Background
He was born February 6, 1895, in Madison, Wisconsin, United States, United States.
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Robert M. La Follette Jr.
Edit ProfileEducation
He attended the University of Wisconsin – Madison from 1913 to 1917 but he did not graduate because of illness. (He received the honorary degree of LL. D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1938. ) The same illness kept him out the military during World War I.
Career
In 1919 became secretary to his father, who was then a United States senator. On his father's death in 1925, he was elected to the Senate in his place and served until 1946.
As senator, La Follette was one of the prominent insurgent Republicans. He secured the abolition of secret sessions for the consideration of executive appointments, was a leader in the fight on the Smoot-Hawley tariff, and worked for an unemployment program and a reformed Federal tax system. In the 1930's he headed the important Senate Civil Liberties Committee, which investigated interferences with the rights of labor. He favored modernizing Congressional procedures.
In foreign policy La Follette was generally isolationist; he opposed the World Court, attacked the arms expansion program of the Roosevelt administration, fought the repeal of the arms embargo, and opposed extension of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act. Defeated for reelection in 1946, he opened an office in Washington as an economic adviser to business concerns. In July 1946 he was appointed by President Truman as a member of a nonpartisan committee to study the foreign aid problem. On Feb. 19, 1948, he was named to the Hoover Commission on efficiency in government.
Achievements
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La Follette was one of the Senate's leading isolationists and helped found the America First Committee in 1940. He helped to draft and win passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 that modernized the legislative process in Congress.
He received Collier's Magazine award for outstanding public service in 1947.
Politics
When The Wisconsin Progressive Party dissolved, La Follette returned to the Republican Party in 1946.
Connections
He married Rachel Wilson Young in 1930; they had two children, Joseph Oden La Follette and Bronson Cutting La Follette.
References
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Born
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Died
February 24, 1953 (aged 58) -
Resting place
Forest Hill Cemetery, Madison, Wisconsin, United States -
Nationality
American -
Political Party
Republican party