The Washington herald., 1912-02-25
ENTIRE CAREER OF LA TOILETTE is
A TALE OF FIGHT AND BATTLE
The Senator from Wisconsin Has Never
Flunked from Political Combat, Re-
gardleSS of Odds.
By JAMES B. MoRRow.

he physically impressive in other re-
spects.
The directors of the rough school in
the woods looked the doubt they felt
and voiced it by asking his weight. '"one
hundred and twenty pounds" Robert
Marion La Toilette, the applicant re-
piled. But" he added. with flaming
eyes and knotted fists, for even then he
was an slocutionist ''in every ounce
there is a ton Of fight"
On the first day after the term be-
gan two robust yokels initiated some
thing they never carried through. The
new teacher, placing the poker OF the
stow on his desk as a moral support,
called the yokels to the front of the
room singiy and whaled them within an
inch OF their lives with a whip made
Of rawhide-
In a way, La Toilette has been steadily
fighting ever since. He ran twice for
governor before he was nominated. Both
times, so he AYERS in his autobiography.
his delegates were bought away from him
overnight. They had been sound pro-
gressionists, solid men for reform, and
had signed their honest names to docu-
ments which promised him their votes.
Thus he gives, which is comforting. at
all events, a touch OF common nature
to the cause he thinks Immaculate. Even
progressives. by his word. may Join the
devil or old Sawyer II they are paid their
price.
At the third test he was successful
Then began the carer that is now so
picturesque and celebrated. The point is
that he battled on. II never quit" might
be printed under mis- monogram. My
mother" he once told me, who was Mary
Ferguson before her marriage, never
never. never gave up She was a small
woman of Scotch-Irish descent and had
gray eyes and light brown hair. The
L. l. -
six feet and six inches in height. La
Toilette, then, is Ferguson.
Mccullough Laughed at Him.
Though Roosevelt speaks, hints, or re-
mains dumb from now on. La Toilette
will be an aspirant for the Presidency.
The shambles have no terror for him. BY
the free shedding of his own blood. so
far, has he achieved victory finally. And
he loves the dramatics Of combat
In his youth, as he has informed me. he
thought of the stage, but John McCul-
Tough, a muscular chairmaker turned
tragedian, laughed at his presumption.
Suppose" Mccullough shouted, loom
ing above his diminutive caller like 4
mountain, Il were playing Othello and
you lago and ] took you thus, and shook
you.' and he grasped the collar of La
FOllette's coat in his iron fingers. what
would the audience say? For shame, for
shame would be heard in all parts OF
the theater."
The stage was boyish dream. Pol
itiCs, however. became the reality OF the
developed man, giving as it did histrionic
opportunities and a yearly battlefield
on which intermittenty to suffer-a and in
tCrmittently to conquer. The Wall street
gamble has never been any more specu-
lative, uncertain. Or aIluring. Even those
who scof at tGe Wisconsin leader and
call him Battling Bob" in mock lauda-
ton, confess that he is a sagacious and
untiring fighter. As such. following
Napoleon, he chooses his marshals with
tact and penetration.
great general demands a great chief
Of staff-a loaded cartridge and not a
blank she'll La Toilette has such an ad
iutant in Walter l. Houser. ifty-six
years old, but an energetic, vigilant,
Gagle-eyed, and a rough-and-ready war
rior. II La Toilette ever should hap
pen TO be President. no less a man than
HOuser will manage the patronage of
the Post-ofice Department and be the
eyes and ears of the White House and
:he administration.
Indeed Houser is a national character
already. He has been directing the La
Toilette operations in every State in the
Union And he is neither a diIettante
nor mollycoddle, but a seasoned old
stager who has been secretary OF state
In Wisconsin and a clerk around the
legislature for a quarter Of century.
His home is i'm Mondovi, near the Mime
sofa line where he owns a farm and a
newspaper.
The Mails Groan with Literature.
At present his offices are in Washing
ton. and many girls are ''pamphleteeing"
the country, as the Senator himself
would say. therefrom. Millions OF print
cd speeches and biographies are filling
postal cars East and West kilograms
are pouring in. Scissors are shearing
clippings from the daily press. The clat-
ter of typewriters sounds like a hail
storm on a roof of tin. Meanwhile, Mr..
Houser sits in a secluded room by him.
self. but the end of every rope and every
wire rests on his desk.
Naturally. Houser is interesting. Hel
has csmpaigned with Ia Toilette since |
1874 They came together by mutual at ]
traction. each pledged to deprive legisIa- |
tors Of free railroad transportation and
the franks of express and telegraph cor
porations. Houser had been writing down
such picayune bribery. la Toilette had
begun to preach against il. So the con-
nection was Established Ethical at first, !
II grew to be personal Houser has |
gone through La FolIette's life and men
tal processes many time with torch
and a microscope. Bob is a human be-
ing like the rest OF us. he SAID 10 me-
but he declined to attach another clause
20 the sentence. His explorations and
examinations, therefore, must remain
secret. --.
Also Houser is a study. Temperament |
ally he is Unconditional The: same can /
be said of La Toilette, who has more
temper than feeling. Selling goods,
casting up interest. and running. for Of
fee cannot be successfully dcne amid
an outflow or an outbrust Of sentiment. /
business Is business. There was time /
when Houser knew ali the grafters in
Wisconsin, by sight and reputation. Such
information dIminlshes some OF the sun
shine and much OF the confidence which
ordinarily cheers the reflections OF the
Innocent. Hence. logically. the burden
OF his knowledge has made Houser
serious man-knowledge at home where
Inlqulty, q Is hoped. has been statuted
out OF existence ana knowledge abroad
where inlquity WIN abound 30 long as
Ia Foliette IL not President stu
Hohser h up 20 snuff IN the political
game and can look one way and believe
another without Jarring HIS machinery.
Ho has heen out IN the world since the
aro % thirteen. Ia FoIlcfte ran q farm
% 80 acres when he was fourteen.
Boys beginning that early learn the
open and hidden currents q mankind.
prsrtiualiy and accutely
printss, Baisss. sna Lawyer.
n uas a River Talia. q hamlef on