Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/42

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18
THE WISCONSIN IDEA

accompaniment of legislation intended to revolutionize the electoral machinery, which itself became necessary in order to initiate and assure great economic legislation.

Always he will find the constant harking back to the just regulation of the conditions of contract between the powerful and the weak whenever public interest demanded it—the cause of the supreme struggle with which the movement began and with which every milestone is marked.

And, Mr. Reader, do not think that this program could be started or forwarded on its way for one moment without conflict. It is all very well to talk of constructive legislation as if it had been outlined in a blue print by some political science architect, but do not forget for an instant that there was a relentless war in this state for many many years and each advance was made only as a result of that war. The history of that struggle has been told by others. This little book attempts to show what has been the outcome of that struggle and of the combination of circumstances and conditions which made good soil for certain ideas to take deep root.