(ISSN 0043-6534) WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

The State Historical Society ofWisconsin • Vol. 7 f No. 1 • Autumn, 1987 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN H. NICHOLAS MULLER III, Director Officers MRS. L. PRENTICE EAGER, JR., Pr«!c(«n( GERALD D. VISTE, Treasurer WILSON B. THIEDE, First Vice-President H. NICHOLAS MULLER III, Secretary GEORGE H. MILLER, Second Vice-President

THE SrATE HtsroRicAL SOCIETY OF WiscoNstN is both a state agency and a private member­ ship 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-Allegheny West. The Society serves as the archive oi 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, schofjl services, area research centers, and affiliated local societies; it administers a broad program of his­ toric preservation; and publishes a wide variety of historical materials, both scholarly and popular. MEMBERSHtPin the Society is open to the public. Individual membership is $15, or $12.50 for persons over 65 or members of affiliated societies. Family membership is $20, or $15 for per­ sons over 65 or members of affiliated societies. Contributing membership is $50; supporting, $100; .sustaining, $200-500; patron, $500 or more. [A new fee schedule approved by the Board of Curators at its November meeting will go into effect on January 1, 1988.] THE SociErv is governed by a Board of Curators which includes twenty-four elected mem­ bers, the Governor or designee, three appointees of the Governor, a legislator from the majority and minority from each house, and ex officio, the President of the University of Wisconsin System, the designee ofthe Friends Coordinating Council, the President ofthe Wisconsin History Foundation, Inc., and the President ofthe Administrative Committee ofthe Wisconsin Council for Local History. A complete listing ofthe Curators appears in­ side the back cover.

The Society is headquartered at 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, at the juncture of State ancl Park streets on the University of Wisconsin campus. The State Historical Museum is located at 30 North Carroll Street. A partial lisung of phone numbers (Area Code 608) follows:

General Administrauon 262-3266 Maps 262-5867 Affiliated local societies 262-2316 Membership 262-9613 Archives reading room 262-3338 Microforms reading room 262-9621 Contribution of manuscript materials 262-3248 Museum tours 262-7700 Editorial offices 262-9603 Newspapers reference 262-9584 Film collections 262-0.58,5 Picture and sound collections 262-9581 Genealogical and general reference inquiries . 262-9.590 Public informauon office 262-9606 Government publications and reference 262-2781 Sales desk 262-8000 Historic preservation 262-1339 School services 262-7539 Historic sites 262-9606 Speakers bureau 262-9606 Library circulation desk 262-3421

ON IHE COVER: Bart Starr and Carroll Dale on the sidelines with Vince Lombardi during a Green Bay Packer football game. An article hy Lombardi's biographer begins on page 3. Photograph courtesy Vernon J. Biever, Port Washington. Volume 71, Number 1 / Autumn, 1987 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Published quarterly by the State Historical Society ofWisconsin, 816 State Street, Madison, In Search of Vince Lombardi: Wisconsin 53706. Distributed A Historian's Memoir to members as part of their dues. (Individual membership, Michael O'Brien 115, or $12.50 for those over 65 or members of affiliated societies; family membership, $20,or$15for those over 65 or The Establishment of Wisconsin's members of affiliated societies; Income Tax 27 contributing, $50; suppordng, $100; sustaining, $200-500; ' John O. Stark patron, $500 or more.) Single numbers from Volume 57 forward are $2. Microfilmed copies available through Good Oak 46 University Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Aldo Leopold Michigan 48106; reprints of Volumes 1 through 20 and most issues of Volumes 21 through 56 are available from Kraus Reprint Company, Book Reviews 55 Route 100, Millwood, New York 10546. Book Review Index 67 Communications should be addressed to the editor. The Wisccjnsin History Checklist Society does not assume 68 responsibility for statements made by contributors. Accessions 71 Second-class postage paid at .Madison, Wisconsin. Proceedings ofthe Orre Hundred and posi'MAsrER: Send address Forty-First Annual Meeting ofthe changes to Wisconsin Magazine State Historical Society of History, Madison, Wisconsin 74 53706. Copyright © 1987 by the State Historical Society of Contributors 80 Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Magazine of History is indexed annually by Editor the editors; cumulative indexes PAUL H. HASS are assembled decennially. In addition, articles are abstracted Associate Editors and indexed in America: History and Life, Historical A bstracts. WILLIAM C. MARTEN Index to Literature on the American JortN C). Hor.ZHUETER Indian, and the (Combined Retrospective Index to Journals in History, 1838-1974. A Loss: Vince Lombardi watching the Green Bay Packers against the Detroit Lions. Photograph courtesy Vernon J. Biever, Port Washington. In Search of Vince Lombardi: A Historian's Memoir

By Michael O'Brien

|N September 20, 1985, while been written about Lombardi, did the world o eating breakfast at Donut really need another one? World in Menasha, Wisconsin, my heart sud­ My rejoinder was—and is—that all pre­ denly fluttered as I read Bud Lea's column in vious studies had been written by contempo- the sports pages of the Milwaukee Sentinel. raryjournalists (principally sportswriters) and "Last Sunday," Lea began, "in the press box of by men who had played under Lombardi. Lambeau Field, Dick Schaap passed out Jerry Most were superficial, and tended to perpetu­ Kramer's newest book. Distant Replay." Then ate inaccuracies and misconceptions; many came the ominous sentence: "The immediate dealt only with brief periods of Lombardi's reaction among those receiving copies was, life. There was no full-dress biography based 'Oh no, not another book about Lombardi's upon painstaking research and written by a Packers.' " By then, I was concluding my sev­ trained historian. enth year of research and writing on "another The two best books about Lombardi were book" about Lombardi and the Green Bay both memoirs and bestsellers, but they were Packers. I believed that my book was much dif­ not biographies. Vince's book Run to Daylight ferent from all the others, arrd in many re­ (1963), written with the collaboration of W. C. spects much better—but would anyone take Heinz, chronicled Vince's thoughts and the time to notice? I vividly imagined the actions during a single week—Monday crotchety sportswriters in the press box atop through Sunday—during the championship Lambeau Field throwing my book out the back season of 1962. It provided a unique inside window and into the parkiirg lot. look at the way Vince prepared his players for I had heard the old canard many times: a game. Because of Heinz's lucid style and the "We-kno w-e very thing-w-e-need-to-kno w- book's fresh, intimate perspective on profes­ about-Vince-Lombardi-so-why-are-you- sional football, reviewers lavished praise on studying-him?" Indeed, Bud Lea himself had Run to Daylight. Similarly, Jerry Kramer's In­ expressed that viewpoint to me two years ear­ stant Replay (1968) furnished a candid behind- lier when I requested an interview with him. the-scenes glimpse of Lombardi's Packers Initially he had resisted, assuming that I was written by a star lineman of another champi­ merely rehashing tired old material. (Never­ onship team. Kramer, who played right theless, Lea gave an excellent interview and guard, kept a diary of the 1967 season and re­ provided new insights, especially on Lombar­ corded his feelings from training camp to Su­ di's tense relationship with the media.) Fhe at­ per Bowl II as his coach bullied, maligned, titude Lea and his peers reflected was widely mothered, and inspired the players. Neither held. Since so many books and articles had of these outstanding books was a biography of

Copyright ©1987 try The State Historical Society oj Wucimsin All rights of reproduction in any form reserved .1 I icioiy: Lombardi gets good news from the playing peld. Photograph courtesy Vernon J. Biever, Port Washington.

Vince Lombardi. Rather, they were raw mate­ oirs, they are valuable sources for the biogra­ rial for the biographer, in the same sense that pher but little more. Finally, the lives of play­ Frnest Herningw-ay's novels are raw material ers on the Packers' Super Bowl team of 1966 for Hemingway's biographer. were updated byjerrv Kramer's Distant Replay The only rroteworthy biography of Lom­ (1985), a congenial, nostalgic book which re­ bardi is Robert W. Wells's Vince Lombardi: His vealed nothing new- abotrt Vince Lombardi. Life and Times (1971). Wells, a reporter and Thus, it seemed to me, all the books written later book editor for the Milwaukee J ournal, has about Lombardi fell far short of conrprehen- written many books in a line journalistic style; siveness. Fhey failed to place the man in the but his biography of Lombardi is brief, super­ full context of his times; they were weak in re­ ficially researched, and badly outdated. Three search; they lacked the historian's thorough­ similar books pt-ovide edited excerpts of inter­ ness, his skepticism, his ability to make cotrnec- views w-ith persons who knew Lombardi at first tions. 'Fhere was plenty of room for "another" hand: Jerry Kramer, Lombardi: Winning Is the book about Lombardi. Nonetheless, what ap­ Only Thing (1970); John Wiebusch, Lombardi peared obvious to me seemed a subtle distinc­ (1971); and George Flynn, The Vince Lombardi tion to others, atrd I spent eight years explain­ Scrapbook (1976). These three differ orrly in ing why I believed a major biography was the quality of the editing and the number of needed. persons interviewed; like the personal mem­ As a history major at the University of No- O BRIEN: VtNCE LOMBARDI tre Dame (B.A., 1965) and a graduate student young athletes and had played an important in history at the University of Wisconsin- role in my early developmerrt. Growt was cool Madison (Ph.D., 1971), I had long been im­ and calm, dedicated and enthusiastic; he was mersed in the concepts and techniques of his­ an excellent teacher who loved sports and ra­ torical scholarship. My book on Senator diated integrity. When I broke down crying on Joseph R. McCarthy had been published by the mound after walking five hitters in a row, the University of Missouri Press as McCarthy arrd when, as the final batter in the last inning and McCarthyism in Wisconsin (1981). I had of a close game, I struck out with the bases learned how to plan and carry out research in loaded, Growt comforted and consoled me, printed materials, in manuscript and archival bolstering my morale. My father had died sources, and in oral interviews; like my profes­ when I was six months old. For tw-o summers, I sional colleagues I was committed to an hon­ now realize, John Growt served as my surro­ est, objective search for cause and effect gate father. among myriad clusters of "facts." What was At St. Patrick's grade school in Green Bay I more, I wanted to utidertake something I had played football. I loved the camaraderie and not learned at Notre Dame or Wisconsin: to learned the game, but I hated the drudgery of tell a story—with grace, verve, arrd my urrglamorous position at offerrsive guard. imagination—and to produce a book that Because I was pint-sized and lacked physical would honor the canons of scholarship while courage, I w-as ineffective. My lone distinction also appealing to the general reader. A biogra­ was setting the school record for most black phy seemed just the right challeirge. eyes in a single season (three), an honor in­ curred during the dreaded head-on tackling drill. I stopped playing tackle football after eighth grade. LLECTING a subject for a biogra­ My sports scrapbook contains a few news­ S phy is inevitably a process of paper clippings of my baseball career and a elimination. You have to choose a subject who few from my three joyous years on the high has not already attracted an excellent biogra­ school golf team, but w-hen I pull the scrap- pher. (This eliminated my first choice, Martin book out of the attic to reminisce, I immedi­ Luther King.) Since I could not read a foreign ately turn to the basketball clippiirgs. During language, that ruled out subjects in most ofthe the 1960—1961 basketball season, my settlor world. I lacked the expertise to handle anyone year of high school at Premontre in Greeir in science or the arts. But I krrew sports. I had Bay, I was a starting guard oir a team with a grown trp in Green Bay and had follow-ed the .500 record. My limitatiotis were obvious. I Packers; I had played matiy sports and done was arr average defensive player who lacked some coaching. Many ofthe memories and the speed and couldrr't effectively penetrate to the values I cherished came Irom sports. Vince basket. At five foot seven, I couldn't rebouird Lombardi therefore seemed like the perfect either. But I played hard, handled the ball long-term project to satisfy my interest in bio­ well, broke the press, and shot effectively from graphical writing. He w-as famous, successful, the outside. {Way outside: a thirty-foot, two- controversial; a dynamic personality, and re­ handed set shot.) The Green Bay Press-Gazette putedly an outstandiirg motivatcu- and leader correctly described me as "Little Mike of men. O'Brien, a two-hand set shot artist who spe­ For five years, fror-ir age eleven to age cializes against teams employing zone de­ fifteen, I had played Little League and then fenses." Early in the season, I scored nineteen Babe Ruth League baseball. I was a diligent points against Sturgeon Bay, mostly on long- competitor, a sure-handed second baseman, a range bombs. After that game an eleven-year- good pitcher. (And a poor hitter: my career old boy requested my autograph.,Shocked but average of .222 had mostly been built on suc­ flattered, I complied, performing the ritual cessful bunting.) My Little League coach, my first ancl only time. Later in the season, John Growt, a businessman and later the Premontre defeated Green Bay Preble, 60 — mayor of De Pere, had a perfect touch with 41, and I've memorized the Press-Gazette's re- id: George Schwartz looking at a Vince Lombardi poster in a Green Bay .store window, December 29, 1961. Green Bay Press-Gazette/)/ioto.

port ofthe game. "O'Brien Gets 18," said the worked as a recreation director at Joannes caption. "Lif 'Obie' went bombing," said the Park c:>n Green Bay's east side, often coaching story. "Mike O'Brien, . . . w-ith the seldom- youngsters in the fundamentals of football, seen two-hand set shot, sent the Cadets off and basketball, and baseball. The position paid running with his field goals from way, way out only $1.25 per hour, but I have never had a and wound up w-ith 18 points." more fulfilling job. After high school my pri­ Fhe scrapbook exaggerates my basketball mary hobby and exercise remained sports, prowess. During a season of twenty-two usually basketball, golf, and a new avocation, games, I averaged only seven points per game, touch football. Beginning in graduate school didn't make the all-conference team, and was in 1966 and continuing for fourteen years, I benched periodically for my ineffectiveness. played touch football with friends once a week Still, even if the clippings exaggerate, they also in the fall. After many years of handling thou­ ignore the powerful impact ofthe experience sands of baseballs and basketballs, I had devel­ on my personal growth. 'Fhey overlook my oped excellent hands, and I was an effective progress from third string in my freshman wide receiver in our friendly but competitive year to first string three years later. They don't pick-up games. mention the hundreds of hours of off-season practice at the Green Bay YMCA, or the disci­ pline learned, friendships made, self- LTHOUGH sports were impor­ confidence gained, and the sheer exhilaration A'tan t in my life, and in the lives of playing a graceful game. of millions of people, I soon discovered that For tw-o summers during my college years, I the history of sports has not won the respect of O BRIEN: VINCE LOMBARDI my academic peers. "Vince Lombardi is to the importance issue," wrote tine reviewer, "I sports in America what General Douglas Mac- simply cannot justify a top ranking." "Vince Arthur is to military history and Ernest Lombardi... is of limited importance," wrote Hemingway is to literature," This is the open­ another. " I am not convinced ultimately ofthe ing line I used in scores of grant proposals and historical importance of Lombardi," said a in response to queries from my academic col­ third. leagues. I hoped the analogy would gain re­ The same objection surfaced at my own spect for the biography I was writing about university, where an academic committee re­ Vince. Few seemed to buy my argument, how­ jected my proposal for a sabbatical. When I re­ ever, because the histories of war and of litera­ quested some constructive feedback, a com­ ture are perceived as being far more impor­ mittee member responded that the committee tant than the history of sports. In fact, the thought my proposal was expertly crafted. history of fust about anything is considered Why, then, was it rejected? "Because," she said more important than the history of sports. sheepishly, "the subject was Vince Lombardi." To be sure, I found that Vince Lombardi is (The following year I did win the sabbatical— still an intriguing figure to the general public. but, I was later told, only after a committee When word reached Packerland that I was member insisted that the subject, Vince Lom­ writing a biography, I had more speaking invi­ bardi, not be allowed to prejudice my pro­ tations than I could handle. I spoke to atten­ posal.) tive groups of truckers. Unitarians, Lions, Other scholars of sports have encountered Shriners, Elks, Optimists, and to the breakfast, similar diflriculties with their peers. The Orga­ lunch, and dinner versions of the Kiwanis. nization of American Historians is the princi­ Ten radio stations requested interviews as well pal asscjciation for U.S. historians, and at its as three television stations. No other topic I 1985 convention in Minneapolis, the OAH of­ could have selected would have attracted fered sessions on many subjects—"Profession­ more interest in Wisconsin. Eventually, I in­ alization in Cross-Disciplinary Perspective," terviewed sixteen sportswriters from around "Gender Perspectives of Victorian Adoles­ the country, and, judging from their interest cence," "The Popularization of Science and in the project, Vince still intrigues people na­ American World's Fairs of the 1930's"—but tionwide. not cjne session on sports history. "A concern But Vince did not intrigue scholars. Anreri- with sport," noted one scholar, "has tradition­ can historians traditionally emphasize politi­ ally not earned one prestige with colleagues in cal, economic, military, diplomatic, cultural, sociology or related academic fields." Paul ethnic, and social history, plus the new fields Weiss, the pre-eminent American philoso­ of minorities and women. Within social and pher of sport, thought that philosophers ig­ cultural history, sports are usually fortunate to nored sports because what is "popular" could receive passing notice. In my undergraduate not possibly be "philosophically important." and graduate history courses, the subject of Jules Tygiel, w-ho wrote a fine book about sports was never mentioned. I didn't know of Jackie Robinson (Baseball's Great Experiment, even one prominent historian who labored in 1983), had earlier w-anted to write on the great the field. black baseball player for his Ph.D. dissertation Yet, if I was to complete my biography in a in history at UCLA, but he quickly recovered reasonable length of time, I needed time off his senses. "I dared not. . . mention my idea to from my teaching. For four consecutive years too many pecjple," he reflected. "Baseball is I applied for a fellowship from the National not the stuff upon which successful careers in Endowment for the Humanities, and each history are normally made." He opted, in­ year my application was rejected. Competition stead, for the "conventional," and wrote the for fellowships is fierce, and my proposals may definitive study on the nineteenth-century well have been deficient. Nonetheless, the San Francisco working class. evaluations I received from NEH's readers re­ The North American Society of Sport His­ vealed that the overriding weakness in my tory is the only organization for academic en­ proposal was Vince Lombardi himself. "On thusiasts of sports history. NASSH had its 7 WISCONSIN MACiAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1987 roots in physical education, and although his­ Jock Culture USA (1978), Paul Hornung's Foot­ torians now- make up a significant minority of ball and the Single Man (1965) and Joe Willie its membership, phy-ed instructors still pre­ Namath'i I Can't Wait Until Tomorrow . . .'Cause dominate. NASSH publishes the Journal of I Get Better-Looking Every Day (1969) do not Sport History, and its dedicated members have carry the ring of sound scholarship. Carroll enhanced our understanding of the history of Dale is a fine person, a good Christian, and was sports. Richard Crepeau, the new president of an outstanding w-ide receiver for the Packers, NAASH and a historian at the University of but his shallow, syrupy, cliche-ridden autobi­ Central Florida, thinks that many in academe ography, Carroll Dale Scores Again (1969), is my continue to view sport history as "frivolous," chcjice as the worst book ever written on belonging "in the toys and games depart­ sports. From interlibrary loan I secured ment." He observes that scholars become George Sullivan's Bart Starr: The Cool Quarter­ "very very enclosed in a specialty and tend not back (1970), only to discover it was written for to think anything beyond it has any signific­ fourth graders. Cool (htarterback remained se­ ance." But, "if you look at this culture that we curely locked in my oflfice, never making it to live in," he says, "and what is important in the the lunch table. lives of people ... irr the tw-entieth century, I I even hid excellent books on sports. An don't see how you can possibly ignore sports. hour early for an interview with Ken Bow-marr, It may be one of the most important things in the former center for the Packers, I sat at a the lives of people." Despite the efforts of McDonald's restaurant in De Pere taking NASSH and its members, however, most of notes on Jerry Kramer's Instant Replay. Before my colleagues in history have never heard of I went to the men's room, I covered the book the organization, and justly or unjustly, most with my napkin, worried that someone might would hoot at the noticjn that phy-ed teachers judge me a football freak or, God forbid, that a can write serious history. fellow scholar would notice and scowl. Because the history of sports is held in such A different problem arose when I at­ low- esteem, I made an extraordinary effort to tempted to sell the manuscript to the New- emphasize my professional approach to Vince York publishing world. I had naively assumed Lombardi. To anyone w-ho asked about my that a biography of this famous and manifestly project—especially to anyone I imagined interesting man would sail smoothly through might be reacting scornfully—I responded the publishers' doors. But twice I was told that defensively: "Most books on sports are shallow Vince Lombardi's life wasn't spicy. He was a and inconsequential, having been w-ritten by daily communicant, a faithful husband, and sportswriters or ex-jocks. My book is a serious, an admirable sport—undesirable traits w-hen scholarly effort. I'm trying to treat Vince like a trying to sell a book. "It lacks the kind of spice major biographer would treat Douglas Mac- that some of the more popular (perhaps vul­ Arthur or Ernest Hemingw-ay. . . ." gar) biographies possess, and those are the Actually, I w-asn't convincing myself. I be­ kinds that do well," a New- York literary agent gan to wonder if the skeptics weren't right. wrote me. "My associate brings up books by Perhaps Vince wasn't worth the effort. Why Jack Fatum (They Call Me Assassin) and Johnny was I studying a football coach w-hen thou­ Sample {Confessions of a Dirty Ball Player) as the sands were starving in Ethiopia? Why did I sit more successful type of biography, although I before a microfilm machine searching for am certain you would never have considered Vince's post-game remarks w-hen the Persian doing a bio in this vein." (The agent underesti­ Gulf might erupt into World War III? Above mated my capacity for vulgarity and my desire all, w-hy was I reading so many dreadful sports for a publisher. Chucking my old-fashioned books, seeking nuggets about Vince? When a approach, I briefly considered portraying colleague w-ould join me at the lunch table, I Vince as a drug pusher w-ho had steamy, extra­ would carefully turn my current reading up­ marital affairs w-ith his players' wives, w-ho di­ side down. rected his cornerbacks to spear the Chicago Even the titles of some books made me ill- Bears' halfbacks, aiming at their spinal cords. at-ease among my academic peers. Neil Isaacs' But alas, who would believe it?) Uv -

A Championship: Roi^er Timin and Larry Patterson celebrating the Green Bay Packers' championship season in "Titletown, U.S.A.," December 29, 1961. (ipeen Bay Press-Cia/ette photo.

jESPITE my ambivalence about In May, 1983, I spent a successful two D' the project, the search for weeks in New York and New Jersey, studying Vince Lombardi w-as irrtriguing. At first I was important records at West Point (w-here Vince unsuccessful in w-inning the co-operation of coached for five years), Fordham University the Lombardi family. Vince's widow, Marie, (w-here he attended college for four years and lived in Manalapan, Florida; his scm, Vince, coached for two), and St. Cecilia High School Jr., worked in New- York; and his daughter, in Englewood, New Jersey (where he taught Susan, lived in Plantation, Florida. Initially, arrd coached for eight years). Before the trip I lacking travel funds, I couldn't visit them ancl phoned Vince, Jr., and requested an inter­ had to communicate by phone and letter. I fo­ view. Because by then I had been working on cused my early efforts on Marie and Vince, Jr., the book for over four years, he seemed inr- hoping to secure a long interview with each pressed w-ith my persistence and diligence and and to inspect personal papers in their posses­ agreed to an interview- during my trip. He was sion. I spoke briefly by phone with Marie Lom­ gracious and hospitable when we met at his bardi, but shortly thereafter she had a recur­ olfice on Fifth Avenue, where he worked as rence of cancer and died in 1981. I correctly the assistant director ofthe National Football assumed that she had willed the family's pa­ League Management Council. pers to Vince, Jr., and Susan. Annually for After his father's death, Vince, Jr., talked three years, I sent a progress report on my bi­ frankly in interviews about his tense relatioir- ography to young Vince, but his response w-as ship with his father, ancl he did the same in our cool. interview. In sonre ways Vince was a model fa- WISCONSIN MAGAZI.NE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1987

^

A Holiday: Lombardi handing a Christmas present to his grandson Vincent Thomas Lombardi Others, from the left: Paul Bickham, Susie Lombardi Bickham, Jill Lombardi, John Lombardi, Vincent Lombardi, Jr., and Mane Lombardi. Photograph courtesy the Green Bay Packers.

ther, especially in terms of his character and He spent his childhood constantly being on moral integrity. He espoused Christian values guard. He couldn't get into any trouble be­ and the virtues of family life. His children cause people might say his father could disci­ loved him and respected his dedication to his pline football players but couldn't control his w-ork and his coaching success. He diligently kid. As a child, young Vince could seldom pro\-ided for his children's material needs and command his father's attention. His father encouraged them to develop in mind, body, seemed to be away from home more than and spirit. In his own way, he thought he loved other fathers. "When he was around," Vince, them and cared for them. There was never a Jr., recalled, "sometimes he 'wasn't around.' " hint of scandal associated with his personal His father never read to him or played catch life. Nonetheless, he mostly failed as a parent with him. Occasionally Vince took him to a because he was too remote, neglectful, and in­ movie—alw-ays a western—but that didn't sat­ sensitive, and was o\-erly harsh, particularly isfy either because Vince became restless ancl w-ith his son. bored and never stayed to the end. "Enough "I always felt \'ii-ice was a little too hard on of this," he would announce abruptly, and the the children," Marie understated, but added two would leave the theater. correctly, "I think my son had a terrible time ir-i Vince did not spare the rod. "Where did he the father-son relationship." Indeed, being hit me?," Vince, Jr., asked. "Anywhere he the son ofthe famous coach was usually a trau­ could catch me." Vince adamantly insisted matic, suffocating, unhappy experience. The that his son study hard in school and achieve name Vince Lombardi hung like an anchor excellent grades. If the grades slipped, he around the son's neck. People expected great wouldn't permit his son out of the house until things of him, especially on the football field. the next grading period. "I had nothing to do 10 O BRIEN: VINCE LOMBARDI

except study," young Vince observed. Vince Vince, Jr., trained as a stockbroker in New bruised him emotionally because he issued or­ York, he and his father often visited, and their ders or rejected requests in such a loud, angry relationship improved. "We were pretty tone. Instead of saying, "I think it's raining. close," said Vince, Jr., "probably for the first You'd better wear your boots," Vince w-ould time." declare, "Get out here with your boots on!" After our interview, Vince, Jr., took me to Vince, Jr., worked at eleven consecutive lunch where I asked if I could inspect the fam­ training camps: two with the New York Giants ily papers in his possession. No, he replied, and nine with the Packers. Life in the man's firmly but politely. The papers were in disar­ world of his father, at the center ofthe football ray, and he didn't w-ant to disturb his house­ action, among famous athletes, was a wonder­ hold. However, my next question later proved ful fantasy world. Most of the time he worked crucial in securing access to his papers. Would as the assistant equipment manager. He he assist in acquiring his father's medical re­ shined shoes, changed cleats, made sure foot­ cords from Georgetown University Hospital balls were on the field—on time—and picked and the transcript of his father's academic re­ up jocks, socks, and dirty T-shirts. Laboring cords at Fordham? Both institutions would re­ under his father's watchful eye, though, was lease records only to a family member. Vince, often unpleasant. When his father screamed Jr., said he would help. at the players he so admired, it embarrassed With young Vince's co-operation, Fordham him. His father also embarrassed him in front released Vince's college transcript and sent it ofthe players. "I told you to do this!" Vince directly to Vince, Jr., w-ho read it and then for­ would bellow at him. "I want you to do it now!" warded it to me. Fhe transcript was surpris­ The son w-ould slink away, his head down. ing. Almost all accounts of Vince Lombardi's Vince's attitude astonished and embarrassed life had reported that he had graduated "cum many players and observers. "You couldn't be­ laude" in 1937 after making the dean's honor lieve he was talking to his own son," said assist­ roll "all four years." Vince had in fact been a ant coach Bob Schnelker. diligent student who earned good marks, but "My father and I had a [personality] coi:i- the transcript disclosed that he never gradu­ flict," Vince, Jr., concluded of their relation­ ated cum laude and had made the honor ship up to 1969. "My father didn't know what roll—barely—only once in his eight senresters. to make of me. [He] felt that my mother shel­ Moreover, the transcript revealed that he had tered me too much, stood up for me too much, done poorly in law school and dropped out in and therefore he felt he had to counteract that 1939 after completing only one semester. bybeingfirm. . . . I saw that his philosophies at Vince's performance in law school apparently home were the same with his football team. He mortified him, and he concealed it for the rest drove them like he tried to drive me." Though of his life, never correcting the conventional he had always feared his father's discipline wisdom that he had almost completed his law and chafed under his unrealistic demands, in degree and had dropped out only to marry retrospect he thought he suffered tro long- Marie. term damage. "I don't feel any worse for [it]." Shortly after I received the transcript, I Finally, after Vince began coaching the Wash­ phoned Vince, Jr., thanked him for his assist- ington Redskins, he grew- closer to his son. Itr airce, and again requested to see the papers in June, 1969, young Vince received his law de­ his possession. "Sure," he responded. "You gree from William Mitchell College of Law in can look at anything you want. After I saw the St. Paul, Minnesota, and the following Octo­ transcript, I decided you could look at what­ ber passed his bar examination. A married ever you w-ant." The son, w-hose father had man with children, he had worked during the badgered him constantly to achieve excellent day and attended classes in the evening. Vince grades, was shocked to learn that his father had always w-anted his son to be a lawyer and had not been a super student himself. The im­ Vince Jr.'s sacrifice and hard work earned his pact of the Fordham transcript seemed to con­ respect. He proudly introduced young Vince vince young Vince ofthe importance of histor­ to his friends as "My son, the law-yer." When ical fact and of the biographer's work. In the 11 W-ISCONSIN .MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1987 fall of 1984,1 drove to Bloomfield Hills, Mich­ Taken together, Vince Jr.'s and Susan's pa­ igan, where he had moved his family after tak­ pers were the most valuable manuscript ing a new job, and there I went through eight source I found. Fhey contained some corre­ large boxes of Vince's papers. spondence and large amounts of inaccessible clippings, articles, speeches, and memorabilia. For example, a letter in Susan's papers shed light on Vince's personality away from the USAN (Lombardi) Bickham w-as football field. Ethel Kennedy, Robert Kenne­ S fully supportive of my project dy's widow, first met Vince at a Washington and invited me to her home to inspect her pa­ dinner party in 1969. She recalled her experi­ pers. She was divorced and lived with her chil­ ence in a letter to Marie Lombardi. Ethel had dren in a beautiful home outside Ft. Lauder­ "that sinking feeling" when she learned she'd dale, Florida. In May, 1984,1 spent five days at been assigned to sit next to Vince at the party. her home studying and copying her large col­ But she found him warm and sympathetic. lection. I had earlier interviewed her by "The coach w-as so relaxed," she told Marie, phone, and recorded other thoughts during "he was a million laughs and he spellbound my research at her home. our table describing the various players in that Susan w-as five years younger than Vince, terse, succinct, clipped manner which made Jr., and more of an extrovert than her serious you conscious all at once of his toughness, his brother. Her father had mellowed slightly by kindness, his superior intellect, his under­ the time she grew up, and being a daughter standing of human foibles, his ability to make saved her from physical abuse. "I was the ap­ you better than you are and—most amazing of ple of his eye," Susan said. "Vince [Jr.] got the all for a Georgetown dinner—his closeness to rough end of the deal." She did not have her God." brother's scholastic aptitude, and her father Although valuable, Vince Jr.'s and Susan's never insisted she excel at school. He took time papers were also disappointing because they to help her with algebra and Latin, and enthu­ contained little of Vince's correspondence, siastically encouraged her horseback riding normally a critical resource for the biogra­ and appearances in horse shows. They occa­ pher. If large amounts of Vince's memos and sionally talked, and Susan most fondly re­ letters have survived, I was unable to locate membered one piece of his advice: "You'll them. Some correspondence may be in the makealotof mistakes in your life, Susan, but if possession of the Green Bay Packers, but you learn from every mistake, you really Judge Robert Parins, president ofthe Packers' didn't make a mistake." Corpcjration, refused my repeated requests to Vince enforced a strict curfew with Susan, inspect the team's papers, fearing that I would but he was more lenient generally, and she uncover sensitive material. Washington Red­ knew how to circumvent him. Perfect timing skins officials speculated that after Vince's and careful preparation enhanced her death in 1970, his secretary, Pat Stone, may chances of getting her w-ay. If that didn't sw-ay have taken possession of Vince's correspon­ him, she had another method: "All I had to do dence; but nobody knew where Pat Stone lived was cry. If I cried, I got what I wanted." or even if she was still alive. Still, like her brother, being the daughter of 'Fo compensate for the lack of correspon­ Vince Lombardi was difficult. She too was dence, I thoroughly researched newspapers bruised emotionally by his loud, angry de­ and interview-ed 205 persons. Newspapers mands and rejections. "We all got our feelings provided crucial information on Vince. I stud­ hurt," Susan told me, "because he said it in ied ten of them comprehensively and another such a powerful way." It bothered her that he twenty selectively. 'Fhe Green Bay Press-Gazette remained preoccupied w-ith coaching while at provided the most complete coverage of Vince home. "He was there, but he really wasn't Lombardi and his Packers and I therefore there. There w-ere times when I wished he'd studied every issue of the daily on microfilm been there and that he wasn't Vince from the depressing fall of 1958, w-hen the Lombardi—that he was just normal." Packers limped through a 1 — 10—1 record un- 12 A Bark: Bart Starr taking a snap from Jim Rmgo during a game against the Deli oil Lions m Milwaukee, 1962. Photograph courtesy Russ Kriwanek, Green Bay. der Coach Scooter McLean, until 1970, when ries about Marie, four of them in the Press- Vince died. In hundreds of stories the Press- Gazette.) Gazette reported Vince's interviews, speeches, Newspapers w-ere often virgin territory. training regimen, strategy, the thoughts of The Fordham University Archives contains fans and players, and even Vince's vacations. thirty dusty volumes of newspaper clippings It also mentioned or reprinted scores of artic­ on Fordham's football teams. Vince had les frcjm other newspapers and periodicals played guard at Fordham for four years in the which I noted and later systematically studied. mid-1930's, including the Seven Blocks of I didn't stop the microfilm machine only at the Granite team in his senior year, 1936. The sports page. Because Marie Lombardi had clippings described the progress oi the teams, died before I had a chance to interview her, in Vince's injuries, his struggle to make the first all the newspapers studied I also inspected the team, and his best games. society page where an interview with Marie Vince's finest game was a scoreless tie with would most likely appear. (The technique rugged Pittsburgh in 1936. Most of the time worked, and I discovered tw-elve valuable sto­ Vince had to block Pitt's AU-American, Tony 13 Courtcsv the author A Talk: Lombardi coaching hts St. Cectlia High School basketball team, 194L

Matisi, a fast, aggressive tackle who out­ room after the game Dr. Gerry Carroll, the weighed Vince bv thirty pounds. Vince's team physician, sewed thirty stitches inside blocking helped punch holes in the huge Pitt Vince's mouth. line, but he paid a price. "We had a play on .After graduation from Fordham, Vince which I was supposed to trap the Pitt tackle Lombardi spent eight years (1939-1947) as a [Matisi]," Vince recalled years later. "It teacher and coach at St. Cecilia High School in worked fine, so our quarterback kept calling it. Englew-ood, Newjersey. Neither of the local But everytime I trapped that guy, he jabbed new-spapers—the Englewood Press and the me right in the teeth w-ith his elbow." Bergen Evening Record—had ever been used to Vince's mouth bled so badly that his coach, understand his career in Englewood. Both Jim Crowley, took him out of the game. Nat w-eeklies described Vince's personality, closely Pierce, the other Fordham guard, was also in­ monitored his basketball and football teams, jured and had to come out as w-ell. "When Pitt his desire for a college coaching position in began marching toward what looked like a football, his summer jobs, and even his mar­ score," said a clipping from the New York Sun, riage. After Vince and Marie were married on "Crowley rushed them in and stemmed the August 31, 1940, they honeymooned in charge." With blood gushing from his mouth, Maine, but the new-spapers reported that Vince made a key tackle on Fordham's four- Vince cut short the trip to return home in time yard line, stopping Pitt's drive. In the locker for the opening of football practice on Sep-

14 O BRIEN: VINCE LOMBARDI tember 3, a decision symptomatic of Vince's hundred fifty well-wishers toasted him at a priorities for the rest of his life. farewell dinner on April 10. Friends and ath­ The sportsw-riters who covered Vince at St. letic officials from throughout New Jersey Cecilia deeply admired his coaching, his rela­ presented tributes, including one from the tions with his players, and his dedication to his New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic As- work. His football teams were among the best scjciation w-hich praised his "moral qualities." in New Jersey, and at one point went unde­ The encomiums of friends, the recollections feated in thirty-two games. When he started at of past glory at St. Cecilia, the prospect of St. Cecilia, Vince knew little about coaching leaving—all overwhelmed Vince that evening. basketball. He taught himself the game, then "Coach Lombardi spoke, but he was all choked taught and drilled his players, and finally took up," reported the Bergen Evening Record. "He his teams to four state parochial tournaments, put in a plug for his mother and father before winning the title in 1945. SportswTiters mar­ he was led away by his missus." veled at his skillful coaching despite his lack of experience. As the Saints moved towards the 1945 title, Merv Hyman oi the Englewood Press gathered valuable, intimate in­ credited Vince as the "driving force" behind I sights about Vince from tape- the success: "Vincent Lombardi is an unusual recorded interviews, two-thirds of them con­ young man. He is a hard taskmaster yet is sin­ ducted over the telephone. (The "live" cerely admired and respected by all of his interview is most desired, of course, but the charges. He demands perfection and gets it telephorre approach had one compelling, because his boys are w-illing to work for and practical benefit: since the persons I needed to w-ith him." interview were scattered over forty states, the In 1947 Vince resigned from St. Cecilia to travel costs would have been prohibitive. I accept the position as assistant football coach found the telephone interview to be almost as at his alma mater, Fordham University. Three effective as the live one.) As my interview-ing

,4 Smile: Lombardi teaching a science class at St. Cecilia in the early 1940's. i I A Falcon: Bart Starr taking the keys to his new car from Dick Deschame, Green Bay, July 15, 1961. Green Bay Press-Gazette/i/ioto. progressed, acquaintances of mine c^ften in­ Frank Gilford, Paul Hornung, and Bart quired about my interviews with famous per­ Starr!) Because they had usually been inter­ sons, some of whom are still media stars. Have viewed about Vince many times, some promi­ you talked with Frank Gilford? What's Paul nent persons couldn't understand why anyone Hornung really like? What did Bart Starr say? needed to interview them again. I carefully ex­ Interviewing famous persons, though, posed plained my project and my unique perspective unique problems. Because of their promi­ as a professional historian, but my explanation nence and busy schedules, arranging an inter­ seemed to bore them. "OK, get on w-ith it," view- was often difficult and tedious. They had some seemed to be saying. "Let's get this over already been inter\-iewed many times, and w-ith." some had written books and articles (or been There w-ere notable exceptions. Quarter­ quoted in books and articles) in which Vince back Bart Starr and Edward Bennett Williams, Lombardi was the central figure. I had taken a famous trial attorney and president of the scores of notes from their books, articles, and Washington Redskins w-hile Vince coached previous interviews and only needed to the Redskins, both were gracious and patient, confirm their earlier comments and to ask a answering all my questions. So was Willie few- specific questions. Sometimes it seemed I Davis, but he was more dilTicult to reach. was trying to arrange an interview- only to Davis, a former defensive end with the Pack­ make my bibliography look impressive. (I ers and current multi-millionaire business­ could imagine what book reviewers would say man, shuttles from his major wine and beer if I listed 205 interview-s, but failed to include distributorship in Los Angeles, to board of di- 16 A Thundi f; ,• II, _• • - ' new car film Van Drisse Iind, Green Bay, June, 1962. (jreeii Bay Piess-Ciazette/i/ioto. rectors' meetings, and to the radio stations he In my interview wrth Willie Davis, he de­ owns throughout the country. After eight scribed some of the details of one approach phone calls, I finally caught up with him at his Vince used to solve racial problems. In early radio station in Milwaukee. He confirmed im­ September, 1959, before an exhibition game portant details about Vince's relations with against the Washington Redskins in Greens­ black players. boro, North Carolina, local authorides en­ Unlike some professional teams in the forced the segregation ordinance and forced 1960's, the Packers had no racial friction; no the Packers' four black players to stay at an all- hint of racial prejudice. "I can't think of a sin­ black college. Vince felt badly about the inci­ gle racial incident we have had," said free dent, and when a Greensboro restaurant safety Willie Wood in 1968. "If we had any ra­ forced the blacks to enter and leave by the cial problems," echoed linebacker Ray back door, Vince ordered a// his players to en­ Nitschke, "I didn't know about them." Vince's ter and leave by the back door. Thereafter he innate sense of fairness, plus the w-ounds of took greater care to book reservations where prejudice he suffered most of his life as an the team could eat and sleep together. None­ Italian-American, explained part of his sensi­ theless, segregation laws continued to plague tivity and understanding. So did his religious him in Jacksonville, Florida; Columbus, Geor­ faith. Irritated by a bigoted comment about gia; and New- Orleans. Frustrated and angry blacks that he overheard at a social event, after losing a confrontation with local authori­ Vince responded angrily, "How can you, as a ties over accommodations, he huddled with good Chrisdan, feel that way?" his black players—including Davis—while the 17 W-ISCONSIN .MAGAZINE OF HIS FORY AUTUMN, 1987 rest of the squad watched silently from the has remained permanently resentful.) I didn't bus. "I'll never—absolutely never—put you even attempt to interview Jerry Kramer. After guys in this situation again," Vince told them, taking 400 notes on his four books, plus re­ teary-eyed. "If it means we play no games view-s of those books, I couldn't think of any­ down here, that's the way it will be." That thing to ask him. Vince felt so strongly about the matter aston­ Interviewing Forrest Gregg, ctirrer-rt coach ished Davis and cemented his affection for his ofthe Packers, was traumatic. Because Gregg coach. "'Fhat was one of the reasons why I w-as my 201st interview, I assumed that I had would do anything . . . for the man," Davis developed enough poise to handle V^ince's told me. Finally, Vince devised an ingenious gruff, no-nonsense protege. I was a profes­ method to circumvent the segregation. For ex­ sional historian; he would not intimidate me as hibition games in Georgia in 1961 and 1962, he reputedly intimidated his players. I as­ he quartered the team at the Fort Benning sumed wrong. army base where the Packers li\ed in hot, non- Because of Gregg's busy schedule, it had air-conditioned discomfort, but as a family— taken me nine months to line up an interview. together. On April 1, 1984, I arrdved at the Packers' Often, though, trying to interview famous office in Green Bay on Lombardi Time— individuals was difficult and frustrating. fifteen minutes early. As I was ushered into his Frank Gifford, the star halfback for the New- office Gregg rose from his chair to greet me. York Giants in the 1950's, w-hile Vince w-as the He stands six feet three inches, 240 pounds. Giants offensive coach, is currently a sports He didn't smile, and when I looked into his announcer for ABC. While I was trying to ar­ dark, expressive eyes, I felt impaled. After I range an interview with him, he w-as preparing settled into the chair across from his desk and for his worldwide tele\-ision coverage of the plugged in my tape recorder, I asked him if he 1984 Winter Olympics. Under the circum­ had any questions about my project. "Yes," stances, another interview about Vince Lom­ Gregg said, raising his powerful jaw, looking bardi, with an unknown writer from Menasha, at me over his nose. "I don't like the awful Wisconsin, was not among Gilford's priorities. things people have been writing about Vince, He finally granted the interview and was curt and therefore I normally don't grant inter­ and unfriendly, though his information was views about him. Why are you writing about useful. him?" (For the first tinre in r-ny life I felt my left Unfortunately, Paul Horirung, Vince's ver­ arm begin to twitch.) I briefly outlined my rea­ satile playboy halfback, who lives in Louisville, sons. "Well, that's OK, I guess," he said. "But Kentucky, will not be listed in my bibliogra­ the only reason I'm granting you an irrterview phy. I had stacks of information about is because I noticed in your letter that you've Hornung from books, articles, and his pre­ been working on this book for six years. I vious inter\iews, but I wanted to clarify his figure that anyone who w-orks on a book fornix views on Lombardi and ask him specific ques­ years must have the work ethicl So go ahead. Ask tions about his one-year suspension for gam­ your questions." (My arm was twitching more bling, his role as a team leader, and his rela­ noticeably.) The interview went well until the tions w-ith black players. I wrote him two long end w-hen I asked Gregg about Vince's verbal letters. No response. Because he has an un­ abusiveness. I had learned tc:) ask the question listed home phone ntrmber, I called his busi­ tactfully, aware that \'ince's admirers among ness office and on severr occasions left a phone the players often bitterly resent the heavy em­ message with his secretary, who promised to phasis critics place on Vince's hollering and deliver it. No response. While I was trying to screaming. "Mr. Gregg, I want to assure you communicate with him, I was reading newspa­ that I intend to provide a balanced and fair as­ per interviews he had granted to sports­ sessment of this next point. Would you please w-riters, increasing my frustration. I realized, describe incidents of Vince's verbal abuse and too late, that the sportswriters probably had your reaction to them?" Gregg glared at me. acquired his unlisted phone number. (Maybe (The twitching started again.) "He was never Hornung flunked history at Notre Dame and abusive!" he bellowed. (My arm was out of

18 A Lark: Fuzzy Thurston at a player piano with Eunice Schanke, Sam Schanke, and Jesse Whittenton, Green Bay, July 15, 1962. Green Bay Press-Gazette/^Aoto. control.) "He had temper tantrums!" Realizing Only part ofthe story is true. Ringo's agent his too-fine distinction, Gregg threw back his did talk to Vince, who at that time resented head and howled with laughter. (The twitch­ players' agents. (Beginning about 1966, ac­ ing stopped.) cepting the inevitable, he changed his mind and dealt amicably with agents.) Otherw-ise the story erred in two important ways. First, the Y interviews shattered some trade had been arranged before Vince met M myths about Vince Lombardi. with the agent. Second, for personal reason.s— One of his player transactions has become know-n only to Ringo and to Vince—Ringo shrouded in myth, partly because Vince found had asked to be traded to Philadelphia so he the myth useful in managing his players and could be closer to his Pennsylvania home. his budget in Green Bay. The trade that sent "Vince and I were the only ones w-ho knew- his popular all-pro center, Jim Ringo, to the why I was traded," Ringo said in our interview. Philadelphia Eagles is a staple ofthe Lombardi "It was more personal than it was anything, legend. The story goes that in 1964 Ringo sent and I still had a w-onderful rapport w-ith Vince his agent to meet w-ith Vince to demand a bet­ afterwards." ter contract. "Excuse me for a moment," Vince When the mostly mythical story circulated supposedly said, leaviirg the room. Five min­ w-idely, rather thait dispel it, Vince actually utes later he came back and addressed the perpetuated it, because it alerted his players agent. "I am afraid," Vince said, "you have that no one was indispensable and petrified come to the wTong city to discuss Mr. James any contract bandits. In a veiled reference to Ringo's contract. IVIr. James Ringo is now- the the Ringo incident, Vince said publicly that he property ofthe Philadelphia Eagles." detested excessive financial demands by play- 19 ,-1 Rule: I.uinoiudi's players hitting the blocking sled. Photograph courtesy the Green Bay Puttiers

20 O BRIEN: VINCE LOMBARDI ers, particularly players who issued ultima­ "That's a nothin' injury, Schoenke!" Vince bel­ tums. "They both get hustled out of my office lowed. "If you're not ready, I'm getting rid of in a hurry," he said, "and the one with the ulti­ ya! You hear me! I'm getting rid of ya!" Al­ matum, if he does not relent, gets traded." At though deeply and permanently resentful, the same time, the story allowed Ringo to keep Schoenke struggled to retirrn quickly to private his reasons for wanting to return to action: "I was gonna show- that son-of-a-bitch." Pennsylvania. "It filled both our rreeds at the Once healthy again, Schoenke made the great­ time," recalled Ringo. Five years after the est effort of his career, and late in the season trade, an interviewer grilled Vince about the earned Vince's praise. "Ray, you're playing incident. Did the Ringo trade actually occur outstanding football," Vince told him, "I really over a five-minute time span? "Hell, no," appreciate it." But the compliment didn't ap­ Vince admitted. "That's no way to general pease Schoenke. "To me it was an insult," he manage a football team." Might not the trade said. have been signed and sealed before Ringo's Schoenke told me that he disagreed with agent tapped on the general manager's door? those who thought Vince was warm and sensi­ Vince grinned. "Yeah, something like that," tive. "When I think of him, I don't think of he said. warmth. I don't think of sensitivity. If he was Still, a few former players had chilling sensitive, he certainly wouldn't have said the memories of Vince. When I interviewed things he said to me." Concluded Schoenke: former center Ken Bowman in his dark, "As much as I hated the guy—and I did—I dreary law office in De Pere, he spoke softly, hated him!—I had tremendous respect for articulately, but his recollections of his coach him. Tremendous. I played some of the best reflected the atmosphere of his office. "He was football of my life under him. ... It is a para­ fond of calling me stupid," Bowman recalled. dox." During the off-season. Bowman had studied for his law degree, and when he made a mis­ take at practice, Vince insulted him, yelling, "You're too stupid to play this game, let alone HE most revealing interviews become a lawyer!" Bowman admired Vince's T were often with persons w-ho coaching and his striving for excellence, but had seldom, if ever, been interviewed about had deep reservations about Lombardi, the Vince, particularly players who were not fa­ man. mous and individuals who knew him off the "Did you like Lombardi?" I asked. football field, most of whom deeply admired "I didn't like him," Bowman replied. "I him. Let me give a couple of examples. In the guess I'm too much of a humanitarian. I summer of 1932, Vince withdrew from Cathe­ thought degradation of ball players was belittl­ dral Prep in Brooklyn, a Catholic seminary, ing. ... I didn't thitrk it was necessary. I where he had been studying for the priest­ thought in many ways he w-as much too hood for three years. He had decided that the harsh. ... As a man, I don't like him, but as a priesthood was not for him. In the fall, he en­ coach, he was the greatest." rolled for his senior year of high school at St. Ray Schoenke played for Vince in 1969 af­ Francis Prep, also in Brooklyn, where he ter Vince moved to Washington to coach the played guard and halfback on the football Redskins. A six-year veteran offensive guard, team, earning selection to the all-New- York Schoenke thought Vince was a paradox: a de­ City team. His favorite teacher and most help­ mented genius, an object of both loathing and ful mentor at St. Francis w-as his language in­ admiration. Schoenke took personal pride in structor, Dan Kern, whom I interviewed by being a self-starter, a man with his own rea­ phone at his home in Hendersonville, North sons for wanting to excel. Yet Vince drove, Carolina, on June 21, 1983. Kern vividly re­ harassed, and badgered him. Early in the 1969 called the famous student he had guided over season Schoenke suffered a painful separa­ fifty years earlier. Kern was then a twenty- tion of his rib cage, and Vince's callous reac­ four-year-old Fordham University graduate tion to his physical agony shocked him. w-ho agreed to tutor Vince in Greek because 21 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1987

Vince needed one more semester to complete had repeatedly gotten him into trouble with a tw-o-year language requirement for gradua­ the law. In the late fall of 1948, Vince and tion. He assigned Vince to translate the Anaba­ Viracola's father agreed that Langdon should sis, a famous narrative account by Xenophon, be restricted to the Fordham campus for all the Athenian historian, of the 10,000 Greek but one w-eekend a mor-ith or else Vince woirld mercenary soldiers who struggled to get out of forbid him from playing. At the time, Viracola Persia about 400 B.C. The story concerned a deeply resented Vince's intrusion. humane leader who combined intelligence, After Vince left Fordham in 1949 to coach discipline, and organization to rally his at West Point, Viracola assaulted a police troops—words that Vince Lombardi's admir­ officer and was convicted of assault and bat­ ers later used to describe his ow-n leadership. tery. When in 1951 he became embroiled in On pleasant days, Kern told me, he and another fight, violating the terms of his proba­ Vince conducted their sessions outdoors on a tion, a judge sentenced him to reform school bench by a gazebo near the garden exit of the in New Jersey, and Fordham suspended him Prep. Normally Kern assigned students from school. twenty lines to translate daily, but Vince was so Langdon Viracola was a businessman in proficient that Kern gave him sixty lines. Yet Dallas, Texas, w-hen I reached him by phone each morning Vince would "breeze right on August 8, 1983. He recalled his troubles through it," Kern recalled. He earned a grade w-ith the law. "My father used to come [to the of 92 percent. reform school] almost every Sunday. They One morning in early May, 1933, as they sat kept me there almost fourteen months. It's a together by the gazebo, Vince asked Kern an hard spot in my life," said Viracola, breaking important favor. At that moment, w-ith his into tears over the phone. "While I w-as locked hands clasped awkw-ardly between his legs, up for the first month, my dad came to visit me Vince seemed abnormally shy, undoubtedly and who w-as w-ith him but Coach Lombardi. worried about Kern's response. He asked if And when I w-ent to the visiting room, I can re­ Kern would help him win a football scholar­ member hugging my dad, and Coach Lom­ ship to Fordham. He explained that he al­ bardi looked at me and said, 'You still mad at ready had an excellent scholarship offer from me?' " There was a pause over the phone as Lou Little, the head coach at Columbia Uni­ Viracola tried to compose himself. Strangling versity, but that "my mother would like me to through his tears, he continued. "I came un- go to a Catholic institution." Vince probably glued. I cried like a kid. I hugged Coach Lom­ assumed that, as a Fordham alumnus, Kern's bardi." After the first visit, "Coach Lombardi recommendation could be influential. would come and visit me once a month. And it Kern agreed to help, and that evening he made time [go by] more easily." wrote to Jack Coffey, Fordham's athletic di­ In 1952, Lombardi and Langdon's father rector, touting Vince's fine scholastic ability visited Cardinal Francis Spellman, a Fordham and football accomplishments. He also in­ graduate. "[Lombardi] and Cardinal Spell- flated Vince's weight from 170 to 185 because, man got together w-ith Father Lawrence Mc- he explained, "they wouldn't have looked at Ginley, president of Fordham at that time, him if I said he was so low in weight." Coffey and they put something together that finally responded shortly thereafter, invited Vince to convinced [the reform school's offrcials] that visit Fordham, and then awarded him a four- they w-ould let me go back to Fordham; that year scholarship. they would release me." Langdon re-entered A major reason that some players loved Fordham and graduated. "[Lombardi] played Vince w-as because he helped them overcome one of the biggest parts in my life," Viracola serious personal problems. One such man was concluded. Langdon Viracola, a halfback w-hile Vince was By 1968, because of his fabulous success the assistant coach at Fordham in 1947—1948. coaching the Packers, Vince was in great de­ Viracola's father had befriended Vince, partly mand for speeches and endorsements. Fo because he hoped Vince could help reform his handle some of his business activities, he hired son, w-hose terrible temper and violent brawls an agent, Frank Scott, a New Jersey resident 22 o BRIEN: VINCE LOMBARDI w-ho specialized in endorsements and personal Since Lombardi was so prominent, pundits appearances for athletes. Vince continued to often used him as an example of much that arrange many of his own appearances and en­ was wrong in American sports, and, to some dorsements, but Scott arranged four; an ad­ extent, all of American society. "Lombardi's vertisement for Nestle's chocolate and three special skill in developing men," w-rote the so­ speeches. For each speech Vince received cial critic Murray Kempton, "appears to have about $2,000. Scott told me he could have ar­ been for keeping them high school boys." ranged "fifty deals" for his popular client, but "Hating" opponents and preaching that "win­ Vince was selective. "He felt certain commer­ ning is the only thing" were poor standards for cials w-eren'l proper for the dignity of a any one to live by, the critics charged. It was coach," recalled Scott. Vince refused to en­ difficult to appreciate the beauty and the vir­ dorse beer and smoking products because he tues of football, said George Sauer ofthe New thought they would adversely influence York Jets, "when you have a Vince Lombardi youth. When a shaving-cream company of­ type of coach hollering at you to hate the other fered him $10,000 to endorse its product, guy, who's reallyjust like you in a different col­ Vince instructed Scott to reject it: "I shave with ored uniform." Because coaches were in a cut­ a different product." On this occasion and throat business, constantly under pressure to others, Scott w-as impressed w-ith Vince's eth­ produce, Vince's stress on winning put a terri­ ics: "Not many men would cut it that fine." ble strain on sportsmanship. Some conceded Overall, in three decades of representing that winning was a self-evident goal in profes­ thousands of athletes, Scott judged Vince as sional focnball, but objected to the way that the "most outstanding man that I've ever been Vince's slogan was transformed into high associated with in sports." As a public speaker, principle. "To make America the Green Bay said Scott, "I never heard a member of the Packers and the NFL the planet Earth, is fas­ clergy or a political figure or anybody else that cist rhetoric," charged sportswriter Robert could be so dynamic. . . . He moved you." Lipsyte. (The words fascist and fascism ap­ peared surprisingly often in criticism of Vince FT Vince Lombardi attracted Lombardi and his philosophy.) Y'man y critics, especially after his Because football was violent, and was often death, and it was imperative that I understand spoken of in military metaphor, and was their perspective and evaluate their indict­ touted by the Nixon administration, anti-war ments. Fhe critics described Vince as a tyrant, activists and proponents of the "countercul­ a successful martinet, a single-dimensional ture" linked football to the war in Vietnam. person with a heart of stone. His philosophy, Only a super-aggressive, dehumarrized nation they charged, was as obnoxious and danger­ addicted to football could pursue such an im­ ous as his tyrannical rule: moral, brutal war, they said. 'Fhe Watergate "To play this game, you must have that fire scandal likew-ise produced its share of focjtball in you, and there is nothing that stokes that analogies. When Watergate burglar James fire like hate." McCord showed signs of independence, he "I believe a coach must be a pedagogue. He was chastised for not following the "game has to pound the lessons into the players by plan." Other conspirators were told to be rote, the same way you teach pupils in the "team players." In the 1972 Nixon campaign, classroom." in the secret roonr used by the Committee to "Pro football ... is a violent, dangerous Re-Elect the President (CREEP), Jeb Magru- sport. To play it other than vicjlently would be der and his Watergate accomplices planned imbecile." spying operations and dirty tricks. On the wall "I think the rights of the individual have hung a sign w-ith the legend, "WINNING IN been put above everything else. . . . The indi­ POLITICS ISN'T EVERYTHING, IT'S vidual has to have every respect for authority THE ONLY THING." What the White House regardless of what authority is." needed, suggested one political observer, was "Winning isn't the most important thing; "less Vince Lombardi and more Abraham Lin­ it's the only thing." coln." 23 WHi(M56)9565 A Laugh: Lombardi answering questions at a professional-football writers' dinner m .Milwaukee, February 10, 1969. Photograph by Robert C. Miller, courtesy The Milwaukee Journal.

In his sober, intelligent book, Sports in Amer­ terrible-tempered. He never seemed to appre­ ica (1976), novelist James Michener criticized ciate that the values he cherished in sports Vince's methods and philosophy. Micherrer could just as cjften be gained thrcmgh other in­ liked Vince's dedication to accomplishment tense endeavors. His tyrannical coaching and his doctrine that when you engage an op­ methods and his emphasis on w-inning w-er-e, ponent, you do so to win; but he charged that indeed, easily misconstrued by others. None­ Vince had "kept mature athletes in a state of theless, some found fault with him no matter juvenile dependence, making grown men what he said. When he let it be known that he tremble when he frowned, or rejoice when he taught his players to "hate" an opponent for a deigned to smile upon them." Losing a game week, he was condemned for desecrating a was not equivalent to death. "Failing to be nu- Biblical injunction; when he credited the mero uno does not make me a lesser human "love" the Packers had for each other as a rea­ being," Michener argued. When Michener re­ son for the team's greatness, he was accused of searched his chapter on children for his book, being corny. he heard the same complaint from a score of l"he way Vince's slogans w-ere interpreted resentful parents: "Our Little League coach by critics has infuriated Vince's family and ad­ thinks he is obligated to behave like Vince mirers. Vince would not have "sold his mother Lombardi." Fortunately, he added, there to win a football game," stated Marie Lom­ seemed to be a general rejection of the "reign bardi in exasperation. "I think some of my lib­ of terror" Vince had inspired: "The rejection eral friends have used it to downgrade Vince's of his methods was by no means universal, and character," said Vince's friend Wellington it was shamefully late in coming, but it was sub­ Mara. "I can feel the hair on the back of my stantial." neck stand up when 1 hear people speaking Vince's critics were partly correct. He was disparagingly of [his] creed because they don't often rude and inconsiderate, egotistical and know what they are talking about." Willie 24 o BRIEN: \TNCE LOMBARDI

Davis insisted, "if you knew the man, you knew phor for such virtues as drive, ambition, re­ it was the pursuit [of w-inning]. I hope we spect for standards, and individual excel­ never reach the point where we're planning to lence," O'Neill concluded. "Now many lose, and that's all Lombardi meant." thought it their last resort." "Winning is the only thing" can indeed be a The most impressive feature of Vince's model standard when understood as an atti­ ccjaching was the way he motivated his players. tude, a desire, a spirit. Winning does provide He scoffed at suggestions that he was a bril­ evidence of excellence, perfection, and liant psychologist, but the way he motivated proper preparation. It need not mean that forty players week after week, year after year, one must win at all cost, fair or foul, or that los­ know-ing whom to goad and whom to flatter, ing is without dignity. Vince's Packers lost oc­ bringing them to a fever pitch at precisely the casionally. Yet they had so much elan and pro­ right moment, yet maintaining their poise, re­ fessional integrity that even in defeat they quired the delicate touch of a master psycholo­ played with distinction—and lost with dignity. gist. "Hejust knew us all," said Willie Davis. In general, the critics created a shallow, Although Vince neglected his role as a fa­ one-dimensional portrait of Vince. They un­ ther in the conventional sense, he willingly, ex­ fairly misrepresented his methods and philos­ citedly accepted responsibilities as a father in ophy, blamed him for the neurotic actions of another sense. As his friend Richard Bourgui- others, ignored his considerable virtues, and gnon observed, "he'd use the word 'family' dismissed the tributes of the persons who when he talked about his football team." Many knew him best. True, he was obsessed with players claimed to have matured under winning; but those who observed him closely Vince's fatherly guidance and some were pro­ knew that his ethics were exceptional and that foundly influenced by him. They sensed that he honored football with his sportsmanship. he genuinely desired to improve their charac­ Few- of his former players seemed to have ab­ ter and values, and they appreciated his ef­ sorbed dangerous or unhealthy lessons from forts. "More than anything else," said Bart him. A few later suffered tragically from fam­ Starr, "he wanted us to be great men after . . . ily problems, alcoholism, mental illness, bank­ we'd left football." "I don't think he ever ruptcy, and unemployment. Yet only a tiny taught me any football," said defensive tackle fraction of those w-ho suffered such problems Henry Jordan. "What he'd do three times a blamed Vince for contributing in any way to week was preach on life." their personal or professional misfortunes. Vince Lombardi often said that football was Although Vince's approach to sports har­ a simple game of blocking and tackling—a bored serious potential dangers, it was hard to game for schoolboys and young men. Yet he argue with a man and a philosophy demand­ constantly preached that football was also a ing the best from everyone. In Coming Apart, metaphor for life. Some people judged him a his social history of the 1960's, historian Wil­ primitive for this outlook, but he unabashedly liam O'Neill praised Vince Lombardi and ob­ taught his players to set an almost impossibly served: "In an age marked by fakery, hedo­ high standard of excellence for themselves, nism, and contempt for work, sport was one of and then he drove them unmercifully to the few areas in which hard work and ability achieve it. were still pre-eminent and unmistakable." "He's the person who made me a man," said Vince's teams exemplified those traits and cre­ Jim Ringo. "He made a lot of boys into ated a modern metaphor for collective excel­ men. . . . You don't have many opportunities lence. When Vince spoke out for old- in life to come in contact w-ith a man of such fashioned standards and victory properly talents." Scores of players, de-emphasizing the arrived at, he was praised by people nostalgic importance of Vince's verbal abuse, echoed for lost values. "Fhere was something pathetic Ringo's assessment. "He could get the best out about all this," said O'Neill, because Vince's of more people than anyone I've known," said crusade showed the bankruptcy of a tradition Max McCee, a star of Super Bowl I. John once championed by Theodore Roosevelt and Roach, the seldom-used quarterback behind John F. Kennedy. "Sport used to seem a meta­ Bart Starr from 1961 to 1963, told me that 25 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1987

"even though it was a frivolous thing like foot­ Yet I occasionally lost my perspective. I ball, he showed us a way to make ourselves bet­ found myself needing to win. Vince Lombardi ter. I . . . never attained any degree of success had admitted that his "ego" would not accept a in professional football, and yet I look back loss. He said if he w-ere "more perfectly ad­ and [can] say that he probably made as big an justed," he could toss off defeat, "but my name impression oir me as anybody that I ever had is on this ball club. It's a matter of my pride." any contact with. . . . When you put your heart Now my name w-as on a team, and my ego was and soul into any task, if you're the lowest em­ not accepting defeat. It was a matter of my ployee in the companv,. . . you're going to be a pride. Subtly, insidiously, winning was becom­ better person in everything you do and will get ing the "only thing" for me. The reason is, rewards. . . .He was a great man." winners win more than a game. Even within the tiny soccer-coaching fraternity in my small N the summer of 1982, at the mid­ community, the winners claim honor, esteem, I point in my study of Vince, I was a measure of glory. Only a winning record is wrestling with the complexities of Vince Lom­ measurable. Losing can be evidence of poor bardi's personality and philosophy, and par­ leadership, organization, preparation, strat­ ticularly his controversial credo, "Winning is egy, and attitude. When a talented Neenah the only thing." During the same summer team clobbered us 10—1, I afterwards drank months, I also coached soccer in Menasha. My two Manhattans to soothe my shattered ego. team was in the youngest age group: boys and Occasionally I found mvself speaking too girls seven and eight years old. I had never harshly to my players, imagining that they played soccer, only observed it, but there was a could concentrate more, try harder, run shortage of coaches and at that young age faster, do better-—and win more. When a level the coaching is elementary. Very ele­ neighbor's bcjy, daydreaming, allowed the mentary: "Kids, w-hen a jet flies over the field, other team to maneuver past him for a score, I please don't all stop playing to watch it." And: found myself bellow-ing: "What in the hell is "Kids, make sure you go to the bathroom be­ the matter with you? Concentrate out there for fore the game." ('Fhe previous week my goalie Chnsfs sake'." The next day the boy quit the had left his box to trot into a nearby woods. team. His parents haven't talked to me since. While he w-as relieving himself, the other team Fortunately, losing did not seem to bother the scored. We lost, 2— 1.) kids, w-ho always arrived early for the next I tried to keep the proper perspective on practice, bubbling w-ith enthusiasm. Losing my coaching. Fhese were young children who only bothered their coach. By the end of that should be taught the game and be given small summer, I understood Vince better. doses of competiticm. .Above all, they should Four years later, in the summer of 1986, I have fun, make friends, and learn the joy of had come to the end of my search for Vince sports. I wrote a letter to the parents of my Lombardi. My 650 typed pages were boxed players reminding them that winning had a and xeroxed, and chapters were in the hands low priority and requesting that they not yell of tw-o New York editors who had expressed at the imperfections of the referee or their enthusiasm for the topic. Was it w-orth eight own child's performance. The parents fully years of my life, and the many thousands of co-operated. I ran efficient drills, taught fun­ hours of concerted effort? My biography of damentals, spoke clearly, and encouraged Vince was published by William Morrow- in team morale. the fall of 1987. Read the book!

26 The Establishment of Wisconsin's Income Tax

By John O. Stark

'HREF-QUARTERS of a cen­ deal more complicated, and the issues are T tury ago, in 1911, Wisconsin somewhat less sharply drawn, than has often enacted the nation's first wcjrkable income tax been assumed. A careful review ofthe concep­ law-. This achievement is not a Wisconsin tion and drafting of the bill, of the persons "first" that politicians are given to boasting who conceived and drafted it, and of the cir­ about, nor is the genesis of that law a popular cumstances surrounding its amendment and topic among the state's historians. Yet, as a passage indicates that it w-as designed to, and piece of legislation that permanently affected in fact did, foster equity more than to further life in Wisconsin, and helped UJ establish im­ the interests of any single group. Indeed, mea­ portant standards and precedents for the rest sured by its fairness and by the technical skill of the nation, it merits a closer and perhaps that went into it, the Wisconsin income tax leg­ more critical examination than it has hereto­ islation of 1911 w-as a landmark and a beacon fore received. to the federal government and the forty-five The prevailing interpretation of Wiscon­ other states w-hich since have passed income sin's income tax law is that it w-as pro-farmer tax law-s and depend on them for a substantial and anti-manufacturer, the work of a progres­ share of their revenue. sive Republican legislature dominated by Historians have argued that the bill w-hich farmers and determined to realize Rcjbert M. became Wisconsin's income tax law can best be La Follette's dreams about redistributing understood as part of a historical process that wealth and power. Supposedly, the income tax lasted for decades. They describe this bill's also would serve the secondary purpose of tax­ significance so that it accords with general the­ ing those persons w-ho had escaped personal ories which they believe are valid throughout property taxes and real estate taxes because that long span of time. For example, David P. they owned intangible property: bank ac­ Thelen traces a sequence of events which in­ counts, claims to debt, securities, ancl other cludes the economic shock of the depression property the value of which is not in their tan­ c:>f 1893 to 1897; resulting anger about eco­ gible attributes but in the rights, usually to nomic disadvantages, which was focused on money, that they represent. Therefore it was local issues; the polarization of "the people" designed, according to that interpretation, to versus "the interests"; and Bob La Follette's benefit one class of citizens at the expense of skillful manipulation of some of these others. concerns—in part sincerely, in part to en­ But in fact—as is so often the case in legisla­ hance his pow-er and his progressive wing of tive ancl political affairs—the matter is a good the Republican party. Fhe result was a spate of

Copyright ©1987 Py 'l~he Stale Historical Sonets of Wiscomin 27 AU rights of reproduf It'll! in any form reserved WISCONSIN MACiAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1987 reform legislation, including the income tax turers and Merchants' Association and by bill.' Harry W. Bolens of Port Washington, a con­ Similarly, W. Elliott Brownlee asserts that servative Democrat w-ho was then president of the income tax bill can best be understood in that association.'' the context of the progressives' transforma­ tion from religious and ethnic groups to socio­ economic classes.^ Specifically, he argues that lEWED as one part of a broad- the progressives established the income tax to gauge, decades-long "progres­ benefit farmers at the expense of manufactur­ v sive impulse," then, the 1911 income tax law- ers. Brownlee's evidence, in addition to the may indeed seem like a piece of special- progressives' political philosophy over four interest legislation. .Vloreover, one cause of decades and comments by La Follette, in­ the interest in an income tax is La Follette's ad­ cludes several contemporary newspaper artic­ vocacy of it as early as 1897—and historians' les and personal papers that refer to manufac­ subsequent interest in anything La Follette turers' lobbying against the bill. He especially promoted. In fact. La Follette's influence did relies upon a newspaper article quoting "a help cast the issue in political and social-class leading member of a special tax committee" to terms. The citizens of Wisconsin were recep­ the effect that farmers would pay little in in­ tive to him partly because ofthe reasons which come taxes, and a report of the Wisconsin Tax 'Thelen identified; mt they gravitated to him Commission indicating that agricultural prop­ also because of their desire for fair taxation. erty was assessed at a higher percentage of fair However, the view of taxation as a technical as market value (the price it w-ould bring at a sale well as a political problem w-as advanced al­ if both the seller and buyer were uncon­ most as early as an income tax and was also strained and knowledgeable, which is the among the motivating factors which impelled value that assessors were supposed to deter­ the legislature towards its passage. mine) than was manufacturing property. Ag­ ricultural propertv was thus bearing more In 1898 the Wisconsin Tax Commission is­ than its share ofthe property tax, to which the sued a lengthy, detailed report which iden­ income tax was an alternative.'^ This last piece tified severe technical and administrative of information is significant because it implies problems w-ith the property tax. It raised as that replacing the personal property tax with well a key question about the origin of the in­ an income tax, if the latter tax were equally come tax bill: to what extent w-as the income fair to those groups, would benefit farmers tax a solution for difficult technical problems more than manufacturers. A handful of other about the prcjperty tax? By focusing more contemporary documents likewise supports closely on the actual events surrounding the Brownlee's assertions. For example, an analy­ genesis ofthe law-, and especially on the imme­ sis of the tax bill published shortly after its en­ diate period of the legislature's deliberation, actment in 1911 mentions a "strong opposi­ the Wisconsin income tax can be seen in a dif­ tion, representing manufacturing and ferent light. commercial interests."'* And tw-o newspaper The state ccjnstitutioir lay squarely in the accounts from early 1911 advert to statements path of reform. Article \TII, Section 1—the made agaii-ist the bill by the state's Manufac- uniformity clause—read: "The rule of taxa­ tion shall be uniform, and taxes shall be levied upon such property as the legislature shall ^The New Citizenship: Origins of Progressivism in Wiscon­ prescribe." 'Fhus, only property, not income, sin, 1885-1900 (Columbia, 1972). was a constitutionally authorized object of tax­ ^"Income TaxaUon and the Political Economy ofWis­ ation. In order to amend the constitution, the consin, 1890- 1930," in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, legislature had to pass ajoint resolution speci­ 59: 299-324 (Summer, 1976). '^Ibid., 308, 310, 312. The unnamed committee mem­ fying the change in two successive sessions and ber was Senator Kileen. "•Kossuth Kent Kennan, 'The Wisconsin Income Tax," in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 26:172 (No­ "Madison Democrat, February 8, 1911; Milwaukee Free vember, 1911). Press, February 14, 1911. 28 WHi(X3)25877 The state treasurer's office in the capitol (1857-1913). .Arthur Pugh, chief accountant and office manager, is second from left, about 1907. then submit that change to the electorate by vided." This amendment worked; the income referendum. In 1903 the legislature passed, tax was later held to be constitutional.'' on first consideration, an amendment that After voter ratification, however, the legis­ would have opened the door to income tax lature took considerable time to enact the ac­ legislation; but an administrative error nul­ tual income tax law, much as one would expect lified this effort and required a fresh start. for such a difficult piece of legislation. In fact, (This administrative error was the first indica­ the process w-hich had begun with first consid­ tion that technical skill of a high order would eration of a constitutional amendment in 1903 be needed to draft and pass an income tax did not end until 1911. law.) The fresh start occurred in 1905, when The first step towards the law itself after the the legislature passed anotherjoint resolution, 1908 referendum took place before the etrd of then gave second consideration to it success­ the 1909 session, when Assemblyman C. A. fully in 1907. Only one legislator voted against Ingram of Durand introduced Assembly Bill the resolution in 1907. A statewide referen­ 831." Ingram, a lawyer and influential dum in 1908 overwhelmingly approved this legislator—he was elected speaker of the as­ amendment to the constitution, 85,696 to sembly in 1911—was probably encouraged by 37,729. The result added a second sentence to Governor James O. Davidson, w-ho devoted a the uniformity clause: "Faxes may also be im­ posed on incomes, privileges and occupations, which taxes may be graduated and progres­ ''State ex rel. Bolens v. Frear, 148 Wis. 456 1912). sive, and reasonable exemptions may be pro­ 'Assembly Journal, January 14, 1909.

29 W-ISCONSIN .MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN,1987 significant part of his speech to the legislature lette had been allies for a long time, Haugen at the beginning ofthe session to a plea for an helping La Follette to maintain the support of income tax.* However, the Ingram bill's de­ Norwegian-Americans, a crucial part of his co­ fects were so manifest that it died in a commit­ alition. In 1901 La Follette appointed him to tee. A legislature unconcerned about technical the state tax commission, the agency charged aspects ofthe new law and determined to pun­ w-ith administering the tax laws. Haugen be­ ish "the interests" would not have been so eas­ gan advocating an income tax as early as 1903, ily deterred. Between the 1909 and 1911 ses­ and he thus deserves credit as a kev figure in sions, a special committee c:>n income tax, the development ofthe Wisconsin income tax. chaired by Senator John Kleczka of Milwaukee, However, notwithstanding Haugen's impor­ paid further attention to the subject. Kleczka tant taxation role and background, he plainly was a young (only twenty-six in 1911) lawyer in lacked the considerable technical skill needed his first term who had wc^n an election in which to draft a workable income tax bill.-' the three candidates finished within 326 votes The technical skill needed to move the bill of each other and whose term would be up in forward and to ensure that it would result in a 1912. To be offered that chair he must have workable system was found for the Kleczka been an able legislator; to accept it, given the committee by Charles McCarthy, one of the precariousness of his hold on his senate seat, more remarkable figures in Wisconsin his­ he must have been daring. During the 1911 tory.'° In 1901 the Wisconsin Free Library session, Kleczka's committee introduced Sen­ Commission had established a reference li­ ate Bill 573, which became the basis for the in­ brary in the state capitol for the use of legisla­ come tax law. tors. McCarthy was that library's first em­ ployee. That position at first was not very important, but he turned it into one oi the dy­ namos ofWisconsin progressive politics. Hav­ HEN occurred the most crucial ing found Haugen of little use, according to turning point in the bill's his­ T Senator Kleczka, the interim committee tory: introduction of Senate Substitute turned to McCarthy for assistance." Delega­ Amendment 1. Leafing through the collection tion to McCarthy of this responsibility further­ of legislati\e documents, the substitute more was typical ofthe concern manifested by amendment appears to hejust another ofthe Governor Francis E. McGovern for technical unremarkable facts associated with the law. skill.'^ Whereas La Follette was a man of vision But in the changes made by Senate Substitute and a charismatic advocate, McGovern was Amendment 1 lie mirch of this act's signific­ skilled at shaping and passing legislation. In a ance and much of its hirman drama. Bob La sense, McGovern played Lyndon Johnson to Follette's lieutenant. Nils Haugen, had La Follette's John Kennedy. drafted the bill itself, as well as the previous session's income tax bill. Haugen, the ambi­ McCarthy in turn selected Delos O. Kins­ tious and hard-working son of Norwegian im­ man, a professor at the Whitewater Normal migrants, had graduated from Luther College School who had written a doctoral dissertation in Decorah, Iowa, and the University of Michi­ at the University ofWisconsin on income taxa­ gan Law School. Much admired in his home tion, as the person for the job.''^ Here w-as the area of west-central Wisconsin (he was from River Falls), he had served in the assembly and •Tor autobiographical material on Haugen, see "Pio­ neer and Political Reminiscences," in the Wisconsin Maga­ on the railroad commission and had been zine of History, volumes 12 and 13. elected several times to Congress. At La Fol­ '"See a somewhat adulatory biography by Edward A. lette's urging, he sought the Republican nomi­ Fitzpatrick, Af cCart/i-^' ofWisconsin (New- York, 1944). nation for governor in 1894. He and La Fol- "Ibid., 121. '•^Robert C. Nesbit remarks on McGovern's close rela­ tionship with McCarthv and the amazing output of legisla­ tion during McCiovern's term in Wisconsin: A History (Mad­ "^Even Brownlee acknowledges that the bill's technical ison, 1973), 425, 429. dehciencies led to its demise; see his "Income Taxation 'Titzpatrick, McCarthy of Wisconsin, 24, claims that and the Poliucal Economy ofWisconsin," 59:308. "the critical point in the construction of this legislation was 30 'gusts, 1906.

Wisconsin Idea, a partnership of state govern­ ideologically motivated attacks on social ment and the University of Wisconsin, again classes. The senate passed Senate Substitute put to work for solving diflicult problems, as it Amendment 1 (Kinsman's draft), 20 to 6, with was so often during this era. two senators paired and five absent or not vot­ Professor Kinsman did his job well. For ex­ ing. The assembly committee on taxation then ample, he realized that Haugen's decision to recommended Assembly Substitute Amend­ let local elected offrcials administer the tax ment 1, which w-as introduced by its chairper­ would be disastrous. Kinsman opted for ad- son, Elmer E. Haight, a third-term represent­ mitristration by appointed state offrcials, who ative from Columbia County. It passed, as were likely to be more objective and beyond amended, 58 to 25. The large margin itr the influence.''^ His changes can be characterized senate suggested that that body's concurrence as technical improvements, not intended as in the assembly substitute amendment was very likely. There was some inconsequential shifting on the roll call: three senators who had voted for the senate substitute amend- the selection of Kinsman as a draftsman lor the Legislative Reference Library, his conversion to the practicality ol a state income-tax law by McCarthy, the provision of ade­ quate assistance for him and the guidance and stimulus of '-•"Genesis of Wisconsin's Income Tax Law: An Inter­ McCarthy both directly on Kinsman and generally upon view with D. O. Kinsman," in the Wisconsin Magazine of members of the legislature." History, 21:11 (September, 1937). 31 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1987 ment were absent or not voting, exactly bal­ ancing three senators who had been absent or not voting initially on the senate substitute amendment, but who voted for concurrence. More importantly, there w-as a net loss of six votes because six senators—four Republicans, one Social Democrat, and one Democrat— w-ho had voted for the senate substitute amendment voted against concurrence with the assembly. In short, if one more senator had defected, the fifteen-to-fourteen vote w-ould have gone the other way, and an in­ come tax may not have been enacted during the 1911 session, or even at all.

ECAUSE the Wisconsin legisla­ B ture does not publish its floor debate and because no other available contem­ porary material casts much light on the sena­ tors' defection, one can only guess at their mo­ tives. Their party affiliations, districts, and personal characteristics form no pattern, but an examination of events and legislative de­ tails in a truncated time frame is revealing. The assembly had changed the senate version in several ways which affected various interest groups, but each group's gains were balanced by losses. For example, investors gained a Nils P. Haugen. Studio portrait by A. C. Nielson, Madison. property tax exemption for debts and money (an exemption w-hich also recognized the dif­ ficulty of taxing intangibles), but became sub­ clear that Kinsman's tax bill could be adminis­ ject to an income tax on some interest derived tered effectively. from corporate bonds. It is likely that the pri­ During this political process Nils Haugen, mary reason for the defections was that the de­ obviously nettled at being replaced by Kins­ fectors recognized that a real, workable in­ man as the drafter, offered no help as an advo­ come tax was imminent. The senate was no cate and at times even opposed the bill. Eigh­ longer voting on a vague concept that w-ould teen years later, in his account of this legis­ never become concrete or would be a virtual lation, and still apparently bitter, Haugen nullity; it w-as voting on a workable income tax declined to mention Kinsman by name and whose provisions the assembly had made even commented petulantly that the revision w-as more w-orkable. This revelation probably led "undoubtedly improved in some parts, but not several senators to change their minds. The mall."13 assembly strengthened the bill in several ways. The changes made in the bill as it moved It deleted provisions for a delay and a referen­ through the legislature reveal the difficult dum. It also deleted a provision which allowed technical problems which had to be solved. taxpayers to offset real property taxes against Among the more important was the taxation income tax liability (and inserted a deduction for taxes on property which produced in­ come), thereby significantly increasing tax '-•Haugen, "Pioneer and Political Reminsicences,' revenue. Also, its actions probably made it 12:287. 32 STARK: WISCONSIN INCOME TAX of nonresident individuals and of businesses the time, as expressed in the legislators' voting operating both in Wisconsin and elsewhere, records for various changes in the bill. The specifically the requirements for nexus (a busi­ size of personal exemptions provides a good ness connection to a unit of government which example, since it was perhaps the most contro­ allows the government to impose a valid tax) versial issue, and certainly the issue which gen­ and apportionment (determination of the erated the most changes. The issue revolved part of a multi-state business' income which a around how personal deducticjns would be state may tax). If the problems of nexus and handled and how much an individual or a apportionment had not been solved, the tax married couple would be allowed to deduct. could not have been properly administered The relative size of personal deductions was and would have been vulnerable to legal chal­ important in determining how the tax burden lenges. Both issues have federal constitutional would be distributed. In the Kinsman bill, per­ dimensions: a state's overreaching to tax in­ sonal exemptions worked much as the stand­ come which it has no right to tax may result in ard deduction in late-twentieth-century in­ a court's invalidating essential parts ofthe law come taxes, both state and national: they w-ere because of violations of the doctrine of due subtracted from income before the tax rate process (Section I of the Fourteenth Amend­ was applied. High personal exemptions favor ment) or the commerce clause (Article I, Sec­ lower-income persons, because they allow tion 8c). They also are among the more intel­ more of them to escape taxation and because lectually complex issues in income taxation. In they reduce the tax's effective rate (the ratio of fact, Wisconsin continues today to adjust its the tax to gross income) for low-income per­ law about these two matters in response to sons more than they do for high-income per­ changing facts and court decisions. Haugen's sons. Moreover, unlike itemized deductions, Senate Bill 573 addressed these issues, but, all taxpayers automatically enjoy the benefits partly because there were no models for a suc­ of standard deductions rather than only those cessful income tax law on which to base this who have engaged in certain kinds of eco­ one, did not do so very satisfactorily.'*' His bill nomic activity. The Social Democrats were the simply stated that the state could tax income most zealous advocates of high personal ex­ that was within its jurisdiction. This begged emptions. the question. The bill needed to define the Senate Bill 573 allowed a $600 exemption state's taxing jurisdiction and to differentiate for an unmarried individual, an $800 exemp­ between income earned in the state and in­ tion for a married couple, and further exemp­ come earned elsewhere. Kinsman's Senate tions for dependents.'^ The original version Substitute Amendment 1 alleviated the result­ of Senate Substitute Amendment 1 retained ing problems immediately with detailed, these amounts, but a later amendment raised workable rules." For example. Kinsman dif­ them to $1,000 and $1,200 respectively.'^As­ ferentiated among types of income and cla­ sembly Substitute Amendment 1 offered a rified the relation between the place where compromise ($600 and $ 1,000) but an amend­ possession of property is transferred and ju­ ment replaced those amounts with $800 and risdiction over the income derived from that $1,200—the final figures.^o Senator Winfield transfer. R. Gaylord, a Social Democrat from Milw-au­ kee and a very active lecturer on social and ec­ onomic subjects for the Socialist party in many states, offered the first successful amendment HESE and other changes in the to increase the amounts. (His party affiliation 1911 bill reveal the legislature's T- confirms that spokesmen for lower-income attempts to impose equitable taxation on Wis­ persons are likely to iavor high personal ex- consin. They also reveal something about the state's political parties and their attitudes at '^Section 1087m-6 1. (a) and (b). '^Section 1087m-6 1. (a) and (b). '^Sections 1087m-2. and 1087m-3. '^"Section 1087m-5 1. (a) and (b); Assembly .'Amend­ "Sections 1087m-2 and 1087m-23. ment 1. 33 \VHi(X3)43661 The capitol grounds, August 9, 1906.

emptions.) The second successful amendment objected. As a result. Senate Substitute to increase those amounts, like the other two Amendment 1 allowed a deductk)n for all in­ successful amendmerrts to Assembly Substi­ terest except bonded interest (meaning inter­ tute Amendment 1, was offered by Assembly­ est on notes, which were much more common man Haight, a progressive Republican and in loan transactions involving an economically chairman of the committee on taxation. Pas­ powerful lender, such as a bank, than in trans­ sage of those amendments related to personal actions between relative financial equals).-' exemptions seems to have been the Republi­ The Democrats, who w-ere on the conservative cans' attempt to protect their left flank. side in 1911 and were more sympathetic than Pressure from the right was applied in re­ the Republicans to the concerns of financial gard to deductions for interest. A generous interests, introduced an amendment, which deduction would aid higher-income persons the senate passed, to allow deduction of and businesses, but Haugen's bill allowed no bonded interest also.^'^ Passage of this minority irrterest deduction.^' At a public hearing in the party amendment demonstrates the legisla­ assembly chamber. Judge Paul D. Carpenter ture's concern for equity and argues against of Milw-aukee, representing the merchants explaining the income tax as a single-minded and manufacturers' association of that city.

'•^'•'Section 1087m-3 1. b.: Milwaukee Journal, Mav 26, 1911. '^'Section 1087m-3 l.(b). ^'Senate .Amendment 9. 34 STARK: WISCONSIN INCOME TAX attempt to benefit one constituency at the ex­ units of government were not collecting many pense of another. A secure majority, moti­ of the taxes on personal property w-hich the vated solely by a desire to tax the rich, would statutes already authorized. 'Fhis discrepancy not have yielded on opposition to a deduction between statutory authority and real-world for bonded interest. practice made it impossible for the income- The scarcity of technical amendments indi­ tax-bill drafters to predict the actual economic cates that Kinsman and the staff of the Legisla­ effects of various rules for offsetting property tive Reference Library, not partisan legisla­ taxes. tors, solved virtually all technical problems. Senate Bill 573 allowed persons to reduce The Democrats' major instrument for chang­ their income taxes by the taxes paid on per­ ing the legislation was Assembly Substitute sonal property (basically, all property except Amendment 2, which essentially would have land and buildings, which are real proper­ made the bill a nullity by establishing a very ty).^** Senate Substitute Amendment 1 origi­ weak system to administer it, by allowing per­ nally did the same, but it was amended to allow sonal exemptions even larger than those sug­ a more generous offset for taxes paid on both gested by the Social Democrats, and by impos­ personal and real property.^^ Finally, Assem­ ing a flat tax rate (the same rate applied to bly Substitute Amendment 1 was less gener­ income regardless of the amount of that in­ ous cm this issue. It allowed individuals to de­ come) of 1 per cent. Flat rates, unlike progres­ duct from their inccjme (not to offset against sive rate structures (in which the rates rise as their income tax) whatever taxes other than income rises), benefit persons who have large inheritance taxes they had "paid on the prop­ incomes, and the Democrats' proposed 1 per erty or business from which the income cent rate would have made the tax hardly hereby taxed is derived."2'' In the original bill, worth the administrative expense. Although corporations had been allowed a deduction the Democratic party platform supported an for state and local taxes, including property income tax, only four Democrats in the assem­ taxes. The final resolution of this issue gave bly voted for Assembly Substitute Amend­ nearly identical treatment to corporations and ment 1, and nineteen voted against it. Two individuals, and treated the taxes of both, Democratic senators voted to concur in that w-hen appropriate, as business expenses. substitute amendment, and two voted not to Bringing the corporations into parity with in­ concur. From then on, the bill belonged to the dividuals on this matter was another move to­ progressive Republicans. wards equity and aw-ay from hurting the "big It is relatively easy to identify the groups interests." .Assembly Substitute Amendment 1 that would benefit from high personal exemp­ also deleted the offset for taxes on real prop­ tions, deductions for interest, or a weak tax erty and retained the offset for taxes on per­ with a flat rate. It is much harder to identify sonal property.^'The income tax bill might the constituencies aided by the bill's provisions have omitted these provisions about the inter­ for offsetting property taxes against the in­ relations between the income tax and the come tax. (An offset is subtracted from the tax property tax if it had done away with the lat­ after it is calculated.) This is because the rela­ ter. The legislature had that option after the tions between property tax law and socio­ Wisconsin Tax Commissicjn, politicians, and economic class are more complex than the re­ citizens had made it clear that the property tax lations between income tax law and was not working as previous legislatures had socio-economic class. The property tax is de­ contemplated it would work. The legislature termined by the value of assets which their chose instead to create an income tax and, in owner is likely not to want to convert into cash, the same bill, to modify the property tax. If the so it has only a very tenuous connection to the owner's ability to pay. Moreover, even if the relation between the property tax and socio­ economic class were clear, that tax was not ^-iSection 1087m-26. ^^Section 1087m-27; Senate Amendment 2. working as the statutes had decreed it should 26Section 1087m-4(h). work. Most importantly, the state and other "Section 1087m-4(h). 35 WISCONSIN MAC;AZINE OF HIS'FORY AUFU.MN, 1987 legislature had been motivated primarily by property taxes, that reduction in turn would ideological concerns, it probably would have reduce the amount that could be offset against abolished the property tax and proclaimed that income taxes. it had thereby helped the farmers. Its interest Another question about whether to provide in creating technically feasible and equitable special income tax benefits for a specific group laws led it instead to improve that tax. Senate of persons arose because of tw'o provisions in Substitute Amendment 1 exempted money the state constitution, one of w-hich set the sala­ and securities from the property tax and con­ ries for the governor, lieutenant-governor, verted the partial exemption for debts, which and members of the legislature^" and the had been equal to the amount of debt ow-ed by other of which prohibited decreasing a public the taxpayer, to a total exemption. However, official's ccjmpensation during a term of the same amendment also initiated a tax on in­ office.^' It was argued that an income tax terest earned by lenders on loans taken out to would reduce salaries, thereby -violating the buy real estate.^^ On the face of it, the exemp­ first provision, and, if it were imposed before a tion of intangible assets may appear to benefit term of office ended, it would violate the sec­ capitalists; but because taxpayers could sub­ ond provision. 'Fhe legislature had several al­ tract the property tax they paid from their in­ ternatives. One was embodied in Haugen's bill come tax liability, reducing personal property and Kinsman's substitute amendment: avoid taxes w-ould reduce a person's total liability for difficulty with those provisions by perma­ both taxes only if that perscjn's property tax nently exempting the governor, the was greater than his or her income tax before lieutenant-governor, and legislators and by the personal property tax was calculated. exempting other public officials for the length of their present term.'^^ A second alternative, trying to prevent difficulty in regard to one of those constitutional provisions, was adopted HE new bill also addressed one when an amendment to the substitute amend­ T' ofthe major weaknesses of Wis­ ment replaced the specific exemptions for consin's personal property tax system: the fail­ state officials with an exemptic^n for persons a ure of assessors to discover, and determine the tax on whom would be unconstitutional.''-^ Two value of, intangible property such as debts, se­ other alternatives, neither of which was curities, and money. Nearly all such property adopted, were to exempt officials during their was going untaxed. 'Fhe proposed income tax current terms but not to exempt state officials act merely made dejure that w-hich had been de and to tax all offrcials. facto. Assembly Substitute Amendment 1 re­ tained personal property exemptions for in­ Clearly, Wisconsin's legislators gave them­ tangibles and added exemptions for "personal selves, as well as the governor and lieutenant- ornaments and jew-elry habitually worn"; governor, a significant tax benefit, fheir mo­ made it clear that the exempticm for crops ap­ tive is not so clear. The rrrost charitable view is plied to ginseng and other medicinal plants; that they were motivated purely by a desire to and eliminated dollar-amount limits that ap­ avoid putting an unconstitutional provision in plied to watches, mechanics' tools, and the the bill.'^'' If that was their motive, it follows sum of the value of certain musical instru­ that they replaced the specific exemption for ments and household furniture.^'' These new- state officials with the exemption for those exemptions of course would benefit farmers whom it would be unconstitutional to tax in or­ and other persons of modest means. Items like der to clarify their motive and to ensure that a these are much easier to discover and evaluate than intangibles, so the exemptions had an ef­ fect. But that effect would be minimal be­ ^Article V, sections 5 and 9; .Article IV, section 2. cause, although the exemptions would reduce "Article FV, section 26. "^Section 1087m-3. l.b. '"Senate Amendment 10. 28Section 1087m-3. l.b. '-•According to the Milwaukee Journal, March 7, 1911, ^'Sections 4 to 7 of the subsutute amendment. that was the motive. 36 I •

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vVlll(X3)3Jb7« The thirdstate capital (second in Madison, 1857—1913), about 1902.

court, not the legislature, would decide on the There is substantial reason to dismiss the exemption's scope.•^'' argument that taxing state officeholders' sala­ To take a mcjre skeptical view-, the legisla­ ries was uirconstitutional. A tax does not liter­ tors who supported the exemption for state ally reduce compensation; the compensation officials were merely helping themselves. The remains the same, but the earner may be re­ corollary of that view is that the change in the quired to pay the state some money. If that ar­ wording of the exemption was the result of a gument were valid, all taxes and fees autho­ desire to make it difficult for persons to deter­ rized by state law are unconstitutional as they mine the provision's application. The legisla­ apply to state and local officeholder.s—and tors' deletion ofthe exemption for local office­ that cannot be right. Fhe constitutionality of holders is grounds for suspicion about their taxing local officeholders was in fact upheld motives, because the argument that a tax re­ shortly after the income tax law was enacted, duces salary applies to them as well as to state primarily because oi the amendment to the officials. Moreover, the legal arguments that uniformity clause of the state constitution support the position of the legislators who which authorized the income tax.-"' If taxing prevailed on this issue are weak. local officeholders was constitutional, then taxing state officeholders presumably was also

•' 'This issue could have been litigated in the impending test case on the income tax: State ex rel. Bolens v. Frear, 148 ^''Stale ex rel. Wickham v. Nygaard, 159 Wis. 396, 150 Wis. 456(1912). N.-W. 513(1915). 37 W-ISCONSIN M.-VG-AZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1987 constitutional. After repeal ofthe exemption, tion of a weakening amendment. ,An amend­ state officeholders were taxed without consti­ ment to Senate Substitute Amendment 1, of­ tutional impediment. fered by Senator Howard Teasdale of Sparta, one of the six senators who later defected from the bill, created a delay, but Assembly (URING much of the legislative Substitute Amendment 1 moved the effective D debate about changes in the date back to 1911.^9 bill, the cardinal issue was not which groups The most serious challenge to the bill was benefited relative to other groups but whether insertion of a provision requiring ratification specific changes would diminish or prevent by the people. Senator Teasdale accomplished the income tax from affecting everyone. In that in the same amendment which w-ould other words, although the legislature voted have delayed the bill's effective date. Al­ overwhelmingly on second consideration in though in 1907 the voters had overw-helm- 1909 for the constitutional amendment, by ingly supported the constitutional amend­ 1911 some legislators in fact opposed a state ment authorizing an income tax, their income tax. Some, probably including some of acceptance of an actual tax would have been the six senators who changed from support to another matter. The senate, again indicating cjpposition, opposed it because they perceived that it had less ardor for the tax than the as­ that the legislation had been drafted skillfully sembly, even though the Republican's margin enough that it w-ould w-ork, and would not, like was greater in the senate than in the assembly, the law- imposing a tax on personal property, passed Teasdale's amendment on the referen­ be a virtual nullity. The lack of technical dum. The assembly then deleted it in its substi­ amendments to improve administration ofthe tute amendment.'"' tax suggests that the legislature believed that the tax would work. The legislature had had an income tax bill before it for two sessions HREE provisions which ap­ and had conducted public hearings and T peared in every version of the lengthy debates, so it presumably knew bill merit examination. The first seems at first whether or not the bill would be effective. glance to support the thesis that the bill was Thus, if the act were to have problems, or even anti-manufacturer. 'Fhis pro\-ision graduated to fail, the opposition forces would have to corporate tax rates according to the ratio of weaken it. For example. Senate Substitute taxable income to the assessed value of the Amendment 1, introduced by the special com­ property used to produce that income. As­ mittee on income tax, weakened enforcement suming accurate property tax assessment, that by deleting a "bounty" which w-ould have been system of rates would benefit capital-intensive offered for reports about noncompliance and corporations, such as those engaged in mak­ by reducing the penalty for false statements ing farm equipment and in other kinds of made by corporate officers.^^ Similarly, an heavy manufacturing, rather than labor- amendment to Assembly Substitute Amend­ intensive corporations, such as retailers. As­ ment 1, introduced by Representative E. E. suming accurate assessment, however, is un­ Haight, raised the limit on the dollar amount warranted. In any case, Delos Kinsman, who of payments to others, including w-ages, for drafted Senate Substitute Amendment 1, the services which taxpayers had to repcjrt.^*' That basis of the act, explained that the corporate increase made it more difficult for tax admin­ rates were designed to aid corporations which istrators to discover income. Another assault had been assessed with reasonable accuracy, on the tax was an attempt to delay its effective and to punish those w-hich were grossly unde­ date for one year, which not only would have rassessed.'" In short, fairness, not ideological saved everyone a year's taxes but also would have created the possibility of repeal or adop- "^Senate Amendment 5; section 1087m-l. -'"Senate Amendment 5. ^'Section 1087m-12.5. -"Kinsman, "Genesis of Wisconsin's Income Tax Law," '^Assemblv Amendment 4. 21:9. 38 STARK: WISCONSIN INCOME TAX

concerns, w-as the primary motive behind cent would be sent to that municipality, 20 per those rates. Because assessors were local cent would be sent to the county in which the officials eager to please influential members of municipality was situated, and 10 per cent their constituencies, underassessment of busi­ would be retained by the state.''-' 4 he state's ness and manufacturing concerns was ramp­ share was probably a rough estimate of admin­ ant, making it impossible to identify the kinds istrative expenses, but, because the tax wcjrked of corporations which these rates would aid. so well, those expenses turned out to be far less Thus, it is unlikely that manufacturers at large than the state's share ofthe revenue. The state were the target of this provision. A stronger authorized property taxes; the municipalities case can be made that the aim was to redress levied them, for the most part administered previous injustices, as Professor Kinsman ex­ them, and retained the revenue.'*® In contrast, plained. the state both imposed and administered the The differences in the bill between the cor­ income tax, thereby laying claim to most ofthe porate rates and the individual rates seemed revenue; yet it gave back nearly all the revenue to some legislators to present a second techni­ to municipalities and counties. In so doing it cal and legal problem. Individual rates were established the precedent of sharing its reve­ graduated according to taxable income, and nue with local units of government.''' Here is the difference seemed to invite litigation. As­ equity in another sense: among units of gov­ sembly Substitute Amendment 1 contained a ernment. Sharing revenue was a new idea in section specifying that if a court found the dif­ 1911, and even then one could easily see that it ference between the rates to be unconstitu­ would have important and long-lasting ef­ tional, only that part ofthe law, not the entire fects. But no amendment was introduced to law, would be invalidated.''^ The rest ofthe law preclude this sharing or even to alter the por­ would remain in effect, and the individual tions of the revenue allocated to the units of rates then would apply to corporations also. A government, w-hereas in recent years fierce technical amendment made it obvious that if a legislative battles have been waged about the court invalidated the corporate rates, the act amount and allocation of state aids to local would still be a workable whole.'*'' That change units of government. was a precaution, because, if a court finds one To sum up: many of the details of the writ­ part of an act to be unconstitutional and the ing and amending of the income tax legisla­ act is n(3t workable without the part, the court tion cast doubt on the thesis that the law was will invalidate the whole act. However, the written to benefit farmers. Voting patterns, amendment to the uniformity clause of the the statements and activities of persons inter­ state constitution authorizing an income tax ested in the legislation, and the effect of the seemed to make that clause's requirement in­ law lend credence to the argument that the applicable to income taxes. Also, the other ob­ legislature w-as attempting to achieve equity, vious basis for a challenge, the equal protec­ not to punish business and manufacturing in­ tion clause ofthe U.S. Constitution (Section I terests. In attempting such equity, the legisla­ ofthe Fourteenth Amendment), is not a prob­ ture had to ensure that difficult technical lem if there is a rational reason for treating problems were solved. different categories differently. In the test case on Wisconsin's income tax law, the court '-'Section 1087m-23. held that the difference between the rate ""Undercourt interpretadonsof the home rule section structures was in fact constitutional.'''' ofthe state constitution. Article XI, section 3, taxation is a A third provision that was in the bill from matter of statewide concern, so local units of government have only the taxation authority that the legislature gives the beginning was a terse statement that, of them. the revenue collected in a municipality, 70 per -"As late as 1976—1977, a percentage of slate income taxes was returned to municipalities and counties as pan of shared taxes. Under current law, state taxes go into the general fund, much of which is used for local aid. In -"^Section 1087m-31. 1985— 1987, 36.9 per cent of state expenditures were for -'"Assembly Amendmem 6. local aid. See Legislative Fiscal Bureau, 1985-87 Wiscon­ **State ex rel. Bolens v. Frear, 148 Wis. 456 (1912). sin State Budget, Vol. 1, p. 6. 39 tt-Hi(X3)43660 Senator and .Mrs. Robert .VI. La Follette holding a reception at their Maple Bluff farm, June 19, 1907. They are .sitting in the front row, just behind and to the left of the four little girls in white dresses.

XAMINING individual legisla­ ing the bill, was Charles A. Snover, a Demo­ E tors' behavior casts considerable cratic dairy farmer from Fort Atkinson. In the doubt on W. Elliott Brow-nlee's analysis. If (as assembly, William J. Bichler, also a Democrat he says) the issue had simply been a choice be­ and also a farmer, from Ozaukee County, in­ tween farmers and manufacturers, one would troduced Assembly Substitute Amendment 2, expect legislators to recognize that and to which would have made the tax meaningless. choose a side. One would certainly expect leg­ Brownlee correctly recognizes that the leg­ islators who were farmers or w-ho managed or islature thought of the new- tax in the context owned manufacturing concerns to represent of the then familiar personal property tax. their personal interests. But such selfish be­ The first words added to the statutes by the act havior did not manifest itself. On the senate's are "There shall be assessed, le\iecl, collected \ote about whether or not to concur in the as­ sembly substitute amendment, three manu­ facturers voted no, but so did three of the five '"'MANUFACTURERS: M. W. Perry (Republican, Algoma, farmers.''*' In the assembly's vote on the suc­ manager of a veneer business); E. H. Lyons (Republican, Fond du Lac, president of a lime and stone company and cessful substitute amendment, the five manu­ vice-president of a brick company); J. A. Wright (Republi­ facturers divided three to two, and the can, Merrill, president of a lumber company). FARMERS: farmers voted only fifteen to twelve in favor.'''' Isaac Bishop (Republican, Somers); Henry Krumrey (Re­ The activity of tw-o legislators is particularly publican, Sheboygan Cx)unty); Charles Snover (Demo­ instructive. One of the six senators who voted crat, Fort Atkinson); John Thomas (Republican, Chip­ pewa Falls); John True (Republican, Sauk C^ounty). for the bill on its first appearance and then -•'MAXUFACTURERS: C^hris EUingson (Republican, Rusk voted against concurrence, thereby jeopardiz­ County, lumber mamdacturcr); Daniel Stevens (Republi- 40 STARK: WTSCONSIN I.NCOME TAX

and paid a tax upon income." Both "assessed" However, statements made by the men w-ho and "levied" are property tax terms which are wrote the legislation of 1911 reveal their in­ incongruous in an income tax law. The bill also tent to avoid the inequities of the personal calls the administrative officials "assessors" property tax. In their deliberations, Wiscon­ (another property tax term), amends several sin's lawmakers thought of the property tax of the personal property tax statutes, and in­ not only because they needed a model for cludes as income the rent a home-owning tax­ their new tax but also because the personal payer might receive if he or she were to rent property tax was a disaster. Nils Haugen, the dwelling to others.''" whose motive for supporting an income tax, The motive for this provision was to treat according to Brownlee, was to aid farmers and similar property alike, whether or not it was small bankers, acknowledged that the per­ owner-occupied. That motive derives from sonal property tax simply did not work.''' The the ingrained notion that the new law was other drafter of the bill, Professor Kinsman, meant to tax property, as the state had been agreed, stating that "much personal property doing, rather than to tax income. Borrowings had been escaping taxation and that w-hich from another system of taxation—some of reached the tax roll was commonly underval­ them quite inappropriate—and conceptual ued." He blamed the need for a new tax on muddles are virtually inevitable when a gov­ outright tax evasion and the fact that property ernment creates a new tax; but it is important assessors were elected officials.-'^ Kinsman be­ to note that all these instances derived from lieved that the reason for the bill w-as clear: the property tax. Even more significantly, the "the purpose of the income tax was to correct act allowed taxpayers to offset personal prop­ existing tax evils."•'•' erty taxes, dollar for dollar, against income A concern for equity was therefore a crucial taxes they otherwise owed. motive for the two drafters, and their attempts to create a tax that was more equitable than the personal property tax are manifest features of the bill. For example, they replaced local ad­ can, Rhinelander, lumber manufacturer); John O'Day ministration w-ith administration by state (Democrat, Merrill, paper manufacturing); Nicholas Sch­ officials, who would be more objective and less midt (Democrat, Marathon, brewer and president of a manufacturing company); Grant Fisher (Republican, vulnerable to influence. This change is a major Janesville, manufacturer of sand and gravel); O. B. reason w-hy the income tax worked. Thus, if Joerns (Democrat, Sheboygan, president of a furniture the state's taxation scheme was made more factory). FARMERS: George Bingham (Republican, Friend­ equitable, and if farmers had been victimized ship); Andrew GuUickson (Republican, Barron County); by the prior inequitable scheme, farmers Axel Johnson (Republican, Polk CjOunty); Lewis Rup (Democrat, Calumet County); Thomas Roycraft (Repub­ would be helped by the new law. This is not to lican, Chippewa County); F. W. Draper (Republican, say that the only motive for the income tax was Clark County); Andrew Stevenson (Republican, Colum­ to treat farmers more favorably, and it cer­ bia County); E. E. Haight (Republican, Lowville); A. H. tainly is not to say that the proponents of the Sholts (Republican, Menomonie); Taylor Frye (Republi­ tax w-ere simply pro-farmer and anti- can, Fairchild); William Reader (Republican, Langlade County); A. V. Wells (Republican, Grant County); Willis manufacturer. Ludlow (Democrat, Green County); Newcomb Spoor (Re­ In fact, the fates of manufacturers and publican, Berlin); August Fenske (Democrat, Kewaunee farmers under the personal property tax and County); Eugene Parkinson (Democrat, Lafayette the income tax are not so clear-cut as Ouinty); Arthur Plowman (Democrat, Marathon County); E. O. Thomas (Republican, Marinette (bounty); Brownlee alleges. First, although manufactur­ John Jones (Republican, Monroe CjOunty); Robert Flintz ers' property may have been under-assessed (Republican, Oconto County); Clinton Ballard (Republi­ more than farmers' property, manufacturers can, Outagamie County); William Bichler (Democrat, were being significantly taxed on their per- Ozaukee County); William Kay (Republican, Pierce County); Andrew Kealy (Democrat, St. Ooix County); Peter Nelton (Democrat, Trempealeau C^iounty); Phil •'^Milwaukee Free Press, May 26, 1910. Jones (Republican, Waushara County); Julius Dennhardt '^Kinsman, "Genesis of Wisconsin's Income Tax Law," (Republican, Winnebago County). 21:12, 11,6. ""Section 1087m-2 2. (a). '''''Ibid.,2\:VZ.

41 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HIS LORY AUTUMN, 1987 sonal property before the income tax was insti­ a University of Wisconsin economist w-ho be­ tuted. A contemporary commentator wrote came a member of the State Tax Commission that manufacturers' stocks (raw materials and in 1911, considered the property tax to be seri­ unfinished goods), merchants' stocks (inven­ ously flawed because it did not tax intangi­ tories), and livestock were the most important bles.'''' The owners of that kind of property, taxable items after the additional income tax too, w-ere financially sophisticated enough to exemptions went into effect.-^'' The only im­ understand the effect that an income tax portant new exemption was one for farm ma­ would have on them. They were also politi­ chinery. In other words, manufacturers cally sophisticated enough to oppose the bill, ow-ned a reasonably large portion ofthe prop­ although a newspaper account which claims erty which was in fact taxed before the income they were the main opponents probably over­ tax went into effect. Haugen, w-ho was not so states their activity.''' In short, during the per­ fervently against manufacturing interests as iod when the legislature w-as deciding whether Brownlee suggests, advocated exempting or not to institute an income tax, it was very manufacturers' stock and products from taxa­ difficult to determine the impact that such a tion in order to attract industry, so he evi­ tax would have on various categories of tax­ dently thought their taxes w-ere significant.^^ payers. In fact, it was much more difficult than And Kinsman was quoted in 1911 as saying Brownlee assumes. It makes more sense to as­ that farmers would be disadvantaged by an in­ sume that the legislature recognized this dif­ come tax. ficulty and intended to make taxation more equitable, rather than to succor one category of taxpayer at the expense of another. OR is it reasonable to ignore the The first significant reaction to the income N' income tax's cost to all other tax occurred in the election of 1912, the first groups except manufacturers and farmers. year the tax was collected. 4 he bill bore the Two other groups stood to lose significantly stamp of the Republican party. Although the because of it. Kinsman pointed out the opposi­ final vote in the senate was mixed (the four tion of one: wage earners.-" Alost working Democrats and two Social Democrats split people owned little taxable property, so they their votes evenly, and there w-as a one-vote had very little personal property tax to offset Republican margin for the bill), the Republi­ against income taxes, and they could not claim cans controlled both houses of the legislature many deductions. and the governorship, and the final vote in the assembly was decisive (Republicans: forty for, Owners of intangible property made up the five opposed; Democrats: four for, nineteen other group. Fhat kind of property was tax­ opposed; Social Democrats: ten for, one op­ able, but exemption of most of it in the income posed). The progressives were victorious tax bill merely recognized the reality, as re­ again in 1912. The senate election results do ported in the 1898 tax commission report, that not reveal any unmistakable patterns, al­ it was in fact rarely taxed. Robert La Follette though all four of the senators who switched had also made that point as early as 1897.^^ positions to oppose the tax and then ran for Journalists recognized that for owners of in­ re-election won, as did Senator Bichler, who tangible property, the personal property tax introduced the substitute amendment de­ was much less onerous than an income tax signed to kill the bill. (The other two defecting w-ould be.-''* Professor Thomas Sewall Adams, senators and Senator Kleczka, w-ho chaired the study committee, did not run.) Fhe Re­ publicans lost two seats in the senate, one to ^•'Kennan, "The Wisconsin Income Tax," 26:172. '"'"Milwaukee Free Press, May 26, 1910. the Democrats and one to the Social Demo­ '"^Milwaukee Sentinel, February 8, 1911. crats, but they held on to their fifty-nine as­ '"'^Ibid. sembly seats. Francis McGovern w-as re- ^^"Dangers Threatening Representative Ciovern- ment," speech of July 4, 1897, in the La Follette Papers, State Historical Society ofWisconsin. '•" Milwaukee J ournal. May 24, 1911. "'•''Milwaukee Free Press, ]^a\y 21, 1907. '^'Milwaukee Daily News, April 2, 1909. 42 Francis McGovern attending a cattle show at Moquah (Bayfield County), August 15, either 1913 or 1914. elected governor by a narrow margin (only onstrate, despite some claims made early in 12,000 votes, whereas his margin in 1910 was the deliberative stages that the income tax more than 50,000 votes), thus managing to w-ould neither raise nor lower total tax reve­ hold that office for the progressives two more nue, that every identifiable group paid more years before Emanuel Philipp, a stalw-art Re­ taxes after the income tax went into effect publican with progressive tendencies, won it. than it did before. Taxpayers as a whole paid It is difficult to tell whether McGovern's sup­ 540 per cent more. Farmers paid 331 per cent port of the income tax helped him resist the more; bankers and capitalists, 340 per cent; growing conservative strength or reduced his ow-ners of merchantile establishments, 241 support. In short, even though the income tax per cent. To be sure, manufacturers paid a w-as an important campaign issue, the election whopping 649 per cent more; but mechanics results do not clearly reveal the voters' reac­ and tradesmen paid 653 per cent more; bro­ tions to it. kers and salesman, 729 per cent; professors, The first opportunity to assess the tax's ac­ 833 per cent; and public employees, an in­ tual, rather than purported, effects occurred credible 1,400 per cent. (In fairness it must be after the first year's receipts w-ere collected pointed out that the average public employee and analyzed. The returns for Dane County in paid only $5.68 in taxes in 1912.) In other 1912 contain much that tends to support the words, although manufacturers and some argument that the tax's proponents princi­ other members of the business and financial pally wanted to create an equitable tax world (whom the progressives might have scheme.''^ (See tables below.) These data dem- lumped under the rubric of "the interests") did fare worse than farmers, the big losers '''^fames Walter Oook, "Wisconsin's New Income were persons whose income was at least fairly T-dx,"'m Business America, 13:64 (October, 1912). high ancl consisted primarily of wages, sala- 43 Table 1 Occupations Assessed and the Amount of Tax Paid by Each in Dane County Less Per Cent .\veragc 1911 Net Each Tax Personal Increased Group Per Indi- No. Income Tax Tax of Total vidual

All occupations 2,237 338,584.43 36,023.69 $32,510.74 100 314.53 Farmers 68 1,142.35 265.00 877.35 3 12.90 Mercantile pursuits 274 6,656.61 1,950.18 4,706.43 14 17.18 Manufacturers 65 4,613.39 616.18 3,997.21 12 61.49 Public officials 36 1,073.35 161.18 912.17 3 25.34 State and other public employees 223 1,356.39 90.03 1,266.36 5.68 Professors and other aca­ demic pursuits 355 5,651.46 605.52 5,043.94 16 14.21 Capitalists and Bankers . . 33 1,766.88 396.81 1,370.07 4 41.52 Other professions 270 8,179.58 937.63 7,241.94 22 26.82 Brokers, Salesmen, etc. . . 207 2,139.99 258.90 1,881.09 6 9.09 Bookkeepers and other clerks 179 549.61 29.80 519.81 2 2.90 Mechanics and tradesmen 262 1,145.15 152.25 992.90 3 3.79 Laborers 7 13.71 13.71 1.96 All others 258 4,245.96 560.20 3,685.76 11 14.29

Table 2 Number Assessed for a Personal Income Tax in Dane County Compared with the Total Population Assessed List Total No. Assessed but Wholly No. Who Pav Income Tax Population _ Offset by Personal U.S. Census Per Cent of Property Per Cent of 1910 No. Population Tax of 1911 No. Population

Total Dane Co 47,436 2,815 5.93 578 2,237 4.72 Towns 8,011 .304 3.79 179 125 1.56 Villages 9,133 162 1.77 91 71 .78 Stoughton City 4,761 84 1.76 31 53 1.11 Madison City ' 25,531 2,265 8.87 277 1,988 7.79

Table 3 Income Tax Payers Classified by Size of Taxable Income in Dane County Assessed Income and 1 ax Personal Piopcrtv Net Tax Increase Groups of Per Cent Assessed Income Number Each (iroup by Amounts Assessed Income Tax As.sessment Tax .-\mount to 4 otal

Total—.All amounts . 2,237 $2,586,135 338,534.43 $364,924 36,023.69 332,510.74 100 Under $1000 1514 568,403 5,684.01 42,733 650.57 5,033.44 15 $1000-31999 355 497,957 5,340.72 56,987 877.05 4,463.66 14 $2000-32999 135 333,659 4,010.28 45,539 746.47 3,263.81 10 $3000-$3999 85 293,104 3,895.41 38,822 652..54 3,249.87 10 $4000-34999 .... 46 202.804 2,904.10 27,030 424.37 2,479.74 8 $3000-$5999 .... 55 384,372 7,503.87 82,565 1,432.21 6,071.66 19 $10,000 and over . 17 255,826 9,196.04 71,248 1,240.47 7,955.57 24 All under $3000 . . 2,034 1,400,029 15,035.01 145,250 2,274.10 12,760.91 39 $3000 and over . . 203 1,136,106 23,499.42 219,665 3,749.59 19,749.83 61 44 STARK: WTSCONSIN INCOME TAX ries, or fees. They suffered from a scarcity of ation under existing laws, yet earn large sala­ personal property taxes to offset the income ries, live comfortably, and provide for their tax and from a lack of business deductions. families through untaxed investments, and Persons who derived small incomes from yet contribute little to the state under whose those sources were sheltered by the generous protection they enjoy the comforts of orga­ allowances for personal exemptions and by nized society."^^ Governor Davidson thus the progressive rate structure. At the other struck the keynote—equity—that echoed end of the spectrum, the taxes for merchants throughout deliberations on the bill. and clerks increased less than those for Wisconsin's income tax was not simply the farmers. product of narrow, partisan, class-based poli­ tics. 4'his does not mean that philosopher- kings enacted it. Rather, more significant than social class motives was a desire for equity har­ PERSON who had contem­ nessed to the technical skill that went into the plated the bill's details as it A legislation. 4''hat law, although not the first at­ passed through the legislature could not have tempt to create an income tax, was bold; it at­ accurately predicted its effects on all grcjups, tacked a problem which no other unit of gov­ but probably he could have seen that it would ernment in the United States had yet solved. It harm middle-income earners of wages and was precedent-setting because it solved that salaries. Indeed, in his message to the legisla­ problem: it worked. In short, it was an impor­ ture near the beginning of the 1909— 1910 ses­ tant part of Wisconsin's tradition of good gov­ sion. Governor James O. Davidson—a pro­ ernment, an example of the co-operation be­ gressive in the La Follette mold—foresaw that tween government and the university, and a a state income tax would produce a more equi­ model that was soon to be emulated by the fed­ table system of taxation for the people ofWis­ eral government and by other state govern­ consin. He decried the failure ofthe personal ments. property tax and advocated an income tax that would, injustice, tax "that large class of citi­ zens who, having little property subject to tax­ ••"Assembly Journal, January 4, 1909.

Alice E. Smith Fellowship

NANCY G. ISENBERG, a doctoral candidate in the American Women's History at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, is the 1987 — 1988 recipient of the Alice E. Smith Fellowship. Ms. Isenberg is wTiting her dissertation on the woman's rights movement in the United States betw-een 1848 and 1860. The Alice E. Smith Eellowship, which carries an outright grant of $ 1,000, honors the former director of research at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin who retired in 1965. The Fellowship is awarded by the Society annually to a woman doing research in American history, with preference given to applicants who are doing research in the history ofWisconsin or ofthe Middle West. Letters of appli­ cation, describing the applicant's current research, should be addressed to: Direc­ tor of Research, State Historical Society ofWisconsin, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. The application deadline each year is July 15.

45 Good Oak

By Aldo Leopold

EDITORS' NOTE

This year marks the centennial of the birth of Aldo Leopold, the teacher, conservationist, and author who was born in Burlington, Iowa, on Janu­ ary II, 1887. Wisconsin claims Leopold because he spent his most produc­ tive years in Madison—at the Forest Products Laboratory from 1924 to 1933 and the University of Wisconsin from 1933 to 1948—and because his shack on a piece of worn-out land in the great bend of the Wisconsin River near Portage became a focal point, a symbol, and eventually a kind of holy place for conservationists. In truth, Leopold properly belongs not to the people of Wisconsin or of any other state, but rather to all those who value wild things and wild places on our increasingly crowded and anx­ ious planet. His publications, and above all his ideas, will be widely and justly celebrated during this centennial year. Still, the proof of his great­ ness lies not in what scholars and pundits say of him, but in his own pun­ gent and aphoristic writings. It is our privilege to reprint, by special per­ mission ofthe Oxford University Press, Aldo Leopold's essay "Good Oak," which first appeared in A Sand County Almanac; and Sketches Here and There, published in 1949, a year after the author died of a heart attack while fighting a brush fire on his neighbor's place. More than any of the other Sand County essays, "Good Oak" is specifically tied to the history—both natural and man-made—ofWisconsin.

HERE are two spiritual dangers the heat comes from, and with a wealth of de­ T' in not owning a farm. One is the tail denied to those who spend the w-eek in danger of supposing that breakfast comes town astride a radiator. from the grocery, and the other that heat •Jfi ^ ^ comes from the furnace. Fhe particular oak now aglow on my and­ To avoid the first danger, one should plant irons grew- on the bank of the old emigrant a garden, preferably where there is no grocer road where it climbs the sandhill. The stump, to confuse the issue. which I measured upon felling the tree, has a 4"o avoid the second, he should lay a split of diameter of 30 inches. It shows 80 growth good oak on the andirons, preferably where rings, hence the seedling from which it origi­ there is no furnace, and let it warm his shins nated must have laid its first ring of wood in while a February blizzard tosses the trees out­ 1865, at the end ofthe Civil War. But I know side. If one has cut, split, hauled, and piled his from the history of present seedlings that no ow-n good oak, and let his mind work the oak grows above the reach of rabbits without a while, he will remember much about where decade or more of getting girdled each winter.

46 From j\ Sand Counly .almanac; and Sketches Here and -fhere bs Aldo Leopold. Copyrigkt 1949, 1977 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Reprinted by permission. UEOPOLD: CioOD OAK

''t.rj:'^- •••.

"'•-'' • •-•'•^^- - • • • •' •• ^" 'if' , ,;' ,- flood Oak '. -V \'^ .1 • • - "^^fvf • •\^:i'-^- ;.-' There are two spiritual !dangere in'; falling to..own a faxm, . 4rt* *1>,,A A/iZ* <».^ • • One is the danger of eiipposlng that breaitaet oonroo i^-&ett the ^"^ '^- , -grocery .and the'other le the'danger of euppOBlng that heat ^y^f^^le.' j •''..' - e-©B^ee—f»^Hi the furi;ace.';: ;.l":v . • •' , .-'•'.• • •' , , ., i. ^^- • • •,' v., ^ • f: -• fi' '.r^aL.^

, ', 1," cihutA^ •• * :

Thtes particular oak, l-^gsmombor, geo* on the bank of the old emigrant road where it climbs the sandhill. The stmmpj oe^-^ fl^£^ has a diameter of. 30 inches, shows 80 growth rings, henc^' -iHt* seedling must have laid ,its first ring tf wpod in 1866, , .

'•.'.-•,'':' 6 •.••','.,•. at'the end of the Civil War. But I knjiw from the histoty of ' present seedlings that no oak grows above the reach of rabbit? without a decade or more 'of getting girdled each winter. and re- eproutin_g during the following summer. Indeed every gurviv- ing oak is the product either of rabbit-negligence,or'rabbitence, or 'rs - scarcity.- Some day sorae'patient botanist will draw, a frequenct/ — curve Of oak birth-years, and show that the curve humps every . ," •; . 10 year , ten years, each huiip originating from a low in , the ^rabbit c>^(_le,.

^J^JajJ^cJt iftJjJj.^ o^&-u-a<,v, coit^sX.^^ '^--iM »^it-v/c^£.-t • • •

A rough draft ofthe "Good Oak" essay, from the Aldo Leopold Papers m the University of Wisconsin Archives.

47 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1987 and re-sprouting dining the foUowir-ig sirm- Next morning, as we strolled over the sand­ mer. Indeed, it is all too clear that e\-ery survi\'- hill rejoicing with the cone-flowers and the ing oak is the product either of rabbit negli­ prairie ckners over their fresh accession of gence or of rabbit scarcity. Some da\- some rain, w-e came upon a great slab of bark freshly patient botanist will draw a frequency cur\-e of torn from the trunk ofthe roadside oak. The oak birth-vears, and show that the curve trunk showed a long spiral scar of barkless humps e\-ery ten vears, each hump originating sapwood, a foot wide and not yet yellowed by from a low in the ten-year rabbit cycle. (A the sun. By the next day the lea\-es had wilted, fauna and flora, by this very process of perpet­ and we knew- that the lightning had be­ ual battle within ancl among species, achieve queathed to us three cords of prospecti\e fuel collective immortalit).) wood. It is likely, then, that a low in rabbits oc­ We mourned the loss of the old tree, but curred in the middle 'sixties, when ixiy oak be­ krrew that a dozen of its progeny standing gan to lay on annual rirrgs, but that the acorn straight and stalwart on the sands had already that produced it fell during the preceding dec­ taken over its job of wood-making. ade, when the covered wagons were still pass­ We let the dead veteran season for a year in ing over my road into the Great Northwest. It the sun it could no longer use, and then on a may ha\-e been the wash and wear of the emi­ crisp winter's day we laid a newly filed saw to grant traffic that bared this roadbank, and its bastioned base. Fragrant little chips of his­ thus enabled this particular acorn to spread its tory spewed from the saw ctrt, and accumu­ first leaves to the sun. Only one acorn in a lated on the sirow before each kneeling saw­ thousand e\er grew large enough to fight rab­ yer. We sensed that these two piles of sawdust bits; the rest were drowned at birth in the prai­ were something more than wood: that they rie sea. were the integrated transect of a century; that It is a warming thought that this one wasn't, our saw- was biting its w-ay, stroke by stroke, and thus li\ecl to garner eightv \-ears of June decade by decade, into the chronology of a sun. It is this sunlight that is now being re­ lifetime, written in concentric annual rings of leased, through the intervention of my axe good oak. and saw, to warm my shack and my spirit through eighty gusts of blizzard. And with It took only a dozen pulls ofthe saw to tran­ each gust a wisp of smoke from my chimne\ sect the few years of our ownership, durir-rg bears witness, to whonrsoever it may concerrr, which we had learned to love and cherish this that the sun did not shine in vain. larnr. .Abruptly w-e began to cut the years of Mv dog does not care where heat comes our predecessor the bootlegger, w-ho hated from, but he cares ardently that it come, and this farm, skinned it of residual fertility, soon. Indeed he considers my ability to make it burned its farmhouse, threw it back into the cor-ne as something magical, for when 1 rise in lap of the County (with delinquent taxes to the cold black pre-dawn and kneel shivering boot), atrd then disappeared anrong the land­ by the hearth making a fire, he pushes himself less anonymities ol the Great Depression. Yet blandly between me and the kindling splits I the oak had laid down good wood for him; his have laid on the ashes, and I must touch a sawdust was as fragrant, as sound, and as pink match to them by poking it between his legs. as our own. An oak is no respecter of persor-is. Such faith, I suppose, is the kind that moves The reign of the bootlegger ended some­ mountains. times durinig the dust-bowl drouths of 1936, It w-as a bolt of lightning that put an end to 1934, 1933, and 1930. Oak smoke from his wood-making by this particular work. We still ancl peat from burning marshlands must were all awakened, one night in July, by the ha\e clouded the sun in those years, arrd al­ thundei-ous crash; we realized that the bolt phabetical conservation was abroad in the must have hit near by, but, since it had not hit land, but the saw-dust shows no change. us, we all went back to sleep. Man brings all Rest! cries the chief sawyer, and we pause things to the test of himself, and this is notably for breath. true of lightning. * * * fit'.

/ • ••->.'"

V..ti ' Jf 1»*wS/', •••• •'•

m

-^^ %n. Pm- ' *.)

wiiiixviijsy^ A dead oak at Ihe edge of marshland in rural Sauk County, July 12, 196-1. Photograph by Paul Vanderbilt.

Now our saw bites into the 1920's, the Bab- and a forest-crop law- in 1927, a great refuge bittian decade when everything grew bigger on the Upper Mississippi bottomlands in and better in heedlessness and arrogance— 1924, and a trew forest policy in 1921. Neither tiirtil 1929, when stock markets crumpled. If did it notice the demise of the state's last rnar- the oak heard them fall, its wood gives no sigrr. ten in 1925, or the arrival of its first starling in Nor did it heed the Legislature's several pro­ 1923. testations of love for trees: a National Forest In March 1922, the "Big Sleet" tore the 49 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISFORY AUTUMN, 1987 neighboriirg elms limb from limb, btrt there is burned fiercely, and Wisconsin parted with its no sign of damage to our tree. What is a ton of last cougar. ice, more or less, to a good oak? We cut 1907, w-hen a wandering lynx, look­ RestI cries the chief sawyer, and we pause ing in the wrong direction for the promised for breath. land, ended his career among the farms of Dane County. We cut 1906, when the first state forester took office, and fires burned 17,000 acres in OW the saw brtes into 1910-20, these sand counties; we cut 1905 when a great the decade of the drainage N" flight of goshawks came out of the North ancl dream, when steam shovels sucked dry the ate up the local grouse (they no doubt perched marshes of central Wisconsin to make farms, in this tree to eat some of mine). We cut 1902— ar-id made ash-heaps instead. Our marsh es­ 3, a winter of bitter cold; 1901, which brought caped, not because of any caution or forbear­ the most intense drouth of record (rainfall ance among engineers, but because the river only 17 inches); 1900, a centennial year of floods it each April, and did so with a hope, of prayer, and the usual annual ring of vengeance—perhaps a defensive \engeance— oak. in the years 1913—16. Fhe oak laid on wood just the same, even in 1915, when the Su- Rest! cries the chief sawyer, and we pause prenre Court abolished the state forests and for breath. ^ ^ H= Go\-ernor Phillip pontificated that "state for­ Now- our saw bites into the 1890's, called estry is not a good business proposition." (It gay by those whose eyes turn cityward rather did not occur to the Governor that there might than landward. We cut 1899, when the last be more than one definition of what is good, passenger pigeon collided with a charge of and even of what is business. It did not occur shot near Babcock, two counties to the north; to him that while the courts were writing one we cut 1898 when a dr-y fall, followed by a definition of goodness in the law books, fires snow-less winter, froze the soil seven feet deep w-ere writing quite another one on the face of ancl killed the apple trees; 1897, another the land. Perhaps, to be a governor, one must drouth year, w-hen another forestry commis­ be free from doubt on such matters.) sion came into being; 1896, when 25,000 prai­ While forestry receded during this decade, rie chickens were shipped to market from the game conservation ad\anced. In 1916 pheas­ village of Spooner alone; 1895, another year ants became successfully established in of fires; 1894, another drouth year; and 1893, Waukesha County; in 1915 a federal law pro­ the year of "The Bluebird Storm," when a hibited spring shooting; in 1913 a state game March blizzard reduced the migrating blue­ farm was started; in 1912 a "buck law" pro­ birds to near-zero. (The first bluebirds always tected female deer; in 1911 an epidemic of alighted in this oak, but in the middle 'nineties refuges spread over the state. "Refuge" be­ it must have gone without.) We cut 1892, an- came a holy w-ord, but the oak took no heed. cjther year of fires; 1891, a low in the grouse RestI cries the chief sawyer, and we pause cycle; and 1890, the year ofthe Babcock Milk for breath. Tester, which enabled Governor Heil to boast, half a century later, that Wisconsin is Ameri­ Now we cut 1910, when a great ur-riversity ca's Dairyland. The motor licenses which t-iow president published a book on conser\ ation, a parade that boast were then not foreseen, great sawfly epidemic killed millions of tama­ even b)- Professor Babcock. racks, a great drouth burned the pineries, and It was likewise in 1890 that the largest pine a great dredge drained Horicon Marsh. rafts in history slipped down the Wisconsin We cut 1909, w-hen smelt w-ere first planted River in full view- of my oak, to build an empire in the Great Lakes, and when a wet summer of red barns for the cows of the prairie states. induced the Legislature to cut the forest-fire Thus it is that good pine now stands betw-een appropriations. the cow and the blizzard, just as good oak We cut 1908, a dr^• vear when the forests stands between the blizzard and me. 50 l\\[\-2b)llM6 'The Leopolds bringing in some firewood. Courtesy the Univcisity oJ Wist onsin Archives.

Rest! cries the chief saw-yer, and we pause "How do you account for the second growth of for breath. black oak timber that has sprung up all over the country in the last thirty years?" My oak was one of these. Otre debater claimed sponta­ OW our saw bites into the neous generation, another claimed regurgita­ N 1880's; into 1889, a drouth tion of acorns by southbound pigeons. year in w-hich Arbor Day w-as first proclaimed; Rest! cries the chief sawyer, and w-e pause into 1887, w-hen Wisconsin appointed its first for breath. game wardens; into 1886, when the College of ^ ^ ^ Agriculture held its first short course for Now our saw bites the 1870's, the decade of farmers; into 1885, preceded by a winter "of Wisconsin's carousal in wheat. Monday morn­ unprecedented length atrd severity"; into ing came in 1879, when chinch bugs, grubs, 1883, when Dean W. H. Henry reported that rust, and soil exhaustion finally convinced the spring flowers at Madison bloomed 13 Wisconsin farmers that they could not com­ days later than average; into 1882, the year pete with the virgin prairies further west in the Lake Mendota opened a month late following game of wheating land to death. I suspect that the historic "Big Snow" and bitter cold of this farm played its share in the game, and that 1881-2. the sand blow just north of my oak had its ori­ It was likewise in 1881 that the Wisconsin gin in over-wheating. Agricultural Society debated the question. This same year of 1879 saw the first plant- 51 UW(X25)904 Aldo Leopold resting at the wood pile with Estella, 1944. Courtesy the University of Wiscoruin Archives. ing of carp in Wisconsin, and also the first ar­ mission planted Atlantic salmon in Devil's rival of quack-grass as a stow-away from Eu­ Lake, 10 miles south of my oak. rope. On 27 October 1879, six migrating In 1874 the first factory-make barbed wire prairie chickens perched on the rooftree of was stapled to oak trees; I hope no such ard- the German Methodist Church in Madison, facts are buried in the oak now under saw! and took a look at the growing cit). On 8 No­ In 1873 one Chicago firm received and vember the markets at Madison were reported marketed 25,000 prairie chickens. 4"he Chi­ to be glutted with ducks at 10 cents each. cago trade collectively bought 600,000 at In 1878 a deer hunter from Sauk Rapids I'e- $3.25 per dozen. marked prophetically, "The hunters promise In 1872 the last w-ild Wisconsin turkey was to outnumber the deer." killed, two counties to the southwest. On 10 September 1877, two brothers, It is appropriate that the decade ending the shooting Muskego Lake, bagged 210 blue- pioneer carousal in wheat should likewise winged teal in one daw have ended the pioneer carousal in pigeon In 1876 came the wettest year of record; the blood. In 1871, within a 50-mile triangle rainfall piled up 50 inches. Prairie chickens spreading northwestward from my oak, 136 declined, perhaps owing to hard rains. million pigeons are esdmated to have nested, In 1875 four hunters killed 153 prairie and some may have nested in it, for it was then chickens at York Prairie, one county to the a thrifty sapling 20 feet tall. Pigeon hunters by eastward. In the same vear the U.S. Fish Gom- scores plied their trade with net and gun, club

52 I,EC:)POUD: GOOD OAK and salt lick, and trainloads of prT)spective pi­ youth. His brother declined to part with the geon pie mcjved southward and eastward to­ land, but he could not suppress the idea: 1865 ward the cities. It was the last big nesting in still stands in Wisconsin history as the birth- Wisconsin, ancl nearly the last in any state. year of mercy for things natural, wild, and 4'his same year 1871 brought other evi­ free. dence of the march of empire: the Peshtigo We have cut the core. Our saw now reverses Fire, which cleared a couple of counties of its orientation in history; we cut backward trees and soil, atrd the Chicago Fire, said to across the years, and outward toward the far have started from the protesting kick of a cow. side of the stump. At last there is a tremor in In 1870 the meadow mice had already the great trunk; the saw-kerf suddenly wid­ staged their march of empire; they ate up the ens; the saw is quickly pulled as the sawyers young orchards of the young state, and then spring backward to safety; all hands cry "Tim­ died. They did not eat my oak, whose bark was ber!"; my oak leans, groans, and crashes with already too tough and thick for mice. earth-shaking thunder, to lie prostrate across It w-as likew-ise in 1870 that a market gunt-ier the enrigrant road that gave it birth. boasted in the American Sportsman of killing 6,000 ducks in one season near Chicago. Rest! cries the chief sawyer, and we pause OW comes the job of makitrg for breath. N' w-ood. The maul rings on steel * * * wedges as the sections of trunk are up-ended Our saw now cuts the 1860's, when thou- one by one, only to fall apart in fragrant slabs sairds died to settle the question: Is the man- to be corded by the roadside. man community lightly to be dismembered? Fhere is an allegory for historians in the di­ Fhey settled it, but they did not see, nor do we verse functions of saw, wedge, and axe. yet see, that the same question applies to the Fhe saw- works only across the years, which man-land community. it miist deal with one by one, in sequence. This decade was not without its gropings to­ From each year the raker teeth pull little chips ward the larger issue. In 1867 Increase A. of fact, which accumulate in little piles, called Lapham induced the State Horticultural Soci­ sawdust by woodsmen and archives by histo­ ety to offer prizes for forest plantations. In rians; both judge the character of w-hat lies 1866 the last native Wisconsin elk was killed. w-ithin by the character of the samples thus Fhe saw- now severs 1865, the pith-vear of our made visible withoirt. It is not until the transect oak. In that year John .Muir offered to buy is completed that the tree falls, and the stump from his brother, who then owned the home yields a collective view- of a century. By its fall farm thirty miles east of my oak, a sanctuary the tree attests the unity of the hodge-podge for the wildflowers that had gladdened his called history.

.4 .sketch by Aldo Leopold on the draft of his "Good Oak" essay in the University of Wisconsin Archives. 53 "The shack," about May, 1935. Courtesy the University of Wisconsin Archives.

The wedge, on the other hand, works only 4'he three tools are requisite to good oak, in radial splits; such a split yields a collecti\-e and to good history, view of all the years at once, or no view at all, '^ ^ -^ depending on the skill with which the plane of the split is chosen. (If in doubt, let the section These things I ponder as the kettle sings, season for a year until a crack develops. Man)- and the good oak burns to red coals on white a hastily driven wedge lies rusting in the ashes. Those ashes, come spring, I will return w-oods, embedded in unsplittable cross-grain.) to the orchard at the foot of the sandhill. They 4"he axe functions only at an angle diagonal will come back to me again, perhaps as red ap­ to the years, and this only for the peripheral ples, or perhaps as a spirit of enterprise in rings ofthe recent past. Its special function is some fat October squirrel, who, for reasons to lop limbs, for which both saw and w-edge are unknown to himself, is bent on planting useless. accjrns.

54 BOOK REVIEWS

In the Shadow of the Poorhouse: A Social History of fended at times by political bosses, county su­ Welfare in America. By MICHAEU B. KATZ. (Ba­ perintendents of the poor, wealthy philan­ sic Books, Inc., Publishers, New York, 1986. thropic w-omen, merchants, and manufactur­ Pp. xiv, 338. Notes, index. ISBN 0-465-03225- ers who w-anted relief for their cyclically un­ 7, $22.95.) employed w-orkers. Advocates of "scientific" charity wanted to revive voluntarism by send­ "Nobody likes welfare," Michael Katz re­ ing affluent volunteers into the homes of the ports, and "American welfare hardly qualifies poor to act as teacher-friend-official-spy; to re­ as a system." It has been "partly public, partly mind the poor that they were beneficiaries of private, partly mixed . . . defeating its own ob­ benevolence and not entitled to a dole; and to jectives . . . incoherent and irrational. Still this deny that respectable able-bodied men could crazy system resists fundamental change." become worthily impoverished as victims of Why? "The answer rests in its past. American the eccjnomic and political system, even if this welfare practice has been constructed in layers meant ignoring evidence of working-class vul­ deposited during the last two centuries." nerability to economic depressions and dis­ This social history of welfare develops the torting the demographic profile of poor- central theme that "Voluntarism never was houses. ancl never w-ill be an adequate answer to the Even the growth of the government role in problem (jf dependence. By contrast, despite relief in building what Katz calls the "semi- all its flaws, government has been, and can be welfare state" of the tw-entieth century did not again, a great source of social progress in necessarily produce an effective, compassion­ America." Furthermore, "In a nation as smart, ate system. The child-saving strategy of the inventive, and rich as America, the continua­ Progressive era created jcrvenile courts, moth­ tion of poverty is a choice, not a necessity." ers' pensions, public health clinics, and laws Welfare policy has aimed at contradictory barring child labor and requiring school at­ purposes, and welfare reformers have often tendance. However, juvenile courts could pursued an ideological agenda which has de­ more easily violate civil rights, mothers' pen­ nied the real sources of poverty. During the sions were too few, the American Medical As­ nineteenth century the increasing resort to in­ sociation succeeded in killing public health stitutionalizing paupers in poorhouses was clinics by 1929, child labor laws failed to pass supposed to deter shiftlessness, relieve and judicial challenge until the 1930's, and manda­ educate the poor, and yield a profit for gov­ tory school attendance did not assure the ade­ ernment, but it was deterrence which domi­ quacy of schools. The semiwelfare state grew- nated. Outdoor relief came under fierce at­ only haltingly. Welfare capitalism failed to tack for its alleged failure to encourage the fulfill the needs of most workers and w-ork- work ethic among the able-bodied, even men's cor-npensation was an inadequate com­ though in fact it was granted to few able- promise, while more substantial measures bodied men, it kept poor families intact, was such as unemployment insurance and old-age cheaper than poorhouse relief, and was de­ pensions scarcely got serious consideration 55 WISCONSIN MAC-..\ZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1987 until the Great Depression so vividly demon­ the same as the figure of 4 per cent Katz cites strated the failure of voluntarism. for male poorhouse inmates {Poverty and Pol­ The New Deal took a big step toward estab­ icy), suggesting the possibility that the illiteracy lishing "federal responsibility for a wide range rate may have been as high among poorhouse of human problems," while also preventing inmates as tramps. Similarly, he offers no mass starvation and, perhaps, massive social gender-specific numbers to defend his con­ disorder. Although it also introduced the con­ tention that children "were less willing to take cept of entitlement at the federal level in the care of their fathers than their mothers." form of social security (with such success that Katz seems at one point to equate America's the Reagan administration would quickly re­ "respectable working class" of the late nine­ treat from an attack on social security to pose teenth and early twentieth centuries with as its protector), the new system's method of native-born northern white men who had funding and administration were rather con­ served in the Union army, and describes Civil servative. The war on poverty of the 1960's War veterans' pensions as a "rudimentary sys­ and early 1970's relied mostly upon conven­ tem of old-age assistance"—a curiously gener­ tional methods and assumptions, even though ous description of such a fragmentary ap­ it increased the federal role and widened the proach to old-age pensioning. Other minor coverage of the welfare system. Its nurturing problems appear occasionally: his apparent of community actioir programs and its link to attribution of the advent of horse-drawn the civil rights movement proved to be its most streetcars to the 1860's rather than the 1830's; novel features. his assertion that it was World War II and not Yet never has welfare policy seriously en­ the New Deal that "lifted American out of the gaged "the structure of America's political Great Depression" (was it really only or even economy," which Katz sees as the source ofthe mostly World War II?); and his rather myste­ "forces that push individuals and families into rious claim that the Civil Works Administra­ poverty." The war on welfare that began with tion was the "greatest public works experi­ the New York City austerity program of the ment in American history" (why it was greater mid-1970's and which reached the federal than, say, the WPA, which helped more peo­ government in full force with the Reagan ad­ ple, he only hints at vaguely). Readers inter­ ministration has demonstrated the resilience ested in the colonial period will be disap­ of traditional ideas about welfare. The nos­ pointed at Katz's very limited coverage of that trum of voluntarism has not died, nor has the era, and those who note his few and scattered untiring attempt to distinguish between the suggestions of southern exceptionalism will worthy and the unw-orthy poor, nor has the wish for a more thorough consideration of re­ desire to frighten the working class into ac­ gional distinctions. cepting low wages. The middle class has But these are minor quibbles. Katz has w-rit­ shown enough political clout to defend its in­ ten an excellent history of welfare in terests in Medicare and social security, but the nineteenth- ancl twentieth-century America. poor have never had such organized It is also a provocative polemic (largely persua­ influence—though the organizing of welfare sive to this reader) which suggests how Amer­ mothers in the last two decades impresses Katz ica could improve its approach to dealing with as a saltUary change. poverty. The reader might reasonably question the exidentiarv support for some of Katz's asser­ DENNIS C. ROUSEY tions. Although he claims that most inmates of Arkansas State University poorhc:>uses itr late nineteenth century New- York were not illiterate, he does not say what percentage of those inmates could neither read nor write. This figure also does not ap­ pear in the source he cites, his ow-n 1983 vol­ Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for ume Poverty and Policy in American History (New- Modernity, 1920-1940. By ROLAND MAR- York, Academic Press), where he reports CHAND. (University of California Press, Berke­ merely what percentage could "read only." ley and Los Angeles, 1985. Pp. xxii, 448. ISBN His evidence on tramps {Poverty and Policy) 0-520-05253-6, $35.00.) seems to indicate that 77 per cent could nei­ ther read nor write; the percentage of tramps Fhis is an important book. In fact, I think it who could "read only" was 4.5, almost exactly so important that I w-c:)nder w-hy it w-as not writ- 56 BOOK REVIEWS ten before. What Professor Marchand has internal disagreements as to the purposes and done is to look at American advertising (in­ aim of the advertising—whether it should be cluding radio commercials) in the interwar "tabloid copy for tabloid readers" or aimed at period and apply to it varieties of interdiscipli­ the 'Vassar graduates ofthe world (this is taken nary analysis (though of course primarily an from an internal J. Walter Fhompson con­ historical analysis) to see not only why it was flict). But the purposes ofthe ads, and the aims the way it was in its daily context, but what was of the agencies, are implicit in the ads them­ its long-range effect and what, if anything, was selves, if not indeed explicit: it is, however, im­ its intended long-range effect. portant to note that Professor Marchand By looking at advertising in its daily con­ points the way to our seeing what is implicit, text, I mean that Professor Marchand has kept and it is quite possible that his own vision is sight of, and has devoted intelligent analysis founded on his archival work. to, the needs of clients, the client-agency rela­ 4'he book is well-illustrated with advertise­ tionships, and the understanding of the ad­ ments from the period, highly appropriate to vertising men and agencies as to what their job his argument which, as the subtitle ofthe book was that earned them their daily bread. But, as suggests, is that advertisements and commer­ I say, the book's contribution does not stop cials brought the American people into the here. Professor Marchand has also looked at modern age, provided a kind of cohesiveness the relationship between American advertis­ for the consumer society, and not only ing and the problem of preserving (or ex­ reflected but reinforced both mores and goals. panding) the American dream in the face of The exception, as Professor Marchand briefly grow-ing discontinuities and demographic notes on several occasions, lay principally in shifts (including sheer population expansion) the exclusion of Blacks from the consumer so­ in American society. ciety, and except for breakfast preparations Fhe "advertising tableaux" in which fami­ (Rastus and Aunt Jemima) from the advertis­ lies and children are always healthy and w-ell- ing itself. The only, perhaps, adverse com­ scrubbed and happy are contrasted with the ment I have to make is that the book's large di­ news stories of sensational events, delin­ mensions (slightly more than sevetr by ten quency, the flaming youth ofthe 19J?0's. The inches), slick paper, and profuse illustrations advertising gave reassurance. Long before Joe of advertisements make it look overmuch like McGinniss noted that advertising could be an economics or business textbook. used for political purposes in political cam­ It is, in a sense—and no bad sense. Not so paigns, it was used for political purposes in much a text for our times as for time recently campaigns for familiar prcjducts. The "con­ past, and it is a measure of Professor Mar- sumption society" was a society unified by its chand's achievement that w-e will never again consumption, and advertising was a powerful be able to look at the history of advertising in tool for building a single American society. this country without looking at it partly Professor Marchand has had the coopera­ through his eyes. Indeed, the book should be tion of such major advertising agencies as out in paperback precisely so that it might be N. W. Ayer, BBD&O, Foote Cone & Belding, used as a text, at least a supplementary text, in and Young & Rubicam. He also had access to business courses, particularly in such courses material in the records of some of the major as I used to teach in Business and Society, or advertisers, including General Electric, "Corporation and Society" or "Social Implica­ Hoover, AT&4', and Metropolitan Life. With­ tions of Business" or whatever name may be out these he might not have probed as deeply, giverr to w-hat is increasingly a capstone or key- and he certairrly would not have been able to storre course in the business curriculum. discuss as he has the client-agency relation­ It would trot be amiss as a supplementary ships and the day-to-day w-ork and needs of text in twentieth-century U.S. history courses the advertising men. It is no criticism, but either. rather praise, of his w-ork to say, however, that the book would have been nearly as good with­ JARED G. LC:)BDELL out the cooperation and the access—valuable New Ytnk, New York though these were. The fact is that his principal evidence is found in the advertisements themselves, Red Scare.' Right Wing Hysteria, Eifties Eanati- which are a matter of public record. Fo be cism, and Their Legacy in Texas. By DON E. sure, the archives of the agencies let us see the CARLETON. (Texas Monthly Press, Austin, 57 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1987

Texas, 1985. Pp. xii, 390. Illustrations, notes, tion of exhaustive research, integrati\'e meth­ bibliography, index. ISBN 0-9320-1290-6. odology, and smoothly flowing narrative. $18.95.) Commendably, Carleton did not hesitate to as­ sume a stance, one forthrightly condemnatory 4'hese days, some three and a half decades of McCarthyism. after the apex of the phenomenon itself, Mc­ Red Scarel is the result of thirteen years of Carthyism seems to have spawned a veritable intensive research, much of it in archival cottage industry producing scholarly dissec­ sources. Carleton augmented his interroga­ tions of this sordid episode in American his­ tion of textual records with over 100 inter­ tory. It is to our good fortune that this is the views. But it is what he does with his accumu­ case. It is no mystery why this scholarship ap­ lated data that distinguishes his effort: he pears at this particular time. It is not merely subjects it to an inquiry that engages the that, as some have suggested, authors have methodologies of most of the social sciences. waited for a "decent interval" before wielding His is an economic, social, political, and cul­ the autopsical scalpel. Rather, a number of tural history. Red Scarel is much more than a younger historians, many influenced by the narrative account of McCarthyism run amok liberating social and political ferment of the in the rrascent Sun Belt; it is a political economy 1960's, have begun to probe the murky depths of McCarthyism in which the witch-hunt is of its dreary preceding decade in efforts to squarely located in the material relations of comprehend how such a reactionary phenom­ production in post-World War II Houston. enon as VIcCarthyism could possibly have 4'he ideology of Houstonian McCarthyism is seized the day in the manner that it did. More­ securely connected to and anchored in the as­ over, many recent contributions include ex­ pirations, needs, and fears of Houston's gov­ plicit warnings to present and future genera­ erning elite. Carleton notes at one point: "An tions, lest a "New McCarthyism" be in the examination ofthe 1952 school board election making. does suggest, however, that the Red Scare in The welcome appearance in late 1986 of El­ Houston was a phenomenon of the press and len Schrecker's superb study. No Ivory Tower: community elite, with a doubtful appeal at the McCarthyism in the Universities, whets our antici­ grass roots level." He argues that w-ithout the pation of even more efforts of the same high imprimatur of Houston's richest and most calibre. Equally welcome as national studies of powerful residents, the right-wing "true be­ McCarthyism, such as Schrecker's, are local in­ lievers" w-ho w-ere in the vanguard of the quiries with one of the best yet Don E. Carle- witch-hunt could never have wreaked havoc ton's, RedScarel, a careful analysis and exami­ w-ith the same degree of untrammeled impu­ nation of the specific form taken by nity that marked their campaign. McCarthyism in Houston, Texas. Carleton, With the election of Dwight Eisenhower in Director of the Barker American History Cen­ 1952, the taming of local militant labor un­ ter at the University of Texas, skillfully situ­ ions, and the diminishing of residual New ates amidst formative conditions specific to Deal policies, the Houston elite began slowly Houston, the local variant of McCarthyism to pull the plug on the most virulent witch- that gripped that city. He notes that the social, hunters, depriving them of vital support in the cultural, and psychological uncertainties occa­ press and thus accelerating their der-rouement. sioned by the \-ery "newness" of Houston as a As for the personification of the Red Scare, major postwar metropolis provided an espe­ the junior Senator from Wisconsin, Carleton cially congenial culture for the witch-hunt vi­ writes that the "growth of the Red Scare in rus to flourish: "Sustained by the confusion of Houston and its subsequent influence had lit­ the post-war era and encouraged by elite rhet­ tle to do with Joe McCarthy. Its scjurces were oric, Houston's Red Scare advocates prepared rooted in other soil and it actually began with­ to launch a campaign of community fear that out him." w-ould force some individuals out of their jobs, Although the most extreme manifestations severely restrict freedom of speech, create of the Red Scare subsided in 1952, Carleton contention in the churches, disrupt the public tells us that the right-wing ideological virus re­ school system, and leave a legacy for the fu­ mained semi-dormant until breaking out, al­ ture." beit in milder form, once again in the 1980's. What makes Carleton's book so good, so Lest a pandemic on the scale of the 1950's re­ much a cut above other studies of its genre is its cur, Carletoir closes his account with the ad­ finely tuned, brilliantly orchestrated combina­ monition that "Americans . . . must not allow BOOK REVIEWS anyone to trample freedom of thought, associ­ deed, the volume includes eighty-eight more ation, and expression. Most of all, they must pages and an added, useful chapter on pre­ not be silent. 4'hey must show more courage serving photographic materials. MacLeish than they did during the 1950's—during the documents the text with footnotes, which w-ere Red Scare." absent from the original book, and makes more liberal and effective use of photographs. PATRICK M. QUINN While these are beneficial changes, a reader Northwestern University familiar with the earlier work may not share the opinion that it has been "greatly ex­ panded." The publication makes an attempt to broaden its appeal to encompass antique The Care of Antiques and Historical Collections. By collectors as well as history museums. This is A. BRUCE MACLEISH (American Association reflected in the addition of information in the for State and Local History, Nashville, 1985. opening chapter on documenting and ap­ Pp. xiii, 248. Illustrations, appendix, notes, praising antique purchases. Presumably, it is suggested readings, index. ISBN 0-910050- also the reason for changing the book's title to 72-4, $14.95, paper.) The Care of Antiques and Historical Collections. In his preface, A. Bruce MacLeish states Two simple words, times change, accompany that revision of the "earlier book is therefore all of us throughout our lives. The words fall not a refutation of it, but an adaptation to the from our lips, too often with smug self- more conservative viewpoint prevailing confidence w-hen we are young, and land on today—the general view that, in many in­ our ears, perhaps as often w-ith a nagging un­ stances, both expert and nonspecialist may be certainty as we grow older. Nonetheless, times able to do more for their collections by taking do change, and in some instances we may all few active measures with objects, protecting agree that the changes are generally for the them more by providing prcjper environment better. One such example is A. Bruce Mac- and handling." A careful reading finds this Leish's revision ofthe classic manual. The Care changed orientation represented in sugges­ of Historical Collections, under the new title. The tions about specific treatments for several Care of Antiques and Historical Collections. classes of artifacts. Where the older book This work originally appeared in 1972 un­ found some applications for the traditional der the complete title The Care tif Historical Col­ use of a boiled linseed oil and turpentine mix­ lections: A Conservation Handbook for the Nonspe- ture on wood, the revision makes a strong cialist. The late Per E. Guldbeck authored the statement against the use oi'any type of "feed­ book for the American Association for State ing formula" on wood. In another change, the and Local History. This organization has long new publication discourages the use of metal been a leader in providing technical assistance polishes containing ammonia. Such departu- and guidance to history museums, particu­ tes from the first work's suggested procedures larly smaller museums without highly special­ appear at several junctures. ized staffs that might include such experts as Changes in conservation practices are not ccjnservators. In the conservation of artifacts, limited to differences in prevailing attitudes the concerns of stabilizing, preserving, and or to prohibitions against certain treatments. maintaining historical materials take prece­ Conservators continue to add new- techniques dence over restoring or recreating the original to the field, and The Care of Antiques and Histori­ appearance of such materials. It is truly a con­ cal Collections includes several new techniques servative field and has become more so in the that are appropriate for the nonspecialist. For years since 1972. To reflect the more cautious example, the discussion of paper conservation prevailing attitudes among conservators and mentions encapsulation, a procedure which to share information about more recently de­ has come into widespread use since 1972, Al­ veloped techniques, the American Association though detailed instructions for the encapsu­ for State and Local History decided to publish lation process are not found in the text, the an updated version of Guldbeck's book. A. footnotes will lead the reader to reliable Bruce MacLeish, Gurator of Collections at the sources. New York State Historical Association, w-rote Readers seeking miracle formulas to re­ the update. store their antiques to original condition will The cover ofthe new book promises a "fully find none here. Nor should they. Promises to revised and greatly expanded edition." In­ "recapture original beauty" most often come 59 WTSCONSIN .MAGAZINE OE HISTORY AUTUMN, 1987 in the form of oils or silicones whose tempo­ and his success in this service to history muse­ rary luster e\'entuallv dulls into a long-term ums and antique collectors deserves our problem. The reader will find in this book a thanks and congratulations. wealth of information on providing stable conditions for historic materials and cautious TOM MCKAY advice on treatments to arrest the deteriora­ The State Htstorical Society ofWisconsin tion of historic materials. Typical of the latter is the passage in Chapter 11 which includes a recipe for making vour own non-arnmonia, low-abrasion copper polish. A test ofthe mix­ ture demonstrated satisfactory polishing Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of results with substances that shoirld cause a America on the Eve of the Revolution. By BERNARD minimum of wear to the surface of a copper BAtLYN, with the assistance of BARB-A.RA DE artifact. WOLFE. (Alfred A Knopf, New York, 1986. MacLeish's revision of Girldbeck's work is Pp. xxvii, 668. Illustrations, tables, graphs, not without flaws. Directions for making pad­ maps, notes, index. ISBN 0-394-51569-2, ded hangers for historic clothing are unneces­ $30,00.) sarily complicated and make the confusing statements that hangers can be cut to almost In the course of far-ranging and profound any size but should not be forced into "gar­ researches into early America, Bernard Bailyn ments that are smaller than a\erage size." Pre­ has pointed out the crystallization of native sumably the purpose of cutting the hangers is elites by 1700, the importance of educaticjn in to make them correctly fit "garments that are social development, the imperial political sys­ smaller than average size." MacLeish rewrote tem's structural instability, and, most fa­ Guldbeck's section on the use of dry mount tis­ mously, ideology's transforming influence on sue, but neither managed to say succinctly that the American Revolution. Now he takes on a dry mount tissue should be used as an adhe­ phenomenon so massive as to be almost invisi­ sive only for copy prints of photographs that ble to the historian's eye, the passings to and have been reprocluced for exhibition and fro of folk who empeopled British North never for mounting original, historic photo­ America. The colonies' endemically high rates graphs. 4 his is their intent, but the point is not of population growth and geographic mobility made clearly and unequivocally. In some accelerated after 1760 as the expulsion of the cases, MacLeish's attempts to amplify Guld­ French let loose speculative energies on both beck's comments merely lengthen the pas­ sides of the Atlantic that encc:)uraged renewed sages and rrrake thenr less clear. Fortunately, emigration from the British Isles. Voyagers to such problems are minor and infrequent. the West, first installment of a projected multi- Despite its revisions and expansion. The volume work, focuses on the tide that swelled Care of Antiques and Historical Collections re­ during the I770's until the Revolution mains largely the book that Per Guldbeck dammed it up. wrote. The majority of the techniques and Bailyn's resource is a remarkable Register, procedures he recommended continue in ac­ mandated by the British government's desire cepted use today, and of even greater impor­ to comprehend an emigration they feared tance, the book retains Guldbeck's voice. His would damage the nation's economy, that in­ warmth, humor, concern for the safety of peo­ cludes the names, ages, occupations, origins, ple who work with the sometimes hazardous destinations and, in many cases, thoughts of materials of conservation, and abiding rever­ 9,364 individuals who left for America be­ ence for the historical collections that docu­ tween December, f773, and March, 1776. ment our heritage are, themselves, preserved Computer analysis reveals that they coursed in this book. To keep the body of Guldbeck's westward not in random eddies but in two dis­ work a trusted friend on the local museum's tinct currents. The first, surging from London bookshelf, A. Bruce MacLeish removed pro­ and southern England, involved nearly half cedures that have not stood the test of fifteen the migrants, typically poor young men with years of advancement in the know-ledge of saleable skills journeying alone as indentured conservation materials, added newly devel­ servants to the labor markets of Pennsylvania, oped techniques, and incorporated today's Maryland, and 'Virginia greedy for hands to more cautious approach to care of historical smelt iron, w-eave textiles, and build houses. collections. MacLeish faced a challenging task, Servants did not set their dreams in the Regis- 60 BOOK REVIEWS ter, and many of them undoubtedly left to es­ vignettes create a narrative of pointillated lu­ cape poverty and unemployment, but they minosity, each separate story melding with the seem, as did free English artisans, to have had rest to illuminate the whole. The research is a good knowledge of colonial labor markets awesome, the production (featuring colored and to have bound themselves out of rational sketches of escaped convicts imagined from choice rather than from desperate necessity. advertisements) opulent. Such detail lavished Free migrants tended to speak positively over so broad a canvas renders the book a about their decisions, emphasizing their community study of a continent. chances for success in the New World; promi­ Fhis fecundity taxes one's power to absorb nent among them were several hundred it, and Bailyn makes the character of the mi­ young men of comfortable estate headed for gration clearer than he does its repercussions. the West Indies to make their marks (and Unlike later masses fleeing famine, indigence, guineas) as planters. The second freshet, and persecution, these British pilgrims, many coursing from Yorkshire, northern England, of them "middling sorts" as Mildred Campbell and especially Scotland, comprised another 40 pointed out long ago, seem on the whole to per cent traveling predominantly in complete have ventured forth because America at­ families, often headed by a patriarch in his tracted them rather than because Britain ush­ 30's or 40's, who described their exodus as a ered them out. The majority debarked be­ flight from extorting landlords and a declin­ cause they aspired to better their lot in the ing economy that forebode reduced living colonies, and, as far as Bailyn tells it, they had standards. Ruefully deserting ancestral home­ good reason for their optimism. Although life steads, most often for New York and North anywhere in the eighteenth century was hard Carolina, they hoped to invest their (some­ and the Atlantic crossing debilitating (or even times substantial) capital in new farms. Some fatal), migrants entered a world that enjoyed 758 in this group, more sanguine about mi­ an expanding ecc^nomy and bracing draughts grating than were the others, headed for Nova of independence. Voyagers to the West elegantly Scotia. restates the percepticjn of Am.erica as the "best As enlightening ofthe migration's dual nat­ poor man's [and woman's?] country," a notion ure as these statistics prove, they merely form some w-ould dispute and w-hich is untestable the book's skeleton, for Bailyn maintains that here given the impressionistic (though impos­ figures simply display patterns whose human ing) quality of Bailyn's data and its restrictiorr meaning, nestled in experience, he sets out to to both a very narrow period and a limited reveal by putting flesh on the numbers. The range of (admittedly significant) ethnic bulk of the volume evokes convicts sentenced groups. Non-British European emigrants will to America in lieu of death, passengers receive their due later, but how, or if, Bailyn cramped together in steerage awash in brine proposes to handle Africans he does not make and excrement, buyers candidly appraising plain, and he seems inclined to ignore Amer­ the latest gang of indentured servants, entre­ indians, immigrants before the rest, whose de­ preneurs scheming to populate their lands, clining populations opened up lands white mi­ and settlers striving to eke out their fortunes grants seized arrd w-hose peregrinations, on the frontier's far reaches, as if the sole way churned up by the bow- wave of European set- to fathom a process whose complexity Bailyn tlemeirt, figured strongly in the ultimate dis­ continually affirms is to plunge the reader raw position ofthe "American" people. Bailyn ar­ into an anthology ofthe whole sweaty, weary­ ticulates his ultimate design more forcefully in ing, tortuous, alternately disagreeable and ex­ the published version of his Curti Lectures de­ hilarating business. Tale follows tale about or­ livered at the University of Wisconsin- dinary people like James Hogg, a Highland Madison, The Peopling of British North America: farmer who sought to escape his neighbors' An Introduction (Knopf, New York, 1986), lawlessness through organizing a shipload of there setting out four broad propositions. emigrants, survived both a storm-lashed ex­ Tw-o of them—that settlement patterns w-ere cursion that foundered east of its embarkation highly differentiated and that the majcjr stim­ point and the gale of litigation that ensued, es­ uli to population recruitment and settlement tablished himself so quickly in North Carolina w-ere the need for labor and land that within a year of his arrival he was lobbyirrg speculation—give shape to the material in Voy­ the Adamses in Congress to admit the state of ages. The most striking proposal—that early Transylvania, and died a successful merchant. American culture is best construed as an ex­ Federalist, and university trustee. Scores of otic offshoot of the metropolitan manner— 61 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN,1987

receives little notice in the present tome save feel about the Constitution. Since 1789 the that eighteenth-century immigrants gravi­ Constitution has been protected by the values, tated to the peripheries rather than to the cen­ options, and "means of resolving conflicts ters of habitation, inexorably drifting from w-ithin a framework of consensus" that are em­ British control and in the process raising a civi­ bedded in constitutionalism. 4'he Constitution lization that cleaved European refinement to has attained the ends of the Founding an indigenous wildness fashioned from the Fathers—"national cc;)hesion, political stabil­ original traits infused with alien influences ity, economic grcjwth, and individual liberty." and charged by the primitive air of a less inhib­ To these ends, the Supreme Court has added ited world. The thesis awaits extended com­ "social justice" in the last few decades. In the mentary elsew-here. 1980's the Constitution ancl the system of So does another issue that haunts this checks and balances are imperilled by the ef­ magnificent opus by its virtual absence. The forts of liberals and conservatives (especially Register omits the departure from London in the latter) to hold a second constitutional con­ 1774 of a failed tobacconist, staymaker, and vention or to restrict the jurisdiction of an ac­ excise man named Thomas Paine. Paine har­ tivist and politicized Supreme Court. Because bored opinions about everything, and within the Constitution is bolstered by constitutional­ two years he would publish some choice obser­ ism, a study of the meaning and impact of that vations about George III, but here he muses concept might prevent the Constitution's sub­ only about the "putrid fever" attending his version for political ends. It is also important journey and the likelihood of his own demise. to study constitutic^nalism because the Consti­ Bailyn mentions the Revolution as he spins out tution was never intended to be "a machine individual lives, but he little wonders about that would go of itself (James Russell Lowell, how- a massive influx of newcomers might pos­ 1888). It has been shaped by events, ideas, in­ sibly have affected the established colonists at fluences, groups, and personalities. a time when they were menacing imperial Professor Kammen's effort is a heroic one. agents to stave off a putative conspiracy The range ofthe sources that he has used is re­ threatening their liberty, property, and virtue, markable, as attested by approximately one or whether immigrant aspirations for per­ hundred densely packed pages of footnotes. sonal autonomy could have fused with patriot Citations to books, pamphlets, papers, and ar­ dreams of national independence. By implica­ ticles that reached the greatest number of peo­ tion the movements of populations and parti­ ple pepper the footnotes. Kammen has mined sans belong to separate spheres. Perhaps so, the little-used papers ofthe Constitution Cen­ but one suspects otherwise and hopes that tennial and Sesquicentennial commissions, Bailyn will lay bare how- the peopling of Amer­ public opinion polls (Roper), and the papers ica conjoined with its freeing. ofthe naturalization and immigration service dealing with the preparation of aliens for citi­ CHARLES L. COHEN zenship. I'he volume is most detailed when University of Wisconsin—Madison Kammen plunges into these sources. Subjects exhaustively treated by other scholars are en­ capsulated and the reader is referred to the notes for further reading. The volume, then, is abundant on detail, but it is also rich in inter­ A Machine That Would Go of Itself: The Constitu­ pretation, and Kammen's liberal bias burns tion in American Culture. By MICHAEL KAMMEN. brightly. (Alfred A. Knopf, New 'York, 1986. Pp. xxii, A Machine That Would Go of Itself \s divided 532. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. into four parts. From the establishment ofthe ISBN 0-394-52905-7, $29.95.) new- government in 1789 to the Centennial of the Constitution in 1887, a constitutional con­ A Machine That Would Go of Itself: The Consti­ sensus developed slowly. States righters in­ tution in American Culture is the work of a sisted that the Constitution was the work ofthe historian-teacher. Professor Michael Kam­ states, while nationalists argued that it was the men describes the Constitution's place "in the creation ofthe people. The Civil War resolved public consciousness and symbolic life of the the debate in favor of the nationalists. The American people." His main concern is the great "instrument" of government had sur­ constitutionalism ofthe people: how ordinary vived America's greatest constitutional crisis; Americans (notjudges, law-yers, or professors) it had been "a machine that would go of itself." 62 ROOK REVIEW'S

The public's knowledge of the document, Beginning in 1940 the Supreme Court, es­ however, was limited, and the Golden Jubilee pecially the Warren Court (1954—1970), as­ in 1837 was a bust. sumed a greater role in public affairs than 4'he years beginning with the Centennial ever before. Fhe Warren Court, demonstrat­ and ending with World War I were years of ing little respect for the lower courts and the crisis in constitutionalism—much conflict, lit­ state legislatures, exercised judicial authority tle consensus. 4'he Supreme Court, in one of almost withcjut restraint. This Court also re­ its most activist phases, placed states and prop­ discovered the Bill of Rights, and by the 1960's erty rights above human and civil rights, as the entire Bill of Rights became applicable to judges struck down numerous state and fed­ the states. In the I980's, however, the Court is eral laws. The Court was seen as a politicized moving away from the Bill of Rights and is be­ institution that had usurped the power of the coming more interested in how power is dis­ people, and groups, such as the Progressives, tributed among the institutions of govern­ sought to make it more responsive to the pop­ ment and the limitations on that power. ular will. The celebration of the Centennial Kammen laments the failure ofthe media and was a comedy of errors—the federal govern­ the Supreme Court to educate the people in ment denied funding, cities and states feuded, matters ofthe Constitution and constitutioiral- and social classes vied with one another. The ism. I'he Court is the worst reported and great Philadelphia celebration was saved by judged institution in government. Kammen the generosity of the Pennsylvania legislature believes that this is unfortunate because the and the citizens and business community of media, especially television, is the best means Philadelphia. The Centennial helped to de­ of educating people. The Court is also to velop constitutional history as a viable field of blame: it is often mysterious and inaccessible, study. Most scholars concluded that the Con­ indifferent to public relations, arrd contemp­ stitution had its roots in the colonial experi­ tuous of the press. ence, the state constitutions, the Articles of A Machine That Would Go of Itself is a sub­ Confederation, the British constitution, and stantial effort, though it is not without fault. the teachings of Blackstone and Montesquieu. Kammen has ignored some seminal works The metaphor ofthe machine was replaced by that would have given us even greater insight an organismic one—the Constitution was a liv­ into constitutional education. First published ing organism, a flexible document. Despite in 1827, Jonathan Elliot's five-volume The De­ this flurry of scholarly activity, laymen re­ bates in the Several State Conventions, on the Adop­ mained largely ignorant of the Constitution tion of the Eederal Constitution has been printed and its meaning. more than two dozen times. The Federalist, that During the years 1919 to 1939, the Consti­ excellent commentary on the Constitution tution became more important in American written in 1787 and 1788, has been printed life than ever before. A cult of the Constitu­ about one hundred times, sometimes in cheap tion developed; in many ways it was an unin­ editions. 4'he Centennial generated such formed, unthinking, and patriotic worship of works as Paul Leicester Ford's essays and pam­ the document. The Supreme Court's public phlets on the Constitution, and between 1894 image underwent several abrupt changes and and 1905 the United States Department of efforts were made to reform it. In the 1920's State published the five-volume Documentary the Taft Court was attacked for overturning History of the Constitution of the United States of social legislation, but such criticism subsided America, 1786—1870. Both works included fine from 1930 to 1934 because the Hughes Court bibliographies on the study of the Constitu­ w-as liberal on civil rights and welfare matters. tion. Kammen is correct in emphasizing the The pendulum swung again in 1935 and 1936 hold that John Fiske's The Critical Period in when the Court struck down New Deal legisla­ American History (1888) has had on the Ameri­ tion. Then, beginning in 1937, Roosevelt's can people, but one wishes he had explained court-packing scheme helped to restore the the reasons for its extraordinary impact. Such good opinion ofthe Court. This crisis and the an examination might tell us how Americans Sesquicentennial of the Constitution in­ feel about their first constitution, the Articles creased constitutional literacy. The Sesquicen­ of Confederation, even though most of thenr tennial Commission averted the fiascos of probably do not even consider it to be one. 1837 and 1887-1889, but its herculean effort Because Professor Kammen plays the role to educate the people did ncjt meet expecta­ of pedagogue, his book is sometimes marred tions. by repetition. Kammen's emphasis was sup- 63 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1987 posed to have been upon ordinary Americans, surprisingly successful effort to understand but the volume is filled with material from law­ the meaning of liberty in American culture. yers, judges, and professors—among the most Kammen is quite right w-hen he says that literate members of society—who he is fond of liberty has most often been explained in rela­ quoting. He often tells us w-hat these individ­ tion to some other quality. It has not been suf­ uals think is the status ofthe ordinary people's ficient to say that liberty is simply the absence know-ledge of the Constitution, rather than of restraint. 4'hat defines anarchy more than getting it from the people themselves. Profes­ liberty. Instead, says Kammen, during various sor Kammen should have taken some sam­ periods of American history, liberty has been plings from the editorial pages of the mass- associated or contrasted with authority, prop­ circulation dailies to see what ordinary people erty, order, and justice. Kammen admits that have said about the Supreme Court and the there has been a lot of chronological overlap­ Constitution. The experience would have ping and that variant definitions have been been eye-opening, if not mind-boggling. dominant at the same time. Despite this, he Kammen's description of the Centennial and sees "liberty and authority" and "liberty and Sesquicentennial celebrations concentrates on property" as the dominant constructs in the urban America to the virtual exclusion of colonial and revolutionary periods; "liberty small-town ancl rural America. He was per­ and order" and a late revival of "liberty and haps too harsh on James Madison for not pub­ property" in the nineteenth century (broadly lishing his notes on the debates ofthe Consti­ defined as from the 1790's to the 1920's); and tutional Convention of 1787 so that there "liberty and justice" in the tw-entieth century would not have been so much distortion about (from the f 880's to the present). His major the Constitution in the years before Madison's thesis, one that is extremely persuasive, is that death in 1836. One wonders if even the schol­ "above all, there has been an expansion of arly and gentle Madison could have been an w-hat is embraced by the concept of liberty"; effective constitutional educator. Criticism and the "American experience, overall, has aside, Kammen has written an instructive been one of progress blemished by setbacks." book; if no one else reads it, it should be read Early on, Kammen quotes Felix Frank­ by the members of the Supreme Court, the furter as having said that the Justices of the media, and the present bicentennial commis­ Supreme Court make the meaning of liberty. sion. Perhaps, Professor Kammen will have For that reason, Kammen says that he will rely better luck as a constitutional educator than extensively on the opinions of justices, though those w-hose stctry he tells so eloquently and not exclusively. This is, in fact, w-hat he did in energeticalh. his lectures, but he relies far less on judicially turbid mumbo jumbo in the volume. As a GASPARE J. SALADINO result, he has provided more convincing evi­ The Documentary History ofthe dence for the developing ideas of liberty in Ratification ofthe Constitution America. The architecture of Kammen's thesis is less persuasive than the substance. His admission that there are overlaps really does not go far enough. In every instance, profound defini­ Spheres of Liberty: Changing Perceptions of Liberty tions of liberty that Kammen w-ould place in in American Culture. By MICHAEL KA.MMEN. one chronological context can be found in any (University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, other. Although "liberty and justice" is sup­ 1986. Pp. xiv, 180. Illustrations, notes, index. posed to become prominent only in the twenti­ ISBN 0-299-10840-6, $19.50.) eth century, Kammen notes that the preamble to the Constitution speaks of establishing jus­ This handsome little volume, attractively tice and securing the blessings of liberty. He designed and well edited by the University of quotes James Madison in The Federalist 51 as Wisconsin Press, is derived from the Merle saying, "Justice is the end of civil society. It Curti lectures that Michael Kammen gave in ever has been, and ever will be pursued until it Madison in October, 1985. I'hose w-ho could be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pur­ not attend the lectures will, of course, benefit suit." While it may be true that the phrase "lib­ from this volume; those who did attend will erty and justice" was not often used in the de­ also benefit from the opportunity to study at bate over ratification of the Constitution, for leisure Professor Kammen's daunting and instance, criticism of the new- government as 64 BOOK REVIEWS

aristocratic or for favoring the "nabobs" or the legitimacy and a resonance" they did not have "well born" was an appeal for justice and an until recently. Once again, the American expression of concern that injustice would be sphere of liberty seems to be in the process of inflicted on the poor by the wealthy. In Kam­ being enlarged, though it remains to be seen men's methodology, Herbert Hoover and whether there may not be a reaction against Fisher Ames are found in the same historical these privacy rights. period and attached to the same concept of It is now nearly two hundred years since the "liberty and order," another indication that Framers gave us a Constitution intended to se­ the value of the chronological division is sus­ cure the blessings of liberty to themselves and pect. It would have been more worthwhile to their posterity. Michael Kammen has demon­ examine these various ideas of liberty regard­ strated that they have succeeded perhaps be­ less of time, to explain that they have coexisted yond their expectation. His book does honor in America since the beginning, with one per­ to that remarkable legacy. haps being more evocative and commonly as­ serted than the others at a particular time. RICHARD LEEFLER Other problems arise when Kammen cites The Documentary History ofthe court opinions. In the first place, contrary to Ratification ofthe Constitution Justice Frankfurter's presumption, judges, even great justices of the Supreme Court, rarely speak with insight into American cul­ ture or the realm ofthe mind. Hamilton, Mad­ Life and Labor: Dimensions of American Working- ison, Jackson, Lincoln, (even) Hoover, and the Class History. Edited by CHARLES STEPHENSON Roosevelts had deep understanding of their and ROBERT ASHER. (State University of New- culture. The same is not generally true for the York Press, Albany, 1986. Pp. x, 343. Notes, members ofthe Court, who often speak, and, authors' biographies, index. ISBN 0-88706- it can be argued, are supposed to speak, con­ 173-7, $39.aO, cloth; ISBN 0-88706-172-9, trary to the dominant opinions of the day. In $12.95, paper.) the second place, Kammen's discussion ofthe way in which Court opinions explain liberty is fhis collection w-as designed for uirder- colored by his own persuasion. He denounces graduate and graduate students, but local his­ the use of substantive due process to protect torians and many others also will find these property rights in the late nineteenth century splendid essays interesting and provocative. as "extraconstitutional guarantees" and a I'he authors focus on a variety of w-orker ex­ "strange sophistry." He refers to Adkins v. Chil- periences from early nineteenth-century drens Hospital (1923) as the "nadir in this sub- shoemakers to women clerical workers of to­ stained revisionism." {Adkins struck dow-n min­ day. Fhey illuminate how industrial require­ imum wage laws for w-omen. Many feminists ments and workers themselves shaped work ancl others would today also argue against and affected social relationships in workplaces such laws on equal protection grounds.) He and communities. They also tell us much describes as the "new wisdom" the post New- about the cultures and values of workers and Deal judicial concepts of liberty which em­ capitalists during and after the nation indus­ braced what the Court called the "fundamen­ trialized. But, as the editors note in their long tal right" of labor to organize and bargain col­ and helpful introduction, the underlying lectively. Firrally, Kammen analyzes the recent theme in all the essays is the struggle of w-ork­ discovery of such privacy rights as the right to ers to achieve a measure of control over their sell contraceptives, the right to have porno­ work and their leisure time activities. graphic materials in one's home, and the right The essays are arranged chronologically, to abortion, without noticing that what we each one covering some forty to sixty years. have here is substantive due process revived. 'Fhey consider four subjects (although many The modern Court is mangling the due proc­ overlap). One, for example, explores how- in­ ess of law clause no less than previous Courts. dustrial necessities and values were transmit­ These privacy rights are controversial to­ ted to workers and altered their lives. Thus, day because no consensus has yet been William Mulligan depicts how over two gener­ achieved that they are part of the American ations New England shoe factories replaced concept of liberty. But as Kammen says, even the small neighborhood shops where artisans if there is widespread disagreement about had inherited traditional values, customs, and these forms of liberty, "they have acquired a skills. Fhomas Leary show-s how new machines 65 WISCONSIN HISTORY CHECKLIST and the larger size of New England textile ma­ for good times. That forced them to negotiate chinery shops reflected the capitalists' need to "between their desire for social participation control w-ork and the space in which it oc­ and their adherence to cultural standards that curred. And in his study of Albany's Odd Fel­ discouraged premarital sexual intimacy." lows from 1845 to 1885, Brian Greenberg sug­ Finally, four essays consider workers in a gests that such fraternal orders transmitted fully industrialized society. How radical was values of industriousness and sobriety to labor in the 1930's? Despite claims of fearful workers in their ranks, while they mitigated business leaders, Melvyn Dubofsky argues class conflict ancl reinforced the new social or­ that radical labor prospects were not sustained der as well. during and after the Depression because most Other essays focus on worker response to workers accepted the premise and promise of new work routines and dislocaticjns. Charles industrial capitalism. Nelson Lichtenstein Stephenson's analysis of geographical and so­ supports that view from a different perspec­ cial mobility studies suggests that workers tive by analyzing how technology and new sought better jobs in order to escape domina­ production controls at Ford's giant River tion and recurring unemployment, and not Rouge plant, along wdth management and un­ because they accepted middle class values. ion bureaucratization, suppressed worker Walter Licht demonstrates in rich detail how- power. Dennis Dickerson show-s how black last century's massive railroad strikes steel workers had to pressure federal officials stemmed as much from "years of accumulated during World War II to correct discrimination grievances" against arbitrary bureaucratic ef­ in western Pennsylvania when union efforts forts to control workers as from specific wage fell short. And 'Valerie Quinney uses oral his­ demands. Hazardous work places provided tory interviews to reveal the changing percep­ other sources of labor unrest in the half cen­ tions of Rhode Island women clerical w-orkers tury before the end of World War I, as Robert about technology, supervision, work hazards, Asher suggests in his article. Gregory Zieren and job autonomy. says skilled Toledo workers used boycotts, not Some of these articles are more closely ar­ strikes, to organize unskilled workers. Be­ gued than others. One or two need more evi­ cause successful consumer boycotts depended dence. But overall, this stimulating collection on unorganized workers, Zieren thinks the w-ill enrich our understanding of life and la­ boycott reflects class solidarity and much hos­ bor, and of United States history as w-ell. tility to industrial capitalism in that city. And Patricia Cooper carefully describes how- MICHAEL A. GC^IRDON women cigar makers resisted employer at­ State Historical Society ofWisconsin tempts to change workplaces but often failed because men in their trade had more power, even though women cigar makers outnum­ bered men by 1919. North Dakota Indians: An Introduction. By MARY A third group provides fresh views on the JANE SCHNEIDER. (Kendall/Hunt Publishing social context of leisure activities. Roy Ro­ Company, Dubuque, low-a, 1986. Pp. 276. senzweig and Kathy Peiss show how- varied Photographs, charts/graphs/tables, maps, ref­ perceptions about parks, playgrounds, play, erence lisdng, index. ISBN 0-8403-4026-5, and dance halls reflect not just different class $19.95, paper.) attitudes but also a particular stage of industri­ alization. Rosenzweig says Worcester's busi­ North Dakota Indians is an all-around excel­ ness community tried to instill industrial val­ lent book (and this includes being very read­ ues among workers and children by enforcing able). This is not surprising, given the fact that "proper behavior" in public parks and play­ its author, no armchair writer, is a foremost grounds, while working-class families held authority on the Native tribes and cultures of different view-s about the value of play and the Northern Plains. Although focusing pri­ recreation. To Peiss, working-class men and marily on North Dakota, this work contains w-omen flocked into New York City's dance much valuable information on United States/ halls between 1900 and 1920 as courtship Indian relations in general. moved from crowded tenements into more Basing this comprehensive study on archi­ public places. There, some low-paid working- val materials and extensive field work (includ­ class women who enjoyed a new- "personal au­ ing many direct interviews). Professor Sch­ tonomy" occasionally exchanged sexual favors neider provides an authoritative context, 66 BOOK REVIEWS quite capably draw-ing from both anthropo­ among other facets, government school sys­ logical and historical perspectives. Among tems, Indian-controlled programs and institu­ other dimensions, this includes representative tions (e.g.. Native community colleges), and tribal origin narratives; and examines, tocj, the off-reservation approaches (e.g., Indian Stud­ traditional cultures of the Arikara, Hidatsa, ies at the University of North Dakota)—and Mandan, Dakota, Lakota, Yankton and the many inherent challenges, including the Yanktonai, and the Turtle Mountain Chip­ growing and increasingly reachable goal of bi- pewa. A delineationof the basic thrusts of U.S. culturalism. Her discussion of the now not federal Indian policy (and its colonial anteced­ good Native health situation incorporates tra­ ents) is trenchant and provocative. ditional cultural factors and methods—during Fhe development and the life of ancl on the prehistoric, historic, and contemporary eras— reservations of North Dakota, with emphasis as well as the background and development of on the present one.s—Ft. Berthold, Ft. Totten, the federal programs. Standing Rock, and 4'urtle Mountain—are A wealth of photographs (many of them well covered with a refreshing sense of knowl­ rarely seen before), charts, graphs, tables, edgeable detail. A demographic section nicely maps, a chronological outline, and a thorough rounds out not only the reservation situations listing of references, all provide rich comple­ but (oh, how rare!) covers urban and other ments. nonreservation settings as well. Much more indeed than an "introduction," Professor Schneider devotes a great deal of sensibly sympathetic, and with reasoned opti­ attention to the almost consistently bleak eco­ mism regarding the effectiveness of contin­ nomic situation faced by the Indians and the ued Indian commitment to tribe and culture, difficulties encountered by Native tribes and this fine book will be of substantial interest not individuals (generally through no fault of only to those individuals and libraries inter­ their ow-n) in developing effective, self- ested in Native Americans on the Northern determinative approaches in this critical area. Plains, but to all concerned w-ith Indians in She also provides a quite lucid examination of general and the whole complex of Native/U.S. the often confusing complexities of tribal and relationships. This a strong and definitive federal jurisdiction, especially in the matters work. of governance atrd criminaljustice. The cover­ age of Indian education is as thorough as the JOHN R. SALTER, JR. other components ofthe book. This embraces. University of North Dakota

Book Revie-ws

Bailyn, "Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of Katz, In the Shadow ofthe Poorhouse: A Social History of Wel­ America on the Eve ofthe Revolution, reviewed by Charles fare in America, reviewed by Dennis C. Rousey .... 5.5 L. C^ohen 60 MacLeish, The Care of Antiques and Historical Collections, re­ Carleton, Red Scare! Right Wing Hysteria, Fifties Fanaticism, viewed by Tom McKay 59 and Their Legacy in Texas, re\'iewed by Patrick M. Marchand, Advertising the American Dream: Making Way Quinn .57 for Modernity, 1920-1940, reviewed by Jared C. Lob­ Kammen, A Machine That Would Go of Itself: The Constitu­ dell 56 tion in American Culture, reviewed by Gaspare J. Sala­ Schneider, North Dakota Indians: An Introduction, reviewed dino 62 by John R. Salter, Jr 66 Kammen, Spheres of Liberty: Changing P erceptions Stephenson and Asher, editors. Life and Labor: Dimensions of Liberty in American Culture, of American W orking-CAass History, reviewed by Michael reviewed by Richard Leffler 64 A. Gordon 65

67 Wisconsin History Behrend, Ada Stoda. My Pioneer Families of Checklist Vernon County Wisconsin. (Laguna Hills, Cal­ ifornia, 1987? 4 vols. Illus. No price listed. Available from author, 5492B Paseo Del Lago, Laguna Hills, California 92653.) Rec cii(l\ published .iiid c uriciili\ awiilabic Wise onsiana adtk'd to tiu- Sut)tistlel, $10^00. Available from author, P.O. Box date ol pul)lic anon, prut*, p.igiii.iiion, .iiicl address oi 135, lola, Wisconsin 54945.) sup[)lier- Write Sus.m Dorst, \u|Uisiiions Sec lion.

Buehler, J. Marshall. The Nekoosa Story: a Com­ About Us. . . (Port Charlotte?, Florida, 1986. memorative History of Nekoosa Papers, Inc. Pp. [24]. Illus. No price listed. Available (Port Edwards, Wisconsin, 1987. Pp. 169. from Rufus Wells, 132 Creek Drive S.E., Illus. No price listed. Available from au­ Port Charlotte, Florida 33952.) History of thor, Manager of Customer Relations and Wells Printing Co. of Madison. Internal Transportation, Nekoosa Papers, Inc., Port Edw-ards, Wisconsin 54469.) Agricultural Diversity in Wisconsin: a Catalog to Accompany the Cooperative Exhibit Culture and Carlton, Jerry W. An Inventory ofthe School Re­ Agriculture, edited by Tom McKay and De­ cords of Adams County, Wisconsin in the Collec­ borah E. Kmetz. (Madison, Wisconsin, tions of the Adams County Historical Society, cl987. Pp. 93. Illus. $4.00. Available from Friendship, Wisconsin. (Friendship, Wiscon­ Publications Orders, State Historical Soci­ sin, 1987. Pp. 20. Illus. $2.00. Available ety ofWisconsin, 816 State Street, Madison, from Adams County Historical Society, Wisconsin 53706.) P.O. Box 264, Friendship, Wisconsin 53934.) Anderson, Anna C. Weaving Life's Intricate Pat­ tern. (Plum City, Wisconsin, 1984. Pp. 53. Il­ Deane, Ronnie. "Crazylegs": a Man and His Ca­ lus. $4.00. Available from author. Route 1, reer. (Madison, Wisconsin, cl987. Pp. 71. Il­ Box 76, Plum City, Wisconsin 54761.) Rec­ lus. $7.95 plus $2.50 postage and handling. ollections of the author's life in Pierce Available from Montzingo & Gustin Adver­ County. tising, Ltd., 25 West Main Street, Suite 789, Madison, Wisconsin 53703.) Biography of Augusta High School, 100 Years, 1887-1987. U.W. athlete and athletic director Elroy (Augusta?, Wisconsin, 1987. Pp. 20. Illus. Hirsch. $1.00. Available from Augusta High School Office, Route 2, Augusta, Wisconsin Dearolf, Kenneth. Wisconsin Folk Pottery in the 54722.) Collection of the Kenosha Public Museum. (Kenosha, 'Wisconsin, cl986. Pp. 52. Illus. Baird, James S. Hoard's Dairyman Dairy Collect­ $4.95 plus $1.50 postage and handling. ibles: a Pictorial Guide to Collecting and Identi­ Wisconsin residents add 5 per cent sales fying Items Related to Dairying. Includes a Buy­ tax. Available from Kenosha Public Mu­ ers' Price Guide. (Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, seum, 5608 4'enth Avenue, Kenosha, Wis­ cI987. Pp. 64. Illus. $4.00 plus $1.00 post­ consin 53140.) age and handling. Available from Hoard's Dairyman Book Department, P.O. Box Down Fayette Memory Lane. (Darlington, Wis­ 801, Fort Atkinson, 'Wisconsin 53538- consin, 1986. Pp. 189. Illus. $6.00 plus 0801.) $1.00 postage and handling. Available 68 WISCONSIN HISTORY CHECKLIST

from Lafayette County Historical Society, thor, 3405 McKamy Oaks Trail, Arlington, 525 Main Street, Darlington, Wisconsin Texas 76017.) 53530.) Reprint ofthe 1976 edition with a new-ly added index. Griffin, John R. Griffin Families Marry. (Grants Pass,'Oregon, 1987. Pp. xii, 244. Illus. No Engel, Dave. Home Mission: a History of the First price listed. Available from author, 2008 Congregational, United Church of Christ, Wis­ Stringer Gap Road, Grants Pass, Oregon consin Rapids, Wisconsin. (Rudolph, Wiscon­ 97527.) Genealogy of an early pioneer fam­ sin, River City Memoirs, cl987. Pp. 119. Il­ ily who settled in Sauk County. lus. $11.00. Available from First Congregational Church, United Church of Guide Book to Historic Galloway House and Vil­ Christ, 311 Second Street South, Wisconsin lage: at 336 Old Pioneer Road, Fond du Lac. Rapids, Wisconsin 54494.) (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, 1987. Pp. 49. Il­ lus. $1.00 plus $ .50 postage and handling. Fiege, Signe Aho. A Clearing in the Woods. Available from Fond du Lac County His­ (Washburn, Wisconsin, Bayfield County torical Society, P.O. Box 1284, Fond du Publishing, Inc., 1986. Pp. xi, 89, Illus. Lac, Wisconsin 54935.) $6.95 plus $1.50 postage and handling. Available from author. Box 275, Cornuco­ Guilbault, Nadine. The Morey Family History. pia, Wisconsin 54827.) Reminiscences of (Stevens Point, Wisconsin, cl986. Pp. 138 the author's life, much of w-hich was spent [16]. Illus. $25.00. Available from author, in the Brantwood area. 212 Sunset Avenue, Stevens Point, Wiscon­ sin 54481.) Folstad, Ardis. Vi Hadde Det Godt Ller (We Had It Good Here), edited by Jean O'Neill. Harnischfeger, Henry. Harnischfeger Corpora­ (Menomonie?, Wisconsin, 1987. Pp. 135, ii. tion: a Centennial History. (New- York, New $5.00 plus $ .90 postage and handling. Wis­ York, 1985. Pp. 24. Illus. No price listed. consin residents add $ .25 sales tax. Availa­ Available from The Newcomen Society of ble from author, 513 Twenty-first Avenue the United States, 412 Newcomen Road, West, Menomonie, Wisconsin 54751 or Exton, Pennsylvania 19341.) The Mable Tainter Memorial, 205 East Main Street, Menomonie, Wisconsin Hiles, William, Sr., and Hiles, Sheryl. Yellow 54751.) Story of Nettie Bakke Ruud who River Pioneers. (Pittsville, Wisconsin, 1987. emigrated from Norway to Dunn County in Pp. iii, 125. Illus. $13.95 plus $1.50 postage the I870's. and handling. Available from Yellow River Pioneers, P.O. Box K, Pittsville, Wisconsin Gehring, Emil Robert. Rough Times. (Rice 54466.) Describes the development of Lake, Wisconsin, cl987. >p. 270. Illus. eleven miles of land along the Yellow- River $8.98 includes tax plus $1.00 postage and in western Wood County. handling. Available from author, 2002 Lake Shore Drive, Bloomer, Wisconsin Hiller, Philip C. The Behm Connection. 54724.) An account of Gehring's life in (Hawthorne?, California, 1987? Pp. xiii, Bloomer. 193. Illus. No price listed. Available from author, 4740 West 135th Street, Goc, Michael J., and Driscoll, Geraldine N. Haw-thorne, California 90250.) Winneconne: History's Crossing Place. (Win­ neconne, Wisconsin, cl987. Pp. 152. Illus. A History of the Community and Its People N(j price listed. Available from Mrs. Gerry . . .Redgranite, Wisconsin. (Shaw-nee Mis­ Driscoll, President, Winneconne Historical sion?, Kansas, 1986? Pp. 100. Illus. $41.50. Society, 226 North Ninth Avenue, Winne­ Available from ICP, P.O. Box 10, Shawnee conne, Wisconsin 54896.) Mission, Kansas 66201.)

Gould, Alice Johannsen (Gleason). William Holter, Darryl O. LaborSpies and Union Busting Gleason of Bloomfield, Wisconsin and Some of in Wisconsin, 1890-1940. (Milwaukee?, His Descendants. (Arlington, Texas, 1987.44 Wisconsin, 1987? Pp. 24. Illus. No price leaves. No price listed. Available from au­ listed. Available from author, Wisconsin 69 WTSCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1987

State AFL-CIO, 6333 West Blue Mound Plats of Cities and Villages and Pictures of Build­ Road, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53213.) Re­ ings From 1859 Plat Map of Dodge County, print of an article that appeared in the Wisconsin. (Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, 1987. Summer, 1985, issue ofthe Wisconsin Maga­ 23 leaves. Illus. No price listed. Available zine of History. from Dodge County Historical Society, 105 Park Avenue, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin Jones, Lawrence E. Lucky to be Alive. (Black 53916.) River Falls, Wisconsin, 1987. Pp. iii, 27. No price listed. Available from author, 514 Rile, Henry E. The Rile Collection: Sketches and Van Buren Street, Black River Falls, Wis­ Autobiography of Henry E. Rite's Whitewater consin 54615.) Memoirs ofthe author's ex­ Years, 1856-1862. (Whitewater, Wisconsin, periences in World War I as a member of 1987. Pp. 32. Illus. $6.00 plus $1.50 postage Company C, 107th Ammunition Train (an and handling. Available from Dr. Alfred S. Army unit partially made up of members of Kolmos, 275 North Tratt Street, Whitewa­ the National Guard from Jackson County.) ter, Wisccjnsin 53190.) Juneau County Genealogy Society Cemeteij Book #1. (Mauston, Wisconsin, cl987. Pp. 94, Sucher, Harry "V. Harley-Davidson: the Milwau­ [10], Illus. $10.00 includes postage and kee Marvel. (Newbury Park, California, handling. Available from Joyce Martin, 511 1985. 3rd revised edidon. Pp. 328. Illus. Grayside Street, Mauston, Wisconsin $22.95. Available from Haynes Publica­ 53948.) Book 1 covers the northern town­ tions, Inc., 861 Lawrence Drive, Newbury ships. Park, California 91320.)

Kinzel-Keith, Lois. Kinzel—Koch and—Krippner Umhoefer, Gary A. Benedikt Umhofer and Sons: Kin, a Lighthearted Look at the Past: the Story of a Brief History of the Immigrant Umhoefer Fam­ Three Families Who Were Pioneers in Wisconsin ily. (Clarendon Hills?, Illinois, 1987? Pp. ii, and Nebraska in the Mid-Nineteenth Century. 41, [17]. Illus. No price listed. Available (Coral Gables?, Florida, 1987? Pp. viii, 248. from author, 453 Burlington Avenue, #3, Illus. $22.50. Available from author, 626 Clarendon Hills, Illinois 60514.) 'Valencia Avenue, Coral Gables, Florida 33134.) Willut, Ruth C. Uncle Ned: a Biography of Edward Rutledge. (Rice Lake, Wisconsin, Looking Backward, Moving Forward, Ashland: the 1987, Pp. [8],'76. Illus. $5.25 plus $1.00 Garland City ofthe Inland Seas, edited by Jane postage and handling. Available from au­ S. Smith and Michael J. Goc. (Friendship, thor. Route 5, Box 616, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, New Past Press, Inc., cl987. Pp. Wisconsin 54729.) Rutledge, a resident of 168. Illus. $20.00 plus $2.00 postage and Chippewa Falls who died in 1911, was a handling. Available from Ashland Centen­ lumberman and philanthropist. nial Book, 601 Second Street West, Ashland, Wisconsin 54806.) With Colors Flying: Zor Veteran Patrol, 1937— Oneida County Centennial History Edition, 1887— 1987. (Port Char-lotte?, Florida, 1987. Pp. 1987. (Rhinelander?, Wisconsin, cl987. Pp. [17]. Illus. No price listed. Available from X, 215. Illus. $10.00 plus $1.50 postage and Rufus F. Wells, 132 Creek Drive S.E., Port handling. Available from UW Extension Charlotte, Florida 33952.) The Zor Vet­ Office, P.O. Box 1208, Oneida County Air­ eran Patrol is part of the Zor Shrine Tem­ port, Rhinelander, Wisconsin 54501.) ple in Madison.

70 Accessions sin, by Thurman Fox (1925—) during his serv­ ice in the Army Air Force. Mentioned are his training experiences, 1945 bombing missions Services for inicrofitining, xeroxing, and photostating alt but certain restricted items in its manuscript cotleeiions in the I)utch East Indies on which he flew as a are provided by the Society, bombardier, and aspects of daily life. Pre­ sented by Mr. Fox, Madison. Papers, 1953—1970, oi John A. Gronouski (1919—) including correspondence, reports, speeches, special assistants' files, and press ma­ terial pertaining to his tenure as Postmaster General Collections General (1963—1965); extensive files from his service as ambassador to Poland (1965—1968); Addidons to the records, 1907-1967, of correspondence, schedules, speeches, statis­ the Amalgamated Association of Street, Electric tics, and press material from his leadership Railway and Motor Coach Employees of America, role in the United Democrats for Humphrey; Division 456 (Madison, Wisconsin), the union and brief other papers; presented by John A. local which represented employees of the Gronouski, Austin, Texas. (Partially re­ Madison Bus Company; including minutes, stricted) correspondence, financial records, and bar­ Papers, 1966-1982, from the work oi Bea­ gaining files containing contracts, reports, ar­ trice Kabler (1928—) as founder and chair of bitration hearing transcripts, and other re­ the Wisconsin Citizens for Family Planning, cords; presented by Charles W. Piper, Madi­ lobbyists for liberalization of Wisconsin's laws son via Forrest Ingles, Stoughton. restricting access to contraceptive devices; Additions to the records, 1919-1980, of presented by Mrs. Kabler, Madison. the Business and Professional Women's Club of Papers, 1969-1982, of U.W. professor of Madison, consisting of minutes, financial re­ environmental studies Lowell L. Klessig cords, annual reports, newsletters, scrap- (1945—), concerning his activities in the books, program and committee files, and movement to block Project Sanguine, the U.S. other records; presented by the Club. Navy's Extremely Low Frequency submarine Records, 1968-1981, of the Committee of communication system; including correspon­ Concerned Asian Scholars, a national organiza­ dence, press releases from Sanguine oppo­ tion of students of Asian Studies opposed to nent groups, reference files, and papers from the war in Vietnam, including numerous let­ Klessig's book on ELF; presented by Mr. Kles­ ters on the organization, Asian studies, and sig, Highbridge. the role ofthe scholar as social critic; newslet­ Papers, 1910—1964, concerning the per­ ters; papers on the two CCAS trips to China sonal life and legislative career of Wisconsin and a transcript of an interview with Chou En governor Warren P. Knowles (1908—); includ­ Lai; chapter files; and other records; pre­ ing correspondence with family and friends. sented by CCAS via Bryant Avery, Charle- Republican political leaders, and constituents; mont, Massachusetts, and by Sandy Sturde- campaign materials from Knowles' owm cam­ vant, Evanston, Illinois. paigns and the gubernatorial campaigns of Papers, 1906-1979, oi F. Ryan Duffy Walter Kohler, Jr.; speeches; press releases; (1888-1979), a Democratic U.S. Senator scrapbooks of photographs and biographical (1932-1938) and federal judge for the East­ clippings; legal and estate papers of his father; ern District of Wisconsin (1939-1949) and constituent correspondence of his brother Ro­ U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit bert; and other papers. Presented by Warren (1949-1978); including campaign material; P. Knowles, New Richmond and Madison. files on patronage and legislation; judicial files Papers, 1979-1982, of a Republican assem­ including term calendars, opinions, corre­ blyman from Arlington, Wiscoirsiir, James F. spondence, notes and instructions, and re­ Laatsch (1940—); consisting of correspon­ cords on a bankruptcy committee; general dence from constituents, press releases and correspondence; speeches; and biographical publicity, subject files on legislative topics and material including diaries and scrapbooks; issues of local concern, and tape-recorded presented by Judge and Mrs. Duffy and Don campaign radio spot ads and an endorsement Woods, Milwaukee. by Governor Lee Dreyfus; presented by Mr. Letters and photographs, 1943—1945, writ­ Laatsch, Madison. ten to family and friends in Oshkosh, Wiscon­ Papers, 1935-1970, of a New- York City 71 yVISCONSIN MAGAZINE OE HISTORY AUTUMN, 1987 pharmacist/. Leon Lascoff (1867-1943) and Polar Bear Association of World War II, an orga­ his son Frederick D. Lascoff (1900-1970) who nization of veterans of the 339th Regimental were officers in many professional pharmacy Combat 4'eam, 85th Division; including re­ organizations; including correspondence, bio­ union papers, a history, newsletters of the graphical clippings, and numerous writings, 339th Infantry Association (a similar group), speeches, and radio talks from their efforts to some personal correspondence of Isely, and enhance the status of their profession; pre­ memorabilia and documents from the regi­ sented by Emmy Lascoff, New York, New ment's service in both world wars; presented York. by Charles C. Isely, Jr., Clearwater, Florida, Additions to the records, 1965-1977, of and by the Association via David Thomson, Madison Measure for Measure, a Madison, Wis­ West Springfield, Massachusetts. consin, organization which provided eco­ Files, 1942-1947, kept by executive direc­ nomic assistance to blacks in Mississippi and tor Elizabeth Link including minutes, corre­ Arkansas; including correspcjndence, min­ spondence, reports, clippings, and press ma­ utes, financial records, and publicity materials terial documenting fund raising, clothing documenting fundraising in Madison and drives, and publiceducation workof theMacfi- contacts with civil rights leaders such as Fannie son Committee oi Russian War Relief, a national Lou Hamer, L. C. Smith, Lee Bankhead, and group formed to provide humanitarian aid to Lee Thornton of the North Bolivar County the Soviet Union during World War II; pre­ Farm Cooperative; presented by Madison sented by the Elizabeth Link Estate, Madison. Measure for Measure, Inc., via Jean Sweet and Papers, 1927-1974, oi Emit J. Schaefer Sarah and Jeff Goldstein, 1976-1977; by Fan­ (1892—1973), an activist in the Swiss Ameri­ nie Lou Hamer, Ruleville, Mississippi, 1976; can Historical Society, primarily documenting by Margaret Bogue, Madison, 1976; and by Society affairs during and after World War II Nancy Taylor, McFarland. and Schaefer's friendship with other Society Records, 1927-1964, oi the IVIadison Police­ leaders; including correspondence. Society men's Protective Association, including minutes, constitutions and annual reports, clippings, a constitution, correspondence, membership and materials received from Swiss govern­ and financial records, and miscellany; primar­ ment agencies; presented by Mrs. Schaefer, ily concerning insurance benefits and social Madison. and fraternal activities of the organization; Addidons to the papers, 1889-1941, ofyo- presented by the MPPA. seph Schafer {1867-1941), historian and super­ Addidons to the papers, 1897-1977, of intendent of the State Historical Society of John M. Nelson (1870-1955), a former Pro­ Wisconsin, consisting of personal and profes­ gressive Republican Congressman (1906— sional correspondence, copies of radio ad­ 1919 and 1921-1933), consisdng of consdtu- dresses and speeches mainly concerning Wis­ ent and personal correspondence; speeches consin history, an incomplete autobiography, and w-ritings on religion, the Philippines, and a translation of Wilhelm Hense-Jensen's Wis­ political topics; materials on the House Rules consin's Deutsch-Amerikaner, and other writings; Committee during the Insurgent revolt of portions presented byjoseph Schafer, Jr., and 1908-1910; a biography by his daughter; and Everett E. Edwards. other miscellaneous items; presented by Legal papers, 1938-1976, oi Jeremiah Grace Nelson, Madison. (Restriction: A Stamler (1919—), a distinguished Chicago phy­ Daughter's Recollections is closed without the sician and cardiovascular researcher, who written permission of Grace Nelson.) refused to testify at a 1965 hearing of the Diaries, 1921-1969, of G/m//. Orr, a grad­ House Un-American Activities Committee uate of the Agriculture School of the Univer­ and instead filed a lawsuit challenging the con­ sity ofWisconsin in 1915 who kept extremely stitutionality of the Committee. Included are detailed records of his farm activities in rural historical research materials such as a major IVIadison and of home life after he stopped statistical study conducted by Dr. Hans Zeisel farming to work for the Wisconsin Motor Ve­ the effects of the Committee's subpoena hicle Department, In 1959, he retired and the power and the results of testifying or refusing diaries concern his life in Jasper and Harrison, to testify at a HUAC hearing; presented by Arkansas. Presented by Annabelle Orr, Harri­ Jenner and Block Law Offrce, Chicago, Illi­ son, Arkansas. nois, via Thomas P. Sullivan. Records, 1918-1919, 1942-1978, col­ Fragmentary papers, 1849-1978, of Nor- lected by Lt, Col. Charles C. Isely, Ret., ofthe w-egian immigrant and Madison businessman 72 ACCESSIONS

Halle Stee-hsland (1832-1910), consisting of nization's activities on behalf of conservation, correspondence, biographical papers, education for women, and other issues affect­ speeches and writings, and other items; con­ ing the economic and social lives of members; taining information, primarily 1849—1907, presented by the Federation. on Norwegian ethnicity and assimilation; pre­ Records, 1949-1982, of the Wisconsin Fel­ sented by James Payton and Halberta lowship of Poets, a group founded in 1950 to Steensland, Madison. foster the writing and appreciation of poetry; Papers, 1937—1983, of prominent Madison including officers' correspondence, minutes, rabbi, scholar, and community activist Man­ membership lists, photographs, information fred E. Swarsensky (1906-1981), composed pri­ on and poetry by members such as Edna K. marily of addresses, sermons, and reference Meudt, Marion Paust, Dr. Helen Smith, and material, plus some personal material, bulle­ Reverend Henry Spear, and other papers; tins and reports on Temple Beth El, and a file presented by the Fellowship. on the Gates of Heaven synagogue restora­ Records, 1885-1979, of the Wisconsin tion; portions presented by Rabbi Swarsensky Honey Producers Association, an educational, and Ida Swarsensky, and portions from the lobbying, and promotional organization; in­ Lloyd Barbee collection. cluding minutes, constitutions, convention Fragmentary papers, 1881-1951, oi Cha­ programs, financial records, a promotional rles G. Treat (1859-1941), a U.S. Army general film, photographs, and files on the group's from Monroe, Wisconsin, who served in the Honey Queen competition, State Fair partici­ Spanish-American War and in World War I in pation, and opposition to legislation on bee­ Italy. Present are diaries, a subject file docu­ keeper registration; presented by the U.W. menting his love of horses, brief correspon­ Steenbock Memorial Library and by the Asso­ dence, photographs including 1919 views of ciation. troops, civilians, and conditions in Italy, and Records, 1939—1977, of the Wisconsin other papers; presented by Mrs. A. V. Arnold, Roadside Council, a group formed to coordi­ Southern Pines, North Carolina. nate efforts to improve the beauty and safety Additional papers, 1964—1966, oi Samuel ofWisconsin highways and roadsides; includ­ Walker, a civil rights volunteer in Gulfport, ing constitutions, minutes, correspondence, Mississippi, consisting of general SNCC and financial reports, membership lists, newslet­ COFO papers; materials on freedom schools, ters, files on education programs and legisla­ the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, tive lobbying, and miscellany; presented by and the Free Southern Theater; and Gulfport the Council via Mrs. John 'Warner, Milwau­ reports, minutes, newsletters, and other pa­ kee, and Arno Kurth, Madison. pers; presented by Mr. Walker, Omaha, Ne­ Reccjrds, 1952-1986 (mainly 1975-1985), braska. of the Wisconsin State Conference of Bricklayers Papers, 1945—1976, documenting the work and Allied Craftsmen International Union of Amer­ oi Horace W. Wilkie (1917-1976) as chair of ica; including constitutions, minutes, corre­ the Madison Housing Authority (1945 — spondence, financial reports, convention ma­ 1950), his unsuccessful 1948 and 1950 con­ terials, and other items; presented by Frank gressional campaigns, service as a Democratic Skibbie, Rib Lake. state senator (1956-1962), the 1961 sales tax Additions to the records, 1866—1964, of compromise, and judicial concerns during his the Wi.sconsin State Horticultural Society, an or­ tenure on the Wisconsin Supreme Court ganization formed to encourage growing of (1962—1976), particularly state court reor­ fruit and vegetables in Wisconsin; including ganization; presented by Marion Wilkie, Mad­ minutes, financial records, miscellany, and ison. files of officer Benjamin S. Hoxie containing Records, 1920-1986, ofthe Wisconsin Fed­ correspondence, biographical sketches of eration of Business and Professional Women's Wisconsin horticulturists, and notes for an un­ Clubs; consisting of proceedings, general cor­ published history of horticulture in Wiscon­ respondence, project files, membership mate­ sin. Additions presented by the Society via rials, and miscellany; documenting the orga­ Malcolm S. Dana.

73 Proceedings ofthe One Hundred and Forty-First Annual Business Meeting ofthe State Historical Society ofWisconsin, 1986-1987

Minutes of the Annual Meeting

RESIDENT Sally Eager called the new grants in the Archives and the Museum. P Annual Business Meeting to or­ Earned Income: Income generated by the sale der at 4:15 P.M. in the Minnesota Room, Radis­ of goods and provision of services has increased son Hotel, La Crosse, on June 12, 1987. Sixty- by approximately 13 per cent for the first eleven nine members and guests were present. months of fiscal 1986—1987 in comparison to The minutes of the June 20, 1986 meedng the first eleven months of 1985—1986. A large were approved. part of this increase is for archeological work Gerald D. Viste, treasurer, reported that the done under contract for the Wisconsin Depart­ State Historical Society of Wisconsin continues ment of Transportation. The contract is about to meet its statutory duties with a Legislative $ 150,000 greater than last year because of an ex­ General Purpose Revenue Budget of tensive project in the Sheboygan area. A finan­ $5,407,500 for the current fiscal year which cial report for the entire fiscal year will be ends June 30, 1987. This compares with a Gen­ printed in the next issue of the Magazine. eral Purpose Revenue Budget of $5,171,600 last President Eager had appointed an ad hoc fiscal year, or an increase of 4.7 per cent. Of this Elections Committee consisting of Wilson increase $72,300 was for the Burial Sites Pro­ Thiede, chair, Wilfred Harris, and Dorothy gram which began on January 1, 1987. Much of Knaplund to assume the responsibility of count­ the remainder of the increase came in the pay ing the ballots and certifying the results to the plan increases. Budget cuts which became effec­ Board. The committee authorized Jeff Dean to tive July 1, 1986, reduced the Society's operating supervise staff members Connie Meier and Pa­ funds from General Purpose Revenue. mela Ninmann in recording and tabulating the The Society has four program revenue ballots on a computer. A total of 2,171 ballots sources. Gifts and Donations; The amount re­ were received and entered for counting into the ceived from this source for the first eleven computer (an increase of 2.3 per cent over the months of fiscal year 1986—1987 has shown an total for 1986). The committee wishes to com­ IS per cent increase for the current year when mend the staff members for a thorough and ac­ compared to the same period in fiscal year curate job. 1985—1986. The increase in gifts and donations during the preceding fiscal year was 4 per cent. Re-elected to three-year terms expiring in June, Endowment Principal and Income: Earnings on 1990: the Society Endowment for the first eleven Jane Bernhardt, Cassville months of this fiscal year are $21,970 (16 per E. David Cronon, Madison cent greater than for the same time period last Paul Gartzke, Madison year). Long-term capital gains for the same per­ Vivian Guzniczak, Franklin iod amount to $90,427, a 22 per cent less in­ George Miller, Ripon crease than the previous fiscal year. Federal: Elected to three-year terms expiring in J une, 1990: Federal funds available during the current fiscal Elbert S. Bohlin, Mineral Point year have increased 23 per cent compared to the Errol Kindschy, West Salem previous year. This increase results largely from Lynne Webster, Oshkosh 74 PROCEEDINGS, 1986 — 1987

H. Nicholas Muller III, Director of the Soci­ rator shall be eligible to hold an office described ety, delivered his annual report, which will be in Article VI hereof. printed in the next issue of this Magazine. Amend Article VI as foUoyvs: In the absence of Judge Thomas H. Barland, Section 1. Election. In 1982 and every Chairman of the Consdtution and Bylaws Com­ third year thereafter, the board shall elect frctm mittee, Senator Brian Rude proposed the fob among the elected curators who arc domiciled lowing amendments on behalf of the Commit­ in Wisconsin a president, two vice presidents tee: (who shall be designated respectively as first and Amend Article IV as follows: second vice president), and the treasurer ofthe Section 1. Composition. The Society Society. They shall hold their respecdve offices shall be governed by a board of curators, else­ for a three-year term and until their successors where referred to as the "board." It shall consist are elected and qualify; provided that the term of twenty-four (24) curators elected by the mem­ of any said officer shall terminate if the officer bers from the membership, the curators desig­ ceases to be: a voting member of the Society in nated by statute, and the President of the Uni­ good standing, a curator, or domiciled in 'Wis­ versity of Wisconsin System or his or her designee, consin. The terms of office shall begin immedi­ the designee ofthe Friends Coordinadng Coun­ ately following the adjournment of the business cil, the President ofthe Wisconsin History Foun­ meeting of the members of the Society in the dation, Inc, and the President of the Adminis year ofthe election. trative Committee of the Wisconsin Council for After hearing testimony from several of the Local History. Ex officio board members shall members for and against the amendments, a be entitled to vote. Eleven (11) members ofthe written ballot was cast./'or: 7; against: 50. Motion board shall constitute a quorum. Only a voting failed. member ofthe Society in good standing shall be President Eager thanked the retiring cura­ eligible for election to the board. tors, Linda McKeever, Prairie du Chien; Janet Motion passed. Hartzell, Grantsburg; and Kirby Hendee, Madi­ Amend Article V as follows: son, for their service on the Board. She also rec­ Section 2. Nominating Committee, (b) ognized Blake Kellogg who served as the Gover­ Officers. At the board meeting immediately pre­ nor's designee. ceding the annual business meeting of the Soci­ The meeting adjourned at 5:35 P.M. ety in 1982, and every third year thereafter, the nominating committee shall present a slate of Respectfully submitted, recommended officers to the board for election H. NICHOLAS MULLER III by the latter at the meeting. Only an elected a cu­ Secretaiy

75 Digest of Board Action

At Madison, August 22, 1986 • Moved to amend the main motion to rein­ state the State Historian position ($57,100) • Approved minutes of the June 20, 1986, and the Local History program ($61,400) meeting of the Board of Curators; but reduce microfilm purchases of national • Adopted the 1987-1989 biennial operadng newspapers ($37,600) and a portion of the budget request; historic sites promotion budget ($7,000) and • Approved the recommendation ofthe Exec­ to close Old Wade House ($74,000); utive Committee to propose nine changes in • Moved to amend the main motion to rein­ statutory language in the 1987 — 1989 state the State Historian position ($57,100) Budget Bill; and the Local History program ($61,400) • Approved the application for affiliation of and to substitute cutting the microfilm pur­ the East Troy Area Historical Society; chases of national newspapers ($37,600); all • Approved the five minor projects, as of the Historic Sites promotion funds prioritized in the 1987-1989 budget request ($28,600); and the vacant Head Librarian and recommended by the Facilities Commit­ position ($59,500); tee; • .A,pproved the accessions proposed by the • Endorsed, upon recommendation ofthe Fa­ Historic Sites Foundation, Inc., from June cilities Committee, a policy to continue free 20 through November 2, 1986; admission to the State Historical Museum; • Moved to commend Michael Douglass and • Approved a resolution thanking Mr. Ben the staff members at "Villa Louis for their en­ Barkin for his contributions to the Great ergetic and tireless efforts in preventing any Circus Parade; permanent damage to the historic buildings, • Moved that Miss Neva Henrietta Radell be collections, and equipment at Villa Louis made a Life Member ofthe State Historical during the flood danger last September and Society; October; • Moved to accept an easement of the Mile • Approved the application for affiliation of Long Site at Lake Delavan subject to ap­ the Cadott Area Historical Society; proval by the State Building Commissicm; • Approved the application for affiliation of • Moved to direct the Executive Committee lo the St. Nazianz Area Historical Society; review the proposal to grant an easement to • Approved the application for continuance the owner of the Mile Long Site on the north of affiliation of the Princeton Historical So­ shore of Lake Delavan, and to act accord- ciety; irrgly on behalf of the Board of Curators. • Moved that Mrs. Sarah W. Kimball, Milwau­ kee; Mr. Paul R. Ingrassia, Rockford, Illi­ At Madison, November 21, 1986 nois; Senator Fred A, Risser, Madison; and Mr. Wayne McGown, Madison, be re­ appointed to the Historic Sites Foundation • Approved minutes of the August 22, 1986, Board for two-year terms from January 1, meeting ofthe Board of Curators; 1987, to December 31, 1988; • Moved that the Board approve the further General Purpose Revenue budget cuts for • Moved to authorize the purchase of a bronze 1987-1989 as recommended by the Execu­ plaque in the amount of $325 to memorial­ tive Committee; ize Frederick Jackson I urner. 76 PROCEEDINGS, 1986-1987

At Milwaukee, February 20, 1987 seum, Baraboo, donated with certain re­ strictions by David Deppe; • Approved minutes of the November 21, > Resolved, that the Board of Curators autho­ 1986, meeting of the Board of Curators; rize the staff to develop plans for a new • Approved the acquisitions proposed by the structure at the site of the Madeline Island Historic Sites Foundation, Inc., to the collec­ Historical Museum to enhance the existing tions of Circus World Museum from No­ museum buildings and programs and to ini­ vember 3, 1986, through January 31, 1987; tiate a fund-raising campaign for this pur­ • Approved the deaccessions proposed by the pose. Be it further resolved, that only the in­ Historic Sites Foundation, Inc., from the come from the Madeline Island Historical collections of Circus World Museum; Museum Trust Fund, not the corpus, be • Moved that the President reconvene the used for any new structure at the Museum; Toussaint Governance Study Committee to I Approved in substance the proposed mis­ review the governing structure and proce­ sion statement recognizing that there will be dures of the Board of Curators. Motion some editorial, but not substantive, changes failed; and that the final edited copy be presented • Approved the application for affiliation of to the Board for information at a future the Fitchburg Historical Society; Board meeting; • Approved the application for continuance • Amended the motion to add the words "and of affiliation of the Geneva Lake History regional" (selected national and regional sub­ Buffs; jects) on the sixth line, first paragraph; • Approved a resolution of appreciation for • Adopted criteria for Curators Emeriti sta­ Peter Klein; tus; • Moved that the President and Director pre­ • Approved the application for affiliation of pare a resolution of appreciation to Mr. the Bloomer Historical Society; Blake Kellogg for his service on the Board of • Approved the application for affiliation of Curators. the Pepin County Historical Society; • Approved the application for continuance of affiliation of the New- Richmond Preser­ vation Society; • Unanimously expressed gratitude to fellow At La Crosse, June 12, 1987 curators, Patricia Boge and Brian Rude, for their generous and gracious hospitality • Approved minutes of the Febrirary 20, which greatly added to the 1987 Annual 1987, meeting of the Board of Curators; Meeting; • Approved the Collections Development Pol­ • Approved the appointment of Glenn R. icy for Wisconsin manuscripts with revi­ Coates to the Historic Sites Foundation sions; Board of Directors; • Approved acquisitions to the collections of • Moved that the President appoint an ad hoc Circus World Museum; committee to fully study the matters of nom­ • Approved the deaccessioning of nineteen ination and election of members of the buildings in the Historic Sites collections; Board of Curators, and further, that the • Moved to accept the donation of 11.2 acres committee report back to the Board of Cu­ of land contiguous to Circus World Mu­ rators as soon as possible.

77 Wisconsin History Foundation

STABLISHED in 1954 as a private non­ E profit corporation, the Wisconsin His­ tory Foundation has the sole purpose of assist­ ing the State Historical Society in w-hatever ways are mutually agreed upon by the Foun­ dation's Board and the Society's Board of Cu­ rators. This assistance has covered a wide range of activities for which no public or un- budgeted private funds were available, includ­ ing research projects, television programs, publications, professional education of staff, and building construction at our historic sites. The Board of the Foundation includes members ofthe Society's Board of Curators as well as other distinguished citizens interested in history and in the objectives ofthe Society. The Foundation's chief source of income is gifts and grants. Donations to the Foundation are tax-deductible.

Officers

ROBERT B. L. MURPHY, President THOMAS H. BARLAND, 1st Vice-President ROCKNE G. FLOWERS, 2nd Vice-President JOHN C. GEILFUSS, Treasurer H. NICHOLAS MULLER III, Secretary JAMES F. SEFCIK, Assistant Secretary

Board of Directors

Term Expires 1987 Term Expires 1988 Term Expires 1989

MRS. IRA L. BALDWIN GLENN R. COATES THOMAS H. BARLAND Madison Racine Eau Claire ROCKNE G. FLOWERS W. PHARIS HORTON COLLINS H. FERRIS Madison Madison Madison DAVID G. MEISSNER NEWELL G. MEYER Milwaukee MRS. PETER D. HUMLEKER, JR. Eagle Fond du Lac JOHN C. WICKHEM GERALD D. VISTE Janesville ROBERT B. L. MURPHY Wausau Madison JOHN C. GEILFUSS Milwaukee Ex Officio

MRS. SALLY H. EAGER, Evansville, President, State Historical Society ofWisconsin

78 Historic Sites Foundation

N I960 the Historic Sites Foundation was I established as a private, non-profit corporation for the sole purpose of assisting the State Historical Society's historic sites pro­ gram. Its current function is to serve as the management corporation, for the Society, of the Circus World Museum in Baraboo. The Foundation's Board includes members of the Society's Board of Curators as well as distin­ guished citizens with an interest in circus his­ tory and in the Society itself. Its sources of in­ come are Circus World Museum admissions, gifts, and grants. Gifts to the Foundation are tax-deductible.

Officers

PAUL R. INGRASSIA, President MRS, SARAH W, KIMBALL, Secretary Ms. CAROL SKORNICKA, Vice-President JAMES L. KIEFFER, Treasurer

Board of Directors

Term Expires 1987 Term Expires 1988

GLENN R. COATES* PAUL R. INGRASSIA Racine Rockford, Illinois JAMES L. KIEFFER MRS, SARAH W. KIMBALL Baraboo Milwaukee FRED D, PFENING III WAYNE MCGOWN Columbus, Ohio Madison Ms. CAROL SKORNICKA FRED A. RISSER Madison Madison

C. P. Fox** Baraboo ROBERT L. JANKE Baraboo MELVIN M. ROSE Hillpoint

Ex Officio JAMES F. SEFCIK Madison Assistant Director for Development and State Relations, State Historical Society ofWisconsin *Term expires 1989 **Serves at pleasure of Governor 79 Contributors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has taught English at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and at Kent State Uni­ versity. He is currently a legislative attorney for the Legislative Reference Bureau in Madi­ son, where his duties are to draft the tax legis­ lation for the State ofWisconsin. He has pub­ lished Pynchon's Fictions, The Literature of Exhaustion: Borges, Nabokov and Barth, The Al­ manac of British and American Literature, an award-winning monograph on Wisconsin writers in the 1977 Wisconsin Blue Book, and g^l about three dozen articles. MICHAEL O'BRIEN, a native of Green Bay, re­ ceived his B.A. in 1965 from the University of Notre Dame. He did his graduate work in his­ tory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, receiving his doctoral degree in 1971. He is currently professor of history at the Univer­ sity of Wisconsin Center—Fox Valley, Menasha. He has published fifteen articles and review-s in a variety of journals. His article, "Young Joe McCarthy, 1908-1944," in the Spring, 1980, Magazine, won the William Best Hesseltine prize. O'Brien is the author of tw-o books: McCarthy and McCarthyism in Wisconsin (University of Missouri Press, 1981) and Vince: A Personal Biography of Vince Lombardi (William Morrow, 1987).

WHi(X,1)2:ii99 Aldo Leopold inspecting a white pine on his Wisconsin River farm.

JOHN O. STARK received a B.A. from North­ land College, an M.A. from Claremont Grad­ uate School, and a Ph.D. in English and a J.D.

80 THE BOARD OF CURATORS

PETER ADA.MS, Neenah MRS. PETER D. HUMLEKER, JR., Fond du Lac

THOMAS H. BARLAND, Eau Claire THOMAS MOUATJEFFRIS II, Janesville MRS. B. L. BERNHARDT, Cassville ERROL K. KINDSCHY, West Salem ELBERT S. BOHLIN, Mineral Point MRS. J. CARLETON MAcNEtL,jR., Bayside DAVID E. CLARENBACH, Madison GEORGE H. MILLER, Ripon

GLENN R. COATES, Racine FREDERICK I. OLSON, Wauwatosa

E. DAvrD CRONON, Madison JERALD PHILLIPS, Bayfield MRS. JA.MES P. CzAjKOwSKr, Wauzeka FRED A. RISSER, Madison MRS. L. PRENTICE EAGER, JR., Evansville PEGGY A. ROSENZWEIG, Wauwatosa C. P. Fox, Baraboo BRIAN D. RUDE, Coon Valley PAUL C. GARTZKE, Madison ROBERT SMITH, Seymour MRS. VrviAN GUZNICZAK, Franklin WrLLrAM F. STARK, Pewaukee MRS. HUGH F. GWIN, Hudson WILSON B. TnrEDE, Madison MRS. WILLIAM E. HAVES, De Pere MRS. ALAN WEBSTER, Oshkosh MRS. FANNrE HICKLIN, Madison GERALD D. VISTE, Wausau

EUGENE P. TRANI, Vice-President, Academic Affairs, ROBERT B, L. MURPHY, President ofthe University of Wisconsin Wisconsin History Foundation

MRS. GERALDINE DEARBORN, MRS. SHARON LEAIR, President ofthe Friends Coordinating Council Wisconsin Council for Local History

Friends ofthe State Historical Society ofWisconsin

JOHN W. WINN, Madison MRS. WILLIA.M J. WEBSTER, TWO Rivers, President Secretary MRS. ROBERI BOLZ, Madison, Vice-President WILSON B. THIEDE, Madison, Treasurer LOREN OS.MAN, Milwaukee, MRS. JAMES H. CONNORS, Madison, Vire-Pre.stdent Past President

Fellows Curators Emeritus

VERNON CARSTENSEN, Washington JOHN C. GEILFUSS, Milwaukee RICHARD N. CURRENT, Massachusetts ROBERT H. IRRMANN, Madison MERLE CURTI, Madison MRS. EDWARD C.JONES, Fort Atkinson ROBERT C. NESBIT, Washington HOWARD W. MEAD, Madison ALICE E. SMITH, California MILO K. SWANTON, Madison PAUL VANDERBILT, Madison THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY SHALL promote a wider appreciation ofthe American heritage with particular emphasis on the collection, advancement and dissemination of know ledge of the history of Wisconsin and of the West. —Wisconsin Statutes, Chapter 44

"Julius and Julia at the Museum" on their 1912 wedding trip to Madison, viewing American Indian artifacts at the State Historical Society. This picture is the frontispiece of the 1988 Wisconsin Historical (Calendar, available from the Society.

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