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At the time Ely was secretary and member of the executive committee of the Christian Social Union, an organization which sought to apply Christian principles and pressures to the solution of social problems. The printing of the organization's periodical was |
in Ely's hands, and it was his expressed desire to have this work done in a union shop. When he spoke to Tracy about the desirability of unionizing his shop he coupled the request with a veiled hint that unless |
the shop were organized the officers of the Christian Social Union might require him to withdraw the printing from Tracy-Gibbs. Ely spoke to Tracy five weeks before the strike, during the strike, and again after the strike, always in the |
same vein. His suggestions were adroitly discreet: in personal capacity he never threatened a boycott. However, Tracy thought he could divine the professor's intent. While talking with Tracy about the strike, Superintendent Wells heard of Ely's urgings in the matter. |
Wells also interviewed strikers at the Democrat company, from whom he gained the impression that Ely had not only fomented their strike, but had also conferred with, advised, and entertained Klunk, the organizer. His suspicions aroused, Wells then read Ely's |
new book, Socialism: An Examination of Its Strength and Its Weakness, with Suggestions for Social Reform. Wells' hasty conclusion was that the book was a piece of rank socialistic propaganda. Convinced that Ely was an economic heretic, Wells resolved to |
move against him. Several times he complained to President Charles Kendall Adams and the Regents about Ely's diabolical practices and teachings. They were not interested. Disappointed by his inability to get official action, Wells decided to make public charges against |
Ely, charges which would force the Regents to take cognizance and settle the question for all time. On July 5, 1894, Wells prepared a scathing, excoriating and denunciatory letter which The Nation published under the heading, "The College Anarchist." It |
read as follows: TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATION: Sir: Your statement in the last Nation, to the effect that there is a sort of moral justification for attacks upon life and property based upon a theory which comes from |
the colleges, libraries, and lecture rooms, and latterly from the churches, is supported by the teaching and the practice of the University of Wisconsin. Professor Ely, director of the School of Economics, believes in strikes and boycotts, justifying and encouraging |
the one while practicing the other. Somewhat more than a year ago a strike occurred in the office of the Democrat Printing Company, the state printers. An agitator or walking delegate came from Kansas City to counsel and assist the |
strikers. He was entertained at Professor Ely's house and was in constant consultation with him. A little later a strike occurred in another printing office in this city, in which Professor Ely was also an abettor and counsellor. He also |
demanded of the proprietors that their office should be made into a union office, threatening to take his printing away if they did not comply. (They were publishing a paper for him as secretary of some organization or association.) Upon |
the refusal of his repeated demands, Professor Ely withdrew his printing, informing them that he had always been in the habit of dealing with union offices. In conversation with one of the proprietors he asserted that where a skilled workman |
was needed a dirty, dissipated, unmarried, unreliable, and unskilled man should be employed in preference to an industrious, skillful, trustworthy, non-union man who is the head of a family. He also stated that the latter would have no ground of |
complaint, as he could easily remove the objections to him by joining the union, and that conscientious scruples against joining the union would prove the individual to be a crank. Such is Ely the citizen and business man--an individual who |
can say to citizens and taxpayers, "Stand and deliver, or down goes your business," and to the laboring men, "Join the union or starve with your families." Professor Ely, director of the School of Economics, differs from Ely, the socialist, |
only in the adroit and covert method of his advocacy. A careful reading of his books will discover essentially the same principles, but masked by glittering generalities and mystical and metaphysical statements, susceptible of various interpretations according as a too |
liberal interpretation might seem for the time likely to work discomfort or loss to the writer. His books are having a considerable sale, being recommended and advertised by the University and pushed by publisher and dealers. Except where studiously indefinite |
and ambiguous, they have the merit of such simplicity of statements as makes them easily read by the uneducated. They abound in sanctimonious and pious cant, pander to the prohibitionist, and ostentatiously sympathize with all who are in distress. So |
manifest an appeal to the religious, the moral, and the unfortunate, with promise of help to all insures at the outset a large public. Only the careful student will discover their utopian, impracticable and pernicious doctrines, but their general acceptance |
would furnish a seeming moral justification of attack on life and property such as this country has already become too familiar with.1 Within a few days the Wells letter had been reprinted in the New York Post, and from there |
many other newspapers reprinted the story with varying comments. Wells had proceeded effectively. He had precipitated so highly embarrassing a situation that the Regents2 could not afford to ignore it. A prompt hearing of the case became imperative. The board |
appointed a committee to investigate the charges. Members of the committee were H. W. Chynoweth of Madison, chairman, Dr. H. B. Dale of Oshkosh, and John Johnston of Milwaukee. The committee decided that the Wells letter should constitute the complaint, |
and that the scope of the hearing should be limited to the charges that Ely had encouraged and fomented strikes in Madison, that he had practiced boycotts against non-union shops, and that he had taught socialism and other vicious theories |
to students at the University. The committee decided against a complete investigation of Ely's books, lectures and professional papers. Since Ely was in New York on a lecture engagement when the crisis developed, the defense of his interests was voluntarily |
taken over by his friends. David Kinley, a former Ely student who later became president of the University of Illinois, and Frederick Jackson Turner, the noted historian, busied themselves in his behalf. They collected evidence, and engaged one of Madison's |
most skilled and scholarly attorneys, Burr W. Jones, to represent the economist before the Regents' committee.3 Both Wells and Ely were summoned to the first hearing, scheduled for the evening of August 20, 1894 in the senior classroom of the |
Law Building. Many students, faculty members and prominent townspeople were present, as were Ely and his attorney. Wells did not appear. Instead he sent a letter, explaining and justifying his absence, and protesting against the limited scope of the trial; |
he was particularly anxious to investigate all of Ely's professional writings.4 In an effort to lure Wells to the next session, the committee wrote a letter assuring him a full and impartial hearing, and urging him to appear on the |
evening of August 21. This time he came, reinforced by a distinguished local attorney, Colonel George W. Bird. The latter operated at a disadvantage, for he had been called into the case so suddenly that he had had no time |
to interview witnesses or make other necessary preparations. Ely's attorney suffered under no similar handicap. The accused also enjoyed the advantage of a large and sympathetic audience. As points were scored for Ely, the audience registered approval with noisy applause, |
much to the discomfiture of Wells and his attorney, who threatened to withdraw if demonstrations of favoritism continued. One of the first to testify before the committee was Thomas Reynolds, a striker at the Democrat office. Presumably he could offer |
proof that Ely had been involved in that dispute. Colonel Bird tried to compel Reynolds to admit that he had said that Ely had conferred with and counseled the organizer, Klunk. Reynolds declared that if he had ever thought that |
Ely was involved, he had been mistaken; that if he had said that Ely was implicated it was because someone had unreliably told him so; and that he, personally, had no such knowledge. Unable to get worthwhile testimony from Reynolds, |
Bird found it impossible to prove that Ely had encouraged a strike. When W. A. Tracy, the printer, was called to the stand he testified that, although on three separate occasions Ely had urged him to unionize his shop, he |
had not coupled it with a threat that he personally might assume responsibility for taking the Christian Social Union's printing to another establishment. In fact, even though Tracy's shop remained unorganized, Ely had left the printing with Tracy. In view |
of this it was impossible to prove that Ely had practiced a boycott. Had Ely indoctrinated students with socialist ideas? Wells demanded that all of the professor's pamphlets, books, lectures and professional papers he investigated as pertinent to this question. |
Chairman Chynoweth laughingly rejected this suggestion as involving too stupendous and irrelevant a task. Wells and Bird, who assumed such an exploration was implicit in the promise of a full and impartial hearing, were tremendously dissatisfied with the chairman's ruling. |
With Wells in full retreat the hearings were adjourned until the evening of August 23.5 Once again Wells failed to appear, and once again he submitted a lengthy letter expressing dissatisfaction with the narrow scope of the trial. Despite the |
fact that his letter repeated many charges previously made, it contained one important admission: "It is proper to state that I am unable to establish the correctness of the information upon which I made the statement in my letter of |
July 5th to The Nation, that the walking delegate from Kansas City was entertained at Professor Ely's house and was in constant consultation with him, or that Professor Ely's connection with the strike in the Democrat Printing Company's office was |
as there stated." However, he insisted that since Ely had urged unionization on the firm of Tracy-Gibbs company, he had, "whether intentionally or not ... aided and abetted this strike." After the Wells communication had been read at the third |
session, formal trial procedure was abandoned at the suggestion of Ely's attorney. The meeting was then thrown open to the search for truth, wherever found. At this juncture David Kinley presented a letter he had received from Klunk, the organizer. |
Klunk reported that while at Madison he had had a long conference with one he had assumed to be Ely at the professor's seminar room in the old Fuller Opera House, now the Parkway Theatre. Klunk made a point of |
describing the physical appearance of his conferee; the description obviously did not fit Ely. It did fit a student in Ely's seminar, H. H. Powers, so the supposition was that Powers, and not Ely, had conferred with the labor organizer. |
At that time both Ely and Powers wore short full beards. This superficial similarity might have led to error in identification. The Klunk letter made a profound impression on those present at the hearing; its effect was an alibi for |
Ely. This was followed by a reading of many letters, highly commendatory of Ely, over the signatures of prominent American economists, historians and educators. E. Benjamin Andrews, president of Brown University, wrote that Ely was America's most influential teacher of |
political economy. "For your noble university to depose him," declared Andrews, "would be a great blow at freedom of university teaching in general and at the development of political economy in particular." Carroll D. Wright, United States Commissioner of Labor, |
offered the opinion that Ely had given workingmen catholic views of their relations to industry and society. "His influence upon workingmen has been the influence of the pulpit," Wright averred. Dr. Albert Shaw, writer and editor, observed that Ely's teachings |
and writings, considered in their totality, encouraged reverence for government, law and order. President Charles Kendall Adams of Wisconsin, who had undertaken an analysis of Ely's Socialism for the committee, reported that "From the beginning to the end of the |
book there is not a paragraph or a sentence that can be interpreted as an encouragement of lawlessness or disorder." Granting that parts of the book, taken out of context, might suggest a sympathy for socialism, Adams insisted that "I |
am utterly unable to see how any careful reader can read the whole of the book without commending the fairness of its spirit and the general elevation of its tone and without conceding that the reasoning of the author leads |
away from socialism rather than towards it." When the reading of testimonials had been finished the dramatic trial of Richard T. Ely was brought to a close.6 It was evident that Wells had lost his case, and that Regents Chynoweth, |
Dale and Johnston would submit a report exonerating Ely. Another matter was less evident. During the course of the trial little had been said about the question of academic freedom. Would the Regents be content with clearing the accused, or |
would they use the occasion to publicize some larger statement favorable to academic freedom? On September 18, 1894, the trial committee submitted its final report to the board. The report, unanimously adopted, exonerated Ely, and heralded the board's devotion to |
academic freedom: As Regents of a university with over a hundred instructors supported by nearly two millions of people who hold a vast diversity of views regarding the great questions which at present agitate the human mind, we could not |
for a moment think of recommending the dismissal or even the criticism of a teacher even if some of his opinions should, in some quarters, be regarded as visionary. Such a course would be equivalent to saying that no professor |
should teach anything which is not accepted by everybody as true. This would cut our curriculum down to very small proportions. We cannot for a moment believe that knowledge has reached its final goal, or that the present condition of |
society is perfect. We must therefore welcome from our teachers such discussions as shall suggest the means and prepare the way by which knowledge may be extended, present evils be removed and others prevented. We feel that we would be |
unworthy of the position we hold if we did not believe in progress in all departments of knowledge. In all lines of academic investigation it is of the utmost importance that the investigator should be absolutely free to follow the |
indications of truth wherever they may lead. Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry elsewhere we believe the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can |
be found.7 The outcome of the Ely trial, and especially the proclamation of academic freedom, were given wide publicity by the press. Years later Richard T. Ely could pridefully refer to the Regents' report as "that famous pronunciamento of academic |
freedom which has been a beacon light in higher education in this country, not only for Wisconsin, but for all similar institutions, from that day to this. Their declaration on behalf of academic freedom ... has come to be regarded |
reactions to his trial for economic heresy. 4 Madison Democrat, August 21, 1894. Newspaper coverage of the trial was complete, and remarkably accurate. A full stenographic transcript was taken during the hearings. One copy of this transcript is filed with |
the manuscript papers of the University Board of Regents, for August, 1894. Other copies are available in the Ely Collection, located in the Manuscript Division of the Wisconsin Historical Society. 5 Madison Democrat, August 22, 1894. 6 Complete texts of |
the letters and reports from which the above extracts were taken, were published in the Madison Democrat, August 24, 1894. 7 Ibid., September 19, 1894. 8 Ely, Ground Under Our Feet, 232. |
Finals week included student presentations in my Introduction to Mass Media class. We've all heard that continuous exposure to violent behavior through visual, audio and print sources will cause violent behavior in the persons being exposed. We've all heard that this is not true. What is the truth behind this |
issue? Unfortunately, there is still no definite answer. Whether or not there is a correlation between violent media and actual real world violence depends on what researcher you're talking to. What are the causes of violence, and because of the subject we are discussing, especially the causes of violence in |
adolescents? Many factors make up these causes. First is upbringing. How was the subject raised? History of domestic/community violence, how aggressive behavior was dealt with by the parents, etc. Did they grow up in a good economic situation? Another consideration is substance abuse history, psychological disorders, and other personal elements. |
These make up the fundamental causes of violence. It is my belief that exposure to violent media is only one small factor in real life aggressive behavior. Reading back on my post Aggressive behavior and environmental causes, you can see that I point towards parental influence only slightly increasing the |
chances for aggressive behavior. In my opinion, violent media does not breed violence. However, it can aid to catalyze violent behavior IF the subject has violent tendencies to begin with. I do not believe that any amount of violent media can create a violent person. I'm not sure that this |
issue will ever be formally resolved. When a person gets an idea, they will oftentimes not change their thinking. If a person--especially a prominent researcher, states that exposure to media does NOT play a role--they likely will not take the opposite stance because they don't want to have been wrong, |
even if they see evidence to the contrary. At the same time, certain groups/persons have much to gain if media is not believed to play a role in aggressive behavior. For example, a video game design company who wants to create First Person Shooter games would definitely prefer people to |
believe that simulated violence will lead to real world violence. The issue is just too controversial to ever become unanimously agreed upon. The best we can do is look at the research, look at the facts, and use their own common sense to come up with the best opinion on |
Glossary (A - Z) Browse by letter: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z The particular rhythm that the words establish in a line of verse through the alternation of short and long syllables or stressed and unstressed syllables (e.g., French |
has an iambic rhythm characterized by slight emphasis at the end of the word). A graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept. Imperfect verb stem In colloquial Arabic, the verb in a form that is unmarked for tense, aspect, person, gender, or number. In colloquial Arabic, a verb is marked for tense, aspect, person, gender, or number by the |
addition of some prefix(es) or suffix(es) (e.g., the word that means ‘he is going’ is typicallyj-i- ruuħ , where ruuħ is the imperfect verb stem). Grammatical markings used to indicate the imperfect tense, referring to a description of an action that is in progress, ongoing, habitual or repeated, without regard to its completion (e.g., I was When a concept/idea is |
not stated directly but is instead implied through the context. A type of memory in which previous experiences aid in the performance of a task without conscious awareness of these previous experiences. Understood though not directly expressed. In-breath during the production of consonants or vowels. Incidental learning theory Children were expected to learn through exploration and satisfaction of their curiosity, |
rather than direct instruction (e.g., McLellan & Dewey, 1895). The new interpretations made by readers when they combine relevant information from a text with relevant information from their background knowledge to form a critically important interpretation that is not stated in the text. Inferior frontal gyrus (Broca's area) An area in the brain, usually in the left hemisphere, that is |
responsible for the organization of motor speech patterns or language output. Inferior parietal cortex A part of the parietal lobe of the brain which integrates information from different sensory modalities and plays an important role in a variety of higher cognitive functions. A type of phrase that will begin with an infinitive (to + simple form of the verb) and |
will include objects and/or modifiers (e.g., to eat the bread). Suffixes that are added at the ends of root words (e.g., -s, -ed, -ing To apply an inflection is to change the form of a word so as to give it extra meaning. Inflectional morphology manifests primarily in the form of a prefix, suffix, or vowel change (e.g., adding -s, |
-ed, -ing, or changing 'throw' to 'threw'). Initial and final syllable position The placement of a sound in a word either at the beginning or the end (e.g., the 'b' sound can come at the beginning of a word, as in 'bad', or at the end of a word, as in 'tub'). Anything that is inherited or natural and existing |
at birth rather than acquired. A structure located deep within the brain whose functions include perception, motor control, self-awareness, cognitive functioning, and interpersonal experience. A measure of the understandability of speech. Early nonverbal communication from young children (8-12 months of age) showing intent. The child expects a specific response to occur as a result of the interaction (e.g., pointing to |
an object to get a caregiver to reach it for him/her). A field of study that crosses traditional boundaries in the goals of connecting and integrating several academic schools of thought, professions, or technologies, along with their specific perspectives, in the pursuit of a common task. The extent to which all items on a scale or test measure the same |
concept, skill or quality. Variation of pitch in a connected speech, which distinguishes kinds of sentences or speakers of different language cultures (e.g., English has different intonation patterns for questions, statements, surprise, teasing, etc.). Intransitive verb/verb construction A verb (or verb construction) that does not take an object (e.g., in English the verb 'disagree' – Sarah disagreed). Intraparietal sulcus (IPS) |
A groove or depression on the brain surface separating two ridges of the parietal lobe. Its principal functions are related to perceptual-motor coordination (for directing eye movements and reaching) and visual attention. A verbal production controlled by other verbal behaviour. Normal conversational interaction is comprised mainly of intraverbal behaviours, such as trivial social interchanges (e.g., “you too” when told “Have |
a nice day!”), word associations, translations, answering questions, filling in blanks, etc. High-energy radiation capable of producing ionization in substances through which it passes. Stands for Intelligence Quotient, a measure of intelligence. |
Forgetting The Lessons Of The Thalidomide Birth Defects Crisis Few words convey the ability of modern medicine to do harm like “Thalidomide.” It wasn’t the first time that a supposedly harmless medicine wreaked havoc: in 1937, improperly prepared “Elixir sulfanilamide” |
killed more than a hundred people, serving as the impetus for the 1938 amendments to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which gave the FDA its first true power to regulate medicines, including requiring all drugs be tested on |
animals before marketing, with the data sent to the FDA for review. But the Thalidomide birth defects crisis put a new face on the dangers of modern pharmacology, revealing to the world that dangerous medicines could not only poison, but |
could alter humans’ very structure, causing birth defects like shortened or missing limbs, heart defects, and damage to ears, eyes, and the brain. The United States was spared the worst of the damage; though millions of doses had been given |
to patients in clinical trials, Dr. Francis Oldham Kelsey, one of the few physicians at the FDA reviewing drugs at that time, refused to approve the drug — despite considerable corporate pressure — for use in the United States without |
further testing. The rest of the world wasn’t so lucky, with an estimated 10-20,000 victims born with congenital deformities. Last Friday, Gruenethal, the German pharmaceutical firm responsible for the drug, claimed to be making public apology for its sins a |
all industry standards for testing new drugs that were relevant and acknowledged in the 1950s and 1960s.” That was flatly untrue, a product of either deep-rooted cynicism, belying his whole apology, or of appalling ignorance. Grünenthal has propagated the big |
lie for 50 years, retailing the notion that reproductive tests were unnecessary because nobody could possibly have realized in the fifties that a drug could penetrate the placental barrier and reach the fetus. … It is 39 years since, as |
editor of the Sunday Times of London in the early seventies, I was associated with thalidomide investigations. Our survey of the scientific literature, consultations with reputable pharmaceutical companies and independent specialist advice swiftly found that reproductive studies were routinely done |
in the 1950s, because it was widely recognized that a drug could indeed reach the fetus. The tranquilizers in direct competition with thalidomide were all tested for teratogenic effects and the results published. If reproductive tests had been done on |
thalidomide, they would not necessarily have shown precisely what deformities would be produced, dependent on the time of ingestion in relation to the development of the fetus, but they would certainly have shown that drugs could endanger unborn children in |
some way. As much as the teratology of drugs shocked the world, it certainly wasn’t news to pharmaceutical researchers. Hoffman-LaRoche, Pfizer, SmithKline, and all the pharmaceutical companies had done reproductive testing routinely since the 1940s. The need for the testing |
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