A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follette, Isabel B. La
A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette IN DISCUSSING the recent election a friend queried, "Jack (referring to her husband) has said a good many times that you people must know things that the...
...And third and just as emotional, in their hatred of war, people, like my relative, want to believe in some kind of simple recipe that will abolish it...
...I am sure that the people sensed, although unwillingly, that the truth was not being told on either side...
...Imagine my feelings when he replied, "But I don't care to believe that...
...Phil always used to say, "It isn't speeches, but their own experience that teaches people...
...The emotional highlight of the campaign, the symbol or tenor, was the twice-repeated speech of Dorothy Thompson on behalf of President Roosevelt...
...Since they were a group of parents with young children I remarked, "I hope you are prepared to have your children pay the price...
...One cannot help regretting, however, that we have to pay the price of our blindness...
...Another man spoke up, "We might as well make up our minds that the only way to keep the peace is for America to take over and run the world...
...In no campaign that I remember, did people so thoroughly vote their emotions...
...Except for the most fanatical pro- and anti- Roose-veltians, everyone I spoke to during the campaign confessed that the campaign speeches made little impression...
...Technically it was a masterpiece to which she brought the fruit of her-brilliant gifts and long experience...
...But how are we to judge...
...Individually and in groups we Progressives wrestled with the problem of our responsibility of endorsing a candidate, but I for one could not urge upon others a course upon which I could not satisfy even myself...
...people who ne-fer voted Democratic or for F.D.R...
...But I, for one at least, am certain that this is a passing phase...
...One practical idealist remarked to me recently, "We made a mistake in not joining the League of Nations after the last war so that we could have gotten it out of our systems and really get down to the business of achieving peace this time...
...It was a lesson to me that you are up against a stone wall when people "don't care" to face facts...
...In the first place, although we are in a war, there are terrific struggles for power going on within our Own country and anyone who "sticks his neck out" will have his head chopped off...
...Laconically I replied "You don't know the half of it...
...before admit voting for him this time because "conditions are good...
...Not a stop on the organ of emotions did she miss as she harangued the public with clever demago'guery...
...But like others here in Wisconsin, she followed the lead of the Presidential candidates in obscuring the truth even when it was quite apparent...
...Three Main Factors We all tend to rationalize our positions, but, as I said earlier, I would have felt much worse if I saw that people were really open to argument...
...In desperation I finally urged, "But how can you support the party and man who were responsible for the Teapot Dome Oil Scandals...
...Basic Issues Ignored Consciously many people thought they were weighing a difficult decision, but when they got into the voting booth, their deep-seated emotions guided the pencil...
...Much as people hate war, they like full pocket-books...
...Secand, fear is rampant especially among the families of men in service...
...While I gave her an example or two of what I meant, I told her it would have been useless and impossible to have brought out the evidence in the recent campaign...
...Although the ground may lie fallow now, Spring is coming...
...Not only would we make it difficult or impossible for those in Government circles who are trying to carry out Progressive principles to continue their fight, but the people by and large were in no mood to listen to anything unpleasant...
...Frankly, it was almost an insupportable position for a Progressive like myself not to.be able to recommend conscientiously a candidate for President...
...On the other hand, I was convinced that had we endorsed a candidate, it wouldn't have changed any significant number of votes...
...A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette IN DISCUSSING the recent election a friend queried, "Jack (referring to her husband) has said a good many times that you people must know things that the rest of us don't know...
...Increasingly those of us who shoulder our responsibility must follow and spread the facts as they emerge in the months to come...
...Both sides preferred to limit the issues to petty name-calling and mud-slinging rather than face the fundamental issues...
...We can only go on the information we have," she pushed her point...
...But as I observed the public temper I could only remember my youthful pleas with an obdurate relative during the 1924 campaign...
...First, "You can't beat prosperity...
...Roosevelt was reelected with a majority in both Houses of Congress...
...For the time being.too, many people are content to trust that some one can solve their problems for them...
...It is too easy in our war-misery to fall into the charge-account attitude, and we are indeed in an unpopular position who insist upon pointing out that the bills will inevitably fall due...
...The Charge-Account Attitude The election came out much as I expected, and I am not fundamentally discouraged...
...As I view it, three main factors produced the recent election results...
...Some of us felt there was no alternative but to follow the course of the elder La Follette when, in the Presidential campaign of 1916, he refused to endorse men he could not conscientiously support...
...As one woman expressed it in urging us to join with the Democrats, "I've always been for the La Follettes, but we all voted for Roosevelt this time because we felt safer...
Vol. 8 • November 1944 • No. 48
