Biography/History

Charles McCarthy combined intelligence and creativity with intense energy and drive. These qualities carried him from a working class background in a Massachusetts shoe manufacturing center through academic success at Brown University and the University of Wisconsin. They also helped him transform a relatively innocuous legislative research position into the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library, a renowned agency of Progressive era reform. McCarthy shaped the Library into an effective technical bureau for drafting accurate and workable legislation. More than technician, he used the position to promote his own ideas on equity and efficiency through political and social reforms. In particular he left his mark on the areas of government regulation of commerce, labor, and natural resources; agricultural cooperatives and marketing; and extension and vocational education. With the publication of his major book, The Wisconsin Idea, he also became one of progressivism's chief publicists.

June 29, 1873	Born to Irish immigrant parents, John and Katherine O'Shea Desmond McCarthy at Brockton (then North Bridgewater), Massachusetts.
1892-1897	Attended Brown University, where he achieved distinction more as a football player than a student, and received a Ph. B.
1897-1898	Coached football at the University of Georgia. Also undertook research on Southern agriculture, economics, and slavery.
1898-1901	Studied at the University of Wisconsin and received Ph.D. in history. McCarthy's dissertation, The Anti-Masonic Party, won the American Historical Association's Justin Winsor prize in 1902.
January 1901	Appointed to legislative research position within the Wisconsin Free Library Commission. This position evolved into the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library.
September 26, 1901	Married Lucile Schreiber of Madison.
1905	The Railroad Commission, the first of the state's major regulatory agencies, established.
August-November 1909	Served as coach for the University of Wisconsin baseball team's series of exhibition games in Japan.
1910	Traveled in eastern United States and Europe on behalf of the State of Wisconsin to study industrial education. The resulting report appeared in early 1911 and was the basis for the State Board of Vocational Education and vocational education system established by legislation approved in July of that year.
July 1911	The State Board of Public Affairs, a body with a broad mandate to examine state government efficiency, consumer issues, agricultural and economic development, and the educational system, established.
1912	Wisconsin Idea published.
1912	McCarthy played an active role in drafting platforms of the major presidential candidates, especially Theodore Roosevelt.
1913	American Agricultural Organization Society (AAOS), an advocacy group intended to promote cooperation, founded. McCarthy was secretary and other officers were Gifford Pinchot, president, Henry Wallace, vice president, and Lawrence Godkin, secretary.
June 1914	Appointed research director of the United States Commission of Industrial Relations. The Commission chairman was Frank Walsh and John R. Commons was one of the commissioners. A clash with Walsh over finances and McCarthy's friendship with John D. Rockefeller Jr., resulted in McCarthy's dismissal in March 1915.
1914-1915	McCarthy weathered a political storm in which both the progressive and stalwart Republican gubernatorial candidates pledged to eliminate the Legislative Reference Library. Emanuel Philipp, the stalwart, won but became a supporter of the Library.
December 1915 & December 1916	AAOS sponsored national conferences on marketing and farm credits.
December 1916	National Agricultural Organization Society (NAOS) formed. This was apparently a successor to the AAOS, although it is unclear if the AAOS was formally disbanded. However, the individuals involved in the organizations were identical and for all practical purposes the organizations were one.
February 1917	Smith-Hughes act to promote agricultural and industrial education passed by Congress.
Spring 1917	McCarthy served on the Committee on Labor of the Council of National Defense, a federal preparedness agency. He was instrumental in making Wisconsin the first to establish a state Council of Defense, and also designed the state's draft registration program.
June 1917	Appointed to United States Food Administration under Herbert Hoover.
March 19, 1918	Finished second in United States Senate Democratic primary. McCarthy, who had a leave from the Food Administration, entered the race primarily to draw votes from the La Follette and (in McCarthy's mind) anti-war candidate.
April 1918	Returned to work for the Food Administration.
July-September 1918	Toured Europe on request of Felix Frankfurter to study labor-management relations and the training of workers for war industries.
Fall 1918	Active in trying to organize a group of prominent Irish-Americans to support home rule for Ireland.
March 1920	NAOS disbanded.
1919-March 1921	Ill health frequently limited McCarthy's activities. He died at Prescott, Arizona, March 26, 1921.