The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-02-28
0K!hHOMAN IS
STILL PIONEER
BELOW VENEER
DerriCks, Dust Symbols of
States Despoiling,
Stokes Says.
BY THOMAS L. STOKES
Times Special Writer

AAOAAAA cAAA JOh "A AAAAA WIZ AoW RAO
neer still underneath.
The man who struck 1t rich, the
adventurer who would bet every
thing on the turn of card, the
man who brought his family from
the filled-up acres of the East, the
Incian driven from his Eastern
home by white mans government
the preacher who was moved to
take his Bible and his hell-f1re-
and -danInatiorl salvation into the
wilderness-all arr represented in
the Oklahoma of today.
The oil exploiters have moved
right into the heart of this city
Scores of derricks stand almost
side by side the city's skyscrapers
like field of radio towers by day
and, by night, like a string of dia-
monds on the plush of the jeweler S
box.
Derricks rise in backyards, and
about schoolhouses.
Dust Forms Background
/ saw their spidery forms against
a background of dust, a pinkish
gray cloud lowering over the city,
swept up from the Panhandle of
Oklahoma and Texas in one of a
series of dust storms in recent
weeks which presage return of
last years calamity.
In the derricks and the dust cloud
you have the symbols of the de-
spelling Of this country out here
the ravaging of Cklahomas two
chief resources, her oil and her farm
lands, by those who lust for quick
profits and think not of the NOR
row.
On this city's outskirts is a shan
tytown where whole families live
from hand to mouth in degradation
big cities. Nearly three-fourths of
the farmers of the state are tenants.
The economic scale reaches from
the direct poverty to the oil multi
millionaire.
There's Strong Radical Movement
Consequently there is seething I'M
der the surface a strong radical
movement, exemplified in the Town
end Plan and the Veterans Of In
dustry of America, the latter an
organization embracing farmers and
labor who want the government to
take over industry and to divide the
big farms into smaller units.
Politics of the state-only a few
years out Of the shoot-your- way-to-
office stage-reflects these boiling
Inducements and reaches down.
like the oil wells, to tap the pioneer
stratum which gushes and foams to
the top in election years.
So it is now.
The big political event Of this
year in Oklahoma, outside of the
presidential race, is the contest
over United States Senator. i.
Defending his right to another
term is the blind Thomas P. Gore
a statesman of the old-fashioned
Democrat type. In the Forthcoming
contest he will attract the support
of conservatives as well as a per-
sonal following, some of it of the
backwoods variety, which he has
built up during a long career in
politics.
Several Threaten to Run
AS usual in Oklahoma, several
ambitious Democrats have AM
nounced, or are threatening to run
against the incumbent.
Among these is Gov. E. w. Mar
land, who was squeezed out of an
oil fortune by the Morgans and ther
took up politics. A stanch New
Dealer, he is so bitter against Sen
ator Cores anti-New Deal philoso-
ply that he has decided to enter
the senatorial race. He says the
Senator must be defeated and he
believes he is one to do it.
The Governor, whose term has
three years to run, has suffered the
usual fate of the business man ir
politics in that he has been unable
to handle his Legislature and it has
wrecked part of his program.
Then there is young Rep. Josh
Lee, not long away from his posi-
as teacher of public speaking at
Oklahoma University. He has a
sort of Y. M. c. A. or Chatauqua
manner in which he crusades
against war and against sin in gen.
eral.
Supported by 3 Groups
He counts his strength among
the women, among the Baptists
who make up about third of the
church population of the state and
are strong politically, and among
the war veterans. He stumped the
state during the congressional re-
cess, making as many as 10
speeches a day.
The Townsendites have a poten-
tial candidate in Conner Smith
Oklahoma City lawyer, third in
command in the national Townsend
movement, who has been running
for Office for years, but now has an
issue and a solidified following
There are reports, however, the.
he may not run.
And last, but not least, is the new.
est political figure in Oklahoma
chunky Ira M. Finley, Irish head OF
the Veterans of Industry of Amer
lea, former head of the State Fed
Grafton of Labor. who has built ul
an organization which he says
numbers 100000 members.
alfalfa Bill" Mentioned
There is a possibility that former
Governor Alfalfa Bill" Murray may
get in the race-though he is sale
to be looking toward the governor
ship. Right now he is writing phi
lippics against the New Deal as
organizer of some sort of taxation
league from his farm at Broker
Bow where he is followed about
by a loving jackaSS and keeps hi;