The collection consists of administrative records, subject files, and near-print publications. The earliest record dates from the organizational meeting of WMA in November 1910. The latest records are from 1975, prior to the WMA merger with the Wisconsin State Chamber of Commerce, a process only scantily documented in the collection. Among the subjects covered in most detail are unemployment insurance, workmen's compensation, the WMA-sponsored Friendship Fleet to Europe in 1948, the precedent-setting hearing-loss case Wojcik v. Green Bay Drop Forge Company, and Nicaraguan activities of the WMA. A near complete set of WMA newsletters provides a detailed record of WMA positions on Wisconsin and federal politics and legislation and information on other WMA activities. Individuals represented in the collection include early WMA president Carl Johnson, WMA managers George Kull and Robert A. Ewens, WMA Women's Bureau director Katherine Garland Vilas, and management attorney and hearing-loss specialist Noel Symons. The collection does not include records of individual WMA officers or board members or the bulk of the records of WMA standing committees (Traffic, Unemployment, and Workmen's Compensation, among others).
The ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS do not include the WMA incorporation papers. The Annual Meeting files consist of meeting minutes and programs and reports of the WMA president, treasurer, secretary, legislative council, and the directors of the Women's Bureau, Publicity Bureau, and Traffic Committee. Among the documents in this series are the reports of Carl Johnson, WMA president from 1919 to 1926, and Katherine Garland Vilas, Women's Bureau director.
The SUBJECT FILES make up the bulk of the manuscript portion of the collection and are arranged alphabetically. Within each folder the files are in original order.
The Centennial Fund file includes correspondence, financial statements, and contracts related to WMA's 1948 State Fair exhibit. The Clippings, 1911-1916, describe the origins and early activities of WMA, otherwise little documented in this collection. The Director's Manual is the 1970 edition of the manual distributed to the Board of Directors of WMA. The manual includes a short history of WMA, a list of past presidents, and comments on the organization and purposes of the group. The Statement on Educational Work is a memo describing a WMA campaign to distribute messages on public issues through the state's newspapers. Examples of these advertisements are in the collections of the Iconography Section of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. The Statements by Robert A. Ewens are printed transcripts of his remarks to United States congressional committees and private associations on legislation regarding displaced workers, unemployment insurance, and workmen's compensation.
The Friendship Fleet file documents a WMA sponsored fleet of ships which in 1948 carried donated goods to Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the Baltic states. The purposes of the Friendship Fleet were to relieve postwar shortages of consumer goods in Europe, promote immigration to Wisconsin and other Midwestern states, and honor the Wisconsin statehood centennial. The records include correspondence with shipping lines, religious and charitable organizations, state and federal officials in the United States, and individuals in the United States, Norway, Denmark, and other countries; domestic and foreign newspaper and magazine articles dealing with the Friendship Fleet; and correspondence and clippings about the Moll family, who immigrated to Wisconsin from Norway on the first returning Friendship Fleet ship. The last two folders in the Friendship Fleet file deal mainly with the Moll family and a dinner held in their honor in Madison.
The Wisconsin Industrial Hall of Fame file deals with the selection of candidates for this honor for the years 1967-1970. Included in the file are correspondence on candidate selection, capsule biographies of Hall of Fame candidates, and drafts of speeches delivered at Hall of Fame dinners. The Hall of Fame project began about 1956.
The Hearing Loss files document the response of the WMA to the 1952 case Wojcik v. Green Bay Drop Forge Company. In this case the Wisconsin Industrial Commission held that Wojcik was entitled to workmen's compensation payments for work environment-induced hearing loss, despite the fact that Wojcik's hearing loss did not cause him to lose income or the ability to pursue his occupation. The Hearing Loss files include minutes of the Hearing Loss Committee and Medical Advisory Committee; records of contributions made by WMA member firms for appeals of the Wojcik decision; general correspondence and correspondence with management attorney and industrial noise specialist Noel Symons; and copies of briefs and decisions in the Wojcik case. The pamphlets in the file are near-print and reprint articles on the technical and legal issues involved in workmen's compensation payments for hearing loss, many written by Noel Symons. A report on the WMA-sponsored mass testing of hearing, conducted at the 1954 Wisconsin State Fair, is included in the Testing file.
The House Publications Contest files consist of correspondence, press releases, clippings, and notes related to the annual contest sponsored by the WMA in cooperation with the Wisconsin Industrial Editors Association and the School of Journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The Statements on International Trade are two near-print reports, “Current Tariff Problems and Possible Solutions (the Wisconsin Viewpoint),” 1950, and “The Impact of International Trade on the State of Wisconsin,” 1951.
The files on Nicaragua document the WMA-facilitated gift of a fire engine from the Village of Shorewood to the Corps of Firefighters of Matagalpa, Nicaragua in 1965 and the role of the WMA in the Partners of the Alliance, a privately sponsored association which cooperated with the Alliance for Progress. The fire engine files consist of correspondence with the Corps of Firefighters of Matagalpa (including translations), the Village of Shorewood, shipping lines, the Agency for International Development, and project staff. Publicity materials are also in the file. The Partners of the Alliance file consists of correspondence with the Agency for International Development and three reports related to Partners of the Alliance projects. Mildred H. Vernosh's “Six Months in Nicaragua” is an evaluation of hospital conditions in Nicaragua conducted from November 1965 to May 1966. Wilbur N. Renk's “Wisconsin's Place in Nicaragua and Her Agriculture” discusses the potential for the exchange of Wisconsin technical knowledge and equipment for Nicaraguan products. Robert A. Ewens's report, a speech delivered at a National Industrial Conference meeting, is a commentary on the Alliance for Progress and other government assistance programs abroad and in the United States.
The Trade Mission to Europe file consists of a report on the 1948 excursion by Wisconsin industrialists and correspondence related to the mission, sponsored by WMA's semi-autonomous Foreign Trade Committee. The Traffic Committee Notes include comments on class rate investigations of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1947, 1952, and 1959, clippings related to the investigations, and the report of a WMA subcommittee on railroad rates, 1959.
The Unemployment Compensation file is primarily a list of WMA member firms covered by the Wisconsin unemployment compensation act. For the years 1939 and 1940 the list shows each WMA member firm's contribution to the reserve fund, contribution rates, and net firm savings in reserve fund contributions resulting from the experience rating features of the Wisconsin unemployment insurance law. The file also includes copies of a 1936 agreement to participate in a WMA-sponsored court test of the Wisconsin unemployment compensation law, and correspondence and lists pertaining to the levies WMA requested of firms participating in the test case.
The Workmen's Compensation file consists of a two-part report written for WMA by Earl F. Cheit and an exchange of correspondence between Cheit and Robert A. Ewens. The Cheit reports evaluate rate-making in Wisconsin from 1935 to 1950 and compare the Wisconsin experience to that of other states. The correspondence discusses the philosophical basis of workmen's compensation plans and the relationship of workmen's compensation to the rehabilitation of injured workers.
The PUBLICATIONS series consists of an apparently incomplete chronological file of mailings to WMA members and sets of WMA newsletters. The newsletter files are the most complete sets of these titles known to exist. In 1946 the newsletter function was divided between the irregularly published Bulletin and the weekly Legislative Bulletin, published only when the Wisconsin legislature was in session.
