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THE WISCONSIN IDEA

In the department of general information and welfare many institutes are held and much diverse work is done. Under its auspices were conducted the Milwaukee bakers' institutes, the institute of municipal and social service of the same city which ran twenty-one weeks last year and 140 conferences and lectures. The Wisconsin conference of criminal law works in connection with this department, as does also the Wisconsin conference of charities and corrections. An anti-tuberculosis exhibit, in coöperation with the Anti-tuberculosis association, was carried on by this department, which reached some 112,000 people in this state. In all, nearly 500 lectures were given under this department. This same department maintains the municipal reference bureau which answers 1500 questions a year from many villages and cities throughout the state and which does much to organize the civic interest of these places.

The bureau of civic and social centre development is also under this division. A national conference was held at Madison, under the auspices of this bureau, and some sixty-four communities or districts were assisted in bettering social centre facilities. A lecture bureau sent out lecturers last year to some ninety communities in the state, with a total of 153 lectures.

There are three organized districts of the extension department in the state, one in Milwaukee, one at Oshkosh and one at La Crosse. The one in Milwaukee