REAL ISSUES IN WISCONSIN PRIMARY
Follette, Robert M. La Jr.
Real Issues in Wisconsin Primary Repudiation of Lenroot's Reactionary Record Demanded; Withdrawal From World Court Sought; How Wealth Escapes Taxes BY ROBERT M. LA FOLLHTTE, JR. (From Speech at...
...The system had no sanction in law or morals ibut nevertheless it was practiced successfully for years by those interests which it unjustly enriched, under the very nose of the federal government...
...Thus far, of the 46 senators" who voted to seat Newberry, 16 have been defeated, 7 died before they ran for reelection, 2 were not candidates and 12 are up for judg* Ekern Helped Found Progressive Movement IF the people of this state really desire that Wisconsin shall hold her place as the model commonwealth in this Union, first in service to the great mass of the people, first in constructive Progressive policies, and first in resisting reactionary policies of government at Washington, Herman L. Ekern will be nominated at the primaries September 7th as the Republican candidate for governor by an overwhelming majority...
...Following the tragic death of Paul Husting, Mr...
...Walsh or to other members of the committee, in ¦Fall's suite in the Wardman Park hotel...
...It is my firm conviction-that the citizens of Wisconsin will repudiate the reactionary record of Senator Lenroot and nominate and elect John J. Blaine to the United States senate.—From Speech of Robert M. La Follette, Jr...
...for four monotonous years he played a conspicuous role in drafting and enacting into - law the great constructive measures sponsored by Gov...
...Lenroot voted to confirm it...
...Ekern Fought Increase in Freight Rates to a Finish YOU will recall that last summer the western railroads, including every railroad in Wisconsin, were prosecuting their application before the interstate commerce commission for an increase in freight rates...
...During Christmas week, 1923, Sen...
...He will not join the reactionary coalition in the senate...
...It was the Progressives, under the magnificent leadership of that veteran, incorruptible statesman, George Norris, who saved Muscle Shoals from being turned over to private power companies this year of 1926...
...Willis...
...The Roll Call FOLLOWING the life-long policy adhered to by Sen...
...This cruel treaty violated the condition of the armistice upon which Germany laid <iown her arms...
...Lenroot) for the frank giving/away of his case...
...Was Under People's Mandate WHEN OONG-RESS convened last December, I entered upon the duties of my official position with a profound sense of the responsibility as well as the honor conveyed upon me by the people of this state...
...This vote came after Newflterry had acknowledged in the open senate that $195,000 had been spent in his behalf for his election...
...Lenroot was one of his associates in the work of constructive state government...
...They want to go back to the mor# easily corrupted convention system...
...President, the senator from Wisconsin (Mr...
...Lenroot has resisted each attempt to bring alleviation of the burden of the American farmer...
...The British government is trying to aborgtk slavery and put an end to human sacrifices fat the tfaja Hills region of Burma...
...Versailles Treaty and League SEN...
...The Moses reservation was defeated by a vote of 69 to 22...
...Let no man say that these questions are simply national issues...
...Wire answer...
...Caught red-handed, these representatives of the greal interests try to blacken the name of the direct primary by using it as their alibi...
...Norris reviewed Sen...
...Borah replied: ' "It is in the background and also when it is in the background, it is but a short space of time before it gets into the foreground...
...Freedom for 3,*00 st*v«s has already been purchased at aa &«trftg« pries tf/4MM...
...Lenroot, referred to for the purpose of shielding his friend, Fall...
...Thank God for the folks at home...
...Lenroot played as the representative of this state in an investigation which resulted from the speeches, charges and resolution presented by Sen...
...The senator from Wisconsin comes with a substitute...
...In reality the league of nations is another Holy Alliance and its court is impotent to function when the selfish interests of the great powers which dominate the league are involved...
...Those who lustily cried a year ago "Stand Behind the President," are now trying to explain their records to their constituents * * *. What Standing Behind the President Means /THrTE PEOPLE generally and this middle *• west particularly have learned that "Standing Behind the President" means keeping the Esch-Cummins tariff law on the statute books, that it means the stifling of all genuine measures of farm relief...
...Edward E. McLean of Washington, D. C. * * * I have never ^ approached E. L. Doheny or any one connected with him or any of his corporations • or Mr...
...He will not join the reactionary coalition in the senate...
...When these resolutions were under consideration in the senate and shortly before the final vote, Sen...
...and the other Progressive candidates have subscribed, declares: "We demand the repeal of the Esch-Cunimins law...
...But after what has been revealed once more in Pennsylvania, no one can deny that certain powerful men are abroad in politics who seek from government not justice, but special privilege...
...Hearings, pt...
...Teapot Dome IN CONSIDERING the oil scandal of the Harding-Coolidge administration, in which not one culprit has yet been sent to jail and which therefore properly remains a matter of the greatest public interest, it is not necessary to depart from the official public records for Wisconsin voters to get a line on the part their senators played in this historic episode...
...He said: "Mr...
...This reservation put the issue squarely up to the senate as to whether or not the decrees Of the court are to be enforced by war...
...Lenroot's lecoid on these important measures...
...In the rlo: .ng hours of the last session just adjourned Sen...
...Against this gigantic power, Wisconsin has held her head erect...
...Herman Ekern was elected to the Wisconsin Assembly in 1903...
...Ekern appeared before the rivers and harbors committee and delivered what was the most effective attack that has yet been made against the scheme to impoverish the states in the basin of the Great Lakes for the benefit of the sanitary district of Chicago, which has waxed fat and politically influential in using stolen water to generate electric power...
...La Follette never swerved from his original course...
...f The Muscle Shoals question, so immensely important in determining the policy of our government in this whole matter of hydro-electric power, rh which the future welfare and happiness of the people is at stake, is still pending in Congress...
...He will faithfully and aggressively represent his constituency...
...The first one brought in, which was confined practically to the elimination of the middleman and was designed to bring together or more closely together the producer and the consumer and make the profits of the producer greater and the cost to the consumer less, met with a substitute which did not propose anything in the world, but to loan some more money to the farmer out of the federal treasury, and it received the most ardent support of the senator from Wisconsin...
...If one of the nations -refuses to accept our reservations to the protocol, advocates of the Jeague will urge us to modify our reservations...
...Lenroot's place he would have stood with I*a Follette, Reed, Borah, Johnson and Knox, leaders of the brave band of "irreeoneit"Blaine is a Faithful Public Servant" THE Progressives of Wisconsin support Gov...
...After these facts were revealed, Fall left Washington and conferred with "Ned" McLean, who was in conference with C. Bascom Slemp, Pres...
...Lenroot as follows: "Am I to understand from reading telegram you sent McLean that you have given Wahsh authority to subpoena me as —Locomotive Engineers Journal witness...
...Sen...
...La Follette delivered a four-hour speech on the floor of the United States senate demanding an immediate investigation of the Teapot Dome and other oil leases which had just been signed in secret with Sinclair and Doheny, Secretaries Fall and Den-foy acting for the government...
...President, the senator ¦ from Wisconsin (Mr...
...The ultimate objective of this—the Mellon scheme of taxation is to do away with all graduated forms of taxation and place upon the masses of the American people the entire burden of government through indirect taxation...
...Public Ownership \jf 7"HERE was Sen...
...They are fighting the government operation of Muscle Shoals because they fear it will be an outstanding example which will make the desirability of public operation of electric power generally known, and convince the public of the wisdom of retaining and operating its own natural resources...
...lette reservations providing for a referendum on war...
...Lenroot) said this resolution as now formed does not disgrace Mr...
...Votes for Newberry are back of Corruption in Pennsylvania FOR MANY WEEKS I have been in daily attendance upon a committee of which t am a member, investigating th# recent primary in Pennsylvania...
...Unity of State and National Issues IHAVE DEALT here today with certain great issues, and the public records of candidates in respect to them with which my official work has given me some measure of familiarity...
...La Follette was governor of Wisconsin, Sen...
...During that time Herman Ekern and my father were working shoulder to shoulder in laying the foundations of the Progressive movement and in carrying it forward.—From Speech of Robert M. La Follette, Jr...
...He has called attention to the fact that one of the dangers here is the middleman...
...Coolidge and the Old Guard voting to turn over this wonderful Muscle Shoals hydro-electric plant, in which the people of the United States have already invested $100,000,000, to the exploitation of private interests...
...H. F. Sinclair or any one connected with him or any of his corpora-' tions nor have I ever received from either or said parties one cent on account of any other account whatsoever...
...Walsh stated he might wish to examine McLean's secretary or other employee who might be there, and that was only purpose of his authority to subpoena...
...He ' y was with Pres...
...Newberry received fewer votes because of this excessive expenditure...
...For more''than 30 years, in and out of public office, Herman Ekern has stood like a rock for the Progressive principles which have made Wisconsin great...
...6, p. 1779...
...Lenroot in this fight...
...Walsh led the fight to defeat this nomination...
...11, 1924, the senate passed a resolution by a vote of 47 to 23 demanding the resignation of Denby, still a member of the Coolidge cabinet...
...Lenroot voted against the resolution...
...In announcing my candidacy for the unexpired term I pledged my unswerving allegiance to the principles which had been the guide to my father's ^public service...
...Their cure" for the situation which they have created in their greed for special favors is to abolish the...
...I am doing what I can as .a citizen of Wisconsin to aid in the nomination and election of Herman L. Ekern for governor, Henry Huber for lieutenant governor, John Reynolds for attorney general, Theodore Dam-mann for secretary of state, and Sol Levitan for treasurer, because I am convinced that without the cooperation of Progressive state officials, Wisconsin cannot make her full contribution toward the right settlement of the Sssues, state and national, that confront us...
...Reed of Missouri said: "So I want it understood now that all of these advocates of peace are now standing here, the advocates of war and of its necessity and of its righteousness and I want another thing understood and that is that the compact of the league of nations was a compact so much for war that the respective parties to that compact cannot sign an agreement not to make war without violating the agreement which they made when they signed the league of nations covenant...
...vote...
...They have been waged in Europe, in Asia, in the Near East, and in Africa by one or more of the nations adhering to this court...
...Moses said: "I cannot express my obligation to the senator from Wisconsin (Mr...
...Lenroot and Sen...
...It shows what part Sen...
...The people likewise recognize that it was Atty...
...I do not care how it is determined here...
...Lenroot retired as a member of the committee, -.resigning his chairmanship, on account of illness, and from that date forward he took no part in the work of the committee.- (See Cong...
...It was nothing more or less than a system of robbery, by which millions of dollars annually were taken from the farmers, the business men and the steel consumers of Wisconsin and of other interior states by a fictitious freight charge for a service never rendered...
...Ever since he was appointed to the cabinet, Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon has been conducting a drive to untax great wealth in this country...
...Smoot, Sen...
...Newberry was duly elected and is entitled to his seat...
...16, 1924, Pres...
...Progressive millions of this land...
...Sen...
...Lenroot voted against the La Fol...
...Fall's Letter to Lenroot ^>viN DEC...
...It is .easy to understand why Mellon regards the sales tax as the ideal system...
...Ekern put a Stop to Pittsburgh Plus AT THE very outset of his service he was instrumental in organizing 32 states in a joint action before the federal trade commission at Washington to prohibit a price fixing practice known as Pittsburgh Plus...
...merit this year...
...These reforms have been adopted by other states throughout the union and provided not only the system of regulation of these great aggregations of capital in Wisconsin, but also a model for the entire nation...
...Herman Ekern for 30 years has stood every test in public and in private life...
...I have read the record...
...Let us not deceive ourselves...
...In that content the stal-wart Republicans of this stale, under the leadership of Sen...
...It is of vital importance that every candidate for the United States Senate should be tested upon this vital issue...
...Sign it in your infamy...
...The great constructive achievements of Wisconsin's Progressives at Washington in the past have been made possible to a large degree fey cooperation with the Progressive administration in Wisconsin...
...Spencer and amended by Sen...
...La Follette recognized the courage and character of this man and his ability to fill this important office with 'benefit to the people of Wisconsin and with honor to himself...
...Court Issue Still Unsettled tr^flE ISSUE of our joining the world court ¦*• and the league of nations is not settled...
...Muscle Shoals was among the hardest fought battles in this last session of congress...
...6, p. 1694-5...
...Blaine for the United States senate on his life-long- record as a faithful public servant, as legislator, attorney general and governor...
...He has always exhibited, as Sen...
...favors lower tariff rates, denounces the Mellon tax plan, whose object is fet destroy in state and nation all inheritance and income taxes, to relieve multi-millionaires of ttac.es and shift the heavy burden to the mm »t Ufa* people...
...The record speaks for itself, without the necessity of further comments, and it cannot be eliminated as a most important issue in this campaign...
...As the attorney general of this state, Herman Ekern appeared during the hearings on that proposition before the interstate commerce commission, and served notice that Wisconsin would fight to the limit any further increase in railroad rates, and induced the attorneys-general of other states to join with him...
...La Follette did not feel that he could get results by appealing to his colleague...
...In the meantime he was appointed a member of the legislative committee which conducted an investigation of life insurance in this state during the years 1905 and 1906...
...Cong, Rec...
...and declares unalteraible opposition to the league of nations and its court...
...If Blaine had been in Lenroot's place do yott think he would have set forth on the pages 01 the Congressional Record such an argument for voting to seat Newiberry...
...Newberry...
...The war is not over so far as the payment of the debt is concerned...
...The Progressives' candidates for the highest office in the gift of the people of Wisconsin have subscribed to a platform and are pledged to a definite constructive program of state and national government in the public interest...
...Cong...
...26, 1923, (p...
...Let us maintain that solidarity of position and sweep on to new victories in the public interest...
...He appeared in person before the federal trade commission in cooperation with the attorneys general of other states and gained from that body a decision which ended Pittsburgh Plus and put a stop to that particular form of stealing...
...Sen...
...LENROOT voted to put this country into the league of nations and to ratify the Versailles treaty...
...Work in Milwaukee Road Case WHEN the Chicago, Milwaukee and St...
...Ekern has been engaged in fighting corrupt interests...
...He canvassed the senate and turned to Sen...
...1429 of hearings) a ^—" letter was written to Chairman Lenroot and signed by Albert B. Fall, as follows: "* * * The gentlemen from whom I obtained it (the $100,000 used in improving the Fall ranch) and who furnished me the cash was Hon...
...The voters of Wisconsin have an opportunity to send .to thj United States Senate for six years a man whose past record and platform pledges demonstrate that he will fight for an equitable distribution of the tax burdens and who will maintain his resistance to the last ditch to a continuation of the Mellon drive to relieve the rich from' their just share of the burdens of government...
...Lenroot voted for the resolution ordering an investigation...
...Lenroot Pres...
...I told every audience I addressed that in the discharge of my public-duties I should exercise my independent judgment regardless of the dictates of the party bosses and the pressure of the political machine...
...Sen: La Follette said, with a vision prophetic of the campaign in which we are now engaged...
...Lenroot was elected to the senate on the "loyalty" issue...
...On Feb...
...Lenroot vs...
...Blaine had been in Sen...
...Lenroot said in course of the debate: "Everybody concedes that force is in the background of the covenant of the league of nations, and it is through potential force that they hope to maintain peace...
...He will faithfully and aggressively represent his constituency...
...Ekern served as insurance commissioner of Wisconsin and put into force the constructive statutes which he had drafted...
...It is well known throughout the United States, as well as in Wisconsin, that since the election of Mr...
...Peace and justice cannot flow from an instrument conceived in the spirit of the secret treaties and born in the atmosphere of greed and vengeance which dominated the treaty makers at Versailles...
...With the election at hand, Senator Lenroot voted against some of the excessive reductions in super-taxes and the proposal to repeal the estates tax...
...Coolidge's secretary...
...Hearings, pt.6, p. 1694-5...
...You have heard what Sgn...
...The Newberry Case OJN JAN...
...Lenroot, staked their chance on a platform which declared for unconditional support of Pres...
...Feb 26, 1924, p. 3230-1, 3232...
...Robert M. La Follette, of Wisconsin...
...Lenroot was elected to...
...I know they have been gathered in...
...Lenroot, who now tells the citizens of Wisconsin that he led the fight for the court because it was an instrumentality for peace, was among those who voted against the Moses reservation providing that- the decisions of the court should not be enforced by war...
...New* 'berry...
...the senate on the "loyalty" issue...
...Feb 11, 1924, p. 2245...
...Blaine for the United States senate on his life-long record as a faithful public servant, as legislator, attorney general and governor...
...It wag they who by a narrow margin in the senatf declared to the world that seats in that body were for sale...
...abolishing conscription, seeking to prevent the acquisition of territory by force and for limitation of armies and navies...
...His record proves that he never will be a "back-slider" or a "near Progressive...
...Lenroot and Smoot told divergent stories on the floor of the senate as to what had been said in the course of the conference (Cong...
...Esch-Cummins I.aw SE<N...
...In the three contests of major importance on the question of taxation since the inauguration of President Harding in 1921 Senator Lenroot voted for the McCumber-Mellon amendment that year to reduce super-taxes on large incomes, also against all amendments to tax excess profits and thus indirectly tax stock dividends...
...Doutbless many of the good people of this country who favored our entrance into the court are convinced that it will promote peace...
...Lenroot said: "Then, Mr...
...Sen...
...Coolidge held a conference with Sen...
...That is about all there is to the substitute...
...Smoot visited Albert B. Fall, who had come to Washington to appear again as a witness before the committee, and held a secret conference with him, unknown to Sen...
...Bonar Law, the British statesman, explained ¦why Great Britain did not take the invasion of the Ruhr to the league of nations and its court...
...To which Mr...
...After his conference with Sen...
...When it came to the Senate, I announced that we would filibuster the bill to death, if necessary, to defeat it and the opposition was so general from other Senators that the party bosses made no effort to bring it to final consideration...
...When this secret conference was exposed, Sens...
...that this sum of money had been expended by a committee whose selection he approved and with which he was in constant communication, whose methods and policies were so notorious as to put Newberry on full notice of what they were doing...
...Honest business men of this state know that.Herman Ekern will scrupulously safeguard their just rights...
...21, 1922, by a vote of 46 to 41, the senate declared Truman H. Newberry "duly elected senator from the state of Michigan...
...Lenroot supported the Esch-Cummins law and has resisted its repeal...
...Ekern Saved State Millions of Dollars THAT investigation, of which Herman Ekern was the moving spirit, resulted in changing the insurance laws of Wisconsin and in saving the people of this state millions of dollars...
...Lenroot consistently opposed reservations designed to protect the interests of America...
...I realized what a great undertaking was before me...
...He worked unceasingly to the day of his death for its repeal and contended that normal agricultural conditions could not be restored as long as the Esch-Cummins law remained on the statute books...
...It is because she has voiced her determination to safeguard the liberties of her people and to work out her own destiny in the path of representative democracy that Wisconsin is honored today from one end of the country to the other by the liberal...
...He remained until his 'death an aggressive, constructive, progressive * statesman...
...Lenroot presented this letter to the investigating committee, of which he was acting as a member (hearings pt...
...Lenroot because I believe that every citizen of Wisconsin should study that record before he casts his vote in the coming primary...
...I believe we can prevent giving away Muscle Shoals at the next shoit session of congress, that is until the 4th of March next Then if 1 am not mistaken, the people will have retired to private life Sen...
...Following the tragic death of Paul Husting, Mr...
...Hydro-electric power is the key to industry of the future, and private utility interests want, to keep the key...
...of tho Esch-Cummins railroad law...
...Great fortunes were enormously swollen by war profits and many new ones were created...
...He has always exhibited, as Sen...
...Kenyon of Iowa said: "Mr...
...Lenroot and others who share his view that Muscle Shoals should be given to the power monopoly...
...Walsh almost single-handed conducting cross-examination of witnesses, and Senator Smoot and Lenroot, Republican senior members of the eo?nmittee, asking no questions during this period that caused the slightest trouble for Fall, Denby and other witnesses, or that enlightened the public as to the real truth about the secret leases...
...Ekern Has Stood Test of Thirty Years' Public Service WE cannot hold this position or the honors and advantages it gives us by electing a governor who makes his peace before election, publicly or privately, with the forces of reaction...
...We are living in a time when the pressure from great combinations of capital organized on a national scale and from the administration at Washington controlled by these interests, is exerted with enormous force against the elected officers of every state in the Union...
...Be would not J He would have stood with Senators Norris...
...This device had been employed by the steel trust by arrangement with the railroads for more than a generation...
...Sen...
...The official record of public servants upon great issues is the test by which they must stand or fall when they submit their candidacies to the people—to the court of last resort in a democratic form of government...
...Agricultural Relief SINCE 1921 the Progressives in congress have waged a fight to afford relief to depressed agriculture...
...After Sen...
...In substance, it really says: Be it enacted by the congress of the United States, That it is our desire that the farmers of America shall be v prosperous, and we hereby appropriate $1150,000,000 to make them prosperous, and we hereby appoint a lot of office seekers to spend the money in doing it...
...In 1924 on the Simmons' plan of taxation which benefited 148,380 tax payers in Wisconsin, Senator Lenroot was absent but was paired for the Mellon plan which benefited only 67 persons in Wisconsin...
...From Labor If the nations accept our reservations the league advocates will try to force us to join the league...
...Walsh to visit Fall and McLean and to get the testimony of the absent witnesses...
...In the effort of the Secretary of the Treasury to relieve great wealth from taxation, he has had the active aid of Senator Lenroot...
...Herman L. Ekern IIP THE PEOPLE of this state really desire that Wisconsin shall hold her place as the model commonwealth in this union, first in service to the great mass of the people, first in constructive Progressive policies, and first in resisting reactionary policies of government at Washington, Herman L. Ekern will be nominated at the primaries September 7th as the Republican candidate for governor by an overwhelming majority...
...For five years Mr...
...In his service to the public, time and time again he has run afoul of great railroad corporations seeking unjust rate increases, and monopolistic combinations thriving under unjust and illegal practices...
...Lenroot voted against the Johnson reservation to prevent the British Empire from having six votes to our one...
...During this historic fight Sen...
...Coolidge nominated former Sen...
...In the meantime, Atty...
...Ekern Has True Statesmanship HERMAN EKERN has the natural endowment of true statesmanship—the constructive ability, the vision, the initiative and the training in political affairs to do the things that need to be done to keep Wisconsin abreast of the demands of the hour and to keep the Progressive movement in the channels in which its founder launched it...
...But they re'i'ze the fact is not generally known, and the private utility interests do not want it generally known until the public has given over to private interests all its natural resources for hydro-electric power...
...Lenroot Quiet at Quiz FROM MAY, 1922, to September, 1923, the investigation proceeded slowly, with Sen...
...He said: "There is no use in doing that if you know that the French will have nothing to do with H.w Wars have been going on since the league and the court were organized...
...Ekern vs...
...This has been demonstrated again and again...
...So, answering these two questions in the negative, upon my oath as a senator, I cannot do otherwise than vote for the resolution declaring that Mr...
...The rivers and harbors bill sought to legalize a diversion of 10,000 cubic feet per second by the Chicago Sanitary District, which would have perpetrated the Great Lakes water steal and injured every lake harbor in the state of Wisconsin...
...In the most vital sense tiiey constitute state issues as well, and their determination will work for good or ill in every home in Wisconsin...
...The invasion of the Ruhr set a precedent more dangerous to civilization and world peace than anything that has occurred in modern times...
...La Follette;—the direct primary, regulation of railroad rates, the setting up of civil service and railroad commissions, the corrupt practices act, safety laws for railroad employes and many similar measures...
...But I knew I took with me to the senate floor a mandate from the people of Wisconsin to carry on my father's work to the best of my ability 1'or the term for which I was elected...
...Opposition of the middle west to this pernicious system was widespread, and public sentiment against it was acute, but it remained for Herman Ekern to organize it and .bring it to a fruition...
...Coolidge issued a statement to the effect that "the guilty will be punished," thus seeking to anticipate action by the senate...
...Hearings pt...
...p. 2565...
...Out of the wealth of his experience in public and professional work, Herman Ekern drafted the first bill providing for war risk insurance, which later furnished jthe basis for insuring all soldiers, sailors and marines, under government supervision, at cost...
...Lenroot to the senate, Wisconsin has had two senators who have held opposite views upon the vital economic and political questions pressing for solution and who have' worked consistently toward different ends...
...His record on the question of taxation to pay our present war debt demonstrates he has supported Andrew Mellons' program to relieve great wealth of its fair share of the burden of taxation created by the late war and to shift that burden to the backs of the great mass of the people of this country...
...Newberry's nomination and election, and would he not have secured the office but for this huge, and in some cases, improper, expenditure ? In arriving at a conclusion on that question, as I have studied the record and studied the case, as I stated a little while ago, I believe Mr...
...La Follette, I never have and never shall, indulge in personalities in a political contest...
...His record proves that he never will he a "backslider" or a "near Progressive...
...Other men have been trusted with equally high office during this generation, but here is one man who has never betrayed his trust...
...They know upon the record of 30 years that Herman Ekern has the character, the brains, and the heart to insure genuine pubKo service and by their votes September 7th they will give to Wisconsin another Progressive, constructive governor...
...Borah, Kenyon, La Follette and others wh* fought the confirmation of Newberry...
...9, 1924, Fall wired Sen...
...Norris of Nebraska, chairman of the committee on agriculture, able and courageous progressive leader, has been in the thick of every fight in each congress...
...On the conference report, Senator Lenroot was reported as absent and not voting...
...thatjie would have been nominated exactly the same, and with a larger majority had it not been for this excessive expenditure...
...President, there is only one question remaining for me to decide in forming my judgment, and that is, did this vast expenditure of money, although not participated in by Mr...
...When the water diversion proposition was the subject of hearings in the house, Atty...
...La Follette fought desperately to forestall enactment of the Esch-Cummins law...
...Reed of Missouri providing that the United States should assume no obligation to enforce any article of the treaty with its military or naval forces...
...I have endeavored faithfully to represent by my votes, in the debates and in n.y work on committees of the senate, the public interest...
...Pomerene, reactionary Democrat, to conduct the civil and criminal suits as counsel for the government against the oil thieves and for cancellation of the leases...
...There will be a determined fight in the senate to pass a resolution withdrawing front the league court...
...These interests know that they cannot frighten him or deceive him and that once in the governor's chair, they cannot control him...
...Lenroot and nominate and elect John J. Blaine to the United States senate...
...In 1015, he retired from public office but he did not retire from the Progressive movement or from public service...
...They prefer to buy delegates in the back room of a hotel,—it's cheaper...
...Muscle Shoals THE WISCONSIN platform says: "We favor public ownership of tho nation's waterpower and the creation and development of a national super-power system including Muscle Shoals and Boulder Canyon, to supply light, power, and fertilizer at actual cost...
...Sen...
...The people of Wisconsin will answer that question on the 7th of September...
...Ekern who recently took the timely action which compelled the executors of the Beggs' estate to return $20,000,000 of securities to Wisconsin and to make a deposit of $3,500,000 to cover estate and income taxes payable under the laws of this state...
...The Wisconsin delegation in the House voted unanimously against that infamous bill...
...This terrific increase in rates played a primary part in producing the depressed condition of American agriculture which has existed since the enactment of that law in 1020...
...On April 28, 1922, Sen...
...Lenroot were upon opposite sides of the important political and economic questions affecting the ge?ieral welfare of the people of the United States...
...In the course of his speech on seating New* berry, Sen...
...they are ready to sign the directed verdict...
...I have tried to keep the record straight...
...Feb 16, 1924...
...The Wisconsin platform, to which B! tine, Ekern...
...His consistent advocacy of home rule for the cities of the state, conservation, highway improvement, initiative and referendum, protection of the people from the unlawful sale of securities, and other measures, are well known...
...Thank God for the men and women in the factories and on the farms and around the firesides of this country who will eventually determine this question...
...La Follette opposed the enaetmen...
...During the entire period of Herman Ekern's service as attorney general, I have been at-Washington, more or less intimately in touch with the problems which have confronted many of our middle western states, as the result of reactionary policies of the federal government...
...That tide is now receding with a rush...
...The vote was unanimous...
...It means keeping the United States in the world court, putting over the Mellon tax plan, turning Muscle Shoals over to the power trust, settling foreign debts in the interest of big bankers...
...They know it has been demonstrated that the public can control and operate that key to its own advantage...
...10, p. 2519...
...They have learned to take the true measure of "safe and sane" Progressives...
...The senate committee in executive session voted to authorize Sen...
...Ekern has carried to the supreme court a suit to prevent this diversion in perpetuity, and there is a fair prospect that before congress convenes in December Wisconsin will have its right recognized for all time by a final decree from that court Ekern Supported Annuity Law T\HE people of this state know that it was Herman Ekern who co-operated with Dr...
...From the hour they became colleagues at Washington, Sen...
...Lenroot led the little group called "mild reservationists," who were ready to accept the treaty with a few milk and water reservations...
...Laughter...
...La Follette pointed out these facte as proved on the record: "That a sum of money admitted to be at least $195,000, with ample supporting proof that it reached $250,000, had been expended in the Michigan primary...
...Charles E. Brooks in securing the enactment of the Wisconsin Teachers' annuity law...
...We cannot go forward on the momentum only of great achievement in the past...
...Relieve Great Wealth from Taxes IN 1926 the forces led by Andrew Mellon and supported by Republicans and reactionary Democrats were strong enough to force the Mellon tax plan upon the statute books...
...I remember that every bill which the senate committee on agriculture and forestry has brought up for the relief of agriculture has met with bitter opposition on the part of the senator from Wisconsin...
...La Follette and Sen...
...For more than 30 years, in and out of public office, Herman Ekern has stood like a rock for the Progressive principles which have made Wisconsin great...
...6, p. 1772), the man who had obtained the lease of the Elk Hill oil reserve upon which he testified he would make a profit of $100,000,000, and that Doheny's son had carried the cash to Fall in a "black satchel...
...Untaxing Great Wealth THE WISCONSIN Progressive-Republican platform declares in part: "We denounce the propaganda subsidized by great wealth aiming to destroy in . the nation and the state both inheritance and income taxes and designed to relieve the rich and again place a heavier burden upon the homes, farms, stores and factories of the mass of the people...
...Ekern Drafted War Risk Insurance WHEN the great war madness seized this country in the early months of 1917, when fair weather Progressives took to cover and joined in the pack that sought to drive Robert M. La Follette from the senate, I remember where Herman Ekern stood...
...I/enroot fought the reservation proposed by Sen...
...La Follette said of him, "the same sympathy and understanding of the mass of the people...
...Maybe not, but it disgraces the United States senate vastly more than it disgraces Mr...
...This is the question with which every member of this senate will find himself confronted when he goes to his constituency for authority to represent them for another six years...
...During that time Herman Ekern and my father were working shoulder to shoulder in laying the foundations of the Progressive movement and in carrying it forward...
...Sen...
...La Follette said of him, "the same sympathy and understanding of the mass of the peojile...
...5, page 1429...
...Ekern was elected speaker of the assembly...
...Norris presented the amendment declaring Newberry not entitled to a seat in the United States senate...
...No matter under what colors he presents himself, no man can be entrusted by Progressives with the office of governor who has not been tried in the fire and proved his mettle...
...Lenroot replied: "There was no such intention...
...Under the evil provisions of this transportation act railroad freight and pasenger rates were increased $1,500,000,000 a year, or $75 a year for each American family...
...Lenroot said in defense of Newberry...
...Can anyone doubt what the answer of Wisconsin will be on September 7th...
...I know something of the work Herman Ekern has done, often in cooperation with Progressive Republicans from Wisconsin in congress, and I know the reputation he bears as the legal representative of this state...
...La Follette and Sen...
...Those senators must bear a degree of responV sibility for the scandal in "Pennsylvania...
...In means continued subservience of government, both state and national, to the power of organized wealth, and to monopoly control of big business...
...Moses Of New Hampshire offered this resolution: "That the adherence of the United States to the statute of the world court is conditioned upon the understanding that judgments, decrees and advisory opinions of the court shall not be enforced by war in any name or in any form whatever...
...Lenroot became reactionary...
...The followers of the Coolidge-Mellon Big Business regime are now being caught in the political undertow...
...On March II, 1924, Sen...
...Herman Ekern, as goyernor, and his associates in the state government, can do as much to resist the encroachment of the great interests seeking special privilege as can the Progressives in the house and senate at Washington...
...Lenroot was ready at any time, with a few weak reservations, to accept this treaty which the late Philander C. Knox, former secretary of state, and recognized as^a conservative senator, denounced as "the harshest treaty of modern times...
...Senator Lenroot has stated from the platform in this campaign that he would favor conscripting dollars as well as men if we should have another war...
...Ekern and the Great Lakes Steal T^HERE was pending at Washington during the session just ended a rivers and harbors bill which was declared even by some of the administration regulars to be the worst pork barrel bill in American history...
...f*v»rs government operation of Muscle Shoals...
...Sen...
...Lenroot was the ranking Republican member of the public lands committee, which was directed to conduct the investigation, but iSen...
...We favor the enactment of legislation that will restore control to state railroad commissions of interstate rates and to bring about the reduction of freight and passenger rates upon the basis of honest capitalization, allowing a fair return upon ^the investment prudently made...
...Sen...
...Through the league they control the court...
...In 1907 Mr...
...After his secret conference with Fall and Sen...
...that it had been expended in direct violation of Michigan law limiting expenditures to $3,750, and in violation of the federal corrupt practices act then in force limiting expenditures to $10,000...
...p. 2938, March 11, 1924.—Date of letter of resignation, March 10, 1924...
...If Gov...
...The tide of reaction which swept the country , in 1024 was induced by economic pressure, by threats to close factories and reduce wages, by manipulation of prices of wheat and the menace of farm mortgage foreclosure...
...Lenroot) who offers this substitute, has had something to say this morning- about the inconsistency of senators who are objecting to loans or who are favorable to loans and object to other systems of regulation...
...Hearings pt...
...The attitude of Andrew Mellon is not surprising, when it is remembered that he is one of the world's richest men, whose supremacy in the business world—coal, aluminum, oil, railroads, banking—has been won by the most ruthless monopoly methods...
...The evidence deduced by the committee has demonstrated that upwards of $3,000,000 was spent in Pennsylvania by the great interests of that state in an effort to debauch the electorate and to control a party primary...
...The Progressives of Wisconsin support Gov...
...Since this speech was delivered the Interstate Commerce Commission has denied the railroads the increased rates they were demanding...
...Congress having adjourned, and the committee for the investigation of campaign expenditures, of which I am a memlbcr, having recessed, I am here to do my part as a citizen of Wisconsin in this campaign because I know it involves issues of utmost importance to the people of the state and nation...
...Lenroot had made fhe motion for cloture, secured its adoption, ftnd effectively gagged the senate, Sen...
...I know how it will be determined...
...When the bill came up for passage in the senate, however, Senator Lenroot voted for the bill that slashed the super-tax rates and repealed the tax on large estates...
...This resolution can be adopted by a majority...
...The eourt is the judicial arm of the league...
...What Senator Lenroot's program may be for taxation in a war in the distant future is not of vital interest to the citizens of this state who are now staggering under a tremendous burden resulting from the late war for which he voted...
...On Feb...
...Sen...
...This hypocritical resolution declared that the expenditure of such excessive sum of money as $195,-000 was harmful to the dignity of the senate and dangerous to the perpetuity of a free government," and then the resolution proceeded to declare Newberry "duly elected and entitled to hold his seat in the United States senate...
...This language may not seem strange to some of the people in Wisconsin, but it astonishes those who sat through the debate in the United States senate...
...From Speech at Randolph, Wis., July 16, 1326) F ELJjOW Citizens, it is less than a year since the special primary ami election in Wisconsin was held to select a senator to fill the unex- pired term of Robert M. La Fol-- lette...
...I have reviewed the public record of Sen...
...Throwing off the mask, the railroad executives ran lengthy advertisements in newspapers of this state citing the fact in cold type that they felt they were entitled to another increase, because the Esch-Cummins law recognized their right to net profits of not less than 5% per cent on their padded valuations...
...I personally know that in 1922 my father urged Herman Ekern to become a candidate for attorney general...
...Newberry, result in Mr...
...Decrees of Court Enforced by War IN HIS OPENING SPEECH of the campaign Sen...
...They believe the world court will setUe disputes among nations as our supreme court settles differences among states...
...primary...
...Walsh, of Montana, a Democrat, as the one member of the committee best fitted to take the initiative m bringing the oil thieves to justice...
...ables" of the senate, in opposing ratification of the Versailles treaty...
...World Court and the League TTHE LEAGUE OF NATIONS is interwoven with the treaty of Versailles...
...This platform demands the repeal of the Each-Cummins law...
...It is my firm conviction that the citizens of Wisconsin will repudiate the reactionary record of Sen...
...In their places will be new representatives who will fight to preserve the hydroelectric resources of the country for public use at t,o*t cf production...
...Following the defeat of the Norris resolution, the senate voted on a resolution offered by Sen...
...Fall Wires to Lenroot ON JAN...
...The real cure, my friends, is to put the co*» ruptionists in jail and driv« from public lif$ the senators who voted to seat Newberry who spent $195,000 in violation of law and morals...
...You remember their slogan, "Stand behind the President...
...that it harmed him rather than benefited him...
...denounces the foreign debt settlements in the interest of international bankers...
...On Jan...
...McLean's Story on $100,000 *SNJED" M'LEAN later admitted on his * ' oath before the committee that he had not loaned Fall $100,000 but that he had permitted the use of his name on the letter made public through Sen...
...Fall had, in fact, received the $100,000 from Edward L. Doheny (hearings pt...
...So did every other senator present...
...Coolidge and his policies...
...The senator from Wisconsin ought to have offered the amendment to the migratory bird bill because it simply provides for a safe haven of rest for a lot of lame ducks who will probably be looking for a place to light soon after the next general election...
...Lenroot said: "I am against war wherever and whenever it can be avoided with honor, and that is why I am for the World Court...
...There is one question paramount in the minds of the people of this country today, and that is whether it is possible to buy a seat in the United States senate for a quarter of a million dollars...
...He will not submit to the dictates of the party bosses...
...26, 1924, Pres...
...It has been my purpose, however, to speak more particularly of the work this man has done which did not come within the routine duties of his office, but which he has nevertheless performed and performed with magnificent results, working day and night, and answering the call of public duty no matter when it came or where it took him...
...While Sen...
...The common men and women of this state have learned to value fidelity in high office...
...From the hour they became colleagues at Washington, Senators La Follette and Lenroot were upon opposite aides of the important political and economic questions affecting the general welfare of the people of the United States...
...Before the United States was in the war a month, I recall that he came to Washington and in conference with my father, discussed the detail 3 of legislation which should make wealth pay its fair share of the war and which should give the men at the front and their families at home, the compensation and protection against death and injury which the war profiteers sought m their greed to withhold...
...The great powers which got the swag out of the war control the league of nations...
...Throughout his entire career Mr...
...Paul railroad was finally thrown into bankruptcy, in 1925, after years of looting from the inside of its rich resources, Attorney General Ekern alone of all the law officers of the state tapped by that road, took steps which resulted in a publie investigation of the wrong that had been committed...
...Special Privilege \TO one can read his public record without un-pl ^ derstanding why he has enemies who seek to prevent him from becoming governor of Wisconsin...
...Blaine will be a tower of strength in the senate resisting the drive to embroil us in the affairs of Europe...
...He will not submit to the dictates of the party bosses...
Vol. 18 • August 1926 • No. 8
