Robert M. La Follette, Jr.

Infobox Senator | name=Robert M. La Follette, Jr.
nationality=American


jr/sr=United States Senator
state=Wisconsin
party=Republican
Progressive
term_start=September 30, 1925
term_end=January 3, 1947
preceded=Robert M. La Follette, Sr.
succeeded=Joseph McCarthy
date of birth=birth date|1895|2|6
place of birth=Madison, Wisconsin
dead=dead
date of death=death date and age|1953|2|24|1895|2|6
place of death=Washington, D.C.
spouse=Rachel Wilson Young
religion=

Robert Marion La Follette, Jr. (February 6, 1895 – February 24, 1953) was an American senator from Wisconsin from 1925 to 1947, the son of Robert M. La Follette, Sr., the brother of Philip La Follette, and the brother-in-law of the playwright George Middleton.

Early life and career

La Follette was born in Madison, Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1913 to 1917, but did not graduate due to an illness. This same illness prevented him from serving in the military during World War I. He served as private secretary to his father between 1919 and 1925. He married Rachel Wilson Young in 1930, and they had two sons, Joseph Oden and Bronson Cutting.

enate

La Follette was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate on September 29, 1925, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his father. "Young Bob," as he was called, was a champion of organized labor. He gained national prominence between 1936 and 1940 as chairman of a special Senate investigating committee, commonly called the La Follette Civil Liberties Committee, which exposed the surveillance, physical intimidation and other techniques used by large employers to prevent workers from organizing.

He was chairman of the Committee on Manufactures in the 71st and 72nd Congresses. He supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt and most New Deal legislation until the passage of the 1938 naval expansion bill.

He was reelected as a Republican in 1928. With his brother Philip, he formed the Progressive Party in 1934, and for a time the party was dominant in Wisconsin. He was reelected with the Progressive Party in 1934 and 1940. The Progressives later dissolved, and La Follette returned to the Republican Party in 1946. La Follette was considered the Senate's leading isolationist and helped found the America First Committee. He helped draft and passage of the Congressional Reorganization Act of 1946, which modernized the legislative process in Congress. [ [http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0164540-0&templatename=/article/article.html Welcome to The American Presidency ] ]

Defeat

He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection as a Republican in 1946. He ran a conservative campaign against the United Nations and was critical of Stalin, but ended up losing to Joseph McCarthy in the Republican primary by about 5000 votes. [ [http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=290&letter=L&keyword=&search_term= La Follette, Robert Marion, Jr., 1895 - 1953 ] ] After the election La Follette claimed that Communists in the labor unions had contributed to his defeat.

Later life and suicide

After his defeat by McCarthy, he was a foreign aid advisor to the Truman administration.

In a February 8, 1947 "Collier's Weekly" article, La Follette reported his experience with infiltration of Communists onto Congressional Committee staffs. The Venona project materials revealed four agents of Soviet intelligence which had served on his Civil Liberties Subcommittee, including the Chief Counsel, John Abt.

On February 24, 1953, La Follette was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Washington, D.C. On September 9, 1953, John Lautner testified before McCarthy's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and revealed he knew of Communists who had served on La Follette's subcommittee. Some historians believe that La Follette killed himself out of fear of being called by McCarthy; others believe he succumbed to anxiety and depression, which plagued him for much of his life. [ [http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=141607 JS Online: La Follette suicide linked to fear of McCarthy ] ] . A third possibility is that he possessed information which would have been damaging to the American Communist movement and was murdered before he was able to testify. He is interred at Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison, Wisconsin, [ [http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/ladislas-lair.html The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians: Ladendorf to Lair ] ] and is survived by his son, Bronson La Follette. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= La Follette Death Ends Era in West. Hope for Progressive Comeback Diminishes. Party Once Was Supreme Power in State. |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30C17FD345E177B93C4AB1789D85F478585F9 |quote=The death of former Senator Robert M. La Follette Jr., who killed himself at his home in Washington yesterday, is not expected to have any considerable impact on the Wisconsin political situation, even though many of his followers in the old Progressive movement never abandoned hope that he would someday attempt a political comeback. |publisher=New York Times |date=February 26, 1953, Thursday |accessdate=2008-03-22 ]

Awards and honors

The University of Wisconsin awarded La Follette an honorary LL.D. degree in 1938. He also received Collier's Magazine award for outstanding public service in 1946.

References

External links

*CongBio|L000005
* [http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=290&keyword Robert M. La Follette, Jr., Dictionary of Wisconsin History, Wisconsin Stae Historical Society]
* [http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/may03/141607.asp "La Follette suicide linked to fear of McCarthy"] 17 May 2003 "Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel"
*Matusow, Harvey [http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?wasp=1482d62978c34d95b4a1252aae414bb2&referrer=parent&backto=issue,3,9;journal,6,6;linkingpublicationresults,1:300192,1 "The FBI, and the Justice Department: Becoming a Government Informer-witness in the McCarthy Era"]
* [http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=290&letter=L&keyword=&search_term= La Follette at the Dictionary of Wisconsin History]
*Maney, Patrick, [http://www.vqronline.org/articles/2001/summer/maney-joe-mccarthys-first/ "Joe McCarthy's First Victim"] , "Virginia Quarterly Review", Summer 2001
*Youngs, William, American Realities, Sixth Edition Volume 2, Eastern Washington University, 2006.