100 years old.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: Editor's Note - History of 'The Progressive'

Magazines are fragile plants--magazines of dissent especially so. Only a few manage not to die from neglect or mishandling or poor transplanting. The Progressive is one of those exceptional, hardy orchids.

Founded on January 9, 1909, by Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin, it was originally called La Follette's Weekly , and then simply La Follette's . In 1929, four years after La Follette's death, it continued as a weekly magazine called The Progressive , and in 1948 it became a monthly publication.

This publication has always been more than a magazine. It's the articulation of a mission.

On the very first page of the very first issue, La Follette laid it out.

"In the course of every attempt to establish or develop free government, a struggle between Special Privilege and Equal Rights is inevitable," he wrote. "Our great industrial organizations [are] in control of politics, government, and natural resources. They manage conventions, make platforms, dictate legislation. They rule through the very men elected to represent them."

Yet he was hopeful. "The battle is just on," he wrote. "It is young yet. It will be the longest and hardest ever fought for Democracy. In other lands, the people have lost. Here we shall win. It is a glorious privilege to live in this time, and have a free hand in this fight for government by the people."

For the first dozen years, The Progressive was a suffragist magazine. Belle Case La Follette, Fighting Bob's wife, was a leading advocate for women's suffrage. A towering presence in the magazine, she also was an early advocate of civil rights for African Americans.

As we've pored over every single issue published by this magazine over the past 100 years, we've been amazed at the continuity of concern that represents itself year after year, decade after decade.

The themes ring out:

Combating corporate power

Championing civil liberties

Rallying for women's rights and civil rights and human rights and labor rights

Opposing war and empire

Preserving our environment

Defending a truly independent media

Reforming criminal justice

Building a sturdy safety net for all Americans

Democratizing our democracy.

As La Follette himself put it, "The real cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy."

W e've achieved some more democracy over the last 100 years. Women gained the right to vote and reproductive freedom. The labor movement won the right to strike, the eight-hour day, the minimum wage, and an end to child...