Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/163

 If the legislation has been safe and sane or has been administered fairly, some of these very men should pause and think and render thanks to the careful professor who has been called in to aid its making or who has assisted in its administration.

The university has a duty to perform and cannot shirk it. It is being supported out of public funds, and what better way can it pay its obligation than through the production of good citizens and expert help. Says Professor Turner:—

"But quite as much in the field of legislation and of public life in general as in the industrial world is the expert needed. The industrial conditions which shape society are too complex, problems of labor, finance, social reform too difficult to be dealt with intelligently and wisely without the leadership of highly educated men familiar with the legislation and literature on social questions in other states and nations.

"By training in science, in law, politics, economics and history the university may supply from the ranks of democracy administrators, legislators, judges and experts for commissions who shall disinterestedly and intelligently mediate between contending interests. When the word 'capitalistic classes' and 'the proletariat' can be used and understood in America, it is surely time to develop such men, with the ideal of service to the state, who may help to break the force of these collisions, to find common grounds between the contestants and to possess the respect and confidence of all parties which are genuinely loyal to the best American ideals. The signs of such development are already plain in the expert commissions of some states; in the increasing proportion of university