WISCONSIN'S OPPORTUNITY TO LEAD THE WAY
Follette, Robert M. La Jr.
Wisconsin's Opportunity to Lead the Way Stranglehold of Power Monopoly on Purses of Public Should be Broken —Ganada's Electric Rates Two Thirds Less. By ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE, JR. (United States...
...The representative of the power monopoly arrogantly declared that no bill should be passed by Congress authorizing the government, in case the future may require it, to exercise an option for the protection of its' people or the development of its resources...
...The last session of the legislature enacted a law creating a new-conservation commission with Broad powers, amply supplied with money...
...Regardless of the court decision...
...At these district conferences jt has been decided who would make the best candidates for delegates to the National Republican convention, who would represent the Progressive element of the party and stand steadfastly for a Progressive platform...
...The time may even come when it will be impossible to find in Washington a jury of men and women "so illiterate that they have never heard of his crimes...
...United States Senator from Wisconsin) The following address was delivered by Senator Robert M. La Follette, Jr., at Milwaukee on November 15 at a conference of progressive leaders...
...for conservation of water power—all in the interest of all the public...
...These policies have been carried out in violation of the expressed will of Congress and the people...
...A complicated structure of holding companies with countless subsidiaries, lends itself to the watering of stock and concealment of profits to an extent never known before...
...The control of power will in the near future be the key to the domination of industry and transportation...
...The Progressives hold the balance of power in the Senate in the coming session of Congress...
...Disregarding the interests of legitimate business, of the farmer and of the worker, rediscount rates have been lowered, sucking the credit to New York and Chicago where it is loaned at ridiculously low rates for speculative purposes, while the productive elements in our economic life are paying high rates for credit...
...Sinclair's right-hand men skulk in Europe, and the Government cannot bring them back...
...He was...
...He declared for the repeal of the personal property tax...
...We have constantly before us the example of the Province of Ontario in Canada...
...In 1S24 the electorate of Wisconsin endorsed by a 100,000 majority a platform pledge which declared: "We favor public ownership of the Nation's watcrpower and the creation and development of a national super-watcrpower system, including Muscle Shoals, to supply at actual cost light and power for the people...
...The Progressives know how bitter the struggle will be...
...The people of the surrounding region and conservationists generally throughout the country have supported enthusiastically the establishment of this refuge...
...He and his associates refuse to answer questions on the ground that to do so might incriminate them—yet the jury may not hold that against them...
...The monopolization of electric light, heat and power is the most alarming economic development of the last decade...
...Most of the land desired commands a higher price, and under the present limitation it is not likely that more than 10,000 acres can be added during the coming year...
...When that platform was rejected by the reactionaries in the National Republican convention, Robert M. La Follette carried the issue to the country as an independent candidate...
...They will exercise that power for the advancement of Progressive principles...
...The Progressives in Wisconsin and in the Nation accept the challenge of the power monopoly, realizing full well its gigantic resources but adhering to our faith that the people through the exercise of the ballot can and will prevent the maintenance of the monopoly which has a stranglehold on this prime necessity of the present and the future...
...In each Congressional district there have been held informal meetings like this of Progressive Republicans, who are active, loyal, militant participants in the struggle to make government serve all the people...
...Recently Mr...
...Wealth in its arrogance flaunts justice and sets its power above that of the law...
...to the movement, but its roots were too deep to be destroyed...
...Already a contract amounting to $229,000 is shown to have been awarded to these interests after control of the Commission had been obtained...
...The solution of the problem thus presented is a challenge to the Progressive movement and offers an opportunity for great service to the people...
...Eventually the refuge should include about 165,000 acres of lands subject to overflow along the Mississippi between Wabasha, Minn., and Rock Island, 111...
...Even as a candidate for President, Robert M. La Follette put foremost the advance of the Progressive group in Congress...
...The nomination and election of the present governor of Wisconsin was accomplished through a campaign of deceit, misrepresentation and trickery unparalleled in the history of the state...
...Special interests are attempting to purchase seats in the United States Senate by the# corrupt use of money in elections...
...The responsibility for this deplorable situation in one of the mostim-portant departments of state government rests squarely on Governor Zimmerman...
...There one of the greatest power projects in the world publicly owned is furnishing electric energy to more than a million consumers at cost...
...This is the electric age...
...As a result the Highway Corqmission has been discredited in the eyes of the public and its service as to the state crippled...
...Of the forty or more constructive planks advanced by Wisconsin's aggressive, progressive representatives, thirty-two have been written upon the statute books...
...Insull's brother, in a speech delivered at Madison, bitterly attacked the Progressives for their stand upon the power issue...
...It was defeated by the reactionary majority in the Senate, but the fight will be renewed at the next session...
...The jurymen who judge him must be such weak-minded morons that they have never heard of the Supreme Court's denunciation or formed an opinion of this scoundrel's guilt...
...We are on the eve of a great development of the Progressive movement founded by Robert M. La Follette over forty years ago...
...It outlines many issues which are pressing for solution at the present time and which will be paramount in the coming campaign.—Managing Editor...
...Violates Law in Spirit WISCONSIN has seldom if ever witnessed a more complete betrayal of a campaign promise than Governor Zimmerman's action in the matter of conservation...
...There has been a remarkably large attendance a,t these meetings and wonderful enthusiasm...
...The funds provided probably are ample for the purpose, but it is desirable to increase the existing average limit per acre, for prolonged efforts to purchase at the present figure will increase the overhead cost materially...
...No sooner was Governor Zimmerman installed in office than faithful officials of the Commission were discharged...
...Insull's brother, in a speech delivered at Madison, bitterly attacked the Progressives for their stand upon the power issue...
...With the record back of us, we go forward sure of our ground and confident of our goal...
...It is a consistent chapter in the history of monopoly...
...Carried to its logical conclusion, the Coolidge-Kellogg foreign policy means that we must have the largest navy in the world, a standing army of tremendous size, and universal conscription...
...I have touched upon a few of the vital issues which confront the people in the coming contest in the hope that you would more fully realize the importance of the campaign...
...The law creating the commission specified that the Director should be its only salaried officer and should have special training and experience in conservation work...
...For many years the Wisconsin delegation in the House of Representatives has stood out in leadership for truer democracy...
...Governor Zimmerman in violation of his express platform pledge, has prostituted the cause of conservation to serve his selfish political ends...
...But the contest is no more difficult than the one inaugurated by Robert M. La Follette thirty odd years ago against the domination of Wisconsin by the railroad corporations...
...In each successive convention the platform presented by the Wisconsin delegation has been rejected, often with hisses and jeers, but the specific propositions advocated in those platforms have been endorsed by the people, threshed out in Congress, and finally enacted into law...
...It cannot be gainsaid...
...The limitation of $5 an acre as the average price that may be paid for land, slowed down the acquisition work considerably during the year...
...It was four years after the elder La Follette exposed the Teapot Dome scandal in the United States Senate that the Supreme Court denounced the crooked leases in the civil suit for their recovery, and the criminal suit against the conspirators has only just come to trial...
...Boycotts against American goods are being organized and the market in which we sold $450,000,000 of goods last year is threatened to be closed...
...In Pennsylvania and in Illinois three millions of dollars were expended to secure the election of Vare and Smith to the United States Senate...
...Bankers Control Policy OUR foreign policy is shaped by the international bankers and exploiters...
...represented to be a dry in the dry portion of the state and as a wet in wet territory...
...It is a part of our history...
...The Primary result proved conclusively that the reactionaries deserted Mr...
...The reactionaries of this state nominated and elected the present governor of Wisconsin...
...Agents of those who had huge financial interests in the awarding of highway contracts were put in their places...
...The fight is on...
...In the coming campaign for the nomination and election of a Governor and Legislature the control of power will be a dominant issue...
...He was all things to all men...
...The whole long process has been a,revelation of the ease with which money can warp the law to its own ends...
...Organized wealth, determined to subvert government to its own ends, is undermining the foundation of democracy...
...This is a record of achievement of which every Progressive in Wisconsin and in the Nation is proud...
...His appointment was a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the law...
...All Things to All Men THE revelations before the Special Committee of the Senate investigating campaign expenditures, demonstrated that Samuel W. In-sull, head of one of the greatest utility combinations, was contributing large sums of money for political purposes so that every candidate upon every ticket, who if elected would have power over the regulation, valuation, service and rates of the public utilities in Illinois, would be beholden for his political life to In-sull...
...The spirit has been disinterested but none the less aggressive and courageous...
...In Nicaragua the President has gone so far as to create an actual state of warfare without the consent of Congress, which under the Constitution, has sole power to make war...
...And under what circumstances...
...He pledged himself to take conservation out of politics...
...And finally, it is discovered that the unscrupulous scalawag has hired a corps of Burns detectives to shadow jurymen, inquire into the mortgages on their houses and into their debts and friendships— for no conceivable purpose except to browbeat or bribe them...
...In the last session of the Wisconsin legisla-' ture the Progressives under the leadership of Assemblyman Reis passed a constitutional amendment through the Assembly, by a .vote of 70 to 13, to allow the state to acquire and operate water power...
...For the past twenty years Wisconsin has been represented at every Republican National convention by a fighting Progressive delegation...
...The action of the administration in Mexico and Nicaragua has aroused hatred of the United States in every Central and South American country...
...Unless this precedent is repudiated, then any President in the future may plunge this country into war by the mere scratch of the pen...
...Zimmerman...
...In 1926 the Progressives adhered to his call, made at the end of the 1921 campaign, to close ranks and prepare for the next battle...
...It was plainly the intention of the legislature that this official should be an expert conservationist...
...He in nowise met the specific requirements as set forth in the law...
...Wisconsin is being drawn and quartered by the great power interests...
...Opportunity in Wisconsin THERE is a wonderful opportunity open to the Progressive Republicans of AVisconsin in the coming campaigns...
...The old line stalwart organization, the reactionary press, the Lenroot-federal-patronage-machine, the Wisconsin Manufacturers' Association, the Anti-Saloon League and the Ku Klux Klan formed the unholy alliance behind Governor Zimmerman's campaign...
...The Federal Inheritance tax is marked for slaughter because it is the only means by which, at this late date, those who profited so tremendously during the war can still be made to disgorge some of their ill-gotten gains and*to bear a share of the cost of the war...
...The loss of our masterful, resourceful, beloved leader was a great setback...
...for a program of reforestation and fire prevention...
...During the campaign he took a positive stand upon but two important issues...
...The state of Wisconsin under its Presidential Primary law expresses its choice of delegates to the National Republican convention at the coming Spring election, April 3, 1928...
...To make certain that there will be enough money in the Treasury for this purpose, the edict has gone forth that reduction of taxes must be considered in the next Congress in advance of flood control...
...Every^ where there has been a disposition to rise above all personal considerations, to organize and present a united front in the fight for clean Pro- ¦ gressive government in the State of Wisconsin and in the Nation...
...Greedy Private Interests UNDER the present administration the Highway Commission has been turned over to greedy private interests...
...It will vitally affect comfort, convenience, and welfare in the home and on the farm...
...It was a great shock to the citizens of this state who are deeply interested in conservation of our natural resources, our parks, our streams and rivers, forests, fish and game, when Governor Zimmerman's private secretary and political advisor was chosen for the important post, Director of Conservation Commission...
...Serve Public Interest THIS gathering of outstanding Progressives from over the State guarantees the same desire and determination to serve the public interest which so generally characterized the.district meetings...
...The average cost of electricity for the domestic consumer in Ontario was in 1926 less than two cents per k. w. h. In contrast to this the average cost of electricity to the domestic consumer in the United States in 1926 was seven and four-tenths cents per k. w. h. Our neighbors across the border pay less than one-third for domestic current from a publicly owned plant than consumers in this country pay to a privately owned monopoly which gets its current from the same source...
...The Federal Reserve Board, emboldened by the passage of an indeterminate charter, is exercising its monopolistic control of the credit of the country to further the wildest era of speculation ever known in Wall Street, and to bolster the financial situation in Great Britain...
...The basic industry — agriculture — struck down in ,1920 by the criminal conspiracy of deflation by the Federal Reserve Board and the enactment of the Esch-Cummins railroad law, is denied relief by the great eastern industrial and financial interests exercising their control over the President of the United States to secure a veto of the McNary-Haugen bill...
...The Byllcsby, Insull and North American companies have divided the state into principalities for their respective fields of exploitation...
...The minions of the "faithless public official," who engineered the deal, and the oil magnate, with whom he conspired, have just been caught tampering with the jury impaneled to try them for conspiracy to defraud the government...
...It was a magnificent result obtained without money or organization...
...This property, worth $400,000,000 and stolen from the people through the bribery, corruption and connivance of members of the Cabinet, is now in the possession of the people because of the fight made by Robert M. La Follette...
...They lacked experience in conservation and were without special knowledge of the problem...
...for the preservation and propagation of wild life...
...Electric Power Combine WE ARE shocked at the crime and moral turpitude revealed in the Teapot Dome and Elk Hills oil scandals...
...UPPER MISSISSIPPI WILD REFUGE MORE than 600,000 acres, from all sources have been acquired for the Upper Mississippi River Wild-Life and Fish Refuge, for which Congress has authorized an appropriation of $1,500,000...
...LADIES and gentlemen, fellow progressives: We meet here today for discussion and counsel with the purpose of arriving at a decision on very important questions confronting the Progressive Republicans of Wisconsin in the coming campaigns...
...Issues of great importance confront the electorate...
...They stand for the retention and development of our natural resources...
...Each Congressional district has two delegates...
...He has destroyed public confidence in the new Conservation Commission and irreparably injured its useful- ness...
...We know that in Seattle, Cleveland, Los Angeles and other cities, the public operation of power plants has been a great success and of much benefit to the people in reduced rates and improved service...
...Yet this man is one of the leaders of American business, allied even in the Teapot Dome deal with the Standard Oil, and the employer of Cabinet officers and President's sons.—The Nation...
...Our natural friends have become our potential enemies...
...Endorsed by Five Million IN 1924 the people of Wisconsin endorsed the Progressive Republican platform by 100,000 majority...
...For the first time in years Wisconsin has two Progressives in the United States Senate who will do team work for important principles which are certain to be bitterly contested in the next Congress...
...The Progressives in Wisconsin and in the Nation accept the challenge of the power monopoly, realizing full well its gigantic resources but adhering to our faith that the people through the exercise of the ballot can and will prevent the maintenance of the' monopoly which has a stranglehold on this prime necessity of the present and the future...
...In spite of these enormous reductions, another drive is to be made to further distort the principle of graduated taxation by reductions upon the incomes of the rich...
...He abandoned his plan for the repeal of the personal property tax, and signed the Smith tax bill which increases the income tr.xes of those who have an income of $10,000 or less, from 40 to 120...
...Gigantic, interlocking organizations are taking enormous toll from the consuming public...
...The power monopoly makes the L-sue that Congress may legislate only as the power monopoly dictates...
...Blaine, Brookhart, Barkley, Walsh and others were elected...
...The Byllesby, Insull and North American companies have divided the state into principalities for their respective fields of exploitation...
...For years the Commission has been responsible for sums in excess of $25,000,000 annually and had so transacted, its business that the finger of suspicion had never been pointed in its direction...
...for the prevention of pollution of lakes and streams...
...A frank discussion as to policies and candidacies and of other matters that come up for consideration, will enable us to arrive at a sound consensus of wide-spread opinion...
...His administration of the high office of governor has been vacillating and without program or policy...
...We face the responsibility of centering our strength upon a candidate for governor whose past record of devotion to Progressive principles will be a guarantee to the people of Wisconsin that when nominated and elected he will fulfill the obligations of his office with ability, fidelity and integrity...
...SINCLAIR AND THE REVOKED LEASES SINCLAIR'S millions may keep him out of jail, but his name stinks...
...Recently the Supreme Court rendered the largest judgment in history when it restored Teapot Dome and Elk Hills to the people of the United States, after a long legal battle...
...The legality of the appointment is being contested in the Supreme Court...
...They are aware that enormous sums of money will be poured into the state by the power interests...
...The Progressives of Wisconsin initiated the policy of conservation in this state...
...They have supported the Boulder Canyon Dam bill for the development of power and the control of floods on the Colorado river...
...the state has four at-large...
...All present are expected to speak freely, and to give the best obtainable information as to the outlook of Progressive Republican voters, both men and women, in the State...
...Five million Progressives voted for La Follette and Wheeler and the Progressive principles which they advocated...
...Robert M. La Follette exposed the looting of the Naval Oil Reserves and forced an investigation...
...Zimmerman Chosen by Trick IT HAS not been my purpose to outline a definite platform upon which the campaign for delegates to the Republican National convention is to be waged...
...The trial is held up for days by legal quibblings over the question whether Sinclair's previous testimony before a Senate committee "will be admitted in evidence: and the court's decision is that it may not—the jury cannot hear his former admissions...
...The Progressive campaign will then be opened and we shall be ready to wage a successful fight of great State and National significance...
...Having made his peace secretly with the bitter enemies of the Progressive movement he falsely advertised himself as a "La Follette ..Progressive" candidate, which misled many thousands of Progressive voters...
...Recently Mr...
...Grave as are these consequences, the more serious danger is the attempted usurpation of the war-making power by the President...
...The commissioners appointed by the governor were a disappointment to the public...
...Since 1921 Andrew W. Mellon, fourth richest man in the United States and Secretary of the Treasury, has succeeded in reducing the taxes on great wealth and the profiteering corporations by three billions of dollars...
...This bill also provided for delaying the payment of income taxes beyond the fiscal year, which made necessary the levying of a tax amounting to $2,440,000...
...WISCONSIN is being drawn and quartered by the great power interests...
...As governor he has ducked the tax issue and has proved a back-slider in the cause of conservation...
...In compliance with that pledge the Progressives have prevented the sale of Muscles Shoals in which $150,000,000 of the people's money has been invested,, to the power monopoly...
...In the Senate, Butler, Wadsworth, Ernst, Lenroot and others were defeated...
...In'China, Mexico and Nicaragua the present administration has pursued policies which have carried the United States a long way on the road to imperialism...
...Perry, the avowed conservative candidate and stealthily delivered their vote to Gov...
...Taxing the Poor THE great power of taxation is being used to shift the cost of government and the burden of the war debt to the backs of the mass of the people...
Vol. 19 • December 1927 • No. 12
