Robert M. La Follette summary

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Robert M. La Follette, (born June 14, 1855, Primrose, Wis., U.S.—died June 18, 1925, Washington, D.C.), U.S. politician. He served as a county district attorney in Wisconsin (1880–84) and in the U.S. House of Representatives (1885–91). Advocating progressive reforms, he was elected governor of Wisconsin (1901–06). In the U.S. Senate (1906–24), he sponsored bills to restrict the power of the railroad companies. He founded La Follette’s Weekly (1909) to broaden his reform movement, and he led Republican opposition to the policies of Pres. William H. Taft. He opposed U.S. entrance into World War I and policies of Pres. Woodrow Wilson that favoured big business. After the war he worked vigorously to expose corruption in government, including in the Teapot Dome scandal. As the presidential candidate of the Progressive Party in the 1924 election, he won five million votes, one-sixth of the total national vote. He died the next year; his son Robert (1895–1953) held his Senate seat from 1925 until 1947, when he was defeated by Joseph McCarthy.

Republican Party Summary

Republican Party, in the United States, one of the two major political parties, the other being the Democratic Party. During the 19th century the Republican Party stood against the extension of slavery to the country’s new territories and, ultimately, for slavery’s complete abolition. During the

Wisconsin Summary

Wisconsin, constituent state of the United States of America. Wisconsin was admitted to the union as the 30th state on May 29, 1848. One of the north-central states, it is bounded by the western portion of Lake Superior and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to the north and by Lake Michigan to the

government Summary

Government, the political system by which a country or community is administered and regulated. Most of the key words commonly used to describe governments—words such as monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy—are of Greek or Roman origin. They have been current for more than 2,000 years and have not

railroad Summary

Railroad, mode of land transportation in which flange-wheeled vehicles move over two parallel steel rails, or tracks, either by self-propulsion or by the propulsion of a locomotive. After the first crude beginnings, railroad-car design took divergent courses in North America and Europe, because of