http://www.uwex.edu/history/wiidea_mccarthy.cfm		
McCarthy (Charles R.) and The Wisconsin Idea   Charles R. McCarthy (1873-1921) was named Chief of the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library in 1907 and served in this capacity until his death on March 26, 1921. He conducted seminars on legislation at the University of Wisconsin, actively promoted the University's Extension program, and was a leader in the Progressive movement. In 1963, the Wisconsin Legislature Reference Library became the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. For additional information about McCarthy and the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, see McCarthy (Charles R) <file:///D:/WISID/wislegmc.htm> and the Bureau. Macmillan published McCarthy's book,The Wisconsin Idea, in 1912. It was primarily a report on the activities of the 1911 Wisconsin Legislature. The Wisconsin Idea contains the following chapters: Chapter I : The Reason For It; Chapter II : The Soil; Chapter III : The Regulation of Business Affected by a Public Interest; Chapter IV : Electoral and Governmental Changes; Chapter V: Educational Legislation; Chapter VI : Labor, Health, and Public Welfare; Chapter VII : Administration; Chapter VIII : The Legislature; Chapter IX : The Law and Economic Progress ; Chapter X : Conclusion. Appendix : Bibliography; Initiative and Referendum Resolution; Men Serving Both University and State for 1910-11. To view the full text of McCarthy's book, click here The Wisconsin Idea <file:///D:/WISID/http.www.library.wisc.edu/etext/WIReader/Contents.html> This file includes the full texts of the reviews of McCarthy's book when it was published in 1912. Some reviewers were very critical and felt it did not live up to the glowing introduction by Theodore Roosevelt. Since it was published about the same time as Frederic C. Howe's Wisconsin: An Experiment in Democracy, they were sometimes reviewed in the same review. In addition, there is a brief excerpt from Leslie H. Fishel, Jr's comments about McCarthy's book, which appeared in A Wisconsin Fifteen : Fifteen Notable Titles From the Library Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, edited by J. Kevin Graffagnino, and published in 1998, by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. 		

		
American Academy of Political and Social Science Annals 42 (July 1912) : 347.  "Wisconsin has done something unique in making a living place for her citizens. With natural opportunities no greater than those of surrounding states, she has, through the instrumentality of fundamental education and insistent legislation, shaped the environment to meet the needs of her citizens. She has thus fulfilled the author's demand '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.' It is in this hopeful spirit that Wisconsin has worked, and that the author has written." 		

		
The American Review of Reviews 45, no. 5 (May 1912) : 639-640.  Review is entitled : "A Progressive State." "Politicians of our Eastern seabord, and especially the editors of most of the metropolitan papers, have too long put off the duty of acquainting themselves with the real principles and animus of the progressive movement in American politics. Certain Middle Western primaries would not have given so severe a jolt to reactionary party leaders in the Eastern States if said leaders had possessed a fair working knowledge of what had actually been taking place in Wisconsin and other Middle Western States during the past decade. To those who really wish to know what progressive politics means to the Middle West and can saxfely stand the strain of this new knowledge, we commend Mr. Charles McCarthy's book, 'The Wisconsin Idea,' as the most complete summary yet published of the legislative achievements in Senator La Follette's State. While many of trhe reforms here outlined were initiated and stoutly supported by Mr. La Follette while he was Governor of the State, others of them, and in the latter group some of the most important, have been brought about since Mr. La Follette's election to the Senate and without the direct assistance of his personal or official support. From whatever point of view one may view it, the record is a remarkable one. Not many years ago it was customary to speak of Massachusetts as the most advanced State in the Union, and in many points this was doubtless a true characterization. But Wisconsin has now superseded Massachusetts in this position of leadership, and there is a group of Western States which is nearly, if not quite, abreast of Wisconsin. As legislative librarian in the State for over ten years, Mr. McCarthy has been constantly in touch with Wisconsin's legislation and writes from full and intimate knowledge. An introduction to the work is furnished by Theodore Roosevelt." 		

		
Athenaeum; A Journal of Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music and the Drama No. 4410 (May 4,  1912) : 498.  "Wisconsin has become something like a laboratory for wise experimental legislation,' aimed at social and political improvement. This book has been written to answer many inquiries from legislative leaders and reformers in other American States. Mr. Roosevelt commends it in an Introduction which revels in platitude. What Wisconsin has achieved--e.g., in the fight against consumption, the preservation of forests, and a series of Standing Committees for legislation--is sufficiently striking, and well told by the author, Legislative Librarian for over ten years in the State. He recognizes divergent views, and avoids dogmatism." 		

		
Booklist 8 (June 1912) : 402.  "Records the development of progressive legislation in Wisconsin, affecting economic conditions, labor, education, government, etc., and the benefits derived from the interrelation of the state and the University of Wisconsin in initiating and carrying out reforms. Describes the work of the legislative reference department, of which the author is at the head. A valuable work for all interested in the improvement of state legislation, though at times vague in statement and scrappy in treatment. Appended are the initiative and referendum resolution (1911) and a list of 'men serving both university and state.' Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt. Bibliography (18 titles)" 		

		
The Dial, A Semi-Monthly Journal of Literary Criticism, discussion, and Information 53, no. 629  (September 1, 1912) : 134-136.  In his review entitled "The New Idea' in State Government," David Y. Thomas reviews The Wisconsin Idea , by Charles R. McCarthy and Wisconsin: An Experiment in Democracy, by Frederick C. Howe. ". . . Noteworthy achievements have been accomplished in several states; but nowhere have the results been more remarkable than in Wisconsin. That state has become an experimental laboratory, and the nation is looking on to see the process and obtain the results of the working out of the Wisconsin Idea. So great is the interest in this that two books have appeared almost simultaneously with the design of partially satisfying the desire of the nation to know about this new Idea in government." "What the Wisconsin Idea is, Mr. Charles McCarthy, the author of one of these books, tells us in a few sentences. It is, in effect, that there should be no drones living off the toil of the many; that prosperity exists for the benefit of the human being, and for no other purpose.' If prosperity does not uplift the mass of human beings, it is not true prosperity, however, it may be counterfeited by a grand show of fair cities or the glory of its riches.' Our civilization, he thinks, must be made to serve the welfare of each individual. The way to do this is to drive out the cheating rascals who have acted as judges; protect the weak against the wielders of Force; provide honest markets and exchanges and means of transportation; and, finally, to teach the Man his rights as well as his duties as a citizen." "Only a few of the things undertaken by Wisconsin for the realization of this end can be as much as named here. It has regulated the railroads and other public utility corporations so as to make them the servants and not the masters of the people. It has done this, not by prescribing in rigid law minute rules and regulations that all must follow whether applicable to them or not, but by creating a commission and empowering and requiring it to see that the corporations furnish adequate service at reasonable rates and without discrimination. Seventy-five years ago, in the Priestly case, the courts of England established the doctrine of assumed risks in industrial accidents, and this doctrine was quickly introduced by our courts into this country and by them was widely extended. At last Wisconsin created a commission to investigate the whole subject of personal injury, industrial insurance, and workmen's compensation. After a painstaking study, it presented a report which resulted in laws shifting the cost of injury and pioneering the way for State Insurance in America. New York enacted a Workmen's Compensation act, only to have it declared unconstitutional on antiquated grounds. Wisconsin avoided the shoals of constitutionality by making it voluntary for employers to operate under the law, though virtually putting a penalty on them for not doing so. Her law stands, and has been copied by nine other states. Mr. McCarthy thinks the Employer's Liability Law the greatest piece of legislation yet put forth in Wisconsin, and one which may be a long stride toward the solution of the whole industrial accident problem in America.' Through the tax commission, and responsive legislation, tax burdens have been equalized with astonishing boldness and surprising justice. The latest experiment in taxation is the Income Tax law of 1911, the outcome of which will be awaited with interest, since our state income tax laws have been failures almost without exception. To be awarded a gold medal by the International Anti-Tuberculosis Association for the best law for the prevention or control of tuberculosis is an achievement worth while." "Much of this has been accomplished by calling in the expert,' as Mr. Howe says. The experts have come mainly from the University, which has become the nerve centre' of the state, impelling it to intelligent action in many fields. It does this in two ways: by sending out graduates indoctrinated with the principles of good government, and filled with enthusiasm for it and by furnishing men for expert administrative work. In 1910-11, seven members of the instructional force were giving a part of their time to public service, and were being paid for both; twenty-three others had definite official positions without any definite combination arrangement; thirteen others, besides various members of the medical faculty, were serving the state bureaus in various ways when capped upon; and four state officers were serving on the University staff without further compensation. Except from the members of the old guard,' who do not like to see themselves displaced, the chief complaint seems to be, not that these men are grafting, but that the stranger never knows where to find them whether at the statehouse or the University." "But the greatest service of the University has been in the democratization of learning and its application to the needs of everyday life. Its theory is that if the boy is to become a bricklayer he should be taught something more than how to lay bricks; he should be taught buying, architecture, and the essentials which will prepare him for service in the civic body. After enumerating a dozen or more things such as improving seed-crop, grasses, orchards, the breed of horses and cattle, and giving a great impulse to the dairy industry Mr. McCarthy says: The question arises at once, But isn't all this materialistic? Doesn't the University of Wisconsin spell cow'?' With refreshing frankness, he answers: And what of it?' He is fully convinced that all this is worth while in itself, but that mere learning will be the gainer from it also." "One of the remarkable things about the matter is that all of this has been accomplished without any such devices as the initiative, referendum, and recall, on which so much emphasis is laid in other progressive states, particularly Oregon, California, and Oklahoma. Not until last year was an initiative and referendum amendment passed for submission to the people, and its form shows that it was designed merely to supplement, not to supplant, the legislature. Through the efforts of Mr. La Follette and his co-workers, and by means of a primary-election law, the people recovered their state government several years ago. Now they have confidence in their legislature, because it goes about legislation in a scientific way and has accomplished good results. Both Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Howe attribute this to the large German element in the state. These people fled from oppression, and brought with them the scientific spirit. They saw that the great private interests won, not so much because of bribery as through the employment of experts who used skill in drafting bills and then backed them up with arguments which the ordinary legislator could not refute. The legislator was not hopelessly bad; no one was there to answer specious arguments, or to point out the vicious features of bad bills. So the expert was called in against the expert, and a legislative reference library was created, where bills can be drafted with care, and information supplied on all sides. Probably more credit is due to this bureau than Mr. McCarthy, who has had charge of it since its creation, modestly claims." "Both Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Howe are filled with enthusiasm for their subject, and the have given us a very roseate picture of the results achieved. It does not appear that they have overdrawn the results in any case, but they have said very little about what yet remains to be accomplished. Both books furnish stimulative reading, and will be helpful to the serious student. Because he goes more into detail, and quotes more freely from statutes and reports, Mr. McCarthy's work will be more helpful to the legislator seeking precedents; but the latter will do well to have both books close at hand." 		

		
The Independent 72, no. 3316 (June 20, 1912) : 1377-1378.  Review is entitled : "The Wisconsin Idea." "The Wisconsin Idea' is the child of popular government and public education. It attempts to combine control of policies by the people (without interference by a selfish organized machine) with scientific administration of public problems (without contamination by fraud or spoils). Its union of direct control with expert service has given rise, in the mouth of the leading educator of the State, to the aphorism that Wisconsin is interested in political science, with the emphasis on science. For more than a decade, now, the progressive forces have been at work in this Western commonwealth, and if the result were not worth inspecting on its own account it would still need to be exploited to satisfy a curiosity respecting its character that has come to exist in other States. Dr. Charles McCarthy, who thru the whole decade has been the trusted adviser of legislatures, now sings the praises of the Wisconsin Idea in his book of that name; and with a sketch enthusiasm he describes the laws that have made Wisconsin famous, and the method of their making. Frederic C. Howe discusses the same Experiment in Democracy, in terms that glow as brightly as those of Dr. McCarthy, but he does it from the standpoint of resulting institutions rather than from that of legislative process. What the Wisconsinian thinks of the rest of the world, from his vantage point in a chair in the State University, where he is encouraged in that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found,' may be seen in the book, Changing America. Here Prof. E. A. Ross analyzes the social tendencies of today, and reprints his vivid chapters on the Middle West.' "A positive platform of social and economic reform, from the Wisconsin standpoint, is contained in President Van Hise's Concentration and Control, just off the press. A work of opportunism,' as he describes it, he has tried to strike while the iron is hot, and to forge a public tool that will satisfy the soul of a distressed nation as well as serve its need. He traces the course of competition and combination, and the efforts to prevent the trust. Frankly, he admits the advantage of combination and co-operation, but he asserts a public interest in businesses which restrain trade to such a degree as to control the market.' Much of this control may be for the public's own good, but of this the public ought itself to be the judge. Accordingly, President Van Hise would administer this interest thru a series of expert commissions which should at once encourage reasonable concentration of industry and save the individual from oppression, greed and crime. The book is sane and thoughtful. It contains the best existing summary of the trust problem, entirely apart from its proposed solution. "The service to be rendered to a people thru the broadening of government is the flesh of the Wisconsin Idea.' Most of the government is at bottom a scientific matter, to be placed in commission and handled by experts. To secure an absolute and direct control over these activities is an equally fundamental matter, and the dry bones of the Idea'--the mechanical skeleton upon which it hangs--may be dissected from those devices which have suddenly been improvised to bring back into the hands of the people their own institutions. These are the initiative, the referendum and the recall. Upon none of these reforms is there a literature of long duration, but Professor Munro has collected from current literature a symposium of papers that explain them fully. "In these mechanical reforms of government, and in the vision of service which the Wisconsin Idea' sees, we have a new platform for the rejuvenation of democracy. It is not a Jeffersonian democracy, to which , tho all men are equal, all government is bad. It is instead, a recrudescence of the virile democracy of Jackson, based upon a confidence in the sobriety of the plain people. But it departs from the Jacksonian practice in that the new democracy no longer thinks that any man is fit for any office, whatever his training. It believes instead in permanent and expert service, absolutely divorced from politics. And herein is the reason why most politicians over fifty cannot understand it. It is not necessary for us to agree with all the planks in the Wisconsin platform, and we cannot feel that either Mr. Howe or Dr. McCarthy is free from the limitations set by unmitigated enthusiasm. But the Idea' is abroad, and in its essentials we cannot, even if we would, avoid considering it." In addition to the titles by Howe and McCarthy, the other three titles mentioned in this review are: Changing America : Studies in Contemporary Society by Edward Alsworth Ross. Century. 1912; Concentration and Control : A Solution of the Trust Problem in the United States by Charles Richard Van Hise. Macmillan. 1912; and The Initiative, Referendum, and Recall, ed. by William Bennett Munro. Appleton, 1912. 		

		
>Journal of Political Economy 20, no. 7 (July 1912) : 762.  "If one is to take the author's dedication 'To the legislators, always criticised and never praised,'as a statement of fact, he must find in this book the inevitable exception, for no group of legislators could desire a more sincere and honorable tribute than is herein rendered to those of Wisconsin. The writer's faith in the 'Wisconsin idea' is quite evidently unequivocal and, as he shows, justly so. The progress which he describes as taking place in legislation in Wisconsin is of a nature to make anyone who has an interest in such matters desire to know more of it. He explains it as the work of men truly interested in good government and willing to do their utmost to attain it. The scientific way in which they have attempted to reach this end through co-operation with the state university and other expert service, and the careful way in which experimental legislation has been planned have resulted very fortunately for the state. It is true, however, as the author says, that the conditions in Wisconsin were especially favorable for such a course. The character of the people who settled the state was such that inflammatory measures and mere rhetoric would not win much following. With a volatile people or one ignorant of the object for which these men are striving the same results would not accrue. Detailed statements in regard to commissions that have been established, the legislative reference department, the affect on business of various measures, etc., give an insight into the spirit of that Wisconsin idea of which they are the expression." 		

		
The Nation 94, no. 2445 (May 9, 1912) : 474.  "In his preface to 'The Wisconsin Idea' (Macmillan), Charles McCarthy confesses that he has made his book 'hurriedly, without due care as to literary standard.' The reader is soon convinced of the accuracy of both parts of this statement. The purpose of the volume is to give information about the legislation of Wisconsin which has for some years been attracting the attention of the country, and about the philosophy upon which it is based. This purpose the book fulfils, but in a discursive and ill-ordered way. it is not possible to find out quickly what the State has done with reference to control of railways, for instance, or campaign expenses, or direct primaries, partly because the story is interrupted by ill-timed comment, and partly because it is told too largely by means of quotations from the statue books. What ought to have been a manual turns out something between an essay and a compilation. Lucid summaries would have more than doubled the value of the book. Nevertheless, if for no other reason than that its subject is important, and that it is the only volume of its kind, it is worthy of perusal and study. Its author's position as chief of the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Department, and his free use of the language of the acts passed by the Legislature, give it the weight of authority. Indeed, it is because of its merits that it ought to be rewritten in such a way as better to deserve Mr. Roosevelt's flattering Introduction." 		

		
New York Times 17 (21 April 1912) : 245.  Review is entitled : "Wisconsin Politics; A Study of the State's Whirlwind Reform' Methods by a Sympathizer." "No true Progressive needs to be recommended to anything about the Wisconsin Idea, but Mr. McCarthy has prepared an account of it which has attractions even for those not sympathetic toward reform by whirlwind and earthquake. Like so many of his brethren in the faith, he writes with a most engaging sincerity and enthusiasm. Such is the ardor of Mr. McCarthy's propaganda, and such the lure of his language, that it needs some stability of judgment not to be swept off one's feet into the raging flood of the appeal that other States should imitate Wisconsin's experiments in the regulation of public and private business if there is any more private business in revamping constitutions, and devising new sorts of elections, and new ways of passing statutes in form to mean what they say and not, what Judges think they ought to mean to say. Here we find the very latest fashions in socials reform, and authoritative indications of next year's likeliest fancies. No election has yet been held under the law' regarding the expression of the voters' second choices, we read, and its opponents have shown many diagrams to the effect that it will produce quite the opposite effect to that intended. The opponents of the law claim that it cannot be understood by the average voter, and that it will cause all kinds of mistakes, and will require a long time to tabulate results.' The Wisconsin initiative and referendum are so very new that it has yet to pass the 1913 Legislature and be accepted by the people before it becomes a part of the Wisconsin Constitution. Was there ever a more ingenuous innovator than he who thus confesses that there are doubts in the minds of any about his happy thoughts. And when even Wisconsin has to wait through the dragging years until 1913 before entering into its own promised land, surely other States may be pardoned for willingness to wait also until Wisconsin's experiments shall have stood the test of a year or two, rather than experiment by adoption in anticipation of the effects upon the Wisconsin thinkers. Wisconsin is an excellent place for the Wisconsin Idea to try itself out. The East has never regretted its failure to adopt the reforms which the Granger States repealed a generation ago, and history may repeat itself. "It is amazing that a gentleman who shows such intimacy with the seamy side of legislation should be so hopeful of results from statutes. In legislation, as in most things, mushroom growth is not a sound or enduring growth. Revolutionary statutes are as rare as revolutions, while disappointing or useless statutes are as numerous as the stars or the sands. Our Legislatures number just short of fifty, and most of them turn out worse laws than Wisconsin's under Mr. McCarthy's first aids to ignorance and ready helps to reformers. By all means, if any State is envious of Wisconsin, let it imitate Wisconsin's methods, if another Mr. McCarthy can be found. But Punch once gave better advice to a gentleman contemplating matrimony. Let Wisconsin try out' these fads. And perhaps it is not the fads which do the work but the men behind the fads. Perhaps the Wisconsin Progressives could have worked with the old tools and the State been spared much turmoil and uncertainty as to where it is at' at the present moment." 		

		
Political Science Quarterly 28, no. 1 (March 1913) : 160-162.  Reviewed by Edward McChesney Sait, author, political scientist, and professor of politics at  Columbia University.  "Des Moines has a 'plan'; Oregon a 'system'; and now Wisconsin, not to be outdone in originative genius, appears to have evolved an 'idea.' While, according to Mr. McCarthy, no one categorical explanation of the Idea can be given, it appears to include: 'the development of the efficiency of the individual and the safeguarding of his opportunity, the jealous guarding of the governmental machinery from the invasion of the corrupting force of concentrated wealth, the shackling of monopoly, and the regulating of contract conditions by special administrative agencies of the people."  "Mr. McCarthy gives the Idea a concrete form by describing some of the progressive legislation which began with the Direct Primary Act of 1903 and which covers such various matters as corrupt practices, workmen's compensation, the regulation of railroads and public utilities, state insurance and agricultural education. This comprehensive program, executed with unusual care and practical consideration, has carried the state a long way towards industrial democracy. Such a record of achievement, crowded into a single decade, must appear impressive even to those who suspect that the Idea is not altogether a Wisconsin monopoly. But there is something almost comic in the naive complacency with which Mr. McCarthy writes of it. He is a panegyrist; such phrases as 'that great student' and ' brilliant newspaper man and author' recall the flamboyant eulogies which are delivered in Congress when our statesmen die. Not a few of the measures which he praises the presidential preference primary and the second-choice ballot, for instance had not yet been tested in practice when he wrote; the direct legislation amendments will not be submitted to the people till 1914; and as for the Massachusetts ballot and the Oregon system of electing United States senators, the first will precipitate 'a fierce struggle' in 1913 and the second 'undoubtedly will be considered later.' Evidently Wisconsin, in the language of Chesterton, is glowing with the memory of to-morrow afternoon." "Why did Wisconsin assert this preeminence over all the other states? Because, Mr. McCarthy asserts with curious emphasis and reiteration, it is 'fundamentally a German state', 'the great German state of the nation'; because 'German standards and Teutonic blood . . . are so prevalent'; because the cautious, careful German and Norwegian have refused to be domineered over by every long-haired reformer who prances into the arena'; and because 'the German state' has a 'Germany university.' Of course this is an hallucination. The only evidence adduced is a page from the college directory conveniently chosen under the letter K. But later on, to show the practical nature of political instruction in this German university, some pages from the announcement of courses are given; and the names of nine of the ten instructors quite obviously originated in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. And who were actually the progenitors of the Wisconsin Idea? How many of them had more German blood than the New-Englander John Bascom or the Scotch-Irish Huguenot Robert M. LaFollette? And are we to suppose that Mr. McCarthy's own forbears came from Pumpernickel? By way of further criticism, it must be said that evidence of haste and carelessness abounds. There are occasional lapses in grammar; there are strange allusions to Bagehot's 'History' of the English Constitution and 'Judge' Dicey's 'Law books and statutes and court decisions, some of them running to six or eight pages of small type." But, with all these defects, the book has conspicuous merits. In some ways it should rank as the most suggestive contribution which has recently been made to the literature on state government. Nowhere has the inner meaning of the new radical movement been stated at once so simply and so cogently. Those who read the first chapter, which discuses 'The Reason for It,' and the last chapter, which treats of 'The Law and Economic Progress,' will see that the author has come fairly close to an understanding of the fundamental problems of our politics. Some may take alarm at his references to 'the tarnished grandeur of the Constitution' and 'the break-down of common justice.' But, believing firmly in representative government, he not unnaturally regards the abolition of frivolous constitutional restrictions and the policy-determining functions of the courts as necessary to the rehabilitation of the legislatures. Power and responsibility must be restored, or else the public will continue to sigh with relief when each session ends and to thank heaven that the courts can be relied on to protect the people's interests against the representatives of the people. Mr. McCarthy, evidently preferring cabinet government, would require administrative commissions to appear before the legislature to answer questions. He makes a number of other proposals, intended to secure honesty and efficiency in the public service; for example, that the legislature should meet immediately after the election, organize committees, and then adjourn for a year so as to ensure due care in the preparation of bills. The official position which Mr. McCarthy has held for the past five or six years has given him unusual opportunities to observe the defects of existing practices and should entitle his proposals to serious considerations." 		

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