NOTHING VITAL LOST
Follette, Robert M. La
Nothing Vital Lost ON THE sixteenth of September, Emanuel Philipp, Tory, who had by a political fluke become the nominee of a progressive party in a progressive state, participated, as the law...
...Philipp was elected Governor of Wisconsin upon this platform November third...
...A reasonable child labor law...
...When you pay higher freight rates it falls upon you as an indirect tax...
...When there followed the levy of a state tax to aid in paying the expenses of state government, the taxpayers were incensed...
...It doesn't count that Wisconsin has a University, known all over the world, which has increased the annual profit of the farm and dairy by an amount far in excess of the total cost of that great institution each year...
...How do you like that, you Progressive Republicans who voted for Philipp...
...Now you won't mind that, because as Philipp said to me when pleading to have me let up on railroad taxation, "What good will it do you anyhow to increase the railroad taxation...
...On top of this they go rioting in highway building, increasing the annual appropriation for that purpose from $350,000 to $1,650,000...
...This is somewhat specific, and is reproduced here at this time FOR THAT REASON...
...And then along comes an ambitious legislature...
...It conceives the novel idea of laying out a building program for the University and the normal schools, so extensive in scope that it could not be completed in the next five years...
...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 epidemic a thing of the past...
...But nothing can permanently harm a righteous cause...
...And you knew that to accomplish his purpose, it was necessary for him to induce Republican Senators and Assemblymen to VIOLATE THEIR PLATFORM PLEDGES and BETRAY THEIR CONSTITUENTS...
...A law providing shorter hours for railway employees...
...We can meet that all right by just changing the classification here and there...
...The enactment of legislation dealing with labor conditions has placed Wisconsin in the van of progressive states and we point with pride to the Workmen's Compensation Act, the Child Labor Law, the law regulating the hours of labor for women, the law providing a minimum wage for women, providing pensions for mothers, creating the Industrial Commission, and many other good and efficient laws...
...and WE CAN TAKE IT BACK, EVERY CENT, IN INCREASED RATES FROM THE PEOPLE...
...Public interests were ignored and personal politics belittled and besmirched everything...
...He passes the amount of the increased rate on to the railroad...
...that a reorganized insurance department maintained at a cost of $37,000 last year collected and turned into the Treasury over $900,000, and that an industrial commission, administering our workmen's compensation law, will collect and distribute to injured wage earners by the close of the calendar year, nearly one million dollars free of all cost to the beneficiaries at a total expense to the state of only twelve thousand dollars for that great service...
...legislation protecting the health and sanitation of those employed in industrial and mercantile pursuits...
...A two-cent passenger fare on railways...
...And the people were rightfully indignant...
...legislation authorizing co-operative societies...
...Hence you Progressive Republicans who supported Philipp must hold yourselves ready to approve HIS repudiation of HIS PLATFORM PLEDGES...
...humane legislation to aid dependent mothers...
...For you knew all about Philipp...
...unfair trade legislation which seeks to prohibit the destroying of competition...
...The very next day—the same being November fourth—as Governor-elect he issued a statement in which, after referring to his election, he said: "THE VICTORY IS A COMPLETE REPUDIATION OF THE MUCH HERALDED WISCONSIN IDEA...
...He is quite right when he says that his victory "is a complete repudiation of the much heralded Wisconsin idea...
...You resent it...
...You feel it...
...an effective weights and measures law protecting the consumer in his just rights...
...A workmen's compensation law, and an industrial commission to enforce and carry out its provisions...
...Considering only the practical, material side,—as a business investment alone,—every dollar expended on the Industrial, the Insurance, the Dairy and Food and the Railroad Commissions, and every dollar spent upon the University as well, is paid back more than four fold, DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE IN REAL MONEY EVERY TWELVE MONTHS...
...laws limiting the hours of female labor...
...The coal and the lumber and the supplies are higher, of course, when the rates go up, but you don't see the railroad pocket your money...
...So long as the increased income derived from enforcing just taxation upon the railroads and other public service corporations was sufficient to pay the expenses of administering state government and no state tax was necessary for general state purposes, Progressive Government was just fine and everybody was enthusiastically for it...
...It doesn't matter that you have received the amount of that increased tax many times over in lower freight rates, better railroad service, safer crossings, relief from all litigation with the railroad to enforce your rights, a commission where your informal complaint by letter or postal card brings prompt redress, reduced rates on gas, electric light, water, and other public utilities...
...You grumble at the grocer or the lumber dealer and let it go at that...
...Indeed, I doubt if you would care so much even if you did "know it...
...It goes first to the merchant...
...In his campaign for election upon this platform, Emanuel Philipp said again and again: "THE LAWS REFERRED TO IN THE PLATFORM AS ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAVE MY APPROVAL...
...His unwise action engendered antagonisms and destroyed all possibility of co-operation in legislation for the session...
...It was wrong to impose this enormous burden upon them in a single levy...
...A Railroad Commission...
...Nothing Vital Lost ON THE sixteenth of September, Emanuel Philipp, Tory, who had by a political fluke become the nominee of a progressive party in a progressive state, participated, as the law provides, in making and adopting a platform which declared regarding the Republican Party in Wisconsin, that: "Its achievements have been the beacon lights of legislation and human advancement...
...and among the many of recent years, the following are a few: "A stringent Corrupt Practices Act...
...NO ONE WILL KNOW IT...
...A public utility law, which regulates the rates and manner of service of gas and electric light companies and other similar agencies...
...A strict dairy d food law, which protects both the producer and the consumers...
...It doesn't matter that your state government, safeguarding the interests of producer and consumer alike, has given you a Dairy and Food Commissioner, so courageous, industrious, intelligent, and efficient that Wisconsin butter and cheese holds first place in the American market and adulterated and misbranded food makers, underweight and short measure promoters are afraid to attempt their fraudulent practices on the people of this state...
...You knew that as such lobbyist, he opposed your interests and those of the public...
...Upon the last legislature, and especially upon the present Governor rests in large measure the responsibility for the result...
...An eight hour law on public buildings and on public works...
...You knew that he was a registered lobbyist at Madison, working for the railroads, breweries, and perhaps a few other corporations,—beside doing a turn now and then for himself...
...Though the next two years witness the destruction of the good work expressed in scores of statutes, the spirit, the soul of which is the Wisconsin Idea of Fundamental Democracy, NOTHING VITAL SHALL BE LOST...
...Defeat only strengthens the courage and resolution of men worthy to fight for human progress...
...A law which makes it mandatory for minors engaged in manual labor to receive a certain amount of educational instruction...
...But of one thing we may be sure...
...And unfortunately the man behind the gun in the executive office, who could have saved the day with a well directed veto,—well he just "WASN'T THERE" and the mischief was done...
...And since the legislation recited in the platform as "Republican achievements" is wholly the product of the WISCONSIN IDEA—the repudiation of the Wisconsin Idea carries with it the repudiation of the legislation recited in the platform...
...This platform also commended the— "Advanced legislation for the protection of labor engaged in the industries against accident by dangerous machinery and dangerous surroundings...
...This adds another tidy little sum to the 1914 tax...
...But all this, bad as it was, can never justify the Progressive Republicans in turning over the reconstructed government of Wisconsin,—the result of fourteen years of toil and sacrifice, the precious work of their own hands,—to men who in private life or public service have been the creatures and servants of the corporations...
...Every advance movement in history has experienced its checks and reverses from time to time...
...reasonable and efficient insurance legislation providing for supervision...
...To begin with, you want to prepare for a boost in Wisconsin railroad and utility rates...
...If made at all it should have been distributed over a period of years...
...But of course, it is just" what you expected...
...It was with possibly a single exception, the first levy of the kind for such purpose in fourteen years of progressive Republican control...
...It appropriates the entire sum necessary to complete the program and it into the 1914 tax...
...legislation to conserve our natural resources...
...That's logic...
...You see that...
...beneficial agricultural and dairy education which now places Wisconsin in the position of producing more cheese than any other state in the Union...
...But when you pay an increased property tax, you pay it directly to the tax collector...
...At the opening of the legislature he bitterly assailed and attempted to oust from office, for purely factional reasons, the ablest insurance commissioner in the country...
Vol. 6 • November 1914 • No. 45
