Evening star., 1932-01-20
WASHINGTON TAKES.
MURRAY SERIOUSLY
Respects Him as Man and
Governor More Than
Presidential Timber.
BY MARK SULLIVAN.


Gov. Alfalfa Bill" Murray of Okla.
homa has given Washington, on The
whole, a serious opinion Of him. AS 6
possibility for the Democratic presiden-
tial nomination at this stage of the
contest only few take him seriously
AS a man and Governor, however
everybody took him seriously and gave
him complete respect.
In his initial appearance before 1C
| or 20 newspaper men, he had all the
uncouthness, partly deliberate, that has
been emphasized in printed accounts
| of him. He stopped, is If in keeping
! with the role he has taken for himself
at modest, out-of-the-way hotel, that
is both old and old-fashioned. Sitting
| in a big chair, he wore a crumpled
sweat-stained hat, clothes unacquainted
with the presser, linen not too impec-
cable. From time to time he swung
one leg high over the arm of his chair
| Occasionally he cooked his heel on that
| part of the chair arm on which ordi-
narily the elbow rests, his knee partly
concealing his face.
| In his squirming, he managed tc
work the legs of his trousers high
| enough to show six inches of wrinkled
white cotton stocking. On that occa-
! sion his pronunciation of "caint" anC
"wuz" and "Cawngress" and "Amurrlca'
was straight from the soil of Pottawat'
omie County. He made gestures with
soggy cigar butt, gained time to parry
| questions by scratching his ear, and
| pulled his hat backward and forward
from brow to nape.
Acts Like Talkative Farmer.
He made on this occasion the i'm
preston of a farmer who, perhaps, has
done too much reading and not enough
plowing, sitting at the center of an eve
ming group at an Oklahoma country
store, acting as oracle on all subjects,
from the Federal Reserve system to the
politics Of Peru.
If we had ended our observation of
Murray with this one sitting, most of
us would have shrunk little from i'm
agining him in the White House. Two
hours later, however, at a tea given
him by the National Women's Demo-
cratic Club, he was spic and span in
both dress and diction, with nothing
whatever to distinguish him from a
man who might perfectly well be Gov
ernor of New York or Virginia. A
carefully folded handkerchief showed
its white edge above his breast pocket
in almost the manner of dandy.
The audience that heard him at this
women'S club was as cultivated as
would come together anywhere in Amer
lea, and it was clear they found Moth
ing uncouth or otherwise to be disap-
proved in Murray's clothes or manner
or speech or thought. Almost as If con-
sciously impressing the ladies, Murray's
speech on this occasion took on some
thing approaching real distinction of
phrase and form. Little bursts Of
q q rNrN1
he got just as much and the same sort
of respect and appreciation as would be
given to Gov Franklin Roosevelt or any
other aspirant for the presidency.
Dosent Quite Admit Aim.
That Murray is after the Democratic
presidential nomination, everybody un-
derstands. Murray himself does not
quite admit it. When a newspaper
man asked him the question direct,
he said he had nothing to say about
that" When the newspaper man was
insistent, Murray, with touch OF i'm
periousness that accounts for some of
his attractiveness, said, "A newspaper
man should be gentleman, and when
/ tell you I have nothing to say, you
should stop" With flash of the eye
that suggested courage and capacity
for quick anger, he darted lean finger
at the questioner who had irritated him
Not only the fact Of his aspiration
but his technique of going after the
nomination Is suggested by his Wash
ington visit. He excites curiosity,
arouses interest. To satisfy this inter-
est is about the only method of cam
paigning available to him. He has not
the means to organize contests in the
primaries Besides, that sort of cam
paigning is not in keeping with him.
He can only let the people see him
and learn about him. Hence his jour-
ney to Washington and to North Caro-
lima where he goes from here and his
previous trips to Iowa, Tennessee and
Illinois.
Must Be Dramatic.
His real chance-and one guesses that
he knows this-must wait until the con-
vention is in session, and lies in his do
ing something forceful and dramatic,
something similar, perhaps, to Bryan's
Gross of Gold" speech in 1896 His
chance rests also on the assumption
that the times will still be bad, for
Murray's place in politics is that of
crusader for the oppressed and discon-
tented. He will enter the situation by
way of the platform. By controlling the
Oklahoma delegation, Murray will get
a place on the Resolutions Committee.
That definite purpose he proclaims, and
1t Is as much as he admits now. On
the Resolutions Committee he will in
troduce some startling platform.
From his speeches at Washington one
would guess his proposals will include a
defiance of the inferior Federal Courts,
whom he has twice challenged with his
National Guard. He is careful to ex-
press 100 per cent respect for the Su-
preme Court, but the inferior Federal
Courts. he says, are arrogant and must
be checked. Another proposal, one
would guess from his Washington
speeches and talk, will be in the field of
currency and will aim at increasing it
by allowing State banks to issue it. 1t
is fair to say that Murray, in his Wash
ington utterances, made the impression
of having plenty of sound common
sense. AS for the Constitution, he not
only respects it but reveres it as much
as the Bible. He is distinctly anti-New
York City, which he describes as be
low Harlem and next to Europe"
EI~