Mccarthy of Wisconsin 9780231886321

Table of contents :
Preface
Contents
Illustrations
I. Early Years
II. Education, Marriage, and a Job
III. The Wisconsin Soil
IV. The Legislative Reference Library: Its Beginnings
V. The Legislative Reference Library: Buttress of Democracy
VI. The Legislative Reference Library: New Methods and Materials
VII. A Political Blitzkrieg against McCarthy
VIII. McCarthy’s Personal Influence on Legislation
IX. The Legislative Reference Library and Progressive Legislation
X. Good Laws, Good Administration, and the Judges
XI. The State Board of Public Affairs
XII. Charles McCarthy, the Bull Moose, and Theodore Roosevelt
XIII. Better Business, Better Farming, Better Living
XIV. The Federal Commission on Industrial Relations
XV. The War Years
XVI. Two Extraneous Episodes
XVII. The University of Wisconsin and University Extension
XVIII. The Continuation School: the Educationally Disinherited
XIX. The Significance of McCarthy
Appendices
I. University Extension: Memorandum to President Van Hise, 1906
II. University Extension and Vocational Training: Plan proposed to President Van Hise, 1910
III. The La Follette Political Platform: Letter to William Draper Lewis, July 12, 1912
IV. On the Investigation of the Steel Strike: Letter to Luke Grant, September 28, 1914
V. On Irish Agricultural Organization: Letter to Charles W. Holman, June 5, 1915
VI. Academic Record of Charles McCarthy
Index

Citation preview

MCCARTHY OF

WISCONSIN

CHARLES MCCARTHY

MCCARTHY OF WISCONSIN BY E D W A R D A. F I T Z P A T R I G Κ PRESIDENT

OF

MOUNT

MILWAUKEE,

MARY

COLLEGE

WISCONSIN

"I, a wandering student, seeking knowledge, came knocking 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."

N e w York : Morningside

Heights

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 1944

PRESS

COPYRIGHT

1944

COLUMBIA U N I V E R S I T Y PRESS, NEW Y O R K Foreign Agents: O X F O R D U N I V E R S I T Y I ' R F S S , Humphrey Milford, Amen House, London, E.C. 4, England, AND B. 1. Building, Nicol Road, Bombay, India MANUFACTURED

IN T U E

I . N I T K D S T A T E S OF

AMERICA

PREFACE

I

of Charles McCarthy we go to a source of historical events, not a "stuffed shirt" of history. We have the constructive worker who brings events to pass, and yet has in a real sense the "passion for anonymity." T h e popular public figures, such even as Teddy Roosevelt, are the advertising media for the constructive work. Sometimes, as in the case of T . R . , they are significant in themselves. At a time when great economists said a state income tax could not be framed, McCarthy working patiently in the background and guiding others was largely responsible for the first successful state income tax act. When the University of Wisconsin did not have the vigorous and abiding faith which its reputation seemed to imply, McCarthy did have that faith and made a reality of another dream of his, University Extension. When professional educators saw no way to help the educationally disinherited children who left school at fourteen or earlier, he saw a way and used the brewery lobby in the legislature and others to bring it to pass. N THE LIFE

Mac saw the legislature as a bulwark of democracy, in a way that we do not today appreciate, even though contemporary events have demonstrated that the first step in the establishment of a dictatorship is the destruction of independent legislative power, whether it is in a Duma, a Reichstag, or a Chamber of Deputies. McCarthy, with creative vision and amazing ingenuity, built up the conditions that made it possible for a legislature to really perform its function in a democracy. He stated its case and fought for the rights of the legislature against executive usurpation on the one hand and judicial usurpation on the other. N o generation needs the lesson more than the present one. There is here, too, a complete revelation of the legislative process which belies our textbooks and our teachers of political science. T h e smooth, formal process of the introduction of bills, the first, second, and third reading, or engrossment and final passage or indefinite postponement give way to the more revealing story of the psychological

VI

PREFACE

processes involved. It is important in every generation that the American people understand this. It is essential to their liberty. McCarthy was a soul consecrated to the common good. Refusing all offers of private employment, he dedicated himself to the public service. H e wanted to do "a man's work for humanity." When, at the end of his life, he was to be "thrown upon the waste heap," all he wanted to be able to say, was " T h a n k God, I have had a man's work to do anyway." Perhaps no less significant than his work in the constructive upbuilding of the legislature was his service to democratic education. T h e whole process of commonwealth building was part of his work; he planned for it, as in the State Board of Public Affairs; he translated the plans into public policies through the Legislative Reference Library; helped to gel jobs done by public servants, facilitating the process both by improving the form of legislation providing for administrative Commissions and civil service and by initiating and carrying forward the movement for training men for the public serv ice; and prevented judicial interference through his criticism of the courts and his work on the judicial recall and the recall of the judicial decisions. McCarthy's interest was in the whole people, rural as well as urban, and particularly in working people and those whose life was hard. He saw éducation as the transforming instrumentality. He regarded a democratic education as the essential foundation for an effective working of the democratic political processes, and for a sound economic structure, serving both consumer and producer. McCarthy's life is an interesting one. Across its pages march Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Woodrow Wilson, J o h n D. Rockefeller, J r . , Lord Bryce, Sir Horace Plunkett, and a number of other luminaries in the political and social scene. Without his part in the Bull Moose movement and his sidelights on it, a true picture of that memorable campaign of 1 9 1 2 and its aftermath cannot be understood, nor without the record of His activities, can the Progressive Movement in the State of Wisconsin and in the Nation be understood at all. T h i s social biography is written 011 the basis of manuscript material deposited in the Wisconsin Historical Society together with the many important documents still in possession of the family

PREFACE

vu

and the rich material of the Legislative Reference Library. T h e recollections of McCarthy's relatives in Brockton and of his close associates, many of whom are still living, were also valuable sources. T h e McCarthy papers are contained in forty-six manuscript boxes in the Wisconsin Historical Society at Madison, Wisconsin. T h e material is arranged in chronological order. Much additional material of great value, still in possession of the family, is unclassified. Scattered throughout the well-classified collections of the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library there is much material relating to McCarthy. All this material is of much greater significance than his printed work, which with the exception of The Wisconsin Idea is negligible. The Wisconsin Idea is in a sense a summary of many of the things McCarthy had previously printed. T h e significant material is cited in the footnotes. T h e complete bibliography is on file in the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library, Madison, Wisconsin. This life of McCarthy is called a social biography because it is concerned, less with the re-creation of an individual as he lived among men and more with the social influence of his ideas and his actions upon the lives of men not only in Wisconsin, but everywhere. I am indebted to many persons who have supplied me with information. My greatest indebtedness is to McCarthy's wife, Mrs. Lucile McCarthy, who died in December, 1940, and to Katherine McCarthy, his daughter. T h e Hickey sisters and Daniel Sullivan, relatives at Brockton, gave me interesting reminiscences, particularly of McCarthy's early life. T h e administrative authorities of the Brockton High School, Brown University, the University of Georgia, and the University of Wisconsin have been particularly helpful in furnishing the academic records and other incidental notes about the academic career of McCarthy. Governor Francis F.. McGovern, George Hambrecht, Robert Cooley, Alex Graham. Judge Irvine I.enroot, John Messmer, Charles W . Holman, Wilder H. Haines, Irma Hochstein, and Henry C. T a y l o r , who were associated with McCarthy in various ways, have also been helpful. Particularly helpful was Howard Ohm and the fine and highly cooperative staff of the Legislative Reference Library

Vili

P R E F A C E

at Madison, and Clarence B. Lester, Secretary of the Free Library Commission. Alice E. Smith and Annie A. Nunns of the Wisconsin State Historical Society have been very helpful in making available the boxes of manuscript material which constitute the McCarthy papers. John Murdoch, an associate of McCarthy at Brown was very helpful indeed regarding McCarthy's college days and after. J o h n D. Rockefeller, Jr., furnished copies of his correspondence with McCarthy. I am particularly grateful to the following persons who read critically parts of the book: Mr. and Mrs. John Murdoch and President Henry B. Wriston of Brown University, who read the chapter on the student days at Brown; Professor Edward E. Witte, who read the chapters on the Legislative Reference Library; Dean F. O. Holt of the University Extension Division, who read the chapter on University Extension; Mr. George Hambrecht and Mrs. Jennie McMullen T u r n e r , who read the chapter on the Continuation School; and William Leiserson, who read the chapter on the Commission on Industrial Relations. T h e responsibility for what is included in these various chapters is, however, exclusively the author's. My thanks are also due for permission to quote from the following works: Robert M. La Follette, Autobiography (Madison, Wis., La Follette's Magazine, 1 9 1 3 ) ; John R . Commons, Myself (New York, Macmillan, 1934); Charles McCarthy, The Wisconsin Idea (New York, Macmillan, 1912). T h i s has been a work of love and I gladly send it forth with the hope that it will inspire others to serve America as unselfishly as did McCarthy and with the faith that it will help keep "holy the highest hope" in a chaotic but evolving world. EDWARD A . M o u n t M a r y College M i l w a u k e e , Wisconsin June, 1940

FITZPATRICK

CONTENTS I. II.

Early Years

3

Education, Marriage, and a J o b

12

III.

T h e Wisconsin Soil

32

IV.

T h e Legislative Reference Library: Its Beginnings

41

V.

T h e Legislative Reference Library: Buttress of Democracy

54

T h e Legislative Reference Library: New Methods and Materials

62

A Political Blitzkrieg against McCarthy

72

McCarthy's Personal Influence on Legislation

90

VI. VII. VIII. IX.

T h e Legislative Reference Library and Progressive Legislation

109

X.

Good Laws, Good Administration, and the Judges 127

XI. XII.

T h e State Board of Public Affairs 140 Charles McCarthy, the Bull Moose, and Theodore Roosevelt 157

XIII.

Better Business, Better Farming, Better Living

175

XIV.

T h e Federal Commission on Industrial Relations

189

T h e W a r Years

207

T w o Extraneous Episodes

226

XV. XVI. XVII.

T h e University of Wisconsin and University Extension 236

XVIII.

T h e Continuation School: the Educationally Disinherited 260

XIX.

T h e Significance of McCarthy

277

Appendices I.

University Extension: Memorandum to President Van Hise, 1906 287

χ

CONTENTS II. III. IV. V. VI.

University Extension and Vocational Training: Plan proposed to President Van Hise, 1910 T h e La Follette Political Platform: Letter to William Draper Lewis, July 12, 1 9 1 2 On the Investigation of the Steel Strike: Letter to Luke Grant, September 28, 1914 On Irish Agricultural Organization: Letter to Charles W. Holman, J u n e 5, 1 9 1 5 Academic Record of Charles McCarthy

Index

291 295 297 300 302 305

ILLUSTRATIONS Charles M c C a r t h y

frontispiece

A Legislative Conference in the Wisconsin R e f e r e n c e L i b r a r y P l a q u e in the Wisconsin Legislative R e f e r e n c e L i b r a r y

64 280

Me G A R T HY OF W I S C O N S I N

Chapter I EARLY

I

YEARS

the industrialism of shoe-manufacturing Brockton, Massachusetts, in a year of financial panic and depression, one of the most inspiring careers of recent American history was begun. Charles McCarthy was born to John McCarthy and Katherine O'Shea Desmond McCarthy in Brockton, or, as it was called at the time, North Bridgewater, Massachusetts, on June 29, 1873. His parents had been married in their parish church, St. Patrick's, on March 10, 1872. They were Irish immigrants who had come separately to this country from the vicinity of Kerry, as the result of the Irish famine in the 1850s. Charles was a family name, borne by Charles McCarthy's paternal grandfather and an uncle. In the immediate family background are such names as MacSweeney, Cronin, Riordan, Sheehan, O'Shea, and O'Connell. John and Katherine McCarthy were of the soil and soul of Ireland. Katherine O'Shea (1839-1904), a beautiful young woman, came to America with her older sister Mary. An episode of the first few minutes after her arrival reveals her character. As she came down the gangplank in Boston, she saw a woman crying; after hearing the "good woman's" story, Katherine O'Shea handed her all the money she had in the world, one shilling, and went to her relative on Cary Hill penniless, but apparently in fine spirit. This spirit never forsook her. Katherine married a man named Desmond; one child, a girl, was born to this marriage. Desmond died in the late sixties from tuberculosis; the daughter died at nineteen of the same disease. Mrs. Desmond opened a boardinghouse in Brockton, and there John McCarthy (1829-1925), a stationary engineer in one of the shoe factories, took his meals. He was a kindly man, giving freely to the sick and the needy in his neighborhood. Charles McCarthy has left this record of his parents: N THE MIDST OF

4

EARLY

YEARS

My father was J o h n McCarthy, my mother, Katherine O'Shea. T h e y came from the hills west of Macroom, Ireland, and came to America after the Irish famine. I have been to the place where they lived out in a hilly country not far from the boundary of Kerry. My father was from a Jong line of "Wild Geese" that were called the "MacCaura Spanauigh." My people were Gaelic speaking. My father's people had been nearly wiped out through repeated rebellion over a couple hundred years. Many of them had been soldiers in the armies of Europe. T h e r e are, no doubt, old men living in the sections west of Cork today who have seen the heads of some of these men on the spikes at Macroom castle. (I saw some of these old people when I was a boy.) T h e y raided Macroom castle one night and killed Col. Hutchinson, I believe his name was, who had been active in putting down rebellion. One of my earliest recollections is hearing this story. I remember the name of a man known as Malachy Duggan who was supposed to have betrayed these fighting men. All the traditions from my father's side show a long line of such incidents. My mother was the youngest of a family of several girls. 1 T h e father died young and they lost what property they had in the Irish famine and were thrown out in the roadside in the rain and the family separated. . . . She was shrewd and able and brought over all the other girls. 2 T h e interest in Ireland and the Irish remained with McCarthy throughout his life. H e loved to quote Emily Lawless' poem on the W i l d Geese: T o honour, perchance to fame,— Empty fame at the best, Glory half dimmed with shame. War-battered dogs are we, Fighters in every clime, Fillers of trench and of grave, Mockers, bemocked by time. W a r dogs, hungry and grey, Gnawing a naked bone, Fighters in every clime, Every cause but our own. In later life, after a visit to the home of his people in Ireland, he told this story to one of his friends, M o n c e n a D u n n , who thus recalls it: ι "Charles' mother was the fourth in a family of seven gills." (Notes to the author by Mary Hickey.) 2 Memorandum by Charles McCarthy, undated,

F.ARLY

YEARS

5

Whether in spring or fall I do not remember but the weather was cold and rainy. Mac had landed on Clare Coast and hired a guide to lead him that several hours journey on foot up into those mountains near the western coast of Ireland. McCarthy had learned that the leading man of that neighborhood —the "clan leader"—was named Donald Magoon. However he did not know that the fact of the escape from prison of a McCarthy boy, of ancient days, was still unknown to those people. After a tiresome trip of hill climbing and wading up through a mountain rivulet in the rain they came at last into a picturesque rather level valley of half a mile in width and about the same in length. The valley and surrounding hills were thickly settled by a primitive agrarian people. They stopped at the largest house in sight and found a tall stern looking man of past fifty working in front of it. Of this man they asked the way to the residence of Donald Magoon. The man eyed them furtively and answered coldly: " I am Donald Magoon. Who are you?" Mac answered: " I am MacCaura Spanauigh, the last of the Wild Geese." " T h e last of the Wild Geese," repeated Magoon. "That man does not live today." After listening to the history of the McCarthy family, the incident of the escape of the boy prisoner, related by McCarthy with such accuracy as to square with what was known by Magoon, finally the man was satisfied. He then invited them into his home and gave them seats near a blazing fire in the ancient fire place, where their clothing could dry somewhat. Having thus seated his guests Magoon went into an adjoining summer kitchen or wood shed and took down from a dusty shelf the "clan-horn." Stepping outside to a convenient knoll top, Magoon blew signals loudly and long. It was the signal for a general gathering of the clan. Within a few minutes people began to come. Some of the first to arrive were elderly women to whom McCarthy and his guide gave their chairs, and thereafter Mac stood in the corner near the fire place. " I stood there," he said, "the steam coming up from my wet clothing, an object of mingled curiosity, respect, and reverence, as people continued to come; my story was told over and over again until it was the most embarrassing situation of my lifetime." 3 It may have been for Mac an embarrassing moment, but it was a great moment. T o H . H . McCarthy of Dubuque, Iowa, he wrote in J u n e , 1920: 3 Moncena Dunn to Irma Hochstein, M: IV "¡, 1921.

6

EARLY

YEARS

My father, a man of ninety years of age, is with me here in Madison. He came as an immigrant to Boston, running away from troubles in Ireland in 1848. He was a rebel and he is one yet. I have been in Ireland many times, although born in Massachusetts. I have been greatly interested in the Gaelic language all my life, also in Irish art and Irish things in general. I have known most of the prominent Irishmen over there. . . . My ancestors came from near Macroom, County Cork. They belonged to the "Wild Geese" and were known as the "Spanish McCarthys." II T h e young McCarthy heard from his father the stories of the revolutionary stock from which he came, the economic consequences of the Irish famine, the injustices and excesses of KnowNothingism in Massachusetts, the difficulties of the struggle of the immigrant in America, including the American depression of the year in which he was born, 1873. From his mother he inherited a fine human sympathy, a sense of consecration, and a devotion to the "underdog"—the spirit of the good Samaritan. Even in his youth some of his cousins thought his life saintly, because of his sense of consecration, and of sacrifice, his avoidance of smoking and of intoxicating liquor. T h e popular press had built up a story of neglect in Mac's early life. Mary Hickey, a cousin who knew him at that time, smiles at these tales. She says of Mac: Many write-ups as to his early life were not correct; no child had more care. He was a real red-flannel baby and this solicitude continued until he was a grown man. Charlie—when quite young—had some severe sickness and Aunt Kate [Mac's mother] coddled him always, and Charlie had a hard time to break away. Many laughs we have had about it.* J o h n , the younger brother of Charles by about two years, died of diphtheria at six or seven years of age. Mac had early developed scarlatina which seemingly had settled in his throat and was in part responsible for a throat condition that plagued him later. His aunts remember Mac as a child stretched out on the floor lining up his tin soldiers and planning the strategy of a great battle. Strategy was always of interest to him, whether it involved * Letter, Mary Hickey to Mrs. Charles McCarthy, July 27, 1921.

EARLY

YEARS

7

soldiers, football teams, a legislative battle, or the broader struggle for the betterment of the common man. Mac left some notes on this period of his life: My father has a good knowledge of books and is a good reader and taught me the value of reading. As I grew up I became very fond of athletics and of books. It looked to me as if I was going to work in a shoe factory when I was fourteen but I had resolved to have some kind of an education. I had an idea in my head that there was somebody needed between the great mass of workers and the educated people and I tried in every way to prepare myself to be that somebody if 1 could. From fourteen years of age on I was practically away from home all the time working at all kinds of things. 5 1 worked around docks, vessels, in factories, as a common laborer at anything, finally became a scene shifter in a theater and travelled two or three times with plays; picked up something of stage managing work and scene painting." T h e boy's interest in history was initiated and stimulated not only by the father's story of his own and his family's past, b u t by his regular habit of reading to the boy from historical works, particularly the history of Ireland. This became his dominant intellectual passion until he received his doctor's degree at Wisconsin, when his interest shifted to the contemporary political and economic struggle, as a natural outgrowth of his desire to serve his fellow men. About Mac's childhood was all the atmosphere of the raw industrialism centering around the shoe industry. Mac's earliest recollections were of the fierce strikes of the shoe workers and the effect of those strikes on the wives and children of the strikers. Mrs. McCarthy was the presiding genius over a boardinghouse for the workers in the shoe factories; in the midst of those turbulent scenes the young McCarthy often saw his mother give food, and with it hope and courage, to the sufferers in a senseless industrial warfare. About her in the boardinghouse she had to have flowers—a manifestation of that love and appreciation of fine a n d delicate things which was so characteristic of her. And even today in Brockton men refer to her, as they did more than fifty years 5 T h e mention of absence from home probably refers to the vacation periods, as McCarthy attended the Brockton High School from Sept. ιη, i88g, to J u n e 24, 1892, according to a transcript of record f u r n i s h e d by R . F.. T u c k e r , Headmaster, Brockton High School, Dec. 6, 1940. β Memorandum by Charles McCarthy, undated.

8

EARLY

YEARS

ago, as Mother McCarthy, though she has been dead more than thirty years. It was with reverence—even with awe—that Mac always spoke of her. He himself thought of her as an angel healing the wounds of the innocent victims of the industrial struggle. Mrs. McCarthy cared for more than a hundred boarders, besides frequent transients. Mac helped his father wash dishes, and he is reported by his cousin to have said that he washed more dishes than anyone else in all the world. Surely, dishes for a hundred boarders must have looked to him like a Himalaya. One day while they were busy at their daily chore, the father said tauntingly to the son, "You'll never amount to anything." And Mac, out of his complete faith, answered simply, "You'll see." And his father did see. In later years, after his mother had died, his father went to live with Mac in Madison; there he witnessed the reality of Mac's great power and influence in life: he saw, after Mac's death, a state funeral for his son; a great tribute paid by another great Irishman, Sir Horace Plunkett; and a plaque placed in the legislative halls honoring his son's service to the state—an honor given to only one other man in the history of Wisconsin. Ill For the young Charles the cosmopolitan democracy of the boardinghouse came to be a school in which he soon passed from listener and spectator to active participant. Here was a melting pot in miniature, including representatives of many nationalities and of varied traditions and types of European culture. T h e Irish were there and the Scots, and, in anticipation, as it were, of the environment in which he was to do his life work, the Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes. T h e r e was a sprinkling, too, of Yanks— native-born New Englanders. T h e Italians had not yet come. At mealtimes and especially in the evenings and on Sundays, McCarthy heard the stories which told of the impact of the old civilizations on the new American industrialism, and learned of the reactions of these men of different inheritance and experience. Some of them had been well educated abroad and all had a stern experience in the affairs of life. Here the young McCarthy heard stories of the Old World along with the day's experience in the factory. Debates, of course, were numerous and men discussed

EARLY

YEARS

9

what, in a more sophisticated time, are called social problems and social remedies. T h e youngster, set in the midst of these conditions, could not help developing an interest and concern about the life of laboring men. H e decided apparently it was not to be for him. H e w o u l d g o o u t to prepare himself for something else. T o become richer? N o , but to make the lot of such men better everywhere. W h e n he comes to dedicate his Wisconsin Idea, he dedicates it to the m e n of Wisconsin who were so very m u c h like the men of his mother's boardinghouse: το T h e hard-handed men who broke the prairie, hewed the forests, made the roads and bridges, and built little homes in the wilderness. T h e 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. T h e legislators, always criticized and never praised.7 Persons whose memories go back to these days tell of Mac's joining not only in the serious discussions of the g r o u p but in the " j o s h i n g " and " k i d d i n g " that was their inevitable accompaniment. H e was teased, and lie soon learned to tease the others. T h e y called him names, and little Andy M o y n i h a n was surprised when the youngster called him in return "the pugnacious L i l l i p u t i a n " ; the crowd roared with delight and adopted the name. H e kept his opponent guessing and his audience hilarious. T h i s give and take served as training for the rough-and-tumble in w h i c h he was later to be continually engaged, whether in a legislature, on the Commission on Industrial Relations, in a political campaign, or in a vigorous tirade against judges or professors. His participation with these men in their games was also not without its value; he would play any game at any time—baseball, football, tug of war, roller-skate hockey, and " h u r l i n g . " H e was ready to choose sides for a spontaneous game, or to play " f u n g o , " or j o i n in the more formal teamwork and competitions. Here, too, his athletic prowess, to which he turned his mental as well as his physical powers, gave him prestige a m o n g these rough and virile men. ; The

Wisconsin

Idea,

(New Y o r k ,

1912).

EARLY

YEARS

T h i s was a school indeed; not a school of boys, but one of men for men. He caught thus early a spirit of the seriousness of life, its sacrifices and its tragedies, its simple joys and loyal comradeship. He had knowledge beyond his years; like a greater Child he grew in wisdom and stature, in love of his neighbor, and in service. McCarthy's informal education went on in another school. T h i s was the Saint Patrick's Total Abstinence Society, called in the neighborhood the S.P.T.A.S. Here Mac took his first total abstinence pledge, which he was to maintain throughout his life. He never drank intoxicating liquors at any time, nor did he ever smoke. Total abstinence was not the only contribution of the S.P.T.A.S. to McCarthy's development. Its membership was made up of a wider sampling of Brockton life than the McCarthy boardinghouse; it included professional people as well as working people. It was also a great forum for debate and argument, and Mac was ever ready to take on anyone on any subject. T h e Clubhouse was directly across the street from the McCarthy home, and the social rooms of the C l u b were the scene of these debates. Here Mac could use a great deal of the information he had gathered in his inveterate reading. His retentive memory stood him in good stead. Here, as well as in his high-school classes, his knowledge was used effectively in arguments and discussion, to the obvious surprise and amazement of the spectators and his schoolmates. This, too, was a school for men, though the young McCarthy had not as yet finished high school. IV T h e facts of McCarthy's formal education are simple enough. He went to the local public school, the Whitman school, and his attendance was evidently very regular, for there is a note in the local newspaper (December 3, 1887) that McCarthy, with several other boys and girls, was neither absent nor tardy during the first term. Later he attended the Brockton High School in his home town, where he starred on the football team. He did very poorly in mathematics and very well in history ; the kindly woman teacher who taught him both subjects must have passed him in mathematics, McCarthy thought, because of his good work in history.

EARLY

YEARS

Mathematics was his bugbear, not only in high school but also in his college days at Brown. It was possible in the Brockton High School in 1889 to take a three-year course and graduate. Apparently Mac did not expect to go to college, for he took the nonpreparatory course. He took the ordinary subjects in the so-called English course, which did not include Latin and Greek, and graduated in 1892. A fellow student, Miss Margaret Brewer, Registrar of the Brockton High School in 1940, recalls vividly the McCarthy tradition in the school and refers to him as another case of a bright student who received low grades. She recalls the silence in the Classroom whenever McCarthy rose to speak. When he entered Brown University in the fall of 1892 he was not entirely prepared for the conventional college training of the day. T o offset this he had certain personal qualities that would stand him in good stead,—his determination to get ahead, his independent spirit, his omnivorous reading habits, his habit of thinking things out for himself, and his familiarity with the intellectual give and take of his companions. These qualities came to a fuller development at Brown University and first pointed him in the direction of his lifework.

Chapter II EDUCATION,

MARRIAGE,

AND

A

JOB

B E C A U S E OF his athletic prowess in high school McCarthy went to Brown University, but he received there the intellectual stimulus, the nurture of the spirit, the comradeship of great teachers and of a great and humane president, and a direction of his life that any student in any university would be fortunate indeed to receive. H e was an outstanding example of the high-school athlete who made good. T h e name of McCarthy is still one to conjure with in Brown football. I have seen it listed several times on the all-Brown team for all time. I have seen his scrapbook in which he kept the contemporary accounts of his games, particularly of those against Yale. He was really proud of the fact that he was the first Brown man to score on Yale and on Harvard. H e played football during four years in almost every game and throughout all games. H e went on the field many times in a physical condition that the more humane—though not too gentle —football of today would not under any circumstances have permitted. McCarthy as a football player is probably best revealed in some of the games that he remembered with a sense of satisfaction. Brown was to play Army at West Point 011 November 23, 1895. T h e Brown players were told that football was on trial at West Point, and the game was not to be unnecessarily rough. It was a battered Brown team that left West Point that day, 26-0. Mac was injured along with the others; he had to be forced out of the game against his will. Four days later Brown was to play Dartmouth. Mac, battered or not, was on the field; in addition he was acting as quarterback, because the regular quarterback, Everett Colby, was not in condition to play. In that emergency McCarthy developed the "quick kick" as a part of football strategy, an instance of his inventive genius in any situation. Brown beat Dartmouth that day, 10-4. IGELY

EDUCATION, MARRIAGE,

AND A JOB

13

Frederick T . Guild, Registrar of Brown University, relates the following incident. One day he saw Mac passing by and asked him if he was going to play in the day's game. "Why, of course," Mac said. The fact that he had a dislocated shoulder—the pad on it looked as big as a saddle—as well as a cracked rib, and a twisted ankle, did not seem to matter to him. Mr. Guild's description of McCarthy in play as "a human cannon ball that just went on its way" seems to confirm the detailed reports of the games, with McCarthy bucking the line again and again, and finally going over for a touchdown. In 1896 McCarthy was awarded the silver loving cup for the player who was the most regular in practice and played the best all-round game. The citation commented on his "hard conscientious work and indomitable pluck." Grit, pluck, indomitable will, these were words frequently applied to McCarthy's football playing—words which express the outstanding quality of the man in all aspects of his life. In reviewing the players of 1895, a football authority in the Philadelphia Record wrote: He is one of the hardest gridiron fighters the country has ever seen, possessed of unbounded determination, great power of endurance and pluck. He is a wonderful line breaker and was the best punter of '95. McCarthy never courted popularity. He had few intimates. John Murdoch, manager of the Brown football team and recently a judge of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island; Frank Smith, formerly in the office of the corporation counsel of the city of New York; Everett Colby of New Jersey; David Fultz, the baseball player; and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who was assistant manager of the later team on which McCarthy played—these were his closest friends. His independent spirit is shown in his relations with young Rockefeller. John D., Jr., would come over from Slater Hall to University Hall to get McCarthy to go to the theatre. Mac would go only on the condition that he pay his own way, and they went to the topmost balcony because that was all McCarthy could afford. McCarthy once described to me a characteristic of his football playing. When he got the ball—as he did many times—he did not blindly plunge. He said he often took a step backward,

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surveyed the situation, and then plunged, sometimes through the place which the play indicated, but often, too, through a bigger " h o l e " that had not been anticipated. This circumspect attitude, this survey of conditions, this unprecipitated plunge was characteristic of Mac later in the Wisconsin legislature. He knew how to bide his time. He knew how to prepare for a plunge at one place and yet make the real gain at an entirely different point. T h e intensity of Mac's devotion to football seems to have built the game into his mind as an image to express the conflicts of later years. A l l of life took on for him the intensity and struggle of the football field. He gave himself to his lifework, physically, intellectually, and spiritually as completely as he gave himself to football. T h e struggle of American democracy was a conflict of forces. It was natural for him to fall into the images of football play and strategy in describing life or any of its particular struggles. In writing to Everett Colby in December, 1 9 1 2 , regarding an impending attack on himself and Iiis work, Iiis words run easily into the mental pattern: " T h e great corporation power in this state has tried to smash me and will eventually smash me, if I stay. I will not squeal if it comes, but will take my medicine as I did on the field of football at your side in the old days." II Professor Jameson of Brown University, who was to become his major professor and more, 110 lover of football himself, made this revealing statement: Charles McCarthy was the most interesting student I have ever had, though I had a great many that were interesting. My classes were for juniors and seniors, and so I did not know him until the last part of his course. Up to that time, I had known of him simply as a football man, and, as I never paid any attention to college athletics, I practically knew nothing about him. Perhaps I supposed that he came to college to play football, which I was prone to suppose concerning those who played it so extraordinarily well. I learned, however, that, keen and eager as was his interest in the game, and in the practice, when it was over it was over, so far as he was concerned. He did not waste time in hanging about the field to talk everything over, but dropped it at once, and turned with equal energy to his lessons. I also learned that he exerted all the time a powerful influence in keeping Brown athletics up to the

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best level of conduct. Poor as he was, working his way through college, at one time by way of laboring on the grading of the new athletic field, he never would take a cent for his athletic doings, at a time when, I am sorry to say, a good deal of money was surreptitiously paid to athletic champions at Brown. He helped to end that state of things, quite as much as he helped to win victories. He told me once that his father, a serious-minded Irish workman, seemed always averse to his engaging in football, and never would speak a word of commendation of his successes or of any interest in the contests; but that after he had graduated he one day found, when rummaging an old desk in the home at Brockton, a collection of clippings which showed that the old man had quietly saved up the newspaper records of every game Charlie played in. 1 McCarthy wanted an education passionately. He saw in it an escape from the shoe-making trade and a way to help the lot of these men he knew so intimately and whose life he shared. He described later his own situation at this time rather accurately: I was not prepared for college or anywhere near it but went to Brown University to listen to the lectures. I became a special student after a while, working evenings in the theatre and making my way along as best I could. I was so poor in my work, so far behind I suppose, that I was thrown out of college but was given another chance and remained a special student for over four years, taking whatever I pleased in school, and winning the confidence of the professors. He studied principally economics, political science, and history, and made up in these fields for his lack of preparation in other subjects such as language. Mac was self-supporting throughout his college years. During the summer of 1889 before he went to Brown, he sold a Life of John L. Sullivan, and later added to his earnings by scene shifting and scene painting at the Providence Opera House. He worked every summer in order to keep his resolution not to take any money from his parents. His cousins recall that his mother sent money to him at Brown weekly and at Thanksgiving and Christmas time, and when he came home he brought it all back with him and returned it. Frank Smith, who came from Brockton with Mac, was his roommate on the top floor of old University Hall. As Smith slept diagonally across their joint bed, Mac had a small cot with a thin 1 Memorandum by J . F. Jameson at the time of McCarthy's death in 1921.

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mattress put in the room. H i s mother wanted to replace the cot with a good bed, but M a c w o u l d have none of it. N o r w o u l d he have the fine clothes she wanted to buy for him; his old faded sweater w o u l d do. Mary H i c k e y recalls that His mother always tried to have him stylish—it was all wasted on Charlie; but what he lacked in style he made up in goodness to her. When he went off to school he never forgot to send home that weekly letter and his mother never doubted its coming. 2 T h o m a s A . Farrell tells a similar story about graduation day: Came Commencement day. A n d came a new suit for "Charlie." Characteristic of him—odd though some might call it—he put aside the clothes with the remark that inasmuch as he had not earned them and that he had won his diploma in the old suit, in it he would receive the sheepskin or not at all. He was the only man in his class who didn't come out in glad rags that day. 3 Ill Despite his inadequate preparation, McCarthy was admitted to B r o w n University because of its broad educational policy. President A n d r e w s used to frame the principal question about the admission policy thus: " C a n they stay in after they are admitted?" T h e university catalogue of 1892 expresses it in these words: T h e instruction furnished by the University is open to all young men of good character who are able and willing to profit by it. While every student who can conveniently do so is for his own good urged to matriculate for some one of the various degrees, this is by no means necessary; and such as do not do it are no less welcome to the advantages of the University than are candidates for degrees. It is the policy of the University to encourage all faithful students who enter for short periods. His formal academic record is a little surprising. H e is listed for his first academic year as " N o t yet matriculated." H e registered for Geometry the first quarter and trigonometry the second, and received credit in neither; but he did receive credit in Botany 1 and 2 a n d French 1. H e apparently was not in attendance in the third term of this year. T h e next year, 1 8 9 3 - 9 4 , he was listed as a "select student," of which there were many, and in the three succeeding 2 Letter, Man' Hickey to Mrs. Charles McCarthy, July 27, 1921. 3 Brockton Daily Enterprise.

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years, he was listed as a "special student." He tried mathematics again at the beginning of the second year, but received no credit. T h e requirement of Freshman Mathematics was later waived by the faculty 4 and McCarthy was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy in 1897, but always listed in Brown University records as of the class of 1896.° With his lack of general preparation for college, his football activity and his efforts to earn his own way, Mac did not do well in his first year; on April 4, 1893, the Committee on Special Students designated him "as not being eligible for registration." It was doubtless at this time that McCarthy went directly to the President to plead his own case, and made the plea which President Andrews was only too willing to accept—the plea that a college should give the man what he wants, and not make him take its own predigested program from cold storage. This of course was not true at all of the curriculum or rather the educational policy of Brown of that day. Undoubtedly, this experience of McCarthy's led him to make numerous requests at the University of Wisconsin for adult specials and special cases, but his "clients" were not McCarthys and the admission policies of Wisconsin were not as liberal as Brown's. In the fall of 1896, Mac coached the high-school eleven at Portland, Maine, receiving $300 and his hotel expenses. He returned to Brown around December 1, and "for the first time in his life," as Professor Jameson notes, "[Mac] had in his pocket the needful money to see him through a college year, for with his Spartan habits that sum would suffice." He pitched in and with "his extraordinary vigor and power of concentration" he had cleared off within a term—by New Years—a third of a year's work, and then proceeded leisurely toward his degree, which was awarded in 1897 as of the class of 1896. * In the "minutes of the regular faculty meetings" appears under date of December 15. 1896: Voted: That in case Mr. Chas. McCarthy pass on 51 hours of work during the present college year, the Facility agree to recommend to the Corporation that he be not required to take the Freshman Mathematics, and that he be allowed to receive his degree at the coming Commencement. s During McCarthy's student days the attendance at Brown was between three hundred and five hundred. The gross attendance, including graduate students and those at the Woman's College, increased from 549 in 1892 to 908 in 1896 (W. E. Bronson The History of Brown University, 1^64-1914, p. 428).

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It was a great day for McCarthy when, on Commencement Day at his Alma Mater, in 1913, President Faunce conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters at the same time there was conferred on the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Edward White, the degree of Doctor of Laws. Mac enjoyed this coincidence because of his antipathy to courts and lawyers. The official citation was merely factual, but President Faunce was gracious and happy in his comment: Charles McCarthy, of the class of 1896, legislative librarian of Wisconsin, whose unique work has influenced legislation directly in the most progressive of our commonwealths and indirectly in many others, whose career shows that the athlete may be scholar, and the scholar may shape law and life. IV T h e problem of education is never merely formal; it is a human problem, a desperately human problem. In McCarthy's case, two great personalities, the president, E. Benjamin Andrews, always affectionately referred to as "Benny," and J . Franklin Jameson, the professor of history, helped solve the human problem of education and made it a spiritual adventure. On the faculty at the time, too, was John Matthew Manly, the great Shakespearean scholar and future head of the English Department of the University of Chicago. Among other teachers were George Grafton Wilson, the future great authority on international law; James Q. Dealey, also a life-long friend; and, in addition to President Andrews, another remarkable teacher of philosophy, James Seth, who came to Brown in 1892 and later went to Cornell and ultimately to Edinburgh. The courses which McCarthy took 6 were, we see now as a matter of hindsight, a broad basis for his future work. The courses clearly reveal McCarthy's interest in history and in Professor Jameson. The discovery of Mac's intellectual powers has been told by Professor Jameson himself. It illustrates what happens in that fortunate moment in the lives of finely sensitive teachers when they discover a student with a mind and soul of great power. β T h e complete list of the courses is given in an appendix.

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Professor Jameson going on from his comments on McCarthy and football, says: I remember well my rapid conversion from my previous suppositions respecting McCarthy to a real understanding of the man's abilities. It culminated in the reading of the first examination papers, in the first term. There was in that class a young lady of the best traditions in Providence, whose mother had been a scholar before her, who had had every advantage, who was indeed a model of all that is cultivated and refined, and who had an extraordinary intelligence and aptitude for historical study. Her paper, neat and beautifully written, I knew would be nearly perfect—95 per cent. I remember I marked it, much ahead of all others I had seen—for I did not bestow 95's lavishly. But I was deeply affected when I found, on examining the smudgy, formless, roughlooking paper of this poor Irish boy, the son of a workman in shoeshops, the descendant of illiterate peasants, that the actual merits of his paper ran at the same extraordinary level as that of the lady from Providence society who had all the advantages and perfections of Rose Aylmer. This, as to my discovery of McCarthy's mental abilities. Of his character, I think I learned most on an evening, early in that first term, when Mrs. Jameson and I invited all the boys of this small class around to our house. I said to her that this young McCarthy was a rough diamond, and I did not know how he would fit in with an evening party. He had always been shy in his demeanor toward me, with that gravity which the Irishmen in the college, however witty among themselves, almost always put on in the classroom. But the other boys, who knew McCarthy much better than I did, drew him out, and he proved to be the life of the evening. This lay in his telling of many interesting and amusing stories of experience in odd portions of the New England world, for he went about like Socrates, forever asking questions, and storing his mind with knowledge concerning all sorts and conditions of men, their occupations, their amusements, their ways of thinking. I remember that his stories ranged from Chinese market gardeners (it seems there are such in New England), or the games of chance played by newsboys, to the doings of third-rate theatrical companies that would come for one-night stands to the little theatre at Brockton, where he had served as assistant stage carpenter, among the many things to which he had turned his hand by way of making his living. V McCarthy came out of Brown University with a profound respect for the man who was both the president and his teacher of philos-

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ophy. A word of gratitude to " B e n n y " was always on his lips. T h e r e must have been in Andrews's political and educational liberalism much to appeal to McCarthy. As one of his chores Mac had charge of the athletic field, called Lincoln Field. It was surrounded by a wooden fence. T h e students proposed to take the fence for one of the popular and frequent bonfires—but not while Mac was in charge. They came, they talked to Mac, or rather he talked to them, and they went away without the fence. " B e n n y " was near by where he saw and heard the proceeding. He went up to Mac after the students retreated, thanked him for doing his duty and went on. Mac understood that man. As one who has often heard McCarthy's praise and happy memories of President Andrews, I feel that Professor Bronson's description must have caught the spirit of the President: Something more was needed to complete the circuit and send electric currents through the whole. President Andrews proved to be the something more. He was not only a powerful personality—strong of body, intellect, and will, racy in speech, of large outlook, great of heart,— but the avenues of influence between him and other men, particularly young men, were always open. Vitality streamed from him into them, invigorating and ennobling. The range and robustness of his thinking, his absolute fearlessness, the impression he gave of having wrestled with the toughest problems in the spiritual world and come off conqueror, inspired admiration; while his mental hospitality, which was only the intellectual phase of his broad humanity, caused the feeblest mind to feel at home in his presence and begot self-confidence. He made his pupils wish mightily to be bigger men and believe that they could be. In short, he was a great natural leader and inspirer of young men, arousing both their intellectual interests and their personal loyalty in remarkable degree, and hence he was a great teacher and a great college president.7 When Mac won the Justin-Winsor prize, President Andrews was among the first to congratulate him upon his present success and the promise of greater things to come. President Andrews always expressed his faith in McCarthy. When Mac was beginning his third and final year of graduate study, President, then Chancellor, Andrews, of the University of Nebraska, wrote: I am extremely pleased to have a word from you. I cannot tell you how much praise I think due you for your persistence in getting a first class T

W. E. Bronson, The History of Brown University, 1764-1914,

p. 431.

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education. I think you have chosen wisely your places of study and I rejoice in your success. I shall most gladly assist you in every possible way. If you find any place open where you can "buck the line" with my assistance, I shall try to put you through. 8 VI T h e r e was, however, a more direct and continuous influence on McCarthy's life than President Andrews; it was the professor of history, John Franklin Jameson. In 1894-95 McCarthy elected to take three courses with Professor Jameson in English constitutional and political history and in the history of Europe. T h e next year he took three courses with Jameson in the constitutional and political history of the United States and research in American History. A n d in his final year (1896-97) he took with Jameson courses in historical research, historical criticism, and historiography, as well as a special course in A m e r i c a n history, and historical biography and the historical seminar. T h i s was practically the complete roster of the courses that Jameson offered. T o McCarthy these "exacting and difficult" courses proved to be what they were to all students w h o had the courage to take them: "inspiring experiences." Beside its strictly historical and scientific character, Professor Jameson's instruction was characterized by a wealth of wisdom, a far-seeing philosophy, and an unexpected sense of humor. In spite of his reputation as a forbidding instructor, Professor Jameson's personal interest in students was very keen. " H e had in a marked degree a gift for intellectual companionship with his students." 8 T h i s was peculiarly true in his relations with M c C a r t h y to w h o m he wrote on O c t o b e r 30, 1908: You charge me not to reply, but I think I at least owe an annual report. Your letter touched me deeply and did me a great deal of good. It happened to come at a time when I was feeling a good deal discouraged, as the result simply of being very tired, and it cheered me to think that I was held in so much affectionate regard by one of my former students who has made such a career for himself and who has so many other friends. I will not take the credit that you are inclined to give me, for I never did anything else than to express a confidence in your future which I should think any discerning person was bound to feel; nevertheless it is a great satisfaction to have you think thus of me. > Chancellor Andrews to McCarthy, Nov. 2, 1900. * American Historical Review, Jan., 1938, p. 248.

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I was much concerned to hear last winter that you were so run down in health. I am glad to get your present excellent report and to know that you feel confident that you will henceforth be stronger, and more secure in health. I should think that you had hit upon exactly the right expedient, in giving yourself as much open-air life as possible. I think that you, with the athletic habits of your earlier life, must particularly need this when occupied with work as confining as that which your present position imposes. I am sorry that you expect to have a severe fight on your hands. It was to be expected, for the very merit of such a position as you have made of yours consists in defeating special interests opposed to those of the people and those special interests will contend against you. But I do not think that you will mind my giving you a little advice from the point of view of one who values and appreciates you highly, is very proud of your achievements, but who knows well your ancestry and temperament. It is natural to one who comes from a family so abounding in soldiers, and is himself of a temperament so ardent, to take a greater delight in combat than is prudent. On two grounds you should be cautious; One, lest you exhaust your strength by exciting efforts of which a part can be avoided; the other, lest you endanger your cause by tactical mistakes due to the heat of the conflict. I know none of the details of the situation; but let me urge you at all stages of it to make every effort to take the point of view of your opponents; make real to yourself their state of mind respecting you; see how far their opposition is based on reasonable grounds; avoid grouping them as belonging all to one class but separate them into those who can be appeased by change of methods which are indifferent or even faulty, and those who are really opposed at the bottom to your fundamental principles. T h e point is, that I want both on public and on private grounds to see you win, but I also want both on public and on private grounds to see you come out of the struggle with undiminished physical strength and with all that sanity, that ability to "see life steadily and see it whole," which your position requires but which a period of turbulent conflict is apt to impair. You have much fighting blood but are not by nature unteachable, and it is always possible that in time of cool reflection you will see that here and there mistakes of detail have been made which it would be both magnanimous and useful to acknowledge and to rectify. But I said at the beginning that this was to be a report, not a sermon. It was Jameson who i n a special way was McCarthy's f r i e n d on the faculty. It was he who pointed out to M c C a r t h y the desirability of a degree, and undoubtedly made it possible, on his own initiative, for McCarthy to receive the degree w i t h o u t the r e q u i r e d mathematics.

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Jameson found Mac faithful, laborious, successful, and manifesting an "unusual acuteness and originality in his thought and work upon American history in particular." In urging Andrews to help McCarthy to get a position Jameson had written on February 1, 1901: I have seen no graduate who has improved more since he came here, or made a better use of his opportunities here and elsewhere. He has worked hard, has a good deal of knowledge of history and a remarkably original habit of mind toward historical problems. In spite of McCarthy's indifference toward a degree, Professor Jameson urged him to get it. It would save him much explaining as to why he had none, and it would make possible the continuation of his work in a graduate school as Jameson intended. In fact, it was Jameson who first suggested that McCarthy should go to Wisconsin to study under Turner and Haskins. VII McCarthy coached the University of Georgia football in the fall of 1897, just after he graduated from Brown. His team had a highly successful season. While at the university, Mac used part of his time to collect manuscripts and documents for Professor Jameson, and to study law, though he was not formally registered as a student there. He worked on Georgia documents and on the John C. Calhoun papers, and his search for material was very successful; he assembled a valuable collection on economics. He also studied Southern agriculture and started a book on the economic history of the South. This material he worked on later with Ulrich Β. Phillips but though the book was completely outlined and partially organized and written it was never completed. McCarthy tried to get into the Spanish American War, after the formal declaration on April 24, 1898. He was with the third Georgia Regiment for a while, and became ill with malaria. He never reached Cuba; in fact he was never technically mustered into the military service. He was coach again in the fall of 1898 at the University of Georgia, which in this season succeeded in defeating, by a score of 4-0, Vanderbilt University which was supposed to have the best

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team in the South. T h e accidental death of one of the members of his team brought the football season to an abrupt end. 10 McCarthy's urge to continue his education became dominant again, and with the money earned at coaching he went to Wisconsin after the football season primarily to study economics under Dr. Ely, but also with a strong interest in history. A man named Patterson, writing McCarthy later on the stationery of the electrical engineering department to settle the financial account for Mac's coaching at Georgia, referred "to that other debt under which you place us by your gentlemanly conduct, good service, and fight for purity in athletics." 11 VIII After the interlude in Georgia, McCarthy landed in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1898. T h e fact that he had a degree made his admission to the Graduate School easier. It was the presence at Wisconsin of Frederick J. Turner, professor of American history and Charles Homer Haskins, professor of European history, that led Jameson to recommend to McCarthy the continuation of his studies there, and McCarthy was personally attracted by Richard T . Ely. Wisconsin in that day was moving "toward a university." It had been for some time under the formative influence of some strong personalities from Williams College. John Bascom, the greatest president u p to 1898, was a Williams graduate. Edward A. Birge, a great influence in the University and shortly to become acting president, was also from Williams. Birge had been in Wisconsin since 1890, and was to culminate one of the careers of greatest internal influence on the University in a presidency in his own right from 1918 to 1925. Wisconsin's registration figures in that day had just passed the 2,000 mark—which in itself is not educationally significant— and it had some great teachers or scholars (for example, Charles H. Van Hise in geology), the most certain characteristic and essential element of great educational influence. It was still largely a conLetter from Edmund C. Barnett to Edward A. Fitzpatrick, J a n . n , 1941, and Newspapers of the day. 11 Original in McCarthy's Scrapbook, dated July 16, 1900.

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ventional college, but with the increasing student body it was moving into university organization. In 1892 the School of Economics, Political Science and History was placed under Richard T . Ely, and in 1900 the subject of history was placed in a separate school under the direction of Frederick J . Turner. These were departments rather than schools. After Bascom's resignation in 1887, Thomas Crowder Chamberlain, a noted geologist, had been made president, emphasizing the scientific development of the decade. He resigned in 1892 to become head of the Department of Geology at the University of Chicago. Then Charles Kendall Adams, a well-known professor of history at the University of Michigan and a former president of Cornell University, was made president of the University of Wisconsin, where he remained for nine years, 1892-1901. It was while McCarthy was at Brown that Professor Ely was investigated for his radicalism, and, in the Regent's statement exonerating Ely, the famous declaration for academic freedom was made: Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry elsewhere we believe the great State University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found. This incident could not have escaped President Andrews, Professor Jameson, or the young McCarthy. It was during Adams's administration that McCarthy studied at Wisconsin. The University was growing in the number of students, in the number of buildings and in the integration of its organization, but it was not until Van Hise (until that time professor of geology) assumed the presidency in 1903 that the University acquired its great reputation and became almost universally the symbol of the University serving the state, a phase of the "Wisconsin Idea." We expect to show in the sequel that McCarthy had a part —quite a significant part—in that development. McCarthy continued at Wisconsin studying the fields in which he specialized at Brown: history, economics, and political science, but he developed no such intellectual camaraderie with the professors as he had enjoyed with Jameson at Brown. If McCarthy was looking forward to any vocation at this time it was a college

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professorship. T h i s was Jameson's idea, but one in which T u r n e r did not so heartily enter. McCarthy also considered entering a diplomatic career; his selection of courses testifies to such an idea. His courses—they are listed in an appendix—were evidence of a broad-based training rather than a narrow specialism. Surely, there is no clue to the special problems which he was to deal with in his lifework. It may be noted here that the lifework depended in the first place on the accidental availability of a particular job in 1901, and then on the creative work of McCarthy himself in giving new meaning, direction, and form to that job. IX McCarthy made an excellent record as a student, as his grades show." It is indicated, too, by the fact that he was made a scholar in American History for 1899-1900, and a fellow for his final year, which followed. He received his Ph.D. in J u n e , 1901. His thesis dealt with the Anti-Masonic Party, and was awarded the JustinWinsor Prize by a committee of the American Historical Association in 1902. President Andrews, Chancellor of the University of Nebraska at the time, wrote on January 8, 1903: Am delighted for you. It is an immense credit to you and I believe heralds still greater things. Professor Haskins, who knew nothing about the fact that McCarthy submitted his thesis for the prize, says that when the announcement was made he exchanged satisfied glances with Jameson and adds: " Y o u have abundantly carried the prize and it is a great pleasure to all your old instructors to see you get it." Jameson wrote simply, the very night of the announcement, in his own handwriting: " I am very proud of you." McCarthy now had his Ph.D. in the record, if not under his arm. Whither was he to go? Was he at last to start out on an academic career leading to a professorship in history at Weissnichtwo? T u r n e r had some qualms of conscience about recommending McCarthy either for the diplomatic service or for an academic career. It was 12 T h e story of McCarthy's football activities at the University of Wisconsin extends into a later period and is told in Chapter X V I .

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not McCarthy's lack of scholarship that made T u r n e r hesitate but it may have been because of the old indifference to dress, and a certain rugged—even at times, ungrammatical—speech that did not fit in exactly with the academic cloisters and the niceties of diplomatic conversation, though, it may be added, Mac could be suave. This is a matter of oral tradition. But in any case the problem was to be happily solved. McCarthy had been visiting the legislature frequently during the session of 1901 and had acted as a volunteer aide to legislators and to Frank A. Hutchins, then secretary of the Free Library Commission. T h e 1901 legislature made a small appropriation to Mr. Hutchins, for an assistant in charge of public documents and other legislative information. Mr. Hutchins went to T u r n e r for a recommendation. T h e result of the conference was McCarthy's recommendation as the "document clerk." In the following October (1901) he began the official career in the Wisconsin public service which was to mean so much for the American democracy and for democratic education. T h e act creating the new position was published April 17, 1 9 0 1 , and became law on publication. Hutchins must have immediately communicated with T u r n e r and McCarthy was advised as to their decision. T h e good news was communicated to Jameson, who replied on J u n e 6, 1901: I am delighted to hear of your good fortune. The position is one for which you are admirably adapted, not only by what you have acquired in the way of scholarship but also by what you have acquired by going about among men and keeping your eyes open so that you will appreciate the scope and bearing of "An Act for the Amendment of an Act Concerning Shad and Alewife Fishing," or "An Act Concerning Butterine," or "An Act Concerning Paper Cop Tubes" in a way impossible to the ordinary scholastic. The office is something I had not heard of before but it surely is an exceedingly useful one and will give you an opportunity to influence materially the legislation of a great state, making it constantly more intelligent and scientific. I have no doubt Dr. Turner is right in advising you to take the position and in saying that you can make it, in some degree, what you please. You know the medieval maxim: Boni judiéis est ampliare jurisdictionem, and, as every young Irishman is half politician, I shall feel sure that you will acquire all the influence with the members of the legislature which a trained bibliographical adviser could and should exert. I think you

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will like the place. Meantime, the advantage of continuing in the neighborhood of the school of history will be great. I congratulate you heartily. 1 · X McCarthy was married to Miss Lucile Schreiber, the daughter ot his landlady, in Madison, Wisconsin, on Thursday, September 26, 1901. This event can best be described in some letters that passed between McCarthy and his schoolmate, J o h n D. Rockefeller, J r . , who was married at about the same time. T h e correspondence shows the warm relation that existed between these two diverse characters. Mac's first letter on the subject to Rockefeller, in September, 1 9 0 1 , is moreover significant because it illustrates in advance his attitude toward the new job: I am delighted to hear of your marriage. . . . As you know, perhaps, I got my Ph.D. last June and was appointed to a position. My work in the future is an entirely new thing. I write to the legislators and find what bills they are to present and then look up the legislation upon the subject and the results in every state in the Union. I am in fact a sort of legislation expert for the Wisconsin legislature. The position is a powerful non-political one. I see before me a field between the theoretical work of the University and the practical work of the legislature which has never been touched. The University is behind me and I have a semi-official connection with it. I would rather take this than a professorship as it will give a far wider field. T h e r e is also in the letter a note that will be heard often in the subsequent years, of McCarthy's overworking and his consequent illness. In fact, this is almost a chronic condition. T h e r e is, too, the concluding note of dedication—usefulness to his fellow men, not happiness is his end. I worked hard upon my position all summer and came near breaking down. I have been for years living in attics, eating any old thing, working day and night and I have come to the conclusion that in a long race the slow horse sometimes wins, and so I decided to have a home. I have married a quiet little southern girl who has been up north as a post graduate student in the University of Wisconsin for the last two years. I am still pretty rough and need the corners knocked off if I am to 1 3 This letter is pasted in McCarthy's college scrapbook, now in possession of his daughter, Katherine.

EDUCATION,

MARRIAGE,

AND A JOB

29

succeed. I have but little money but decided to go ahead. I am aware that I owe you money and will pay it to you I hope shortly. I have it, but thought it wise to keep it a little longer as I do not want to be without anything. . . . It is a wonderful thing, John, to have a home and sympathy and encouragement and even as rough a fellow as I can appreciate such things. I can give you no wedding present but the sincere wish that you will be as happy as I am. I have struggled hard against poverty and my own mental deficiencies and I see now plainer than ever some sort of a light or hope for the future. I only hope that before I die I can look back and see that I have been some use to the world. Usefulness is first in my ideal of life, happiness is only secondary. I will try to live up to that ideal. On October 3, Rockefeller responds in a deeply appreciative and gracious manner: Your letter and the announcement of your marriage are both received with much pleasure. I am very glad to send you my heartiest congratulations at the beginning of the new life upon which you have entered. May it have in store for you great happiness and rich blessings! Your own good wishes upon my approaching marriage are very deeply appreciated. I can at this time very well understand how much this change in your life means to you. I value more highly your good wishes than any present which money could buy, because I know that they are sincere and that they come from a man whose heart is as true as steel, whose integrity of purpose, whose perseverance and whose high ideals I always have and always shall admire. Your life has been one of struggle from the first. I am sure you will make it a useful life, but quite aside from that the example which you have always been to other men is of far greater weight than you will ever know. I likewise am not going to send you a wedding present other than the good wishes which I have already expressed and the enclosed statement of your account with me, the unpaid balance of which I am glad to cancel. 11 Because we shall have to examine in detail McCarthy's relations to Rockefeller in connection with the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations, it will be helpful at this stage to give more fully the further exchange of correspondence because of its revelation of the depth and warmth of this friendship. Three days after hearing from Rockefeller, McCarthy replied: 14 This referred to a note of $250 for money which McCarthy borrowed while he was at college. T h e record of indebtedness was insisted on, we can be sure, by McCarthy and not Rockefeller.

3o

EDUCATION,

MARRIAGE,

AND

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JOB

I thank you sincerely for your kind offer and for your kinder words. I have done nothing to merit either. I will, however, pay you the money some day in spite of the cancellation. I owe it and will pay it some time when everything is not quite so tight as at present. Later " M a c k " sent to J o h n D., J r . , pictures of himself and Lucile, his wife. O n J a n u a r y 18, 1902, R o c k e f e l l e r makes acknowledgment in a friendly, almost playful spirit: I am greatly delighted with the pictures of yourself and your wife just received. While I should still recognize the same old Mack, you have nevertheless changed wonderfully. I think married life and having a wife to look out for you have already done you an immense amount of good. In this picture of you I see Mack, the Professor, rather than Mack, the football player. From the picture of your wife I can congratulate you the more heartily upon being married. She looks like a very bright and charming woman and I am sure she will be as good and true to you as you will be to her. Thank you many times for the pictures. O n the next day R o c k e f e l l e r writes again. Mac has sent his check in f u l l payment of his debt a n d the interest, and with resignation R o c k e f e l l e r accepts it: I have your letter of January 10th, enclosing check. I wish very much you had not sent me this check because I had thoroughly enjoyed sending you the cancelled note as a wedding present. Now you are really returning my wedding present. I always regarded the loan as a business arrangement and was perfectly confident that you would pay it, but I did take great pleasure in cancelling it as a wedding present and had hoped you would let me participate in the wedding festivities. From what you say, I am afraid you are working too hard. You must be careful not to overdo because nothing is of any value if a man loses his health. Please convey my kind regards to your wife. A t the same time, frustrated by M a c , R o c k e f e l l e r addresses Mrs. M c C a r t h y hoping to learn of some acceptable present he could send: Although I have never had the pleasure of meeting you personally, because of my long continued friendship with your husband I am taking the liberty of writing you. At the time of your wedding, I endeavored to do myself the pleasure of making Charley a little wedding present, of which you may or may not know. I am just in receipt of a letter from him, returning what I had hoped he would accept as a token of good will from me at the time of his marriage. I shall feel very badly if he does not allow me to send

EDUCATION, MARRIAGE, AND A JOB

31

some wedding present and am writing you for counsel and advice. Will you not either allow me to send you my check and put on you the burden of purchasing something for the home or for personal use which you and he would really enjoy, or, if you prefer, will you not indicate to me something which you and he would like and that I can purchase here? Of course I can select some present here, but I should enjoy so much more to make a gift which was just what you and he might enjoy. Since Charley is so obstinate about this I sincerely hope you will come to my rescue and write me as frankly as I have you. May I at this time congratulate you, as I have Charley, upon your marriage? In Charley you have a husband whom you can trust absolutely. A firmer, truer friend I have never known, and I want you to know how much I admire him and what pride and satisfaction I take in his rapid advancement and success. But Mrs. McCarthy went to Mac with Rockefeller's letter and Mac said he would take care of it, and he did, by never mentioning it. Mrs. McCarthy acknowledged Mr. Rockefeller's letter, but made no reference to the present, but glowing in the warmth of Rockefeller's words about Charley, said: I take great pleasure in acknowledging the generous words you speak of my husband. No one knows better than I how true they are. XI T h e period of the Lehrjahre was over. Formal education with its credits, its degrees and diplomas was about to end. What is the man's work which he yearned for? What is the good that he wants to do to the "sons of men or ever he comes to die?" Early in 1901, no one knew the answers to these questions. In April Mac knew what work he was to do beginning in October, but even then the answer to the questions which we have asked were not clear to any man, although in a strange way Jameson's letter in April anticipated the nature of the service though the form of it was not definite. McCarthy's marriage had settled the problems of his lonely and itinerant life. Let us see how the work developed and what were its backgrounds. He was ready to accept with eagerness and expectancy the challenge of the new opportunity.

Chapter THE

III

WISCONSIN

SOIL

P

in the eighteen nineties in the United States called forth the muckraker of the first decade of the new century. Wisconsin was in no better state than the rest of the country; the situation there furnished ample basis for the L a Follette protests and the La Follette campaigns. T h i s made the more significant McCarthy's social invention, called the Legislative Reference Library, which organized constructively the means for meeting the political and economic problems of that day—or any day. O L I T I C A L CONDITIONS

T h e effects of the Industrial or Economic Revolution had gathered force with ever greater momentum, and had given rise to an inevitable concentration of wealth and the appearance of what Theodore Roosevelt was to call the "malefactors of great wealth." Business success Avas glorified if not deified. We were achieving what Speaker Reed called a billion-dollar Congress. Bribery and corruption of public officials mounted to a point that was labeled by one writer the "Treason of the Senate." B u t in spite of the urge to reform and the spate of the "literature of exposure," in 1906 Roosevelt credited to Ε. H. Harriman the statement that " h e could buy a sufficient number of Senators and Congressmen or State Legislators to protect his interest and when necessary he could buy the Judiciary." 1 T h e prevailing political philosophy ivas that of laissez faire. Immense corporations were organized, monopolies were developed from business consolidation, and a "money power" developed that was stronger than the government. T h e r e were trusts and there was William Jennings Bryan. T h e billion-dollar U.S. Steel Corporation was organized in 1901, and the next year the five leading 1 A r t h u r M. Schlesinger, Political

'933. P· 3*6-

and Social

Growth

of the United

States,

1852-

THE

WISCONSIN

SOIL

33

farm-tool manufacturing concerns became the powerful International Harvester Company. T h e Spanish American War gave emphasis to an imperialistic trend. America was to become a world power. W e secured Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines; Cuba we were to occupy temporarily, preparatory to insular independence. Spain, as a result of that war, was expelled from the Western Hemisphere. In view of recent history, it is interesting to note the statement of the National Democratic platform in 1900, regarding Republican imperialism and manifest destiny. T h e platform affirms the Monroe Doctrine in all its integrity as necessary to prevent extension of European authority on these continents and as essential to our supremacy in American affairs, and declaring "that no American people shall ever be held by force in unwilling subjection to European authority," continues: We oppose militarism. It means conquest abroad and intimidation and oppression at home. . . . It will impose upon our peace-loving people a large standing army, an unnecessary burden of taxation; and would be a constant menace to their liberties. . . . When the Nation is in danger the volunteer soldier is his country's best defender. . . . For the first time in our history and co-eval with the Philippine conquest has there been a wholesale departure from our time-honored and approved system of volunteer organization. We denounce it as unAmerican, undemocratic and unrepublican and as a subversion of the ancient and fixed principles of a free people.2 II Within the physical limits of Wisconsin there are about 55,000 square miles of land and 800 square miles of water. This territory had been claimed for Spain (1512-1634), and was under the jurisdiction of French kings (1634-1763), and of English kings (1763— 1783). It had been a part of the Northwest Territory and of the territories of Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan before it became the Territory of Wisconsin in 1836. There were boundary disputes, which, if they had not been settled at 42° 31', the present boundary, would have made Chicago a part of the State of Wisconsin. What a change in Wisconsin history 2 Democratic National Platform, adopted at Kansas City, July 5, 1900, quoted from the Wisconsin Blue Book, 1901, p. 696.

34

T H E WISCONSIN

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that undoubtedly would have made I When Wisconsin became a state in 1848, it had a population of about 300,000. In 1890 this had increased to more than a million and a half (1,693,320) and during the eighteen nineties it had further increased to more than two million (2,069,042). While the population was largely rural in character, a considerable urban-industrial development centered in the southeast around Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha. Immigrants poured into the state from the beginning of its organization until 1910. In 1850, a little over 35 percent of the three hundred thousand people in the state were foreign born; in 1890, not quite 31 percent, and this proportion has naturally been greatly diminished in successive decades. In 1850 the immigration was from Germany, Ireland, England, Norway, and Canada, in the order named. At the beginning of the eighteen nineties this order had changed to Germany, Norway, Ireland, Canada, and England. By the end of the decade, Poland and Sweden had supplanted Ireland and England, and thereafter the Polish population climbed rapidly. Ill Wisconsin was rich in forests, rich in pasture, rich in farmland, in lakes and water power—and weak in government; not that virile men were lacking, but that "public service as a public trust" was not the dominant conception. T h e lumber barons and their story is told in the wasted cut-over lands of the state. Lumber and timber products, the second leading industry in 1880 with a value of over eighteen million dollars, had, in 1890 and 1900, become the leading industry, with a value of almost sixty-one million and of over fifty-seven million in 1900. It continued to be the leading industry in 1910, but in ig20 it slipped to seventh place, though the value of its products was almost eighty-nine million dollars. Butter and cheese had in the meantime taken first place, with an annual value of over two hundred and twenty-one millions. T h e manufacture of motor cars and foundry and machine-shop products and other manufactures were rapidly forging to the front. Politics was a game closely related to economic interests. It was, at times, a venal game with large stakes, as in the pocketing by the

T H E WISCONSIN SOIL

35

state treasurers of the interest on public funds running into the tens of thousands. Groups of professionals—what President Lowell called political brokers—attended to the political machine, controlled conventions, approved nominees, and watched legislation closely. These were strong men, vigorous men, but a noble concept of the public interest was not, by any means, the controlling motive and a high moral conscience did not rule the political game. Loyalty to the leader and the machine was the great virtue and disloyalty the great sin. William D. Hoard, who became governor in 1890, followed Jeremiah Rusk, who had been governor for seven years (188289). The Democratic reaction of 1891 was accented greatly by the passage of the Bennet Law requiring all instruction in public schools to be in English; this, however, was interpreted as an attack on Lutheran and Catholic parochial schools. T h e author of Peck's Bad Boy, a Milwaukee newspaper man, was elected on the Democratic ticket in 1890 and reelected in 1892. T h e A.P.A. was powerful. Strong nativistic feelings were aroused and found their way into politics. Upham was elected in 1894; Scofield succeeded him in 1896 and was reelected in 1898. La Follette was elected in 1900 and became governor on January 4, 1901. Government in the nineties had little of the crusading spirit and almost nothing of a constructive character in promoting the public welfare. During these ten years, A. R. Hall continued to thunder against the railroads and the iniquity of free passes and rebates. His efforts resulted in a constitutional amendment forbidding the issue of passes to political committees, candidates for offices, or incumbents of any office or position under the state. After the depression of 1893 when the Republicans came into power, there were already signs of the rift which ultimately divided the party into the Stalwart and Progressive factions. The Wisconsin administrations were businesslike within the scope of government as conceived at the time, but there were anticipatory rumblings of a changing era. IV In this political scene, McCarthy found the basis and justification for his own work and for what he called the "Wisconsin idea." T h e newspaper headlines of the day pointed up the main issues: mo-

36

THE WISCONSIN

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nopoly, trusts, tariffs, the high cost of living, and predatory wealth. What was back of these things? "Always the same," he answered; "something strong and oppressive, almost unreachable, in some way entangled with courts, lawyers and litigation—always having the power to attain its object—always possessing Force." As a result of this social force gained through monopoly, both natural and artificial, there developed on the one side a concentration of wealth, wielding the power of money and its corrupting social influence, and on the other an increasing poverty of the American people. McCarthy explained this in one of those simple charts 8 that he scrawled out and used so effectively with legislatures:

STAGE WEALTH

I

STAGE

2

STAGE

WEALTH

WEALTH I

AMERICAN PEOPLE

AMERICAN PEOPLE

1850

1912

POVERTY

POVERTY

3 J

POVERTY

This theory of social dynamics was at the basis of all McCarthy's thought and action, but there was no one categorical explanation of what was needed. There were many things to be done: "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." * « McCarthy, The Wisconsin Idea, p. 8.

* Ibid., p. 16.

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37

These were not to be achieved by means of a panacea, or the perfect project, or a blueprint, but only, as we shall see, by trial and error, by patient research, by careful experimentation. T h e point of view from which McCarthy's work must be viewed is indicated in his warning to the reader of the Wisconsin Idea. It will be helpful to us as we watch it grow in the pages that follow. T h e reader will be disappointed if he expects certain vivid pictures of perfect legislation or administration or clear-cut philosophy. He will find, on the contrary, a seemly comprehension of the difficulties of the problem . . . 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 everywhere. It will be explained how one piece of machinery made another necessary, how educational, industrial and welfare legislation were deemed the wise and necessary 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 demanded it—the cause of the supreme struggle with which the movement began and with which every milestone is marked.' From T e d d y Roosevelt's introduction to The Wisconsin Idea we know what appealed to him in the program: the laboratory of wise experimental legislation; the great concern about good works rather than faith only; the patient work and hard study to develop constructive machinery and the consequent rejection of any one patent remedy for universal reform. We shall see that it is to McCarthy more than to any other person that these characteristics of the Wisconsin program are due. T h e political-economic conditions in the nation and the state were the basis of the literature of exposure which the muckrakers wrote beginning in 1902.a McCarthy was glad to see the work of the muckrakers, and assisted them whenever they sought his help in the accumulation of data; but their methods were not his methods. s Ibid., pp. 17-18. «Ida M. Tarbell's "History of the Standard Oil C o m p a n y " (McClure's, 1902); T h o m a s VV. Lawson's "Frenzied Finance" (Everybody's Magazine, 1904-5); David Graham Phillip's " T h e Treason of the Senate" (Cosmopolitan, 1906); Lincoln Steffens' "Shame of the Cities" (McClure's), and "Enemies of the Republic" (McClure's); Ray Stannard Baker's " T h e Railroads on T r i a l " (McClure's, 1905-6).

38

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H e had the passion of the best of them to discover the facts and the conditions, but usually their interest stopped with the exposure, whereas McCarthy's interest only began there. He then looked for the social means to equalize the forces in the particular problem of social dynamics which he faced: political leaders were to be in the foreground as they were in Wisconsin, helping to create and sustain a public opinion as to social objectives, but in the background there was to be a social engineer who would implement the program. V L a Follette came upon the Wisconsin political scene at the beginning of the eighties. He was a young lawyer, a recent graduate of the University, who, as numerous other young lawyers had done in Wisconsin and elsewhere, sought the job of local district attorney as a means to ultimate professional success. No consuming passion for public service possessed him. T h a t was to come later. H e was in conflict with the bosses when he sought the district attorney's office in 1880. However, he proceeded with his campaign and was elected. After four years in office he ran for Congress, and against the will of the local political power, was elected to the House of Representatives; he was twice reelected, but was defeated in the Democratic landslide of 1890. In these days La Follette was regular in his Republicanism. According to L a Follette himself in 1891, he changed his political views as the result of an incident famous in Wisconsin history. Sawyer, a dominant political figure and a United States Senator, was one of the bondsmen for the state treasurers who were being sued to return to the state $300,000 which they had collected as interest on state funds and personally pocketed. T h e cases were being tried in the Circuit Court of Dane County over which Robert G . Siebecker presided. J u d g e Siebecker had formerly been the law partner, and was the brother-in-law, of La Follette. According to L a Follette, Sawyer wished to retain him to influence J u d g e Siebecker to decide the cases "right." Sawyer's version was that he retained La Follette as a lawyer and did not know he was the brother-in-law of J u d g e Siebecker, though he must have known he had been his law partner. Whatever the fact, La Follette tells in

THE

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39

his Autobiography of the decision that resulted from his own understanding of the incident: So out of this awful ordeal came understanding, and out of understanding came resolution. I determined that the power of this corrupt influence, which was undermining every semblance of representative government in Wisconsin, should be broken. . . . I knew that Sawyer and those allied with him were allied with the railroads, the big business interests, the press, the leading politicians of every community. I knew that the struggle would be a long one, that I would have to encounter defeat again and again, but my resolution never faltered.7 VI McCarthy came upon the scene at the moment of La Follette's election to the governorship in the fall of 1900. T h e social and economic conditions were not changed by the election. La Follette was governor, but he did not control the legislature. T h e fact that the opposition was in control was further complicated by rudimentary methods of conducting legislative business that made manipulation easily possible. A number of years later McCarthy described the legislative conditions as they were in 1901. He says: Eleven years ago there were about seventy women employed to engross the bills of the legislature in long hand; there was scarcely a typewriter 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 member to find an attorney to draft a bill for him for a small fee, especially if the bill was aimed at some corporation 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 employers, 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 " I.a Follette, Autobiography

(Madison, Wis., 1913). p. 164.

40

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"hold up man" was prominent; one man every session brought a trunk full of "strike" bills to be distributed among his loyal supporters. T h e hotels and saloons flourished and there was much money in evidence.8 A l t h o u g h the lobby was omnipresent and powerful the undercurrent of reform had expressed itself in the 1899 legislature, for the Wisconsin Republican platform of August 8, 1900, says, We approve the action of the last legislature in imposing street regulations on lobbying at the state capítol, and demand such further legislation as shall restrict the lobby to legitimate argument before legislative committees.® Such, in a general way, is the picture of Wisconsin at the beginn i n g of the century just before McCarthy was made a "document c l e r k " in the Free Library Commission. T h e Legislative Reference Library as a developed institution came later. T h i s is the "soil" out of which it grew and developed. 8 8

McCarthy, The Wisconsin Idea, p. 164. Wisconsin Republican Platform in Wisconsin Blue Book (1901), p. 691.

Chapter IV THE

LEGISLATIVE ITS

I

REFERENCE

LIBRARY:

BEGINNINGS

to The Wisconsin Idea McCarthy writes, "I, a wandering student, seeking knowledge, came knocking 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." Through the years the kindly people of the state did extend welcoming hands and encourage him in his great work. It was, however, not a work ready-made. T h e need for it was hardly perceived by the leaders of Wisconsin, and certainly not at all by the people. Neither the job nor the work was fully conceived even in McCarthy's own mind. What was begun in 1901 was not so much a legislative reference library as the germinal possibilities of one — a n institution as unique as McCarthy himself, and one that grew in service and idea as it served. T h e formal statement that the Legislative Reference Library was started in 1901 is less in keeping with the facts than the traditional story of its origin. T h e new building of the Historical Society had been completed in Governor Scofield's administration and to it the society moved its nicely bound volumes. T h e story goes that in 1901 a legislator went to the library to find some information; his search of the massive volumes of laws had obviously produced no result. Mac, as was his wont, approached the stranger and asked whether there was anything he could do to help. T h e legislator explained what he was looking for and in a short time Mac found the material. This, tradition has it, was the beginning of the Legislative Reference Library. So far as I know, the legislator has never been identified nor has the subject of his search. Mr. Sheldon is probably right in remarking that the library "had its N THE INTRODUCTION

42

LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE

LIBRARY

origin in the accidental meeting of an opportunity and a shrewd Irish intellect." 1 As the sequel showed, it was surely a combination of an opportunity and a person possessed of imagination, intellect and personality prepared by experience, by study and by predilection to make it a constructive service for the "kindly people of the state," for the nation and for humanity. II What was the opportunity? Or, rather, what was the situation? For it was McCarthy who made of the situation his opportunity. In January, 1901, when the legislature met, McCarthy was almost twenty-eight years of age, a student in the graduate school of the University of Wisconsin completing his work for the coveted Ph.D. degree in June. T o Frank A. Hutchins, the secretary of the Free Library Commission, Mac offered his services to help legislators. No fully conceived legislative reference library was in Mac's mind nor in Hutchins's. T h e practical problem of filling the void created by the removal of books and documents of the State Historical Society to its newly completed building at the other end of State Street must be met. T h e Historical Society's collections had apparently been of some service to the legislature. Mac's offer of his services at this time was the more acceptable because of the special need, apparent to Hutchins, for help to the legislators. Hutchins saw in McCarthy's warm, sacrificing, informed nature, a personality of great potentialities, as McCarthy was himself to discover potentialities in many who crossed his path. McCarthy saw much in Hutchins, too, "the great seer and warm-hearted idealist," as he called him in The Wisconsin Idea. III T h e Free Library Commission had been created by an act of the legislature in 1895. The Commission consisted of the President of the University, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Superintendent of the State Historical Society and two members appointed by the Governor. Its duties were to "give advice and 1 Addison E. Sheldon, "Legislative Reference Department," Nebraska Library Bulletin, Nov., 1903, p. 3.

LEGISLATIVE

REFERENCE LIBRARY

43

counsel to all free libraries in the state, and all communities which may propose to establish them as to the best means of establishing and administering such libraries, the selection of books, cataloging was and other details of library management." In 1897 given larger "means and duties," and from that time on, Hutchins devoted full time to his work as secretary. T h e Commission stimulated an unprecedented growth of public libraries, and private benefaction to libraries; it established summer training for librarians in connection with the University of Wisconsin; and developed with great success traveling libraries. This was hardly the place to have assigned the legislative reference and drafting service if anyone at the time had realized at all into what the service was going to develop. As it turned out, it was a good place for the "library" to be. T h e Commission served as an excellent "interference" for those who were carrying the ball. This function has been performed down to this day. Commons makes two observations in his discussion of placing the library under the Free Library Commission—both of which are true: the ex-officio character of the Free Library Commission with its distinguished members made the position practically a "permanent civil service appointment, independent of party politics"; and when the political attack came, this "peculiar" location of the library "made its head immune from political attacks" (that is, successful political attacks). It left the legislature of course free to do anything which a majority of both houses wished to do. IV T h e legal beginning of the Legislative Reference Library was the passage of Chapter 168 of the Laws of 1901. T h e law was entitled "An Act to provide for the cataloging and library distribution of public documents by the Wisconsin free library commission, and otherwise extending and defining the duties of said commission, and making an appropriation therefor, and adding sections 373c, 373 d - 373f> 373g' 373 h · a n d 373 l · t o t h e statutes of 1898." T h e Act as shown in its complete form in the Appendix provides for the making of check lists, cards, and supplementary lists of public documents, their printing and distribution. T h e public printer is to furnish the Commission with copies of all public doc-

44

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uments. However, the significant section from the standpoint of legislative reference work is Section 373f. T h e said commission is also authorized and directed to maintain in the state capítol, for the use and information of the legislature, the several state departments, and such other citizens as may desire to consult the same, a working librar)', as complete as may be, of the several documents of this and other states; and to purchase for said library standard works of use and references. The said commission is also hereby authorized and directed to co-operate, during sessions of the legislature, with the secretary and superintendent of the State Historical society of Wisconsin, as trustee of the state, with a view to a joint arrangement, by which the needs of the legislature in the matter of general books of reference may be met to the fullest possible extent; and said commission shall give such space within its rooms to books brought to the capítol by said society for such purpose, as may be jointly agreed upon between them.s While supposedly making an appropriation for the Legislative Reference Library, the bill actually did not make one. T h e appropriation section of the act as published reads: For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act, there shall be and is hereby annually appropriated to the Wisconsin Free Library Commission from any money in the general fund not otherwise appropriated, not in addition to such sums as have been heretofore appropriated, the sum of fifteen hundred dollars. Here is a little joker, accidental in this case, which illustrates the need for the service that McCarthy was to contribute. T h e second " n o t " (in italics) clearly invalidates the appropriation. In the handwritten report of the Committee which was finally passed, the word was " a n d " ; in the final "enrolled" form of the bill, handwritten in a big round hand, the word "not" appears, and this is the copy signed by the presiding officers of both houses of the legislature and by Governor L a Follette. T h e copy contained in the session laws of 1901 as published included the word "not." T h i s is now merely a curiosity. N o one at the time apparently discovered it, and the funds of the appropriations were paid as expended. La Follette signed the bill in his first term as governor. Concerning it, he said in his message to the legislature of 1903: ' Wisconsin Laws of 1901, Chapter 168.

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Incidental to its general plan and purpose this commission has accumulated in its collection of literature the foundation of a legislative and administrative reference library to assist lawmakers and administrative officers in the performance of their duties. T h e value of such a library, properly classified, catalogued and indexed, and kept within the reasonable limits of public documents and works pertinent to legislation, will suggest itself to each one of you. T o establish this an appropriation of $2500 was asked for by the commission two years ago. It was cut down to 51500, which is insufficient. I recommend that provision be made for permanent quarters for such a library within the Capitol and that a small additional appropriation, not to exceed $1000 per annum, be made for the maintenance and conduct of the work. Such an expenditure will be saved many times over in actual expense of investigation, as well as in the work of legislators and state officers during each legislative session. Mac's name first appeared on the pay roll for the month of October, 1901, as "document cataloger" at a monthly salary of $83.33. V Illustrative of the trend that the new document clerk was to give to legislation is the first circular sent to newly elected members of the legislature and to holdover Senators, immediately after the election of 1902. Dated November 10, 1902, it reads as follows: T h e Wisconsin legislature of 1901 authorized the Wisconsin Free Library Commission to gather for the use of members of the legislature and executive officers of the state such reports, bills and laws, from this and other states, as would aid them in their official duties. T h e Commission has not had the room, printed material or the force, to gather and arrange a very large amount of the required material, but it has much that is valuable to the student of state affairs. It desires to make such material of the utmost use and wishes you to call upon it for any aid in your legislative duties which it can give. If you will inform us as to any subjects you wish to investigate we will, as far as we have the material, inform you. 1. In what states laws on the subject have been passed. 2. Where bills for similar laws are under discussion. 3. What bills on the subject have been introduced in our legislature recently and failed. 4. What and where valuable discussions of the subject may be obtained. As far as possible, with our limited force and means, we will send you abstracts of useful material relating to the subject, which we may have.

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It is not our province to convince members of the legislature upon disputed points. We shall simply aid them to get material to study more intelligently subjects in which they are interested as public officials. Yours very truly, CHARLES M C C A R T H Y

3

W h a t the response was, and how the M c C a r t h y plan w o r k e d in these early days is described by J o h n R . C o m m o n s : Over one hundred requests came in, and [McCarthy] forwarded by mail his clippings, pamphlets, and bills. When the legislature assembled he moved his collection to a room on the same floor. He circulated among the members, brought them to his library, and showed them what he had. He learned what they wanted and, if he did not have it on hand, he immediately wrote or wired to all parts of the country to get it. . . . N o member was left to read through a lot of treatises or law books and laboriously digest a subject, but Dr. McCarthy put in his hands the already digested work of others who were studying or acting on the same line. When the committees were appointed and began their work he helped them in the same way. He sent hundreds of copies of their bills to experts, commissions, lawyers, and informed citizens in Wisconsin and other States, asking for criticisms, improvements, and accounts of whatever experience they might have had on the points involved. 4 VI In the T h i r d A n n u a l R e p o r t ( 1 9 0 1 - 2 ) of the Free L i b r a r y Commission under the heading of the D e p a r t m e n t of State Documents, a list of the work accomplished is g i v e n a f t e r the a n n o u n c e m e n t that " C h a r l e s McCarthy, Ph.D., was appointed to conduct this department and began work October 1, 1 9 0 1 . " T h i s is what he had undertaken or accomplished: 1. An analytical list of our state documents from the beginning of the state has been completed. 2. Nearly a complete set of the state publications has been gathered. 3. T h e indexing of over 275 volumes and pamphlets on agriculture was nearing completion. ["Material," says the Commission," now thrown away or left idly standing upon dusty shelves."] 4. Effort has been made to get bills and reports of prospective legislative interest. 3

Original in McCarthy's scrapbook, in possession of Katherine O. McCarthy. * Commons, "One Way to Get Sane Legislation," Revieiu of Reviews, December, 1905.

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5. A most complete collection of material on primary election has been made. 6. An index of 3,000 bills of the last two sessions has been made and a card catalogue of them is in progress. 7. This index is part of a project to index and catalog all bills in the previous five sessions. T h e report concludes almost naively: "This department needs a larger appropriation if it is to be widely useful to the people of the state." T h e report for 1903-4 noted that files of the Wisconsin Assembly and Senate bills had been collected and "an index made for those of the last four sessions." T h e legislative bills of other states had been collected. Significant is the passage: " N o attempt is made to gather historical material of any kind, it being the aim to make a working library of the greatest practical value to members of the legislature and to state departments." T h e library at this time included "a nearly complete file of Wisconsin documents, documents of other states, pamphlets, speeches, and clippings collected from many sources, and a few reference books on special subjects." VII T h e work done by the New York State Library prior to 1901 was valuable and significant, but it was not the forerunner of the McCarthy idea. State libraries were organized to render a service to all branches of "government but when [one of them] was effective it became a library for the Supreme Court." With absurdly small pecuniary means, without expert management, often the plaything of the lowest sort of politics, many of these state libraries, said Ernest Bruncken 0 in 1907, dragged on a miserable and useless existence. T h e merely custodian phase of state library work was passing and New York had become a leader in the movement. In 1891 under the direction of Melvil Dewey the New York State Library began the publications of bulletins on state legislation. T h i s work was continued under able men as sociology librarians, W . B. Shaw, E. Dana Durand, the future head of the census, and notably Dr. Robert H. Whitten. T h e material thus prepared in New York was s The Legislative Reference Bureau, ment, Vol. II, No. 1, February, 1907.

News Notes of California Libraries, Supple-

48

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used by the Wisconsin legislative library service from its beginning. T h i s "Sociology Division" of the New York State Library, particularly because of its annual publication of a comparative summary and index of state legislation (from 1890), a review of legislation (from 1901), and a digest of governors' messages (from 1902) was the conventional conception of library service, though a long step ahead of the mere custody of books. But, as Mr. Bruncken notes, the effort was quite different from what we call legislative reference as McCarthy worked it out. New York's experience indicates another aspect of the work: that the mere creation of material and classifying it ready for use does not also create the demand for it nor the use of it. T h e librarian in New York wrote to members of the legislature stating that he was ready and willing to help them. He waited in his office for the legislators to flock to him. T h e y did not. T h e y were too busy and, in any case, they had not formed the habit of going to librarians for assistance.® McCarthy had a solution for this problem. T o the visitor who came from outside of the state or from the sticks of Wisconsin, great or small, important or unknown, he must explain the Legislative Reference Library, and exhibit the library. It was truly a passion with him and no child was ever more fondly exhibited by its mother than was this intellectual child of McCarthy's. T h e magic with which, out of his head or out of his files, he gave people the information they needed, exactly in the form they wished it, must have made an impression on legislators even from the first day—particularly when the information came out of his head. J o h n R . Commons, as a visitor, has left a record of his impressions. He had been asked by La Follette to take charge of the drafting of the Civil Service Bill. Here is the description of the service to Commons as the representative of the Governor: In 1902 I could not take in all that McCarthy's clipping bureau implied. But, in 1905, in drafting the civil service bill, I found that here was an entirely new kind of library. It was telegraphic. McCarthy wired to civil service organizations, to state governments, to individuals, for statutes, bills before legislatures, clippings, and comments. β C. R. Woodruff, "Legislative Reference Work and Its Opportunities," Proceedings, National Association of State Libraries Convention, June, 1908.

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Within a day or two after L a Follette requested my help on the bill, McCarthy had me supplied with everything one could need in drafting that bill. I soon could submit to him and to L a Follette a preliminary draft. I never before had known such a quick-action library. I learned to send my students to his library, often to do most of their work there in preparing their topics and theses. T h e y assisted in the investigations as aides to the bill drafters. McCarthy had, or would get immediately, almost everything one might need on all sides of every debatable issue before the public, or the legislature, or Congress. 7 VIII M c C a r t h y was extraordinarily c a r e f u l to say—even p r o c l a i m — that the services of the Legislative R e f e r e n c e L i b r a r y , i n c l u d i n g the d r a f t i n g , were clerical. T h e legislator got the i n f o r m a t i o n he asked for. T h e draftsmen drew u p the b i l l as requested a n d submitted tentative drafts until the legislator was satisfied. M c C a r t h y was insistent not only in his public statements but in his instruction to all his assistants that the service they w e r e r e n d e r i n g was clerical, subordinate, technical. Everything must be done to help the legislators a n d make them realize their responsibility. N o t h i n g was to be done that w o u l d enable anybody to say that the library was u s u r p i n g the legislator's function or " i n f r i n g i n g " in any way on his prerogative. T h i s spirit of helpfulness and h u m i l i t y was manifest especially in the rules 8 prepared f o r the D r a f t i n g R o o m : 1. No bills will be drafted in the Reference Room. A separate Drafting Room and a separate force have been provided. 2. N o bill will be drafted, nor amendments proposed without specific detailed written instructions from a member of the legislature. Such instructions must bear the member's signature. 3. T h e draftsmen can make no suggestions as to contents of bills. Our work is merely clerical and technical. We cannot furnish ideas. 4. We are not responsible for the legality or constitutionality 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 time of introduction or on final passage. ι John R . Commons, Myself, pp. 108-9. McCarthy, The Wisconsin Idea, p. 197.

8

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In these rules McCarthy shows his fine sense of the situation. Realizing how easy it would be for politicians, lobbyists, and other representatives of private interests to misrepresent the activities and services of the draftsmen, McCarthy anticipated the misrepresentation which inevitably came, by enforcing the rules. His answer to the critics was the Avritten request signed by a legislator for every service rendered.

IX A formal overview of the whole development of the library during McCarthy's life may be helpful for the more detailed view and analysis of the following pages. As we have seen, the Act of 1901 appropriated $1,500 a year for the library service. T h i s amount was increased for the years 1903 and 1904 to $2,500, annually and was again increased for the next biennium (1905-6) to $4,500 with an additional $5,000 for the special session of 1906.9 In 1907 for the first time the employing of draftsmen was authorized. Fifteen thousand dollars was appropriated for each of the years of the two following bienniums (1907-8 and 1909-10), of which $6,000 was to be set aside for the period of the legislative session and for two months preceding it for employing draftsmen and for special help in drafting. A provision of a law of 1909 required the librarian to coöperate with the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the president of the University, the dean of the University Extension, the superintendent of the Milwaukee Public Schools who formed a commission to study problems of illiteracy and vocational education. Apparently up to this point the process of winning the good will of the legislature had been successful. T h e bill establishing the service in 1901 was passed with no dissenting votes in the Senate (29-0) and with but one in the Assembly (70-1). T h e 1903 Act was passed without a dissenting vote in either house (30-0, and 71-0). T h e 1905 vote had but two dissenting votes in the Assembly (24-0, β It is worthy of note that the appropriations were kept down by McCarthy himself, so as not to arouse antagonism or the fear that there was any ambition to build u p a big machine or large appropriations to overawe the legislators or usurp the legislative function. McCarthy always protested he was merely a clerk—a l i b r a r i a n — a n d was there in that day any more innocuous person than a male librarian!

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and 84-2). In 1907 again there was no dissent (20-0, and 90-0) for the appropriation for the special session. T h e regular appropriation of 1907 increasing the appropriation from $4,500 to $15,000 met with six dissenting votes in the Assembly (69-6) and none in the Senate (27-0). In this session a bill to repeal the annual appropriations was indefinitely postponed. A bill to reduce by one half the appropriation for the library was introduced in the Assembly in 1913 by Mr. Hood and was indefinitely postponed, as was an Assembly amendment by Mr. Roessler to the regular appropriation bill by a vote of (59-14). Governor Emanuel L. Philipp made the Legislative Reference Library an issue of his campaign of 1914 and again in the legislature of 1915. without any result except ultimately, as we shall see, to have Philipp himself become a warm admirer and friend of McCarthy. After this major effort to abolish the Library there was peace to the end of McCarthy's life and thenafter. T h e regular annual appropriation was $21,800 for the year 1 9 1 3 - 1 4 , and remained at that amount to the year of McCarthy's death, with additional appropriations of $6,000 for special sessions in 1 9 1 7 - 1 8 and 1919-20. McCarthy left for Prescott, Arizona, after the legislature had increased his annual appropriation to $31,000 with an additional appropriation of $3,000 for the regular session of 1921. It remained at this amount until 1929. X T h e practical problem for most legislators was to secure needed information and to translate it into an orderly bill, legal in form and within constitutional or other limitations. Frequently the legislator sought out local Madison lawyers to have a simple bill drafted only to learn that it would cost him from $25 to $100. T h e legislator was not quite ready to spend this amount from his $500 legislative salary. Others, with perhaps a single bill to introduce, were victimized as the result of some school-district or other local scrap or were used in many ways, particularly by those who helped to draft the bill. In speaking before the National Association of State Libraries in 1905, McCarthy's program to correct these abuses was clearly formed. Among other essentials he cited:

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There should be a trained draftsman connected with the department— a man who is a good lawyer, a man who has studied legislative forms, who can draw a bill, revise a statute, and amend a bill when called upon to do so. Such a man working right with this department and the critical data which it contains will be absolutely essential.10 In this same address McCarthy indicated clearly that the work of drafting was definitely a part of the library work, though no appropriation had been made for it. He says, " W e have drawn or amended probably two hundred bills in this department." T h i s service apparently was a complete demonstration, for the 1907 legislature made generous appropriations for both the established reference and the new drafting service. T h e second law passed by the legislature of 1907 and signed by the Governor was a bill increasing the regular appropriation from $4,500 to $15,000, and providing that $6,000 of this annual appropriation was to be set aside for each legislative session and two months preceding the session for employing draftsmen and extra help in drafting bills. In the revision of the law in 1913 (a revisor's bill) this particular law was repealed and its substance comprised Section 55 of the statutes in the following form: [The Commission is authorized] "to employ during the legislative session and two months preceding the session, draftsmen and necessary help for drafting of bills." A significant provision in this first law relating to drafting that raised a major issue when the institution was attacked in blitzkrieg fashion in 1914-15 was the provision that draftsmen and other necessary help were to be engaged two months preceding the session. T h i s was a very wise provision. It was part of the underlying philosophy of the library. Its main effort was "to be prepared"; to find, to collect, and to organize, before the session opened, all the necessary information so that it would be immediately available in the hurry and scurry of the legislative session. Perhaps no great work affecting the very essence of democratic government at a critical point was ever so modestly and simply begun. McCarthy came down to help as the "document clerk." H e was in the following year (1903) named, strangely enough, Departió McCarthy, "Legislative Reference Library," Proceedings National Association of State Libraries, 1905, p. 20. See also The Wisconsin Idea, p. 218.

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ment of State Documents; in 1905 he was called Librarian, Document Department; in 1907, the Chief, Document Department. Beginning with the biennium of 1907-9 McCarthy appeared as Chief, Legislative Reference—the permanent title of the office.

Chapter V THE

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LIBRARY:

DEMOCRACY

of the American democracy is the American legislative system: the Congress of the United States and the legislatures of the several states. T h e extensive increase of the executive power in the nation and in the states has eclipsed the legislative power in influence and prestige. The usurpation of legislative power by the executive is the first step in the creation of dictatorships in the familiar European pattern. In the beginning, at least, the legislative power is used to consolidate the executive power; later it becomes merely ceremonial and ratifies or confirms executive decisions. McCarthy perceived the tremendous importance of the legislature in the American scheme. Here the norms of American social life in its political and economic aspects were set up. In it was placed the ultimate control of the whole administrative machine and the executive branch of government in the control of taxes. In the taxing power, which economists have said is also the power to destroy, lies the control of the quality of the social life of individuals and of their initiative and daring in the economic sphere. Executive departments of government, when the proper balance is maintained, only carry out legislative mandates; delegation of legislative power is unconstitutional, and courts interpret what legislatures declare to be the law. When there is a healthy relation between legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government, and checks and balances are operating in such a way as to help the social order to serve human welfare more effectively, the legislature has prestige and performs its functions constructively. Let us try to understand concretely the democratic problem of the ordering of life with the consent of the governed as it presented itself to McCarthy in the legislature of 1901, when he volunteered T H E VERY HEART

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his services to Mr. Hutchins. T h e problem in that legislature was exactly the problem of legislatures in other states, and of succeeding legislatures in Wisconsin. II Who were the hundred men in the Wisconsin Assembly of 1901 whom McCarthy volunteered to help? Most of them were Republicans, 82 in fact, the other 18 were Democrats, but more significant than that is the fact that 64 were serving their first terms, and only 36 had had previous experience in the legislature. T h e dean of the group in length of service was A. R. Hall, a notable figure in Wisconsin who had served in five previous sessions and who carried in this session his fight against "free passes" to a successful conclusion. T w o others had been members of three previous sessions, and four had served in two. What were the subjects with which these amateurs were to deal? T h e Republican platform pledged legislation on a number of subjects. T h e principle of the Australian ballot was to be carried to nominations; caucases and conventions were to be supplanted by primary elections for all state, legislative, executive, and county offices. Other reforms were advocated in taxation, in business, in civil ser νice; better highways were to be provided for farmers, public expenditures were to be reduced to a business basis. T h e Democratic platform promised tax legislation, a revision of laws in transportation rates and license fees and electoral reform to simplify the convention system. Among the planks in the platforms of other parties (the Social Democratic party, the People's party, the Socialist Labor party, the Prohibition party—which, however, elected no members to the legislature) were: prohibition, abolition of monopoly in money, transportation and land, initiative and referendum, public control of public utilities, graduated income and inheritance taxes, electoral reform, anti-injunction legislation, the eight-hour day and other industrial reforms, public ownership of means of production, public ownership of railroads, telegraph and telepl iones, and the "abolition of war and introduction of international arbitration." Who were the men who were to wrestle with this wide range of social problems and find in a few months solutions for them

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adapted to the actual conditions of a growing Midwest commonwealth? Approximately half of the Assemblymen had come up with only a common-school education with its very short terms. Others had, in addition, what is called academy or high-school education and some had taken a course in a business college. About a fifth of them had been in some college, law school, or a normal school. One member had been to Yale, another to Harvard, another to Colgate, and one to Georgetown. There were men who had taught school and taken part in local political affairs. One had medical training, two were mining engineers and nineteen were lawyers; thirteen of the lawyers were serving their first term. These were not young men. Of the new members 4 were in the twenties (3 were twenty-eight); 15 were in the thirties; 20 in the forties; 18 in the fifties; 6 in the sixties; and one was seventyseven years old. For the whole membership of the Assembly the ages were distributed as follows: 5 in the twenties; 22 in the thirties; 31 in the forties; 28 in the fifties; 13 in the sixties, and one in the seventies. T h e birthplace of these members represents a cross section of the state. Thirty of the new members and sixteen of those who had served in a previous session were born in Wisconsin. Nine were born in New York and five in Illinois, and the others born in the United States were from Michigan (1), Pennsylvania (2), New Jersey (1), Vermont (2), Maine (2), Nebraska (2), Minnesota (1), and Massachusetts (1). Of those of foreign birth, eight were born in Germany and four in Norway. Other countries represented, as stated by the men themselves, were Sweden (1), England (3), Canada (3), New Brunswick (2), Denmark (3), Wales (2), South Wales (1), and North Wales (1). The membership represented also a wide range of occupations, thus adding to the diversities of viewpoints and experience that must be taken into account in legislation. These occupations, together with the number of new members and the number of all members represented, are listed, on the facing page, in tabular form. Here you have in graphic form Bagehot's statement that a legislature should be a sampling of the nation—in this case, of the state of Wisconsin. It is not a selection of the wisest but a representative sampling of the community. Often in its consensus, however, there

BUTTRESS Occupation Farmer Farmer-Merchant Retired farmer Dairyman Livestock Lumberman Lumber dealer Lawyer Merchant Manufacturer Insurance Real Estate dealer Title Abstractor Contractor Barber Painter Saloon keeper Druggist Journalist Banker Bank cashier Publisher Physician

OF D E M O C R A C Y

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New Members

Total

ig 2 1 2 13 10 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

25 2 1 1 s 1 4 19 15 6 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 ι 1 2 1 1 1

is wisdom, and it is the faith of democratic government that there is ultimate wisdom in the evolution of the ideas that are sifted in the trial and error of the years. Ill These are the men whom McCarthy volunteered to serve—without any immediate reward, even as salary. H e saw legislators, with the best intentions in the world, slowly coming under the influence of lobbyists, w h o would draft without immediate cost the desired bill touching on a local situation or on some hobby of the member. T h i s drafting service was a boon to the legislator w h o had gone around the Capitol Square and found to his dismay the cost of such assistance. It was a perfect situation for the lobbyists of the special interests and they took advantage of it. A plank of the State Republican platform indicated the extent of such lobby interference with the legislature. T h i s condition and this process should be kept

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in mind, for when the Legislative Reference Library was attacked and its abolition demanded, it was these special interests that led the attack. 1 There was a provision of Wisconsin law that helped McCarthy to prepare for each session the provision for platform conventions. In September the nominees for the state offices and for the legislature of the various political parties meet in Madison in convention and formulate their political program or principles. On the first Tuesday in November the officers and legislators are chosen, and there are always two thirds of the Senate as holdovers. Here obviously there was an opportunity to prepare for the session before the January rush began. These months were used frequently bv the governor and by members of the legislature for making preliminary or final drafts of bills. In the emotional and partisan outbursts of a political campaign the cry will be heard that McCarthy was drafting bills even before the legislature was in session, and of course, this was so, but it was made to look sinister. Interim legislative committees composed of the legislators or of others often had many successive drafts of bills prepared between sessions, sometimes by draftsmen engaged by the committee or through McCarthy—and McCarthy's judgment was often sought by such committees or their draftsmen. McCarthy expressed his own view of the problem thus: 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 village, he enters into a new life in a new community. He is worried by office-seekers; his old friends and advisers are not near to help him; he finds that it is necessary 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 confronted with two ι N o wonder that this library came to be stigmatized as the "bill factory." I figured out the reasons. Prior to McCarthy's coming, the legislators could look only to the lobbyist lawyers to help them draft their bills. Now McCarthy furnished them with both investigators and lawyers paid by the State. If a farmer legislator wished to amend the fish and game laws, he made a memorandum of what he wanted. T h i s was kept on file by McCarthy in self-protection, and McCarthy's staff presented to the legislator the bill ready for introduction. It was a " b i l l factory," indeed, b u t operated by the State instead of by private lobbyists. John R . Commons, Myself, pp. 109-110.

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thousand bills on almost as many legal and economic subjects. C o m p l e x questions, which have not been settled by the greatest thinkers of today are hurled at his head. Even scientific subjects that the chemist, the physicist or the man of science finds difficult 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. T h e y 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 unskilled in law, are often declared unconstitutional by the courts. Here then, is the situation. W e see the farmer, the groceryman, the country lawyer, the successful manufacturer, the man of business, all grappling entirely unprepared, with the problem of making laws that represent 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 telegraph, 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 u p o n one-tenth of the subjects which come before the legislature. W h e n 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 repj 759

Some potshots were taken at M c C a r t h y and the Library in the Milwaukee Sentinel

of J a n u a r y , 1 9 1 5 , and M c C a r t h y blasts the

opponents into nothingness. A M r . George Williams had written to the

Sentinel:

T h e members of the Supreme Court of this state have had occasion at various times to consider some of the jumbled conditions of the laws and to try to harmonize the same and get something consistent out of them. In the case of Rogers vs. Hollister and in re Rogers' will, decided by the Supreme Court on March 17, 1 9 1 4 , Justice Marshall made the following comments: "Are not the two parts of the statute, in their literal sense, fatally contradictory? It seems so. T h a t the legislature did not intend any such absurd result, we must assume. If we can see any reasonable way out of the dilemma—the situation created by the crude work of those responsible for the manner of vitalizing the idea of the law-makers, it is a judicial duty to adopt it." Here we have a good example of the difficulties cast upon the court by inefficient efforts to clearly state a legislative purpose. Difficulties of that kind, seemingly, have greatly increased in recent years, over and above such as were incident to legislation when law-makers depended upon themselves for the framing and shaping of laws. I think the foregoing ought to have some influence with members of the legislature toward abolishing the bill factory. Says M c C a r t h y neatly and conclusively: I am very sorry to tell the gentleman that the above criticism applies to a law drafted by a judge and that the "bill factory" had nothing to do with it whatever.

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T h e Sentinel

AGAINST

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of January 27, 1915, says:

Assemblyman Hambrecht seems to have been able to draw a bill to relieve the primary law of its "Mary Ann" appendix without the assistance of the "bill factory." We are getting on. T h e "bill factory" savants to the contrary notwithstanding our legislators may discover presently with a glow of honest pride that they are actually able to stand on their own legs and do the work they were elected to do. A n d , illustrating the technique of the Library, says McCarthy graciously and devastatingly: There is no more able man in this or previous legislatures than Assemblyman George Hambrecht. No more hard working or conscientious man has ever been in the legislature. He uses all the machinery which will help him in his work. He spends great care on everything he does. One of our draftsmen worked under his direction for five weeks on the above bill. VII O n e of the amazing things about our political life is the character of the attack on public institutions, and the charges that are made by "good citizens." A review of these charges will reveal what was happening in this 1915 political blitzkrieg. Some were obviously false, such as that the Library or McCarthy introduced bills, or that it was "another law-making body," or undertook the "lawmaking function," or "relieved legislators of their tasks." These charges were accompanied by an attack upon or a low opinion of the legislators, who, for example, "shirk their work," or are merely "figureheads in cogs" in the lawmaking process. A n d , of course, they looked back to the good old days when everything was just right: It so happens that long before the advent of Dr. McCarthy's legislative library, the state of Wisconsin was abundantly equipped to furnish to any legislator of good common sense and average education all the assistance in that line that could reasonably be required. I allude to the splendid state law library in the same building with the legislative rooms. In the thousands of volumes there accumulated any man of reasonable industry and knowledge of the use of books could find unlimited precedents of laws upon any branch of human endeavor.

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McCarthy, as we have noted, anticipated the charge by requiring all requests for bills to be signed by a legislator or the Governor. T h e records show that this rule was enforced—and they were available to anyone who chose to investigate. But this safeguard was dismissed without investigation, for example, by Judge J. S. Anderson who wrote: It is the easiest thing in the world for Mr. McCarthy to get the signature of some member crazy for a little notoriety, to detailed instructions and also induce him to introduce the bill and it is not improbable that he fortified himself in that way.8 T h e Progressive legislation of the preceding fifteen years was cited as another reason for the abolition of the Library. In some way—rightly enough—the Legislative Reference Library was charged with it. But notice what it is called—the "orgy of legislation, much of it of the experimental and academic variety." Governor Hoard refers to the "ill-digested and outrageously expensive laws." And then he refers to the number "of its laws declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and the Federal Courts." Of course, this is false. Along with a bill that it considered unconstitutional, the Legislative Reference Library customarily filed a memorandum to that effect, and the legislator determined whether a bill was introduced or not. Surely the way the whole Progressive legislative program as drafted in the Legislative Reference Library has been sustained by the Supreme Court of the State is answer enough to such a charge. A major issue in the campaign and in the legislature was that the McCarthy bills "have the stamp of socialism." Strangely enough, as we have seen, the other American states followed this "socialistic" example, and today even ultra-conservatives accept these laws as normal Americanisms. VIII When the legislature began its session in January, 1915, Governor Philipp had been elected. Committed to the abolition of the Legislative Reference Library, he transmitted to the legislature his message summarizing, as it were, the case against the Library. T h e β Milwaukee Sentinel,

Aug. 31, 1914.

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Progressive candidate for governor in the primary came out unequivocally for the abolition of the "drafting service," as did one of the principal La Follette floor leaders in the Senate. There were substantial numbers of Progressives in each house but the conservatives were able to organize the legislature. T h e state Democratic platform came out unequivocally, too, for the abolition of the drafting service, and in the Senate there were nine Democrats. Of the one hundred members of the House, sixty-two were Republicans and of the thirty-three members of the Senate, twentythree were Republicans. T h e conservatives were able to organize both houses, electing Lawrence Whittet as Speaker of the House and Edward T . Fairchild as President pro tem of the Senate. T h e attack in the legislature began with the Governor's message, which contained this statement: The legislature of 1903 [1901] created a legislative reference library. Its purpose was to furnish information . . . upon such subjects as related to legislation. It has since been converted into a bill drafting institution where proposed laws are furnished upon application without any further effort upon the part of the legislator. This system has had the effect of greatly increasing the number of bills introduced and has resulted in the passage of a great many useless laws. . . . It has exercised an undue influence upon legislation. It has resulted in outside preparation of bills for legislative action, superseding legislative study and greatly impairing legislative efficiency. . . . Originally projected as a library, it has in every sense become a bureau.9 IX A bill was promptly introduced by Mr. Nelson of Dane County to get rid of McCarthy and transfer the emasculated Legislative Reference Library to the State Law Library. T h e r e was great general interest in the bill. T h e hearing was held in the larger assembly parlor, rather than in the smaller judiciary committee room. George Hambrecht presided. Nelson appeared in behalf of his bill. T o the surprise of the audience, Nelson informed them that people had told him that he "better watch out for Dr. McCarthy." However, he added, "I almost feared to call on him but when I met him I decided he is a pretty human sort of an individual," and continued that although he had been mistaken about the man, he β Wisconsin

Assembly

Journal,

1915, pp. 25-26.

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still thought the Library unnecessary and that its work could be carried on by the State Law L i b r a r y — o f w h i c h he knew nothing. T . C. R i c h m o n d of Madison had actively campaigned for Governor P h i l i p p and was head of the Taxpayer's League. H e repeated the campaign charges, and claimed "every m e m b e r is capable of drafting his o w n bills." Several members of the committee disagreed with R i c h m o n d on this point, and M c C a r t h y pointed out that the bill under discussion—which was not drafted in the Reference L i b r a r y — w a s defective since it abolished the department as such b u t failed to repeal the appropriation. Mr. R i c h m o n d pointed out that Wisconsin practice should be patterned on the example of the English Parliament. A n d to his amazement he was told that the English Parliament had a bill-drafting department whose head had a place on the floor at every session. W h e n M c C a r t h y appeared, Hambrecht, the chairman, said that the purpose of the bill was to change the personnel of the Library. Mac said that there must be a way to do t h a t — s u m m o n the public servant before the legislature and if his answers to legislative inquiries were unsatisfactory to the legislature, dismiss h i m by a vote of lack of confidence. " T h a t , you ought to have power to do over all commissions. But, do not bum the barn to kill the rat," said McCarthy. T o the charge that the Library did not follow instructions, Mac replied, " I stand ready to make a present of one hundred dollars to any man w h o can furnish information to show that my department has put into bills or taken out of a bill anything w h i c h the author of the measure did not order." T o Mr. Hambrecht's statement that "there has been some criticism of your private conduct because y o u frequently express personal opinions," M c C a r t h y in characteristic fashion retorted, " T h a t is probably true, and I am going to keep right on expressing opinions until I die. A n y man that is worth his salt at the head of a department will express his opinions. T h a t is what he is there for. If a man cannot express an intelligent opinion about his o w n business he ought not to be there." In c o n c l u d i n g M c C a r t h y thanked the committee for asking him to appear and said, This is the only way we can thrash these things out. It is in debates like the one we have had this afternoon that real things transpire. It is one

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of the best things about our democratic government and it ought to be encouraged. A man in public life has got to expect criticism. The only man who escapes criticism is the man who is not important enough to be criticised.10 T h e Judiciary Committee recommended unanimously that the bill be "indefinitely postponed," and the Assembly defeated it without a roll call. It was generally felt that with the Nelson bill thus summarily defeated the question of the Library was settled for the 1915 session. However, a bill was introduced in the Senate by one of the most reactionary members of the conservative group, Senator M. W. Perry of Algoma, to transfer the Legislative Reference Library to the State Library; thus the issue was not met directly by abolishing the Library as the Assembly bill had purposed, but by transferring it and thus eliminating McCarthy. Moreover, the bill had been referred to the Committee on Education and Public Welfare of which Perry was chairman. This was not a hopeful place for any good legislation; it was not a strong committee and generally speaking, to put it mildly, it was "very conservative." It was composed of seven members, five Republicans and two Democrats. T w o of the Republicans and one of the Democrats were hopelessly reactionary (these three voted for the Perry bill), two were middleof-the-road Republicans, one of the Republicans Avas an out-andout Progressive. The second Democrat, Senator David V. Jennings, was a young Milwaukee Democrat with liberal leanings. He was absent when the committee vote was taken. Though the committee was divided, the bill was defeated in the Senate itself. 11 X In an interview after the Assembly hearing, McCarthy expressed the view that the general use to which the Library had been put 10

Report on the hearing in the Wisconsin Slate Journal, April 28, 1915. n T h e legislative summary of the bill (269 S.) is as follows: 2 - 1 9 S. Introduced by Senator PERRY. Read first time and referred to committee on Education and Public Welfare . . . 7 - 2 3 S. R e p o r t e d f o r passage: Senators PERRY, ACKLEY, a n d ALBERS. F o r indefinite p o s t p o n e m e n t , S e n a t o r s MONK, POTTS a n d STAUDENMEYER.

7-27 S. Laid over to 7-28 with unanimous consent. 7-28 S. Read second time. 7-28 S. Refused engrossment, ayes 9; noes 17, and thereby indefinitely postponed.

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in that session convinced him that the department had enough friends to defeat any bill. This seemed to be borne out immediately by the fact that on that very afternoon the Judiciary Committee unanimously recommended indefinite postponement and the Assembly, a few days later, approved the committee's action without the formality of a roll call. McCarthy's statement emphasizes a fact that might not be suspected: concurrently with all the agitation against the number of bills and for the abolition of the drafting service, the library and drafting services were doing the same "rush" business in this supposedly "reactionary" legislature as in the preceding so-called "progressive" legislatures! In a check-up the following week it was discovered (May 5) that there were more bills before the Senate than there had ever been before in the history of recent happenings in the state, and there were the average number of bills in the Assembly as in recent sessions. The library and drafting services were being liberally patronized, and individual members were even "more tenacious" in their right to introduce bills and to follow them through. T h e Governor himself used both McCarthy and the Library while the struggle was going on. He and his immediate aides sought McCarthy's advice and assistance on legislation while the "bill to abolish the library was in the legislature; and [they] had bills drafted in the library during the same period." Let us go back a little. In the 1914 campaign, McCarthy had suggested to Governor-elect Philipp "measures which I knew would shorten the session and urging upon him the necessity of the administrative bills being pushèd ahead." His advice went unheeded, nor did the Governor ask "for the help which the men here stand ready to give him." 1 2 But within two weeks (January 27) McCarthy was writing Assemblyman Newcomb Spoor: " T h e Governor as you know, has condemned my department. He is now sending administration bills through for me to draft. Mr. Kretlow's bill on the assessors of income is no doubt an administration bill." And on April 29, 1915, he wrote Chief Draftsman Miles Riley, concerning some of the bills requested by Philipp: 12 From a letter to Lawrence Whittet, an intimate friend of the governor, and an eminently fair man. McCarthy wrote him on J a n . 18, 1915.

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First of all, he wants to fix it so that he can discharge the Bank Commissioner without going to the Senate. . . . He also said that he had been grievously misunderstood about the wording in 660, 661, 662, and 704A, where it states that the Governor shall have approval of the employees of these boards as to the number of such employees and the amount of their respective salaries. He said he had no intention of having anything to do with the employees, only the new employees. . . . I tried to get his ideas, but I am not sure I did. It would be in the form of an amendment [which McCarthy then outlines]. . . . The Governor has also another bill on primary elections providing for a platform convention. He told me he would give me an outline of this soon. He is anxious to get rough drafts of these as soon as possible. Please rush the matter along. On Tuesday, May 17, 1915, we find McCarthy calling on Governor Philipp to give him, hy request, McCarthy's criticism of Bill 704A, one of the consolidation bills, combining the board of control, health department and the dairy and food commission.13 This is one of the administrative measures, but McCarthy begins immediately with his opinion, " T h e bill is not workable. It does not do what it is intended to do. T h e specialists on the new commission will not work en banque." Then follows an incisive detailed statement calling upon extensive experience elsewhere in the world and McCarthy's own shrewd insight into administrative experience. Philipp, completely honest, really desiring good public service and capable of judging men, must have been impressed by such disinterested, objective and straight-from-the shoulder advice. Early in April McCarthy had sent to M. J . Cleary, the Governor's private secretary, an analysis of the proposed educational consolidation explaining the reason for our decentralization, the vitality of decentralization and the danger of neglect of the common schools in a consolidation with the higher institutions. In May the Governor's office through Mr. Cleary, gives Bill 262 to McCarthy to secure his judgment, and McCarthy, on May 3, 1915, in his usual direct fashion explains his adverse judgment of the bill. The significant thing here is not the content of these comments, nor the independent spirit of them, but the fact that they were 13

Mac carried with him and left with the Governor a 2,400 word letter giving his criticism in detail.

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asked, at all, from a public servant who was to be in effect, dismissed. Philipp came to like McCarthy very much; he sought McCarthy's opinion on many subjects, and when the war broke out in 1917 it was on McCarthy that the governor relied in the initial steps in Wisconsin's extraordinarily effective war preparation and service. During Philipp's two succeeding terms as governor, nothing more was said about abolishing or curtailing the Legislative Reference Library and its drafting department, and the appropriations continued as usual at $21,800 a year. An additional appropriation of $6,000 was authorized for special sessions for the years of 1 9 1 7 - 1 8 and for the year 1919-20 and in 1921 the regular annual appropriation was increased to $31,000, and an additional appropriation of $3,000 for the special session of 1921.

Chapter V i l i MCCARTHY S PERSONAL

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were certain that McCarthy was in some way responsible for the, to them, new-fangled and dangerous notions that were basic in the Wisconsin legislative program of the first decade of the twentieth century. T h e y Avere wrong in thinking that this influence was exerted through pressure or in some illegitimate way. W e must emphasize that McCarthy never had ready-made bills to hand to legislators. H e never inserted provisions in bills not called for in the legislator's instructions. If the drafting of a bill raised problems or required additional instruction, the legislator was so informed by the draftsmen. McCarthy himself spent very little time in the drafting room. HE CONSERVATIVES

His opponents were right, however, in believing that McCarthy did exercise a very great influence. It was an entirely personal one, and would have made itself f e l t 1 if there had been no Legislative Reference Library. Edwin E. Witte and Howard Ohm, McCarthy's successors, continued the work of the Library as an effective instrument in the service of the public, b u t without McCarthy's great personal influence on legislation. T h e story of the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library is the story of McCarthy in institutional form. T h e r e is on record the statement of what a public-spirited legislator from neighboring Illinois expected and what he found. T h e Illinois Commission on Economy and Efficiency was to visit Madison, but Senator Walter I. Manny, its chairman, was dubious about its value and vague about the "Wisconsin Idea." W h a t was there to see in this Legislative Reference Library? All he expected ι Lincoln Steffens put it succinctly. H e said in answer to a letter from M c C a r t h y : " I have your letter of September 5th, and I am amused at the beginning of it. Y o u asked m e if I remembered you. It should amuse you to hear me say that Ί do, slightly.' I don't think anybody w o u l d ever forget you w h e n you once had worked upon his mind."

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to find was "a roomful of books a n d a rusty-looking professor or two poring over the constitution and the law books in an atmosphere redolent of calf bindings and musty law tomes, while here a n d there in the room might be scattered a few clerks, political clerks, thoughtfully pondering over the statistical information in the green-sheet sporting pages. Isn't that the natural concept anyone might form on seeing the word 'department' in juxtaposition to the word 'legislative'?" B u t Manny did go. H e arrived in Madison, called McCarthy on the phone and was told to come right over. And what does the dubious a n d doubting Senator Manny find? It isn't a reference bureau that he is running. Nothing like it in the ordinary sense of the term. What McCarthy is running is a thought factory, a machine-shop foi ideas. T h e legislative reference department is nothing less than a legislative laboratory. It was an inspiration to us, that visit. If I had my way I'd send every member of the Illinois legislature up to Madison just to get into the spirit that animates Wisconsin. . . . I asked him whether offers of larger emolument held no temptation, and he said, "My soul is in my work; I love every hill and valley in Wisconsin; my mission is here." When a man is filled with idealism like that, what can you expect but to see him a real influence? II It was inevitable that public-spirited men who came in contact with McCarthy should want to know what he thought of this or that, or how this could be done. His disinterested attitude—he had n o axes to grind—and his great passion to make legislation serve h u m a n welfare could not b u t impress even the more sophisticated among them. In spite of his rough exterior McCarthy had great attraction for men. T h e y found in him warmth, h u m a n sympathy, and understanding, together with wide knowledge, a vivifying imagination, and a constructive insight. W h e n he saw in Von Ihering's The Laxo as Purpose the phrase "to think like a philosopher and talk like a peasant," he felt that was what he was always trying to do.

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He never asked a legislator to vote for a bill. I recall in the 1 9 1 3 session, while one of the continuation school bills ivas up, Senator J . Henry Bennett called to Mac: "Isn't that the bill you wanted me to vote for?" Said McCarthy, " I never asked you to vote for a bill." "Yes, I know, but isn't that the bill you were discussing the other night?" T o which McCarthy had to say "Yes." He had talked in the Senate chamber with some men about the continuation schools. Bennet had listened and apparently made up his mind to vote for this bill, which, as I recall, McCarthy did not specifically mention at all. Ill T h e question of McCarthy's influence on legislation—and his method and manner of exercising it—was linked in interesting fashion to the gubernatorial campaign of 1914. The abolition of state boards and commissions had been an issue in the campaign; it was reiterated by Governor Philipp in his first message after the election. A Joint Committee of Investigation of State Boards and Commissions was appointed with Senator Edward T . Fairchild as chairman. This committee was made up of friends of the Governor —at least it included no Progressives and the only Democrat was Mayor Heim of Madison, who was considered very conservative. At a formal hearing on March 5, 1915, the committee reviewed the work of the Free Library Commission by examining Mr. M. S. Dudgeon, its secretary. Considerable time was given to McCarthy, his work between sessions, his salary from the beginning, the draftsmen and the reference staff, McCarthy's connection with the University, with any outside agencies, the drafting of national legislation, and so on. The committee inspected the Library on the afternoon of April 8 and told McCarthy that the Governor wanted to see him in his office. Mac went to the Governor's office and found there the Governor, the committee and counsel for the committee, Mr. Frank L. Gilbert (a former conservative attorney general). They were obviously ready to examine him, though Dudgeon had already answered all the relevant—and irrelevant—questions about McCarthy the month before. The examination extended over two days. Some interesting and pertinent questions were raised during Governor Philipp's cross-examination of McCarthy. It was a strange sit-

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uation to have a governor sitting in on a legislative committee and assuming direction of its work. McCarthy, however, did not object, although he must have regarded it as improper. He did, however, object to an executive session which had been going on for some time and which centered around questions of statistics, costs, finances and personnel of the Reference Library. In answer to a question, Mac—under oath—made the statement that since the introduction of the drafting system in 1907, no bill had been drafted in the Legislative Reference Library except upon the written request of a legislator. T h e only persons for whom a bill was drafted without a request were the governor and the lieutenantgovernor. T h e n Governor Philipp asked: Q. Now you furnish in that case practically all the thought and labor that is put in on that bill? 2 McCarthy very wisely appealed to the legislative members on the investigating committee: A. I will leave it to these men here; here are five men in this crowd all of whom have had bills drafted up stairs and I venture to say— T h e Governor insisted the legislator gives the Library draftsmen the general idea and they work it out, but Mac would not accept this; he said that in nine out of ten cases the legislator gives rather complete details. Assemblyman Van Görden supplemented Mac's statement by adding " Y o u mean outline." Mac's answer to this was: A. Yes, outline. A man knows what he wants and we have a fixed system and you can't monkey with it. Formerly in the legislature there was no system to the thing. A man wrote his bill on a piece of paper and would hand it to the clerk and the clerk could fix it up, change it around, steal it, or throw it away or it could be fixed in the printing office. Now there are several drafts. T h e Governor is now in a field in which he is very much interested and which, it is quite clear, formed the basis of his real objection to McCarthy. T h e colloquy is so significant that we give it rather fully with all its sparring and give and take. In this first 2 All material quoted in this section is f r o m the Official Transcript of Hearings of the Committee to investigate State B o a r d and Commissions.

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division M c C a r t h y uses the G o v e r n o r ' s question to emphasize his o w n protection of the d r a f t i n g process from interference with legislation. Q. (By the governor.) But the member doesn't put any real study on the question. A. John Heim began last December and I will bet John Heim spent five hours a day in our office; I will leave it to him if that isn't so; if he didn't spend the time there, I don't know who did. Q. T h e point I want to get at, Doctor, is this—in the last analysis most of this work you do that deals with important questions of government contains and must as a matter of necessity contain a great deal of your own thought and your own notions of what ought to be done. T h a t is unavoidable, is it not? A. I suppose, Governor, it is very much the same as an architect on a building—that a fellow sees from some experience that comes in and then he talks it over and asks, Is this what you want? Is that the way you want it? and if it is the way he wants it, he takes it. It isn't forced on him. In the British Parliament, they have a great deal more liberality than we have here. I have a statement from Sir Courtney Ilbert who says: " H e shall be expected to give advice when requested on any matter involving or likely to involve legislation, but of course his responsibility like that of other parliament officers does not extend to any action or inaction which may issue on the advice given. For this the minister concerned is alone responsible." I have never allowed my men to go that far. T h e G o v e r n o r wants to establish that Wisconsin laws are McCarthy laws—which does not mean they are bad laws. L e t us give in detail that part of the colloquy: Q. Let me ask you, Doctor, the very nature of things and without any disposition to criticize, you understand— A. Governor, I ask for no quarter. Q. Well of course that doesn't prevent me from being polite. From the very nature of things that you do and must of necessity do, you must get your own political views into these bills to some extent—you can't avoid it, can you? A. What do you mean, into the bills? Q. Into the laws themselves. A. T h a t the members ask me to draft? Q. Yes. A. Why if a member asks me to draft a bill to put a barrel of dynamite under the capítol I would draft it just as he told me to and every member here knows it.

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Q. Of course that would be a very simple act, Doctor, and you probably wouldn't inject your own political views into that, but where an important and involved piece of legislation is requested of you and the member hasn't any very definite ideas concerning it himself, you work it out; you furnish practically three quarters of the thought that goes into it. You don't mean to tell me you don't get your own views of what legislation ought to be into that? A. Governor, I am going to surprise you by saying I consider that personally would be a very dangerous thing for me. T h e man might take the bill and go down before the house or somewhere else and somebody would see it and they would say why he fooled you. This place is surrounded by men looking for that sort of thing. Q. It might interest you to know, Doctor, that some lawyers recommend your work. A . Oh sure, I am interested in that. Q. Now that would prove you do get your own thought and your own tendencies into these laws and I think it is absolutely unavoidable. A. I will show you how that comes in. Suppose this committee is working; it has been the custom for years to bring me in to committees . . . somebody would say what would you do with that or that, and I would say this is a good plan or that. ζ). . . . T h e point is this, whether a department such as yours, in the hands of a man of your tendencies and of your intense political views— A. What are they, Governor, if I may ask. Q. I will leave that to you to answer. A. T h a t is a question that has been thrown at me so many times I want to find out what other people think of my views. Q. Whether there isn't a tendency that in the end we will have McCarthy laws in the state of Wisconsin. Now I don't mean by that, Doctor, the McCarthy laws are bad. A. T h a t is a very great compliment you are paying me; . . . but . . . I haven't ever seen the time when I could press my personality to any great degree of success on the Wisconsin legislature. A n d in the final section that I shall quote, the G o v e r n o r makes it almost a matter of duty for a legislative reference librarian to put his own ideas in bills. It is natural. It is inevitable. It must be so because of his superior knowledge and intensive study. Q. But this is the way it happens, Doctor; a man might have a bill drawn on an important subject. He hasn't given the matter very serious consideration himself and in some cases he may not be capable. You furnish all that, whether he has lacked in work or ability. You frame his law for him. You assume perhaps that you should because it is what you are there for. Now in the end you have done nine tenths of the work,

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of the brain work on that measure. You have prepared yourself for it; your thought and tendencies run in a certain direction. You draw that bill and it goes to the legislature and becomes a law. Well you now can readily understand when you have a great many of those kind of laws on the statute books in the end then your statutes are under the influence and have been created under the influence of a single mind —unconsciously perhaps on the part of the legislature. . . . A. That can best be answered by some of the gentlemen here; that man was in the legislature in 1909, this man was here in 1907; any of these men—let them say, they are on the committee, they can judge me on that proposition. There isn't a man here or any place else that can say I ever stuck a bill into his hand or put any ideas into his head. Q. No, but you did stick in what he didn't. A. If I did, I am absolutely unconscious of it. Q. You did it as a matter of duty, not because you wanted to; it is there; it is your thought, not his. A. Well, that I won't say under oath. I won't say under oath that my thought might not have slipped in in some places, but on the whole, the legislature is a pretty wise body and when it gets together it is wiser than any one man. Q. We are not discussing legislative wisdom 01 lack of wisdom. The fact remains that the legislature takes this bill as it is received. It may change it or it may let it go unchanged. Little by little Mr. McCarthy's notion of legislation gets into the law, a little at a time and gradually we will have McCarthy statutes. A. Thank you very much if this unconscious leadership has come to me; you certainly did a great compliment to me. Q. You got in some things that probably you couldn't get in if you were a member of the legislature. I told you some time ago you ought to be a statesman instead of a commissioner. A. Well, as you say, there may be in working for a body of this kind some suggestions unconsciously made, but I don't know of a big piece of legislation in this state that hasn't been raked over, turned over and up and down and made over many times. The railroad commission bill was made over as you know twenty-one times before it was finally acted upon. Many many nights of hard work were required before that bill was finally shaped and there are many other acts in this state that have been made over and over again. Q. You know, Doctor, as well as I do, what the tendencies have been in Wisconsin in legislation during the past 16 years. Understand that I don't attribute that to you particularly. It has not only been confined to Wisconsin, but it has gone into other states, but Wisconsin has taken the lead in some of these tendencies. Now its a question, Doctor, whether a bureau such as is run here would not influence

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legislation certain ways—a little at a time, unconsciously to the members of the legislature. A. I think this, and I have often thought this much about that question, that there might be legislation forbidding any man in a position of that sort leading or trying to influence legislation in any way. Q. Well, Doctor, I am not saying that you or any other man in your position does that intentionally, but if it is up to you to draw bills without any instructions to the contrary, you are going to draw that bill as you think it ought to be. Now it depends entirely on what you think of it, in the end, as to what that law will be if it passes. A. Well, I think, governor, that you are very wrong on this. Q. I can't understand why I am. A. Well I don't think you really understand the care with which the members wishes are taken care of. Q. But suppose a member has no very decided wishes on anything. You know human beings are all alike; a man comes in and wants a bill drawn on a certain subject. The subject is wide in its ramifications and you draw a bill for him and the picture looks good and without any further or very close analysis he takes the bill and says, I am satisfied and I will introduce it. A. The best evidence you could get on that is from the records in the past. The records will be found upstairs and the way the men have written out that stuff will be found there and I want to tell you I am inclined to think you would be surprised, because you will find the men pretty thoroughly have put down, although sometimes very crudely, but generally pretty clearly just what he wants; they are pretty suspicious of fellows putting in something. I want to tell you a member looks pretty closely before he puts it in and he comes back time and again. I think you get that impression, Governor, when the fact of the case is there is much less of that than you would think. IV T w o other points were significant in the political conflict of the time. T h e new angle entered the inquiry with this statement by the Governor: "Doctor, let me ask you—you don't believe much in constitutional limitations?" T o which came the quick reply, "Why, sure I do." T h e brief exchange that followed that first session of the Committee illustrates the McCarthy technique: Q. Only as a matter of necessity but not of principle? A. Why I would be a fool if I didn't believe in constitutional limitations. I come back to you and ask you if you believe in the recall of judges.

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β · No. A. If you lived in California would you? Q. No. A. T h e n you would be against the constitution of California. Q. But I don't live in California. A. There is no doubt that there are a lot of people who way down in their hearts don't believe in the election of U.S. Senators by the people, but the minute they don't believe in it, they are against the constitution of the U.S. Q. As a matter of fact, don't you, Doctor, belong to the class of political thinkers who don't believe much in constitutional limitations, but you believe statutes ought to govern and that statutes ought to be made to fit the occasion? A. No sir; no man ever believed in such a foolish thing as that. W i t h that statement the committee adjourned for the day, and, I think, at least for the time, the question of constitutional limitations was settled. A n o t h e r favorite accusation of the conservatives against McCarthy was that he was a socialist and that the legislative product was socialistic. T h i s part of the testimony was apparently omitted from the record. M c C a r t h y , after he left the hearings, noted that m u c h of the questioning was "off the record." Fearful that n o record of the investigation would be available, he wrote a memor a n d u m under date of A p r i l 10, 1915, which summarized the inquiry into his socialism. . . . . then the Governor began to ask a lot of questions. He asked me if I was a Socialist. I told him I believed in the Panama Canal. He then got up and said that the time had come when the fathers and mothers who send children to the University should see to it that their children do not come out socialists and atheists. He asked me the reason why socialism existed in the University and what was done to propagate it through the Universities in the country, and whether I had any hand in propagating it. Mr. Heim suggested that Prof. Ely and Ross were socialists. We had a lively discussion over it in which I defended these men. I tried to make them define what socialism was. T h e general impression was they believed that something was going on to undermine the respect for government, and the Governor was going to do his best to make students at the University and the professors respect the fundamentals of our government. I told him that I hoped that he would and if he found any professor in the University who did not believe in the great fundamental right of free speech that I hoped that he would fire him out. I told him that I thought it has cost

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rivers of blood and that we ought to be very careful to preserve free speech. T h e Governor read me a long statement which he was going to give at Marinette upon free speech. There was nothing particularly wrong in the statement, I told him, but the people were alarmed at his defining what free speech was. T h e governor r e t u r n e d to the subject later: T h e n we went back into a long discussion of socialism again and Gilbert produced a lot of letters from R a l p h Easley of the National Civic Federation about socialism in the American Universities, and he read a letter from an account of a professor in the University of Palermo, in which he said that this professor said that he could inculcate socialism without ever mentioning the word. This was a long discussion. Evidently the Governor thought I was a socialist. I asked him what he had to say about the Marxian socialist. I asked him what he was going to do with the Fabian socialist and the Christian socialist. He made no reply to this. I told him that I thought they ought to bring in Ely, Commons and all the other men they accused of being socialists down before the committee, instead of having the matter in the dark. A t another point touching the G o v e r n o r in a sensitive spot McC a r t h y told him that in 1905 he and his friends called the R a i l r o a d Commission socialistic; now it is acceptable to them a n d there is no proposal to abolish it. T o quote M c C a r t h y ' s m e m o r a n d u m : Another matter which came up. I tried to demonstrate to them that socialism was different with every age. I told them the story of Stephens' fight in 1837 in Pennsylvania, when it was proposed to take over the common schools by the state, and then afterwards the fight for the regulation of railroads, the parcel post, postal savings bank, and every other movement from that time to this—these had all been called "socialism." T h e regulation of the trust was brought up, and the trial of Ely in 1890 in the University of Wisconsin. I think now that Ely was far behind other economists in some of his ideas, but people now agree with many of the things for which he was tried then. I said to the Governor: "When you were before the legislature on the Railroad Commission Act you were surrounded with men who called the whole business socialistic. What then do you mean by socialism in the University of Wisconsin?" A queer confirmation of this summary is contained in a letter f r o m the files of the National C i v i c Federation written to R a l p h M . Easley by G o v e r n o r P h i l i p p obviously a f t e r these hearings. Governor Philipp's letter reads:

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Permit me to thank you for your favor of March 29th regarding socialistic tendencies in schools and colleges. T h e pages re "Socialism in Schools and Colleges" I am returning to you as requested. There are so many different kinds of socialism and so many different degrees of each kind that it is difficult to find a common language in discussing it. For example, the other day a state officer 3 when asked whether he believed in socialism said that he did to a certain degree; for example, he believed thoroughly in the government construction of the Panama Canal! If you have formulated a brief definition of the different kinds and degrees of socialism, I shall be glad to receive a copy of such definition. T h e Governor's probing yielded no damaging admission from McCarthy, whose appeal to the legislative members of the committee in all points was not only wise but conclusive. No one who had the experience with the service—some of them over a number of years, and some of them intimate friends of the Governor—ever denied a word of McCarthy's. T h e system of requiring a signature of a member for all requests, the submission of tentative drafts and the final acceptance of the bill by the member certainly reduced to a minimum any undue influence on legislators or the "putting over" of anything on the legislature. T h e legislative draftsmen were for the most part technicians, and some that I have known were good, honest, industrious, but unimaginative technicians, whose political views were often quite unlike McCarthy's. T h e point that McCarthy didn't make but might have was that he did not see nine tenths of the requests that came in, even though legislators often talked with him before or while the bill was in process. T h e r e is no doubt in my mind of the justice of Governor Philipp's fundamental thesis, that McCarthy did influence legislators and that many Wisconsin laws are McCarthy laws, but McCarthy, by subtly controlling the direction of the question on the manner of that influence, was able to make no admissions that would have echoed through the legislature and might have stimulated a movement toward curtailment or abolition of the Library. Certainly, McCarthy dealt with the legislature absolutely honestly and forthrightly. No jokers were ever put in a bill drafted by the Legislative Reference Library. As we have noted, if » The State officer was, of course, McCarthy.

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ιο ι

a member insisted, unconstitutional sections were put in bills, but a memorandum by the draftsman on the unconstitutionality was filed with the drafts in the Legislative Reference Library. T h e relations with the individual legislator were confidential relations and this trust was never violated. V Legislation was often initiated by McCarthy indirectly. He and I would drop over to the legislative chamber every night before going home, sit down in any vacant chair, and Mac would start one of his enthusiastic discourses; before long a group of legislators would have gathered around us. These informal discussions had their effect. One of them, in the Senate, where Mac rarely went, led to Senator Bennet's desire to vote for a continuation school bill. Another was followed by a conference that bore fruit in the interpellation statute. Mac harped continually on responsible government. T h e subject recurred again and again, bringing forth a description of the English Parliament and how minorities could question the administrative officials, and how by a legislative vote of "lack of confidence" the official would be dismissed or the whole government might fall, or the question referred to the electorate for decision. Obviously, the proposal was not applicable to the American form of government. Nevertheless, Senator Raguse (a socialist, later to be expelled from the Senate for an unfortunate remark about McKinley, during the tense days of World War I), was interested and wanted to introduce a bill embodying the interpellation idea. T h e proposal as drafted merely provided that a minority of the members could require an administrative officer to appear before the legislature in a Committee of the whole and answer formal inquiries. T h e bill was passed by the legislature, but has not been effectively used, although it has a germ capable of development when the time comes. VI Mac influenced some of the members in their general attitudes. George P. Hambrecht was the floor leader for Governor Philipp in the 1915 session. At the end of the session he became a member of

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t h e I n d u s t r i a l C o m m i s s i o n a n d later, because of an interest r o u s e d b y the w o r k of the C o m m i s s i o n , he was m a d e State D i r e c t o r of c o n t i n u a t i o n schools. I n a letter to Professor J. W . G a r n e r of the U n i v e r s i t y of Illinois in 1 9 1 1 H a m b r e c h t λνΓοίε: . . . the Legislative Reference Library, as conducted by Dr. Charles McCarthy, at Madison, Wisconsin, is one of the best institutions in the State of Wisconsin. I speak from personal experience with reference to this matter, after two years experience with the workings of this department. Besides serving on three regular committees in the State Legislature during the 1909 session, I also served on two Special Committees, one to investigate the workings of our primary election law, in so far as it pertained to the nomination of United States senators, and also on a special committee appointed to investigate the state policy with reference to Water Powers, Forestry, and Drainage. W h i l e engaged on committee work I wish to say that 1 received most valuable assistance and cooperation from the Legislative Reference Library at Madison. Dr. McCarthy and his able corps of assistants always stand ready to cooperate and assist any legislator devoting his time to the investigation of any special or general subject. In addition to all the foregoing, the Bill Drafting department lends valuable mechanical aid to members in rounding out their ideas into legal form. Politically Dr. McCarthy is a radical of the extreme type, while I am by nature a conservative, nevertheless we worked harmoniously together, notwithstanding there were many honest differences of opinion as to public matters constantly arising in our many discussions. I often felt that we were both the better for these discussions. Personally I feel that I have received great benefit from my experience with this department of our public service, and I believe that the State of Illinois would derive great benefit from a department similarly managed. W h e n the N e l s o n b i l l was i n t r o d u c e d in 1915, H a m b r e c h t asked t h a t it b e r e f e r r e d to the J u d i c i a r y C o m m i t t e e of w h i c h he was c h a i r m a n . T h i s was d o n e , a n d , as w e have seen, h e took g o o d care of it. H a m b r e c h t was in M c C a r t h y ' s little office o n e d a y early in the 1 9 1 5 session. D u r i n g a discussion o n social legislation asked h i m to read V o n Ihering's The Laiu as Purpose Zweck)

McCarthy

(Das Recht

als

in the " L e g a l P h i l o s o p h i c a l Series." Several m o n t h s later

H a m b r e c h t c a m e i n t o Mac's office. I h a p p e n e d to be there as i n

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the first instance. Hambrecht burst out: " I know how you influence legislators. Since I read that book I cannot think about things the way I did before." And he could not, and McCarthy's influence was clear in Hambrecht's long administrative career in the public service. VII T h e entirely different technique that was used in the case of Senator Staudenmeyer was made possible by the special circumstances of the case. The Senate in 1 9 1 5 was very closely divided. T h e vote was frequently tied (16-16), and a single vote might mean victory or defeat. T h e fluctuating member was Senator George Staudenmeyer of Portage, Wisconsin—also the home of Zona Gale. T h e Senator's wife had died. It seemed that his daughter, because of her father's attitude in the matter, was to be denied the educational opportunity he could easily afford. Miss Gale, in the neighborly fashion of Friendship Village, wanted to be helpful; she frequently talked the situation over with Senator Staudenmeyer. In the legislature it was thought that the Senator had, in the back of his head, some romantic notions—as well he might. Our present interest, however, is in the result of all these circumstances on University legislation in 1915, and the part played by McCarthy. T h e attack on the University during the campaign of 1914 was vigorous, and rumor was added to direct report. The University was to be put in its place, and the "University on wheels" must be restrained. T h e Governor at the beginning led the attack. T h e Assembly was organized by the Stalwarts with a clear majority. T h e University bills were soon to come before the Senate. Zona Gale was deeply interested in public service and particularly in the University. She was a wholehearted supporter of the University always, and of all the things McCarthy was supporting. Senator Staudenmeyer went often to Miss Gale to discuss pending legislation and to seek her advice. As she was not always in a position to give him the necessary information, she would appeal to McCarthy, who kept her informed weekly on what was happening in and about the legislature. For example, after the hearing

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on the Nelson bill in the Assembly, McCarthy reported to Miss Gale the results. Here is her reply of April 28, 1 9 1 5 : T h e twists and turns make one dizzy, don't they? T o abolish the Library Commission! He [Governor Philipp] is willing then, not only to burn the barn, but the whole town. And what, now, has he in store for the Extension Division? And what next? As each new project occurs to the Governor, will you send me the specific objections. And have you yourself anything to propose, besides leaving things alone—and giving the Library a larger appropriation? Will you let me have this before Sunday morning, when I shall have opportunity for another conversation. T h e conversation was, of course, with Senator Staudenmeyer. At the end of the legislative week it became customary for McCarthy to send a special delivery letter to Miss Gale on the same train that was carrying Senator Staudenmeyer home. At Madison we were often amused at Senator Staudenmeyer's encomiums on Miss Gale's wonderful knowledge of legislative matters, as he returned after his week end at home. Some letters taken at random will illustrate this correspondence. On J u n e 1 1 , 1 9 1 5 , McCarthy wrote as follows concerning the Nordman amendment to the water-power bill and on the T a x Commission bill. Enclosed is a copy of the Nordman amendment to the water power bill. They tell me in the Assembly that they will make this stick. Of course, then it will have to go back to the Senate for concurrence. If the vote is 15 to 15 in the Senate instead of 16 to 14, the Lieutenant Governor will throw his vote for the amendment. The amendment, as you see, is to knock out, if possible, the speculative values, the values created by society, building up around the water powers. Nobody knows what the Supreme Court may say about this amendment. It is simply a guess. On the face of it, it is probably constitutional, but no one can tell until it is tried out. Your friend was here this morning and asked me to prepare for Monday the arguments pro and con on the tax commission bill. I am having the material hunted up for him in the library. I have asked the Governor's people to present the arguments which they deem strongest in favor of the bill and then I am having the arguments which seem to be the strongest against the bill summarized so there will be parallel columns presenting the arguments exactly on both sides of the question.

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I will send you one of these when we have it prepared, which will be Monday. T h e educational legislation, nearer Zona Gale's heart, was discussed in a letter J u l y 14, 1915. I am writing this in confidence to you, and I do not believe that even our friend should see it or know that I have written this. Many men hammer him and tell him that I am a lobbyist for the University, and this letter being on a University subject I would not want him to know for one moment that I am writing this particular letter to you. You know already how 704A and the Hanson Corrupt practice act came out. . . . the interests here do not care so much about the University or for that matter any particular man in the University so much as they care to see the University confined within its walls. As the Governor said the other day: "This University on wheels business must stop." They feel that the University is prying its way into everything in the state, and they fear that kind of a thing more than they fear anything else. The word has gone out to fix the University extension. They do not dare to do only a very little of it. Goodness knows, G. D. Jones and a lot of others have been trying to kill it long enough, I understand by the underground railroad today that they are going to cut $20,000 off the appropriation. The Lyceum people from Chicago have had a man named Wilson here lobbying to cut out the Lyceum business. When I see you I will talk over some big plans for further education along this line with you, so that we can get up some influence to make it go further into the state to stir up democracy and educate further. In spite of them we put through the other day a bill advancing the Continuation Schools to 17 years of age. Bill 360S which will help them also has a chance of going through, and if we can correlate the summer school and the extension department together we will make an extra-mural University which will really teach Democracy one of these days. T h e result was that on many bills in the public interest in which Staudenmeyer might very easily have been wrong, he was right. He voted in Committee and on the floor to kill the pending Legislative Reference Library bill, and in the case of University bills, he always favored the University. Incidentally, it may be said Staudenmever received some graceful attention from President Van Hise Avhich helped the good cause.

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VIII Perhaps one of the most striking evidences of McCarthy's influence occurred during the 1 9 1 5 session. T h e Governor had declared that the University must be curbed, and professors must stick to their classrooms. T h e very strong feeling in the legislature against the University caused its friends to fear restrictive legislation and reduced appropriations. McCarthy wondered how he could help. He was reading at the time the three-volume Reminiscences of Carl Schurz. T h e story of Gottfried Kinkel, a professor at Bonn, and at Zurich, as told in the first volume was repeated to groups of legislators night after night, with its dramatic incidents and the escape by Schurz's plan. Mac told the story in his usual dramatic fashion, with emphasis on academic freedom, Lehrfreiheil. and Lernfreiheit, and the nature of a University. One evening a legislator, who happened to be a dirt farmer, was standing on the outer circle of the group. With tears in his eyes and his voice choked with emotion he said, " T h a t is all true what McCarthy is telling you. I was in the University of Zurich and Gottfried Kinkel was my teacher. When I go home next week I will bring to Dr. McCarthy an autographed picture of Gottfried Kinkel which was given me by his son." J o h n Gamper, one of the strong men supporting the Governor, though outwardly unimpressive, went home to Medford in Taylor County (which county, by the way, that year had no students in attendance at the University), and returned with the picture. McCarthy had it enlarged and kept it in his office till his death. T h e incident must have stirred deep memories in John Gamper. H e was a student of Kinkel's in Kinkel's last class at Zurich; was one of the last persons to see him and sang with the University choir at his funeral, at which the President of the Swiss Republic gave the first funeral oration. It is worth reading the story as John Gamper retold it to the author on December 10, 1940: In the fall-winter semester of 1882, I think in October, we read on the Bulletin Board in the University: "The readings are suspended until further notice. Gottfried Kinkel." [This notice was in German], Kinkel was sick and never received his health to appear again. On November 2nd, 3:15 P.M., it was Saturday afternoon, I called at Kinkel's home, and presented my card. I was admitted and was led to

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Kinkel's sick room. He was resting in an arm-chair—a dying old man. His spiritual energy was gone and his face was pale. I cut my visit short. I shook his hand and wished an early recovery. He answered with a feeble voice: "My recovery soon will be complete, for my days on earth are counted, but I can look back over my whole life—it was served on the altar for the betterment of mankind!" I never forgot and never will forget these last words of Kinkel and the sincerity in which they were spoken. On November 13th when the students reached the University, all the doors were draped with mourning. On the Bulletin Board Kinkel's death was announced in German and Latin. Gamper then described the funeral service, his own participation in the choir, which sang one of Kinkel's own poems. T h e picture was the one given to Gamper, and to the other 64 singers in the choir, on this occasion, by Gottfried Kinkel, J r . Gamper brought the picture with his diploma and Bible when he came to America from Zurich. T o McCarthy the Legislative Reference Library was the great supporting instrument of the democratic processes. His work never descended to routine, it was always an adventure—the continuing adventure of democratic commonwealth building. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he saw the legislature at the heart of the process. He created at this heart a great constructive instrument. He gave his life to make sure it would serve. His own service was a passion, but the service of the institution as such was independent of him and of his personality. With or without the Library, McCarthy would have been a virile passionate force. Every legislature became a school to him, and here the teacher in unobtrusive, kindly ways went to the students. He went as a human being to work on their minds and on their hearts. His passion for the common welfare, his vision of what it might become, his genius for social inventions to make dreams a reality, his imagination that could illumine a subject in concrete imagery, and his language that was vivifying and revealing, all these played on Iiis listeners, and they seemed to be under a spell. And so, entirely independent of the Library as an institution, McCarthy exerted a tremendous personal influence, not by legerdemain but by a simple sincerity and a great passion. He communicated his vision and his faith and his passion to those with whom he came in contact, whether it was Zona Gale, Senator Raguse,

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Assemblymen Hambrecht or Gamper, or a casual visitor to the Legislative Reference Library. His, too, was the deep abiding influence on the students who were fortunate to be in his classes, or under his direction, or on his football or baseball teams. There was no magic in McCarthy's influence: it was McCarthy himself. It was the McCarthy who loved his fellowman and gave his life for him with utter selflessness, and with too wanton disregard of his health. He was, in his generation, one of the great soldiers of the common good, and fortunate indeed, were those who met him on the crossroads of life, whether a Theodore Roosevelt or an obscure Wisconsin farmer.

Chapter IX THE LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE AND PROGRESSIVE

LIBRARY

LEGISLATION

IE GLORIOUS AGE of Wisconsin progressiveness was the decade preceding 1 9 1 5 . Wisconsin R e p u b l i c a n s look back on those ten years, even though reaction has the day, and " p o i n t with p r i d e " to their platform of 1 9 1 4 : T h e Republican party in the state has never failed in its promises to the people, and a faithful performance of its pledges has been one of its traditions since its advent into the political life of the commonwealth, three score years ago. Its achievements have been the beacon lights of the legislation and human advancement, and among the many of recent years the following are a few: A stringent corrupt practices act. A railroad commission. A strict dairy and food law which protects both the producer and the consumer. Wise legislation for the better protection of health and sanitation, which, with the aid of medical science has confined contagious diseases to isolated cases, and has made epidemics a thing of the past. A two cent passenger fare on railways. A law providing shorter hours for railway employes. An eight hour labor law on public buildings and on public works. A reasonable child labor law. A law which makes it mandatory for minors engaged in manual labor to receive a certain amount of educational instruction. A public utility law, which regulates the rates and manner of service of gas and electric light companies, and other similar agencies. A workmen's compensation law, and an industrial commission to enforce and carry out its provisions. Advanced legislation for the protection of labor engaged in the industries, against accidents by dangerous machinery and dangerous surroundings. Legislation protecting the health and sanitation of those employed in industrial and mercantile pursuits.

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Laws limiting the hours of female labor. Legislation to conserve our natural resources, and the propagation of fish and game. A n effective weights and measures law, protecting the consumer in his just rights. Legislation authorizing cooperative societies. Legislation regulating the issuance and sale of corporate stock, thereby protecting the manufacturer and merchant seeking capital, as well as protecting the innocent investor. Beneficial agricultural and dairy education which now places Wisconsin in the position of producing more cheesc than any other state in the Union. Humane legislation to aid dependent mothers. Legislation permitting the employment of prison labor on highways. Reasonable and efficient insurance legislation providing for supervision. Unfair trade legislation which seeks to prohibit the destroying of competition. 1 In many of these carefully w o r k e d out laws Wisconsin showed the way to other states. Is it merely a coincidence that the period d u r i n g w h i c h this legislation was constructed, passed, and efficiently administered was the period of the origin and d e v e l o p m e n t of the Legislative R e f e r e n c e Library? T h i s legislation ordinarily carried the name of La Follette, and u n d o u b t e d l y w i t h o u t his courage to combat the intrenched reactionary leadership, his p u b l i c tireless reiteration of the need for a change to better things, and his crusade for m a k i n g the legislation and p u b l i c service the instrument of p u b l i c welfare, the social achievement of these years w o u l d n o t have been possible. B u t the political leader and crusader must undertake long, patient, constructive w o r k , if the agitation is to be m o r e than a froth on the good old ways of e x p l o i t a t i o n and oppression. Political crusades have o f t e n stirred the people w i t h o u t achieving permanent results, as, for e x a m p l e , the G r a n g e r M o v e m e n t in Wisconsin, or the Knights of L a b o r c a m p a i g n in the nation. N o constructive workers d i d the necessary intellectual " p i c k and shovel w o r k , " to translate agitation into effective social structure. L a Follette himself realized this very clearly w h e n he became governor for he says q u i t e significantly in his Autobiography: ι Wisconsin

Blue

Book,

1915, p. 452.

PROGRESSIVE

LEGISLATION

ι ι ι

Now it is never safe to be satisfied with victory at an election. T h e real test comes later, when the bills incorporating new principles are written. It is one thing to talk of general propositions on the stump: it is quite another thing to perform the careful, cautious, thoughtful task, of reducing those propositions into closely worded legal provisions which will afterward serve the public interest and stand the scrutiny of the courts. T h e trouble comes when the powerful opposition appears to cease, when the skillful corporation lawyer comes to you and says: "You shall have no further opposition. All we ask is that the measure be fair and reasonable. We have had large practical experience, and we can make a few suggestions really for the good of the legislation." He then presents changes which seem very plausible, but in which may lurk the weaknesses and uncertainties that will afterward lead the court to break down the statute by construction. It is then that sincere friends of reform may be misled, because they have not the expert knowledge to meet the situation. 2 Professor Ulrich Β. Phillips, of the University of Wisconsin, after five years' residence in Wisconsin and close acquaintance with McCarthy and the Legislative Reference Library suggested in 1907: In Wisconsin, Dr. McCarthy by rendering large service has made himself a great power. T o his suggestions has been due much of the personal success of Governor-Senator La Follette in administration and reform and much of the improvement in laws and education which the State of Wisconsin has experienced. A man without McCarthy's training, zeal and honor might do some harm in the state, but the right man in charge of such a bureau can render vast service to the legislature and people of any commonwealth. 3 II La Follette's first contact Avith what was to be the Legislative Reference Library was the Free Library Commission Appropriation Act of 1901, which contained the provision for a reference service to legislators. L a Follette specifically approved the idea in his messages in 1903 as we have seen. In his message of 1905 he said: T h e Legislative Reference Department of the Free Library Commission was established after the legislative session of 1901. T h e work which it accomplished in aiding members of the legislature of 1903, - Robert M. La Follette, Autobiography (Madison, Wis., 1913, pp. 340-41.) 3 Preface by Phillips in "A Bureau for the Improvement of Legislative Service." Pamphlet, undated.

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was such as to fully demonstrate that it is worth many times its cost to the people of the state. T h e library which had been collected and which was the most complete of its kind owned by any state, was entirely destroyed in the capítol fire. Through the energetic work of the librarian, and with the expenditure of an extremely small amount of money, a new library has been collected and it is rapidly assuming the proportions of the old. No educational work under the direction of the state is of more value to the state government than is that contemplated by this legislative Reference Department. . . . T o increase the efficiency of this department it should be enabled to co-operate with similar departments in other states of this country, and with societies and men throughout the world that are engaged in the study of legislation. In order to make its present work more effective and to enable it to expand, it is necessary that it should have an additional appropriation of $1,500.00 a year. . . . I recommend that provision be made to enable it to achieve its objects. La Follette apparently did not regard McCarthy as an intimate. W h e n he wanted a civil service bill drafted he called in Commons and gave the j o b to him, even though Commons went directly to McCarthy for aid. W h e n La Follette wanted a public utility bill f o l l o w i n g u p the Railroad Commission he went to Commons who, however, immediately sought McCarthy's aid. Usually La Follette worked w i t h M c C a r t h y through intermediaries. W h e n Dahl attacked the Legislative Reference Library in 1915, shortly after La Follette had praised it, Ι λ Follettes Weekly carried Dahl's attack but refused to carry any reply from McCarthy. McCarthy was very m u c h interested in the establishment of a school of jurisprudence at Wisconsin. W h e n he read an announcement that Johns H o p k i n s contemplated such a school "for the scientific study of the laws and their effect upon communities" he communicated the idea to L a Follette, w h o wrote to him on February 6, 1911, I agree with you that our university should take up this matter seriously and at the first opportunity I shall discuss it with President Van Hise and urge upon him that similar work be taken up at Wisconsin. I thank you for calling my attention to it. In the preceding year McCarthy had called La Follette's attention to the relation of patents to trusts and monopolies. La Follette's very gracious reply on February 23, 1910, was as follows:

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Your letter . . . interests me very much. You are always running over with good things. The right sort of a fellow could make a fortune to follow you around and pick up the ideas you spill out all along the way. I shall make some use of this suggestion, either by resolution or through the committee. . . . We all regretted very much not having more of your time when you were here. I hope you will be in Washington again during the winter, and if so, I want it understood now that you are to save out an evening for us at the house when I will gather in some congenial spirits, and we will smash things generally. In 1 9 1 1 the Progressive Movement in Wisconsin reached its zenith, but McGovern's desertion to the Bull-Moose in 1 9 1 2 and the punishment that the La Follette faction visited upon him was the decisive factor in the session of 1 9 1 3 , which should have carried the Progressive Movement to new heights. T h e Market Bill had to be defeated so that McGovern would not get credit for it. T h e r e was a strong factionalism in the Assembly between the La Follette and the McGovern forces. McCarthy—also under more than usual suspicion—was nevertheless bent on telling L a Follette in a five-page letter what was being done under his name and by certain of his followers. T h e letter, dated April 25, 1 9 1 3 , concludes: As a man in love with the very map of the State of Wisconsin, and a man true to every ideal which I have had from boyhood, working with all my might these long years through for better government, I cannot let this situation go past without warning you that your friends in the senate and in the lower house, because of the opposition to McGovern will be led to defeating the market bill, defeating good school legislation and many wise and good bills for the people of the State of Wisconsin. A word from you or letters from you will no doubt help this situation as they will not dare go counter to your wishes if openly and directly and specifically expressed. I am not writing this to plead with you to take a stand in this state for these bills. I am only writing to you to state the conditions as they exist and to warn you so that whatever the future may bring you will be forewarned. . . . The truthfulness of what I say may be attested by a man who has never wavered in his friendship for you, John R. Commons. He is not as close to the affairs of the legislature as I am but doubtless he knows enough about them to confirm everything I am

1 1 4

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setting forth in this letter to you. If I have offended you in this letter by writing to you I cannot help it as I have done what I think an honest man ought to do in warning you about the situation. Your name, your prestige, has been used and is being used by little and ambitious men to foment a war between factions in this state which nobody can profit by except the force of evil in the long run. Your friends today in the senate and the lower house because of their love for you, consequently dislike the McGovern faction and are upon the brink of defeating good legislation in order that he may not gain in any way by the passage of such legislation. Yours is the only hand that can direct them wisely. For you have never faltered in the past when it came to bringing about better conditions for the people of this state by whatever means. You may be sore at me and I care not. If you are fighting under the banner of pi'ogress, fighting the people's battle, it matters little to me what you may think of me. I will be with you. I am doing my best to help along that cause with whatever strength I may possess. I feel as I grow older an increasing admiration for you and for the great work you have done in this state. I n a letter to W i l l i a m A l l e n W h i t e dated J u n e 3, 1 9 1 5 , in answer to questions about L a Follette, M c C a r t h y reveals his own relation to L a Follette: I believe that if L a Follette comes into the state and works hard he can be elected. If he does all the queer things that he has done previously, he will not be elected. He has got to have another kind of a force than the crowd he has had around him in the past. L a Follette has been a great good in the country. Personally, I have had very little to do with him. His arbitrary temperament has made it impossible for me to work personally with him all these years. I never go near him. I cannot go through the line of puppets that he has around him to get to him. T h e r e is no doubt of the truth of this last statement. With some notable exceptions like E k e r n a n d C r o w n h a r t , the L a Follette intimates were, to say the least, not great men o r even able men. L a Follette states his own general j u d g m e n t of M c C a r t h y thus: Many of the university staff are now in state service, and a bureau of investigation and research established as a legislative reference library conducted by Charles McCarthy, a man of marked originality and power, has proved of the greatest assistance to the legislature in furnishing the latest and best thought of the advanced students of

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government in this and other countries. He has built up an institution in Wisconsin that is a model which the Federal Government and ultimately every state in the Union will follow. 4 Ill Professor C o m m o n s tells in his autobiography the story of how in 1905 G o v e r n o r L a Follette asked McCarthy to prepare a civilservice bill. It is significant that La Follette did not ask McCarthy directly, b u t M c C a r t h y quickly gathered a great deal of m a t e r i a l — in fact all that was n e e d e d — a n d the draft was ready for submission to C o m m o n s and L a Follette a few days later. Fred Holmes, a member of the legislature, asked McCarthy to tell him what he did to get the material ready on tenement house legislation. McCarthy's reply (March 30, 1909) shows how the Library worked in an actual situation: You asked me how we prepared the synopsis of laws upon the tenement house proposition. T h e matter is very simple. You know that the bill came up last session and was passed but the legislature tacked on an amendment to it which made it apply to all cities in the state instead of the cities of the first class. T h i s was declared unconstitutional. T h e Republican platform took up the matter and pledged the passage of a bill of this kind. We had nothing to do with the first bill but thought we would get the data for the second bill. Therefore, we looked over all of the laws of the country and got out a little pamphlet which gives a summarized arrangement of all the laws of this and other countries. This contains no argument for or against the proposition but merely shows what other countries are doing and what the big cities of America are doing. This, of course, would take any legislator many months to do and indeed he would have to be possessed of great skill in order to do it. This work is necessary in order to meet the rulings of the Supreme Court. We must show what is considered reasonable and necessary in other parts of the world and in other cities. We have not drafted either bill, however, as we received no request to do so. I believe, however, that both of the bills in the legislature have been modified by the men who have actually drafted them upon looking over this bulletin. T h i s bulletin was widely used, b u t later no bulletins were issued, presumably for lack of funds for publication. * L a F o l l e t t e . Autobiography,

p p . 31-32.

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Transportation had been a pressing problem in Wisconsin from the beginning of its statehood. Many favors had been granted to railroad companies to induce them to build roads. T h e railroads became the "spoiled children" of political and social life. T h e y were tremendously influential in politics. W h e n abuses arose in connection with rebates, passes, and discrimination among shippers, little or no relief could be obtained through ordinary legal resources. O n e of the results of the Granger Movement was the passage of the Potter Law, with its long list of schedules and rates, which went into effect in April, 1874. A n elected railroad commission was set u p to administer the law. Law and administration proved equally ineffective, and the agitation continued. D u r i n g the nineties, A. R . Hall pressed in the legislature for ad valorem taxation of railroads and thundered against the "pass" evil. Governor Edward Schofield, in his second term (1897-1901), returned the railroad passes sent to him and signed an anti-pass law. L a Follette was also in favor of the ad valorem tax and criticized the railroad companies continually. D u r i n g his second term in 1903, a bill, based on the Iowa plan in which the Commission was to make a schedule of rates, was introduced but was defeated. In the 1904 campaign, La Follette made the regulation of railroads a major issue. A f t e r his reelection, a new bill was formulated. For this purpose the Legislative Reference Library scoured all legislation and bills and the writings of economists for effective means and devices for making railroad regulation and control effective. A l l this material was turned over to the legislators, in particular to Senator W i l l i a m H . Hatton, a wealthy man of sound judgment and ability and genuinely interested in good government. McCarthy's advice was sought at every stage of the development of the bill, which was submitted to all persons interested and to those w h o had any special information on the subject. As Mac mentioned incidentally in the course of his examination before the Committee investigating boards and commissions in i g i 5 , twenty-one drafts were made before the railroad-commission bill was acceptable. H e describes the making of the bill as follows:

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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 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 constantly around the committee, the more radical and impatient 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 foundation 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 legislature 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 committe 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." Here in the patient drafting and redrafting of the Railroad Commission Act of 1905 was worked out the underlying principles or characteristics of the Wisconsin regulative legislation and administration. T h e sharp line between legislative and administrative functions, the appointive commission, public bookkeeping, use of trained experts on the public side, the continuing appropriation, and the protection of individual rights by the state as a big brother. These are the points noted by McCarthy as the characteristic features,® and he helped to see that they were in all subsequent regulative legislation. 5 Wisconsin Idea, p. 40. β McCarthy notes that 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 dispatch companies of all kinds, as well as equipment, regulation of passes, mileage books, sidings, switching and terminals; in short, the whole railroad business."

ι ι 8

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J o h n R . Commons had recently completed his study of publicly and privately owned public utilities in England and the United States. In his autobiography he tells of his connection with the extension of the Wisconsin Railroad Commission law to public utilities. I saw again, in «907, how McCarthy's "bill factory" worked. Senator L a Follette and Speaker Herman L. Ekern, of the Assembly, asked me to aid the committees of the legislature in drafting a law that would extend to municipal and interurban public utilities the regulation already exercised over railways through the act of 1905. McCarthy gave me a room in his library, and during the fivè or six months' session of the legislature I met there the representatives of the public utility corporations and worked with Mr. M. S. Dudgeon, of McCarthy's legal staff, ill drafting the bill.7 L a Follette had selected Commons again as his representative. McCarthy, as Commons pointed out, always worked "hand in glove" with him. Commons was always glad to have McCarthy's suggestion, particularly in the essential job here of "fitting those recommendations into the decisions of the Supreme Court of the state and of the United States." It was characteristic of both Commons and McCarthy that they sought help or advice from any source whatever. Many progressives would have feared contamination from a corporation lawyer like Harry Butler who helped them. Butler was a really great constitutional lawyer and a man of great legal insight. His help was welcomed. T h e advice of Chief Justice Winslow could not be asked because the law was likely to come before him for decision. Commons further described his own part in this legislation as follows: I worked during six months on the public utility law in McCarthy's "bill factory." I adopted nearly the whole of the recommendations signed by nineteen of the twenty-one members of the investigating committee of the Civic Federation. I did not, of my own initiative, introduce anything new in drafting the bill. I got it all from others. I was a kind of sieve for funnelling ideas from everywhere into legislative enactment.8 T h e Public Utility Law carried out principles and techniques used in the Railroad Commission Act, but it had special problems ι Myself,

p. 1 1 1 .

»Ibid.,

p. iso.

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of its own. T h e basis of the law was physical valuation, b u t what was " g o i n g value," "property used and useful," "cost of service," and "reproductive cost less depreciation." T h e commission technique was the m e t h o d for meeting this problem. Systems of uniform accounting—especially for construction, depreciation, and publicity r e q u i r e m e n t s — w e r e made part of the law. T h e great problem centered a r o u n d the indeterminate permit. T h e corporations were given the opportunity of surrendering their franchises for the indeterminate permit. ( T h i s principle McCarthy waited to introduce in the national anti-trust legislation which he was to draft a few years later for Charles R . Crane.) T h e success of the legislation, particularly as to form, is indicated by the Supreme C o u r t decision written, strangely enough, by Justice Marshall, w h o had been opposed to Progressive doctrines: T h e magnitude of the task was great. Few, if any, greater have been dealt with in our legislative history. T h e result stands significant as a monument to legislative wisdom. T h a t such a complicated 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 administration, except in a very few instances, and secure optional submission 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 enactment 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. T h e 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 attempt to restrict it or extend it so as to continue or renew or promote the detrimental consequences it was aimed to abolish and prevent. 9 T h i s j u d g m e n t must have been in a peculiar way satisfying to Commons and more particularly to McCarthy. VI T h e principle laid down or evolved in the railroad commission legislation was now to b e applied to a new field—the amazing and β Quoted in The Wisconsin Idea, pp. 63-64.

1 2O

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c h a o t i c b o d y of l a b o r l a w . W h i l e h e l p i n g to d r a f t the

Public

U t i l i t y L a w C o m m o n s w o n d e r e d w h y the same c o o p e r a t i v e arr a n g e m e n t s a n d a d m i n i s t r a t i v e m a c h i n e r y c o u l d n o t be a p p l i e d to l a b o r . G o v e r n o r Francis E. M c G o v e r n took, the i n i t i a t i v e and asked to h a v e such a bill d r a f t e d . C o m m o n s a n d his assistant, Francis H . B i r d , " j o i n e d w i t h M c C a r t h y in his r e f e r e n c e library d u r i n g the session of 1 9 1 1 . " C o m m o n s has stated the p r o b l e m a n d M c C a r t h y ' s part in its s o l u t i o n in these w o r d s : Here the problem was, in part, the constitutional problem, already solved in the railroad commission law, of delegating by the legislature to an administrative body the power to make rules governing, in this case, the relations of employers and employees. The railroad and public utility laws dealt with monopolies. Here we were dealing with competitive industries. In the former laws it had been necessary only to delegate to the Commission authority to investigate, ascertain and fix "reasonable values" and "reasonable services," leaving to the Commission to find out, if it could, what was "reasonable," subject to review by the courts. But in the relation of employers and employees we h a d to shift the legal meaning of "reasonable" to cover, not values but practices. These practices came under such diverse headings as safety, health, child labor, moral well-being, wage-bargaining, hours of labor, m i n i m u m wages for women and children, labor disputes, and free employment offices. Here McCarthy came in with his acute and inescapable criticism. T h e word "reasonable," under judicial interpretation, meant just ordinary, average, or customary practices, and any effort of the Industrial Commission to raise the standards above that level would be declared by the courts to be unconstitutional as taking the property of employers without "due process of law." W e spent m u c h time endeavoring to overcome these criticisms by McCarthy, T h i s was my ideal of "collective thinking." W e wanted a definition of "reasonableness" that would be acceptable to the courts but would raise the standards above the ordinary. W e assigned to Bird the research in law encyclopedias and court decisions to ascertain such a definition. After many conferences he came forward with the definition that reasonableness should mean the highest degree of safety, health, well-being of employees, etc., that the nature of the industry or employment would reasonably permit.10 VII T h e W i s c o n s i n I n c o m e T a x L a w serves as a n o t h e r illustration b o t h of M c C a r t h y ' s i n f l u e n c e a n d his service to the p r o g r a m of 10 Myself, pp. 154-55.

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ι 2 ι

progressive legislation. The success of the law has been called by one authority "epochal" and is referred to by another as starting a "new chapter in American financial history." T h e history of the colonial or state income taxes had been a dismal failure. The Massachusetts Act of 1643 was a failure, and so were the efforts of the sixteen states that up to 1 9 1 1 had tried income-tax legislation. The highest authorities in the field, including Professor E. R . A. Seligman of Columbia University, had generally agreed that a successful state income tax could not be framed. But Wisconsin would try, and Wisconsin succeeded, because it had a skilled social engineer in its Legislative Reference Library helping guide its destiny. By almost unanimous vote, the Wisconsin legislatures of 1905 and 1907 passed a resolution to permit a graduated income tax in the state. In accordance with the method of considering constitutional amendments, the proposal was submitted to the people at the election in November, 1908, and passed by a majority of 48,000." A special joint committee of the legislature was appointed in the session of 1909. In their platforms of 1910 all four political parties approved the proposal of the tax. T h e problems were difficult. T h e legislative committee had not been able to solve them in its two years of life. Mr. Haugen of the T a x Commission gave the Committee no help. T h e chairman of the Committee, Judge Kleczka, said Mr. Haugen was quite discouraging and antagonistic. McCarthy was asked to help in the drafting of a bill. He did a characteristic thing. He sought and found in the state service a person whom he thought competent to do the job. He engaged Delos Kinsman of the Whitewater Normal School. Kinsman had studied the experiences of the forty-eight states with the taxation of incomes. His dissertation for the doctorate was published in 1903 as The Income Tax in the Commonwealths of the United States. Kinsman had come to this conclusion: "that the state income tax had been a failure, due to the failure of 11 The constitutional amendment added to Section I of Article VIII is italicized in the following copy of its amended form: " T h e rule of taxation shall be uniform and taxes shall be levied on such property as the legislature may prescribe. "Taxes may also be imposed on income privileges and occupations, which taxes may be graduated and progressive, and reasonable exemptions may be protHded."

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administration, which, in turn, may be attributed to four causes— the method of self-assessment, the indifference of state officials, the persistent effort of the taxpayers to evade the tax, and the nature of income." 12 Kinsman was asked to discuss the income tax bill that had been introduced in the í g i ι session of the Wisconsin Legislature. H e thought that the bill under consideration was unjust and inoperative. T h i s displeased and annoyed T a x Commissioner Haugen, author of the bill, and explains his subsequent opposition in this session to any income tax bill. T h e committee asked Kinsman to draft a new bill. McCarthy was able to overcome his hesitation and to resolve his doubts. Kinsman went to work in the Legislative Reference Library after a month's leave was secured for him from the state Normal School; this leave was renewed for two subsequent months. H e was ably assisted by John Sinclair, who was working with McCarthy at the time. A n important administrative question was: C o u l d the assessor be appointed? It was the general impression he could not, as Kinsman brought out in an interview much later (1937). A careful search of decisions of the Supreme C o u r t of Wisconsin was made at the time by Sinclair, who found a satisfactory precedent in the approval of an appointed assessor at Green Bay, following the failure of the regularly elected assessor to make a satisfactory assessment. T h i s helped make administrative efficiency possible. Dr. Kinsman makes a rather naïve comment on the attitude of the lobbyist. It is simple justice to state that throughout the drafting of the measure which was done at the capítol building in the Legislative Reference Library, none of the lobbyists who strongly opposed the bill so much as remotely suggested the slightest irregularity. 13 It may be said that at that time or even earlier no lobbyists ever attempted to tamper with the bill-making processes in the Legislative Reference Library. W h e n they operated, they operated through members. 12 Op. cit., pp. 120-21. i s "Genesis of the Wisconsin Income T a x L a w , " Wisconsin Magazine Sept., 1937.

of

History,

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McCarthy turned also to Thomas S. Adams who had been recently appointed to the T a x Commission by Governor McGovern. Adams had not yet come to Wisconsin nor would he for several months, but on March 3, 1 9 1 1 , McCarthy wrote to him: T h e question has come up here, if we have a progressive tax on income, can you tax at the source at the same time, or can you use the method of taxing at the source to aid an assessor in arriving at incomes? If so, what kind of a process would you suggest? . . . I suppose you have a copy of the bill. In order to be sure about it, I am sending you herewith a copy of the bill (158A). I see that Seligman in his new book upon income taxation takes the position that if you have progressive taxation, you cannot tax at the source. I believe that Bastable takes the same position. But it occurs to me that it could be worked out practically, however, by giving this power in the bills and allowing the assessors to have it at hand. What do you think of the device used in British Columbia, by which the option is given for the assessor to use either the income tax or the personal property tax? Would it be of any service here? I am glad to hear of your appointment here and hope you can come as soon as possible. We need you on this income tax bill very badly. H o w the work on the bill was progressing is indicated in a letter of April 6 to Senator Kleczka, chairman of the Committee in charge of the bill: . . . So far we have begged and implored the legislature to give us directions upon which to work. We have received practically no help whatsoever. I say this because it is now April 6th and the legislature is coming to a close. It seems too bad that a thing which is in both platforms could not be given a good straight day's work by the legislature or by the committee in charge. I think the damages cannot be repaired by anyone in the next two months, even if the legislature were to last that time. I predict that the bill will come out so late that the legislature will not feel like giving it the consideration it ought to give it, and there may be grievous mistakes in it. . . . I, for one, cannot understand why the committee will not give us this direction and help when we stand ready to help in every way. In the meantime, McCarthy had received a reply to his appeal for suggestions from Adams. T h e suggestions were "critical rather than constructive" and on May 3, 1 9 1 1 , McCarthy wrote again to Adams, who was shortly to be in Madison permanently as a member of the T a x Commission:

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I received your letter relating to the income tax bill. I wish you had been on the ground here before you wrote the letter. I have not received from Mr. Haugen yet your criticisms, and I do not know as I shall be able to get your letter from him in time to be of any service. All the political parties call for an income tax. This department has done its best to help the members of the legislature to construct something. We have had no help from Mr. Haugen on the constructive side of this matter, although he has for six years recommended it in his reports. Your suggestions to us have been critical rather than constructive and at present probably will have the effect of killing the whole matter. . . . At the distance which you are from this place, I believe you cannot be of use to us in the construction. I fear, however, that your letter has destroyed any hope of having any kind of legislation of this kind this session, although I have not had a chance to see it. It has been used by Mr. Haugen on the floor in quoting you in the opposition to the income tax bill. T h e bill was drawn and introduced. T h e lobbyists in their chats with Kinsman had promised certainly they would kill the bill in the legislature or in the courts. Haugen declared the new measure "impracticable, unworkable, and in violation of justice," and quoted Adams as agreeing with him. Nevertheless, the bill became a law without outstanding amendment, and the law was so "emphatically successful" that by 1935, twenty-seven states had followed Wisconsin's example. T h e critical point in the construction of this legislation was the selection of Kinsman as a draftsman for the Legislative Reference Library, his conversion to the practicability of a state incometax law by McCarthy, the provision of adequate assistance for him and the guidance and stimulus of McCarthy both directly on Kinsman and generally upon members of the legislature in their individual conferences with him. VIII T h e water-power legislation of 1 9 1 1 (Chapter 652, Laws of 1 9 1 1 ) , was declared unconstitutional by Chief Justice T i m l i n . In a letter to Herbert Knox Smith, head of the Bureau of Corporations of the U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor, enclosing a copy of J u d g e Timlin's decision, McCarthy wrote, under date of February 3, 1 9 1 2 :

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I believe this is an entirely unfortunate decision. The act was passed upon the best experience of Switzerland, Germany, France, and Norway. Of course the committee which drafted the act recognized that there was some precedent to meet under old conditions which stood in the way, but our court has so often disregarded this judge-made law that the committee thought it might do so in this case. When the Governor signed the bill our department sent to him a list of this matter, telling him that the law was technically unconstitutional, but showing him the great economic value of the law. Immediately after the act was declared unconstitutional, the study of the problem as a basis of drafting another act was begun. Matthew Dudgeon, who helped draft the Public Utility Act and who was the Secretary of the Free Library Commission, made proposals for working out a new act. McCarthy submitted a plan to Herbert Knox Smith for his judgment. Governor McGovern, McCarthy, and Miles Riley, the draftsman, had frequent conferences on the subject, as did Husting and McCarthy. A letter to the Governor, written on March 1 1 , 1 9 1 2 , after a Sunday evening conference, reveals McCarthy's whole underlying philosophy and his concern that public servants in one generation shall not compromise succeeding generations. I have been thinking over the proposition that you put up to me Sunday night, relating to the water powers of the state. . . . If the legislature intended to have these franchises for water power repealable and the courts have made it so that they are not in fact repealable, any scheme that we have in the future will be of very little use. . . . If our franchises are repealable in an effective manner (and I believe personally that they ought to be repealable to the extent of being blotted out of the river if necessary and the machinery stopped in a minute) then we have a surety that we can do anything we please with these franchises in the future. When we consider that Europe is becoming a network of small railroad lines . . . that the conditions of inter-relation in our state may depend some time on electricity generated from these water powers . . . that manufacturers and the whole industries of this state inay depend upon them . . . that other countries are making fertilizers by electricity . . . I say it behooves us to see to it that we can control these water powers and if necessary obtain them to the state by condemnation proceedings. . . . It is the plain duty as I see it for the state to make a complete map of all the water powers of the state and then to see to it that these water powers are developed to the best interests of all the people in the long run. . .

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We must look upon this matter in a great economic sense—looking forward hundreds of years and to a crowded state, and we should not risk anything at the present time which will tie up these matters in the future. . . . I do not think that Mr. Bundy's plan meets the situation at all, either in its engineering aspect, the direct power which the state should have over the matter, or the great economy in the long run to the people. The bill drafted by Mr. Riley and Mr. Ryan makes all these water powers public utilities now and I believe that is about as fas as we should go, but I think it will be a sad day indeed if we do not go to work and assert positively what the legislature really meant when it said that these franchises were subject to repeal at any time. Senator Husting introduced another water-power bill in the year 1 9 1 3 , which became a law and is still on the statute books. IX Social history is a strange thing indeed as we review it in Wisconsin during the great days of 1901 to 1 9 1 5 . Who is to have the credit for this great upsurge of democratic protest and of great constructive effort to make governments serve human beings? T h e story is often told in terms of the governor or the person who introduced the bill or the chairman of the legislative committee in charge of the legislation. T h i s is often the plain external fact, and still more often is without significant relation to the constructive social work achieved. Reviews of the histories of the Progressive Movement and of recent social history contain no mention of McCarthy's name, nor is the significant place of the Legislative Reference Library as an actual social force indicated. In these examples of Progressive legislation in Wisconsin, McCarthy is seen as the driving force, the indefatigable collector of information, the constructive thinker. He remained in the background, working not for the credit but to get the thing done. His statement to La Follette when his followers were using his name to scuttle constructive legislation is his creed: "If you are fighting under the banner of progress, fighting the people's battle, it matters little to me what you think of me. I will be with you." And whoever the person was, whatever his affiliations or lack of them, McCarthy fought at his side, marching forward without regard to those who withdrew, or fell back, or betrayed the cause.

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T HAS germinal possibilities." In any proposal that was the great attraction intellectually and spiritually for McCarthy. Somewhere in the Wisconsin Idea he says that the end of representative government is the statute. This is truly the great central fact. T h e statute is the declaration of public policies directly by representatives of the people. By helping to make such declarations intelligent and clear, the Legislative Reference Library protected the democratic process, practically at the source. A desire to keep the lawmaking process close to the people explains McCarthy's special interest in the initiative and referendum and in the recall of judges. He felt that the whole democratic process was seriously undermined by what he called judge-made law or judicial usurpation of a function of the legislator. The judges, through their power to construct, interpret, and invalidate laws, Avere becoming, McCarthy thought, the real lawmakers. He loved to tell a story of Talleyrand. Said Talleyrand to Napoleon, "There is someone, Sire, who is wiser than you and wiser than all your ministers." "Who is that?" asked Napoleon. "Everybody," answered Talleyrand. But McCarthy would not put upon the people responsibilities they could not meet. He wanted to see their will expressed on a clean cut issue or a definite—and workable—proposition. T h e Wisconsin proposal for the initiative and referendum furnishes an excellent illustration. McCarthy's scheme, embodied in the proposed constitutional amendment for initiating laws, required that a bill must be introduced in the legislature. Legislators could introduce a bill "by request"; in this way the bill, if its author so desired, might have the benefit of the reference and drafting services of the Library. The publication of the bill, its wide distribution,

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its convenient form, its public hearings and the debate in either or both houses, would give opportunity for helpful and constructive criticism that no amount of miscellaneous public discussion would secure. Public opinion is thus being formed by the normal processes of democratic government. Under the provisions of the proposed constitutional amendment (which was never passed), whether a bill passed or not, it could be brought before the people if a petition to have this done was made by 10 percent of the total electorate at the last gubernatorial election, four months prior to the next state-wide election. T h a t al lowed a period of at least four months for general opinion-forming discussion. Furthermore, if the legislature was willing to pass a bill, it had the opportunity to do so without the referendum. If an organized group of the people wished to defeat a bill already passed by the legislature, the same process was to be followed but must be initiated within ninety days after the passage and publication of the law. N o laws except those declared to be of an emergency character were to go into effect during these ninety days, unless the legislature by a two-thirds vote declared the law an emergency measure. Appropriation measures could be submitted to the people only in so far as they involved an increase in the appropriation. T h e r e was an interesting provision that if two measures submitted at one time were in conflict, the measure receiving the highest number of votes should stand as the enactment of the people. T h i s same procedure was to be followed for the enactment of constitutional amendments, with especially interesting provision for the number of petitioners required to initiate the process. If the constitutional amendment or any change designated in it bv legislative amendment had passed both houses with an "aye" and " n o " vote, 5 percent of the number of votes cast for governor in the preceding gubernatorial election was required for the submission of the amendment to the people, but if it did not so pass the legislature, 10 percent was required. Here we see a number of McCarthy earmarks: the easier amendment of the constitution, the importance of the legislature, the necessity of careful drafting of legislation against merely emotional, slipshod expressions, the faith in public opinion.

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II If the old choice were p u t to McCarthy of having Gabriel write the laws and Satan administer them, or Satan write the laws and G a b r i e l administer them, he would choose Gabriel as the administrator. B u t McCarthy always insisted the choice was not as simple as that. T h e r e must be good laws, but good laws must provide w i t h i n themselves for effective machinery and for administrative discretion within the general policy. So McCarthy became a great advocate of the administrative commission as the effective organization of government and of civil service as the nonpolitical means of securing trained personnel. 1 T h e commission form of organization had been used successfully in the regulation of railroads, so why not in other public utilities, in industrial relations and the like? Moreover, the commission idea had the enormous prestige of La Follettes name. In the past it had been necessary for the legislature to state, for example, the railroad rates between each station, or, as it developed, at a certain amount (in cents) per mile. T h i s placed on the legislature an almost impossible burden, and left great opportunity for favoritism. H o w much simpler to say that rates shall be reasonable, and then leave the determination of "reasonable rates" to a competent commission of three or more members, with experts engaged by the public in the public interest. T h e findings of the commission were prima facie evidence before courts, and if new evidence was to be introduced before courts, it must first be turned over to the commission for consideration. T h i s reduction of the area of the influence of courts appealed gTeatly to McCarthy. T h e s e administrative commissions constituted in fact new courts, economic courts. T h e y were the embodiment of a new equity. T h e chancellor's foot or the precedents of fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth century England could not bind the technological development of twentieth century American civilization. 1 " G o o d laws are ineffective unless accompanied by good administration. Good administration is impossible unless combined with ordinary business methods and the latter are not compatible with the policy "to the victor belong the spoils." If any praise is due the Wisconsin laws it is probably because of the appointive commissions, the non-partisan spirit, the expert, and the effective civil service law." The Wisconsin Idea, p. 174.

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McCarthy analyzed the effectiveness of the commission as due to five factors: 1. A statement of policy that was general: "rates shall be reasonable, places of employment shall be safe," and the like. 2. Appointive commissions to define the policy concretely. 3. A required form of public bookkeeping. 4. Reliance on the expert. 5. The continuing appropriation. T h e s e elements went into all bills, not as a matter of propaganda but as a matter of giving effectiveness to the legislator's wishes. T h i s was merely machinery. But McCarthy saw in the commissions more than machinery; he saw in them a fundamental part of democratic philosophy. T h e Stalwarts, Republican and Democrat, made the commission a political issue in every campaign, but never took constructive action. Stalwarts came and went but the administrative commissions go on forever. One of the earlier criticisms was that commissions were undemocratic, as they were not elected by the people; for argument to the contrary, the old, ineffective—but elective—Railroad Commission was cited. It must be remembered, however, that the administrative-commission concept differentiates sharply between those who determine public policies and those who administrate them. T h e agents of the people who determine policy should be elected; those who aid the legislature by carrying out these policies should be selected for administrative or technical skill, and that kind of choice can best be made by appointment, preferably under civil-service rules. T h e major administrative officials should be confirmed by the Senate. McCarthy would have liked to add to this system the recall of commissioners. He felt that their enormous powers led to the danger of a bureaucracy and its inevitable red tape. Even experts must be held accountable. T h e ideal underlying the relation between the commission and the public was stated by Senator Hatton: " 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." T h i s is McCarthy's idea, too. It may seem that this is a complicated and costly system of government, an undemocratic, bureaucratic government, and as such criticisms are

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not without real value, the whole subject demands some frank discussion. 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. 2 T h e same thing is true of this growth of commissions. They should be circumscribed 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. 3 M c C a r t h y wanted also the possibility of recall, but he got nowhere with that suggestion. H e then, by suggestion, had introduced from the English Parliamentary system the interpellation statute, w h i c h gave the minority the opportunity of e x a m i n i n g a commission in a Committee of the W h o l e House. T h e law was passed but, as we have seen, the opportunity has not been used. Ill A t the center of the administrative effectiveness of the Wisconsin idea was the expert. T h e original success of the earlier commissions was due to the high quality of their membership. Men like Β. H . Meyer, H a l f o r d Erikson, and John Barnes served on the R a i l r o a d Commission, for example, and Charles H . Crownhart and J o h n R . Commons on the Industrial Commission. T h e great corporations trained their men on the job, and took from the public service promising persons who, unlike McCarthy, were tempted b y large salaries and the promise of still larger ones. M c C a r t h y realized the importance and the danger of the expert in the Wisconsin development and in good government everywhere. 4 T h i s need of the expert with public conscience and with 2 The Wisconsin Idea, pp. 176-77. ¡Ibid., p. 179. * " T h e 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 construction of any science of administration. A so-

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the public welfare as his objective, combined with the possibility under the Wisconsin type of development of making the public service a career led McCarthy to a movement for the practical training for public service. He instituted a training school for the State Board of Public Affairs; fortunately, the state paid the salaries. T h e job on the budget was given to S. Gale Lowrie, later Professor of Political Science in the University of Cincinnati. Charles A. Lyman and Charles A. Holman handled the agricultural enterprises, the Conference on Farming and Rural Credits, the Agricultural Organization Society, and the Federation of Farm Organizations. Miles Riley was made secretary of the Governors Conference at McCarthy's suggestion. T h e program of training for public service was turned over to Fitzpatrick, who had come from the New York training school for Public Service, and worked on the rural school, the normal school, and the University surveys. A t McCarthy's instigation the American Political Science Association appointed a Committee of five on the Practical Training for Public Service. Under like stimulus, with John R. Commons' aid, the American Economic Association, appointed a similar committee. Distinguished members were assigned to these committees. 5 A statement in an annual report of the Political Science Association caused considerable repercussions by proposing that the degree of Doctor of Philosophy should not be granted in political science unless the student had had some practical experience in public service. Jesse Reeves of the University of Michigan was particularly vocal in his antagonism to this proposal. T h e Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service was then organized, and gave McCarthy a freer hand. T h e discalled expert who has not given time and attention to economic questions at first hand and w h o does not possess the very necessary elements of common sense, should be shunned by every true student of government." McCarthy, The Wisconsin Idea, pp. 188-89. s T h e Political Science Committee, first called the Committee on Laboratory Methods in Political Science, and later, the Committee on Practical T r a i n i n g for Public Service, consisted of Albert Bushell Hart (Harvard), Benjamin F. Shambough (Iowa), W i l l i a m F. W i l l o u g h b y (Princeton), Raymond G . Gettell (Trinity College), and Charles McCarthy (Wisconsin), Chairman. On the Conference Committee of the American Economic Association were: David Kinley (Illinois), Chairman, John R . Commons (Wisconsin) and Henry Rogers Seager (Columbia). These Committees cooperated. Fitzpatrick was made executive secretary and wrote the Committee's report.

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tinguished group of men interested in this included Winston Churchill, the novelist, William T h u m of Pasadena, Morris Llewelyn Cooke, Gifford Pinchot, and Walter Stern. T w o national conferences, on universities and public service were organized. T h e first was held in New York under the sponsorship of Mayor John Purroy Mitchel, and resulted in a volume containing a comprehensive discussion of the problem of "Universities and Public Service." β T h e contributors included John H. Gray of Minnesota, John Dewey, Charles McCarthy, John H. Finley, Jeremiah Jenks, John Purroy Mitchel, and many others of similar caliber. A second conference was held in Boston in connection with the Governor's Conference and under the sponsorship of Governor David I. Walsh. T h e Society sponsored a journal called the Public Servant, a review of all aspects of the movement which was published for about a year. T h e committee of the American Political Science and of the American Economic Association investigated places where training could be given and made formal reports; it was about to list places with which cooperative arrangements could be made by universities for practical training such as was given at the Legislative Reference Library and the Wisconsin internships with state commissions, when the First World War broke out. Of some historical interest was the passage in 1915 of a law authorizing the University of Wisconsin to establish a Training School for Public Service. T h e law, still part of the Wisconsin Statute as section 36.18, is as follows: (1) The board of regents o£ the State University is hereby authorized to establish and to maintain, when sufficient funds are available, a training school for public service. Such school shall be a professional school and shall be devoted to practical training for the administrative service of the State of Wisconsin or of any county or municipality therein, or of civic organizations. (a) Persons who have satisfactorily completed the work required in the training school for public service shall, upon graduation, receive a proper university degree and a diploma in public administration stating the particular character of their training. No person shall receive such a diploma unless at least one third of his total credits in such school shall be for actual work in municipal, county, or state deβ Edited by Edward A. Fitzpatrick and published at Madison, Wis. Part of it was reprinted, under the same editorship and with a special Introduction, as The College and the City.

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partments or in quasi public work and unless he shall have submitted a thesis dealing with an actual problem of municipal, county or state service based on actual service in or contact with such service and approved by the head of the department of such municipality, county or state with which such problem is principally concerned. (3) Any member of the faculty of the University of Wisconsin may be required, under rules prescribed by the regents, to give instruction in such school. (4) Such school shall provide adequate supplementary training for persons now in county or municipal or state service. T h e movement was largely one of propaganda, and was far ahead of its day and of our own. However, there is increasing recognition of the need and in many incidental ways universities are taking cognizance of the fact. T h e situation at Harvard University was typical of what was being done. President Lowell made an enthusiastic statement of approval, which the Committee circulated generally, 7 but nothing was done formally, although men like Holcombe, Hart, and Munroe were greatly and intelligently interested. On the outbreak of the war, McCarthy, who was the inspirer of the public training movement, immediately plunged into war work and after the war, his health broken, he had immediately to prepare for a legislative session. As a result the really great momentum of the movement could not be carried forward.

IV T o McCarthy the courts were engaged in a mild but insidious method of usurping legislative power. This was done largely through the power to declare acts unconstitutional—a power which the United States Constitution never gave to the courts, so McCarthy said, but which originated in the Marbury vs. Madison decision in 1803. T h e question need not be argued here. Someone must give effect: 1) to the Constitutional provision that the Constitution was the supreme law of the land, 2) to all the law made in pursuance of the Constitution, and 3) to all treaties made 7 "In one profession after another we have learned to train [men] carefully in the theory of their work, taking them young and educating them for it as a distinct career. Sixty years ago, for example, there was scarcely a school of applied science in the country, but now they are everywhere, and they can hardly turn out students fast enough to supply the demand. . . . We are training men today for all services but that of the public." Public Opinion and Popular Government, pp. 272-73.

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under the authority of the United States. A n d the decision whether laws were pursuant to the Constitution had to be made by someone; in our system of government this was naturally the courts. In McCarthy's view, the judicial power was being exercised in some states, at least, to bind and gag the legislature, and to throw about it a number of limitations greatly restricting the exercise of legislative power. T h i s restriction was felt personally in the work of the Legislative Reference Library in the drafting of legislation. 8 As a result of judicial decisions, the Supreme Court became the supreme legislature. This judge-made law was to McCarthy the abomination of desolation, the destruction of representative government. He thought this usurpation would ultimately bring reaction on the courts as they blocked the popular will. It led him to the two policies which would help to correct the situation: recall of judges and, more startling perhaps, the recall of judicial decisions. On his premises the reasons were logical. McCarthy's statement is definite: " T h e judges are usurping legislative functions, and a legislative body which is neither elected nor recalled is inconceivable in a republic." 9 T h e problem of the recall of judicial decisions develops from a question poised by McCarthy: "If our government is a government of checks and balances and the courts may declare a law passed unconstitutional, who is to pass upon an unconstitutional decision of the judges?" He answered his own question in 1912, with reference to the decision of the New York Court of Appeals, declaring the New York Workmen's Compensation Law unconstitutional: 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 constitutional?—and let the people from whom this constitution sprung have as much interpretive power as the judges whom they elect?10 While McCarthy was very successful in having his form of initiative and referendum accepted by the Wisconsin leaders, he was « McCarthy states the fact thus: " T h e chief legislative problem before us in many states—the problem which has required all of 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 constitutions as interpreted by thousands of decisions." β The Wisconsin Idea, p. 269. 10 Ibid., p. 270.

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quite unsuccessful in having the constitutional amendment concerning recall include the recall of judges: the recall amendment specifically provided "except judicial officers." McCarthy's explanation of this fact was the character of the Wisconsin judges. T h e r e was harmony beUveen the legislature and the courts—of the major progressive legislation only one or two of the laws were declared unconstitutional—for example, the water power act. T h e general attitude of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, J o h n B. Winslow, pleased McCarthy much in his general attitude. H e quoted with approval the striking statement of Judge Winslow in the Wisconsin ' workmen's compensation case." 1 1 McCarthy also quotes, with surprise, a truly amazing statement by J u d g e Marshall, a judge of whom he disapproved for his political activity in the 1 9 1 5 campaign and in the legislature: 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. . . . 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. T h e language was not used for mere rhetorical ornamentation or effect, but to suggest the permissible 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 purpose 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 Constitution. 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 comprehensive field in which to freely make a 1 1 " W h e n 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. T h i s were to command the race to halt in its progress, to stretch the state upon a veritable bed of Procrustes. " W h e r e there is no express command or prohibition, but only general language or policy to be considered, the conditions prevailing 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 in the settlement of problems of construction and interpretation." The Wisconsin Idea,

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choice, the next question is, Are the means contemplated reasonably appropriate to the end to be attained? . . . All must agree in the affirmative. . . . T h e 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 incorporated therein, the less the enhancement of cost and the better for all. 12 T h e s e opinions McCarthy approved h e a r t i l y — h e wished they were his o w n , as they well might have been. O f course for such judges and for decisions made in accordance w i t h such opinions there w o u l d be no recall. 13 V A l l the elements in McCarthy's plan of political action, or, if you choose, his concept of the State, were parts of an " o r g a n i c " concept. T h e initiative, referendum, and recall; the drafting of political platforms by actual nominees; the organization of public opinion; the careful drafting of statutes; the administrative commission; the utilization of experts; the development of civil service and training for public service; judicial usurpations—these w e r e all pieces from the same cloth. Fitted together they made a design. T h i s was the design of the democratic state, finding its only justification in the public welfare and the c o m m o n good, and finding the source of its power only in the public will. It was not the design of the Germanic State, which conferred its beneficences (when it was beneficent) on an acquiescent people as a favor, o r as an offset to greater dangers to the ruling group from "socialistic" or nihilistic forces. T h e r e is a notion abroad that M c C a r t h y believed in the Germanic State, and much that is said in the Wisconsin Idea gives support to this opinion. It is, however, not true. In all McCarthy's thinking the State is only a means to an end, a piece of social machinery, very valuable, and very useful, b u t still a means. McCarthy called Wisconsin a Germanic State. T h i s was scarcely true. Its development in territorial days was largely in the hands of the i-Ibid., pp. 260-61. 13 T h i s subject is discussed further in relation to T h e o d o r e Roosevelt in Chapter XII.

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Yankees. The Germans came in about the time of statehood (1848). In McCarthy's day the great supporters of the La Follette movement were Scandinavians: Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes. T h e Germans were still Democratic, and it was not till World War I that the German counties were found in the La Follette or Progressive column, and then not on "Progressive" grounds. It was of the utmost importance, therefore, to win the Germans in the periods of 1890-1900 and 1 9 1 0 - 1 9 1 2 . McCarthy was impressed by three things in Germany; 1) the broad program of social legislation undertaken by the German State, 2) the obligation of the university professor in developing the social and economic program of the State, and 3) the amazing system of continuation schools (Fortbildungschule), which was raising the industrial efficiency of the nation and keeping an educational ladder open for those who had not the opportunity of full-time education in the university and the professional schools. What McCarthy was doing in his propaganda work was to use these aspects of the German experience as a means to win over the Germans to support the Wisconsin, or, if you please, the McCarthy program—the Scandinavians were almost certain to support it. T h e claim that Wisconsin was German in spirit, that the University was Germanic, that the program was Germanic will hardly bear analysis, certainly before 1900. In Milwaukee, the German influence was stronger; the brewery interest helped to identify the city more clearly as German. We must always keep McCarthy's objective in mind: he was attempting to win the Germans in the state to the Wisconsin program. He was explaining it in terms they would understand and that would make them proud to identify themselves with the program. In 1915 Governor Philipp, a Swiss, had declared for a restriction of the University and the wiping off of the statute books much of the legislation of the Progressives. Mac said to me, apparently after having examined the list of members, that many of them were Germans; he then decided to use the life of Carl Schurz to "get his ideas over." This was characteristic—he was organizing his material to influence his particular audience. This explains to a considerable degree the Germanic emphasis in McCarthy's oral and written expositions of the "Wisconsin Idea" and becomes the more important in view of the fact that the major

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leadership in the state has not been German. Against every essential thing that the Germans of Bismarck stood for in the interest of the ruling class, and for everything that Hitler stands for, McCarthy was utterly opposed to the very depths of his soul.

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became President of the United States on March 4, 1908. In 1 9 1 0 he created a Commission on Economy and Efficiency, appointing Frederick A. Cleveland director of the work. Cleveland wrote to McCarthy suggesting that he might join the staff of the new Commission. McCarthy replied on October 10: ILLIAM TAFT

You may be assured that I shall be glad, indeed, to "talk over" the possibilities of the work which is being undertaken in relation to the several federal departments. There is nothing that ties me to the state of Wisconsin. . . . My only objection to staying here is the pettiness of a whole lot of "dinky" politicans and the "dinky" political methods. . . . I regard the work in which you are engaged now as the greatest work in its possibilities which a man has ever undertaken in America. It certainly appeals to me. . . . Whatever work I go into, you may depend upon it, in the future, will be public work. I can never work for the great private firms, at whatever salaiy they may ofjer me. I am by nature a public servant and cannot help it.1 A n opportunity was soon to present itself in his home state. T h i s was the State Board of Public Affairs. For his service thereon, McCarthy had had excellent experience and training, whicli had not gone unrecognized elsewhere. Cleveland's effort to secure him for the President's Commission on Economy and Efficiency has been noted. T h e New York Bureau of Municipal Research had also tried to secure his services, and, when Mrs. Edward Harriman endowed the New York Training School for Public Service, an offer was again made to him. He had previously met Sir Horace Plunkett, and through him had become interested in all phases of agricultural organization. McCarthy was at the time a member of the Commission on Industrial and Agricultural Training, had visited Europe in 1 9 1 0 to study its continuation school methods, and had written practically all of the report submitted to the 1 9 1 1 legisla1 Italics ours.

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ture. This, connecting intimately as it did with his interest in a new type of university extension, exemplifies his great interest in a better type of education. His work on the State Board of Public Affairs was to reflect all of these interests, together with his ideas on economy and efficiency in government. Π In April, 1910, Emil Seidl was elected Mayor of Milwaukee on the Socialist ticket and the Socialists won the city council. A real effort was made to give Milwaukee good government. An official Bureau of Efficiency and Economy was established. Commons was called in as advisor and worked for eighteen months. With him were associated Β. M. Rastall, the director, and John B. Tanner, an accountant, both of whom were to be on the staff of the forthcoming Board of Public Affairs. McCarthy went to Milwaukee to look over the staff of the Bureau, as it was Commons' plan to have the State Board take over the whole group. 2 Commons took the idea of such a board to Governor McGovern, who was always receptive of new ideas, and the Milwaukee Bureau of Efficiency and Economy became the basis of the Wisconsin Board of Public Affairs. At a conference called by the Governor it was decided who should constitute the board. T h e drafting of the necessary legislation was referred to McCarthy on the oral direction of the Governor. The bill that was evolved, evidently with the full approval of the Governor and of Commons, was not merely a measure for economy and efficiency: it included the ordinary provisions for budgeting, accounting, and auditing, but it also included basic studies relating to the human and social welfare of the state. McCarthy's view was like that of Gladstone: Budgets are not merely affairs of arithmetic, but in a thousand ways go to the root of prosperity of individuals, the relation of classes and the strength of kingdoms.3 2 McCarthy's report to Commons, dated Sept. 18, 1 9 1 1 , was critical. He found the work of the Bureau suggestive but not constructive. He said the public bureau repeated some of the errors of the private bureau. "It was done in Milwaukee because it was done elsewhere. A great mistake in Milwaukee was to begin too much work at once." 3 Cf. Ε. Α. Fitzpatrick, Budget Making in a Democracy (New York, 1918), p. vii and Chapter II.

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T h e bill was introduced in the legislature on March 31, 1 9 1 1 , and became law at the end of the session, July 7, 1911. 4 Ill

T h e State Board of Public Affairs set about its work with vigor. T h e Board was an especially competent one; its effective leaders were the Governor and Senators William H. Hatton and A. W. Sanborn. The representatives of labor (John Humphries) and of agriculture (W. H. Hanchett) were good men. Rastall, who had directed the Milwaukee Bureau, proved a disappointment to McCarthy as director.5 The members of the Board as well as the Governor looked to McCarthy for guidance, and he was ready with numerous suggestions. In a two-page memorandum under the heading "Notes upon the Procedure for the Public Affairs Commission," he lists the subjects that should be investigated and the order of the investigation. First on his list was a financial statement for the state which the "ordinary man in the street can understand" and next a study of "the common school" fund. Then a survey of the whole great field of charities and correction was to be made, followed by a study of the university and normal schools. T h e problem of the public servant would be taken up next, together with salaries, conditions of public employment, and public buildings, and, finally, the whole system of state organization and administration. " I suggest these," the memorandum concludes, "as the first rough steps in the work." * Its detailed legislative history is shown in the follow ing summary: T h e B o a r d of Public Affairs was created by Chapter 583, Laws of 1 9 1 1 , Bill 980, A. B i l l 980, Α., was introduced by M r . Gettle, on March 3 1 . It was referred to the Committee on State and Economic Betterment. Substitute amendment 1. Α., was adopted on J u n e 10, on which date it was ordered engrossed and read a third time. O n J u n e 20 it was referred to the Assembly Committee on Finance. A f t e r two amendments, the bill was passed by the Assembly Gi to 3. O n J u n e 27, this bill ivas received by the Senate and referred to the calendar. A Senate amendment was adopted, and 980, A. was concurred in as amended on J u n e 28, - 1 6 - 7 . T h e Assembly concurred in the bill as amended by the Senate on J u n e 28. T h e Governor approved the bill J u l y 6. » McCarthy complained that Rastall just sat at his desk whenever he was at Madison and did no directing. While Mac thought Rastall had been adequate in his work at Milwaukee, he soon became convinced that the director was unsuited for the work of the B o a r d of Public Affairs. On J a n u a r y 22, 1 9 1 2 , McCarthy states: " M r . Rastall is not capable of carrying the thing out, and the end of it will result in a great deal of waste of time and energy before next September."

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Actually, McCarthy's plans were clearer and broader than this. T h e y are embodied in a seventeen-page memorandum-letter submitted to the Board through its Chairman. T h e objective is clearly a "well-laid State Plan for Betterment." T h e small appropriations of $30,000 can be extended far by virtue of many cooperative agencies available in the University and in the State Capitol, and by the availability of many men " w h o could be secured for a little" and who were trained or were being trained in the political science and economic departments of the University and in the Legislative Reference Library. T h e whole scheme was to be tied up with continuing constructive legislation on the one hand and a systematic, informal instruction of the people in picture, chart, and word, so that both administrative and legislative program might have sustained popular support. Financial reform was the first step in the plan, because it was the most important one at that particular time. T h r e e things were to be achieved by improved business methods (though McCarthy thought that no state in the country was quite so economical or secured such good results as Wisconsin: these were: the elimination of waste; the conduct of public business in a more orderly and upto-date manner; and making factual knowledge of the finances of the state easily accessible to the average citizen. McCarthy reminds the Board that " B u l k y reports have been prepared by so-called experts, which have been discarded almost at once by legislatures, or have been in such form as to be almost unintelligible and useless." Financial reform must be correlated with the machinery of representative government "as it exists in our state," and w i t h the public information of " o u r people." Otherwise, as in the past in other states, programs may be proposed which, if adopted, w o u l d actually lead to disaster and financial extravagance. T h e need for public understanding and support is reiterated over and over again. Because of wide misunderstanding and discontent concerning the expenditure of money in the state, a program of publicity was to accompany the plan. Moreover, the progressive movement in the state—which many economy-preaching Progressives did not understand—called for increased and increasing expenditures. " I t has been recognized that the state must invest before it can get back." T h i s is a dangerous situation unless Ave tell the common

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man in understandable terms what is happening to his money. T h e Legislative Reference Library's effort the previous year to secure such information was not successful. " W e must," says McCarthy, "take the people into partnership if we are to spend the people's money." T h e actual financial needs of the state and of the departments must also be brought before the legislature in the simplest and clearest manner possible—that is, in the legislative budget. A readily intelligible budget has never been placed before an American Legislature, McCarthy continues. T h e need for it is great, particularly to avoid "logrolling and juggling." And the question is asked: "What is the use of making a beautiful system for administrative expenditures if the manner of voting appropriations is haphazard, subject to caprice or whim, or political influence or lobbying?" T h e danger is well illustrated in an elaborate report made in the preceding year by the T a x Commission on the budget system* T h e question of the state debt had to be faced. T h e constitution provided that the debt limit shall be the nominal sum of one hundred thousand dollars. This was intended as a safeguard against the general orgy of indebtedness in the states that grew out of the public-works program when the Constitution was adopted. T h e need for an amendment to the state constitution on the terms of the state debt limit arose from the sums required to finance a great conservation program. These sums must be viewed as an investment and it is "a rule that all purely investment work of the state should be provided by bonding." T w o other problems are treated in detail, namely, immigration and the land tenure. Concerning immigration, the fundamental fact is that a number of Wisconsin counties lost population in the preceding decade. Why is this so? Are the great land companies in the north responsible? What is the Immigration Bureau doing? What can we learn from other countries and other states? What β M c C a r t h y says that t h e B o a r d will find t h a t this report " i l l u s t r a t e s the d a n g e r o f p r e p a r i n g such statements w i t h o u t regard to t h e a c t u a l work of t h e legislature. I t is a fine e x a m p l e of scientific lack of knowledge of a c t u a l c o n d i t i o n s of legislation. T h i s r e p o r t advocates a budget system for t h e state despite t h e fact that a budget system in A m e r i c a w i t h o u t responsible g o v e r n m e n t is e n t i r e l y a different svstem from a budget system as existing in foreign countries. It illustrates t h e d a n g e r o f securing e x p e r t s w h o h a v e n o t t h e legislative v i e w p o i n t . "

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about credits and loans to settlers? T h e failure of state schemes in the past must not deter us. What we want is not a report but proposed constructive legislation and the necessary constitutional amendments. Each of the sections of this long letter ends with suggestions as to how the State Board of Public Affairs, in view of its limited appropriation could secure aid. We quote in full, as typical, the closing paragraph of this section. The immigration bureau should be of great help and the land companies should be called in for hearings and invited to give suggestions. There are several young men who have been students in my department who could be used to look over legislation in all the other countries and states and the plans for private companies for the purpose of studying the forms of contracts of companies with individuals and finding out the various forms of state activities which would be adopted in our state for the purpose of assisting the immigrant. The actual need of capital and credit conditions for immigrants should be closely examined. Settlers should be interviewed. Something should be done to find out definitely the reasons why settlers leave the state and where they go to and what inducements are offered to them to leave. I will suggest that the agricultural extension department of the University could well be called in to help in this matter. Indeed the whole Economics Department of the University should be called upon for the solution of this question. The state has been generous with the University. The Univeisity should not hesitate to include research workers in its budget to help solve the perplexing economic questions. T h e discussions of land tenure begins with a statement of the demoralizing condition of tenantry. T h e coming of a tenant class in America is related to the "greatest waste of soil," and the higher cost of living. A wise policy of relations of land tenure to marketing, cooperative methods and credit could be worked out, including education, agitation, and legislation. T h e carrying out of the whole policy is outlined in detail under the heading of " M e n . " McCarthy evidently had thought the problem through; he mentioned by name men in the state service, in the universities, students recently trained, and others, who were qualified for specific jobs. Such was the plan for the State Board of Public Affairs before the Board itself was organized. McCarthy's plan was communicated to the Board at its request upon organization. T h e topics were those

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McCarthy was working on as legislative reference librarian. T h e y were part of the plan that guided all his activities as a public servant. T h e State Board of Public Affairs as a legislative brain trust and state-planning board combined was exactly the free wideranging investigative and research agency he needed to supplement the more confined and limited activities of the Legislative Reference Library, and give effect to the "ideas" of his fertile and everactive mind. We shall see how the plan was carried out. IV T h e scope of the work of the Board was extensive. It was concerned not merely with the efficiency of the governmental machine, economy in public expenditures, but in the quality of the common life of the people. It was authorized to investigate, besides the financial aspects of government, "the duplication of the work of public bodies," "plans for greater coordination of such public bodies," and the "improvement of state administration in general." A n unusual provision within the powers of the Board was for educational investigations, including the feasibility of a central board of control of all educational institutions and the 'efficiency of the teaching methods used in the high schools, the normal schools, the training schools for teachers and the university." T h e cost and efficiency of state printing was also to be investigated. But the most significant of such provisions was the general statement: The Board shall investigate the materials and resources of the state, and, to promote their greatest use and highest development, especially through home and farm ownership, cooperation, publicity, immigration and settlement, shall investigate the costs and standards between the amounts which producers and dealers within and without the state receive for their products and the amounts which consumers pay therefor, and the measures that may be adopted to reduce this difference and to provide for more economic distribution of products and commodities. (Chap. 583, Laws of 1911). In the modification of this law in 1 9 1 3 a more inclusive phraseology was used, as follows: It may complete investigations not yet completed or in the judgment of the board investigate other matters for the purpose of bringing about greater efficiency and economy in every public body, advancing the economic betterment of the state and of promoting public welfare. (Chapter 728. Laws of 1913).

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A significant provision of the 1913 revision of the law illustrates the tie-up with the Legislative Reference Library: T h e investigations of the matters here specifically mentioned shall be completed by September 1, 1914, and the board shall report in the form of a printed bill or bills to the elected members of the legislature, not later than December 1, 1914; with specific printed recommendations giving in detail the reasons therefor. (Ibid.) McCarthy summarizes the purpose underlying these authorizations in terms of a state plan as follows: T h e 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, cooperation and credit conditions, and, in general, to determine whether a state plan for betterment can be evolved which will make Wisconsin a better state in which to live. 7 V McCarthy was obviously the de facto director of the Board in its strategy and planning. H e immediately communicated with the heads of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of T e a c h ing, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the N e w York T r a i n i n g School for Public Service. W i l l i a m H . Allen of the New Y o r k T r a i n i n g School came on and made arrangements to cooperate in the surveys of rural schools, normal schools, and universities, successively. T h o u g h there were some disagreements, particularly on the university survey, constructive results were accomplished, including the first m i n i m u m wage law for teachers and a county board of education bill. T h o u g h McCarthy had warned of the danger of starting too many things at once, a wide range of investigations was undertaken. T h i s was made possible by the cooperation received in the school survey, where much of the costs were paid by the cooperating agency. Further, some of the men regarded the work as an opportunity for training under McCarthy and accepted lower salaries, thereby permitting the appropriations to cover 1 The

Wisconsin

Idea, p. 292.

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more than might have been expected. E. Stagg Whitten was to make a study of prison labor. Henry C. T a y l o r and some of his associates at the College of Agriculture of the University studied agricultural credit, marketing, and the cost of living. T w o protégés of McCarthy, S. Gale Lowrie, and " B i l l " Duffus worked, respectively, on the budget and the immigration of settlers, and the cutover lands. J o h n F. Sinclair was assigned to the study of cooperatives. A regular accounting group did the work in accounting and auditing. VI One aspect of McCarthy's program relating to budget problems was never understood by mere politicians or efficiency experts. T h i s was the principle of continuing appropriation—a buttress to the stability of public administration which does not interfere in any way with the effective legislative control of public bodies, agencies, or officers. We can illustrate the principle from the appropriations of the State Board of Public Affairs. A new experimental investigative agency like the State Board of Public Affairs must necessarily undergo a period of trial. Consequently the Act of 1 9 1 1 merely provided for the appropriation of a flat sum without a time limit. 8 When the appropriation was expended, the Board would, in theory, cease to be. T h e appropriation was not adequate for the duties assigned to the Board in the 1 9 1 1 legislation. In fact the Board and all its employees continued to work even after the appropriation was expended. However, those in charge were confident that because of the character of the work, the Board would be continued, and the new appropriation could be used to meet debts incurred prior to the publication of the law. This is what happened in 1 9 1 3 . T h e legislature did not wish, even then, to give the Board a permanent status in the public administration, so it merely made an appropriation for each of the three following years with no provision for continuation thereafter. T h e administrative status of the Board was better under the 1 9 1 3 appropriation. 9 T h e annual appropriation made possible the more definite organization of a staff. β Laws of 1 9 1 1 , Chapter 583, Section 23: A sum sufficient to carry o u i the provisions of this act, but not to exceed thirty thousand dollars, is hereby appropriated out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. β L a w s of 1 9 1 3 , Chapter 738, Section 2: T h e r e is added to the statutes a new

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In 1 9 1 5 , under Governor Philipp, there was a complete change in the character of the State Administration. Called in the language of that day reactionary, it was opposed to the broad social investigations of the State Board of Public Affairs but endorsed the accounting and auditing features. This was considered well established and a permanent part of the public administration. Consequently, the functions of the Board were correspondingly limited, but a continuing appropriation was provided. 1 0 Here is revealed very clearly the problem which McCarthy wished to solve by means of continuing appropriations. T h e 1 9 1 1 Act provided that the Board should carry on its work until the specific amount appropriated was spent. In form, the provision is such as might be made for a legislative investigation committee—a temporary agency to do a specific job. In 1 9 1 3 , the State Board of Public Affairs was given a more definite administrative status but still a temporary one. When in 1 9 1 7 , it was decided that the State Board of Public Affairs had a permanent or continuing function, recognition of the fact was made in the words " T h e r e is annually appropriated." T h i s is the continuing appropriation. It makes for stability in the administrative set up of the permanent services, yet the legislature still has control. T h e lawmaking agencies may, if they wish, increase or decrease the amount of the appropriation, leave it as it is, or abolish it, and do the same things with the powers of the Board, but any change requires positive action by all the lawmaking machinery; a minority of the legislature cannot hamstring or abolish the department. Under an annual appropriation, the failure of either house to pass the appropriation kills the department or servsection to read: Section 1 7 2 - 3 1 . T h e r e is annually appropriated for three years, the sum of forty thousand dollars, payable from any moneys in the general f u n d not otherwise appropriated, for the board of public affairs for carrying out the provisions of sections 990-40 to 990-60, inclusive. T h i s appropriation shall be available to pay claims which have accrued prior to publication of this act. (Wisconsin Session Laws, 1 9 1 1 - 1 9 2 9 ) . 10 L a w s of 1 9 1 7 , Chapter 2, Section 2: Any unexpended balance of the appropriation made by section 1 7 2 - 3 1 of the statutes is reappropriated to the B o a r d of Public Affairs and shall be available until J u l y 1, 1 9 1 7 , for carrying out the functions of said board. Section 3. Section 1 7 2 - 3 1 of the statutes is renumbered to be subsection 1 of said section, and a new subsection is added to said section to read: 2. T h e r e is annually appropriated, beginning J u l y 1, 1917, from the general f u n d , to the State B o a r d of Public Affairs, eighteen thousand dollars for the execution of its functions.

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ice, or rather lets it die at the e n d of the b i e n n i a l period. In the case of a p e r m a n e n t service w i t h a c o n t i n u i n g a p p r o p r i a t i o n , n o c h a n g e can be made in its a p p r o p r i a t i o n o r its powers, except by the appropriate action of the agencies that created it. A failure of o n e house to pass an a p p r o p r i a t i o n measure w o u l d leave the l a w a n d the appropriation as it is. T h e same k i n d of positive legislative action by the laiv m a k i n g agencies is necessary to destroy it as was necessary to b r i n g it into being. T h e c o n t i n u i n g a p p r o p r i a t i o n has always been a central e l e m e n t in M c C a r t h y ' s concept of g o v e r n m e n t a l administration. It has received little attention in the l i t e r a t u r e of p u b l i c a d m i n i s t r a t i o n — a n d is the a b o m i n a t i o n of the p o l i t i c i a n either in the e x e c u t i v e chair or in the legislature. B o t h must m e e t squarely the issue of a c h a n g e in the policy of the relatively p e r m a n e n t service of government." M c C a r t h y \vas greatly interested in the stability and c o n t i n u i t y of the established departments of g o v e r n m e n t a n d especially of the educational institutions, i n c l u d i n g the University. His general position is illustrated in a letter to a c o r r e s p o n d e n t w h o asks f o r a d v i c e on higher education in T e x a s . M c C a r t h y says: In general, the best thing for the efficiency of a college of any kind is a continuing appropriation. If you do not have a continuing appropriation, the minority will control. A l l such matters are put upon continuing appropriations in foreign countries. One-third of the English budget is in a consolidated fund that is continuing. T h e y have no such foolish budgets as we have in America in any other country of the world now. VII I n 1913 M c C a r t h y reported to G o v e r n o r M c G o v e r n u p o n the progress made in the matter of cooperation and marketing investigation made by my department at the request of the State Board of Public Affairs. John Sinclair of the Legislative Reference Library went to Europe at his own expense to study the agricultural credit and agricultural cooperation 11 A special aspect of the problem was raised by McCarthy in some correspondence with William Howard T a f t . T h e discussion centered around the abolition of the Commerce Court by Congress. It is sufficient to note here that the question raised was continuity of the judges of the Commerce Court and the effect of what was in substance a continuing appropriation in the Constitution itself.

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plans and developments. It will be possible to present the people of Wisconsin a constructive report, although necessarily iragmentary, which will be the basis o£ legislative action. Moreover, through the agitation of the State Board of Public Affairs, a serious investigation in this field was begun by Professor Taylor, who has recently reported to you.

T h e Regents established a professorship in Cooperatives the following year. The expectation that John Lee Coulter would soon undertake his duties as professor furnished a broad basis for the future work in the University and in the State. Sir Horace Plunkett was also helping McCarthy on the same subject. A characteristic McCarthy technique was evident in his later description of what was done on this report. Sinclair himself went about the state lecturing and consulting with farmers' organizations. Mr. Beuchel, a student volunteer, was helping and doing good work. Library School students compiled good bibliographical aids, and the Legislative Reference Library workers also contributed valuable aid. McCarthy concludes this part of his report: " I am glad to say then, that not only have we a constructive plan for the future to submit to you, but actual work has been under way for some time." T h e report, McCarthy recommends, should be divided into five parts, and each part printed separately, subject, of course, to the approval of the Board. T h e Extension Division would be glad to print the part on "Marketing." The five parts of the report were: (1) purely agricultural cooperation; (2) cooperative credit; (3) marketing of produce and marketing in general; (4) stores or distributive marketing; and (5) miscellaneous matters about cooperation. Sinclair's constructive plan was enlarged somewhat by some plans of McCarthy and in addition to "Sinclair's recommendation" McCarthy, on July 1 1 , 1912, adds the following recommendations to Governor McGovern: (1) T h a t we should teach marketing and cooperative methods in the short course in the University; (2) that we should make some arrangements for the teaching of the same in rural schools of the state; and (3) that we should have some paper or publication which would tell monthly or perhaps quarterly exactly what the cooperative agricultural storehouses had, their prices, etc., so that people in the city who wish to have stores of this kind would know from whom to buy in the state, and

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so that the progress of the movement be well marked; and (4) that we should provide for cooperative credit unions—the general plan now carried out in Massachusetts with perhaps some aid or encouragement by the state. McCarthy's further comments illustrate ho\v closely the function of the State Board of Public Affairs worked into the work of the Legislative Reference Library: Mr. Sinclair's report shows conclusively that cooperation has been a success in other countries when carried out in a certain way, and that it has not been a success when carried out in any other way. Mr. Sinclair shows exactly how these different things have worked out and his report justifies the time and expenditure which we have put upon it. If it is the wish of your committee, I shall draft bills (1) for a cooperative credit plan along the lines which I have laid down; (2) for the teaching of cooperation and marketing in the rural schools; (3) for the establishment of a paper or report of some kind along the lines which I have suggested and also for the establishment of cooperation in the short course at the University; and (4) the establishment of cooperative credit. It may be that some of these can be taken up with the Regents of the University without legislation. I believe it wise, however, to have legislation set forth in definite shape, so that if the Regents do not take it up or that those in charge of the rural school work do not take it up, the plan can be put through by your Board. In my opinion the present cooperative law should be studied carefully by some one before it is amended in any way. Much valuable help has been given to us on this matter by Sir Horace Plunkett, and we should wait until we are sure we are right before amending. Mr. Sinclair's criticisms are extremely valuable, however. VIII T h e work of the State Board of Public Affairs resulted in a series of reports and a number of laws. 12 All these reports concluded in 12

T h e publications were as follows: ι. T h e Budget, by S. G. Lowrie. 1912, 259pp. 2. Comparative summary of income and appropriations general fund, normal fund income, and university income bienniums, 1 g 17—19, and 1919-20-21. 20pp. 1920. 3. Conditions and needs of rural schools in Wisconsin: results of field study reported to the Wisconsin state board of public affairs by the Training School for public service. 1912, 92pp. Preliminary report. 4. Conditions and needs of Wisconsin's normal Schools: report of cooperative survey, by A. N. Farmer. 1914, 653pp. 5. Conference on marketing, Nov. 25, 1913. 1913, 50pp., typewritten copy. 6. Plan for a cooperative neighborhood, by A. L. Williams. 1912, 18p.

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a program, administrative and legislative. It was the function of McCarthy and those associated with him to translate the recommendations of the various reports for legislation into appropriate bills. This was done. Dr. Fitzpatrick was selected as the person who in accordance with the State Board of Public Affairs Law was required to be present daily at the legislative session to answer questions regarding the work and investigations of the Board. He assisted in drafting some of the educational legislation. He worked always under McCarthy's guidance, as did all the other employees of the State Board of Public Affairs. On the basis of the rural-school survey a number of laws were passed. These had the material assistance of a number of the leading schoolmen of the State, notably John Callahan (at that time a city superintendent). C. P. Cary, the State Superintendent of Schools, opposed the legislation. One of the notable laws passed was the first minimum wage for teachers in Wisconsin; a minimum of forty dollars was set, though the original bill proposed sixty. Many teachers in the state had received twenty-five dollars a month for seven, eight, or nine months (Chapter 434, Laws of 1913). The county board of education bill (Chapter 757, Laws of 1913) was also an important one. This made the county the unit of education for administration and supervision—though the district system was 7. Recommendations on the budgets of the boards, departments, and commissions as submitted for the consideration of the 1917 legislature. 1917, 22p. Typewritten copy. 8. Report of an investigation and cost of state printing. 1914, 2 pts. pt. 2 typewritten copy. 9. Report on agricultural settlement and farm ownership, pt. 1 State loans to farmers, by W. M. Duffus. Advance sheets, 1912. 10. Report on cooperation and marketing, 1912, 4 pts. pt. 1. Agricultural cooperation, by J . F. Sinclair pt. 2. Cooperative credit, by J . F. Sinclair pt. 3. Municipal markets, by J . F. Sinclair and Clark Hallam pt. 4. Distributive or store cooperation, by J . F. Sinclair 1 1 . Rural schools in Wisconsin. 1912 2 pts. pt. 1. Preliminary report on conditions and needs of rural schools in Wisconsin pt. 2. Constructive program for the rural schools of Wisconsin î î . Survey of the University of Wisconsin. 1914-15. 3 pts. pt. 1. Report to the legislature, including reports by W. H. Allen and E. C. Branson pt. s. Request for cooperation from alumni members and former students of the University of Wisconsin pt. 3. Survey summary There were a few supplementary pamphlets of a propaganda nature on rural schools.

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left intact—and provided for consolidation. T h e county superintendency remained an elective office, though the Board recommended that it be appointive; this was not insisted on because of the attitude of some of the schoolmen of the state. L. D. Harvey, who was Superintendent of Schools in 1903, said the constitutional amendment then passed was put through for the express purpose of securing a professional appointive county superintendent, but an atmosphere of doubt was created which resulted in the practical decision. In the reaction of 1915 this law was repealed. T h e legislative program of the State Board of Public Affairs included a number of proposals. The Committee of fifteen appointed by the State Superintendent of Schools included many of the same items in its program. Other items of the Board's educational program which became laws included state aid for agriculture and home economics in rural schools, (Chapter 635); modification of curriculum of county training schools (Chapter 418); adding to faculty of county training schools (Chapter 636); raising standards of teaching (Chapter 417); consolidation of schools (Chapter 380); and the winter term in high schools (Chapter 346). With reference to higher institutions, administrative changes were made by the boards of regents after the normal schools and the university had been investigated. The "central board of education" scheme of 1915 did not arise primarily out of the activities of the Board of Public Affairs—though the Board was charged with the investigation of the subject in 1911—but came out of the "consolidation flurry" which Governor Philipp adopted as a technique for reducing boards and commissions. McCarthy, as we have seen, was opposed to the Philipp consolidation measure; it was passed, however, in 1915, weakened in 1917, and ultimately abolished in 1923· IX Agricultural issues and programs that covered many years were initiated by the State Board of Public Affairs during the brief history of its broad program—from 1911 to 1915. A marketing bill was in process by Senators Hatton and Sanborn as early as 1912. McCarthy proposed on July 10, 1913, a compromise to meet an

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objection of the Attorney General." A bureau of markets was not established until 1921. In the intervening period McCarthy was plugging away at the subject and developing the scope of the idea before it was adopted. T h e 1913 marketing bill was defeated but continuously thereafter McCarthy emphasized the need for such a bill. Almost every farmer and every legislator heard something about it from the angle of his own particular interests. This went on inside the state. Outside the state the National Conference on Marketing and Farm Credits was held during the years 1 9 1 4 - 1 6 . Partly as a result of the efforts of McCarthy and his associates the legislature of 1913 passed a resolution for a joint legislative committee to investigate the marketing situation and appropriated $5,000 for the work of the committee. Miles Riley, McCarthy's chief draftsman, whom McCarthy used in his work with cooperatives, was made secretary of the committee. As a result of the committee's work a bill was introduced in the 1919 legislature and, after much discussion and many amendments and substitute amendments, a bill creating the division of markets was finally created in the State Department of Agriculture. This was practically an autonomous body. It had an advisory board consisting of the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, and the Commissioner of Agriculture. Fifty thousand dollars was appropriated annually for the work of the division. Edward Nordman, a farmer from Langlade county, a former legislator, a free taxer, and a very good friend of McCarthy's, was appointed Director. McCarthy and he worked in very close cooperation. is It read in its main provisions: " T h e Commission shall investigate, ascertain, determine, and, f r o m time to time, fix and declare such rules o r orders as may be reasonable, f a i r , and l a w f u l under the laws of this state and such as may be necessary for the protection of producers a n d consumers against business acts, practices and methods of competition which are unreasonable, u n f a i r , or illegal under the said laws and shall provide for the enforcement thereof. T h e attorney general shall cooperate with the commission in the enforcement of the laws of this state for the protection of producers and consumers against business acts, practices, and methods of competition which are unreasonable, u n f a i r or unl a w f u l under said laws and f o r the enforcement of the rules and orders of the commission and upon request of the commission shall investigate matters so brought to Iiis attention and shall institute such actions or proceedings as shall be necessary for such enforcement."

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T h e need for further legislation was seen after two years' experience and in 1921 a new bill was introduced creating an entirely independent and separate committee of markets and appropriating $116,000 for the work of the department. Unfortunately McCarthy died before this legislation was passed. X It was but natural that, when reaction set in in 1915, the State Board of Public Affairs—as well as the Legislative Reference Library and the University—should be specifically the target of the "Stalwarts." All three were constructive instruments of progress. They were the type of instruments that could be used for social reconstruction by Cortservatives or Progressives. But the immediate character of the political movement was reaction. Since the State Board of Public Affairs was a temporary agency requiring that new life be given it at each session, it was the easiest to deal with. Moreover, the Governor controlled it. So in 1915 the Board of Public Affairs was shorn of its investigative and planning powers and was made a fiscal agency exclusively, with accounting and auditing powers over all public bodies. With these limited powers it was made a continuing permanent agency. Its name was changed in 1929 (Chapter 97, Law of 1929), when it became what it was in fact, the Bureau of the Budget. Thus gently died a great constructive social agency of enormous potentiality. May a new progressive movement revive it in the spirit of McCarthy.

Chapter

XII

C H A R L E S MCCARTHY, T H E B U L L MOOSE, AND T H E O D O R E

ROOSEVELT

of McCarthy was as architect or advisor on political platforms. Indvidual members of all political parties in Wisconsin asked him to draft planks for them as naturally as they had asked him to draft bills, resolutions, and amendments. They went to him, too, for suggestions, and he freely made the same proposals to each; there was no copyright or patent on ideas. Political leaders also sought his advice, and, as we shall see, they were the leaders on both sides. On July 14, 1912, Theodore Roosevelt sent from New York a night letter to McCarthy as follows: HE PRINCIPAL POLITICAL ACTIVITY

Can you not come on here if possible bringing Professor Commons to go over my platform and speeches with me by preference Saturday next. Especially desire your and Commons aid on Trust, Labor, and Industrial betterment questions. Hate to bother you but deem it really important to see you. THEODORE

ROOSEVELT

Three days later from Sea Girt, N.J., Woodrow Wilson sent a telegram to McCarthy as follows: Would value talk with you when you come East. Pray let me know when you are coming. WOODROW

WILSON

On Saturday he saw Roosevelt. He called on Wilson but someone slipped and McCarthy did not see him then, but he received an apology from Wilson himself, dated August 20, 1 9 1 2 : M Y DEAR DOCTOR

MCCARTHY:—

I am deeply chagrined to learn that you came to Sea Girt and did not see me and want to apologize for any mistake that may have been made about it. I was sincerely desirous of seeing you and having a frank conference with you, and the desire is enhanced by your frank letter of

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August seventeenth. I am very much concerned to learn that any standpat element whatever is lined up with the forces that will support me. I do not know what possible refuge or comfort they could find in my camp, because I am heart and soul for the progressive policy which the whole country demands. Will you let me know when you come East again, so that I may have the pleasure of seeing you? Cordially and sincerely yours, WOODROW WILSON

T o Dean William Draper Lewis of the University of Pennsylvania, he sent a long analysis of the La Follette platform. T h e nature of the platform and the strange things that happen to proposed planks in the actual give and take of the discussion of the Resolutions Committee—or any group dealing with live questions—find interesting exposition in the course of this letter to Dean Lewis. 1 T h e La Follette platform represented the first effective organization of the progressive forces of the country—possessed of evangelical fervor in "doing battle for the Lord at a political Armegeddon." It was natural to find McCarthy at the center of it, giving direction to the enormous social energy being organized in the new party. II I n 1911, McCarthy had directed the drafting of the La Follette anti-trust b i l l 2 and the Federal T r a d e Commission bill. T h e draftsmen of the legislative reference library carried on the work on their own time between sessions. T h e whole project was financed by Charles R. Crane of Chicago, an advisor to President Wilson. McCarthy told Roosevelt about the existence of these bills and their contents a n d Roosevelt agreed with the views expressed. 1

See A p p e n d i x , p p . 295-96. B r a n d e i s , w h o h a d been consulted by L a Follette, ivas in f a v o r of a " d i r e c t " bill; M c C a r t h y was in f a v o r of an indirect bill, which r e q u i r e d acceptance by the regulated corporations or a license. T h e acceptance principle had worked, f o r e x a m p l e , in the Wisconsin W o r k m e n ' s C o m p e n s a t i o n law. T h e problem as M c C a r t h y saw it is thus slated in a letter to C r a n e on N o v e m b e r 2 1 , 1 9 1 1 : " C o m m o n s , L a Follette a n d Brandeis wish the bill to be a straight bill without any acceptance or license of a n y kind. I h a v e d o u b t e d w h e t h e r under the police power of the state we h a d the right to d o that. I believe that the acceptance scheme will he easier to d r a f t a n d will be a protection f r o m the chicanery of the court. I doubt whether the police p o w e r has yet e x t e n d e d to such an e x t e n t that we can d r a f t an act like the railroad commission act in W i s c o n s i n . " 2

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M c C a r t h y took w i t h h i m to the Convention of 1 9 1 2 a m u c h more elaborate statement of the problem, which he undoubtedly used w h i l e w o r k i n g on the f o u r platforms he had helped to d r a f t d u r i n g that s u m m e r a n d fall. H e r e is the basis M c C a r t h y was operating from: T h e Sherman Act must be strengthened by not only placing more powerful instruments in the hands of justice, by strengthening its provisions so that real punishment rather than a mock dissolution of the guilty trust may be made possible, but also by adding thereto administrative machinery which will assure the most searching publicity and control by the people. T h e tariff and monopoly are so closely interrelated that a powerful trade commission, directly responsible to Congress and to recall by it, should be created with full power to protect the people from the aggressions of all such powerful combinations engaged in unfair production and competition. Such a commission should be composed of the highest experts. It should have full power to investigate the real value of all such corporations, their physical property and the natural opportunities possessed by them, the effect of the tariff upon such combines, the use of patents by them, and to forbid unreasonable or unfair practices or practices detrimental to public welfare of any kind whatsoever and to punish summarily in order to insure equal opportunity for every competitor and every citizen. We condemn the unfair and unequal burden of the existing tariff and we pledge ourselves for a scientific reduction on the lines laid down by the great leaders and thinkers upon that subject in the past. We condemn any element by reciprocity, or otherwise, which will make tariff conditions and the tariff burden unfair and unequal. We condemn the trickery and juggling and class legislation which the American people have been made to endure upon this subject. We further pledge ourselves to the regulation of the tariff in such manner that tariff-protected industries must maintain the highest degree of efficiency and shall have the best possible labor conditions. T h e tariff is after all a subsidy, and if we pay out of our pockets to subsidize manufacturing interests of this country we believe that such industries should be put upon an accounting basis by the T r a d e Commission, which we have pledged ourselves to establish, so that the people at large will get an accounting for the money expended, and so that the tariff on each particular industry may be removed, if not found a profitable investment for the people of this country, or if it is found that labor conditions in the great protected industries are not bettered by the imposition of the tariff for any particular industry. Patents and copyrights are given as an encouragement to industry and to invention, and not otherwise. We pledge ourselves to the enactment of a patent

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law which will make it impossible for them to be used against public welfare in the interests of injurious monopolies, and which will also protect the inventor as well as the public. T h e administrative machinery for the control over the abuses of patents should be the same body as that instituted for the purpose of investigating and controlling the abuses of the tariff and monopoly in general. 3 Ill T h e Bull Moose platform of 1 9 1 2 was called a "contract with the people." It was an expression in broad form of the social aspiration of the people and more particularly of a vast body of social workers theretofore politically inarticulate. Naturally, among the members of the new party, there were conservative and liberal forces, and there was a clash between them even in the Resolutions Committee, where the platform was made. T h e story of this conflict has been told by McCarthy in a memorandum of A u g u s t 1 2 , 1 9 1 2 , written soon after the convention. T h e first paragraph states w h o the platform makers were: I helped draft the platform of the new progressive party. A t first the platform committee was untrammeled in every way, but soon we began to hear that certain men were not pleased with the radicalism of the platform, and finally we were called before Colonel Roosevelt. T h e r e were in the room Chester R o w e l l of California, Wm. Allen White, G i f f o r d Pinchot, W m . Draper Lewis, Dean Kirchwey of C o l u m b i a University of New York. I think there was in the room Mr. Kellogg of the " S u r v e y " for a little while, although he was engaged in his own work and probably did not hear the conversation. T h e difficulties apparently centered around George W . Perkins a n d his objections. McCarthy tells the story and his own refusal to follow Perkins or to be moved by Roosevelt's desire to let Perkins have his way: M r . Perkins came in, said something to Mr. Roosevelt, and Mr. Roosevelt then said, " W h e r e is it George, point it o u t . " A n d Perkins waved his hand and said, " A l l through it," and went out of the room. Mr. Roosevelt then said to 11s, in substance: " N e x t to Mr. D i x o n , Mr. Perkins has made this movement in this country possible. H e has furnished so much money that when the campaign expense account is published he will be damned and I will be damned in this country. Now, gentlemen, I wish that you could, if possible, fix u p these 3 Undated memorandum, entitled "Rough Headings for Platforms."

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little things in this platform to which Mr. Perkins objects." Mr. Roosevelt went forth in a talk along the same line. We all listened to him and when he got through I went up, walked over towards him, and said: "Mr. Roosevelt, I came from Wisconsin, I came down here to do what the people of this country want and not what Mr. Perkins wants. As far as my attitude is concerned in this matter, I shall do nothing except what the people of this country want, whatever Mr. Perkins' wish is. T o my mind Mr. Perkins has nothing to do with the matter whatsoever." Gifford Pinchot stepped up beside me and said, "I think that Mr. McCarthy is quite right. We have no business to consider Mr. Perkins' wish whatsoever." Mr. Perkins, in the meanwhile, had gone into the other room, followed by Wm. Allen White. Almost immediately there were sounds of voices in the other room and Wm. Allen White came running out and said to Mr. Roosevelt, "Mr. Pinchot and Mr. Perkins are having trouble in there and Mr. Perkins says he will leave. You had better go in and stop him. Roosevelt's efforts to effect a reconciliation between the opposing forces were unsuccessful: Mr. Roosevelt rushed into the other room, and after quite a while came out to us, and Mr. Pinchot came back. Mr. Roosevelt had papers in his hands, in which he said Mr. Perkins wanted some changes. He wanted to knock out the direct nomination and election of the president of the United States. He wanted to knock out the recall of United States senators. He objected to the currency plank, tariff plank, and the trust plank. Mr. Roosevelt talked these matters over with us, but the major part of the committee remained firm and Mr. Roosevelt ran in and out of the room, between Perkins and our committee, for probably three quarters of an hour or an hour, trying to secure a reconciliation. T h e Committee then broke up. T h e efforts to modify the radicalism of the original d r a f t by Perkins a n d Beveridge were frustrated by a committee of the original group. T h i s is told in the concluding paragraph of McCarthy's memorandum. We found that just as soon as it did break up Medili McCormick, Senator Dixon and others started around to say that the platform was too radical and must be changed. That night Mr. Beveridge of Indiana, who was about to run for Governor, I understood, and Mr. Perkins worked together, changing the platform, in the Blackstone Hotel, I understand. Anyway, the Colonel called us together next day and insisted upon planks which he said that Perkins and Beveridge had given to him. I was persistent in my purpose through the whole thing, so much so that a small committee was left in the room and I was told to

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g o out. T h i s small committee, h o w e v e r , was composed of loyal and true m e n w h o c h a n g e d the w o r d i n g of the B e v e r i d g e and Perkins drafts, so as not to i m p a i r the original strength of these planks. I think this committee was c o m p o s e d of R o w e l l of C a l i f o r n i a , Kirchwey, D e a n Lewis, a n d G i f f o r d P i n c h o t . B u t for the tact a n d ability of this committee, the p l a t f o r m w o u l d have been r i p p e d to pieces a n d they deserve the credit a n d not myself for the success of o u r p l a t f o r m .

T h i s conflict in the Committee resulted in a political cause célèbre. After the platform was published it was claimed that the anti-trust plank had been lost, or rather that five significant lines of it were dropped out after the final adoption of the platform by the convention and before its general publication. T h e "lost" section read: W e f a v o r s t r e n g t h e n i n g the S h e r m a n law by p r o h i b i t i n g agreements to d i v i d e territory or limit o u t p u t , a n d refuse to sell to customers w h o buy f r o m business rivals and sell b e l o w the cost in certain areas by maintaini n g h i g h e r prices in other places; using the power of transportation to a i d o r i n j u r e special business concerns a n d other u n f a i r business practices.

T h e lost-plank controversy continued to rage after the election and up to the time of the Progressive Conference held in the Hotel La Salle on December 10, 1912. At this conference Colonel Roosevelt repeated the plank as McCarthy said it was passed by the convention, and as it appeared in an early edition of the Chicago Tribune on August 8, 1912. With unanimous consent the omitted or lost lines were read back into the platform. O.K. Davis, the publicity man of the convention, said that Colonel Roosevelt himself gave the order for the elimination of the plank. T h e "missing plank issue" was raised in all probability to discredit Perkins. T h i s did not succeed so far as Roosevelt was concerned. In another memorandum, McCarthy gives an explanation of the situation as revealed at the time of the Progressive Conference on December 10-11 in Chicago: F r o m the [newspaper] c l i p p i n g s it w i l l be noticed that T h e o d o r e R o o s e v e l t endorsed the missing p l a n k in the platform, that he also insisted that the plank be put back. Nevertheless the statement was m a d e by O . K . Davis that it was Roosevelt w h o ordered the plank taken out. I t h i n k these statements can be reconciled. A f t e r the p l a n k went t h r o u g h the m e e t i n g on T u e s d a y of the Con-

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vention, Roosevelt asked to see the platform before it was formally adopted. T h i s was agreed to. Kirchwey told me, however, that he had seen Perkins and Beveridge together in a room in the Blackstone Hotel working together on the platform. I was not surprised then when I came in the next morning to Roosevelt's room and Roosevelt had an entirely different plank with the Sherman Act part left out. I believe he said that Beveridge handed it to him. It was very much like his confession of faith, and was the plank sent out from N e w York later. (See W i l l White's letter). Finally Roosevelt ordered us all out of the room except Rowell, Lewis, Kirchwey, and I believe Pinchot. Pretty soon, however, the committee came out, proceeded downstairs, and Lewis, I believe it was, showed me the platform with the Sherman A c t put back and asked me if I was satisfied. I said I was. I followed it in to the committee room and heard it passed. Now my theory is that when it was passed in the Convention, Perkins saw the extra plank relating to the Sherman Act, went to Roosevelt, and had a conversation similar to this: " T h i s is not the plank that we agreed on last night, it has the Sherman A c t amendment to it and they must have slipped it in by mistake in the Convention." Roosevelt's recollection being hazy on the subject as he took no part in the conference with Rowell, Pinchot and Lewis, he said, "Yes, I remember, it is clearly a mistake and ought to be excluded!" Perkins and D i x o n probably told O . K . Davis to exclude it, which Davis did. I simply think that Roosevelt got mixed u p on it and never saw the significance of it until he began campaigning and wrote the letter to me saying that his attention had been called to its exclusion. I don't think he knew anything about it, as he was emphatic as the clippings say that it had always been there and he was emphatic in his talk to me that he supposed that it had always been there. Nevertheless, I think he must have told O . K . Davis in a hasty manner to exclude the plank. T h i s is the only explanation I can see which will reconcile Davis' statements with Roosevelt's. IV R o o s e v e l t had a great a d m i r a t i o n f o r M c C a r t h y a n d listened to his o p i n i o n s o n n a t i o n a l questions, s o u g h t his a d v i c e , a n d welc o m e d o p p o r t u n i t i e s of m e e t i n g h i m . In fact he f e l t very k i n d l y t o w a r d the w h o l e W i s c o n s i n g r o u p , i n c l u d i n g , besides M c C a r t h y , C o m m o n s , Ely, a n d Ross, and in the i n t r o d u c t i o n to The sin Idea

Wiscon-

took occasion to praise them. I n a letter to M c C a r t h y i n

J a n u a r y , 1912, R o o s e v e l t says, " I swear b y y o u a n d R o s s " ; again o n J a n u a r y 29, 1915, he writes M c C a r t h y h e saw Ross a n d E l y the o t h e r

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day, and adds, " I was m u c h struck by some of the things Ely told me. H e is a very sound political economist, is he not?" M c C a r t h y wrote Roosevelt about the future of the Progressive Party, and more particularly the injury which George W . Perkins was d o i n g the Progressive cause. Roosevelt's reply on A p r i l 26, 1915, was significant and of special interest. H e said: M Y DEAR

MCCARTHY:

I do not see how we could at this moment give up the Progressive party. Here in New York it would be simple folly to ask a man like myself to join the Republican party under Barnes; and Wilson is the worst President we have had since Buchanan—and at least as bad as Buchanan. As for what you say about Perkins, if it be true that he has hurt the Progressive cause in your part of the country, I think it speaks very badly for your part of the country: There isn't a more genuine representative of progressive feeling than Perkins. When you come on here, I wish you would see the great forty-thousand acre interstate Park which Perkins has succeeded in developing during the last fifteen years by very arduous labor. It is the best practical experiment of the socialization of government on the best German lines that I know of. I wish very much that I could see you. [Then in long hand] I'll no more go back on you than I'll go back on Perkins! V T o provide a convenient answer for the many inquiries coming to the Legislative R e f e r e n c e Library concerning the progressive legislation and the progressive movement, McCarthy wrote, in The Wisconsin Idea, the story of the Wisconsin achievement and his o w n philosophy of government. Roosevelt indicated he would be pleased to write an introduction to the book. O n February 1, 1912, M c C a r t h y sent him the manuscript with a letter that has a n u m b e r of interesting points of general interest. McCarthy tells Roosevelt the book was completed hurriedly; it was completed in evenings of two weeks. T h i s is true in a sense but much of the material was gathered from earlier speeches and articles; to this, in somewhat modified form, some new material was added. O n e point M c C a r t h y regarded as significant in the Wisconsin experience; the patient work that must lie back of genuine or constructive reform. In his letter to Roosevelt he thus words the point:

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I am aware that it is rough and crude, but I h a v e tried to emphasize the necessity of l o o k i n g backward a n d forward, of being patient, a n d of taking great care in all matters. I want to show that w e must caref u l l y plan how we are to construct before we tear d o w n . I have tried to show that cheap clap-trap does not pay, a n d that the true r e f o r m e r must study hard a n d work patiently. I have tried to show that the true reformer does not merely mean a primary election law, b u t that if it is g o i n g to last and meet the test of time, that w e must b u i l d our educational institutions also, a n d that prosperity based on economic ref o r m must g o hand in h a n d w i t h political reform. If w e just can inculcate the Wisconsin lesson of scientific help, or patience, care in legislation, that alone will justify all the advertising we can give to it. W e are in a period of reform a n d the w o r k i n g o u t of new machinery that w o u l d insure equality of o p p o r t u n i t y in any w a l k of life or before the courts is not an easy task. T h e r e are those in every community w h o w o u l d apply the fire brand. A r e f o r m m o v e m e n t is usually like the stock markets; if it goes u p it rises too h i g h a n d the true builder is met by the impatient contempt of angry hostility of the South Sea bubble reformer w h o gets i n d i g n a n t w h e n called u p o n to show his assets. Roosevelt is, as usual, quick to catch the point, and thus we read in his introduction about the sane radicalism of Wisconsin: A s soon as they thought a certain object was desirable they at once set to work practically to study how to d e v e l o p the constructive machinery through w h i c h it could be achieved. T h i s is not an easy attitude to maintain. . . . Moreover, Mr. M c C a r t h y deserves especial praise for realizing that there is no one patent remedy for getting universal reform. . . . A l l through the U n i o n we need to learn the Wisconsin lesson of scientific popular, self-help, a n d of patient care in radical legislation. 4 Toward the end of his letter McCarthy makes another significant request to which Roosevelt accedes. McCarthy says: I have not talked about the fight here; a b o u t those w h o have f o u g h t and are still fighting it. M a n y will think that I am w r i t i n g this as a political p a m p h l e t and they will be disappointed, but I thought that you in your introduction might wish to say s o m e t h i n g a b o u t the fighting leader and the battle. T h a t , of course, is a matter for y o u r j u d g m e n t entirely. W h a t e v e r may be his limitations, he has never turned d o w n a real constructive plan and he fought hard for education a n d every other g o o d t h i n g — w i t h o u t h i m it w o u l d not have been possible. I can speak for I owe him no allegiance. * The Wisconsin

Idea, p. ix.

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Says Roosevelt at the very beginning of his introduction: Thanks to the movement for genuinely democratic popular government which Senator L a Follette led to overwhelming victory in Wisconsin, that state has become literally a laboratory for wise experimental legislation aiming to secure the social and political betterment of the people as a whole. 5 Roosevelt had as already explained a warm regard for the Wisconsin group. W h a t he especially appreciated in the Wisconsin work was the study and thinking that was at the basis of the constructive work. O n J a n u a r y 29, 1 9 1 5 , lie writes to M c C a r t h y an altogether illuminating letter on this point: Now, for the main part of your letter. I am sure that the reaction in Wisconsin, and, indeed, over the nation, is only temporary. As regards the nation, we have certainly suffered partly for the sins of some of the extremists. Reformers are the salt of the earth, and without salt one cannot get a decent dinner; but a dinner composed exclusively of salt is not worth much! Here in New York some of the men who nominally stayed with us, like Amos Pinchot, really tried to turn the Progressive party into an aid to the I.W.W., or a kind of parlor-anarchist association; and the public finally became convinced that we were altogether too much tainted wilh lunacy. But in Wisconsin il seems to me as though your University work, and such work as that of your own special bureau, have been so excellent as to deprive people of any cause of revolt. I absolutely sympathize with your purpose as outlined in the volume you sent me. 1 absolutely agree with what you say as to the absurd attitude of so many of our universities. Now, whether I will be able to do as you suggest in the way of writing about this in public, I do not know; but if I do get the chance I shall certainly take advantage of it and comment upon that report. VI Roosevelt's opinion of judges was considerably influenced by McCarthy, w h o kept b e f o r e h i m continually d u r i n g the years the problem of the judges in o u r American system of government. O n October 2 1 , 1 9 1 1 , M c C a r t h y wrote to Roosevelt submitting his thoughts on " t h e relation of o u r judges to our constitutional syst e m , " in anticipation of d r a f t i n g some legislation on this subject " w i t h i n a year or so" and, seeking the "very best k n o w l e d g e , " he wanted Roosevelt's criticism. 5 Ibid., p. vii.

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McCarthy continued, "the fathers of America rightly or wrongly thought that a government divided into three distinct departments was the ideal arrangement." T h e duty of the legislature was to carry out the popular will within the limits of the Constitution. Alongside the legislature, the people created the judiciary, whose function was evidently interpretative. T h e jurists said it was the function of the courts to declare null and void all acts that did not conform to the Constitution; McCarthy was somewhat skeptical of this. H e then came to his main point: It is apparent to us now that the judges by assuming this power assume an unchecked power. Who could hold the judges in check if they interpreted the law wrongly, or if they usurped the function of interpretation to such a degree that they could hold the legislative function within a small compass? Going back again, we see that the fathers thought that it was best after all to have some check upon the judges. What check was this? Clearly the check should be from the people, but the machinery for effecting that did not occur to the fathers. They therefore allowed the legislature, their committee, to impeach an unjust judge who had exceeded his authority. So here we have the checks—the judges gradually assume the power of checking the legislature and the legislature having the inherent power of checking the judges by impeachment. It had also another power, of refusing to grant money for salaries or expenses of the judges, the power also of determining to a large extent certain procedure of the judges by legislative enactment to in some way limit the scope of the judicial power. We see then that these checks remained and always existed, but it is not to be supposed that the people gave up their right to check either the legislature or the judges. This is of special significance today when we have the initiative and the referendum as directed against the judicial authority. Going back again, we find that although the judge could be impeached for many misdemeanors, crime, and matters of that sort, yet the general rule is well stated by the following excerpt. But where such act results from a mere error of judgment of omission of duty, without the element of fraud, or where the alleged negligence is attributable to a misconception of duty, rather than a willful disregard thereof, it is not impeachable, although it may be highly prejudicial to the interests of the state. State vs. Hastings, 37 Neb. 96, 55 N.W. 774. See, further, as to the question what offences are impeachable, Pom. Const. Law, 717-727; 1 Story, Const. 785, 796-805; Miller, Const, pp. 171-214. With respect to the introduction of evidence and the quantum of proof required to warrant a conviction, impeachment is essentially a criminal prosecution; hence the guilt of the accused must be established beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Hastings, 37

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Neb. 96, 55 N.W. 774. (Handbook of American Constitutional Law by H. C. Black, Second Edition, chap. VI, p. 122). I n short if the j u d g e exceeds his power the legislature may impeach h i m or refuse to grant appropriations f o r salaries or other expenses, but the p o w e r to impeach is restricted narrowly by j u d i c i a l interpretation. I n connection with this conflict between the legislature a n d the courts McCarthy outlines in the same letter the basis a n d the m e t h o d of a recall f o r judges. T h e legislature then, is limited by the judicial authority in such a way that impeachment became almost an impossibility. This has destroyed one check which the legislature has had over the judges. T h e check which the people and the legislature have had over the judges has been growing steadily less by the check which the judges have over the legislature, which has been growing very much greater. Coming down to remedies for this situation, is there not a possibility of restoring in some way the impeachment power to its original strength . . . ? Would it not be well then to divide in some way the proposed recall of the judges so that it can be applied directly in some manner whenever the judges have exceeded the constitutional limits laid down by the masters—the people—for them? . . . T h e problem then is to work out or to construct a recall which will do this effectively and at the same time allow the judges to be protected in their rights. . . . What we need then, is a carefully worked out constitutional amendment which will accomplish this purpose. I would suggest that some procedures similar to the following might be worked out: By a majority vote of the legislature it asserts that the judges have usurped legislative function by interpretation or nullification, specifying a particular case and giving a hearing. If the legislature by a majority vote finds that such is the case, then it sets a time after the legislature for an election of the judge. If he is elected, then he is sustained, but if he is not, then an opponent is elected. T h e people show their disapproval of the courses of the particular judge. Or, we could have a proceeding by which the people could assert through a petition that a judge has usurped legislative function. Then a legislature must give a hearing and follow the above procedure. T h e n perhaps more significantly he lays the basis f o r the recall of j u d i c i a l decisions. T h i s , I believe, is the first " f e e l e r " of the question submitted to Roosevelt. I am basing the above constructive program upon the fact that there are two kinds of legislation, one made by the statute and one made by

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the judges. Both are equally powerful. In fact the judge-made law is more powerful, as it sometimes is the only way of j u d g i n g the constitution. If we recognize the referendum as a good thing for legislation made by legislatures, why is it not a good thing upon legislation made by judges? W h y cannot we have the referendum on principal cases which are legislative in nature or affect the constitution? C a n we not have some machinery by which the people can judge of this kind of legislation as well as that made by the legislature?

How receptive Roosevelt was, is indicated in the letter written within the week (October 27, 1911) in which he states frankly his own point of view: Y o u r letter interests me particularly because you are evidently thinking along just the lines that I am thinking. In my speeches about the New York judges I am not talking about the men who have committed impeachable offences, and I am talking of some men w h o m I d o not want to recall or take off the Bench. Neither do I wish to give the Legislature the final control over them. But I do most emphatically wish to give the people the ultimate right to say what the laws shall be. I believe that two entirely distinct remedies must be achieved. One is in some way or other by majority vote of the Legislature, or in other fashion, to permit a judge to be removed not for an impeachable offence but because the people no longer think him the right kind of public servant. As this is not to be done by way of punishment, it might well be that the judge's salary should continue for the term for which he was appointed or elected. Next, and much more important, I wish in some fashion, perhaps by the use of the initiative in a somewhat analogous way to that which you have devised in Wisconsin as I understand it, that the people shall be allowed to express their judgment on any construction of the Constitution by the judges, and this expression should be final. Of course it could not be final as regards the National Constitution with the people of any State, but it could be final as to any interpretation by the State judges of the State Constitution, or, as far as they are concerned, of the National Constitution, until the latter question had been settled by the National judiciary. I would not want to make this appeal too easy. . . . Perhaps it would be possible to give the choice of voting on any one of the several measures put in perfected form by members of the Legislature, no bill to be voted on that was not submitted by at least ten per cent of the Members of the Legislature. . . . I am not wedded to my own plan, but here in New York, which is a very conservative and indeed reactionary State, I felt that it was my duty to try to call attention to the fact that we were permitting the great movement for social reform to be blocked because of the reactionary attitude of the judges toward the legislation which I and a great many others, including practically all progressives of every shade,

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think absolutely necessary. If we cannot convert the majority of the voters to our views I have no complaint to make; but if we do convert that majority I want to see our views take effect in law. O n D e c e m b e r 28, M a c f o l l o w s u p this e x c h a n g e w i t h a n o t h e r l e t t e r a p p r o v i n g R o o s e v e l t ' s c o m m e n t in The

Outlook

on

the

W i s c o n s i n W o r k m e n ' s C o m p e n s a t i o n Case a n d sends a l o n g t h e v e r y s u r p r i s i n g o p i n i o n of J u d g e Marshall, w h i c h is e l s e w h e r e q u o t e d . T h e letter a c c o m p a n y i n g the enclosure reads: I noticed with pleasure your comment upon Chief Justice Winslow's opinion in the Wisconsin Workmen's compensation case. Enclosed find a clipping from Judge Marshall's concurring opinion. I am sending this to you not because of the significance of the case, but because this judge has often chided the legislature for not passing similar legislation. . . . W h a t interests me is that his view evidently throws the burden of the proof on the court to show that any such act is not within the broad limitations in the very preamble itself, and in so doing it seems to me that he makes the judges show this not by the precedent but by the rule of the justice and right as applied to the highest ideals of human welfare. . . . I am sending you this because it might make good editorial material and because of our previous correspondence relating to the initiative a n d recall. In relation to this subject, I wish to call your attention to page 666 of the North American Review for November. Professor Munroe Smith takes u p in this article the necessity of amending the constitution of the United States. T a k e n together with your suggestions to me in our previous correspondence and this decision of Marshall's it would seem to me that we might work out a procedure slowly and cautiously, without wrenching too much the well-set customs of the court, by which economic conditions and the constitution could be made to harmonize more rapidly than they do at present. T h i s p r o d u c e d an i m m e d i a t e reaction i n an Outlook

editorial,

a n a d v a n c e c o p y of w h i c h R o o s e v e l t sent to M c C a r t h y w i t h t h e f o l l o w i n g letter: I send you herewith an advance copy of the Outlook of this week, in which I take up the attitude of judges toward progress. I feel very strongly about this. I am indebted to you for sending me that clipping from Judge Marshall's concurring opinion. I think he absolutely strikes the keynote when he says that the burden of proof should be on the court to show that any act of the kind is not within the broad limitations of the preamble of the constitution. T h e Legislature should, as you say, construct the law carefully to be in accord with economic

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justice, and if the Constitution is against economic justice then the Constitution is all wrong. You are quite right as to the desirability of having such a decision as Marshall's set the precedent for action by the Supreme Court which would harmonize economic conditions and the Constitution. 0 It is interesting to note in this connection that the B u l l Moose p l a t f o r m 7 contained the following plank on the j u d i c i a r y : T h e Progressive party demands such restriction of the power of the courts as shall leave to the people the ultimate authority to determine fundamental questions of social welfare and public policy. T o secure this end it pledges itself to provide: 1. That when an act, passed under the police power of the State, is held unconstitutional under the State Constitution, by the courts, the people, after an ample interval for deliberation, shall have an opportunity to vote on the question whether they desire the Act to become law, notwithstanding such decision. 2. T h a t every decision of the highest appellate court of a State declaring an Act of the Legislature unconstitutional on the ground of its violation of the Federal Constitution shall be subject to the same review by the Supreme Court of the United States as is now accorded to decisions sustaining such legislation. VII O n May 14, 1 9 1 7 , M c C a r t h y wrote to Roosevelt suggesting he could if he w o u l d , right a great w r o n g and do the people of Wisconsin a great service. H e referred to the sneers a b o u t Wisconsin in the East, as w h e n at a recent public meeting a speaker proposed an expedition to rescue the Americans interned in Wisconsin. McCarthy resented such sneers and knew they were unjustified. Said McCarthy's letter, " T h e second generation m e n of G e r m a n blood, yes, and those w h o were born in the old country, who may have a lingering love f o r the old country, you can m a k e u p y o u r m i n d will follow the A m e r i c a n flag w h e n it comes d o w n to it." A n d more significant is the story of his o w n father. My father, who was an Irish rebel and who has fought England all his life, in speaking of the President's Proclamation said: "Charlie, I have fought England all my life but if I were 21 years of age to-day and the President called, I would follow the American flag even if I had to fight against Ireland." β Roosevelt to McCarthy, Jan. 3, 1912.

7

Aug. 5, i g i i .

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" C o l o n e l Roosevelt," adds M c C a r t h y , "that same spirit exists a m o n g the Germans of Wisconsin and you may make u p your m i n d that Wisconsin is going into this war, now that it is declared, to fight to the finish!" Roosevelt responds promptly and appropriately: I not merely earnestly hope, but confidently anticipate that Wisconsin's position will be a leading one in this war. No state made a greater record in the civil war, no state has shown in its governmental affairs a better spirit, one more characteristically American, and no state has given such leadership to all America in social and civil matters. T o a peculiar degree, the population of Wisconsin typifies the Americanism of the future. We are a nation akin to, but different from every nation in Europe. We come from different stocks, we have many different strains of blood running in our veins but we are Americans, all of us; Americans and nothing else. Now is the time for every man in the United States to show that he knows but one flag to which to pay allegiance, and that his loyalty to this great nation is absolutely single in its devotion. I earnestly hope and believe that Wisconsin will take the same leading position now in this war, when America's standing in the world at large is at stake, that she took over half a century ago, when America's existence as a nation was at stake.3 Roosevelt's letters helped, but in spite of the amazing record of Wisconsin, the East continued to sneer for a long time, as I can attest, w h o frequently visited Washington in those days as Wisconsin's draft administrator. T h e s e sneers continued even at a time w h e n General C r o w d e r was saying " I have come to expect the impossible of Wisconsin." Perhaps this is not so bad as a proposal by certain leading citizens of Wisconsin w h o advised the Washington authorities that it w o u l d be necessary to have regiments o£ troops in N o r t h e r n Illinois to "take over" w h e n the "conscription" was attempted in Wisconsin. VIII McCarthy believed completely in the recall. H e wanted to put it in the Federal T r a d e Commission legislation, he wanted, as we know, to apply it to all commissions in Wisconsin. Governor Philipp was well aware of this conviction, and, receiving a letter from a β Theodore Roosevelt to McCarthy, published in Milwaukee Sentinel,

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person w h o wanted to reduce the size of the legislature, he sent it to McCarthy for reply; with the letter he sent a note w h i c h playfully, I am sure, reduced from the Governor's point of view, McCarthy's recall argument to a reductio ad absurdum: T h e Governor wrote in his ολνη hand on January 25, 1915: "Please note the enclosed letter from Mr. Powers of the Arizona legislature. I submit it to you for reply. His plan of reducing the size of the legislature might as well be carried further, say to one man. W h y not have a K i n g and if the K i n g is n.g., apply the recall." McCarthy wanted the recall applied to judges and to judicial decisions. B u t the correspondence with George Emlen Roosevelt * shows that he also wanted it applied to the President of the U n i t e d States. Roosevelt had been President from 1901 to 1909. H e was again a candidate after T a f t ' s administration in 1912. T h e question of the third term was raised. B u t the issue was not clean-cut, first because Roosevelt's first term was the completion of M c K i n l e y ' s unexpired term, and the proposed third term was not continuous with the others. A t any rate, there was fear that dictatorship w o u l d develop and the other terminology of "excessive power in the hands of the E x e c u t i v e " was used. T o allow for this feeling, McCarthy wrote in a letter (August 17, 1912) to George Roosevelt, " I know how powerful you are with the Colonel and what a great respect he pays to your o p i n i o n . " H e goes on: I a m g l a d you take the a t t i t u d e in the letter w h i c h you do. It is n o t a question of e d u c a t i n g the A m e r i c a n p e o p l e on the subject of the recall of the President of the U n i t e d States so m u c h as it is an assurance to the people of the U n i t e d States that M r . R o o s e v e l t puts himself in their hands. It is a mighty good political proposition. T h e n again, as a piece of statesmanship, he is i n a u g u r a t i n g a custom w h i c h will become firmly rooted in the u n w r i t t e n law. A f t e r all w e o u g h t to have as m u c h of the people's rule as E n g l a n d has, b u t there is n o statute w h i c h controls the English recall by p u b l i c s e n t i m e n t a n d w i t h o u t statute a n d w i t h o u t constitutional a m e n d m e n t M r . R o o s e v e l t has in his hands the p o w e r to assure the A m e r i c a n p e o p l e that the President for the f u t u r e will always be at their control. It takes the w i n d o u t of the six year term l i m i t a t i o n proposition w h i c h is really not D e m o c r a t i c at all a n d lie proposes bv this a D e m o c r a t i c remedy. D o urge h i m to take it up. It will h e l p greatly in this part of the c o u n t r y . '·» A r e l a t i v e of T h e o d o r e R o o s e v e l t a n d the m a n a g e r of his p o l i t i c a l affairs at this time.

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T h e recall of t h e P r e s i d e n t as a p a r t of t h e u n w r i t t e n law of t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s — t h a t was t h e proposal, a n d s u r p r i s i n g l y e n o u g h it m a d e s o m e progress as G e o r g e Roosevelt's r e p l y to M c C a r t h y shows: I have your letter of August 17th and am really greatly interested a n d impressed by it. T h e recall of the President is certainly a very sound principle, but you know that if Colonel Roosevelt definitely stated that h e was in favor of it, the cry would at once be raised that he wished to be a p e r m a n e n t dictator, with an indefinite term. I will talk to him about it tomorrow evening and 1 know that he is prepared to make a statement o n the subject when he thinks it is the proper time in this campaign. I hope you have seen what he said about the tariff in Providence a n d Boston. H e attacked it in just about the way that you suggest. 10 N i n e t e e n h u n d r e d a n d twelve was obviously a great year f o r M c C a r t h y . H e h a d a great t i m e . H e h a d p a r t i c i p a t e d i n t h e m a k i n g of t h e f o u r N a t i o n a l p l a t f o r m s of t h a t year, R e p u b l i c a n , D e m o cratic, La F o l l e t t e a n d B u l l Moose. H e was asked by each of t h e m a j o r candidates, W o o d r o w W i l s o n a n d T h e o d o r e R o o s e v e l t t o see h i m a n d h e l p h i m in his speeches a n d c a m p a i g n . T h e w o r k h e was d o i n g a n d h a d b e e n d o i n g f o r C h a r l e s R . C r a n e , f r i e n d of L a F o l l e t t e a n d P r e s i d e n t W i l s o n , b o t h in t h e d r a f t i n g of a T r a d e C o m m i s s i o n bill a n d a n A n t i - t r u s t bill, was grist in t h e m i l l of m a k i n g n a t i o n a l political p l a t f o r m s . H i s closeness to R o o s e v e l t is s h o w n by i n c i d e n t s o t h e r t h a n those r e l a t i n g to t h e d r a f t i n g of t h e B u l l Moose p l a t f o r m a n d t h e loss of t h e a n t i - t r u s t p l a n k . H i s i n f l u e n c e o n Roosevelt's o p i n i o n of j u d i c i a l recall a n d recall of j u d i c i a r y decisions is clearly i n t i m a t e d if n o t s h o w n . Roosevelt's w a r m feeling f o r M c C a r t h y is s h o w n in t h e i n t r o d u c t i o n h e w r o t e f o r " T h e W i s c o n s i n I d e a " a n d his " g o o d w o r d f o r W i s c o n s i n ' s r e l a t i o n to W o r l d W a r I . " It w o u l d have b e e n of i m m e n s e cons t i t u t i o n a l i n t e r e s t if R o o s e v e l t h a d actually m a d e t h e p u b l i c statem e n t o n t h e recall of t h e P r e s i d e n t w h i c h a c c o r d i n g to G e o r g e Roosevelt's letter h e was r e a d y to m a k e , if lie t h o u g h t it advisable in t h e p a r t i c u l a r s i t u a t i o n . W h a t we o f t e n read as d e a d history w e see in p a r t at least t h e l i v i n g forces whose o p e r a t i o n c u l m i n a t e s in t h e historical event. M u c h of t h e m a t e r i a l in this c h a p t e r is p e r h a p s m o r e significant today (1943) t h a n at any t i m e since it h a p p e n e d , as it will b e f o r s o m e t i m e t o come. 10 George Emlen Roosevelt to McCarthy, Aug. 19, 1912.

Chapter

XIII

B E T T E R BUSINESS, B E T T E R BETTER

FARMING,

LIVING

in McCarthy's immediate background to center his attention on agriculture, and yet this was one of his deepest interests. He came from urban industrialized Brockton and went to school in urban Providence, the capital of an industrialized Rhode Island. He was, however, deeply interested in the study of history, and history prior to the nineteenth century was largely a history of agricultural societies. At the time McCarthy went to Wisconsin it was largely an agricultural state, a leader in agricultural development under such great men as Dean Henry and Stephen Moulton Babcock of the Babcock tester. In McCarthy's contacts with the legislature, he had firsthand descriptions of the personal problems of farmers, of rural social problems, and of the problems of the production and marketing or distribution of farm products. From 1901 on, he saw the farmers trying to find legislative solutions to these and other problems, including land settlement and land taxation. In the legislature itself, McCarthy was often of assistance to farmers in their individual bills, and of course was very active on the Marketing Bill. He often suggested to platform makers helpful agricultural planks. In the State Board of Public Affairs, he had an extraordinary opportunity to promote constructive measures for agriculture on a wide basis of fact. T h e wide-ranging program of the Board was largely his; it included land settlement, particularly of Northern lands, agricultural cooperation, and marketing. Back of this program was McCarthy's knowledge of the Irish agricultural organization movement through his association with Sir Horace Plunkett, of the Danish cooperatives and marketing through his trip to Europe, and his wide knowledge of agricultural programs, elseH E R E W A S NOTHING

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where, particularly in Australia and N e w Zealand, through his o m n i v o r o u s reading f o r the Legislative R e f e r e n c e Library. M c C a r t h y was largely responsible for three organizations that help to promote an agricultural program for the country: the N a t i o n a l C o n f e r e n c e of F a r m Credits and Marketing; the American A g r i c u l t u r a l Organization Society; and the National Board of F a r m Organizations, which was organized to make effective the producer's voice in the W a r F o o d Administration. II T h e g e r m i n a l possibilities of the Legislative R e f e r e n c e L i b r a r y led M c C a r t h y into the various agricultural problems. In the beg i n n i n g this was undoubtedly a matter of individual help. His technique of using people or preparing them for what was coming is illustrated by a written statement to G . D. J o n e s , a person at the other pole of social thinking, but who was a p o w e r f u l member of the B o a r d of Regents of the University. T h e benevolent or paternalistic state might even help M r . J o n e s himself. O n October 7, 1 9 1 2 , M c C a r t h y writes to J o n e s : A gentleman called in to see me to-day who proposed a plan for rural credit which seemed to me to be a good one, but I thought I would send you the outline of it as he presented it to me. As you remember I told you, there is an agricultural bank in Bavaria which loans to farmers. . . . It evidently occurred to this man that if some particular bank in this state would agree, by certain provisions relating to agricultural credit, that these state funds could be sent to this one bank. For instance, suppose we say that in return for this particular service to the rural regions of the state, this bank receive these funds at two percent, instead of two and one-half percent; then it must loan out three-fourths of its loans to farmers for purposes strictly regulated, such as improvements, etc., or to associations or co-operative societies. . . . We should have very strict control over this bank, of course; in fact, the state should have some members on its board of directors, and it should give very strict accountability to the state. T h e idea evidently presented to me was that if a lot of land owners, like yourself, got together to make some improvements within limits, that this bank could give you some long time loans, or could finance the undertakings by which you might buy your land. . . . T h i s scheme has the advantage of having state funds put in some use for the development of the state, of aiding districts where money is

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scarce, of aiding co-operative organizations which may be formed, and thus making indirect loans to farmers and to actual settlers. T h e terms of the law could be made specific and thoroughly safeguarded. Our banking law is such a good one and so well administered that I think there would be no danger from this point. T h e s e germs of ideas were being constantly planted. T h e conditions which confronted the farmer, McCarthy w o u l d call to the attention of such men as J o n e s , and to the farmers organization. F r o m the A n n u a l R e p o r t of the U.S. T r e a s u r y for 1 9 1 6 , he w o u l d read a statement such as: T h e farmers of the United States have suffered more than any other class of our people from a lack of essential credits, both short and long time, to carry on their business properly. Until the passage of the Federal reserve act on December 23, 1913, it was extremely difficult for the farmer to finance his requirements for producing, harvesting and marketing his crops, and for maturing or fattening his live stock for market. T h e Federal reserve act expressly recognized agricultural or farmers' paper and put it on an equality with the best commercial paper—giving it, in fact, an advantage over commercial paper by making agricultural paper of six months' maturity, or less, eligible for rediscount by Federal reserve banks, while commercial paper with a maturity longer than 90 days is ineligible for rediscount by Federal reserve banks. T h i s particular clipping was placed in the library file; n u m e r o u s duplicate copies were made and sent to men like J o n e s , to S i r Horace Plunkett, and to members of the Society of Equity. Ill A m o n g McCarthy's papers w e find these almost epigrammatic recommendations f o r agricultural planks in a national p l a t f o r m . H e was indifferent as to w h o took his proposals—and the more the merrier. W e insert these proposals here as illustrative of his concept of a national program for agriculture. In the interest of reducing the high cost of living we pledge legislation which will secure to all farmers, as well as consumers, full, free, and unquestioned right to organize and to purchase and sell cooperatively. We pledge cordial support to the principle that farm organizations should be represented on governmental bodies, especially those having to do with agricultural problems. We pledge the appointment of a Secretary of Agriculture who knows

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actual farm conditions and who is satisfactory to farm organizations. We pledge comprehensive studies of farm production costs, at home and abroad, and the uncensored publication of facts found in such studies. We pledge legislation that will effectively check, reduce and eventually end the evils of farm tenancy. We pledge the immediate betterment of transportation conditions. If at the end of two years a further trial of private ownership of railroads fails to render reasonably satisfactory service to the people, we pledge the reopening of the railroad question. We pledge the payment of the war debt chiefly through a highly graduated income tax or taxes on luxuries and excess profits, based upon the earnings of those who have profited from the war, and who are profiting from the wealth earned by the people. We pledge the strict enforcement of the national conservation policy and especially the cessation of forestry devastation which has more than doubled the price of lumber to the consumer. We pledge effective national control over the packers and other great interstate combinations of capital engaged in the manufacturing, transportation and distribution of food and other farm products and farm supplies. We pledge the repeal of laws restricting the rights of free speech, free press and free assemblage, and we pledge the restoration to the people of these fundamental rights. We pledge an effective and complete national pure seed law. We endorse the work of the Federal T r a d e Commission. Its appropriations should be made adequate for the great purpose for which it has been created. We endorse the Farm Loan Board. Its cooperative features should be strengthened and a comprehensive system of personal credit should be created at once. IV M c C a r t h y approached the problem f r o m many angles. I n a noteworthy speech in Boston, J a n u a r y 4, 1 9 1 6 , he summarized his long-term views f r o m the aspect of standardization. A g r i c u l t u r e , he said, is a business and you must H e n r y Fordize it. Merely to Fordize it, however, is not enough. It must have a democratic f o u n d a t i o n — t h e one-man one-vote principle of true cooperation. . T h i s is his solution in business tenns. Better business, better farming, better living are all intertwined. A b a n d o n e d farms, the growth of tenantry a n d the high cost of

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living are forcing the agricultural problem upon us in a way we cannot escape. Fordizing agriculture means thorough organization, thoroughly good and standardized goods at lowest cost, higher pay for producer and ultimately profit-sharing for producer and consumer. T h e r e is need which is being met by fixing legislative standards. T h e enforcement of these standards should be primarily by organizations of milk dealers, fruit dealers, and similar organizations. State inspectors will help and do important educational work, but if they do the whole job, an expensive bureaucracy will develop. T h e small farmer must be saved, and according to McCarthy the standardization of the produce of an area is the way to save him. T h e democratic basis of one-man one-vote must be followed, or we shall have the situation described by Sir Horace Plunkett: "If one man has fifty shares of stock and one cow, and another man has fifty cows and one share of stock, the man who owns the stock will milk the man who milks the cow." Many of the so-called cooperatives or farmer organizations organized upon a joint-stock basis, with their unconscionable profits, represent some of the worst little trusts that exist. T h e commission idea, used so effectively in Wisconsin, could provide for the nation a flexible and efficient administration of the system, particularly of standards. This control should be preferably by states, with regional cooperation. In the Boston speech he describes this ideal Agricultural Commission or Board as follows: Many of these standards go into detail, as your law in Massachusetts does, as to size of apples, etc. A good deal of this is dangerous and unreliable. Some of it is necessary in legislation, but what is necessary and what is unreliable will have to be worked out. Some essentials can be laid down in the law. The rest can be given to a board of agriculture to work out, as administrative rules to be carried out through organizations. But in all cases there should be committees composed of men who would use their actual knowledge of business in determining these rules, so that the rules will not be made theoretical. Also, they should be changed from year to year as the conditions change. Their main enforcement should be through organizations. If different states have such arrangements as this, it will not be difficult for the marketing departments or the boards of agriculture of the different states to meet and make uniform rules. That, however, is a far distant day, it seems to me.

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T h i s is the McCarthy program for agricultural reform from the business angle. It needs to be viewed in terms of what McCarthy says more fully elsewhere about national or regional regeneration and social regeneration. It is all of one pattern: better business, better farming, better living. V T h e Wisconsin Society of Equity was the first farmers' organization that McCarthy worked with. Senator Culbertson, a farmer leader, was actively connected with the National Grange, and McCarthy worked with him. When the Library and McCarthy were attacked in 1 9 1 5 Culbertson wrote to the Milwaukee Sentinel in support of the Library. McCarthy's assistance to the members of the Society of Equity was returned by active support in 1 9 1 5 . T o w a r d the end of the legislative session of 1 9 1 5 , he received a letter signed by President Ben Lang and Secretary L. F. Keogh of the Marathon County Union of the American Society of Equity: At our quarterly county convention of the Marathon County Union of the American Society of Equity held at Rozellville Thursday, June 17, the desire was expressed that you should be informed of the high esteem and personal regard which we hold for you. We feci very grateful that in the midst of your numerous duties as head of the legislative library and reference bureau you have still found time to aid our organization with wise counsel and from time to time given us the benefit of your thorough knowledge of cooperation in this and foreign countries. We wish to assure you that your stand for good government in the state and nation is deeply appreciated. We trust that as the average farmers of the state are made familiar with this valuable service to them they will see to it that party or partisan politics shall not be used to militate against your usefulness. Anyone close to McCarthy in the days after 1 9 1 1 , would have seen how often the officers of the Society of Equity consulted him and wanted his approval at every step. T h e members of the Society who were in the legislature kept in constant touch with him. It was not entirely surprising that he should write rather frankly to the President of the Society of Equity, D. O. Mahoney, when the Stalwarts won the primary in September, 1 9 1 5 . McCarthy says, " I suppose I have no right to write to you as I am doing. I fear that I am butting in too much into the affairs of the Society of Equity."

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But he sends Judge Mahoney the "rough ideas of a man who is thinking aloud." Men, he says, admire fighting ability or the power to injure or help and they bow to it. McCarthy feels the position of the Society has been weak in the last two months. A platform convention is about to assemble and so on September 8, 1914, McCarthy gives the judge an opportunity for an examination of conscience: W h a t vigorous action has the society taken in relation to that platform convention? Has it planks it can put u p at the convention? W h a t are they? Is it willing to fight for these planks? Does it know w h o its enemies are, and who its friends are? Is it willing to separate the sheep from the goats? A n d after the convention—what? Is it willing to fight for its program through the legislature and fight vigorously? Is it willing to make a great battle for the Initiative, Referendum, and Recall? O r is it going to desert institutions like the Sheboygan institution, which is now battling for its life? Is it going to allow that institution to be threatened by adverse legislation or by weak-kneed action upon the part of the state's legal department? Is it going to be a positive force,—vigorous, strong, defiant and constructive, or is it going to be something which no one fears or no one admires?

T o make it clear this is not a personal attack he states what he has been working for in his recent efforts: I am young in this work and do not want to talk out, but you know well that I have worked now for several years to build u p the basis of real cooperative buying and selling, standardization of produce, and the education necessary to make successful the programs for which we both stand. . . . It grieves me, then, to see the Society of Equity not going into this action with clear-eyed purposes and with vigor.

Efforts to organize cooperatives were being made. T h e stock was being sold to Equity members. T h e promoters tried to get McCarthy to work for them. He rejected the offer with the gentle understatement: "I am not at all sure that I agree with you in the way in which you are going about it," adding, "I think cooperation is democracy—democracy in business—and that it must grow through democratic methods and it must grow from below through education." T h e promoter was Mr. F. A . S. Price, a member of the Society of Equity at La Crosse, Wisconsin. In order to get a copy of Mr. Price's plan, Mac proposes: My friend, Sir Horace Plunkett, is in the country, and if you have a prospectus of your work and your organization I would be glad, indeed,

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to send him a copy and ask his opinion, for if he would be converted to a program of that sort, I certainly would be, for I trust his judgment. If you will send me the literature, your copies of agreements, charters, etc., I will send them to Sir Horace at once. McCarthy knew exactly what Sir Horace would think, but that would be a convenient way to get the documents and then point out the dangers at which he only hinted in his letter. What McCarthy actually thought is revealed in a letter sent a week later (January 12, 1915) to M. W . Tubbs, an officer of the Wisconsin branch of the Society of Equity. T h e so-called cooperative organizations were being promoted by the national officers with the aid of large promotion fees, and it is against these that McCarthy suggests some remedy. We quote from his letter, written about the time the Governor sent his message to the legislature calling for the abolition of " M c C a r t h y " : First, general warning ought to be given that no members of the Society of Equity should take stock in any organization unless the agents were men having credentials from the State Society. Second, no credentials should be given except to bonded agents. Third, all such concerns should be thoroughly examined and the credentials should be filed with the Society at Madison. Fourth, all such concerns should have in their by-laws a provision for an affiliation fee with the State Society. Fifth, the institution promoting should have a provision that they shall submit to an audit each year by an auditor furnished by the State Society and a printed statement should be made which would be issued to all the members giving the amount of the stock, bonds, etc., etc., that is a full audit account and inventory. Sixth, promotion should be only done by certified promoters, men on a salary by the State Board or men from organizations for the purpose of promotion whose promotion fees are limited and reasonable, limited to a certain amount as approved by the Board. Seventh, a general warning ought to go out to advise the members of the Society of Equity of the State that the national should not be promoting in the State and that the State members should not recognize any promoters from the national. Eighth, if the national does not agree to this then the State fees to them should be withheld until they do agree. VI T h r o u g h his association with members of the Wisconsin Union of the Society of Equity McCarthy heard, week in and week out, the

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problems of the farmers, specific stories of Wisconsin farmers from all over the state, particularly with reference to cooperatives. He saw the great need for emphasis not on production, where it was being placed, but rather on distribution and marketing. The first agricultural organization of a national scope with which McCarthy was intimately connected was the National Conference on Marketing and Farm Credits. The first conference was held in Chicago in 1913 under the auspices of a group of farmers' publications. Three additional National Conferences were sponsored under the Committee which McCarthy brought together: Frank L. McVey (then President of the University of North Dakota), Millard R. Myers (editor of the American Cooperative Journal), Gifford Pinchot, Dean John Lee Coulter, H. W. Tinkham, Clarence Poe, Grant H. Slocum, H. W. Danforth (President of the National Council of Farmers' Cooperative Association), Clarence Ousley, Harris Weinstock. Charles A. Holman became McCarthy's adjutant in his agricultural work; he was in charge of the first Conference as a representative of the farmers' publication. These conferences were effective means of developing proposals and promoting public opinion on standardization, on state market commissions, terminal markets, and in reclamation projects and bank facilities for tenants and landowners. VII The process of dovetailing the member organizations more closely was initiated in the 1915 National Conference on Marketing and Farm Credits, when the Committee on Permanent Organization proposed that the conference itself continue as a permanent open forum and that a committee of ten be appointed to proceed at once to the organization of an American Agricultural Organization Association. The functions of this association were outlined in the resolution: 1. To examine into the methods of production and distribution of farm products with a view of evolving a system of greater economy and efficiency in handling and marketing the same. 2. To encourage and promote the cooperative organization of farmers and of those engaged in allied industries for mutual help in the distribution, storing, and marketing of produce; for the economical transfer of agricultural produce from the producer to the consumer,

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for, in short, the efficient organization of the business of agriculture. 3. T o supply instructors and lecturers upon the subject of cooperation among farmers, auditing and accounting experts and legal advice in matters relating to organization. 4. T o issue reports, pamphlets and instructions which will help in spreading knowledge of the best means of rural betterment and organization. 5. T o organize and cooperate with central bodies and local branches of societies or other associations, for the promotion of "better farming, better business, and better living." 6. T o encourage and cooperate with educational institutions, departments, societies, educational centers, etc., in all efforts to solve the questions of rural life, rural betterment and agricultural finance and marketing and distribution of produce and the special application of the facts and methods discovered to the conditions existing among the farmers of America and to the solution of the problems of increasing cost of living. 7. T o investigate the land conditions and land tenure with a view to working out better, more equitable and fairer systems of dealing with this problem so vital to the social and the economic well-being of the country. 8. T o call from time to time such conferences or conventions as will carry out the above mentioned objects. 1 T h e fact is that about the time of the first Conference on Marketing and Farm Credits, Sir Horace Plunkett and a group of American associates (principally McCarthy and those close to him) constituted themselves an informal committee to promote agricultural organization in the United States. T h e i r purpose was stated very much in the form of the resolution of the National Conference. T h e informal organization was called the American Agricultural Organization Committee and its constitution was as follows: 1. T o examine into the methods of production and distribution of farm products with a view of evolving a system of greater economy and efficiency in handling and marketing the same. 2. T o encourage and promote the cooperative organization of farmers and of those engaged in allied industries for mutual help in the production, distribution, storing, and marketing of produce; for the economical transfer of agricultural produce from the producer to the consumer; for, in short, the efficient organization of the business of Agriculture. 1 National Conference on Marketing and Farm Credits, Bulletin

(1915), pp. 1-2.

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3. T o ascertain means of checking the increasing cost of living. 4. To promote cooperative credit as applied to agriculture and allied interests. 5. T o promote better rural living conditions. 6. To supply teachers, organizers, and lecturers upon the subject of cooperation among the farmers, auditing and accounting experts, and legal advice in matters relating to organization. 7. T o investigate the relation of landlord and tenant as affecting agricultural production and the fertility of the soil.2 This committee assisted in the financing of the Conference itself and made possible the establishment of the office of the new National Agricultural Organization Society in Madison in January, 1916, under McCarthy's general direction. VIII McCarthy's activities brought him into close association with some warm friends. Friends, however, that were associated with him in other things joined in the agricultural work. Gifford Pinchot became a friend of McCarthy in connection with his interest in Progressive legislation. Pinchot was later very active in the National Agricultural Organization Society. John Cullinan's relation with McCarthy started with the Irish question and so did Joe Cotton's, the Wall Street lawyer. All worked together for a while in the Food Administration, and Cullinan had McCarthy working on the Texas hog situation described elsewhere. But the finest and warmest friendship was that with Sir Horace Plunkett. Sir Horace had long sought the agricultural regeneration and social amelioration of Ireland through agricultural cooperation. The movement rested on two principles: that the salvation of agriculture had to come from the individual farmers and the desired improvement could not be effected by the farmers as individuals. This of course meant organization. An organization of farmers, according to Sir Horace, could achieve fine things that could not be achieved individually. They would be better producers because they could own and use jointly essential and expensive machinery, and could secure at lower costs, seeds, manures, feed, implements and general farm requirements. Their produce would 2 Constitution adopted May 1, 1913.

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be carried to the market at lower rates and in better condition, and could be sold there by their own agents at better prices. Farmers, thus organized, could borrow money at lower rates and for longer terms. Sir Horace words his fifth point thus: Lastly—and this is the greatest advantage of all—when you learn how to work together to do the things I have sketched above, you will find that, by exchange of ideas among yourselves, by friendly discussion and mutual help, you will become better farmers, better business-men, a id, as you will be building up the country on the surest of foundations, better Irishmen.3 T h e "Irish Agricultural Organization Society" would send organizers to any group of Irishmen who wish to cooperate among themselves. For as Sir Horace pointed out, to attempt to form coopératives without a knowledge of the principles of cooperation would be ruinous, and greatly retard the general agricultural improvement. This was the service that for years Sir Horace was giving to Ireland. It was precisely the service that McCarthy hoped to render in America to American agriculture, directly under the tutelage and inspiration of Sir Horace. It was not until 1915 that the American Agricultural Organization Society was organized. T h e thirty-five thousand dollars expended between 1915 and 1917 were raised largely through Sir Horace's influence. He had received a grant from the Carnegie Foundation for the work of agricultural organization. T h e money was practically under McCarthy's direction, but he found it difficult at times to get what he needed from Lawrence Godkin, who had been made treasurer and was the custodian of the funds. Often, McCarthy had to wait until Sir Horace came to America to get necessary funds for travel or office expenses. From this fund two men were sent to Plunkett House to study agricultural organization. T h e y were Charles A. Lyman, a dirt farmer who had had some experience in the Wisconsin Union of the "Equity," and Charles A. Holman, whose experience, though wide, was in the field of agricultural journalism. Holman reported that there was little to learn in the Irish experience. McCarthy wrote him at length, 4 explaining why he had been sent to Ireland 3 From an Irish Agricultural Organization Society leaflet, quoted by Ε. E. Lysaght, Sir Horace Plunkett (1916), p. 45. • See Appendix, pp. 300-301.

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and what he must not miss there—the spirit of Sir Horace's work, its deep foundations, and the basis of its permanency. He refers in the letter to A. E., "a great agricultural economist, a man of tremendous mentality and a great insight." With A. E. (George William Russell), McCarthy carried on an extensive correspondence on agricultural organization, cooperatives, democracy. On his visits to Plunkett House, Mac always made it a point to visit A. E. T h e practical work of the National Agricultural Organization Society was carried on in 1916 with the aid of Holman, Lyman, and Miles Riley. Riley was McCarthy's chief legislative draftsman. H e was specially informed on the cooperative law and specially skilled in drawing the constitution and by-laws of an organization. Holman says in a private letter: " T h e work of the N A O S [National Agricultural Organization Society] was divided into experimental organization projects which were handled by Lyman; drafting of by-laws and the preparation of cooperative bills which were handled by Riley; general publicity and legislative promotion which were taken care of by me." 5 T h e war came along to interrupt this work and the threads were never brought together again, though many associated with the work were engaged in various capacities for shorter or longer times in the U.S. Food Administration. IX John Collier, who was later to become head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, was at this period interested in Asiatic immigration. He met McCarthy at the Sherman Hotel in Chicago during one of the National Conferences on Marketing, and noted down his impression of the man. A Chicago hotel. T h e noisiest hotel in Chicago, it seems. A press of men, with some women; they are not like city-folks. Meetings are going on in a number of large rooms, and a score of groups at least are in the corridors. It is one of McCarthy's gatherings, and so very unlike any of the social workers' conventions, on the one hand, or political conventions, on the other. McCarthy stands with this group and another, goes from one meeting to the next. He does not preside or make speeches. . . . A t a lunch-hour, my own group seduces McCarthy to a discussion of legislation affecting immigrants, especially Asiatics, and in particular a » T o E. A. Fitzpatrick, Aug. 1, 1941.

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discussion of Far Eastern relations as affected by the migration of people. More correctly, we kidnap him through physical force, Edward Fitzpatrick, his lieutenant in one field of effort, and his friend, assisting us. Now there develops McCarthy's reserve of knowledge joined with a power of adaptive thinking and of technical thinking. One would guess he had lived his years with the Far Eastern question and with the immigrant. Again his fullness of academic equipment hardly suggests the friend of creamery managers, hog-breeders and State Legislators. Yet somehow, it does suggest just this thing. . . . There is no certainty that this broad-handed, jovial yet impassioned, near-to-earth, near-to-flesh, this experimental, this truly spiritual temper of McCarthy and his gatherings will prevail in American life. They do not prevail now and superficially they seem to have been thrust from public expression and even from the consciousness of many, by the collapses and the infections which have succeeded the War. Fear is abroad in the people, and the exploiters of weariness and fear are abroad. More than ever does the meaning of Charles McCarthy need to be made known—to be clarified and cherished by his friends and made known to wider numbers. He was all that we should want, when we say "American," for he was universal, he was concerned with the illimitable forces we have not yet used, with the future which contains our real meanings, and he was a child of modern science yet so human that he could be called the Playboy of the Western World.

Chapter X I V T H E F E D E R A L COMMISSION ON INDUSTRIAL

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the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations was passed August 23, 1912, just as the presidential campaign was getting under way. As Professor Commons explains, the act was passed mainly because of labor unrest and, more particularly, because of the strike of structural ironworkers "and the confessions of two of their leaders in the shocking dynamite explosion which destroyed the building of the Los Angeles Times and the lives of twenty workers in the building." 1 The Commission was to consist of nine members, three representing the public; three, the employers of labor; and three, labor. President T a f t sent in nominations, but they were not acted upon, and the problem was left to President Wilson when he assumed office. The chairmanship was offered to John R . Commons, but he refused it. As he had just returned to the University after his term in the Wisconsin Industrial Commission, he felt that he could not ask for another leave of absence. This was very unfortunate for the Commission, but Commons ultimately accepted a place on it as one of the representatives of the public; the other members were the noted labor lawyer Frank P. Walsh of Kansas City and Daisy (Mrs. J . Borden) Han iman. In June, 1913, President Wilson offered the chairmanship to Walsh, whose executive officer was Basil Manly. The labor representatives were Austin B. Garretson, head of the Order of Railway Conductors; J . B. Lennon, former president of the Journeyman Tailors' Union; and James O'Connell, former president of the International Association of Machinists. T h e employers of labor were F. A. Delano of Illinois (replaced by R. H. Aishton, president of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, when Delano accepted a position on the Federal Reserve HE A C T ESTABLISHING

1 Commons, Myself,

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Board), Harris Weinstock of California, and S. T h u r s t o n B a l l a r d of Kentucky. T h e s e nominations were approved by Congress in 1913· T h e Commission was given a wide scope and many powers, which may be summarized briefly as follows: T h e Commission shall inquire into the general conditions of labor in the principal industries of the United States including agriculture, and especially in those which are carried on in corporate forms; into existing relations between employers and employees; into the effect of industrial conditions on public welfare and into the rights and powers of the community to deal therewith; into the conditions of sanitation, and safety of employees and the provisions for protecting the life, limb, and health of the employee; into the growth of associations of employers and wage earners and the effect of such associations upon the relations between employers and employees; into the extent and results of methods of collective bargaining; into any methods which have been tried in any state or in foreign countries for maintaining mutually satisfactory relations between employees and employers; into methods for avoiding or adjusting labor disputes, through peaceful and conciliatory mediation and negotiations; into the scope, methods, and resources of existing bureaus of labor and into the possible ways of increasing their usefulness; into the question of smuggling or other illegal entry of Asiatics into the United States or its insular possessions, and of the methods by which such Asiatics have gained and are gaining such admission, and shall report to Congress as speedily as possible with such recommendation as said commission may think proper to prevent such smuggling and illegal entry. T h e commission shall seek to discover the underlying causes of dissatisfaction in the industrial situation and report its conclusions thereon. 2 T h e two m a i n aspects of the work were public hearings and investigation and research. C h a i r m a n Walsh took charge of the public hearings and made them great instruments for a k i n d of m u c k r a c k i n g — a publicity of exposure. Walsh's skill as a crosse x a m i n e r exploited all possibilities of the publicity for which the hearings were held. II I n J u n e , 1 9 1 4 , u p o n Commons's recommendation, Walsh appointed M c C a r t h y director of investigation for the Commission. 2 Act of Congress, Aug. 23, 1912, Section 4.

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T h e investigative staff had been selected largely by C o m m o n s . W . M . Leiserson, Leo W o l m a n , S u m n e r Schlichter, E. E. Witte, Selig Perlmen, Francis H . Budd, Carl Hookstadt, Η . E. H o v a l i n d , Inez Weed, R . F. Hoxie, and a number of others. W h e n the investigation on the exclusion of Chinese labor seemed to be getting nowhere, Edward A . Fitzpatrick completed the study and wrote the report on it. McCarthy was, from the staff point of view, a very successful director. H e was intellectually resourceful, he was stimulating, he was appreciative, and he was critical and a good judge of work well done. H e agreed to give a large share of his time to the Commission until the opening of the legislative session on January 1, 1915. A l t h o u g h he knew that the political forces of reaction were lining u p against him and that he would be one of the main political issues in the 1914 campaign in his home state, he nevertheless undertook the work. H e was fortunate in having as assistant director W . M . Leiserson, formerly state superintendent of employment offices in Wisconsin and a friend of both Commons and McCarthy. W o r k began in mid-June. McCarthy was promised a budget, beginning in October, but the promise was not realized and consequently the field work was at no time on a secure financial basis. For several months, however, the investigations moved forward; they were interrelated and were checked periodically. A n excellent esprit de corps was developed among the very able staff. T h e work was divided into nine sections, although some overlapping investigations and some extraneous ones were made. T h e nine divisions were: Legal and Legislative; Labor Organizations and Collective Bargaining; Unemployment; Agricultural Problems; Education and Preparation for Life; Welfare and Social Insurance; Safety and Sanitation; Underlying Causes of Industrial Unrest; W o m e n in Industry. T o promote efficiency, daily and weekly reports were required and a system of periodic cumulative reports was developed. Each investigator, when he finished a unit or section or a distinct phase of his field of investigation, reported to the director of his division. Every six weeks or two months, each division head reported on the work of his staff and his own work. T h e detailed investigations and these reports were always available to the public. McCarthy had

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brought with him from the Legislative Reference Library one of his librarians, Miss Clara Richards, who was responsible for filing and indexing the reports and also the testimony of the public hearings of the Commission, and, for good measure, the published material of other agencies. T h e groundwork was being laid for an extraordinary report on the underlying causes of industrial unrest and of proposals for industrial cooperation. McCarthy's services as the director of investigation may be illustrated by his handling of three aspects of the work. T h e first illustration shows the extraordinary fertility of his mind, the second shows his patient handling of a worker and his efforts to guide him step by step, and the third, the restraint put on workers who might effervesce in their writing of reports. T o Luke Grant who was to investigate the structural steel strike and the problem of violence, McCarthy wrote a wealth of suggestions that touch the core of the problem. 3 Unlike the emphasis given to the Committee's work by Chairman Frank P. Walsh, the instruction to Grant was to seek out the underlying causes of industrial unrest, as the legislative act requires. T h e facts about dynamiting and slugging must be known, but the main interest lies in the motives that cause these blind outbreaks. T h e French Revolution, including the pictures of France by Arthur Young and the historian Taine's account, emphasizes the point. Bryce's analysis of inelastic government is another aspect, and so is the Russian police and espionage. T h e discussion extends to the arbitrary powers of courts and the humanization of justice, the protection of the great fundamental rights of freedom of speech and of assembly, unfair and arbitrary taxation, the protection of labor and the effects of different kinds of government. All these McCarthy says may be related to the "great underlying causes of terrorism." Irish, Russian, and American revolutions all are made to throw light on the question. But in the end these "fragmentary" suggestions are for the investigator to use—and to make an entirely new definition of violence if his inquiry justifies it. In the case of another investigator, Mr. Brennan, a friend of Chairman Walsh, to whom had been assigned the investigation of strike breaking and gunmen, another side of McCarthy is shown. 3

See Appendix, pp. 297-99.

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H e r e we see the patient "spelling o u t " over a long period the exact steps that need to be taken. C h a i r m a n Walsh asked what suggestions or directions had been given to M r . B r e n n a n , who, naturally enough, was not getting anywhere. M c C a r t h y wrote W a l s h o n F e b r u a r y 25: My records show that about August 1 , 1 wrote a letter to Mr. Brennan on the working out of strike breaking agencies and gunmen. On August 3 1 , on infringement of constitutional rights. On September 17, on ordinances collected on the matter of abridgment of constitutional rights, free speech, etc. On August 8, Delay of the Law. On October 17, on free speech putting all the material in the Commission together on that subject. On October 17, specific cases showing delay in the courts. On October 27, charges against police and lower courts. On November 9, wrongs for which there are no enforcible remedies. On November 1 1 , Unenforcible rights. On November 30, judicial disrespect for the law. On December 2, getting at some fundamentals on the report on the wages of telephone girls. A f t e r McCarthy left the Commission, Iris W e e d wanted, f o r h e r prospective report, an exact reference to a statement by B e n t h a m . McCarthy's reply indicated the qualities he expected in a report. Although I am not director of the Commission, I am still interested in your work, and if you will submit it to me before you put it into book form, I shall be glad to criticize it. Your work can be made orderly, strong, and logical without striving for effect. In every human being there is a reserve which adds to his strength. So in a work, strive for that reserve which is more convincing than perhaps all the screaming instances which strike you in the face on every page. Ill I n the Survey of October 10, and N o v e m b e r 14, the editor, P a u l U . Kellogg, summarized very clearly the general impression of the early efforts of the Commission. W e quote in part: It is an open secret that for ten months following the commission's appointment it floundered badly, without a clear-cut program of work, without clear-cut division of responsibility, and with great areas of the field before it practically untouched. T h e alignment in the early summer which brought the investigations into Mr. McCarthy's hands and transferred field headquarters to the Middle West, for the first time

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gave promise of coherence enough in the work to allow disinterested observers to make sure of its trend. A general public statement is looked for this month in connection with meetings of the commission in Chicago in mid October. (The Suivey, Oct. 10, 1914 and Nov. 14, 1914). W a l s h , in reply stated "that D r . McCarthy was engaged as advisor of this commission at the first meeting thereof, and had given unremitting attention to the direction of its work, having been in attendance at every meeting thereof, and directing and advising the experts and investigators in the prosecution of the w o r k between the meetings." T h i s was an exaggerated statement of McCarthy's relation to the Commission. W h i l e he had been interested f r o m the time it was authorized in 1 9 1 2 , he had no official connection with it until J u n e , 1 9 1 4 . T h e r e was bound to be conflict between Walsh and M c C a r t h y , because of the differences in the men. Yet between the crusader and the patient investigator with a constructive program, there might have been great team work. T h e r e was not. T h e s e tendencies in their personalities conflicted, instead of supplementing each other. T h e conflict was between the long patient digging o u t the truth by the g e n u i n e social scientist, and the exploitation of information o u t of its context by the impatient crusader who sees his ends as worthy, whatever the method. It was a conflict between the deep passion for the constructive common good, against a v i r u l e n t partisanship f o r or against particular persons and groups in the social struggle. It was a conflict between clear vision and high imagination for progress in evolution toward the G o o d Society against the attack on immediate wrongs or injustice by journalistic denunciation or approval of men and measures. T h i s conflict, b o u n d to come, came abruptly on Sunday, February 28, 1 9 1 5 , on a pretext of McCarthy's relation with Rockefeller, the symbol to Walsh of the great forces he was crusading against. A conference was called on this Sunday presumably to settle the budget question of the Commission and the allocation of funds between the investigative and the publicity aspects of its work. As a result of that meeting, McCarthy was virtually discharged as director of investigation. Following the conference, he wrote to C o m m o n s on March 1 , 1 9 1 5 , a history of his difficulties with Walsh.

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I regret to say that the conference Sunday was such as probably to cause the breaking up of the Investigation and Editorial Divisions of the Federal Industrial Relations Commission. As you know, the resolution of the Commission in New York directed Mr. Walsh and myself to make out the budget to be presented to the Commission on the passage of the appropriation in Washington. I met with Mr. Walsh yesterday and tried to make out a budget as directed. Mr. Walsh informed me at once that he had set aside $37,600 for the hearings but he would give me no items and intimated that it would be none of my business what the items were. There was set aside, for instance, $10,000 for help for the nine weeks of hearings. As this ran at nearly $1,000 a week and did not include traveling expense naturally I felt like scrutinizing it. He said, however, that the decision of the Commission was unalterable in that matter and that I would have to cut down the rest of the work at once. I asked to bring the matter before the board and he said that he would do that himself and that he would begin cutting at once and discharge the people as he saw fit. I said to him that the board evidently contemplated that %ve should make out the budget together and submit the same to the board "but according to your scheme here you can discharge me and do away with the making out of the budget." M c C a r t h y ' s proposal was that $50,000 should be set aside f o r the field investigation division and for the editorial work on the report; that he himself w o u l d work without pay, but that the M a d i s o n office should be maintained with help so that he could w o r k effectively. T h e appropriations were very badly handled. T h e initial appropriation f o r $ 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 became available in October, 1 9 1 3 , f o r the fiscal year ending J u l y , 1 9 1 4 , but a deficiency appropriation of $50,000 had to be secured in March, 1 9 1 4 . T h e regular appropriation f o r 1 9 1 4 - 1 5 was $200,000, but by March again there was need for a deficiency appropriation and this time the Congress appropriated $100,000. McCarthy's statement to Commons continues: When I came on last July, I could get no budget until October and then did not get a budget rightly itemized or an account of the expenditures rightly itemized. I was told repeatedly by Walsh not to worry about the money and Mr. L. K. Brown told me that Walsh did not want to let me have the budget. Finally when Τ sot the budget or some idea of it I found that we were going in the hole completely. He

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then stated that he would get us $200,000 and told me a couple of weeks after that he had seen the President and there would be no difficulty about getting all the money we wanted. However, at the October meeting he said that he would cut it to $150,000 plus $40,000 for July and August and then probably get two or three months for editorial work. Then, without advising me of his plans, he notified Congress that he would want $100,000 and $40,000 additional. He told me repeatedly not to have anything to do with the appropriation that he would take care of the whole matter. He said that this time he had made a careful survey of the needs of the Commission. Apparently through neglect or carelessness he got these items mixed up as shown on page 944, of the Sundry Civil Appropriation Bill, 1916 Hearings. T h e result is that we did not get the $40,000 but got the $100,000 but we were in debt for $8,000 so all we have is $92,000 from the beginning of March. I n view of the inadequacy of funds McCarthy's proposal was not to launch a whole series of new public hearings but to discontinue them altogether, for hearings not only cost money directly b u t they consumed the time of the investigational staff in preparing f o r them as well as in studying, digesting, and i n d e x i n g the testimony. McCarthy's objective was clear: He [Walsh] does not believe in investigation or constructive work, apparently, from his public utterances and from his talk with me on Sunday. As you know, I have worked loyally with the hearings and the result of the whole thing will show it and I do not for one moment belittle their value but I want to call your attention and the attention of the Commissioners to a situation which confronts us. It is absolutely necessary to get out of this Commission a labor program by long conferences of the Commissioners. It must be gotten by drafting into shape constructive proposals backed up by concise bulletins explaining them. This has been the aim of the Commission from the first. All the data shows it and all the plans show it. This is the first great consideration and it is a thing upon which the Commission has been working all this time. Walsh does not understand this and I fear is not capable of understanding it from his temperament and his lack of knowledge of these subjects. IV D u r i n g 1 9 1 4 , in the course of the Commission's study of industrial problems, a n u m b e r of matters had come u p involving the R o c k e f e l l e r interests. M c C a r t h y , because of his long-standing friendship with R o c k e f e l l e r , represented the Commission with

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Walsh's full knowledge and approval. T h e Rockefeller Foundation proposed to make its own similar study and accordingly appointed its own Industrial Relations Committee. Walsh was determined to hold a public hearing on the matter by the Commission, and, if necessary to subpoena Rockefeller to testify. McCarthy strongly advised Rockefeller to give up the private investigation and to turn it over to a "democratic" body. Walsh knew all this, and on October 7, 1914, wrote McCarthy: " T h e more I think of your Rockefeller proposition the better I like it. . . . I am delighted with the way the work is going along. . . . If we can get Dr. Carver to come across with his story in regard to the Rockefeller Foundation . . . and perhaps our own Dr. Warren's story of their refusal to cooperate with a government agency such as ours . . . we may have the background to make a report to Congress recommending that the activities of this alleged Foundation be prohibited by law." Nevertheless, at a session of the Commission on March 1 0 - 1 3 , 1 9 1 5 , Walsh spent several hours attacking McCarthy for his underground connection with the Rockefellers. Commons describes the situation in a memorandum prepared for the Commission on March 26: The fact that I stood out for the retention of Mr. McCarthy at our session, March 10 to 13, notwithstanding the apparent case which Mr. Walsh made against him, has led me to look up the evidence on McCarthy's relations with the Rockefellers, about which I knew very little at the time. It will be remembered that Mr. Walsh disclaimed any knowledge of these relations until he subpoenaed in February, 1915, the Rockefeller-McCarthy letters of July 16, 1914, to February, 1915. The following shows that he knew of, and was a party to McCarthy's negotiations as early as May or June, 1914. The matter is, of course, now closed, and I send you this memorandum simply for your information and not for action. There were five different subjects which arose between Rockefeller and McCarthy, two of which Mr. Walsh picked out and three of which he suppressed. By doing so he misled the Commission. T h e n Commons analyzes the whole situation, quoting, in full, letters that Walsh quoted in part, and citing letters that Walsh had suppressed; he concludes his long review (sixteen typewritten pages) with this paragraph:

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Mr. Walsh, at the time of our sessions, March io to 13, had all of the correspondence or was party to all the conferences bearing out the foregoing statements, and his suppression or misinterpretation of them was a deliberate attempt to break down McCarthy's character by misleading the members of this commission. T h e tactics of W a l s h n e e d n o t be p u r s u e d in m o r e detail. M c C a r t h y ' s ideas are p r o b a b l y best expressed i n his letters to M u r d o c k , his a n d R o c k e f e l l e r ' s classmate, to w h o m he wTote o n O c t o b e r 5: I see the announcement has been made that John D. has his industrial investigation board. Now, yoii may see him in the East; try and make him see, if you can, because of old friendship's sake, that that board and that work must be managed democratically—that is, that the entire country will take no notice of the report of the investigation except to laugh at it unless he puts down the money in one sum and then turns it over to an organization independent of him. He is a party to a controversy. T h e question could well be asked him: " W h y don't you give this money to a democratic organization?" If he says he does not want to, then the question can well be asked: " D o you want yourself, party to a great controversy? If so, how will the people judge it? If so, what guarantee is there that you will not abuse this power?" A n d a g a i n i n m o r e d e t a i l o n O c t o b e r 9: I find that a great many laboring men are greatly alarmed over the new Rockefeller Industrial Relations Committee. . . . You know that the National Civic Federation has a lot of laboring men on its pay roll. T h e radical elements, the I . W . W . and the Socialists are suspicious of all this and are absolutely against it. In fact the literature of the National Civic Federation asking for contributions shows that the Association is trying to use the conservative elements in the labor unions against the radicals. A good many men now are asking will the Rockefeller people do the same thing; will they subsidize colleges to take the part against labor. I believe from what I have heard that the investigation will be a boomerang unless the Rockefeller people agree to have a more democratic organization. T h e fact that the Rockefeller people took an attitude in the Colorado strike opposed to labor and the fact that Starr J. M u r p h y [one of John D. Rockefeller's principal assistants] was a director of the Coal and Iron Company of Colorado, all has alarmed labor and alarmed the country in general as to the terrific power of publicity and education which may be directed against labor. If you see John try to make him see that it is necessary to have a Democratic Organization. A complete one. T h e money ought to be

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given outright—no installments—and it ought to be given to an organization upon which capital and labor will agree—which the public will have something to say about. If that is done this money will be a great blessing—if it is not done it may be a great curse. If it is not done labor and the public at large will look upon it merely as a whitewashing machine of the Rockefeller interest. J o h n does not know this. He is not in contact and if you get an opportunity you ought to make him see it.

T h a t Rockefeller was fully appreciative of what McCarthy wished him to do is shown in his letter to McCarthy on October 20, 1914: Your letter of October 17th is received, also the message which you sent me through J o h n Murdock. I appreciate your kindly interest in the study which is proposed by the Rockefeller Foundation and thank you for your suggestions, looking toward a favorable public reception of the plan. These suggestions we appreciate and will give consideration to. I think perhaps you have not differentiated in your mind between the kind of investigations which we have carried on in the past and are proposing to carry on in this instance, and those carried on by publicly appointed commissions, such as the Industrial Relations Commission. Our purpose is to promote an exhaustive, scientific investigation, based primarily upon facts, rather than upon opinions. T h i s investigation will doubtless be world wide in its scope. It will consume, I presume, some years. If the findings which may result from the investigation and any suggestions which may arise from it do not commend themselves to the public, both to labor and to capital, we would not expect their acceptance. If they do commend themselves, because of their evident merit, they will not require either apology or the taking of special steps in advance as preparation for their friendly reception. We are entirely willing, in this as in any other scientific study, to abide by the inherent value and merit of the findings and let them speak for themselves. With sincere appreciation of the friendliness which has prompted your writing me as you have, and the assurance of my own warm regard for you, I am,

McCarthy regards the situation as hopeless and writes " D e a r J o h n " on October 29, 1 9 1 4 : As you know, Mr. Walsh has put the hearing off, although I am sure that he is fully determined to have this hearing. I have read over your letter [above] carefully a number of times, and I remember my talk with Mr. Greene upon your plans [i.e., on the democratic organization plan]. Your viewpoint and your attitude is so absolutely different from mine that I cannot hope to explain my

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attitude to you in this letter, but I only hope that I shall have an opportunity to go to you sometime and sit down, not only once but several times, and talk over things as I see them. I do not think that I can add any wisdom to the body of counselors surrounding you, but I do think that I can give to you, for what it is worth, a view point which in some way may modify your plans. T h e point is just this: I have never tried to superimpose anything upon anybody. I have always tried to work cooperatively with everybody. I have found that if you have something which is good and if you let people know about it, that you will find many brilliant minds working with you, and thinking out plans along the same lines. I have a profound respect for public opinion and a patience with it. As I read over your letter again, it looks as if our minds had gone far apart upon this great problem and the means of getting at it. I have had, in many ways an experience such as no other man in this country has had. It has been an experience of mingling with the people and wandering from one part of the country to the other studying conditions and working patiently and trying to bring some order out of it all. You have had an experience, perhaps, that no other man in this country has had, but you have been shut away from many things which I have been in contact with. T h a t is why I gave the message to Murdock, and that is why I still hold that your institution will not do the great work which you planned for it unless it is done upon a different basis entirely. Your institution hates waste and inefficiency and yet under one plan you may be spending many hundreds of dollars to get the results which you could get under a few hundred dollars under another plan. 1 know you and value you and your friendship, and I believe that the American people will value you as I do if they know you. In this great work I hope you will so plan it that you will take the people into your confidence, listen to them, and have some machinery so that they can express themselves, in this great investigation. I have talked it over with many of my investigators here, and men who have been in every branch of the problem for years and who have been up and down the country in the last year, and they all agree with me. T h e years have gone by and I never had a chance to see you or talk with you to any great extent upon the great economic questions with which we have been struggling. I despair, indeed, of ever having this opportunity. It may be that I will have the opportunity of presenting my view point to Mr. MacKenzie King. It will take a long time to do so for the problem is gigantic and complex. T h i s complete correspondence was in Walsh's hands, together with a detailed report submitted by M c C a r t h y on October 13, 1 9 1 4 . After consultation with Mr. West and Mr. Egan I proceeded to see the parties whom you instructed me to see.

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I found that J . D. R . was out of the city and would be out of the city until Friday. He was in Providence, but I could not see him. Greene, however, was there and also Murphy. I started in tactfully and told them the necessity of appearing in Chicago on the 20th. I had a hard time trying to make them understand the necessity of any such action. They gave me a printed slip which they said had been sent to the press. They then told me that was all there was to it and that by sending you this printed slip the whole question could be settled at once. I told them that that was not sufficient and it would be necessary to meet the questions put by the Committee; that the Committee would be fair in every way. They said they could see no use of going; that they were to pursue this matter in the same manner they have done other matters. They said to me: " W e have secured the very best man that we know and having secured him we are going to turn the whole matter over to him. We have no hard and fast agreement with him. We do not know how much we will spend. We are going to leave it to him to make the plans and hold him responsible. We are not surprised that the American public is kicking. It does not understand our motives anyway and will not understand them for years to come. We are satisfied that if in ten years they understand this, that it is worth while making the effort." They said that two members of your commission had written to them approving of the choice of Mr. King and that they had received many letters from Labor approving of him. They could not see that it was a matter of public concern whatsoever. They assured me that having gotten a man upon whom the public could agree that they then would give the man free rein and let him go to the foundation of matters. Now Mr. Walsh, they have gotten something that will be very hard for you to get hold of. They have no hard and fast agreement apparently, and this is the machinery they have really got. King is to make plans for the next six or eight weeks. He is to be sent around to see you and ask your opinion and ask the opinion of everybody. T h e n he is to submit his plans to them with recommendations. If he recommends some particular thing to be taken up, then he is asked how much will it cost; he then says it will cost $50,000. They then ask him how he is going to work it and if they approve of it they give him $50,000 or some part of it in installments. Then when he wants another project, he does the same thing. They have it fixed always so they can check him at any stage of the game. I finally told them that they were so powerful for good or for bad that it became necessary for the American people to know what they were going to do and that they would have to testify to their plans. They again repeated that they had nothing to testify and handed me the enclosure which they said was all there was to it. I finally told them that I was sure they would be asked positively as to their plans and that

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they had better get their statements together and that they had better appear October 20th in Chicago. I told them that they might be subpoenaed as it was customary to subpoena all witnesses and they must not think there was a particular reason for a subpoena being issued to them. Greene spoke up and said that he had no objection to the subpoena. He said that it was no use to subpoena the old man as he had nothing to do with the matter and had turned the whole matter over to the corporation and would so testify. I asked him about Gates. He said he was not in the pay of the Board at the present time and would know nothing about it and would so testify. Greene himself said he was the party that would know the most about it, but that he could not testify beyond the facts herein stated, as there were no plans and he did not know how it was coming out, and Mr. King had no plans yet. He said that he could not come next week as they had several important meetings, one of which was a delegation coming from China. He said he wanted to write to you a personal letter explaining his position. I saw that there was a block game on and a very difficult one to meet, as they have carefully covered up any plans which they have made by referring the whole thing to Mr. King, just as they did in the Western case. He assured me that he would write you at once. V T o understand how u n f a i r the charges against M c C a r t h y w h i c h w e r e t r u m p e d u p by Walsh were, it will be necessary to review the M c C a r t h y - R o c k e f e l l e r relations from their college days. T h e immense wealth of the one and the great poverty of the other was of n o importance; " A man's a m a n f o r a' that." T h e basis of the relation was mutual respect, and an absolute independence of spirit on McCarthy's part. T h e assistant manager of the football team a n d his star had no temperamental problems. R o c k e f e l l e r ' s appreciative statement to Mrs. M c C a r t h y at the time of her marriage to M c C a r t h y is only typical: " A firmer, truer f r i e n d I have never k n o w n and I want you to k n o w how much I a d m i r e him and what pride and satisfaction I take in his rapid advancement and success." F r a n k Hutchins was one of the great men of Wisconsin w h o rarely got into newspaper headlines or even historical documents, b u t b u i l t into the people of the state an interest in books a n d education. In 1904, he was ill and in need of a vacation. Some of M r . Hutchins's admirers wanted to raise a f u n d to m a k e the vacation

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possible. So on May 14, 1904, McCarthy wrote to Rockefeller making the request for funds but withholding the man's name: It is always a depressing thought to me how little the world appreciates true, self-sacrificing toil. This man sold more to society than he was paid for by his little salary—he sold his very life and strength and society at large is his debtor. Rockefeller gladly complied by contributing $1,000—and incidentally this is the first public statement regarding it. Mac thanked Rockefeller thus, a few days later: John, I feel deeply the trust you put in me and your expressions of regard for me. When I get a word from an old schoolmate, as I do once in a while, in which he shows his regard for me, I feel a duty to make good. It holds a fellow up to a standard. A word from a friend of long ago with cheer or regard in it is always the greatest inspiration I know. I never get a letter from Dr. Jameson, Prof. Gardner or Dr. Andrews or an old friend like you but that I brush up and forge ahead faster. I must make good. A similar incident occurred in 1910. Mac was going to Europe at his own expense to study continuation schools as a member of the Wisconsin Commission on Industrial Relations and Agricultural Training. " J o h n " was down to see Mac off. H e gave him a " b o n voyage" check for $250. Mac didn't intend to use it. In April, McCarthy wrote to Rockefeller from Munich, Bavaria, a statement of the purpose of his visit: I wish and fondly hope that I can go back to Madison and try to make people see that we must do more for the boy between fourteen and twenty—and for the girls too. The girls' schools here are as good as the boys'. We have got to do something in America with the great mass of unskilled who are filling our cities. Later in April, in London, McCarthy found himself in need of funds. He suffered considerable inconvenience and aroused a good deal of suspicion in trying to cash the check of J o h n D. Rockefeller, Jr., but finally succeeded. Mac returned from Europe and wrote " J o h n " on J u n e 17, 1910, that he is back and is working hard on his report on industrial education. He is enthusiastic about the Wisconsin plans. He encloses his check in payment. Rockefeller acknowledges in a fine forbearing spirit the $250 he had given him

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for the trip. Says Rockefeller, " I also acknowledge the return of the $250. If you feel better to have it this way, I shall not misunderstand." McCarthy wrote in explanation: As I ran out of money in London I used your gift to me. However I got thinking about it and am sending you back a check for the amount. I appreciate your kindness, dear friend, but I am not used to receiving money for which I have not worked. I have a fair salar)' and until I am useless I shall always try to work for what I get. Now, don't get offended, old man, I appreciate all right, but we were students together in the old days and you know me pretty well. I simply won't take money from anyone when I have not done service for it, I may regret it all some day—sometimes when I look at the child I call myself a fool—but I am happier playing that kind of a game. When Sir Horace Plunkett was raising the money for the National Agriculture Organization Society, and Lawrence Godkin who was the treasurer of the American organization wrote McCarthy about securing some money from J o h n D. Rockefeller, McCarthy said he did not want to use the personal relations for that purpose. T h e correspondence between the two friends has a fine fraternal spirit of faith, of trust, of good will. A characteristic expression is found in the "Dear Mac" letter of January 1908: " I have always counted you as a friend and have rejoiced in the splendid work you are doing." Rockefeller's attitude is probably shown in a way that Mac perhaps did not fully relish, though Rockefeller showed fine consideration for his feeling. Rockefeller was teaching his famous "Young Man's Bible Class" at the Sunday school at the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church on May 1 1 , 1 9 1 3 . H e described the type of man who is a success in life. Though McCarthy was not named, the stories we are familiar with in this book were told without any use of personal names. Here was a genuine friendship such as Emerson might have had in mind in his great Essay. As a pleasant epilogue we turn to the McCarthy-Rockefeller correspondence of a year later, after Rockefeller has sent his "representative plan" to Mac. Here are some paragraphs from Mac's letter of October 1 1 , 1 9 1 5 , to John: If you do nothing else by this agreement, you \vill add something to the teaching of democracy. Greeks, Slavs, and Italians come to this

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country and are placed in great works where there is a boss over them, but however benevolent this boss may be they will never learn to be citizens in America unless they are given a chance to work o u t democratic rule and practice it in some way. Democracy is not perfect. It takes ages to make it so. It can be only "learned by doing." As Carl Schurz says in his Memoirs, " W h e n were the people ever prepared for democracy before they got it?" If in those camps these men have an industrial democracy they will learn in their councils to vote, and by voting they will learn of the responsibility and the benefits of representative government. If they do not choose right representatives they will pay for it in some way in the future. If the protection to the representatives is not carried out in good faith the whole scheme will fall down. T h e y should be free to speak their minds—men are not free if there is a lurking fear of losing a job or being discriminated against or black-listed. It is up to you to see that this does not occur, or your plan will fail. I see no reason why the representatives or some of them should not be paid by the men. T h e plan perhaps cannot now be changed as the voting has begun, but in time you will have to come to it. O n e of the worst things that the men complain of all over America is the "spy" system. Y o u r bosses should be prohibited under severe penalties from employing spies. If it is done, sooner or later the men will find out about it and it will go out to the American people as a rank v iolation of the spirit of your agreement. Your bosses should be warned that quick and certain punishment will follow the employment of spies. W e can't build industrial peace, or, for that matter, the American citizenship, on the basis of spies, armed guards, union or non-union sluggers or union or non-union grafters. Your plan is not perfect but it is a great step forward from the anarchy that has prevailed. It has great potential possibilities. It gives you a splendid opportunity to show the American people that you are not merely putting up here an agreement fair on the outside but that with your heart and soul in it you will see that it is carried out on great, broad, human, democratic lines. If you do this, you will win. Otherwise your time and trouble is worse than wasted. It is the spirit that makes the difference and your real struggle will be with your subordinates— to make them see your point of view and carry it out in the right spirit. You have shown first-class spirit yourself in going out there and acting as you have. Now from time to time you ought to have some staff representative of yourself to go out there and take a look at affairs. Frequently send Mr. King out there, and ask disinterested experts not in your pay to go there, look at the workings, and report publicly on it. If once a year you could j u m p onto a train and go to a place like that, in the end it would pay you. T h e whole thing will pay you anyway, John, a thousand times by

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bringing yourself in touch with the toilers as you have done. It cannot but expand your whole soul and give you a certain feeling in your heart which is worth all the time and expenditure you may put into it. T h a t is what I meant when I wrote to you a year ago. I have seen you year after year closed about and growing out of touch with the spirit of the American people, and I rejoice that you have gone to Colorado and that you have done this. I felt grieved indeed at the Colorado incident and went to Mr. Greene with the proposition which I thought might settle the conditions out there. A year ago last May I saw Mr. Greene seven times. I had the Industrial Relations Commission agree to send two men out there, Mr. Delano and Mr. Commons, if the Rockefeller interests would appoint two others. I proposed to Greene a rough agreement like the anthracite agreement, and I tried to get to you with it, seeing what was coming, but Mr. Greene did not think it expedient for me to see you at the time. T h a t is past history now, and my poor efforts and crude ideas would have been of little use to you compared with this splendid, well-worked out plan that you have sent me. (As a draftsman of laws, I congratulate you upon the technique of the thing, as it is a splendid piece of technical drafting.) Says Rockefeller to McCarthy on October 20: T h i s is just to tell you how much I enjoyed our good talk of yesterday, and to thank you again for your kindness in writing me so fully in regard to the plan of industrial cooperation recently adopted in Colorado, of which I sent you a copy. I am concerned to find you so worn out, and hope that you will make this trip to New York as restful as possible. No man can do his best work when he is physically below par. You have a large work to do in the world and need to be in the best condition in order to do it.

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inscribed "What Have I Done to Help W i n the War?" McCarthy kept a record of his services during the war years. His first significant "note" concerns the National Council of Defense. Early in 1915, Professor Alfred L. P. Dennis of the University of Wisconsin conceived the idea of such a council. A frequent visitor at the Legislative Reference Library, Dennis conferred with McCarthy on the organization and functions of the council; the work of drafting was turned over to Miles Riley. In September, 1915, McCarthy called on Lindley Garrison, the Secretary of War, to present his "ideas as to the organization of the Council of National Defense." This interview was followed u p on October 15 by a memorandum on the same subject. By April 2, 1916, Riley, Dennis, and McCarthy had completed a National Council of Defense Bill in the form of an amendment to H . R . 12766. T h e bill provided for a Council of nine members to consist of the Secretary of State (chairman), the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, an army officer, a navy officer, a representative of the State Department designated by the President, and experts (1) in transportation and communication, (2) in equipment, and (3) in trade and finance. T h e object of the bill was the formulation of a "continuous and constructive policy of preparedness for defense of the United States." Professor Dennis went to Washington and helped lobby for the bill, which was adopted in somewhat modified form. N A LITTLE NOTEBOOK

II T h e short step from an organized National Council of Defense to an organized state council of defense was easily taken. McCarthy and Dennis worked on the form of this organization also and again Miles Riley drafted the legislation. Before war was declared, there

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h a d b e e n an i n f o r m a l o r g a n i z a t i o n of w h i c h M c C a r t h y acted as head, t h o u g h there was s o m e o p p o s i t i o n to h i m by the G o v e r n o r ' s friends. W h e n w a r b r o k e o u t A p r i l 6, 1 9 1 7 , a state c o u n c i l of defense w a s ready. It b e c a m e a law o n A p r i l 12, 1917 ( C h a p t e r 82, L a w s of 1917) a n d the o r i g i n a l e l e v e n a p p o i n t e e s w e r e o r g a n i z e d six days later w i t h M a g n u s Swenson as c h a i r m a n , and, as secretary, A l f r e d L . P. D e n n i s w h o r e m a i n e d on the job six weeks. O n A p r i l 8, f o u r days b e f o r e the State C o u n c i l of D e f e n s e was o r g a n i z e d a n d t w o days a f t e r w a r Avas declared, M c C a r t h y submitted to t h e G o v e r n o r a r e p o r t o n the " p r e l i m i n a r y w o r k of the Wisc o n s i n State C o u n c i l of D e f e n s e . " M c C a r t h y ' s i n d e f a t i g i b l e energy a n d capacity for q u i c k o r g a n i z a t i o n is s h o w n in this extensive report. It covers the f o l l o w i n g headings: A g r i c u l t u r e , R e d Cross a n d R e l i e f , Doctors, L a b o r , M a n u f a c t u r e r s , E n g i n e e r i n g and Chemistry, B a n k e r s , F i n a n c e , a n d Office O r g a n i z a t i o n . T h e staff of the L e g i s l a t i v e R e f e r e n c e L i b r a r y g a t h e r e d data, filed material, ind e x e d it, collected statistics, a n d so o n . T h e defense p r o g r a m in a g r i c u l t u r e typifies the r a n g e of M c C a r t h y ' s activity. T h e agricultural situation is the most important and immediate, but five weeks remain to get the crop in. T h e wheat situation, and in general the food situation is alarming. Great distress will come unless immediate action is taken. I therefore called together the commissioner of agriculture, Dean Russell, and all the agricultural authorities I could get in the City. I also got in touch with Secretary Houston and the National Council of Defense. Rapid work is under way to make the farmers understand the situation. Dean Russell has his force at work surveying the situation in the State. A n advertising campaign under the control of Mr. Hopkins is now under way. Mr. Milward has reported the potato situation and has located seed. In general, the labor situation in agriculture is alarming. It has been the unanimous opinion of all that recruiting should not take place in the country districts for at least five weeks. Canada has been advertising for labor, expenses guaranteed from $50 to $60 a month. Secretary Houston called a conference in St. Louis for Monday. I am on my way there. Last night I put together a meeting of the American Press Association, and seni out 75 telegrams to the leading agricultural editors, with the approval of Secretary Houston and the Council of National Defense. These are to meet on Wednesday of next week at St. Louis. I put Charles Holman in charge of this work as he had offered his services as secretary of the National Agricultural Organization Society. These gentlemen will start an advertising campaign at once. I called up Chicago bankers and had

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Mr. Frank Vanderlip of New York also on the phone; told him of Mr. Houston's plans and the necessity for quick action in bringing the bankers of the middle west to exert all pressure upon the fanners to put in a crop. It is the general opinion of all persons whom I met in Chicago that something drastic and rapid will have to be done. Stock exchange people told me that they are afraid that the Government will close the Stock Exchange, because of the wheat speculation. T h e y favor a minimum guaranty to the farmer and most of them favor a maximum, also. T h e Federal T r a d e Commission has offered its services in this matter of fixing price. It is held that a fixed price would be an insurance to the farmer and induce him to pay better help to his labor, and so relieve the situation. T h e Dean of the College of Agriculture of Illinois is openly for the enlistment of men as farmers in the present emergency. I called together the bankers of Wisconsin and had President Wheeler and Secretary Bartlett and many others in a conference in Madison. It was agreed that they would at once give me a list with one responsible banker in each center, w h o by automobile and advertising, would get right out to the farmer on the situation. I called D e a n Russell, and other agricultural men into this conference and they agreed to co-operate in getting the literature out. I formed a special committee then to take up with the railroads the question of putting in special trains through these districts to arouse the farmer. I have the assurance that the Chamber of Commerce throughout this State will join in the campaign. Mr. Burt Williams, Mr. Bartlett, and Mr. Andrew Hopkins will co-operate in driving this campaign forward. I shall, Monday, use every pressure upon the Federal Government on newspapers and agricultural authorities to duplicate these efforts and especially to support our efforts in our own State. I urge upon you the consideration of some able and efficient farmer to be placed upon our State Council of Defense immediately upon the passage of the Bill. Sir Horace Plunkett, the great Irish agriculturist, is in a hospital in Chicago. He has called together the agricultural leaders of this section to tell them the steps in detail that have been taken in Ireland. I shall attend that meeting this afternoon. I assure you things are under way in Wisconsin. It may be that it will be best, when our Council is organized, to give official sanction to Mr. Bartlett's work so that he may have some letter from you, which he can transmit to each local banker stating the necessity of pushing the work. 1 R e a l i z i n g that labor's c o o p e r a t i o n m u s t be w o n he started immediately to h a m m e r away at the necessary objectives. I have had a meeting of several important labor groups. Labor in Wisconsin is largely Socialist, adverse to war. I have spent a great deal of 1 McCarthy to Governor Philipp, April 8, 1917, pp. 1-2.

2 1O

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time working with them. I can assure you now that it is my opinion that labor will do its part and I believe that a Socialist labor leader of prominence, with youth and intelligence, should be on the Council for Defense. The question of hours of labor for women has already come up. Women's work in munition factory has also come up. The changing of labor from one industry to the other, the standardization of work all will be matters of grave importance. In other countries it has been found necessary to make hundreds of forbidden trades—trades in which no new men can be brought in between the age of 16 and 18— such as perfumery, ornamental glass, picture frames, cigar and tobacco and, in general, luxuries. On looking over the field, the best man I can think of for our Council would be Frank Metcalf, now of the Legislature. He is a prominent Socialist, young and bright, and one of the oldest members of the American Federation of Labor in the state.2 A n d with a caution that he learned from his dealing with the Legislature, he closes his comprehensive preliminary report with these words: In closing I wish to say that Prof. Dennis is in touch with me every day. That I have not done anything in the above except what is temporary and what is subject to the approval of the State Council when appointed. I have bound nobody to do anything, I have made no promises to anybody, and have made everybody understand that what we are doing was tentative and preliminary, subject in every respect to your approval or veto. Everyone has co-operated with me in the most hearty good will. 3 Ill On April 23, 1 9 1 7 , the President sent to the governors, through the J u d g e Advocate General, a long confidential letter describing in detail the plan of the proposed conscription or selective service bill and asked them to be prepared to follow a rather "expeditious schedule." When Governor Philipp received this letter, he immediately called on McCarthy. From that point on McCarthy was the important factor in selective service until the first registration. General Orlando Holway, the Adjutant General, a fine soldier, was cooperating. Dr. Fitzpatrick, who was associated with McCarthy, was progressively given more and more of the details and, to handle them, was made a member of the staff of the Governor's office. A bill was drawn by the Governor's counsel, George Hudnall, to make the entire election machinery available for military registra2 Ibid., p. 3.

3 Ibid., p. 5.

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tion; the bill became a law before the selective service law was passed. Mr. ("Dad") Miller, the head of the Madison Telephone Exchange, was used by McCarthy on the reporting phase of the work and he did yeoman service. Governor Philipp lent every assistance to the task of the registration. A t 4 a. m. on J u n e 6, McCarthy sent to General Crowder, in the Governor's name, the following telegram. Four o'clock A. M. All Wisconsin counties and cities have reported. Registration complete. Total, 218,700. T h i s was startling news—as they told me personally at the Provost Marshall General's office. Wisconsin had done a fine job. Its achievement was in striking contrast with the recommendations to Washington of some eminently respectable Wisconsin citizens, principally from Milwaukee, that, when the registration took place, troops would be needed in Illinois to march in to Wisconsin to preserve the peace. T h e situation was complicated by the fact that Senator La Follette's speech against the war was received in the State on Registration Day, J u n e 5, 1 9 1 7 . However, Wisconsin's report reached Washington first, even before the District of Columbia, and there was no disturbance in the state, except a fight between two men in front of a Milwaukee registration booth to determine who would register first. IV W e have a picture of Mac in August, 1 9 1 7 , "toiling in his shirt sleeves in the heat in a tiny office in the old red brick hotel which was first occupied by the Food Administration." This, as a matter of fact, went on day and night. McCarthy and J o h n S. Cullinan of T e x a s were Hoover's most valuable aids in the lobby in helping get through the Lever Food Control bill. U p to this time Hoover had been head of a food committee of the Council of National Defense with limited authority, but on August 10, 1 9 1 7 , the Food and Fuel bill became a law. A m p l e authority was given to Hoover, who was now designated Food Administrator. As soon as the Food Administration was legally authorized, Mac continued as one of Hoover's principal advisers in organizing the department. This was the kind of energetic, creative, improvising work for which he had an especial talent and in which his imagination was

2 12

T H E

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p a r t i c u l a r l y v a l u a b l e , p a r t i c u l a r l y to a m a n like H o o v e r w h o had b e e n almost c o m p l e t e l y o u t of t o u c h w i t h A m e r i c a n Domestic A f f a i r s a n d situations for several years. M a c also had a h a n d in the meetings of the G o v e r n m e n t C o m m i t t e e w h i c h fixed the price of wheat u n d e r the presidency of D r . H a r r y G a r f i e l d . I n all this early w o r k as well as later, M a c was inspired by a b u r n i n g e n t h u s i a s m for the service of his country in the W a r . T h e W a r a p p e a l e d to his n a t u r a l fighting instinct very strongly a n d I t h i n k that he at h e a r t regretted deeply that his physical c o n d i t i o n a n d age p r e v e n t e d his s e e i n g military service. His patriotic unselfishness m a d e h i m w i l l i n g to serve in h o w e v e r h u m b l e a capacity. Nevertheless, his enthusiasm f o r the W a r d i d not w i p e o u t his o l d enthusiasms of long-standing, p a r t i c u l a r l y those for the cause of a g r i c u l t u r a l progress a n d efficiency of g e v e r n m e n t . H e was as vigilant in l o o k i n g o u t for the farmers' interest as ever, and, f r o m first to last, l o o k e d at the p r o b l e m of a g r i c u l t u r e in the W a r , t h r o u g h the farmers' eyes. N a t u r a l l y , there was at some points an a p p a r e n t conflict b e t w e e n his t w o d e v o t i o n s — t o the WTar a n d to the f a r m e r — a n d these he always a t t e m p t e d to resolve by insistence that the protection and maintainance of a g r i c u l t u r e at a h i g h level a n d w i t h relatively high rewards was the wisest p o l i c y in the l o n g r u n for the prosecution of the W a r . H e s o u g h t to m i n i m i z e the d r a f t i n g of f a r m labor a n d to o b t a i n g o o d and p e r h a p s h i g h prices for f a r m products and, in general, to sec that the farmers o b t a i n e d a square deal, w i t h the purpose of m a i n t a i n i n g t h r o u g h s t i m u l a t i o n of a g r i c u l t u r e a great f o o d p r o d u c i n g reservoir for the U n i t e d States a n d the Allies. 4 M c C a r t h y w a s a dollar-a-year m a n in the F o o d A d m i n i s t r a t i o n . H e c o u l d n o t possibly a f f o r d i t — b u t he felt his d u t y was in W a s h i n g t o n a n d there h e w e n t . H i s state s a l a r y — g r a c i o u s l y

continued

by G o v e r n o r P h i l i p p and for which, however, Mac rendered many s e r v i c e s i n W a s h i n g t o n , t o t h e state, f o r t h e G o v e r n o r , a n d m a n y c i t i z e n s — w a s n o t e n o u g h . T h e h o s p i t a l i t y of G i f f o r d c h o t ' s h o u s e i n W a s h i n g t o n w a s g i v e n to M c C a r t h y , a n d

for Pin-

helped

m a t e r i a l l y , b u t it w a s l a t e r w i t h h e l d a n d M c C a r t h y t h e n w e n t i n s e a r c h of a r o o m . H e r e n t e d a v e r y i n e x p e n s i v e r o o m ; his s i t u a t i o n is d i s c l o s e d i n a s t a t e m e n t m a d e b y F r e d e r i c k A . C l e v e l a n d a t t h e time of M c C a r t h y ' s death. C l e v e l a n d o f t e n m e t M c C a r t h y at t h e C o s m o s C l u b . O n e

eve-

n i n g after M c C a r t h y r e t u r n e d f r o m England, C l e v e l a n d saw that * Wilder H . Haines, "Recollections of Charles McCarthy, 1917-1919. pp. 2-3 (Ms. prepared for the author).

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he was suffering and depressed and asked if it was not time to go home. "Home," he said, "I have no home, and I don't know whether I have a family." The look of distress on his face made me hesitate. After a brief pause I ventured to ask if he had no place to stay. "Yes, Cleveland," said he, "I have a place to lie down, as good as I desire; but I think I will not go out until later." 5 T h e discussion that followed showed obviously that McCarthy was very much worried about his family and his own financial situation. He felt he should go home and take care of his family and his work in Wisconsin, but "I cannot go back without feeling like a quitter. I went into this thing because I felt it was a duty. Everyone must make sacrifices." 6 Cleveland's letter continues: " O n inquiry I found that he was sleeping in a basement room on the edge of a Negro quarter, for which he was paying $2.00 a week. A t the time, I was occupying an airy apartment belonging to a friend who was absent from the city; there were two beds, and the summer nights were so hot in congested quarters, I prevailed on him to go with me. W e lived together about two weeks." McCarthy had put his hand to the wheel and would not turn back. It might mean sacrifice and sorrow for himself and his family, but it was his duty and nothing could make him quit—including the lack of any remuneration from the Food Administration. It is a striking coincidence that nearly all of those who knew him, in recalling their impression of McCarthy, use the same image: " H e burnt himself out." After McCarthy's death, Louis Wehle's appreciative memoir in the Survey began with this sentence: " T h e clear flame of Dr. McCarthy's life is burnt out." Cleveland's statement is as follows: " T h e impression I carry is of one who had literally burned himself out some thirty years before his allotted time. But in so doing he kindled fires which have struck deeply into the institutional life of the country. However much those who opposed him may have questioned his judgment, no one could doubt that he had a consuming zeal for service." T o McCarthy the important fact was not that he was burning himself s Frederick A. Cleveland to Irma Hochstein, June 22, 1921.

6

Ibid.

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out, but that he was kindling fires. H e was glad to be the fuel of these social fires. "Ah must T h o u char the wood ere T h o u canst limn with it." All did not go smoothly in the Food Administration. One main conflict McCarthy himself described when he said that practically everybody in the organization was "consumer-minded" but he was "producer-minded." H e always represented the farmer's point of view. His effort was to remove the pressure of the draft on agricultural labor and to secure high prices for the farmer's products. H e believed that a policy of high prices for agricultural products was as much in the national interest as the essential condition of securing maximum production. But Edgar Rickard, one of Hoover's principal assistants, seemed always to oppose McCarthy and hinder his work. This opposition arose, McCarthy himself thought, not from a desire to hinder the work but because McCarthy had too much influence on Hoover. W h e n McCarthy went to Europe in July, 1918, for the War Labor Policies Board, he made a treaty of peace or an armistice with Rickard so that his office would not be taken away from him during his absence. In Washington, McCarthy's activities were numerous. At Hoover's suggestion, he sat in on the Committee in charge of the wheat situation. He made many suggestions that were accepted by Hoover. H e investigated cold-storage plants and made suggestions for using them to handle gluts. H e opposed with all his vigor policies of killing calves and later of killing lambs. These policies were ultimately adopted. H e made a plan for marketing foods in the Northwest. McCarthy went to Wisconsin with an offer of $2,000,000 to the State Council of Defense if they would match the $2,000,000. T h e plan was to pay the farmers fifty cents a bushel and to get the crop early into central markets. T h e offer was refused and a serious condition resulted in the winter of 1917. McCarthy summarizes his own work on the livestock industry thus: 1 was told by Mr. Hoover to open the Packers meeting and the live stock associations and was constantly at work in making plans for the increase of live stock and the organization of live stock committees. I was

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1

5

sent as Mr. Hoover's representative into the Committee which made the 13 to ι ratio on hogs which has now increased the hogs millions to millions in number. I went with Mr. Cotton into the plan for control of the packers. I insisted upon the plan of production and my fight for that finally resulted in the President's speech on that subject. Although of course • this may be denied by the Department of Agriculture as the Department has fought me constantly, up to date. They have complained bitterly about me and have hampered my work. 7 In the T e x a s Panhandle, two million head of cattle were starving from the prolonged drought. A plague of rats swept the devastated area, eating up every vestige of cactus. McCarthy was sent to cooperate with E. A . Peden, the State Food Administrator. I n an interview on Wednesday, N o v e m b e r 17, 1917, McCarthy took a positive position: " I t is arrant nonsense to ship foodstuffs to the neutral nations for feeding purposes, with live stock perishing for lack of food in the United States." In the conference between the Cotton Seed Crushers of T e x a s and the Cattle Raisers Association of T e x a s on Thursday, N o v e m b e r 15, 1917, McCarthy sounds the keynote. T h e Houston Chronicle of that date thus describes briefly the speech: Much fire was injected into the conference at the very start by Doctor McCarthy who stated emphatically that the cattle of West Texas must and should have immediate relief if it becomes necessary to commandeer ever)' pound of cottonseed cakes in Texas. McCarthy is exactly quoted by the reporter as saying in a voice taut and a face pallid with intense emotion: I come here as the representative of your President and of Mr. Hoover. You are expected to make sacrifices for this nation, and if those cattle need feed we are going to get the feed to them. T h e government is big enough and powerful enough to send the feed and to commandeer the feed, and if necessary it will do so. You have heard the telegram that has been read from Mr. Hoover. It is but one of many telegrams. There will be others. I want you to get together. I want you to wisely think this situation out as Americans and patriots. At the end of this day I want you to be in such position that you can send to the President of the United States assurance that you have solved your problem and that one million head of cattle shall not starve. ? McCarthy, " W h a t Have 1 Done to Help W i n the War?"

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T h e cattlemen and the cottonseed cake men agree to cooperate. A n embargo was placed on 250,000 tons of cottonseed cakes destined for neutrals—and ultimately for Germany—and 30,000 tons in Galveston were immediately commandeered. Thousands of freight cars for this district were given priority over other uses. T h e amount of cattle thus saved would have fed a million Frenchmen for two years. T h i s is McCarthy in character without the restraint of legislative conditions. V McCarthy enjoyed rather intimate contact with Hoover during his Food Administration days, and it may be worth while to record how he was affected by this significant figure of our time. H e left a memorandum on Hoover that will be of interest to the historian who must extract from much flattering material the true portrait. T h e memorandum was written in October, 1 9 1 8 , when McCarthy was about to leave the Food Administration. It describes Hoover, his habits, his enormous energy and his promise. His emotionalism, his application of statistics to subjects where they did not belong, his lack of appreciation of the mine-run of Americans and of the American way of life, were distasteful to McCarthy. A t the top of the memorandum, is a note to Miss Adams, McCarthy's secretary to "put [this memorandum] under Hoover in my private files." T h e memorandum further identifies the time in its first sentence: " I am about to leave the Food Administration as there is no particular work for me to do here. I am jotting down these notes for future reference." Mr. Hoover is a very young man. He will be one of the most prominent figures in America. He will be one of the richest and most successful business men. I never saw a man work harder than he while he was here. His capacity for work seems to be unlimited. He has gone about his task like an athlete sticking right straight to the job all the time. He takes no amusement, never plays cards, never goes to the theater, works day in and day out. He never takes any exercise whatsoever. If his family can get him out in the country for a few hours, he sets to work building dams, and streams, or doing something of

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that kind. Some men require stimulation. This man's business is his stimulation and the thing which keeps him going. He grasps ideas from everyone he meets and would rust out soon and die, unless he were going at top speed. He is nervous and high strung, constantly smokes. He can handle an immense amount of statistics and admires anyone who makes a statistical showing. His statistics are not always correct, as he likes to make calculations upon matters which really cannot be subject to a mathematical and statistical process. T h e portrait continues with the observation that Hoover was English rather than American, and of American types, his predilection was for the New York businessman, and generally speaking for business success and social prestige. T h e main achievement of Hoover, backed by the extraordinarily fine qualities of human sympathy of his Quaker background, was the creation of an administrative mechanism to do the job of the Food Administration. In the general mess which was Washington, Hoover stood out. T h e memorandum concludes: No man in America could have done the work in this crisis for food that Herbert Hoover did. He had very few really able men with him; outside of Barnes, Cotton, Cullinan, I never saw any really able men around him. There were men good at their own business, but with a narrow business point of view, yet he succeeded in building up a wonderful machinery and the women of America have stood right by him in his great conservation program. Many tremendous mistakes were made . . . but these are only incidents. The Food Administration was very successful when compared with the other departments in Washington. Hoover should have been put in charge of Ordnance. VI McCarthy was anxious to serve in a military way. H e volunteered to organize a company for Theodore Roosevelt and had signed up 236 names of famous football players and other athletes, but the plan fell through. He also tried to enlist in the Officer's T r a i n i n g Camp at Fort Sheridan but was considered too old. It was with almost boyish glee that he registered under the Selective Service Law when the men between the ages of 31 and 45 were required to register on September 12, 1918. He filled out his

2 ι 8

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q u e s t i o n n a i r e a n d m a d e n o c l a i m f o r e x e m p t i o n . M a c w a s at t h i s t i m e f o r t y - f i v e years a n d s i x m o n t h s , that is, h e h a d n o t a t t a i n e d h i s f o r t y - s i x t h y e a r , t h e o u t s i d e l i m i t of r e g i s t r a t i o n . T h e armistice came on N o v e m b e r

11, e n d i n g any

possibility

of a c t i v e m i l i t a r y s e r v i c e . M c C a r t h y d i d , h o w e v e r , see s o m e s e r v i c e . I n 1 9 1 8 , h e w a s sent to E u r o p e b y t h e W a r L a b o r P o l i c i e s B o a r d t o s t u d y l a b o r d i l u t i o n . S o m e h o w h e m a d e his w a y t o t h e f r o n t d u r i n g t h e b a t t l e o f C h a t e a u T h i e r r y , t h a t is, i n l a t e J u l y .

A

F r e n c h o f f i c e r e s c o r t e d h i m , b u t w o u l d n o t g o to t h e f r o n t lines, b e c a u s e o f o r d e r s , a n d M c C a r t h y ' s e f f o r t to g o f o r w a r d was prev e n t e d by the French military police. H o w e v e r , he was deeply t o u c h e d t o find t h e g r a v e o f Q u e n t i n R o o s e v e l t . I n Where Roosevelt

Sleeps,

Quentin

w r i t t e n at C h a t e a u T h i e r r y , A u g u s t 3,

1918,

h e says, I r e m e m b e r Q u e n t i n Roosevelt. I saw h i m playing as a little boy at Oyster Bay. H e was slender w h e n I saw h i m a n d had a forehead like his mother. H e sleeps peacefully u n d e r the sod of France. T h e shells sound a r e q u i e m over his head. H e sleeps with Bayard, D u Guesclin a n d J o a n in hallowed earth. . . . H e lies where the passing w i n d bends the poppies amidst the wheat, where a h u n d r e d other true A m e r i c a n boys of G e r m a n , Polish, Scandinavian, a n d Irish blood from Wisconsin sleep peacefully. America has given of her best. M c C a r t h y tells o f m e e t i n g C o l o n e l M c C o y of S p a r t a — " a b r a v e , f a i t h f u l , s o n of t h e state o f t h e I r o n B r i g a d e . " H e d e s c r i b e d t h e towns and villages and wheatfields with their occasional

poppies

a l o n g t h e r i g h t a n d t h e l e f t of t h e r o a d a b o v e C h a t e a u T h i e r r y . H e m e t a S a l v a t i o n A r m y lassie i n t h i s h e l l . I n a l e t t e r t o his w i f e h e d e s c r i b e d his g o i n g a r o u n d l o c a t i n g W i s c o n s i n b o y s , g e t t i n g t h e i r n a m e s , t h e i r stories, t h e i r i n j u r i e s , a n d a n y m e s s a g e t h e y w i s h to g i v e h i m — m e s s a g e s t h a t w e r e d u l y d e l i v e r e d w i t h i n t h e m o n t h . P e r h a p s i n these days o f i n t o l e r a n c e w e may illustrate the M c C a r t h y activity a n d spirit in the f o l l o w i n g c o m m e n t . H e d e s c r i b e s a scene b a c k o f t h e l i n e s w h e r e " w i l l i n g hands c a r e f u l l y u n l o a d the stretchers with their h u d d l e d burdens," and then continues, T h e R a b b i from N e w Y o r k and the Y . M . C . A . entertainer have their coats off w o r k i n g together. C o m e you Wisconsin librarian and get into the game there a n d lend a hand!

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Christi A blinding flash, stunning, numbing, and—and—the little square is running blood. The cabby and his horse are shapeless heaps. A noble tree lies a splintered heap. The Australian soldier rises on one elbow and falls back. He will never see Melbourne again. The old Frenchman in the estaminet on the corner sinks slowly to the floor —his left arm hangs by a shred. The Jewish boy from the 69th Irish regiment of New York—now half Jewish and none the worse either for that—is being soothed by the Rabbi chaplain. "I've got to die, Rabbi. Tell Mother, mother— that Jake died like a man for his country." McCarthy prophetically ends the letter: Yes, LaFayette, we are here! Yes, Mr. Kaiser, America is here—millions are coming and your hour is near! The old cabby on the corner and the tall boy from Australia lying in the square will be avenged—and Jake has not died in vainl VII From France McCarthy proceeded to London to pursue his study of labor dilution. A memorandum for May 2 1 , 1918, contained a reference to this problem: "Spent a considerable part of last night talking with Frankfurter and making a plan for the dilution of labor, and for the part the Food Administration is to bear in this." On September 12, 1 9 1 8 , he wrote a letter to Felix Frankfurter, then chairman of the War Labor Policies Board which began thus: "During my stay in Europe I talked with most of the persons who have been engaged in studying dilution questions, and I am making this hasty report to you." T h e need of 3,000,000 men in the armed forces by spring as the essential conditions of completing the victory of our arms lead him to the conclusion which he states, underlined, on the first page of this eight page letter: " T h i s means just one thing and that is, the rationing of labor." McCarthy's plan is then outlined in some detail, the essential part of which is as follows: There is just one thing that must be done, and that is, to get one man who is an expert and give him positive authority with full power forthwith to divide the country into sections; to put in full control of each of these sections an expert: to find out, in each of these sections, which industries are essential and which are nonessential; and

2 2 O

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then to order each essential industry to hurry up production and at the same time to "comb out" its men for the Army. We have been fooling with the problem of labor since the war began, and we must say now to the nonessential industry, "You must give up your men to replace the men in the essential industries who will be taken for war purposes." We must say to the industries, that they must use women and unskilled workers to a greater degree than they are now using them. T h a t is, we must say to the particular factory, "You must allow your men to be 'combed out' to a certain degree, and we will show you how to put women in the place of those who have been let go." . . . We must be prepared then to know what processes can be taken over by women and how it can be done. Fortunately we have the whole of the English experience before us. I have brought back lists of different portions of work that women can do and are now doing in England. This work can be done by women here. . . . I am fully aware that this means the introduction of various kinds of so called "scientific management." I am fully aware that labor has gone on record in America against scientific management; but, in order to win this war, we have got to introduce such methods. . . . But this involves tact, and a right understanding with labor. It cannot be accomplished without the cooperation of labor, whatever the process. . . . It is useless to send it down by ukase; that will only cause strikes. T h a t has been shown in England. Labor must be guaranteed that this new, vast machinery set up will not be used to the detriment of labor. We cannot enter into any agreement with labor to restore conditions as they were before the war, such as has been entered into by the British Government, for such an agreement is false on the face of it. T h e old conditions cannot be restored and we must frankly recognize that. However, your Department, in its wisdom, can give assurances to labor, after conference with labor, which will accomplish the same results. H e adds several pages later: I am not forgetting in this plan the agricultural labor. It will be evident to anybody that, unless we do use the above plan, agricultural labor will be drawn upon both by the Army and by all the other industries at once, to the great detriment of the production of agricultural goods, which we must not let drop for one moment. T h e need for the protection of l a b o r is reiterated, though the national interest is recognized as p a r a m o u n t . H e says he has 500 to 600 photographs of the dilution processes in which w o m e n are engaged in E n g l a n d . H e notes the relation of the order of August

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i , 1918, the classification system of the men between the ages of 18-45 not previously registered on that day, the work of the Federal Board of Vocational Education, the Council of National Defense, the Department of Labor, and the priorities orders of the W a r Industries Board to this problem of dilution. He has on his desk the training plans of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corporation of Buffalo, New York, for dilution. T h o u g h he thinks it will not be necessary, he is ready to go over to England with a body of men to garner the English experience. A little more than a month later, on October 25 to be exact, Mac wrote out the dilution plan for C. C. Clayton of the United States Department of Labor, but added to it some of the elements for a demobilization plan after the war. It was McCarthy's view that the dilution plan and the plan for demobilization must reinforce and support each other. Frankfurter followed up McCarthy's suggestion and, after securing Hoover's permission, had him sent to Europe to study the war labor problem, whose ramifications he obviously understood. He reached New York ready to go aboard ship on Friday afternoon, but he received a letter from the Secretary of War canceling the trip. McCarthy on Armistice Day writes J. S. Cullinan of Texas after reciting the facts just given: "I am pleased indeed that I am not to go for it means the war is over. I would have learned a good deal about reconstruction over there but it is best as it is. Shiploads of men got the same order that I did in New York.'' VIII McCarthy wanted Ireland to serve in a cause he thought holy. He was very sensitive about repercussion of Irish events and Irish opinion or Irish-American opinion. He kept in close touch with Irish events through Sir Horace Plunkett. On September 12, 1918, he prepared a memorandum on Irish conditions which noted conflicts with Sinn Feiners and the relation with the Labor Party, the harsh censorship of Irish news, the increasing conflicts of our soldiers and sailors and the Irish people, with a special strong feeling in our Navy against the Irish people. He made a series of constructive suggestions which in short was

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that a commission of well-known Irish-Americans should be set up to deal with American-Irish relations in the port of Ireland and to have charge of recruiting in Ireland for the American army. McCarthy thus worded the situation: As the Irish will not recruit under the English Flag, and as there are 150,000 British soldiers in Ireland, it is of great importance to us, whether we have to bring over 300,000 soldiers or can take 300,000 soldiers (British and new Irish recruits) who are now in Ireland. I am much inclined to think the British would welcome some way out of the difficulty. With a little tactful negotiation they would be willing to grant the American Army the right to recruit in Ireland. I am quite sure the Sinn Fein element would approve. I found no pro-German spirit in Ireland, and I am quite sure we would get 100,000 soldiers from Ireland in this manner. H e wanted to have raised a corps of 10,000 Irish women to aid the American army. There were no women to aid the American Army in France. He asked for 5,000 W.A.A.C.'s and pointed out that we had no V.A.D.'s or auxiliary hospital workers. Another suggestion was the establishment of three American convalescent hospitals in Ireland to which wounded American soldiers would be sent, especially boys of Irish parentage. Americans, like Father Duffy, who had just been cited for bravery, should be invited to Ireland. McCarthy's conclusion to his report was: It is respectfully submitted that the above constructive ideas be considered at once. There is a possibility that in the middle of October terrible conditions may occur, if the British insist upon dragging out the Irish who refuse to fight under the British Flag. Some little spark will escape and set up a great conflagration. As Sir Horace Plunkett says, "They will shoot the wrong Bishop." I saw one instance of this kind when I was in Ireland; a Mrs. O'Connor had been arrested for having in her house some birdshot; the next day the papers carried a paragraph that her son, Lieutenant Joseph O'Connor, had been killed in France in doing a desperately gallant deed. Such things as this, together with the suppression of Gaelic meetings, dances, hurling, football games, and of all assemblies, have been goading the people to the point of desperation. T h e proposition of organizing Irish regiments under American recruiting auspices that would be part of the American army and generally of winning Irish cooperation looked like a simple direct proposition. T h e r e were many difficulties in Ireland and some in

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England (the attitude of some of the English). One is revealed by Lady Astor (one of the Virginia Langhorne girls). "Nancy Astor" as she signs herself wrote to McCarthy a very chatty, informal letter in October, 1918. She urges him "to come back soon and come here" and says in the body of the letter: " I wish I had seen you again, and we could have talked it over. I do believe that there is more chance of using the Irish women as W.A.A.C.'s than there is of getting her men to fight." T h e armistice the next month settled the problem for the moment. McCarthy immediately after the war formulated a statement about Irish unity which a group of the leading citizens of Madison signed and which was sent around the country to secure cooperation. The object of the statement was to put the pressure of an organized American public opinion in favor of home rule for Ireland. The plea especially was for Irish unity, and the assumption was that Ireland would be a member of the Federation which is the British Empire. Some opinion existed among the members elsewhere that Federation must be a matter of free determination of the Irish people. This movement was of course to affect the peace negotiations. Sir Horace Plunkett had early voiced the hope that McCarthy's work for Ireland and the Irish would find its true expression— as indeed it did—in the lines of their friend, A. E. We would no Irish sign efface, But yet our lips would gladlier hail The firstborn of the Coming Race Than the last splendour of the Gael. No blazoned banner we unfold— One charge alone we give to youth, Against the sceptred myth to hold The golden heresy of truth. IX On the subject of military training McCarthy wrote at length on March 10, 1919, to Fred Keppel, then Third Assistant Secretary of War. McCarthy is here at his old habit of translating experiences into constructive suggestion:

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I do not want to see some of the so-called military training of the past revived at our colleges. I know now, and you know, that a great lot of this was simply useless. Are we to enter into the old militia period and the old college training, or have we any plans by which we can look after our men physically, teach them to shoot, teach them about the wireless, the machine gun, the aeroplane, the quartermaster's work and ordnance work, etc., etc.? Our short courses in the University were an immense success. O u r S.A.T.C. business was evidently a failure. T h e men were simply bored with it. I asked a professor the other day why it did not work and he said it was simply a training of the will and had nothing to do with college work. Now, I know nothing about military affairs, but it does seem to me, First, that we ought to look after the morale of our people. Second, we ought to look after the physique of our people. T h i r d , we ought to teach our people how to handle a machine gun and a rifle. Fourth, we ought to have some skeleton organizations. Fifth, we ought to have some plan of the War College so that everything will be foreseen in case an emergency comes u p again similar to the one that has come u p recently. . . . I wonder what there was in Morgan's men in the Revolutionary W a r which made them such good soldiers. I wonder why it was that the Boers held out so long against the British, isn't there some way in which we can get at these essentials and teach them in our colleges a n d insist upon their being taught in the American life? I hope that the War Department will have a body of men make a thorough study of the Australian and Canadian troops before they entirely disband. Why was it that the Australians were such good soldiers and yet could have such intimacy between officers and men as I saw over there? Did the election of the officers have anything to do with it? Why was it that we had a good deal of the opposite thing? I believe that when one looks at it we were mighty lucky to have had West Point and West Point officers. On the other hand, I believe we suffered a great deal from a lot of obsolete ideas that we inherited from West Point. T h e other day I studied the Swiss laws and the Australian laws upon military training. I was struck with the emphasis of the Swiss law, and the reports upon it, on mountain climbing, long marches, and rifle practice, rather than upon military drill. T h e same emphasis upon the physical things is shown in the Australian law. I am afraid that we will go ahead in this state and reestablish the old militia system with all of its faults without having learned anything from this war, and I am afraid that our universities will go on through the same old rigamarole.

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. . . I really do believe that we should have some help from the War Department soon. This will be a big issue before the American people and we ought to be guided aright. What a boon it would be in these days if some such thinking had led to appropriate action in 1919.

Chapter

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in McCarthy's life—and it was merely an episode, entirely out of character—was his campaign for election to the United States Senate in 1 9 1 8 . T h e philosophy to which his life was dedicated—and successfully, except in this instance—had been earlier expressed in a letter to Sir Horace Plunkett. T h e comment which we quote referred to Gifford Pinchot's senatorial campaign in Pennsylvania in 1 9 1 4 : N E OF T H E S T R A N G E S T EPISODES

I think Gifford Pinchot did the wrong thing when he started his senatorial fight in Pennsylvania. . . . The American people looked upon him as the great champion of conservation. When a man goes into a battle like that, everyone shakes his head and says to his neighbor, "After all, they are working for political offices; they are all the same." If I went out in any kind of a battle here they would all shake their heads in the same way and say: "Well, we told you so. Keep your eyes on McCarthy. After all, with all his fine phrases lie is a politician and looking for office." I think there ought to be one man who will stand through the whole thing without running for office and without asking for honors or monuments. . . . I have been steadily plugging along on that philosophy.1 In its external form, what Pinchot did in 1 9 1 4 , McCarthy did in 1918. Let us try to understand what led to this strange action. T h e r e is available no specific statement of the reason for McCarthy's entrance into the political arena. But we have a record of the way his mind was working early in the month in which his decision was made. A letter from him was published in the Wisconsin State Journal of February 10, 1918. 1 T h e letter was written on A p r i l 8, 1 9 1 5 . to acknowledge the draft of an article that Sir Horace was writing; as "McCarthy of Wisconsin"; the article appeared in the Nineteenth Century in J u n e , 1 9 1 5 . McCarthy had already expressed himself similarly to Pinchot.

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Mac had returned to Washington after a tour of the country. His comment is pessimistic. With all the "inside" information he has, his letter notes that, "the nation is approaching a sharp, acute crisis, and we are unmoved." There is great need for patriotic patience. And then occurs this significant sentence, "It goes without saying that there never was a time when the spirit of sacrifice was more needed, when men of imagination and mental elasticity and of decision should be put in high places of the nation." This looks like the perfect alibi for his candidacy. McCarthy quotes Napoleon approvingly that "morale counts as three to one." T h e American public has not been aroused to the necessary pitch. We are soft, contented. Morale is low at a time when morale is of supreme importance. He then proudly lists the accomplishments of his loved Wisconsin, which enable him to "live in Washington and carry my head high here." He wants a new leadership from Wisconsin—perhaps a new "Wisconsin idea." He says, W h y can't we have a new "Wisconsin Idea," a new leadership in supreme effort? W h y can't we all get together in a great new rally with Wisconsin for a leader? T h e President has called for increased production—let us take the leadership and show the way to every state as we did a year ago. Let us spread the gospel of work and thrift and sacrifice to every home. Let 11s arouse our people in every schoolhouse, church, shop and meeting place, to the national clanger.

He wants a great popular meeting to approve constructive plans for this period, such as the Council of Defense which had originated in Wisconsin. For what reason? "Wouldn't such an out-pouring of spirit put heart into our boys in France and help the'great Captain in Washington?" If there is any explanation of McCarthy's deviation from his main course it is found in that sentence: his devotion to the boys in France and to the great Captain in Washington. Such at any rate was the state of his mind. Now let us view the facts. Paul O. Husting was of Indian descent and related to Solomon Juneau. His mother was the fourth of sixteen children of the founder of Milwaukee. Husting practiced law, held many public offices and had, in general language, quite a progressive record in the Wisconsin senate on the main issue—corrupt practices, the

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income tax, conservation including water power, and the election of United States Senators by direct vote of the people. He was the first United States Senator from Wisconsin to be elected by the people. He defeated by 967 votes Francis E. McGovern, the Republican candidate, who had a commendable record as Governor. Husting's victory was due to the support of the La Follette faction, which thus "paid back" McGovern's support of Theodore Roosevelt in 1 9 1 2 . Husting was an active and wholehearted supporter of President Wilson. He died in the midst of the War on Oct. 2 1 , 1917. There was much talk that the Governor might make an appointment, and there was some improbable speculation that he might appoint McCarthy. This was settled when late in February, 1918, Governor Philipp ordered a special election to be held April 2, 1918. T h e lining up of the political forces in Wisconsin seemed likely to lead to a rebuff to President Wilson. T h e daily reports from Europe received by McCarthy as Hoover's assistant had already deeply impressed him. Victor Berger was running on the Socialist ticket. T h e L a Follette candidate, when named, would McCarthy felt, defeat Lenroot. T h e chances of Joseph Davies, who was definitely the candidate of the Democratic machine under the direction of Joseph Martin of Green Bay, seemed, to McCarthy, hopeless. McCarthy saw the election as the first great referendum on the war. T h e sure way to hearten the great Captain at Washington was to send from Wisconsin a Senator who would support the President unreservedly on the conduct of the war. Further, he thought the best way to achieve this purpose was to elect such a Senator on the Democratic ticket. So, contrary to his own philosophy and to his own interests at the time, he announced his candidacy for the United States Senate under such conditions that the practical politician and the disinterested observer must have perceived clearly that there was no possibility of success. McCarthy's devotion to the cause and his sense that he could save it in Wisconsin was the occasion of some jibes by the Milwaukee Journal which "boxed" the following statement: WHO'S WHO IN WISCONSIN POLITICS? McCarthy, Charles—"I am a democrat." Must be. Not a republican, just now; Not a mooser; Not a Bobbie!—Not a socialist; Not a pro-

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hibitionist; q.v.d.; once Philipp chased his goat. Did he get it? N o t from the doctor. Quite the reverse. He is the man w h o put the " i " in the Wisconsin idea. Really it's all his. Ask him. N o w swelled beyond state lines because Wilson needs him in the senate. First thing Wilson asks after breakfast, " H o w ' s Charlie running out in Wisconsin?" Versatile too. Just been teaching farmers down south how to wean calves. Hates to see his name in print.

McCarthy certainly was not a Democrat in the state political line-up. He had no respect for its leadership nor for its policies. H e was attached to no political party and followed no political leadership. He certainly was not a Stalwart, Republican, nor was he a La Follettite. His sympathy was with the Progressive platforms of which he was at least in part architect, though his influence was not entirely lacking in other political parties. He was never an intimate of La Follette but worked cooperatively with his associates. T o the war attitude of La Follette he was completely opposed. A t any rate, he entered the race in the Democratic primary only because he thought that would best serve the national purpose. McCarthy was, therefore, under no delusions. He states his opinion in the campaign with characteristic frankness as follows: Somebody has got to save the Democratic Party. Paul Husting is dead. Billy Wolff is dead and John Alyward is dead. T h e r e is nobody left but Joe Davies. If he should eat too much candy some night, or trip and break his neck fox-trotting in Washington, there w o u l d be nothing left of the Democratic Party. Therefore, it is quite necessary that there be somebody in the race at least to preserve some fragments of the party of the President.

For a person without contact with political workers, without funds, and without any of the political publicity ordinarily attendant in campaigns, the conditions of the time made success unlikely. McCarthy had much publicity but not as a politician. T h o u g h he was "in the papers" every day during the 1914 campaign and during the 1915 legislative session, he was not really known by the people of the state. This amazing fact was revealed soon after the campaign began. T h e cry went up, " W h o is McCarthy???'* In late February, 1918, the Governor called a special election for April. T h e primary was to be held on March 19, 1918. McCarthy's announcement of his candidacy on February 25 precipitated

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the issue, and as a result on that same day Joseph Martin announced the candidacy of Joseph Davies on the Democratic ticket. Edward Dithmar, the lieutenant governor, had announced his candidacy on the Republican ticket. On February 27 at a conference in Madison between Charles Crownhart, representing La Follette, and the two L a Follette candidates, Edward Dithmar and James T h o m p son, it was determined that Dithmar should withdraw and Thompson should carry the La Follette banner. T h e McCarthy nomination papers Λν-ere filed on March i, leaving eighteen days for a state-wide campaign—not an easy task under any condition, but for this fundless tyro in politics it was even more difficult. Nevertheless, before the primary was over, Mac had shown an amazing adaptation to political campaign techniques. But "time was of the essence" and time was against him. His "plain statement" to the citizens of Wisconsin began thus: I have been asked "What is your purpose in coming into the primary?" I owe a frank, honest statement to you. I have only one purpose. That purpose is consistent with my whole life. Never shall I deviate from it. This is the first great referendum on the administration of this war. This is the first battle before the people of this nation between those who believe in whole heartedly supporting the President and those who are sapping the morale of the nation. I am in this battle to fight for all I am worth, with my whole soul, with every ounce of energy and strength in me to uphold the President. I have no other purpose and shall have none. I never had any political ambition. I have none now. It is a matter of patriotism and not politics. I simply want to give my whole heart to smashing the Thompson-Berger fifty-fifty anti-administration outfit. I felt this a sacred duty. It is just as important and just as sacred as if I were in a ditch in Flanders. I would be there if I could. T h o u g h McCarthy adds, "to get a complete endorsement of the President the party of the President should win," he was under no illusions about the Democratic Party in Wisconsin. " B y itself," he said, "it has never won anything." McCarthy convinced himself that with the help of patriotic Progressive workingmen and farmers, the victory will be complete. From campaign speeches and interviews we quote some of his characteristic statements:

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Your country and my country will never be the same after the war,— old, careless and happy-go-lucky America is gone. I say to you that you can't beat Bob La Follette by shouting loyalty alone. You can only beat him by taking the good issues that he puts forth and standing just as strongly for them, at the same time going the limit in support of the flag and nation. Thompson's platform reminds me of the statement of John Bunyan. He said his father was a boatman who made his living facing one way and rowing the other. His platform is filled with fine phrases, many of them stolen from President Wilson, but the purpose of the whole platform will deceive no sensible man—The voice is the voice of Jim —the hand is the hand of Bob. We are engaged in two wars. On the frontier of France we are fighting the Kaiser. Here at home we are not only fighting him but we are fighting the real battle against Apathy, Selfishness, Profiteering, Muddleheadedness, Pacifism, Luxury, Display, and downright disloyalty. All these regiments of the enemy are arraigned against us in Wisconsin in this fight. If you want peace, there is a straight road of it,—right straight over the top with men and ships and guns and food. A series of questions submitted to the candidates was answered promptly by McCarthy. Q. Will you vote for conscripting money and supplies as well as men? A. Yes. £). Will you vote for commandeering war supplies, the government to pay a reasonable price, to be determined by it, instead of bargaining with the war profiteer? A. Yes. Q. Will you vote for government control of the manufacture of ships and all other war supplies wherever private supply proves inadequate? A. Yes. Q. Will you vote for the conscription of laborers, factories and all the necessary means of production of war supplied, all to be placed under military discipline the same as the soldiers? By this I mean that the laborer, manager or other official would in case of refusal or neglect to perform his duty be sent to the guardhouse or shot, as the circumstances demanded, just as the soldier is? A. As to everything but labor, yes. Labor cannot be managed that way. It would cause such a revolt as to delay the war. Settle the

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A. Q. A. Q. A. Q.

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profiteering question, cut down manufacture of non-essentials, work out plans used in other countries, get government controlled plants, and you can solve tliis problem. Will you vote for government control of prices of the necessaries of life? Yes. Will you vote for a rationing system in order to conserve food, issue of flour and meat cards, limiting the amount that can be used by any one person? Yes. Will you vote for the immediate conscription of at least 500,000 soldiers and of at least that many more before next tall? You are too low. We will need at least 3,000,000 more, and ought to get them as soon as possible. We are fooling with this. We must get into shape if we are to win. Will you vote for the construction of sufficient shipping to transport and supply the soldiers now trained? and others as fast as trained? An answer to this with a string tied to it, "if practicable" or some other " i f " will not be an answer. Absolutely, yes. Delay is our deadliest enemy. Will you vote for giving the administration the power to expend money in excess of any specific appropriation for war purposes? Yes, with speed. Do you promise to not only vote for these things but to work for them, and, if bills for these purposes are not introduced by others, to yourself introduce bills providing for them? Yes, with all my heart and soul. Nero fiddled while Rome burned, we are fiddling while the world is on fire. We can't have our boys killed off by sending driblets of men and supplies. We must go over the top with men and guns and ships and food and settle this thing for all time.

Another question was submitted to the candidates by a Milwaukee newspaper. It asked "would you vote for the expulsion of Senator L a Follette if you are elected?" McCarthy's answer was prompt: " Y o u ask if I would vote to expel Robert La Follette. I would give him a fair hearing, as every man is entitled to, and if he cannot explain satisfactorily his attitude, I would vote without hesitation to expel him at once." 2 A slashing attack, a refreshing vigor of phrase, an unusual directness in answering questions and taking positions, calling black. 2 McCarthy to the Editor of the Journal,

March 1 , 1918.

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black, and white, white, was not enough. McCarthy was defeated in the primary and Joseph E. Davies nominated on the Democratic ticket. McCarthy lost the battle but won the war. Lenroot was nominated on the Republican ticket and elected at the regular election. Berger, however, received 100,000 votes in the election. II McCarthy was always interested in spreading knowledge. While he never sought publicity, he always availed himself of the opportunity to publish his ideas. When Roosevelt came out in favor of the recall of judicial decisions, I asked Mac if that was not the material he had been sending to "Teddy." He made some noncommittal reply. In discussing his habit of sending "ideas" and suggestions about, writing a plank for this or that platform, he made an illuminating remark about Teddy Roosevelt: " H e is the best advertising medium for ideas in America." He found similar useful media in Wilson, La Follette, and others. A muckraker went to the Wisconsin State Capitol for more material. Said McCarthy to him, "Don't you think the people will get tired of this muckraking? Why not put your emphasis on constructive efforts?" Then dramatically using State Street, which ran from Capitol Hill to University Hill, as the symbol of the relation that must and will exist between a commonwealth and its state university, he launched into a millennial dream that caught the imagination of the muckraker. This, too, will be read, he thought. McCarthy had planted another idea and one of the popular articles on the University of Wisconsin was the result. His interest in the New Republic stemmed from the same search for media to form an enlightened public opinion. Herbert Croly, the editor, and Willard Straight, the financial backer, discussed the New Republic with McCarthy and some members of his group before the periodical was brought into being. I sat in on a number of these conferences with McCarthy, when Croly, Straight, Frances Hackett, Walter Lippman, and, in Washington, Felix Frankfurter and others, talked over the possibilities. After the launching, we often met to review its achievements and shortcomings. There was one "idea" that McCarthy was anxious to have Croly

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accept, in which, unfortunately, I think, for the New Republic, he was not successful. His idea was to create a group of regional centers — o n e in Chicago, one in Madison (at the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library, where current material came in from all over the world), one in San Francisco, and one in, say, New Orleans. T h i s would give the paper a national scope by virtue of information fresh from each region, every week, in the spirit of the region. McCarthy suggested that the regional editors meet monthly in Chicago for an exchange of views and the formulation of policies. Such an organization would have made the New Republic a national instead of a Washington-New York weekly. In 1915, the Metropolitan was one of the dominant periodicals in the country. Roosevelt was contributing a monthly page. T h e guiding spirits, Whigham and Hovey, and Whitney, the magazine's good angel, wanted to use the great power of its 300,000 circulation for a public good. An associate or supplementary journal was to be issued to achieve this public service. McCarthy was to be the central spirit of the enterprise. At his suggestion, later, William Hard was to be editor. During the exploratory period, a young novelist, Elias Tobenkin, was engaged by the Metropolitan to work out the plans with McCarthy. T h e name of the new magazine was to be The Horizon. Its publication date was set for September 15, 1915. Acceptances to serve on the advisory board had been received from John Dewey, John Collier, William M. Leiserson, Albert Kales and others. A prospectus had been prepared. It started out with the quotation: "Son of Man, I have made thee a watchman!" T h e new magazine was to be a watchman over the country's welfare. It was progress that called it into existence—progress, social, economic, moral. It was going to try to think like a philosopher and talk like a peasant. It was going to take the unread contribution of the scientific journals the world over and translate them into the language of the street. Competent, educated rewrite men were to be on the staff. There was, too, in the new journal something of the spirit of Wendell Phillips, Lloyd Garrison, and Thomas Paine. It was to help in the revaluation of the old, and in the discovery of new values. It saw the need for the mobilization of the constructive thinking and constructive ability of the country in the

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service of the c o m m o n welfare. It was to clarify the new relations of the new evolving social world, and it was to help direct the new social forces that will transform the old into the new world. McCarthy was fearful that the articles might be largely factual. H e notes the conclusion of an editorial in Collier's Weekly (May 13, ,916): Something more than mere knowledge of facts is needed to furnish the soul. Sir Galahad's strength was as the strength of ten, not because his brain was encyclopaedic but because his heart was pure. Perhaps the real test to apply to most things in life is not, "Is it true?" but: "Is it worthwhile?" T h e Horizon should have a soul! M u c h material was collected, many articles determined upon, and some written. T h e n paper rose rapidly in price and delay followed delay until U n i t e d States entered the war, and the enterprise died aborning.

Chapter X V I I T H E

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WISCONSIN EXTENSION

HE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN had a fixed place in McCarthy's mind and heart. He planned for it, he boosted it, he bombarded President Van Hise with letters on every conceivable subject related to it. T h e correspondence was not always marked by finesse but rather, at times and particularly on McCarthy's side, by an almost ungracious bluntness. But Van Hise knew he could rely on McCarthy whenever the University's interest was at stake, and knew, too, that McCarthy would keep him informed on what was being concocted in the legislature. (When University authorities were timid in asking for appropriations for University Extension it was McCarthy who pressed for the appropriations and got them.) A friend of McCarthy's came from the East, expecting to make a rather prolonged stay in Wisconsin. He was invited to stay at the McCarthy home, where the University was a frequent topic of discussion. One evening the friend remarked, "The University has a great reputation but it is not a great university." Mac's reply was, "Study it." After question and reply had been several times repeated, Mac finally admitted, "You may be right, but I have deliberately helped to give it national publicity, and my hope is that it will live up to its reputation." His hope was based on what he thought an institution ought to be: dedicated to a broad democratic program of providing educational opportunities for everyone in accordance with his needs and ability, and to an ideal of service. In a letter to Professor Ely, dated March 29, 1916, he made a full statement of, first, the need for an ideal in a university, and second, the exhilarating effect of the ideal of service to the state on students, on professors, on the people.

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We had a glorious ideal for our state University, it seems to me, in that of "Service to the State." T o me it seemed the solution of a great many of the ills which have beset us. There was a certain good tone given to our whole civil service—a largeness of view, a different spirit. It made itself felt among the students, who felt that the University represented something. T h e ideal created a permanent force throughout the nation. . . . Now, I hold that the spirit of the people and the soul of the people are, after all, the most important things. If the spirit of the University goes down, if it has no soul . . . the very lack, of idealism destroys much of the work that is being attempted. . . . If the University professors find they cannot keep up the ideal of service to the state, let us do away with it, but put something else in the place of it. As it is now, the students are wandering aimlessly. There is no particular soul or spirit in the University. T h e University student possesses an uncanny insight into his teacher. If he finds his teacher faltering, excusing what he says, and afraid,—the young student soon knows it, and it affects his entire life. I have always thought that the ideal of the university of service to the stale was a noble one, and one of the greatest things that ever occurred in the history of education in the world. . . . T h a t the university should be frightened, and that the professors should become frightened jackrabbits because politicians bawled (them) out in the state is something beyond me. I am not saying that the University should be aggressive. It never was aggressive. Men from the University took part in administrative work when they were called in, yet no one of them were parts of political machines or took part in caucuses. They were simply scientific men. If a professor or leader or teacher gets so frightened that he is afraid to do work of this sort, or acquiesces when such work is condemned, what will become of the thousands of students who must receive his instruction? What sort of soul will they have? What preparation will they have to meet the future problems of a great nation? T h e year 1 9 1 5 was a year of reaction not only in Wisconsin b u t in the nation. M c C a r t h y and Clyde L . K i n g , a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, had the year before been discussing the problem not of " a c a d e m i c f r e e d o m , " but of " a c a d e m i c service." Incidentally, it was in this year that Scott N e a r i n g was " f i r e d " at Pennsylvania a n d M c C a r t h y wrote to both V a n H i s e a n d E l y that he hoped that Wisconsin would be brave enough to o f f e r N e a r i n g a place. T h a t was in J u n e , 1 9 1 5 , but in J a n u a r y the correspondence with K i n g was being carried on about " k e e p i n g the University within University walls." King, writing to M c C a r t h y on J a n u a r y

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2 i , 1915, thus phrases the point of view to which both he and McCarthy subscribed and were discussing: T o me this concerted attempt to discredit public service by university men is far more menacing than any attempt to inhibit freedom of speech. I am convinced that the big question of the next twenty years is freedom of activity. The man in University circles cannot do much harm or much good by talking, but he becomes either a menace or a public benefactor of real worth, depending on the point of view, when he applies his knowledge and experience to definite public questions, such as public utilities. Dr. William H. Allen recalls that in a hearing on a University bill, the legislators had been asking professors how many hours a week they worked. One answered seven hours. The legislator repeated "Seven hours a day, that is enough." His error was explained to him. Then McCarthy interrupted: "Mr. Chairman, You're all wrong in your kind of question. If you were asking the value of a bore pig or a stud horse, you wouldn't ask how many hours he works. You'd ask what his product is. That's what you ought to ask about University Professors." II It is a misconception of the University of Wisconsin, however, even in its Van Hise heydays to suppose that professors were anxiously leaving behind their classroom and laboratories and seeking to make their knowledge fertile in the service of the state. A representative of the General Education Board wrote in World's Work, July, 1912, a sentence that the people of the state were not so sure of: "In Wisconsin, wealth is sanctified by commonwealth and the people of the state willingly let University professors write their laws and administer their departments." T h e fact is that Wisconsin professors Avere in numbers largely— very largely—conservative, and very much like the competent professors in other first-rate institutions. They had to be brought down to the capítol or commandeered by the Governor or invited by legislative committees to appear. Even then, specific approval had to be secured from the University President. Governor La Follette had great faith in Commons, who ivas the outstanding

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representative of the University in the public service. But what was Commons's experience? H e summarizes it in his autobiography: So it was when magazine writers wrote articles on "a university governs a state." I could never see it that way. I was never called in except by Progressives, and only when they wanted me. I never initiated anything. I came only on request of legislators, of executives, or committees of the legislature. The same was true of many other members of the faculty. . . . The faculty of the University of Wisconsin has always been perhaps nine-tenths on the conservative or reactionary side. Magazine writers, coming to write up Wisconsin, have been surprised to discover this fact. They expected to find a radical university. I even had to point this out to a conservative employer writing to me from Milwaukee. He had an idea that the University was socialistic, or at least that it always promoted the "labor" side against the "capitalist's" side. He wanted the "employers' " side represented on the faculty. When I replied that the University had a great majority of its faculty in several colleges—engineering, law, commerce, the college of liberal arts, the economics department—mainly devoted to training students to serve the interests of business and employers, he verified my statement and so advised me. T o McCarthy any university professor or any public servant with information or ability needed in the drafting of legislation or in the public investigation should be drafted for that service; he, himself, freely called upon University professors for specific help on particular projects both in his work in the Legislative Reference Library and in the investigative work for the Board of Public Affairs. Professor Eugene Gilmore of the L a w School was often used on consultation of individual bills; Professor Ballantine's advice was sought on violence and strike breaking and he was used as an investigator on the Federal Commission of Industrial Relations. Professors Hatch, Taylor, Macklin were also used on the agricultural production and marketing studies of the State Board of Public Affairs by McCarthy. Professor Chester Lloyd Jones of the Political Science Department and his students often made tentative drafts of bills or investigated particular points. Ill McCarthy was also dropping suggestions to Van Hise—now it was on renting lands, and at another time it was training men to take

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up legislative work in other states. A letter of J u n e 16, 1910, from Van Hise to McCarthy indicates what happened: Thank you very much for your letter of June 15th in which you give your ideas upon agriculture in relation to renting land. What you said the other day sank into my mind and I shall next year take up Avith the agricultural department what can be done along these lines. The same is true in reference to preparing for special librarians. Of course, the budget has been approved for the coming year, and the matters you bring forward are those for me to consider in my biennial report and in connection with the progress of the university for the coming two years. In a letter written October 5, 1 9 1 1 , soon after McCarthy returned from a trip to Europe, we have an excellent summary of these suggestions. T h e first relates to the Economics department. It seems to me that the Economics Department should have a body of fresh, strong, ingenious men coming in after men like Commons, Adams and Meyer. . . . The Economics Department at the present time is looked upon by outsiders as strong in its service to the state. The fact is that nobody in the department is serving the state at all. H e drives home his point by referring to the fact that for help in preparing the income-tax legislation during the last legislative session they had to go to the Whitewater Normal School to secure Delos Kinsmen, who, McCarthy adds, would be worth considering for appointment to a professorship in the university. (He was not appointed.) T h e next suggestion concerns the political science department, noting its "lamentable deficiency," and concludes: " T h e great problem of the budget, of state debt, of constructive legislation requires experience, ingenuity, tact, political instinct, which come from experience." He then outlines the work that the law school might be doing for the statute law and refers to the work at Pennsylvania, at Columbia, and at Harvard. H e hopes a determined effort will be made, for he does not like to see the law school behind the times. He outlines further the work the University might do in connection with the program of the State Board of Public Affairs, the budget system, the agricultural cooperatives and the accounting system. He warns against the inherent dangers to the University service by the ordinary budget system and the accounting mind.

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He points out the effect of the cost figures for the University which the "Normal schools" were distributing about the state to the detriment of the University. He points out too the effort of the State Superintendent to develop a program for the common schools. T h i s was stimulated by the work of the Board of Public Affairs. McCarthy wants the School of Education to interest itself, just as it did on the Industrial Education program and the letter ends: "If I can be of any service at any time, be sure and call upon me." T h i s was a genuine suggestion. These points are significant not only because they are called to the attention of the President, but because they were points which he kept driving home whenever opportunity presented itself to help the University. IV McCarthy had a wider interest in athletic policy. On October 19, 1908, he sent to President Van Hise a fifteen-page "plan for university athletics." He started out with a statement, made in a faculty meeting, advocating athletics for all. University professors favor the English system but do not participate as English professors do. T h e y never went out to the football field. It would be a great thing if professors would guide intramural athletics, but in view of their lack of interest we must engage professionals. We now have compulsory athletics but it is compulsory indoor athletics. The training of the eye, the brain, the nerve, the spirit which came from outdoor competition is ten times better than the mere machinelike work of the gymnasium. . . . There is nothing, which gives a man grace, strength, quickness and nerve, fearlessness and hardihood like outdoor athletics. . . . These are the things which make men and good soldiers and the mere mechanical drill of soldiers is poor work unless we have the spirit in our men. T h e need for this training in schools now is that men in earlier days (1776 and i860) because of their experience in life had hardihood and grit and had faced the dangers of life. T h e y had done physical work. T h e y could hunt and shoot and swim and ride, but not so the great majority of our men today. " W e want in our universities and graduating from our universities, men. And in the intemperance of our life and the high nerve-racking whirl of competition, what avails German or Latin or Greek, if we cannot physically stand up against the conditions of life."

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T h e administrative policy is to hamstring the director of athletics, by throwing about him a faculty committee of control opposed to athletics—and in particular the present chairman w h o is "a bitter o p p o n e n t of all athletics." If w e did the same thing to the professor of Greek, surrounding him with a committee of control who were opposed to the teaching of Greek, "how long w o u l d it take the Regents to do away with Greek or the council?" W h y not stop this "nonsense" then, in athletics? W h y not cut the red tape? T h e question of adequate financing by raising fees for public or intercollegiate football particularly is discussed in detail and includes the budgeting of the surplus for all athletics. T h e proposed plan is thus summarized on the final page of the report: ι. Compulsory outdoor competitive

athletics.

2. Professional outdoor instructors. 3. T h e establishment of non-intercollegiate sports for everybody. 4. T h e financing of the above from the surplus funds from intercollegiate sports administered by some competent, sympathetic and responsible body appointed by the Regents. T h i s was another aspect of McCarthy's thinking and his attitude of things in general. H e wanted University services to reach everyo n e — s u r e l y everyone in the student body. H e always wanted as broad a base as possible—a democratic base; and specialists must contribute of their special ability for the general welfare. T h i s is the only justification for the use of the enormous sums received in intercollegiate athletics unless, recognizing it frankly as a business, the money goes to the player-participants. McCarthy himself, though poor, would not accept money as a player in his student days and at Brown, at Georgia and at Wisconsin, labored for integrity in athletics. H e wanted to take the sham, pretense and hypocrisy o u t of it, and said so publicly many times in later years. V Football was naturally a special personal interest. McCarthy went down to football practice whenever he could, helping the youngsters in kicking, particularly. H e was for a while assistant athletic coach, exerting a great influence on the field and with individual players.

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In 1907 football was at a very low ebb. T h e faculty was even less sympathetic than usual. T h e team was " i n the dumps." Fourteen men were out for the team and had met with repeated defeats. T h e boys asked McCarthy if he would come out and take charge. H e agreed, and went to work with his usual wholeheartedness. T h e game with Iowa was next on the schedule, and Iowa had a very good team. On the day of the game the river had overflowed covering the Iowa field with three or four inches of mud. A fierce wind blew through the north goal. Wisconsin lost the toss, and had to face the wind. Iowa scored once against valiant Wisconsin defense, making the five points allowed for touchdowns in those days. In the intermission McCarthy cheered his team with the thought that in the second half the wind would be at their back. T o their dismay, when they came on the field the wind had veered and was again in their face. This was a shocking discovery, but said McCarthy with invincible faith: " W e will win anyway; it is always darkest before the dawn." At that moment a rabbit darted from the Wisconsin tent and raced straight down the field for the Iowa goal. Mac cried to his dispirited team: "There's your luck — w e will w i n ! " T h e boys gave a shout, and tore into the game with fresh heart; in the last minute they pulled off a short kick and recovered, ran down the field behind the goal post and through the goal, to win 6 to 5. Minnesota in those days as in these had a very strong team. McCarthy scouted the Minnesota-Carlisle Indian game. H e was in a restaurant after the game when some of the gamblers came in. He asked one of them how he would bet on the Wisconsin game; he said he couldn't bet until he heard the report of " A r t " (the gamblers' scout) on Wisconsin practice. When Mac returned to Madison, sure enough, there was " A r t " in the grandstand to watch Wisconsin, for the faculty had forbidden secret practice. T h e n Mac carried out an idea that was born in the Minneapolis restaurant. All week the Wisconsin team practiced a series of forward passes to a quarterback (who wore a white hat) and an end (who wore a white sweater). Says Mac, On Friday I gathered the team together and told them that Minnesota had a man there the whole week and that he knew our entire plays. Their faces fell, but I said: "Just because they have had a man

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here all the week, we are going to beat them tomorrow." Then in the gymnasium I showed them how the second man, the man behind the one with the white cap or the white jersey, would take the ball. I calculated that Minnesota would be so positive that they would put out the man with the white jersey or the white cap and take no notice of the other men. When the game was started my men were so confident that they pulled off a forward pass right away. Sure enough, five Minnesota men downed the man with the white jersey and the man with the ball ran untouched, the whole length of the field. Jack Wilce who was on the team at the time and subsequently coached there says that McCarthy played an extremely important part in the rehabilitation of athletics at the University of Wisconsin in the years 1907-9. McCarthy left an imprint on Wilce, as on the men who were under him that Wilce feels will never be cflaced. One of his unforgettable memories is the effective use of the sentence, " I t is always darkest before dawn." I have often heard him use the same phrase regarding legislation in which he was very greatly interested, when the fight seemed to be going against him. Recalling the trip from Madison to Chicago before the Iowa game in 1907, Wilce remarked, at the time of McCarthy's death: On the night preceding the 1907 football game at Iowa City, on the train going from Madison to Chicago, "Mac" talked steadily for three hours, giving examples from his own life, delving into history for examples of the heroic, and in every way impressing upon those present the fact, and probably the keynote of his life, that "no matter what the odds against you, anything can be done." The events in this game, which had a great meaning in Wisconsin's athletic history, bore out most of his wonderful theory. Mac's great contribution to his men was not so much the technique of football which he understood, but a "not to be denied fine spirit of achievement," and Jack Wilce wishes to be numbered "as one upon whom the teachings of Charles McCarthy have had a great and lasting influence." A pleasant episode occurred in September, 1909, when in response to an invitation from Keio University, McCarthy took thirteen Wisconsin baseball players to T o k y o to play a series of games with the T o k y o Universities. T h e business manager of the University team was Genkwan Shibata, familiarly called "Shibby,"

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245 who was instrumental in part in making the arrangements. "Shibby" was one of the numerous Chinese and Japanese protégés of McCarthy's. He was particularly close to him at this time and during the rest of McCarthy's life. T h e Captain of the team was John Messmer, now living in Milwaukee, who remembers McCarthy with deep affection and even with reverence. All the men felt it a great experience and appreciated more and more what a great opportunity it was to live so intimately with McCarthy. They enjoyed everything from Mac's daily discussions on Japan to his speeches at the banquets with the leading Japanese statesmen. They took to heart the little scoldings that he gave them when they did not live up to his ideal of being representatives of the University. President T a f t wrote to the American consul to extend every courtesy to the boys. The Japanese were lavish in their entertainment. They appreciated very much the fine spirit and attitude of the Wisconsin boys. Some letters in the local Tokyo newspaper intimated that some of the decisions of the umpire might be mistaken. A word or look from Mac to a player who wanted to protest was enough. T h e boys played eight games, five with Keio University, two with Waseda, and one with Tokyo, and the whole series was even, four won and four lost. T h e good-will that existed between the teams is evident in the farewell at the dock on October 13. !9°9 : The send-off was a fine affair. The Keio, Wasedo, and Tokyo Japanese teams came down to Yokohama bearing wreaths of flowers and presented them to the Americans on the pier. Then the Wisconsin boys gave the Wisconsin cheer, which the departing visitors returned and cheered for Waseda and Keio. Then the Wisconsin men as the boat was pulling out started up their University song and the Japanese stood with bared heads as the boat dropped out of sight. It was more than a baseball jaunt—this trip—it was a successful good-will political mission and in every way educational to all concerned. VI There have been many references to McCarthy and his influence on agriculture, particularly agricultural marketing, and agricul-

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turai cooperation. In this field he was a continual irritant to the College of Agriculture at the University and to the Dean of the School, Harry L. Russell, who opposed everything McCarthy did both in Madison and in Washington, when they both were in the United States Food Administration. McCarthy was working with the American Society of Equity in their agitation for better conditions and prices for the marketing of their products and stimulated it to seek the aid of the University. Blunt statements were often made by McCarthy about the agricultural work of the college and particularly its emphasis on production and its utter neglect of marketing. Professor Henry C. Taylor, a constructive and cooperative member of the Faculty says in his reminiscence of this period: But while wc at the University were conservative and made little immediate response to the excitement created by the American Society of Equity, those persons under the Capitol Dome at Madison who recognized the political possibilities of this farmer movement were more ready for active response. The master mind in the State Capitol in those days was Charles McCarthy, Legislative Reference Librarian. I had known McCarthy in the winter of 1898-99 when he was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin. We first became acquainted in Professor Haskins' course on the English Constitution. By 1901 McCarthy had taken his Ph.D. degree and had accepted a position as Legislative Reference Librarian in the Wisconsin State Capitol. He said of this appointment, "The Professors at the University thought they would pigeon-hole me, but I decided that I would show them the importance of the new position." And there is no question of his success in doing so.1 McCarthy uses even more effectively the State Board of Public Affairs and the governor who was its Chairman as an instrument to secure more effective cooperation from the University in the marketing of cheese, milk, and other farm products. Professor T a y l o r adds a word about the Board. The Board dealt with diverse matters. McCarthy had no official connection with the Board, but he was a dominant influence in determining its lines of activity. Through the Board McCarthy brought much pressure to bear upon the University with regard to work in the field of agricultural cooperation and marketing.2 1 Henry C. Taylor, "The Development of Research and Education in Agricultural Cooperation and Marketing at the University of Wisconsin 1910-1920." Ms. pp. 9-10. 2 Ibid., pp. 10-1 i.

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T h e first report of the University on the Marketing of Cheese (Bulletin 251, Agricultural Experiment Station) was marked "Prepared for the State Board of Public Affairs." This report was published in April, 1915, four years after the establishing of the State Board of Public Affairs. This was the work principally of Professor Hibbard who had been brought from the University of Iowa upon the recommendation of Professor Taylor, and approved by the State Board of Public Affairs who had kept pressure on the University from their first efforts to bring Carl Thompson or John Lee Coulter to the University for the marketing work. The bulletin on the marketing of cheese was followed by other bulletins following the same general form on the marketing of potatoes (July, 1915), of butter (June, 1916), and milk (December, 1917). T h e kind of reaction to McCarthy's prodding of the University has been left in a record by Professor Taylor. This is a mild reaction compared, for example, to Dean Russell's: Some record of the way in which I reacted to McCarthy's prodding when expressing myself to Dean Russell is shown in the following memorandum, which unfortunately carries no date, but which is in the file along with material for 1913 and fits into that period for the reason that it was in the spring of 1913 that we were working with the State Board of Public Affairs in planning our first experiment in cooperation, the Wisconsin Cheese Producers' Federation. The memorandum reads as follows: Dean H. L. Russell—Memorandum I. It has occurred to me that in this day when a small group of people seem to have it in their power to bring so much pressure to bear upon the workings of the University, that it would be a good thing for the College of Agriculture to go at it systematically to ascertain what the state wants us to do—not the state as impersonated in Dr. Charlie, but the state as represented by the thinking farmers. My notion is that different members of the faculty are out over the state a very great deal during the year and if each one would incidently make it a point to study the needs of the farmers and get a line on the things which they desire, this would give us a backing for things which they desire, things which, in our judgment, are the things most worth while both with respect to research work and education. I have in mind now particularly the matter of the short-course. Prof. Hatch wisely decided that the labor problem should be made the central feature this year; Dr. Charlie decided that cooperation should be made the central feature. I have seen

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more squirmishing around to conform to Dr. Charlie's idea than I have noted for the purpose of conforming to the ideal set forth by Prof. Hatch, who is presumedly in very much closer touch with the needs and desires of the farmers of the state.3 In January, 1 9 1 3 , the policy of the University with reference to agricultural cooperation was discussed in President Van Hise's office with representatives of the University, the American Society of Equity and the State Board of Public Affairs. It is noteworthy that Dean Russell of the College of Agriculture was not present at so important a conference. Professor Taylor reported to the Dean the result of the Conference in a letter dated January 18, 1 9 1 3 . T a y l o r says in his letter: " O u r [the University's] function is to investigate and not to agitate on organizing marketing institutions." T h e r e is a significant final paragraph to this letter: I am writing you this note with a view to having a thorough understanding between yourself, President Van Hise, and myself on this point. Senator Hatton, McCarthy and Sir Horace Plunkett were the men who have launched this idea of functions at the Capitol; of course I need not tell you the idea orginated with McCarthy.4 T h i s remained the policy of the University for five years. In 1918, the Non Partisan League started its work and made considerable headway. T h e stock selling salesmen of the A.C.A. with headquarters at Wausau were milking the men who milked the cows, and even T u b b s of the Society of Equity started his I.C.U. which was a stock-selling scheme. T h e attitude of the University to write descriptive and historical literature on marketing processes gave way on Taylor's recommendation to a more positive aid and help on organization problems, and the University was to interest itself more definitely in the legal and accounting sides of the cooperative organizations. These were points as we have seen that McCarthy insisted on from the beginning together with the democratic one-man-vote basis of the organization. Riley, McCarthy's draftsman, and legal advisor and aide in the National Agricultural Organization Society was to be taken over for the legal work. A n interesting sequel to this was a penciled note made by T a y l o r in the summer of 1 9 2 1 , shortly after the untimely death of Charles McCarthy, "whose work I appreciate more and more as the years go by": " N o w that McCarthy has gone, maybe the College 3 Ibid., pp. 42-43.

4

Ibid., p. 27.

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[i. e., Agriculture] will have to and should take a more aggressive p a r t — Has this been a factor?" 5 An answer was made to this note, in his own handwriting by Professor Kirk L. Hatch. "Sure—Macklin is doing a very aggressive piece of work. Hubbard is more cautious but both are supporting commodity organizations—on basis of right kind of organization and complete information we had an interesting year." 8 T h e r e is a very interesting statement of Henry C. Taylor recording a conversation he had with McCarthy at the time Taylor was leaving the University to go to Washington. It is characteristic of McCarthy and my knowledge of the facts at the time confirms the statement: About the time I was going to Washington, I was in conversation with McCarthy one day and he indicated to me that a good deal of the criticism and the digs that he had made earlier because we were not doing more work in cooperation and marketing at the University were intended to help me overcome the inertia in the administration of the institution which he felt was very naturally retarding the expansion of this new line of work. My disposition is to accept this at face value, although I think there were times when McCarthy felt that I was over-conservative—and as I look back on the matter, I believe it to be true, but I was more conservative than I otherwise would have been, because I felt that McCarthy and the Society of Equity were wanting action in advance of understanding. I remember on one occasion when we were just starting the work on the marketing of cheese, I said to McCarthy, "We do not know enough about the marketing of cheese as yet to act intelligently." McCarthy replied, "Get to doing something and you'll learn a lot faster." 7 VII On his own initiative McCarthy had begun a study of the commercial correspondence school. This was a part of his interest in having the University reach all the people through what was called University Extension. T h e fictions of formal reporting may throw a smoke screen about the fact, but the documents themselves reveal the truth. McCarthy was responsible for having his superior officer (Mr. Legier) designated as secretary of University Extension and they kept the "department" in their office and received no pay for their services. In fact, at this time McCarthy spent from six hundred s Ibid., p. 38.

β ibid.

' Ibid., p. 42.

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to seven hundred dollars on the orphan child. In August, 1906, McCarthy submitted to Mr. Legier a report on the commercial correspondence school consisting of nine typewritten pages. It estimates the number of Wisconsin students who enrolled in these schools, the estimated income from them, the organization of commercial schools as "stock" companies paying large dividends, a comparison with the University operation of such schools, and the possibilities and peculiar advantages of University supervision. T h e interesting conclusion quotes the opinion of various people such as Professors Ely and Bullock, the President of the University of Chicago, Carroll D. Wright and others. Professor Ely testifies that "some of the best pupils I ever had, I got by this method." A n d Professor Bullock of Harvard said, "Dean Kinley of Illinois and President Swain of the Montana Schools came to me by this method." T h e immediately significant thing was that Legier reported a summary of the findings to Van Hise on August 10, 1906: At my request Mr. Charles McCarthy, Chief of the Legislative Reference Department, had made an investigation of the methods of work, extent and results of correspondence schools, chiefly those whose headquarters are in Chicago. From the accompanying copy of the report you will note the following facts: ι. That approximately 35,000 students residing in Wisconsin are enrolled in these several correspondence schools. 2. That approximately $800,000 goes outside of the state annually for instruction of this kind, presumably because no facilities exist in our own state for supplying this demand. 3. That good results have attended correspondence courses of this kind when properly conducted, as for instance in the case of the Armour Institute, Chicago. 4. That the University of Wisconsin has facilities more ample and with better equipment in every way to meet this demand than can be found outside the limits of the slate, even in the case of the most successful of the correspondence schools. 5. That if the regents and yourself authorize correspondence courses in accordance with plans heretofore outlined and in a measure suggested in the accompanying report, such courses can be made self-supporting, probably from the beginning, and certainly within a year. T h e fundamental document, however, in the initiation of the new comprehensive plan of university extension was a letter from

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McCarthy to President Van Hise which as Ave shall see in the sequel became the basis of the actual organization as it developed. This was not a revitalization or revivification; it was a new phoenixlike structure that emerged from the burnt cinders of the old. Dr. Lighty's description of it was "a revivification and a revitalization of an existing idea and ideal but with a wholly different outlook into American democracy." At any rate, in its old form the idea was inert; in its new form, with its wholly different outlook, it became fruitful. T h e proposal was to supplant the scattered and sporadic lectures usually known as University Extension. They were pleasant, they were dilettante, they were a kind of exhibitionism. But McCarthy, with his eye on the short courses and farmer institutes of the agricultural department, and his realization of the waste of money and of talent in the commercial correspondence school, through failure to complete courses, wanted the University to go to the people, or to use a famous expression of his, he wanted to put the University on wheels. This, he says, is the first and greatest work of the University. It will serve the people and it will help the University, particularly—which McCarthy had in mind though he did not say it—in the legislature. What was so characteristic of McCarthy's thinking came out here, the plans must be comprehensive, but the steps must be taken one by one, and the foundation must be built "strongly and well," which meant slowly. It must use existing machinery and agencies in all the localities. It must be a coordinating and cooperative enterprise not handed down from above, or superimposed, but growing up in and indigenous to several localities. It will use the Free Library Commission, its field workers, its local buildings with meeting rooms, and light and heat and books. It will support the local efforts to stir up intellectual activity and to encourage study. McCarthy wanted permanent results, not merely pleasant listening. The new agency will take hold of the active debating movement in the state, outline debates and furnish material. Study clubs were to be organized, and a correspondence school, first in the engineering department, and then, department by department, throughout the University. Private railroad cars could be used as moving schools with special equipment and

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laboratories. T h e correspondence w o r k w o u l d be supplemented by periodic class instruction a n d consultation. A whole g r o u p of itinerant professors w o u l d b e organized. T h e old lecture w o u l d n o w b e supplemented o r prepared for by special work in libraries in collecting relevant books or in m a k i n g traveling libraries available f r o m Madison. A l l these techniques that were later developed i n Wisconsin and in other states, were not conceived, at the time, as a part of the public educational endeavors. T o be sure that the new enterprise w o u l d be taken care of M c C a r t h y insisted here and later that it must be separately organized and placed under a " g o o d administrator and organizer," w h o had no other University duties. Part time secretaries or graduate assistants were not e q u a l to the opportunity or the need. McCarthy's o w n nursing of it was no longer enough, the child was g r o w i n g robust, and at least to Mac its potentialities were real. So he concludes: "I submit this plan with the hope that good can c o m e to o u r ambitious y o u n g m e n and w o m e n who cannot go to college and that it may help in b r i n g i n g our great university into touch and sympathy with the people of o u r State." 8 T h e plan here presented is intimately related to the proposals o n continuation schools, w h i c h r e q u i r e d this development of University Extension as its basis before it c o u l d be carried out. Both plans are parts of McCarthy's conception of a popular, democratic education growing under the aegis of a state university serving a commonwealth. In the development of university extension at the University of Wisconsin, Frank Hutchins was invaluable as inspiration and a source of ideas. McCarthy in w r i t i n g some recollections of Frank H u t c h i n s says, I think he has been the most valuable man in this state in all the great work which has recently been undertaken here. I well remember when the university extension department was in its inception how we talked about it and how he stood up and said, "By George, Mac! We will call it John Bascom College." Frank Hutchins has been going about this state unnoticed with packages of good germs and he has been throwing them into dark corners and these good germs have certainly worked their way into the entire social and political β For the exact proposal as made to V a n Hise see A p p e n d i x , pp. 287-90.

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structure in a wonderful manner. T h e y have put light in dark places and helped to a larger nobler conception of life.® Dr. W . H . Lighty, w h o became the head of the correspondence section in the new extension department thus describes the parts played by Hutchins and M c C a r t h y . Frank A. Hutchins was a man of significant background. He had devoted his life to library promotion, first in the department of public instruction, and later in developing one of the outstanding state library commission services of the country, serving not only established and conventional communities and constituencies but serving acceptably the isolated lumber camps of the Wisconsin pineries as well. It was Mr. Hutchins at the State Capitol who, having incorporated a $1500 item into his legislative Library Commission budget, invited Dr. Charles McCarthy to develop this proposed Legislative Reference Bureau in the Library Commission. . . . Dr. McCarthy had come to Wisconsin and had won his doctor's degree in history, economics, and politics at the psychological moment when Frank Hutchins needed just that man. These two men played foundation roles in the revivification of university extension in Wisconsin from Capitol Hill, a short mile east of University Hill. 10 Dr. Lighty adds that President V a n Hise asked two men to serve as a committee to look into the Wisconsin situation: Dr. McCarthy and Professor Mack, w h o had conducted in the University shops d u r i n g summer vacation courses for artisans and apprentices which, however, were at the time in a state of decline. T h e y were apparently charged particularly to look into the extent and service of the commercial correspondence school. McCarthy was at this time in possession of the essential facts about correspondence instruction. A n d he adds later about M c C a r t h y : Dr. McCarthy and Professor Mack reported their findings. . . . T h a t reported state of affairs convinced President Van Hise that this adult educational need should be met by the people's own university, at far less cost to the individual citizen, and that far better and more authentic instruction should be given. Dr. McCarthy's β McCarthy to Miss L . E. Stearns, May 6, 1912. 10 W . H. Lighty, A Sketch of the Reiiivification University of Wisconsin, 1906, p. 6.

of University

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at

the

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ardent interest and indefatigable persistence in urging and supporting President Van Hise, from the Capitol Hill, played a role which cannot well be overemphasized. 11 VIII T h e ne\v University Extension work was begun in the Fall of 1906. T h e r e was no room for it at the University so it was quartered in one of McCarthy's offices—the west front room on the second floor of the Capitol. 1 2 Henry Legier, secretary of the Free Library Commission, and in charge of traveling libraries as a successor to Hutchins, was made the first head of University Extension. Legier was very reluctant to accept the additional job, because the work of the traveling library system kept him very busy, but McCarthy finally prevailed. T h e first office staff consisted of Dr. Lighty and Miss Flisch. Lighty was at this time "wheedling out of the faculty members the commitments which should constitute the new university extension." Legier and McCarthy together settled the policies of the new work and the new courses and acted on Lighty's suggestions. McCarthy did a good deal of interviewing, or rather informal conferring with University professors in the new extension and w i n n i n g their cooperation. Miss Flisch sent out the lessons, kept the records of students and handled all the money. She did the clerical work, too, b u t in a few months the work had so greatly increased that a stenographer was needed. Frank Hutchins was field representative in charge of the high school debates. 13 Dr. Lighty says of this appointment: " D r . McCarthy, knowing his unusual gifts and in gratitude, as well, to him as benefactor and friend, procured his appointment with title of field organizer." 11 Ibid., p p . 8 - 9 . 12 A b o u t a y e a r l a t e r t h e n e w u n i v e r s i t y e x t e n s i o n n o w e x p a n d i n g w a s to b e m o v e d to the university. It was t h o u g h t some p l a c e in the basement could b e f o u n d . Miss F l i s c h i n a l e t t e r to M r s . M c C a r t h y , o n J u n e 20, 1921 r e p o r t e d t h e r e m o v a l as f o l l o w s : " A t first w e h a d o n e r o o m a t t h e l e f t o f t h e m a i n e n t r a n c e of M a i n H a l l . M c C a r t h y was responsible for this a d m i r a b l e location for he h a d f o u g h t an inclination to l o d g e us in the basement o r some o t h e r obscure place. H e said that p e o p l e d i d n o t realize t h e m a g n i t u d e o f t h e n e w w o r k . M r . L e g i e r d i d n o t g o w i t h us. I w e n t d o w n to t h e C a p i t o l every m o r n i n g to report, to receive my instructions and to get his signature to checks or papers." 13 H u t c h i n s h a d b e e n i l l a n d w a s f o r c e d to g i v e u p h i s w o r k o n t h e L i b r a r y C o m mission. His recovery was m a d e possible by the vacation, which he enjoyed from m o n e y w h i c h M c C a r t h y h a d raised f r o m y o u n g R o c k e f e l l e r and some of H u t c h i n s ' colleagues.

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One of the striking things about the new University Extension as outlined by McCarthy was the amount of financial support voted by the legislature from the very beginning. The appropriations increased from $20,000 in 1907 to $210,500 in 1921. 1 4 These are truly amazing amounts, far greater than the University expected or than it was willing to ask. Such generous support must have an explanation and that explanation was largely McCarthy. It will not be necessary to trace the history in detail, but a few incidents will perhaps be sufficiently illustrative. University Extension as McCarthy re-created it began, however, a hand-tomouth existence in 1907. As we have seen, there was not even room for it in the University buildings, and McCarthy took care of the orphan in one of his own rooms at the Capitol. Moreover, money was so lacking that he spent $700 of his own money to carry on the work. In 1909 McCarthy knew he had labor's support of University Extension so he set out to win the manufactures particularly in Milwaukee. He worked so successfully that we find William George Bruce, the Secretary of the Merchants and Manufacturers Association on January 8, 1909, reporting to Mac, as follows, the result of a visit by an outstanding committee of manufacturers to Governor Davidson: O u r delegation consisting of A . J . L i n d e m a n n , G e n . Otto H . Falk, A . T . V a n Scoy, Carl Geilfuss, F r e d W . Sivyer and myself called on the G o v e r n o r on Wednesday afternoon. . . . 1« Total Legislative Appropriations 1907-8 to 1922-23 ( 20,000 1907-S 20,000 1908-9 50,000 1909-10 1910-11 75'°°° 100,000 1911-12 125,000 1912-13 185,000 >9'3-'4 213,730 >9'4-'5 1915-16 211,227 209,110 1916-17 1917-18 201,610 1918-19 201,610 1919-20 181,610 1920-21 200,500 1921-22 210,500 1922-23 210,500

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T h e Governor was inclined to feel that $20,000 would go a good ways toward carrying out the university extension idea. He seemed to labor under the impression that there was too much diffusion of effort. He was in sympathy with the idea of carrying the benefits of this work to the factories and shops of the state, and favored "five times the present appropriations" if a definite plan could be worked out by which the effort would be centered upon industrial education. He agreed with the suggestion that the industrial development of the state should receive special attention at the hands of the university and believed that with the decline of the apprentice system the working boy should have a chance to get the benefits of the extension movement, in securing more knowledge and skill along technical lines. He refused to change his message, or rather to incorporate a definite endorsement of our demand, claiming that the message had gone to the printer. He believed that our wants should be formulated into a bill to be introduced in the legislature and that if it were within lines of reason he would support it. T h e result is that we are somewhat up in the air and do not quite know the next step to pursue. Your advice and that of President Van Hise will have to come to the rescue. Whether it is practical to prepare a separate measure providing for university appropriation and at the same time fix the manner of its application, is a matter upon which we are not quite clear. T h i n k this over and advise with us. M c C a r t h y wished always to keep the appropriation for University Extension separate f r o m the general University bill. H e feared general leveling cuts o r a percentage cut. H i s fears were realized in 1 9 1 1 . I n February he protests and i n J u n e he is able to say, " I told you so," with no satisfiaction to himself. T h e protest of February 3 was presented to President Van Hise: I want to say that I am personally dissatisfied with the position of the university extension bill in being combined with the university bill. From the experience which I have had with educational institutions in the past, whenever it becomes necessary to cut a bill, the idea is to preserve the main stem always and cut out the new things. . . . Now, I believe this is unfair to the extension bill . . . [which] is the basis for any new forward movement in the University. . . . Had it stood alone last session, it could have carried everything in the bill, but as it was, it was tied up with the university bill and became a matter for jockeying. . . . I asked one of the regents the other day if the legislature could get

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any assurance that the fees would be cut in the university extension department, and he said that the members of the regents were opposed to cutting the fees. I want to go on record in this matter in saying that I believe the fees should be cut in two and that the extension division should have at least $150,000 a year to make up for this cut. This is absolutely necessary if it is going to do the right work that it should for the people in this state. On J u n e 15 this note is sent addressed just to " V a n Hise." Last night in order to save the % of a mill tax for the university, the university extension department was cut from $150,000 to $87,500. I have predicted all along that if the university extension department was tied up with the university that it would be cut in this manner . . . altho it is the poorest policy in the world for the university. If the university acquieses in this cut it will simply prove what so many say—that it does not care to work for the great popular movement. I am writing this not as a protest, but to show the results of the warnings which I have repeatedly made for the last 8 or 9 years as to the university policy. It may be well to note that McCarthy did not himself acquiesce in the situation. He went to work. T h e result was the following appropriation: 1 9 1 2 - 1 3 — $ 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 ; 1 9 1 3 - 1 4 — $ 1 2 5 , 0 0 0 . In his letter to President Van Hise, McCarthy had asked that one man should be placed in charge of the University Extension program and stipulated that he should be a good administrator and organizer and have no other university duties. Van Hise selected Louis E. Reber of Penn State College. McCarthy was consulted about the appointment and approved it. Reber came late in 1907 to take over the job, and was in frequent consultation with McCarthy then and throughout McCarthy's life. Reber made his first report for the biennial period ending J u n e 30, 1908. For convenience, expedition, and efficiency, the work had been divided into four departments: (1) correspondence study; (2) instruction by lectures; (3) debating and public discussions; and (4) general information and welfare. In some subjects, credits for correspondence courses were accepted toward a degree. In an effort to avoid one of the chief pitfalls of correspondence instruction, classes were held periodically in the home town of correspond-

258

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ents by itinerent instructors. The inconvenience to faculty members of extension instruction and correction of correspondence papers made the suggestion of a special faculty for the extension division pertinent. A bakers' institute held in Milwaukee was typical of the work done for artisans. The Division's cooperation with the state organization of stationary engineers was evidence of the interest of organized labor. An especially interesting part of this report is a supplement containing the favorable publicity which the Division received, particularly, some letters from employers, significantly enough addressed to McCarthy, and resolutions from organized labor bodies which had been stimulated by McCarthy. There were letters from school teachers, students of the correspondence courses and newspaper clippings from out of state. In the next biennium, Director Reber became Dean Reber. T h e work continued to develop within the main services of the first report. The General Information and Welfare Service which was naturally a residuary agency expanded most of all. On July 1, 1909, a municipal reference bureau was established to relieve the Legislative Reference Library of much of the municipal reference work. A Bureau of Civic and Social Center Development was also established in this biennium. Other departments established during 1 9 1 2 - 1 4 were a Press Bureau, a Bureau of Health Instruction (Dr. H. E. Dearholt, head), a Bureau of Community Music (Peter W. Dykema, head), and a Bureau of Visual Instruction (W. H. Dudley, head). A Bureau on Commercial and Industrial Relations (A. H. Melville, head) was later organized. During the biennium the field organization which had been included in the plans from the beginning, 1 9 1 0 - 1 9 1 2 , was given fresh impetus. Conferences of many kinds—of newspapermen, of social service workers—were helped or were organized by university extension. The field organization continued to expand up to the time of McCarthy's death. T h e reaction of 1915 on the University Extension—which was a main center of attack in the effort to keep the University "within the walls," was not successful in its effort either to seriously reduce the appropriations or limit the scope of the "University-on-wheels." During the war period, the Extension Division entered actively in

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all phases of its work to reinforce the national effort to victory. T o Henry Legier, after he had gone to the Chicago Public Library as its librarian, McCarthy wrote a letter with seeming naivete noting that both President Van Hise and the State Superintendent of Schools, C. P. Cary, were claiming credit for University Extension. He adds he is glad it has become worth claiming the credit for. And McCarthy's mind could not but recur to the days when Hutchins and he were dreaming about the possibilities of University Extension, when he took it under his own protecting wing at the Capitol, spent his own money for it, then returned it to its mother, the University, to nourish into a fuller life. T h e record shows unmistakably where the credit belongs. McCarthy conceived the plan, formulated it, presented it to the President of the University, cared for it in the beginning, and fought its battles always, with or without University support. T h e making of a good society that is a society that made free men; the making of a humane society that is a society whose supreme interest is human beings; the making of a dynamic society, a society where men grow in and by their service to their fellow men—these were the social objectives of McCarthy's life. For this process he saw education as the essential means, and the State University as, in a special sense, the instrument of achievement. This was to be the creative social force finding expression in an intelligent public opinion and ultimately in good laws and sound administration. University Extension was a weapon to break the campus confines of the University influence—it was understood that campus was at least state-wide. The truth is McCarthy always thought of the University as national in its influence; and that its influence must extend wherever there were aspiring and hopeful human beings. T h e University was an educational missionary, whose task it was to explore educational opportunities, to plant seeds, and then make way for local institutions.

Chapter T H E

CONTINUATION

EDUCATIONALLY

M

XVIII SCHOOL:

T H E

DISINHERITED

CCARTHY'S term for the philosophy of education that underlay all his efforts was "democratic education." Education must reach all the people—not merely those who could survive the grade hurdles of the elementary school, or the "unit" hurdles of the high school, or the "semester hour credits" of college. His chief concern was those who dropped—or were dropped—out of the school system. He himself might have become a part of this educational driftwood if he had not had the will and the spirit to combat what to many might have been overwhelming odds. He thought in terms of the old chain image, that the social chain was only as strong as its weakest link—or in this case as its numerous weak links. T o these weak members of society he did not want to give merely skills or a higher rate of productivity; he wanted to make them better workmen, better citizens, better men. T h e social basis of reasoning was emphasized over and over again in his appeals: Wisconsin's dependence, hereafter, must be not on her superabundant resources, but on her human resources, not on mere native intelligence, but on a trained native intelligence. This was the purpose back of the continuation school program. The danger that he saw in the social emphasis is that it tends to overlook the individual. In the first place, under the conditions of our industrial life the individual needs, as a bulwark against deadening routine and the devitalizing effects of a minute division of labor, "a wider moral, mental, and manual training." We may develop the machine, but however seemingly automatic it may become, there will still be a man to design it, to guide it, to attend it. The greater and more complex the machine, the greater the sum of intelligence needed to get from it the maximum efficiency. T h e purpose of McCarthy's efforts was, economically, to put brains into our

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product; socially, it was to promote the general welfare, or social and individual happiness; and, individually, it was to train the great capacities of the ordinary American so that in serving his generation socially and economically, he would find his own worth, dignity, and happiness. Humboldt's statement that whatever you want in the state you must first put in the schools was a central article of faith with McCarthy. He felt that "industrial training must be judged by its effect upon the life of the people and upon human experience and happiness, and upon a varying number of our great problems, social, economic, and moral." He wanted to reach the group that I had called the educationally disinherited. If a child fitted the school system, was academically minded, and his parents had some economic surplus, he could get an education. But according to McCarthy's statistics, only about one of every thirty of those who entered school around 1910 ever graduated from high school. For those whose schoolwork was thus cut short he hoped to establish a new educational ladder—the continuation school—by means of which the individual might rise to the highest professional or business success within his capacity. II T h e University Extension plan of 1906, proposed to President Van Hise, was only the beginning of McCarthy's plans for democratic education in the State. T h e more comprehensive plan was germinating in his mind in 1906, when the University Extension proposal was made, but it needed the development of the intervening years at the University in the field of adult education to make the more comprehensive plan feasible. McCarthy felt that in 1910 the time was ripe. It was then that he presented his larger program to President Van Hise in a six-page letter. 1 T h e first paragraph indicates the general character of the plan. I herewith submit a p l a n w h i c h I believe will be u s e f u l in the relation of the university to the industrial c o n d i t i o n in the state. W e h a v e the university extension r e a c h i n g o u t f r o m a b o v e just as the short course reached o u t f r o m a b o v e to a g r i c u l t u r a l conditions, b u t h o w w i l l this • T h e c o m p l e t e s t a t e m e n t is given in t h e A p p e n d i x , p p . 291-94.

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continue? How shall we build up a solid system of vocational training in the state? Shall it be done through the state superintendent's office, or shall it be done through some separate office in the state, or shall it be done through the university? The plan submitted involves the cooperation of the university with some state department for the building of the system of vocational classes in this state. T h i s plan preceded the Report of the Commission on Industrial and Agricultural T r a i n i n g of 1 9 1 1 , but the Report was already taking shape in McCarthy's mind. T h e plan was in the nature of a first draft. Its usefulness in helping to influence Van Hise as President of the University and as a member of the Commission was incidental to McCarthy's satisfaction in giving expression to his passion for serving the socially and educationally underprivileged and disinherited. T h e plan as formulated in the letter asked for a separate and distinct program for the "industrial and commercial development of the state." A governmental agency should administer it but the University would have a guiding influence. Schools providing parttime or full-time instruction would be established throughout the state under the stimulus of state aid; they were to be any kind of schools that were needed. T h e r e was to be no rigidity. T h e character of the district, whether agricultural, semi-agricultural, semimanufacturing, or completely urban and industrialized, would be a factor in determining the instruction in the schools. T h e y would be for high-school students, for students in high school and working, and for students who never reached high school. T h e fear of some, that the plan would create a division between working classes and cultural classes, is frankly stated and met. T h e argument against control by general education is briefly stated, but it is elaborated more fully later in the Report of 1 9 1 1 . T h e solution, McCarthy thought, was in the cooperation of University Extension with the local educational agencies. I believe we have in the university extension work of this state the solution of it and probably the best solution ever attempted by any country or any state. The combination between the university extension work and the university school of teachers will produce these results. The chart which I have submitted shows how the thing can be worked out.

CONTINUATION A PLAN

ΓΟβ

AND

COOPERATION

BETWEEN

TUE MOVEMENT

POP TRADE

EDUCATION SHOWING Δ PLAN

IN

J

IO.

2-/

fí

77· 181, 209, 221, 222, 223, 248, 277; quoted, 179; promotion of agricultural aids, in U.S., 184, 186, 204; in Ireland, 185-87; his "McCarthy of Wisconsin," 226 Poe, Clarence, 183 Political-economic conditions in the eighteen nineties, 32 ff. Political parties, see Parties Political platforms, McCarthy's work in connection with, 58, 157, 159, 174; proposals for agricultural plants in national, 177 Political Science Association, 132, 133 Potter Law, 116 Practical Training for Public Service, 132 President, recall applied to, 173 Price, F. A. S., 181 Prichard, Dr., 277 Progressive party, Republican party divided into Stalwarts and, 35; antagonisms toward its social legislation, 72, 83; candidate joins attack on McCarthy and the Library, 75 ff., 84; legislation upheld by courts, 83, 136; period of its constructive legislation: part played by McCarthy and the Library, 90, 10926; platform of 1914, excerpts, 109 f.; La Follette's part in its social achievement, 110; underlying principles of Wisconsin's legislation and administration, 117; McCarthy not mentioned in histories, but seen as driving force and constructive thinker, 126; his attempts to win Germans to program of, 138 f., 282; platform of 1912, 158, 160 ff.; antitrust plank, 162; plank on the judiciary, 1 7 1 ; conflict between conservative and liberal forces in: George W. Perkins and his opponents, 160-63; story of, told in The Wisconsin Idea, 164; thinking and work underlying its reforms, 164, 166 Prohibition party, 55 Public opinion, formation of, by procedures for initiating laws and amending constitution: McCarthy's faith in, 128 Public Servant, 133

3 »4 Public service, use of the expert, training for, 132-34 Public Utility Law, 112, 118 f. Putnam, Herbert, 69

INDEX 131:

Racine, Wis., support of continuation schools, 271 Raguse, Senator, 101 Railroad Commission, gg, 129, 130; members, 131 Railroad Commission Act, 116 ff. Railroads, A. R . Hall against rebates and free passes, 35, 55, 116; reasons for political influence: regulation of, 116 Rastall, B. M., 141, 142 Reasonableness, defined, 120 Reber, Louis E., 257, 258 Recall, of judges, 127, 135. '36, 168-71; of commissioners, 130, 1 3 1 ; of judicial derisions. 135. 168; of President of U.S., 173; McCarthy's belief in: desire to apply it to all commissions, 172 Reeves, Jesse, 132 Referendum and initiative, 127 t. Reform, constructive: thinking and work that must lie back of, 164, 166 Reminiscences of Carl Schurz, 106 "Representative plan," Rockefeller's, 204 Republican party, division into Stalwart and Progressive factions (q. v.), 35: attack on McCarthy and the Library, 72-89 Richards, Clara, 192 Richmond, T . C., 85 Rickard, Edgar, 214 Riley, Miles, 125, 126, 132, 155. 187, 207, 248 Rockefeller, John D., 13; friendship and correspondence with McCarthy, 28 ff., 202-6; their correspondence re Industrial Relations Committee, 196-202: "representative plan," 204 Rockefeller Foundation, Industrial Relations Committee appointed: reactions of officials of Federal Commission on Industrial Relations, 197 ff. Roessler, Assemblyman, 51 Roethe, Herman. 73 Roosevelt, George Emlen, 173 Roosevelt, Quentin, 218 Roosevelt, Theodore, 32, 217, 228, 234; introduction to The Wisconsin Idea, 37, 65, 163, 164 ff.; seeks advice of McCarthy, 157, 163, 174; their relations, 158-74 passim; the Bull Moose platform,

160 ff.; loyalty to George W. Perkins, 160, 164: warm regard for Wisconsin people, 163, 166, 172; opinion of Woodrow Wilson, 164; correspondence re power of judges and conflict between legislature and courts, 166-71; a n d r e •ICIion to harmonize economic conditions and the Constitution, 170 t.; question of third term for, 173; an advertising medium for ideas, 233, 280 Ross, Professor, 98, 99, 163 Rowell, Chester, 160, 162, 163 Rusk, Jeremiah, 35 Russell, George William (A.E.), 187; quoted, 223 Russell, Harry L., 246, 248, 266; quoted, 217 Saint Patrick's Total Abstinence Society, 10 Sanborn, A. W., 142, 154 Sawyer, Senator, 38 Scandinavians, support of La Follette movement, 138 Schofield, Edward, 116 Schools, see Continuation schools Schreiber, Lucile, marriage, 28; see McCarthy, Lucile Schreiber Schurz, Carl, 106, 138, 282; quoted, 205 Scofield, Governor, 35, 41 Scott, George E., 77 Scott, George Winfield, 69 Seager, Henry Rogers, 132η Seidl, Emil, 141 Selective service, 210 Seligman, E. R . Α., ΐ2ΐ Senate, U.S.: McCarthy's campaign for election to, 226-33 Sentinel, Milwaukee, 78; potshots at McCarthy and the Library, 81 f. Seth, James, 18 Shambough, Benjamin F., 132η Shaw, W. Β., 47 Sheldon, Addison E., 41; quoted, 66 Sherman Act, 159, 162, 163 Shibata, Genkwan, 244 Siebecker, Robert G., 38 Sinclair, John F., 122; work re agricultural credit and agricultural cooperation, 148, 150-52, 153H Slocum, Grant H., 183 Smith, Frank, 13, 15 Smith, Herbert Knox, 125 Smith, Hoke, 875, «74 Smith, Munroe, 170

INDEX Smith-Hughes Law, 273 Social Democratic party, 55 Socialism, 83; charged against McCarthy, 98; in colleges and schools, 99 f. Socialist Labor party, 55 Socialist party of America, Information Department and Research Bureau, 68 Socialists, Milwaukee government by, 141; Wisconsin labor largely Socialist, 209; support of continuation schools, 265 Society for the Promotion of Training for Public Service, 132 Society of Equity, 177, 180-82, 246, 248, 249 Spanish American War, 23, 33 Spencer, Herman, quoted, 60 Stalwarts, 130; Republican party divided into Progressives and, 35; fury against the Library and the University, 72, 76 (f.; constructive instruments of progress that were targets of, 156 State, concept of, 137 State Board of Public Affairs, 140-56; training school for, 132; creation of, 141, 142η; Board members, 142, 147; McCarthy's plans for, 142 If.; scope of the work, 146; investigators, 147 f., 150 f.; appropriations, 148; functions limited by reactionary administration, 149. 156; agricultural issues and programs, 150 ff., 154 t.; laws and published reports resulting from work of, 152 fl.; relation between function of, and work of the Library, 152; educational program and resulting legislation, 153 f.; name changed to Bureau of the Budget, 156; efforts to secure University's cooperation in marketing of farm products, 246 State Board of Vocational Education, 271 State boards and commissions, abolition of, 92 State Council of Defense, 207-10 State libraries, see Libraries State vs. Hastings, 167 Statute, see Laws Staudenmeyer, George, McCarthy's influence on, through Zona Gale, 103-5 Steffens, Lincoln, 37n; quoted, 90η Stern, Walter, 133 Straight, Dorothy Whitney, 281 Straight, Willard, 233 Survey, excerpt, 193; memoir on McCarthy, 213 Swenson, Magnus, 208

31 5

T a f t , William Howard, 78, 140, 150η, 189, «45 Talleyrand, quoted, 127 Tanner, John B., 141 Tarbell, Ida Μ., 37η Taylor, Henry C., 148, 1 5 1 , 239; quoted, 246, 247, 248, 249 Teachers, minimum wage law, 153 Texas cattle, food for, 2 1 5 Thompson, Carl S., 68, 247 Thompson, James, 230 Thum, William. 133 Timlin, Chief Justice, 124 Tinkham, H. W „ 183 Toben kin, Elias, 234 Tokyo universities, Wisconsin baseball players at, 244 Training for public service, 132-34, 140 Trottman, Regent, 264 Tubbs, M. W., 182, 248 Tucker, R . E., 7η Turner, Frederick J . , 24, 25, 26, 27 Turner, Jennie McMullen, 271, 272 United States Steel Corporation, 32 Universities and colleges, public training movement, 134; military training, 224; acts granting lands to, 273 "Universities and Public Service," 133 University Extension, 249 5g; s e e Wisconsin, University of Upham, Governor, 35 Usher, Ellis B., 73; quoted, 74 Van Görden, Assemblyman, 93 Van Hise, Charles H., 24, 105; development of University of Wisconsin during presidency of, 25, 236-59 passim; McCarthy's work with, for University Extension, 251 ff.; for continuation schools, 261, 274 Vocational education, in connection with Wisconsin continuation schools, 271-73; legislation promoting national work, 273 Walsh, David I., 133 Walsh, Frank P., chairman of Federal Commission on Industrial Relations, 18g, 190, 192; conflict between McCarthy and, 194-202 passim; on McCarthy's relation to the Commission, 194 Walsh, Thomas Α., 68 War Labor Policies Board, 218, 219

INDEX W a t e r - p o w e r l e g i s l a t i o n , 124-26 W e a l t h , c o n c e n t r a t i o n o f , 32 W e e d , I n e z , 191, 193 W e h l e , L o u i s , 213 W e i n s t o c k , H a r r i s , 183, >90 " W h a t Have I Done to Help W i n t h e W a r ? " ( M c C a r t h y ) , 207; e x c e r p t , 215

Where Quentin Roosevelt

Sleeps (McCar-

t h y ) , 218 W h i t e , E d w a r d , 18 W h i t e , W m . A l l e n , 160, 161, 163 W h i t t e n , E . S t a g g , 148 W h i t t e n , R o b e r t H . , 47 W h i t t e t , L a w r e n c e , 84, 87η W i d g r e n , J . , 69 W i l c e , J a c k , 244 " W i l d G e e s e , " 4, 5 W i l l i a m s , A . L . , 152η W i l l i a m s , G e o r g e , q u o t e d , 81 W i l l o u g h b y , W i l l i a m F . , 132η W i l s o n , G e o r g e G r a f t o n , 18 W i l s o n , W o o d r o w , 61, 79, 158, 174, 189; s u p p o r t o f N e l s o n b i l l , 70, 79; s o u g h t a d v i c e o f M c C a r t h y , 157, 174: T . R o o s e v e l t ' s o p i n i o n o f , 164; M c C a r t h y ' s e f forts t o support the great " C a p t a i n i n W a s h i n g t o n , " 227, 228, 230; a m e d i u m f o r i d e a s , 233 W i n s l o w , J o h n B . , 71, 118, 136, 170; q u o t e d , 80, 136η Wisconsin, political-economic conditions i n t h e e i g h t e e n n i n e t i e s , 32 ff.; a r e a , 33; f o r e i g n - b o r n p o p u l a t i o n , 34, 138 f.; legislative conditions i n 1901, 39; M c C a r t h y ' s d e v o t i o n t o , 41, 68: t h r e e influences underlying its leadership, 71; n u m b e r o f b i l l s p a s s e d , c o m p a r e d w i t h o t h e r s t a t e s , 81; e f f e c t i v e w a r p r e p a r a t i o n a n d s e r v i c e , 89. 207-21; t h e g l o r i o u s age o f i t s progressive legislat i o n , 109 ff. (see P r o g r e s s i v e p a r t y ) ; T . Roosevelt's admiration forpeople o f , 163, 166, 172; s n e e r s a b o u t , in t h e E a s t , 171; l a r g e l y a n a g r i c u l t u r a l s t a t e : p r o b -

l e m s o f f a r m e r s , 175; k n o w n as a s t a t e w h i c h e n f o r c e s its laws, 278 "Wisconsin

Bill

Factory, T h e "

(McCar-

thy), 75 l l ' i s c o n s i n Idea, The ( M c C a r t h y ) , 37, 127, 137, 164: d e d i c a t i o n , 9; e x c e r p t s , 9, 36, 37, 40, 41, 49, 52, 58, 62, 64, 117, 119, 129η, 131, 135, 147; T . R o o s e v e l t ' s i n t r o d u c t i o n to, 37, 65, 163, 164 ff.; s t o r y o f p r o g r e s s i v e m o v e m e n t t o l d i n , 164 Wisconsin, University of, McCarthy's p o s t g r a d u a t e s t u d y a t , 24-26; s t a t u s a t t u r n o f c e n t u r y : its o u t s t a n d i n g m e n , 24 f.; b e c a m e s y m b o l o f t h e U n i v e r s i t y s e r v i n g t h e s t a t e , 25; t r a i n i n g f o r l i b r a r i a n s , 43, 67; s o c i a l i s m i n ? t r i a l o f E l y , 99; a t t a c k s o n , t o r e s t r a i n a c t i v i t i e s a n d c u r b i n f l u e n c e , 103, 105 ff., 237, 258; l a w a u t h o r i z i n g a T r a i n i n g S c h o o l f o r P u b l i c S e r v i c e , lext, 133; p i o f e s s o r s h i p i n C o o p e r a t i v e s , 151; M c C a r t h y ' s p a r t i n its d e v e l o p m e n t , 236-59; C o m mons the outstanding representative in p u b l i c service: faculty largely conservat i v e , 238; a t h l e t i c s , 241-45; C o l l e g e o f A g r i c u l t u r e , 246-49 U n i v e r s i t y E x t e n s i o n , 249-59; financ i a l s u p p o r t , 255 ff.; L o u i s E . R e b e r p l a c e d i n c h a r g e , 257; d e p a r t m e n t s , 257, 258; w h e r e c r e d i t f o r i t b e l o n g s , 259; c o n t i n u a t i o n schools, 261 ff., 275 W i t t e , E d w i n E . , 90, 191 W o l m a n , L e o , 191 W o m e n d u r i n g W o r l d W a r , 220, 222, 223 W o r k i n g a g e o f b o y s a n d g i r l s , 272 W o r k m e n ' s c o m p e n s a t i o n , 135, 136, 158η, 170

World's

Work, 238

W o r l d W a r I , Wisconsin's effective preparation a n d service and M c C a r t h y ' s part i n i t , 89, 207-21; his p l a n s f o r I r e l a n d ' s s e r v i c e , 221-23 W r i g h t , C a r r o l ! D . , 250