The Detroit times., 1911-11-25
BY HERBERT QUICK.
Editor Of Farm and Fireside.


Editor Of Farm and Fireside.
do not think 1t fair to say that La
Toilette is a champion of labor, any
more than champion of capital. He
is for justice. His record In construc-
tive craftsmanship shows this. He Is
for the rights OF property-Real
Rights.
And he believes that a mans right
to himself is the most sacred right.
And this right involves his security
in all he produces by his labor. La
Toilette may be reckoned as the friend
of any property Lincoln would be-
friend.
Il suppose every railway .employe
knows that TO Senator LaFollette he
owes the 16-hour law, which prevents
the company from working him until
he drops. LaFollette thought II was
not well for the public that railways
be operated by men grossly over
worked.
The law in Wisconsin, prior to 1880,
made railways liable to employees in
jured while at work IL free from negli-
gence themselves, even though the ac-
ClutHl may nave uCCIl lhC ldulN VI q
fellow employe. But among the things
the railways did with their old cor
rupt legislatures was to pass a law re-
pealing the 'fellow-servant" law.
AS result injured railroad en-
ployes were almost without remedy.
The courts construed the law strict
ly against them. LaFollette, in two
legislative fights-in the first OF which
he was beaten by the railway lobby
got this changed. His law did away.
too, with the rule OF assumption OF
risk" under which a workman is held
to consent to danger, and made u the
duty of the railways TO make their
service safer by "tell-tales" and other
!, devices.
wisconsin before LaFollette's time.
had bureau OF labor, and factory
inspection department, both dead let
ters. In 1903, he called upon the legis-
lature to stop child labor, non-atten-f
dance at school, and bad factory COR
dltions. He called for laws compelling
reports OF accidents, making frees
capes mandatory in factories, against
unhealthful and dangerous surround
ings, and for juvenile courts to save
children.
All these laws were passed. ! talk
ed not many months ago with young
woman, who Is devoting her life to
the cause OF the factory girls. She
works in factories so Slat she may re-
port conditions. I asked her about
conditions in Wisconsin. They are
among the very best" said she.
Would not the United States be bet
ter for such statesmanship on ma
tional scale?
While making his fight for the
workers, LaFollette also took in hand
the destinies of the state university
and lifted il to its present status OF
the greatest of all the state uni
versity and lifted II to its present
status of the greatest OF all the state
universities. He did this by making
Charles r. Van Hise its president.
LaFollette urged that IL was the duty
of the president of the university to
take a hand in public affairs.
Van Hise has made good on this
principle He has done splendid SER
vice for the cause of conservation;
and he has stood like rock in favor
OF the freedom of the professors in
teaching. AS nearly as a state uni
versity can be free, that of Wisconsin
is free.
A demagogue does not study public
questions so much as the whims of
the masses. But LaFollette has al
ways studied questions and called in
expert aid in doing so. He put pro-
fessor of the university DR.. b. H.
Myers--on the rate commission
where he stayed until Taft called him
TO the Interstate commerce commits
sion. He gave Or. Charles Mccarthy
the chance to install his legislative
reference library-a permanent insti-
tuition, which gets information about
projected laws, and drawing bills for
the legislature-the first of it's kind
now widely copied. When the library
people draw a bill IL is sure to be
based on a study Of all the laws OF
the world on that subject. And no
law approved by the commission has
ever been declared unconstitutional
The LaFollette policy Is Get tho
facts. Never make blunder"
The university serves the state in
a thousand ways. II furnishes ex-
perts in health and sanitation and
sewage disposal II carries on night
schools for workmen in cities and
furnishes package Libraries for de-
bates in country schoolhouses. BY
law in Wisconsin. all schoolhouses are
public meeting places. The university
helps the officers of cities, villages
and counties Ii is a great body OF
trained public servants, as well as an
educational institution.
Demagoguery no more than pluto
gogery does not make laws that are
models of their kind. LaFolletteism
does. Wisconsin's workingmen's COM
pensation law is the model for a great
body of such laws in this country. II
seeks to make the industry--not the
employer or the injured employe-
bear the expense of industrial acci-
dents. And. according to the general
Wisconsin rule, it is as careful of the
interests of capital as the most
scrupulous Justice can ask. That in
the LaFollette way.