Oklahoma by H Wayne Morgan

Author:H Wayne Morgan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780393348637
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

6

The Politics of Modernization: From the 1920s to the 1960s

THE record of the first fifteen years of statehood disappointed those who thought that they were establishing truly democratic government in 1907. In spite of Oklahomans’ persistent idealistic belief in man’s goodness, old injustices remained. From the first, the combination of an unwieldy constitution and an exploitative political system rooted in the frontier ethic of grab-and-run shaped the merry-go-round quality of Sooner party politics and state government.

The basic constitutional provision forbidding the governor and other elected officials from succeeding themselves was designed to prevent the courthouse gangs so familiar in American political history. In practice, it promoted a spoils system. Ambitious men learned to exchange offices and support each other’s campaigns. “Swapping keys,” as the practice was called, gave the state some honest and experienced administrators, but it also left a large number of corrupt or incompetent officials undisturbed.

The number of candidates the system generated thwarted the progressive idea that elected rather than appointed officials best represented the voters’ wishes. Confronted with a bedsheet ballot, most people voted “by guess or by God,” ignorant of the candidates’ abilities. In the 1930s, numerous candidates with famous names compounded the problem of voter recognition. In 1932 a public school teacher from Moore named Will Rogers capitalized on his namesake’s popularity and won election to Congress. Illustrious names appeared regularly on Oklahoma ballots after that. Mae West, a telephone switchboard operator from Oklahoma City, received more than 65,000 votes for Commissioner of Charities and Corrections in 1938. Oliver Cromwell, Daniel Boone, Brigham Young, Joe E. Brown, and Patrick Henry vied for other offices.

The cynical held that anyone who ran for office was probably a scoundrel, anyway; voting him in and then driving him out of office might warn others of like mind. Incessant bickering over patronage within state government and pressures from without prevented many conscientious officials from doing their jobs. Oklahomans were not unique in their disenchantment with politics after World War I, but wide swings of public mood made any real political stability difficult.

Just as national attention focused on the president, so local voters looked to the governor for leadership. After the near-civil war of the Walton episode in the 1920s, Oklahomans were ready for the respite of Martin E. Trapp’s interim administration. Lieutenant governor under three different chief executives, Trapp was the epitome of the professional politician. An able administrator, accustomed to working with a touchy legislature, he provided peaceful leadership. It seemed ironic that more or less by chance the state had acquired an able man as governor during a critical period of transition.

To many, it looked as if the querulous politics of the statehood era were over. And as the 1926 election approached, many Democrats hoped that Trapp could be a candidate, since, technically, he had thus far served only as “acting governor.” Popular with the voters and acceptable to the faction-ridden Democratic party, Trapp probably would have won election. But the state supreme court upheld the constitutional provision of one term per governor, and the prospect of a stable administration faded.

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