Robert La Follette: Platform of the Conference for Progressive Political Action

Throughout much of his adult life, Robert M. La Follette was known as “Fighting Bob,” and the appellation was most apt. He was admittedly by nature combative and suspicious. At the same time, he was an indefatigable researcher who could often intimidate opponents with mounds of supporting data. He always characterized himself as a spokesman for a public trampled by predatory capitalists and Wall Street speculators. When he heeded the call to lead the Progressive Party in 1924, he advanced the Platform of the Conference for Progressive Political Action, which embodied many of the major ideas of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, centering largely on finance and labor reform.