WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT
AWHEN "DESTRUCTIVE" BECAME "CONSTRUCTIVE" A Personal Narrative from the Old Lumberjack Days When Hundreds Were Hurt and Killed, Wo rkers Died from Contagious Disease, etc.; Lumber Barons Fought...
...Today man enlightened people admit that the right of the worker to organize for hts own advancement Is CONSTRUCTIVE and not DESTRUCTIVE...
...The legislation was passed...
...My father would get up at five o'clock each morning In order to be on the job when the whistle blew at six o'clock at the old Champagne Lumber Company mill...
...Everywhere economists of the type of Prof...
...1CAN recall when the food adulterators were permitted to hold sway in Wisconsin...
...ICAN recall those old logging days up in the woods...
...Practically the only social life enjoyed by these families was on Sunday...
...No ventilation, no bathing facilities, no sanitary safeguards...
...I can vividly recall those colorful old lumber jack days I can recall that in the old Seventh Ward where we lived and where hundred...
...Business has thrived in Wisconsin because there has been equality of opportunity here...
...Today the pure food laws are recognized as one Of the most CONSTRUCTIVE features of the Progressive structure of government reared In this state...
...The cry was raised that politicians were trying to tell business men how to run their businesses...
...It was proposed that a railroad commission should be established to place the state on an equitable rate basis and to stop these rebate practices...
...The millionaire manufacturer can usually taka care of himself...
...The people of Wisconsin know of the fine record that was left by Mr...
...Alone, all of his relatives in Norway, lie was buried in the Merrill cemetery where I presume there Is not even a marker over his grave now...
...This is only a partial list of the long record of CONSTRUCTIVE achievement reared in Wisconsin under the leadership of the Progressive movement...
...When the fight for safety legislation was first launched, the big mill owners said that the proposal was DESTRUCTIVE...
...The small manufacturers and the small shippers were placed at a tremendous disadvantage as a result, and the small business men In Wisconsin had difficulty in competing with the favored big manufacturers...
...Lumber Barons Fought Reforms as "Destructive...
...The power to control money and credit in this country is the power to rule the country...
...The Conservatives under Gov...
...This legislation was later recognized as CONSTRUCTIVE...
...I sat on the platform of the 1916 Republican National Convention when the Wisconsin plank in favor of women suffrage was jeered and- hooted by the crowd...
...Immediately after supper the family went to bed because five o'clock in the morning camp again all too soon...
...The railroad commission legislation was adopted, however, and the succeeding equity In railroad rates had a big influence In developing small business in Wisconsin...
...Later Came "Constructive Achievements...
...Then came the Progressive movement with its long record of legislation to guarantee the right of the worker to organize for his own betterment...
...The Progressive movement has always made human values paramount to private aggrandizement...
...I can recall the old skepticism of the working people toward lawyers in such cases...
...It Is important that this great development shall be used for the public good and not simply for huge profits for the power trust...
...There was the fight made by Sen...
...I was then living in lumber mill town of Merrill where I was born and reared...
...A daily diet of pork and beans and long hours...
...Then came the Progressive movement with legls-latlon designed to protect the people against these business grafters...
...For over 15 years the Progressive* have been fighting valiantly for taxation legislation that would relieve real estate and general property of some of the burdens of taxation...
...The legislation was heartily endorsed by honest business men who wanted to do business In a square way...
...Ralph Hetzel, now president, of Penn State college, and I had the railroad side...
...The Progressives present, too, a constructive program for breaking down the financial plutocracy contemplated by the chain banking evil...
...Once more they protested and said that the imposition of these burdens upon industry would ruin business, that such legislative discrimination would work to the advantage of competing lumber interests in Michigan and Minnesota...
...It was cheaper to get those poor German...
...The business men of Merrill were ready to ride him out of town on a rail...
...Every constructive plan aimed 'at advancing human contentment and happiness is branded as DESTRUCTIVE by the entrenched order...
...In those days the big manufacturers and the big shippers were getting secret rebates on freight bills from the railroad companies...
...Her£ again the Progressive movement presents a constructive ^program that was introduced in the last se.ssir/n of the legislature and which seeks to reduce the electrical industry to a basis that will serve hitman welfare and not simply private profit...
...I remember a Norwegian immigrant boy named Johnson who died in the old Merrill hospital following his first, winter in the woods...
...And yet secret Influences appeared to fight all legislation designed to protect the people against fraud...
...a boy considerably older than we were who decided to try to get an education after he had lost his hand in one of the factories...
...We were furnished with free transportation and expenses oy the C. M. and St...
...The legislation was finally passed, and now business itself recognizes the wisdom of the legislation...
...But back in the old dayp...
...Today the Capitol Annex and the State Orthopedic hospital are being built, out of the savings in that fund...
...Knudson, a neighbor, had been killed when the slab burner at the old T. B. Scott Lumber Company blew over and fell upon him...
...TODAY the Progressive movement is meeting the same bitter indictment by the forces of privilege and its servile press...
...The Progressive movement then came forward with the argument that there could not be a healthy, constructive development of business In Wisconsin unless the small manufacturers were not to be penalized by the railroads...
...There was the fight to establish a state insurance fund in order to save to the state millions of dollnrs paid in insurance premiums to the old line companies...
...With the break-up In the spring the hospitals In the Wisconsin River valley from Rhinelander down to Grand Rapids were filled with the poor devils out of the lumber camps who were reeking with typhoid, small pox, and other contagious diseases contracted in canlp...
...or hopelessly crippled...
...Then came old Bob Schilling, Populist agitator, to tell the working men at Merrill that they should organize and not continue to be the victims of the mill owners' exploitation through long hours and low wages...
...Then came the Progressive movement with it* challenge that it was indefensible to place 14 year old boys in factories and mills,—that society owed these boys a better chance at life than that...
...Emery first began his fight the big wholesale and distributing firms both In and out of Wisconsin charged that government had no right to Interfere with their business In this way...
...P. Railroad company to go to Des Moines and endeavor to get "something on" the Icwa Railroad Commission which was already in existence...
...We are entering upon a great electrical age...
...Immediately the cry went up from representatives of the Bradley Lumber Company of Tomahawk, the A. H, Stange Lumber Company, the Gilkey-Anson Lumber Company, the Merrill Lumber Company, at Merrill, the Alexander Stuart Lumber Company at Wausau...
...THE Progressive movement holds that the word "CONSTRUCTIVE" cannot simply be used as applied to private profit...
...Farmers were fleeced by fraudulent weights...
...But those who led the fight in an rarlier day had to bear the stigma of being DESTRUCTIVE...
...La Follette to safeguard passengers on railroads by making it unlawful for engineers and firemen to be in engine cabs in 16 hour stretches...
...His wife was left with her little brood without sufficient funds to carry her very far along...
...At 30 years of age tif they escaped death or accidrnt in the mills or factories) they were usually pallid, toothless, emaciated creatures because of the long hours and1 the dtist and lack of sanitation in the factories...
...the Brooks and Ross Lumber Company at Scofield...
...the newspapers, inspired by the advertising contracts of the food concerns, branded as DESTRUCTIVE and as disturbers of business those who fought for the pure food legislation...
...j The people, however, In whose interests the legislation was passed were quick to hail these safeguards as CONSTRUCTIVE...
...By WILLIAM T. EVJUE IT was back along In 1900 when I was little more than a mere boy that I first heard the words "constructive" and "destructive" used, In political campaigns...
...The legislation, however, was passed, and later the logging interests themselves conceded that such legislation was wise and in accordance with sound public and business policy...
...Special privilege for favored classes has been at a minimum in this state...
...I remember the sympathy we kids in high school' had for Otto Bachmann...
...They tested the constitutionality of nearly every measure passed to set food standards in the state...
...The Progressive movement held, however, that the welfare of the children of this statu was more important than any business or fortune built up out of child labor...
...Kohler talk vaguely about "some form of unemployment insurance" and at the came time seek to poison the minds of the people against such a plan by talking about dole...
...The Progressives said that if placed in control of government they would pass laws requiring the installation of safety devices to the end that human life could be conserved...
...Norwegian, and French Canadian Immigrants as employes than to buy safety appliances for machinery...
...a hand off...
...The Progressives today are out in the forefront leading the fight for a better life for the masses of the people...
...Today the child labor laws of Wisconsin are recognized by everybody as CONSTRUCTIVE legislation...
...and other big lumber concerns along the Wisconsin River Valley that the compulsory installation of safety appliances on machines would be DESTRUCTIVE of the business interests in that section...
...Then came the Progressive movement with its ulti-matium that the health of the people of Wisconsin was move important than profits for the food adulterators...
...Today, the industrial interests of northern Wisconsin themselves would not think of operating establishments without protecting the lives of their employes against accident...
...Emery In food legislation In Wisconsin...
...John R. Commons and Prof...
...When Mr...
...Deleterious food and deadly preservatives were sold and used...
...AND so on down the line, one milestone after another which was branded as DESTRUCTIVE and later admitted to be CONSTRUCTIVE...
...In my sophomore year, as a member of Hesperia, I was elected a member of the joint debate team to discuss the feasibility of a state commission to regulate the railroads...
...All along the line the Big Business interests fought the program as DESTRUCTIVE of business welfare, business initiative, and the welfare of the state...
...ICAN remember when men were compellrd to work 11 and 12 hours a day in the mills at Merrill...
...Governor La Follette charged J. Q. Emery with the leadership, for pure food legislation in the state...
...But- when it was first proposed it was called DESTRUCTIVE...
...At the present time millions of men are out of work in the country...
...The Reactionary Interests of the state under the leadership of Gov...
...So firmly has this program become entrenched in the hearts of the people of Wisconsin that when representatives of Big Business were placed in control of government in this state they did not dare to tear down the structure...
...ICAN recall the days when the people of Wisconsin were beaten out of millions of dollars each year by false weights and measures...
...Crooked scales were to be found everywhere...
...I have slept in the old logging shanties where 50 to 60 men slept in a low ceilinged room surrounded by bunks and where the air was foul from sweaty socks and wet clothes hung up around the red hot stove in the center of the room...
...Once more the Progressive movement laid down the challenge that human life was more important than private profit...
...He carried his lunch to work and he would not be back for supper at night until seven o'clock...
...Progressive leaders maintained that it was unconscienable that hundreds of men should die each year because of the lack of sanitation and health safeguards in the camps...
...ICAN remember, too, when I came to the University as a freshman In 1902 that the railroad rebate issue was an important question...
...The railroad commission was later recognized by nearly everybody as a CONSTRUCTIVE piece of legislation,—so much so that when E L. Philipp became governor in 1914, he made no attempt to emasculate the structure of the railroad commission law...
...The workmens' compensation law is now universally admitted to be a CONSTRUCTIVE piece of legislation...
...The thousands of workers in the factories and mills, however, who were the victims of the toll of death and accident in industry, thought otherwise,—they believed that any proposal that made human life more important than private profit was CONSTRUCTIVE...
...The working people felt that the lawyers would either sell out their claims against the lumber companies or that they would expet fees which would leave but little left for the families of the men killed...
...Then came the Progressive movement with its challenge that, human life was more important than profits for the lumber Interests...
...Schilling was branded as a radical...
...Once more came the protest from the mill and factory owners who said that they had to have cheap labor in order to compete with the industrial Interests of other states...
...John Dewey contend that unemployment insurance is the most effective remedy for this evil...
...The railroad interests and the big manufacturers, under the leadership of E. L. Phlllpp, denounced the railroad commission ."cheme as a revolutionary interference with business and bitterly fought the passage of railroad legislation...
...ICAN recall the days when hundreds of boys 14 years of age worked in the factories and mills...
...The lurri-ber bill interests were told to install decent living conditions...
...Later came the Progressive movement with its workmen's compensation plan that would guarantee fair treatment to widows and dependents...
...They maintained that men-Who held political Jobs should not be permitted to interfere with men having large investments and who employed labor...
...And it has been good business to do this...
...v* ICAN recall the morning that a neighbor boy came running into our yard to tell us that Mr...
...Factories will be operated, homes will be heated and lighted, drudgery In the kitchen will be eliminated, and a mere turning of a switch will perform mountains of labor...
...Today the Progressive movement in Wisconsin is carrying this issue to the people of the state and nation...
...of workers in the mills and the factories had- their little homes, you could find in nearly every block one or more persons- withwan eye out...
...The health of women in industry was safeguarded by the establishment of minimum hours...
...The toll of death and injury in the mills and factories in the lumberjack sections of northern Wisconsin was appalling...
...Wisconsin has been the model commonwealth...
...They were defeated all along the line...
...These 14 year old boys worked for 40 cents a day...
...Kohler have bitterly fought every proposal to equalize the load between general property and Income and wealth and have branded such proposals as DESTRUCTIVE...
...After they had received their first, Communion or had been confirmed they were taken out of school to look for jobs because their parents could not afford to keep them in school on the dollar or dollar and one-quarter a day which their fathers were receiving...
...Twenty years from now the Reactionaries who are: hurling the word "DESTRUCTIVE" at the present Progressive program will be admitting that th« plans now advocated are CONSTRUCTIVE...
...Human life was cheap in those (jays...
...The Progressives persisted in their demands, however, and tinder the leadership of Robert M. La Pol-let te legislation was passed and" safety appliances were finally installed that saved thousands of lives in the lumber regions of northern Wisconsin...
...The best testimonial that the Progressive movement is remaining true to the best traditions of the state is to say that the forces of special privilege are fighting the Progressives as bitterly today as they did 30 years ago...
...Those who led the fight in'the first place, however, were branded as DESTRUCTIVE...
...There is no greater CONSTRUCTIVE achievement that can be rendered at the present time than to aid the farmer, the laboring-man, and the small business man who are being so sorely pressed...
...The Progressives contend that there can be r.o real prosperity In Wisconsin unless all classes have a chance to prosper, that It Is not sufficient to simply make Wisconsin a good place for millionaire* to live In...
...Once more the business interests became aroused, and stated that such a proposal was revolutionary, that it would drive Industry out of the state and ruin business...
...Knudson was the father of a family of three or four little children...
...Racketeering, crooked labor leaders, graft and corruption have been foreign to the name of Wisconsin because of the inheritance left by Robert M. La Follette...
Vol. 1 • September 1930 • No. 40
