The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-12-03

On the same day Holman had made a speech before the Port land Chamber of Commerce prom ising a balanced budget.
 "DoggOne it." replied the fu- ture senator, I've joined every thing in Oregon except the Knights of Columbus and B. mai B'rith, and I can't join them because I'm Protestant.
 The U. s. Senate will witness a rare specimen when Senator Holman comes to take his seat.
 Once suspected of putting on the long white night-gown, he was active in the days when the XXX passed a bill closing Ore- gorYs religious schools = later thrown out by the Supreme Court. At one time he was denounced for bigotry by the newspaper of his Republican running-mate, Charles A. Sprague.
 He favored the three-biIIiOn dollar inflationary Frazier Lemke farm bilI~ at the same time he was balancing budgets before the Chamber of Com merce. In fact, there was al- most nothing Rufus Holman did
 not do to get elected except stand on his head.
 Yet, although he was running against Willis Mahoney, who had come within a Scant margin of defeating the veteran McNary in 1886, Rufus won.
 Behind The Purge
 Behind this victory was noth- ing other than the primary purge. And behind the purge in Oregon was a basic issue which the Democratic party is facing in lot of states. Oregon typifies the issue.
 This state, traditionally Repub- lican, has been governed by Charles H. Martin, in name a Democratic governor, but in fact a representative of the exact op- posite of the New Deal. Regarding people on relief, he said: Hell, let them work" Veterans unable to repay loans were "skunks". Old sters demanding pensions brought the dictum: 'T believe ten dollars a month ample to care for them; while state police were ordered to go after strikers and "crack their damned heads together"
 Nevertheless, from an admins trative point of view. Martin was an efficient governor. There was no taint of graft or crookedness about his regime. He worked hard, made others do the same.
 Moreover, he was a Democrat, a lifelong Democrat, and one of the few Democratic governors of Oregon in many years. AS such, Jim Farley considered him his friend and the man to be backed for reelection.
 Brain Trust vS. Farley
 The issue, therefore, was whether the New Deal should back the reelection of a Democratic governor opposed to most of the basic issues Roosevelt stood for, or whether it should fight him even though he wore the label Democrat.
 It was the same issue in various states = in New Jersey, when Mayor Hague has con- trolIed a governor and senator and thwarted most of the New Deals basic policies; in Ohio, where, Governor Davey in mild CT degree has done the same; in Missouri with the Fender gast machine; in Illinois with the Kelly-Nash organization. And so on.
 The issue was between the Clean Housers and the Machine Oilers. The Clean-HouSers in Washington wanted a complete divorce from old-line organiza- tion Democrats. They wanted to build up local and state de- mocracy on new and liberal foun- dations = even if 1t meant tem- porary defeat.
 The Machine Oilers, on the other hand, believed in Oiling up the old local organizations, pumping in federal patronage, winking an eye at Old Deal Democrats, using the machine bosses to ensure a Democratic front in Congress and most of the 48 states.
 In this fight = at least in Oregon = the Clean Housers won. With their support plus a timely, last-minute punch from the White House, Henry Hess won the Democratic nomination over Gov ernor Martin in the primaries.
 D~~0HWN