Fun & Educational

(Several of these may contain old fashioned, difficult to read sections, one is not for children, and one is loaded with ethnic prejudices. We only recommend those because of the importance of the information inside.)

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La Follette’s Autobiography, by Robert La Follette
Borah of Idaho by Claudius Johnson
Twenty Years at Hull House by Jane Addams
Twenty Years More at Hull House by Jane Addams
Henry A Wallace Quixotic Crusade 1948 By Karl M Schmidt
The Way it Was With Me, by Glen H. Taylor (Adult content)
How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis. (Racist content)

The origins of the Progressive Party are well-documented. In 1912, the Republican Party Convention turned into

a bruhaha, where Incumbent president Taft was unable to garner enough delegates to win, and former president Teddy Roosevelt had enough delegates to beat him. So party officals refused to seat Roosevelt's delegates.

Angry, those delegates founded a new party--The Progressive Party--and held their convention in Chicago. Roosevelt's campaign was energetic, but not enough to beat Democrat Woodrow Wilson. But Roosevelt won six states, including Washington, with elector votes. Washington's elector was a woman, Helen C. Scott, who was the first Amereican woman able to legally vote for President.

The party won a near majority in the Washington state legislature.

In 1924, Robert LaFollette ran for President of the United Staes under the Progressive banner. He also lost, and the party concentrated on organizing at state and local levels. Unfortunately, US senator Robert La Follette Jr. worked so hard of organizing the party that he was defeated for re-election by Joseph McCarthy.

By 1948, the Party needed the breath of fresh air provided by former Vice President, Henry Wallace and his running mate, Senator Glen H. Taylor, the first entertainer elected to congress.

Bernie Sanders was an important figure in the revitalizing of the Progressive Party. In 1981, Bernie Sanders (now Vermont’s junior Senator) was elected mayor of Burlington, beating a conservative “old boy” Democrat.

Bernie brought the best and the brightest into City Hall and implemented many reforms that were simply modern good government. He empowered a range of citizens to have a direct voice in city government: from students, to the poor, to the elderly.

Progressives started running for the Burlington City Council and getting elected from the poor, student, and middle-class areas of Burlington.

They cleaned up the waterfront, which had been left trashed by industry, started city-wide recycling, and established a public/private partnership with a land trust to make low- and moderate-income rental and home ownership available. The Progressive Administration started a women’s small business technical assistance program and an affirmative action ordinance for the awarding of city contracts.

The city-owned public electric utility created nationally-recognized efficiency programs, developed a wood-burning electric facility, and provides Burlington residents with the lowest electric rates in the state. - See more at: http://progressiveparty.org/party-organization/model#sthash.vEz1zc1C.dpuf