Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/43



pressure generally results in legislation. If an automobile were driven wildly upon a prairie and neither harmed nor killed any one, there would be no necessity for restrictive legislation. It has been possible for the doctrine of industrial freedom to exist in America for a similar reason. No one demands laws restricting the rights of others in the use of land or minerals when there is an abundance of both. It is only when men touch elbows that laws which narrow and define human freedom, come into being. A new country requires capital, and capitalists must have inducements in the form of tremendous gain in order to assume the risk. In a new country, capital is a goddess to be propitiated. It is somewhat surprising, therefore, that the doctrine of the power of the state should spring up in Wisconsin, which in 1900 produced more lumber than any other state in the country. One would scarcely expect that legislation of a type which would lead one to think that its makers believed with Professor Schmoller that the state is "the grandest existing ethical institution" would gain a stronghold in such a community.