Banking. A general banking law was passed in 1852, and in 1903 a State banking department was created with a commissioner of banking at its head. The condition of the banks in 1915 is shown in the following table:

Government. The present constitution was formulated in 1847 and 1848, but has been amended in important particulars. Amendments may be proposed in either house of the legislature, but to become a part of the constitution must be carried by a majority of both houses, agreed to by the next succeeding legislature, and approved by the voters at large. A majority of the members of both houses may recommend to the electors to vote for or against a constitutional convention at the next election of the members of the legislature. If a majority of the electors vote affirmatively the legislature at its next session provides for calling such a convention.

Legislative.-The legislative power is vested in the Senate and Assembly. The Assembly must never number less than 54 members, nor more than 100. The Senate consists of not more than one-third, or less than one-fourth of the number of the members of the Assembly. Members of the Assembly are chosen biennially, on the Tuesday following the first Monday of November.

Executive. The executive power is vested in a governor and lieutenant governor, who hold office for two years. Other executive officers are secretary of state, treasurer, and attorney-general, who are elected at the same time as the governor.

Judiciary. The judicial power of the State is vested in a supreme court, circuit courts, courts of probate, and justices of the peace. Justices of the Supreme Court are elected for a term of ten years; circuit judges for six years, probate judges for four years, and justices of the peace for two years. The State is divided into twenty judicial circuits.

Suffrage and Elections.-Every male person of the age of 21 years or upwards, who is a citizen of the United States, or if of foreign birth has declared his intention to become a citizen prior to Dec. 1, 1908, and who has resided in the State for one year preceding the election, and in the election district at least 10 days, is entitled to vote. Women have the privilege of voting in school elections. Candidates for the various State offices and for the Senate and Assembly, nominated by each political party at the primary, and the State senators who "hold over," meet at the Capitol, for the purpose of formulating the State platform of their party and electing a State central committee. General elections are held on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday in November in even-numbered years. Judicial and school elections are nonpartisan. use of voting machines is permitted. There is a stringent corrupt practices law which prohibits VOL. XXIII.-42

The

Local and Municipal Government.-Towns are governed by an annual town meeting, at which all officers required by law are elected. County officers are: county clerk, treasurer, sheriff, clerk of the circuit court, district attorney, coroner, register of deeds, surveyor, and superintendent of schools, all elected for two years. Cities may be governed by special or general charter, or, if they so elect, by commission form of government. In all cities the mayor is the chief executive officer and head of the police and fire depart

ments.

Miscellaneous Provisions.-The Industrial Commission administers all labor laws, factory regulations, and the workman's compensation act. Hours of labor for women are strictly regulated. The employment of children under 14 years, and in some occupations under 16 years, is prohibited. There also is a minimum wage law and a law providing for mothers' pensions. The sale of intoxicating liquor is regulated by local option in towns, villages, and cities.

Finance. The constitution places the usual restrictions upon all expenditures. The State, with the assent of a majority of all members elected to either branch of the Legislature, may contract a public debt to defray extraordinary expenses, but the amount must not exceed $100,000. A debt of $2,251,000, incurred during the Civil War, is held by the various State educational funds. The State has no bonded debt. The chief sources of revenue are the taxes on railroads, life and fire insurance companies, and inheritances. The total receipts for the year ending July 1, 1915, amounted to $19,431,931, the disbursement $19,789,188. On July 1, 1914, there was a balance on hand of $4,300,854, and on July 1, 1915, one of $3,945,597.

Militia. The males of militia age in the State in 1910 numbered 497,922. The organized militia was composed in 1915 of 896 enlisted men and 52 officers. It included three regiments, a separate battalion of infantry, a troop of cavalry, a battery of field artillery, and four detachments of sanitary troops.

Population. The population at each Federal census was: 1840, 30,945; 1850, 305,391; 1860, 775,881; 1870, 1,054,670; 1880, 1,315,497; 1890, 1,693,330; 1900, 2,069,042; 1910, 2,333,869. The population for 1915 was 2,473,533; 1920, 2,632,067. The average number of persons to the square mile in 1910 was 42.2. The urban population, i.e., that in places of 2500 or more, was 1,004,320. The native whites of native parentage numbered 763,225; the native whites of foreign or mixed parentage 1,044,761; the foreign-born whites 512,569; the negro and other nonwhites 13,305. Of the foreign-born population 45.5 per cent were born in Germany, 11.1 in Norway, 7.5 in Austria, and 5.8 in Russia. Of the nonwhites 10,142 were Indians. Of the native born 85.6 per cent were born in the State, 2.5 per cent in Illinois, and 2.3 per cent in New York. By sex the population was divided into 1,208,578 males and 1,125,282 females. The males of voting age numbered 683,743. There were, in 1910, 23 cities with a population of 8000 or more. Those having more than 15,000, together with their population for 1910 and 1915 (estimated) are: Milwaukee, 373,857 and 428,062; Superior, 40,384

and 45,285; Racine, 38,002 and 45,507; Oshkosh, 33,062 and 35,581; La Crosse, 30,417 and 31,522: Sheboygan, 26,398 and 28,211; Madison, 25,531 and 30,084; Green Bay, 25,236 and 30,084; Kenosha, 21,371 and 30,319; Fond du Lac, 18,797 and 20,740; Eau Claire, 18,310 and 18,727; Appleton, 16,773 and 17,663; Wausau, 16,560 and 18,778; Beloit, 15,125 and 17,597.

The

Education. Wisconsin has one of the best school systems in the Union. There were in the State, in 1910, 57,769 persons 10 years or over who could not read or write. The percentage of illiteracy among native whites was 0.6. Among native whites of foreign or mixed parentage 1.0, and among foreign-born whites 11.1 per cent. The total school population ages 6 to 20 in 1910 was 732,544. Of these 484,629 attended school. The school population in 1915, according to the reports of the State superintendent of education, numbered 782,246, of which 464,108 were enrolled in all the schools. The total number of public-school teachers was 15,531, of whom 13,839 were women. The rural schools numbered 6635, the State graded schools 542, free high schools 324, independent high schools 12. total enrollment in the high schools was 41,823. The total amount expended for the common schools in 1914 was $15,410,868. The Department of Public Instruction handles the administrative side of school supervision while the State Board of Education, a body created by the Legislature of 1915, will have charge of school finances. The schools are visited by supervising teachers, of whom in 1915 there were 81. Agriculture is taught in the high schools, and provision is made for the consolidation of districts where desirable. There are normal schools at Eau Claire, La Crosse, Milwaukee, Oshkosh, Plattville, River Falls, Stevens Point, Superior, and Whitewater. The University of Wisconsin is a part of the educational system of the State. Other institutions of collegiate rank are Beloit College at Beloit, Lawrence College at Appleton, Milton College at Milton, Mission House at Plymouth, Ripon College at Ripon, Carroll College at Waukesha. These are all coeducational. Concordia College at Milwaukee is for men only, as is Marquette University, a Roman Catholic institution, at Milwaukee. Milwaukee-Downer College is the only college exclusively for women in the State.

Charities and Corrections. The charitable and correctional institutions of the State include the State Hospital for the Insane at Mendota, Northern Hospital for the Insane at Winnebago, Milwaukee Hospital for the Insane at Wauwatoso, School for the Deaf at Delavan, School for the Blind at Janesville, Hospital for the Criminal Insane at Waupun, Industrial School for Boys at Waukesha, the State Prison at Waupun, the State Public School at Sparta, the Home for Feeble-minded at Chippewa Falls, the State Reformatory at Green Bay, and the State Tuberculosis Sanatorium at Wales. These institutions are managed by the State Board of Control. Persons who are convicted for the first time of felony may be placed under probation. An industrial home for women and a home for feebleminded and epileptics were authorized by the Legislature of 1913. Convicts in the State prison are employed in the construction of highways. The total expenditures for the maintenance of the charitable and penal institutions of the State for the year ending June 30, 1915, were $1,526,415.

Religion.

The combined membership of or

ganized religious bodies includes about half the population. The Roman Catholics outnumber

the total communicants of the Protestant bodies, which rank in the following order of numerical strength: Lutherans, Methodists, and Congregationalists.

History. At the time the region now included within the State was first made known to Europeans it was the borderland between the hunting grounds of the Algonquian tribes, which were gradually pushing westward, and the Dakotas or Sioux, the great body of whom already lay beyond the Mississippi. In 1634 Champlain, Governor of New France, dispatched Jean Nicolet, a coureur de bois, westward along the Great Lakes to make treaties with the remote tribes of Indians, and to encourage them to trade with the French. Nicolet first set foot upon what is now the State of Wisconsin late in 1634 or early in 1635. He landed first at Green Bay, where he found a large Indian settlement, thence ascended the Fox River to a point beyond its passage through Lake Winnebago, and then turned southward. He probably proceeded as far south as the site of Chicago, and returned east by way of Lake Michigan. The next white explorers in the Wisconsin region of whom we have any record were Radisson and Groseilliers, two fur traders, who reached the country in 1658-59. They followed in the track of Nicolet, but probably crossed the Fox-Wisconsin portage and descended the latter river almost, if not quite, to its mouth. Recent investigations make it seem more than probable that they were actually the first discoverers of the Upper Mississippi. In the winter of 1661 they built a stockade on the south shore of Chequamegon Bay, near the present site of Ashland. On the same spot Father Allouez, in 1665, established the La Pointe Mission-the first in Wisconsin. Subsequently (1669) he built the Mission of St. Francis Xavier at the Rapides des Peres on the Fox River, on the site of the city of De Pere. Here was built the first church in Wisconsin, and about this mission grew up the first white settlement of any permanence. In 1673 Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette, setting out from the St. Francis Mission, sailed up the Fox and descended the Wisconsin to the Mississippi. In 1674 Marquette made a canoe trip from Green Bay to the site of what is now Chicago along the shores of Lake Michigan. In the years that followed the region became one of the principal fields of activity of the coureurs de bois, prominent among whom were Nicolas Perrot and Daniel de Grecylon du Luth, from whom the city of Duluth takes its name. La Salle (q.v.) thoroughly explored the Wisconsin region before he attempted his remarkable trip down the Mississippi. Although the region became dotted with trading posts and missions, there was no permanent settlement in Wisconsin until towards the middle of the eighteenth century, when the De Langlade family established themselves at Green Bay, the first permanent settlement. In the French and Indian War Charles de Langlade led a body of coureurs de bois and Wisconsin Indians to the aid of the French, and commanded them in the battle which resulted in Braddock's defeat. After the Revolution, in which De Langlade and the Wisconsin Indians remained true to the British, although by the terms of the treaty Wisconsin became part of the United States, the British continued to exercise authority in the region. Nor did Jay's treaty of 1794,

in spite of its provisions for the surrender of the outposts, result in a change of authority. During the War of 1812 the French and Indians took the field against the Americans, and an expedition starting from the British fort at Green Bay assaulted and captured an American garrison at Prairie du Chien.

For a decade after the close of the war the fur trade remained the principal business of the inhabitants of the region between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, and the growth in population was slow, the number of white inhabitants as late as 1824 being not more than 6000 or 7000. The authority of the United States was firmly established in 1816, when several detachments of the regular army were sent into the Territory, and forts built at Green Bay (Fort Howard) and at Prairie du Chien. In 1820-21 several bands of Oneida and Brotherton Indians from New York State were settled in the Territory. In 1822 the opening of the lead diggings in the southwestern part of the Territory was followed by an influx of immigrants, largely Southerners, many of whom brought their slaves with them. By 1828 the population of the lead region was over 10,000. An uprising of the Winnebago under Red Bird in 1825 was suppressed with little bloodshed, and no further trouble was experienced from the Indians until the outbreak of the Black Hawk War (q.v.) in 1832. After the defeat of Black Hawk a large immigration of agricultural settlers from New England and New York set in and the movement for the erection of Wisconsin as a separate Territory was begun in earnest. Wisconsin had formed a part of the old Northwest Territory from 1787 to 1800, of Indiana Territory from 1800 to 1805, of Michigan Territory from 1805 to 1809, of Illinois Territory from 1809 to 1818, and in the latter year was again placed under the jurisdiction of Michigan Territory. In 1836, on the admission of Michigan into the Union, Wisconsin-including then the present States of Iowa and Minnesota and parts of the Dakotaswas erected into a Territory. Belmont and Burlington were successively temporary territorial capitals; the Legislature met at Madison for the first time in 1838. The next decade was a period of wonderful growth in population. In 1844 at Ripon was founded "The Wisconsin Phalanx," a communistic settlement organized on the Brook Farm plan. This proved one of the most successful communities of the sort ever attempted. At about the same time a Mormon settlement was planted in Racine and Walworth counties.

In 1847, a bill having passed Congress for the admission of Wisconsin as a State, a constitutional convention was held, but the instrument drawn up was rejected by popular vote. In the following year a second constitution was prepared, submitted, and adopted, and Wisconsin was formally admitted to the Union May 29, 1848. The extensive German and Scandinavian immigration which began about 1840 increased annually for a dozen years after the admission of the State, and at one time, shortly after 1848, when the revolutionary movements of that year in Europe had driven thousands of cultured Germans to this country, the project was formed of concentrating German immigration in Wisconsin and making it a German State. The early history of the State was marked by scandals in connection with the sale of public lands and the granting of railroad charters, but before the outbreak of the Civil War a better tone pervaded

political life. The antislavery sentiment in the State was strong, and at Ripon in 1854 began one of the earliest movements which resulted subsequently in the organization of the Republican party. In the same year occurred the noteworthy rescue of the fugitive slave Grover at Milwaukee, which resulted in prolonged litigation, one of the most interesting points of which was the development of a pronounced nullification sentiment among the Republican and FreeSoil elements of the population, and which reached its climax when the State Supreme Court decided that the Fugitive Slave Law was unconstitutional in the State. Wisconsin's share in the Civil War was noteworthy. The State furnished a total of 91,379 men, more than the required quota, the ratio being one man to every nine of its inhabitants. In 1871 the northeastern portion of the State was visited by destructive forest fires, and in 1894 the northwestern part of the State suffered from a similar visitation. In 1886 labor riots at Milwaukee necessitated the calling out of the State militia, which came into armed conflict with the mob. The first Republican Governor was elected in 1856, when Coles Bashford was chosen after a bitter contest. Since that time the State has been Republican in every presidential election except that of 1892. Democratic fusion with the Greenback movement in 1874 resulted in the defeat of the Republican candidate for Governor, since which year, with the exception of 1890 and 1892, when the issue was again complicated by a school law which alienated the support of the Germans, the State has been regularly Republican. Legislature of 1907 passed a public-utilities law. It has enacted stringent insurance legislation, which resulted in many important companies abandoning operations in the State after Jan. 1, 1908. In the presidential election in this year Taft received 247,747 votes, and Bryan 166,632. J. O. Davidson, Republican candidate, was elected Governor. In the congressional election of 1910 Victor Berger, a Socialist, was elected to the House of Representatives. In the State election held November 8, F. C. McGovern, the Republican candidate, was elected Governor. In June, 1911, the Legislature passed a resolution calling on the United States to investigate the charges of corruption in the election of Senator Stephenson, and a committee on privileges and elections reported in January, 1912, that the charges of bribery and corruption had not been proved. In the presidential election of 1912 Wilson received 164,228 votes, Taft 130,695, and Roosevelt 62,460. In the elections of 1914 E. L. Philipp, Republican, was elected Governor.

GOVERNORS OF WISCONSIN
TERRITORIAL

Henry Dodge.

James Duane Doty. Nathaniel P. Tallmadge. Henry Dodge

Nelson Dewey..

The

Leonard J. Farwell.
William A. Barstow.
Arthur McArthur (acting)
Coles Bashford..
Alexander W. Randall.
Louis P. Harvey.
Edward Salomon
James T. Lewis.
Lucius Fairchild.
Cadwallader C. Washburn.
William R. Taylor...
Harrison Ludington.

1862

1862-64

1864-66 .1866-72

1874-76 1876-78

rechartering of the United States Bank he broke with the Jackson administration, and became a Whig, but was sustained by his constituents. After his first election in 1832 he fought a duel with his competitor for the seat in Congress. He was reëlected to Congress as a Whig in 1837, serving till 1841, and was reëlected as a Tyler Democrat in 1843. Wise was active in securing the nomination of John Tyler as Vice President in 1840. From 1844 to 1847 was Minister to Brazil. After his return he identified himself with the Democratic party, and in 1855, after a remarkable campaign, he was elected Governor of Virginia over the KnowNothing candidate. During his administration the John Brown raid occurred, and one of the last acts of his term was the signing of Brown's death warrant. Wise was a member of the Virginia secession convention of 1861, and opposed immediate secession. Upon the withdrawal of the State from the Union, however, he joined the Confederate army as brigadier general and afterward was promoted to the rank of major general. He took part in the campaigns of western Virginia, commanded at Roanoke Island, and was present at Appomattox. After the war he resumed his law practice, and wrote an historical work entitled Seven Decades of the Union (1872). He died Sept. 12, 1876. Consult his Life (New York, 1899), written by his grandson, B. H. Wise.

WISE, HENRY AUGUSTUS (1819-69). An American naval officer and author, born in Brooklyn, N. Y. He entered the navy in 1834. During the Mexican War he was lieutenant on board the razee Independence, and took part in the operations in the Gulf of California. In the Civil War he served for a time on board the Niagara off Charleston, was promoted to the rank of commander in 1862, and served during the remainder of the war as assistant chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography. He was promoted captain in 1866, and while on leave of absence died at Naples. Under the pseudonym of Harry Gringo he wrote: Los Gringos, or an Interior View of Mexico and California, with Wanderings in Peru, Chili, and Polynesia (1849); Tales for the Marines (1855); Scam pavias, from Gibel-Tarek to Stamboul (1857); The Story of the Gray African Parrot (1859); and Captain Brand of the Centipede (1860–64).

WISE, ISAAC MAYER (1819-1900). An American rabbi and educator, born at Steingrub, Bohemia. He graduated at the University of Vienna in 1843 and became a rabbi at Radnitz. So advanced were his opinions in both religion and politics that he decided to seek a land of greater liberalism, and went to the United States in 1846. His first charge was at Albany, N. Y., and from 1854 until his death he was rabbi of the Congregation Bene Yeshurun, Cincinnati. Here he became a recognized leader of progressive Judaism. In 1854 he established The Israelite (subsequently The American Israelite) and afterward Die Deborah (published in German) and the Chicago Israelite. He remained the editor of these publications, and was president of the Hebrew Union College, which he founded at Cincinnati in 1873, up to the time of his death. In 1889 he organized the Central Conference of American Rabbis and became its president. His works include: History of the Israelitish Nation (1854), severely criticized by both Jews and Christians and said to be the first rationalistic account of Judaism

in English; Origin of Christianity (1870); Judaism: Its Doctrines and Duties (1872); The Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth (1874); The Cosmic God (1876); Judaism and Christianity (1883); Reminiscences (1901).

WISE, JOHN (c.1652-1725). A New England clergyman and author, born in Roxbury, Mass. He graduated at Harvard in 1673, and in 1683 settled in Ipswich as pastor of the Second Church, where he remained until his death. He was noted for great physical strength and for moral and intellectual courage. In 1688 he resisted the tyranny of Andros and was in consequence fined and imprisoned. When Andros was expelled, Wise came to the front as a legis lator, and in 1690 he accompanied as chaplain Sir William Phips's expedition against Canada. He is chiefly noted for the democratic stand he took against the Mathers in the ecclesiastical controversies that marked the opening of the eighteenth century. His liberal views were presented with much force and eloquence in two treatises, in The Churches' Quarrel Espoused (1710) and, more fully, in A Vindication of the Government of New England Churches (1717)— both of which were reissued on the eve of the Revolutionary and the Civil wars. Consult M. C. Tyler, History of American Literature, vol. ii (new ed., New York, 1897).

WISE, STEPHEN SAMUEL (1872- ). An American liberal Jewish rabbi, born at Budapest, Hungary. In 1887-91 he studied at the College of the city of New York, and in 1892 graduated from Columbia (Ph.D., 1901). He served as pastor of the Congregation of the Madison Avenue Synagogue, New York (18931900), and of Beth Israel, Portland, Oreg. (1900-06), and in 1907 founded the Free Synagogue of New York, of which he was thenceforth rabbi. Besides gaining a great reputation as an eloquent preacher, Rabbi Wise became widely known as a publicist and as a leader in social welfare work. During the European War he took a stand opposed to increased military preparations on the part of the United States. In addition to editorial contributions to the Survey and other journals, his writings include The Ethics of Solomon Ibn Gabirol (1901), and Beth Israel Pulpit (2 vols.) and Free Synagogue Pulpit (2 vols.), collections of sermons.

WISEMAN, NICHOLAS PATRICK STEPHEN (1802-65). An English Roman Catholic prelate. He was born at Seville, of an Irish family. He was brought to Ireland in his childhood, and received his education at the College of St. Cuthbert at Ushaw, near Durham, and at the English College at Rome. He received holy orders at Rome in 1824, and was appointed professor of Oriental languages in the University of the Sapienza, 1828, in recognition of the value of his Hora Syriaca, and in the end of that year was named rector of the English College. It was while he held this office that he delivered his Lectures on the Connection of Science and Revealed Religion (1836). But in England he first became known by a series of lectures on The Principal Doctrines and Practices of the Catholic Church, delivered at Moorfields Church (1836; 3d ed., 1851). In 1836 he established, in concert with Daniel O'Connell, the Dublin Review, to which Wiseman, even while residing abroad, was a regular contributor. In 1840 he was named coadjutor vicar apostolic of the central district of England, with the title of