EVJUE REVIEWS PROGRESSIVE RECORD
Evjue Reviews Progressive Record FOLLOWING is the text of the address delivered by Willlnm T. Evjue, editor of The Capital Times and The Progressive, at the sixth annual birthday celebration of the...
...Convention of 1916 I sat in the Republican national convention of 1916...
...You could go back back Into my old home town of Merrill in those days and in nearly every other house you could find some employe of the mills in that community with an eye or an arm missing, or otherwise crippled for life, simply because at that time we held to the view that property and profits were more important than human life...
...Changes in income and inheritance taxes will cost the state $2,000,000...
...Heil is going to spank state employes who don't stay on the job: On the sixth birthday of the Progressive party, at a time when these ominous headlines are coming from Europe, let us remember that the best insurance we can have for our system of democracy is to find the best methods of bringing a good life to our people...
...The Progressive movement came Into northern Wisconsin as it did to other parts of tilts state and laid down the principle that human life is more important than profits...
...to do a good day's work...
...He has refused to re-enact a law under which the telephone companies, principally the Wisconsin Telephone Co., were asked to pay a tax of $500,000 for relief...
...Evjue Reviews Progressive Record FOLLOWING is the text of the address delivered by Willlnm T. Evjue, editor of The Capital Times and The Progressive, at the sixth annual birthday celebration of the Progressive party held a' Wisconsin Rapids on Sunday, May 19: I am wearing the badge I wore at the founding of the Progressive party in Fond du Lac in 1934...
...There are those who say of the great heritage and principles bequeathed to us by the founder of the Progressive movement that the world has now passed them by...
...In the snug security of the Milwaukee Athletic club he said on Dec...
...It was not uncommon for human life to be sacrificed because of tainted food...
...I am going out on the firing line...
...When the platform was presented embodying 28 plans, the chairman of the majority on the committee of resolutions, arose and moved the rejection of the Wisconsin platform on the ground that it was "rank Socialism...
...The things that were done in Washington to bring about prosperity were taken out of the Progressive platform that was set up in Wisconsin...
...I have not always agreed with everything that has been done In the name of the Progressive party...
...And what has he done on the other side...
...Hell likes to talk about tax eaters...
...His interests really nave Deen in the direction of conferring benefits on corporate wealth in this state...
...Mass profits drained the people of the United State* of their buying power...
...This gigantic thing of steel...
...Thousands voted for him on the strength of that representation...
...We have found that it pays and that it has brought rich dividends to the people of Wisconsin...
...Out of 30 years in the Progressive movement viewing what has transpired, I am more and more convinced of the singleness of the issue—the "encroachment of the powerful few upon the rights of the many...
...I sometimes wonder if the women of this country have been forgetting what the Progressives did...
...But it was not more than four years later when that amendment to the constitution had been adopted that they were falling all over themselves in an effort to convince the women that their party was where they could find political expression...
...1938...
...Men and women of the United States who have fought the battle in behalf of democracy as missionaries and evangelists, let us, even when we do not have access to pie and cake, go forth to do the spade work and the pioneering...
...You can place at least $4,000,000 that this administration has handed out to organized wealth in this state...
...I would straighten them out...
...In October, 1938, the present governor stood on the court house steps of the city of Merrill and said that the problem at Madison was very simple and only required a business man that would cut expenses...
...In the month of January he stuck his head in just two days...
...But I do know this: That year in and year out in election after election when I go to the polls to exercise my right as an American cirizen, I find that the Progressive party stands for those issues and principles for which I look when I am seeking political expression...
...At a budget hearing in November...
...There may, of course, be variations...
...Under the leadership of Old Bob La Follette...
...I remember the Republican national convention of 1912...
...I can remember when the hospitals from Rhmelander lo Wisconsin Rapids each spring were filled with the poor devils who came out of lumber camps with typhoid, small pox, and other diseases resulting from unsanitary conditions in the lumber camps...
...1938: "When there is strife or dissatisfaction in industry, I will be in the front ranks...
...Instead of an administration that has cut expenses $15,-000,000, when the record is written, we are going to find that his administration has been the most extravagant in the history of Wisconsin...
...I am not saying that we should not make every effort to get the power that will enable us to better serve mankind...
...People throw their hats in the air and say "Atta boy, Julius...
...Public office when we look back on a glorious record of this kind...
...If there are any bullets to be stopped, I will be the first to stop them...
...Since Jan...
...In your newspapers, you see embellishments on the front pages predictions of economy when he fires 45 or 50 married women...
...I am still sailing under those colors...
...Gov...
...l of this year...
...Although we don't have access to the pie counter, wc do have the enjoyment of looking back on a record of achievement...
...Here are these achievements: Safety appliances In Industry, sanitation and public health, pure food legislation, regulation of railroads and public utilities, workmen's compensation, civil service, direct election of United States senators, corrupt practices legislation, taxation on principle of ability to pay through income and inheritance taxes, good roads, conservation, restrictions on labor Injunctions, development of farm co-operatives, labor legislation, unemployment insurance, old age security...
...teachers retirement, state aids under which rich counties help to pay for education In poorer counties, decent conditions in state charitable institutions, child labor legislation...
...in spite of all of this newspaper ink on economy that has been plastered on the front pages in connection with all the people that have been dismissed from the state service, the saving won't amount to more than $200,000 for the bi-ennium...
...in February he made a showing at the executive office only six days...
...I remember that when a little band of delegates representing the Progressives of 1912 determined to present a Maana Charta to that convention...
...In January, 1939, the governor came up with a budget that was the largest in the history of Wisconsin, never before equalled by any other governor...
...From 1920 to 1930 and on you can take the political platforms of the Republican and Democratic parties and there you see that they were compelled to take recognition of the platform that was put forward by the Progressives...
...The Progressive movement would have been more worthwhile If we had never elected to a single person to public office in the 50 years of its history...
...Bob La Follette never became president of the United States but from 1910 down to the day of his death, he exerted more influence on life in this country than men who occupied the white house and other high public office...
...We know today that the present administration at Madison from top to bottom has functioned day in and day out not for the benefit of the many but for the benefit of the powerful few...
...He promised that he would cut expenses to the tune of $15,000,000 a year...
...How adequately as we view the state capitol at MadLson, that declaration fits the picture here in Wisconsin...
...And Gov...
...The university is supposed to pay interest on the $150,000 each year until it is able to buy the property outright...
...The Republican party found it necessary to put into their platform declarations that they were for taxation based on ability to to pay, that they were for recognizing the right of the worker to-bargain through representatives of his own choosing, the right of the farmer to organize co-operatively to get more of what he produces...
...The convention booed and hissed the Progressives...
...The calamity was stalled off a few years by the so-called instalment method of buying...
...This month up to the 18th he has been in exactly seven times...
...Again the little band of Progressives presented their articles of faith...
...Is that all that matters...
...They proposed an amendment to the constitution for equal suffrage for women...
...It was only a few years later that the business men themselves recognized the justice of these things...
...on Nov...
...This is the view all too frequently held that a political party Is for the purpose of cake and of pic, that its only purpose is to furnish those with the booty and the swag and the pie...
...Under terms of the agreement the university has a 10-year option on the property...
...In those early days we heard the same arguments that are being heard today about government interfering with business...
...Don't misunderstand me...
...Here we have the typical reactionary point of view with respect to the purposes of a political party...
...The future earnings of the American wage earner were mortgaged to the extent of seven billion dollars...
...1939...
...That brought about the birth and the founding of the Progressive party of Wisconsin...
...I am going to run these racketeers out of Wisconsin, courteously if I can...
...I remember one day when a neighbor boy came running into our back yard and told me that the father of one of our playmates had been killed in an accident at the mill...
...Why doesn't the governor set a good example and stay on the job himself...
...We were told that if government were to impose restrictions on business, such as requiring safety appliances, business could not complete with adjoining states...
...Some newspaper wag discussing this Progressive birthday celebration made the statement that this celebration called for six candles but no cake...
...I do say that the pioneering and spade work that has been done by the Progressives of the world would have been worth while if they had never been elected to public office...
...This talk will circle around a declaration made by the founder of the Progressive movement years ago when he said: "The supreme issue, involving all others, is the encroachment of the powerful few upon the rights of the many...
...In 1920 we were already experiencing the result of the establishing of mass production during the World war...
...It was because the Progressives of this state believed that the two old parties had become the political chattels of the powerful few in this state that six years ago today there gathered at Fond du Lac a group of purposeful and sincere men and women who wanted to be emancipated from the environment of a political party dominated by the powerful few...
...But out of the 28 planks that were presented by the Progressive delegates to that convention, 24 of those plans 20 years later had been translated into law and became good Republican and Democratic doctrine...
...Heil Approves Picnic Point Fund Action Gov...
...I remember when wc went to stores to bring home food that was found adulterated...
...They maintained that you cannot have normal, healthy conditions without buying power in the hands of the people...
...Then came the catastrophe and we awakened to find that the national administration appropriated the very line of thought which Progressives had given voice— that you must have general prosperity among the masses of the people...
...The tax cheaters are going to cost the state a lot more than all the tax eaters that have ever infested a payroll...
...he said: "I would like to be governor of Michigan right now...
...Heil has been at his office exactly 31 days out of a total of 119 working days, counting Monday to Saturday as working days...
...But the singleness of the issue still remains...
...The pioneering and the spade work that was done under his leadership compelled the Republicans and Democrats to adopt Progressive principles...
...If they don't I'm going to spank the bad boys...
...As governor...
...A large part of this is due to the crusading, pioneering spade work that was done by the Progressive movement...
...In order to keep the thing going, we had to have mass profits and mass buying power...
...Labor disputes are chiefly caused by racketeers who try to coerce workers for their own benefit...
...How adequately It fits the picture in the United States...
...the Progressives persisted in their philosophy that human life is above profits and they stopped that sort of thing by compelling factories and mills to insiall safety appliances and the lumber camps to improve sanitary conditions in the woods...
...Cake and Pie Seekers You know that at times when the Progressive movement has been in the ascendancy and we have perched on the peak of victory, there have come into our movement those who came only out of considerations of cake and pie...
...In terms of social progress and influence for the public good, in terms of things done to advance the public welfare, the Progressive movement would have been worth while if we had never tasted the emoluments of public office...
...On the lighter side let us look at some of the statements made by the governor...
...Heil last week approved payment by the University of Wisconsin of $2,340 in interest to retain its rights to the Picnic point property...
...I was a youngster in a lumbering town in the northern part of the state...
...This was the man who was going to cut expenses...
...What would a big industrial concern in Milwaukee like Allis Clalmers think of a man who did not show up at the office more than once in a long while...
...The variations are not the same today as they were in 1910 and 1920...
...Back in 1912 the Progressives declared for equal suffrage for women...
...The university has contracted with E. J. Young to purchase the Picnic point property for $150,000...
...A Tragic Accident I remember the first impart of Progressive idealism on myself as a boy...
...The Progressive party today stands as the best example of those who believe that the issue is still the "encroachment of the powerful few" who seek to interfere with the rights of the average man and woman to a decent living and a fuller life...
...Over Radio station WTMJ in November...
...He lowered bus fees paid by the utilities in the sum of $200,000...
...And what an Illustrious record has been made since that time, justifying fully the decision that was made on that day...
...Cake...
...he said:"Wiscon-sin will win all its football games when I'm governor of this state...
...The property must be bought within 10 years or the university will lose Its equity...
...In an Associated Press interview in 1938 he said: "We are going to have no strikes or picket lines in Wisconsin...
...Old Bob La Follette and his son, Bob Jr., were sounding the danger to this country from the centralization of wealth and an inequitable national income...
...How adequately it fits the picture as we see the aggression and the encroachment of the powerful few over the world...
...in March he made eight appearances: in April eight...
...1938: "I want everyone in the state service, no matter who it is...
...They have no right to be having a strike over there...
...The Republicans never meant a word of it, but they were compelled to put declarations of that kind in their platforms in order to court the support of the people of Wisconsin...
...They warned that the day would come when this would bring catastrophe to this country...
Vol. 10 • May 1940 • No. 21
