"BOB" LA FOLLETTE AS A LEADER
"Bob" La Follette as a Leader Editorial by former United States Senator Joseph L. Bristow in his paper, the Salina (Kansas) Journal, July 1, 1916 IN THIS ISSUE is reproduced an editorial, from La...
...He is for an adequate naval defense...
...WHEN will it come...
...Because Senator La Follette is opposed to an excessive and groaning naval and military program, he is misrepresented by his political enemies as opposed to effective national defense...
...He will be a candidate for re-election in Wisconsin this year for the Republican nomination, which will, without doubt, be given him...
...In a joint resolution introduced in the United States Senate, June 29, Senator La Follette proposes to amend the federal statutes so as to provide— "That no person under the age of twenty-one shall be enlisted or mustered into the military service of the United, Stales, without the written consent of his parents or guardians, provided that such minor has such parents or guardians entitled to his custody and control, and this proviso shall be applicable to all minors enlisted or mustered into the military service of the United Stales on and after June 1916...
...Sunday Magazine...
...Striking Oat the "Relief Fund" THE Senate adopted on June 29 the resolu- tion empowering the President to draft militiamen into the national service...
...Senator La Follette asked for delay in order to give Senators favoring such aid to the families of the soldiers another opportunity to secure the insertion of this provision...
...Laughter...
...I have not always agreed with him on the details of legislation...
...He has not only refused to support, but has vigorously opposed candidates nominated by the party, if they were unworthy...
...He has gone through a larger chare of ups and downs in the political evolutions of his time than is due to ordinary men...
...If that question is made the issue in this campaign, the people of the United States will vindicate the President emphatically...
...10 mergers make one magnate...
...IF YOU HAVE a nobler plan, propose it, even though men think you are a dreamer...
...Bob" La Follette as a Leader Editorial by former United States Senator Joseph L. Bristow in his paper, the Salina (Kansas) Journal, July 1, 1916 IN THIS ISSUE is reproduced an editorial, from La Follette's Magazine, written by Senator La Follette...
...That day has not yet arrived...
...He opposes the Dollar Diplomacy that leads to the use of the Army and Navy to exploit foreign loans and investments...
...Mr...
...American voters always vote right when they are possessed of the facts...
...What is the result of all this, and this constant boosting...
...And the facts about "pork" are gradually finding their way "back home...
...Some twenty years ago he started concretely the progressive movement in the United States, and has never wavered under any circumstances or conditions from a stern and inflexible advocacy of the progressive policies...
...Kenyon: "That was not in New Jersey...
...Mr...
...But the conference report was agreed to, immediately, on the plea of "emergency...
...Laughter...
...No man is more earnestly devoted to his friends than "Bob" La Follette...
...Parental Consent for Boy Soldiers SENATOR LA FOLLETTE urges that no youth under twenty-one years of age be permitted to enlist in the Regular Army or in the National Guard unless his parent or guardian shall have given consent...
...To you it may be a dream, to another a vision, to another a solvent of his perplexity, and to another a path to his victory...
...or, in short, for any purposes of improvement whatsoever...
...Not so...
...He loves them devotedly, yet he never hesitates to part company with, or to criticize, them, if he believes that the cause of progress in our political and economic affairs demands such a course...
...WALL STREET arithmetic: 10 mills make one trust...
...He has not been without ambition, has entertained high aspirations, but never permitted such ambition to deflect him in the slightest degree from steadfast adherence to the great reform principles which he believes in...
...Martine of New Jersey...
...The provision granting relief to those dependent upon the guardsmen was stricken out...
...10 trusts make one combine...
...WAR is delightful to those who have had no actual experience in it.—Erasmus, * * * OP A TRUTH, to moderate your temper and tongue, when you are angry, or else hold your peace, is a sign of an extraordinary nature.—Cicero...
...Senator La Follettes' Stand AS THIS is written Senator La Follette is making a vigorous fight on the floor of the United States Senate to have his amendment inserted in the Naval bill providing that no United States war vessel shall be used to enforce the collection of debts or profits owed to American capitalists in foreign countries...
...About the same time that Kenyon was making his masterful exposure of pork barrel methods an enterprising editor uncovered a quotation from Trollope's Domestic Manners of the Americans published in 1832...
...In the recent presidential primary, he received 40,000 more votes for presidential preference in his state than was given any of the candidates for a delegate on the same ballot, and a larger vote than was given President Wilson in the Democratic primary...
...1 magnate makes all the money...
...The assaults of interested business upon measures of social justice are to be taken only for what they are worth—sordid and dishonest buncombe...
...We have great confidence in his success, but in this period of reaction, when under the guise of patriotic fervor special privilege is trying to rivet its control upon the institutions of the country, all men who believe in the progressive principles should take a special interest in La Follette's campaign and do their best in his behalf...
...Our own country is undeveloped...
...Along with this declaration comes the news that the Pacific Mail Steamship Company will resume business between San Francisco and the Orient on August 19...
...I have some here...
...Here is one as to Freeport Harbor, with your name printed in gold, and there are wonderful illustrations...
...A Serious Question" L ISTEN to this from the recent "Springfield Survey" of the Russell Sage Foundation: "Workers who give their full working time to an industry should receive as a very minimum, a wage which will provide the necessities of life...
...My purpose in asking for a delay in this matter was just this: I do not see on the floor of the Senate at this time any one of the Senators who took part in the debate in support of the House prop-Hition (a $1,000,000 relief fund for the families of the National Guard) and I thought it but just that they should have some notice of the fact that this conference report was to be considered, which was regarded as a matter of very great importance and debated at great length...
...Do not stop to copyright every happy thought you have...
...During all of these years, he has never abandoned the Republican party...
...If the business cannot provide this there is a serious question whether it has a right to exist...
...Let the fragrance out of the bottle.—Charles L. White...
...But he is opposed to an Army and Navy for aggression upon and the exploitation of weaker countries...
...Inducements of a compelling character have been made to him to join various political movements and event to join the Democratic party, but he has turned a deaf ear to them all...
...Finally it tried to bluff the administration and the public into the belief that this law was "driving American shipping off the high seas...
...A Bluff Exposed THE Seamen's law is working out to the good advantage of both employers and seamen...
...I suppose that at that hour of the night there was a greater increase in liquid and hence the necessity for a deeper channel than there was at the earlier stages of the game...
...In our own state we have a vast unimproved territory crying for capital at reasonable interest rates...
...It is interesting because of its frank statements of facts, and especially as an indication of the fine independence of Senator La Follette's character...
...I speak solely of the very singular effect of seeing man after man start eagerly to his feet, to declare that the greatest injury, the basest injustice, the most ob-noxious tyranny that could be practiced against the state of which he was a member would be a vote of a few million dollars for the purpose of making their roads or canals...
...or for drainage...
...Organized for "Pork" SENATOR KENYON of Iowa made a brilliant and convincing fight against "pork" on the floor of the Senate, when the River and Harbor Appropriation bill was before the "greatest deliberative body on earth" for consideration...
...He said: "I hope the Republican candidate (Mr...
...It ought to be tendered unanimously...
...In the light of this, what will the people think of those threats of the Pacific Mail...
...He is for Americans in their legitimate field of building up this country...
...It is perfectly natural for communities who feel that there is a lot of money to be turned loose in the community to carry an absolute campaign all over the county to develop sentiment in favor of river and harbor appropriations...
...Senator La Follette is the friend of the National Guard...
...Its ocming rests entirely upon the "speed with which the American public is made familiar with the facts about the "pork barrel" in Congress...
...Senator Burton said on the floor that he had attended these banquets where at 9 o'clock in the evening they were in favor of a 9-foot channel, at 10 they were in favor of a 12-foot channel, at 11 o 'clock they were in favor of a 15-foot channel, and at midnight they were all shouting for a 35-foot channel...
...What do you think of that...
...Perhaps you can only announce the discovery of your new world, but men who are strangers to you will explore its mysteries, discover its wealth and develop its resources...
...Can any good argument be advanced to justify the existence of any industry that does not pay the workers a living wage...
...Reviewing the work of the last twenty years of all the great American progressive leaders, including Bryan and Roosevelt, for steadfastness of purpose, consistency of action and unswerving devotion to principles, regardless of party expediency, or effect upon his personal fortune, "Bob" La Follette stands today at the head of them all...
...And evidently they did not use water...
...Capital is needed at home...
...Now it buys a new fleet to reap the big money in Pacific transportaion...
...Cynical observers declare it "never will arrive...
...Trollope wrote: "If I mistake not, every debate I listened to in the American congress was upon one and the same subject, namely, the entire independence of each individual state, with regard to federal government...
...The Seamen's law stands...
...Mr...
...but I am glad to say that our disagreements have been rare...
...Another man may perfect your invention and make living in the world richer, although you remain poor...
...10 combines make one merger...
...JOSEPH L. BRISTOW...
...Norris...
...Instead of capital seeking this and similar legitimate fields of investment the Money Barons are speculating in foreign loans and investments and demanding the protection of the Army and Navy, which, if granted, will inevitably lead to foreign wars—wars of aggression and conquest...
...Six years ago, if we remember correctly, his majority was approximately 100,000...
...Laughter...
...His real fight, probably, will be in the election where the conservative element of the Republican party may undertake to defeat him, as they have in the past, but the people of Wisconsin, knowing him as they do, having unbounded confidence in his integrity and effectiveness as a legislator, will re-elect him...
...Mr...
...He said: "The attendance is very light this morning...
...Publish it in your next conversation with any man who seems to need its help...
...The campaign of the shipping interests against it has collapsed— collapsed because of its own rotten foundation...
...Pork" in national legislation will never be abolished unless the American voter rises up determinedly and patriotically to demand its abso-lition...
...It resorted to disgraceful methods in trying to break down this humane measure...
...During the course of this debate, Senator Ken-yon made the following reference to the "booster" organizations, that for years have had no other excuse for existence than that of draining the United States Treasury for purely local advantage...
...The Pacific Mail fought the Seamen's law, tooth and nail...
...There are booster clubs, commercial clubs, river and harbor congresses, some of them advertised in the letterhead as second only in importance to the Congress of the United States, and invitations extended to prominent citizens to participate in banquets...
...It failed in this, and it did sell its vessels to go into the Atlantic trade...
...He said: "There has grown up an absolute industry in this country of creating sentiment for river and harbor appropriations...
...Hughes) will not approve the proposed newborn policy that when an American investor buys a concession worth $1,000,000 for a tenth of that sum, the American flag and arms shall be used to see he collects full face value on his speculation...
...We should take no chances, for his defeat this year would be the "reatest misfortune that could come to the pro-ssive cause...
...So we have this agitation going on in great books presented...
...It is a delight for me to reflect that on the great underlying principle of legislation we have always been in accord...
...During all this time he has firmly clung to his Republican principles, yet at times, without hesitation, he has denounced the action of his own party when he felt it was wrong or unfaithful to the best interests of the people...
...But it is on the way...
...Martine of New Jersey rose...
...It sold these ships AT A TREMENDOUS PROFIT...
...Kenyon...
...This is the announcement of Secretary of Commerce Redfield in an interview June 10, referring to the operation of the La Follette law to make the seamen free men and to protect the traveling public against disaster...
...This is not because of any narrow partisanship, but because he believed that such action on his part would weaken his usefulness in promoting the great work to which he was devoting his life...
Vol. 8 • July 1916 • No. 7
