Robert Marion La Follette in the United States

Robert Marion “Fighting Bob” La Follette (1855- ), American politician, was born on a farm in Primrose township, Dane co., Wis., June 14 1855. He graduated from the university of Wisconsin in 1879, studied law there for one term, and was admitted to the bar in 1880. He began immediately to practise in Madison and served as district attorney for Dane co. for two terms (1880-4). From 1885 to 1891 he was a representative in Congress, and, as a member of the Ways and Means Committee, helped to draft the McKinley Tariff bill. On being defeated for Congress in 1891 he returned to practise in Madison. In 1896 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention. He was elected governor of Wisconsin in 1901 and was reëlected in 1903 and 1905. It was largely due to him that state laws were passed for taxing railways according to valuation (1903), for nominating all candidates for public office by direct vote of the people (1904), and for regulating the railways in the state through a state commission (1905). He resigned the governorship in 1905 on being elected to the U.S. Senate, and was reëlected for two succeeding terms. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in 1908. In 1915 he was sponsor in the Senate for the seamen’s bill providing for better working conditions and increase of life-saving equipment on board ship. He favoured, in 1916, an embargo on the shipment of arms from America, but supported armed intervention in Mexico. After America’s entrance into the World War he was a pronounced and conspicuous pacifist. Following the 1924 election, the party he formed (third in the election), the Progressive Party, disbanded.

Alternative Biography

LA FOLLETTE, l? f?l-l?t, Robert Marion, American statesman: b. Primrose, Wis., 14 June 1855. He was graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1879, and the next year was admitted to the bar. He became district attorney of Dane County in 1880, retaining that position till 1884, when he took up the regular practice of his profession. In 1887 he was elected to Congress, serving till 1891; he won reputation as an orator, and as a member of the Committee of Ways and Means took a prominent part in the framing of the McKinley Tariff Bill. At the close of his service in Congress he resumed his practice, and remained active in politics, becoming one of the leaders of the younger men in the Republican party. He took part in a campaign against the exclusive privileges of corporations and against the boss system. His two pamphlets, ‘Menace of the Machine’ and ‘The Nomination of Candidates by Australian Ballot’ (1897), attracted wide attention. In them he outlined his program for electoral reform in Wisconsin. He was elected governor of his State three times, 1900, 1902 and 1904. As governor he led in the movement for a direct primary law, for the equalization of taxation and the regulation of railroad rates. He resigned the governorship in 1905 to become United States senator and was re-elected in 1911. In the Senate he has demanded progressive legislation and has become well known for his advocacy of the physical valuation of railroads, his speeches on railroad subjects showing him to be a profound student of these questions. He was prominently mentioned for the Presidential nomination in 1908, receiving 25 votes, and again in 1912. During the Taft administration he voted with the Democrats on some of the tariff schedules which were vetoed by the President. He remained in the Republican ranks in 1912, being strongly opposed to Roosevelt, the Progressive leader of that year. In the first Wilson administration his opinion was often consulted. He was the chief of a small filibustering pacifist group in the Senate which opposed the arming of American merchant vessels in the European War zone. His action was severely criticised by the people and press of the country.

Main Source: The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)

Works

He was the author of La Follette’s Autobiography (1913).

Further Reading

• Brøndal, Jørn, “The Ethnic and Racial Side of Robert M. La Follette,” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, (2011) 10(3): 340-353
• Garraty, John A., “Robert La Follette: The Promise Unfulfilled” American Heritage (1962) 13(3): 76–79, 84–88.
• Hale, William Bayard (June 1911). “La Follette, Pioneer Progressive: The Story of “Fighting Bob”, The New Master Of The Senate And Candidate For The Presidency”. The World’s Work: A History of Our Time XXII: 14591–14600. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
• Thelen, David, Robert M. La Follette and the Insurgent Spirit 1976. short interpretive biography.
• Unger, Nancy C. Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer (2000), full-scale biography.