I think all men recognize that in time of war the citizen must surrender some rights for the common good which he is entitled to enjoy in time of pea… - Robert M. La Follette

Mere passive citizenship is not enough. Men must be aggressive for what is right if government is to be saved from those who are aggressive for what is wrong.

The mobbing of harmless, helpless Negroes in the capital of this country is the nation's everlasting shame. The responsibility for starting the riots, which ruled Washington for days, rests upon disorderly lawless whites. Peaceable, unoffending colored men and boys were beaten up and murdered by brutes who boast of our white civilization.

I have become more and more impressed with the deep underlying singleness of the issue. It is not the tariff or conservation or the currency. It is not the trusts. The supreme issue, involving all the others, is the encroachment of the powerful few upon the rights of the many.