For a half century the dream of a great liberal Third Party stirred yeastily in the minds of Wisconsin's farmers and laborers.
In the early days, before tractors, radios and paved rural roads, it had been a kind of Wisconsin religion, and fierce-eyed, thick-maned Robert Marion ("Fighting Bob") La Follette was its prophet. When he railed against the "interests" and Wall Street, when he called for public ownership of railroads, labor legislation and farm relief, he was speaking for thousands of poor, proud, stubborn, toiling men. They elected him governor thrice, sent him to the U.S. Senate for four...