Wisconsin agazine of History Tke Wisco-nsin l^ational Guard on the Mexican Border JOHN p. FINNEGAN Robert M. La Follette, Public Prosecutor DAVID p. THELEN Gothic Stylism in Wisconsin Architecture RICHARD W. E. PERRIN Marshall Academy: A History BEULAH FOLKEDAHL English Immigrants in Wisconsin Published by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin / Vol. XLVII, No. 3 / Spring, 1964 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN LESLIE H. FISHEL, JR., Director Officers JOHN C. GEILFUSS, President HERBERT V. KOHLER, Honorary Vice-President E. E. HOMSTAD, Vice-President, Treasurer LESLIE H. FISHEL, JR., Secretary Board of Curators Ex-Officio JOHN W. REYNOLDS, Governor of the State MRS. DENA A. SMITH, State Treasurer ROBERT C. ZIMMERMAN, Secretary of State FRED H. HARRINGTON, President of the University ANGUS B. ROTHWELL, Superintendent of Public Instruction MRS. JOSEPH C. GAMROTH, President of the Women's Auxiliary Term Expires, 1964 THOMAS H. BARLAND E. E. HOMSTAD MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERIC SAMMOND Eau Claire Black River Falls Madison Milwaukee M. J. DYRUD GEORGE F. KASTEN CHARLES MANSON FLOYD SPRINGER, JR. Prairie du Chien Milwaukee Madison Milwaukee JIM DAN HILL MRS. VINCENT W. KOCH FREDERICK I. OLSON DR. WILLIAM D. STOVALL Madison Janesville Wauwautosa Madison Term Expires, 1965 GEORGE BANTA, JR. ROBERT B. L. MURPHY MILO K. SWANTON CEDRIC A. VIG Menasha Madison Madison Rhinelander GEORGE HAMPEL, JR. FOSTER B. PORTER FREDERICK N. TROWBRIDGE CLARK WILKINSON Des Moines Bloomington Green Bay Baraboo PHILIP F. LA FOLLETTE WILLIAM F. STARK ANTHONY WISE Madison Pewaukee Hayward Term Expires, 1966 SCOTT M. CUTLIP EDWARD FROMM MRS. HOWARD T. GREENE SAM RIZZO Madison Hamburg Genesee Depot Racine W. NORMAN FITZGERALD ROBERT A. GEHRKE ROBERT L. PIERCE CLIFFORD SWANSON Milwaukee Ripon Menomonie Stevens Point MRS. ROBERT E. FRIEND JOHN C. GEILFUSS JAMES A. RILEY Hartland Milwaukee Eau Claire Honorary Honorary Life Members WILLIAM ASHBY MCCLOY, Winnipeg PRESTON E. MCNALL, Madison MRS. LITTA BASCOM, Madison DOROTHY L. PARK, Madison Fellouis VERNON CARSTENSEN MERLE CURTI The Women's Auxiliary Officers MRS. JOSEPH C. GAMROTH, Madison, President MRS. WILLIAM H. L. SMYTHE, Milwaukee, Vice-President MRS. EDWARD H. RIKKERS, Madison, Secretary MRS. WILLIAM E. Hue, Neenah, Treasurer MRS. EDMUND K. NIELSON, Appleton, Assistant Treasurer MRS. W. NORMAN FITZGERALD, Milwaukee, Ex-Officio VOLUME 47, NUMBER 3/SPRING, 1964 Wisconsin Magazine of History WILLIAM CONVERSE HAYGOOD, Editor PAUL H. HASS, Associate Editor Er ist in Ordnung 198 Preparedness in Wisconsin: The National Guard and the Mexican Border Incident 199 JOHN P. FINNEGAN Robert M. La Follette, Public Prosecutor 214 DAVID P. THELEN "God Raised Us Up Good Friends": English Immigrants in Wisconsin 224 Pointed Arches and Buttressed Walls: Gothic Stylism in Wisconsin Architecture 238 RICHARD W. E. PERRIN Marshall Academy: A History 249 BEULAH FOLKEDAHL Book Reviews 261 Contributors 276 Published Quarterly by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published not assume responsibility for statements made by contribu­ quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 816 tors. Second-class postage paid at Madison, Wisconsin, State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Distributed to mem­ Copyright 1964 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. bers as part of their dues (Annual membership, S5-00; Fami­ Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Simeon Mills Editorial ly membership, $7.00; Contributing, $10; Business and Pro­ Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund. Wisconsin news­ fessional, $2 5; Life, $100; Sustaining, $100 or more annual­ papers may reprint any article appearing in the WISCON­ ly; Patron, $1000 or more annually). Single numbers, $1.25. SIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY providing the story carries Microfilmed copies available through University Microfilms, the following credit line : Reprinted from the State Histori­ 313 North First Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Communica­ cal Society's Wisconsin Magazine of History for [insert the tions should be addressed to the editor. Th" Society does season and year which appear on the Magazine\. Er Ist In Ordnung TT'ARLY this spring a member of the Society recently we "operated" the print shop as part *-'' staff was giving an informal orienta­ of the two-day Wisconsin Better Broadcasts tion talk to a group of high school students program. We printed and handed out hun­ when one turned to another and whispered, dreds of copies of the first edition of the Mil­ "Er ist in Ordnung." The high school faculty waukee Sentinel, June 27, 1837. member in charge of this program, Mr. Gerald On one of the days in which the print shop C. Liepert, who reported this whispered con­ was operating, I had an opportunity to take versation, translated it, "That guy is okay." a trade association executive down to watch it. This was a high compliment for the staff He received a copy of the paper but left it on member and for the Society, since these were the table as he rose to leave. I picked it up not ordinary students. The Americans were and offered to dispose of it for him. "No, from Muskego High School and the German no," he said. "This is a prized possession and students were visiting their American hosts I want to keep it." Here is another example for two or three weeks. The trip to the So­ of the fascination which surrounds an histori­ ciety was their first after the visitors' arrival. cal museum. As they toured our museum the Americans Why are people fascinated? What do they were restrained and interested, more so than learn? I am not sure of the answers, but I most visitors of their age. The Germans were can make some educated guesses. The young curious and excited, looking here and poking ones like the novelty and the older ones like there, as if they realized that some of the ques­ the reminiscences—these are truisms. Be­ tions they had about the United States could yond that, the young and old are curious about here be answered. Until fatigue set in, this what "really" happened before they came on was the kind of a group museums are built the scene. How fast did the Model T go? How for. many papers did the 1837 press print? What Another group of high school students ar­ did the druggist's powders taste like? These rived at the museum some days after this visit. are some of the questions which they ask—or These young people were from the Delavan want to ask. School for the Deaf, and I watched them with There is a deeper reason for their inquiry. rising respect. It was not so much that they had The people who come to our museum want to overcome their disability as that they were so learn about their past because they, like all persistently eager to learn. Fingers flying, of us, are not too sure about their future. In their teacher would explain an exhibit panel the present press of problems it is reassuring or a picture or a setting. Questions flew back to discover how previous generations survived at him in the same way, and he patiently an­ and thrived, in spite of the burdens they car­ swered, sometimes with a touch of humor that ried. If the pioneers could live in crowded brought smiles and giggles. When they ap­ cabins, if an old man could invent a typewriter, proached our Model T Ford (vintage 1914), if the gaslight generation could appreciate fine he cautioned them away, but when he learned clothes and good furniture, we can survive that it was permissible for them to climb in, and thrive in our time. the doors flew open and the car rocked under the weight of four or five passengers, all ex­ As the museum enters a new phase of its cited but careful. More questions, more an­ own development under the leadership of Thur­ swers, more faces lighting up with understand­ man Fox, I hope that we will be able to explore ing. these questions further and experiment with new and more telling ways of exhibit and pre­ These reactions are not the sole preroga­ sentation so that our museum visitors can find tive of the high school student. All of you some answers to their questions, spoken and who have visited our building have seen the unspoken. If their response can continue to younger set scattered through the museum, be, in whatever language, "Er ist in Ordnung," some with noses pressed against glass, be­ we will feel that we are moving in the right witched by what was displayed, others tak­ direction. ing in the pioneer cabin, or the print shop, or the Civil War exhibit in one steady look, just L. H. F., JR. 198 PREPAREDNESS IN WISCONSIN^ The National Guard and the Mexican Border Incident By JOHN P. FINNEGAN the result of the preparedness campaign which swept the United States in 1915 and 1916, providing what a qualified observer TN 1914, as massed conscript armies were has characterized as "one of the most remark­ -'-shattering Europe, an undisturbed America able episodes in our long and generally aber­ under the peace-minded Woodrow Wilson was rant military history."^ The campaign was a content with a regular army of some 93,000 genuine, if somewhat managed public move­ officers and men and with a navy which vied ment, manifesting itself not only in the halls with that of France for third place on the of Congress but also in newspaper articles, seas. These defenses were bolstered by 12- after-dinner speeches, and preparedness pa­ inch coastal guns on disappearing carriages rades. Like so many reforms of the Progres­ at vital harbors, by an organized reserve that sive Era, preparedness was a cause picked up could be (and once was) seated around a by the urban upper-middle class; like a few, dinner table, and by an organized militia of it was a somewhat exaggerated response to 127,000 under the control of the sovereign the pressures of the time.