Good morning.
It’s a partly cloudy day ahead for Whitewater, with a high temperature of sixty-nine degrees.
If you’re a Progressive, today’s a memorable day for you, I’d suppose. The Wisconsin Historical Society writes that in
1934 – Wisconsin Progressive Party Formally Organized
On this date Wisconsin’s Progressive Party was formally organized near 30 E. 2nd St. in Fond du Lac. It had begun as a “progressive” movement within the Wisconsin Republican Party more than 30 years before, and under leaders such as Robert M. LaFollette its list of achievements brought national attention to Wisconsin.
By the 1930s, a new generation of policy makers, many of whom had been trained under progressive Republicans, were advocating for reforms as part of Democrat Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs (see our page on the Wisconsin roots of Social Security for an example). At the same time, a new generation of Republicans such as Walter Kohler were advocating their own solutions to the nation’s problems. The heirs of the LaFollette tradition organized a third party, the Wisconsin Progressive Party, to keep alive the traditions they valued. [Source: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers, edited by Sarah Davis McBride]
For a solid critique of the New Deal (and of Hoover’s support for similar intervention during the preceding federal administration), see The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression.