Charles McCarthy

Name: The Wisconsin Idea — Introduction
Author: Charles McCarthy

Biographical details

Charles McCarthy, a prominent legal and political thinker, is best known for his extensive writings on the Wisconsin Idea, a series of works examining legislative reform, economic justice, and democratic governance. His texts, including The Wisconsin Idea — The Law and Economic Progress and The Wisconsin Idea — The Legislature, critique judicial overreach, corporate influence, and the need for transparent, people-centered policymaking.

McCarthy’s essays advocate for regulatory frameworks to curb monopolistic power, emphasize the role of education in fostering civic responsibility, and challenge the separation of law from social equity. His rigorous analysis of legal and administrative systems underscores a commitment to aligning governance with the public good, as evidenced by his insistence on legislative accountability and the redistribution of wealth. McCarthy’s legacy lies in framing the Wisconsin Idea as a pragmatic blueprint for democratic renewal, blending legal theory with social reform.

Quotes by Charles McCarthy

Charles McCarthy, The Wisconsin Idea — The Law and Economic Progress (1912)

“ How often we have seen just and right legislation checked or choked by an array of decisions which seem to block the way at every step! How often the powers opposed to all progress have cited these with mighty dignity until the legislature, benumbed and confused, has yielded to what seemed to be an insurmountable mass of judge-made wisdom! The constitution has become discredited in the eyes of the people; is looked upon as an instrument to stop all progress toward regulation of what ought to be controlled, and yet such is far from the fact in many cases. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles McCarthy, The Wisconsin Idea — The Reason for It (1912)

“ Will not that same dreaded Force terrorize our legislators? They are but human, with business interests and families to support.
Why not make public the affairs of monopolies, so that they cannot buy the votes of electors or legislators? Why not limit the power of wealth in elections? It cannot buy the whole people, can it? If not, why not make our legislators directly responsible to us so that we may watch them? Why not simplify the whole machinery of nomination and election so that we are certain to elect the men we want—men of honesty and strength? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles McCarthy, The Wisconsin Idea — The Legislature (1912)

“ If our administration is to be good administration, does it not seem ridiculous that the supreme courts—the highest legal talent in our states and our nation—should go on day after day, year after year turning out decision after decision upon laws which are often made by men who have never seen a law book, and who have not had the slightest legal help extended to them? Does it seem right that our fundamental law should be left to these haphazard conditions? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles McCarthy, The Wisconsin Idea — Educational Legislation (1912)

“ If we strive to build up prosperity through industrial education without building up the health of the average man or average woman, and without building up true citizenship, we will not have really democratic education. Any industrial education without these other factors will be a dismal failure. We may pass all the resolutions we want to, but the only way to cure political corruption in our cities is to cure it in the way we are stamping out tuberculosis—by education. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles McCarthy, The Wisconsin Idea — Administration (1912)

“ 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. How in this complex, economic life are we ever going to use any other machinery? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles McCarthy, The Wisconsin Idea — Conclusion (1912)

“ Our friends, the socialists, have always been ridiculed for their pet claim that it is the business of the government to spread happiness and plenty among the people. Yet here, in a country the very quickest of all to foam at the very word 'Socialism,' is a string of acts each having as its tacit side-issue the partial redistribution of wealth and the spread of happiness! ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles McCarthy, The Wisconsin Idea — Introduction (1912)

“ Thanks to the movement for genuinely democratic popular government which Senator La 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. Nothing is easier than to demand, on the stump, or in essays and editorials, the abolition of injustice and the securing to each man of his rights. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles McCarthy, The Wisconsin Idea — The Reason for It (1912)

“ Do they not manipulate that mysterious Force in contract? Are not the powers of credit and monopoly practically one?
Would it not be well to keep that thin line beneath wealth in Stage 2 from growing? Can it be accomplished?
Why not demand that when monopoly of any kind exists, it shall be restricted to a reasonable gain? Why not say that it shall not discriminate unjustly nor use its great power against the public welfare? If monopolies possess such Force that one man cannot compete with them, why not let the state—all men combined—control them? Why not oppose Force by Force? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Charles McCarthy, The Wisconsin Idea — The Law and Economic Progress (1912)

“ Can it be possible that a court would practically recognize the humanity, justice, right and necessity of a law prepared with the greatest care by the legislature and at the same time declare it unconstitutional? Can it be possible that there are standards of right and justice which public opinion recognizes and which violate a constitution, the very bulwarks of justice and right made especially to preserve these very things? ”

Charles McCarthy

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