40 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



designed primarily to furnish legislators with expert advice in the drafting 

 of bills, was established, becoming a veritable hothouse for the growth of 

 progressive measures. 2 ' 



One result of this extensive program of legislation in Wisconsin was a 

 split in the Republican party. Calling themselves "Stalwarts," the regular 

 Republicans those who saw nothing wrong, either with the old conven- 

 tion system or with the important part played in politics by great cor- 

 porations fought persistently against the measures advocated by the 

 Progressives, and tried hard to discredit and defeat Progressive candidates. 

 But the reforms adopted were too popular to be attacked successfully. 

 The heat of controversy lived on, but in time the battle between Stalwarts 

 and Progressives lost much of its meaning. The Stalwarts, generally speak- 

 ing, came to accept the La Follette measures, and based their opposition 

 on the contention that they alone, as efficient conservatives, were compe- 

 tent to administer them. Even when a Stalwart, Emanuel L. Philipp, was 

 elected to the governorship in 1914, the conditions against which La Fol- 

 lette and his supporters had fought so valiantly were not permitted to 

 return. The Progressives, on their part, were usually content with de- 

 fending the reforms they had inaugurated, and advanced few new 



* * 1 28 



principles. 



The activities of La Follette in Wisconsin were speedily paralleled by 

 similar activities on the part of other governors in nearly every other state 

 of the western Middle West. As the direction of the political current be- 

 came increasingly clear, men of outstanding ability did not hesitate to 

 assume the role of reformer. "Do not fear the title of reformer," Governor 

 Cummins of Iowa told an audience in 1902, "but put true meaning upon 

 the word. The reformer who destroys is the enemy of mankind. The 

 reformer whose cry is 'march on' is the benefactor of his race." 29 What 

 the Populists had failed to develop by way of effective leadership, such 



disposal of state Civil War bonds below par. This money was added to the general 

 fund and used as if it were income. Raney, Wisconsin, p. 294. 



27. Edward A. Fitzpatrick, McCarthy of Wisconsin (New York, 1944), pp. 43, 

 62-71. 



28. Wilcox, "Northwestern Radicalism," pp. 110-14. 



29. Johnson Brigham, "The Governor of Iowa, a Sketch of Albert Baird Cum- 

 mins," American Monthly Review of Reviews, XXXIV (September, 1906), p. 295. 



