"LA FOLLETTE-WHEELER TICKET DOING WELL"

MIDWESTERN G.O.P. LEADER:  3RD PARTY TICKET MEANS CERTAIN DEFEAT FOR DEMOCRATS

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On July 29, 1924, G. Gould Lincoln of the Evening Star reports that a Midwestern Republican leader is of the opinion that "the La Follette-Wheeler third (party) ticket is doing well and will continue...to make certain the defeat of the Democratic ticket by hundreds of thousands, probably millions of voters, in favor of the (Robert M.) La Follette candidacy."

JFK+50 NOTE

James A. Shideler describes the Election of 1924 as the second major challenge to the two party system following the Bull Moose (Progressive) Party of 1912 which split the Republicans & resulted in the election of Woodrow Wilson.

The Progressives of 1924 only ran a national ticket which supported government ownership of railroads & utilities, cheap credit for farmers & laws to favor organized labor.

The La Follette-Wheeler ticket was strong in the West winning 16.6% of the popular vote.  It only carried one state, however, Wisconsin. The party dissolved in 1927.

SOURCES

"La Follette Helps G.O.P. As 1912 Split Did Wilson," by G. Gould Lincoln, The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., July 29, 1924, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/

"The La Follette Progressive Party Campaign of 1924," by James H. Shideler, Wisconsin Magazine of History, www.jstor.org/

 

 

"The Motorist"

Political Cartoon by Edward Windsor Kemble

Harper's Weekly

11-25-1911

www.picryl.com/

"SUPPORTERS WANT NOTHING SHORT OF RADICAL PROGRAM"

LA FOLLETTE'S CANDIDACY CHANGES STRATEGY OF TWO MAJOR PARTIES 

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On March 18, 1924, David Lawrence of The Evening Star reports that Senator Robert M. La Follette* "is determined to head a third party ticket" in 1924 if the Republican Party nominates President Calvin Coolidge as its standard bearer.

Senator La Follette's supporters, Lawrence writes, want "nothing short of a radical program."

The strategy of the two major parties will change due to La Follette's third party candidacy.  The Democrats will likely charge Coolidge Republicans are too conservative while La Follette Republicans are too liberal so their party will offer a "compromise between the two extremes."

*Robert M. La Follette (1855-1925) was born in Primrose, Wisconsin & graduated University of Wisconsin 1879.  RML served in the US House of Representatives 1885-1891, as governor of WI 1901-1906 & in the US Senate 1906-1925.

RML has been called "the most celebrated figure in Wisconsin history."  As standard bearer for the Progressive Party, he carried Wisconsin in the Election of 1924, finished 2nd in 11 states, and won a total of 16.6% of the popular vote.  

SOURCE

"La Follette Move Stirs Two Parties," by David Lawrence, The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., March 18, 1924, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/

 

 

Robert M. La Follette

Recording Radio Speech 1924

National Photo Company

Library of Congress

"IT TAKES MORE THAN ONE BULLET TO KILL A BULL MOOSE"

TEDDY ROOSEVELT SURVIVES GUNSHOT IN CHEST

Milwaukee, Wisconsin (JFK+50) On October 14, 1912, former POTUS and Progressive Party* presidential nominee Theodore Roosevelt was shot while greeting the public in front of the Gilpatrick Hotel here in Milwaukee.

TR was shot in the chest as a 32-caliber bullet passed through his glasses case and folded manuscript which were in his breast pocket.  Despite the wound, the former president went on to speak for 90 minutes and at one point pulled the bloody 50 page manuscript from his pocket, held it up for the audience to see, and  said...

 "It takes more than one bullet to kill a Bull Moose."

Doctors determined the bullet did not penetrate either TR's heart or lung, and decided it would be better to not make an attempt to remove it.

TR, who had broken with Taft and the Republican Party, made only two more speeches during the 1912 campaign.  Woodrow Wilson, the Democrat, took advantage of the split in the Republican Party and won the Election of 1912.

*Progressive Party (1912) was formed by TR in the aftermath of his failure to win the Republican Party's nomination (won by WH Taft).  The party's platform, titled "A Contract With the People," called for the dissolution of an alleged alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics.  The party's official mascot was the Bull Moose, & the party was often called the Bull Moose Party.

                          Bull Moose Party Symbol

IT TAKES MORE THAN ONE BULLET TO KILL A BULL MOOSE

JFK+50:  Volume 5, No. 2098

ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF TEDDY ROOSEVELT

Milwaukee, Wisconsin (JFK+50) In this election year of 2016, the Republican Party is split on the candidacy of Donald J. Trump.  In the election year of 1912, however, the Republican Party was so divided that incumbent President William Howard Taft's nomination led to the formation of a third party led by former President Theodore Roosevelt.

104 years ago this evening, October 14, 1912, Progressive or "Bull Moose" Party nominee Theodore Roosevelt was shot while greeting the public in front of the Gilpatrick Hotel here in Milwaukee.

At 8 p.m. local time, TR was shot in the chest from a distance of five feet as he stood in his open car waving his hat to the crowd.   A 32-caliber bullet passed through his glasses case and folded manuscript which were in his breast pocket. Roosevelt's stenographer was able to grab the assailant before more shots could be fired.

TR refused to be taken to a hospital until he completed his scheduled speech.
With worried aides standing by ready to catch him if he passed out, TR told the astonished crowd...

"Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible.  I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot."

Despite the wound, Roosevelt went on to speak for an hour and at one point pulled the bloody manuscript from his pocket, held it up for the audience to see, and said...

 "It takes more than one bullet to kill a Bull Moose."

After finishing his speech, TR was taken to the hospital.  Although he recovered, doctors determined it was best not to attempt to remove the bullet.

The shooter was an unemployed New York saloon-keeper named John Schrank.  The 36 year old man was later determined to be insane and was committed to an asylum in Wisconsin. 

SOURCE

"Shot in the Chest 100 Years Ago, Teddy Roosevelt Kept on Talking," by Christopher Klein, October 12, 2012, History, www.history.com/

TR in Milwaukee

 October 14, 1912

JFK AND NATIONAL HEALTH CARE FOR SENIORS

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 1840

JFK PROPOSES NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE FOR SENIORS

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-six years ago today, January 26, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy (D- Massachusetts) introduced  a bill which would have provided insurance for seniors against increasing health care costs.

Senator Kennedy said...

"I introduce...a bill to amend the Social Security Act and the Internal Revenue Code so as to provide insurance for our older citizens.  It is obvious that the later years of too many of our citizens will be attended by hardship (at the) time of life when the need for health care rises sharply."

The Senator explained that medical care costs were up 52% and hospital care costs were up 110%.   Under the Kennedy bill, seniors would have received 90 days of health care annually as well as 120 days of nursing care in addition to other benefits.

Mr. Kennedy acknowledged that his proposed health care program for seniors, like all such programs, was dependent upon "all persons and all ages" to be enrolled so that premiums could be paid over the many years of "youthful good health." 

JFK was not the first to propose such a plan.  According to Steve Anderson of Medicare Resources, Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party platform of 1912 called for a national health proposal but the idea "didn't gain steam" until President Harry Truman proposed the Federal Government cover doctor, hospital, lab and nursing costs for seniors.  Truman's proposal of November 1945, however,  fell on deaf ears in the Congress.

Fifteen years later, studies revealed that 56% of Americans 65 and over were NOT covered by health insurance.  According to Rosemary Stevens of the University of Pennsylvania...

"in the early 1960s, the choices for uninsured elderly patients needing hospital services were to...

spend their savings
rely on funding from their children
seek welfare
hope for charity from the hospital
avoid medical care altogether"

And as far as those seniors who did have health insurance, Dorothy Pechman Rice, former Director of the National Center for Health Statistics, says they "had...terrible insurance (which) didn't do much to cover them."

According to a 1963 survey, 25% of seniors who experienced heart pain did NOT visit their doctor and 34% who experienced shortness of breath did likewise.

While JFK was no more successful than TR or Truman in getting his national health insurance plan for seniors through Congress, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medical Care for the Aged or MEDICARE bill into law fifty years ago this July 30th.  Today MEDICARE covers more than 50 million American seniors of which I am one.

With the retirement of baby boomers, like myself, it was once thought that the MEDICARE system would become insolvent.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, however, MEDICARE spending is projected to be much smaller than anticipated due to "cost savings embedded in OBAMACARE (The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010)."

I can speak from personal experience on the significance of national healthcare for seniors.  Eleven weeks ago this Thursday, I underwent emergency open heart surgery for the repair of three blocked arteries.  Fortunately the surgery was successful and recovery, although not easy, is going well.  

As a Medicare patient, I had met my $147 Part B deductible and the $1260 Part A deductible was covered by my supplemental Medicare coverage.  As I continue to recover from this major surgery, I don't have to stress over how to come up with the nearly $100,000 in medical charges.

I am the beneficiary, as my fellow American babyboomers are, of the fight begun by TR in 1912 and continued by Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson as well as many other Americans for a national health care program for seniors. 

SOURCES

"A brief history of Medicare in America," by Steve Anderson, March 4, 2015, www.medicareresources.org/

"For Release to PM Newspapers of Tuesday," January 26, 1960, Office of Senator John F. Kennedy, www.jfklibrary.org/

"Were the early 1960s a golden age for health care?" by Louis Jacobson, January 20, 2012, www.politifact.com/