In the Sawyer controversy were visible all the elements of the later creed and methods of La Follette. He always remained with the Republican party, preferring to attempt change from within; and he always opposed the interests and found his strength in direct appeals to the people of his state. Out of those years came the "Wisconsin idea,"—a program which included the taxation of railroads and corporations, primaries in which the people could nominate their own candidates for office, the prohibiting of the acceptance of railroad passes by public officials, and the conservation of the forests and water power of the state. The conflict between laissez faire and public interest in Wisconsin was long and bitter, but it led to a series of triumphs for La Follette, who was elected governor in 1900, 1902 and 1904, and chosen to the federal Senate in 1905. In the meanwhile there was a widespread demand throughout the West for legislation along the lines marked out by Wisconsin.
Party lines are so drawn in the United States that it is difficult for like-minded men of different parties to cooperate in furthering a program. The three pioneers were men whose capacities and personal qualities differed greatly, but in their economic and political philosophy they were nearer to one another than to the rank and file of their own parties. Bryan in 1902 refused to take part in the Democratic campaign in Wisconsin because he favored La Follette's program, and in 1905 he even aided the latter in his fight for railroad regulation; in 1912 Bryan found Roosevelt leading a revolt in the Republican party on a program to much of which he could give unqualified assent; and of La Follette, Roosevelt said in the same year: "Thanks to the movement for genuinely democratic popular government which Senator La Follette led to overwhelming victory in Wisconsin, that state has become literally a laboratory for wise experimental legislation aiming to secure the social and political betterment of the people as a whole."
Roosevelt's own share in the history of the early twentieth century was of such magnitude as to require a more extended account.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The literature is voluminous and not easy to evaluate. On population
changes and immigration, the best source is the Abstract of the
Thirteenth (1910) Census (1913), with the Atlas accompanying it
(1914); Reports of the Immigration Commission, appointed under the
Congressional Act of Feb. 20, 1907 (42 vols., 1911), is exhaustive; F.
A. Ogg, National Progress (1918), has a good chapter; consult Joseph
Schafer, A History of the Pacific Northwest (rev. ed., 1918), for
Washington and Oregon.
The consolidation in industry, railroads and finance may be followed in: A.D. Noyes, Forty Years of American Finance (1909); John Moody, The Truth about the Trusts (1904); Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on the Steel Industry (3 parts, 1911), on the United States Steel Corporation; Anna P. Youngman, Economic Causes of Great Fortunes (1909); C.R. Van Hise, Concentration and Control a Solution of the Trust Problem in the United States (rev. ed., 1914); E.R. Johnson and T.W. Van Metre, Principles of Railroad Transportation (1916); John Moody, The Railroad Builders (1919); John Moody, The Masters of Capital (1919); and Report of the Committee Appointed Pursuant to House Resolutions 429 and 504 to Investigate the Concentration of Control of Money and Credit, (Pujo Committee) 1913.
There is no satisfactory study of the social and political effects of
the great increase in the circulation of newspapers and periodicals.
Suggestive articles are: World's Work (Oct., 1916), "Stalking for
Nine Million Votes"; Arena (July, 1909), "The Making of Public
Opinion"; Atlantic Monthly (Mar., 1910), "Suppression of Important
News." Less superficial articles are those of Walter Lippmann in the
Atlantic Monthly (Nov., Dec., 1919). The statistics are available in
N.W. Ayer, American Newspaper Annual and Directory.
The emergence of the theory of public interest is best seen in the
Autobiography of R.M. La Follette (4th ed., 1920); consult also
Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, and C.G. Washburn, Theodore
Roosevelt; the Logic of his Career (1916). A profound article is W.J.
Tucker, "The Progress of the Social Conscience," in Atlantic Monthly
(Sept., 1915).
On the Fourteenth Amendment, consult the volumes already mentioned under Chap. IV.
There are no thorough estimates of Bryan and La Follette. On the former: Atlantic Monthly (Sept., 1912), and Nineteenth Century (July, 1915); H. Croly, Promise of American Life (1914), is critical. W.J. Bryan, First Battle (1897), is essential. On La Follette, his own narrative as given in the Autobiography is best, but should be read with care as it was written in the heat of partisan controversy. See also F.C. Howe, Wisconsin an Experiment in Democracy (1912), friendly to La Follette.