[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 65 (Thursday, April 30, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4969-S4971]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. FEINGOLD (for himself, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Kohl, and Mr. 
        Reid):
  S. 945. A bill to require the Secretary of the Treasury to mint coins 
in commemoration of Robert M. La Follette, Sr., in recognition of his 
important contributions to the Progressive movement, the State of 
Wisconsin, and the United States; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, 
and Urban Affairs.
  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I wish today to honor the extraordinary 
life of Robert M. La Follette Sr. This weekend, people around my home 
State of Wisconsin, the U.S. and the world will celebrate the 100th 
anniversary of the Progressive Magazine, which was founded by Bob La 
Follette and his wife Belle Case La Follette. The Progressive has been 
a powerful force for change and a leading advocate for civil rights, 
civil liberties, women's rights, clean Government, and many other 
priorities since its inception 100 years ago.
  Throughout his life, La Follette was known for his diligent service 
to the people of Wisconsin and to the people of the U.S. His dogged, 
full-steam-ahead approach to his life's work earned him the nickname 
``Fighting Bob.''
  Robert Marion La Follette, Sr., was born on June 14, 1855, in 
Primrose, a small town southwest of Madison in Dane County. He 
graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1879 and, 
after being admitted to the State bar, began his long career in public 
service as Dane County district attorney.

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  La Follette was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1884, 
and he served three terms as a member of that body, where he was a 
member of the Ways and Means Committee.
  After losing his campaign for reelection in 1890, La Follette 
returned to Wisconsin and continued to serve the people of my State as 
a judge. Upon his exit from Washington DC, a reporter wrote, La 
Follette ``is popular at home, popular with his colleagues, and popular 
in the House. He is so good a fellow that even his enemies like him.''
  He was elected the 20th Governor of Wisconsin in 1900. He served in 
that office until 1906, when he stepped down in order to serve the 
people of Wisconsin in the U.S. Senate, where he remained until his 
death in 1925.
  A founder of the national progressive movement, La Follette 
championed progressive causes as governor of Wisconsin and in the U.S. 
Congress. As governor, he advanced an agenda that included the 
country's first workers compensation system, direct election of U.S. 
Senators, and railroad rate and tax reforms. Collectively, these 
reforms would become known as the ``Wisconsin Idea.'' As governor, La 
Follette also supported cooperation between the State and the 
University of Wisconsin.
  His terms in the House of Representatives and the Senate were spent 
fighting for women's rights, working to limit the power of monopolies, 
and opposing pork barrel legislation. La Follette also advocated 
electoral reforms, and he brought his support for the direct election 
of U.S. Senators to this body. His efforts were brought to fruition 
with the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913. Fighting 
Bob also worked tirelessly to hold the Government accountable, and was 
a key figure in exposing the Teapot Dome Scandal.
  La Follette earned the respect of such notable Americans as Frederick 
Douglass, Booker T. Washington and Harriet Tubman Upton for making 
civil rights one of his trademark issues. At a speech before the 1886 
graduating class of Howard University, La Follette said, ``We are one 
people, one by truth, one almost by blood. Our lives run side by side, 
our ashes rest in the same soil. [Seize] the waiting world of 
opportunity. Separatism is snobbish stupidity, it is supreme folly, to 
talk of non-contact, or exclusion!''
  La Follette ran for President three times, twice as a Republican and 
once on the Progressive ticket. In 1924, as the Progressive candidate 
for president, La Follette garnered approximately 17 percent of the 
popular vote and carried the State of Wisconsin.
  La Follette's years of public service were not without controversy. 
In 1917, he filibustered a bill to allow the arming of U.S. merchant 
ships in response to a series of German submarine attacks. His 
filibuster was successful in blocking passage of this bill in the 
closing hours of the 64th Congress. Soon after, La Follette was one of 
only 6 Senators who voted against U.S. entry into World War I.
  Fighting Bob was outspoken in his belief that the right to free 
speech did not end when war began. In the fall of 1917, La Follette 
gave a speech about the war in Minnesota, and he was misquoted in press 
reports as saying that he supported the sinking of the Lusitania. The 
Wisconsin State Legislature condemned his supposed statement as 
treason, and some of La Follette's Senate colleagues introduced a 
resolution to expel him. In response to this action, he delivered his 
seminal floor address, ``Free Speech in Wartime,'' on October 6, 1917. 
If you listen closely, you can almost hear his strong voice echoing 
through this chamber as he said: ``Mr. President, our government, above 
all others, is founded on the right of the people freely to discuss all 
matters pertaining to their government, in war not less than in peace, 
for in this government, the people are the rulers in war no less than 
in peace.''
  Of the expulsion petition filed against him, La Follette said:

       I am aware, Mr. President, that in pursuance of this 
     general campaign of vilification and attempted intimidation, 
     requests from various individuals and certain organizations 
     have been submitted to the Senate for my expulsion from this 
     body, and that such requests have been referred to and 
     considered by one of the Committees of the Senate.
       If I alone had been made the victim of these attacks, I 
     should not take one moment of the Senate's time for their 
     consideration, and I believe that other Senators who have 
     been unjustly and unfairly assailed, as I have been, hold the 
     same attitude upon this that I do. Neither the clamor of the 
     mob nor the voice of power will ever turn me by the breadth 
     of a hair from the course I mark out for myself, guided by 
     such knowledge as I can obtain and controlled and directed by 
     a solemn conviction of right and duty.

  This powerful speech led to a Senate investigation of whether La 
Follette's conduct constituted treason. In 1919, following the end of 
World War I, the Senate dropped its investigation and reimbursed La 
Follette for the legal fees he incurred as a result of the expulsion 
petition and corresponding investigation. This incident is indicative 
of Fighting Bob's commitment to his ideals and of his tenacious spirit.
  La Follette died on June 18, 1925, in Washington, DC, while serving 
Wisconsin in this body. His daughter noted, ``His passing was 
mysteriously peaceful for one who had stood so long on the battle 
line.'' Mourners visited the Wisconsin Capitol to view his body, and 
paid respects in a crowd nearing 50,000 people. La Follette's son, 
Robert M. La Follette, Jr., was elected to serve in the U.S. Senate 
after his father's death and served in this body for more than 20 
years, following the progressive path blazed by his father.
  La Follette has been honored a number of times for his unwavering 
commitment to his ideals and for his service to the people of Wisconsin 
and of the United States.
  During the 109th Congress, I was proud to support Senate passage of a 
bill introduced in the House of Representatives by Congresswoman Tammy 
Baldwin that named the post office at 215 Martin Luther King, Jr., 
Boulevard in Madison in La Follette's honor. I commend Congresswomen 
Baldwin for her efforts to pass that bill and I am pleased she is 
introducing House companion measures of the legislation I am 
introducing today in the Senate.
  The Library of Congress recognized La Follette in 1985 by naming the 
Congressional Research Service reading room in the Madison Building in 
honor of both Fighting Bob and his son, Robert M. La Follette, Jr., for 
their shared commitment to the development of a legislative research 
service to support the U.S. Congress. In his autobiography, Fighting 
Bob noted that, as governor of Wisconsin, he ``made it a . . . policy 
to bring all the reserves of knowledge and inspiration of the 
university more fully to the service of the people. . . . Many of the 
university staff are now in state service, and a bureau of 
investigation and research established as a legislative reference 
library . . . has proved of the greatest assistance to the legislature 
in furnishing the latest and best thought of the advanced students of 
government in this and other countries.'' He went on to call this 
service ``a model which the federal government and ultimately every 
state in the union will follow.'' Thus, the legislative reference 
service that La Follette created in Madison served as the basis for his 
work to create the Congressional Research Service at the Library of 
Congress.

  The La Follette Reading Room was dedicated on March 5, 1985, the 
100th anniversary of Fighting Bob being sworn in for his first term as 
a Member of Congress.
  Across the magnificent Capitol in National Statuary Hall, Fighting 
Bob is forever immortalized in white marble, still proudly representing 
the state of Wisconsin. His statue resides in the Old House Chamber, 
now known as National Statuary Hall, among those of other notable 
figures who have made their marks in American history. One of the few 
seated statues is that of Fighting Bob. Though he is sitting, he is 
shown with one foot forward, and one hand on the arm of his chair, as 
if he is about to leap to his feet and begin a robust speech.
  When then-Senator John F. Kennedy's 5-member Special Committee on the 
Senate Reception Room chose La Follette as one of the ``Five 
Outstanding Senators'' whose portraits would hang outside of this 
chamber in the Senate reception room, he was described as being a 
``ceaseless battler for the underprivileged'' and a ``courageous 
independent.'' Today, his painting still hangs just outside this 
chamber, where it bears witness to the proceedings of this body--and, 
perhaps, challenges his successors here to continue fighting for the 
social and government reforms he championed.
  To honor Robert M. La Follette, Sr., during the week of the 
anniversary of

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the Progressive Magazine, today I am introducing two pieces of 
legislation. I am pleased to be joined in this effort by the senior 
Senator from Wisconsin, Senator Kohl and the senior Senator from 
Massachusetts, Senator Kennedy.
  I am introducing a bill that would direct the Secretary of the 
Treasury to mint coins to commemorate Fighting Bob's life and legacy. 
The second bill that I am introducing today would authorize the 
President to posthumously award a gold medal on behalf of Congress to 
Robert M. La Follette, Sr. The minting of a commemorative coin and the 
awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal would be fitting tributes to 
the memory of Robert M. La Follette, Sr., and to his deeply held 
beliefs and long record of service to his State and to his country. I 
hope that my colleagues will support these proposals.
  Let us never forget Robert M. La Follette, Sr.'s character, his 
integrity, his deep commitment to Progressive causes, and his 
unwillingness to waver from doing what he thought was right. The Senate 
has known no greater champion of the common man and woman, no greater 
enemy of corruption and cronyism, than ``Fighting Bob'' La Follette, 
and it is an honor to speak in the same chamber, and serve the same 
great State, as he did.
                                 ______