Progressives in the early 1920s

The election of 1920 was a nadir for the Progressive movement. Conservatives dominated the Republicans in Congress and in the Harding administration, and conservative Democrats controlled the congressional party. The economic downturn of 1921-1922 gave Progressives hope for the future.

Progressive leaders met in Chicago on 2/21/1922 to discuss their options. Attenders included members of the Farmer-Labor Party, the Non Partisan League, and the Socialist Party, such as William Z. Foster and Morris Hillquit. The group took the name "Conference for Progressive Political Action" and initiated a series of organizational meetings of a group of 15 organizers. Some attenders favored the creation of a new party while others wanted to work within the two major parties (Des Moines Register, 2/22/1922).

The Democratic resurgence in the midterm election of 1922 further heartened the Progressives. US Sen. Robert La Follette (R-WI) was re-elected with 80% of the vote over a female Democrat, and fellow Progressive Hiram Johnson (R-CA) was re-elected with 62%. La Follette became the leader of congressional Progressives. In early 1923, Progressive Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature began to pressure La Follette to run against President Harding in the upcoming election (Appleton [WI] Post-Crescent, 2/15/1923). Attorney General Harry Daugherty also told the press that "the only opponent to President Hardi

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Progressives in the early 1920s

The election of 1920 was a nadir for the Progressive movement. Conservatives dominated the Republicans in Congress and in the Harding administration, and conservative Democrats controlled the congressional party. The economic downturn of 1921-1922 gave Progressives hope for the future.

Progressive leaders met in Chicago on 2/21/1922 to discuss their options. Attenders included members of the Farmer-Labor Party, the Non Partisan League, and the Socialist Party, such as William Z. Foster and Morris Hillquit. The group took the name "Conference for Progressive Political Action" and initiated a series of organizational meetings of a group of 15 organizers. Some attenders favored the creation of a new party while others wanted to work within the two major parties (Des Moines Register, 2/22/1922).

The Democratic resurgence in the midterm election of 1922 further heartened the Progressives. US Sen. Robert La Follette (R-WI) was re-elected with 80% of the vote over a female Democrat, and fellow Progressive Hiram Johnson (R-CA) was re-elected with 62%. La Follette became the leader of congressional Progressives. In early 1923, Progressive Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature began to pressure La Follette to run against President Harding in the upcoming election (Appleton [WI] Post-Crescent, 2/15/1923). Attorney General Harry Daugherty also told the press that "the only opponent to President Harding visible for 1924 was Senator LaFollette of Wisconsin." Harding's popularity waned until his unexpected death on 8/2/1923. Initially, conservative Republicans were unsure about Calvin Coolidge, and Wisconsin's other US Senator, Irvin Lenroot, began talking about running as a conservative against La Follette for the Republican presidential nomination in 1924 (Racine Journal Times, 8/29/1923). A month later, the first "La Follette for President" campaign buttons were produced and distributed for his potential Republican presidential campaign (Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, 9/29/1923).

The campaign buttons appeared while La Follette was in Europe on a multi-week tour. La Follette had led the movement in the Senate to recognize Lenin's government in the Soviet Union, but the trip did not go as planned. Both Lenin and Trotsky were too busy to meet with him, sending lower-level officials to serve as his guide. La Follette visited factories that were mismanaged, operating less than half time, and he noted drastic problems with the movement of goods throughout the nation. La Follette also complained that he was not provided with adequate quarters during his trip, which he considered a personal affront (Madison Capital Times, 9/29/1923; Eugene Guard, 10/18/1923). Although La Follette continued to call for recognition of the Soviet government as well as the resumption of trade, he began to look for other sources of inspiration for his economic policies.

In late 1923, it was still unclear if La Follette would run for President in 1924 as a Republican or as an independent. The Oregon Non-Partisan League met on 10/21/1923 and endorsed him for the coming campaign (Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 10/11/1923). Sen. Magnus Johnson (FL-MN) also endorsed La Follette's presidential aspirations (Los Angeles Evening Express, 10/2/1923). Then on 11/19/1923, La Follette's candidacy entered its "boom" phase when he was officially placed in contention for the Republican nomination by the county board of Clarke County, Wisconsin (Detroit Free Press, 11/20/1923). Booms were the equivalent of an exploratory period, in which meetings could be held nationwide to gauge interest in a given candidacy.

It was becoming clear that La Follette could not win the Republican presidential nomination. When Congress assembled near the end of 1923, President Coolidge gave his annual address. Coolidge's positions had not been fully known previously, and Progressive Republicans hoped he would be more centrist than Harding. Instead, Coolidge's address was more conservative than Harding. La Follette decried Coolidge's "reactionary" stances against federal ownership of mines. When the Teapot Dome scandal erupted in early 1924, La Follette was vindicated; he had raised questions about Albert Fall and these leases in 1922 only to be ignored (Cincinnati Post, 2/16/1924). Coolidge managed the Teapot Dome scandal masterfully, and Republican leaders were beginning to line up behind him for the 1924 nomination. Finally, conservative Republicans in Wisconsin decided to file candidates for delegate to the RNC pledged to Coolidge in the hopes of undermining La Follette at home (Washington Evening Star, 2/24/1924). Complicating the situation was La Follette's own health; he had contracted a cold while in France in late 1923. He arrived in Washington for the opening of Congress with a lingering illness that became a severe case of pneumonia by March 1924 (Chicago Tribune, 3/28/1924).

The first indication of La Follette's strength against Coolidge came in the Republican presidential primaries in 1924. Although unable to campaign, La Follette placed a strong second in the Republican primary in North Dakota. Coolidge placed first there with 42% to La Follette 32% and Hiram Johnson 26%. In South Dakota, La Follette stood aside to see how well Johnson could do against Coolidge, and Johnson won a narrow victory. La Follette then won the Wisconsin presidential primary with 63% of the vote. La Follette did not contest any further Republican presidential primaries in 1924, although his supporters continued to write in his name.

The Republican National Convention of 1924 was the final straw for La Follette. Wisconsin delegates were allowed to introduce a Progressive minority platform, which was considered so extreme that Wisconsin was the only state to fully support it. La Follette won 34 delegate votes for president, coming entirely from Wisconsin and North Dakota. During the vice presidential balloting, Progressives initially feared that William S. Kenyon might win and cut into the Progressive base and were relieved when Charles G. Dawes was nominated. The stage was set for La Follette to initiate his independent candidacy for president.

June 17, 1924 was a seminal day for La Follette, with two important gatherings of La Follette supporters. A group of progressives met in Cleveland and issued a call for a national convention to be held on Independence Day to nominate a progressive national ticket. In St. Paul, the Farmer Labor Party held its national convention. La Follette had asked his supporters to boycott the convention once it was clear that Lenin supporters would be admitted as delegates. An estimate of delegate strength gave La Follette 80% to 20% communist sympathizers.

The Progressive Convention

The Progressive National Convention assembled in the Municipal Auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio, on Independence Day of 1924. It had been the same venue used by the Republican National Convention. The Democratic National Convention was still deadlocked while the Progressives met. Organizers asked La Follette before the convention to state whether he would be willing to run. He replied in a lengthy address presented to the convention as it assembled that he would be willing to run on the platform that had been presented at the Republican National Convention and did not want to create a new political party. Delegates from the Socialist Party insisted that control of Congress was essential and urged the convention to move forward in establishing a Progressive Party (Chicago Tribune, 7/5/1924).

The Progressive National Convention was a brief affair. Most of its time in session was devoted to hearing speeches by various leaders. A resolution to nominate La Follette was unanimously approved. The Wisconsin platform was approved with a few minor changes including a lengthy preamble criticizing the two major parties. On the question of the vice presidency, some names were considered, but the convention authorized La Follette to choose his own running mate. When a delegate presented a plank to recognize the Soviet Union, the chairman gavelled the convention to its adjournment (Chicago Tribune, 7/6/1924).

Post-Convention

La Follette's candidacy was immediately lauded. The Socialist National Convention endorsed La Follette by a vote of 115 to 17 (Chicago Tribune, 7/8/1924). The Progressive Party planned to meet with La Follette on 7/18/1924 to discuss campaign organizations in the various states and a vice presidential nominee. La Follette first asked Justice Louis Brandeis to run for VP, but he declined. La Follette's second choice was John McSparren, the head of the Pennsylvania Grange, who also declined. Third was Burton Wheeler, a Democratic Senator who was disillusioned with the party's nomination of Davis and who had already pledged to campaign for La Follette (Chicago Tribune, 7/19/1924). In his acceptance speech, Wheeler pointed out that "liberals and progressives must flock to La Follette because between Davis and Coolidge they are disfranchised" (Chicago Tribune, 7/20/1924). Although the La Follette-Wheeler ticket is called the 1924 Progressive ticket today, newspapers overwhelmingly called it the Independent ticket in 1924.

An early discussion by La Follette's campaign staff considered what would happen if no candidate won a majority of the electoral vote. If a contingent election were to take place, La Follette needed additional support in the US House. On 7/24, the Progressive campaign identified 68 Republicans and 15 Democrats they placed on a "black list" for their supporters to recruit some one to oppose either in a late primary or in the general election (Chicago Tribune, 7/25/1924).

An early estimate of the situation appeared in the Olney [Illinois] Advocate on 7/31/1924. The paper estimated that Coolidge was leading for 168 electoral votes to 179 for Davis, 66 for La Follette, and 133 "doubtful." Interestingly, in the actual election, Davis and La Follette did not perform as well as the Advocate predicted. Coolidge eventually won all the "doubtful" states, including three with over 57% of the vote, in addition to several states the Advocate identified as leaning to Davis or La Follette.

The fall campaign unofficially began on Labor Day. La Follette pulled off an unexpected coup when he was endorsed by Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor. Gompers had been reluctant to endorse candidates previously and was increasingly bothered by the strength of the Socialist and Communists among his ranks. Some newspapers speculated that endorsing La Follette was a means of restraining the more radical elements of his organization (Chicago Tribune, 9/7/1924). At the time, La Follette was finishing up some Senatorial duties in Washington DC. He planned to leave on an extensive speaking tour on 10/1, but his son (and campaign manager) had him to wait a week to be sure that he had fully recuperated from his long illness from earlier in the year (Woodstock [Illinois] Daily Sentinel, 9/29/1924). Wheeler had already been on the stump in New England and the Mid-West.

La Follette's campaign tour left Washington DC and headed north and east first. Speaking at Scranton, Pennsylvania, he called on the US Senate to investigate Coolidge's expenditures. The next day, his speech in Newark NJ called for a new political realignment that would represent the people, not exploit them (Bloomington Pantagraph, 10/9/1924).

La Follette initiated a western campaign swing on October 11. Speaking first in Chicago, he charged the two major parties of being "manipulated by the financial powers of Wall street" and of crushing farmers and labor unions. He pledged to seek arbitration for labor disputes, aid farmers through assistance for marketing of crops, and destroy monopolies that decided what farmers and laborers would be paid (South Bend Tribune, 10/12/1924). While in Chicago, he met with campaign staff and plotted out his travels until the election. Thousands of people lined the streets of Chicago for a parade for La Follette (Des Moines Register, 10/12/1924).

In the absence of professional polling, newspapers published small advertisements that voters could cut out, indicate their presidential preference, and mail in. The numbers would be compiled daily, and the statewide totals were updated as issues were published. La Follette's campaign worked to get its supporters engaged in participating in these polls. The totals as reported on October 13 showed La Follette leading in MN, MT, NE, NV, SD, and WA (Minneapolis Star, 10/13/1924). The Literary Digest operated its own poll in the same fashion, and on 10/17 it showed Coolidge leading with 56% to La Follette with 23% and Davis with 20% (Cincinnati Enquirer, 10/17/1924). The Hearst newspaper chain calculated the potential electoral vote: Coolidge 287, Davis 147, La Follette 47, and doubtful 50 (San Francisco Examiner, 10/26/1924).

La Follette's tour took him next to Kansas City, where he spoke about his agricultural proposals (Sioux City Journal, 10/14/1924). He then spoke in Minneapolis and Sioux Falls. The polling statistics appearing in the newspapers gave La Follette a false hope in the Northwest, and on 10/18 he changed his itinerary to boost his numbers in the Midwest. Wheeler would continue along the original planned route to the Northwest (Olympian, 10/19/1924). After taking a few days off in Aiken, Maryland, La Follette travelled to Baltimore, Brooklyn, Boston, and Pittsburgh before closing his campaign in Cleveland (Cedar Rapids Gazette, 10/27/1924). He then returned to Madison, Wisconsin on 11/3 and returned home to wait for the returns.

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