A VICTORY FOR PROGRESS
A Victory for Progress SENATOR LA FOLLETTE'S re-election has been hailed with joy by true progressives everywhere in the nation. Before election William Allen White wrote: "The election of a...
...but exposed and assailed the false manufactured "preparedness"'that would build up a menacing militarism to fatten the pockets of the war traders...
...He insisted that the farmer and the laboring man be given their full measure of the benefits of protective laws...
...He explained and defended the Seamen's law against the attacks of shipping interests— a measure which that Old Viking, Andrew Furuseth, declares "has completed the work of emancipation of human beings begun by Abraham Lincoln...
...he is the nation's pilot of progressive principles...
...Senator La Follette's campaign was a campaign of enlightenment upon the vital problems of the present moment...
...He silenced the reactionary criticisms of his vote for the Underwood Tariff...
...Public men have come and public men have gone these last thirty years...
...he is the ablest, most experienced, truest, and most to be trusted leader in national legislation today...
...He brought forward the only really constructive program to establish a conference of neutral nations in behalf of world peace...
...There is not a single issue of commanding importance in the struggle of fundamental democracy in the last quarter of a century that does not bear the impress of La Follette's power and personality/' The voters of Wisconsin by giving Senator La Follette the big vote of 253,307 over 135,145 received by his Democratic opponent, have again attested their devotion to true progressive principles and a devoted progressive leader, giving renewed expression of their faith that "the Wisconsin way shall be made the national way...
...The voters rallied in greater numbers than ever before-to a standard that has never been lowered...
...And after all these years of grappling with political corruption and social wrong, and building Right upon the ruins of Wrong, measure by measure, issue by issue, battle by battle, he stood before the people of his state, and out of his ripe experience declared that THE SUPREME ISSUE of the present generation is "THE ENCROACHMENT OF THE POWERFUL FEW UPON THE RIGHTS OF THE MANY...
...He upheld the President in his Mexican policy, briefing a powerful indictment against the American capitalists "who own Mexico" and "who want intervention" to protect their investments...
...Public men have been drawn away from fidelity to the people by the allurements of gain or personal prestige...
...Before election William Allen White wrote: "The election of a President is no more distinctly a national matter than the re-election of Robert M. La Follette in Wisconsin...
...The " powerful few" have THEIR representatives in every legislative halL They are mighty, resourceful, untiring, unforgetful, selfish, unscrupulous, socially blind...
...He made clear the deep underlying import of the principle that was embodied in the might Hour Law for railroad trainmen...
...Through it all La Follette stands today UNSHAKEN...
...He favored preparedness for REAL DEFENSE of this country...
...pleading for an honest and scientific tariff and assailing the robber schedules that were designed to strengthen the grip of the trusts upon the consumers...
...Public men of fine intentions have fallen by the wayside, discouraged at the tremendous odds a representative must overcome to truly serve the many...
...They thought they "had" him this time...
...Wisconsin's gift to the nation in this election was the continued services of Senator La Follette as the unwavering, devoted, effective, representative of "THE MANY...
...Public men there have been who have lacked vision, ability, courage, and have passed from the scene...
...Wall Street and the reactionary politicians made a desperate campaign against Senator La Follette this year...
...But both money and misrepresentation failed...
...The "Wisconsin State Journal" wrote: "The return of Robert M. La Follette to the United States Senate is a national need for he is more than a favorite son, more than a Senator...
...And progressives in every state are finding inspiration in that...
Vol. 8 • November 1916 • No. 11
