The Washington herald., 1914-03-08
Murdock Reached Congress by Elopement Route
you'll 3. M xrowr SOME DAY As .xDADr HE Told
Starts in by Saving Uncle Sam $7OOO,OOO a Year
I'm a Reporter, Not a Poll
tician," Said Progressive's S
Leader When Nominated
for Congress.

one summers day in 1880 a red-head-
ed youth still in his teens led a slender
Slr1 three years younger than himself
into beautiful home on Murdock street
in Wichita. Kan.
The wind blowing through the cotton
wood leaves sighed as the fiery-headed
enc entered the doorway Of the mansion,
for stormy times were ahead for the
couple Once inside the youth took the
father. said:
. Father. have married. This is my
wife"
Now. the father had ideas of his own
about marriage. He did not believe in
boys nineteen years old deciding for
themselves when they should become the
heads Of families. Besides the youth
had not received all the education his
father wanted him to have. The father
was one of the founders of Wichita. He
was editor and owner of the Wichita
Daily Eagle. and for years had been
the leading factor in the towns develop
ment from cowboys rendezvous to the
leading city OF the State as a business
center.
He wanted the red-headed boy to 20
to college and study until he learned all
the professors knew. Then he was to
come back home and be fitted to take I'D
the old mans work. No one knows ex-
the couple closed the door to face the
fathers wrath. The father never told |
and the son told only Lis bosom friends
but it is known that loud and angry |
words came through the closed door.
Parental Lecture Given.
4 had great plans for you. Vic"
the father is quoted as saying II was |
going to send you through college and |
make a wise NAV of you. I was going /
TO give you educational advantages |
never had. and was going to make YOU
the fit son of Marsh Murdock. Now you
have spoiled it all by getting married
dc you think you can go TO college with
wife to support? No, sir. You will
have TO work now. and what do you
know about work?'
The speech extended over a half hour,
so biographers say. While the elder
Murdoch talked the younger stood be-
fore him. his face taking on the color
of his hair. He stood on one leg and
then stood on the other, fixing his eve
on that of his father. Finally the elder
had used all the adjectives in his vocab-
ulary to describe his feeling toward his
sen and he quit speaking.
Are you through?'' young Murdock I
asked.
Isn't 1t enough?'' said the parent {
Then the young husband stood on both
feet and looking back in his fathers eyes !
said:
The times a-coming when you'll be
known Vic efurdock's father I
The remark won his father. He thought {
4 moment and then said: S
VIC. I'm going to give you a job.
Come down to the Eagle in the morning {
and Ill put you on as a reporter"
The next day Vic went to work at 50
4 week. There are some in Wichita !
who say Vic was a mighty good reporter S
%
the boy to raise his salary. Vic thought i
well of his own ability. and when he
couldn't get raise he quit and went to
Chicago TO work or ~, newspapers.
You'll come bac:s in three weeks" l
some of his associates said encouraging Il
ly. Chicago is a tough place to work" Q
But Vic didn't come back. He had l
10 make good on the threat that some Q
Jay Marshall Murdoch would be known L
as Vic's father. He not only got job p
Dut held it and was promoted. Four years
after his marriage to the little girl in
her teens Murdoch received a telegram
from his father.
Come home" the 'eleSram read. II
want a managing editor.
Vic went. AT the age Of twcnty-three
he was head of the new department of .
he leading paper of the Arkansas VAL q
ley. Like his father he was a Republi- "
ran of the stand-pat sort. He wrote red a
|
through the columns of his paper how a
misrule had paralyzed the II
sUsiness of the country. 1t was right in II
he midst of the hard times period follow y
ng the panic of &C.
Didn't Want to Run. >
Preaching Re?ublicanism for nine years il
made Murdot6 one of the best known "
.Cung Republicans of his district. In 1905 S,
liS party wanted a man to go to Con- a
,rcss. Chest-r l. Long. who had been
from that district was p
"