Transcripts For CSPAN3 C-SPAN Cities Tour- U.S. Politicians 20240711

Politicians as we travel the nation in search of their stories. Coming up first. U. S. Congressman and senator, former wisconsin senator, and i20 for Progressive Party william bob elephant. It is a glorious service. The call comes to every citizen. It is an unending struggle to make and keep government representative. Bob lafollett is probably the most important political figure in Wisconsin History and one of the most important in the history of the 20th century of the United States. He was a reforming governor. He defined what,. Senator who is ready nice by his peers in the 1950s as one of the five greatest senators in american history. He was an opponent of world war i, stood his ground advocating for free speech. Above all Bob Lafollett was about the people. After the civil war america changed radically from a nation of Small Farmers and small producers and small manufacturers and by the 1870s and 1880s, 1890s we had concentrations of wealth. We had growing inequality had we had concern about the influence of money in government. The United States senators were elected by legislators. Huge sums of money going into those campaigns and there was corruption and you had a group of individuals who were looking for a way to change the status quo and around 1900 the idea of progressiveism coalesced. You had reformers nationwide looking at how did we get into this problem and what can we do about that . Progressives were especially interested with changing systems. They were concerned that the game was fixed so that the big money folks the corporations, the specialinterest were going to be able to get their way. They werent advocating inequality of result that they wanted everyone at the same starting line. Lafollette when one to United States congress as a member of the house of representatives and was a rather conventional congressman, voted the party line but in the early 1890s something happened to boblafollette that change him. 1891 he was called into among thoses office of senator follies sawyer republican u. S. Senator and sawyer was involved in a locked case which was going to be tried by lafollettesbrotherinlaw. Sawyer offered lafollette a retainer for legal advisers. Heres 50. You will get more if the case comes out right. Lafollette lafollette said im being bribed here and got up and walked out. His brotherinlaw excused himself from the case. Lafollette alienated himself from the rest of the Republican Party establishment. According to lafollettes own story thats when the insight hit him this is what politics right now is about. Its about money. Its about those who can afford to buy justice and those who can afford to buy offices and he believed the system needed to be reformed. He spent the later part of the 1890s giving speeches all over wisconsin. If you wanted a speaker for your club or your group Bob Lafollette would give a speech. He went to county fairs. He went to every kind of event that you could imagine and built a reputation for himself. By 1900, he was ready to run for governor advocating on behalf of the people on two issues. One is the direct primary no more selecting candidates at conventions. The second one was to stop the interest, specifically the railroads. Wisconsin farmers were dependent on setting prices by railroads and they believe those prices were being fixed through collusion as the major railroads agreed on those prices. Railroads gave out free passes to legislators. A free pass was like getting a free rental car. Thats how you got around to keep gave a free pass to every member of the legislature it would look kindly on you. You are getting Free Transportation from them. So lafollette ran on that and through the connections he made throughout the state and speaking on the data he gathered about who would likely support him he will not nomination. A fall it was opposed by the conservative republicans in the legislature and he didnt get the legislation that he wanted. He tried again in 1902 and was elected governor and was still being blocked blocked by the stalwart republicans. In 1904, he went on the campaign trail against members of his own party. He started reading roll calls at meetings at who voted against regulating against the railroads. Who voted against the direct primary. In 1904 was the tremendous victory for bob lah fall it because you only won reelection but he won enough of this progressive supporters in the legislator later. The other thing that lafollette was successful in doing as he believed in a referendum, recall and initiative. He was able to get the legislature to agree that a primary bill would be passed but only if it was passed by referendum. Lafollette when he campaigned he distributed literature on one side of it supporting top lafollette and the other side was a reminder to vote yes on a referendum so he would use his Campaign Machinery to campaign for both the cause and the man. At the time Bob Lafollette wasgovernor of United States senators were still being elected by the same legislature. One of the progressive reforms by progressive all over the country advocated the direct election of senators. In 1905, a Senate Position opened up in wisconsin and Bob Lafollette announced that he was going to run for senator but he was not going to resign his position as governor until his reforms were passed so he was successfully elected senator stayed in wisconsin for the first nine or 10 months of his term and not until the legislature adjourned after passing his program that he resumed his seat in washington d. C. In 1906. That began a 20 year period of service in the United States senate. Bob lafollette was tryingto repeat on the National Level some of his successes in wisconsin. Lafollette method of politics had to change because he was dealing with persuading and majority of 96 top senators to support his position. Lafollette was a master tech titian. Technician. On the state level he was able to gather data on who would support him and who needed to make contact. He was a master of the rules in the senate. Talk Bob Lafollette to use the filibuster to stop legislation that he felt was harmful. He was recognized in the u. S. Senate as a leader of a small group of progressives there whose votes were needed by the majority to pass legislation. Lafollette was a republican as were most progressives in the u. S. Senate and that group of 12 or 14 votes that he controlled to negotiate in terms of Bob Lafollette spreadingprogressive ideas nationally he used two techniques. One, he started a magazine called lafollette lafollettes s magazine great at promoting lafollettes name in that magazine still exist today. Its called progresso but secondly bob loved the public but if you want to speaker bob would go anywhere in the nation to speak. He did this partly because he was not an independently wealthy man. He needed income for speaking but he would go to chautauqua and various events to spread his word and he started getting progressive candidates in the democratic party. Woodrow wilson getting elected, the governor of new jersey as a progressive, Teddy Roosevelt nationally was viewed as a progressive with the trying to trust busting he was interested in doing. Child labor had people who are concerned about children in factories the reformers around the nation were concerned about that. Bob lafollette oppose war. He voted for Woodrow Wilson in 1916 go Bob Lafollette was a republican voted for wilson because he believed in wilsons pledge to keep the United States out of the war. In april of 1917 Woodrow Wilson asked congress to declare war on germany. Bob lafollette was one of onlysix United States senators to oppose that war. He was concerned that only munitions makers, profiteers would benefit from that as the people would suffer the loss of loved ones in the military. He was concerned that the government was not telling the people the full cost of the war. His principle concern was the suppression of Civil Liberties. In 1917 Congress Passed a bill called the espionage act. It didnt have anything to do with espionage. It was about suppressing opposition to the war. Newspapers could be shut down a were shut down as a result of that. People were jailed for their criticism of the war and Bob Lafollette to leave the bill of rights was not repealed because the United States was at war. An event on september 20, 1917 was a critical turning point for lafollette gave a speech in st. Paul minnesota and at that meeting Bob Lafollette was critical of the war effort. He said we have grievances against germany but those grievances are not sufficient to go to war. The Associated Press reported him as saying we have no grievances against germany. That news story created a national uproar. In wisconsin 90 of the faculty of the university of wisconsin signed a round robin petition opposing lafollette. There were calls in an investigation in the United States to expel Bob Lafollette there were threats on his life. Lafollettes point was ididnt say this but the war hysteria that when one, that is the explanation that didnt carry much weight because he did oppose the war wasnt until mid1819 that the Associated Press apologize for the air and it wasnt until 1919 that the United States senate cleared his name and said there are no grounds for expelling lafollette. And lafollettes fame and the respect that he has comes from his stance was Civil Liberties when he was one of the few people in the country speaking out on behalf of of the right of the people to exercise their freespeech rights for the constitution. Bob call it i think was interested in being president from the very beginning. 1908 Bob Lafollette Unitedstates Senate only two years throws his hat in the ring. Bob lafollette thinks he would be a good candidate and he was an unsuccessful unsuccessful candidate and the republicans convention. In 1912 it was the year that lafollette thought would be his year. He sounded out Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy said im not to be running. Bob lafollette was going to be the leader of the progressives challenging William Howard taft for the republican nomination. After anticaste forces start developing some strength rosabell changes his mind. Lafollette is outraged at this. Hes not going to support roosevelt and the convention and takes his fight to the convention and William Howard draft gets the nomination and Teddy Roosevelt runs as an independent on the progressive ticket. He did finally run for president on his own progressive ticket in 1924. Lafollette looks at the two parties davis and democrats coolidge and the republicans who said both of these are conservative parties. Neither of them are running on progressives on reform issues. He created a thirdparty that ran with Burton Wheeler a democrat as his Vice President lafollette for president. It was poorly funded. They had about 250,000 to spend nationally compared to about 4 million that the republicans had and about 2 million democrats had. Lafollette relied on his own speechmaking ability. He has a terrific duty to build at least and to the life of this country. Amazingly, lafollette got about 17 of the vote nationally. Dallas at the time the second the second best run of the thirdparty. Only Teddy Roosevelt pulled the Progressive Party exceeded that. He came in second in 10 other states and that was lafollettes last hurrah running for president in 1924. The lafollette name has magic in wisconsin. The two sons went ahead and created that Third Political party the Progressive Party and attempted to take the party nationally in 1938 carrying on the issues that bob fired for which were important in the context of the 1930s so use out things like Unemployment Compensation and you saw many of the ideas being found in the new deal that emerged out of wisconsin. Franklin roosevelt delivered patronage in wisconsin through wisconsin progressives rather than the Wisconsin Democratic party. And that continued through Bronson Lafollette the Third Generation of Bob Lafollette who was wisconsins attorney general. Many said bob many of the ideas that Bob Lafollettefought for open issues. Lafollette called for the direct election of president as opposed to electoral college. He wanted to see the elimination of the influence of money in campaigns. He wanted popular review of judicial decisions, being able to overturn Supreme Court decisions. And he wanted referenda as one calling war that the United States would not be able to go to war except in a defensive fashion without a possible referendum. Some of those ideas are still being debated today. It shall not corrupt but shall obey that government that guards and protects its rights. Mere party citizenship is not enough. If government is to be saved from those who are aggressive or what is wrong. It makes it very difficult. As a force of Charles Curtis of candace was the Senate Majority leader, and from 19 39 to 33, he served as the 31st Vice President and broke around as the first maps issue to be of native american descent. I came to know Charles Curtis after him gifted topeka and was the resident historian at this in the terri, i came to know more of his story the more i found out the more fascinating he became. Then i found out how under told he was, he is reduced to trivia questions, the only Vice President and American Indian lineage or ancestry and he deserves a lot more than that. I have been doing some Curtis Research for 20 years, it is gotten more serious than last couple of years. His journey has become more remarkable to me in the last couple of years as i realize exactly what he did. He is born in north topeka, he is born during the territorial period. He is french and white dissent. His father is a white man and he comes originally, his descendants, his ancestors were on the mayflower. A lot of hay is made with that and he is a candidate he has the indian on one side, pilgrims on the other. So it is a great pr piece. But makes him so remarkable, i think is the fact that he is mixed blood growing up at a time that makes that very difficult, and somehow by the sheer force of his personality makes all of that advantage, one historian said that he played the idiom card when it worked and the white card without worked. That might be true, but i think it oversimplifies his experience. I think it is little unfair to him. I think he chose a white mans world, he says that, because of his experience, it is unfortunate that society force that choice on him, but it will certainly did. His mothers family operated the ferry that went from north topeka to the south side of the kansas river and was ferrying passengers on the organ trail. He does not come from a poor family, theyre always working, but they were people of needs. His mother has a allotment of land as part of her mixed Indian Heritage so he always when he when his mother died when he was only three years old, he goes to live with his indian grandmother on the reservation. By then and been removed to counsel grove pretty goes in their lives with him. So he grows up with an indian identity. He talks about his childhood as being idealic. He was a little boy playing with bows and arrows, fishing and hunting its a great life. The turning point came in 1868, hes only eight years old. The cheyenne uncharacteristically come pretty far east to attack. This is not a pitch battle. It turns basically into a standoff. But is is an incredible show of force to the cheyenne. Charles curtis, by his own account, is selected to walk to topeka, 60 miles to alert the authorities that the cheyenne have attacked them. Some accounts say his uncle, that he actually came with his uncle. Charles spoke english. He spoke french, caw english. So he comes to topeka and tells governor crawford that the cheyenne have attacked. And i think a lot of this is due to the influence of his grandmothers. But his white grandmother in topeka said, thats enough youre coming to live with us and have a civilized life. His indian grandmother agreed. So the indians then, when the tribe is being removed to the indian nations or the indian territory what is now. Oklahoma, he really wants to go with them. This is 1873 and he is 13. And his indian grandmother, is french and indian grandmother says no. Youve got to make something of your life or if you come with us you cant do that. So you have to stay with your white grandmother and get an and make something of yourself. I dont think you can overestimate what those two women, the impact those two women had on his life. He comes to topeka, he attends high school. He does not graduate, it is only a two year program. So it is not unusual for people to not graduate at the end for it but he worked. He had one horse and a buggy. And he borrowed or rented a horse and he runs a taxi service service. Hes running the legislators and he becomes the practice of law. And so he reads for the law thats not uncommon at that point. That is how he passes the bar. Curtis had decades of legislative experience. He was the first republican Senate Majority leader, he was to some people, some newspaper editors said curtis was the most powerful man in washington as Senate Majority leader he did not rule from the front he ruled from the back he knew everyman in their intimately he knew it they wanted their children same he knew it motivated them he was the master at compromising getting things done in the 1928 president ial campaign, curtis was hoping to get the top spot. , he was campaigning for president , not secondplace. When the convention met in kansas city that year, he was very disappointed and made it known that he was disappointed, not to be chosen as president. During that campaign, because probably he was already Senate Majority leader and a really big deal, almost all of the newspapers make him a mythic figure. This rise from the tpp to washington. Whether or not he ever lived in a tp, i am not sure. That was the myth. Again this pilgrim and indian background, it was just turned into such a colorful story. Nobody could match that story. So by then, he had so entrenched himself with business that i dont believe his Indian Heritage was a negative. It doesnt appear to have been. So hoover is Vice President. Hoover is obviously not real popular because his administration, some people think responsible for the depression. It at least ushered in the great depression. So Nobody Associated with that is very popular. And as a Vice President , curtis was something of a nobody. All Vice President s are to some extent. But curtis became kind of a caricature at the time. Its very unfortunate because he was a very remarkable man. The house a very, very beautiful house, just almost unbelievable how beautiful it. Still is this is actually called eclectic victorian, eclectic because it has the moreish stones. And its got some stain glassed windows and some curved windows. Its just a lot of different styles of the Victorian Era is put together and they call it eclectic victorian. And we just love the building. And people love to come here they love to see the house and the furnishings and they talk about curtis. It has been a very wonderful retirement for us. It is kept us on the go. My husband and i are just house in 1993. When we purchased it was actually going to be demolished by the city because nobody was interested in purchasing the building. It actually has 12 rooms. And furnishings in the house are curtisera. He wouldve used most of these furnishings in that era. We do have some curtis items in the house that are very important. We have a grandfather clock when curtis was here, we have a bookcase, chair, quilt and a few dishes. But we have a lot of memorabilia of curtis. When we take people on a tour of the building, we just tell them the story of curtis first. Now curtis is story has become more popular. The people in our city did not know about curtis. I thought that was very strange. But of course it had been years since he had been in office, you know. And the more we read about him, it was almost unbelievable to think you could take one year of High School Education and go on to do all of that. When Charles Curtis was first elected, native americans did not have the right to vote. The significance of his election cannot be overstated. And again i think it is the sheer force of his personality that makes that happen. His ability to get along with everybody. As republican Charles Curtis was ending his time as Vice President 1933, democrat huey long was beginning his in the u. S. Senate. The former governor of louisiana had his career cut short as he visited the state Capital Building in baton rouge of september 1935. The date of huey longs assassination he was the u. S. Senate. But he was in baton rouge visiting the louisiana legislature, in particular the house of representatives. And visiting with the speaker of the house at that time, alan allen. They were here and in fact they walked to the speakers desk where huey and eleanor had just finished the conversation or were discussing everything. You will get the idea from their you can see the entire chamber. You have to remember huey law was a hands on governor, he was also a hands on senator and never really felt like he was no longer governor huey long was still wielded great influence in legislature. Even more so some say because he was a u. S. Sitting senator. This is where they would have been the last photo taken of huey long prior to his assassination. It was huey long standing right about here were this chair is. Speaker of the house presiding watching the happenings was leaning over talking to to the senator, former governor huey long. It was after those conversations were finished that they walked down the chamber, walked down the hall right there there, outside of the chamber and were returning to, remember the Governors Office. Huey long was not the governor. But he continued to use the Governors Office as if it were he is. Now we are entering the area of the hall where the assassination took place. But this is also the double doors here were the entrance to the Governors Office. Now huey long was really the senator. He still acted like the governor. He would stay at the Governors Mansion with governor allen. He was coming with you, to governor alans office but as he walked past this call it, is again i wasnt there from all accounts talking to one of the body guards who was with huey long, mr. Weiss, dr. Weis was somewhere in this area. Walked out and approached senator long as he passed by to go in here. Now a verbal altercation of some sort took place as huey and weiss exchanged, it may be heated arguments who knows what. Shots rang out, huey long was shot. As we know theres still remnants of a bullet hole still marked, here you can see the whole in the marble. So one shot to the abdomen area, he was weakened and he started. At that time his bodyguard who i called colonel bill far kay who is his personal bodyguard from my hometown had come up because hed gone to move the car. The senator was leaving the house chamber, going to check in here and then they were leaving. He turned the corner rushed up here, he according to the information i was given did not fire a shot because he caught the senator as he collapsed. Carried him down the stairs, put him in the backseat of a black sedan. I remember that vividly, it was a buick. And took him right around the corner from here, around the back of the capital. It was a hospital called lady of the lake hospital at that time. At that time it was located on the other side of the lake. Im in the emergency room there in kind of the rest is history. Long all the way was muttering why did that blanketed like shoot me . And then by this time was in pain. He goes in, refuses to let the physicians and all treat him he thought maybe there is a conspiracy. Because he is still alive. What im relating to use it was given to me by the bodyguard in the mid70s, bid 1970s. The bodyguard stayed with him the whole time. And as he staying with him, the question kept coming up what is he doing . Why did he shoot me . Why, why. And at that time he we would not let those doctors work on him, he wanted one of the doctors who was the head of Charity Hospital to be the surgeon who would treat him. By the time they made the phone calls to new orleans, and a member we are talking again baton rouge is an hour and a half drive. But all it there are two lane road to the march. It took four hours to get the doctor here. For the time he got here the poison and the other things and they got shot kind of set in the infection. And he would long ultimately died several hours later. Who shot huey long . All sorts of speculation part i can say firsthand accounts from the bodyguard who was with him colonel, far k called him chief because he was also chief of police said i was there. Its all a bunch of it about bodyguard shooting him. It was one small caliber bullet. I was there and they took it out of his stomach. They put in my hand. I turned it over to the lab. I held it. I know for a fact. And rumor back then and in many of the books i have read that said huey long had done some things to the weiss family. Because they were antilong back then. That is what provoked weiss to do it he did. He was a mild mannered nice doctor who for whatever reason did what he did. And of course everyone is denied the real meaning because of the confrontation with the bodyguards. I think huey long weissfamily. It is said. And some of his wifes family more than he knew weiss. And you know as the colonel used to share with me the stories it was not uncommon for huey to really go after someone if they were against him in a particular parish, he would do it he could to bring that parish to its knees or that leadership to put his folks in place. So could that have had something to do with it . I really dont know. I never really explored that in great depth other than all of the rumors. Well the newspaper accounts at the time. You want to think of it as one of those important incidents that change the course of history. And the reason i say change the course of history, look what he did in louisiana. Many have speculated that there was a conspiracy to take him out because he could have been a president ial candidate. You know, thereve been many books written about who is huey long . If you could get inside his mind how if you could figure out who he was, i like to think of him as a unique individual, a oneofakind who happened to be the right time in our States History where we needed someone of his persistence, someone of his sheer determination, someone of his humble background to take our state forward. I would like to say he brought us, in a way, kicking, screaming into the 20th century. And he had a vision. People dont want to admit it but he had a vision. He brought public highways to louisiana. He paid for a lot of paved roads to the Rural Communities for it on the market roads bringing them in. Realizing if you dont have a highly cant bring your products to the city. Public education. Started with huey long. Free textbooks started with huey long. I know i said in my tenure speaker from 1996 to 2000, huey long had a saying. A chicken in every mans pot. He was a populist. And he believed in doing for the people. If he saw, because ive heard stories and ive read stories and read books on it. If he saw you were genuine and you were sincere, and you werent personal, he could relate to you. When you made it personal it was over. And if you truly believed in more conviction about whatever you were discussing, you could relate to that because he was of the same bill. Ill. And in politics youve got to learn as you are coming up and as you progress through it you cannot burn all the bridges. And i think he understood that. But he also understood your either for me or against me. But without determination, we need to work it out. If you were against them how to treat you . There was no treatment. You are personna non grad. You knew it. So you didnt bother with it. You just prepared. Prepared for what . Whatever was coming pretty knew was coming and you know it wasnt going to be pleasant. Can you give me example of something that occurred in history . Only the many stories of those who were against him, it was a swing vote coming up they mysteriously got stopped by the police and the miss the vote. If they were in opposition or were going to speak against him Little Things like that. Thats common. Louisiana governors traditionally habits. But he in particular, as the colonel would tell me, when they would travel when the was governor, he maintained the mansion here down the street from the old state capital. He spent a lot of time in new orleans which was the next largest stability, in the hotel there. And he has had many a nights, we traveled into cars and he used the term to forwards, he said that we travel the airline or the highway between new orleans and baton rouge. He was a 2 or 3hour trip easy, he said we would run down that highway. I would make my phone call, he would get something to drink, hed know enough here to this day that service day shun restaurant is still there. It looks art deco, thirties style. We would stop there and by would make my phone call. Because all we had in our car were receivers. In other words it would receive a radio transmission but they can transmit it back. It was in effect a police radio, but it was a police radio. He said, i would make my call only. We would travel into cars, of traveled with the governor or the senator. He said theres always a car in front of us, it was not uncommon to hear played, someone shooting at us along the way. Remember, we were rural. We were just coming out of the throws. The war was over, world war i was over, huey long was a populist for theirs antisediments, theyd never had anyone like him as a governor who got around to use the media, the soundtrucks. Baton rouge is what it is in large part because of the contribution and the louisianas capital is here. Wasnt always here. It moved around. Building this building here, was one of the first steps in really forming baton rouge as a seat of government and within a matter of a couple of years of this building being occupied, what we call the capitol annex, across the street from here was built and completed in like 1938 or 1939. The government had already outgrown this building. So they consolidated. By that time, in my opinion, assured and insured at the same time, baton rouge would always remain the capital of louisiana. From Louisiana State capitol in baton rouge, we traveled to montanas capital city of helena, into the congressional papers of Jeannette Rankin the first woman to serve in the u. S. Congress. We are in the Montana Historical society and the state archives. The archives is one of three programs that makes us the Research Center here at the historical society. Today will be talking about Jeannette Rankin. She was a woman from montana born in 1880. Her biggest claim to fame was she was the first woman to be elected to the United States congress. That was in 1916. She was elected again in 1939 just before we got into world war ii. So she served two different terms but lots of years in between them. Jeannette rankin, when she came into the congress she came in with a bit of fanfare. There is a bit of a honeymoon of what she was given a standing ovation when she walked into congress. She was given flowers, is a very positive for her but that quickly ended when she voted no for entry into world war i. This is a letter from anna garland spencer she is from leader bill pennsylvania. And in it she talks about how difficult it must have been being the first woman in congress, but also being the first one to have to say no to war. It wouldve been so much better and easier for you if two or more women had been elected. Then probably would not have been entire agreement between them their responsibility would be divided and you would have stood not just for womanhood for only for ms. Rankin in your first most serious vote for sure others to be with you later. And that in any case your sincerity will win the Conference Since of your comrades. One of the places Jeannette Rankin took the worst beatings if you will, was in the press. And unfortunately, the newspapers in montana were largely owned and operated by the Mining Company and they were very prowar. So a lot of the newspapers in montana, it really vilified her. Theres an old saying about death by a thousand cuts. And i just wanted to provide one example of the slights that she, Jeannette Rankin, experienced all of the state. This particular one, she is supposed to sell liberty bonds and give a presentation and sell liberty bonds and buttes. When she got there the doors were locked against her. She was trying to figure out why they werent letting her in. They basically said, we have no knowledge that you were supposed to be here. Her response of course was to stand for the building give her speech anyway. [laughter] so it shows that she definitely had the wherewithal and the spine to be able handle all of these cuts, the death of a thousand cuts, think about this every town she went to come every time she went to give a speech these kinds of fights were given to her. Despite the rocky start to her term, Jeannette Rankin did a great deal. She was the woman to put forward the Susan B Anthony amendments which eventually became the 19th amendment giving women suffrage, that was one of the big thing she really wanted to have happen during her term. She also tried to get Child Welfare reform and things like that. There were a lot of issues she work toward. Think one of the best examples for her relates to the mine disaster that occurred in 1917. In that disaster, 168 men were killed. And of course that left many orphans and women without means of support for it if there had been reforms within the mine the safety of the miners would have been assured and the disaster would not have occurred at all. Thats why more piso like to show you sort of a call to arms telling jenness that she really needed to get to butte and to participate. It looks like your highest duty for you is to come instantly to investigate these methods first hand, this knowledge will force congress and others to immediate action and newly found in the duster world. This demands big courage, big comprehension and close discrimination. You can trust the people here, they will give you justice. This is an opportunity for even the biggest man in the nation prayed the workers here trust you. You are the biggest and most effective action that could come here. You cannot be too cautious, this is your hour to prove the quality of your courage and your justice all at the ready. She did in fact go to butte, she was greeted with open arms. 10,000 strong came to hear her speeches. Unfortunately she could not effect shames. A lot of the information was twisted in the lens of the Company Owned newspapers. At the end of all of this, jeanette knew that she was committing political suicide. Coming into the 19 thirties and forties we are again facing more, which she did again run and one. And of course the vote for war came up again and she voted her conscience once again and said, i cannot go to war therefore i cannot send anyone to war. This time she was the only vote against the war, and the vote itself took place after pearl harbor, the passions were very high. There is very poignant photo of her sitting outside of a phone booth outside of congress she taken refuge she called the guards to get her. She was afraid for her personal safety. So she did not run again. What is really extraordinary about her is the tenacity that she fought for peace after she was out of office. From the forties, fifties and sixties, she was again and organizations, peace organizations. She traveled the world fighting for peace and that is what she absolutely believed in and she did it to the day she died. Or look at u. S. Politicians continues as we go from Jeanette Rankins pacifist views to senator arthur vent embark and iconic isolation mist who changed his and republican parties Foreign Policy after the pearl harbor attacks. On december 7th i propose that no other nation has any chance to use our silence as an alibi for ulterior designs. If such there be. I propose action instead of words, i propose action now, i propose it from the sake of a better world. But i say again and again that i propose it for our own american so vision. He first came to notoriety is one of the leading isolations. He had been a crusader for world war i in american involvement following Woodrow Wilson enthusiastically when he declared war in germany. Like so Many Americans he was disillusioned with what happened after that. As the totalitarian states, moussey levy and then hitler were becoming belligerent in europe, arthur was one of those people who said, we got burned once already we dont to be involved again. He argued for a very strict neutrality act to get the u. S. Out of what look like what might become european more. In that way he was a leader in the fight with franklin roosevelt, as roosevelt tried to engineer aid for Great Britain and for people who would become our elise gets to hitler. Then, after the war, in 1945 or at least late in the war, he came forward and said, things have to change, in affects reversed his own position and said, isolation is no longer possible for the u. S. As a global power. We have to take leadership on the world stage or relinquish it to darker forces. By making that shift in the last months of world war ii, he pulled a lot of American Public opinion with him and really helped enable the changes in americas rice leadership. As someone who grew up in grand rapids, id always been curious about his life. He was one of these ambitious kids, his father had a business that nearly went broke in the panic of 1893 when he was 9 years old. This was doing of jobs to support his family, when he was in high school he thrived on editing the School Newspaper and he thrived on political news, he gave a speech, when he was a senior in high school on the peace conference in the hague in 1900. Already he is thinking about Foreign Policy as a teenager. He claims that he started reading the congressional record when he was 15. We have no record of this, but that is what he thought of himself. 4 years before he built this house at the age of 22, he was a wonder canned editor of a medium sized daily newspaper. From then on, he is covering every political convention. His mentor and part owner of the paper is a senator, michigan center, best known for having