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Regional Oral History Office University of California
The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California
Women in Politics Oral History Project
HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS PROJECT
Volume I
THE POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS
Interviews with:
Tilford Dudley Byron Lindsley
India Edwards Helen 0. Lustig
Leo Goodman Alvin Meyers
Kenneth Harding Frank Rogers
Interviews Conducted by
Eleanor Glaser, Fern Ingersoll,
Gabrielle Morris, and Ingrid Scobie
in 1976, 1977, 1978
Underwritten by grants from:
National Endowment for the Humanities, Rockefeller Foundation,
Members and Friends of the Los Angeles Democratic Women's Forum
Copyright (c) 1981 by the Regents of the University of California
This manuscript is made available for research
purposes. No part of the manuscript may be quoted
for publication without the written permission of
the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University
of California at Berkeley.
Requests for permission to quote for publication
should be addressed to the Regional Oral History
Office, 486 Library, and should include identification
of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated
use of the passages, and identification of the user.
i
It is recommended that this oral history be cited
as follows:
To cite the volume: Helen Gahagan Douglas
Project, Volume I, "The Political Campaigns,"
an oral history series conducted 1976-1978,
Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft
Library, University of California, Berkeley,
1981.
To cite individual interview: India Edwards,
"California Democrats: A View from Washing
ton," an oral history conducted 1978 by
Gabrielle Morris , in Helen Gahagan Douglas
Oral History Project, Volume I, Regional
Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley, 1981.
Copy No.
ERRATA Helen Gahagan Douglas
Index: Volume I, The Political Campaigns
Volume. II, The Congress Years: 1944 to 1950
i
Jones, Glad Hall [Mrs. Mattison Boyd] ; Delete "Glad Hall."
Should read Jones, Mrs. Mattison Boyd
TABLE OF CONTENTS Helen Gahagan Douglas Volume I The Campaign Years
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
i
v
viii
I INDIA EDWARDS:
II LEO GOODMAN:
III TILFORD DUDLEY:
IV KENNETH HARDING:
V FRANK ROGERS:
VI BYRON LINDSLEY:
VII HELEN LUSTIG:
VIII ALVIN MEYERS:
California Democrats A View from Washington 1
Helen Gahagan Douglas and Her Work with Labor 35
on Housing and Atomic Energy
Helen Gahagan Douglas The Reaction of Union Men 64
Helen Gahagan Douglas and the Democratic Campaign 85
Committee
Helen Gahagan Douglas and the 1950 Primary 105
Campaign
Helen Gahagan Douglas and the 1950 Campaign in 123
San Diego and Imperial Counties
Executive Secretary for Helen Gahagan Douglas's 169
195Q Campaign in San Diego and Imperial Counties
Helen Gahagan Douglas and the Campaigns for 202
Congress
INDEX
244
PREFACE
The following interview is one of a series of tape-recorded memoirs in the
California Women Political Leaders Oral History Project. The series has been
designed to study the political activities of a representative group of California
women who became active in politics during the years between the passage of the
woman's suffrage amendment and the current feminist movement roughly the years
between 1920 and 1965. They represent a variety of views: conservative,
moderate, liberal, and radical, although most of them worked within the Demo
cratic and Republican parties. They include elected and appointed officials at
national, state, and local governmental levels. For many the route to leadership
was through the political party primarily those divisions of the party reserved
for women.
Regardless of the ultimate political level attained, these women have all
worked in election campaigns on behalf of issues and candidates. They have
raised funds, addressed envelopes, rung doorbells, watched polls, staffed offices,
given speeches, planned media coverage, and when permitted, helped set policy.
While they enjoyed many successes, a few also experienced defeat as candidates
for public office.
Their different family and cultural backgrounds, their social attitudes, and
their personalities indicate clearly that there is no typical woman political
leader; their candid, first-hand observations and their insights about their
experiences provide fresh source material for the social and political history
of women in the past half century.
In a broader framework their memoirs provide valuable insights into the
political process as a whole. The memoirists have thoughtfully discussed details
of party organization and the work of the men and women who served the party.
They have analysed the process of selecting party leaders and candidates, running
campaigns, raising funds, and drafting party platforms, as well as the more subtle
aspects of political life such as maintaining harmony and coping with fatigue,
frustration, and defeat. Perceived through it all are the pleasures of friend
ships, struggles, and triumphs in a common cause.
The California Women Political Leaders Oral History Project has been financed
by both an outright and a matching grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities. Matching funds were provided by the Rockefeller Foundation for the
Helen Gahagan Douglas component of the project, by the Columbia and Fairtree
Foundations, and by individuals who were interested in supporting memoirs of their
friends and colleagues. In addition, funds from the California State Legislature-
sponsored Knight-Brown Era Governmental History Project made it possible to
increase the research and broaden the scope of the interviews in which there was
ii
a meshing of the woman's political career with the topics being studied in the
Knight-Brown project. Professors Judith Blake Davis, Albert Lepawsky, and
Walton Bean have served as principal investigators during the period July 1975-
December 1977 that the project was underway. This series is the second phase
of the Women in Politics Oral History Project, the first of which dealt with
the experiences of eleven women who had been leaders and rank-and-file workers
in the suffrage movement.
The Regional Oral History Office was established to tape record autobio
graphical interviews with persons significant in the history of the West and the
nation. The Office is under the administrative supervision of James D. Hart,
Director of The Bancroft Library. Interviews were conducted by Amelia R. Fry,
Miriam Stein, Gabrielle Morris, Malca Chall, Fern Ingersoll, and Ingrid Scobie.
Malca Chall, Project Director
Women in Politics Oral History Project
Willa Baum, Department Head
Regional Oral History Office
15 November 1979
Regional Oral History Office
486 The Bancroft Library
University of California at Berkeley
ill
CALIFORNIA WOMEN POLITICAL LEADERS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
Frances Mary Albrier, Determined Advocate for Racial Equality. 1979, 308 p.
Odessa Cox, Challenging the Status Quo: The Twenty-seven Year Campaign for
Southwest Junior College. 1979, 149 p.
March Fong Eu, High Achieving Nonconformist in Local and State Government. 1977,
245 p.
Jean Wood Fuller, Organizing Women: Careers in Volunteer Politics and Government
Administration. 1977, 270 p.
Elizabeth Rudel Gatov, Grassroots Party Organizer to Treasurer of the United States.
1978, 412 p.
Patricia Hitt, From Precinct Worker to Assistant Secretary of HEW. 1980, 220 p.
Kimiko Fujii Kitayama, Nisei Leader in Democratic Politics and Civic Affairs. 1979,
110 p.
Bernice Hubbard May, A Native Daughter's Leadership in Public Affairs. Two volumes,
1976, 540 p.
LaRue McCormick, Activist in the Eadical Movement, 1930-1960: The International
Labor Defense and the Communist Party, 1980, 166 p.
Hulda Hoover McLean, A Conservative's Crusades for Good Government. 1977, 174 p.
Julia Porter, Dedicated Democrat and City Planner, 1941-1975. 1977, 195 p.
Wanda Sankary, From Sod House- to State House. 1979, 109 p.
Hope Mendoza Schechter, Activist in the Labor Movement, the Democratic Party, and
the Mexican-American Community. 1980, 165 p.
Vera Schultz, Ideals and Realities in State and Local Government. 1977, 272 p.
Clara Shirpser, One Woman's Role in Democratic Party Politics: National, State,
and Local, 1950-1973. Two volumes, 1975, 671 p.
Elizabeth Snyder, California's First Woman State Party Chairman. 1977, 199 p.
Eleanor Wagner, Independent Political Coalitions: Electoral, Legislative, and
Community. 1977, 166 p.
Carolyn Wolfe, Educating for Citizenship: A Career in Community Affairs and the
Democratic Party, 1906-1976. 1978, 254 p.
Rosalind Wyman, "It's a Girl:" Three Terms on the Los Angeles City Council, 1953-
1965; Three Decades in the Democratic Party, 1948-1979. 1979, 150 p.
Interviews in Process
Marjorie Benedict, Pauline Davis, Ann Eliaser, Elinor R. Heller, Lucile Hosmer,
Emily Pike, Carmen Warschaw, Mildred Younger.
August 1980
IV
The Helen Gahagan Douglas Component of the California Women Political Leaders
Oral History Project
Volume I: The Political Campaigns
Discussion primarily of the 1950 Senate campaign and defeat, in
interviews with Tilford E. Dudley, India T. Edwards, Leo Goodman,
Kenneth R. Harding, Judge Byron F. Lindsley, Helen Lustig,
Alvin P. Meyers, Frank Rogers, and William Malone.*
Volume II: The Congress Years, 1944-1950
Discussion of organization and staffing; legislation on migrant
labor, land, power and water, civilian control of atomic energy,
foreign policy, the United Nations, social welfare, and economics,
in interviews with Juanita E. Barbee, Rachel S. Bell, Albert S. Cahn
Margery Cahn, Evelyn Chavoor, Lucy Kramer Cohen, Arthur Goldschmidt
Elizabeth Wickenden Goldschmidt, Chester E. Holifield, Charles Hogan
Mary Keyserling, and Philip J. Noel-Baker.
Volume III: Fam-i.li/,, Friends, and the Theater: The Hears Before and After Politic
Discussion of Helen and Melvyn Douglas and their activities at home
with their family and among friends, and their work in the theater
and movies, in interviews with Fay Bennett, Alis De Sola,
Cornelia C. Palms, and Walter R. Pick.
Volume IV : Congresswoman, Actress, and Opera Singer
Helen Gahagan Douglas discusses her background and childhood;
Barnard College education; Broadway, theater and opera years;
early political organization and Democratic party work; the
congressional campaigns, supporters; home and office in Washington;
issues during the Congress years, 1944-1950; the 1950 Senate
campaign against Richard M. Nixon, and aftermath; women and
independence; occupations since 1950; speaking engagements,
travel to Russia, South America, Liberia inauguration, civic
activities, life in Vermont. (Volume in process)
*William Malone preferred not to release his transcript at this
time.
April 1981
INTRODUCTION
Helen Gahagan Douglas, one of the most notable women to grace the American
artistic and political scenes during the past half-century, died of cancer in
June 1980 at the age of eighty. Despite frequent hospitalization and progres
sive weakness during the last several years of her life, she courageously
refused drugs to ease her pain, preferring to keep her mind clear so that she
could remain close to her family; so that she, among other activities, could
speak to a congressional hearing in Washington by phone on behalf of cancer
research; so that she could organize assistance programs for children in
New York City; and so that she could complete her autobiograntoy . She insisted
on living as fully as possible until the disease overtook her. A year before
her death, she received a Medal of Distinction from her alma mater Barnard
College, for her "fearless, lifetime devotion to the cause of political, racial
and religious freedoms and for instructing us in citizenship, in responsibility
and in service to ideals and country."
Within her lifetime, three generations of Americans came to know Helen
Douglas. First a generation knew her as a beautiful and highly talented stage
and movie actress whose storybook romance with fellow actor Melvyn Douglas
culminated in a marriage that lasted nearly fifty years. She then picked up
another generation when, taking leave of her career as an actress, she devoted
her energies, her intelligence, and her charisma to politics. She was Democratic
National Committeewoman for California (1940-1944), vice-chair of the California
Democratic party in charge of its women's division (1942-1944), Congresswoman
from California (1944-1950) , and an alternate delegate to the United Nations
General Assembly (1946).
During these ten years she pled the cause of the poor and helpless,
especially the migrant farm worker, fought successfully for civilian control
of atomic energy, and argued the case for improved international relations.
In 1950 she lost a hard-fought campaign for Senate to Richard Nixon and
disappeared from public attention. She and Melvyn moved to New York and Vermont,
where she continued to study and lecture about those issues to which she had
always been committed human rights and world peace. And as always, her activities
involved her family and many close and devoted friends.
After the advent of Watergate in 1972 the media sought her out to appraise
Richard Nixon in light of her experiences. Thus a third generation was intro
duced to the legendary Helen Gahagan Douglas.
This volume is one of four that comprise the Helen Gahagan Douglas Unit
of the California Women Political Leaders Oral History Project, a unit to
document the career of this leading humanitarian and political figure.
In 1974 the Regional Oral History Office received a grant and a matching
grant offer from the National 'Endowment for the Humanities to develop a series
of biographical interviews with women who had held leadership positions in
vi
California politics between 1920 and 1965. Helen Gahagan Douglas, one of the
best known women in California politics during that period, was among those
listed as potential interviewees. Recognizing Helen Douglas's historicity,
the Rockefeller Foundation agreed to a match to fund Helen Gahagan Douglas's
interview with the proviso that the project include persons who had been
associated with her.
The Helen Gahagan Douglas oral history unit, as it ultimately evolved,
was comprised of Helen Douglas and twenty-five men and women who had known her
as a friend and/or associate at important bench marks in her life in college,
the theater, and during and following her active political career.
Mrs. Douglas assisted in the selection of these representative persons
whom she thought would provide useful and objective information about her
activities throughout her life. In addition to the interviews in the Helen
Gahagan Douglas Unit, other women in the series discussed her in their own
interviews ; former associates Paul Taylor and Judge Oliver Carter had talked
about her previously in their oral histories.
During the years between 1974 when the project was initiated and its
completion in 1981, inflation cut deeply into the initial grants, requiring
the office to seek additional funding. To the rescue came members and friends
of the Democratic Women's Forum in Los Angeles, an organization which Helen
Douglas helped to establish in the mid-forties. Later the National Endowment
and the Rockefeller Foundation gave additional grants.
The project has depended on the efforts of a number of persons. Inter
viewers were Amelia Fry, Eleanor Glaser, Fern Ingersoll, Ingrid Scobie, and
Malca Chall . Catherine Scholten prepared the lengthy, much-emended Douglas
transcript for typing, and also selected the photographs and appendix material.
Teresa Allen helped develop the plan to keep track of the interviews from
transcribing through final typing. Marie Herold was responsible for preparing
the indexes, and for tying up the countless loose ends which are always present
in long-term projects.
The material contained in these volumes and others in the California
Women Political Leaders Oral History Project should provide students with
fresh information and insights into the life and political and social milieu
of Helen Douglas. Those seeking additional information will find it in the
Helen Gahagan Douglas papers in the Carl Albert Congressional Research Center
at the University of Oklahoma, and in the collections of Melvyn Douglas papers
in the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and Indiana University. In this
latter collection Ingrid Winther Scobie plans to deposit the tapes of interview:
she has conducted while preparing for her upcoming biography of Mrs. Douglas.
The Roosevelt library also contains much source material on Helen Douglas,
her friendship with the Roosevelts and other leading New Dealers, and her
activities in the Democratic party.
vii
Fortunately for historians these interviews in the Douglas unit were
completed just prior to the recent deaths of Helen Gahagan Douglas, Albert Cahn,
Charles Hogan, Alvin Meyers, and Walter Pick. The Regional Oral History Office
is grateful for the financial support of the foundations and the friends of
Helen Gahagan Douglas, and for the assistance of the hardworking staff, factors
which have made possible this oral history project about an active and influential
participant in an important era of American history.
Malca Chall, Project Director
Women in Politics Oral History Project
Willa Baum, Department Head
Regional Oral History Office
8 June 1981
Regional Oral History Office
486 The Bancroft Library
University of California at Berkeley
Vlll
On behalf of future scholars the Office wishes to thank the friends
of Helen Gahagan Douglas who responded to the request for funds sponsored
by the Los Angeles Democratic Women's Forum, especially Marie Melgaso and
Elizabeth Snyder who spearheaded that effort. These contributions helped
match the grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the
Rockefeller Foundation, thereby making possible the production of the
Helen Gahagan Douglas Unit of the California Women Political Leaders Oral
History Project.
DONORS TO THE HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
Juliet and Jack Ansley
E.E. Aryain
Elisabeth R. Augerson
Eleanor and Sidney Austin
Mildred D. Baker
Juanita and Quinten Barbee
Marjorie Barranich
Fayga and Manny Berkowitz
Sadie E. and David Brewer
Leisa G. Bronson
Dr. Emily Card
E.D. and Warren Case
Clare W. Casey
Florence G. Clifton
Monica Whalen Convy
Pearl L. and John H. Curley
Democratic Women's Forum
Elyse Teale Desormes
Supervisor Ed Edelman
Eve Edelstein
Assemblywoman Leona H. Egeland
Eva J. Erdos
Cynthia and Marvin Ersher
Lillian A. and George J. Gillis
Gladys R. Goodwin
Madeline R. Goodwin
Margaret and John Hammerton
Marilyn and Bernard Herman
Vernice and Chester E. Holifield
Gertrude P. Hughes
Ann L. and Leo Kotin
Geraldine L. Leshin
Ruth March
Jean Mauldin
Mary 0. and Kazuo Miyashita
Carol Moss
Julie Mulvaney
Anna Laura Myers
Patricia W. Neal
Senator Nicholas C. Petris
Joy N. Picus
Mary Irene and George E. Pike
Dr. Nancy Reeves
Mary Louise Richardson
Mr. and Mrs. Manny Rohatiner
Ethel J. and Harry E. Samenow
Fritzie Samson
Jocelyn A. and Edward F. Saylor
Jeannette E. and Versal V. Schuler
Lillian Shutter, M.D.
Assemblyman Alan Sieroty
Elizabeth C. Snyder
South Gate Democratic Club
Jean Stapleton
John V. Tunney
Jewell Eisenhower VanWinkle
Senator Diane Watson
Madale L. Watson
Women's Democratic Club of Beverly Hills
Ivy M. Wright
Rosalind- Wyman
Regional Oral History Office
The Bancroft Library
University of California
Berkeley, California
Women in Politics Oral History Project
HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS PROJECT
India Edwards
CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATS: A VIEW FROM WASHINGTON
An Interview Conducted by
Gabrielle Morris
in 1978
Underwritten by grants from:
National Endowment for the Humanities, Rockefeller Foundation,
Members and Friends of the Los Angeles Democratic Women's Forum
Copyright (cT) 1981 by the Regents of the University of California
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
January 16, 1990
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India Edwards with Lyndon B. Johnson
at the White House, June 7, 1968
photo by Yoshimoto
TABLE OF CONTENTS India Edwards
INTERVIEW HISTORY 3
Women's Division, Democratic National Committee 5
Elizabeth Snyder: First Woman Chairman, California Democratic
Central Committee 9
California Democratic Council and the 1954 Gubernatorial Campaign 12
Helen Gahagan Douglas's 1950 Senate Campaign 15
Attitudes Toward Women in Politics 18
Dealing with Campaign Dirty Tricks 21
Vice-Presidential Possibilities, Political Workload, Appointments 24
Other Leading California Democrats 27
Regional Factions 28
In Summary ' 31
INTERVIEW HISTORY
India Edward's is undoubtedly one of the most vigorous, forthright, and
engaging persons to have graced the intricate world of national politics.
An experienced newspaper editor, Mrs. Edwards began her political work in
1944 as a volunteer for Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, went on to
become vice-chairman of the Democratic National Committee and head of the
women's division [1948-1960], and later served in special advisory posts
for Lyndon Johnson. When the Regional Oral History Office learned that she
had retired to California to be near her daughter, she was asked to record
her experiences in working with Helen Gahagan Douglas for the project in
progress documenting Mrs. Douglas's career.
Although hesitant about an easterner commenting on California affairs,
Mrs. Edwards agreed and the following interview was recorded on May 16, 1978,
in her comfortable apartment in Greenbrae, Marin County. Though brief, the
wide-ranging conversation touches not only on Mrs. Douglas's ill-fated
1950 race for the U.S. Senate against Richard Nixon, but also on various
aspects of the California Democratic party and the past and present status
of women in politics.
Mrs. Edwards reports succinctly some of her concerns about Mrs. Douglas's
own campaign and her belief that Mrs. Douglas could have run for office again
and won, and should have, to counteract people's fear of Nixon. Visiting
California on DNC business over the years, she found more political
individualists than elsewhere. She adds that other states also have regional
frictions, and credits Elizabeth Snyder as one of the leaders in achieving
a unified statewide party for the first time in 1954.
Some of the problems faced by women in politics Mrs. Edwards discusses
in relation to Helen Gahagan Douglas's experience, such as family
responsibilities and unrealistic supporters; others in broad terms,
including her repeatedly-expressed concern that women's status is lower in
many ways today than it was twenty years ago. She suspects that "women
have disappointed men in that they were afraid women were going to clean
things up and they haven't done it."
Mrs. Edwards reviewed the edited transcript of the interview and made
minor factual revisions. Additional information on her political work is
available in her book, Pulling No Punches , and in interviews she recorded in
1969 for the Truman and Johnson presidential libraries. See also other
interviews in the California Women Political Leaders Series.
Gabrielle Morris
Interviewer-Editor
2 June 1978
Regional Oral History Office
486 The Bancroft Library
University of California at Berkeley
I CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATS : A VIEW FROM WASHINGTON
[Interview I: May 16, 1978]
[begin tape 1, side A]
Women's Division, Democratic National Committee
Morris: We do appreciate your taking the time to talk to our project when
you've already done several other oral history interviews.
Edwards : I have copies of the ones I did for the Truman Library and the
Johnson Library.* I'd be glad to let you see them if you wanted
to. I'm sure I could find them without too much effort.
I wish somebody it couldn't be I, because I am too personally
associated with it. But I wish some woman who's interested in the
advance of women now would do a paper or an article about the lack
of progress of women because, believe me, women are in a far lower
status today than they were twenty years ago.
Morris: That's one of the questions that has been raised by a number of
people.
Edwards: It is a really tragic, shocking thing. And I can't speak as
intimately about the Republicans, of course, as I can about the
Democrats, but I see nothing to indicate that the Republicans are
in any better shape than the Democrats. And the Democrats, I can
assure you, on the national level are not organized as they should
be.
*0ral History Interview with Mrs. India Edwards, January 16, 1969,
by Jerry N. Hess, the Harry S. Truman Library, Independence,
Missouri, 1972, and Interview with Mrs. Edwards by Joe B. Frantz,
February 4, 1969, for Lyndon Johnson Presidential Library.
Morris: Compared to what they were in the '40s?
Edwards: And as for influence, who except Mrs. Carter has any? Too many of
Carter's appointments are women whose husbands, sons, fathers, or
brothers are Democratic leaders in some segment of society.
President Carter has gone back to the old patronage days. A woman
should be appointed because of her ability to do a certain job.
If such a woman has worked for the Democratic party, well and
good. A Democratic President will favor her over a member of the
opposition party.
I got from the Washington Monthly the other day, the list of
Who's Who in the Carter administration , and I could just weep when
I look at the list of women and see how few are in policy-making
posts.
Morris: Are you disappointed in the numbers as well?
Edwards: Oh, there are quite a few numbers. I wouldn't fuss with Carter
over the numbers. I think he's done pretty well on the numbers
game. [Laughter] But I don't want to see a woman appointed just
because she's a woman. I want her to be top grade, and have some
influence, have some authority.
Morris: That's one reason that we wanted to talk with you this morning
about working with Helen Gahagan Douglas, as an example of the
kind of woman and the kind of influence that was possible for a
woman in political office to have in the forties.
Edwards: Yes, but I think Helen was not alone in this. I think there were
a great number of women in the Democratic party who were working
because of idealism, because of a belief in well, let's just say
the New Deal, in what FDR was trying to do and what he was
accomplishing.
Now, that was the whole purpose of the Women's Division of
the Democratic National Committee to educate not just women,
but women and men, as to the goals of the administration and how
they were going about pursuing them. We had a magazine, the
Democratic Digest, which was a house organ, really, but the men
used it as much as the women because it gave them the kind of
precise information they needed about what was going on in the
other states, and how the president's different programs were
proceeding, or not proceeding. They didn't have to get it from
the newspapers. Of course, there was no television, but there
was radio. But they didn't have to get it from that, either.
Edwards :
Morris :
Edwards :
Morris:
Edwards :
And now, where are they going to get it? The Democratic National
Committee never sends out anything but an appeal for funds.
[Laughter] Was Mrs. Douglas active in the Women's Division of
the Democratic party?
Well, yes and no. She was national committeewoman here before
she ran for Congress, but she never was active in the Women's
Division except insofar as she was a member of the National
Committee.
And, as I said, there were a lot of women like Helen. Helen
was an outstanding one because of her background, her charm,
her beauty and intelligence. She wasn't the only one, however,
for all over the country, Democratic women were seeking to help
our government to be strong and honest.
We don't have that kind of national organization now.
is no national leadership among Democratic women.
There
When you say leadership, was there a kind of a women's caucus in
any sense?
There wasn't a women's caucus, but we always had strong women at
the National Committee that planned programs. We went around the
country telling the Democratic story. The women who preceded me
at the Democratic National Committee, starting with Mary Dewson
who was FDR's top woman, planned programs to interest women. Their
feeling was that women should be brought into politics through an
interest in issues. We used to say, "Sell a woman, and you've
sold a family."
If a woman would take the trouble to know what the issues
were, and what the president was trying to accomplish, and what
the Congress was doing either to help him or to oppose him, she
would recognize how all legislation touched her family.
We used to hold regional meetings and have lots of meetings
where there wasn't just one speaker; it would be a seminar sort
of thing to give them information that they had no other place to
obtain.
Well, they don't do that now. Everything you get now is from
the TV. The TV decided that "Jimmy Who" was the most colorful
Democrat on the horizon for the 1976 nomination. It nominated
him. It and the polls elected him. There isn't any question in
my mind but what this is true and I think it is a tragic
situation.
8
Edwards: They talked about "boss rule" in the old days in politics. Well,
[chuckle] the most powerful boss in Tammany Hall or in New Jersey
or Chicago never had the power that commentators on TV and press
have.
Morris: That's an interesting change in the whole political structure.
Edwards: A tragic change.
Morris: Did Mrs. Roosevelt, too, see the Women's Division as an aid to the
President's office?
Edwards: Oh, definitely, yes.
Morris: To build his constituency.
Edwards: Yes. It was she who, working with Molly Dewson, built the
Women's Division into what it was. Then it slowed down a little
during the war, but just because of the physical necessity and the
difficulties of travel. But even so, it still carried on the
informational, educational work of the committee.
You see, the National Committee during the Roosevelt and
Truman years , was looked upon as a very strong arm of the
administration. It has not been since. Kennedy started to kill
it and Johnson finished it, or at least he almost killed it, and
Carter has finished it .
Morris: [Laughter] In other words, the National Committee used to have
more role
Edwards: It had some power then.
Morris: Between elections, in other words.
Edwards: Yes.
Morris: They had a continuing kind of function.
Edwards: Its main function was to put on the convention, but in between
conventions they were to keep the party alive. And they can't
expect to bring people out for a presidential election if they're
not interested at all in between elections.
Franklin Roosevelt said many times I never heard him say it,
but I know that he said it because many people have told me,
people for instance, like Jim Farley, that Franklin Roosevelt
said it was the women who elected him, every time, and the
Edwards: continuous work that was done by the Women's Division of the
committee between elections.
Morris: So he felt an obligation to stay in touch with them afterwards?
Edwards: He felt that they were his greatest asset, that he would be not
using the powerful secret weapon that he had if he didn't use the
women to spread information about his programs.
Morris: And then, in turn, to talk to their congressmen in terms of
voting for particular legislation?
Edwards: Yes. Well, we used to have and I'm sure that the women who
preceded me did the same thing, I had a list of women. Now, they
were not necessarily the women elected to leadership in the state,
because they weren't always the best. Sometimes they were,
sometimes they weren't.
In this state they did elect as national commit teewomen
grade A women: Lucretia Grady and then Helen Douglas, and then
Ellie Heller they were all excellent politicians and very good.
In those days each state only had one national committeewoman and
one national committeeman. Now they have a whole
Morris: A dozen at least.
Edwards: Yes. In some states I found that there were weak women leaders.
The national committeewoman, the state vice-chairman, usually
the vice-chairman. The rule was that either the chairman or the
vice-chairman must be a woman.
Elizabeth Snyder; First Woman Chairman, California Democratic
Central Committee *
Edwards ;
Morris :
Edwards :
California was the only state that ever had a woman chairman up
through my time. Now, I don't know what's happened since then.
I haven't kept track. But Elizabeth Snyder was chairman of the
state committee [1954-1956].
I was going to ask you about her later on.
that that was a real struggle for her to
Our understanding is
Oh, it was a hard-fought election,
and I was helping her.
I was out there at the time
*See interview with Elizabeth Snyder, California's First Woman State
Party Chairman, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley, 1977.
10
Morris: Because she was a woman and ?
Edwards: Because she was, I thought, one of the smartest politicians
I'd ever worked with. 1 thought that as long as there was a group
that wanted her as chairman, it seemed to me that to deny her the
chairmanship just because of her sex it was about time we got over
that.
Morris: Was that the major objection to her?
Edwards: Not entirely.
Morris: Because there had been some problem that year that
Edwards: Oh, her husband was mixed up with some I forget his name.
Morris: Bonelli.
Edwards: Yes, Bonelli. A lobbyist for the liquor industries, I believe.
Morris: That was the question that I don't think was ever determined.
Edwards: No.
\
Morris: Bonelli was a member of the State Board of Equalization and there
was a problem about liquor licenses.
Edwards: Well, Nate Snyder did serve time in prison, but he was given a
full pardon and reinstated in the practice of law, so I think his
prosecution was a political thing, to hurt his wife. Those things
happen, you know. People are
Morris: Well, the whole business of regulating liquor licensing was a very
knotty problem in California from Prohibition until the mid-fifties.
Edwards: Yes.
Morris: I suppose it would have been the same problem in other states too?
Edwards: Yes. Well, but not quite so much, I think. But I didn't know Nate.
I never worked with Nate. But I worked very closely with Elizabeth
in politics and she's a very smart politician. She did a great
job as chairman. I do not think Pat Brown would have been
governor if it hadn't been for Elizabeth Snyder.
They had five, or maybe it was six, special elections for
the Congress during the time she was the chairman of the committee
and they won all of them. That was unheard of, that kind of victory.
11
Morris: Special elections are tougher than the regular bi-annuals?
Edwards: Yes, usually.
Morris: Why?
Edwards: Well, usually it's for a short term. It's hard to get money for
the campaign, you know. The man may only have, or woman, a short
time to serve. And, well, it's just up to that time California
was really a Republican state, you see. It wasn't a Democratic
state.
Morris: That's the way the elections went, but the registration had been
Democratic for a long time.
Edwards: Yes, but I mean the elected offices, the big offices, went to the
Republicans for the years when Earl Warren was in, and Goody Knight,
and the Republicans controlled both houses of the legislature at
that time .
Liz was one of the most active in doing away with cross-
filing. She was state vice-chairman before she became state
chairman. And John Anson Somebody what was his name?
Morris: Ford.
Edwards: He was the national committeeman and he was one hundred percent
in back of Liz. He thought she was wonderful. And he raised
the money and put in some money for that campaign to do away with
crossfiling and she ran it. That was a great thing for the state
of California.
Morris: From the Democrats' point of view, it would keep Republicans from
picking up a lot of Democratic votes in the primaries.
Edwards: Yes. You know, the advertisements on a billboard no Republican
ever had the word "Republican." The Democrats would have
"Democrat." And on the ballot there was nothing to indicate
whether the man was a Democrat or a Republican.
12
California Democratic Council and the 1954 Gubernatorial Campaign
Morris: Was she involved also to any extent in toe building of the local
Democratic clubs, the grass roots kind of organization?
Edwards: The CDC? [California Democratic Council]
Morris: Yes.
Edwards: Yes. When the CDC started, they were a bunch of amateurs,
[Laughter] I never will forget one thing that happened, one of
the funniest things that ever happened to me in my political
life. I was vice-chairman of the national committee, so you would
say I was a member of the organization.
Morris: Yes, very much so.
Edwards: I was out here and the CDC was just forming and they invited me
to come to a breakfast. I was the only person outside of the
people who were founding the CDC who was invited. I remember it
very well. It was at some hotel in Hollywood. They sat there
and right in my presence they said [chuckles] that they were going
to ignore the state committee, they were going to have nothing to
do with the elected officers! [Laughter]
Morris: Oh, my heavens! [Laughter]
Edwards: They were going to endorse candidates and they were going to be
the power in the state [laughter]. And I got up at the meeting
and I said, "Well, ladies and gentlemen, you know, I think you
made a mistake to invite me to come to this, because you can't
think I'm going to agree with what you're saying!" I said,
"What you should be doing is helping to strengthen the Democratic
organization, not setting up something in opposition to it."
[Laughter] I said, "You ought to at least join them to try to
win."
But they were very funny. They were just Alan Cranston
was [laughter]. I talked to Alan about that afterwards and
kidded him. I said, "Well, Alan, you soon got over your kinder
garten days, didn't you!" [Laughter]
Morris: It's been said that one of the reasons that he wanted to help
organize the CDC was to give himself a political base.
Edwards: Probably. I have no doubt that's true.
13
Morris: He was one of their first
Edwards: And that was all right, but it was pretty dumb of them to announce
their intentions [laughter] in my presence.
Morris: Oh, my! Yes. The first candidate they endorsed for governor
was a man named Richard Graves, in 1954.
Edwards: How well do I remember him! He had been a Republican. He only
became a registered Democrat on the last day for filing, so that he
could file as a Democrat, and I knew him quite well. I was here
all during that campaign. Really, I thought it was disgraceful
that the Democrats nominated him. I disliked him very much. I
thought he was not very four-square. I didn't care for him at all.
Morris: He'd been kind of on the other side, as it were. He'd never been
active in politics because he had been the lobbyist for the
League of California Cities.
Edwards: Yes. And he was a registered Republican up until they nominated
him. But it showed such a lack of talent in the Democratic party
to reach out and pick Richard Graves.
Morris: One of the other contenders was a man named Laurance Cross, from
Berkeley. He'd been mayor of Berkeley.
Edwards: I guess I did know him, but I didn't know him very well.
Morris: He was considered to be a socialist with a lower case "s",
I think.
i
Edwards : Yes .
Morris: One of the theories is that they got Mr. Graves to run because
they were afraid that Laurance Cross would win the nomination.
Edwards: Yes. Well, I don't know, but I thought it was pretty poor
politics.
Morris: He also was one of the people who opposed Liz Snyder.
Edwards: Oh, yes.
\
Morris: He was concerned abut the connections with the liquor interests.
Edwards: Oh, yes. Very, very, very concerned, yes.
14
Morris :
Edwards :
Morris :
Edwards ;
Morris :
Edwards :
Morris :
Edwards :
Morris :
Edwards :
Morris :
I wondered if, when Mrs. Snyder did become chairman, that would
have meant that there was less support in the Democratic party for
Mr. Graves as their candidate than there might have been otherwise.
I don't think so. Elizabeth Snyder is a very honest person and
I'm sure that she never would allow any personal feeling about how
she felt that Graves may have treated her to influence her work
for the party. I'm sure of that.
He pulled some awfully dirty tricks on me. That's why I say
that I know he wasn't
Really?
Yes. He used me, tried to, and, in fact, in such a way that I
bawled him out one night and I said, "You're never going to be
elected governor." I said, "And don't dare go back to Washington
again and go around and call on people and tell them that I_ have
sent you to them," which is what he did.
Without talking to you beforehand about it?
Yes. He made his first trip to Washington after he was nominated
and I was out here. He went back to Washington and he called on
a lot of Senators and told them that I had suggested that he call
on them and ask for their help. And it was not true, I had not.
That is rather a breach of
Oh, yes! That is really low-down! [Indignant laughter] And it
just so happened that a couple of them were very close friends of
mine and got in touch with me. Stuart Symington was one. Stu
called me and he said, "What do you want me to do for this man
Graves? He didn't make a very good impression on me."
I said, "I don't want you to do a thing for this man Graves.
What are you talking about?" And he said, "Well, he came to see
me. He called and first of all asked if you had written me a
note about him. And I said no, I hadn't had any note. And he
said, "Oh, well, I guess she's just so busy she didn't get around
to doing it. But she wanted me to be sure and come and call on
you and ask for your help." And he did that with several people.
Mr. Symington was from Missouri.
Yes. He was a very powerful Senator.
Right.
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15
Edwards: And Graves did that with quite a few people.
Morris: He wanted their help in the California campaign.
Edwards: Yes.
Morris: Was that customary in 1954?
Edwards: Well, no. It was not customary to bypass the National Committee.
Helen Gahagan Douglas's 1950 Senate Campaign
Edwards: You might ask the National Committee to get help for you from
for instance, Helen Douglas, in her campaign I don't know who
made the request, whether it was Helen herself personally (it's
so many years ago, I can't remember) or whether it was her campaign
manager or who it was. But somebody connected with Helen's
campaign asked me if I could get Jiggs Donahue to come out here
and speak for her, because Jiggs was a Catholic and was known as
well, I have forgotten. It's so many years ago. But he held some
official office in Washington, prosecuting attorney or something.
I don't know what he was.
Anyway, it was felt that his coming out here and speaking
for Helen would be a great help to her, and so I got Jiggs to
come out here and spend a week. That kind of thing was done, yes.
But the candidate would hardly go to
Morris: Mr. Donahue himself, for instance.
Edwards : Yes .
Morris: Was this in the 1950 campaign?
Edwards: That was in the '50 campaign.
Morris: Yes. Was the Catholic vote a particular issue in 1950?
Edwards: Well, it was more than that. It was because he was also very
well known as an anti-communist. I can't tell you now what it
was, but he had had something to do with maybe sending some
communists to prison or something. I don't know. Something of
that sort. And yes, because Nixon, you see, was calling her
the "Pink Lady" and trying to indicate that she was a communist.
So, it was felt that it would be very helpful to have this Jiggs
Donahue, who was so well known as a Catholic and an anti-communist.
16
Morris: To come and speak on her behalf.
Edwards: Yes. And he did. He came out here and made quite a few speeches.
We paid his expenses, the National Committee.
Morris: So that, in that way, the National Committee can really make a
difference in a campaign in a state.
Edwards: Yes, it could. They don't do it any more, but
Morris: Somewhere we came across a comment that you had advised
Helen Douglas not to run for the Senate.
Edwards: Well, she didn't really ask my opinion. I mean, in making her
decision, I don't think that what I thought had any great bearing
on the decision she made. But I was not enthusiastic about her
running. I felt that Helen was in such a strong position in the
House. She was very close to the chairmanship of the Foreign
Affairs Committee. It would have been only a matter of a few
years for her to hold that prestigious and powerful chairmanship.
Morris: Particularly in the fifties.
Edwards: Yes. This was in '50. I used to spend a lot of time in California.
Both the chairman and I did, because, well, California was a very
important state to us. It seemed to me that Helen's people, the
people who were promoting her, were not very realistic in their
approach to the enormity of this state. It wasn't like running
in any other state.
Morris: Oh, now that's interesting. Why?
Edwards: Because it's so big. It's like two states.
Morris: Even more so than New York state at that point?
Edwards: Oh, yes. Much more so. There's no other state that is like this
one.
Morris: Well, Calif ornians tend to pride themselves on the variety.
Edwards: And the north and the south are now, I don't know about now
because I'm not active, but in those days there was great rivalry
between the north and the south.
Morris: That was evident from where you sat on the National Committee?
17
Edwards :
Morris :
Edwards :
Morris :
Edwards :
Morris :
Edwards :
Morris :
Edwards :
Morris :
Edwards :
Morris :
Edwards :
Yes. And Helen was not well known in the north. She had her
group of idolaters in the south, but she didn't have very much
support in the north. Because the bulk of the votes is in the
south, that's the important part of the state to a candidate,
yet you've got to make a dent in the north. It's a terrible state
to cover.
Yes , it certainly is .
least.
You have to be two different people, at
Yes. I mean, there are so many small towns. I hated to see her
give up something that was sure; there wasn't a chance she could
be defeated in the House. And, of course, I was not thinking at
all about Richard Nixon, because none of us knew anything about
him at that time .
You didn't see him as a threat?
Well, he was in the House and he had been instrumental in bringing
Alger Hiss to the court to be sentenced for perjury, but there
was no real indication of the kind of campaign he was going to
put on.
But I'll tell you something that a lot of other people didn't
ever seem to think about, but which worried me terribly; it was
Manchester Boddy who started that campaign against Helen.
Yes. Any idea why?
No, I don't know, because I don't know him. But it seemed to me
that if a man in her own party was going to conduct such a dirty
campaign against her in the primary, that she'd have a bad time
in the general election because Boddy was handing Richard Nixon
fuel to use against her.
Had Boddy had any previous political experience?
I don't think so. I don't know. Was he a newspaperman?
He was , and he later went on and wrote a book about the Kennedys .
That's my major contemporary awareness of him.
I never met him. I don't know who he was. But I just know that
he put on a very dirty campaign against Helen.
Yes.
We at the DNC couldn't take part in that at all.
part in a primary campaign.
We couldn't take
18
Morris:
Edwards
Morris:
Edwards :
Morris:
Edwards :
Morris:
Edwards :
Morris :
Edwards :
Did you talk to Helen before she decided to ?
Well, I talked to her from the standpoint of that she was giving
up a great deal to gamble on winning the [nomination] . But Helen
had a group of people around her there was the one couple. I
don't know what their name was. I've forgotten. I knew, of
course, at the time. I think they ran her campaign. I said to
them, "You know, Helen is risking so much." And I went on, "I just
hate to see her do it."
And they said, "India, you don't understand California
politics. There is an aura around Helen and she couldn' t be
defeated." Why! [Makes indignant sound.] That's rot!
[Laughter] You don't think that's realistic?
I certainly don't! There was no "aura" around her and she could be
defeated. But that was the attitude of, oh, hundreds of people
who were around Helen. I don't know whether you knew her then or
not.
No. You said she had her idolaters in the south.
Yes.
That sounds like she had a lot of people who were just devoted to
Helen without any concern for the rest of the situation.
Yes. And without any knowledge, without any they had no feeling
for politics, no instinct for it, and they just allowed their
admiration and worship , it amounted to that, of Helen, to do away
with whatever common sense they might have had.
Is that maybe a function of her theater background?
I think so. I think she inspired this kind of thing.
Attitudes Toward Women in Politics
Edwards: And, you see, this is so typical of women in the House. I'm sure
I could give you ten names of women who have been good
Representatives in the House and who have then been carried away
by the idea that they might become Senators, and every one of them
has been defeated.
19
Morris: That's a very, very significant observation. Do you think some
women are not very realistic when they get into politics?
Edwards: I think that a lot of them are not, and particularly the ones who
are supporting them. You sit around and you're rather pleased with
the job you're doing. You're doing your best and you think you're
doing a pretty good job and you have a group surrounding you
telling you that there never has been anybody in the Congress like
you, that you are the greatest thing that has come to Washington
since Abraham Lincoln, and you begin to think it's true.
Morris: Do men ever have that problem?
Edwards: Not very often, I think, because I don't think that they have the
same kind of idolaters. [Laughter] But it's been very sad to me
to see how many good women we've lost in the Congress because they
aspired to become Senators.
Morris: Is it because they're trying too soon for the Senate?
Edwards: I think so. I would suppose that probably right now I think
probably Muriel Humphrey would have won if she had run but that
would have been partly emotional. I never for a moment thought
Muriel would run. I would have been very surprised if she had.
I thought she would accept the [appointment] to fill out the term,
but I didn't think she'd run for another term. I think she would
have been crazy if she had.
But I think that today women are accepted a little more as
good candidates. In the old days it was so difficult to even get
any money for a woman, you know. A woman was only given the
nomination for a job that was supposed to be a dead one.
Morris: [Laughter] A dead job?
Edwards: One to which she'd stand no chance of being elected. But they'd
nominate a woman for a job so they could say, "You see, we're not
against women. We're for women. We're running this woman for
secretary of state." But they'd know perfectly well that she never
was going to be elected.
Morris: But they would put up money for that campaign?
Edwards: A little bit. Just a nominal amount. Or if she were elected, it
wouldn't be a very important job and she wouldn't interfere with
the work of the men.
Morris: Something I've always wondered about that: is this a conscious
decision on the part of a group of men, or is it just something
that happens because ?
20
Edwards: It has happened over the centuries and I hope it's growing less.
I've been out of active politics for a long enough time so that I
can't be sure, but I don't think it's lessened to the extent that
it should. I truly think now, maybe I'm wrong because perhaps
young men feel differently but I truly think that most men wish
to God women didn't even have the vote.
Morris: [Chuckles] Even though they had to have voted for it in the first
place?
Edwards : Yes .
Morris: Is this a cultural kind of thing?
Edwards: Yes, I think it is. And I do think that women have disappointed
men in that they were afraid women were going to clean things up
and they haven't done it. And even though the men would have
fought them on it, yet they feel that the women aren't quite as
good as they thought they were or they would have done it.
_
Morris: So that they still have women on a pedestal.
Edwards : Yes .
Morris: Many men still think women should be better human beings than they
are?
Edwards: Yes, yes.
Morris: That's an interesting supposition and one worth pursuing. The
comment we've run across several times is that upon occasion,
when elected and establishing a going political career, some women
tend to do the same kind of close dealing that men have been
charged with.
Edwards: I don't think there are very many of them, though. I think that on tl
whole, women are more honest than men. Now, that just may be because
there haven't been very many of them [laughter] out in the public
arena very long. But I have found in my dealings with men and women
that most women are fundamentally honest and that they look carefully
at a project or an idea to find out if it's straight. And I think
that most of the women I've known who've been elected to office have
been very straight.
21
Dealing with Campaign Dirty Tricks
Morris: Going back to Helen's campaign for the Senate, were there really
serious differences with Sheridan Downey, who was the incumbent
Senator?
Edwards: Oh, yes. He was very conservative. He was more of a Republican
than he was a Democrat and he was really a very conservative man.
I think that their voting records indicated a great difference
in their philosophies.
Morris: Yes. So that she was out to defeat him for the nomination.
Edwards : Yes .
Morris: Did that cause trouble within the Democratic party?
Edwards: Well, yes, I'm sure it did. I don't know too much about that
because, as I say, we in the National Committee had to keep out
of the primary, so I wasn't out here during the primary.
Morris: Yes. But you said you did spend time out here during the fall
campaign.
Edwards: Oh, during Helen's campaign I was here, I suppose off and on,
half the time.
Morris: Because of the severity of Nixon's attacks on her?
Edwards: Yes, and not only on her but on others too. All the Democrats
who were running were under terrible attack.
Morris: That was the year that Jimmy Roosevelt ran for governor in
California.
Edwards: Well, he .never stood any chance.
Morris: That was Warren's third campaign for governor.
Edwards: Yes, well, I never thought he [Roosevelt] stood any chance
of being elected. But there were other people running for
Congress who were having a very bad time. They [Republican
candidates] all took their cue from Nixon.
22
Morris: Was what was going on in the California campaign worse than what
was going on in other campaigns?
Edwards : No .
Morris: There were other dirty campaigns?
Edwards: There were other states that were even worse than California.
But I think that the fact that the Democratic candidate was a
woman and a spectacularly well-known woman made the difference.
But there were dirty campaigns in 1950 that preceded the one here.
In Florida, where Smathers defeated Pepper in the primary, that
was a filthy campaign. Smathers used to work for Pepper. Pepper
had brought him to Washington.
Morris: Oh, dear!
Edwards: Smathers was a bright young protege of Claude Pepper's, but
Smathers ran against Pepper and he called him a "pinko."
And then in North Carolina, Dr. Frank Graham, who had been
appointed to the Senate upon the death of somebody I've forgotten
who it was who ran against him, but they ran a terrible campaign
against him.
Morris: Willis Smith.
Edwards: It was a pattern, laid out for you right there, of the line they
were going to use against the Democratic candidates.
Morris: What were the outlines of that pattern?
Edwards: Red. Commie.
Morris: Was it because of Dr. Graham's involvement in the sharecropper's
fund?
Edwards: His liberalism. Yes. His feeling about civil rights. All of
that entered into it. And if they didn't have the material, they
made it up.
Well, if you read my book, you read about the one that I
really had something to do with in exposing, the one against the
Maryland Senator.*
*Pulling No Punches, Memoirs of _a Woman in Politics, G.P. Putnam's
Sons, New York, 1977, chapter 14.
23
Morris: Tydinga?
Edwards: Millard Tydings. But Millard Tydings was almost as conservative
as the California Senator that Helen wanted to defeat.
[Laughter] And he couldn t 't, by the wildest stretch of imagination,
have been linked to anything subversive or liberal even. And yet
they, you know
[end of tape 1, side A; begin tape 1, side B]
Edwards: They faked a photograph to show him standing next to Earl Browder,
who was head of the Communist party. And a lot of people saw it
and couldn't tell it was a fake. Even though anyone with any
sense should have known there was no way he'd be seen with that
man.
After Tydings was defeated, I thought these things should be
investigated, so I telephoned every Democratic Senator during
the Christmas holidays. The Senate wasn't going to investigate
these campaign dirty tricks but I was determined to see if they
could be persuaded to do so. I had talked to Clinton Anderson
and he finally said, at the Democratic caucus before the Congress
convened, "I will move to investigate Butler if I know I can count
on a majority of votes being with me." I told him just before the
caucus that he would have the majority with him the vote was
unanimous !
In the information that came out, it seems that the publishers
of the Times-Herald were behind it all and Jon Jonkel -
[John M. Butler's campaign manager] did go to prison. There was
enough concern raised in the investigation that Joe McCarthy was
publicly criticized for his part in stirring things up.
Morris: In the long run, do you think McCarthy's tactics had a lasting
effect upon the Congress?
Edwards: Waving all his lists of how many communists there were in govern
ment! I don't think he caused anyone to lose their job, but he
frightened a lot of people.
Morris: Do you think he was coaching Nixon, or encouraging him?
Edwards: Probably both. After all, Nixon hadn't been in Congress all that
long and was looking for ways to get ahead.
But I didn't feel he was all that strong and I thought Helen
should have run for office again to prove it. Not right away but
after an interval, say after Nixon had lost his race for governor.
24
Edwards: She could have won her seat back in the House, I'm sure. I don't
know why she didn't. Some people talked to her about running in
New York, where they were living at the time, but I didn't think
that was a good idea.
Vice-Presidential Possibilities, Political Workload, Appointments
Morris: I understand that both you and Helen were considered for the vice-
presidential nomination at different conventions. [Mrs. Douglas
in 1948 and Mrs. Edwards in 1952] Were those serious efforts?
Edwards: In my case it was, although it certainly wasn't something I
wanted. But it was a hard spot to be in, when I had been so strong
about advocating that more women should be in responsible political
positions. There was a group of women who got together to work for
my nomination. There were people supporting Sarah Hughes for the
vice-presidential nomination that year too.
Morris: Who was in the group that wanted you to be nominated?
Edwards: It was Mary Norton who put the group together.
Morris: Why didn't you want to run?
Edwards: Because I was a happily married woman.
Morris: But you had been married for some time and also were doing a
full-time political job.
Edwards: Well, my husband was maturer than most.
Morris: Is it your observation that a political career is hard on marriage?
Edwards: Terribly. The natural instinct for women is to consider the needs
of their families as most important. It seemed to me that few of
the women in Congress managed to put their children first, with
all the responsibilities of campaigning and doing an elective job.
Morris: How about Helen Douglas? Would it have been easier for her, since
Melvyn Douglas was also an established public figure in his own
right?
Edwards: Well, they worked it out. I don't recall him being around
Washington very much. And then, he was in the service.
Morris: How about campaigning? Would he have helped in her 1950 campaign?
25
Edwards: He was not around for that.
Morris: Do you recall if she had any feeling of being treated differently
in the House because she was a woman?
Edwards: I would say that she was not aware of any important discrimination
as a woman in Congress.
Morris: Would the fact that she was an experienced actress and used to
being in public situations have anything to do with that?
Edwards: Yes, I imagine it might. But I do know that she found it hard to
be a mother and in Congress. I don f t know how she would have
managed if it hadn't been for Evie Chavoor.
Morris: Who was she?
Edwards: She was Helen's right hand. Evie'd been with her for years
absolutely devoted to Helen. She was the children's nursemaid
first and then Helen's confidential secretary, and then in charge
of Helen's office. Evie lived with them in Washington.
Morris: It sounds as if a woman in politics really needs another person
to handle a lot of personal details, almost an alter ego, as it
were. Is it ever possible for a husband to fill this role?
Edwards: Probably not. It's more like a wife. I remember Margaret Chase
Smith saying once that what she really needed in the Senate was
a wife.
Morris: After Helen's defeat in 1950, there were those who said she could
never again be appointed so much as dogcatcher. But she did serve
in the United Nations, didn't she?
Edwards: That was earlier. She was an alternate delegate to the UN during
the second part of its first session, October-December, 1946.
She served on the subcommittee establishing specialized agencies,
such as the International Children f s Relief Fund. Helen naturally
was pushed into the limelight.
Morris: Yes. Because of her theater background?
Edwards: Her personality and her background and her beauty. But it's
damned hard work to serve on one of those committees.
Morris: Of the UN?
Edwards: Yes. Terribly hard work. And it's for a limited period of time.
Those people on those committees take home a stack of papers that
high. [Gestures to indicate height.]
26
Edwards: Her assistant was Lorena Hickok. Lorena was a wonderful woman
and she was a good writer, but Lorena, in a case like this, would
not have been the best person to be helping Helen. I'll have to
tell you one thing about Lorena to make you understand why I say
that.
I took Lorena' s job at the Committee. She wasn't very well
and she lef t ,and they offered me the job professionally. I
had been a volunteer. And after I had been there for a couple of
weeks, Gladys Tillett, who was then director of the Women f s Divisior
and vice-chairman, said, "I just can't get over the amount of work
you do in here, the things you start in a day and finish that
day." She said, "Hick was wonderful, but it took her a whole day
to do one little thing. After she had done one thing, she was
finished for that day. "
I said, "But she'd been a reporter all her life." I said,
"That's all a reporter does is write one story and then they're
finished." I said, "I was a reporter for a comparatively short
time. I was an editor. And there's a big difference. I couldn't
do one story and then be finished for the day. I had to work on
a dozen, you know, or see that they were rewritten, or that they
were together." So, 1 said, "That's why I can do a lot more."
So, from that standpoint, I can see where Lorena wouldn't
have been the best person to be backup for Helen.
Morris: On a committee that took that kind of work.
Edwards : Yes .
Morris: In addition to her regular work in the Congress, which would be
a heavy load too.
Edwards: Yes.
t
Morris: That's interesting. Did Helen share your interest in, and did you
ever work together in getting other women appointed to various
things?
Edwards: Well, I don't know. I can't remember anybody particularly, no.
I suppose I would ask her opinion about California women. But I
can't think of anybody that we ever worked particularly on to get
appointed to anything, because I would work with the national
committeewoman and the state chairman or vice-chairman, for
California appointments.
27
Other Leading California Democrats
Morris: Right. It was Helen and then it was Elinor Heller.
Edwards: Yes. I worked with Ellie, you see. [1948-1952]
Morris: Yes.
Edwards: Helen was in the Congress when I went with the Committee.
Morris: Yes. Was Mrs. Heller ?
Edwards: I think Helen was elected in '44.
Morris: Yes, because 1940-44 she was Democratic national commit teewoman.
Edwards: Yes.
Morris: And she wouldn't be committeewoman and congresswoman.
Edwards: She would resign, wouldn't she?
Morris: Yes. It isn't very often, is it, that a national committeewoman
will then decide to run for office? Aren't those usually
separate roles?
Edwards: W-e-ell [word drawn out in contemplative tone], you couldn't say
that. A great many of them do.
Morris: What I was wondering is if Ellie Heller had similar ideas about
getting women into office?
Edwards: Oh, I don't think so. I think Ellie had very different ideas
about politics than Helen and I, for instance.
Morris: Did Bill Malone support Helen in the 1950 primary?
Edwards: No.
Morris: Ah, okay. So, was it a north-south kind of a thing?
Edwards: Yes. Helen had very little support in the north.
Morris: Do you suppose it was because of her liberal politics, or because
she was a Hollywood actress and ?
Edwards: Both.
28
Morris: Did you ever do any work to try and build some kind of unanimity
in California? You .talked about being concerned about
Edwards: Well, yes, I used to travel around the state [laughter], holding
schools of politics! [Laughter] Well, I never met so many
individualists as I did in California! [Laughter]
Morris: [Laughter] More so than other states?
Edwards: Oh, yes! There was no Democratic party as such really here until
Liz Snyder took over as chairman. Liz consolidated the party.
Morris: Yes. But would you have had any acquaintance at all with
Culbert Olson who was governor from 1938 to f 42?
/
Edwards: No. You see, he was before my time.
Morris: That was before you.
Edwards: Yes. No, it was a pretty wide open thing when I came in.
Regional Factions
Edwards: And the south and the north didn't care much for each other and
they met as seldom as possible.
Morris: Yes. But in politics in general, you hear about the urban versus
the rural, Chicago and downstate, and that sort of thing.
Edwards: Yes. Well, that's true in many states.
Morris: Is it similar to the north-south split?
Edwards: Yes. It's the same kind of thing.
Morris: Yes. And it goes on in any geographical area.
Edwards: And then there's jealousy. There's great jealousy. You have to
be careful. You can't, for instance, pick a judge from Northern
California if you've just picked one from Northern California.
You must select one from the north and then the next one must
come from the south.
Morris: That used to happen with the state chairman too.
Edwards: Yes. Go back and forth.
29
Morris: It went one way or the other.
Edwards: Yes. And in the same way in the cities, in a state like Illinois,
Chicago, and downstate; New York City and upstate.
Morris: Yes.
Edwards: Massachusetts and Texas were the two states that had no semblance
of a state organization, none whatsoever. Every candidate had his
own organization. And I laughed when Jack and Lyndon ran together.
[Laughter] I said, "You couldn't have found two men from two states
that were less understanding of national politics." And that was
really true. They had cutthroat politics of the worst order in
both those states.
Morris: It makes me wonder if the view from outside is that California
also has cutthroat politics.
Edwards: Well, I don't think so. At least, we didn't used to feel that
way. We felt that California politicians were a bit naive
[laughter] more than cutthroat.
Morris: When they came to Washington?
Edwards: Yes.
Morris: Well, California politicians tend to say that when they get to
Washington, they feel like they're treated like kids from the
sticks.
Edwards: Yes. Well, they behave like that! [Laughter]
Morris: I keep coming back to your feeling that California didn't really
have a Democratic organization.
Edwards: Well, it may have earlier. I perhaps shouldn't say that because
I can only judge by the time I knew it. And, of course, I wasn't
in politics during the days of Governor Olson.
Morris: Yes. Well, I was thinking of before Liz Snyder, you know,
Bill Malone is spoken of with awe as the strong man in the
Democratic party.
Edwards: In the north, but not in the south.
Morris: But it was a one-man operation? There wasn't much of an
organization to back him up?
30
Edwards: He was the boss in the north. Now, the south was different.
There were three or four men down there. This John Anson Ford,
for instance.
Morris: Yes. He was kind of a bi-partisan type, wasn't he? I think
Warren appointed him to
Edwards: Yes. But he was a Democrat. He was Democratic national
committeeman.
Morris: Yes.
Edwards: There were a couple of others whose names I ought to remember.
These were people that preceded Paul Ziffren.
Morris: There's Ed Pauley.
Edwards: Well, yes. 1 would doubt that Ed Pauley was ever considered by
Calif ornians as being a political leader. He was a great fund
raiser and a big giver, but I don't think he was a Democrat that
the California Democrats were too proud of.
Morris: He's also associated with the oil interests, which have been
very touchy in California.
Edwards: Yes. Of course, Ed Pauley was treasurer of the committee for
a while. I think Ed Pauley was treasurer of the committee when
I went with the committee, but soon after that he left. I guess
Truman appointed him Secretary of the Navy, didn't he? But he
had to withdraw the appointment.
x
Morris: Yes. And then, for reasons that I don't understand, he was
appointed head of the reparations commission that dealt with
Russia in '47.
Edwards: Yes.
Morris: I assumed it was a political appointment.
Edwards: Oh, yes. It was.
Morris: And yet it's a touchy kind of a thing to be
Edwards: Well, it was because of the fact that Truman had had to withdraw
his name as Secretary of the Navy because Harold Ickes had fought
it so.
Morris: Because of Pauley 's position in the oil industry?
31
Edwards: Yes.
Morris: And the reparations commission didn't come to much.
Edwards: No. And yet it gave Pauley a prestige and
Morris: Yes. One of the men who went on that with Pauley seemed to feel
that Pauley had been brought into that commission because it was
too left-wing and that it was to redress the balance.
Edwards: Probably so. 1 don't know who else was on that commission.
Isidore Lubin, I think, was on that commission. He's the only one
I can think of. And he would be considered pretty left-wing.
Morris: From the California point of view, or any?
Edwards: Well, from the Washington point of view. But I don't think that
he was a Californian, was he?
Morris: I don't think so.
Edwards: No, I don't think he was either. I don't know where he came from.
In Summary
Morris: We're getting just about to the end of the tape, and I wonder if
there are some things I haven't asked you about that you'd like
to add, either about working with Helen Gahagan Douglas or about
the role of women in political life.
Edwards: Well, as I say, I feel that Helen's was a tremendous loss to the
Congress, but I can see why she didn't want to run again, although
I think she could have been elected, not to the Senate, but I
think she could have come back and run for her old seat.
And I think Helen is an absolute angel. I think she's been
too angelic about Richard Nixon. When I think of the dreadful
things he said about her and did to her, I don't see how Helen
could possibly not, at some time, have said something publicly
about him, and I think she should have. I think she should, at
some stage of the game, have told the American people what this
man was like. There would have been a lot who would not have
listened to her and a lot who would have just said, "Oh, well,
what would you expect from her?" But there would have been a
lot who would have listened.
32
Edwards: The fact that that man was elected president of the United States
in 1972 is a national disgrace and I think everybody that had any
thing to do with allowing it to happen ought to be ashamed, and I
think Helen should have spoken out then against him.
Morris: There have been those who have said that about California politics
In general. There were other people who had stories to tell about
Nixon and
Edwards: Yes. Did they ever speak out?
Morris: No.
Edwards: I never found anybody in the East who, after the gubernatorial
campaign, even knew that there'd be an injunction against
Haldeman and Nixon for dirty work in the campaign.
Morris: Yes. And earlier than that there was a man named Murray Chotiner,
who had worked with Nixon in California.
Edwards: Oh, well I knew Murray Chotiner.
Morris: And there were people who did not want anything to do with
Chotiner, but they never spoke out during earlier elections.
Edwards: Yes. I don't know why people fear a skunk like Richard Nixon.
Morris: Probably part of it, as you said about the investigation of the
elections is that sometimes people are afraid that they'll have
it turned on them in politics.
Edwards: Yes. But as far as women in politics, I am very, very sad about
the situation today. I can't speak about the Republicans because
I don't really know enough about them. I know some wonderful
Republican women leaders. I know a couple of Republican women
that I would vote for for president if they ran.
Morris: Would you like to put them on the record?
Edwards: No. We Democrats have some women, too, that I would vote for,
would gladly support. But I think they're very few and I can't
think of any that have been appointed by Carter that I think are
outstanding.
Morris: And yet he seems to have a good working relationship with his wife
and to feel that women have a place in public affairs.
Edwards: Yes. But I don't think he has any real understanding of the power
of women. They're not doing a thing at the National Committee for
33
Edwards: women. The two top women at the National Committee one is from
Georgia and one is from California, and as far as I can see,
neither is a leader.
Morris: They're not continuing the educational work on issues.
Edwards: Oh, no, no, no! I don't know what they do. They have no staff.
They have no budget. So, there's not very much they can do. And
they aren't leaders.
Morris: The current image is that much of the party activity is confined
to finance.
Edwards: It's all! That's the only thing they're interested in, which is
very sad.
Morris: You would wonder if the money might come easier if people had more
feeling of understanding.
Edwards: I think it's very sad that so many people today feel that it
doesn't make any difference whether it's a Democrat or a
Republican; they're all the same. There should be a very great
difference in the philosophy of the two parties. If there
isn't, why, God help us!
Morris: Do you feel that the two parties are closer together than they
were when you were involved in Democratic National Committee
affairs?
Edwards: Yes, I do. I feel they are because I don't think we've had
strong presidents.
Morris: To define an area of difference.
Edwards: Yes. There hasn't been a strong president in the White House
since Truman.
Morris: Yes. And he was unexpected.
Edwards: Yes. But he turned out to be a strong president. Lyndon Johnson
was a good president. Because of his troubles over Vietnam, people
tend to forget that he did more for domestic legislation than
anyone, even Franklin Roosevelt, but he didn't follow through well.
Eisenhower was a do-nothing president and Kennedy it's not
fair to make a judgement on him because he was there too short a
time. He brought a breath of fresh air and charm to things, even
if the trash that's said about him is ninety percent true.
34
Edwards : I feel sorry for Pat Nixon, and few people know how much she did
in restoring the White House interior. Jackie Kennedy got a lot
of publicity for starting the restoration, but I've been told by
people on the White House staff that Pat Nixon really got more
done.
Morris: The tape is just about through. Thank you for sharing your
experience with us .
Transcriber: Marilyn White
Final Typist: Marie Herold
35
Regional Oral History Office University of California
The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California
Women in Politics Oral History Project
HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS PROJECT
Leo Goodman
HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS AND HER WORK
WITH LABOR ON HOUSING AND ATOMIC ENERGY
An Interview Conducted by
Fern Ingersoll
in 1976
Underwritten by grants from:
National Endowment for the Humanities, Rockefeller Foundation,
Members and Friends of the Los Angeles Democratic Women's Forum
Copyright (cT) 1981 by the Regents of the University of California
LEO GOODMAN
36
TABLE OF CONTENTS Leo Goodman
INTERVIEW HISTORY 37
Leo Goodman, Trade Unionist 38
Work with Helen Gahagan Douglas on Housing 39
Control of Atomic Energy 42
Lasting Impact of Helen Gahagan Douglas's Work: Housing Act,
Committee on Lobbying Activities, Foreign Policy 44
1950 Campaign: Importance of Central Valley to Helen Gahagan
Douglas, Communist Issue, Affect of Catholic Church on
Labor Vote 50
Helen Gahagan Douglas's Rejection of Directorship of Housing Agency 57
Continued Interest in Atomic Development 60
Helen Gahagan Douglas's Strengths as Legislator 61
Telegram from Albert Einstein Supporting Civilian Control of
Atomic Energy 63
37
INTERVIEW HISTORY
Although his voice was calm and restrained, Leo Goodman's recounting of
his experiences with Helen Gahagan Douglas was far from dispassionate, because
they had worked together he a representative of the Legislative Committee
of the CIO, she a congresswoman on issues that were very close to the hearts
of both. He was particularly interested in sharing his information with me
because he had once tried to put together a book on what happened in the 1950
campaign, but found contributors difficult to move to action.
In his home in northwest Washington, Mr. Goodman now retired and I sat
in front of a blazing fire on a cold winter day, December 21, 1976. There
were books, to which he referred, on the coffee table; and he had spread out
more books and papers on his dining room table. We talked all afternoon,
often referring to documents.
Just before the library and shops on Connecticut Avenue closed, we
hurried out into the wind to find a xerox machine to duplicate some of the
documents. The one at the public library was broken, so we hurried on to
find another. Although only the telegram from Albert Einstein supporting
Helen Gahagan Douglas's position on civilian control of atomic energy appears
with this transcript, the other documents are part of Leo Goodman's story and
are with the Helen Gahagan Douglas papers at the University of Oklahoma. The
xeroxes we made that afternoon are in The Bancroft Library at the University
of California, Berkeley.
As willingly as he had offered his memories and the supporting documents,
Mr. Goodman went over the transcript, clarifying and approving it.
Fern S. Ingersoll
Interviewer-Editor
26 May 1978
Takoma Park, Maryland
38
II HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS AND HER WORK WITH LABOR
ON HOUSING AND ATOMIC ENERGY
[Interview 1: December 26, 1976]
[begin tape 1, side A]
Leo Goodman, Trade Unionist
Ingersoll: Mr. Goodman, before we get started talking about Helen Gahagan
Douglas and your association with her, tell me just a little bit
about yourself and the sort of background you had at the time
you met Helen Gahagan Douglas.
Goodman: I've worked virtually all of my working life for the trade
unions of this country. I began in New England and became
research director of the United Shoe Workers in the very early
1930s, and moved on down to Washington in 1934, where I began
working closely also with the problems of the national CIO, and
shortly after its formation and structure, I became active in
its Legislative Committee. I have spent approximately forty
years working with and around the Congress of the United States.
Ingersoll: Am I right that at one point you worked with the UAW [United
Auto Workers]?
Goodman: I worked with a variety of unions, starting with the shoe workers.
I then became representative of the Retail, Wholesale, and
Department Store Workers. I then worked with the national CIO
and various of its committees (which I'll discuss later), and
subsequently became associated with Walter Reuther and his
activities. Through that association, I became an employee of
the United Automobile Workers. Subsequent to that, after the
merger of the CIO and the AFL I worked with the Industrial Union
Department of the AFL-CIO, which was the successor to the old CIO.
Ingersoll: Did any of this take you to California, or was this all
Washington-based?
Goodman: Well, I spent a great deal of time on the road.
Ingersoll: In many different states?
39
Goodman: In many different states. In most of these assignments, we were
working to influence the Congress, and therefore we developed a
grassroots understanding of our political activity. Therefore,
I was fairly constantly on the road. I worked for the UAW, the
AFL-CIO, the CIO, the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store
Workers, the United Gas, Coke, and Chemical Workers, and was the
legislative advisor to the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers.
All of these had membership in California, as well as in many
other states, and I was especially interested in California and
have been out there many, many, many times, both during the
period we're talking about and since.
I met Helen Douglas here in Washington. I was not associat
ed with her first campaign for election to the House.
Ingersoll: What was your impression of her when you first met her?
Goodman: I knew from the very beginning that she was very closely tied
to the Roosevelts in the White House, that she really was a
protege of Eleanor Roosevelt's and that she espoused the programs
of the New Deal.
I was active in the Legislative Committee of the CIO, which
at that time was the most active trade union group in the Congress
in a whole variety of issues that she was interested in, for the
reason that the CIO very closely supported Franklin Roosevelt's
program. She and Eleanor Roosevelt were very closely associated
in pushing that program.
Ingersoll: Was Eleanor Roosevelt at all involved in your beginning to work
with Helen Gahagan Douglas?
Goodman: No, not directly. No, I was assigned in a variety of fields
within the CIO Legislative Committee. I covered all child wel
fare issues, and I was specifically assigned as executive secre
tary of the national CIO Housing Committee. Helen Gahagan Doug
las's files at the University of Oklahoma mistakenly identify me
as the chairman of the committee. The chairman was Walter Reuther
I was merely the executive secretary.
Work with Helen Gahagan Douglas on Housing
Ingersoll: You were executive secretary of the Housing Committee. Could you
say a little bit in general about your impressions of Mrs. Douglas
when you knew her in those days? What would you feel about her
40
Ingersoll: her assets, her liabilities, as a woman in politics?
Goodman: After forty years' work in Congress, I think that she was the
best House member that I knew. She knew what it took to pick up
a difficult issue and she picked up the difficult issues, you
can be sure and to lobby and campaign for them, and to bring
the important issues to the forefront even though many of her
colleagues were hiding behind obfuscations.
For example, I was associated with Fiorella La Guardia in
that period. We established a committee called the National
Fair Rent Committee, of which La Guardia was chairman and I was
secretary, because approximately four million veterans were
returning from the war zones
Ingersoll: This would be mid-forties?
Goodman: Starting at the end of '45 and looking for homes and wanting to
marry their sweethearts. They were urgently in need of housing.
The first problem was, should there be a runaway in rent; it would
be impossible both for the underprivileged in this country and
returning veterans to afford a place to live. Helen picked up
that issue, and she was most actively aggressive. I worked with
her on the introduction of bills on rent control and, more impor
tantly, we moved over to the subject of having to increase the
supply of housing available in the country.
At that time, we had a rather narrow-minded bloc in the lead
ership of the House of Representatives. The key committee was
the Rules Committee, who were actively opposed to any governmental
intervention in these problems. The only way to move legislation
forward was by route of what was called the "discharge petition."
You had to have signatures of 218 members of the House discharging
the committee from consideration of a particular piece of legis
lation.
I worked for many months with Helen on a campaign to get
those 218 signatures.
Ingersoll: Was there anyone else working to get the signatures to discharge
the bill?
Goodman: Dozens of organizations. But she performed the key role. I pub
lished a weekly list at the time of those who had signed the
discharge petition. The only way you could get access to the
list was to be a congressman and look at the petition and see
who had signed it and also who had taken their names off.
41
Ingersoll:
Goodman :
Ingersoll:
Goodman :
Ingersoll:
Goodman:
Ingersoll:
Goodman:
Ingersoll:
Goodman:
Ingersoll:
Goodman:
Oh! It was possible for them to sign and then rescind their
names?
Right.
Was that happening at any great rate?
Which was a double-dealing character. Yes, it did happen.
Helen and I worked weekly on the preparation of my published
list. That list became the crucial force for the ultimate
passage of the housing act in '49, [National Housing Act of
1949] , under which about fifty million homes have since been
built.
Yes, that was crucial housing legislation, certainly.
idea was the weekly publication of such a list?
Whose
It was mine, but Helen was the crucial source of information.
Not only did she have what it takes to introduce a bill, to cam
paign for it aggressively, but also to lobby effectively for it
so that we built up enough of a head of steam across the country.
All of the organizations the Catholic church was in this, the
League of Women Voters et cetera oh, I could give you a long lis
of thirty organizations that participated in the effort to try
to get this bill. It was a very key bill, because this was the
bill, in my opinion, that reelected Harry Truman in 1948.
It was that crucial an issue!
He had kept pushing the bill all through the year, and the House
leadership and the House Rules Committee had blocked it. And at
the last minute, Joe McCarthy had come in and introduced a substi
tute, meaningless bill which Harry Truman later characterized
in his campaign as the "teensy-weensy" housing bill.
That was the one that had no slum clearance and that sort of
thing that was so much needed, right?
That's right. That became the issue. I had a long session with
Harry Truman. After the Republican convention, I went to him
and said, "You call a special session, and let's put the Repub
licans on the spot. They said "in their convention campaign
pledge," they're for solving these problems. And he did. In, my
opinion, that was the decisive act in his reelection in '48 when
everybody said he had lost to Tom Dewey.
That's very interesting.
It was Helen's work that laid the basis for our whole activity
in this field.
42
Ingersoll: To go back just a little bit to how your association with Helen
on this particular legislation started out, had you gone to her
with your concerns or had she called you in?
Goodman: I don't remember the precise basis. But I was assigned by the
CIO Legislative Committee to work with the Congress, and she
responded most. I worked most closely with her, and she was in
and out of her office, and worked with her and Evie Chavoor
[office manager for Helen Douglas] constantly. That was a long,
interesting period.
There were other issues working simultaneously that I was
interested in. Of course, after '45 we were all interested in
atomic energy.
Control of Atomic Energy
Ingersoll: Oh, that was a concern of yours too? Atomic energy was very
important, of course, to Helen Douglas.
Goodman: It was the CIO committee to whom the scientists came from Oak
Ridge and Los Alamos and the Argonne Laboratory of the University
of Chicago, wondering what the Pentagon was doing about legislation.
Came the end of the war, the Pentagon sought to take complete
control of atomic science, and the scientists had had a great
deal of trouble with their military directors, particularly
General Leslie R. Groves. We were able to secure, through the
Legislative Committee [CIO] contacts on the Hill, a copy of the
draft bill which had been prepared by the Pentagon, which later
came to be known as the May- Johnson bill. This provided for
complete control by the military of atomic science.
We provided the room and the mimeograph machine and the
advice to the earliest group of scientists that came in. We
ultimately formed a committee similar to what I told you we had
in the housing field. It was called the Committee on Atomic
Information. We had to bring about some alternate proposed
legislation, and it was Helen who ultimately introduced the bill,
and led the fight for us, and tipped over the whole of the
Pentagon program Helen in the House and Senator Brien McMahon
in the Senate. It was the most dramatic year, in my opinion
'46, '47 in which a political issue became a big, national,
public debate. It was the hottest issue of the time.
Ingersoll: The repercussions of something like that could be endless, really.
43
Ingersoll: Can you remember any way that Helen particularly operated,
moved, worked for this new legislation?
Goodman: I have a few clippings out of the files. I wasn't able to find
my own file, but I found the material which was out of the Uni
versity of Oklahoma file.
Ingersoll: Any of those things that you can find within the next few weeks
or months I'd very much like to put in as an appendix.
Goodman: I have a whole batch laid out on a table back here.*
I think the most significant thing that's not known public
ly is that Albert Einstein, who became chairman for a while of
the Committee on Atomic Information, specifically guided and
endorsed Helen's activities.
Ingersoll: No, I hadn't heard anything about that at all.
Goodman: Somewhere I have a copy of his telegram of final endorsement
of her bill.
Then she worked with this group which later came to be known
as the Federation of Atomic Scientists, which was a scientific
group. Then we had a broad citizens committee, in addition.
Einstein was chairman for a while, and then the usual problem
came up. This was a problem that came up on which Helen as well
as many others fell, and that was the accusation of being commu
nist or pro-communist. How ridiculous it looks from today,
looking back on it!
*Documents which Leo Goodman felt were important as illustrative
of the importance of the atomic energy control issue while Helen
Douglas was working on legislation are: Telegram from Albert
Einstein to Helen Gahagan Douglas, 21 November 1945; Letter from
Engineers and Architects Association of Southern California to
Repr. Helen Gahagan Douglas, 26 February 1946; "May-Johnson Bill
Is Pushed in House," New York Times, 6 March 1946; Telegram from
Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences,
and Professions to Repr. Helen Gahagan Douglas, 19 June 1946;
Telegram from Church Federation of Los Angeles to Helen Gahagan
Douglas, 11 March 1946; Letter from Chet Holifield, congressman
from California, to Helen Gahagan Douglas, 6 July 1946; Letter
from International Union, UAW-CIO, to Helen Gahagan Douglas, 23
July 1946, enclosing a resolution adopted by the International
Executive Board of the UAW-CIO on the question of atomic energy;
Letter from AFL Atomic Trades and Labor Council to Helen Gahagan
Douglas, 6 July 1946, enclosing letter from AFL Unions at Oak
Ridge, Tenn., to Lt. Col. Curtis A. Nelson, 2 July 1946. Xerox
copies of these are on file in The Bancroft Library of the Univer
sity of California.
44
Ingersoll: And yet, in the temper of those times, it was something that
got under people's skin like nothing else.
Goodman: Right. I was very heartbroken at the time by the impact it had
on her. Remaining as a member of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee she could have been a tremendous force for good in
the subsequent history of this country. She'd have been in there
today and been chairman of the committee for years.
Lasting Impact of Helen Gahagan Douglas's Work: Housing Act,
Committee on Lobbying Activities, Foreign Policy
Ingersoll: I think many of the people who were close to her felt that way.
People are always saddened when their candidates lose, but I
have the feeling that people who worked with Helen Gahagan Douglas
felt a particular blow when she lost at that time because they
could see the implications for the future if she had
Goodman: The tragedy was that she chose on a more narrow basis than many
people know and understand. She had been dedicated heart and
soul to the development of the Central Valley of California.
That was part of a campaign, which actually started back with
Abraham Lincoln, to establish "family farms" in this country.
Ingersoll: Small farms rather than the large ones.
Goodman: The rule was adopted, I believe by Abraham Lincoln, establishing
240 acres as the rule. Her campaign turned against Sheridan
Downey who, as senator from California, proved that he was
aligned with the big landowners and the big agribusiness develop
ers. They clashed head-on on whether or not one supported the
family farm as against the great big agricultural interests
owning tens of thousands of acres.
In my opinion, she chose to oppose Sheridan Downey, knowing
that there was a possibility that it would bring an end to her
political career. But she was determined to try to defeat him
for reelection. Her efforts resulted in his defeat and with
drawal from politics. So she achieved one of her broader
purposes, though many people who also had other interest's were
heartbroken at her removal from the congressional scene.
I'm going to tell you something that's going to surprise
you, because not many people were as close, I think, to aspects
of the situation as I was. She made positive contributions that
had lasting impact. One was the housing act that I told you
45
Goodman: about. Not many people know, but the rent control was very
important. Fiorella La Guardia and I met with her on a number
of occasions. He was guided by her and, in my opinion, it was
his action that was decisive in preventing the runaway inflation
that would have occurred. Had controls been taken off of rents,
it would have given a great boost to inflation in the postwar
period.
Ingersoll: There were two de-controls. Twice, there were de-controls of
rents, weren't there, during that late '48 period? Then it must
have been that Helen's efforts kept that from going further than
it had.
Goodman: I remember the session in which Fiorello and I sat in the office
of Arthur Vandenberg who was making a big campaign about peace
in the world. He had shifted over from being an isolationist to
supporting Truman's foreign policy at the time. I remember
Fiorello turning to Vandenberg at one point and saying, "Arthur,
all of your efforts for peace in the world will go down the drain
if we have riots in the streets here because of the effects of
de-controlling the rents." And a very stupid man whose name
slips me at the moment we're talking about a long time ago.
Ingersoll: Thirty years. Was this an aide to Vandenberg, perhaps?
Goodman: A son-in-law of the Du Fonts, representing Delaware in the Senate,
had reported out of his subcommittee a bill to end rent control
by something like a vote of seven to two. This discussion in
Vandenberg 's office, I believe after a consultation with Helen,
with La Guardia carrying the ball, resulted in Vandenberg revers
ing himself and issuing an order to his colleagues to reverse
this stupid bill, and the bill was referred back from the full
committee back to a subcommittee by a vote of something like
eleven to three. (These are memory figures; don't hold me pre
cisely.)
Ingersoll: Yes. Those are the sorts of things we can look up.
Goodman: Something like seven to two changed in full committee to three
to eleven. I don't know that this is recorded anywhere publicly,
but it may be.
And rent control was continued. Now, I believe this was in
the spring of '46. I went up to Wilmington, Delaware, and we
got every last tenant in that city to know what the senator had
done. Then his reelection came up that November. Life magazine
subsequently had a great big spread. Life had a picture of the
tents and the food that was scheduled for the celebration of his
reelection, unused, because we defeated him on this one issue.
46
Ingersoll: And your thought is that Vandenberg's change of vote came after
the meeting with you and Fiorella La Guardia, and also after
consultation with Helen Douglas?
Goodman: Right.
Ingersoll: Were you by any chance in the House when she made her Market
Basket speech, when she was working so hard for rent control and
needed to show very graphically that food had gone up so terribly
much when food control prices had been taken off?
Goodman: I was working down in the lobby among the members. So many
members, they knew the issues! But unless the lobbies pressured
my colleagues operated on the theory that the only way you get
an upright legislator in the Congress is to maximize the pres
sure on him from all sides. [Laughter] Otherwise, one side or
the other is bound to push him over on his face.
\
Ingersoll: Do you have any recollection of what the response in Congress
was to that Market Basket speech of Helen Douglas?
Goodman: That's taxing my memory. It's getting too specific.
Ingersoll: The reason I asked was that Juanita Terry Barbee, who worked so
hard with Helen Gahagan Douglas and Evelyn Chavoor, said that
she and others had been very disappointed at that time with the
response that Helen had gotten from Congress, that people just
hadn't paid the kind of attention that all of their work to get
through all of the figures had deserved
Goodman: That means there was a great big drive in the party leadership
both parties were involved in it to terminate all the wartime
controls. We were fighting a very tough, uphill act. About, this
time, I was also chosen as secretary of the Cost of Living Com
mittee of the CIO, which really was a mandate to try to prevent
inflation. We were in all of these difficult situations on the
Hill.
John McCormack, while pretending to be a New Deal Democrat,
was ardently for the elimination of controls, and he was a tough
one to buck. And the Rules Committee was tough to buck.
Ingersoll: Did Helen Gahagan Douglas ever go to work on somebody like
McCormack when she felt strongly about something like this?
Goodman: Oh yes, yes!
47
Ingersoll: Did you ever see anything like that in action?
Goodman: I had a fascinating experience. One day I was late for a meeting.
It was raining. The Hill wasn't as crowded as it is now, and I
drove a little old Chevy I had right up to the back of the Long-
worth Building. I walked in through the porticoes do you know
where the arches are?
Ingersoll: Yes.
Goodman: That's where the folding room is. To my amazement, they had
stacked, from the floor to the ceiling, along the corridor to
the Cannon Building, the greatest stack of reprints I had ever
seen. Being the typically nosy guy, I reached into a couple of
the packets and pulled out copies. (I've forgotten whether I
was on the UAW payroll at this time.) But I was startled to find
a reprint of an article put in the appendix of the Congressional
Record of a speech by the chief economist of the Chrysler Corpor
ation against rent control. I said to myself, "What in the hell
is Chrysler Corporation interesting itself in rent control for?!"
So I walked along this stack and noticed, from the copy of the
envelope on each bundle, that there were six or eight different
'speeches. It turned out to be a virtual tirade against the
entire program on which Harry Truman had just been reelected
in '48. (This must have been in December of '48 or January of
'49. Let me get a volume. [Pause]
Ingersoll: There are one, two, three, four, five volumes here, which are a
transcript of what followed after that. You had just said that
you saw the statement from Chrysler and other people against the
housing legislation.
Goodman: This is how the CIO News handled the front page. Here's the pic
ture of the stacks, and these were being taken into the folding
room and put together sets made up and into mail sacks.
[Looking through CIO News] These are the young ladies looking at
the mail sacks. All funded, financed, directed by the radical
right to try to kill the entire program on which Truman had just
been reelected. This is dated February, so
Ingersoll: February 28, 1949. CIO News.
Goodman: What I'm about to tell you occurred mainly in January, when I
first found all this. I went to John McCormack with all of this,
and John McCormack called in Helen Douglas and asked Helen to
make the first preliminary investigation of what this was all
about. Out of that came a resolution setting up a lobbying com
mittee. [Looking through files] Somewhere here is my memorandum
to Walter Reuther. Reuther took my memo, plus Helen's memorandum
48
Goodman:
Ingersoll:
Goodman:
Ingersoll:
Goodman:
Ingersoll;
Goodman :
Ingersoll:
Goodman:
to oh yes, here it is to John McCormack, and they met with
Harry Truman. Out of it, a lobby investigative committee was
established back in 1950 in the House of Representatives. And
that's what this is. [Referring to documents]
House Select Committee on Lobbying Activities. This is just the
1950 volume, the first volume, and there are four others that
follow that, is that right?
That's right.
Five all together.
There were many reports; this is just the bound set. Here I have
the speeches that were stacked. There were 450,000 copies of the
speech on rent control inserted in the Congressional Record by
Congressman Ralph W. Gwinn. He was also the general counsel of
J.C. Penney and a member of Congress from Westchester County,
and the most backward-looking right-winger that we had in the
Congress for thirty years. [Reading] "A Free Economy" inserted
by Ralph W. Gwinn. "Federal Aid and Control of Education" by
Ralph W. Gwinn. "How Public Housing is Disastrous Here and
Abroad" by Ralph W. Gwinn. "Minimum Wage Standards: Implications
of Federal Aid to and Control of Education."
I believe there were something like eight million reprints
altogether being scattered at federal expense. These bundles
were all addressed to the Committee on Constitutional Government,
a right-wing, anti-New Deal group in New York City, for address
ing, to be sent through the mails free, over congressional frank,
after the defeat of the Republican party on these very same
issues by Harry Truman just a few months before.
Was Helen then charged at this time by McCormack with doing an
investigation of this kind of thing?
Yes laying the basis for setting up this investigation,
committee that was appointed was Carl Albert
The
Were you involved in that investigation, then, that Helen was
charged with doing?
Well, as I told you, it was both her looking into it and she
made the estimate as to how much it would cost the government
(she got a figure from the staff there) to send all this out for
the radical right. Charles Halleck, who became Republican leader
was another committee member.
49
Goodman: Instead of her being appointed I've never understood why (of
course, she was involved in these other things) Clyde Doyle,
who was her colleague and the man who came from the district
next to hers in California was put on that committee.
Ingersoll: Your feeling was that Helen Douglas should have been put on
instead of Doyle.
Goodman: She should have been made chairman. But I am sure it was John
McCormack well, I really don't know; I shouldn't say. But
McCormack appointed the most inadequate person, a man you've
never heard of (Frank Buchanan) as chairman. This could have
been a much more important investigation.
Ingersoll: Do you think there was any reason why Helen Douglas wasn't at
least appointed if not made chairman?
Goodman: I don't know, I don't know. She should have been. But it was
McCormack who asked her to do the preliminary work. Between
what I had found and what she was able to dig out, Walter Reuther
interested Harry Truman, and a committee was appointed and had
extensive hearings.
Ingersoll: An important thing, to begin.
[end tape 1, side A; begin tape 1, side B]
Goodman: She had so many different interests. But she was on the Foreign
Policy Committee in the House, and was a great resource. She
worked very closely with Eleanor Roosevelt whom you remember was
on the U.S. Delegation at the U.N. It was very interesting that
there was a program recently about that, pointing out how both
Senators Tom Connally and Arthur Vandenberg, who had originally
resented her being appointed, came to rely on Eleanor as the most
effective member of the delegation in the early phases of the
United Nations, particularly on the Committee on Human Rights,
working for the Human Rights Resolution. And Helen worked very
closely with her [Eleanor Roosevelt] on foreign policy issues at
the time and was making a great impact on the foreign policy
issues. But she had many other interests and I believe, as I
said earlier, she made the choice of being willing to go down
totally in politics on this one issue of the Central Valley family
farm campaign. And she did bring about the termination of Sheri
dan Downey's Senate career.
50
1950 Campaign: Importance of Central Valley to Helen Gahagan
Douglas, Communist Issue, Affect of Catholic Church on Labor Vote
Ingersoll: That was an interesting and rather sad part of the whole senator
ial campaign even though it did, perhaps, make the family farm
more of a possibility.
Goodman: Well, that's not been totally achieved either. But I went back
in the files and found some of the exchanges about and with
Sheridan Downey.
Ingersoll: Oh! You have some of those things. Good.
Goodman: Here are some clippings of December, 1949. "Congresswoman Helen
Gahagan Douglas paid Oroville a brief visit yesterday and said
that the Oroville Dam should be made part of the integrated
Central Valley Project and constructed as soon as possible."
Ingersoll: Let's see. What are you reading from now?
Goodman: This is a clipping from the Oroville, California Mercury of
December 17, 1949. She said, "Since the Feather River is the
largest undeveloped source of water in the state, it certainly
should be brought into beneficial use as soon as possible."
And that's been done. It was done by Governor Brown [Pat] later.
And, "Mrs. Douglas complimented the people of Oroville for push
ing the project since, she said, it would prove beneficial to
all of the state and not only to the local interests. The visit
ing congresswoman stopped at the Oroville Chamber of Commerce
and was taken to the dam site by a group including a local news
paperman and a Bureau of Reclamation engineer and was greeted by
Mrs. Helen Good, woman's chairman of the Butte County Democratic
Central Committee. She went to Chico from here and today is
scheduled to visit the hydroelectric project of the Shasta Dam."
Ingersoll: That really was very important to her, wasn't it?
Goodman: Right. And when I was interested in getting out a book about
all her . . .
Ingersoll: Yes, I'd like to go on and talk about your ideas for a book about
her.
Goodman: In the whole Watergate business, hundreds of speakers referred
to how Nixon treated her, but nobody had the details. At one
point, a radio commentator and newspaperman agreed to write a
book about her. He made arrangements to use the materials
51
Goodman: at the University of Oklahoma, and the people told me they made
all kinds of preparations for his coming and he never did. He
never showed up and did only a very superficial book. I'm talk
ing about Frank Mankiewicz.
Ingersoll: Oh yes. I've seen his Perfectly Clear.
Goodman: He wrote Perfectly Clear mainly about the fact that he was on
the same ticket running for some subordinate office and then had
virtually nothing about the real details of the Douglas-Nixon
fight.
Ingersoll: As I remember, he did have some chronology of the smears, but
there could have been a great deal more, I'm sure. How do you
feel about. . .
Goodman: The Los Angeles Neighborhood News, May 25, 1950: "Mrs. Eleanor
Roosevelt Lends Her Support to Helen Douglas. ' Congresswoman
Helen Douglas deserves the support of those of us who care about
good government,' declared Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of Franklin
Roosevelt, in a message to Douglas headquarters today. In her
radio speech Sunday night Mrs. Douglas said, 'If every attempt
to clean out slums, and promote programs to permit families to
own their own homes and their own farms, if every program to
stimulate free enterprise and create new jobs, if every attempt
to build up sound securities for the old and those in adversity,
if every attempt to develop and conserve natural resources is to
be throttled by being called socialistic and communistic, we will
create the frustrations that lead to hopelessness and forsake
democracy. '
"Downey hurled a challenge at Helen Douglas. Senator Sheri
dan Downey challenged Representative Douglas to a debate on the
Central Valley Authority."
Ingersoll: Now how do you feel about that? Frank Rogers says that he feels
it was just an awful shame that Helen Douglas allowed herself to
push so hard, on, such a as he sees it narrow, small issue.
What would your feeling be about that?
Goodman: I don't know all of the reasons that she determined to get rid
of Sheridan Downey. He was a conservative posing as a Democrat.
And I wouldn't want to second guess her. I think that all these
issues that are in here [pointing to Helen Gahagan Douglas vs.
Richard Nixon, Aug. 20, 1950] are all beside the point.
Ingersoll: In the Blue Book, you mean?
52
Goodman: That [the "family farm"], in her mind, was the issue. I called
her about the possibility of getting out a book in the aftermath
of Watergate. And my concept was to get ten people who were
involved in that election fight as I was, nine others and myself,
to each do an evaluation of what the Nixon forces did in that
campaign, in detail. You see, that's what was missing in all
the Watergate discussions: people referred to how Nixon treated
Helen but nobody presented any of the details and I wanted ten
people to sit down and put together their memories of what the
Nixon forces did to Helen. Evie [Chavoor] helped me and I went
out and spent time in California and I located those who were
still alive.
Ingersoll: Did you? You got the ten people.
Goodman: But they were old and worn, tired and really not interested, and
though I had found a great resource of her original materials in
Oklahoma, I couldn't get any interest in those who might be in
volved in doing the book now. This was some years ago. About
two or three years ago? At the height of the aftermath of Water
gate. In my opinion Helen herself didn't know how dirty Nixon was,
You see, the key thing about the Nixon operation (and his
chief aide, Murray Chotiner, in my opinion takes much of the
discredit) was the use of dirty tricks. Now the Nixon forces
were pulling these dirty tricks on Helen all through the campaign
and I don't think she ever really fully recognized it. Being
the kind of warm person she is, she just assumed that this was
something that some local little group had done. For example,
let me see if I can find. .. [pauses while talking and looks for
something among papers] You know, every time she spoke during
this period and even subsequently, the Nixon people did things,
dirty tricks, to try to ridicule her.
Ingersoll: Can you remember any of those particular incidents?
Goodman: They happened, all the way from California to Boston, Massachu
setts. I'm going to read you one as an illustration. But there
were many such things. "Balcony Barrage Splatters Actress After
Speech Blasting Nixon. Former U.S. Representative Helen Gahagan
Douglas was splattered with eggs at the Ford Hall Forum in Boston
last night during a question-and-answer period after her address
attacking Vice- President Nixon. The barrage came shortly before
10 p.m., just as the former member was preparing to answer some
questions on the United Nations."*
*This article must have come from a later period when Richard
Nixon was vice-president. We could not find the date at the time
of editing. [Ed. ]
53
Goodman:
Ingersoll:
Goodman :
Ingersoll:
Goodman:
Ingersoll:
Goodman:
Do you know that all over California he had bales of hay thrown
at her?
No. I hadn't heard that. As she was speaking?
Yes. Murray Chotiner, who was in my opinion the author of many
of these things, conceived of every kind of dirty trick to ridi
cule her; but of course all of these have to be attributed to
Nixon because this was Nixon's campaign again. Have you seen
the quotes from Chotiner on the use of the Pink Paper? I have
copies of some of the original quotes taken out of... (long pause
while searching)
Would you like to comment just a little bit on these quotes from
Murray Chotiner that you found interesting and would have used
for your book?
Let me go back a little way first.
Fine.
I was interested in the use of the communism issue by the Nixon
forces who knew at the time that all of these charges by Nixon
were a red herring. When he began using them against Helen, he
used the identical techniques that the Republican party had used
against another person whom I had supported at that time, a
Republican, Margaret Chase Smith.
Margaret came to me one day with a copy of the material put
out by the Republican Central Committee of the state of Maine
showing a tabulation of her vote on a selected group of issues
and the tabulation of the vote of Vito Marcantonio who was con
sidered the Communist member of the House of Representatives.
You know, in a congressional session a member votes some
where between seven and eight hundred times, and if you take out
a selected grouping you can find any member voting identically
with another member on a selected group of issues. And so
Margaret Smith showed me the materials published by the Republi
can Central Committee of the state of Maine against her showing
that she had voted identically with Vito Marcantonio on something
like a dozen issues. It was a ridiculous presentation and yet
it's the kind of thing that uninformed people fall for. And
this dirty tactic had been used by the inner core of the Repub
lican party for three or four years when it suddenly showed up
in the Helen Douglas campaign. And then in the Helen Douglas
campaign, the Nixon forces dug out over the whole period of her
time in office three hundred and fifty-four times when she and
54
Goodman: Vito Marcantonio voted on the same side. What a ridiculous
presentation! You know, it could have been on a motion to
adjourn and had absolutely no meaning! But the choice of the
Pink Paper was to use this tactic, as it had been used previous
ly, against Helen in the dirty kind of a campaign that of course
Nixon has since been proved to have been addicted to throughout
his whole political life. Isn't that awful?
Ingersoll: What was your part in that 1950 campaign?
Goodman: Well, I went to Walter Reuther on the basis of the experience I
had had with this dirty tactic that the Republicans were using
of equating anybody in the Congress with a Communist, or linking
Vito Marcantonio with the Communists and indicating that anybody
who voted on the same side as he did on any issue was suspect
of being a Communist. What a ridiculous thing that you would
vote against another person no matter what the issue solely
because the other person is voting a given way!
So I went to Walter Reuther to ask to be assigned to her
campaign, and I moved out to California and I worked on her
election.
Ingersoll: What did you do there for her election?
Goodman: Well we organized a trade union group. The most active group
at the time out there was the Retail Clerks that had the largest
membership in her district. It was headed by a man named
Joe De Silva who understood the issues, and we organized an appeal to
the tenants on rent control, on the housing issue, and on the
minimum wage issue. We did radio speeches, speeches at the local
union meetings, put out literature on her behalf, and tried to
counter this incredible, stupid dirty campaign that Chotiner,
Murray Chotiner, had organized for Nixon. But the tragedy was
that all of this followed shortly after a series in which Nixon
had been active in the House of Representatives on the communist
issue. Remember we had just had the hearings done by Congress
man Mundt, who later became Senator Mundt, on protecting the
United States from un-American and subversive activities and
the hearings before the House Un-American Activities Committee
on legislation to outlaw un-American and subversive activities.
That spring there were the hearings regarding the alleged ship
ment of atomic materials to the Soviet Union during World War II.
All of these created a mood and an atmosphere that made it
possible for both Manchester Boddy and Dick Nixon, but particu
larly Murray Chotiner in behalf of Nixon, to allege that Helen
was soft on communism, their definition of communism being the
55
Goodman: whole New Deal and everything that the Roosevelts had stood for.
But the public is fickle and difficult to understand. It took
time, it took twenty years, no thirty years after that and Water
gate for the American people to understand the true character
of Dick Nixon.
Ingersoll: How did labor leaders whom you came in contact with at that time
feel about this communist allegation against Helen Gahagan Douglas?
Goodman: The great tragedy was that a large number of them were Catholics
and the Catholic church picked up this issue from the Nixon
campaign. The CIO director for the state of California with whom
I worked closely, Tim Flynn of the United Steel Workers, who was
dedicated and devoted to Helen, flew up with me from Los Angeles
to San Francisco where Helen had a post-mortem session on the
election, the morning after Nixon won. Here was a husky 6 '4"
man who had come through all the conflicts of the struggle to
form the CIO and the trade unions, and as we walked out the door
he burst out crying to me, "My God, this whole thing, this whole
defeat," he said, "was because the church ordered the people to
talk about not wanting a communist in the Congress!"
There had been a group of Catholics who had formed an organ
ization called The Catholic Committee for Helen Douglas and
here's a pamphlet which they had prepared in Helen's behalf.*
But since many of our trade union members were Catholics, I'm
not sure how well we did among our own members, because the
church was aggressively against her and the church did everything
possible to bring about her defeat.
Ingersoll: The church must have believed the Nixon allegations on communism
then?
Goodman: No, not necessarily that she was soft on communism, Nixon's charge,
but they must have made a choice to prefer him over her. The
Catholics in the CIO were very bitter at what the church did.
I remember, as I told you, the conversation with Timothy Flynn,
who was the state director of the CIO, who bemoaned the fact that
the Catholics within the CIO had not faced up to the church and
had a confrontation with them on this issue.
Ingersoll: Was there ever any talk before the election of the possibility
of their facing up on that issue?
* A Message from Catholics to Catholics. Xerox at The Bancroft
Library, University of California at Berkeley.
56
Goodman: Well, they thought because they were Catholics and this pamphlet
is the perfect illustration that the Catholic endorsement by
trade union leaders, such as CIO leader Irwin DeShetler, would
offset the rumblings that had been created inside the church.
But of course they couldn't have foreseen and couldn't offset
the appeal made by the priests the Sunday before the Tuesday
elections. It was as close to a direct request to all Catholics
not to vote for Helen as one could possibly have formulated. So
that the church, in effect, picked up Nixon's campaign and fell
for it and helped bring about her defeat.
Ingersoll: Was there any other group like that, like the church, that you
feel was particularly influential on labor people?
Goodman: On labor people? I don't recall any at the moment.
Ingersoll: Was there in any way an open rift between Catholic and non-Catholic
labor people over that?
Goodman: No, the Catholic leadership people in the labor movement were all
for Helen Douglas.* They understood the domestic issues.
Ingersoll: I see. It was the rank and file.
Goodman: It was the rank and file who would have been affected by their
priests at Mass Sunday mornings. We didn't get the vote that we
normally had been getting up to that time in the areas where the
trade unionists lived, and we were not able to pull it off for
her in the face of the dirty campaign that Nixon had cooked up
and that was picked up by the church as a basis for making a
decision.
Ingersoll: Did Nixon, as you remember, do anything special to woo the
Catholics, or do you think they just liked the sort of...
Goodman: Oh, I'm sure he did. I'm absolutely positive he did, but the
record wasn't developed. People didn't understand, not many
people understood, the tactics of the Nixon operation back then.
You know, it took the Watergate investigations to really go into
it in depth and show how despicable it really was. Back then,
when you alleged these things people would look at you. And,
of course, there was the obfuscation here. The Pink Sheet was,
of course, the symbol and how could you attack a Pink Sheet,
* "All Labor Backing Helen Douglas for U.S. Senatorship," East
Bay Labor Journal, Oakland, California, 28 April 1950. Xerox on
file, The Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley.
57
Goodman: particularly when Murray Chotiner said, "In consulting with the
printer we wanted a different color and in stock we found a sheet
with pinkish tinge." What dishonesty! And what obfuscation!
Well, I don't know how much time...
Helen Gahagan Douglas's Rejection of Directorship of Housing
Agency
Ingersoll: I'd like to go back to just one thing and that is in connection
with legislation that you worked with Helen on, labor legisla
tion. Did you have anything to do with advising her when she
was voting on the Taft-Hartley bills in 1947 and 1949?
Goodman: No. Taft-Hartley wasn't my assigned area. I worked, as I told
you, at that time mainly on social issues. That was what was
great about the American labor movement at that time. We were
concerned about the social welfare of the country. It's been
totally perverted in recent times.
Ingersoll: Oh, that was so important to push in that direction!
Goodman: It's incredible that as important a force for social progress as
the American labor movement has been, it is being totally per
verted by Meany [George] and what he stands for today.
Ingersoll: And higher wages seem to be the only direction they seem to be
going.
Goodman: Without any understanding as to the relationship between infla
tion and wage increases. Total lack of understanding. Meany
is a plumber. As you know, plumbers are associated with sewers
and I don't think a man associated with sewers all his life can
get rid of the odor. I think he stinks.
I want to tell you what happened afterwards. This is not
recorded anywhere. When Helen was defeated was it the Clift
Hotel?
Ingersoll: I can check on that.
Goodman: The morning after we had this post-mortem at the hotel. I came
back to Walter Reuther who said how important it was to keep
Helen active in political life. He and I went to President
Harry Truman, and it so happened that there was a vacancy at that
time at the head of what is now HUD, Housing and Urban Develop
ment, to which Carter [President Jimmy] just appointed a woman
about twenty minutes ago.
58
Goodman: Walter and I talked at length with Harry Truman about Helen
and her background and her role in bringing about the enactment
of the Housing Act in 1949. And he authorized us to offer her
the position as administrator of the housing agency [Housing and
Home Finance Agency]. Walter assigned me to do it. So my wife
Elizabeth and I called Helen and located her at the family place
up in Vermont. We went up and spent a long holiday weekend with
her. I think it was the Fourth of July weekend.
Ingersoll: What an appropriate position that would have been for her.
Goodman: It all crystallized and I was, in effect, the agent of Harry
Truman to offer the job as administrator.
Ingersoll: She wouldn't take it?
Goodman: She wouldn't take it.
Ingersoll: What did she say?
Goodman: I begged her. Day after day after day.
Ingersoll: After the work you two had done on housing, what a perfect kind
of thing that would have been for her.
Goodman: How we needed someone like her.
Ingersoll: How did she feel at that point?
Goodman: Well, of course she was totally let down and she said that
Melvyn and she had talked it over and decided that she should
give up public life. It was very bad psychologically, the defeat.
The dirty tricks that Nixon had pulled on her of course had cut
deep and she was just determined not to get back into public life
again. She said that Melvyn wanted her to concentrate on the
family. Her daughter was there. Her son. And I just poured
my soul out begging her to do it, but she wouldn't.
Ingersoll: I guess she was the kind of woman that once she made up her mind
about a direction, she was difficult to change.
Goodman: Well, it had been a very wearing campaign.
Ingersoll: Of course.
Goodman: It had been, and now there's all the talk about putting women
in the top jobs of course, Carter's taking a terrific beating
59
Goodman: right now. What people don't know is how hard it is to get
nominees to accept. And yet, how much it would have meant had
she accepted.
Ingersoll: To both housing and to women in positions of authority and im
portance.
Goodman: Right. I don't think I was ever more disappointed in anything
I did in my whole career than in my inability to get her to
accept that position.
Ingersoll: What was it, three days, that you tried over that weekend?
Goodman: Oh no, it was longer than that! We went up, we may have gone up
on a Thursday night, maybe Friday morning. Came back the follow
ing week.
Ingersoll: Have you ever spoken with her about it in the years since then?
Goodman: Oh, I've met her on many occasions and talked about many things,
mainly on, you know, the positive. There are many comments, I
have a half a dozen of them back there somewhere, on her reti
cence to do an open, head-on attack on Nixon in the subsequent
years. She would make a biting remark, but she would never do
a thorough-going analysis. I'm not sure to this day she under
stands the full range of dirty tricks that Chotiner and Nixon
pulled on her.
Ingersoll: Do you think maybe she doesn't want to understand, that she'd
just as soon not have that as part of her memory?
Goodman: Maybe. I'm sure that the whole experience was a pretty bitter
experience. The ridiculousness of the idea to suggest that she
was a communist. It's been so overworked in this country. It's
so overdone. It was the tactic of the inner core of the conser
vative Republican party for a whole decade, a whole decade. One
of the costs to our society was that wonderful people like this
were eliminated from government. I'm sure that thousands of
others who might have gotten into politics shied away from it
because of the experience that she went through.
Ingersoll: And what the rest of us have suffered as a result! In talking
about this in subsequent years, did you ever get any feeling
that Helen Douglas might have wished that she had made a differ
ent decision about that housing post?
Goodman: No. I've never talked directly to that issue in subsequent...
You know, it was just a decision she made and I just had to
accept it, and so did Reuther and so did Truman. Many, many
times I thought of the desirability of going back over it.
60
Continued Interest in Atomic Development
Ingersoll: Were there any later times in your life when your interests and
Helen Douglas's overlapped?
Goodman: One of the things that happened in my life was that the other
phase of her work became my concentration. The scientists who
had come up and looked for help in the CIO subsequently contacted
Walter Reuther and said that they couldn't possibly continue under
the miserable living conditions of the communities that the govern
ment built around the atomic plants. And so finally Walter
Reuther assigned me to work with them and the more I got into
their housing and communities, their problems did you know that
Oak Ridge was virtually a concentration camp?
Ingersoll: I had heard that from someone who worked there.
Goodman: Electrified barbed wire fence around it. A soldier with his gun
out at that gate. And everything that happened inside had to be
authorized at a desk in Washington. Every three months they
were each taken into a room and given a lie detector test. Every
kind of stupid activity. . .
Ingersoll: The very sort of thing that Helen Gahagan Douglas had fought so
hard against, that national security no matter how important it
might be should never be the reason for sacrificing human rights.
Goodman: Well, of course the problem was that at the end of the war, or
shortly after the end of the war, when it became clear that the
government wasn't going to improve conditions in these communi
ties, the scientists' wives were making them resign. They wished
they could go where they could have a decent home.
Ingersoll: Surely. Was this something that was a concern of Helen Douglas's,
the living conditions of the scientists, or was this something
that grew out of the more general interests?
Goodman: No. This was out of my own experience. I was assigned to work
with these scientific groups. Hanford, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge.
There were many more communities than the public knows. I esti
mate that one way or another we had thirty concentration camps
as a result of the atomic program in the United States. Some of
them I'm sure you've never heard of: Dana, Indiana I'm sure
you've never heard of.
61
Ingersoll: In small communities that we just weren't aware of.
Goodman: So I was sent down to work and then I got back into what we in
the Legislative Committee had worked on, the general legislation
that Helen had put through, the Atomic Energy Act of 1946. This
was the Douglas-McMahon Act. It was Senator McMahon from Connec
ticut and Helen introduced it in the House. In the private
papers of Arthur Vandenberg, there' s a chapter in which he tells
he made the compromise positions on the passage of that legisla
tion. I've got a lot of interesting documents we may have to
go through this at some other time of the backing that Helen
had for her work. But Vandenberg compromised by putting the
military back into the structure. It was allegedly civilian
control, but the military was in the structure. The civilian
control was due to have been watched over by a guy named David
Lilienthal, and he subsequently quit when Harry Truman yielded
to the military control once the Korean War started and gave the
military the control that had been debated and they had lost in
the debate in Congress.
During all this period I was working with the community
problems, the housing, the rent control. Of course, I had to get
into the whole damned lie detector test business and the elec
trified barbed wire gates and all that. I moved over into the
atomic field. And Helen kept up with the atomic field. She
spoke about the bomb and its problems many times in later years.
Ingersoll: After she left Congress?
Goodman: All during this later period,
[end tape 1, side B]
Helen Gahagan Douglas's Strengths as Legislator
[begin tape 2, side A]
Ingersoll: Let me go back to something I had wanted to ask you before in
lobbying and legislation and that sort of thing. Evie Chavoor
told me that it was rather a common thing with Helen that when
someone came in with a concern of their own and she recognized
the importance of this concern, believed in it, she would not
only support them but would often draw them in to do more work
to make this concern be reflected in legislation. Is that part
of your experience?
62
Goodman: Yes. What I had meant to develop earlier, the very first thing,
was the great ability that she had to pick up an issue and learn
how to formulate it, campaign for it, lobby for it, and bring up
support. This was a great attribute she had, which I think was
shared with Eleanor Roosevelt, of picking a social issue and
carrying it to the public, to the Congress, so that it would have
a chance for consideration. As a matter of fact, when she lost
in the Congress, they didn't have too many like her. Wayne Morse,
George Norris, Senator Wagner. There are people of that" ilk, but
there aren't many in the Congress who know how to pick up an
issue and carry it to the public and to the forefront to get
Congress engaged. In the last decade that we've lived through,
they've all been looking to the White House for leadership instead
of themselves being the leaders of the people in the Congress,
the way she was. She had that kind of ability unlike Edith Nourse
Rogers or Margaret Chase Smith who were much more passive
generally, though Margaret Smith has the one great aggressive action
the counter-attack on Joe McCarthy to her credit. But Helen
was the woman, in my opinion, in the early period in the Congress
who had this ability. And what a great tragedy it was to lose
her from the Congress.
Transcriber: Lee Steinback
Final Typist: Ann Enkoji
63
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64
Regional Oral History Office University of California
The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California
Women in Politics Oral History Project
HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS PROJECT
Tilford Dudley
HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS: REACTION OF UNION MEN
An Interview Conducted by
Fern Ingersoll
in 1977
Underwritten by grants from:
National Endowment for the Humanities, Rockefeller Foundation,
Members and Friends of the Los Angeles Democratic Women's Forum
Copyright ("G) 1981 by the Regents of the University of California
TILFORD E. DUDLEY
65
TABLE OF CONTENTS Tilford Dudley
INTERVIEW HISTORY 66
Birth of the CIO Political Action Committee 67
Helen Gahagan Douglas: Inspirer of Personal Loyalty and
Ideological Sympathy 68
Helen Gahagan Douglas: Speaker with Contagious Dedication 71
1950 Campaign: The Odds Against Helen Gahagan Douglas 73
Helen Gahagan Douglas's Sense of Obligation 75
Helen Gahagan Douglas's Recognition of Eisenhower's Charisma 78
Women in Politics: Assets and Liabilities 80
66
INTERVIEW HISTORY
As Leo Goodman and I left his house to xerox documents from the days of
his CIO Legislative Committee work, Tilford Dudley and his wife were shovel
ling snow several doors down the street. Mr. Goodman strongly advised that
I make an appointment to talk with Mr. Dudley, who had been assistant direc
tor of the CIO Political Action Committee, especially because of his presence
when union leadership first learned of Helen Douglas's decision to run for
the Senate.
By the time we set up our interview it was early spring, March 31, 1977,
and he looked forward to a trip in the canoe given him by his son and current
ly leaning up against his house. When I called to say I would like to talk
with him about Helen Douglas, I mentioned that I would also like to get his
views on women in politics. He gave this subject considerable thought based
on his own experience of working with congressmen and women and encouraging
union men and women to be more politically active. Like his old friend Leo
Goodman, Mr. Dudley gave me the feeling that the days of retirement are good,
for they give one a chance to read and think perhaps more deeply and widely
than before.
When I returned the edited transcript to him for his approval, he not
only gave -more details to clarify points, but also added several items which
had come to mind since we met.
Fern S. Ingersoll
Interviewer-Editor
26 May 1978
Takoma Park, Maryland
67
III HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS: REACTION OF UNION MEN
[Interview 1: March 13, 1977]
[begin tape 1, side A]
Birth of the CIO Political Action Committee
Ingersoll: Mr. Dudley, I understand that you were the assistant director of
the Political Action Committee of the CIO [Congress of Industrial
Organizations] at the time Helen Douglas was in Congress. Could
you tell me a little bit about that committee, and just what it
tried to do, how it got started?
Dudley: Yes, in 1942 the results from the congressional elections, they
being in the off year, that is a non-presidential year, showed
that the Democrats, particularly the liberal Democrats of the
New Deal were losing in strength. Sidney Hillman reported to
Philip Murray and the council of the CIO that if the labor group
did nothing and the trend were allowed to continue, it was pretty
clear that a conservative president would be elected and a
conservative administration in the elections of 1944. Phil Murray
then asked Sidney Hillman to form a road committee and take a
tour around the country and see how the members at the grass
roots felt. Mr. Hillman and his group made the tour and came back
reporting that there was a great desire among the CIO locals and
regional offices to set up a committee. The CIO then did establish
its CIO Political Action Committee which was known as CIO-PAC.
Mr. Hillman became the chairman, and their offices were in
New York. The CIO also had a Legislative Committee, as did the
AF of L [American Federation of Labor]. And the Legislative
Committee of the CIO, and of course the AF of L, continued to
function from their respective national headquarters in
Washington, D.C.
In 1944 I left my government job and went to work for the
United Packinghouse Workers union which was affiliated with the
CIO. Technically I was associate general counsel, but my real
job was to be a political action director. And during 1944, late
summer and early fall, I canvassed the country going to packing
house regional offices and local plants trying to explain how a
successful union must engage in politics as well as economic
68
Dudley: activity. I tried to say that there had to be a line at the
ballot box as well as a picket line outside the plant that you
were striking. And that a modern union was like a railroad, it
had to have two tracks: one for economic activity, and one for
political activity. And we pointed out that politically labor
might lose through high prices, through taxation, through anti-
labor legislation, while all the gains were being made over the
bargaining table as the result of a strong strike, and therefore
you had to have political strength as well as economic strength.
That was the 1944 campaign,, and that was the campaign in which
Helen was first elected as congresswoman from her district in
Southern California.
Helen Gahagan Douglas: Inspirer of Personal Loyalty and
Ideological Sympathy
Ingersoll: Was it fairly soon after that that you met Helen, do you think?
Dudley: The elections were in November, and by January she was installed
in Washington in her congressional office, and I, as the Packing
house Workers representative was beginning to spend more time
with the new Congress, while not out in the field exhorting
people to be active politically. I remember that in calling
upon our congressmen from packing house districts, and others
that would be friendly towards us, I called upon Helen's office,
and after a short wait was shown in to see her. They explained
to me that she was busy and resting, so I went in and found her
reclining on a couch, while I sat in a chair not too far away.
And we got acquainted and talked some about the organization of
Congress.
Ingersoll: That wasn't the way you usually expected to find your congressman,
was it?
Dudley: No. Usually you meet them at a desk and you meet with them very
formally, and you don't find a lovely lady reclining on a couch.
I think of one congressman I called on who came from Iowa. He
was at his desk, and after he listened for a while he rose and
motioned that I was to accompany him to the door. I walked with
him to the door he was rather hostile and as he turned to walk
back to his desk I turned to walk back to his desk with him. We
talked some more, and again he arose and took me back to the door
again. [Laughter] And I walked too. I think we went back and
forth two or three times before I finally got my say in and
decided it was time to leave.
69
Ingersoll: What kind of a person was Helen? Perhaps in contrast to that
man, to meet at a time like that, your first meeting.
Dudley: Well, she was very much in contrast, and she was at least in
fundamental agreement with the campaign and the general objectives
we all had in the labor movement and the New Deal movement . Of
course you like Helen intellectually, and in addition, she was
and still is, a very charming lady, and you can't help but like
her not only for her points of view. I think all men liked Helen
as a lovely woman. And that's an attitude I think should be
encouraged. Our views to her were those of loyalty politically.
But we also developed a great deal of loyalty personally. We
regarded her as a lady, as an angel, as someone whom we admired
and loved in the general sense of that word. And this meant that
she had a strong personal following, as well as a strong ideo
logical following. 1 think, for example, of some of my friends
in the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, because I later left the
United Packinghouse Workers and I went to work in New York,
working both for the CIO Political Action Committee, of which
Sidney Hillman was the chairman, and also for the Amalgamated
Clothing Workers of which he was the president. And they divided
my time, and divided my salary, although as Mr. Hillman later
said, he suspected I was giving far more time to the Political
Action Committee than I was to the Clothing Workers. [Laughs]
He smiled as he said it, and neither one of us was surprised.
But anyhow, when Helen wanted something out of those men in the
Amalgamated Clothing Workers, she got it. [Laughs] Again, it
was personal loyalty, as well as ideological sympathy.
Ingersoll: Were funds given to her from the Amalgamated Clothing Workers?
Dudley: Oh, sure. All kinds of funds. Now, you see the CIO at that time
put on the drive for contributions to candidates. The law wasn't
too clear; but we were sure that it would become clear, and it
did become clear later in the Taft-Hartley law, that for politi
cal purposes we would need to use individual contributions from
our members, as distinguished from union dues. Our feeling was
that our members naturally would be divided some about whether
we should be in politics at all, and whether we should support
this candidate (usually a Democrat) as opposed to some other
candidate (often the Republican) , and so in view of the newness
of our political action program, and the potential disagreements
as to whom we should support and what we should do, we felt that
the money ought to come only from those individuals who were
willing to contribute it individually and voluntarily.
Now this meant that in the different unions, we would put
on drives. We had leaflets, and we had speeches at the union
meetings, and sometimes at the plant gates in which we would urge
70
Dudley: our members to contribute. "Give a Buck to PAC" was the slogan.
And just as the Red Cross and the Community Chest put on a drive
for contributions, so would we. Now this would vary some. In
some places they would just put on a drive and pass the hat, or
whatever was the easiest way. Generally the Amalgamated Clothing
Workers, where they had much more experience in doing things,
would go first to the people that they knew were sympathetic, and
would give, and would give the most. And they'd ask if they
would write their name down. So if Joe Blow would give $8, and
the next guy would give $6, as they went around to the other
people, they'd say, "Now, we want you to give, and here's what
the other people at the plant are giving." [Laughs] And they'd
show them the list, as a means of inducing a similar contribution.
Some of the newer mass unions weren't quite so sophisticated in
their approach. So the Amalgamated Clothing Workers had indivi
dual money like that that could be given legally, either directly
or through the CIO Political Action Committee, to Helen for
political campaigning.
Then, of course, there were educational conferences, and
there were meetings and conventions to be addressed, and some
times expenses to be picked up. But technically these were not
political expenditures, and trade union money could be used.
You will be interested to know in passing that in the first year
the CIO insisted upon giving a receipt to each person who contri
buted. This meant thousands of them, maybe hundreds of thousands
of individual receipts. They were of course investigated by the
FBI, as we expected them to be. And the FBI people sent their
representatives to the New York office and they started going
through these thousands of receipts to be sure that we really had
individual contributions and had given a receipt for the money.
You didn't have to give a receipt, but we wanted to prove that
Joe Blow gave $3, or $1, or 50c, or wha'tever it was.
Ingersoll: A very important way of keeping things straight and above board,
wasn't it?
Dudley: Incidentally, in that campaign of '44, some of the conservatives
felt that they would ruin the CIO drive by exposing us. And I
remember that either Time or Newsweek ran double spread, two
pages, reproducing some of the CIO leaflets that we had, which
would be on issues and candidates they should vote for. And
their general theme was that the CIO Political Action Committee
was going to be terribly powerful politically, and therefore
terribly dangerous. Therefore, you should vote down, you see,
this grasp for power by these union workers. But in doing that,
they told an awful lot of people about us, about what we were
doing and about our goals.
71
Ingersoll: They were really publicizing it.
Dudley: They did us a great favor. [Laughs]
Helen Gahagan Douglas : Speaker with Contagious Dedication
Ingersoll: You spoke of speakers, educational speakers whom the unions would
have. Was Helen ever one of these speakers?
Dudley: I'm sure she was. I don't remember any specifically. Oh, I
remember meeting her at some meeting she addressed out in Tennes
see. She addressed the meeting I came to it from some place
else, and she came to it from the west, I think. We rode together
on the plane from Knoxville (if it was Knoxville) back to Washing
ton. Oh, yes, she was a popular and frequent speaker. She had
humor and eloquence and could lift an audience emotionally.
Ingersoll: Can you remember that particular addressing of the people in
Tennessee? Can you say anything about Helen as a speaker to
unions?
Dudley: I've tried to remember it. Of course, I remember coming back
with her, because anybody would remember being with Helen. But
what she actually said at the meeting, I just can't remember.
Some kind of a state convention or educational conference. But
you see, her charm, her enthusiasm she has a contagious enthusi
asm and she indicates how it's important to do this: how these
dangerous elements are developing power, and it's important for
the union people to know about them, and act to stop them and so
forth, and support good candidates. There's such contagion in
her dedication, in her conviction, that the audience just swallow
ed right up what she said. She didn't talk to them about strictly
union issues like negotiations with employers. She talked about
social issues for the community, in which we were, or should be,
interested.
Ingersoll: Have you ever been in the situation where she rejected the advice
of a man or put forth a point of view that was different from
what a man might hold? Do you have any feeling about whether she
was able to do this without angering him, or not?
Dudley: I don't remember any time when she did. Yes, I think most
liberals, but I think particularly the men I knew, would be
inclined to melt before Helen's enthusiasm. I can't remember
anybody standing up and saying, "Helen, you're wrong." And if a
union guy spoke strongly, he'd say, "You're God damn wrong." You
72
Dudley: didn't do that with Helen. I'm sure there were times, on smaller
matters, when there must have been some disagreement on strategy,
on issues, and there would certainly be a desire by our people
to listen and consider carefully what she said, on the assump
tion that she might well be right. We didn't really have disa
greements because we were in the same camp of liberal doctrines.
In those days the liberals were pretty distinct as being differ
ent from the conservatives. Nowadays the lines are somewhat
fuzzier.
Ingersoll: Did she ever ask your advice on labor legislation, or any of the
other things concerning labor?
Dudley: I can't remember. I assume she did, but probably somewhat in a
passing way. I don't think we ever sat down in a real thought
session. I can't think of any such session like that. I think
she asked advice in terms of what this or that union official
might think about something. And, of course, something about
what were the unions doing, or where were they meeting, and
people coming and going out of Washington. Those would be de
tails of logistics. But I don't remember any real discussion
with her on issues. On her own strategy. I didn't know too much
about her district. As I remember, there was a heavy colored
population in that district.
Ingersoll: Yes, at least part. Not all of the district, but a part of it
was. There was a silk-stocking part, there was also the colored
part.
Dudley: I think at the time there was a question, how could a person get
these different kinds of support. The silk-stocking part, unless
they're silk-stocking enough to be liberal, which is sometimes
true, but not usually, would be likely to be conservative. The
silk-stocking, and the blacks, would have different points of
view, and we had to have somebody who could appeal to both. And
it seems to me there was a third segment I can't remember
whether there were many union people in Helen's district or not.
It seems to me not particularly, but I don't really recall the
district.
Ingersoll: Yes, there were.
Dudley: It was her charm that pulled them all in together.
73
1950 Campaign: The Odds Against Helen Gahagan Douglas
Ingersoll: Let's talk about that 1950 campaign, and the incident that you
recall of talking with her.
Dudley: As I recall, it happened that spring of 1950. Jack Kroll was
then director of the CIO Political Action Committee, Sidney
Hillman having died in the summer of 1947; and we had moved our
offices to Washington. Jack asked me if I wanted to go with him
on an appointment to see Helen Douglas. Of course, I was more
than willing to go. As we went in, Helen greeted us both with
her usual enthusiasm she is so contagious in her personality.
And she said, "Jack, I have something to tell you, and I hope
you'll like it." Well, Jack was all ready to like it, although
we didn't know what it was. And she said, "I've decided to run
for the Senate. And what do you think?" Well, Jack immediately
felt that it was a fine idea.
She would be running against Sheridan Downey, who was then
incumbent Democratic senator, and who wasn't any great liberal
(certainly not a radical), but he wasn't a conservative either.
He wasn't a bad guy, a vicious guy kind of the middle-of-the-
road. And she would be running against him in the Democratic
primary, and then would have to run against a Republican in the
general election. There wasn't any debate between her and Jack.
Jack Kroll immediately agreed with her, but I must confess to you
that I think most men, and the men I knew in the labor movement,
were inclined to agree with Helen almost automatically. But I
privately had my doubts; in fact, I was really quite concerned,
quite worried at the time. I didn't want to dispute the judgement
of my boss who had rushed in to agree promptly, and of course one
would always hesitate to dampen Helen's contagious enthusiasm,
but I tried to raise a few questions to throw some doubts on the
conversation. Did she think she could beat Sheridan Downey, for
example. Well, she thought she could. She thought it important
to fight with him on this question of irrigation for large or
small farms. And I asked if the people who supported Downey
would support her in the general election, if she won. She said,
"No, not all of them. Some would and some wouldn't," and you
couldn't tell. She'd simply do the best she could. I may have
brought up the question about raising enough money for both the
primary and the general election; I think Mr. Kroll as well, and
she assured me that they felt she could.
And Jack said the labor movement would be all back of her in
the primary, as well as in the general election. So, I was in
the position of being someone who was the unhappy subordinate. I
didn't agree with what was going on, but it didn't seem very
74
Dudley: diplomatic to fly in the face of the judgment which both announced
so positively then and there. I had hoped that I might get back
and talk with Helen privately about it, and try to suggest my
doubts and the fact that my judgment was to the contrary, but I
never got back to her. I did discuss it later somewhat with Mr.
Kroll. Sometimes one can speak privately a little more easily
than in front of somebody that you adored. Jack would never have
changed his mind in front of Helen. But even when we were alone
he said, "Oh, no, Ted, that's the thing to do. I'm all for it."
I couldn't shake him into having second thoughts, and this meant
that our position was stated, and as far as she was concerned,
she had a green light to go into the primary elections, which she
did. It was too bad because what happened basically was, as I
and almost anybody else could foresee, that you do spend a lot
of your money in the primary, and you do spend a lot of your
friendships. And some of the people who oppose you strongly get
so opposed to you that they won't come back. Democrats often had
this problem. After a hot primary, how do you then pull yourself
together for the general election? This isn't the only place that
we failed to pull ourselves together fast enough. It's tragic
there because Helen was influential, and well liked, and she
continued to be influential, as a member of the House. She was
on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and all that was knocked out.
And, of course, it was also unfortunate in that it gave the second
step to Richard Nixon on his road to infamy.
Ingersoll: Do you have any feeling about something that Leo Goodman mentioned.
He said that quite soon after the election perhaps it was a
breakfast after the election, he and a man called Timothy Flynn
were together (a great big union man, as Leo described him) and
Timothy Flynn felt just terrible about what had happened. Was
almost in tears. And Timothy Flynn 1 s view of it was that a good
many of the people in labor, who ordinarily would have supported
Helen, were Catholic. And the Catholic church was caught up -in
the whole anti-communism speech of Nixon. Flynn felt that priests
made such a strong point against Helen in church the very Sunday
before the election, that this had captivated a good part of the
labor vote. Do you have any feeling about that?
Dudley: I wasn't out there, so I don't know, but I'm sure that that
happened, because as you know, Tricky Dick made this his campaign
issue and technique, as he did with Jerry Voorhis before. I
remember that he used to say that Helen had a pro-communist voting
record, and he would hold up in his speeches Helen's voting record,
or part of Helen's voting record, which was mimeographed on pink
paper. And he would say, "Here's her pink voting record. Just
look at it." And. to prove that it was pink in his judgment, he
would cite her votes that were along with Marcantonio [Rep. Vito]
of New York who was an avowed Communist. Of course, what he did
75
Dudley: was, as Helen pointed out, he compared her votes with Marcantonio's
on domestic issues, and on domestic issues the commie line was
just the New Deal line. He did not compare Helen's vote with
Marcantonio's on the international issues, which is where the
split would have appeared. He established that that was the issue.
I think it was to counter that, and it was the Catholic issue
in mind, that she got Jiggs Donohue [F. Joseph] who was a lawyer
and a commissioner here for the District of Columbia, to go out
to California and campaign with her. Jiggs was a good Democrat,
a good Truman Democrat. Truman had appointed him to be a commis
sioner for Washington, D.C. At that time, the District of Colum
bia was governed by three commissioners, appointed by the presi
dent. By statute, one was detailed from the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers; two were civilians. Jiggs was thus one-third of the
District government and by far the most influential. He was very
loyal to Truman and he was a good Catholic. So he was out there
for at least several weeks, speaking I suppose essentially to
Catholics to try and get them to vote for her. In those days,
Catholics were more inclined to fall for that approach than other
people. I also heard that as a result of that campaign, Helen
had to mortgage her house for a large sum.
Helen Gahagan Douglas's Sense of Obligation
Ingersoll: Did she have to assume that financial responsibility?
Dudley: Someone asked in fact I think I asked her how it happened; to
mortgage your own house is an awful big gamble. I think what had
happened is that towards the end of the campaign, some people who
were on her side, who were part of her campaign establishment,
had spent some good sums of money, particularly for last minute
advertising full page ads.
Ingersoll: Trying so hard to
Dudley: Trying so hard, thinking that "gee, one more and this will make
it." And they overspent, and so as a result the campaign commit
tee owed a sum of money that was substantial, and Helen felt
obligated in some way to meet that. My understanding was that
she mortgaged the house to pay for it. I'm not at all sure that
she was legally obligated to do that. It was a committee debt,
and not hers. But as I remember, that was one of the burdens
that she carried down on that defeat.
Ingersoll: That's very interesting that she would have felt responsible.
76
Dudley: It was her campaign. It seems to me I said, "But Helen, you
couldn't pass on every advertising decision, every expenditure;
the responsibility just couldn't he yours." But I think she
said, "Well, they did, and they were for me, and they were offi
cials of my committee. And I had to make good." It's too bad.
Ingersoll: That certainly gives us some insights that we haven't had before.
I'm really so glad we have them. [Tape turned off]
Dudley: I think Evie Chavoor said this to me once. I think I commented,
"Helen is usually a bit late getting into the reception, or the
cocktail party, or the meeting which she is to address. We're
pretty well along before she comes in." And Evie said, "Yes,
she does this intentionally." "Why?" said I. "To get a reputa
tion of the late Mrs. Douglas, or something?" "No," said Evie,
as I remember. "You wait till the crowd is assembled, then you're
able to make a kind of a grand entrance, you see, from the rear
door, and everybody is there and when you come in, they all stand
up and they applaud, and there's a much more effervescent spirit."
And I said I didn't think Helen was vain like that; it was
looking for a show, and Evie said, "She feels that she ought to
do it, that she owes it to her supporters. That she owes it to
her friends and her supporters to make as effective an entrance
as possible because that is part of the overall campaign of
drumming up support and enthusiasm for you. She doesn't do it
for herself. She does it for the larger assembly of public sup
port and campaign workers and so forth."
Ingersoll: Oh, that is interesting, isn't it.
Dudley: What I thought at first was a bad habit like Hubert Humphrey's
[laughs] who's too late to receive public applause was well
thought out, and really very unselfish.
Ingersoll: And she was able to do it, probably, with all of the presence of
the actress, which she had so successfully been.
Dudley: Oh, yes. She was the actress on stage, and she'd wait for her
cue. That's very true.
Another word that would come up frequently (I've heard Helen
use this word many times) this is the word "homework." She was
proud of doing her homework on issues. And I've heard her talk
about engaging in a discussion, or maybe a debate, and sometimes
saying about the other person, "Well, he hadn't done his homework.
He didn't have the facts, and I had done my homework and I knew
the facts, so I could talk more effectively." And often when she
was going to a conference or going to a vote on the floor, she
would say, "Well, I've done my homework." And this word, and
77
Dudley: this habit, this obligation on her part, was pretty constantly
on her mind. She was proud of doing her homework, and noticed
when other people did not do their homework.
Ingersoll: Do you think it ever bothered any of the labor men that Helen
was as sure of herself as she was?
Dudley: I never noticed this. I don't think Helen was sure of herself
in the sense of being cocky, and opinionated. I never got the
feeling about Helen that she knew it all, or thought she did.
She had her opinions, her convictions, but they were more enthu
siasm, and she would pull you up with her enthusiasm, rather
than saying, "You don't know anything, and I do, and you do what
I say." I've never heard anybody say that about her. Some people
who are opinionated can throw off their support, and some cannot.
Ingersoll: Yes, and perhaps women can't get away with an opinionated approach
as much as men can. What do you think?
Dudley: I don't know. [Laughs] I'm a great admirer of women, and I'm
not sure that's true. It might be the opposite. [Laughs]
Sometimes if a woman's opinionated, as a matter of courtesy,
you've got to let it slide, whereas with another man, you'd
strike back at it.
This might interest you. When Helen lost her race in
California, Jack Kroll, director of CIO-PAC invited her to become
director of women's activities, with any appropriate title, to
organize women politically. Verda Barnes, now in Senator Church's
office, had been our pioneer in this field, effectively and on
a large scale, but had moved on to Senator Glen Taylor. If Helen
had accepted, she would have had a carte blanche and would have
lifted CIO-PAC to a high level of prestige and glamour. Jack was
delighted over his own idea. However, Helen declined but said
she would get someone for us. And she did. She came up with
Esther Murray, who had been part of her California office.
Although Jack, and I too, interviewed Esther for the job,
there wasn't any doubt from the beginning but that we would take
her. After all, look who she was. She did come with us and
worked effectively with CIO-PAC for many years.
78
Helen Gahagan Douglas's Recognition of Eisenhower's Charisma
Dudley: Let me tell you something that happened before the 1950 debacle.
This is in 1948; it was commonly said in all the liberal Demo
cratic circles that Harry Truman didn't have a chance. He was
sure to be defeated, and why in God's name didn't the Democrats
get some other nominee? Truman was the candidate who was sure
to lead us into disaster. And some of us, and I'm thinking of
myself in particular, thought: well, if that's really true that
we'll lose with Truman, we ought to, in terms of obligations to
our, overall causes, start looking around for somebody else.
Well, I guess it was maybe that previous year that Philip Murray
had had General Eisenhower in to address our CIO convention.
Eisenhower was known as a good fellow, maybe interested in poli
tics, but not in it.
So, some of us, and I'm afraid maybe I was perhaps the lea
der, began to organize a kind of draft Eisenhower movement for
the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in 1948. We put out
in the CIO a pamphlet on Eisenhower a picture of him wearing a
civilian hat, and his positions on some issues which were gener
ally rather vague, I must confess, but they bordered on the
liberal side. We did a mailing we tried to camouflage, and I
urged our CIO people going to Democratic conventions over the
country to try to get delegates elected who would be for Eisen
hower. When this general discussion of "should we get Ike in
place of Harry Truman," came up, I found that Helen was in agree
ment. Also Jimmy Roosevelt. And I think quite a few of the
people from California. And we had other people, of course, all
over the country
[end of tape 1, side -A; begin tape 1, side B]
Eisenhower was then president of Columbia University. The
time came, before the Democratic Convention, when I thought it
important to check with him personally about his positions on
issues and his availability. So I telephoned and asked for an
appointment. There was some hesitancy on the other end of the
line, but I explained that I was assistant director of the CIO
Political Action Committee and a supporter of Eisenhower for
president. Eventually I was invited to come up. We talked
frankly about the issues and his availability. It was a very
interesting session, but that isn't your subject. So there's no
point in going into it.
Anyhow, Helen also went up to see Ike somewhere along in
that spring. I think before I did. And I remember that she came
back saying something to the effect that she talked with him at
Columbia, and that, I think she said, "He certainly has charisma."
79
Dudley: I said, "What do you mean?" And she said, "Well, you can just
feel him this very attractive, this very male man. You just
can't help but be drawn to him, and like him." And she said,
"He's just indisputably agreeable, and he draws people to him,
and he'd make a great candidate." And we went for him. I was
interested that Helen, to whom we were all drawn, sensed a
similar personal magnetism on the part of Eisenhower which some
of us didn't. And she would be a judge of that if anybody would.
Ingersoll: That personal magnetism is probably very important in politics.
Dudley: There's no question about it.
Ingersoll: Something that you can't really quantify, or a person could never
develop, but a person has.
Dudley: It's part of personality. A liberal was supposed to say that
people vote on the issues. "Explain the issues and they'll vote
right." Well, that's partly true. But it's also true that peo
ple will vote for you as a person, even though they may not agree
with you on the issues. They'll just tend to forget the issues,
and I've had this happen to me. People in the District of Colum
bia who disagreed with me on civil rights would catch my smile
and end up supporting me.
Part of that Eisenhower thing was interesting in that after
some conferences with CIO people, and maybe Helen, I'm not sure,
but certainly with Jake Arvey, chairman of the Cook County Demo
cratic Committee and national committeeman, out in Chicago, we
decided we'd better drop the Eisenhower thing. Jimmy Roosevelt,
of the California delegation, got on a special train from Califor
nia coming to Philadelphia. I tried to reach him as they crossed
the country, to get word to Jimmy that we'd decided to drop the
Eisenhower thing, but I could never get through because those
special trains are unscheduled, you see. You don't know where
they're going to be. I tried a couple of telegrams but apparent
ly none got delivered, because when the delegation arrived at the
railroad station in Philadelphia, Jimmy Roosevelt came off the
train announcing that he and his fellow delegates from California
were for Eisenhower for the nomination. [Laughs] We hadn't been
able to get to him.
When the convention finally assembled, the nomination was
wide open. Some people went around saying, "I don't know, is
Truman the candidate? Probably can't make it. And Eisenhower
won't make it. I think I'm for Douglas." And people said, "Oh,
you're for Douglas. Whom do you mean? Senator Paul Douglas?
Bill Douglas (who was on the Supreme Court)? Helen Douglas?"
[Laughs] Everybody was for Helen for something, although we
weren't pushing her seriously for president.
80
Ingersoll:
Dudley:
Ingersoll:
Dudley:
And these people who said, "I'm for Douglas
of these.
might be for any
Any of them, yes. [Laughter] Any one of the three Douglases
would have made a good president.
Those are marvellous stories. Can you think of any more?
I remember one other item. The CIO had an Educational Conference
in the major downtown hotel in Columbus [Ohio] . It learned that
the restaurant or coffee shop would not serve Negroes. Protests
were made ineffectively. So the whole conference moved into the
coffee shop and held sessions there. Helen was a scheduled
speaker and she addressed the group there. I was not present but
it must have been a glowing, sparkling meeting with the emotions
of the situation, plenty of excitement (no violence) , and Helen
adding her own effervescence.
I'm afraid I'm about run dry.
Women in Politics: Assets and Liabilities
Ingersoll: Let's talk just for a few minutes about women in politics, and
your whole feeling about it. You've been out working in the
field of labor and politics. What chances do you think women
candidates have? What sort of assets, what sort of liabilities?
Dudley: I think they have a lot of assets, and their chances are obvious
ly getting better as people get more used to it. But, I think
that Helen Douglas illustrates one of the advantages that women
have in politics, because men are inclined to be attracted by an
attractive feminine person, as Helen Douglas was. Of course,
there are other attractive women also, and you don't have to be
a beautiful actress, actually, for a man to want to agree with
you, and to support you. It may be partly the gentlemanly
instinct that you support a lady, but I think it's really more
than that, it's just that there's something I grew up in a
coeducational school, and in my work here, generally speaking,
I would do a little more for a woman, an attractive woman, than
I would for a man. Maybe not a great deal more, but there's an
additional edge. I'm a little more inclined to overlook a mis
take, or something that isn't too tactful, or not too wise. And
there's a desire to throw your heart into it. Helen was one of
the first, of course, who had that great appeal. Of course,
81
Dudley: Mrs. Paul Douglas was also in the House of Representatives. She
wasn't the actress that Helen Douglas was, but she too was attrac
tive, and had a strong following, and we were all unhappy when
she decided not to run again.
Another factor I've discovered, in addition to this if an
attractive woman makes a speech, and a man makes a speech, you're
more inclined to agree with the woman, or do what she wants.
There was, of course, the feeling for a while that, well the
woman's nice and you'd like to help her, but she really doesn't
know enough to be a congressman, or government official. That
feeling, I think, is pretty well gone. Not entirely, but Ella
Grasso in Connecticut, for example, is certainly overcoming such
feeling as that, because she's competent and everybody knows it.
Bella Abzug wins, or did win the congressional races in New York
not so much on feminine charm, but she does so on a sort of bull
dozing aggressiveness. And we like this aggressiveness in her,
too, although it's a different kind of appeal. I've also found
two other things about women in politics.
Ingersoll: What's that?
Dudley: I was an alternate member of the Democratic National Committee
for twenty years. This means that I went to the meetings,
usually with some liberal causes to push particularly about
civil rights, and maybe labor issues, or whatever they were.
In general the New Deal point of view. I generally found I got
more help from the national committee women than I did from the
national committee men. And if we had a little caucus to discuss
issues, and who would vote on a move and do this and that, I
would get more women coming to it, and more women to be coopera
tive than I would the men. 'Now, I can assure you, it wasn't
because of my charm. I think when I look back on it that perhaps
the men were more tied to political ideology. The women were
less tied and were more flexible in their thinking. They hadn't
really committed themselves to be segregationists, they were
still thinking about it, they were more flexible.
Ingersoll: It didn't have to be part of their personality, perhaps, to be a
strong this or a strong that.
Dudley: They hadn't grown up fighting issues, making strong opinions.
Also, I think, and I'm rationalizing, but I think that the men
maybe were more apt to have ties with business groups, or politi
cal groups that were important in vote getting, and money-raising
aspects of a financial campaign. They were more inclined to be
the wheeler-dealers, you see. So they'd be tied to this and that
group back in the smoke-filled room, as we'd say. And the women
were less inclined to have those ties and those commitments. So
82
Dudley: that I found the women on the national committee were more
cooperative and more helpful, and freer, than the men were. In
addition, there was a little extra zing to working with the women
than you get from the men. [Laughs]
Another thing we have discovered, certainly in the Democratic
party in the District of Columbia, and it must be true elsewhere,
is that when it comes to getting a lot of work done, detailed
work, we were more able to find women to do it than to find men.
Now this might be that men are busy in their jobs and careers and
what not, and women are housewives, etc., and a little freer in
their time. But if it came to volunteers for doing things, we
would find the women more available. In fact, when people in the
District talked about giving the women their fair share of power,
we'd say, "Hell, the women are the Democratic Committee." They
essentially not only help make the decisions, but we wouldn 4 t
dare make a decision without their approval, because they are the
committee. They do the work.
So women are important not just because of their flexibility,
and their attractiveness and charm, but also because they have
the time and they're willing to give it for a good cause. Women
are inclined to be a little more public-spirited than men, I
think. They're trying to support a good cause for the sake of
the community, while I think a man is inclined a little more to
making money. This is probably an easy and therefore inaccurate
generalization. I've found them more available in support of
different causes.
Ingersoll: That's very interesting. How would you rate them on some of
these things that have come out in studies that have been done
comparatively between men and women? Would your feeling be that
they are more outgoing than men are?
Dudley: Yes, I think they're more outgoing than men are. And I think
they're a little more willing to wear their hearts and their
minds on their sleeves, so to speak. I think it is a little
easier to get their reaction, their opinion. They don't have to
think it over as much as the men who have other things to think
about they think they do. I think women are inclined to be more
outgoing than men. There are individual exceptions, of course.
Ingersoll: As potential candidates, or as workers, in politics, do you think
there is any truth in the possibility that they're more imagina
tive, adventuresome, with less care about practical matters?
Does that make any sense to you?
Dudley: What I said a moment ago about their having fewer ties and con
victions with certain ideologies or certain kinds of pressure
83
Dudley: groups back in their communities has a bearing here. This gives
them the freedom to be more adventuresome. Yes, I think they're
more open to new thoughts. At least, that's been my experience.
Ingersoll: Again, somebody has said they're more liberal, freethinking,
experimenting, and that would tie in, wouldn't it, with your
feeling of their being able to be more flexible?
Dudley: I think that's correct. Of course, we have a lot of liberal,
freethinking men. Go back to George Norris, for example, McGov-
ern (George), and great FDR himself. We've had a lot of men
who've been very liberal, and the whole New Deal was imaginative
and creative and unorthodox. So, I don't give all that to women,
but just between the two sexes, I think they're a little bit more
inclined to be liberal.
Ingersoll: What about the business of self-assurance? There's one writer on
this sort of comparison who feels that women are apt to be less
self-assured, less confident.
Dudley: I think that's true, and I think that has been true quite a bit.
They know that it's unusual for a woman to make a speech, to take
a position, and so they're not certain about it, and they think
people may be critical. I was over at our local bank just at
noon today, before you came, and commented that not only the per
son who was helping us to guarantee some signatures on stock
certificates was a woman, but the manager of the local bank was
a woman. As a matter of fact, all the people running that branch
were women except one. And I said, it's very interesting, and I
approve of this becoming a kind of a woman's bank in terms of
management. The woman manager said, "Well, we haven't had many
complaints." But you see, she was a little uncertain. In other
words, she was thinking about complaints they might get by reason
of their being there. I didn't think they were having complaints
at all. This would tie in with your question about being a little
less confident, a little feeling that they're subject to attack
and criticism. It's natural. After all, the evolution of women
from a house role to a public role is still going on. People
have to get used to it, including women themselves.
Ingersoll: A woman I spoke to yesterday whom you may know, Rachel Bell, who
was in and out of Helen's office a good deal in the foreign policy
area, said that she felt Helen and Clare Boothe Luce were quite
different as congresswomen from any of the other congresswomen
who had been in there before them in that they had both been
successful in their own right before they went to Congress,
whereas at that time, many of the women who went to Congress got
in because their husbands had died in office or no longer could
fill the post, and they stepped in. Did you have very much
experience with other women running for office in those days?
84
Dudley: I didn't really. There was Edna Kelly in New York, there's
Sullivan [Leonor] from St. Louis, but I didn't really know them.
And there were others. Mrs. Paul Douglas, I think, might have
been an exception to Rachel Bell's comment, because when she was
in Congress she was a woman of recognized ability, and we all
knew it.
Ingersoll: And she had gotten in on her own merits?
Dudley: I think so, as I remember it, yes. As I remember, she and Paul
had been separate in their approaches to that. She and Paul
Douglas. That's my memory.
In 1946 I actively supported a woman who ran for Congress
in Atlanta. She was very competent and managed her campaign
herself. She won but was later counted out through a biased use
of voting machines in the rural counties.
One problem that may be still involved in women's taking on
these big public positions is whether or not they have been suf
ficiently involved in the nitty-gritty of important, complicated
businesses, and therefore political and economic issues, and can
make a decision that comes out of a lot of experience and wide
judgement. But, I can't see that femininity, I can't see that
being a woman, is being involved in that one way or the other.
It seems that that's merely the matter of getting experience.
After all a woman may be a bad driver of a car not because she's
a woman, but because she hasn't driven very much.
Ingersoll: But the combination of education and experience probably is
important .
Dudley: I think as women get more and more into the public field they
will have that.
Ingersoll: We've come to the end of the tape and the afternoon at about the
same time. Thank you so much for your views on Helen Gahagan
Douglas and her political career and for your sensitive insights
into the more general subject of women in politics.
Transcriber:
Final Typist:
Justan O'Donnell
Ann Enko j i
85
Regional Oral History Office University of California
The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California
Women in Politics Oral History Project
HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS PROJECT
Kenneth Harding
HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS AND THE DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE
An Interview Conducted by
Fern Ingersoll
in 1977
Underwritten by grants from:
National Endowment for the Humanities, Rockefeller Foundation,
Members and Friends of the Los Angeles Democratic Women's Forum
Copyright (c) 1981 by the Regents of the University of California
KENNETH R. HARDING
86
TABLE OF CONTENTS Kenneth Harding
INTERVIEW HISTORY 87
Functions of the Democratic Campaign Committee 88
Helen Gahagan Douglas's Campaign Abilities, Colleagues on
"Red Gulch," and Speeches for Other Campaigns 94
The 1950 Campaign 100
Helen Gahagan Douglas's Legislative Style 102
87
INTERVIEW HISTORY
From 1946 to 1954 Kenneth Harding was assistant to the chairman of the
Democratic National Congressional Committee, commonly called the Democratic
Campaign Committee, and was an apprentice to his father, "Cap" Harding, who
was executive director. The office of the committee was just next door to
that of Helen Gahagan Douglas. Working for the committee, Kenneth Harding
learned the political lore that only his father could teach, both while the
two of them were in the office on the corridor known as "Red Gulch," and
while they traveled around the country trying to get a feel for closely con
tested districts. When his father died, Kenneth Harding took over the job
of executive director which he held from 1954 to 1972.
As Mr. Harding explained when I asked him about his present position
as sergeant at arms of the House of Representatives, "One telephone call can
completely change what we will be doing as the most important job of the day. 1
Although the responsibilities of paymaster, keeper of the insurance records
of members of the House, and banker could wait, responsibilities concerned
with security in and around the Capitol could not, and so our conversation
was more than once interrupted. Yet for the hour we met in his office on
June 16, 1977, Mr. Harding turned his mind to Helen Gahagan Douglas and the
era of the '40s and '50s as though that were his most important job.
Mr. Harding 's secretary suggested that rather than sending him the .
transcript for clarification of points and approval, I might go over it with
him. In spite of an extremely busy day for him, we worked intensively for
about a half hour going over the points I felt needed clarifying.
Fern S. Ingersoll
Interviewer-Editor
26 May 1978
Takoma Park, Maryland
88
IV HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS AND THE DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE
[Interview 1: June 16, 1977]
[begin tape 1, side A]
Functions of the Democratic Campaign Committee
Ingersoll: Would you give me an idea of what the functions were of that
Democratic Campaign Committee in whose office you were with your
father, as a young man, when Helen Gahagan Douglas was in office.
Harding: That seems like rather a long time ago now. But the functions of
that office were that of a service committee to the members of
Congress. And that's why it was permitted to operate from the
Hill. And, at that time it was also the financing office for the
campaigns. But in those days campaign contributions of two or
three hundred dollars were considered large contributions. Today,
it's hard to buy a postage stamp. That campaign committee, I
might say, was located right next door, physically, to Helen
Gahagan Douglas.
Ingersoll: I realized it was on the same corridor, but I didn't realize it
was that close.
Harding: Right next door. And we had the great pleasure of not only
having them as political allies in that office, but as personal
friends.
Ingersoll: Splendid. That will give me some good ideas of day-to-day con
tacts, probably.
Harding: Well, I have to charge the memory back a little bit to think back
on those days which, I guess, were very, very exciting then, but
I guess by comparison, things didn't happen quite as fast. You
had more time for visiting between offices, which they don't have
now.
Ingersoll: You really feel a difference now?
89
Harding: There's just no question there is a great difference in just the
day to day living on the Hill today compared to what there was
just thirty years ago.
Ingersoll: Do you think that makes a difference in the way people, various
colleagues in Congress feel about each other, and about what
they're doing, and what they're thinking about?
Harding: I'm afraid I would have to say yes. And I say "I'm afraid"
because it isn't in the best interests of the legislative process
to now have I don't think Congress was ever designed to be a
twelve-month institution. It makes it too much like a city coun
cil. And so the thinking of the members, they get involved in
everything. Sam Rayburn used to say that any Congress that stay
ed in session after the Fourth of July was asking for trouble.
Any Congress that stayed in session after Labor Day was in trouble.
Now, in those days we used to get out June, July, August, period,
and adjourn until the following year. Well, to be in touch with
the constituents a person had to go home, should go home. Of
course, today, we have travel means which enable a member to go
home on a weekend, whereas a few years ago, for people west of
the Mississippi River, there was no way of going except by train
or automobile, and so there was no possibility of a member's going
home for the weekend.
[Telephone rings]
Ingersoll: You were just telling about how the kind of spirit in Congress
has changed with things moving so fast, and people not having the
same amount of time to spend with each other. And one of the
things I would like to spend some time talking about is anything
you can remember about Helen Gahagan Douglas's relationships with
her colleagues, particularly with people on that corridor. But
we might go back first and I would like to ask you, when did you
first meet Helen Gahagan Douglas?
Harding: I guess when she first came to Congress. We were not involved
too much with her first election. We took a great deal of inter
est in it, not only because of the campaign committee, but because
I'm also a Calif ornian.
Ingersoll: Oh, I didn't realize that.
Harding: Yes, Palo Alto was my home town. And my dad was on the faculty
at Stanford and UCLA in government and poli.sci.
Ingersoll: Well, let's see, your dad was called "Cap" Harding, wasn't he?
Harding: "Cap" Harding, yes.
90
Ingersoll: What was his proper name?
Harding: Victor.
Ingersoll: Victor, but he was always known as "Cap."
Harding: He was always known as "Cap." And you know it's a funny thing.
Dad passed on in 1954, September 9. I remember because that's
also Admission Day for California. Just the other day I was
speaking on the telephone with former speaker McCormack [John] of
Boston, and he was talking about my dad and he was referring to
my dad as though he had had a conversation with him yesterday.
I mean 1 , it was a very living memory. So, I'm one of the indivi
duals who, I guess, is a horrible example of nepotism or something,
that so benefited from having had a father who did in his position
leave a memory leave a mark. My dad left a real mark.
Ingersoll: That's just marvellous.
Harding: It is, and I'm very, very proud of that.
Ingersoll: Evelyn Chavoor put it in terms of your being here at that time as
a kind of apprentice to your father. Is that a fair way of put
ting it?
Harding: Well, that's true. I came, actually, with the committee the first
time in 1946. However, with Dad having been in politics all his
life, my first memory of a political campaign, believe it or not,
was the 1920 presidential election, when he was assistant district
attorney in Maricopa county, [Phoenix] Arizona.
Ingersoll: You grew up with politics then.
Harding: I grew up in politics, that's it. So, it wasn't anything foreign
to me in that sense. And I always had a feeling and knack in
working with Dad and Professor Charles Hickman Titus of UCLA
[University of California at Los Angeles] on political statistics.
I just liked it. And so we maintained the best statistical files,
and redistricting file. You can't believe the change that's come
about in the preparation and maintenance of political figures
dealing with congressional districts and elections. There were
no official records maintained in detail and the only ones that
exist today for that period are those that we put together. In
fact, I hold a copyright on the first United States Congressional
Districts map, printed as one unit. And I got that in 1950, I
think. And for quite some time that served as the map that they
used in the State Department. The military used it, the govern
ment schools used it, and various institutions, I don't know,
but maybe Berkeley or somebody uses it, too. But we specialized
91
Harding: in the study of elections. And there was a gentleman by the name
of Malcolm Moose he used to be the Republican Chairman for Balti
more County who took a great interest in the effects of presi
dential races on congressional races, and their influence on
gubernatorial and senatorial races. So, our studies were in depth.
When you say, what did we do, we had a ball, frankly, doing that
which we liked to do, but doing something that nobody else
was doing.
Ingersoll: Yes. And all of these studies were things that you used, some
times even
Harding: Oh, they were a great influence.
Ingersoll: Were they needed in the work of the committee?
Harding: Not only that but it was real thing, because we maintained congres
sional district statistics on a county by county basis. In those
years there was no violation of the county line between two
congressional districts. That's only a modern one-man, one-rate
concept. Up to that time, within the City and County of San Fran
cisco you wouldn't think of going outside and taking in part of
Marin County, like the Burton [Congressman John L.] district does
now. You just never did that. You would do everything. City
and County of San Francisco are two districts, period. And Los
Angeles, the districts were in county, you didn't go outside.
Ingersoll: A much more natural kind of boundary than we have now.
Harding. Well, this is what we thought was the natural geographic division.
Ingersoll: And you, in the Democratic Campaign Committee, had election figures
for all over the country.
Harding: For all over the country. Plus the fact that both my dad and I
loved to travel, a couple of old pack-rats, I guess, as far as
travel was concerned. So, every district that was ever even
closely contested we had physically been in. We would get acquaint
ed with the county chairman, we knew the politics of that district,
and I'm proud to say probably better than ninety-nine point nine
percent. So, as a consequence, as the result of traveling, my dad
was one of the few who in 1948 openly declared Truman [Harry S.]
was going to win. And people laughed at that time and everything,
but it was based upon the studies that we had made in the dis
tricts. We thought we were right. We could call districts for
all races, and be pretty doggone accurate within two or three
[misjudged districts], because you always had that much fluctua
tion. Well, we enjoyed a reputation for knowing what we were
doing, and this was what I so appreciated with my dad. And he
trained me in that capability. One of the things I miss in doing
92
Harding: what I'm doing today is being in that kind of situation. But
you cannot learn political background by picking it up today and
going to work for a political party, and think in six months
you're going to know what the score is. You can't. And the
worst part of it is that as a result of so many judicial orders
and the redistricting so many times and in so many states though
surely well intentioned they've broken political organizations.
And one of the bad results of it is there's no continuity.
Ingersoll: Yes.
Harding: And the one real continuity that we've had people say, "Well,
how can that member of Congress get reelected all the time when
she's a Republican or he's a Republican, and that's really a
Democratic district?" It isn't just because of the prerogatives
of the office. If he properly, if she properly uses those
prerogatives in service to the constituency I wish that some of
these people who knock the idea of a member getting reelected
because he's an incumbent Maybe that incumbency provided a
service to those people. This is the House of Representatives.
He or she is representing a constituency, and the members of
Congress represented their constituencies for years and years
before we had these Washington representatives of so many areas
or cities. Now even cities and states have their own paid lobby
ist in Washington to look out for their interests. Well, under
our concept of constitutional government, the House of
Representatives provided the individual, before we got so big and
complex, to handle the affairs. So why hear somebody saying, "Well,
look that member of Congress is only an errand boy for his district."
Doggone it, that's part of the job. You shouldn't have to hire
an attorney, as a constituent, to have a voice to the federal
government in protecting your rights, whether you're a business
man, an individual with a social security claim, or a veteran
with a claim. Somebody should be able to look after your interests,
and that's what you, the representative, are supposed to do in my
book.
Well, this is the change, one of the changes that's come
about. So, many people think now, unless Congress is voting on
something they aren't worth anything. They measure everything
by how many laws are passed, as though passing a law, or
appropriating money is going to in itself solve the problem. It
doesn' t .
Ingersoll: It's how much the people really do represent their districts.
That was an interesting district that Helen represented. You
said you watched the first election even though you didn't have
anything to do with it as an official
Harding: She was one of the few who proved the point that you don't really
93
Harding: have to live in your district to represent it. But, of course,
being from Los Angeles County as she was, why, that is such a
mixed-up, melting pot of everything.
Ingersoll: Yes, and her district was especially like that.
Harding: Especially a conglomerate type population, where everything is
just so distorted. You didn't have any one ethnic group, or any
one background. And California, of course, itself, is a little
bit like when immigration from Europe was affecting the
United States, well, immigration into California from the other
states, and from even south of the border was coming in still
comes in. I can remember Long Beach, for instance, was just
considered "New Iowa." In fact, a lot of people wanted to call
it "New Iowa" because so many people came from the Midwest. And
so, they had a Midwestern way of thinking. It was a very
conservative area. They had conservative members of Congress
up until Clyde Doyle came into Congress.
But, Helen Douglas, speaking of her, we didn't appreciate
it at the time how much she was one of the pioneers of women
taking an active role.
Ingersoll: Did it surprise you when she was elected that first term?
Harding: Well, as we used to say, nothing surprises in California, being
Calif ornians. But, she was such a dynamic person. She was so
articulate. Well, her district was the type of district that
you really wouldn't expect a woman to represent.
Ingersoll: No. Many of the laboring class, not the intellectuals, not the
stars.
Harding: But, they had faith in her, and in her interest in helping people.
And I think that's one of the reasons she was so effective.
Ingersoll: Describe her first as a campaigner, please.
Harding: She would just keep on the go, and on the go, and on the go.
And I don't think she knew what the word "fatigue" was. She wore
everybody else out [laughs]. She didn't seem to wear out. And,
of course, she had a pretty good name before she ran for Congress.
She had things going for her. She really didn't have to scratch
for her last dollar.
Ingersoll: There were times when her funds were pretty low, though, I guess.
Harding: This is true. My goodness, do you know when I first came back
here, I came back with the congressman from the old eighth district
of California, and at that time that district ran from Daly City
94
Harding: to King City. It now encompasses all or parts, I think,
of nine congressional districts. Well, that's a long way it's
half the distance to Los Angeles. And we used to put on total
campaigns for less than $5000. This meant a lot of volunteer
work, it meant that a lot of people who worked on the campaigns
hoped they might be appointed first or second class postmasters.
But, it meant that a lot of people did the actual publicity work
that now advertising agencies do.
Ingersoll: And get paid for.
Harding: You didn't have television. Everybody wants money to take part
in politics. Everybody before thought they had to earn from
politics the right to be considered And those days, remember,
we were in the Depression when I first came here, so there were
a lot of people who were not doing the types of work that they
wanted to do. They might have had some job, but it was only a
job because they were fortunate enough to get it, not what they
wanted to do. So, you had people who were willing to work in
the hope of future employment. Now you have to pay them so much
an hour, and it's a pretty big sum. So, this is one of the
reasons why the cost has gone up. It wasn't because we had any
ability to run cheap campaigns, we wouldn't like to do that.
But, today, they ask phenomenal amounts of money. Well, to me
it is shocking, and one of the reasons is because I think I've
always felt that half of the political money spent is wasted.
The only problem is you can't figure out which half. And so you
spend the money for fear that you might not be doing the thing
that would have assured you victory if you'd done it.
Helen Gahagan Douglas's Campaign Abilities, Colleagues on
"Red Gulch," and Speeches for Other Campaigns
Ingersoll: What about that particular point in relationship with Helen?
Do you have any feelings about her abilities to raise money and
to allocate it in. a campaign? Of course, she had her campaign
manager, but she probably had something to do with it.
Harding: But during those campaigns she was running, we didn't have the
great need for the money, plus the fact that she was in demand
at various groups as a speaker. So, she was able to move around,
She helped many another person.
Ingersoll: Did she?
Harding: Oh, yes.
95
Ingersoll:
Harding:
Ingersoll:
Harding:
Ingersoll:
Harding :
Ingersoll:
Harding :
Ingersoll:
Harding:
Ingersoll:
Can you remember any of the people by any chance?
They were normally the people of her own political persuasion,
naturally, because she had a goal, she had a very real goal, and
that goal was very much in tune with the ideals of, say, the
Roosevelt administration. So, she was not out of gear with the
needs of the times. She was a very able representative that
fulfilled that need, that political need, that philosophical need.
And she had the ability to reach, and to touch, those people that
needed her assistance. After all, that's what politics is all
about. You want somebody to help you, and this doesn't mean that
you're overly selfish in any way. You need help, and so you
reach out, and if there's a person that looks like he can help
you, they're for you. This is why they were for Helen Douglas.
She represented the help her constituency felt they needed, and
they sure as heck did.
As I say, looking back on the political life of Helen Doug
las you realize what a pioneer she was. My goodness, up to the
time she was active, we'd had a few here in the Congress, but
very few women who had played a prominent role. Some of them
who were here before had really followed on as the result of
their husbands having been in Congress. And she didn't, she did
it all on her own. And, of course, at that time, California was
noted for being a very liberal state in fact, much more so than
most of the rest of the country. And it just so happened that
that corridor over in the Cannon Office Building where we were
all located had a great number of Calif ornian congressmen, as we
called everybody then, before we used the female term.
I understand from Evelyn Chavoor that it also had the name of
"Red Gulch" because there were such red hot liberals there.
Yes, that's right.
How did it get that name, do you remember by any chance?
We called it "Red Gulch" and we also called it "Red Row." We
referred to it that way because we had so many liberals.
And many of them were from California?
Oh, yes.
Can you remember who some of them were at that time?
Oh, there was
Clyde Doyle was there?
96
Harding: Clyde Doyle, Byron Scott, Bill Traeger were in there for a while
either on that corner or nearby.* At that time, the forerunners,
we also had Lee Metcalf; Mike Mansfield was in the other end of
the row down there. We had people who later played quite a role,
but I hadn't thought of that aspect.
Ingersoll: These were people who were Helen's colleagues?
Harding: Oh, yes, at that time, and some of them were there over a period
of time, while others were in and out type of operations. But
even as revolutionary as some of the programs were at that time,
by today's standards they would be considered very moderate.
This was when Social Security was considered to be a very social
istic, liberal movement.
Ingersoll: Can you remember any particular incidents that would give any
feeling about the way Helen worked with her colleagues? We might
start with the colleagues who were back there on the corridor,
around you, around her.
Harding: I'm trying to think when Gracie Pfost came in.
[end tape 1, side A; beging tape 1, side B]
Ingersoll: You were going to tell me anything you can remember about her
relationships with colleagues.
Harding: I was just trying to think as to how she as a female member of
Congress operated differently from another female member of
Congress at that given time.
Ingersoll: That would be very interesting.
Harding: And I was thinking of Gracie Pfost who was from Idaho. Once
again just as Helen truly reflected her constituency, Gracie
represented hers which was Idaho, so therefore power and reclama
tion were the paramount issue. So, she became "Hell's Belle*
because of Hell's Canyon Dam which she fought, and fought, and
fought for, and finally she was successful.
Helen Douglas operated probably more effectively than the
average member of Congress right from the word go, because Helen
Douglas was probably accepted by more members across the board in
the social strata than most new members of Congress.
Ingersoll: Was she?
* Mr. Harding later said that others on the corridor were:
George Outland, Andrew Biemiller, Hugh DeLacy, Ellis Patterson,
and Dick Boiling.
97
Harding: Oh, yes. Because, I mean with the Los Angeles movie-type back
ground, she was at home in her district which was quite unlike
her own personal life, and she was also at home in a drawing
room or in a group of actors and actresses. No matter where she
was, she always made herself at home. She had that ability, and
that's a pretty darn good
Ingersoll: And was she able to relate to almost anybody, from almost any
background?
Harding: If there were very many that she couldn't relate to, I don't
think they ever came to my attention, and I think we pretty much
would have observed that. Her vision, her peripheral vision, was
excellent and she could zero in on the problems. Her specialty
was the social problems. And, as I say, a person like a Gracie
Pfost, and some of the others, were more concerned with the
economic development of the area. When you think of Helen Doug
las you think of people. And this was where her strength was.
She was the pioneer female activist in the Congress.
Ingersoll: Would you say that on that corridor where they were all liberals,
or many of them were anyway, that she was the leader among that
group?
Harding: Helen Douglas was not a group leader in the sense of being a
joiner. She represented a set of principles, and desires, poli
tical goals, which were common with a lot of other people for
that time, but she operated as Helen Douglas. We didn't have
caucuses like a Black Caucus, like a Women's Caucus, like this
caucus and that caucus that we have today. She had her strength
as Helen Douglas.
You might say that there was a liberal faction though, mightn't
you?
Oh, I guess you might, but the strings weren't drawn. We didn't
have a Democratic Study Group, or the liberal groups. They
weren't organized at that time. You had to kind of fight your
way as an individual, I guess. But she had that ability [laughs]
so it didn't bother her any. She didn't need the groups' strength.
As I say, she was pretty good press copy no matter where she was.
And she did this in plenty of other sections of the country
make good press copy. She was a known individual.
Ingersoll: Was she the kind of person who asked for advice of colleagues or
maybe of yourself in the committee?
Harding: Helen Douglas was a very determined political individual who
would fight with her last ounce of strength for her principles,
Ingersoll:
Harding :
98
Harding: and go down to defeat many times because she was a little bit
out in front of what could be done at that time. From a practi
cal sense, I would say probably she didn't stop to listen some
times. But, from the standpoint of getting another viewpoint,
she would listen. And then make up her own mind, but once she
made it up, she was a pretty good tiger. [Laughter]
Ingersoll: As a woman, would you say she was able to reject the advice of
men without making them angry at her?
Harding: You know, we didn't think about those things really so much with
her. She could be fiery. She was also a very gracious person
and a beautiful person in the true sense of the word, you know;
and I think this was why she probably got by without making
people mad, whereas they might have been angered if she had been
abrasive. I won't mention any names of the current group of
female activists in politics, but some of them are probably known
for their abrasiveness as much as they are for what their goals
may be. The fact is their goals become minimal, or their success
becomes minimal just because of their approach. And she wasn't
that way.
[Tape turned off]
Ingersoll: Can you recall any incidents when Helen perhaps worked with the
Democratic Campaign Committee?
Harding: Oh, yes, yes. Many, many times, and probably the greatest contri
bution she could make was that she was so gracious in accepting
speaking engagements for us, with various groups. And she was
not one of those who had to have a million dollars to go out to
these groups. We would try to cover expenses, and this sometimes
was difficult. But, if she could accomodate her colleagues or
the campaign organization by making the contribution of address
ing a group, she was most willing to do it. She liked it too.
She wasn't a bit backwards about telling people what her view
point might be. And she knew what she was talking about, and
they liked her.
Ingersoll: Was she well-organized as a speaker?
Harding: She didn't have a prepared text, if that's what you mean. She
was extemporaneous most of the time. I would say that Evie
Chavoor was one of those who kept taking care of the details for
her. Evie kept in the background a lot; but Evie was, is, has
been, the staff sergeant, the lieutenant for the commanding
officer. And I think while Evie Chavoor and Helen Douglas have
been the closest of personal friends, as far as their political
lifetime goes, there was never any question as far as I observed
as to who the boss was. Well, I just love them both as far as
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Harding :
Ingersoll:
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Ingersoll:
Harding:
Ingersoll:
Harding:
Ingersoll:
Harding:
Ingersoll:
that goes. I have the greatest admiration for both of them.
Although, as I say, maybe you can admire and respect a person
without necessarily agreeing with them one hundred percent of
the time.
Surely,
had.
And particularly people with strong opinions as Helen
That's right. And I think maybe that's one of the things
Helen Douglas was a little bit ahead of her time, and that's why
and I guess all pioneers are that when you get down to it. Thank
goodness we have those pioneers or we would never make progress.
Even though at times, sometimes you think we're trying to go too
fast.
Would the Democratic Campaign Committee ever have asked her to
slow down on some of these policies that were ahead of their
time? Was that their function at all?
Oh, no, the congressional committee never set foot in the house,
never. This was up to the leadership, to the Sam Rayburns and
the others who set policy. We were always very, very practical
because what would be right for Helen Douglas in Los Angeles
County might defeat a Democrat in Fresno, or in some other sec
tion of even California. So, you have to get elected before you
can become effective.
That would be the most important thing.
It is. A lot of people say that's a terrible, terrible, almost
immoral thought, to think you have to get elected. Of course,
you have to get elected to be a member. The only way you can
carry out what you say you want to do is to be there to do it.
And, of course, I don't know of any group of people who are less
effective than ex-members of Congress, in the role of ex-member,
except on particular items where they have expertise better than
anybody else, such as somebody like George Miller who still comes
around on science matters because he's an expert. But, as far
as being an ex-member of Congress and being effective on legis
lation outside of the field where they're an expert, forget it.
Yes. You said the Democratic Campaign Committee wasn't involved
in her first campaign. Were they involved very much in later
campaigns, particularly the 1950?
Thank goodness she was one of those and you look back over her
statistics, she was one of those who could take care of herself.
Pretty much, could she?
100
Harding: Your campaign organization, and the national ones especially,
don't have the time or the resources to spend for everybody. So,
you hit where the need is the greatest, and thank goodness she
was able to take care of herself most of the time. So, she was
making contributions to the rest of the people. I don't know,
probably on a ten to one ratio, rather than the other way around.
The 1950 Campaign
Ingersoll: What about that 1950 campaign? Could that have gone any different
ly if it had been run any differently^ in your opinion?
Harding: Well, of course, the opposition is what sets the tone in the
campaign. How well I can remember all those red papers and
everything else he [Richard Nixon] did. We were in the climate,
in the political climate at that time, where she and quite a few
other people in political life were the victims of prejudgement.
And the paintbrush was pretty broad, and a certain gentleman who
is now residing in San Clemente was mighty effective in using it
because the time permitted, the political time. At that time,
the Murray Chotiners were setting the tone of politics. In fact,
right at that time, the Republicans put out a book, a pamphlet
it was really, on how to run a campaign, and Murray Chotiner was
the author of it. And, God rest his soul today, but that was so
vicious that I reproduced it, and I sent it to every Democratic
candidate throughout the country as a warning, "This may happen
in your area." It also had a lot of good practical political
ideas in it. They were very practical political people. But,
it was an anything-goes type campaign, exactly the campaign which
was used against Helen Dougla"s. So, it wasn't just Richard Nixon
who planned the operation of the entire Republican party at that
time, and that is at the congressional level. Well, I still have
some copies of that old document around.
Ingersoll: Do you really?
Harding: I thought for a while In fact, I thought just before Mr. Chotiner's
death that he was getting back into politics. And we thought it
was coming back so we dug it out again, and reread it, and the same
thing was beginning to emerge. Dirty tricks.
Ingersoll: There was an article that was written in California Quarterly
with the thesis that it wasn't so much the red-baiting that Nixon
did as the ineffectual way that Helen's campaign met it that really
caused her defeat. Do you have any feelings about that?
101
Harding:
Well, I can only answer that in what I just said a minute ago.
That this was a period of time where the Joe McCarthys were
getting away with murder political murder on the American people
and individuals in politics. The Joe McCarthys, the Richard
Nixons operating at that time, were practicing something, and
preaching something that any demagogue and they were demagogues,
political demagogues could sell, because people bought. They
feared everybody my goodness, all you had to do was just hint
that there might be something wrong, and most people would say,
"Oh, we'd better stay away." Remember that Helen Douglas was
part of the, well, the Beverly Hills type movie group, and at
that time, remember, they were all being castigated all the
writers, all the producers, and everything else. So, she was a
victim of the times, as well as of ineffective campaigning.
Sure, you lose, and somebody always finds a reason.
I hear my friends, and I well remember the 1946 congression
al campaigns, and they were all saying, "Oh, well, the vote was
light, we didn't get the Democratic vote out." Shucks, if we'd
gotten the Democratic vote out the Democrats were coming out
all right, and they were voting against us. Why were they voting
against us? They were damn sick and tired of the war, they were
sick and tired of no soap in the grocery stores, they were sick
and tired of having to wait in line to buy any meat, and it was
high-priced and tough.
And so, people go along at times in this idea that they're
going along because of organizations. I think many times it's
in spite of organizations. I don't think you need these great
big fancy master-minded deals. If you can get out and you repre
sent something, you've done a good job. Your people in your
area are taken care of. Where she got caught, from the political
standpoint, is that a member going from the House to the Senate
type approach, isn't known, hasn't rendered this personal service
to the constituency. And this doesn't mean that you, as a House
member, have to have done something for a person to have granted
them a service, if they think you've been a good representative
for them, you've rendered them a service, without ever having a
letter from them or to them. So, you don't have that when you
move to the Senate. Senators and governors are caught in these
waves, and this is why House members can sustain themselves when
they're running for re-election. That same House member who is
undefeatable in his district goes down to defeat in a Senate
race.
Ingersoll:
Harding:
And that's what happened, of course, for her.
too, was moving from the House to the Senate.
Of course, Nixon,
Oh, sure. But they were practicing politics on that which they
could affect and that's all they had to do was
102
Ingersoll: So, the good record couldn't make up for what he was doing.
Harding: People paid no attention to the record.
Ingersoll: It was a whole new ball game.
Harding: And I'm afraid she lost before it started. No matter what you
could do. Some of these cases you can batten down the hatches
and try and ride out the storm. [Laughter]
Helen Gahagan Douglas's Legislative Style
Ingersoll: Do you remember any situations, or anecdotes about Helen that
would give us some indication of how she worked with colleagues,
or how sometimes she had difficulties while she was in the House.
Harding: That's very hard to answer because she was not noted for being
on the floor at all times. When she was on the floor she'd take
part. I don't know. She was never considered a wizard as far
as parliamentary procedure goes. She would rather charge her way
through, by her persuasion and ability to express herself.
Ingersoll: Were there people who were put off by this, do you think?
Harding: Well, there are always people who are put off, no matter what you
do. Yes, I would say that now that we've seen what a change has
come about in the acceptance of women in politics, she was in
politics when it was not the accepted thing. There was an auto
matic resistance you were referring to it a little bit earlier
and I said she was able to overcome a lot of it because of her
charm; there was a normal reticence on the part of most men in
government as far as accepting a woman or her philosophy. In
other words, you had to be twice as good to get anything done as
perhaps a man would have been under the same circumstances. And
she was that twice as good. And that's the only reason she got
things done. Now, she would have been a wizard today. Oh boy,
she would really have done And the country needs a Helen Doug
las now. She was a unique person in politics, but being unique
she was also She wasn't against team play, but once again,
she was not part of a pack, she was an individual.
Ingersoll: Is that rare in Congress, as you have seen it through times?
Or, are there lots of people who operate that way?
103
Harding:
Ingersoll:
Harding :
Ingersoll:
Harding:
Ingersoll:
Harding:
I know a lot of people who have felt that they've had to operate
that way to get attention. And I think she probably sensed that,
and felt that, and probably it was true. Now, it isn't as true
today as it was then. But, and I have to be awfully careful
what I say without pinpointing certain individuals Let's put
it this way. There are members of Congress who are better than
others who are not effective, just totally ineffective. She
wasn't so foolish as some of her liberal friends at that time,
and since then, who insisted on always losing a battle but making
'noise. She was not that politically foolish. I have seen mem
bers offer amendment after amendment and go down to solid defeat
on every one of them. They seemed to be getting some satisfac
tion from seeing blood on the floor even though it was their own
blood.
There were things like the housing issues,
lose, fight and lose.
She had to fight and
She was smart enough That's right, but they were steps forward,
There was a purpose to what she was doing. As I say, I think
maybe some men were jealous of her because she was accepted by
so many people in and out of the government. Whereas they,
perhaps, were only accepted among their own political group or
in their own area. She had a wide appeal. She may have repre
sented a constituency, but she also represented the interest of
a lot of people. And if we hadn't had the political climate
come along at the time as it did, who knows where she might have
finally wound up. I don't think it would have been in defeat.
And what a good thing it would have been for us, really. Were
there any specific men whom you can remember whom she may have
had to work particularly hard on to win over, and maybe was not
ever able to win over?
Well, you don't win over individuals as individuals around here.
I think with the, as I say, the reticence of most men, they
finally came to tolerate her because of her abilities, and I
think they thought they were being kind because they tolerated
her. And I would say that all women didn't buy her.
How large a group would you say that was of men proportionate to
the whole who may have felt that way? Do you have any feeling
for that?
I don't think so, because it was so changing. In other words,
there weren't so many individuals in any one particular group
who were always against her, except the people who well, the
extreme conservative following, and the rural following didn't
have too much in common with her political philosophy so they
104
Harding: were always against it. But it was an honest difference, and
not just because she was out there for the people. She was a
great fighter for the rights and dignity of the individual.
Ingersoll: You were saying that all women didn't like her. Do you think
there were some who were jealous of her beauty and her intelli
gence, and that sort of thing?
Harding: Without mentioning any names, I can assure you there were.
[Laughs] Yes, the fact is that I think some of the greatest
differences were between Helen Douglas and women, for that rea
son. By the way, I'm going to have to cut this off.
Ingersoll: Of course. May I just ask you one more question, and that is,
could you make a comparison between the style and the reception
that Helen Gahagan Douglas got and what you see of women in
Congress today?
Harding: As I mentioned earlier, Helen Douglas was ahead of her times. I
think that because Helen Douglas had so many attributes over and
above just her political appeal, she was able to sell what poli
tical philosophy interested her at a given time. There were
her avenues, and she knew how to use them. And she did use them.
So, I think many times some of the modern political ladies would
be very, very jealous of Helen Douglas because by comparison I
think she would far outshine them in accomplishment, and in
acceptance by her colleagues in general. Yes, she was not only
ahead of her times in the political sense, she was ahead of her
times in creating acceptance of working with female members of
the legislative body. It's a very difficult role, I imagine, for
a woman to be in politics. Difficult from the word "Go". But,
to be successful, means that you have something extra. She had
the something extr.a which would work just as well today. In
fact, it would probably work a lot better today because she
wouldn't have to overcome some of the hurdles that she did have
to at times.
Ingersoll: And that something extra, was it charm? What would you say?
Harding: I guess you might say, to use an old cliche, she had "it".
[Laughter]
Ingersoll: Well, I certainly have appreciated very much the time in your
busy schedule you have given to do this. These are insights that
will be very useful for people to have.
Harding: We've been talking about an individual whom I'm sure you've sur
mised I'm very, very fond of. A wonderful woman I have great
admiration and respect for.
Ingersoll: A great many people do today, I think.
Transcriber: Justan O'Donnell
Final Typist: Ann Enkoji
105
Regional Oral History Office University of California
The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California
Women in Politics Oral History Project
HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS PROJECT
Frank Rogers
HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS AND THE 1950 PRIMARY CAMPAIGN
An Interview Conducted by
Fern Ingersoll
in 1976
Underwritten by grants from:
National Endowment for the Humanities, Rockefeller Foundation,
Members and Friends of the Los Angeles Democratic Women's Forum
Copyright (c) 1981 by the Regents of the University of California
106
TABLE OF CONTENTS Frank Rogers
INTERVIEW HISTORY 107
Frank Rogers: Publicity Writer for Helen Gahagan Douglas in 1944 108
Manchester Boddy: Opponent of Helen Gahagan Douglas in the 1950
Primary 113
107
INTERVIEW HISTORY
In an effort to find a man who had been intimately associated with the
1950 Democratic Senatorial primary 'in California, I was advised by Evelyn
Chavoor to talk with Frank Rogers. Previously the name of Hal Winkler had
been suggested to me, but neither Evelyn Chavoor nor Frank Rogers knew of him.
Mr. Rogers, Evelyn Chavoor told me, had been a publicity and speech writer
for Manchester Boddy who was Helen Gahagan Douglas's Democratic opponent.
Only in the course of the interview did I learn that he had also been the
publicity writer for Helen Douglas in her first campaign for Congress and
that he had written the resignation statement for Senator Sheridan Downey.
When I called him to ask to talk with him, Mr. Rogers gave the quick
consent of a newspaperman who knows how important an interview is to an
interviewer. Since he currently works part time for the American Petroleum
Institute, he suggested that I call him there where he could say, with
engagement calendar in hand, how soon we could set up an appointment.
The interview took place on December 8, 1976 in one of a maze of
offices in the American Petroleum Institute complex on the sixth floor of a
downtown Washington, D.C. office building. I had worked out an outline of
questions which he looked over rapidly. He felt they were relevant to his
experience and insights, and we went to work. Several times in the course
of the interview we were interrupted by phone calls, in which people seemed to
be asking his advice about how certain information dealing with the petroleum
industry should be presented. His answers to their concerns were quick, sure,
and pointed, though never curt. Minutes later, knowing exactly where we had
stopped, he was back to my questions with the same sort of reasoned responses.
When I returned the transcript of the interview to him, he was con
cerned lest his view of the 1950 primary be the only one considered. I assur
ed him that other interviewees would at least touch on it, and that readers
would appreciate his views as one perspective on a very complicated campaign.
With the heavy black pen of an editor, he answered my questions, made a few
additions, and approved.
Fern S. Ingersoll
Interviewer-Editor
26 May 1978
Takoma Park, Maryland
108
V HELEN GARAGAN DOUGLAS AND THE 1950 PRIMARY CAMPAIGN
[Interview 1: December 8, 1976]
[begin tape 1, side A]
Frank Rogers: Publicity Writer for Helen Gahagan Douglas in 1944
Ingersoll: Would you tell me just a little bit about your own background,
Mr. Rogers? Are you a Calif ornian yourself?
Rogers: I was, of course, for many years. I've been in Washington now
since 1945, with the exception of one year. I still think of
myself as a Californian who has lived in Washington and Virginia
all those years. In California, I was an active newspaperman up
to and through Helen Gahagan 's first campaign for Congress.
Ingersoll: Was that always for the Los Angeles Daily News?
Rogers: No, I worked in Ventura, California, and Santa Ana, California,
and San Diego, and in Los Angeles. I think Helen first ran for
Congress in '44.
Ingersoll: Nineteen forty-four was the first of the campaigns for Congress.
Rogers: I was her publicity agent on a part-time basis while I was still
working for the Daily News .
Ingersoll: You were?! Starting in '44. Were you the publicity agent for
all of the three congressional campaigns?
Rogers: No, just that one.
Ingersoll: Just the first one.
Rogers: Actually, at that time, I was night city editor of the Daily
News. The Daily News had always supported Helen Gahagan, and
working for her part time gave me an opportunity to supplement
109
Rogers: my income, and to indulge in what had become sort of a hobby
with me, that is, political writing. So, I was Helen's press
agent during her first campaign for the Congress.
Ingersoll: That was a paid job, not a volunteer job, then?
Rogers: That's right. I remember I bought my first hat with some of that
money. It didn't pay very much, but it was welcome money at the
time we had two small children then. Besides it was fun.
Ingersoll: Would you mind telling me how much that was paying?
Rogers: ' I think I made thirty dollars a week for part-time work with Helen.
Ingersoll: One of the things we're interested in is just how campaigns were
run in those days.
Rogers: I don't remember how I fell into this job. Helen's campaign
manager Ed Lybeck, a professional campaign organizer got me
into it. My job was simply to write press releases and help
prepare advertisements and that sort of thing. I don't think I
ever did any speech writing as such, although I might have. It
was a long time ago.
Ingersoll: How did you first meet her?
Rogers: I think I met her through George Outland, who was then a member
of Congress. When Mr. Outland first ran for Congress from Ven
tura County. I also wrote Mr. Outland' s publicity for the finals.
In the primaries of that campaign I should say that I had sort
of a liking for politics on a part-time basis I did the publi
city work for Senator [James] McBride [Calif ornia State Senate],
who ran against Mr. Outland in the primaries. After the primar
ies, I did the same job for Mr. Outland. I think I met Helen
Gahagan and Ed Lybeck through either George Outland or maybe
Chet Holifield or Harold Lane who was Chet's field man.
Ingersoll: Do you remember anything about her in those days that seems
particularly significant to you?
Rogers: Well, a few little things, perhaps. She was a very intense per
son but a delight to work for, because she would tell you what
she wanted to say and you'd go ahead and write it; there was very
little hassle about it. Incidentally, it was a very close elec
tion; I think she won by eighty-seven votes or something like that
Ingersoll: In that 1944 campaign.
Rogers: Yes. In what was normally a very solid Democratic constituency.
110
Rogers: But she had a hard time winning for one reason. She was one
of the first candidates before or since, that I have been aware
of, who lived in one district but ran in another. There is no
legal barrier to running for election from a congressional
district in which you do not reside.
Ingersoll: That must be very difficult. I understand that there was some
feeling that people like Hawkins [Augustus F.] should really
have been the representative. Did you know anything about that
in those days?
Rogers: I don't remember too much about that. I remember there was a big
field, and all her Democratic opponents made a big issue of her
nonresidency al thought this was, you know, a bedroom district,
lots of rooming houses, that sort of thing. It wasn't strictly
a residential, neighborhood district in the sense that a town
would be.
Ingersoll: Yes. Was there much of a point of her being a woman did that
bother people, do you think?
Rogers: I don't recall that it did, no. As I remember, she did get
endorsed by the incumbent member who was retiring I can't even
think of his name who represented that district for years.
Ingersoll: Is that Tom Ford, perhaps?
Rogers: Yes. Anyway, as I say, there was a big field in the Democratic
primary, and she won the nomination by a very narrow margin.
The number "eighty-seven votes" comes to my mind; I don't know
if that's accurate or not.
Ingersoll: How did she impress you, as a person and as a politican, perhaps
in comparison to the other politicians whom you'd written for?
Rogers: I hadn't had all that much experience to compare her with other
politicians. But as a person, she was fine. She was obviously
sincere in what she was trying to do, at times quite emotional
about it, but very determined. On the other hand, she was a
real person.
I remember one time, early on in that campaign, the Hearst
paper in Los Angeles there were two of them at the time, I've
forgotten which one ran a very dirty article about some other
Democratic candidate. Helen's campaign manager picked up word
that they were preparing a similar article about Helen, including
charges of illegitimate children and the whole bit. So we had
a very serious staff meeting one day to discuss this, and Helen
came in and wanted to know what we were talking about. We hadn't
Ill
Rogers: told her about this thing. We said, "You'd better tell us what
we can say in answer." Helen just laughed and said, "Don't
answer it," and walked out. [Laughter] It wouldn't bother her
what they were going to say about her, as long as she obviously
knew it wasn't true.
Ingersoll: Did you get the feeling, as she was giving you her thoughts to be
written up for publicity, that she was a well-organized sort of
person?
Rogers: Well, Helen had an artistic mind rather than an orderly mind, I
would say. Not organized in the cut-and-dried sense that a
business executive would be organized, but she always knew what
she wanted to do and where she was going, I think.
Ingersoll: So her direction was there, if not the organized points.
Rogers: When she got in trouble, she could rely on her dramatic talents
to help, naturally. [Laughter]
Ingersoll: Do you feel she often did that
Rogers: Yes, yes.
Ingersoll: in her speech making and in the way she wanted publicity
presented?
Rogers: Yes, sure. This was her natural talent.
Ingersoll: That was her flair, really, wasn't it?
Rogers: Sure. But don't forget, she did have some business background
helped run her father's business in Florida, I think.
Ingersoll: Do you have any particular recollections, or were you ever
there when she was meeting people during campaigns?
Rogers: Yes, I'm sure I went to a number of meetings. In that district,
the big thing was to go to churches, particularly the colored
churches, and to small house parties. She was very good at
one-on-one with people; she could grab somebody in a group and
have a very serious talk about whatever was on their mind. She
got people's attention; it was hard not to pay attention to her.
Ingersoll: Do you, by any chance, have any examples, any stories that you
can bring to mind of times when perhaps she did get herself in
difficulty but, with her flair for the dramatic, was able to
pull it through?
112
Rogers: No, L couldn't cite any specific instances where she had to rely
on theatrics to bail her out; it's just a general recollection I
have of her.
Ingersoll: Yes. Did you ever have any sort of experience or maybe in your
own contact with her where she could reject the advice of men
without angering them, which is sometimes a problem women have?
Rogers: I never saw that come up, really. We all looked at Helen as a
person, never thought of her as a woman versus man. So the idea
of her being in politics wasn't all that big a thing, even among
the old-pro politicians who were working in the campaign it just
wasn't an issue that you had to treat Helen differently or present
her differently because she was a woman. In the first place, she
had a name that was fairly well recognized, so you didn't have to
overcome any identity problems.
But maybe it's because, in the newspaper business and else~
where, I've never had to differentiate between women and men
particularly. It was no oddity to me. I remember one point
later in my career when I was city editor of the Daily News , I
looked up and I could see about twenty-five women in the newsroom
but no men during the war. So, I was used to treating women as
humans; it didn't occur to me to do otherwise.
Ingersoll: Surely. And you feel generally that other people, with Helen,
could comfortably do the same?
Rogers: Yes, as far as the men go. Now, I suppose there were women sup
porting Helen who were what I'd call professional feminists.
Ingersoll: Were for her because she was a woman.
Rogers: Right, right.
Ingersoll: Do you think there were some women who were against her because
she was a woman and because it was an uncomfortable sort of thing?
Rogers: I never saw much evidence of that. Remember, I had only a part-
time role in her campaign and didn't know everything that was
going on. I worked a few hours a day, and then off to this news
paper job. But I didn't see much evidence of that.
Ingersoll: Can you remember any particular publicity that you did for her
that would be interesting to know about? Any times when you and
she had to work out particular approaches to publicity?
Rogers: No. I generally worked under Mr. Lybeck. We'd decide on what
approach we wanted to take and just went ahead.
113
Ingersoll: Would it usually be Mr. Lybeck who'd be working with you, or
Helen, or the three of you together?
Rogers: I usually worked for Mr. Lybeck. I really didn't see all that
much of Helen during the campaign. I saw more of her when I came
back to Washington and she was in Congress and I was a Washington
correspondent.
While I was here in Washington as a correspondent, I also
had a radio program for a while, once a week or something like
that. I would often interview members of Congress from Califor
nia for the radio station. I remember I lined up Helen to do it
one time, and this gave me quite an insight on the efforts that
she put in here. Here she was a busy congresswoman (she may have
been in her second term by then) . We had a date to do this inter
view, and I think I went to her office something like nine o'clock
in the morning with a list of questions I wanted to ask her. We
worked all morning on how she would answer these questions went
over and over them. We had sort of a dry run, and then we went
to the radio station, where we taped this interview, about five
or six o'clock that night. It was only a fifteen-minute show.
What I wanted to put over was that she devoted a full day to that
fifteen-minute show, to the exclusion of everything else.
Ingersoll: It was worth that much to her.
Rogers: I'm not sure that it was it was only a fifteen-minute interview
show. But that's what she was going to do that day, and every
thing else went by the boards. I think she felt she was helping
me as much as herself.
Manchester Boddy:
1950 Primary
Opponent of Helen Gahagan Douglas in the
Ingersoll: That's very interesting. Let's talk a little bit about that 1950
primary campaign. You then were the Washington correspondent for
the Los Angeles Daily News. Am I right that Manchester Boddy,
who ran against her in the primary as another Democratic candidate,
was the owner of the Los Angeles Daily News at that time?
Rogers: That's right editor and publisher.
Ingersoll: Editor and publisher. Before we get on to Boddy, do you have any
idea about why Senator Downey [Sheridan] retired from the race?
Rogers: Yes, I have a very good idea.
114
Ingersoll: Why was that?
Rogers: He had taken a poll that showed him he could not beat Nixon
[Richard], In fact, he was giving the Democratic politicians in
California a very bad time before he dropped out because he wasn't
answering his mail, he wasn't answering his phone calls. They
wanted him to decide whether he was going to run again or not,
and he seemed unwilling to make this decision.
When you're a Washington correspondent, particularly when
you're writing for the only Democratic paper in town, you get
caught up in a lot of this stuff . So I well remember Senator
Downey called me at home about ten o'clock at night and he said,
"Frank, I've decided I'm not going to run again. Would you write
a statement for the press and put it out to the press, and
announce my decision not to run." I said, "What do you want to
say?" He said, "You know me well enough. You write it." I said,
"Senator, I'll be happy to. Don't you want to wait until you see
a copy?" He said, "No. Whatever you say will be all right with
me." So I wrote Senator Downey's announcement that he was not
going to run, and gave it out to the press. I don't think the
senator ever saw that until his dying day, unless he read it in
the papers. That was not the reason he wanted to state publically,
but the fact is that the polls showed that he could not beat
Nixon and he just didn't want to hassle it. At that time, of
course, I had no idea that Mr. Boddy was going to get in the race
against Helen.
Ingersoll: Did you have anything to do with the campaign, or writing about
it, when Boddy did get into the race?
Rogers: Oh yes. When Boddy got into the race, they called me home from
my job in Washington. He got in the race very late, as you may
remember; I don't know whether it was sixty days or ninety days
before the primary election. I spent the entire time going out
making field contacts with Mr. Boddy. I traveled with him the
entire campaign. I wrote some of his speeches, though he was
pretty much the kind of guy who wrote his own speeches or deliver
ed them as he went along. I even wrote his column occasionally
when he was on the road. At that time he had a daily or a three-
times-a-week column that appeared on the front page of the Daily
News. I wrote his press releases. I was not his campaign mana
ger, but I was with him almost every minute of the campaign from
the day he got into it.
Ingersoll: Was this at all a problem for you after you'd worked on the Helen
Gahagan Douglas campaign in the past, and then doing this one?
Rogers: Yes, it was some problem. But I had great affection and respect
for Mr. Boddy; I admired him greatly, as I did Helen. But I was
also persuaded that Helen could not beat Nixon either.
115
Ingersoll:
Rogers :
Ingersoll:
Rogers:
Ingersoll:
Rogers:
Ingersoll:
Rogers:
Ingersoll:
Rogers:
Ingersoll:
You felt that Boddy had a better chance, did you?
If anybody had a chance, I felt it would be Boddy, as the middle-
ground candidate.
What did you feel he had going for him?
Well, as he used to put it, "You know, so many hundred thousand
people vote for me every day when they buy the Daily News at the
newsstand for a nickel." He was quite a thinker. He was proba
bly too abstract to be a good politician, but an interesting man
with a lot of new ideas, great personality. He met people well
in crowds. At least at that stage of the game, a lot of the pro
fessional Democratic political organizations felt that Helen was
going to be a loser; that California wasn't ready for that liber
al a candidate. History has sort of proved that. California has
nominated an awful lot of liberal Democrats for the Senate side
who never got elected.
That's what happened often, it seems.
It's only in recent years they've elected some liberal Democrats
to the Senate.
How true. Did Boddy have any political experience before
r.amnaiffn?
that
campaign?
No.
Frank Mankiewicz mentioned that this was something he hadn't had
experience at before.
Of course he hadn't. Neither had Helen the first time she ran
for Congress. Everybody starts somewhere.
True. What would your feeling be about Frank Mankiewicz' s idea
that he hadn't had experience, that he wasn't a very good speaker,
that he put on a lot of Briticisms that were hardly natural to
him does that make any sense at all in your recollection?*
* The primary campaign was not without incident. Downey had with
drawn, but not until he and his supporters among the conservative
Democrats had appointed a candidate to oppose Douglas. He was
Manchester Boddy, a Los Angeles publisher whose Daily News had
been the only occasionally Democratic major city newspaper in the
116
Rogers: No. This is the first time I'd ever read Mankiewicz's observa
tions, and very little of it rings true to me. Sure, he looked
like the country gentleman type, but that was just his style.
You know, he was a book salesman at one time in his life. So
he was a great salesman, a great meeter of people, and I thought
he was an excellent speaker, as a matter of fact. He comes
across to Mankiewicz as a phony; he did not come across that way
to me, and I had pretty close dealings with him. Even though he
was editor and I was only the Washington correspondent, we had a
good relationship. I always found that I could speak frankly with
him and argue with him. So I just couldn't agree with Mankiewicz's
characterization of the man at all.
Ingersoll: You mentioned some new ideas that Boddy had. Can you recall any
of those now?
Rogers: I suppose you'd call them esoteric in this day and age, and ether
eal or whatever. He loved to hang on to slogans that he had made
or become attached to. I can't give any concrete suggestions that
he made, but he didn't follow the usual political line in promis-
* (cent.) entire state. Boddy was a curious candidate. He had no
previous political experience of any kind. A vain, pompous man,
his platform manner was diffident when it was not absurd. He
affected a Colonel Blimp-type mustache and, indeed, an English
manner generally. Even the first three letters of his first name
were a self-Anglicizing effort, he having been born plain Chester
Boddy.
Boddy carried the anti-Douglas colors in the Democratic pri
mary, and when he was not droning his own incomprehensible philo
sophy of politics as history, he denounced Douglas as the candi
date of the "red-hots" in the Democratic Party. His integrity in
this effort, as well as his stout defense of California's right
to the oil-rich Tidelands, came under question three years later.
It was revealed that the Hearst Corporation, which published a
rival newspaper in Los Angeles, paid Boddy $250,000 per year for
an option to buy his Daily News . ** It was also revealed that
Boddy was indebted for $2 million to various private oil interests.
But, to paraphrase Ben Jonson, "that was in another time and,
besides, the wench was [at least politically] dead."
Frank Mankiewicz, Perfectly Clear: Nixon from Whittier to
Watergate, p. 50.
** Frank Rogers wrote during editing:
If this is true, how come the News was bought by the Times , not
Hearst. I never heard of this "revelation"! Who made it?
117
Rogers:
Ingersoll:
"Rogers:
Ingersoll:
Rogers:
Ingersoll:
Rogers:
Ingersoll:
ing everything and wanting to do everything for people. A philo
sopher more than a politician.
You mentioned, I think, at least two reasons why the Democratic
leaders asked Boddy to run that he did have a large following
in terms of people who knew his name from the newspaper, and that
he was considered a good middle-ground candidate. Are there any
other reasons you can think of why the Democrats ran him?
Not really. I sort of seem to recollect that when they finally
got to Sheridan Downey after he dropped out, he may have been one
of those who suggested that Boddy run. It came as quite a sur
prise to me that Boddy would run, actually. I was quite surprised.
It looked like sort of a hopeless cause, frankly. But, I wanted
a candidate who could beat Nixon, and Helen couldn't.
How did it look as time went on? Did it seem to pick up at all?
What was the local reaction to him as you traveled around giving
speeches and campaigning?
I thought he had the nucleus of a pretty good organization, con
sidering he got into the race so late. I think, as a matter of
fact, he got 500,000 votes. I don't know what that would add up
to percentage-wise, and today it doesn't look like many votes.
But no, I don't think his campaign ever really gained any momen
tum after the original burst of enthusiasm.
In the first place, labor was solidly for Helen Gahagan.
They had the money and they had the organization of the unions
when it came to getting out the votes. So, I'd have to say off
hand that his campaign made not very much headway, maybe as much
as you could expect. It was a very haphazard, spur-of-the-moment
organization. I remember sometimes paying hotel bills with my
own checks because there was no campaign organization. I later
got paid back for all of that, but they weren't even set up to
take care of the daily business of running a campaign.
Do you have any recollections of what Helen's feelings were about
your writing for Boddy 's campaign?
No, I really don't. I've only seen her a very few times since.
I don't think there's any animosity as far as she's concerned.
She's not that kind of person. When the primary campaign was
over, I came back to Washington and had nothing further to do
with the campaign, actually.
What had been Boddy 's stand before the 1950 campaign on Helen
Gahagan Douglas during her campaigns as representative, for
instance? Had he supported her or not?
118
Rogers: Yes, he'd always supported her when she ran for the House, and
he supported her after he lost the nomination for Senate.
Ingersoll: So he was a big enough man
Rogers: Oh yes. Well, the paper was strongly anti-Nixon.
Ingersoll: It was? I didn't realize that. Do you think Boddy's stand
toward Helen Gahagan Douglas changed when he decided to go into
the primaries? Do you think he had any reason why he didn't want
her to run?
Rogers: Only, I think, the bottom line consideration that she probably
couldn't beat Nixon.
Ingersoll: It was expediency, then, more than anything else.
Rogers: Well, if you want to call it that. Politicians although Boddy
was not a native politician, he had to have some political feel
once he got into this they're all rationalizers.
Ingersoll: Mankiewicz links Boddy and the Hearst press, whom he says took
an option to buy his newspaper for I think it's $250,000, and the
fact that Boddy owed money to oil interests, big money, at that
time links these as one reason for his getting into the campaign
when one of the campaign issues, of course, was offshore oil.
Does that make any sense to you?
Rogers: No. Of course, I never heard all these things before, and I think
that Mankiewicz is a little mixed up on the offshore oil bit. Of
course, about the Hearst papers having an option, the Daily News
was in fact sold to the Los Angeles Times and not to the Hearst
papers.
The tidelands oil fight was a fight between the federal
government and the state government, not a fight between the state
government and the oil companies or the oil companies and the
federal government. That's one thing they sent me back here to
write about years ago, and I've been writing about it ever since.
So, the oil companies, then and now, were in the position of say
ing, "We don't care who owns the so-called tidelands. We have to
know so we know who we're going to pay our rent to who's the
landlord." The issue had to be resolved. It started way back
[Telephone rings] So the tidelands oil fight that he refers to
really was kind of a red herring.
Ingersoll: Your feeling is that it would not have mattered to the oil interests
whether the state or the federal government had control of the
tideland oil.
119
Rogers:
Ingersoll:
Rogers:
Ingersoll:
Rogers:
Ingersoll:
Rogers:
Ingersoll:
Rogers:
That's right. The newspaper, in fact, had taken the position
that this was state property out to the three-mile limit. This
was contrary to what Secretary [of the Interior] Ickes [Harold]
contended, and brought suit; and the Supreme Court upheld Ickes
and would have given the state control over these sub-sea
resources, from the low-water mark out to the edge of the terri
torial seas. Congress eventually upset that decision by passing
the Submerged Lands Act, which simply gave the state control over
those sub-sea resources and gave the federal government control
over the resources out beyond on the outer continental shelf.
Now the oil companies do business with both state and federal,
depending on who's the landlord. Their problem was, "Who is in
charge here? Who do we apply to for a license? Who do we pay
our rent to, our royalties to?" It had to be resolved.
Was this tidelands oil question an important issue in the Los
Angeles Daily News during the campaign?
I can't remember that, per se, it was a
No, I don't think so.
big issue.
Did you have any notion, any idea, or isn't it possible that
there was Republican money in Boddy's campaign?
I never saw any signs of it! [Laughter] In fact, we had very
little money. I was not all that close to the financial end of
the campaign, except I paid a few campaign bills out of my pocket
and later was reimbursed. But I would have no way of knowing who
contributed. I wouldn't know why any Republicans would have
because all the polls that the professionals were taking showed
Nixon winning. So why would they want to finance Boddy? It
doesn't seem to make much sense to me.
Did Boddy get very much acceptance as he moved along and talked
to people?
We had pretty good crowds for the means we had. Some congressmen,
I remember the late Clair Engle particularly, took him around in
their districts. This happened in some other places, too. Maybe
the Democratic candidates were just hedging their bets, you know?
I don't know. I thought he had pretty good acceptance.
Do you think he used any red-baiting techniques in his campaign?
I never really felt that he did. Mr. Boddy was not a radical,
maybe not even a liberal in the accepted sense of the term. I
remember that at one point in the campaign, I said, "Mr. Boddy,
I think you're spending more time attacking Helen than you are
Nixon. I think you ought to concentrate more on Nixon." He said,
"Frank, you know, I've never even met Nixon." So I introduced
120
Rogers: Nixon to him. We happened to be in the lobby of a hotel in San
Francisco, and I introduced Dick Nixon to Mr. Boddy, just so he
could at least say he'd met him.
Ingersoll: What was Boddy 's reaction after the introduction?
Rogers: I don't remember any particular reaction. He despised the man's
politics and personal ethics even then, as many of us did. I
suppose the ultra liberals might call it red-baiting, but to me
it was maybe more a downgrading of Helen on some of the liberal
issues than she deserved. But this is the sort of thing that
happens in a campaign. You have to remember that Mr. Boddy was
the man in the middle. In those days we had cross-filing in
California and Nixon was on the Democratic ballot along with
Boddy and Helen. I thought Boddy had to make a pitch for the
conservative Democrats who might have been leaning to Nixon; I
didn't think he had much chance with the more liberal Democrats.
He was certainly less liberal than Helen, anyway, and it was
natural for him to differ with her on some issues. As a practical
matter, how could he have appealed to the more conservative Demo
crats if he didn't? I felt he had to show himself as less liber
al than Helen but more liberal than Nixon to put it simply.
In any event, it is my recollection that Nixon not Boddy
was the red baiter. I know that a lot of charges along this line
have been made but I just don't remember any blatant examples.
But those were very emotional times and I suppose a lot of things
were said and done then that wouldn't be said and done now.
Mr. Boddy is dead now and Helen Gahagan is seriously ill and
I, for one, prefer to think only about their strengths, not their
weaknesses .
Ingersoll: Surely. Do you remember what particular liberal issues of hers
Boddy came out rather strongly against?
Rogers: Sure. Helen really had only one issue. I thought it was a non-
issue then, and it still is, but she got her mind set on it,
through I suppose some of the very left-wing crowd the so-called
160-acre limitation issue.
Ingersoll: The Central Valley irrigation.
Rogers: She made it sound as though what the federal government wanted to
do was break up every farm over 160 acres and divide it up among
the paisanos, et cetera. This was never going to happen. In point of
fact, people with more than 160 acres are still today getting
water from the Central Valley Project. I thought she ruined
herself just by making that almost the sole issue.
121
Ingersoll: Was this an issue that Boddy picked up and fought against?
Rogers: Well, that's my point, yes. Of course, Sheridan Downey very
strongly opposed Helen's stand on that. He, too, had made it
almost
Ingersoll: In fact, that was the one that all of the California delegation
was opposed to
Rogers: It's interesting to look back now and see whether that could
happen. The law hasn't changed, nothing has changed, and we're
talking about twenty-six years ago.
Ingersoll: To go back to the possible red-baiting, were you at all acquainted
with Emmet Haggerty or Solon Beatty who moved from the Boddy cam
paign after his defeat to become Democrats for Nixon supporters?
Rogers: i don't remember Solon Beatty at all, and the name Emmet Haggerty
only rings a dim bell in my mind.
Ingersoll: They were two who, later on, according to a San Francisco Examiner
article [September 16, 1950], hung on to the notion that Helen
Gahagan Douglas was a communist, and used this in the Nixon cam
paign. One had been connected with Veterans for Boddy, and the
other with Lawyers for Boddy, earlier in the Boddy campaign.
Rogers: I just don't remember enough about either one of those guys. I
came right from Washington, got on a car or on an airplane or
something with Mr. Boddy, and spent the next two months just
traveling with him. I only saw the campaign from this side.
Ingersoll: Yes. Do you remember Boddy making statements to the effect that
Helen Gahagan Douglas voted as Marcantonio [Vito] did, and that
sort of thing?
Rogers: I don't think Mr. Boddy ever made that statement. All his oppo
nents did.
Ingersoll: But not Boddy. Do you think he ever by innuendo called Helen
Gahagan Douglas a Communist?
Rogers: Not that I can recollect, no.
Ingersoll: So that the sort of things Nixon said later could hardly,
in your recollection, have been picked up from the sort of thing
that Boddy said.
Rogers: Nixon didn't need any inspiration from Boddy when it came to red
baiting or whatever. He played that game from the first time when
he ran against Jerry Voorhis.
122
Ingersoll:
Rogers :
Ingersoll:
Rogers:
Ingersoll:
Rogers:
Ingersoll:
Rogers :
Ingersoll:
Rogers:
Ingersoll:
Rogers :
He had enough of his own, with Jerry Voorhis and
He got elected by calling Jerry Voorhis a candidate of the CIO
when in fact the CIO had opposed him. Nixon didn't need any red
baiting clues from Mr. Boddy.
Let's move on to the general election, then, when it was just
Nixon-Douglas. Did you play any part in that part of the elec
tion?
No. Right after the primaries, I came back to Washington and
went about my business. That was not a presidential year, was
it? No.
No.
No, I had no further part in the campaign,
a Washington correspondent.
I came back to being
Did Boddy play any part in that election that you know of?
I don't remember any. As I say, we did have an editorial endors
ing Helen.
Yes, the News supported Helen. Do you remember whether the Los
Angeles Daily News ever used the Minneapolis editorial about
Nixon's dirty tricks? You wouldn't have been close enough to
the Los Angeles staff to know whether there was any talk about
using it or not using it, would you?
I'm not familiar with it.
What do you think of the feeling that was expressed by at least
one of the Helen Gahagan Douglas supporters in a letter, that the
fact that most of the big city newspapers in California were
pretty solidly Republican was one of the reasons for Helen
Gahagan Douglas's defeat.
I don't think that has any validity at all. They all opposed
FDR, and he won. The Times, you know, didn't start picking
winners until about ten years ago. Big newspapers have never
been notably successful in that. I think it's probably true
that most of them opposed her, but I don't think the newspapers
have that much influence. Newspapermen like to think they do,
but they don't. [Laughter]
Transcriber:
Final Typist:
Lee Steinback
Ann Enkoji
123
Regional Oral History Office University of California
The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California
Women in Politics Oral History Project
HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS PROJECT
Byron Lindsley
HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS AND THE 1950 CAMPAIGN
IN SAN DIEGO AND IMPERIAL COUNTIES
An Interview Conducted by
Eleanor Glaser
in 1976
Underwritten by grants from:
National Endowment for the Humanities, Rockefeller Foundation,
Members and Friends of the Los Angeles Democratic Women's Forum
Copyright (c) 1981 by the Regents of the University of California
Judge Byron F. Lindsley
1978
124
TABLE OF CONTENTS Byron F. Lindsley
INTERVIEW HISTORY 125
Early Interest in Politics 127
Chairman, 1950 Campaign, San Diego and Imperial Counties 130
Helen Gahagan Douglas as Individual and as Campaigner 131
Campaign Finances 134
Primary Campaign 134
Role of Senator Sheridan Downey, Manchester Boddy, and
Clinton McKinnon 134
General Election Campaign 138
Issues and Red-Baiting 138
Nixon Support from Women, Catholic Hierarchy 141
Smear Techniques and Attempts to Counteract 142
Helen Gahagan Douglas's Relationships with Other Politicians 145
Campaign Advisors and Workers 147
Campaign Conduct in Hindsight 151
Cold War Demagoguery: Harry S. Truman, Richard M. Nixon, and
Joseph McCarthy 153
Political and Community Activities after 1950 154
APPENDIX:
Biographical Summary of Judge Byron F. Lindsley 157
List of Documents Deposited in The Bancroft Library Pertaining to
the 1950 Senate Campaign in San Diego 165
Newspaper Articles and Campaign Letterhead 166
Copy of the "Pink Sheet" 168
125
INTERVIEW HISTORY
Byron F. Lindsley, judge of the Superior Court of San Diego County and
presiding judge of the Conciliation Court, was the chairman of Helen Gahagan
Douglas's 1950 campaign in San Diego and Imperial counties. He was inter
viewed about that campaign at the suggestion of Mrs. Douglas.
Because Judge Lindsley was expecting to be called upon to testify in a
law suit regarding segregation in the San Diego schools, he was unable to
set a definite interview time before I left for San Diego.
On Monday morning, November 1, 1976 (the day before the national elec
tions), I telephoned Judge Lindsley's chambers, found he was already in ses
sion, so I went to the courtroom where he was hearing a visitation case
involving a divorced interracial couple. Judge Lindsley adjourned the hear
ings for a few minutes so that we might have a brief conference in his cham
bers. Despite his busy calendar, he made an appointment for that afternoon,
setting aside several hours between court hearings.
Although I was late for our appointment, having rushed from a taping
session with Mrs. Helen Lustig, Judge Lindsley graciously stated that this
had given him an opportunity to go over his files. As I remarked during the
taping, Judge Lindsley is an archivist's dream because he preserved so many
documents from that intense campaign. He explained that he planned to use
these as background material for writing he intended to do when he retired.
Judge Lindsley's large chambers are filled with books and documents, yet
remain neat and uncluttered. On the bookshelves and walls are framed awards,
quotations, and children's art. Among the plaques are two honoring him for
his long-time involvement with the Urban League, one naming him the trial
judge of the year in 1975, and an award for his work on behalf of San Diego's
public schools. In addition there are several awards for bowling and pitching
horseshoes Judge Lindsley explained he is the champion horseshoe pitcher of
the legal profession in San Diego.
During the interview Judge Lindsley sat at his desk, the tape recorder
in front of him, looking through his files of 1950 campaign material. In
responding to questions, Judge Lindsley was forthright and open. The, years
have not diminished his regard for Helen Gahagan Douglas nor his anger and
contempt for the manner in which the opposition conducted its campaign.
126
In reviewing the interview transcript, Judge Lindsley enlarged upon a
number of his statements and deleted one segment in order to spare someone's
feelings. He most generously xeroxed numerous documents from the 1950 cam
paign for deposit in The Bancroft Library.
Eleanor Glaser
Interviewer-Editor
10 July 1978
Regional Oral History Office
The Bancroft Library
University of California
Berkeley, California
127
VI THE 1950 CAMPAIGN IN- SAN DIEGO AND IMPERIAL COUNTIES
[Interview 1: November 1, 1976]
[begin tape 1, side A]
Early Interest in Politics
Glaser: What led up to your entrance into politics? I assume this took
place after you came back from a stint in service.
Lindsley: I wasn't in service. During the war years I was working in
Washington, D.C., and going to law school. I was employed as a.
personnel officer. At the end of my time, when I resigned, I
was director of personnel of the Library of Congress in Washington,
D.C., working under Archibald MacLeish.
As a matter of fact, in my Douglas campaign file, there is an
exchange of letters between me and MacLeish about Helen Douglas
and the campaign. I received a national campaign solicitation
appeal for Helen by the 1950 Civil Liberties Appeal. I wrote him,
telling him I was working for Helen and he wrote me a short letter
right after the election in which he said he was sorry things went
so badly for our gal, but she put up a good fight.
Glaser: Will you share that with me?
Lindsley: Oh sure, I'll make copies for you of everything that's here.
During that time I was going to Georgetown University Law
School. I graduated from law school in June of 1944 and then
took the District of Columbia bar exam and passed it. I then
came out and took the California bar in October of '44. I had
come from California; California was my home. Although I passed
the California bar, I stayed on for another year with the Library
of Congress. Then in October of '45 I took a leave of absence,
rather than resign, to decide whether I wanted to practice law
128
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
or stay where I was. I loved life in Washington where I felt at
the heart of what was happening. I came out to California and
decided I wanted to practice law. I practiced in Los Angeles
for about a year and a-half and then returned to San Diego, which
was my home to begin with. I've been in San Diego County since
1931 and in California since 1927.
And how did you move into politics?
I've been a political animal ever since I could
gine. In my senior year in high school, in our
conducted a full scale national campaign. That
Roosevelt-Hoover campaign in 1932. As a civics
organized a Republican National Committee and a
al Committee and then put on the whole campaign
end.
breathe, I ima-'
civics class, we
was during the
class project, we
Democratic Nation-
from beginning to
I was the chairman of the Republican National Committee
[laughing] at the time. Stan Conant, a friend of mine who is now
a lawyer and head of Defenders, Inc. in San Diego, was the chair
man of the Democratic National Committee. This was at Grossmont
High School in San Diego County. Stan Conant is now a staunch
Republican, and I am now a Democrat; we both have gone full circle.
We ran a full-scale campaign. We had our national committee
meetings and conducted regular campaigns: there were speeches,
bands, meetings, signs, loud speaker systems, a few vegetables and
eggs to duck, and a vote. Hoover won the student election at
Grossmont High School, although a study of the vote of the parents
in the district showed that Roosevelt won hands down. So the kids
there didn't follow the lead of their parents. It was the first
Of many political campaigns I've led.
I suppose that was the first intensive interest, but I've
always been interested in politics. I think if you look at my
high school annual, my ambition was to be in politics. It says:
"Ambition: Lawyer and big politician." When I left Washington,
D.C., and resigned from the Library of Congress, I received
letters (I still have them somewhere) from those who worked with
me there that said, "We'll see you back in Congress." And they
expected me to come back; I was very political. I wish I could
have. I always wanted to go to the U.S. Senate.
I came back to San Diego in '47 and immediately got involved
in politics. Before that, while I was still sort of shifting
back and forth between Los Angeles and San Diego, I represented
Ellis Patterson, a former lieutenant governor now in Congress,
who was running for the United States Senate in 1946. That was
the year of Nixon's first campaign, too, as I remember, the year
129
Lindsley: of the Nixon-Voorhis campaign. I wasn't involved in that. I
represented Ellis Patterson running for United States Senate in
the Democratic primary; his opponent was Will Rogers, Jr. Will
Rogers won the Democratic nomination but lost to Bill Knowland
in the general election. That's when Knowland became a national
political figure.
Glaser: Did you have anything to do with, or were you aware of the poli
tics involved when Mrs. Douglas became a national commit teewoman?
Lindsley: I had nothing to do with that. I knew she was a national
committeewoman, but I was not involved in that in any way.
Back here in San Diego in 1947, I was a member of the Young
Democrats. I first became a vice-president and then president
of the Young Democrats, in 1947 and '48. We had quite a hassle
in the Young Democrats, as political organizations too often do.
There was a big factional dispute during the 1948 campaign before
the Democratic National Convention.
A bunch of us Young Turks in the Young Democrats at that
time didn't want Truman to be renominated. We thought Truman
was not liberal enough nor adequate for the job and were anxious
to have somebody else nominated. We sent a telegram to the
delegates at the convention suggesting that they nominate some
body in the tradition of Franklin Roosevelt, somebody like
William 0. Douglas. I've forgotten the other names on the list,
but it didn't include Truman. Douglas was our choice over Tru
man by four to one. That caused a furor, and the president of
the Young Democrats resigned, and I became president.
Then in '48 I ran for the Democratic Central Committee and
I was elected. When the Democratic Central Committee was organ
ized I was selected as its chairman. So for a while I was pres
ident of the Young Democrats and chairman of the Democratic
Central Committee. This was in '48, during the Truman-Barkley
campaign. That was my first direct involvement in a political
campaign.
Then we had a child who became ill in December of '48 with
kidney trouble and whether he would live or not was problematical.
He was ill for ten months, and I resigned from all political
activity in order to be available at home. My child died on
Halloween evening in 1949. So last night being Halloween, it was,
as always, a traumatic time in our lives.
Then a couple of months later my father died. By then I
really wasn't interested in politics or anything of the sort.
The only thing that brought me out of retirement from politics
was the Helen Douglas campaign.
130
Lindsley: This little article here, [holds up clipping ] entitled "Who's
Who in San Diego," tells how only for a short time had I left
politics. It tells about my son being ill and dying and my
father dying. "It wasn't until last month," the article says,
"that Lindsley rejoined the political forces that have played
such a part in his life. He took on the local campaign of Helen
Gahagan Douglas, the actress-turned-Congresswoman, who also bears
the liberal label."
Glaser: That would be 1950, then?
Lindsley: Yes, this was in March, 1950.
Chairman, 1950 Campaign, San Diego and Imperial Counties
Glaser: You were chairman of the San Diego County campaign as well as the
city organization, weren't you?
Lindsley: Yes, the Democratic central committee represents the entire county
area. That's the official body of the Democratic party. Each
county has a central committee elected by the voters from the
various assembly districts, elected by the Democratic registration
in the primaries. And that body, then, is the official organ
of the Democratic party. We still have central committees. How
effective they are is another thing. Technically, they are the
official organ of the party. But there are all sorts of separate
campaigns of candidates and clubs and so forth that function
outside the scope, to one degree or another, of the central com
mittee.
Glaser: Your chairmanship included Imperial County?
Lindsley: No, no. San Diego County only. I had nothing to do with
Imperial County.
Glaser: I'm confusing your central committee with the Douglas campaign
committee. Mrs. Lustig said that the campaign office for which
she was the executive secretary covered both Imperial County and
San Diego County.
Lindsley: That's separate, yes. That's the Helen Douglas campaign commit
tee, but the central committee is strictly San Diego County.
131
Lindsley: Now, I was out of the central committee when I came back to
manage Helen's campaign. I just came back for Helen Douglas's
campaign against Nixon. I have in my files the minutes of the
first meeting of the committee and these are things that you will
want, I'm sure, in your file.
/
Glaser: So when you did return to politics, you came back at a rather
high level as manager of Mrs. Douglas's local campaign.
Lindsley: I had left at a pretty high level from the chairman of the
Democratic Central Committee and president of the Young Democrats
at the same time.
Our first meeting of the Helen Douglas committee was on
February 9, 1950, in my office. That's when I announced my
acceptance of the chairmanship of the committee. George Douglas
had come down and talked to me about it. George, I guess, is
Melvyn's brother. He had been the front man for Helen to help
set up the campaign committee.
Glaser: Was he her campaign manager for Southern California?
Lindsley: He was a coordinator, and I think I have some correspondence in
here from him which may say what he was.
Glaser: When did you first meet Mrs. Douglas?
Lindsley: Just a matter of the last part of January or the first part of
February of 1950.
Helen Gahagan Douglas as Individual and as Campaigner
Glaser: What was your first impression of her?
Lindsley: Oh, of Helen Douglas oh, I couldn't tell you when I first met
her. I met her sometime during the primary, but I don't know
when, and I look through here and can't find anything that tells
me. I knew of Helen Douglas, as anybody who was exposed to the
political scene and particularly who was a political liberal,
knew who Helen Douglas was. My first impression was the same as
the impression the next day and the next day and the next day and
forever thereafter a wonderful, dynamic person with a beautiful
character and a beautiful mind and a will to do something about
what she thought about.
Glaser: How do you assess her as a campaigner, as a politician?
132
Lindsley: I don't know that I've ever seen one better and I have run
several campaigns of topnotch people. She was a beautiful
campaigner. I can remember driving her around from one place to
another during the campaign in my car or riding in other cars
with her. I never saw anybody who could keep herself as vital
and vibrant in spite of the heavy schedule that she was required
to go through. She had the faculty, and I saw her do it many
times let's say we'd have a street corner meeting in Escondido,
as we did. She'd get up on the back of the truck that we had and
speak to the people in the community that gathered around. Then
we'd get in a car and we'd go off to, say, Oceanside or some other
place. She had a facility for turning it off and taking a nap
between places. She could rest just that quickly, close her
eyes and relax and be refreshed by the next stop. She made many
stops and was always alert at every one of them. She made a
beautiful impression on anybody that ever heard her.
Glaser: Was she as good on a one-to-one basis as with a group?
Lindsley: She was excellent on a one-to-one basis, very, very good. The
people that she was talking to would assume she was talking to
them. She may not have been, but she certainly gave the impres
sion that she was.
Glaser: I've heard criticism that she didn't know how to terminate; that
she talked, in effect, too much.
Lindsley: I couldn't say that was true. It was impossible for it to be
true in our scheduling routine, because we had so many places to
cover. I don't think she had the inability to terminate. I
think she would hesitate to leave a group that still wanted to
talk to her, you know, but I don't think that's the same as having
an inability to terminate. I never found that to be true. I do
not remember that to be true, and I think I would because I pro
bably drove her around more than anybody else.
Glaser: Was she a well-organized person?
Lindsley: She was a very well-organized person.
Glaser: Could she motivate people?
Lindsley: She motivated people beautifully. There were only two people
that I know of in my political life who motivated people and held
on to their affection and interest over the years without it
waning at all Helen Douglas was one and Adlai Stevenson was
.the. .other. Those who worked for and who admired Adlai Stevenson
continued -to. --Now the admiration for Adlai Stevenson was not quite
as personal as it was with. Helen Douglas, in the sense -that people
who knew Helen Douglas were more personally- involved and affected
133
Lindsley: by her than with Adlai Stevenson, who was more reserved. But he
certainly stimulated your admiration for his fine mind and the
manner in which he expressed" what he had on his mind,
Glaser: How would the aspect of her being a woman come into this? Could
men take criticism from her? If your committee made a suggestion
and she turned it down, was this taken as a put down by the men
because it came from a woman?
Lindsley: I don't believe so. I have no recollection of anything of that
sort. That doesn't seem to fit Helen Douglas's personality as
I saw it.
Glaser: You were obviously a very devoted worker. Was everybody on that
committee
Lindsley: Everybody, everybody. You talked to Helen Lustig. Do you know
of anybody that felt more devoted than Helen Lustig?
Glaser: No, but she made the suggestion that there were men who came in
after the primary who were in to ride on Mrs. Douglas's coattails.
Lindsley: Now that's a different thing. There were those that came in after
the primary. But I don't think you can talk about it as a man-
woman, Helen Douglas-somebody else, problem. Those were the kinds
of people who were not for Helen Douglas to begin with, but she
was now their candidate.
There are political purists to whom party is everything
(I wasn't one of those), and so they would support Helen Douglas
even though ideologically they may not have agreed with her.
There were many who didn't, and people of that sort perhaps, but
I don't remember many of those who were active directly in her
campaign. They were over here in the central committee and the
official organs of the party, which didn't do that much anyway.
Glaser: How did the rank and file, more especially the women, react to
her? She was an exceptionally-endowed woman, with intelligence
and beauty. Did this win women over, or were they envious of
her and therefore negative?
Lindsley: I don't remember maybe I was blind I don't remember envy. I
do remember the typical chauvinism (we'd now call it) on the
part of men who couldn't quite comprehend somebody that attrac
tive also being that competent, that aware, and being able to
be as effective in the political field as she was. There were
men, and I guess women like that, too. But I couldn't say that
that was anything significant or that stood out. I can't put my
finger on any of it or say that it was a general situation at all.
134
Campaign Finances
Glaser: I'd like to ask you about the finances for the primary as well
as for the general campaigns. You didn't have too much money, I
understand, and normally you'd expect to get some money from the
Beverly Hills people.
Lindsley: Well, I can't remember too much about the finances, but I do have
the candidate's campaign statement that we had to file in November
of 1950 after the general election. It tells who contributed, how
much they contributed, and the total amount that was contributed.
This was signed by me, and some of the handwriting on here is
Helen Lustig's, so she's the one that took part in its preparation.
We apparently collected [reading] $8557.18 in the general election,
and we expended $8516.57. We had approximately $41 left over.
I'll make a copy of this for you.
Glaser: And you used the $40 for Mr. [Lionel] Van Deerlin's campaign?
Lindsley: We used the $40 I have some of the correspondence on that. I
wrote to Helen and asked her if she thought it was all right,
and I got a letter back from Helen saying, "Whatever you say,
fine." So that was used for Mr. Van Deerlin two years later in
his campaign for Congress. He was defeated then but was elected
later and has been in Congress for many years.
Glaser: I want to go into the primary campaign with you. Senator [Sheri
dan] Downey was going to retire and then he was not. It seemed
it could go either way. Do you know why he retired?
Lindsley: I knew why, but I don't know why. In other words, I can't remem
ber now. I suppose if I were to go through my files and read all
the correspondence and the minutes of the meetings, there might
be some discussion of it.
Primary Campaign
Role of Senator Sheridan Downey, Manchester Boddy, and Clinton
McKinnon
Lindsley: Do you know when it was, from the information you have, that
Downey finally did pull out of the primary and Manchester Boddy
came in?
135
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
I don't have the actual date. I think it was sometime in the
spring. I know it was quite a surprise that Boddy entered the
picture when Mrs. Douglas had the field to herself,
the question of why Boddy came into the picture.
And there's
Not much question to any of us who were in there. It was the
conservative political brokers who didn't want Helen Douglas to
be the party's nominee. One, she was too liberal for many of
them. Two, she wasn't somebody that they could control, and the
people that were surrounding Helen Douglas were, by and large,
perhaps too liberal for most of them.
You're saying then that the Democratic power brokers
Yes, Democratic power brokers, although I wouldn't be surprised
but that there was help from the other side.
Well, there is knowledge that Boddy had been taking Hearst money
as a yearly option. I think it was about a quarter of a million
dollars for five or six years.
To keep his paper going, you mean?
Yes. Also he had hefty loans from an oil company.
Well, none of us trusted what happened with Downey going out and
Boddy coming in. I don't remember now what I undoubtedly knew
at the time about it. I haven't given any thought to it all
these years, except that I've never felt kindly about Manchester
Boddy.
There was also the statement that Nixon preferred to run against
Mrs. Douglas rather than Senator Downey because he felt that she
would be easier to beat.
Well, that could easily be true, because he, being what he was
and running the kind of campaign that he would be likely to run
and knowing what he would do (just like he did against Voorhis) ,
he knew that's what he would do against Helen Douglas. And he
knew what he was doing in Watergate before it happened. I don't
hav-e and never have had any respect for the man.
I told this to somebody about two years ago, when I ran into
one of the old campaign workers in the Helen Douglas campaign.
She introduced me to her husband, and told him that she had met
me in the Douglas campaign. I said, yes, that's when I learned
about Watergate, in 1950, in the Helen Douglas campaign. So I'm
sure that that's the case, and I probably suspected it at the time.
136
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
I have a statement here from a London Observer interview with
Nixon in 1968, in which Nixon says it was only natural that he
should have made communism an issue since Boddy's campaign
accused her of every red affiliation short of being a communist.
In other words, Nixon felt this was his justification.
He didn't need any justification of that sort to do what he was
going to do anyway. Boddy was just stealing the march on Nixon.
Nixon always has a ready answer for explaining why he did things.
I don't remember that statement. That was made in '68. I had
quit listening to Nixon by then.
In the Douglas campaign during the primary, how did you handle
Boddy's red-baiting?
^
We conducted our own campaign. We tried, by and large, to con
duct a campaign for Helen Douglas, not a campaign against Boddy.
The only way to handle that kind of a campaign is not to wallow
in it. So I don't think we did much in the way of anti-Boddy
campaigning. It was a positive campaign, pro-Helen Douglas.
I don't remember the vote, but I think she won pretty
handily. I can't tell you what the vote was here. I probably
have what the vote was in San Diego someplace. Perhaps you can
get it from Ruth Lybeck. You ought to have a lot of stuff from
Ruth Lybeck in your files. She was assistant state coordinator,
the person in Helen's campaign with whom we dealt. Ruth was in
Los Angeles at the Alexandria Hotel; that's where the Southern
California headquarters were.*
I want to ask you about Clinton McKinnon.
[end 'tape 1, side A; begin tape 1, side B]
I've just run across a letter [looking through his files], a May
23rd, 1950, letter to me from Helen Lustig in which she discusses
Senator Downey's talk of the night before and the three major
accusations against Mrs. Douglas that Senator Downey made. She's
got them in this letter here.
*
One, Mrs. Douglas's vote with Marcantonio; this ended up as
Mr. Nixon's pink sheet. But as Helen Lustig says in her letter
to me, "This is stuff we should make available to our speakers;
that time and again Republicans voted with Marcantonio on such
* Judge Lindsley later added: "In checking my file I found that
Helen got 52.9% of the Democratic vote, Boddy got 16.3%, and
Nixon got 20.8% in San Diego."
137
Lindsley: measures as the Marshall Plan, the defeat of UNRA, and the mili
tary aid program to Korea, and so forth."
Two, Mrs. Douglas's absenteeism (and she points out that
there isn't a member of the Congress who doesn't come home to
campaign.) But this is one of the things that Downey was saying
that she was absent a lot. As Helen says, "Weren't Mr. Nixon
and Mr. McKinnon out campaigning?" Until she decided to run for
the Senate, Helen Douglas had the lowest absentee record of any
member of Congress.
Three, her vote on aid to Turkey and Greece.
And then she wrote, "We have some interesting quotes from
Manchester Boddy's editorials from his paper." Those probably
got thrown out with Helen Lustig's notes.
Okay, but I don't find anything. Then we go back to you
were asking about Clinton McKinnon. Clinton McKinnon was in
Congress; he was the congressman from this district. He was a
newspaperman and he later became the owner, or major owner, of
the Daily News, which he got from Manchester Boddy. He was in
Manchester Boddy's corner during the primary. He wasn't support
ing Helen Douglas. But I don't remember any particulars about
it, just generally that Clinton McKinnon, in the primary, was
not that friendly.
Glaser: Mrs. Lustig told me something that I hadn't been aware of, that
his was one of the few liberal newspapers around, one of the few
newspapers for Mrs. Douglas. Then he sold it before the election,
which meant that she lost that support.
Lindsley: It was a little while before the election that he sold it, and
it was sold to the San Diego Union-Tribune; it was merged with
the Evening Tribune. No, he didn't sell it to them, he sold it
to a Mr. John Kennedy and Kennedy later sold to the Evening Tri
bune some few years later. I'm confused as to time, and I don't
know when McKinnon did sell to Kennedy and when Kennedy sold to
the Tribune.
It must have already been sold in '50 because there were
three reporters with the Journal who organized a little news
magazine called Point. They were Lionel Van Deerlin, who later
became a congressman Sid Fleishman, who became an author and
screenwriter in Hollywood, and Jack Olson, who later became a
senior editor of Sports Illustrated and an author. If I went
back in my records, I probably could find when that was because
I was their attorney. But Point had organized during the Helen
Douglas campaign, because there's something in some of our
138
Lindsley: minutes about Van Deerlin meeting with the committee and discuss
ing Point and what it might do in the campaign.
Glaser: Mrs. Lustig's feeling was that Mr. McKinnon could have held off
the sale a little bit longer and continued to support Mrs. Doug
las during the campaign. She felt it was like a stab in the back.
Lindsley: It would be pure speculation. I don't remember now about the
details on that. There may have been politics, but it was also
a good economic deal for McKinnon.
General Election Campaign
Issues and Red-Baiting
Glaser: What were the issues in San Diego for the general election cam
paign? What was the involvement with land reclamation and with
off shore oil lands?
Lindsley: Well, not too much in that area. I can't remember now what the
major issues were. This was some of Helen's campaign literature.
[Holds up material] One particular local issue for California
was the Central Valley Project. Helen opposed proposed cuts in
the appropriation for reclamation and public power. Downey was
waffling and it appeared he had been gotten to and had taken a
full turn. Nixon opposed the projects. That was a big local
issue. I don't remember that we were campaigning on any other
particular local issues.
We were campaigning on Helen's record she'd been a member
of Congress for three terms, 'and she'd been on the Foreign Affairs
Committee and a delegate to the United Nations. She had been
active in attempting to secure international control of atomic
energy, for strengthening the United Nations, liberalization of
the Displaced Persons Bureau, and the Marshall Plan. She was
fighting for higher minimum wages, adequate rent and price con
trols, and better housing both low rent and middle income
generally. This was the substance of Helen's campaign, and I
don't remember that we got into any special local issues.
Of course, before it was over, we were placed in or they
attempted to place her in a defensive posture because of her
voting record, claiming she was a communist sympathizer.
Glaser: Your Imperial Valley would be very concerned with the Central
Valley Water issue and the reclamation provisions.
139
Lindsley: Yes, but we were concerned here too. I remember that it was
involved as an important issue. As a matter of fact, I think
this was one of the big issues that would have may have been
an albatross around Downey's neck. I think Downey had shifted
position from where he had once been as a liberal Democrat to
where now he was speaking in terms more sympathetic to the larger
landholders. That was involved in the campaign when we thought
it would be Downey and was also an issue with Nixon who, as one
might expect, was lined up with the large landholders.
Glaser: When, in the campaign, did you become aware that Nixon was going
to use the red-baiting tactics that he did?
Lindsley: Well, I suppose everybody who knew about Jerry Voorhis' campaign
would suspect that it would happen any time, and I can't say
when. I'm sure we suspected that this would be used, not in the
manner and to the extent that it was, to the extent that nothing
else was an issue from Nixon's vantage point as her opponent.
Nothing else was an issue to him. He didn't get involved in
anything else except that this woman was a red; you couldn't
take a chance. So that was the whole issue. I don't know when
it started, except, as far as I'm concerned, that was his campaign
from beginning to end.
Glaser: Were you able to counter this in any way?
Lindsley: I think Helen's theory was, "Don't glorify it by talking about it
so much." We should continue to talk (and this was our position
too) positively about the things that were strong in her record,
the things that were really important; not the red scare, which
was a red herring, but the things that were truly important in
her campaign, some of the things I just mentioned a while ago.
Among the things that she was making much about were the
problems the consumer was having with high prices, inflation,
et cetera. The back of that [holds up campaign flyerj shows Helen
going on to the floor of the Congress carrying the market basket.
And the famous "Cost of Living" speech; that was a big issue in
the campaign. She was fighting for consumers. We didn't use the
terms then as we do now she was fighting for the housewife.
Glaser: Did the Blue Book that she compiled help in combatting Nixon's
red-baiting?*
* "Helen Gahagan Douglas vs Richard Nixon; Here is FULL Record of
Their Votes in Congress"
140
Lindsley: I don't remember the Blue Book, and I don't have it now.
Glaser: There was a statement in the New Republic that too often she was
talking to those who were already for her and she couldn't reach
those who were on the other side. Do you agree with that?
Lindsley: Well, we didn't run that kind of a campaign here. We didn't go
to meetings, for instance, which were meetings of Helen Douglas's
supporters. We'd set up a community meeting and hold it on a
street corner. Now you didn't pick your audience when you did
that. You took whatever the community had.
Glaser: Yes, but were those who came to the meetings those who were
already convinced?
Lindsley: I don't think that's necessarily true. I remember one night we
hit several places I'll never forget this night either one of
them was the Business and Professional Women's Club. We met out
at Rose Hedge Manor in La Mesa. It was a cross section of busi
ness and professional women of San Diego. Now, maybe she was
speaking to women and therefore you'd say she was speaking to a
group that would be friendly to her, but not necessarily. Women
have never been that cohesive in the political sense. So there
were a lot of people at that meeting who were not for Helen, or
who were not in her party in any event, but who were impressed
by her; there's no question about it.
The reason I remember that is we went from there I think
the next meeting was a meeting with a labor union.* And if you
think labor unions are automatically for liberal Democrats,
you're mistaken, and anybody who thinks that or who thought that
then was mistaken. I was a liberal Democrat and I was an anathema
to a lot of them in the labor movement because I was too liberal
for them. They were not that liberal. So when she's speaking
to them she's speaking to a lot of people who were frightened by
the red scare, who needed to be talked to by Helen, although
you'd think they would be in her camp.
Between the Business and Professional Women's meeting and
the next meeting, Helen borrowed my handkerchief to take her
lipstick off and reapply her makeup to prepare for her next stop.
That handkerchief ended up in my glove compartment and sometime
later my wife found it in there. [Laughter] To this day I'm
not sure my wife believes that was Helen Douglas's lipstick
on that handkerchief. But it was. [Chuckling] I remember that
event very well.
*Judge Lindsley later stated that the meeting referred to was
that of the Tolteca Association, a Spanish-American group. The
labor union meeting was the next day.
141
Nixon Support from Women, Catholic Hierarchy
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
About your statement of not being so sure that women were for
her just because they were women, I came across an indication
that you're quite right. Kathleen Norris was against her and a
woman from Los Angeles, Catherine Connors Goetz who had been a
three-time Democratic National Commit teewoman from Kentucky.
They were very strongly opposed to her. Also, Nixon had a
"flying squadron" of women supporters in Los Angeles , and I
wondered if he had a similar organization in this area?
I don't remember about it if he did.
about that?
Did you ask Helen Lustig
Yes, she was not aware of any such organization.
No, I don't remember it.
I want to ask you about Catholic opposition. The church hierarchy
in Los Angeles came out strongly against Helen Gahagan Douglas.
Was that also true here in San Diego?
I don't remember about that either. I don't know whether there's
anything in any of the material I have that deals with that.
[Looks through his papers].
What about black opposition? There was a paper in Los Angeles,
The Sentinel, that came out pro-Nixon. And yet Mary McLeod
Bethune came out and spoke in a black church for
Oh yes, Mary McLeod Bethune came out here, during the campaign,
I remember that now.
I don't remember any black opposition of any significance
in San Diego, and we did have black people on her campaign com
mittee. I remember Mrs. Bebe Banks particularly. She was one of
the main members of her committee. Mrs. Banks was very active
in the black community, and I was very active in the black commu
nity. At that time I was an officer, I think vice-president, of
the NAACP. I think I would have remembered any significant black
opposition to Helen Douglas, and I don't remember any.
There were some who in the primary were supporting Boddy.
I can remember one black lady who was sort of a token for the
white Democratic establishment, so to speak. She was one of the
first black women to go to the national convention. I think she
was in Boddy' s campaign during the primary, but not for Nixon.
She was all for Helen afterwards.
142
Smear Techniques and Attempts to Counteract
Glaser: There was a statement in an article that appeared in The Southern
California Quarterly this year: "It was not red-baiting per se
which defeated Mrs. Douglas so much as it was the ineffective
strategy used to counter Nixon's unscrupulous demagoguery."*
Lindsley: Well, that is a ridiculous statement because there's no way you
can develop effective strategy to overcome that kind of dema
goguery. It went on through that campaign, it went on before
that, it went on in the presidential campaign when he was running
with Eisenhower, it went on all the time he was in the United
States Senate. It went on and it was overcome when he ran against
Kennedy, but not for that reason. Kennedy was too attractive a
personality, but he only barely beat him. And Nixon continued it
he came back again in '68. He's been a demagogue all his life
with great success politically and economically.
I can remember talking about this with Helen while going
from meeting to meeting. There's no way you can deal with that
because you let yourself get mired down in denials of what he's
saying, so that you magnify the very thing that he's saying by
denying it. There's no way you can overcome demagoguery of the
Nixon variety because people tend to be frightened by it and fall
prey to it. And they're doing it right now in this campaign, in
this election year [1976]. The people are going to succumb to
demagoguery from clever demagogues.
Glaser: So you were all buffaloed and were unable to really
Lindsley: We weren't buffaloed. We conducted, I think, the only kind of
campaign you can conduct , and that is not to be drawn into it .
We didn't succeed, but you couldn't have succeeded by spending
your time denying it either. At least you might have made a point,
Glaser: But if you don't win, then obviously the message has not gotten
across to the rank and file voters .
Lindsley: The message didn't get across, that's right, but the electorate
can be frightened more easily than it can be comforted. It'll
buy fear more quickly than it'll buy intelligence, really.
That's why people like Nixon could succeed. That's why people
like McCarthy could succeed.
* Ingrid Winther Scobie, "Helen Gahagan Douglas and Her 1950
Senate Race with Richard Nixon" , Southern California Quarterly,
Spring 1976, pp. 113-123.
143
Lindsley: Look at the people who succumbed to McCarthy. You knew from the
beginning that he was a blustering idiot who was going around the
country lying through his teeth. The pure demagogue, and people
were frightened by him and they succumbed to it pure fright.
Fear is one of the worst things there is to overcome, and you can't,
My favorite quote, there it is right up there, [pointing to
the wall] Goethe: "There is nothing more frightful than ignorance
in action." And that's what happens when you have people like
Nixon and McCarthy ignorance in action and stimulating fear in
others who respond to it. They're afraid to disbelieve it. Or
they're afraid of what may happen to them if they speak out.
Glaser: Well, not even Jack Kennedy was willing to disavow McCarthy.
Lindsley: Jack Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy what the heck, he was actually
working for them, that's right.
Glaser: He was a counsel.
Lindsley: That's why I never really warmed up to the Kennedys. I never ,
never warmed up to the Kennedys. Of course, it was loyalty, in
a sense, to Stevenson; it was pretty hard for me to compare any
body to Stevenson as a presidential candidate.
Glaser: Did Nixon ever answer Mrs. Douglas's charge that he voted against
military aid to Korea before the war broke out?
Lindsley: I don't know now. I don't remember.
Glaser: Of the various techniques that we've heard of on the part of
Nixon, one was a telephone campaign at the very last minute
perhaps the evening prior to the election. About 500,000 phone
calls were made in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas charging
Mrs. Douglas with being a communist. Were you aware of this?
Lindsley: Yes.
Glaser: Did friends of yours or your family receive this kind of a call?
Lindsley: No, nobody that I knew received it, but we knew that it happened.
Not as much here perhaps as other areas. And we knew that it
was going to happen. Now that's nothing you could stop.
Glaser: You knew ahead of time?
Lindsley: We knew it was going to happen because some of us knew what
happened with Jerry Voorhis. That's where he started the tech
nique. That was the thing that was so frustrating. Here was
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Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Jerry Voorhis, a popular congressman who should have won hands
down, and at the last minute the phone calls saying that he was
a communist, he was a fellow traveler. No way you could answer
it, no way you could respond to it. And it happens at the last
minute so there's no way you could overcome it. The people are
frightened, and that's what defeated Jerry Voorhis the last
minute telephone smear.
I didn't realize that had taken place. I thought this was some
thing that Chotiner had introduced for the 1950 campaign.
Well Chotiner, I think, had something to do with the Jerry Voorhis
campaign. He did not introduce it in the Helen Douglas campaign.
That antedated Helen's campaign; that came first in the Jerry
Voorhis campaign.
Well, Chotiner made a statement, when he held a workshop to edu
cate Republicans on how to win campaigns, that Mrs. Douglas
made the mistake of attacking Nixon's strength instead of attack
ing his weaknesses.
What strength was that?
Well, I assume the strength in campaigning.
I don't know. We can't measure him as a campaigner that you'd
know how to attack. Somebody that's unprincipled, you can't
predict precisely what unprincipled thing they're going to do.
If it's somebody that's campaigning on issues, then you can anti
cipate, then you can be prepared to answer it. You know: well,
this is his philosophical makeup and this is what he's likely to
say and we can respond to that.
But if truth means nothing, if principle means nothing, that
means he can do anything. He can lie, he can cook up all sorts
of things, and there's no way you know in advance what it's going
to be, so you can't prepare for it. And since it's not true, you
can't respond to it because you can't deny a lie and make it
sound like you're telling the truth yourself.
Does the name Bill Malone mean anything to you?
Northern California.
-\
Well, yes, but I can't place where it is now.
familiar.
He was in
The name's
He had something to do with controlling campaign funds.
For whom?
145
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
For all the Democratic candidates.
you might have gotten money
I wondered to what extent
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Any correspondence we had about money went up to the committee
in Los Angeles.
Were you placed in the position of having to explain to people
that yes, Mrs. Douglas was a Democrat, to people who might have
been confused because there was a pamphlet that came out, "Is
Helen Douglas a Democrat? Her Record Says No"?
Oh, I remember that vaguely, but I don't remember any details
about it. I couldn't tell you how I reacted to it because I
don't remember it that well.
There was another Chotiner pamphlet, "One Democrat to Another."
Was that an effective campaign tool on Nixon's behalf?
Well, their whole campaign was effective, unfortunately. I know
some people in San Diego who participated as Democrats for Nixon,
for instance. They had that kind of campaign going on then.
One of them was, I remember, an attorney who later became a
superior court judge. He was a Democrat and was very high in the
Catholic hierarchy, so that may
What was his name?
William Mahedy. I remember that because I had officed with him.
My first law office was with Martin & Mahedy when I started prac
ticing law in San Diego. I wasn't with them during the Helen
Douglas campaign; I'd moved into another office by that time.
But I remember that he was active in the Democrats for Nixon.
Now, he was a Democrat. That firm was legal counsel for the
diocese here in San Diego, and when they took a stand it had some
significance in the Catholic Church.
Did that sort of thing hurt a lot?
Oh, those things always hurt, sure. Whenever you can convince
people that this person is really not a good member of your party,
and if you're a party person, it can hurt, sure.
Helen Gahagan Douglas's Relationships with Other Politicians
Glaser: Something else that perhaps weakened the campaign was that Mrs.
Douglas was not wholeheartedly for Jimmy Roosevelt, was she?
146
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
I don ' t think she was .
The party is supposed to have a united front
There was friction. We had problems in our campaign with fric
tion between the Roosevelt campaign and the Douglas campaign.
We would try to schedule things together; we did have some prob
lems. There wasn't that much warmth, I agree. I remember that.
Wasn't it a little stronger than that?
preferred Warren?
Wasn't it that she really
I don't know. I never talked to Helen about it, so I don't know.
In retrospect, so would I, you know. But I was loyal to the
ticket, so I was for Jimmy Roosevelt, and I really didn't know
Warren that much then.
[end tape 1, side B; begin tape 2, side A]
I would say that Warren turned out to be something different than
I thought he was when he was attorney general and governor of
this state. I'm not the only one who was surprised; Eisenhower
was terribly surprised at what Warren turned out to be. Warren
turned out to be one of my heroes of all time.
Why do you imagine that President Eisenhower appointed him to
the court?
It was probably a political pay-off, I don't know, because Warren
was potential presidential opposition for Eisenhower. Warren had
been on the ticket with Dewey earlier, and he was somebody that
might have gone back to the convention with some clout . I think
Warren helped swing a bloc of votes from Taft to Eisenhower that
caused Eisenhower's nomination, and as reward, I suppose, that
was what he got. Eisenhower didn't know what he was getting.
I've heard that Mrs. Douglas was almost more in favor of Eisen
hower for president than Truman. Did you know anything about
that?
No, I don't know that about Mrs. Douglas, but I know that a lot
of people thought Eisenhower was a lot more liberal than he
really was. That incident in the Young Democrats I was mention
ing, in which we sent a telegram off to the convention suggesting
the election of somebody else in the tradition of Roosevelt, I
think one of the names on the telegram was Eisenhower. So there
was a lot of liberal support for Eisenhower in the 1948 campaign.
A lot of liberals were trying to get Eisenhower to run as a
Democrat in 1948. If I can find this news article, [looking
through files] here we are. It says, "John Dail resigned in
147
Lindsley:
Glaser :
Lindsley:
bitter protest as president " because of a meeting in which we
were attempting to give Truman the political heave-ho. The meet
ing was held at my house, [chuckling] so I was the butt of the
attack. It was presided over by me as second vice-president.
"He (John Bail) says, ' ..reveals that there are many left who
are attempting to wreck the Democratic party, whether the action
resulting from that meeting was directed by enemies of the Demo
cratic cause or the result of political immaturity is not for me
to decide.'" This is John Dail, the president.
Here's what we did: "The May llth meeting proposed that
Supreme Court Justice William 0. Douglas; General Dwight D.
Eisenhower, now president of Columbia University; Ellis Arnold,
former governor of Georgia; and James Roosevelt, chairman of the
Democratic State Central Committee, be the panel from which the
presidential and vice-presidential selections be made by the
Democrats." We sent the telegram off, or we adopted that resolu
tion (it wasn't a telegram), and that really caused a furor, oh
boy. So, I'm not surprised that Helen may have felt that way.
I'm interested in knowing that because that's the way we felt in
'48. We were earlier.
I understand that she was not much in favor of Mr. Truman.
I wasn't. I had been in Washington at the time, as she was. I
was with the Library of Congress and knew the government. I was
active as personnel director of the Library of Congress, I was on
the Council of Personnel Administration, which was the council of
all the personnel directors of all the federal agencies, and I
was the Employee Relations Committee chairman of the Council. We
were in the process of working out an employee relations program
for the whole federal government, and we met in the White House
with Truman's representative. I've forgotten who it was the
man later became the director of Internal Revenue.
You could just see people like MacLeish and all these intel
lectuals moving out of the government and the political hacks
moving in; the political hacks came from all over. Truman was a
great admirer of his friends and he brought them in. I'm sure
that this was the kind of thing that Helen Douglas also observed.
Truman didn't stimulate many of us. And some of us never forgave
him for dropping the bombs.
Campaign Advisors and Workers
Glaser: Who did Mrs. Douglas lean on for advice in this area or within
the whole state?
148
Lindsley: Well, within the whole state, I don't know. In this area, I
suppose it was not any one person, but I suppose it was the
committee that was set up. And the principal people on that
committee were Helen Lustig, myself, Grace Ritoff, Blessing
Muehling, and Armistead Carter.
I don't think she leaned on anybody in this community for
advice, frankly. I can't say she leaned on me, and I don't
think she leaned on Helen Lustig. Here she just leaned on us
generally to run the campaign as we saw best. Throughout the
state I don't know. Whenever we needed anything, we looked to
Ruth Lybeck in Los Angeles.
Glaser: Who was Harold Tipton?
Lindsley: Doesn't ring any bells to me.
Glaser: Did she have a Southern California campaign manager?
Lindsley: Well, I got a copy of the letterhead here and it gives the names
of the [looking through his papers] Ruth Lybeck was the assistant
state coordinator. Let me see if I can find the early correspon
dence, it has some of the names on it.
I don't know who she relied upon. No way I can answer that
question. Here's somebody who was a friend of hers and was
vice-chairman of the women's division of the Democratic State
Central Committee, Leisa Bronson. Leisa played some role in the
Douglas campaign; I don't know precisely what. But she was at
that time vice-chairman of the women's division of the state
central committee.
I knew Leisa Bronson back in Washington because she worked
at the Library of Congress while I was its director of personnel.
I was surprised when I got out here and got active in the campaign
and found out that she was working in Helen's campaign.
Glaser: Does the name Susie Clifton ring a bell?
Lindsley: That name is familiar. [Looking through papers] All I can say
is yes, I remember that name, but I can't remember any more than
that. She was active in the Democratic party.
Glaser: Did Mrs. Douglas's husband play a role in her campaign?
Lindsley: Not very much, not in this area at any event. I can't say what
role he played elsewhere in the state. He never came down here.
Melvyn never campaigned in this area. I have never met Melvyn
Douglas in all the time I've known Helen. And if he'd been in
town working on the campaign, I would have known about it.
149
Lindsley: Here are the names on her letterhead. This is apparently
her committee for the whole state because it gives both the San
Francisco and the Los Angeles addresses. [Reading] "Sponsors
Committee Co-Chairmen." North was Dr. Monroe Deutsch and South
was Thomas Ford and Irene Heineman. State coordinator was Harold
Tipton, and the assistant state coordinator was Ruth Lybeck. I
did all my dealing with Ruth Lybeck out of Los Angeles. The
women's division in the South: Lillian Ford, chairman, and Glad
Hall Jones, vice-chairman. Treasurer, Alvin P. Myers in Los
Angeles. Anyway, you'll have a photocopy of this stuff.
Glaser: Some big guns came out from Washington to speak on behalf of
Mrs, Douglas. I wondered how helpful they were or did they betray
her weakness that she was in need of this kind of support. There
were people like Averell Harriman, Alben Barkley, Eleanor Roose
velt, Maurice Tobin, Howard McGrath.
Lindsley: I don't think that would be looked upon as a betrayal of her
weakness. I don't remember any of them coming to San Diego. I
wouldn't react to it that way; that wouldn't be my evaluation of
their coming out. It's part of the political process and it
happens all the time that the big guns come out, like they're
coming out now and traveling all around. Like Jerry Brown is
making sure that he's seen with Jimmy Carter. And wherever you
go, the big names come out. No, I don't think that's a problem.
If somebody analyzed it that way, that's their analysis, not mine.
Glaser: Your mention of Brown reminds me of something I wanted to ask you:
I hadn't been aware until Mrs. Lustig told me that Pat Brown was
a big disappointment in that he did not come out strongly for
Mrs. Douglas. He was so intent on his own career that he gave
the impression that she could possibly be a liability. Is that
overstating it?
Lindsley: Probably not. Pat Brown said things when he made speeches and he
said things when he was in office that seemed to often belie the
people he kept around him and those he "slept with" in the poli
tical bed. In other words, he sounded much more liberal and
idealistic than the kind of people from whom he took advice when
he ran his campaigns.
Those of us who were on the more liberal side were not active
ly brought in to his campaigns in the local area I don't know
about the rest of the state. I was active in his campaigns, but
only in a sort of a peripheral way because in this community you
couldn't have left me out. I was too much of a political name
to be left out. But I was never that active in Pat Brown's cam
paigns, in the sense that I was never asked to be that active.
150
Lindsley: I think that's true of others like Helen Lustig and many of the
others those of us who were probably more liberal than the rank
and file of the political leaders could tolerate.
Glaser: Did you have a feeling that he was possibly sabotaging
Mrs. Douglas's campaign?
Lindsley: I can't say that I had that feeling, no. You're always sabotaging
when you give too little too late. I suppose the only political
way you could sabotage is do much less than you ought to.
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Glaser:
Lindsley:
I think that's the sense of what Mrs. Lustig said to me. She
felt that perhaps sabotage was too strong a word and modified her
statement. But it was obvious that she had wanted more support.
Yes, that's right. She should have had more support than she got
from the usual Democratic establishment. We had reluctant support
from labor, which, in this community, had lined up behind Manches
ter Boddy. We had reluctant support from them after the primary.
We got some support from most of them; they couldn't really, on
the face of it, turn anywhere else. But it was sort of tongue-
in-cheek, by and large.
Does the name George Luckey mean anything?
Yes, it does, not so much in this campaign but earlier.
I gather that there was a possibility that he might have run for
governor instead of Jimmy Roosevelt in 1950.
I think Luckey was considering it. I don't remember what happen
ed. I remember Luckey from the 1948 campaign, the Truman-Barkley
campaign. He was a Truman-Barkley coordinator of Southern Cali
fornia, in any event. I just happened to see something here in
one of my files with a picture of George Luckey in it.
You're an archivist's dream with all your files.
One thing I can't find and I'm sorry I made a talk that was pub
lished in the little Democrat about Helen Douglas. What did I
call it? -I can't remember. Anyway, I'm trying to find that be
cause that ought to be in the hopper, but I can't find it.
Yes, I probably am an archivist's dream, but I keep saying,
"These, I'm going to use someday." That's why I've decided I
can't let the originals out of my possession.
Glaser:
I wanted to ask you about some Republican names,
is going to raise your temperature a little bit.
I'm sure this
151
Lindsley: Oh no, I don't
Glaser: Arnholt Smith and his brother Jack? Arbuthnot?
Lindsley: Arbuthnot doesn't mean a thing to me. C. Arnholt Smith does, but
the other name doesn't mean a thing to me. I got along okay with
Republicans.
Glaser: The Smiths were heavy backers of Nixon, were they not?
Lindsley: Oh yes, you bet. We didn't know that much about C. Arnholt
Smith back then, however. He was more in the background. He
didn't make his splash in the community until later.
Campaign Conduct in Hindsight
Glaser: I wanted to ask you (you know hindsight is always helpful) if
you had to do it over, in what way would you handle the campaign
differently?
Lindsley: You see, there's no way you can know that, because if I did it
over now, I'm a totally different person than I was then. I
have a lot of years behind me, I've been involved in other cam
paigns, I've chaired other campaigns. I was Stanley Mosk's
campaign chairman here when he ran for attorney general. He was
the only Democratic candidate that carried San Diego County in
that campaign. That was in 1958, when Brown was elected governor
and Glenn Anderson was elected lieutenant governor and Alan
Cranston was elected state controller and Glair Engle was elect
ed Senator.
That was the big year for the Democrats in California because
that was the first state-wide election after cross-filing had
been eliminated. And the whole ticket went in state-wide, except
for Secretary of State Jordan, an old-line family that had a sort
of a corner on the Secretary of State's office from the turn of
the century, I guess; Jordan was reelected. And in that campaign,
of all those, the only one that carried San Diego County was
Stanley Mosk.
I don't know what I would do different except perhaps now
you wouldn't have to deal with Nixon the same way. He's different
too, now. People would be a little more accepting of Helen
Douglas as a woman candidate. Let's face it: that was a negative
factor. She lost more votes than she gained by being a woman.
I said earlier that I couldn't put my finger on any direct prob-
152
Lindsley: lems that we had in the campaign because of that amongst women.
But the whole culture was different then, and it was not as
accepting of a woman. It was difficult for them to accept that
a woman could be a strong leader (as strong intellectually as
she was) and someone who could do the things that she had proved
she could do. They would accept that more now and so you could
deal better with that. You could probably get more support from
women now than you could then.
You wouldn't have to worry so much now about the red-baiting.
But if we hadn't gone through the McCarthy era and the Nixon era,
if we were starting out scratch again and it was again right after
the war, I don't know that we'd be able to handle it any different
ly. You can't say what would you do differently. I don't think
I'd do anything differently. I think we ran a good campaign lo
cally by just going our way. We won handily in the primary in
this district, which was something because Boddy was more of a
conservative, and this is a conservative community.
Glaser: And not even having more money would have helped you?
Lindsley: Oh sure, more money would help, but I don't know whether we could
have organized ourselves to get more money than we did; perhaps.
I don't think lack of money defeated us. Fear defeated us, fear.
And the more we would have said about it, the more likely it
would have been that we'd have magnified the fear.
The more Jimmy Carter talks, the more apprehensive people
get about him. If he had gone quietly through this campaign,
he'd be elected in a landslide. But he''s tried to respond to
the things that they said against him; made a few gaffes himself.
And it hasn't helped, because people are afraid of change.
They're afraid of that which they don't know.
Glaser: Are you willing to make a prediction this election eve?
Lindsley: Well, the way things are going, the trend of things it's pretty
hard to predict with somebody this new. I don't know how you
can. If the poll trends are really what they seem to be, I don't
see how it's going to stop when it gets fifty-fifty then turn
around and go back the other way. So I'm apprehensive.
If Carter wins it's going to be because he does very well
in the South. He's going to have to do very well in the South.
The South may carry him through, if the South realizes that they
ought to go solidly for Carter. Because if they don't do it now,
it's going to be a long time before another southerner can come
down the pike and get nominated.
153
Harry S. Truman, Richard M.Nixon and
Glaser:
Lindsley:
Cold War Demagoguery:
Joseph McCarthy
Glaser: Well, this raises a philosophical question, to go back to '50 and
Nixon: Did the time (the era) make Nixon or did Nixon make the
time?
Lindsley: That's a good question. The time, of course, helped make Nixon
because we were fearful of the Russians right after the war.
The time was ripe for an unprincipled demagogue to step in, and
one did. That was Nixon. If he hadn't, there probably was
another one waiting in the wings. I don't know; it's hard to
conceive of another one like him, but another one may have been
there. I don't think it would have been as bad. If there were
others like him, I think we would have seen some others some
place else in the country.
Well, we did later on with McCarthy.
Well, yes, McCarthy came later. Yes he did. But there weren't
that many. There were a lot of them that fell in line with
McCarthy and with Nixon, but you're hard put to name others that
spearheaded it the way they did.
Glaser: Now, I have another question to ask you; this is speculation.
To what degree did Mr. Truman create these times? According to
author Howard Fast, his was the very first demand for loyalty
oaths.
Lindsley: He had a tremendous affect on creating the times by the cold war
approach, which was his baby. This was one of the reasons those
of us in the Young Democrats at that time wanted to get rid of
him. We felt the climate he was creating was bad, was unrealis
tic and was frightening, as a matter of fact.
Truman will fare well in history, perhaps, 'as a president
who was decisive and made decisions, and so forth. But he's not
going to fare well in everybody's analysis of history. And he
wouldn't fare well in mine, because I think Truman created many
of the problems that later made it necessary for him to act in
the way he did and to do the things he did. Korea was one of
them.
I think the whole approach after World War II would have
been different with Roosevelt. I've said many times if Roosevelt
had survived, the post-war era would have been totally different.
There would not have been this fearful withdrawing that took place.
I think we would have had a more trusting exchange with other
countries, including Russia, because I think Roosevelt had a good
154
Lindsley: rapport It doesn't mean you have to recognize and agree with
Stalin in order to have a better relationship between the two
countries and the peoples of the two countries.
But Truman made it hard. Truman frightened the people, and
he helped create the climate in which Nixon and McCarthy were
able to step, that's right. I don't think they could have become
what they became if Roosevelt had not died and Truman became
president.
Glaser: I don't know if one senator out of forty-eight can do much, but
perhaps Mrs. Douglas could have helped to turn this tide.
Lindsley: Yes, she would have been a great person to have back there in the
Senate during this period, no question about it. The fear was
already rampant. And you're right, those who say that about
Truman I think are correct his cold war approach was devastating,
and we've suffered for it ever since.
Political and Community Activities after 1950
[end tape 2, side A; begin tape 2, side B]
Glaser: What did you do, politically, after the 1950 campaign?
Lindsley: I did sort of withdraw from political activity after that campaign.
I never went back onto the Democratic Central Committee and didn't
get active in anything else until 1956, I mean in terms of cam
paigns. I was in clubs I was in the Democratic Professional
Club and some of the other Democratic Clubs. But in 1956 I was
chairman of Richard Richards' Senate campaign. He was running for
the United States Senate against Tom Kuchel, and I was co-chairman
here in San Diego in 1956.
In 1957 and '58 I was president of the San Diego County
Council of Democratic Clubs. Are you familiar with the Council
of Clubs movement in California, the CDC? Okay, for two years
I was chairman of the San Diego CDC, in '57 and '58. And '58
was the year of the big sweep; I was at that convention. Actually
I was nominated by the San Diego delegation for lieutenant gover
nor, but I declined in favor of Glenn Anderson, whom they elected.
Glaser: Have you ever gone to national conventions?
Lindsley: I've never gone to a national convention, no, never have; I've
never tried. By and large, I've just been on the periphery of
the established party organization. While I was chairman of the
155
Lindsley: Democratic Central Committee, (real young, real early) it was
because I was the nominee of a faction of the party that wanted
to get rid of the old wing, you know, and we happened to have
enough votes. After I resigned, however, it fell back into the
hands of the more conservative wing of the party and it remained
that way for many years. Then I was on the executive committee
for Adlai Stevenson's campaign in San Diego in '56. Well, I
won't go over all this on Van Deerlin's committee and Pat Brown's
committee and chairman of Stanley Mosk's campaign for California
attorney general in 1958. I went on the bench in 1960, so I've
been out of politics for the last sixteen years.
Glaser: Who appointed you in 1960?
Lindsley: Pat Brown. I've been out of politics essentially since that time,
but I've not been out of I have participated in some things in
the community where I think it was important. I've been active
all along in minority community activities. I was on the Urban
League I'm on the Urban League board now. I've been a member
of the Urban League board (that's what these two plaques are) for
at least ten years or more. I was president for a couple of years,
I think 1967 and 1968.
Glaser: What are the other two plaques on the wall?
Lindsley: These two are Urban League. This top one was the Phi Delta Kappa
Lay Citizens Award for San Diego County in 1966, presented to me,
"In recognition of his effort and support toward improving our
American system of free public schools."
Then this one here was an award in 1975 by the California
Trial Lawyers Association. "Hereby bestows their award for trial
judge of the year, 1975, for California." So, I was selected in
1975 by the California Trial Lawyers' Association as the Califor
nia Trial Judge of the year.
Glaser: And what is your involvement with the school desegregation case?
Lindsley: In 1965 the Board of Education appointed a committee, a Citizens
Committee on Equal Educational Opportunities, to make an analysis
of the school system in San Diego to determine what the status
of racial imbalance may be, whether the schools are segregated
and to what extent, and whether or not that has an effect upon
the equal educational opportunities of the children of the school
district.
156
Lindsley: This committee functioned from October of '65 until we made our
report* in August of '66. That report said the school system
was indeed seriously unbalanced. We made recommendations as to
what the school system ought to do about it, saying that if they
didn't do it, undoubtedly they would be faced with legal action
sooner or later. They didn't really do anything, and a lawsuit was
finally filed based upon the report of this citizens committee,
which is cited (you know, like the Kerner Commission) as the
Lindsley Committee. They refer to the report as the Lindsley
Report.
Anyway, that lawsuit is finally coming to trial; the law
suit was filed in '69 or thereabouts. No, it was filed even
before that, and it's finally coming to trial Wednesday of this
week. They took my deposition on Friday afternoon and I'll be
called, as the chairman of the committee, to testify as a witness.
Here's a copy of my statement to the board.
Glaser: You do this as a concerned citizen, not as a Superior Court judge?
Lindsley: That's right.
Glaser: Fine, that gives me background to your current activities.
Lindsley: I'm still on the Urban League Board of Directors and active in
that. That's what this represents here [indicates pin on lapel]
that's an Urban League To Be Equal sign. [Phone rings]
Transcriper:
Final Typist:
Pat Raymond
Ann Enkoji
*A copy of the August 10, 1966 report from the Citizens Committee
on Equal Educational Opportunities to the Board of Education,
San Diego Unified School District has been placed in The Bancroft
Library together with a copy of this interview. Also placed in
the library is a copy of ''Remarks to Board of Education, Delivered
by Judge Byron F. Lindsley, August 10, 1966."
157
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
JUDGE BYRON F. LINDSLEY
Volume 1, Chapter VI
January 1, 1975
BORN:
ADDRESS:
FAMILY STATUS
Sorona, Wisconsin
April 28, 1915
7268 Carrizo Drive
La Jolla, California 92037
Wife - Estelle M.
Children - Byron F., Jr.
Palmer E. (deceased)
Philip P.
A. EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE;
I High School:
II
III
Imperial, California, 1929-1931. President
of Student Body; (elected as sophomore to
serve in junior year) President of Freshman
and Sophomore Classes.
Grossmont, San Diego County. Graduated in
1933. Debating Team; Dramatics; Lettered in
Basketball and Track; President of Glee Club
and President of Hi-Y. Runner-up for Citizen
ship Award.
College :
San Diego State College, 1933-1937. A.B. Eco
nomics Major, Political Science Minor. Presi
dent of Student Body. President of Junior
Class. Member of Student Council. Member of
Blue Key National Honorary Service Fraternity.
Alpha Tau Omega (Social Fraternity) , Tau Sigma
(Economic Fraternity) . Lettered in Basketball
3 years. All-Conference 2 years. Glee Club.
Letterman's Club.
Graduate School:
American University Graduate School, Washington,
DTc~r7~T9T7 r T9 3 8 . N.YlA. Scholarship. Completed
graduate work (except thesis) towards Masters
Degree in Public Administration and Social Eco
nomics with honors.
-1-
158
IV Law School:
Georgetown Law School/ Washington, D.C.,
1941-1944 , Doctor Juris. Winner of Father
Lucey Medal for highest scholastic average
in graduating class. First in class each
year. Georgetown Law Journal: Associate
Editor, Book Review Editor, Note Editor.
V Legal Experience;
Admitted to practice in California, District
of Columbia, and before the U. S.
Supreme Court.
1945-1960: Private practice of law in
California;
1945-1947 in Los Angeles;
1947-1960 in San Diego.
VI Teaching Experience:
1946-1947: Professor of Agency, Loyola Law
School, Los Angeles, California.
1947-1953) Instructor in Business Law, San
1963-1968) Diego State University.
1962-1963: Professor of Law (California Pro
cedure) California Western Uni
versity School of Law.
VII Judicial Experience:
1960 to Judge of the Superior Court, State
Present: of California, San Diego County."
Have served on Juvenile Court,
Family Court, Psychiatric Court.
Handle general trial court for
civil and criminal cases for most
of 15 years on the bench. Presid-
ing Judge of the Conciliation Court
-2-
159
VIII Other Employment;
1943-1945: Director of Personnel, Library
of Congress, Washington, D-C.
(Under Archibald MacLeish, Librarian of .G
1942-1943: Assistant Director of Personnel/
Library of Congress, Wash ngton,
D.C.
'
1941-1942: Personnel Officer, Division of
Special Information, Library of
Congress. (This division later
became part of OSS.)
1938-1941: Case worker and Case Supervisor,
California State Relief Adminis
tration.
B. PROFESSIONAL BOARDS AND AFFILIATIONS: (Past and/or Present;
Present underlined)
Conference of California Judges .
Association of Family Conciliation Courts, (International)
American Judicature Society .
American Bar Association .
American Bar Association - Family Law Section.
Executive Committee: Association of Family Conciliation
Courts (1969 to present) .
President: Association of Family Conciliation Courts.
Conference of California Judges, Seminar Committee.
Conference of Juvenile Court Judges .
California Bar .
San Diego County Bar Association .
Delta Theta Phi Law Fraternity .
American Academy of Political and Social Science.
American Political Science Association.
-3-
160
American Society for Public Administration .
Society for Personnel Administration .
Federal Council of Personnel Administration
Chairman: Committee on Employee Relations
President and Member San Diego County Law
Library Board of Trustees .
President and Member San Diego County Law
Library Justice Foundation .
C. POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS AND ACTIVITIES:
President of Young Democrats in San Diego County
(1948).
Chairman of San Diego County Democratic Central
Committee (1948-1949) (Resigned because of
illness in family) .
Chairman of Helen Douglas for Senate Campaign
in San Diego County (1950) .
Chairman of Richard Richards for Senate Campaign
in San Diego County (1956) .
President of San Diego County Democratic Council
of Clubs (1957-1958 2 years) .
Member of Executive Committee of the Stevenson
Campaign in San Diego (1956).
Member of Executive Board of Democratic Profes
sional Club.
President of Democratic Professional Club
(1955-1956) .
Member of Men's Democratic Club.
Member of Lionel Van Deerlin for Congress Com
mittee (1958).
Member of Pat Brown for Governor Committee,
San Diego (1958).
-4-
161
Co-chairman of Pat Brown Littleman Committee,
San Diego (1958) .
Chairman of Stanley Mosk for Attorney General
Campaign, San Diego County (1958) .
Nominated for Lt. Governor, State of California,
by San Diego Delegation to Fresno Conven
tion of California Council of Democratic
Clubs (1958) . Nomination declined in favor
of Glen Anderson.
D. COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES; (Past and/or Present; Present
underlined)
American Humanist Association.
Center For The Study of Democratic Institutions.
San Diego Urban League (Board of Directors')
(President, 1967-1969).
Chairman: San Diego Convocation Center For The
Study of Democratic Institutions (June 1971)
President of San Diego State College Alumni
Association (1949) .
Chairman of Church Board, Rolando Methodist
Church.
Chairman of Advisory Board of Mental Hygiene
Clinic for San Diego, appointed by Governor
Knight.
Advisory Board, California Industries for the
Blind, San Diego County, appointed by
Governor Knight.
Advisory Board of State College "Y".
Advisory Board, League of Women Voters.
National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, Vice-President and Execu
tive Board Member, San Diego Branch.
American Civil Liberties Union.
Chairman of Advisory Board Day Treatment Center,
appointed by Governor Brown.
-5-
162
San Diego Mental Health Association (Board of
Directors) .
Board of Directors Community Welfare Council.
Family Service Association.
Board: of Directors Legal Aid Society (1969-1970).
Urban Coalition.
Fellowship of Reconciliation.
American Friends Service Committee; worked with
and consulted on matters pertaining to
Southern California Indians and other
matters.
Past President of San Diego County Rose Society.
Chairman of Executive Board of San Diego Floral
Association.
Chairman, Citizens Committee for Equal Educational
Opportunities (1965-1966) Appointed by City
Board of Education) .
Recipient, Lay Citizen's Award, San Diego County,
1966, awarded by Phi Delta Kappa "In recogni
tion of his effort and support toward im
proving our American system of Free public
schools. "
Discussant, University of Chicago, Center for Con
tinuing Education Conference on "Educational
Dimensions of the Model Cities Program,"
May 19-21, 1967.
Witness before Joint Committees on the Judiciary
of California Assembly and Senate, re
California Family Court Act.
Speaker and panel discussant before universities,
schools, student groups, churches, service,
political and professional clubs on subjects
pertaining to law, justice, education, family
relations, race relations and religion.
Annually conduct moot court programs for law schools
in the community.
-6-
163
Member of Dialogue, Citizens Interracial Com
mittee (C.I.C.)
Design for Understanding: Citizens Interracial
Committee, Permanent Panel Member (Panel
would meet with members of the public through
out the community in schools, churches and
other meeting places to explore ways of
achieving better understanding among all
races, religions and ethnic groups in the
community) .
San Diego Open Forum: President and Member of
Board of Directors.
E. PUBLICATIONS:
Georgetown Law Journal (1944) ; student note:
"Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies
in Selective Service Cases."
California Western Law Review (1968, fall) :
"The Family Court -- A Rational, Reason
able and Constructive Revolution in Domes
tic Relations."
Dicta, San Diego County Bar Association monthly
"publication:
"The Litigation Gap"; (June 1968).
"Merit or Mediocrity The Judges
Selection Plan" (July 1968).
Civil Rights Digest, A Quarterly of the U. S. Co'm-
mission on Civil Rights, Washington, D.C.,
spring, 1969:
"The Quality of Law Enforcement."
A critical review. .
U5IU Doctoral Society Journal, June 1969:
"Law -- Justice Morality " .
Conciliation Courts Review, December 1969, publi
cation of the International Conference of
Conciliation Courts:
"We Are Asking Too Much Of Marriage."
Coronado Journal, July 3, 1969: Reprint of Law
Week Speech:
"The American Dream of Justice."
-7-
164
8. Report of the Citizens Committee on Equal
Educational Opportunities to the Board
of Education, San Diego City Schools.
(I participated in editing and writing
of entire report and am sole author of
the Introduction to Findings and of the
Summary to the report.)
Referred to as "The Lindsley 'Report. "
9. San Diego Evening Tribune, December 25, 1974
Tribune Town Hall
"Marriage and The Family."
10. Have written many other things including
speeches on various topics which are
unpublished but available upon request.
(Copies of each of the above are available upon
request. )
-8-
165
DOCUMENTS RECEIVED FROM JUDGE BYRON F. LINDSLEY FOR THE BANCROFT
LIBRARY PERTAINING TO HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS'S 1950 CAMPAIGN FOR
THE U.S. SENATE
(All are copies of the original material which have been retained
by Judge Lindsley.)
"Representative Nixon's Voting Record.
"Congressional Record" 81st Congress, Second Session, Extension of
Remarks of Hon. Helen Gahagan Douglas.
"100 Things You Should Know About Communism in the U.S.A." prepared and
released by the Committee on Un-American Activities, U.S. House of
Representatives .
Statement of Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglas on Mundt-Nixon Bill.
"A B C OF THE DOUGLAS RECORD.
Voting Record of Helen Gahagan Douglas and Richard M. Nixon.
Background on Helen Gahagan Douglas - A brief report on some of the
highlights of the 79th Congress.
Sample publicity material developed by Jules Maitland, never used:
"How '11 You Have Your America?"
"So YOU'VE CHOSEN SIDES" (single page)
"So you've chosen sides" (three pages)
"and how would you present the case of HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS for
UNITED STATES SENATOR"
Pink sheet: "Douglas-Marcantonio Voting Record"
San Diego Daily Journal, March 13, 1950, "Mrs. Douglas Plays 'Part-Time'
Downey"
Who's Who in San Diego, Byron F. Lindsley
Photo of campaign committee
Candidate's campaign statement of finances, November 7, 1950
San Diego Voter, Thursday, June 1, 1950
Executive Committee, Douglas for Senate Club
Douglas Campaign Budget, 7/15/50* to 11/8/50
Application and permit for Civic Center Use of School Property, 3-12-50
Analysis of Primary Vote
Letter from Mrs. Douglas re Lionel Van Deerlin
Assorted newspaper articles and pictures
Correspondence with campaign committee members and minutes of meetings
Correspondence with Helen Gahagan Douglas
Correspondence with L.A. office: George Douglas and Ruth Lybeck
Thank you notes to various newspaper editors
Correspondence with Archibald MacLeish
Lease for rental of Store Room No. 1020 8th Avenue
"The Democrat", July 1948
From the files of Mrs. Helen Lustig
\X DTEGO 12. CALIFORNIA
ihurs., Oct. it), 1350
THE
DISGO UNION : er ai."
f In slapping at the G.O.P. atan
tionary records, in Congress, and; against the administration foi
makes Sen. Taft look like a lib-jeign policy, Mrs. Douglas said i
tends to hurt the United Stata
"He says he is against commu-
abrosid to have its leadership a:
nism," she went on, "yet he votedjsatled from within the nation.
I against slum clearance, against^O'NTUSION' CHARGED
/jiemedying conditions that do not' The Repuo i icans . she said>
foster democracy. ^ trying to conjfuse ths issue ,
As she went on. it seemed Shejshe devoted some attention t
'did not think Nixon ever had vot-|3 en . McCarthy's charges of con
Jed for anything she thinks isi mU nism in the State Depar
[good. f'ment, asserting they had bee
"All these Republicans." Mrs.; disproved.
'Douglas said, "want to do just Mrs. Douglas said she is fr
one thing cut taxes for the big free enterprise, and is oppose
corporations. They do not think; by the monopolists,
in human terms, and you cannot . "They are trying to steal you
'build peace in the world unless, program/ 1 st: said. "Do nt
|y u do -
"Communism never will he a
work '-'-f or me; work for you
selves."
4 Nominee Blasts Nixon, San. McCarthy,
Opposition Newspapers in Talk Here
V:. . By HENRY LOVE
Enduring world peace, free 7 ,
from aggression and from sub- BACKS^HATCH LAW
"eSa^iStS^ California have not bee, g,
Rep. Helen Gaha.gan Douglas, the-.^majority:' -she-- said. ..-= 'il!! ":..^!^?:^^^?^ 3 "^'" 2 a11 the Den:locratic facrs [
the campaign.
Mrs. Douglas' victory ov<=
Nixon was predicted her? Sund?.
ni^ht by Drew Pearson, colun
Aud
threat in Amarica
k * n M "' D U?1 Sa ' d
Democratic nominee for U.S. sen--. To- complaints of some Demo-
ator, declared on a San Diego cratic-..: partisans against the^ ears
visit last night Hatch Act restrictions against po- GAVE UP CAREER
I
cajl -
She blasted at her opponent, UticaivactJvity -by" -federal em- eu p ^-,,-a, UD -, fortune and her
Rep. Richard M. Nixon,
can nominee, and at U.S. Sen.
Joseoh R. McCarthy; criticized ;he
to Nixon'she charged
Korean
she
would continue to v o t e;Hticairsuiada- to oppose it fur-
nst ";hs House Un
Incidentally, her husband's!
On her arriva! Iast rjght th
,
-nominee, was met bv her loa
usad as a political gimmick."
LABOR ACT OPPOSED
She spoke ar a rally in Car-:
penters' Hall before 400, talked to!
a large meeting of union butchers 1
ar.d spoke at a meeting of the;
Labor League for Political Eciuv
cation. At the labor sessions she'
spoke- against" the Taft-Hartley
Act. ; \ , .
Mrs. Douglas commended her
own record, citing activity in the
Foreign- Affairs Committee, for
labor legislation, the United Na- :
tions, foreign relief legislation
and social security measures.
Swinging into foreign policy;
she assarted that, formation ofj
the international force in the Ko-t
reart war was proof of the sound-i
ness of U.S. foreign policy.
i
TELLS OF DESERTION
Mrs. Douglas said she deserted!
the Republican Party in 1932 be-i
cause- of what she termed the pov
erty of its leadership that "had no!
answers to the problems of thej
nation." The job facing. the na-j
uon today cannot be done with a
G. O. P. government 'in Washing
ton, she added.
"Speakers like Sen. McCarthy!
are" crying ;o lead us back intoj
isolationism,'. 1 , she said.
In a fling at the Republican
Women's -Federation here, shej
said its action against flying the!
United Nations flag on a parityj
with: the- American flag is., an
other* instance ,o {he -"isolation!
S3irit.in.-the Republican Parry." i
e hT^^CT ^ M * a r ?* f pos " 1
in a show that just closed inj-^Pj^ to lea^^oc
Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas, center, Democratic nominee for U. S. Senate,
smiles with her campaign chairman, Byron Lindsley, left and the vice chairman,
Armistead B. Carter, before swinging into an intensive speaking program here
167
1020 EIGHTH A V E .
SAN DIEGO 1. CALIFORNIA
FRANKLIN 7549
F O H
SAN DIEGO COMMITTEE
CHAIRMEN
Campaign
BYRON F. LINDSLEY
Vice-Chairman
ARMISTEAD B. CARTER
Finance
GRACE B. RITTOFF
ELI H. LEVENSON
Publicity
LOUISE McLEAN
Executive Sac'y.
HELEN LUSTIG
~ .
2 SAN DIEGO JOURNAL ..'.,. Friday, Mr. 24, 1950
McCarthy Bias
j .-
__
County Chiefs Named
In Douglas Campaign
Helen Gahagan Douglas sup
porters in San Diego county to
day - had fully fired the campaign
torch they hope to carry before
three important segments of the
area'.; voting public.
Chairmen were appointed at a
meeting last night for commit
tees which will seek to rally
workingmen, veterans and wom
en of the county.
Byron F. Lindsley, chairman
of the county campaign in behalf
of Mrs. Douglas, named John J.
Blat. as the chairman of the com
mittee for the International As
sociation of Machinists.
Robert Spears was named for
the CIO and Orrin Alfred for
the AFL.
Chester White was appointed
for fishermen's groups, and Jo
seph Jennis for veterans' groups.
Speakers to women will be or
ganized by Mrs. Zola Johnson in
the city, and Mrs. Zella Crown
in the county.
At the meeting last night held
at the new county Douglas head
quarters, 1020 Eighth, Lindsley
!so named Mrs. Grace Ritoff as
chairman of precinct workers.
H appointed Miss Louise Dar-
|by, chairman for the committee
jfor formal opening of the new
: headquarters next week, at a date
iyet to be designated. Mrs. Helen
iLustig was named office cam
paign manager.
Meanwhile, the Valley Demo-
! eratic Club at a merlins in El
Cajon Carpenters Hall last
nijht, Indorsed Mrs. Douglas,
James Roosevelt for governor
and Robert Driver for state
! senator.
! John punter, e-Tub president,
; named a fact-finding committee
{ to look into other candidacies.
lit is composed of Ed Gates, Henry
lEckstrom and Ralph Burnside.
Four members are candidates
' for the Democratic County Cen-
j tral Committee. They are Hunter,
I Burnside and Lawanda Dwyer,
| all El Cajon, in the second super-
:visorial district, and Roy Edward
Crane, Alpine, in the fifth district.
168
DOUGLAS-MARCAOTONIO VOTING BECOBD
Many persons have requested a comparison of the voting records of Congresswoman Helen Douglas and the notorious
Communist party-liner, Congressman Vito Marcantonio of New York.
Mrs. Douglas and Marcantonio have been members of Congress together since January 1, 1945. During that period, Mrs.
Douglas voted the same as Marcantonio 354 times. While it ihouhl not be expected that a member of the House of
Representatives should always vote in opposition to Marcantonio, it is significant to note, not only the great number of
lima which Mrs. Douglas voted in agreement with him, but also the issues on which almost without exception they
always taw eye to eye, to-wit: Un-American Activities and Internal Security.
Here is the Record!
VOTES AGAINST COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN
ACTIVITIES
Both Douglas and Marcantonio voted against establish
ing the Committee on Un-American Activities. 1/5/45.
Bill passed.
Both voted on three separate occasions gim contempt
proceedings against persons and organizations which
refused to reveal records or answer whether they were
Communists. 4/16/46, 6/26/46, 11/24/47. Bills passed.
Both voted on four separate occasions against allowing
funds for investigation by the Un-American Activities
Committee. 5/17/46, 3/9/48, 2/9/49, 3/23/50. (The last
vote was 348 to 12.) All bills passed.
COMMUNIST-LINE FOREIGN POLICY VOTES
Both voted against Greek-Turkish Aid Bill. 5/9/47.
(It has been established that without this aid Greece
and Turkey would long since have gone behind the
Iron Curtain.) Bill passed.
Both voted on two occasions against free press amend
ment to UNRRA appropriation bill, providing that
no funds should be furnished any country which refused
to allow free access to the news of activities of the
UNRRA by press and radio representatives of the United
States. 11/1/45, 6/28/46. Bills passed. (This would in
effect have denied American relief funds to Communist
dominated countries.)
Both voted against refusing Foreign Relief to Soviet-
dominated countries UNLESS supervised by Americans.
4/30/47. Bill passed 324 to 75.
VOTE AGAINST NATIONAL DEFENSE
Both voted against the Selective Service Act of 1948.
6/18/48. Bill passed.
VOTES AGAINST LOYALTY AND SfCURITY
LEGISLATION
Both voted on two separate occasions against bills re
quiring loyalty checks for Federal employees. 7/15/47,
6/29/49. Bills passed.
Both voted against the Subversive Activities Control Act
of 1948, requiring registration with the Attorney Gen
eral of Communist party members and communist con
trolled organizations. Bill passed. 319 to 58. 5/19/48.
AND AFTER KOREA both again voted against it. Bill
passed 8/29/50, 354 to 20.
AFTER KOREA, on July 12, 1950, Marcantonio and
Douglas and 12 others voted against the Security Bill, to
permit the heads of key National Defense departments,
such as the Atomic Energy Commission, to discharge
government workers found to be poor security risks! Bill
passed, 327 to 14.
VOTE AGAINST CALIFORNIA
Both recorded against confirming title to Tidelands in
California and the other states affected. .4/30/48. Bill
passed 257-29.
VOTES AGAINST CONGRESSIONAL
INVESTIGATION OF COMMUNIST AND OTHER
ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES
Both voted again*! investigating the "whitewash" of the
AMERASIA case. 4/18/46. Bill passed.
Both voted against investigating why the Soviet Union
was buying as many as 60,000 United States patents at
one time. 3/4/47. Bill passed.
Both voted against continuing investigation of numerous
instances of illegal actions by OPA and the War Labor
Board. 1/18/45. Bill passed.
Both voted on two occasions against allowing Congress
to have access to government records necessary to the
conduct of investigations by Senate and House Com
mittees. 4/22/48. 5/13/48. Bills passed.
ON ALL OF THE ABOVE VOTES which hay. occurred she* Congressman Nixon took office oo Jowary I. IM7.
HE has vot.d acf/y opposite to the Dooglas-Marcaitoolo Ajilsl
After studying the voting comparison between Mrs. Douglas and Marcantonio. is it any wonder that the Communist line
newspaper, the Daily People's World, in its lead editorial on January 31, 1950, labeled Congressman Nixon as "The Man
To Beat" in this Senate race and that the Communist newspaper, the New York Daily Worker, in the issue of July 28,
1947, selected Mrs. Douglas along with Marcantonio as "One of the Heroes of the 80th Congress."
REMEMBER! The United States Senate votes on ratifying international treaties and confirming presi
dential appointments. Would California tend Marcantonio to the United States Senate?
NIXON FOR U. S. SENATOR CAMPAIGN COMMITTW
MOaTHtax CALIIWMIA
John Writtm Dinkabplil, Chtfmun
1151 Mariwt SM(
Sin Fnncbco VNdvtilll I- 141*
CSKTRAl CAUIMMIA
M. Hobiiek. ChtfmiOT
120 VOT NM Anu>
fn* MM 4411 f
SOUTMMM CAUfMWIA
mard iranmn, Cttttrmtrt
117 W. tlfi St.. Lm ,
THinity OMI
169
Regional Oral History Office University of California
The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California
Women in Politics Oral History Project
HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS PROJECT
Helen 0. Lustig
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY FOR HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS'S 1950 CAMPAIGN
IN SAN DIEGO AND IMPERIAL COUNTIES
An Interview Conducted by
Eleanor Glaser
in 1976
Underwritten by grants from:
National Endowment for the Humanities, Rockefeller Foundation,
Members and Friends of the Los Angeles Democratic Women's Forum
Copyright (c) 1981 by the Regents of the University of California
HELEN LUSTIG
170
TABLE OF CONTENTS- Helen 0. Lustig
INTERVIEW HISTORY 171
Primary Campaign 172
Campaign Committee 172
Democratic Strength 175
Newspapers in San Diego . 177
Helen Gahagan Douglas as Campaigner and Her Relationship
to Volunteers 179
General Election Campaign 182
Issues 182
Red-Baiting and Opposition to Helen Gahagan Douglas 183
More on Finances 187
Support from National Figures ; Local Advisors 190
Campaign Conduct in Hindsight 194
Present Day Activities 197
171
INTERVIEW HISTORY
Mrs. Helen Lustig was interviewed at the suggestion of Helen Gahagan
Douglas, for whom she had served as executive secretary of the 1950 campaign
in San Diego and Imperial counties.
Mrs. Lustig lives in a pleasant garden- type condominium in the Point
Loma section of San Diego. Although just blocks from a busy freeway, the
development's tree-lined, curved streets suggest suburbia. However this
quietness is frequently disturbed by. low-flying planes taking off or landing
at nearby Lindbergh Airport. A gardener cutting grass next to the apartment
added to the noise, but neither the noise nor the discomfort of recent foot
surgery distracted Mrs. Lustig.
Although contacted just one week before, Mrs. Lustig was prepared for
the interview on November 1, 1976. She had drawn up a list of names of cam
paign participants and had spent time thinking about the events of the bitter
campaign twenty-six years earlier. Purposefulness and competence were con
veyed by Mrs. Lustig 's manner as she reflected on questions put to her. Still
devoted to Mrs. Douglas, she was intent on being as honest and objective as
possible; partisan statements were labeled as such. After all prepared ques
tions had been covered she resumed a discussion of campaign workers. That
Mrs. Lustig feels a strong loyalty was evidenced by her statement, spoken
after the tape recorder had been packed away: "We wanted to write off anyone
not 100 percent for Helen."
Mrs. Lustig lightly edited the interview transcript when it was sent
to her for review, but in order to add information or more clearly state her
views, she expanded a number of her statements. She also has deposited some
material, saved from the 1950 campaign, in The Bancroft Library.
Eleanor Glaser
Interviewer-Editor
10 July 1978
Regional Oral History Office
486 The Bancroft Library
University of California
Berkeley, California 94720
172
VII EXECUTIVE SECRETARY FOR HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS ' S 1950
CAMPAIGN IN SAN DIEGO AND IMPERIAL COUNTIES
[Interview 1: November 1, 1976]
[begin tape 1, side A]
Primary Campaign
Campaign Committee
Glaser: What is your own background, and how did you get involved in
politics?
Lustig: Well, my husband and I left the United States in 1933. We were
both very young and very apolitical. We went to Australia; we
lived there for almost ten years, came back to the United States,
and were still not terribly involved in politics. Our first real
involvement in politics well, let me go back.
About 1945 I joined the League of Democratic Women, a very
active political organization. And that was the first time that I
really became aware, really aware, of politics, because in the
interim we had had children, there vas World War II, and one thing
and another. I really took much less of an interest in politics
than I should have. But in joining the league, I became more
involved in politics.
When Helen Douglas decided to run for the Senate, some of the
people who knew me, especially the women in the League of Democra
tic Women, thought that I would be a good person to help in that
campaign.
Glaser: Had you done anything with her campaign when she was running for
Congress?
173
Lustig: No, nothing whatsoever because it wasn't our district at all, and
we didn't participate no one in San Diego that I'm aware of par
ticipated in her congressional races. We did know that both she
and her husband were very liberal. We were very admiring of what
they had done in the San Joaquin Valley when they went into the
Valley with a group who were trying to organize the farm workers.
This was probably in the 1930s or early 1940s. But we took no
particular interest in her campaign.
Glaser: Would that be the same answer for her becoming a National Committee-
woman too?
Lustig: That's right.
Anyway, it was discussed amongst various people without my
knowledge and finally they approached me and asked if I would help
manage that campaign. I thought it over for a while and then
decided, yes, that I would. Then from that point on, when I went
into it, it was practically my whole life for all those months,
because you can't be around Helen for very long and not get as
enthusiastic as she is.
There's a lot, I realize now in retrospection about her and
about that campaign, that I did automatically but wasn't aware
that I was doing at that time. I realized how terribly issue-
oriented she was; I realized I wasn't aware, really, that this
was in many areas a female versus male thing. It was many years
later that I began to realize that we were (I think I'm getting
off that first category about my background and so forth) really
in many instances almost sabotaged by the male politicians here.
Glaser: In setting up the office and the work you did, how did your being
a woman enter into it?
Lustig: In no way whatsoever, to my knowledge except that it was the League
of Democratic Women who seemed to take over that aspect of it.
While it was a group of concerned Democrats who chose me and who
helped set up the office, many of the volunteers who helped answer
phones, stuff envelopes, and so forth, were members of the league.
In that area I suppose my being a woman entered into it. But to
my knowledge, there was no opposition from the men's Democratic
Club or any of the well-known politicians here the big money
givers. To my knowledge there was no opposition because, I would
presume, they looked on my being executive secretary in the old way:
I would manage to get the envelope stuffers and the telephone
workers and that sort of thing. It didn't work out in that way
because I became much more active in the campaign than I think they
anticipated would happen.
174
Glaser: You were making decisions?
Lustig: Yes, I was very much in the decision-making process.
Glaser: Would you care to go into that?
Lustig: Well, I wasn't making decisions on my own, but I was very much a
part of the decision-making process. These were day-to-day things
that would come up. There was a small group of very active people,
and as I saw the necessity for these decisions arising I could very
easily get them together (our office was downtown) , and we would
discuss it. We tried to have a very active, involved committee.
And I must say they were. The committee that we had was terribly
good.
Glaser: Can you name them?
Lustig: Well, I was trying to think of all of them, and I just can't
remember them all. I did, as I thought of some, jot them down.
Many of them are now dead, the older ones. Grace Rittoff, Lionel
Van Deerlin. Of course, Byron Lindsley was the chairman. Vince
Whelan (that's Vince Whelan, Sr. His son is now a judge here and
he has retired; he was also named a judge later.) Annie [Armistead]
Carter. A young man by the name of Dave Feldman who is, I think,
a sociologist and teaches at San Diego State, and the young lady
who later became his wife, Marlene Jones. And they brought in with
them as workers a lot of the young people. They were very young
then; they were all going to school as I recall, to state college
at that time. They brought a lot of the young, very active, very
idealistic people with them.
This was the thing about Helen's campaign. So many of the
people were real idealists. They had such faith in her as one who
would carry out their ideals .
Let me see; Louise Darby, who was the president of the League
of Democratic Women at that time and who is now dead. Louise
McLean, who was a tremendous supporter of Democratic candidates,
financially. Henry Cramer, an old-time politician here who is now
dead. D.G. Hamilton, who was supposed to be "Mr. Democrat" here
because of the money he was able to raise. He's now dead. Some
others on the committee and/or exceptionally helpful were: Lydia
Pritchard, Fay Henderson, Jim Curry, James Gleason, Ed Reilly,
Edith Orcutt, Gladys Coit, Zella Crown, Bebe Banks, Verna King,
Eddy Orcutt.
There were two men I don't remember whether they were on our
committee or on Jimmy Roosevelt's committee. He was running for
governor, as you know, against Warren at that time. And after
175
Lustig:
Glaser:
Lustig:
Helen won the primary, they moved into our office. We had a very
large office, and they moved into our office, also.
I was very much opposed to that, and I was overruled. For
financial reasons they used our office. So some of the people
from there we sort of commingled some of our meetings and decisions,
and so forth. Not to a very large extent, but to a certain extent.
There were two people, Murray Goodrich, who is now dead, and Harry
Farb, who is still living, who I believe were on the Roosevelt
committee but would come in on some of our meetings. We felt that
the Roosevelt committee was really hanging on to the Douglas coat-
tails .
This setup was for San Diego County and Imperial County?
And Imperial County. Imperial County wasn't too important. It
was small; there weren't too many people there and we did go down
occasionally. But it was not a very important part of the campaign.
Democratic Strength
Glaser: What was the proportion at that time of Republicans to Democrats
within the two counties, could you estimate?
Lustig: I don't recall exactly, but I'm quite sure that we didn't have the
preponderance of Democrats that we have now. As you know, we have
a much higher Democratic registration, but they don't vote Democra
tic. But at that time, I don't think we had that many Democrats.
I'm trying to recall.
There may have been, because a lot of Democrats came in as
workers in the aircraft factories, and we did have some strongly
Democratic areas where housing had been developed specifically for
aircraft workers. They came in, a lot of them, from the Midwest.
We felt that they, being workers, would make good strong Democratic
areas. But they didn't always vote that way. They were making
pretty good money, they didn't seem to vote Democratic.
Glaser: At that period San Diego had a very reactionary reputation.
Lustig: Yes, we were a very reactionary area terribly. So that the
Communist issue, which the Nixon people raised against Helen, was
very, very strong here and very effective.
Glaser: How would you assess Mrs. Douglas, both personally and as a poli
tician?
176
Lustig: Well, personally, I think to know her was to love her. I think
anyone that came in contact with her personally really loved her.
I think some of the men particularly thought that she talked too
much; we got a little bit of feedback in that way. But we were so
fiercely loyal to her that I don't think a lot of people expressed
themselves as they might have, because of our loyalty and because
of what they might get in return from us.
Glaser: Are you suggesting that these were men who were workers on the
committee?
Lustig: Not the people on our committee, rather the more "political" people
in San Diego who we tried to involve in our campaign and who agreed
but who didn't do all they should have. They did just enough to
play it safe, as I explained, in fact the more "professional
Democrats" actually tried to sabotage our campaign during the pri
mary. D.G. Hamilton, who controlled the purse strings of the
Democratic party here, started another women's club here, the Dolly
Madisons, and paid the women to work for Manchester Boddy trying
to draw the workers from the Douglas office. He really tried to
factionalize the Democrats. But it had a negative effect on our
workers .
I told you before that I thought that a lot of what I'm feel
ing now came long, long after that campaign. As I got older, as I
got more experienced and as women's lib became more popular, I
began to reflect on what had happened then. And a lot of those
people were paying little more than lip service to us. As I became
more involved in politics later on and saw how some of these same
people reacted in other campaigns, I realized that they weren't
doing what they should have been doing. People that we depended on
for financing, for instance, were not doing what they should have
been doing were not bringing in the kinds of money they should
have been bringing in to help us.
We were really running what I would now call a real grass
roots campaign. We were begging for dollar bills. We got them
from a heck of a lot of people. We did a lot of things we sent
out letters and the sort of things that the professional politi
cian would never do in the way that we did it. It was effective,
but it wasn't bringing in the kind of money that was necessary.
It was bringing in dollar bills and two dollars and five dollars.
People were stopping in the office and giving us little bits
of money, which was just great, we thought. And I still think is
just great, because it meant an involvement of people who had never
been involved in a political campaign before because their little
bits of money didn't mean anything.
177
Lustig: But the people who should have been bringing in very large
contributions from others, who should have been the ones who were
collecting large contributions from other people, just weren't
doing it.
Glaser: Were you getting any money from the state party headquarters?
Lustig: We were not getting money but we were getting ads paid for and
postage paid for and our stationary printed and our window cards,
our 2 x 4s, and those sorts of things. For instance, I remember
now that we started out by doing our own bumper stickers. But
then they sent us evidently when they got more money, they sent
us enough. And this became a big item in those days, contrary to
what it is now.
Glaser: Was Bill Malone the state party treasurer?
Lustig: The name doesn't ring a bell with me, I just don't remember.
But we started out entirely on our own, and it was only
towards the end that we got money. We even tied up some radio time
for ourselves, and then later on we found out that they were doing
some state-wide. So then we were included in that, where they got
better rates, and so forth.
Newspapers in San Diego
Lustig: We were getting very little publicity in the newspapers. At the
time of the primary and early in the general [election campaign] ,
there was the San Diego Union and the afternoon paper, which at
that time did not belong to the Copley press. It belonged to
Clinton McKinnon, who had been a Democratic congressman here. It
was called the San Diego Journal. There was also the San Diego
Tribune, so there were two afternoon papers: The Journal and the
Tribune.
" *
The city editor of that paper [the San Diego Journal] was
Lionel Van Deerlin, who is now a congressman; and he was very, very
much a part of Helen's campaign. Besides the paper being a Demo
cratic paper, he personally felt very involved in the campaign.
I may be wrong about this; I seem to recall that there were
only two newspapers in all of California that endorsed her. One
was the Sacramento Bee, I believe, (perhaps one of the San Francis
co papers, but I don't recall that) and the San Diego Journal.
And we depended greatly on the Journal for the publicity we couldn't
178
Lustig: get from the Union and the Tribune.
Early in the general [election campaign], without any notifi
cation, Mr. McKinnon sold the Journal to the Evening Tribune. We
all felt that it was a terrible sellout. It was not too long
before the general election. We felt the paper was a very important
part of our campaign, and we were just devastated when it happened,
because the Tribune took over right away and the Journal disappeared.
Van Deerlin came on to our committee. A man by the name of
Noonan, who was a political cartoonist, came on to our committee,
and I think a couple of others from that paper came on to our
committee.
It was at that time, during that very same period, when a few
of these people, including my husband, helped start a paper called
The Point. It was not a daily. It started out, I think, as a
monthly and eventually became San Diego Magazine. It was financed
in part by Louise McLean, by Annie Carter, a few other people like
that. It was a lot of these liberal people who felt that we had no
liberal voice of any kind in San Diego. And they got together and
either planned it or actually started it, right during this same
period after the Journal folded. The Point eventually was bought
out by Jack Vietor and became the slick magazine which it is now,
San Diego Magazine.
Glaser: Speaking of newspapers, do you have any idea why Manchester Boddy
entered the primary when Mrs. Douglas had clear sailing up until
that time why he entered so unexpectedly?
Lustig: Yes, I recall that, but I can't tell you exactly when in the cam
paign it was.
Glaser: And you have no idea why this came about? It was rumored that
while he was a Democrat, there was Republican money behind his
paper Hearst money and oil money, I believe.
Lustig: I vaguely remember hearing about it. I can't speak about it with
any kind of authority at all. I remember that there was discussion,
and it seemed to be actual fact that we were discussing, that there
was oil money and that it had been offered to both Helen and to
Nixon and that she refused it. Now, this is just coming back to
me, and I can't speak with any certainty on it but I remember that
we seemed to have some sort of authoritative fact that this was
true. [Thinking it over slowly]
We also had no respect whatsoever for Manchester Boddy
because we didn't think he was a Democrat, in the true sense of
the word. We felt he couldn't begin to compare to Helen as far as
179
Lustig: the ideals that we were fighting for.
\
Helen Gahagan Douglas as Campaigner and Her Relationship to
Volunteers
Glaser: You were speaking earlier of the loyalty to Mrs. Douglas. What
was the relationship between Mrs. Douglas and the men? Could they
take direction from her?
Lustig: It's very hard for me to evaluate that. The men who were really
loyal to her, like for instance Byron Lindsley and these young
people that I spoke about, Van Deerlin those people who had the
same hopes, who had the same idealism, who had the same purposes
in wanting to see her elected those people, yes, there was no
question about it. They respected her and discussions between
them were very, very satisfactory.
The ones whom I would now call the political bosses of San
Diego, I don't really know, I would doubt it. As I say, in retro
spection now, I would doubt it very much. When she was in town
they would come in and meet with her. When we set up various
functions for her, many of them would be there. But I think they
were just playing it safe, just in case she was elected. They had
to be part of this whole thing, but I don't think that they did
things they should have done as far as getting out the vote, as
far as raising the money to help get out the vote, to help publi
cize her, that sort of thing.
I remember one instance where one of these men, this was
Murray Goodrich, who said that he wanted us to set up a luncheon
for her. He was going to raise I forget what the amount of money
was, but for us it was a very large amount of money. He was going
to see to it that these people came and would pledge these amounts
of money if we could get her to come down and talk to them. So we
did, we arranged it, and she was to our way of thinking a very im
pressive speaker that day. It was a small luncheon, it was all
men businessmen here and it was a total flop as far as a money-
raiser was concerned.
Glaser: Was this in the primary or the general election?
Lustig: They didn't stick their neck out in the primary.
Glaser: They waited?
Lustig: They waited. And most of these people that I call the political
180
Lustig: bosses, like D.G. Hamilton and Henry Cramer and Burt Vaughn, who
just recently died; they waited. They waited until the general.
Glaser: How many times did Mrs. Douglas come down to San Diego?
Lustig: I can't give you the number of times. She was very generous about
coming down whenever we really had things set up for her. We did
realize that she had a whole state to cover and that money was
quite scarce. But we had her down quite frequently, and I think
we had quite successful meetings.
Glaser: How do you view her as a campaigner, either for groups or on a
one-to-one basis?
Lustig: Well, I must say that my perspective was not only warped but fairly
naive also. I think (I thought then but I still think) that she's
a fantastic campaigner. I think that her enthusiasm wins people
over. I think that she's a very attractive person. She was a
beautiful woman. She still is, but of course at that time she was
that much younger. She was really a most attractive person, and
a very warm person. I think that she is a marvelous campaigner,
in both a large group and especially on a one-to-one basis. She
makes you feel that you're terribly important to her.
Glaser: I did read one criticism, that she didn't know how to terminate.
Lustig: Yes, I told you that before, that these men especially felt and
as I say, they were a little bit leery about expressing their views
of anything about her that was negative. They were a little bit
leery about expressing it to us. But I think we recognized that
too because I can recall a couple of times when I personally felt
it from an audience reaction and tried to motion to her to cut it
off.
And she herself realized that, because I remember once she
said, "You throw me into a pond and I'll come up talking." She
realized it, but she was so She had so much to give that she
couldn't stop, even though she realized it. There was always more
and more and more that she wanted to tell the people.
Glaser: What was the role of her husband?
Lustig: Well, he didn't come down at all. There was some talk at that
time that they were not getting along, it was sort of an undercur
rent. We had no evidence of it whatsoever, but then her brother-
in-law, Melvyn's brother, came down very frequently. He was a part
of the campaign. He and his wife both came down very frequently
to see if they could help in any way.
181
Glaser:
Lustig:
Glaser:
Lustig:
Glaser:
Lustig:
What was his name?
I think it was Hesselberg.
recall.
I think he went by the old name, if I
Glaser:
Lustig:
Glaser:
Lustig:
Glaser:
Lustig:
Glaser:
Lustig:
Glaser:
Lustig:
What was his first name, do you remember?
1 don't remember. I ought to remember but I don't. If I could
ever find any of those records.
Was it George?
It might have been, that has a faint ring of recollection to me.
And I think probably the most valuable thing about his coming down,
as I recall, was the fact that he could be introduced as Melvyn's
brother. I think that was probably the most valuable thing he had
to offer at that time. He and his wife did try to be very helpful
and were willing to do anything we asked of them.
What was her relationship to other women those who were workers
and those who were voters? Was there any resentment because she
was so well-endowed with beauty and intelligence?
Not to my knowledge.
And yet there were a lot of women who organized against her, I
believe.
Not here. I don't recall that.
Perhaps that was more in the Los Angeles area. Kathleen Norris
was one woman, and there was another who had been the National
Democratic Committee Chairwoman from Kentucky for several terms.
They were organized against her Kathleen Norris and Catherine
Conners Goetz of Los Angeles. Also, Nixon had a flying squadron
of women in the Los Angeles area, and I wondered if there was that
kind of an organization here.
I don't recall at all that we had that type of problem here. It
would be interesting if Byron [Judge Lindsley] remembers that, but
I don't recall that at all.
You saw her as motivating women and winning them over?
Yes indeed.
Do you have any idea why Senator Downey retired from the race?
No, I don't remember. Not at all.
182
General Election Campaign
Issues
[end tape 1, side A; begin tape 1, side B]
Glaser: Nixon said later that he felt justified in red-baiting because it
had been started by the Democrats themselves in the primary.
Lustig: Well, I don't have any strong feelings about that. And I think
the fact that she won the primary here would indicate that it was
not very effective, because this is, and was at that time espe
cially, a very reactionary area. It couldn't have been very effec
tive if she won the primary, and she won it in San Diego County.
I don't have any strong recollection of that aspect of the Boddy
campaign.
Glaser: When you moved on to the general election campaign, what were the
issues?
Lustig: Well, the Central Valley Authority was one issue that we all felt
very strongly about. Old age assistance, a universal old-age
assistance instead of each area or each state or each county having
their own, was, as I recall, a novel thing here amongst many of the
voters. They hadn't given it that kind of thought at all. But
with so many people coming into California because we had a good
old-age assistance law here, people began to think about that and
think how much more sense that would make. The liberal issues
defense of her votes. You know, Nixon paired her votes with the
liberal candidate from New York
Glaser: Vito Marcantonio.
Lustig: Marcantonio, yes. Unfortunately this had to become a defense and
then had to be explained, not only the mechanics of it, how
(you've seen that pink sheet I presume ) Nixon's campaign against
Jerry Voorhis became a thing that she was questioned about, or that
we were questioned about.
The cost of living the economic situation because she had
posters showing her bringing that basket of groceries into Congress.
You're aware of that, I'm sure. When she was a Congresswoman, she
had gone out to shop and had brought a basket of groceries onto the
floor of the Congress to show the costs of food. So the cost of
food then, just as now, was an issue.
183
Glaser: How important was the federal control of off shore oil lands for
this campaign?
Lustig: It wasn't too important to us, as I recall, because it never
occurred to us that we were going to be involved in that part of
it. The oil thing came in only because of the fact that oil money
was coming in to California and we were afraid of it.
Glaser: By "oil money coming in," do you mean as the oil was taken from the
sea, or do you mean politically, to be used against you?
Lustig: Politically, to be used against her. We had what we felt was pretty
strong evidence that Nixon was getting oil money, and this became
a pretty worrying thing. As far as off shore oil here, as I recall
it didn't enter into it. It's only now that they're beginning to
talk about drilling ninety miles off shore here. We never thought
we had it. It had never been explored, and we never thought it
would ever reach here.
Red-Baiting and Opposition to Helen Gahagan Douglas
Glaser: At what point in the general campaign did you become aware that
Nixon was going to red-bait?
Lustig: Very early in the campaign, as I recall. I think we were aware of
it almost Immediately in the general, as I recall. And we were
very fearful about her having to go on the defensive. I know we
wanted her to do an offensive campaign, that was our own feeling.
We were very much afraid that because of the amount of publicity
that he was getting and the campaign that he was putting on and
the questions that would be raised, that she would have to go on
the defensive. As I recall, that was quite early in the campaign.
Glaser: There was a statement in the publication, The Southern California
Quarterly; "It was not red-baiting per se which defeated Mrs.
Douglas so much as it was the ineffective strategy used to counter
Nixon's unscrupulous demagoguery."*
Lustig: I think I would agree with that because, as Nixon demonstrated later,
he didn't actually come out and say that she's a communist or that
* Ingrid Winther Scobie, "Helen Gahagan Douglas and Her 1950 Senate
Race with Richard Nixon," Southern California Quarterly, Spring 1976,
pp. 113-123.
184
Lustig: she's pro-communist. But he created an aura, he talked all
around, so that you got the impression from him.
But if you actually examined his statements, it wasn't true;
he didn't say these things. It's just the impression, so that you
went away from whatever you had been listening to thinking, "Oh
sure, if not an actual communist, she's certainly pro-communist."
And he did things like printing those flyers on pink paper.
Glaser: Did you ever hear him personally?
Lustig: Oh yes, I went to every meeting that he went to here. Absolutely.
Glaser: What was your reaction to him as a campaigner?
Lustig: Well, I so thoroughly disliked the man that I couldn't be objective.
I really totally and completely and thoroughly disliked the man.
And then I had read so much in working in the campaign about his
tactics, the way he worked.
I recall very, very vividly something that Helen had said to
us that proved to be true. This was in a very small meeting of our
committee that she said, "You know, what happens to me..." (I
repeated this to her not very long ago. She was in San Diego to
give a talk, and I repeated this to her.) She said, "You know,
what happens to me personally really isn't very important. But
that pipsqueak (and that's the word that she used) has his eye on
the White House and if he ever gets there, God help us all." I
don't think I've ever heard more prophetic words than that.
We became so aware of the tactics that he was using (and he
always seemed to me a rather slippery sort of person) , and I went
to every one of his meetings when he appeared in San Diego, every
where that he appeared, that I couldn't be objective about him at
all.
Glaser: How effective was Mrs. Douglas's Mue Book?*
Lustig: I don't think it was very effective. It was quite voluminous, as
you know. I don't know how wide the distribution was, do you know?
I don't recall. We tried to use it as much as possible, in publici
ty and one thing and another, but I really don't know that it was
very effective at that point. I seem to recall that it came out
* "Helen Gahagan Douglas vs Richard Nixon; Here is FULL Record of
Their Votes in Congress."
185
Lustig: quite late in the campaign. Am I correct, do you know when it
appeared? I seem to recall that it came out quite late in the
campaign. I thought it was a marvelous compilation, but how
effective it was, I just don't know.
Glaser: How damaging to her was the support that she got from red-front
organizations not communist, but red-front?
Lustig: I know what you mean. Our feeling was that it was quite injurious.
How do you evaluate a thing like that? It's guilt by association.
How do you evaluate it? Do you turn these people away, people who
are sincere, who believe in many of the same things that we believed
in? Do we say, "No you can't become a part of our campaign. You
can|t support her." I don't know how you would handle that.
Glaser: There was Catholic opposition, official Catholic-hierarchy opposi
tion, in Los Angeles.
Lustig: There was here too; we had evidence of it. We had very strong
evidence of it. We had many Catholic people who were very strong
for Helen Douglas and remained strong for Helen Douglas, who came
in furious because they were instructed not to vote for her.
Vince Whelan, who I think was the chairman of Jimmy Roosevelt's
campaign, had been on our committee too, and is a very devout Catho
lic. He came in and told us that he had been over at St. Joseph's,
which is a large downtown cathedral, (this was just before the
election) that they had a ballot on a bulletin board or a very large
blackboard and had marked it for Nixon against Helen.
Yes, we had a lot of evidence that the Catholic Church was
very strongly against her and were being very vocal about it.
Glaser: How effective was this, do you think?
Lustig: I have no way of knowing. Now, the Catholics who were on our
committee and were working for us were very much incensed by it ,
but how effective it was amongst the Catholics in the county, I
don't know;
Glaser: And what about black voters? I understand that the Sentinel news
paper in Los Angeles came out against her, for Nixon, while Mary
McLeod Bethune made an appearance on the West Coast for Mrs. Douglas.
Lustig: Yes, she did.
Glaser: How did this affect the local voters?
186
Lustig:
Glaser:
Lustig:
Glaser:
Lustig:
Glaser:
Lustig:
Glaser:
I think the black people here were for Helen. Although the black
community here was very poorly organized, we had some very effective
black people on our committee. Bebe Banks, a dear soul who we loved
dearly, was very effective in the black community. And we had sev
eral black people on our committee. Verna King, Mrs. Banks' daugh
ter, Olga
We had a dinner with
Mary McLeod Bethune spoke
tion here. The church was
recall, was on a weekday n
ly, to get large crowds of
in the morning. Women who
their kids off to school,
the best) and get to work
they didn't tend to go out
some influential black people before
at a black church in the southeast sec-
filled to overflowing and this, as I
ight. And it wasn't easy, then especial -
black people because they worked early
worked had to get up very early, get
take a bus (and the bus service wasn't
usually by 8 o'clock in the morning. So
to evening meetings during the week.
But this church was one of the largest in the black
community, and it was totally filled. There was a black
newspaper here, and we got good cooperation from them.
What was the name of that paper?
The Lighthouse; it changed hands several times and changed names.
It was the only one here at the time.
How damaging were the attacks against Mrs. Douglas by Senator Jack
B. Tenney, the chairman of the California Un-American Activities
Committee?
I don't remember. Except that it would have to be important to the
extent that it would contribute to multifaceted red-baiting.
What do you remember about the Nixon techniques in this area? We
understand there were something like 500,000 phone calls that were
made *
That's right.
right on the eve of the election,
you know anybody who did?
Did you receive one or did
* Maurice Revnes reported that (immediately after the election) a
friend took a survey of the phone calls stating Helen Gahagan Doug
las was a communist. Investigation showed that over 500,000 calls
were made throughout the state. Letter to Helen Gahagan Douglas
from Maurice Revnes, July 15, 1973.
187
Lustig: Yes, I know a lot of people who did and from that we gathered that
they were just going down telephone books, that they weren't even
calling Republicans, they were calling everybody. And it seemed
to us, from the people who reported it to me and other members of
our committee, that they must have just taken telephone books and
assigned pages of telephone books to many, many, many people. I
seem to recall that they had one office in particular that had a
tremendous bank of telephones where they did nothing but telephone,
telephone, telephone.
They were using a smear technique. It wasn't just the usual
telephone call, "Are you going to vote, and if so, will you vote
for so-and-so." But they were using a tricky sort of technique
that was reported to me. I didn't personally get one, but then I
was away most of the time anyway. "Oh, Mrs. Smith or Jane or
whatever did you know that Helen Douglas is a communist?" And by
the time Jane or Mrs. Smith could say, "Well, you must have the
wrong number, I'm not Mrs. Smith," they would have already implanted
that idea in their minds. And they they would say, "Well excuse me,
I must have the wrong number," or something like that. Now, this
was reported to me. I personally didn't get one.
Glaser: Were there things done to counteract this?
Lustig: This was right before the election.
Glaser: You had not time?
Lustig: No time. And how do you counteract a thing like that? By publi
cizing it you implant it in people's minds again. You're again on
the defensive. And we couldn't get a whole bank of telephone pages
and say, "That's not true."
More on Finances
Glaser: Who was doing the fund raising for you in this area?
Lustig: Well, we had a committee and some of these what I call the old-
line politicians were the ones who were supposed to be collecting
money, and they weren't doing it effectively. Annie Carter was our
treasurer And Grace Ritoff assistant treasurer.
We had, as I say, a committee, and I don't recall everyone
who was on it. But some of these people that I mentioned before,
Burt Vaughn, D.G. Hamilton, all people who had been for Boddy before
came in on this campaign.
188
Lustig:
Glaser:
Lustig:
Glaser:
Lustig:
Glaser:
Lustig:
We finally got a public relations person who volunteered to come
in on it. He has since died, a man by the name of Preston Justice.
He is the one who composed an awfully good letter for it (and I
sure wish I had a copy of it now) that we sent out to just people,
Democrats. It was a letter that not only told a lot about Helen
but asked them, as average citizens, as a grass roots thing, to
send in anything that they could. And we did, we got a Well, I
forget what the percentage was, but he felt that it was a tremen
dously large percentage for that type of mailing.
And everyone that was on the committee begged anyone that we
could to contribute. Then at various meetings we took up collec
tions. It was all just penny ante stuff compared to the kind of
money that was being spent.
And you didn't get any Hollywood money from Beverly Hills?
I don't think we got money. Now, I may be wrong about this. I'd
have to see the treasurer's bankbook actually. I don't recall that
we got money, but we did get things paid for, as I told you before.
We got ads placed for us, and we got radio ads paid for, and we
had enough money at the very end so that we tried to get her on
every radio station the night before election. And I think we did
at the same time. We felt that no matter where they turned the
dial they would hear her.
Were these canned speeches?
Yes . There was lack of communication and coordination from Los
Angeles. At the last minute we heard L.A. (or statewide) live
coverage had been bought including some of the very stations we had
already bought for canned speeches.
Did you have any experience dealing with people who thought she
was not a Democrat , that she was really a fellow-traveler? There
was a pamphlet put out, "Is Helen Douglas a Democrat? The Record
Says No." Was that passed around in your area? Was it effective?
I don't recall that it was passed around,
all.
I don't recall that at
We had personal confrontations with many people, some of them
pretty ugly. I myself, I had My car was a traveling billboard.
We had a very large billboard made, it might have been perhaps five
feet long or as long as the roof of my car, and we had it put on
professionally. I was sort of a traveling billboard, and there
were several instances Well, one that was very frightening where
I was closed in on by two cars and I was really very frightened.
There were several instances where I was forced over to the side
189
Lustig:
G laser:
Luatig:
G laser:
of the road by people who were that antagonistic to her. And many,
many instances where there were epithets, usually on the theme of
her being a coonmnist or a fellow-traveler, that sort of thing. I
considered those people extremists, you know. But some of them
became frightening incidents.
Was Herb Klein in your area?
Well, I don't know when he became one of the editors of the Union,
and I don't recall him in the area at that time. He became very
prominent later, but whether he was writing editorials at that
time for the Union, I don't know. They were certainly anti-Democra
tic enough for him to have been writing them.
Well, how effective was the Chotiner pamphlet,
Another?"
'One Democrat to
Lustig: Well, we felt the things Chotiner was responsible for were probably
the most effective of all here.
Glaser: And then there was a Democrat named Creel who organized Democrats
for Nixon.
Luatig: I don't remember that. The name Creel doesn't Oh, is he the one
who was connected with Home Savings and Loan or one of the Savings
and Loan?
Glaser: I don't know that. In World War I he had been part of the unoffi
cial cabinet for Wilson, perhaps a public relations man for him.
Luatig: No, I don't recall the name.
Glaaer: What was the relationship on Mrs. Douglas's part with regard to
Jimmy Roosevelt's campaign? There was some indication she was not
wholeheartedly for him.
Luatig: Yes, none of us were, really. We felt that Warren was a good
governor. We felt that Jimmy was running a very ineffective cam
paign, that he really didn't have issues to run on. None of us
flt very strongly for him. We didn't sabotage the campaign,
certainly. Aa I told you, they moved in with us. We did what we
could, but we didn't actually feel very strongly for him.
Glaaer: Was Mrs. Douglas's campaign hurt by his running, because of people
who wanted to vote solid Democrat and yet didn't really want him?
Luacig: We thought so; we felt that it was.
190
Support from National Figures; Local Advisors
Glaser: There were a lot of big wheels who came out from Washington to
speak on her behalf. As much good as they could do her, was this
also a detriment because it indicated her weakness?
Lustig: We didn't have any indication of that, because that was the pattern.
It still is the pattern, actually, where a lot of the Washington
people come out and speak for candidates. No, we welcomed them.
We didn't feel that that was a detriment in any way.
Glaser: Can you remember the names of those who came here?
Lustig: No, I don't recall.
Glaser: Well, I have some names and you can tell me if you remember them.
There was Averell Harriman.
Lustig: A lot of these people came West but didn't think that San Diego
was important enough, you know, and didn't come here.
Glaser: Alban Barkley.
Lustig: He didn't come.
Glaser: Eleanor Roosevelt.
Lustig: Yes, Eleanor Roosevelt came out.
Glaser: J. Howard McGrath, the U.S. Attorney General.
Lustig: I don't recall whether he did or not.
Glaser: Maurice Tobin, he was secretary of labor.
Lustig: I really don't you go on, but I don't remember.
Glaser: Charles Brannan, I think he was secretary of agriculture.
Lustig: Well, Eleanor Roosevelt, of course, was a terribly important person
who came out, but the others I don't recall. They may have come
out, and some of them The secretary of labor, possibly, went to
labor groups. We had a lot of labor people with us, and a lot of
the rank and file or labor were very strongly with us, very much
so. Yes, we had strong labor backing here. The chairman of the
Central Labor Committee was on our committee, Ed Reilly of the
Teamsters Union, two very good workers from the Communications
191
Lustig: Workers Union, and several others. We were able to get many good
union meetings organized. And at that time I think labor had more
influence over the rank and file than they do now, in how they vote.
Glaser: In this area was the CIO red-baited?
Lustig: Yes, it was. We had CIO people working with us and perhaps this
made a difference, but they were good people and good workers and
very, very much very strongly for the same things that all of us
were for. And we weren't going to say, "No, go away." But yes, we
had a lot of CIO people with us.
Glaser: Did Nixon ever answer something that he could have been picked up
on: the fact that he had voted against aid to Korea prior to the
outbreak of the Korean War that year?
Lustig: In his speeches here?
Glaser: Mrs. Douglas leveled that charge against him, and I wondered whether
he just ignored it or if he ever came to terms with it.
Lustig: I don't recall that he ever really spoke of it here at all. I don't
recall that at all.
Glaser: When she campaigned, was there a difference in emphasis in how much
time she gave to Northern versus Southern California?
Lustig: Well, when you say Southern California, you're including Los Angeles
of course.
Glaser: Oh surely.
Lustig: I don't know, I don't recall at all that we ever evaluated that.
We kept so busy ourselves. We worked right through the summer
between the primary and the general. We kept our office open and
had people down there working. We were working constantly and
were ourselves so busy that I don't know that we ever stopped to
evaluate how much time she was spending between the two. I think
we just assumed that she was spending the most time where she was
going to get the most votes. I imagine this was just an assumption
on our part and we never questioned it. We were all pretty naive;
we weren't professional politicians.
Glaser: Do you know who was the person that she leaned on the most for
advice?
Lustig:
Glaser:
Here?
Yes.
192
[end tape 1, side B; begin tape 2, side A]
Glaser: Can you think of someone?
Lustig: I don't know of a_ person. I know that when she would come down we
would have the most active people in our committee as I say, we had
a very large downtown office. We had coffee going there all the
time for people who wanted to stop in, and we'd usually bring in
sandwiches or something. If she were coming down it was during the
day, and we always managed to have a meeting with her prior to what
ever we had arranged for her.
We would run her around from one place to another; it was fan
tastic the stamina that she had. But we always managed to have the
inner circle of our committee meet with her, and it was there that
policy matters, and so forth, would be discussed.
Now, included in that group would be Byron Lindsley, and I
think she respected his opinion greatly; my husband, who was very
active in the campaign; Louise Darby; Grace Rittoff; [thinking it
over carefully] Van Deerlin. There may have been more. At least
those people all of us working terribly hard, devoting practically
all of our time to her campaign. I think it was more or less a
little group like that from whom she would ask advice.
Glaser: Did she have a manager for Southern California?
Lustig: (Pause) I would presume so. Perhaps it was Melvyn's brother.
Perhaps that was his designation, because he's the one that came
down. And then her secretary,
Glaser: Was that Evie Chavoor?
Lustig: Yes, Evie Chavoor.
Glaser: Can you suggest any questions we ought to ask Evie Chavoor?
Lustig: A lot of these questions I can't answer she might be able to,
because we were in contact a great deal by telephone.
Glaser: Was she in Washington or in Los Angeles?
Lustig: She was for the most part, I believe, in Los Angeles, if my memory
serves me right.
Glaser: Where is she now?
Lustig: She is the administrative assistant or secretary to some other
congressman, I believe. Helen [Douglas] knows.
193
Glaser: Does the name Harold Tipton ring a bell?
Lustig: It rings a bell but I can't recall why. The name somehow seems
familiar to me.
Glaser: I think that he was the campaign coordinator perhaps in the north.
Lustig: Possibly so. We really had no contact with the northern part; it
was as though it were a different state. We personally, here in
San Diego, had no contact with them.
Glaser: Does the name Susie Clifton ring a bell?
Lustig: Yes, Susie Clifton came down a couple of times. I don't recall
whether she came down on her own or whether she came with Helen.
Glaser: What was the role she played?
Lustig: She seemed to be very close to the campaign. She seemed to be
perhaps an advisor. She seemed to be a very important part of the
campaign, but exactly in what role I don't remember.
Glaser: Did veterans play any part in the campaign?
Lustig: No.
Glaser: Was there a chapter of the ADA here?*
Lustig: Yes, but a very, very small, very quiet chapter. They've never been
very active here, and most people aren't even aware that there ever
was a chapter here. There isn't at the present time.
We did contact the man who was the most active in the ADA here
and he was helpful. I don't remember his name now, but I remember
he worked in a clothing store right here in Ocean Beach. He gave
us mailing lists and names and things like that. But there wasn't
ever an active chapter of ADA here.
Glaser: There was an editorial in a Minneapolis newspaper, I'm not sure
exactly when in the campaign either in October or September
having to do with Nixon's dirty tricks. I wonder if use was made
of that.
Lustig: I can't recall that editorial specifically, but we did try to make
* Americans for Democratic Action, a liberal political group formed
after World War II.
194
Lustig: use of whatever knowledge we had. We tried our darnedest to make
use of it. We couldn't get very much. We couldn't get publicity
on it. But in whatever way we possibly could, we spread the word
and we gave proof, whatever proof we had.
Campaign Conduct in Hindsight
Glaser: If you had a chance to redo that campaign, what would you do dif
ferently?
Lustig: Oh my, that's quite a question. [Long pause] I think that in
light of what we now know about Nixon, I think we would have made
a much stronger campaign against him. We tried to keep our campaign
on as high a level as we could.
We felt so strongly about Helen and the things that she stood
for, that this is the thing that we wanted to stress. We wanted
people to understand what she could do for us if she got to the
Senate. We wanted people to understand her idealism-, her honesty,
everything that was good about her. So we tried to make it a very,
positive campaign. . I'm not so sure that we wouldn't try to also
show the kind of person that Nixon is.
Glaser: You had not done that?
Lustig: I don't think we did it as strongly as we should have. Perhaps if
we had had more money and more media available we could have develop
ed a better campaign against Nixon. I think that we were just too
idealistic ourselves to do that.
The night that Nixon resigned, one of the TV channels came out
here (they did the same thing with whoever it was that managed the
Nixon campaign here at the same time) , and we all listened to the
Nixon speech together. Then they wanted to know what my reaction
to it was. And my immediate and honest reaction was: he hasn't
changed a bit. He's just exactly the same now as he was then. I
think in view of what has happened that I would try to emphasize
that aspect of it.
Of course, hindsight is easy. But I think we tried so hard
and we had such faith in the principles for which she stood, that
we tried hard to make people understand this. It was like, "If we
could just shake it into them." I think this was the thrust of
our campaign.
195
Glaser: Did you feel desperate or did you feel that things were going well
despite all the red-baiting?
Lustig: I think we felt desperate towards the end. When she won the pri
mary, we were just riding high. We thought there's just no way
she could lose. People really understood this person, and this
was just going to be great! We were really going to get people who
understood what it was that she stood for. But as the campaign
went on, we could see what was happening. And we tried not to,
we blinded ourselves to a lot of things. As I say, perhaps if we
hadn't done that we could have come out stronger against Nixon,
instead of coming out as strongly as we did for Helen.
Glaser: If you had had more money could you have been more effective, or
didn't that really play a role?
Lustig: At the time we felt that we were desperate for money, that we need
ed more money. Yes, if we had had more money we probably could
have used it effectively. I don't know that it would have made
that much difference, to be perfectly honest. It was, as I say, a
very, very reactionary area, and I don't know but what the red
baiting was effective. And I think the more money we would have
spent, the more money they would have spent and perhaps made it
even worse for her.
Glaser: I've come across a statement by Chotiner that Helen Gahagan Douglas
made an initial error in trying to attack Nixon's strength, and
that you must never do that to a candidate, you must attack his
weaknesses. Was that apparent to you, or do you think that is a
justified statement?
Lustig: His strengths in his voting record or the areas where he was strong,
or what did he mean by that?
Glaser: Yes, I think the voting record.
Lustig: [Pause] Well, I don't know whether that's true or not because I
don't know what Chotiner considered were his strengths in his vot
ing record. As I recall, she did attack his voting record. But
there always seemed to be the pressing need to defend her record
against his attacks, so she never could gain the offensive position.
Glaser: If I'm wrong and it isn't the voting record, if it's his way of
campaigning, would that give that statement a different aspect?
Lustig: I really don't think that we did that here. I think that Chotiner 's
statement as a general rule probably has great merit, but I can't
recall whether it was done here or whether we were aware that this
was what she was doing state-wide.
196
Glaser: In reading about the campaign one gets the impression that nothing
effective was done, that there was no idea of how to really come
to grips with the red-baiting that she and the rank and file
workers were just steam-rolled and kind of befuddled you know,
"What hit us?"
Lustig: I think that's true, that we were just sort of reaching out for
something we could really focus in on and really be effective.
But there was so much that was hitting us , that we were going off
in all directions. I think that this was probably true state-wide.
It was hitting us in so many ways and so many areas, that what do
you focus in on, which one of these do you focus in on and become
effective?
Glaser: Here's a statement by Professor Harry Girvitz that I'd like your
reaction to: "Helen's line was the only intelligent line: that the
indiscriminate attack was making it difficult to identify the real
Communists. "
Lustig: I would say that's probably true, that in the cloud that they were
creating with all of this activity nobody knew what is or isn't a
real Communist. A pink paper represented a Communist to tne general
public. And I have no doubt that a lot of us who were never Commu
nists but who were liberals were smeared with that same brush at
that time. Even amongst some Democrats I'm sure we were considered
pro-Communist at the minimum.
Glaser: There's another statement I want your reaction to. It appeared in
New Republic: that she was too often talking to those who were
already for her and couldn't reach the other kind.
Lustig: I think that's true, because those who were for her were very faith
ful and were very much for her and would hand on every word. They'd
go to every meeting; they'd read everything she said.
But how do you reach the others and how do you know whether
you're reaching the others or not? The meetings that we had for
her here were very successful numerically, but I have no doubt that
a lot of them were people who were already for her. In the first
place, she had been an actress, she was the wife of a very popular
actor, and I think there was a certain amount of that just like
the politicians today will have actors on their committees, and so
forth. Or when they're going to appear, they have these people come.
A lot of people go just to see them. We didn't recognize at that
time that this might be true, but I think it probably was, just to
see her.
Glaser: Did you have any indication subsequent to the '50 campaign that she
favored Eisenhower over Truman? Do you know how she felt about
Mr. Truman?
197
Lustig: No, I don't know at all.
Present Day Activities
Glaser: I think that that pretty much covers the 1950 campaign. I'd like
to know what you're doing now. Obviously you're not inactive
because you recently went to a weekend conference in Los Angeles.
Lustig: Well, that was not a political conference. My main activity right
now is I was in business, my husband and I had a computerized
business bookkeeping and tax service called "Mail-Me-Monday." I
continued the business, after his death, for several years, then
sold it, retaining only a minor interest and retiring from active
participation. It is now called Business Advisors Inc. After I
retired I started doing volunteer work. I helped form what we call
"Call for Action." You have it, I think, in Los Angeles. It's an
ombudsman- type of program that's sponsored by a TV station.
But at the present time my main activity is working on behalf
of the U.S. -China People's Friendship Association. I had the oppor
tunity to go to China, and it was a very moving experience for me
and a tremendous education. I feel very, very strongly that unless
the people of the United States and the people of China understand
each other and are friends with each other, we 're in trouble. After
all, one out of every four people in the world is Chinese, and from
a practical standpoint I think we darned well better be friends.
But I was very, very much impressed with the people of China,
and I would like very much for the people of the United States to
get to know the people of China and vice versa.
Glaser: When was your trip?
Lustig: It was exactly two years ago, in November of 1974.
Glaser: You were one of the early ones. Did you go in a group?
Lustig: There were twenty- two of us.
Glaser: How did you manage this?
Lustig: Through the U.S. -China People's Friendship Association. We consi
dered it a tremendous privilege, because they just weren't geared
for visitors and it was a well, we got to see everything, every
aspect of their life, their economy, everything else. It was a
198
Lustig: very, very intensive tour, and we got to meet people. Of course,
there's always a language barrier, but there were several people
in our group who spoke Chinese fluently. So we knew we were getting
honest questions and honest answers.
Glaser: Well, you must be watching the current situation very closely.*
Lustig: Very, very closely, yes. Like many other people I'm puzzled by a
lot of what's going on, and I'm just hoping that their goal of an
egalitarian society, which seemed to be almost at the point of
accomplishment there, and their goal of helping each other, I hope
that this is going to be continued. This was the thing that was
so impressive, so terribly impressive to us, and I just hope that
this is going to remain their goal.
Glaser: Speaking of China reminds me of the China lobby. Was Senator
Knowland down here during the campaign working against Mrs. Douglas?
Lustig: Whether he was actually here or not I don't recall, but he certainly
must have been working against her because this would be within his
philosophy. And he had a tremendous number of followers here, peo
ple who thought he was just tremendous, of course.
Glaser: But you are not aware that he was actually here.
Lustig: I don't recall that he was here personally.
Glaser: There are a couple of men that I wanted to ask you about who would
be Republicans but from this area. There's a man named Arbuthnot.
Lustig: I don't recognize the name.
Glaser: Arnholt Smith? He's from San Diego.
Lustig: Oh yes, yes indeed he is, he's our famous citizen now [chuckling.]
Glaser: And his brother John?
Lustig: I think he is still chairman of the Del Mar racetrack.
Glaser: Were they active in the '50 campaign?
Lustig: Well, Arnholt Smith never became active. He worked behind the
scenes. What he did actually was contribute money. As you know,
he was Nixon's largest contributor. But he would play both ends
against the middle.
* Succession to position of Mao Tse-tung following his death.
199
Lustig: He had more or less a flunky here by the name of [John] Alessio,
who subsequently has served time in jail for income tax evasion,.
Alessio was a registered Democrat, so that we became aware I don't
think it was so much in the Douglas campaign that we became aware
of this, but it was in the Stevenson campaign that we became aware
that where Arnholt Smith was contributing money to the Republican
party in lesser but still sizeable amounts, Alessio was contributing
money to the Democratic campaign. So that they covered all bases.
Glaser: And the Alessio money was really from Mr. Smith?
Lustig: Yes, they were very much intertwined. And as a matter of fact, yes,
they had many, many intertwining corporations. It was all out of
the same pot.
Glaser: There are some names that I want to check with you. You didn't give
me your husband's first name.
Lustig: Well, his first name was Myron, but he was always called Mike. He
was known as Mike Lustig.
Glaser: And you mentioned a Mr. Noonan.
Lustig: You know, I can't remember his first name. I think it was Bob,
but if you ever talk to Van Deerlin, who is our congressman not
from this district, but in San Diego, he'd probably remember a lot
about the campaign, and he'd probably remember who from the old San
Diego Journal came over to our campaign.
Glaser: There's something else that I wanted to question you about since
you raised Mr. Van Deerlin' s name. I think that Judge Lindsley
mentioned to Mrs. Fry that there had been Douglas money left over
from the campaign that was used for Mr. Van Deerlin 's campaign.
Lustig: Yes.
Glaser: How could there have been money left over if you were scraping the
barrel?
Lustig: Well, there wasn't very much, there was very little left over. You
had asked whether that total immersion of the radio stations that
night before the election was canned. Now I won't swear to this,
but I think this is what happened: we had already planned for that
radio time and were going to put on a canned speech. Then we
received word at the last minute that she was going to give a talk
and time had been purchased state-wide. I think this is how we had
some money left, as I recall. So we polled the committee afterwards,
it seems to me. Maybe Byron [Lindsley] remembers that more accur
ately than 1 do; I had forgotten about that. I think that Annie
Carter was the treasurer of our committee.
200
Glaser: And you were the executive secretary?
Lustig: Yes.
Glaser: Who was the over-all chairman, Judge Lindsley?
Lustig: Judge Lindsley.
Glaser: You said your committee covered San Diego County and Imperial
County too. Was this committee, with Mr. Carter and Judge Lindsley,
for both San Diego city and county?
Lustig: We made no distinction between city and county.
Glaser: I'm going to leave now to talk to Judge Lindsley and I thank you
very, very much.
Lustig: Oh, you're very welcome; it's a pleasure. I wish I could have been
more helpful.
[Taping resumed as Mrs. Lustig discusses committee members]
Glaser: You're mentioning Gladys Coit as a worker?
Lustig: As a worker and a person who not only worked herself but was able
to bring other people in to work.
Glaser: So you considered her a member of the committee.
Lustig: She probably was, but she wouldn't have been a vocal member of the
committee or a policy-making member. She wasn't that kind; she was
just a good worker.
Glaser: Henry Cramer what was his role?
Lustig: He was a member of the committee. He was a member of the men's
Democratic Club, which was the counterpart of the League of Demo
cratic Women. The Men's Democratic Club was really the fundraiser
for all campaigns and the policy maker for the Democrats here.
They were the people who were elected year after year to the Demo
cratic central committee here.
Glaser: Okay. Mr. D.G. Hamilton?
Lustig: D.G. Hamilton was the "Mr. Democrat."
Glaser: Go on to the next names.
201
[Mrs. Lustig refers to list of names she has compiled of 1950
campaign committee]
Lustig: David Feldman, who was a student at that time, and Marlene Jones
Glaser: And you mentioned that they later married.
Lustig: Yes.
Glaser: Who else?
Lustig: Grace Rittoff . Lionel Van Deerlin. Vincent Whelan, Sr. Armistead
Carter. Bertram Vaughn (his son is now a judge here) was a very
active person on the committee. There were a couple of black women
and I can't remember their names. They're both dead. Another black
woman who was not as active but was a part of the campaign was Verna
King. Some of the CIO people.
Transcriber: Pat Raymond
Final Typist: Ann Enkoji
202
Regional Oral History Office University of California
The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California
Women in Politics Oral History Project
HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS PROJECT
Alvin Meyers
HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS AND THE CAMPAIGNS FOR CONGRESS
An Interview Conducted by
Ingrid Winther Scobie
in 1978
Underwritten by grants from:
National Endowment for the Humanities, Rockefeller Foundation,
Members and Friends of the Los Angeles Democratic Women's Forum
Copyright (c) 1981 by the Regents of the University of California
ALVIN P. MEYERS
203
TABLE OF CONTENTS Alvin Meyers
INTERVIEW HISTORY 204
Helen Gahagan Douglas: 1944 Congressional Candidate 205
Meyers: Early Years with the Young Democrats 205
Campaign Strategy 208
Ed and Ruth Lybeck: An Evaluation 213
Campaigning by Neighborhoods 215
Finances 217
The 1946 Campaign 219
A Black Opposition Candidate 220
Finances 223
The Big Political Gamble: A Try for the United States Senate 225
Meyers: Testing the Waters in 1949 225
Some Critical Problems: Money, Strategy, and James Roosevelt 228
The Power Structure of the Campaign Committee 231
The Chotiner Campaign Tactics 234
The Role of Administration Democrats 236
Some Perspectives on Defeat 238
204
INTERVIEW HISTORY
Alvin P. Meyers contributes, in this interview, detailed insights into
Helen Gahagan Douglas's campaigns on the district level for 1944-1950 and
statewide for the 1950 campaign. His articulate recollections of the climate
of. opinion, the decision-making process within her campaign organization, and
Douglas's relationship to key Democrats in California and Washington, are
invaluable for analyzing the considerable campaign materials in the Douglas
Collection at the University of Oklahoma and the Lybeck Collection at the
University of California, Los Angeles. The information is particularly
useful for unraveling questions about the 1950 Senate campaign, such as Douglas's
decision to run, her perception of strategy, and the shortcomings of her
organization.
Meyers' experience in the California Democratic party began in the early
1930s when he helped organize the Young Democrats. He became part of the
small circle surrounding Congressman Thomas Ford, serving -as Ford's public
relations man. In 1944, when Ford decided to retire and selected Douglas as
his choice for a replacement, Meyers took on the job of treasurer for the
Douglas campaign. He continued as treasurer through 1950. More importantly,
he, along with Ruth and Ed Lybeck, Susie Clifton, and a few others, formed the
small, loyal, and dedicated group in Los Angeles that played an important
role in advising Douglas. Meyers became personally close to the Douglas
family as did most of those who worked closely with the congresswoman.
This uninterrupted two-hour interview took place, March 23, 1978, in
Meyers' handsome, wood-paneled office at B'nai B'rith headquarters in Los Angeles
where he volunteers his time. The tone of the interviews was formal but
friendly. During the follow-up editing period, Meyers became increasingly
involved with the whole interviewing process. His concern for detail and
organization and his determination for historical accuracy, permeates the
inter-view text. Although Meyers clearly admired Douglas and felt deep affection
for her, his desire for objectivity is also evident, which adds credibility
to this interview.
Ingrid Winther Scobie
Interviewer-Editor
8 October 1980
Regional Oral History Office
486 The Bancroft Library
University of California at Berkeley
205
VIII HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS AND THE CAMPAIGNS FOR CONGRESS
[Interview 1: March 23, 1978]
[begin tape 1, side A]
Helen Gahagan Douglas: 1944 Congressional Candidate
Meyers: A number of liberal Democrats were elected to Congress in the several
years previous to 1946 which was the year of [Richard] Nixon's
appearance on the scene. I can think of Franck [R. ] Havenner in
San Francisco, Edouard [V.M.] Izac in San Diego, George [E.] Outland
in Santa Barbara, Jerry Voorhis in East Los Angeles County. But of
the entire group of Democrats that was elected previous to '46, Helen
was almost the only survivor. Every one of them was knocked out of
Congress. That was not symptomatic of Nixon's efforts. It was the
climate. The climate began with the McCarthy type of rationale if
you want to call it that or dignify it by calling it that. It was
an off year and there was a lot of money around that was against it
and, as I say, Helen was virtually the only survivor.
Meyers: Early Years with the Young Democrats
Meyers: Anyway, to give you a little background on how I got involved with
Helen, I was one of the four founders of the Young Democrats of
California. This goes back to ' 31 or '32.
Scobie: Who were the other founders?
Meyers: Harold (we called him Hal) Slane, David Gill, Henry Fisher, and
myself . We were in a very peculiar position because previous to the
Roosevelt-Hoover campaign, California was riddled with factions.
There was the [John] Dockweiler faction, headed by Isidore B. Dock-
weiler, California Democratic National Committeeman for sixteen
years until he was unseated by [William Gibbs] McAdoo at the '32
206
Meyers: convention. They were pledged to Al Smith. Isidore Dockweiler was
father of John, later district attorney and still later congressman
from the 16th Congressional District. Then there was the F.D. Roose
velt faction headed by J.F.T. O'Connor, later a federal district
judge. And finally there was the John N. Garner group headed by
William Gibbs McAdoo, former secretary of the treasury under Woodrow
Wilson. The warfare was internecine and deadly. Anyway the Garner
slate, supported by the three Hearst papers in the state, won in the
primaries after a rugged battle.
Thus, when F.D.R. came to California, the Young Democrats played
host to him. He didn't dare appear under the auspices of any of the
three rival groups for fear of antagonizing the other two, in fact
alienating them completely. We took him at Santa Barbara after he
came down the coast, and I did the publicity for his trip through
Southern California and we put on quite a show. As a result, most
of us who were young at the time, met the important people in the
party. Some of them liked us and some of them didn't, but we were
not just an offshoot of or an adjunct to the senior party as was
true in most states where the Young Democrats were tolerated. They
were the go-fors. We were an entity.
We had wound up with 104 active clubs throughout the state.
We were a real force. As a matter of fact, I would say that 20%
of your federal brigade in this state today came from those old
Young Democrats. There are also two members of the supreme court
out of the state who were Young Democrats at that time.
Scobie: This was '31, '32.
Meyers: Yes, but mostly it was active in '32. We were forming in '31. It
was a proposition of "anybody but Hoover."
Scobie: Did these clubs have any relation to the later Democratic club
movement which began in '54?
Meyers: By that time the Young Democrats as I knew them were vestiges. We
were all middle-aged by '54.
The activity led me to a lot of people. Eventually I went with
the IRS [Internal Revenue Service] and I was, as I say, technically
"hatched" from '35 until I left the IRS in '47, but I surreptitiously
kept a finger in.
Scobie: Why were you "hatched?"
Meyers: That was the law. You were not allowed to play politics as a federal
officer. Oh, you could belong to a political organization or club,
but you couldn't hold office and God forbid if you tried to raise
money for a candidate. It was your job at stake.
207
Meyers:
Scobie:
Meyers:
Scobie:
Meyers :
In 1936, the
known as the
Day Dinner,
the kick-off
thing led to
Mrs. Douglas
many others.
Young Democrats staged the very first of what was then
Jackson Day Dinners. Today it's the Jefferson-Jackson
We had almost 1400 people at the Ambassador. It was
of the Roosevelt-Garner reelection campaign. But one
another and in the course of this activity I met
and I met Ed and Ruth Lybeck and Susie [Clifton] and
Helen was not involved in politics.
Yes, she was in a peripheral way. She was involved in liberal
activities. She and Mel had gone up to Kern County to the migratory
workers camp and Mel was active at that time as a much younger man
in Hollywood.
That began, I think, in '37 or '38.
It could have been a little bit later, but what I mean is that there
was a liberal focal point. I had spent quite a little time in the
studios and I was with the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League and all of the
so-called fringe organizations without ever having been a member of
the Communist party or even wanting to be from that day to this. Mel
did the same type of thing. He was in HICCASP [Hollywood Independent
Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions] as I
recall.
Now, I had been active with Tom [Thomas F.] Ford. As a matter of
fact, I had done his public relations . He had been a councilman in the
city of Los Angeles and I had had no contact with him at that time.
Then by a very freak set of circumstances under our California
election law, he became a candidate for Congress. Here I have to ask
you a question. Are you familiar at all with the old crossfiling
law?
Scobie:
Meyers:
Scobie:
Meyers:
Yes.
Well, the man who won the Democratic nomination was a Republican
who lost his own which immediately eliminated him as the Democratic
candidate. The result was that the Los Angeles County Democratic
Central Committee could name a candidate, and as Ford had been a very
successful campaigner for the council, they named him.
When did you do PR work for him?
Only when he became a congressional candidate, which was in '34. Now
this was before I went with IRS. Afterwards I kept very close to the
Fords and there was a sort of an inner cabinet of Tom and Lillian Ford
and Margaret Farrell and Larry Healy and myself. When it came time
for Tom to retire because he was getting along in age, and also because
208
Meyers: he was a very feisty character and I think pressure got to him a
little bit, he conceived the idea that we should run Helen Douglas
in his place.
Now, the old 14th Congressional District had Figueroa Street
practically in the middle of it. West of Figueroa to Hoover was our
"blue blood" district, if you can conceive that. East of Figueroa was
strictly a lower economic area, and there was quite a lot of question
about whether Helen would be an acceptable candidate. She was a
Hollywood actress. She was a blue blood. She was in the money, and
she was just not the kind of candidate that that district would be
expected to go for.
Scobie: Why did Tom come up with her?
Meyers: Very, very impressed with Helen. They were very close, especially
Lillian and Helen, and everybody admired Helen. Ford thought this
might be an extremely good jumping off point, a place to get her
feet wet, you might say. He suggested it, and it fell on sympathetic
ears in a lot of quarters and on very enthusiastic in others, among
them the Lybecks and myself and Susie Clifton.
Campaign Strategy
Meyers: There was a meeting in what is now the Roosevelt building downtown
on Seventh Street in a private office; a meeting of Ruth, Ed, Helen
herself, and myself, and I'm not sure Susie was there. As a matter
of fact, I don't think she was. I know that Tom wasn't there because
we wanted to really kick this around without him.
There was a lot of discussion about how we could sell this silk
stocking candidate on the wrong side of the tracks. I made the
point and it was I who did it (and I don't want this "I" to go
running all through this because I wasn't that pivotal) that there
were three influential papers in Los Angeles at the time that covered
the district we were interested in: the Los Angeles Times, the Los
Angeles Examiner, and what was at one time known as the Illustrated
Daily News and later known as the Daily News.
Scobie: Manchester Boddy's paper.
Meyers: Boddy's paper. I said, "If we can get any one of the three of them
we can nominate her and then if we can get any one of the three to
support her, we can elect her." Well, we got the Daily News. Boddy
went along. We ran strictly an economic campaign.
209
Scobie: What do you mean by economic?
Meyers: On one side of Figueroa the campaign was pitched to the unions and
the workers and on the other side of Figueroa to the wealthy or at
least the well-to-do. I don't want to give you the impression that
this was a cynical campaign. It stressed different issues. You
always emphasize different things in different places and at different
times.
Scobie: I've got a campaign sheet here from '44. I'd like you to take a
look at it.
Meyers: Where did you get these materials?
Scobie: Different places. I am writing a biography of Douglas so I have
been to the University of Oklahoma and have copies of some materials.
Meyers: Oklahoma's got the best.
Scobie: They have her papers, plus I have been through the Lybeck papers.
Meyers: Did Sharon [Lybeck] give you the Lybeck papers?
Scobie: They are at UCLA in the Special Collections department.
Meyers: Oh, they are? I didn't know that.
Scobie: Oh, yes, they are quite extensive. It's been some time since I
looked at those. Then her interview at Berkeley has now been
transcribed. Now, you were talking about an economic campaign.
Meyers: Anyway, I forget what the name of her Republican opponent it is an
Irish name.
Scobie: Here are all the people who ran on the primary against her.
Meyers: Bill [William D.] Campbell was the eventual candidate. Yes, you can
see that.
Scobie: [Gives Meyers some papers] Here are the election statistics.
Meyers: G. Vernon Bennett later became a councilman. Well you see, we won
fairly handily in the primary. Loren Miller was, I'm sure you know,
black and later became a judge. An excellent, tremendous guy.
[Pause] It was sort of a squeak in the final election, wasn't it?
Scobie: The first time around, yes. By '48 she really won hands down.
210
Meyers: I know.
Scobie:
Meyers:
Scobie:
Meyers :
Scobie:
Meyers :
Scobie:
Meyers:
Scobie:
Meyers:
Well, now that you've got this, let me tell you something. To
go back to that first point we were talking about, George Outland
was defeated in '46, Voorhis in '46, Ned {R. J Healy was defeated in
'46, Ellis Patterson was defeated in '46, but not Cecil [R.] King.
Yes, Cecil King kept on and so did Chet Holifield.
Yes, Chet [Chester E.j Holifield kept on until he got tired. Clyde
Doyle kept on, by the way. Clyde did, Chet did.
Yes, I just talked to him this morning, as a matter of fact.
Who?
Chet Holifield.
How is he?
He sounded fine, he sounded good,
one of these days.
I'm going to be talking with him
Scobie:
Harry [R. ] Sheppard, of course, kept on. John Phillips was a
Republican. Ed Izac and Franck Havenner were the other ones who
were defeated.
That's quite a handful.
Oh, it was almost a clean sweep.
In any event, the thing that was done in these congressional
campaigns and this was done noticeably in '46 and '48, more so than
in '44 when she was an outsider you might say, was that we conducted
a home meeting type campaign. People would invite their neighbors
in and we would set up maybe three a night or maybe as many as four
a night and pay for the cookies and hire the chairs and she'd go from
one to the other.
We carried that through, by the way, years later in Jimmy
Roosevelt's campaigns for Congress. We tied in very closely and paid
for most of the advertising, joint advertising, with the Democratic
assemblymen in the district. There were four Democratic assemblymen
in those districts.
Right. The districts were the 64th, the 55th, the 44th, and the
62nd.
Meyers: The 62nd was {Augustus] Hawkins.
211
Scobie: Yes, that was the black district.
Meyers: Yes. The 55th I think was Vernon Kilpatrick.
Scobie: Yes, I think it was too. I interviewed him once, a sweet person.
Meyers: The 64th along about that time was Sam Yorty. Now, he may not have
lasted much longer after that. What was the other one?
Scobie: I think Yorty was out in '40 because he ran for the Senate, and he
didn't come back in until '49.
Meyers: Well, Tom Ford put Yorty in the Assembly tne first time.
Scobie: Why?
Meyers: Tom and John Baumgartner, whose name is on here, were tremendously
strong pro-municipal ownership of the Water and Power Department
which was being attacked very heavily by private utility companies,
private water companies. The Times was a very strong municipal
ownership paper because it was Harry Chandler who brought water to
Los Angeles.
In any event, Sam was an employee of the Water and Power Depart
ment and I think if you dropped a pin on a plush cushion it made enough
noise for Sam to say, "Mr. Chairman." [Laughter] He was very good
on his feet and he was very presentable at the time and they picked
him and just put him on the 64th district ballot.
Scobie: That must have been '38 because he became conservative in '40.
Meyers: He went completely conservative, and before Ed Lybeck came into
Helen's campaign, he and a man by the name of Les Mailer formed a
group that beat Sam. Sam had put together the "Little Dies" committee
which was a witch-hunting aggregation, pure and simple.
Scobie: That's right and then Jack Tenney took over.
Meyers: Anyway, we made that decision on the basis of a very cold-blooded
appraisal. If we could not get one of those three papers, she was
not going to run because you just couldn't buck a coalition of that
kind. Boddy represented the liberal forces and did an excellent
job at doing so while the Times-Examiner and Herald Express were
conservative as hell.
She won and, of course, she became fairly prominent and survived
the '46 campaign and ran away with the '48 campaign. Along the line,
as I recall it, she was twice a speaker at Democratic conventions.
[Tape interruption: telephone]
212
Scobie: Before we go on to the '50 campaign, I'd like to ask you some more
questions on the earlier campaigns. First of all, why do you think
Boddy was willing to buy her as a candidate?
Meyers: [Reads list of names from primary election returns] Outside of
Loren Miller who had status in the black district and G. Vernon
Bennett who even then was beginning to be a doddering sort of fossil
but who later, oddly enough, became a pretty good councilman there
was no one you could really latch onto among the Democrats. Boddy
was not at all averse to supporting Helen. Her record in liberal causes
and the fact that she was extremely presentable and damn good looking
and a good talker and a good salesman attracted Mm. Besides she
was not the usual run of office seeker.
Scobie: What do you mean by that?
Meyers: She could sell herself to you.
Scobie: What did she use to sell herself?
Meyers: Well, she had a lot of beliefs about the way things should run and
the way things should be done and some of them eventually cost her
the '50 election. But at that time they were more or less the same
kind of thing that Boddy championed.
Scobie: How did Helen respond to all this interest in her as a candidate?
Meyers: I think she was beginning to feel that she had something to say and
that she would like to spread it around. This was before she became
a driven person. This was before she took the bit between her teeth
and irrespective of what anybody thought, what she thought should be
done, she espoused.
For example, I don't want to jump to the '50 campaign but there
were violent schisms in the Democratic party in the '50 campaign that
had nothing to do with Nixon, nothing at all except that they redounded
to his benefit. She became a little bit myopic by the time the '50
campaign rolled around because she thought that if she latched onto
an issue, that everybody else was automatically interested in it,
believed in it, and wanted to hear about, and of course that wasn't
so.
If you want to jump for a minute to '50, I can tell you that
she was resoundingly defeated by Nixon but part of it was her own
fault. She asked for trouble. She asked for trouble, a little bit
unnecessarily .
Scobie: Why don't we lead up to that?
213
Meyers: All right. As I did say, I think she spoke at two Democratic
conventions during her tenure in office in Congress.
Scobie: She was nominated for vice-president in '48, so sh.e talked there,
Meyers: Yes, I know. That was easy. Those nominations were empty gestures,
like the one for Barbara Jordan. Those have no substance.
Scobie: They are symbolic of something, though, that's going on.
Meyers: Of course. Somebody has to take the time to get up and make a
nomination speech and certainly has to have given it some thought.
Scobie: Let me ask you, back to the Lybecks, I'd like to get a little bit
more detail. Why were they involved with the Fords and in politics?
Ed and Ruth Lybeck: An Evaluation
Meyers: Well, they actually were not involved so much with the Fords. The
Ford's campaign manager was Larry Healy. The Lybecks came aboard
in '44 for Helen's first campaign and really got to know the Fords
then. For a long time, Ed was an employee of the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power and because of its rules, wasn't supposed
to do any politicking.
Ruth, on the other hand, was free to do as she pleased, and she
did exactly that. There was a strong vein of Scandinavian liberal
ism in her, in both of them for that matter. I suppose some people
would call it socialism of the Norwegian variety. In any event, Ruth
would get knee deep into one campaign or other and often had top level
titles, but back of Ruth there was always Ed.
Scobie: Was he a good campaign manager?
Meyers: He was an extremely good one.
Scobie: In what way?
Meyers: I was going to say in a sort of analytical way he could put his
finger on the key issue or the most appealing line of preservation.
Now, my statement to you about the economic campaign in the old
14th district and the demarcation at Figueroa was Ed's thinking.
That was based on Ed and I readily agreed because it was essentially
the right kind of analysis. The house meetings that were devised
were not only devised by Ed, they were put in motion by Ed and
214
Meyers: Ruth as well as the formula for working them. The idea of tying
closely to the Democratic assemblymen in the different districts
was, I would say, a combination of Ed and myself but more Ed than
myself .
Scobie: Can you describe how that really functioned?
Meyers: That functioned extremely well. What happened was that in every
district there was a main headquarters and the Democratic head
quarters had signs such as "Helen Douglas for Congress So-and-So
for Senate;" "Helen Douglas for Congress Vernon Kilpatrick for the
Assembly," et cetera, et cetera, and we would pay most of the expenses
and practically all of the advertising.
Scobie: Was this done in all the four assembly districts?
Meyers: Yes. Now that carried over, believe it or not, to other campaigns.
Jim Roosevelt decided to run for Congress in '54, but he didn't live
in the district [the 26th]. By that time I was free for politics as
I had my own practice. I knew Lester McMillan very well who was the
incumbent assemblyman in the 61st district and he called me up and
he said, "Al, for God's sake, what are you doing to me?" This came
right on the heels of a terrible scandal in Jim Roosevelt's family.
He had written his wife, Romelle, a letter that he had slept with
eleven women in Hawaii, and we knew he was going to get pulverized
in the press. But I said, "Les , you haven't seen the kind of
campaign we run." Of course, as a result of the campaign he became
a convert because we ran a hell of a good campaign. Lybeck was an
expert. I would take him on for anything, up to and including the
mayoralty because he knew the city, he knew the districts, he knew
the people.
Scobie: How did he get to know the city so well?
Meyers: Because during the Depression we all did a lot of things if we
wanted to eat regularly. He did a lot of things, as I did a lot of
things, and he got into politics as a way of getting on a payroll.
Now, cut this off for a moment because I want to tell you something.
[Tape interruption]
[end tape 1, side A; begin tape 1, side B]
Meyers: However, outside Los Angeles he was lost. He was lost in San
Francisco; he was lost in Sacramento. He had never had statewide
experience. I had had state experience through the Young Democrats
to an extent, at least in several campaigns. I had become publicity
director for the State Democratic Central Committee when Culbert
Olson was the state chairman before he became governor .
215
Meyers: But to go back to your question, Ed was a helluva good campaigner,
and I enjoyed working with. him. We respected each other and he was,
as I say, eminently capable of running a congressional campaign and
we ran the later ones together.
Campaigning by Neighborhoods
Scobie: These home meetings, how did he go about getting people who would have
a meeting in a house?
Meyers: Actually, it was more Ruth than Ed with respect to these meetings.
It would be a chain reaction. You would get a volunteer and if
someone said, "Is there something I can do?" you would go, "Yes, do
you have a patio; do you have a home; do you have a living room;
will you ask your neighbors to come in? We'll supply you the chairs
and we'll bring the cookies and make coffee." And one of those would
set off another.
Scobie: She had so many different kinds of people in the lower class areas.
She had Little Tokyo, she had Philippine groups, she had a huge group
of Mexican- Americans. Would she touch on all these groups?
Meyers: Let me say that I think you're looking at the wrong end of the
telescope. The Philippines group was minuscle.
Scobie: Right, but the Mexican- American group was big.
Meyers: Yes and no. You're thinking of the Mexican-American group in that
congressional district today, but it wasn't that way in '44. Boyle
Heights was still largely Jewish in '44. The Mexicans had not yet
taken over completely. When the Jews moved out of Temple Street
and Boyle Heights, mostly they moved to the West Adams district,
and then the Mexicans followed in. They were not as strong in '44
as they are today.
Scobie: Now the Jewish group, what economic level were they? All levels?
Meyers: No, at that time they were no different from anybody else that was
struggling. If they lived there, they were struggling, and of course
there were successful people among them. Typically there was a
gradual exodus. The more affluent ones moved first and then they
were followed, and as the Mexicans entered, or in a few cases blacks
moved in. For instance, in what became the 26th district, it was
the blacks who followed the Jews into the West Adams district, that
whole West Adams district that began with Western Avenue and Adams
and even east to Figueroa Street and Adams had been the home then of
216
Meyers:
Scobie:
Meyers :
Scobie:
Meyers :
Scobie:
Meyers :
Scobie:
Meyers:
Scobie:
Meyers:
Scobie:
big wealth. The Jews moved in on the west side of it and then when
they moved out, the blacks moved in. There was no transition from
Mexican to black. Helen's 14th district ran, as I recall, to
Exposition Boulevard which included Adams east of Figueroa.
It starts on Hollywood in the east-northwest corner. Then through
a large home-owning district, through a big apartment area, through
the Wilshire district, civic center, picked up downtown. Then she
did indicate (this is Helen's description) that she had a heavy
Spanish-speaking area, China City, Little Tokyo, and then into the
56th and the 62nd.
Let me tell you this, that there was a fairly sizeable Chinatown
but a very small Japanese area. Little Tokyo was practically
nothing.
Would you give any weight at all to the fact that Mel was half
Jewish in terms of the Jewish response?
No, the opposition did that for us. Gerald L.K. Smith and Wesley
Swift and those.
In what way?
Hammered on Melville Himmelfarb. They hammered on it, you see,
"You can't elect this woman that sleeps with a Jew" and that type of
thing. So we didn't do. a thing; we ignored it.
Was this all underground kind of campaigning?
Well, no. I mean those papers, what is it, The Cross and the Flag,
I think was one. I forget what Wesley Swift's was. But they were
published. They were not underground papers.
Nothing secret about it?
No, nothing surreptitious about it.
So in terms of the '44 campaign, the people that were primarily
involved in making decisions were you and the Lybecks and that's
about it?
Meyers: No, no. That was the decision to go into it. The Fords were very
active in the campaign itself, and we used all of Ford's resources.
John Baumgartner, who was the incumbent councilman in the 12th district
who had succeeded Ford. As a matter of fact, I ran one of his
campaigns. He was so popular that in 1937, I think it was, he was
not opposed for reelection.
217
Scobie: Okay, who else?
Meyers: We had those resources and we used Boddy and the Daily News for
everything that we could.
Finances
Scobie: What about money? What kind of money were you able to get and where
did you get it from?
Meyers: Nobody had a hell of a lot of money. The Democratic congressional
campaign committee would send out money.
Scobie: Was that on the state level?
Meyers: No, congressional. Each party traditionally has a congressional
campaign committee which allocates to different districts a certain
amount of the national committee funds.
Scobie: This comes out of the national committee. What about on the state
level?
Meyers: On the state level in 1944, Earl Warren was the Republican governor
and we couldn't expect very much.
Scobie: But the state committee did not contribute?
Meyers: No. The state committee didn't raise much. If it raised any
money, I wasn't aware of it.
Scobie: Did you get many labor contributions?
Meyers: Yes, we got labor contributions; and, as important as labor
contributions, we got many labor votes.
Scobie: Here's '44. These are expenses. Her total expenses were $935.
This says that she didn't get any it says from who or what source
received, none. So probably she didn't get much of anything
substantially in the primary. [Continues to go through papers]
Here we go. Here are the contributions for the fall. You might
want to look those over and see if it rings any bells.
Meyers: [Studies papers] I wouldn't say anything was very overwhelming,
would you?
Scobie: No.
218
Meyers: The name Mary Foy won't mean anything to you.
Scobie: What does it mean to you?
Meyers: She was the very first Democratic national committeewoman from
California.
Scobie: Let's move on to '46 and if anything comes to mind on '44, that's
fine. [Tape interruption: telephone] By this time, she had
established herself.
Meyers: I don't know whether she had made that basket speech in that first
session.
Scobie: She made that in '46; I think it was something like September.
Meyers: Yes, before the '46 election.
Scobie: Yes, she had been an alternate delegate to the UN. She was elected
"freshman of the congressmen" in ' 44 . I don't quite know why she
was elected. Do you remember anything about that?
Meyers: No. I don't know what that phrase means.
Scobie: Then she also wrote a pamphlet by the '46 campaign in reply to
the criticism about blacks' contribution to the war. She had
written a substantial statement about black contributions to the
armed forces during World War II and had circulated it widely.
Meyers: Probably assisted by Mary Bethune.
Scobie: I'm sure.
Meyers: Now, let me go back a half a minute because I want to go back to
Mr. Lybeck. Mr. Lybeck was one of the old Black Mask authors.
It was a pulp magazine. A dime detective pulp magazine in the
thirties that produced Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler and he
knew the English language. I had done a lot of that type of thing;
I've written biographies and screen plays and stuff. As a matter of
fact, I have worked for several studios. So we knew a little bit
about the English language and there was much that was written,
especially two speeches that Helen made in Democratic conventions,
that were collaborations of Ed and my own. We ghostwrote much
of each.
Scobie: Do you remember what they were about?
219
Meyers: No, I can remember what they were about, but vaguely. But she made
the speeches and did them beautifully, but I want to correct any
impression that I might have left here that Ed was just a political
journeyman who traveled from campaign to campaign. He was a highly
intelligent, articulate man.
The 1946 Campaign
Meyers: Now, to go to '46. In '46, of course, it was a vicious campaign.
[Tape interruption]
Scobie: Roberts.
Meyers: Oh, Fred [Frederick M. ] Roberts.
Scobie: Yes, here's the primary and we'll pick it up here. Then the final
election I've got right here. She ran against Roberts.
Meyers: Oh, this is Wilbur W. Campbell. That's not the same Campbell as in
1944. The story we got was that the Republican congressional campaign
committee would send $25,000 out here to the Republican candidate and
when William Campbell was the candidate he just sat on it.
Scobie: He didn't use it?
Meyers: Well, he used some of it. He had to make a showing. So one day he
came up again, "Now, we're not going to give you the money. We're
going to come out there and see that it gets spent."
Scobie: Yes, these are '44. Here are the expenditures of all the candidates
and here Campbell spent $7,200; Douglas, $997. These are three
different things that Campbell put in.
Meyers: Of course, you can't take that literally for several reasons. There
were only certain types of expenditures that you had to report.
Scobie: Tell me a little more about that. Do you remember which kinds?
Meyers: I don't remember it myself. I remember '50 because I was responsible
for most of it in '50, but I think most of it had to do with news
papers, radio, and later with television that type of expenditure
and printing expenditures you had to report. My recollection is,
and I could be very much at fault here, that you didn't have to
report meeting costs or donations to organizations that staged
meetings .
220
Scobie: Now, this was the '50 campaign,
she's running against a black.
We'll pick that up later. In '46
A Black Opposition Candidate
Meyers:
Scobie:
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Scobie:
In '46, Fred Roberts.
Right. I understand that the Republicans sent Joe Louis out to
campaign. Do you remember anything about that?
Yes, he came out. It didn't mean anything.
Why not?
It didn't mean anything because in the first place, Joe was hardly
articulate, and a lot of people resented the idea. He was not a
Calif ornian and this was a pretty parochial, provincial sort of
state. You have to realize that when Jim Roosevelt ran for governor
in 1950 he was a twelve-year resident here, and they crucified him
on the fact that he was a "carpetbagger." So you can figure what
effect Joe Louis had. Intelligent people and intelligent blacks
simply ignored it. Now, there was a countervailing balance there
because Hawkins was and still is immensely popular down there, and
we tied in with Gus and ran a Douglas-Hawkins campaign. It was not
just that we tied in with him; he tied in with us too. I don't know
how many votes Roberts got, but it didn't mean anything.
[Looks through papers]
Meyers]
Here's the general election. [Gives it to
Roberts got a few votes at that, didn't he.
But let me show you something interesting. I think I've got a
breakdown by the districts.
You see that Healy gets beaten and Voorhis gets beaten and Outland
gets beaten.
Now look at this. This is kind of interesting.
All in the 62nd?
No, this '44 versus '46. In the 62nd, her opponent's vote is about
11,000 and she's picked up over 14,000 so even in the 62nd she won.
Meyers: Yes, that's where Gus Hawkins figured.
221
Scobie: Right. In fact, she did a little bit better than she had in '44.
Here's Campbell's vote.
Meyers: Roberts didn't do an awful lot better in 1946.
Scobie: No, nothing hardly.
Meyers: But he did suprisingly well in Vernon Kilpatrick's district.
Scobie: Yes, but not as well as Campbell had done.
Meyers: No.
Scobie: But Helen drops way down. Now, the total vote here is thirty-nine
and it ' s only twenty-eight .
Meyers: Right. You've dropped 10,000.
Scobie: You dropped 10,000. That's a big drop.
Meyers: Here's twenty-six and here's thirty-three.
Scobie: So you're getting a loss of population there, or voting anyway.
Meyers: Mencken used to say, "Don't stir up the animals." I think in the
'44 campaign the animals were stirred up.
Scobie: Why?
Meyers: Well, because of the invasion from the outside. Here the Republicans
dropped 14,000 votes and Helen drops 9,000 votes because of the
invasion from Hollywood of a silk stocking gal.
Scobie: So the Republicans are getting all uptight.
Meyers: Yes, they were getting uptight. [Laughs] As I say, the animals
got stirred up.
Scobie: Between campaigns, between '44 and '46, did you keep in touch with
what was going on with Florence Reynolds?
Meyers: She was Helen's local secretary.
Scobie: She had worked for Ford also.
Meyers: Yes, and Helen took her on from Ford.
Scobie: Right. Did you keep in touch with her?
222
Meyers :
Scobie:
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Oh, yes.
What kinds of things did she do?
She was strictly a secretary. She was not a politico. She would
be called today a field representative. That's hardly true because
she didn't have it in her to be a real field representative. But she
ran the office and did what was necessary in the way of telephoning
and was a very lovely person, a very nice person, very easy to get
along with. She made no enemies, I promise you that.
Did Helen keep in pretty close touch with her district?
Yes.
How?
Through Ed, through myself, through Susie, through people like
Mary Bethune. And she became very friendly with her original
primary opponent, Loren Miller, and through the assemblymen. Helen
did her homework and she was available and she came out on request
and she made talks and she was highly visible.
Do you think she really sensed what the district needed?
I think that at that point Ed Lybeck and Ruth Lybeck were invaluable
to her.
Now there are some people who become too big for their britches.
We have one congressman today, an old hand, whose field representative
is certain that he's really the congressman. This was never true of
Ed. He was there to help. Now I have to tell you, jumping ahead a
little, that Ed was opposed to the senatorial campaign.
Would you like to move into the ' 50 campaign and then we can come
back and pick up anything we have left out?
Oh, we can jump around a little. He was opposed on the basis of
the fact that because of so many people being knocked out in '46;
there were some that I forgot, like [Everett G. ] Burkhalter was
knocked out that same year by [Carl] Hinshaw. She began to get
seniority on the Foreign Relations Committee and Ed felt that the
chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee was more important
than being a Senator of the United States, especially a freshman
Senator who perforce is supposed to be inarticulate and unassuming.
You don't get very many [Pat] Moynihans . But he actually felt that
it was more important and the fact of the matter is that within six
years she'd have been chairman and she'd have gone on being elected
in that district ad infinitum.
223
Meyers: I'll tell you how easy it was. When she was defeated in '50, it was
Sam Yorty who was elected. He just threw his hat in the ring and got
elected. There was no question about the fact that she could have
kept on. Yorty hardly campaigned at all.
It fell on me to make a trip around the state. I think that
was in '49. Now, this is strictly '50. If you want to lead up to
it, let's back track.
Finances
Scobie: All right, let's back track a little bit because I have lots of
questions on '50 and you've got lots of thoughts, but let's finish
up here. In '48, let's pull out this stuff for '48. [Brings out
materials on 1948] And I've got another question on '46. You were
not treasurer?
Meyers: No, I was in the IRS.
Scobie: So that's why Susie Clifton put her name on it.
Meyers: That's right.
Scobie: Here's 1946. There are two financial statements filed for '46.
One comes from Susie Clifton and one comes from Helen. She files
her own.
Meyers: Oh, along about that time, the state required a separate statement
from the campaign committee and from the candidate.
Scobie: That's required by the state?
Meyers: Yes, the State of California.
Scobie: So that's why there are two of them?
Meyers: Yes.
Scobie: Okay, because I was wondering about that because that wasn't true
previous to that date.
Meyers: She had no expenditures, nothing. She just got this money.
Scobie: Yes, but then Susie's put in a lot.
224
Meyers:
Scobie:
Meyers:
Scobie:
Meyers :
Scobie:
Meyers:
Scobie:
Meyers:
Yes, but what I mean is she collects $565, she contributes $385,
which totals $950 and it shows $950 to the committee itself. This
is the only kind of thing you had to report really.
That's the old Sentinel, eh?
Read those two and see if you've got any comment on that,
of interesting.
It's kind
[Tape interruption as Meyers reads letters] Usually a letter from
Leon Washington was for money, for support. You could almost put the
word "support" in quotes. [Tape interruption] Well, Washington was
caught in a dilemma. He was forced to open his columns to any black
candidate. There was another paper down there at this time, the
California Eagle, edited by Charlotta Bass . The Eagle was much more
forthrightly a Democratic paper, but Charlotta was getting old and
losing her grip a little and then Loren Miller succeeded to the
ownership of the Eagle and he made no bones about the fact that it
was a Democratic paper. But that came after these years. The
Washington letter was typical of him. He was always looking for
something. In '48, did Campbell come back in '48?
No, her primary candidate there was fW. WallaceJ Braden,
Oh, yes, Wallie Braden.
What kind of a candidate was he?
I don't recall him terribly much. She beat him two to one handily.
[Pause] Boy, there were a lot of irresponsible people running for
office. However, Braden was not one of them. He was a responsible
citizen.
Now, here's Susie's financial statement for '46 that I was looking
for. This expense form of the congressional district campaign is
probably what finally required much more substantial breakdown.
Yes, that's '46. It seems to me that in years gone by you had to
file a statement before the end of the campaign and after. [Reads
from 14th Congressional District Campaign Committee Statement of
Receipts and Expenditures] Philip Dunne, Otto Preminger . Yes, you
see a lot of movie people here. She got a thousand dollars from
the Democratic National Committee whereas Campbell, the Republican,
would get twenty-five. I think this is probably one of the few
that are honest. [Laughter] Now, here she got another $2,500, from
the Democratic National Committee.
Scobie: Still nothing from the state, I gather.
225
Meyers: No. Mel put in $296. Marshall Stimson, Evie Chavoor, Charles Carr
was a Young Democrat who later became a senior federal judge.
Stanley Mosk and. . .
Scobie: Mosk became a California Supreme Court justice and still is as a
matter of fact.
Meyers: Yes. We had two of them on the bench of the supreme court that
came right out of that group. Matt [Matthew.] Tobriner is the other.
Scobie: Did you put any of your own money into her campaigning as you went
along?
Meyers: I was living on shoestrings at the time. I think I got married in
'38 and I was making something like $124 a month.
Scobie: [Laughs] That's not too much, is it?
Meyers: What we did was we dipped in our pockets for odds and ends expenses
that came up where you could use cash.
The Big Political Gamble: A Try for the United States Senate
Meyers: Testing the Waters in 1949
Scobie: How would you assess her situation as she goes into the '50
campaign?
[end tape 1, side B; begin tape 2, side A]
Meyers: In '48, '49 and those years, [Sheridan] Downey's group was the
dominant group. By that time, the Culbert Olson group had fallen
by the wayside and Upton Sinclair had vanished. We had a Republican
state administration. The result was that the focal point of the
Democratic party lay in the Downey senatorial seat and his group.
In '49 I made a trip around the state to sound out Helen's prospects
for the Senate, because it had become obvious at least to the people
back in Washington not to me out here, but the people in Washington
that Downey was an ill man and might not run for reelection. I
found among practically all of the leaders in the state, especially
north, that, "Yes, I'll be glad to support Helen if Downey doesn't
run" type of thing.
226
Meyers: Bill Malone, who was the power in San Francisco and the Democratic
county chairman then, said that very flatly. He said, "I love Helen,
but my duty is to Downey and my connections are with Downey." What
of course he didn't say was that his patronage was from Downey, and
"I'm going to have to support Downey if he runs." I found that pretty
true up and down the state with some violent exceptions. There were
some people who felt that Downey had progressed from far left to
extreme right and who were unhappy with him. That was in the labor
groups and the labor papers and that type of organization.
Scobie: What was their reaction to Helen?
Meyers: Their reaction was that they liked Helen.
Scobie: They'd take her right away?
Meyers: They liked Helen, yes. I don't know whether you've got that letter
that I wrote. It must have been an eight-page letter that I wrote
to her about my reactions.
Scobie: I'm sure that it's in her files, but I haven't seen it.
Meyers: Some of it was very favorable and because of the fact that you don't
ever want to deliberately hurt anybody's feelings, I would color
and I did color things with such thoughts as "I'm sure that if that
happens that he will support you," because what we couldn't foresee
was that there were groups who were determined to have anybody but
Helen largely because of her public stands on certain things. Tide
water oil was one of the things.
As a matter of fact, one of the most influential Democrats in
the state was John B. Elliott. Elliott had been MacAdoo's campaign
manager and had been the campaign manager for the Garner primary
campaign back in '32 when Garner won the state against Roosevelt,
and a very wealthy man who spoke for the oil interests. He owned
an oil company of his own. He told Helen that when the tidewater
oil vote comes up, "Why don't you visit the family in Vermont. You
don't have to vote yes on it. We don't ask you to do that. Just
stay the hell out of Washington." And she refused. He told me the
same thing in an elevator at the California Club. The result was
that oil money came in here on railroad gondolas. They would shovel
it off. Not literally of course, but they had no end of money.
Her stand on 160-acres alienated a lot of the agribusiness
companies. People who I talked to on this trip around [the state]
like Lionel Steinberg, very prominent in the valley centered around
Bakersfield and Fresno, a big grower: "Sure I love Douglas." But
he went overboard against her when she was adamant on 160-acres, you
see. A lot of these liberal postures resulted in money being not only
lost, but spent against her violently spent.
227
Scobie: Did you suspect this at all when you made your tour?
Meyers: No. In the first place, I think that the lure of a statewide office
and the membership in that club back there is conducive to a little
bit of temporary insanity. I further think that there are too many
politicos in Washington who think that they're able to judge local
situations from a distance of 2,000 miles. There's no question in
my mind that Helen was nudged into this by associates in Washington
who said, "We'll support you and we'll do everything we can and we'll
raise money and you're a cinch."
I remember when Nixon filed, Helen herself made the statement
that "this is going to be a great campaign because it's going to be
a campaign on the issues. I'm on one side of issues and he's on
another." It never developed that way. She kept to the issues and
he ran the campaign that won't stay buried, shall I put it that way,
that campaign. I ran into it in England. They still talk about
that damn campaign.
In any event, what was not anticipated was the fact that when
Downey retired either by reason of health or because he thought he
might be beaten and I choose to believe it was by reason of poor
health, nobody anticipated Boddy being the tool of the coalescence
of all of these conservatives, if you want to call it that. Nobody
dreamed he would run against Helen in the primary.
Scobie: These conservatives would go Democrat in a normal situation?
Meyers: They weren't Democratic as far as Boddy was concerned, for sure.
But then most of them promptly formed "Democrats for Nixon" like
Mrs. Mattison Boyd Jones. I remember getting the call from some
people when Boddy was announced, who said, "My God," because he was
very popular and his paper was popular, "aren't you afraid of Manchester
Boddy?" I said, "Well, I'll tell you what you do. Go down on the
street and ask the first ten people you see who is the publisher of
the San Francisco Examiner, or go up to San Francisco and ask them
who the publisher of the Los Angeles Daily News is and then tell me
if I have a right to be scared."
He posed no threat except that his support automatically was
lost when he ran as was the support of his Daily News. It was
automatically lost to Helen when he ran and it was automatically
lost to the rest of the campaign because he refused to take a stand
in the general election. He did no endorsement which in a strong
Democratic paper is the same as an anti-stance. In any event, that
was unforeseen. And Boddy became, we chose to believe, a tool of
the oil interests.
228
Meyers: Boddy may not have beaten her in the primary, but he sure as hell
helped defeat her in the general. He of course hammered the 160-acre
and oil issues, but he reserved his toughest attacks on the issue of
communism. Of course, the press picked up these attacks and amplified
them. Chotiner dubbed Helen "The Pink Lady," and put out the repre
hensible "Pink Sheet" comparing Helen's voting record with Marcantonio 's,
While Helen was the first to label Nixon "Tricky Dick," he countered
with such genteel effusions as "she's pink right down to her under
pants." She was editorially called "the darling of the Hollywood
parlor pinks and Reds."
Nixon emerged as the tool of Kyle Palmer, political editor of
the Times who, along with the Chandlers, hated Jerry Voorhis . With
solid backing of the "Committee of 100" which was put together by
Palmer, John Garland a Chandler in-law Nixon easily won the
Republican nomination in the 12th district. In the post-war, with
anti-communism gripping the nation in '46, he beat Voorhis badly
and was easily reelected in '48.
Hand-picked by the Times , Nixon's Senate campaign in '50 began
when Asa Call, top dog of Pacific Mutual Insurance Company, which was,
I seem to remember the largest independent insurance company in the
West, and a committee of twenty raised the first $20,000 and Murray
Chotiner was hired. Nixon had an easy time in his primary race. But
it was different on the Democratic side. Manchester Boddy, backed
by Ed Pauley and John B. Elliott, oil men, opposed her on tidewater
and agribusiness.
The campaign developed much as you probably already know it except
that there were some things that I don't think anybody has spoken
about so I might as well get my feet wet .
Scobie: That's one of the main purposes of these conversations.
Some Critical Problems: Money, Strategy, and James Roosevelt
Meyers: I felt and Ed felt and other people who had some knowledge of state
campaigning felt that we should concentrate in not more than eight
areas in the state: San Francisco, Sacramento, the San Jose-Santa
Clara County area, Fresno, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Bernardino.
Scobie: All urban areas.
Meyers: Urban and Democratic. Forget those that you could write off, like
Orange and Riverside. Forget them and the smaller counties, which
is exactly what was not done.
229
Meyers: Helen spent a good deal of her time in one-horse stops in the San
Joaquin Valley because she was enamored of this 160-acre issue. As
a matter of fact, the day before the election she and Evie Chavoor
were in the valley and spent something like, I don't know, $16,000
or $18,000 on last-minute newspaper ads which never do anybody a
damn bit of good and that was our deficit. We wound up with a $17,000
deficit.
But there was not enough urban exposure on a big scale. Now you
can't in a senatorial campaign run a house meeting type-of -thing.
You need mass rallies. So we had some mass rallies. And what happened?
We had a tailgate rally at Douglas Aircraft with thousands of guys
that belong to the machinists or the United Auto Workers or one of
those unions who gathered around. And what did Helen talk about?
A hundred and sixty acres! They couldn't care less! We were mired
down by a lot of lip service from unions. I particularly remember
the machinists.
Scobie:
Meyers:
Scobie:
Meyers:
The union paid for a statewide broadcast. And I remember being
on the scene. As I recall it was KNX, and they paid for it. It was
a good speech because it was a labor speech, what they wanted. When
the results came in, they hadn't voted for her. We got quite a little
bit of union money in that campaign. I would say that the backbone
of the financing was union money. We have it there. [Looks through
papers; reads] Textile Workers of America, California Labor League,
CIO Political Action, ILGWU [International Ladies' Garment Workers'
Union], Machinists, Nonpartisan Political League, Amalgamated
Political Action Fund, Railway Labor's Political League, voluntary
contributions by delegates at the State Convention of AFL, Restaurant
Employees and Bartenders League, Trainmen's Political Education League,
Greater Los Angeles CIO-PAC National Election Fund. The bulk of the
money was labor, but they didn't vote for her.
Why?
I think they were scared by the Nixon campaign.
What were the real elements of the Nixon campaign that you feel
upset labor?
The anti-communists tied her up with Vito Marcantonio, an avowed
socialist, something like fifty-two or fifty-four issues where they
voted alike, but they didn't say a word about the fact that Nixon
had voted on about thirty-four issues the same as Marcantonio. But
it was a masterful hatchet job. I hate to use the word, but it was!
The machinists were particularly noticeable because they not only
had spent money but they did give money to the campaign. They were
largely concentrated around the aircraft industry.
23Q
Scobie:
Meyers;
Scobie;
Meyers;
Scobie;
Meyers;
Scobie:
Meyers ;
Scobie;
Meyers :
Scobie;
Meyers ;
It's been said that one of the reasons that she lost labor (Carey
McWilliams said this, I think, in an article) was because there was
no grassroots campaign throughout labor. In other words, top brass
went for her but they made no effort to work on the membership. How
do you feel about that?
That is internal and the results would seem to bear that out but we
were not aware of the fact that there was no grassroots effort. We
had to rely on the leadership of the unions to do their homework.
Would you say that she was ruined by the union rank-and-file that
really was frightened by Nixon's campaign rather than agribusiness
and oil?
Oil and agribusiness provided the wherewithal. Nixon spent a fortune
in that campaign and when I tell you that they brought money out here
in gondolas, you have to believe me. There was a tremendous drive
for money in Texas for Nixon; oil money and oil rallied it. There's
no question about the fact that the Nixon campaign which was able
to buy all kinds of advertising and all kinds of radio was financed
by agribusiness but more by oil. It was effective in a hatchet job.
The life blood of it was money and the hatchet job frightened every
body.
But the people who provided the money weren't really frightened by
the issue. They were just using that to get to the people.
They were looking at their pocketbook. Just like this Lionel
Steinberg I talk about. As a matter of fact one of the original
Young Democrats was a man who lived in Berkeley. It was Russell
Lowell Miller. He was attorney for DiGiorgio and he said bluntly
to me, "Where do you think I have to go?"
Was that later on or was that in your original tour?
No, that was later on. but the point is because earlier I didn't
think that Lowell was one of the persons I would have to talk to.
Let's go back and pick up a couple of things you said. First of all,
you said that you and Ed decided to concentrate in eight areas and
the decision was not adhered to. Why not?
Because she couldn't refuse an invitation,
me she couldn't.
At least it seemed to
Who was letting her go ahead and do that? Wasn't there anybody
who could say, "Helen, watch what you are doing."
No, no, no. I don't think so. I think that the possibility have
you talked to Paul Ziffren by the way?
231
Scobie:
Meyers:
Scobie:
Meyers:
No, I have not.
talked to him.
I may do that on my own but this project has not
Scobie:
Meyers :
Why? He raised a lot of money for us.
They just don't have enough money to interview that many people.
Well, let me say this, that Paul who later became Democratic National
Committeeman, who was one of the (with Alan Cranston) founders of the
CDC [California Democratic Council], was an enormous influence,
and is even now, and was chairman of our finance committee. I would
think that when you look over some of the individuals here, I would
say practically every large contribution stemmed through Paul's
effort.
By the way, we had something happen that was very funny. I
mentioned the people in Washington. There was a meeting in my office
of Paul Ziffren, Ed and Ruth Lybeck, and myself. Susie might have been
there. It's difficult to say about Susie now because she had a divided
loyalty at the time. She was very close to Jim Roosevelt who was
running for governor during that campaign in 1950 and to the Douglas
campaign. One of your questions in your letter was how did these
campaigns mesh. They didn't mesh. They simply didn't mesh. They
were supposed to mesh but they didn't. They went off, like Stephen
Leacock's hero who got on a horse and went off in all directions.
Why didn't they mesh?
I don't know. I think that both camps thought the other one was a
loser and both were right. [Laughter] No, it wasn't a question of
ideology. Jim obviously had a tougher time. He was against a
popular incumbent in Earl Warren and at the outset there was a belief
that Helen had a real chance to win.
The Power Structure of the Campaign Committee
Meyers: But when things began to take a little bit of an unpleasant turn,
into this meeting strides a man who looks for all the world like a
character out of Eric Ambler in a trench coat and a hat pulled down
and dark glasses and he introduced himself as Ed Flynn. He was "sent
out here to run the campaign."
Scobie: Do you remember what month that was? Was this before the primary
got going?
Meyers: No, it was in the general campaign.
232
Scobie:
Meyers:
Scobie:
Meyers :
Scobie:
Meyers:
Scobie:
Meyers:
Just walks in!
No, he was sent out here. He actually had been sent out. He later
became the director out here for CARE, a fund raiser. But the funny
part of it was that he not only introduced himself and sat down and
participated but he also showed a total lack of political judgment.
We made a date to have dinner that night because I wanted to feel
him out and he said, "Well, let's go out to the valley and we'll go
to a steakhouse." We drive out there and I look out of the car and
this damn steakhouse is being picketed. He gets out of the car and
I said, "Where the hell are you going?" He said, "I'm going in
there." I said, "Not through that picket line you're not." This
is the kind of campaign manager that the Senate committee or some
body sent out.
This was sent out by the Truman administration?
I think that he was sent out by the Democratic senatorial committee.
Now, it may be that Helen sent him out, I don't know, because I never
chased that down. [Looks through papers] Wait a minute Democratic
senatorial campaign committee, naturally part of the national committee.
He began to take things in hand and he did, to the best of my recol
lection, for about a month. Then we rebelled because he did not know
his tail from a hot rock. In any event, Evie Chavoor traveled with
Helen to a great extent and I think that there was a lot of impulsive
action.
Was Harold Tipton in charge of the whole thing?
in charge of the whole campaign?
Was there anyone
Yes, Tipton had a title. This man had a title too. God, you bring
a name in that I'd completely forgotten, Tipton. [Pauses to look at
1950 financial report]
The David Hillman Agency we wound up owing them something like
$17,000. That was the advertising agency that put in all these last
minute ads. The only thing you had to report was that type of expense.
You didn't really report any here's the California Eagle you didn't
report money that you spent on meetings or money that you gave to
little local committees. Who the devil signed this financial report?
Helen.
Did she sign it?
probably.
Yes, I think she did. Anyway, I prepared it
Scobie: So you operated in this campaign
233
Meyers: I operated as part of the top committee and as treasurer. I remember
that in Fresno one time I came on a Friday without any money, and I
owed a payroll there of $1,500. I called the Bank of America where
I banked and where the Helen Douglas account was at Fourth and
Spring and I said, "Hey, I've got to have $1,500 in Fresno today."
He said, "All right, who to?" and so forth and it was up there. We
were operating from hand to mouth. But the point that I make is
you [didn't] report this type of thing because you didn't have to.
The state was interested only in public media.
Scobie: I want to pick up one other thing you said, before we go on. You
said that there wasn't enough urban exposure. I was wondering,
could you have gotten urban exposure?
Meyers: With more money we could have done the same thing as Nixon. We could
have saturated radio.
Scobie: Because the newspapers
Meyers: The newspapers were against us. But we could have bought enough ads
to say things in the ads. We could have used more local radio, we
could have saturated the city with radio had we the money that Nixon
had.
Scobie: So when you said awhile ago that because of some of her beliefs she
really cost herself the '50 campaign
Meyers: No, no, I didn't say that. I think she'd have lost the '50 campaign
in any event because it was just not a Democratic year and it was
just not in the cards for anybody but a conservative to be elected.
Naturally she's a liberal because of her beliefs but she dwelled on
just a few of those beliefs and hammered away on them. Nobody was
against public housing. It wasn't an issue and fair employment
wasn't an issue and social security by that time was not an issue.
It was just a few of the things that she was adamant about: tidewater
oil and the 160-acre limitation.
Scobie: But there's your money right there.
Meyers: Yes.
Scobie: One of the specific things that you said she would be able to talk
about was something that John Elliott did against her. Was there
kind of a triumvirate of Elliott, Pauley, and one other?
Meyers: Elliott and Pauley who owns Pauley Petroleum, yes.
Scobie: What went on there?
234
Meyers: What they did was raise money.
Scobie: Against her?
Meyers: Yes. Now, Elliott was really very, very very fond of Helen and
admired her tremendously, but because of his position in the oil
industry and Jameson Petroleum which he owned, he had to go against
her or he had to raise money against her. My personal feeling is
that he voted for her, but that's just one vote. Ed Pauley, who
was a nominal Democrat, was in pretty much the same position.
[end tape 2, side A; begin tape 2, side B]
Meyers: They raised a lot of money and I would say that the oil money that
came into the state from outside the state came through that little
group.
The Chotiner Campaign Tactics
Scobie: How much credence do you put to the [Murray] Chotiner type of
activity as far as the extent of her loss went?
Meyers: Do you mean in numbers, the fact that she lost by a million votes.
Scobie: Yes.
Meyers: I would say that the Chotiner campaign was the only campaign that
Nixon could have run in that day, not only because it was successful
but because of the fact that we were a fairly liberal community at
the time. The fact that we elected Earl Warren doesn't say we
were terribly conservative I don't think. Time has proved that.
But the point is that it was a scare campaign. It was a campaign
that was designed to destroy Helen.
Now, one of the things I have to interpose here quickly is
that the Chotiner tactic was not to defeat an opponent; the evidence
is that his tactic was to destroy an opponent. There was never a
comeback from a Chotiner campaign. Jerry wasn't able to make it,
Helen wasn't able to make it. I guess the only one you could say
who was able to make it was [Hubert] Humphrey.
But in this day we had a very large, a very substantial, union
vote. 1 can't possibly tell you that any of the big employers
dictated that you had to vote for Nixon. The way Louis 3. Mayer
in an earlier election had done for Hoover against Al Smith was
235
Meyers:
Scobie:
Meyers:
just to dock everybody a day's pay for the Hoover campaign. Nobody
could say that, but the fact is that there was extreme pressure
brought.
This campaign, by the way, did not originate with Murray
Chotiner. It originated back in 1934 against Upton Sinclair. They,
meaning the Palmer, Call, Times group, destroyed Upton Sinclair
politically and it was the same kind of a coalition that did it in
1934, except that then oil didn't figure in it so prominently and agri
business didn't figure. It was a lot of things, including fright
and communism, but it was primarily a destruction campaign.
But yet you said a Democratic victory wasn't in the cards for anyone
though.
No. I think I'd have to see the rest of what happened in the United
States in 1950.
Scobie: Well, for example, you get Claude Pepper being smashed in Florida.
You're getting Republicans who are playing on the Communist issue.
Meyers: It was McCarthy.
Scobie: Absolutely.
Meyers: It was the height of McCarthyism.
Scobie: I think as one commentator said, Helen probably would have lost
anyway; it's just that there were a lot of things that were done to
make her loss worse.
Meyers: Oh, sure. As I say, it was a destruction campaign.
Scobie: A couple of comments come to mind on which I would like your
opinion. In an article I read the comment was made that one of the
basic problems in her '50 campaign was that the grassroots the CDC
didn't exist and that was a real problem for Democrats. In fact,
the author pointed specifically to I think it was the 57th Assembly
District when Attorney General J. Howard McGrath came out to talk
on behalf of Helen. He drew very few people. As this was a Democratic
district and the comment was made that the head of the district's
Democratic party hadn't been contacted, she was upset and therefore
she didn't do anything to publicize the speech. The author cites
this example as typical of the lack of communication that was going
on in the '50 campaign. Is this a valid statement at all?
Meyers: It was partially valid, yes, except that the 57th district was not
Democratic. Even the Democrats by that time had been scared off and
there was a strong "Democrats-f or-Nixon" campaign. As a matter of
236
Meyers: fact, Bill Gleason, who owned four newspapers down through Riverside
and Palm Springs, and a couple of radio stations, was a prominent
Democrat, headed the Nixon campaign. There were a lot of disaffected
Democrats, not because of anything that Helen did but because they
were just scared. Then there were also a lot of people on both sides
at all times who want to be with winners .
Scobie: Would you say, though, that those running the campaign on the grass
roots level made some mistakes in terms of getting to all the votes
that were possible?
Meyers: Oh, yes, there was always that type of mistake, of course.
Scobie: For example, I read some place that Helen made a lot of women mad
because she turned down an invitation to go to a Federation of
Women's Club talks. She was supposed to go and debate with Nixon,
and she did not show, ostensibly because she wanted to stay in
Washington for a key vote. The women were furious.
Meyers: I know. That kind of thing always happens and the Nixon campaign,
not because it won and therefore was perfect , but the Nixon campaign
took advantage of every slip.
The Role of Administration Democrats
Meyers:
Scobie:
Meyers:
Scobie:
Now, let me stop you for one moment. One of the things that hurt
you mentioned McGrath coming out was the fact that to the best of
my recollection only two important people, really important vote-
getting people, came out from Washington despite all of the pledges
of support, despite all of the assurances of help. One of them was
the vice-president.
Alben Barkley.
Right, and one of them was Hubert Humphrey and Humphrey really
campaigned. Humphrey went up and down the state with her and without
her especially in the San Joaquin Valley.
Barkley stayed in his hotel drinking bourbon and branch. He
talked to a little cocktail party that was supposed to raise money,
but he didn't produce a vote. Humphrey did.
What was the matter with Barkley?
the forces?
He just didn't want to fight
237
Meyers: He didn't care. He was out here on a junket with expenses paid. He
didn't care. But Humphrey was a different sort of an animal. Humphrey,
when he came out, threw himself into it. He was at fund-raising events.
He was out in the boondocks making speeches. But that was the extent.
Scobie: What the other big wheels did was tape-record things, remember?
Lyndon Johnson, Harold Ickes, all tape-recorded and then those were
done on radio.
Meyers: It doesn't mean anything. It has about as much charm as this thing
is going to have when you play it back! It doesn't mean a damn
thing. [Laughter] But I'm serious about it. Would you be likely,
unless you were wound up, tight as a tick on some important issue,
would you be likely to sit down and listen to a tape recording,
unless it was by somebody you had a personal interest in? For
example, if I were in doubt about a vote that was this way or that
way and if Humphrey had made a tape recording on it or if Helen had
made one at that time, I might have listened to it. But I wouldn't
have listened to Lyndon Johnson at that time.
Scobie: What do you think this meant in terms of the administration's
attitude toward Helen?
Meyers: It's a ticklish point. There was a strong feeling here that she was
dumped by the administration. There was a strong feeling here that
a lot of the people who provided the money for the opposition were
still strong enough in Washington to have weight. There is no question
in my mind that the very oil people who showered down for Nixon were
for Democrats in other situations and in other states. They would
have been for Sheridan Downey without any question, you see.
Scobie: When did you begin to feel she was being dumped by the administration?
After the primary?
Meyers: When nobody came out here. You couldn't get any one. It just didn't
work out .
Scobie: Did that begin to take the wind out of your sails?
Meyers: No. You couldn't admit defeat. You admitted it two or three or
four or five days before when the polls began to look terrible, but
the fact of the matter is, we were running from source to source and
place to place for help and for money because it got to be a situation
where we almost were disorganized. If we looked good in Bakersfield,
then we looked lousy in Fresno and local people would be calling in
and saying that it's no good.
238
Some Perspectives on Defeat
Scobie: Was there much communication between counties? You had one person
in charge of each county, like Bea Stern in Sacramento County and
so on. Did they funnel information into a central core committee?
Meyers: Yes, most of it came into the headquarters where Ruth, was stationed,
Scobie: The communication with Ruth included you and Ed.
Meyers: Yes, the trouble was that it had come in daily and we'd only meet
about weekly or semi -weekly.
Scobie: So Tipton wasn't really influential.
Meyers: You know, until you mentioned that name, I had completely forgotten
him.
Scobie: That's really interesting because he's referred to a lot and he wrote
a lot of letters and so forth, but he must not have been very power
ful.
Meyers: No, he didn't know anybody.
Scobie: So the power triumvirate or the power group again would he you and
Ed and Ruth and Susie?
Meyers: Yes, plus Paul Ziffren, very definitely. Up north it was Ellie
Heller in San Francisco and Ben [Benjamin H.J Swig.
Scobie: So this was your Southern California group and then you had the
north.
Meyers : Yes .
Scobie: Was there a friction between the north and south?
Meyers: No, no, there wasn't friction.
Scobie: Why do you think Helen didn't run again?
Meyers: Possibly Mel, I think.
Scobie: In what way do you mean that?
Meyers: I think that if she had run again there might have been a divorce.
239
Scobie: Why do you think that?
Meyers: Because I think that Mel didn't want her to go through it again. He
didn't want to go through campaigning again. They were both getting
a little bit older and I don't think that Mel particularly relished
the long absences which can happen at any time. You see, one of the
things that a lot of people don't realize is that Mel is a tremendously
intelligent person, an intellectual. I would say that the strongest
thing that Helen had was her husband; I would say that he was the
brightest person around her. This is quite a man and I think that
he deserved to be considered.
Scobie: Do you think he finally said something?
Meyers: It's possible that he did or she sensed it, in the first place. In
the second place is that she was pretty damn badly beaten and she had
to start not from scratch but from back of scratch and it was the kind
of campaign that left wounds on both sides, on both sides. You couldn't
call people, who went for Nixon, the things that they were called and
expect them to be friendly two years later.
It was that kind of campaign. But any campaign that Nixon gets
into is always that kind of a campaign, even with Murray Chotiner
dead! Amazingly enough, Murray Chotiner and I were associated in a
couple of cases after that. No, I think that in the first place,
their daughter was growing and they spent more time in Vermont, and
I just think that it would have been difficult for them if she ran
again.
Scobie: Did you get to know them personally through all this?
Meyers: Oh, sure, I knew them personally.
Scobie: What was going on with the kids? Mary Helen was in Washington some
of the time, wasn't she?
Meyers: Some of the time. She spent a couple of years in a kibbutz in
Israel.
Scobie: That was later but I meant when Helen was in Congress.
Meyers: No, she was in Vermont a lot of the time too.
Scobie: Did Helen spend much time with her kids?
Meyers: No, that was one of the problems. I think that's one of the reasons
why there was no further attempt to run. I think the family began
to loom more and more importantly in her life. On top of that, she
now is labelled "a loser." And what spot would you drop her in? Where
would you run her?
24Q
Scobie: Yes, she would move to New York so
Meyers: Well, then she'd have been a carpetbagger back there. [Laughs]
Scobie: Is that part of why they went to New York, do you think?
Meyers: Part of why they went to New York was because of the defeat here I
think and because no, that's unfair. I think Mel got more and
more wound up with the stage because he did a whole series of plays
about that time including Inherit the Wind and he also got involved
in the production of plays Call Me Mister I think was one of them.
I just think Mel became more important, and rightfully so, than an
elective office.
Scobie: How did he feel though during the forties and particularly when she
was in Congress about her being a politician?
Meyers: Yes, and she was a good politician. But that doesn't necessarily
make her a good campaigner. It's a fact, there are some very good
politicians who were not good campaigners. Their record speaks for
itself, and they've got to have good pros in back of them. But I
have to agree with Ed Lybeck, ex post facto, that she'd have done
herself prouder and the country more service by staying in Congress
and becoming chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee because that
became more and more important. Part of her campaign was an insist
ence on domestic issues. Notice the kind of campaigning today. If
you confined yourself to domestic issues today, you'd wind up behind
the eight ball. She would have been in the forefront on that score.
Scobie: I've assumed that Helen didn't really think about running for the
Senate until late '49. But some place I ran across the comment that
she really was thinking about it a lot earlier and this came up in
a conversation about the atomic energy committee.
Meyers: You found that out with Chet too, didn't you.
Scobie: I haven't spoken to Chet yet.
Meyers: Oh, I thought you talked to Chet.
Scobie: No, I just conversed with him on the phone. I haven't interviewed
him. But she really wasn't, from what I can find out, particularly
active in the actual legislative side of the McMahon bill. At least
I can't seem to find any documentation to that effect. She did a
lot of talking, and I guess picked up the McMahon bill in the House
and then helped 
