The Philip F. La Follette Papers, 1876-1973, constitute an excellent source for study of the 1930s in Wisconsin, a period when under La Follette's leadership the state served as a model for innovative, aggressive governmental action. The collection is divided into three main series - Public, Personal, and Family Papers. It includes correspondence, financial records, reports, speeches and writings, press releases, scrapbooks, photographs, and recorded speeches and other items. A list of prominent correspondents is included in this finding aid as Appendix I. A list of photographs in PH 100, during La Follette's tenure serving under General Douglas MacArthur during World War II, is included as Appendix II.
Series 1: Public Papers. This series comprises the official papers and correspondence from La Follette's governorship and political career, 1931-1932; 1934-1938. In addition, the public papers contain scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, disc recordings and tapes of La Follette's speeches and radio talks, and drafts of speeches and articles written throughout his life, as well as various manuscript drafts of his autobiography, Adventure in Politics, and a card file of his daily schedule, 1936-1938.
The Public Papers contain correspondence, publications and speeches, financial records, and press releases. The correspondence which includes incoming correspondence and carbons of outgoing correspondence ranges in character from budgetary reports to correspondence with Wisconsin residents and respected policy advisors. The papers from 1931 are chiefly concerned with organizing the new administration, making appointments, gathering information on policy formation, and initiating legislative and executive action to deal with the Depression. Of particular interest among this early correspondence is the image of Robert La Follette Sr. and popular reaction to the Depression. Facing a lack of institutions to which to turn with their problems, troubled citizens wrote directly to the Governor, the son of “Old Bob,” with complaints about unemployment, low farm income, the chain store “menace,” and the need for relief and reform.
In order to attack the problems of relief and recovery, the state needed correct information about existing conditions. Much of 1931 was spent in correspondence and conference with diverse business, labor, farm, and urban groups to gather this information. Most of the actual legislation was not drafted by the executive office, but by advisors who worked independently after receiving initial direction from the governor. For example, policy decisions regarding the Unemployment Compensation Act lay chiefly with professors at the University of Wisconsin and suggestions for the Industrial Stabilization Act, which served as a model for the NRA, came from the state's business leaders. La Follette, however, was kept well-informed about his advisors' progress and ideas. The evolution of other significant legislation enacted during La Follette's first administration documented in the collection include taxes on chain stores and dividends and an income surtax, forestry fire protection legislation, and strengthening of the Public Service Commission.
The correspondence from 1932 to 1934 is dominated by political matters: La Follette's defeat in the 1932 Republican primary by conservative Walter J. Kohler Sr., La Follette's plan to return to office, and the formation of the Progressive Party at Fond du Lac on May 19, 1934. There is extensive correspondence with leaders throughout the state before the La Follettes determined to establish the third party in Wisconsin.
Much of the correspondence relating to La Follette's second term concerns the Wisconsin Works bill, a wealth-producing works program to be administered by a public corporation. Although Roosevelt supported the program, a hostile legislature was able to block enactment of the bill. There is also material on the Wisconsin Rural Electrification Act, drought relief, aid to education, highways, and local relief agencies.
Papers relating to the 1937-1938 legislative session include material on enactment of the Wisconsin Agricultural Authority, the Wisconsin Development Authority, and the Wisconsin Labor Relations Act. Also well-documented is the dismissal of University President Glenn Frank in 1936 and La Follette's position on the court packing issue in 1937. The material relating to the founding of the National Progressives of America in 1938 is particularly rich, for prior to its organization La Follette corresponded with many state and national leaders to ascertain their feelings about establishment of a liberal, third party movement. Papers relating to the actual operation of the NPA from 1938-1942 are segregated in two boxes.
The speeches and writings contain drafts of speeches and articles written throughout La Follette's life; many of these are also to be found on tape and disc recordings. There are also drafts of his memoirs, Adventure in Politics, begun in 1952 and uncompleted at his death in 1965. Also included is a chapter written by Mrs. La Follette after her husband's death. The financial records consist of rough calculations of campaign expenditures and partial records of the governor's Special Account, 1934-1938. The section of press releases spans the period, 1928-1938; some contain pencil notations and a few are handwritten drafts, but the authorship is unknown. A chronological run of 18 scrapbooks include three on the Glenn Frank Case. Thirty-two recordings of speeches, radio broadcasts, MacArthur presidential campaign songs, and other item are on disc. Many of the discs are also available in tape format.
Series 2: Personal Papers. This series consists of general correspondence written while La Follette was out of office as well as correspondence with family and friends written throughout his lifetime. Also included are a group of financial records, a group of miscellany, photographs, and diplomas and certificates.
The Personal Papers contain La Follette's correspondence with members of his family and friends throughout his lifetime and general correspondence written during the years when he was out of public office. The early correspondence is rather fragmentary, but it includes incidential letters from Robert La Follette Sr., and Belle Case La Follette. His extensive and revealing correspondence with Isabel Bacon dates from 1921, and after their marriage they corresponded during any absence. Beginning in 1922 La Follette's correspondence includes reference to his legal career and the various campaigns in which he participated for his father and brother. Many personal letters written during his years as governor comment informally upon Wisconsin and the national political scene and reveal the personal relationships among the members of the family. The correspondence after 1939 includes documentation of La Follette's activity in the America First Committee; and for three years after the entry into World War II, he wrote almost daily to his wife from the Southwest Pacific theatre. His postwar correspondence is largely personal and touches only upon the fringes of the political scene. There are scattered comments upon the demise of the Progressive Party in 1946, as well as information on La Follette's support of the MacArthur candidacy in 1948 and the Warren and Eisenhower candidacies in 1952. After 1952 La Follette retired from public life entirely, devoting himself to his law and business career and to his family.
Series 3: Family Papers. This series consists of papers of other La Follette family members: Robert M. La Follette Sr., Robert M. La Follette Jr., Robert M. La Follette III, Belle Case La Follette, and Isabel Bacon La Follette.
The Family Papers include campaign papers for the 1922 Senatorial campaign and the 1924 Presidential campaign of Robert M. La Follette Sr. These consist largely of correspondence with local Wisconsin organizations, and are arranged alphabetically by county and chronologically thereunder. The Robert M. La Follette Jr., papers consist of nomination forms, organized alphabetically by county for the special election of 1926. The material relating to Belle Case La Follette is largely secondary in nature, with the exception of a small amount of correspondence relating to editing La Follette's Magazine. The papers of Isabel Bacon La Follette document her own important career as an advisor to her husband and an advocate of women's rights. Also well-documented is the establishment and operation of the Women's Service Exchange, an employment service for older women founded by Mrs. La Follette in 1952. The Women's Service Exchange records in this collection are largely a duplicate file from the original records housed in the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College. Mrs. La Follette's papers consist of correspondence, drafts of speeches, articles for the Progressive, her unpublished autobiography, a certificate and a diploma, and scrapbooks of her newspaper column “A Room of Our Own.” The papers of Robert M. La Follette III span the period 1944 to 1947 and consist of his observations on the war in the Philippines and the occupation of Japan.
