Background
Clinton Presba Anderson was born on October 23, 1895 in Centerville, South Dakota, United States, the son of Andrew Jay Anderson, a storekeeper and farmer, and Hattie Belle Presba.
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(Outsider in the Senate; Senator Clinton Anderson's Memoirs.)
Outsider in the Senate; Senator Clinton Anderson's Memoirs.
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Clinton Presba Anderson was born on October 23, 1895 in Centerville, South Dakota, United States, the son of Andrew Jay Anderson, a storekeeper and farmer, and Hattie Belle Presba.
Anderson attended public schools in Parker and Mitchell, South Dakota, and studied at Dakota Wesleyan University (1913-1915) and the University of Michigan (1915-1916), but did not complete a degree.
In 1917, while working as a newspaper reporter in South Dakota, Anderson became ill with tuberculosis and traveled west to a sanatorium in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Within nine months he had recovered sufficiently to join the staff of the Albquerque Evening Herald, a position that introduced him to the turbulent world of New Mexico politics.
In 1921 he became managing editor and chief investigative reporter for the Albuquerque Journal. In that capacity, he helped uncover shady dealings in the leasing of American naval oil reserves, a situation that emerged as the "Teapot Dome" scandal.
In 1922 Anderson cashed in his financial holdings in the Journal and purchased the insurance division of a local bank, which in 1923 became the Clinton P. Anderson Agency. At a time of rapid expansion in the state's highway construction, Anderson offered road contractors a local source of modestly priced workman's compensation insurance. This broadened his contacts with the state's business and political communities.
From the mid-1920s to 1932, his dealings quickly transcended the local scene as demonstrated by his rise from the presidency of the Albuquerque Rotary Club to the presidency of that organization's international body from 1932 to 1933.
In 1933 and 1934 Anderson served as New Mexico state treasurer and in 1935 and 1936 as a field representative of the New Deal's Federal Emergency Relief Administration.
Also in 1936 he began a two-year term as chairman of the Unemployment Compensation Commission of New Mexico. While in that post he established the Mountain States Mutual Casualty Company to take on the business of larger insurance companies that were cutting back on their workman's compensation policies due to a dramatic growth in claim volume. The success of Anderson's insurance ventures guaranteed his subsequent financial independence.
In 1940, Anderson concluded two years as executive director of the United States Coronado Exposition, a celebration commemorating Spanish exploration in the Southwest, and won a tight Democratic primary race for New Mexico's single seat in the U. S. House of Representatives. He went on to win the general election easily. In the House, Anderson received committee assignments pertinent to his constituency's interests, including Indian Affairs, Irrigation and Reclamation, and Public Lands.
Despite chronic health problems, Anderson easily secured reelection in 1942 and 1944. Earning the respect of Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, he was awarded a valued seat on the Appropriations Committee in 1943 and subsequently was appointed chair of special committees to investigate campaign spending irregularities and wartime food shortages. In the latter post, during early 1945, he conducted a well-publicized series of hearings across the nation and produced reform proposals that impressed newly installed President Harry Truman.
In May 1945 Truman selected Anderson as his secretary of agriculture. Having operated a dairy farm in Albuquerque, he became the first person from an irrigation farming region to hold that cabinet post. Anderson's three years in the Truman administration proved to be stormy. His credentials as a successful businessman and presidential poker partner were stronger than his agricultural policy expertise or his skills for administering a sprawling bureaucracy.
Early in 1948 Senator Carl Hatch decided not to seek reelection and recommended Anderson as his successor. Anderson easily won the primary and general elections and entered the Senate in January 1949. He was reelected in 1954, 1960, and 1966 and served until his retirement in January 1973. Anderson found the Senate's legislative environment more agreeable than that of the cabinet. In the upper house of Congress he was able to choose issues that interested him and pursue them at his own pace. Although he would survive to the age of eighty, serious health problems (including diabetes, heart ailments, a stroke, and Parkinson's disease) frequently sidelined him.
He twice chaired the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy (1955-1956; 1959-1960); and the Senate committees on Interior and Insular Affairs (1961-1963); and Aeronautical and Space Sciences (1963-1972). Anderson also served on the Senate Agriculture Committee and then on the Senate Finance Committee.
He died from a stroke at his home in Albuquerque on November 11, 1975.
Anderson was instrumental in gaining funding for the space program, establishing county health programs, and founding the state public health department. He also became a leader of the environmental protection. Among his main accomplishments were the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Outdoor Recreation Act, the Public Land Law Review Commission, the Water Resources Research Act, and measures establishing Canyonlands National Park. His contributions to the 1949 Agricultural Act affect American farm policy and international trade today. On the Senate Agriculture Committee, he championed flexible price supports, and on the Senate Finance Committee, he advanced legislation for health care and social security support for the aged, including early versions of the Medicare program, enacted in 1965. In 1963 Anderson received the National Conservation Award.
(Outsider in the Senate; Senator Clinton Anderson's Memoirs.)
Anderson's primary interests in the Senate reflected those of New Mexico, and he channeled sizable federal appropriations to his adopted state in support of land reclamation, river basin management, water desalinization, outdoor recreation, defense and space installations, and nuclear power development.
Quotations:
"There is a spiritual value to conservation, and wilderness typifies this. Wilderness is a demonstration by our people that we can put aside a portion of this which we have as a tribute to the Maker and say--this we will leave as we found it. "
"Wilderness is an anchor to windward. Knowing it is there, we can also know that we are still a rich Nation, tending our resources as we should--not a people in despair searching every last nook and cranny of our land for a board of lumber, a barrel of oil, a blade of grass, or a tank of water. "
Anderson was widely respected for his intellect and legislative style. A difficult taskmaster to those who worked for him, he displayed great charm and finesse to friends, political colleagues, and business associates. His six-foot, two-inch frame, broad smile, and friendly manner allowed him to command the attention of virtually any audience, until his health problems eroded his stamina during his final Senate term.
On the Senate floor, he exercised his effectiveness through careful preparation and quiet conversation with potential adversaries, rather than with frequent and long-winded speeches. A master legislative mechanic, he displayed an inner confidence and an understanding of his range of options, permitting him to use available power constructively. As necessary, he relied on such legislative weapons as humor, logic, political IOU's, and intimidation.
When Anderson encountered those whom he believed were lying or trying to mislead him, a darker side of his character emerged, and he could become petty and vindictive--tenacious in pursuit of settling old scores. This facet of his personality became dramatically evident in his single-minded and successful 1959 campaign to defeat the nomination of former Atomic Energy Commission chief Lewis Strauss to be secretary of commerce--the only cabinet rejection between 1925 and 1989.
On June 22, 1921, Anderson married Henrietta McCartney, with whom he had two children.
