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SENATOR ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE FOR PRESIDENT.

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BY PROFESSOR WILLIAM KITTLE,
Secretary of the Board of Regents of Normal Schools of Wisconsin.

LTHOUGH President Roosevelt, in the clearest terms, has declined to become a candidate for reëlection in 1908, yet the belief that he will permit his name to go before the National Convention influences a vast number of voters. Such voters do not take into account his sincerity and firmness nor the unwritten law that a President shall serve but two terms. Without doubt, this persistent belief in President Roosevelt's candidacy is due to a firm belief in the man, his principles and his work.

But there is also a belief that this work will not be finished on March 4, 1909.

Men of all parties hold that the widespread movement to regulate public-service corporations and to restrain the inordinate power of trusts and monopolies, has only just begun. Hence the popular demand that President Roosevelt shall be a candidate for the third term is based on the theory that he is the best one qualified to carry forward that

great work.

Mr. Bryan is now the ominous figure

on the Republican horizon. He looms up with ever increasing proportions. He is honest, able and stands for the strict regulation of corporations and for the economic rights of the people. If the Republican party shall nominate a candidate favorable to the special interests, Bryan will be elected.

Senator Robert M. La Follette is the logical successor of President Roosevelt. As Governor of Wisconsin, he began and carried forward to a successful issue, the movement to control the railroads. The laws which he secured were in the highest degree constructive measures. In the United States Senate, he is the foremost supporter of the President. He is absolutely honest, has rare ability

and possesses indomitable courage. His popularity is equaled only by that of the President. In th Eeastern states, in the whole Middle West, in the Rocky Mountains and in the Pacific states he is loved and admired for his work as Governor and Senator. That work is here briefly described.

HIS EARLY LIFE.

Robert Marion La Follette is of French

Huguenot extraction and was born a few miles from Madison, in 1855. His boyhood was spent on the farm where he formed friendships which are still strong. In September, 1906, he spoke at a village near his old home and the farmers for whose father and mother many of them miles around came to hear the friend well remember; and there was pathos in the respectful and almost reverent attention which they paid to the man whose ability and success in life were based, as they well knew, on absolute The speaker was plainly conscious of the integrity, earnestness, and high ideals. affectionate attitude of his audience, and they in turn knew with added power, how potent his life and work had become in American public life. These early boyhood and manhood friendships disclose the real character of the man.

IN THE UNIVERSITY.

He entered the University of Wisconsin in 1874, and during his college course won the championship for his university in an interstate contest in oratory. On that occasion, his oration in Des Moines, Iowa, revealed to his judges and audience a new style of oratory, forceful and earnest. In 1879, he graduated from the general science course and in 1880,

from the law department of the University of Wisconsin. During the years since his graduation, he has kept in touch with great numbers of the alumni and students of the university. Living in Madison, he has been able to meet their leaders, attend their games and address their public meetings. While he was Governor, no victorious football team ever failed to go up to the Capitol and call for "Bob" to address them. A speech by him at the huge university gymnasium was always the occasion of college enthusiasm. During the current university lecture course, he will deliver to the students his lecture on “Hamlet."

AS DISTRICT ATTORNEY, 1880-1884.

In 1880, he began the practice of law in Madison. Although regarded by the politicians as a mere boy who had just graduated from the university, he became a candidate for the district attorneyship of Dane county. The older members of the bar did not take kindly to this sudden promotion. The politicians had other plans. La Follette, in this, his first campaign, appealed directly to the voters. His enemies say that he drove at nights to the farms and towns surrounding Madison, and calling out the voter in the dark, told him mysteriously and with great earnestness, that the ring in power must be defeated. The truth is that the young leader made his first campaign with that directness and energy which have since made him so well known. At the early age of twenty-five, without experience at the bar, he was elected district attorney of the second largest county of the state. He held this office for four years and performed its duties honestly and ably. He prepared his cases with the utmost care. His jury trials attracted most attention and students from the university frequently attended them. Men still remember the talk of the brilliant record he made as district attorney from 1880 to 1884.

IN CONGRESS, 1884 to 1890. He entered Congress, one of the very youngest members of that body in 1884 and served in the House of Representatives for six years. During his last term, he was a member of the committee on ways and means when McKinley was chairman. The appointment of so young a member was a marked tribute to his ability and McKinley on more than one occasion testified to the efficient and intelligent work of La Follette on that committee.

When he first entered Congress, he was called upon by a millionaire Senator from his state and asked to what committees he would like to be assigned. La Follette mentioned certain committees

but was surprised a few days later to learn that he had been placed on the committee on Indian affairs. There were no Indians in his district in Wisconsin and he had made no study of Indian affairs. After the committee had been organized, he was appointed a subcommittee of one to consider and report on a bill to enable lumber companies to acquire vast quantities of timber belonging to the Menomonie Valley Indians. He soon discovered that the bill was framed to steal timber from the Indians. He made an adverse report to the committee. He was waited upon by the millionaire senator who was a lumberman and the merits and pressing necessity of the bill were explained to the young congressman who was not convinced by the logic or power brought to bear. The senator called again and again. The chairman of the state central committee of Wisconsin was summoned to Washington and he labored with the subcommittee. But La Follette stuck to his adverse report.

at once

THE MARITIME CANAL COMPANY OF
NICARAGUA.

On January 10, 1888, Senator Edmunds from the Foreign Relations committee, reported back to the Senate favorably a

bill to incorporate the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua. The bill was read twice by title and Edmunds gave notice of debate on the subject the following week. When the bill came before the Senate for discussion on February 24th, Senator Vest of Missouri brought out the fact that the proposed law failed to protect the government of the United States from paying the bonds of this private company in case of failure of the company. He pointed out the fact that in a former bill before the Senate to incorporate a private company which proposed to construct a canal across the isthmus of Tehuantepec, the government of the United States was protected by an express provision from the payment of the bonds of the private company. He quoted Senator Edmunds as then stating that he was in favor of putting handcuffs on the private company by such a provision. Considerable discussion followed in which senators tried to show that the two private companies were different. But Senator Vest was not satisfied and on February 27th, he introduced the following amendment: "Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be held or construed to in any manner involve the United States in any pecuniary obligation whatever other than in respect of the payment of tolls as provided in this act." On this amendment, he insisted on a roll call. The amendment was defeated by a vote of 22 to 21, Senator Hoar being among those who voted in favor of the amendment and Senators Aldrich, Gorman, Spooner, Allison, Cullom, Platt, and Sawyer voting against the amendment. The bill without this amendment passed the Senate, February 27, 1888.

Somewhat later, and while the presidential campaign was in full progress, the bill came before the House of Representatives which at that time had a Democratic majority. When the bill was being considered, it was observed that Mr. Phil. B. Thompson of Kentucky, an ex-member of the House and the

soliciting agent of the Democratic National Committee was actively conferring with members of his party on the floor of the House. The bill was brought up again and again but each time, nearly all former objectors were strangely absent. But La Follette and Nils P. Haugen of Wisconsin were among those found objecting to its consideration in the committee of the whole. Not long afterwards, a messenger from the Senate chamber asked them to go to the committee room of the millionaire senator from Wisconsin. They found there the senator and also Mr. W. W. Dudley of Indiana, the chairman of the subcommittee on finance of the Republican National Committee. The two members of the House were told that it was of great importance in the pending campaign that the bill guaranteeing the bonds of the private company should become a law. They asked in what respect it could be so important and were informed that the company had agreed, if the bill became a law, to pay $100,000 into the campaign fund of the Republican party. It was further explained that Delaware was then Democratic, that by the law of that state, only land-holders could vote and that some of the money would be used to buy up cheap swamp lands to be given to laboring men and thus carry Delaware for the Republican party. The two inquiring members of the House then asked what Phil. B. Thompson had been doing on the Democratic side of the House and they were told that the company had also agreed to pay $100,000 into the Democratic campaign fund if the bill should become a law. Had the bill passed, there might have been a sudden increase of both Democratic and Republican landholders in Delaware. La Follette and Haugen went back to the House and kept on objecting to the bill which was defeated.

THE SIOUX INDIAN RESERVATION.

In 1890, a bill was pending, providing for a grant to a railroad company, of the

ight of way across the Sioux Indian Reservation in Dakota. An amendment gave to the company sufficient land to control every town-site on the line within the Reservation. La Follette in the committee on Indian affairs, strenuously opposed this bold attempt at legislative confiscation. Shortly before the adjournment of the session, the chairman of the state central committee of Wisconsin said at the Ebbitt House in Washington to Nils P. Haugen, a member of the House from the same state, that La Follette in opposing the railroad interests of the country would soon find railroads enough in his own district to defeat him. Mr. Haugen was at the Capitol half an hour later telling La Follette of the threat. A few minutes afterwards, the chairman of the state central committee was also at the Capitol begging Mr. Haugen not to tell La Follette what had been said. La Follette was defeated at the next election.

A TEN-YEARS' CONTEST-1890-1900.

He was now remanded to private life for a period of ten years. During this time, he held no official position. A powerful ring in his party parcelled out the offices, state and national, and quietly but effectively determined that on account of his independence and for his opposition to the senior senator from Wisconsin, he should hold no office whatever. In the early nineties, this senator called La Follette to Milwaukee and indirectly offered him a large roll of money if he would betray a public trust, and aid in violating the sanctity of a court of justice. This made a lasting impression on La Follette. He La Follette. He said recently that it changed the current of his life and that he then took an oath that he would fight such men and their system. In 1894, he sent out fifteen hundred letters urging the leaders of his party to nominate as governor an honest man, Nils P. Haugen. But the ring, supported by the special interests and

corporations compassed his defeat. In 1896, La Follette himself was a candidate for governor and a majority of the delegates to the state convention were pledged to his nomination. No one but the corrupt management of the convention knows what deals were made, what official positions were held out as inducements, nor how much money was given in direct bribes to defeat the choice of the people

THE CONVENTION OF 1898.

But La Follette was again a candidate for governor in 1898. Again were a majority of the delegates elected pledged to his support. to his support. This time, the crime of bribery was clearly and definitely established. Honest delegates came to his rooms on the night preceding the convention and told him they had been offered money to vote against him. Some of these delegates later in public meetings testified to this fact. A man who is now an ex-governor paid $700 for a bunch of delegates. La Follette, in numerous speeches in Wisconsin in 1906 said that he had it directly from one of the ring that it cost them just $8,300 to carry that convention. At midnight, preceding the convention, Charles Pfister, then one of the political bosses, and recently indicted for a crime by the grand jury in Wilwaukee, came to La Follette's rooms and said: "We have got you skinned, Bob; but if you will behave yourself, we will take care of you." Quick as a flash came the answer: "I can take care of myself." After the lapse of eight years, Mr. Pfister may be able to see the error in his statement that night if not of all his ways. Since that night, he has lost many thousand dollars on his newspaper, the Sentinel, he has seen his friends driven from power and he himself has been indicted for crime in his own city; in November, 1906, the people of Milwaukee, urged by La Follette reëlected the honest and courageous district attorney who had prosecuted with vigor,

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