Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/70

 appointive commissioners the responsibility for the administration of these principles. The appointive method is used because it has been felt that it is just as ridiculous to elect a railroad commission as it would be to elect, on a state-wide ballot, a professor of comparative philology at the university.

The other device that is used, when it is found necessary to control an economic factor affected by a public interest, is public bookkeeping. This may take the form of accounting, valuation, etc., but the assumption is that if the state is a partner, it must know all the facts.

The third great expedient is reliance on the trained expert or, at least, the proper recognition of the fact that the work should be carried on by men who have acquired ability either by training or by experience.

The fourth expedient is little understood, and yet is one of the most powerful factors, i.e. the continuing appropriation. The commissions can all be controlled by the majority of the legislature, but are not at the mercy of every whim of the minority.

Running all the way through the regulative legislation is the same idea—the welfare of the state is the welfare of the individual. Real rights, not theoretical ones, must be guaranteed the individual. The position of the strong and the weak must be equalized by a powerful state intervention, if necessary to the attainment of quick and certain justice.