“Yes,” added an indignant banker, “La Follette will spread socialism all over the world.”

Steffens listened as they presented their case against the governor, enumerating a long list of outrages that he had committed against the state. They seemed to regard his crimes as self-evident, but what they accused him of doing didn’t seem so offensive to Steffens. In fact, he found the governor’s ideas rather admirable. For his article, he would need something more sordid. What about corruption, he asked the two men, what about dishonesty?

“Oh, no, no,” replied the attorney, “You are getting off wrong. La Follette isn’t dishonest. On the contrary, the man is dangerous precisely because he is so sincere.”

That wouldn’t do. Steffens needed evidence of improprieties. These men offered him nothing but indignation. He spent the next two days interviewing other friends of the railroad executive, but none of them gave him anything more substantial. He was beginning to think that La Follette was not such a charlatan after all.

At the end of June, Steffens went to Madison to meet the “little giant” himself. He spotted him right way: La Follette’s stocky physique and enormous pompadour were unmistakable. “[A] powerful man,” he thought, “short but solid, swift and willful in motion.” One of the governor’s aides saw Steffens and whispered in his boss’s ear. La Follette came over at a run and greeted him with an eager handshake. He had read Steffens’s work, he said, and was delighted to meet him. Would he like to come for dinner at the governor’s residence?

Later that evening, Steffens arrived on the doorstep of the old yellow house. His attempt to maintain emotional distance didn’t go very well. Belle La Follette, the governor’s wife, welcomed him like a shining hero come to rescue her husband from a terrible siege. Her enthusiasm was more than he could bear. Years later, he would ruefully recall, “I stood it for a while, then I repelled Mrs. La Follette with a rebuke that was rude and ridiculous, so offensive indeed that I find that I cannot confess it even now.”

Having insulted his hostess and sunk the house into an awkward silence, he tried to make amends. Soon the warmth of the La Follette family began to work through his skin. For all Bob’s reputation as a rabble-rouser, he was humorous and self-deprecating in person while Belle was charming and intelligent. Steffens could not help but admire their struggle against the establishment—The System. He arranged to meet the governor again for an extended interview at the St. Louis world’s fair. In the meantime, he returned to Chicago to finish his article on corruption in the state of Illinois.

St. Louis, July 4, 1904

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 was larger than any world fair in previous history, a 1,200-acre “ivory city” of chalky plaster palaces laced by 75 miles of roads and walkways. Nearly 20 million people came to St. Louis to see the world in miniature. For 25 cents each, they could visit Paris, Dublin, Tokyo, Cairo, ancient Rome, and “Mysterious Asia.” For another quarter, they could ogle “queer people from all over the globe” at the Anthropology Exhibit. They marveled at new inventions—x-ray machines, dishwashers, and electric potato mashers—and snacked on curious concoctions—cold tea with ice, a buttery spread made from peanuts, and ice cream cradled in wafers that had been curled into cones.

Steffens had not come to see strange peoples or marvelous inventions. He had an appointment with a governor. When he arrived at La Follette’s room, he found his subject well prepared. La Follette had stacked the table with books, documents, bills, and newspapers—evidence of the path he had cut through the world. Steffens listened and took notes while La Follette recounted the story of his political career.