European Expatriate Finds Home for Radical Republican Ideas in Wisconsin

Word count: 256

Place: Dodge County


In the 1850s, one of Europes most notorious radicals, Carl Schurz, rode into the village
of Watertown after several years on the run. Schurz, a colleague of Karl Marx, had been a
member of political visionaries designated the Forty-Eighters who insisted that citizens
have the right to vote for their leaders. As their mission to promote democracy was
suppressed by European Governments, the Forty-Eighters fled for their lives. Carl Schurz
and his bride Margaret eyed Dodge County, Wisconsin for refuge, but first Schurz snuck
back into Germany to spring a friend from a government prison in a famous jailbreak that
made him loved by the peoplewith the exception of the authorities. Schurzs relocation
did not put a damper on his revolutionary spirit.

Schurz and Margaret easily adapted to life in Wisconsin where he ran for public office
and Margaret opened the first kindergarten in the United States. Schurz soon became a
leader in the new Republican Party and during the election of 1860, Schurz played a
crucial role in the election of Abraham Lincoln by delivering the German American vote.
For this he was rewarded with an ambassadorship, but when the Civil War broke out he
turned it down in order to fight as a brigadier general.

Schurz once famously said, My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if
wrong, to be set right. This mindset ultimately carried Schurz into the history books as a
democratic visionary. [in the Senate, February 29, 1872; Congressional Globe, vol. 45, p.
1287].
(Original Title: Radical Republicans: Story 21)
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/odd/archives/001103.asp



The Wisconsin Idea Saves America
Word Count: 250
Place: Madison, WI.



On March 9, 1933, the U.S. Congress began its first 100 days of enacting New Deal
legislation. President Franklin Roosevelt's top priority was to alleviate the suffering
caused by the Great Depressionthe worst economic disaster in U.S. economic history.
Roosevelt appointed DePere, Wisconsin native, Arthur Altmeyer to the position of
Undersecretary of Labor and entrusted him with the responsibility of coming up with a
plan to relieve the economic hardship. Altmeyer, knowing the reputation of the
University of Wisconsin as an institution committed to researching and solving social
problems and public policy issues, knew exactly where to look for answers. The
solutionborn here in Wisconsinsurvives to this day.

Altmeyer turned to University of Wisconsin-Madison economist, Edwin Witte, to lead
the research team in Washington DC. Witte brought along graduate student, Wilbur
Cohen, as research assistant. UW professor John R. Commons, a chief architect of
Wisconsins progressive-era reforms, had mentored all three men. Witte's committee
investigated poverty, unemployment, and solutions to them that had been attempted
around the U.S. and in other countries. For the next two years, the three Badgers worked
hard at a solution, and by early 1935 they drafted a bill to create our Social Security
system.

The bill was signed into law later that year, and by 1937 American families impoverished
by circumstances beyond their control were receiving help from their government.
Altmeyer and Cohen stayed on in Washington to administer the program, the latter
ending his career during the 1960s "War on Poverty."
(Original Title: Wis. Brain Trust Tackles Social Insecurity: Story 24)
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/odd/archives/001206.asp