Evening star., 1931-12-06
Sudden Tom Campbell

! Penitentiary. Hitch hiking to Cali
! fornia, he fell in with married couple
! who gave him a ride in their car and
| liked his company so much that they
| invited him to camp with them. In
| the night he murdered the husband for
his money and car and attacked the
wife. Next morning he loaded the body
into the back seat, covered 1t with lug
gage and forced the woman. at the
point of gun, to ride with him on the
front seat while he drove westward.
| Two or three miles out of a town he
ran short of gas Threatening the
woman with death If she squawked," he
went on foot for supply.
Doomed by Remark.
AS soon as he was out of sight she
hailed passing car, and when Daley
returned he ran into a trap. Locked
up in the penitentiary at Phoenix, he
sealed his doom by one defiant re-
mark. Arizona had Just abolished the
death penalty by referendum They
can't hang mo here" he said "the
worst they car. give me is life In the
stir. And I'm % used to jails that I'll
feel at home
Through ~ indignant state ran
that sentenc They can't hang me
here" Arizona had not been disgraced
by a lynching in many, many years.
But the lynching spirit began to stir
Sensing this Gov Campbell ordered
Daley taken secretly to the strong jail
at Florence. That night the voice Of
an anonymous woman reached him on
the telephone Significantly. she knew
that Daley was going to Florence And
a gang Of men is going to stop him on
the way and lynch him!" she said
Campbell called up the jail at Flor
ence. The prisoner had not arrived
He ordered out his car. was driven
post haste down the main road At
Florence he found that the deputies
with the prisoner were still overdue
He started back to Phoenix by another
route. At dawn the car topped
rise-and Gov. Campbell wilted inside
The ghostly vision which had disturbed
his rest all his life had become reality
again. Daley, the only thing in that
desert landscape which had ever been
human, was hanging from a telegraph
pole.
Plot Beats Governor.
Even certain minor State officials
who surrounded Campbell were prob
ably in this plot-watching and tipping
off the Governors movements. He
learned afterward that before the mob
proceeded to business they made a bar
ricade of cars mile on each side of
the scene of action, so as to delay him
in case he outwitted them and came
along before the Job was done
Free of reproach as Arizona had
stood in the matter of lynching it ap-
proved this one-overwhelmingly And
when the Legislature met again it re-
stored capital punishment, Better
that than necktie parties" said the
members.
Campbell came back as Governor in
1918, this time he handily beat a pro-
tege of Hunt. He held Office for two
terms. until Hunt regained that hold
on the State which he has kept ever
since. During this period 10 men went
to the gallows in Arizona. TITS the
law" he said. The people have
spoken, enphatically The Governor
must enforce it." But when the peculiar
probation laws of Arizona permittad,
he gave the accused every benefit of
the doubt.
Conditions Peculiar.
And that stratum Of hard realism
under his dynamic. attractive exterior
has kept him from rationalizing his
this matter Of legal killing. To this
day he isn't quite certain In his mind
about the necessity and advisability
Of capital punishment-at least for
Arizona.
Conditions are peculiar In our
State" he says, We're on main tour
ist route into Southern California
We're infested by hitch mixers and des-
ert rats, some of whom are always
criminals. By the time they've beaten
their way 70 Arizona they're getting
hungry and desperate. So now and
then they'll pick up ride in the back
seat, murder the driver, take his be-
longings and the car. More than half
oil our murders are of this type. I
know how the State feels about that.
It's a choice between legal hanging
and lynchtng. Legal hanging La nv
own thin choice there.
1T would seem from figures that
capital punishment has served as a
deterrent in Arizona. But there again
one sparsely populated Western State
with peculiar social and physical con-
oltlons shouldn't serve as a general
rule. So I'm back where I started.
Only one thing l do know / loathe 1t
emotionally. 1t isn't a case of killing
IN fair. man-sized fight It's cold
Dlooded, horrible. somehow degrading"
This is the interesting side of Tom
Cam2bell-or rather. a very thin slice
OF 1t. AS for the important side since
he left the Governors chair, It began
with delicate mission TO Mexico. In
1928 we were on the verge of war with
the Obregon government. Campbell
spoke Spanish as. second language.
had dealt all his life with Spanish
Americans, was personal friend of
Obregon. President Harding appointed
him, together with John Barton Payne
and others, on commission to adjust
our differences When they returned,
they had laid the foundation for the
structure Of peace which Dwight Nor
row capped few years later.
Hoover when he became President,
called Tom Campbell to the Office of
Federal Civil Service Commissioner.
Since then he has inhabited Washing
ton except for brief, reviving flights
TO the land Of little rain and much
glory. BY day he sits in his Office over
Seventeenth street putting into action
the common sense and skill with facts
which made him the author of the IA
nous Campbell taxation plan In Ari-
zona; and nights and week ends
whenever he cares to give hiniself-he
figures as the wise and witty enter
tainer of Washington official life, for
he still has the two sides, so harnoni-
ously in contrast!