The nomination of Robert M. La Follette for president took place at a convention held in Cleveland, Ohio from July 4-5, 1924. The convention was called by the Conference for Progressive Political Action (CPPA) and included accredited delegates from national trade unions, state branches of the CPPA, and other political organizations. Members of the Socialist Party of America played a prominent role in the organization of the July convention and the subsequent La Follette presidential campaign; representatives of the Communist Workers Party of America were banned.
On February 11 and 12, 1924, approximately 120 delegates from state branches of the Conference for Progressive Political Action (CPPA), the railroad brotherhoods, and several smaller organizations met at the 3rd Conference of the CPPA in St. Louis, Missouri.[1] This meeting viewed the election results of November 1922 with some satisfaction and reaffirmed the CPPA's stated goal "to help nominate and elect to public office only those who are pledged to the interests of the producing classes and to the principles of genuine democracy in agriculture, industry, and government."[1]
No action was taken for the November 1924 campaign, however, as no candidates had been nominated or political platforms passed by the Democratic or Republican parties (both of which organizations included progressive wings).[2] Nor did sentiment exist for an effort under the auspices of the Socialist Party of America (SPA) or the Farmer-Labor Party (FLP).
Instead, the February 1924 CPPA Conference instructed the governing National Committee of the organization to schedule a convention to be held over the Fourth of July holiday "for the purpose of taking action on nomination of candidates for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States, and on other questions that may come before the convention."[2] The National Committee was also instructed to attempt to coordinate its efforts with an organizing committee of the FLP, which had signaled its intention to call a presidential nominating convention in St. Paul, Minnesota opening May 30, 1924.[2]
Opening of the convention
Twelve hundred delegates and nine thousand spectators ratified the nomination of Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr. The atmosphere was more sober than the one that had prevailed in 1912, where Theodore Roosevelt elicited much enthusiasm among the delegations. Farmers themselves were sparsely represented; they were too "broke" to come, according to Senator Lynn Frazier. Only one African-American sat in the audience and only one or two eastern intellectuals. The convention was called by the Conference for Progressive Political Action, and duly accredited delegates appeared for such organizations as: the Food Reform Society of America, the National Unity Committee, and the Davenport Iowa Ethical Society. Many students attended, one of the largest groups coming from Columbia University. Jacob Coxey was present as well as John J. Streeter. Radical labor leaders constituted the main body of the congregation, but they refused to let members of the Communist party enter the building.[3]
The Credentials Committee reported unfavorably on the credential of William Mahoney as an individual, while not denying the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party a right to a seat, citing his acts during and after the St. Louis Conference as well as his active participation in the June 1924 St. Paul Convention of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party, a gathering perceived to have been an appendage of the Workers Party of America and previously condemned by the National Committee of the CPPA.
The CPPA National Committee had previously requested that Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette make a run for the presidency. The Cleveland Convention was addressed by the Senator's son, Robert M. La Follette Jr., who read a message from his father accepting the call and declaring that the time had come "for a militant political movement independent of the two old party organizations." La Follette declined to lead a third party, however, seeking to protect those progressives elected nominally as Republicans and Democrats. La Follette declared that the primary issue of the 1924 campaign was the breaking of the "combined power of the private monopoly system over the political and economic life of the American people." After the November election a new party might well be established, La Follette stated, around which all progressives could unite.
It was the dream of some Progressives, but not La Follette, that they might replace the Democrats, and thereby bring a clearer ideological alignment to American politics. The best way to do this, according to John A. H. Hopkins, earlier a prominent member of the Rooseveltian Progressive Party, would be to prevent either of the major parties from gaining a majority in the Electoral College and thus force the House of Representatives to choose the President.[citation needed]
The convention ended without a nominee for vice president. La Follette at first offered the position to Justice Louis Brandeis, and on his refusal, Sen. Burton K. Wheeler of Montana, who gratefully accepted.
Footnotes
1 2 Solon DeLeon and Nathan Fine, The American Labor Year Book, 1925: Volume VI. New York: Rand School of Social Science, 1925; pg. 120.
1 2 3 DeLeon and Fine, The American Labor Year Book, 1925, pg. 121.
The 1924 United States presidential election was the 35th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 1924. In a three-way contest, incumbent Republican President Calvin Coolidge won election to a full term. Coolidge was the second vice president to ascend to the presidency and then win a full term.
The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America who had split from the main organization in 1899.
Robert MarionLa Follette Sr., nicknamed “Fighting Bob,” was an American lawyer and politician. He represented Wisconsin in both chambers of Congress and served as the governor of Wisconsin from 1901 to 1906. A Republican for most of his life, he ran for president of the United States as the nominee of his own Progressive Party in the 1924 presidential election. Historian John D. Buenker describes La Follette as "the most celebrated figure in Wisconsin history".
The first modern Farmer–Labor Party in the United States emerged in Minnesota in 1918. The American entry into World War I caused agricultural prices and workers' wages to fall, while retail prices rose sharply during the war years. Consequently, farmers and workers made common cause in the political sphere to redress their grievances.
The 1924 Republican National Convention was held in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Public Auditorium, from June 10 to 12.
The 1912 Republican National Convention was held at the Chicago Coliseum, Chicago, Illinois, from June 18 to June 22, 1912. The party nominated President William Howard Taft and Vice President James S. Sherman for re-election for the 1912 United States presidential election.
The Progressive Party, popularly nicknamed the Bull Moose Party, was a third party in the United States formed in 1912 by former president Theodore Roosevelt after he lost the presidential nomination of the Republican Party to his former protégé turned rival, incumbent president William Howard Taft. The new party was known for taking advanced positions on progressive reforms and attracting leading national reformers. The party was also ideologically deeply connected with America's radical-liberal tradition.
The Progressive Party was a political party created as a vehicle for Robert M. La Follette, Sr. to run for president in the 1924 election. It did not run candidates for other offices, and it disappeared after the election. The party advocated progressive positions such as government ownership of railroads and electric utilities, cheap credit for farmers, the outlawing of child labor, stronger laws to help labor unions, more protection of civil liberties, an end to American imperialism in Latin America, and a referendum before any president could lead the nation into war.
The Workers Party of America (WPA) was the name of the legal party organization used by the Communist Party USA from the last days of 1921 until the middle of 1929.
The Conference for Progressive Political Action was officially established by the convention call of the 16 major railway labor unions in the United States, represented by a committee of six: William H. Johnston of the Machinists' Union, Martin F. Ryan of the Railway Carmen, Warren S. Stone of the Locomotive Engineers, E. J. Manion or the Railroad Telegraphers, Timothy Healy of the Stationary Firemen, and L. E. Sheppard of the Order of Railway Conductors. The idea of joining the "forces of every progressive, liberal, and radical organization of the workers must be mobilized to repel these assaults and to advance the industrial and political power of the working class" seems to have originated with the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party, which issued an appeal to unions and progressive political organizations for such a group in September 1921.
The La Follette family is a prominent family in the United States, especially in Wisconsin. Many of the family members have pursued political office.
From January 23 to June 4, 1912, delegates to the 1912 Republican National Convention were selected through a series of primaries, caucuses, and conventions to determine the party's nominee for president in the 1912 election. Incumbent president William Howard Taft was chosen over former president Theodore Roosevelt. Taft's victory at the national convention precipitated a fissure in the Republican Party, with Roosevelt standing for the presidency as the candidate of an independent Progressive Party, and the election of Democrat Woodrow Wilson over the divided Republicans.
Floyd Bjørnstjerne "Skipper" Olson was an American politician and lawyer. A three-term governor, he served as the 22nd Governor of Minnesota from January 6, 1931, to August 22, 1936, when he died in office at the age of forty-four. Olson was a member of the Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party, and the first member of that party to win the office of governor. He was a prominent governor of Minnesota and an influential American politician.
The Committee of 48 was an American liberal political association established in 1919 in the hope of creating a new political party for social reform to stand in opposition to the increasing conservatism of both major U.S. political parties, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.
The 1924 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 4, 1924. Voters chose 12 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1924 United States presidential election in Wisconsin was held on November 4, 1924, as part of the 1924 United States presidential election. State voters chose 13 electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Wisconsin had since the decline of the Populist movement been substantially a one-party state dominated by the Republican Party. The Democratic Party became entirely uncompetitive outside certain German Catholic counties adjoining Lake Michigan as the upper classes, along with the majority of workers who followed them, completely fled from William Jennings Bryan's agrarian and free silver sympathies. As Democratic strength weakened severely after 1894 – although the state did develop a strong Socialist Party to provide opposition to the GOP – Wisconsin developed the direct Republican primary in 1903 and this ultimately created competition between the "League" under Robert M. La Follette, and the conservative "Regular" faction.
The 1924 Nebraska gubernatorial election was held on November 4, 1924, and featured former state Senator Adam McMullen, a Republican, defeating Democratic nominee, former state Representative John N. Norton, and Progressive nominee, Omaha City Commissioner Dan B. Butler.
The 1924 United States presidential election in Ohio was held on November 4, 1924, as part of the 1924 United States presidential election. State voters chose twenty-four electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1924 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on November 4, 1924, as part of the 1924 United States presidential election. Tennessee voters chose 12 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1924 United States presidential election in Illinois took place on November 4, 1924, as part of the 1924 United States presidential election. State voters chose 29 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
