The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1938-06-02

well versed with official Washington,
is the logical National Progressive
candidate. But the brothers recog-
nize that Bob is the politician and
legislator while Phil is an execu-
tive.
This is a queer trick of fate be-
cause old Bob LaFollette intended
that his namesake should carry on
the family tradition. Young Bob
went to Washington Immediately
after he finished college and became
his fathers secretary. In 1924 he
managed the LaFollette presidential
campaign and found himself in the
heat of politics while brother Phil
was twiddling his thumbs.
Phil once thought of entering the
ministry. His wise old father dis
couraged him from politics but his
heart was in it. In 1924, at the ripe
age of twenty-seven, he ran for dis
trict attorney of Dane county, de-
ivering not single speech for HIM
self because the elder LaFollette
needed his help in the presidential
campaign. But Phil won.
Wisconsin's Wonder Boy.
The next year his father died and
PhiPs ambitions were nipped in the
bud when young Bob assembled to
the senate. 1t looked like a politi-
cal fade-out but Phil won the Re-
publican nomination for governor
in 1890 and has been at Madison
for three terms since.
Wisconsin's allegiance to the La
Toilette tradition is a thing of Won
der. In November, 1928, young Bob
came up for election the first time
and was sent back to the senate
with plurality of 100000 Yet Wis
consin gave it's electoral vote that
year to Herbert Hoover, for whom
the LaFollettes had said not single
good word.
Governor Phil is by no means an
idol with his constituents. The past
two years have seen many scraps
from which he has emerged VIC
torious but badly scratched. In most
of these he has shown a judgment
for diplomacy that would credit any
President. One of his accomplish
ments was legislative enactment of
a governmental reorganization bill,
the same stumbling block over
which President Roosevelt tripped
last winter.
Trigger" La Toilette.
The governors private life and
hobbies account for much of his pop
ular appeal. He is a devotee of
Americana of the Sam Houston Pc
riod and is also a student of Ma
poleon.
His quick-on-the-trigger aptitude
in speech-making wins him many
converts. Never caught short, he
faced a momentary crisis when ad-
dressing crowd of Farmer-Labor-
ties in Iowa few weeks ago. A
bench collapsed noisily, spilling it's
occupants to the ground.
THAT" cracked Phil, ''must have
been the Democratic or Republican
platform
The next few months may see
Governor Phil and Senator Bob car
rying their National Progressive
party to the nation. The two broth
ers never disagree on major points,
so Americas farmers, laboring men
and small business men are apt to
be offered two Messiahs instead of
one, each preaching the same politi-
cal doctrine.
To them may fall the task of &C.
menting our growing crop of NAL
contents into a unified political
group, of soothing Labor's quarrels
with the farmer and the corner gro
Gerry man. To their flag may rally
strange mixture of men and wom-
en-, disillusioned followers of de-
feated third party movements.
But Phil will be the dominant La
Toilette, a dynamic crusader in
whom more than one aging Pro-
gressive will see carbon copy of
old Fighting Bob LaFollette, the
man who wanted his son to be
minister.
G Western Newspaper Union.