(ISSN 0043-6534) WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

The State Historical Society of Wi.sconsin • Vol. 66, No. 2 • Winter, 1982-1983 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN

RICHARD A. ERNEY, Director Officers WILLIAM C. KIDD, President WILSON B. THIEDE, Treasurer NEWELL G. MEYER, First Vice-President RICHARD A. ERNEY, Secretary MRS. L. PRENTICE EAGER, JR., Second Vice-President

THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN is both a state agency and a private membership organization. Founded in 1846—two years before statehood—and chartered in 1853, it is the oldest American historical society to receive continuous public funding. By statute, it is charged with collecting, advancing, and disseminating knowledge of Wisconsin and of the trans-Mississippi West. The Society serves as the archive of the State of Wisconsin; it collects all manner of books, periodicals, maps, manuscripts, relics, newspapers, and aural and graphic materials as they relate to North America; it maintains a museum, library, and research facility in Madison as well as a statewide system of historic sites, school services, area research centers, and affiliated local societies; it administers a broad program of historic preservation; and publishes a wide variety of historical materials, both scholarly and popular. MEMBERSHIP in the Society is open to the public. Annual membership is |I5, or $12.50 for persons over 65 or members of afhiiated societies. Family membership is $20, or $15 for persons over 65 or members of affiliated societies. Contributing membership is $50; supporting, $100; sustaining, $200-$500;/)a/row, $500 or more. THE SOCIETY is governed by a Board of Curators which includes, ex officio, the Governor, the Secretary of State, the State Treasurer, the President of the University of Wisconsin, the President of the Society's Auxiliary, the President of the Wisconsin History Foundation, Inc., and the Chairman ofthe Administrative Committee ofthe Wisconsin Council for Local History. The other thirty-six members of the Board of Curators are elected by the membership. A complete listing of the Curators appears inside the back

The Society is headquartered at 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, at the juncture of State and Park streets on the University of Wisconsin campus. A partial listing of phone numbers (Area Code 608) follows: General Administration 262-3266 Library circulation desk 262-3421 General information 262-.3271 Maps 262-9558 Affiliated local societies 262-2316 Membership 262-9613 Archives reading room 262-3338 Microforms reading room 262-9621 Contribution of library materials and artifacts 262-0629 Museum tours 262-9567 Editorial offices 262-9603 Newspapers reference 262-9584 Film collections 262-0585 Picture and .sound collections 262-9581 Genealogical and general reference inquiries 262-9590 Public information office 262-9606 Government publications and reference 262-2781 Sales desk 262-3271 Historic preservation 262-1339 School services 262-9567 Historic sites 262-3271 Speakers bureau 262-2704

ON THE COVER: Herbert Hoover was in the waning days of his presidency and the Experimental College was at the end of its tenure at the University of Wisconsin when this photograph was made of commencement exercises in the Field House in June, 1932. [WHi(WBS)19821] Volume 66, Number 2 / Winter, 1982-1983 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF

HISTORY (ISSN 0043-6534)

Published quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, The Experimental College Revisited 91 816 State Street, Madison, Cynthia Stokes Brown Wisconsin 53706. Distributed to members as part of their dues. (Annual membership, $15, or $12.50 for those over 65 William B. Hesseltine and or members of affiliated the Profession of History: A Retrospective societies; family membership, $20, or $15 for those over 65 or Dutch Uncle to a Profession 106 members of affiliated societies; Robert G. Gunderson contributing, $50; supporting, The Teacher and His Students 111 $100; sustaining, $200-$500; patron, $500 or more.) Single Frank Freidel numbers from Volume 57 The Trainer of Historians 115 forward are $2. Microfilmed Frank L. Byrne copies available through University Microfilms, 300 Recollections of the Man and the Teacher 119 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Richard N. Current Michigan 48106; reprints of Volumes 1 through 20 and most issues of Volumes 21 The Challenge of the Artifact 122 through 56 are available from Kraus Reprint Company, William B. Hesseltine Route 100. Millwood, New York 10546. Communications should be The Paradox of Municipal Reform addressed to the editor. The in the Nineteenth Century 128 Society does not assume David Paul Nord responsibility for statements made by contributors. Second-class postage paid at Madison, Wisconsin, and at McCarthyism Without Tears: A Review Essay 143 additional mailing offices. Richard M. Fried POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wisconsin Magazine of History, Madison, Wisconsin Book Reviews 147 53706. Copyright © 1982 by Book Review Index 162 the State flistorical Society of Wisconsin. Wisconsin History Checklist 163

The Wisconsin Magazine of Accessions 165 History is indexed annually by Contributors 168 the editors; cumulative indexes are assembled decennially. In addition, articles are abstracted and indexed in America: History Editor and Life, Historical Abstracts, Index to Literature on the American PAUL tf. EIASS Indian, and the Combined Associate Editors Retrospective Index to Journals in History, 1838-1974. WILLIAM C. MARTEN JOHN O. HIOLZHUETER MARILYN GRANT tk i I

VVHi{D487)6831 B)i 7927, /Ac western fringes ofthe University of Wisconsin campus, including portions ofthe Ag School farm, had been convened to intramural athletic fields. The original caption accompanyiyig this photo had the bull complaining, "My pasture is gone!" 90 The Experimental College Revisited

By Cynthia Stokes Brown

N 1929, while Alexander Meikle- Alexander Meiklejohn came to the Univer­ I john was chairman of the Experi­ sity of Wisconsin in 1926 at the age of fifty- mental College at the University of Wisconsitt, four, ffe already had considerable experience he received a letter addressed to "The Profes­ as a college teacher and administrator— sor of Experiments." It was from an animal fourteen years, from 1897 to 1911, at Brown breeder who wanted to sell him guinea pigs. University, where he taught philosophy and Across the top of the letter Meiklejohn wrote served as dean of men; eleven years, from in his tiny handwriting: "Next class assured."' 1912 to 1923, at Amherst College, where he This story raises some important questions was president. In 1923 the trustees of about the Experimental College, which was Amherst asked him for his resignation, which partof the university from 1927 to 1932. What he tendered. In 1914 they had wanted a presi­ was the purpose of the experiment? Who were dent who could bring the college to life; but the students? Did the college have trouble at­ Meiklejohn had breathed more life and con­ tracting and keeping them? What kind of peo­ troversy into it than they could endure.- ple were "the professor of experiments" and The years from 1923 to 1926 were dark and the teachers he chose? What was the outcome difficult ones for Meiklejohn. He had no as­ ofthe experiment? sured income, a wife who had gone to Italy try­ The purpose of the Experimental College, ing to recover from cancer, and four children. as Meiklejohn conceived it, was to teach all He no longer believed that he could work out kinds of students to think so they would be his vision of what a liberal college should be able to function as free people in a self- within the existing structures of colleges and governing society. These words were not mere universities, and he wanted to found a new rhetoric to Meiklejohn. They expressed the college. Meanwhile, he had to generate some fundamental convictions of his life—that free­ income by lecturing and writing. dom is an extraordinarily difficttlt achieve­ One who sought Meiklejohn's essays was ment, that adults must teach it purposively if Glenn Frank, editor of The (]entury Magazine in students are to have a chance of learning it, New York. Frank published Meiklejohn's es­ and that in a democracy all students, not say, "A New College: Notes on the Next Step merely an elite group, must be taught it. - For the Amherst years, see especially .Alexander EDITORS' NOTE: For this essay Cynthia Stokes Brown has Meiklejohn, The Liberal College (Boston, 1920) and Freedom expanded a section ofthe sketch of Alexander Meiklejohn and the College (New York, 1923); J. Seelye Bixler, "Alex­ that appears in her anthology of his writings: Cynthia ander Meiklejohn and the Making of the Amherst Mind," Stokes Brown, edilor, Alexander Meiklejohn: Teacher of Free­ in Amherst: The College and Its Alumni (Spring, 1973), 1-6; dom (Berkeley, California, 1981). The book is available John Merriman Gaus, "The Issues at Amherst," in The Na­ from the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, Box 673, tion, 117: 12 (July 4, 1923); Stanley King, A Histoiy ofthe Berkeley, California 94701 for $15.95, cloth, or $9.95, pa­ Endowment of Amherst College (Amherst, Massachusetts, per, postage and handling included. 1950); Walter Lippmann, "The Fall of President Meikle­ ' Box 65, folder 12, Alexander Meiklejohn Papers, in john," in the New York WorW, June 24, 1923, editorial sec­ the Archives Division, State Historical Society of Wiscon­ tion, p. 1; and Lucien Price, Prophet Unawares: The Ro­ sin. Cited hereinafter as Meiklejohn Papers. mance oj an Idea (New York, 1924).

91 ever after would be known, in capital letters, as the Experimental College. Both Frank and Meiklejohn were stepping into an institution they did not know and in which they were not known. Frank had been chosen as president by a Board of Regents whose majority was appointed by John J. Blaine, the Progressive governor elected in 1920. The faculty, whose complexion did not change with the triumph ofthe Progressives in 1920, had some cause for resentment. The previous two presidents had been chosen from within the university after long years of service on the faculty; the retiring president, Edward A. Birge, had been dean of the Col­ lege of Letters and Science under his prede­ cessor. An unknown outsider with no experi­ ence in university administration was a difficult pill for the faculty to swallow, espe­ cially since it had not been consulted in his se­ Meiklejohn and the Experimental College were considered lection. worthy of a Time cover story on September 24, 1928. Frank assumed the inanagernent of a budget of nearly $7 million, a teaching staff of in Higher Education," and formed a commit­ 503, and an enrollment of 7,760 students. A tee to raise funds for a college based on his major conflict over money confronted him at ideas. Before any headway on a new college once, for in August, 1925, the Board of Re­ could be made, however, Frank became the gents voted not to accept grants from any in­ president of the University of Wisconsin in corporated foundations. The Progressives May, 1925. Even before he assumed office, he among the Regents wanted to keep the univer­ offered Meiklejohn a professorship.'' sity free of "tainted money" from monopolies, Meiklejohn accepted for the second semes­ and they returned a recent grant of $12,500 ter ofthe 1925-1926 academic year. His per­ for medical research given by the Rockefeller sonal life was in transition. Nannine LaVilla Foundation. The state legislattire provided Meiklejohn, his wife of twenty-two years, had only slightly more than half the university's in­ died in February, 1925, leaving him with four come, the rest being made up of fees, receipts, children, ages seventeen to eight, to finish and gifts. Frank took both sides of this issue as rearing. Moving from New York City to Madi­ best he could. Eventually the Regents reversed son meant setting up a whole new life. their decision in March, 1930. In January, 1926, before Meiklejohn In 1925 the university as a whole was enjoy­ moved to Madison, Frank asked him to run an ing a steady advance in enrollinent, staffing, experimental college within the university. specialization, and professionalization. This Meiklejohn accepted, and he assumed the post advance continued during the next five years of professor of philosophy in March, 1926, as enrollment climbed 20 per cent ancl staffing teaching one course and planning what for- 15 per cent. The Depression then wiped out this expansion; by 1934 enrollment was ' Alexander Meiklejohn, ".\ .New College: Notes on slightly lower than it had been in 1925, and the the Next Step in Higher Education," in Centuiy Magazine, faculty was back to its 1925 level. 109: 312-320 (January, 1925); Alexander Meiklejohn, The Experimental College (New York, reprint eel.. 1971), Ap­ The College of Letters and Science was by pendix 1 (available in paperback as Alexander Meikle­ far the largest college of the university, with john, The Experimental College, edited and abridged by more than 6,000 students and 986 courses in John Walker Powell [Seven Locks Press, Cabin [ohn. 1925. Historian George Clarke Sellery, its in­ Maryland, 1981J): August Derleth, Still Small Voice: The Biography of Zona Gale (New York, 1940), 166-167; Law­ fluential dean, had been in line for the presi­ rence H. Larsen, The President Wore Spats: A Biography of dency if an oiUsider had not been chosen. The Glenn Frank (Madison, 1965), 40-76. number of students in the College of Letters

92 BROWN: EXPERIMENTAL COLLEGE and Science had increased rapidly without EIKLEJOHN had a little more concomitant expansion of faculty and facili­ M'tha n a year in which to plan ties, resulting in an increase in the size of dis­ the college and to recruit staff and students be­ cussion sections to thirty-five or forty and in a fore it opened in the fall of 1927. The college desperate squeeze on space that sometimes must be understood from two perspectives: left twelve faculty members in one office try­ the plan as Meiklejohn developed it, and then ing to maintain contact with students. The an­ what ensued as his plan was executed. nual report of the University Committee in Meiklejohn conceived the Experimental 1925 highlighted the problem of large classes College as the first two years of college, which and recommended a commission to study would constitute the students' liberal or gen­ problems of improving instruction and con­ eral education, enabling them to learn to think tact between faculty and students. critically and to construct a framework on Frank, construing this report as an expres­ which to add further, specialized information. sion of the faculty that it wanted to experiment This would be followed by two years of pre- with methods of teaching other than lectur­ professional or specialized studies in the areas ing, presented Meiklejohn and his ideas as a ofthe students' particular interests, leading to solution. Frank asked the faculty to establish a vocation or career. The final two years could an independent college to try out different be taken in the regular program at the Univer­ teaching methods. It would be a kind of new sity of Wisconsin, or elsewhere, or could sim­ department within the College of Letters and ply be omitted in favor of taking a job in the Science, reporting both to Dean Sellery and adult world.^ directly to President Frank. In retrospect, this Meiklejohn planned to take a class of 125 arrangement seems guaranteed to produce students each year, for a total of 250 when the conflicts and jealousies. Just why Dean Sellery two-year program was fully operating. Just and his colleagues agreed to it is not com­ who these students would be was obviously of pletely clear. Perhaps out of courtesy, they crucial importance. For the purpose of experi­ granted Frank his first request as president.* menting, of comparing teaching methods with those of the regular university, Meiklejohn ' Meiklejohn, The Experimental College, Appendix I antl 27.5-309; Larsen, President Wore Spats, 86; George C:. Sel­ wanted the students to be a cross-section ofthe lery, Some Ferments at Wisconsin, 1901—1941: Memories and usual students at the university. Reflections (Madison, 1960), 9-17; Merle Curti and But his deeper purpose also required Vernon Carstensen, The University of Wisconsin: A History, 1848-1925 (Madison, 1949), volume II, chapters 4-10. '" Meiklejohn, The Experimental College, Part 1.

WllilX'.llhll'l") Linden Drive on the University of Wisconsin campus, about 1922, when hitching posts still kept company with motoi vehicles. WHi(X3)38096 laboratory class. University of Wisconsin, about 1930.

Meiklejohn to reach the relatively unsophisti­ ported suifrage for women and believed in cated sons of rural and small-town America. their education. But he wanted the f^xperi- Writing in 1927 for Survey Graphic, a Wiscon­ mental College to be residential for the staff sin magazine, Meiklejohn described his inten­ and the students. He believed that some ofthe tions: most important learning takes place in the in­ formal life outside the classroom, and this We wish to experiment on the general run of students. It seems to me that the principle was too important for him to relin­ vital social question in American educa­ quish. tion today IS not. How well can we do The University of Wisconsin maintained no with specially qualified groups of stu­ living arrangements for both men and dents? but rather. Can our young people women. Its dormitories were segregated sexu­ as a whole be liberally educated? Must we ally, and no compromise could be arranged. accept the aristocratic division of people In order to keep his principle of united living, into two classes, one of which can be Meiklejohn therefore decided to exclude trained to understand while the other is women from the college. He also had to give doomed by its own incapacity to remain forever outside the fielci of intelligence? up having all the faculty live with the students. . . . For the present our primary task is A few of the bachelors lived in Adams Hall, that of taking all types of young people but most of his faculty li\'ed off campus.*^ and discovering then- powers. Meiklejohn was given full authority to choose his faculty. He could select them from Later in life, when Meiklejohn was asked inside the university or from without. Most of what portion of the population he assumed were unfit for a college education, he replied: "I don't believe some people are unfit for col­ *^ "W^isconsin's I^xperimental College," in Graphic Sur­ lege education. College education should be vey (June, 1927), 269. so contrived that it is fit for everybody."' ''Amherst Student, 31: 1 (October, 1960), in box 54, The students in the regular program at folder 2, Meiklejohn Papers. •* Interview with Helen Everett Meiklejohn, May 24, Wisconsin included women, and this pre­ 1976; Meiklejohn, The Experimental College, chapter VII sented a problem for Meiklejohn. He sup­ and 284-288'. 94 BROWN: EXPERIMENTAL COLLEGE them would teach two-thirds time in the Ex­ This paradox of required freedom was not perimental College and one-third time in the easy for Meiklejohn to convey. In his notes he department oftheir specialization. This would left this succinct version: "Though we have de­ keep them in contact with their discipline and cided this shall be a free country, we resist the with the established reward system of univer­ suggestion that the learning of freedom be re­ sity life—departmental tenure and promo­ quired."'" As Meiklejohn planned the Experi­ tions. mental College, this paradox was much on his The Experimental College could be a radi­ mind. He explained it in a speech he gave to cal departure from traditional curriculum and the National Student Federation in Ann Ar­ teaching methods because the faculty of the bor, Michigan, in the early fall of 1926:" College of Letters and Science approved it Students so often say that what they with almost no restrictions. They stipulated would like to have in college is freedom, that there had to be a grade for the two years' to be themselves, to do as they choose, work and that students had to be permitted to each to go his own way, freedom from in­ take one course in the regular university dur­ terest, from requirements, individual ing each of the experimental years, because freedom. certain degree programs required languages I'm as much committed to freedom as taken during the first two years. No other re­ anyone, and yet I am quite sure that no strictions were demanded. Whatever work college or other institution can be orga­ was done in the Experimental College would nized on the basis of freedom in this neg­ be given the usual number of credits and con­ ative sense. There are very definite limi­ tations under which freedom can be sidered by Letters and Science as fulfilling the given to the membership of a social usual requirements ofthe first two years. group. It is possible only where the free­ Meiklejohn knew that he could not plan the dom which each man takes is of such details of the curriculum and the methods of character that it contritiutes to the free­ instruction until he had chosen and assembled dom of every other member of the com­ his faculty. But to choose people who could munity. work together he had to outline his vision. He Freedom is possible in a community wanted the faculty and students together to only when all the members of the com­ study whole civilizations, not subjects frag­ munity are so disposed in mind and so equipped in intelligence that the action mented into specialized studies, fie wanted they will take when free shall be such, the problems of human living, not the aca­ not only that it will not interfere with an­ demic disciphnes, to be the organizing factors. other, but will contribute to the freedom He wanted faculty and students to be studying of every other; when every m^einber has the same curriculum; nothing would be elec­ the same purpose in mind. tive except the one course that students could Separate freedom is possit)le in a take to satisfy the degree programs of the reg­ group of people only when that group of ular university. people has something which dominates In Meiklejohn's plan the requirements of every member ofthe group, every mem­ the curriculum would contrast with freedom ber of the community has a sameness of obligation, only when the whole thing is in the methods of teaching it. Students them­ dominated, controlled, obliged, ruled by selves must assume responsibility for the com­ some central purpose; and tnat is true of mitment they had made. Once committed to a a college as well as any other institution. specific course of study, they must be able to I would like to see every member of a pursue that work in ways that expressed their college community free only by finding a inner individualities. Teachers must not say certain compelling, dominant, central either, "Do as you please," or "I cannot help." motive, which every member of the com­ Rather, they must say, convincingly: "The munity receives and takes as his own. time has come for your freedom; you must The college must find a purpose, com- make it for yourself."^

'" Box 65, folder 9, Meiklejohn Papers. "Alexander Me\V.\e]o\in, Education for a Free Society: Se­ ' Meiklejohn, The Experimental College, chapters IV- lected Papers (two volumes, mimeographed. The Fund for VIII. Adult Education, 1957), II: 195-96. 95 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83

HE Experimental College T opened in the fall of 1927 with a freshman class of 119 and a faculty of eleven. The first year, before the college had its own reputation, some students were attracted by Meiklejohn's essays or by his stand at Amherst. Some freshmen were sent by high school prin­ cipals who said, in effect, "We think this is a hopeless student; you try." One was sent by a football coach in the belief that all his time would be free for practice. Another one came because his father, a farmer, mistook the Ex­ perimental College for the Agricultural Ex­ periment Station. The Experimental College made no selection; it welcomed all applicants warmly.'-^ Meiklejohn selected his teaching staff largely from outside the University of Wiscon­ sin. Six had studied or worked with him at Amherst College—Raymond Agard, John M. Gaus, Lawrence J. Saunders, Malcolm Sharp, Paul A. Raushenbush, and Carl M. Boegholt. A lexander Meiklejohn. In the second year one of the best-known teachers in the regular university, history pro­ mon to all its members, accepted by all its fessor Carl Russell Fish, volunteered to teach members, before every member can be experimentally one-third time. This arrange­ set free to further that purpose in his own way. If then we presuppose that an ment proved unsatisfactory; Fish did not en­ American college becomes a community joy having his polished lectures interrupted by of intelligence, it means that all the mem­ the students of the Experimental College who bers of the community accept the same had the temerity to challenge and question gospel of intellect as their guide in life. him. That first year Meiklejohn also chose two young men from the University of Wisconsin In the midst of planning the Experimental who became effective teachers in the Experi­ College, in June, 1926, Meiklejohn married mental College—John Walker Powell and Helen Everett, whom he had known since he Percy Dawson.''' was a student at Brown and she was two years old. Helen's father, Walter Goodnow Everett, Given their freedom, Meiklejohn and his had been Meiklejohn's teacher and later col­ staff abandoned all courses and subjects. In­ league and closest friend at Brown. Helen Ev­ stead they planned a curriculum with one cen­ erett had graduated from Bryn Mawr, then tral theme for each of the two years. Fhe first had earned a master's degree from Radcliffe was to be devoted to the study of Athenian civ­ and a Ph.D. from the Brookings Graduate ilization in the fifth century B.C., from Peri­ School of Economics and Government in cles to Plato. The second year the students Washington, D.C. She had taught economics would become immersed in the civilization of at Vassar and worked with the Brookings In­ stitute of Economics. She was busy writing a '' Comments from John Walker Powell; Walter R. book with Isador Lubin, The British Coal Di­ Agard, "The Experimental College of the University of lemma (1929), when she married Meiklejohn. Wisconsin," in VoxStudentium (June/July, 1928), in the Ex­ Mrs. Meiklejohn was not able to take a place on perimental College Archives, University of Wisconsin Ar­ the faculty of the University of Wisconsin be­ chives, 7/37/l-9#I, cited hereafter as Experimental Col­ lege Archives. cause regulations there prohibited both hus­ '"• The First Year of the Experimental College, written by band and wife from holding positions above the Pioneer Class ofthe Experimental College (Madison, the level of instructor.'- 1928), 20-22; interviews with Donald Meiklejohn, fanu- arv 28, 1979, with Kenneth Decker, April 14, 1978, and '- Interview with Helen .Meiklejohn, March 3, 1977. with John Beecher. May 30, 1978. 96 BROWN: EXPERIMENTAL COLLEGE the United States in the nineteenth and twen­ Talks: tieth centuries. The contrast between these Tuesday, October 21, Professor two civilizations was intended to bring into fo­ McGilvary ofthe University cus the common underlying problems of hu­ Department of Philosophy man living in Western societies. To bring these Thursday, October 23, Professor problems home, each student would be re­ Otto ofthe University quired to conduct a regional study, an investi­ Department of Philosophy. Friday, October 24, Mr. Boegholt will gation of his own home region, modeled on lead the discussion. the recent study by Robert and Helen Lynd, Saturday, October 25, Mr. Boegholt Middletown. Students would conduct this in­ will lead the discussioit. vestigation during the summer vacation be­ tween their two years at the college and would The curriculum for the second year fell submit it by January of their second year. into four parts: physical science (six weeks), When put into effect, the curriculum of the nineteenth-century U.S. democracy (eight first year fell into three parts: a general survey weeks), contemporary U.S. literature (twelve of fifth-century Athens; a study of eight as­ weeks), and contemporary philosophy (four pects of Greek life (economics, politics, art, lit­ weeks). The two weeks following the study of erature, law, religion, science, and philoso­ physical science were devoted to organizing phy) and a specialized study of one of these as­ the regional study, since students were not ac­ pects on a topic chosen by each student, f he customed to social investigations and needed specific assignments changed slightly from direction. Some of the books featured during year to year. this second year were Middletown by Robert What comprised a weekly assignment dur­ and Helen Lynd; Other People's Money and How ing the freshman year? This is one, assigned the Banks Use It by Louis Brandeis, then sitting on October 20, 1930: on the Supreme Court; The Acquisitive Society by Meiklejohn's friend R. H. Tawney; and The In our study of Greek society we find Education of Henry Adams. '^ men holding conflicting opinitms in re­ gard to matters of public policy. Both parties to a controversy are observed to claim "right" or "justice" in support of their views. A question naturally arises as HE faculty of the Experimental to the meaning and validity of these T' College agreed to be called ad­ terms. The reading and discussion dur­ visers rather than professors or teachers. Lo ing the coming week will be concerned carry out the principle of freedom, they abol­ mainly with this question. ished all compulsion connected with the daily work. To help a student get through his as­ Reading: signments, three kinds of meetings were ar­ Otto, M. C, Things and Ideals, ranged: class meetings, three or four times a pp.57—155 week, attended by the class as a whole and by McGilvary, E. B., Warfare of Moral the advisers; personal conferences of an ad­ Ideals viser and a student once a week; and meetings Plato, The Republic, Bk. I and Bk. II of groups of about twelve students under the to p. 368 Thucydides' History ofthe Peloponne- direction of an adviser, once a week. In addi­ sian War, Plataean Episode, pp. tion, the college as a whole met once a week to 146-152, 183-187,204-217; try to accomplish in a secular way the purpose Melian Episode, pp. 392-401; of the college chapel of older days. Mitylenian Episode, pp. 187-204 To give students the opportunity to decide Paper, due October 27: whether they were capable of self-direction, The student is requested to take one advisers removed all external rewards and of the above episodes and examine it penalties. Because the customs of the larger in the light of the week's reading and discussion. Is there a "right" involved in the situation? If not, give the basis for your judgment. If so, how do you '•' Meiklejohn, The Experimental College, chapters V— justify your opinion? VIII, Appendices III and IV. 97 Courtesy Helen Meiklejohn The Students and faculty, all male, of the University of Wisconsin Experimental College, about 1928. Alexander Meiklejohn is recognizable in the center ofthe second row, hat in hand. university required that they assign a letter chosen for their capacity and eagerness for grade, they did so, but only to the regional this sort of work. Their exhilaration was as in­ study and the final study made at the end of tense as their burden as students came to intel­ the sophomore year. These two grades to­ lectual life in their care. gether formed the final grade for two years' Meiklejohn assembled an extraordinary work. The daily meetings and conferences group of young advisers—men who proved had no external rewards or penalties deeply congenial with one another and who attached—only the satisfaction of getting on condnued after the Experimental CoUege to with the craft of reading, wridng, and think­ have distinguished and productive careers. In ing. Each full-Ume adviser was assigned by lot the brief years of the experiment they broad­ twelve students, who rotated to a new adviser ened their interests, learned in spirited com­ every six weeks. At the end of each six-week pany materials never before considered by period, the advisers wrote estimates of the them, and confronted the social and economic progress of each oftheir students. These esti­ issues oftheir dme. Nothing of academic hier­ mates were kept on file, and, together with the archy tainted the college. Meiklejohn as chair­ reports written by the students, provided a man led the staff'as a cohort of equals, and his permanent record of how things went."' young advisers shared in decision-making as How did things go? For the advisers it was a they had never previously been allowed to do. killing task—being tutors, speakers, coun­ For many, the experience ofthe college deter­ selors, and curriculum committees simultane­ mined the fundamental direction oftheir sub­ ously. They could not hide within the bounds sequent lives and careers. A few of the more of their own fields. They had to learn to talk prominent names may suggest the range and without lecturing. They had to teach while at quality of the staff: John Beecher, teacher and the same dme devising a scheme for teaching. poet; Robert Havighurst, physicist turned ed­ All of them except Meiklejohn had joint ap­ ucator; Walter Agard, chairman of the clas­ pointments in regular departments of the Col­ sics department at the University of Wiscon­ lege of Letters and Science with a teaching sin; Lucien Koch, director of Commonwealth load there of one-third time. Some of them College; Malcolm Sharp, School of Law, Uni­ had to cope with the criticism and hosdlity of versity of Chicago. the regular staff. But the advisers had been The methods devised at the beginning of the Experimental Cohege changed very little, "'Ibid.. 93-96, 119-151. but the content of the curriculum was always 98 BROWN: EXPERIMENTAL COLLEGE under discussion and revision. The staff used with the sole ambition of becoming a coach. Greek material because it was more fully de­ His high-school curriculum had been primar­ veloped than any other comparative material ily sex, alcohol, hunting, fishing, and sports; at the time. By the later years oi the college, he did not know what politics and economics advisers enjoyed playing the game of substi­ were. After six weeks he decided to leave and tuting civilizations: "If we compared to went to see his adviser. Carl Boegholt brought , what materials would we use?" But out Sticks and Stones, a pleasant, recent book they kept to the general Athens/America about American architecture by Lewis Mum- theme, and controversy centered on what ford, and advised the student to read it word books to read. After several years of experi­ by word, as much as he could, however little, mentation, Plato's Republic and The Education with a dictionary in hand, and to come back of Henry Adams came to be the central book of and talk about it in a week. In this way they each year respectively. Some advisers felt that proceeded, for six weeks, until the student more time should be given to Jefferson and had at last made his way to the end of the book. the Constitution than to Henry Adams, but Those six weeks changed his life. He went on they did not prevail. A few students strongly to finish the Experimental College, became a disliked The Education of Henry Adams, but in physician, and later a teacher and researcher general students responded to it with excel­ at a well-known medical school.'** lent papers.'^ In a similar way, the regional study proved Some students simply found this curricu­ to be the most effective and stimulating part of lum too difficult. I'hey were not accustomed to the Experimental College's curriculum. reading books like those by Thucydides, and Through it students learned how to interview they could not cope. In a regular university people and how to grasp the complexities of program these students simply dropped out; their own communities. In this work the advis­ at the Experimental College their advisers ers could observe their students practicing ex­ made every effort to retain them, not primar­ actly what the advisers most wanted them to ily because they needed students but because learn.'-' they believed in the students' capacity to learn. One such student, from a small town in '" Interview conducted by Marge Frantz for her forth­ coming doctoral dissertation. University of California- Minnesota, came to the Experimental College Santa Cruz. " Ibid., Parts II, III, IV; suggestions by Walter Agard '•' Wisconsin Alumni Magazine (October, 1930), 4, 38; and John Gaus; Experimental College Archives, 7/37/2- student papers in Experimental C^ollege Archives, 7/37/1- I#L 9#2.

L'W Aithi\es: Meuer Album 14

X-College students in their dormitory lounge. 99 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83

Student activities flourished at the Experi­ and from Jewish backgrounds than did the mental College. Given freedom, in the first regular university, and its students did signi­ year alone students created the Players, the ficantly better on their entering SAT than did Workshop, the Philosophy Club, the Forum, regular students. the Law Group, the Music Group, and the The Bureau of Guidance and Research Dancers. The Book Group produced an an­ compiled this information in a report it made nual. The First Year of the Experimental College, on the Experimental College in 1932. This was and the literary students published a miscel­ a period of pervasive quotas limiting Jewish lany of their writing. The Players produced students in graduate schools and of close scru­ several plays of excellent quality, including tiny ofthe percentage of Jewish undergradu­ Aristophanes' The Clouds, Euripedes' Electra, ates. One black student, Erskine Washington, and an unexpurgated, raucous production of enrolled in the Experimental College, though Lysistrata. In succeeding years the Players pro­ the Bureau of Guidance and Records did not duced Antigone in a translation done by one of record this information. Apparently one black their members. This raised some eyebrows in student, the national collegiate champion in the departments of Greek and drama; after forensics, was enrolled in the regular univer­ all, the student who made the translation had sity during this time; this, too, went unre­ studied Greek with "Doc" Agard for only one corded in university documents.'' year. "The Hill," as the guinea pigs called the regular university, was not accustomed to such uninhibited zest for thought and for action.^^ What kind of students did the Experimen­ EHIND these cold facts lay some tal College attract? Were they significantly dif­ B complex realities. When the Ex­ ferent from the usual students at Wisconsin? perimental College welcomed its first class in Of the initial 119 students, only one came 1927, most of the United States was still enjoy­ from Madison (Meiklejohn's son Gordon), ing postwar prosperity. Republican Calvin and only forty-three came from other parts of Coolidge was president, and in the national Wisconsin (37 per cent). Thirty-nine (33 per election the following year Republican Her­ cent) came from other midwestern states, and bert Hoover, carrying all but eight states, de­ twenty-seven (23 per cent) came from eastern feated the Catholic Democrat Alfred E. Smith. states. The second freshman class again had A straw vtJte among students at the Experi­ 37 per cent from Wisconsin; this compared mental College in October, 1928, showed that with 74 per cent of the university's general en­ seventy-nine favored Hoover, fifty-eight were rollment coming from state residents. Of this for Smith, and forty-two were for Norman class, 30 per cent were from large cities (over Thomas ofthe Socialist party.^- one million) and 26 per cent from small towns A year later, in October, 1929, the stock (under 10,000). market crashed and the Depression set in. In 1930 the University doubled its tuition. Many On the Scholastic Aptitude Test the scores students had to delay or quit their studies. The of the Experimental College freshmen (aver­ Experimental College had planned to take a age: 80.3 percentile) surpassed those of regu­ class of 125 each year, and the number of lar UW freshmen (average: 57.6 percentile). freshmen in the first year, 1972—1928, was The percentage of Jewish students in the Ex­ 119. But the number dropped to ninety-two in perimental College was found to range from 1928-1929. Only seventy-nine registered in about 20 per cent in the class of 1927-1928 to 1929-1930, and seventy-four in I930-193I. 40 per cent in the class of 1930-1931. The Many of these suffered constant financial un- proportion of Jewish students in the regular university was estimated as 10-15 per cent of the entire enrollment. -' "Report ofthe Bureau of Guidance and Records on So the Experimental College was not a rep­ the Experimental (jollege, February 1932," in box 55, resentative sample of the University of Wis­ folder 11, Meiklejohn Papers: Gertrude M. Schmidt, "A consin. It attracted a larger portion of stu­ Personnel Study of the Experimental C^ollege Freshman Class of 1928-29," box 65, folder 2, Meiklejohn Papers; dents from outside the state, from large cities, W. {i. Bleyer, "The End ofthe Experimental Cxjilege," in the Wisconsin Alumni Magazine (June, 1932), 274. ^" The First Year of the Experimented College. ^2 Experimental College .'Archives, 7/37/l-9#2. 100 " Bxp €->-/

UW Arctiives: Meuer Album 14 Experimental College Players production of a Grecian drama, 1927. certainty. Meiklejohn set up a loan fund to urgent perspective. In public speeches help students stay in school, appealing to the Meiklejohn had persistently criticized the students from higher-income families to con­ competitiveness and materialistic values of tribute money to help their fellows. Distritiu- capitalism, but he had never joined the Social­ tion of wealth was no abstract intellectual ist party—or any other political party. He be­ problem. Some students could not purchase lieved in some kind of cooperative socialism, the Experimental College's blazer for $7.50, and he voted regularly for Norman Thomas. while a few could squander large amounts for In 1927 he became a national vice-president of weekend amusements.'-^'^ the League for Industrial Democracy, a group The state of Wisconsin had both a socialist founded in 1905 to promote the study of so­ and a progressive tradition. In 1911 the So­ cialism, especially in colleges and universities. cialists elected the mayor of Milwaukee, Dan­ He never gave up this position. iel W. Hoan, and a representative to Congress, Chairman Meiklejohn chose some advisers Victor Berger. The Socialist party stayed in with socialist connections. Walter Raymond power in Milwaukee for twenty years. The Agard had been president of the Amherst Progressives, a wing of the Republican party, chapter of the League for Industrial Democ­ elected Robert La Follette governor three racy, while it was still called the Intercollegiate times and in 1906 sent him to the U.S. Senate Socialist Society. Lucien Koch came from (and for the next nineteen years. La Follette ran for returned to) Commtmwealth College in rural president of the United States on a third-party Arkansas, a socialist college established to ticket in 1924, a year before his death. In 1930 train working-class people as political leaders. his sons controlled Wisconsin politics—Phillip Percy Dawson was the representative from La Follette as governor and Robert La Fol­ Wisconsin to the national committee of the lette, Jr., as U.S. senator. In 1931 the Wiscon­ League for Industrial Democracy in 1925— sin legislature was the first in the country to 1926. Delos Otis and John Powell ran for local pass an unemployment insurance act, drafted office in Madison on the Socialist ticket.-' in part by Paul Raushenbush, an adviser at the Experimental College. The Progressives wanted to regulate capitalism rather than re­ ^' "Report ofthe liureau of Guidance and Records on the Experitnental College, February 1932," p. 1; interview place it. with Kenneth Decker, April 14, 1978. These social and economic issues had to be ^'' Twenty Years oj Social Pioneering: The League for Indus­ dealt with by the Experimental College. But trial Democracy Celebrates Its Twentieth Anniversary, December 30, 1925 (New York, 1926), 26, 62, 69; Raymond and how? At Amherst, Meiklejohn had labored to Charlotte Koch, Educational Communes: The Story of Com­ raise these issues, but by the time he got to Wis­ monwealth College (New York, 1972); letter from John consin, the Depression had thrown them into Walker Powell, November 30, 1977. 101 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83

The advisers did not try to keep their inter­ guest on this visit, a fact that the local press ests and struggles outside the classroom, l^hey made certain everyone knew. Some women made Wisconsin's legislative proposals and en­ made a point of crossing the street to avoid actments required reading. They took stu­ meeting Helen Meiklejohn on the sidewalk.-' dents to attend legislative hearings and de­ 'fhe Depression was not the only cause of bates. They took sides on public issues and declining enrollment in the Experimental Col­ defended their positions; they asked students lege. Unsympathetic accounts in the newspa­ to do likewise. pers caused rural parents to be anxious about Alexander Meiklejohn set the example. He the cultural and political environment of the welcomed polemics as a good way to clarify college, f hey worried that their sons would and understand a problem. Argument was, not acquire there the knowledge they would for him, a mutual search for truth, not a device need in order to specialize in their final years for humiliating an opponent. His students and prepare forjobs on the depressed market. never forgot him, standing firm and erect, The success ofthe college in attracting Jewish breathing fire through thin white nostrils, but students repelled some people. Others were never more than a word away from a generous deterred by persistent rumors spread by re­ thought and a smile. Most students came to sentful students, faculty, and administrators feel at ease with him, even in disagreement, as from the regular university that the experi­ he taught them to question, to criticize, to ment would soon be abandoned.-** think—and then to decide and commit them­ selves to a position.^^ The students staked out as many positions as they could reasonably defend. A minority Y Christinas vacation, 1930, the ofthe Experimental College students was rad­ B problems of declining enroll­ ical, but it was a larger minority than at the ment and hostile public opinion had t)ecome regular university. The communists num­ so acute that a delegation from the Experi­ bered perhaps half a dozen, but they were vo­ mental College called on George Clarke Sel­ cal, and the state press exaggerated any inci­ lery, dean of the College tff Letters and Sci­ dent it could uncover. It had a field day when ence and professor of history. They appealed one ofthe Experimental College students was to him to speak up for the college. He agreed arrested in Milwaukee for participating in a to do so only if the college would introduce demonstration allegedly led by communists. final exams for each year of the course. The The same student later ran for governor of delegation rejected this condition, and aggra­ the state on the Communist party ticket while vations continued between the Exjjerimental a resident ofthe house of correction, to which College and the College of Letters and Sci­ he had been sentenced.^'' ence. Another much-publicized incident oc­ The administration of the Experimental curred in February, 1928, when Dora Russell College both was and was not atitonomous, came to Madison to speak about the school she and this internal contradiction caused many ran in England with her husband Bertrand problems. Teachers in the Experimental Col­ Russell. No group in Madison, including the lege were considered regular members of university and the state legislature, would per­ their respective departments in the College of mit her to speak because she had publicly ad­ Letters and Science. But they were chosen by vocated sexual intercourse before marriage. Meiklejohn, not tiy the regular departments, Some members of the Experimental College and some displaced people who were waiting formed a Free Speech Club and located a to assume these positions. place for her to speak at a Unitarian church. The budget for the Experimental College Bertrand Russell had stayed with the Meikle- ''•' Interviews with Helen Everett Meiklejohn, May, johns the previous year, and Dora was their 1978, and with DeLisle Crawford, September 9, 1981; Charles Lam Markmann, The Noblest Cry: A Histoiy of the ^'Comments by Kenneth Decker, April 1, 1978; E. American Civil Liberties Union (New York, 1965), 301. Stanley Goldman to Alexander Meiklejohn, April 25, ^^ Alexander Meiklejohn, "Wisconsin's Experimental 1962, box 31, folder 14, Meiklejohn Papers. (College," in The Journal of Higher Education (December, ^^ News clippings, box 56. folder 7. Meiklejohn Pa­ 1930). 489-490; interview with Helen Eveiett Meikle­ pers. john, May 24, 1976. 102 UW Archives: Meuer Album 14 Alexander Meiklejohn and University President Glenn Frank (front row, third from right), photographed in 1928 when the Experimental College was brand new and times were good. came directly from President Glenn Frank, on their five-year experimentation. (This re­ who reserved certain special bequests for this port was published as Alexander Meiklejohn, purpose. Meiklejohn had comjjlete power to The Experimental College, in 1932 and reprinted determine salaries in the Experimental Col­ in 1971.) This "big report" evaluated the gains lege, and these he often set higher than com­ and losses, the achievements and difficulties as parable ones in the regular departments. Jeal­ seen by the advisers. It concluded that the uni­ ousies arose. The dean of the College of versity should continue the experimentation it Letters and Science, who viewed Meiklejohn had begun. as an upstart challenging his own jurisdiction, The report made two recommendations as was not a man known for magnanimity. to how the experiment should proceed. There Each year the advisers ofthe Experimental should be four experimental units instead of College reported to the faculty of the College one for freshman/sophomore instruction— of Letters and Science. In their report of Feb­ one for men in a dorm, one for women in a ruary, 1932, they asked that no freshmen be dorm, one for men without dorm arrange­ admitted to the class of 1931—1932, so that the ments, and one co-ed without dorm arrange­ fifth year could be used to take stock and con­ ments. And there should be an experimental sider future policy. This decision was reached unit working on problems of instruction in the after internal disagreement about strategy. junior and senior years. For Meiklejohn it was a matter of principle The faculty of Letters and Science estab­ that the Experimental College be the Univer­ lished a committee of five to consider this "big sity of Wisconsin experimenting. If the uni­ report," and in April, 1932, presented its re­ versity did not wish to experiment, then for sponse. Four test units would require the en­ him the Experimental College had lost its rea­ rollment of a larger fraction of the incoming son for being. He persuaded the advisers to freshman class and of the faculty "than past seek reaffirmation from the College of Letters experience gives the assurance would volun­ and Science, although it seemed unlikely that tarily take advantage of such opportunity, and such approval would be given. this uncertainty as to the attitude of students In January, 1932, Meiklejohn presented on and faculty towards the project would tend to behalf of the advisers a comprehensive rejDort demoralize the plans of the university for 103 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83

1933—1934." Instead, the committee recom­ college persisted and found expression in mended a single test unit, coeducational and other experiments, most notably the Inte­ nonresidential, with two hundred freshmen grated Liberal Studies program offered at the who would take half integrated courses and University of Wisconsin from 1948 to the half regular courses during their first two present, the Experimental Program at the years. University of California—Berkeley from 1965 The advisers of the Experimental College to 1969, and the Evergreen State College in found this proposal unsatisfactory. They Olympia, Washington, from 1971 to the offered amendments, namely, that the num­ present.^" ber of freshmen not exceed one hundred, that the course of study apply to all four years, and that a maximum of five credits a semester be courses in the regular university. LEXANDER Meiklejohn re­ peated at Wisconsin his essen­ During this debate President Glenn Frank A tial experience at Amherst. He succeeded in was present, but he did not speak up for the achieving his own purpose, that of teaching Experimental College. By this time he had students to practice and enjoy thinking {i.e., trouble of his own, because Governor Philip F. controversy) and cooperative activity. His pro­ La Follette and many legislators were doubt­ gram failed to survive, however, because his ing his ability to administer the university. Five purpose was at odds with the purpose and val­ years later the trustees were able to remove ues both of Amherst College and the Univer­ him without due process or protest from the sity of Wisconsin and of the society within faculty. which they operated. Universities functioned The faculty of Letters and Science never to teach some people to be professionals, not voted on the advisers' proposals; they were re­ to teach all people to be self-governing citi­ ferred to a new committee to be appointed by zens. Meiklejohn's experience made clear the Dean Sellery. The dean did not make the ap­ contradiction between these two goals. When pointments. In November, 1932, he asked the his students began to raise questions about faculty if they really wanted such a committee, their society's deepest values, and to develop in view of the economic depression that had methods of living and thinking contrary to the caused waivers and cuts of staff" salaries the ones prevailing in the regular university, the previous July. The faculty voted to postpone administrafion and faculty ofthe regular uni­ the committee until the economic crisis had versity felt too threatened to support further passed, and the committee was never ap­ experimentation. Harriet M. Johnson was cor­ pointed.-" rect in 1932 when she concluded: "American The Experimental College of the Univer­ education and American life could not en­ sity of Wisconsin closed its doors in June, dure, unchanged, many such experiments. 1932. It had enrolled only 327 students. But Perhaps the unconscious recognition of that its effect on many of them proved extraordi­ fact accounts for the bitterness of opposition, nary, and its influence lived on. The solidarity which has rendered its [the Experimental Col­ ofthe "guinea pigs" and their sense that some­ lege's] continuance problematical."'" thing special had happened to them were ex­ pressed repeatedly at reunions in 1942, 1957, Characteristically, Meiklejohn at age sixty 1962, 1977, and 1981, and by their establish­ was not dismayed at having his program dis­ ment of the Alexander Meiklejohn Experi­ continued once again. He believed that to go mental College Foundation. The idea of the down with an idea is to make it li\e. His values and beliefs had not been defeated or invali- ^' Meiklejohn, The Experimental College, chapter XVII; ^" Barbara J. Wolff, "Integrated Liberal Studies: Is It Larsen, President Wore Spats, 107-122; on salaries, see ex­ Still Working?" in the Wisconsin Alumnus (November, change of letters between Meiklejohn and R. E. Neil 1978), 6-8; Joseph Tussman, Experiment at Berkeley (New Dodge, chairman of the English Department, box 31, York, 1969); Mervyn L. Cadwallader, "Experiment at San folder 11, and box 32, folder 4, Meiklejohn Papers; Exper­ Jose," paper presented to conference on Alternative imental Oillege Al chives, 7/37/l-2# 1. for a balanced as­ Higher Education, Evergreen State College, Olympia, sessment of Glenn Frank's presidency, see Steven D. Zink, Washington, September 11, 1981; Richard M.Jones, £x- "Glenn Frank ofthe L'niversity of Wisconsin: A Reinter- periment at Evergreen (CArabridge, Massachusetts, 1981). pretation,"in the Wisconsin.Magazineof Histon, 62: 91-127 '' Harriet M. Johnson, review of The Experimental Col­ (Winter, 1978-1979). lege, \n Progressive Education (October, 1932), 456. 104 BROWN: EXPERIMENTAL COLLEGE

dated; they had been overcome momentarily in San Francisco in 1934 he helped found the by circumstances. He retained his exuberance northern California chapter of the ACLU."'^ at having been able to engage real problems, Out of this activity came his thinking about however briefly. The opposition he had free speech, his defense of those attacked dur­ aroused served to confirm that he had iden­ ing the McCarthy era, and his development of tified correctly the essential issues. the Meiklejohnian or absolute interpretation The University of Wisconsin and Meikle­ of the First Amendment. Ehis thinking was john arranged that he would stay on part-time published in 1948 -ds Free Speech and Its Relation as professor of philosophy. Since he needed to to Self-Government and was revised in 1960 as be in Madison only during the fall semester, Political Freedom: The (Constitutional Powers ofthe the Meiklejohns moved to Berkeley, Califor­ People. People familiar with Meiklejohn's pur­ nia, in the summer of 1932 to give him the poses as a teacher and administrator found his quiet he needed for writing. Helen had spent a legal work no surprise. It flowed out of his de­ year in Berkeley years before, helping her fa­ termination as a professor to teach that most ther with his book. Moral Values (1918), so difficult discipline of all: freedom.'^-^ Berkeley to her seemed the ideal place for '^ Alexander Meiklejohn, "Adult Education: ,\ Fresh writing. They also had many friends in Berke­ Stan," in the New Republic, 80: 14-17 (August 15, 1934); ley and San Francisco. John Walker Powell, Education for Maturity: An Empirical Meiklejohn lived another thirty-two years Essay on Adult Group Study (New York, 1949); American in Berkeley, until his death in December, C:ivil Liberties Union of Northern California, Annual Re­ ports, 1945-1954. 1964, at the age of ninety-two. During those •'•' On Meiklejohn's legal thought, see Mack Radburn years he wrote What Does America Mean? (1935) Palmer. "The Qualihed Absolute: Alexander Meiklejohn and Education Between Two Worlds (1942) and and Freedom of Speech" (doctoral dissertation. Univer­ led the San Francisco School for Social sity of Wisconsin-Madison, 1981); Laurent B. Frantz, "Al­ exander Meiklejohn and the First Amendment," in the Studies. He had been a member of the na­ Meiklejohn Library Anniversary Journal (October, 1975), 3— tional board of the American Civil Liberties 6; and Marge Frantz, forthcoming doctoral dissertation. Union since 1926, and after the general strike University of CaHfornia-Santa Cruz.

105 William Best Hesseltine and the Profession of History A Retrospective

Dutch Uncle to a Profession

By Robert G. Gunderson

INDIANA UNIVERSITY

BIOGRAPHY in the style of A Who's Who cannoti do justice to William Best Hesseltine. He should stalk on stage in full voice, curved pipe in hand, to the Ssss . . . BOOM . . . Ahhh . . . of skyrockets, for that is the way generations of undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin remember him in Bascom Hall. After striking his pipe sharply against his heel to remove ashes and hot coals, he introduces himself with a growl to test the depths of his voice. Milton Longhorn and T. Harry Williams finish taking roll, and Hessel­ tine plunges forward into a lecture that is al­ VVUi(X;i)39162 ternately lucid, mystifying, challenging, and Hesseltine at the beginning of his teaching career, c. 1924. outrageous, but always exciting. general—even with General Washington. He As an undergraduate of eighteen, I looked had no memory of his father, a ship's captain upon him as old. After all, he was thirty-two. who dropped dead of a heart attack on the Born on February 21, 1902, in Brucetown, steps of the City Hall in San Francisco while Virginia, a crossroads in the upper reaches of there awaiting passage for South America. the Shenandoah Valley, Hesseltine no doubt After a grade school education in rural Fre­ nudged his mother to speed delivery. He derick County, "Hess," to use his adolescent would have hated to share his birthday with a nickname, left for the Millersburg Military In­ stitute in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Staring from the cover of the institute yearbook for 1918 is a startling likeness of the later EDITORS' NOTE: These essays by Robert G. Gunderson, Hesseltine—completely bald, with the same Frank Freidel, Frank L. Byrne, and Richard N. Current nose, eyes, and mustache though perhaps not were originally delivered, in .somewhat different form, be­ quite a clone. It is in fact his uncle, Colonel Carl fore the opening general session of the Southern Histori­ cal Association at its meeting of November, 1979, in At­ M. Best, the commandant. The Colonel re­ lanta, Georgia. quired "implicit obedience." "Incorrigibles" 106 GUNDERSON: HESSELTINE were dismissed; profanity, smoking, and "car­ tionary, 'I'll Take My Stand,' but must be the rying of dangerous weapons" were not toler­ next verse of the song—'Look Away, Dixie ated. Reveille and group exercises came at Land.' " 6:00 A.M.; inspection, 7:15; chapel, 8:00; mili­ tary drill, 2:30 P.M.; "privileges," 3:50; en­ forced study, 6:30-9:00; tattoo, 9:15; taps, HE University of Wisconsin 9:35. Daily drill with a Civil War rifle (appar­ T needed just such a forward- ently not classified as a "dangerous weapon"), looking scholar to replace Carl Russell Fish, Hesseltine later testified, inflicted "a perma­ who died in July, 1932. So in 1932 Hesseltine nent indentation in his right shoulder." (It moved to Madison, where he soon was sky­ may also explain his life-long hatred of milita­ rocketed to undergraduate fame. Recognition rism and his abhorrence of "control and regi­ as a scholar came with a rapidly lengthening mentation.") His aunt, a graduate of the Na­ list of publications: Ulysses S. Grant; A History ojf tional School of Elocution, presided over his the South; The South in American History; The Rise classes in rhetoric. Although the yearbook and Fall of Third Parties; Lincoln and the War gives no evidence of his having even a casual Governors; Confederate Leaders in the New South; interest in sport, his surviving commonplace Pioneer's Mission: The Story of Lyman Copeland book records one original love poem, several Draper; The Blue and the Gray on the Nile (with rousing drinking songs, a few verses from the Hazel Wolf); Third Party Movements in the "Rubaiyat," all of Rudyard Kipling's "To the United States; and a number of co-edited Ladies," and a version ofthe "Shooting of Dan works. McGrew." Thus equipped for the future, he During World War II Hesselune sturdily graduated at sixteen with the rank of fourth maintained his pacifism, but in 1945 he con­ corporal of cadets. sented to teach in the GI University at At twenty, Hesseltine received a B.A. from Shrivenham, England. An especially produc­ Washington and Lee; at twenty-six a Ph.D. tive two-year period followed. Reporting on from Ohio State University. His dissertation. November 21, 1948, to "Dear Chief," his de­ Civil War Prisons, published in 1930, was partmental chairman at Wisconsin, Paul Knap- praised as "exhaustive" and "impartial." Doc­ lund, he announced the publication of two torate in hand, Hesseltine became a full pro­ fessor at the University of Chattanooga. Na­ tional attention came when, in what must have been a bold decision, the editor ofthe Sewanee Review asked him to review the Southern Agrarian manifesto, /'// Take My Stand. Al­ though agreeing with the agrarians in reject­ ing a "sentimentalized caricature" of the South, Hesseltine dismissed their humorless "diatribes" as having been "better said many times before." John Crowe Ransom, he noted, "throws the opening spitball against the ma­ chine age." Hesseltine argued that "the Young Confederates of Nashville make themselves a little ridiculous in apotheosizing agrarian cul­ ture, and elevating the yeoman farmer to a pedestal." At no time "from Jamestown to Dayton," he wrote, had the South been "other than a horrible example ofthe spiritual failure of agrarianism." It had "failed even more dis­ mally" than industrialism in fostering the arts. The South, he concluded, had "the opportu­ nity to arise from the bloody sod of her past, WHi(X3)39159 and walk alive in the new morning, but the bat­ With mustache in place, the young man was well on his way to tle cry ofthe awakening can never be the reac­ becoming The Old Man. 107 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83 books, thirty-two articles, forty-four book re­ he had ridden horses all his life. "Why," he views, and forty-seven public lectures, includ­ asked, "would I go to Texas if I couldn't ride a ing twenty-five in Latin America for the U.S. horse?" When someone later wondered how State Department. (In an afterthought he the "Equestrian Professor of History" ulti­ noted that 206 encyclopedia articles awaited mately got to Madison for the Founders Day publication.) As Civil War round tables bur­ dinner, Hesseltine explained blandly, "I went geoned during the 1950's, he continued his to Madison on a case of White Horse." extensive reviewing and lecturing; a prying A devoted member of the Southern Histor­ reporter once goaded him into admitting that ical Associatitjn, Hesseltine served as its presi­ he had become a "tycoon of the Civil War in­ dent in 1960, delivering a significant presiden­ dustry." tial address, "Four American Traditions." He While on leave to teach at the University of once confessed, however, to the limits of his South Carolina in 1957, Hesseltine was asked devotion to historical organizations. After the by a reporter for the Columbia Record what he annual complementary dinner ofthe associa­ did for relaxation. "Relax?" Hesseltine re­ tion in Atlanta in 1959, a number of members, plied. "I get no time to relax! I don't play any including Hesseltine, suffered seritjus infec­ games. When I get out of my class, I come tions. His illness culminated in the removal of home and go to work." a kidney after his return to Madison. At a later Although he jealously guarded his time for SHA convention I innocently asked whether research and writing, Hesseltine contributed he planned to attend the complementary din­ generously to the work of the State Historical ner. He paused dramatically and then Society of Wisconsin, serving on its Board of growled, "Young man, I have but one kidney Curators from 1951 to 1963 and as its presi­ to give to this association." dent from 1961 to 1963. During this period he Throughout his adult life, Hesseltine helped to guide the Society through a critical played contrasting roles as historian and as po­ time of "re-evaluation and change." He took a lemicist. He always insisted that he rigorously special interest in expanding its publications differentiated between the two. "I was behav­ program, and he made a significant contribu­ ing like a historian," he once said in explaining tion to its offerings when he published "the the detailed solidity of his monographs. His definitive biography" of the Society's first su­ political and pacifist writing revealed a sharply perintendent, Lyman Draper. He brought to contrasting vigor and excitement. Articles for the Society "the breadth of a historian, the wis­ The Progressive and The New Leader featured dom of a scholar, the perspicacity of a teacher, hairy-chested verbs and satirical humor. One and the liveliness of a man who loved life." searches in vain for a single blood-sucking As a part of the pre-publication publicity qualifier. Imagination soared. "I have contrib­ for the Draper biography in August, 1953, uted," he said, "some of my most brilliant Hesseltine willingly conspired with the Socie­ thoughts . . . (those that I couldn't sell to a ty's director, Clifford Lord, in shenanigans de­ more solvent journal)" to The New Leader. The signed to call attention to Draper and to the Don Quixote in him joyously tilted against forthcoming centennial of the Society. The many a windmill, and his disciples applauded. Wisconsin State Journal ffamboyantly predicted "Your letter," exclaimed one admirer, "gave that in January the distinguished author me a great boost—just to know that you are in would, in true nineteenth-century fashion, there pitching as usual against bigotry, igno­ ride "1,200 wintry miles" on horseback from rance, etc. etc." his temporary professorship at Rice Univer­ Since he applied high standards of objectiv­ sity in Houston, Texas, to attend the Society's ity to his own historical work, those who knew Founders Day banquet. Lord promised to only the polemical Hesseltine sometimes were provide suitable horse and saddle, and the puzzled when they first discovered the schol­ American Automobile Association supplied "a arly restraint of his monographs. As historian, list of possible lodgings" for "the mounted Hesseltine saved some of his most caustic re­ tourist." marks for students who abandoned objectiv­ Taking offense at the inference that he was ity. "You are not writing for a journal of opin­ "an amateur at horseback riding," Hesseltine ion," he would scrawl contemptuously in the proclaimed in the State Journal next day that margins of an offending paragraph.

108 CiUNDERSON: HESSELTINE

LTHOUGH he displayed a the stupid duties of an administrattjr to inter­ A' fierce loyalty to his students, fere with your scholarly progress." One of his Hesseltine insisted that they live up to his high "stable of colts," he once sadly admitted, was expectations. Above all, he made sure that "overtrained," and required ninety-nine foot­ they could write lucid, vigorous prose. When notes to document a single fact: "He'll never occasion demanded, he would deliver his get in the race. He eats so much hay he can't "Twenty-Minute Lecture on How to Write," make it to the track." versions of which still flourish in the teaching Thus spurred, many of his thirty-two and legend of his former students. Horace S. Ph.D.'s achieved distinction. Richard Current, Merrill of the University of Maryland, for ex­ Frank Freidel, Kenneth Stampp, and f. ample, distributes "Professor William B. Hes- Harry Williams served as Harmsworth Profes­ seltine's 'Commandments' on Historical Writ­ sors at Oxford. Williams, Freidel, and Stampp ing," a list of fifteen stern warnings that became presidents of the Organization of declare war on wordiness, the passive voice, American Historians. Williams and Current and similar linguistic abominations. "Thou became presidents of the Southern Historical shah avoid and abhor all modern jargon," Association. Williams won both a National Hesseltine would growl, "even though it be the Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize. Current words of thy instructors." won a Bancroft Prize in History. At least seven Commandments promoting research and have been departmental chairpersons; two writing persisted even after his Ph.D.'s found were directors of major historical societies; themselves established in academe. A "whb" two have been deans; one a university chancel­ (always lower case) postcard would admonish lor; and one a university president—all per­ laggards to "GET BUSY" (always upper case). mitting "stupid duties" to interfere with "their Or a serious letter would plead, "Let's not have scholarly progress." His minors also have won all this work wasted. . . ." You are "allowing distinction. Russell B. Nye, whom Hesseltine

Courtesy Heidijacobson

Professor Hesseltine with University of Wisconsin students atop Bascom Hill, 1957. 109 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83 once fondly referred to as "that fellow from literature or somewhere," revised his disserta­ tion on George Bancroft and won a Pulitzer Prize for Biography. In his 400 reviews, Hesseltine nagged fel­ low historians like a Dutch uncle, ruffling many a pompous feather. He lectured them on the art of writing; coined epigrams; bur­ lesqued best sellers; and trimmed the mighty down to size. The reviews are collected with his papers at the State Historical Society. Scrawled on scrap paper in a crabbed hand, some are almost as indecipherable as the pen­ manship of Horace Greeley. Like Greeley, Hesseltine seldom pussyfooted. He dismissed one book as an "incoherent collection of tri­ via." Divested of its "astrological determinism and pseudo-philosophical gibberish," another book became "a highly interesting digest" and a "skillful synthesis." He calmly reminded one aspiring historian to include hereafter the "customary disclaimer that any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coinciden­ tal." He described President Rutherford B. WHi(X3)391,i9 Hayes as "a man whose moral mediocrity Hesseltine at the University of Wisconsin, when he was forty. brought success." Howard Fast invariably aroused Hesseltine to achieve his sardonic best. To conclude his review of Fast's biogra­ impatient and too imaginative to please the so­ phy of Eugene V. Debs, Hesseltine quoted an cial scientists. ancient conundrum: "Q. Why is an author the He hated dullards, though he noted that most wonderful man in the world? A. Because "many a dullard occupies a professorial post his tale comes out of his head." and poses as a historian." "The essential quali­ fication of a true historian," he said, "is imagi­ nation." He saw no reason why Clio should INCE Hesseltine often ridiculed chain herself to the monograph; his concern S the "polysyllabic jargon" of social was with substance, not form. If Clio wished, scientists, some may be surprised to find that she might quite properly narrate her memo­ he on occasion accepted and promoted "fresh ries with Terpsichore. viewpoints" of sociologists and social psychol­ Hesseltine's papers and memorabilia are ogists, one of whom in turn called his study of now collected and catalogued in sixty-three 585 Confederate leaders in the New South "a boxes at the State Historical Society of Wiscon­ challenge to current concepts of political soci­ sin in Madison. Included is correspondence ology." Hadley Cantril praised his essay on with prominent personalities—Frank Lloyd "Regions, Classes, and Sections," and Howard Wright, Alfred A. Knopf, A. J. Muste, Harry Odum corresponded with him about collect­ Elmer Barnes; with students and former stu­ ing social statistics for the Institute for Re­ dents; and with historians—E. E. Dale, Carl search in Social Science. Once, in a stirring ap­ Wittke, John D. Hicks, James Silver, Roger peal for the revival of the "Wisconsin Idea," Shugg, Fred Shannon, Jim Dan Hifl, and Hesseltine sounded like a sociologist, calling Elmer Ellis, among many others. for "a scholarly and scientific examination of Even his passport is there to document the facts of society and a careful search for the the validity of his grave suspicions about best democratic method of social improve­ the efficiency of government: HEIGHT 5' 5" / ment." He wanted, he said, a "wedding of soil HAIR Brown/EvES Hazel. The name: William and seminar." But Hesseltine was usually too Bert [sic] Hesseltine. no The Teacher Beaming, he announced to a graduate student there the almost unbelievable news that Wil­ and His Students liams had become an assistant professor at Louisiana State. Williams was the paragon, the model that Hesseltine held before us, and a By Frank Freidel very salutary model he was. And of course Williams' model was Hesseltine, as indeed he was for all of his graduate students. HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Emeritus In my own case, I did not go to Wisconsin in the fall of 1939 expecting to work with Hessel­ tine, even though I was interested in writing T is a painful thing to be pinch- about a man who had been involved in the I hitting for T. Harry Williams, Civil War. Rather, I thought I would be work­ who died in 1979 after a long and distin­ ing for John D. Hicks, who had brought me guished career at Louisiana State University. there. When I arrived. Hicks, to my disap­ Of all Hesseltine's students, Williams was the pointment, immediately sent me to see Hessel­ closest to him both in age and in friendship. tine. He was Hesseltine's first Ph.D. student, and There in his office was a rather formidable- like so many of the Old Man's Ph.D.'s and looking man, bald, with pipe and mustache, graduate assistants, he was often accused of fairly rotund, with a deep voice, and a wheeze taking on some of the characteristics of the that served as a connective between master. For some of us that is quite possibly observations—something like the skirl of a true. In the case of Harry Williams, there can bagpipe. He was thirty-seven at the time, and be no doubt. Williams didn't develop the mus­ to his death looked no older. Certainly he had tache or the Buddha-like figure, but he did no difficulty in impressing me. I was from an display the pipe (though not underslung) institution more notable for its long string of upon which he thoughtfully sucked. More im­ Rose Bowl victories than its production of portant, he too turned his lectures into specta­ cles, overflowing with colorful anecdotes and presented with showmanship to lure students into learning his lively new interpretations. Williams was a Yankee who spent his career in the Deep South and became beloved among Southerners. Hesseltine was a Southerner transplanted to Wisconsin, who hated the bit­ ter winters, but was as beloved and legendary throughout the North as in his native South. In Hesseltine's seminar, one heard much about the exploits of Harry Williams—how he had had the temerity while teaching for the University of Wisconsin Extension to deliver a Lincoln's birthday address in a town north of Madison in which he made a few appreciative but too realistic remarks about the Great Emancipator. Apparently he noted the wart on Lincoln's cheek. The town fathers were so outraged that they tried to get Williams fired. But Harry stood firm, and so did Hesseltine and (to his great pride) the Wisconsin history department. Harry remained on the Univer­ sity Extension circuit until he was able to move on to the University of Omaha. Hesseltine was WHi(X3)39160 even prouder one summer day in 1941 when Even poorly lighted and out-oj-focus, the figure and the he was researching at the Huntington Library. manner are unmistakable.

Ill WISCONSIN MACiAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83 scholars, so I took him especially seriously. He As a zealous course assistant, I was dis­ knew my credentials and told me that since I turbed that Hesseltine seemed too easy in had a master's degree, he expected me to com­ grading the students. (My own assistants for plete the Wisconsin requirements for the years have felt the same way about me.) But at Ph.D. in two years! I was so green that I set to one point he won my total admiration. It in­ work at a pace I've never been able to impose volved a clear-cut case of cheating on a final on my own graduate students. examination. Two young women, sorority sis­ ters, turned in almost identical papers. What made the matter particularly unhappy was the fact that one was a top student and the other HATEVER disappointment I was floundering. According to the rules both w may have felt over not work­ would have to be flunked, although we knew ing with John D. Hicks vanished in the next perfectly well that the "A" student had had lit­ several days. In Hesseltine I found not only a tle choice but to aid her weak sister. Hessel­ brilliant teacher but a good friend to sustain tine, unperturbed, took over. Afterwards he me. He had only a few Ph.D. candidates, and told us with relish what had ensued. He had to a degree that seems amazing in retrospect, called them both in, pointed to the similarities he and Kathryn Hesseltine offered warm and in the papers, and had told them that here, frequent hospitality. For those of us who were clearly, was an "A" paper and an "F" paper. his students there was a special relationship He would leave it to them to decide who that no one working with anyone else at Wis­ should receive the "A." The miscreant broke consin enjoyed. He wined, dined, teased, and down and confessed, adding that the "E" entertained us with a never-ending flow of would cause her to be dropped from the uni­ outrageous observations. One reason why we versity. Would Hesseltine mind waiting until did not collapse under his scathing, sometimes the following week to turn in the grade, since it tyrannical, criticism was that we knew outside might be too much for her mother to face a of seminar he was our friend. Also, if one of double blow? Her father, she explained, was his students got into a jam, he was a loyal, re­ being sent to jail that week. Hesseltine agreed sourceful supporter. The case of Harry Wil­ and acted accordingly. Sure enough, a day or liams was not unique. so later the Capital Times reported that her fa­ William B. Hesseltine was a remarkable ther, an upstate official who had embezzled, teacher, both in his large lecture course and had begun serving a prison term. his seminar. He was popular with his students, In American constitutional history, a but did not let the popularity get out of hand. course which did not seem always to engage Bob Gunderson has mentioned the Hesseltine, there was considerable fluctuation "skyrocket"—a "siss boom bah" sort of cheer in his lectures. One day he hit the low point of the students would give professors they liked spending the entire hour teasing a favorite at the beginning of a class. The trouble was student of his, a pretty girl who sat in the front that by the time Ken Stampp and I were assist­ row, because she came from Georgia. Every­ ing, the students had reached the point in an one knew, his theme went, that Georgia girls economics course where they made noise for didn't wear shoes. Yet at the high point he en­ some minutes, cutting into lecture time. Once gaged in exciting analyses of the contrasting they even embellished the skyrockets with fire theories of R. H. Tawney and Max Weber, as crackers. One of our tasks, consequently, was yet little known in American classrooms. to discourage skyrockets. Hesseltine's lectures were simple, clear, fol­ lowing a syllabus. They were also entertaining. Occasionally the entertainer—the raconteur NTELLECTUAL rigor was the in Hesseltine—took over. One lecture, highly I major characteristic of Hessel­ imaginative and I'm afraid in part fictitious, tine's seminar. He seemed to take it far more focused entirely upon the complications in­ seriously than his lecture courses, especially as volved in young Lieutenant Jefferson Davis' it involved the few persons who would be writ­ romance with the daughter of his command­ ing doctoral theses with him. He was never ing officer, Zachary Taylor. satisfied with what we did. He challenged

112 •»• <~;-<~'^•J-'^-wTIB'-f-^

Courtesy Ilciciijacobsou Hesseltine (front row, with pipe) at a gathering of American historians, about 1952. every assumption and ripped our writing Nor did he lose interest in us once we ob­ style. (He was quite correct in abhorring the tained our Ph.D.s. As we grew older we be­ passive voice, but carried his abhorrence to an came less dependent upon him, but most of us extreme.) I am also unenthusiastic in hind­ remained to some degree in his orbit. In re­ sight over his efforts to get us to write like turn, he took pride in us, although to our faces Thomas Beer, Charles A. Beard, and others of his way of demonstrating affection was the time, in an elaborate, almost mellifluous through the Toots Shor sort of insult. (He way—even though Eric Goldman still does so once introduced me to a seminar by suggest­ with considerable success. I learned from Hes­ ing that I looked like a squirrel.) He seldom if seltine the "elegant variation" which it took me ever paid us compliments to our faces, but we some time to discard. Since I was incapable of used to hear that he took armloads of our writing like Macaulay or Beard (or even Hes­ books to show students in his later seminars— seltine), and floundered when I tried, that is an intimidating thing to do to them. He once one part of Hesseltine's training that made lit­ boasted to Boyd Shafer that he had produced tle impression upon me. seventeen Ph.D.s, and there was not a poor The iconoclasm and the thoroughness of one in the lot. research were, of course, of immense value. In that pre-Pearl Harbor era, we took great Also I appreciated the concern that we write pride in working with Hesseltine and ab­ our theses upon major topics that should be sorbed many of his attitudes. He seemed to us worthy of publication, and that we should re­ at the time, and indeed in fact was, one ofthe search exhaustively, despite difficulties ob­ most rapidly rising young scholars in the field taining funds for travel. He had hitchhiked to of American history. His attack on the South­ do research, he once commented, and there ern Agrarians was legendary. His productivity was no reason why I should not. As models for was prodigious, and that could not be said of our own monographs be held up to us those of all his contemporaries. In 1935, Allan Nevins f. Harry Williams and Merrill Jensen. He wrote William Allen White appreciatively even brought around Livia Appel, head ofthe about Hesseltine's book on Ulysses S. Grant as University of Wisconsin Press, to show us how president: "You will be astonished how much she was copy-editing Jensen's first book. In es­ new material he has dug up, and how acute sence, he was insisting that we become profes­ and fair he is. I do think our [New American sionals, and professionals of quality. Statesmen] series has steadily improved."

113 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83

wounded of both North and South, but he S for Hesseltine's attitudes, it was stubbornly refused to join either side. A^abov e all his iconoclasm and I have long since felt myself wrong to have firm pacifism that most appealed to us in those been a pacifist and isolationist before the isolationist years. He was, by his own account, United States entered World War II, but of an ornery boy, and consequently his widowed course I share Hesseltine's abhorrence of war mother bundled him off to his uncle's military and its aftermath. He felt the misery so keenly academy. It is fascinating to learn that the un­ that although he enjoyed immensely teaching cle and young Hesseltine were lookalikes, the military in Shrivenham, England, soon af­ since they never saw alike at the academy. It ter V-E Day, he refused to spend a second was a rough time for Hesseltine, and he em­ term on the continent of Europe. He re­ erged with a lifelong distaste for military disci­ marked quietly after he came home that he pline. That in no way diminished his fascina­ could not have stood the sight of children dig­ tion with the Civil War. But his own approach ging in garbage cans for scraps of food. was personal. He would recount with pride Altogether what Hesseltine had to offer was the exploits of his grandfather. Dr. Best, living a rare and valuable combination: high princi­ in the Shenandoah Valley during the war as ples, rigorous work standards, and a rollicking the Confederate and Union forces swept back camaraderie. We who were his students were and forth. Dr. Best tended the sick and fortunate indeed.

This portrait was made by a Capital Times photographer in the study of Hesseltine's Madison home, about 1956.

Courtesy Heidijacobson 114 techniques for criticizing evidence and synthe­ The Trainer of Historians sizing it into a narrative. He began our instruc­ tion in historical criticism with a firm injunc­ tion to distrust each witness; to view every By Frank L. Byrne document as designed to deceive. He claimed that historians hostile to their sutijects could best take this approach; hence his oft- KENT STAI E UNIVERSITY repeated assertion that only pacifists should write military history. Probably related to his adversarial view of his material was his consist­ HEN I entered Mr. Hessel­ ent assumption that the best way to under­ w tine's seminar in the fall of stand a subject was to invert it. In other words, 1950, he separated the newcomers for several he thought that those who took other ap­ indoctrination lectures. He began by inform­ proaches actually saw things upside down. As ing us that the ancient T-shaped table around he once burst out in an unpublished critique which we sat was the very one used by the stu­ of a subsequently famous historian. dents of Frederick Jackson Turner. The asser­ tion achieved his purpose of challenging us Oh, see the Happy Angels with the tradition ofthe university. He contin­ Ascend up on High! ued by assuring us that we were there because Which end up ? we knew that historical research was more im­ Ascend up . . . portant, in fact more fun, than anything else. ON HIGH! (I confess that I had not previously looked at it just that way.) He then told us that we were not in an educational institution but in a trade iNLY his biographer could at­ school. Just as barrelmakers learned their o tempt to explain the philo­ skill, he said, so we would master the histori­ sophical basis for Hesseltine's critical con­ an's craft. Our vocational center was his cepts. Certainly he did not rest upon any ofthe "seminary"—and "seminary" he often called well-known interpretations of history— it, relating the word to the preparatory schools indeed he specifically rejected these systems. for the clergy. After reading a manuscript by a former stu­ The Hesseltine seminary or seminar was dent, he lashed out: "All I can say is thank God not a course lasting a semester, a year, or even you are just a conventional, romantic moralist for the duration of one's graduate training. with a kind of pseudo-marxist bent, f hank Hesseltine conceived of it as a continuing God, I say, that you ain't no Freudian! B-o-y, body, somewhat like the Mafia or the Irish Re­ what you'd of kum up wif [if] you'd been publican Army. His rule was, "Once in, never brane-soaked in the Sigismund symbolisms!" out." Thus Hesseltine taught us to regard as Yet in fact Hesseltine incorporated into his colleagues his students who had preceded us. critical thinking some of Marx and much more He required us to prepare a bibliography of besides. His mind was, as a student well put it, works by members of the seminar. Thus he a "strange blend of pacifism, anarchism, combined drill in research techniques with in­ Menckenism, Calvinism, and sheer native per­ spiration to emulate publishing scholars. He versity." was especially proud ofthe late T. Harry Wil­ A complex, often contradictory critic, Hes­ liams and was undisturbed that Williams' seltine devoted a large part of his professional books were more popular than his. He some­ career to training his students to be skeptical times remarked that unless his students did historical writers. Only when his seminarians better than he there would be no progress. themselves became teachers would they fully This was less self-effacing than it sounded. understand how many hours, days, and more When a student dared to say that his writing he had spent on what his victims sometimes was at least better than that of Hesseltine's own called "rainbow jobs." In multi-colored pencil dissertation, Hesseltine shot back, "Ah, but scratchings and typed attachments, he ques­ you have a better teacher than I did!" tioned every aspect of their papers. He took As a teacher, William B. Hesseltine stressed for granted that they would be heavily 115 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HIS! ORY WTNTER, 1982-83 researched—though he invariably asked for Hesseltine's injunctions to negative, not posi­ additional facts from the primary sources and tive criticism, the students would harry the vic­ he paid much more attention to how his stu­ tim whose paper they had read in advance. dents criticized the materials which they had Meanwhile, Hesseltine would sit quietly, collected. Constantly Hesseltine questioned puffing his curved pipe. Often he would seem their logic, their interpretations. "You are to pay little attention—turning his back, walk­ writing, my friend, in a vacuum and nothing ing to the window to weave the shade cord, you are saying makes a bit of sense," he com­ writing Delphic inscriptions on the black­ mented on one paper. After reading a disser­ board. At the psychologically appropriate in­ tation chapter, he inquired, "What is the inte­ stant, he would leap in for the kill. One semi­ grating factor—the organizing principle—in narian recalled his "incredible seminar this stuff?" Made the more precious by rarity method" whereby "he would knock down was his compliment: "This is a well-organized your paper, find the fatal flaw, and then find piece of work and I'm proud of you"— the key to the subject and proceed to recon­ followed, however, by: "Whyinhell don't you struct the material on the basis of his view of learn to write sentences as well as you do chap­ what the story really was." It was a searing ex­ ters?" perience, mitigated by a sense of shared and Writing sentences and assembling them successive suffering. Far more traumatic were into a narrative was for Hesseltine the culmi­ those few occasions on which Hesseltine nation ofthe historian's task. He urged his stu­ avoided discussing the paper at all—his dents to recapture the reading audience lost in strongest rebuke. recent years by academic historians. "You must tell the story so that your reader is con­ vinced, converted, and pleased," he exhorted. S must be evident, Hesseltine's To show the way to better style, he went be­ A''trainin g methods involved yond the insertion of editorial comments on harshness, though, like everything else about papers to the rewriting of whole paragraphs. the man, this aspect has been exaggerated in These demonstrations of style also induced tale-telling among historians. But there was a the chastening realization that the master core of reality. Part of it was a kind of sadistic could achieve in minutes effects superior to playfulness—as when he drew a box around those which had cost the apprentice hours. blank space on a page and labeled it "best par­ Over the years, Hesseltine accumulated a set agraph in the paper." Such tactics also taught of stylistic rules. They were specific indeed— humility—as when he picked up between none could forget, for instance, his near- thumb and forefinger each of our precious pa­ obsessive ban on the use of the passive voice— pers like the noisome object it was. This could and students ultimately reproduced them give lasting pain. Half a lifetime later, a stu­ under such headings as "The Historian's dent could still recall going to Hesseltine's Commandments." In toto, their general office: "He glanced up, grabbed my two chap­ thrust was that historians should focus their ters that lay on the corner of his desk, and with narratives on the actions of credible human a sort of quick backhand motion threw them. beings. As Hesseltine put it, "You must orga­ They hit the floor and skidded into the hall. nize clearly, write with vigor, choose words of Except for that pitch he never moved, never strength, and imprison the acts of men upon looked up, uttered not a word, nor did he re­ the written page." move that saxophone [his pipe]." In response During the weekly meetings of his seminar, to gossip about such incidents, Hesseltine de­ William B. Hesseltine taught his lessons of re­ nied that he had ever deliberately thrown a pa­ search, critical analysis, and style. At these per on the floor; but he clearly enjoyed his repu­ rites he sacrificed each student in turn for the tation for toughness. A year before his death, edification of the other neophytes. The spe­ after having had a serious nosebleed during cific content of each session was unpredictable seminar, he laughed heartily when a former —one, for example, consisted of Hesseltine's student pointed out that for the first time his almost tearful obituary oration for a former blood had been shed in that room. student—but the usual atmosphere was more Hesseltine's training system did not suc­ reminiscent ofthe Roman arena. Inspired by ceed with all students. Several, unable or un- 116 Courtesy Heidijacobson Graduate students, professional colleagues, and various leaders of Academe in a visibly relaxed mood, c. 1955. willing to submit to his style, left voluntarily; used to teach moral or political lessons. "Thou others he rejected. Some among them have shall not pass judgments on mankind in gen­ nonetheless become good historians, mayhap eral nor shalt thou pardon anyone for any­ in part out of a desire to prove how wrong was thing," he commanded. "Morality is not im­ Hesseltine's judgment. Most who remained mutable. The moral climate changes, and comforted one another that "whom the Lord what is moral at one time may be immoral at loveth he chasteneth," and profited more posi­ another." As to using history to guide public tively. One former student recalled that, when policy, he openly denounced "people, mas­ Hesseltine penciled on his first seminar paper, querading as historians" who "select on a basis "I can't go on. This isn't worth my time," his of moral or political preconceptions and ar­ first reaction was, "No short, balding son of a range their facts with an eye to the imagined bitch was going to say this to me." The student future instead of the probable past." Such continued, "But then I realized that the force "presentists" were "anti-intellectual," he in­ of the comment was that I'd damned well bet­ sisted, because "fundamentally they are deny­ ter make sure that what I had to say was worth ing the capacity ofthe human intellect to pen­ anyone's time. . . . What that apparently cruel etrate the mysteries of human experience." guy was doing was giving one a shoulder to While rejecting most functional roles for stand on in order to get far past him and his history, Hesseltine did tell his students that it comparatively myopic view." The student con­ could contribute to their professional ad­ cluded that Hesseltine, whom he had not al­ vancement, in which he was interested to an ways liked or understood, was "one ofthe few extraordinary degree. Few graduate instruc­ men I've known." tors spent as much time and effort in trying to The question remains as to why Hesseltine "place" their students and in helping past stu­ thought that it was important for him and for dents to improve their positions. He encour­ us to spend so much of ourselves in teaching aged them to seek jobs not in colleges alone and learning the historical craft. Certainly it but in the whole range of historical agencies. was not for the practical application of history. As he demonstrated by his long interest in the He repeatedly denied that history should be State Historical Society of Wisconsin, he was a 117 and his prickly personality sometimes still wounded. He enjoyed personal reunions, es­ pecially at historical meetings, and to this day some historians feel his absence in the crowded hotel lobbies and publishers' parties at the meetings of historical associations. His students enjoyed talking about the "Old Man" and anticipated his visits. (Several of them once so much did so that a colleague referred to the descent of Hesseltine upon a campus as "Religious Emphasis Week.") Yet Hesseltine himself did not encourage personal venera­ tion. Insofar as he headed a cult it was for the worship of another deity, Clio, whom he effec­ tively elevated from muse to goddess. One ex­ pression of his credo was a sort of blank verse which he once attached to a seminar paper. In it, he proclaimed: CLIO serves no MAN. Ye are called into the service of CLIO Ye must serve Her—faithfully, un­ waveringly, dutifully—going where She leads, do­ ing what She directs—and doing it humbly, asking only for Her favor = = BUT = = And Be Ye Warned, thereby, Courtesy Heidijacobson Hesseltine .smiling and unsmiling. CLIO SERVES NO MAN. Therein he expressed his underlying pur­ pioneer in recognizing the importance of the pose. Clio was to be served as a vocation; His­ historical society. Wherever his students were tory was to be studied for its own sake. His employed, Hesseltine enjoined them to pub­ sense of the importance of the attempt to re­ lish. Hence his insistence that they write create the past explained much ofthe seeming "books, not dissertations," for which he then fanaticism of his approach to the training of helped them to find publishers. Not content historians. To an aspiring student he wrote, with published dissertations, he suggested to "Since you have decided to save your soul with each student a remarkable number of articles history rather than with religion, you are des­ which could also be mined from their doctoral tined to travel a hard road. The novitiate is research. And always there was the exhorta­ painful, full of torturing doubts, and the nov­ tion to begin the next book. ice, when truly laboring under a vocation, is aware of his unworthiness. Even when the no­ vitiate is ended, the labor continues—doubts increase—retreats, confusions, penances, sac­ CULT-CONSCIOUS age might rifices mark the way to the goal. And in this A'as k whether Hesseltine's pur­ lifetime, thank God, the goal is never attained. pose was to create a following. As indicated, he But in the process, thank God, a soul is saved. took great interest in his students. He corre­ Eventually masses will be said for your soul, sponded with them at length and continued to miracles will be attributed to your relics, and be willing to read their work. Inevitably his you will be beatified and sanctified." criticism was still unsparing ("a romantic, un­ Thus did this most nominal of Episcopa­ realistic, silly picture," "conventional K-rap"), lians make sacred the historical quest. 118 Recollections ofthe Man ments," for "historical criticism of a high or­ der," for "an artistic blend of fact and inter­ and the Teacher pretation," and for "a hand skillful in preserving human interest." They criticized him, on the other hand, for "oversimplifica­ By Richard N. Current tion," for "sweeping generalization," and for "language too extreme to be taken seriously." But even the adverse reviewers, those who thought he sometimes went beyond his UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA sources, generally agreed that the work in AT GREENSBORO question had at least the merit of intellectual stimulation: the book would, as a typical re­ N Fortune Magazine for July, 1947, viewer said, "provoke thought." This ability to I Professor Louis M. Hacker of Co­ arouse interest, to generalize brilliantly if at lumbia University pointed with alarm to "a times erratically, to open new vistas for possi­ small company of historical scholars—for the ble exploration—this was perhaps the greatest most part professors of southern birth or virtue of Hesseltine the history writer, as it also training now teaching in midwestern universi­ was of Hesseltine the history teacher. ties." He named in particular James G. Ran­ He probably left more of a mark as a dall of the University of Illinois, Avery O. Cra­ teacher than as a writer. Among his students, ven ofthe University of Chicago, and William the very first one to receive an entire graduate B. Hesseltine of the University of Wisconsin. training under his direction, the one upon To Hacker, who by then had advanced from whom he had the greatest influence, the one Marxism to a superpatriotic phase of his own who remained his favorite through the years, career, the three professors seemed to be bor­ the one who became best known to members ing from within their universities and corrupt­ of the historical profession—was T. Harry ing Midwestern youth with some kind of Williams. Harry was, of course, to have been Southern taint. In so doing, Hacker said, they on the panel with us, and this program, as well were "embarking upon a dangerous course," as the profession, is much the poorer for his one that might make Americans deficient in absence. He did help to shape the format oi patriotism for future wars. this session. To make plans for it, the partici­ Other critics labeled Hesseltine as a fol­ pants got together at the Organization of lower ofthe Willam A. Dunning tradition and American Historians meeting in New Orleans also as a member ofthe Charles A. Beard and last April, only about a week before Harry was Howard K. Beale school. He did share some of taken to the hospital. He suggested that each Beard's and Beale's as well as Dunning's as­ of us simply give our impressions of Hessel­ sumptions, but he also pursued independent tine as ofthe time and circumstances in which lines of inquiry. Indeed, he did much to start we came to know him. the revision of the "Beard-Beale thesis," meaning the view that Republican politicians in promoting Radical Reconstruction were re­ Y own association with Hessel­ sponding to Northern business interests. Simi­ M'tin e had two phases: first as a larly, he anticipated a part of C. Vann Wood­ student and then as a colleague of his. Harry ward's Reunion and Reaction theme when he Williams had finished his studies at Madison said, in 1935, with regard to the disputed elec­ the year I went there, 1936. Harry was, that tion of 1876: "Republicans surrendered the fall, teaching for the University Extension at Negro to the Southern ruling class, and aban­ Wausau, where he roomed with another doned the idealism of Reconstruction, in re­ young Wisconsin Ph.D., later to be U.S. Sena­ turn for the peaceable inauguration of their tor from California, S. I. Hayakawa. I first met President." Something of a maverick, Hessel­ Harry when he took refuge in Madison after tine at times disregarded and at other times re­ having been, almost literally, run out of vised the tenets of Civil War "revisionism." Wausau. He had aroused the ire of the local Reviewers praised him for "rare insight," American Legionnaires when, in a public for "forceful arguments" and "pungent judg­ speech, he referred to Lincoln's Gettysburg 119 concern for each of his students. His seminar, in the Widener Library, was a model of deco­ rum. Students seldom spoke until called upon. When he had a question to put, he started with the person on his right and then went to the next and so on around the table. (I was careful always to sit immediately at his left.) Hesseltine's seminar bore little resem­ blance to Merk's. The weekly get-togethers in the State Historical Society building were like dramatic happenings. No one knew quite what to expect, though each had his or her as­ signment. But everyone could be sure of intel­ lectual excitement to be aroused by the impro­ vising professor, who could easily prod his students into rebutting him or disputing with one another, "fhe sharper the verbal combat, the better he liked it. As Harry Williams once informed me, Hesseltine had told his first group of Wisconsin students, at their very first meeting, that the best seminar was like a dog­ fight. ,' . . Courtesy Frank Freidel Asked by the Southern Historical Association for a portrait Amid the din ancl disorder, the professor with which to illustrate a program booklet, Hesseltine sent this was teaching all the time. He was teaching cu­ one. riosity and enthusiasm about history, caution Address as one of the greatest pieces of propa­ as well as imagination in interpreting the re­ ganda of all time. Hesseltine and others in the cords of the past, and concern for presenting history department gave him their full sup­ one's findings in clear, readable prose. port, and he went bravely back to Wausau, to Curiosity he artjused by tossing out gener­ resume the teaching career in which he was to alizations that defied common knowledge or gain fame as one of the most dramatic and common sense. After testing a few of these, his effective lecturers in the profession. students might find them as insubstantial as Hesseltine became my major professor, they were outlandish, or as perceptive as they and I got into the Civil War and Reconstruc­ were original. In either case, the students tion field, purely by chance. I had been a grad­ learned something about the kinds of ques­ uate student for two years at the Fletcher tions that might be asked, and answered, School of Law and Diplomacy, at Tufts Uni­ through historical study. versity in Medford, Massachusetts, ancl had Caution he instilled by urging his students intended to go on in American diplomatic his­ to doubt every document and assume that tory. But Professor Ruhl J. Bartlett of Lufts every witness was a damned liar. He suggested was a friend of Hesseltine's from their days to­ that the statements of politicians, instead of gether as doctoral candidates at the Ohio State being taken at face value, ought to be treated University. Bartlett convinced me that Hessel­ much like the works of fictionists and sub­ tine was the man to study under at Wisconsin, jected to a comparable kind of literary criti­ and that was that. cism. Hesseltine's seminar struck me as some­ Students knew Hesseltine as a lively if ec­ thing strange and wondrous, though I already centric performer in the lecture hall— had had experience with antJther graduate especially the undergraduates who, four or seminar and thought I knew what such a thing five hundred at a time, took the United States was. As a Fletcher School student, I had been History survey course—a course in which allowed to take courses at Harvard and had Kenneth M. Stampp and I were his assistants been a member of Professor Frederick Merk's in 1937—1938. At times the professor orated seminar there. Merk was a fine teacher and a with an air of mock pomposity, and at other kindly person who showed a warm, fatherly times he chatted as if reminiscing of men and 120 Hesseltine flanked by two other notable raconteurs: Madison newspaperman John Patrick Hunter and Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois.

Courtesy Heidi jacobson events he personally had known, but all the put on, he was warmth and gentleness and while he was showing the relevance ofthe past kindliness within. to the present. He scattered home-made epi­ He was the best of company. His conversa­ grams right and left as he went along. To tional interests ranged widely, with or without quote but one of these: "Conservatives op­ a glass of bourbon and branch water in his posed the Declaration of Independence as hand. He had an opinion, and an original one, much in 1776 as they do now." on practically everything relating to this world Sometimes he taught by indirection, or or the next—except music. (He was tone deaf.) even by what might be called the reverse A master raconteur, he was more than an ex­ method, asserting the opposite of what he re­ pert reteller of tales. He also made up humor­ ally meant, so as to shock his hearers into ous anecdotes from his own experiences and thinking for themselves. With a straight face came forth with novel commentaries on pass­ he contended, for example, that the economic ing events. His friends would await his report and social ills ofthe Great Depression could be on some occurrence they themselves had ob­ cured by reintroducing slavery and applying it served or taken part in—so as to find out what to white workers as well as black. (I once made unheard-of drama, paradox, or irony re­ the mistake of bearding him in his den to ad­ mained to be revealed about it. From Bill Hes­ vise him that he shouldn't say such things to seltine they expected the unexpected, and sophomores, that some of them might actually they were seldom disappointed. believe him.) His lectures were seldom models The end came without warning. On that of organization, and even bright students last afternoon he appeared to be in unusually might occasionally find him confusing. But good form as he made his way through the only dullards ever found him dull. crowd at President Fred Harrington's cocktail party, from time to time putting his glass of bourbon in the side pocket of his jacket so as to Y the time I joined him as a col­ free both hands while he refilled and relit his B league, in 1960, Hesseltine, pipe. At dinner that evening he regaled his though not yet sixty, had become the elder companions as usual. The next morning it was statesman of the Wisconsin history depart­ hard—it was impossible—to believe that he ment. The senior in years of service, he was was really dead, the victim of a massive cere­ the repository of the department's constitu­ bral hemorrhage. After his funeral, in Decem­ tional lore, the one to whom others turned for ber, 1963, some of his friends had to repress ancient precedents and forgotten rules. He the expectation of listening to his inimitable made enemies, as anyone so crotchety and commentary once again. They wondered outspoken was bound to do, but his friends what would he have had to say about the fu­ knew that, for all the gruff exterior he liked to neral. 121 The Challenge of the Artifact

By William B. Hesseltine

So that readers of the Wisconsin Magazine of the canal boat period, the railroad age, the au­ History may experience at first hand something of tomobile era, and the airplane age. And not William B. Hesseltine's ideas, and his approach to only do we classify, but we also measure, civili­ historical inquiry, we are pleased to reprint the fol­ zations in terms of the artifacts which they lowing essay, which he delivered in 1959 at a sympo­ have used. By definition, "civilized" man has sium held by the American Association for State and more, and more complex, artifacts than does Local History at the Society's headquarters in Madi­ the barbarian. son. Although the paper was subsequently published The universal acceptance of the artifact as in the conference proceedings, The Present World the evidence of superiority or, at least, of of History: A Conference on Certain Prob­ greater desirability, has become an instrument lems in Historical Agency Work in the United in political and social progress. Commodore States, and also in a veiy limited edition as a pam­ Perry leveled the artifacts of a "superior" civi­ phlet, probably it is not widely known. Yet Hessel­ lization at the houses and palaces of Tokyo, tine's critique is as thought-provoking today as it was "opened" Japan, and prepared the way for twenty-some years ago, and it merits the attention of that train of events which led to the greatest of anyone who desires to understand the past. all demonstrations of the greatest of all arti­ THE EDITORS facts at Hiroshima. History and legend are filled with stories of the "civilized" man dis­ playing the superior artifacts of his culture—a N the common idiom, accepted watch, a compass, a spy-glass—to primitive I alike by the professional historian people and winning sometimes his own life and the layman, the history of mankind is and sometimes a moral, or even a material, vic­ marked and measured by artifacts. The arti­ tory. facts are the tangible evidences of man's inge­ One such case might serve to illustrate the nuity, his craftsmanship, and his art. The point. It was in 1875 that an American officer, houses in which men lived, the tools they used, youthful veteran ofthe great war between the the materials which they mastered and bent to states and now in the service ofthe Khedive of their service are the conventional measures of Egypt, set out from Gondokoro to journey to civilization and progress. We may classify the the capital of M'Tesa, the "king" of Uganda, tools with which men met and mastered the far up towards the headwaters of the Nile. problems of the material universe, and from Lieutenant Colonel Charles Chaille-Long's the classification identify the ages of man—the expedition has been forgotten to history, and Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Ages of Iron his record and deeds ignored through inter­ and Steam, the Age of Electricity, and the national rivalries. British interests in Africa Atomic Age. The classification of "Ages" and preferred, for reasons of their own, to dis­ "Eras" is, in fact, infinite. We may make the count and to discredit Colonel Long, and to classification according to architecture, run­ give the honor of visiting M'Tesa to their own ning the listings from the cave dwellings of man, Henry M. Stanley. Yet a full year before Mesa Verde, through Romanesque and Stanley got into Uganda, Colonel Long had Gothic and Late General Grant to the complex visited M'Tesa, had persuaded the monarch and apparently insubstantial sheds of Frank of Uganda to recognize the suzerainty of the Lloyd Wright. We may classify the "ages" of Egyptian Khedive, had traveled on the waters man by his means of transportation—the foot­ of Lake Victoria, had explored an unknown path era, the oxcart age, the turnpike years, section of the Nile River, and had discovered

122 HESSELTINE: ARTIFACT one of the lakes from which the great river for that matter, from the Age of Steam to the flowed. It was an achievement of far-reaching Atomic Age—mark any basic transition in the consequences, and its significance for this dis­ mind of man? cussion lies in the fact it was accomplished One can, of course, arrange the collected largely by impressing the savage M'Tesa with artifacts in a museum from the earlier to the the superior artifacts of a superior civilization. later in date, from the simpler to the more Colonel Long prepared himself for the ex­ complex; but does that amount to anything pedition by acquiring a music box which more than the imposition of the museum- played "Dixie," and an instrument which he keeper's concepts upon the inanimate objects described as a "battery"—a shocking machine, in his custody? Or, to put the question another which, turned by hand, was capable of deliver­ way—and to bring the question into focus t:)n ing a slight electric shock to anyone holding its the problem of the historian—is the artifact a two metal terminals. In addition. Colonel useful, viable source for the understanding of Long rode a horse, an animal unknown in the human past? Uganda, and for this purpose clearly as much The consensus seems to be that it is not. Re­ an "artifact" as the battery and the music box, peatedly writers on the subject of historical which could jangle a highly inappropriate methodology have dismissed the artifact as "il­ tune. The instruments, properly displayed, lustrative" rather than instructive. For the did their work. Four thousand people swept most part, be it admitted, they have done so re­ the road over which the Great White Prince gretfully, spending more time on the discus­ traveled from the borders of Uganda to the sion of the meaning of artifacts than their con­ capital, and gasped in astonishment when clusions would seem to warrant. Years ago Colonel Long dismounted from his horse and Lucy M. Salmon scolded the historians for proved that he was not a centaur. M'Tesa was their failure to use the "sources which sur­ pleased with the music box, properly shocked rounded them." In her Historical Methodology by the battery. Recognizing the superiority of (1933) she devoted chapters to the "Record of a state which could command such artifacts, Nature," the "Record of Archaeology," the M'Tesa made a treaty acknowledging fealty to "Record of Monuments," and the "Record of Ismail, the Khedive of Egypt, and promising Language," but in the end she found that full cooperation in opening his country, his these various "records" were of little moment lake, and his river to the trade and commerce or significance. She quoted, with apparent of his powerful overk^rd. qualms but nonetheless with approval, the conclusions of David G. Hogarth who wrote UT such a case, primitive though (1899) on Authority and Archaeology. According B it may be in its setting, is not es­ to Hogarth, archaeology had distinct limits. It sentially different from the situation which stopped "short of any possibility of truly re­ prevails in the world today. The United States constituting the picture ofthe human past: for maintains "Amerika Hansen" in Germany, to that end the literary documents are all es­ supports "cultural centers" in Latin America, sential." The desert sands, said Hogarth, and sends technical advisers to the lands ofthe "have given us specimens of almost every Orient to demonstrate the superiority of product of the ancient life of the Nile Valley, American artifacts and, by implication, to as­ as readily to be recognized as on the day they sert the superiority of American civilization were first buried. We have all the material and over that of American rivals and competitors. circumstance of its life: only the life itself is Whatever might be the utility of such mate­ wanting. . . . Unaided by any record of con­ rial competition in the political struggle, and temporary human intelligence which may in­ however convenient it may be to classify the form him, not so much of what was, but of "ages" of man by the relics and remains of past what seemed, the student of archaeology oc­ civilizations, the objective historian might well cupies a position not less external to the object wonder whether artifacts, whether ancient tjr of his studies than an astronomer observing a modern, represent anything fundamental in star. For the relation of the circumstances of the development of mankind. Did the transi­ life to life itself he can only draw on his subjec­ tion from the Old to the New Stone Age, or tive experience acquired beyond a gulf of time from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age—or. or space." 123 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83

Still later in the list of those writing on his­ printed books, which Nevins calls "the great torical methodology is Allan Nevins. In his central stream of historical evidence," are also Gateway to History Nevins discusses material re­ artifacts. They, too, are the handiwork of mains and such "representational material" as men. The paper upon which they are written, chiseled stones, stamped coins, woven tapes­ the ink marks upon time, even the conven­ tries, vases, and sculptures. For these things, tional symbols which represent sounds and and for restorations like Old Salem and Wil­ are combined into words, are as much artifacts liamsburg, he has words of praise—but his as peace pipes, arrowheads, or war bonnets. commendations are weakened by his conclu­ On matters of external evidence—the area of sion that material remains throw more light on identification which the historian has learned social and economic history than on political to call external criticism—the literary and the history, and are "more valuable for the de­ material relic go hand in hand. The historian scriptive than for the analytical elements in may establish the fact of an artifact as history." As for coins, Nevins thinks that they readily—and by much the same procedure— might correct or supply a date, or furnish a as he can establish the external fact ofthe writ­ conventional portrait of an ancient ruler or a ten word. He can reject the spurious docu­ divine creature, but their value to history "lies ment as readily as he can repudiate the simply in illustrating it." In the end Nevins "authentic" reproduction in an antique shop. concludes that artifacLs—the material remains He can detect forgery in literary and artistic ofthe past—are "essential parts ofthe mass of form and establish, with reasonable certainty, evidence upon which historians must rely. the date and sometimes the maker of either a They are important elements in the immense pothook or a potsherd. flood-system which drains the past for the benefit of the present, not to be ignored be­ cause they flow apart from what is today the T is, however, in the realm of inter­ great central stream of historical evidence, the I nal criticism that the artifact dif­ written or printed word." Thereupon, Nevins fers from the fact derived from the literary ignores the minor stream. remain. In external criticism, the historian Even more recently Louis Gottschalk, writ­ "tells" things to the document or to the relic. ing under the rubric Understanding History He tells the age, the nature, the use ofthe arti­ (1950), came to essentially the same fact. He compares it with known relics, estab­ conclusions—and with the same veiled reluc­ lishes its authenticity, and, when he can't pos­ tance. "To be sure," says Gottschalk, "certain sibly imagine what function it served, he can historical truths can be derived immediately" accept the archaeologists' catch-all explana­ from artifacts. "The historian can discover tion that it had "religious significance." Then, that a piece of pottery was hand-wrought, that having "told" things to the document, the his­ a building was made of mortared brick, that a tory "asks" it questions, and the literary relic, manuscript was written in a cursive hand . . . unlike the material artifiact, replies. This, in that sanitary plumbing was known in an old the formal language of historical methodol­ city, and many other such data from direct ob­ ogy, is internal criticism, and by it the historian servation of artifacts surviving from the past. extracts meaning from a document. He deter­ But such facts, important as they are, are not mines time and place and persons. He learns theessenceof the study of history.. . .Without facts and opinions about a specific event. Out further evidence the human context can never of the "answers" which the literary document be recaptured with any degree of certainty." gives, the historian may attempt a description Yet in each case, the writers on historical and an evaluation of a past event. A series of methodology have shown reluctance to con­ documents furnishes information about clude that artifacts are of minor significance. causes and consequences, permitting the con­ Artifacts, after all, are facts, and facts are the struction of a narrative of a historical process. raw material out of which the historian con­ But the artifact, in contrast to the literary structs a narrative of the past. Moreover, arti­ remain, gives no answers to the historian's facts have many things in common with the lit­ queries. It contains no information which the erary relics of the past. The documents, the historian may extract by the process of inter­ letters, the manuscripts, the articles, and the nal criticism. The battery which Chaille-Long 124 HESSELTINE: ARTIFACT

WHi{X22)5.i7 Gallery ofthe newly opened State Historical Society of Wisconsin building, c. 1902, featuring one of the state's most celebrated artifacts: Old Abe the War Eagle, mascot of the Eighth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. carried to M'Tesa of Uganda may still exist in On the other hand, in the Abdin Palace in the Ugandan National Museum. Some Cairo there is Chaille-Long's report on his mechanically-minded curator may have re­ mission to M'Tesa, and in the publications of stored it to working condition and safely the general staff of the Egyptian army it ap­ locked it in a glass case where bus loads of pears in printed form. In the Library of Con­ Ugandan school children, slyly munching gress and in the files of the New York Times are peanuts, may glance at it when a half-trained Long's contemporary letters. In two books girl guide identifies it as the prehistoric ances­ and in numerous articles Long told the story, tor ofthe Lake Victoria Power Plant. The mu­ with sundry variations, of this trip to Uganda sic box may still, with only slight repairs, be ca­ and how his manipulation of the artifacts of a pable of jangling the notes of "Dixie," but it superior civilization brought M'Tesa to ac­ appears, no doubt, in the musical exhibit to il­ knowledge the suzerainty of Egypt over lustrate some phase in the evolution of the Uganda. The hterary remains enable the his­ grand piano. The leopard skin mantle which torian to construct a viable, probable account M'Tesa gave Chaille-Long may hang behind of an episode in what Chaille-Long called glass, in the African room of some Baltimore "Central African Diplomacy." They give museum, its spots changed by moths, its luster meaning and significance to the artifacts. But gone, and nothing about it conveying the the artifacts alone convey no information, an­ sense of glory which once it gave to a proud swer no question for the historian, carry with beast of the jungle or to the Great White them no traces of the once important roles Prince who represented the majesty of the they played. The leopard skin on the museum Khedive of Egypt. wall and the battery and the music box in the

125 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83 show cases are as sterile and meaningless as cient mounds and once-inhabited caves are the chords of "Dixie" once were in the Ugan­ content to classify themselves with the anti- dan jungle. We have no technique of internal intellectuals, then they will continue to display criticism which will extract meaning and their sterile artifacts in the showcases and to significance from these mute and inanimate arrange their exhibits in such an order that objects. they may advance some preconceptions, some bias, or some partisan point of view. But if so, they will be like keepers of old car graveyards EREIN lies the challenge ofthe who supply parts to hot-rodders but make no H'artifact— a challenge which it contributions to the development of mechan­ offers to the archaeologists, the curators of ics. museums, the keepers ofthe kitchen-middens If, in other words, the artifacts of man's of civilization. By what means, by what proc­ past serve only as illustrations, then they might esses of internal criticism, can these remains as well be reduced to the conventional form of be made to divulge the parts they have shared illustrative material—pictures. One could save in mankind's past? What questions can these building space and custodial care by taking walls answer? What, in fact, are the questions stereopticon views of the objects in museums, which they should be asked? tabulating the dimensions and other data on Perhaps, indeed, there are no questions IBM cards, filing the pictures and the cards, which the artifact can answer. There are peo­ and discarding the junk to antique dealers or ple, masquerading as historians, who contend depositing it on the city dump. And if objects that the human past is so complex, so inexpli­ have only illustrative value—serve only to en­ cable, so inflicted with innumerable factors, able bus loads of school children and station- that its reconstruction is impossible. These wagon loads of picnickers to "visualize" some people deny the possibility of determining irrelevant fragment of the past—then histori­ causation or assessing consequences. They are ans can make no use of them and historical content to establish facts—or a reasonable fac­ agencies, whose primary purpose is to ad­ simile thereof—and to arrange them to illus­ vance the study of history, should cease wasting trate some particular concept. For the most money and manpower on them. If the mu­ part their concepts are partisan, and they ar­ seum performs merely a "teaching" function, range their facts to illustrate a political bias. then the custodians of what used to be called Insisting that all historical writing is selective, the "cabinets" should assemble with the edu­ they select on the basis of moral or political cationalists and form themselves into a branch preconceptions and arrange their facts with ofthe National Education Association. an eye to the imagined future instead of to the probable past. Although such people arrogate to themsel­ HERE is, however, another ves the label of "intellectuals," they are essen­ T alternative—the alternative of tially anti-intellectual. Fundamentally they are meeting the intellectual challenge of the arti­ denying the capacity ofthe human intellect to fact. Artifacts are historical facts, and as facts penetrate the mysteries of human experience. they should be as meaningful to the historian Confused by the complexities of causation, as the facts derived by the internal criticism of they deny the possibility of assessing causes. literary remains. It is in this meaningful rela­ And yet, to render their anti-intellectualism tion that the facts of the historian differ from complete, they allege that they can influence the facts of the antiquarian. The antiquarian the future by presenting their biased versions collects facts much as the museum curator col­ ofthe past. They are "presentists," concerned lects artifacts—for themselves. He displays with present issues and problems, selecting them, much as the suburban housewife dis­ facts to illustrate their desired solutions, and plays her antique furniture—for their patina, fixing their eyes upon a future dream-world as their lines, or their design. Fhe historian, improbable as their concepts of the historic however, gathers facts for their meaning, for past. their utility in reconstructing a viable narra­ If the collectors and custodians of relics, the tive of mankind's past. The facts which he curators ofthe museums, the diggers into an- gathers have relationships with one another; 126 HESSELTINE: ARTIFACT they present cause and effect, event and con­ rators of the cabinet with his query: How can sequence, situation and response. They are these artifacts be made into historical facts? By not sterile items displayed in showcases, but what critical method can they be examined? useful tools by which he can recapture some What internal evidence can they produce to meaningful portion of human life on the aid in the search for historical truth? It is the earth. essence of anti-intellectualism to say that these It is because he seeks meaning that the his­ walls cannot talk. Of course they can talk. It is torian looks longingly at the artifact, wishing only that we cannot talk to them, cannot ask that the processes of internal criticism would them questions, and cannot understand the enable him to extract meaningful information answers. But until artifacts can be subjected to from it. Reluctantly he turns away. The internal criticism and made to bear their wit­ relics—the batteries, the music boxes, the ness, the task of historical methodology is un­ leopard skins, the peace pipes, even Daniel finished. Webster's very own two-horse carriage or the NOTE: AS this issue of the Magazine was being assembled, glistening 1913 Ford that will still run under the editors learned that "The Challenge of the Artifact" its own power—are merely illustrative mate­ had been anthologized in a new book published by the rial suitable for school children, teaching de­ American Association for State and Local History, vices of dubious merit that properly belong in Thomas J. Schlereth's Material Culture Studies in America. the Department of Methods, School of Educa­ Mr. Schlereth's book may be ordered from the Association at 708 Berry Road, Nashville, Tennessee tion, two-credit course numbered 174. 37204. The paperbound edition sells for $1.5 and the But plaintively the historian turns to the cu­ clothbound for $22.95.

photo by David Mandel An academic cowl, political stickers, a wooden filing drawer, and an oddly perforated lacemaking cushion: all artifacts from the William B. Hesseltine Collection in the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. 127 The Paradox of Municipal Reform in the Late Nineteenth Century

By David Paul Nord

N 1897 Joseph Medill was seventy- urged by the readers, notably civil service and 1 four years old, and he was tired. election reforms, the paper and Medill per­ As owner and editor ofthe Chicago Tribune, he sonally were skeptical of such schemes. The was nearing theendofalongcareerof fervent Tribune was against the initiative and referen­ battle against what he believed was an infa­ dum, against at-large aldermanic electitms, mous pack of "boodlers, bummers, and tax- and against the direct primary. "What is eaters" who had brought a proud city—his needed is reform ofthe electorate," the paper city—to the brink of financial calamity and declared, "and laws accomplish little in that di­ moral disgrace. These 'jackals, cormorants, rection. A change of heart is needed rather and incorrigible pap-suckers" were the mem­ than a change in the primary election laws."-^ bers ofthe Chicago City Council and their po­ Throughout his long life as a political journal­ litical attendants—and Medill hated them with ist, Medill proposed many reform schemes of all his heart. But what to do? In 1897, in what his own; but always he insisted that real re­ seemed a rare declaration of editorial uncer­ form could come only through change in the tainty, Medill threw up his hands in despair, people, not in the laws or the apparatus of gov­ confessed his moral and political exhaustion, ernment. For his part, he proposed to bring and asked Tribune readers to send in their own about this change of heart by educating the suggestions for ridding the city of corrup­ electorate by means of his newspaper. tion.' Joseph Medill's thoughts on municipal cor­ Medill's readers responded, and the plans ruption and municipal reform grew out of an poured in. They spanned the range of reform understanding of democracy that was funda­ schemes popular at the time, from moral edu­ mentally paradoxical. On the one hand, Me­ cation in the schools, to structural reform of dill was deeply conservative and elitist in his city government, to increasing the population philosophy of local government. In his half- of public officials in the state penitentiary. century as editor, Medill made the Tribune a Readers were especially fond of structural re­ rock-ribbed Republican organ that stood for forms, such as the initiative and referendum, sound money, sound business, and sound gov­ the direct primary, a stronger mayor, and at- ernment by the "best men." It stood against large elections.^ the urban ruffians and riffraff, especially the The Tribune's reply to its readers in this lit­ "un-Americanized aliens" who were "pollut­ tle impromptu contest showed that Joseph ing" the great cities of America in the late Medill had only grown frustrated, rather than nineteenth century. Medill blamed runaway uncertain, in his old age. When pressed, he democracy for many of the city's ills— still believed that he knew what the problem democracy that enfranchised an electorate ir­ was and how to solve it. Though the Tribune responsible and untutored in the solemn obli­ did favor some of the structural reforms gations of self-government.*

' Chicago Tribune,]une 27, 1897, p. ,"50. 3 Ibid., October 10, 1897, p. 28. ^ See the Tribune's, editorial pages in the early days of *Ibid.,]n\y 1, 1897, p. 6; October 8, 1897, p. 6; Octo­ July, 1897. ber 30, 1898, p. 32. 128 NORD: MUNICIPAL REFORM

undemocratic structural changes in city gov­ ernment, while at the same time fervently working and hoping for democracy, fhis par­ adox of reform thought helps to explain the apparently contradictory aims and actions of municipal reformers in the 1890's, a paradox that shaped reform activities in Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, and other cities through­ out the Midwest, and indeed throughout America. But Joseph Medill's Chicago pro­ vides a particularly striking example. At the beginning of the 1890's, the leading reform group in Chicago was the Citizens' As­ sociation, an organization founded in 1874 in the aftermath of the second major downtown fire in three years. In the 1870's and 1880's the Citizens' Association largely succeeded in sev­ eral of its major campaigns, notably the adop­ tion of reforms to reduce the risk of fire in the city, the creation of a regional sanitary district, WHi(X3)39174 and the annexation of large tracts of suburban Joseph Medill, editor ofthe Chicago Tribune. territory.'' The Citizens' Association had ambi­ tions beyond these major projects, however. It proposed, in the words of its first president, On the other hand, Medill believed that Franklin MacVeagh, "to look carefully and only democracy could save the city. He be­ thoroughly into the whole framework of our lieved that reform could come only when the city and county system."' majority of voters willed it. Thus, he used his The Citizens' Association of Chicago em­ newspaper, not so much to promote structural braced the spirit and philosophy of "mug- reform schemes to divert power away from wumpery," in the broad meaning that has the ignorant masses, but rather to educate and been attached to that term by recent historians arouse the masses, and to bring into the mael­ of late-nineteenth-century reform.** That is, strom of democracy what he thought were the great issues of urban life and reform."' '' The activities of the Citizens' Association are re­ viewed in Citizens' Association, Annual Reports, 1874— 1900. Several unpublished dissertations offer detailed ac­ counts ofthe work ofthe Citizens' Association. See Sidney I. Roberts, "Businessmen in Revolt: Chicago, 1874-1900" EDILL'S paradoxical aversion (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Northwestern Univer­ M'ye t commitment to democracy sity, 1960), chapter 1; Michael McCarthy, "Businessmen was more than just the idiosyncrasy of a and Professionals in Municipal Reform: The Chicago Ex­ perience, 1877-1920" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. cranky old newspaperman, and more than Northwestern University, 1970), chapter 1; and Donald just the clash of idle rhetoric with reality. 4'he D. Marks, "Polishing the Gem ofthe Prairie: The Evolu­ same paradox lay at the heart of the thinking tion of Civic Reform Consciousness in Chicago, 1874— of many municipal reformers in the 1890's. 1900" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of Wis­ Reformers frequently were upper-class or consin, 1974), chapter 3. ' "Address by Franklin MacVeagh," in Addresses and middle-class elitists who feared and fought the Reports of the Citizens' Association of Chicago, 1874—1876 rabble masses of the metropolis. Yet many (Chicago: Hazlitt and Reed, 1876), 8—9; Constitution ofthe held an abiding faith in popular democracy Citizens' Association (Chicago: Citizens' Association, n.d.), and public opinion, and indeed believed that in Citizens' Association Papers, Chicago Historical Soci­ democratic political action was the only hope ety. The Citizens' Association Papers at the Chicago His­ torical Society contain very little material from before for genuine municipal reform. Reformers 1900. could support class-biased social reforms and * See for example David P. Thelen, The New Citizen­ ship: Origins of Progressivism in Wisconsin, 1885—1900 (Co­ = Ibid.,]u\y 6, 1897, p.12 ; July 20, 1897, p. 6; Oct. 14, lumbia: University of Missouri Press, 1972), 10-11, 139- 1897, p. 6. 141; and Gerald W. McFarland, Mugwumps, Morals, and 129 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OE HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83

Association members believed in individual­ chised by a corrupt political system, and he ism and voluntary association, in government hoped that the system could be changed by the "better classes," in educatitjn and pro­ structurally—through civil service, election fessionalism, in social harmony, order, and reform, and more centralized authority—to morality. In keeping with its mugwump phi­ guarantee the hegemony of the "better losophy, the Citizens' Association often took a classes."'*' negative, restrictive stance towards local gov­ The Citizens' Association represented a ernment and politics. The group generally rather pure and unambiguously upper-class supported crusades against vice and gam­ reform tradition. At the other end of the re­ bling, limits on taxation and municipal indebt­ form spectrum were the socialists and labor edness, and prosecution of corrupt govern­ politicians, who were growing in influence ment officials. In addition, the Association among the working-class and immigrant pop­ worked for the structural reform of local gov­ ulations of Chicago in the 1880's and 1890's. ernment, including such changes as civil serv­ These two extremes, however, were not the ice reform, the secret ballot, and various char­ only municipal reform thrusts in Chicago in ter revisions designed to centralize govern­ the early 1890's. The newspapers in particular ment and taxing authority and to reduce the represented yet another tradition—a tradition power of politicians and the multitude of that seemed not so much a compromise be­ elected officials in Chicago's m.any overlap­ tween these extremes as a borrowing of very ping governmental subdivisions.^ different elements from both ends ofthe con­ The tactics of the Citizens' Association tinuum. This was a tradition that coincided reffected its mugwump spirit. As much as pos­ with Citizens' Association mugwumpery on sible, the group tried to avoid electoral poli­ most principles and programs; yet, paradoxi­ tics, preferring instead to act as a lobby group, cally, the newspapers placed the greater faith, working to collect information on questions of and a genuine faith, in the growth of popular public policy and to pressure governmental democracy in the city. bodies to take appropriate action. Though it sometimes engaged in public education cru­ sades, such as in charter, drainage, or annexa­ tion elections, the Association usually avoided HE publishers of Chicago's election campaigns and in general had a low T large, metropolitan newspa­ opinion ofthe average voter. In his presiden­ pers were of course themselves members of tial address of 1874, Franklin MacVeagh said the city's business and social elite, and from a prime purpose of the Association would be the beginning they were supporters of the Cit­ to conserve and promote "the good public im­ izens' Association. Joseph Medill of the Trib­ pulses of this community." But he made it une was an active member of the Association in clear that he was talking about the impulses of its early years; Victor Lawson ofthe Daily News "the better portion ofthe community." He saw was a strong supporter; Herman Kohlsaat, the Citizens' Association as representing the publisher of the Inter Ocean, and Melville "good citizens," who were largely disenfran- Stone, general manager of the Associated Press and founder of the Daily News, were both on the executive committee in the early 1890's. Despite varying partisan loyalties, most of the Politics (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, leading newspaper publishers of Chicago ap­ 1975), 173—177. The literature on mugwumpery is re­ proved ofthe Association's mugwump reform viewed in Geoffrey Blodgett, "The Mugwump Reputa­ tion, 1870 to the Present," in iht Journal of American His­ program. They opposed gambling, vice, and tory. 66:867-887 (March, 1980). governmental corruption. They favored low ^Citizens' Association, Annual Reports, 1874-1890, taxes. They pushed for "business-like" gov­ passim; William H. Tolman, Municipal Reform Movements in ernment by the "good citizens" ofthe city. But the United States (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 189.5), 56- unlike the Citizens' Association, they seemed 57. See also Bessie Louise Pierce, A History of Chicago, vol. 3: The Rise of a Modern City, 1871-1893 (New York: Alfred to believe that the good citizens were the A. Knopf, 1957); and Samuel E. S-pacWng, Municipal His­ tory and Present Organization of the City of Chicago, Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, no. 23 (Madison, May, '" "Address by Franklin MacVeagh," .5-6; Citizens' A%- socicition, Annual Report, 1889, pp. 3^. 130 NORD: MUNICIPAL REFORM

majority—or at any rate would be if properly moral war on gambling in Chicago, and the informed and aroused." Daily News in 1890-1891 carried about two sto­ The most widely read newspaper in Chi­ ries and an editorial a week exposing or de­ cago in the 1890's, the Daily News, was also one nouncing gambling, vice, and Sunday sa­ ofthe most thoroughly mugwumpish. Its pub- loons.'^ hsher, Victor Lawson, was more a business­ Ehese were not, however, the chief troubles man than a newspaperman, but he under­ of the metropolis, according to the Daily News. stood that bright, concise, cheap, nonpartisan Even in the early 1890's, the paper argued that news was good business in a large metropoli­ the chief problem was private control of public tan city like Chicago. He made the Daily News a services, especially the gas, electric, and street prototype of the new mass-circulation urban railway utilities. Public services were inade­ newspaper that grew up in all the great cities quate, inefficient, and corrupted, the Daily of late-nineteenth-century America.''^ Lawson News declared; but, unlike the Citizens' Associ­ and the Daily News took an interest in the full ation, the paper argued for more public range of mugwump reform issues. The paper control—for more government, not less. "The stood for nonpartisan, business-like city gov­ root of the evil lies, not in the wrong uses of ernment, for the defeat ofthe party bosses, for money," the Daily News said, "but in the abdi­ civil service, for the enforcement of Sunday cation of sovereignty. . . . Cities are badly gov­ closing and anti-vice laws, and the election of erned because they are irresponsibly gov­ "able and faithful public servants."'-^ erned. The people have granted away their In addition to his political and economic social functions to private citizens and to cor- conservatism, Lawson was a prominent and poradons which find themselves under the somewhat sanctimonious Protestant layman stern necessity of corruption in order to pro­ who strongly disapproved of the personal tect themselves. . . . Abolish special privileges, habits of the city's increasingly poor, foreign, and very soon municipal corruption will in the and Catholic citizens. He favored restricting main disappear."'' immigration to stop "the constant poisoning Such thinking led the Daily News as early as of the fountain-head of justice—American 1890 to a reluctant endorsement of municipal citizenship—by a stream of ignorance, pau­ ownership of public utilities. It was reluctant perism, and crime from the old world." In the because the paper, rooted in mugwumpery, early 1890's, Lawson was a field marshal in the believed in private enterprise, feared govern­ ment paternalism, and hated the spoils system " This argument, part of the main theme of this pa­ of the professional politician. But though it per, is expanded upon in David Paul Nord, Newspapers and opposed paternalism and class legislation, the New Politics: Midwestern Municipal Reform, 1890—1900 (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1981), chapters 3-4. Daily News argued that government itself was '^ Charles H. Dennis, Victor Lawson: His Life and His not a necessary evil but a positive good, an es­ Work (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935). Sev­ sential form of social cooperation. When gov­ eral dissertations review Lawson's career in some detail. ernment abdicated its social duties, which in See Donald J. Abramoske, "The Chicago Daily News: A Business History, 1875-1901" (unpublished Ph.D. disser­ cities logically included the provision of public tation. University of Chicago, 1963); Royal J. Schmidt utilities, the power vacuum was filled by pri­ "The Ch\c3Lg,oDaily News 3.nd Illinois Politics, 1876-1920" vate trusts and monopolies. The Daily News (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of Chicago, disagreed with Franklin MacVeagh and other 1957); and Robert L. Tree, "Victor Fremont Lawson and local mugwump reformers who opposed mu­ His Newspapers: A Study of the Chicago 'Daily News' and Chicago 'Record,' " (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. nicipal gas service so long as the city adminis­ Northwestern University, 1959). On the rise ofthe metro­ tration was under the spoils system of party politan newspaper in this era, see Nord, Newspapers and politics. While strongly favoring civil service New Politics, chapter 3; Michael Schudson, Discovering the reform, the paper said the real source of cor- News: A Social History of American Newspapers (New York: Basic Books, 1978), chapter 3; and Gunther Barth, City People: The Rise of Modern City Culture in Nineteenth-Century '"' Quote from ChicagoDai/)iA'(;ixii, April II, 1891, p. 4. America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), chap­ Quantitative statements in this paper about newspaper ter 3. coverage are based upon a simple content analysis of the '^ A good general statement of the Daily New.s's edito­ Daily News and the Tribune, 1890-1900. For a description rial position on municipal reform in the early 1890s is ex­ ofthe method and details ofthe results, see Nord, A'eu)i/)a- pressed in several editorials in the issue of January 2, pers and New Politics, appendices I and II. 1890, p. 4. '^ Daily News, May 2, 1890, p. 4; June 25, 1890, p. 4. 131 WHi(A62)6508 Michigan Avenue, Chicago, in about 1900, with flags snapping and the hotels Richelieu and Leland in the background. ruption lay outside the government. The railroad grade crossings. Though the Daily council was corrupted by private corpora­ News recognized and abhorred corruption in tions, not by municipal agencies such as the city government, the paper believed that such water or street departments. The Daily News problems could only be solved through politi­ believed that "municipal gas might give—and, cal action, that reform not only must but should indeed, would give—a new field to the spoils­ be won at the polls. The Daily News, under Vic­ men; but it would, at the same time, rid us of a tor Lawson, argued that an expansion of mu­ more dangerous foe.""' nicipal democracy would improve the quality Altogether in 1890-1891, the Daily News of municipal democracy, that responsibility devotee! about one-third of its local govern­ thrust upon the electorate would improve the ment and public affairs stories to utility mat­ electorate.'^ ters, many of which were direct, vitriolic at­ tacks on the city's leading street railway baron, "/*!(/., January 2, 1890, p. 4; July 16, 1890, p. 4; No­ Charles T. Yerkes. The paper also carried vembers, 1890, p. 4; March 26. 1891, p. 4; April 8, 1891, scores of stories and editorials favoring a more p. 4. On Lawson's feud with Yerkes, see Victor Lawson to Charles H. Dennis, January 12, 1898, in the Charles H. active government role in street cleaning and Dennis Papers, Newberry Library, Chicago; and Victor repair, smoke abatement, sewage control, tax Lawson to Charles M. Faye, January 4, 1898 and to and assessment reform, and the elimination of Charles T. Yerkes, January 16, 1897, in the Victor Lawson Papers, Newberry Library, Chicago. Faye was editor of '6/Airf., September 17, 1890, p. 4; June 14, 1890, p. 4. the Daily News; Dennis was editor of Lawson's morning pa- 132 NORD: MUNICIPAL REFORM

Thus, in some ways, the Daily New's edito­ pable, and prudent men." The job of the rial philosophy and news coverage reffected newspaper was to help them do it. '^ the mugwumpery ofthe Citizens' Association. Fhe editorial philosophy and news selec­ Yet, in other ways, especially in its analysis of tion ofthe Tribune in the early 1890's reflected utility regulation and the need for an active lo­ the dilemma of the ideological conservative cal government, the paper had begun to move caught up in the practical problems of making beyond mugwumpery. Perhaps the most tell­ life livable in the modern city. The Tribune was ing difference between the reform spirit of the much more skeptical than the Daily News of Daily News and the Citizens' Association lay in municipal enterprise and the higher taxes the area of structural reform of local govern­ needed to support it. While the fjatly News ment. Though the paper agreed in principle blamed outside corporate influences for most with the Citizens' Association on civil service ofthe problems of municipal government, the reform and centralization of authority, in Tribune blamed Democratic "bummers, loaf­ practice the Daily News devoted practically no ers, and rounders"—the "taxeaters" who attention to these matters. Only a handful of howled for plunder and spoils like "a pack of items appeared in all of 1890-1891. The Daily famished wolves in quest of prey." In the Tjib- News was much more interested in practical une's opinion, the administration of Mayor politics, in getting its kind of candidate elected DeWitt C. Cregier in the early 1890's was one to office. To this end, it was committed to in­ of unparalleled jobbery, of "shameless, willful, creasing citizen participation in government, disgraceful extravagance." Under such cir­ for it believed that the majority could be led to cumstances, it is not surprising that the Trib­ share its views. Its job as a newspaper was the une opposed municipal ownership and higher critical one of providing the information that taxes: "The only good feature of this intolera­ would mold an enlightened public opinion, ble municipal sloth and shiftlessness is that it that would make democracy work.'*^ discourages State socialism."^^ The Tribune had a philosophical as well as a practical aversion to socialism and public own­ ership. In a series of editorials in 1890, the N the lexicon of Joseph Medill's Tribune argued against the cooperative theo­ I Chicago Tribune, another of the ries of the Bellamy Nationalists and in favor of city's leading dailies, "mugwump" was a term acquisitiveness—yes, even of greed. "No of derision, synonymous with "renegade," greed, no surplus; no surplus, no railroads," "apostate," and "moral scratcher," well suited the paper declared with uncharacteristic brev- to reform groups like the Citizens' Association ity.2' and to newspapers like the Daily News that On the municipal level, the Tribune in the dared attack Republicans in the name of non- early 1890's supported private enterprise in partisanship. But despite its Republican party public utilities, even street railroads, the great loyalty, the Tribune espoused most of the re­ malefactors in the Daily News' social scheme. form values ofthe Citizens' Association. It be­ The Tribune admitted that streetcar service lieved in morality, individualism, low taxes, was sometimes bad and that the city should get and business-like government. It differed a larger share ofthe monopoly harvest, "yet it from the Citizens' Association in the same way cannot be said that the people have gained the Daily News did. The Tribune was little inter­ nothing or that their nickels buy them no ested in structural reform of government, but more today than in 1860. . . . Some men have very much interested in the expansion of city services and public utilities. Given the un­ avoidable growth in public enterprise, the " Tribune, February 26, 1890, p. 4. The best general need was to get the voters to elect "honest, ca­ history ofthe Tribune is Lloyd Wendt, Chicago Tribune: The Rise of a Great American Newspaper (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1979). This is a fairly laudatory history by a former newspaperman with Tribune connections. Histori­ per, the Record. Yerkes' career is summarized in Sidney I. ans have usually been barred from access to the Tribune's Roberts, "Portrait of a Robber Baron: Charles T. Yerkes," archives. in Business History Review, 2i5:3'i4—371 (Autumn, 1961). 2» Tribune, May 18, 1890, p. 4; June 5, 1890, p. 1; Au­ '^ Daily News, May 9, 1890, p. 4; June 10, 1890, p. 4; gust 21, 1890, p. 4; October 1, 1890, p. 4. July 2, 1891, p. 4. 2' Ibid., February 9, 1890, p. 12. 133 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83 grown rich through the street-car system, but spend money. It resisted public enterprise; yet the people in general have been largely the it recognized that the public's work must be gainers."^^ This ideology was reffected in the done. The solution lay with the election of Tribune's news coverage and editorial com­ honest men who would administer the city as a ment. Like the Daily News, the Tribune devoted business and who would put the welfare ofthe a large proportion (about one-fourth) of its lo­ city above party interests. But this would have cal government and political stories to utility to come through the political system as it was. matters; but significantly more of these stories The Tribune had little faith in structural re­ were about utility business and expansion form. It dismissed suggestions to abolish the than about regulation or service complaints. ward system of aldermanic elections as irrele­ In spite of its homage to private business vant. It denounced the Citizens' Association's and its scorn for public enterprise, the Tribune city-county consolidation plan as a plot to ex­ was forced by the circumstances of the city to pand the payrolls.-^ It devoted little attention support, even to fight for, public works on a to structural reform in the news columns. In­ grand and sweeping scale. In editorials outlin­ stead, the Tribune advised, "as the political sys­ ing the needs ofthe city in preparation for the tem of managing municipalities has come to World's Columbian Exposition, the paper stay, the only thing to do is to make the best of listed some traditional mugwump concerns it and to see that all possible is done to make about crime and gambling. But more impor­ the voters intelligent and honest."-'' tant, the Tribune said, were physical improve­ To help make the voters intelligent and ments to be undertaken by the city: streets re­ honest, the Tribune was filled with paired and cleaned, new water intake tunnels information—about twice as many stories on built, the municipal electric light plant ex­ the average as the Daily News—covering the panded, the river and canal water quality im­ range of local government and reform news. proved, and the smoke nuisance abated.^^ Like the Daily News, the Tribune in 1890-1891 Much of the Tribune's local news coverage in worked for the suppression of gambling and I890-I891 dealt with these issues. Most im­ vice. It conducted its own crusade in the early portant of all was "the Great Drainage Chan­ 1890's against smoke pollution.'*^' The Tribune nel," a project the Tribune had pushed for and touched on many other reform issues as well. carried detailed information about for years. But perhaps the most interesting feature of This great canal, designed to reverse the flow the Tribune was the depth of coverage, in both of the Chicago River, was one of the largest news reporting and editorials. The details of and most expensive local public works projects waterflow rates in the polluted South Fork of anywhere in the country in the nineteenth the Chicago River, the finer points of Henry century, and the Tribune was its great cham­ George's Single Tax theory, the specifics of pion. Everything connected with drainage municipal government in Glasgow, and sewage was prime news for the Tribune, in­ Scotland—everything warranted extended de­ cluding all the financial and engineering de- scription and comment. The aim, and the tails.24 great difficulty, of municipal reform, the Trib­ une believed, was to wake up and to educate ERE, then, was the Tribune's di­ "the great masses of honest voters." ^* H lemma. It opposed positive, In 1896, a new reform organization arose paternalistic government; yet it wanted gov­ in Chicago that embodied the newspapers' tra­ ernment to act upon the problems ofthe city. dition of reform and the newspapers' para­ It denounced high taxes; yet it listed ways to doxical commitment to public morality and business-like government on the one hand ^^ Ibid., Augusts, 1890, p. 12; July 6, 1890, p. 12. and to popular democracy on the other. This 23/Airf., February 26, 1890, p. 4; June 1, 1890, p. 12. was the Municipal Voters' League. The 2"* During the hrst months of 1890, pollution in the South Fork of the Chicago River was practically a daily item, and the coverage was quite detailed. See for example ^'Tribune, December 7, 1890, p. 12; February 6, 1891, the Tribune, June 17, 1890, p. 4. The history of Chicago's p. 4; March 20, 1981, p. 4. drainage problem and the construction ofthe sanitary ca­ 2!* Ibid., December 14, 1890, p. 12. nal is told in Louis P. Cain, Sanitation Strategy for a Lakefront ^'' Ibid., daily stories, early July, 1890. See for example Metropolis: The Case of Chicago (DeKalb: Northern Illinois July 10, 1890, p. 1. University Press, 1978). 28 Ibui., October 26, 1890, p. 12.

134 WHi(A62)6512 Chicago's elegant Palmer House at the comer of State and Monroe streets, c. 1900.

League began as the political arm of the Chi­ temporarily successful) battle against orga­ cago Civic Federation, which was born in 1894 nized gambling in Chicago.''^•' f hough the so­ in the strange mixture of high hopes and de­ cial trauma of the depression had begun to spair bred by the spectacular Chicago world's weaken many reformers' traditional faith in fair and the disastrous business panic, both of individualism, the old mugwump ideals died which occurred in 1893 hard, even for those who worked in the new Though unemployment relief was the Civic "scientific" relief efforts. The journalist Ray Federation's first priority in the winter of Stannard Baker nicely captured this lingering 1893-1894, the group quickly expanded the mugwump spirit when he wrote in 1895 that scope of its activities to embrace most of the "the Philanthropic Department is now en­ traditional programs of local municipal and gaged in the work of driving beggars from the social reformers. The work was conducted street."'^" through six departments: political, municipal, The Municipal Voters' League, which grew philanthropic, industrial, educational, and out ofthe Civic Federation's political activities, moral. Most of the Federation's effort was in the mugwump reform tradition. In 1894 the 2^ Albion W. Small, "The Civic Federation: A Study in Municipal Department, for example, was in­ Social Dynamics," in the American Journal of Sociology, terested almost exclusively in structural re­ 1:82-83, 86-87 (July, 1895); The Civic Federation: What It forms, such as securing from the legislature a Has Accomplished Its First Year (Chicago: C^ivic Federation, 1895); Civic Federation of Chicago, First Annual Report of new city charter, a civil service system, a pri­ the Central Council, 1895. A good, general study of the mary election law, a corrupt practices act, and Civic Federation is Marks, "Polishing the (iem," chapters changes in the laws regulating revenues and 4-5. For regular front page stories on the gambling fight, special assessments. Meanwhile, the Moral De­ see the Daily News and the Tribune, September-October, partment, in perhaps the most visible of the 1894. ™ Ray Stannard Baker, "The C^iivic Federation of Chi­ Federation's activities, led a vigorous (and cago," in The Outlook, 52:133 Quly 27, 1895). 135 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83 shared the Federation's roots in traditional fhe political style ofthe Municipal Voters' mugwump reform. The League was orga­ League was a mixture of traditional organiza­ nized from the top down, with power central­ tion and modern mass communication. The ized in a president and a nine-member execu­ League organized in every ward, and it was tive committee, fhe men who served were not happy to cooperate with party machines so Chicago's highest-level businessmen, but they long as the party men would endorse the were solid members of the business and pro­ League's brief platform." But the Municipal fessional elite. The League stood for business­ Voters' League was always primarily a bureau like government, civil service reform, fair of information. Its work was based on a belief property assessments, tighter utility regula­ in public opinion, a belief that the people tion, and the election of "aggressively honest would vote for the "right men" if they but and capable men."'^' knew "the facts." To this end, most ofthe work of the League involved the investigation and publication of facts about candidates, espe­ HERE the Municipal Voters' cially information on the voting records of in­ League stood apart from the w cumbents. The League did not field its own mugwump reform tradition was in its belief in candidates but simply reported on the candi­ public opinion, its commitment to practical dates ofthe regular parties."'^ politics, and its intense interest in pulDlic utili­ ties. The League's main concrete issue in 1896 The newspapers of Chicago, with one mi­ and after was always the regulation of public nor exception, loved the Municipal Voters' utilities, especially street railways.•^'•^ 4"he lead­ League because it was committed, as they ers of the League believed that Chicago's were, to political action as the way to reform, street railway magnate, Charles T. Yerkes, was and to publicity as the key to politics. In its the chief corrupter of the City Council, and campaigns, the League used a variety of com­ the League looked mainly at utility franchise munications media, including form letters, votes in the City Council to determine an in­ pamphlets, advertisements, and mass meet­ cumbent alderman's honesty and fitness for ings. The main channel for League publicity, office.''-' however, was always the newspaper press. From 1896 on, the League had the full coop­ " This is the platform the candidates were asked to eration of nearly all the daily newspapers of sign in 1896, and it changed only a little in the years fol­ Chicago, both English and foreign- lowing. See the 1896 Endorsement Book, Municipal Vot­ language.'"' Lhe newspapers were so solid for ers' League Papers, Chicago Historical Society. The pre- 1900 material in this collection is contained in four scrapbooks: two books of committee minutes and reports ^•' Executive Committee Minutes, February 2, 1896, in chronological order; a book of endorsements from Municipal Voters' League Papers. See also Roberts, "The 1896; and a book of candidate reports as printed in the Municipal Voters' League," 147-148. newspapers. The best general account of the Municipal '° This interest in the "facts" and the power of infor­ Voters' League is Sidney I. Roberts, "The Municipal Vot­ mation is the main theme of virtually all contemporary ers' League and Chicago's Boodlers," in the Journal of the writing about the League. See for example Smith, "Coun­ Illinois Historical Society, 53:117-148 (Summer, 1960). See cil Reform in Chicago," 351; Edwin Burritt Smith, "The also Edwin Burritt Smith, "Council Reform in Chicago: Municipal Voters' League of Chicago," in the Atlantic Work ofthe Municipal Voters' League," in Municipal Af­ Monthly, 85:836-837 (June, 1900); "Municipal Reform in fairs, 4:347-362 (June, 1900); Hoyt King, Citizen Cole of Chicago," in The Nation, 70:412 (May 31,1900); "The Vot­ Chicago (Chicago: Horder's, Inc., 1931); McCarthy, "Busi­ ers' League of Chicago," in The Outlook, 60:131 (Septem­ nessmen and Professionals," chapter 2; and Joan S. ber 10, 1898); Sigmund Zeisler, "The Municipal Voters' Miller, "The Politics of Municipal Reform in Chicago dur­ League of Chicago," in The World Review, 2:576 (January ing the Progressive Era: The Municipal Voters' League as 25, 1902); Sikes, "How the Chicago City Council Was Re­ a Test Case, 1896-1920" (unpublished M.A. thesis, generated," 399; Frank H. Scott, "The Municipal Situa­ Roosevelt University, 1966). Cole was the hrst president tion in Chicago," in Proceedings ofthe Detroit Conference for and guiding spirit of the League. Smith was secretary in Good City Government (Philadelphia: National Municipal the early years. League, 1903), 151-152; and Lincoln Steffens, "Chicago: '2 Executive Committee Minutes, 1896—1900, Munici­ Half Free and Fighting On," in McClure's, 21:563-577 pal Voters' League Papers. See also George C. Sikes, (October, 1903). "How the Chicago City Council Was Regenerated," in The •'"' Executive Committee Minutes, February and Chautuaquan, 36:400 (January, 1903). March, 1896, Municipal Voters' League Papers. See also '^"Report of the Municipal Voters' League, 1896"; Smith, "Council Reform in Chicago," 350. Victor Lawson George Cole, circular letter, Dec. 29, 1896; both in Munic­ and his newspapers were especially supportive of the ipal Voters' League Papers. See also King, Citizen Cole, 23. League, with editorial and news space as well as cash dona-

136 NORD: MUNICIPAL REFORM the League, and so filled with League- Though the idea of municipal ownership generated information, that poor Charles seemed rather heretical to many hard-boiled Yerkes felt in 1897 he had to buy a newspaper, conservatives, and was positively outrageous the Inter Ocean, in order to tell his story to the to people who actually owned utility corpora­ people of Chicago. He used the Inter Ocean in tions, it was a heresy of widespread and in­ 1897 and 1898 not only to plead for street rail­ creasing popularity in late-nineteenth- way franchise extensions but also to attack the century cities. Public ownership of municipal League as "anarchistic," Victor Lawson as a utilities was the common ground, the meeting "friend of socialists," and the Chicago newspa­ place, the shared policy goal of a wide variety pers in general as a "newspaper trust" deter­ of city dwellers who shared little else in tradi­ mined to ruin him.^' tional political or economic realms."" For so­ By the late 1890's, the Tribune had joined cialists, municipal ownership was the entering the Daily News in its efforts to mobilize public wedge ofthe cooperative commonwealth. For opinion on the utility issue. In fact, the Tribune the Municipal Voters' League and the daily had become perhaps the most aggressive newspapers of Chicago, municipal ownership leader in the fight against Yerkes and his street and utility regulation in general were crucial railway companies."'^ Both papers continued but decidedly less radical goals. Fair compen­ to support traditional mugwump reforms, in­ sation to the city for franchises to utility com­ cluding anti-vice crusades and some structural panies was really all these reformers sought. reforms of government. But, as in the early Municipal ownership in the 1890's was more 1890's, they devoted little space to these mat­ of a long-range pipe dream, or merely a threat ters, especially to structural reforms, in their to frighten the utility barons. Significantly, news and editorial columns. By far the main neither the League nor most of the newspa­ interest of both papers was the regulation of pers favored lower fares, a reform that would street railways. By the end of the decade, even have directly benefited the working classes. the conservative Tribune had come to join the From his perspective as a rich businessman, it Daily News in a philosophical approval of mu­ seemed logical to Victor Lawson to tell one of nicipal ownership.^^ Both papers still strug­ his editors in 1899: "Say editorially that the gled with the "bosses and bummers" in city new street car bill is radically defective in pro­ government. But if government were to wield posing a four-cent fare and no compensation even more power, the voters must make it to the city. The individual in most cases is but work, and both papers heartily supported the slightly concerned in the matter of a one-cent Municipal Voters' League in its efforts to edu­ difference in the fare. The city, on the other cate and arouse the voters to work within the hand, is in great need of money with which to political system as it was.''" repair, clean, and maintain the streets. The tions. See for example Lawson to Edwin Burritt Smith, paign, see Daily News, February 24, 1896, p. 1; March 5, March 12, March 14, and March 28, 1896; Lawson to 1896, pp. 1,4; March 11, 1896, p. 4; March 13, 1896, p. 2; George E. Cole, November 7, November 16, and Novem­ March 17, 1896, p. 4; April4, 1896, p. 1; April 7, 1896, p. ber 21, 1896; all in Victor Lawson Papers. i; Tribune,January 12, 1896, pp. l,6;January 14, 1896, p. ^'' Daily News, October 22, 1897, p. 4; Chicago Inter 6; January 27, 1896, p. 6; March 18, 1896, p. 6; March 29, Ocean, daily editorials, November 21-E)ecember 10, 1897. 1896, p. 40; April 5, 1896, p. 32; April 8, 1896, p. 6. On See also Roberts, "Portrait of a Robber Baron," 36,3-365. newspaper support in the late 1890's, especially in the '* For some especially vituperative attacks on Yerkes, League's campaign against street railway franchise exten­ see Tribune, January 11, 1897, p. 6; January 14, 1897, p. 6; sions, see Victor Lawson to Charles H. Dennis, September May 14, 1897, p. 12; May 20, 1897, p. 6; May 21, 1897, p. 24, 1897; February 24, 1898; February 26, 1898; in the 6; June 10, 1897, p. 18; January 13, 1898, p. 6; December Charles Dennis Papers; also Lawson to Charles M. Faye, 12, 1898, p. 6; December 14, 1898, p. 12. On Yerkes' January 14, and March 10, 1898, in the Victor Lawson Pa­ struggles with the press and his general disregard of his pers; Daily News. February 5, 1898; p. 4, February 25, public image, see Roberts, "Portrait of a Robber Baron," 1898, p. 1; February 26, 1898, p. 4; February 28, 1898, p. 351-354; and Homer C. Harlan, "The Chicago Street 4; March 8, 1898, p. 4; March 10, 1898, p. 4; March 14, Railway Franchise Struggle, 1897-1898" (unpublished 1898, p. 1; March 19, 1898, p. 1, March 21, 1898, p. I; M.A. thesis. University of Chicago, 1948), 26. Tribune, February 20, 1898, p. 30; March 15, 1898, p. 6; 3' Tribune, January 20, 1897, p. 6; October 13, 1897, p. March 18, 1898, p. 6; March 22, 1898, p. 6; March 29, 6; November 13, 1897, p. 6; January 6, 1899, p. 6; Febru­ 1898, p. 12; April 3, 1898, p. 32; April 4, 1898, p. 7. ary 3, 1899, p. 6; April 3, 1899, p. 4; May 3, 1899, p. 6: *" David P. Thelen, "Urban Politics: Beyond Bosses August 24, 1899, p. 6. and Reformers," in Reviews in American History, 7:410 ••" On newspaper support in the first League cam- (September, 1979). 137 WHi(A62)6,iI4 Elevated electric railway on Wabash Street, Chicago, about 1905. compensation should be made as large as pos­ from socialist workingmen, conservative busi­ sible to the city, but on the basis of a straight nessmen, and nearly everyone in between. By five-cent fare.'"'- 1899, for example, all the candidates for mayor felt compelled to make street railway |F:SPITE the upper-class charac­ regulation the chief issue of their campaigns. D ter of its leadership and the They felt that the public demanded it." fhe mugwumpish, "good government" character decade ofthe 1890's was a ten-year education of its program, the Municipal Voters' League for the people of Chicago in the subtleties of was remarkably successful in Chicago politics. natural monopoly economics, taxation, fran­ In elections every year from 1896 until after chise regulation, and municipal ownership. the turn of the century, substantial numbers And most of this education was conducted by of League-supported candidates were elected the Municipal Voters' League and the newspa­ to the City Council. By the turn of the century pers. By 1899, ihe Daily News could justifiably it was generally conceded that the League held declare that Chicagoans "used to sit dumb as the balance of political power in local Chicago oysters while their legislative bodies voted politics.''^ The League was strikingly success­ away their rights; now they discuss franchises ful in generating an aggressive public opinion as freely as they once did the weather."^'' on the utility issue and in wooing support 'fhe leaders of the Municipal Voters' League believed that the press was their most ''2 Victor Lawson to Charles Faye, February 16, 1899, faithful and effective ally in the education of in the Victor Lawson Papers. For a full account of the public opinion. Every president of the League street railway issue in Chicago, see Robert D. Weber, "Ra­ from 1896 to 1906 gave the newspapers most tionalizers and Reformer: Chicago Local Transportation in the Nineteenth Century" (unpublished Ph.D. disserta­ tion, University of Wisconsin, 1971). « Daily News, March 16, 1899, p. 1; March 18, 1899, p. "•^ Roberts, "The Municipal Voters' League," 143; 4; Tribune, March 12, 1899, p. 32; March 29, 1899, p. 12; Smith, "Council Reform in Chicago," 356-357; Steffens, April 3, 1899, p. 4; April 11, 1899, p. 8. "Chicago: Half Free and Fighting On," 563-577; Frederic « Daily News, February 13, 1899, p. 4. See also William C. Howe, "The Municipal Character and Achievements of Ritchie, "The Street Railway Situation in Chicago," in Pro- Chicago," in World's Work, 5:3240-3246 (March, 1903); ceedings ofthe Rochester Conference for Good City Government "Chicago and St. Louis," in the Independent, 54:883-884 (Philadelphia: National Municipal League, 1903), 164- (April 10, 1902). 178. 138 NORD: MUNICIPAL REFORM of the credit for the League's success, and Voters' League, Kent hated the people but other observers of the Chicago political scene loved them, too. He believed—he hoped— shared their views."' 1 he Municipal Voters' that the majority of men were good, and League used the press not only to convey spe­ would rise up to support his efforts. He chal­ cific information about a particular campaign, lenged them: "Reform yourselves and want but also to socialize the citizens of Chicago to something better and you will have it."*^ the issues of modern urban life, especially is­ sues of public utility regulation. "The long HE success of a movement such years of education have made our voters what T' as the Chicago Municipal Vot­ they are," declared the League's second presi­ ers' League depended upon working-class dent, William Kent, in 1903.'' and lower-class support for an essentially Kent, who headed the League during sev­ middle- and upper-class reform program. eral of its most successful campaigns in the late That such a thing would happen seems un­ 1890's, was a good example of a reformer in likely at best. Yet to many reformers it seemed the Chicago newspaper tradition and in the not only possible but almost inevitable, for new spirit of the Municipal Voters' League. they believed fervently in democracy as well as He was the son of a wealthy meat packer, a in the righteousness of their reform pro­ graduate of Yale, and a bona fide member of grams. Might these beliefs be incompatible? the business and social elite of Chicago. ''"^ He That is what seemed unlikely, and tliat is the supported a variety of mugwump reforms, in­ paradox of municipal reform thought in the cluding civil service reform and anti-gambling 1890's. and vice crusades. But Kent also believed in Ironically, sometimes the two beliefs were municipal democracy. He believed that re­ compatible—at least for a time. In Chicago, form depended uptm majority rule. He exhib­ for example. The Municipal Voters' League ited all the inconsistencies of Joseph Medill, was successful in the late 1890's and early Victor Lawson, and other members of the Mu­ 1900's, and the masses voted for the re­ nicipal Voters' League crowd in Chicago. Kent formers' reforms. The key to success in Chi­ ridiculed the City Council, but he was a mem­ cago and elsewhere was the development of an ber of it. He denounced Chicago's aldermen issue that would unite people across class, eth­ as "good-natured, inccjmpetent dubs" and nic, and religious differences, and across geo­ "polluted freaks," but he admired and worked graphical subdivisions ofthe city.'" The favor­ closely with some of the most venal of them. ite issue in the 1890's was almost always public He supported efforts to end corruption in utility regulation, especially the control of Chicago elections, but he passed out free beer street railways. Fhis was the issue in Chicago, in his own campaigns. He worked to ban liq­ and so it was in virtually every other city where uor and "blind pigs" from his home commu­ the mass electorate voted for the work of nity of Hyde Park, but he held his prohibition middle-class and upper-class reformers. In planning sessions over drinks in the back Detroit and Cleveland, for example, charis­ room of a local drugstore. He despaired ofthe matic, strong-willed mayors exploited the util­ ignorant, ossified masses, yet he felt that he ity issue to build "reform machines." In Kan­ had to turn to them. Like the newspaper pub­ sas City, an extraordinary reform newspaper lishers and his colleagues in the Municipal hammered away at the utility issue to force a rapprochement with powerful local political bosses. In Milwaukee, much as in Chicago, a •"^ George E. Cole, "President's Report, 1896," in Mu­ nicipal Voters' League Papers; Walter Fisher, quoted in Elizabeth Kent, "William Kent: Independent" (typescript, ^' William Kent, speeches and letters, quoted in Eliza­ July 1950), 133, copy in the library of the University of beth Kent, "William Kent," 118, 124-126, 133-134, 136- Chicago. See also Zeisler, "The Municipal Voters' 137, 141-143, 146-147. Kent had a lot of influence on League," 577; and Scott, "The Municipal Situation in C^hi- Lincoln Steffens' famous article about the Municipal Vot­ cago," 152. ers' League, "Chicago: Half Free and Fighting On." See *" William Kent, quoted in Joel Arthur Tarr, "William Tarr, "William Kent to Lincoln Steffens." Kent to Lincoln Steffens: Origins of Progressivism in Chi­ =" David P. Thelen, "Social Tensions and the Origins cago," in Mid-America, 47:55-57 (January, 1965). This is of Progressivism," in the Journal of American History, the theme of much of the contemporary writing on the 56:323-341 (September, 1969); John D. Buenker, et at., League. See note 35 above. Progressivism (Cambridge: Schenkman Publishing Co., •"* Tarr, "William Kent to Lincoln Steffens," 50-51. 1977), chapter 2. 139 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83 middle-class reform organization (the Mil­ who believed both in the business-like, scien­ waukee Municipal League) joined with a mug­ tific regulation of municipal utilities and in the wumpish newspaper (the Sentinel) and used a need to keep regulation in the local political street railway franchise battle in the late 1890's arena, subject to direct confrontation with to build a cross-class coalition of consumers democratic rule. Certainly, this was not the and taxpayers, and, in the process, helped lay prevailing philosophy in the long run; the in­ the foundation of La Follette progressivism in dependent state commission movement was Wisconsin.^' irresistible. The utility problem was in fact wonderfully But utility regulation by democracy was not suited to the building of municipal reform co­ merely the philosophy of a few sentimental alitions. The issues at stake were better service cranks. Some ofthe leading experts on utility and more city revenue, and anyone who either regulation, including Delos Wilcox and others rode the cars or owned property had an inter­ prominent in the National Municipal League, est. Even when a lower fare was not an imme­ continued to demand home rule in the regula­ diate issue, as in Chicago, the possibility was al­ tion of public utilities and continued to oppose ways in the air, and the idea of better service the state commission movement precisely be­ for the money was central to the cause. Mean­ cause it was undemocratic. Throughout his ca­ while, the companies—frequently monopolies reer Wilcox, who was perhaps the leading au­ owned by shadowy out-of-town syndicates— thority in America on municipal franchises, were made-to-order political villains. On the argued that "the control of public utilities is a utility issue, at least, the common man could governmental function and must, therefore, understand the reformer's talk about democ­ in the final analysis, depend for its success racy, public interest, and the iniquities of spe­ upon the approval of the people."^-' Wilcox cial privilege. In cities where the utility issue was not unique. Stiles P.Jones, another utility was suppressed, diffused, or for some reason expert with the National Municipal League, missing from the political agenda, reform perhaps put it most sharply. He approached groups such as the Municipal Voters' League his subject, he said, "from the standpoint not failed.52 of the effect of the establishment of a state As the municipal ownership and franchise commission on administrative efficiency, but regulation movements died and utility regula­ rather of its effect on the development of the tion gradually became a function of indepen­ power of self-government in the people. dent regulatory commissions in many states af­ Efficiency gained at the expense of citizenship ter 1907, the utility issue lost its exalted place is a dear purchase. Efficiency is a fine thing but in local politics. The mass popularity of the successful self-government is a better. Demo­ more successful municipal reform movements cratic government in a free city by an intelli­ usually lost ground as well. But the reformers' gent and disinterested citizenship is the belief in democracy did not always fade as greater ideal to work to. And democracy plus quickly as their success at the polls. Even efficiency is not unattainable."^^ among the so-called experts and "engineers" of the progressive era, a remnant remained =^ Delos F. Wilcox, "Needed Changes in the Public =' Nord, Newspapers and New Politics, chapter 7. The Service Laws of New York," in The Utilities Magazine, 1:16 ways the utility issue was used in Milwaukee and Detroit (November, 1915). See also Wilcox, The American City: A are also described in Thelen, New Citizenship; Clay Mc- Problem in Democracy (New York: Macmillan, 1904). The Shane, Technology and Reform: Street Railways and the Growth theme of this paragraph is developed more fully in David of Milwaukee, 1887—1900 (Madison: State Historical Soci­ Nord, "The Experts Versus the Experts: Conflicting Phi­ ety of Wisconsin, 1974); and Melvin G. Wo\\\, Reform in De­ losophies of Municipal Utility Regulation in the Progres­ troit: Hazen S. Pingree and Urban Politics (New York: Ox­ sive Era," in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, 58:219—236 ford University Press, 1969). (Spring, 1975). =2 St. Louis was such a city. Partly because utility inter­ '*' Stiles P. Jones, "The Advisability of a State Public ests dominated the political system, insurgent political re­ Utilities Commission for Minnesota," in Minnesota Acad­ formers were unable to capture political power in the emy of Social Sciences, Papers and Proceedings of the Sixth 1890's. See Nord, Newspapers and New Politics, chapters .5- Annual Meeting (1913), 66. See also Stiles P. Jones, "State 6. For a somewhat different view, see Ronald L. F. Davis Versus Local Regulation," in Annals, 53:94—107 (May, and Harry D. Holmes, "Insurgency and Municipal Re­ 1914); Stiles P.Jones, "What Certain Cities Have Accom­ form in St. Louis, \%9'i-\9Qi,"\nlhe Midwest Review, 1:1- plished Without State Regulation," in Annals, 57:72-82 18 (Spring, 1979). (January, 1915). Jones's argument was echoed by other

140 NORD: MUNICIPAL REFORM

The belief that democracy and efficiency, Many historians have found it difficult to or democracy and middle-class morality, were appreciate this paradoxical commitment of re­ compatible or even mutually reinforcing is formers to popular democracy on the one perhaps paradoxical, but it was a central motif hand and to efficiency, business-like adminis­ of reform thought in the prc:)gressive era, and tration, structural reforms of government, it was rooted in the cities of the 1890's. In and social control on the other. Samuel P. every field of reform, some men and women Hays concluded more than fifteen years ago refused to give up either their commitment to that such talk of democracy was merely rheto­ "good" government or to popular govern­ ric the reformers used in their political battles ment, to social control or to democracy. Edwin with the party bosses: "The expansion of pop­ Burritt Smith, a prominent Chicago lawyer ular involvement in decision-making was fre­ and secretary of the Municipal Voters' quently a political tactic, not a political system League, affirmed this faith in 1900 when he to be established permanently."'''' This view declared: "Self-government is fundamental; has remained the dominant one, as good government is incidental." But, of progressive-era historiography in the 1960's course, he never doubted that the former and 1970's turned from the history of ideas to would produce the latter.'^ the history of economic and social classes and movements. Melvin Holli's enduring distinc­ HIS paradox, as historians have tion between "structural reform" and "social T long recognized, is partly the reform" has also tended to obscure the dimen­ legacy ofthe reformers' faith in economic pro­ sion of democratic sentiment by emphasizing, gress and the model of the modern business as Hays did, program and results over philoso­ corporation, together with their nostalgic phy.^* Holli assumed that social reformers longing for the community and cooperation were somehow more democratic than struc­ of an earlier, small-town America. But the tural reformers. But this was an assumption paradox is more clearly explained, perhaps, that glossed over underlying complexities. By by the reformers' faith in the power of facts focusing his attention on the aims and out­ and information. This faith allowed them to comes of reform programs, Holli missed the make the bridge between science and moral­ interesting paradox that commitment to struc­ ity, between efficiency and democracy. tural reform or to social reform was not neces­ Progressive-era reformers believed that the sarily related to democratic sentiment. truth would set men free. They were elitists in More recent work has continued to build on their conviction that truth could be known and the foundation laid by Hays and Holli. No­ that they knew it; but they were democrats in tions of class and social control have become their faith that truth could, should, and would central to standard explanations of municipal have meaning only through public opinion reform. Structural reform is usually por­ and majority rule. In short, they fully ex­ trayed as an effort to impose, either directly or pected the masses to be as reasonable and indirectly, the values of one class upon an­ right as they.^'' other, and the political battles that sur­ rounded structural reform efforts were prominent utility reformers in the pre-World War I era. shadow plays of class warfare.-^'* Yet some See for example Edward W. Bemis, "Some Present-Day Issues of Public Utility Regulation," in Annals, 57:62—71 (January, 1915); Milo R. Maltbie, "The Distribution of ism," ibid., 24-25; and Mae Reid-Bills, "Attitudes Toward Functions Between Local and State Regulation," in An- Public Opinion Held by Some Leaders of American Re­ nals, 57:163-169 (January, 1915); J. Allen Smith, "Munic­ form, 1880-1920" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Uni­ ipal Vs. State Control of Public Utilities," in National Mu­ versity of Denver, 1977). nicipal Review, 3:34-43 (January, 1914); and Lewis R. " Samuel P. Hays, "The Politics of Reform in Munici­ Works, "State Vs. Municipal Regulation of Public Utili­ pal Government in the Progressive Era," in the Pacific ties," in Nationai Municipal Review, 2:24-30 (January, Northwest Quarterly, 55:157-169 (October, 1964). See also 1913). James Weinstein, "Organized Business and the City Com­ " Smith, "Municipal Voters' League," 839. mission and Manager Movements," in ihejournalof South- '* This theme is expanded in Nord, Newspapers and em History, 28:166-182 (May. 1962). New Politics, chapter 2. See also Melvin G. Holli, "Urban ^' Holli, Reform in Detroit, chapter 8; Holli, "Urban Re­ Reform in the Progressive Era," in The Progressive Era, ed. form." by Lewis Gould (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, °^ This has become a central theme in much of the 1974), 140; Stanley P. Caine, "The Origins of Progressiv- boss-versus-reformer literature of recent years. See for 141 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83 upper-class reformers were sometimes genu­ Certainly, historians are correct to judge ine democrats, despite their interest in struc­ the actions as well as the rhetoric of people in tural reform. Social reform, in the style of the past. But in human life, actions cannot be charismatic mayors such as Tom Johnson of explained without an understanding of be­ Cleveland and "Golden Rule" Jones of liefs. And it seems clear that some reformers, Toledo, is seen as an effort to build, in the in the 1890's and after, despite the class bias of modern city, an organic community that their policies and programs, believed in de­ would transcend class and ethnic differences. mocracy as the final great touchstone of re­ But social reformers were not always demo­ form. crats. The abolition of special privilege ancl Perhaps we have been reluctant to conclude the attainment of community, writes Roy Lu- that reformers believed what they said they bove, frequently depended in the reformers' believed because we find it unbelievable. The social scheme "upon the disinterested leader­ idea that the huddled masses would easily ship of experts."''" Democratic sentiment var­ shrug off their own ingrained social habits and ied widely among reformers of all stripes, and institutions and their own political leaders and it varied even within the minds of individual rise up to support the "better classes" in their men and women."' efforts to control and purify the modern me­ tropolis does seem naive. But such a paradoxi­ example John M. Allswang, Bosses, Machines, and Urban cal vision is not really naive; it is merely past. It Voters: An American Symbiosis (Port Washington, New is fixed in a time that is irretrievably separate York: Kennikat Press, 1977); Alexander B. Callow, ed.. from our own. The hope that democracy The City Boss in America: An Interpretive Reader (New York: could be mobilized permanently in favor of Oxford University Press, 1976); Blaine A. Brownell and Warren Stickle, eds., Bosses and Reformers: Urban Politics in middle-class and upper-class reform pro­ America, 1880-1920 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973); grams was ultimately a futile hope, a lost Bruce M. Stave, ed., Urban Bosses, Machines, and Progressive dream. But in the 1890's, when the great Reformers (Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath, 1972). American metropolises were new, such hopes This is also a theme in most monographic studies of struc­ tural reform. See for example Paul Boyer, Urban Masses and dreams seemed both real and attainable. and Moral Order in America, 1820-1920 (Cambridge: Har­ vard University Press, 1978); Martin J. Schiesl, The Politics of Efficiency (Berkeley: University of California Press, Community in America," in The Historian, 39:273 (Febru­ 1977); and Kenneth Yo-x., Better City Government: Innovation ary, 1977). See also Boyer, Urban Masses and Moral Order, inAmerican Urban Politics, 1850—1937 (Philadelphia: Tem­ chapter 19. ple University Press, 1977). Good review essays on several ^' Perhaps the trend in progressive-era historiography of these and other recent books on municipal reform are is returning to the older tradition of dealing with reform Thelen, "Urban PoHtics"; and Michael Frisch, "Oyez, thought as well as action, reform aims as well as outcomes. Oyez, Oyez: The Recurring CJase of Plunkett v. Steffens," See for example Richard L. McCormick, "The Discovery in the Journal of Urban History, 7:205-218 (February, That Business Corrupts Politics: A Reappraisal ofthe Ori­ 1981). gins of Progressivism," in The American Historical Review, ™ Roy Lubove, "Frederic C. Howe and the Quest for 86:247-274 (April, 1981).

142 McCarthyism Without Tears: A Review Essay

By Richard M. Fried

The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: .4 Biograpliy. party system, the press, his foes.' One work, By THOMAS C. REEVES. (Stein and Day, New Michael O'Brien's McCarthy and McCartliyism York, 1982. Pp. xv, 819. Illustrations, notes, in Wisconsin, did reexamine Joe's early years.-' index. $19.95.) Like O'Brien, Reeves has made extensive and effective use of oral-history interviews to prune away many ofthe myths obscuring Mc­ 'HOMAS C. REEVES, professor Carthy's early life. Most of Reeves's infor­ T' of history at the University of mants—and surely the more interesting—are Wisconsin—Parkside, has written the first friendly to McCarthy. Though some of them scholarly biography of Wisconsin's famed red- maintain a critical distance and perceive Mc­ hunting Senator. A fine and timely t)ne it is, Carthy's flaws, on balance the documentation for it plugs a large gap in the literature. Earlier tends to rescue Joe from some of his foes' biographies of McCarthy were unabashedly harsher recriminations. polemical. The first, by Jack Anderson and Reeves gives us a much more finished, nti- Ronald W. May, made no secret of its anti- anced portrait than those hitherto available. McCarthy bias and was meant to influence vot­ Thus, he finds that McCarthy's childhood was ers in 1952. Richard Rovere's Senator Joe Mc­ not at all "tortured." Joe was neither ugly nor Carthy, while full of insights and well-turned shy. He grew up in a loving, supportive family; prose, was relentlessly anti-McCarthy and im­ he was raised and would remain a genuinely pressionistic. ' Rovere and most subsequent bi­ devout C'atholic. His legendary feat of com­ ographers relied on and added little to Ander­ pleting high school in one year was achieved son and May's overcolored version of not by cornercutting—he did not romance his McCarthy's early years.- McCarthy's de­ math teacher—but through dedication, men­ fenders offered little belp.-^ tal quickness, and stamina. At Marquette Uni­ By the mid-1960's, scholars could examine versity, scholarship took a back seat to cama­ McCarthy's career less passionately but still raderie and off-camj)us work; Joe attacked his critically. Most concentrated on his heyday as a national figure and often focused mono- ^ Robert Griffith, The Politics of Fear: Joseph R. McCarthy graphically on "McCarthy and" some topic— andthe Senate (Lexington, Kentucky, 1970); David M. Os- the Senate, labor. Catholics, voters and the hinsky. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and the American Labor Movement (Columbia, Missouri, 1976); Donald F. Crosby, S. J., God, Church and Flag: Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and ' Anderson and May, McCarthy: The .Man, the Senator, the Catholic Church, 1950-1957 (Chapel Hill, 1978); Nel­ the "Ism" (Boston, 1952); Rovere, Senator joe McCarthy son Polsby, "Towards an Explanation of McCarthyism," (Cleveland, 1959). For a useful survey of the literature on Political Studies, 8:251-271 (1960); Earl Latham, The Com­ McCarthy, see Thomas C. Reeves, "The Search for Joe munist Controversy in Washington from the New Deal to Mc­ McCarthy," Wisconsin Magazine of History, 60:18.5-196 Carthy (Cambridge, 1966); Michael Paul Rogin, The Intel­ (Spring, 1977). lectuals and McCarthy: The Radical Specter (Cambridge, 2 See Fred J. Cook, The Nightmare Decade: The Life and 1967); Edwin R. Bayley,yoc McCarthy and the Press (Madi­ Times of Joe McCarthy (New York, 1971); and Lately son, 1981); Richard M. ¥r'\eA, Men Against McCarthy (New Thomas, When Even Angels Wept: The Senator Joseph Mc­ York, 1976). Carthy Affair—A Story Without a Hero (New York, 1973). "' (C^olumbia, Missouri, 1980). For aspects of Mc­ •'' For example, William F. Buckley, Jr., and L. Brent Carthy's life before 1950, also see O'Brien, "Young Joe Bozell, McCarthy and His Enemies: The Record and Its Mean­ McCarthy, 1908-1944," Wisconsin Magazine of History, ing (Chicago, 1954); Roy Cohn, McCarthy (New York, 63:179-232 (Spring, 1980); and Reeves, "Tail Gunner 1968); and Medford Evans, The Assassination of joe Mc­ Joe: Joseph R. McCIarthv and the Marine Corps," ibid., Carthy (Hehnont, Massachusetts, 1970). '62:3(10-311 (Summer, 1979). 143 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83 courses with a retentive, not an inquiring Stalker of Communists harmonizes with much mind.*' of the previous schtjlarship. McCarthy had Running for the Tenth Circuit bench in poked at the communist issue well before his 1939, McCarthy lied about his opponent's age. February 9, 1950, speech in Wheeling and However, Reeves notes, the incumbent, Judge even prior to the oft-chronicled "Dinner at the Edgar V. Werner, had other liabilities. His Colony" in January.-' To explain McCarthy's courtroom's plodding pace alienated many rapid rise to prominence. Reeves looks to the lawyers, who were delighted when McCarthy context of partisan politics: Truman's unex­ won and swiftly cleaned up the clogged pected 1948 victory "ruptured a pattern in the docket. When Judge McCarthy destroyed part political process," enraged the Republican ofthe trial record in the famous Quaker Dairy Right, and led the GOP to tolerate Joe's red­ case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court rebuked baiting for the dividends it promised.'" Ofthe him, but his decision, which promised lower competing thesis—that the excessive Cold milk prices, was quite popular. As Reeves de­ War rhetoric of Truman and the Democrats tails, McCarthy greatly embroidered his war­ and their repressive loyalty program blazed a time exploits as a Marine and may even have trail for McCarthyism—Reeves is respectful forged his own letter of commendation. but not convinced." His book also provides Reeves dismisses the claim of Joe's enemies strong documentation for the currently popu­ that he received aid from Wisconsin's Com­ lar view that President Eisenhower played a munists in his 1946 primary victory over hidden but active role in engineering Mc­ Young Bob La Follette. Moxie, charm, and Carthy's downfall.''- hard work turned the trick.' More novel and striking is the author's re­ T is on the question of McCarthy's examination of McCarthy's first three years in I personality and motivation that the U.S. Senate. Convention has it that Mc­ Reeves offers his most drastic reassessment. Carthy served as a mercenary for grubby and Though a sincere but untutored anticom- selfish interest groups. Reeves disputes this munist before 1950, McCarthy went to Wheel­ view. He argues that McCarthy strove sin­ ing chieffy as an opportunist seeking an issue. cerely to expedite low-cost housing for vet­ (He had two speeches. Taking his host's ad- erans; the l948 housing act which he cospon- ^Ibid., 191-204; O'Brien, McCarthy and McCarthyism, sored had merit. Reeves also defends 91—98; Crosby, God, Church, and Flag, 47—52. McCarthy's role in the fight to decontrol sugar 11) Reeves, 213, citing in particular Latham, The (Com­ in 1947. Though foes claimed that hasty de­ munist Controversy. control would only enrich bottlers at the ex­ '' See Athan Theoharis, Seeds of Repression: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of McCarthyism (Chicago, 1971); pense of consumers who used sugar in home and his two essays, "The Rhetoric of Politics: Foreign Pol­ canning, McCarthy correctly predicted that icy, Internal Security, and Domestic Politics in the Tru­ sugar stocks would satisfy all needs and leave a man Era, 1945-1950" and "The Escalation ofthe Loyalty surplus. Thus his nickname, "the Pepsi-Cola Program" in Barton J. Bernstein, ed., Politics &f Policies of the Truman Administration (Chicago, 1970). Other impor­ Kid," was undeserved. He intervened noisily tant revisionist works are Richard M. Freeland, The Tru­ in the investigation of the Malmedy massacre man Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism: Foreign Policy, not to court favor with German-American vot­ Domestic Politics, and Internal Security, 1946—1948 (New ers or pro-Nazis in Wisconsin but. Reeves sur­ York, 1972); and Mary Sperling McAulift'e, Crisis on the mises, to halt what he genuinely feared was a Left: Cold War Politics and .American Liberals, 1947—1954 (Amherst, Massachusetts, 1978). For defenses of Truman miscarriage of justice.^ and the Democrats, see Alonzo L. Hamby, Beyond the New Reeves's treatment of McCarthy's years as a Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism (New York, 1973); Alan D. Harper, The Politics of Loyalty: The White House and the Communist Issue, 1946—1952 (Westport, Con­ ^Reeves, Life and Times, .3-4, 6-8, 12, 14, 18, 37. necticut, 1969); and Francis H. Thompson, The Frustration ' Ibid., 27-28, 34-35, 40-42, 48, 61-62, 81-83, 93-94. of Politics: Truman, Congress, and the Loyalty Issue, 1945— On C^ommunists and the 1946 primary, see Oshinsky, Mc­ 1953 (Rutherford, New Jersey, 1979). Carthy and Labor, 23-33; and O'Brien, McCarthy and Mc­ '2 See Allan Yarnell, "Eisenhower and McCarthy: An Carthyism in Wiscoruin, 73-74:. Appraisal of Presidential Strategy," Presidential Studies "Reeves, 118-121, 134, 150, 162, 169. Reeves makes (Quarterly, 10:90-98 (Winter, 1980); Fred I. (ireenstein, clear that McCarthy's case against the American prosecu­ "Eisenhower as an Activist President: .\ Look at New Evi­ tors of the Malmedy murderers was founded on strong dence," Political Science Quarterly, 94:575-599 (Winter, convictions but weak evidence. 1979-80).

144 FRIED: MCCARTHYISM vice, he put aside the one on housing!) En the three in Washington) at the right address; route back to Washington, Joe exclaimed, un­ the question boiled down to whether her pres­ der badgering by Milwaukee Journal reporters: ence on a Party mailing list sufficed to prove "I've got a pailful of shit, and I'm going to use that she was a member. McCarthy's charge it where it does me the most good." His initial that she encoded and decoded messages re­ ignorance was stunning: old pros coaching ceives a flat denial. him on the communist menace were as­ Reeves sheds much new light on Mc­ tounded that he could not identify Earl Brow­ Carthy's coterie, his contacts and sources, the der.'^ authorship of his speeches, his chaotic office, Yet before long he had become a "True Be­ his dependency on Roy Cohn (which would liever." This, the commanding theme of the cost him dearly), and the important role of book, contrasts boldly with Rovere's view that Jean Kerr as staffer, advisor, and wife. One McCarthy was "a true cynic and a true hypo­ McCarthy intimate told Reeves, for example, crite." Reeves reports that soon after Wheel­ that a hidden motive might underlie Senator ing McCarthy developed an obsession with Margaret Chase Smith's anti-McCarthy "Dec­ communism which "often wearied his staff", laration of Conscience" of 1950: "personal re­ bored old friends, and astonished several Sen­ venge" after discovering that his friendliness ate colleagues." If the issue had been merely a did not portend a more meaningful relation­ gimmick for Joe, Reeves argues, he would ship. Oral history testimony also confirms readily have agreed to one of several face- Joe's progressively heavier drinking and its saving alternatives to his censure in 1954. In­ devastating toll.'" stead he plowed to the end of the furrow. '^ HE net effect of all this is in some Reeves roots this striking thesis primarily in T' ways mixed. McCarthy is his oral-history sources. He contends too that hardly rehabilitated. The wild charges, the McCarthy always had a "capacity for uncritical contempt for rules and civility, the "Indian belief and cites numerous occasions on which Charlie" tactics, the mountain of lies stand out opposition triggered McCarthy's "passion" for all to see. By stripping away the fantasies and loss of restraint. Two other springs may with which Joe's critics enshrouded his life, have driven his intense anticommunism. First, Reeves has "revised" the latter at least as heav­ his "innocence of history" made him easy prey ily as he has McCarthy. The Senator's foes at for right-wing conspiracy mongers. Secondly, times stooped to tactics and rhetoric as ex­ he "became addicted to publicity." In fact, this treme as his own. Some compared him to lust marked the outer limit of his ambitions.'^ Hitler or pursued false stories that he was a On Joe's period in the limelight, the author homosexual. (The book might also have dealt provides a careful chronology and many tell­ with the Paul Hughes affair, in which several ing details. McCarthy's foes were right: he McCarthy foes bankrolled a man claiming to found not one Communist currently in gov­ have penetrated McCarthy's office. They were ernment. His hottest find? Edward Roths­ badly, embarrassingly conned.) Reeves cor­ child, a bookbinder in the Government Print­ rects the record, noting that the treatment of ing Office. (Rothschild had been fingered as a McCarthy has been so severely imbalanced as Red years before and was a "genuine security to make of him "our King John." In Reeves's risk" in 1953, but McCarthy's charge that he calmer reassessment, the reality is bad handled atomic secrets was a typical fabrica­ enough.'^ tion.) Reeves also points out that the case of Annie Lee Moss, the simple Pentagon clerk The presence of so many estimable per­ whose harassment brought McCarthy and sonal qualities in a man who produced so much harm troubles Reeves. He shows that Roy Cohn heavy criticism, did not hinge on behind McCarthy's ogreish public visage was a mistaken identity. The informer who labeled kindness not only to friends but also to wait­ her a Communist had the right A. L. Moss (of 's Ibid. 297, 401,511, 568, 645, 656, 669, 674. " Ibid., 421, 497, 625, 674. On the Paul Hughes inci­ 13 Reeves, 225, 233, 249. dent, see William F. Buckley, Jr., Up from Liberalism (New i-t Ibid., 202, 287,495, 507, 656; Rovere, Senator Joe Mc­ York, 1959), 70-85. Buckley twitted those involved focus­ Carthy, 71. ing the McCarthyite methods they usually deplored, in­ i5'Reeves, 170, 185,287-288,494-495. cluding recourse to a "secret informer." The issue, said Jo- 145 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83 resses and elevator operators. Joe always had pleaded the concerns of the Navy and Ma­ time for a chat, a kind word. He was in this rines, but he also warned of the danger of cre­ sense a true democrat, not a self-inffated ating an all-powerful "super Secretary" of De­ "club" member. He deferred to charpersons fense or a "German" general staff. Citing the but not chairpersons. As some of his critics memoirs of Donald M. Nelson, lateof the War noted, he consistently attacked established in­ Production Board, he recalled the military's stitutions: the State Department and its effort to "dominate all civil life" in the last war. upper-crust, Ivy League recruits, the Army, McCarthy also opposed universal military the CIA, the White House, and others.'** training. Somewhere in the tangled contro­ These might be a redbaiter's obvious targets, versies over defense unification and the rise of but was there a deeper fln^5/? Joe was the clas­ the defense establishment may lie the origins sic American success story, but, as Reeves of McCarthy's smouldering contempt for points out, he scaled low among his colleagues much of the nation's military leadership and in socio-economic standing. Did some hidden perhaps a clue to his ideology. '•' sense of slight fuel his drives? There is, in addition, a recurrent theme in |NE might also argue that a bet­ McCarthy's career that merits a closer look: O' ter metaphor can be found for Why did he so often cross swords with the de­ McCarthy's career in red-baiting than Eric fense establishment and especially the Army? Hoffer's construct, "the true believer." Reeves The damaging Army-McCarthy hearings and, earlier, Robert Griffith suggest that the were merely his last run-in with the brass. real Joe McCarthy could be found at the poker Reeves notes premonitory episodes, mostly in table. There was revealed his penchant for 1953, when McCarthy tangled with the Army; bluff' and risk-taking. In poker, as in politics, but he had also fought in earlier skirmishes he bent the rules, wagering to and beyond the which erupted from the bitter interservice ri­ limit. To play poker with him, one man re­ valries ofthe postwar period. In 1950 (before called, was "wild." Poker provides a setting Wheeling) he took on the White House and where, as Sissela Bok has noted, lying is both Pentagon over the dismissal of the Chief of expected and permitted. McCarthy may have Naval Operations. He stated the fears of the developed an obsession with communism, as Navy and his own Marine Corps that military Reeves contends, but perhaps the context for unification had put them on short rations: the it is more readily found in Hoyle than in Hof- new budget threatened to decimate the Ma­ fer.2" rines and leave "a Navy without ships." In These quibbles, however, should not de­ 1947, attending hearings of the Armed Serv­ tract from Reeves's achievement. He has writ­ ices Committee, he sniped at the bill to estab­ ten a biography which is massive in scope yet lish a single Defense Department. Here too he not heavy in style. The scholarship is substan­ tial: over a hundred pages of notes anchor the seph L. Rauh, Jr.. was not the use of informers per,«', bul text. Oral history provides his most intriguing how they were used. Whereas McC^arthy would have made public the phony information in question without documentation, but Reeves has also effectively second thought, Rauh's group, having ascertained its fal­ used over fifty manuscript collections as well sity, discarded it. Rauh to Samuel Beer, February 1, 1956, as the published record. The result is a book Folder 5-48-6, Papers of Americans for Democratic which vastly increases what we know about the Action, in the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. famed junior Senator from Wisconsin. For "* McCarthy's assaults on the Establishment were widely noted by social scientists. See especially Daniel Bell, those who seek to understand him. The Life ed.. The New American Right (New York, 1955). Other crit­ and Times of Joe McCarthy is now their first and ics came to the same view and sought to show conserva­ preeminent source. tives that McCarthy was actually a threat to their values and institutions, not an ally. The National Committee for '^ Reeves, 122, 514—524; Congressional Record, 96 (Jan­ an Effective Congress incorporated this strategic percep­ uary 12, 1950), 342; U.S. Senate, Committee on Armed tion into its important efforts against McC^iarthy. Griffith, Services, 80th Cong., 1st Sess., Hearings on S. 758, Na­ Politics of Fear, 225-226. Justice Felix Frankfurter noted a tional Defense Establishment (Unification ofthe Armed Services) troubling parallel, recalling the miscalculations of Ger­ (Washington, 1947), 507-509,608,622. man conservatives who thought they could control and 2» Reeves, 20, 22, 39; GriSAh,PoliticsofFear, 15; Sissela use Hitler for their own ends. See Frankfurter to John J. Bok, Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life (New McCloy, March 3, 1954, Box 25, Frankfurter MSS., Li­ York, 1977), 88. Eric Hoffer's book The True Believer was brary of Congress. published in 1951. 146 BOOK REVIEWS

Milwaukee: At the Gathering of the Waters. By produce such a study; but the best historical HARRY H. ANDERSON and FREDERICK I. book about Milwaukee—Bayrd Still's Milwau­ OLSON. (Continental Heritage Press, Tulsa, kee: The History of a City, originally published in I98I. Pp. 224. Illustrations, bibliography, in­ 1948 and reissued with only slight revisions in dex. $24.95.) 1965—is now more than thirty years old. Publication oi Milwaukee: At the Gathering ofthe This volume is the twentieth in a series of Waters probably means that no thoroughgoing urban histories entitled the American Portrait scholarly work will be undertaken for yet a Series. The cost of the high-quality printing number of years. In a way it is too bad that au­ and binding was supplemented by donations thors Anderson and Olson (director of the from sponsors and benefactors listed in the Milwaukee County Historical Society and pro­ book. Corporate sponsors were granted space fessor of history at the University of Wiscon­ at the end ofthe book for a one-page company sin-Milwaukee, respectively) could not history. These business histories read well in achieve their potential in the present work. some in instances; in others they resemble the There are few people in their position— company's public relations manuals. For in­ academic and occupational background, stance, both the Boston Store and Gimbel's training, and current vocation—who are bet­ Midwest histories lay claim to the first in-store ter suited to produce a new scholarly history of escalator. Many but not all of Milwaukee's ma­ Milwaukee. jor businesses are included. Conspicuous ex­ The book has some "holes" and minor er­ ceptions include, among others, Rexnord, rors. For example, the Polish Kasubas who set­ Briggs and Stratton, Clark Oil, and Evinrude. tled on Jones Island are mentioned, but not In the beginning it is stated that the book is the process of their eventual removal. At one "a pictorial and entertaining commentary on point the Lakefront Festival of the Arts is the growth and development of Milwaukee, called the Lakeside Festival of the Arts. Wisconsin." One of the book's greatest Strengths, on the other hand, include the strengths is its visual presentation. Though post-I940's period in general: listings of city most pictures are reasonably well-known pho­ annexations, suburban development and tographs from existing archival collections, growth, political and economic development, they are in many cases the best photographs of growth of professional sports is difficult infor­ a particular period. The book delivers these mation to find under one cover. photographs to anyone who buys it. On the Overall the book can be enjoyed as an en­ other hand, the book's verbal presentation is, tertaining pictorial history of the city rather indeed, an "entertaining commentary," and than as a scholarly evaluation. It is a browser's not a scholarly study. Of course, it was not the book with an interesting array of pictures and intention of Continental Heritage Press to boxed-off sections containing a hodgepodge 147 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83 of facts, gossip, puffs, and salty observations. ror occurs for 1920. His figure of 51,090 It is an attractive edition and meant to be foreign-born Poles in 1910 seems plucked out openly displayed. of the air; it does not come from the census. Two tables later, these 51,000 Poles disappear BYRON ANDERSON altogether, as do Bohemians for 1900. His Milwaukee, Wisconsin treatment of "Austrians"—relatively few of whom immigrated to Wisconsin—is of no value whatsoever. The category, which ap­ The Melting Pot and the Altar: Marital Assimila­ pears in several maps, graphs, and tables, is tion in Early Twentieth-Century Wisconsin. By RI­ largely composed of the missing Bohemians CHARD M. BERNARD. (University of Minnesota with some Poles mixed in. His map of the dis­ Press, Minneapolis, 1980, Pp. xxviii, 162. tribution of Austrians clearly reflects Bohe­ Maps, tables, graphs, notes, bibliography, in­ mian settlements. dex. $17.50.) If an author cannot correctly identify basic census categories and can misplace hundreds The Melting Pot and the Altar is a half-hearted of thousands of immigrants, how much faith attempt to resurrect the long-discredited no­ can we have when he submits his data to multi­ tion ofthe "melting pot" concept of immigrant ple regression analysis? Bernard's statistical assimilation in America. Bernard examines analysis is weak indeed, and the only the incidence of intermarriage among Wis­ coefficients that seem to have any validity do consin residents from early settlement times little more than to confirm the more obvious through 1920, concentradng on 1900-1920. aspects of why persons of different nationali­ Although it seizes on atypical cross-cultural ties intermarried. unions such as that of the young Carl Sand­ Methodological techniques aside, the burg and Lillian Steichen (brother of photog­ study's greatest—and in my opinion fatal— raphy giant Edward) as gimmicks to introduce flaw is Bernard's consideration oi only nation­ a few chapters, the book is generally well- ality and his inexplicable refusal to examine written and easy to read. It also contains a lot the impact of religion on intermarriage rates of useful information about intermarriage except in the most cursory manner. Bernard rates between ethnic groups. But its research seems completely ignorant of the work of the methodology and conceptual framework are so-called ethnocultural historians (most nota­ so flawed as to make it of little value to histo­ bly Jensen, Kleppner, and Wyman; Klepp- rians or sociologists seriously interested in in­ ner's major work is cited in the bibliography, termarriage or in the more important ques­ but clearly was not absorbed) who have dem­ tions of acculturation and assimilation. onstrated beyond any reasonable doubt the Despite a lot of valuable information tremendous impact that religion had upon Bernard compiled on local intermarriage Wisconsin cultural and political life in the late rates, he mishandles fundamental census data nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. so badly that much of his work produces no Religion was most likely to have an impact useful result. Despite relying heavily on the equal to or greater than nationality in deter­ 1910 census, he does not seem to understand mining intermarriage rates. The strength of its peculiarities compared to previous cen­ religious identities could sometimes facilitate suses. Since at that time Poland was divided intermarriage, especially, for example, in between Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Em­ Catholic parishes of mixed ethnic groups. But pire, and Germany, the category of "Poles" marriages that crossed both ethnic and reli­ which had appeared in prior censuses disap­ gious lines were less common. Religion some­ peared completely; those persons were times prevented endogamous marriages. A counted as either "German," "Russian," or German Catholic might be much more likely "Austrian." Similarly, the category of "Bohe­ to marry a Catholic Pole or Bohemian than a mian" also disappeared; they were also sub­ German Lutheran. The crucial role of reli­ sumed under "Austrian." As a result, gion, and the efforts of the clergy of different Bernard's Tables 1.1—1.3 contain egregious faiths to maintain endogamy, is completely errors on Wisconsin's ethnic population in missing from the study. Rates for nationalities 1910. mean little without having some knowledge of For example, his total of "second- the intermarriage rates across faiths as well. generation" Germans in 1910 is too large by The "why" of marriages across ethnic lines, more than a quarter-million, and a similar er- which the study attempts so hard to discover, 148 BOOK REVIEWS

cannot be ascertained without a thorough in­ riage in 1857, and gives us a summary of the vestigation of the religious dimension. As a remainder of his life. result, a great deal of research effort has re­ Woodhouse was neither educated nor well sulted in little of significant value. read. These limitations account for the paro­ chial character of the book. Nowhere do we ROGER E. WYMAN find any recognition of the larger issues of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation day, such as the slavery issue. Rather, he f ocus- ses on the everyday lives of his contempo­ raries. We learn from his account ofthe close­ The Travels of Peter Woodhouse: Memoir of an ness of pioneer families, the relationships American Pioneer. THOMAS E. BARDEN. between generations, the arrangement of (Ocooch Mountain Press, Gillingham, Wis­ marriages, the hazards of long-distance travel, consin, 1981. Pp. xvi, 82. Illustrations, maps, the financial risks incurred by small-scale busi­ appendices. $5.00, paper.) nessmen, and the hardships of work in a pre- industrial age. Peter's horizons are limited but Peter Woodhouse, born in England in his insights are illuminating within the circum­ 1824, immigrated to the United States with his ference bounding his vision. family at the age of six, and was raised in a Any work of this genre must be edited, and Pennsylvania coal mining community. From Thomas Barden has done an excellent job in adolescence until the age of forty, Peter was a retaining the conversational flow of Peter's miner of coal, silver, or gold, digging, chisel­ story; in introducing paragraphing where ing, and straining the earth for its treasures in none had originally existed; and in correcting Wisconsin and California. In the dangers and spelling and punctuation. Also noteworthy hardships Peter faced, he was like thousands are the wonderful iUustrations and maps in of his hardy pioneering contemporaries. He the work, the quality paper on which the differed from them, however, in that he left printed word appears, and the attractive an account of his life and times. This account type—all elements that make this small book a was written from memory in 1898, when Peter pleasure to read. In spite of its author's paro­ was seventy-four, as a legacy to his family. In chialism, the book has invaluable insights and the main, it covers the years until 1860. belongs in any library with an interest in immi­ Though the original manuscript has been lost, grants, the frontier, or early American min­ a typewritten version survives. This latter ver­ ing. Above all, it has a local history value to li­ sion, edited and annotated, is now published braries that focus on the development of as The Travels of Peter Woodhouse: Memoir of an southwestern Wisconsin. American Pioneer. This published account is divided into ALLAN S. KOVAN seven chapters. The first two focus on the La Crosse Public Library Woodhouse family's emigration to the United States, provide a somewhat idealized account of life in Pennsylvania's anthracite mines, sup­ ply interesting information on the mining Using Local History in the Classroom. By FAY D. techniques of the age, and conclude with the METCALF and MATTHEW T. DOWNEY. (The family's move to southwest Wisconsin in 1837. American Association for State and Local His­ Chapters three and four document pioneer tory, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982. Pp. x, 284. life on the mining frontier in Cassville, Potosi, Illustrations, appendices, notes, index. and Beetown. They vividly describe the law­ $17.50.) lessness endemic to frontier life, and also the beginnings of permanent settlement and or­ Until the new social history made it reputa­ ganized law and order. The next two chapters ble to scholars, and the lack of job mobility portray the attraction of the California gold made it necessary for historians to use their rush for Wisconsin's miners; and they convey analytical skills in the local setting, serious his­ the combination of backbreaking work, and torians dismissed local history as parochial the accidents of fortune and misfortune that and filiopietistic. A glance at recent reviews in were part and parcel ofthe enterprise. The fi­ most historical journals and at thesis topics in nal chapter, brief and disappointing, is but a Dissertation Abstracts shows just how respect­ skeleton that informs us of Woodhouse's re­ able family and local history have become in turn to Wisconsin and his courtship and mar­ the last dozen years. Even the American Asso- 149 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83 elation for State and Local History, founded in sizing the practical and using examples to 1940, has only recently actively encouraged demonstrate the success of others. The au­ the trend by publishing books about how to re­ thors' admonitions about the extraordinary search, write, and teach local history. Finally, amount of time necessary to develop a local declining enrollments in history electives and history course—and the sometimes disap­ the reduction in required history courses in pointing results of student papers and high schools and universities have forced con­ projects—are wise advice for teachers inter­ cerned historians to experiment with new ested in such an undertaking. courses, including local history. Although many of the examples through­ For these reasons, therefore, AASLH's an­ out the book are drawn from the authors' di­ nouncement of a forthcoming book on teach­ rect experience in Boulder, Colorado, they ing local history was greeted with real anticipa­ can nearly all be adapted to Wisconsin. Wis­ tion. The authors, one a practicing high- consin local history teachers are especially for­ school teacher and the other a professor of tunate in having so great a range of resources, history, have collaborated on two previous many available through the State Historical books. Their credentials in local history and Society of Wisconsin. For printed material, history teaching are impressive. While their there is Badger History and the Wisconsin Maga­ new book might disappoint some readers who zine of History, as well as the Society's vast li­ had hoped for a conceptually integrated inter­ brary; for archives and manuscripts, the Area pretation of local history, it will more than sat­ Research Centers located on campuses isfy those who turn to the book for a "how to" throughout the state; for three-dimensional approach to the subject. For teachers long on history, Old World Wisconsin and the Socie­ enthusiasm, but short on ideas or funds. Using ty's historic sites. The spate of local histories Local History in the Classroom is required read­ produced in the wake ofthe Bicentennial, the ing. outreach efforts of local historical societies, Fay Metcalf and Matthew Downey divide and the activities of local preservation societies their topic broadly into three units: methods all suggest that local history is alive and well in and sources, content and concepts, and devel­ Wisconsin. These combined resources assure oping a local history course. They have done that if local history is not taught as much or as an admirable job of compiling a wide range of well as it might be, it will not be for lack of ma­ exercises to familiarize students with local his­ terial or ideas. tory, and they have also read widely in other more detailed volumes to excerpt relevant NICHOLAS C. BURCKEL parts. Thus Willa Baum is extensively cited for University of Wisconsin—Parkside oral history information, Thomas Schlereth for material culture, Tamara Hareven for Community on the American Frontier: Separate But family history, and Kathleen Conzen for eth­ Not Alone. By ROBERT V. HINE. (University of nic history. Because not all relevant works can Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1980. Pp. xii, 292. be cited in the text, it is unfortunate that no an­ Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. notated bibliography is supplied to introduce $12.50.) the reader to other useful material. Chapters in the middle section of the book In the middle ofthe twentieth century Mar­ (dealing with family, economic, social, and po­ tin Buber wrote of Utopia: "The primary aspi­ litical history) illustrate clearly how interdisci­ ration of all history is a genuine community of plinary local history can be. Whereas many of human beings." Community, characterized as the exercises in the first section appear more demonstrating a sense of place or belonging, relevant for high school, those in this section has frequently been identified as America's es­ illustrate how professional historians have sential need. In this publication author Robert used local data and suggest possible applica­ V. Hine examines that need and the degree of tions at the college level. When read in con­ success achieved by past generations of Amer­ junction with Conzen's chapter on community icans seeking community on the nation's studies and local history in the book The Past westward-advancing frontiers. Many of those Before Us, this second section provides a settlers and wanderers moving with the fron­ framework for study and a point of departure tier possessed a longing for that feeling of for developing a local history course. place which would return to its inhabitants as The concluding section discusses the devel­ much as they had invested in it and conse­ opment of a local history course, again empha- quently offer them a sense of belonging. 150 BOOK REVIEWS

Hine focuses on the nation's search for onomic forces worked against unity and a community from the mid-1600's, when Puri­ group-oriented society. tan communes first estabhshed themselves in Some towns came closer to establishing a the wilderness of New England, through the sense of community than did others. One of present, when the recent appearance of thou­ the critical factors affecting this quality was sands of cooperative villages attested to the re­ size. The author accents a need for frequent newed popularity aimed at finding that cer­ face-to-face contact by members of the local tain sense of place. In between he discusses the populace which can only be properly experi­ quest for community as pursued by others. enced in communities with less than 1,000 The nomadic communities of the trails fol­ people. The Puritan practice of limiting their lowed by fur trappers, cowboys, and the mi­ communities to 200 families or approximately grant moving westward in organized caravans 1,000 members is evidence that they recog­ are investigated; mining camps, agricultural nized this need. Ethnic colonies frequently communities, frontier villages, western brought with them the design of the Old ranches, ethnic colonies, and socialistic com­ World peasant village, rich in close personal munities also provided logical ingredients for contact and laden with cooperative implica­ this study. tions which placed "me" spirit subordinate to the "we" spirit. As the author analyzes these communities But while this approach moved their settle­ and their relationship to their environments, ment closer to a true sense of community, he stresses that the majority repeatedly failed other elements pulled them away from it. And to capture a sense of community on the fron­ these distractions were fatal in most instances. tier. While the types of problems inherent in Factors such as the family, faith, size of the this search for community were as varied as group, quality of its life, voluntary associa­ the groups themselves seeking this quality, tions, class lines, and political affiliations were Hine sees the prevalent pioneer trait of rug­ the major problems inherent in the search for ged individualism as the major deterrent to community on the American frontier. For a achieving the much sought after sense of place community to reach a true sense of place and and belonging. On the frontier an intensive belonging these characteristics have to be desire to accomplish and succeed inevitably el­ carefully blended and shaped without any one evated one's personal advancement above the component forcing the others out of align­ community's welfare. ment. Due to the delicate nature of this Numerous examples are cited where the process, it becomes evident why Hine feels frontier settler acted on his own behalf rather America's need for community has not yet than in a fashion more greatly benefiting the been met and the eternal hope for community society around him..Because the trail offered seems increasingly frustrated. no sense of place on which to rest the founda­ tions of community, the trapper and cowboy MARTIN C. PERKINS took on the role of temporary nomads. They State Historical Society of Wisconsin showed little fundamental concern for the group and placed major emphasis on them­ selves and their own safe transit. Unlike com­ Garbage in the Cities: Refuse, Reform, and the En­ munities of the trail, the western mining vironment, 1880-1980. By MARTIN V. MELOSI. camps did display some sense of place despite (Texas A & M University Press, College Sta­ the mobility associated with the industry. tion, 1981. Pp. xvi, 268. Illustrations, notes, However, Hine points out that the most pow­ bibliography, index. $21.50.) erful values of the mining camp were prag­ matic and until those values became less insis­ Martin V. Melosi's new book. Garbage in the tent, neighborliness and sociability would Cities, is the fourth volume in the Environmen­ never thrive. Traditionally, these traits were tal History Series, of which he is general edi­ never able to overcome the individualism so tor. He sees the refuse problem from 1880 to prominent in mining-camp society. Even the 1980 as no less important than air, water, and numerous agricultural communities of the noise pollution. Garbage removal stimulated a western plains and prairies were unable to cre­ debate over the limits of individual versus ate an atmosphere of genuine community. public responsibility. Indeed, the long- Domination by the family unit and growing ignored subject was the focal point of reform class distinctions brought about by national ec­ efforts. 151 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83

By the Gilded Age the exigencies of the in­ As a good monograph should, Melosi's dustrial order had become so acute that citi­ book raises more questions than it answers. zens no longer acquiesced in the heaps of pu­ Two queries stand out. Is the refuse problem trefying filth that accumulated throughout primarily a result of evils associated with mod­ urban areas. At first the response was organi­ ern industrialization? In recent times, "Third zational and was based upon the application of World" metropolises with very little manufac­ business methods. In New York, George War­ turing have experienced horrendous garbage ing, Jr., a colorful and talented bureaucrat, pi­ disposal problems. So did many small Ameri­ oneered "refuse management." The search can commercial cities in the nineteenth cen­ for better ways of disposal—ranging from tury. Second, what about the connection be­ shoveling garbage off barges near Sandy tween sanitation and the public health Hook to burning it in mobile incinerators in movement? Rich materials exist in the Na­ Chicago alleys—eventually led to speculation tional Archives in the papers of the National by garbage reformers about the nature of soci­ Board of Health, 1879 to 1886, an agency cre­ ety. "We will also see how American cities, be­ ated in response to the 1878 yellow fever epi­ tween 1880 and 1920, began coping effec­ demic. The board, which fell victim to a bu­ tively with the immediate threats caused by reaucratic battle with the Marine Hospital refuse but failed to confront more fundamen­ Service, was a federal response to growing tal problems associated with the production of public concern about filthy urban conditions wastes," Melosi notes in his introduction. "Not and correspondingly high death rates. until the 1960's did Americans begin to link Martin Melosi, working in a difficult area, the resolution ofthe refuse problem to Ameri­ has pointed the way to further research on im­ can affluence and consumption of goods." He portant subjects. claims that the best-operated cities effectively balanced their needs against available re­ LAWRENCE H. LARSEN sources, and that the poorest-managed ones University of Missouri—Kansas City favored expediency. Traditionally, garbage disposal was a local responsibility. National efforts, notably the The West and Reconstruction. By EUGENE H. Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965, were aimed BERWANGER. (University of Illinois Press, Ur- at forcing states to pass legislation to get cities bana, Illinois, 1981. Pp. xiv, 294. Appendix, into compliance with federal statutes. A major notes, bibliography, index. $18.95.) problem, relating to increased professional­ ization, has been that urban sanitary engineers Despite William A. Dunning's suggestion, have functioned as technical experts rather made seventy-five years ago, that historians than as environmental generalists. Melosi, view Reconstruction as a national phenome­ stressing that the refuse problem cannot be re­ non, most studies have concentrated on events solved in a single century, believes that local in Washington and the South during this era. officials must move beyond mundane con­ Only in the last two decades have scholars cerns. "It is to be hoped," he concludes, "that made inroads into our ignorance of Recon­ in the near future Americans will be able to struction politics in the Northeast, the Mid­ deal more effectively with the generation of west, and the border states. However, they waste and acquire a better understanding of have almost entirely neglected politics west of the forces which shape the metropolitan envi­ the Mississippi, where only Iowa has received ronment." more than cursory attention. In The West and Melosi has drawn heavily upon the words of Reconstruction, an examination ofthe response environmental pioneers and official bureau­ to Reconstruction in the trans-Mississippi cratic reports. While he has used his sources West (excluding Iowa and the pre-war slave well, one can not help but wonder about the states), Eugene Berwanger has provided us reliability ofthe reports. Would the actual re­ with "an initial study ... an overview vital in cords tell the same story? Unfortunately, mu­ itself and a necessary preview for more con­ nicipalities have routinely destroyed their centrated studies." housekeeping records, such as those for gar­ Many of Berwanger's findings reinforce re­ bage departments. Few archival establish­ cent scholarship emphasizing the moderate ments have even minimal runs of sanitation nature of Reconstruction. Western Republi­ materials. This has created serious evidential cans, alienated by President Andrew John­ problems for all environmental historians. son's mismanagement of patronage and an- 152 BOOK REVIEWS gered by his lenient policy toward the of lesser-known westerners as well as promi­ defeated South, advocated measures to stiffe nent individuals." southern intransigence and secure the fruits Berwanger's evidence for his assertion that of victory. However, their proposals for re­ western Republicans became more liberal in forming southern society were limited to ex­ their racial attitudes is ambiguous at best. Sim­ tending suffrage to blacks as a means of self- ply citing statements made at different times protection. After much hesitation, they by different people does not demonstrate that reluctantly called for Johnson's impeachment; individuals' attitudes changed. Of the eight many Republicans expressed relief upon westerners mentioned in the indexes of both hearing ofthe President's acquittal. The West and Reconstruction and Berwanger's At a time when many historians assert the previous study of antebellum racial prejudice. primacy of local issues in nineteenth-century The Frontier Against Slavery (1967), none ap­ American politics, Berwanger reminds us that pear to have grown appreciably more liberal national issues were also important to the elec­ toward blacks. Nor does Berwanger address torate. Westerners often saw direct links be­ how and why attitudes toward race changed. tween national and local issues during Recon­ Certainly, as even Berwanger admits, any lib­ struction. In Utah, Mormons feared that eralization that did occur was short-lived, as federal intervention in the South foreshad­ western support for measures protecting owed an assault upon polygamy. Politicians in southern blacks declined after 186*7. Nebraska and Colorado knew that their stands A disproportionate share of The West and on Reconstruction might affect their efforts to Reconstruction is devoted to the years gain support in Washington for statehood. 1865-1868. Less than twenty pages concern Californians debated whether the Fifteenth events after Johnson's impeachment, with Amendment would force them to allow Chi­ only the ratification of the Fifteenth Amend­ nese as well as blacks to vote. Senator Edmund ment receiving extensive treatment. Surely Ross of Kansas hoped to convert his vote for the reasons for the waning of Reconstruction Johnson's acquittal into control of his state's during the I870's deserve more attention. federal patronage. Berwanger attributes the decline in western support to the increased interest in state and The most important link between local and local issues, disillusionment with reform, and national issues was the debate over black male a feeling that all that could be done in the suffrage. However anxious western Republi­ South had been done. To most westerners, the cans were to impose black suffrage upon the readmission of southern states and the pas­ South, they were reluctant to advocate it at sage of the Fifteenth Amendment signalled home. Minnesota voters approved black the end of Reconstruction. Recently, William suffrage only after twice rejecting it, while Gillette and William McFeely have blamed Re­ Kansans defeated both black and female publican policymakers, especially President suffrage proposals in 1867. That year Con­ Ulysses S. Grant, for the collapse of Recon­ gress admitted Nebraska as a state only after struction, due to their lack of interest in the insisting upon impartial male suffrage and re­ fate of black Americans. Berwanger's conclu­ moved racial restrictions on voting in the terri­ sions point to an alternative interpretation: re­ tories. Other states awaited the passage of the gardless of their personal feelings about race. Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 before allow­ Grant and other Republicans realized that ing blacks to vote. Northern voters would no longer support Berwanger's study reffects prodigious re­ efforts to protect Southern blacks, so they ad­ search in newspapers, legislative journals, and justed to political reality. personal papers. At times the author seems If Berwanger's study is solid and workman­ overcome by the sheer mass of quotations, like, it is also a bit dull and uninspired. The au­ which often crowd out attempts at interpreta­ thor neither asks new questions nor offers new tion and analysis. While such documentation ways of answering old ones. The West and Re­ lends great insight into the thoughts and construction will spur further research as much actions of politicians, it is impressionistic in de­ for its missed opportunities as for the interest scribing electoral behavior. Unfortunately, it should stir in Reconstruction as a political is­ Berwanger makes no effort to study systemati­ sue in the West. cally the views of most westerners on Recon­ struction, although he insists that he has BROOKS D. SIMPSON "made every attempt to incorporate the views University of Wisconsin—Madison 153 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83

Guide to Records in the National Archives of the Native Americans. It describes the content United States Relating to American Indians. Com­ and clarifies the relationships among an enor­ piled by EDWARD E. HILL. (National Archives mous and complex body of records, and it and Records Service, General Services Ad­ points the way to many specific records series. ministration, Washington, D.C, 1981. Pp497. The guide also provides the call numbers for Illustrations, index. $13.00.) many records which have been microfilmed, and this feature, together with a forthcoming This comprehensive guide is one in a series catalog of Indian-related materials on micro­ of subject-oriented finding aids produced to film, makes a substantial portion of the Na­ assist research use ofthe estimated 1.3 million tional Archives' records easily available to re­ cubic feet of historical records in the National searchers everywhere. Finally, this guide is a Archives in Washington, D.C, and in eleven handsome volume, sturdily bound, and illus­ regional federal archives and records centers. trated with photographs and other visual ma­ As the guide's compiler explains, "the records terials from the National Archives. described [primarily] concern Indians in tribes with whom the United States has had a JOHN FLECKNER relationship through the Bureau of Indian State Historical Society of Wisconsin Affairs or military operations. " The guide also describes Indian-related records from sixty- six other federal administrative units ranging Abraham Lincoln: The Quest for Immortality. By from the Indian Arts and Crafts Board to the DWIGHT G. ANDERSON. (Alfred A. Knopf^, Bureau of Public Roads. To explain the bu­ New York, 1982. Pp. ix, 271. Appendix, notes, reaucratic complexities of federal relations index. $16.95.) with Native Americans from the American Revolution through World War II, the guide A "remarkable biography" the publisher presents clearly written and informative ad­ calls this book, and its title implies that, ministrative histories ofthe agencies whose re­ whether remarkable or not, it is indeed an­ cords are described. Interesting in themselves, other life of Lincoln. But it turns out to be no these histories are essential to effective re­ such thing. Instead, it is a political scientist's search in federal government records. essay on Lincoln's contribution to the "politi­ The National Archives has extraordinarily cal religion" ofthe United States. rich holdings on Native Americans. They Anderson's argument, which is not always range from basic policy documents such as easy to follow, goes something like this: Lin­ original treaties to extensive files with detailed coln derived his model, or rather his two con­ information on individuals, e.g., annuity pay­ tradictory models, from "Parson" Weems's life ment rolls (140 cubic feet, 1841-1949) and of George Washington and from Washing­ census rolls (420 cubic feet, 1885-1940). Al­ ton's Farewell Address, which Weems in­ though a single volume such as this must rely cluded in his famous book. Weems's book pro­ on very general descriptions to cover such vast vided the basis for Lincoln's 1838 speech to collections, this guide does convey a great deal the Springfield Lyceum, and this speech is the of specific information. (Its fifty-four-page in­ key document for an understanding of the dex mentions by name some 250 separate In­ psychology and philosophy of Lincoln as a dian tribes, bands, and other groups.) The politician. In the Lyceum address, after plead­ compiler also has made an effort to mention a ing for devotion to the Constitution and the sampling of records which fall outside the laws, Lincoln went on to warn against men like usual and expected categories of correspon­ himself, men of overweening ambition who, dence, reports, and the like. For example, the envious ofthe fathers," could be expected to thirty-nine cubic feet of records of the Lac du grasp for power by subverting the fathers' Flambeau (Wisconsin) Indian Agency and work. For him, George Washington was at School, now located in the Chicago Federal first "an imaginary father to replace the natu­ Archives and Records Center, include "an in­ ral father whom he disdained." Then, in 1854, dustrial survey, with photographs and per­ Lincoln began "identifying himself not with sonal and economic information about Indian Washington, the father of his country, but households, 1922." with Jefferson, the revolutionary son." Lin­ This new guide is an invaluable contribu­ coln now gave the Declaration of Indepen­ tion to research in historical topics relating to dence priority over the Constitution in the

154 BOOK REVIEWS

Holy Writ of American politics. Finally, as and thanksgiving are what they appear to be— president, he "succeeded in joining the consti­ Lincoln's compositions and not William H. Se­ tutional order to a Christian immortality of ward's (page 184). Lincoln "preside[d] over sacrificial death and rebirth." As "the founder the destruction ofthe Constitution in order to of a new Union," he "took Washington's place gratify his own ambition" (page 193). His as the father of his country." Later "greatest gesture of cosmic defiance" was presidents—notably Theodore Roosevelt, "casting himself in the role of Christ" (page Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and 207). He "had made assertions of power on John F. Kennedy—repeated the Lincolnian the same order of magnitude" as those of ritual of reenacting the American Revolution. Nixon (page 226). They did this to justify the assertion of Ameri­ can power abroad. But Richard M. Nixon RICHARD N. CURRENT stretched the faith too far when he tried to use University of North Carolina at Greensboro it to consecrate the Vietnam intervention. He thereby killed the "civic god" that Lincoln had breathed life into. Waldo Emerson: A Biography. By GAY WILSON Some of this is familiar. Years ago the liter­ ALLEN. (The Viking Press, New York, 1981. ary critic Edmund Wilson, reading between Pp. xxiv, 670. Illustrations, notes, bibliogra­ the lines of the Lyceum speech, concluded phy, index. $25.00.) that Lincoln really had himself in mind when he talked of a home-grown Alexander, Cae­ For over a hundred years Ralph Waldo sar, or Napoleon. Recently, in Patricide in the Emerson has been, to use his term, the "rep­ House Divided (1979), George B. Forgie resentative man" in American letters. He has stressed the influence of Weems, the centrality been an inspiration to every kind of social ofthe Lyceum address, and the importance of critic yet the favorite author of Henry Ford the Oedipus theme in Lincoln's career. But and Woody Hayes. He has been a presence the present author goes far beyond Wilson our theologians, philosophers, writers, and and proceeds in another direction than For­ scholars have felt compelled to honor or re­ gie. He says Forgie projected his own views vile. Emerson has been a seminal figure in upon Lincoln and thus managed to "ignore American culture. Yet what earlier genera­ Lincoln's explicit statement of identification tions found so typically "American" in with those who might become tyrant." Here is Emerson—his apparently unflappable surely a case of the pot and the kettle, since optimism—has in recent years made him seem Lincoln's so-called statement of identification shallow beside Nathaniel Hawthorne and is by no means explicit, except to someone who Herman Melville, whose darker visions have wishes it to be. seemed more compatible with twentieth- Essentially the essay is an exercise in conjec­ century experience. ture. It calls upon the reader to accept not only The centenary of Emerson's death (April the proposition that from early manhood Lin­ 27,1982), however, has spawned an extraordi­ coln harbored a dictatorial urge but also a nary array of critical studies, bibliographies, number of other propositions for which there and selected writings. Central to this Emerson is insufficient evidence, if any evidence at all. revival and revaluation is Gay Wilson Allen's For example, Lincoln's "words and deeds splendid, definitive biography, Waldo Emer­ aimed at Christianizing the nation" (page 67). son. Since 1949 the standard biography has He won immortality "by becoming the very ty­ been Ralph L. Rusk's The Life of Ralph Waldo rant against whom Washington had warned in Emerson, still eminently reliable as a factual his Farewell Address" (page 99). He was document and for its leads to primary mate­ moved by "personal vengefulness against rial, but notoriously hesitant to evaluate Emer­ Washington and the founders ofthe Constitu­ son's writings or his private life. tion" (page 115). In his dealing with Fort Sum­ Allen's fuller portrayal of Emerson was ter in 1861, "Lincoln's tactics were rooted in made possible in large part by the discovery of motives of revenge for having been excluded thousands of letters and the publication ofthe by his constitutional fathers from political cre­ first fourteen volumes oi: The Journals and Mis­ ativity and for the humiliation he suffered fol­ cellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson lowing his Mexican War speech" of 1847 (page (1960-1978). The journals emphatically re­ 162). The Civil War proclamations of prayer veal the inadequacy of all our stereotypes of

155 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83

Emerson: the rebel against convention; the or Soul, and that the world of nature is only a beaming optimist; the benevolent but ethereal reflection or weaker copy of the forms or philosopher whose ideals needed Henry 'ideas' in the One Mind. Thus the laws of nat­ David Thoreau in order to assume flesh and ure are really the laws of spirit." Yet the gulf blood; the Sage of Concord. Emerson's jour­ between nature and spirit troubled Emerson nals served not only as a literary "bank," as he in various ways all his life. called them, but also as a confessional for his Emerson's life was essentially a "life of the deepest fears and aspirations. Allen depicts mind." Allen, arguing that Emerson's "crea­ fully the struggle that preceded and underlay tive reading" was an important "part of his ex­ all of Emerson's public achievements. perience," shows with remarkable clarity how Well into his twenties Emerson was plagued his ideas place him in a tradition with the by self-doubt, "neurotic brooding," by a self- third-century Neoplatonist Plotinus; how they admitted lack of personal warmth, and, as a can be traced in part to his readings in the defense against his own insecurity, by moral Scottish "Common Sense" philosophers, the priggishness. Allen is perhaps too quick to as­ American Swedenborgian Sampson Reed, cribe these traits to the vestiges of Puritanism Coleridge, Carlyle, and the Persian poets; and Emerson inherited from his self-denying how they anticipate in extraordinary ways the mother and from his eccentric, Calvinistic evolutionary theory of Darwin, psychological Aunt Mary. Puritanism, recent scholarship insights of James, Freud, and Jung, poetic has shown, was not conducive only to repres­ practices of Frost, and recent theories in sion and neurosis; Puritans stressed not sim­ atomic and subatomic physics. Allen master­ ply God's wrath but also His mercy and love, fully elucidates the major lectures, essays, and an emphasis Allen attributes too exclusively to poems in both their biographical and histori­ the Arminian tradition culminating in William cal contexts. (For example, Emerson's seem­ Ellery Channing, whom Allen exalts as a liber­ ingly lofty concepts of "Reason" and "self- ating "New Testament prophet." In fact, reliance," Allen suggests, grew out of an though Emerson came to reject all the doc­ "attempt at self-protecdon.") Above all, he be­ trines of Calvinism, he remained proud of his lieves, Emerson was simultaneously a philoso­ family's rich Puritan heritage and never lost pher and poet who "thinks and feels in tropes" respect for the Puritans' idealism, moral ear­ and who, while emphasizing inspiration, nestness, corporate purpose, or their "bound­ could be a careful craftsman. ing pulse," which Emerson by temperament Allen's Emerson is no marble bust on a ped­ lacked. estal. We see more fully here the shape of This criticism aside, Allen is at his best plac­ Emerson's career—as minister, itinerant ing Emerson in the context of religious, philo­ preacher, professional lecturer, author—and sophical, scientific, and literary traditions and discover that he worried about investments trends. Surprisingly, he denies that Emerson and often was forced to extend lecture tours was really a "transcendentalist," though his simply to pay debts. No one has described contemporaries stuck him with the label. more poignantly than Allen Emerson's pro­ Emerson's emphasis on self-reliance and con­ found grief over the deaths of his first wife, El­ sciousness kept him from becoming either a len, and his five-year-old son Waldo. Despite determinist or a visionary enthusiast like Jones his platonic ideals, Emerson was susceptible to Very, Bronson Alcott, or the host of cultists "sex appeal" and carried on a "high-minded who claimed him as their guiding light. flirtation" with Caroline Sturgis and an in­ Though admitting that it is "useless ... to try tense love-hate relationship with Margaret to define or classify Emerson's theism," Allen Fuller. Though inhibited about showing love, claims that Emerson was no "pantheist." "In he had "an attractive personality" that won the woods,"Allen suggests, Emerson "felt ex­ scores of friends in the United States and hilarated, at times almost ecstatic. In fact, since Great Britain, and enthusiastic lecture audi­ the emotion carried intellectual conviction, he ences almost everywhere he went. Emerson was a mystic, not of the extreme visionary berated himself constantly about his emo­ type, but like Wordsworth at Tintern Abbey." tional inability to take stands on social issues, Emerson became a "deeply confirmed philo­ but his pent-up anger finally boiled over in his sophical Idealist" who increasingly appreci­ abolitionist addresses after 1850, especially in ated the value of pragmatic experience and the bitter irony with which he condemned the science. "He was attracted by the Platonic the­ accusers of John Brown. Allen admits that ory that everything exists in a Universal Mind Emerson's lofty idealism occasionally fogs his 156 BOOK REVIEWS meaning. But he also finds in Emerson a pre­ Walter Reuther and Philip Murray was able to viously overlooked sense of humor that acted sweep the Communist leadership aside. The as a safety valve for his "constant self-analysis." Left was not blameless for its own defeat. Party Allen has succeeded in knocking down the union leaders who had deep roots in their pasteboard image of Emerson as serene sage, working-class communities were too often revealing a man and an artist capable of vacil­ subordinated to party discipline, with disas­ lation and loyalty, humor and grief, skepti­ trous results. But Levenstein avoids a simplis­ cism and anger. The vitality of this portrait, to­ tic conclusion that had the Communist Party gether with the centenary revival, suggests not made the errors it did, its fate would have that Emerson, despite our changing expecta­ been different. A lasting radicalization of the tions of him, is still our "representative man." labor movement, he concludes, "takes much more than hard work, organization, 'cor­ WESLEY T. MOTT rect . . . theory', and a well-disciplined 'van­ University of Wisconsin guard' party. ... It takes a confluence of his­ torical circumstances of a kind that were Communism, Anticommunism, and the CIO. By clearly missing in . . . the United States of the HARVEY A. LEVENSTEIN. (Greenwood Press, 1930s." Nevertheless, argues Levenstein, a Westport, 1981. Pp. xii, 364. Notes, bibliogra­ Communist presence in the union movement, phy, index. $29.95.) imperfect as it was, would have strengthened the civil rights and antiwar movements of the What accounts for the unique conservatism I960's. of the trade union movement in the United Levenstein has not written a complete his­ States? Conventional examinations of this tory ofthe CIO. Curiously, given his employ­ question have been premised on the "natural" ment at a Canadian University, he neglects the conservatism of U.S. workers. The unions, it history of Canadian CIO affiliates. The strug­ follows, reflect the conservatism oftheir mem­ gle between Canadian social democrats and bers. Instances of radicalism are understood Communists for control of those unions was as temporary and aberrant phenomena. more important to the outcome of CIO history Harvey Levenstein's method is different. than has been recognized. Nor has the author He identifies the most recent occasion when provided a sufficient analysis explaining the radicalism manifested itself in the United central events of the CIO years. He notes, for States and reconstructs the period between example, that Communists were weakest in then and now in a way that uncovers the logic the older, established unions such as the of the process by which conservatism was re­ United Mine Workers and the Amalgamated stored. What was decisive in that process, Clothing workers. But he fails to flesh out that Levenstein finds, was the separation of the insight and render a structural interpretation Communist Party (CPUSA) from the unions ofthe CIO's political unevenness. affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Or­ Despite these shortcomings, Levenstein has ganizations (CIO). Levenstein rejects the pop­ produced the most thorough, best- ularly accepted notion that worker conserva­ documented, and most logical interpretation tism was responsible. "There is little yet of the CIO. His book, along with Roger evidence," he argues, "that the presence or ab­ Keeran's The Communist Party and the Auto sence of high levels of class consciousness, po­ Workers Union (1980), has clearly placed the litical alienation, or deep-rooted pro- or anti- study of the CIO on a new promising plane. socialist beliefs played dominant roles in determining the fate ofthe Communists." JERRY LEMBCKE How, then, was the Left destroyed? The au­ Lawrence University thor makes extensive use of internal CIO in­ vestigative reports, taped interviews, manu­ script collections, and government documents No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Trans­ to build a convincing case that it was the align­ formation of American Culture, 1880—1920. By ment of corporate and State power with anti- T. J. JACKSON LEARS. (Pantheon Books, New Communist CIO leaders that held the key to York, 1981. Pp. xv, 375. Notes, index. $18.50.) undoing the Left. In the wake of the Taft- Hartley law, which required union leaders to "One's attitude toward the beginning ofthe sign affidavits swearing they were not Com­ contemporary period," the historian Henry munist Party members, the CIO faction led by May once wrote, "depends on one's prediction 157 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83 ofthe outcome." The veracity of May's state­ Lacking the distinction between antimodern ment is amply demonstrated by Jackson dissent and antimodernism as a cultural mech­ Lears's No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the anism, Lears loses sight of the dynamic rela­ Transformation of American Culture, 1880—1920. tionship between modern and antimodern in­ Lears has seen, and recoils from the outcome. clinations within the minds of the sixty-odd Modern America, he contends, is a vapid, spir­ intellectuals and reformers who constitute Vo itually bankrupt, "therapeutic" state, cor­ Place of Grace. rupted by consumer-oriented corporate capi­ Lears's portrayal of Henry Adams illus­ talism. The roots of this malaise lie in the trates this point. The capstone of Lears's book "evasive banalities" of late-nineteenth-century is his chapter on Adams as the prototypical liberal Protestantism, positivistic science, and antimodernist. Of all who expressed antimo­ simple-minded belief in progress. dern sentiments, Lears writes, "only Henry Lears argues that beginning around 1880 Adams transmuted it into a coherent and en­ religion, science, and the equating of material during critique of modern culture." with moral progress no longer provided suf­ Possibly—but the Henry Adams who railed ficient meaning to the lives ofthe bourgeoisie. against the modern world was the same Henry Signs of anomie pervaded the upper and mid­ Adams who took keen interest in his stocks dle classes: seemingly healthy men were dis­ and bonds, in nitty-gritty involvement with the abled by neurasthenia, a mysterious malady emerging consumer-corporate capitalism. with no organic cause, which absolved them Perhaps the reason for Lears's confusing from any social or moral responsibility; the use ofthe antimodern concept stems from the chronic concern with the artificiality of mod­ process by which he selects his antimodernists. ern (especially urban) life; and the "republi­ Intellectual historians have become particu­ can" fear of an over-civilized, effeminate aris­ larly sensitive to the problems entailed in tocracy, unable to enforce cultural hegemony. choosing a "community of discourse" or "so­ Antimodernism filled the cultural vacuum cial aggregate"—to use the terms currently in by both "revitalizing and transforming" the vogue. How does a historian extrapolate from official culture. Antimodernism came in many the concerns of a small group of intellectuals guises: the arts and crafts movement, Teddy to the concerns of a widely diverse and com­ Roosevelt's "strenuous life," the martial ideal, plex culture? The concerns of Henry Adams, the interest in the medieval and oriental, the as important intellectually as they are, were emerging view of children as possessing a "pri­ not necessarily the concerns dominating late mal irrationality"—all were manifestations of nineteenth-century culture. the desire for the "authentic experience" or to Lears recognizes but does little to resolve attain an "unf ragmented" sense of self which such problems. In a revealing metaphor, he was at the heart of antimodernism. calls his social aggregate his "dramatis Antimodernism, obviously, is a slippery personae"—a collection of characters con­ concept. Lears uses it in two distinct ways: sciously assembled to act out the melodrama first, as a cluster of ideas, sentiments, tenden­ of antimodernism. While this method of selec­ cies, and assumptions; second, as a cog in a cul­ tion has the advantage of highlighting the con­ tural gear train, unconsciously and uninten­ tours of antimodernism, it undercuts any tionally performing the function of sense of its vitality in fin-de-siecle America. accommodating a displaced bourgeiosie to the Lears would have us believe that antimo­ new order. Lears's constant interchanging of dernism was a strong undercurrent of protest, the two meanings leads him to overstate the but based on what he gives us here, it makes impact of antimodernism from 1880 to 1920, equal sense to view it as voices howling in an to present antimodernism as more coherent empty wilderness. than it actually was, and to reify the antimo- Despite these shortcomings. No Place of dernist. Lears reveals the stress between the Grace is an impressive book, even more im­ two meanings of "antimodernism" when he pressive when one considers it grew from writes that "It was socially significant not be­ Lears's doctoral dissertation—no dry mono­ cause it affected the entire population, but be­ graphic case study here. Its breadth of evi­ cause, in some of its forms, it reinforced the dence and insight and its commitment to de­ cultural hegemony of dominant groups. ..." flate flatulent pieties make this work If antimodernism reinforced cultural hegem­ consistently provocative. If No Place of Grace ony, then it did affect the entire population. falls short in some respects as a work of his-

158 BOOK REVIEWS tory, it should be highly regarded as a work of liberty and freedom, can ever again use those cultural criticism, in the tradition of David words loosely. His commitment to the rights of Riesman and Christopher Lasch. all humanity never faltered; he wrote in 1961, 'The adoption of the principle of self- CHRISTOPHER BERKELEY government by "The People" of this nation set University of Wisconsin—Madison loose upon us and upon the world at large an idea which is still transforming men's concep­ Alexander Meiklejohn: Teacher of Freedom. tions of what they are and how they may best Edited, with a biographical study, by CYNTHIA be governed. Wherever it goes, that idea is STOKES BROWN. (Mieklejohn Civil Liberties demanding—and slowly securing—a recogni­ Institute, Berkeley, California, 1981. Pp. ix, tion that, with respect to human dignity, 281. Photographs, notes, bibliography, women have the same status as men, that peo­ $13.95.) ple of all races and colors and creeds must be Alexander Meiklejohn (1872-1964) began treated as equals, that the poor are at least the his teaching career in 1897 as an instructor in equals ofthe rich.' " philosophy at Brown University in Provi­ This is an accurate, insightful, and richly in­ dence, Rhode Island, from which he himself formative biographical study. It is not, as its had graduated only shortly before. In 1901 he publisher claims, "a collection of his writings"; became dean ofthe undergraduate college, a but the selections from these are superbly cho­ role in which he quickly established his unique sen and given accurate and enlightening exe­ power not only to work with the young stu­ gesis by the editor. dents but to motivate them toward serious Finally, every student of Meiklejohn's study and even scholarship. It was this reputa­ th-ought must be grateful to Brown for the tion that led, in 1911, to his selection as presi­ honesty and accuracy with which she has dent of Amherst College, a small, prestigious, chronicled both the occasions and the argu­ and rather traditional institution in Massachu­ ments that gave rise to his most profound and setts. And it was from that seemingly unprom­ controversial assertions: those proclaiming— ising base that Meiklejohn's brilliant, unortho­ and defending—the absolute and unalienable dox, and highly innovative career was right to total freedom of thought and speech launched. among all members of the self-governing citi­ Curiously, no substantial biography has yet zenry of a democratic Republic. Particularly in been written of this educational iconoclast, the final selections under the he'dding Liberty gadfly, and tireless teacher of generations of and Freedom, the passionate core of Meikle­ Americans. But all of us must be grateful to john's dedication to freedom ofthe mind is indel­ Cynthia Stokes Brown for her new book, Afex- ibly engraved. ander Meiklejohn: Teacher of Freedom. Brown is The book—and each part of it, sampled at not only familiar with the Meiklejohn tradi­ leisure—is required reading for all those tion (her parents had been students at Wiscon­ Americans who plant memorial hedges sin while Meiklejohn was teaching there), but around the word FREEDOM—but who neglect also became a personal friend of both Meikle­ to nourish its roots. john and his scholar-wife, Helen Everett, who had known him all her life. To quote from Ms. JOHN WALKER POWELL Brown's brief and modest preface: "I have Washington, D.C. chosen to write a short account of his life and ideas that would provide a framework for un­ Town Planning in Frontier America. By JOHN W. derstanding him, and then let him speak for REPS. (University of Missouri Press, Columbia, himself. . . . From his entire production I 1980. Pp. vi, 328. Illustrations, notes, bibliog­ have selected samples that display the whole raphy, index. Paper, $9.95.) range of his thinking." She adds, very cogently, "We need the ideas In an attempt to reach a large audience of of Alexander Meiklejohn now, because he be­ general readers, John Reps first provided us lieved in the capacity of 'We, the People' to with Town Planning in Frontier Americain 1969. govern and because he was able to analyze Now available in a redesigned paperback for­ with lucidity the problems that such a belief mat, the current edition exhibits only slight entails. No one who listens to his distinction variations from its predecessor. These between happiness and excellence, or between modifications are strictly cosmetic in nature as

159 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83 the profusely illustrated volume retains its Jefferson, L'Enfant, and EUicott plans, as well original text and graphic representations. It as other period views of the city, proves to be should be noted that much of the contempo­ the edition's most thoroughly researched civil rary volume's content first appeared in Reps's division. In this chapter Reps shines as he fo­ 1965 publication. The Making of Urban cuses beyond his normal descriptive analysis America—an expansive work printed in mod­ of city maps and views, the method employed est numbers and used generally by specialized in much ofthe text. Most readers will not feel scholars. Just as the current version drew from shortchanged after their perusal of this chap­ the 1969 hardcover edition, that study relied ter. The author does not confine his discussion heavily upon the general character of the au­ to cities planned by men of traditional reli­ thor's earlier research presented in the 1965 gious and social philosophies alone. Utopian treatise. For that reason those who have famil­ communities of the colonial period estab­ iarized themselves with The Making of Urban lished by the Huguenots and Moravians are America will find basically the same material in investigated as are later nineteenth-century both editions of Town Planning in Frontier Owenite and Mormon attempts at city devel­ America as they did in the earlier study. oping. The author outlines the elements of the Eu­ Lamentably, Reps points out, many of the ropean planning tradition which have contrib­ nation's original urban plans have been aban­ uted to the design and character of American doned leaving contemporary networks of towns in both colonial times and after Inde­ streets, green areas, and structural compo­ pendence through 1850. From the rigid Laws nents bearing little resemblance to the vision­ of the Indies, established by the Spanish as a ary schemes of early town planners. Deviation uniform standard for planning and develop­ from these plans has occurred as communities ing towns (like Santa Fe and Los Angeles) to have given planning responsibilities to profit- the less-structured approach taken by the seeking individuals and in doing so have failed French in their settlements along the St. Law­ to create adequate legal and administrative in­ rence and Mississippi rivers. Reps describes stitutions for the public control of private land the effects of European colonizing influences development. Decisions concerned with the in urban America. A particularly lengthy, but timing of development, siting locations, and fascinating, discussion of town planning in the design are placed in private hands, tempered English colonies is offered. Chapters delineat­ only mildly by regulations supposedly in­ ing settlements in the Tidewater, New En­ tended to protect the public interest. Because gland, Middle, and Southern colonies present of this practice Reps argues that the cities of especially detailed descriptions and maps of America have lost the planning tradition upon Annapolis, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, which they were established and, with it, con­ and Savannah. With the gradual dispersal of trol over their destinies. the American populace to areas west of the In this reworked study of maps, plans, and Appalachians, the author directs his attention views of American cities, towns, and forts, the to urban plans formulated for pioneer settle­ author has made available to general readers a ments ofthe Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes substantial collection of graphic representa­ frontier. In these segments the morphological tions presented within the cover of one vol­ origin of such major population centers as ume at a reasonable price. The paperback ver­ Pittsburgh, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Indian­ sion's new design seems to be a vast apolis are traced and graphically exhibited. improvement over its original 1969 edition, After examining the included plats and birds- whose awkward format wasted page space and eye views of selected settlements in New York occasionally positioned the text's parentheti­ State and the Old Northwest, the reader is left cal figure references too far from the actual il­ with little doubt that New England influence lustrations. However, format alterations have abounded in numerous post-colonial urban failed to improve the case with which many of settlements in these areas. But clearly the ur­ the map legends can be examined with the hu­ ban center ofthe new nation, whose develop­ man eye. Many readers will call for a magnify­ ment is covered in the most comprehensive ing glass when examining the documents. The manner, is Washington, D.C. Unlike the ma­ historian, urban geographer, landscape archi­ jority of cities discussed in this volume, the na­ tect, and the general reader seeking more tion's capital is afforded specialized treatment. than what this abbreviated version offers The informative text, interspersed with the would be well-advised to consult Reps's volu-

160 BOOK REVIEWS minous The Making of Urban America for an ex­ between firms, industry, and market size and panded text, lengthier classified bibliography, southern industrial growth. They show that, and larger map reproductions. while there were economies of scale in antebel­ lum manufacturing, these could be attained at MARTIN C PERKINS relatively low levels of output, and that the State Historical Society of Wisconsin manufacturing sector of the South was not at a disadvantage due merely to the smaller firm size prevailing in the region. On the other hand, the authors conclude that external dis­ A Deplorable Scarcity: The Failure of Industrializa­ economies in the South "prevented the typical tion in the Slave Economy. By FRED BATEMAN manufacturing firm from expanding plant and THOMAS WEISS. (University of North Car- size sufficiently to reap all internal economies ohna Press, Chapel Hill, 1981. Pp. xiii, 237. inherent in its production technology." Appendices, notes, bibliography, index. Next, Bateman and Weiss consider the as­ $19.00.) sertion that the South suffered from an inade­ quacy of industrial resources. The interre­ This monograph examines the industrial gional and intraregional mobility of resources performance of the antebellum South from a are considered, largely by comparing antebel­ cliometric perspective. The authors first trace lum state bond yields and regional wage levels. the history of manufacturing in the American The authors conclude that variation across re­ South from 1810 to 1860, relying largely on gions was slight, while factor market imperfec­ contemporary periodicals and published cen­ tions did exist within the South. Bateman and sus materials. The major conclusion of this Weiss argue that factor resources, particularly preliminary analysis is that the South was not capital and labor (especially slave labor), were "as industrially stagnant as normally de­ nevertheless mobile, and could have been picted." transferred from agriculture to the manufac­ While the South had lower levels of indus­ turing sector ofthe southern economy. These trial production than did the Northeast, these assertions are highly conjectural, but while the levels were roughly comparable to those pre­ evidence in support of these views is scanty, a vailing in the West in 1850 or 1860. The sub­ more precise analysis would be difficult. ject of southern industrial backwardness has a In their chapters on the profitability of long historiography, and the authors proceed southern manufacturing and antebellum in­ to outline five major hypotheses culled from vestor behavior, the authors quantify the dif­ the contemporary and scholarly literature. ferential average rates of return from invest­ These hypotheses include those of compara­ ments in industry and alternative investments tive advantages in staple exports, noneco- in southern agricultural commodity produc­ nomic barriers to industrial development, nu­ tion. This analysis reveals average rates of re­ merous interpretations ofthe role of slavery in turn of 25 per cent in 1850 and 28 per cent in retarding industrialization, the entrepreneur­ I860 for southern manufacturing. These star- ial inability of antebellum southerners, and tlingly high estimates, if accurate, raise the the notion that the size and structure of the question of why the prospective returns did southern market somehow inhibited the not result in the more rapid development of growth of southern industry. The remainder antebellum southern manufacturing. The au­ of the volume is devoted to a detailed econo­ thors suggest that planters and slaveholders, metric analysis of these sets of hypotheses for through their failure to invest in industrial en­ the lagging development of manufacturing in terprises, were largely responsible for the lag­ the South before the Civil War. ging development of southern manufactur­ The authors rely for much of their empiri­ ing. Even when rates of return were adjusted cal evidence on a set of data samples from the for perception of risk, Bateman and Weiss ar­ 1850 and 1860 federal census manuscripts of gue that southern investors failed to exploit manufactures. These samples are of two highly profitable opportunities in manufac­ types, one being a random selection of one out turing. The authors conclude that the com­ of approximately 200 firms, by output, in each parative advantage ofthe South in export sta­ state. ples was great, yet because of the failure of Using these manufacturing samples, Bate­ southern planters and investors to seek out the man and Weiss first examine the relationships high potential returns in manufacturing, the

161 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982—83 economic development of the antebellum in the sources are not evaluated by the au- South did not attain the region's potential. thors. Likewise, the spatial flows of investment This volume presents complex economic is- capital could be investigated more fully. Just sues, quantitative models and techniques, em- as the impetus to industrial development in pirical evidence, and conclusions in a manner the postbellum South came from outside the comprehensible by non-economists but in suf- region, did this characterize the manufactur- ficient detail to satisfy the trained social scien- ing sector before the Civil War? tist. Conclusions are constantly tempered by Overall, this study is a useful addition to the references to the inadequacies of models and literature on the backwardness of antebellum data sources. The study could perhaps be southern manufacturing, and the failure of strengthened by more precise regional break- the southern planter class to invest in poten- downs (particularly within broad regions, and tially more profitable, non-agricultural enter- by sorting urban from hinterland patterns). prises. Some industries are surely underreported in the source materials (especially those of a sea­ sonal nature, such as meatpacking and lum- RUSSELL S. KIRBY bering). The effects of structural deficiencies University of Wisconsin—Madison

Book Reviews

Allen, Waldo Emerson: A Biography, reviewed by Wesley T. Mott 155

Anderson, Abraham Lincoln: The Quest for Immortality, reviewed by Richard N. Current 154

Anderson and Olson, Milwaukee: At the Gathering ofthe Waters, reviewed by Byron Anderson 147 Barden, The Travels of Peter Woodhouse: Memoir of an American Pioneer, reviewed by Allan S. Kovan 149

Bateman and Weiss, A Deplorable Scarcity: The Failure of hidustrializalion in the Slave Economy, reviewed by Russell S. Kirby 161

Bernard, The Melting Pot and the Altar: Marital Assimilation m Early Twentieth-Century Wisconsin, reviewed by Roger E. Wyman 148

Berwanger, The West and Reconstruction, reviewed by Brooks D. Simpson 152

Brown, Alexander Meiklejohn: Teacher of Freedom, reviewed by John Walker Powell 159

Hill, Guide to Records in the Nationai Archives ofthe United States Relating to American Indians, reviewed by John Fleckner 154

Hine, Community on the American Frontier: Separate But Not Alone, reviewed by Martin C. Perkins 150

Lears, No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of .American Culture,

1880-1920, reviewed by Christopher Berkeley 157

Levenstein, Communism, Anticommuntsm, and the CIO, veviewedhy Jerry henibcke 157

Melosi, Garbage in the Cities: Refuse, Reform, and the Environment, 1880—1980,

reviewed by Lawrence H. Larsen 151

Metcalf and Downey, Using Local History in the Classroom, reviewed by Nicholas C. Burckel. .149

Reeves, The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy: A Biography, review essay by Richard M. Fried. . . 143

Reps, Town Planning in Frontier America, reviewed by Martin C. Perkins 159 162 Wisconsin History Moraine region by students of the Kettle Moraine School District. Checklist Recently published and currently available Wisconsiana 1882-1982 Wittenberg: "the Friendly Crossroads." added to the Society's Library are listed below. The compilers, Gerald R. Eggleston, Acquisitions Librarian, (Wittenberg, Wisconsin, 1982. Pp.40. Illus. and Susan Dorst. Order Librarian, are interested in $2.50. Available from Wittenberg Area obtaining information about (or copies of) items that are Chamber of Commerce, P. O. Box 284, not widely advertised, such as publications of local Wittenberg, Wisconsin 54499). historical societies, family histories and genealogies, privately printed works, and histories of churches, institutions, or organizations. Authors and publishers Gilkey, George R. The First Seventy Years: a His­ wishing to reach a wider audience and also to perform a tory of the University of Wisconsin-La C.rosse, valuable bibliographic service are urged to inform the compilers of their publications, including the following 1909-1979. (La Crosse, Wisconsin, Univer­ information; author, title, location and name of publisher, sity of Wisconsin-La Crosse Foundation, price, pagination, and address of supplier. Write Susan Inc., ©1981. Pp. 258, xxvi, [7]. Illus. No Dorst, Acquisitions Section. price listed. Available from author, History Department 403 NH, University of Women's History Resources at the State Historical Wisconsin-La Crosse, La Crosse, Wisconsin Society of Wisconsin. (Madison, Wisconsin, 54601). ©1982. 4th edition. Pp. 77. Illus. $3.95. Available from Publications Orders, State Guide to Milwaukee County Landmarks. (Milwau­ Historical Society of Wisconsin, 816 State kee, Wisconsin, 1981. Pp. [34]. Illus. $1.75 Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706.) plus $.50 postage and handling. Available from Milwaukee County Historical Society, Brabender, Rosalind. Tlie Brabender Family 910 North Third Street, Milwaukee, Wis­ Tree. (Madison?, Wisconsin, 1982. 108 consin 53203.) leaves. Illus. $10.00; color coat of arms $2.50 extra. Available from Sister Rosalind Hartung, Richard P. Cooksville, A Guide: Guide­ Brabender, 2221 Allied Drive, Apt. 3, Mad­ book and Maps for Cooksville i^ Vicinity. ison, Wisconsin 53711.) (Janesville, Wisconsin, 1982. Pp. 48. Illus. $3.50. Available from Rock County Histori­ A Commemorative History of the Buffalo (county cal Society, P. O. Box 896, Janesville, Wis­ Fair, 1872-1982. (Alma, Wisconsin, ©1982. consin 53547.) fhe community is located Pp. 48. Illus. $3.50 plus $.75 postage and twenty-five miles south of Madison. handling. Available from Buffalo County Historical Society, 505 South Second History of Delavan. (Delavan?, Wisconsin, 1982. Street, P. O. Box 87, Alma, Wisconsin Pp. [236]. Illus. $16.50. Available from The 54610.) Delavan Enterprise, 1436 Mound Road, Delavan, Wisconsin 53115.) Echoes: Remembering When. (Wales?, Wiscon­ sin, Kettle Moraine Local History Press, Hovie, Dorothy; Hovie, John; and Nissen, ©1982. Pp. 99. Illus. $2.50. Available from Borghild Ramseth. Hovie, 1765-1982. School District of Kettle Moraine, P. O. Box (Neenah, Wisconsin, 1982. 56 leaves. Illus. 39, Wales, Wisconsin 53183.) Local history No price listed. Available from Rolf Erick­ essays and poetry written about the Kettle son, 1116 Davis Street, Evanston, Illinois 163 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83

60201.) lhe family members immigrated Meyer, Margaret G. Meinholz Family History to Manitowoc and Shawano counties from and Genealogy (1709-1982). (Albuquerque, Norway. New Mexico, 1982. Pp. 167. Illus. $40.00. Available from author, 5309 Lucille Drive Irrmann, Robert H. The First National Bank N.E., Albuquerque, New Mexico 87101.) and Trust Company of Beloit; Beloit, Wisconsin: The family is from Ashton. a History, 1882-1982. (Beloit, Wisconsin, 1982. Pp. V, 134, [7]. Illus. No price listed. Morrow, Robert. Carrollville in Retrospect. (Oak Available from the First National Bank and Creek, Wisconsin, 1982? 2nd edition. Pp. Trust Company, 345 East Grand Avenue, 83. Illus. No price listed. Available from au­ Beloit, Wisconsin 53511.) thor. Oak Creek Senior High School, 340 East Puetz Road, Oak Creek, Wisconsin Kellems, Kevin S. The Milwaukee Woods: a His­ 53154.) Carrollville is a subdivision of Oak tory of Pre-Railroad Brookfield. (Brookfield, Creek. Wisconsin, 1982. 38, [5] leaves. Illus. $9.00. Available from author, 379A Sellery Hall, Peroff, Nicholas C Menominee Drums: Tribal Madison, Wisconsin 53706.) Termination and Restoration, 1954-1974. (Norman, Oklahoma, ©1982. Pp. xiii, 282. Kindschy, Errol. Leonard's Dream: a History of Illus. $19.95. Available from University of West Salem. (West Salem, Wisconsin, 1981? Oklahoma Press, 1005 Asp Avenue, Nor­ Pp. 192. Illus. $19.95. Available from au­ man, Oklahoma 73019.) thor, 364 West Franklin Street, West Salem, Wisconsin 54669.) Portage County Historical Society 1983 Calendar. (Stevens Point, Wisconsin, 1982. Pp. 26. Il­ La Prairie Country Schools: a Brief History of the lus. $4.95 plus % 1.00 postage and handling. One-Room Schools of La Prairie Township, Available from Portage County Historical RockCounty, Wisconsin. (Janesville?, Wiscon­ Society, P. O. Box 672, Stevens Point, Wis­ sin, 1982? Pp. 48. Illus. $3.00. Available consin 54481.) The calendar lists dates of from Michael Scott, Route 3, Janesville, local significance and contains photographs Wisconsin 53545.) from the collection of the Portage County Historical Society. Laxey in the New World (Manxmen and their Cor­ nish Neighbors.) (Mineral Point, Wisconsin, Roddick, Bill. The Thirteenth Juror at the Law- 1982. Pp. 64. Illus. $8.50. Available from rencia Bembenek Murder Trial: Questions Left Roselyn Callin, Route 3, Mineral Point, Unanswered. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Wisconsin 53565.) History of the area ©1982. Pp. 96. Illus. $4.95 plus $1.50 post­ around Mineral Point which was settled by age and handling. Available from Tech/ emigrants from the Isle of Man. Data Pubhcadons, 6324 West Fond du Lac Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53218.) The trial took place in Milwaukee over a Long, Robert D. Racine's Historic Fireliouses. two-week period in late February and early (Racine, Wisconsin, Landmarks Preserva­ March, 1982. tion Commission, cl982. Pp. [8]. Illus. No price listed. Available from Racine County Historical Society, P. O. Box 68, Racine, St. Jolins Lutheran Church, Loganville, Wisconsin, Wisconsin 53401.) 125th Anniversary, 1857-1982. (Loganville, Wisconsin, 1982. Pp. 20. Illus. No price listed. Available from St. John's Lutheran Lyster Lutheran Church History Program, June 27, Church, Loganville, Wisconsin 53943.) 1982. (Alma, Wisconsin, ©1982. Pp. 26. Il­ lus. $1.00 plus $.50 postage and handling. Available from Buffalo County Historical St. Mary's Medical Center: 1882-Centennial- Society, 505 South Second Street, P. O. Box 1982. (Racine, Wisconsin, 1982. Pp. 32. Il­ 87, Alma, Wisconsin 54610.) lus. No price listed. Available from St.

164 WISCONSIN HISTORY CHECKLIST

Mary's Medical Center, 3801 Spring Street, Union List of Wisconsin Local History and Geneal­ Racine, Wisconsin 53405.) ogy Materials. (Green Bay, Wisconsin, 1982. Pp. 10, 189, 62. $.75 for postage. Available St. Patrick's, Lodi, Wisconsin, 1857-1982, 125th from NEWIL, University of Wisconsin- Anniversary: a Growing Family. (Lodi, Wis­ Green Bay Library Learning Center, Green consin, 1982. Pp. 48. Illus. No price listed. Bay, Wisconsin 53402.) The catalog lists ti­ Available from St. Patrick's Church, 515 tles held by libraries that are part of the Fair Street, Lodi, Wisconsin 53555.) Com­ North East Wisconsin Intertype Libraries posed primarily of photographs of church system. members, it also contains a history of the parish. Welch, Glorya Murray. James Rea: Immigrant from Scotland to Wisconsin; His Ancestors and Sorenson, Gordon G. Drummond Centennial, Descendants. (Fullerton, California, 1982. 55 1882-1982. (Drummond, Wisconsin, 1982. leaves. Illus. No price listed. Available from Pp. 442. Illus. $15.00. Available from author, 1502 Wavertree Lane, Fullerton, Drummond Centennial, Drummond, Wis­ California 92631.) The family left Scotland consin 54832.) prior to 1845 and settled in Waukesha and Dane counties. Trinity Lutheran (]hurch, Athens, Wisconsin, 1882-1982. (Athens, Wisconsin, 1982. Pp. Worden, Patricia J. Goetsch Roots and Branches. 24. Illus. $5.00 plus $ 1.00 jjostage and han­ (Big Bend, Wisconsin, 1982? Pp. 513. Illus. dling. Available from Trinity Centennial No price listed. Available from author, Book, Mrs. Marilyn Sjostrom, P. O. Box 62, S106 W22915 River Avenue, Big Bend, Athens, Wisconsin 54411.) Wisconsin 53103.)

Accessions ness transactions and the property and people involved; presented by Lois Barland, Eau Services for microfilming, xeroxing, and photostating all Claire. but certain restricted items in its manuscript collections are provided by the Society. For details write Dr. Josephine L. Harper, Manuscripts Curator. Green Bay: Two emigrants' good conduct passes from the province of Brabant, Bel­ AREA RESEARCH CENTERS gium, one given in 1856 to Antoine Collier (1798 ) which lists his family members and Eau Claire: Records, 1898-1942, 1949, ofthe their birth dates, and the other given in 1879 Union Mortgage Loan Company, an Eau to a Mr. Delwiche; loaned for copying by Rich­ Claire company which made loans to farmers, ard Delwiche, Green Bay. sold the mortgages to investors, handled bond Records, 1848-1969, ofthe Green Bay and transactions, and managed and invested di­ Mississippi Canal Company and its predeces­ rectly in farm lands in northern Wisconsin, sors, the Fox-Wisconsin Improvement Com­ North Dakota, and eastern Montana; includ­ pany, and the Board of Public Works of the ing subject files, correspondence, and finan­ State of Wisconsin; consisting of minutes, fi­ cial records containing information on busi­ nancial and land records, maps, fragmentary 165 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1982-83 records of other companies, and other items; waukee Jewish family founded by Isaac documenting canal construction, financing, Barnett; including correspondence with Eu­ and administration, water power leases, and ropean cousins, one of whom had survived a land sales; presented by Mrs. John G. Strange Nazi concentration camp; genealogical infor­ and William B. Van Nortwick, via Willard J. mation; a scrapbook on Jewish religious occa­ Schenk, Appleton. sions; and scattered business records concern­ Three items concerning Wisconsin fur ing the Muskego Company and the Barnett trader and judge Jacques Porlier; a document Woolen Mills; presented by Philip Barnett, in his hand listing the birthdates of his chil­ Milwaukee. dren, a typed translation of that document, Papers, 1909—1974, of Wisconsin educator and a printed undated pamphlet containing a Berenice Maloney Crawford (1896 ) con­ monologue on Porlier by Katherine E. Byram sisting of personal correspondence and pa­ which was presented at a 20th century cere­ pers, information on her inventor husband, mony in Green Bay; presented by Marcelle Frederick Crawford, material from her teach­ Marie Porlier Bedford, Kalamazoo, Michigan. ing career including her planned activity pro­ Recollections and historical sketches, gram for kindergartens and reading books 1922-1947, on the Belgian congregation of St. she wrote, and other records; presented by Mary's of the Snow of Namur, Door County, Mrs. Crawford, Grafton. including copies of several church documents, A two-page transcript of Ardie A. (Clark) 1876—1905, such as letters from the bishop. Halyard's remarks upon receipt of an award Sodality minutes, some baptism records, and from the Metropolitan Milwaukee Civic Alli­ financial and attendance records; loaned for ance, November 6, 1980, in which she dis­ copying by St. Norbert's Abbey, De Pere, via cusses her civic activities from 1920 to 1980; Father Jeffrey Claridge. presented by Frank Zeidler, Milwaukee. Additional papers, 1816-1982, of Mrs. Ida Predominantly near-print and printed ma­ Clermont Sanders including nineteenth cen­ terials from the League of Women Voters of tury deeds and receipts, copies of printed Milwaukee, collected by member and officer news columns of homespun commentary by Sandra Brown; including meeting reports, Lucy Clermont Sempier of De Pere, reminis­ study questions, materials from a 1970 state cences and genealogical notes and summaries, Conference on Military Spending and Na­ and photographs and memorabilia; presented tional Security, and other records; separated by Luida E. Sanders, Oshkosh. from papers presented by Sandra and William Writings, 1933, by John V. Satterlee (ca. D. Brown, Milwaukee. 1852-1935), Keshena, son of Dr. V. Motte Pe­ Additions to the records, 1919—1975, of the terson Satterlee and a Mentjminee Indian Milwaukee affiliate of the National Urban woman; including legends about places along League which stressed job training and devel­ the Menominee River plus his recollections of opment; including minutes, financial records, Peter Martin, Dutch Frank of Thunder Lake, files on projects and other organizations with and others; originally written for Earle S. which the League worked, correspondence, Holman; originals presented by Bruce newsletters, annual reports, membership and Paulson, Suring; accompanied by a partial committee records, and other records; pre­ typed copy made in 1948 when the original sented by the Milwaukee Urban League. was loaned to the Historical Society by Mr. Records, 1979-1980, of the Milwaukee Holman. chapter of the New American Movement, an Genealogical materials concerning the organization which sought to build a mass- Tourtillott family, descendants of Abraham based democratic socialist movement; includ­ Tourtillott and Marie Bernon (daughter of ing minutes, a chapter evaluation, committee Gabriel Bernon), French Huguenots who reports, convention papers, a chapter newslet­ came to America in 1687 and settled in Rhode ter, and activity proposals; presented by Marty Island; compiled by Duane A. Tourtillott in Dickinson, Milwaukee. 1978; presented by Bruce Paulson, Suring. Papers, 1933—1956, of Ernest Untermann (1864-1956), a social philosopher, writer, art­ Milwaukee: Family and business records, ist, and director of the Washington Park Zoo 1906-1971, from three generations of a Mil- in Milwaukee; including correspondence con- 166 ACCESSIONS cerning socialism and politics, speeches and Genealogy compiled in 1981 by Genevieve articles, drafts of published works, and repro­ Fairchild of her ancestors and those of her ductions of several of his artworks; presented husband, Glenn E. Fairchild, some of whom by G. E. Untermann, Vernal, Utah. resided in Barron County; including informa­ Two papers, ca. 1971, of the Milwaukee tion on the surnames Fairchild, Duncomb, Chapter of the Young Lords Organization, Knapp, and Osland; presented by Mrs. Fair- promoting independence for Puerto Rico: child, Chester, Iowa. "Citas" in Spanish containing articles by sev­ Genealogy of the progeny of Levi Flint eral writers, and "Viva Puerto Rico Libre!" in (1829—ca. 1897) of Dunn County, compiled English by Tony Baez, a Milwaukee Latino and presented in 1982 by Kathleen E. Lewis, leader; loaned for copying by Cristobal Berry- Oroville, California. Caban, Milwaukee. Photocopied diary, 1870, of Jerome B. Steves (1837-1918), Louisville, Dunn County, Northland: Papers, 1914-1977, and photo­ containing brief daily entries recording the graphs, 1890-1977, related to the careers, weather, religious activities, and work; with in­ civic interests, and families of Nathaniel Beach formation on building the Methodist Episco­ Dexter (1892-1973) and Harriet Harmon pal Church at Augusta; loaned for copying by Dexter (1897-1980), faculty members at Jerome H. Doughty, Racine. Northland College; containing information "Caddie Woodlawn," a history term paper on missionary teaching in China in 1923, set­ by U.W.—River Falls student Martha Stratton, tlement work in Ashland with Eastern Eurtj- containing information about Caroline Au­ pean refugees in the 1950's, college teaching gusta Woodhouse, the source ofthe stories in in Lebanon in 1961-1962, Northland College, author Carol Ryrie Brink's Caddie Woodlawn, small business development work in the and about the work of the Dunn County His­ Ashland area, efforts to develop local prod­ torical Society in creating Caddie Woodlawn ucts, fundamental adult education programs, Memorial Park; presented by Martha Strat­ community activities, religious talks and man­ ton, Menomonie. uscripts, and other topics; presented by Bea­ Corporate record book, 1900-1912, ofthe trice Dexter Massey, Altoona, and Raymond Submerged Electric Motor Company, a Meno­ Dexter, Fort Bragg, California. monie company which manufactured out­ board motors for boats (from a patent ob­ River Falls: Records, 1927-1966, of a small re­ tained by Samuel N. Smith) and other tail grocery store, A. Hageman and Sons Gro­ electrical equipment; including articles of in­ cery Store, Ellsworth, consisting of ledgers, corporation, lists of stockholders, minutes, journals, and other financial records; pre­ and a resolution of dissolution; presented by sented by A. Hageman and Sons, via Mary Ha­ Brent D. Skinner, Menomonie. geman, Ellsworth. A list, post 1899, of animals and other per­ sonal property at Oaklawn Stock Farm indica­ Stevens Point: Vsi^ers, 1886-1910, 1959-1974, ting the value of each item and annotated of Merrill businessman and local historian "Transferred to Fanny Macmillan and Louis George R. Gilkey (1909-1974), including cor­ S. Tainter"; Oaklawn was owned by Andrew respondence, writings, research notes, and Tainter (1823-1899) and located near Meno­ other papers related to his research on the his­ monie; presented by Mrs. A. R. Walter, Leba­ tory of Merrill and Lincoln County and on non, Pennsylvania, and Dwight Agnew, lumbering in that area; presented and loaned Menomonie. for copying by Edna Gilkey, Merrill. Whitewater: Papers, 1963-1967, of Hubert C. Stout: "A Brief History of Menomonie, Wis­ Knilans, a former Delavan resident who was a consin Schools," written in 1971 by Will G. Ba- teacher with the Peace Corps in Kano, Nige­ lenfine, superintendent from 1920 to 1957; ria, in 1964—1965; consisting of letters to a and a newsclipping on the horse-drawn stu­ friend, clippings including a series of articles dent transport system instituted about 1900; by Knilans, tape recorded recollections of his presented by Mrs. Will G. Ballentine, Meno­ experiences, and other documents; presented monie. by Mr. Knilans, Corona, California. 167 Contributors and Charles Warren Professor of American His­ tory, Emeritus, at Harvard University. He is past president of the Organization of American Histori­ ans and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Of his many publications, his major work is a biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt, of which four volumes have appeared to date.

CYNTHIA STOKES BROWN, a native of Kentucky, cur­ rently teaches writing at Antioch University in San Francisco. She earned her undergraduate degree at Duke University and holds a doctorate in the his­ tory of education from the Johns Hopkins Univer­ sity. She is the editor oi Alexander Meiklejohn: RICHARD N. CURRENT is University Distinguished Teacher of Freedom (1981) and the author of numer­ Professor of History at the University of North ous articles on education, academic freedom, and Carolina at Greensboro. A native of Colorado, he civil rights in journals ranging from the Radical received the B.A. degree from Oberlin College Teacher to McCall's. (1934), the M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (1935), and the Ph.D. from the Uni­ versity of Wisconsin (1940). He is author, co­ author, or editor of more than twenty books, in­ cluding Volume II of the Society's six-volume History of Wisconsin (1976).

ROBERT G. GUNDERSON, a professor of speech com­ munication and of history at Indiana University, majored with William B. Hesseltine as an under­ graduate (B.S., 1937) and a graduate student (Ph.D., 1949) at the University of Wisconsin. He has served as editor ofthe Quarterly Journal of Speech RICHARD M. FRIED, a native of Milwaukee, teaches and as interim editor oi lhe Journal of American His­ History at the University of Illinois at Chicago Cir­ tory. His publications include The Log-Cabin Cam­ cle. He did his undergraduate work at Amherst paign (1957) and Old Gentlemen's Convention (1961), College and earned a master's and a doctoral de­ and he is currently completing a biography of Pres­ gree at Columbia University (1965, 1972). He is the ident William Henry Harrison. author oi Men Against McCarthy (1976) and of nu­ merous articles and reviews dealing with the Cold War and American anticommunism.

FRANK L. BYRNE, professor of history at Kent State University, has also taught at Louisiana State and Creighton universities. I4e is the author of a biogra­ DAVID PAUL NORD, a former part-time researcher phy of the prohibitionist Neal Dow and editor of and writer for the State Historical Society of Wis­ three volumes of Civil War soldiers' letters, two of consin, is an assistant professor in the School of which were published by the State Historical Soci­ Journalism at Indiana University. He did graduate ety of Wisconsin. Currently he is in the latter stages work in American history and mass communica­ of research on a general history of Civil War tion at the University of Minnesota and the Univer­ prisons which he dares hope will endure as long as sity of Wisconsin; he earned his Ph.D. at the latter William B. Hesseltine's book on that subject. in 1979. His most recent publications are Newspa­ pers and New Politics: Midwestern Municipal Reform, 1890-1900 (1981) and "The Logic of Historical Re­ FRANK FREIDEL is Bullitt Professor of American search," in Research Methods in Mass Communication History at the University of Washington in Seattle, (1981). 168 THE BOARD OF CURATORS

ANTHONY S. EARL, Governor ofthe State ROBERT M. O'NEIL, President ofthe University

DOUGLAS C. LAFOLLETTE, Secretary of State MRS. JOHN ERSKINE, President of the Auxiliary

CHARLES P. SMITH, State Treasurer ROBERI B. L. MURPHY, President, Wisconsin History Foundation

THOMAS H. BARLAND, Eau Claire MRS. FANNIE HICKLIN, Madison OSCAR C. BOLDT, Appleton WILLIAM HUFFMAN, Wisconsin Rapids

E. DAVID CRONON, Madison MRS. PETER D. HUMLEKER, JR., Fond du Lac

MRS. JAMES P. CZAJKOWSKI, Wauzeka WILLIAM C:. KIDD, Racine

MRS. L. PRENTICE EAGER, JR., Evansville MRS. HERBERT V. KOHLER, JR., Kohler MRS. WILLIAM B. GAGE, Williams Bay NEWELL G. MEYER, Eagle

PAUL C. GARTZKE, Madison GEORGE H. MILLER, Ripon

JOHN C. GEILFUSS, Milwaukee JOHN M. MURRY, Hales Corners

MRS. HUGH F. GWIN, Hudson FREDERICK 1. OLSON, Wauwatosa

JOHN T. HARRINGTON, Milwaukee DR. LOUIS C. SMITH, Cassville

WILFREDJ. HARRIS, Madison MRS. WILLIAM H. L. SMYTHE, Milwaukee

MRS. RICHARD HARTZELL, Grantsburg WILLIAM F. STARK, Pewaukee

PAUL E. HASSEIT, Madison MILO K. SWANTON, Madison

MRS. WILLIAM E. HAYES, De Pere WILSON B. THIEDE, Madison

MRS. R. GOERES HAYSSEN, Racine CHARLES TWINING, Ashland

NATHAN S. HEFFERNAN, Madison EDWARD J. VIRNIG, Milwaukee

MRS. JEAN M. HELLIESEN, La Crosse GERALD D. VLSTE, Wausau

KIRBY HENDEE, Madison CLARK WILKINSON, Baraboo

The Women's Auxiliary

MRS. JOHN ERSKINE, Racine, President MRS. E. DAVID CRONON, Madison, Secretary MRS. WILLIAM B.JONES, Fort Atkinson, MRS. CX)NNOR T. HANSEN, Lake Mills, Treasurer Vice President MRS. A. PAUL [ENSEN, Madison, Past President

Fellows Curators Emeritus

VERNON CARSTENSEN ROBERT H. IRRMANN, Beloit Merle Curti MRS. EDWARD C.JONES, Fort Atkinson ALICE E. SMITH HOWARD W. MEAD, Madison THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY SHALL promote a wider appreciation ofthe American heritage with particular emphasis OH the collection, advancement and dissemination of knowledge ofthe history of Wisconsin and of the West. —Wisconsin Statutes, Chapter 44

Carl Russell Fish, professor of American history at the University of Wisconsin from 1910 to 1932, addressing a gathering in front of Bascom Hall, 1914.

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''OF WlS*-^