THIRD-PARTY IDEOLOGIES 353 



avoiding another leaderless Congress, as the Sixty-seventh Congress was, 

 or of accentuating a similar hapless demonstration. 24 



La Follette resented having his group called a bloc. It was simply men 

 from both parties who came together to discuss the issues before the nation 

 in the spirit of true progressives. To La Follette, progressivism was a 

 gradual process that avoided the extremes of conservatism and radicalism: 



Progressivism is moving forward one step at a time and dealing with specific 

 problems as they present themselves, rather than trying to formulate a panacea 

 or cure-all for the troubles of the world. 



This method of approaching great problems of government clearly distinguishes 

 the Progressives from both the revolutionists and the reactionaries. The revolu- 

 tionists are ready to tear down everything in order to apply certain formulas 

 which they have concocted. The reactionaries, whether they call themselves 

 Republicans or Democrats, are determined either to stand still or move back- 

 ward. The idea of progress checks and terrifies them. 



The Progressives . . . abhor a dictatorship of the plutocracy as much as a dicta- 

 torship of the proletariat. 25 



The next major event on the progressive agenda was the special election 

 in Minnesota in 1923 that sent Magnus Johnson, the Farmer-Laborite and 

 "a real dirt farmer," to the United States Senate to fill the unexpired term 

 of the deceased Knute Nelson. His victory gave new confidence to the 

 progressives and added to the balance-of-power tactics of the La Follette 

 bloc in the Senate. 



Johnson, a Swede by birth, was no stranger to the progressive move- 

 ment. He was "a full-fledged glass-blower" before coming to the United 

 States. For a time he worked in the lumber camps of the West and then 

 settled down to farm in Meeker County, Minnesota. He was active in the 

 Equity. He served for a time in the Minnesota legislature. In 1922 he ran 

 against J. A. O. Preus for the Republican nomination for governor and 

 came within about 14,000 votes of defeating him. 



His "strange mixture of sense and nonsense," as one observer noted, 

 lent color to the progressive movement. He spoke English with a marked 



24. "Will the 'Insurgent Tail Wag the Party Dog?' " Literary Digest, LXXXVI 

 (March 31, 1923), p. 8. 



25. Quoted in "The Progressives What They Stand For and Want," Saturday 

 Evening Post, CXCV (March 10, 1923), pp. 27, 162, 165. 



