La Follette, Robert

La Follette, Robert (1855–1925), Progressive Era politician and reformer.Born and raised in Wisconsin, La Follette won election as district attorney of Dane County in 1880. As a Republican congressman between 1885 and 1891, he found himself increasingly at odds with the conservative state leaders of his party, led by Senator Philetus Sawyer. As governor of Wisconsin (1901–1905), he joined the ranks of Republican insurgents, presiding over a reform administration that received national attention and came to be called, in Theodore Roosevelt's phrase, the “laboratory of democracy.” Working closely with the economist John R. Commons (1862–1945) and other experts at the University of Wisconsin, La Follette successfully battled for social‐reform laws, measures promoting majoritarian democracy such as the direct primary, tax‐law changes designed to equalize the tax burden, and new regulatory commissions aimed at bringing railroads and large corporations under control.

In the U.S. Senate from 1906 on, La Follette continued many of the same campaigns he had pursued at the state level, making the “Wisconsin Idea” a blueprint for federal reform. He promoted his ideas through La Follette's Weekly Magazine (founded 1909), later the Progressive. His hopes for the presidency in 1912 were dashed as William Howard Taft won the Republican nomination and Theodore Roosevelt headed the insurgent Progressive party ticket. La Follette vocally opposed U.S. participation in World War I and in April 1917 was one of six senators to vote against President Woodrow Wilson's call for a declaration of war, a position that cost him heavily in popularity. In 1924, he ran unsuccessfully for president as the candidate of a new Progressive party.

La Follette passionately advocated the causes he embraced. Like many Progressives, he believed in a rational, scientific approach to reform. Unlike such leaders as Theodore Roosevelt, who were willing to compromise, he believed, as he asserted in his autobiography, that “in legislation no bread is often better than half a loaf.”
See also Economic Regulation; Republican Party; Taxation; Twenties, The.

Bibliography

Robert M. La Follette , La Follette's Autobiography: A Personal Narrative of Political Experiences, forward by Allan Nevins, 1960.
David P. Thelen , Robert M. La Follette and the Insurgent Spirit, 1976.

Allan M. Winkler