Intellect

Robert M. LaFollette Jr., sailing for Europe, permitted himself to be interviewed on the subject of his father. Quoth he: "I am very fond of him as an individual. In real life, he is an entirely different man from what he is made to appear in the press. ... I know most people think of my father as hard, severe, cold-blooded and harsh, but he is none of those things. He has a marvelous sense of humor and has his tongue in his cheek at many things that happen in Washington. He is a good storyteller. I ought to know, for I've been listening to his stories since I was knee-high to a duck. And he has wit. His opponents have learned that and his friends have enjoyed it.

"But what I like best in my father is that he appeals to the intellect and is scornful of appeals to emotions alone. At times, he may have appealed to the emotions, but back of the appeal has been a motive finer and deeper than mere theatrical appeal. I have seen him talk to farmers and workingmen on a dull subject like the tariff, and he can make the tariff question so dramatic that he will carry his audience along until he works up to the climax."