THE ISSUE GOES TO THE JURY NEXT TUESDAY!
THE ISSUE GOES TO THE JURY NEXT TUESDAY! BEFORE the next issue of The Progressive comes from the presses, the people of Wisconsin will have chosen either Philip F. La Follette or Walter J. Kohler...
...He has tried to becloud his true stand and the philosophy of government, of the group that he represents by adopting a temporary quasi-Progressive attitude on certain questions...
...BEFORE the next issue of The Progressive comes from the presses, the people of Wisconsin will have chosen either Philip F. La Follette or Walter J. Kohler as the Republican nominee to the governorship of this state...
...In effect, the will of the voters as expressed in the state primary on Tuesday, September 16, will determine which candidate will be the governor of Wisconsin for the next two years...
...They have had an opportunity to hear and read the utterances of both these candidates...
...On every side people find evidences of this lavish use of a huge slush fund in expensive street .banners, handsomely embossed circulars on costly paper, thousands of tire covers, buttons, matches, cards, and great floods of expensive campaign literature of all sorts...
...On the other hand, the people of this state have had the opportunity of witnessing the conduct of the present governor, Walter J. Kohler, in the campaign and of hearing and reading of his frantic attempts to justify an administration that justly could be called only a dismal failure were it not for the fact that there were Progressives in state offices and in the legislature that accomplished some worth while things in spite of bitter opposition from the Kohler regime...
...He has hedged and dodged over the question of chain banking and taxation with generalizations and evasions...
...He and the crowd back of him have tried to supplant frank, open discussion of the problems now confronting the people of Wisconsin by spending large sums for advertising, bands, banners, and meaningless literature...
...La Follette has brought these issues to the people in a dynamic fashion that could leave no doubt as to where he and the Progressives as a group stand on every question...
...In an eight weeks tour of the state, Mr...
...It is a certain fact that a quarter of a million dollars is being expended by Kohler and his supporters in an arrogant attempt to buy the governorship of Wisconsin...
...He has replied to the justly directed charges against him by Progressives with personal insult and abuse in a manner wholly unbecoming to the dignity of the governor of a state...
...The voters of the state on next Tuesday will assume the role of a jury...
...The present campaign has brought many serious and important issues to the attention of Wisconsin voters...
...The primary is next Tuesday, Septemper 16...
...They have heard the testimony and considered the evidence of both sides...
...He has avoided meeting the important, vital issues of the campaign squarely...
...On the other side, the voter finds arrayed under the banner of Walter J. Kohler the present-day representatives of these same forces of monopoly and wealth that Old Bob fought so courageously in his long years of service to Wisconsin...
...On one side are the Progressives with a record of more than 30 years of honest, constructive, humanitarian service in the interests of the people of Wisconsin—a service that began with the work of Senator Robert M. La Follette Sr, when Wisconsin was held in the deadly grip of the railroads, the big industrialists, the big capitalists, and the corrupt political machine that did the bidding of those great corporate interests...
...The choice is theirs whether government shall under the leadership of Philip F. La Follette be conducted in the interests of all the people of this state, or whether Walter J. Kohler and the forces of wealth and monopoly shall carry on Wisconsin's affairs in the interest of a privileged few...
...It is highly important, therefore, that every citizen shall take advantage of his or her constitutional right to have a voice in government and to determine the policies that shall be followed in the administration of the state's affairs...
...THE campaign that has been carried on in Wisconsin in the last eight weeks has forced the issues confronting the voters of the state into clear and definite outline...
...Deeper than any political issue that has been raised in the present campaign is the basic philosophies of government that underlie each of these groups...
...Such vital questions as chain banking, unemployment, farm relief, taxation, the public utility monopolies, and other matters of the utmost concern to the people of this state have unhesitatingly and frankly been discussed by Phil La Follette...
...Whatever the beliefs or convictions each and every voter may have, he or she should not neglect to go to the polls next Tuesday and express those convictions by the instrumentality of the ballot...
...In choosing the candidates for their support in the primary next Tuesday, the people of Wisconsin find them divided sharply into two diametrically opposed groups...
...No one who has followed the campaign being conducted by Phil La Follette can feel that every important issue, every question vital to the people of Wisconsin, has not been painstakingly thrashed out and frankly presented to the public eye...
...This Stalwart organization is backed by great sums of money furnished lavishly by the big financial and Big Business interests within and without the state that know Kohler and his mates will remain loyal to the class that supports them and to which they themselves belong...
...Every person who is a qualified voter should visit the polls on that day and as a member of the great jury of Wisconsin citizens, vote to place the government of this state in the hands of those candidates who will best serve the interests of the people...
...The utterances of Governor Kohler in his speeches around the state have revealed to the people in boomerang fashion what has been going on in the Kohler regime and what might be expected if the present Governor were to be re-elected...
...The Kohler campaign, however, has not been characterized by any such behavior on the part of the Governor or the group behind his candidacy...
...To begin with, every voter in Wisconsin is aware that huge sums of money have been expended by the millionaires and financial interests in behalf of the Kohler candidacy...
Vol. 1 • September 1930 • No. 41
