The Emanuel L. Philipp collection includes correspondence, financial records, speeches and press releases, business records, state government documents, and other materials. The first ten boxes of the collection contain correspondence and other materials in a single chronological order. After that, the order of the collection is rather haphazard. The paragraphs below present first an overall summary of the collection; this summary is followed by Processor's Notes which, though somewhat disorganized, contain many details on the collection contents.
Correspondence of the period before 1914 includes letters relating to Philipp's relations with Robert M. La Follette in 1900, to business transactions with Joseph Schlitz in 1903, and to the nomination of William Howard Taft as Republican presidential candidate in 1908. There is also correspondence with the Republican State Central Committee, 1903-1908. As president of the Union Refrigerator Transit Company, Philipp was involved in several libel cases growing out of charges that he had violated the Elkins Act by accepting rebates from certain Milwaukee breweries. Correspondence, briefs, and decisions in these cases, notably the Union Refrigerator Transit Company vs. S.S. McClure Company in 1908, are included in the collection.
Papers of the period following Philipp's retirement from public office relate to his presidency of the Mi Lola Cigar Company, the Union Refrigerator Transit Company, and the Milwaukee Association of Commerce. Numerous other letters and financial records concern the management, development, and improvement of his farm near Sumpter in Sauk County, Wisconsin.
The gubernatorial papers relate to administrative and legislative affairs, including requests for patronage, discussions on pending legislation, investigations of state departments, and the sending of the National Guard to the Mexican border in 1916. Numerous letters comment on the William H. Allen report on the educational and business methods of the state university, issued in 1915, and a subsequent proposal to reorganize the public education system. Material on the subject includes budget studies, memoranda prepared for the governor, press releases, proposed legislation, and expressions of opinion from administrative and educational experts and alumni throughout the United States.
Letters in April 1917, speak of the opposition to compulsory military service. Other papers concern the civilian aspects of the first world war, including information on the work of the Fuel Administration in Wisconsin, headed by William N. Fitzgerald and much less regarding the work of the Food Administration and the Council of Defense. Post-war papers contain correspondence on the return of Wisconsin troops; publishing a history of the 32nd Division; efforts to deal with problems of unemployment and inadequate housing; Wisconsin's part in the relief work for northern Minnesota and Wisconsin fire victims in 1918; the work of the League to Enforce Peace; and opinions on the proposed League of Nations.
Also included is an account book kept by the Wisconsin Commission for the Celebration of a Half Century of Negro Freedom in 1915.
Processor's Notes:
Only two folders of correspondence cover the period from 1887 to 1914 when Philipp became a candidate for governor, but there are several interesting manuscripts in this small group including a memorandum in Philipp's handwriting of a political meeting, April 25, 1900, between himself, Robert M. La Follette, Thomas Gill, and Jerrie Murphy. Also in this period, the early months of 1903, there are letters from Joseph Schlitz to Philipp in New York where he was transacting important business for the brewing firm. In addition these two folders contain letters dated January and February 1908, from former Wisconsin Congressman J. W. Babcock, then living in Washington, to Philipp concerning the movement to support Secretary of War William Howard Taft in the coming Presidential election. With this correspondence is a letter from Taft to Babcock requesting that his name not be brought forward in Wisconsin and that no attempt be made to deprive La Follette of his “favorite son” delegation.
In a campaign speech, November 6, 1904, La Follette charged that Philipp, as president of the Union Refrigerator Transit Company, violated the Elkins Act and received rebates from certain Milwaukee breweries. Philipp chose to ignore this attack, but a year later, December 24, 1905, when the Milwaukee Free Press repeated and enlarged the charge, Philipp sued for libel. In January 1906, the same month Philipp brought suit against the Milwaukee paper, McClure's Magazine published an article by the former romantic novelist and then practicing muckraker Ray Stannard Baker, in which the author claimed that while Philipp was acting as lobbyist for the railroads, he was accepting rebates from the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad. Again Philipp sued for libel, but unlike the Milwaukee Free Press which had printed a retraction and ample apology, McClure's and Baker, through their attorney Gilbert E. Roe (La Follette's former law partner), fought the case in court. Prior to this time, although McClure's Magazine had published many articles exposing graft and corruption in government and private business, no judgments of libel had been awarded against them, but on March 27, 1908, the jury of the United States Circuit Court, Southern District of New York, gave Philipp 15,000 dollars damages against the magazine company. Attorney Roe asked that the decision be set aside, but the United States Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court's decision.
Manuscripts including briefs, transcripts, decisions, and correspondence, 1891-1908, bearing on the libel case of the Union Refrigerator Transit Company vs. S.S. McClure Company, were separated from the body of the collection and are to be found in box number 13. Volumes eight, nine, and eleven also contain letters, clippings, briefs, and, minutes of the case. Included with the McClure material are briefs and proceedings of allied cases: The United States vs. Milwaukee Refrigerator Transit Company, et al., circa 1908; Emanuel L. Philipp vs. La Crosse Tribune Company, 1924; and the State of Wisconsin vs. Pullman Company, 1922.
Philipp was elected to the office of governor in 1914, to succeed Francis E. McGovern and held office until January 1921, when he was followed by John J. Blaine, This six-year conservative Republican interlude in a quarter of a century of Progressive Republican administration saw events of tremendous importance in national affairs. Wisconsin troops were sent to the Mexican border in 1916; less than a year later war was declared, with its attendant complexities of military and civilian warfare. Problems of returning peace, with expressions of opinion in the state on the Versailles conference and the League of Nations, and the more immediate matters of unemployment and food supplies and housing are all discussed in this correspondence.
Since the whole of Philipp's incumbency coincided with a national Democratic regime, and for a large part of the time Wisconsin's Congressional delegation too was of opposing political faith, there is little correspondence with federal officials. The papers, in general, deal with state politics and government and the conduct of domestic affairs during the World War and the return of peace.
The correspondence for the first seven months--January to August, 1915--relates almost exclusively to legislative matters. Unfortunately, similar material for the following legislative sessions is not included in this collection, nor is there any material on the stirring Presidential elections of 1916 and 1920 or on any state elections.
During the first months of Philipp's administration a detailed study of the entire educational system of the state was undertaken. Since this study was largely conducted by Dr. William F. Allen, and the correspondence carried on by him or under his supervision, the material on education has been left as a separate group.
In the early months of his administration Governor Philipp was besieged with proposals for all sorts of measures such as the reduction of taxes, the revision of election laws, the reorganization of the courts, and of the educational system, etc. The letters are from a fairly proportionate group of party leaders, legislators, and disgruntled local politicians. During the session the correspondence gives glimpses of public and party opinion.
On pending legislation, and occasionally on such a matter as the proposed Stemper liquor law, there is a flood of letters from both factions, arguing the merits and evils of the bill. A few of the typical items touched upon in the papers are the railroad terminal tax bill, the reestablishment of the board of nurse examiners, an increase in railroad passenger rates, the creation of a new county, an anti-tipping bill, a jitney-bus regulation bill, a revision of the workmen's compensation act, the establishment of an additional normal school, the enforcement of Sunday closing of saloons, the discontinuance of the practice of issuing law supplements with newspapers, etc.
Governors of other states frequently wrote for information on Wisconsin's experience on matters under consideration in their legislatures, and in the carbon copies of replies to these queries is found valuable insight to Governor Philipp's policies and ideas.
Family Correspondence: The Philipp papers contain scattered letters to Cyrus, Philipp's son, who joined the navy during the war, from his father, mother, and sister Florence. Florence became a nurse and was sent to a camp in Ohio.
After his retirement to private life, Philipp devoted himself to business as president of the Mi Lola Cigar Company and of the Union Refrigerator Transit Company. In 1921-1922 he also set about improving his farm near Sumpter, Sauk County, Wisconsin. Great time and expense were devoted to drilling a well; the house was refinished, plumbing and electricity installed, and a “Radio Room” built for the wireless; and a new dairy barn built with all the latest modern equipment.
For the years 1923-1924 Philipp's correspondence is chiefly concerned with the affairs of the Milwaukee Association of Commerce of which he is president. The avowed object of the Association was to “protect” business; “defend it against the attacks of the lawmakers;” and “further its interests in legislative as well as other matters.” Included in this material are the minutes of meetings of the board of directors, form letter releases, departmental correspondence, and general correspondence.
As a wealthy man and former governor, Philipp found himself on the mailing list of many individuals and groups asking for money. Among these letters soliciting funds are two of particular interest: the first letter, dated June 11, 1923, is from an Indian missionary, Philip Gordon, requesting Philipp, or Chief Pug-o-nay-gi-jik as he called him, to contribute $500 to help rebuild his fire razed chapel. The second, dated December 16, 1924, is from Helen Keller asking for funds to help in her work with the blind.
With the ex-Governor's death, the Philipp's home in Milwaukee was flooded with letters, cards, and telegrams of condolences. These fill box number 10 of the general correspondence and form a lasting tribute to the war governor of Wisconsin.
Education
A survey of the University of Wisconsin was ordered by the legislature of 1913, to be supervised by the State Board of Public Affairs. The purpose of the survey was to secure information on the educational and business methods of the university and to report recommendations for improvement on any lines that seemed necessary. An advisory committee with wide geographical and professional representation was appointed and William H. Allen of New York and E.C. Brandon of North Carolina were employed to conduct the survey.
The findings of the committee, the recommendations of Dr. Allen and Dr. Brandon, the university comments and criticisms of the report, together with numerous tables, maps, and diagrams, are all available in printed form, commonly known as the Allen Report. This 950-page volume was not completed and issued until early in the spring of 1915, and numerous letters in the Philipp correspondence contain acrimonious references to the unpopular survey.
During his campaign, Governor Philipp had repeatedly declared his support of the common schools and had advocated a reform of the state's educational system. To that end a bill, numbered 262A and destined to a hectic career, was introduced early in the session and a new study of the school system of Wisconsin and other states, once more under the management of Dr. Allen, was instituted.
The administration proposed the abolition of the numerous educational boards and the creation of one central appointive board which should have fiscal responsibility for all state supported educational activities and governing responsibility for state educational institutions. The elective superintendent of public instruction would be ex officio a member of the board.
Such a revolutionary measure brought floods of expression of opinions from every part of the country. Moreover, the survey circularized administrative and Educational experts throughout the country, many of whom responded at length and in detail. As a consequence, the correspondence contains letters from principals of county training schools, city and county superintendents, boards of education, editors of school magazines, officials of educational associations and foundations, presidents of state normal schools, faculty members and alumni of the state university, as well as college presidents, college professors, deans of colleges, commissioners of education, and governors of a great many other states.
Among the persons who commented on the proposals or outlined their ideas of a suitable state educational system were John M. Whitehead, John C. Spooner, William George Bruce, George A. Buckstaff, Dr. Albert J. Ochsner, William D. Hoard, Paul S. Reinsch, Lynn S. Pease, George E. Vincent, Bruce H. Payne, Charles E. Judd, Frank J. Goodnow, A. Lawrence Lowell, David Kinley, Nicholas M. Butler, Henry S. Pritchett, and James E. Russell. This collection of letters is extremely valuable not only as a record of the history of the particular measure under consideration but as a symposium on current educational needs.
The methods used in conducting the investigation and the untabulated results may be found in two boxes of miscellaneous material. This includes budget studies of normal schools and university, a special study of the Iowa system, memoranda prepared for the governor, speeches, press releases, copies of proposed legislation, digests of state educational laws, and other miscellaneous material on the subject.
The correspondence and miscellaneous material on education has been kept as a separate group.
Investigations
Early in the session of 1915, under a joint resolution (No. 11A) of the legislature, an investigation of state commissions and boards was ordered. One box of manuscripts contains material gathered by this committee; in most cases it consists of testimony secured from the head of the department at the hearings, accompanied occasionally by the report of the committee on its findings and statistical information.
This one box of material on investigations has been kept separate from the remainder of the collection.
Appointments
In the summer of 1915 the Panama-Pacific exposition was held at San Francisco. A few pieces of correspondence deal with the problems of preparing displays from Wisconsin, taking care of Wisconsin visitors at the exposition, and selecting the state's “most distinguished citizen,” William L. Hoard, to represent her at the fair.
Under his authority to fill vacancies in certain county positions, Governor Philipp made a number of appointments in the first year of his administration, namely, county judges for Green Lake, Polk, and Pierce counties, district attorney for Pierce County, and sheriff for Barron County, There was considerable local competition in each of these cases, resulting in numerous letters to the governor calling to his attention the merits of the various candidates. Other appointments during the year were to the position of state treasury agent, state veterinarian, and to the tax commission. No similar material on appointments is found for the following years.
Mexican Situation
The mobilization of the Wisconsin National Guard in June 1916 presaged the shift of attention for the remainder of Governor Philipp's administration to the subject of warfare. It was the governor's duty to select a commander for the Wisconsin units, which were en route to Texas by the middle of July. By October a part of the Wisconsin group had returned to this state, and the rest were desperately anxious to follow them. All these matters are discussed in the correspondence.
World War -- Military Aspects
A flood of letters from Congressmen and leading citizens of the state voiced the writers' reactions to Governor Philipp's telegram to President Wilson on April 10, 1917, in which he stated his opposition to compulsory military service. Subsequent correspondence indicates a noticeable change in tone, both on the part of the executive and his erstwhile excited correspondents
So far as the war itself is concerned, there is little information in these papers. As might be expected, there are numerous inquiries for information and aid from relatives of soldiers in the early months of the wad, but these decline in number as people realized that the conduct of the war was in the hands of the Federal government and that other phases of its operation were delegated to other agencies.
World War -- Civilian Affairs
Throughout the war the state fuel administrator, W. N. Fitzgerald, kept in close touch with the executive department. The governor's files contain correspondence with manufacturers, cooperatives, public utilities, and other large consumers of fuel, also with wholesale dealers and railroads. The principal subjects discussed are on the curtailment of fuel supplies, hardships imposed by the federal administrator's decrees, and problems in securing transportation of coal. Letters and telegrams from Fitzgerald himself describe conferences held in Washington and elsewhere and explain his attempts to modify and adjust federal control so as to conform to demands in the state. At the close of the war the country was faced with an even more serious coal shortage. Letters dating to the end of Philipp's administration speak of alarming conditions all over the state and suggest remedies or appeal for aid. Included in the correspondence are letters from governors of other states and several federal officers, discussing cooperative measures calculated to relieve the situation.
There are a small number of letters touching upon the work of the food administration. Among them are scattered complaints of punishment meted out to violators of the regulations and a few letters from the state administrator, Magnus Swenson, concerning policies in the matter of food control.
The material in this collection on another important war-time organization, the state council of defense, is also very limited. It consists chiefly of circular letters and reports on the achievements of the council. Included among these papers are the records of an investigation on the work of employees in the council's office, conducted in the summer of 1917.
End of the War and Proposals for Peace
When war was declared the National Guard of Wisconsin was recruited to its full authorized strength, trained and equipped for service, and incorporated in the 32nd Army Division, at Camp MacArthur. There it dispersed and the men were sent into service in separate contingents. Governor Philipp made strenuous efforts to have the scattered units rejoin the division at the end of the war and return as a group. In addition to correspondence on these negotiations, there are a number of letters and telegrams on the subject of the publication of a history of the division, after its return to the state, including letters from Major General W. G. Haan, Lieutenant Colonel Paul B. Clemens, and others.
In common with other states, Wisconsin selected a committee in New York City to welcome and care for her returning soldiers as they landed. The Philipp papers contain a number of letters and reports from the two successive chairmen of this committee, Mary B. Sabin and Mrs. Victor Frederickson, and also a number of appreciative letters from soldiers who were guests of the committee.
Simultaneously with the end of the war came insistent proposals for a permanent peace. There are lists of a widely representative group in the state who espoused the cause of the League to Enforce Peace, which was sponsored in this state by Dr. Richard T. Ely. Change in sentiment towards the end of the winter of 1918-19 is shown in numerous comments to Governor Philipp in response to his denunciation of the League of Nations which he published in March 1919.
Reconstruction Measures
There are extremely interesting commentaries on the unemployment situation created by the ending of the war, likewise interesting proposals by economists, industrialists, journalists, and summaries of steps taken in Wisconsin communities to aid the returned soldiers. Some of the problems created by the housing crisis at the same time are discussed in letters and testimonials addressed to the Rent Investigation Commission established in Milwaukee.
Minnesota Fire Sufferers
Included in this group of papers are messages and reports from the governor's representative, Colonel Marshall Cousins, concerning the emergency relief work in caring for the victims of the forest fires that swept northern Minnesota in October 1919.
Speeches
The notes and typewritten copies of Philipp's speeches, 1904-1925, along with press releases and papers that he wrote during this period are to be found in boxes number 19 and 20. His numerous speeches, most of them given during his years as governor, cover many topics and were delivered on such divergent occasions as the meeting of Undertakers Association and Indian tribal festivals. After Philipp retired to private life, he continued to speak before various Wisconsin audiences, but as he told one editor who asked for a copy of his speech a few days before his scheduled appearance, he no longer had time to prepare his speeches as he had previously. “I do not get time to write speeches as a rule,” said Philipp, “and I have been obliged to speak without notes or even giving the subject much thought until it is time to address the people.”
