Viewpoint

What to do about progressive icon and eugenicist Charles Van Hise

By Mike Nichols

For years, I’ve wondered when and how the University of Wisconsin-Madison would deal with the odious history of its one-time president, the progressive icon with a building named after him on the campus, Charles Van Hise.

Van Hise was a eugenicist who wanted to rid the “race” of “defectives” so that future humans could have a “godlike destiny.”

“Human defectives should no longer be allowed to propagate the race,” he wrote in an essay, “The Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States,” published in 1910. “We should reach at least as high a plane with reference to human beings as with the defective animals.”

Years after Van Hise’s views were widely publicized, some at UW-Madison are apparently pondering whether to put up a plaque acknowledging the truth.

Related Reading:

Racist Roots of UW Progressives

By Thomas Leonard

The original progressives were deeply ambivalent about the poor. This is, I think, the great contradiction at the heart of Progressive Era reform. Progressives felt genuine compassion for “the people,” which is to say, those groups they judged worthy of American citizenship and employment. The deserving poor were offered the helping hand of state uplift.

Yet progressives simultaneously scorned the millions of ordinary people who happened to be disabled, or of an “inferior” race, or female. The so-called undeserving poor were offered the closed hand of state exclusion and restraint.

Analysis

Innovators stifled by current healthcare system

By Daniel Sem

The one thing that can save healthcare — innovation — is stymied by the anti-market forces of the current system.

And it shows.

Healthcare costs continue to rise, relentlessly outpacing inflation. While overall inflation from 2000 to 2020 increased prices by 54%, the prices of hospital services increased 200% and those of medical care services 120%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The average consumer pays over $12,000 per year for healthcare, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Sometimes you pay it indirectly, through insurance premiums paid by you and your employer, or by tax dollars. But make no mistake: You are paying for it.

Related Research:

Related Podcasts:

In the News

Students of color events further division. Separating people by race is bad policy.

Shannon Whitworth

Related Reading:

UW-Milwaukee Graduation Numbers for Black Students Plummet Even Further

Badger Events

Less than two weeks away!

Join us Thursday, October 12 for the Badger Institute Annual Dinner. Rep. Mike Gallagher will deliver keynote remarks on democracy, freedom and the threat of the Chinese Communist Party.

• Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts | Brookfield, WI

• 5:00 p.m. VIP cocktail reception with buffet-style dinner

• 5:30 p.m. general admission cocktail reception with buffet-style dinner

• 6:30 p.m. presentation and keynote remarks

Sponsorship opportunities are available, along with general registration and VIP meet-and-greet tickets.

New to Badger

Meet Will Rosignal, Digital Outreach Associate

Join us in welcoming Will Rosignal to the Badger Institute! In this newly created position, Will will help the Institute grow our reach across the state and influence thousands and thousands more Wisconsinites.

Will is a May 2023 graduate of Marquette University with a bachelor’s in advertising and minor in psychology. He is a water ski fanatic and was the president of the MU water ski team. A Wheaton, IL native, he fell in love with Milwaukee during his time at Marquette and is excited to get back to Brew City.

He can be reached at [email protected].

The Badger Institute is proud to defend freedom in Wisconsin with a growing team of employees.

Weekly Survey: Should Wisconsin lawmakers pass legislation to protect the practice of direct primary care?

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Although the majority of respondents (34%) estimated that Medicaid accounts for 15% of Wisconsin’s state budget, the program accounts for twice that amount — as reported in Mark Lisheron’s latest story, Delay in removing ineligible Medicaid recipients costs Wisconsin taxpayers hundreds of millions.

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