La Follette, Robert M

La Follette, Robert M(arion)

(born June 14, 1855, Primrose, Wis., U.S.—died June 18, 1925, Washington, D.C.) U.S. politician. He served as a county district attorney in Wisconsin (1880–84) and in the U.S. House of Representatives (1885–91). Advocating progressive reforms, he was elected governor of Wisconsin (1901–06). In the U.S. Senate (1906–24), he sponsored bills to restrict the power of the railroad companies. He founded La Follette's Weekly (1909) to broaden his reform movement, and he led Republican opposition to the policies of Pres. William H. Taft. He opposed U.S. entrance into World War I and policies of Pres. Woodrow Wilson that favoured big business. After the war he worked vigorously to expose corruption in government, including in the Teapot Dome scandal. As the presidential candidate of the Progressive Party in the 1924 election, he won five million votes, one-sixth of the total national vote. He died the next year; his son Robert (1895–1953) held his Senate seat from 1925 until 1947, when he was defeated by Joseph McCarthy.