Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1904-09-28
TIE PsLI1IcAL SYSTEM" IN WISCONSIN,.

r.
most newspaper and magazine writers
in the United Strtes who has been con-
tributing articles to McClure's New
York magazine his observations on
graft and official crookedness in Mis-
souri,, Illinois and other states notorious
for these phases in city and state cor
ruption, spent some weeks in Wiscon-
sin. He has written an article on the
political situation in our commonwealth
that "a attracting attention everywhere.
Mr.. St5ffens while in the state, gathered
material from both sides OF the political
quarrel and has embodied them in An
article that is causing the sealwarts to
vince and throw all kinds of abuse at
the writer The Chicago Tribune. one
of the staunchest republican papers in
the United States, comments editorially
on the Steffens article, and it's conclu.
sions are so pat and truthful that we
give it to CENSOR readers Steffens
and the Tribune have given but faint
look into the actual conditions as they
have existed and still exist in Wiscon-
sin. Following il the Tribune article
FoLLETTE AND THE SYSTEM "
When yo7 ask =. Wisconsin stalwart
why railroads shcdld not &c taxed he
tells You that Ia Toilette is d dema-
gogue. WheI you want to know why
a direct primary law would not be a
good thing he explains that La Toilette
is ambitious. The moral exeesses which
led to this pitiable mental collapse are
recounted by Mr.. Steffens in the cur
rent Nc Clure's.
What La Toilette is fighting in Wis
consin is The System. The System"
consists of big business" dovetailed
and mortised into politics. 1t is a sub
stitate for representative government.
1t is what made it possible for Golfers
Weekly to say that Wisconsin was gov
erned by four railways.
Naturally the only way in which the
stalwarts can defend The System is
by attacking its attackers. To say that
the railroads should not be taxed and
that the voters should not nominate
their own candidates for Office would
require more courage than can be found
west Of Philadelphia
But La Follette did not issue from the
university with his lance in rest for the
overthrow of The System. When he
was an undergraduate he wrote oral
tions ON Iago and thought of being an
actor And even when he had become
district attorney of Dane county he
thought only of being q politician He
had constructed no system of mis- own
with which The System might be re-
placed. He did not then know what
The System" was. The measures which
he has since advocated did ACT spring
from an academic philosos ny previous
ly developed. They tocx shape in his
mind only as he actually and practical
ly learned the world about him, He
began TO learn that world when he went
to congress.
THE SYSTEM AT WORK IN WASHING /
TON.
Congressman La Toilette was put on
the committee on Indian affairs. How
little he knew then may be surmised
from the fact that he began to read up
on Indians. He soon found that books
from Boston were less eloquent than
dollars from Wisconsin Philetus Saw
yer had bought one Of the Wisconsin
seats in the senate. lie was an amiable
lumberman, wto Thought that since
some things could be bought per foot
other things could I'd bought per head
His interest in The System lay mainly
in the fact that it negotiated land grants |
from the national government to the |
government of Wisconsin and from the |
government of Wisconsin to the railway |
companies. Now the railway compan- |
ies and the lumber companies under /
Ftand one another
A Menominee reservation pine sale |
came before the committee on Indian |
p .irs. The federal commissioner of |
indian affairs said that 1T was a little |
the worse bill Of the kind that / have /
ever seen. La Toilette killed it. la |
had come from Oshkosh, which * in the /
district from which Senator Sawyer /
came. Later in the session the commit |
tee on Indian affairs began to consider a
bill for making enormous grants of land /
to railway companies in Dakota. La
Toilette baked. Senator Sawyer spent
many hours in fatherly talk with 'out
boy, showing him how he ought to be-
have If he wanted to grow up Then
Henry C. Payne, chairman of the Wis
consin republican state central commit
tee, NOW Postmaster General) appeared
a. stepfather and talked still more
plainly His conclusion, from which he
has never since deviated, was La Fol.
lette Ia a damned fool He thinks that
he can buck a railway with 5000 miles
of continuous line.
LA TOILETTE BEG ms TO UNDERsTA AND
His experience IN congress prepares
La Toilette to understand the things
which he observed in Wisconsin after
the election of 1890 had retired him
from Washington. II was between 1890
and 1900 that he constructed the two
planks of his platform a proper taxa
ton of railways and a direct primary
law. The need of a proper taxation Of
railways has become popularity apparent
because of A. r. Hall Mr. Steffens has
In his day seen seventeen men. Hall is
one of them He saw that the legisla-
ture was being debauched by railroad
passes. He therefore introduced a con-
amendment against passes.
He also introduced resolution for q
state commission to regulate railway
rates.
Then the wires aud strings of The
System" were laid bare IL was dis
covered that the railways were not pay
ing their fair share of taxation Ii was
that the railways resist ed adj.
verse legislation by bribery. It was
discovered that the railways controlled
many nominations for the legislature by
the politicians who made the