The Lamar register. [volume] (Lamar, Colo.) 1889-1952, 1915-11-17
SPENT 5000 ON LA FOLLETEE
THEN HE TURNED
Lumber King Says Senator Changed
Because of Refusal to Give
S25O,000 to Presidential
Candidacy

Washington, November l4.-At the
age of SO years, former Senator Isaac
Stephenson, one of the last Of Wis
consin's lumber kings, has issued a
volume of recollections. His me-
moirs, for the first time, bare the sec
rets of his relations with Robert NJ.
La Toilette and with the tumultuous
political movement within that state
which resulted in the genesis Of the
Wisconsin idea"
Senator Stephenson discloses the de-
tails Of his financing Of La Follette's
political ambition and lays before his
friends all the facts which he stead
fastly refused to give out when La
Toilette turned on him and attempted
to oust him from the United States
senate because he had spent more
than 100000 in his campaign for
election to that body.
The venerable former senator re-
lates how he spent more than $780,
900" on La Toilette and his political
lieutenants and how he had eontribut-
ed probably $1,OOO,0OO to the republi-
can party He describes La Toilette
weeping with joy when his (Stephen-
son's) agent handed over the first
s25OO.
Senator Stephenson makes the in
teresting disclosure that La Toilette
turned on him, finally trying to have
him removed from the senate, soon
after he refused to put up $25O,OOO
to back La Follette's candidacy for
the presidential nomination. Senator
Stephenson does not seek to connect
the two events or to draw and deduc-
tion from them. He merely states
them as facts.
How the movement for the Wiscon-
sin idea began, how the half breed"
factions within the republican party
came into being as the controlling po-
litical power and how La Toilette rode
the crest of the wave of popularity
as Battling Bob"-all these are told
in Senator Stephenson's valedictory
Of his long political career a veledic-
tory which he has prepared only for
distribution among his friends
Ever since the progressive move
ment in Wisconsin set the pace for
other states, the methods by which it
gained its impetus have remained a
mystery Politicians generally believ-
ed that Senator Stephenson, whose
wealth had enabled him to make gen
erous contributions to the republican
party, knew the inside" facts. But
he did not break the silence until his
term of office had expired last March.
and he had definitely decided to turn
his back upon the tumult of politics.
According to Senator Stephenson's
narrative, the campaigns of the half
breeds" or progressive republicans Of
Wisconsin, long supposed to have
derived their power entirely from the
spontaneous uprising of the people
against the bosses, did not differ
greatly from other campaigns. Nor
were the progressive battles won by
the brilliant leadership Of Battling
Bob" any more than are the battles
of the European war won by the gen
erals. In the Wisconsin campaign,
as in warfare, it seems to have been
largely a question of ammunition.
While Senator La Toilette was work
ing zealously on the firing line, Isaac
Stephenson in the background was
keeping the bases intact and by fire.
quent drafts upon his check book pro-
viding the weapons with which the
old order in the republican party
was overthrown and the new estab-
lish.
For almost seventy years" says
Senator Stephenson in his autobiog !