Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1911-09-14

year of a presidential campaign 1T
finds itself rent in twain, while tie
leader Of the revolt, despised and hat
ed and feared as he is by the most Of
his colleagues, has found himself more
and more in the popular eye. He is
naturally the kind of man of whom
stories" are written. Only six years
ago, as we recalled the other day, his
associates gave him, on his arrival to
Washington, the least conspicuous
Craftsmanship available. Today, in pos
session of the best seat in the senate,
his words are listened to by thousands
the country over, particularly in the
middle west, where he is ranked by
some as a political Moses, the man who
more than any other has helped the
people to rule in place of the politi-
clans. SO extraordinary rise smacks
almost Of the romantic.
AFoLLETTE's RAPID RISE.
That so rapid and complete change
has come about in Senator LaFollette's
status in the senate must argue certain
powers. True, he chose well his time
to enter that body. In the past six
years it has witnessed a revolution.
Seat after seat has been emptied, as he
once prophesied would be the case; and
as the veterans have disappeared the
younger men have come forward in a
wholly different senate. Other sena-
tors have won important places for
themselves in single term. From the
beginning Mr.. Root has welded great
influence, and his term is not yet half
over. But that same logged persisten-
ey, that same mistaken refusal to know
when he was beaten, and the fatal
courage of speaking the truth as he
sees it, that have all helped TO bring
him forward politically, have advanced
LaFollette in the senate in the face Of
bitter opposition and distrust. And
with the hatred of him much fear is
mingled
WHAT LAFoLLETTE HAS DONE.
For LaFollette not only seems TO
achieve his ends; he will do some things
that the people insist in their blindness
on remembering. They are aware that
he was the author of the first direct
primary law, that of Wisconsin; that
the railroad laws he drew and had
passed in that state have served as
models for many another. They know
that he told the truth about the Payne
tariff from the beginning, and they are
certain to think well of his efforts to
pass the wool bill and to tighten other
tariff burdens At a
distance, people cannot be expected TO
pass upon mans sincerity as do his
colleagues; nor can they measure the
full extent of that undoubted personal
ambition 10 which The Tribune's cor
respondent referred LaFollette could,
says an enthusiastic biographer, who
counts him the originator OF ,he whole
great political revolution going on in
this country, have been the premier of
the Wisconsin bar, but political life
was inevitable.
TO BE RECKONED WITH
To pass an accurate judgment on this
mans character, his soundness, or his
achievements, is not possible at the
present time. We would merely call
lattention to the extraordinary phenom-
enon that he is and suggest that he is
a power 20 reckoned with 1t was
Iprophesied four years ago in the last
national convention of the Republican
party that he would write the platform
Of the next and be its candidate at :.
later time. A part of the next plat
form, he and his Insurgent allies have
already written, and it must not be
forgotten that, jeered as he was from
one end of the state TO the other, when
he announced his candidacy for govern
or of Wisconsin. he was subsequently
three times elected to that office. He
is for government in the open, even in
congress, and for government by the
people, and that this is a winning plGt-
form, if the man upon it is really ttue
to his professions, is obvious enough
As it is, despite obloquy and criticism
OF every kind, just and unjust, the fact
remains that this 'timid demagogue"
mas aroused public interest to rare
degree and eXerted an influence on the
law-making Of the nation which usually
comes only to men Of long service.
School Board Proceedings & &
Mineral Point Sept 4 1871 rag