Talk:Robert M. La Follette Jr.

La Follette suicide

This article mentions that he committed suicide, but makes no mention of whether or not anyone knew why...
--260 15:54, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

This is heavy stuff, I hope we can bring the dramatic impact home.

"Wisconsin lost two Senators, both victims in one sense or another, probably the only two lives lost in the Great Red Scare of the 1950s." nobs 00:47, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

But it ain't true. Read any of the standard histories of the Witch Hunt and you'll see a number of suicides of accused "commies" mentioned. --Orange Mike 03:06, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I doubt you linked to the right John Lautner. If he was designing buildings in California in the 1940s and 1950s he may not been part of the LaFollette-McCarthy story. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.69.127.138 (talk) 22:53, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Divisions of article

I propose something along the lines of the following for divisons within the article:

Early life
Education
Political career
Death and controversy

These divisions are likely to be in need of serious adjustment, since I know next to nothing about this guy other than his name, but ... gotta start somewhere. Did he have a wife and kids? Anyone know? Tomer ^TALK 00:53, July 28, 2005 (UTC)

Another thing, if we have time to go into, is that La Follette was considered the foremost isolationist prior to WWII, and his stands on joining the United Nations. They are particularly out of step of conventional FDR liberal Democrats, yet La Follette was considered the most Progressive member of the Senate. nobs 01:00, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

Journal Sentinel article

Does anyone care that you have to register to access that article? Does Wiki have a policy on that? --Fang Aili 17:32, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

If necessary, one can reference an article without any web link at all; so the necessity to register would not be a problem, if proper bibliographical data (date, etc.) were included. --Orange Mike 03:08, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Progressive Party of Wisconsin

Do we need to split off the La Follette Progressives information into a new article with the above name? --Orange Mike 03:05, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Is this the same senator that Wm. Bonner talks about?

"After Wilson ’s speech, practically every member of Congress was on his feet. Amid yelps and war whoops, the world ’s greatest deliberative body convulsed with excitement. Finally, the war was on.

But there was one important exception: Senator Robert La Follette. A founder of the Progressive Party, La Follette was one of the reasons Woodrow Wilson was elected in the first place. The progressives split the Republican Party vote in two, leaving Wilson—the Democrat—with a 42 percent majority, and so he won on a fluke. La Follette represented Wisconsin, with a large German-American population. But his resistance to war fever seemed to come from his own resources; he held to it longer than politically necessary. He argued against it so strongly that his colleagues thought he was committing political suicide.

Many couldn’t help but wonder: Is La Follette mad? According to some papers, he was a “Benedict Arnold.” He was a “Judas Iscariot,” said others. Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology burned him in effigy, and when La Follette left the Capitol after giving his spirited challenge to the war, another colleague handed him a rope.

But Fighting Bob was not easily bullied, not even after Senator Ollie James of Kentucky rushed at him with a gun in hand. Fortunately for the Wisconsin delegation, Senator Harry Lane of Oregon attacked James with a file and several other senators tackled him."

p. 124, The New Empire of Debt-The Rise and Fall of an Epic Financial Bubble, Wm. Bonner and Addison Wiggin, 2009.

"Finally, at 4 PM on April 4, two days after the president’s appeal for war, Senator La Follette took the floor of the Senate. Why should Congress get behind the president, he wanted to know. Wilson had been wrong about other things, mightn ’t he be wrong again?

What about the charge that Germany was sinking ships? Isn’t that what nations at war are supposed to do? England had put on a blockade of Germany. Germany had retaliated with its own blockade. American ships could respect the blockades or not. But they shouldn’t meekly consent to the English blockade of German ports while being indignant about Germany ’s blockade of England.

La Follette spoke for 2 hours and 45 minutes. He ended with tears streaming down his face, for he knew that his words were not enough. He might have been explaining to a pack of hounds why they should let the rabbit go. According to Gilson Gardner, it was “the best speech we will . . . ever hear.” But blood was up all over America already. It didn’t matter what La Follette said. He was wasting his breath."

p. 126, The New Empire of Debt-The Rise and Fall of an Epic Financial Bubble, Wm. Bonner and Addison Wiggin, 2009. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Raymm (talk • contribs) 06:57, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

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