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Show MESSIAH from WISCONSIN?! House of La Follette Again Sponsors a T Third Party By JOSEPH W. LaBINE Since 1930 American politics poli-tics has seen Messiahs by the carload. In Minnesota the Floyd B. Olsons attempted to project their Farmer-Labor party into the national picture; pic-ture; in Detroit the Father Coughlins came forward with a platform that was anti-Democratic anti-Democratic and anti-Republican; Townsendism had its day, and dynamic Huey P. Long raised his voice from the bayous of Louisiana. These are the malcontents, "radicals" if you please, of whom many argue it's safer to build a new balloon than patch the old. In an era featured fea-tured by change, they want more change. Individually they are powerless, but if a new Leader should emerge . In Wisconsin a few weeks ago that potential Leader did emerge, but he was not an unknown Messiah. His father was the fire-eating Progres- Governor Phil LaFoIlette of Wisconsin, charming and unassuming, will be the "public appeal" factor in the National Progressive party's campaign. He's presidential timber. Deal and its efforts to cure depressions, depres-sions, recessions and crises within crises. But the New Deal is only an immediate victim of his denunciation. denun-ciation. He says this business of waiting for "economic cycles" is foolishness. Throughout the past decade's topsy-turvy experimentation in social and economic reform, the LaFol- sive wno Kept tne uruiea. States senate worried until his death in 1925. His brother is today a member of that same senate sen-ate and very much respected. He himself is governor of Wisconsin. The name Is Phil LaFoIlette. If America's anti-Republicans and anti-Democrats had searched a generation gen-eration they might not have found an abler Leader than the man who popped up in the quiet college town of Madison. Like his brother, Senator Sen-ator Bob, Phil LaFoIlette has been doggedly fighting for the ideals of Progressivisim more than a decade. He's never shouted; only the false Messiahs shout. But he has applied his ideals to state government and has made them work. A Brotherly Combine. Together the brothers LaFoIlette form a unique combination to win support from labor, the farmer and the small business men. They are not socialists but the La-Follettes La-Follettes want to "harness the profit motive for social ends." They are not capitalistic but they think organized or-ganized labor is foolish to bargain for fixed wages instead of an annual an-nual income based on a share of the company's profits. Nor are these farm state boys opposed to agriculture but they do censure the farmer for haggling with purchasers purchas-ers of their crops for a set price level. Instead, say the LaFollettes, farmers should bargain collectively for a share of the ultimate price. ; -y" ' - : V " i t : r . t f ; : ' , . ! v:r V j ; y 1 On the surface Bob LaFoIlette, well versed with official Washington, is the logical National Progressive candidate. But the brothers recognize recog-nize that Bob is the politician and . legislator while Phil is an execu- i tive. This is a queer trick of fate because be-cause old Bob LaFoIlette intended : that his namesake should carry on the family tradition. Young Bob went to Washington immediately after he finished college and became his father's secretary. In 1924 he managed the LaFoIlette presidential i campaign and found himself in the j heat of politics while brother Phil ; was twiddling his thumbs. Phil once thought of entering the j ministry. His wise old father discouraged dis-couraged him from politics but his heart was in it. In 1924, at the ripe age of twenty-seven, he ran for district dis-trict attorney of Dane county, delivering de-livering not a single speech for himself him-self because the elder LaFoIlette needed his help in the presidential campaign. But Phil won. Wisconsin's Wonder Boy. The next year his father died and Phil's ambitions were nipped in the bud when young Bob ascended to the senate. It looked like a political politi-cal fade-out but Phil won the He-publican He-publican nomination for governor in 1930 and has been at Madison for three terms since. Wisconsin's allegiance to the LaFoIlette La-FoIlette tradition is a thing of wonder. won-der. In November, 1928, young Bob came up for election the first time and was sent back to the senate with a plurality of 400,000. Yet Wisconsin Wis-consin gave its electoral vote that year to Herbert Hoover, for whom the LaFollettes had said not a single good word. Governor Phil is by no means an idol with his constituents. The past two years have seen many scraps from which he has emerged victorious vic-torious but badly scratched. In most of these he has shown a judgment for diplomacy that would credit any President. One of his accomplishments accomplish-ments was legislative enactment of a governmental reorganization bill, the same stumbling block over These proposals come under the heading of making new balloons instead in-stead of patching old ones. Phil LaFoIlette La-FoIlette built a new balloon in his state unemployment insurance law, a piece of legislation that reflects the LaFoIlette fetish for justice. Under Un-der this act a separate set of books Is kept for each business organization organiza-tion in the state. The corporation with the smallest labor turnover pays the least. What Phil LaFoIlette doesn't say, Senator Bob supplies. In Washington Washing-ton he rants about the "hodgepodge" "hodge-podge" of taxation that has grown up these past hundred years. He'd like to junk it all and develop a sane, thoroughgoing program. Brother Bob's Opinions. Senator Bob has also voiced a family opinion concerning the New Old Bob LaFoIlette, dead since 1925, is still the moving spirit in Wisconsin's progressive politics. lettes have remained pretty much in the background. In Wisconsin, Governor Phil has done his own experimenting ex-perimenting and in Washington Senator Sen-ator Bob has listened carefully to each successive crop of proposals. Comes the Announcement. In 1938, at a strategic moment when the New Deal shows signs of bogging down, when the Republican party still lacks leadership and the country cries with discontent, Phil LaFoIlette has launched the National Nation-al Progressive party with an eye to pushing himself to the White House by 1948. Perhaps it will be sooner. which President Roosevelt tripped last winter. 'Trigger La Follette The governor's private life and hobbies account for much of his popular pop-ular appeal. He is a devotee of Americana of the Sam Houston period pe-riod and is also a student of Napoleon. Na-poleon. His quick-on-the-trigger aptitude in speech-making wins him many converts. Never caught short, ho faced a momentary crisis when addressing ad-dressing a crowd of Farmer-Labor-ites in Iowa a few weeks ago. A bench collapsed noisily, spilling its occupants to the ground. "That," cracked Phil, "must have been the Democratic or Republican j platform." , The next few months may see Governor Phil and Senator Bob carrying car-rying their National Progressive party to the nation. The two brothers broth-ers never disagree on major points, so America's farmers, laboring men and small business men are apt to be offered two Messiahs. To them may fall the task of cementing ce-menting our growing crop of malcontents mal-contents into a unified political group, of soothing Labor's quarrels with the farmer and the corner grocery gro-cery man. To their flag may rally a strange mixture of men and women, wom-en, disillusioned followers of defeated de-feated third party movements. But Phil will be the dominant LaFoIlette, La-FoIlette, a dynamic crusader in whom more than one aging Progressive Pro-gressive will see a carbon copy of old Fighting Bob LaFoIlette, the man who wanted his son to be a minister. Western Newspaper Union. Senator Bob LaFoIlette, lacking his brother's salesmanship ability, nevertheless knows political Washington so thoroughly that he will be invaluable in the campaign. |
