Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/313

294 FAMOUS LIYING AMERICANS of or against any proposed bill, should become a matter of public record. Progressive legislation, designed to protect the producers of wealth, was a noteworthy achievement of this administra- tion. ^^ Wisconsin now easily leads the states of the Union A in its body of labor legislation. Child labor has been reduced and the children kept in the schools. Excessive hours for women workers have been abolished. The doctrine of com- parative negligence has been adopted for railways, and the long hours of trainmen have been done away with. The most carefully drawn of all workmen 's compensation laws has been adopted . . . and finally our new Industrial Commission, modeled after the Railroad Commission, has been placed in charge of all the labor laws, with full power to enforce the ]aws and protect the life, health, safety and welfare of em- ployees. * * • The wide-spread interest in these reforms and the intensity of the struggle which preceded their adoption, gave LaFol- lette a reputation that was even more than national. The pro- gressive element in the Republican party throughout the coun- try came to regard him as a national leader. Fortunately, the long years of struggle in Wisconsin had produced an in- telligent and an alert citizenship and had developed leaders whose honesty and eflSciency made them worthy of public con- fidence. The people of Wisconsin felt that their leader was peculiarly fitted for service in the field of national politics and in 1905 they elected him to represent them in the senate of the United States. His entrance into the senate was hailed with enthusiastic approval by citizens of all parties in every sec- tion of the country. A new epoch began in the United States senate with the en- trance of LaFoUette. * * Senatorial courtesy * * and * * senatorial tradition'* which had long controlled the deliberations of this body had furnished many a timid statesman with an excuse for repudiating the principles he had loudly proclaimed upon the stump. There had been occasional revolts, but little actual reform had taken place. LaFoUette was not unaccustomed « A Personal Narrative of Political Experience, pp. 309-310.