"A MOVING PICTURE OF THE GREAT POLITICAL EVENT OF THE PERIOD"
Tavenner, Clyde H.
"A Moving Picture of the Great Political Events of the Period" By CLYDE H. TAVENNER Member of Congress from Illinois SENATOR Robert M. La Follette's "Auto-biography" has been issued in book...
...La Follette shows clearly the relations which he had with Roosevelt as President...
...He shows Roosevelt at all times to be a truckling, trading politician, more concerned over immediate success than the attainment of legislation, which would be of permanent value to the people...
...They do not stand for the same things...
...Roosevelt, but he shows clearly that Roosevelt after he had given his word to support legislation to provide for the physical valuation of the railroads of the country, to retain and conserve for the interests of the people the coal lands, and in other matters failed to support adequate measures to accomplish these ends...
...In connection with the recital of the inside story of his betrayal by the men who were instrumental in making him a candidate for the Republican nomination in 1912, Mr...
...Without reading La Follette's story of that contest, there can be had no proper conception of the obstacles encountered and overcome...
...La Follette is...
...He does not emphasize the personal dealings of Mr...
...In these days the workings of the System are generally understood and appreciated by the people...
...It is told with a vividness that holds the reader's attention from the beginning to the close of the last chapter...
...The book shows that it has a purpose...
...He demonstrates Roosevelt to be a man without fundamental knowledge of the great questions which confronted the country during his term as President and which he left unsolved, although he was possessed of the power to compel their correct solution...
...No work of his better illustrates the truth of this statement...
...The heroic struggle which he made and which resulted in the redemption of the government of Wisconsin, is one of the most instructive, and entertaining chapters in American history...
...It has often been said of La Follette that he is intensely dramatic...
...No man who wants to be thoroughly informed with respect to the great movement to bring the government back to the people can afford to pass over the narrative of the Wisconsin Senator...
...The La Follette narrative is most entertainingly and dramatically written...
...Senator La Follette of all the men in the forward movement which has taken hold of the politics of this country has had the hardest fight for recognition within his own party and has accomplished more in the way of real legislative reform than any other...
...La Follette made his battle before the people had awakened to the existence of the System, and that he succeeded against the odds which he had to contend with, is sufficient warrant for the simple faith in the people which is so characteristic of La Follette and so convincingly expressed in his autobiography...
...It is a moving picture of the great political events of the period...
...That purpose is to demonstrate the power of the people when they can be made to act together...
...La Follette makes an analysis of Theodore Roosevelt which will convince any unprejudiced mind that the latter is not and cannot be a Progressive in the sense that Mr...
...A Moving Picture of the Great Political Events of the Period" By CLYDE H. TAVENNER Member of Congress from Illinois SENATOR Robert M. La Follette's "Auto-biography" has been issued in book form...
...At times it may seem that La Follette is dealing with some things which in themselves may appear trivial, but there is no incident, no matter how trivial it may appear by itself, that does not have its bearing upon the main theme and is essential to the proper development of the story...
...The matter which has been added by the Senator is even of more absorbing interest than that which appeared in the magazine...
...It is full of information, not only with respect to the events in which he has played a leading part, but also as to the principles that underlie the great work which he undertook in Wisconsin and is carrying forward in national legislation...
...Three complete chapters have been added to the autobiography in addition to the material which appeared in magazine form when it was first published...
...The part La Follette has played in the history of the part twenty-five years makes his autobiography a recital of something more than the personal experience of the author...
...It is more extended in this form than when it appeared serially in the American Magazine...
...These three chapters deal with the campaign of 1912 and give the history of the betrayal of the Progressive movement within the Republican party to satisfy the personal ambition of Theodore Roosevelt...
Vol. 5 • May 1913 • No. 19
