Robert M. La Follette's Role In World War I

PSA: World War I
World War 1 started in Europe in the year 1914 and went through 4 years and ended in the year 1918. The war started out with an assassination of heir to the Austrian throne by a Serbian nationalist. Austria then told Serbia there will be bad consequences for what they have done and Serbia had Russia as its allies and Russia threatened Austria then Austria told Germany the problem and Germany declared war on Russia and its ally which was France. Germany went into Belgium and then Britain entered war on the Russian side. Australia went in too because it was allies with Britain. The United States entered the war, after President Woodrow Wilson called for the formal declaration in 1917.
President Wilson tried his hardest during
La Follette was opposed to American involvement in World War I, believing that those supporting the war were doing so for financial gain and that the war efforts were hurting American consumers. La Follette's eloquent and stirring oratory, replete with Shakespearean allusions and historical references, was a powerful instrument that he employed throughout a public career that began with his election as district attorney of Dane County, Wisconsin, in 1880. La Follette went on to serve in the House of Representatives in 1885 until 1891 and serve as governor of Wisconsin from 1901-1906 before joining the Senate in 1906. In the Senate, the Wisconsin Republican pursued a progressive agenda that included railroad expense reform, banking and notes reformation, and tariff reduction, before the outbreak of war in European countries focused his attention on foreign affairs. Along with other senators, he voted against the declaration of war. After the vote, he continued to express his disapproval to the war and opposed several actions related to the war. In Senator Robert M. La Follette’s, Passionately Dissents the Wilson’s War Declaration, 1917, he completely opposed the United States going to war. On October 6, 1917, La Follette delivered this three-hour address to the Senate, defending his and others right to speak out against the war. His well detailed arguments for free speech in wartime brought spontaneous, resounding applause from
They were accused of conspiring against the government of the United States and interfering with military recruitment during a time of war. These men were just a few of the thousands who were charged with treason in the months after America’s entry into World War I. The war pitted citizen against citizen, patriot against radical. The U.S. officially declared war on April 6th, 1917. Despite having campaigned on the slogan, “He kept us out of the war;” the recently reelected President Wilson broke his promise and plunged America into war just four months after his second inauguration. Wilson’s betrayal of neutrality was met with little popular outrage. On April 7th, 1917, just one day after the U.S. officially declared war, the Socialist Party held an emergency convention in St. Louis. Far from shying away from their previous anti-war resolutions, the delegates including Kate Sadler of Washington State decided to continue active resistance of the war effort and