A Congressman's Worldview
Congressman W. L. LaFollette shares his controversial views on the Lusitania and his dim opinion of Brazil.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Congressman W. L. LaFollette addressed the high school Monday afternoon. Regarding the sinking of the Lusitania, he argued that the United States would have no moral right to go to war, suggesting the nation would dishonor itself by avenging citizens who ignored the risks of boarding a British vessel. LaFollette also shared his impressions of Brazil, concluding that the country was not suitable for American emigration. He described the soil as worn out and lamented the lack of a dominant Caucasian population, dismissing the local inhabitants as merely existing rather than living.
“It would have dishonored herself, to avenge the lives of a few citizens who had been warned and knew well the risk they were taking.”
LaFollette’s commentary provides a window into the prevailing geopolitical isolationism and rampant racial essentialism of the era. It serves as a stark artifact of early 20th-century political rhetoric that would be viewed as inflammatory or exclusionary by today's civic standards.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.