Charles McCarthy

“ Shall we always look over the boundary into Canada and wonder at its prosperity, the daring of its lawmakers and the efficiency and economy of its administration? The old cry, "it is unconstitutional" cannot much longer endure with the present American awakening and an analysis must soon be made of the growing strength of these worldwide economic improvements. Shall we always be deceived by the cry of "Socialism" whenever it is necessary to use the state to a greater degree than formerly? ”

“ 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! ”

“ When it comes to the attainment of any reasonable legislation for the true betterment of human beings, the only way to beat the Socialists "is to beat them to it."
The hardy woodsman, the sturdy American who has battled with the elements, swift rivers and vast forests, may frown at the suggestion of legislation mentioned here. This man in the legislature, powerful in his own strength, frowns upon laws for the limiting of hours of labor for women and children as "un-American." ”

“ Is it good policy or good politics to allow the socialists to become the champions of women in industry, the defender of the child from exploitation, friend of the poor and downtrodden and yet expect to defeat them at the polls in a period characterized by growing humane feeling? Can we wrap in a parcel everything which Christianity has approved since the time of the Great Founder and label it, "Socialism, don't touch"? ”

“ If in our modern life, conditions are not conducive to the highest type of American manhood, we should attempt to find some way of helping men to help themselves. What is the need of a philosophy or an "ism" when there is obvious wrong to be righted? Whatever has been accomplished in Wisconsin seems to have been based upon this idea of making practice conform to the ideals of justice and right which have been inherited. If the weak ask for justice, the state should see that they get it certainly, quickly and surely. ”

“ Surely the great investment which Wisconsin has made in her educational institutions has returned its original investment many times over in hard dollars and cents.
Granting that this prosperity may not be the result of this legislation, it may be good evidence that the Wisconsin legislature has proceeded with great caution and made its laws only after the most careful scrutiny of the delicate machinery of industry. ”

“ America has a great advantage in that our legislation need not be experimental. Germany, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and even Ireland and Italy have laws which have outlived the experimental stage and which will be of the greatest service to us in our advance toward the happiness and welfare of all, as well as the more equitable division of the profits coming from the great wealth and strength of our civilization. ”

“ It is an easy thing to say that a state is prosperous, but when hard-headed men in Wall Street admit that a certain state, in which a political agitation to which they are opposed has gone on for many years, is prosperous and when the bonding houses concede that all the stocks and bonds of great financial interests and public utilities of all kinds are upon a sound basis in that state, surely there must be some evidence of it. ”

“ It may be said that these conditions might have existed if none of these laws had been passed but the fact that prosperity has increased at a rate as great as, if not greater than, any state in the country, is evidence that if laws are made carefully and are made to fit into the harmony of industrial conditions, greater advances can be made than by following the wild shouts of reformers who would destroy without constructing. ”

“ If lands cannot be developed because of lack of water and the government advances money to supply that deficiency, wherein lies the difference between that aid and the clearing of wild lands of stumps subsidized by the government? The only thing which lies in the way in either case is capital and long time credit. All history shows that land monopoly combined with a renter class, brings about the worst possible situation for a country. ”

“ The best there is of our sturdy individualism must be preserved. In Wisconsin, the wise leaders have foreseen this and are determined to keep intact every bit of the spirit of the men who made the "Iron Brigade" and hence are building slowly and surely the beginnings of a new individualism. ”

“ Is all of this socialism? Quite the opposite; it strives to give the individual a better opportunity to possess property—the very antithesis of socialism. Reduction of the cost of living and coöperative schemes of one sort or another are also to be investigated by this commission. With the splendid examples of the work of foreign countries along this line—the great Raffeisen system of coöperative credit in Germany, the Luzzatti banks in Italy, the effective coöperation in agriculture in Denmark—before this committee, are there not possibilities to be utilized, to be tested and tried? ”

“ It will be felt by men of this kind (and they have been the sturdy old oaks of American life after all) that there is something very softening in this kind of legislation. Indeed a weakening influence may occasionally creep in but by looking over long periods of time we find that selfishness has always won, so it is not the softening influence that we need to fear but the pauperizing influence, which comes from another kind of paternalism—that of the largess of the great millionnaire or the successful proconsul of ancient Rome. ”

“ State activity means investment and all the advanced states of the world make heavy investments. Wisconsin taxes are very low in the opinion of the writer, and even a heavier investment should be made to-day either by bonding the state or otherwise, in the development of roads, and forests and in the industrial and agricultural education of the people. It would certainly be worth the investment a hundredfold provided always that efficient machinery prevents waste. ”

“ If we find that failures in the United States have increased about 331⁄3 per cent in ten years and have decreased in Wisconsin some 10.8 per cent, that speaks well for a state as advanced in radical legislation as Wisconsin. If we find that the cost of material used in manufacture has increased 52 per cent in four years in a state having no coal, the agitation is not driving capital out of the state. ”

“ Wisconsin has no state debt (save money borrowed from its own school fund) and yet is building a $6,000,000 capitol building out of current taxation funds without debt. Heavy investments for the future which, according to all systems of finance and from every motive of justice, should be carried by a state debt, have been provided for by current taxation. As the direct state tax was remitted for six years there was no direct state tax during that time, the corporations paid it all and the people have been spoiled. ”

“ After a careful study of socialism in Germany the writer has come to the conclusion that many of the reforms advocated by that party will eventually lead to the destruction of its main thesis. The individual initiative and the efficiency of the individual caused by the breaking up of class distinctions, the establishment of merit and ability in the place of family or title, the equitable distribution of taxation and the very equality of opportunity resulting, will lead to an individuality which will cause men to press forward in the acquisition of private property. ”

“ Are there then, issues appropriated by socialism which are really the strength of these movements? Certainly the socialists in the Wisconsin legislature advocate, in the greater part, humane legislation which could be very well advocated by the most bitter opponents of this party and which in many cases has nothing to do with the propaganda of the theory of State ownership. Says Jane Addams:—
"Is it because our modern industrialism is so new that we have been slow to connect it with the poverty all about us? ”

“ If certain social classes are forming among us, can we not destroy them by means of education and through hope and encouragement make every man more efficient so that the door of opportunity may always be open before him? ”

“ It will be remembered that the socialists in Germany for many years were opposed to the whole plan of industrial insurance and only recently have accepted it. So far does this plan of expediency go, that one time when the writer happened to remark to a socialist member that a proposed plan to extend credit, by means of a well known European device so that workingmen might possess a little property, was not really socialism, the member replied with a smile, "It is an excellent bill and good enough socialism for us." ”

“ It is gradually being understood by the Wisconsin people that a large investment has been made and as time goes on, a more general satisfaction is evident in regard to the payment of taxes. The people of this state demand efficiency in government and once convinced of its existence they are willingly taxed for it, despite the demagogue who so often makes this his only shibboleth. ”

“ In the words of the current slang phrase, every Wisconsin legislator "comes from Missouri" and you have to "show him."
Real reformers have yet to learn that they can progress much further if they really build well as they proceed. Many a good business man would welcome certain kinds of legislation if he were convinced that it could be made effective without great distortion of industrial conditions. It is to the advantage both of the reformer and the business man that there should be some attempt to improve our law-making process. ”

“ Provide the ladder, make free the way and human beings will climb and no plan ever made by Karl Marx or any other man, of whatever party or sect, will prevent the acquisition of private property. The rise of the newly rich class, the evidence of which is seen in the streets of Berlin almost as much as in the streets of New York, proves my thesis. ”

“ In these days of the ocean cable and the fast racers of the sea, waves of public opinion and thought and the struggles of other lands reach us so quickly, that whether for good or evil, great and sudden changes are emerging from this turmoil. ”

“ If these lands are good for agricultural purposes but require thirty dollars an acre for development, why cannot a scheme be originated so that the actual settler may have the advantage of some kind of credit, in order to clear his land and use his capital for the greatest benefit? ”

“ A governor of New York once told how his predecessor managed the reformers; he agreed with every one and suggested that the reformers put their ideas in the form of bills which he would support. Four out of five of the reformers never returned, while the fifth one reappeared with a bill so crude in form that the governor could easily point out sections which he could not support because of their unconstitutionality or lack of administrative devices. ”

“ Australia has bought up or condemned great tracts of land and then leased them for 999 years to actual settlers; the settler may use his capital for cattle, machinery and barns and by paying a small lease yearly to the state, improve these lands. Practically the same principle is being applied in the arid regions of the West by our federal government ”

“ Shall we always hear the returning travellers' tale of the improvements throughout the entire world with a provincial and smug spirit and be foolish enough to believe that we can learn nothing, while right in our midst are problems which have confronted every nation at some time in its history? ”

“ We are encountering but the first wavelets of what appears to be a flood of mighty forces. Will our grand old constitution stand the shock? Will the splendid American spirit and ideals of the past be submerged? ”

“ In Wisconsin, the governor could not use that scheme. The chances are that if a man really had a feasible idea which would be for the general welfare of the state, he would have a hearing before the legislature and his plan would be modified in such a manner that the governor would have a much harder task to criticise it or lightly dispose of it. ”

“ Every other plan of man, however wise and complete it may have been, has failed. Place before the American people the ideal of Lincoln and search keenly into our conditions to discover why there are not more Lincolns. ”

“ The small group of socialist Germans in the legislature have well understood that they did not have to advance untried experiments, hence they adopted a policy of continuous education maintaining that certain laws have existed in a certain country and have accomplished certain things and that Wisconsin would eventually have to accept similar laws. ”

“ In order to prevent the gradual increase of the renter class, can we not introduce some long time credit arrangement similar to that recently introduced into Ireland, by which the government allows the purchaser to pay for land on a long time basis? ”

“ The work was carefully done, and although a part of it was fragmentary in its nature, so much so that it may have to be redrafted, none of it presents any real menace to business or prosperity. The conservative Wisconsin legislator is very careful to build well as he advances, and there is no great resentment against any of these laws. The water power law is the only one which has been declared unconstitutional. ”