Evening star., 1925-07-09
Wisconsin Firmly Progressive
If AmbitiOns Do Not Clash
State, Taught Political Economy by La
Toilette, Viii Adhere to His Doc
trines If Not to His aides.

house.
On the expectation that these
aspirations and enmities carry within
them the seeds of Progressive dis
ruption the Wisconsin conservatives
pin their fondest hopes. They count,
too. on the States cumulative realiza-
ton that the age of radicalism is
gone and that vagaries such as those
La Toilette latterly espoused-Gov-
ernment ownership, Supreme Court
reform and other extreme panaceas-
have discredited the whole Progress
sive movement. The Republicans
who hope to bring Wisconsin back
into the regular fold also bank heavily
on the newest tax legislation passed
by the La Toilette State Legislature.
By requiring the people to. pay both
income and personal property taxes
and doing away with a former off
set" between those levies the manu-
facturers, merchants and small bust
ness men have been hard hit. The
farmer and the wage Garner are cor
respondingly relieved. The net re
suit. Republican conservatives allege,
is wholesale and unprecedented un-
popularity for the Progressive's fiscal
system.
Could La Toilette have done such a
thing, he would almost certainly have
designated Attorney General Ekern
as his heir apparent. No one was
politically closer to Fighting Bob"
than this Morse lawyer. who once was
speaker of the Wisconsin House and
has built up a lucrative private prac-
tice as an attorney for mutual insur-
ance societies. There is no dispar-
agement of Young Bob" La Toilette
in that thought. The devotion be
tween father and son is tradition
in Wisconsin. If Young Bob" is a
candidate in the special election to
name a successor for his father he
will take TO the polls all the love and
all the faith that Wisconsin lavished
upon the elder La Toilette. That
would be so in perhaps even greater
degree If Mrs. La Toilette, the Sena-
tors widow. should be the candidate.
Although Wisconsin would not turn
against them. one encounters in the
State fundamental objections to either
Young Bob" or his mother as the
titular leader Of Progressivism. The
son Is young. and, despite the unique
training received at his fathers elbow,
is not regarded sufficiently seasoned
to command the Progressive army
Nor is Wisconsin assured that a man
of 80 is the type of representative
that 1t ought to have in the United
States Senate, even If his name is La
Toilette.
Mrs. La Toilette an Intellectual.
On the other hand, Mrs. La Fol-
lette is old-she was her husbands
Junior by 'only four years. Her in
tellectual capacity is admitted on all
hands. Like the Senator, she was
graduated from the University OF
Wisconsin Law School, is deep stu
dent of public affairs, and has be-
come skilled politician through life
partnership with her distinguished
consort. But neither the youth of
Young Bob nor the age of his
mother. will initiate against them II
they feel the late Senator's place
should be taken by one OF them. Wis
consin might deplore their decision,
but there would be no sentiment for
opposing it. The La Follettes can
have what they want. The pertinent
point in all this is that the La Fol
lette fetish is still all potent 1t may
not always be. but 1t is now ANY
man or men who attempt to hout it
will do so at their political peril.
VIII Open Field Wide.
If the La Toilette family relin-
quishes its claim on Progressive
honors, the field will automatically be
wide open for others. Therein lies
the danger of split and strife in the
party's ranks. The peril is obvious,
and no effort will be spared to avert
1t. One way of doing so is commonly
discussed in Madison. The com
promise scheme. whereby the worst is
to be avoided. provides for the
nomination of Young Bob" for the
unexpired La Toilette term in the
Senate, for the nomination of Gov.
Blaine s the Progressive candidate
against Senator Lenroot in 1926, and
for the nomination of Attorney Gen
eral Ekern for the governorship next
year. If this slate can be put
through. Wisconsin Progressives are
confident that harmony and unity
can be preserved. But sooner or
later the issue of the supreme COM
mand will have to be fought out.
The interval will provide ample op-
portunity for the clashing of am
bitions, and, as the conservatives
reckon, for ultimate Progressive
disunion.
1t is on these shifting sands that
the regular Republican orga nization,
State and national, is building. The
elections of 1926 will provide the test.
and show whether the hopes of
Messrs. Coolidge, Butler, Lenroot, ct
al, are destined to be realized or
wrecked. Even the most ardent
Progressives recognize the strength
both of the President and of Senator
Lenroot, Coolidge gave La Toilette
the most desperate battle of the lat
ter's whole career in 1924. Since then
the Presidents stock, as elsewhere in
the West, has risen appreciably. 1t
is common in Wisconsin to hear that
Coolidge is far stronger in the State
today than when he was elected
eight months ago. His invasion of
the Scandinavian belt in June had
visibly favorable effect in Wiscon-
sin, which, like Minnesota and the
Dakotas, is inhabited by hundreds of
thousands of Norsemen.
Lenroot Safe I'm Esteem.
Senator Lenroot is we'll intrenched
in the public esteem of his State.
He is considered by doctrinaire
Progressives to have strayed treason
ably from off their reservation. where
he once served under La Toilette, but
he has acquired wide prestige among
the voters at large. Even if the full
Progressive strength is modified
against him next year and behind
Gov. Blaine, II. will be exceedingly
difficult to unhorse Lenroot. For one
thing, the Progressives know that the
full and formidable power of the
Coolidge administration will be at
Lenroot's back. Blaines friends do
not underestimate the effectiveness of
such support, especially as they
realize the desperate efforts that will
be. made to give La Folletteism a
knock-out blow.
Gov. Blaine is not as high as he
used to be in the graces of Progressive
stalwarts. They accuse him of self
seeking at the expense of the move
ment," and that is tantamount to
Progressive high treason. But Blaine
is audacious as well as ambitious. He
is in his third term as governor and
commands an immense personal ma