THE WISCONSIN PRIMARY
Follette, Robert M. La
The Wisconsin Primary An Editorial by Robert M. La Follette THE two facts of great significance in the recent Wisconsin primary ara (1) The large vote received by Mr. Thompson, and (2) the great...
...Thompson received 70,772 votes and Mr...
...But 21,161 of these votes came from Milwaukee County...
...The bill went through both houses of the legislature, but was promptly vetoed by Governor Philipp, who maintained that the measure was unconstitutional...
...He had led in a war for freedom and he would not assist a war for slavery...
...The farmers and laboringmen complained...
...Such a prospective production is unprecedented—it will mean practically doubling the 1917 acreage, which was 18,511,000 acres...
...The vacancy in the senate caused by the death of Senator Husting had jxisted for months, and there was no reason ander the law why an election sliould not have been promptly called and an opportunity given to conduct a campaign which would have thoroughly advised the voters of the position of each candidate concerning the war...
...Thompson is most remarkable and can only be explained by the fact that the voters believed in the principles for which Mr...
...Grummel entered the taxidermist's with a stuffed parrot in her hands...
...Shipping facilities demanded that the least possible space should be taken for sending food to the front...
...It means a profound and radical dissatisfaction with some of the war policies of the present administration and the suppression of free discussion of such policies...
...Should they, if of the academic profession, receive further punishment by removal from their positions and deprivation of their livelihood ? The committee's opinion is that it is not as a rule requisite or advisable that they should be sO dealt with...
...We can no more repudiate our obligations to prosecute this war efficiently until it can be ended honorably than we can repudiate our obligations to pay the debts we have contracted in the prosecution of the war...
...NO CAUSE FOR WORRY...
...Our normal consumption of wheat for all purposes in the United States amounts to about 590,000,000 bushels...
...The whole heart of the people of the United States is with the people of Russia in the attempt to free themselves forever from autocratic government and become the masters of their own life...
...The Russian republic uses the occasion of the message from President Wilson to express to all people who are dying and suffering from the horrors of this imperialistic war its warm sympathy and firm conviction that the happy time is near when the laboring masses in all bourgeois countries will throw off the capitalist yoke and establish a socialist state of society which is the only one capable of assuring a permanent and just peace, as well as the culture and well being of all who toil...
...The foregoing facts prove the absolute ne cessity of stimulating the production of wheat and other cptodIs to its greatest possible pvisti, and of immediately encouraging farmers, in every practical way, to attain this much-needed result...
...Message of President Wilson to the Russian soviet, March 11...
...The boy who has always worked on the farm is a better farm worker than a boy from the city...
...Thompson, and (2) the great increase in the socialist vote...
...The men who went to war will be back in time to pay the tax for their guns and uniforms...
...In 1916, Richard Eisner, socialist candidate for senator, received 11,479 votes in the primary, of which 8,883 votes were obtained . in Milwaukee county...
...He pointed out that if such a process was inaugurated from one-twentieth to one-thirtieth of the cars would be necessary to ship the finished product to the troops at the front...
...He had been for a number of years a member of the legislature while I was Governor of the state, and his name had been connected with much of the progressive legislation enacted during tha...
...or that he had, in fact, violated any such law...
...No contrary doctrine can ever make headway in this country if the facts are fairly and fully presented to the people...
...The platform of the present socialist candidate in Wisconsin in my judgment carinot be successfully defended before the American people...
...I. C. White, the state geologist of West Virginia, announced that the Hope Natural Gas Co...
...The circumstances under which the special primary of 1918 was held were peculiar, and such as never occurred before and never should be permitted to occur again...
...Lenroot and Mr...
...MinneapoHs Tribune...
...This is dangerous in view of the fa.:t that the world faces a food famine...
...The reason that we were able to export 189,000,000 bushels in 1916-1917 was because we had a carry over of 179,000,000 bushels from the 1915 record crop, which was more thaa a billion bushels...
...Until January 24 the record for depth had been held by a boring at Czuchow, in Silesia, which had reached a depth of 7,349 feet, but on that day Dr...
...Because the public press has neglected to give this statement general publicity a recent Boston dispatch covering the report on "Academic Freedom" is reprinted in full: BOSTON—The question of academic freedom is threshed out in a recent report of a committee of the American Association of University Professors (the so-called pro-lessor's union...
...J. M. Baer, Representative from North Dakota...
...With less than two weeks after his nomination petitions were filed in which to conduct his campaign, Mr...
...To replace this money in the treasury a bond issue was deemed advisable by the executive...
...that quantitative analysis to confirm these figures, and that sixty-pound case of tomatoes he can almost carry in his vest pocket when done up in this way...
...Therefore, we needed for home use almost the whole of what was produced in 1917...
...The depth of this well exceeds the height of Mount Washington (6,293 feet) and of Mount Mitchell (6,711 feet), the highest mountain in the eastern United States, and is greater than the distance to which many of the Rocky Mountains loom above the level of the foothills or plateaus on which they stand...
...This crop year (1917-1918) we have had a carry-over of only 51,000,000 bushels...
...Thompson stood...
...Edward Capps, Princeton, and Prof...
...and I have a chemist's report on...
...There was every :eason in the interest of fairness why this should have been done...
...J. McKeen Cat-tell, after 25 years of distinguished service...
...Seven thousand three hundred and sixty-three feet is a very little less than one and a third miles...
...Backed by their power a bill was passed authorizing a bond issue of a million dollars, but providing for the repayment of these bonds in 1919 by an extra income tax on net earnings of persons and corporations in excess of $ 15,000 annually...
...The democratic vote in the primary of 1916 affords no basis of comparison with that of 1918 as in the latter primary there was a sharp contest between McCarthy and Davies, bringing out a larger vote than Mr...
...Even moro critical is the fact that two million mechanics and farm laborers have been induced by war industries to leave the farms and go to the cities...
...Campaigns such as Lenroot's and Da-vies' beget campaigns such as Berger's...
...What are the results...
...Over half a million men have been drawn by the first draft from our farms...
...On the conscientious objector, the report which is signed by l'rof...
...The same thing applies to any other industry...
...In the republican primary held on the 19th of this month for the special senatjrial election, Mr...
...At the senatorial primary in 1916 there was a sharp contest for the republican nomination between Mr...
...This increase does not mean that voters by the tens of thousands in Wisconsin have been converted to socialism...
...In other words, 107,345 of the republican voters of 1916 did not vote in the republican primary of 1918...
...period...
...All that was alleged was that he had exercised the right to petition with reference to a question before congress upon which no final action had been taken...
...And yet so little progress has Texa3 made in the quality of its legislators that its assembly has actually congratulated the Wisconsin legislature for repeating the crime of 1861...
...Although the government of the United States is unhappily not now in a position to render the direct and effective aid it would wish to render, I beg to assure the people of Russia through the congress that it will avail itself of every opportunity to Becure for Russia once more complete sovereignty and independence in her own affairs and full restoration to her great role in the life of Europe and the modern world...
...Jeffns and myself...
...THE REPLY "The all-Russian congress of Soviets expresses its appreciation to the American people, and first of all the laboring and exploited classes in the United States, for the message sent by President Wilson to the congress of Soviets in this time when the Russian socialist soviet republic, is living through most difficult trials...
...wealth won...
...Charlotte—"Don't worry, you won't be...
...Winter wheat being already sown, the increase will have to be made up chiefly in spring wheat...
...Houston was impeached and removed...
...At that time Sam Houston was Governor...
...The socialist primaries of 1916 and 1918 were held under practically the saine conditions, there being no opposing candidate in either primary...
...It is a widespread but false impression that farm-workers are not experts...
...As Governor he opposed secession and the war against the Union...
...He had all the power and organization of the republican state machine back of his candidacy as well as that of the so-callei "loyalty" organizations covering every township in the state, and also the atmost unanimous support of the newspapers of the ::'ate and country...
...Governor Philipp, a strong partisan of Mr...
...In the 19LS primary Victor Bcrger, the socialist candidate, received 38,564...
...Extensive experiments have been made by the United States government- along this line...
...The obligations we, as a people, have assumed in this war have been lawfully assumed and we must lawfully accept them...
...If they should maintain the same proportion between their primary vote and their vote in the election in 1918 that they maintained in 1916, the socialists candidate for United States senator in 1916, the socialists cast 28,908 ceive close to one hundred thousand votes...
...Thompson, on the other hand, was known only in Wisconsin as a successful lawyer, a progressive republican, and an upright and high-minded citizen...
...Equal in significance to the vote received by Thompson was the increase in the socialist vote...
...Over this proposition there can be no reasonable dispute or controversy...
...Lei.-root received only a few »otes more than Mr Jeffris, the stalwart republican candidate for the senate in the primary of 1916 received, and failed by 26,534 votes of equalling the vote cast for the successful republican candidate for the senate in the primary of 1916...
...A. A. Y'oung of Cornell, says, in part: "There are, however, some persons, not members of the specified religious organizations, whose objections to military service, as such, ,are doubtless equally conscien-tious and disinterest'- It IS conoeivalWo that, under the law, such persons might be convicted of resisting the draft...
...He had been for a number of years a member of congress representing one of the strong republican districts of the state...
...Boston Transcript...
...All history shows this method so far from lessening the trouble only increases it...
...This is a high ideal but there was opposition then to such a movement...
...A. G. Lovejoy, of Johns Hopkins, Prof...
...In general the committee agrees with the liberal position of President Lowell of Harvard and is out of sympathy with the reactionary stand of President Butler of Columbia...
...This means that it will be necessary for our farmers to raise nearly 350,000,000 more bushels than in 1917, when the winter and spring crops totaled 650,828,000 bushels...
...Several days ago the Senate of the United States spent part of a day discussing the subject...
...The Texas Parallel La Follette's Magazine, Madison, Wis...
...Do you remember the bird you stuffed for me last autumn...
...It was not asserted that the teacher dismissed had been convicted of violation of any law of the United States...
...Thompson came within 2,414 votes of being nominated...
...When it come, however, to having those who profit by the war bear the expense of the war, the agents of privilege sent their skilled lawyers and lobbyists to Madjson declaring that such a measure wou,ld be unconstitutional...
...Here is a quotation from Senator Norris' speech: "We press cabbages, onions, spinach and tomatoes...
...On February 19th, Governor E. L. Philipp summoned the Wisconsin legislature into special session for the purpose of authorizing a bond issue of a million dollars to sustain ,a depleted state treasury...
...However it is natural to welcome a companion in shame and Texas legislators are only human after all...
...but unfavorable weather, shortage of farm help, and other adverse conditions have been marked, particularly in the Southwest and Northwest...
...But there will be a departure in.one respect from the Houston affair...
...Pmsident Wilsons Message and the Russian Soviet's Resolution in Reply THE MESSAGE "May I not take advantage of the meeting of the congress of the Soviets to express the sincere sympathy which the people of the United States feel for the Russian people at this moment when the German power has been thrust in to interrupt and turn back the whole straggle for freedom and substitute the wishes of Germany tor the purposes of the people of Russia...
...The call of the Governor for a special election was not issued until the 22nd day of February, 1918 which left about three weeks before the primary on the 19th of March in which to secure signatures to nomination papers in the different counties of the state, as well as to conduct the campaign after the nomination papers were filed...
...He recommended that this bond issue be based on a general property tax and that the bonds fall due at a rate of $100,000 annually after 1923...
...He had been a candidate for the republican nomination for Governor and I had personally campaigned the state in support of his candidacy...
...If any draft distinction is to be made, it shall be between those men in activities essential to the production of ships, ammunition, food, and other necessary things, and those who are employed in non-essential trades...
...That bronze marker bears a motto favoring that "fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found...
...The total republican primary vote therefore was 166,296...
...We stuff our birds so well that they moult at the proper season...
...The increase in the socialist vote is quite gen* erally distributed over the entire state...
...Why, the reactionary Texas legislature did what the reactionary Wisconsin legislature would like to do to La Follette...
...Len-root 73,186 votes...
...No doubt these legislators were highly praised by the servile press of that day for their "loyalty" and "patriotism" in ridding their state of a "disloyal pacifist" but today these "loyal Patriots" are forgotten, while Houston, the despised and impeached, is recognized, even in Texas, a3 the man who made the state glorious...
...The way to deal with the members of the socialist party is to answer their arguments, not to send them to jail...
...Mrs...
...In October last a distinguished man of science was summarily dismissed from his professorship in an important university, after a quarter century of service, upon the charge of "seditious or treasonable acts.' "The only specific act officially alleged in support of this grave charge was the writing of a letter to certain congressman urging them to give their support to ab ill, then, pending, providing that the armies destined for service abroad should be composed exclusively of volunteers, unless the consent of the majority of the people to the contrary should be clearly ascertained...
...Jeffris received 66,576 votes in the republican senatorial primary and I received 1)9,720 votes...
...It is over half a mile deeper than the Grand Canyon of the Colorado in Arizona...
...The committee reports against dismissing conscientious objectors from university positions, demands abstention from disloyal propaganda or anti-war activity, deplores the tendency to silence all criticism and pointedly refers, though not by name to the summary dismissal from Columbia university of Prof...
...Therefore, only about one half of the republican vote of 1916 was cast in the republican primary of 1918...
...Columbia is Rebuked...
...America ha3 vast resources of man-power...
...The spread of this anti-war socialism can be stopped by arguments not threats so by facts and not by the use of clubs...
...Intimidation, mob violence and persecution whenever employed or permitted to suppress free discussion of issues vital to the welfare of the people are certain to cause a corresponding reaction...
...It is the useless middlemen and speculators who are making money out of farming...
...Academic Freedom MANY years ago the University of Wis-consin after much delay and strong opposition from certain sources permitted ft tablet to be placed on its campus grounds that declares in favor of academic freedom...
...Wisconsin has expended upwards of three-quarters of a million in equipping the Wisconsin National Guard...
...He had been elected the year before after serving 12 years in the United State3 Senate where he had the distinction of being the only member from a slaveholding state who refused to vote as the slaveholding aristocracy wished...
...and that so long as the war should last, profiteers should pay for it, so far as reasonably possible...
...Well, the worfc was so badly done that the feathers are simply falling out...
...she asked...
...From Review of Reviews...
...It should be met however, and its fallacies pointed out by argument, rather than by attempt to suppress it by force...
...it means much the same thing that is meant in the recent mayoralty election in New York City, and in the recent primaries in Buffalo, Dayton and other places...
...The forecast of the Department of Agriculture for this year is 540,000,000 bushels of winter wheat...
...In view of the acquaintance Mr...
...It is only necessary to compare the primary vote of the state in 1916, for the senatorship, with that of the primary just held for the special senatorial election to appreciate the deep significance of the latter vote...
...The people lost...
...Cholly—"After all, fools make life amusing...
...It is impossible to recruit an army of two million men without causing a shortage of labor...
...At first the legislature was unwilling to place this burden upon the people...
...or that he had engaged in propaganda designed to incite others to resist or evade any law in force, or to refuse their voluntary assistance to the government...
...TRUE ARTIST...
...Not only can most vegetables be dried by mechanical process, but if perchance after the product was dried you are still short of space you can compress into a much smaller compass and save space so that the question of bulk is largely eliminated...
...When all the fools are dead I don't want to be alive...
...Several oil wells in California in the Southwest, in West Virginia and in Pennsylvania have exceeded 4,000 feet in depth, and one near McDonald, Pa., about 14 miles west of Pittsburg, reached a depth of 7,248 feet...
...In the election for United States senator in 1916, the socialist cast 28,908 votes...
...SAMUEL DANZIGER Yonkers, N. Y. The Wheat Crop and Farm Labor By Hon...
...The People Must Pay Again the tax biil has been saddled upon the people...
...Ah, madam," said the man, "that is a triumph of art...
...In other words, while the socialist primary vote in Milwaukee in 1918 was much more than in 1916, the increase was relatively much smaller iA the county of Milwaukee, than in the state at large...
...or indeed, that he had engaged in public propaganda of any sort...
...Everyone must admit, that we at least are in this war lawfully and in a constitutional manner...
...The farm labor problem, is not different from that of any other war industry...
...It thus appears that the republican primary vote for senator in 1918 fell short of the republican primary vote cast in 1916 for senator by 22,238 and that the difference between the vote of Mr...
...The total republican vote cast for me in 1916 at the election was 251,303...
...The action of the Wisconsin legislature toward Senator La Follette is strikingly s^i\-ilar to the action taken by a tory body in Texas in 1861...
...In fact, the bottom of the Grand Canyon at the foot of Bright Angel Trail, which is approximately 2,400 feet above sea level, is about 1,300 feet higher above the sea than the surface of the ground at the Goff well...
...The well goes nearly half a mile farther down into the earth than the deepest mines in Michigan, Brazil or Europe...
...Senator Norris brought forcibly to public attention the question of drying foods...
...Lenroot stood for no constructive policy, but merely vied with his democratic opponents in attempting to capitalize the enthusiasm, passion and prejudices which war always engenders...
...had driven the bit to a depth of 7,350 feet, one good American foot in excess of the German record...
...My State right or wrong" was not a sentiment that appealed to him...
...Don't Fire Objectors...
...So what happened...
...How often it is that privilege bereft of argument makes an appeal under the guise of constitutional rights to protect its ill-gotten gains...
...In the face of this statement it is refreshing to read of the report of a committee of the American Association of University Professors which comes out courageously in these times for the same principles...
...Foodstuffs, in this crisis, stand supreme among the requirements of our Allies and ourselves...
...Thompson is 2,414...
...The farmers of this country have patriotically striven to increase production...
...This food shortage will compel all American citizens to take a deeper interest in the agricultural industry and to see that farming is made more profitable...
...I have not all of the detailed socialist returns before me...
...Realizing the extent of our needs and those of our Allies, the Department of Agriculture has been energetically pushing a campaign to stimulate the farmers of the United States t3 produce a million bushels of wheat this year...
...The war profiteers were in the halls of the legislature to defeat this attempt to make surplus incomes bear war burdens...
...Truly, these are days of scientific amazement...
...So far this dissatisfaction has been recognized only to be cq^fcmned...
...The demand, fop example, that American troop3 be withdrawn from France, even in advance of some settlement of the issues of the war is a demand impossible to seriously consider...
...Up to the very iay of the call his public statements had all been to the effect that no special election would be called...
...The problem is to utilize this great force where it is most needed...
...A Vest Pocket Meal These are days when the preservation of food has become a matter of science...
...Wolfe, the democratic candidate in 1916, received when he was unopposed for the nomination...
...Resolution by the Russian soviet, March 14...
...Lenroot, waited until the last day allowed by lav before calling the election...
...Instead of overriding the veto of the Governor and leaving it to the courts to establish the principle that wealth shall be forced to bear proportionate burdens, the senate backed down and both houses of the legislature retraced their steps and placed the general bond issue on the backs of an already over-burdened people...
...Thompson ran on a platform the key-note of which was vigorous prosecution of the war while we are in it, but a prompt statement by congress ef our purposes in the war, to the end that we may extricate ourselves from it by finding common ground, if possible, upon which all the belligerents may stand...
...Thompson's candidacy in view of the few days allowed for his campaign, leaves no doubt that with the issues between Thompson and Lenroot fairly and equally presented, a large majority of the republicans would have supported Thompson in preference to Lenroot...
...La Follette will not have to wait so long for vindication...
...It is evident that dismissal upon such ground involves a disregard of all the essential distinctions upon which the present report has insisted...
...Meantime, the common tax payer must pay the bill...
...Thus did the rich escape...
...In spite of all this, Mr...
...Deepest Well in World THE deepest well in the world, already 7,363 feet deep, is now being drilled on the Goff farm, 8 miles northeast of Clarksburg, in northern West Virginia...
...The fact that I say more prifitable may seem strange to some people in the East, but it is nevertheless a fact...
...Moreover, the drilling is still in progress and as sufficient length of cable and adequate power and tools are at hand the prospects are good for driving still farther down into the crust of the earth and winning the pennant by a considerable margin...
...Between the two extremes in Wisconsin, as in other state3, will be found the great body of sane and thoughtful voters, who because they are above all things loyal to this country, object to all attempts to capitalize their patriotism for political advantage or to continuing the war one moment beyond the time when we can make a just nd honorable peace...
...That so large a portion of the thoughtful and sober-minded republican voters of the state understood and supported Mr...
...I have a little brick of tomatoes which weighs seven ounces, five of these are equal to a sixty-pound case of canned tomatoes...
...We must, however, scientifically differentiate between essential and non-essential workers...
...Lenroot had been :'n political and public life for many years...
...Nothing will so advance a cause or build up a party as martyrdom...
...Many farmers are in bad shape financially, also, because of failure of two successive crops...
...Lenroot had as the result of many political campaigns made by him and by the progressives in Wisconsin in his behalf, and the organizations ready made to his hand covering every precinct of the state, and with the press almost unanimous in his support, the showing made by Mr...
...To produce a billion bushels of wheat in 1918 will thus require 460,000,000 bushels of spring wheat...
...The total republican vota therefore was 1-13,958...
Vol. 10 • March 1918 • No. 3
