This site contains the content and additional information for the 175th Anniversary of Dane County display at the Dane County Regional Airport. Content was created by the Dane County Historical Society.

 

Robert M. La Follette - “Fighting Bob” (1855-1925)

A native son of Dane County, Robert Marion La Follette was born in rural Primrose Township on June 14, 1855.

Young Bob attended country school and the public school in nearby Argyle.  Early on he had aspirations of attending the University of Wisconsin.  Selling part of the farm allowed the family to move to Madison where La Follette enrolled in a college prep academy.  This prepared him to enter the U.W. as a sub-freshman in the fall of 1875.  The UW enrollment at the time was 345 students.

La Follette was a very social young man who delighted in playing pranks on his classmates, many of whom came from similar farm backgrounds but aspired to engage in respectable middle class occupations upon graduation.  Bob became involved with the student newspaper, The University Press, and in his junior and senior years became its owner.  He joined the Literary Society and became an excellent debater.  As a member of the Athenian Society, he competed in the interstate oratorical contest and took first place as the best in the Midwest.

Bob’s academic records were not as inspiring.  As graduation neared a classmate related, “He is hanging on by the skin of his teeth.”  University President John Bascom cast the deciding vote and Robert La Follette received his B.S. degree in June of 1879.  With diploma in hand he became determined to become “A lawyer -- a good lawyer.”  Bob applied himself and passed the bar exam in February of 1880.

An opportunity to acquire a paying job presented itself and La Follette entered the race for Dane County District Attorney on the Republican ticket.  He won his first political election.

In 1884, at age 29, La Follette moved up the political ladder and ran for the District’s Republican Congressional seat.  A position he won and held until 1891 where upon the La Follette family left Washington D.C. and returned to Madison.  Bob returned to practicing law. 

Bob soon became aware of how dishonest politics had become in Wisconsin.  He set his sights on becoming the state’s governor.  He traveled around the state over the next several years speaking out against dishonest politicians and corruption in state government.  La Follette ran for governor three times before finally being elected in 1900. 

La Follette began the task of restoring self-government to the state.  He initiated the primary election law and the equitable railroad taxation reform.  He worked aggressively to combat the system of conventions and caucuses which had become synonymous with “bossism” and machine rule.

The progressive program was built from diverse elements: university intellectuals, farming groups, urban workers and many others.  These elements were cemented by the personality and inspiration of “Fighting Bob” La Follette.  The resulting social and economic reforms have become known as the Wisconsin Idea.  The Wisconsin Idea was that efficient government required control of institutions by the voters rather than special interests, and that the involvement of specialists in law, economics, and social and natural sciences would produce the most effective government.  This “idea” was eventually copied by other state governments. 

In 1905 the Wisconsin state legislature in a joint session selected a successor to U. S. Senator Joseph V. Quarles’ expiring term by electing “Fighting Bob” to office.  La Follette did not immediately resign as governor but pushed through some unfinished issues before being sworn in as Wisconsin’s Jr. Senator in 1906.

As U.S. Senator, La Follette made his mark early by initiating a number of his progressive ideas for consideration.  Once again his oratorical abilities produced results.  His pacifist position on non-involvement in World War I placed him in an unpopular position during the war.

In 1924, in disagreement with the positions of the both the Democratic and Republican parties, Bob La Follette formed the Progressive Party and put in his bid to run for President.  He lost the 1924 presidential election, but received nearly five million popular votes.

By that time, La Follette’s health had been failing for several months and on January 18, 1925, at 70 years of age, he died at his home in Washington D.C.

 

 

Updated May 16, 2011