Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/185

 The German system, based upon an entirely different idea of a more humane nature, led the manufacturer to keep his employees and to care for them and when they were old they were certain not to be cast out. The mutual good feeling between the manufacturer and his employee was thus greatly enhanced by the German system. Those who studied the conditions in Germany convinced the committee that it would be a wise thing for the state of Wisconsin to adopt as far as possible the German plan. The litigation was less and the courts were especially adapted for the curtailment of litigation. An adaptation of the arbitration court scheme of Germany was practically adopted in the Wisconsin law. The committee went further and recommended the adoption of some mutual basis, providing a device in the bill for carrying it out.

The manufacturers of Wisconsin, mostly of Germanic descent and the employees many of the leaders of whom were also of German descent, gave the utmost coöperation in the drafting of this bill. The men sent abroad learned that the splendid system of insurance in Germany for sickness, old age, accidents and invalidity was really an asset and not a liability. A German manufacturer in Cologne gave the writer the following as a basic idea of the new economic philosophy existing there. If in America you want to invest $200,000 in a manufacturing establishment, you put it all in the