The Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 2, number 1, September 1918

              the bennett law in wisconsin louise phelps kellogg the political significance of the bennett law agitation has long been a matter of record german american oppo sition to the law's provisions completely overturned the government of wisconsin in the year 1890 elected a democratic governor and legislature sent in the succeeding years two democratic senators and several democratic representa tives to congress and gave wisconsin's vote to grover cleveland at his second election in 1892 the social signifi cance of the agitation is realized only in connection with the present world crisis and with wisconsin's share in the nation's war upon germany the conditions of wisconsin's german settlements as revealed by the bennett law discussion have an important bearing upon our present problems the bennett law was simply a compulsory educational law designed to prevent nonattendance and truancy in the schools and child labor in the factories in 1 879 a compulsory school law had been placed upon the statute books its inefficaey was revealed by the biennial report for 1887-88 of superintendent of public instruction jesse b thayer he called attention to the proportional decrease in public school attendance as compared with the state's increase of popula tion.1 the numbers of children in the private and parochial schools he had not succeeded in obtaining statistics were produced during the bennett law campaign to show that from 40,000 to 50,000 children of the state between the ages of seven and fourteen attended no school the extent of the state's illiteracy was thus called to the attention of the offi cials whereupon governor william d hoard in his first annual message of 1889 to the state legislature used these i biennial report of the state superintendent of the state of wisconsin for the years 1887-88 madison 1888 17-20