New Britain herald., 1930-09-12

.. and pats the back of his left hand meditatively with his right.
 T resolved" he suddenly re- sumes in a high, flashing voice, that when you send me to the United States senate my first official act will be to introduce a bill ap- propriatihg the money to build a hard-surfaced military road from Fort Towson through your commun- ity.'
 The applause comes - in waves and roars.
 One of the Home Folks
 That pictures Blind Tom in &C., tion, but the real reason for his sue. cess lies deeper than that. This req son explains, too. the success of his colorful running mate. Alfalfa BIT" Murray, the democratic nominee for governor, who. practically penniless. campaigned by hitch hiking over the state.
 To the hickory-shirted. blue jean ed farmers in rural Oklahoma both
 
 pretty much like home folks" They speak their language, they know their problems, they call them "Bill' and "Jim," they attend their all-day revivals and hymn singings and naturally, they are lot closer to the rural electorate than an oil million aire living off in Tulsa or Oklahoma City.
 Though Oklahoma is best known as an oil state, it is the farmer vote that really counts and when these farmers arc in the mood for a change they naturally look for lead CTS among their own kind.
 . Colorful, Pathetic Life
 The life of Oklahoma's blind solon has been almost as colorful as the peculiar brand of politics played in the state from which he halls - and in its personal phase, pathetic.
 He has never seen the face of the girl he courted and married over 30 years ago - and she has proved 8 really wonderful wife - nor the faces of his two. children. He knows them by their voices or by the affectionate stroke of a sensitive hand across their features.
 He has never seen an auto. An airplane or a skyscraper and al- though a senator for a dozen years he has never seen the United States capitol or the White House. He re- members, vaguely, the sunsets that he saw as a child and the flowers that grew in his mothers yard in Mississippi.
 A few years ago when doctors were making d belated effort to re- store his sight and seemed near success he was asked what he want ed to zee.
 My wife" he replied. T would like to see the face of the woman l mar ried 21 years ago"
 The attempt ended in disappoint- ment. Perhaps it was bitter, but Gore never com mplained.
 Excellent in Studies
 Despite his blindness, Gore was graduated from Cumberland Uni versity law school at Lebanon. Tenn. in 1892, with an excellent record. In those days Oklahoma was a frontier territory beckoning to a young man with ambitions to succeed in politics, 50 he went there in 1901 after a brief residence in Texas. There he met and married Nina Kay of Pal estine, Tex. .
 Six years later he went to the United States senate as one of Okla. homa's representatives and in the senate he remained until 1920. He was first appointed by the governor and then twiee elected for six-year terms.
 It was his opposition to President Wilson's war measures and League of Nations proposals, it is said, that defeated him, At any rate he lost the democratic senatorial nomina- ton and his farmer friends quickly got revenge by turning their support to Senator J. W. Harreld. q repub- lican, in the November election with the result that Harreld was Alected. Harreld held on for one term and then the job passed to Senator Pine.
 Split With Wilson
 Prior to their break, Gore had been an ardent Wilson supporter. Just what caused the split has never been entirely clear.
 At Baltimore, in 1912, he had made tho speech placing Wilson's name in. nomination at the demo. cratic national convention.
 After severa! years Of political ob- scurity as an attorney in Washing ton. Cora returned to the democratic convention at Houston in 1923. It was a stifling afternoon Under a blazing Texas sun and speaker after speaker had failed to register until he mounted the platform.
 My friends" he began in the same soft, deep voice with which he had been wont to ingratiate himself with Oklahoma farmers for years, "the rep u blieans met at Kansas City a few days ago and nominated candidate for president"
 Then he paused, turned his vacant eyes upward and made the familiar gesture of batting the back Of his left hand meditatively with his right.