A BIG VICTORY FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT
A BIG VICTORY FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT (From Capital TimN, Madison. Wis.) A jrrwat victory for purity in flection was won in Wisconsin this week in the unanimous verdict of the Wisconsin Supreme Court...
...The assault on a great public policy in Wisconsin has failed and Wisconsin has once more served notice that here is a commonwealth where public office cannot be placed on the bargain counter...
...The United States, they said to themselves, is now en-raloped in a worship of wealth and materialism that makes ¦ere possession of wealth an index of success...
...The revolting disclosures aroused public sentiment to such an extent that a corrupt practices act was passed by the legislature in 1911...
...The brief submitted to the (court and compiled under the direction of Mr...
...The masterly presentation ot argument by Walter U. Corrigan will long be remembered in the annals of Wisconsin history...
...The corrupt practices act is now as solidly embedded in the life of Wisconsin as the constitution itself...
...They were hounded as soreheads and poor sports...
...And so for decades .the spirit of the corrupt practices act, adth minor exceptions, was carried out and every attempt to obtain control of government through the unlawful, use of money was frowned upon...
...The attorneys for the present governor came into court with a technical defense...
...It became an accepted fact in Wisconsin that public office was not for sale...
...Yesterday's decision has saved Wisconsin's corrupt practices act...
...The feeling has been growing that wealth is no longer amenable to the law and that you cannot convict a million dollars...
...Wisconsin, still true to the heritage left by Robert M. La Follette, was holding its ground against control by monopoly and wealth...
...The court, as stated by H^e Rosenberry, sensed its great responsibility in the pro-Hdings and the opinion rendered is testimony to the great Hount of work and study given to the decision.' H And great tribute should be paid, too, to the two attorneys Ho represented the,state in these proceedings—Harold M. W,flkie and Walter D. Corrigan...
...MEANWHILE the decision rendered yesterday will bring reassurance to thousands of people in Wisconsin who had begun to feel that it is hopeless and futile to continue the fight against entrenched weaith and privilege...
...No denial was made that a huge amount of money was spent in the last campaign to place the present governor in office...
...Attorneys for Gov, Kohler attacked the constitutionality of the Corrupt Practices Act and contended that the only qualifications which should be set up for the •Alee of governor were those outlined in the constitution...
...THIS corrupted national morale invaded Wisconsin...
...An amount ranging from $125,000 to $200,000 was expended to place the candidate of a group of millionaires in the governors office...
...The defense lawyers admitted thi,s but said: "What are you going to do about it...
...Wilkie is said to be one of the greatest pieces of legal research and reasoning ever presented to the court...
...that the Corrupt Practices Art, passed hy Progressives in 1911, is constitutional in Its application to the office of governor...
...In the last campaign in excess of $125,000 •as spent to place Walter J. Kohler in the governor's office...
...Kohler had therefore failed to qualify...
...The story of the 1928 campaign is familiar to our readers...
...This act laid down a public policy in Wisconsin which prevailed for many years...
...They were told that the people would not sanction this effort to override the expressed will of the voters at the election...
...In 1928, however, the forces of privilege saw their opportunity to break the ranks of progressiveism in Wisconsin...
...It must be remembered, too, that these men, busy with a big law practice, underwent great personal sacrifices in complying with the request of Atty...
...Encouraged by the fact that the people had returned to power in 1924 the same crowd that was responsible for the scandals of the Harding regime organized wealth and monopoly took this as a cue that the people no longer cared about old standards and that entrenched power could go the limit...
...A huge amount of money was expended to place one of Wisconsin's rich men in what was then designated as the millionaire's club in Congress...
...Corruption stalked up to the doors of the White House...
...The Progressive herewith prints the editorial which appeared in The Capital Times of Madison, Wis., on th» derision of the Supreme Court.— (EDITOR'S NOTE...
...The country was repeatedly told that liberalism and the forces of good government had collapsed and that people didn't care who controlled government as long as they could buy radios, autos, and go to the movies...
...SINCE 1920, however, wealth, in both state and nation, became more arrogant and contemptious of all law...
...With the elder La Follette gone, now was the time to smash Progressive solidarity in this state...
...Your corrupt practices act is unconstitutional...
...Not for twenty years had Wisconsin witnessed BUCh an expenditure of money to obtain control of government...
...Men who have scanned the opinion since Biterday morning say that it is one of the greatest opinions Bh^anded down by Wisconsin's great court...
...The opinion ^^Hpd as a Gibraltar in the years to come in asserting the ^^^Bf a state to protect itself against the unlawful use of ^^Vin the control of government...
...W All over the country wealth and reaction were advancing ptnd progressiveism seemed to be retreating...
...The machinery of the corrupt practices act was get in motion and the proceedings to unseat the governor followed...
...Wealth always looks for every loophole in every law...
...They were ready to challenge the placing of government on the auction block in Wisconsin...
...It invaded the Cabinet and flowed out into the whole structure of mblic service...
...When all the facts of the campaign had been brought out by a legislative committee the people of Wisconsin were shocked to learn that a great office had been placed on the auction block...
...No one ever dared to question this policy because the people of this state were overwhelmingly in favor of placing limitations upon the expenditure of money in political campaigns...
...It is their answer to the forces of privilege and wealth...
...fpHE masterly opinion written by Chief Justice Marvin B. If- Rosenberry and concurred in by Justices Owen, Stevens, Ld Crownhart, will stand as a light house in the field of Wis-Bisin jurisprudence...
...If the Supreme Ceart had sustained this contention, the Corrupt Practices Act of Wisconsin waaM have been emasculated...
...Reynolds to present the state's side of the case...
...Yesterday's decision by the Supreme court is ample vindication for the villification and abuse which the men who 'initiated the proceedings have had to undergo...
...A jrrwat victory for purity in flection was won in Wisconsin this week in the unanimous verdict of the Wisconsin Supreme Court holding...
...Following the campaign a few individuals had the audacity to question the legality of the election...
...HTWENTY years ago a United States senatorship in Wisconsin -*- was bougrht...
...Following: the war there was a letting down of all standards and values and the public conscience seemed deadened to every appeal for iecency and good government...
...Too many courts have permitted immunity from the law by escape through these loopholes...
...Swollen with war profits and irunk with power seized through public indifference, reaction rot into the saddle and for the past decade has been riding hard...
...The men who instituted the proceedings were threatened and intimidated...
...The commonwealth of Wisconsin owes a great debt to Harold Wilkie and Walter Corrigan for preserving one of Wisconsin's great social policies...
...Progressives initiated a court action under the Corrupt Practices Act charging that the law had been violated and that Mr...
Vol. 1 • February 1930 • No. 10
