EXPANSION AND DECLINE 211 



have a new party. I know that he was intensely interested in the convention of 

 the forty-eighters in Chicago last summer, and was ready to head the new party 

 as its candidate. This was conditioned upon the adoption of a platform acceptable 

 to the Senator. You know the results of this convention, and I believe a splendid 

 opportunity for the foundation of a new party was lost. 65 



Somewhat typical of the division existing among liberal groups was 

 the situation then prevailing in Wisconsin. Pladsen, in writing to Teigan, 

 described it quite accurately: 



There is a meeting to be held in Madison tomorrow called by the People's 

 Reconstruction League; La Follette is slated to speak there. With this People's 

 Reconstruction League and the United Farmers of America, Farm Bureau, 

 La Follette Progressive League, and the Equity Society, putting on a member- 

 ship drive together with some little organization here in Dane County known 

 as the Tax-Payers League, and considerable talk about organization work by 

 the Farmer-Labor Party, it will be a matter of running the gauntlet between all 

 these different organizations. 66 



Equally discouraging to the League in Wisconsin was "the extremely 

 reactionary attitudes of the administration. It is beginning to seep through 

 into the consciousness of the people at large, the real League members 

 and progressives, that the speech that a certain gentleman made last 

 summer with reference to the Non-Partisan League program, 'I stand 

 with both feet upon that program' was mere political camouflage." 67 

 The conservatism of the state administration reflected the views of a sub- 

 stantial portion of the population. League officials pointed out that "con- 

 ditions in the northwest part of the state are better than over in the lake 

 shore district." 68 



Briefly, it can be stated that La Follette, like many other liberal leaders, 

 looked upon the League as a rival. Congressman }. H. Sinclair of North 

 Dakota informed Teigan: "The Senator takes a broad national view of 

 the whole progressive movement, and feels that a greater cooperation 

 should be had among the various progressive groups ... he hopes that the 



65. Zumach to Teigan, February 16, 1921. 



66. Pladsen to Teigan, March 24, 1921. 



67. Pladsen to Teigan, June 24, 1921. 



68. Teigan to Pladsen, June 27, 1921; Pladsen to Teigan, June 24, 1921. 



