The Indianapolis times., 1932-06-23
BY ROBERT TALLEY
NEA Service Writer

NKLAHOMA CITY, June 3D.
~ Alfalfa Bill' Murray told
me the story Of his colorful life in
long interview held in his bed
room in the executive mansion
sdjclsing Oklahoma's state cap
itol here.
1t was evening. Governor Muir
ray seemed tired after hard day.
He lay upon the bed, completely
dressed, his shoes on the white
bedspresd.
Occasionally, during the four
hours that we talked, he changed
his position for greater comfort;
when he did, he lay with his shoes
at the other end Of the bed.
His bedroom seemed in chronic
disorder. Obviously, he was man
who demanded that housekeepers
leave his things alone. Books, old
magazines, old newspapers, OLD
documents were stacked and plleo
in every corner.
He is a lean, grizzled man OF
SO. with heavy gray hair, bushy
gray eyebrows, keen, blue eyes ana
a walrus-like gray mustache. he
spoke in a deep. resonant voice
and, being q little hard of hear
ing. he frequently cupped his ear
with his hand when a question
was asked.
Here was Oklahoma's "favorite
son" candidate for the Democratic
presidential nomination, the polit-
ical champion of the man with
the empty pocketbook and the
patch on the seat Of his pants.
He is a product Of the depres-
sion and perhaps a dangerous
contender in a year Of unemploy-
ment and breadlines.
Oklahoma opinion sharply is di-
vided on Murray. To the state S
rich oil men and others Of the
wealthy, he is a political char
latan, faker and shyster Of the
first water.
To the backwoods farmers In
the red clay hills who are strug
Cling to pay their taxes, Murray
is the greatest champion Of the
common people since Abraham
Lincoln. The latter have the most
votes; that explains why Murray
is Governor today.
n n
TTERE, recumbent on the bed,
Il Il was the man who hopes to
ride to the White House on his
campaign slogan of Butter and
Bread, Bacon and Beans in this
depression year 1882.
Here was the boy who ran away
from home and became a cotton
picker. who educated himself
when he didn't have money to buy
shoes, who studied law while run
ming a country newspaper in the
back end of a Negro barber shop,
who wrote the Constitution that
made Oklahoma a state, who led
q colony of farmers to the South
American wilderness, who re-
turned home broke after five
years, campaigned for Governor
on cheese and crackers and now
seeks the nations highest Office.
II was born" said Governor
Murray, "in east Texas on Nov.
q, 1869, in a small box house,
which had a sandstone chimney
and strips of board nailed over
the cracks to keep out the wind
and rain.
MY grandfather owned near
by mill that was powered by six
teen yoke of oxen on a tread
wheel. My father was u. D. t.
Murray, a minister of the gospel" "
When Murray was an infant,
his mother died and his father
remarked. When he was II. he
and his brother ran away from
home.
II remember I left home on the
day before Garfield died" he re-
lated. "I passed a cotton gin and
boy yelled to me: DO you know
Garfield is dead?'
It hollered back: Who's Gar
field?' and the boy answered
He's the President 1t was the
first time I had ever heard the
word President; 1 didn't know
what he meant"
EURRAY worked as a cotton
lV1 picker and cordwood chop
per until he was taken in by Mr..
and Mrs. f. r. Loper, farmers OF
Wise county, Texas.
He spent a year there, working
on the farm and Jared forth as a
book agent. He worked his way
through school at Springfield,
Tex. and later taught school at
several places.
Eventually he was elected to the
Texas state senate. A little later
he moved to Corsicana, where he
rented the back end of q Negro
barber shop and started a news
paper. At nights. he read law.
Soon he was admitted to the bar
In 1898, Murray moved to Tish-
imingo, Okla, then the capital of
the Chickasaw Indian nation. He
soon became attorney for the
tribe, was admitted into it and a
little later he married the niece
of Douglas H. Johnston, Governor
of the nation. She was Miss Alice
Hearrell, a school teacher.
Following an unsuccessful at
tempt to carve an Indian state
named "Sequoyah" out Of the In
dian lands, Murray joined those
who were creating the state OF
Oklahoma and drafted a model
Constitution.
He was elected president Of the
constitutional convention which
met at Guthrie in 1907.
=
TN 1912 and again in 1914 cal