1924 Robert La Follette Jr Signed TLS Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy Stalin

Description

Offered is a wonderful 1924 TLS signed by Wisconsin Senator Robert LaFollette Jr. This is 6 months before his father and namesake died. Jr. then filled his fathers shoes as Senator of Wisconsin in 1925. Mailing folds, paper attached to back from the letter being housed in a scrapbook at one time.
Robert Marion "Young Bob" La Follette Jr.
(February 6, 1895 – February 24, 1953) was a
U.S. senator
from
Wisconsin
from 1925 to 1947. As an outspoken son of Representative, Senator, and Wisconsin Governor
Robert M. La Follette
, co-founder of the
Progressive Party
and ally of the
Farmer-Labor Party
in adjacent
Minnesota
, La Follette kept the Progressive Party alive in the US Senate until his defeat by
Joseph McCarthy
in 1946.
La Follette was born in
Madison, Wisconsin
, the son of
Robert M. La Follette Sr.
and
Belle Case La Follette
. La Follette had two siblings,
Philip La Follette
and
Fola La Follette
. He attended the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
from 1913 to 1917 but he did not graduate because of illness. (He received the
honorary degree
of
LL.D.
from the University of Wisconsin in 1938.) The same illness kept him out the military during
World War I
.
La Follette served as his father's private
secretary
between 1919 and 1925.
With his brother Philip he formed the
Wisconsin Progressive Party
in 1934, and for a time the party was dominant in Wisconsin. He was reelected with the Progressive Party in 1934 and 1940. One of the Senate's leading isolationists, La Follette helped found the
America First Committee
in 1940.
When the Wisconsin Progressive Party dissolved, La Follette returned to the Republican Party in 1946. He helped to draft and win passage of the
Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946
that modernized the legislative process in Congress.
La Follette was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection as a Republican in 1946. He ran an isolationist campaign against the
United Nations
and was critical of Soviet dictator
Joseph Stalin
; he ended up narrowly losing to
Joseph McCarthy
in the Republican primary, by 207,935 votes to 202,557. While La Follette initially started with a large lead in the polls, that lead gradually dwindled, and on the primary election day, the results of the final county to report polls tipped the scales in McCarthy's favor. La Follette sent a one-word telegram saying "Congratulations" to McCarthy.