The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1940-04-05
WHO'S
NEWS
THIS
WEEK
By LEMUEL F. PARTON

team, in 1915, he was scaled down
to mere 260
Game of Politics pounds, but
Is Another Story in spite of
For Football Star tn at m a n
aged to root
through the line like a high-pow-
cred snowshovel. Sometimes he
wouldn't stop when the whistle blew
and they had hard time to keep
him inside the state lines. Today,
as Gov. Leon c. Phillips of Okla
homa, he weighs in at 290 and is
even more abandoned in his rootin'
tootin' guard play. He orders out
the National Guard to repulse the
invasion of the federals, trying to
build $40, 900 dam on the Grand
river in his state.
This, one Of his many scrim-
images, is part of his waxing battle
for state rights against what he con-
siders the illegal encroachment Of
the federal government. He is an
apostate New Dealer, having de-
feated the similarly belligerent cal
falfa Bill'' Murray on the issue Of
New Deal adherence in the 1888
Democratic primary.
Now he has switched teams. With
big cigar protruding from his
lips at cocky angle, biting it to
shreds when he gets steamed up, he
says the New Deal is social serv-
ice outfit, and social workers are
sorority sisters" Like the "Fiery
and Snuffy" of the Oklahoma cow
boy song, he's ''rarin' to go and he
sends word to the war department
that he won't let any invader set
foot on Oklahoma SOIL"
He started to be preacher, but
switched to the law. Born so years
ago in Grant county, Missouri, along
the covered wagon trail, he was
taken to Oklahoma at the age of
two and grew up in the Cheyenne
and Arapaho Indian country. He
attended Epworth university one
year, studying, presumably mill
tant, Christianity, and then entered
the law school of the University of
Oklahoma. His fame as "Red"
Phillips, the bone-crushing, man.
eating football player, gave him
fast running start in politics, and he
soon landed in the state legislature.
He made his campaign for the gov
ernorship on an economy platform,
sweeping the state. The citizens
still know him as "Red," and the
"Yea Red!" yell of his college days
serves for his political campaigns.
XX7HEN knew Death Valley
w Scotty and his dog "Goldbug,"
around Goldfeld, Rhyolite and
Windy Gap, there was story that
the dog had
All Scotty's Cash made a great
ls.Loaned' to Him fuss over a
By Chicago Man stranger at
and theory that this stranger must
have been Scotty's mysterious back
er. The visitor, however, was just
passing through and was never
identified, and Scotty, even in mo-
ments of abandon in Tex Richards
place, continued to insist that he
had a chimney" or blowout" of
gold nuggets, samples of which he
carried in his overalls pocket. It
was not until years later that the
man who financed the Death Valley
Scotty saga, just for his own amuse-
ment it would seem, was A. M.
johnson, the head of big insur-
ance firm in Chicago.
AS Scotty and his hacker round
out 40 years Of a beautiful friend
ship, Scotty informs the federal tax
collectors that he has 100000 in
gold certificates buried somewhere
in the Panamint mountains, and
that the source of his mysterious
wealth has unfailingly been Mr..
johnson. From the same source
came the $3,000,000 Spanish castle
which Scotty built in the heart of
Death valley several years ago, &C
cording to his previous admissions.
The unique partnership opened
with $500 grubstake. He not
only wrote a check, but followed
Scotty to Death valley. The first
mine didn't pan out, but Mr.. John
SUI was having 4ul1. 4ACy 4OuSlt
bandits, got chubby with the Piute
Indians and rooted around in old
prospect holes. Thereafter came
Scotty's famous train ride and the
deepening mystery of his treasure
cache. They kept their secret until
along about 1880. The pooch, "Gold-
bug" and Scotty's extraordinarily
intelligent white mule both died of
old age. But the original partner
ship still goes on.
Mr.. johnson, now 68 years old,
is cut somewhat on the same lines
as Henry Ford, but with an Achilles
Heel of Romance. He was born
and grew up in a small town in
Ohio, went to Cornell university, did
jolt of railroading in Arkansas
and engaged in mining lead and
zinc near Joplin, Mo. In Chicago
he augmented an inherited fortune
u, the inor,ranoa t.xcsnocC ua Ia