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Show H 4 THE NEXT PRESIDENT. Is LaFollelte the m;iu for President; has he done things which entitle him to ask the citizens oi the United States to have faith in H him; is lie of the calibre of a President; -what of his record? Here H is a tribute to LaFollette from Theodore Roosevelt which is an an- H swer lo the questions propounded. H "I doubt whether American students of social economics fully H realize tho extraordiuaiy work that has been accomplished during H the last decade and is now being accomplished in the state of Tfis- cousin under the lead of Senator LaFollette and tho group of en- H lirely practical and at the same time zealously enthusiastic workers H who have corne into active control of the state mainly or largely be- H cause of the lead he has given them. We can now, at least in many H cases, look for a leadership to "Wisconsin when Ave desire to try to H solve the great social and industrial problems of the present and the H future. It is only in Wisconsin, so far as I know, that a really scri- Hj ous and thorough effort is being made to find out how to frame meas- Hl ures which shall give the people control over the big corporations Hj without going into wild extravagances. After my visit I felt like H congratulating Wisconsin upon what she had done and was doing, H and felt much more like congratulating the country as a whole bc- H cause it has in the state of "Wisconsin a pioneer blazing the way along H which we Americans must make our civic and industrial advance H during the next few decades." H Every man of prpminence, free from prejudice, who has visited H "Wisconsin or studied its progress in reform legislation, doffs his hat H to Senator LaFollette, the author of the reformation in that state. H Wisconsin was no easy state for a reformer when Robert LaFol- Hl lette started on his political career. It was one of the firmly held, H1 machine-controlled states, where the lobbyist could get anj' kind of H an order filled, from the naming of a state officer to the reducing of H the assessment roll ofra big railroad. LaFollette had the courage to H oppose the machine and the intellect to plan a far-reaching cam- H paign. Step by step he advanced, pushing back the enemies of good H government. Finally he won a complete victor-. Then he began H constructive legislation, which today is being commended by oven H the big men of big corporations, who have seen a new light and have H discovered that legitimate business conducted in conformity with H law and with due regard for the rights of others, is, after all, the best H kind of business. LaFollette 's record will make him President. |