The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-02-12
LaFoHette's Game

Senator Robert M. LaFollette is playing g
double game and dangerous one-as al
double games are.
He is gambling for the republican nomina
ton while whispering words of sympathy tC
workers and farmers, who want him to breal
clean with his party Of reaction and head
national Farmer-Labor party
In Illinois such notorious labor takers al
John H. Walker are endeavoring to organize
a movement to place him on the ticket in the
presidential primary, and the son Of the
senator, Philip LaFolette, is to speak at the
meeting where the project will be preached
as proof that the scheme has Senator LaFol.
lettes endorsement.
That LaFollette has not done his best to tear
the last rags of responsibility from the culver
ing form of the republican party is shown by
his surrender of the leadership in the Teapot
Dome expose to Senator Walsh, reactionary
democrat, after LaFollette had started the in
vestlgatlon; he has taken no prominent part
In the proceedings, but has profted from the
exposure of his rivals in both parties
If LaFollette does not intend to attempt to
salvage the wreckage of the republican party
by driving for the presidency as its candidate,
why has he not taken the greatest opportunity
ever presented to a man in public life and with
the proof of the bipartisan corruption of
American capitalist government at hand in the
oil graft exposures, called upon the masses to
desert the sinking carcasses of elephant and
donkey?
The explanation is to be found, we believe,
In the self-evident fact that LaFollette wants
to be president and is more than willing to
sabotage the mass movement Of the workers
and farmers for political independence to salts
fy his personal ambitions. He would much
prefer to be republican president, owing a
certain amount of allegiance to the respectable
mddle-class elements in the republican party
and certain amount to the capitalists of
America than to be elected president by
Farmer-Labor party, warning upon all the
privileged elements in American economic and
political life.
LaFollette is no leader of the masses. He is
a mlddle-class politician with all the weak
nesses and vacillation of his class and in our
opinion is the ideal type for the reactionaries
to use in overcoming the discredit brought
upon the republican party by their kept poll
ticians.
LaFollette in the presidential chair as the
spokesman of political party of workers and
farmers might give the working masses an
opportunity to organize their forces for a
stronger assault of American capitalism.
LaFollette elected to the presidency on the
republican ticket would be another Wilson-or
worse. His fighting qualities-considerab
in our opinion-would be used
n behalf of the employers and not of the
workers and farmers
Senator LaFollette would do we'll to con-
slider another aspect of the situation that arises
from the interest in which the workers and
farmers are watching his maneuvers. He may
lot get the republican nomination after all and
he may have some difficulty then in convincing
he militant farmers and workers of his de-
stability as their candidate on a Farmer-Labor
icket
Ut is quite possible that Senator LaFollette
S making the mistake so often made by those
Who profess great concern over the wrongs of
he masses, but who are careful never to at
ack these evils at their root-the mistake of
believing that the masses can be fooled forever
~ phrases, when they want action