Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/311

 292 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS spoke through the party leaders or issued its orders through the party caucus. He insisted on debating forbidden issues and asked embarrassing questions whenever the bosses sought to thwart the will of the people or endeavored to rush through legislation of doubtful character. His independence, his un- willingness to follow the party when such blind allegiance meant the betrayal of principle, aroused the hostility of those whose orders he refused to obey. The organized opposition did everything in their power to drive him from public life. The election of 1890 was a hotly contested one. Although Mr. LaFoUette was renominated and again led his ticket, the enemy was too strong for him and he was defeated.* Often what seems to be defeat is only victory in disguise. The retirement of Mr. LaFoUette from Congress opened to him new opportunities for service. Now he was ready to be- gin the real battle for representative government. The * * Des- tiny that shapes our ends" and nullifies the petty plans of man with the purposes of Infinite Truth had decreed that the struggle for representative government should be fought out in a single state before it should be made the supreme issue in national politics. When Mr. LaFoUette returned to private life as a lawyer in the city of Madison, he was able to see the problems of the state from an entirely new angle. He found that the ** invisible government" had its high-priests in state as weU as in national poUtics. The preUminary skirmish against the state political machine revealed the railroads and other corporations as the controlling influence in Wisconsin. The story of the Wisconsin battle is a famiUar one. Year after year, campaign after campaign, LaFoUette led and di- rected the fight, speaking at county fairs, old settlers' meet- ings, and wherever and whenever he could find an audience. In caucus after caucus the people went down to defeat only to take up the fight with renewed vigor. In several state con- ventions, even in spite of the fact that a majority of the dele- lican candidates in Wisconsin, it is a well known fact that the efforts of the ma- chine leaders were centered npon the defeat of Mr. LaFoUette.
 * invisible government"; he even defied its decrees when it
 * While it is true that local conditions in 1890 were against all of the Bepob-