Robert M. La Follette, Jr.: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Robert Marion La Follette, Jr. (February 6, 1895 – February 24, 1953) was a United States Senator from Wisconsin from 1925 to 1947 and son of Robert M. La Follette, Sr.

La Follette Jr. was born in Madison, Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison 1913-1917; he served as private secretary to his father 1919-1925.

He was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate on September 29, 1925, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his father. He was reelected as a Republican in 1928, and as a Progressive in 1934 and 1940. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection as a Republican in 1946, losing to Joseph McCarthy.

He was chairman of the Committee on Manufactures in the Seventy-first and Seventy-second Congresses. La Follette gained national prominence between 1936 and 1940 as chairman of a special Senate investigating committee, commonly called the La Follette Civil Liberties Committee, which exposed the surveillance, physical intimidation and other techniques used by large employers to prevent workers from organizing. He was a foreign aid advisor to the Truman administration; La Follette died in Washington, D.C. of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Adapted from Congressional Biographical Directory