POLITICAL NOTES: Oklahoma Outs

In the 73rd House of Representatives nine good Democrats regularly cast Oklahoma’s nine votes in support of the New Deal. When the 74th Congress meets in January at least five of those nine Democratic Representatives will be conspicuously absent.

Representative William W. Hastings who had spent the last twelve of his 67 years in the House decided to retire voluntarily.

Representative Ernest Whitworth Marland decided he could do more for the New Deal by running for Governor. In the primary last month he won a nomination that was tantamount to election.

Representative Fletcher B. Swank after four years in the House was beaten for renomination in the same primary.

Last week in a run-off primary Representatives Tom D. McKeown and James V. McClintic also lost what, as practical politicians, they prized next to life itself—their House seats.

The significance of burly, red-faced Tom McKeown’s defeat was that his successor is likely to be unique among House characters in the next Congress. Winner of the Democratic nomination was Judge “P. L.” Gassaway whose first name is, though few Oklahomans know it, Percy. Judge Gassaway has piercing black eyes and a mop of flowing black hair, wears a broad-brimmed black felt hat, black tie, wing collar, black suit and high-heeled black cowboy boots. He was never a cowboy. He comes from Coalgate in Coal County, is the son of a missionary to the Indians and is famed for his peculiar behavior on the bench. When his raven-like eye spots a prominent onlooker in his court room, he is apt to halt proceedings, introduce the visitor, make him take a bow. He holds that every judge, before he takes office, should have at least five years experience as a poker player, to get an insight into human nature. Last autumn he wrote a letter to a newspaper declaring that he enjoyed seeing the execution of Negro Charley Dumas, convicted of raping and mutilating white girls. When some citizens protested his gushy enjoyment, Judge Gassaway reviewed the case from the bench, cited the heinous nature of the crime, the fact that he was himself the father of four daughters. He wound up by announcing that there was “something wrong” with any other father who did not also enjoy the electrocution of such a malefactor as Charley Dumas.

For years as a member of the Naval Affairs Committee, Representative James V. McClintic, senior member of the Oklahoma Delegation, used to harp on the shortcomings of the U. S. fleet. Land-locked Oklahoma tired of his harpings long before he was transferred to the Ways & Means Committee. Last week he was defeated for renomination by a Cordell lawyer named Sam Massingale.

Only one New Dealer from the 73rd Congress—Representative Disney—won his renomination in the first primary. Three others, Schoolteacher Willie Rogers, who campaigns as “Will Rogers,” Schoolteacher Wilburn Cartwright and Lawyer Jed Johnson finally made the grade in last week’s runoff. Discounting retirements, personal fights and local issues, the fact seemed to remain that in Oklahoma support of the New Deal by no means guaranteed a Democratic politician success at the polls.