Hes the most important political figure in wisconsins history and one of the most important in the history of the 20th century in the United States. He was a reforming governor. He defined what progressivism is. He was one of the first to use the term to self identify. He was the United States senator. He was recognized by his peers in the 1950s as one of the five greatest senators in american history. He was an opponent of world war i. He stood his ground advocating for free speech. Above all, he was about the people. In the area after the civil war, america changed radically from a nation of small farmers, small producers, small manufacturers. 1870s, we had concentrations of wealth. We had growing inequality. We had concern about the influence of money in government. The United States senators were elected by legislators. There were huge sums of money going into those campaigns. Individuals were looking for a way to change the status quo. Around 1900, the idea of progressivism coalesce. Reformers, nationwide, looking at how we got into this problem. 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 went on to United States congress as a member of the house of representatives and was a rather conventional congressmen, booted the party line but in the early 1890s something happened to Bob Lafollette that change him. 1891 he was called into the office of his the senator republican u. S. Senator and sawyer was involved in a locked case which was going to be tried by lafollettes brotherinlaw. Sawyer offered lafollette a retainer for legal advisers. Heres 50. You will get more if the case comes out right. 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. Believe 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 ever 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. And stop the interest , Pacific League the railroads. Wisconsin farmers were dependent on setting prices and they believe those prices were being fixed through collusion as the major railroads agreed on those prices. Road rhoades gave out free passes to legislators. It 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 to the connections he made throughout the state and speaking and the data he gathered about who would likely support him he won that nomination. Lafollette was supposed by the conservative Republican Legislature and didnt get the legislation that they wanted. He tried again in 1902 and was elected governor and still being blocked by the stalwart republicans. 1904 he went on the campaign trail against members of his own party. He started reading world calls at meetings at who voted against regulating the roe roads . Who voted against the direct primary . In 1904 was the tremendous victory for Bob Lafollette because he not only won reelection but he won enough of this progressive supporters in the legislature. 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. Progressive all over the country advocated the direct election of senators. 1905 the 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. All the lafollette was tryingto repeat on the National Level some of his successes in wisconsin. Lafollette message of politics had to change because he was dealing with persuading and majority of 96 senators to support his position. Lafollette was a master tech titian. 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 senate. 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 boats that he controlled to negotiate in terms of Bob Lafollette spreading progressive ideas nationally he used two techniques. One started a magazine called the followups 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 but the kind of trust busting illicit interest in doing against monopolies. Child labor, there were reformers around the nation who were concerned about the use of children in factories and eliminated those. 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. Bob lafollette was one of only six 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 i didnt 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. 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. I think was interested in being president from the very beginning. 1908 Bob LafolletteUnitedstates 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 progressive 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. [inaudible] to build at least a part of his life into the life of his country. Amazingly lafollette got about 17 of the vote nationally. 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 lafollette s 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 of the ideas that Bob Lafollette fought for are 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. His time in the you and said it can sided with another powerful midwestern republican, Charles Curtis of kansas. He served as the 31st Vice President and broke ground as the first in that position to be of native american descent. I came to know Charles Curtis after i moved to topeka. I came to know more of his story. The more i found out, the more fascinating he became. The more i realize how under told his story is. He is reduced to a trivia question. The only Vice President of American Indian lineage or ancestry. He deserves a lot more than that. Ive been doing some Reader Research for 20 years. It has gotten more serious in the last couple of years area years. His journey has reppo become more remarkable to me. I realized exactly what he did. Topeka inin north 1860. Hes born during the territorial time. His father is a white man. He comes originally. Passengers onare the mayflower. That of hay is made with when he is a candidate. He has the indian on one side, the pilgrims on the other. Its a great pr piece. Him so remarkable, i think, is the fact that he has mixed blood growing up in a time that makes that very difficult. By sheer force of his personality, he makes all that an advantage. He played the white card when it works. That might be true, but i think it oversimplifies his experience but i think is a little unfair to him. I think he chose the white mans world, he said that. Because of his experiences. Zaidi forced that choice on him. It most certainly did. His mothers family operated the ferry. It went from north to the south side of the campus river. Passengers ong the oregon trail. People of means. His mother has a lot of land as a part of her mixed Indian Heritage. 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 growth pretty goes in their lives with him. So he grows up with an indian identity. He talks about his childhood as being ideally. He was a little boy plain with bows and arrows, writing ponies, visiting 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 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, and 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. 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. It was only a twoyear 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 he was to some people, some newspaper editors said curtis was the most powerful man in washington as 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, he knew it motivated them, he was the master at compromising, getting things done. In the 19208 president ial campaign, cur