1939: Wisconsin

Area and Population.

Wisconsin, a north central state, has an area of 56,066 square miles. The population in 1930 (U. S. census) was 2,939,006, an increase of 306,939, or 11.7 per cent, since 1920. The population according to the latest Federal estimate, July 1, 1937, was 2,926,000. Urban population in 1930 was reported as 1,553,843, or 52.9 per cent of the total, and the rural population 1,385,163, or 47.1 per cent. Of the total population in 1930, 2,913,859 were whites, 11,548 Indians, 10,739 Negroes, 2,396 Mexicans, and 464 were Asiatics. The foreign-born white population was 386,213, or 13 per cent of the total. Of these 128,269, or 33.2 per cent, were Germans; 42,359, or 11 per cent, were Poles; 34,391 were Norwegians; 19,580 Czechoslovakians; 18,808 Swedes; 16,418 Russians; 15,572 Canadians; and 8,477 were Englishmen. The chief cities and their population (1930 census) are Milwaukee, 578,249 (1939 estimate, 628,758); Racine, 67,542; Madison, the capital, 57,899 (1939 estimate, 66,500); Kenosha, 50,262; Oshkosh, 40,108, and La Crosse, 39,614.

Education.

Education is free for all persons in the state between the ages of 4 and 20 years (848,871 in 1937-38), and compulsory from 7 to 14 or until graduation. A pupil is required to finish high school if there is one in the pupil's school district. In city vocational schools students between 14 and 16 must attend full time; between 16 and 18, half time.

In 1937-38, there were 540,431 pupils enrolled in the public high and elementary schools. Of these 152,104 were enrolled in the 459 high schools with 6,696 teachers, and 388,327 were enrolled in 7,051 elementary schools with 14,725 teachers. The 103 city school systems had 289,633 children enrolled. There were 14,000 boys and girls between the ages of 14 and 18 enrolled in vocational and part-time day schools, with 900 teachers; 6,750 men and women attending the nine state teachers colleges (at Eau Claire, La Crosse, Milwaukee, Oshkosh, Platteville, River Falls, Stevens Point, Superior, Whitewater), Stout Institute at Menomince, and the Wisconsin Institute of Technology at Platteville, with 500 faculty members; 11,400 men and women registered in the University of Wisconsin with a staff of 1,700; 10,250 teachers and other students registered in the summer school sessions of the University, the state teachers' colleges, and Stout Institute; 95,000 adults enrolled in vocational evening schools with 1,900 teachers, and 26,500 men and women enrolled in credit and noncredit university extension courses. Wisconsin has 24 state-supported schools for deaf children, not including the State School at Delavan; 27 schools for children with speech defects; 43 schools for mentally handicapped children, and 12 orthopedic schools.

The median salary of teachers in the elementary schools during 1937-38, was $98.35. and for high school teachers $170.88. Total expenditures for education in 1937-38 were $66,068,813.71 as compared with $63,119,094.47 in the preceding year.

The 1939 Legislature extended the school term from eight to nine months. It cut state aid for schools with less than ten pupils, in a move to bring about district mergers or transportation of pupils to larger schools; lowered the tuition rate to encourage pupils to continue their studies in neighboring high schools, and created a new bureau in the Department of Public Instruction to supervise the education of physically or mentally handicapped children.

Agriculture.

Wisconsin produced 365,215,000 pounds of cheese in 1938, or 50.4 per cent of all cheese made in the nation. For the sixth consecutive year cheese production set a record over all previous years. Butter produced in Wisconsin creameries was reported at 188,933,000 pounds, which was 10.6 per cent of the nation's production, only slightly less than its share of 10.8 per cent in 1937. Condensatory products reached a total of 895,052,000 pounds, or 26.6 per cent of the nation's total as compared with 27.9 per cent in 1937. Wisconsin continued to lead all other states in the production of cheese and condensatory products, ranking third in butter production.

The Wisconsin corn crop of 1938 was the largest in the state's history.

Total cash farm income in 1938 was $277,847,000, of which $36,980,000 was from crops and $240,867,000 from livestock and livestock products. The index of prices received by Wisconsin farmers rose in October, 1939, to 106 per cent of the level of farm prices during the period 1910-14, as compared with 99 per cent in 1938, and a five-year average of 110 per cent. The index of prices the farmers paid in October, 1939, was 125 per cent of the level of prices during the period 1910-14. This was two points above that of 1938 and one point below the five-year average. The purchasing power of farm products in 1938 rose to 85 per cent of the level of purchasing power during the period 1910-14, as compared with 83 per cent in October 1938, and a five-year average of 87 per cent.

The 1939 session of the Legislature extended the statute under which the Department of Agriculture fixes the price of fluid milk in urban districts for two years, or to December 31, 1941. The tax of 15 cents a pound on oleomargarine was retained.

Industry.

Wisconsin stands tenth among the states in aggregate value of manufactures. In 1935, its 6,330 establishments, employing 200,893 wage earners, produced goods with a value of $1,334,914,000. The principal manufactures are lumber, paper and pulp, furniture and wooden ware, farm machinery, engines, automobiles, electrical appliances, etc. There were 1,244 utilities operating in the state on July 1, 1938. Of these, 866 were operated by private companies and 378 by municipalities. Business and industrial indexes in October 1939 were above those for 1938. The index of employment advanced to 89.4 per cent of the 1925-27 level, an increase of 8 per cent over October 1938 and the index of pay rolls advanced to 96.2 per cent of the 1925-27 level, a gain of 15.3 per cent over October 1938.

Mineral Products.

Shipments of iron ore, the state's leading mineral, in which it ranks fifth in the Union, were greatly reduced in 1938, or by about 55 per cent, to 625,378 tons valued at $1,886,477, compared with 1,419,810 tons in 1937 valued at $4,473,942. Production of zinc was lowered by an even greater amount, equal to 70 per cent, the total being 2,973 tons as against 6,938 in 1937. Stone as well as sand and gravel were shipped in slightly reduced amounts in 1938, totaling 3,097,230 tons of stone, worth $3,880,935; of sand and gravel, 6,273,424 tons valued at $2,709,926.

Unemployment Compensation and Welfare Laws.

Wisconsin's unemployment compensation act became law on January 29, 1932. On August 17, 1936, the Industrial Commission paid to a Wisconsin worker the first unemployment benefit check ever paid in America from a state unemployment compensation fund. Under the law each employer is required to contribute monthly a sum figured as a certain percentage of his pay roll. This cannot be deducted from the wages of the workers. The Industrial Commission of Wisconsin credits each employer's payments to his separate account, from which benefits are payable solely to his employees. The contributions are submitted to Washington to be credited to Wisconsin's account in the Federal 'Unemployment Trust Fund.' The amounts thus credited are invested in Federal bonds and the interest earnings are credited to Wisconsin's account.

By the close of 1938, more than $11,500,000 in benefits had been paid under the law to more than 200,000 workers partially or totally unemployed at some time between August 1936 and December 1938. At the close of 1938, the unemployment reserve fund had a net balance of more than $38,000,000. In 1938 the law covered about 10,000 employers (with 7 or more employees), and about 450,000 workers. Employers with six employees are being covered in 1939, which will bring the total to about 12,500 employers and about 460,000 workers. For the year ending December, 1938, contributions to the fund amounted to $16,656,767 and all benefits to $9,532,735.

The Child Labor Law, rewritten in 1937, prohibits the employment of children under eighteen years of age unless the employer has on file a labor permit issued by the Industrial Commission, except in the case of agricultural pursuits and work usual in the home of the employer during vacations and outside the hours when the full-time schools are in session.

Wisconsin also has a system of old-age pensions, widows' pensions, teachers' pensions and workmen's compensation.

Legislation.

The Legislature, composed of a Senate of 33 members and an Assembly of 100 members, meets biennially in odd-numbered years, on the second Wednesday in January. The Legislature which assembled January 11, 1939, consisted of 53 Republicans, 32 Progressives and 15 Democrats in the Assembly, and 16 Republicans, 11 Progressives and 6 Democrats in the Senate. The Republicans had a majority in the Assembly, but in the Senate the Democrats joined with the Republicans to form a coalition against the Progressives. The Legislature adjourned October 6 after a session of 269 days, the longest in the history of the state.

The two outstanding accomplishments of the session were the passage of a labor law and the reorganization of the state government. The labor law, passed in March, declares that no labor dispute shall be deemed to exist unless there is a controversy between an employer and a majority of his employees; establishes majority rule in collective bargaining; requires a three-fourths majority of the workers in a plant to establish a closed shop; outlaws sit-down strikes; prohibits secondary picketing and boycotts; demands ten days' notice preceding a strike involving perishable agricultural products; prohibits the check-off as a means of paying union dues unless authorized individually by the workers; orders unions to report finances to their members, and establishes the Wisconsin Employment Relations Board consisting of three members, to administer the law.

The reorganization of the state government followed two plans: the substitution of executives for commissions and the use of policy-making boards and directors. The Department of Agriculture, for example, is run by a policy-making board of seven members appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate. The board elects a director and establishes such divisions as it needs. These now include six: administration, plant industry, markets, dairy, livestock sanitation and milk control. The Department of Public Welfare is a policy-making board of seven members, appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate. The board chooses a director, who, in turn, names the chiefs of the following divisions: public assistance, child welfare, mental hygiene, corrections and accounting and research. A new agency, the Department of Taxation, is organized on the executive model, with a commissioner serving six years. The La Follette Wisconsin Development Authority was abolished. The Wisconsin Rural Electrification Coordination division was set up in the Department of Agriculture to guide rural cooperatives in the construction of federally financed light and power systems.

The Legislature refused to reorganize the public service, banking and highway commissions and rejected the administration's sponsored board of review, designed to hear state commission appeals. An act of the Legislature outlawed the use of trading stamps which reduced the price of merchandise below the minimum fixed by the manufacturer; another permits the formation of non-profit corporations to contract with hospitals to give service to members when needed.

Taxation.

Wisconsin residents paid $201,368,105 in state and local taxes in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1939, as compared with $186,764,938 in the previous year, an increase of $14,603,167. The Federal Government collected $86,406,220 in the state during the fiscal year. Special state taxes increased from $9,611,004 to $24,639,608. In this group unemployment compensation taxes were the highest at $15,576,667. The assessed value of all property in the state in 1939 was $4,393,151,680, of which $3,937,350,326 was real property and $455,801,354 was personal property. The assessed value of all property in the state in 1939 was $74,167,259 under that of 1938.

Finance.

The budget act for the biennium, 1940-41, calls for $67,672,307, as compared with $67,266,000 for 1938-39. The 1939 Legislature appropriated $75,837,902.94, as compared with $73,954,937.34 in 1937. The sum appropriated for relief was $5,000,000, as compared with $4,350,000 authorized in 1937. The revenues provided by the Legislature to balance appropriations were estimated at $57,167,863, leaving a deficit of $18,670,000. Failing to agree on revenue measures, the Legislature appointed a tri-party interim committee 'to study the revenue needs of the state for the current biennium.'

Among the revenue measures passed by the Legislature are the two-cent cigarette tax, a dividend tax, a 60 per cent surtax on personal incomes, and a 3 per cent tax on the gross receipts of Rural Electrification Administration cooperatives. The Legislature rejected a sales tax, a gross income tax, the broadening of the income tax base and a tax on the gross receipts and tolls of telephone companies. The state of Wisconsin has no bonded debt.

Banking.

On Dec. 31, 1938, Wisconsin had 471 state banks, 4 trust companies, and 9 mutual savings banks. Their total deposits were $394,476,807.48, an increase of $2,098,767.79 over the $392,378,039.69 in 497 banks reported in 1937. During 1938, there were 105 national banks operating in the state. Their deposits were $490,153,000 on December 31, 1938, as compared with $462,126,000 in the same number of banks for 1937. The total deposits for all banks, numbering 589, were $884,630,000 on December 31, 1938. At the end of 1938, Wisconsin had 542 credit unions in operation, with a membership of 117,423 and assets of $7,426,712.85, an increase of $1,019,095.95 over the $6,407,616.90 reported for 1937. On December 1, 1939, there were 574 credit unions in the state.

Welfare and Correction.

The state has two general hospitals for the insane, the Mendota State Hospital, and the Winnebago Hospital near Oshkosh. The criminal insane are committed to the Central State Hospital at Waupun. The Wisconsin Memorial Hospital at Mendota for the treatment of ex-service men suffering from nervous and mental diseases, is operated by the Federal government. The chronic insane are treated in county asylums and not in state institutions. The state also operates two institutions for the mentally deficient, the Northern Colony and Training School at Chippewa Falls and the Southern Colony and Training School at Union Grove. Other institutions include the State Sanatorium at Statesan. Waukesha County, for the treatment of persons suffering from tuberculosis, and the Lake Tomahawk State Camp for convalescents from tuberculosis.

State Officers.

The chief state officers in 1939 were: Governor, Julius P. Heil; Lieutenant Governor, Walter S. Goodland; Secretary of State, Fred R. Zimmerman; Treasurer, John M. Smith; Attorney General, John E. Martin; State Superintendent of Public Instruction, John Callahan.

United States Senators.

Robert M. La Follette, Jr., Alexander Wiley.