LA FOLLETTE, ROBERT M. 1855-1925

UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM WISCONSIN, 19O6-1925

PROGRESSIVE PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, 1924

Progressive Reformer

In 1906 Robert La Follette moved from the governor's office in Wisconsin, where he had served three two-year terms, to the United States Senate, where he served as an active member of the progressive wing of the Republican Party until his death in 1925. Resented by fellow Republican senators, La Follette constantly fought against privilege, corruption, and political bossism to produce a more viable and equitable democracy. Invariably defending unpopular positions, La Follette was often resented, even by those whose cause the senator believed he championed.

"Irreconcilable."

La Follette opposed entry into World War I, and after Wilson negotiated the peace, he led the hardcore resisters—known as "irreconcilables"—in opposition to ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, Sounding isolationist themes, La Follette argued that the treaty betrayed the powerless and served only as preparation for a future bloodbath. The document omitted Wilson's Fourteen Points, which had been the basis for American entry into the war. The treaty failed to liberate the victors' colonies, La Follette insisted, making a mockery of "self-determination." Moreover, La Follette completely distrusted the League of Nations, which, he argued, would be dominated by governments who revered the status quo. La Follette's opposition to the League had a higher motivation than the partisan animosity expressed by Henry Cabot Lodge and the "strong reservadonists," but together all opponents of the League, whom Wilson called a "little group of willful men," prevailed with the Senate's rejection of the Treaty of Versailles.

Presidential Bid in 1924

Although La Follette constantly contested conservative business interests, his major domestic battle came in 1924. Disappointed with the two conservative, mainstream presidential candidates—Calvin Coolidge and John Davis—progressive reformers mobilized for a third-party challenge in 1924. Leaders of the Conference for Progressive Political Action—an organization of farm leaders, social workers, organized labor, former Bull Moosers, and Socialists—formed the new Progressive Party and selected La Follette as their presidential candidate. La Follette attempted to unite discontented farmers and organized labor. In the campaign La Follette and the Progressives called for public ownership of utilities, nationalization of the railroads, increased taxes on the wealthy, curbing the power of the Supreme Court, popular election of the president, elimination of child labor, and a national referendum on declarations of war. During the campaign Republicans constantly attacked La Follette's "radicalism," and the Wall Street Journal referred to the party's agenda as "Wisconsin Bolshevism." Yet the Communist Party labeled the Progressive Party's platform "the most reactionary document." Although La Follette had been a fiery progressive leader and radical by some standards, the Wisconsin senator had always staunchly opposed communism.

Ultimate Victory

While La Follette's third-party candidacy was not as successful as Theodore Roosevelt's had been in 1912, the Progressive candidate carried his home state, Wisconsin, and attracted almost 5 million votes. La Follette's bid for the presidency was his final political contest: he died less than a year later at age seventy. Although La Follette lost many of his political battles in life, most of his "radical" ideas were enshrined into law after his death, apparently vindicating the soundness of his principles.