POPULISM TO INSURGENCY 53 



the regular election, bound the legislature to accept the candidate desig- 

 nated by the people at the polls. Presidential preference primaries for the 

 selection of delegates to the national nominating conventions were also 

 frequently provided, particularly as a result of the candidacy of Theodore 

 Roosevelt against Taft for the Republican nomination in I9I2. 59 



Along with these efforts to promote popular government came much 

 legislation aimed at the political and economic supremacy of powerful 

 business interests, particularly the railroads. Expansion of the prerogatives 

 of railroad commissions, higher corporation taxes, maximum freight rates, 

 two-cent passenger fares, and anti-pass laws were multiplied in state after 

 state. It is no exaggeration to say that, for the most part, the peculiar hold 

 that the railroads had long had upon the political life of the region was 

 broken. Even the conservative reaction, which began in the western 

 Middle West as early as 1912, and swept numerous standpatters and 

 stalwarts back into office, was relatively unimportant, for the only way in 

 which the conservatives could retain power was to outdo the progressives 

 in their devotion to the new reforms. 60 The old Populist principle that if 

 only the people could obtain control of their government, they could 

 defend themselves adequately against the power of monopoly seemed in 

 the process of being demonstrated. 



The legacy of Populism could easily be traced also into the realm of 

 national affairs. Such reforms as came to be associated with the name of 

 Theodore Roosevelt were ardently supported by the agrarian leaders of 

 the western Middle West, and to some extent, no doubt, were inspired 

 by them. According to one enthusiast, Roosevelt was the "spokesman of 

 the people, the expression and exponent of the reform spirit, the mouth- 

 piece of an awakened conscience." 61 But the westerners wanted to go 

 much farther than Roosevelt was willing to lead. As La Follette put it, 

 "He acted upon the maxim that a half loaf is better than no bread. I be- 

 lieve that half a loaf is fatal whenever it is accepted at the sacrifice of the 

 basic principle sought to be attained." 62 The insurgent movement of the 



59. Merriam and Overaker, Primary Elections, pp. 62-63, I 4 I ~4 2 5 Wilcox, "North- 

 western Radicalism," p. 107. 



60. Ibid., pp. 110-14. 



61. Wallaces' Farmer, XXXIII (August 14, 1908), p. 976. 



62. La Follette, Autobiography, p. 388. 



