The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1914-08-14
To the Voters of Wisconsin:

hold it to be political crime for
any set of politicians to misgovern a
state, to make it the plaything, the
football, so to speak, for their expert
mentation, to be kicked about at their
pleasure, as the progressive faction of
the republican party have done with
Wisconsin in the last fourteen years.
In that length of time, with the eXcep-
ton of Gov. DavidsOn's administration,
there has been no serious attempt to
get back upon safe grounds of admins
tration.
Every wild vagary of so-called re-
form that these prOgressives could
think of they proceeded to enact into a
law and put the taxpayers of the state
under contribution to pay for. To be
conservative and cautious, to ''prove
all things" first in the light of reason
and good sense, these mal-administrat-
Ors called ''reactionary," 'standpat-
ism," 'toryism,' "stalwartism" and
so forth. There has never been an in
stance in political history when great
people were SO humbugged and fooled
with epithets as in this period of pro-
gressive misrule. And you people have
been going along too busy with your own
affairs to notice the cancerOuS growth
of this heresy of government until the
rude snatch at your pocketbooks wakes
you up.
Even now large portion of the vot-
ers IN either of the great parties have
been so blinded by this progressive doc
trine that they are not more than half
awake. The line of cleavage, however,
has set in; you can see it in both par
ties, democratic as we'll as republican.
The stable, sensible portion of voters
are getting alarmed at the frightful
growth of expense in our state govern
ment which has come upon them.
where is this thing going to end?"
they are saying to one another. They
are just beginning to see the final logic,
the inevitable result of such wild ex-
pansion of the powers of government.
As yet they but dimly realize what it
means to abandon all conservative ideas
and send the ship of state down the
River of Doubt with nothing to steer
her by but the filmy notions of a lot of
theoretical pilots.
1t is time that halt is called. 1t is
time that the government of the state of
Wisconsin ceased to be an experiment
station, as Roosevelt called it. 1t has
proved to be the widest, most vision
airy and most terribly expensive piece
of experimentation the country has
ever seems We, the voters of Wiscon-
sin, are responsible for this. We fol-
lowed LaFollette in his chase after
every wild notion he could think of,
and we backed him up and kept him
and his band of progressive expert
mentors in power. Now, we cry out.
we are confronted with the conse-
quences of our own action. 1t is we'll
we are; keep on crying out. The con-
sentative republican party which once
administered your state faithfully, eco
nomically and we'll, has rallied in your
defense with that splendid citizen,
Emanuel L. Phillip, at the head. 1t is
a movement for your relief; for the re-
peal of fearful mass of fool legisla-
ton; for the retrenchment of state eX-
penses; for the substitution of plain,
practical, common sense in government
for the foolish theory of progressive
delusion.
We have gone too far with this pro-
gressive folly. There is a chance to
retrieve our mistakes by supporting the
conservative republican ticket that was
chosen at Madison. / can see no other
road out of the difficulty we are in.-
w. d. Hoard, Fort Atkinson, Wis.