Robert La Follette

Robert La Follette
Harris & Ewing Collection · Public domain · source
Name	Robert M. La Follette
Birth date	June 14, 1855
Birth place	Primrose, Wisconsin Territory
Death date	June 18, 1925
Death place	Washington, D.C.
Occupation	Politician, Lawyer
Party	Republican; Progressive (1924)
Office	Governor of Wisconsin; U.S. Senator from Wisconsin

Robert La Follette Robert M. La Follette was an American politician and leader of the Progressive Movement who served as Governor of Wisconsin and U.S. Senator. He became a national figure opposing corporate power, advocating regulatory reform, and mounting a third-party presidential campaign in 1924. La Follette's career intersected with major figures and events of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

Early life and education

Born in Primrose, Wisconsin Territory to a Methodist family, La Follette grew up amid settlement and frontier politics that included references to Territorial Wisconsin and the aftermath of Mexican–American War migrations. He attended local schools influenced by leaders like William D. Hoard and later studied at University of Wisconsin–Madison where curricula echoed debates involving faculty such as John Bascom and visiting figures from Harvard University and Yale University. After reading law, he apprenticed in chambers linked to practitioners who had studied under precedents from Marbury v. Madison litigation and trained under mentors with ties to Madison, Wisconsin legal circles.

Political rise in Wisconsin

La Follette entered politics as district attorney of Sauk County, Wisconsin, engaging with county supervisors and municipal leaders who had dealings with entities like the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad and industrial interests tied to families comparable to the Rockefeller family and the Carnegie interests. Elected to the United States House of Representatives from Wisconsin, he joined committees that debated legislation affecting the Interstate Commerce Commission and policies influenced by the presidencies of Rutherford B. Hayes, Grover Cleveland, and William McKinley. His early alliances and rivalries involved figures such as Joseph McCarthy (later in state politics), state Republicans including Philetus Sawyer, and newspaper publishers similar to William Randolph Hearst.

Governorship and Progressive reforms

As Governor of Wisconsin, La Follette pursued a program of reform paralleling initiatives seen in states led by reformers like Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. He championed primary elections modeled on proposals from reformers linked to the National Progressive Republican League and pushed legislation affecting the Wisconsin Legislature, state boards, and commissions similar to developments in California under Hiram Johnson. His administration created regulatory frameworks that checked corporations like the Standard Oil Company and utilities akin to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, while fostering university-extension collaborations with University of Wisconsin–Extension and policy ideas associated with scholars such as John R. Commons and Richard T. Ely.

U.S. Senate career and national leadership

Elected to the United States Senate, La Follette became a leading voice on committees handling tariffs, civil liberties, and foreign policy during eras dominated by presidents including William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, and Warren G. Harding. He opposed U.S. entry into the League of Nations and critiqued wartime measures linked to the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918, aligning at times with advocates such as Eugene V. Debs and critics like Jane Addams. La Follette confronted corporate power exemplified by the United States Steel Corporation and debated policy with senators including Henry Cabot Lodge and Robert M. La Follette, Sr.'s contemporaries in legislative battles over the Federal Reserve Act and tariff policy shaped by the Fordney–McCumber Tariff.

1924 presidential campaign

In 1924 La Follette ran for president as the candidate of the Progressive Party (1924), assembling a coalition of labor unions, farmers, and intellectuals similar to supporters of Samuel Gompers, Mother Jones, and progressive journalists akin to H. L. Mencken. His platform criticized administrations such as Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge and proposed public control of railroads and utilities inspired by reforms associated with Florence Kelley and proposals debated in the Interstate Commerce Commission. The campaign drew endorsements and criticisms from figures like William Jennings Bryan, Ezra Pound (cultural commentators), and international observers tracking movements like the British Labour Party and the French Third Republic's social legislation.

Political ideology and legacy

La Follette's ideology combined elements of progressivism, anti-monopoly conservatism, and civil libertarianism, resonating with movements involving Progressive Era leaders including Robert M. La Follette, Sr.'s contemporaries Theodore Roosevelt, W. E. B. Du Bois, and economists influenced by Thorstein Veblen and John Dewey. His record influenced later New Deal reforms contested by politicians such as Al Smith and embraced by activists like Upton Sinclair and policy makers in the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. Historians have compared La Follette's impact to reform efforts in Wisconsin Idea scholarship and later progressive caucuses in bodies such as the United States Congress.

Personal life and family

La Follette married Belle Case La Follette, a prominent suffragist and advocate aligned with organizations like the National American Woman Suffrage Association and colleagues such as Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt. Their children, including Robert M. La Follette Jr. and Philip La Follette, continued in public service, serving in institutions like the United States Senate and Wisconsin governorships, maintaining connections with political networks involving the Progressive Party (United States, 1924) and labor leaders from the American Federation of Labor. La Follette died in Washington, D.C., and his papers and memorials are preserved in collections associated with University of Wisconsin–Madison archives and institutions commemorating figures similar to Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson.

Category:1855 births Category:1925 deaths Category:Progressive Era figures Category:United States Senators from Wisconsin