It does seem that if the commission is per- 
 mitted to put fish into a lake, it could be trusted to 
 determine rules as to the desirability of taking them out. 
 
 The third recommendation was that no bill be drafted 
 in the legislative reference department unless the pro- 
 spectus submitted be signed by ten or fifteen members. 
 This protection has not yet been granted. If the de- 
 partment had this or some similar defence, it could 
 devote the time of its lawyers to the more important 
 bills. However, most of the bills before the legislature 
 are drafted by attorneys throughout the state and sent 
 to the members in all kinds of forms. The members 
 then submit the bills for revision, so that they may 
 follow the legislative rules. In this way over 90 per 
 cent of the bills before the Wisconsin legislature in some 
 way come in touch with this department. 
 
 The relation of this work to a deeper study of statute 
 law and the principles underlying it will be the next 
 consideration. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 
 
 THE growing impatience with our courts in America 
 is very evident. The relation of the principles discussed 
 in this book to court procedure needs some further ex- 
 planation. Thus far the legislature and the adminis- 
 tration of the laws have been the subjects of comment 
 and it is with great pleasure that some consideration is 
 now given the Wisconsin courts. But before so doing, 
 a moment's pause to reflect on the whole question of 
 judge-made law, economics and statute making may not 
 be out of place. 
 
 We have been so thoroughly disciplined in America 
 to the infallibility of a written constitution as inter- 
 preted by the courts, that only recently have we had 
 impressed upon us instance after instance which disclose 
 the hiatus between economic conditions and court deci- 
 sions, culminating in the decision of the New York 
 court of appeals in the workmen's compensation case. 
 Can it be possible that a court would practically recog- 
 nize the humanity, justice, right and necessity of a law 
 prepared with the greatest care by the legislature and 
 at the same time declare it unconstitutional? Can it 
 
 233 
 
234 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 be possible that there are standards of right and justice 
 which public opinion recognizes and which violate a 
 constitution, the very bulwarks of justice and right made 
 especially to preserve these very things ? Such a situa- 
 tion seems to the layman absurd and nonsensical. Yet 
 has not this hiatus existed for many years and become 
 ingrained into our very system? A thousand cases 
 show that it has. Is not the necessity for devices such 
 as the railroad and industrial commissions, evidence 
 enough that a jurisprudence different from that which 
 we have been teaching in our law schools must be de- 
 veloped ? Is it not necessary to teach those who are to 
 become our judges an economic viewpoint in addition 
 to the stiff doctrine of precedent ? What, after all, are 
 the advantages of the rulings of commissions? Simply 
 that those rulings are based upon economic facts and 
 not upon precedent. By instituting commissions we 
 have established code law as understood in the old 
 countries and at the same time have laid the foundations 
 for what Roscoe Pound of the Harvard law school calls 
 "Sociological jurisprudence." Are not the rulings, based 
 as they are upon the police power, evidence enough of 
 the fact that the old procedure of our courts, the old 
 doctrine of precedent, is giving way to the newer doc- 
 trine of paramount necessity ? 
 
 The judges are not entirely in fault : a portion of the 
 blame lies elsewhere. Old forms give way but slowly 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 235 
 
 to new growths. The astounding rapidity of the progress 
 of modern industrial and commercial machinery has left 
 many a good, just and able judge perplexed and be- 
 wildered, with his flag nailed to the mast. Can we 
 expect more from the judges than we do from the equally 
 bewildered economist or legislator ? 
 
 Particularly have questions relating to the control of 
 great monopolies proved too complex for the courts. 
 However good a court may be, it is a court and not an 
 administrative body. The discontent with the rulings 
 of the commerce court demonstrates the truth of this 
 statement. The attempt by the supreme court to estab- 
 lish some kind of administrative machinery to carry out 
 its rulings in the tobacco case is another case in point. 
 Such matters are not within the province of the court 
 and they have no machinery to handle economic cases 
 of any complexity or magnitude. A recent editorial in 
 the Saturday Evening Post, commenting upon the com- 
 merce court, makes the following pertinent statement : 
 
 " Suppose you were building a dam and had employed a com- 
 petent civil engineer ; but your lawyer insisted that all the engi- 
 neer's orders must be subject to review by him. In the course of 
 some years, if the engineer were sufficiently patient in explaining 
 the import of his various orders the lawyer would understand all 
 the problems involved in the construction of the dam ; in short, 
 he would become nearly as expert as the engineer himself. 
 
 " However, while the lawyer was acquiring this expert knowl- 
 edge you wouldn't be apt to make much progress with the dam. 
 
236 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 " That is about the situation created by the new commerce 
 court. The Interstate Commerce Commission, by years of in- 
 vestigation, has become familiar with the problems of transporta- 
 tion. The commerce court act simply makes this expert body 
 subject to a body that does not know so much about transporta- 
 tion. That the general effect of the court will be to paralyze the 
 Commission at least, until such time as the court itself becomes 
 expert in transportation seems most likely." 
 
 A new procedure has been needed, but that does not 
 excuse the courts from making every effort to meet the 
 matter halfway by dispensing with a large part of the 
 useless load of precedent and dilatory and costly prac- 
 tices adverse to the poor man. They can be blamed 
 for that needless conservation and justly so. They must 
 take even a broader notice of sociological factors or they 
 will be discredited. A great deal of injustice is done 
 before public conscience is sufficiently aroused to check 
 by means of necessary statutes those evils which are 
 constantly arising. But how shall we find a remedy for 
 the rapidly accumulating evils of to-day, when the 
 courts are still further hampered by precedent which is 
 recognized by every one to be as dead as Adam ? 
 
 Even statute law lags far behind public opinion, but as 
 Judge Dicey says in his book "Law and Opinion," 
 
 " If a statute ... is apt to reproduce the public opinion not so 
 much of to-day as of yesterday, judge-made law occasionally 
 represents the opinion of the day before yesterday." 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 237 
 
 The story of history is repeated time and time again, 
 as Professor E. A. Ross points out in his " Social Psy- 
 chology" : 
 
 " Law stiffens with the accumulation of precedent, or the grow- 
 ing prestige of dead commentators, a Gaius or an Ulpian, a 
 Coke or a Blackstone. Says Amos : ' So soon as a system of law 
 becomes reduced to completeness of outward form, it has a natural 
 tendency to crystallize into a rigidity unsuited to the free applica- 
 tions which the actual circumstances of human life demand. The 
 invariable reaction against this stage is manifested in a progressive 
 extension, modification, or complete suspension of the strict legal 
 rule into which the once merely equitable principle has been grad- 
 ually contracted.' Equity itself, at first an attempt to correct the 
 mechanical operation of law by enlarging the sphere of judicial 
 discretion at the expense of technicality, gets bound by precedents, 
 acquires a legal shell, and becomes merely a competing system of 
 law destined in the end to complete absorption. 
 
 " Litigation gets so involved in elaborate procedure that no 
 one dares trust himself to it without the guidance of an expert. 
 A lawsuit, originally a quest for truth and justice, becomes a regu- 
 lated contest between professionals, to be decided according to 
 the rules of the sport. ' The inquiry is not, What do substantive 
 law and justice require? Instead the inquiry is, Have the rules 
 of the game been carried out strictly ? If any material infraction 
 is discovered, just as the football rules put back the offending team 
 five or ten yards, as the case may be, our sporting theory of justice 
 awards new trials, or reverses judgments, or sustains demurrers 
 in the interest of regular play.' " 
 
 Indeed, precedent has become so sacred and so con- 
 fused with the principles the fathers laid down in the 
 
238 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 grandest charter of human rights the world has ever 
 seen, that if one attacks a foolish decision, up pops little 
 Mr. Pettifogger and angrily accuses him of trying to 
 undermine the very foundation of government the 
 constitution itself. 
 
 Many of our law schools have become mere trade 
 schools, and their graduates, instead of being men well 
 founded in the fundamental principles of law, turn out 
 to be attorneys who know all the tricks of the techni- 
 calities, but are sadly deficient in a knowledge of the 
 economic conditions, surrounding law. 
 
 How can we hope for anything else than a turning 
 to commissions for help, right and justice with such a 
 growing impatience of the justice administered by these 
 tradesmen? The law schools, lacking as they do real 
 appreciation of history and sympathy with democracy, 
 have become, in many instances, seats of Bourbonism. 
 If we are to believe with these men that the only law is 
 the judge-made law, everything is in a static condition 
 and the efforts of the legislature to change conditions are 
 foolish and needless. 
 
 The fact is that away down in their hearts a goodly 
 number of lawyers taught in our modern schools really 
 do not believe in representative government at all. 
 That for which our forefathers fought is to them a thing 
 merely to be tolerated. Mr. Charles Bonaparte may 
 not be considered the most conservative lawyer of his 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 239 
 
 class in America, and yet in an article in the Green Bag, 
 October 1911, on the "Judges as Law Makers" he says : 
 
 " Our statutes are in great part the work of mere vote-hunters 
 and demagogues, enacted for the temporary ends of politicians or 
 artfully contrived to advance the selfish purposes of unscrupulous 
 men, often the very men against whose wrong-doing they pretend 
 to provide safeguards. At best, they are seldom more than rudi- 
 mentary, embryonic laws, destined and intended to be moulded 
 into their final and practical shapes by the legislative action of 
 the courts in professedly construing but really completing them." 
 
 " Our judges are far more capable than are our legislators to 
 give expression and effect to the people's will ; they are also more 
 competent and more faithful interpreters of what is the people's 
 will, because far less liable to be misled as to this by mere outcry 
 from the press or the tawdry gabble of agitators ; for, ever since 
 the days of the Three Tailors of Tooley Street, the query: ' What 
 is ' or ' Who are the people ? ' has been matter of debate and often 
 of dispute ; and, although it has received, for practical purposes, 
 many different answers in different countries and at different times, 
 the legal ' people,' that is to say, that part of the community em- 
 powered by law to speak and act for the whole, has been always 
 and everywhere a minority of all the human beings subject to the 
 ' people's ' will." 
 
 If this is true, why all this bother about representa- 
 tive government? Why not do away with it at once 
 or turn it all over to the courts ? 
 
 Perhaps the courts are not all wise; perhaps the 
 fathers who made the constitution were wiser than 
 they may seem to the learned product of our so-called 
 
240 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 law schools. It may be that with a few scientific tools 
 in the hands of our legislators, we may find a way out 
 of the difficulty. It may be that we can build up a 
 code of law which may be taught in real law schools, so 
 that they will produce men who will go to the bench 
 believing in some other maxim than "What is, is." 
 
 The ridiculous assumption of fatherhood and pro- 
 tectorship which some American judges, in their pom- 
 posity, have attained, makes itself felt not only in the 
 courts but in the attitude of practically every lawyer 
 who comes to the legislative halls. It has been the 
 means of retarding the march of progress in legislation 
 and of establishing into the body of our government 
 certain fallacies which have been a real and potential 
 danger to the whole fabric of the state. 
 
 Take for example the power of the attorney-general 
 in many states. This official in our state is elected in 
 the same manner as other state officials. Suppose that 
 he is opposed to some law and wishes to remove it from 
 the statute books. The only step necessary is to have 
 the law submitted to him for an opinion and he can 
 declare it unconstitutional. 
 
 The supreme court itself has more limitations, in that 
 it must at least have a case presented before it can hold 
 hearings or render a decision. The attorney-general 
 alone has the remarkable power of despatching a law 
 put upon the statute books by the will of the people or 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 241 
 
 so modifying it that it is rendered useless and practically 
 void. 
 
 But this is not all. Let us suppose the state auditor 
 thinks a certain great commission unconstitutional and 
 refuses its payments while awaiting a decision from the 
 attorney-general. If the attorney-general declares that 
 it is unconstitutional he can then appear for the con- 
 stitution as protecting the state treasury against the 
 commission itself the embodiment of a law estab- 
 lished by the will of the people and passed by its repre- 
 sentatives. Here then is the situation the state is 
 paying its attorney for appearing against it to destroy 
 a law which it has decreed shall exist ! How absurd ! 
 And yet this actually occurred in the recent Wisconsin 
 civil service law case, which law was happily sustained 
 by the supreme court. Both the auditor and the attor- 
 ney-general were doubtless honest in their beliefs and 
 should not bear the blame, but such a system the 
 result of the spirit of law schools which teach that law- 
 yers and judges are the only protectors of our liberties 
 in all matters is certainly at fault. The blame rests 
 largely on the law schools for failing to teach the real 
 science of government in relation to these matters and 
 for sending men into our public life who acquiesce in 
 such ideas. Two men were talking about this very 
 case and one, not a lawyer, was protesting that the 
 system which permitted such a situation was not right. 
 
242 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 The other, a prominent lawyer, said, "Why, you are 
 talking like a fool ; while I was district attorney of - 
 county, almost my entire time was spent counteracting 
 the work of that fool county board." 
 
 Such are the conditions ; the remedy is plain. There 
 is a science of statute law which is yet to be developed. 
 The possibility of a jurisprudence in the field of statute 
 law making has been realized by few people. Even in 
 England, where an official draftsman is employed, prac- 
 tically nothing has been done to gather the history of 
 statutory enactment. 
 
 Says Professor Ernst Freund in his article upon 
 " Legislation and Jurisprudence": 
 
 " For the vast majority of the acts on the statute books of our 
 States, the reasons or considerations inducing their adoption have 
 not been formulated. There has often been no discussion in the 
 legislature whatever, or if there has been, only incomplete accounts 
 of the debates have been preserved in the daily press. It is other- 
 wise with regard to the more important legislation of congress 
 and, in a number of States, with regard to the enactment of consti- 
 tutions. In some branches of administrative legislation there are 
 comments and recommendations of official authorities, and revisers' 
 notes furnish for a few States valuable material. The whole amount 
 of this source material is poor as compared with what the official 
 publications of England, France and Germany afford. A great 
 amount of information for legislative history is scattered through 
 the law reports, in cases construing statutes and pointing out de- 
 fects, which led to appropriate amendments. But the current 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 243 
 
 digests pay no particular attention to this feature of the law reports, 
 and the information is therefore not in a readily available form and 
 has not to any considerable extent been utilized. 
 
 " As for the history of operation of statutes, there has never 
 been any systematic observation of the working of the laws of 
 persons, property or contracts. Excepting the subjects of bank- 
 ruptcy, divorce and to some extent of personal injuries, there are 
 no civil judicial statistics, still less, of course, any information 
 regarding the legal relations that do not reach the courts. In 
 codifying the German civil code, use was made of data collected 
 by the government regarding the prevalence of certain forms of 
 marital contracts and testamentary dispositions ; nothing of this 
 kind would be available in the United States. The census bureau 
 in Washington would be the only organization in this country to 
 gather information of this kind, and there is no present prospect 
 of its undertaking so far-reaching and difficult a work. Nor is 
 there any near prospect that our States will undertake the collection 
 of judicial statistics. General impressions instead of exact and sys- 
 tematic observations will, for a long time to come, be the basis upon 
 which the policy of our civil legislation will be built, and there is no 
 promise of any radical advance of jurisprudence in this respect. 
 
 " With regard to revenue and police legislation, however, the 
 outlook is much more hopeful. A considerable amount of informa- 
 tion is even now available in the official reports of the authorities 
 charged with the administration of the various acts, which nat- 
 urally deal to a considerable extent with the administrative and 
 judicial aspects of legislation. With the multiplication of control- 
 ling and regulating boards, more and more light will be thrown upon 
 the operation of principles of constitutional and administrative law. 
 
 " All this material ought to be collated and digested in the same 
 manner as is now done with judicial decisions, and the result. 
 
244 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 should be the construction of a body of principles of legislation to 
 supplement the existing body of principles of law. Both in its 
 material and in its method this branch of legal science must differ 
 considerably from the judicial jurisprudence with which we are 
 most familiar ; but it is a department of our science equally legiti- 
 mate and valuable, and destined to grow in importance with the 
 increasing legislative activity of the modern state. . . . 
 
 " Exhaustive inquiry into the conditions to be regulated, im- 
 partial consideration of all interests concerned, and skilled and 
 careful draftsmanship are equally indispensable requirements to 
 produce legislation that is to avoid both inefficiency and injustice. 
 In England, France and Germany the observance of these condi- 
 tions is made possible by the fact that the respective governments 
 introduce all important bills, that they have the greatest facilities 
 for ascertaining the facts underlying the proposed measure, and 
 that they command the services of highly qualified officials acting 
 as draftsmen. These conditions cannot be easily reproduced in 
 a country in which the government has no initiative in legislation, 
 and in which it is often very difficult to place the reponsibility for 
 the framing and the introduction of a measure. In recent years 
 a few States have made provision for officials who are to aid in the 
 drafting of bills, and for the systematic collection of information 
 regarding legislation and legislative problems, and a great deal of 
 valuable statistical work is done by official bureaus in the States 
 and in Washington. It is to be hoped that these efforts in the 
 direction of improving and harmonizing methods of legislation 
 will, in the near future, be further extended, and especially that 
 they will receive the active support of legislative bodies." 
 
 Besides the data which Professor Freund mentions 
 there is also a large body of material which should be 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 245 
 
 gathered, indexed and classified. The expedients which 
 are put into laws to make them effective, the decisions 
 and rules of administrative commissions, the decisions of 
 attorney-generals, bar associations, reports upon codifi- 
 cation, model laws or uniform laws all this data, if 
 made available, would aid the legislator in his task. 
 Such material will help him to find out what he can do, 
 and although the classification of this data is a great 
 task, it should be begun by some one. If the legislator 
 has at hand this data and makes use of it as the judge 
 makes use of the law library and also the skilled drafts- 
 men, his task is made easy and we may 'hope for better 
 legislation. With the clerical help of a skilled man at 
 his command he can represent his constituents more 
 efficiently. 
 
 For those who decry the importance of statute law, 
 let me call attention to the fact that common law means 
 speedy and certain justice and those who profess to 
 revere common law must look upon a statute creating 
 an efficient railroad commission as the rehabilitation of 
 the common law. If this is so, surely the scientific data 
 relating to railroad commissions which can be collected 
 will be of the greatest service to our legislators and to 
 our courts in the formulation of " juridical principles" and 
 in the adjustment to modern conditions of those ancient 
 principles which we have been taught to revere and to 
 believe are the foundation of our liberty and justice. 
 
246 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 Conceding that the legislator is able and honest and 
 that many of the proposed remedies here mentioned will 
 be to a degree efficacious, what remedy can be proposed 
 which will meet the circumstances squarely and help to 
 build up our statute law ? 
 
 Let us suppose that the supreme court of the United 
 States was deprived for one instant of all cases, prece- 
 dents and the body of jurisprudence which has accu- 
 mulated, what would result ? Would not the efficiency 
 of our judiciary be greatly diminished? Yet the strik- 
 ing thing is that the man who makes the law, who fits 
 it to economic conditions, has no such body of guiding 
 principles to help him. His task is tenfold more difficult 
 than that of the judge. 
 
 This will seem strange to the lawyer, who will imme- 
 diately say that he has the decisions of the courts. So 
 he has, but they do him little good. They give him the 
 limitation but often no positive guidance. Let the man 
 who wishes a perfect state 'law regulating the issue of 
 stocks and bonds of corporations try to draft such a 
 law if he wishes to learn what positive principles, legal 
 or economic, he can sift out from the mass of legal deci- 
 sions which must be consulted. 
 
 Let the legislator try to make a law regulating rebates 
 and he will find at once that the 'kinds of economic re- 
 bates may be many times greater than will fit any 
 definition of the courts. It is necessary to have this 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 247 
 
 economic data as well as the legal and we must find out 
 how these laws work so as to profit by the experience 
 of others. This is no small task. It is a far greater 
 problem than that of building up a law library or gather- 
 ing jurisprudence of the past. 
 
 Professor Ernst Freund in a recent pamphlet upon 
 "Legislation and Jurisprudence" says: 
 
 " What does it mean, to say that the fundamental law secures a 
 certain amount of liberty, if it is not said how much, or that it for- 
 bids unjust discrimination, if the injustice is not denned? It is 
 the merest commonplace that some restraint of liberty of contract 
 and business, some discrimination, is not merely valid, but essen- 
 tial to the interests of society. Can the fundamental law be satis- 
 fied with the proclamation of rights of absolutely indeterminate 
 content, directly contrary to other recognized principles, or is not 
 limitation and definition of some sort absolutely essential to an 
 intelligible rule of law? The courts have given us criticism, de- 
 nunciation, and condemnation, but no positive guidance. The 
 course of adjudication is marked by divided jurisdictions and 
 divided courts, resulting in a lamentable uncertainty as to the 
 limits of legislative power." 
 
 What is needed is a body of jurisprudence or quasi- 
 jurisprudence the formation of a body of principles 
 directly relating to the whole subject of statute law. 
 The judge goes into the law library and finds the classi- 
 fied law and jurisprudence of the past ; the legislator 
 comes for a few months every year to make laws with no 
 such data at his command. 
 
248 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 There is no man for whom the study of comparative 
 legislation will be of more benefit than the business man. 
 Whether we wish it or not, we are taking up the things 
 with which Europe has been working. The great danger 
 is that radicals will force these things upon us without 
 careful study. We see Germany advancing in this in- 
 dustrial progress despite laws which the business man 
 in America would look upon as ruinous. It means that 
 Germany has an administration and conditions which 
 make these laws helpful instead of hurtful to the business 
 man. These laws must not be incorporated into our 
 statutes without any study whatsoever. The study of 
 comparative law and the gathering of data which will 
 show the benefits of these laws should be encouraged by 
 the business man of America. 
 
 The necessity for the study of comparative law and 
 comparative institutions in America is demonstrated 
 repeatedly in a department like the legislative reference 
 department. For instance, a man brought to this depart- 
 ment for drafting, a bill which was to be introduced in the 
 Wisconsin legislature. Upon research it was found that 
 the bill related to special assessments in the city of Phila- 
 delphia. The bill would have been entirely out of harmony 
 with the Wisconsin laws and it would have been a disaster 
 had that law been written into the Wisconsin statutes. 
 
 This situation is well depicted in a conversation be- 
 tween a man from Iowa, who had charge of the state 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 
 
 249 
 
 prison there, and a South Carolinian, who held a similar 
 position in his state. The Iowa man told about the 
 beauty of the Iowa law and how, instead of making 
 hopeless criminals, the idea was to fit up the prisons so 
 well that the men would receive encouragement, hope, 
 and also the decent necessities of life, with occasionally 
 little comforts. The idea, he said, was not to utilize 
 the prisoner by making him a mere hopeless animal. 
 The South Carolina man listened in wonder. " Why," 
 said he, "how do you-all keep them out of prison ? If we 
 had such conditions down in South Carolina we would 
 have all of our poor white people and our negroes in jail." 
 
 The laws must be adapted to the economic, industrial 
 and social conditions of each community, for the different 
 communities vary in America. 
 
 Is it not a sensible and safe thing to create some bureau 
 on a large scale for the study of comparative law and 
 jurisprudence ? 
 
 Diagram VII is suggestive of the manner in which this 
 comparative law which may be termed, for lack of a 
 
 LAW 
 LIBRARY 
 
 INTERPRE- 
 TATION 
 
 LAW 
 
 MAKING 
 
 DIAGRAM VII 
 
 better name, "Jurisprudence of statute law " may be 
 used so that it may be of some direct help to the legislator. 
 
250 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 The mass of data represented by i, 2, 3, 4, 5, the judge 
 uses in the interpretation of law. The mass of data 
 represented by 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, n, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, the 
 legislator uses in the making of law. He must not only 
 use what the judge uses but he must also obtain the facts, 
 sociological and critical. 
 
 The legislation throughout the world, the model laws, 
 the cases which interpret them, the opinions of adminis- 
 trative officers, the investigation of economists and the 
 statistics of the actual working of laws a collection of 
 this data is absolutely necessary and especially so to-day, 
 when economic conditions are so constantly shifting and 
 changing. 
 
 Of course the above diagram does not tell the whole 
 story. A law is made not by the courts or by the legis- 
 lature or still less by administrative bodies. It is made 
 by all of these forces. It is good in such proportion as 
 these bodies are efficient and as their procedure is just 
 and rapid. 
 
 However strong a statute may be, if its enforcement is 
 subject to tedious delay caused by outworn procedure 
 the law is not so efficient. If a statute fails of enforce- 
 ment because of the inefficiency of corrupt administra- 
 tors, then again so much is taken from our law. 
 
 It is plain to any one who has read thus far that in Wis- 
 consin we have begun some sort of a systematic study 
 for the improvement of the general conditions affecting 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 251 
 
 legislation. The following diagram (VIII) illustrates just 
 how this study is proceeding. It may provide a sugges- 
 tion for a new kind of law school, one which will include 
 all of the studies necessary if representative government is 
 to continue to exist and retain the confidence of the people. 
 
 DIAGRAM VIII 
 
 Here are three great fields for research : 
 
 A. Legislative method and statute law. 
 
 B. Administrative methods. 
 Expert help. 
 
 C. Real jurisprudence, broad study of legal principles 
 
 i*-*^ I w | '*aNaJlnn**e^ 
 
 and procedure. 
 
 In the centre of the plan is the word "statute." To 
 the right is a square representing the legislature. Now 
 this diagram is to demonstrate that the law is not made 
 by any one body by the legislature, the administration, 
 
252 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 or the courts but by all of them. If the legislature con- 
 structs the law properly, there is a chance that the ad- 
 ministration and the interpretation of the courts will be 
 good. But if the legislation is wrong in the beginning, 
 there is no chance for any other body to rectify it to any 
 degree. So the suggestion is simply this : we must build 
 behind the legislature a body of comparative law and ex- 
 perience to demonstrate how these laws may be better 
 made. To accomplish this we need the architectural 
 department which has been described in the preceding 
 chapter. 
 
 This mass of comparative data cannot be properly 
 built up unless our law schools, our political science and 
 economic departments, cooperate so that we may study 
 the principles of statute law, of legislative procedure, 
 and the whole machinery of law-making. Our schools 
 must go even further than this ; they must study scien- 
 tifically the whole question of administration. In the 
 diagram on page 251, "A " must accompany "B" Our 
 administrative bodies must be based upon solid principles 
 and to thoroughly understand these principles of admin- 
 istration, we must study and discuss them. The estab- 
 lishment of the "Training school for public service' 1 
 in New York City, connected with the " Bureau of mu- 
 nicipal research," is an example of what may be done in 
 this field. The time has passed when political scientists 
 only talk of these things ; they must be studied close at 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 253 
 
 hand and something done speedily to remedy conditions. 
 We must study the procedure of the courts in reference 
 to the actual making of the law and its administration ; 
 and our law schools must institute departments for re- 
 search into law. Until such departments are established 
 in our law schools, they will continue to turn out at- 
 torneys, not lawyers. We have here in Wisconsin made 
 a slight step forward in the collection of material and its 
 classification in the legislative reference department. 
 Students not only from the state but from the entire 
 country are availing themselves of its material. As ex- 
 amples of "B " we have the work of the expert commis- 
 sions and classes in the principles of administration in the 
 university and the public affairs board created by the 
 1911 legislature, having for its duties the reorganization of 
 the administrative bureaus and the establishment of effi- 
 ciency records and uniform accounts. Illustrative of " C," 
 we have comparatively little, but the regents of the uni- 
 versity have set aside a small fund for the study of crim- 
 inal procedure. University professors connected with 
 the law school have been actively working in this field. 
 A strong branch of the Society for the reform of criminal 
 procedure exists and an active campaign is being carried 
 forward. It must be said, however, that in none of the 
 fields, "A" "B," or "C," has the law school given the help 
 it should. It is, however, to the views of Wisconsin judges 
 that we owe the forward movement in the work of " C." 
 
254 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 A page from the catalogue of the University of Wis- 
 consin illustrating courses which relate to public matters. 
 
 26. The Theory and Practice of Legislation. A study of the 
 methods of procedure of legislative bodies, and the prepara- 
 tion of the subject matter and form of bills. The legisla- 
 ture is in session from January to June, in the odd-num- 
 bered years. Throughout the year; Tu., Th., n. Mr. LLOYD 
 JONES, Mr. MCCARTHY. 
 
 28. Comparative Study of Constitution Making. Mr. LOWRIE. 
 
 29. Teachers' Course. Methods of teaching government in sec- 
 
 ondary schools. Second semester; Th., 4 to 6. Mr. Mc- 
 BAIN. 
 
 30. Judicial Administration. A study of the organization, juris- 
 
 diction and actual operations of the courts, with an inquiry 
 into their defects in the administration of justice. First 
 semester; Tu., Th., 2 130. Mr. HALL. 
 
 31. Latin- American Political Institutions. A comparative study 
 
 of the constitutional and administrative systems of the 
 Latin- American Republics. First semester; M., W., F., 10. 
 Mr. REINSCH. 
 
 32. Current Political Topics. Study of current political problems, 
 
 with training in the discriminating use of sources and in 
 effective literary presentation. A training course designed 
 for students preparing for journalism. Throughout the 
 year; Tu., Th., 10. Mr. BAILEY, Mr. CURTIS. 
 
 33. Practical Bill Drafting. A study of the technique of bill 
 
 drafting, with practice in drafting actual measures. Open 
 to senior and graduate students. Second semester; M., F., 7. 
 Mr. MCCARTHY, Mr. LLOYD JONES. 
 
 34. Rural Government. A study of the development and present 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 255 
 
 condition of county, township, and village government. 
 First semester; M., W., F., n. Mr. BAILEY. 
 
 35. Conservation of Natural Resources. A study of the prob- 
 
 lems of conservation and reclamation in the United States. 
 Second semester; Tu., Th. } 8. Mr. BAILEY. 
 
 36. American Diplomacy. A study of the principal contem- 
 
 porary problems of the United States in foreign affairs ; the 
 participation of the United States in the development of 
 International Law ; the organization of the diplomatic ser- 
 vice ; the product of diplomatic action. (Given 1910-1911 
 and alternate years.) Mr. REINSCH. 
 
 37. Contemporary International Politics and Diplomatic Prob- 
 
 lems. A study of the present grouping of the powers and 
 their mutual relations. First semester; W. } M. y F., n. 
 (Given 1911-1912 and alternate years.) Mr. REINSCH. 
 42. Public Utilities. A comparison of public regulation and pub- 
 lic and private ownership of municipal utilities in Ameri- 
 can states and foreign countries, including constitutional 
 and judicial limitations, delegation of legislative power to 
 commissions, physical valuation, reasonable rates and ser- 
 vice, organization of public employees, cost, efficiency, 
 social and political results. First semester; M., W., F., 8. 
 Mr. COMMONS, Mr. DUDGEON. 
 
 WISCONSIN JUDGES 
 
 It has been said previously that the Wisconsin legis- 
 lature would probably not apply the recall to judges. 
 We have been fortunate, indeed, to have on our bench 
 men who have taken as broad a view of constitutional 
 law as any court in this country. This fact is well known 
 
256 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 throughout the country and need not be dwelt upon here. 
 Our judges are elected for long terms on a non-partisan 
 basis and if the recall were in force in this state it would 
 be impossible to recall any of them. In striking contrast 
 to the New York workmen's compensation decision are 
 herewith presented excerpts from Judge Winslow's opin- 
 ion in the Wisconsin case. For its boldness as well as 
 literary merit, it stands as a monument of its kind and 
 a living rebuke to the pettiness and chicanery exhibited 
 in courts like those of Illinois and California. 
 
 " In approaching the consideration of the present law we must 
 bear in mind the well established principle that it must be sustained 
 unless it be clear beyond reasonable question that it violates some 
 constitutional limitation or prohibition. 
 
 " That governments founded on written constitutions which 
 are made difficult of amendment or change lose much in flexibility 
 and adaptability to changed conditions there can be no doubt. 
 Indeed, that may be said to be one purpose of the written constitu- 
 tion. Doubtless they gain enough in stability and freedom from 
 mere whimsical and sudden changes to more than make up for the 
 loss in flexibility, but the loss still remains, whether for good or ill. 
 A constitution is a very human document, and must embody with 
 greater or less fidelity the spirit of the time of its adoption. It will 
 be framed to meet the problems and difficulties which face the men 
 who make it and it will generally crystallize with more or less fidel- 
 ity the political, social and economic propositions which are con- 
 sidered irrefutable, if not actually inspired, by the philosophers and 
 legislators of the time ; but the difficulty is that, while the consti- 
 tution is fixed or very hard to change, the conditions and problems 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 257 
 
 surrounding the people, as well as their ideals, are constantly 
 changing. The political or philosophical aphorism of one genera- 
 tion is doubted by the next, and entirely discarded by the third ; 
 the race moves forward constantly and no Canute can stay its 
 progress. 
 
 " Constitutional commands and prohibitions, either distinctly 
 laid down in express words or necessarily implied from general 
 words, must be obeyed and implicitly obeyed so long as they remain 
 unamended or unrepealed. Any other course on the part of either 
 legislator or judge, constitutes violation of his oath of office ; but 
 when there is no such express command or prohibition, but only 
 general language, or a general policy drawn from the four corners 
 of the instrument, what shall be said about this? By what stand- 
 ards is this general language or general policy to be interpreted 
 and applied to present-day people and conditions ? 
 
 " When an eighteenth century constitution forms the charter 
 of liberty of a twentieth century government must its general 
 provisions be construed and interpreted by an eighteenth century 
 mind surrounded by eighteenth century conditions and ideals? 
 Clearly not. This were to command the race to halt in its progress, 
 to stretch the state upon a veritable bed of Procrustes. 
 
 " Where there is no express command or prohibition, but only 
 general language or policy to be considered, the conditions pre- 
 vailing at the time of its adoption must have their due weight, 
 but the changed social, economic and governmental conditions and 
 ideals of the time, as well as the problems which the changes 
 have produced, must also logically enter into the consideration, 
 and become influential factors hi the settlement of problems of 
 construction and interpretation. 
 
 " These general propositions are here laid down, not because 
 they are considered either new or in serious controversy, but 
 
258 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 because they are believed to be peculiarly applicable to a case like 
 the present, where a law which is framed to meet new economic 
 conditions and difficulties resulting therefrom is attacked princi- 
 pally because it is believed to offend against constitutional guaran- 
 tees or prohibitions couched in general terms, or supposed general 
 policies drawn from the whole body of the instrument." 
 
 Again : 
 
 " The next important contention is that the law is unconstitu- 
 tional because it vests judicial power in a body which is not a court 
 and is not composed of men elected by the people, in violation of 
 those clauses of the state constitution which vest the judicial power 
 in certain courts and provide for the election of judges by the 
 people, as well as in violation of the constitutional guarantees of 
 due process of law. It was suggested at the argument that the 
 Industrial Commission might perhaps be held to be a court of 
 conciliation, as authorized to be created by Section 16 of Article 
 VII of the state constitution, but we do not find it necessary to 
 consider or decide this contention. We do not consider the In- 
 dustrial Commission a court, nor do we construe the act as vesting 
 in the Commission judicial powers within the meaning of the Con- 
 stitution. It is an administrative body or arm of the government 
 which in the course of its administration of a law is empowered to 
 ascertain some questions of fact and apply the existing law thereto, 
 and in so doing acts quasi- judiciaMy, but it is not thereby vested 
 with judicial power in the constitutional sense. 
 
 " There are many such administrative bodies or commissions, 
 and with the increasing complexity of modern government they 
 seem likely to increase rather than diminish. Examples may be 
 easily thought of, town boards, boards of health, boards of re- 
 view, boards of equalization, railroad rate commissions, and public 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 259 
 
 utility commissions all come within this class. They perform very 
 important duties in our scheme of government, but they are not 
 legislatures or courts. The legislative branch of the government 
 by statute determines the rights, duties, and liabilities of persons 
 and corporations under certain conditions of fact, and varying as 
 the facts and conditions change. Manifestly the legislature cannot 
 remain in session and pass a new act upon every change of condi- 
 tions, but it may and does commit to an administrative board the 
 duty of ascertaining when the facts exist which call into activity 
 certain provisions of the law, and when conditions have changed 
 so as to call into activity other provisions. The law is made by 
 the legislature, the facts upon which its operation is dependent are 
 ascertained by the administrative board. While acting within the 
 scope of its duty, or its jurisdiction, as it is sometimes called, such 
 a board may lawfully be endowed with very broad powers, and its 
 conclusions may be given great dignity and force, so that courts 
 may not reverse them unless the proof be clear and satisfactory 
 that they are wrong." 
 
 Proceeding on an entirely different theory and yet set- 
 ting forth a more startling recognition of new, economic 
 forces in legislation, Judge Marshall chides the legislature 
 on the fact that it has not previously subjected to the 
 court this question of workmen's compensation. The 
 judge holds that the constitution must, through its very 
 nature, contain power of this sort and practically invites 
 the legislature to test the constitution if the legislature 
 has a law which is made in accordance with economic 
 industrial right. The judge evidently believes that the 
 constitution was made to include a body of rights broad 
 
260 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 enough to last for all time and that the burden of proof 
 is on the judge who would declare unconstitutional a 
 law within the broad words of the preamble of the con- 
 stitution. 
 
 " How are we to determine when the purpose of a law, in the 
 field of police power, and unaffected by any express prohibition, 
 is legitimate? It seems the answer is easy. Look first to the 
 purpose of the Constitution, found in the declaration, ' Grateful 
 to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure its blessings, 
 form a more perfect union, insure domestic tranquillity and pro- 
 mote the general welfare ' we ' do establish this Constitution.* 
 Then to the central thought the very superstructure upon 
 which the whole was builded : ' All men are born equally free and 
 independent and have certain inherent rights, among those are 
 life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' There is voiced a broad 
 spirit, covering as this court has, in effect, many times said, a field 
 as limitless as are human needs. The language was not used for 
 mere rhetorical ornamentation or effect, but to suggest the per- 
 missible scope of legislation in the zone of general welfare, its extent 
 and its limitations. . . . 
 
 " So here, as it seems, the initial question was this : Is the pur- 
 pose of the law legitimate, within the broad dominating spirit 
 mentioned ? The answer must be yes, as the manifest purpose is 
 to promote every element of the central thought of the Consti- 
 tution. Anything fairly within that has always been and must, 
 necessarily always, be held legitimate. Keeping in mind that in 
 the selection of means the Legislature has a very broad compre- 
 hensive field in which to freely make a choice, the next question is, 
 Are the means contemplated reasonably appropriate to the end to 
 be attained? Not are they the best means, but are they proper 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 261 
 
 means, in that they are not within any express prohibition and 
 tend to conserve rather than to destroy? All must agree in the 
 affirmative on that in harmony with the best thought of all the 
 more civilized nations of Europe. The difficulty here has been, 
 want of appreciation of the great economic truth, that personal 
 injury losses incident to industrial pursuits, as certainly as wages, 
 are a part of the cost of production of those things essential to or 
 proper for human consumption, and the more direct they are in- 
 corporated therein, the less the enhancement of cost and the better 
 for all." 
 
 Again, in the domain of procedure, listen to the wise 
 words of Chief Justice Winslow on the delay of justice : 
 
 " The ancient doctrine that the accused could waive nothing 
 was unquestionably founded upon the anxiety of the courts to see 
 that no innocent man should be convicted. It arose in those days 
 when the accused could not testify in his own behalf, was not fur- 
 nished counsel, and was punished, if convicted, Jby the death pen- 
 alty or some other grievous punishment out of all proportion to the 
 gravity of his crime. Under such circumstances it was well, per- 
 haps, that such a rule should exist, and well that every technical 
 requirement should be insisted on, when the state demanded its 
 meed of blood. Such a course raised up a sort of barrier which 
 the court could utilize when a prosecution was successful which 
 ought not to have been successful, or when a man without money, 
 without counsel, without ability to summon witnesses, and not 
 permitted to tell his own story, had been unjustly convicted, but 
 yet under the ordinary principles of waiver, as applied to civil 
 matters, had waived every defect in the proceedings. 
 
 " Thanks to the humane policy of the modern criminal law 
 we have changed all these conditions. The man now charged with 
 
262 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 crime is furnished the most complete opportunity for making his 
 defence. He may testify in his own behalf ; if he be poor, he may 
 have counsel furnished him by the state, and may have his wit- 
 nesses summoned and paid for by the state ; not infrequently he 
 is thus furnished counsel more able than the attorney for the state. 
 In short, the modern law has taken as great pains to surround the 
 accused person with the means to effectively make his defense as 
 the ancient law took pains to prevent that consummation. The 
 reasons which in some sense justified the former attitude of the 
 courts have therefore disappeared, save perhaps in capital cases, 
 and the question is, Shall we adhere to the principle based upon 
 conditions no longer existing ? No sound reason occurs to us why 
 a person accused of a lesser crime or misdemeanor, who comes into 
 court with his attorney, fully advised of all his rights and furnished 
 with every means of making his defense, should not be held to 
 waive a right or privilege for which he does not ask, just as a party 
 to a civil action waives such a right by not asking for it. 
 
 " Surely the defendant should have every one of his constitu- 
 tional rights and privileges, but should he be permitted to juggle 
 with them ? Should he be silent when he ought to ask for some 
 minor right which the court would at once give him, and then 
 when he has had his trial, and the issue has gone against him, 
 should he be heard to say there is error because he was not given 
 his right? Should he be allowed to play his game with loaded 
 dice ? Should Justice travel with leaden heel because the defend- 
 ant has secretly stored up some technical error not affecting the 
 merits, and thus secured a new trial because forsooth he can waive 
 nothing ? We think not. We think that sound reason, good sense, 
 and the interests of the public demand that the ancient strict rule, 
 framed originally for other conditions, be laid aside, at least so far 
 as all prosecutions for offenses less than capital are concerned. We 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 263 
 
 believe it has been laid aside in fact (save for the single exception 
 that trial by a jury of twelve cannot be waived unless authorized 
 by a specific law) by the former decisions of this court. 
 
 " It is believed that this court has uniformly attempted to dis- 
 regard mere formal errors and technical objections, not affecting 
 any substantial right, and to adhere to the spirit of the law which 
 giveth life rather than to the letter which killeth. It may not 
 always have succeeded ; it is intensely human, but since the writer 
 has been here he knows that the attempt has been honestly made. 
 
 " In this line the court is glad to welcome legislative assistance 
 and approval. By ch. 192, Laws of 1909 (sec. 3072m, Stats.), 
 it is provided that no judgment, civil or criminal, shall be set aside 
 or new trial granted for any error in admission of evidence, direc- 
 tion of the jury, or any error in pleading or procedure, unless it 
 shall appear that the error complained of has affected the substan- 
 tial rights of the party complaining. How much this adds to the 
 provisions of sec. 2829, which has been on the statute books since 
 1858, is not entirely clear. At least it shows the legislative intent 
 to specifically apply the law to criminal actions. Its terms are 
 clear, and will unquestionably assist the court in its efforts to do 
 substantial justice in all actions, either civil or criminal, without 
 regard to immaterial errors or inconsequential defects. This 
 court will loyally stand by this law, and will earnestly endeavor 
 to administer it so as to do equal and exact justice so far as human 
 effort can accomplish that end." (Hack v. State, 141 Wis. 346, 
 PP- 3SI-353-) 
 
 Judge Marshall, who for many years has withstood 
 technicalities and delay of the law in no uncertain terms, 
 has given the writer permission to use the following de- 
 scription of the work of our courts : 
 
264 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 " Is there not some danger of the public being misled by the 
 agitation respecting inefficiency of criminal procedure ? It should 
 not be thought because of apparent failures of justice in a case now 
 and then, and apparently unnecessary delay and expense in dispos- 
 ing of criminal cases in some of the large cities, that the adminis- 
 tration of the law in Wisconsin can be judged thereby. In this 
 state, persons accused of crime are, as a rule, promptly tried, and, 
 doubtless, are convicted when they ought not to be, quite as often 
 as they are acquitted when they ought not to be. Criminal cases 
 are removable to the Supreme Court at very moderate expense and 
 when so removed are generally and finally disposed of in from two 
 to five months. Furthermore, the number of cases so removed 
 are very few as compared with the total number tried. 
 
 " It will greatly surprise some persons to be told, as the fact 
 is, that during the period of six years covered by the last twenty- 
 two volumes of Supreme Court reports, there have been no less, 
 probably, than four thousand trials of criminal cases in this state 
 and three thousand convictions, while only one hundred and one 
 cases were removed to the Supreme Court, or about two and one-half 
 per cent of the number tried and five per cent of the number of con- 
 victions. Moreover, not more than five per cent of the total of 
 all kinds of cases taken to the Supreme Court were criminal cases. 
 Of those four were reversed, or one and one-third per cent of cases 
 tried resulting in convictions. 
 
 " The foregoing can be better appreciated by considering that 
 removals of criminal cases to the Supreme Court have averaged 
 about one to a county once in four years, and reversals, one to a 
 county once in ten years. 
 
 " About one-third of all the criminal cases removed to the Su- 
 preme Court during the period named, were from Milwaukee 
 county, and yet the yearly number from there has been but about 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 26$ 
 
 five. Two-thirds of all removals were from Milwaukee county 
 and five other circuit jurisdictions, leaving only about thirty cases 
 from eighteen other trial jurisdictions, including county and mu- 
 nicipal judges, or on the average of one case every three years. 
 From one circuit judge's jurisdiction, and those of several judges 
 of inferior courts, there has not been a removal qf a criminal case 
 to the Supreme Court during the six years. 
 
 " A careful examination of the opinions of the Justices will 
 show that, there were many affirmances regardless of plain errors, 
 that being intended to be the course where it did not appear that, 
 had the error not occurred, the result might probably have been 
 otherwise. While it may be that a reversal occurred, now and 
 then, on a ground which some would regard technical or inconse- 
 quential, the rule has been otherwise, and as to exceptions, if there 
 be such, they occurred from an honest reasonable difference of 
 opinion as to the effect of the errors on the result, or an honest 
 reasonable belief that they were neither technical nor inconse- 
 quential. 
 
 " There will be found on the average, a fraction less than two 
 reversals in criminal cases in each of the last twenty-two volumes 
 of reports, containing a little less than one hundred cases of all 
 kinds, including five criminal cases. 
 
 " In reading the foregoing, it must be remembered that the 
 result on appeal in each case, with but few exceptions, was con- 
 curred in by all. So the proportion of opinions in cases reversed, 
 written by any particular Justice, does not have any particular 
 significance." 
 
 If these great judges recognize that justice must be 
 made speedy, that ancient form must give way to modern, 
 that the constitution is broad enough to cover all injus- 
 
266 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 tice and wrong, is it not about time that our law schools 
 are awakening to the situation? The recent progress 
 made along this line at Harvard under Professor Roscoe 
 Pound, and at Pennsylvania under Dean Lewis, and the 
 establishment of the " Bureau of legislative drafting " 
 in connection with Columbia university are excellent 
 signs of the times. The establishment of a legislative 
 reference bureau as part of the work of Harvard and the 
 establishment of numerous municipal reference depart- 
 ments in various universities modelled to some extent 
 after the Wisconsin bureau, are also encouraging. 
 
 But we are in the midst of great struggles in America ; 
 the power of the courts in these contests must be well 
 denned. Good men die and public opinion cannot often 
 bear evenly and justly upon judicial bodies. The strug- 
 gle for new forms and to meet new conditions is Titanic 
 witness the Standard oil and the tobacco cases. Even 
 mightier struggles are to come, if the readjustment of 
 economic conditions and law is made to the satisfaction 
 of the people. Says the great German jurist, Dr. 
 Rudolph von Ihering, in the " Struggle for Law " : - 
 
 "This struggle reaches its highest degree of intensity when 
 the interests in question have assumed the form of vested rights. 
 Here we find two parties opposed each to the other, each of which 
 takes as its device the sacredness of the law ; the one that of the 
 historical law, the law of the past ; the other that of the law which 
 is ever coming into existence, ever renewing its youth, the eternal, 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 267 
 
 primordial law of mankind. A case of conflict of the idea of law 
 with itself which, for the individuals who have staked all their 
 strength and their very being for their convictions and finally suc- 
 cumb to the supreme decree of history, has in it something that is 
 really tragic. All the great achievements which the history of the 
 law has to record the abolition of slavery, of serfdom, the free- 
 dom of landed property, of industry, of conscience, etc., all have 
 had to be won, in the first instance, in this manner by the most 
 violent struggles, which often lasted for centuries. Not unfre- 
 quently streams of blood, and everywhere rights trampled under 
 foot, mark the way which the law has travelled during such con- 
 flict. For the law is Saturn devouring his own children. The law 
 can renew its youth only by breaking with its own past. A con- 
 crete legal right or principle of law, which, simply because it has 
 come into existence, claims an unlimited and therefore eternal 
 existence, is a child lifting its arm against its own mother; it 
 despises the idea of the law when it appeals to that idea ; for the 
 idea of the law is an eternal becoming ; but that Which Has Be- 
 come must yield to the new Becoming, since Alles was ent- 
 steht, 
 
 ' 1st werth dass es zu Grunde geht.' " 
 
 Let us suppose that the Wisconsin court followed the 
 New York court. Let us suppose that the New York 
 courts again and again disregarded the will of the people, 
 that they overreached themselves and bound the legis- 
 lature hand and foot. What are we going to do about 
 it? In the milder method of usurpation of power by 
 decisions the courts have encroached upon the field of 
 legislation and is this not the true reason for the dis- 
 
268 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 content with the courts ? When this is true, is there not 
 another legislative body above and beyond that elected 
 by the people ? The chief legislative problem before us 
 in many states the problem which has required all our 
 best energy in the past is the creation of fictions which 
 will in some way allow the acts demanded by the people and 
 acknowledged to be necessary, to exist on our statute 
 books, in spite of the limits of the federal and state con- 
 stitutions as interpreted by thousands of decisions. It 
 is not my purpose to go into history. It is generally 
 understood that the United States constitution never 
 gave the right to the courts to declare laws unconstitu- 
 tional, but that the right has come mainly from the case 
 of Marbury vs. Madison, 1803. However wise that de- 
 cision may have been at the time, the assumption of 
 control over legislation and consequently the assumption 
 of legislative power by our courts, must now be regarded 
 as the most unfortunate expansion of our unwritten con- 
 stitution which has ever taken< place in this country. 
 The field of the legislature has been gradually narrowed 
 and more and more responsibility taken from it. How 
 often we have seen just and right legislation checked or 
 choked by an array of decisions which seem to block the 
 way at every step ! How often the powers opposed to all 
 progress have cited these with mighty dignity until the 
 legislature, benumbed and confused, has yielded to what 
 seemed to be an insurmountable mass of judge-made 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 269 
 
 wisdom ! The constitution has become discredited in 
 the eyes of the people ; is looked upon as an instrument 
 to stop all progress toward regulation of what ought to be 
 controlled, and yet such is far from the fact in many cases. 
 It is the spurious decisions the dead weights of prece- 
 dent which are in the way, not the constitution itself. 
 But the system is here ; its menace is always present 
 and legislation or the science of legislation cannot go for- 
 ward until something is done to remedy these conditions. 
 Something must be done for the safety of our courts 
 because sooner or later the people will say, " If you legis- 
 late as well as interpret if you are a legislative body, 
 we cannot allow you to exist unless we have control over 
 you." If the recall of judges is rampant in the land there 
 is a reason for it, and, from a theoretical standpoint, a 
 sound one ; it simply means control of a legislative body. 
 The constitutional initiative means the same thing. If 
 the judges have rendered decisions which tie the legis- 
 lature and the people hand and foot, a change in the con- 
 stitution, rising from the people and eradicating the de- 
 cisions which obstruct the way, can be effected through 
 this new device. In either case, the fundamental reason 
 is the same ; the judges are usurping legislative functions, 
 and a legislative body which is neither elected nor recalled 
 is inconceivable in a republic. The writer is not sure but 
 that a recall applied to a judge who has gone into the 
 legislative field is a good thing and may be made prac- 
 
270 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 tical. If our government is a government of checks and 
 balances and the courts may declare a law passed by a 
 legislature unconstitutional, who is to pass upon an un- 
 constitutional decision of the judges ? Would it not be 
 a good device in New York to have on the ballot at the 
 next election the question, Is the decision of the court of 
 appeals in the workmen's compensation case constitu- 
 tional ? and let the people from whom this constitu- 
 tion sprung have as much interpretive power as the 
 judges whom they elect ? Does any one doubt but that 
 the people of New York would sustain that law over- 
 whelmingly ? If so, what better test have we of its con- 
 stitutionality ? It might be advantageous to have some 
 provision so that in case the decisions of a judge were 
 overturned several times by popular vote, the judge 
 would be subject to recall as being unable to interpret 
 the constitution. The writer is a firm believer in repre- 
 sentative government and is of the opinion that the legis- 
 lature will never reach its highest dignity and respon- 
 sibility until some device is used to hold the court within 
 its proper sphere. 
 
 Think of the confusion that is now arising in our coun- 
 try because of this power ! Ten, yes, even twenty years 
 after a law has been enacted, after property rights have 
 grown under it, suddenly there may be a decision de- 
 claring that law unconstitutional. Could anything be 
 more conducive to chaos? What has been said above 
 
THE LAW AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS 271 
 
 applies with double force to the federal courts. There is 
 no way of changing the constitution except by that 
 supreme legislative body, the supreme court of the 
 United States. Would it not be better to change the fifth 
 article of the United States constitution so that the 
 constitution could be modified or at least some of the 
 decisions which have been made relating to it be effaced ? 
 Could not such an alteration be brought about by pro- 
 viding, for instance, for a change by a majority of con- 
 gress and a majority of the states instead of a system 
 which no one can change save the supreme legislature, 
 stimulated by raging and threatening public opinion? 
 Would it not be better for the safety of the courts in the 
 long run to allow this little leeway ? Meanwhile, if, by 
 the establishment of a real study of jurisprudence in our 
 law schools, expert help and the collection of scientific 
 data for our legislators, we can help our law-makers to 
 put the will of the people into a noble, clear, dignified 
 form, we can aid greatly to a solution of this problem. 
 If the people show that they desire a certain piece of 
 legislation, the legislature, whatever may be the accu- 
 mulation of decisions to be surmounted, should not hesi- 
 tate to pass it in a form economically and technically 
 correct and submit it to our courts and let them de- 
 stroy it at their peril ! Fortunate circumstances in this 
 state, of which there has been some mention, have made 
 it possible to place before our court the principal statutes, 
 
272 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 not without error it may be said, but always in fairly 
 good technical shape. The thorough study of the eco- 
 nomic conditions made by our legislators before those 
 statutes were enacted, and the patience with which hear- 
 ings have been held and testimony taken, have had their 
 reward in the harmony between the courts and the legis- 
 lature so long observable in the state. It is good for the 
 legislature, and for the courts as well, to have the care and 
 the help which comes from some machinery at the hand 
 of the legislator to help him to carry out the will of his 
 constituents. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 THE legislation discussed thus far in this little book 
 has been selected because it shows most clearly the fun- 
 damentals of the Wisconsin idea. To describe all the 
 laws which have been passed, their significance, enforcing 
 devices and administrative features would necessitate 
 a large volume, hence only the general trend of legisla- 
 tion has been considered. The session of 1911 was per- 
 haps the most remarkable session ever held in any state, 
 not only in the humanitarian spirit of the laws but also 
 in the daring manner in which great questions were 
 handled. The work was carefully done, and although 
 a part of it was fragmentary in its nature, so much so 
 that it may have to be redrafted, none of it presents any 
 real menace to business or prosperity. The conservative 
 Wisconsin legislator is very careful to build well as he 
 advances, and there is no great resentment against any 
 of these laws. The water power law is the only one which 
 has been declared unconstitutional. The income tax 
 was not received with much enthusiasm at first, but as 
 the people have come to understand it, this feeling has 
 T 273 
 
274 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 died away. The other laws have met with general ap- 
 proval. 
 
 As an example of the sort of legislation of the session 
 of 1911, there is a fairly accurate newspaper account in 
 the Milwaukee Free Press of July 6, 1911, under the 
 heading, "Constitutional amendments." Following is a 
 digest of this article. 
 
 The following proposed amendments to the constitu- 
 tion were adopted this year : 
 
 The initiative, referendum. 
 
 Providing that the salaries of members of the legislature shall 
 be $600 per annum, instead of $500 for each biennial session. 
 
 Permitting cities to acquire lands for park purposes. 
 
 Permitting the state to install a system of insurance against 
 sickness, death, accident and invalidity. 
 
 Permitting the state to appropriate for internal improvements 
 "for the purpose of acquiring, preserving and developing the 
 water power resources and forests of the state " ; limiting the 
 appropriation therefor to a & of a mill tax on the property of the 
 state. 
 
 Empowering the legislature to provide for the recall of any 
 public elective officer, except judges. 
 
 Declaring " all lanes, mineral rights, water powers and other 
 natural resources of natural wealth within the state which are now 
 or may thereafter become the property of the state, shall remain 
 forever the property of the state and shall not be alienated " ; 
 permitting the state to lease or rent such resources ; and providing 
 that all mineral rights hitherto reserved in contracts, deeds or in- 
 struments conveying real estate are abolished after Jan. i, 1920, 
 
CONCLUSION 275 
 
 and are declared to inhere to the state except where they have been 
 developed in full or in part prior to Jan. i, 1920. 
 
 The following constitutional amendments were adopted 
 at the 1909 and also the 1911 session and will be sub- 
 mitted to the people at the general election in 1912 : 
 
 Permitting municipalities to acquire land within or outside 
 their limits, for park or other public purposes and to plat or sell 
 any part of such land for the purpose of adding to a fund for the 
 maintenance of parks, playgrounds, etc. 
 
 Permitting the state legislature to remove the five per cent 
 limit upon the public debt of any city, county, town, village or 
 school district, when the debt is incurred for the purpose of pur- 
 chasing and improving public parks, etc. 
 
 The following under the heading " Public health and 
 welfare," show what was accomplished in this line: 
 
 Empowering county boards, with the consent of the state board 
 of control, to erect upon grounds of county insane asylums, hos- 
 pitals for the care of chronic insane affected by pulmonary tuber- 
 culosis. Chapter 461. 
 
 Authorizing the secretary of the state board of health to pro- 
 vide biennially for a state conference of health officers and health 
 commissioners of cities and villages. Chapter 465. 
 
 Empowering county boards of supervisors to purchase sites and 
 establish quarters for the treatment of persons suffering from 
 tuberculosis in advanced or secondary stages. Chapter 457. 
 
 Specifying the manner in which the state shall care for depend- 
 ent, neglected, and delinquent children. Chapter 460. 
 
 Making pandering a felony and providing a penalty therefor. 
 Chapter 420. 
 
276 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 Empowering the state board of health to abate nuisances caused 
 by the pollution of streams and public water supplies. Chapter 
 412. 
 
 Making it unlawful to store or exhibit fruits, vegetables, or 
 other food products on any sidewalk or outside any place of busi- 
 ness, unless covered by glass, wood or metal cases and providing 
 a penalty therefor. Chapter 379. 
 
 Requiring owners or occupants of public or quasi-public insti- 
 tutions to provide cuspidors and cleanse and disinfect same daily. 
 
 Chapter 330. 
 
 Making it unlawful to abuse, neglect, or illtreat any person con- 
 fined in a police station or any other place of confinement, and 
 fixing a penalty therefor. Chapter 375. 
 
 Requiring trained nurses to register with the state board of 
 health. Chapter 346. 
 
 Making it unlawful to manufacture, sell, or transport adulter- 
 ated or misbranded insecticides or fungicides. Chapter 325. 
 
 Prohibiting the manufacturing and sale of certain kinds of fire- 
 crackers and fireworks. Chapter 313. 
 
 Making it unlawful for physicians or surgeons to prescribe in- 
 toxicating liquor for any person, when unnecessary for the health 
 of such person, and providing a penalty therefor. Chapter 290. 
 
 Empowering common councils to regulate the emission of dense 
 smoke into the open air within the corporate limits of any city, 
 and within one mile therefrom. Chapter 314. 
 
 Making it unlawful to spit or expectorate in any public place. 
 
 Chapter 407. 
 
 Empowering health officers to take precautions against -the 
 spread of dangerous communicable diseases and prescribing the 
 duties of principals of schools and parents, where such diseases 
 are known to exist. Chapter 44. 
 
CONCLUSION 277 
 
 Making it a misdemeanor to sell or have in possession, canned 
 goods containing any artificial coloring matter or bleaching com- 
 pound and fixing the penalty therefor. Chapter 46. 
 
 Prescribing the manner in which explosives may be manufac- 
 tured and stored within the state. Chapter 223. 
 
 Prescribing the duties of health officers in determining the diag- 
 nosis of contagious or infectious diseases. Chapter 248. 
 
 Extending the police authority of agents and superintendents of 
 certain humane societies. Chapter 258. 
 
 Conservation received some attention also : 
 
 Empowering boards of supervisors to lease swamp lands under 
 certain conditions, and conferring the same powers upon the state 
 board of forestry in certain sections of the state. Chapter 238. 
 
 Making it unlawful to waste or maliciously destroy or impair 
 any natural resources and providing a penalty therefor. Chapter 
 
 143- 
 
 Making it unlawful to injure, mutilate, cut down, or destroy 
 any shade tree on any street or highway in villages. Chapter 459. 
 
 Requiring all engines operated in, through or near forest, or 
 brush land to be equipped with screen or wire netting between 
 March i and December i to protect such forest or brush land from 
 fire. Chapter 494. 
 
 Appropriating $50,000 a year for five years for purchase of lands 
 for reforestation. Chapter 639. 
 
 Labor was not ignored in this session as is shown by 
 the following laws : 
 
 Prohibiting the employment of children between the ages of 
 14 and 1 6 years unless there is first obtained from the commissioner 
 of labor, state factory inspector or any assistant factory inspector 
 
278 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 or from a judge of any county, municipal or juvenile court a written 
 permit. Chapter 479. 
 
 Requiring safety appliances and automatic feeding devices on 
 corn shredders. Chapter 466. 
 
 Empowering the state bureau of labor and industrial statistics 
 to investigate contracts between employers and employees and 
 making an appropriation therefor. Chapter 453. 
 
 Increasing the scope of the state employment office located at 
 Milwaukee. Chapter 419. 
 
 Making it the absolute duty of an employer to guard or protect 
 machines or appliances on all premises used for manufacturing pur- 
 poses and to maintain same after installation. Chapter 396. 
 
 Making it unlawful to employ labor by false representation and 
 providing a penalty therefor. Chapter 364. 
 
 Requiring owners or occupants of all public or quasi-public in- 
 stitutions and factories to keep exit doors unlocked during working 
 hours and requiring all such exit doors to swing outward. Chap- 
 ter 378. 
 
 Specifying the manner in which indenture and apprenticeship 
 contracts may be made, and providing a penalty for non-com- 
 pliance therewith. Chapter 347. 
 
 Requiring safety appliances on dangerous machinery and sani- 
 tary conditions in factories. Chapter 470. 
 
 Requiring contractors and owners, when constructing buildings 
 in cities, to take proper precautions for the protection of workmen 
 and specifying what precautions are necessary. Chapter 49. 
 
 Requiring owners of factories and manufacturing establish- 
 ments to provide proper ventilation for same and prescribing a 
 penalty for non-compliance. Chapter 170. 
 
 Limiting the hours of labor on public buildings to eight hours 
 per day and fixing a penalty for non-compliance. Chapter 171. 
 
CONCLUSION 279 
 
 Limiting the hours of labor of women to ten a day or fifty-five 
 a week (chapter 548) ; and of children under 16 years of age to 
 eight a day and forty-eight a week (chapter 479). 
 
 Insurance 
 
 Among important insurance legislation enacted were bills curing 
 the defect in the law relating to collecting the expenses of examina- 
 tions so as to permit the department to make examinations as be- 
 fore ; permitting a division of commissions between agents licensed 
 to transact the same kind of insurance though but one is licensed 
 for the company writing the insurance ; authorizing the merger or 
 consolidation of fire insurance corporations of this state under one 
 or both of the old charters ; authorizing the writing of surplus lines 
 by licensed agents upon the granting of an additional license and 
 the making of reports and payments of taxes secured by a bond ; 
 limiting investments in securities of any one corporation to 10 per 
 cent of the admitted assets of the insurance company ; providing 
 that no insurance company may hold real estate except a home 
 office building to a value not exceeding one-fifth of its admitted 
 assets, and that other real estate acquired on mortgages must be 
 disposed of within five years unless the time be extended by the 
 commissioner; providing that town mutuals may write barns or 
 outbuildings used in connection with detached dwellings in villages 
 and cities, and not used for trade or manufacture ; providing town 
 mutuals may levy an assessment at any time for carrying on the 
 business of the company ; safeguarding the surplus of mutual com- 
 panies by prohibiting the conversion of any mutual company into 
 a stock company and further prohibiting the managing officers or 
 other members from receiving in dividends or on dissolution of the 
 company more than the premiums paid in with six per cent inter- 
 est; amending the law to make clear the construction before 
 
280 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 adopted by the department, that a newly organized admitted fra- 
 ternal benefit society must, in addition to charging rates not less 
 than the fraternal congress table of mortality, hold assets to meet 
 a liability for the reserve on all its outstanding certificates on the 
 same or a higher basis ; prohibiting the issue of any deferred divi- 
 dend certificate, policy, or other contract by a fraternal society. 
 
 Another enactment is a rewriting of the laws regulating fra- 
 ternal societies, including the features of the Mobile bill, with the 
 exception of the one requiring a compulsory increase in rates. 
 Other new laws are as follows : requiring that the policies of assess- 
 ment life companies, other than fraternal, be valued to ascertain 
 how much has been accumulated toward a reserve and that the 
 amount accumulated be carried to the credit of the individual 
 members and a statement thereof given to any policy-holder; 
 extending the anti-rebate law to cover all forms of insurance; 
 providing for liability insurance against damage to property by 
 accident; permitting the admission of mutual companies and 
 inter-insurers ; prohibiting the sale of any insurance stock unless 
 the contract contains a provision informing the purchaser of the 
 percentage of payment made by the subscriber which may be used 
 for promotion and organization expenses, etc., limiting to 10 per 
 cent of the amount paid by the subscriber the promotion and or- 
 ganization expenses, and for an investigation of fire insurance com- 
 panies. 
 
 Court and Legal Procedure 
 
 Creating a commission of three members to be appointed by the 
 governor and to be styled " Commissioners for the promotion of 
 uniformity in legislation in the United States," and making an 
 appropriation therefor. Chapter 462. 
 
 Permitting a mortgagor, or his wife, assignee or assignees to 
 
CONCLUSION 28l 
 
 redeem property sold at a chattel mortgage sale within five days 
 after such sale. Chapter 410. 
 
 Authorizing county courts to appoint guardians for incompe- 
 tent persons, such guardians to have authority to convey real es- 
 t#te belonging to said incompetents. Chapter 367. 
 
 Permitting the amendment of pleadings in law and equity. 
 Chapter 353. 
 
 Relating to judicial redress for plaintiff on demurrer to com- 
 plaint. Chapter 354. 
 
 Increasing the annual salaries of justices of the Supreme Court 
 from $6000 to $7500. Chapter 508. 
 
 Permitting a trial by jury of less than twelve men with the con- 
 sent of the accused. Chapter 348. 
 
 Permitting physicians and surgeons to testify in their own be- 
 half, as to information they may have acquired in their profes- 
 sional capacity. Chapter 322. 
 
 Extending the scope of the examination, adverse examinations 
 of witnesses on trial. Chapter 291. 
 
 Prohibiting any person acting as attorney or counsel in a case 
 formerly prosecuted by him as an officer. Chapter 304. 
 
 Amending section 3940 of the statutes, relating to the assign- 
 ment of estates of decedents. Chapter 271. 
 
 Providing a penalty for non-compliance with the provisions of 
 the discovery statute. Chapter 232. 
 
 Fixing the penalty for the destruction of property by means of 
 explosives from one to fifteen years in the penitentiary. Chap- 
 ter 286. 
 
 Extending the jurisdiction of the municipal court having con- 
 current criminal jurisdiction with circuit courts in counties having 
 a population of 250,000 or more to take charge of prisoners placed 
 on probation. Chapter 269. 
 
282 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 Extending the scope of the discovery statute to include the tak- 
 ing of depositions of non-resident plaintiffs or defendants in any 
 county in the state. Chapter 231. 
 
 Prohibiting the examining magistrates from acting as counsel 
 or attorney in any action which shall previously have been deter- 
 mined before him as such examining magistrate. Chapter 
 144. 
 
 Empowering judges of courts of record to hold in contempt, 
 on proper proceedings, any person who refuses to testify before a. 
 board of review after proper summons. Chapter 140. 
 
 Providing a penalty for having in possession burglarious explo- 
 sives or devices. Chapter 88. 
 
 Relating to the dissolution of corporations and evidence of title 
 to corporate property. Chapter 65. 
 
 Limiting the number of justices of the peace in each town to 
 two and specifying the manner and time of election. Chapter 72. 
 
 Relating to the admissibility of testimony of deceased witnesses 
 or witness absent from state in any retrial or proceeding. Chap- 
 ter 65. 
 
 Legalizing and validating deeds and other written instruments 
 acknowledged before a register of deeds to the same extent as if 
 they had been acknowledged before a person authorized to take 
 such acknowledgment. Chapter 24. 
 
 Giving justices of the peace exclusive jurisdiction in all cases 
 arising under ordinances and by-laws of villages. Chapter 23. 
 
 Making the maximum penalty for burglary in the night time, 
 ten years. Chapter 64. 
 
 Providing for drawing of jurors in counties having a population 
 of 150,000 and giving circuit judges certain powers therefor. 
 Chapter 219. 
 
 Empowering courts of record having criminal jurisdiction to 
 
CONCLUSION 283 
 
 employ counsel for indigent persons and fixing compensation 
 therefor. Chapter 218. 
 
 Making county in which commitment is made liable for sup- 
 port of persons committed to jail for failure or refusal to comply 
 with court order respecting payment of alimony. Chapter 153. 
 
 Providing for the parole of minors convicted of misdemeanors 
 and felonies. Chapter 131. 
 
 Denning burglary with explosives and fixing a penalty there- 
 for. Chapter 89. 
 
 Providing for writ of error for state in criminal actions under 
 certain conditions. Chapter 187. 
 
 Relating to comity between states and foreign decrees of di- 
 vorce. Chapter 174. 
 
 Empowering clerks of circuit courts having 1000 or more ac- 
 tions on the term calendar to arrange such actions according to 
 date or riling of complaint, petition, or other pleadings necessary 
 to commence the action, and making the serial record number of 
 every action its calendar number. Chapter 212. 
 
 Requiring clerks of courts of record in the state to turn over to 
 county treasurer all unclaimed moneys, securities or funds for 
 which no order has been made during four years and requiring 
 county treasurer to turn all such moneys, securities, and funds into 
 county treasury when no legal claim is made for same after due 
 publication providing for waiver of all actions for same after pro- 
 visions of law have been complied with. Chapter 209. 
 
 Making wages due workingmen, clerks, or servants, which have 
 been earned within three months before date of death of testator 
 or intestate, not to exceed $300 to each claimant, valid claims 
 against estate of deceased. Chapter 17. 
 
 Dividing the civil court of Milwaukee county into branches and 
 providing for the numbering of same. Chapter 9. 
 
284 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 Cities 
 
 Empowering common councils to legalize bonds issued or sold 
 by any municipality for the purpose of purchasing or constructing 
 an electric lighting plant, which bonds have been declared illegal 
 subsequent to their issuances. Chapter 75. 
 
 Authorizing cities to accept their own bonds or mortgage cer- 
 tificates from depositors as collateral security and to provide for 
 their cancellation upon default of the depository. Chapter 130. 
 
 Empowering common councils of cities of the first class to ex- 
 tend the time for payment of city taxes for a period of six months. 
 Chapter 273. 
 
 Empowering common councils to change the license fee charged 
 for interurban franchises not oftener than once in five years. 
 Chapter 274. 
 
 Empowering common councils to levy a tax, not to exceed seven- 
 teen one-thousandths of a mill upon each dollar of the assessed 
 value of the taxable property of cities for the city civil service 
 fund. Chapter 95. 
 
 Empowering villages and cities, specially incorporated, to 
 condemn land for the construction of sewage disposal plants and 
 mains incident thereto, within or without the limits of the village 
 or city. Chapter 279. 
 
 Creating an art commission for cities of the first class and speci- 
 fying the membership thereof. Chapter 318. 
 
 Providing a method of determining the necessity of taking lands 
 for public purposes, in cities operating under a special charter. 
 Chapter 332. 
 
 Permitting cities of the second, third and fourth classes to or- 
 ganize under the commission form of government and specifying the 
 manner in which such organization shall be affected. Chapter 387. 
 
CONCLUSION 285 
 
 Empowering county boards to fix compensation of the register 
 of deeds and to change the same from a fee to salary system. 
 Chapter 400. 
 
 Permitting cities of third and fourth class through the mayor, 
 clerk and common council, to execute trust deeds or mortgage, 
 to secure the payment of bonds heretofore or hereafter issued by 
 any city for the purchase of electric light or water works plants 
 and the appurtenances of such plants. Chapter 411. 
 
 Creating the office of city forester in cities of the first class and 
 prescribing his powers and duties. Chapter 408. 
 
 Conferring powers of self government on cities and providing 
 for charter conventions. Chapter 476. 
 
 Empowering any city to create by ordinance of its common 
 council, a board of public land commissioners of five members, ap- 
 pointed with powers of converting streets and highways desig- 
 nated by the common council of such city into parkways or boule- 
 vards. Chapter 486. 
 
 Authorizing common councils of cities of the first class to license 
 and regulate persons, firms and corporations engaged in the install- 
 ing, erecting, constructing, or altering of any electrical work 
 in any building, or part of building, in said cities. Chapter 
 482. 
 
 Permitting tax levy of finfa of a mill for library in the city of 
 Milwaukee. Chapter 109. 
 
 Granting certain submerged lands along lake shore of Mil- 
 waukee for park and boulevard purposes. Chapter 198. 
 
 Permitting all cities to erect public lavatories and to maintain 
 them by letting out privileges to news venders, etc., or out of the 
 general city fund. Chapter 19. 
 
 Permitting cities of first and second class to fix rates of wharf- 
 age. Chapter 42. 
 
286 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 Requiring cities to sprinkle streets when abutting property 
 owners' petition for the same. Chapter 45. 
 
 Prohibiting the establishment of a street in Milwaukee county 
 without securing approval of county board. Chapter 86. 
 
 Permitting tax levy of irHnfo of a mill for the public museum 
 in Milwaukee. Chapter 93. 
 
 Permitting special tax levy of ^ of a mill for historical 
 museums in cities of first and second classes. Chapter 94. 
 
 Permitting special tax levy of T Vfr of a mill for parks and 
 boulevards in Milwaukee. Chapter 98. 
 
 Permitting special tax levy of xM ff of a mill for auditoriums 
 and music halls in Milwaukee. Chapter 99. 
 
 These laws are in general fairly characteristic of the 
 kind passed by a modern state legislature. Some are 
 trivial, but on the whole a certain spirit of advancement 
 is evident all through them. They are but a small part 
 of the legislation passed at this session. Home rule for 
 cities, the commission form of government and many 
 other improvements were provided for. The educational 
 legislation mentioned previously seems to be the begin- 
 ning of a general overhauling of the whole educational 
 system. Railroads and public utilities also came in for 
 their share. 
 
 Ten years ago what an uproar capital would have 
 caused, had such an array of bills been proposed to any 
 legislature, yet no capital has been driven out of this 
 state in fact everything is advancing with great strides. 
 It is rapidly becoming a manufacturing state. It ranks 
 
CONCLUSION 287 
 
 seventh in the table showing the amount of corporation 
 taxes collected by the United States government from 
 the various states. 
 
 It is an easy thing to say that a state is prosperous, 
 but when hard-headed men in Wall Street admit that a 
 certain state, in which a political agitation to which they 
 are opposed has gone on for many years, is prosperous 
 and when the bonding houses concede that all the stocks 
 and bonds of great financial interests and public utilities 
 of all kinds are upon a sound basis in that state, surely 
 there must t>e some evidence of it. If we find that fail- 
 ures in the United States have increased about 33 J per 
 cent in ten years and have decreased in Wisconsin some 
 10.8 per cent, that speaks well for a state as advanced 
 in radical legislation as Wisconsin. If we find that^the 
 cost of material used in manufacture has increased 52 per 
 cent in four years in a state having no coal, the agitation 
 is not driving capital out of the state. If we find that 
 there have been absolutely no failures of state banks in 
 that state for over ten years and but three national 
 banks went into receivership because of embezzlement 
 during that period, certainly it speaks well not only for 
 the prosperity of the state, but for the safeguarding of the 
 money invested. The clearing house exchanges have in- 
 creased in the United States about 100 per cent in ten 
 years and in Milwaukee 117 per cent in that time. New 
 construction in gas utilities has increased 22 per cent 
 
288 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 in 1910 over that of 1909 ; in telephones, 14 per cent in 
 the same time ; in electric utilities, 145 per cent ; in water 
 utilities, 24 per cent ; the railroads' gross earnings have 
 increased 21.01 per cent from 1905 to 1909, while all the 
 railroads in America have increased but 16.15 P er cent; 
 the railroad mileage of Wisconsin has increased 12 per 
 cent in the same time; the total value of railroads in 
 Wisconsin in six years has increased about $96,000,000 ; 
 the value of all general property in the state has about 
 doubled in six years. Considering all these facts, we 
 can surely say that the legislation admittedly some of 
 it experimental which has been discussed in this book 
 is not of such a nature as to seriously hurt capital. The 
 underlying truth is, that there has been substituted 
 governmental regulation for the darkness of private cor- 
 poration accounts. We all know that however good 
 security private companies may offer, United States 
 bonds at a lower rate are more certain and safer. This is 
 simply because we are willing to pay for security. The 
 public bookkeeping in Wisconsin whatever it does, in- 
 sures security. The recent prosperity of the agricultural 
 and dairy interests in Wisconsin (the result of the edu- 
 cational campaign) can scarcely be realized. Wisconsin 
 is now the second dairy state in the union ; the yield per 
 acre of grain during the last year has been greater in 
 this state than in any other state. For ten years it has 
 been the great flax producing state in the country ; and 
 
CONCLUSION 289 
 
 excluding the states which require irrigation, the greatest 
 in barley, oats and spring wheat; it is second in the 
 amount of potatoes produced ; the number of cows has 
 increased in ten years some 47.7 per cent ; in butter pro- 
 duction, it has increased 70.4 per cent and in cheese pro- 
 duction, 87.7 per cent. Surely the great investment 
 which Wisconsin has made in her educational institutions 
 has returned its original investment many times over in 
 hard dollars and cents. 
 
 Granting that this prosperity may not be the result 
 of this legislation, it may be good evidence that the Wis- 
 consin legislature has proceeded with great caution and 
 made its laws only after the most careful scrutiny of the 
 delicate machinery of industry. It may be said that 
 these conditions might have existed if none of these laws 
 had been passed but the fact that prosperity has increased 
 at a rate as great as, if not greater than, any state in the 
 country, is evidence that if laws are made carefully and 
 are made to fit into the harmony of industrial conditions, 
 greater advances can be made than by following the 
 wild shouts of reformers who would destroy without con- 
 structing. 
 
 The state has not suffered from heavy taxation either 
 in the accomplishment of all these things. Wisconsin 
 has no state debt (save money borrowed from its own 
 school fund) and yet is building a $6,000,000 capitol 
 building out of current taxation funds without debt. 
 
2 go THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 Heavy investments for the future which, according to all 
 systems of finance and from every motive of justice, 
 should be carried by a state debt, have been provided 
 for by current taxation. As the direct state tax was 
 remitted for six years there was no direct state tax during 
 that time, the corporations paid it all and the people have 
 been spoiled. Although now the state tax rate is rela- 
 tively low in comparison with some of the surrounding 
 states, there has been some grumbling as a result of 
 this remittance of a few years ago when no state tax 
 whatever was collected. 
 
 The fact is that the greater part of this increase of the 
 cost of government has been caused by state aid to edu- 
 cational enterprises, in many cases chiefly of local im- 
 portance and by the building of roads and developments 
 by which the locality itself directly benefits. It is gradu- 
 ally being understood by the Wisconsin people that a 
 large investment has been made and as time goes on, a 
 more general satisfaction is evident in regard to the pay- 
 ment of taxes. The people of this state demand efficiency 
 in government and once convinced of its existence they 
 are willingly taxed for it, despite the demagogue who 
 so often makes this his only shibboleth. 
 
 There are countries still where taxes are low ; Dah- 
 omey is one of them. State activity means investment 
 and all the advanced states of the world make heavy 
 investments. Wisconsin taxes are very low in the opin- 
 
CONCLUSION 291 
 
 ion of the writer, and even a heavier investment should 
 be made to-day either by bonding the state or otherwise, 
 in the development of roads, and forests and in the in- 
 dustrial and agricultural education of the people. It 
 would certainly be worth the investment a hundredfold 
 provided always that efficient machinery prevents waste. 
 
 If what has been written has any element of truth in it, 
 if good legislation and prosperity can and do go hand in 
 hand, the result is a monument to the painstaking and 
 toiling way in which the Wisconsin legislature has gone 
 about its task. If the Wisconsin legislation has some 
 elements of solidarity in it, no little of its success may be 
 due to the fact that the cautious, careful German and 
 Norwegian have refused to be domineered by every long- 
 haired reformer who prances into the arena, asking all 
 to " put on the whole armor of God." This type of 
 reformer has been practically unknown in our legislative 
 bodies and, indeed, it is only recently that he has made 
 his appearance at all then but to receive a very chilly 
 welcome. In the words of the current slang phrase, every 
 Wisconsin legislator "comes from Missouri" and you 
 have to "show him." 
 
 Real reformers have yet to learn that they can pro- 
 gress much further if they really build well as they pro- 
 ceed. Many a good business man would welcome certain 
 kinds of legislation if he were convinced that it could be 
 made effective without great distortion of industrial con- 
 
2Q2 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 ditions. It is to the advantage both of the reformer and 
 the business man that there should be some attempt to 
 improve our law-making process. A governor of New 
 York once told how his predecessor managed the reform- 
 ers ; he agreed with every one and suggested that the 
 reformers put their ideas in the form of bills which he 
 would support. Four out of five of the reformers never 
 returned, while the fifth one reappeared with a bill so 
 crude in form that the governor could easily point out 
 sections which he could not support because of their un- 
 constitutionality or lack of administrative devices. In 
 Wisconsin, the governor could not use that scheme. 
 The chances are that if a man really had a feasible idea 
 which would be for the general welfare of the state, he 
 would have a hearing before the legislature and his plan 
 would be modified in such a manner that the governor 
 would have a much harder task to criticise it or lightly 
 dispose of it. 
 
 The board of public affairs of which there has been 
 casual mention in previous chapters, is a temporary board 
 or commission, composed of some of the ablest men in 
 the state. It deserves some comment at this point 
 because of its relation to future legislation. It has two 
 specific duties to perform; to increase the efficiency of 
 the administration of the state by applying business 
 methods throughout and to investigate the cost of living, 
 the development of the state, the immigration question, 
 
CONCLUSION 293 
 
 cooperation and credit conditions and, in general, to de- 
 termine whether a state plan for betterment can be 
 evolved which will make Wisconsin a better state in 
 which to live. 
 
 Now there isn't a shrewd, careful man who is not 
 afraid of all this when he hears of it ; such plans, from 
 John Locke to the present time, have nearly always 
 failed. The report of the "Recess committee on Irish 
 affairs" under the direction of Sir Horace Plunkett is a 
 brilliant exception. Recognizing these facts, (the board 
 is carefully proceeding in its work with the idea of 
 recommending improvements to the legislature which 
 will lay strong foundations for the future. 
 
 Wisconsin has ten million acres of unoccupied land. If 
 Australia and New Zealand have dealt with a problem of 
 this kind, why cannot Wisconsin do so ? If these lands are 
 good for agricultural purposes but require thirty dollars 
 an acre for development, why cannot a scheme be origi- 
 nated so that the actual settler may have the advantage 
 of some kind of credit, in order to clear his land and use 
 his capital for the greatest benefit? Australia has 
 bought up or condemned great tracts of land and then 
 leased them for 999 years to actual settlers ; the settler 
 may use his capital for cattle, machinery and barns and 
 by paying a small lease yearly to the state, improve 
 these lands. Practically the same principle is being 
 applied in the arid regions of the West by our federal 
 
2Q4 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 government ; is there any great reason why these prin- 
 ciples' may not be applied here? If lands cannot be 
 developed because of lack of water and the government 
 advances money to supply that deficiency, wherein lies 
 the difference between that aid and the clearing of wild 
 lands of stumps subsidized by the government?' The 
 only thing which lies in the' way in either case is capital 
 and long time credit. All history shows that land 
 monopoly combined with a renter class, brings about 
 the worst possible situation for a country. In order to 
 prevent the gradual increase of the renter class, can we 
 not introduce some long time credit arrangement similar 
 to that recently introduced into Ireland, by which the 
 government allows the purchaser to pay for land on a 
 long time basis? 
 
 Is all of this socialism ? Quite the opposite ; it strives 
 to give the individual a better opportunity to possess 
 property the very antithesis of socialism. Reduction 
 of the cost of living and cooperative schemes of one sort 
 or another are also to be investigated by this commission. 
 With the splendid examples of the work of foreign coun- 
 tries along this line the great Raffeisen system of 
 cooperative credit in Germany, the Luzzatti banks in 
 Italy, the effective cooperation in agriculture in Den- 
 mark before this committee, are there not possibilities 
 to be utilized, to be tested and tried ? Is there not some 
 hope that this committee may institute some plan 
 
CONCLUSION 295 
 
 whereby there may be increased betterment of condi- 
 tions in this state, thus setting an example of accomplish- 
 ment for other states to follow? 
 
 America has a great advantage in that our legislation 
 need not be experimental. Germany, Denmark, Aus- 
 tralia, New Zealand, Canada and even Ireland and Italy 
 have laws which have outlived the experimental stage 
 and which will be of the greatest service to us in our 
 advance toward the happiness and welfare of all, as well 
 as the more equitable division of the profits coming 
 from the great wealth and strength of our civilization. 
 The small group of socialist Germans in the legislature 
 have well understood that they did not have to advance 
 untried experiments, hence they adopted a policy of 
 continuous education maintaining that certain laws 
 have existed in a certain country and have accomplished 
 certain things and that Wisconsin would eventually 
 have to accept similar laws. The writer well remem- 
 bers that when the first workmen's compensation bill 
 was introduced nearly eight years ago, the astonished 
 members of the legislature came to him inquiring if 
 such a thing did exist in Germany and England. The 
 fact is, most of the legislation which the socialists have 
 introduced has had nothing to do with socialistic propa- 
 ganda but in many cases has proposed the very things 
 advocated by thoughtful men in every country of the 
 world save America. It will be remembered that the 
 
296 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 socialists in Germany for many years were opposed to 
 the whole plan of industrial insurance and only recently 
 have accepted it. So far does this plan of expediency 
 go, that one time when the writer happened to remark 
 to a socialist member that a proposed plan to extend 
 credit, by means of a well known European device so 
 that workingmen might possess a little property, was 
 not really socialism, the member replied with a smile, 
 "It is an excellent bill and good enough socialism for 
 us." 
 
 The socialists are looking abroad and putting forth 
 well tried experiments, mixed in many cases it is true 
 with their peculiar propagandist ideals, which because of 
 their source, excite a blind and unreasoning opposition. 
 If our people would give more study to great economic 
 movements in other lands they would realize this truth. 
 
 So marked have been the changes throughout the 
 world and so astonishing the fact that they have actually 
 seemed to have increased prosperity, that the conserva- 
 tive Boston Transcript is compelled to remark in a recent 
 editorial on England : 
 
 " Take all together, this makes an astounding program of 
 social improvement, all the more astounding in the fact that it 
 should have been undertaken by the staidest of all governments. 
 This marks a really stupendous innovation in governmental pro- 
 cedure. Our friends, the socialists, have always been ridiculed for 
 their pet claim that it is the business of the government to spread 
 happiness and plenty among the people. Yet here, in a country 
 
CONCLUSION 297 
 
 the very quickest of all to foam at the very word ' Socialism/ is 
 a string of acts each having as its tacit side-issue the partial re- 
 distribution of wealth and the spread of happiness ! 
 
 " Thus far these measures, too, seem to have worked. The 
 Old-Age Pensions act has undoubtedly mitigated a great deal of 
 want and misery. And the so-called ' revolutionary ' budget, of 
 which so much disaster was predicted, has left behind it the un- 
 mistakable effect of improved business conditions and greater 
 prosperity. This latter effect may have arisen simply from the 
 ending of a business suspense. Still, a very bad measure would 
 have permitted only a halfway recuperation. On the surface there 
 seems nothing impractical about these ventures of government into 
 the sphere of humanitarianism. There may be later and hidden 
 costs to pay, but they are not now apparent. But the point of all 
 this is the speculation which it warrants. 
 
 " May it not be that the time has come for us, after all, to frame 
 slightly larger conceptions of government than we have been hold- 
 ing ? Is the chief end of government any longer to be the collec- 
 tion of taxes, the maintenance of order, and the other material 
 duties that have long been held to constitute its entire responsi- 
 bility? Half unconsciously the men who have framed a network 
 of paternalistic measures in Germany, even wider than that in 
 England, seem to have assumed for government a new moral 
 obligation. And this has been found not to involve any serious 
 disturbances to property and vested rights. Are we perhaps going 
 down a new path? Have these other countries beaten us by a 
 decade to a now old and settled New Nationalism ? " 
 
 Shall we always as our great Judge Ryan once said, 
 "stand by the roadside and see the procession go by?" 
 Shall we always hear the returning travellers' tale of the 
 
298 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 improvements throughout the entire world with a pro- 
 vincial and smug spirit and be foolish enough to believe 
 that we can learn nothing, while right in our midst are 
 problems which have confronted every nation at some 
 time in its history? Shall we always look over the 
 boundary into Canada and wonder at its prosperity, the 
 daring of its lawmakers and the efficiency and economy 
 of its administration? The old cry, "it is unconstitu- 
 tional" cannot much longer endure with the present 
 American awakening and an analysis must soon be made 
 of the growing strength of these worldwide economic 
 improvements. Shall we always be deceived by the cry 
 of "Socialism" whenever it is necessary to use the state 
 to a greater degree than formerly? Are there not ele- 
 ments and ideas which the socialists have adopted from 
 which it is a far cry indeed to the state ownership of all 
 the instruments of production ? 
 
 After a careful study of socialism in Germany the 
 writer has come to the conclusion that many of the 
 reforms advocated by that party will eventually lead to 
 the destruction of its main thesis. The individual initia- 
 tive and the efficiency of the individual caused by the 
 breaking up of class distinctions, the establishment of 
 merit and ability in the place of family or title, the 
 equitable distribution of taxation and the very equality 
 of opportunity resulting, will lead to an individuality 
 which will cause men to press forward in the acquisition 
 
CONCLUSION 299 
 
 of private property. Those who have seen the land 
 hunger of the American immigrant can well testify to 
 that. Provide the ladder, make free the way and 
 human beings will climb and no plan ever made by Karl 
 Marx or any other man, of whatever party or sect, will 
 prevent the acquisition of private property. The rise of 
 the newly rich class, the evidence of which is seen in the 
 streets of Berlin almost as much as in the streets of New 
 York, proves my thesis. Are there then, issues appro- 
 priated by socialism which are really the strength of 
 these movements? Certainly the socialists in the Wis- 
 consin legislature advocate, in the greater part, humane 
 legislation which could be very well advocated by the 
 most bitter opponents of this party and which in many 
 cases has nothing to do with the propaganda of the 
 theory of state ownership. Says Jane Addams : 
 
 " Is it because our modern industrialism is so new that we have 
 been slow to connect it with the poverty all about us? The so- 
 cialists talk constantly of the relation of economic wrong to desti- 
 tution, and point out the connection between industrial maladjust- 
 ment and individual poverty, but the study of social conditions, 
 the obligation to eradicate poverty, cannot belong to one political 
 party nor to one economic school, and after all it was not a social- 
 ist, but that ancient friend of the poor, St. Augustine, who said, 
 ' Thou givest bread to the hungry, but better were it, that none 
 hungered and thou had'st none to give to him.' " 
 
 Is it good policy or good politics to allow the socialists 
 to become the champions of women in industry, the de- 
 
300 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 fender of the child from exploitation, friend of the poor 
 and downtrodden and yet expect to defeat them at the 
 polls in a period characterized by growing humane feel- 
 ing ? Can we wrap in a parcel everything which Chris- 
 tianity has approved since the time of the Great Founder 
 and label it, " Socialism, don't touch" ? When it comes 
 to the attainment of any reasonable legislation for the 
 true betterment of human beings, the only way to beat 
 the Socialists "is to beat them to it." 
 
 The hardy woodsman, the sturdy American who has 
 battled with the elements, swift rivers and vast forests, 
 may frown at the suggestion of legislation mentioned 
 here. This man in the legislature, powerful in his own 
 strength, frowns upon laws for the limiting of hours of 
 labor for women and children as "un-American." It 
 will be felt by men of this kind (and they have been the 
 sturdy old oaks of American life after all) that there is 
 something very softening in this kind of legislation. 
 Indeed a weakening influence may occasionally creep in 
 but by looking over long periods of time we find that 
 selfishness has always won, so it is not the softening 
 influence that we need to fear but the pauperizing in- 
 fluence, which comes from another kind of paternalism 
 - that of the largess of the great millionnaire or the 
 successful proconsul of ancient Rome. The pages of 
 Gibbon and Ferrero are full of instances which are com- 
 parable to actual conditions in our own country to-day. 
 
CONCLUSION 301 
 
 There is a corrupt influence from large concentration of 
 wealth and its unhappy distribution which will cause 
 more beggarism, more softening and more syncophancy 
 than all the laws which can be put upon the statute 
 books regulating the hours of labor of women and chil- 
 dren. Indeed the story of prosperity in every country 
 shows the same picture again and again pictures 
 which one may find in New York City any time. 
 
 Says our great historical student, Professor J. Franklin 
 Jameson : 
 
 " Why do not Americans study more intently the age of the 
 AntoninesJ^ There they will find a state of society singularly re- 
 sembling own a world: grown prosperous and soft and hu- 
 mane, with long-continued peace and abounding industrial devel- 
 opment, a population formed by the mixture of all races, in which 
 the ancient stock still struggles to rule and to assimilate, but is 
 powerless to preserve unimpaired its traditions, a mushroom 
 growth of cities, a universal passion for organization into industrial 
 unions and fraternal orders, a system in which woman has excep- 
 tionally full equality with man, a society in which the newly rich 
 occupy the centre of the stage, offending the eye with the vulgar 
 display of brute wealth yet pacifying the mind and heart with the 
 record of numberless and kindly benefactions." 
 
 Yet all the causes of the decline of Rome were work- 
 ing in this soil the results were not long in forthcoming. 
 
 In these days of the ocean cable and the fast racers of 
 the sea, waves of public opinion and thought and the 
 struggles of other lands reach us so quickly, that whether 
 
302 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 for good or evil, great and sudden changes are emerging 
 from this turmoil. We are encountering but the first 
 wavelets of what appears to be a flood of mighty forces. 
 Will our grand old constitution stand the shock ? Will 
 the splendid American spirit and ideals of the past be 
 submerged ? The best there is of our sturdy individual- 
 ism must be preserved. In Wisconsin, the wise leaders 
 have foreseen this and are determined to keep intact 
 every bit of the spirit of the men who made the "Iron 
 Brigade" and hence are building slowly and surely the 
 beginnings of a new individualism. 
 
 This little book advocates no new philosophy or doc- 
 trine; there is no "ism" in mis plan, it ui u }> simply 
 logical consideration of one thing after another as neces- 
 sity appears. Every other plan of man, however wise 
 and complete it may have been, has failed. Place before 
 the American people the ideal of Lincoln and search 
 keenly into our conditions to discover why there are not 
 more Lincolns. If in our modern life, conditions are not 
 conducive to the highest type of American manhood, we 
 should attempt to find some way of helping men to 
 help themselves. What is the need of a philosophy or 
 an "ism" when there is obvious wrong to be righted? 
 Whatever has been accomplished in Wisconsin seems to 
 have been based upon this idea of making practice con- 
 form to the ideals of justice and right which have been 
 inherited. If the weak ask for justice, the state should 
 
CONCLUSION 303 
 
 see that they get it certainly, quickly and surely. If 
 certain social classes are forming among us, can we not 
 destroy them by means of education and through hope 
 and encouragement make every man more efficient so 
 that the door of opportunity may always be open before 
 him? 
 
 If you were responsible for the business of govern- 
 ment, would you not apply the common rules of effi- 
 ciency, Mr. Business Man ? Do you not believe it would 
 pay well to make a heavy investment in hope, health, 
 happiness and justice? Do you not think you would 
 get enormous dividends in national wealth ? Isn't there 
 something worth while, something which will pay in the 
 strong ideal of this New Individualism of Wisconsin? 
 
APPENDIX 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Banking. Banking laws of Wisconsin governing state banks, 
 mutual savings banks, trust company banks. Madison, 1911. 
 
 53 P- 
 
 Apply to Bank commissioner, Madison, Wis. 
 Child labor. Child labor and hours of labor for women. (Wiscon- 
 sin laws.) 1911. 12 p. 
 
 Issued by Industrial commission, Madison, Wis. 
 Civil service. Civil service law of Wisconsin is not printed in 
 pamphlet form, but may be found in the latest civil service 
 commission report. 
 
 Commission government. Wisconsin law : commission form of city 
 government. Madison, 1911. 16 p. 
 
 Issued by Secretary of state, Madison, Wis. 
 Corrupt practices. Wisconsin corrupt practices law, chapter 650, 
 1911. Madison, 1911. i6.p. 
 
 Issued by Secretary of state, Madison, Wis. 
 Industrial commission. Industrial commission law, chapter 485, 
 laws of 191 1. 15 p. 
 
 Issued by Industrial commission, Madison, Wis. 
 Industrial education. Report of the commission upon the plans 
 for the extension of industrial and agricultural training sub- 
 mitted to the governor, January 10, 1911. Madison, 1911. 
 
 135 P- 
 Apply to Legislative reference department, Madison, Wis. 
 
 307 
 
308 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 Insurance. Wisconsin insurance laws in effect on or before July 
 22,1911. Madison, 1911. 274 p. 
 
 Issued by Secretary of state, Madison, Wis. 
 Libraries. Laws of Wisconsin relating to libraries and the free 
 library commission. Madison, 1911. 68 p. 
 
 Issued by Wisconsin free library commission, Madison, Wis. 
 Presidential primary. Wisconsin law relating to election of dele- 
 gates to national conventions, direct vote for presidential 
 candidates, nomination of presidential electors. Madison, 
 1911. 
 
 Issued by Secretary of state, Madison, Wis. 
 
 Public utilities. Compilation of laws affecting the regulation of 
 public utilities, 1907-1911. Madison, 1911. no p. 
 Published by the Railroad commission of Wisconsin, Madi- 
 son, Wis. 
 
 Railroads. Compilation of laws affecting the regulation of rail- 
 roads, 1905-1911. Madison, 1911. 126 p. 
 Published by the Railroad commission of Wisconsin, Madi- 
 son, Wis. 
 
 Stocks and bonds. Stock and bond law, chapter 593, laws of 1911, 
 applying to railroad, street railway, telegraph, telephone, ex- 
 press, freight line, sleeping car, light, heat, water and power 
 corporations. 1911. 18 p. 
 
 Published by the Railroad commission of Wisconsin, Madi- 
 son, Wis. 
 
 Taxation. Inheritance tax laws of Wisconsin in force July 5, 1911. 
 1911. 8 p. 
 
 Issued by Secretary of state, Madison, Wis. 
 Taxation. Tax laws of Wisconsin. 1911. 
 
 At the time of going to press, this publication is not yet issued, 
 although the Tax commission is now compiling the data. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 309 
 
 Taxation. Wisconsin income tax law, chapter 658, laws of 1911. 
 1911. 8 p. 
 
 Issued by Secretary of state, Madison, Wis. 
 Workmen's compensation. Workmen's compensation act with 
 notes of legislative committee and forms and rules of indus- 
 trial accident board. 1911. 48 p. 
 Issued by Industrial commission, Madison, Wis. 
 
 INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM RESOLUTION 
 JOINT RESOLUTION No. 74, Laws of 1911 
 
 To amend section i, of article IV of the constitution, to give to 
 the people the power to propose laws and to enact or reject 
 the same at the polls, and to approve or reject at the polls any 
 act of the legislature ; and to create section 3, of article XII 
 of the constitution, providing for the submission of amend- 
 ments to the constitution upon the petition of the people. 
 Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That section 
 i, of article IV of the constitution, be amended to read : 
 
 SECTION i. i. The legislative power shall be vested in a 
 senate and assembly, but the people reserve to themselves power, 
 as herein provided, to propose laws and to enact or reject the same 
 at the polls, independent of the legislature, and to approve or re- 
 ject at the polls any law or any part of any law enacted by the 
 legislature. The limitations expressed in the constitution on the 
 power of the legislature to enact laws, shall be deemed limita- 
 tions on the power of the people to enact laws. 
 
 2. (a) Any senator or member of the assembly may introduce, 
 by presenting to the chief clerk in the house of which he is a mem- 
 ber, in open session, at any time during any session of the legis- 
 lature, any bill or any amendment to any such bill ; provided, that 
 
310 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 the time for so introducing a bill may be limited by rule to not less 
 than thirty legislative days. 
 
 (b) The chief clerk shall make a record of such bill and every 
 amendment offered thereto and have the same printed. 
 
 3. A proposed law shall be recited in full in the petition, and 
 shall consist of a bill which has been introduced in the legislature 
 during the first thirty legislative days of the session, as so intro- 
 duced ; or, at the option of the petitioners, there may be incor- 
 porated in said bill any amendment or amendments introduced in 
 the legislature. Such bill and amendments shall be referred to by 
 number in the petition. Upon petition filed not later than four 
 months before the next general election, such proposed law shall 
 be submitted to a vote of the people, and shall become a law if it is 
 approved by a majority of the electors voting thereon, and shall 
 take effect and be in force from and after thirty days after the elec- 
 tion at which it is approved. 
 
 4. (a) No law enacted by the legislature, except an emergency 
 law, shall take Qffect before ninety days after its passage and publi- 
 cation. If within said ninety days there shall have been filed a 
 petition to submit to a vote of the people such law or any part 
 thereof, such law or such part thereof shall not take effect until 
 thirty days after its approval by a majority of the qualified elec- 
 tors voting thereon. 
 
 (b) An emergency law shall remain in force, notwithstanding 
 such petition, but shall stand repealed thirty days after being 
 rejected by a majority of the qualified electors voting thereon. 
 
 (c) An emergency law shall be any law declared by the legis- 
 lature to be necessary for any immediate purpose by a two-thirds 
 vote of the members of each house voting thereon, entered on their 
 journals by the yeas and nays. No law making any appropriation 
 for maintaining the state government or maintaining or aiding 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 311 
 
 any public institution, not exceeding the next previous appropria- 
 tion for the same purpose, shall be subject to rejection or repeal 
 under this section. The increase in any such appropriation shall 
 only take effect as in case of other laws, and such increase, or any 
 part thereof, specified in the petition may be referred to a vote of 
 the people upon petition. 
 
 5. If measures which conflict with each other in any of their 
 essential provisions are submitted at the same election, only the 
 measure receiving the highest number of votes shall stand as the 
 enactment of the people. 
 
 6. The petition shall be filed with the secretary of state and 
 shall be sufficient to require the submission by him of a measure 
 to the people when signed by eight per cent of the qualified elec- 
 tors calculated upon the whole number of votes cast for governor 
 at the last preceding election, of whom not more than one-half shall 
 be residents of any one county. 
 
 7. The vote upon measures referred to the people shall be taken 
 at the next election occurring not less than four months after the 
 filing of the petition, and held generally throughout the state pur- 
 suant to law or specially called by the governor. 
 
 8. The legislature shall provide for furnishing electors the text 
 of all measures to be voted upon by the people. 
 
 9. Except that measures specifically affecting a subdivision of 
 the state may be submitted to the people of that subdivision, the 
 legislature shall submit measures to the people only as required by 
 the constitution. 
 
 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED by the assembly, the senate con- 
 curring, That article XII of the constitution, be amended by 
 creating a new section to read : 
 
 SECTION 3. i. (a) Any senator or member of the assembly 
 may introduce, by presenting to the chief clerk in the house in 
 
312 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 which he is a member, in open session, at any time during any 
 session of the legislature, any proposed amendment to the consti- 
 tution or any amendment to any such proposed amendment to 
 the constitution; provided, that the time for so introducing a 
 proposed amendment to the constitution may be limited by rule 
 to not less than thirty legislative days. 
 
 (6) The chief clerk shall make a record of such proposed amend- 
 ments to the constitution and any amendment thereto and have 
 the same printed. 
 
 2. Any proposed amendment to the constitution shall be re- 
 cited in full in the petition and shall consist of an amendment which 
 has been introduced in the legislature during the first thirty legis- 
 lative days, as so introduced, or, at the option of the petitioners, 
 there may be incorporated therein any amendment or amendments 
 thereto introduced in the legislature. Such amendment to the con- 
 stitution and amendments thereto shall be referred to by number in 
 the petition. Upon petition filed not later than four months before 
 the next general election, such proposed amendment shall be sub- 
 mitted to the people. 
 
 3. The petition shall be filed with the secretary of state and 
 shall be sufficient to require the submission by him of a proposed 
 amendment to the constitution to the people when signed by ten 
 per cent of the qualified electors, calculated upon the whole num- 
 ber of votes cast for governor at the last preceding election of 
 whom not more than one-half shall be residents of any one county. 
 
 4. Any proposed amendment or amendments to this constitu- 
 tion, agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each of the 
 two houses of the legislature, shall be entered on their journals with 
 the yeas and nays taken thereon, and be submitted to the people 
 by the secretary of state upon petition filed with him signed by 
 five per cent of the qualified electors, calculated upon the whole 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 313 
 
 number of votes cast for governor at the last preceding election 
 of whom not more than one-half shall be residents of any one 
 county. 
 
 5. The legislature shall provide for furnishing the electors the 
 text of all amendments to the constitution to be voted upon by 
 the people. 
 
 6. If the people shall approve and ratify such amendment or 
 amendments by a majority of the electors voting thereon, such 
 amendment or amendments shall become a part of the constitu- 
 tion, from and after the election at which approved ; provided, that 
 if more than one amendment be submitted they shall be submitted 
 in such manner that the people may vote for or against such amend- 
 ments separately. 
 
 7. If proposed amendments to the constitution which conflict 
 with each other in any of their essential provisions are submitted 
 at the same election, only the proposed amendment receiving the 
 highest number of votes shall become a part of the constitution. 
 
 : 
 ,. :; ' 
 
 MEN SERVING BOTH UNIVERSITY AND STATE 
 FOR 1910-1911 
 
 A. MEN WHO RECEIVE COMPENSATION BOTH FROM UNIVERSITY 
 AND STATE 
 
 I. DEFINITE COMBINATION ARRANGEMENT 
 
 E. A. BIRGE. Dean of the college of letters and science ; Superin- 
 tendent of the geological and natural history survey. (Also 
 serves as member of Fish commission, Forestry commission, 
 Conservation commission.) 
 
 C. F. BURGESS. Professor of chemical engineering ; on engineer- 
 ing staff Railroad and Tax commissions. 
 
 R. FISCHER. Professor of chemistry ; Dairy and food commission. 
 
314 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 C. JUDAY. Lecturer in zoology ; Biologist, Geological and natural 
 history survey. 
 
 J. G. D. MACK. Professor of machine design; on engineering 
 staff Railroad and Tax commissions. 
 
 W. D. PENCE. Professor of railway engineering; engineer Rail- 
 road and Tax commissions. 
 
 R. G. THWAITES. Secretary Wisconsin historical society; Wiscon- 
 sin free library commission; Lecturer in history. 
 
 2. NO DEFINITE COMBINATION ARRANGEMENT 
 
 G. H. BENKENDORF. Assistant professor of dairy husbandry; 
 Secretary Wisconsin buttermakers' association. 
 
 C. G. BURRITT. Instructor in railway engineering ; on engineer- 
 ing staff Railroad and Tax commissions. 
 
 J. A. CUTLER. Instructor in topographical engineering. Fifteen 
 hours per week assistance on Mr. Stewart's report on storage 
 reservoirs. 
 
 M. J. KERSCHENSTEINER. Assistant in business administration; 
 Tax commission. 
 
 O. L. KOWALKE. Instructor in chemical engineering ; on Engineer- 
 ing staff Railroad and Tax commissions. (He has also made 
 numerous tests of coals and fuels for various state institutions.) 
 
 R. A. MOORE. Professor of agronomy ; Secretary experiment as- 
 sociation. 
 
 W. A. SCOTT. Professor of political economy; Director course in 
 commerce ; State teachers' examiner. 
 
 H. J. THORKELSON. Associate professor of steam engineering; 
 on engineering staff Railroad and Tax commissions ; Engineer 
 for state board of control. 
 
 J. S. VOSSKUEHLER. Assistant professor of machine design; on 
 engineering staff Railroad and Tax commissions. Dis- 
 continued by resignation at end of first semester, 1910-1911. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 315 
 
 B. MEN WHO RECEIVE COMPENSATION FROM UNIVERSITY SERVING 
 ON STATE COMMISSIONS, ETC., WITHOUT COMPENSATION FROM 
 THE STATE 
 
 J. G. HALPIN. Assistant professor of poultry husbandry ; Secre- 
 tary of Wisconsin poultry association. 
 
 E. G. HASTINGS. Associate professor of agricultural bacteriology ; 
 ex-officio member of the State live stock sanitary board, as 
 Bacteriologist of the agricultural college. 
 
 G. C. HUMPHREY. Professor of animal husbandry; ex-officio 
 member of Wisconsin live stock breeder's association, as Chair- 
 man of department of animal husbandry. 
 
 L. KAHLENBERG. Director of course in chemistry ; Professor of 
 chemistry ; Member of the Geological and natural history sur- 
 vey. 
 
 G. MCKERROW. Superintendent of farmers' institutes ; Member 
 of live stock sanitary board, board of agriculture. 
 
 H. L. RUSSELL. Dean of college of agriculture ; Director of agri- 
 cultural experiment station; ex-officio member of the State 
 board of forestry ; President of the advisory board Wisconsin 
 state tuberculosis sanatorium; ex-officio member of State 
 board of immigration. 
 
 J. G. SANDERS. Assistant professor of economic entomology ; 
 Chief orchard and nursery inspector, appointed by the gov- 
 ernor. (Fees for Nursery licenses go to University.) 
 
 L. S. SMITH. Associate professor of topographical and geodetic 
 engineering; State sealer of weights and measures. (Has 
 also assisted the legislature relative to this matter.) 
 
 A. L. STONE. Professor of agronomy ; in charge of Seed inspection 
 service as authorized by legislative act. (All fees collected 
 for analytical work go directly into the state treasury, but 
 Stone receives no compensation for his work.) 
 
316 THE WISCONSIN IDEA 
 
 F. E. TURNEAURE. Dean of the college of engineering ; Member 
 of the Wisconsin highway commission, and the Wisconsin 
 commission of industrial education. (Has also rendered 
 some assistance to the Legislative committee on water power.) 
 
 C. R. VAN HISE. President of university ; Member of forestry 
 
 commission; Free library commission, President Geological and 
 natural history survey ; Chairman Conservation commission. 
 GEORGE WAGNER. Assistant professor of zoology ; work on Geo- 
 logical and natural history survey. 
 A. R. WHITSON. Professor of soils ; in charge of Soil survey, for 
 
 the Wisconsin Geological and natural history survey. 
 The preceding men have definite official positions. Without 
 such definite positions a large number of men serve the state bu- 
 reaus in various ways as called upon. Among them are the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 J. R. COMMONS. Professor of political economy. 
 
 E. C. ELLIOTT. Director of course for training of teachers. 
 
 E. A. GILMORE. Professor of law. 
 
 F. T. HAVARD. Assistant professor of mining engineering; re- 
 
 search work relative to the quality of clays in the state, at 
 request of Wisconsin brick manufacturers' association. 
 
 A. B. HALL. Instructor in political science. 
 
 CHESTER LLOYD JONES. Associate professor of political science. 
 
 H. L. McBAiN. Associate professor of political science. 
 
 D. W. MEAD. Professor of hydraulic and sanitary engineering. 
 
 Spent several days during the past year before legislative 
 
 committees and is at present in charge of the reconstruction 
 
 work at Black River Falls. 
 W. U. MOORE. Professor of law. 
 M. P. RAVENEL. Professor of bacteriology; Director hygienic 
 
 laboratory. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 317 
 
 P. S. REINSCH. Professor of political science. 
 
 H. S. RICHARDS. Dean of law school ; Professor of law. 
 
 E. A. Ross. Professor of sociology. 
 
 Various members of the medical staff. 
 
 C. MEN WITH COMPENSATION FROM STATE SERVING ON UNIVER- 
 SITY STAFF WITHOUT COMPENSATION 
 
 T. S. ADAMS. Tax commissioner ; Professor of political economy. 
 
 M. S. DUDGEON. Secretary free library commission; Instruc- 
 tor in political science. 
 
 E. M. GRIFFITH. State forester ; Lecturer in forestry. 
 
 CHARLES MCCARTHY. Librarian legislative reference department ; 
 Lecturer in political science. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Addams, Jane, on social improve- 
 ment, 299. 
 
 Administration, science of, 186. 
 
 Agricultural education, 126. 
 
 Agriculture, college of, see Wiscon- 
 sin university, college of agri- 
 culture, 126. 
 
 Agriculture, county schools of, see 
 County schools of agriculture, 
 126. 
 
 Appointive offices, 172. 
 
 Apprenticeship, 142. 
 
 Appropriations, continuing, 203. 
 continuing for commissions, 40. 
 procedure relative to, in legisla- 
 ture, 201. 
 
 Armstrong committee, 227. 
 
 Attorney general, limitations of 
 powers of, 240. 
 
 Australian ballot, 123. 
 
 Bankers' mutual insurance com- 
 panies for protection of depos- 
 itors, 78. 
 
 Banking law, 87. 
 
 Bascom, John, influence of, 21. 
 
 Bills, introduction of, in legislature, 
 
 229. 
 
 rules for drafting in legislative 
 reference department, 197. 
 
 Board of public affairs, see Public 
 affairs, state board of. 
 
 Bonaparte, Charles, on judges as 
 law makers, 238. 
 
 Bookkeeping, public, 46. 
 
 Boston Transcript, editorial on social 
 
 improvement, 296. 
 Budget, 201. 
 
 Campaign expenses, 101. 
 Civil service, 174, 190. 
 
 exemption from, 176. 
 College of agriculture, see Wiscon- 
 sin university, college of agri- 
 culture. 
 
 Commerce court, 235. 
 Commissions, appointive, 45, 172. 
 dangers of, 179. 
 devices used in, 45. 
 Common schools, tax for, 86. 
 Comparative legislation, 216, 248. 
 Competition, I. 
 Conservation, 153. 
 Constitution, state, 208. 
 Constitutional amendments, 274. 
 
 initiative applied to, 118. 
 Constitutionality of laws, power of 
 
 courts to pass upon, 208. 
 Cbntract, right of, 2. 
 Corporations, abuses of, against in- 
 dividuals, 47. 
 inability of individual to contend 
 
 with, 46. 
 Corrupt practices, 100. 
 
 procedure, 106. 
 Cost of service, 59. 
 County schools of agriculture, 
 126. 
 
 319 
 
320 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Courts, assumption of legislative 
 
 power by, 267. 
 inability to handle economic cases, 
 
 235- 
 power to pass on constitutionality 
 
 of laws, 208. 
 procedure in, 239. 
 Criminal procedure, 253. 
 
 Decisions of judges, see Judicial de- 
 cisions, recall. 
 
 Delegates to national convention, 
 primary election of, 93. 
 
 Depreciation, 61. 
 
 Direct election of United States 
 senators, 122. 
 
 Efficiency, 192. 
 
 Ekern, H. L., on advance in insur- 
 ance legislation, 73. 
 Elections, limitation of expenditure 
 
 of money to secure, 101. 
 non-partisan in cities, 123. 
 offences, 100. 
 
 United States senators, 122. 
 Electric light companies, taxation of, 
 
 82. 
 
 Ely, R. T., on inability of small city 
 to contend with corporations, 
 
 47- 
 
 on trusts, 5. 
 teachings of, 27. 
 Employers' liability, 156, 165. 
 Equitable Life Assurance Society of 
 New York, withdrawal of, from 
 Wisconsin, 75. 
 Experts, trained, on commissions, 46. 
 
 wrong type of, 188. 
 Extension division of the university, 
 see Wisconsin university, exten- 
 sion division. 
 
 Fire insurance, investigation on, 
 
 80. 
 state fund to provide for loss on 
 
 state property, 79. 
 Food, pure, 171. 
 Forestry, 153. 
 Fraternal insurance, 76. 
 Freight line companies, taxation of, 
 
 82. 
 Freund, Ernst, on legislation and 
 
 jurisprudence, 242, 247. 
 
 Germans in Wisconsin, 20. 
 
 Germany, development of legislation 
 
 in, 24. 
 
 influence of scholars upon legisla- 
 tion in, 1 86. 
 
 Going value, 59. 
 
 Government insurance, see State in- 
 surance. 
 
 Granger movement in Wisconsin, 37. 
 
 Guarantee of bank deposits, 76. 
 
 Hall, A. R., early advocate of ad va- 
 lorem taxation of railroads, 38. 
 
 Hatton, W. H., on plans for railroad 
 
 commission law, 41. 
 on relation of municipalities and 
 public utilities, 69. 
 
 Health and public welfare, 156. 
 
 Health, board of, 1 70. 
 in relation to state hygienic lab- 
 oratory, 170. 
 
 Hearings before committees of the 
 legislature, 199. 
 
 Heating and power companies, taxa- 
 tion of, 82. 
 
 Home rule, 66. 
 
 Hornblower, Judge, on difficulties of 
 law making, 209. 
 
INDEX 
 
 321 
 
 Ihering, Rudolph von, on the strug- 
 gle for law, 266. 
 
 Illiterates, 142. 
 
 Income tax, 83. 
 
 Indeterminate permits, 6 1, 64. 
 
 Individual, cases showing abuses of 
 
 corporation against, 49. 
 diagram showing inability to con- 
 tend with corporations, 47. 
 
 Industrial commission, 162. 
 
 Industrial education, 127, 141. 
 
 Industrial insurance, see Workmen's 
 compensation. 
 
 Industrial liberty, doctrine of, in the 
 United States, 25. 
 
 Initiative, see Referendum. 
 
 Insurance, commissioner, an ap- 
 pointive officer, 79. 
 regulation, 73. 
 
 Jameson, J. F., on dangers of pros- 
 perity, 301. 
 
 Judge-made law, see Law, judge- 
 made. 
 
 Judges, 233, 255. 
 
 primary election law does not 
 
 apply to, 92. 
 recall of, 122, 255, 269. 
 
 Judicial decisions, recall, 122, 255, 
 269. 
 
 Laissez faire, doctrine of, 25. 
 Law, how actually made, 218. 
 judge-made, 221, 233. 
 power of courts to pass upon con- 
 stitutionality of, 208. 
 revisor of statutes to codify, 208. 
 Law schools, faulty instruction of, 
 
 238, 253. 
 
 Legislation, no delegation of, to 
 railroad commission, 45. 
 
 Y 
 
 in Wisconsin, influence of German 
 
 ideas and ideals upon, 26. 
 Legislative reference department, 
 
 196, 214. 
 
 non-partisanship essential, 218. 
 Legislature, 194. 
 
 commissions appointed by, 170. 
 hearings before committees of, 
 
 199. 
 
 length of sessions of, 206. 
 notable legislation of, in 191 1, 274. 
 Libraries, traveling, 152. 
 Lush, C. K., on second choice, 93. 
 
 Majority elections, see Second 
 choice. 
 
 Marshall, Judge, on work of the 
 courts, 263. 
 
 Mileage books, regulation of, 41. 
 
 Monopoly, I. 
 
 Municipal ownership, 65, 67. 
 
 Municipalities, public utilities in re- 
 lation to, 69. 
 
 Mutual employers' liability insurance 
 companies, 76. 
 
 Mutual life insurance companies, 76. 
 
 Normal schools, tax for, 86. 
 Norwegians in Wisconsin, 20. 
 
 O'Reilly, J. B., on relation of wealth 
 and poverty, 7. 
 
 Passes, regulation of, 41. 
 
 Physical connection of telephones, 
 see Telephones, physical con- 
 nection of. 
 
 Physical valuation, 59. 
 
 Political purposes, limitation of ex- 
 penditure of money for, 101. 
 
 Potter law, 37. 
 
322 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Presidential preference, provision 
 made for statement of, in pri- 
 mary election law, 93, 98. 
 Primary election law, 88. 
 Public affairs, state board of, 202, 
 
 253, 292. 
 
 Public utilities, act, 58. 
 home rule, 65. 
 increase of business of, under law, 
 
 286. 
 
 indeterminate permits, 61, 64. 
 opinion of Judge Marshall con- 
 cerning validity of the Wiscon- 
 sin act, 62. 
 
 physical valuation of, 59. 
 taxation of, 82. 
 
 use of uniform accounting in fixing 
 rates in, 60. 
 
 Railroad commission, control of 
 
 public utilities vested in, 58. 
 no delegation of legislation to, 45. 
 power of, to contend with corpo- 
 rations, 44. 
 elected, 38. 
 
 Railroads, early abuses of, in Wis- 
 consin, 34. 
 
 physical valuation of, 59. 
 Potter law, 37. 
 
 rates, power to fix, vested in com- 
 mission, 45. 
 regulation of, 34. 
 restrictive legislation, 38. 
 taxation of, 82. 
 Recall, 122. 
 
 Referendum, joint resolution for 
 constitutional amendment con- 
 cerning, 1 1 6, 309. 
 Oregon plan of, 116. 
 Refrigerator lines, regulation of, 41. 
 Roads, legislation concerning, 154. 
 
 Roemer, J. H., on work of the rail- 
 road commission, 59. 
 
 Ross, E. A., on precedent in law, 
 237- 
 
 Salaries, proper, for experts, 184. 
 
 Sanborn, A. W., on corrupt prac- 
 tices, 102. 
 
 Scandinavians, influence upon Wis- 
 consin legislation, 29. 
 
 Second choice, 93. 
 
 Shippers, small, inability of, to con- 
 tend with corporations, 46. 
 
 Sidings, regulation of, 41. 
 
 Sleeping car companies, taxation of, 
 
 82. 
 regulation of, 41. 
 
 Smith, H. L., on difficulty of inter- 
 pretation of the law, 211. 
 
 Socialism, 299. 
 
 State insurance, 76. 
 
 fund to provide for fire loss on 
 state and county property, 
 
 79- 
 
 State superintendent of public in- 
 struction, primary election law 
 does not apply to, 92. 
 
 Statutes, revisor of, 201. 
 
 Stickney, A. B., on early railroad 
 history in Wisconsin, 35. 
 
 Stock watering in Wisconsin, 74. 
 
 Stocks and bonds, regulation of, 59, 
 
 7*. 
 
 Street railways, companies, taxation 
 
 of, 82. 
 
 law to regulate, 59. 
 placed under railway commission, 
 
 58. 
 Supreme court, limitation of power 
 
 of, 240. 
 Switching, regulation of, 41. 
 
INDEX 
 
 323 
 
 Tax commission, 80. 
 
 Taxation of public utilities, 82. 
 
 Telegraph companies, placed under 
 
 railway commission, 58. 
 taxation of, 82. 
 
 Telephones, physical connection of, 
 58. 
 
 Terminals, regulation of, 41. 
 
 Transportation and despatch com- 
 panies, regulation of, 41. 
 
 Trusts, i. 
 
 Tuberculosis, prevention of, 171. 
 
 Turner, E. J., on relation between 
 university and state, 124, 139. 
 
 Uniform accounting, use of, in fixing 
 rates, 60. 
 
 United States senators, direct elec- 
 tion of, 122. 
 
 Water power law, declared uncon- 
 stitutional, 273. 
 
 Wisconsin free library commission, 
 legislative reference depart- 
 ment, 197, 214. 
 
 traveling library department, 152. 
 Wisconsin legislature, set Legisla- 
 ture. 
 
 Wisconsin university, 124. 
 college of agriculture, 125. 
 continuing appropriations, 125. 
 criticisms of, 136. 
 extension division of, 127, 131, 
 
 143- 
 
 relation between state and, 136. 
 tax for, 86. 
 
 under what auspices founded, 20. 
 Workmen's compensation, 156, 
 
 164. 
 decision of Wisconsin court in 
 
 law of, 256. 
 English form of, 160. 
 German form of, 160, 167. 
 
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