William Henry Davis "Alfalfa Bill" Murray was an American educator, lawyer, and politician. He was active in Oklahoma before statehood as legal adviser to Governor Douglas H. Johnston of the Chickasaw Nation.
Background
William H. Murray was born on November 21, 1869, in the town of Toadsuck, Texas (renamed "Collinsville" in the 1880s), United States, the son of Uriah Dow Thomas Murray, who moved to Texas from Tennessee in 1852, and Bertha Elizabeth Jones, who died after childbirth in 1871.
William and two older brothers lived with grandparents until their father married a widow, Mollie Green. Frequent childbearing and a not very successful husband possibly increased the stepmother's irritability, and the boys came to resent her. When William was twelve, the boys left home to make their own way. After picking cotton, cutting wood, and making brick, William found kindness and work with Ed Loper, a farmer, who taught him to "pay your debts, treat your neighbors right, tell the truth, vote the Democratic ticket, and drink your whiskey straight. "
Education
In brief periods of schooling Murray learned from McGuffey's Readers and a Bluebook Speller and practiced oratory and debate. After 1884 he attended various sessions of a kind of rural high school, College Hill Institute in Springtown, Texas. Between terms he and brothers Henry and John sold books, mainly to farmers.
Career
At nineteen Murray entered politics as a member of the Farmers' Alliance. He was an able speaker against high interest rates, high railroad rates, and low farm prices. He had served as a correspondent for the Fort Worth Gazette and in 1889 he began teaching at Millsap in western Parker County.
As a delegate to the state Democratic Convention in San Antonio in 1890 Murray became acquainted with the reform nominee for governor, James S. Hogg. Murray campaigned for Hogg then and again in 1892; and he benefited from lessons learned in the campaigns when he opposed a third party's spokesman, Harry Tracy, and the subtreasury plan. Murray spoke often of Hogg's example as an inspiration to him. He observed that large city newspapers tended to oppose the reform programs, and he became a reporter for the Farmer's World in July 1891. As secretary of two Farmers' Alliance meetings-the pro-Hogg meeting in July 1891 and the anti-subtreasury meeting in St. Louis - he observed the Farmers' Alliance division over Populism.
In 1892 Murray was defeated in a race against George Jester, later lieutenant-governor, for a state senate seat but received strong support from farmers. An appointee of Governor Hogg, Murray was a delegate to the Pan-American Bi-Metallic Congress in October 1893.
While publishing the Daily Corsicana News and a farmers' weekly, the Navarro County News, in 1894, Murray read law with Judge John Rice. That year he lost a second try for a state senate seat to O. B. Colquitt, a rival Corsicana editor, later governor. Publishing revenues declined when Murray's support for William Jennings Bryan in 1896 caused gold Democrats to cut newspaper advertising.
Admitted to the bar in 1897, he sold both papers and moved to Fort Worth to practice law. Disappointed at slow progress, Murray visited his father, who was living in Indian Territory, and in March 1898 settled in Tishomingo, the capital of the Chickasaws. At this point in his life many of Murray's principles were already fixed.
In 1898 Douglas H. Johnston was the National party candidate for governor of the Chickasaws, favoring the opening of Chickasaw lands to individual ownership. Murray became secretary for the party, and Johnston's victory assured considerable legal work. As legal adviser to Johnston he drafted the new tax structure that required whites to help pay the tribal debt.
He accumulated extensive lands, experimented with diversified farming, and his success with alfalfa earned for him the nickname "Alfalfa Bill. " Possibly Murray's most important services to Oklahoma were related to his work on redrafting the Sequoyah constitution of 1905 and to his presidency of the constitutional convention. The results "reflected the most advanced social and political thinking of the Progressive era. "
In 1910 he sought the governorship, but Ardmore banker Lee Cruce received the nomination. Two years later Murray supported Woodrow Wilson and won a seat in Congress. Murray found the Washington atmosphere unfriendly. He told his wife it was "the hardest place to get anything done. " He failed to add a bank guaranty clause to the Glass-Owen bill, and Glass opposed his rural-credits plan. Murray opposed Wilson on the Panama tolls issue and urged early intervention in Mexico, being concerned over Japanese influence there.
In the summer of 1915 he earned over $4, 000 as a popular Chautauqua orator, expounding "the Philosophy of the Plow. " But he supported Wilson's preparedness program and lost his temper at the Oklahoma Democratic Convention in April 1917 when he was hissed for supporting Wilson's foreign policy. He was not returned to Congress in the 1916 election.
Giving up a race for governor in 1918, Murray and his sons farmed 1, 100 bottom acres; high wartime prices enabled him to pay off old debts. Postwar developments alerted him to the declining role of American agriculture, and he feared that democracy would perish. After visiting several countries in South America, he obtained permission to create an agriculture colony in Bolivia's Chaco, settling with about seventy-five adults and children near an old mission at Aguagrande in 1924. Failure of the colony was caused by a lack of good water, homesickness, insects, and drought, while an impending war with Paraguay caused Indian workers to be drafted and mules commandeered.
By August 1929 the Murrays were back home. Oil had brought new wealth to Oklahoma. The Republican party had gained strength, and Democratic rural papers and oil man Roy Johnson of Ardmore urged Murray to seek the governorship in 1930. When the owner-editor of two Oklahoma City papers tried to picture Murray as hostile to industry and small business, Alfalfa Bill labeled them "the Twin Harlots of Fourth and Broadway" and spread his message in the Blue Valley Farmer. He was elected by 93, 346 votes.
As the Great Depression worsened, he urged tax relief to farmers and home owners, seeds for tenant farmers, reduced appropriations for the state university, consolidation of some state agencies, better collection of corporate and resources taxes, and an expanded highway program.
When oil prices fell, Murray called a meeting of oil-producing states at Fort Worth in March 1931. In August he sent the National Guard to the oil fields to enforce production limitations; ultimately, an interstate oil compact was evolved. Failing to get the legislature to enact his program, he sought action by popular vote on initiated bills for a new income tax, free textbooks, amendments to escheat corporation lands if not sold in ten years, and a budget officer measure. These failed to pass in late 1931. Meanwhile, Murray found emergency relief for many unemployed.
In 1932 Murray campaigned in several states seeking the Democratic nomination for president. At the nominating convention, besides Oklahoma delegation votes, Murray received one vote from North Dakota, cast by his brother George. His attacks on Franklin D. Roosevelt were "cruel and vicious, " including an unfortunate reference to Roosevelt's affliction. After Roosevelt's election Murray was a New Deal critic. He did not run for governor in 1934 and his candidate was defeated by Congressman Ernest Marland, whose slogan was "Bring the New Deal to Oklahoma. "
Murray's governorship was "a partial success. " He accomplished major tax reforms and equalized the tax burden. Corporations and individuals with higher incomes were compelled to pay more taxes, while farmers and home owners were relieved of heavy state property taxes. The Oklahoma Tax Commission and equalization boards proved to be lasting accomplishments. While higher education suffered, his supporters told of higher oil prices, free bridges, payroll warrants valued at par, and aid to the unemployed.
Support for Republican Alfred Landon in the 1936 presidential campaign cost Murray dearly in 1938 when he sought the office of governor on an economy platform. Opponents got President Roosevelt to speak at the Oklahoma City fairgrounds, where he called for more liberal officials and declared Murray "a Republican. " Murray lost to Leon Phillips, 179, 000 to 148, 000 votes, declaring Roosevelt's charge cost him about 60, 000 votes.
He continued to speak out against Roosevelt and the New Deal and wrote many articles and books, which supplemented a declining farm income. His stamina obviously weakened, he joined the Democrats for Wendell Willkie in 1940 and tried unsuccessfully to be elected to Congress. He then joined Charles Lindbergh in opposing American entry into World War II. At seventy-three he had several operations on his eyes and wrote his three-volume Memoirs. He could not admit that defeats often reflected his own inadequacies.
Riding a bus to Birmingham in July 1948, tattered and half-blind, he addressed the Dixiecrat convention, declaring that America's greatness was due to "Christian principles and the white man's brains. " A lonely old man who had been progressive in racial matters became by the 1950's an embittered racist. He felt thwarted in his efforts to maintain "constitutional" government and a dominant agrarian society. In January 1951 Alfalfa Bill administered the oath of governor to his son Johnston. While living with his oldest son, Massena, Murray suffered a stroke. He died on October 15, 1956, in Tishomingo, Oklahoma.
Achievements
Politics
An independent Democrat, Murray opposed Populist and Socialist third parties; but he declared some Populist ideas "right, " and he championed the family farm and endeavored "to find 'truth' irrespective of its popularity. "
As speaker in the first state legislature he urged a good school system, highway planning, and a strong judiciary. He failed to obtain the South Carolina dispensary plan for selling liquor but got a bank guaranty law, created a number of agriculture colleges, and passed the nine-foot-bedsheet-in-hotels law. He opposed Kate Barnard's child labor bill, saying the minimum working age of sixteen was too restrictive. At the Denver Democratic Convention in 1908 Murray supported Bryan.
Views
Quotations:
"Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back; ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issue from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and assistance, which no one could have dreamt would come [their] way. "
Personality
William Murray was described as gaunt, being five feet, ten inches tall and weighing about 140 pounds. He had long arms and fingers, a lean face with steel-blue eyes and a handlebar mustache (the "walrus" came later).
Connections
On July 19, 1899, William H. Murray married the governor's niece, Mary Alice Hearrell, a teacher, who was one-sixteenth Chickasaw; they had five children.