AMERICAN PRESIDENCY

Evening Star, Issue 21033, 22 February 1932, Page 1

AMERICAN PRESIDENCY

GOVERNOR MURRAY'S NOMINATION ENDORSED BY STATE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. OKLAHOMA CITY, February 20. The State Democratic Convention today endorsed Governor Murray for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency. Governor Murray said: “ I stand in awe of the responsibility, but I will undertake it in the interests of my fellow citizens. THE IMPERIAL “ALFALFA BILL" GOVERNOR WHO RULES WITH A RIFLE [By Louis Cochran, in the * New York Outlook and Independent.’] They have a new kind of Governor “ riding herd ’’ in Oklahoma—a Governor who knows his State’s laws and who 1 is not afraid to use the full authority of his office when he thinks it necessary. Denounced as a charlatan and derided as a clown when he took office, “ Alfalfa Bill ’’—sometimes called “ Bolivia Bill ” and “ Cocklebur Bill ” by his enemies— immediately set himself to serious business in the executive mansion. When he could not enforce a law in any other way he called out the militia, and, therefore, he has risen in public respect as an executive who knows what ho is about. The free bridges across the Red River between Texas and Oklahoma refuse to open, and the Governor issues an executive order and they open. A Federal court issues a writ against State officers, the Governor defies the injunction, sends the State militia to see tfiat his orders are enforced, and the Federal writ fades into a condition of innocuous desuetude. A hospital patient addicted to chiropractic is helpless when confronted with university red tape; the > Governor speaks, and the doors of the university hospital open to admit the patient. A State law threatens the prosperity and happiness of a host of Sta te school lans lessees who cannot pay their interest; the Governor wills, and the teeth fall out of the statute, and the school land farmers ate happy. Ti e oil corporations refuse to pay an adequate price for oil, and the Governor calls out his guardsmen and closes 3,000 oil wells until he gets his price. , SmaO. wonder that the nation has become ■“ Oklahuma-ConseiOus - t and-' tiiiifethe Denver ‘Post’ sighs: “Oh for a Murray for Governor of Colorado!” Here, admittedly, is a 1 man who at least fills the shoes of the Governor of a sovereign State in marked contrast to the usual afraid-of-his-shadow political bell wethers who too frequently quakq and rattle about in high places. This Governor is William Henry Murray, aged sixty-one, 6ft tall, thin, weather-worn, with bushy, unruly hair and a droopy walrus moustache. In succession he has been a newspaper subscription agent, school teacher, country editor, lawyer, fanner, historian, South American coloniser, and the ninth Governor of Oklahoma. But when Governor “ Alfalfa Bill,” as he is affectionately known among his constituents, or “ Bolivia Bill,” as ho is known amongst some of his critics, announced his intention of making his third race for the Governorship shortly after his return in 1929 from his illfated Bolivian colonising attempt there were few so poor as to do him homage, and nbne so rash or foolish as to believe he would be elected. For ten years he had been away from the State, and six years before had sailed away with twelve families to found a new colony at El Gran Chaco, Bolivia, on a 75,000acre concession from the Bolivian Government, and the magic name of “ Alfalfa Bill *’ had all but disappeared from the public prints. He had made two abortive efforts to become Governor, in 1910 and 1918, and his reward had been but a vision of the promised land. He had been.overwhelmingly defeated for re-election to Congress in 1916 because he gently poohpoohed the notion of Wilson’s impeccable wisdom, and scoffed at the idea that the Democratic President would keep us out of the war.- But “ Alfalfa Bill,’ undismayed, peeled out his last twelve dollars, gave his wife one dollar, arranged for credit with a grocer at his Tishomingo home, and for the third time started on the road which eventually led him to the Governor’s chair and no little share of national attention. There were nine aspirants for the Democratic nomination. Three were millionaires, and four others had good records as administrators. “ Alfalfa Bill ” had no organisation, no backing, of any sort, no money, and every daily newspaper in the State was against him. But the crowds who came to jeer remained to cheer, and in the run-off Democratic primary he defeated his opponent by the impressive vote of 218,852 to 139,810 and swamped the Republican nominee in the general election by 100,000 votes, carrying sixty-four out of the seventy-seven counties of the State.

Within eighteen months after his return as i a failure from a foreign land, “ broke,” unhonoured, and virtually forgotten, he had taken in the Governor’s chair, and thereupon proceeded to startle the nation by a series of acts unprecedented in their scope, and yet with a strict adherence to constitutional authority which earned the admiration of friend and foe alike. Gone now is the torrent of abuse and ridicule with which his election and entry into office was greeted; the incessant carping about personal peculiarities and innuendoes of personal or weakness. Doubt or fear as to his courage, intelligence, legal knowledge, or sincerity of purpose has passed away, and from an attitude of ridicule even his enemies have passed to an attitude which takes it for granted that any measure adopted by “ Alfalfa Bill ” will be successful. “ Alfalfa Bill ” has become a “ favourite son.”

But it was not always thus. Bom near the community of Toadsuck, Grayson County, Texas, the son of Uriah Dow Thomas Murray, an itinerant Methodist preacher who lived to administer, at ninety-one, the oath as chief executive fo hie son, jibe future chain-

Eion of State .rights ran away from: ome at twelve. He picked cotton for a! living. cooked, his own meals on stones* and slept on the ground for morothani, a year, but he made his way; His school l i attendance was haphazard and intermit-; tent, but, determined to better his con-.., dition, he enrolled at College Hill*ln-| stitute at Springtown, Texas, worked/: his way through, and was graduated itf§ a year and a-half with a B.S. degree I and a teacher’s license. Then he be-| came in turn a school teacher, news-| ; paper subscription agent, and a State 1 House reporter at Austin. | While editing a Oountry newspaper ati| Corsicana, Texas, he became interestedfl in law, and, studying at night, was ad-i mitted to the Bar at Then, following the lure of adventures whose siren can he has never failed toi'§ hear, he migrated in 1898 to Tishomingo*! capital of the Chickasaw Indian nation*! and married the niece of the Chickasaw; Governor. | Murray promised the people that ife elected he would reduce the ad valorentf|| taxes and increase the taxes on and corporations. He has done morejtf he demanded a tax commission to ad-fc just assessments, and the commission is|| now at work. He asked for free seedffi to distribute to farmers without crediw who were unable to buy seed, and thef - ' State distributed 300,000 dollars’ worth.?| He insisted upon quick relief for theis needy, and the Legislature we ted 700,000$; dollars and increased the gasolene taxf| ■ from 4 to 5 cents to pay for the reliefer, The campaign cry of his enemies that 1 ! he w6uld make the State ridiculous byffo living in the 6,000-dollar garage anal renting out the executive mansion hasß. not been realised, but his action inf planting six acres of potatoes in thaf park between the State House and thO:| mansion, the proceeds to be given the poor, has not diminished his stature;|. in the eyes of the voters who elected/ him. But this is not all that “ Alfalfa; i;. Bill ” has done for the masses who/ placed him in office or that he has trie®* to do. pertain of his proposed mea-£ sures have been, if not radical, at leasfeg: of refreshing originality. In messages!: to the Legislature in 1931 he demanded! among other reforms that no teacher;, or employee of any State institution re-| ceive pay while on sabbatical leave; thahj State officers be prohibited from print-:' ing their photographs on State docu-j----ments: that 2,000,000 dollars be appro-f printed for free books in. th©_ publiot schools; that a provision for paying old?;'. age pensions be worked out and adopted’/ and that some provision be enacted into ' law “ requiring: all State teachers to work eight hours per day.” Perhaps his most striking recommendation was that.‘‘an appropriation be made for an office bulling on the grounds of the Capitol large enough to Erovide a bed for each member of the [ouse and Senate, equipped with lights and a table where they can work on Ijills when?,the 1 House is not in session;:. whHre a < pfteri * night session and return in the morn-* ing ” in order to remove the legislators from the menace of hotels filled with lobbyists, who use poker games, liquor,; and women, and even money for bribery,; where it, is possible to use money, toj put through legislation against the best.’ interests of the people.”- j