Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/176

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152
THE WISCONSIN IDEA

institutes and in the establishment of a good system of regulation and inspection. An investigation is now in progress under the direction of the newly created Board of public affairs with the help of experts from the Bureau of municipal research in New York City, which will result, no doubt, in a thorough readjustment of the system. The means for the enforcement of the truancy laws were greatly strengthened by the 1911 legislature, while severe compulsory education and child labor laws are gradually having good effect. Over fifty laws relating to the betterment of the Wisconsin schools were passed at the session of 1911.

Lack of space forbids going into many interesting educational developments but a word must be said about the travelling libraries of the Wisconsin free library commission. These boxes of books are sent into every far-away section of the state bringing directly to every home in every little community the best literature of the day. They are changed often so that there is always something fresh and new. They have brightened the lives of many toilers and made interesting and instructive the long winter evenings in the little homes on the far-away farms as well as added to the volume of intelligence, citizenship and womanhood. The travelling libraries and the public libraries which have followed after them together with the library school, will remain a truly great monument to a great seer and warm-hearted idealist, Mr. Frank A. Hutchins.