The A to Z of the Roosevelt-Truman Era by Neil A. Wynn

Author:Neil A. Wynn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2008-04-10T04:00:00+00:00

– L –

LA FOLLETTE, ROBERT MARION, JR. (1895–1953). The son of the famous progressive politician of the same name, Robert M. La Follette Jr. was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and attended the University of Wisconsin from 1913 to 1916 before leaving to become a clerk and then his father’s secretary. When La Follette Sr. died in 1925, his son won the election to fill the vacant seat, and he held it as a Republican until 1947. Despite his party affiliation, after 1929 La Follette was highly critical of Herbert Hoover and supported many New Deal measures. In 1934, he joined his brother Philip in forming the Wisconsin Progressive Party and was reelected on that platform in 1934 and 1940. La Follette did not think Franklin D. Roosevelt went far enough and called for more radical measures. From 1936 on, he chaired the Senate Committee on Education and Labor and the La Follette Civil Liberties Committee, and he exposed the lengths large business corporations went to and the violence used against trade union organizations, like the Memorial Day Massacre in Chicago in 1937. He was an isolationist and a founding member of the America First Committee in 1940, but he did not vote against the war.

In 1946, La Follette was responsible for the introduction of the Congressional Reorganization Act that helped to streamline the legislative process. However, having rejoined the Republicans, he was defeated by Joseph McCarthy in the primary election of 1946, and in 1953 he committed suicide.

LA GUARDIA, FIORELLO HENRY (1882–1947). Fiorello La Guardia was born in New York City and raised in Arizona. His family went to Trieste, Italy, in 1898, and La Guardia worked for the United States consular service. From 1904 to 1906, he was acting consular agent in Fiume (now Croatia). He returned to the United States in 1907, graduated from New York University Law School in 1910, and practiced law in New York City. During World War I, he served as a major in the U.S. Air Force in Italy. He sat in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican from 1917 to 1921 and from 1923 to 1933. He was president of the New York City Board of Aldermen from 1920 to 1921. While in Congress, La Guardia was cosponsor of the Norris-La Guardia Act. He lost his seat in Congress in the Democratic landslide of 1932, but in 1933 he was elected mayor of New York on a fusion ticket, supported by Republicans and reform groups.

As mayor, he was known as “the Little Flower,” and he established a reputation for honesty and for reforming the city government. La Guardia’s administration witnessed slum clearance and public housing development, the building of hospitals and childcare facilities, the construction of roads and bridges (including the Triborough Bridge and the airport that bears his name), and the unified the public transport system. He held the office until 1945 and was president of the United States Conference of Mayors from 1936 until 1945. La Guardia established a good relationship with President Franklin D.

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