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184
THE WISCONSIN IDEA

have renewed confidence in the legislature and the people. After all, there may be some truth in what Talleyrand said to Napoleon: "There is somebody wiser than you, Napoleon and wiser than all your councillors; and that is everybody." And if we in America do not believe it, we do not believe in representative government. The same general principles apply to any small body however expert it may be. As John Morley says in his "Essay upon Guicciardini":—


"It is not merely the multitude on whose wisdom you cannot count… Perhaps Burke comes nearest to the mark:—'Man is a most unwise and a most wise being. The individual is foolish. The multitude for the moment is foolish, when they act without deliberation; but the species is wise, and when time is given to it, as a species it almost always acts right.'"


The history of the past, the philosophy upon which this nation is founded should teach us the futility of placing in the hands of any group of men, power without responsibility and direct accountability. As experts they are entitled to protection and as we cannot well elect experts, we must select them but their work must always be subject to the great common sense which was recognized by the fathers as existing in popular control.

No state should attempt the regulation herein described without securing the highest type of public servant to do the work and it must expect to pay well for it.