Papers of the period prior to 1921 contain references to Blaine's education, community affairs in Boscobel, his candidacy for a seat in Congress in 1904, investigations (1909-1911) of charges against Isaac Stephenson for unlawful use of money in the campaign of 1908, and Blaine's nonpartisan Progressive candidacy for governor in 1914.
In the gubernatorial papers the major topic throughout is the issue of state taxation and finances in various forms: Blaine's opposition to the creation of a northern lakes state park; his request for revision of the income tax law by a special session of the legislature in 1922; his veto in 1923 of a bill to tax gasoline for highway construction; and the budgetary problems of the University and the state normal schools. Closely connected with Blaine's financial program was his emphasis on increased efficiency and economy in state departments. Between the Highway Department and the governor a controversy developed over expenditures, methods of letting contracts, and political influence. Correspondence concerning this conflict includes letters of 1924, when Arthur R. Hirst, chief engineer of the Highway Commission, resigned to oppose Blaine unsuccessfully for the gubernatorial nomination.
The collection contains many papers on public welfare and law enforcement problems; the pardon of John Deitz in 1921; investigation of malfeasance of public officials in Kenosha County; surveys of the state prison and reformatory programs; and investigation of the care of the feeble-minded and other wards of the state. Prohibition was a continuing problem as is indicated by the scores of letters representing opinion for and against the various enforcement measures. Scattered letters show Blaine's opposition to the activities of the Ku Klux Klan and touch upon Klan incidents, particularly those at Boscobel in August 1924, and at Marinette in November 1926.
Other topics discussed are the projected reorganization of the state educational system; the teacher retirement fund; the movement to consolidate rural schools; the furor created when the pacifist Mrs. Kate Richards O'Hare was given permission to lecture in the capitol in 1922; the Illinois-Wisconsin drainage suit revived by Blaine in the same year; and pure foods legislation. The collection contains also large quantities of routine correspondence concerning patronage, state contracts, and complaints of one sort and another.
For Blaine's term in the Senate the collection consists mainly of carbon copies of his replies to letters from constituents. Some letters contain information on the participation of Wisconsin residents in the Bonus Army, 1932. Other papers deal with investigation of post office leases, especially in New York City, and with Blaine's sponsorship of a bill to have the Interstate Commerce Commission report on the fair value of lands and buildings to be acquired by the federal government.
I. THE GOVERNORSHIP
1. Taxation and Financial Aspects of Administration
When Blaine became governor in 1921, the state was still in process of post-war adjustment, and the inevitable depression was settling on the country and on the state. Along with prices, taxes and the cost of state government had risen to a high level as a result of the war, and on taking office Blaine considered it to be the prime problem of the state government to reduce expenditures without impairing or restricting the conduct of the state's institutions and government. Probably it was the financial aspects of his administration to which he later looked back with most pride, and it was over the question of taxation that the most serious legislative contests of his six years in office occurred. Consequently, the matter of state taxation and finances is the single most important subject with which the collection is concerned.
1921 --There is comparatively little in the papers on the subject for the year 1921, except in relation to the bill for state acquisition of a northern lakes park area, and the governor's opposition to it on the grounds of expense and non-justifiability of the project from a conservation standpoint. This matter of a state park in the northern part of the state came up again in 1923, when the governor vetoed a bill providing for the purchase of 7800 acres of land in Price and Sawyer counties for a proposed northern lakes park, and in 1924 when the proposal was for a park in Vilas County.
1922 --In March 1922, Blaine called a special session of the legislature and requested repeal of the secrecy clause in the income tax law and authority for the Tax Commission to go back six years in auditing returns instead of the previous three year period. The secrecy clause was not immediately repealed, but the six-year auditing authority was granted, end there is correspondence and data on income tax audits of various corporations and the collection of additional assessed taxes for 1922 1923, and 1924.
There is also statistical and other information in regard to enrollment, budget, and financial matters connected with the state normal s and the general subject of the cost of higher education to the state for 1922 and 1923, and in 1924 extensive material on the subject of specific financial requests for emergency allotments submitted to the Emergency Board by the normal s, the university, and the Board of Control, and approved by the board. The physical plant of these institutions, as a result of the war when all efforts were bent toward military victory, was in very poor condition.
1923 --A number of miscellaneous matters connected with state finances and taxation are covered for the year 1923. Beginning in that year, but continuing also in 1924 and 1926 is correspondence and data on the subject of corporations allegedly leaving Wisconsin because of the state's taxation policies. A bill in 1923 to tax gasoline for highway construction was vetoed on the ground that it was a sales tax, and numerous letters from supporters and opponents of the measure are in the collection. A bill relating to registration of motor vehicles was also under consideration in that year. A matter having to do with expenditures which received the governor's attention in 1923 was coordination of the activities of inspectors in various departments of the state government in order to eliminate duplication.
In connection with the subject of taxation, there is correspondence in June 1923 growing out of the charge of Senator Eldo T. Ridgeway, Elkhorn, that Blaine had offered him a position on the Board of Control in return for his vote on an important tax measure. Likewise in the same month occurred the so-called kidnapping from Madison for three days of Senator Berney Moran of Rhinelander on the night before the Severson surtax and other administration tax bills on the senate calendar were to come to a vote.
1924 --In 1924 the controversy between the governor and the Highway Commission over expenditures came to a head about the end of May, after the governor had repeated demands for efficiency, economy, and retrenchment, and changed in the administrative set-up of the department. In February 1923, there had been a report (which is in the collection) on the economic possibilities of the manufacture of Portland cement in Wisconsin, made by the director of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, who was also chairman of the Highway Commission, and a report by the attorney-general about the same time concerning unlawful organization of manufacturers of Portland cement in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. In February 1924, the subject of the purchase of state cement came up again, and in the months following the governor reiterated his belief, first expressed in 1922, in the impropriety of the director of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey's receiving private retainers, because of his connection with the classification of mineral lands and, valuation of them for the Tax Commission, particularly mining lands and properties in Iron County, Wisconsin. On May 31, 1924, Arthur R. Hirst, chief engineer of the Highway Commission, resigned to run against Blaine for the nomination for governor. On all these matters, and on the subject of the state highway construction program and policies of the Highway Commission there is important correspondence in the collection.
There is also, in May 1924, a collection of data on the distribution of taxes in various districts in most of the counties of the state.
1925 --In 1925, material having to do with finance relates largely to the university building program end appropriations for the university, end a bill to repeal the $500 homestead tax exemption enacted two years previously, for the reason that it was claimed to have shifted a portion of the tax and county taxes to the farms in a district. Some letters pro and con concerning Bill No. 818 to levy a tax on the income of Wisconsin banks instead of the tax on, capital, a bill which was vetoed, are among the papers.
1926 --In 1926, a discussion as to whether receipts of the Conservation Commission above running expenses should be used for conservation purposes or go into the state general fund was in swing. The Soldiers Rehabilitation Fund and plans for building the Service Memorial Institute building at the university, and Bill 88A of 1925 for an Upper Mississippi Wild Life Refuge, vetoed because it was alleged to represent a substantial surrender of state sovereignty to the federal government, are likewise subjects of some correspondence.
2. Public Welfare and Law Enforcement Matters
Another subject concerning which there is much material in the collection is the closely related matters of crime, law enforcement, and the care of the unfortunate, including very extensive correspondence in regard to pardons, for the Blaine administration was much interested in the state public welfare program, and Blaine was dubbed the “pardoning governor” by those who disapproved of some of his acts of clemency.
1921-22 --In 1921, there is some material on the pardon of John Dietz, who had been sentenced in 1910 in connection with the Cameron Dam tragedy, continued federal appropriations for the Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board, and the Kenosha grand jury investigation and prosecution of the former district attorney on charges of malfeasance in office and acceptance of bribes, and prosecution on behalf of the state in the circuit court of Kenosha County of other individuals on various charges. Included is correspondence with the state attorney-general and Circuit Judge Ellsworth B. Belden. Charges of wholesale disregard for law in Kenosha County continued in 1922, and Blaine's action in pardoning a number of persons convicted of liquor law violations on the ground that their penalties were heavier than those imposed on public officials in the area convicted of malfeasance in office resulted in a correspondence between the governor and Judge Belden.
1923 --In 1923, the governor ordered a survey of ex-service men at the state prison and at the reformatory to determine their mental and physical condition, and on the basis of the survey arranged for the transfer of a substantial percentage of the men to hospitals. In this same year and in 1024 there is correspondence concerning the social welfare program of the state, arising out of sociologists' charges that the State Board of Control had no prevention program and was not fulfilling its responsibility to the state in the cure of the unfortunate. A few items concerning investigation of the Chippewa Falls Home for the Feeble-minded are also found in the papers for this year. A typewritten draft of a study made by Emma Octavia Lundberg for the Children's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor of the dependent wards of the state, mainly for the years 1913-17, unpublished, is in the collection, along with several pieces of correspondence between Governor Blaine and the Bureau.
1926 --A small amount of correspondence in 1926 concerns vigilantes committees organized in some counties through the sheriff's office by the appointment of deputies furnished with weapons alleged to have been paid for by private organizations, and Blaine's warning that sheriffs were and would be held responsible for the acts of their deputies.
3. Prohibition
The subject of prohibition and prohibition law enforcement was a prominent one in the period during which Blaine was governor. The first items concern the Matheson bill, passed by the legislature in 1921, and alleged by the dry forces to add to the Mulberger law such sections of the Volstead Act as were not in the law, but opposed by the so-called wet forces and vetoed by Blaine. Scores of letters on both sides of the issue, including some from the Association against the Prohibition Amendment, were received by the governor. In January 1926 an incident at Richland Center growing out of prohibition law violation was a subject of investigation, and generally through the years of the governorship prohibition is a familiar subject.
4. Ku Klux Klan
Another subject of some prominence in the 'twenties was the Ku Klux Klan, an organization of which Blaine was a determined foe. Scattered letters in the papers, 1921-26, touch on the organization, and there is some limited information in regard to two or three incidents in connection with the Klan. One of these incidents had to do with a disturbance in a Klan parade at Boscobel in August 1924, and the threatened removal of the district attorney of Grant County. Another incident was a riot at Marinette in November 1926 at a Klan meeting, and the trial following. Testimony of the witnesses in this case is in the collection, as well as several items bearing on the pardon by Blaine of the convicted individuals.
5. Election Campaigns
There is voluminous material on the subject of Blaine's electoral campaigns of 1922, 1924, and 1926, and some material on the elder Senator LaFollette's campaign for president in 1924, and the younger Senator's campaign for the senatorship to succeed his father in the late summer of 1925. There are letters of Fred M. Wylie, manager of the campaigns of 1924 and 1926 in regard to speaking tour arrangements, campaign literature, answers to questionnaires sent out in 1924 and 1926 to local political leaders in the counties of the state, inquiring as to how things political were shaping themselves, what opponents were doing, and inquiring whether anything was required to insure success for his candidates. Also to be found are receipts, printing orders, lists of expenses, and copies of the financial statements required by Wisconsin law to be filed with the secretary of state by all candidates for elective office. Excerpts from speeches on campaign tours are in the collection, and these give a good indication of the issues discussed in the campaigns. In 1926, especially, is there a voluminous material in connection with Blaine's campaign against Senator Irvine L. Lenroot for the U.S. Senatorship.
6. Education
When the Blaine administration opened, Wisconsin educators were discussing the subject of reorganization of the entire state educational system, including secondary school, normal school, and the university, and possible consolidation of rural schools. Letters from advocates of various educational plans present their ideas and comments on such matters as defeats of the current set-up or of certain proposed set-ups, financing of education, the controversial issue of a state board of education, possible remedial measures, consolidation, and organization. There is also a very limited amount of data on the teacher retirement fund, a brief summary history of the state fund, and an opinion and sketch of the county board of education law or plan.
The generous quantity of data and other material on the matter of enrollment, budget, and fiscal matters concerning the university and the normal school, and concerning capital construction at these state institutions of higher learning has already been mentioned under the head of taxation and financial matters. Related to the university, but not having to do with finances, are several scattered letters on the matter of a new president of the university, beginning as early as 1923.
7. Miscellaneous Specific Items
1922-23 --Several important miscellaneous subjects of possible interest are dealt with in the collection. In 1922 there is the furor created in some circles in March by the permission granted the pacifist, Mrs. Kate Richards O'Hare, to use the capitol building for a lecture, and the southern trip of the governor in November, for the purpose of advertising Wisconsin products. In 1923, a coal conference was called in November by Gov. Gifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania to consider the shortage of anthracite coal, clean coal, and a plan for a compact between various states to regulate the price of coal. There is also, in the same year, material on the popularly denominated Illinois-Wisconsin drainage suit, more accurately known as the tote of Wisconsin vs. Chicago Drainage District, a suit relating to unlawful diversion of water from Lake Michigan, which had been lying dormant for a number of years and which Blaine revived. Items in 1923 merely touched upon include the work of the Dairy and Food Commission, and the bill for the abolition of the national guard in Wisconsin which the governor vetoed.
1924 --Important miscellaneous items for 1924 include a compilation of appointments of members of the legislature to state offices from 1897-1924, and publicity attaching to the will of Dr. John A. Nice of Waukesha County, who died in 1906, and the provisions of whose will were set aside by Judge Martin L. Lueck, a candidate for governor in 1924.
1925 --In 1925 there is some material on a bill to alter the law governing the labeling of baking powder, opposed by the Dairy and Food Commission and vetoed. In 1925, and running into 1926, there is correspondence in regard to the memorial statue of Senator LaFollette Sr., executed by Sculptor Jo Davidson for statuary hall in Washington. A limited correspondence scattered throughout most of the period 1925-26 reflects Blaine's interest in Valparaiso University, his alma mater.
8. Voluminous Routine
As is usual in the collections of papers of men in public life, a very large portion of the collection consists of general and routine material. For the years of Blaine's governorship there are quantities of letters from persons taking one side or another of a public issue, supporting or condemning certain bills before the legislature, or commending or criticizing a particular action or the course of the governor, and acknowledgments and replies to these letters. There are the usual letters of complaint concerning state and local officials and the governor's correspondence with various state department heads in investigation of these complaints and on other matters and his replies to the complainants.
There is, beginning in 1922, considerable routine material on acquisition of sites, on contracts for construction or remodeling of buildings at state charitable and educational institutions, for the construction of the Wisconsin General Hospital, and for highway construction, including consideration of complaints relating to relocations of highways.
In addition to the bulky correspondence in connection with investigation of pardon applications, investigation of complaints and the holding of hearings to determine whether or not certain sheriffs and district attorneys should be removed from office comprise another voluminous type of material throughout the years 1921-26.
The usual huge quantity of letters of application for patronage, correspondence having to do with the difficult matter of filling until election of vacancies in such local offices as sheriff and district attorney, and letters in connection with the highly important matter of appointments to membership on various state boards and commissions and the supreme court constitute about one-fourth of the entire collection. Included is the correspondence relating to appointment to the state supreme court of Justices Charles H. Crownhart, Christian Doerfler, and H. Ray Stevens, and appointment of the adjutant general in 1923. Some of the letters throw considerable light on state politics, and on personalities prominent in the state.
9. Correspondents
Correspondents at various times include Joseph Beck, Edward A. Birge, John T. Donaghey, C. H. Everett, Arthur R. Hirst, Daniel W. Hoan, William Mauthe, Hubert H. Peavey, Frank Putnam, Tames D. Phillips, George J. Schneider, George M. Sheldon, Frank S. Symmonds, and Edward Voigt.
II. YEARS OF THE SENATORSHIP, 1927-1933
Material relating to the term in the United States Senate is rather sketchy, although there can be gleaned from it rather a clear indication of Blaine's course as a member of that body. Most of the material is carbon copies of replies to letters from constituents.
A few items relate to speaking engagements on behalf of Alfred E. Smith as candidate for president in 1928, and several letters in 1929-30 concern the appointment of James N. Tittemore as United States Marshal. Sketchy material for the period 1929-33 relates to national agricultural legislation, the Chicago water diversion suit, the tariff, merger of District of Columbia street railways, banking and currency legislation, the Bonus army in Washington in July 1932 including several letters from officials of the Wisconsin Bonus Expeditionary Forces, the question of jury trial in contempt cases, investigation of post office leases (especially in New York City) and the senator's bill to have the Interstate Commerce Commission report on the fair value of land or buildings to be acquired by the Government, the Economy Act, tax legislation, and his campaign for reelection in 1932. A number of letters from friends and well-wishers after his narrow defeat for the nomination are in the collection. A small amount of correspondence with the War Department and with sponsors of the Wisconsin Tercentenary at Green Bay planned for 1934 relates to efforts to obtain certain historical information about Wisconsin military leaders, roads, and other matters of the period 1815-1840, and to a bill sponsored by Blaine in 1931 for the restoration of Fort Howard.
III. SPEECHES, BILLS, AND DIFFUSE MATERIAL, 1919-1933
Throughout the collection after 1920 there are numerous press releases and there is a complete set of speeches, 1919-33, in eight volumes, and a set of bills introduced into Congress by Blaine as senator. While somewhat diffuse in nature, there is considerable information to be found in the collection on view-points and attitudes of various organizations and on pressure groups and their methods of lobbying, both state and national, and occasionally on specific lobbyists.
IV. THE PERIOD BEFORE 1921
Preceding the main body of the collection is a small quantity of miscellaneous items, including several examination and other papers relating to Blaine's normal days in 1894-1896, two or three items relating to Boscobel governmental affairs, 1904-05, two or three items relating to his candidacy for Congress in 1904, five letters, 1909-1910 bearing on the legislative 'investigation of the charges against Isaac Stephenson as candidate for the United States Senate of unlawful use of money in the primary and general elections of 1908, four letters in 1911 relating to the congressional investigation of the same matter, and two or three items relating to Blaine's non-partisan progressive candidacy for governor in 1914. Limited correspondence in 1916 relates to the proposed lease of the Boscobel lighting plant, and scattered letters, 1915-1919, concern state and national politics. An article written about 1919 is a description of Castle Rock cave, located in the town of Castle Rock, Grant County.
