THIRD-PARTY IDEOLOGIES 355 



flapped together. Workingmen in Sr:. Paul and Duluth and Minneapolis 

 were just as emphatic in registering their verdict against the Republican 

 party as were the grumbling farmers in the interior of the State." 2 



New fuel was added to the third-party flame by pronouncements that 

 were made by La Follette shortly before his departure for Europe. This 

 was late in July, 1923, less than two weeks after the Johnson victory in 

 Minnesota. La Follette told a group of forty newspapermen that there 

 would be a third party in 1924 if the two major parties nominated reac- 

 tionaries, but if one of the parties nominated a liberal and the other a 

 conservative, the need for a new party would diminish. If both parties did 

 the unexpected and nominated liberals, the need for a new party would 

 vanish. "Parties," said La Follette, "are not organized and made effective 

 by resolutions passed by gentlemen who think there should be new parties. 

 They come in response to public needs and public demands: they grow, 

 they are developed. That rule will govern the question of a third party 

 next year." La Follette, also true to the progressive tradition, minimized 

 the interest of the American people in foreign affairs. He said that the 

 people were chiefly interested in the problems that faced them at home 

 and not in such issues as the League of Nations and the World Court. 30 

 No doubt the fact that La Follette had never been abroad before added to 

 his insular approach. 



His trip to Europe, the first in his long career, was expected to give 

 him a first-hand opportunity to study the cooperative movement and labor 

 conditions in Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, England, and several 

 other countries. He was not expected to visit Russia, presumably because 

 of the brevity of his trip. Upon his return, he was to take the stump again 

 in behalf of the progressive cause. 31 



The Minnesota Farmer-Laborites, their appetites whetted by the vic- 

 tories of Shipstead and again by Johnson, accelerated the La Follette boom 

 in November of 1923. This latest farmer-labor conference had been called 

 together by Henry Teigan, the secretary of Magnus Johnson, and William 

 Mahoney, a veteran St. Paul labor leader. The conference drew up resolu- 

 tions that urged the Wisconsin senator to head a "Farmer-Labor National 



29. Ibid., July 19, 1923. 



30. Baltimore Sun, July 28, 1923. 



31. Capital Times (Madison, Wis.), July 27, 1923. 



