Evening star., 1925-05-28
RIFT IN WISCONSIN
PLEASING TO c. 0. P.
Leaders See La Toilette Ma.
| chine Threatened by In
[ ternaI DiSSenSiOn.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Coolidge administration leaders and
Republican managers in Washington
are rejoicing over the news from Wis
consin that discloses bitter strife with
. in the La Toilette organization. For
the first time since the Progressive
generalissimo has controlled G. o. p.
politics i'll his State his hitherto in
vincible machine is threatened with
disruption from within. Word re-
ceived at the Capital indicates that
there seems at last a chance of bring
ing Wisconsin definitely back into
the regular Republican fold.
The immediate result of diScord in
"Fighting Bob's" camp is the prob
ability that it assumes the re-elec-
tion of Senator Irvine l.. Lenroot. ad-
ministration Republican, in 1926. La
Toilette has long set his heart on ac-
complishing Lenroot's defeat Had
the junior Senator come up for re-
election in 1922 or 1924, his friends
ARE confident he would have been
overthrown.
Now, thanks to a furious row that
has broken out among La Follette's
State officials, the Progressive cohorts
are split into two factions. The present
outlook is that instead of being op-
posed in the senatorial primaries only
by Gov. John J. Blaine, as the official
La Toilette candidate, Lenroot will
have against him both Blaine and an
independent La Toilette" candidate.
This will divide the La Toilette vote
and prospectively give Lenroot an
easy victory.
Early in May Gov. Blaine, for years
a stanch supporter of La Toilette and
a political factor through his grace,
was revealed in revolt by the action of
w. Stanley Smith. Blaines State in
surance commissioner. Smith made
sensational charges against Herman L.
Ekern, attorney general of the State,
who is Senator La Follette's personal
political lieutenant. He alleged that
while officially intrusted with the en-
forcement of Wisconsin's insurance
laws Ekern was on the pay roll of GER
tain insurance companies.
Income tax returns, for the publicity
of which La Folletteites stand, We're
invoked to substantiate Smiths
charges.
Charged Now Probed.
The insurance commissioner specifi-
cally accused Attorney General Ekern
of lobbying on behalf of insurance in
terests in connection with the bill be-
fore the legislature for recodifcation
of the insurance laws. The allega-
lions against the La Toilette chieftain
mittee of the Wisconsin Senate.
In the midst of the squabble between
Gov. Blaine'S insurance commissioner
and La Follette'S political representa-
tive, the Wisconsin Secretary of State
zimmerman, Waded into the fray,
Zimmerman is a La Toilette loyalist.
In public statement he attacked
Gov. Blaine as "a malign influence"
in the life of Wisconsin. This has
materially haicb+ana1 he of
the Blaine Smith faction of the Pro
GresstVe organization against the ele-
ment which remains faithful to
La Toilette.
Apart from this feud in the party
that for years has held the fort in
Wisconsin, the La Follette-controlled
State Legislature recently enacted tax
laws that have seriously depopularized
the Progressive cause. The laws hit
both the rich man and the little fell
low harder than either has ever been
hit before. The result is that the prop
ertied classes and the proletariat alike
have harsh words for the reaction
ary" La Toilette leadership that sad
died them with these burdens Ac-
cordinS to reports brought to Wash
ington, the State will express itself
in emphatic terms when the 1926 con-
gresSional elections afford the next
opportunity to pass judgment on La
Folletteism.
A delegation from the Hamilton
Club Of Milwaukee, the leading Re-
publican regular organization in Wis
consin, called at the White House the
other day and reported the new state
of affairs there. They declared it would
be an appropriate moment for Presi-
dent Coolidge to make a speech in
Wisconsin.
1t was represented that such q visit
Rt this particular juncture would
drive d useful nail in what G.. O. P.
regulars hope may turn out to be the
coffin of the La Toilette organiza-
ton. To that end President Cool
idge was urged to tarry in Milwaukee
on his way to or from st. Paul in
June. Whi1 the Republican COM
mander-in-chief learned with interest
of conditions in Wisconsin, he told
the MilWaukeeans he must adhere to
his purpose of a nonstop flight to
Minnesota and back.
La Follette's hold on Wisconsin is
still strong, but no longer considered
10y Republican managers to be un-
breakable. He beat Coolidge in 1924
by 142 900 votes, as against the major
-ity of 2S8,000 by which he was re-
elected to the United States Senate
over three rivals in 1922.