WISCONSIN'S FIGHT ONLY BEGUN
Wisconsin's Fight Only Begun THE Wisconsin progressives won a great victory in the primaries. The victory was great not alone because of the magnitude of the majorities given their candidates—it...
...The Wisconsin law says on this point: They (supreme and circuit judges) shall hold no office of public trust except a judicial office, during the term for which they are respectively elected, and all votes for either of them for any office except a judicial office, given by the legislature or the people shall be void...
...The victory was great not alone because of the magnitude of the majorities given their candidates—it was great because the progressives had a clean-cut platform of principles, state and national...
...Their loans to those governments, and to foreign municipalities whose financial stability depends upon the integrity of those governments, even before we were swept into the war, amounted to billions of dollars...
...The specter of REPUDIATION of allied debts spread terror through the Wall street banking groups that were deeply involved with the allied governments...
...His determination to stand by the constitutional rights of free speech, free assembly and the sacredness of the home reached the hearts of the masses...
...On state issues the people were equally well informed and equally united in their program...
...That was only a skirmish...
...ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE Progressives of 9th District Must Elect Schneider PROGRESSIVE voters, men and women alike, of the Ninth Congressional district should be up and doing for the forthcoming election...
...In one of these banker conferences, a prominent government official was reported as confidently asserting that if the United States could be put into the war at once, it would save the allies, end all talk of repudiation and make these bankers' foreign loans secure...
...He is himself an expert paper-maker and for years has been one of the vice presidents of the International Paper Makers' Union...
...The nation is watching Wisconsin, and a great responsibility is placed upon the voters of the Ninth district...
...Schneider was fairly nominated at the recent primary and is entitled to the support of every republican voter in the district...
...The people's debt to these banker-bond-holders will not be cancelled...
...Great Britain's share of this indebtedness is in round numbers FIVE BILLIONS...
...How much are we called upon by our beloved friends the bankers to give to our European debtors...
...Furthermore, he is a man of ability and influence, who would be a force for good at the national capital...
...Would his pledges be worth anything after election ? Mr...
...All the progressive leaders of the state are urging his election...
...Day by day, the people are being taxed to pay the interest on the bonds and in the end must pay the entire principal sum...
...Principal and interest the allies owe us the tidy sum of TWELVE BILLION DOLLARS...
...They will fail ingloriously if the progressive citizens of the district individually turn out for the election and get their neighbors to do likewise...
...Wipe out Uncle Sam's eleven or twelve billion and it might possibly make the foreign loans of the Wall street gang almost gilt-edged...
...Their votes were cast after an, exceptional campaign of education...
...He has also been active in promoting cooperation between farmers and organized labor, as exemplified in the Farmer-Labor League, now a strong organization...
...Your government at Washington repealed the excess profits tax, reduced the taxes on large incomes, passed the EschCummins law capitalizing water, raiding the Treasury to the tune of a billion and a half, increasing railroad rates by another two billion and a half, which cost the consumers fully twelve billion, passed a prohibitory tariff on steel, and other trust products imposing consumption taxes on the people amounting to some additional billions, defeated the soldiers' adjusted compensation bill, and have a fine lot of juicy propositions on the program for the coming session...
...Lamont, recently made a "moving appeal" for the cancellation of all the debts which the allies owe to this government...
...Nay, nay, Pierpont...
...He has traveled widely in this country and Canada, studying the paper-making industry, making addresses, organizing paper-mill workers and seeking to improve their conditions generally...
...they knew that a subsidized press suppressed the news and tortured the truth, and they turned away from the poison press to get the truth from other sources...
...The eyes of the whole state are upon it, and to no little extent the eyes of the nation...
...Let us show the world in November that we are still of the same temper and that our determination has not grown cold...
...At that time, the only loans to the allied governments were the private loans made by or through Morgan and other American bankers...
...It has aroused the money changers of Wall street, and the battle is on...
...It would be as unfortunate as it would be anomalous were the voters of the state to return a landslide endorsement of progressives in general in the state and then permit the Ninth district to show up as a black spot...
...It is then that we must steel ourselves to carry on, and on, until the fruits of victory are in band...
...The wires were kept hot between New York and Washington...
...His refusal to be bull-dozed by the Anti-Saloon League and its profiteering allies met with instant approval...
...the people learned of the profiteers and propagandists, creatures of greed and hate, and they voted against them...
...Our entry into the war made these bankers so secure on their existing foreign investments, that they subsequently increased by large amounts their loans abroad...
...Immediately after our entry into the war, this government sold its interest bearing bonds in order to raise the money loaned to the allies...
...These foreign loans made by our American bankers, hungry for high interest rates, have been stated upon eminent banking authority to be at least five billion dollars...
...Throughout all his course he has been a strong and loyal supporter of the progressive movement and progressive policies in Wisconsin...
...The people understood the evils of the corruption of money in elections, as in the Newberry case, and they condemned it...
...Every progressive should be at the polls November 7th...
...For these reasons he is being fought by the reactionary interests...
...there was no evasion...
...He is also a member of the executive committee of the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor...
...And now another "great Banker" is out in a statement in which he flatly declares that we "must cancel Great Britain's debt...
...The recent primary vote demonstrated that the district is overwhelmingly progressive in sentiment...
...The change from a twelve-hour day in the mills to the more humane hours now observed was in part, at least, due to his interest and activity toward this end...
...Cancel the foreign debts due the American people...
...The Generosity of J. P. Morgan and His Banker Associates J.PIERPONT MORGAN, speaking to the American Bankers, through his partner, Mr...
...And at the November election let our lesson be still more convincing, if that is possible, than that of the primary...
...His supporters admit the irregularity of his candidacy by saying that in case of his election the question of his eligibility will be put up to Congress...
...It is the only district in the state in which the reactionaries are making a special effort to win...
...The primary showed an overwhelming sentiment favoring this...
...It has likewise awakened the fear of those who are escaping just taxation, and those who are receiving rich favors from the government through tariffs and monopoly...
...Tut, tut, perish the thought...
...These patriotic bankers made their program, and their press and their organizations carried forward the nationwide propaganda to force this government into the European war...
...there was no dodging...
...They do not want that kind of a man in Congress, Schneider's candidacy should make particular appeal to farm and city workers...
...Turn out and vote...
...In fact, so heavily were they loaded up with foreign investments by the close of 1916, and so desperate was the outlook for the allies, that our masters of finance who had backed the allies to win, were well nigh in a state of real panic...
...There were hurried conferences in high financial circles...
...Let us show our fellows in other states how to win a fight for principle...
...They have brought out as their candidate a man who was not only defeated in the recent primary, but one Who is willing to disregard the law which plainly prohibits judges from being candidates for office during the term for Which they were elected...
...The people must remember that it is no time to quit when only the first line of trenches has been carried...
...We were thrust into the war to "save civilization" and the foreign loans of our money oligarchy...
...An important duty lies before them...
...Enough is enough...
...The Ninth district is the Wisconsin battleground in this election...
...This must not be...
...Are the voters of the Ninth district ready to condone and approve such flouting of the law, Which is the more serious when committed by one particularly sworn to uphold and administer it...
...Can it be that their tender regard for our dear allies is a cover for some selfish purpose...
...The tight is then but fairly begun...
...It was executed with a fury that swept the country with irresistible power...
...A desperate effort is being made by the big business and reactionary interests generally of this district to defeat George J. Schneider of Appleton, the progressive republican nominee for congress...
...Let us close up ranks and go forward...
...You and your friends have done very well and will have to take your chances on your foreign loans...
...What is the amount of this debt...
...And obviously the payment of the accrued interest due from the allies to this government—amounting to between two and three billions and the payment of the principal sum by installments over a period of years—amounting to more than nine billions, would postpone indefinitely the collection of the billions which Morgan and his friends have invested in foreign loans...
...Governor Blaine's record of economy, efficiency., and fair-dealing appealed to both men and women...
...The state of Wisconsin should send a solid progressive delegation to congress this year...
...It will be paid to the last dollar—paid in toil and sweat...
...Now what is back of this proposal by Morgan and his associates to cancel the debt which the allies owe the people's government...
...every issue was clearly stated, and every issue was vigorously presented from the platform and in pamphlets...
...Added to this, eminent authorities in government finance, writing in leading magazines freely predicted the ultimate bankruptcy of the belligerent nations, as the inevitable result of the frightful waste of the European war...
...Schneider was born and reared to manhood on an Outagamie county farm and therefore has a sympathetic appreciation of the problems of the farmer, as well as those of the city worker...
...And yet, every school boy knows that Morgan and his friends were financing the allies from the very beginning of the European conflict...
...In the present chaotic condition of Europe, politically and financially, the payment of any portion of this sum to Morgan and his associates becomes more and more remote and uncertain...
...and most of all, the working men and farmers were a unit against the infamous Esch-Cummins law, which had played havoc with wages and prices of produce...
...At this primary the tariff for the plunderbund was condemned...
...We cannot print a complete resume of all the influences that led to the greatest progressive victory in Wisconsin or anywhere else, but enough has been said to show that the people acted from sound reasons and not from passion...
...Blue Book, 1921, p. 590...
...You and the bankers allied with you did pretty well out of the war and you have been doing quite well since...
...Those bonds have passed into the hands of our big bankers...
...Do the voters of the district feel that they could trust a man who is willing to disregard a law so plainly stated...
...And now we begin to get a true measure of the purely disinterested benevolence of Morgan and his pals in pushing the propaganda for the cancellation of the debt which Great Britain and her co-allies owe the American people...
...Take it from me—it will be a long, long time before the American people will consent to cancel that twelve billion debt due from the allies—for the benefit of you bankers...
...the proposed ship subsidy was opposed...
...There is fear, and a very just fear, that here in Wisconsin the people may count the primary as the finish instead of the beginning of the fight...
...All that is necessary to secure a progressive congressman then is to see that the progressive vote turns out in force...
...ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE...
...As a promoter and official of organized labor, he has won a high place among his fellow workmen...
...The result of the Wisconsin primary has put heart in the progressive cause throughout the nation...
Vol. 14 • October 1922 • No. 10
