According to the Twentieth Annual Report of the Building and Loan Association there are seventy-seven such organizations in Wisconsin. The past two years have been unusually profitable for them. Their total assets amount to $16,873,000 which was an increase of $2,500,000 over the previous year. Their membership now numbers 45,891, showing a 21 per cent increase over the preceding year. Although their business showed a considerable increase, yet the report states in some cases money was so plentiful that it could not always be loaned with profit.
That there exists among the farmers of this state an unusually strong system of coöperation is proved by a bulletin issued by the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Wisconsin in July, 1917. The industries that are managed on a coöperative basis in this state do an annual business amounting to more than $62,000,000. The creamery industry leads all the others, and in 1916 those plants that were run on a coöperative plan did business amounting to over $19,000,000. The two organizations that are most instrumental in promoting this spirit of coöperation are the American Society of Equity and the Grange. The former has a membership in Wisconsin now in excess of 12,000, while the Grange societies have over 2,200 names on their rolls. In addition to these two organizations there are sixteen others listed that tend to promote unity among the farmers of the state. The most important ones mentioned are the National Agricultural Organization, the farmers’ mutual insurance companies, the community breeders’ associations, feed and elevator companies, coöperative creameries, packing plants and others. The coöperative organizations are so numerous throughout the state that but few farmers can be found who are not identified with one or more of the agencies. The day of individualism among Wisconsin farmers is fast disappearing.
The sixteenth edition of the Manual for Elementary Course of Study in the schools of Wisconsin was issued in July, 1917. The state superintendent of public instruction has rendered a valuable service by discussing many pedagogical questions and in making concrete suggestions to the teachers. The object of the department was to place in the hands of each teacher a brief pedagogical treatise in connection with the subject matter to be taught. This report combines what may rightly be called a textbook on pedagogy with a state manual. More than ever the department of education is emphasizing the importance of bringing about a closer relationship between teacher and pupil, and some very practical and simple suggestions
are laid down for promoting this relationship. The method for teaching children how to study properly, the importance of careful assignments of lessons, and the manner in which recitations can be made interesting and spicy are all discussed in a practical way. The policy of reducing the number of daily recitations is suggested, and the combining of classes most closely related is advised, especially in rooms where the work is crowded.
In a leaflet issued by the State Council of Defense, July, 1917, announcement is made of a course of instruction to be given for health aides in several of the larger hospitals of the state. The plan is to offer six months of intensive training to young women in order to prepare them to care for the civilian sick when the regular registered nurses are drawn into military hospitals. The cost of training, board, lodging, and laundry bills will all be paid by the State Council of Defense. In return for this instruction each of the successful candidates is required to sign an agreement to attend the sick in the state of Wisconsin for a period of two years after completing the six months’ course. The first training school was opened at the Milwaukee County Hospital, Wauwatosa, July 1, 1917.
SOME PUBLICATIONS
Merk, Frederick. Economic History of Wisconsin During the Civil War Decade. Publications of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin Studies, Vol. I. Published by the Society, Madison, 1916. Pp. 414.
The Wisconsin Historical Society has inaugurated its series of Studies by the most elaborate work of constructive history it has published, which is also the most comprehensive treatment of the economic history of any state during the constitutional period, taking rank with Bruce’s Virginia and Weeden’s New England. The author has produced a book which is of interest not only to the state with which it deals, but to every student of American history.
The American state, at least today and in the West, is an artificial unit, whose political separateness barely justifies that exclusive devotion of the historical student which the vastness of the United States seems to render necessary if the roots of our life are to be discovered. To recognize the influence of national conditions, without making the treatment national, to individualize the community without making it appear a detached entity, requires a variety of skill which can not be produced by scientific study alone, but demands also real literary ability. This skill Merk clearly possesses, and he has created an impression of an economic life, distinctly confined to the area of the state, yet part of that of the Union, and in
touch with that outside the national limits. He is fully conscious of the importance of Wisconsin wheat in our relations with Great Britain, and of the interstate functions of a medium of exchange, but he is not betrayed into a discussion of diplomacy or of national banking.