DEDICATE LA FOLLETTE PARK AT KAUKAUNA
Follette, Robert M. La Jr.
Dedicate La Follette Park at Kaukauna Fifteen Acres on Banks of the Fox River, Wisconsin, Formally Opened to the Public on .Labor Day. By ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE, JR. (Address at Dedication of Park...
...It was even more important to the safety of the travelling puhlic than the sixteen-hour day for trainmen...
...He was not revolutionary...
...Woman Suffrage was supported by my father when it was far from popular...
...He consistently advocated it as a step toward truer democracy...
...In Iceberg lake, cakea of ice float all summer...
...He was always striving to withstand the encroachment of special interests, to free the people from the tyranny and greed of growing monoply and thus make the spirit of equality of opportunity and justice prevail in the enactment of law and the conduct of government...
...Inspiration From His Work THE 1926 elections increased the numbers and added to the strength of the Progressive group...
...the Federal inheritance tax...
...Upwards ftf 3.000 people attended the exercises...
...He was never hasty...
...He loved the eompany of his fellow-men...
...It took twenty years to get the.Seamen's Law and the fight for its enforcement is still on...
...When he was a member of Congress ami the party bosses tried to tell him how he should vote on measures affecting the Indians, Public Lands, an>{ Railroads, he answered that no individual however powerful could dictate his course, that he was in Congress to serve the public interest...
...Jr., is reprinted.—Managing Editorr IT IS A great honor and privilege to have the opportunity of addressing you on this occasion...
...The historic region about the Dead Sea is bustling with life these days as two concerns, recently granted potash concessions by the British Colonial Office, prepare to extract this commodity for export...
...My father was an idealist but he was also intensely practical...
...his purpose was not to overthrow, destroy or radically change our institutions...
...Public opinion will support our efforts to preserve government for the people, to eradicate corruption in elections, to make an end to spoliation and graft in administration of public affairs, to ensure just and reasonable transportation rates, to restore agricultural prosperity, to control credit and markets, to keep waterpower and other natural resources from the tryanny of private monopoly, to halt the course of imperialism...
...At the same time it becomes an emblem of public service, a symbol of human progress...
...The great service of the Progressives under the leadership of Robert M. La Follette is not to be measured only by the specific laws enacted...
...He was a many-sided man...
...Except as you read the Congressional Record you would not believe the arguments set forth at that time could have been made on the floor of the Senate...
...Again and again he took advanced ground single-handed and alone, but he had so fortified his position by research, so masterfully marshalled the facts that it was only a question of time until the proposition he advocated was written into law...
...To my mind one of his greatest contributions was his practical application of scientific, theoretical, knowledge to the problems of the people...
...POTASH IN PALESTINE A brand new industry is expected to bring a fresh lease on life to ancient Palestine...
...The, reactionary victory in 1924 made the special interests bolder than before...
...The park comprisses fifteen acres and is a natural amphitheatre...
...Glacier National Park, in Montana, contains more glaciers than any other area of the world of equal size outside of the north and south pole zones...
...Motor trucks are the probable solution and a fleet is now being put to work to carry supplies in from Jericho and potash out to the port of Haiffa...
...the election of Senators by direct vote of the people...
...The people of Kaukauna have named this historic piece of ground "La Follette...
...They are blocking the return of agricultural prosperity...
...They are forging a policy of empire...
...the creation of a tariff commission...
...He was not only a crusader...
...They hated him not so much for his opposition to our entry into the war as for his . dvocacy of the program that the -war profiteers should be taxed to pay for the war...
...He was never discouraged...
...We are a fighting force...
...After a long fight he was elected Governor of Wisconsin on a platform that pledged equalization of taxation, nomination of all candidates by the Australian ballot at primary elections, scientific regulation of railroad rates, and other reforms to free state government from corporate control...
...Attacked from all sides, the legislature of his own state, the University which he' loved so dearly joining in the hue and cry, the newspapers pouring out vituperation, falsehood and abuse, he stood alone, his head bloody but "unbowed," never losing his faith in the great mass of the people...
...Let us pledge ourselves to carry on his work for humanity...
...he was also a builder...
...My association with him in his work gave me opportunity to know- his methods and ability...
...He kept on fighting until ideal theories were written into practical, effective, model statutes...
...These are some of the grave problems that confront us...
...The loss of an election, the temporary -defeat of an important measure did not haunt hini...
...people never lost faith in their leader...
...Heretofore the Valley of the Jordan has been without a single valuable export and the balance of trade has been all one way...
...the Federal income tax...
...nonissuance of injunctions in labor disputes...
...This country entered the world war...
...Many of his friends felt that he would never live to see his faith vindicated...
...In Nicaragua the President has gone so far as to create a stufe of actual war by executive order wtihout the consent of Congress which under the constitution has exclusive power to declare war...
...Sympathy For Masses NO STATESMAN in the history of this country had deeper sympathy with the masses of the people than Robert M. La Follette...
...But he kept the pledges made during his senatorial campaign of 1U16...
...the physical valuation of railroad property;.the Alaska Railroad...
...There are over 60 great moving ice masses, the Blackfoot glacier alone being five square miles in area...
...President Glenn Frank of the University of Wisconsin, and Senator Robert M. La Follette, Or...
...They forced Fail and Denby from the Cabinet, turned the searchlight of publicity on the graft in the Department of Justice and compelled the retirement of Attorney General Daugherty...
...Some of the laws of interest to this audience secured through his initative and -leadership are: The sixteen-hour day for trainmen which some of you will remember was resisted twenty years ago as an interference with business...
...nmc-nt...
...The fanners, the business men who give honest service in return for righteous profits, the women who toil in the homes, the offices and schools of the land—all these we re;»aid as laborers for the common goo...
...It was called a demagogic appeal to labor...
...On this day let us take inspiration from the life of Robert M. La Follette devoted to constructive accomplishments which have made this state and nation a better, happier place to live in...
...Some Real Accomplishments OTHER measures are: Federal employee's liability act...
...They hated him not so much because he .voted against war as for the Talentless fight he had waged during a generation of time to make government serve the public interest...
...He would not compromise, he would not accept half-way measures...
...They have forcetl the Administr;i-toin to take an imperialistic course in dealing with Mexico anel China...
...the parcel post...
...Upon the statute books of Wisconsin anel the nation are written lar^re the measures expressing his devotion to the workers and his practical appreciation of their problems...
...But the...
...It is said that the potash supply in Palestine is inexhaustible and if it can be produced at not too great a cost, a prosperous future is probably in store for all those who are interested in the new venture...
...When the war profiteers launched the most dastardly attack upon him ever witnessed in this country, he never wavered so much as a hair's breadth...
...Now, with money from the potash sales coming in, the country may find its financial condition greatly altered...
...No other public man approached him in actual legislative accomplishment in the interest of all the people...
...Dedicatory addresses were held on the park grounds during the afternoon of Labor Day at which addresses were made by Dr...
...Four short years after the signing of the armistice he was reelected to the United States Senate by-the largest majority ever received by any candidate in the history of Wisconsin...
...The address of Robert M. La Follette...
...Address at Dedication of Park at Kaukauna) A park of fifteen acres overlooking the Fox River at Kaukauna, Wisconsin was dedicated as La Follette Park on Labor Day, September 5th...
...He sincerely believed that the principle of representative government was sound and that the people by the intelligent exercise of the ballot could control their own government...
...regulation of telephone and telegraph rates...
...Sitting in the studjo at Washington he addressed a great radio audience...
...The Seamen's Act relieved American sailors from conditions of slavery...
...This mutual understanding between a public servant and his constituency must ever inspire those who come after him to take up and carry on the work that always remains to be done in a democracy...
...W. C. Sullivan, Mayor of Kaukauna...
...People Were Devoted y HAVE always felt that the only thing which could match the devotion of Robei-t M. I-a Follette to the people was their devotion to him...
...Suffered Villification NO MAN in public life ever suffered greater villification and abuse...
...They must be met with courage and determination without delay and without compromise...
...The loss of our resourceful, masterful leader was a great setback to the work of the Progressive group in the last Congress...
...the eight-hour day for Federal employes...
...This wooded park on the banks of the Fox river, open to the enjoyment and use of all the poop lev bespeaks an understanding on the part of the citizens of this city of the, nature and ideals of the great-man whose memcty you honor...
...Before he proposed a legislative solution for the pressing economic anel political problems of his time he tested them in the laboratory of scientific research...
...He soug'ht to make ideals "workable factors in our - everyday life...
...He had a keen sense of humor and an ever-ready wit...
...He was a great worker, but he liked his work...
...Was A Great Worker IT IS difficult for me to speak commen-surately in appreciation of my father...
...Quite recently the stealing of Teapot Dome and other naval oil reserves was exposed by the Progressives, saving these natural resources worth hundreds of millions of dollars for the people...
...His first object was to preserve and restore government as interpreted by Jefferson and defined by Lincoln...
...as truly as the wage-earners in shops and mills and mines, and on the railroads...
...He said at the beginning: "We recognize no narrow definition for the laboring millions of this country...
...The great interests seized upon what the£ believed an opportunity to drive from public life the man who had opposed their wrongful control of gov...
...the creation of a( department of labor...
...By unanimous vote by the city council of Kaukauna this park was purchased and named in honor of the late Senator Robert M. La Follette...
...They are attempting to purchase seats in the Unite.l States Senate...
...To Restore Government - MY FATHER'S lifelong political but Me was fought on this basis...
...He made sure of his next step...
...The one difficult problem in connection with the production of potash in Palestine is said to be transportation...
...It was on JLabor Day three years ago that my father opened h i s speaking campaign for President...
...An even longer list of reactionary measures that have been defeated could be enumerated...
...There are no words with which to fully express the gratitude and appreciation deeply felt by the family of Robert M. La Follette for the lasting and beautrful commemoration of his name made by the people of Kaukauna...
...We are in this campaign contending for the principle that every man and ¦woman under the American flag who lives by useful and creative work of hand and brain or both," he declared, "is entitleel to equal chance for advancement in life, the equal protection of the law and equal participation in the control of government...
...So when he was a candidate for the Senate and whefi he was a candidate for President he stood for definite, constructive platform principles necessary to preserve freedom and equality of opportunity...
...Other members of Congress opposed the war but Robert M. La Follette bore the brunt of the assault...
...No other day in the year could be more fitting for the dedication of the park than the one you have chosen...
...It was first presented to a national convention by the Wisconsin delegation...
...They prevented the sale of Muscle Shoals to the Power Trust and will carry on in coming sessions of Congress the good fight to preserve waterpower for all the people...
...In the next session of Congress we hold the balance of power in the Senate as we did in 1922 and '24...
...Today they are exercising their domination of the Administration to maintain monoply control of transportation, credit and markets...
...It is dedicated to public recreation and enjoyment...
...His prophetic vision gave him an unfailing faith in the ultimate outcome of his undertakings...
...He was radical and dangerous only in that once sure of his stand he maintained it regardless of the nature or the power of the opposition...
Vol. 19 • September 1927 • No. 9
