Robert M. La Follette, Jr.

For more information on Robert Marion La Follette, visit Britannica.com.

(b. 6 Feb. 1895; d. 24 Feb. 1953) US; US Senator 1925 – 46 Robert La Follette Jr. was the son of "Battling Bob" La Follette, who made Wisconsin synonymous with Progressive politics and whose independent bid for the presidency in 1924 gained him one-sixth of the total vote. Robert Jr. spent his early years acting as his father's secretary in the Senate and when his father died in 1925 Robert Jr. was appointed to fill the unexpired portion of Robert Sr.'s Senate term. Thereafter he was re-elected three times in his own right: as a Republican in 1928 and as a Progressive in 1934 and 1940.

Robert La Follette Jr. devoted much energy in the 1930s to civil liberties and labour issues. As chairman of the Senate Civil Liberties Committee he examined working conditions and especially the freedom of labour to organize across the United States. He was an advocate of farm relief and reform of the tax system. He was also a supporter of streamlining procedure inside the Senate and sponsored a major reorganization of the Senate which only took effect after he had left the legislature. On foreign policy La Follette's opposition to war put him in the broad isolationist tent in the 1930s.

In 1946 La Follette tried to run as a Republican but he lost the primary to Joseph McCarthy and after leaving the Senate he pursued a career in business in Washington. His defeat, together with health worries, contributed to depression and he committed suicide in February 1953.

Robert Marion La Follette (1855-1925), governor of Wisconsin and U.S. senator, was one of the leading Progressive reform politicians of his day.

Robert M. La Follette was born June 14, 1855, on a frontier farm in Dane County, Wis. As a teenager, he farmed for several years before entering the University of Wisconsin. He graduated in 1879 and was admitted to the bar in 1880. In the same year, despite the disapproval of Republican political bosses, he was elected Dane County district attorney. Four years later La Follette successfully sought a seat in Congress, again over the opposition of his party's local leadership. Nevertheless in his three terms in Congress (1855-1891) he voted with the regular Republicans on most issues. He returned to law practice after his defeat in 1890.

A turning point in La Follette's political career came the next year, when a party stalwart offered him what he interpreted as a bribe to "fix" a court case. Indignant, La Follette declared war on the party machine. In 1896 and 1898 he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Wisconsin. He initiated a speaking tour of country fairs to build support and won the Republican nomination and the gubernatorial election in 1900.

During La Follette's first two terms as governor (1901-1904) little of his Progressive program - a direct primary law, Tax Commission, Railroad Commission, Civil Service Commission, conservation measures, a corrupt-practices act - passed, because conservative elements in the legislature blocked it. Uncompromising, La Follette carried his program to the voters in his 1904 campaign, using the ingenious device of "reading the roll call" of the legislature's votes to show citizens how their representatives had voted on key issues. The result was election of a Progressive legislature and his own victory; in 1905 much of his program was passed. He became U.S. senator in 1906.

La Follette defied Senate tradition by immediately taking outspoken positions in debate. He angered "Old Guard" senators and President Theodore Roosevelt by refusing to concede on railroad and banking legislation. He broke even more sharply with Roosevelt's successor, William Howard Taft, over the tariff and the issue of conservation. Seeking to capitalize in 1909 on the rise of Progressive feeling, La Follette established La Follette's Magazine to extend his ideas to a broader audience.

During Woodrow Wilson's presidency, Senator La Follette won a great legislative victory - the Seaman's Act of 1915. He approved of Wilson's early neutrality statements regarding World War I, and when the President called for war in April 1917, La Follette was one of six senators who opposed him. He also opposed the military draft and the wartime Espionage Act, which he felt violated fundamental individual liberties.

Following the war, La Follette voted against ratification of the Versailles Treaty and American membership in the League of Nations. He played a prominent role in exposing the Teapot Dome scandals of Warren Harding's administration. In 1924 he was the Progressive candidate for president, winning endorsements from the American Federation of Labor, the Socialist party, and the railroad unions. Though he lost the election, he won nearly 5 million votes and carried his home state. He died soon after, on June 18, 1925.

"Fighting Bob" La Follette was temperamentally a member of the opposition, at his best fighting the good fight from an underdog position. His independence tended to isolate him politically and to prevent him from achieving his highest goal, the presidency.

Further Reading

La Follette's own account of his career until 1912 is La Follette's Autobiography: A Personal Narrative of Political Experiences (1913). Belle C. and Fola La Follette, Robert M. La Follette (2 vols., 1953), is a loving, detailed memoir by his wife and daughter. See also Robert S. Maxwell, La Follette (1969). Books on segments of his career are Edward N. Doan, The La Follettes and the Wisconsin Idea (1947); Robert S. Maxwell, La Follette and the Rise of the Progressives in Wisconsin (1956); David P. Thelen, The Early Life of Robert M. La Follette, 1855-1884 (1966); and Herbert F. Margulies, The Decline of the Progressive Movement in Wisconsin, 1890-1920 (1968).

Additional Sources

Greenbaum, Fred, Robert Marion La Follette, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1975.

Thelen, David P. (David Paul), Robert M. La Follette and the insurgent spirit, Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985, 1976.

(1855-1925), Progressive Era political leader and reformer. "Democracy is a life," wrote La Follette in 1911, "and involves continual struggle." His own intense seventy years fully confirmed that faith. Born into a poor but respectable farming family in pioneer Wisconsin on the eve of the Civil War, La Follette ranks high among those progressives who tried to bring the twentieth century into harmony with the Republican ideal of a self-ruling republic of independent producers. At the University of Wisconsin his first loves were theater and declamation, but ambition and the need to make a living led him into law and elective office. From district attorney of Dane County he moved up to Congress, serving three terms in the House (1885-1891) as a more or less orthodox Republican, but one who shone in debate.

Although his district unseated him in 1890, the defeat only led to his insurgency and fame. During his eight years of private practice in Madison, where echoes of agrarian revolt were loud, La Follette claimed to see in full profile at last a sinister alliance between the "interests" (Wisconsin's lumber and railroad corporations) and the "bosses" (the major-party leaders, predominantly Republican) who worked together to cheat "the people"--the farmers, small businessmen, and workers. He became the popular champion of these groups as he set out on a series of statewide speaking campaigns that led finally to his election as governor in 1900. The elements of his platform were open nominating primaries, equal and fair taxation of corporate property, state regulation of railroads and public utilities charges, and management of public resources in the public interest. Administration was to be entrusted to nonpartisan civil servants drawn largely from the Wisconsin faculty. Journalists publicized the "Wisconsin Idea," and La Follette's continual struggle to implement it soon marked him as a rising star in the nationwide progressive firmament. In 1905 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he remained until his death.

La Follette never became a successful Senate insider despite his long tenure. He gave his name to only one major law, the 1915 act protecting merchant seamen from exploitation. His role instead was to push uncompromisingly for progressive legislation on the floor and on the nationwide lecture circuit. So well did he play it that by 1912 he was considered the standout among the Senate group of Republican insurgents challenging conservative party regulars.

La Follette sought to take the presidential nomination away from the incumbent William Howard Taft that year, but his bid was preempted by that of Theodore Roosevelt (whose progressive credentials La Follette had always doubted). When Woodrow Wilson won the election as a Democratic progressive, La Follette supported his domestic programs but broke decisively with him in 1917 by heading up the opposition to American entry into the First World War. For this unpopular stand he was punished by widespread public vilification and ostracism during 1917-1918 (and nearly expelled from the Senate). But in the postwar period he was forgiven and assumed a new part--the aging, respected conscience of a progressive movement in eclipse under Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge.

In 1924 he ran as an independent Progressive candidate for president, polling nearly 6 million votes out of some 30 million cast, but winning only Wisconsin's electoral votes. After his death the following June, his older son, Robert M. La Follette, Jr., followed him in the Senate and served until 1946. His younger son, Philip F. La Follette, served as governor of Wisconsin in the thirties.

Bibliography:

David Thelen, Robert La Follette and the Insurgent Spirit (1976).

Author:

Bernard A. Weisberger

See also Elections: 1912 , 1924; Progressivism; Third Parties.

Robert Marion La Follette was an important U.S. political leader during the first part of the twentieth century. He served as governor of and senator from Wisconsin, and was at the forefront of the political reform movement that has been labeled Progressivism.

La Follette was born in Primrose, Wisconsin, on June 14, 1855. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1879 and then studied law without going to law school. He was admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 1880 and began a legal practice in Madison. He was district attorney for Dane County, Wisconsin, from 1880 to 1884. In 1885 he was elected as a Republican representative to the U.S. Congress. He served three terms and then was defeated in 1890.

Following his loss La Follette resumed his law practice in Madison. During the 1890s he became a vocal opponent of state leadership of the Republican party. He rejected its conservatism and its reluctance to allow government a role in correcting social, political, and economic problems that had grown larger during the last two decades of the nineteenth century.

La Follette's reform desires were part of the national Progressive movement. Though not a unified political philosophy, Progressivism was built on the assumption that all levels of government must play an active role in reform. Progressives like La Follette argued that corporate capitalism had given too much power to large economic elites and had created inequities in the social and economic order. In addition, Progressives argued, the political parties, especially at the state and local level, had too much control and were stifling democratic change.

La Follette's ideas proved popular in Wisconsin. He was elected governor in 1900 and immediately began implementing his Progressive agenda. The Wisconsin Legislature passed many of his measures, including those mandating the nomination of candidates by direct vote in primary elections, the equalization of taxes, and the regulation of railroad rates.

He returned to the national political arena, serving as U.S. senator from 1906 to 1925. He became a leader of the Progressive wing of the Republican party and frequently voiced opposition to the conservative party leadership. As a senator he advocated tougher regulation of railroads, going so far as to call for public ownership of the rail industry. He believed in progressive income taxes, government control of banking, and conservation of natural resources.

La Follette was an isolationist, holding that the United States should not become entangled in foreign alliances and foreign wars. He voted against the U.S. entry into World War I and later opposed President Woodrow Wilson's plan to have the United States join the League of Nations and the World Court.

The conservative Republican administrations of Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge proved too much for La Follette. In 1924, after the Republican National Convention rejected his platform proposals, La Follette left the party. He formed the League for Progressive Political Action, commonly known as the Progressive party, and accepted its presidential nomination. Drawing support from farm groups, labor unions, and the Socialist party, La Follette waged a spirited third-party campaign. He earned almost 5 million popular votes. But La Follette was not a serious threat to the election of Coolidge; he received only thirteen electoral votes, carrying only his home state of Wisconsin.

Following his defeat La Follette continued as U.S. senator. He died in Washington, D.C., on June 18, 1925. His son, Robert M. La Follette, Jr., succeeded him as senator. The younger La Follette kept the Progressive party alive for another twenty years.

Quotes:

"Until economic freedom is attained for everybody, there can be no real freedom for anybody."

Robert M. La Follette, Jr.
United States Senator from Wisconsin
In office September 30, 1925 – January 3, 1947
Preceded by	Robert M. La Follette, Sr.
Succeeded by	Joseph McCarthy
Born	February 6, 1895(1895-02-06) Madison, Wisconsin
Died	February 24, 1953 (aged 58) Washington, D.C.
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican Wisconsin Progressive Party
Spouse(s)	Rachel Wilson Young

Robert Marion La Follette, Jr. (February 6, 1895 – February 24, 1953) was an American senator from Wisconsin from 1925 to 1947, the son of Robert M. La Follette, Sr., the brother of Philip La Follette, and the brother-in-law of the playwright George Middleton.

Contents 1 Early life and career 1.1 Senate 1.2 Defeat 2 Later life and suicide 3 Awards and honors 4 References 5 External links

Early life and career

La Follette was born in. Madison, Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1913 to 1917, but did not graduate due to an illness (he received an Honorary LLD from Univ. of Wisconsin in 1938). This same illness prevented him from serving in the military during World War I. He served as private secretary to his father between 1919 and 1925. He married Rachel Wilson Young in 1930, and they had two sons, Joseph Oden and Bronson Cutting.

Senate

La Follette was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate on September 29, 1925, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his father. "Young Bob," as he was called, was a champion of organized labor. He gained national prominence between 1936 and 1940 as chairman of a special Senate investigating committee, commonly called the La Follette Civil Liberties Committee, which exposed the surveillance, physical intimidation and other techniques used by large employers to prevent workers from organizing.

He was chairman of the Committee on Manufactures in the 71st and 72nd Congresses. He supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt and most New Deal legislation until the passage of the 1938 naval expansion bill.

He was re-elected as a Republican in 1928. With his brother Philip, he formed the Wisconsin Progressive Party in 1934, and for a time the party was dominant in Wisconsin. He was reelected with the Wisconsin Progressive Party in 1934 and 1940. The Progressives later dissolved, and La Follette returned to the Republican Party in 1946. La Follette was considered the Senate's leading isolationist and helped found the America First Committee. He helped to draft and win passage of the Congressional Reorganization Act of 1946, which modernized the legislative process in Congress.^[1]

Defeat

He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection as a Republican in 1946. He ran a conservative campaign against the United Nations and was critical of Stalin, but ended up losing to Joseph McCarthy in the Republican primary by about 5000 votes.^[2] After the election La Follette claimed that Communists in the labor unions had contributed to his defeat.

Later life and suicide

After his defeat by McCarthy, La Follette was a foreign aid advisor to the Truman administration.

In a February 8, 1947 Collier's Weekly article, La Follette reported his experience with infiltration of Communists onto Congressional Committee staffs. The Venona project materials revealed four agents of Soviet intelligence who had served on his Civil Liberties Subcommittee, including the Chief Counsel, John Abt.

On February 24, 1953, La Follette was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Washington, D.C. On September 9, 1953, John Lautner testified before McCarthy's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and revealed he knew of Communists who had served on La Follette's subcommittee. Some historians believe that La Follette killed himself out of fear of being called by McCarthy; others believe he succumbed to anxiety and depression, which plagued him for much of his life.^[3]. He was interred at Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison, Wisconsin,^[4] and was survived by his son, Bronson La Follette, who served as Wisconsin's attorney general from 1965 to 1969, and from 1975 to 1987.^[5]

Awards and honors

The University of Wisconsin awarded La Follette an honorary LL.D. degree in 1938. He also received Collier's Magazine award for outstanding public service in 1946.

References

1. ^ Welcome to The American Presidency
2. ^ La Follette, Robert Marion, Jr., 1895 - 1953
3. ^ JS Online: La Follette suicide linked to fear of McCarthy
4. ^ The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians: Ladendorf to Lair
5. ^ "La Follette Death Ends Era in West. Hope for Progressive Comeback Diminishes. Party Once Was Supreme Power in State.". New York Times. February 26, 1953, Thursday. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30C17FD345E177B93C4AB1789D85F478585F9. Retrieved 2008-03-22. "The death of former Senator Robert M. La Follette Jr., who killed himself at his home in Washington yesterday, is not expected to have any considerable impact on the Wisconsin political situation, even though many of his followers in the old Progressive movement never abandoned hope that he would someday attempt a political comeback." 

External links

• Robert M. La Follette, Jr. at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Robert M. La Follette, Jr., Dictionary of Wisconsin History, Wisconsin State Historical Society
• "La Follette suicide linked to fear of McCarthy" May 17, 2003 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
• Matusow, Harvey "The FBI, and the Justice Department: Becoming a Government Informer-witness in the McCarthy Era"
• La Follette at the Dictionary of Wisconsin History
• Maney, Patrick, "Joe McCarthy's First Victim", Virginia Quarterly Review, Summer 2001
• Youngs, William, American Realities, Sixth Edition Volume 2, Eastern Washington University, 2006.

United States Senate
Preceded by Robert M. La Follette, Sr.	United States Senator (Class 1) from Wisconsin 1925–1947 Served alongside: Irvine Lenroot, John J. Blaine, F. Ryan Duffy, Alexander Wiley	Succeeded by Joseph McCarthy

v • d • e United States Senators from Wisconsin Class 1 Dodge · Doolittle · Carpenter · Cameron · Sawyer · Mitchell · Quarles · La Follette, Sr. · La Follette, Jr. · McCarthy · Proxmire · Kohl Class 3 Walker · Durkee · Howe · Carpenter · Cameron · Spooner · Vilas · Spooner · Stephenson · Husting · Lenroot · Blaine · Duffy · Wiley · Nelson · Kasten · Feingold

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