William La Follette - Public Service

Public Service

La Follette was a member of the World’s Fair Commission and had charge of the Washington State building at the Chicago Exposition in 1893. He served as a member of the State House of Representatives from 1899 to 1901. He also served on the School Board and was an active member of the Grange. He was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-second and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1911 to March 3, 1919). He was active on the House Committee on Public Lands and engaged deeply in land use and water issues. His policy interests reached far beyond the region he represented in the Pacific Northwest. He fought for the passage of bills that brought water to San Francisco and the creation of the National Park Service.He joined with his cousin, Robert M. La Follette in opposing President Woodrow Wilson's foreign policy decisions. For much of the time he was in Congress, the two LaFollette families shared a large house that he had purchased in Mount Pleasant, Washington D.C. The house became a center for debate and discussions of the great issues of the day as a steady stream of politicians, policy makers, academics, artists and labor and business leaders debated late into the night. In 1918 he ran unsuccessfully for renomination in the Republican primary.