Evening star., 1932-03-13
MURRAY'S RATING IN WEST
WILL BE SHOWN TUESDAY
Duel With Roosevelt i'm North Dakota
Will Shed Light on Oklahoma Cover
nor's Power to Win Delegates.

! rays utterances closely, that he Is as
he says. for the great middle class and
the poorer class he means the
middle class first His plea, indeed, Is
preponderantly for the middle class; he
sees the middle class in danger of ex-
tinction between pressure from the
rich above and the poor below-and he
proposes to save the middle class. "As
Governor of Oklahoma" he says, Il
acted for the great middle class; this
class has always been the stalwart pre-
server of civilization"
How much Murray understands Of
this is not the question. The fact
about his status before the country is
that it is the middle class-the farm
ers-who compose the better part Of
his following
Therein lies the weakness Of Murray's
plea for the Democratic nomination.
In the West it is mainly the middle
class, the farmer, who feels distress. In
the East, in the cities, it is mainly the
| laborer class that composes the bulk Of
distress There is no signs, as yet, that
| Murray has any prospect Of having as
much as one delegate from east of the
Mississippi. CThough it is possible he
may get some from Southern States
where. as in the. West, farmers COM
pose most of the diStreSSed)
majority of the Democrats with him;
his control of the recent Democratic
State convention is sufficient proof of
that; he dominated it personally more
completely than any Eastern boss is
commonly able to dominate his State
convention.
Deplored by Many In Oklahoma.
Many thoughtful persons in Okla
homa deplore Murray. The following
sentences are detached from letters re-
ceived by the writer of this article
from two men in Oklahoma who have
high public ideals, combined with
sound judgment and insight into char
acter. They are personally disinter-
ested about Murray, although the SEN
tenceS here detached are mainly the
ones in which they criticize the Gov
eronr and picture him as a danger.
"The Eastern press and magazines
in the publicity they give about Muir
ray are playing with fire. Just because
he is a picturesque old cuSs, writers
come down here, shut their eyes to
them and write him up for national
consumption with emphasis on his
picturesqueness rather than on the
| qualities the country ought to look into
| If it is to take him seriously.
Murray is really hard-shelled con-
servative-observe his opposition to
public ownership-yet he talks suf1-
GENTLY like a radical to fool the un-
thinking. 1t Is only in his words that
Murray is radical. The mood to which
he really appeals is mood that wants
to go back to the older and simpler
days, a mood which thinks that Gov.
Murray can restore a pastoral civili-
zation Fundamentally he is opposed
to modern industry and all that goes
with it. His pose is the wise old states
man calling for a return to the good
old days. He is the kind of fellow
that captivates the mind of the dis
couraged and the Northumberland
just now we have a lot of them in the
! West, good solid people who don't want
Russia, but do want to 81 back to an
earlier and more stable condition. Muir
ray is as daring as Andrew Jackson and
| utterly without limit to his egotism.
He would go into foreign war at the
drop of a hat if he thought it neces-
Sary to avert attention from domestic
predicamentS. In his executive work
| he is rough and surly, without diplo-
macy and Indifferent to the feelings
| of any one. He is the most suspicious
man I ever saw, seeing hidden pIlr-
pose in the motives of any one who
| approaches him on any subject. He has
| gone to the most petty extremes in or
| ganizlng each State department down
| to the last Office boy with his own
| friends. He dictates every appointment.
He is fanatical for his friends, regard
less of their abilities; a poor judge of
| human nature and consequently has
surrounded himself with a number of
| ofhceholders who are not of the best
material. He is money honest. I do
not believe any one could bribe him
! with money. But he is the most greedy
man for power that has emerged in
! America in recent times. He is one of
the best spellbinders in the United
/ States Cunder present conditions). He
is so convinced that he is called by
destiny to be the next President that
he feels justified in doing ruthless
things to bring it about"
Possesses Personality.
After all is said, the outstanding
quality of Murray remains He has the
indispensable thing, personality, and
the particular kind of personality
which, taken in connection with the
condition of the times, causes every
body to look at him and many to fol-
low him. This is unique perform
ance. Nobody else is achieving any
thing like it.
Consider Joseph l. France of Mary
land, for example who is trying to take
the Republican nomination away from
MI hoover. Ihey very audacity of that
ought to attract attention to France,
If he had the particular kind of per-
sonality that the times call for. France
Is not newcomer; he was a United
States Senator from Maryland some 10
years ago. France is, like Murray, an
old-timer trying to stage a comeback.
The very boldness of the attempt
should make him conspicuous But
few go to see France. No one hears
about any Of his public meetings He
is not written up in the newspapers
and magazines. In short, France doesn't
have political "it"-and Murray has.