political economy at all; they did not recognize it as such. His books and his articles began to attract attention, probably because people began to feel, in a vague way, that something was wrong with our philosophy.
The captains of industry held sway in our country, the great trusts began domineering our political life, the country began to be more crowded, periods of depression came oftener, and the old doctrine, advocated by Sumner—that the state should not interfere with industrial life—was not altogether satisfactory. A group of thinkers began to follow the leadership of this man. Richard T. Ely finally came to the University of Wisconsin as a professor of economics. Here was another singular coincidence. The pupil of Knies and Wagner, coming from Germany with his German political ideals, succeeded Bascom as a teacher of political economy in the German university of the German state of Wisconsin. A curious condition surely! He was regarded as a socialist, and before long was tried by the regents of the University of Wisconsin as a socialist. After great excitement, which is still remembered throughout the state, he was acquitted, and the regents in acquitting him gave forth the following statement:—
