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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

The
EDWIN J. BEINECKE, '07
FREDERICK W. BEINECKE, '09S
WALTER BEINECKE, '10
FUND

Robert M. La Follette

Edmoustou Stml
Washiiii,-ton, D.

The Political Philosophy
OF
ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE I' '
As Revealed in his Speeches and Writings.
Compiled by
ELLEN TORELLE
Assisted by Albert O. Barton and Feed L. Holmes.

In the Valley of Decision,
Down the Road of Things-that-are ,
You gave to us a vision.
You appointed us a star
And through Cities of Derision
We followed you from far.
On the Hills beyond Tomorrow,
On the Road of Things-to-do,
With thai strength of hand we borrow
As we l arrow soul from you.
We know not sloth nor sorrow
And witt build your vision true.
William Ellery Leonard.

MADISON, -WIS.
THE IROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE CO.

Copyright, 1920, by
Robert lit;-4j4F0LLETTE Co.
July, 1^0

Blied printing company, Madison, wis.

7726 Inspiration ofa Life
There is looming up a new and dark power. I cannot
dwell upon the signs and shocking omens of its advent.
The accumulation of individual wealth seems to be greater
than it ever has been since the do'wnfall of the Roman
Empire. The enterprises of the country are aggregating
vast corporate combinations of unexampled capital, boldly
marching, not for economic conquests only, but for politi
cal power. For the first time really in our politics money
is taking the field as an organized po-wer. * * * Already,
here at home, one great corporation has trifled -with the
sovereign power, and insulted the state. There is grave
fear that it, and its great rival, have confederated to make
partition of the state and share it as spoils. * * * The
question will arise, and arise in your day, though perhaps
not fully in mine, "Which shall rule — wealth or man;
which shall lead — money or intellect; who shall fill public
stations — educated and patriotic free men, or the feudal
serfs of corporate capital?"
Chief Justice Edvxird G. Ryan, Speech to
Graduating Class, Wisconsin Law School, 1873.

CONTENTS

'- I. Representative Government  ^/^'
^) II. Primary Elections  27
III. Political Machine AND the Bosses. 53 V^
IV. Taxation  61 >^
V. "^Railroad Regulation and Govern- ^
/ ment Ownership  72 ^ ^
VI. Trusts and Monopolies  /iq4\/
VII. j Labor and its Rights  "."TiagLj^
VIII.' Big Business and Government. . .?>f48 ^f

IX. The Tariff  160
X. Money and Banking  166
XI. Initiative, Referendum and Recall. 173 t^
XH. Federal Judges and Injunctions. . .179
XIIL^ The Progeessp/e Movement  182
XIV. Militarism  190 ~~
X^ War  200
XVI. Draft and Conscription  215
XVII. War Taxes and Profiteering  220
XVIII. Freedom of Speech and Press  231 —
XIX. The Peace Treaty and the League
OF Nations  251
XX. International Relations  270
XXI. The American Soldier  275

8 Contents
• / XXII. Agriculture and Co-operation  280
XXIII. Education and Public Service ...... 289
XXIV. Economic Problems  314
XXV. Conservation  325
^ XXVI. Equal Suffrage  338
XXVII. The Press and the Public  345
XXVIII. Miscellaneous  360
Appendix  380
Index  421

FOREWORD
HE moral issues before the people of
this country at the present time are
more momentous than at any other
period since the foundation of the gov
ernment.
The Civil War solved the problem of secession
and resulted in the emancipation of three million
slaves. Today, violations of the Constitution are
more flagrant and more dangerous to our institu
tions than 'was the attempt at secession, and the ^
liberty of a hundred million people, 'white as well '
as black, is in jeopardy. The assurance that a
higher and nobler democracy would be a result of
the Great War has been found to be a mockery, the
reverse of democracy being realized in a reign of
terror and oppression. Public disillusionment has
been followed by doubt and indecision, and men and
women are reaching out for the guidance of a po
litical philosophy which is founded on principles of
truth and justice and competent to meet the needs
of the times.
It is the purposje of thi^ book to indicate where
such a philosophy may be found and to present it
ivi.epitome. To the many busy men and women who
cannot spare the time to read the entire articles or
addresses, it will prove a valuable compendium.
For the student or social worker it may serve as an
inspiration to a more extended study of the subject.
The citizen who wishes to understand the progresA
sive movement in order that he may use his suf-\

10 La FoUette's Political Philosophy
/frage more intelligently will find much to ponder
Sover in these pages. To those who are familiar
with the deat. smi2Le, and forceful st^le of the
author, nothing needs to be said in commendation
or amplification. For those to whom this book may
be an introduction we predict great interest and
pleasure in further acquaintance with the man and
his work.
Robert M. La Follette has led the progressive
movement in this country during the last thirty
years. Its development may be said to be co-inci
dent with his public career. He was the first to
secure progressive legislation, and the political
structure which was reared in Wisconsin as a re
sult of his self-sacrifice and devotion, was so well
founded on sound economic principles that it has
withstood the attacks of its enemies, the support
ers of corrupt machine and corporation rule.
La FoUette's position as the pioneer of the pro
gressive movement was secure long before 1912,
but in that year his leadership was strikingly ac
knowledged by Bryan, Wilson, and even by Roose
velt, prior to the latter's candidacy for a third pres
idential term.
To Bryan, La Follette was the "prince of pro
gressives." Roosevelt wrote of La Follette's five
years as governor:
"Thanks to the movement for genuinely demo
cratic government which Senator La Follette led to
overwhelming victory in Wisconsin, that state has
become literally a laboratory for wise experimental
legislation, aiming to secure the social and political
betterment of the people as a whole."

Foreword 1 1
It remained for Woodrow Wilson to pay the
most fulsome tribute to La Follette, in a speech at
Wilmington, Del., in October, 1912:
"Now there arose in Wisconsin that indomitable
little figure of Bob La Follette. I tell you ladies
and gentlemen, I take oflf my cap to Bob La Follette.
He has never taken his eye for a single moment
from the goal he set out to reach. He has walked
a straight line to it in spite of every temptation to
turn aside. * * I have sometimes thought of Sen
ator La Follette climbing the mountain of privilege
* * taunted, laughed at, called back, going stead
fastly on and not allowing himself to be deflected
for a single moment, for fear he also should hearken
and lose all his power to serve the great interests
to which he had devoted himself. I loye__these
lonely figures climbing this ugly mountain of priv
ilege. But they are not so lonely now. I am sorry
for my own part that I did not come in when they
were fewer. There was no credit to come in when
I came in. The whole nation had awakened."
Since 1912 Senator La Follette has seen the pro
gressive principles he sponsored swept aside in the
unchecked gro'wth of monopoly. He has seen mo
nopoly control of industry and government bring
increased living costs and encroachments on indi
vidual liberty : the evils against which he warned
the people. The war gave La Follette's foes their
opportunity to- attempt his destruction, but the logic of
his principles could not be destroyed and today, erect,
unyielding, La Follette stands on the ground the
other leaders have abandoned, still fighting for the

12 La Follette's Political Philosophy
old principles, with the confidence of the people
ill his progressive leadership unshaken.
Throughout this book the teader will be im
pressed, not only with the unusual mental power
and vision of the man, but with the moral elevation
of his spirit. He views problems of state as well
as problems of the individual in the clear, white
light of ethics, and no compromise with expediency
is permitted in any case. It is this which gives his
'work high and permanent value. It is in line with
social evolution.
The excerpts vary in length, but each expresses
concisely a principle of government, a political
method to be followed, or calls attention to unjust
or harmful conditions which need to be remedied.
For convenience, reference is made to the article
01 discourse from which each is taken so that the
original may be consulted at leisure.
In the compilation of this work I have been assisted
by Albert O. Barton, a former secretary of Senator
La Follette, and Fred L. Holmes, managing editor of
La Follette's Magazine.
The work of compilation and classification has
been a pleasure which is surrendered with regret
since additional material of surpassing interest is
continually being made available. Ellen Torelle.
Madison, Wis.,
July 15, 1920.

I.
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT

Democracy is a Life
^^"^M E have long rested comfortably in this
J^/Ms country upon the assumption that be
cause our form of government was
democratic, it was therefore automat
ically producing democratic results..
Now, there is nothing mysteriously potent about
the forms and names of democratic institutions that
should make them self-operative. Tyranny and op
pression are just as possible under democratic forms
as under any other. {We are slow to realize that
democracy is a life and involves continual struggle.
It is only as those of every generation who love
democracy resist with all their might the encroach
ments of its enemies that the ideals of representa
tive government can even be neariy approximatedJ,
Introduction to Autobiography, 1913.
Political Parties
Political parties are not organized or maintained
upon the personality or strength of individuals, but
around certain deep-seated ideas which lay hold of
the convictions of men. These ideas when formulated
and proclaimed become the party's declaration of prin
ciples, its promise to perform. This declaration of
pninciples, this promise to perform, is of the highest
importance to each citizen. When so proclaimed it
enables him to determine his party affiliation. He

14 La Follette's Political Philosophy
well understands that one political party or another
will control government, will make and administer
the laws. Hence, he gives bis support to that party
which promises to do the specific things that he re
gards of the highest importance to the state and to the
welfare of every citizen. The party promise, there
fore, is a covenant with the voter upon which he has
staked his faith and his interests. He has given his
support ; he has invested the party with his a;uthority ;
he has made it possible for the party to control in
government. Upon its promise and his support the
party has become the custodian of his political rights
as a citizen, of his property right as a man.
But the party obligation goes still further. The ob
ligation of the party is made the more binding because
it has sought out the citizen, urged acceptance of its
pledges, pressed them upon his consideration, pro
claimed again and again its purpose to keep them in
letter and spirit. It has made the citizen its solicitor
and secured his good offices to repeat its promises,
proclaim its principles, and enlist in its ranks his neigh
bors and friends. Having received his vote, his in
fluence, his_ devotion, the party is bound to keep its
pledged word. This is its title to confidence. This
measures its value as a power for good in representa
tive government.
I Every established practice and custom which tends
I to impair in any degree the citizen's right of suflfrage
subverts the principles of representative government
and undermines the foundations of democracy.
It is a plain proposition that the right of suffrage is
much broader and more comprehensive than the mere

Representative Government 15
physical act of casting the ballot without interference,
and having it returned, as cast, without fraud. All
of the guarantees of the constitution, all of the acts of
legislation, are designed to secure and record the will
of the citizen ; to make it certain that, untrammeled
and uninterrupted, the influence of his judgment rnay
be felt in matters pertaining to government. If this
be the real substance of the right of suffrage, then it
becomes an equally sacred obligation on the part of
the lawmaking power to so safeguard every step and
proceeding which constitutes any element of the right
of suffrage that the citizen shall be protected with
respect to it.
Through the succession of generations human na
ture is the same, and when De Tocqueville declared
that "the most powerful, and perhaps the only, means
of interesting men in the welfare of the country is to
make them partakers in the government," he uttered a
truth which applies quite as forcibly to the primary
step in suffrage, as to the secondary step in suffrage, —
to the nomination of candidates as to their election
after nomination. And the interest and influence of
the voter can be as well and as certainly secured in
the one as in the other, if the same means are taken
to guarantee to him the same certainty of result re
specting the one as the other.
Message to Legislature, 1903.
Right to Equal Voice
It is a fundamental principle of this republic that.
each citizen shall have equal voice in government.
This is recognized and guaranteed to him through
the ballot. In a representative democracy, where a

1 6 La Follette's Political Philosophy
citizen cannot act for himself for any reason, he
must delegate his authority to the public official
who acts for him. Since government, with us, is
conducted by the representatives of some political
party, the citizen's voice in making and administer
ing the laws is expressed through his party ballot.
Hence, to preserve his sovereign right to an equal
share in government he must be assured an equal
voice in making his party ballot. This privilege
is vital. This is the initial point of all administra
tion. It is here government begins, and if there
be failure here, there will be failure throughout.
Control lost at this point is never regained; rights
surrendered here are never restored. As the foun
dation is laid, so will the structure be reared. The
naming of the men upon the party ticket is the
naming of the men who will make and enforce the
laws. It not only settles the policy gf the party,
it determines the character of the government.
Inaugural Message, 1901.
I do not believe that it lies in the power of any one
man or group of men successfully to proclaim the
creation of a new political party, and give it life,
and being, and achievement, and perpetuity. New
parties are brought forth from time to time, and
groups of men have come forward as their heralds
and have been called to leadership and command.
But the leaders did not create the party. It was the
ripe issue of events. It came out of the womb of
time, and no man could hinder or hasten the event.
No one can foretell the coming of the hour. It
may be near at hand. It may be otherwise. But if

Representative Government 17
it should come quickly, we may be sure strong lead
ership will be there; and some will say that the
leaders made the party. But all great movements
in society and government, the world over, are the
result of growth. Progress may seem to halt; we
may even seem to lose ground, but it is my deep
conviction that it is our duty to do, day by day,
with all our might, as best we can for the good of
our country the task which lies nearest at hand?^
The party does not consist of a few leaders or of a
controlling political machine ; it consists of the hun
dreds of thousands of citizens drawn together by a ]
common belief in certain principles. ^
A political party is not made to order. It is the
slow development of powerful forces working in
our social life. Sound ideas seize upon the human
mind. Opinions ripen into fixed convictions.
Masses of men are drawn together by common
belief and orga»iied_about clearly defined princi
ples. From time to time this organized body ex
presses its purpose and names candidates to rep
resent its principles. The millions cannot be assem
bled. Until direct nominations and the rigid control
of campaign expenditures shall prevail they must
seek to express their will through the imperfect
agencies of congressional, state, and national con
ventions. These agencies are not the party. They
are temporarily delegated to represent the millions
who constitute the party. If recreant to their trust
the party may suffer the temporary defeat of its
purposes. Autobiography, 1913.

1 8 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Platform Pledges
Mr. President, a platform promise is a covenant
with the voter, upon which he stakes his faith and
his interests. He gives the party his support; he
invests it with his authority; he makes it possible
for the party to control in government. The obli
gation of the party is made the more binding be
cause it seeks out the citizen, urges acceptance of
its pledges, presses them upon his consideration,
proclaims again and again its purpose to keep them
in letter and spirit. The party makes the citizen its
solicitor, secures his good offices to repeat its prom
ises, proclaim its principles, and enlist in its ranks
his neighbors and friends. Having secured his sup
port, his influence, his vote, the party is in honor
bound to keep its pledged word.
When the citizen, relying upon the pledges made
in the platform of the party, aids to place a repre
sentative in the public service to the end that he
may fulfill and perform in letter and spirit the prom
ises for legislation and administration promised in
the platform, the official is solemnly bound to the
execution of his sacred trust. He cannot play fast
and loose with party promises and preserve a sem
blance of official or individual integrity.
Any legislation which does not proceed upon the
basis that it is a wise, just, and safe exercise of legis
lative power cannot achieve any enduring good.
Without 'these supporting considerations, such legisla
tion can be urged only on grounds of political expe
diency. But let no man be misled by the expectation

Representative Government 19
that ajiy half-way measure will serve even the end
of political expediency.
"Regulation of R. R. Rates and Services/'
U. S. Senate, April 19-21, 1906.
The Iniquity of the "Conference" System
Mr. President, a system of rules giving into the
hands of a conference the power to make legislation is
destructive of democracy.
I hope that as a member of this body I shall live
to see the rules with respect to conference reports so
changed that it will not be possible for two or three
men to dictate and put through legislation. This is
a democracy. We are supposed to be the representa
tives of the people.
Our work upon this floor and the work of our asso
ciates at the other end of the capltol is supposed to
represent public opinion and the interests of the great
masses of this country. But I need not say to the
senators what everybody knows, that very often the
public will is defeated, that public interest is perverted,
and democracy is shackled in legislation as we enact it.
U . S. Senate, July 26, 1916.
Never Know Defeat in a Good Cause
There is no difference in principle in pressing the
same issue before the people in successive campaigns
and in presenting the same issue to the legislature in
successive sessions. Our direct primary law, equali
zation of taxation, our railroad commission, our con
trol of public utilities and other advanced measures
were ultimately secured after a number of hard-fought
campaigns. It was for that very reason that they won

20 La Follette's Pohtical Philosophy
so completely. We not only struck while the iron was
hot, we made it hot and kept it so by striking. |That
is what the new spirit of American politics has taught
us^never to know defeat in a good cause.
Speech in U. S. Senate on Railroad
Regulation, April 26, 1913.
The Supreme Issue
With the changing phases of a twenty-five year
contest, I have been more and more impressed with
the deep underlying singleness of the issue. It is
not railroad regulation. It is not the tariff, or con
servation, or the currency. It is not the trusts.
These and other questions are but manifestations of
one great struggle.
The supreme issue, involving all others, is the
encroachment of the powerful few upon the rights
of the many. This mighty power has come between
the people and their government. Can we free our
selves from this control? Can representative gov
ernment be restored ? Shall we, with statesmanship
and constructive legislation, meet these problems,
or shall we pass them on with all the possibilities of
conflict and chaos, to future generations?
There never was a higher call to greater service
than in this protracted fight for social justice. I
believe, with increasing depth of conviction, that
we will, in our day, meet our responsibility with
fearlessness and faith ; that we will reclaim and pre
serve for our children, not only the form but the
spirit of our free institutions. And in our children
must we rest our hope for the ultimate democracy.

Representative Government 21
It is my settled belief that this great power over
government legislation can only be overthrown, by
resisting at every step, seizing upon every impor
tant occasion which offers opportunity to uncover
the methods of the system. It matters little whether
the particular question at issue is the tariff, the
railroads, or the currency. The fight is the same.
It is not a question of party politics. The great
issue strikes down to the very foundation of our
free institutions. It is against the system built up
by privilege, which has taken possession of gov
ernment and legislation, that we must make unceas
ing warfare. Autobiography, 19 13.
Pledges of Political Platforms
' What is a politicai_platfet^m ? What is its pur
pose? What is its importance in democratic forms
of government?
In every republic, government is practically cer
tain to be administered by some political party.
The citizen gives his support to that political party,
the principles of which most nearly meet his ap
proving judgment. These principles are placed be
fore the citizen for his consideration in a platform
expressing the will of the majority of the party.
The method of ascertaining that will having been
agreed upon, the platform then becomes the law of
the party to which all of its members owe faith,
support and allegiance. The promulgation of: a
platform of declared principles, upon which the
voters are asked to entrust a political party with
the government of the state or the nation, must be

22 La Follette's Political Philosophy
as binding upon the party conscience as though it
were the sealed bond of every individual of the
party. The obligation is two-fold : first, to the party
itself ; second, to the citizen whose support is sought.
Violation of the party promise is an assault upon
the party honor, destroys the confidence of its mem
bership, and endangers the existence of party organ
ization. It is a betrayal of the public, a fraud upon
the citizen who supported it, and who, relying upon
it, has been deprived of a sovereign right. To se
cure the support of voters upon any promise, ex
press or implied, and then to refuse to fulfill the
promise deprives the citizen of his right of suffrage
as completely for the time being as though he were
disfranchised by legislative enactment.
Manhood suffrage is a precious right, and in a
democracy it lies at the foundation of all personal
and property rights. Without it the citizen has no
protection for home or liberty. If it be denied to
him, the citizen becomes a serf. A party platform
^is, therefore, of the highest importance to the in
dividual voter. When it has been formulated by
the party and promulgated as its declaration of .
principles, as its pledge to do certain things, to ad-
minister the government in a certain way, to enact
certain legislation, the citizen is then placed in 5
position where he can easily determine whether he
desires to support the party promising that kind of
government. It is the party platform which en
ables him to choose in making his party alliance.
He understands that one party or the other will
control, and will make and will administer the laws.
Guided, then, by the promises made in the party

Representative Government 23
platform he casts his ballot, gives his support, works
for the triumph and success of that party whose
platform principles most strongly appeal to his
judgment. The party's tender of its platform, the
citizen's tender of his support upon that platform,
makes, therefore, a solemn compact, a covenant,
which binds the party to the voter, who has staked
his faith and placed his interests upon its honor and
in its keeping. The party, therefore, has become the
trustee of the citizen's right, and it cannot violate
the obligation which it has assumed.
But, more than this, the party summons its mem
bers to go forth bearing its banners and proclaiming
its principles. It seeks out the citizen, it enlists him
in its service, it urges him to accept its pledges,
and appeals to him to go forth and repeat its prom
ises and proclaim its good faith, multiplying, on
every hand, its obligations to keep its word and
make good every promise in its platform. Its will
ingness to do this is the test of its integrity of
purpose. No fear need ever be entertained that the party
itself will ignore or repudiate its platform obliga
tions. Great bodies of men constituting party or
ganizations are drawn together by deep-seated con
victions, lasting in character, and appealing strongly
to the sentiments of loyalty and patriotism. The
mass of men composing party organizations can al
ways be relied upon to support party platforms.
There will be no failure through lack of fidelity on
their part. But a political party can only work out
a practical application of the principles of the party
platform through legislation and administration.

24 La Follette's Political Philosophy
To accomplish this it must, out of all its members,
choose agents to represent it and execute its will.
These members of its organization are placed be
fore the public as its candidates for office, its hon
ored and trusted spokesmen. In the nature of
things, the party can only execute its will through
its chosen representatives. They are clothed with
its authority ; they are the custodians of its pledges.
Upon them rests the double obligation to execute
tl;is trust; as individual members of the party they
share in its responsibility, but, as the representa
tives of the party deputed to perform its promises,'
its honor is placed in their keeping. When the citi
zen, relying upon the pledges made in the platform
of the party, gives his support to the representative
of the party and aids to place him in the public serv
ice to the end that he may fulfill and perform, in
letter and in spirit, the promises for legislation and
administration embodied in the platform, the official
has become yet more solemnly bound to the faith
ful execution of his sacred trusts.
Upon all matters, not covered by the platform, in
his official capacity as the agent of his party and
the representatives of the public, he may exercise
his best judgment; but in all matters upon which
his political party has spoken in its platform, when
that party has put him before the public as its
nominee, representing the principles embodied in
its party declaration, he has no right to exercise an
independent judgment. He cannot play fast and
loose with party promise and preserve a semblance
of official or individual integrity.

Representative Government 25
The enactment of legislation which has been
pledged by the party and endorsed by the people
cannot be defeated, in whole or in part, without a
violation of obligation. It becomes an express trust,
the terms clearly defined, and the public official has
no more moral right to quibble and evade, to say
that he will perform a part and repudiate the rest,
than he would have to use a part of trust funds
committed to his keeping as a private trust.
If government is to be representative government,
then it must truly represent the will of the majority ;
both of the party when it has spoken in its platforms
and of the people when they have spoken through
the right of suffrage, as expressed in their ballots.
For a minority to obstruct or delay or defeat the
will of the majority is destructive of the principles
upon which a republican form of government is
founded. Speech Accepting Nomination for Governor,
May 19, 1904.
The Reformer
It is incumbent upon the reformer who seeks to es
tablish a~ new order to come equipped with com
plete mastery of all the information upon which the
establisfre'd~order is based. And it is for this rea-
son that' the thoroughgoing, uncompromising. Pro
gressive movement is essentially a safe one for the
public and for all legitimate business.
Reformers often stop fighting before the battle
is really won ; before the'n-ew territory is completely
occupied.

I have always felt that the political reformer, li
the engineer or the architect, must know thaf 1
foundations are right. To build the superstru^u
in advance of that is likely to be disastrous to t
whole thing. He must not put the roof on befo
he gets the underpinning in.' And the underpinnii
is education of the people.
While much has been accomplished, there is
world of problems to be solved; we have just b
gun; there is hard fighting, and a chance for tl
highest patriotism, still ahead of us. The fund
mental problem as to which shall rule, men or pro
erty, is still unsettled; it will require the highe
qualities of heroism, the profoundest devotion
duty in this and in the coming generation, to r
construct our institutions to meet the requiremen
of a new age. May such brave and true leaders d
velop that the people will not be led astray.
Autobiography, 1913.

II.
PRIMARY ELECTIONS

Ballot at Bottom of Reform
HE existence of the corporation as we
have it today was not dreamt of by the
fathers. It has become all-pervasive ;
has invaded all departments of business,
all activities of life. By their number
and power and the consolidation oft-times of many
into one, corporations have practically acquired do
minion over the business world. The effect is revo
lutionary and cannot be overestimated. The individuaT
as a business factor is disappearing, his place being
taken by many under corporate rule. The business
man and artisan of the past gave to his business an
individual stamp and reputation, making high mental
worth an essential element of business life. Gathered
in corporate employ men become mere cogs in the
wheels of complicated mechanism. The corporation is j
a machine for making money, demanding of its em-|
ployes only obedience and service, reducing men to '
the status of privates in the regular army.
It is but just to say that no legislature has assem
bled in Wisconsin in many years containing sd many
good men as the last. But when a bill to punish cor
rupt practices in campaigns and elections is destroyed
by amendment; when measures such as the Da-yiidson
bills requiring corporations to pay a just share of the

28 La Follette's Political Philosophy
taxes go down in defeat; when bills to compel millions
of dollars of untaxed personal property to come from
its hiding place and help maintain government fa;il of
adequate support; when republicans and democrats
unite in defeating the Hall resolution to emancipate
the legislature from all subserviency to the corpora
tions by prohibiting acceptance of railroad passes,
telegraph and express company franks ; when these
things and many others of like character happen and
are made matters of public record which no man may
deny, then that man is untrue to his country, his party
and himself who will not raise his voice in condemna
tion — not in condemnation of the principles of the
political party in which he believes, or of the great
body of its organization, but of the men who betray
it and of the methods by which they control, only to
prostitute it to base and selfish ends.
The remedy is to begin at the bottom and make one
supreme effort for victory over the present bad system.
jNorninate and elect men who will pass a primary elec-
liion law which will enable the voter to select directly
candidates without intervention of caucus"~or"conven-
lion or domination of machines. Thus may a perma
nent reform greater even than the reform effected by
the Australian ballot which has so revolutionized the
conduct of elections be brought about. Apply the
method of the Australian ballot as embodied in the
Cooper law to the primary election and let it take
the place of both the caucus and convention. Furnish
the priimary election booth with ballots as under the
Australian system and print on the ballot for each
party the names of the different candidates proposed
for its nominee as candidates for judicial offices are

Primary Elections 29
'now proposed ; provide for the selection of a committee
to represent each party organization and promulgate
the party platform through such committee composed
of party committeemen elected by and for the voters
of each party in every assembly district of the state.
Provide severe penalties for any violation of the pri
mary election law. Prohibit corrupt influence in or
about the election booth and insure an honest count
and return the votes as cast. Provide that each man
receiving the highest number of votes cast in the bal
lot box of his party for the office for which he is a
candidate shall be the nominee of that party in the
general election to follow. In short pass such a meas
ure as the Lewis primary election bill. Under this
system you will destroy the machine because you de
stroy the caucus and convention system through which
the machine controls party nominations. You will
place the nominations directly in the hands of the
people. You will restore to every state in the union
the government given to this people by the God of
nations. Address "Menace of the Machine,"
Chicago University, Feb, 22, 1897.
Direct Nominations Fundamental
\
Under our form of government the entire structure
rests upon the nomination of candidates iQroffice.
This is the foundation of the representative systS
If bad men control the nominations vi6 Krnflofnave
good government. Let us start right. Tjiejife-pr^in--^
ciple of representative govemmgitis-that tbese-ehosen
to govern shall faithfully represent the governed. __To
insure this the representative must be chosen by those

30 La Follette's Political Philosophy
whom he is to represent. This is fujjdamental. A
system" biitlFiipph" any other foundation is not a rep
resentative government. By no other means can it be
"Established or maintained. The moment that any
power or authority over the representative comes be
tween him and those who have selected him to be their
representative that moment he ceases to be their rep-
^resentative. His responsibility -is at once transferred
to the intervening power or authority. He becomes
the trustee of this new authority and to it he must
render account for his actions. It is vital then in
representative government that no power or authority
shall be permitted to come between the representative
and those whom he is to represent. To secure this
every complication of detail and method, in any sys
tem, behind which such intruding power or authority
might be concealed must be torn down and cast aside.
-The voter, and the candidate for nomination who de-
j sires to represent the voter, must be brought within
reaching distance of each other, must stand f^,^_to
To accomplish this we must abolish the caucus and
convention by law, place the nomination of all can
didates in the hands of the people, adopt the Australian
ballot and make all nominations by direct vote at a
primary election.
With the nominations of all candidates absolutely
in the control of the people, under a system that gives
every member of a party equal voice in making that
nomination, the public official who desires re-nomina
tion will not dare to seek it, if he has served the
machine and the lobby and betrayed the public trust;

Primary Elections 31
if he has violated the pledges of his party and swapped
its declared principles to special interests for special
favors. But under a primary election the public official who
has kept faith with the public can appeal to that pub
lic for its approval with confidence. He will then have
every incentive to keep his official record clean. If
he have no loftier standard than mere personal success
he will nevertheless so administer his office as to earn
the commendation "Well done thou good and faith
ful servant."
The nomination of all their candidates by the direct
volxQf-the peopleJs the spirit, the -w^yjifeof j;e.p;rfe- -j
mtative governrngHt. It Ss plain, simple, practical.
Il is their right. It will come. Whoever seeks to
thwart or defeat it is an enemy of representative gov
ernment. Let him beware ! Whoever would control
as the agent of the machine will encounter lasting de
feat. Let him beware ! The country is awakening, -,.
the people are aroused. They will have their own.
The machine may obstruct, misdirected reform may
temporize, but "be of good cheer, strengthen thine
heart," the will of the people shall prevail.
I appeal to you, young men and old, plain citizens
and politicians. You are confronted with a great re- I
sponsibility. In this contest you must either stand for
representative government or against it. The fight is
on. It will continue to victory. There will be no halt
and no compromise. Address at Ann Arbor, Michigan,
March 12, 1898.

32 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Means Higher Standards of Service
For many years there has been a growing demand
for ballot reform. Intelligent, patriotic men of all
parties have weighed carefully the influence of the
ballot upon both government and party. The public
official who can count on party loyalty to carry him
through, grows indifferent and dishonest in the public
service. The political party which is strongly in
trenched in power behind a blind partisan majority,
scorns public opinion and claims its share of graft
to enrich bosses and maintain the party machine. To
control the selection of candidates for office, to hedge
the party organization about with a sentiment that the
party is a sacred thing, to so arouse partisan feeling in
the campaign as to fuse the mass of voters together,
and make them vote as one man, has made possible
the era of official dishonesty, which seems to have
taken possession of the public service everywhere.
Out of it there came to political bosses a sense of se-
vcurity which "inade thern bold in dealing with the
agents of the captains of industry, who have found it
to their interests to make politics and government a
matter of business.
Whatever conduces to make the voter as he enters
the election booth free to exercise an independent
judgment, to consider the public welfare, the integrity
of the state and the country first of all, will at once
establish higher party standards and better public
service. Message to Legislature, Special Session, 1905.

Primary Elections 33
Caucus Reform Idle Dream
Corporations, exacting large sums from the people
of this state in profits upon business transacted within
its limits, either wholly escape taxation or pay insig-
n'ficantly. in comparison with the average citizen of
Wisconsin. Owning two-thirds of the personal property, evad
ing the payment of taxes wherever possible, the cor
porations throw almost the whole burden upon land —
upon the little homes and the personal property of the
farmers. While this is getting to be somewhat understood,
yet a rigid investigation of this whole subject of
evasion of taxation by corporations and the possessors
of great wealth in every state, would awaken the
just wrath of the people and inaugurate a reform
which might reach even to the machline-made legisla
tors of the day.
But in a government where the people are sovereign,
why are these things tolerated? Why are not the
remedies promptly applied and the evils eradicated?
It is because today there is a force operating in this
country, more powerful than the sovereign in matters
pertaining to official conduct. The official obeys whom
he serves. Nominated independently of the people
and elected because there is no choice between candi
dates so nominated, the official feels responsibility
to his master alone, and his master is the political
machine of his party.
Between the people and the representatiye there has
be^'n"T)uilt up a political machine. .wbich^is__the master,
of "both. It is the outgrowth of the caucus and con
vention system.

34 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Experience has proved it to be almost idle folly to
attend caucuses and conventions with the hope of de
feating the machine until today, after a century of
statesmanship and of struggle and sacrifice, after all
the triumphs achieved under the stars and stripes,
thousands and thousands of good citizens in every
state stand aloof from the caucus and convention with
the settled belief that representative government is a,
failure. When the solemn promise of a great political party
to prohibit the issuing of railway passes to officials is
not only broken but attempted to be repudiated, when
these things, and many others of like character, trans
pire and are made matters of public record, which no
man can deny, then that man is untrue to his state,
his party and himself who will not raise his voice in
condemnation — not in condemnation of the principles
of the political party in which he believes, nor of the
great body of its organization, but of those men who
betray it and the methods by which they control only
tc prostitute it to base and selfish ends.
When legislators will boldly repudiate their con
stituents and violate the pledges of their platforms,
then, indeed, have the servants become the masters
and the people ceased to be sovereign. Gone the
government of equal rights and equal responsibili
ties, lost the jewel of constitutional liberty.
Speech at Lodi, Wisconsin, 1898,
Second Choice Voting
I congratulate you, and through you, the people of
Wisconsin upon the adoption of a law for the nomina
tion of all candidates for office by direct vote. The

Primary Elections 35
demand of the voters of this state for such a law had
been made many times in a clear and explicit manner.
Its defeat, against the will of the majority, was the
clearest impeachment of the caucus and convention
system wMch made it possible for a minority to con
trol. When after years of delay the people of Wisconsin
were granted the opportunity finally to determine the
question, they wrote the law upon the statutes of Wis
consin by more than 50,000 majority. The perfection
of legislation can only be determined by the practical
test of experience. With respect to any modifications
in the existing statute during the present session, I
have no recommendations to make further than to
repeat a suggestion heretofore made.
In the first message submitted to the legislature of
1901 upon the subject, after discussing the possibility
of the vote being so divided among a number of can
didates for the same office that no one of them might
receive a majority of all the votes cast, I said :
"If, however, upon trial, it should be found desir
able or if, in your judgment, it should be deemed wise
at the outset, this objection can be effectively met by
providing that the voter at the primary shall indicate
upon his ballot his first and second choice of the can
didates presented for each office. And that if no
candidate has majority over all candidates -of first
choice, then the candidate having the largest number
of first and second choice votes shall be accorded the
nomination." The application of this principle may be carried
still further, insuring a nomination by majority vote.

36 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Upon this, or any other branch of this great sub
ject, the best thought of your honorable body will be
well bestowed. For it is our duty to unite at all times
to give to the people of this state the best statute which
can be framed upon any subject.
Message to Legislature, 1905.
Primary as Citizen's Right
But, gentlemen of the convention, with all of
your good work, nothing which you have done,
nothing which has been done by any convention in
a quarter of a century, will give to every man who
has had a share in this work, such enduring honor
when it shall have ripened into statutory law, as
the declaration made here today, for the nomination
of all candidates by direct vote at a primary election
under the Australian ballot. The tests of experience
will doubtless be required to perfect all the working
details of a primary election law. It would be
strange indeed if it were not so. But your great
achievement is in having established the principle
and begun the overthrow of a system that is under
mining the representative government throughout
the land. No longer in Wisconsin will there stand
between the voter and the official a political machine
with a complicated system of caucuses and conven
tions, by the easy manipulation of which it thwarts
the will of the voter and rules official conduct. No
valid reason can be given for continuing the caucus
and convention another day. If the voter is com
petent to cast his ballot at the general election for
the official of his choice, he is equally competent to
vote directly at the primary election for the nomina-

Primary Elections 37
tion of the candidates of his party. It is his right
as a citizen and taxpayer and who will dare to gain
say or deny it?
Inspired with confidence by the great reforma
tion accomplished in our general elections through
the Australian ballot, we advance the standards of
reform and demand the application of the same
method in making nominations together with the
sovereign right that each citizen shall for himself
exercise his choice by direct vote, without the inter
vention or interference of any political agency.
Into the life of every generation comes some great
opportunity for great public good. It has come to
you today and, with high courage and patriotism,
you have marked the way to restore to the people
the pure form of representative government given
tliem by the fathers in the beginning.
Accepti-ng Nomination for Governor,
August 8, 1900.
Equal Voice Essential
Commissioned by the suffrages of the citizens of
this state to represent them, you will have neither
in the session before you nor in any official respon
sibility which you may assume, a more important
duty than that of perfecting and writing upon the
statute books of Wisconsin a primary election, law.
It is a fundamental principle of this republic that
each citizen shall have equal voice in government.
This is recognized and guaranteed to him through
the ballot. In a representative democracy, where a
citizen cannot act for himself for any reason, he

38 La Follette's Political Philosophy
must delegate his authority to the public official
who acts for him. Since government, with us, is
conducted by the representatives of some political
party, the citizen's voice in making and administer
ing the laws is expressed through his party ballot.
.This privilege is vital. This is the initkr point of
jail administration. It is here government begins,
and if there be failure here, there will be failure
throughout. Control lost at this point is never re
gained; rights surrendered here are never restqred.
The naming of the men upon the party ticket is the
naming of the men who will make and enforce the
laws. It not only settles the policy of the party, it
determines the character of the government.
For many years the evils of the caucus and con
vention system have multiplied and baffled all at
tempts at legislative control or correction. The
reason for this is elementary. The evils come not
from without but from within. The system in all
its details is inherently bad. It not only favors, but,
logically and inevitably, produces manipulation,
scheming, trickery, fraud and corruption. The del
egate elected in caucus is nominally the agent of
the voter to act for him in convention. Too fre
quently he has his own interests alone at heart, and,
for this reason, has secured his selection as a dele-
gate\As a consequence, he acts not for the voter,
but serves his own purpose instead. \ This fact in
itself taints the trust from the outset; and poisons
the system at its very source. No legitimate busi
ness could survive under a system where authority
to transact its vital matters were delegated and re-
delegated to agents and sub-agents, who controlled

Primary Elections 39
their own selection, construed their own obliga
tions, and were responsible to nobody.
The officials nominated by the machine become
its faithful servants and surrender judgment to its
will. This they must do in self-preservation or they
are retired to private life. Wielding a power sub
stantially independent of the voter, it is quite un
necessary to regard him as an important factor in
government. He can usually be depended upon in
the elections, because campaigns are so managed as
to make strong appeal to party feeling, and he has
to vote his party ticket or support that of the op
position nominated by the same method. Under our
system of party government the selection of the
candidate is the vital question.
A political convention is never a deliberative body.
It is impossible from the brevity of its life, the con
fusion of its proceedings, the intangible character
of its records, to fix or attach any abiding sense of
responsibility in its membership. Its business is
rushed through under pressure for time. Excite
ment and impatience control, rather than reason and
judgment. Noisy enthusiasm o"utweighs the strong
est argument. Misstatements and misunderstand
ings will defeat the best candidate. The plain truth
can hardly keep pace with hurrying events. . It is
rare, indeed, that the results of a convention are
satisfactory to anybody excepting the few who se
cure some personal advantage or benefit from it
It is the essence of republican government that
the citizen should act for himself directly wherever
possible. In the exercise of no other right is this so
important as in the nomination of candidates for of-

40 La Follette's Political Philosophy
fice. It is of primary importance that the public
official should hold himself directly accountable to
the citizen. This he will do only when he owes his
nomination directly to the citizen. If between the
citizen and the official there is a complicated system
oi caucuses and conventions, by the easy manipula
tion of which the selection of candidates is con
trolled by some other agency or power, then the
official will so render his services as to have the
approval of such agency or power. The overwhelm
ing demand of the people of this state, whom you
represent, is that such intervening power and au
thority, and the complicated system which sustains
it, shall be torn down and cast aside. This is your
duty, and high privilege as well, to accomplish it in
the session before you. This, it is well understood,
cannot be accomplished by any temporizing meas
ure or sd-called caucus reforms. The defects of the
caucus, convention and delegate system are fatal
because organic. It cannot be amended, recon
structed or reorganized, and its perpetuation se
cured. Its end is decreed by the enlightened moral
sentiment of the entire country. It can no more
resist the development which is sweeping it aside
than could the adoption of the Australian ballot be
successfully opposed a short ten years ago. It may
secure trifling delays by temporary expedients. Its
advocates may insist on making it a fetich and being
sacrificed with it. But its knell has been sounded in
Wisconsin, where it is already defeated, and a de
cade will leave scarcely a trace of its complicated
machinery in existence in any State of the Union.
Message to Legislature, 1901.

Primary Elections 41
Primary Deserving of Fair Test
I herewith return without approval bill No. 73,
originating in the senate, entitled "An act relating
to nominations of county officers by direct vote."
The history of the effort to secure a primary elec
tion law in this state, the character of the opposi
tion, and the means employed to defeat it demand a
permanent place in the legislative record of this
session. It is therefore from a controlling sense of
obligation that I submit the following in connection
with specific, reasons for interposing the executive
veto to prevent this bill from becoming a law.
More than four years ago the contest for nomina
tions by direct vote of the people began in this
state. The principle was then clearly defined. The
plan under which it could be accomplished was then
fully presented. More than that, the foundation
and framework for a primary election law were at
that time set forth and submitted to the people of
this state as follows :
"Substitute for both the caucus and the conven
tion a primary election held under all the sanctions
of law which prevail at general elections, where the
citizen may cast his vote directly to nominate the
candidates of the party with which he affiliates, and
have it canvassed and returned as he cast it.
"Provide a means of placing the candidates in
nomination before the primary and forestall the
creation of a new caucus system back of the primary
election. "Provide a ballot for .the primary election and
print on it the names of all candidates for nomina-

42 La Follette's Political Philosophy
tion who have previously filed preliminary nomina
tion papers with a designated official.
"Provide that no candidate for nomination shall
have his name printed on the primary election ticket
who shall not have been called out as a candidate by
the written request of a given percentage of the
vote cast at the preceding election in the district,
county or state in which he is proposed as a candi
date, in the same manner that judicial candidates
are now called out in many states.
"Provide for the selection of a committee to repre
sent the party organization and promulgate the
party platform by the election at the primary of a
representative man from the party for each county
ir the state. Measure Fully Discussed
"Under severe penalties for violation of the law,
prohibit electioneering in or about the election
booth, punish bribery or the attempt to bribe, and
protect fully the canvass and return of the votes
cast." Excepting as to the manner of making the plat
form, which is not the same, this presents fairly all
the essential provisions of the primary election bill
as originally introduced at this session. It would
be difficult, indeed, to cite another instance in the
history of the state where a great measure, of such
fundamental importance in government, was more
fully and clearly outlined and more generally dis
cussed so long in advance. No haste was anywhere
shown to urge legislation. Whatever was done was
solely with the view of stimulating thought and

Primary Elections 43
argument of the measure upon its merits. From
platform and pulpit, before agricultural societies,
good government clubs, political clubs, debating
societies, in the schoolhouses and public halls,
wherever men were gathered together, the dangers
which threaten representative government were dis
cussed, the cause plainly traced to the selection of
candidates by the bosses, the vital importance of
election by the people by direct vote, and the neces
sary provisions of a primary law were fully and
fairly presented. The press of the state, almost
without exception, gave the subject editorial treat
ment from time to time, while the leading period
icals and magazines of the country, widely read by our
people, devoted much space to its consideration.
Hundreds of thousands of pamphlets and addresses
presenting every phase of the issue and meeting
the arguments and objections of the opposition
were distributed throughout the state. The entire
matter was thoroughly well understood. Indeed,
so plainly were the provisions of the primary elec
tion bill outlined, so fully was the principle and its
application discussed, so emphatically approved by
the voters of Wisconsin in the last election, that the
defeat of the bill is a plain violation of the principle
upon which is based a "government of the people,
by the people, and for the people." It was so over
whelmingly approved by the voters because they
were everywhere ready for it. The machine haa
prepared the way. Not a county, not a community"
but had its boss and master, who in turn had his,
higher up in the feudal system which then controlled
the commonwealth. State officers and members of

44 La Follette's Political Philosophy
the legislature were named by less than half a dozen
gentlemen equal in authority, absolutely at their
pleasure. Such was the sense of security which
unopposed power inspires, that nominations were
settled sometimes months in advance of conven
tions called merely to "ratify" the same. In state
conventions delegates were bribed to betray their
constituents by men who had held high official star
tion. So brazen and reckless did their agents be
come in approaching decent men who spurned their
offers that good citizenship was everywhere ready
for open revolt. Representative government Was
being practically undermined. The men were not
the candidates of the voters but of the machine.
^The official was no longer the servant of the people,
but the abject tool of the men who fought the nom
ination and owned the official. These gentlemen
had from time to time manifested their power in
debauching legislation and their evil work is found
today in many statutes, affecting adversely the in
terests of every citizen of the state.
The remedy proposed — the nomination of all can
didates by direct vote of the citizen — went straight
to the heart of the trouble. It brought the business
of choosing candidates back to the basic principle
of pure democratic government. It eliminated the
boss and the machine. It left no place for either.
It was a new declaration of independence. It pro
claimed to the world that the people proposed to
take charge of the business of government for them
selves. It was so manifestly right, so plainly neces
sary to rescue representative government from ab
solute overthrow by machine control,, which is al-

Primary Elections 45
ways minority control, that it quickly received the
approval of the thoughful and patriotic citizenship
of the state without respect to party alliance.
Clearly understanding the meaning and full scope
of their action, each of the great political parties of
the state — the Democrats in 1898 and the Republi
cans in 1900 — adopted in their respective platforms,
without qualification or limitation, the principle for
the nomination of all candidates by direct vote of
the people at a primary election, in lieu of nomina
tions by delegates through the machinery of cau
cuses and conventions. Platform Pledge Important
In every republic the laws are very certain to be
made and administered by the representatives of
some political party. It therefore becomes a ques
tion of deep concern to every citizen to determine
with what party he will affiliate. This is all-import
ant to him, and to guide him in deciding, political
parties present their purposes and their promises to
perform, in the declarations adopted as the party's
pledge or platform. This is offered to the voter for
his consideration.
Otherwise he cannot know for what kind of gov
ernment he is casting his vote. It is a contract pure
and simple. The party which adopts it, the candi
date who accepts a nomination upon it, is solemnly
bound by its obligations. If he is not in accord with
it he has neither moral nor political right to be a
candidate. To stand as the candidate of a party not
agreeing with its platform, to solicit the suffrages

46 La Follette's Political Philosophy
of the citizen, and when elected to violate the prom
ises of that platform is to cheat and betray the
voter. It is an evasion unworthy of the grave char
acter of this great question to say that the con
stituent trusts to the independent judgment of his
representative. In those matters as to which the
party and its representatives have been pledged he
has no right afterward to set up an independent
judgment. If he has independent opinions not in
conformity with his party platform he should assert
them before the party and the voter have accepted
him as the representative of the principle embodied
in the platform. As to those matters it is too late
to talk of "independent judgment." That for which
he stands— the declarations and promises of his
party to the public — is a sacred public trust, and to
its faithful execution as a man and public official he
is in honor bound.
These observations are submitted because the
consideration of legislation, to control in any way
party nominations, embraces within its scope, and
emphasizes in a marked way the relation of political
parties to government, of the citizen to his political
party, and of the public official to his constituent,
his party and the state. These relations and the ob
ligations imposed must in matters of special import
ance be defined by platform declarations. This is
even more imperative in state government where
the issues are not political, in that sense which dis
tinguishes where national politics are involved. In
matters of national legislation and national adminis
tration political policies are expected to control.
The issues are clearly defined on all the principal

Primary Elections 47
subjects of legislation. This would be generally
true in the absence of platform declarations. The
traditions of parties and the fundamental principles
upon which they were organized point the way they
are certain to go. For these reasons the voter does
not feel bound to consider so critically the construc
tion of the national platform of his party, unless
there be incorporated in it some new and unortho
dox party creed. But state legislation deals with
the subjects of taxation, the maintenance and regu
lation of our system of jurisdiction, the support and
care for the charitable and penal institutions, the
nurture and development of our educational system,
the regulation of banking and insurance, and other
purely domestic affairs, where political division is
impossible. Indeed, it may be said that substanti-'
ally all state legislation is strictly nonpartisan in
character. Hence, if political lines cannot be drawn <
in the legislature because the subjects of legislation
are not political, then the voter cannot anticipate
what action will follow the election of .a given set
of officials upon the matters in which he is most
deeply interested, excepting as the candidates are
committed in advance by pledges of the respective
parties. It therefore becomes imperative that the
proposed policies of state government should be
clearly defined in platform declarations and fully
presented to the people of the state, that they may
decide by their sovereign voice what kind of state
government they are to have, and in so far as prac
ticable what laws are to be enacted and what gen
eral policies shall be pursued.
Veto Message, May 10, 1901.

48 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Transfer of Power Weakens Authority
Compelling the citizen to hand his sovereign right,
to vote directly for the candidates of his choice,
over to some caucus delegate, to be turned over to
some convention delegate to barter for something
for himself, impairs the voter's right of suffrage,
and its evil effects in representative government are
more strikingly manifest in the actions of the public
official than of the private citizen.
The official well understands that his nomination
through delegates invariably is secured without the
consent of a majority of the voters of his party, or
indeed, without the consent of even a fair minority
of his party. He well knows the value of the pow
erful influence of public-service corporations through
the caucus and convention, and this knowledge
bears strongly upon his official action. He reasons
that under ordinary circumstances the unlimited use
of money, the support of purchasable newspapers,
the maintenance of perfect organization, all attain
able through the vast resources of such corpora
tions, will, under ordinary circumstances, enable
him to succeed in politics.
No man can have witnessed the protracted strug
gle in this state to secure legislation equalizing the
burdens of taxation, no man can have witnessed the
defeat of bills increasing the taxation of the rail-'
roads to more nearly their justly proportionate
share, and escape the conviction that" the present
method of selecting candidates for office is radically
defective. It cannot be seriously doubted that under
a system of nominations by direct vote of the peo-

Primary Elections 49
pie, their influence upon the official could not fail to
be very much more pronounced and direct. He
would well understand that in order to secure their
approval and svipport to continue him in public
life, he must win that approval upon the merit of
his record in their service. He would know that
every vote cast, every act as a representative in aid
of measures or opposed to measures affecting the !¦
public interest, would be canvassed and reviewed
when he came to seek re-nomination ; hence, his
record as a public official would be made day by
day with that sense of personal responsibility, aris
ing from a knowledge of direct and certain account
ability to the people, pointing the way he should go.
This is the one thing needful in a republican form
of government, and the one thing which cannot be
dispensed with in any of the affairs of life where one
man performs services for another. No trust would
be safe, unless the trustee knew that he would be
required to render an account of his stewardship to
one having authority to terminate it. In no other
trust positions are the opportunities for evading
responsibility so many or the temptations for be
trayal so great and the likelihood of confusing and
befogging the issue so favorable as in the public
service. Hence it is imperative that the trustee be
required to account directly to those whom he rep-b.
resents in the discharge of his trust.
This is the fatal defect in the caucus and conven
tion system of selecting candidates to be elected to
office. Even if men chosen as delegates in the
caucuses and conventions were never guilty of a
wilful and corrupt betrayal of trust, if barga-ins and

50 La Follette's Political Philosophy
deals and bribery could be eliminated, nevertheless
the entire plan should be abolished because it re-
m.oves the nomination too far from the voter, the
trustee too far from him for whom he bears the
trust, the agent too far from the principal. Every
transfer of delegated power weakens authority and
diminishes responsibility until the candidate nom
inated represents nothing that the voter wanted,
feels under no obligation to the voter for his nom
ination, nor is he directly accountable to him for his
acts as a public official.
The momentous importance of discarding the del
egate system and securing the personal responsibil
ity of the official to the citizen is rapidly coming to
be accepted through the country. Already legisla
tion recognizing the principle of nominating by di
rect vote of the people has-been applied in making
nominations in a dozen different states, while the
legislatures of twenty-two others have taken hold
of the subject in an earnest way within the last twp
years. The demand for direct nominations was
recognized in the platforms of both political parties
in several states in the recent campaign, and the
progressive movement is commanding strong sup
port throughout the country.
Will of the People
; To secure a more direct expression of the will of
the people in all things pertaining to the people's
I government is the dominating thought in American
politics today. The citizen will no longer surrender
to delegate, agent, or substitute, any political con
trol which he may properly exercise for himself.

Primary Elections 51
lie understands that in some matters pertaining to
government he must be represented by a public
servant. The citizen is resolved to participate di
rectly wherever he can, and in all matters where he
must be represented by another, to bring that rep
resentative as near to him as possible. The funda
mental principle upon which this government was
established can no longer be subverted. No more
striking manifestation of this could be found than
in the current volume of the Congressional Record.
For the first time in history the house of representa
tives passed, without one dissenting vote, and sent
to the senate a resolution for the election of United
States senators by direct vote. The spirit of de
mocracy is abroad in the land. Government is to
be brought back to the people.
The nomination of all candidates by direct vote
under the Australian ballot should appeal to the
patriotism of all legislators and lift them above
partisan and personal prejudice, in a united effort
to give the people of Wisconsin a system of electing
public officials truly representative of public inter
ests : in restoring to the people in full measure this
principle of pure democratic government. This is
required particularly of republicans by every obliga
tion which can be made binding upon the honor of;
the representatives of any political party in the
public service.
The party itself will not fail. Men in masses are
not drawn together in support of principles which
endure the strain of protracted contest without fixed
convictions. The party is the aggregation of citi
zens bound together by an agreement of opinion

52 La Follette's Political Philosophy*
respecting the declared principles of the party.
They are for maintaining the principles and keeping
faith with one another. Fixed convictions are the
foundations of good faith. The party honor is safe
with the party. It will not betray itself.
But the party must select men as its medium of
expression in government from the members of its
organization and make them public officials to exe
cute the will of the majority. Upon the public of
ficial then there falls the full weight of this double
obligation. He represents the individual citizen in
person. He is the custodian of the party honor. He
cannot play fast and loose with clearly understood
personal and party obligations and maintain a sem
blance of official integrity. He has no more moral
right to quibble and evade, to say that he will per
form a part and repudiate some of the specific prom
ises of the party, than he would have to use in part
trust funds committed to his keeping. If this be
counted too exact a standard of public duty today,
be sure that it will not be so regarded tomorrow.
The citizen is being rapidly schooled by experience
throughout the entire country, and is fast acquiring
definite ideas of the right relation of the political
party to government, of the citizen to his political
party, and the duty of the public official to the citi
zen, to his party, and to the State.
Message to Legislature, 1903.

Ill
POLITICAL MACHINE AND THE BOSSES

Legitimate Organization and Machine Contrasted
O enlist the interest of every individual,
P^^ encourage research, stimulate discus-
1^)^ sion of measures and of men, prior to
^^^^^^ the time when the voter should dis
charge this primary duty of citizenship,
offers political organization (opportunity for the
highest public service. Teaching the principles of
the^ party, reviewing political history, discussing
pending and proposed legislation, investigating the
fitness of candidates for office, quickening the sense
of obligation and personal responsibility in all the
duties of citizenship, commanding the continuous,
intelligent, personal interest of the individual votei:
— and when the campaign is on, conducting the
canvass — these are the legitimate functions of po
litical organization.
Such organizations cannot be used as political
machines for individuals or factions. Whenever
such organizations are maintained political slates
are shattered and political bargains fail of consum
mation. Cliq^ueSj rings, machines, thrive upon the
citizen's indifference to the plain duties of repre
sentative government.
There is no likeness or similitude between a poli
tical organization that appeals to every voter in the

54 La Follette's Political Philosophy
party and a machine that appeals only to the most
skilled and unscrupulous workers of the party.
" This is the modern political machine. Et is im
personal, irresponsible, extra legal. The courts of
fer no redress for the rights it violates, the wrongs
it inflicts. It is without conscience and without re
morse. It has come to be enthroned in American
Ijolitics. It rules caucuses, names delegates, ap
points committees, dominates the councils of the
party, dictates nominations, makes platforms, dis
penses patronage, directs state administrations, con
trols legislatures, .aiiflea-oppagition^ punishes inde
pendence and elects United States senators'i/ In the"
states where it is supreim'e,"th'e edict"5fTtrS' machine
is the only sound heard, and outside is easily mis
taken for the voice of the people. If some particular
pTatform pledge is necessary to the triumph of the
hour, the platform is so written and the pledge
violated without offering excuse or justification.
If public opinion be roused to indignant protest,
Isome scapegoat is put forward to suffer vicariously
'for the sins of the machine, and subsequently re
warded for his service by the emoluments of ma
chine spoils. If popular revolt against the machine
sweeps over the state on rare occasions and the
machine finds itself hard pressed to maintain its
hold on party organization, control conventions and
nominate its candidates — when threats and promises
fail — the "barrel" is not wanting and the way is
cleared. It is independent of the people, and fears no reck
oning. In extreme cases where it becomes necessary
to meet arraignment it has its own press to parry

The Machine and the Bosses 55
or soften the blow. Having no constituency toj
serve, it serves itself. The machine is its own/
m.aster. It o'wes no obligation and acknowledgesj
no responsibility. — '
Its legislati|res make the laws by its schedule.
It names thei): committees. It suppresses bills in
imical to its Interests, behind the closed doors of
its committee rooms. It suppresses debate by ma
chine rule and the ready gavel of a pliant speaker.
It exploits measures with reform titles, designed
to perpetuate machine control. It cares for special
interests and takes tribute from its willing subjects,
the private corporations. There was a time when
the corporation lobbyist was an important function
ary, and the mercenary legislator a factor with
whom it was necessary to make terms. The per
fect political machine is fast superseding the lobby
ist. The corporation now makes terms direct with
the machine and the lobbyist now attends upon the
legislature to look after details and spy upon the
action of members.
It is as much the interest and as plainly the duty
of the state, to as carefully perfect and guard a
system -of nominating candidates as it perfects and
guards the system of electing them.
The reformation effected in our elections by the
Australian voting system should inspire us with
confidence in advancing the lines of attack. Recall
for one moment the change wrought wherever the
Australian system has been adopted. Formeriy the
polling place was the scene of wrangling, dispute,
disorder, often of violence and collision; weak men
were badgered, corrupt men were bought. The

56 La Follette's Political Philosophy
employer often followed his men to the ballot box,
voting them in a body, and the political boss was
always present. Today the voter, freed from all
annoyances, all espionage, all intimidation, goes
alone into the quiet of the election booth and exer
cises his right without fear of punishment or hope
of reward, other than his own conscience affords
I and the general good secures. Here rich and poor,
l^ employer and employed, meet on the same level.
That which had become mere theory under the old
plan of voting is transformed into an assured fact
under the new, and the state maintains in this place
the equality of its citizens before the law.
Is there any good reason why a plan so success
ful in securing a free, honest ballot and fair count
in the election, will not work equally well in the
nomination of candidates?
Then every citizen will share equally in the nom
ination of the candidates of his party and attend
primary elections, as a privilege as well as a duty.
It will no longer be necessary to create an artificial
interest in the general election to induce voters to
attend. Intelligent, well-considered judgment will
be substituted for unthinking enthusiasm, the lamp
of reason for the torchlight. The voter will not
require to be persuaded that he has an interest in
the election. He will know that the nominations
of the party will not be the result of "compromise,"
or impulse or vile design— the "barrel" and the
machine— but the candidates of the majority hon
estly and fairly nominated.
To every generation some important work is
committed. If this generation will destroy the po-

The Machine and the Bosses 57
litical machine, will emancipate the majority from
its enslavement, will again place the destinies of
this nation in the hands of its citizens, then, "Under
God, this government of the people, by the people
and for the people shall not perish from the earth."
Address, "Menace of the Machine,"
Chicago University, February 22, 1897.
Iniquity of Secret Caucus
Mr. President, if the senate shall determine to
make the precedent which the senator from New
York seeks to raise here, it may take notice now
that such a precedent will return many times to
plague it hereafter.
I do not recognize, sir, the right of any senator
here, directly or indirectly, to make against me the
criticism that I am voting against my party because
that vote is against the action of members of this
senate regarding the public business in a secret
meeting held in some place outside this chamber.
I deny the right of any secret caucus held outside
of the senate chamber behind closed doors, with no
reporters present, to dispose of the public business
or anything which may exercise an important or
controlling influence upon the public business.
I regard the election of a president pro tempore
of this great body as of great importance in the con
duct of its business. It is of tremendous importance
at times, Mr. President, in determining what meas
ures shall pass this body. I do not propose to be
read out of the republican party because I cannot
conscientiously support some nian whom a number

58 La Follette's Political Philosophy
of my party associates have agreed upon in a secret
meeting as their choice for president pro tempore of
the senate. Speech in U. S. Senate, 191 1.
Platform Pledges Sacred
Platform pledges express the convictions of the
party and are the inducements offered by the party
for the votes of the people. They are the party's
promise to do specific things. They are the voter's
guide in determining with what party he will affili
ate. They constitute a written contract deliberately
entered into with every man who casts his vote for
the candidate of his party. Neither the party nor
the official representative of the party can with
honor change or repudiate that; contract. The
candidate who is unwilling to be bound by the plat
form of the party has no moral or political right to
accept a party nomination. If having accepted a
nomination he finds that he is not in accord with
the pledges of his party, if he cannot carry out its
promises as an official, if he decides to be independ
ent of platform obligation, he is then in honor bound
so to announce, at once to withdraw as a party
candidate and stand, if at all, upon his individual
declaration as a candidate for office independent of
party support.
These propositions require no argument. They
are the unwritten but unchangeable law of political
ethics. They enforce themselves between the can
didate and the party, the official and the public.
Acceptance of Nomination for Governor, 1902.

The Machine and the Bosses 59
The Machine Politician
The psychology of a certain type of machine poli
tician is a most interesting study. It is characteris
tic of him to win if possible, but to appear to win
in any event. He has a quick, almost prophetic
eye for the loaded wagon. He has one rule : beat
the opposition man, but if he cannot be beaten, sup
port him. Claim credit for his victory, and at all
hazards, keep in with the successful candidate. He
believes that if he cannot get what he wants for
himself by opposing a candidate, he may possibly
succeed in getting what he wants by supporting
him- ; i[ 'imi
Never in my political life have I derived benefit
from the two sources of power by which machine
politics chiefly thrives — I mean patronage, the con
trol of appointments to office, and the use of large
sums of money in organization. Autobiography, 1913.
Honesty in Politics
The politician cannot exist without absolute, un
yielding, uncompromising honesty. The same high
regard for right conduct which earns confidence in
business and professional life commands like trib
ute in politics. There is no call to party or public
service where it is wanting; there is no continued
success where it is not held and cherished.
The politician and the statesman stand, the rep
resentative of this principle or that party, only so
long as he stands erect in honor. One deviation,
one relaxation, one bending of principle, and he

6o La Follette's Political Philosophy
falls, and falls forever. Nay, woe to him though he
yield only to weakness, evincing the slightest want
of moral discrimination ! Under the scorching
breath of public suspicion, a shining record of honor
and integrity withers to dust and ashes. There is
no escape, no appeal. His office is either a sacred
trust or the poisoned shaft of Nesus. Vain the
defense of personal friends, vain the previous clean
public life ! Hunted from his high place by a be
trayed people, retribution soon closes his career
and gives his name to the ensuing generation ab
horred. No ! No ! politician or statesman, more
than any other man, must he ever bend a "vaulting
ambition" to meet the last exaction of the moral
law. Speech, House of Representatives, March 25, 1886.

IV
TAXATION

Complete Valuation Essential
RECOMMEND that you so legislate
as to require the commission not only
to have a general supervision of the
system of taxation, but to take such
measures as will enforce the provisions
of law, that all property be placed on the assess
ment roll at the actual cash value; that it be re-
C|uired to institute proper proceedings enforcing
penalties provided for public officers whose duties
pertain to the assessment and collection of taxes,
and against individuals and the officers of corpora
tions failing to comply with the provisions of the
law with respect to the disclosure of property for
assessment ; to prefer charges for the removal from
office of any assessor who has violated the law re
specting assessment, and, in the prosecution of the
same, authorize the commissioner to call upon the at
torney general or any district attorney of the state
to prosecute any violation of the law respecting the
assessment and collection of taxes ; to visit, through
some members of the commission, each county in
the state, personally, and investigate the work of
assessors, with authority to summon the assessors
of the county to appear before such commission, or
any member thereof, and to submit to examination
respecting the performance of their duties as such

62 La Follette's Political Philosophy
assessors; to have full power and authority to take
testimony and examine individuals and officers of
corporations, and require the production of books
and papers; and where the offices and books and
papers and any of the witnesses are located outside
the state, whenever necessary, to be empowered to
take deposition in order to procure such informa
tion as may be useful either in enforcing the law 'or
in enabling the comrnission to recommend legisla
tion ; to examine upon their own motion, or upon
the information of any individual, into any com
plaint as to property liable to taxation that has not
been assessed, or has been improperly assessed, or
to take such proceedings as will insure its assess
ment under the law, whether such property be
owned by an individual, a co-partnership or cor
poration. Message to Legislature, 1901.
Equal Taxation Fundamental
Uniformity of valuation lies at the foundation of
equal taxation as between individuals and locali
ties, and a complete listing of all taxable property
is not less essential.
No student of the subject, however, is unmindful
of the difficulties encountered in the administration
of laws to secure the direct taxation of all intangi
ble property. While the subject is not a new one,
thoroughgoing, scientific investigation of it con
joined with practical test has still a wide field to
explore. The question of railway taxation is a practical
one and it is expected that as public officials we will

Taxation 63
deal with it in a practical way. As men of exper
ience, some of you men experienced in legislation,
you will understand, as the public likewise under
stands, the opposition which has been made by the
railroad companies to any increase in their taxes.
It is a matter of common knowledge among those
who have encountered the railroad lobby that this
opposition was so determined as to announce the de
clared purpose of the railway companies to increase
their freight rates enough to offset any increase in
taxation. The ease with which this menace might
be enforced can very readily be seen. An increase
in the fraction of a per cent, in freight rates, or a
slight readjustment of the classifications, would
enable railroads to collect from their patrons in
Wisconsin more than enough to balance any in
crease in their taxes.
Indeed, since legislation has been pending in this
state to require railroads to pay their proportionate
share of taxation, freight rates for Wisconsin have
been increased, indicating a forehanded determina
tion to be prepared -against legislation to equalize
taxation. It becomes apparent at once that legislation com
pelling the railroads, and other public-service cor
porations, to pay their proportionate share of the\
taxes will fail utterly in its object unless it be sup- \
plemented with legislation protecting the public
against increased transportation charges.
This is not a question of policy. The railroad
companies of this state owe the state more than
$1,000,000 a year. For many years, because of the
postponement or defeat of legislation requiring them

64 La Follette's Political Philosophy
to pay their proportionate share of the taxes, the
other taxpayers of Wisconsin have paid for them
$1,000,000 annually. The case has been tried; the
hearing has been full. Judgment has been given
again and again. Pledges have been made by po
litical parties and repeated by candidates for office,
over and over again. The question is not an open
one. There is no opportunity for misunderstanding.
There is no room for speculation. The truth is as
certained. The truth is known. It is lodged in the
public mind to stay. The people want $1,000,000
a year because it is the sum owing. They are not
to be wheedled by any soft phrases about "conser
vation." There is nothing to compromise. fEqual
and just taxation is a fundamental principle of re
publican government. \ The amount due as taxes
from railroads and other public-service corporations
should be paid, and paid in full, and I am confident
that legislation to secure that payment will be
promptly enacted. Message to Legislature, 1903.
Dog Tax Discrimination
I return herewith, without approval, bill No. 267,
originating in the assembly, entitled, "An act to
provide for licensing dogs and for the collection of
said license."
The bill proposes to exact a license fee of from
one to three dollars from every owner or keeper of
a dog. Residents of cities and villages can escape
payment of such a tax by ceasing to own or keep
dogs. Upon the farm, however, the watch dog and
shepherd are as much a necessity as the other do-

Taxation 65
niestic animals which they protect and guard, and
the license fee would amount to an increase in taxa
tion. The fee or tax proposed may not be esteemed
by the legislature a serious burden in itself, but it
would add to burdens borne by a great majority of
the people which are already out of all proportion
to those borne by others whose influence would
seem to be more potent in shaping legislation.
For many years there has been a well-settled be
lief in the minds of a great majority of people of
this state that quasi-public corporations were pay
ing less, than a fair share of the taxes necessary to
maintain government. That belief was fortified by
the absolute knowledge that certain corporations
were not taxed at all, and that certain other corpo
rations were paying but a nominal tax in the form
of a license fee. In 1898 this belief had become a
conviction in the public mind so strong that it found
clear and emphatic expression in each of the plat
forms of the political parties of this state, and the
legislature of 1899 assembled under a solemn pledge
to equalize the burdens of taxation. The corpora
tions not taxed resisted taxation in any form. The
corporations then paying taxes in the form of license
fees opposed any increase. It is a matter of legis
lative history that after the enactment of the ex
press company, life insurance and sleeping-car leg
islation, and after passing through the assembly a
bill increasing the rate of the license fee on rail
roads from four to five per centum upon their gross
earnings, which was defeated in the senate, the en
tire subject was committed to a tax commission
created by a bill originating in the senate. That

66 La Follette's Political Philosophy
bill was passed under the pretext that the pressing
work of legislative sessions prevented members and
senators from giving the subject that thoroughness
of investigation which would insure fairness to
every interest, and for that rea;son the people of this
state acquiesced in the establishment of the com
mission to determine the rights and duties of all
respecting taxation. Thus this question, of great
and pressing interest to every citizen, was placed
in the hands of the able gentlemen comprising the
tax commission two years ago, and the public was
required to wait upon their decision. The disap
pointment incident to the further delay was borne
with patience by the people, upon whom fell the
added burden occasioned by the creation of these
new offices. They assented, however, to the post
ponement which this plan necessitated, because, and
only because, they were assured and persuaded to
believe that the report of the tax commission would
settle the disputed question. They submitted with
out a murmur to the increased taxation necessary
to pay the Commission to do its work, believing
that those who offered this solution of the contro
versy were acting in good faith. They had been
promised equal and just taxation for years, and had
borne repeated disappointments and delays in the
fulfillment of those promises with great fortitude.
They agreed to this form of legislative arbitration,
confident that the right would prevail because they
demanded nothing more than just and equal taxa
tion for all. They were led to believe that when the
disinterested gentlemen comprising that commis
sion determined the questions and made their rec-

I Taxation 67
ommendations to the legislature, action would fol
low in accordance therewith.
After long continued arduous labor and research,
the tax commission reported to this legislature that
there do exist gross inequalities in the tax burden
placed upon the different classes of property in this
state, and they made clear and definite recommen
dations for a better equalization of these burdens.
The proposition of the tax commission, like its
statistics, are too plain and simple to permit mis
understanding or doubt in intelligent minds which
give them consideration. They cannot be obscured
by a selfish plea that property which can be reached
by the tax gatherers should be allowed to escape a
part of its just share of the cost of government, at
the expense of property now paying a still greater
share, until that visry uncertain and remote time
when campaign promises and legislative procrasti
nation conjoined will result in bringing hidden and
intangible property within reach of the tax officers.
Nor is it probable that a majority of the people of
Wisconsin can be satisfied by framing appropria
tion bills in accord with the theory that citizens
will bear the imposition of unjust and unequal tax
ation so long as the increase in their burden is made
to appear to be due to the betterment and support of
the public schools. When the taxpayer comes to
compute profit and loss it cannot change the result
because the increase in his taxes, caused by neglect
properly to tax powerful corporate interests, comes
through a bill making increased appropriations for
common schools.

68 La Follette's Political Philosophy
The tax commission has formulated and presented
tfi you bills which would increase the state's rev
enues from railroad companies, street railway com
panies and from telephone companies. These bills
are still pending before the legislature, or its com
mittees. The commission has presented facts and
reasons which have not been discredited, showing
that the increases proposed in these several bills
would impose less than the full share of taxes due
from such companies in comparison with the tax
charges imposed upon the property and individuals
carried upon the tax rolls of the state.
I am aware that members of the legislature are
desirous of an adjournment of this session at the
earliest possible day, but I am very certain that the
people of this state are more anxious for an approx
imately equitable distribution of the tax burden,
even if the session should be protracted thereby,
For the reasons herein stated, I am unwilling to
present to the people of this state, in lieu of the
legislation to equalize taxation which has been
promised to them, and which they have a right to
expect from representative government, a scheme
which, in a general way, may be described, as an
act to relieve the farmer or city home-owner of a
small measure of increased tax upon his realty by
imposing a license fee upon his dog.
Veto Message, May 2, 1901.
Ad Valorem Tax Most Just
The license fee system if fairly adjusted as be
tween railroads and other taxable property of the
state today upon an agreed percentage would fur-

Taxation 69
nish no assurance of a fair division ot tax burden a
year hence. Conditions arise from time to time
in the commonwealth requiring an increase in the
rate upon taxable property. At such times property
taxed under the ad valorem system must bear all
of the increased burden, while the percentage upon
which the license fee is based remains the same.
No valid reason can be assigned why railroad prop
erty, remunerative as it is, its value increasing with
tlie development and growth of the state, should
not bear its relative proportion of whatever befalls
other property by reason of increases in taxation to
meet emergencies and exigencies that come in the
ordinary course of human events.
Legislative appropriations from year to year are
increased as the expansion and development of the
state create .proper and unanswerable (demands
therefor. Public buildings for properly housing and
caring for the state's dependents, its criminal classes,
its schools, and courts, and university, must be
erected, renewed and enlarged repeatedly. It is
but just that railroad property should bear its share
of such appropriations.
The railroad companies under the license fee
system have no interest and no concern respecting
the money appropriated by the legislature. It is a
fact within the knowledge of every legislator of ex
perience that the influence of the railroad lobby is
often employed to pass legislation resulting in an
increase of general taxes in exchange for the votes
of those interested in such appropriations to defeat
other legislation obnoxious to the railroads. Doubt
less millions of dollars have been unnecessarily ex-

70 La Follette's Political Philosophy
pended through such combinations. This could not
have occurred if the railroads had been taxed under
the ad valorem system and possessed the same gen
eral interest that other taxpayers have in keeping
appropriations within reasonable limits.
But in addition to all of the other objections to
the license fee system, when it is remembered that
they are permitted in effect to fix the amount of the
taxes which they will pay, without any practical
check or supervision by the state, no excuse or
justification can be given for continuing a plan of
taxation so unjust to other taxpayers of the state.
Investigations which have been conducted by the
interstate commerce commission in the courts leave
no room to doubt that millions of dollars are paid
back to shippers in rebates under arrangements
deemed advantageous, directly and indirectly, to
both the railroads and the favored shippers. That
these rebates in Wisconsin alone amount to vast
sums of money annually is beyond dispute. Not
one dollar of this sum rebated to shippers, and
properly a part of the gross earnings of railroad
companies, is reported to the state. That a valid
claim exists against the railroad companies for the
amounts so withheld from their reported earnings,
does not admit of question, whatever difficulties lie
in the way of making proof of the same. I do not
believe that you will fail to follow the recommenda
tions of the tax commission and abandon a system
of taxation so obnoxious to every principle of fair
ness to those who must maintain government.
Message to Legislature, 1903.

Taxation 71
Results of Ad Valorem Tax
The regulation bill did not pass at that session,
(1903) nor did we expect it to pass. But the con
test accomplished the purposes we had chiefly in
mind. It stirred the people of the state as they had
never been stirred before, and liaid the foundations
for an irresistible campaign in 1904. It also gave the
lobby so much to do — as we had anticipated — that
it could not spend any time in resisting our meas
ures for railroad taxation. It also forced some
members of the legislature who were really opposed
to us, and who intended to vote against the regula
tion bill, to vote with us on the taxation bill as a
bid ior the favor of the people of their districts.
So, at last, after all these years of struggle, we
wrote our railroad tax legislation into the statutes
of Wisconsin. As an immediate result, railroad
taxes were increased more than $600,000 annually.
When I came into the governor's office, on Jan
uary I, 1901, the state was in debt $330,000 and had
only $4,125 in the general fund. But so great were
the receipts from our new corporation taxes, and
from certain other sources, that in four years' time,
on January i, 1905, we had paid off all our indebt
edness and had in the general fund of the treasury
$407,506. We had so much on hand, indeed, that
we found it unnecessary to raise any taxes for the
succeeding two years. Autobiography, 1913.

V
RAILROAD REGULATION AND GOVERN
MENT OWNERSHIP

Railroad Commission a Necessity
HE duty which confronts this legisla
ture respecting this phase of railroad
legislation is two-fold : First, to enact
a law creating a state railway commis
sion with full authority to act in the
premises, and second, to so advise the representa
tives of Wisconsin in the United States senate and
house of representatives by memorial, and in such
other ways as may tend to impress them with this
importance, that the business interests of Wiscon
sin demand that the oft-repeated appeal of the inter
state commerce commission, supported as it has
been by fhe messages of the president, for author
ity to regulate rates and prevent discriminations'
should be promptly given to the inter-state com
merce commission.
Upon the necessity of the establishment of a
commission to protect the shipping interests of
Wisconsin, there would seem to be no need of argu
ment. The rates in themselves make the demand
stronger than any form of words can express it.
It must come, and it ought to be the care of those
charged with the responsibility of making the law,
that Wisconsin should not be compelled to travel

Railroad Control 73
over the same ground, by the same devious and cir
cuitous route which the resisting railroad companies
have compelled other states to take. We should in
this, as in all other matters, secure the benefits and
advantages accruing from the ripe experience of
other states and step out abreast of those enjoying
''benefits derived from many years of experience.
And if in any respect it is possible for us to improve
upon the legislation of any state by combining the
best factors, or improving upon the systems of all,
it is our duty so to do.
By providing that the commissioner of railroads
elected under the existing laws shall be a member
of a state commission, and that at the expiration of
his present term of office, the elective member of
the commission shall be elected for a term of six
years, and by further providing that the two re
maining members of the board shall be appointive
officers, appointed by the executive, subject to con
firmation by the senate, the terms of the two ap
pointed commissioners to expire in two and four
years respectively, and thereafter that their suc
cessors shall be appointed for terms of six years
each, would give to the state a commission to fix
rates, combining the elective and appointive fea
tures, in support of which the strongest reasons, can
be urged.
It would scarcely be possible for the law-making
power of the state under a representative form of
government to be more strongly obligated than is
the law-making power of Wisconsin to write upon
the statute books at this session of the legislature
the necessary laws to secure the payment of taxes

74 La Follette's Political Philosophy
in full due from the railroad corporations to this
state. The railroad companies have by their own
opposition made legislation for the establishment of
a commission to regulate transportation rates a nec
essary concomitant of tax legislation, and added to
this, investigation of existing transportation charges
in Wisconsin has disclosed conditions making the
appointment of a commission to regulate railroad
rates an imperative necessity in the interests of
the whole commonwealth. That these conditions
have existed, as it cannot be doubted that they have,
throughout many years but strengthens and makes
more irresistible the demands for prompt action in
accordance with the dictates of absolute justice
arid. fair dealing as between these corporations and
the people. It is not a case where some fatwitted
genius may find a happy medium. It stands side
by side with the people's cause for equal and just
taxation, out in the open, clear as the sun at noon
day. Justice Must Apply to All Alike
For many years with each recurring legislative
session it has been the comforting assurance con
veyed to the people of this commonwealth that the
relations existing between the people and the rail
roads were "pleasant" and "harmonious." It would
indeed have been cause for congratulation had it
been a fact that those relations were grounded upon
conditions that were just tp the people and the
railroads alike. But if the people of Wisconsin are
to pay a million dollars of railroad taxes annually
in order to maintain pleasant relations with these

Railroad Control 75
companies, and if they are also to pay many mil
lions of dollars a year in transportation charges
more than other States pay for like service for the
continuation of harmonious conditions agreeable to
the railways, then it is high time that the people
of Wisconsin see to it that instead of "pleasant"
and "harmonious" relations of that character, there
should be established sound business relations based
upon business principles of exact justice to public-
service corporations and the citizens as well.
We know from the experience in other states, we
haye learned the lesson in a way to remember here
in Wisconsin, that these measures cannot be se
cured without encountering the most vigorous op
position from the railroad interests. It may be quite
as well for us to be admonished at this time that
opposition to the establishment of a commission to
regulate transportation rates will not be limited to
the corporation and their lobby agents before the
legislature. They will be able to summon to their
support every shipper in Wisconsin who is, or who
thinks he is, at this time receiving some special
favor or concession from the railroads, or who has,
or thinks he has, assurance which will give him ex
ceptional rates and advantages over his rivals and
competitors in business for the future. The ship
pers will be able through organized effort to make
their influence felt as a commanding one, but it is
well for us to remember that we stand here repre
senting the interests of all the people of Wiscon
sin, the thousands of merchants and manufacturers
who are not receiving special rates and concessions,
and the hundreds of thousands of producers and

76 La Follette's Political Philosophy
small shippers who are being grossly wronged in
the millions of dollars exacted from them in exces
sive and exorbitant transportation charges, year
after year.
They are entitled to an equal chance with the
merchants and manufacturers and farmers of ad
joining States. I submit that it is our duty to se
cure this for them and to secure it now.
Message to Legislature, 1903.
Granger Legislation and Railway Regulation
The Potter law. was repealed in the early part
of 1876, after having been in force less than two
years. The reasons for this are not far to seek.
The law, as explained, was the subject of con
stant attack. It was lied about early and late.
Newspapers were more influential then than they
are now in Wisconsin. In consequence of the
constant assaults upon the law, many came to the
conclusion that it was really bad. They reasoned
that where there was so much smoke, ther must be
some fire. Some reaction always follows every suc
cessful achievement, and the railroads relied upon
the usual abatement of interest. The public having
seen to it that the laws were placed upon the stat
ute books, felt that its responsibility had been dis-
charg-ed, and in security turned its attention to pri
vate affairs. With the people generally, the ques
tion was taken to be settled. Furthermore, as the
railroads were not observing the law, many of the
worst abuses continued. This also had its effect,
and caused disappointment on the part of many who
had otherwise been hearty supporters of the prin-

Railroad Control 77
ciple. The railroads took advantage of this situa
tion, and in the preceding election, with men active
in every assembly and senatorial district they were
able to elect members who favored the repeal of the
statute. Accordingly, the present commissioner
system was substituted for the Potter law.
The repeal of the Potter law is now generally re
garded as a mistake by the best modern writers on
the railway problem. It has at last dawned upon
them and others that the law was just, and that,
above all, it was a step in the right direction. It
did not do away with discriminations. But this was
because the roads declined to observe the law, and
because adequate machinery for its enforcement had
not been provided. The practice of discriminations
against both persons and places had already become
so firmly rooted in the policy of the roads, that
nothing but the most vigorous sort of enforcement
by the best men, and the most stringent of laws
could have abolished it. To expect that this power,
so dear to the officers of the roads, could be taken
from them by simply making it illegal, was irra
tional. More than this is required. Discrimination
will never be abolished until the state takes com
plete control of the rate-making power.
But even if the Potter law did not accomplish all
that was expected of it, it taught railway managers
many useful lessons. They learned for the first
time that there was a higher authority. This lawf
also brought the question before the courts, and by
the decisions that followed, all doubt was forever
removed as to the authority of the state to fix rates
and exercise control over the railroads. This alone

78 La Follette's Political Philosophy
was probably worth many times more to the people
than the cost of the movement.
A law such as that adopted at the last session of
the legislature, providing for assessing the prop
erty of railroads in Wisconsin at full value, and
taxing them upon that value at the same rate which
other taxable property in the state bears, and thus
compelling them to pay from ten to twelve hundred
thousand dollars additional taxes, would be of little
value to the state if the railroad companies are at
liberty to add enough to the freight rates paid by
the people of Wisconsin to compensate them for
the ten or twelve hundred thousand of dollars of
additional taxes. That they could readily increase
the freight charges upon the producers and con
sumers of Wisconsin without let or hindrance under
existing law, no man will for one moment dispute.
That this would be the course which they would
pursue, if not prevented by additional legislation,
was openly threatened by their lobbyists during
the legislative session of 1901.
Railroads Fight Freight Reductions
Therefore the people of this state must either
tamely submit, and allow the railroad companies to
go untaxed to the amount of a million or more an
nually, or provide against their regulating freight
charges within this state at their pleasure, regard
less of public interest and public justice.
That for several years, and until very recently,
freight rates have been gradually advanced in this
state, every student of the subject well knows.
That it was the fixed intention of the railroad of-

Railroad Control 79
ficials controlling traffic rates in this state to make
advances until less than a year ago, there is un
mistakable proof. When submitting their bids to
the state board of control for furnishing coal to the
state institutions of Wisconsin less than a year ago,
coal dealers were warned directly from the railroad
offices to submit their bids conditioned upon an in
crease in freight charges. And the bids were sub
mitted subject to variation with reference to freight
charges. This was the first time that such an inti
mation had been received by the coal dealers bid
ding for state business, and the first time that such
bids were ever made in that form.
The attention of the legislature was directed to
that fact by special message, which I submitted, and
the recommendation was made that if no law could
be passed creating a railway commission with au
thority to reduce rates generally in Wisconsin to
a reasonable basis, at least the legislature ought, in
fairness to the people and to protect them against
increased transportation charges as an offset by the
railroads against increased taxation of their prop
erty, to pass a law prohibiting the possibility of
such advance being made.
The attorneys and lobbyists of these railroads had
previously placed themselves on record before that
same legislature, while opposing the establishment
of a commission to reduce transportation charges,
as being satisfied with existing rates. They further
protested before legislative committees that no ad
vance was contemplated in Wisconsin. It neverthe
less is true that immediately following the presenta
tion of the message recommending a law prohibit-

8o La Follette's Political Philosophy
ing any increase in freight charges, there was, with
in twenty-four hours, sent from the general freight
departments in Chicago of the principal railroads
in Wisconsin, telegrams to their agents along their
lines in this state directing them to cause local
merchants and shippers to sign telegrams addressed
to their assemblymen to vote down the measure
recommended by the governor.
Publicity Spoils Sinister Game
If they contemplated no increase in transporta
tion charges why, then, did they warn the coal deal
ers bidding for the large coal business of the state?
Why, then, did their attorneys and lobbyists oppose
the passage of a bill that' merely would have pre
vented such an increase? Why, then, did they
summon all of their station agents in this state to
cause the local merchants and shippers at each sta
tion to flood the legislature with telegrams protest
ing against the measure designed to save those
shippers and merchants from paying increased
freight charges?
Aye, but, says the leading organ of the corpora
tions of this state, with all the croaking from the
executive office, warning the people that their trans
portation charges would be increased, no increases
have been made and nearly a year has gone by.
I answer that it would have been strange, indeed,
after their plans had been exposed, after their secret
warnings to their shippers have been made the sijb-
ject of executive message, after the telegrams which
they had sent to their station agents throughout
Wisconsin had leaked out and been printed in full,

Railroad Control 8i
after every citizen of the state had been warned
and made vigilant and every shipper was alert for
the advances, with another legislative session ap
proaching and the question still pending, it would
have been strange indeed if the managers of these
interests should have taken the chance of being
detected in sliding up the scale of rates in Wiscon
sin. In fact, there are some evidences of these corpora
tions being temporarily on their good behavior, and of
their bearing just at this opportune time fruits meet
for repentance. But, as will appear, I think, upon in
vestigation and reflection, there is likewise special
reason for this, and small hope to believe that the
fruitage will be either a large or a steady crop.
I am persuaded to believe that with the informa
tion already before the people of this state upon thei
subject bearing on the control of railway transpor
tation ; with the clear knowledge they now have of
the injustice which they have suffered for many
years in the matter of railway taxation ; remember
ing that these corporations away back in 1899 pub
licly promised before the legislature that if -a bill
to investigate the subject by a commission were
passed instead of the bill to increase their taxes,
they would pay prornptly whatever was found to be,
due upon the report of that commission ; with the
inemory of their obstruction, delay, and dfefeat of;
taxation measures based upon and designed : to.
carry out the recommendations of that commission,
which they asked to have created at public expense,
fresh in the public mind ; with the assurance made
doubly certain by their past record, that they will

82 La Follette's Political Philosophy
contest the assessment which the tax commission
is now engaged in making and carry it to the su
preme court for its decision; — I say, knowing all
these things, I do not believe that the people of
Wisconsin will be misled or befooled by any plea,
however, specious or plausible or conciliatory, com
ing from those whose record marks them as hostile
to the interests of the taxpayers of this state.
If the work of the years that have recently passed
is not to be wasted, if the large sums of money al
ready spent on investigations pertaining to taxation
shall not be squandered, if the producers and con
sumers of Wisconsin are to be saved from paying
a million dollars of additional taxes for the railroads
in the form of higher freight rates whenever the
railroads deem it safe to increase these rates, then
it will be because, and only because a railway com
mission, with full power to control freight rates,
stands between the railroads and the people of
Wisconsin. Speech at Milton Junction, on "Granger
Legislation," January 29, 1904.
Granger Regulation not Destructive
Any review or consideration of government reg
ulation of railway transportation must d'eal with
state and federal regulation, in a measure, inde
pendently. The states were years in advance of the
nation in moving for control of railway services and
railway rates. As Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and
Minnesota led in broadly asserting the right of the
state legislature to control transportation rates and
services, a consideration of the results attained in

Railroad Control 83
these states is important and necessary to an in
telligent understanding of the whole subject.
In the early '70's these states enacted legislation
for the regulation, of railroad transportation. The
legislation was then designated, and will for all
time be known as "Granger Legislation." The
granger statutes were at that time and have ever
since been violently denounced as radical, revolu
tionary, and a hindrance to the development and
prosperity of the country. And yet the granger
legislation in those four states of the Old North
west was simply a protest of a conservative and law-
abiding people in the name of the law, against a
railroad management which violated the rights of
individuals without pretense of excuse or justifica
tion. The granger statutes were far from perfect, es
pecially in respect to provisions for their enforce
ment. But they were essentially correct in prin
ciple and reasonable in their terms, so far as the
railroads were concerned, and in so far as they
sought to regulate services and rates between the
public and the public-service corporations. They
were in -no sense "an unwarranted and irrational in
terference with the laws of trade and economic con
ditions." They simply applied a principle as old as
the common law. They were enacted with the pur
pose of enforcing just and equitable rates to in
dividuals and communities. They expressed in
legislation an effort to escape from arbitrary and
tyrannical control on the part of common carriers.
This was the first great struggle between the rail
roads and the public to determine which should be

84 La Follette's Political Philosophy
master. It was a battle royal, and established as the
law of this country the right of the people through
legislation to regulate transportation charges upon
the railroads of the land.
The ability with which the railroads conducted
their opposition to the granger legislation is inter
esting and instructive at this time. It was an indi
cation of their sincerity and a measure of the value
of their representations with respect to the disaster
to the railway business and the industrial interests
of the country, which they assert is certain to fol
low the legislation now proposed in some of the
states for state regulation, and in congress for an
enlargement of the powers of the interstate com-
riierce commission, as demanded by the people, and
suggested by the president in his recent message to
congress. Alarmist Predictions Not Borne Out
Upon the enactment of the granger laws, harrow
ing accounts of "Railroad Construction at a Stand
still," of the "Collapse of Railroad Business," the
"Spoliation and Ruin of Railway Property," and
the "Checking of All Development in the Granger
States" were published and re-published as the dire
and awful consequences following as a logical re
sult of that legislation.
From the enactment of the law in Wisconsin un
til its repeal, two years later, when the railroads re
gained control of the legislature, and long after, the
highest talent which money could command was
employed in assailing the Wisconsin law, and the

Railroad Control 85
laws passed in Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota, as
well, and in misrepresenting the effect of the legis
lation upon railway and all other business within
the state. Reports as to the financial condition of
the roads were suppressed or destroyed, and the
corporations caused to be published broadcast that
not only had their business fallen off, but that they
had been obliged to suspend all construction and
improvements, and that even maintenance of exist
ing lines was threatened, while the railroad busi
ness, and all other business dependent upon it, was
prostrate and languishing in consequence of the
legislation which "violated all the laws of trade."
Even economic writers of eminence and fairness
of purpose accepting the railroad figures then put
forth and the railroad conditions then reported by
the companies, were misled into partisan and vio
lent denunciation of granger legislation. In all of
the criticism and attack made at the time, and
since, it seems almost incredible that no independent
investigation should have been made by any of the
writers dealing with this subject. This is especi
ally true of those whose criticisms should have been
based upon thoroughgoing and critical study, in
conformity with the character of the work then and
afterwards turned out by them as authors and
writers upon economic subjects. Strangely enough,
it is manifest that their argument was based upon
false premises furnished, and misleading statements
published by the interested railroad authorities. In
so far as my research extends, I have been unable
to find that any one of them ever made an inde
pendent, critical analysis of the facts involved.

86 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Notwithstanding all that has been written and
the authorities which may be quoted to the con
trary, I venture here to declare that, in so far as the
granger laws were enforced in either of the four
states, they were helpful and not harmful to the
interests of the state and of its citizens and of the
railway companies as well.
Speech, Milton Junction, Wisconsin, 1904.
Government Control Vital
No power other thaiL-the government itself_is
equal to that of these industrial combinations al
ways in close association, and often identified in in
terest, with railroad and transportation companies.
Their tremendous political influence is shown by
the mere recital of the history of the interstate com
merce act, and by an examination of the records of
congress for the last. seven years. Which has had
the stronger hold upon the state and national legis
lation during the last twenty years, the corporations
or the people ? Whose interests have been the more
safely guarded? Where is the power lodged which
has for seven years been strong enough to bar na
tional legislation, designed to enlarge the powers
of the interstate commerce commission? It is not
necessary to charge venality anywhere, but that
the public-service corporations have been steadily
undermining representative government in national,
state and municipal legislation, no thoughtful man
can question. They come between the people, and
the chosen representatives of the people.
I would in no wise disparage either the rights or
the interests of the railroad side of this legislation.

Railroad Control 87
The question is one of very great magnitude. The
amount of property involved is very large. The;
owners of railroads, and the holders of railroad I
securities must be protected in all of their rights.
I'hey must not be wronged in any way. They are"
entitled to such remuneration as will enable them
to maintain their roads in perfect condition, pay the
best of wages to employees, meet all other expenses
incident to operation, and in addition thereto enough
more to make a reasonable profit upon every dol
lar invested in the business. To preserve all of
these- rights, they are entitled to the strongest pro
tection which the law can afford. 
But the public, each community, and every in
dividual, has rights equally precious. Upon th
railway companies rendering an adequate and im
partial service at reasonable rates, all general pros
perity is dependent. Deprived of either, every
community is checked and limited in its growth ;
every business of whatever nature must languish
and fail. The denial of an impartial service at fea-
sonable rates, is the denial of equal opportunity,
the denial of a square deal.
Message to Legislature, 1904.
Must Control Railroads
Let it be remembered that the plan developed and
consummated in building up the anthracite coal
trust, the grain trust and the meat trust is indi
cative of the power of the railroads in combinations.
There is not an important trust in the United States
which does not have the assistance of the railroads
in destroying its competitors in business. The

88 La Follette's Political Philosophy
limitation and control of these public-service cor
porations within their legitimate field as common
carriers is of primary importance in the practical
solution of the trust problem which confronts the
people' oi this country. It is manifest that any;
trust legislation to be effective must go hand in
hand with a control over railway rates by the fed
eral government on interstate commerce, through
an enlargement of the powers of the interstate
commerce commission, and a like control of rail
way rates on state commerce by each of the states
through a state commission. Added to this, the
railroad companies must be prohibited from using
the extraordinary powers conferred upon them by
the state for any other purpose than conducting
efficiently and impartially the transportation busi
ness for which they were organized..
When we consider the magnitude of fhe railroad
question and the industrial question, and their com
bined influence upon industrial and political inde
pendence, it becomes apparent that' it is impossible-
to overstate or exaggerate the dangers with which
we are menaced. These great combinations of
wealth,- owning taost of the natural produce of the
earth, controlling what they do not own, created
and nourished by the railways and in combination
with them, are already making their powerful in
fluence felt iu' municipal, state, and national legisla-,
tion. More than all other national questions wdth
which we have to deal should this tjuestion be placed
above party consideration. The sentiment of the
American people is unanimous that it should be
solved, not in any spirit of blind, irrational preju-

Railroad Control 89
dice, but with an enlightened public policy that
employs all the power lodged in state and federal
government against the wrongful usurpation of the
rights of the people. "Railway Regulation," 1904.
Carriers Have But One Duty
Whenever and wherever persons engage in the
business of public carrying the law says to them :
"You must provide efficient service, you must be
fair and impartial, your charges must be just and
reasonable. Your legitimate function is transpor
tation. In your capacity as a public servant, you
must know nothing of persons, things, or places.
You are legally bound to treat all alike. Discrim
ination and favoritism are forbidden."
While it has been commonly understood that the
railways of the country have overridden law, and,
in a measure, controlled legislation, it is doubtful
v/hether any considerable number of the people of
Wisconsin have until very recently had any con
ception of the enormity of the wrong which they
have suffered in discriminating rates at the hands of
railroads through this Commonwealth.
Railroad transportation is a tax upon the com
merce of the country. It is a tax from which no one
can escape. Every producer, every consumer, every
man who buys, every man who sells, must pay rail
road transportation. It pervades every phase of our
existence; it iS a part of every hour of our. daily life.
It is an important element in the cost of our cloth
ing, our food, our fuel. It is a tax upon that which
nourishes our intellectual and spiritual life as well.

go La Follette's Political Philosophy
the books we read, the schools and churches we
build. It adds materially to the price of everything
we purchase. Each article of manufacture, every
pound of butter and cheese, or pork and beef, every
produce of the soil, must pay its part of the forty-
five millions and more that constitute the gross
amount paid as transportation charges to the rail
roads of Wisconsin every twelve months.
How essential it is that this tax imposed by the
railroads should be fairly and justly levied. It must
be just and reasonable in amount. It should be
justly and fairly distributed. Each individual, every
class of business, and every town, city, and section
of the state is entitled to equitable transportation
charges under a system which shall be open to pub
lic inspection and controlled by public justice in
stead of private interest.
Message to Legislature, Jan. 15, 1903.
Evils of Discrimination
No man, no body of men, wrongfully amassing
riches out of the toil and savings of others, ever
willingly relinquished such tribute, no matter how
unjustly levied. Throughout history the struggle
has continued between the few, vigilant, aggressive,
persistent, well organized, rich, and powerful, and
the many, unorganized, though strong in individual
numbers, and irresistible in concerted and continu
ous effort. The long possession of any power or
source of gain, no matter how unjustly and unlaw
fully acquired or exercised, comes sooner or later
to be regarded as rightfully belonging to the pos
sessor, whose indignation is at once aroused against

Railroad Control 91
the man or the laws compelling the surrender of
such power or source of gain. Legislation designed
to require men and corporations to pay a just share
of the taxes in support of government is declared to
be persecution. Argument and recommendation in
plain, direct language in support of such legislation
is denounced as violent and revolutionary. The pres
entation of evidence proving indefensible and un
just discrimination in the performance of a service
to the public by a common carrier under every ob
ligation to deal with all alike, — a discrimination so
unjust and so sweeping as to amount to a wrong
against all the people of a great commonwealth, —
the proof of this to the legislature and the public is
decried as tending and intended to arouse prejudice
and is complained of most bitterly as radical and
populistic. There is an aphorism, the truth of which has long
been accepted ; that no member of that class which
has always found difficulty in distinguishing as to
the ownership of property, "e'er felt the halter draw
with good opinion of the law" — or of the advocate
of the law.
Special Message to Legislature on State Regtila-
tion of Railroad Rates, April 29, 1903.
Regulation a Duty ,  ^.^
The government has a duty to perform in the reg-j
ulation and control of railway transportation, be-j
cause the service is a public service and essentiallyl
a function of government. But there are other!
reasons. I

92 La Follette's Political Philosophy
The railway corporation is a natural monopoly.
Its lines once established in a given territory nat
urally excludes other capital from investment in a
field which it covers. People living along its line,
and in the country tributary to it, must market their
products and receive their supplies over its road.
They have no choice. The government had em
powered the railway company to take their land on
which it has built its road. ^They must accept their
services, or they must "walk." The government
has placed the corporation in a position where, un
controlled, it can tyrannize over individuals and
entire communities. It is therefore bound to pro
tect them against any wrong or injustice at the
hands of its creatures. Nay, more, the government
is under obligation to see to it that the corporation
performs its full duty to all persons and all places,
efficiently, impartially and upon reasonable terms.
The government cannot divest itself of this re
sponsibility. One of the ablest of the United States
Supreme Court judges, speaking for that court,
said: "But a superintending power over the high
ways and the charges imposed upon the public,
for their use, have always remained in the gov
ernment. This is not only its indefeasible right,
but it is necessary for the protection of the people
against extortion and abuse."
The duty which the state owes to protect the
commerce of the state, the federal government owes
to protect the commerce of the country.
Message, Railroad Regulation, 1904.

Railroad Control 93
Wages and Rates
Whenever the public complains that rates are un
justly increased, we are at once told in sweeping,
though somewhat indefinite way that the advances
have been made to meet increased expenses and
higher wages paid to employees. The corporations
well understand the public regard for all the men
employed in this hazardous calling, and that such
an explanation will go a long way to quiet criticism.
It is true that material is somewhat higher. It is
likewise true that the companies are paying higher
wages or rather higher salaries. The total wages
paid by the roads of late years have increased,
owing mostly to the increase in the number of men
employed to handle the traffic or business. But the
total wages per mile of road from 1897 to 1902 did
not increase over 32 per cent which is a much lower
ratio of increase than the increase in both gross and
net earnings. Message, Railroad Regulation, 1904.
Ownership As Alternative
(Note : The following interview with Senator
La Follette is taken from an unpublished work
dealing with the reform movement in Wisconsin:)
About the time that La Follette was first elected
governor he was visited by a man who had stumped
the west for the people's party and who had been
one of the "intellectuals" in the first Oregon move
ment in the 90's. Said the visitor: "Our movement
has gone down ; I am a man without a party."

94 La Follette's Political Philosophy
"The time for great souls is when all is lost," said
La Follette; "You belong with us."
"But I believe in the initiative and referendum.
Can I be a republican and hold such views?"
"You can; I believe in them myself."
"I am also for the popular election of senators."
"So am I," said La Follette.
"I also favor government ownership and control
<pf railroads."
"We may have to come to that ; but we must first
obtain and try regulation. If that fails the people
.will no doubt take over the common carriers."
"But I am against monopoly-breeding tariffs,
although I am a protectionist. Can I hold such,
views and still be a republican?"
"I am also a protectionist, but favor a tariff that
in general shall measure the difference between the
cost of production at home and in the competing
foreign countries."
"I had not thought of tariff legislation in that
light," said the visitor. "If I can be that kind of
a republican I am with you."
Government Control and Regulation of Railways
Sir, I say to the Senate here today that nothing,
absolutely nothing, can prevent the ultimate gov
ernment ownership of the railroads of this country
.except a strict government control of the railroads
of the country.
There is today in the stock and bond valuation of
the railroads of this country upward of seven bil-

Railroad Control 95
lions of water. If the American people are expected '
to continue to pay transportation charges that wil!
make a return upon that valuation, the temper of
the people of this country is not understood here.
Until there is invested in this commission or some
other authoritative body the power to determine
the real, true valuation of the railroads of this
country and the authority to fix rates so that they
shall bear only a fair return upon that fair value,
senators may as well understand now that you will
have this question constantly before you. It will
not be possible to suppress it or keep it within the
closed doors of committees for nine years to come.
At every session, until an adequate measure is
adopted, while I remain a member of this body the
demand will be made here for legislation that will
insure to the people of every state fair treatment at
the hands of the common carriers of the country.
Speech in U, S, Senate,
April 19-21, 1906.
Valuation as Basis in Rate-Making
Mr. President, there is no reason for us to hesi- ^
tate. You cannot wrong the railroads in this mat
ter. The courts will not permit it. They guard the
property of the railroads at every step. All the
decisions of the supreme court from 1870 down to
the present time stand like a bulwark, like a breast- ,
work, like a stone wall around the railroad property.
It is not in the power of congress, it is not in the
power of any state legislature to do harm or wrong
to a railroad company in the states or in the United -
States. I repeat, the courts will not permit it.

96 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Here is a fair, plain proposition, one so simple
that it seems to me no man can hesitate to accord it
his support; and I appeal to the senate to put on
the records after all these years this rule of meas
uring reasonable rates and of ascertaining the true
value of the property of railroads for that purpose
sanctioned by the supreme court of the United
States, urged by the interstate commerce commis
sion for a decade, and approved by the judgment
and conscience of this country.
The amendment provides for a valuation from
time to time covering extensions and improve
ments. It is necessary, if we are to' follow the rule
of the supreme court and are to deal fairly by these
companies, that we should make and maintain a
valuation that completely covers the property, and
it is necessary, if we are to deal fairly by the public,
that we should not leave it to the railroads to_fix
the value of their property at any sum which they
dioose to name.
->^^ It is the duty of this government, Mr. President,
]J;to see that the people of this country receive reason
able rates, impartial rates, and adequate services.
These three things belnny to the public at the hands
of every transportation company that is given a
franchise, and the government owes it to the public
to guarantee those three things — reasonable rates,
impartial rates, and adequate services. On the
ipther hand, it owes it to the railroad company to
see that it has a fair return on the fair value of its
property — no more and no less.
Speech in U. S. Senate,
May 31, 1910.

Railroad Control

To Strengthen Railway Bill

97

Mr. President, the people protest against the ever
increasing burdens of railway transportation. They
know enough of railroad finance to understand that
there is no justification for advancing rates. They
will not be satisfied with the postponement of rate
increases for a few months. They cry out with one
voice for substantial and permanent relief. They
want justice from their government.
No man who has vision and outlook can fail to
see what is coming in this country unless these
great and powerful organizations are brought into
subjection and control. Within a decade and a half
we have seen competition in all the industries wiped
out and markets and prices placed under a common
control. Within the same period of time we have
seen the railroad lines consolidate and merge until
there is scarcely a trace of competition left in trans
portation. There is nothing to stay the increased
cost of living except the ability of the consumer to
pay. Need anybody marvel at the public unrest—
the growing feeling of resentment?
Mr. President, with all of the improvement we
have been able to make in this bill, to me it is a
matter of deep and profound regret that we still
fall far short of having discharged our plain duty to
the people who trust us to represent them in this
body. Every senator on this floor knows that the
interstate commerce commission is powerless to do
the very things for the public which the law im
poses upon the commission as a duty. We require
the railroads to file with the commission all changes

98 La Follette's Political Philosophy
iu rates, ostensibly to enable the commission to
keep some check upon rate changes. Then we re
fuse to equip the commission with sufficient help
to enable it to examine a fraction of one per cent of
the rate schedules filed with it week after week.
More than 5,000 men, the best and highest paid
men in the railway service, are making rates, work-
/ ing out an increase here, another there; watching
( the tonnage and pushing transportation charges a
^otch higher wherever the traffic will bear the
burden. And Congress furnishes the commission
of seven men one cheap, low-priced clerk to check
over the work of 50 high-priced rate experts em
ployed by the railroads. We require the commis
sion to fix reasonable rates, and then vote down an
amendment to authorize them to get the value of
railway property, without which they cannot take
the first step to ascertain reasonable rates. Sir, it
is a travesty — a farce. It is more than that — it is a
betrayal of those who have confided in us; of those
who honor us. Speech in U. S. Senate, 191 1.
On Esch-Cummins Railway Bill
Long before we entered the war, the railway
transportation system of the country was on the
verge of total collapse through mismanagement and
corruption. The railroads from the beginning were
grossly over-capitalized, and the public was burd
ened with constantly increasing rates to pay divi
dends on watered stocks. Added to this, the rail
roads were unlawfully permitted to collect from the

Railroad Control 99
public a further excessive rate for the accumula
tion of billions in surplus. Out of these vast sums,
thus wrongfully levied upon traffic and pocketed
as surplus, the railroads built extensions and made
permanent improvements. They then over-capital
ized these improvements as a basis for further
wrongful exactions from the public.
Moreover, the managers openly robbed the rail
roads from the inside. Construction and supply
companies were organized by railway officers and
managers. From these companies the railroads
bought supplies of all kinds at exorbitant prices.
Unrestrained greed exacted such profits on pur
chases by these insiders from themselves that there
was always a shortage of funds for properly equip
ping the roads. This inside graft ate up the reve
nues of the railroads and furnished a perennial ex
cuse for still further increasing rates upon the pub
lic. It goes without saying that a transportation
system honeycombed with official graft and dis
honesty was certain to be supplied — in so far as
supplied at all — with inferior and defective equip
ment. The result was inevitable. When the European
war came on, with its stimulus to increased pro
duction and traffic, the roads, already short of en
gines, cars and all manner of equipment, at once
disclosed the rottenness and inefficiency of the
whole transportation system. By the summer and
fall of 1916 — montTis before we entered the war — to
quote Director General McAdoo, "they had reached
such a point that traffic was almost paralyzed,
through inability to furnish but a small part of the

100 La Follette's Political Philosophy
cars necessary for the transportation of staple ar
ticles of commerce."
When in 1917 the government was forced to seize
the roads it took over a ramshackle and utterly de
moralized railway system. The operation of rail
roads in such a state of disrepair was very expensive
and wasteful under the most favorable conditions
and excessively so under the extraordinary demands
the war imposed.
We are now urged to enter upon another pro
tracted period of attempting to combine the conflict
ing and warring elements of private ownership and
public regulation. If our past experience teaches us
anything, is*it not plain that this means another era
of enormous profits for the private owners at the
cost of an enormous and unwarranted expense to
the public?
Is it rational to believe that in a few short months
a small group of senators and representatives — no
one of us an expert in railway transportation — has
discovered some magic by which the miserable fail
ures of seventy years are to be converted into a
marvelous success? Speech in U. S. Senate, 1919.
Esch-Cummins Bill Analyzed
No more important measure ever came before the
senate of the United States for consideration. Yet
public hearings were held upon the bill before the
committee which framed it, and not one-fifth of the
members of the senate have been in their seats
during the few sessions that the bill has been de
bated in the senate.

Railroad Control loi
The bill is at once revolutionary and reactionary.
All its essential features are to be found in the plans
submitted by the committee of railway executives
and the committee of railway security holders, and
they were opposed with substantial unanimity by
the labor organizations, farm organizations, and
representatives of various other organizations that
were accorded a hearing before the interstate com
merce committee.
Instead of the preposterous scheme of railway
legislation embodied in this bill which I have only
hastily sketched, I propose simply that the railroads!
shall stay where they are under federal operation;;
for some years to come. I suggest that the period
be five years after the termination of the war. I
understand that both the former and the present
director general of the railroads favor the continu
ation of government operation for the same period.
Within that time we can give government operation
a fair trial. La Follette's Magazine, Decemiber, 1919.
The Iniquity of the Esch-Cummins Law
I shall presently show how the whole system of
railway accounting has been built up with a view
of concealing these illegal transactions and of con
cealing the earnings of the railways from year to
year up to the present time. Sir, I should not care
to trespass upon the time of the Senate, to present
the facts of the false and fraudulent capitalization of
the railroads of these earlier years, except that the
villainous system still survives.

102 La Follette's Political Philosophy
You may dull your ears to that, you may deaden
your consciences to it, you may set your face to go
through with this thing no matter what the show
ing or what the argument, but let me say to you
that you will not bury this fraud by your votes to
day. Like Banquo's ghost, it cannot be buried. It
'is an iniquity that will live until the scales of justice
are fairly balanced.
Speech in U. S. Senate, on Railroad Control,
December 20, 1919.
The Darkened Glass
MR. McCORMICK, Mr. President—
THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Sena
tor from Wisconsin yield to the Senator from Illi»
nois? MR. LA FOLLETTE. I do.
MR. McCORMICK. I only wanted to observe
that there are some of us who perhaps have as little
taste for this bill as the Senator from Wisconsin,
but we do not see clearly to the end of the passage
along which he would lead us. We see "through a
glass darkly," as the Scripture has it.
MR. LA FOLLETTE. I know. I do not wonder
at that. The railroads and the railroad press have
been darkening that glass for two years and distorting
the facts through it. If the Senator could have the
patience to follow me, I believe that I can produce
facts here that will entirely sustain my proposition
to leave this matter for at least two years in the
hands of the Federal Government.
It has been admitted by practically every speaker
hi behalf of this bill — I think by every speaker—
that it will be three years before the interstate

Railroad Control 103
commerce commission can report upon railroad
valuation. In the meantime the book value, as I
contend, must be accepted; and. Senators, the re
marks in behalf of this bill of all except the Senator
from Iowa (Mr. Cummins), clearly show that they
expect book value to be accepted, and they are argu
ing for the validity of book value ; and never before
this session did anybody ever argue, here or at any
other place, unless he was a retained attorney for
the railroad companies before the interstate com
merce commission, for the validity of book value.
Speech, U. S. Senate, on Railroad Control,
December 20, 1919.

VI.
TRUSTS AND MONOPOLIES

The Greatest of Issues
HERE is just one issue before the
country today. It is not trust regula
tion. It is not banking and currency.
It is not tariff. It is not railroad regu
lation. It is not conservation. These
and other important questions are but phases of
one great conflict.
Let no public servant think he is not concerned;
that his state or his constituency is not interested.
^here is no remote corner of this country where
the power of special interest is not encroaching
on public rights.
Let no man think this is a question of party
politics. It strikes down to the very foundation of
our free institutions. The system knows no party.
It has long supplanted government. Without risk ,
of being misunderstood, at least by those of whom I
speak, I may say that I know something of the
sentiment of the people of this country.
There is no difference of opinion among them as
to existing conditions and causes underlying it all.
In Wisconsin, and from New York to the Pacific
States, the people hold one opinion, have one con
viction. They are deeply concerned. They under
stand. Men back of the system seem to know not
what they do.

Trusts and Monopolies 105
In their strife for more money, more power —
more power, more money — there is no time for
thought, for reflection. They look neither forward
nor backward. Government, society, and the indi
vidual are swallowed in the struggle for greater
control. The plain man living the wholesome life
of peace and contentment has a better prospective,
a saner judgment. He has ideals and conscience
and human emotions. Home, children, neighbors,
friends, church, schools, country, constitute life. He
knows very definitely the conditions affecting the
rights guaranteed him by the constitution, but he
longs for expression, he longs for leadership.
Blind, indeed, is he who does not see what the
time portends. He who would remain in public
service must serve the public, not the system. He
must serve his country, not special interests.
La Follette's Magazine, July 11, 1914.
Failure of Anti-Trust Laws
The operation of federal and state anti-trust and
conspiracy laws has been productive of flagrant
inequalities. The laws have been circumvented by
the most dangerous and powerful of monopolies and
trusts, which, through their control of banks, money
and credit centered in Wall street, are able to con
trol the natural resources, the food, clothing and
highways of the nation. The money power taking
refuge under corporation law, "in orHer to "defy or
evade the conspiracy laws, has crushed competitors
and has built' up finajj^iaA-ffliaiiapaLLeaJn the interest
of speculators and against the interest of bona fide
investors, producers, wage-earners and farmers.

io6 La Follette's Political Philosophy
These very laws that have failed to prevent finan
cial and industrial monopoly have been used to sup
press the unions and co-operative efforts of wage-
earners and farmers in their struggle to protect the
value of their labor against moneyed interests.
Under the pretense of equal treatment of capital
and labor, the farmer and the laborer whose capital
is their labor and their savings from their labor,
have been compelled to pay toll to those whose
capital is their political power and their power to
withhold money and credit from the commerce and
industry of the country. Republican State Platform, 1910.
Unions and Farmers' Organizations
Should Be Exempt
We favor such classification of unions, associa
tions, monopolies, trusts and corporations as shall
abolish this pretense and shall establish real equal
ity before the law. Where monopolv is inejifitable
we._fa3iox_aainpl£t£_x£g;ulation by government. But
we are opposed to any change in the laws against
1 trusts and monopolies except as herein stated, until
!the people have regained control of government,
and have been able to assert complete control over
all questions of monopoly and corporation law.
Republican State Platform, 1910.
Price Control and Restraint of Trade Criminal
The evils to be reached by legislation on trusts
and monopolies are such combinations and con
federations as are organized to control prices, create

Trusts and Monopolies 107
monopolies and destroy competition, or which, in
their practical working, have that effect. .
It is not because a corporation has a large capital
or transacts a large and profitable business that it is
an injury to the community or a menace to its pros
perity. On the contrary,! jthe development and
growth of modern business have made largeaggre-^
gations_of__capital absolut-ely- ne^easaiy.,^ and such
capital is fairly entitled to a reasonable legitimate
profit. The wrong is done and the injury inflicted
when such combinations of capital are enabled, by
means adopted for that purpose, to control prices,
stifle competition, and create a monopoly.
I think legislation should be adopted providing
that, if any corporation organized under the laws
of this or any other state, or any partnership or as
sociation of individuals, or any individuals, shall
enter into, or become a member of, or a party to,
any trust, agreement, combination, partnership, per
son, or association of persons, to regulate or fix the
price of any commodity or to limit the amount of
any commodity to be manufactured, mined, sold,
transported or placed on sale or disposed of, or to
do, or to refrain from doing, any other thing with
the intent to control and fix the price of any com
modity to be manufactured, mined, sold or trans
ported in this state, such corporation and the officers
and agents thereof, and such partnership, individ
uals and associations of persons, shall be deemed
guilty of a conspiracy to defraud, and shall be sub
ject to such prosecution and punishment and such
penalty or forfeiture as may, in the judgment of the
legislature, be proper.

io8 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Such enactment should also contain suitable pro
visions making all such contracts and agreement^
void, and provide machinery for the collection of
such penalties and forfeitures and for the annulment
of the charter of such offender, if a domestic cor
poration, and for the forfeiture of the right to do
business in this state if a foreign corporation, and
imposing such penalties on the individuals con
victed of violating the law, as may be appropriate.
Message to Legislature, 1901.
The "Interests" or the People?
It seems to me now, as I look back upon those
years, that most of the lawmakers and indeed most
,'of the public, looked upon congress and the govern
ment as a means of getting some sort of advantage
for themselves or for their home towns or' home
states. River and harbor improvements without
merit, public buildings without limit, raids upon
the public lands and forests, subsidies and tariffs,
very largely occupied the attention of congressmen.
Lobbyists for all manner of private interests, es
pecially the railroads, crowded the corridors of the
capitol and the Washington hotels and not only
argued for favorable legislation, but demanded it.
At the time I was in congress, from 1885 to 1891,
the onslaught of these private interests was reach
ing its height. I did not then fully realize that this
was the evidence of a great system of "community
of interest," which was rapidly getting control of
our political parties, our government, our courts.
I'he issue has since become clear. Whether it

Trusts and Monopolies 109
shows itself in the tariff, in Alaska, in municipal
franchises, in the trusts, in the railroads, or the great
banking interests, we know that it is one and the
same thing.
And there can be no compromise with these in
terests that seek to control the government. Either
they or the people will rule. Autobiography, 1913.
Positive Action on Trusts
Foreign competition will not, therefore, cure the
trust evil : indeed, it will encourage the movement,
.already strongly in evidence, toward the organiza
tion of international and worldwide monopolies.
No, the constructive statesmen of those times
saw clearly that there must be positive action of
government either to pre'ye.r)Lt-xxr_ta_contrpl monop-
olies. Two very significant laws, both of which I
supported heartily, were therefore passed in those
years. In one of these — the Sherman anti-trust
act — the keynote was prohibition, the effort to pre
vent combination and to restore competition by
drastic laws. In the other, the act establishing the
interstate commerce commission for the control of
railroads, the keynote was regulation.
Autobiography, 1913.
The Making of America
For, after all, the glory and achievement of our
country is men, not things. We build railroads and
bridges and factories and markets, and outstrip the
nations of the earth in trade and commerce. And
what does it all signify? Is it the mere indication
ot the fatness of our land? or has it a deeper mean-

IIO La Follette's Political Philosophy
ing? Manifestly these material things represent
the energy, the ingenuity, the intelligence, the cour
age, of four generations of men, inspired with the
conviction that they were born free and equal. Take
the spirit of our free institutions out of the life of
this nation and we would be compelled, to re-write
the history of our material progress. No just con
ception of the making of America from the begin
ning, no rational understanding of her present and
future, can ignore the relation of man to the ma
terial development of our country and the influence
of modern business methods upon the citizen and
his government. * * *
So long as industry, thrift, prudence, and honesty
underlie our vast material development, there is
nothing to fear in the making of America. Every
man who loves his country must rejoice to see those
basic qualities of good citizenship rewarded. There
can be no national property without individual pros
perity. Property, whether the modest home of the
artisan or farmer, or the great fortune of the mas
ters of finance, if it be honorably acquired and law
fully used, is a contribution to the stability of gov
ernment, as well as to material progress. * * *
M The basic principle of our government is the will
lof the people. The representative elected by the
people should be the people's representative. If the
city alderman, the state legislator, the member of
congress, or the United States senator represents
privilege, he is not the servant of the people, but the
servant of the special interest he represents. The
people are not represented, but wealth in combina
tion. * * *

Trusts and Monopolies iii
America is not made. Jt is in the making. It has
today to meet an impending crisis, as menacing as
any in the nation's history. It does not call a sound
to arms, but it is none the less a call to patriotism
and to higher ideals in citizenship, a call for the
preservation of the representative character of gov
ernment itself. If we would preserve the spirit as
well as the form of our free institutions, the patrio
tic citizenship of the country must take its stand,
and demand of wealth that it shall conduct its busi
ness lawfully ; that it shall no longer furnish the
most flagrant examples of persistent violation of
statutes, while invoking the protection of the courts ;
that it shall not destroy the equality of opportunity,
the right to the pursuit of happiness, guaranteed by
the constitution; that it shall keep its powerful hands
off from legislative manipulation ; that it shall not
corrupt, but shall obey, the government that guards
and protects its rights.
Mere passive good citizenship is not enough. Men
must be aggressive for what is right, if government
is to be saved from those who are aggressive for
what is wrong. The nation has awakened some
what slowly to a realization of its peril, but it has
responded with gathering momentum. The reform
movement now has the support of all the moral
forces that the solution of a great problem can com
mand. The outlook is hopeful. There is no room
for pessimism. Every man should have faith. Ad
vance ground has been secured which will never be
surrendered by the American people. There is work
for every one. The field is large. It is a glorious
service, this service for the country. The call comes

112 La Follette's Political Philosophy
to every citizen. It is an unending struggle to make
and keep government truly representative. Each
one should count it a patriotic duty to build at least
a part of his life into the life of his country, to do
his share in the making of America according to the
plan of the fathers.
Introduction to "The Making of America," 1905.
The People and Private Monopoly
The American people believe private monopoly
intolerable. Within the last dozen years trusts and
combinations have been organized in nearly every
branch of industry. Competition has been ruth
lessly crushed, extortionate prices have been exacted
from consumers, independent business development
has been arrested, invention stifled, and the door of
opportunity has been closed, except to large aggre
gations of capital. The public has not, as a rule,
received any of the resultant economies and bene
fits of combination which have been so abundantly
promised. But ordinarily the combinations have
demonstrated that the hand of monopoly is deaden
ing, and that business may as easily become too
large to be efficient, as remain too small. And as
.related to government, it is everywhere recognized
that trusts and combinations are today the gravest
danger menacing our free institutions. Autobiography, 1913.
Crime of Guarantee of Profits.
Private ownership and operation of the railroads
was a demonstrated failure soon after we entered
the European war. By December, 1917, the paraly
sis of the system was so extreme that the govern-

Trusts and Monopolies 113
ment took possession and conducted operation to
avert complete collapse of transportation and total
disaster in the war.
Shortly before the president seized the roads,
England, France and Italy had notified him that
by December first, owing to our failure to supply
food to the allies, the Italian and French armies
were short-rationed and would certainly revolt if
further reduction in rations were made.
Throughout our own country there was great suf
fering because of the failure of the railroads to move
the traffic. Transportation was stalled. People
could not obtain fuel and yet the railroad yards in
all the great cities were literally jammed with
loaded coal cars. Train loads of grain, provisions
and general supplies blockaded the side tracks from
the Atlantic seaboard to the Rocky mountains.
There was a shortage of engines and cars on every
road in the country.
The end was in sight. The transportation of food
and war munitions to sustain our own and the
allied armies could not be longer delayed and escape
utter disaster. The government was forced to act
and to act at once.
The failure of private ownership and operation
had plainly been inevitable for years. It only re
quired the increased demands of war traffic to reveal
the inherent weakness and hasten the failure of the
entire transportation system under private owner
ship and operation.
The primary cause of it all is as plain as a pike
staff : You cannot successfully yoke private monop
oly with an honest, impartial public service. Thei

I

114 La Follette's Political Philosophy
whole railroad transportation system has from the
beginning carried the enormous burden of a double
capitalization. No business can overload itself with
a fictitious capital account and maintain its property
in a sound healthy condition.
The railroads would have broken down and gone
into receiverships decades ago but for the fact that
they have been permitted to force from the public a
return in exorbitant rates, sufficient to float their
watered capitalization.
And now it is proposed by the pending measures
dealing with this vital problem — the Cummins Bill
and the Esch Bill, — to perpetuate all the wrongs
and oppression of this private monopoly under a
scheme of guarantees to watered capital, that must
inevitably burden the traffic of the country with
increased rates, running into untold billions.
This is the price which the public must pay to
"re-establish railroad credit."
Before we joined in a crusade with Great Britain
to make Egypt and India and China and Ireland
and the good old United States unsafe for democ
racy, before senators and representatives acquired
the habit of voting the people's money out of their
treasury like drunken sailors, these same public
officials would have regarded support of the Cum
mins or the Esch Bills as a bargain with political
suicide. But woe unto him who today dares ques
tion the merit or the magnitude of any raid on the
treasury at the behest of the masters of private
monopoly ! La Follette's Magazine, January, 1920.

Trusts and Monopolies 115
The Only Way Out
Are the trusts and combinations stronger than the
government itself? That is the supreme issue. Can
the people free themselves from this power? Can
the unjust burden of fraudulent capitalization be
lifted from them?
The trusts and combinations, the railroads, the
steel trust, the coal trust, all are scheming to secure
some action by the government which will legalize
their proceedings and sanction their fictitious capi
talization. The situation is critical. It may be
expected from the attitude of the supreme court
as shown in the Standard Oil and Tobacco cases,
that any act on the part of the executive or the leg
islative branch of government, giving countenance
to a trust or combination will be construed as an
approval of the thousands of millions of watered
stocks and bonds issued, and will fasten upon the
people for all time the speculative capitalization of
our public service and business corporations.
The time is at hand to declare for a statute which
shall make it everlastingly impossible for any presi
dent, or any congress, or any court, to legalize
spurious capitalization as a basis of extortionate
prices. The progressive republican platform must take
advance ground upon this question.
La Follette's Magazine, March 16, 1912.
Against Court of Commerce
This bill, Mr. President, is the boldest raid upon
public rights, in the forrn of legislation on this great

ii6 La Follette's Political Philosophy
subject, that the system has ever succeeded in forc
ing upon the serious consideration of congress.
Never before has it attempted, with the support
of the national administration and of the party in
congress, to legislate for special privilege and
against the public interest, and to foster irrevocably
upon the commerce of the country the public bur
den of transportation charges to pay interest and
dividends upon all the watered stocks and bonds
which unrestrained corporate greed has set afloat
in the' financial channels of this country.
If the consolidation, combination, and merger,
to which I shall invite the attention of the senate,
was not a violation of the anti-trust law, and the
attorney general has, in effect, so decided, then we
might well strike from this bill the provisions which
profess to save the anti-trust law from repeal as to
interstate railroads, and openly confess the real pur
pose of this proposed legislation.
Mr. President, if the federal anti-trust law can
be repealed by a state legislature, if the department
of justice at Washington will hold conferences with
and lend countenance to the agents of law-breaking
corporations while they are engaged in lobbying
through state legislatures, a pretended sanction of
their violation of the criminal statutes of the federal
government, and then by official edict make such
state statutes a shield and cover under which the
criminal corporations may go unwhipped of justice,
if the door of the federal court may thus be closed
in the face of a wronged and outraged public by
the attorney general of the United States, then, sir,

Trusts and Monopolies 117
the law becomes a black art and justice a mere
juggler's pawn. Speech in U. S. Senate, April 12, 1910.
(Note — The extracts given above are from a nota
ble speech by Senator La Follette against the bill
to create a court of commerce. It is sometimes
called the New Haven railroad speech from the fact
that he drew his arguments from the exploitation
of this road.) The Non-Partisan League
So, I have faith that this new movement up here
known as the non-partisan organization, born on
the farms of this old northwest territory, contains
within it the seeds of a great social and political
advancement. And, Mr. President, and fellow-citi
zens, ladies and gentlemen, I know you will pardon
me for harking back to the old granger movement —
I am constrained to believe that this new movement
is another crop of the seed of that time. Now, fel
low-citizens, there would not be the slightest occa
sion in the world for the organization of a non-parti
san league; and you would not be able to enlist the
farmers of a dozen or fifteen or twenty states in
this union unless there was something fundament
ally wrong with our government. There is some
thing fundamentally wrong with it. Of course, I
know the fellows who are waving the flags today
most frantically, the bloated representatives of
wealth who are shouting loudest for democracy
today, are trying to invest this particular time with
a new form of democracy; a democracy that has

ii8 La Follette's Political Philosophy
attached to it as a cardinal principle, not liberty, not
equality, but profit.
Now, I do not take the political dope of any
papers that serve interests hostile to representative
government. Fellow-citizens, I come before you
here tonight to talk to you particularly about this
great movement you have adopted up here, and to
give you a word of encouragement, to bid you to
be brave, not to be intimidated because there may
chance to be sneaking about here and there men
who will pull back their coats and show a secret
service badge. Until Bunker Hill is destroyed, until
Little Round Top and the Hornet's Nest at Gettys
burg shall have been obliterated and relegated to
oblivion, there shall be free speech in this country.
Mr. President, I have stood all my life for law and
order. Twenty years ago this very season at a
little farmers' gathering in Fern Dell, Wisconsin, I
opened the fight against corporate power in that
state. I was denounced then as the non-partisan
league has been denounced now. I was denounced
then as an iconoclast and a destroyer of conditions
that ought to be preserved just as some of the
advanced thinkers of today are denounced for pro
claiming not a new doctrine, but the doctrine of
Franklin and Madison and Adams and Thomas
Jefferson. What was the central thought of the
I little speech I delivered on that day? It was only
' this, that the corporations in Wisconsin were not
paying their fair share of the taxes, alid that they
ought to be made to pay them, just as the farmers
i and owners of lands did ; that was all, but that was
\ considered treason, just as the same things are

Trusts and Monopolies 119
denounced as disloyal today ; but, fellow-citizens,
I did not stop then, and I won't stop now. And
then, twenty years ago, I was asking for justice and
equality in government, in taxation, and, fellow-
citizens, I came from Washington directly here, and
on the floor of the house of representatives and in
the committee on finance, the greatest committee
in the senate, I have been struggling for this same
thing that I struggled for down at the Fern Dell
picnic in Wisconsin twenty years ago. There is
not a shade of difference in principle. The only
difference- lies in the fact that where we in Wiscon
sin were considering thousands and hundreds of
thousands, in this great government of ours and in
the times in which we find ourselves now, we are
considering billions upon billions beyond the power
of the human mind to grasp ; that is the only differ
ence. A little handful of men in Washington have
been demanding — only a little handful of men —
have been demanding that the taxation should be
laid according to the principles that prevail wher
ever justice prevails, that taxation shall be laid
according to the ability of the property to meet the
taxes. We have been contending for that principle
in the first speech made on the 27th of August,
1897, to a farmers' picnic in Fern Dell, Wisconsin,
which opened the campaign that lasted through a
decade or a decade and a half of time.
Speech Before Minnesota Non-Partisan
League, Sept. 20, 1917.

120 La Follette's Political Philosophy
How Monopoly's Grip Could be Broken
MR. KING. I was very much interested in the
statement of the Senator. * * * I -was glad to hear
the Senator say — and I wish to see if I understand
his position in that respect — that the Government
cannot by attempting to fix prices effectuate the ob
jects so many people are seeking now to bring
about; that if we would enforce the laws against
trusts and monopolies and allow the free play of
the law of supply and demand and the economic
forces of the country, we should have nothing to
fear with respect to the industrial freedom of the
American people or the progress and growth and
development of our country. Have I interpreted
generally the attitude of the Senator?
MR. LA FOLLETTE. Mr. President, of course,
right out of hand on the moment one would hardly
be expected, I suppose, more than to suggest reme
dies to restore to our people their industrial free
dom. I want to see broken, first of all, this artificial
power which controls prices and production by
^agreement and which, in violation of law, is able to
dictate the market prices of raw materials and fin
ished products for practically all of the products of
this country. I would break that power.
I would enforce the law firmly and relentlessly as
to the wrongdoers.
I would press for the freedom of all business from
unlawful control as rapidly as the business of the
country could be readjusted to the natural laws of
trade.

Trusts and Monopolies 121
I do not underestimate the magnitude of the task.
The failure of every President to keep faith with
the people and enforce the law has aided to intrench
lawless monopoly in business throughout the land.
It has so long ruled in business and government
that it scoffs at authority.
It has had its way alike with Republican and
Democratic administrations.
It has its "rough-neck" daily press to manhandle
any troublesome public official. It has its "high
brow" weekly and monthly publications which criti
cize in choice diction any suggestion of curing ex
isting evils by "putting a few gentlemen in jail" and
then vaguely prescribe "a better adjustment of dis
tribution." But it is high time for us to realize that the pub
lic will not submit longer to be juggled with. The
Government must soon make its choice. It must
destroy private monopoly wherever it exists in this
country or monopoly will destroy government.
It will not be possible to restore industrial and
commercial freedom at once.
Unrestrained lawless wealth in combination has
run amuck for a score of years, until it has so in
volved our entire industrial and commercial struc-
''ture that to attempt to effect a radical and immedi
ate cure would endanger the whole structure.
But we must make a beginning. We must make
that beginning at once if we would avert disaster.
If I had the power, I would start with the United
States Steel Corporation. I would begin there, be
cause iron is the basis of everything in the indus
trial life of any people on the face of the earth.

122 La Follette's Political Philosophy
It is really staggering to think what iron means.
There is not a great architectural structure in the
world that would be standing tomorrow morning if
iron turned to dust overnight. * * * There would
not be a railroad line anywhere, there would not be
a wheel turning, there would n'ot be a blacksmith
shop stand, there would not be an agricultural im
plement in existence, if iron in all its forms were
destroyed. Did you ever stop to think of the extent
to which the price of iron and its products controls
the price of everything?
So I would begin with iron. I would take the
actual valuation of all of the property of the United
States Steel Trust. I would ascertain the actual
investment in the business. I would not give them
credit for a dollar of value which is the result of
their monopoly control, but only that which they
had actually invested in the business, together with
a fair return upon the investment.
Then, Mr. President, taking their actual invest
ment in their manufacturing plant and allowing
them a reasonable return on the investment, I would
make public a fair and reasonable price list on their
manufactures — pig iron, billets, merchantable iron
and steel rails, structural shapes — all their manu
factures of iron and steel, and would allow a rea
sonable measure of time for public opinion to en
force an observance of such fair and reasonable price
list. Their failure to adjust the selling prices of their
manufactures of steel and iron to the fair-price list
published by the Government would invite to more

Trusts and Monopolies 123
drastic action by the Government in dealing with
them. But, sir, I would proceed in a much more radical
way as to their raw material.
I would condemn and take away from them such
of their holdings as would be called raw material —
or natural resources. I would have the Government
take back the title to its iron ore and coal and cop
per and timber and the other natural products.
Then I would maintain such an absolute control
of the production and the prices of those basic pro
ducts, either by a strict leasing system or by actual
Government operation, or both, that every manufac
turer, small as well as large, should have an equal
opportunity to get the raw material at the same
price. I would do that for the purpose of restoring
competitive conditions at the very foundation of all
manufactured production.
I would apply the same method to all others who
own the great primary products that may be called,
in a general way, the resources of nature. I would
have the Government hold the title to and maintain
the absolute control of all these primary products.
1 would try, perhaps, operating them under a strong
leasing system, under which the Government should
control prices.
But I would introduce a limited amount of Gov-^
ernment operation in various lines of production,!
to the end that we might have a measure, a stand-/
ard of fair production cost and fair selling price. Il
would try that as an initial proceeding for the ulti
mate achievement of industrial freedom.

124 La Follette's Political Philosophy
That may be temporizing, but I would try that to
give the old theory of individual initiative its fair
chance, and if that experiment failed, then I would
go after Government operation of all those basic
essentials, absolutely ; and in the meantime I would
not hesitate at all about Government control and
ownership of all transportation and all lines of com
munication — everything of that character.
I expect to stand here and make a fight alone for
Government ownership and control of the railroads.
I am for Government ownership of railroads and
every other public utility — every one — and I pro
pose to show on this floor that where it has ever
been given a fair chance in any part of the world
that it has been successful. I am going to show
that the "cards were stacked" on Government oper
ation here in this country during the war period by
those who were interested and that it was not pos
sible for Government operation to make a fair show
ing. I do not know whether I have answered the ques
tion of the Senator from Utah (Mr. King) or not,
but I have at least tried to do so frankly.
Speech in U. S. Senate, Aug. 29, 1919.
Monopoly Cause of High Prices
Do you not understand that * * * down to 20
years ago the price of every manufactured commod
ity that any body of organized society bought grad
ually declined? Why? Because methods of pro
duction were improved and there was competition
between the producers that kept profits at a rea
sonable level. About 1897 they began to combine

Trusts and Monopolies 125
to suppress competition and to control the markets,
and from that hour, if you will consult the statistics
for 20 years you will find that the price of every
thing you have had to buy has increased in this
country. Why? Because combinations and trusts
were formed to control the prices ; to take the bene
fits of the improvements for those who owned the
factories and parasitical middlemen and to give
none to the laborers, and to give none to the con
sumers. That is what this thing means; that is the mean
ing of this great struggle. That is the biggest prob
lem that confronts you. It is not Shantung; it is
not the League of Nations ; it is not the treaty made
at Versailles ; but it is whether you can save democ
racy in the United States. That is the fundamental
problem of the American people. The power that is
trying to take the Naval Reserves is only one of the
many that is encroaching upon the rights of the
American people and upon their democracy.
Mr. President, I say that it lies with the people of
this country to settle this great problem and to settle
it under the Constitution without violence.
Speech in U. S. Senate, Aug. 29, 1919.
Strikes and Monopoly
We have strikes on every hand. Senators have
attempted here by resolutions and by speeches on
the floor to intimidate and to restrain labor and to
restrict free speech in this country not only in time
of war, but after. The American people are patient
people, but it is possible to push things too far. Is
it not worth while for enlightened, conservative

126 La Follette's Political Philosophy
statesmanship to stop and consider this situation so
that effective steps can be taken to meet these is
sues? We must curb this mighty monopoly power
and give to the people of this country a free, open,
competitive market, and free, open, competitive con
ditions under which they may buy the products of
all manufacturing and producing organizations in
this country at reasonable prices regulated by com
petition. Speech in U. S. Senate, Aug. 29, 1919.
Monopoly and Radicalism
I have said on the floor of the Senate again and
again that there is not any way of accounting for
the increase in the cost of living excepting that we
are in the grip of monopoly. You have built up,
In the first place, a protective system and shut off
foreign competition, and you have left it to the fel
lows inside of the tariff wall to fix the prices and,
by combination, they have fixed the prices as high
as they pleased, and they have destroyed competi
tion, and as a result of that they have taken out of
the American public just what profits they pleased,
and Congress has sat by and permitted that thing
to be done.
There is no justification for it. It is a betrayal of
everything that goes to the heart of representative
government. It has builded up the conditions that
have led a committee of this Senate to put into this
bill a proposition to appropriate $2,000,000 to sup
press radicalism in this country. Do you think you
could have a government, representing just simply
those who have an opportunity to take out of the

Trusts and Monopolies 127
people of this country whatever prices they please
for the things they produce, and not have criticism
of your government?
I say, Mr. President, right now that in 20 years
this Government has not been representative of the
public interests. I think that this Government has
been representing the interests of combinations and
trusts and great aggregations of capital and no man
can successfully deny that. * * * I have said it a
good many times on the floor of the Senate, and I
am going to keep on saying it as long as I live, as
long as I am a member of this body.
Speech in U. S. Senate, June 28, 1919.
Prices and Cost of Production
From 1897 down to the time that the war began,
prices advanced every year on the products con
sumed in this country. Now, I say that is unjust,
that is wrong, and this is so only because the Gov
ernment did not serve the people. * * *
Senators draw their salaries, and sit behind these
desks, and let this thing go on, and then pile law
on law to repress criticism because it is so ! * * *
I am not talking of the war period, but before the
war, from 1897, down to the war period. * * *
Study Dun's and Bradstreet's and you will find that
it increased every year. Why should it increase?
It increased because the Congress of the United
States and the executive departments did not serve
the public interests. * * * It increased because the
aggregations of capital were permitted to defy the
law of competition and fix prices as they pleased.
Why? Why did not prices fall? Did you ever

128 La Follette's Political Philosophy
know of a period of invention that was comparable
to it? There never was. From 1897 down to the
year 1914 Yankee ingenuity and invention revolu
tionized the cost of production, and yet the prices
increased upon the people of this country. Tell me
if you were doing your duty and the executive de
partment was doing its duty, when you had a law
on the statute books that said that there should be
no control of prices against public interest; why
were these combinations permitted to ignore and
idefy the law? You cannot name to me a single in
dustry in the United States that has not cut the
cost of production in two again and again from
1897 down to 1914, and yet the cost to the consumer
has mounted steadily every year.
Speech in U. S. Senate, June 28, 1919.

VII.
LABOR AND ITS RIGHTS

The Dignity of Manual Labor
HAVE always had respect for the man
who labors with his hands. My own
life began that way. Manual labor,
industry, the doing of a good day's
work, was the thing that gave a man
standing and credit in the country neighborhood
where I grew up. We all worked hard at home,
and the best people I ever knew worked with
their hands. I have always had a feeling of kinship
for the fellow who carries the load — the man on
the under side. I understand the man who works,
and I think he has always understood me.
Autobiography, 1913.
Protection to Railroad Employees
To your careful consideration I recommend the
question of more efficient protection to employees
of railroad companies who may be injured in the
discharge of their duties, through carelessness or
negligence of other employees or agents of the com
pany. Of itself the employment is in most instances
extremely hazardous to the employee. In the dis
charge of his duties he is frequently required not
only to risk his life to save other lives, but he must
jeopardize it to protect the property of the company

130 La Follette's Political Philosophy
and of the public. The duties of these men are
quasi-public. The most efficient service that they
can give is due to the public in the protection of
life and property, the safety of which depends upon
their fidelity and courage. No man should be called
to the discharge of such duties without assured
compensation for injuries which he may receive
through no fault of his own, or without reasonable
provision for the support and maintenance of wife,
children, or other dependents, if his life be destroyed
in the performance of his duty.
Message to Legislature, Jan. 15, 1903.
The Courts and Labor Combinations
There is one class of so-called restraints of trade
that was not intended, or at least not understood,
'to come under the prohibitions of the Sherman anti
trust law. These are labor organizatioris. It is a
curious fact about the enforcement of the law that,
while the courts have carefully protected investors
in trusts against loss of values, the only instance
where the extreme penalty of three-fold damages
has been imposed is in the case of a labor organiza-
|ion. The court has gone to the extent of seizing
'iipon the savings of members of a labor organization
and has ordered that these little investments should
be paid over, as far as they go, toward giving the
employers three times the damages that the union
had caused to them. Certainly it is very strange
that when the court goes to its furthest limit in
imposing penalties on combinations of capital, all
of the capitalist owners get away with the full value
of their property, even though the court explicitly

Labor and Its Rights 131
says that the biggest ones committed crimes in
getting it; but when the court goes to the same
limit in enforcing penalties on combinations of
labor, it takes away the homes and small savings
of the guilty members. A law which treats invest
ors as innocent if they form a trust, and guilty if
they form a labor union, does not command the
respect, nor appeal to the sense of justice of the
American people. The fact is, the law was not
understood by the people to apply to labor organi
zations, and it is a mistaken judicial construction
that has made it so apply. The law should be
amended, so as to get back to its original intent, by
taking out from under its operation all labor organi
zations and all employers' associations. These are
combinations which do not regulate the prices of
commodities, but they regulate the wages and con
ditions of labor. Speech in U. S. Senate, 1910.
The Taylor System
Mr. President, it behooves us not to stand for
any of the exactions upon labor which would
grind the last ounce of work out of the toilers of
this country by any process of sweating. I care
not what may be used, whether the stop watch be
held over the operative or whether men who have
the co-ordination of mental, nervous, and muscular
organization to enable them to win are tempted by
a bonus system to strive for the prizes and drive
their competitors, their fellow workmen to the
breaking-down point.

132 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Mr. President, it is nothing but a "sweating sys
tem." It drives men to perform a given number of
motions within a fixed time. It offers a premium
to men who can do that thing; it subjects men who
are by nature differently organized mentally, physi
cally, and nervously to a strain under which they
are broken down.
I remember well, Mr. President, when I stood
some years ago upon this floor appealing to mem
bers of this body to pass a bill fixing i6 hours as
the limit of time that men engaged in conducting
the train service of the country should be permitted
to work without interruption, there were engineers
and conductors and other trainmen who objected
to having any limitation put upon the number of
hours that they might be permitted to operate a
train, because there were a compartively few who
could run a train 36 hours, 40 hours, perhaps 72
hours, and keep awake, keep their faculties concen
trated upon their work, and earn a larger sum each
month. They did not want any limitation upon the
number of hours that they should be permitted to
operate trains; but, Mr. President, the public has
some rights in these matters ; it has some rights
in every question which involves labor generally.
It had in that particular case some rights in addi
tion to that; it had some rights as to the safety of
interstate transportation. Against the wishes of
some of the engineers and conductors and trainmen
of the country, I remember I, with some others
upon this floor, stood here and fought for a limita
tion upon the hours of service of the men operat
ing the trains of the country. The great body of

Labor and Its Rights 133
the trainmen were in favor of a limitation. The
great body of the trainmen today are in favor of a
much greater limitation than the 16-hour limitation
which, after a long struggle, we succeeded in put
ting upon the hours of train service men.
Mr. President, I understand the author of the
Taylor system, in his book, says that he takes no
account of the 80 per cent, who cannot come up to
the high standards. Those who install this system
say to a manufacturer or business man, "Permit
us to install our system. For $100 a day our experts
will teach it to your operatives and to your man
agers. By adopting this system, which takes account
of every movement a man makes and exacts of him
the highest possible speed, you will be able to
reduce the unit cost of the output of your product
20 per cent." Capital seizes upon that, sir. Capital
takes no account of what may happen to the men
who are thrown out of employment because they
cannot make the given number of motions within
the limited period.
Mr. President, let us, as we did on yesterday, by
a decisive vote hold to the position taken and say
to the House of Representatives, "We agree with
you. There shall be nothing left in disagreement
between the Senate and the House on this proposition."
We will not permit to be put into this bill a line,
or word, or a syllable that will give the conferees
the opportunity to work out some legislation that
shall be framed up by six men and shall come in
here in the conference report in a form that has to
be accepted by the Senate.
Speech in U , S, Senate, July 26, 1916.

134 La Follette's Political Philosophy
The Eight-Hour Law
The eight-hour law for railway trainmen has been
much misrepresented. During the many months of
negotiations between the trainmen and the railroad
managers, the railroad companies conducted a tre
mendous campaign in an effort to influence public
sentiment against the granting of an eight-hour
day to their men. Their agents worked through
chambers of commerce, manufacturers' association^
and other organizations of business men, inducing
them to pass resolutions condemning the demand
of the trainmen, and memorializing congress to
enact legislation to empower the interstate com
merce commission to fix the hours and wages of
men employed on railroads engaged in interstate
commerce. All of the big newspapers, and some
of the small newspapers, of the country were
flooded with advertisements putting before the pub
lic the railroads' side of this controversy. Millions
of dollars must have been expended in this cam
paign. And these millions did not come from the
pockets of the railroad managers or the railroad
owners. This campaign was conducted with money
that really belonged to the people. The shippers
and the passengers were made, in the last analysis,
to finance a publicity campaign to influence their
own judgment upon one side of this great question.
The railroad trainmen had no such resources to
enable them to carry on a publicity campaign to
shape public opinion in favor of their own demands.
Nor did they have the additional advantage, enjoyed
by the railroad companies, of placing huge, flam-

Labor and Its Rights 135
buoyant placards upon the walls of waiting rooms
at railway stations setting forth the case for the
railroads before the traveling public.
This eight-hour law has been called a "force bill"
enacted under the demands of organized railroad
workmen. This is not true. The railroad employees
demanded the eight-hour day from the railroads,
not from Congress. They made no demand what
ever upon Congress. They said if the railroads did
not grant the eight-hour day they would quit work.
This was their right — a right long judicially de
clared to be theirs. They set a day to quit work in
case the railroad managers refused them the eight-
hour day. Then the railroads inaugurated a strike
against the public. They refused to accept freight
for shipment, especially perishable goods. In many
parts of the country this meant appalling disaster
to farmers and particularly to fruit growers. It
meant great damage to all business — even to the
railroads themselves.
The president stepped in and sought to adjust the
trouble and avoid the disaster about to be thrust
upon the country. He was not successful. The
railway managers were particularly obstinate and
refused to concede the principle of the eight-hour
day. At this point the president put the matter up
to Congress for its consideration. Congress, disin-
terested._under J[aw_bound to consider only the
public good, was forced to act in_the_public.interest.
It was not forced to ^ct because of any demands
upon congress by^ the workingmen or by the rail
road managers, but becajise^ thepublic interest de
manded immediate action.

136 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Congress acted. It passed what is known as the
eight-hour day law for men in the employment of
railroads in interstate commerce, engaged in moving
trains. Every Wisconsin representative present
voted for the bill which became a law and averted
the strike.
I believe they did right. I believe in the eight-
hour day. It is claimed that congress acted "with
out due consideration." Did it? The question of
the eight-hour day for skilled employees was not
new. Every congressman who was alive to the
issues of the day must have been fairly familiar
with the arguments pro and con on the subject of
the eight-hour day. I had given this matter con
sideration years ago when I secured the sixteen
hour limitation for railroad employees — the best I
could get at that time.
At that time I was met with the same arguments
which are now being made against the eight-hour
day. The railroads and some other large employers
are slow to learn, but abundant experience has
shown that for the trades, professions and crafts
where skill, courage, caution and close attention
to business are required the eight-hour day is the
maximum for efficiency. Had the railroads accepted
this principle there would have been no trouble.
However, railroads generally yield to no principle
of progress that is not forced upon them by legis
lation. The dawn of a better day would never brighten
the path of workmen were it left to the railroad
managers.

, Labor and Its Rights 137
The railroad employees have been patient and
long-suffering. Theirs is a hazardous business.
Their calling takes them away from their .homes at
all times of the day and night, in all kinds of
weather. Their labor is performed under dangerous
conditions. Their span of life is short and full of
grief. They have seen their brothers in other less
hazardous callings secure the eight-hour day with
out a struggle, but they have been held to a day
of indefinite hours so long as it did not exceed six
teen, and in cases of unforeseen trouble their day
might exceed sixteen hours. I wonder that their
just demands were not sooner made.
Shorter Work Day Spells Efficiency
All practical experience shows that shorter hours
means better health and higher efficiency of em
ployees, the quality of the work and the character
of the output more thaii offsetting any loss from
cutting down the working hours of the day. In
other words, shorter hours means stronger bodies.,
greater physical efficiency, a higher degree of men
tal alertness, keener and more intelligent concentra
tion. on the machinery and material' handled by the
wage-earner, fewer accidents, added time for home
life, rest, recreation, and reading, all maki-ng for
moral, mental, and physical improvement.
Congress has given men employed by the govern
ment or by contractors employed on government
work, the eight-hour day. Wisconsin provides by
law for the eight-hour day for state work. Twelve.
states limit the working day of minors to eight
hours in one dav.

138 La Follette's Political Philosophy
The courts have held again and again that rest
from labor one day in seven is "essential for health,
morals, and general welfare."
The courts will ultimately hold that it is vital to
the health and well-being of the toiler, and for that
vital to the general welfare, that the state should
limit the hours of labor for the day as it limits
the days of labor for the week.
Let the wage-earner take heart. The eight-hour
day will come, and come soon, to all of the skilled
workers of every state in the nation.
La Follette's Magazine, 19 15.
Limiting Hours of Service of Trainmen
The Railroad Brotherhood of Engineers, Fire
men and Trainmen, a remarkably intelligent body
of men, had long maintained a very efficient and
faithful legislative representative, Mr. Hugh Fuller,
here at the national capital, but they had found it
impossible even to get a record vote on important
measures in which they were interested. No bill
in their interests relating to hours of service or
liability of the employer for negligence was per
mitted to get out of the committee. I took up the
matter of an Employers' Liability Law and attempted
in 1906 to have it adopted as an amendment to the
interstate commerce act. Failing in this, by an
unexpected move I got a bill before the Senate
where I could force a record vote. Now, no Sena
tor wanted to put himself wrong with the railway
employees, and so after fencing for delay I finally
got it passed without a roll call. This law, having
been held unconstitutional by the supreme court

Labor and Its Rights 139
(by vote of five to four), I introduced another
Employers' Liability bill in the next session, and
had it referred to the Committee on Education and
Labor (of which Dolliver was chairman) instead of
to the committee on interstate commerce. This bill
was reported out by Dolliver, was passed and is now
the law.
I also secured the passage in 1907, after much
opposition and filibustering, of a law to limit the
hours of continuous service of railroad employees.
This law has been of great use in preventing those
accidents which formerly arose from the continuous
employment of men for twenty-four or even thirty-
six hours without sleep or rest. Autobiography, 1913.
(Note — Senator La Follette scored two victories
in the senate session of 1907. One resulted from
his fight for the passage of the bill limiting the
hours of service of railroad employees. Until 1907
there had been no limit to the number of hours a
railroad man might be kept on duty.
To La Follette sixteen consecutive hours seemed
a longer day than men who have in their keeping
the lives and limbs of hundreds of thousands of
people daily should be permitted to work, but to
limit the hours of labor at all was a big step in the
right direction. All manner of testimony was pre
sented to show that many wrecks had been caused
because men in charge of trains or some part of the
railroad service had been on duty so long that they
could no longer keep wide awake. Sixteen hours.
La Follette thought was considerable of a conces-

140 La Follette's Political Philosophy
sion to the railroads. But the railroads fought the
bill with all the pressure and influence they could
wield. After days of fighting La Follette succeeded'
in forcing through the senate, only after the rail
roads had exhausted every trick of parliamentary
practice, the bill limiting the hours of service of
railroad men to sixteen.
La Follette's second victory in the senate session
of 1907 was the passage of a new employers' liabil
ity law which established as a principle of federal'
law the doctrine of cornparative negligence. Here
tofore when an employee was injured the employer
had but to show that the employee was guilty of
slight negligence in order to set up a complete
defense in a suit for personal injuries. Under this
f\a.w the fact that the employee may have been guilty
I of contributory negligence is no longer, a bar to
/ recovery, if it can be shown that the employee's
negligence was slight and the employer's negligence
was gross in comparison.) On Children's Bureau
I am loath to believe that any member of the Sen
ate would favor the reduction of the appropriation
of any reasonable sum of money which could be
expended by the children's bureau in the work
which it was commissioned to do by the Statute
which created that bureau. I do not know of any
Way in which we can build so strongly into our
national life as by an intelligent and scientific study
of the child from birth.
Twent}'-five years ago you could bring an audi
ence of laboring men to their feet^cheerin^ for Old

Labor and Its Rights 141
Glory and what it did for liberty, for freedom, for
emancipation ; but, Mr. President, when you grind
the faces of the poor, when }ou force the parents
to put children into the factories in order that they
may exist, when you have little care for the death
rate in the homes where the children of the poor
are born, you are sowing the seed of resentment
against this Government of professed equality.
There seems to be a fatal blindness upon the part
of all of us, and when the little opportunity is
afforded by the expenditure of $72,000 to carry for
ward an investig'ation here that will tell the story
of this awful mortality among the children of those
who work for wages, we find it opposed. When
there is a little opportunity here to let the light into
the homes of the toilers to know why it is that one
out of every four babies of those who earn $450 a
year must die before they are 12 months old, it is
to be blocked in the interests of economy.
It may be, Mr. President, that I am expressing
undue feeling upon this matter. I am not entirely
a novice in public affairs. I have spent almost my
whole life in dealing with these questions, and I
am constrained to believe that it behooves the
statesmanship of this country to give consideration
to these things that concern the millions of the
toilers of this country.
Speech in U. S, Senate, January 22, 1917.
The La Follette Seaman's Act
The act to promote the welfare of American sea
men and safety of life at sea, approved by President
Wilson March fourth, makes America sacred soil

142 La Follette's Political Philosophy
and the thirteenth amendment finally becomes a
covenant of refuge for the seamen of the worid.
It has taken a twenty-one year struggle to accom
plish this result.
The law makes the sailor a free man.
It standardizes his skill.
It limits the number of hours of continuous service.
It provides better conditions of living for him on
shipboard, — more food, more water, more light, and
air, larger and more sanitary sleeping and living
space, ^and a hospital section separate and apart
from that portion of the vessel in which the sailors
must sleep and eat.
While the law does not completely safeguard the
public interest, it is a great advance in the right
direction. Furthermore it substitutes' enforceable
statutes for the rules and regulations of an inspec
tion service which are more often disregarded than
observed. It requires every vessel leaving an American port
for a foreign country to carry lifeboats sufficient to
accommodate at lea^t seventy-five per cent of all on
board, and to carry life rafts for the remainiflg
twenty-five per cent. Formerly the number of life
boats required to be carried by ocean liners was
committed to the discretion of the inspection ser
vice, which has had. less consideration for public
safety than for the interests of steamship companies.
It was my contention from the beginning that there
should be lifeboats for all, and the Senate adopted
the amendment I offered to that end. But the influ
ence of the ship owners was strong enough in the
House to reduce the number of lifeboats to seventy-

Labor and Its Rights 143
five per cent. Twenty-five per cent of the passen
gers must resort to life rafts in the event of disaster.
Life rafts in mid-ocean would only serve tempo
rarily to keep afloat the people so unfortunate as
to be dependent upon them; and with a high sea
running and in chill weather they would inevitably
drown or die from exposure.
Aside from the sections of the law primarily for
the benefit of the passengers, the public has a direct
interest in many of the provisions intended espe
cially to benefit the seamen.
Safety Demands Sailor's Contentment
Making the sailor a free man will make his calling
equal under the law with that of every wage-earner.
It will remove the stigma of involuntary servitude
which has driven tens of thousands of the bravest
and best men to abandon the sea. Sailors of intel
ligence and character and courage on the deck of
every ship means immeasurably greater security
for passengers in a time of peril.
The public safety is conserved by limiting the
number of hours of consecutive service which can
be required of seamen, precisely as it is conserved
in limiting the number of railway employees who may
be required to work in running railroad trains.
Whether serving in the cab of an engine or serving
on watch or at the wheel on the deck of an ocean
liner, safety for human life demands that the engi
neer or the seaman shall be keen, vigilant, alert,
every faculty concentrated on the duty of the hour.
No man exhausted in mind or body is fit for the
great responsibility which such a position imposes.
Just as the public interest required a law restrain-

144 La Follette's Political Philosophy
ing railroads from overworking trainmen, so the
public interest demands a limitation on the hours of
continuous service at sea.
The law provides that in every port where a
vessel of the United States, after the voyage has
commenced, shall load or deliver cargo, before the
voyage is ended, a seaman is entitled to receive on
demand from the master of the vessel to which he
belongs, one-half of the wages which he shall then
have earned.
The old law conferred upon the. seaman the right
to dema.nd half pay as above, provided there were
"no stipulation to the contrary in the shipping
agreement." But this provision in the old law was
uniformly defeated Idy "stipulating to the contrary"
in the articles of shipment. This has enabled the
ship owner to hold seamen in the service against
their will, by depriving them of pay in port. This
authority over the seamen was made absolute
through the right of the master to imprison any
seaman who quit service, even though the vessel
were in safe port. No other laboring man in the
United States can be compelled on pain of imprison
ment to serve out his term according to the letter
of his agreement. He can forfeit his wages and quit
if he finds the conditions of the service intolerable.
Not so the sailor. LInder the old law, fair or foul,
his body was bound to the master of the ship. He
was compelled to continue in the service of the ship
owner even though willing to forfeit all his earnings
in order to free himself from the terms of his con
tract of service whenever he found them too harsli
or severe to be endured.

Labor and Its Rights * 145
The American sailor in -his bondage has been for
gotten for generations. At last his appeal has been
heard. It was reserved for President Wilson in the
closing hours of the Sixty-third congress to approve
a measure v/hich blots out the last vestige of slavery
under the American flag. The seaman's bill is the
second proclamation of freedom. The fourth of
March,. 191 5, is the sailor's emancipation day.
La Follette's' Magazine, March, 19 15.
Seaman's Law Has Made Good
(Note^ — The following extract is from the New
Republic, 1919) :
"Furuseth's prophecy has in fact come true.
In 1911, the last year for. which official statistics
were available, British wages for seamen and fire
men ranged from $20 to $25 a month, while Amer
ican wages ranged from $30 to $50 for the same
employment. Wages of other European maritime
nations were even lower than the British. By the
end of 1918, the American rate had risen to $75
a month for both seamen and firemen.
"The result has been to place American seam^^qn
and American ship owners in a better position
than any they have occupied since the civil war.
Wages have increased, not only absolutely, but
in relation ' to purchasing power — ^for seamen in
the trans-Atlantic trade the increase in wages
since 1914 has been 164 per cent, and for firemen
89 per cent. This means, according to Governor
Bass' report, an increase in purchasing power of
38 per cent for seamen and 5.4 per cent for fire
men. Wages are high enough" now to attract

146 La Follette's Political Philosophy
the best type of American labor. Yet as compared
with foreign vessels, the cost of operating Ameri
can ships is relatively cheaper than before the
war." One Issue in History
Ah, Mr. President, let me say here in this connec
tion that there has, in my opinion, been only one
great issue in all the histo'ry of the world. That is
sue has been between labor and those who would
control, through slavery in one form or another, the
laborers. That is history. Read it. Study it. Na
tions have gone down in ruin from the first dawn of
history that have sought to make slaves of the great
masses of men. That is the destiny of nations, for
the God of justice and humanity is over all, and
when one privileged powerful class of the human
race seeks to benefit itself unjustly from the great
masses of people, they run counter and bring down
upon themselves ultimately the judgment, the .jus
tice of God Almighty. We are on the road, I fear,
that other nations have tiraveled. I do not know
that it is possible; sir, to arrest that progress. It
may be that it is a disease that must afflict all na
tions and all peoples. It may be that it is an inex
orable law of evolution.
Here in this country we have been led to hope
for something better than that. I have inherited, as
it were, the belief and the hope that this was the
place for the consummation and the working out of
the most perfect Government attainable.
We had in this country a splendid opportunity,
better, I think, than any other nation in the world.

* Labor and Its Rights 147
If the human race is gradually to be lifted to higher
and higher levels, if civilization is to be truly dem
ocratic and progressive, and if we are ultimately to
come to as high a degree of perfection in govern
ment in this world as finite human beings can at
tain, it ought to be here in America, above all other
places in the world, for we had here the best oppor
tunity. We had virgin soil in which to lay our
foundations. We had the new material that came
from the Old World. Every immigrant wanted
more liberty and democracy, wanted freedom, and
hoped to realize the ideals to which the human heart
aspires. It is the onlj^ place, as I see it, for the
human race to attain it.
I see forces carrying us in the other direction :
The Standard Oil, the Copper Trust, the Beef Trust,
and all the great organizations of power and capital
that have been built up here in violation of the law
of the land ; that have thriven and controlled and
defied the Government. Speech in U. S. Senate, Aug. 29, 1919.

VIII.
BIG BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT

The Legislative Lobby
HE legislature of 1899 enacted chapter
243 of the laws of 1899, designed to
control and somewhat restrict the
operations of what is commonly
termed "the lobby" in relation to legis
lation. The principle involved in that enactment
has my unqualified approval. It is of course neither
possible nor desirable to isolate the members of the
legislature from the people of the state. All' public
officers are but the servants of the people, and in
discharging their various duties the more closely
they keep in touch with, and learn the wishes and
interests of, the people, the better. But when either
individuals or corporations keep at the seat of gov
ernment, a body of salaried agents, or counsel,
whose duty it is to bring about or prevent legis
lation, as their employers may desire, who accom
plish such results not so much by open and public
argument before the legislature and legislative com
mittees as by personal influence exerted in various,
ways upon individual members of the legislature,
it becomes an evil which ought to be controlled and
checked as a- menace to the welfare of the state. '
In my judgment the fullest opportunity ought to"
be given for free and fair discussion of all subjects

Big Business and Government 149
of legislation before thq^two houses and their vari
ous committees by all who are interested in these
subjects ; but, in my opinion, that ought to be the
extent of the services permitted to be performed by
legislative agents or lobby counsel. Any argument
which cannot bear the light of publicity ought not
to be permitted. to influence legislation or to be per
mitted to be made. Message to Legislature, 1901.
For Effective Corrupt Practices Act
We are opposed to the excessive use of money in
political campaigns. It is the weapon of special in
terests. It is an instrument of evil. It debauches
manhood and corrupts the electorate. It serves
every bad cause and embarrasses every good one.
We favor the enactment of a law which will
authorize the publication by the state of necessary
information concerning the qualifications of candi
dates at all primary and general elections.
No candidate for office should disburse money for
the purpose of promoting his nomination or elec
tion, except —
First, for his own personal traveling expenses ;
• Second, payments required to be made to the state
for information published ;
Third, contributions to his personal campaign
committee ;
Fourth, contributions to his party campaign com-
m,ittee. Except for these purposes no money should be
expended or disbursed by any person to nominate or
elect any candidate ior office unless by and through

150 La Follette's Political Philosophy
a publicly registered campaign committee to be ap
pointed by the candidate himself or through the reg
ular party committee of his party. Such committees
should be required to keep accurate books of ac
count and file sworn statements with public author
ity at regular intervals during the progress of the
campaign, showing all moneys contributed to and
disbursed by it, the amount thereof, from whom re
ceived, to whom paid, and for what purposes. With
in thirty days after every primary and general elec
tion a complete statement, in detail, of all financial
transactions of such committees should be filed in
like manner.
The total expenditure by or on behalf of any can
didate should be limited by law and restricted to the
following purposes : Hall rent, traveling expenses of
speakers, clerical assistants, printing of literature
and distribution thereof by mail or public messen
ger, and newspaper advertising. All campaign lit
erature and advertising should bear the name of the
author and of the person causing a publication
thereof. No political activity should be permitted
on either primary or general election day.
' Compliance should be compelled by rigorous pen
alties, including imprisonment and disqualification
of the candidate for public office.
We pledge legislation embodying these principles.
Republican State Platform, 19 lo.
Respect for, and Obedience to the Law
I remember a few days ago in the discussion here
that the senator from Ohio (Mr. Foraker) rose in
his place and said that the railroad officials of this

Big Business and Government 151
country are not criminals. I say to the senator that
the records, so far as they have been exposed, show
that the railroad officials of this country are, with
rare exceptions, criminals under the statute.
Now, I mean what I say. I see senators on that
side smile; but let me say to you, gentlemen, that
when in Wisconsin we summoned the railroad com
panies into court to answer for having juggled the
reports of their annual earnings, which they were
required by law to make under oath to the state
officials, when they appeared before the court and
the testimony of the state was but partly offered,
when the arguments over certain law propositions
had been concluded, those officials — and they are
just as honorable as the officials of any railroad
companies in the United States — came into court
and stipulated that they had violated the law, and
went to the supreme court on a question of the
statute, as to whether or not, to state it specifically,
their report to the state officer and its acceptance by
that officer, even if the report was a violation of
the statute, had not bound the state. That is what
they did. They confessed a violation of the stat
ute; they confessed having under oath reported
their gross earnings short of the true amount as
required by the statute; and they are just as hon
orable as the railroad officials of any state in this
union. Speech in U. S. Senate, April 19-21, 1906.
The Half-Loaf in Legislation
In legislation no bread is often better than half
a loaf. I believe it is usually better to be beaten

152 La Follette's PoUtical Philosophy
(and come right back at the next session and make a
fight for a thoroughgoing law than to have written
on the books a weak and indefinite statiite.
I believe that half a loaf is fatal whenever it is
accepted at the sacrifice of the basic .principle
sought to be attained. Half a loaf, as a rule, dulls
the apjDCtite, and destroys the keenness of interest
in attaining the full loaf. A halfway measure never
fairly tests the principle and may utterly discredit
it. It is certain to weaken, disappoint, and dissipate
public interest. Concession and compromise are al-.
miost always necessary in legislation, but they call
for the most thorough and complete mastery of the
principles invoh^ed, in order to fix the limit beyond
vvhich not one' hair's breadth can be yielded.
Autobiography, 1913.
On Compromise
In eA^ery contest situations may arise, or be
created, inviting to a compromise on candidate or
principle., T^he temptation to yield is strong. Yet
in my whole course I have always insisted on driv
ing straight ahead. To do otherwise notonly'wealP
ens the cause for which you are contending but
destroys confidence in your constancy_of purpose.
^ I have always believed that anything that was
j worth fighting for involved a' principle, and I in-
jsist on going far enough to establish that principle
and' to give it a fair trial. I believe in going for
ward a step at a time, but it must be a full step.
When I went into the primary fight, and afterward
iiito the railroad fight— and it has been my settled
policy ever since — I marked off a certain area in

Big Business and Government 153
which I would not compromise, 'within which com
promise would have done more harm to progress
than waiting and fighting would have done.
Autobiography, 1913.
Placing the Responsibility
It is true that men everywhere who dare to show
that they are my friends are being intimidated and
punished in innumerable ways. I wish that it might
be otherwise. I wish that I might either receive
the blows aimed at them on my account, or else that
I could be more conciliatory' in matters of public
interest by which I am deeply moved. But I can
no more compromise or seem to compromise where
what I regard as an important matter is involved
than I could by wishing it add twenty years to my
span of life. My friends must accept me with this
limitation, if such it is, or not at all.
From Unpublished Letter to a Supporter, 1918.
The Packers
•No more infamous organization ever existed in
the United States than the packers' combination. It
has defied the criminal law. It has defied the Con
gress of the United States. It has defied the Presi
dent. It has defied the executive and legislative
authority. It has done what it pleased ; it has rid
den down the Sherman anti-trust law. It has not
confined ¦ itself to meat products alone but it has
reached out into almost every field of food products
and is seeking to control and dominate the prices of
food of the .people of this country. * * *

154 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Mr. President and Senators, some man will some
day gather together the testimony that has been
submitted to the Committee on Agriculture of the
'Senate, and when he throws it upon the screen so
that the people of this country may see it as it is,
a leash will be needed to hold the people in this
country in restraint. * * *
* * * As we ,read from day to day the work of
this organization * * * we know that at a time
when the people of the country were sending their
boys away and were giving and giving to the pur
chase of Liberty bonds, when the old men and the
old women were trying to do the work upon the
farms, when everyone was giving, giving, giving,
we find that this packers' organization was grind
ing the life out of the people by continually and
unnecessarily increasing the cost of the necessaries
of life. Speech in U. S. Senate, June 28, 1919.
Must Not Surrender Rights
The gravest danger menacing republican institu
tions today is the overbalancing control of city,
state, and national legislatures by the wealth and
power of public-service corporations. This is not
more marked with one political party when in power
than with another. It deals with public officials.
It makes no political distinctions. It cannot be
cured by denunciation. It cannot be defended by
the cry of "purist" or "populist" or "demagogue."
It goes directly to the root of government. It
threatens to sap the life of American citizenship.
The voter elects the candidate ; the corporation con-

Big Business and Government 155
trois the official. It leaves the citizen the semblance
of power which is actually exercised against him.
The problem presented is a momentous one. It
calls for no appeal to passion or prejudice or fear.
It calls for courage and patriotism and self-sacrifice.
It calls for solution. Shall the American people be
come servants instead of masters of their boasted
material progress and prosperity — victims of the
colossal wealth this free land has fostered and pro
tected? Surely our great cities, our great states,
our great nation, will not helplessly surrender to
this most insidious enemy which is everywhere un
dermining official integrity and American institu
tions. Surely the party of Abraham Lincoln which
abolished slavery, which kept the United States
undivided, upon the map of the world, will not
abandon its traditions, its memories, its hopes, and
become the instrument of injustice and oppression.
It will do its plain duty now, as it did in that great
est epoch of the country's history. It will meet the
issues with rectitude and unfaltering devotion,
strong in the faith of ultimate triumph.
Gentlemen of the convention, the contest for equal
and just taxation and nominations by direct vote
is not yet completely won. The nomination which
you have just tendered me is the unmistakable, the/
emphatic demand of the republican party for the
prompt enactment of these laws. But between that
expressed will and the ripening of these measures
into law, there are caucuses and conventions for the
nomination of candidates for the senate and assem
bly. ' When the legislature convenes there are the
same forces to be met and contended with that led

156 La Follette's Political Philosophy
to the undoing of the last legislature. I appeal to
you, and through you to the people of the state, to
be vigilant to the last hour. Do not relax your ef
forts until this good work is finished. Let no man
be named for the legislature who is not fully in ac
cord with the republican platform. Name only men
who are willing to go on record for this legislation,
who are free from all entanglements or complica
tions that may force them to vote contrary to desire
and conscience. Wherever senators' or assembly
men already have be»ii nominated, let them openly
and publicly proclaim their position with respect
to these issues. This is equally the right of the
party and the public.
Gentlemen, the contest .through which we have
just passed strengthens the pillars of government
by the people and for the people. It teaches the
sacredness of public obligation. It elevates moral
^standards in public life.
Fight Is for Principle Only
'i^'hese arejessons which we shnnlH rhprish. Let
all else of this contest be forgotten. It does not
signify who began it, or why it was begun. It has
been decided. Let that suffice. I do not treasure
one peirsonal injury or lodge in memory one per
sonal insult. With individuals I have no quarrel and
will have none. The span of my life is too short
for that. But so much as it pleases God to spare
unto me I shall give, whether in the public service
or out of it, to the contest for good government.
Every pledge of the platform which you have
adopted here today has my unqualified approval,
and, if elected, I shall, in so far as the direction of

Big Business and Government 157
public affairs is committed to me, faithfully strive
to. carry out those pledges.
I accept a renomination firm in the resolution to
discharge every duty that devolves upon me con
scientiously, sustained by the abiding conviction
that the republican party will redeem its pledges
and press on to other victories.
If again chosen chief executive of this common
wealth, it will be my highest endeavor personally,
and with the aid of my assotiates in office and the
co-operation of the legislative department, to give
to the people of Wisconsin an efficient and eco
nomical state government, honestly administered in
a spirit of justice to all men and to all interests.
Speech Accepting Nomination for Governor,
July 16, 1902.
The Iniquity of the "Conference" System ^
Mr. Prisident, one of the iniquities of our legisla
tive system is that we turn over to conferees al
most, if not quite, the absolute power to make leg
islation. I hope that we shall early adopt a rule that con
ference reports shall be open to consideration in
their items and' be open to amendment on the floor.
Mr. President, a system of rules giving into the
hands of a conference the power to make legisla
tion is destructive of democracy.
Why, sir, the Senate is practically powerless
when considering a conference report. It has to
consider and to accept or reject the*report as a
v,'hol§.- Legislation about which there is a wide dif
ference of opinion between' this legislative body and
the one at the other end of the Capitol goes to

158 La Follette's Political Philosophy
conference. Out of the Conference committee will
come a proposition that has almost no relation to
the opinion expressed by the other House or the
opinion expressed by the Senate when the original
measure was under consideration.
This new proposition may be embodied in a re
port covering scores of pages. Every senator
knows that when a conference report comes in, par
ticularly in the latter days of a session, its details
receive no consideration. It is passed without dis
cussion of each of the many subjects it may cover.
Maybe one single item in a conference report will
be taken up and discussed; but, Mr. President, the
senate knows from long experience that when such
a report comes in, it is a hopeless proposition to
undertake to deal with it in detail. And so, I say,
it lies with the conferees to make our legislation.
I hope that as a member of this body I shall live
to see the rules with respect to conference reports
so changed that it will not be possible for two or
three men to dictate arid put through legislation.
This is a democracy. We are supposed to be the
representatives of the people.
Our work upon this floor and the work of our
associates at the other end of the Capitol is sup
posed to represent public opinion and the interests
of the great masses of this country. But I need not
say to the Senators what everybody knows, that
very often the public will is defeated, that public
interest is perverted, and democracy is shackled in
legislation as we enact it.
La Follette's Magazine, September, 1916.

Big Business and Government 159
(Note — There are many tricks in the making of
laws. Perhaps the most familiar trick is known as
the "joker." A "joker" in legislation is a well-
known device by which bad provisions may be
slipped into an otherwise acceptable bill. A "joker"
is thoroughly dishonest. It is resorted to on every
possible occasion by privileged interests that wish to
destroy the effect of a good law demanded by pub
lic opinion.
But there is another legislative trick employed in
congress quite as effectively as the "joker." This
trick is in the system by which "conferees" from
both the house and senate are appointed to adjust
differences between the two houses on any measure
of legislation. In actual practice it is possible in
these conferences, for a handful of representatives
to shape legislation.
This system should be thoroughly understood by
every voter. It was explained by Senator La Fol
lette in his speech on the floor of the United States
Senate July 26, 1916, when he exposed Gallinger's
attempt to have the Taylor "sweating plan" for
v/orking men slipped into the army appropriation
bill — in conference — after it had been rejected by
both the House and the Senate. See La Follette's
Magazine for August, 1916.)

IX
THE TARIFF

What Tariff Should Be
HE passage of the Payne-Aldrich bill
l?^J) was the most outrageous assault of
fe^^ private interests upon the people re-
-^5^^^^ corded in tariff history.
Iji order to place the tariff on a sci
entific basis it is necessary to know :
What is the nature and use of a given commodity
under consideration; what are the raw materials
used in its production and manufacture; what is
the amount of its production and consumption in
this country ; how many concerns are engaged in its
manufacture ; who are the principal producers ; what
are the ruling markets in this country. Then We
must know the ruling market prices of this com-.
modity in competing countries, what is the cost per
unit of production in this and competing countries,'
what is the percentage of labor cost to the total
cost of a unit of product, in this and in competing
foreign countries ; what is the cost of transportation^
to the principal markets from the points of produc
tion in this and competing foreign countries ; what
part of the proposed duty represents the difference
in cost of production between this and foreign com
peting countries; what part of the prop'osed duty

The Tariff i6i
represents the reasonable profits of the American
manufacturer, if he is to be given a reasonable
profit. La FoUette's Magazine, 1912.
Tariff — For Amendment to Canadian Pact
Mr. President, shall we incur the risk of letting
this chance of at least a partial tariff revision go
1;y? How shall we answer to the public if we then
fail of tariff reduction altogether?
Sir, the President has declared Schedule K an
"indefensible outrage." Further, he made a cam
paign and was elected upon a declaration that the
revision of the tariff should be downward and not
upward. I believe he will think it unwise to with
hold approval of a bill that enacts into law his
particular measure — this Canadian pact, which is
not reciprocity in any sense — because we have
amended it, even though not to his liking. This
will be especially true when our amendments actu
aUy reduce taxation upon the people of this country
by revising downward that same Schedule K and
some others nearly, if not quite, so intolerable.
Mr. President, what I shall offer to the senate as
an amendment to the Canadian administration bill,
as a revision of Schedule K and of the cotton sched
ule, will be shown to be easily and safely within
the line of the difference in production cost. It will
be offered with the expectation that when the Tar
iff Board shall have completed its expert work upon
any one of these schedules that schedule can be
taken up by Congress for thorough and scientific
revision. I have no doubt that when thaf work

1 62 La Follette's Political Philosophy
shall have been done it will be found that upon,
the difference in the cost of production between
this and the competing countries we can cut far
below the duties which I shall propose in the
amendments I offer.
Speech in U. S. Senate, June 21, 1911.
Tariff — Great Industries Over-Protected
I anticipate, Mr. President, that whenever we
attempt tariff revision or seek to enact legislation
interfering with the trust control of business a panic
will be foreshadowed, that prices will be depressed
for the products of the farmer, that labor will be
thrown out of employment, and that all of the
threats which will serve to frighten the farmer and
the wage-earner will be heard on the hustings and
seen on the printed page. But I shall do what I
can to persuade the business men of small means
and the wage-earners of this country to discredit
those warnings as having any logical relation to
wholesome legislation.
The predictions of panic resulting from tariff re
ductions may come true. They can be brought to
pass. They need not come true. These great in
dustries are overprotected. Their duties could be
reduced in most cases much below the point fixed
in this conference report and not disturb in the
slightest degree a single industry in the country.
Of that I am confident. These duties will be re
duced, Mr. President, if not at this session of the
congress then in the very near future ; and defeat at
this time, whether it be here or whether it be in-

The Tariff 163
terposed by executive veto, as threatened, will not
long delay the lifting of these great burdens from
the backs of the American people.
Speech in U. S. Senate, August 15, 191 1.
The Farmer and the Tariff
The voters should not be misled and vote to in
crease the cost of living by high tariffs without any
benefits in return. For years and years the farmers
of this country, particularly in the northern states,
have stood solidly for protective principles. They
have gone to the polls election after election and
returned to power the party pledged to this doc
trine. It was not directly for their advantage that
the tariff walls were raised higher and higher. But
in the belief that they were ultimately to come into
their own through the upbuilding of a great home
market, for many years they consented to the main
tenance of these high duties. They were not un
mindful of the fact that they were thereby com
pelled to pay more for manufactured products they
purchased than otherwise would be the case if these
products came to them untaxed. But strong in the
faith that they would be rewarded in the price paid
for their products in the American market, they
were content to go on paying more to the manu
facturers who made their clothes, their machinery,
manufactured their lumber, furniture and all/ sup-
plies which they were required to purchase_<TTiey
believed that by fostering our manufacturing in
dustries the general prosperity of the nation would
be enhanced, that a great and well paid manufactur
ing population was the best guarantee of a great
and well patronized farming population. V

1 64 La Follette's Political Philosophy
I Thus the farmer was persuaded to support the
protective system. With patience and good cheer
he gave long years of toil ,to the hardship of open
ing up new lands and creating new agricultural em
pires to afford a wider and firmer foundation for
the nation's prosperity.
What was his reward?
The home market was 'then created, but it was
not just the home market which had been the farm
er's dream, and for which he sacrificed so much.
Behind the protective tariff wall which he had
helped to rear, the industries of the country shelt
ered' from foreign, competition had grown rich and
powerful. They had become allied with other great
and powerful interests, engaged in transportation,
and those in turn had formed monster organizations
for the control of stock yards, packing houses, and
grain elevators. In short, these interests owned and
controlfed the home market. They fixed the farm
er's prices arbitrarily., They took the profit of his
toil. Added to this, the manufacturers protected
against competitors and compelled the farmer and
other consumers to pay higher and higher prices
for manufactured products.
/ The result of these conditions may be said to be
somewhat reflected in the recent census report,
which shows a steady increase in the proportion of
farms mortgaged over those which are free from
incumbrance. In 1890, the number was 28.2 per
cent; in 1900 it was 31. i per cent; in 1910, the per
centage of farms mortgaged had increased to 33.6
per cent. \

The Tariff 165
With the market in which he mvist buy all his
manufactured products controlled largely, if not
wholly, by combinations, which has steadily in
creased the price of everything he buys, and with
the market in which he must sell everything he pro
duces controlled by combinations which arbitrarily
fix the price that he receives, the farmer's support
of the protective system will be a constantly dimin=
ishing factor as long as these conditions exist.
Speech at Sun Prairie, Wis,, August 14, 1916.
Tariff Commission
I believe in protection to American industries and,
American labor. I believe that reasonable projec-
tion is measured by the difference in cost between
the manufacture of the article in this country and
the cost of manufacture abroad. A tariff based on
this principle can be made only upon scientific study
and research. I have favored, together with other
progressive Republicans, a tariff commission whose
duty it will be to ascertain the cost of production in
this country and other countries of the world. A
tariff bill deals with thousands of products. Relia
ble data for determining the cost of production has
been worked out with accuracy on several of the
most important schedules covered by the tariff. As
tc the products the cost of producing which is not
known, we must make the best estimates possible
with- the imaterial at hand. With a tariff commis
sion to gather accurate data it will not be difficult
to pass a tariff bill that will protect the American-
manufacturers who are dealing fairly with the
American people. ' ,
La Follette's Magazine, October, 1916. ¦

X
MONEY AND BANKING

On Amending the National Banking Law
T is quite generally admitted that our cur
rency and banking laws need revision.
In my reading I have found no authority
to the contrary. Throughout this debate
there has run a note of apology and
excuse for this bill; that it is, granting all that its/
author and friends claim for it, but an expedient for
extreme and perilous situations. It is admitted to be
a makeshift. A review of the debates of recent years touching
our banking laws shows that necessity for revision
has long been recognized. The subject has recurred
from time to time whenever forced upon the attention
of the Senate by some financial or commercial disturb
ance, but not otherwise. Propositions are always forth
coming, timed to fit some particular trouble, calling
for some specific action, and usually resulting in ben
efit to the Special Interests. It would appear that we
might learn much from European countries in regard
to bank management and currency legislation.
For my own part, Mr. President, I believe this
subject one of supreme importance, requiring study
and research, such as no committee of this body will
bestow upon it. I do not believe that any other great
nation in the world situated as we are would fail to

Money and Banking 167
create a suitable commission for investigation and
report. Such a commission should be composed of
men representing not the banking interests of the
country alone, representing not the banking interests
engaged in speculative banking at all, but representing
commercial banking interests, representing transporta
tion interests, representing producers and consumers,
to which should be added a Government expert who
has served in the office of the Comptroller of the Cur
rency, and one or more eminent economists who have
made a special study of Government finance.
Mr. President, I have talked in vain if I have not
made plain the thought that there is just one issue
before the country today. It is not currency. It is not
tariff. It is not railroad legislation. These and other
important questions are but phases of one great con
flict. Let no man think he is not concerned ; that his state
or his constituency is not interested. There_is no
remote corner of this country where the power of
special interests is not encroaching on public rights.
Let no man think this is a question of party poli
tics. It strikes down to the very foundation of our
free institutions. The System knows no party. Itis
supplanting government. I
Mr. President, I think I may say without risk of
being misunderstood, at least by those of whom I
speak, that I know something of the sentiment of the
people of this country.
I have found no difference of opinion among them
as to existing conditions and the causes underlying it
all. In Wisconsin, and from New York to the Pacific

1 68 La Follette's Political Philosophy
states, the people I have met hold one opinion, have
one conviction. '
They are deeply concerned. They understand. Men
¦ back of the system seem to know not what they do.
In their strife for more money, more power — more
power, more money — there is no time for thought, for
reflection. They look neither forward nor backward.
Government, society, and the individual are swal
lowed up ' in the struggle for greater control. The
plain, man living the wholesome life of peace and con
tentment has a better perspective, a saner judgment.
He has ideals and conscience and human emotions.
Home, children, neighbors, friends, church, schools,
country, constitute life. He knows very definitely, the
conditions affecting the rights guaranteed him by the
constitution, but he longs for expression, he longs for
leadership. Blind indeed is he who does not see what
the time portends. \He who would remain in public
service must serve the public, not the systemrl He
must, serve his country, not special interests. I Relieve
this bill will strengthen the power that grows every
day a greater menace to the industrial and commercial
liberty of the American people. I believe this will
strengthen the very element that is undermining the
commercial banking of the country.
.-^ Speech in U. S. Senate, 1908.
Private Control of Legislation
Do you know that something over forty years
ago patriotic independent postmasters-general be
gan to appeal through their reports to congress for
postal savings banks? I was a member of the
house of representatives in 1886. I was the young-

Money and Banking 169
est member of the house then. I want to say right
now so as not to have any misunderstanding about
my age. William F. Vilas was postmaster-general.
William F. Vilas figured it out that we were paying
to the railroad companies for the use of the car
which you see in every train marked "Railway
Postal Car," or something like that, to indicate that
it is a post office on wheels — that we were paying
for the rent of those post offices (that is all they
are, just as your post office here is a federal build
ing, so are these cars our post offices) annually on
these cars $500,000 more than enough to build them
and take care of them every twelve months.
An old Wisconsin boy then in the house of rep
resentatives, Henry Clay Evans, a car manufacturer
at Chattanooga, Tennessee, came over to my desk to
talk to me about that. "Why," he says, "that is an
awful thing.'' He was a member of the committee
on post offices and post roads. He said, "I am going
to have that amended in committee, and I am going
to put through an amendment to have the gov
ernment as Postmaster General Vilas recommends,
build those cars and own them just as the govern
ment owns its other post offices, and merely hire the
railroad company to pull them around."
"Well, Clay," I said, "I think that is a splendid
thing; now you let me know how you get along
with that down in the committee." I had been there
one term longer than he had, you know. He came
up one day after a committee meeting, a square-
jawed fellow, you know, and he looked positively
frightful, he was so angry. He said : "Do you know
I offered that resolution in the committee and I

170 La Follette's Political Philosophy
got one, just one vote for it — my vote." "But," he
said, "I will fix it on the floor. I am going to offer
it on the floor, I gave notice to the committee that
1 would." I said, "All right Clay, now you just go
in ; I will do what I can to help you." He offered it
on the floor and you know what happened to it.
We got four or five 'votes out of 325 — that was the
membership of the house at that time.
We go on today paying that same exorbitant rent
for the use of those cars. I have tried since I have
been back in the senate to get some action, to get
an investigation of the subject, to do something.
You know the same men who own these great
group banks own the railroads of this country
They do. That is just a suggestion, you know. I
could stand here all night long, so could your own
senator here, and detail to you the history, piece
after piece of legislation the last ten or fifteen years
just like that, just like that.
Currency Reform Is Long Battle
Take the banking and currency laws of the coun
try. We have got a currency commission now.
Senator Aldrich is at the head of it. He named the
other members. They are going to help him out.
They are going to report out a measure this coming
congress. I suspect it is going to be for a central
bank. But I suspect the control of that bank will
be here. Fight, as you would fight for your lives
against that legislation. I don't care who backs it
up or who endorses it. I don't care what sanction it
may have from high places; fight it as you would
fight for your lives, because the control of the cur
rency is the last ditch.

Money and Banking 171
Do you know what the acting comptroller of the
currency said in an interview while the Aldrich
emergency currency bill was pending in the United
States senate? He said that for forty years, and
he named the number of comptrollers of the cur
rency that had been in office during that period of
time, they had, in their annual reports to congress, made
recommendations in the interests of the depositors
of banks and of the public generally, not one of
which had been adopted in all that time by congress.
Acting_ Commissioner Kane, who has been in of
fice for many years, is assistant comptroller of the
currency. He is a man whose knowledge and whose
information and whose character and standing are
high enough and important enough to be retained
there to do the real work while nominal heads come
and go over him. He said boldly in an interview
over his own name, while that so-called emergency
bill was pending in the United States senate, that
no legislation recommended in the public interest
had received any attention from congress and that
the only legislation on the currency question which
did get attention from congress was legislation
which served some financial power. He was driven
so by his sense of what was right and just and due
to the American people, during the pendency of
that gigantic fraud as a financial proposition that
was perpetrated on the American people merely for
the purpose of finding a market among the banks
of this couhtry for the securities of these over
capitalized organizations that were made and legiti
matized by that measure as a proper basis for
emergency currency in time of distress. He felt so

172 La Follette's Political Philosophy
outraged by that legislation that on Sunday morn
ing in the Washington Post he gave that interview
which was a challenge to and a denunciation of
congress on its. record through all those years.
Speech at St. Paul, Oct. g, 1909.
High Finance — Interlocking Directorates — Back
bone of the Money Power
The most effective invention for the centralized
control of capital and credit which the ingenuity of
high finance has contrived, is the interlocking di
rectorates. The scheme is simple. To establish a common
interest and bind together great banking concerns
the necessary stock is acquired by purchase or ex
change in the various banks of an extended chain
of such institutions, which it is desired to combine.
This carries with it the right of representation on
the several boards of directors and unifies the or
ganization. It establishes a stable working connec
tion which mere commercial exchanges in the or
dinary course of banking transactions cannot begin
to approach. In short, it enables a few men to ex
ercise wide control over all who must deal with
these allied banks, fit is the backbone of the money
power. La Follette's Magazine, September 27, 1913.

XI
INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM AND RECALL

Instruments of Democracy
-aM ^^ years the American people have
I^Q^/^ been engaged in a terrific struggle
with the allied forces of organized
wealth and political corruption. Bat
tles have been won and lost. The un
equal contest goes on. The lesson is obvious. The
people must have in reserve new weapons for every
emergency, if they are to regain and preserve con
trol of their government.
The forces of special privilege are deeply en
trenched. Their resources are inexhaustible. Their
efforts never relax. Their political methods are in
sidious. It is impossible for the people to maintain
perfect organization in mass. They are often taken
unawares and are liable to lose at one stroke the
achievements of years of effort. In such a crisis
nothing but the united power of the people ex
pressed directly through the ballot can overthrow
the enemy.
Through the initiative, referendum and recall the
people in any emergency can absolutely control.
The initiative and referendum make it possible for
them to demand a direct vote and repeal bad laws
which have been enacted, or to enact by direct vote
good measures which their representatives refuse

174 La Follette's Political Philosophy
to consider. The recall enables the people to dis
miss from public service those representatives who
dishonor their commissions by betraying the public
interest. These measures will prove so effective
a check against unworthy representatives that it
will rarely be found necessary to invoke them.
People Have Last Word
Constitutions and statutes and all the complex
details of government are but instruments created
by the citizen for the orderly execution of his will.
Whenever and wherever they fail, they will be so
changed as to make them effective to execute and
express the well-considered judgment of the citizen.
For over and above constitutions and statutes,
and greater than all, is the supreme sovereignty of
the people!
We need not fear, Mr. President. This is the
people's government. They will not destroy it.
(They will not permit organized privilege to destroy
its vital principle. They will restore and forever
preserve it as a government that shall be truly rep-
Iresentative of the will of the people.
They know that the initiative and referendum
will place in the hands of the people the power to
protect themselves against the mistakes or indiffer
ence of their representatives in the legislature.
Then it will always be possible for the people to
demand a direct vote and to repeal a bad law which
the legislature has enacted, or to enact by direct
vote a good measure which the legislature has re
fused to consider.
The recall will enable the people to dismiss from
public service a representative whenever he shall

Initiative, Referendum, Recall 175
cease to serve the public interest. Then no jack
pot politician can hold his office in defiance of the
will of a constituency whose commission he has
dishonored. Wherever representative government fails, it fails
because the representative proves incompetent or
false to his trust. Intrenched in office for his full
term, his constituency is powerless and must sub
mit to misrepresentation. There is no way to cor
rect his blunders or to protect against his betrayal.
At the expiration of his service he may be replaced
by another who will prove equally unworthy. The
citizen is entitled to some check, some appeal, some
relief, some method of halting and correcting the
evils of misrepresentation and betrayal.
La Follette's Magazine, October 17, 1914.
To the Voters of Wisconsin
I believe in the intelligence and patriotism of the
people of Wisconsin. I believe they are capable of
self-government. The common, average judgment
of the community is always wise, rational and trust
worthy. I would see them clothed with the largest
power to say the final word as to tfie laws under
which they are to live and the government they
maintain. The republican platform of Wisconsin is the
strongest guarantee yet given for perpetuating self-
government. If the pledges of the republican plat
form become the law of this state, government of
the people, by the people, will be forever safe in
Wisconsin. A perfected primary law will insure majority
nomination. Then the will of the majority can no

176 La Follette's Political Philosophy
longer suffer defeat through division of votes among
several candidates representing the same principles.
A strong corrupt practices law will limit the use
of money in elections. Then no man can buy po
litical office and power in Wisconsin and the public
service will be equally within the reach of all men.
Fellow citizens, if you would insure faithful and
efficient administration of progressive legislation
enacted in recent years, — the regulation of railway
rates and services, the regulation of the rates and
services of all public utilities, the collection of a
just and reasonable tax upon all public-service cor
porations in this state, the rigid enforcement of the
pure food and dairy statutes, the thorough inspec
tion of factories, the strict enforcement of laws for
the protection of the public health, the vigilant su
pervision of insurance, the advancement and sup
port of our educational system, the proper care and
management of our charitable and penal institu
tions — if you would secure the conservation and
control of waterpowers by the state for the benefit
of all the people, the enactment of a graduated in
come tax law,, home rule for cities, the benefits of a
workmen's compensation statute, a thorough in
vestigation of co-operative buying and selling,
storage and warehousing as affecting the farmer
and the consumer, co-operative credit and collective
bargaining and arbitration between employers and
employees, — if you approve of the course of the
progressive representatives of Wisconsin in con
gress, their fight against a tariff bill that violated
platform pledges and imposed ever increasing
burdens upon the consumer, their struggle to frame

Initiative, Referendum, Recall 177
a just and efficient postal savings bank law to serve
the interests of the people rather than promote the
interests of Wall Street, their successful labors in
so reconstructing the railway rate bill as to make
it a public benefit instead of a positive public
injury — if you would maintain Wisconsin as the
leader of this great progressive movement to
restore government to the people; then make the
majority for the principles declared in this platform
and for the candidates who really and truly repre
sent those principles, the largest and most decisive
ever recorded in the history of the state.
Voter Wields Supreme Power
At no time in the last half century has there been
such imperative reason for patriotic independence
on the part of the American voter. The ballot is his
weapon. He should use it everywhere independent
ly, fearlessly. Teach both political parties that they
can no longer play the voter for a fool. Strike down
as an enemy of the republic any candidate of any
party whose past record or present connection
marks him as the agent of special interests. To
seek to invoke in this hour of the life of American
democracy the party spirit to maintain party solidar
ity, and to assure a party victory regardless of the
relative merits of opposing candidates, regardless
of a record of subserviency to privilege, is a sur
render of every principle that has made the progres
sive movement the hope of millions. Let it go to
the country on November eighth that Wisconsin
places service to the public interest above service
to any political party, and that her progressive
leaders never betrayed their cause. Sometimes,

178 La Follette's Political Philosophy
mistaken in men, they have suffered humiliation and
temporary reverses, but the leaders of the progres
sive movement and the great mass of the voters in
Wisconsin, have kept the faith alike, and regardless
of party, have fought a good fight, a successful fight
to make state government in Wisconsin a real rep
resentative democracy.
Letter to Wisconsin Voters, November 3, 1910.
The Recall
* * * I do not believe you will ever get any true
representative government in the United States,
until there is in the hands of the people the power
to recall the representative who betrays them.
Every business institution in America has that
right in the case of an unfaithful employee, — be he
a cashier in a bank, the manager of a big trust con
cern, the president of a railroad: It does not make
any difference how long the term of office or the
term of contract of such a man, if it be found that
the man failed to serve faithfully under the terms
of his contract and had betrayed the party to whom
he has made obligations in his contract of faithful
service, he can be thrown out of his position.
But the United States Senator and Member of the
House of Representatives and the other gentlemen
who may get in under false pretenses, pretending to
represent the public interest, and who then betray
the public interest, cannot be driven from power
for six years or four years or two years. I think
that is unfair to the public.
Speech in U. S. Senate, June 28, 1919.

XII
FEDERAL JUDGES AND INJUNCTIONS

The Election of Federal Judges
HIS is a democracy. The people shall
rule. The ballot should be the safeguard
against bloodshed and anarchy. Wise
men will look to the future through the
history of the past. They will desire to avoid the
throes of revolution by force by peaceful change
through the ballot and we will win. We shall not,
we must not, let this thing go on to bloody tragedy.
Government must be made more responsible to
the people. Life terms of office should be abolished.
The appointing power should be limited to ad
ministrative officers. Federal judges with powers
greater than the Congress should be subject to elec
tion by the people, as judges are in the state courts.
Upon their records as judges they should be re
quired to go to the people.
From "Sanctified Crime," La Follette's
Magazine, March, 1920.
The Sacred Rights of Property
Why should we temporize? Why should we ap
proach this subject on tiptoe, with apology to spe
cial interests and apostrophe to property rights?
Honest wealth needs no guaranty of security in this

i8o La Follette's Political Philosophy
country. Property rightfully acquired does not be
get fear — it fosters independence, confidence, cour
age. Property which is the fruit of plunder feels
insecure. It is timid. It is quick to cry for help.
It is ever proclaiming the sacredness of vested
rights. The thief can have no vested rights in stolen
property. I resent the assumption that the great
wealth of this country is safe only when the million
aires are on guard. Property rights are not the spe
cial charge of the owners of great fortunes. Even
the poor may be relied upon to protect property.
They have so little — the Httle they have is so preci
ous — that they are easily enlisted to defend the
rights of property.
Speech, U. S. Senate, April 19—21, 1906, on
"Regulation of Railway Rates and Services."
A Judicial Oligarchy
The judiciary has grown to be the most powerful
institution in our government. It, more than any
other, may advance or retard human progress.
I Evidence abounds that, as constituted today, the
courts pervert justice almost as often as they ad
minister it. Precedent and jxrocedure have com- ¦
bined to inake one law for the rich and another for
the poor. The regard of the courts for fossilized
precedent, their absorption in technicalities, their
detachment from the vital, living facts of the pres
ent day, their constant thinking on the side of the
rich and powerful and privileged classes have
brought our courts into conflict with the democratic
spirit and purposes of this generation. Moreover,
by usurping the power to declare laws unconstitu-

Federal Judges and Injunctions i8i
tional and by presuming to read their own views
into statutes without regard to the plain intention/
of the legislators, they have become in reality the,'
supreme law-making institution of our government.
They have taken to themselves a power it was never
intended they should exercise ; a power greater than
that entrusted to the courts of any other enlightened
nation. And because this tremendous power has
been so generally exercised on the side of the
wealthy and powerful few, the courts have become
at last the strongest bulwark of special privilege.
They have come to constitute what may indeed be
termed a "judicial oligarchy."
Sensing this, the people have become distrustful.
In various ways they have shown their dissatisfac
tion with the work of the courts. Severe attacks
have been made recently upon the integrity and
ability of certain judges. Everywhere there is a
growing public demand for a change that will bring
the judiciary again into its proper sphere and into
closer communion with the progressive ideals of
this generation. La Follette's Magazine, June 22, 19 12.

•/

XIII
THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT

What is the Progressive Movement?
l^^ FTER all it is a simple matter to define
the progressive movement. It can be i
expressed in a single sentence. C It
comprehends the aspirations of the
human race in its struggle from the
beginning down to the present time.

The will of the people shall be the law of the
landT3"Constrtutions',''statutes and all of the com-
jjlex 'details of government are but instruments to
carry out the will of the people, and when they fail
— when constitutions and statutes and all of the
agencies employed to execute constitutions and stat
utes fail — they must be changed so as to carry out
and express the well formulated judgment and the
will of the people. For over all and above all, and
greater than all, and expressing the supreme sov
ereignty of all, are the people.
Address at Republican Platform Convention, 1910.
Origin of the Movement
The essence of the progressive movement, as I
J see it, lies in its purpose to uphold the fundamental
principles of representative government. It ex
presses the hopes and desires of millions of common

The Progressive Movement 183
men and women who are willing to fight for their
ideals, to take defeat if necessary, and still go on
fighting. In the state of Wisconsin the progressive move
ment expressed itself in the rise to power of the
Patrons of Husbandry. The Grange movement
swept four or five middle western states, expressing
vigorously the first powerful revolt against the rise
of monopolies, the arrogance of railroads and the
waste and robbery of the public lands.
In Wisconsin the granger movement went so far
as to cause a political revolution and the election in
1874 of a democratic governor. A just and compre
hensive law for regulating the railroads was passed
and a strong railroad commission was instituted.
It was then, indeed, that the railroads began to dom
inate politics for the first time in this country. They
saw that they must either accept control by the state
or control the state. They adopted the latter course ;
they began right there to corrupt Wisconsin — in
deed to corrupt all the states of the middle west.
And as usual they were served by the cleverest law
yers and writers that money could hire.
Introduction to Autobiography, 1913.
Wisconsin's Progressive Laws
Wisconsin Stands in the forefront of states by
reason of the progressive legislation enacted under
Republican administration during the last ten years,
including laws for direct nominations; for an un
trammeled vote at the election ; for the ad valorem
system of taxing railroads ; to remove the pernici
ous influence of the lobby in legislation; to pro-

1 84 La Follette's Political Philosophy
mote education and particularly agricultural and in
dustrial training; to provide adequate regulation
through the railroad commission of rates and serv
ices of railroads and public utilities; to conserve
the state domain through the forestry commission;
to regulate insurance ; to protect employees in haz
ardous occupations ; to regulate child labor ; to pre
vent adulteration in foods; and to protect public
health by sanitary regulations.
Republican State Platform, 1910.
Keeping Faith with the People
I am informed by your committee that you have
elected me to represent Wisconsin as United
States senator. Assembled in joint session under
organic and statutory law you are empowered to
speak for all the people of this commonwealth. Any
man, at any time in his life, may well regard an
election to the United States senate as the highest
honor to which he can attain in the public service.
That you should have chosen me at this time, and
in this way, and in the spirit manifested, fills me
with a sense of gratitude I can in no wise express.
You have bestowed upon me, unsought, the great
est distinction which any state can confer upon any
citizen. This mark of your confidence I shall
cherish in grateful memory while I live.
f Whenever I have believed that I could be helpful
in the public service, I have frankly and openly de-
Iclared my candidacy. It has seemed to me the more
honorable way. Months ago, had I been free to
become a candidate for the office of United States
senator, I should have so declared at that time.
But for many years, issues in which I feel a pro-

The Progressive Movement 185
found interest have been pending in this state. Be
lieving that I could best serve the public by so do
ing, I offered myself as a candidate for governor in
support of these issues. I was twice elected, and,
as God gave me to see the right, served the state as
best I could. Great progress was made, but the
work was unfinished. To assist in that unfinished
work, I was, for the third time, elected governor.
I am sure that none of you, who have borne with
me the bitterness and fury of campaigns for a dec
ade of time, would, for any consideration, endanger
the consummation and protection of that work in
which we have been engaged.
We have seen it grow from the assertion of prin
ciple to the enactment of broad and comprehensive
statutes which bulwark and fortify the foundations
of representative government. We have seen it
grow in interest until it passed the boundaries of
the state and fixed the attention of the nation, and
we have^seen it expand upon the national side into
the dominant issue in national legislation, where it
has slumbered for many years.
I would not have any member of the legislature,
nor any citizen of the commonwealth, believe that I
do not comprehend the wide scope of the duties of
the high office of United States senator, nor of the
obligation it carried to serve impartially the whole
state and the whole nation, and all the people, and
all the people's interests.
Feels Solemn Responsibility
But I believe I am not blinded by any feeling of-
prejudice, nor warped by any hard experience, in
regarding the past decade in political history in

1 86 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Wisconsin and the next decade in the political his
tory of the United States, as epochmaking years in
state and national government. There are import
ant patriotic duties of this generation of men to per
form in both of these great fields. Mindful as I
m.ust always be and you must always be — for the
most of you carry wounds and scars of this long
civic strife — of the profound significance of the last
ten years of political history in Wisconsin for the
principles which underlie government by the peo
ple, your action in electing me United States senator
seems to come as a commission from you, and the
people of the state throiSgK you, tl) carry a message,
out of our service here, into the wider field of na
tional legislation. Your call invites me to partici
pate in that great work, which was to deal immedi
ately with the problems President Roosevelt has
courageously pressed upon congress for solution.
I appreciate that you have the same sense of
obligation to the people of Wisconsin which I have.
I fully realize that if you did not believe I could
serve the people's interests better as senator than as
governor, you would not have taken this action today.
It would, indeed, be presumptuous for me to as
sume that j^ou have not fully considered every
phase of every question that can be raised by the
action which you have taken. It would be doubly
presumptuous in me to assume that my presence
here is vital. I do not indulge that presumption, •
but I cannot at this time wholly divest myself of a
sense of duty to the people of Wisconsin that, how
ever difficult to define in specific terms, nevertheless
exists, and is a valid reason for the course I am

The Progressive Movement 187
impelled to take, and which I trust your deliberate
judgment will commend. For all of us must recog
nize the common obligation. We are commissioned
by the same sovereign authority. We have accepted
from them the same trust. The obligation is bind
ing and the trust is sacred. They must be kept in
violate and fulfilled according to their intent and
spirit. To achieve this we must each, in his own
sphere, give to tlie state all that an important offi
cial duty, once assumed, may demand.
Pledges Faithfulness to People
We are at the very beginning of the session, and
while at the present time there would seem to be no
reason for any conflict of obligation, and while I
do not believe that any one can arise in state and
national affairs to make that which today seems
plain and simple appear complex and difficult,
nevertheless, I desire to exercise every possible pre
caution against future contingencies.
I wish to be entirely frank with you and the peo-(
pie of the state, as I have always tried to be. There
shall be no concealments nor any misunderstanding
through any fault of mine. If a public office, is a
public trust, there should be no deception on the
part ot the'official in the relation to those for whom
he holds the trust.
I cannot but feel I was elected governor of this
state because the people believed I stood for cer
tain things in government, and that I would not re
lax my efforts until I had done all in my power legit=
imately as governor to accomplish certain results.
If, at the very beginning of the session, before any
legislation has been enacted, before there is any cer-

i88 La Follette's Political Philosophy
tainty that there will not be a conflict in duty as
United States senator-elect and as governor qf the
state, I accept without qualification or explanation
the honor you have tendered me, I fear my action
would be misinterpreted by the people of Wiscon
sin. It might lessen their faith in official obliga
tion, it might undermine their confidence, and
weaken their interest in the final fulfillment of the
pledges made to them. I cannot believe that we can
even partially fail in the faithful performance of
every duty. I cannot at present see what I could do
as governor for this legislation after this session
should terminate, if there were failure, either in
whole or in part, which I might not do equally well,
and, perhaps, more effectively, as a United States
senator, in co-operation with the people of this
commonwealth for a people's government. But,
recognizing, as I must, the present obligations which
rest upon me, I am compelled to be in readiness to
meet any unforeseen issue which may develop.
For these reasons, then, I say, in accepting your
high commission, that, if there should appear any
conflict in the obligation I entered into when I took
the oath of office as governor, and that of United
states senator-elect, then I shall ask you to receive
it from me and place it in other hands of your own
;hoosing. The selection of United States senator is
your prerogative and will, of course, be preserved
to you. Huge Task Seen Ahead
That it would call for any great personal sacrifice
3n my part to be compelled for any reason to de-
:line the office of United States senator, I need

The Progressive Movement 189
scarcely say. The opportunity which you offer to
me to serve the state is the greatest which could
come to any man in this generation. At no time,
since the close of the war, have the essential prin
ciples of popular government been in greater peril.
The government is seeking to control public-service^
corporations and industrial combinations are seek
ing to control government. The next few years]
will test the vital principles of democracy in this]
country as never before.
Gentlemen, I thank you from a full heart for this
great opportunity, this great honor, this great trust. '
I feel that the close relationship and mutual con
fidence which have heretofore existed between my
self and the people of Wisconsin are equally vital
as between the people and one elected to serve as
United States senator. If that relation continues,
it shall ever be my care to strengthen and preserve
that intimacy and confidence. State government
and national government are inseparably associated
and constantly react upon each other. The inter
dependence in the spirit is closer than in the letter
of the law.
If I enter this service, it will be in the hope that
friendships and associations with the people will
Strengthen and increase. That the republican party
/will find me in sympathy with and enlisted in the
support of issues which deeply concern state gov
ernment, and that in so far as I have ability and
power, I shall represent all the interests of the
state and sacredly keep faith with the people in all
things. Speech on Election as U, S. Senator, Jan, 25, 1905.

XIV
MILITARISM

Preparedness Should be for Defense
HE present congress will pass a mili
tary program that will impose upon the
people of the United States the great
est tax burden for an alleged prepared
ness against an alleged danger that has
ever been known in any country at peace with all
the world.
The appropriations by the present congress for
all military purposes, that is to say for army and
navy and coast defense, military academies, naval
academies and pensions, will approximate the sum
of $840,000,000.
For the same purpose a year ago congress appro
priated in round numbers $429,000,000. The ap
propriation for this year is nearly double that of a
year ago.
This appropriation is so colossal as to stagger the
imagination. Applying the figures to Wisconsin
we find that Wisconsin's share of this military
and naval appropriation will be approximately
$20,000,000. This is equivalent to $8 per capita, that is $8
each for every man, woman and child in the state.
Counting five persons to the family it is equivalent
to $40 for each family.

Militarism 191
You understand that government revenues are
largely raised by tariffs or taxes on the things we
eat and wear, and use in our daily life. As a gen
eral rule it is not a direct tax and you do not ap
preciate the day of reckoningj'but it is a constant
drain on the resources of the American people.
There is something to pay today and every day.
It goes into the cost of living and adds to the bur
dens of the poor.
What do we want of an increased navy and an
increased army such as this great military program
provides? What changed conditions warrant doub
ling the appropriation of a year ago? There is ab-G
solutely nothing in the situation, nothing in the
conditions that can be made to justify placing this
extortionate tax burden upon the people of the
United States. There is not one substantial reason
why this congress should double the appropriation
for military purposes at this time.
They claim that we are preparing for defense,
not for aggression. Logically we should inquire
first of all as to our coast defenses, should we not?
What about our coast defenses?
The highest authority on this subject is Gen.
Erasmus Weaver. He testified before the house
committee on military affairs that "We have the
best coast defenses in the world. The guns no-v^
mounted and those contemplated will give us an
entirely satisfactory defense."
Speech at Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, 1916.
Prepare for Peaceful Industry not War
According to the statement of Gen. Nelson A.
Miles, we have expended $200,000,000 upon our

192 La Follette's Political Philosophy
coast defenses. I do not disparage expenditures for
\ this purpose. I give them my cordial support.
iCoast fortifications, coast artillery and a sufficient
mobile force of soldiers for coast and harbor de
fense, I will as strongly support as any other man.
They are for defense. They cannot be used for
overseas conquest ; they cannot be used to coerce
weaker nations in the interest of speculative in
vestors in foreign countries. They offer little or no
inducement for powerful war traders to lobby con
gress for extravagant appropriations. They con
stitute one class of expenditures for preparedness
which makes for peace instead of war.
Just in the proportion that they destroy the sol
diery of Europe, just as they feed the men between
i8 and 45 years of age to the cannons, wiping out
ten to twelve millions of the virile manhood of the
world, just by so much the reasons diminish why
we should begin an extravagant, extortionate pro
gram of taxation upon the people of this country
for what we call preparedness.
I want you to understand that for the past 15
years our naval appropriations have exceeded those
of Germany by 50 per cent., they have exceeded
those of Japan by 300 per cent., and now in this
last year of our Lord 1916, we double the appro
priation of the preceding year, and the appropria
tion of 191 5 was $55,000,000 more than Great Brit
ain had expended on her navy during any year of
peace. Compare the preparations for peace with the
preparations for war. The Panama canal, the great
est and most extensive piece of engineering the
world ha§ ever seen, cost the United States $400,-

Militarism 193
000,000. But one appropriation for war preparation
cost the United States more than twice the vast
sum, or nearly $800,000,000.
We have better uses for our money.
Beneficent Use of Money
Let us prepare the manhood and the womanhood
of our country for the struggles of peace ; more com
pensation for the industrial soldiers who fall by the
wayside by reason of the hazards of their occupa
tions; more compensation to their widows and
children ; pensions for the aged and infirm who have
failed in the struggle of life to gain a pittance
against old age or misfortune ; more wages ; more
education; more money for the common good; more
money to fight contagious • diseases. This is the
preparedness toward which we should turn. We
should spend less to prepare to kill and more to
prepare to live.
I stand for adequate defense of our country
against any aggressor, but when our capitalists
draw their money from this country to stake it on
the turn of fortune's wheel in some foreign land,
let them take the gambler's chance. If money is to
be spent to make their foreign risks secure, let it
be their own money. If lives are to be risked, men
sacrificed to protect their possessions in foreign
lands, let it be their own lives that take the hazard.
Believing in democracy, the right of self-govern
ment — ready to defend the precious heritage of our
own sovereignty — let us here and now resolve and
declare that we will never permit the armed force
of the United States to be used to despoil our sister
republics of their property, nor to interfere with

194 La Follette's Political Philosophy
their right to govern themselves according to their
own standard, nor violate their sovereignty — as
sacred to them as our sovereignty is to us.
Mr. President, the interests that are behind this
preparedness program in the United States do
not fear Germany, do not fear England, do not
fear any nation on this earth; but they do want a
large army, they do want a large navy. It fits into
the commercial, industrial, and imperialistic schemes
of the great financial masters of this country.
Senators may think it expedient to vote for this
increased appropriation at this time. The people
may be under a certain vague fear and in doubt
now, but when they see that their fears have been
played upon, when the tax burden comes, when the
weight begins to press down, when you double on
everye member of the family the cost of sustaining
this military program, then you will be called to
account, thdi'n you will have to answer their stern,
deliberate, second judgment.
The danger of an attack upon our country has
been made to appear very real and very imminent.
It has been painted in lurid colors — motion pictures
showing New York's splendid edifices toppling to
destruction under the shots of enemy guns, the
enemy garbed to convey the idea that they are Ger
mans ; volumes written to show New York and New
Orleans and San Francisco already captured; that
the foreign hordes are sweeping across the coun
try — have these volumes been sent to you. Sena
tors? I have received them. Who do you suppose
pays for all this? Why, the Du Pont Powder Co.
had a hand in it; the Bethlehem Steel Co. doubt-

Militarism 195
less made its contribution of millions of money.
It was paid for out of the bloody profits made from
shipping arms and ammunition abroad within the
last year.
True, the American people may be influenced by
the advertisements of the Bethlehem Steel Co., may
be swayed by the headlines and editorials of the
great metropolitan press. They may be deeply
moved, the blood may tingle and the pulse quick
ened to the strains of hundreds of bands playing as
hundreds of thousands of men and women march
in parade ; but when it is known that many Ameri
can citizens felt impelled to march in fear of a
penalty — the loss of wages or of being discharged — ¦
it alters folks' attitude as to the impressiveness of
such demonstrations. ¦Speech in U. S. Senate, July 19-20, 1916.
Mexico and Financial Imperialism
Back of all modern war is practically one policy. \
It is financial impe.rjalisrm It is the scheme of using
the surplus wealth wrung unlawfully from the peo
ple of a country by the financial interests that dom
inate that country, and the use of that surplus
wealth through investments in the weaker, unde
veloped governments of the world.
The Boer war which lasted three years cost Great
Britain $1,250,000,000.
And it did not accomplish anything! (_
Keep that in mind when some of the gentlemen
who are speaking for American investments in Mex
ico clamor for war with Mexico. There is a mo
mentous lesson in the efforts of the representatives
of two nations to arrive at an understanding and

196 La Follette's Political Philosophy
avert the consequences of war. But if there should
come some flaming up of passions, if there should
come some opportunity for the representatives of
those who have bought Mexico with American
money and want to rule it — want intervention — then
let us all remember what happened to England in
an effort to subjugate the Boers.
If we ever enter upon the conquest of Mexico —
and the office of prophecy is a somewhat hazardous
one — let me say that in a hundred years we will
not conquer Mexico ; we will maintain for a hun
dred years a standing army of a million men in
Mexico ; we will place the burden of that on the
American people.
1 If the time ever comes when we shall attempt to
linvade Mexico, it will be because American capital
|has gone down there and invested. They who own
VMexico are the ones who want war.
Now, Mr. President, it may be a new doctrine to
the senate of the United States, but I think it is
pretty nearly time to have the issue made. It may
not win in the first struggle here. It will win ulti
mately, because it is everlastingly right. That is
the reason for the amendment I have offered.
I believe every dollar that goes into a foreign
country and every man who goes into a foreign
country with his money looking for profits should
accept the laws of the country as the arbiter to
which he will appeal for justice if he feels at any
time that he is required to protect his rights in that-
country. The thing that attracts capital to Mexico is its
rich natural resources. They have an unstable gov-

Militarism 197
ernment there. That unstable government lowers
the value of property. American money there can
buy for $100,000 because of the government con
ditions, property that is worth a million dollars.
Now, if this new doctrine that the flag shall follow
the investment of the citizen is to prevail, then our
government is to be called upon to guarantee the
speculative investments of its citizens in the coun
tries where the governments are weak, and so to
make those speculative investments worth face
value. The people of the United States do not want war
with Mexico. The Mexican people do not want
war with us. And both President Wilson and Car-
ranza have manifestly done everything in their
power to avert war.
What is it, then, that menaces the peace of these
neighboring countries?
The Game of Foreign Investors '*
It dates far back of the Columbus raid. That
outrage upon the residents of one of our border
towns was the logical outcome of conditions for
which the Mexican people were in nowise respon
sible. Worse than that! Both Governments were
the victims of traitors in our midst. For it is
charged upon the highest authority that the raid
was inspired and arranged for in our own country.
There you have it! The gentlemen who want
• war with Mexico are the gentlemen who "have
Mexican properties." They are a very powerful lot.
They own most of the UniteJ States and a good big
slice of Mexico. They are our captains of Indus-

198 La Follette's Political Philosophy
try; our masters of finance. They own or control
lour great newspapers. They are for a "strong Mex-
iican policy," a "strong foreign policy," a big army,
'a big navy.
There is just one risk, and that is a large risk.
The governments are most of them weak. Revolu
tions in many of them are frequent ; property rights
are insecure.
But a scheme has been worked out by the mas
ters of finance to make foreign investments as good
as a government bond. Just put the stars and
stripes back of them.
The interests of this country are confronted with
the alternative of loaning their surplus wealth to
the farmer, to the merchant, to the small enterprise
at a constantly lowering interest rate or of with
drawing the surplus capital from this country,
keeping interest rates high here and going down
into the weak governments of Mexico, Central and
South America, which are rich in natural resources,
m.inerals, oil, timber, coal, and iron, surpassing all
imagination, we are told, and acquiring control
there. As a protest against the use of our navy to en
force the claims of these interests, I have offered
the following amendment:
Provided, That no battleship, cruiser, scout
cruiser, torpedo-boat, destroyer, or submarine here
in appropriated for shall be employed in any manner
to coerce or compel the collection of any pecuniary
claim of any kind, class, or nature, or to enforce any
claim or right to any grant or concession for or on

Militarism 199
behalf of any private citizen, copartnership, or cor
poration of the United States against the govern
ment of Mexico or of any Central or South Ameri
can government.
When our capitalists withdraw their money from
this country to stake it on the turn of fortune's
wheel in some foreign land, let them take the gam
bler's chance. '
If money is to be spent to make their foreign
risks secure, let it be their own money. If lives are
to be risked to protect their Mexican mines — their
Central and South American concessions — let it be
their own lives that take the hazard.
Believing in democracy, in the right of self-gov
ernment — ready to defend the precious heritage of
our own sovereignty — let us here and now resolve
and declare that we will never permit the armedV
forces of the United States to be used to despoil
our sister republics of their property, interfere with
their right to govern themselves according to their
own standards or violate their sovereignty — as
sacred to them as American sovereignty is to us.
Speech in U. S. Senate, July 19-20, 1916.

XV
WAR

The Meaning of War
1 T is well for us to remember that war
is always cruel; that its iron tread
means destruction and devastation,
whether its march is across Europe or
from Atlanta to the sea; that war
arouses all the fiercest human passions; that there
are always cases of brutality and outrage — and that
usually there is quite as much of it on one side as
upon the other. La Follette's Magazine, Oct. 17, 1914.
Resolution for Conference of Neutral Nations
WHEREAS the most powerful nations of Europe
have been engaged for over half a year in a terrible
¦war of cumulative intensity and increasing destruc
tion of human life ; and whereas, recent inventions
have revolutionized methods of warfare giving rise
to unprecedented situations and conditions; and
whereas the ever widening field of hostile operations
in the war zone encroaches more and more day by
day upon the common highways of commerce, in
viting to complications which may at any moment
entagle one or more of the neutral nations in situa- ,
tions of the gravest peril ; and
WHEREAS it becomes of the utmost importance
that at the earliest moment a conference of the neu-

Robert M. La Follette

EJmonston Studio.
Washington, D. C.

War 201
tral nations should be called to consider the rights
of neutrals under existing conditions, to work out a
policy for the preservation of their own peace, and
to tender their best offices of mediation to the belli
gerent nations; and
. WHEREAS we, the people of the United States,
are bound to each of the warring nations by ties of
blood and country, compelling in us a profound in»
terest in the cessation of hostilities and the restora
tion of peace, and by inheritance are best fitted to
make initial appeal to each nation ; now, therefore, be it.
RESOLVED, ETC., that the president be author
ized to convey to all neutral nations the desire of
this government that an international conference be
held for the purpose of proihoting by co-operation
and through its friendly offices :
First. The early cessation of hostilities and the
establishment of peace among the warring nations
of Europe; 
Second. The consideration of uniform rules and
regillations for the general limitation of armaments
and the nationalization of the manufacture of all
equipment and supplies used exclusively for military
and naval purposes;
Third. The consideration of rules and regula
tions for the prohibition of the export of arms, am
munitions, artillery, vessels of war, armor plate, tor
pedoes, or any other thing designed exclusively for
military and naval purposes from one country to
another ;
Fourth. The ultimate establishment of an inter
national tribunal where any nation may be heard on
any issue involving rights vital to its peace and the

202 La Follette's Political Philosophy
development of its national life, a tribunal whose
decrees shall be enforced by the enlightened judg
ment of the world.
Fifth. The consideration of plans for the federa
tion of the neutral nations in the adoption of rules
and regulations which will provide for the neutral
ization of certain waters and maritime trade routes,
and such other and further action as shall insure if
possible, the peaceful maintenance and preservation
of the sovereign rights of neutral commerce against
dangers to which it is exposed through the extra
ordinary conditions developed by the world's great
est war; and
Sixth. For such other and further action as may
tend, however remotely, to establish permanent
world peace.
RESOLVED FURTHER, that the president be
authorized to appoint commissioners to represent
the United States at any conference whether called
by the United States or by any other nation.
Introduced in the U. S. Senate, by
Senator La Follette, Feb. 8, 1915.
Appeal for Conference of Neutral Powers
The neutrality of the United States cannot and
should not be that of selfish indifference. It is based
on sympathetic love and understanding. As a peo
ple we are intensely interested in the cessation of a
war that is slaying our kindred, bringing indescrib
able desolation to the lands we love and to the
homes of our fathers.
We do not want to see the map of Europe
changed by might of conquest. We cannot believe
that it is in the interest of human progress that any

War 203
one of the nations should be wiped off the face of
the earth. It is our inherent desire that each should
preserve its natural autonomy; that each should
have the largest opportunity for self-development,
the largest share in the world's progress; and that
each should be given, as of right, access to the high
ways of the sea.
It is a mistaken policy that assumes a community
of nations can prosper any more than can a com
munity of individuals by one or more tyrannizing
over the others and monopolizing the world's mar
kets. The world's greatest progress must be best
served by the largest possible development of the
national life of each country. We believe there is
still room for all in the vast and undeveloped areas
of the earth.
Mr. President, I have not attempted to discuss
in any comprehensive way the vital questions with
which the proposed conference would deal. These
problems the nations themselves must solve.
What stands out in bold relief is the unmistak
able duty of the American congress to authorize the
president to convey to neutral nations the desire of
this government for an international conference for
the purpose of promoting by co-operation and
through its friendly offices the early cessation of
hostilities, the establishment of peace among the
warring nations of Europe, the clear definition of
the rights of neutral nations, and for the other pur
poses to which I have briefly adverted.
Speech, "Conference of Neutral Powers to
Secure World Peace," U. S. Senate,
February 12, 1915.

204 La Follette's Political Philosophy
' Congress Should Prescribe Foreign Policies
V As I understand the pending controversy, the
I president assumes it to be the exclusive prerogative
j of the executive to pursue any foreign policy, what
ever the issue, independent of any suggestion from
either or both branches of congress.
The peremptory manner in which the administra
tion forced action upon the resolution in the senate,
the extraordinary proceedings by which the resolu
tion was changed and tabled, without opportunity
for debate or explanation, warrants the belief that
the president denies congress the right to express
its opinion upon a matter which lies within its con
stitutional authority quite as much as that of the
executive. I believe it to be vital to the safety and perpetuity
of this government that congress should assert
and maintain its right to a voice in declaring and
prescribing the foreign policy of the United States.
And, sir, there is a larger international aspect of
this question, with its accompanying responsibility,
that cannot be shirked or ignored. Across the
water the nations of Europe are giving their life-
blood in a fratricidal struggle, which in its inception
the people neither desired nor sanctioned.
And now the plain people, the saner people of the
warring countries are organizing. For what? Why,
to make sure that never again after this conflict has
ceased shall the autocratic heads of European gov
ernments have it in their power, through secret di-

War 205
plomacy, to bring on such another world catas
trophe. Democratic control of foreign policies is a basic
principle of all organized effort looking for the
future establishment of permanent world peace. To
this end, throughout the world, leagues of earnest,
determined men and women, animated by a common
purpose, are formulating plans, based on the pro
visions by which, in this country, one or both of the
legislative branches of government have a share in
the control of international affairs.
Shall we in this crisis of the world's history fail
to assert our constitutional rights and by our negli
gence and default permit the establishment in this
country of that exclusive executive control over
foreign affairs that the people of Europe are now
repenting amid the agonies of war?
Speech, "Congress has a Right to an Au
thoritative Voice in Declaring and Pre
scribing the Foreign Policy of the United
States," U. S. Senate, March 10, 1916.
Consult the People
War is the most ghastly experience that can comej
to any country. And always it is the people — not'j
the handful of men in positions of power — who must '
pay the full price. The price in dollars and cents.
The price in dismembered families. The price in
heart agonies. The price in bodily suffering. The
price in numbed minds. The price in precious hu
man lives. The price in putting together the na
tion's pieces, afterwards. Always it is the masses
who pay.

2o6 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Why not let those who must pay have something
to say? Why not let the people themselves, on
whom the burden of war falls, have a voice, — sqme
direct expression, — along with finance and diplo
macy, in determining whether there shall be war, or
whether there shall not be war?
I believe that on a question like this, the gravest
that can possibly come before the people of a na-
j tion, more than on any other problem of national
I policy or well-being, the people should be consulted.
^^ — ' The day is coming when the people, who always
pay the full price, are going to have the final say
over their own destinies. They themselves are go
ing to decide whether they shall spill their blood out
upon murderous battle fields. They themselves
shall decide what questions of "defense," of "ag
gression," or of "national honor" may be involved,
compelling enough to make them desire to kill and
be killed. They who do the fighting and the dying
will do the deciding.
The day is not yet here. We should all strive to
hasten its coming. Meanwhile we should make it
possible for the people to give voice to their deep
convictions in a way that will register. Let us have
an advisory vote upon this matter of war that will
serve as a dictaphone within the chambers of con
gress, through which the voice of the people — the
people who pay and who suffer — shall indeed reach
the ears of those who represent them and who have,
under the constitution, the sole power to declare
war. ~'*—
La Follette's Magazine, May, 1916.

War 207
Armed Ship Bill Gave War-Making Power to
President
I was opposed to the armed ship bill. Under my
oath as a senator it was my duty to do everything
legitimately within my power to defeat it, and I ex
ercised my constitutional rights and discharged my
constitutional obligation to defeat the measure, in
so far as permitted by the tyrannical actiap of a
majority. This majority as I believe, and as I think
the record plainly shows, resorted to a perversion of
the rules and to the very filibustering methods
which it so violently condemned, in order to pre
vent me from obtaining the floor to speak against
the bill.
The armed ship bill provided that the president be
authorized to supply our merchant vessels "with
arms and also the necessary ammunition and means
of making use of them," also that the president be
"authorized and empowered to employ such other
instrumentalities and methods as may in his judg
ment and discretion seem necessary and adequate
to protect such vessels." It appropriated $100,000,-
000 to be expended by the president "for the pur
pose of carrying into effect the foregoing provi
sions." The bill attempted to confer upon the executive
not only the authority to place guns and gunners
upon merchant ships and send them to sea with
orders to fire on German submarines at sight, but
sought to empower the president to use any other
method and any other instrumentalities in his judg
ment necessary to protect such merchant ships.

2o8 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Give validity and effect to such provisions and it
removes every limitation upon his acts.
He might do whatever it pleased him to do and
there could be no check or halt upon him.
He might decide to order our navy out to convoy
merchantmen loaded with arms and ammunition, or
with food and clothing and shoes for the allied
armies. He might decide that our navy should patrol the
trans-Atlantic lanes through the German war zone
hunting submarines in the interest of the owners of
our munition ships.
He might decide that the best way to protect our
merchant ships would be to land an army in Ger
many and destroy the Krupp works and any other
manufacturing plants where Germany is construct
ing submarines.
Nowhere would there be lodged any power to
prevent any president from doing anything his
judgment dictated with the army and navy to pro
tect the merchant ships of our war traders.
If the language of this bill does not seek to confer
authority which would leave it in his discretion to
make war, then there is no power in human lan
guage which could accomplish that result.
f The armed ship bill is therefore contrary to the
jletter and spirit of the constitution, which expressly
/vests the war power in congress — without which
I provision the constitution could not have been
I adopted. La Follette's Magazine, March, 1917.

War

People Opposed to Entering the War

209

For my own part, I look upon Europe as cursed
¦with a contagious, a deadly plague, whose spread
threatens to devastate the civilized world. If it
were indeed the Black Death that was mowing
down its millions of victims, instead of this more
ghastly war, we should not hesitate to quarantirie
against it; we should keep our ships in their ports
and ouj people at home without any hesitation what
soever; all personal' consideration, all thought of
material loss, or commercial inconvenience would
fall before the necessity of protecting our people
from being stricken with the dread disease.
I am not an extremisjt^ I do not say jhere may
not be supretneprinciples-ior which men must fight
to tjie death as a last resort. But I do believe that
as organized society in its slow evolution has de
veloped more rational means of settling individual
differences than brute force, so must the nations of
the world ultimately find other ways of deciding
their disagreements than war.
So far as the masses of men who are killing each
other are concerned, the European war is a bootless
conflict. The multitudes who are dying in the
trenches and the millions who are suffering more
agonizing pain at home, do not know what it is all
about. They are doing their patriotic duty as they
have been told to do it.
It is unthinkable that with this awful object les
son before them, the American people are never
theless today being stampeded into war in blind
thoughtlessnegs of its awful consequences. Thirty-

210 La Follette's Political Philosophy
seven million men are now under arms in Europe.
The peace strength of the standing armies of
Europe, before the war began, was less than five
millions. It follows that more than thirty-two mil
lions have been drawn from the farms and industrial
pursuits, and placed in the trenches to be mowed
down at the rate of five thousand a day. The
United States once in, will stay in to the end. Who
can foretell what it means?
The United Press, from the casualty lists^of the
belligerent nations, estimates that more than 21,-
000,000 men have been killed, wounded or reported
missing, to date, affecting a hundred million non-
combatants. And these brutal facts of death and
mutilation only suggest the horrors of the insane
conflict — women and children homeless, desecrated,
starving. Already $70,000,000,000 of debt piled up.
For unnumbered years to come, generations of help
less people must bow their bended backs under the
tax burdens entailed by this war of destruction.
For long years to come, all the resources that
should go to the world's betterment, mortgaged be
yond redemption to pay for this awful holocaust.
Think of it! Any economical loss because of the
interruption of commerce, is but a grain of sand,
compared to the colossal costs of war.
Ask any plain citizen if he wants war. The in
voluntary answer is "we ought to know better from
the lesson in Europe." How can we justify the
insistence of our right to push through the mines
and submarines of the war zone when that right is
compared with the obligation to protect all our
people here at home from the terrible effect of war?

War ' 211
If the silent masses who found opportunity for
expression at the November election, could today
make themselves heard above this clamor for war,
instigated and sustained by the money power and
subjugated press, they would with even a stronger
voice, pray God that this country be kept out of war.
La Follette's Magazine, March, 19 17.
War With Germany
Mr. President, I had supposed until recently that
it was the duty of senators and representatives in
congress to vote and act according to their convic
tions on all public matters that came before them
for consideration and decision.
Quite another doctrine has recently been pro
mulgated by certain newspapers, which unfortu
nately seems to have found considerable support
elsewhere, and that is the doctrine of "standing back
of the president," without inquiring whether the
president is right or wrong. For myself I have
never subscribed to that doctrine and never shall.
I shall support the president in the measures he
proposes when I believe them to be right. I shall
oppose measures proposed by the president when I
believe them to be wrong. The fact that the matter
which the president submits for consideration is of
the greatest importance is only an additional reason
why we should be sure that we are right and not be
swerved from that conviction or intimidated in its
expression by any influence of power whatsoever.
If it is important for us to speak and vote our con
victions in matters of internal policy, though we
may unfortunately be in disagreement with the'

212 La Follette's Political Philosophy
president, it is infinitely more important for us to
speak and vote our convictions when the question
is one of peace or war, certain to involve the lives
and fortunes of many of our people and, it may be,
the destiny of all of them and of the civilized world
as well. If, unhappily, on such momentous ques
tions the most patient research and conscientious
consideration we could give to them leave us in dis
agreement with the president, I know of no course
to take except to oppose, regretfully but not the less
firmly, the demands of the executive.
Speech, "War With Germany,"
U. S. Senate, April 4, 1917.
The Sovereign Power of the People
We heed not disturb ourselves because of what a
minority rnay do. There is always lodged, and al
ways will be, thank the God above us, power in the
people supreme. Sometimes it sleeps, sometimes it
seems the sleep of death; but, sir, the sovereign
power of the people never dies. It may be sup
pressed for a time, it may be misled, befooled, si
lenced. I think, Mr. President, that it is being
denied expression now. I think there will come a
day when it will have expression.
The poor, sir, who are the ones called upon to
rot in the trenches, have no organized power, have
no press to voice their will' upon this question of
peace or war; but, oh, Mr. President, at sometime
they will be heard. I hope and I believe they will
be heard in an orderly and a peaceful way.^I think
they may be heard from before long. I think, sir,
if we take this step, when the people today who

War 213
are staggering under the burden of supporting fam
ilies at the present prices of the necessaries of life
find those prices multiplied, when they are raised
a hundred per cent, or 200 per cent, as they will be
quickly, aye, sir, when beyond that those who pay
taxes come to have their taxes doubled and again
doubled to pay the interest on the nontaxable bonds
held by Morgan and his combinations, which have
been issued to meet this war, there will come an
awakening; they will have their day and they will
be heard. It will be as certain and as inevitable as
the return of the tides, and as resistless, too.
Speech, "War With Germany,"
U. S. Senate, April 4, 1917.
True Course of Neutrality
Had the plain principle of international law an
nounced by Jefferson been followed by us, we
would not be called on today to declare war upon
any of the belligerents. The failure to treat the
belligerent nations of Europe alike, the failure to
reject the unlawful "war zones" of both Germany
and Great Britain, is wholly accountable for our
present dilemma. We should not seek to hide our
blunder behind the smoke of battle, to inflame the
mind of our people by half truths into the frenzy of
war, in order that they may never appreciate the
real cause of it until it is too late. I do not believe
that our national honor is served by such a course.
The right way is the honorable way.
One alternative is to admit our initial blunder to
enforce our rights against Great Britain as we have
enforced our rights against Germany; demand that

214 La Follette's Political Philosophy
both those nations shall respect our neutral rights
upon the high seas to the letter! and give notice
that we will enforce those rights, from time forth
against both belligerents and then live up to that
notice. The other alternative is to withdraw our com
merce from both. The mere suggestion that food
supplies would be withheld from both sides im
partially would compel belligerents to observe the
principle of freedom of the seas for neutral com
merce. Speech, "War With Germany,"
U. S. Senate, April 4, 19 17.

XVI
DRAFT AND CONSCRIPTION

The Purpose of the Draft
OWEVER uncertain the meaning of
some portions of this bill may be, its
main purpose is clear. About that
there is no dispute. The main pur
pose is to clothe one man with power;
acting through agents appointed by him, to en
ter at will every home in our country, at any
hour of the day or night, using all the force neces
sary to effect the entry, and violently lay hold of
ijOOO,oc)0 of our finest and healthiest and strongest
boys and against their will, and against the will
and wishes of their parents or family, deport them
across the seas to a foreign land, and to require
them, under penalty of death if they refuse, to
wound and kill other young boys just like them
selves and toward whom they feel no hostility and
have cause to feel none.
That is what the draft means. I have not over
stated — indeed, no one can overstate — the horror
it is proposed to perpetuate, or the insult which it
conveys to the intelligence and patriotism of the
people of this country. Anyone who would have
prophesied one short month ago that this ' body
would seriously consider, under existing circum
stances, such a measure as this would have raised
a question as to his sanity.

2i6 La Follette's Political Philosophy
For such action as it is proposed to take by this
bill under present conditions there is no precedent
in all our history, and, I believe, there is none in the
history of any people making the slightest claim to
freedom. The draft is the corollary of militarism and mil
itarism spells death to democracy. No war can be
successfully prosecuted that has not' the spontane
ous support of the men who do the fighting. There
is not the shadow of an excuse for pressing men
into involuntary military servitude for the conduct
of this war.
But if we must have an army of such magnitude
for an overseas expedition let it be a volunteer
army on the Canadian and Australian basis. Let
its ranks be made up of free, willing men who de
sire to go. This will not raise any constitutional
question nor be in such flagrant violation of our
traditions, nor will it necessitate any such upheaval
of our economic life as this draft proposition seems
to call for.
." Speech, "The Draft," U. S. Senate, April 27, 1917.
Let Voters Decide
I come now to the amendment I have proposed-
providing for an advisory vote on the part of the
qualified electors upon the following question:
"'The governftient of the United States ha-ving de
clared war against the goVernhient of Geririariy;'
shall the United States government at this time raise
an army by draft to send to Europe to prosecute the
war?" : --

Draft and Conscription 217
The methods by which the advisory vote can be
obtained are very simple. This vote could be se
cured while registration was going forward under
the bill, which, according to my amendment, strikes
out the draft features and provides for raising the
required number of men by voluntary enlistment.
Practically no expense would be involved in obtain
ing the vote, and every voter would be given
the opportunity of expressing his opinion upon this
most vital question. If the people vote in favor of
the draft and of sending the Army to Europe, that
closes the discussion.
If the friends of this bill are sure that it has the
support of the people, they should be the first to
agree to this amendment. If the principle of the bill
has not support of the people, it should be aban
doned. Speech, "The Draft," U. S. Senate, April 27, 1917.
Cost of War to the Republic
I do not mean to speak of the horrors of war. Were
I to do so I should dwell most upon the anguish of
those at home, of families broken up, hopes blasted,
bodies crippled, insanity and disease, debt and poverty,
and want and. famine, which are only a few of the
results of every great war. I would speak of liberties
lost, constitutions destroyed, of peoples exterminated
by the immediate sa^vagery of war or languishing in
bondage ' for generations under the tyranny, ^foreign
or domestic, military or economic, that always rides
in the wake of war. I will not let my mind dwell
upon the distress and disaster this war is bound to

2i8 La Follette's Political Philosophy
bring us in the future, but we cannot forget what
has happened in the few days that have elapsed since
it began. What a transformation has been wrought during
the first few hours of this war ! Only a few days ago
we were at peace with all the world and cherished
nothing but the kindliest feeling toward the peoples
of every land. We were engaged in peaceful occupa
tions. Our youth were in the schools and colleges
of the country fitting themselves for the useful and
helpful work that they were to do in the world. As
a nation we were the one great power that was almost
free from debt and in position to help bring peace to
a distracted world. As a people we were prosperous.
Our taxes were relatively light and cheerfully borne
because they were expended largely for objects calcu
lated to promote our material and social welfare. We
were apparently secure in our liberties, and, slowly
it may be but none the less surely, we were winning
peaceful victories for democracy and self-government,
not only for ourselves but for our children and the
generations to come, which we fondly hoped would
bring a little nearer the day of peace on earth and
good will to men.
But in a moment all this has been changed. We
have declared war against a government and a people
with whom we have always previously lived in perfect
friendship. We have made ourselves distrusted or
feared by other governments and lost the power we
had as a neutral nation to promote the cause of peace.
Already our most cherished constitutional rights have
been invaded and will soon be destroyed. The agent
provocateur is in our midst. Men are being daily

Draft and Conscription 219
cast into prison in violation of the law, and in many
cases without even regarding the forms of law.
Within a few months, under a pretext of carrying
democracy to the rest of the world, we have done more (
to undermine and destroy democracy in the United^
States than it will be possible for us as a nation to
repair in a generation of time.
By a single act the people have been saddled with a
burden of debt amounting to an average of four or
five hundred dollars for each responsible head of a
family in our country, and we have scarcely made a
beginning. Never in all my many years of experience in the /
house and in the senate have I heard so much democ
racy preached and so little practiced as during the
last few months.
Speech, "The Draft," U. S. Senate, April 27, 1917.

XVII
WAR TAXES AND PROFITEERING

Wealth and War
EALTH has never yet sacrificed itself
on the altar of patriotism in any war.
On the contrary, it has ever shown it
self eager to take advantage of the mis
fortunes which war always brings to
the masses of the people. That has been true of
every war we have had in this country and of every
war in Europe of which I have any knowledge, and
it is certainly true of the present war. Every bond
that is issued must some time be redeemed with in
terest out of the taxes that the people must pay.
Nothing is gained by borrowing except that money
for immediate use is obtained from those who have
it to loan, to be repaid to them in the future with
interest, out of the taxes largely exacted from those
who can ill afford to pay them.
Mr. President, to what extent the recent "liberty
loan" campaign succeeded in selling these bonds to
the small investor I do not know but we all do
know that these bonds were a poor investment to
the man of small means, in comparison with the ad
vantages which the owners of large incomes could
secure from investing millions of their taxable in
comes in these nontaxable bonds. It is shown in
the minority report on this bill that by exempting

War Taxes and Profiteering 221
these bonds from taxation, the Government has
made them the equivalent of an investment paying
from 5 to 9 per cent and more to persons with large
incomes who will escape the income tax on every
dollar thus invested ; while to the wage-earner and
the man with a salary so small as not to be reached
by the income tax, who pinched and saved and
sacrificed in order to purchase them, they return
but a meager 31^ per cent.
But this is not all, Mr. President. Paying for a
war mainly by selling bonds inevitably forces infla
tion. Inflation raises prices, greatly increasing the
cost of living to the masses. There is no escape
from this result. As the Senator from Oklahoma
(Mr. Gore) suggests, with sacrifice to the Govern
ment also, reason and experience warn us that the
policy of financing a war by borrowing the larger
part of the money required is in itself one of the
severest financial burdens which war brings to the
average man.
The borrowing system gives an impression of
false prosperity. Where heavy taxation would in
duce economy, borrowing induces extravagance.
The government must bid against the citizen for
supplies. Prices soar, but wages and income- do
not increase correspondingly. The result is that
the ordinary citizen whose income only exceeds his
normal expenses by a small margin finds his ex
penses doubled; his income insufficient to meet his
needs, even before the Government has laid a single
dollar of taxation upon his necessaries.
Mr. President, blind is the man, dull, indeed, the
brain that does not read from the war histories of

222 La Follette's Political Philosophy
the world the fact that accumulated wealth has
been behind the wars andlTas been potential -enough
with all the cabinets and all the war ministers who
planned the financing to make the prosecution of
the war a financial harvest. Sir, that is why the
world has had so many wars.
Taxation Need not Cripple
The rule to determine what is the largest possi
ble amount to tax is plain, though its application
may not always be easy. We should not tax high
enough to cripple industry or impede production.
Everyone must accept that. The reason that we should
stop at that point is not because of any rights that
an individual or corporation may have to a cer
tain income or return on investment but simply
because it is wisdom on the part of the government
to leave enough so that the processes of produc
tion may continue uninterrupted in order that new
taxes for the government may be produced. This
is the iron law of necessity in war time. It is the
law that is applied to me; let it also be applied to
money. We are counseled by the highest economic au
thority, we are admonished by all history, we are
commanded by every consideration of justice to the
American boys who are marked for slaughter, to
the American homes already in the shadow of death,
to declare here and now by our votes on this record
that the wealth of this country will be taken as
mercilessly through the power of taxation as men
are taken by force of the draft.

War Taxes and Profiteering 223
It behooves this congress, Mr. President, to deal
in these times with even-handed justice by the poor
and the rich. How the rich shirk and grind not
only in times of peace but in times of war, while
they prate of patriotism and national honor and
democracy ! Do not forget that. They are now
the loudest advocates of democracy between the two
oceans. They who have been serving special inter
ests for from 18 to 20 years, undermining and de
stroying the democracy of this country, have be
come the apostles of democracy.
It is pretty rare indeed to find Senators standing
on this floor uttering one word of criticism of these
long-existing wrongs. A little outbreak here and
there on the part of labor seeking to get just a bit
more for the family will inspire the introduction of
a bill or an amendment to jail the strikers or to
authorize resort to armed soldiers to deal with them,
but down through the centuries the wrongs that
v/ealth and power have imposed upon the great
masses of humanity have too often passed unchal
lenged in any legislative body.
Taxes upon the necessaries of life are wrong in
principle. Many of the articles taxed in this bill al
ready pay a tax in the form of a tariff duty. They
are largely articles the consumption of which is
necessary to maintain the health and the well being
of the mass of people. Why stop with taxing tea,
coffee, sugar, and medicines of the poor man ? Why
not levy a tax upon every pound of flour and upon
every peck of potatoes and upon every ounce of
butter that he buys for his family? The principle
is the same. I am aware that taxes of this sort have

224 La Follette's Political Philosophy
been resorted to in previous wars. They may have
been resorted to in all wars, so far as I know. I am
aware also that it has been the history of all wars
that the burdens imposed both on life and property
have been borne by the masses of the people, while
the few have used them as a means of acquiring
great fortunes, through which they have dominated
the life of the country when peace was restored.
You have but to call the roll of American million
aires to remember how many of them laid the foun
dation for their fortunes in the Civil War. Jay
Gould and Black Friday, Morgan and his unsavory
munition contracts, which were the subject of a
congressional investigation; Vanderbilt, the ship-
purchasing agent of the Government, who pur
chased and sold to the government condemned and
worthless vessels, as the result of which he made
unnumbered millions of dollars — all will be readily
recalled upon mere mention. Rockefeller, Carnegie,
and many others laid the foundations of their great
wealth in the necessities of the Government in the
civil war. That was not the patriotism we are com
mending so highly today, which leads a man to
shoulder a gun and die in the front rank of battle.
But they had cunning and sagacity, and the deter
mination to grow rich out of the opportunities for
profit which the war offered, while the great mass
of the people were giving their property and their
lives to defend and perpetuate our Government.
Remember that the rule to be applied alike to tax
ation for war purposes and to the conscription of
men for the same purpose is simply what is best for
the state. If a widow has two sons upon whom she

War Taxes and Profiteering 225
is dependent for support and the draft takes one and
leaves the other, it is not, as we have been repeat
edly advised by the rules promulgated by the war de
partment, because of any tenderness for the widow
and mother that one. son is left. It is merely be
cause to draft both into the army would mean that
the widow would be left without support and be
come a public charge to the injury and detriment of
the state. The same rule applied to incomes would
take all the surplus income. Suppose all incomes
were taken and it became necessary for our citizens
of great wealth to use a little of their capital to live
on, it would do no harm to the state. It might even
result in forcing the members of this class to a
little wholesome industry whereby the state would
greatly benefit. Speech, "War Profits Tax," Senate,
September i and 10, 1917.
Eighty Per Cent Is Fair
Tax the War Profits.
The policy of raising money to pay the expense of
this war by borrowing and issuing bonds is vicious in
principle and as rankly unjust to the present generation
as it is to the next.
It is impossible to issue bonds without inflating the
currency, depreciating the value of the dollar, and
increasing prices. The public suffers, the government,
which is a large buyer of war material at these inflated
prices, also suffers as a purchaser. It then borrows
more money, issues more bonds, and still further
inflates the currency and raises prices each time it
repeats the vicious practice.

226 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Suppose that 80 per cent of the war profits and
excess profits had been taken in taxation, the govern
ment would have had $3,280,000,000 more in revenue,
and all of these great war-profiting corporations would
have been left net profits — that is profits after all
expenses had been paid, equal to 10 per cent of their
capital and 20 per cent war profits added to that.
La Follette's Magazine, September, 1917.
Taxation of War Profits and Surplus Incomes
And so it has become the policy in this country, and
I regret to say that that policy has to some extent been
practiced in this body, of condemning as disloyal and
unpatriotic any man who has dared stand for princi
ples of sound finance and just taxation as a means
of me.eting the expenses of this war, and who has ven
tured to oppose the shifty and evasive methods being
applied to this greatest of all problems of war finance.
If they (the railroads) are never allowed to make
another dollar out of this war, they have already
made fortunes out of it that should satisfy the wildest
dreams of avarice and greed.
The railroads of the country made last year $200,-
000,000 net above all expenses, more than during any
preceding year in the history of the country.
Two-thirds of all the traffic in the United States
was handled last year by railroads earning more than
7V2 per cent on all their capital stock outstanding in
the hands of the public, and by stock I mean not only
the stock legitimately issued but the watered stock as
well.

War Taxes and Profiteering 227
Two-thirds of the traffic in the eastern district was
handled by railroads making an average of over 15
per cent on their outstanding capital stock.
Two-thirds of the traffic in the western district was
handled by railroads that made an average of over 12
per cent on all their capital stock.
Two-thirds of the traffic in the southern district is
handled by railroads that last year made an average
of more than 13 per cent on all their capital stock.
Twenty-seven railroad systems handled two-thirds
of the traffic in the United States.
They have an accumulated unappropriated surplus
of over one thousand million dollars.
We conscripted men almost as soon as war was
declared, and in doing so overturned our traditions
as a nation and, as I believe, violated our constitution.
We immediately invested the Executive upon his
demand with the most searching and arbitrary power
over the lives and property and welfare of the people
of this country that has ever been exercised by poten
tate or ruler in any country since civilized govern
ment was established among men. We have done all
this, sir, whether wisely or unwisely is not now the
question ; but we have done it because of the plea that
the necessities of war demanded it.
It is only when we come to "the proposition that
some of the surplus wealth of the country shall be
wrested from those who control it, though they do not
need it, nor sometimes wisely use it, that a halt is
called. Speech, "War Profits Tax," U. S.
Senate, September i and 10, 1917.

228 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Profiteers Should Pay Cost of War
The ardor and war spirit of wealth and the wealthy
will be destroyed if you reduce their profits down to
a beggarly 33^ per cent on their investments. This is
too "onerous a burden," to quote the language of the
Senator from North Dakota (Mr. McCumber), for
;their patriotism to bear.
Mr. President, upon this proposition I fundament
ally disagree with senators who have taken that atti-
'tude. I tell them one and all that by their refusal to
justly tax war profits and excessive incomes they are
destroying the war spirit among the hundred million
people of this country which is absolutely necessary
if we are to acquit ourselves even creditably in this
great war. Mr. President, the two or three hundred
thousand people in this country — for there are no
more — who are the possessors of large incomes, and
the few thousand corporations who are making these
war profits, are not the people of this country. Why,
Mr. President, there is a strange misunderstanding
.on the part of the Senator as to who are the people
of this country. The Senator says that high taxes
on large incomes and high taxes on war profits will
"create dissatisfaction." Where?
He says "among the people ;" that will "lessen their
ardor" — and I quote his words — "among the people;"
that it will "lessen their ardor for the conflict which
is before them, and thereby cripple and hinder our war
efforts." Who does the senator think are the people
of this country ? Is it the 2 per cent, owners of two-
thirds of the wealth, or is it the 98 per cent of the pop
ulation who have to divide among themselves the mea-

' War Taxes and Profiteering 229
ger balance of this country's wealth, which, apportioned
among them per capita, is a little over $800 apiece?
Will the latter be dissatisfied because the swollen
and unnecessary incomes of the former are taxed to
pay a little of the frightful cost of this war? Does
the word which you are getting from the country
indicate that the people — the 98 per cent, the people
upon whom this Nation must depend in this and
every other crisis — are dissatisfied with the suggestion
that excessive incomes and war profits should pay a
high rate of taxation? No, Mr. President; the sena
tor may think that the people of this country are com
posed of the fortunate possessors of large incomes and
the happy recipients of the bloody profits of this war ;
he may think that the success of this war depends upon
the ardor with which these profiteering patriots sup
port it.
I know not what associations or habits of thought
incline him to that opinion, but I declare, Mr. Presi
dent, in that view he is mistaken ; and all persons who
entertain like views are mistaken. And, Mr. Presi
dent, if that view is written by this bill into the law
of this country, by that very act you are liable to create,
if it does not already exist in the public mind, the
belief that the war is a profiteering enterprise. The
sound of military preparations may continue to fill
the land, drums may beat, soldiers march, patriotic
organizations financed by war profits may acclaim
the glory of a war for democracy, but in every humble
home in this country where manhood counts more than
dollars, where patriotism is not associated with profits,
will have entered the conviction, and rightfully so,
that a monstrous injustice has been done to the mass of

230 La Follette's Political Philosophy
the people. With the war spirit tainted with mer
cenary interests, in those homes you will render the
prosecution of this war more and more difficult.
No man can justify the refusal of the senate to
impose the highest rate of taxation on war profits and
incomes which has been demanded here. The sena
tors who have attempted to justify that course in this
body have failed. The country knows that they have
failed. They have failed for no lack of ability in
themselves, but for the lack of justice in their cause.
A popular war could hardly survive the spirit of resent
ment the injustice of this bill will arouse; and if it
be a fact that this is already an unpopular war, then
such a course will but intensify that feeling.
Speech, "War Profits Tax," U. S. Senate,
September i and lo, 19 17.

XVIII
FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND PRESS

La Follette Peace Resolution
iUGUST II, I introduced in the United
States senate a concurrent resolution
declaring that the constitution vests
in congress the right to determine and
announce the objects and purposes for
which this government shall continue to partici
pate in the European war; and that the United
States will not contribute to the efforts of any
European government to annex new territory or
to enforce indemnities and favoring the creation
of a common fund to be provided by all belligerents
out of which to assist in the restoration of portions
of countries most seriously devastated by war. It
also provided that congress shall declare for a pub
lic restatement of the allies' peace terms disavowing
any advantages in the way of indemnities, territorial
acquisitions or commercial privileges by which one
nation shall strengthen its power abroad at the
expense of another nation.
That resolution has been misrepresented both as
to its terms and purpose. It is here printed in full :
Whereas the provisional government of Russia
did, on the 19th day of May, 1917, declare in favor
of "peace without annexation or indemnities on the
basis of the rights of nations to decide their own
destiny;" and

232 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Whereas the imperial reichstag, representing the
great majority of the German people did on the
19th day of July, 1917, by a vote of 214 to 116, pass
resolutions in favor of peace, "without forced acqui
sition of territory and without political, economic,
and financial violations" and declaring for "a mutual
understanding and lasting reconciliation among the
nations and the creation of international judicial or
ganizations ;" and
Whereas the German chancellor, speaking for the
Imperial German government on the 17th day of
May, 1917, made the following official declaration
in the reichstag:
"We did not go to war, and we are not fighting
now against almost the whole world, in order to
make conquests, but only to secure our existence, and
firmly to establish the future of the nation;" and
Whereas on behalf of Great Britain on the 23rd
day of May, 1917, Lord Robert Cecil, as one of the
ministers of the present government, replying in
the house of commons, declared that —
"Our aims and aspirations are dictated solely by
our determination to secure a peace founded on
national liberty and international amity, and that
all imperialistic aims based on force and conquest
are completely absent from our program;" and
Whereas duly organized bodies of loyal citizens
of. Great Britain representing millions of other citi
zens, many of whom are eminent in official life
and exert a wide influence upon public opinion, have
declared that —
"A stage in the war has been reached when the
democracies of all the belligerent countries are be-

Freedom of Speech and Press 233
ginning to work toward a peace based on the same
general principles ;" and
Whereas the above principles are those by which
the respective warring governments of Europe pro
fess common willingness to be bound and are prin
ciples to which the United States subscribes ; and
Whereas one and all of these declarations bespeak
a willingness to adopt the doctrine of "a peace with
out victory," proclaimed by President Wilson on
the 22d day of January, 1917, as the only possible
peace that can be enduring; and
Whereas there have recently emanated from offi
cial and unofficial sources, both in this country and
abroad, statements indicating that we are to con
tinue in the war until a peace is obtained which
gives to the entente allies, or some of them, puni
tive damages and territorial advantages as a result
of the war; and Facts of Treaty Withheld
Whereas the people of this country do not know
the terms of the secret treaties or agreements exist
ing among the entente allies, defining the advan
tages, if any, either in the way of indemnities or
territorial acquisitions or commercial privileges,
which each is expected to receive as a result of the
war; and
Whereas there is naturally a widely expressed
demand coming from the people of our own coun
try for some declaration of the purpose and object
for which the United States is expending, in the
first year of the war, from thirteen to seventeen
billions of money, and raising by draft and other-

234 La Follette's Political Philosophy
wise an army of 2,000,000 men ostensibly for service-
in foreign countries; and
Whereas the people have a right to know with
certainty for what end their blood is shed and their
treasure expended ; and
Whereas in this free government congress, in
whom the war-making power resides under the con
stitution, is charged primarily with the responsi
bility of deciding upon the objects of the war at
its commencement or at any time during its exist
ence: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, by the senate (the house of representa
tives concurring).
That the constitution vests in the congress as
the accredited and lawful representatives of the
people full authority to determine and to declare
definitely the objects and purposes for which this
government shall continue to participate in the
European war.
Resolved, further. That the congress hereby de.-
clares that this government will not contribute to
the efforts of any belligerent for the purpose of
prolonging the war to annex new territory, either
in Europe or outside of Europe, nor to enforce the
payment of indemnities to recover the expenses of
the war; but the congress does hereby declare in
favor of the creation of a common fund to be pro
vided by all the belligerent nations to assist in the
restoration of the portions of territory in any of
the countries most serioiisly devastated by the war,
and for the establishment of an international com
mission to decide the allotment of the common fund.

Freedom of Speech and Press 235
Resolved, further. That congress declares that
there should be a public restatement of the allies'
peace terms, based on a disavowal pf any advan
tages, either in the way of indemnities, territorial
acquisitions, commercial privileges, or economic
prerogatives, by means of which one nation shall
strengthen its power abroad at the expense of an
other nation, as wholly incompatible with the estab
lishment of a durable peace in the world.
La Follette's Magazine, August, igiy.
Right of Congress to Declare Objects of War
It is no answer to say that when the war is over
the citizen may once more resume his rights and
feel some security in his liberty and his person. As
I have already tried to point out, now is precisely
the time when the country needs the counsel of all
its citizens. In time of war even more than in time
of peace, whether citizens happen to agree with the
ruling administration or not, these previous funda
mental personal rights — free speech, free press, and
right of assemblage so explicitly and emphatically
guaranteed by the Constitution should be main
tained inviolable. There is no rebellion in the land,
no martial law, no courts are closed, no legal proc
esses suspended, and there is no threat even of
invasion. _^
But more than this, if every preparation for war]
can be made the excuse for destroying free speech!
and a free press and the .right of the people to;
assemble together for peaceful discussion, then we
may well despair of ever again finding ourselves for
a long period in a state of peace. With the posses
sions we already have in remote parts of the world.

236 La Follette's Political Philosophy
with the obligations we seem almost certain to
assume as a result of the present war, a war can
be made any time overnight and the destruction of
personal rights now occurring will be pointed to
then as precedents for a still further invasion of the
rights of the citizen. This is the road which all
free governments have heretofore traveled to their
destruction, and how far we have progressed along
it is shown when we compare the standard of lib
erty of Lincoln, Clay and Webster with the standard
of the present day.
This leads me, Mr. President, to the next thought,
to which I desire to invite the attention of the Sen
ate, and that is the power of Congress to declare
the purpose and objects of the war, and the failure
of Congress to exercise that power in the present
crisis. For the mere assertion of that right, in the form
of a resolution to be considered and discussed, which
I introduced August 11, 1917, 1 have been denounced
throughout this broad land as a traitor to my
country. Speech, "Right of Congress to Declare the
Objects of the War," U. S. Senate, Oct. 6, 1917.
Reply to Critics of Attitude on War
I am aware, Mr. President, that in pursuance of
this general campaign of villification and attempted
intimidation, requests from various individuals and
certain organizations have been submitted to the
senate for my expulsion from this body, and that
such requests have been referred to and considered
by one of the committees of the senate.

Freedom of Speech and Press 237
If I alone had been made the victim of these
attacks, I should not take one moment of the sen
ate's time for their consideration, and I believe
that other senators who have been unjustly and
unfairly assailed, as I have been, hold the same
attitude upon this that I do. Neither the clamor
of the mob nor the voice of power will ever turn
me by the breadth of a hair from the course I mark
out for myself, guided by such knowledge as I can
obtain and controlled and directed by a solemn
conviction of right and duty.
Speech, "Right of Congress to Declare the
Objects of War," U. S. Senate, Oct. 6, 1917.
People Retain Right to Control Government
But, sir, it is not alone members of congress that
the war party in this country has sought to intimi
date. The mandate seems to have gone forth to
the sovereign people of this country that they must
be silent while those things are being done by their
government which most vitally concern their well-
being, their happiness, and their lives. To-day and
for weeks past honest and law-abiding citizens of
this country are being terrorized and outraged in
their rights by those sworn to uphold the laws and
protect the rights of the people. I have in my pos
session numerous affidavits establishing the fact
that people are being unlawfully arrested, thrown
into jail, held incommunicado for days, only to be
eventually discharged without ever having been
taken into court, because they committed no crime.
Private residences are being invaded, loyal citizens
of undoubted integrity and probity arrested, cross-

238 La Follette's Political Philosophy
examined, and the most sacred constitutional rights
guaranteed to every American citizen are beinig vio
lated. It appears to be the purpose of those conducting
this campaign to throw the country into a state of
terror, to coerce public opinion, to stifle criticism,
and suppress discussion of the great issues involved
in this war.
I think all men recognize that in time of war
the citizen must surrender some rights for the com-
Imon good which he is entitled to enjoy in time of
peace. But, sir, the right to control their own gov
ernment according to constitutional forms is not one
of the rights that the citizens of this country are
called upon to surrender in time of war.
Rather in time of war the citizen must be more
alert to the preservation of his right to control
his government. He must be most watchful of the
encroachment of the military upon the civil power.
He must beware of those precedents in support of
arbitrary action by administrative officials, which
excused on the plea of necessity in war time, become
the fixed rule when the necessity has passed and
normal conditions have been restored.
More than all, the citizen and his representative
in congress in time of war must maintain his right
of free speech. More than in times of peace it is
necessary that the channels for free public discus
sion of government policies shall be open and un-
clogged. I believe, Mr. President, that I am now
touching upon the most important question in this
country to-day — and that is the right of the citizens
of this country and their representatives in congress

Freedom of Speech and Press 239
to discuss in an orderly way frankly and publicly
and without fear, from the platform and through
the press, every important phase of this war; its
causes, the manner in which it should be conducted,
and the terms upon which peace should be made.
Speech in U. S. Senate, October 6, 1917.
Free Discussion Essential
I am contending for this right because the exer
cise of it is necessary to the welfare, to the exist
ence, of this government, to the successful conduct
of this war, and to a peace which shall be enduring
and for the best interest of this country.
Suppose success attends the attempt to stifle all
discussion of the issues of this war, all discussion
of the terms upon which it should be concluded,
all discussion of the objects and purposes to be
accomplished by it, and concede the demand of the
war-mad press and war extremists that they monop
olize the right of public utterance upon these ques
tions unchallenged, what think you would be the
consequences to this country not only during the
war but after the war?
Speech in U. S. Senate, October 6, 1917.
How War Might Have Been Avoided
Mr. President, we are in a war the awful conse
quences of which no man can foresee, which, in my
judgment, could have been avoided if the congress
had exercised its constitutional power to influence
and direct the foreign policy of this country.
On the Sth day of February, 191 5, I introduced
in the senate a resolution authorizing the president

240 La Follette's Political Philosophy
to invite the representatives of the neutral nations
of the world to assemble and consider, among other
things, whether it would not be possible to lay out
lanes of travel upon the high seas and through
proper negotiation with the belligerent powers have
those lanes recognized as neutral territory, through
which the commerce of neutral nations might pass.
This, together with other provisions, constituted
a resolution, as I shall always regard it, of most
vital and supreme importance in the world crisis,
and one that should have been considered and acted
upon by congress.
I believe, sir, that had some such action been
taken the history of the world would not be written
at this hour in the blood of more than one-half of
the nations of the earth, with the remaining nations
in danger of becoming involved.
I believe that had congress exercised the power
in this respect, which I contend it possesses, we
could and probably would have avoided the present
war. Mr. President, I believe that if we are to extricate
ourselves from this war and restore this country to
an honorable and lasting peace, the congress must
exercise in full the war powers intrusted to it by
the constitution. Speech in U. S. Senate, October 6, 1917.
The Citizen's Right to Oppose War Policies
Lincoln, Webster, Clay, Sumner — what a galaxy
of names in American history! They all believed
and asserted and advocated in the midst of war that
it was the right — the constitutional right — and the

Freedom of Speech and Press 241
patriotic duty of American citizens, after the decla
ration of war and while the war was in progress,
to discuss the issues of the war and to criticize the
policies employed in its prosecution and to work
for the election of representatives opposed to pro
longing war.
The right of Lincoln, Webster, Clay, Sumner to
oppose the Mexican War, criticize its conduct, advo
cate its conclusion on a just basis, is exactly the
same right and privilege as that possessed by every
representative in congress and by each and every
American citizen in our land to-day in respect to
the war in which we are now engaged. Their argu
ments as to the power of congress to shape the
war policy and their opposition to what they be
lieved to be the usurpation of power on the part of
the executive are potent so long as the constitution
remains the law of the land.
Speech in U. S. Senate, October 6, 1917.
Cruelties of the War
The first chill winds of autumn remind us that
another winter is at hand. The imagination is par
alyzed at the thought of the human misery, the
indescribable suffering, which the winter months,
with their cold and sleet and ice and snow, must
bring to the war-swept lands, not alone to the sol
diers at the front but to the non-combatants at
home. To such excesses of cruelty has this war de
scended that each nation is now, as a part of its
strategy, planning to starve the women and children
of the enemy countries. Each warring nation is

242 La Follette's Political Philosophy
carrying out the unspeakable plan of starving non-
combatants. Each nurses the hope that it may
break the spirit of the men of the enemy country
at the front by starving the wives and babes at
home, and woe be it that we have become partners
in this awful business and are even cutting off food
shipments from neutral countries in order to force
them to help starve women and children of the
country against whom we have declared war.
There may be some necessity overpowering
enough to justify these things, but the people of
America should demand to know what results are
expected to satisfy the sacrifice of all that civiliza
tion holds dear upon the bloody altar of a conflict
which employs such desperate methods of warfare.
The question is : Are we to sacrifice millions of
our young men — the very promise of the land —
and spend billions and more billions, and pile up
the cost of living until we starve — and for what?
Shall -the fearfully overburdened people of this
country continue to bear the brunt of a prolonged
war for any objects not openly stated and defined?
The answer, sir, rests, in my judgment, with the
congress, whose duty it is to declare our specific
purposes in the present war and to state the objects
upon the attainment of which we will make peace.
Speech in U. S. Senate, October 6, 1917.
People Should Discuss the Objects of War.
,And, sir, this is the ground on which I stand:
I maintain that Congress has the right and the duty
to declare the objects of the war and the people
have the right and the obligation to discuss it.

Freedom of Speech and Press 243
American citizens may hold all shades of opinion
as to the war ; one citizen may glory in it, another
may deplore it, each has the same right to voice
his judgment. An American citizen may think and
say that we are not justified in prosecuting this war
for the purpose of dictating the form of government
which shall be maintained by our enemy or our
ally, and not be subject to punishment of law. He
may pray aloud that our boys shall not be sent to
fight and die on European battlefields for the an
nexation of territory or the maintenance of trade
agreements and be within his legal rights. He may
express the hope that an early peace may be secured
on the terms set forth by the New Russia and by
President Wilson in his speech of January 22, 1917,
and he cannot lawfully be sent to jail for the expres-:
sion of his convictions.
It is the citizen's duty to obey the law until it is
repealed or declared unconstitutional. But he has
the inalienable right to fight what he deems an
obnoxious law or a wrong policy in the courts and
at the ballot box.
It is the suppressed emotion of the masses that
breeds revolution. j
n the American people are to carry on this great
war, if public opinion is to be enlightened and intel
ligent, there must be free discussion.
Congress, as well as the people of the United
States, entered the war in great confusion of mind
and under feverish excitement. The president's
leadership was followed in the faith that he had
some big, unrevealed plan by which a peace that

244 La Follette's Political Philosophy
would exalt him before all the world would soon be
achieved. Gradually, reluctantly, congress and the country
are beginning to perceive that we are in this terrific
world conflict, not only to right our wrongs, not
only to aid the allies, not only to share its awful
death toll and its fearful tax burden, but, perhaps,
to bear the brunt of the war.
And so I say, if we are to forestall the danger of
being drawn into years of war, perhaps finally to
maintain imperialism and exploitation, the people
must unite in a campaign along constitutional lines
for free discussion of the policy of the war and its
conclusion on a just basis.
Permit me, sir, this word in conclusion. It is said
by many persons for whose opinions I have profound
respect and whose motives I know to be sincere
that "we are in this war and must go through to
the end." That is true. But it is not true that we
must go through to the end to accomplish an undis
closed purpose, or to reach an unknown goal.
Speech in U. S. Senate, October 6, 1917.
The Surest Way to Win the War
But it is said that Germany will fight with greater
determination if her people believe that we are not
in perfect agreement. Mr. President, that is the
same worn-out pretext which has been used for
three years to keep the plain people of Europe
engaged in killing each other in this war. And, sir,
as applied to this country, at least, it is a pretext
with nothing to support it.

Freedom of Speech and Press 245
The way to paralyze the German arm, to weaken
the German military force, in my opinion, is to
declare our objects in this war, and show by that
declaration to the German people that we are not
seeking to dictate a form of government to Germany
or to render more secure England's domination of
the seas.
A declaration of our purposes in this war, so far
from strengthening our enemy, I believe would im
measurably weaken her, for it would no longer be
possible to misrepresent our purposes to the German
people. Such a course on our part, so far from
endangering the life of a single one of our boys,
I believe would result in saving the lives of hundreds
of thousands of them by bringing about an earlier
and more lasting peace by intelligent negotiation,
instead of securing a peace by the complete exhaus
tion of one or the other of the belligerents.
Such a course would also immeasurably, I believe,
strengthen our military force in this country, be
cause when the objects of this war are clearly stated
and the people approve of those objects they will
give to the war a popular support it will never
otherwise receive.
Speech in U. S. Senate, October 6, 191 7.
Honest Dealing With the Allies
Then again, honest dealing with the entente
allies, as well as with our own people, requires a
clear statement of our objects in this war. If we
do not expect to support the entente allies in the
dreams of conquest we know some of them enter
tain, then in all fairness to them that fact should be

246 La Follette's Political Philosophy
stated now. If we do expect to support them in
their plans for conquest and aggrandizement, then
our people are entitled to know that vitally impor
tant fact before this war proceeds further. Common
honesty and fair dealing with the people of this
country and with the nations by whose side we are
fighting, as well as a sound military policy at home,
requires the fullest and freest discussion before the
people of every issue involved in this great war
and that a plain and specific declaration of our
purposes in the war be speedily made by the Con:
gress of the United States.
Speech in U . S. Senate, October 6, 1917.
(Note : The following is a summary of Senator
La Follette's voting record on war measures. It
is taken from a speech in the Wisconsin senate
February 23, 1918, by Hon. Henry A. Huber, state
senator from Dane county. This speech was pub
lished in La Follette's Magazine in February, 1918.)
From April 7, 1917, when war on Germany was
declared to January 12, 1918, sixty different war
measures were passed by Congress. La Follette
supported and voted for 55 of these.
He voted for the various bond issues.
He voted for the various appropriation bills to
equip the army and provide for the best supplies
.and the highest pay for our soldiers. He repeatedly
urged that the boys who go to the trenches must
have the best of everything in arms, ammunition,
and equipment.
He helped to perfect the bill for soldiers' insur
ance and voted for it. .

Freedom of Speech and Press 247
He voted for every measure to provide enormous
appropriations for building ships.
After war was declared he recognized in every
act and word the existence of a state of war as a
fact, and stood for those measures which were cal
culated to bring that war to a speedy, successful
and honorable conclusion.
He opposed the armed ship bill BEFORE WE
WENT INTO THE WAR. He did not speak upon
this measure although he was accused of filibuster
ing it to death.
He opposed the declaration of war.
He opposed the draft provisions of the bill to pro
vide an army, but voted to raise that army by the
volunteer system.
He opposed the draft provision of the Aviation
bill because of his general objections to the draft as
undemocratic and un-American. But he made it
clear that he endorsed the six hundred million dol
lars appropriation for aviation.
He opposed the espionage bill because it con
tained a provision giving the postmaster-general
power with the stroke of the pen to suppress any
newspaper and destroy the property of any pub
lisher. He voted for the food control bill when it passed
the senate but later voted against the conference
report on the bill because the conference radically
changed the bill'to the great injury of the farrher
and because the inevitable effect of the change
would be to curtail agricultural production.
He voted against the war t^x bill because it did
.not justly tax wealth and especially war profits and

248 La Follette's Political Philosophy
would therefore force the raising of war revenues
by excessive bond issues, resulting in all, the evils
of inflation, among others increasing the cost of
the necessaries of life.
General Amnesty Is Demanded
Do the American people know that in this Chris
tianized country, under a government dedicated to
political and religious liberty, there are hundreds
of men imprisoned because of their opinions?
Do they know that many of these brave souls
have been starved and beaten and scourged and
tortured until some of them have been driven insane
and others have died for their religious and moral
convictions ?
At the beginning of the war the liberals, to whom
both Mr. Wilson and Mr. Baker owe their political
power, expected this problem to be met with the
tact, firmness and honesty which it required. On
the other hand, certain jingo elements who looked
upon our armed forces as an instrument for pro
tection in their future machinations for extending
investments and gaining control of world markets,
at whatever cost to our own or the world's popula
tion, saw in this group of dissenters a menace to
their program.
It was not a question of whether the conscientious
objectors were right or wrong. They were there,
and they presented a problem which called for a
very definite disposition. Should they be shot with
out trial, as was done in Germany? Should they
be imprisoned at hard labor for short terms, which
could be renewed from time to time, as England

Freedom of Speech and Press 249
had done? Or was there a third and more satis
factory solution? Our war department preferred
not to make the decision. It issued a series of
vague "orders" to the camps — orders which on the
surface appeared to be a highly satisfactory solu
tion, but which were, in fact, open to any interpre
tation which officials in the various camps wished
to place upon them. These officials, in many in
stances, newly endowed with a degree of power
which their experience in no way warranted, pro
ceeded to execute the orders, and court martial
trials were held for those who violated them.
The sentences imposed ranged from i, 5, 10, 20,
45 years and life terms, to the death penalty. One
man, for instance, was given thirty years because he
refused a second vaccination ; one a life term because
his religion forbade him to wear a military uni
form; one the death penalty for refusing to peel
potatoes. All of these extreme sentences were com
muted to shorter terms before their absurdity be
came too apparent to the public.
The war is over. Demobilization is almost com
plete. England and Canada have released all of
their conscientious objectors. But our war depart
ment is still floundering between the possible oppo
sition of two hostile political forces. As a conces
sion to the liberal it occasionally releases a group
of religious objectors, or surreptitiously drops an
individual objector here and there. For the pacifi
cation of the jingoes it continues to hold hundreds
of others, whom it labels "riotous and unruly" but
whose real offense is that they have given the public
facts about the unspeakable conditions of our mili-

250 La Follette's Political Philosophy
tary prisons. It would, no doubt, be embarrassing
to the war department to make public its records
and let the people know that five objectors have
died from exposure and cruelty, that not a few
have gone insane, that the health of scores has been
permanently impaifed — that, in fact, everything has
been done to break them both in body and spirit.
The charge now lodged against the administration
is not that it sent these men to prison, — that is
passed over,^but that it has never met the issue
with a clear and definite policy; that it constantly
concealed facts which the public had a right to
know; that it never let its right hand know what
its left hand did.
What will the administration do now? Has it
the courage to declare an amnesty as England and
Canada have done? Or will it continue to play its
double game to the end?
La Follette's Magazine, September, 19 19.

XIX
THE PEACE TREATY AND THE
LEAGUE OF NATIONS

The War Makers of Versailles
;R. PRESIDENT, the little group of
men who sat in secret conclave for
months at Versailles were not peace
makers. They were war makers. They
cut and slashed the map of the old ;
world in violation of the terms of the armistice.
They patched up a ne'w,map of the old world in
consummation of the terms of the secret treaties
the existence of which they had denied because
they feared to expose the sordid aims and purposes
for which men were sent to death by the tens of
thousands daily. They betra^d China. They
locked the chains on the subject peoples of Ireland,
Egypt, and India. They partitioned territory and
traded off peoples in mockery of that sanctified for
mula of 14 points, and made it our Nation's shame.
Then, fearing the wrath of outraged peoples, know
ing that their new map would be torn to rags and
tatters by the conflicting, warring elements which
they had bound together in wanton disregard of
racial animosities, they make a league of nations
to stand 'guard over the swag !
The old world armies were exhausted. Their
treasuries were empty. It was imperative that they

l' 252y La Follette's Political Philosophy
"thould be able to draw upon the lusty man power
and the rich material resources of the United States
to build a military cordon around the new bounda
ries of the new States of the old world.
Senators, if we go into this thing if means a great
standing army; it means, conscription to fight in
foreign wars, a blighting curse upon the family life
of every American home every hour. It means
higher taxes, higher prices, harder times for the
poor. It means greater discontent, a deeper, more
menacing unrest.
Mr. President, whatever course other senators
may take, I shall never vote to bind my country
to the monstrous undertaking which this covenant
would impose.
Speech, "Secret Treaties — War Spoils Se-
by Allies," U. S. Senate, Nov. 13, 1919.

Labor Betrayed in the Treaty
Mr. President, in our modern era of a highly
organized industrial society, the movement for
democracy in industry is tending to supersede at
many points the old struggle for political democ
racy. Competition between business men and manufac
turers, which tended to lower prices and increase
wages, has wholly disappeared. All the basic indus
tries of the Nation and most of the subordinate
industries have passed into the control of small
groups of men. Their power is absolute, and they
increase prices and lower actual wages at will.

The Peace Treaty and the League 253
The great mass of the working people, meanwhile,
have become wage earners, employed in industry.
With these fundamental changes, the battle line in
the struggle runs through the industrial life of the
entire nation.
By the labor section of this treaty we are giving
to an international body — a superlegislature — an
entering wedge through which it may intervene
in the settlement of our industrial affairs.
At the very point where the fight for real democ
racy is most heated, where action is fraught with
the most vital consequences to the mass of the
American people, the treaty sets up an international
body which has full authority and power to act.
Mr. President, I cannot consent to that grant of
authority and power. Believing, as I do, in demo
cratic principles; believing that the best results in
legislation and government are obtained when those
who legislate are in closest touch with, and elected
rtiirectly by, the people; believing, in other words,
in the wisdom of the principles written into the
American constitution, which must be preserved if
we are to save our free institutions; believing,
finally, that America's best gift to the world and
most effective aid to the cause of labor throughout
the world would be the example of the perfection
of our own democracy, unhampered and unre
strained by outside influences; believing, sir, these
things, I shall move to strike out the labor articles
pf this treaty.
Speech, "Labor and the Treaty of Peace,"
U. S. Senate, October 29, 1919.

254 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Effect of the Labor Articles
Mr. President, what is the broad significance of
these labor provisions?
The practical effect of setting up international
machinery of this kind is to crystallize the present
industrial conditions and to perpetuate the wrong
and injustice in the present relation existing between
labor and capital.
As a substitute for natural evolution, which over
a period of centuries has been bringing more and
more recognition of the rights of labor, this treaty
of peace sets up an arbitrary, artificial organization,
clothed with definite powers and restricted by vague
limitations, which has for its ultimate object the
maintenance of the present system of a completely
centralized control of industry. As stated in the
preamble of the so-called "labor charter," varying
conditions throughout the world make "strict uni
formity in the conditions of labor difficult of imme
diate attainment" — but uniformity is' the ultimate
aim. Speech, "Labor and the Treaty of Peace,"
U. S. Senate, October 29, 1919.
The Treaty and the Constitution.
It would be an insult to the memory of the wise
and patriotic men who framed our constitution to
suppose that they ever intended that the great
treaty-making power with which they endowed the
senate should be so prostituted as to become merely
a means of registering the President's will. We
know that nothing of the sort was intended by the

The Peace Treaty and the League 255
framers of the constitution, and the language of
the constitution permits no such construction. Noth
ing of the sort can happen if senators perform their
sworn duty under the constitution, no matter what
are the desires and ambitions which move the Pres
ident. I am not arguing that a good treaty should be
rejected or amended merely because a president
disregarded the constitution in refusing to advise
with the senate concerning it ; but I do say that any
treaty which comes into the senate under such a
cloud should be regarded with suspicion. The pre
sumption is against it.
Speech, "Executive Usurpation — The Treaty
and the Constitution," U. S. Senate, Nov. 6, 1919.
Great Britain's Territorial Gains from the War.
Mr. President, to sum up British territorial gains
from the war: Great Britain has added to her em
pire, either by annexation or by protectorates and
mandates, a territory of 3,972,000 square miles —
larger than continental Europe — with a population
of more than 51,725,000 people, 99 per cent of whom
are natives.
Great Britain stands to-day the dominant power
in Asia and Africa, and, in Canada, holds dominion
over more territory along our northern boundary
than is represented in the combined area of the
United States and Alaska.
The aggregate area of the British Empire is one-
fourth of the land surface of the globe, totaling
15,000,000 square miles, and her population of

256 La Follette's Political Philosophy
475,000,000 souls represents one-fourth of the total
population of the World.
The government of the British Empire is imposed
upon 400,000,000 subject peoples, against their will,
by 65,000,000 people of the English speaking race
over a territory nine times larger in extent than
the Roman empire at the height of its glory. It
is the boundaries of this empire which the United
States, under the league of nations, will be obligated
to defend against the external aggression or internal
disturbance which, in the opinion of the council,
amounts even to a "threat of war" affecting the
"peace of nations."
Speech in U. S. Senate, November 18, 1919.
Denial of Justice to Egypt
Mr. President, I shall not review here the sordid
story of Egypt's betrayal at the peace conference.
How four men chosen by the Egyptian people to
represent them at Paris were seized by the British
authorities without warning, deported to Malta, and
held in a military prison; how more than 1,000 un
armed natives were brutally shot down and killed
by British machine guns on the streets of Alexan
dria and Cairo; how President Wilson refused to
give the Egyptian envoys a hearing after they finally
reached Paris, are facts too well known to all of us
to require recital.
It is enough to say that the treaty of Versailles
recognizes a permanent British protectorate over
this unfortunate country. It makes Egypt, with
her 13,000,000 inhabitants, all of one race, speaking
the same language, and occupying 350,000 square

The Peace Treaty and the League 257
miles of fertile territory, as much a part of the
British Empire as India or her colonies in Africa.
It gives to Great Britain, in addition, the immense
area known as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, which is
one-third as large as the United States. She ac
quired this domain, Mr. President, against the will
of every one of its inhabitants, in violation of British
pledges to Egypt and to the world, and in wanton
disregard of the 14 points sponsored by the United
States and specifically accepted and agreed to by
Great Britain.
Speech, "Secret Treaties, and War Spoils
Secured by Great Britain," U. S.
Senate, November 18, 1919.
The War in Retrospect
President Wilson has again spoken on the League
of Nations. He begins where he left off. He has
forgotten nothing, neither has he learned anything.
He repeats his cant phrases on the league compact
and world peace.
He seems not to know that the American people
have already passed judgment. God pity him when
that time comes. He will find that judgment as
harsh as truth, as unrelenting as justice.
From the first sentence to the last the league of
nations is a sham and a fraud.
It pretends to be a league to preserve the peace
of the world.
It is an alliance among the victorious nations of
Europe to preserve for themselves the plunder and
the power they gained by the war.

258 La Follette's Political Philosophy
It bars the door of hope in the face of every peo
ple, embraced within its terms, now striving for
freedom. It betrays China and rivets the chains of bondage
upon Egypt, India and Ireland.
, It is an inseparable part of a treaty, conceived in
fraud, in violation of the armistice, and written in a
frenzy of hate to enslave the German people.
Woodrow Wilson and his three associates at Ver
sailles were not peace makers. They were war
makers. If we should ever adopt the league of nations or
ratify the treaty, we would stand convicted before
the world as a nation without honor.
The American people are beginning to see the war
in retrospect with clearer vision.
The dazzling rhetoric is now but shabby tinsel,
much of the eloquence seems hollow and insincere,
and the loudest appeals to patriotism smack of
profiteering. The great body of the American people were
opposed to our entering into the European war.
The declaration that we were fighting for democ
racy was the baldest, most wicked lie ever imposed
iupon a people.
This country never before engaged in a war in
which public opinion was so falsified and the con
victions of a nation so stifled, and never before
were the rights of the individual citizen so ruthlessly
and brutally tramped under foot as during and after
the war.

The Peace Treaty and the League 259
We sacrificed a quarter of a million precious
American lives, incurred a war debt of ever growing
billions, disorganized industry, engendered class
hatreds in our social order, created a new crop of
millionaires to further menace American democracy,
— overturned a German autocracy and built up a
British autocracy infinitely stronger to rule the
world. And what of the rights of men ? You cannot name
a single right that the common man has gained as
a result of the late war, — either in our own country
or in any one of the allied countries.
The common people of all the countries engaged
in the war suffered and starved and died by the mil
lions and what have they to show for it?
They must labor for generations to restore the
ravages of the war. They and their children must
bear for unnumbered years to come the fearful bur
den of the war debt, paying it over and over many
times in vast interest charges and in the higher and
higher living cost which the war debt with its depre
ciated dollar entails.
War Destroys Human Rights
The people of no country engaged in the war
desired it, and the people of every country involved
would have ended it quickly on just and honorable
terms to all if left to their decision.
This was a war of big business for bigger busi- :
ness. It was a war for trade routes, and commercial ,
advantages. It was a war for new territory and the '
right to exploit weaker peoples. It was a mean,
sordid, mercenary war.

26o La Follette's Political Philosophy
This was not so clear to some of us when the
smoke of battle obscured our view. But it is writ
ten large in the terms of the treaty and the proposed
alliance among the victorious governments.
It is the great commercial and exploiting interests
in whose behalf this war was fought that are to
be protected by the League of Nations and the
Treaty, upon the ratification of which Woodrow
Wilson still doggedly insists.
I challenge any man to name one new privilege,
one added right which the common people of this
or any one of the allied countries are to gain as
•the result of the war.
But pity the man so blind as not to see that the
rights most cherished among free men in all ages
and in all countries, were wickedly destroyed as a
part of the war and the afterwar program.
Freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and of
. the "press, no arrests without warrant and without
probable cause, no secret search and unlawful sei
zure of property, no trial except before impartial
judges and juries, no forced military service especi
ally in foreign lands — these are some of the rights
which everyone knows have been wrested from the
people of this country as a result of this war.
¦La Follette's Magazine, May, 1920.
League of Nations To Preserve Status Quo
' Mr. President, there is one agency to which Great
Britain may look for aid in holding her rebellious
subjects in check, and that agency is the league
of nations.

The Peace Treaty and the League 261
I care not what reservations or amendments we
attach to this covenant. In the final analysis it is
an instrument for the preservation of the status quo.
Like the Holy Alliance of. 181 5, it is couched in the
language of idealism and peace. But, like the Holy
Alliance, it will be used for the suppression of
nationalities and for the prosecution of oppressive
warfare. This covenant closes the door in the face of every
people striving for freedom. Not one of the races
now held in bondage had a voice in the making of
this instrument. Not one was granted an oppor
tunity to be heard at Paris. This covenant was so-
cunningly conceived that the first act of revolution
in India, Korea, Egypt, or Ireland will be inter
preted as a "threat of war" and a disturbance of the
"peace of nations." Patriots of India, Egypt, Ireland,
seeking external aid for their countries as Franklin
sought aid in France for the struggling American
colonies, and as Kossuth, Kosciuszko, DeValera,
and many others have sought aid in the United
States for the cause of human freedom, by the
terms of this treaty become international outlaws.
No ingenuity of interpretation of the articles of
this document can remove from my mind the con
viction that it destroys everywhere the right of
asylum. The White Man's Injustice to Asia
If we are to disregard every principle of our free
institutions and every tradition of the past, there
are yet other reasons why we should withhold our
support from this new alliance.

262 La Follette's Political Philosophy
We should not deceive ourselves into believing
that there can be a permanent enforcement of the
present system of exploitation in Asia. The civili
zation of these Asiatic countries is more venerable
than our own. Asia's contribution to the world has
been the principle of human brotherhood. Asia has
produced the great moral teachers of history — Con
fucius, Buddha, Mohammed, Christ.
To these great teachers may be traced the non-
resistance and pacifism of the Asiatic peoples.
The races of Asia have now suffered for three
centuries under European exploitation. Off the east
coast of China they see the smallest of the Asiatic
nations — Japan — holding a place of power in the
councils of the world. They know that Japan owes
her present ascendancy to the military and naval
strength which she built up in a decade. With
this example before them, is it likely that the mil
lions of Asia will continue long under foreign rule?
China has already awakened under the stimulus of
a revolution and the theft of Shantung. India is
approaching revolt. Should the league of nations
attempt to maintain indefinitely the status quo in
/Asia, the world will witness a more terrible war
I than the one from which we have emerged. It will
be a continental war — a race war, in which the white
races will be hopelessly outnumbered.
If we ratify the treaty with Germany we are
leading this country farther into the shadow of that
menace. Mr. President, I do not speak of Great Britain's
mighty empire in a spirit of covetousness.

I

The Peace Treaty and the League 263
The British Empire and the League
I do not covet for this country a position in the
world which history has shown would make us the
object of endless jealousies and hatreds, involve us
in perpetual war, and lead to the extinction of our
domestic liberty. I, for one, harbor no ambition to
see this country start upon the path which has lured
other nations to their ruin.
Mr. President, we cannot, without sacrificing this
Republic, maintain world dominion for ourselves.
And, sir, we should not pledge ourselves to main
tain it for another.
Where are Great Britain's boundaries likely to be
assailed? Certainly not in Australia, Canada, South
Africa, or New Zealand. These self-governing do
minions — colonized and peopled by Englishmen —
have given ample proof of their loyalty to the
motherland, and their Anglo-Saxon populations
need no league of nations to guarantee the integrity
of their territories.
It is the vast native populations, held in bondage
for the enrichment of a small class of imperialist *
aliens — the millions of India, Egypt, and the Otto»
man Empire — who are apt in the future to disturb y
the status quo created by this peace.
It is these peoples that the league of nations must
hold in check. It is to maintain this part of her
empire that Great Britain must keep her mighty ,
navy and burden the English people with taxes. ]
It is my conviction that the English people resid
ing in the dominions and the British Isles would

264 La Follette's Political Philosophy
benefit most if this illicit portion of the Empire
should crumble and fall away.
If the British empire were limited to the domin
ions, with its government founded upon the consent
of the governed, and hence requiring no guaranties
from other nations, the peace of the world would
rest upon a sounder basis.
Lincoln on the Subjugation of Weaker Peoples
Mr. President, I know the argument will be ad
vanced here that the 400,000,000 unwilling subjects
of the British empire enjoy better government than
they would enjoy if left to govern themselves.
Senators, that is an argument which, even if it
v/ere based on truth, should have no place in the Amer
ican congress. We owe our national existence to
the courage of a handful of men who proclaimed to
the world the self-evident truth that —
All men are created equal ; that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights;
that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness ; that to secure these rights govern
ments are instituted among men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed.
A controversy arose in this country 60 years ago
as to the application of those great principles. In
that contest, Abraham Lincoln contended that the
Declaration of Independence applied not alone to
white men, or to the descendants of the English
settlers in the Colonies, but to all men, white and
black, yellow and brown, and he declared that Dec
laration the "sheet anchor of American republi
canism."

The Peace Treaty and the League 265
When the arguments were advanced in this coun
try for the enslavement of the Negro which are now
advanced for denying the natives of India and of
Egypt self-government, Lincoln replied (Chicago,
111., July 10, 1858) :
"Those arguments that are made, that the inferior
race are to be treated with as much allowance as
they are capable of enjoying; that as much is to
be done for them as their condition will allow — what
are these arguments? They are these arguments
that kings have made for enslaving the people in
all ages of the world. You will find that all the
arguments in favor of kingcraft were of this class;
they always bestrode the necks of the people, not
that they wanted to do it, but because the people
were better off for being ridden. That is their argu
ment, and this argument of the judge (Douglas)
is the same old argument that says, you work, and
I eat; you toil, and I will enjoy the fruits of it.
Turn it whatever way you will, whether it come
from the mouth of a king as an excuse for enslav
ing the people of his country, or from the mouth
of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the
men of another race, it is all the same old serpent."
Mr. President, when Abraham Lincoln contended '
for the right of self-government as the heritage of 1
"all men in all lands, everywhere," who can say
that he would have excluded the people of Egypt,
of India and of Ireland?
These people do not ask that we send armies to
Europe or Asia to aid them in gaining their free
dom. They ask simply that we shall do nothing

266 La Follette's Political Philosophy
to hinder them in their struggle for independence
from the power which once held sway over the
American colonies.
The hope expressed here, that by entering the
league of nations we can best serve these subject
races, is, in my opinion, a forlorn hope.
If we were powerless to serve oppressed peoples
at Paris, by what logic can it be argued that we
shall be better able to serve them at Geneva?
At Paris our enemies, our allies, and the neutral
nations of the world had accepted the 14 points
which we were pledged to write into the peace.
How the representatives of the United States
compromised those principles, how they set aside
the doctrine of self-determination, how they aban
doned "open covenants openly arrived at" for the
secret treaties of the Allies are now matters of his
tory. Can it be hoped that at Geneva, with the
confidence of the world blasted in the stability of
our purposes and ourselves bound to a covenant
whicli pledges our support for the status quo, we
shall be a powerful advocate for Korea, India, Egypt
and Ireland? The Terms of the Peace Treaty
Mr. President, when the American people were
committed to this war the great mass of them were
led to believe that they were suffering and fighting
for the destruction of arbitrary power exercised by
strong nations over weaker people — fighting to
carry democracy to all parts of the world.
The war ended. We sacrificed a quarter of a
million precious American lives, incurred a war

The Peace Treaty and the League 267
debt of thirty billions, disorganized industry, engen
dered class hatred in our social order, created a new \
crop of profiteering millionaires, overturned a Ger
man autocracy and built up a British autocracy
infinitely stronger to rule the world, and we are
now engaged in creating a league of nations to
perpetuate its power and bind this Government
to respect and preserve its extended boundaries.
Look at the map of the world as Great Britain's
boundaries were fixed before the war ! British pos
sessions — widely scattered, outlying, detached, iso
lated — waiting to be united, bound together, and
made secure !
Look at the map to-day, with British boundaries
reaching out over the earth to embrace her spoils
of war.
The map of the world has become the map of
Great Britain. It is not the work of chance. On-\
its face it is the written confession of the guilt of
British imperialists for their full share in the years
of diplomatic intrigue which embroiled the world j
in war.
How puny appear the ambitions of Germany com
pared to the imperial power now actually attained
by Great Britain !
In spite of the protestation of Lloyd George that
England did not seek "one yard of territory," Great
Britain has made capital of the sacrifices of the
United States, of France and of the English people,
to bring a vast new territory under her flag, and
British bankers and traders are preparing for a
new era of exploitation.

268 La Follette's Political Philosophy
I do not believe that the British empire, in which
the missing links were neatly fitted at the Paris
conference, is an accident of events.
It is plainly the consummation of the long-con
sidered and well-planned program of the imperial
ists who dominate the British Foreign Office, at
the expense of the English people. To this source,
in my opinion, may be traced many of the minor
irritants which led up to the war.
It was this force which built up in the United
States by subtle propaganda hatred of Germany. It
is this power which now seeks American support
for a treaty visiting upon the German republic^a
peace more crushing, more harsh and pitiless in its
terms, than any peace threatened to be imposed
upon the German empire under the rule of the
kaiser and the junker.
That this venomous and unreasoning hatred of
Germany still persists in some parts of our coun
try will not restrain me from raising my voice in
protest against the crushing of the German repub
lic and the German people, who according to the
president's own statement, were not responsible for
the war.
If we ratify the treaty of Versailles, after pledg
ing ourselves to a peace based upon the 14 points —
which had been approved by the allies and accepted
in good faith by the central powers — we shall stand
convicted before the world as a nation without
honor, and unworthy to be trusted to fulfill the
pledges it has made.
Speech in U. S. Senate, Nov. 18, 1919.

The Peace Treaty and the League 269
Trying To Make It a Real League of Peace
(Note : On Nov. 10, 1919, Senator La Follette
presented to the senate six reservations for adop
tion as part of the covenant of the league of nations.
These reservations, all of which were voted down
on the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 18, provided:
I. A guaranty to all nations of the right of self-
determination. 2. Abolition of conscription.
3. A popular referendum.
4. Limitation of armaments.
5. Prevention of forcible annexations.
6. Prohibition against the use of mandates for
the exploitation of the inhabitants and resources of
weaker states.) Independence of Nations
It is a mistaken policy that assumes a community
of nations can prosper any more than a community
of individuals by one or more tyrannizing over the
others and monopolizing the world's markets. The
world's greatest progress must be best served by
the largest possible development of the national
life of each country. We believe there is still
room for all in the vast and undeveloped areas of
the earth. Speech in U. S. Senate, Feb. 12, 1915.

XX
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

An Illegal War in Siberia
^<r2)°^ RESIDENT Wilson is conducting a
war against Russia in open and noto
rious violation of the constitution.
Article I, Section 8 of the constitu
tion provides as follows :
"The Congress shall have power, —
"To declare war, grant letters of marque and
reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on
land and water."
The framers of the constitution were unanimously
opposed to vesting the president with poWer to.
make war upon any country or any people.
Congress has never declared war against Russia.
Congress has never raised an army or voted a
dollar of money or made rules for the regulation of
the land and naval forces in a war against the Rus-.
sian people.
But the president is using an army raised for a
wholly different purpose, and expending money ap
propriated by congress to a wholly different use, to
prosecute a war against a people and a country,
with whom under the constitution 6f the United
States, we are at peace.
And called upon by senators and representatives,
again and again, from the floors of congress, to ex-

International Relations 271
plain why the lives of American soldier boys are
being sacrificed in conducting an unconstitutional
war on Russia, the president refuses and neglects
to make an answer. La Follette's Magazine, April, 1919.
Recognition of Russia
Why did the Wilson government refuse to rec
ognize the soviet government of Russia?
Was it because the soviet government, in order
to maintain itself, executed a total of 3,200 people
in Petrograd, Moscow and all other cities, most of
whom had organized counter revolutions and were
plotting the overthrow of the soviet government,
and some of whom were spurious supporters of the
soviet government who had been convicted of graft
ing and robbing that government?
If recognition of the soviet government was re
fused because of the execution of a total of 3,200
people in Petrograd, Moscow and all other cities,
then why did Wilson's government recognize the
Mannerheim white guard government in Finland,
which had executed and murdered by starvation in
its prisons more than 30,000 Finnish red prisoners?
In other words, if 3,200 soviet "atrocities" were
sufficient to bar the Lenine government in Russia
from recognition by the Wilson government, then
why should not 30,000 white guard atrocities in
Finland have constituted ten times as strong a bar
against the recognition of the Mannerheim govern
ment in Finland by the Wilson government in
Washington ?

272 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Or is it possible that the real reason for refusing
recognition to the soviet government of Russia,
and even denying to ojir merchants and manufac
turers the right to buy and sell and trade with that
government, is because' it is a socialist government
based upon the common ownership of all property?
And, did the Wilson government recognize the
Kolchak "government" because Admiral Kolchak
is a survivor of the despotic system of the czar.
and will restore the "rights" of property, return the
land to the select, aristocratic seven per cent, give
the peasants black bread and the knout, and forever
dispel the hope of an industrial democracy?
La Follette's Magazine, July, 1919.
The Rights of Neutrals
An Associated Press despatch cabled from Paris
states that: "Norway has refused to join in a block
ade of Germany, in case the German delegates refuse
to sign the Peace Treaty."
Sweden, Holland and Switzerland have made like
declarations. Thus do these Christian nations rebuke the three
men who control at Versailles, for applying the
same savage policy of starvation of a' people to force
acceptance of "peace," which they employed in
prosecuting the war.
The whole world will always owe a debt of grati
tude to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and
Switzerland. With the menace of starvation hang
ing over them they preserved as best they could
the integrity of their neutrality with Germany and

International Relations 273
refused to make an inhuman hunger-war upon inno
cent women and children.
For this brave, righteous stand in defense of the
"right of self-determination," these independent
little nations were terribly punished. Suffering hor
ribly for food, compelled to eat in some sections
bread made from the bark of trees, their death-rate
rapidly increasing because short-rationed by Wil
son's embargo, they heroically resisted to the bitter
end the atrocious order — actual or implied — to.
"Fight or Starve."
And now Norway, Sweden, Holland, and Switzer
land again refuse to be made a party to forcing the
acceptance of a treaty on Germany through a policy
of coercion by starvation.
Such a policy is a reproach to civilization.
These jugglers with the world's destiny at Ver
sailles have for six months locked themselves away
from the peoples they are supposed to represent,
Judged by the fragmentary data given out, they
now seek to commit the world to peace terms which
make a ghastly mockery of the Fourteen Points,
and all of the other elocutionary frummery which
preceded and followed their announcement by Mr.
Wilson. Aside from all question as to its terms — in so
far as we are permitted to know anything about
them — the method of compelling acceptance by the
Germans and Austrians, cries to heaven for a protest
from the Christianized world.
Lg, Follette's Magazine, June, 1919.

274 La Follette's Political Philosophy
"Martyred Ireland"
The domination of Ireland by England has been
no less a tragedy than the domination of Poland
by Russia, Germany and Austria. Racially and geo
graphically, Ireland is as far separated from England
as Poland is from Germany. Politically Ireland has
been at war with England for 700 years. All the
world knows the wonderful fertility of the Irish
soil and that except for the cruel oppression of
England, Ireland would today have many times
its present population.
If President Wilson was seeking democracy for
the world, he would have joined the cause of Ireland
with that of Poland and the other small nations.
Had the Emerald Isle been an enemy instead of
an allied possession, the American representatives
of the Irish cause would have been given a different
kind of reception and the Irish republic might have
been accorded recognition.
If the President had tried to secure self-determi
nation for Ireland and had failed, he might have
become the idol of Irish patriots. But he did not
try. Under the cloak of professed friendship he left
the Irish people to the mercy of their masters. The
commercial interests of the British Empire over
topped the human rights of martyred Ireland.
La Follette's Magazine, June, 1919.

XXI
THE AMERICAN SOLDIER

Important Place of Militia
UR forefathers wrote it in the consti
tution that states should have the right
to maintain their militia. In every
emergency of war this country has had
to meet, the wisdom of its maintenance
has been- strongly demonstrated. As Shakespeare
says of meeting death, so we may say of meeting
war, "The readiness is all."
In times of profoundest peace, these military or
ganizations serve a high and noble purpose. It is
not alone that they uphold the law and create
respect for it, but they preserve and inculcate the
spirit of patriotism, of loyalty to state and country.
They make social centers, where young men come
together for self-government, where order, disci
pline and obedience are learned ; where the spirit of
disinterested comradeship is fostered ; where united
civic and military support of right and justice is
stimulated. The national guard of the state represents the
health and vigor of its young manhood. Many of
its members are sons and grandsons of the veterans
of the civil war, who have learned from the spoken
word — better than history can teach, what that war
cost and what it was fought for. Back of that

276 La Follette's Political Philosophy
war was the one for independence, to establish this
government of equal rights, equal opportunities,
equal responsibilities and equal burdens — a govern
ment resting on the will of the people. Of this
generation, it will never be forgotten that the flag
of freedom was carried to a helpless people, an
oppressed and suffering nation, under a despotism
more cruel than human slavery. These gatherings
and all the work of the guardsmen impress these
lessons upon us over and over again and raise in
each the highest standards of civic and military
duty. In these times of selfish commercialism and busi
ness absorption, whatever tends to loftier senti
ment, purer patriotism, higher ideals of citizenship,
should be fostered because it makes for the security
of our most precious heritage.
Address to National Guard Officers,
January 31, 1902.
Back Up Our Boys
There is, and of course can be, no real difference
of opinion concerning the duty of the citizen to dis
charge to the last limit whatever obligation the
war lays upon him.
Our young men are being taken by the hundreds
of thousands for the purpose of waging this war
on the continent of Europe, possibly Asia or Africa,
or anywhere else that they may be ordered. Noth
ing must be left undone for their protection. They
must have the best army, ammunition, and equip
ment that money can buy. They must have the

The American Soldier 277
best training and the best officers which this great
country can produce. The dependents and relatives
they leave at home must be provided for, not mea-
gerly, but generously so far as money can provide
for them.
I have done some of the hardest work in my life
during the last few weeks on the revenue bill to
raise the largest possible amount of money from
surplus incomes and war profits for this war and
upon other measures to provide for the protection
of the soldiers and their families. That I was not
able to accomplish more along this line is a great
disappointment to me. I did all that I could, and I
shall continue to fight with all the power at my
command until wealth is made to bear more of the
burden of this war than has been laid upon it by
the present congress. Speech in U. S. Senate, Oct. 6, 1917.
Give Comfort to the Boys
The press dispatches inform us that our troops
in France are occupying- first line trenches in the
fighting line. This means for them the supreme
s?crifice for country. Their suffering will be un
measured and unmeasurable. This country has ap
propriated immense sums for the war, but there are
things money will not buy. The things that com
fort the spirit of man come not only from the
knowledge of great deeds well done but also from
the feeling that our fellowmen are not unappre-
ciative of such service. Even though the govern
ment is generous or even lavish in its official care
of these men there will still be the need, the ever

278 La Follette's Political Philosophy
pressing need, of that spiritual comfort that comes
from the gentle hand of woman; the home things
that revive and sustain in the dark days of depres
sion and pain ; the little things that carry the
thoughts of love and affection. These will be fur
nished, if at all, by those ministering angels of
mercy, the Red Cross, the Woman's Relief Corps,
the Y. M. C. A., and K. C, and kindred organiza
tions. The fraternal orders can also be of great
service to their members in the army.
There should be a generous outpouring from home
people to sustain these organizations in the field.
Everyone should make personal sacrifice to the
end that our brave boys be remembered, not only
for the day, but continuously and every day till their
return. War of today, as never before, brings suffering
and horrors that we at home can never fully ap
preciate but which we can at least in some degree
alleviate. La Follette's Magazine, November, 1917.
On the American Fighting Man
American soldiers are now in France in large
numbers. Over 800,000 men have already gone
across. More are going every day.
American ship production is going on apace. A
beginning has been made in production of aircraft.
Machine guns will soon be manufactured in quan
tity. The U-boats are still taking large toll, but rela
tively to shipments, destruction from submarines
is growing less.

The American Soldier 279
The struggle on the western front has been most
desperate and critical since March 21. Undoubtedly
the situation will continue to be critical for some
time. But the force of this mighty nation is being
felt more and more as the days go by. Eventually
we must exercise a dominating influence in ending
the war.
There have been serious and dangerous delays in
equipping our iarmies. Hiappily the outlook is
better for the future.
Our men at the front are giving a good account of
themselves. They are preserving the best tradi
tions of the American soldier. They are under no
illusions. They know that war is hell. But they
will meet the enemy on his own ground and un
complainingly and cheerfully make every sacrifice
demanded to win the fight.
We at home must make our sacrifices in the same
spirit. Everyone must do his part. When each one
of us has done his best he may with justice com
plain of him who has not done his share. The sac
rifices of war are many. Least of these are the
fihancial burdens. La Follette's Magazine, June, 1918.

XXII
AGRICULTURE AND CO-OPERATION

The Farm Life of the Future
T requires no gift of prophecy to fore
see the changes which another gener
ation will unfold.
The development of this new coun
try, with its privations and hardships,
made life upon the farm one of long hours, of exact
ing toil, anxious watching for results, and, often,
the closest kind of living. There was little leisure,
little opportunity for reading and study, almost no
time for recreation or holiday. Yet, so wholesome
was the life, so normal the education of hand and
brain, so exacting the demands upon self-reliance
and individual courage, so firm and secure the moral
foundations made by habits of industry and thrift,
that the farm has furnished not only the state and
nation, but the professional and business world,
with its leaders of men and captains of industry.
Only a few years ago one of the most vexing prob
lems was how to keep the boys and girls upon the
farm. But important and sweeping changes are
taking place in the professional, the commercial,
and industrial world. Consolidation and combina
tion are rapidly narrowing the field of individual
opportunity and effort, in the pursuits which a
quarter of a century ago tempted ambition and re
warded talent and industry. Except for the few

Agriculture and Co-operation 281
masters of finance, he who is now counted fortu
nate enough to find a place in the complex system
of modern business life, must encounter an abnor
mal strain and tension, and from the very condi
tions of success, forego all opportunity for individ
ual development and personal achievement.
With the increasing competition in the profes
sions and the lessening opportunity for large profits
and great fortunes for the average individual in
business, contrasted with the advancement in agri
culture and increasing advantages of country life,
the conditions may soon be reversed and our prob
lems be how to keep our sons and daughters away
from the farm and with us in business and profes
sional life.
Be that as it may, it is plain that agriculture in
this country has a future heretofore unknown in
the world. Farming is now the most distinctive
American occupation. It is the source of our safest,
most conservative citizenship and highest average
of intelligence.
Put the farm in direct communication with the
world by the rural delivery, the telephone, the elec
tric railway, the traveling library, the township
school, the improved highway, and you have given
it the essential advantages of the city without de
priving it of the essential advantages of the coun
try. There will be left the sweet and vitalizing coun
try air, the isolation of broad acres, the beauty of
hill and valley, woodland and meadow, and living,
running water. "The charm of the ripening grain.

282 La Follette's Political Philosophy
coming to its mysterious fullness in the warm em
brace of the sunshine, the honest pride in the graz
ing flocks, and the affectionate interest in their
growing young, will always be an inherent and up
lifting element of life upon the farm. The rich
blessing of unconscious health, the joy of wholesome
work, that brings wholesome rest and wholesome
appetite, are the natural rewards of this outdoor oc
cupation. Nearness to nature, nearness to God, a
truer philosophy, a keener human sympathy, higher
ideals, greater individuality, will ever be stamped
upon the life and character of the country home.
The new agriculture, the new education, new in
ventions will give added interest, larger profits,
greater certainty of success. They will lighten its
burdens, widen its sphere, and ultimately make agri
culture the most desirable of all human avocations.
A new day has already broken upon the tiller of
the soil. The new life upon the farm will recognize
not only the" material value and dignity of labor,
¦ but the increasing necessity for greater leisure and
I a larger measure of recreation. It will not be only
a life of industrious independence, high intelligence,
and great culture, but it will have time for the aes
thetic and artistic side of human affairs. Under
these influences every farm will become a beautiful
country home, provided with every comfort, every
convenience, every rational luxury, — in close touch
with the world, yet happily apart from it.
Wisconsin has been a pioneer in this advancement
of American agriculture. Many of the distinguished
leaders are here tonight. May their valued lives be

Agriculture and Co-operation 283
spared yet many years to us to see the full measure
of their great service to this noble industry and the
fruition of our highest hopes for its future.
¦Address, Farmers' Institute, Oconomowoc,
Wisconsin, March 19, 1902.
The Farmer the Nation's Hope
Nearly one-half of all the people of this country
are engaged in and directly dependent upon agri
culture. The vital forces of every other business,
I care not what its character, are drawn from and
nourished by it. From the standpoint of economics
purely and upon the strictest business principles
the interests of agriculture are the interests of this
Government. No other pursuit so universally and
profoundly concerns every other citizen of the Re
public — no other calling known to civilized man,
where so entirely and completely the interests of
one is the interest of all.
There are other considerations which are worthy
the thought of those charged in part with the duties
of government. Favored by the character of our
institutions, almost all of the farm land in this
country is held and owned by men who cultivate it.
Ownership of soil means ownership of home, and
I tell you that government whose people build and
own their own homes lays broadest and deepest" its
foundations and bargains most surely and happily
with time. Such homes, no matter how humble, are
pledges of the perpetuity of the nation. Our little
modest homes scattered over this land, reared by
those who live in them, are the pillars of strength

284 La Follette's Political Philosophy
which lift this government above other nations of
the civilized world. And it is well for us to re
member here as elsewhere that the poorest home is
just as great an element of strength to the state as
the costliest mansion. To the state, to the govern
ment, there is no difference.
Now, sir, these rural homes are built on small
margins, they are maintained only by industry and
frugality. Every factor of strength and support
about them is important to comfortable, decent ex
istence. Sir, I know something of life upon the farm; I
know the value of little things in the economical
system, in the sparing, cautious management prac
ticed there. I know how the small things are used
to fill up and round out the seasons as they go.
There is little that can be safely spared.
I know, sir, the vital, the absolutely vital im
portance of the dairy to the maintenance not only
of the home comforts, the sweetening of the home
life, but its great value to that which makes the
home possible — the farm itself. It is the one im
portant element in almost the only system which
can be adopted upon the small farms to sustain their
soil and preserve their producing properties. To
foreclose the farmer from this essential branch of
his business is to greatly narrow the limits of his
industry, lessen the number of farm products, and
force overproduction in the few produced with all
its consequent disasters to commerce and trade.
Speech on Bill to Tax Oleomargarine, House
of Representatives, June 2, 1886.

Agriculture and Co-operation 285
Rural Economics Needs Attention
The high cost of living in cities compared with
the prices received by farmers for their products
requires our immediate attention ; we denounce the
suppression by special interests in congress of the
investigation of the country life commission, and we
favor a thorough investigation of the conditions of
country and city life, as an aid in bringing the wage-
earner and farmer closer together, eliminating the
wastes of distribution, promoting co-operative sell-
irg, buying, storage, and warehousing, co-operative
credit and knowledge of co-operative methods, col
lective bargaining and arbitration between employ
ers and employees, and the encouragement of the
ownership of homes by wage-earners and farmers.
Wisconsin Republican Platform, 1910.
Good Roads for Wisconsin Farmers
I am in hearty accord with all properly directed
movements to provide good roads, not only to the
people of Wisconsin, but to the people of the entire
country. As governor of Wisconsin and as United
States senator, I have aided in the enactment of
legislation to secure good highways.
However, I believe that plans for highway con
struction should be so perfected as to secure to the
people who pay the taxes a dollar's worth of road
value for every dollar expended upon highways.
We want good highways not only in name but in
fact. Wisconsin roads should be constructed scien
tifically and economically. The initial cost of a
road is no guarantee of its value. The road, the

286 La Follette's Political Philosophy
first cost of which is the least, may ultimately prove
most expensive to the taxpayer.
There has been criticism of the highway taxes in
Wisconsin. Some of it was justified, because of
the character of the roads built in some of the com
munities. Some of this criticism was also justified
because of the law which permitted a few men of
large wealth who contributed a portion of the cost,
to force road taxes onto a community unable or
unwilling to bear such taxation.
The Good Roads Association of Wisconsin in
promoting a better understanding of the value of
scientifically constructed and co-related highways
can supplement and aid the splendid work of the
Wisconsin Highway Commission.
Such a service will be a real public service. It
will build into the life of the state, highways of a
lasting character and tend constantly to maintain
better and higher standards of integrity in all pub
lic work.
It will be many years before Wisconsin has a
complete and reasonably perfect system of high-
v.'ays. Your program of state trunk roads north
and south and east and west is based on sound,
economic principles. Such roads would materially
aid the farmers and many of the small towns of the
state. The beautiful lakes of the state would be
made more accessible to the centers of population.
Such improvements of our highways would bring
thousands of tourists from other states, make better
markets right at hand for the products of the dairy
and farm. They will be followed by a greater incentive
for the intensive cultivation of our land. This is

Agriculture and Co-operation 287
but one aspect of the economic value of good roads
to the farmer. Another more general and far reach
ing lies in the better facilities thus afforded the
farmer to reach all of his markets. The more grain
or produce the farmers can haul at a single load, the
greater the return per load. This not only benefits
the farmer, but it also will benefit the residents of
our cities.
I hope the good roads problem of our state will
be worked out scientifically so as to secure the max
imum of benefits to the state, to distribute these
benefits equitably over the state and so that the
financial burden may not fall too heavily in any one
year or upon any one community. Our roads
should be built for all time and the work should be
carried forward on plans satisfactory to the tax
payers and the people.
La Follette's Magazine, August, 1916.
Why the Farmers are Organizing
Why, Senators, are you not able to see? Is there
nothing that can arouse the statesmanship of this
day from its lethargy? Can you not interpret this
wonderful movement that is sweeping over the
Middle West and going on to the Pacific and throw
ing out its feelers even into the New England terri
tory — the movement of the Farmers' National Non
partisan League? What is the cause? It is organ
ized because there is a belief among the people that
there is a power that puts them at a disadvantage
by controlling the market price of what they pro
duce and the market price of everything they buy.
They have appealed to the Democratic Party and

288 La Follette's Political Philosophy
they have appealed to the Republican Party, and
they have appealed in vain, for relief; for legisla
tion to break the power that took out of their toil
just what tribute it pleased; a power that forced
them when they marketed their grain to take a low
price and then took that grain into the greiat storage
elevators and sold it to the consumer at a high
price. The great body of the agriculturists of this coun
try decided that it had stood that thing long enough.
They have protested ; they have appealed to the va
rious parties. They have gone before the various
national committeemen ; they have asked for this
plank and that plank in the national platforms, but
they have obtained no relief. Decade after decade
has passed. They sweated to produce the crop ;
they sent it to market; they have taken out of it
now enough to pay for the production and to carry
the interest charges upon the capital invested in the
farms. They have bought the supplies controlled
by the Harvester Trust, the Beef Trust, the Fer
tilizer Trust, the Woplen Trust, and the Cotton
Trust. The price of everything they had to buy
has been controlled arbitrarily by selfish interests
and is no longer controlled by competition.
Speech in U. S. Senate, Aug. 29, 1919.

XXIII
EDUCATION AND PUBLIC SERVICE

The District School
HEN the educators of the state agree
on the proposition that the district
schools are inadequate for their work,
and are steadily losing in usefulness
and depreciating in popular favor;
when this judgment is confirmed by a decreasing
attendance upon the district school and correspond
ing removal to the cities for better common school
advantages ; when the best authorities give assur
ance that "for every hundred pupils now attending
district school only one pupil reaches a high school,"
— then it must indeed be time to pause in praise
of our colleges and city schools long enough to em
phasize the necessity of more generous support and
of more successful supervision for the long neg
lected country schools.
Wisconsin is an agricultural state. With compar
atively few exceptions her cities are only centers of
farm prosperity. The products of cultivated soil,
always the most important factor in the develop
ment of the commonwealth, will gain rapidly in
importance through the acquirement by farmers of
the vast territory in the northern half of the state,
following the clearing of the forests. Nowhere
does education bring dividends more regularly than

290 La Follette's Political Philosophy
upon the farm. Nowhere is lack of it more extrava
gant in loss. The ignorant city laborer wastes only
his own time and energy. An incompetent farmer
may squander the productive power of the land
which he occupies in addition to his misapplied ef
forts and labor. The valuable results of education
ill farm work are shown in the awakened interest
and progressive methods which have come from the
University dairy school and Agricultural college.
I believe that this branch of educational work should
be broadened in scope by adding elementary train
ing in agricultural knowledge to the course of study
in district schools. Message to Legislature, 1901.
The Country Schools
For many years to come the district school must
furnish education for the great mass of boys and
girls born upon the farms. Probably no less than
75 per cent of these will never attend any other
school. How vital it is, then, that we should make
these long-neglected schools our first care and be-
slow upon them such attention and such aid as will
insure the results so essential to agricultural pros
perity and the welfare of the state.
Address, Annual Meeting State Board
of Agriculture, 1901.
Public Service
Our state and our university are scarcely more
than half a century old. Each is where it can be
gin to get a proper perspective of the other. The
state was not created for the university, the univer-

Education and Public Service 291
sity exists for the state. We, the children of this
commonwealth, ought now to begin to appreciate the
richness of our heritage and the full measure of our
responsibility. It rests with us to do much to per
petuate it in all the plenitude of its po-wer and
greatness among the states of the union.
That university man or woman who fails, after \.
leaving these portals, to render some distinct and ,
valuable service to the state is a pensioner upon the i
state's bounty. The opportunity waits for all.
Scarcely a day passes but brings with it the occa
sion and opens the way. It may require sacrifice.
It may ask courage. It may provoke criticism.
But the state has prepared us for this work, has de
veloped our powers, enlarged our capacity for use
fulness in the world, and we are in honor bound,
whenever we can, to strike the blow and say the
word which makes the state stronger, promotes a
better public policy, and insures a better govern
ment. Alumni Banquet, University, 1901.
On Elementary Education
It cannot be complained that the state has been
negligent in the matter of financial aid to the com
mon schools, but the official statistics of school at
tendance reveal the necessity of something more
than money expenditure if the district school is to
retain a degree of usefulness at all commensurate
with its cost. Figures taken from the reports in the
.department of the state superintendent show that
during the last six years with a steady, almost uni
form, increase in the number of persons of school

292 La Follette's Political Philosophy
age in the state, there has been in the same period
an equally steady decrease in the percentage or
proportionate number of such persons enrolled in
the public schools, without corresponding increase
in the number of persons of school age attending
private schools. The same statistics show that
nearly one-half of the total number were enrolled in
the country, village and small city schools, while
the average daily attendance approximates less than
sixty per cent of the enrollment. The attendance in
many of the villages and small cities is comparatively
high, and the inevitable conclusion is that the
average daily attendance in the country schools is
probably not more than fifty per cent of the total
enrollment. The teaching force, accommodations,
and equipment provided, were ample for a full at
tendance every day. Wholly disregarding the evil
effect of such absepces upon teachers and fellow
pupils in a progressive school, the mere financial
loss is worthy your most careful consideration.
When approximately four million dollars is ex
pended for school purposes throughout the state,
outside the cities under city superintendents, a clear
waste of nearly forty per cent of that expenditure
through absence of pupils, who by right and by law
should be in school, is not a matter to be neglected.
It is pointed out by educators that this sum would
much more than provide for comfortable transporta
tion of all children in country districts to well built,
well graded and well taught central schools. The legis
lature of 1901 enacted a law to provide for transporta
tion of pupils in rural districts, and I commend to your
attention the need of effort to improve these laws and

Education and Public Service 293
make them more effective in promoting the excellent
work for which they were originally designed. The
certain result will be larger attendance at the common
schools with less expense to the commonwealth.
Message to Legislature, 1903.
Obligations of Citizenship
The state welcomes the ever increasing tendency
to make the university minister in a direct and prac
tical way to the material interests of the state.
Agriculture, mining, manufacturing and commerce
are already turning here for direct practical aid.
On this material basis alone the university is pay
ing back to the state an hundred fold every dollar
appropriated to its support.
Standing here at the close of the first half cen
tury, we turn to meet the increasing responsibilities
of the coming years. |It is not enough that this uni
versity shall zealously advance learning, or that it
shall become a great store-house of knowledg^into
which is gathered the accumulating fruits of re
search and all of the world's best culture, or that it
shall maintain the highest standards of scholarship
and develop every latent talent — all these are essen
tial — but the state demands more than all these. 1
Uhe state asks that you give back to it men and
women strong in honesty and integrity of character,
in each of whom there is deeply planted the obliga
tion of allegiance to the stateTJ That obligation
should meet them as they cross that threshold of
this institution and go in and out with them day by
day until it is a conviction as strong as life.

294 La Follette's Political Philosophy
That obligation cannot be discharged by the pas
sive performance of the merely normal duties of
citizenship. Upon every citizen rests the obligation
to serve the state in civil life as the soldier serves
the country in war. To this high duty the children
of the university are specially called. The state has
prepared you for this work and you are honor-
bound to strike the blow or say the word which will
make the state stronger, promote a better public
policy, insure a better government. To be silent
when you should speak, to dodge, or evade or skulk,
is to play the coward. |To compromise with the op
ponents of just equal government for personal ad
vantage or business gain is to betray the state and
make barter of citizenship!
Fear has been expressed by endowed universities
that state universities would be affected by politics.
For fifty years politicians have come and gone in
the state of Wisconsin, but the lamp of learning has
never been trimmed, or turned down, or put out.
The spirit of our university has continued to be
democratic. In a state university every branch of
learning stands on an equality. The state welcomes
the efforts of the university to assist to the practi
cal advantage of the people of the state. Every
dollar invested in our university is returned in
practical benefit to the people of the state one hun
dred fold. The state asks that you give back to it
men and women strong in honesty and moral char
acter, who shall appreciate the obligation they owe
of loyalty to the state.
Address, Inauguration of President
Van Hise, June 7, 1904.

Education and Public Service 295
Address to University Alumni
Rich in soil and scenery, with lakes and rivers
unrivaled, rich in forests and mines and manufac
tures and the natural conditions for a remarkably di
versified agriculture, Wisconsin has the attributes
and elements which make for the highest material
rank and power among her sister states. But the
greatness of a state does not lie in its area, its com
merce, its bonds and stocks and wealth and ac
cumulated splendors. It lies back of all these in
the character of her citizenship. It was just here
that Wisconsin was most fortunate from the begin
ning. Our tempting forests and prairies and mines
were opened to occupation and development at that
period in the history of our country when the east
could still furnish to the west, choice representatives
of the rugged, original natures combined of puritan
severity and quaint Yankee shredwness. So that in
our population today runs the blood of the sturdy
pioneer from New England, Maine, New York,
Ohio and Indiana commingled with that of the
hardy emigrant from Europe, who came when the
conditions abroad were likewise timely for giving to
us the strongest types which the best foreign coun
tries could possibly furnish.
I do not know to what extent in this new century
the obligation of the student to the state is made
part of the daily thought of university life, but I
well remember when it found expression in every
convocation .and was heard from time to time in
every classroom. It may be that in those dear old
days, when the institution was poor and the support

296 La Follette's Political Philosophy
feeble, the appropriation looked larger, the oppor
tunities offered more precious, and the obligation
more exacting. Biit I do know that it was always
present with us then and in some way we were
made to feel, that as our Alma Mater was to us, so
was the state to her ; that we were within the bond,
and as the state nourished and sustained the uni
versity, so should we ever serve and defend the state.
With the marvelous growth of the university,
men and women go out from here each year into
every section and corner of the commonwealth.
I'hey should bear with them as an abiding obliga
tion, the thought that their first and foremost duty
is to pay back in earnest, persistent, conscientious
effort for good government, the debt due to the
state.
\ I would not disparage scholarship, but venture to
say that before all things, the university owes it to
the state to give it good citizens — men and women
who will fight the battles of the state, against all
the combination of evil. I do say that the student
should never be permitted to forget while here that
he is primarily training for the duties of citizen
ship; and when he goes out, whatever may be his
occupation or profession, it should be as one who
has enlisted for life in the service of the state.
When this settles down as a conviction into the
mind of every citizen and taxpayer, how direct will
become his interest in the university ! It will be his
institution then, doing his service, equipping its
graduates to protect his personal and property
rights, as the advocates of clean and honest service

Education and Public Service 297
in municipal and state government. When this
mighty power for the general good is once fully felt
throughout the state, when this sleeping giant is
once awakened to his obligations and conscious of
his strength, the university will not longer come
cringing past an impudent and arrogant lobby, as
a suppliant to the state for an appropriation that it
may live and meet the increasing demands upon it ;
but, erect with a new dignity and a new power,
knowing the value of its service to the citizen and
tc the state which supports it, secure in the affec
tions of the whole people, receive their free offering
to enlarge and expand its widening field of useful
ness to the state.
With the university as a great recruiting station.!
the ranks of patriotic citizenship shall ever swell
with increasing numbers, armed for the state's best
service. O, you, who stand ready for the work to
day, are you fully conscious of your duty and your
opportunity? Not since the days of the sixties have
greater issues called for truer men. Upon you the
state has bestowed the best training which fifty
years of fostering care could develop. You go forth
in her best armor with sword and sheaf upon which
she has wrought with infinite pains for half a cen
tury. She is waiting for you in every community ;
she needs every arm. Strike always for the state
and you will strike for the right. So shall the state
grow stronger and stronger, so shall great and
greater honor come to our university.
Address, U-niversity Alumni Dinner,
June 19, 1901.

298 La Follette's Political Philosophy
To High School Pupils
It is a great pleasure to meet you for a few min
utes this morning and give you a greeting. I con
gratulate you on behalf of the state for the work
you are doing in your high school. It is a matter
of pride to me to look over this splendid assembly
this morning and to have impressed upon me as
you impress me, the splendid work the state of Wis
consin is accomplishing through its school system.
I am glad to be here personally for another reason.
My earliest recollection of school work in its broad
sense is associated with your principal (M. .S. Fraw-
ley). My mind goes back to my boyhood days when he
was county superintendent of that portion of Dane
County in which I lived. Along through the years
i have watched his career and have ever admired
him, and I congratulate you on having at the head
of this school so competent, earnest and honest a man
a;; director of your work. May he long continue in
the work here unless it be the fortune of the state
to see him called to some higher place.
I am glad to be here for another reason. I like
to look into the faces of the youth and to light again
my own enthusiasm from that which is down in the
minds of the young. You will go out from here in
a little while when you have completed your work.
You will go out with a well rounded education pre
pared to take up the work in the higher schools of
Wisconsin and to meet the trials of life, for they
will come to you, come to each one of you. You
have possibly been told so many times that it has
become trite and tiresome to you that these are
your best days.-

Education and Public Service 299
I do wish there was some way I could make you
realize that the best of life is today. Get all the
good, all the pleasure out of it that you can, because
in a little while you will have to meet the serious
side of life. Into the life of each of you there will
come trouble. You will have your sorrows, your
griefs, your disappointments and I am sure that the
discipline that you are getting here now will help
you to meet it, because I am confident that under
this leadership you are getting a training in some
thing more than books. Book knowledge is import
ant. You must have it. You cannot get too much
of it, but I am sure that the importance of character
building is necessary in everything that you do.
It IS the highest essential of your life ; you cannot
accomplish anything without it, that is anything
v/orth having, that will endure, and I say to you
that character building is- the most important part
of education.
If it was a question of never opening the books,
01^ of having the broad education closed to you, I
should feel that it were better to have training of
acts than the training of books. But if you have
them both and I am sure that you carry into each
day's work that spirit of honesty which is building
up the best side of your life, you cannot cheat in a
lesson or examination, for it leaves a scar on your
character. You cannot do it without weakening the
aimor you are having fitted upon you now for the
battle of life. Everything you do is simply putting
another plate, another rivet in the armor you are
wearing when you go out to fight for yourself, your
state and your country, and every time you are

300 La Follette's Political Philosophy
tempted to evade duty or cheat a teacher you are
putting a false plate, a weak rivet in that armor.
We are such creatures of habit that the things we
do once we are almost bound to do again, and so I
say that the most important part of your education
is in doing honestly and faithfully the task of each
day, in equipping each one to meet each event, each
requirement and each responsibility throughout life,
and now let me say to you that I wish you every
thing good in your individual lives that can come
to members of the human family, and I speed you
Godspeed on your way.
To Eau Claire, Wis., High School,
October 2, 1903.
Moral Influence of a Great Teacher
It is difficult, indeed, to overestimate the part
which the university has played in the Wisconsin
resolution. For myself I owe what I am and what
I have done largely to the inspiration I recefved
'while there. It was not so much the actual course
of study which I pursued ; it was rather the spirit of
the institution — a high spirit of earnest endeavor, a
spirit of fresh interest in new things, and beyond all
else, a sense that somehow the state and the univer
sity were intimately connected, and that they should
be of mutual service.
The guiding spirit of my time, and the man. to
whom Wisconsin owes a debt of gratitude greater
than it can ever pay was its President, John Bascom.
I never saw Ralph Waldo Emerso^but I sfiouTd
say John Bascom was a man of much his type, both
in appearance and character. He was the embodi-

Education and Public Service 301
ment of moral force, and moral enthusiasm ; and he
was in advance of his time in feeling the new social
forces and in emphasizing the new social responsi
bilities. His addresses to students on Sunday after
noon, together with his work in the class room were
among the most important influences in my early
life. It was his teaching, iterated and reiterated, of
the obligation of both the university and the stu
dents to the mother state that may be said to have
originated the Wisconsin idea in education.
He was forever telling us what the state was do
ing for us, and urging in return our obligation not
to use our education wholly for our own selfish
benefit, but to return some service to the state. That
teaching animated and inspired hundreds of stu
dents who sat under John Bascom.
In those days we did not so much get correct po
litical views, for there was then little teaching of
sociology or political economy worthy of the name,
but we somehow did yet, and larp-elv from Bascom,
a proper attitude toward public affairs. And when
all is said, this attitude is more important than any
definite views a man may hold.
Years afterward when I was governor of Wis
consin John Bascom came to visit us at the execu
tive residence at Madison, and I treasure the words
he said to me about my new work:
"Robert," he said, "you will doub<^l>'|=i'i rnat-^ pi'a-
tnVoa ip i^idp-ment as governor, hut never mind the
political mistakes so long as you make no ethical
mistakes." John Bascom lived to be 84 years old, dying in
191 1 at his home in Williamstown, Mass. Up to

302 La Follette's Political Philosophy
the last his mind was clear and his interest in the
progress of humanity as keen as ever. In his
later years he divided his time between his garden
and his books — a serene and beautiful old age. His
occasional letters and his writings were always a
source of inspiration to me.
In all my fights in Wisconsin the university and
the students have always stood firmly behind me.
\ In a high sense the university has been the reposi-
\tory of progressive ideas; it has always enjoyed
•both free thought and tree speech. When the test
came years ago the university met it boldly where
some institutions faltered or failed. Autobiography, 1913.
Greeting to Dr. John Bascom
I am accorded the high honor of extending to you
here tonight a greeting and welcome on behalf of
the state. Believe, me, sir, this welcome is deeply
sincere and heartfelt.
Time has wrought many changes since that day,
so well remembered by us all, when you left us
fourteen years ago. The state has grown remark
ably in numbers and wealth and power. It has
made notable progress in its educational work and
in its conduct of all its state institutions. While
temporary delays and disappointments are encount-
/ ered here as elsewhere, nevertheless through this
) commonwealth an increasing sense of the responsi-
)bilities of citizenship is everywhere manifest, and
a well developed and powerful public sentiment
must soon place Wisconsin high among her sister
states in all that pertains to good government and

Education and Public Service 303
the upbuilding of a noble statehood. It is fitting
that you should be reminded of this progress, be
cause you have been the source and the inspiration
of so large a share of it. What we owe to you in
dividually, each of us here tonight realizes more
and more as the years go by. What this institution
and this state owe to you can never be fully meas
ured. When first called to the university, you came from
a state and from an institution old in educational
methods; refined in educational taste; fixed in edu
cational ideas ; but your breadth, your comprehen-
\Sion, your wisdom, enabled you to establish in our
institution the foundation of a great university. You
valued our raw youth at its true worth, and saw in/
it strong material for future citizenship. The small
numbers of students, the unpretentious buildings,
the meagre accommodations did not bind you to the
possibilities of the university. Our plain attire,
country breeding, imperfect preparation, but earn
est ambition for education and enlarged opportuni
ties, enlisted your sympathy and inspired the deep
est interest.
In the midst of the most trying circumstances and
most discouraging situations you conquered opposi
tion, maintained your faith in the institution, and
kept constantly uppermost your high ideals of the
mutual relationship of the state and the university.
The obligation of generous support from the state
and the corresponding obligation of the alumni to
the state were daily impressed with great force and
clearness upon all who came within your influence.
No student ever left this university while you were

304 La Follette's Political Philosophy
its president, whose college education was not thor
oughly seasoned with this sense of high "moral obli
gation to serve the state upon every occasion with
all that was best in him. Much of the enlarged
scope, the harmonious development, the phenom
enal growth of the university is due to the thorough
inculcation of this idea upon the great body of stu
dents who passed in and out during all those years..
From its foundation down to this hour there was
never a time when you could have rendered a greater
service to the university and to the state than at the
critical period which marked the beginning of your
administration. The institution had just reached
the most impressionable stage in its growth and
development when you were called to the presi
dency. It was a fortunate day for the institution
and for the. future of the state. Youthful, plastic,
yet full of lusty vigorous life, the time was ripe for
some master mind to make an everlasting impres
sion upon the character of the university, and
through it upon the commonwealth. The hour was
come, and, thank God, the man ! For thirteen years
- — the most precious years of its life — this state had
a great thinker, philosopher and teacher at the head
of its highest educational institution.
Whoever shall set bounds, or fix limitations upon
your noble work, let him look beyond executive
orders and the presidential office. Let him look be
yond the covers of any book and the walls of any
class room. He will readily determine that every
where, underlying all work, and all life in the in
stitution, pervading its whole atmosphere, entering
into the daily thought and being of each student,

Education and Public Service 305
was the mysterious power with which you laid hold
of youth, grounded and established principles ad
mitting of no compromise with error and evil,
builded character of adamant, yet preserved indi
viduality — in short, made well-rounded, full-orbed
men and women, and finally gave them back to the
state with a quality of citizenship which will run
through all the generations to come.
The personality of a great teacher is greater than
his teaching. Many of the written propositions of
psychology and ethics are slipping away with the
passing .pf the years, but you abide with us forever.
May He, who orders all our lives, lengthen your
days that your wisdom and your moral power may
continue to be deeply impressed upon all who are
so fortunate as to be near to you, and may we be so
favored as to greet you here again and again.
University of Wisconsin, June 17, 1901.
On Academic Freedom of the State University
If there is any public institution in America that
should be bulwarked and safeguarded against ignor
ant or covert attack, it is the University of Wiscon
sin. This university is famed throughout the world
as "The Greatest State University." It has earned
this distinction primarily because it has become
truly THE^PEQPLE^JUniyersity— because it has
"served the time without yielding to it," because it
stoops not to propagate the "theories" of any clique,
class or interest, but ever explores the wide fields
of knowledge and turns over, disinterestedly, to the
people who maintain it, the fruits of its research.

3o6 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Back in 1894, an enlightened, progressive board of
regents issued this declaration of academic free
dom: "Whatever may be the limitations which trammel
enquiry elsewhere, we believe that the great state
University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that
continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by
which alone the truth can be found."
In devoting itself to this high and proper public
service, it has kept strictly out of "politics ;" hence
it has developed no effective armor to shield it
from the highly organized assaults of small but
rich and powerful groups of interests who fear the
tiuth — the truth, for instance, concerning the man
ner in which predatory business is systematically
and unscrupulously exploiting the people.
During the past year the railroad, water power,
insurance combination came temporarily into con
trol in this state. This plunderbund promptly turned
its weapons against the people's university into
a propagandist and special pleader for their own
"theories." As Governor Philipp — mouthpiece of
this combination — expressed it in a recent speech:
"I do not believe it wise to permit the teaching of
half-baked theories of government that never have
been demonstrated to be a success, that intimidate
capital, and that close factory doors." The program
laid down by the special interest combination is, to
permit no investigation, no research nor teaching
that has not first been censored by "capital." A
program of abject academic slavery!
But intelligent alumni, irrespective of political
affiliation, have come to the rescue. A confere"""

Education and Public Service 307
was held at Madison, November 20, to consider
means of maintaining the high standard of the uni
versity and of keeping unsullied its academic free
dom against these plottings. Organized and sordid
spreading of falsehood must be met by organized
and unselfish spreading of the truth.
Here is an opportunity for real service to the
people of Wisconsin. If this committee succeeds
in working out a plan of reorganization that will
enable Wisconsin alumni in every community
quickly and effectively to register their convictions
and influence, a notable chapter will have been added
to the annals of educational freedom. A working
and democratically organized association would be
a medium through which the people who support
the university could be kept constantly informed
regarding the real services it performs, the real
spirit of its teaching and investigation, exactly
what it costs the state to maintain it, and the mil
lions of money which it annually pays back to the
taxpayers in better methods of farming, bigger
Crops, higher standards in the mechanic arts and
a graduate body trained for the best service which
: the enlightened citizen can render the state.
So reorganized and re-vitalized, the alumni of
the university will furnish the most intelligent
body of criticism whenever honest, constructive
criticism is necessary, and a powerfully organized
defense whenever the best interests of the univer
sity are threatened. Such a live progressive alumni
army always in the field will be ever ready to stand
a tower of strength between the university and these

3o8 La Follette's Political Philosophy
business and political interests that attempt to cen
sor and degrade its work.
The need for this is urgent. The step already
taken by the alumni is reassuring. Let every loyal
alumnus rally to this call to high service.
La Follette's Magazine, November, 1915.
Democratizing the Senate
In a great body like the Congress of the United
States nearly all legislation is controlled by com
mittees. The sanction of a committee goes a long
way. The life of a congressman, a senator, is a
busy one ; he is worked early and late, and in some
measure he must depend for the details of legisla^
tion upon the committees appointed for the pur=
pose of perfecting the legislation. And as the busi
ness of the country grows and the subjects of leg
islation multiply, so committee action upon bills be
comes more and more important. We spend a vast
sum of money to print a Congressional Record in
order that the public may be made acquainted with
the conduct of their business, and then we transact
the important part of the business behind the locked
doors of a committee room. The public believes
that the Congressional Record tells the complete
story, when it is in reality only the final chapter.
Sir, I believe the time, near at hand when we will
change the practice of naming the regular or stand
ing committees of the Senate.
It is un-American — it is undemocratic. It has
grown into an abuse. It typifies all of the most
harmful practices which have led to an enlightened

Education and Public Service 309
and aroused public judgment to decree the destruc
tion of the caucus, convention, and delegate system
of party nominations.
Under the present system of choosing standing
committees of the United States Senate a party
caucus is called. A chairman is authorized to ap
point a committee on committees. The caucus ad
journs. The committee on committees is thereafter
appointed by the chairman of the caucus. It pro
ceeds to alter the committee assignments of sena
tors. This places the selection of the membership
of the standing committees completely in the hands
of a majority of the committee.
See now what has happened. The people have
delegated us to represent them in the Senate. The
senate, in effect, has delegated its authority to party
caucuses upon either side. The party caucus dele
gates its authority to a chairman to select a com
mittee on committees. The committee on commit
tees largely defer to the chairman of the committee
on committees in the final decision as to the com
mittee assignments. The standing committees of
the senate, so selected, Mr. President, determine
the fate of all bills ; they report, shape, or suppress
legislation practically at will. Hence the control of
legislation, speaking in a broad sense, has been
delegated and redelegated until responsibility to the
public has been so weakened that the public can
scarcely be said to be represented at all. To make
this control of legislation water tight, the trusted
lieutenants assigned to the chairmanship of the com
mittees have always exercised authority (i) to de-

310 La Follette's Political Philosophy
termine when a committee should meet (2) to ap
point sub-committees for the consideration of all
bills referred to the committee by the senate, and
(3) to name the conferees to be appointed by the
presiding officer of the senate. The action of com
mittees, sub-committees, and conference committees
on all bills, is conducted in executive session — that
is to say, in secret session. As a member of the
senate I have again and again protested against
secret action of congressional committees upon pub
lic business, and against the business of congress
being taken into secret party caucuses and there
disposed of by party rule. I have maintained at al!
times my right as a public servant to discuss in
open senate and elsewhere publicly all legislative
proceedings whether originating in the executive
session of committees or behind closed doors of
caucuses and conferences.
The rules of the senate must be so changed as to
provide for the election of members of committees
by the senate pursuant to a direct primary con
ducted by each party organization under regula
tions prescribed by senate rules.
The chairmen of the committees should be elected
hy a record vote of the members of such committees.
The conferees on all bills should be elected by a
record vote of the members of committees report
ing such bills.
A permanent record should be made of the action
of caucuses, standing committees and conference
committees upon all matters affecting legislation.

Education and Public Service 311
All caucus proceedings touching legislation and
the proceedings of sub-committees, committees and
conference committees should be open to the public.
La Follette's Magazine, April 19, 1913.
Patriotism and Party Loyalty
I am not going to apologize for coming to New
Jersey, I have a right to be here. Moreover, I am
coming back here when you have a campaign, no
matter what may be the outcome of this one.
Most men are ambitious, in different ways. I am
ambitious. Some want to make money, some to be
famous in various ways. My ambition is to write
my name with the thousands who in this trial time
of our country have enlisted for the redemption and
restoration of representative government.
It is time for men to begin to work together for
the welfare of the country. And I do not ahvays
urge democrats to vote the republican ticket. In
Missouri I appealed to republicans to support Folk
for governor. In these times there is something
greater and better than simply standing blindly by
party. Of course, I know the regulars, as they call
themselves, will say : "There's that arrant dema
gogue advocating bolting the party," but that doesn't
worry me much. I appeal to patriotism of country
lather than partisanship. I love the Republican
party, but when my work is done, I would rather
have written on the little stone above my head :
"He was a patriot" than "He was a Republican."
No one has any right to make war upon a cor
poration which receives only a fair interest upon
it§ iny^stjjjent. We can't afford, by legislation, to

312 La Follette's Political Philosophy
impose upon or cripple corporations doing a legiti
mate business along legitimate lines, in a legitimate
way. We want the best transportation we can get,
and we ought to be willing to pay charges that will
make investment in these enterprises profitable. But
these are public-service corporations. It is the duty
of the state to stand between the people and the cor
porations and see exact justice done to each — that
the people don't pay too much and that the com
panies get a fair return, and only a fair return, on
their investment. That is what the "new idea" in
New Jersey stands for, so far as the railroads and
public utilities are concerned.
Speech at Newark, N. J., Sept., 1906.
Importance of Character in Men Elected to Office
The most important thing of all is to send honest
men to Washington — men in this time of stress who
want to serve the public, and nobody else. The
abler these men are, the better, but above all the
people should see to it that their representatives are
honest — not merely money honest, but intellectually
honest. If they have the highest standards of integrity
and the highest ideals of service, all our problems,
however complex, will be easily solved.
Autobiography, 1913.
The Future of the Republican Party
I believed then, as I believe now, that the only
salvation for the republican party lies in purging
itself wholly from the influence of financial inter-

Education and Public Service 313
ests. It is for this, indeed, that the group of men
called insurgents have been fighting — and it is this
that they will contend for to the end.
I here maintain with all the force I possess that
it is only as the republican party adopts the posi
tion maintained today by the progressives that it
can live to serve the country as a party organiza
tion. ¦Autobiography, 1913.

XXIV
ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

The Coal Strike
HE real issues of the coal strike have
been obscured by the campaign of de
nunciation against the 450,000 miners
who laid down their tools at midnight,
October 31.
No one will deny that the closing of the mines at
this time is deplorable.
But the vital question is: Who is responsible for the
closing of the mines? — and the answer is not to be
found in the extravagant statements of administration
officials nor in the parrot phrases of the press.
The miners are asking for a six-hour day, a five-day
week and a wage increase of 60 per cent. The miners
contend that their present contract, entered into for
the period of the war, terminated with the actual
cessation of hostilities. With wages stationary during
the past two years, they declare they are unable to
feed and clothe their families in the face of advanced
living costs.
The operators take issue with the miners.
They contend that the present contract is binding
and insist that it shall remain in effect until the peace
treaty is ratified, formally ending the war. They de
clare the demands of the miners for higher pay are
unreasonable and that the shorter working day and

Economic Problems 315
week will curtail production. They warn the public
that higher wages and curtailed production will mean
increased cost of coal to the consumer.
In spite of the abuse which has been heaped upon
the miners, the truth is on their side in the points at
issue. The validity of the present wage contract must re
main a mooted legal question. Suffice it to say that the
fuel administration many months ago suspended the
war-time regulations governing fuel prices. The
miners contend, with some logic, that' if the war is
over for prices, it should be over for wages.
Are the demands of the miners for a wage increase
of 60 per cent unreasonable ?
The present wage scale was adopted in November,
19 1 7. Since that time, according to the figures of the
department of labor, the cost of living has increased
by more than 35 per cent. Meanwhile, the miners'
wages have remained stationary.
During the past year, by reason of the curtailment
of the normal number of working days, the miners
have received an income less by 18 per cent than the
income for the corresponding period in 1918, although
living costs, by the government's figures, had increased
9 per cent over 1918 up to July i of the present year.
If the wage scale agreed upon in 1917 was suffi
cient to enable the miners to meet the cost of living
ai that time, it is now at least 35 per cent short of that
'standard. In seeking a -wage increase of 60 per cent, the miners
are now attempting to bring their incomes up to the
level of living expenses and they ask a margin of 25

3i6 La Follette's Political Philosophy
per cent in their favor in order to meet the constant
advance in prices from month to month. In view of
their experience of the past year — when incomes
dropped i8 per cent and living costs mounted 9 per
cent — the margin asked by the miners is not unjus
tified. The claim of the operators that a shorter working
day and week will curtail production is unfounded.
In 1918, the operators caused the mines to be worked
only 70 per cent of the time possible, and although
80,000 miners were in the military service, the peak
production of 585,000,000 tons — more than enough
coal for the normal needs of the country — was reached
as the output of bituminous coal for the year.
During the present year, between January i and
July I, the mines have been worked but 50 per cent
of the time. Miner's Rights Taken Away
The granting of the full demands of the miners as
to a six-hour day and a five-day week would not, there
fore, necessarily affect production. It would have the
wholly desirable effect of distributing the work evenly
throughout the year, which is the object the miners
-have in view.
The operators, by a well-directed propaganda in
the press, have attempted to convince the public that
the miners are responsible for precipitating the strike
and for the consequent closing of the coal mines.
The government has accepted this view and has
declared half a million workmen violators of the
law in leaving their employment.

Economic Problems 317
The true position of both sides may be seen in the
statements issued on the eve of the strike. The
miners' officers made the following statement :
"The mine workers' representatives are ready, will
ing and anxious to meet the coal operators for the
purpose of negotiating an agreement and bringing
about a settlement of the present unhappy situation.
They will respond at any time to a call for such a
meeting and will honestly endeavor to work out a
wage agreement upon a fair and equitable basis."
Thomas T. Brewster, chairman of the scale commit
tee of the Mine Operators' Association, made the fol
lowing statement:
"The operators will resume negotiations with the
miners and submit all disagreements to arbitration,
provided the strike order be rescinded pending negotia
tions and the award of the arbitration board."
Thus the strike began November i, and the United
States was left with a fast dwindling supply of bitu
minous coal. The public may judge who is respon
sible for the existing shortage of coal and for the
failure of the negotiations leading up to the strike.
The wisdom of the administration in using the
courts and the military to break the strike, is open
to grave question.
The right of workmen to strike has, up to the pres
ent time, been sustained by the courts. That this right
exists is evidenced by the fact that legislation now
pending is regarded as necessary to take that right away
from one class of workmen — namely, the railroad em
ployees.

3i8 La Follette's Political Philosophy
It is not within the province of the government to
decide, that "circumstances" justify interference with
the exercise of an undoubted legal right.
The use of the great powers of the federal govern
ment on the side of men whose sinister aims against
labor have best been expressed by Judge Gary — him
self honored by the administration by appointment
as a government delegate to the president's industrial
conference — does not tend toward a healthy industrial
situation in this country.
In the present controversy, the attempt to discredit
half a million workmen, in order to protect the exor
bitant profits of a handful of employers, will inevitab'y
fall of its own weight.
The American people elected President Wilson in
1912, on the pledge that he would lower the cost of
living. The statistics of the United States department of
labor show that the cost of living has increased 102
per cent since 191 3, when President Wilson took office.
After mature reflection, the American people will
not approve of the use of the machine gun and the
injunction by the administration, in its effort to force
450,000 miners to continue at work against their will.
The administration which habitually fails to bring
the profiteers to justice, in violation of its platform
pledges, and which shows such extraordinary diligence
in suppressing labor at the behest of employers, will,
in the end, be discredited by the American people.
La Follette's Magazine, November, 19 19.

Economic Problems 319
On Life Insurance Companies
With the exception of the corporations which con
trol the transportation facilities of a commonwealth,
there is no class of corporations more in need of care
ful and economical administration than those which
make a business of life insurance. It is the business
which gathers the savings of youth and mature man
hood to safeguard old age against poverty, and to
provide sustenance and the shelter and comforts of
home for the widow and the orphan. Infirm and un
provided old age, and helpless and unsupported child
hood become a charge upon the state.
It is a shocking disclosure of the demoralized busi
ness integrity of the country when the admissions of
the highest officials entrusted with the savings which
the people have invested in life insurance and charged
with the management of these funds show habitual
violation of their trust to enrich themselves at the
{expense of policy holders. It ought not to be necessary
to say that no officer, agent, or employee of any insur
ance company should be personally interested in the
purchase or sale of any securities of that company,
or have any personal or pecuniary interest in the mak
ing of loans of the funds of the company. The disclo
sures of the investigation of the New York legislative
committee have demonstrated that the policy holders
of at least three of the largest of the companies of
the country have been systematically plundered by the
operations of the officers of these companies. They
have not only voted to themselves salaries out of all
proportion to the services rendered, but this investiga
tion establishes the personal financial interest of officers

320 La Follette's Political Philosophy
in the sale of securities to the companies, in the sale
pf securities by the companies, in the use of insurance
funds in promoting industrial enterprises, in the loans
of the funds of the companies, in the commissions paid
for new business, in contracts for supplies, in the
rentals of company property and in the payment of
money of the policy holders as contributions to cam
paign funds and as salaries to legislative representa
tives. It appears from the testimony taken before the
New York investigating committee that one of the
great sources of evil is the improper affiliation of insur
ance companies with other business enterprises, both
through the personal connections of insurance officials
with such enterprises, and through the holdings of
stock and other voting securities of industrial and
transportation companies by insurance companies., A
conservative estimate places the par value of secur
ities owned by insurance companies, which carry with
them voting power, at over one hundred millions of
dollars. To the extent to which these securities rep
resent voting power insurance companies, acting
through their officials, participate in the management
of other business enterprises. This is beyond the legiti
mate province of life insurance companies.
It is questionable if insurance companies should in
vest in securities of this character at all, but if invest
ments in selected shares of unquestioned value be
expedient the voting power that they may carry should
be invested in a public official not connected with an
insurance company or any industrial or transportation
company. 1 '"! !iMII
Governor's Message, Special Session, 1905,

Economic Problems 321
Veto of Police Powers to Corporations
This bill is far-reaching in effect. It impinges the
spirit of the constitution of the state, is subversive of
the fundamental princfples of good government, and
vicious in principle. It authorizes street and other
railway companies doing business in this state to ap
point policemen empowered to arrest with or without
warrant any person who in their presence shall com
mit upon or in or about their premises any offense
against the laws of the state, or of the ordinances
of any town, village or municipality, and clothes them
v/ith the authority of sheriffs in regard to the arrest
or apprehension of such offenders in or about the
premises or appurtenances of such companies.
Section nine of article thirteen of the constitution
clearly prohibits the appointment of officers entrusted
v/ith the exercise of governmental powers by private
individuals or corporations. The appointment itself
must be made by a representative body of the state
or some governmental subdivision or officer thereof ;
or the office must be filled by an election. The legis
lature cannot delegate the power to appoint or elect
otherwise than to public authority. This is so even
as to the officer exercising only in the slightest degree
governmental functions. Neither the private individual
nor corporation can be authorized to clothe with gov
ernmental power or authority any person whomsoever.
Peace officers, policemen and sheriffs exercise in the
highest degree the sovereign power of the government.
They are very important factors in the administration
oi the criminal law of the state. Their duties are
closely connected with the subject of the personal

322 La Follette's Political Philosophy
liberty and restraint of the citizen. They are state
officers in that they exercise an important part of the
sovereign power of the state. The constitution pro
hibits the exercise of this power to create and appoint
its officers by private individuals or corporations.
If it could delegate any part of the powers of govern
ment to private individuals all might be bestowed upon
them. The state and its political subdivisions might
be divested of all power over the subject and would
lead to conflict, confusion, and anarchy. The police
men provided for in this bill are given the power and
authority of sheriffs in and about all the property
designated therein, which would include all the streets
in each city through which street railway companies
run or operate their cars, and all territory adjacent
and appurtenant to their structures, buildings and
property. If the legislature have the power to clothe
these persons appointed by street or other railway com
panies with the authority of sheriffs, it could endow
them with such authority as to constitutional officers.
He must be elected by a vote of the people. He can
hold his office but one term, and hold no other office
during that term. If the legislature could bestow upon
policemen appointed by private individuals so impor
tant an authority and prerogative of the sheriff, it
could divest him of all power and invest the individual
with that power without limitation as to the tenure
of, or regard to his qualifications for, the office. The
constitution is a barrier to the enactment of this bill
into law. To the citizen there is no subject of more
vital importance than the one that touches the restraint
of his personal liberty. The constitution of the United
States as well as that of the state, has made this para-

Economic Problems 323
mount and all-important. The fundamental law of
the land forbids that the subject should be dealt with
lightly, or that the citizen should be restrained of his
liberty except by due form of law. It forbids that
private or personal ends or private or personal inter
ests should be a moving or controlling factor in com
passing the arrest of any person, except through the
instrumentality and by the authority of public officers.
The machinery of the criminal code should not, and
cannot be the fundamental law of the land, be operated,
controlled, or moved solely by the interests of the
private individual necessarily actuated and influenced
by a sense of his own injury as distinguished from
that of the general public. The power to arrest cannot
and ought not to be delegated to the appointee of
private interests. Such appointment would be subver
sive of the principles of representative government.
The person appointed to exercise governmental powers
would not be the representative of the state, but that
alone of the private interests from which he derives his
power and receives his compensation.
Every person guilty of a crime should be punished.
All should be protected in their individual and prop
erty rights. It is the bounden duty of the state, and
its political subdivisions, to give to both the- individual
and property rights the highest degree of protection.
It should not, were it permissible under the constitu
tion or the fundamental law of the land, delegate this
power to the individual himself. Neither the state
nor any political subdivision thereof can, without the
most damaging admission of its weakness, lasting loss
of its dignity, and grievous wound to its statehood and
its government, county, city, town, and municipality.

324 La Follette's Political Philosophy
farm out its power to protect any or all within its
borders from injury to either person or property. If
one interest may be empowered to take into its own
hands the independent administration of any part of
the criminal code of the state, there'is no reason why
all interests and each individual should not be so em
powered. The result would be the destruction of all
governmental power and the substitution therefor of
independent forces legal in form, but without consti
tutional authority in fact.
Veto Message, April 23, 1901.
Ship Subsidies — A Special Privilege
We are unequivocally opposed to the granting of
shipping subsidies by the federal government, in the
form of ocean mail subvention or otherwise. We
hold that an American merchant marine cannot be
upbuilt by appropriations from the tax-contributed
treasury of the people for the enrichment of a special
interest. Republican State Platform, 1910.
( Postal Bank Law
The postal savings bank law should be amended to
compel the establishment of postal savings depositories
throughout the country within easy reach of depositors,
and to prevent the concentration of the postal savings
in the large centers and their use in financial manipu
lations by the great corporate and banking interests
in Wall street. ¦Republican State Platform, 19 10.

XXV
CONSERVATION

Public Rights in Water Powers
IVE hundred and sixteen laws granting
franchises to dam navigable streams
within this state have been passed since
Kr^^!J\] the organization of the territory of Wis
consin. Formerly many of these grants
were for logging purposes. The great reduction in
lumbering within the last few years has considerably
decreased the number of grants made in aid of log
ging and lumbering. Notwithstanding this fact, the
demand for franchises to build dams across the navi
gable streams of the state, seems to be increasing. It
is, therefore, clearly manifest that capital has awak
ened to the opportunities which these water powers
offer for permanent investment. It is certainly desira
ble that this should be encouraged in every proper way.
It has, heretofore, been the policy of the state to
grant to any party seeking the same, the right to build
dams across navigable streams anywhere within the
limits of the commonwealth. Provided that its action
does not conflict with the action of congress upon the
same subject, the state has the undoubted authority
to determine where and under what conditions dams
may be constructed across its navigable waters. The
only conditions which it has attached to grants of
this character up to the present time, are the right

326 La Follette's Political Philosophy
to amend or repeal the same, and the requirement that
fi.^ihways shall be maintained in all dams. It is the
law that the structure must improve the navigation
of the stream. Whenever those applying for these
franchises have sought the authority, the legislature
has freely conferred upon them the right to condemn
and take the lands of others, and overflow the same,
by providing effective statutory proceedings to that
end. Probably not more than half a dozen states in the
union are so abundantly supplied with natural water
power as Wisconsin and no state in the middle west
is comparable to it in this respect. More than one
thousand lakes, widely distributed within its borders,
form natural reservoirs, furnishing sources of supply
to the streams which flow through every section of
the state.
In the early life of states and municipalities fran
chises are freely granted for the building of ferries
and bridges, turnpikes, railroads, and street railways.
Liberal donations of moneys and lands are frequently
bestowed upon those receiving the franchises. Eager
to secure rapid development, little thought is taken
for the future, and no consideration given to the
proper restrictions or limitations to be imposed upon
those. who are the beneficiaries of these valuable pub
lic grants.
Our navigable streams and rivers, like our streets
and highways, are open to the free use of the people
of the state. No one can acquire ownership in these
waters. If the public through legislation, grants fran
chises, surrendering the use of any of its navigable

Conservation 327
waters to individuals or corporations, it is entitled to 1
a reasonable consideration therefor. This it may not '
choose to take as a money consideration, but the state
cannot do less than recognize the rights of the public,
in making reasonable reservations at the time it con
fers the grants. The franchises so taken in many
cases, grant rights of great and rapidly increasing
value. The vast amount of power which these waters
produce is a resource of a public nature, in the advan- /
tage and benefit of which the public should participate. ^
Water Powers Invested with Public Interest
Modern industrial development is making rapid
progress. Already these water powers are extensively
employed to generate electricity. The transmission of
this power over considerable distances is successfully
accomplished with little loss. It will, in the near
iuture, be more widely distributed at a constantly
diminishing cost. In manufacturing, in electric light
ing in cities and towns and in the country, in operating
street and interurban cars for the transportation of
passengers and freight, and in furnishing motive power
for the factory and the farm, electricity will eventually
become of great importance in the industrial life of our
commonwealth. It is, therefore, quite apparent that these water
powers are no longer to be regarded simply as of
local importance. They are of industrial and com
mercial interest to every community in the state.
Whether it be located in the immediate neighborhood
of a water power will, in time, make little or no differ
ence. While this is becoming more manifest year by
year, it is probably true that we do not, as yet, approxi-

328 La Follette's Political Philosophy
mately estimate the ultimate value of these water
powers to the people of Wisconsin.
It must, therefore, be apparent that this subject,
broadly considered, is of profound interest to the people
of this commonwealth. If the policy of the state with
respect to these franchises ought to be changed at all,
t it certainly ought to be changed now. Reserving the
right to amend or repeal is not enough. When rich
and powerful companies, availing themselves of these
grants, acting in concert, seek to resist amendment or
repeal, their influence will prove a very serious obsta
cle. Economic conditions are rapidly changing in this
state and in the country. A legislative policy which
grants franchises without substantial conditions amply
protecting the public, and securing to it reasonable
benefits in return, is neither right nor just, and ought
no longer to be tolerated. The capital already in
vested, industries already established, may in a few
years, find themselves quite at the mercy of power
companies in combined control of the water power of
the state.

Such investigations as I have been able to make of
the subject plainly indicate that many of the grants
to construct dams heretofore passed by the legislature,
' have been secured purely for speculative purposes. In
such cases no improvements whatever have been made.
The grants have been held awaiting opportunities to
sell the same with large profit to the holders, who have
not invested a dollar for the benefit of the state, or
its industrial development. It is obvious that those
franchises may be gathered up, and consolidated with
others which have been granted where improvements

Conservation 329
have been made, and prices advanced until the state,
municipalities, and the public will be compelled to pay
an exorbitant rate for the power upon which we are
likely to grow more and more dependent as time
passes. It is submitted fo your honorable body that the time
has come to give this subject the careful consideration
which its great importance demands. I believe that
the state should encourage the development of its nat
ural resources, including its water power system, in so
far as it may properly do so; but the obligation rests
upon those charged with the responsibility and clothed
with authority, to encourage this development under
such conditions as will justly and fairly protect thet
public right in these great natural advantages.
Message to Legislature, April 12, 1905.
(Note : In this message Gov. La Follette is shown to
have been a pioneer in the conservation movement,
later capitalized by so many public officials and publi
cists. It was one of the first public notes sounded on
the subject, and antedated the messages of President
Roosevelt by several years.)
Indian Coal Lands
I believe that the time has come, Mr. President,
for this government to declare a policy with respect
to the ownership of coal lands by transportation com
panies ; or to state the proposition more broadly, with
respect to any transportation company going into com
petition with the producers who must ship over their
lines. You cannot conceive of a highway being open
and free to all shippers alike when those who are oper-

330 La Follette's Political Philosophy
ating the highway are interested in reducing the profits
or diminishing the holdings of competitors who ship
over their fines of road.
For that reason I have incorporated in this' amend
ment the proposition that not only the railroad com
pany shall be barred from acquiring title to this land,
but the deeds when executed shall contain a provision
against the officials and stockholders of the companies
becoming the owners of these coal lands.
It may be said here, Mr. President, as it was said
in the committee on Indian affairs when I offered the
amendment that if the railroads want these lands
they will get them. But I desire to record here my
protest against the doctrine that now or at any time
in the history of this country it shall ever be said that
the railroad companies can secure the mastery and
control the ownership of any of the natural products
of this country. In other words, to put it a little dif
ferently I believe that this government, however it may
have appeared in recent years to the contrary, is
stronger than any of its creatures ; that this govem
ment is stronger than all the railroad companies in
aggregation, stronger than all of the centralized power
of this country represented in unlawful combinations
and trusts.
. So, Mr. President, I venture to ask senators to sup
port the .amendment which I have offered here and
to write it into the statute books oi the United States
that railway companies shall be common carriers and
, nothing else, and to so write it as to make it effective.
First Speech in U. S. Senate, March r, 1906.

Conservation 331
Saving Alaska's Resources
The American people are waging a losing fight in
Alaska. On the one hand are the 35,000 pioneers who
are risking their lives and fortunes in the exploration
and prospecting of its undiscovered resources. On
the other hand are the millions of American people to
whom this great storehouse of natural resources be
longs. Between them is the enormous power of the
greatest concentration of capital that the worid has
ever known.
Will the American people be so blind, so dull, as
to permit this enormously rich field to becpme the
property of Morgan and those aUied with hip, and
thus force all the great western country and tfie mil
lions who are to people it in the generations to come i
to pay such extortionate prices for coal as that power I
will certainly exact, or will the people of this country ,-(
who own Alaska, see to it that this great storehouse!
of wealth shall be used for the benefit of all the people, \
their children, and their children's children, for all )
time? -; ;, \ ... ij'^|
The American people are the owners of the resources
of Alaska. The government should owri and build
the transportation facilities for the same reason that
a private corporation, if owning the resources, would
build and own them. The government itself should
own and operate at least one great coal mine, to supply
its naval and military needs, and to sell the surplus
at a reasonable profit, as a check against extortion by
private corporations developing other mines.
' Speech in U. S. Senate, August 21, 191 1.'

332 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Waste of Public Domain
Originally the public domain of the United States
amounted in round numbers to 1,400,000,000 acres. Of
this amount nearly all of the original domain available
for agriculture and the greater part of our mineral
wealth outside of Alaska have been disposed of,
amounting in round numbers to more than 700,000,000
acres. Out of the 571,000,000 acres disposed of to individ
uals and corporations there have been acquired through
"the exercise of the homestead right only 115,000,000
acres. The railroads and other corporations had be
stowed upon them by congressional grants, without
any return whatever to the government, in round num
bers, 123,000,000 acres.
In addition to that, there has been conferred upon
the railroads by state grants lands theretofore granted
b}' the federal govemment to the several states, increas
ing the total grant to the railroads, in round numbers to
190,000,000 acres of land — enough to make the states
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Wis
consin. And the government, through its executive depart
ments, has sold at a mere nominal price, in round num
ber, 182,000,000 acres.
The disposition of our mineral resources especially,
and until recently our forests, forms a shameful chap
ter in the history of our nation. These mineral re
sources belonged to all of the people. In the early
history this was recognized and we started out upon
a correct basis. By an ordinance in 1785 the govern
ment reserved to itself one-third part of all gold, silver,

Conservation 333
lead and copper mines, to be sold or otherwise disposed
of as congress shall hereafter direct.
But in 1829 cupidity and greed commenced to tri
umph, and the abandonment of this policy began. In
1845 congress repealed the leasing system of mineral
lands. Had the policy of leasing been continued and
applied to our coal, iron, oil, and copper lands and
lands containing precious metals with suitable provi
sion for control, the revenue from that source alone
would today be almost sufficient to defray all of the
expenses of our national government.
And what is more important, the trusts and monop
olies which now exist and threaten the welfare of all
of our people would not have been possible.
The statute of 1873 as to coal lands provided for the
sale of known coal lands at "not less than $10 per
acre," if more than fifteen miles from a complete rail
road, and "not less than $20 per acre" for lands within
fifteen miles of a complete railroad. The act made it
perfectly clear, however, that the land should be sold
for its full value.
This valuable property was sold from 1873, year
after year down to 1906 just as if congress had written
into that law a direction to the federal government
that it must not charge more than $10 or more than
$20 an acre in either of the cases defined by the statute.
Is it to be marveled at that the people of the coun
try have waked up to a realization of their betrayal
and demand some check upon those called upon to
serve them who serve instead their own interests and
that of others, and who betray the public ?
Speech at Edwardsville, III., January 5, 1912.

334 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Conserve Our National Resources
The Rooseveltian epoch in American history may
have many or few things to make it memorable, but
one alone is sufficient to give it place in history — the
inauguration of the great movement for the conserva
tion of our national resources. Men of foresight and
penetration have for years been occasionally pointing
out the enormous waste with which we are carrying
forward our wonderful progress; but we have never
awakened to the portentous situation until now — even
if we are quite awake now.
We have looked upon the earth's resources as inex
haustible; but the truth is that they are in process pf
rapid exhaustion. We have felt that our rivers are
not needed in the scheme of production and distribu
tion; but we find that our railways are periodically
clogged with a current of traffic too great for them to
move, that we are handicapped in seeking the conquest
of foreign markets by the superior facilities of nations
which have improved their waterways, and that in
the rivers and canal-routes left undone, we have neg
lected one of our great national assets, and one that
we must use, or abandon the interior of the continent
to an arrest of industrial development.
We have thought our farmers the best in the world ;
but we now learn that lands in the old world which
have been farmed since the beginning of the Christian
era are less exhausted than fields tilled by us for fifty
years, that the best of our fertility is being washed
aWay year by year through faulty tillage, and that the
phosphate beds of our nation, in criminal disregard of
the growing needs of our own soils, are being mined

Conservation 335
and sent to Europe to restore her fertility. We have
thought of the coal and iron deposits of the United
States as ample for all our imaginable future; but
we now. can see the end of all the available one^ at
the present increase in the rate of mining by the
present wasteful methods.
In other words, we have acted like tenants-at-
sufferance of a farm, "skinning" it of its best, and
spoiling it for the next comer, with no apparent
thought that the earth is given in trust only to the
living, that the man or generation that robs posterity
is the most reprehensible of robbers, and that "the
next comer" will be our own children.
Roosevelt and the fine group of scientists and
scholars and engineers who have been given a hearing
by him on these great matters, have made us see our
faults and realize our dangers. He has appealed to
the national conscience. He has accepted the highest
and wisest counsels, instead of the lowest and most
sordid. If the tide of waste and destruction is turned
back, and a better era ushered in, it will be the chief
glory of the Roosevelt administration to have set in
motion the good work.
La Follette's Magazine, February 6, 1909.
Keep Alaskan Coal Lands for People
The attempt of private monopoly to steal the Alas
kan coal fields was defeated for the time being through
the efforts of a few courageous officials, whose- sacri
fice and devotion to duty furnish an example worthy
bf emulation in every department and rank of the
public service. Failing to secure the coal fields through
perjury and fraud, special interests will exploit them

336 La Follette's Political Philosophy
through a monopoly of transportation. The title to
the coal fields of Alaska should be forever retained
by the government subject to lease under proper regu
lation. The situation of Alaska is exceptional. Trans
portation is the basis of control. It is the key to this
vast territory of treasure. As exceptional conditions
in Panama required the government of the United
States to own and operate a railroad on the Isthmus
in order to protect its interests and the interests of
shippers, so we hold that exceptional conditions in
Alaska require that the federal government should
construct, own and operate the railroads, docks and
steamship lines necessary to the opening up of the
Alaskan coal fields and other natural resources.
For Control of Water Powers
We are unalterably opposed to the surrender to the
state by the federal government of its control over
water power sites still a part of the national domain.
The conservation of the natural resources of soil,
forest, mines and water power and the settlement of
the uncultivated lands suitable for agriculture, are the
'foundations of the prosperity of the state. We pledge
legislation that shall encourage the earliest and highest
development of these resources, while retaining all the
rights of the people in them. A general law should
be passed outlining a comprehensive plan for the
development and operation of water power plants and
providing proper restrictions under which water power
franchises may be obtained, to the end that all per
sons holding water power rights may be made subject
to the same general law. Private monopoly should be
controlled by the leasing of water power on limited

Conservation 337
permits subject to regulation, valuation and reasonable
compensation. Prompt action should be taken to com
plete our forest reserves as soon as practicable and to
preserve our forests from destruction by fire.
Republican State Platform, 1910.
Giving Away the Public Wealth
Legislation which has been permitted to be de
layed in conference should put Congress on inquiry.
In the closing hours, when appropriation bills in
volving billions upon billions of dollars must be
considered, a measure like the pending bill, involv
ing the disposition of the great public domain in
which is treasured the coal, the oil, the gas, and
other natural resources, is thrust in here, and we
are expected to jam it through without time for
proper consideration. This bill, if enacted, will dis
pose of all the resources that will furnish heat and
energy to the people of the United States for all
time to come, for there is practically gathered up
within the four corners of this proposed legislation
all that the people have left of the coal, the oil, and
the natural gas underlying our public lands.
Speech in U. S- Senate, March i, 1919.

XXVI
EQUAL SUFFRAGE

The Interests of Men and Women are Co-ordinate
I T has always been inherent with me to
recognize this co-equal interest of
women. My widowed mother was a
woman of wise judgment; my sisters
were my best friends and advisers ; and
in all the work of my public life my wife has been
my constant companion.
I believe not only in using the peculiar executive
abilities of women in the state service, but I cannot
remember a time when I did not beheve in woman
suffrage.. The great economic and industrial questions
of today affect women as directly as they do men.
And the interests of men and women are not antago^
nistic one to the other, but mutual and co-ordinate.
Co-suifrage, like co-education, will react not to the
special privilege of either men or women, but will
result in a more enlightened, better balanced citizen-,
ship, and in a truer democracy. Autobiography, 1913.
Equal Suffrage Bound to Come
Men would go out and be shot to pieces before they
would surrender their ballot. It is their weapon, their
shield, their only protection against tyranny and op
pression in whatever form it may find expression in
our modern life.
The ballot is an educator. The right to vote stimu
lates interest in public affairs and prompts the voter

Equal Suffrage 339
to an intelligent and critical study of administrations
and the records of public servants.
The state could not afford to disfranchise one-half
of its men. No more can it afford to refuse to enfran
chise its women.
What the ballot is to working men it will be to the
seven or eight million working women in this country,
of whom Wisconsin has its share.
Women are tax payers; they are in business, they
are mothers and teachers ; they have shared equally
with men in education.
The women of Wisconsin are especially well quali
fied to vote. They have long been interested in the
struggle for a more truly representative government.
Equal Suffrage is bound to come. It is a part of
the world's evolution in universal self-government.
La Follette's Magazine,' November 9, 1912.
McGovern's Veto a Blunder
Governor McGovern's veto of the bill passed by
the Wisconsin legislature submitting to the referendum
vote in 1914 an amendment to the statute extending
the right of suffrage to women, was a great surprise
and disappointment.
A similar amendment was submitted in 191 2 and
defeated by ninety-two thousand, majority. , But the
proposed amendment received more than one hundred
and thirty-six thousand votes for its adoption. It was
a splendid beginning.
Because of a large foreign population,, traditionally
conservative, and because of its great brewing inter
ests and perfect saloon organization, .^g; Wisconsin
campaign for suffrage was , handicapped lafc thei cutset

340 La Follette's Political Philosophy
by a lack of faith and enthusiasm. Organizing and
conducting a state campaign was new work for the
women of Wisconsin. But gradually inertia was over
come. As the campaign advanced there was a mani
fest awakening. It was soon apparent that the for
eign element was open to conviction. The workers for
suffrage grew confident. They became enthusiastic.
The movement gained momentum. Late in the cam
paign the federation of women's clubs endorsed the
proposed amendment. A few more weeks would have
made a great difference in the vote for suffrage.
After the election it was found that the very failure
to carry the amendment in Wisconsin which had been
adopted in California, Oregon and Kansas, had aroused
thousands of women and thousands of men, who had
been indifferent, to a new sense of responsibility.
The suffrage leaders realized the advantage of the
awakened sentiment and growing confidence of their
perfected and harmonized forces, and of the great
value of the training and experience gained in a state
wide campaign.
They called a state conference. That conference,
composed of an earnest, intelligent, representative body
of Wisconsin women, determined that another cam
paign following promptly would have cumulative edu
cational power, that there must be no abatement of
interest and zeal, that to hold off for four or six years
means loss of the ground already gained, that the next
forward step was to secure f a vorable.^ action by the
legislature and to carry the issue to the people at the
next election.
It was in no spirit of child's play that the leaders of
the suffrage movement resolved to secure the submis-

Equal Suffrage 341
sion of a referendum vote in 1914. They had before
them the example of the policy pursued in winning
other great reforms in Wisconsin.
The governor is developing a bad memory.
We lost our first campaign in 1894. We lost again
in 1896, again in 1898. We won with the people in
1900 but lost in the legislature. We won again in the
election of 1902, and again we lost in the legislature.
Finally, we won with both the people and the legisla
ture in 1904.
Where would Wisconsin have been today in this great
era of progress if the leaders of reform had called
a halt, — if they had thrown down their arms, aban
doned the field, scattered their forces, and decided to
defer action until — to quote the language of the gov
ernor's veto message — "there is a chance, at least, that
the experience of other states similar in many respects
to our own may furnish guidance not available now."
Fight for Right is Unending
The states of Piatt and Quay, and Hinky Dink were
then "similar in many respects to our own," but in
those days we did not wait for them to "furnish
guidance" for Wisconsin's future. Our flags were
never lowered. Our arms were never stacked. Whether
beaten before the people or in the legislature, our
battered little army never faltered. We closed ranks,
quickened the pace, and fought on to final victory.
There is no difference in principle in pressing the
same issue before the people in successive campaigns,
and in presenting the same issue to the legislature
in successive sessions. Our direct primary, our equal
ization of taxation, our railway commission law, our

342 La Follette's Political Philosophy
control of public utilities and other advanced measures,
were ultimately secured after a number of hard fought
campaigns. And they were successive campaigns, too.
It was for that very reason that they won so com
pletely. We not only struck while the iron was hot;
we; made it hot and kept it hot by constant striking.
That is what the new spirit of American politics
•has, taught us — if we will but learn never to be dis
couraged, never to know defeat in a good cause.
The governor urges that the suffrage issue would
better be tried out in a presidential election. Common
political experience teaches that any state issue re
ceives more thorough consideration on its merits in a
state campaign, than when subordinated to national
issues in a presidential campaign. And even though
the amendment were to fail of adoption in 1914, the
people will be just so much better prepared to pass
upon it in 1916.
Even the strongest opponents of the franchise for
women no longer question that it will come. It is just
a matter of education and enlightenment. Why cut
out two years of education, why forego the chance to
win now? The reasoning of the governor's veto is
trivial. The legislature should pass the bill, the veto
of the governor to the contrary notwithstanding;
La Follette's Magazine, June 7, 1913.
Marching in a Suffrage Parade
My knowledge of the great suffrage parade which
took place in New York on May 4, was gained as a
participant rather than as a spectator, for I walked
from Eleventh Street to Fifth Avenue, where the rep
resentatives of the non-suffrage states other than New

Equal Suffrage 343
York gathered, to Carnegie Hall on the corner of
Fifty-seventh Street and Seventh Avenue. I did,
however, get a chance to look on for a time for I did
not get into the hall to attend the meeting, but stepping
aside from the procession found a place on the steps
of a near-by house. From this point I saw the ovation
which was given to the one thousand men in the parade
as they came into' Fifty-seventh Street where suffrage
enthusiasm was greatest. They deserved the ovation,
and were doubtless glad of it, for while they had not
been "guyed" in lower New York as were the eighty
men who marched last year, they had braved no small
measure of ridicule.
One remarkable thing about the parade was that
in spite of its size, variously estimated at from 10,000
to 20,000 people, it started on time. Having found
my place shortly before five o'clock when the proces
sion was scheduled to leave Washington Square, I
had settled myself for a long wait on the principle
that processions never started on time. Suddenly, a
very few moments after the hour the sound of music
was heard, and the women on horseback who headed
the procession came into view. They had left Wash
ington Square on the moment. They were fifteen
minutes late in reaching Carnegie Hall ; not their own
fault, but that of the police.
Where uniformity of dress had been adopted as it
was by most of the marching clubs, the spectacle was
most beautiful. White dresses were worn for the most
part, and a regulation hat of white straw. Yellow
sashes and scarfs were worn by some of the clubs,
green and purple by others, and blue by one of the
particularly well-drilled and dignified delegations from

344 La Follette's Political Philosophy
up-state. But even where there was no uniformity
of dress, it was an impressive sight, not only because
of floating banners and waving flags but because of
the seriousness and moral fervor of the marchers.
Some of the inscriptions on the banners were:
We prepare children for the world; we ask to pre
pare the world for our children.
More ballots, less bullets.
Women vote in China, but are classed with criminals
and paupers in New York.
Dr. Anna Shaw carried a flag with the inscription :
"We are trying to catch up with China."
Best of all was a banner carried by The Men's Equal
Suffrage League of New Jersey which bore this
legend :
"La Follette is the only presidential candidate stand
ing unequivocally for woman suffrage.
"Woman suffrage has passed the stage of argument ;
you could not stop it if you would, and in a few years
you will be ashamed that you ever opposed it."
Mrs. R. M. La Follette, in
La Follette's Magazine, May, 1912.

XXVII
THE PRESS AND THE PUBLIC

The Modern Newspaper
NE would think that in a democracy
like ours, people seeking the truth, able
to read and understand, would find the
press their eager and willing instruct
ors. Such was the press of Horace
Greeley, Henry Raymond, Chas. A. Dana, Joseph
Medill, and Horace Rublee.
But what do we find has occurred in the past few
years since the money power has gained control of
our industry and government? It controls the news
paper press. The people know this. Their con
fidence is weakened and destroyed. No longer are
the editorial columns of newspapers a potent force
in educating public opinion. The newspapers, of
course, are still patronized for news. But even as
to news, the public is fast coming to understand
that wherever news items bear in any way upon the
control of government by business, the news is
colored; so confidence in the newspaper as a news
paper is being undermined.
Cultured and able men are still to be found upon
the editorial staffs of all great dailies, but the pub
lic understands them to be hired men who no longer
express honest judgments and sincere conviction,
who write what they are tpld to write, and whose
judgments are salaried.

346 La Follette's Political Philosophy
To the subserviency of the press to special inter
ests in no small degree is due the power and in
fluence and prosperity of the weekly and monthly
magazines. A decade ago young men trained in
journalism came to see this control of the news
papers of the country. They saw also an unoccupied
field. And they went out and built up great period
icals and magazines. They were free.
Their pages were open to publicists and scholars^
and liberty and justice and equal rights found a
free press beyond the reach of the corrupt influence
of consolidated business and machine politics. We
entered upon a new era.
Rise of the Periodical.
The periodical, reduced in price, attractive and
artistic in dress, strode like a young giant into the
arena of public service. Filled with this spirit;
quickened with human interest, it assailed social
and political evils in high places and low. It found
the power of the public-service corporation and the
evil influences of money in the municipal govern
ment of every large city. It found franchises worth
millions of dollars' secured by bribery ; police in
partnership -with thieves and crooks and prostitutes.
It found juries "fixed" and an established business
plying its trade between litigants and the back door
of blinking justice;. " ' ' -
, r What Publicity Revealed . :
It "found ' Philadelphia" giving'' a'way franchises;
franchises not supposedly or estimated to be worth
$2,500,000 but for which She had been openly offered
and refused $2,500,000. Milwaukee they found giv-

The Press and the Public .347
ing away street-car franchises worth $8,000,000
against the protests of her indignant citizens. It
found Chicago robbed in tax-payments of immense
value- by corporate owners of property through
fraud and forgery on a gigantic scale; it found the
aldermen of St. Louis organized to boodfe the city
with a criminal compact, on file in the dark corner
of a safety deposit vault.
The free and independent periodical turned her
searchlight on state legislatures, and made plain as
the sun at noonday the absolute control of the cor
rupt lobby. She opened the closed doors of the- se
cret caucus, the secret committee, the secret confer
ence, behind which United States Senators ¦ and
Members of Congress betrayed the public interest
into the hands of railroads, the trusts, the tariff
mongers, and the centralized banking powers of the
country. She revealed the same influences back of
judicial and other appointments. She took the pub
lic through the great steel plants and into the homes
of the men who toil twelve hours a day and seven
days in the week. And the public heard their cry
of despair. She turned her camera into the mills
and shops where little children are robbed of every
chance of life that nourishes vigorous bodies and
sound minds, and the pinched faces and dwarfed
figures told their pathetic story on her clean white
pages. How the Press is Controlled
The control of the newspaper press is not the
simple and expensive one of ownership and invest
ment. There is here and there a "kept sheet" owned
by a man of great wealth to further his own inter-

348 La Follette's Political Philosophy
est. But the papers of this class are few. The con
trol comes through that community of interests, that
interdependence of investments and credits which
ties the publisher up to the banks, the advertisers
and the special interests.
We may expect this same kind of control, sooner
or later, to reach out for the magazines. But more
than this: I warn you of a subtle new peril, the
centralization of advertising, that will in time seek
to gag you. What has occurred on the small scale
in almost every city in the country will extend to
the national sCale, and will ere long close in on the
magazines. No men ever faced graver responsibili
ties. None have ever been called to a more unsel
fish, patriotic service. I believe that when the final
test comes, you will not be found wanting; you
will not desert and leave the people to depend upon
the public platform alone, but you will hold aloft
the lamp of Truth, lighting the way for the preser
vation of representative government and the liberty
of the American people.
Speech at Annual Banquet of Periodical
Publishers' Association, Philadelphia,
February 2, 1912.
The Subsidized Press
-The setting up of a new, invisible and all power
ful government in this country, within the last
twenty years, in open violation of fundamental and
statutory law, could not have been accomplished
under the steady fire of a free and independent
press. Where public opinion is free and uncontrolled,
wealth has a wholesome respect for law.

The Press and the Public 349
Except for the subserviency of most of the metro
politan newspapers, the great corporate interests
would never have ventured upon the impudent, law
less consolidation of business, for the^.suppression
of competition, the control of pjpdtf^ion, markets
and prices.
Except for this monstrous crime, 65 per cent of
all the wealth of this country would not now be
centralized in the hands of two per cent of all the
people. And we might today be industrially and
commercially a free people, enjoying the blessings
of a real democracy. La Follette's Magazine, April, 1918.
The Famous St. Paul Speech .-^
Senator La Follette was widely quoted in the
press as having said in a speech at St. Paul, Minne
sota, September 20, 1917, that the United States had
no grievances against Germany. At the request of
the Minnesota commission of public safety an in
vestigation of the charge was made by the senate
and the matter finally dropped when the Associated
Press admitted it had incorrectly quoted him.
What he actually said is shown by the duly certi
fied transcript of the official stenographer who re
ported the speech for the Nonpartisan League.
What the press reported him as ' having said is
shown by the quotations from a few papers which
are typical of hundreds of others.
The Chicago Daily Tribune of September 21st
last quoted Senator La Follette as saying:
"I wasn't in favor of beginning this war. We had
no grievance."

350 La Follette's Political Philosophy
The Washington Post of September 22nd :
"I wasn't in favor of beginning this war. We had
-no grievance." , ; ,
, The New .York Times, September 22nd :
I ,"I,was not in favor of beginning this war. We
had no grievance."
Finally the Literary Digest for October 6, 1917,
nearly a month after the speech was made, purports
to gather up the comment of the papers throughput
the country, and says that as reported in the press
despatches, Senator La Follette said :
"I was not in favor of beginning this war. We
had no grievance,"
What was actually said by Senator La Follette
as shown by the official certified transcript of his
.speech above referred to was :
"For my own part I was not in favor of begin
ning the war. I don't mean to say that we hadn't
suffered grievances ; we had at the hands of Ger
many, serious grievances."
La Follette's Magazine, November, 1917.
Retraction by Associated Press
The resolutions were referred to the committee
¦on privileges and elections of the senate and by. it
they were referred to a sub-committee to investi
gate the accuracy of the report of the speech, the
accuracy of the statements made in such speech and
to report its findings to the full committee the first
day of the next regular session in December, 1917.
The sub-GOfnmitteei did not make any report to the
full comnjlttee, as provided in the resolution with ref
erence to it.

The Press and the Public 351
Recently Gilbert E. Roe representing Senator
La Follette appeared before the committee and
asked for a dismissal of the proceedings, and in the
course of his argument referred to the erroneous
report of the speech as published in the newspapers.
Thereupon the Associated Press published a retrace
tion of its erroneous report, and said:
"The error was regrettable and the Associated
Press seized the first opportunity to do justice to
Senator La Follette."
Upon this retraction the New York Evening Post
made the following editorial comment:
"The Associated Press has handsomely and
promptly admitted its grievous fault in misreport-
ing Senator La Follette. Whereas he said in his
St. Paul speech that 'we had grievances' against
Germany, and was so reported the next day in the
St. Paul newspapers, some one slipped the fatal
word 'no' into the sentence in the Associated Press
report and made it read : 'We had no grievances.'
Whether this was done maliciously or accidentally
will probably never be known, but the fact remains
that irreparable injury was done to the senator, and
that a large part of the outcry against him was due
to this misstatement in the one thousand news
papers which' are served by the Associated Press.
Senator La Follette declared at the time that the
press had misquoted him, but the matter was- never'
brought to the attention of the Associated Pfess"
until Mr. Gilbert E. Roe, his attorney," Stated the"
fact before the senate committee of inquiry on Tues
day. Why the senator delayed so long is a mys
tery; but the serious wrong done by this error heeds

352 La Follette's Political Philosophy
no expatiating. No amount of apology can undo it.
The thought that unintentionally so extreme an in
justice may be done to a* public man is one to sober
all responsible journalism."
Why the senator delayed so long in denying the
false report should be no mystery because the sena
tor did not delay such denial. He immediately
• publicly denied the correctness of the report of his
speech, but the newspapers continued for months
afterward to use the false report as a text upon
which to base arguments condemning the senator
and creating public sentiment against him. The
senator had no adequate opportunity to give to the
public the truth of the matter. The press was not
open to him for that purpose. As the New York
Evening Post says : "The thought that unintention
ally so extreme an injustice may be done a public
raan is one to sober all responsible journalism.''
La Follette's Magazine, June, 1918.
How the Press May be Russianized
Power vested anywhere in any office or court is
always sooner or later abused ; and here is a power
the abuse of which is easy. Given an unscrupulous
administration, or an honest one under the pres
sure of troublous times, and the law contended for
in the Pulitzer and Smith cases lends itself to a
press censorship as galling and ruinous to liberty
as that of Russia. It may be that we have never
had an administration capable of so using it; but
he would be a bold man who would assert it. The
publication of an accusation is always the more
perilous as it is more grave. The administration.

The Press and the Public 353
therefore, seeking to silence criticism by this new
law, or this new application of an old law, would
be safer in committing heinous crimes than in fall
ing into slight errors. For the editor who might
dare to call public attention to a merely question
able transaction at Washington, would not venture
life and liberty so far as to allege a crime, no matter
how clear the proof. His peril would be too great.
Thus the press would be rendered most timid in
those very exigencies in which the public safety
calls for the most fearless denunciation.
Is the supposed case fanciful ? Not at all. In the
life of every nation come the crises when power of
this sort is sure to be abused. The time to make
the stand against it is now. The beginning of evil
is like the letting out bf water ; and eternal vigilance
is the price of liberty.
La Follette's Magazine, March 20, 1909.
Mission of a Magazine
La Follette's will be a magazine of progress, so
cial, intellectual, institutional. Moreover, it will be,
progressive in the more distinctly political sense^,i
It is founded in the belief that it can aid in makingj
our government represent with more fidelity the
will of the people.
This magazine recognizes as its chief task that of
aiding in winning back for the people the complete
power over government, — national, state and mu
nicipal, — which has been lost to them by the en
croachments of party machines, corporate and unin
corporated monopolies, and by the rapid growth of
immense populations.

354 La Follette's Political Philosophy
La Follette's will speak the truth. No eminence
of. position in party or government shall protect. a
servant of the people from deserved criticism; and
its approval will be gladly given to all who com
mend themselyes to, it by brave and right action in
any party or place.
Men and measures are both important. This
ihagazirie will discuss measures and political parties
and policies impartially and iearlessly. It will not
shrink froni making estimates of men and will from
time to tinie call the roll in order to disclose the
gxact position of those who are true and those who
are false to public interest.
It is not enough to overthrow the political power
of special interests. In the Struggle for self-gov
ernment throughout the nation every progressive
movement will be critically observed and supported
on merit. Constructive legislation wherever enacted
will be so discussed as to give an intelligent con
ception of the actual progress made in the su
premely difficult task of embodying progressive
ideas and ideals in laws and institutions. We hope
to- be useful in constructive work, as well as in de
structive criticism. We aim to be practical in our
suggestions. We shall be just to every interest.
Property rights are safe. The constitution guaran
tees security— a security which unanimous public
opinion in America approves and supports.
-. We shall make mistakes. We assert no claim to
infallibility: , It is not expected that our readers
will agree with all we have to say. But the co-

The Press and the Public 355
operation necessary to permanent progress can be.
secured only through intelligent discussion. We
hope that this magazine may help to stimulate dis
cussion and thought to the end that out of it shall
come better things into the life of this nation.
First Editorial La Follette's Magazine,
January 9, 1909.
Fooling the People
People who are here this afternoon may think
that the press of the country cannot fool them.
They may read what they know is a lie tonight in
the papers. They read it repeated tomorrow and
the next and the next day, and they say to their
families that there is nothing in it. That thing is
repeated time after time, day after day, it may be-
when they see it in some special article elaborately
set up and illustrated, but finally it steals in upon
the judgment of the people.
Speech in U. S. Senate, Aug. 29, 1919.
Surrender of the Magazines
If you will study the editorial pages of newspa
pers through the years, beginning a little more than
20 years ago, you will find the trail of the serpent
that has control of the great newspapers of the
country. * * *
"I spoke over at Philadelphia in 1912, and I warned
the magazine publishers that the day was at hand
when they, one after another, would be confronted
with the necessity of yielding to this mighty power
and cea$ing the publication of articles of "criticism

356 La Follette's Political Philosophy
against the great industrial and commercial organ
izations in this country or, they would be denied ad
vertising and forced to the wall.
Mr. President, I stand here this afternoon to say
that one after another of those magazines has suc
cumbed to that influence. I stand here to say that
il is impossible to secure the publication in those
magazines today of articles denouncing this viola
tion of law, this encroachment upon the liberties of
the people, this overlordship that controls our in
dustrial and commercial life. I say there is not one
of these great periodicals, excepting four or five that
I could number on one hand, left today the control
of which has not been acquired by the special inter
ests, the Standard Oil or like organizations. One
after another of these magazines, periodicals, and
publications has surrendered to that mighty power.
There are only a few publications that reach, in all
probability, more than 150,000 to 200,000 subscrib
ers — which means probably not more than a million
readers in the United States — that absolutely are
free to publish criticism. That is the truth, and it
is a terrible commentary on our Government.
Speech in U. S. Senate, Aug. 29, 19 19.
On Public Opinion
Sir, I respect public opinion. I do not fear it. I
do not hold it in contempt. The public judgment of
this great country forms slowly. It is intelligent.
No body of men in this country is superior to it. In
a representative democracy the common judgment
of the majority must find expression in the law of

The Press and the Public 357
the land. To deny this is to repudiate the principles
upon which representative democracy is founded.
It is not prejudice nor clamor which is pressing
this subject upon the attention of this body. It is
a calrii, well-considered public judgment. It is born
of conviction — not passion — and it were wise for
us to give it heed.
The public has reasoned out its case. For more
than a generation of time it has wrought upon this
great question with heart and brain in its daily con
tact with the great railway corporations. It has
iriastered all the facts. It is just. It is honest. It
is rational. It respects property rights. It well
knows that its own industrial and commercial pros
perity would suffer and decline if the railroads were
wronged, their capital impaired, their profits un
justly diminished.
But the public refuses longer to recognize this
subject as one which the railroads alone have the
right to pass upon. It declines longer to approach
it with awe. It no longer regards the railroad
schedule as a mystery. It understands the meaning
of rebates and "concession," the evasions through
"purchasing agents" and false weights, the subter
fuge of "damage claims," the significance of "switch-
ihg charges," "midnight tariffs," "milling in transit,"
"tap-line allowances," "underbilling," and "demur
rage charges." It comprehends the device known
as the "industrial railway," the "terminal railway,"
and all the tricks of inside companies, each levying
tribute upon the traffic. It is quite familiar with the
favoritism given to express companies, and knows

358 La Follette's Political Philosophy
exactly ¦ how producer and consumer have been
handed over by the railroads, to be plundered by
private car and refrigerator lines, in exchange for
their traffic.
Because it is a natural monopoly, because it is the
creature of government, it becomes the duty of gov
ernment to see to it that the railway company in
flicts no wrong upon the public, to compel it to do
what is right, and to perform its office as a common
carrier. Sir, it is much easier to stand with these great
interests than against them. This was true when
Adam Smith wrote his Wealth of Nations, and it
is true in 1906.
Mr. President, I contend here, as I have contended
upon the public platform in Wisconsin, and in
other States, that the history of the last thirty years
of struggle for just and equitable legislation dem
onstrates that the powerful combinations of organ
ized .wealth and special interests have had an over
balancing control in state and national legislation.
For a generation the American people have watched
the. growth of this power in legislation. They
observe how vast and far-reaching these modem'
business methods are in fact. Against the natural
laws of trade and commerce is set the arbitrary will
of a fc'w' masters of special privilege. The principal
transportation lines of the country are so operated
as to eliminate coiripetition. Between railroads and
other monopolies controlling gi-eat natural resources
and most of the necessaries of life there exists a
"community of interests" in all cases arid an identity

The Press and the Public 359
of ownership in many. They have observed that
these great combinations are closely associated in
business for business reasons ; that they are also
closely associated in politics for business reasons ;
that together they constitute a complete system;
that they encroach upon the public rights, defeat
legislation for the public good, and secure laws to
promote private interests; - ,
Speech in U. S. Senate, April, 19, 1906-

XXVIII
MISCELLANEOUS

Tribute to Albert R. Hall
: RIENDS: I have been requested to say
a word respecting the life and char
acter of our friend. All over this state
today, in the homes throughout a
sister state, in many throughout this
union, to whose attention the work of Mr. Hall in
public life had been attracted, there are sad hearts
and bowed heads. We are gathered here to pay a
last tribute to a great man whose life has been so
simple, so modest, whose demeanor has been so
humble that many of us perhaps have not been
truly conscious of the greatness of his character.
But into the history of this state and into the lives
of its people there have come a new significance and
a new meaning, high standards, better thoughts,
better living, greater devotion to public interests
than would have been known except for the life of
Mr. Hall.
It is not easy to paint a portrait. It is much
easier and requires a much lower order of ability
to make a caricature. I know that he would have
no friend of his say one word in exaggeration of his
work and his life. But knowing him somewhat
intimately since he has been in the public service of
the state, I do not feel that it would be within my
power to draw too strongly, to utter with any too
great degree of emphasis expressions of praise on
his life and public service.

Miscellaneous 361
He was a man of splendid courage; he feared
nothing except to do wrong. In his heart he bore
malice against none. I have seen him silent, his
face quivering and working under the sting of un
just criticism, but I never heard from his lips an
unkind word with reference to those who did not
agree with him. I do not believe that Albert R.
Hall ever consciously in his life did a wrong. He
may have made mistakes, and who has not? He
never took an advantage; he never worked in the
dark; he stood out boldly before all men for what he
believed was for the best interest of the public.
A life like his does not terminate with death. It
lives on and on through the generations. In the
higher ideals which he has established in this state,
in the better regard for public rights which he has
made plain as a public duty for all men, in right
conduct with individuals in the community where
he lived, in all his relations with all of his fellow-
men, he has so impressed himself upon the day and
hour of his time that his life should live and go on
in the perfected life of the friends who knew him
and have been made better by his presence.
We can take some little comfort in the thought
that life has not been interrupted, that his great
character is still working out the purposes of a
higher and better life, and as we separate today,
after performing the last sad duties, we can say to
our friend "farewell but not forgotten." He 'will
live in the lives of each of us while we are spared.
At Funeral of A. R. Hall, Knapp, Wisconsin,
June 4, 1905.

362 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Advance Toward Higher Civilization
Gentlemen, the day of your admission to that
profession which honors every man who honors it,
is a day of royal triumph for you^but it is not a
day of triumph for you alone. We all have a share
in it. From the gilded home of the millionaire in
the North, to the meanest hut in the rice swamps
of the South, every man and woman in the land
owns an interest in this event.
We are one people, one by truth, one almost by
blood. Our lives run side by side. Our ashes rest
in the same soil. The social order wraps us about
altogether as the atmosphere envelops the earth.
Each of us draws from it that which nourishes in
tellectual and spiritual life. Each one consciously
or unconsciously gives back something of himself,
clean or unclean, nourishing or poisonous to that
social organization. It is snobbish stupidity, it is
supreme folly, to talk of non-contact, or exclusion!
Recognize it or not, it is a homogeneous mass, and
each element is vitally interested in every other.
You stand upon the rim of an ever-expanding
horizon. The morning breaks. Before you lies the
waiting world of opportunity — behind you the long
night of degradation, of ignominy, of human slavery.
At your back stands a quick, responsive, capable,
willing race, panting to be led to a higher civili
zation — above and beyond you the angel of human
progress beckons you on and on. A new century
is bursting upon you. There never was such an op
portunity for leadership in the history of the hn-

Miscellaneous 363
man race. You are equipped for the mighty con
test. Go to your work.
Address to Howard University Law Class, 1888.
On Transplanted Foreign Culture
Journeying across Wisconsin in any direction, one
passes through cities and villages, counties and
townships, changed, from unbroken prairies and
vast forests, to thickly populated districts with beau
tiful homes, rich farms and great factories, by the
hardy, courageous, but patient, industry of the Ger
man pioneer.
In that hour, fortunate for us, when emigration
from the fatherland was at its full tide, the condi
tions invited most strongly toward this young com
monwealth. Its productive soil, its low priced lands,
its lakes and streams and forests, its climate, its
liberal spirit, attracted alike the idealist, who dreamed
of a German state within the Union, and the
sturdy, practical homeseeker, who left his father
land in the hope of larger opportunity in a new
country. Their industry, thrift, prudence and unyielding
perseverance underlie much of our material devel
opment. Their native directness and honesty of
thought, their resolute maintenance of right and
justice and good order in every community have
stamped their character upon the citizenship of our
commonwealth. To this keen, eager, restless, com
mercial spirit of the Yankee, they have contributed
calmness, repose, conservatism, a philosophic judg
ment, and a wise appreciation of the beneficence of
leisure. We have become one people. Our lives

364 La Follette's Political Philosophy
run side by side; their living streams commingle;
our ashes rest in the same soil.
No race of men has more enriched the artistic
life of the world than the German. Into this new
commonwealth they brought their native endow
ment of artistic temperament — a good leaven to our
somewhat ascetic Puritan character.
As inherent as the love of music and flowers and
children, is the German's love of home, his respect
for law, his loyalty to country. Had they not been
for generations imbued with patriotism and undying
affection for the fatherland, they could not in na
ture have so soon become loyal American citizens;
they would not have sustained, as they did with
blood and treasure, this government in its darkest
hour; they would not have proved such a bulwark
of law-abiding sentiment for state and nation. The
German-American's love for his native land, its
heroic past, its majestic presence, its language, its
traditions, its literature, its song, serves only to
foster those elements of character which intensify
his allegiance, his loyalty, his devotion to the land
of his adoption. Address Welcoming Prince Henry,
Milwaukee, March 4, 1902.
Welcome to Catholic Order of Foresters
I congratulate you upon this large gathering and
the good work in which you are engaged. The
foundation sentiment of your order appeals to the
right side of human nature. Your ministration is
that of helpfulness. You are not organized for in
vestment or profit or gain, but for mutual benefit.

Miscellaneous 365
Yours is a benevolent order. You are bound to
gether to relieve the sick and distressed, to comfort
and sustain the widow, and to open the door of
opportunity to the orphan. In the time of greatest
trial, in the darkest hour of life, your word of good
cheer is heard across the open grave, and the warm
grasp of your fraternal hand takes away something
of the chill of death.
I believe in this and other orders because they are
American institutions, democratic in character.
Every man is upon a level with every other man.
Each bears his just share of the burden and re
ceives his proportionate share of the benefits. The
lessons which you teach are the lessons of equal
rights for all; equal duties, equal responsibilities,
equal privileges and equal voice. These are the
foundation principles upon which the fathers es
tablished this government, and every organization
such as I see before me here tonight is essentially
democratic. It typifies representative government.
It is a little republic and is a foundation of inspira
tion for patriotic citizenship.
Welcome to Catholic Foresters, June 11, 1901.
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Pity, indeed, the narrow soul which does not go
out today in reverence to that tomb at Monticello
where rest the ashes of him who framed the act of
original inherent sovereignty, adopted by the peo
ple, — declaring that all men are created equal and that
government must derive its just powers from the
consent of the governed. Through his statesman
ship we acquired half a continent within which that

366 La Follette's Political Philosophy
government might expand. He gave to higher edu
cation the first state university in America, dedicat
ing it forever to freedom with this as its motto :
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free."
He and his compatriots were not the product of
the eighteenth century any more than 'vvas their
work for their day and generation alone. They
were in God's plan for the liberty of the human race
centuries before. When the declaration of inde
pendence was given to the world, it spoke fpr the
great silent majority whose lives had been laid
upon the altar of liberty through all the ages. It
spoke for the millions yet unborn, whose precious
heritage is American democracy.
And this great exposition of the progress and
power of the nations of the world shall exert its
liberalizing influence on all mankind, inspire mu
tual confidence and respect among established gov
ernments, quicken thought, stimulate endeavor, and
promote peace and happiness. It shall do more
than that. It shall bring the people of this country
together in commemoration of great events in its
history, charged with patriotic significance to every
citizen of the republic.
Speech cannot express the indebtedness of the
people of this nation to you who have wrought out
in harmony the greatest work of its kind yet ac
complished by man. Every worthy citizen should
count it a great privilege and a patriotic duty to
testify his appreciation by personally participating
in this memorable event. No one can come here

Miscellaneous 367
and not feel impelled to carry this message back to
his neighbors and friends.
From a profound heart we thank you for the op
portunity to come and the welcome we have re
ceived. We pledge you the most cordial support
of the state of Wisconsin.
Speech at Louisiana Purchase Exposition,
St. Louis, 1904.
Not Influenced by Personal Abuse
I concede that, Mr. President. I have a habit
which perhaps is not a matter of interest and I
ought not to detain the senate to mention it^when
I am speaking I see the face of every senator and
every change of expression just as in practicing
law I saw the face of every juryman, and used to
think that I knew what was passing in the mind of
each juror. It is a fault. Let that pass.
Mr. President, I return now to say that a great
subject is before the senate. It is one that strikes
deep down into the lives and the homes and will
profoundly affect the prosperity and the happiness
of all the people of this country. It does not affect
merely manufacturers. It does not affect merely
the people who work for the manufacturers and
their interests. It ought to be weighed with very
great care. I do not mean to say that the interests
of the manufacturers and those who have invested
their capital are not entitled to be weighed with as
great care; but those who work for wages are en
titled to have their interests carefully considered
as well.

368 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Mr. President, this bill will bear upon the people
of this whole country — ninety millions of them —
either fairly or unfairly, justly or unjustly. I tell you
it is of tremendous consequence what we do here
each day. We pass a paragraph or a schedule, and
it is driven in on me all the while that we do not
know just how our action is going to affect the
people of our country. We do not know how much
that is going to take out of the earnings or savings
of this family or that family, and we ought to know.
The formation of public opinion is of tremendous
importance in framing legislation.
Nothing ought to have a place in the debate upon
this great measure except that which is germane to
the bill. The issue involved should not be obscured
by any personal controversy. It shall not be so ob
scured with my sanction.
' Mr. President, it is one of the least concerns of
my life how votes shall be cast in an election in so
far as it affects me. I never have in my public life
taken the easier pathway. I could have done so. I
never have. What I am saying today is said from
a deep conviction.
I have given fifteen years out of the best of my
life to a great struggle in my state. I became deeply
interested in certain things that seemed to me to
go to the very foundation of this government. That
interest possessed me; it took me out of my pro
fession; it put me into a contest in Wisconsin to
establish in that commonwealth, first of all, if pos
sible, a government by the people and for the
people.

Miscellaneous 369
Mr. President, I would not be provincial ; I would
not be boastful ; but something has been accom
plished in Wisconsin that draws to it the leading
students of government from every state in this
union. From every great university, from the eco
nomic departments of the great universities of Eu
rope, they have come to the capital of Wisconsin
to study the legislation of that state, especially
concerning the government of corporations in their
relation to the life of the people. '
Principle Placed Before Individual
Mr. President, at every step in that long fight I
was subjected to personal attacks of the most vir
ulent kind — misrepresenting my character, attempt
ing to destroy it, assailing my motives, lying about
everything I did and everything I did not. But,
sir, I early marked out a course for myself. I said :
"If I permit myself to be drawn aside to answer
personal attacks, this great struggle to bring gov
ernment back to the people will be degraded to a
petty personal issue." I turned neither to the right
hand nor to the left. When assailed and misrepre
sented, my answer was: "The corporations in the
state of Wisconsin are not paying their share of the
taxes." To every personal charge I made one an=
swer : "The public-service corporations shall not con
trol in legislation. They shall serve the public im
partially,, and render services at reasonable rates."-
So in respect to every assault made upon me, Mr.
President, my answer was the great issue. As an
individual I was insignificant, of little consequence.
If I did anything for the state, iri which I was born

370 La Follette's Political Philosophy
and live, it was simply as an humble instrument
for the right settlement of the great issues over
vv'hich we have, sir, so little control in our day and
generation. We do not, we cannot, make the is
sues. Great ideas thrust themselves into the arena ;
they are antagonistic ; one is right and one is wrong;
and as the contest goes on the men who are drawn
into that contest are but the instruments in those
great ideas of evolution in the progress of the race.
Mr. President, does anybody suppose that I am
to turn aside in this debate to answer some petty
and contemptible attack upon me personally? No.
The senate was occupied yesterday for five hours,
at least, in the discussion of the cotton schedule.
Certain facts were laid before this body. I may be
v.Tong about it, but, in my judgment, they were
iihportant facts. An evening session followed.
Some sensationalism developed in that evening ses
sion, and it claimed a space in the newspapers re
porting yesterday's proceedings of congress to the
exclusion of the debate upon the bill. So today, Mr.
President, that might be repeated if personal con
troversy were again intruded into this discussion.
It shall not occur with my consent.
As to the remarks of the senator from Pennsyl
vania (Mr. Penrose) last evening, Mr. President, the
public is not greatly interested in individual sena
tors and how they spend their time when away from
the senate chamber. The people of Wisconsin will
take care of me if I am an unfaithful servant with
out prompting from any senator upon this floor.
I would suggest that he would render a more im
portant service to the country and tb the state of

Miscellaneous 371
Pennsylvania, were he to account for the way he
spends his time when absent from this body, than
in any effort to make any account of mine:
I might add, Mr. President, that no man could
undertake to account for the whereabouts of the
senator from Pennsylvania when absent from this
body without transgressing the rules of the senate,
and that I do not purpose to do in this debate.
Speech on Tariff, U. S. Senate, June 3, 1909. .
Appreciation of a Fellow Fighter
One morning in December, 1909, there came into
my office in thp Capitol Building, a tall, bony, slightly
stooped man, with a face bespeaking superior in
telligence and lofty character. It was Andrew Fur-
useth. He wanted to interest me in the cause of the
American sailor. He was a sailor himself, he said,
and he wanted to "be free." I did not know what
he meant. I questioned him. Surely there were no
slaves under the American flag. Bondsmen there
were, — but Lincoln changed all that. And it had
been written in the amended Constitution: "Yes,"
he said, "but not for the sailor. All other men are
free. But when the amendments were framed, they
passed us by. The sailor was forgotten."
I asked him to tell me about it. Sitting on the
edge of the chair, his body thrust forward, a great
soul speaking through his face, the set purpose of
his life shining in his eyes, he told me the story of
the sailor's wrongs. He said little of himself, ex
cepting as I drew him on to speak of the long, long
struggle of which he was the beginning, and is now

372 La Follette's Political Philosophy
finally the end. He spoke with a strong Scandina
vian accent, but with remarkable facility of expres
sion, force and discrimination.
He knew the maritime law of every country; the
social conditions, the wage level, the economic life
of every sea-faring nation. He was master of his
subject. His mind worked with the precision of a
Corliss engine. He was logical, rugged, terse,
quaint, and fervid with conviction.
Born in Norway, the call of the sea came to him
as a lad of sixteen. He stood upon the cliffs and
looked out upon the infinite. The life of the sailor,
like the ocean, must be wide and free. He felt its
mysterious spell. He would be a "free seaman,"
with all the world an open door. New thoughts
were stirring within him. He sailed away, thrilled
with the idea that his was to be a free man's work.
His dream was shattered early by the hard real
ities of life before the mast. First in the boats of
Norway and later on the decks of the merchant
marine of every great maritime nation he served as
a seaman, and everywhere conditions were the
same. He found himself a common chattel! He
was owned by the master of the ship !
In all the years of this historic struggle for hu
man liberty, which finally culminated with Presi
dent Wilson's signing of the Seamen's Law, March
4, 191 5, Andrew Furuseth was the one man who had
the faith, the vision and the courage necessary to
sustain the contest. He launched the movement.
He kept it afloat. Every moment of the twenty-one
years he was at the helm. Through legislative
storms and calms, over the sunken reefs of privi-

Miscellaneous 373
lege, across every treacherous shoal and past all
dangers, he held his cause true to its course and
brought it safely into port. Yet in all those long,
disheartening years he has so effaced himself and
lived his cause, that the public has had little oppor
tunity to know the man. When history forgets
many who now fill the public eye, with all who
know the story of the sea he will be a great out
standing figure, from whose life others will gather
hope and courage and inspiration to fight on and on
to better living conditions and wider freedom.
Furuseth has done a great work. He has not ac
quired a monopoly of light, heat, or power. He has
not endowed false educational foundations with
money wrongfully extorted from an overpatient
public. But he has won freedom for the American
sailor, and made our country an asylum and a ref
uge for the oppressed seamen of the world. The
gratitude of hundreds of thousands of human be
ings of this and future generations will accredit
their liberty to his genius and devotion.
After the bill was signed by the president, in con
versation with Furuseth one day, I touched upon
his future. "When you can no longer work, what
provision have you for old age?" I asked. "How
much have you been able to lay up against failing
power?" His keen eye mellowed, and a placid con
templative expression smoothed out the seams of
his weather beaten face as he said, "When my work
is finished, I hope to be finished. I have no provi
sion against old age; and I shall borrow no fears
from time." La Follette's Magazine, April, 1915.

374 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Poverty in the United States
Prof. E. A. Ross, of the University of Wisconsin,
in a book published in May, 1918, has drawn for us
a moderate but clear and brief statement of indus
trial conditions in this country, which it would be
well for the Secretary of the Treasury and officials
of this administration generally to study. Prof.
Ross' book is entitled "Russia in Upheaval." Prof.
Ross has been for many years a professor of soci
ology at the University of Wisconsin, and is the
author of a number of standard works dealing with
sociology and with history.
Let me say that Prof. King just before his death,
which occurred a few years ago, published a work
on the distribution of wealth. Prof. King was rec
ognized among the statisticians and students of so
ciology and of the economists in this country as a
very eminent man in his particular field. He was a
member of the faculty of the Wisconsin University
when he died.
Prof. Ross said — I quote from this work begin
ning at page 345 :
"Let it not be supposed that the United States,
with its qualified political democracy; will prove
immune to anticapitalist agitation. The fact is
our society is one of the most vulnerable, because
we have clung so long to the law arid politics of
an outworri individualism that the resulting dis
tribution of wealth and of income would begro-
tesque were it not so tragic. According to, the
investigations of Prof. King, a statistician of un
questioned skill and impartiality, 65 per cent of
our people are poor ; that is, they have little or no

Miscellaneous 375
property, except their clothes and some cheap
furniture, and their average annual income is less
than $200 per capita."
That is — let me emphasize that — 65 per cent of
the people of the United States have nothing but
their clothing and some cheap furniture and their
average annual income is less than $200 a year per
capita. Thirty-three per cent of our people compose the
middle class, in which each man leaves at death
from one to forty thousand dollars worth of prop
erty. The remaining two per cent comprise the rich
and very rich, who own almost one and one-half
times as much as the other 98 per cent together.
MR. KENYON. Mr. President—
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Sena
tor from Wisconsin yield to the Senator from Iowa?
MR. LA FOLLETTE. I do.
MR. KENYON. The figures the Senator quotes
from Prof. King are so startling that I should like
to ask the Senator a question. Did the Senator say
that, according to Prof. King, 65 per cent of our
people have an income of less than $200 per year?
MR. LA FOLLETTE. Per capita.
MR. KENYON. That is, a man with a family of
four would figure each one in the income?
MR. LA FOLLETTE. Yes, sir.
Mr. President, I submitted as a part of the mi
nority report in 1917 on the revenue bill fixing
war profits taxes these very figures quoted from
Prof. King, and I discussed them on this floor. I
cited them over and over again, and tried to make
them as impressive as posgjble. We are asleep ; we

376 La Follette's Political Philosophy
treat as a joke the poverty of 65 per cent of the peo
ple of this country. Senators jibe and sneer and
scoff and grin at the recital of these figures here
tonight. You may, by pursuing that course long
enough, invite into the Senate Chamber sometime
or other a mob. Speech in U. S. Senate, March 1, 1919.
Enlightening his Constituency
It was clear to me that the only way to beat boss
and ring rule was to keep the people thoroughly in
formed. Machine control is based upon misrepre
sentation and ignorance. Democracy is based upon
knowledge. It is of first importance that the people
shall know about their government and the work
of their public servants. "Ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free." This I have al
ways believed vital to self government.
Immediately following my election to congress I
worked out a complete plan for keeping my con
stituents informed on public issues and the record
of my services in congress; it is the system I have
used in constantly widening circles ever since.
The task of building up and maintaining an in
telligent interest in public affairs in my district and
afterward in the state, was no easy one. But it was
the only way for me, and I am still convinced that
it is the best way. Of one thing I am more and
more convinced -with the passage of the years —
and that is, the serious interest of our people in
government, and their willingness to give their
thought to subjects which are really vital and upon

Miscellaneous 377
which facts, not mere opinions, are set forth, even
though the presentation may be forbidding.
Autobiography, 1913.
Where Some of the Salary Goes
It is not generally known that congressional
speeches, reprinted from the Record for distribu
tion, must be paid for by the congressman or senator
ordering them at a cost equal to that of any first-
class printing establishment. The size of the bills
I paid the government printing office for many years
was one of the reasons why I found myself so poor
when I left congress. A congressman in those days
received only five thousand dollars a year, and no
secretarial or clerk hire whatever unless he chanced
to be chairman of a committee. The result was that
the bulk of the actual mechanical work of keeping
up all this correspondence and pamphleteering fell
upon Mrs. La Follette and myself. * * *
Autobiography, 1913.
On Answering Misrepresentations
I paid no attention to its (The Milwaukee Sen
tinel) misrepresentations and personal attacks. But
finally, about 1904, I began holding a copy of it up
to my audiences, telling them just what it stood
for and appealing to the people of Wisconsin to
drive it out of their homes ; saying that the people
ought to support only those papers that served the
public ; that the papers that were organs of corpora
tions should depend upon the corporations for their
support. And that is what the people of the coun
try ought to do today. They ought to support the
newspapers and magazines that are serving their in-

378 La Follette's Political Philosophy
terests. There must always be muckrakers as long
as there are muckmakers, and the public owes it to
itself to support those publications that stand for
the public interest. It does not make any differ
ence what good news service the organs of the cor
porations offer, turn them out ; teach them that they
can't prey upon the public and at the same time ap
peal to the public for support.
This law. (anti-lobby) rests upon the principle
that legislation is public business and that the pub
lic has a right to know what arguments are pre
sented to members of the legislature to induce them
to enact or defeat legislation, so that any citizen or
body of citizens shall have opportunity, if they de
sire, to answer such arguments.
Since I came to the United States senate I have
steadfastly maintained the same position. Again
and again I have protested against secret hearing
before congressional committees upon the public
business. I have protested against the business of
congress being taken into a secret party caucus and
there disposed of by party rule ; I have asserted and
maintained at all times my right as a public servant
to discuss in open senate, and everywhere publicly,
all legislative proceedings, whether originating in
the executive sessions of committees or behind
closed doors of caucus conferences. Autobiography, 1913.
Vacant Seats in the Senate
Mr. President, I pause in my remarks to say this.
I cannot be wholly indifferent to the fact that Sen
ators by their absence at this time indicate their

Miscellaneous 379
want of interest in what I may have to say upon
this subject. The public is interested. Unless this
important question is rightly settled seats now tem
porarily vacant may be permanently vacated by
those who have the right to occupy them at this
time. Speech "Regulation of Railway Rates," Senator
La Follette's First Speech in the U. S.
Senate, April ig-21, 1906.

APPENDIX
PLATFORM OF 1908
Submitted by the 'Wisconsin delegation at the Republi
can National Convention in 1908, and rejected by the con.
vention. HE Republican party has made progress
toward a more effective control of the
railroads engaged in interstate com
merce, but it recognizes that much re
mains to be done in the public interest.
We favor enlarging the powers of the Interstate
Commerce Commission, clothing it with authority
to institute proceedings upon its own motion, to
establish classification, and whenever a proposed in
crease in the rate is challenged by shipper or con
sumer to determine whether such increase shall be
allowed. The problems submitted to the commission are so
vast and complex and the demand for a better su
pervision of interstate commerce in the public in
terests so urgent, the work of the commission al
ready so burdensome, that it is manifestly absurd
to expect seven men to discharge the duty which
the Government owes to the people in exercising
control over common carriers engaged in interstate
commerce. In response to the demand for better
supervision of railway services and railway rates
we favor enlarging the working force of the com
mission, dividing the country into districts and pro
viding for commissions for each district and for

Platform of 1908 381
appeals from such sub-commissions to the Inter
state Commerce Commission at Washington.
The existing laws provide that the rates shall be
reasonable and that any unreasonable rates shall be
unlawful, but they wholly fail to provide any means
by which the Interstate Commerce Commission can
ascertain what is a reasonable rate. To this ob
vious defect may be charged the unwarranted ad
vance made since the enactment of the law, and the
increase recently announced by the railroads which
will impose an additional burden of $100,000,000 a
year upon the traffic affected.
Public interest demands that this defect in the
law shall be remedied at once. To determine a rea
sonable rate it is desirable that the commission
should know the value of the physical property of
the railway company, the cost of maintenance and
operation of the railway, and the income derived
from the business. The interstate commerce law
provides for the ascertaining of the cost of main
tenance and the income derived from the business,
but it fails to provide any means by which the
commission can ascertain the value of the property
of the railway company. The Interstate Commerce
Commission has repeatedly urged upon Congress
the importance of legislation to ascertain the value
of the property and making the necessary provision
to enable the commission to perform the work in the
public interest. We, therefore, favor the authoriza
tion of the Interstate Commerce Commission to as
certain the exact physical value of all the property
of every railway company engaged in interstate

382 La Follette's Political Philosophy
commerce, to the end that such valuation be made
the basis of just and equal railway rates.
The Republican party proclaims its continued
loyalty to the true principle of the protective tariff
policy as established by Alexander Hamilton and
advocated by Clay, Blaine and McKinley. Under
this true principle of protection such duties were
imposed on imports as equaled the difference be
tween the cost of the production at home and
abroad. From Hamilton to McKinley every great
advocate of protection contended that a tariff so
levied would establish and maintain American in
dustries, and that free competition between pro
ducers would prevent monopoly and insure reason
able prices to all American consumers. Under this
system so long as coriipetition existed all classes
shared in the benefits derived from the protective
policy. But a great change has come. Through
combinations of corporations competition between
protected interests has been suppressed and the pub
lic compelled to pay prices dictated by monopoly.
This condition is unjust, oppressive and intolerable.
It calls for prompt and effective remedy. No tar
iff and policy which contribute in any degree to
place the control of prices and markets under the
domination of monopoly can be maintained. To
correct these abuses and permit a protective tariff
(System based upon this principle, we pledge the Re
publican party to the immediate revision of the
tariff by the imposition of such duties only as will
equal the difference between the cost of production
at home and abroad, and whenever the control of
any protected product by monopoly or the suppress

Platform of 1908 383
sion of competition by agreement between the pro
ducers of protected articles limits production and
controls prices and wages the collection of duties
upon the similar imported article shall be suspended
and abolished and such articles admitted free of
duty, except where the cost of labor in the domestic
article exceeds that in the imported article, in which
case such article shall be subject to a rate of duty
equal only to the difference in the cost of labor in
the domestic and the imported article, in which case
such article shall be subject to a rate of duty equal
only to the difference in the cost of labor in the
domestic and the imported article.
To ultimately place our tariff schedules upon a
just, scientific and more equitable basis there must
be a thorough and impartial investigation of the
ever-changing conditions affecting labor, and the
cost of production at home and abroad. For this
purpose. we favor the early establishment of a per
manent tariff commission, to be appointed by the
President. Such commission to be composed of
men from civil life who represent all sections of
our country and who are specially equipped by
training and experience for this important work.
For twenty years in its national platforriis the
Republican party has opposed trusts and combina
tions whose purpose it is to prevent competition
and restrain trade. In its platform of 1900 it says:
"We recognize the necessity and propriety oi the
do-operation oi capital to meet new business condi
tions, and especially to extend our rapidly increas
ing ioreign trade, but we condemn all conspiracies
and combinations intended to restrict business, to

384 La Follette's Political Philosophy
create monopolies, to limit production or to control
prices, and we favor such legislation as ,will effec
tively restrain and prevent all such abuses and pro
mote competition and secure the rights of produc
ers, laborers and all who are engaged in industry
and commerce."
We declare that no additional legislation has
been enacted, pursuant to that declaration. It is
established upon the highest authority that trusts
and combinations have within the last four years
made the greatest growth for the centralized con
trol of business and the suppression of competition
in the entire history of consolidation. The increase
in trust capitalization and consolidation of indus
trials, franchises and transportation alone aggre
gates more than 55 per cent. This enormous growth
in unlawful combinations places in jeopardy every
independent industry in the land. It exercises con
trol over production and prices in manufactures,
for service and rates in transportation. No political
party loyal to the public interests can ignore this
monstrous evil.
The administration of President Roosevelt has
in notable instances prosecuted such unlawful com
binations under the antitrust law of 1890,. and no
act of his Republican administration has been more
highly commended by the public. But we believe
that existing conditions demand at this time more
control than in 1900, and the enactment of such
legislation as will effectively restrain and prevent
all such abuses and promote and protect competi
tion.

Platform of 1908 385
The Republican party, represented in this Na
tional Convention, demands the most rigid enforce
ment of the existing law and the enactment of a
statute prohibiting any individual, co-partnership,
corporation or association from engaging in inter
state commerce whenever such co-partnership, in
dividual, corporation or association is a party to
any agreement, understanding or contract for the
suppression of competition, the control of prices
and markets and the restraint of trade, and impos
ing imprisonment as a penalty, for the violation of
its provisions. We demand that Congress shall go
to the full extent of its constitutional authority to
give force and effect by statutory enactment to the
declarations herein set forth.
We strongly protest against any attempt, how
ever disguised, to weaken or destroy the Sherman
Anti-Trust Law as applied to trusts and combina
tions organized to control production and prices,
and we favor strengthening the law by providing
imprisonment as the penalty for its violation and
the strict enforcement of all of its provisions. The
anti-trust law was not designed, as declared by its
author or advocates in Congress when enacted, to
apply to labor organizations, and we favor legisla
tion which Congress may enact within the Con
stitution to exempt trade unions from the statute.
And the minority of said committee further re
spectfully submits and recommends the adoption
of the following paragraph, to be added to the re
port of the majority of this committee :
Publicity of campaign contributions and expendi
tures. Certain expenses are inseparable from the

386 La Follette's Political Philosophy
conduct of political campaigns, and these expendi
tures may be made by voluntary contributions from
citizens devoted to the cause for which a candidate
or a party stands. Experience has shown, however,
that the largest contributions are not made to
further the cause, but in some special or personal
reason corruptly to influence the nominations, plat
forms, administration and legislation. If those con
tributions were known they would be promptly con
demned by the public. The relation of them to
subsequent favors sought in return would be rec
ognized and understood, and their purpose thwarted.
Therefore we propose that the Republican Congress
and President shall enact and enforce a law to re
quire those charged with the management of cam
paigns for the nomination or election of a President
of the United States, Senator or Representative in
Congress to publish at stated times during the cam
paign the name of each contributor and the amount
contributed or promised by him — and the amounts
and the purpose of such disbursement and the name
of the person to whom paid.
We pledge the Republican party to the enactment
of a law to regulate the rates and services of tele
graph companies engaged in the transmission of
messages between the states.
We are unalterably opposed to ship subsidies and
tc granting privileges in any form to special inter
ests at the public expense. (Applause.)
We pledge the Republican party to the enact
ment of a law to prohibit the issuance of injunctions
in cases arising out of labor disputes, and such in
junctions would not apply when any labor dispute

Platform of 1908 387
exists, and providing that in no case shall injunctions
be issued when there exists a remedy by the ordi
nary process of law.
And which act shall provide that in the procedure
for punishment for contempt of court, the party
cited for contempt shall be entitled to trial by jury,
except when such contempt was committed in
the presence of the court or so near thereto as to in
terfere with the proper administration of: justice.
We pledge the Republican party to the enactment
of a law creating a Department of Labor separate
from existing departments, with a secretary at its
head, having a seat in the Cabinet, and for the
erection of a Bureau of Mines and Mining under
the proposed Department of Labor, and the ap
propriation of sufficient funds to thoroughly inves
tigate the cause of mine disasters, so that laws and
regulations may be recommended and enacted which
will prevent the terrible maiming and loss of life in
mines. We pledge the Republican party to the enactment
of an amendment to the existing eight-hour law for
government employees and all workers whether
employed by contractors or sub-contractors, when
they are doing work for or on behalf of the United
States Government.
We pledge the Republican party to the enact
ment of a law by Congress as far as the federal ju
risdiction extends for a general employer's liability
act for injury to body or loss of life of employees.

PLATFORM OF 1912
Submitted by the 'Wisconsin delegation at the Republi
can National Convention in 1912, and rejected by the
convention. Banking and Currency
, ORE dangerous even than the indus
trial trusts is that subtle, concentrated
power exercised over money and credit,
by what is ordinarily called the
"Money Trust." It can make and un
make panics. But of far greater significance is its
constant, all-pervading influence exerted from jlay
to day over the commercial life of the nation in
times of prosperity and of adversity alike. Through
control of capital it dominates practically all im
portant business. Without its consent few large
enterprises, public or private, can be carried to suc
cess. Against its opposition the strongest struggle
is vain. To it, great corporations, cities, states, and
even the nation must pay tribute in order to obtain
needed loans. Yet this dominance of the few is
not due to their own wealth, vast as that wealth is.
In other days, the power of the money lender arose
from the vices or weakness of the borrower. But
the despotic power of the money trust rests rather
upon the virtues, — the thrift and virility, — of a great
people. We are subjugated by means of our own
savings, for the money trust controls the banks and
the life insurance companies, reservoirs into which
the savings of the nation naturally drain. The
money trust controls likewise the avenues through

Platform of 1912 389
which these savings are invested so as to become
remunerative. Therefore the enterprise and initia
tive of our people, qualities which ordinarily eman
cipate men, increase our dependence, since each
new demand for capital enhances the power of the
few who control it.
The resources of our national banks designed for
the protection of depositors, are now permitted, un
der cunningly devised provisions of our patch-work
currency system, to be transferred and re-trans
ferred, until finally placed in speculative banks con
trolled by the money trust, and used to promote its
own selfish interests and augment its power.
Under our present currency system the people's
bank deposits are forwarded to the reserve city
banks to help finance the trusts, destroy independ
ent producers, promote speculative markets, and
foist inflated securities on the public.
Panics which the money power itself has created
are used to force government to come to its aid
and competitors to give up their property. The
vice of the system lies in the privilege of using the
money and credit of the people for speculation, thus
depriving legitimate business of support. This vice
is now admitted by the money power itself, but the
legislation proposed, however sound in certain re
spects, carried in its "jokers" the intent to deceive
the people. Pretending to offer support to com
merce, it creates preferences for speculation that
lead to inflation and rising prices instead of elasti
city and stable prices. Realizing that the people's
only means of effective control is power to revoke
the charter, they create a vested right for fifty years

390 La Follette's Political Philosophy
with a semblance of power of revision by Congress
once in ten years. On the pretext that this is merely
a business question, they strive to prevent the
people from putting their candidates on record re
garding it.
We are opposed to the so-called Aldrich Cur
rency plan. We pledge our candidate that under
no circumstances shall the federal government come
to the aid of high finance, but shall support those
banks that extend a genuine preference to strictly
commercial, as against speculative, loans and to
the millions of real producers who depend on those
banks. We favor a carefully worked out and scien
tific emergency circulation under control of the
government, backed by proper reserve, issued only
against commercial paper that represents actual
transactions, and adopted only after the people have
thoroughly discussed and intelligently approved of
thoroughly discussed and intelligently approved of it.
To free the country from this thralldom all the
powers of the nation and of the state should be in
voked. Means must be devised for diverting from
the money trust the millions of savings which flow
freely from city and farm to its banks and insur
ance companies. The people should be enabled to
control the banks in which their own money is de
posited.

Federal Trade Commission

In the enforcement and administration of federa,
laws designed to curb and control the powerful
special interests of the country there is much that
may be committed to a Federal Trade Commission,

/

Platform ofi9i2 391
thus placing in the hands of an administrative board
responsible to Congress many of the functions no-\v
exercised by the courts, promoting promptness in
the administration of law and avoiding delays and
technicalities incident to court procedure.
Among the matters which should be handled by
such a board is the determination of the differences
in the cost of production at home and abroad for
the purpose of protective tariff legislation; an in
vestigation into the character of great combinations
of capital and the trusts of the country; a deter
mination of the facts which may be declared by law
to be a violation of the anti-trust laws ; enforcing
the laws which may be passed with reference to
the reasonable use of patents, and to co-operate
with the proposed Department of Labor in enforc
ing regulations for the health, safety and hours of
labor of the employees of protected manufacturers ;
requiring a uniform system of accounting and cost-
keeping for monopolistic protected industries and
combinations, and sufch other powers as may be
conferred from time to time by other laws of Con
gress. We believe that all of these functions, some
of which are now performed ineffectively by sep
arate agencies of government and by the courts,
may be brought together in a single organization,
able to cope with the combined power of special
privilege. Such commission should be composed
of men peculiarly qualified for the discharge of such
duties and should be drawn from the various walks
of life and supplied with an adequate staff -of ex
perts, accountants and engineers, to enable it to
properly discharge the duties conferred upon it. In

392 La Follette's Political Philosophy
subsequent planks of this platform, dealing with
the subjects of tariff, trusts and patents, more spe
cific suggestion is made of the duties which appro
priately may be conferred upon such commission.
We pledge the establishment of such commission,
the members to be appointed by the President a.nd
subject to recall by concurrent resolution of Con
gress. The Tariff
The tariff has been instrumental in building up
American industry, but it has been seized upon by
powerful interests to take advantage of consumers
and wage-earners. We favor a continuation of the
protective policy for the benefit of the producing
classes, but demand that the tariff schedules be re
duced to the ascertained difference in the labor in
this country and abroad, and so adjusted as to as
sure its benefit to labor and not to protect ineffici
ent management nor place a premium on the further
exhaustion of our limited natural resources. The
investigation of these facts, and the revision of
schedules should be made by the proposed Federal
Trade Commission, subject to the action of Con
gress, but such schedules as are generally recog
nized to be excessive shall be immediately reduced.
Patents
Inventions should be fully developed and utilized
for the public benefit under reasonable regulation
by the proposed Federal Trade Commission. We
pledge the enactment of a patent law which will
protect the inventor as well as the public, and which
cannot be used against the public welfare in the in
terest of injurious monopolies.

Platform of 1912 393
Trusts and Monopolies
The special interests, the railroads, the harvester
trust, the United States steel trust, and all indus
trial combinations are planning to secure some ac
tion by the government which will legalize their
proceedings and sanction their fictitious capitaliza
tion. Already there has been one powerfully or
ganized attempt in Congress to enact legislation
approving all railroad combinations heretofore per
fected in violation of law, and validate all the wa
tered stocks and bonds with which corporate greed
has sought to burden the commerce of the country.
The situation is critical. It may be expected from
the attitude of the Supreme Court, as shown in the
Standard Oil and Tobacco Trust cases, that any
act on the part of the executive or legislative branch
of government giving countenance to these unlaw
ful combinations will be construed as an approval
ot the thousands of millions of watered stocks and
bonds issued, and will fasten upon the people for
all time the speculative capitalization of public serv
ice and industrial combinations. The time is at
hand to declare for a statute that shall make it ever
lastingly impossible for any president, or any con
gress, or any court, to legalize spurious capitaliza
tion as a basis of extortionate prices, and we pledge
the Republican party to the enactment of such a law.
By the enactment of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law, in
1890, the American people declared their belief that
monopoly is intolerable, and their determination that
competition, the natural law in trade, should be main
tained in business. The will of the people embodied in

394 La Follette's Political Philosophy
this law, has been frustrated because the administra
tions charged with the responsibility failed to enforce
the law. But the wisdom of that law has been con
firmed by the bitter experience of recent years.
Within the last dozen years trusts have been organ
ized in nearly every branch of industry. Competi
tors have been ruthlessly crushed, extortionate
prices have been exacted from consumers, business
development has been arrested, invention stifled, and
the door of opportunity has been closed except to
large aggregations of capital. In the few cases
where consolidation resulted in great efficiency,
greedy monopoly has retained all its fruits. The
public has not received any of the resultant econ
omies and benefits of combination which have been
promised so profusely. But ordinarily, the com
binations have demonstrated merely that the hand
of monopoly is deadening, and that business may
as easily become too large to be efficient, as remain
too small.
In order to restore and preserve competition, as
the people have willed, new and adequate legal ma
chinery must be provided. The present law is un
certain of application, since the Standard Oil and
Tobacco cases have decided that only unreasonable
restraints of trade are prohibited, and later pro
ceedings in those cases have shown that the present
law is impotent to destroy monopoly. Legitimate
business halts, because the law-abiding merchant
and manufacturer doubts what he may legally do.
Law breaking monopoly flourishes, because this
same uncertainty increases the difficulty of enforc
ing the statute and making it secure in wrong-doing.

Platform of 1912 395
Supplemental legislation should be enacted to re
move this uncertainty by specifying and prohibit
ing methods, practices and conditions which ex
perience has shown to be harmful. Supplemental
legislation should be enacted to facilitate the en
forcement of the law, by imposing upon those who
combine to restrain trade (and particularly upon
those who combine to control more than thirty per
cent, in any branch of business) the burden of prov
ing that their action has been consistent with the
public welfare. Supplemental legislation should
also be enacted by which proceedings for the disso
lution of trusts shall become effective to restore
competition. To this end courts should be empow
ered to prevent any person from owning shares in
more than one of the companies into which a trust
has been divided by decree.
The control of limited sources of raw material,
like coal, iron, ore, and copper should be broken up
and these resources opened to all manufacturers on
equal terms. And to afford an actual remedy for
injuries suffered by innocent competitors and con
sumers, decrees obtained in such suits instituted
by the government should be made to inure to their
benefit, and they should be permitted to seek in
such suits, damages for wrongs done and protec
tion against future abuse of power so illegally ac
quired. The proposed trade commission should
have power to condemn all contracts, agreements,
and practices found to be discriminatory and op
pressive, and to compel the substitution of such as
are found to be reasonable. It should enforce pro
hibition of criminal practices which should be spe-

396 La Follette's Political Philosophy
cifically defined by law. We denounce that inter
pretation of the anti-trust law which uses it to sup
press the unions and co-operative efforts of wage=
earners and farmers in protecting their labor against
moneyed monopolies and we pledge a revision of
the law making such construction impossible.
Injunctions
We pledge the Republican party to the enactment
of a law to prohibit the issuance of injunctions in
cases arising out of labor disputes, when such in
junctions would not apply where no labor disputes
existed, and providing that in no case shall an in
junction be issued when there exists a remedy by
the ordinary process of law, and which act shall
provide that in the procedure for contempt of court
the party cited for contempt shall be entitled to a
trial by jury, except when such contempt was com
mitted in the actual presence of the court or so near
thereto as to interfere with the proper administra
tion of justice. Department of Labor
We pledge the enactment of a law creating a
separate Department of Labor with a secretary at
its head having a seat in the President's cabinet.
We pledge ourselves to employ all the powers of
the federal government, including the power over
interstate commerce and internal revenue taxation,
in order that the benefits intended for American
labor from tariff protection shall actually reach the
laborer. To this end we favor federal legislation
providing for workmen's compensation for accident,
protection of women and child labor, safety and

Platform of 1912 397
sanitation in work places and reasonable hours of
labor according to standards to be fixed and enforced
by the Department of Labor.
Health
-We favor the strengthening of the various agen
cies of the government relating to pure foods, quar
antine and health, and their union into a single
United States Health Service not subordinated to
any other interest, commercial or financial, but
devoted to co-operation with the health activities
of the various states and cities of the nation, and to
such efforts as are consistent with reasonable per
sonal liberty, looking to the elimination of unneces
sary disease and to the lengthening of human life.
Conservation
We pledge the preservation of the mines and
water powers in this country to the whole people
and particularly the beneficial control by the gov
ernment of our coal supply whether in public or
private possession. We pledge an appropriation for
the further exploration for phosphate beds, to be
taken over and operated by the government. We
pledge the increase of the forest domain and the
extension of scientific forest development. We
pledge a thorough investigation into living condi
tions and especially into the conditions of rural life,
and legislation to encourage rural co-operation and
credit, land purchase by actual settlers, with the
aid of long-time favorable government loans, the
increase of rural education, and to prevent the
growth of monopoly and monopoly values in land.

398 La Follette's Political Philosophy
all looking to the encouragement of the tiller of the
soil and to the reduction of the cost of living.
Alaska
Alaska contains untold wealth in coal, lumber,
copper, and other natural resources, for the upbuild
ing of industry and commerce and for the conquest
of the markets of the Orient and South America.
The government still has it in its power to save this
vast storehouse of supplies from the interests which
have monopolized the natural resources of the na
tion. Before the monopoly of the anthracite coal of
Pennsylvania in the days of free competition, that
coal sold at from $2.50 to $3.00 a ton at the sea
board. Independent producers were destroyed by
discriminations and rebates and the oppressive
methods exercised by monopoly of transportation.
Today, 96 per cent, of the anthracite coal mines are
owned and controlled by great railroads. The coal
costs at the mouth of the mine, $1.84 per ton, and
sells at the Atlantic seaboard at $6.00 to $7.00 per
ton. To preserve Alaska for all the people, to develop
its untouched resources, we should adopt the plan
so successfully carried through in Panama, where
the government has built and now maintains a rail
way and Atlantic steamship Hne. We should util
ize the Panama Commission, a highly trained, effici
ent body of men, which has mastered almost every
conceivable engineering emergency, to build gov
ernment owned and operated railways, terminals,
docks, harbors, and to operate coal mines to the
end that the last remaining patrimony of the nation
shall forever be free from the control of monopoly.

Platform of 1912 399
We should own and operate a government line of
steamships, running from Alaska by way of Pacific
ports through the Panama Canal to New York, thus
relieving the Atlantic and Pacific seaboard from the
oppression of transcontinental lines. And we favor
the immediate enactment of such legislation as will
preserve this remaining heritage of the nation, and
develop it for the benefit of all the people.
Panama Canal
The construction of the Panama Canal was de
signed to give the public the benefit of water com
petition as a protection against excessive transcon
tinental railway rates. The American people as
sumed the enormous burden required for the great
est of all engineering projects at a total cost, with
purchase of treaty rights, of $375,000,000. Al
ready the interests are organized to secure the ex
clusive benefits to flow from the construction of the
Panama Canal. In order to preserve their present
high railway rates, they seek to make the water rate
by the canal expensive by imposing a heavy tax
upon domestic commerce through the canal. These
interests must be made to keep their powerful hands
off this canal and the steamship lines as well. The
people have paid for its construction, as they have
paid for improving the rivers and harbors, and
should resist now any further attempt on the part
of the railroads to rob the public of all advantages
resulting from a reduced rate by water.
We favor such legislation as will insure the do
mestic commerce of this country, when carried in
American ships, passage through the Panama Canal
free of all tolls.

400 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Interstate Commerce
The life of the nation is close-woven with the
means of transportation upon which communities
must depend in trade and commerce. The railways,
which are clearly defined by law to be public serv
ants, have become more powerful than their cre
ators. Two thousand independent competing com
panies have merged into a half dozen groups con
trolled by a handful of men. They have issued bil
lions of securities that represent no investment by
their owners. Thousands of millions have wrong
fully been extorted from consumers and invested in
permanent improvements and extensions, and there
upon capitalized and made an excuse for still greater
extortions. The gross railway earnings of the
country have reached the enormous total of more
than two billion eight hundred million dollars an
nually. This transportation tax is mainly levied
upon the necessaries of life. Railway rates and
charges are not adjusted to the cost of the service.
They are fixed by what the traffic will stand. The
sacrifice and the hardships of the farmer and the
worker, because of this unchecked power to collect
such tribute as the masters of transportation dictate
will never be known. No effective regulation of
railways is possible until we know the cost of serv
ice, and the cost of service depends upon the value
of the property used in the business, the cost of
maintaining the property„and the cost of operation.
We favor the reasonable valuation of the physical
properties of interstate railroad, telegraph, tele
phone and other public utility companies, justly in
ventoried and determined upon a sound economic

Platform of 191 2 401
basis, distinguishing actual values from monopoly
values, derived from violations of law, and making
such discriminating values, so ascertained, the base
Hne for determining rates. With such a valuation
the country would know how much of the total
value of railway property represented by the eigh
teen billions of stocks and bonds issued against that
property was contributed by those who own the
railroads, and how much by the people themselves,
in excessive rates. The Interstate Commerce Com
mission is wholly unable to deal with the problem
under existing law. It can at present do no more than
check some of the most flagrant abuses. We should
recognize the magnitude of the undertaking to con-
tiol and regulate interstate commerce. We favor
such amendment and revision of existing law as
shall provide for a nation wide supervision of rail
way transportation and services by the division of
the country into districts, in each of which a subsid
iary commission should be established to regulate
and control the railways within its jurisdiction, re
taining the present interstate commerce commission
to which appeals should He from the orders of the
subsidiary commissions. Only by such comprehen
sive control can the shippers and consumers of the
country be assured adequate protection.
Joint Control of Production and Transportation
Common ownership, operation or control of mines
or manufactories and public railroads, is inseparable
from discrimination and resulting extortions. We
oppose all combinations whereby, through joint
ownership or control, the public-service corpora-

402 La Follette's Political Philosophy
tions engaged in transportation, including pipe lines,
operate in conjunction with coal, iron ore, oil, or
other private agencies of production.
Parcels Post and Express
We pledge the extension of the postal service to
include a parcels post, offe^ring, against the service
of the private express monopoly, a cheap and direct
means of transportation between the producer and
the consumer, upon a charge based upon distance
and the actual cost of operation.
Good Roads
Recognizing the demand and necessity for Good
Roads, we favor state and national aid for their
construction and maintenance, under a plan which
will insure its benefits alike to all communities upon
their own initiative. Ship Subsidy
We are unequivocally opposed to a ship subsidy
in any form as vicious and indefensible in principle.
Once entrenched, it would become another corrupt
ing influence in our politics.
War Expenditures
We are opposed to further extravagance on the
advice of interested persons only in building battle
ships and political navy yards, and favor the es
tablishment of an unprejudiced commission to in
vestigate and report what is required in the way of
national defense. "Dollar Diplomacy"
We condemn the "dollar diplomacy" which has
reduced our state department from its high plane as

Platform of 1912 403
a kindly intermediary of defenseless nations into a
trading out-post for Wall Street interests, aiming
to exploit those who would be our friends.
Income and Inheritance Taxes
We collect the revenues to maintain our national
government through taxing consumption. These
taxes upon the consumer are levied upon articles of
universal use. They bear most heavily upon the
poor and those of moderate means. Other coun
tries tax incomes and inheritances at a progressive
rate. The burdens of our people should be equal
ized; wealth should bear its share.
We favor the adoption of the pending income tax
amendment to the constitution and thereupon the
immediate passage of a graduated income tax law,
and we pledge the enactment of a law taxing inherit
ances at a progressive rate.
Initiative, Referendum and Recall
Over and above constitutions and statutes, and
greater than all, is the supreme sovereignty of the
people. Whenever the initiative, referendum and
the recall have been adopted by state governments,
it has stimulated the interest of the citizen in his
government and awakened a deeper sense of re
sponsibility. If it is wise to entrust the people with
this power in state government, no one can chal
lenge the extension of this po'v^er to the national
government. We favor such amendments to the
federal constitution, and thereupon the enactment
of such statutes as may be necessary to extend the
initiative, the referendum and the recall to repre
sentatives in Congress and United States senators.

404 La Follette's Political Philosophy
So long as judges are the final makers of statute
and constitutional law, government by the people
becomes government by a judicial oligarchy. The
people are the source of all power, and we favor the
extension of the recall to the judiciary with safe
guards as to lapse of time between the petition and
the vote. Amending the Federal Constitution
Under a democratic form of government, the
right to amend and alter their Constitution is in
herent in the sovereignty of the people. But the
methods of amendment prescribed in the Constitu
tion, framed when this government was a small
community with a total population of only four
million, render it almost impossible of application
by a nation of ninety milHon people, divided into
forty-eight states, with a most complex social and
industrial life. For more than fifty years an over
whelming majority of all the voters have struggled
i:i vain so to amend the Constitution to insure the
election of United States Senators by. direct vote of
the people. The public interest demands that this
should be remedied.
We favor such amendment to the Constitution as
will permit a change to be made therein by a ma
jority of the votes cast upon a proposed amendment
in a majority of the states, provided a majority of
all the votes cast in the country shall be in favor of
its adoption. An amendment may be initiated by a
majority in Congress, or by ten states acting either
through the legislators thereof or through a major
ity of the electors voting thereon in each state.

Platform of 191 2 405
Presidential Primaries
In the conflict with privilege now on, much prog
ress has already been made through the direct
primary. We favor the enactment of a federal stat<
ute providing for the nomination of all candidates
for President, Vice President, and Representatives
in Congress, by direct vote of the people at a pri
mary election held in all states upon the same day,
the question of closed or open primaries to be de
termined by each state for itself.
The law should provide that, after the nomination
of candidates for president and vice president by the
primary, national platform conventions shall be held
for each political party recognized by law, the ex
penses of attendance by members to be paid from
the public treasury. Corrupt Practices
We pledge legislation providing for the widest
publicity and strictest Hmitation of campaign ex
penditures and the detailed publication of all cam
paign contributions and expenditures, both as to
sources and purposes, at frequent intervals before
primaries and election as well as after.
Direct Election of Senators
We pledge support of the pending amendment to
the Constitution for the election of Senators of the
United States by direct vote.
Equal Suffrage
We favor the extension of the suffrage to women.

4o6 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Legislation and Publicity
We pledge the enactment of a law requiring all
congressional committee hearings to be public and
providing for a permanent public record of all ap
pearances and votes at committee meetings and for
the strictest regulation of the acts of all persons
employed for pecuniary consideration to oppose or
promote legislation.
Legislative Reference Department
The growth of statute law, resulting from the in
creasing economic problems, urgently requires in
creased attention to the facilities for the enactment
of legislation, in the most effective and serviceable
form. We pledge the establishment of a non-partisan
federal legislative reference and drafting bureau.
Civil Service
We pledge the extension of the civil service law
to all branches of the federal service and the aboli
tion of useless sinecures, and pledge the strengthen
ing and enforcement of the law prohibiting the use
of federal employees to perpetuate the power of an
existing administration. Justice and efficiency re
quire an extension to all classes of civil service
employees of the benefits of the provisions of the
compensation act, and a provision by law for a di
rect petition to Congress by civil service employees
for redress of their grievances.

LA FOLLETTE'S PERSONAL PLATFORM
IN 1912
Published on the eve of the presidential primaries in
1912 in La Follette's Magazine under the title, "The Re
publican Party Faces a Crisis."
HERE is just one overmastering issue
in this campaign. What are we going
to do with the railroads, the trusts and
the money power?
The trusts and the money power are
making their final stand to perpetuate their power.
The supreme court is with them. They only need
a president and a congress that will legalize their
capitalization ; that, under the guise of regulation
by government will fix their prices and wages so as
to earn a profit on these illegal values ; that, under
the guise of providing elasticity in our currency
system, will perpetuate their control of the people's
deposits and savings.
Let the people not be misled. Let no mistake be
made at this time, which, under the pretense of
putting control in the hands of the people will really
take away from them the chance of ever getting
control. I am opposed to anything like federal incorpora
tion, federal license, the Aldrich currency scheme-
or any other scheme that looks towards clinching
the illegal power that has now been concentrated in
a few hands. I demand a physical valuation that
will gradually squeeze out the water. I demand a
dear definition of monopoly and restraints so that

4o8 La Follette's Political Philosophy
business that is not a monopoly shall know where it
stands- under the Sherman law.
I demand protection of wage-earners and farmers
in their right to organize and to defend themselves
by means of unions.
All other issues are subordinate to this great
issue. They are methods and means. As such, I
demand the initiative, referendum and recall — na
tional as well as state — direct primaries, income and
inheritance taxes, parcels post and government own
ership of express companies, government owner
ship and operation of Alaskan railroads, coal mines
and a steamship line, free use of the Panama canal
to American ships, a national policy of internal
waterways, a tariff based on the difference in the
labor costs of production and conditioned on labor
receiving its benefits.
Industrial and commercial tyranny destroys in
dividual freedom. We may have the privilege of
the ballot. We may have the form and semblance
of democracy, but in the end industrial servitude
means political servitude.
We are building up colossal fortunes, granting
unlimited power to corporations and consolidating
and massing together business interests as never
before in the history of the world — but the people
-are losing control of their own government. Its
foundations are being sapped and its integrity de
stroyed. The republican party is facing a crisis in its his
tory. Two courses are open before it. The rank
and file of the party, organized to restore human

La Follette's Personal Platform in 191 2 409
rights and preserve free institutions, will tolerate
no further temporizing with existing conditions.
The republican party cannot ignore the social in
justice, the industrial and commercial oppression
which everywhere prevails. It can honestly face
these conditions and with firmness and patience and
wisdom make an end of them.
For 20 years I have pursued an uncompromising
course whose goal was Hberty and equality, an even
chance for every man, woman and child — the right
to buy, the right to sell our labor and the products
of our labor in a free, open American market. For
20 years I have fought for real representative gov
ernment, fought to make the will of the people the
law of the land. I do not now propose to abandon
that course, and today, as well as at the Chicago
convention and always, I shall struggle for these
practical reforms which, as I see it, will achieve so
cial justice and human welfare.
La Follette's Magazine, April, 1912.

PLATFORM OF 1916
Submitted by the Wisconsin delegation at the republi
can national convention in 1916, and rejected by the con
vention. Tariff
E favor a protective tariff the schedule
of which shall be based upon the as
certained difference in the labor in this
country and abroad and which shall be
so adjusted as to assure its benefit to
labor and yet not tax the consumer to cover ineffi
cient management nor place a, premium on the ex
haustion of our national resources. The investiga
tion of these facts and the revision of these schedules
should be made by a nonpartisan tariff commission,
subject to the action of Congress.
Patents
Inventions should be fully developed and util
ized for the public benefit under reasonable regula
tion by the Federal Trade Commission. We pledge
the enactment of a patent law which will .protect
the inventor as well as the public, and which can
not be used against the public welfare in the interest
cf injurious monopolies. Ship Subsidies
We are unequivocally opposed to ship subsidies.
We believe the American merchant marine can be
builded upon a stable basis by equalizing the cost
of building and the costs of operation. We com
mend the enactment of the so-called Seamen's Law

Platform ofi9i6 411
which gave freedom to seamen and equalized the
labor costs of ship operation between vessels of
the United States and foreign countries. We in
sist upon the proper enforcement of that act and
demand legislation to equalize the cost of ship con
struction. Social Welfare
A well nurtured, well developed, loyal citizenship
is essential to National defense. Without such a
body of citizens, physical resources are of little
value. The nation best commands an adequate de
fense that most efficiently safeguards against exr
ploitation and most adequately provides for the ma
terial and physical well-being of its citizens. We
favor laws to assure the greatest possible safety to
'workmen from industrial accidents and vocational
diseases, to provide compensation for occupational
accidents and diseases, to facilitate and encourage
safe provisions for dependents and for old age, to
strictly regulate and control the employment of
women and children, to secure the fullest inquiry
and publicity with regard to Hving conditions and
conditions of employment, to encourage the organi
zation of workmen and farmers to co-operate in the
distribution of products and the elimination of un
necessary expense, loss and waste and to promote
their education, efficiency and general welfare.
Health
We favor the strengthening of the various
agencies of the government relating to pure foods,
quarantine and health, and their union into a single
'United States Health Service not subordinated to

412 La Follette's Political Philosophy
any interest, commercial or financial, but devoted
to co-operation with the health activities of the va
rious states and cities of the nation, and to such
efforts as are consistent with reasonable personal
liberty, looking to the elimination of unnecessary
disease and the lengthening of human life.
Government Manufacture of Munitions
We favor a comprehensive survey by the govern
ment of the industries, transportation and other re
sources of the United States and such organization
thereof in times of peace, that in time of war every
resource of the country shall be available immedi
ately for the needs of the government. National
defense should involve equal sacrifice and there
should be no private profit from war or preparation
for war. The private manufacture of munitions of
war furnishes a direct incentive to war. Govern
ment manufacture of munitions by eliminating pri
vate profit, does away with the desire for war. We
pledge the government manufacture of all munitions
and vessels of war in time of peace, and in time of
war the requisition and operation by the govern
ment of privately owned plants so far as needed.
Naval Supplies
We pledge ourselves to the acquisition and opera
tion by the government of coal mines and oil wells
upon the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts and in Alaska
for the supply of the Navy and other governmental
departments with fuel and oil.
Taxation
Great fortunes have been gained through the
manufacture and sale of munitions of war to belH-

Platform ofi9i6 413
gerent European countries. We believe that those
who have directly profited by the European war
should contribute a portion of such profits to pay
the increased expenses of our government caused
by expansion of our military program. We there
fore favor paying for such increased expenditures
by increasing the sur-tax upon incomes, levying a
tax upon all manufacturers of munitions of war,
and a graduated Federal Inheritance Tax with rea
sonable exemptions. Strict Neutrality
We insist that this country shall maintain strict
neutrality toward nations engaged in war, thus pre
serving friendly relations with all belligerents and
keeping open the door of opportunity to service in
promoting just terms of peace. We pledge to so
amend our neutrality laws as to make it the duty
of the President, by Executive order, to preserve the
perfect balance of our neutrality even at the sacri
fice of profits to the money power and the manufac
turers of arms and ammunitions.
Conference of Neutral Nations for Peace
We favor a conference of neutral nations with a
view to a permanent organization to promote peace,
prevent wars and aid in the settlement of interna
tional questions and the adjustment of differences
between nations at war.
International Peace Tribunal
To compose the differences of nations and to main
tain World peace, we favor the creation of an inter
national Tribunal to which shall be referred for

414 La Follette's Pohtical Philosophy
final settlement, all issues between nations, and
upon the establishment of such a Tribunal we favor
action by our government toward general disarma
ment of the nations of the World; and that an
adequate International Army and Navy be main
tained under the command of such Tribunal to en
force its decrees. Referendum On War
We favor a law providing for a popular expres
sion of opinion by the voters for or against war
with any foreign government with which the Presi
dent shall have severed diplomatic relations.
Foreign Relations
We denounce the un-American and undemocratic
secret diplomacy which continually threatens the
honor, peace and security of our country, and we
favor full and immediate publicity in all our rela
tions with foreign governments.
Dollar Diplomacy
The natural resources of our country have been
largely monopolized by privileged interests. These
interests have formed taon,ster combinations in
every important industry, controlling production and
prices and creating a vast surplus wealth. This
excess capital which might otherwise be loaned at
reduced interest rates to the people from whom it
has been wrongfully exacted, has been withdrawn
from the country by the masters of finance and used
to secure concessions in oil, coal, timber and min
eral lands in Mexico, Central and South American
countries, and loaned in China and elsewhere at

Platform ofi9i6 415
usurious rates and extortionate commissions, thus
enabling these interests to control the natural re
sources of the weaker nations and exploit their
helpless peoples.
In support of this system in recent years there
has been an attempt to establish and maintain a
foreign policy of "Dollar Diplomacy" ¦ that would
make our government the guarantor for the private
investments of our privileged interests in foreign
countries. Back of this foreign policy lies in large part the
demand for a big army and a big navy to enforce
the collection of the private claims and protect the
concessions and investments of these interests.
These same interests own the munition plants
which fatten off the great government contracts to
supply- the big army and build the big navy main
tained by taxing our people.
We denounce this mercenary system of a de
graded foreign policy which has at times reduced
our State Department from its high service as a
strong and kindly intermediary of defenseless gov
ernments into a trading outpost for those privileged
interests and concession seekers engaged in exploit
ing weaker nations.
We pledge ourselves against "Dollar Diplomacy"
and the identification of the government with the
claims of concession seekers, financiers and privi
leged interests operating in weaker countries.
Woman's Suffrage
We favor the extension of suffrage to women.

4i6 La Follette's Political Philosophy
Initiative, Referendum and Recall
Over and above constitutions and statutes and
greater than all, is the supreme sovereignty of the
people. Whenever the initiative, referendum and
the recall have been adopted by state governments,
it has stimulated the interest of the citizen in his
government and awakened a deeper sense of respon
sibility. If it is wise to entrust the people with this
power in state government, no one can challenge the
extension of this power to the national government.
We favor such amendments to the federal constitu
tion and thereupon the enactment of such statutes
as may be necessary to extend the initiative, the ref
erendum and the recall to representatives in Con
gress and United States Senators.
Legislation and Publicity
We pledge the enactment of a law requiring all
congressional committee hearings to be public and
providing for a permanent public record of all ap
pearances and votes at committee meetings and for
the strictest regulation of the acts of all persons
employed for pecuniary consideration to oppose or
promote legislation.

PLATFORM OF 1920
The following platform was issued by the La Follette
Progressive Republican candidates for seats in the Re
publican National Convention in 1920. The primary on
April 2, 1920, resulted in the election of twenty-four out
of a possible twenty-six delegates. The platform was
submitted at the Republican national convention but was
rejected by the convention.
I. We favor the immediate conclusion of peace
and resumption of trade with all countries.
II. We are opposed to the League of Nations as
a standing menace to peace, and we denounce the
I'reaty as a violation of the pledges made to the
world and a betrayal of the honor of this nation.
It would make us a party to the enslavement of
Egypt and India, the rape of China, and the ruthless
oppression of Ireland.
III. We would favor a League for Peace, com
posed of all the nations of the world, provided they
were mutually pledged by binding convenants, with
proper guarantees, to abolish compulsory military
service, and provided further, that the several na
tions mutually bind themselves to a speedy disarm
ament, reducing the land and naval forces of each
nation to the strict requirements of a purely police
and patrol service.
IV. We demand the immediate restoration of
free speech, free press, peaceable assembly, and all
civil rights and liberties guaranteed by the consti
tution. We favor the repeal of the Espionage and
Sedition Act, and denounce the attempt to write
such laws into the permanent statutes of the country.

4i8 La Follette's Political Philosophy
V. We oppose all legislation conferring upon the
Postmaster General, or any other governmental
agency, the power to deny the mailing privilege to
any person without judicial hearing, and the right
of appeal.
VI. We oppose compulsory military service in
time of peace. We denounce the use of our soldiers
in countries with which we are not at war, and we
favor the speedy reduction of world armaments.
VII. We oppose the exile of any person law
fully admitted to this country, except for crime fixed
by law, and then only upon trial and conviction by
jury. VIII. We demand the abolition of injunctions
in labor disputes.
IX. We favor laws permitting labor and farm
organizations, for the purpose of collective bargain
ing, in industry, trade and commerce.
X. We favor such legislation as may be needful
and helpful in promoting direct co-operation and
eliminating waste, speculation and excessive profits
between producer and consumer, as offering some
measure of relief from the oppressive and intolerable
economic conditions under which the farmer, the
wage-earner, and people generally suffer at this
time. XI. We favor repeal of the Esch-Cummins rail
road law, by which the people are forced to guaran
tee railroad profit, while such railroads are privately
owned, and declare for the ultimate public owner
ship of railroads, and the gradual acquisition of
stock yard terminals, large packing plants, and all

Platform of 1920 419
other natural resources, the private ownership of
which is the basis of private monopoly.
XII. We demand economy in government, to
replace the extravagance run riot under the present
administration. The expenses of the present year
of peace, it has been estimated, will be approxi
mately $11,000,000,000, or ten fimes the annual pre
war expense.
XIII. We condemn the system that permits
18,000 millionaires to be produced from war-profits
— one millionaire for every three American soldiers
killed in France. We demand that taxes be laid
upon wealth in proportion to ability to pay, in such
manner as will prevent such tax burdens being
shifted to the backs of the poor, in higher prices and
increased cost of living.
XIV. We denounce the alarming usurpation of
legislative power, by the federal courts, as subver
sive of democracy, and we favor such amendments
tc the constitution, and thereupon, the enactment of
such statutes as may be necessary, to provide for
the election of all federal judges, for fixed terms not
exceeding ten years, by direct vote of the people.
XV. We favor such amendments to the Consti
tution, and thereupon the enactment of such statutes
as may be necessary to extend the initiative and the
referendum, to national legislation, and the recall
to Representatives in Congress and United States
Senators. XVI. We favor paying the soldiers of the late
war a sufficient sum to make their war wages equal
to at least civilian pay, and this as a matter of right.

420 La Follette's Political Philosophy
and not as charity, or bonus. We favor other laws
liberally recognizing the patriotic devotion of our
soldiers in all our wars.
XVII. We favor a deep waterway from the
Great Lakes to the sea. The government should, in
conjunction with Canada, take immediate action to
give the Northwestern states an outlet~to the ocean
ior cargoes, without change in bulk, thus making
the primary markets on the great lakes equal to
those of New York.
XVIII. We favor a platform for the Republican
party, embracing these principles, and a candidate
for president whose public record is a guaranty that
he is in full accord therewith.

Index

Index

ACADEMIC freedom, 305.
Address before periodi
cal publishers, 345.
Agriculture and co-opera
tion, 280-8.
Alaska, 1912 platform pledge,
398; saving of its re
sources, 335; government
ownership of railroads, 408.
Aldrich, Nelson B., currency-
plan, 390, 407; currency
bni, 170-1.
Allies, honest dealing with,
245.
Alumni, address to Wiscon
sin, 295.
Amending national banking
law, 166.
America, making of, 109.
American soldier, 275-9.
Amnesty demanded. 248.
Anti-trust laws, failure of,
105.
Armed ship bill, 207.
Asia, white man's injustice
to, 261.
Associated Press retracts er
ror, 350.
Australian ballot, 30, 37, 40,
51, 55.
BAKER, Newton D., 248.
Ballot, at bottom of re
form, 27, 127; see Austra
lian ballot.
Bank law, postal, 324.
Banking and currency, 1912
platform pledge, 388;
money and, 166-172.
Barton, Albert O., 12.
Bascom, President John, 300-
302.
Bethlehem Steel Co., 194.
Big- business and govern
ment, 148, 164.
Bosses, political, 32, 376.
Brewster, Thomas T., 317.
¦British empire and league,
262.
Bryan, W. J., 10.

rjANADIAN reciprocity pact,
Carrier's one duty, 89.
Catholic Order of Foresters,
address to, 364.
Caucus reform, 33-4, 36-7,
38-41, 49, 57.
Cecil, Lord Robert, 232.
Chicago, tax scandal ex
posed, 347; Tribune, mis
quotes La Follette, 349.
Children's Bureau, 140.
China, 262.
Citizenship, obligations of,
293.
Civil service, 1912 platform
pledge, 406.
Coal lands, Indian, 329.
Coal strike, 314.
Coast defense, favored, 192.
Collective bargaining. 1920
platform pledge, 418.
Commerce court opposed,
115.
Comparative negligence prin
ciple established, 140.
Compromise, La Follette on,
150.
Compulsory military service
opposed, 1920 platform
pledge, 418.
Conference system in Con
gress opposed, 19, 157.
Conference of neutrals for
peace, 1916 platform pledge,
413.
Congress, committee system
criticized, 309; right to de
clare war's objects. 235;
should prescribe foreign
policies, 204.
Congressional Record, cost
of reprints, 377.
Conscription, draft and, 215-
219
Conservation. 325-37: 1912
platform pledge, 397,
Constitution, amending of,
1912 platform pledge, 404:
treaty and, 254.

422

Index

Cooper law, 28.
Co-operation, agriculture
and, 280-8.
Co-operation in marketing,
1920 platform pledge, 418.
Corporations, police pow^er
bill vetoed, 321.
Corrupt practices act, 149,
176; 1912 platform pledge,
405.
County ofBcers, direct nomi
nation bill vetoed, 41-7.
Court of commerce. La Fol-
¦ lette opposes, 115.
Courts and labor combina
tions, 130.
Crime of profits guarantee,
112.
Cummins, A. B., 103.
Currency, banking and, 388;
reform, 170.
T~\BEP waterway, 1920 plat-
^-' form pledge, 420.
Democracy, 13, 20.
Denial of mailing rights
opposed, 1920 platform
pledge, 418.
Department of Labor, 1912
platform pledge, 396.
Deportation policy, 1920 plat
form pledge, 418.
De Tocqueville, 15.
De Valera, E., 261.
Direct election of senators,
1912 platform pledge; di
rect nominations, see Pri
mary elections.
Discrimination, evils of, 90.
Dqg tax discrimination, 64.
Dollar diploniacy, 1912 plat
form pledge, 402; 1916
pledge, 414.
Dolliver, Jonathan P., 139.
Domain, waste of public,
332; see a;lso Conservation.
Draft and conscription, 2lB-
219.
DijPont Powder Co., 194.
g CONOMIC problems, 314-
Economy in government,
1920 platform pledge, 419.
Education and public serv
ice, 289-313.
Egypt, justice denied, 256.
Eight-hour law, 134; for fed
eral work, 1908 platform
pledge, 387.
Election of federal judges,
179; 1920 platform pledge,
419.

Employers' liability, bill, 139-
140; 1908 platform pledge,
387
Equal suffrage, 338-44; 1912
platform pledge, 405; 1916
pledge, 415.
Esch-Cummins law, 98, 100,
114; repeal, 1920 platform
pledge, 418.
Espionage act, 237-8.
Evans, Henry Clay, 169.
Expenditures, control of
campaign, 17; for war,
1912 platform pledge, 402.
fr" ARM life of future; 280;
-•¦ farmer nation's hope,
282; farmers, why organiz
ing, 287; organizations ex
empt from monopoly stat
ute, 106.
Federal judges and injunc
tions, 179-81.
Federal trade commission,
410; 1912 platform pledge,
390-92.
Fern Dell, 'Wisconsin, speech,
118-9.
Folk, Joseph, 311.
Foraker, Joseph B., 150.
Foreign policies. Congress
should prescribe, 204; 1916
platform pledge, 414.
Frawley, M. S., 298.
Freedom of speech and press,
231-50; 1920 platform
pledge, 417; academic, 305.
Fuller, Hugh, 138.
Furuseth, Andrew, 145, 371.
GALLINGER, Jacob H., 159.
Good roads, 1912 plat
form pledge, 402; Good
Roads Association of Wis
consin, 286.
Gore, Thomas P., 221.
Government control vital, 86;
94; of raw materials, 123.
Government ownership, 72-
101, 124; 1920 platform
pledge, 418.
Granger legislation in Wis
consin, 76, %1, 183.
Great Britain, territorial
gains from war, 255.
HALL, A. R., 28; address at
funeral, 360.
Health, 1912 platform pledge,
397; 1916 pledge, 411.
High school, address to Eau
Cla.lre, Wis., 298.
Holmes, Fred L., 12.
Holy Alliance, 261.

Index

423

I

Honesty in politics, La Fol
lette on, 59.
Howard TJniversity, address
to law class, 362.
Huber, Henry A., 246.
LLINOIS, railway laws, 82,
85.
Immediate peace, 1920 plat
form pledge, 417.
Income and inheritance taxes,
1912 platform pledge, 403.
India, 262.
Indian coal lands, 329.
Inheritance tax, federal, 413.
Initiative, referendum, recall,
173-178; 1912 platform
pledge, 403; 1916 pledge,
416; 1920 pledge, 419.
Injunctions, abolition, 1908
platform pledge, 386; 1912
pledge, 396; 1920 pledge,
418; federal judges and,
179-81.
Insurance (life) legislation,
319.
Interlocking of directorates,
172.
International relations, 270-
274.
Interstate commerce com
mission, 86, 88, 96-7; 1908
platform pledge, 381; 1912
pledge, 400.
Iowa, railway laws, 82, 85.
Ireland, martyred, 274.
JOINT control of production
" and transportation, 1912
platform pledge, 401.
"Jokers," in legislation, 159.
Judiciary, 179; judicial oli
garchy, 180; election of
federal judges, 179, 419.
KANE, Acting Commission
er, 171.
Kenyon, William S., 375.
King, Willard I., 375.
King, wniiam H., 120.
Kolchak, Admiral, 272.
Kosciuszko, 261.
Kossuth, 261.
LABOR and its rights, 129-
147.
Labor articles in treaty, 252.
Labor combinations, courts
and, 130.
Labor department, 1908 plat
form pledge, 387.
La Follette, Robert M.,
Acceptance of gubernato
rial nomination, 154-7.
Address at St. Louis expo
sition, 366.

Address at funeral of A.
R. Hall, 360.
Address before periodical
publishers, 345.
Aids highway legislation,
285.
Debate with Senator King,
120.
Disregards personal abuse,
367.
Elected U. S. Senator, 184.
Foreign culture, views on,
363.
Influence of John Bascom,
300-2.
Intervie-w on government
ownership, 93.
Magazine, salutatory, 353.
Misquoted by press, 349.
Peace resolution, 231-5.
Personal platform in 1912,
407.
Pioneer in conservation
movement, 329; in pro
gressive movement, 10-
11.
Platform of 1908, 380; of
1912, 388; 1912 personal
platform, 407; of 1916,
410; of 1920, 417.
Policy when misrepresent
ed, 377.
Replies to war critics, 236.
St. Paul speech, 349.
Vetoes county officers' pri
mary election bill, 41-7.
Vetoes police power bill,
321.
Voting record on war
measures, 246-8.
Water power control
championed, 336.
La Follette, Mrs. Robert M.,
"Marching in a Suffrage
Parade," 342.
League of Nations, 251-69;
and British empire, 262;
opposed, 1920 platform
pledge, 417.
League for peace, 1920 plat
form pledge, 417.
Legislation, private control
of, 168; and publicity, 1912
platform pledge, 406; 1916
pledge, 416.
Legislative reference depart
ment, 1912 platform pledge,
406.
Lewis primary bill, 29.
Life insurance legislation,
319.
Lincoln, Abraham, 155; on
subjugation of weaker
peoples, 264-5.

424

Index

Literary Digest, misquotes
La Follette, 350.
Lobby, legislative, 148.
Louisiana Purchase exposi
tion, address at, 366.
Mc ADOO, W. G., 99.
McCormick, Medill, 102.
McCumber, Porter J., 228.
Magazine, La Follette's sa
lutatory, 353.
Magazine, mission of, 353;
surrender of, 355.
McGovern, F. B., vetoes suf
frage, 339.
Machine, political, 33, 43, 53,
59, 376.
Meaning of war, 200.
Mexico and financial imperi
alism, 195.
Miles, Nelson A., 191.
Militia, place of, 275.
Militarism, 190-9.
Military service, compulsory,
opposed, platform pledge,
418.
Milwaukee, traction grab
exposed, 346; Sentinel, 377.
Miners, strike, 314.
Mines, Bureau of, 1908 plat
form pledge, 387.
Minnesota, railways laws,
82, 85.
Money and banking, 166-72
see also Banking.
Monopoly and people, 112
and radicalism, 126; cause
of high prices, 124, 165
strikes and, 125; and
trusts, 104-28; statute ex
empts farm organizations,
106.
Munitions, government man
ufacture of, 1916 platform
pledge, 412.
"VTAVAL appropriations, 192:
-¦-^ supplies, 1916 platform
pledge, 412.
Neutrals, rights of, 272.
Neutral nations, La Fol
lette's resolution for con
ference, 200, 239; appeal
for, 202.
Neutrality, true course of,
213, 272; 1916 platform
pledge, 413.
New Haven railroad speech,
117.
New Jersey, Men's Equal
Suffrage League, 344.
Newspaper, the modern, 345.
New York Evening Post, edi
torial on La Follette, 351;

Times, misquotes La Fol
lette, 350.
Nominations, direct, see Pri
mary elections.
Non-Partisan league, 117,
287; address before at St.
Paul, 349.
OREGON, People's party
fate, 93.
PACKERS, 153.
Panama canal, 1912 plat
form pledge, 399.
Parcel post and express,
1912 platform pledge, 402.
Parties, political, 13-17,- 21-5;
loyalty to, 311.
Patents, 1912 platform
pledge, 392; 1916 pledge,
410.
Patriotism, and party loy
alty, 311.
Patrons of Husbandry, 183.
Peace resolution. La Fol
lette's, 231-5.
Peace tribunal, 1916 plat
form pledge, 413.
Penrose, Boies, 370.
People, and private monop
oly, 112; retain right to
control government, 237;
sovereign power of, 213.
Philadelphia, franchise-grab
bing exposed, 346.
Philipp, Emanuel L., 306.
Placing the responsibility,
153.
Platform of 1908, 380-7; of
1912, 388-406; La Follette's
personal platform in 1912,
407-9; of 1916, 410-416; of
1920, 417-20.
Platform pledges, 18, 21-25,
45, 58, 380-420.
Police power,, veto of cor
poration's, 321.
Political machine, see Ma
chine.
Postal bank law, 324; sav
ings banks, 168.
Potter law, 77,
Preparedness should be for
defense, 190.
Presidential primaries, 1912
platform pledge, 405.
Press, and public, 345-59;
how controlled, 347; liow
Russianized, 352; subsi
dized, 348.
Price control, 106; prices,
monopoly cause of high,
124, 165: fixing by govern
ment, 121.

Index

425

Primary elections, 19, 27, 29-
31, 34, 37, 41-5, 48, 55-6,
155, 175; Lewis bill, 29;
primary as citizen's right,
36; presidential, 1912 plat
form pledge, 405; bill ap
plying to county officers
vetoed, 41-7.
Profits, guarantee of, 112.
Profiteering, war taxes and,
220-30; profiteers should
pay war costs, 228.
Progressive movement, 182-
9; principles of, 1920 plat
form pledge, 420.
Progressive Republican plat
forms, 380, 388, 407, 410,
417.
Property rights, 179.
Public opinion, 356.
Public rights in water pow
ers, 325.
Public service, 289-313.
Publicity, spoils corpora
tion's game, 80; of cam
paign contributions, 1908
platform pledge, 385.
Pulitzer case, 352.
RADICALISM, monopoly
and, 126.
Railroads, eight-hour law
for, 134; make fortunes out
of war, 226; private opera
tion a failure, 112; regu
lation of and government
ownership, 72-101, 124, 418;
Wisconsin bill, 97; 'Wiscon
sin commission, 19, 72, 74.
Rate-making, valuation as
basis, 95.
Rates of telephone compa
nies, 1908 platform pledge,
386; and wages, 93.
Rebates, 70.
Recall, 173-8.
Referendum, 173; on "war,
1916 platform pledge, 414.
Reformer, the, 25-6.
Repeal of espionage act,
1920 platform pledge, 417.
Representative government,
13-26, 44, 175.
Republican party, future of,
312.
Resolution for conference of
neutral nations, 200.
Restraint of trade criminal,
106.
Roads, 'Wisconsin farmers'
need, 285.
Roe, Gilbert E., 351.
Roosevelt, Theodore, ac
knowledges La Follette's
progressivism, 10; anti

trust prosecutions, 384;
conservation policy, 334.
Ross, Edward A., on Russia,
374.
Rural economics needs at
tention, 285.
Russia, recognition of re
fused, 271; in upheaval,
374.
C ALARIES of members of
'-' Congress, 377.
"Sanctified Crime," editorial.
179.
School, district, 289-90.
Seamen's act, 141-6.
Second choice voting, 34-6.
Senate, democratizing the,
308; vacant seats predict
ed, 378.
Shantung, 262.
Shaw, Dr. Anna, 344.
Sherman anti-trust law, 109,
130, 153, 385, 393, 408.
Ship subsidy, opposed, 324;
1908 platform pledge
against, 386; 1912 pledge,
402; 1916 pledge, 410.
Siberia, illegal war in, 271.
Smith, Adam, Wealth of Na
tions quoted, 358.
Smith case, 352.
Social welfare, 1916 platform
pledge, 411.
Soldiers, Americans should
back up, 276-8; compensa
tion for, 1920 platform
pledge, 419.
Standard Oil, monopoly, 356;
trust cases, 115, 393.
Steel trust, 121-2.
St. LouiSj boodle aldermen
exposed, 347.
St. Paul speech, 349.
Strikes and monopoly, 125.
Suffrage, equal. 338-44; 1916
platform pledge, 415.
TARIFF. 160-5; commis
sion, 165; farmer and,
163; industries over-pro
tected, 162: 1908 platform
pledge, 382: 1912 pledge,
392; 1916 pledge, 410.
Taxation, 19, 61-71, 155; eva
sion of, 33; ad valorem
system, 68, 78; railway,
63, 68-71; of war profits,
226; 1916 platform pledge,
412; 1920 pledge, 419; 'Wis
consin commission, 67.
^avlor system, 131.
Tobacco cases, 115, 393.
Trade commission, federal,
390-2, 410.

426

Index

Trainmen, working hours
limited, 138-9.
Treaty, and constitution,
254; facts withheld, 233;
labor betrayed In, 252; and
league of nations, 251-69;
reservations by La Fol
lette, 269; significance of,
268; terms of, 266.
Trusts, 288; and monopolies,
104-28; 1908 platform
pledge, 383; 1912 pledge,
393.
UNIONS' organizations, ex
empt from monopoly
statute, 106.
University, 294-5; academic
freedom of state, 305.
Utilities, control of public,
19, 94, 124; 1920 platform
pledge, 418.
VALUATION as basis In
rate-making, 95.
Van Hise, Charles R., Inau
gural address for, 294.
Versailles, treaty betrays
Egypt, 256; war-makers
of, 251.
Veto of police power bill by,
La Follette, 321; of suf
frage bill by McGovern,
339.
VUas, William F., 169.
Voting, second choice, 34-6.

WAGES and rates, 93.
War, 200-14, results of
European, 9; meaning of,
200; cruelties of, 241; ex
penditures, 1912 platform
pledge, 402; people opposed
to America's entrance,
209; its cost to nation, 217;
in retrospect, 257; referen
dum on, 1916 plaitform
pledge, 414; taxes and
profiteering, 220-30; -with
Germany, 211.
'Wlashington Post, misquotes
La Follette, 350.
"Waste of public domain, 332;
see also Conservation.
Water powers, control of,
336; public rights in, 325.
Weaver, Gen. Erasmus, 191.
¦Wilson, Woodrow, 10-11, 141,
145, 233, 243, 248, 256-7,
271, 274, 318, 372.
"Wisconsin, adopts direct
nominations, 34; an agri
cultural state, 137; eight-
hour law, 137; granger
movement in, 76, 183; leg
islature, 27-8, pioneer in
agricultural advancement,
'282; progressive laws, 183;
progressive legislation ad
mired afar, 369; university
of, 305; water power pol
icy, 325; women to vote,
338.
Woman's suffrage, 338-44;
1916 platform pledge, 415.

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