LA FOLLETTE (lah font), ROBERT MARION (1855 1925), American politician, was born in Dane county, Wis., on June 14, 1855. He graduated from the University of Wiscon sin in 1879, studied law there, was admitted to the bar in 188o, and began practice in Madison. From 1885 to 1891 he was a representative in Congress, and, as a member of the ways and means committee, helped to draft the McKinley Tariff bill. He was elected governor of Wisconsin in 1901 and was re-elected in 1903 and 1905. It was largely due to him that State laws were passed for taxing railways according to valuation (1903), for nominating all candidates for public office by direct vote of the people (1904) and for regulating the railways in the State through a State commission (1905). He resigned the governor ship in 19o5 on being elected to the U.S. Senate, and was re-elected for three succeeding terms.
In 1915 he was sponsor in the Senate for the Seamen's Bill pro viding for better working conditions and increase of life-saving equipment on board ship. After America's entrance into the World War he was a pronounced pacifist. The Republican nation al convention held at Cleveland, 0., in June, 1924, rejected a platform presented on behalf of Senator La Follette by the Wis consin delegation, and he received only 34 votes on being placed in nomination for president. Accordingly a convention for pro gressive political action was convened at Cleveland on July 4, at which La Follette was endorsed as a presidential candidate. He
selected the name "Progressive" for his party, and his platform included advocacy of public ownership of water-power and rail ways, strict public control of all national resources, a recognition of agriculture as the basic industry of the country and abroga tion of the power of the Supreme Court to nullify legislation. In the ensuing election he was beaten by both Republican and Democratic candidates, his electoral vote being 34, as against 382 for Coolidge and 136 for Davis, the popular vote being 4,686, 68i for La Follette, 15,748,356 for Coolidge and 8,617,454, for Davis. In 1913 he published his Autobiography, a Personal Nar rative of Political Experiences. He died at Washington, D.C., June 18, 1925.
His son ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE, who was born in Madison, Wis., on Feb. 6, 1895, was elected by a large plurality on Sept. 29, 1925, to fill the unexpired term of his father's senatorship. He stood as a supporter of his father's platform of 1924 and in the Senate continued to advocate the policies which his father had advanced.
See Political Philosophy of Robert M. La Follette, compiled by Ellen Torelle and others (192o) ; Albert Olans Barton, La Follette's Winning of Wisconsin, 1894-1904 (1922) and William Allen White, Politics: The Citizen's Business (1924).