fair treatment, justice must be given to that individual by the aid of the state.
A weak organization of straw, called by courtesy a railroad commission—an elected commission—was next established as a sop to public opinion. This did not relieve the situation, but left the complainant still bearing the burden of litigation.
It was many years before there appeared to again arouse public opinion a far-seeing and persistent fighting man, A. R. Hall, to whose memory there is a bronze tablet in the new capitol in Madison. Public sentiment had become so deadened, the railroads had become so powerful in the affairs of business, and the manufacturers and business men of the state were so fearful that "capital would be driven out of the state" by any restrictive legislation, that A. R. Hall was literally jeered at and laughed down as a crank when he persistently introduced his railroad bills into the legislature. His work, however, was not without results. A stronger movement, led by Robert M. La Follette, now United States Senator, soon awakened the people, swept the state and made La Follette governor. Hall had persistently advocated the ad valorem taxation of railroads. This was made an important issue and was finally passed. In this case, what Walt Whitman once said proved true,
"It is provided in the essence of things that from any fruition of success, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary."
