MY FIRST FORTY YEARS IN CALIFORNIA POLITICS
1922 - 1962
by
ROBERT V/. KEITNY
Completed under the auspices
of the
Oral History Program
University of California
Los Angeles
196k
Copyright ©
The Regents of the University of Galifornla
This manuscript is hereby made available for research
purposes only. All literary rights in the manuscript ^
including the right to publication, are reserved to the
University Library of the University of California at
Los Angeles. No part of the manuscript may be quoted
for publication without the written permission of the
University Librarian of the University of California
at Los Angeles.
FOREWORD
During the spring of I96O, Robert ¥. Kenny,
former Attorney General for the State of California,
undertook a series of tape recordings with the Oral
History Program at UCLA. As is customary, the re-
cordings were transcribed, edited, and returned to
Mr. Kenny for his approval.
The follov/ing autobiography is a revised version
of the original tapescript. It has been indexed and
mimeographed by Mr. Kenny's personal staff at his ovm
expense.
The original recordings were made in i960 and
1961 by Doyce B. Nunis, Jr., at Mr. Kenny's office
in Los Angeles.
v
MY FIRST FORTY YEARS IN CALIFORNIA POLITICS
1922 - 1962
by
ROBERT W. KENNY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Pages
1. Whose Fault Was It? 1
2. Education 9
3. Newspaper Reporter 19
4. 1926 - The Aimee McPherson Case 39
5. 1927 - The Julian Petroleum Crash 44
6. 1928 - A Breakdown in the Administra-
tion of Justice 48
7. The 1929 Legislature 52
8. The Rolph Campaign - 1930 59
9. The Rolph Administration 65
10. The Small Claims Court - 1932 70
11. Repealing Prohibition 75
12. The Democratic Party Re-appears 82
13. Failures and Receiverships 87
14. A Superior Court Judge - 1933 91
15. The 1934 Campaigns 98
16. Some Quiet Years 1936-1937 105
17. The 1938 Campaigns 112
18. State Senator - 1939 120
19. Break with Olson 129
20. The 1940 Campaigns 134
21. The 1941 Legislature 146
22. The 1942 Election 154
23. 1943 - First Year as Attorney General 166
24. Crescendo - 1944 196
25. War to Peace - Roosevelt to Truman -1945 224
26. A Coalition Disintegrates - 1946 253
27. The United Nations Permanent Site 292
28. Return to Private Life - 1947 308
29. Wallace's Campaign - 1948 353
30. Whatever Happened to Good News - 1949 365
31. The Brave Burnt Child - 1950 371
32. The House Un-American Activities
Committee in 1951 381
33. The Eisenhower-Stevenson Campaign- 1952 385
34. The Events of 1953 389
35. Diminuendo 1954 - 1962 392
CHAPTER ONE
WHOSE FAULT V/AS IT?
Clarence True Wilson, a young Methodist minister, married
Robert Wolfenden Kenny and Minnie Carleton Summerfield in Los Angeles,
California on January 4, 1896.
Thirty-five years later, Rev. Wilson was engaged in a national
debate with the only child of that marriage, the author of these
renniniscences.
Rev. Wilson had become national secretary of the Methodist
Temperance Society in 1910 and was one of the principal architects of
the National Prohibition Amendment. By 1931, I was a Los Angeles
Mvmicipal Judge and a local leader of the "wets" who would repeal the
Eighteenth amendment in another two years. As judge, I had also
performed a few marriages and hoped I was not chargeable with the
results. I told Rev. Wilson of the waitress who had recognized me in
a restaurant.
"I'm sure you were the judge who married me, " she said, and
hastily added, "But, of course, it wasn't your fault. "
Whose fault then was I? A few sparse facts about the two
generations that preceded me are the only clues I can develop. The
blood lines of dogs and horses are much more carefully recorded than
those of most human beings.
My maternal grandfather, George D. Carleton, was born in Iviaine.
He reached California in 1852 by sailing around the Horn, with a long
stop-over at Honolulu. Iviy maternal grandmother, Sarah Pennell,
came from Ohio by wagon train the same year. They were married in
Solano County. There were only two Carleton children -- both girls.
The eldest, my mother, was born in Suisun, Solano County, March 7, 1863
and given the wonderfully alliterative nanTi^e of Minnie Minerva Carleton.
My paternal grandfather, George Lee Kenny, was born February
10, 1823, at the family honae, Belin, Lea Parish, Queen's County,
about sixty miles south of Dublin, Ireland. He was the ninth of ten
children born to Thomas Lee and Elizabeth Kenny. Two of his brothers,
Simon and Henry Torrens, became Anglican rectors in South of Ireland
parishes.
George L. Kenny emigrated to the United States in the 1840's. He
found employment in a bookstore in Buffalo, New York, operated by
George H. Derby, husband of Celia Bancroft, sister of Hubert Howe
Bancroft and A. L. Bancroft. Hubert Howe Bancroft was a fellow-clerk
in the Buffalo bookstore. His early experiences with my grandfather
are related in his "Literary Industries, " pp. 117-121.
When the Gold Rush came, Mr. Derby staked the two boys to a
stock in trade of books, stationery and allied lines; and H.H. Bancroft
and George L. Kenny came to San Francisco by way of the Isthmus of
Panama in early 18 52. They opened a bookstore in San Francisco and
discovered that the really hot items were printed legal forms - a practical
necessity in a busy society with a scarcity of legal draftsmen.
In 1855, George L. Kenny married my paternal grandmother,
Melvina Van Wickle, originally of Schenectady, New York. My father
was born August 23, 1862, in San Francisco. He was the second of
three children who survived to maturity. The house in which my father
was born still stands in San Francisco. It is an octagonal house at
1067 Green Street, near Leavenworth and Green. The theory of octagonal
houses was to provide eight different exposures to the sun instead of
only four in rectangular design. The San Francisco Chronicle of November
22, 1954 (p. 14) described it as San Francisco's "oldest house. "
My paternal grandmother died on April 18, 1867. My grandfather
then re-visited Buffalo. Mrs. Derby had also been recently widowed.
My grandfather imarried Mrs. Derby May 28, 1868. She brought up his
three motherless children.
My maternal grandmother, Sarah Carleton, lived until 1915. My
grandfather Carleton came to our house at 1700 South Western Avenue,
Los Angeles when I was about seven and taught me to play chess. I've
always been deeply grateful to him for taking that much trouble. He
died when I was nine. My father's father died in Los Angeles on
January 30, 1902. I was taken on a visit to my step-grandmother,
Mrs. Celia Bancroft Kenny in La Jolla, in 1908, a few years before her
death.
My father finished high school in San Francisco. The mining
boom was on in Tombstone, Arizona and my father went there in 1881.
He became a teller in a Tombstone bank. He was 19.
My mother was first married to Morris Summerfield. Lxss
Angeles Superior Court records (No. 4941) show that Mr. Summerfield
was able to lose $10, 000 in the men's clothing business in Sacramento
in the fall of 1885 and to gothrough an insolvency proceeding in Los
Angeles on April 19. 1886. Later that year my mother, then 23, was
declared a "sole trader" by the court (No. 5121) so she would not be
subject to Ivir. Summerfield' s debts in opening a lodging house to be
financed by $3, 000 advanced by her father.
My father came to Los Angeles in 1890 upon the decline of
Tombstone. He became a teller in the Los Angeles National Bank at
First and Main Streets. The Los Angeles City directories for 1891
through 1894 show that in those years Mrs, Minnie Summerfield
operated a lodging house, "The Potomac, " at 217 South Broadway,
and that my father resided there as one of her lodgers.
My father and mother were inarried in Los Angeles in 1896.
I was their only child. I was born on August 21, 1901 in a four-family
flat at 747 South Flower Street, Los Angeles. My mother and father
were then both 39 years of age. At birth, I weighed 13 pounds. In
the course of an extremely difficult delivery, my right arm was dis-
located and permanently crippled.
In February, 1899. the Broadway Bank and Trust Company was
organized and opened at Third and Broadway in the Bradbury Block.
My father was cashier of this new bank and Warren Gillelen the president.
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George I. Cochran, a lawyer, later President of the Pacific Mutual
Life Insurance Company was vice president.
Directors of the Broadway Bank later included two old friends
from Tombstone days; George W. Walker, a tobacco jobber, and Ben
Willianns, a mining executive. Other directors were R.C. Gillis, who
did much to develop Santa Monica, Arthur Letts and W. E. Cummings,
downtown merchants, and W. W, Beckett, M.D.
On April 6, 1906 my father and Mr. Gillelen were indicted by a
federal grand jury in Oregon on charges developed during the land
fraud investigation. Francis J. Heney was the special prosecutor.
The Broadway Bank had loaned $2 5, 000 to a company which had obtained
valuable government timberland by using bogus entrymen as homesteaders.
My father and Mr. Gillelen dennanded a hearing in Los Angeles prior
to being removed for trial in Oregon. This preliminary hearing was
refused by District Judge Charles Wellborn, and by Circuit Judge
Erskine Ross. However, on April 4, 1907 the United States Supreme Court
in Gillelen v Youngworth (205 U.S. 537) held that the California
defendants were entitled to a hearing in their own jurisdiction before
being placed on trial in Oregon.
The Los Angeles hearing began on March 4, 1908. My father
spent five days on the witness stand in his own defense. On May 1, 1908
Commissioner William Van Dyke, after hearing six weeks of evidence,
with more than one million words submitted, ruled that the loan did not
involve any culpable connection between the two bankers and the lumber
company, saying:
"It seems to me that their constant efforts to secure the bank
against loss, even to the extent of acting contrary to the wishes and
requests of the officers of the lumber company, are only consistent with
the view that they had no real interest in the company. "
The special prosecutor in this case was Tracy J. Becker, who
was sent out from Washington. Mr. Becker remained in Los Angeles,
I came to know him in 1924 when I was a newspaper reporter, covering
the County District Attorney's office. He was then the deputy in charge
of fraud cases.
My aunt. May Kenny Viven, compiled a thirty-page scrap book
of the newspaper clippings of this episode explaining in an entry that:
"Bob wanted all these clippings saved so his son could see in later
years how easy it is to accuse a man of dishonesty, and what he must
endure to be exonerated. " A victory celebration took place at our
Western Avenue residence on the night of May 1, 1908. The Los
Angeles Times editorialized the next day as follows: "The smearing
of these gentlemen, now exonerated, with an allegation of crime was
an outrage worse than any land fraud ever committed in Oregon. "
The explosion at the Los Angeles Times on October 1, 1910
affected the lives of nearly everyone living in Los Angeles those days.
Thirty years later in Chicago I met Matt Schmidt, convicted of a minor
role in the dynamite plot. Schmidt had been paroled in 1939 after
serving 22 years in San Quentin. He assured me that he was one of
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the few who could honestly say that he had never had a drink in
California during prohibition.
The Kenny family naoved from 1700 South Western Avenue
to 1975 West Washington in the fall of 1911. In the municipal primary that
year, Los Angeles was stunned by the election results which gave Job
Harrinnan, the Socialist candidate, 20, 000 votes, George Alexander,
the Good Government League candidate, 16,800 votes, and W. C. Mushet,
the Republican, 7, 500 votes.
I remember the family horror when it was discovered that our
faithful cook, Katie Marks, who had been nny nursemaid, had voted for
the unspeakable Socialist, Job Harriman.
When the primary took place, the McNamara brothers were still
on trial for the dynamiting of the Times. On December 1, 1911, they
pleaded guilty. Job Harriman, the Socialist candidate, was one of
their lawyers. The final municipal election was held four days later,
on December 5, 1911. This time, Alexander defeated Harriman by
85, 000 to 51, 000 votes.
My father's closest associate in Los Angeles was George W.
Walker, from whom I draw my middle name. The Kennys and the
Walker family had one of those relationships in which we called each
other "cousins" and "uncles. " My father and Mr. Walker were
associated in oil operations at McKittrick, Kern County, and Brea in
Orange County. Mr. Walker's primary source of income was as a
tobacco jobber with a retail store at First and Main Streets. He was
-8-
associated with my father in the bank, becoming president of the Citizens
Bank in the 1920's.
My father joined Harry Chandler of the L,os Angeles Times and
General M.H. Sherman in investments in the Tejon Ranch and the
California Mexico Land and V/ater Company, an 800, 000 acre holding
below Mexicali in Baja California. At the time of his death, my father
also had acquired an important interest in the Bank of Santa Monica.
It was his plan for me to become a banker in the beach city.
In 1912 the Broadway Bank and Trust Company was merged into
the Citizens National Bank. My father became the cashier and a vice-
president of that institution and held those posts until his death on
September 13, 1914.
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CHAPTER TWO
EDUCATION
In 1906 when we were living at 1141 West 21st Street, Los Angeles,
I attended a public kindergarten at the Norwood Street School and later
a private Gernnan kindergarten. At the latter school one day the group
was asked the origin of various articles such as honey, from the bees;
eggs, from the hens, etc. It came my turn. "Were does nnilk come
from, Robert?" I innocently replied, "From the Fishes. " Los Angeles
was still a country town then and Dr. Charles W. Fish, our family
physician, supplied the neighbors with milk from the cow he kept at
his residence at Union and 23rd Streets.
When we moved to 1700 South Western Avenue, in 1907, I
attended public grade school at the 24th Street School for a few weeks.
My parents then entered me at Harvard Military Academy, directly across
the street from our home. There was no first, second or third grade
at Harvard, so I started off in the fourth grade at the age of seven, in
September, 1908. I graduated from grammar school in June, 1913.
My mother and I spent the balance of the year 1913, from June
to December, on a trip through Europe. After a few weeks in London,
we were joined by nny father's sister, Mrs. May Viven, the widow
of Captain John L. Viven, a regular army officer. We were also
joined there by Mr. and Mrs. Walker, Mrs. Walker's sister, Mrs.
Hattie Malloy,and the Walker daughter, Ethelwyn. We visited my
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father's cousin, Col. H. Torrens Kenny, II in Folkestone. He had
been a colonel of the Twelfth Lancers in India, The Colonel spoke
Russian and Hindustani. I last saw him in 1938 on one of his annual
visits to New York City. He was then 80. He made it a point to invite
me to Russian and Hindu restaurants where he could display his
linguistic ability.
In August 1913, we toured England, Scotland and Ireland with
the Walkers and Mrs. Viven, including a visit to the Kenny family home
at Belin in Queens County. My aunt, Mrs. Viven, had lived in many
parts of the world and always kept in touch with the various Kenny
relatives. Through her I met some of them in Ireland, Germany,
France and Hawaii. We spent one weekend with another second cousin,
Rev. Walter Wolfenden Kenny, an Anglican rector in Bedfordshire.
The V/alkers returned to California and my mother and I, with Mrs.
Viven, then toured the Continent, visiting the Netherlands, Germany,
Switzerland, Italy and France.
When we returned from Europe in December, 1913, we discovered
that my father had become quite ill in our absence. My father had
always fancied himself as an amateur boxer. In spite of his illness,
he still retained Roger Cornell, a Los Angeles Athletic Club trainer
to the house every morning at 7 o'clock. A boxing ring had been set
up in the attic and they would throw punches at each other for half an
hour. Then my father would come down and eat an enormous breakfast.
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His health did not improve.
In January, 1914 I entered the University High School of the
University of Southern California. This was a private preparatory school,
with a student body of only 90. Most of our teachers were education
majors at the University. We were their first students and I suspect
they were somewhat terrified by ua. The principal of the school was
Dr. Hugh Willett, later a member of the Los Angeles City Board of
Education.
In July, 1914 we drove the family automobile, an Alco, aboard
the S.S. Harvard for San Francisco. The purpose of the visit was to
have my father diagnosed by the famous Dr. Herbert Moffitt, then looked upon
in the Far West with the respect later given the Mayo Brothers. Dr.
Moffitt came up with the first correct diagnosis of my father's illness.
It was a serious infection of the antrum. In those days there were no
anti-biotics.
My father died in Berkeley, California on September 13, 1914,
The Los Angeles Times put a graceful headline on the story of my
father's death: "Posted Ledger Softly Closed. " The sport's page
announced that the flags at the Washington ball park were lowered at
haHmast in respect to his mtemory.
My father had been part owner and treasurer of the Los Angeles
baseball team in the Pacific Coast League. He was also treasurer
of the Los Angeles Athletic Club at the time of his death. When his
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estate was finally distributed, $99, 933. 94 went to my nnother and
$33, 311.21 came to me.
My father's holdings had been pyramided and many of them had
to be sold to pay off loans. One holding that was sold was the stock
in the Bank of Santa Monica and that is how I escaped being a banker.
The Tejon Ranch stock was also sold. The California Mexican L-and
and Water Company stock was held with great hopes for the future,
but the expropriations in Mexico ultimately nnade that investment worthless.
One piece of luck did attend the distribution of my father's estate.
The war in Europe had just broken out, and our holdings of United
Verde Extension, a copper stock, jumped in value from about $350 to
$35, 000 in a few naonths time. That bonanza paid off some of the more
pressing debts.
After m.y father's death I re-entered the prep school at the
University of Southern California. It was my plan then to go into the
diplomatic service. One of my father's closest friends in Tombstone
was Marcus Aurelius Smith, who becanne one of Arizona's first two
United States Senators when statehood came in 1912. Unfortunately
for my plans for a patronage appointnnent the Senator was beaten in
the November, 1918 election and Woodrow Wilson appointed him to the
Canadian Bovmdary Commission. In the meantime, I had discovered
that entry to the diplomatic corps was dependent upon a physical
examination v/hich would be impossible for me to pass because of my
-13-
crippled right arm.
However, because of this early ambition, I had studied Latin for
four years, two years more than the average in Southern California in
those days. I was also privately tutored in French. My father had
collected an excellent library and I had all of the works of Bernard
Shaw, Mark Twain, R. L. Stevenson and Dumas by the time I was 14 years
of age.
There were only 26 in the class that graduated from the University
High School on June 6, 1917. The first six ranking scholarship honors
were won by girl students. I spent a good deal of my time in high school
playing poker and pool. We had a secret fraternity known as "The Owls, "
My mother let me have the Washington Street house whenever it was
needed for an Owl meeting which was at least twice a week. I learned
so much about poker in high school and college that I never wanted to
play the ganae since.
Although great at card playing, the Owls were not very successful
in student body politics. I was greatly disappointed in our inability to
elect my close friend, Raymond Petifils, as student body president.
Members of my class included Lindsay Gillis, son of my father's friend,
R. C. Gillis. Phil Haber, who inherited his father's tailoring establish-
ment, his cousin, Ned Tannenbaumi, later an Antelope Valley dentist,
Seymour Siegel, son of a pioneer nnerchant, and James Rogers, A
disturbing thing happened in relation to Rogers. In his senior year,
-14-
someone came forward with the news that he was a Negro. Some of the
girls in the class professed to be deeply upset. To the credit of the
Owls, of which he was a member, we rallied behind him. In looking
at an old graduation program, I note that the only boy in our class who
received any honors at all was Rogers. He was selected to deliver the
salutation.
In about 1916 the Los Angeles Baseball Club was sold to John
Powers, who later sold to William Wrigley. My father's investment in
the baseball team had provided me with a gilded childhood, since I had
a pass which read "Admit Robert Kenny and Party. " We also had a box
back of home plate. All of this was certain to underwrite my popularity
with my juvenile contemporaries.
On Sundays, my father and I attended the baseball games at
Washington and Main Streets, driving my mother's electric roadster.
After the game my father collected the gate receipts, several hundred
dollars in cash, and we drove to the bank at Third and Broadway. With
total unconcern, he opened up the bank's nnain vault, threw in the canvas
sacks, and then drove home. Bank robbers and armored trucks must
have been the products of later years.
Neither my father nor mother were practicing church-goers,
although Grandfather Carleton was an active Methodist, and I had been
baptised in the Methodist Church by Bishop Charles E. Locke. Many
years later the Bishop and I were on opposite sides of a Wet-Dry debate
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at UCLA, This was still during Prohibition. Some smart aleck
questioner sought to embarrass me by asking "Judge Kenny, do you
drink?" I replied "Thanks lots for the invitation. Let's invite the Bishop,
too. "
My only contact with orga,nized religion came when I was thirteen.
I had met a nice old gentleman on the street. He asked where I went
to Sunday School. When I told hinri that I had not yet taken up religion,
he invited me to the Episcopal Sunday School at St. James Church. My
congenital inability to say "no" asserted itself and I accepted. I went
to St. James the following Sunday. The old gentleman, a Mr. Shaw,
was waiting for me. I attended there for two or three years. I was
confirmed by Bishop Johnson, grandfather of my friend, Joseph
Johnson, the architect. As a result of meeting Mr. Shaw, I have alw^ays
been able to put down on my questionnaires, when it came to religion,
that I was an Episcopalian, although I have been inactive since age 16.
The late Isadora Dockweiler, former Democratic National
Committeeman, once told me that the Episcopalians had the best political
religion. "You are half a Catholic, " he said. Since Mr. Dockweiler was
a leading Roman Catholic layman in Los Angeles, I respected his judgment.
My original selection of a college was Yale. V/hen I discovered
my Western prep school training would not get me past the college entrance
board examinations for Yale, I filed an application to enter Stanford,
and was accepted.
16-
After I graduated from high school, my mother bought me a 1917
Hudson Speedster automobile. This turned out to be a great social
asset when I entered Stanford in October, 1917. There were very few
automobiles owned by under-graduates at Stanford those days, I am
sure it was this asset that drew me to the attention of the Phi Gamma
Deltas, who invited mie to join them and initiated me in December of 1917.
One of the seniors in the fraternity was William D. Smalley, then editor
of the Daily Palo Alto, the Stanford student newspaper. Smalley urged
me to try out for the Daily. I did, and was selected as a member of the
staff. From then on my sole ambition was to become a newspaperman,
preferably a foreign correspondent.
At the beginning of my sophmore year I signed up as a major in
English. The head of the English Department, Dr. William Herbert Carruth,
bade me welcome, "I am glad to see so many virile young nnen coming
into the English Department, " he said. Later I found that there was
only one other nnale student newly registered in the English Department
that year. He was Alfred Wilkie, later with Param.ount Pictures in
New York for many years.
I completed my undergraduate courses at Stanford on August 20,
1920 technically at eighteen years of age, although I became nineteen
the following day. I remained at Stanford for the fall quarter of 1920,
doing desultory work as a graduate student in the Political Science
Department. My principal objective that quarter was to launch a new
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campus publication known as The Pictorial Review. This magazine
survived a few years and then was nnerged with the Stanford Illustrated
Review, the alumni monthly. Some of my Stanford newspaper friends
included William Leiser, later sport's editor of the San Francisco
Chronicle, Harry Borba of the San Francisco Examiner sport's desk,
Earl Cro\ve, financial editor of the Los Angeles Times, Clem Randau
of the United Press and Hal Rorke of the Los Angeles Daily News.
I was Stanford campus correspondent for the United Press in
1920. That year Herbert Hoover had returned to his home on the
campus, after completing his tasks with Belgian Relief. An innportant
story then was the unsolved mystery of whether Mr. Hoover was a
Republican or a Democrat. He made the fateful selection when he was
on the Stanford campus. I have always been very grateful to him.
Despite the fact that there were special correspondents for national
newspapers all over Palo Alto, Mr. Hoover would release his secret
only through the campus wire service correspondents. That meant
Landis Weaver of the Associated Press and Robert Kenny of the United
Press and no one else. It turned out Hoover was a Republican. Surprise!
During that last summer on the Stanford campus I met Sara McCann,
the stepdaughter of Dr. William Duffield, of Los Angeles. I left
Stanford in Decennber of 1920 and spent the holidays with the George
W. Walkers in Los Angeles. I spent New Year's Eve with Sara in
Los Angeles, being loaned the Walker's limousine and chauffeur for the
-18.
occasion. I left for London with my nnother on January 2nd and she
returned to Stanford. From January to June of 1921, my mother and
I spent three months in Nice and then traveled through Italy, North
Africa, Spain and France.
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CHAPTER THREE
NEY/SPAPER REPORTER
V.'"hen I returned to Los Angeles, Mr. Walker and Mr. Gillis
proceeded to work on their friend, Harry Chandler, to get a job on
the Times for "Bob Kenny's boy. " They succeeded. However, I did
not beconne a general reporter, but was assigned to the financial desk
to assist Chapin Hall. I think this was a fortunate break, because
Chapin was able to give me special training and made me a better
ne^vspaper man than I would have been if left to my own resources in
the City Room. Chapin later became Managing Editor of the Times.
All of the special departments of the Times were clustered to-
gether. This included the Financial Editor, the Real Estate Editor,
Kyle Palmer, the Political Editor, the Society Editor, the Drama
Editor and the cartoonist, then Ted Gale.
My first by-line appeared in the Los Angeles Times on April 8,
1922. The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce naade a special tour
of the San Joaquin Valley and I was sent along as the Tinnes correspondent.
On August 21, 1922 I attained my majority. Sara and I became
engaged to marry.
My first contact with national and local politics was in June,
1920, when, as summer editor of the Stanford Daily, I was able to get
myself appointed as usher at the Democratic National Convention in
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San Francisco. I saw the young handsome FDR nominated that year for Vice
President. However, down at the Times the night of August 29, 1922, I
saw my first political miracle. The Times was supporting Friend Richardson,
the State Treasurer, for Governor against the incximbent William D. Stephens,
No one on the Times thought Richardson had a chance, except young Kyle
Palmer, the political editor. On the night of August 29, the primary
election returns surprisingly showed that Richardson was the Republican
nominee. Kyle Palmer became a prophet and political genius overnight. He
maintained that position for nearly forty years, until his death.
A few days after the election, Richardson returned to his home at
San Bernardino. There was no one there to meet him. Just a few loafers
around the station. "Boys," said Richardson, "did you hear that I just
received the Republican nomination for Governor?" "Yeah, we heard sonne
talk about it at the courthouse. " "What did people say," asked Richardson
eagerly. "Oh, they just laughed, " was the languid reply.
On October 14, 1922, I was married to Sara McCann at the home
of her mother and stepfather, Dr. William Duf field, I had resigned
my job at the Tinries and induced them to employ Earl Crowe, who was
just finishing at Stanford, Crowe stayed with the Times for several years
and married Harry Chandler's daughter, Constance.
Sara and I left for our honeymoon. In New York I called upon Karl
Bickel, President of the United Press. He had been a Phi Gamma Delta
at Stanford some ten years before me. I inquired about employment
-21-
in the New York Bureau and he said there wasn't any, and then asked
if I would be interested in "working in London* I told him I was on my
way there. Since I had already paid for my own ticket I suppose this made
me attractive as a prospective foreign correspondent.
When we arrived in London, I reported to Ed Keen, vice president
in charge of the United Press in Europe. He put me to work on the
late night shift, beginning at midnight and running until eight o'clock
in the morning. My job was to edit the cables that canne in from our
correspondents on the Continent and relay them to our offices in
New York and Buenos Aires.
The night shift consisted of myself, an office boy and a telegraph
operator. It was the office boy's duty to go to the various London
morning newspapers and snatch the late editions as they came off the
press. V/e also had an arrangement with the morning Post to receive
its galley proofs. One night they were late and I asked the office boy
to do something about it. I heard him call the Post and tell someone
there that his "sub-editor" was complaining. I was tremendously
impressed. It was the first title that had ever been given me. Actually,
I never rose above the ranks of plain reporter during the next seven
years I spent as a newspaper nrian.
The job I took in the London bureau had just been vacated by
Westbrook Pegler, Jr. who was returning to the United States. He was
then called Bud Pegler, because his father Westbrook Pegler, Sr. , was
-22-
an old-time New York newspaper man and also an employee of the
United Press.
Lyle Wilson, who has for many years been head of the United
Press , Washington bureau, was on the staff of the London bureau with
me. One of the senior men on the staff was Ralph Turner who became
vice president of the United Press and later publisher of the Temple
City Tinies in Los Angeles County. I observed that Ralph was a reader
of the Nation and the New Republic. When I returned to Los Angeles,
I wanted to keep in touch with foreign affairs. Since I greatly admired
Ralph Turner, I subscribed to the Nation and the New Republic. My
conversion to liberalisnn canne about in this entirely accidental way.
Henry L. Mencken, of whoin I had become an avid reader as early as
1919, must also have contributed to shaping my political point of view.
Sara and I took a flat in Earl's Court Square in London, just
above a flat occupied by David Church of the International News Service.
In a few months the United Press had one of its periodic economy
waves. New York cabled Mr. Keen to "downhold expenses" and I
was given two weeks notice.
"Downhold" is cablese for holding down. The wire services dis-
covered that if you put the preposition in front of the verb you could
make one word serve the place of two and thereby cut cable tolls in
half. My masterpiece of compression in London was when the sister
of the Mayor of Cork broke her hunger strike and was taken to a hospital
-23-
in a taxi cab. My cable said: "Mary McSwiney hospitalwarded
taxiably. "
Our correspondent in Athens had been cautioned so much about
holding down cable tolls that when he covered the news of the firing
squad execution of all the members of a deposed Greek Cabinet, he sent
the shortest cablegram on record. Earlier that day we had been in-
formed that the unfortunate statesmen had been condemned to death,
but no one believed that the sentence would be carried out. Our man
in Athens, however, sent us the following two-word cable that after-
noon: "Condemneds shooted. "
Because it was only a two-word cablegram, the message was
given precedence over the wordier messages coming from the other
correspondents in Athens. The United Press scored a two hour beat
because of this.
While I was waiting in London for something to turn up, Vincent
Sheehan canne over fronn Paris. We gave a party for him at our flat
and during the course of the evening he told me of an opening on the
staff of the Tourist Edition of the Chicago Tribune in Paris.
Despite a nnassive hangover, I was able to take the first boat
train to Paris the following morning. Dave Darrah, the editor, gave
me the job, and Sara and 1 moved to Paris 48 hours later.
The job in Paris was also a night job. One of my chores was
to act as sport's editor. However, the only sport to be covered was
-24-
horse racing. Since horse racing had been outlawed in California for
many years, this was one sport of which I knew nothing. I relied upon the
selection of winners made by the more conservative French newspapers,
and published a consensus of these findings as my own. I developed
some following among the tourist colony. I never was able to see a
horse race during that period, since I had to work nights.
During that time, King Tutankhamen's tomb was opened in Egypt.
Lord Carnarvon, the discoverer, sold the exclusive publishing rights
to a news syndicate. Some of the excluded newspapers started inventing
their own discoveries of objects excavated from the tomb. The
practice stopped, however, when one iinaginative writer reported in
some detail the unearthing of King Tut's typewriter.
In March, 1923, Sara and I returned to America. I called at the
United Press office in New York and Bob Bender told me that I could
become the Bureau manager of the United News in Los Angeles, Of
course, this naeant another night job, since the United Press served
afternoon papers, and the United News was a new service designed to
serve morning papers. The office was in the building where the Los
Angeles Record, a Scripps paper was published. The Record editor
was Ted Cook, later on the New Yorker, and author of the Hearst
column of Cook's "Cookoos. " The Sport's Editor was Ed Frayne,
later a New York sport's editor. Ed's brother, Pat, was sport's
editor of the Call-Bulletin in San Francisco. He later became a close
-25-
friend of mine in Democratic politics. The Drama Editor was Ted
Taylor, The political editor was Reuben W. Borough, who later became
a member of the Board of Public Works under Mayor Bowron and a
leader in many progressive causes. Among the reporters were Ted
Le Berthon and Don Ryan, who became important columnists and
feature writers in Los Angeles.
When President Harding was taken ill at the Palace Hotel in San
Francisco in July 1923, the United Press suffered one of its most
singular attacks of economy. The President was reported on the road
to recovery and the United Press saw no reason to continue paying over-
time to the telegrapher, Tom Kelly, who therefore went off duty at
six o'clock on the night of August 2, 1923. One half-hour later I
received a call from one of our clients in Orange County asking what
information I had about the President. I assured the Orange County
editor that the President was doing just fine. He told me then that soine
of the boys at the drug store were listening to the radio and had heard
that he was dead. I told him I would call him back and then telephoned
San Francisco. They confirmed the radio report and apologized for
having forgotten Los Angeles in general excitement. Forgetting Los
Angeles meant all of our client papers in Southern California and
Arizona. I was alone with a telegraph key clacking away, it was
all Morse to me. I finally located Tom Kelly, got him back on the job,
telephoned all of our clients and helped Ted Cook in getting out extra
-26-
editions of the Record.
On September 1, 1923, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. published
the first issue of his Illustrated Daily News. This became the United
News' first morning client in L-os Angeles. Our bureau was moved
to the Daily News building at Pico and Los Angeles Streets. The first
big wire story that we were able to deliver to the Vanderbilt paper
was the news of the Japanese earthquake on September 1st. We were
also able to turn in a creditable report the following weekend when a
fleet of our Navy's destroyers went aground at Point Honda, above
Santa Barbara.
However, I was tiring of night work and Art Turney, City Editor of
the News, offered me the city hall beat for the paper. I accepted,
resigned from the United Press, and took a two week layoff. A few
days later Art Turney called me up with sontie embarrassment and
told me I was fired before I had even gone to work. Neil Vanderbilt
was surrounded by a coterie of sycophants. One of them told hinn that
I was a "spy" for William Randolph Hearst. Actually, I never met Mr.
Hearst until twenty years later, when I was a candidate for Governor
and visited him at Wyntoon, in Siskiyou County. Mr. Vanderbilt and
I became personal friends during the Wallace for President campaign
in 1947, and he has been a client of my firm ever since. I think he has
forgiven me for being a Hearst spy -- whatever that meant.
I was now out of work. Ted Taylor had rented offices in the
-27-
Lyceum Building at 231 South Spring Street. He also used this as his
living quarters. Ted invited me to go into partnership with him in the
formation of the Los Angeles Press Service. This organization was
a news bureau designed to furnish special stories to out of town news-
papers on matters that would not be carried in detail by the regular
wire services. Ted and I operated this service for two or three years.
It was a sideline to our regular reporting jobs.
I took a job with the Los Angeles Express in December, 1923 and
was assigned to cover the courthouse and late police. Ted kept his job
with the Record until 1925, then married and went to Paris, where he
worked on the now defunct Paris Times for several years.
The job with the Express introduced me to the world of courts,
lawyers, prosecutors and policemen. My headquarters was the Press
Roomi on the third floor of the old red sandstone courthouse at
Broadway and Temple. The building had been erected in the 1890' s
and everything was amply proportioned. The ceiling of the Press
Room was at least twenty feet from the floor. On entering the visitor
was greeted by a big streamer at ceiling height, covering the whole
length of the Press Room wall. It proclaimed: "Thou shalt have no
other God before me. Signed Morris Lavine. " Morris was the star of
our Press Room. He had the ingenuity to uncover the whereabouts of
Clara Phillips, the Los Angeles "hammer murderess" who had escaped
from the Los Angeles County jail. She was turned up by Lavine in
-28-
Honduras. Lavine had the story sewed up for days. Lavine, with Under-
sheriff Biscailuz and Mrs. Biscailuz were alone in Honduras with no
other American newspaper nnan for hundreds of miles around. They
brought back Mrs. Phillips after she waived extradition.
Two other reporters for the Examiner were Doc Cook and J. T. R,
"Bunny" Smith. Doc Cook had been a minister in the East, who figured
in a sensational elopement with a menaber of his choir. Mr. Hearst
felt that the Rev. Mr. Cook had been victimized by sensational journalism
and gave him a lifetime job as a reporter with the Los Angeles Examiner,
covering the divorce court. Bunny Smith was a Princeton graduate.
He had contracted Parkinson's disease, which made it impossible for
him to use his hands or feet normally. V/hen he entered the various
courtrooms, his disability required him to come in at a dead run. It
was pretty startling to be sitting in a quiet courtroom with a jury trial
in progress, see the doors flung open and watch Bunny sprinting to the
clerk's desk. This part of our reputation for insobriety was unearned.
All of us took turns in helping Bunny with his work. Bunny had a side
line of selling probate bonds to lawyers and supported his family in
some comfort in spite of his handicaps.
For years there had always been a stud poker game in progress in
the courthouse Press Room. Bill Ferguson, of the Record, and I
introduced chess. In a few month's time the poker game was forgotten
and several chess boards were in operation. When Bunny Smith and I
.29-
played chess, I had to make the moves for both of us. Bunny would
say, "See, only one good hand is needed in this game for the two of
us."
The Times was represented in the Press Room by John Blackburn,
with Lui Venator as his assistant. Lui had been at Stanford with me.
He later had the Times beat in Hollywood and then was the New York
Times correspondent in Manchuria. Venator and his wife, Dorothy,
returned from Harbin to Los Angeles in the 30' s and my firm re-
presented him in a protracted contest to recover his deceased mother's
estate from his stepfather's kinfolk. During that time I was able to
get Lui placed as manager of the State Exhibition at Exhibition Park,
He did a tremendous job. Under his leadership, the institution at
Exposition Park expanded greatly. Lui died suddenly in 1955.
I suppose one of the most influential men in my life was Roy
Allen, who came to the Press Room for the Times in 1924. He
went quietly about his work without attracting much attention. After
he had been there only a few months, I reported to the Press Room
one day that I had picked up an interesting book on a newsstand en-
titled "How to Obtain a California Divorce and Avoid the Publicity
Hazard. " After a general discussion of the book among the reporters,
Allen called me aside and asked me if I liked it, I told him I did.
"Well, " he said, "I wrote it. "
Some of those reporters had been covering divorces for ten years
-30-
but had never seen the publishing possibility that Roy was able to
see as soon as he came on the job,
Allen hadn't been there much longer when he observed that the
Superior judges occasionally were called upon to appoint sonneone as
receiver. Roy had already a wide business experience. He had been
city editor of a newspaper in Pittsburgh and then had gone into the coal
business. When the coal business collapsed, he settled up his debts,
came West and started to work as a newspaper reporter again. None
of the rest of us had ever thought of becoming receivers. However,
Roy made himself useful and an expert in that field. Since 1925 Roy has had
over ninety percent of all of the receivership appointments in the Los
Angeles Superior Court.
The Herald's representatives at the Press Room were Reginald
Tavener, an Australian, and Al Phillips, who had specialized in
covering divorces for many years, and had a personal filing system
that made him the outstanding specialist in that field. Lloyd Emerson,
of the Examiner, covered the District Attorney's beat with me later.
We had several specimens of the old-time "boomer" reporter
who had worked on newspapers all over the United States and had
developed legendary reputations. One of them was Jack Carberry.
When Carberry covered the investigation of the Gordon Northcott
murders, he made local newspaper history. Jack was working for
the Express, which had a failing circulation, and depended on sensational
-31-
headlines to boost street sales. Northcott was a sex deviate. His
murder victims were several young boys . The crimes occurred at
his desert ranch in San Bernardino County. Carberry was at the
ranch with Sheriff's deputies, trying to uncover the graves of the
murderer's victims. One morning he phoned in a lead to the Express
which opened with the sentence "Army Planes today joined Sheriff's
deputies in searching for the bones of the victims of mass child slayer,
Gordon Northcott. " Herb Spencer, the Express city editor, liked that and
told Carberry to get him a new lead for the eleven o'clock edition. V/ith
the aid of some Etiwanda bootleg brandy. Jack went to work on a new
lead. At eleven o'clock he phoned it in: "Out of the gray mists of the
morning, steaming up the Santa Ana River, today came the U.S.
Aircraft Carrier Saratoga bearing Navy planes to join Army planes
in assisting sheriff's deputies in the search for the bones of the victims
of Gordon Northcott. "
At this point Herb Spencer saw what the re-write man was
taking in. He leaned into the phone to tell Jack he thought he was a
little tired and ought to come home.
Two other famous migratory newspaper nnen were Pat O'Hara
and Charles Williams. They came to the Press Roonrx together from
New Orleans. Charles Williams had a penchant for widows. We were
all covering the murder trial of Margaret Willis, who had murdered
her personal physiciaji. Dr. Benjamin Beecher Baldwin, then stolen
-32-
his automobile to transport his body in a truck which she threw into
a canyon. One evening when Sara and I were living at 1515-1/2 South
Wilton, Williams and Pat O'Hara appeared accompanied by Dr. Baldwin's
young widov/. They seemed to be in funds and brought some fine
liquor along. It turned out they had pawned the doctor's surgical
instruments for this purpose. I asked them how they had come to our
apartment, since I knew they were without transportation. They took
me to the window and said, "Look!" There was Exhibit "A", the
"death car, " out in front.
There was a time when O'Hara retired from the newspaper
business and moved into a cave in the Ojai Valley. He had persuaded
Khrisnamurti, the living Buddha, to give him a pair of his old tennis
shoes. Armed w^ith these relics, Pat was able to set himself up as
a holy man in Ojai. He read the palms of dowagers who came to his
cave w^ith food, drink and other conveniences.
I suppose that the best post graduate course anyone could have
to prepare for public life is a few years as a courthouse reporter.
Nearly all of the friends that I ever nnade in my formative years were
new^spaper men. New^spapermen never ^vere joiners. The ability to
say "I am a newspaper man" or even "I was a newspaper man" was
enough to gain admittance to as close a fraternity as anyone would ever
want.
In Los Angeles in my time we never had a Press Club. Mostly
-33-
because the Los Angeles Times was so opposed to unionism that it
forbade its staff to join even so harnnless an organization as a press
club. The American Newspaper Guild did not come until 1934. When
it did, Jonathan Eddy became guest for several days in Long Beach,
where I was then sitting as Superior judge. Eddy had come out from
New York to organize the first chapter of the American Newspaper
Guild in Los Angeles,
Although I was paid only $40 a week as a courthouse reporter,
the job gave me the illusion of wealth and independence. In exchange
for squaring traffic tickets for the office staff, we had passes for nearly
every entertainment and sporting event. Liquor was free because the
dry squads of the sheriff's office, the district attorney and the police
competed in furnishing us with the best specimens of the evidence
seized from bootleggers. We dispensed important favors to judges.
In those days, most judges were uncertain of re-election and a stream
of favorable news stories was the life-line to job security. All of
this was heady stuff for a twenty-two year old cub.
When I went to the courthouse press roora for the Express, the
man who worked immediately opposite me for the Evening Herald was
Harold L, "Buddy" Davis. Buddy was studying law and he encouraged me
to do likewise. He pointed out that several newspaper men had become
lawyers and judges, including Judge Fletcher Bowron of the Superior
Court, and Judges James H. Pope, Raymond Turney of the Municipal
-34-
Court. Judge Turney was a younger brother of Art Turney, Vanderbilt's
City Editor,
In June, 1924, Davis left the Herald to become secretary to
Asa Keyes, the District Attorney. Keyes had been appointed district
attorney to fill out the unexpired term of Thomas L.ee Woolwine.
After being defeated as the Democratic nominee for Governor in 1922,
Woolwine' s health failed and he resigned. Keyes had been a deputy
district attorney for a great many years. His father, Charles Keyes,
had been a pioneer county clerk.
Davis recommended me for his job on the Herald and I took it.
It paid $5 more a week. This was how Mr. Hearst put me through
law school.
Keyes was running for re-election. He was opposed by Police
Judge Caryl Sheldon. Judge Sheldon's mother was an important
figure with the Dry forces in Los Angeles. In the primary on August
26, 1924 Keyes beat Judge Sheldon. About this time, Davis was
admitted to the Bar and became one of Keyes deputies.
A singular feature of L-os Angeles politics in 1924 was the con-
tinuing strength of the Ku Klux Klan annong public officials. One man
appeared every day in the corridors of the District Attorney's office.
He seemed very nnuch at home there. I was informed that he was the
official liason man between the Kleagle and the District Attorney. He
was on the District Attorney's payroll as an "investigator. " Another
-35-
investigator was Bert Franklin. He had been a private detective for
the McNannara defense ten years before. At the trial of Clarence
Darrow for fixing a juror, Franklin turned on his former employer
and became a witness against Darrow. The jury acquitted Darrow but
from then on Franklin had a life-time job with the District Attorney.
Jack Diamond, a cheerful red-haired roughneck was another "investigator.
He specialized in testifying against his former I. W. W, associates in
crinriinal syndicalism cases. He expressed shock one day when he
saw nne reading a current issue of the Nation in the District Attorney's
office.
In September, 1924, I started taking day courses at the USC
Law School then located at First and Broadway. My hours were so
arranged that I could attend an eight o'clock and nine o'clock class,
then go to work for the Herald at the courthouse and perhaps slip
down again for an afternoon class. My professor in elementary law
was Justice Gavin Craig of the District Court of Appeal.
My first vote for president was cast in Novennber, 1924, Two
years of exposure to the Nation and New Republic had made me an
ardent supporter of Senator Robert LaFoUette who ran as an Indepen-
dent that year against Calvin Coolidge and John W. Davis, the
Democratic candidate. In California, LaFoUette was forced to run in
a Socialist because of a 4 to 3 decision of our State Supreme Court
in Spreckels v Graham . The three dissenters were Justices Lennon,
-36-
Lawler, and Seawell (194 CaL 516).
In March, 1925 we nnoved to a house that my mother had built
for us at 1941 North Serrano in East Hollywood. Shortly afterwards
Sara took ill, and her stepfather. Dr. Duffield, took her to the Cottage
Hospital in Santa Barbara. She was there until June 28, the day before
the earthquake in Santa Barbara. Luckily she was safe at home when
that occurred.
The Spring municipal primaries of 1925 marked the high water
mark of the Parrott-Craig-Haynes machine, as the Times called it.
The Times was referring to Justice Craig, my law professor, Kent K.
Parrott, a young lawyer, and Dr. John R. Haynes, a respected physi-
cian, who, with his brother-in-law. Dr. Walter Lindley, were the
leaders of the public ownership nnovement in Los Angeles. They had
united in 1921 to elect George Cryer, former deputy city attorney,
as Mayor of Los Angeles. George Cryer represented a coalition of
the forces opposed to the Los Angeles Times. He had the support of
the Examiner and of the Municipal Bureau of Power and Light.
E. F. Scattergood, General Manager of the Bureau, had made
this agency a strong political force for reasons of self-preservation.
The Times and the Edison Company were constantly trying to
limit the growth of publicly owned power in Los Angeles. In 1925 these
forces induced Judge Benjamin F. Bledsoe of the U.S. District
Court to resign his lifetime post in order to run for mayor against
-37-
Mayor Cryer. Kent Parrott had a cartoon designed which was posted
all over Los Angeles. It showed the backs of two men. The larger
nnan was labeled "Harry, " referring to Harry Chandler of the Los
Angeles Tinnes, and the smaller man in judicial robes was labeled
"Ben," The caption was a simple one -- "Harry calls him 'Ben. ' "
The Bledsoe crowd was furious. They countered with a poster bearing
an idealized likeness of a friendly judge. The caption was "Everybody
calls him 'Ben. ' " After Cryer won the election, the latter poster was
amended by the wags to read "Everybody calls him 'Has-Ben. ' "
In September, 1925, I transferred from USC Law School to night
courses at Loyola College. I studied code pleading under Leon
Yankwich, attorney for the Los Angeles Record, I also took a course
in evidence from Joseph W. Ford, noted Los Angeles trial attorney.
At the same time, I began a daytime quiz course for the Bar examina-
tion. This was given by George Nix, a remarkable attorney who had
lost his sight, but who had converted his handicap into an advantage.
Nix knew every important California case by book and page, and had
also memorized every important California Code Section, Nix and
Yankwich were the two men who made a lawyer out of me.
After taking the Nix quiz course twice, I decided to tcike the June
20 Bar examination "for practice, " since I felt that with my spotty and
irregular legal education, I would be subject to special scrutiny. In
August, 1926 I was sitting in the courtroom of Judge Arthur Keetch,
-38-
reporting the proceedings, when Ken Taylor, a reporter and brother
of Ted Taylor, came in with the happy news that I had passed the
examination. I was admitted to the Bar on September 13, 1926.
-39-
CHAPTER FOUR
1926 - The Aimee McPherson Case
In February, 1926, Lt. Governor C. C. Young announced his
candidacy for governor against Governor Friend Richardson. Young
had the support of the Parrott-Craig-Haynes alliance. He also had
the support of the Bank of America. The latter institution was still
a state bank then and Richardson's Superintendent of Banks had not
been sufficiently liberal, in its opinion, in granting charters for
branches.
About the same time, Buron Fitts, Chief Deputy District
Attorney under Asa Keyes, announced that he would be a candidate for
Lt. Governor. Fitts took a leave from his post in the District Attorney's
office, and Buddy Davis was appointed Chief Deputy in his place.
Buddy took office just in tinne to be confronted with the biggest "non-
crime" of the generation. This was when Aimee Semple McPherson,
Pastor of the Four Square Gospel Church at Echo Park, Los Angeles,
went for a swim at Ocean Park and disappeared. For five weeks a
search was carried on for the missing evangelist. Deep sea divers
combed the sea for her body and memorial services were conducted
at the Four Square Gospel Church.
On June 23rd, Mrs. McPherson re-appeared at Douglas,
Arizona. She reported that she had been the victim of a kidnapping
-40-
and had just managed to escape from her kidnappers somewhere in
the Mexican desert, south of Douglas.
Nothing ever sold more newspapers in Los Angeles than the
Aimee affair. The Rev. Robert P. Shuler of Trinity Methodist
Church South demanded that District Attorney Keyes conduct an
investigation. Deputy District Attorney Joe Ryan was assigned to the
case and Detective Captain Herman Cline, his father-in-law, was
assigned to the matter by the Police Department. Witnesses were
sunnmoned before the grand jury, including Mrs. McPherson and her
mother, Mrs. Kennedy. Newspaper sleuths were all hot on the trail
of Mrs. McPherson' s actual whereabouts during the five weeks in
question. Finally, two weeks after the state primary election in
August, District Attorney Keyes announced the issuance of conriplaints
for obstruction of justice against Mrs. McPherson, Mrs. Kennedy
and a Mrs. L,oraine Wiseman, who was alleged to have furnished a
false alibi for Mrs. McPherson. On September 27, Municipal Judge
Samuel Blake began a preliminary hearing on the obstruction of justice
complaint. Mrs. McPherson was represented by Williann I. Gilbert,
a dean of the Los Angeles Bar, who was also an attorney for the
Southern Pacific.
After five weeks of mounting sensations, Judge Blake announced
that he was holding the three women to answer charges in the Superior
Court. Actually, Aimee' s only real crime was that of minding her own
-41-
business, but that was more than our local bigots could bear.
The August 31st primary saw the last victory that was to come
to the Parrott-Craig-Haynes organization. Their candidate, Lt.
Governor C. C. Young, beat the incumbent governor Friend Richardson.
Buron Fitts was elected Lt. Governor over State Senator Frank
Merriann. The most interesting vote in the election was for Chief
Justice. The incumbent, W* H. Waste, received 473, 704 votes, but
his opponent. Associate Justice Thomas J. Lennon, received 268,818
votes, despite the fact that Lennon died two weeks before the election,
when it was too late to remove his name from the ballot. The Los
Angeles Record advised its readers to vote for Lennon as a protest
to Waste's 1924 decision against Senator LaFoUette in Spreckles v
Graham , removing him from the ballot as a Progressive.
The Novennber, 1926 election, saw the last instance where
justices were voted to seats on the Supreme Court by a direct vote
of the people. John W. Preston, U.S. District Attorney under
Woodrow Wilson, and W.H. Langdon, one of the San Francisco graft
prosecutors, were elected. The 1926 election was also the last
election in which the Superior Judges in Los Angeles County ran in
a pack. After 1926, the law was changed so that the superior court
judges ran separately for differently numbered offices.
Throughout the year 1926, Rev. Shuler had been attracting
considerable attention by his demands that Aimee McPher son's
-42-
disappearance be investigated. During all of this time Mrs. McPherson's
church had a radio and she was able to state her side of the case. Rev.
Shuler had no radio. However, at Christmas of 1926, the inequality
was removed. A Miss Glide of Oakland, a wealthy follower of Rev*
Shuler, made him a Christmas present of a radio station. This
became the most significant event in the history of Los Angeles politics
for the balance of the i920's.
C. C. Young, the newly-elected governor, was one of the best
endowed men ever elected to the office. A scholarly type, he was
selected by the Hiram Johnson progressives to serve as Speaker of
the Assembly and later to serve two terms as lieutoBant governor. His
victory over the stand-pat Republican, Friend Richardson, was popular
with labor and reform forces. However, his luck ran out during the
four years of his governorship. He had just taken his seat when the
Julian petroleum scandal crashed around his newly-appointed
Corporations Commissioner and the last year of his term was flawed
by the collapse of several savings and loan institutions, regulated by
his Building and Loan Commissioner.
In Young's second year as Governor, California was shaken by
"Blue Monday, " June 11, 1928, when Bancitaly stock broke from $195
to $109 a share. A. P. Giannini, President of the Bank of Italy, had
been Young's most prominent supporter in the August, 1926 primary.
The crash in bank stocks was probably beneficial in the long rvm, since
-43-
it cushioned for California, the national crash on the New York
Exchange on October 29, 1929. Mr. Giannini had long pleaded with
investors to purchase their stock "outright" - not on margin. Those
who took his advice never lost any money.
Governor Young also was a "dry. " Reformers and Prohibitionists
had much in common politically and had joined in many victories.
But the "wet" sentiment was not to be denied when a mounting depression
developed after the collapse of stock prices.
-44-
CHAPTER FIVE
1927 - The Julian Petroleum Crash
The McPherson case disappeared from the courts but not from
the headlines on January 10, 1927, when District Attorney Keyes
bowed to legal realities and dismissed all charges against Mrs.
McPherson, her mother, and Kenneth Ormiston, the radio technician
at the Four Square Gospel Church. By then, it appeared from evidence
produced by the newspaper investigation that Mrs. McPherson had
actually been in Ormiston' s company at a cottage in Carmel during
the period of her disappearance. To the everlasting credit of
Ornniston, he spurned all newspaper offers to purchase his "true
story. " He went to his grave without ever unsealing his lips on the
events of May and June, 1926.
C. C. Julian was a promoter who used flamboyant publicity
methods to sell stock in various oil and mining enterprises. In the
early 20 's he had laxinched the Julian Petroleum Company, and the
public invested heavily in it. Surprisingly the Julian Company turned
out to be more than a stock selling scheme, it had come into the
possession of valuable oil properties. In 1925 Julian was persuaded
to withdraw from the active management of the company bearing his
name, and his place as president was taken by S. C. Lewis, who came
to California from the East with Jack Bernnan, alias Jack Bennett,
-45-
who became his associate in the operation of the Julian Company.
In August, 1926 it was announced that the Julian Company would
merge with a larger concern, the California Eastern. Upon this news,
Julian stock prices gyrated wildly on the Los Angeles Exchange.
When Governor Young took office in 1927, he appointed Jack
Friedlander to the post of Corporation Commissioner. Friedlander
had been Mayor Cryer's appointee as City Prosecutor of Los Angeles.
His appointment as Commissioner was favored by Kent Parrott, an
active supporter of Governor Young, in the 1926 campaign.
It soon turned out that the new Corporation Commissioner had
his hands full. On May 5, 1927 the great Julian crash occurred.
Trading in the stock was ordered to cease on the Los Angeles Stock
Exchange. It was soon discovered that Lewis and Bernnan had loaded
the market with unauthorized stock certificates. Joseph Scott and
H, L. Carnahan, Los Angeles attorneys, were appointed receivers of
the Julian concern. On May 19, Lewis and Berman were indicted, but
Herman in the meantime had fled to France.
It was then learned that the over -is sue in Julian stock had been
made possible by financial "pools" which included a great number of
prominent Los Angeles businessmen. These men had been getting
returns of one hundred percent per nnonth on their "pool" investnnents.
Altogether, over $150, 000, 000 was lost in the Julian fiasco and over
40, 000 investors lost their money.
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District Attorney Keyes and the Grand Jury addressed themselves
to the Julian case at once. On June 24, 1927, 29 indictments were
returned naming many prominent Los Angeles leaders and notably
officials of the First National Bank.
Although I had been admitted to practice law, I did not enter
the profession immediately. There was too much excitement going on
in 1926 and 1927 and, as a courthouse reporter, I was in the center of
it. However, nny knowledge of law stood me in good stead, I knew
that when an indictment is returned the defendants are entitled to a
copy of the Grand Jury transcript. The Julian Grand Jury hearings had
gone on for several weeks, and many volumes of transcript had been
prepared. All this testimony had remained secret. I arranged with
one of the defendants to take delivery on his volunrxes of the transcript
as soon as the Grand Jury shorthand reporter had completed them.
James Bolger, another Herald reporter, and I then proceeded to digest
the secret testimony and for two days the Herald was filled with our
exclusive summary of the disclosures in the transcript.
This was the last news story I ever worked on. In September,
1927 I was appointed a Deputy by County Covinsel Everett W. Mattoon.
The County Counsel is the civil attorney for the County of Los Angeles.
On the day that I was sworn in, two other deputies were also sworn in -
William McKesson, later District Attorney of Los Angeles County
-47-
and Harold Huls, later Railroad Commissioner and Superior Judge of
Los Angeles County. I served four years as a deputy county counsel.
In August of 1927, Governor Young made some outstanding
appointments to the Superior Court bench. Ten new judgeships had
been created by the 1927 Legislature. Among those appointed were
Clair S. Tappan, a law professor at USC, Leon Yankwich, my professor
at Loyola, William T. Aggeler, the County Public Defender and
Charles Fricke, Assistant District Attorney and a leading authority
on criminal law. Later that year, Governor Young appointed Marshall
McComb to another vacancy on the Superior bench.
In August of 1927, Sacco and Vanzetti were executed in Boston.
I was one of the many millions of Americans who were awakened by
that event to the ugly miscarriage that our legal system was capable
of producing.
Shortly before midnight on March 12, 1928, the St. Francis
dam collapsed and 400 persons lost their lives in Ventura County.
The dam had been constructed as part of the aqueduct system
carrying Owens Valley water from. Inyo and Mono Counties to Los
Angeles. The catastrophe resulted from a failure to discover that the
dann had been constructed on a geologic formation that simply would
not support it. The District Attorney, the State of California, the
Ventura farmers all launched investigations. Even Rev. Shuler got into
the act over his radio. The tragedy was a lethal blow to the Los
Angeles City administration. In the following year. Mayor Cryer
announced that he would not seek re-election.
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CHAPTER SIX
A BREAKDOWN IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
The year 1928 opened with the trial of S. C, Lewis, Jack Berman and
Ed Rosenberg, a stock broker, before Superior Judge William C, Doran.
The trial began on January 5th, On January 21 st. Buddy Davis resigned as
Chief Deputy District Attorney,
The Julian trial continued for several months, being conducted by
District Attorney Asa Keyes. On May 19, Lieutenant Governor Buron Fitts
announced that he intended to run for District Attorney at the August primary.
In the following week, on May 24, 1928, the jury acqxxitted all of the Julian
defendants. Judge Doran denounced the astonishing verdict as a miscarriage
of justice.
No one ever went to jail for directly participating in the Julian
collapse. The United States Attorney had commenced proceedings against
Lewis and Berman for mail fraud, arising out of an earlier promotion
of the Lewis Oil Company, Thoy eventually went to the federal penitentiary
because of this crime. Two of the jurors who had voted for the acquittal
in Judge Doran' s court were later convicted of accepting bribes for their
votes. District Attorney Keyes was convicted of accepting bribes for
"softening up" the Julian prosecution. A newspaper reporter who
attempted to extort money from some of the Julian principals by threat-
ening to expose them with suppressed evidence that had come into his
possession, served a year in the county jail.
At the primary election on August 28, 1928, Lieutenant Governor
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Fitts was elected District Attorney of Los Angeles County.
The 1928 primary was the first election in which superior judges
ran by office number instead of in a group. It was also the first
campaign in which Rev. Shuler was able to bring his radio to bear
upon candidates for public office. Two incumbent superior judges lost
their seats in August to Shuler -endorsed candidates. Judge Doran ran
behind Mrs. Georgia Bullock, but the votes obtained by a third candidate
required them to go into a run-off election in November, at which time
Judge Doran was re-elected by nearly a two-to-one margin.
In the fall of 1928, Albert Marco, a so-called "vice-baron, " was
convicted of an assault which occurred during a party at the Ship Cafe,
on the Venice pier.
People v Albori ,( 97 Cal. App. 537). I always thought Marco was
mainly a synthetic bad-man, wearing a tag hung on him by the news-
papers. He spent five years in prison as the price of bad public
relations.
On September 30th, Governor Young filled the Fitts vacancy in
the Lieutenant Governor's post by appointing H. L, Carnahan, receiver
of Julian Petroleum.
On November 1, 1928, District Attorney Keyes, Jack Bennett,
Ed Rosenberg and Ben Getzoff, a Spring street tailor, were
arrested for bribery arising out of the acquittal of the Julian defendants
earlier that year. The exposure was based upon a diary, kept by
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Milton Pike, a journeyman tailor employed by Getzoff. Pike had
noticed the comings and goings of the District Attorney in Getzoff's
shop. He carefully chronicled them. The diary was published by the
Los Angeles Times. Keyes'nemesis in this investigation was
Arthur Loeb, a Julain stockholder. Loeb had lost an eye during a
fracas at an early Julian stockholder's meeting. H.J. Kimmerle,
the man responsible for Loeb's injuries had been convicted of assault
and his conviction affirmed by the appellate court in March, 1928
(90 Gal. App. 186). However, a few days after Kimmerle started
serving his sentence, he was granted a parole with the approval of
Asa Keyes. Loeb was tenacious. He pursued Keyes thenceforth until
the District Attorney was convicted.
On January 16, 1929, Keyes' trial began before Superior Judge
Edward Butler of Marin County. Buron Fitts acted as the prosecutor.
Many people have criticized Buron for taking on this job, since Keyes
had once been his friend and superior officer. Buron was a handsome,
conripetent courtroom lawyer. He was the cousin of Ray Petifils, my
closest friend in high school. Buron had an excellent war record,
was wounded overseas and an American Legion leader. His elections
as Lieutenant Governor and District Attorney naarked him for great
things in California public life. Despite all of this, a small group
of Fitts-haters first made its appearance in 1929 and steadily grew
until he was finally defeated by John Dockweiler in 1940.
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The beginnings of the "Hate Fitts" cannpaign canne with his
prosecution of Asa Keyes. I do not see how Fitts could have avoided
conducting this prosecution. There had been a serious breakdown in
law enforcement in Los Angeles County and the people were entitled
to the assurance that the new District Attorney would personally under-
take to correct the situation.
On February 8th, Keyes was found guilty and remanded to
jail. His appeal was denied (103 Cal. App.634), and he was not
released from San Quentin until October 13, 1931. He died a few
years later.
On March 5, 1929 Jack Friedlander resigned as Corporation
Commissioner and Governor Young appointed Fred Athearn of
San Francisco to take his place. On April 17, 1930, Friedlander,
Charles Crawford and S. C. Lewis were indicted on bribery charges
made by Jack Roth, a partner of C.C. Julian, in connection with
stock sales regulated by the Corporation Commissioner. The case,
however, was dismissed by Buron Fitts on October 20, 1930, when
Jack Roth refused to testify on constitutional grounds.
In the 1928 campaign, Herbert Hoover beat Al Smith for the
presidency. I was very strong for Smith and listened devoutly to
all of his radio speeches. I took no part in his campaign; however,
I was a deputy county counsel then and could not take part in any
overt political activities without coming into conflict with the County
Charter.
CHAPTER SEVEN -52-
THE 1929 LEGISLATURE
Every odd-numbered year, a deputy county counsel was assigned
to attend the legislature in Sacramento. Homer Mitchell, a classmate
of mine at Stanford, had the assignment in 1927, When he left the
office to join the O'Melveny law firm in 1928, I applied for his
assignment and County Counsel Mattoon gave it to me. I went to
Sacramento on January 1, 1929 and set up headquarters in the Senator
Hotel. Several of my Stanford friends lived in Sacramento, My
closest friend there was Fred Pierce, then an attorney with the firm
of Downey, Brand and Seymour, Fred became Presiding Justice of
the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacrannento in 1963.
I also found many friends among the newspaper nrien at the
Capitol. Carl Moritz, of San Francisco, was there for the Hearst
Service. Ross Marshall covered the session for the Los Angeles
Express. Elwood Squires was one of the United Press men there.
Prohibition was still in effect, but the Los Angeles County expense
account permitted me funds for entertainment, and this was converted
into excellent prescription bourbon very much appreciated by the press
and my Stanford friends in Sacramento.
An unusual event of the 1929 session was the impeachment
trial of Superior Judge Carlos Hardy of Los Angeles, The judge
had accepted a love offering of $2, 500 from Mrs. Ainnee McPherson.
The Assembly voted a bill of impeachment and the Judge was placed
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on trial before the State Senate. The votes to convict him lacked the
necessary two-thirds and he retained his seat upon the bench. The
State Bar tried to discipline Judge Hardy, but the Supreme Court
held that a judge was not a lawyer, and therefore not subject to State
Bar discipline. Judge Hardy's term expired in 1930 and he was
defeated for re-election by Municipal Judge Raymond I. Tunney.
I presented to the Legislature the bills that were proposed by
the various County officers. One of the most innportant of these
measures in 1929 was presented by Registrar of Voters William Kerr,
It was designed to change the law so that voters would be permanently
registered, instead of being re-registered every two years. One
argunnent in favor of the bill was that it would save the counties a
great deal of money, since a fee had to be paid to the county clerks
for each new registration and in most of the counties, the county clerks
were compensated on the basis of the fees collected. Naturally,
they appeared enmasse in Sacramento to oppose Kerr's proposal. The
bill was defeated. The following year, Kerr and J.H. Zemansky,
the Registrar of Voters in San Francisco, presented an initiative
petition to the voters as they were being re-registered. It was the
simplest way ever discovered to circulate an initiative petition.
Sufficient signatures were soon obtained and the permanent registration
naeasure qualified. At the general election in 1930, the permanent
registration proposal was adopted. All of the voters of the state were
-54-
re-registered in 1932 and they have remained on the rolls ever since,
so long as they continued to cast a vote in either the prinnary or general
election each biennium. The pernnanent registration system has done
nauch to increase voter participation in California elections.
Although Buron Fitts was just beginning his first year as
District Attorney, there were many who thought that he would move
on to a higher office, such as Governor. Innportant political planners
also believed that the ideal candidate to succeed Buron Fitts as
District Attorney would be Superior Judge William C. Doran, As a
consequence, Assembly Constitutional Amendnnent 17 was passed.
It amended Article VI, Section 18 to permit superior and municipal
judges to run for non-judicial offices. This amendment was adopted
by the voters at the November, 1930 general election. It has permitted
many candidates to run for non-judicial office with the imposing ballot
title "Judge of the Superior Court. " Fletcher Bowron was elected
mayor under these circumstances. The amendment helped my
election to the State Senate, Judge Goodwin Knight as Lieutenant
Governor and Judge Stanley Mosk as Attorney General. The strange
thing is that Judge Doran never ran for District Attorney. He was
soon pronnoted to the Appellate Court where he became ineligible to
run for any non-judicial office. He remained in that post until his
retirement in the late 1950's.
I learned much about the legislative way of life while in Sacramento.
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One state senator in attendance was Joseph Pedrotti. He was a great
practical joker. He could often manage to loan some friend an
exploding match just before the Chaplain offered the prayer. Then,
in mid-prayer when the victim was irreverently lighting his cigarette,
the match would explode to his great embarrassment, and the puzzle-
ment of the Chaplain.
Somewhere Senator Pedrotti came into possession of a $100 bill.
Each morning he would slip it into an envelope addressed to hinnself,
and hand it to a page. As soon as Senator Pedrotti had taken his seat,
the page would come down and hand him the envelope. The Senator
would open the envelope with just enough surreptitiousness to
attract the attention of his seat mate. This legislator would see
Senator Pedrotti take out the $100 bill and quickly lodge it in his vest.
After this performance had been repeated about five times, it became
too much for the other legislator. He turned to the Senator and said:
"Joe, what's the matter, ain't I voting right?"
This latter member was once approached by a lobbyist to vote
for a measure. He looked it over and assured the lobbyist that he
thought it was a good bill. Later he heard rumors that the lobbyist
was paying other members for their votes. When the roll was called,
this member voted "no. " The lobbyist hurried down the aisle to see
hinn. "Senator, " he said, "I thought you said this was a good bill?"
"Sure, " replied the legislator, "but good for who?"
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At the conclusion of the 1929 session, I compiled a digest of
the new laws which were of special interest to the legal profession. This
was published in the legal periodicals. Every biennium since then,
even during the years I served as Attorney General, I continued to compile
this digest, partly for my own education, and partly for its publicity
value. The 1963 digest was my seventeenth edition.
The April 1929 municipal primary saw the collapse of the Parrot-
Craig-Haynes machine. George Cryer, the incumbent mayor, was not
seeking re-election. The machine backed William P. Bonelli, formerly
a professor of Political Science at Occidental, who had been elected to
the City Council in 1927 and promptly was chosen as President of the
Council. The Los Angeles Times backed John R. Quinn, former
National Commander of the American Legion, and later County Assessor
of Los Angeles County. Rev. Shuler backed John C. Porter, foreman
of the reform grand jury that had indicted Asa Keyes. Porter was in the
waste materials industry, a profession sometimes known as "junk dealing. "
To everyone's surprise, Porter ran first, Bonelli second and the Times'
candidate, Quinn, was eliminated in the primary.
Jesse Stephens was also retiring as City Attorney that year. The
contestants for his place were City Councilman Peirson Hall and Erwin
"Pete" Werner, whose wife, Helen Werner, had already become an
important figure in Southern California Republican politics. "Pete"
Werner defeated Hall (Hall later became United States District Attorney,
-57-
and a Superior judge, appointed by Governor Olson. In 1942 President
Franklin Roosevelt appointed Judge Hall to the U.S. District Court).
The general election on June 4, 1929, saw Porter's victory over
Bonelli. It was a great triumph for Rev. Shuler, whose radio provided
him with the most powerful political weapon that had yet appeared in the
hands of any individual in California.
When Alexander Pantages was on trial before Judge Fricke for the
alleged statutory rape of 17 year old Eunice Pringle, Rev. Shuler
expressed fears over the radio that the jury had been tampered with by
agents of the wealthy theatre owner. Shuler and another reforming pastor.
Rev. Gustav Brieglib, a Presbyterian, were convicted of contempt of court
in 1929 for their comments about the Pantages case. They were sentenced
to pay small fines. It turned out they were wrong about the jury, because
Pantages was convicted. The conviction was later reversed because of
the misconduct of District Attorney Fitts in his argument to the jury
(212 Cal. 237).
During 1929, I made several visits to Yuma County, Arizona with
Roy Allen and Hal Rorke, a close Stanford friend of mine who was then
City Editor of the Daily News. In 1924, Vanderbilt had lost the Daily
News and after a receivership, it had been picked up by Manchester
Boddy, who was then its publisher. Allen, Rorke and I had invested
some money in unimproved real estate in the eastern part of Yuma
County. We thought it would be interesting to set up a citrus nursery
-58-
there. One attraction of the venture was the fact that on our way to
Yuma we could always go across the border to Algondones and drink
beer. There was plenty of potable hard liquor available in California
during prohibition; good beer was unobtainable. Between Mexicali and
Yuma we travelled on the one-car train provided by the Southern Pacific
of Mexico. We must have been good train customers during those
depression years. On one occasion we drank all the beer that the train
butcher had in stock. We asked him for more. He excused himself,
and went forward to the engineer. The next thing we knew, the train
started backing up for about a mile and a half. We saw the butcher run
to a cache in a clump of willows. He returned with a case of cold beer.
During the depression the Southern Pacific had become much nnore ac-
connmodating than it was in the days when Frank Norris called it "The
Octopus. "
I owed one thing to my training as a financial editor. Nearly
everyone else was in the 1929 stock market. I kept out and the New York
crash in late October did not affect me. I did buy some stocks after the
decline. We did lose our money in the Arizona grapefruit venture because
a band of wild horses came in and ate the tops of all of our seedling trees.
We put up a fence to keep out the horses, then a horde of jack rabbits
came along and finished the job.
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CHAPTER EIGHT
THE ROLPH CAMPAIGN FOR GOVERNOR
Early in January 1930, Buron Fitts announced that he would be
a candidate for governor against the incumbent, C. C. Young. That winter,
Sara and I visited Agua Caliente, a plush hotel and gambling resort adja-
cent to Tijuana. While there, we ran into Carl Moritz, my newspaper
friend from the Sacramento session, and drove him back with us to Los
Angeles. A few weeks later Moritz came to Los Angeles as press agent
for Mayor James Rolph of San Francisco, who was going to be the third
candidate in the race for Governor.
In this three-cornered race, Fitts had the ardent support of Rev.
Shuler and the Los Angeles Times, and Governor Young the support of the
Hiram Johnson progressive forces. However, a new political factor was
working for Mayor Rolph, As mayor of San Francisco, a free and hospitable
city, he becanae identified with the aspirations of the slowly emerging "wet"
forces of the state.
There were no Democratic politics to speak of in California throughout
the 20's. In San Francisco the Democrats in 1930 re-registered as Repub-
licans by the thousands to help their beloved Mayor Rolph to get the
Republican nomination, which was then tantamount to election. In 1918,
Rolph had received the Democratic nomination for governor, but because
he was a Republican and lost the Republican nomination, he was disqualified
and Governor William D. Stephens was elected.
-60-
Moritz invited me to join the Rolph campaign. Since I was still a
deputy county counsel with civil service status, I could not come out
openly for Rolph. However, I promised to help if I could find a way.
A few nights later, I was listening, as usual, to Rev. Shuler's radio
program. I heard him urging all of his followers to put Fitts for
Governor stickers on their windshields. This gave me an idea. Roy
Allen acted as the front man and we hired a dozen young women to go
to work as a sticker brigade for Rolph. They stood at street corners
where traffic was stopped, smiled prettily and frequently succeeded in
persuading the car owner to let them paste a Rolph sticker on the lower
right hand corner of his windshield. The sticker campaign had a
surprising success. There was a rebellion in progress against Fitts, Rev.
Shuler and the Times. Many voters wanted to register a protest against
the combination, but sentiment had not crystallized as to whether the
anti-Fitts vote should go to Rolph or Young. The appearance of the purple
Rolph stickers all over the city made up a lot of minds. Many decided
from the evidence of the stickers that Rolph was the man most likely
to beat Fitts.
In February, 1930 District Attorney Fitts and Superior Judge
Marshall McComb, a Young appointee to the bench, engaged in a
serious wrangle. Judge McComb had refused Fitts' request to continue
the trial of Getzoff and Jack Berman for bribing Asa Keyes and Buddy
Davis. The Judge insisted that the two men he brought to trial immediately.
Rev. Shuler was then cooperating with Fitts. He revealed his payment
-61-
of bribes to Jurors Frank Grider and John B. Groves for his acquittal in
May, 1929. On March 29, 1930 Fitts obtained thirty-five new Julian
indictments.
Fitts' controversy with Judge McComb flared up again April 11th,
when the Judge revived the old May, 1927 embezzlement charge originally
filed against Jack Berman. Judge McComb ordered Berman held on $250, 000
bail. Rev. Shuler promptly assailed Judge McComb on his radio, agreeing
with District Attorney Fitts that the Judge's act was an effort to silence
Berman's further confessions.
On April 17, McComb's bail order was reversed. Judge Gavin
Craig of the District Court of Appeal wrote a decision releasing Berman
on $10, 000 bail, instead of $250, 000.
On April 29, contempt charges were filed by the L. A. Bar Association
against Rev. Shuler for his attacks over the radio against Judge McComb.
On June 29, a significant incident occurred. Charles Crawford
joined Rev. Briegleb's church and put a large diamond ring in the collection
plate. It was later testified that Crawford was planning to buy a radio
for Rev. Briegleb that would put him on a par with Rev. Shuler.
On July 14, 1930, in the courtroom of Superior Judge Frank C. Collier,
Motley Flint stepped from the witness stand in a civil case. Frank
Keaton, a ruined Julian investor was waiting for him. He took out a
pistol and shot Flint dead. In Keaton's pocket was a copy of Shuler's
book, "Julian Thieves." Flint, a brother of former U.S. Senator Frank
P. Flint and a vice president of the First National Bank, had been indicted
-62-
in 1927 with the other businessmen who participated in the Julian pools
but his case had been dismissed with all the others.
The hectic pace of events seenned to slow down after District
Attorney Fitts had been defeated for governor in the state-wide primary
on August 26, 1930. The last of the Julian indictmients was dismissed by
Superior Judge B. Rey Schauer on October 14.
On August 26, 1930, Fitts and Gov. Young, who had done all of their
campaigning against each other, were both eliminated in the Republican
prinnary. Mayor Rolph, who ran his o\vn race while the other two ignored
him, won the nomination with a total vote of 377, 390 to 356, 765 for
Gov. Young, and 292, 743 for District Attorney Fitts.
In Los Angeles County, our sticker girl campaign had concentrated
in Rolph' s favor the large anti-Fitts vote. The combination of mucilage
and sex appeal did its work well. Fitts led with 181, 626 votes but Rolph
had 96, 223 votes and Young only 59, 569.
The 36, 000 vote margin for Rolph over Young in Los Angeles, elected
him because his state-wide margin was only 21, 000 votes. In the November
general election Rolph received 999, 000 votes, Milton K. Young, the
Democratic nominee, 333, 000 votes. That year Upton Sinclair ran as a
Socialist and received only 50,480 votes.
On October 1, the State Supreme Court unaninnously affirmed Rev.
Shuler's contempt conviction and Rev, Shuler was required to serve six
days in the Los Angeles County jail. The contempt conviction was never
carried to the United States Supreme Court. Ironically, when similar
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contempt convictions were later obtained against Harry Bridges, San
Francisco labor leader, and the Los Angeles Times, reversals were
obtained February 8, 1941, by a five-to-four decision of the United States
Supreme Court, written by Justice Black (314 US 252). The fact that
Rev. Shuler stood convicted of contempt weighed heavily against him the
following year when the Federal Radio Commission was considering
revocation of his radio license.
The contempt proceedings against Rev. Shuler had not weakened his
strength in Los Angeles in the August, 1930 primary. Despite a poor
showing elsewhere, his candidate Buron Fitts had swept Los Angeles
County for governor. Four Shuler candidates for the Superior Court
qualified for run-offs at the general election. At the November general
election all four of these candidates were elected over incumbent judges.
I was greatly concerned about a fifth race. Superior Judge Edward
T. Bishop had been County Counsel before Mattoon. He had helped me
when I was studying law. He was an outstanding judge and a Christian
gentleman. I never could understand why Rev. Shuler ever could have
anything against him, except the fact that he was an incumbent. To their
dismay, the friends of Ed Bishop discovered that he had run second in
the primary against lawyer Walter B. Thompson, Shuler' s candidate.
Roy Allen and I got out the sticker girls again during the fall campaign,
with Bishop for Judge stickers. At this election Judge Bishop beat
Thompson .handily. We felt very good about Judge Bishop's victory since
four other incumbent Superior Judges were beaten at the November 4, 1930
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election.
Although a progressive, Governor Young ducked the issue of pardoning
or commuting Tom Mooney during all of his term. His aides took the
position that since Mooney and Warren Billings were both convicted for the
I9I6 Preparedness Day explosion, the Governor could not act on Mooney's
case unless the Supreme Court acted first on Billings. Billings was an
ex-convict and could not be pardoned without a consent of a majority of
the State Supreme Court, In 1930 the State Supreme Court closed this
door, by holding that Billings was not entitled to clemency. Justice
William H. Langdon dissented (ZIO Cal, 669).
Governor Young's closing days in the governorship were darkened
by the collapse of several building and loan associations. On December 19,
1930, Gilbert Beesmeyer, president of the Guaranty Building and Loan
in Hollywood pleaded guilty to illegally taking over $8, 000, 000 from
local investors.
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CHAPTER NINE
THE ROLPH ADMINISTRATION 1931 - 1934
After serving eighteen years as Mayor of San Francisco, James
Rolph was inaugurated as Governor of California on January 5, 1931.
I attended the 1931 session of the legislature again as deputy county counsel.
My principal task that year was to obtain a $400, 000 appropriation for Los
Angeles County flood control. Northern California projects had always
received state assistance, but none had ever been given to Southern
California. I received a great deal of help on this bill from Frank
Merriam, who had been elected Lieutenant Governor. The $400, 000
appropriation set a precedent for equal appropriations North and South
on flood control.
The big issue before the 1931 legislature was reapportionment of
legislative seats following the 1930 census. No reapportionment at all
had taken place after the 1920 census, and Southern California felt that
it had been badly used.
The South was dealt a set-back on the opening day of the 1931
session. Edgar C. Levey of San Francisco was re-elected speaker by
a single vote over Walter Little, a Los Angeles Assemblyman. Two
Los Angeles Assemblymen had broken ranks and had voted for Levey.
One of these assemblymen, William Bonelli, was making a comeback
as a legislator after losing out for mayor in 1929. Bonelli and several
other legislators were hopeful that the reapportionment bills would
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produce tailor-made congressional seats for them to run in.
During the session, however, the tide of battle changed and the forces
of the South prevailed. Los Angeles County ended up with eight congress-
ional districts, where it had only two before, and attained thirty seats in
the Assembly, as against twenty-two assemblymen previously.
A bill that greatly affected California's subsequent politics was passed
at the 1931 session. This was Senate Bill 300, Chapter 931, authored by
Senator George Rochester of Los Angeles. At the 1930 election for
County Assessor in Los Angeles, the opponents of Ed Hopkins, veteran
incumbent, had put several other candidates named Hopkins on the ballot,
in an unsuccessful attempt to confuse the electorate. Senator Rochester's
bill permitted a candidate to list his occupation and his incumbency under
his name on the ballot. This factor added greatly to the strength of in-
cumbents and vastly increased the percentage in favor of their re-election.
Beginning with the 1932 election, when this provision first went into effect,
less than two percent of the incumbent superior judges in Los Angeles
County have been defeated for re-election.
The 1931 session had just adjourned when Deputy District Attorney
David Clark, a candidate for municipal judge, shot and killed both
Charles Crawford, the underworld leader, and Herb Spencer, City Editor
of the Express. At his trial he claimed self defense because the two men were
trying to "intimidate" him in relation to his candidacy by refusing their
support. Amazingly enough, this plea prevailed, and Clark was acquitted
for killing two unarmed men in self defense.
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From my personal standpoint, the most important thing that the
1931 legislature accomplished was the passage of a bill creating several
new superior and municipal court judgeships in Los Angeles County. I
started a campaign for one of the latter posts. Governor Rolph was
certainly favorably disposed to me.
During the August, 1930, primary campaign, Carl Moritz kept me
informed whenever the Mayor was coming to Lob Angeles and what
route he would take into the city. I then arranged to have my sticker girls
pasting up the windshields of automobiles proceeding in the opposite
direction to the Governor's route. Next to electing your candidate, the
most important thing is to make sure he is aware that you elected him.
Mayor Rolph must have certainly gained the impression that the
sticker campaign was much more expensive than it really was. I did
not spend more than $2, 500 in the campaign, but it looked like I had spent
ten times that much. My claim to favorable consideration was also
aided by the fact that very few lawyers in Los Angeles had come out in
favor of Governor Rolph. District Attorney Fitts had looked like a
sure thing to most of the politically ambitious lawyers in Los Angeles,
and the rest of them were still hoping for favors from Governor Young.
On August 20, Governor Rolph appointed me municipal judge. On
that day I was still 29 years of age. I had to persuade the Governor to
post-date my comnnission to September 13, to meet the State Constitution's
requirement of five years practice of law as a condition for eligibility
to the bench. Roy Allen helped me wait out that period by accompanying
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me on a trip to our property in Arizona, with an extended visit to Nogales,
Mexico.
The Los Angeles Record was highly complimentary about my appoint-
ment, saying "Kenny is a sound people's man." I suppose that was the doing
of my friend Reuben Borough, the political editor. Earlier that year I
had been attorney for the Superior Court when the editors of the Record
were on trial for contempt. The Record editors were represented by
William G. McAdoo. They prevailed in a decision rendered Feb. 25,
1931 (211 Cal. 19).
I think the most gracious appointment made by Rolph was his selection
of Francis J. Heney for the Los Angeles Superior Court. Heney was then
72 years of age and he had long been passed over until Rolph gave him
this belated recognition. Heney was the famous prosecutor of the San
Francisco graft trials. During the Abe Ruef case he was the victim of an
attennpted assasination. When Heney went to the hospital, Hiram Johnson,
his assistant, took over the prosecution and two years later was elected
Governor of California. Others appointed to the Superior Court on August
20, 1931 were Thomas P. White, later Justice of the State Supreme
Court, Clement Shinnand Minor Moore, later appellate judges, and Isaac
Pacht, long my devoted friend and ally in progressive causes.
During 1931 free speech was being strangled in Washington, D. C.
Rev. Shuler had applied for renewal of his radio station license. He had
made many enemies since 1928 and they swooped in for the kill. Ninety
witnesses were examined in the Federal Radio Commission hearings. The
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hearing examiner recommended renewal, but the commission then sat
enbanc, reversed the examiner, and denied Rev. Shuler a renewal,
denying a stay pending court review.
Rev, Shuler appealed to the courts and announced that he would be a
candidate for United States Senator on the Prohibition ticket. His platform
would be the right of free speech. Soon after his defeat for senator in
November, 1932, the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia
upheld the action of the Commission, permanently silencing Rev, Shuler' s
radio. The decision, Trinity Methodist Church South v Federal Radio
Commission, (62 Fed. 2d 850), was denied review by the United States
Supreme Court. It was frequently criticised by legal scholars in later
years. Although Rev. Shuler attacked nr\e on his radio because I was a
"wet, " I had counter-attacked him as a "dry" and a bigot. It was a
healthy thing to preserve independent radio comment. The Shuler decision
choked off further adventures in free political comment by radio. Licenses
were too precious to risk forfeiture at a time when civil libertarians
were silent. A project for some historian would be to examine the
archives in Washington and review the testimony given for and against
Rev, Shuler in his protracted hearings before the FRC.
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CHAPTER TEN
THE SMALL CLAIMS COURT
Shortly after I took office as Municipal Judge, there was an election
for a new presiding judge. I voted for Judge Clarence Kincaid, who,
however, finished second. As punishment, I was sent to the Small Claims
Court. In this court no attorneys are permitted to appear for either side.
Controversy is served up raw without any previous legal screening. In
those days the jurisdiction was limited to $50, but later it was increased to
$200.
The small claims. court had been generally disregarded by the press, largely
because the amount of money involved was so small. However, I found it to
be a gold mine for human interest stories. I was then only four years
removed from the press room and had kept close contact with the reporters
on the beat, many of whom had worked with me.
In fact, it was some years before I could realize that I was no longer
a reporter. Once, on the Superior Court, I was conducting a murder
trial. About three o'clock, I saw the afternoon paper reporters leave
for the day. A few minutes later the District Attorney switched the order
of witnesses and called the widow of the deceased to take the stand. This
was the highlight of the trial. My loyalties were with the afternoon papers,
as against the morning papers, since I had been working on the afternoon
side for several years before I left the profession. The surprise switch
in witnesses was more than my afternoon-newspaper blood could bear. As
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soon as the lady had given about ten minutes of her testimony, I called
an adjournment, left the bench, and telephoned my old city editor,
James Richardson, at the Herald. I dictated a new lead on the develop-
ments of the widow's testimony in time to catch the final street edition.
I then resumed the bench and the trial proceeded.
The Small Claims Court provided great opportunities for publicity
for a judge who could recognize it. The papers carried pictures of me
eating a sandwich on the bench. I had adopted the practice of hearing
cases during the lunch hour, so that employed people would not have to
take time off to appear in Small Claims Court.
One defendant to appear before me in the Small Claims Court
was Captain William F, "Red" Hynes, of the Radical Squad of the Los
Angeles Police force. Hynes had broken some radical's camera during
one of his raids. The radical had the temerity to sue him for damages
in Small Claims Court. I agreed with the plaintiff and assessed damages
against Hynes in the amount of $35.
The Small Claims Court was a source of many law suits involving
animals. There were cases involving cats, dogs, bears and alligators.
There was also human drama including suits for the return of engagement
rings, for waitresses who dyed their hair blond in order to get a job and were
then discharged without cause. "She dyed but not in vain, " said the
caption.
With all this publicity, the filings of new cases rose 50% and some
judges of the Superior Court became fearful of my becoming a contender
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against one of them.
In January, 1932, a new presiding judge was elected. I voted for
Clarence Kincaid again. This tinne he won. He said, "Bob, you have been
punished long enough in Small Claims Court. Where would you like
to sit?" I informed him the only patronage I wanted was to be allowed
to remain where I was. I stayed in the Small Claims Division until
the following December, when Governor Rolph promoted me to the
Superior Court,
Every day in the Small Claims Court, there were fashion shows.
These were the cases where women's wearing apparel had been returned
from the cleaner, either stretched or shrunk. I informed the ladies
that it was impossible to test the veracity of their claims unless they put
on the garment. My chambers becanne their dressing room, all morning
long we would have a procession of giggling ladies wearing their out-of-
shape garments. Since there was so much of this litigation, I made a
sti^rding arrangement with the dry cleaners. I would continue the case
for two weeks, and direct them to take the complainant on a shopping tour
of the wholesale houses, where the dry cleaner could obtain a discount.
If the complainant wasn't satisfied, she could then return to court and
obtain a money judgment. This arrangement was successful. Only about
five percent of the cases ever came back for further adjudication.
In January, 1932, I published a notice in the clerk's office, which
read: "To Litigants in the Small Claims Court: With the holidays over,
I face the prospect of hearing about 20, 000 small claims cases during the
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year 1932. I hope that the litigants in this court will help me get through
the year observing the following suggestions: 1st: To forget all they
have read about courtrooms being arenas and lawsuits battles in which
everything is fair and no holds barred. 2nd: To regard the small claims
court as a place where two persons who nnay honestly disagree can submit
their differences to a disinterested third person, remembering that in
most lawsuits neither side is wholly right or wholly wrong. 3rd: To present
only honest claims and defenses, without quibbling. 4th: To remember
that this court can only give judgment up to fifty dollars and that while
fifty dollars is a lot more money than it used to be, it is not yet a matter
of life and death. 5th: To present cases truthfully, but briefly, and to
furnish the court light, not heat. 6th: To treat your opponent not as an
enemy, or a liar, but as another human being with whom you have a
sincere disagreement over a question of law or fact. 7th: To stifle hatred
and ill will, but if you must give vent to it, to aim it at the judge instead
of your opponent. The judge is paid for that sort of thing and if there must
be ill will, it is better that it be focused on him than diffused throughout
the connmunity. 8th: To indicate your willingness to accept these
principles by offering to SHAKE YOUR OPPONENT'S HAND when you are
called before the judge to present your case. I am not trying to be the
Pollyanna judge and I don't expect Clerk John Dugan and Bailiff Max
Richman to be the Happiness Boys, but I am appalled at the prospect of hearing
20, 000 petty, bickering lawsuits and neighborhood quarrels this year,
with each side using every sort of unfair means to take advantage of the
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other. It is not unreasonable to ask litigants to adopt the attitude of
sportsmanship towards each other. If they do, cases can be expedited
and crowded calendars cleared. Expression of personal animosity
takes up much of the time of this court that should be devoted to arriving
at the truth. Robert W. Kenny - Judge of the Small Claims Court. "
I only exercised my contempt power once. A woman litigant against
whonn I had ruled, looked at me and said: "A fine judge you are. " The
old vaudevile gag was too tempting. "Yes," I agreed, "The fine is $5.00,"
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CHAPTER ELEVEN
REPEALING PROHIBITION
Early in 193Z, I became actively engaged in the campaign to get
Tallant Tubbs the Republican nomination for the United States Senate
upon a "Wet" platform. I was able to clean up the calendar in the Small
Claims Court early every afternoon and devote the rest of the day to Tubbs
and the cause of repealing Prohibition. A national organization of young
men favoring repeal had been organized, as "The Crusaders. " I became
its Southern California commander, and went about the Southern counties
entering into wet-dry debates, mostly with Protestant clergymen. Our
headquarters at the Biltmore Hotel were donated, since the hotel men
were understandably interested in our efforts to repeal Prohibition.
Adjoining headquarters were assigned to the Women's Organization for
National Prohibition Reform, a group headed by Mrs. Charles Sabin of
New York.
The campaign was exciting and enjoyable. No one thought that prohibition
would really be repealed, so it seemed like we had an issue that should
last us a lifetime. However, by November of 1932 California voted to
repeal the state prohibition law "The Wright Act" by a vote of 1, 459, 835
to 658, 351. The wet vote state-wide was 69%. Los Angeles, although
believed to be "chemically pure" and "bone dry", turned out to be 66% wet.
During the spring of 193Z, word canae that Mayor James Walker of
New York had organized a beer parade. Our people organized a similar
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parade in Los Angeles directed by John Grey, an able local publicist;
out of respect to the local mores, we called it a "Prosperity Parade. " A lot
of the early support for the parade evaporated as community pressures
mounted. However, we had a respectable turn-out. I led the parade in a
white Packard furnished by Frank Sebastian of the Cotton Club Cafe. The
only musicians we had for the parade were also furnished by Frank
Sebastian. However, we could not have had a better group. Louis
Armstrong was then entertaining at the Cotton Club, Louis and his band
mounted a flatbed truck and tootled away magnificently as we paraded
through downtown Los Angeles. At that time as municipal judge, I was
the only elective public officer in Southern California who was an avowed
"wet."
My position as leader of the "wet" movement brought me into sudden
political prominence. I was only 30, and nnany candidates for Congress
and the State Legislature came seeking my support. The "Crusaders"
sent questionnaires to all of the candidates and we awarded or withheld
our endorsements according to their replies. The Republican candidates
were reluctant to come out for repeal of Prohibition but the Democratic
candidates were for it to a man. Unfortunately, no one expected the
Democratic candidates to win although in the final 1932 election returns
California handed the Democrats 11 out of 20 Congressional seats.
My next door neighbor on North Serrano was Charles Kramer. He
decided as a "wet" Democrat, in the newly created 13th Congressional
District. Kramer was truly an unknown. I furnished him with the services
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of Duncan Aikman, a newspaper man of national reputation, then
correspondent for the Baltimore Sun. Aikman saw an opportunity for Kranner,
when the Bonus Army returned from Washington. Aikman had candidate
Kramer photographed with the Bonus Army at the railroad station and
induced hinn to provide the money to feed and house them temporarily.
Kramer's humanitarian activity earned him the Democratic nomination.
He was elected in November, and served in Congress until
he was beaten in 1942 by Republican Norris Poulson, later Mayor of L,os
Angeles.
In the fall of 1932, Kent Farrott qualified a petition to recall Mayor
John C. Porter. The Mayor had offended liberal sentiment in Los Angeles
on several occasions. The most notable incident was when he went to
France with a delegation of United States Mayors. When the French hosts
poured out the wine. Mayor Porter ostentatiously turned down his glass.
I first met Kent Parrott during this campaign. Like most recalls in major
cities, this effort failed. However, it paved the way for Porter's defeat
for re-election the following year.
The wet-dry issue cost Tubbs the support of the Los Angeles Times.
Normally, a Republican nominee expects the support of the Los Angeles
Times as a matter of course. However, Tubbs' victory over Shortridge
coupled with his wetness was too much for them. They refused to mark a
ballot for him in November.
Another surprise in newspaper endorsements occurred that year at
the Los Angeles Record. Throughout the Fall campaign it had supported
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the Democratic nominee, William Gibbs MacAdoo. However, a few days
before the elections the publishers ordered a reversal of policy. Between
editions one day, the Record switched its support from MacAdoo to Rev.
Shuler, the Prohibition candidate. This was too much for the principled
staff of the Record, H. B, R. Briggs, the editor, and Reuben Borough, the
political editor, immediately resigned in protest.
After MacAdoo was elected, he rewarded Briggs with the postmastership
of Los Angeles. Upon his death, his widow, Mrs. Briggs was appointed
to fill the vacancy. Rube Borough became an unsuccessful reform candidate
for the City Council in 1933 in the Thirteenth District. He also joined
forces with the Los Angeles Municipal League. This organization, headed
by Anthony Pratt, was practically a one-man lobby for refornn and civic
honesty. For years Pratt used to come before the Board of Supervisors
and terrify them with his discoveries of their bad financial practices.
The Municipal League received support from many wealthy men in Los
Angeles who were not interested particularly in reform for its own sake but
wanted honest government because they believed it kept down taxes. My
father's friend, George W. Walker, was one of these. He always supported
Anthony Pratt and Reuben Borough. In 1938, when a reform administration
was elected after the Shaw recall. Mayor Fletcher Bowron appointed
Reuben Borough to the Board of Public Works. Rube became the perennial
leader of the progressives in Southern California, He and his wife
Madeline were most active in the Wallace campaign in 1948.
Rev. Shuler received more votes than any Prohibitionist ever did in
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the history of California. I attribute this largely to the popular feeling
that he had been given a raw deal in his free speech fight for renewal of his
radio license. The state-wide vote for United States Senator was: MacAdoo,
Democrat, 943, 164; Tallant Tubbs, Republican, 669, 676; and Shuler,
Prohibition, 560, 088. In Los Angeles County, Shuler received 310, ZOO
votes to 218, 880 cast for the Republican candidate, Tubbs. He also ran
ahead of the Republican candidate in 15 other counties. At the same time,
however. Prohibition itself ^vas being beaten by a two-to-one vote on the
Wright Act repeal initiative.
Despite the November, 1932 vote repealing the State liquor enforce-
ment act, the task remained in Los Angeles to repeal the local option dry
law, the Gandier ordinance. The City Council was first visited by a dry
delegation and voted against repeal. Then a wet delegation appeared and
the Councilmen, with the exception of Charles Randall, reversed themselves
and voted to repeal the ordinance. The Wets' dissatisfaction with these
sorry proceedings was expressed in the magazine Midweek, then being
published by Roy Allen and me:
"By these fluttery, facing-both-ways yessings, the sitting councilmen,
according to Midweek' s view, forfeit, with one honorable exception, the
confidence of all decent men. There is something about fickleness in
yessing more disgusting than incompetence, more vicious than deliberate
mis-government, more dangerous than open demagoguery and avowed
anarchical principles, more revolting than issue evasion, nnore corrupting
than official corruption in the ordinary sense of the term. There is a soft.
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mildewy rottenness about it -- phosphorescent at night -- like a man
decaying on his feet.
"The honorable exception, to be sure, does not entirely please
us. But Councilman Charles Randall has shown himself throughout
these sorry proceedings to be a dry of honor and of courage. If it were
not for our feeling that there should be no more prohibitionists in our
governing bodies for awhile, whether honest or courageous or dishonest
and craven, we should favor preserving his virtues at the council board as
a museum piece.
"As it is. Midweek salutes Councilman Randall with its sharpest
sword-blade. It salutes the other councilman with its collection of
implements for overcoming stoppages in the plumbing. "
The big dividend that came to me personally out of the Tubbs and
the Repeal cannpaign, was the friendship of Stewart McKee. I had been
acquainted with Stewart's father, Henry S. McKee, vice president of the
Merchant's National Bank, when I was a financial reporter. Mr. McKee
was the one banker who was always available with an original thought
and some genuinely independent ideas when I had to collect a synnposium
of views on some current event. Stewart had gone into banking himself.
When I first met him, he was thirty-three years old and had already
retired as a vice president of the Bank of America. Stewart was always
a bachelor. He lived at the California Club. In all of nny campaigns,
Stewart was my liaison to the conservative forces of the community. He
was entirely objective about the ideological struggle and enjoyed close
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association with my friends in labor and the left wing. Fronn the Repeal
campaign in 1932 until his death in 1950, Stewart McKee was probably
my closest companion.
CHAPTER TWELVE "^2-
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY REAPPEARS
For all practical purposes, in the year 1930 there was no
Dennocratic Party in California. The 1931 legislature only had four
Democrats out of 40 senators and three Democrats out of 80 assemblymen.
One Dennocrat out of eleven congressmen was elected that year - the
veteran Clarence F. Lea of Sonoma, a hold-over from Woodrow Wilson's
time. Democrats did not even bother to enter candidates in 49 out of 80
assembly races in 1930, and in the general election that year there were
only 12 Assembly seats contested by Democrats, the rest having fallen
into the hands of cross-filing Republican candidates at the primary.
The 1932 Roosevelt landslide following the 1931 reapportionment,
brought a dramatic change. Eleven out of 20 congressmen elected in 1932
were Democrats. The Democrats in the Assembly increased from 3 to
24. In 1934 two more Democrats were elected to Congress increasing
the delegation to 1 3 out of 20. Two more Democrats were added to the
State Senate in 1934 making six out of forty. One of the new State Senators
was Gulbert L. Olson of Los Angeles who became Governor of the state four
years later. The Democrats almost attained a majority in the Assembly
in 1935 v/ith 37 out of 80 members. In 1936, the Democrats elected 16
out of 20 congressmen and five more state senators. In the Assen\bly
the Democrats finally reached a majority of 44 and elected the speaker,
William Moseley Jones.
The usual futile efforts had been made in the 1929 legislature to
repeal the cross-filing provisions of the Direct Prinnary Law. In 1913
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the Hiram Johnson progressives had devised the cross-filing device as
a way of defeating the stand-patters in their own Republican Party. The
Hiram Johnson Republicans registered as "Progressive" but cross-filed
into the Republican primary. They won nnost of the seats in the primary
election in 1913 and 1915 from the stand-pat Republicans. But wherever
the Progressive lost in the primary, he was still able to run again in
November as a Progressive against the stand-pat Republican. This device
assured Governor Johnson of Progressive majorities in the legislature. It
served an excellent purpose, since more progressive and humanitarian
legislation was enacted during the Johnson administration than in any state
administration before or since. We owe the initiative referendum and
recall to this period. Workmen's Compensation, women's suffrage, the
direct prinnary, and non-partisan election of local and judicial officers.
When the bill came up to abolish cross filing during the 1931
session, someone in the debate said that the bill was "unfair to the
Progressives." The debate then switched as to the proper definition of
"Progressive, " the Johnson Progressives having long since disappeared,
Henry McGuinness of Siskiyou County, one of the three Democrats in
the Assembly, asked permission of the speaker to supply his own
definition. He said: "A progressive is a man who is afraid to be a
Democrat and ashamed to be a Republican. "
I certainly belonged to that category, since I had always registered
"decline to state" (independent) from the time of my first vote. I did
not register as an affiliate of any political party until 1937, when I had to
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before I could run for state senator. I then signed up as a Democrat.
Despite my non-partisan status, I had entered Republican politics
in 1930 for James Rolph and again in 1932 for Tallant Tubbs.
My friend, Carl Moritz, was Tubbs' campaign manager in 1932.
Tubbs had been state senator from San Francisco for eight years, one of
the youngest men ever elected to that office. He came from a well-to-do
family of San Francisco cordage manufacturers. In 1930 he ran for
Lieutenant Governor on the Wet ticket. He was the first candidate ever to
make a state-wide race upon an outright stand for repeal of Prohibition.
To everyone's surprise he ran ahead of H. L. Carnahan, the incumbent,
and only 17,000 votes behind Senator Frank Merriam, of Long Beach,
who received the Republican nomination that year.
Rev. Shuler had announced that he would run upon the Prohibition
ticket for United States Senator, but would cross-file as a Republican.
Tubbs ran as a Republican, but failed to cross-file as a Dennocrat. The
incumbent was Samuel Shortridge of San Francisco, who had served two
terms as United States Senator. Tubbs won the Republican nomination.
He would have certainly been elected United States Senator if he had only
cross-filed as a Democrat. The Democrats were " wringing wet" by then
and would have nominated him over William Gibbs MacAdoo, a dry
Democrat. It is interesting to see how little value was attached to the
Democratic nomination as late as 1932. Tubbs made the fatal blunder
of not cross-filing for the Democratic nomination because, in the
November election, MacAdoo was swept into office, as part of the
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Roosevelt landslide.
Tubbs' failure to cross-file in 1932 can be understood. Although
cross-filing had become the practice for district offices, and even
minor statewide posts, no candidate had ever cross-filed for governor,
lieutenant governor, or United States senator. Hiram Johnson broke this
tradition for the first time in 1934, when he cross-filed and won the
Democratic nonnination for United States senator. There was a good
practical reason for Johnson's cross-filing in 1934. He had broken ranks
with the Republicans to support FDR in 1932.
Earl Warren really deserves the credit for discovering that this
tradition could be advantageously broken. When he, Warren, sought the
governorship in 1942, he cross-filed into the Democratic primary and
got 404, 000 votes to Governor Olson's 514, 000 votes. His total gross
vote in the primary made him an obvious cinch for election in November.
Warren's discovery paid off for him again in 1946, when he again cross-
filed for governor in the Democratic Party, and beat me for the Democratic
nomination by 593, 000 to 530, 000 votes. William Knowland cross-filed
for United States senator in 1952 and won both nominations. In 1950
Goodwin Knight, the incumbent Lieutenant Governor , cross-filed and
obtained the Dennocratic nonnination, beating his nearest Democratic
opponent. State Senator George Miller, Jr. , by 170, 000 votes.
After the 1950 election John B. Elliott, a Democratic political
leader in Los Angeles, who had been Woodrow Wilson's cannpaign manager
in 1912 and 1916, decided that since no one else would do anything about
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cross-filing he would undertake the job. In 1946, after I was eliminated
at the primary, I had worked with Langdon Post and his wife, "Miggs, " to get
an anti-cross-filing initiative petition circulated. We could not get any
help on this, even from the Democratic State Central Connmittee.
In 1930, John B. Elliott decided to do the job himself. He donated
$35, 000 of his own money to qualify an initiative petition to abolish cross-
filing. The 1951 legislature refused to adopt his initiative and instead put
an alternative measure on the ballot, which provided that the ballot should
list the party affiliation of each candidate, although the candidate could
still cross-file. Elliott's measure for outright repeal was assigned the
jinx number "13" on the November, 1952 ballot but only lost by 3, 700 votes.
The alternative measure. Proposition No. 7, carried 3 to 1. At the 1954
primary, the first conducted under Proposition 7, only one Republican
cross-filer obtained the Democratic nomination. Assemblyman Thomas
Maloney of San Francisco, Even Assemblyman Maloney lost the Dennocratic
nomination in August 1956 and was defeated in November by Philip Burton,
the Democratic nominee.
The 1959 legislature voted for an outright repeal of cross-filing and
Governor Brown signed the measure. All elections since then have been
free of the cross-filing evil. Recent Democratic majorities in both houses
of the legislature are directly attributable to John B. Elliott's foresight
and generosity in ridding California of cross-filing.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN -87-
FAILURES AND RECEIVERSHIPS
On January 15, 1931, the Richfield Oil Company went into the hands
of a receiver. The following year, on May 16th, Clarence Fuller and
James Talbott, who headed Richfield were sentenced to the penitentiary by
Judge Yankwich for diverting company money to their private purposes.
In May of 1932, the California Reserve Company went bankrupt
with a $7, 000, 000 loss to investors. The President of this company was
George Gregory, husband of Berthal Pitts Gregory, sister and secretary
of Buron Pitts.
Real estate trusts created by the Harold G. Ferguson Corporation
collapsed in 1931. Ferguson was sent to San Quentin. Roy Allen and
W. W. Mines were appointed receivers for the Ferguson Trust.
In April of 1931, the American Mortgage Company went into
receivership. Its promoters, Frank H. and Roy H. Pish, were indicted.
As an outgrowth of the American Mortgage Company collapse, the
Superior Court appointed various persons as receivers. On April 21,
1932, the Los Angeles Bar Association reported that investigation by
its judiciary committee revealed that three Superior jiadges had accepted
petty gifts and loans from the receivers appointed by them. The
committee reported that Superior Judges John S. Fleming, Walter Guerin
and Daily Stafford had "conducted themselves in a manner contrary to
judicial ethics and prejudicial to the proper administration of justice."
This report brought Raymond Haight into action. Haight had been
a fellow student of mine at University High School. He became the head
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of a group of young Los Angeles leaders organized to clean up the various
messes then developing. In the August primary election, Haight had
supported Thatcher Kemp as candidate for district attorney against Huron
Fitts. Fitts was re-elected but enmities growing out of that campaign
were to have repercussions the following year.
In Septennber, of 1932 the group around Haight organized themselves
as the Minute Men. The Minuteers, as they were called, made Haight
their first chairman. Other active members of the Minuteers included
Kemp and Carl Kegley.
In November 1932, Haight took charge of the recall election against
Judges Fleming, Guerin and Stafford. The Hardy impeachment trial in
Sacramento in 1929 had convinced Haight that the only way to insure the
rennoval of a judge was to employ the recall procedures of the State
Constitution. Under his leadership, recall petitions were circulated and
qualified. When the people voted in November, all three judges were recalled.
I believe this to be an almost unique episode in the history of American
politics.
On December 2, 1932 Superior Judge Clair Tappan was stricken
with a heart attack and died during the noon recess. That night I was
already in Sacramento with Carl Moritz and Tallant Tubbs. Governor
Rolph received me cordially and we explained the purpose of my visit.
He said nothing but left me sitting in his office while he went on signing
documents. In a playful mood, he referred to one of his secretaries as
"Miss Baloney." Then he turned to me and asked: "Judge, what is the
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female for baloney?" I replied: "Abalone. "
It must have been the right answer because the Governor immediately
reached for the commission appointing me to the Superior Court and
signed it then and there* Anthony "Bud" Kennedy, then special counsel
for the Governor, sent me an abalone shell as a souvenir of the occasion.
I kept it as an ash tray in my chambers for many years.
I took office the same day as the three new Superior Court judges
who had been elected to fill the recall vacancies.
Fitts did not forgive Ray Haight for having opposed him in 1932.
In May 1933 Haight, Kemp and Edward Otto were indicted for bribing a
grand juror. The charges were flimsy, and the defendants gained
acquittal in July, 1933.
In July, 1933 the Minute Men attempted to bring about a legislative
investigation of crime in Los Angeles. This was opposed by the Los
Angeles Times and by Huron Fitts, who said that Los Angeles was a
"white spot" in the war against crime. The Legislature agreed and rejected
the proposal of the Minute Men.
In May 1933 the Minute Men scored an important election victory.
They opposed Erwin "Pete" Werner for re-election as city attorney. In
his place. Judge Ray Chesebro was elected. These successes convinced
Haight that he should be a candidate for governor in 1934. Fearful of
the older parties, he formed his own party, named as the Commonwealth
Party.
The receivership scandal of 1933 practically wiped out all of Roy
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Allen's competition, Roy came through the investigation as the one
receiver against whom no accusation of improper conduct could be laid.
From then on, most judges appointed Roy receiver, frequently upon
the request of both sides. His established honesty and efficiency had
practically created a monopoly for him. Perhaps honesty was a scarce
commodity in Los Angeles those days.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN -91-
A SUPERIOR JUDGE
Shortly after my appointment to the Superior Court, I was invited
by Superior Judge Walter Desmond to take over his court in Long Beach
to conduct the murder trial of William James "Curly" Guy. This was
scheduled to be a sensational trial and Judge Desmond generously wanted
to help me as a new judge to receive the publicity attached to such a
proceeding.
Curly Guy, a young British soldier of fortune, was accused of
killing Captain Walter Wanderwell on the latter' s yacht "Carma" in Long Beach
Harbor. Wanderwell had collected a crew of lady and gentlemen
"adventurers" for a "Cruise to Nowhere." On the eve of sailing, someone
came aboard and shot him. The Los Angeles Times reporter worked
up a theory that Curly Guy was the guilty man and the District Attorney
adopted it. However, there were many other persons with strong motives
for killing Wanderwell. I thought the case against Guy was a flimsy one.
My attitude must have been apparent to District Attorney Fitts. While I
was delivering nny final instructions to the jury, someone outside the
courtroom asked Fitts what the present status of the case was. Fitts
replied, "Judge Kenny is closing for the defense." The jury was out
only an hour before it returned a verdict of acquittal.
Later in the summer of 1933, when we were living at the Malibu
Beach Colony, Guy came there to ask for my help in preventing his
deportation to England. I agreed to give him a letter and then invited
him for a swim. While we were splashing about in the surf, who bobbed
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up in an adjoining wave but Buron Fitts. It was all very cordial. I don't
think Fitts believed Guy was guilty either.
While I was sitting in Long Beach in early 1933, Dave Fall, a
San Pedro attorney, came to me for an injunction. He was attorney for
the International Longshoremen's Association. A waterfront strike was
on, and the City of Los Angeles was permitting its facilities to be used
by the steamship companies to house strike-breakers. Fall argued
these were public facilities and could only be properly used for loading
and unloading cargo, not as a hotel and dining room. I agreed and gave
him a writ compelling the city to evict the strikebreakers. It was one of
the first instances where the injunctive process was used in favor of a
labor union instead of against it.
I also gave an injunction against police interference with the water
taxis that took customers out to the gambling ships that lay three miles
off the Long Beach coast. I treated the water taxi activities no differently
than those of the Southern Pacific. If it was lawful for the latter to haul
passengers by land to Nevada where gambling was legal, I held it equally
permissible to haul passengers by sea beyond the three mile limit where
gannbling was also legal.
I left Long Beach just before the earthquake on March 10, 1933.
My new courtroom in Los Angeles was located in the red sandstone
courthouse at Temple and Broadway. I was in this old building when the
earthquake occurred. The building did not collapse, but it was severely
cracked in a sort of vise by the swaying of the eleven story steel frame
-93-
Hall of Records to which it was attached. When the quake was at last
over, I ran out, leaving nny hat behind. I never returned for it. The
courthouse was condemned as unsafe the next day and ultimately ren^oved.
For the balance of the year 1933, I became a migratory judge,
using temporary quarters. At first, I held court in Judge Fricke's jury
room. Later the county rented temporary space at Broadway near
Second. The bailiff was missing a good deal of the time and, while looking
for him, I found that on the same floor of the building, a bookmaking
establishment was operating full blast.
The 1933 legislature set up a Liquor Control Board and also passed
a Sales Tax law. The new taxing and liquor control functions were assigned
by the legislature to the Board of Equalization.
In 1929, Governor Young almost caused the Board of Equalization
to be abolished. It was a vistigial political remnant with no discernible
public function to perform. Fred Stewart, a new member of the Board
from Oakland, had campaigned hard to be elected in 1926. He did not
want to see his new job abolished. Stewart was a genius at working with
the legislature. As new functions of government were created, he
persuaded the legislature to assign thenn to his Board of Equalization. The
additional employees were, of course, appointed on a temporary list,
without prior civil service examination. Of course, they had to qualify
by examination later. The arrangement worked out well. Unemployed
friends of the legislators were given temporary jobs with the Board either
collecting taxes or policing the bars.
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Elwood Squires, one of my Sacramento newspaper friends,
became Stewart's secretary. Between Elwood and I, at least twenty un-
employed newspaper men were put to work for the Board of Equalization.
Elwood died in 1933. Stewart and I renriained close political friends
for many years until his death on April 17, 1942.
While I was holding court at Long Beach, I had an unusual visitor.
He was Albert Marco, the "vice baron" who had been released from
San Quentin, to be deported to his native Italy. Someone had told Marco
that he should meet me because by the time he was eligible for
pardon, perhaps in another five years, I might be of sufficient political
importance to help him. Marco had just completed reading Lincoln
Steffens' autobiography, and said it was the most popular book in San
Quentin. Apparently, most convicts agreed with Steffens that they were
nnere victims of the system, not deliberate sinners.
An interview with Marco was published in the magazine Mid- Week.
This was a magazine that Roy Allen and I started publishing in 1933. Roy
had a printer who was considerably in his debt. He decided he would
never collect in cash and that we could have some amusement at least if
he took it out in printing by publishing a magazine. Throughout the year
of 1933, this magazine was issued under the editorship of Duncan Aiknnan.
In it we chronicled the doings of the liberals in Los Angeles.
In March, 1933, I helped form a new organization. The Liberal
League. Its principal purpose was to defeat John C. Porter for Mayor.
There were many candidates against Porter, but we did not endorse any one
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of them. We endorsed them all. We put out windshield stickers with
the slogan "Anybody But Porter. " Supervisor Frank Shaw qualified as
the leading candidate in the run-off against Porter. At that moment the
Times discovered that Shaw had been born in Canada and expressed doubt
about the validity of his citizenship. Mid-Week published the following
by Duncan Aikman:
"IN PRAISE OF ALIEN MAYORS
How we'd welcome a mangy Hottentot
Or a bur per from Senegal !
Not what a nnan is but what he's not --
Is tlie issue that's all-in-all.
Let our next mayor's speech come in upchucked sneezes
Through tangled Siberian hair.
If it isn't Porter, he's bound to please us
Though he smell like an Igorot fair.
Send us slum fruit, then, from some Haitian to^wn,
Or the Levant's worst mixed seed;
Neither one will remind us, when playing clown,
Of the special curse on our breed.
Go fetch up a corpse from the Ganges River,
Or Serbia's sorriest punk.
He'll be swell for mayor if he'll only deliver
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Clown Porter back to his junk.
-- Arthur Pandaemon. "
At the June municipal general election, Shaw defeated Porter. I
tried very hard to get Governor Rolph to appoint James Bolger as Shaw's
successor on the Board of Supervisors. Bolger had served as a news-
paper man with me and later had been Shaw's field secretary on the
Board of Supervisors. Governor Rolph, however, appointed Gordon
McDonough to the vacancy. Gordon McDonough went to Congress in 1944
and remained there until losing his seat to a Democrat in 1962, after
reapportionment. Bolger was later appointed a mennber of the Board of
Public Works by Mayor Shaw.
One of my personal gimmicks in politicing then was to mail out
topical Christmas cards. In 1931 I sent out a Christmas card printed in
Russian with five coupons on the bottom. It was an adaptation of the
Soviet Five Year Plan. Each coupon carried my best wishes for each
one of the next five years. The following year was the one in which the
Technocracy doctrine was sweeping the country. Manchester Boddy, of
the Daily News, gave lectures on Technocracy throughout Los Angeles
County. My card that year portrayed an automated Santa Claus, labeled
Technocracy, which bore the caption "God Rest you merry gentlemen,
may nothing you dismay. " In 1933 the live topic was inflation and our
Christmas greetings were printed on tiny balloons.
I knew that I was coming up for re-election in 1934 and arranged
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to hold court in the branch courts to become better known in the out-
lying areas. I sat quite frequently in Long Beach and also at Pomona, In
Long Beach, I saw the beginnings of the Townsend movement. Just
below the Jergens Trust Building where the Superior Court was held was
the famous Long Beach Spit and Argue Club. This was a public forum on
the Long Beach pier where a Hyde Park outlet was provided for anyone
with an idea to espouse. Dr. Francis Townsend, a deputy health officer
for the city of Long Beach, used the Spit and Argue Club to try out his
ideas on old age security to be financed by "funny nnoney. " In twelve
months, the Townsend Plan had millions of adherents throughout the
nation.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN -98-
THE 1934 GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGN
On September 1, 1933 Upton Sinclair went to the Beverly Hills
City Hall and changed his registration from Socialist to Democratic, In
the following month he published his book "I, Governor of California, and
How I Ended Poverty. "
Early in 1934, Raymond Haight announced that he would run for
governor on the tickets of the Commonwealth Party (his own party) and the
Progressive Party. On June 2, 1934, Governor Rolph died and Lieutenant
Governor Frank Merriam took his place. Shortly after that, the general
strike occurred in San Francisco. Merriam called out the State Militia.
I suppose I was still ashamed to be a Republican and afraid to be a
Democrat. I supported Ray Haight that year. My friend Carl Moritz
was Haight' s press agent. Manchester Boddy at the Daily News was very
friendly to the Haight campaign.
It seemed certain that Sinclair would get the Democratic nomination
because eight other candidates had filed and the right wing Democratic
vote was bound to be split irretrievably. George Creel, who was close
to FDR and handled many of his patronage matters in Northern California,
put up a respectable campaign. However, his primary vote was 288, 000
compared to Sinclair's 436, 000. Sheridan Downey, a Sacramento attorney
who had been defeated in the Dennocratic primary in 1932 in his race for
Congress, was the candidate for Lieutenant Governor on the Sinclair ticket.
There were nine other Dennocratic candidates for Lieutenant Governor,
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and Sheridan obtained the nomination easily.
Rev. Shuler and Buron Fitts were not factors in the 1934 elections.
A reform grand jury, innpaneled by Judge Fletcher Bowron had reopened
an investigation of the collapse of the California Reserve Company of
which George Gregory, Fitts' brother-in-la\v, had been president. On
July 7, Gregory and nine others were indicted just before the statute of limi-
tations ran out. They were all acquitted later. In December, 1934, the
Grand Jury returned an accusation against Fitts, seeking to remove him
from office for misconduct. This matter dragged along in the courts until
April, 1936, when the accusation was thrown out on the ground that only
eleven grand jurors had voted for the accusation instead of the necessary
twelve. (6 Cal. 2d 230), Fitts was also indicted for perjury growing out
of an inquiry into a real estate transaction with Liucian Wheeler, his
investigator and John P. Mills, wealthy real estate promoter who was a
defendent in a statutory rape case. Fitts was also acquitted on this
charge. I always felt that this business of indicting political enemies should
be outlawed from political warfare. The indictments of Fitts came to
nothing just as his indictments of Ray Haight had also fizzled out.
The false accusation made against Haight in 1933 did have a strange
effect on his personality which affected the outcome of the 1934 election.
At the August, 1934 Republican primary Governor Merriam was
nominated by a small plurality, consisting of no more than 30% of the
Republican votes cast. The choice between Merriam, the Republican
nominee, and Upton Sinclair, the Democratic nominee, was an unpalatable
-100-
one for many people. One such person was William Randolph Hearst.
His representatives called Haight immediately after the primary election.
They explained that the Hearst paper had alwa/s supported the Progressive
Party when Hiram Johnson was its candidate. They would not be breaking
with that tradition if they supported Haight as a Progressive. They balked
however, at supporting him as the candidate of his own specially fabricated
organization, the Commonwealth Party. All Haight had to do to get their
support was to run as a Progressive, not as a Conimonwealther. Carl
Moritz told me that he was surprised to find that Haight was very cold about
this proposition. Ever since he had been so shamefully treated by Fitts
he saw enennies and pitfalls everywhere. He suspected a trap in the Hearst
proposition and did not accept it; to the extrenne disappointment of many of
his close supporters. Hearst soon joined the Times and San Francisco
Chronicle in supporting Merriam.
It is interesting to speculate what might have happened if Haight
had obtained the Hearst support. He ran well wherever he did have
newspaper backing. The McClatchey papers had endorsed him, and
in the general election he carried Fresno and Stanislaus counties, and
narrowly lost in Sacrannento County.
Toward the close of the 1934 election campaign, Sinclair and
Haight had a significant meeting in Sacramento. Haight was able to
demonstrate to Sinclair that straw polls showed that if Haight should
withdraw, his vote would go to Merriam, but that if Sinclair withdrew,
Sinclair's vote would go to Haight. If Sinclair would withdraw,
Merriam could be defeated. Sinclair was a reasonable man and said he
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would consider the proposition. However, it was then too late. Sinclair
had acquired many devoted supporters, several of whom were running for
office on his ticket. He decided that his withdrawal would hurt the chances
of others on the Democratic ticket, and he refused to withdraw in Haight's
favor, although defeat seemed inevitable by then.
Although Sinclair had only been a Democrat for a year, he did
everything he could to be a good one. At the Democratic state convention
in Sacramento on September 20, 1934, he tried hard to placate the other
Democratic factions. The platform was adopted unaninnously. The new
state chairman was Culbert L. Olson, candidate for Los Angeles State
Senator on Sinclair's Epic ticket.
Later, when the great panic was stirred up over Sinclair's candidacy,
neither MacAdoo nor FDR gave him any help, and George Creel came out
actively against him. An effort was even made to purge newly registered
Democratic voters but was rejected by the Supreme Court on October 31st
(Pierce v Superior Court, 1 Cal. 2d 759). Sinclair lost by 259, 000 votes.
Downey ran a closer race but was defeated for Lieutenant Governor by
George Hatfield, former United States District Attorney.
Anticipating violent shifts in the State administration, a Civil
Service initiative was placed on the November, 1934 ballot by the State
Employees Association. It was adopted by the voters. When the Democrats
finally came into power in 1939, the patronage cupboard was bare. At
least 98% of the State jobs had been blanketed into the Civil Service.
The 1934 elections were the last in which appellate and supreme
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court justices were required to run against other candidates. In Novenniber
1934, the voters adopted a series of constitutional amendments sponsored
by Alameda County District Attorney Earl Warren. These measures were
generally aimed at tightening up court procedures in the prosecution of
crime. One amendment set up a new method of electing the justices of
reviewing courts. Henceforth, they only had to run upon their records
with the people voting "yes" or "no" on the issue of whether they should be
retained for another term.
Unfortunately this amendment came too late for my friend Walter
Desmond. Governor Rolph had elevated him in 1933 from the Superior
Court to the District Court of Appeals. However, in the August, 1934
primary he was beaten by Superior Judge Charles S. Crail by a vote of
327, 000 to 200, 000. Judge Desmond was later restored to the trial
bench by Governor Merriam and Governor Olson promoted him back to the
appellate bench.
I faced my own campaign for re-election in 1934. In the August
primiary there were six candidates against me. One of them provided the
Times with the information that I had committed the unforgiveable crime
of seeking the support of union labor. A letter was sent to me on the
stationery of a union local asking about my labor record. I innocently
replied that I had not been on the bench long enough to have a labor
record, but cited my ruling in favor of the strikers in the waterfront strike
of 1933. The inquiry was a political ruse and my reply was immediately
published in the Times as an expose of nny radicalism. The Times was
-103-
also angry because I had written a letter to Rube Borough praising the way
in which the Upton Sinclair cannpaign was being conducted. Rube was an
editor of Sinclair's campaign newspaper. The Times thought this was a
pretty dreadful piece of class treachery. The result was that the Times
endorsed Courtney A. Teel, a Hollywood lawyer, against me. However,
Teel ran third in the primary.
The candidate against me in the run-off was Daily Stafford, who had
been recalled from the Superior Court two years previously for accepting
the gift of an overcoat from a receiver. I had a ready-made campaign
slogan in November - "Kenny bought his own benny. " I won by a very
comfortable margin.
The high vote for judge that November was received by Ben B,
Liindsey. Ben had been driven out of Denver by a reactionary wave. A
Ku Klux Klan supporter replaced him in the Juvenile Court, where Ben had
made an international reputation. Ben's vindication in the Los Angeles
election was treated as an important liberal victory all over the country.
Most of my colleagues on the Superior Court were not equally enthused.
The Juvenile judge in California has to be elected by the votes of his
fellow Superior Court judges. Ben was still a victim of jealousy. He
never could muster more than five or six votes for the juvenile post in
L.OS Angeles County.
My campaign committee for judge in 1934 included Carrie Jacobs
Bond, the composer. Mayor Shaw, John Beardsley, attorney for the
A. C. L. U. , John S. Horn of the Brewery Worker's Union and assorted
104-
bankers and Republicans. My literature described nne as a "consistent
champion of liberal and progressive issues."
Liberals triunnphed in the election for Los Angeles County Supervisor
in November, 1934. John Anson Ford beat Harry Baine, Herbert Legg
beat Hugh Thatcher.
On December 19, 1934 Appellate Justice Gavin Craig, my former
law professor, was indicted by a federal grand jury. Craig's offense arose
out of the Shortridge-Tubbs campaign of 1932. The Italo people testified
Craig had told them he could get the federal indictment against them dis-
missed if they made a $60, 000 campaign contribution to Senator Shortridge.
Judge Craig's conviction was affirmed in 1936 (81 Fed. 2d 816). He then
resigned from the bench and was disbarred, after serving several months
in the Ventura County jail.
In 1944 I had a chance to help Judge Craig. I was Attorney General
then, and Superior Judge William Palmer was Chairman of the Committee
on uniform criminal jury instructions. Judge Palmer agreed with me that
there was no reason why one of the best legal brains in Los Angeles County
should remain unemployed. I put ex- Judge Craig on the payroll of the
Attorney General's office as law clerk, and assigned him to the job of
assisting Judge Palmer in drafting these jury instructions. Shortly before
his death the following year, he was reinstated to the practice of law.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN -105-
SOME QUIET YEARS
In 1935 I finally settled down to the full time business of being a
Superior Court judge. I had been elected to a six year term. My friend.
Governor Rolph, was dead. I had no connection with the new Merriam
regime in Sacramento, and no election campaigns were on the horizon.
Early in 1935, I was assigned to the Law and Motion court. This department
only considers questions of law. I had no witnesses to swear, juries to
empanel, or long dreary cross examinations to listen to. The job was a
lawyer's delight. It was like going to law school every day, except the
County was paying me for it. Presiding Judge Edward T. Bishop
reassigned me to the department in 1936.
While sitting in this court, I drafted a nnanual for the guidance of
the legal profession on "Cost Bill Procedures." Costs are the items for
which the winner of a lawsuit may reimburse himself against the loser.
The amounts involved are usually small but the legal problems presented
were frequently perplexing. My manual has gone through several editions,
the latest being published by the State Bar in I960,
I had long been interested in proposals to consolidate City and County
government and urged Mayor Shaw to do something about relieving un-
necessary duplication. Shaw appointed a Citizen's Consolidation Committee
in 1935 and made me its chairman. I went to Alameda County and studied
the history of attempts to consolidate city and county governments there,
writing a monograph on the subject. I also studied the operation of the
-106-
consolidated city and county government of San Francisco.
The vice chairman of the committee was a splendid old gentleman, a
former mayor of Denver, John Rush, Mr. Rush had participated in the
consolidation of the city and county government in Denver. After several
months work, the Committee made a report. The majority report, which
I prepared, favored functional consolidation as opposed to complete consol-
idation. I feared that there were too many cities in Los Angeles County
(nearly fifty then) which would be jealous of their autonomy and refuse to
surrender complete control over local government. I believed, however,
that certain services could be wholesaled by the county to the various city
governnnents at a tax saving. These would be services such as police, fire,
health, and personnel selection. John Rush did not believe in such halfway
measures. He filed a minority report, urging that JLos Angeles City separ-
ate from the rest of the county and set up its own city and county govern-
ment. Our majority proposals for the strengthening of county government
to enable it to perform these wholesale functions canie before the Board of
Supervisors. We particularly recomnnended creation of the post of County
Manager. Unfortunately one proposal was that the Board of Supervisors be
increased from five to nine members. Even the new, liberal supervisors
would have no part of any such program and they all voted against it. Of
late years, since the incorporation of Lake>vood, ■with a minimum of muni-
cipal functions to be performed, there has been a good deal of functional
consolidation in Los Angeles County. Perhaps our 1935 commission did
contribute something to this later developmtent of the "Lakewood Plan. "
-107-
My former law professor, Leon Yank'wich was ambitious to move
from the Superior Court to the Federal bench. I did what I could to help
him. I had no influence with Senator MacAdoo, but I did have an idea.
I hired a Washington newspaper man, a correspondent for California papers,
to go to Senator MacAdoo' s office three times a week to inquire if there was
any news on the appointment of Judge Yankwich. This was designed to
create the impression in the Senator's mind that there was a big newspaper
sentiment for my candidate. Judge Yankwich was promoted to the federal
bench on August 24, 1935.
On January 21, 1935 the Supreme Court of the United States decided
Tom Mooney's petition for habeas corpus (294 US 103), holding that if
Mooney could show that the prosecution knew that its evidence against him
was perjured, this would constitute a denial of due process. George T.
Davis, of San Francisco, was Mooney's attorney. The Supreme Court
ruling brought the Mooney case back to life in California. In 1935 and
1936 I made several speeches at "Free Mooney" meetings. District
Attorney Buron Fitts had been finally cleared of all the charges filed
against him early in 1936, but a new campaign against him was being
mounted. Harlan Palmer, publisher of the Hollywood Citizen^ News, was
the candidate of the liberals and the reform forces. Judge Fletcher Bowron
invited me to come into the Palmer campaign, and I joined it wholeheartedly.
Judge Bowron thought it a good idea to invite Stewart McKee into the
campaign since McKee was president of a brewery and his support of Judge
Palmer might offset the "dry" atmosphere that attached to most of Palmer's
-108-
supporters. However, Fitts won again, beating both Palmer and
Assemblynnan Ralph Evans, the candidate of Senator Olson and the organization
Democrats. McKee and I manfully made up the deficit in the Palmer
campaign. Palmer's newspaper always opposed me in my own campaigns,
both before and after my efforts to help him in 1936. The first American
Newspaper Guild strike in Los Angeles was ainned at his Citizen News
in 1938. The days of Palmer as liberal publisher were ended after this.
In the fall campaign between Roosevelt and Landon, I was invited
by George T. Davis, Mooney's attorney, to attend a Fresno convention
of Progressives for Roosevelt, known as the LaFollette-Norris-LaGuardia
Committee. It was a committee composed of independents, rather than
Democrats. I became the Southern California chairman of this committee.
The organized Democrats would have nothing to do with us, however, I invited
Senator Culbert Olson to a luncheon of the committee at the University Club.
He could see no reason why there should be any pro-Roosevelt committee
other than the Democratic Central Committee. He could not appreciate the
feelings of those of us who were ashamed to be Republicans but still afraid
to be Democrats.
In 1937, Fletcher Bowron became Presiding Judge. He had progressive
ideas about court calendar improvement and wanted to initiate pre-trial
procedure in California. In this, Judge Bowron was easily twenty years
ahead of his time. In February, 1937, I went to Washington to attend the
founding meeting of the National Lawyers Guild. I promised Judge Bowron
I would visit the courts in Boston and Detroit, where the pre-trial experiment
-109-
was then being carried out. When I returned to Los Angeles I took leave
from the Law and Motion Department to assist Judge Bowron. I conducted
the first pre-trial conference calendar ever held in California, The
experinaent would have done much to relieve court congestion. However,
it was new and lawyers resist anything new. When Judge Bowron' s term
expired as presiding judge, he was succeeded by Judge Reuben Schmidt.
Schmidt promptly threw out the whole pre-trial arrangement and sent me
back to the Law and Motion Department, where I renaained until I finally
left the Superior Court bench. The pre-trial experiment was not revived
until 1957, but it is now in successful operation throughout California.
The National Lawyers Guild was formed in Washington, on
February 22, 1937. I attended upon the invitation of George Davis.
President Roosevelt had just been re-elected for his second term. He
was planning to do something about the United States Supreme Court, whose
nine old men had been blocking his program. Tom Corcoran and Morris
Ernst of New York conceived the idea of a new national bar association
composed of liberal lawyers to offset the influence of the American Bar
Association. In those days the American Bar Association was a branch
of the Liberty League. It had even opposed the child labor amendment. In
response to the call to Washington to form a new liberal lawyers' organization,
crossroads Clarence Darrows appeared from all over the United States.
Since I was from California and removed from the various eastern and
mid-western factions, I was made chairman of the original nominating
committee. In this job I became acquainted with, or at least learned the
no-
names of all the leading New Deal lawyers and old-time liberal practitioners.
Because of attending this and subsequent lawyers guild conventions I naade
the acquaintance of many Suprenne Court Justices, Attorneys General, law
professors. Congressmen and Senators. It was an eye-opening experience
for a provincial Southern California lawyer.
Upon my return, I organized the Los Angeles Chapter of the
National Lawyers Guild. The nucleus of such a chapter already existed in
the Amidon Club to which the civil liberties lawyers of Los Angeles
belonged. Judge Amidon, a former Federal Judge in North Dakota, had
made a national reputation when he refused to issue injunctions against
labor unions. He came to Southern California upon retirement.
The first chairman of the Los Angeles Lawyers Guild was Lester
William Roth, who had just resigned from the Superior Court to enter
private practice. William H. Anderson, and John Hart, distinguished
Los Angeles lawyers of an earlier generation, were also among the
members.
The Democrats had obtained a majority of the Assembly in the State
Legislature. On May 27, 1937, a joint resolution was adopted asking the
District Attorney of Sacramento to investigate corruption in state govern-
ment. Open grand jury sessions were commenced. The 1938 campaign for
governor was opening early.
Early in the fall of 1937, Senator Olson announced that he was
going to run for governor in 1938. I immediately became treasurer of his
campaign in Los Angeles. A few days later I decided to run for Olson's
-Ill-
vacancy as State Senator from Los Angeles and registered as a Democrat.
In announcing my candidacy, I stated that I would spend no money on my
cannpaign other than the $60 required for filing fees. I kept this cannpaign
pledge and went even further, I did not even make a speech in my own
behalf for state senator. Perhaps that was why I won.
Just at this time the Mooney case was thrown directly back into
California politics. On October 29, 1937, despite his showing of use of
perjured testimony, the State Supreme Court denied Mooney habeas corpus.
Justice Langdon dissenting (10 Cal. Zd 1). If there was to be any relief
for Mooney, it would have to come fronn the Governor who suceeded Frank
Merriann.
In 1936 I was invited to speak at several meetings on "Jurisprudence
under the Third Reich. " I had made a study of what Hitler had done to courts
and the law in Germany. My speech was welcomed at B'nai Brith meetings
and at functions of the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League. In November, 1936, I
was one of the sponsors of a Shrine Auditorium rally for Loyalist Spain. For
this, I was attacked in the Tidings, the diocesan newspaper of the Roman
Catholic Church. I was taken by surprise because I had believed almost
everyone was opposed to Fascism. The Catholics had been my only depen-
dable clerical allies during the fight against Prohibition. I was used to
opposition from some Protestant reverend worthies, but this was new and
unexpected.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - 112-
TH E 1938 CAMPAIGNS
On the night of October 28, 1937, when parking my car at our home
at 1941 North Serrano, I heard a loud booming noise. I folloAved the crowd
of aroused neighbors and we discovered that a bomb had gone off at the
home of Clifford Clinton, at 5470 Los Feliz Boulevard. Luckily no one
was injured. Clinton was a nnember of the reform Grand Jury and head
of a group known as C.I. V.I. C. (Citizen's Independent Vice Investigation
Connmittee) which was checking on corruption in the administration of
Mayor Shaw.
Another bomb went off on January 14, 1938. The victim this time
was Harry Raymond, an investigator for Clinton. Raymond was nearly
killed by a bomb attached to the starter of his automobile. A month
later Sergeant Earl E. Kynette of the Los Angeles Police Department was
indicted for the attempted murder of Harry Raymond.
Once Kynette was convicted (15 Cal, 2d 731) recall petitions were
circulated against Mayor Shaw. Shaw had just been re-elected in 1937
for another four year term, defeating Supervisor John Anson Ford.
I attended meetings in the office of the Municipal League in the
Bradbury Building for the purpose of selecting a candidate. Sonae sugges-
tion v/as made about my being a candidate, but I declined since I was
comnriitted to the Olson for Governor campaign. Sam Yorty, a young
Democratic Assemblyman who was elected in 1936, was hopeful of being
designated. Sam had been quite prominent in the investigation of the
corruption going forward in Sacramento. However, Sam was passed over
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in favor of Judge Fletcher Bowron. At a special recall election on
Septennber 16, 1938 Judge Bowron defeated Shaw by a vote of 233, 427 to
122, 692. The Los Angeles Tinnes supported Shaw in this race, as it had
in 1937. It had long since forgiven him for being a Canadian of dubious
American citizenship.
On July 19, 1938 the Sacramento grand jury had ordered lobbyist
Arthur Samish to appear and produce his income tax returns. Samish tied
the matter up in the courts until October 4, when the Third District Court
of Appeal denied his petition for a writ (28 Cal. App. 2d 68 5). Howard
Philbrick, a San Francisco investigator, was retained by the Governor to
investigate corrupt practices in the legislature.
Throughout the prinnary campaign, I continued to act as treasurer
of the Olson for Governor committee in Los Angeles. I did, however,
pernnit myself one political deviation. One night Fletcher Bowron drove
me home. On the way he urged nie to endorse District Attorney Earl
Warren of Alanneda county for Attorney General. I told him that I would.
I had become acquainted with Warren when we had worked together in
opposing bail bond broker legislation in 1931. U.S. Webb, the State's
Attorney General for 36 years, was retiring. Bowron arranged for me to
have lunch with Earl Warren and Grant Cooper, who had been active with
me in the 1936 campaign against Bur on Fitts. At this lunch, I explained
to Earl Warren that I needed some kind of statement from him that would
make my endorsement understandable to my civil liberties friends.
In compliance with this request. Earl Warren sent me a three page
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handwritten letter on July 20, stating that he believed there was a grave
danger of losing our civil liberties in the United States just as they had
been lost in other countries. He referred to Mayor Hague's suppression
of free speech in Jersey City and declared that he was unalterably opposed
to any species of vigilantism - "I believe that if majorities are entitled
to have their civil rights preserved, then they should be willing to fight
for the same rights for minorities, no matter how violently they disagree
with their views - - - I believe that the American concept of civil rights
should include not only an observance of our Constitutional Bill of Rights,
but also the absence of arbitrary action by governnnent in every field and
the existence of a spirit of fair play on the part of public officials toward
all that will prevent government from using ever-present opportunities
to abuse power through harassment of the individual. "
I was delighted with this and announced my support of Warren for
Attorney General, Some organization Democrats were horrified.
The Hollywood Central Young Democrats passed a resolution saying
that "Every loyal Democrat should know that Earl Warren is a reactionary
Republican. " They then officially repudiated me for my action in
supporting him. I received a letter from Tom Mooney in San Quentin,
saying that he was going to withdraw his support of me for State Senator
unless I repudiated Earl Warren.
The support given Earl Warren by Democrats like me that year
was crucial in his career. In the 1938 Democratic primary he received
only 308, 500 votes to 280, 408 for Carl Kegley, the candidate of the Ham-and-
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Eggers. Other Democratic candidates were William Moseley Jones,
speaker of the Assembly, 169, 5Z1 votes and Patrick J. Cooney, the
Epic candidate in 1934, 124, 151 votes. Another 130,000 votes went to
three other Democratic candidates.
Clearing the path for Olson's nomination for governor was made
easy by the same multiplicy of candidates that had made it possible for
Sinclair to get the nomination in 1934. Late in 1937, a Committee for
Political Unity was formed in a series of meetings held at my house in
Los Angeles and at the home of Harold Sawyer, a C.I. O. attorney in
San Francisco. We brought into the Committee for Political Unity all of
the liberal and labor forces that had supported Sinclair, plus all the
additional strength we could gather. Members of the Comnnittee for
Political Unity included: Assemblymen Wilbur Gilbert, Augustus F.
Hawkins, George Miller of Berkeley, Ellis E. Patterson, John Pelletier,
Fred Reaves, Paul A. Richie, Ben Rosenthal, Jack B. Tenney and
Samuel W. Yorty. Others were Lee Geyer, later a Congressman,
Dewey Anderson, head of the State Relief Administration, George T. Davis,
Carey McWilliams, George Kidwell and Herbert Sorrell, A. F. L. leaders.
Col. Charles Erskine Scott Wood, Sara Bard Field, the poet, Anthony Pratt
and Michael Rudolph of the Municipal League, John D. Bary, San
Francisco newspaperman, Dr. T. Perceval Gerson, Dr. Ernest
Caldecott of the First Unitarian Church, Los Angeles, Oliver Carlson,
the author, and Dr. E. P. Ryland of the Annerican Civil Liberties Union.
The split between the A. F. L. and the C.I.O. did not occur in
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California until two years after the C.I. O, unions had been ousted
nationally. Pressure from National President William Green finally
brought about the ouster of the C.I.O. locals from the state Federation of
Labor in September, 1937. The State Federation endorsed Sheriff Daniel
Murphy of San Francisco for Governor at the primary. President Green
then gave his personal endorsement to Governor Merrianri, the stand-pat
Republican, simply because the C. I. O. was backing Olson.
This was a period when the Communist Party was on its best be-
havior. It then urged a united front against fascism both internationally
and locally. I am sure that the Communist leadership of California did
everything within its power to prevent the splitting tendencies that usually
break up reform and progressive groups.
The candidate for Lieutenant Governor on the CFPU slate was
Ellis Patterson, Assemblyman from Monterey County. In 1936 Patterson
had accomplished something of a political miracle. He had previously
been elected as a Republican. In 1936 the Republicans of his district
thought him too friendly with the Democrats and he was beaten in the
Republican primary by Henry P. Russell. Pencils were then circulated
throughout the district. Slogans on pencils urged the voters to write in
the name of Ellis Patterson in the general election. On November 3, 1936,
Patterson won with 12, 928 write-in votes as against 12, 738 ballots stamped
for Russell. Until then it was not believed that there were that many
Democrats who could write.
The Democratic race for senator in 1938 started out as a three-
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cornered one. Peirson Hall had served four years as U. S. Attorney after
MacAdoo became senator. MacAdoo and Hall had fallen out and Hall was
not reappointed. John B. Elliott, one of MacAdoo' s original managers,
was also on the outs with the incumbent. Hall announced as a candidate for
U. S. Senator but a few days later Sheridan Downey, Upton Sinclair's running
mate in 1934, annotmced that he was also going to seek the Democratic nom-
ination. John B. Elliott, perhaps the clearest political thinker California
Democrats have ever had, knew that a three-cornered race would only re-
nonninate MacAdoo. He reasoned wisely that either Hall or Downey would
have to withdraw. Poll sampling showed him that Downey would get the
labor vote, but if he pulled out it would go to MacAdoo. On the other hand,
if Hall withdrew, the labor vote would go to Downey. Peirson Hall was per-
suaded by Elliott and others to nnake the sacrifical gesture and withdraw.
This generous act permitted Downey to obtain the nomination over MacAdoo.
The Republican candidate against him in the fall was Phil Bancroft, son of
Hubert Howe Bancroft. Phil had beconne the darling of the Associated Farm-
ers although the Democrats called him a Montgomery Street farmer.
Following the primaries, 1 attended the Democratic State Convention
in Sacramento on September 17, 1938. Richard Olson, the candidate's
son and private secretary, wanted me to be the new state chairman, and
Manchester Boddy urged my selection in the L. A. Daily News. However, I
had made the mistake of fraternizing with the MacAdoo forces in the days
following MacAdoo' s defeat. Stewart McKee and I had attended a meeting
at MacAdoo' s home in Santa Barbara, shortly after the primary. There,
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for the first time I met William Malone, the San Francisco chairman. He
was one of several of MacAdoo's Northern friends who came down for the
meeting. Malone was a breed of politician seldom encountered in Southern
California. He gave his word sparingly but always kept it.
My feeling was that the time had come when we should bind up the
wounds of the primaries. However, Olson was resentful over the bad
treatment MacAdoo had given Upton Sinclair's adherents in the 1934 elec-
tions. Olson suspected me of being "soft" on conservative Dennocrats.
After all, I had just won the Republican nomination for State Senator as a
cross -filer. The selection of the state chairman is a perquisite belonging
to the candidate for governor. The chairman Olson selected was John G.
Clark, an Assennblyman from Long Beach, later a Superior Judge.
Jesse W. Carter, a Redding attorney and former Governor of the
State Bar, invited Olson, Patterson, Phil Gibson and me to come with him
to Modoc County for a few days rest. We spent our time at the ranch home
of Roderick MacArthur. We looked at some deer but did not shoot any.
Supreme Court Justice Emmett Seawell was up there with us. Carter was
ambitious for Seawell to become Chief Justice if a vacancy occurred. How-
ever, Justice Seawell pre-deceased the incumbent. Chief Justice Waste, in
less than a year thereafter.
I took charge of the finances for the Democratic State Central Com-
mittee in Los Angeles. Supervisor Herbert Legg, who had been one of the
candidates against Olson, was widely respected among prospective cam-
paign contributors. I asked him to join me. Olson's suspicions must have
-119-
been reinforced when he saw me working with a man who had just been run-
ning against him. In any case, our regular finance committee was soon by-
passed and Richard Olson personally collected most of the campaign funds
for his father's campaign that fall.
One factor operated strongly in the Democratic Party's favor at the
November 8 election. This w^as the presence of an anti -picketing initiative,
Proposition No. 1, on the ballot. The need to defeat this proposition
brought out a heavy labor vote, greatly helpful to the Democratic slate.
Ironically, even if it had passed, it would have been declared unconstitution-
al under the doctrine of Carlson v California expounded by the U. S. Supreme
Court in 1940 (310 U.S. 106).
The Ham-and-Egg pension proposition was also on the ballot. It was
defeated. The Ham-and-Eggers declined to support Olson at the prinnary.
Their candidate was Congressman John Dockweiler. Dockweiler ran sec-
ond, although Olson's vote exceeded his by nnore than two-to-one.
On Septennber 15, 1938, I helped to prepare and file with the Secre-
tary of State a 220 page expense report of the Olson primary campaign.
It was a document of unprecedented candor. We reported expenditures of
$103, 664, an honest figure. The Republicans only reported expenditures
of $1, 743 for Governor Merriam. My personal contribution to Olson was
reported as $3, 808. 98, Phil Gibson's as $2, 800. 00.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN -120-
STATE SENATOR
A funny thing happened to me on the way to the State Senate. I had
been Olson's Southern California treasurer in the primary. In addition to
my reported contribution, I had personally guaranteed a $10, 000 note to
help finance his campaign. I had worked very hard in the fall campaign to
bring in finances for the Democratic ticket. I had just been elected State
Senator from Los Angeles County to occupy the same seat that Olson, him-
self, was vacating. However, after the September 18-20 trip to Modoc
County, I never saw Olson again until he was inaugurated on January 2, 1939,
and then only from a distance.
Olson set up temporary headquarters in Sacramento and started pre-
paring his budget. I expected any day to be invited to confer with him.
Nothing happened. Then Wesley Barr, political editor of the Herald Ex-
press, published a story on November 25, 1938 speculating that I would be
the "poobah" of the Olson administration. Apparently this made Olson so
furious that the L. A. Times of December 8, 1938 noted our growing cool-
ness. Wes Barr's story said:
"They do say down where the politicans gather that Judge Robert
W. Kenny, who now is also a state senator from Los Angeles County,
is to be the 'Grand Poo-bah' of the incoming Olson administration in
California. Judge Kenny is what is known as a 'bold un' in California
politics. It is claimed that he rode a white horse in the wet parade at a
time when wets were not worth a thin dime at vote getting. Kenny takes
all the political chances and somehow or other nearly always comes out
on top. He captured both the Democratic and Republican nominations for
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state senator from Los Angeles County, and won in a walk. So it is
not surprising that he probably will play 'Poo-bah' to Governor elect
Olson's Mikado. "
One evening soon thereafter Assemblyman Paul Peek was working
late in his Long Beach law office. He answ^ered his telephone.
"This is a test, " said an .unidentified female caller. "What is
Pooh-bah?" The answer was easy for Peek who had sung in Gilbert and
Sullivan operas during his college days. He even rendered a few bars from
the Mikado over the telephone. His listener was over-joyed.
"Great, " she said, "You have just won our support for the Speaker-
ship. " She then hung up.
The Democrats elected Peek the new Speaker when the Assembly
convened in January. Peek, later Justice of the State Supreme Court,
believes some of his support in that contest came from friends of mine
who were delighted at discovering a legislator who didn't think a "poo-bah"
was some kind of sex deviate.
The poor Governor-elect was certainly overwhelmed by the swarms
of patronage-hungry Democrats. He had not realized until then how few
jobs there actually were at his disposal. Immediately after the election
some of Olson's people had circulated thousands of nnimeographed job
application blanks throughout the state. Persons who sought jobs were
to fill out these application blanks and obtain endorsements of county
chairmen, assemblymen and others. This was a great deal of waste
-122-
motioti, since California had become almost 39% Civil Service upon the
adoption of the 1934 initiative.
When I arrived in Sacramento for the session, I was still in the
dark as to my status with the new administration. A tradition then existed
which gave the Governor the right to choose the chairman of the Senate
finance committee. Phil Gibson, whom I had introduced to Olson a few
months before, and was the new State Director of Finance finally persuaded
Olson to consent to my designation as finance committee chairman. This
autonnatically made me the floor leader of the Denaocratic minority.
Olson became seriously ill on the afternoon of January 7, 1939,
the Saturday following his inauguration. He had performed his most
splendid public act earlier that day, with the public pardoning of Tom
Mooney in ceremonies in the Assembly Chamber. One of the most
moving experiences of my life was to witness the scene in San Francisco
the following day when Tonn Mooney marched in a great labor parade up
Market Street to the City Hall.
Sara and I had separated in September, 1938, and when I came to
Sacramento, I lived at the Sutter Club. Jesse W. Carter, just elected
Senator, and Phil Gibson also lived there during the 1939 session, Stewart
McKee had come to Sacrannento with me to witness the excitement and
birth pains of the new Democratic administration. He liked the Sutter Club.
It was different from Los Angeles. "It's a club full of members, " he said.
The 1939 Legislature convened January 2. New senators are sworn
in two hours before the new eovernor takes his oath. If I had been sworn
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in that day, I would have created a Superior Court vacancy which the
Governor Merriam could fill during the brief interval of office remaining
to him. I therefore deferred taking my seat until the following day so
that the new Governor could appoint my successor.
Governor Olson made a splendid appointment to fill the vacancy.
He chose John Beardsley, who for years had been the devoted attorney
for the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles. Beardsley had
actually been a long time supporter of Ray Haight, and even stayed •with
him during his forlorn campaign in 1938, For once, Olson was in a for-
giving mood.
On the first day of the session, while I was still not a nnember of
the Senate and Merriam was still governor, the Senate proceeded to con-
firm Merriann's appointee. Rex Goodcell, as Insurance Commissioner.
Sitting on the sidelines, I persuaded Senator James McBride, a Dennocrat,
to move for reconsideration of this confirmation. The next day Governor
Olson withdrew Goodcell' s nanne before the reconsideration motion could
be acted upon. This parliamentary maneuver had successfully blocked
the rush act to bring about Goodcell' s confirmation. A stalemate ensued
for several months. Goodcell continued as holdover Commissioner until
his successor could be confirmed. It began to look as though we could
never get a majority of the Senate to confirm any nominee of Governor
Olson's, I had a happy inspiration during the closing days of the session.
Andrew Perovich, a popular Democratic Senator from Amador County,
wanted to become a judge. I persuaded Olson to appoint Superior Judge
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Anthony Caininetti of Amador County to the post of Insurance Commissioner,
thereby creating a judicial vacancy to which he could appoint Senator Pero-
vich. This strategy worked. The senators, all fond of Andy Perovich, voted
to confirm Judge Caminetti as Commissioner on the theory that a vote for
Caminetti was a vote for Perovich. There was only one thing wrong >vith
this strategy, and that was Judge Caminetti' s own lack of enthusiasm for the
appointment as Insurance Commissioner, Governor Olson finally persuaded
him, however. When Warren succeeded Olson, Caminetti was out as Com-
missioner. He later became District Attorney of Amador County.
The Senate was very kind in recognizing my special problems as
the sole senator from Los Angeles County, with 40% of the population of
the state in my district. They allowed nne to appoint two attaches instead
of the usual one. Fred Stewart also loaned me two extra employees from
the Board of Equalization. My two attaches were Ruth Jenkins, former
secretary of councilman Darwin Tate of Los Angeles, and Hilda Garber,
a former screen extra. Remembering Wesley Barr's prediction, my four
secretaries became known as the "Poobahettes, " This sort of thing made
Governor Olson uncomfortable, I am sure.
I introduced Senate Constitutional Amendment 20 to reorganize state
government in line with the recommendations of the Griffenhagen Report.
This report by Griffenhagen and Associates, of Chicago, had been made
at the expense of the Keesling Committee, a group of businessmen con-
cerned with maintaining the credit of the state in the securities market.
My constitutional amendnnent proposed the creation of the post of auditor-
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general. Under the existing form of state government, pre-audits are
conducted both by the Controller and the Director of Finance, and as to
legal aspects, by the Attorney General. However, no official conducts
a post-audit to find out where the money actually went. This would
have been the job of the auditor-general. A. C. A. 20 would also have
concentrated the states' tax collecting functions in a single office, instead
of being spread among the Controller, the Board of Equalization and the
State Franchise Tax Commissioner. Such an amendment obviously trod
on too many toes, and it was defeated.
I introduced a bill to limit the hours of domestic workers to 60
hours a week. Everywhere I went to dinner that spring, hostesses
assailed me for this "radical" legislation. A year later, when the
domestics sv/itched to defense industry, these same hostesses would have
been delighted to find a donnestic w^ho would work 20 hours a week. I
obtained a favorable committee recommendation for the bill, but on the
floor, the senators played a cat-and-mouse game with me. The gallery
was filled with YWCA workers, since the YWCA was an active sponsor
of the measure. The roll was called and I had 20 votes, needing only
one more vote for passage. I then imposed a call of the house, and the
Senate doors were locked until the absentees were brought in. Whenever
an absentee came in and voted in favor of my bill, one of my original 20
supporters would then change his vote from "aye" to "no. " This went
on for several hours. It was, of course, terribly frustrating for the
YWCA girls in the gallery, who could not understand what was going on.
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Ultimately, I had to surrender and accept defeat on the bill.
At the request of the downtown merchants of Los Angeles, I authored
a bill to create a Los Angeles Rapid Transit District. It passed both
houses of legislature, but was vetoed by Governor Olson. Twenty years
later, a similar measure became law.
During the session, the Atkinson Oil bill passed the Assembly
after a protracted floor fight. This measure would have created state
control over the amount of oil produced in California. It was opposed by
the independent oil producers and favored by the major oil companies.
The Olson administration was strong for the bill. I was opposed to it,
because I was afraid that the Democrats were not yet sufficiently
seasoned in office to undertake the policing of so rambunctious an
industry as the petroleum business. I voted against the bill, but it passed
the Senate by a wide margin and w^as signed by the Governor. The
independent oil men circulated a referendum petition against it and when
it came to a vote of the people at a special election on November 7, 1939,
it was defeated by a margin of 650, 000 votes.
Edw^in Pauley, an independent oil man, became friendly with Olson
during the 1937 Senate fight over the tideland leasing bill. He supported
Olson for Governor. In 1939, Pauley supported the Atkinson bill,
becoming a "dependable independent" and acted as liason between the
Democrats and the major oil companies. He performed this function so
well that by 1950, he was called to Washington to become Treasurer of
the Democratic National Committee. FDR appreciated Pauley's services
-127-
in returning the Democratic Party to solvency, Olson made Pauley a
regent of the University of California. He has served longer in that post
than any other regent in history.
During 1938, the activities of lobbyists had been under the scrutiny
of Howard R. Philbrick , a private investigator, who finally made his
report to the Governor in December, 1938. When Governor Merriam left
office, he took the report with him, saying that he did not want anyone
smeared with the sordid details of past misdeeds. After two weeks,
Merriam announced he had turned the report over to Attorney General
Earl Warren. Warren studied it and then gave a copy to Governor Olson.
Governor Olson sent it to the Senate on April 3. The following day, the
Philbrick report was routinely printed in the Senate Journal without
opposition. However, on April 5th, when the dynamite in the report was
discovered, the Senate promptly reversed itself and expunged the report,
reprinting the Journal for the previous day. Copies of this report are still
extant, but they are collectors items. Bills to correct lobbying practices
were introduced in the 1939 session, but all of them failed of passage.
Superior Judge Ben B. Lindsey came to Sacramento with a bill to
create a Conciliation Court. I introduced the measure and obtained its
passage. It became the foundation of the system of Conciliation Courts now
employed with constantly increasing success by the Superior Courts in
California's larger cities. Ben died during World War 11. I persuaded
Millie Rorke to have the Cali fornia Shipbuilding Corporation name a
Liberty Ship after the brave little judge.
-1?.8-
I always wondered how a modest, unassuming man like Ben Lindsey
could acquire so many vicious enemies, particularly among people who
never knew hinn personally. Today, people would call him "controversial, "
as if that was a bad word. Ben never wanted controversy. He just saw
ways of improving society that were not understood by the dunces who
opposed him at every step of the way.
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CHAPTER NINETEEN
MY BREAK WITH OLSON
The 1939 legislature reconvened for its second session on March
6. The patronage pressures upon the Governor from nnembers of the
legislature had vastly increased during the recess. Several Democratic
legislators had decided that since they were not getting all of their friends
appointed to jobs in the relief administration, where there ■were no civil
service restrictions, it must be that the jobs were being given "to the
Reds. " Dewey Anderson, a former assennblyman, had been appointed
head of the State Relief Adnninistration by Olson. Anderson had been a
Stanford professor, and was therefore automatically suspect among the
anti -intellectual element. For quite a while Anderson held out for merit
appointments to the Relief Administration. The job -hungry legislators
turned their wrath on William Plunkert and Rose Segure, both qualified
social workers, who had been active participants in the 1938 campaign of
the C. F. P. U, Plunkert and Miss Segure had been awarded important
posts in the State Relief Administration.
The first indication that the Olson administration had caved in to
"red-baiting" came on April 4, 1938, when Dewey Anderson, with the
Governor's approval, fired Bill Plunkert and Rose Segure. I opposed
this, connparing it unfavorably to the treatment of Simon Gerson in New
York. Gerson was press secretary to Stanley Isaacs, President of the
New York City Council. Previously, he had been a reporter for the
Daily Worker and was openly registered as a Communist. The same kind
of pressures being brought upon Anderson and Governor Olson had been
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brought upon Councilman Isaacs. Isaacs stood his ground and refused to
fire Gerson but liberal California Governor Olson retreated at the first
rattle of the muskets. This was the first public division between Olson
and myself.
The 1939 legislative session finally adjourned on June 22. It was the
longest legislative session in California history. A few weeks before ad-
journment a vacany had occurred in the Appellate Court in Los Angeles
upon the death of Justice Charles Crail. I asked Olson to appoint me, but
received no imnnediate assurance that he would do so.
The Ham-and-Eggers pressed the Governor to call a special election
for another initiative proposed for which they had obtained sufficient sig-
natures. On July 1, Governor Olson called a special election of the Ham-
and-Eggs proposal for November 7, 1939.
On July 7, Supreme Court Justice Ennmett Seawell died. I immediate-
ly moved up my sights from the Appellate Court and asked the Governor for
the Seawell vacancy. On July 14, Senator Jesse Carter visited me in Los
Angeles. Carter also wanted the appointment to the Seawell vacancy. He
was eminently qualified, both fronn his standing as a lawyer and as an ac-
tive participant in the Olson campaign, Jesse had been a district attorney
for two terms and one of the first Governors of the State Bar. I agreed to
support Carter for the Supreme Court and to take the Los Angeles Appellate
Court vacancy if it was offered me. That afternoon we went together to
Governor Olson's residence at 506 S. Mariposa Street, Los Angeles. The
Governor was agreeable to our arrangement and announced the appointment
of both of us the next day.
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A legal complication prevented us from taking judicial office
immediately. Article IV, Section 19 of the State Constitution provides
that no legislator can accept any state office, except those "filled by
election of the people. " A test case was filed by Senator Carter, and
on August 15, the Supreme Court ruled that judicial offices were elective
and legislators were eligible to appointment to them (14 Cal. 2d 179).
Just five days before that decision came down, W.H. Langdon,
a great liberal justice of the Supreme Court had died. My ambitions for
the Supreme Court were then eclipsed by a new turmoil in the State Relief
Adnninistration. On August 14, Dewey Anderson resigned as administrator,
making acrimonious charges against Governor Olson for political inter-
ference in his department. In the general excitenrient, my claim to the
Langdon vacancy was overlooked.
On the day following Anderson's resignation, Finance Director
Phil Gibson was given the Langdon vacancy. I promptly informed the
Governor that I had decided not to accept his appointment as Presiding
Justice of the District Court of Appeal, Division Two, in Los Angeles. I
then asked Olson to appoint Paul Vallee to the post. Paul Vallee and
Lawrence Beilenson had become my law partners upon my leaving the
bench in January, Paul was then president of the State Bar and eminently
qualified for the bench. Governor Olson ultimately gave the appointment
to Superior Judge Minor Moore, who served in that position with dis-
tinction for nearly twenty years. In 1949, Governor Warren appointed
Vallee to the Appellate Court.
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The second campaign on the Hann-and-Eggs proposal was then
beginning. I became chairman of the Southern California Campaign
Committee against Ham-and-Eggs. The Northern California chairman
was U.S. Webb, who had been Attorney General for thirty-six years
prior to surrendering the office to Earl Warren. James C. Sheppard,
a Los Angeles attorney of great vigor, became the cannpaign manager
against the proposal here in Los Angeles. It was my first political
campaign in which there were always sufficient funds available.
Governor Olson was not in favor of the new Ham-and-Eggs proposal,
but he was equivocal on his opposition to it. As a result he gained the
enmity of both sides. At the November 7th special election, the Ham-and-
Eggs proposal was defeated by 1, 933, 557 to 993, 204, a much wider margin
than before. Proposition No. 5 on that ballot was the referendum on the
Atkinson Oil bill. This measure, which Olson strongly favored and I had
opposed, was also defeated by the voters.
When World War II broke out in August, 1939 the period of the
unified front ended. The left decided that the war was "an imperialist
war. " The announcement of the Hitler-Stalin pact in August, 1939 grieved
and puzzled many liberals who had been happy "fellow-travelers" up to then.
Liberal organizations became particularly vulnerable to splitting tactics.
In a few months the National Lawyers Guild was rocked by resignations
by nnany of its former members. I was stubborn. I never resigned from
the Lawyers Guild or anything else. However, I did not agree that the
war against Hitler had suddenly became an imperialist war.
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My mother died August 30, 1939. Sara and I had become reconciled
about the same time and she returned from San Francisco to the Serrano
Street residence. We continued to live there until we moved to San
Francisco in 1943, upon my election as Attorney General,
After the Hann-and-Eggs campaign ended, I decided to move my law
office back to the courthouse hill. During my association w^ith Vallee and
Beilenson we had taken an elegant suite in downtown Los Angeles but I
was frightened by the overhead. Roy Allen said there was available space
next to his in the Broadway- Temple Building. My firm was dissolved and
I moved in with Roy in December, 1939. Taking in a new partner, Morris E,
Cohn, a younger lawyer whose work I had greatly admired when I was a
judge, the firm of Kenny and Cohn was a happy combination. It continued
in existence until 1948, when Cohn moved to Hollywood to set up an
independent practice.
The third man in our office was Robert O. Curran, a newly admitted
lawyer, who stayed with us until he entered the service. Curran later
becanne a deputy in the attorney general's office and District Attorney of
Mariposa County, then a Municipal Judge in San Diego. Curran was re-
placed by Robert S. Morris, who came to our office October 12, 1941.
Morris was an emancipated Texan, who had become a liberal during his
years at Dartmouth and Berkeley. He had a brilliant future ahead of him
at the Bar. Before he joined us he had been elected president of the
Junior Barristers in Los Angeles. However, he insisted on throwing his
lot in with Cohn and myself. He has been my partner ever since August 1,
1948, when formation of the firm of Kenny and Morris was announced.
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CHAPTER TWENTY
THE 1940 CAMPAIGNS
On January 29, 1940, the legislature re-convened for a special
session. Resentments against Olson had been accumulating ever since the
adjournment in June 1939. The first victim of this resentment was an
innocent by-stander, Speaker Paul Peek. Immediately upon the opening
of the session, a coalition of the Republican minority and fifteen anti-
Olson Democrats joined to unseat Peek as Speaker, electing Gordon Garland,
a conservative Tulare county Democrat, in his place. A month later,
Governor Olson •was able to ease some of the humiliation unjustly inflicted
upon Peek by appointing him Secretary of State upon the death of Frank C.
Jordan, incumbent for over thirty years.
On the afternoon of February 21, Garland, the newly elected
Speaker, was in his bedroom in the Senator Hotel in Sacramento. He
noticed a pinhole of light coming through the valance holding the window
drapes. He inspected it and found a concealed microphone. The micro-
phone was traced to Howard Philbrick, the private investigator who had been
appointed Director of Motor Vehicles by Governor Olson in September, 1939.
An assembly committee on Interference with the Legislature was
immediately appointed. "Let nne put a bug in your ear. Governor, "
became the favorite saying of Sacramento w^ags.
It always seemed to me that the reason the Olson administration
went in for electronics was because the Governor had so suspicious a
disposition and also isolated himself fronn the ordinary ebb and flow of
gossip. It was my experience that I only had to make myself available
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regularly at Kearney's Saloon on Eleventh Street in Sacramento, and
enough people canne up to volunteer nnore information than could have
ever been obtained by a dictaphone.
At the first regular session of the legislature in 1941, following
this episode, I obtained passage of anti-dictaphone legislation. It -was
never really effective because the police obtained an amendment excluding
them from its application.
On February 20, the assembly authorized the creation of a "Little
Dies" committee to investigate Reds in the State Relief Administration.
Assemblyman Samuel W. Yorty was chairman and Assemblyman Jack B,
Tenney, vice chairman. This committee then travelled the various
counties asking state employees if they had any communist affiliations.
Eighteen such employees in Stockton refused to answer and were each
sentenced to a year in jail for contennpt of the Yorty committee. The
headlines thus obtained encouraged Yorty to run for United States Senator
against Hiram Johnson in the August, 1940, Democratic primary. Sam
ran a bad fourth in that contest, with the incumbent Hirann Johnson,
Lieutenant Governor Patterson, and Supervisor John Anson Ford, finishing
1-2-3 ahead of him.
The Garland dictaphone episode touched off a recall movement
against Governor Olson by a coalition of his enemies, including the Ham-
and-Eggers who were experts at circulating petitions. Another group was
the independent oil men who were still smarting because of Olson's
attempt to control their production through the Atkinson oil bill. They
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could finance the recall cannpaign if necessary.
On March 10, 1940, I announced that I w^ould be a candidate for
Governor if the recall petition qualified. Tallant Tubbs told the press he
would drum up Republican support. I said, "I can recall Olson, but
he seems unable to recall me. "
On March 15, 1940 Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, came
to San Francisco to bring harmony among the warring Democratic factions,
A slate of Roosevelt delegates had to be chosen imnmediately to qualify for
the May 7, 1940 primary ballot.
Governor Olson, Lieutenant Governor Patterson, Senator Jack
Shelley of San Francisco, former U. S. Senator MacAdoo and I met
with Secretary Ickes at his Mark Hopkins suite. Ickes was pleased to
find that the all factions would unite for the election of Roosevelt. We
agreed upon a ticket that included representatives of the MacAdoo
Democrats, the Olson Democrats, labor, the progressives and the
conservatives. One thing agreed upon was that the delegates-at-large
who headed the ticket would have their names arranged in alphabetical
order. This meant that Isadore DockAveiler, former National Committee-
man and FDR's original supporter in California, would be the first delegate
on the list. Olson agreed this would be done. I was satisfied because if
the ticket was arranged alphabetically, it would not have to bear the burden
of being known as the Olson slate.
However, when the ballots were printed, I discovered that Olson's
name was first. Earl Behrens of the San Francisco Chronicle called to
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ask me if I thought Olson had broken his pronnise. I replied that I did not
think so. With Governor Olson, the alphabet simply began with the letter
"O. " A few days after this harnnony slate was created, Ellis Patterson
decided to bolt from it. He set up a "Patterson for President" slate,
which qualified for the ballot, but fizzled miserably at the polls on May 7th.
Early in 1940 I appeared before the State Athletic Commission to
oppose the renewal of fee license of the Hollywood American Legion,
Although at that time, two negroes held four world's championships,
(Joe Louis, one, and Henry Armstrong, three), the Legion steadfastly
refused to schedule any Negro boxers on their regular Friday night cards.
Olson had appointed attorney Jerry Geisler, chairman of the Athletic
Commission. I protested the Legion's practices at an open hearing of
the Commission held in the Los Angeles State Building Auditorium. The
Commission ruled that the permit would not be renewed unless the Legion
ceased its discrimination. A ie-w months later one of the Legionnaires
who had booed me at the Commission hearing, stopped in to thank me.
He said attendance had nearly doubled after the negro athletes were
aBowed to appear.
In the spring of 1940, I acquired two new clients. One was William
Schneiderman, head of the Communist Party in California, the other
Fred Stewart, Republican member of the Board of Equalization from
Oakland. As part of the drive against communists that developed after
announcement of the Moscow-Berlin axis, the U. S. Department of Justice
filed suit to revoke Schneiderman' s citizenship papers. I appeared in the
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U. S, District Court in San Francisco for Schneiderman's trial. There
I had an opportunity to cross examine Captain William F. "Red" Hynes
of the Los Angeles Red Squad. Hynes had been called by the government as
an "expert" on Communist philosophy. Taking a chance, I asked him for
his definition of "dialectical materialism. " He said that he had heard
the phrase employed. I asked then if it was "dialect material" like Irish
stage comedians used? "No, " he said, "it's not." "What is it, then?"
Hynes replied, "I can't tell you, but I've got it in my brief case. " Judge
Michael Roche of the U.S. District Court ordered Schneiderman's
citizenship revoked. My appeal to the Ninth Circuit also lost. At this
point, the case was taken over by V/endell Willkie, who obtained a reversal
by the United States Supreme Court on June 21, 1943 (320 U.S. 118).
Fred Stewart had been indicted by the Los Angeles Grand Jury for
alleged misconduct in the handling of liquor licenses in Los Angeles. He
was indicted jointly with William Bonelli, the Los Angeles member of the
Board of Equalization. Actually Stewart had only been in Los Angeles once
in his life before the indictnnent. I moved for a separate trial for Fred,
and the motion was granted. After a protracted trial, Bonelli was
acquitted by Superior Judge William Palmer. I then moved for a dismissal
of the charges against Stewart and the motion was granted. However, these
false charges took their toll of Fred Stewart and he died on April 17,
1942.
On one occasion at the University Club in Los Angeles, both of these
clients happened to call on me at the same time. I introduced thenn and
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the Republican and the Communist got along very well together. However,
it was this sort of thing that confused Governor Olson, to w^hom everything
had to be either white or black, Olson once wrote to Carey McWillianns
that "Kenny is as much at home (with the reactionary Republican forces)
as in fraction meetings of the Communist Party. " It was not the first
time, nor would it be the last, that a lawyer had attributed to him the
politics of his clients.
In June, 1940, I was elected national president of the Lawyers Guild
at its convention in New York City. Immediately afterwards, I proceeded
to Washington to try to stem the stream of resignations the Guild had been
receiving from its prominent members in government. I first called upon
Robert H. Jackson, then Attorney General of the United States. I ex-
plained that I intended to see that the Guild operated as a lawyers'
organization, elinninating the rash of resolutions some Guild chapters had
been adopting on foreign policy and other matters of no direct concern to
lawyers. Jackson said he would withdraw his resignation from the Guild,
provided I could convince sonae others in Government to take the same
position. Jerome Frank, then Chairman of the S. E. C. , also expressed
his w^illingness to me to return to the Guild. Several other Government
lawyers agreed to let me lead them back into the fold.
However everyone said that a final decision hinged on my ability to
reconcile Adolph Berle, then Assistant Secretary of State. I saw Berle,
and our conversation gave me hope that he would give "clearance" to the
Lawyers Guild. He could not give me an immediate answer because he
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still had some "checking" to do. I do not know the kind of litmus paper
he used, but within twenty-four hours the test canne out negatively. I
found that Berle had successfully closed all of the important doors in
Washington to the Guild.
A year later, once the Hitler-Stalin pact was broken by Hitler's
invasion of Russia, the Lawyers Guild situation was rapidly defrosted and
many of the resigned members rejoined.
On June 6, 1940, California Chief Justice William H. Waste died,
and four days later, Governor Olson appointed Associate Justice Phil
Gibson in his place. The vacancy created by Gibson's elevation was
filled by the designation of Professor Max Radin of the University of
California Law School. Max was one of the most highly respected
lawyers and liberals in California. It was part of Radin' s generous
nature to have written Stockton officials asking clemency for the eighteen
state employees who had been convicted of contempt of Yorty's "Little
Dies" corrumittee. In an early application of the rule of guilt-by-
association. Max Radin w^as immediately converted into a "Red, "
Nominations to the California Supreme Court are made by the
Governor, but they must be confirnned by a Qualifications Commission
consisting of the Chief Justice, the Senior Appellate Justice, and the
Attorney General. In Max's case, the deciding vote against him was
cast by Earl Warren. The Attorney General joined with Senior Appellate
Justice John Nourse in voting against Radin. Warren has had a splendid
liberal record, growing better every year. His vote on Radin is one
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black mark on it which remains unexplained. After Professor Radin
was turned down, Governor Olson returned to the University of California
faculty to make another excellent selection, Professor Roger Traynor,
whose name was approved by Warren and the rest of the Commission.
The Democratic national convention in 1940 opened in Chicago on
July 18. I did not attend. I had appointed Jim Sheppard as my alternate.
Jim and I agreed to cast nny vote for James Farley for Vice President.
We believed that there should be sonne protest against the steamroller
control of the convention. Using his powers as Governor, Olson was
able to take control of a majority of the California delegation. He had
himself elected National Committeeman, replacing former Senator
MacAdoo.
This success went to Governor Olson's head. Forgetting his
troubles back home he allowed his name to be boomed as a candidate
for Vice President. When it was pointed out that if he becanne Vice
President, the governorship would go to Ellis Patterson, the man who
had just opposed FDR in the California May 7 presidential primary.
Undaunted, Olson telephoned Patterson on July 17, and asked him to
resign so that Olson could become a candidate for Vice President.
Patterson told him to go to hell. Then Patterson attempted to use his
power as acting Governor to fill vacancies that had occurred while
Olson was absent from the state. This move was thwarted because Olson's
staff had the foresight to have the Governor sign some appointment
commissions in blank before he left the state. The blanks were filled
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in and the commissions were lodged with the Secretary of State before
the Lieutenant Governor could get his own appointments on file.
I stayed out of all of this. I devoted most of the summer of 1940 to
helping obtain re-election for several liberal Democratic assennblymen.
I had no campaign of my own, and I acted as finance chairman for a joint
campaign for Assemblymen John D. Pelletier, Jack B. Tenney, Vernon
Kilpatrick, Augustus F. Hawkins, Don A. Allen, John W. Evans, Jack
Massion, Cecil R. King, and Ralph C. Dills.
I also supported Frank Scully in the Hollywood district. He was
one of the few non-incumbents to receive the Democratic nomination that
year. Frank Scully is the author of "Fun in Bed. " He lost at the general
election despite his platform of "out of the gully with Scully, into the
ditch with that other fellow. "
Since these Democratic assemblymen had been associated with Olson,
they were having a difficult time raising money for re-election. Stewart
McKee's father, Henry S. McKee, was then head of a group called "United
for California. " It was a conservative organization but Stewart and I were
able to persuade it on personal grounds to contribute to the campaigns of
these assemblymen. Every Saturday morning meetings of the assemblymen
took place in my office at Broadway and Teniple, and whatever fimds nny
joint solicitations had produced were equally divided. They were all re-
nominated, and re-elected. Elsewhere in the State, Democrats did not
fare so well. Olson appointees to the Superior bench in Santa Barbara,
Orange and San Francisco were defeated, and Hiram Johnson, still a
registered Republican, swept the Democratic ballot for re-election
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to the United States Senate. Olson's untinnely effort to "purge" unfriendly-
Democratic legislators failed generally, although two reactionary Demo-
cratic assemblymen were replaced.
When Phil Gibson went to the Supreme Court, he had been replaced as
Director of Finance by John R. Richards, a highly respected Los Angeles
securities dealer, who had picked up his liberalism while playing football
for the University of Wisconsin, Richards ntiade a fine Director of Finance
and gained the approval of the Legislature. However, Richards lost confi-
dence in Governor Olson and in September, 1940, he resigned. Later he
announced that he would support me in my campaign for Governor if there
was to be a recall election. George Killion was appointed Director of
Finance and did a competent job for the balance of Olson's term.
On September 21, Olson called another special session of the Legis-
lature. By now he was in full retreat to the people who saw Reds under
every bed. Item 7 of his call proposed legislation to bar the Communist
Party from the California ballot. When this measure came to the Senate,
I offered an amendment which merely proposed that before the Commun-
ist Party was banned, it should be given notice and a hearing by the
Secretary of State as to why it should be removed from the ballot. My
amendment was voted down by the excited patriots of the State Senate.
My amendment would have made the bill constitutional. By the following
year the State Supreme Court unanimously struck down the measure on the
ground due process was denied because no hearing was provided. After
my amendment was rejected, the roll was called and I cast a single "no"
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vote. This was the first of a series of solitary "no" votes that I was to
record in the California Senate during this period.
Despite this maverick attitude, I was honored in October, 1940,
by a visit from the Willkie forces. John L.. Lewis had already announced
his support for Willkie against Roosevelt. My visitors were Lewis
Douglas of Arizona and Lynn Atkinson, a wealthy Los Angeles contractor.
Lev/ Douglas had been a family friend since my boyhood. His mother's
uncle, Ben Williams, had been the executor of my father's will. The
Kennys and Douglases had been family friends ever since my father's day
in Tombstone.
I spoke to Douglas and Atkinson in terms that they as businessmen
could understand, namely, that 1 had too much of an "investment" in the
Democratic Party to gamble it away for a nnere matter of principle. Lew
Douglas and President Roosevelt composed their differences later and he
became our Ambassador to the Court of St. James under Truman.
In December, 1940 I became the lawyer for the Screen Writers Guild.
This association was to lead, seven years later, to my representation
of the Hollywood Ten in the Un-American Activities hearings in Washington.
In 1940, the S.W.G. had finally been certified as bargaining agent for the
Hollywood writers and was entering negotiations with the producers. I
was hired to take part in those negotiations. During the 1941 session of
the legislature, I flew down, at least once a week from Sacrannento for
the bargaining sessions.
Another contact with the nnotion picture industry developed for me
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about this time. Nearly all of the contracts between artists and manage-
ment and artists and agents contained an arbitration clause. When
disputes occurred, it was necessary to appoint a neutral arbitrator.
Since I had judicial experience and, at that time, was not identified with
either side, I was able to go about Hollywood as a dealer in impartiality,
I acted as a sort of private judge in many Hollywood disputes. One was
between the comedy team of the Ritz Brothers and Universal Pictures.
Another was between the actress Rosalind Russell and Myron Selznick,
her agent. Selznick had charged her $2, 500 for attending a preview of one
of her pictures. Miss Russell thought this excessive and, as arbitrator,
I agreed with her.
In 1940, I was retained by the State Federation of Labor to represent
it before the State Supreme Court in several matters. After the State
anti-picketing law, Proposition No. 1, had been defeated at the November,
1938 general election, employers resorted to the time honored weapon
of injunctions to curb the growing organization of California labor under
the protection of the Wagner Act.
On April 3, 1940, the District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles upheld
the conviction of Carl Fortenbury, a C. I. O. organizer, for contempt of
court because of his activities in secondary picketing. Representing the
State Federation of Labor, I filed a brief in Fortenbury* s behalf in the
State Suprenrie Court. Fortenbury' s conviction was reversed by a
four-to-three decision on October 14, 1940 (16 Cal, 2d 405).
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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
THE 1941 LEGISLATURE
Soon after the 1941 session of the legislature opened, the Assembly-
passed Tenney's Assennbly Concurrent Resolution 13, which provided for
a Joint Fact-finding Committee on Un-American Activities. When the
resolution came to the Senate floor, I offered an amendment which provided
that the committee should receive no hearsay testimony; that persons
called before it should be given the right to cross examine their accusers
and to object to hearsay testimony; and that if the hearsay testimony was
received, it would not be privileged under the libel laws of California.
This amendment would have prevented the committee from being used
as a privileged sanctuary for those who smeared persons and organizations
but escaped legal liability for untrue accusations, I could only muster
four votes for this amendment. After the amendment was defeated, I cast
the only "no" vote on final adoption of the resolution. (1941 Senate Journal
pg, 284-5).
Later that session, Assemblyman Tenney obtained the passage of his
AB 271, the Subversive Organization Registration Act, known as the
"Little Voorhis Act. " I argued this act was unconstitutional on the
ground that the field had been pre-empted by federal legislation. My
protests were overruled and again I cast the sole "no" vote against the
nneasure (1941 Senate Journal 1068). Governor Olson signed the bill
without hesitation.
A few years later, my contentions of unconstitutionality on this
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measure rose to haunt me. The only prosecution that ever took place
under this Act was in 194Z when Attorney General Earl Warren obtained
an indictment from the Sacramento Grand Jury against Robert Noble and
several other persons accused of Nazi Bund activities. Warren's office
obtained a conviction, but by the time the matter came up on appeal, I had
become the Attorney General. My staff was then obliged to argue that
the law was constitutional, despite my Senate vote against it on the
ground that it was unconstitutional. Fortunately, the Appellate Court
did not decide on constitutional grounds but reversed upon the grounds
that the facts proved were insufficient to warrant the convictions ( People
V Noble (1945), 68 C. A. 2d 853).
When Hitler launched his invasion of the Soviet Union in June, 1941,
my own political fortunes improved immediately. As long as the Berlin-
Moscow Axis was in force, I could not obtain any cooperation among
the divided liberal forces. The invasion of Russia changed all this at
once. The left wing returned to its good behavior. The war against
Hitler no longer was an imperialist war.
The recall movement against Olson had been abandoned, largely due
to a growing uncertainty as to who the recall election would really benefit.
Although a recall election was no longer on the horizon, the 1942 election
was, I believed in campaigning in the manner of Governors James Budd
and James Rolph, Both of these candidates had visited every one of the
58 counties during their campaigns. Budd, running in 1894, did it by
horse and buggy and was called "Horse and Buggy" Budd. Rolph used a
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chartered airplane in 1930. Tallant Tubbs visited all 58 counties in his
1932 campaign. He was the first candidate to use a helicopter.
The kind of campaign I planned for the governorship would take a
long time. I, therefore, started campaigning thirteen months in advance.
I began touring the State in July, 1941.
On October 9th my supporters in Sacramento gave a cocktail party for
me at the home of my Stanford fraternity brother, Fred Pierce. Peter
Shields, who had been a Superior Judge since the year 1900, came to the
affair. Judge Shields was Mr. Democrat in Sacramento, but Governor
Olson had overlooked his presence in the Capital during his term of office.
On October 24, I had my first meeting with the "Federal Brigade" in
San Francisco. These were the gentlemen who had been appointed to
federal office by President Roosevelt, upon Senator MacAdoo's recom-
mendations. Their spokesman was William Malone, San Francisco County
Chairman. One of my closest friends in this group was Jerome Politzer,
a San Francisco lawyer of elegance and distinction, who was always
chosen as treasurer for Democratic Party movements in San Francisco.
James Smythe, one time chief clerk of the Assembly and later Collector
of Internal Revenue, was another one of this group. These San Francisco
Democrats provided me with the warmest and kindliest associations of
my life in politics.
Many of my travels about the State were in connection with my mem-
bership on a Joint Water Committee of the Legislature. In December of
1941, I traveled from Red Bluff to Stockton for hearings of this connmittee.
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I called upon the Democratic leaders in each of the counties I passed
through. While on this trip, I was informed of the death of my aunt,
Mrs. May Kenny Viven. I inherited about $25, 000 from her. This money
was a windfall, and all of it went to finance my 1942 campaign. I was
with the committee in Stockton on December 7th, when the Japanese
raid on Pearl Harbor occurred.
On the Monday following the Pearl Harbor attack, the United States
Supreme Court, by a five-to-four decision, reversed the contempt con-
victions obtained by the L. A, Bar Association against Harry Bridges
and the Los Angeles Times for their comments on court proceedings.
This landmark free speech decision, written by Justice Black, redressed
the threat to free comment which had existed in California ever since
Rev. Shuler had been jailed for contennpt and lost his radio license ten
years before.
I was not the only Democratic candidate for governor against Gover-
nor Olson in 1942. Gordon Garland, the new Speaker, was also running.
He had the support of the conservative Democrats and the independent
oil men. Upon the opening of the special session in January of 1942, the
Legislature decided to send a two-man committee to Washington to confer
with the Secretary of War about the status of "Olson's Army, " as the
State Guard was then called. The legislators thought it a good joke to
appoint Garland and me as the two members of the committee. We accept-
ed and traveled together to Washington and roomed together while we were
there, I took Garland to meet all of my friends in Washington, including
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Justice Robert Jackson. Some compared us to a troupe of professional
wrestlers. We were political rivals, but kept on good personal ternns so
that we could continue competing with each other at the next whistle stop.
All during this period I tried vainly to persuade Garland to run for
Lieutenant Governor, and not to split the field against Olson.
On January 17, I obtained the adoption of Senate Resolution 27, which
created the Senate Interim Committee on Economic Planning. This com-
mittee consisted of just two members, myself and Senator John Phillips,
a capable Riverside Republican who later served many years in the
House of Representatives. Senator Phillips and I traveled the length and
breadth of California during 1942, holding hearings on the impact of the
war upon California's economy.
On March 15, 1942, our hearing in San Diego produced sensational
disclosures that workmen at San Diego aircraft plants had faked intense
activity at the request of their superiors when Lt. Gen. William S.
Knudsen of the Office of Production Managennent made an inspection tour.
We produced evidence on waste, slow-downs, and bottle-necks in aircraft
production. Some members of the Truman Committee of the U, S. Senate,
also conducting hearings on war production, objected to our encroach-
ments in their domain.
On April 10, 1942, Earl Warren announced that he was entering the
race against Olson for Governor. Earl Warren had learned something
from his 1938 campaign, namely, that non-partisanship pays off in
California. It had been his non-partisan appeal that caused many
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Democrats, including myself, to support him then. Warren announced
that his 1942 campaign would also be non-partisan and that he would cross-
file on the Democratic ticket. No candidate for governor had ever done
this before.
The chief of the staff of the Senate Interim Committee was Stuart P.
Walsh, who proved to be a genius in arranging conferences and committee
hearings. On April 22, the Committee met in Marysville and heard from
farmers, publishers and representatives of labor as to wartime shortages.
Mostly the complaints were about the disappearing labor supply, in part
brought on by the Army's innpetuous exclusion of persons of Japanese
descent. Sacks, welding rods, agricultural machinery of all kinds were
in short supply. Recommendations were made for employment of school
labor. In Stockton on April 24, we considered the problem of the depar-
ture of farm labor for industrial plants to obtain higher wages and shorter
hours. In Placerville, on the following day, we heard from local Chamber
of Commerce representatives on their plans to pool local industries and
machine shops to get a share of war contract work. Special problems of
California's mining industry were discussed by other witnesses. On
April 27 in Napa, we were told of the special needs of food processing
and packing concerns. In Ukiah on April 28th, we considered the problems
of transient labor in that region.
A special report on wartime problems of small business was issued
by our committee on August 1, 1942, On October 28, 1942, we issued a
report on the care of children in war time, following a series of hearings
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on the need to establish nursery schools for the children of working
mothers.
I advanced over $5, 000 out of my own pocket for the expenses of this
committee. For years afterwards, my friends in the Legislature intro-
duced bills to repay me for this. Usually the bill was blocked by Senator
Nelson Dilworth of Riverside County, who seemed to regard me as a
dangerous left winger who shouldn't be entrusted with the return of his
own money. However, in 1951, the reimbursement appropriation finally
passed both houses but then it was vetoed by Gov, Warren. By that time,
I think the Governor was justified in treating it as a stale claim. However,
the fact that he did veto it was a tangible and expensive refutation of the
erroneous belief firmly held by many that Warren and I always had a
sinister "deal" between us.
On May 2, 1942, the Kenny-Phillips committee arranged a state-
wide radio broadcast on the topic of "Unity for Victory, " Many factions
that had been on opposite sides of the fence appeared together on this pro-
gram. The AFL, and the CIO dropped their respective hatchets and pledged
wartime unity. Sen. Phillips and I were awarded medals on this program
by the War Production Board for our civilian efforts in aid of the pro-
secution of the war.
Three days after this broadcast, I had lunch at the California Club in
Los Angeles with J. W. Buzzell, veteran Secretary of the Los Angeles
Central Labor Council. Buzzell had come to regard me as a partisan of
the CIO. However, he was ready to join in my campaign against Olson.
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After lunch we went up to the third floor to listen to a re-broadcast of
the "Unity for Victory" program. A door opened. Buzzell and I greeted
Earl Warren when he came out of a private dining room with representa-
tives of the independent oil men. The unexpected meeting was quite cordial.
However, it told a story to me; namely, that Garland had lost the support
he expected from the independent oil men and I could forget about it too.
John Dockweiler, the District Attorney, had promised me his support
for governor, and I had received similar promises from his distinguished
father, Isadore Dockweiler, However, the pressures of political reality
were mounting. Even the Olson forces discovered virtues in me they
had never before perceived. They thought I would nnake a fine Attorney
General, provided I dropped out of the race for Governor.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
THE 1942 ELECTION
On May 25, 1942, I received a letter signed by nineteen of the State's
leading Democrats stating: "Deeply impressed as we have been with
your energetic appeal for the largest possible measure of unity in the
present emergency, and the commendable leadership which you have
furnished throughout the State in this regard, we, your sincere friends,
believe that you can best carry this principle into imnnediate realization
by withdrawing from the race for the Democratic nomination for Gover-
nor and by immediately announcing your candidacy to the office of
Attorney General. Few other individuals in public life in California today
enjoy the respect and command the confidence of more diverse groups
throughout the whole range of social economic and political groupings in
this state than you do. We want and demand your leadership in California
as Attorney General. By responding at once to this appeal you vail make
an outstanding contribution in the political field to the winning of the war
and the peace to follow. "
This was signed by Helen Gahagan Douglas, National Committee-
woman, William Malone, State Chairman, Assemblyman Cecil King,
Vice Chairman for Southern California, John B, Elliott, County Chairman
for Lios Angeles and Alameda Counties, Manchester Boddy, publisher of
the L. A. Daily News, Senator John F. Shelley, President of the S. F,
Labor Council, the Presidents and Secretaries of the State Federation
of Labor and the State CIO Council. Buzzell signed for the Los Angeles
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Central Labor Council,
This was certainly silver-platter treatment, Warren's race for
Governor had created a political vacuum in the office of Attorney General,
Nature abhors a vacuum. I was certainly a child of nature. I accepted
the invitation two days later, when I filed for Attorney General on
May 27, 1942.
I cross-filed into the Republican Party and made a serious effort to
get the Los Angeles Times support. I visited Norman Chandler, the
publisher, who had been at Stanford when I was. I tried to persuade him
that if Earl Warren was going to be a non-partisan Republican candidate
for Governor, I ought to be allowed to be a non-partisan Democrat
candidate for Attorney General. The Times was not persuaded. It
endorsed Wallace Ware, a former Railroad Commissioner, for the
Republican nomination. Even so, I nearly defeated Ware in the Republican
primary. The Oakland Tribune stayed neutral in my race with him. The
San Francisco Chronicle was slightly better than neutral, but fell short
of giving me an outright endorsement. Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, one of
my campaign managers in San Francisco, persuaded the San Francisco
News to endorse me. Ware had the support of the Hearst newspapers.
He cannpaigned against me on the grounds that I had shown friendship to
Communism by my Senate votes and that also, somehow, I was "soft
on the Japanese. "
In San Francisco I enjoyed excellent bi-partisan support. Bill Madone
headed my Democratic campaign, and Superior Judge Elmer Robinson,
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later Mayor, headed my Republican campaign. I carried the Republican
prinmary in San Francisco County by a 2-to-l vote. However, I ran
behind 14, 000 votes in the Los Angeles County Republican primary, and
this was practically the margin by which I was defeated by Ware for the
nomination. V/are received 234, 789 Republican votes to my 219, 778.
Gordon Garland, who had resisted my blandishnnients to run on my
ticket for Lieutenant Governor, had also dropped out of the governorship
race upon Warren's entry. He ran for the vacancy on the Board of Equal-
ization created by Fred Stewart's death on April 17, 1942. Garland
received the Republican nomination for the Board at the August 25th
primary, but lost his place on the November ballot because he was
defeated for the Democratic nomination by Ivan Sperbeck, Olson's
appointee. In November, a Republican, James H, Quinn, defeated
Sperbeck.
I took part in a large anti-discrimination meeting at the Oakland
Auditorium on September 19, called to discuss "The Negro People and
the War. " Walter Gordon, a Berkeley lawyer, now a U. S. Judge in the
Virgin Islands, and Paul Robeson both spoke. After the meeting, a crowd
of autograph hunters made it impossible for them to escape. I was not
important and was able to duck out ahead and then return, saying:
"Mr. Robeson and Mr. Gordon, follow me; there is an important phone
call." Both of these gigantic men fell in behind me and we were able to
walk right out to the waiting automobile. They thanked me. I said,
"No, the pleasure is mine. This is the only chance I ever had to run
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interference for two All-Ameficans. " Robeson had been selected for
All-Ainerican at Rutgets the same year that Gordon had been selected
for his performances with Andy Smith's Wonder-Team at Berkeley.
The Democratic State Convention in Sacramento was held on Septem-
ber 17 and 18. It was on this occasion that Olson committed his final
folly. Bill Malone wanted to be elected Vice Chairman of the Committee
for Northern California. George Reilly, a member of the State Board of
Equalization, was also ambitious for this job. Olson thought that Reilly
could get him campaign contributions from the liquor interests. No
matter how much his general influence has waned, an incumbent governor
can still control the State Committee. Olson's support gave Reilly a vote
of 218 against 18Z for Malone, I spoke and voted for Malone at the
convention. In the general election, Malone' s friends sat on their hands
in respect to Olson but worked heart and soul for me in the race for
Attorney General. Olson had Reilly' s support but I am confident very
little nnoney ever materialized from the liquor interests. By this time
Olson's defeat seemed fairly certain. Such interests are not often to be
found with lost causes.
By cross-filing in the Democratic Party, Warren had a gross vote
of 1, 040, 000 to Olson's 514, 144. In the general election on November 3,
1942, Warren led Olson by 340, 000 votes. Lieutenant Governor Patter-
son lost by 13, 000 votes to his Republican opponent. Assemblyman
Frederick F. Houser, and Paul Peek lost out as Secretary of State by only
6,400 votes to Frank M, Jordan. In the general election campaign, the
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Party's billboards first carried the names of all four state-wide Demo-
cratic candidates. Fortunately for me, Olson was unhappy about this.
He could not bear having me on the boards with him. The result was
that the boards were repapered and only carried Olson's name. Poor
Patterson and Peek were left high and dry. They were running on a
slate but the head of the slate would not carry anyone with him.
I was lucky in being able to run an independent campaign. My primary
showing had brought me the financial support that always comes to a
candidate likely to win. In addition, I had my Aunt May's $25, 000 to
spend on the race. I later tried to get an income tax deduction for this
expenditure, but was turned down when the U. S. Supreme Court decided
five to four against my position on a similar question raised that year by
a Pennsylvania candidate who had also paid his own way (323 U. S. 57).
On August 10, 1942, an editorial in the Sacramento Bee summarized
the radical charges being circulated against me and said I should answer
them. My answer on August 14 follows:
"I did vote against the bill outlawing the Communist Party, but my
opponents tell only half the truth when they fail to point out that the
State Supreme Court has unanimously agreed with me that our constitution
does not permit such a measure.
"I did vote against AB 721, the Tenney Subversive Organization
Registration Act. While this bill has not been reviewed by the Supreme
Court, its constitutionality was questioned in an opinion of the legisla-
tive counsel which may be found at page 1032, Senate Journal, 1941
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session.
"I did vote against SB 180, the State Anti- sabotage Law, but only
after the Senate rejected amendments offered by me to make the bill
constitutional. These amendments were later adopted by the Assembly
and concurred in unanimously by the Senate.
"It is true that I acted without fee as counsel for the Communist,
William Schneidernnan. What my opponents deliberately omit to state is
that Wendell Willkie took over the case, also without fee, and argued it
recently before the United States Supreme Court where it is still pending,
Willkie has stated that he felt as I did, that this was a vital test case that
might affect the constitutional rights of every naturalized citizen, regard-
less of political belief.
"My attitude on the Hot Cargo bill and the Bridges case are well
known. These are controversies which have been recognized by leaders
from all sides as splitting our forces. Such controversies are peace
time luxuries. We cannot afford them now. What I have been seeking
since December 7th, and for a long time before, is a united citizenry,
wise enough to join hands in winning the war, and courageous enough to
forego internal disputes for its duration,
"This is a total war. And that means we must use the total forces of
all of us, even of those with whom we might disagree. Farmers, laborers,
capital, management, all of them know that unless we win the war,
internal differences would be swallowed in the greatest defeat which
humanity has ever known.
.jT.
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"In closing, may I point out that my opponenets in the same breath
that they are denouncing me as a dangerous radical also are trying to
make political capital with other elements by pointing out that I was the
Southern California chairman of the campaign against Ham and Eggs and
that I crossed party lines to endorse Earl Warren in his race for Attorney
General four years ago.
"The Bee as an independent newspaper always has fought prejudice and
privilege, I have tried to be equally independent in my own philosophy.
I think you will probably find that we have both nnade the same kind of
enemies. "
With Ralph Ingersoll's consent, I paraphrased his "P. M. " credo
for my own during the campaign.
"I am against people who push other people around, whether they flour-
ish abroad or in our own country. I am against fraud and deceit and
cruelty and I like people who are kindly and honest and courageous. I
respect intelligence, sound accomplishment, religious tolerance. I
propose to crusade with those who seek constructively to improve the
way men live together. I am an American and prefer democracy to any
other principle of government. I am a Californian and I know that this
State, given imagination and leadership, can do more than any other
toward winning the peace. "
U, S. Webb, who had been the Republican Attorney General of the
State for 36 years, spoke in my behalf over the State N. B. C, network on
August 23.
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After the final election returns were in, Herbert L. "Pete" Phillips,
political editor of the Sacramento Bee, had this to say on November 11,
1942:
"Robert Walker Kenny, California's Attorney General elect, finds
himself, as a result of the November 3rd elections, just about top nnan
among the State's 1942 Democrats.
"Democratic Governor Culbert L. Olson was turned down for re-
election. Lieutenant Governor Ellis £. Patterson and Secretary of State
Paul Peek, also running behind their Republican opponents, had nothing
left this week but faint hopes they might gain ground in the official can-
vass of votes and somehow save their jobs. It seenaed unlikely. Mean-
time, Kenny continued to lead his GOP rival for Attorney General,
Wallace L. Ware, by 140,000 to 150,000 votes.
"Kenny climaxed his varied career with this clear cut Democratic
victory, in an election where Democratic triumphs were scarce, after a
series of odd campaigning maneuvers which had his political colleagues
dizzy during most of the spring and sunnmer nnonths.
"But first a word about Bob Kenny: At 40, he has been a newspaper
reporter, a foreign correspondent, a lawyer, a judge, and, since 1938,
the State Senator from Los Angeles County. First and foremost, he is a
personality boy. He can get along with people. He can be a Merry
Andrew and wise-cracker if that is what the crowd wants. In other com-
pany, he can be, compared with most of his political brethren, old Joe
Culture himself. On top of that, he has a cool head and a sense of humor.
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"Kenny's political enemies say he uses his cool head as expediency
dictates to advance the cause of little Robert. Kenny's friends, however,
swear by him. And all hands seem agreed that, politically speaking, he
is a very shrewd hombre,
"A native son, who has lived in both ends of California, Kenny first
showed up around the California Legislature in the 1920's as a deputy
Los Angeles County counsel, lawyer-advocate for legislation in which
his county was interested. Then Governor Jim Rolph appointed him a Los
Angeles municipal judge in 1931, In a couple of years he became a
superior judge, the youngest on the Los Angeles bench.
"In 1938, when Democrat Culbert Olson relinquished the State
senatorship of Los Angeles County to win the governorship, Democrat
Kenny ran for Senator and also won.
"In fact, Kenny was one of Olson's campaign managers and his floor
leader in the 1939 Senate. Their political partnership blew up in personal
disagreements shortly thereafter.
"Which brings us down to early 1942, with Senator Kenny announcing
himself as a candidate for governor against Olson. About that time.
Republican Attorney General Earl Warren, a good friend of Democrat
Kenny's incidentally, also announced for governor. The politicos
figured Kenny a cinch to switch to the job Warren was giving up, but this
Kenny denied emphatically and indignantly. To preach a doctrine of
California wartime unity, said Kenny, he intended to remain in the gover.
Jiorship race to the finish.
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"To the surprise and consternation of a number of other politicians,
however, Kenny suddenly changed his mind and came out, as had been
predicted, for .attorney general -- with the smoothly aligned support of
the Democratic machine leaders and the ranking officials of both branches
of organized labor. And he had some substantial GOP backing, too. His
nnaneuver threw the plans of a number of other Democratic contenders
into complete panic* Some of the Olsonites, indeed, made no secret of
their fears the Senator might endorse his friend, Republican Warren,
before he got through.
"But after he and Olson were nominated at the prinnary, Kenny helped
to draft the Democratic platform and became one of the party ticket.
At the same time, though, there were plenty of independent Kenny cam-
paigners out beating the bushes for votes who had no interest in Olson's
cause.
"Before general election day rolled around, Kenny had behind him
such widely differing figures as former GOP Attorney General U. S.
Webb, CIO boss Harry Bridges, Democratic State Chairman Bill Malone,
former Old Guard Republican Senator Ralph Clock of Long Beach, Ed
Vandeleur of the California State Federation of Labor and former
Republican State Chairman Francis Keesling.
"Wallace Ware, the Republican nominee for attorney general, turned
loose a veritable barrage of radicalism charges against Kenny. With
Kenny denying the charges. Ware made a lot of statements in which
the term Communism frequently occurred and tried to prove the Senator
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had been playing around with the left wingers. Kenny's friends undertook
to prove the contrary. Kenny's background (Stanford, 1920, etc.) made the
charges of candidate Ware just too ridiculous, they maintained. The
argument, in effect, seemed to include the premise that loyalty to the
Stanford Red was entirely inconsistent with devotion to the Moscow Red.
"Finally victorious. Attorney General Elect Kenny this week deplored
the injection of 'insinuations' and distasteful issues' in the campaign and
expressed the hope all that sort of thing will be forgotten in Democratic-
Republican unity to forward California's part in the war effort.
"Kenny appears to have emerged from the campaign in this enviable
position: the left wingers evidently think he is not nearly so conservative
as his conservative friends believe he is, while the conservatives consid-
er him much less liberal than the left wingers possibly hope he is. Which,
after all, is just about the public impression which most politicians are
striving persistently to create."
Just before the election, I represented Assemblyman Cecil King
before the State Supreme Court. A trial judge in Los Angeles had inval-
idated a special election called to fill the unexpired term of the late Rep.
Lee Geyer. I was successful in obtaining a reversed of this decision
( Sloan v Donoghue 20 Cal. 2d 607). The special election was then held
and King was elected. This gave him a few months seniority over the other
new congressmen elected in November, 1942. Today, King's seniority
puts him at the top of the California delegation, with the exception of its
dean. Rep. Harry Sheppherd,
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After the election, Sara and I went by train to New York City. We
planned to spend some weeks there with Stewart McKee, taking in the
shows. However, the day after my arrival, I came down with a tempera-
ture of 105, resulting from a prostate infection. Fortunately, one of my
closest friends in New York City was Dr. George W. Fish, a genito-
urinary specialist, the son of Dr. Charles W. Fish of Los Angeles who
had brought me into the world. Dr. Fish took excellent care of me and
I soon recovered. In late December, I returned to California to take up
my duties as Attorney General.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
1943 - FIRST YEAR AS ATTORNEY GENERAL
On December 24, 1943, Sara and I moved into the Huntington Apart-
ments in San Francisco. This was to be our home for the next four years.
During the ensuing week, I had lunch there with Earl Warren. He was
most gracious and explained to me the capabilities and assignments of
the various members of the staff. Although there was no civil service
then for the office of the attorney general, I reappointed all of Warren's
deputies. Earlier in December, to effect the transition, Warren had
appointed three men designated by me. They were C. Elsworth "Dick"
Wylie, my San Francisco campaign director who was to be in charge of
public relations for the attorney general's office, Clarence Linn, attorney
for the Federal Social Security Agency, and Stewart P. Walsh who was
to become my economic adviser. Since most of the wartime problems
then confronting the attorney general would be of an economic nature as
well as legal, I wanted very much to have Walsh with me, helping in the
same way that he had helped during the Kenny- Phillips committee hearings.
On the afternoon of Sunday, January 3, Earl Warren picked me up
at the Huntington and we drove together to Sacramento, where we were
both to be sworn in on the following day. During this ride, Warren told
me that none of the old Merriam office-holders could expect to make a
come-back in his administration. They never did. Warren's appoint-
ments to his cabinet were uniformly excellent without any traceable
adhesions to the stand-pat regime that had gone out when the Democrats
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took over in 1939.
I had no chief deputy for the first year I served as Attorney General.
William Sweigert had served in that post for Earl Warren, and I invited
him to keep that position under me. However, Earl Warren took Sweigert
with him to the Governor's office. It was then apparent to me that if I
acted as my own chief deputy, I would learn much more quickly how to
function as Attorney General, and ^know what was actually going on in
the office. After I spent a few days on the job, I found that Charles W.
Johnson was the bright young man there. Johnson had been assistant to
Robert Harrison before the latter had retired as Chief Deputy Attorney
General. Charlie knew all the ropes and could work miracles in cutting
through State administration red tape. However, Charlie was the young-
est man on the staff. I created the title of Supervising Deputy and put
Charlie in that post. This was a semantic solution to the feelings of the
older men. In 1944 Johnson moved to Sacramento to be at the center of
the administration of the new Department of Justice. Hartwell Linney was
head of the tax department and in 1944 I made him Chief Deputy, appoint-
ing Adrian Kragen head of the tax department.
On January 21, 1943, Sara and I attended a banquet in our honor at
Sacramento. The affair was arranged by State Senator John Harold Swan
of Sacramento. The speaker of the evening was Supreme Court Justice
Jesse W. Carter, my former associate in the State Senate, The war was
uppermost in our minds then and the battle of Stalingrad had just been
won. In my speech I warned of the compronnisers and appeasers who
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would reappear as soon as victory had been achieved, I said that the
kind of peace offered by such appeasers would be only an "ersatz" peace
and that a close examination of such proposals would uncover the same
economic, political and international ingredients which had given us the
present war. "A lot of those pre-war conditions brought plenty to a
few powerful people. Many of them are not willing to give up those condi-
tions. They would like to keep them, and they will try to palm them off on
a war-weary country." I spoke against the anti- Japanese resolutions then
being introduced by some members of the Legislature. I said that these
resolutions were intended to "create econonnic differences in American
citizens on the basis of the difference in racial antecedents, " and helped
to spread the Nazi propaganda of hate.
My former law partner, Morris E. Cohn, had helped me draft this
first speech as Attorney General. He also helped me with most of my
other speeches during that period.
At the end of January, 1943, I went to Baltimore to attend a meeting
of the Council of State Governments. Francis Biddle, then Attorney
General of the United States, was at this meeting. From Baltimore,
Biddle and I took the train to Washington. The first night I was in the
Capitol, I attended a small stag dinner given for me by Judge Justin Miller
of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Judge Miller had
once been dean of USC law school, and I had served with him on L. A.
Bar Association committees on the Juvenile Court. At Judge Miller's
invitation, many prominent New Dealers came to this dinner. They
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included Biddle, Associate Justice Wylie Rutledge of the Supreme Court,
Reps. Estes Kefauver of Tennessee and Will Rogers Jr. of California,
Senator James Meade of New York, and several Washington newspaper-
men. Since I was a Dennocrat who had proved he could swim against the
stream in 1942, some of the guests wanted to know how I had done it. I
told them about the Kenny-Phillips committee and our efforts to make all
groups in California feel that we cared about their wartime problems.
I was to attend a Bar luncheon in Los Angeles on February 2, but my
plane was grounded in Texas. Superior Judge Ed Bishop made an amusing
address in my stead and everyone was satisfied with the improvement in
the progrann. That evening, at a dinner of the Los Angeles Chapter of the
National Lawyers Guild, I spoke of the cooperative spirit that had
appeared among the United Nations allies:
"It is a wonderful and inspiring thing to see the promise of all hands,
the white, the brown, the yellow and the black joined in the struggle to
achieve unconditional surrender of the Axis; it will be even more inspir-
ing to hear at the peace tables the many tongues of the United States, the
Russians, the Asiatics, and the South Americans raised in formulating
the plans for peace and a post-war world. "
At this time, the Los Angeles Bar Association still barred Negroes
from naembership. In nny speech to the Guild, I said:
"It seems to me it is about time to cut out this nonsense of color
barriers to professional organizations. We cannot tolerate anything which
eliminates some of our brothers at the Bar. Unless we remedy this
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situation we don't come into court with clean hands. "
It was not until eight years later that this color bar was removed by
the Los Angeles Bar Association. Dan Marshall led the fight to repeal
it. In 1946, a repeal proposal went to a plebiscite of the membership
but was voted down. One of the prominent la^vyers who joined Dan Mar-
shall in seeking repeal was James C. Sheppard. However, most of the
leading lawers of the city were listed as opposed. Another plebiscite took
place in 1950, At this time the Bar had finally come to its senses and
the racial restriction was at last removed.
In San Francisco, I arranged to meet with Lt. Gen. J. L. DeWitt,
the author of the order excluding from the West Coast persons of Japan-
ese descent, regardless of citizenship. There were many matters of
overlapping civil and military jurisdiction to be discussed. I was driven
out to the Presidio in the State's black Cadillac limousine. We were
stopped by a sentry. The investigator driving the State car said,
"General Kenny to see General DeWitt. " The sentry looked in and saw a
fat little civilian. He said, "That's not General Kenny. Kenny is in
Australia. " And so he was. L,t. Gen. George C. Kenny was then conn-
manding our air forces in the Southwest Pacific.
Thereafter, I took all steps possible to discourage the practice of
addressing the State Attorney General as "General. " I felt that military
titles should be reserved for military men. When asked whether I wanted
to be called Senator, or Judge, or General, I replied that I hoped that I
could work myself up in popular esteem to a point where I was called "Bob. "
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On March 19» I attended my first state sheriff's convention in Sacra-
mento. During Warren's administration as Attorney General, he had
divided the state into five zones of District Attorneys. In this way,
he could meet with the district attorneys of the state four times a year
at quarterly zone meetings and then meet with all of them at their annual
statewide convention. It was an excellent way of promoting inter -county
cooperation. At the sheriffs' convention I suggested that the Sheriffs of
the 58 counties be also divided into five zones. The proposal was
accepted enthusiastically. The zone meetings provided means of raising
the level of law enforcement throughout the state. The sheriffs were able
to compare their techniques and to fashion standards that would have been
impossible if they had each remained in isolation. In 1944, the police
chiefs >vere also divided into zones. This innovation kept me crisscross-
ing the state in attending these zone meetings during my term of office.
During March, 1943, Frank C. Walker, Postmaster General of the
United States, came to San Francisco, Walker was a close friend of
President Roosevelt, I told him about our California system of coordina-
ting local functions and urged him to suggest to Washington a similar
coordination of state and federal functions, I told Walker of my exper- ;.
iences in trying to put to work the large amount of farm equipment which
had been standing idle ever since its Japanese owners had been removed
under General De Witt's order. Such machinery was in scarce supply, but
it had been gathering rust because Washington couldn't decide on how it
could be requisitioned. Weeks had gone by after I had convinced the
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regional attorney of the War Production Board that such a requisition
could be made. He had discovered that he could not act until a request
for such a requisition had been nnade by the Secretary of Agriculture in
Washington. I had then written to the Secretary of Agriculture, and
finally obtained his consent to send this request to the W. P. B. in
Washington, Then the W, P, B, gave its directive to its regional
attorney, the official with whom we had originally started out. There had
simply been no way to clear this at the regional level.
On March 20, I furnished Walker with a copy of the final report of
the State Senate Econonnic Planning Committee, saying:
"We badly need an informal but effective means of getting federal
agencies together at the regional level where they can gear in with estab-
lished state-administered state functions.
"We need someone here at San Francisco, for example, who can be
an unofficial coordinator, to whom any federal agency can turn for help
in clearing up inter-agency difficulties, to whom any department of state
government can turn for proper liaison with federal agencies, and through
whom inter-agency problems can, when necessary, be referred to Wash-?-
ington for prompt attention. "
The Postmaster General was interested in the idea. Two nnonths later,
when I was in Washington, Walker asked me to come to his office and then
took me to meet President Roosevelt. It was the only personal meeting I
ever had with FDR. I wanted to devote the allotted 15 minutes to discus-
sing my plan for federal- state coordination on the West Coast, The
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President preferred a more informal conversation. He first asked me
what kind of a fellow our new governor, Earl Warren, was. I told him,
"Mr. President, I'm just a California booster at heart. Everything we
have in California is better than it is anywhere else. Even our Republi-
cans are better than the Republicans anywhere else. "
I made many trips to Washington during my first year as Attorney
General. The fact that I was the only elected Democrat holding state-
wide office in California opened many doors for me in the Capitol. I
used this opportunity to appear before various federal agencies in an
effort to break some of the bottlenecks hampering California's war pro-
duction.
On one occasion I went to the White House at the request of the Los
Angeles Chamber of Commerce. The importation of braceros, Mexican
workers, had begun. The braceros were accustomed to eating tortillas
made from white corn. However, the W. P. B. had ruled that white corn
could no longer be used for human consumption. It was needed prinnarily
then for the manufacture of alcohol used in munitions.
The braceros were rapidly losing confidence in the econonny of a
nation that could not afford a little white corn to make tortillas, Benjamin
Cohen listened to my story at the White House. He nodded his head and
then said, "Bob, what is a tortilla?" Using the jargon of that day, I
explained that a tortilla was a "durable flapjack. " In an hour or two the
matter was straightened out and the white corn was on its way to the
braceros.
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I appeared before the Non-Industrial Facilities Connnruttee of the
W, P. B. to obtain approval for the completion of Friant-Kern Canal.
If priorities were given to complete this job, additional acreage would be
made available for production of agricultural products and a more inten-
sive cultivation made possible of acreage already under production. I
also sought the lifting of a stop- work order on a new bridge across the
Feather River, since this bridge was of vital importance in trucking fruit
to canneries in the vicinity of Sacramento.
On March E2, I issued an opinion that lost me a good many friends in
the newspaper business. The newspaper lobby had gone to sleep during
the 1935 Legislature when the Use-Tax Act was passed. An exemption
for newspapers from sales taxes had been obtained by the lobby in 1933
but it had overlooked obtaining a similar exemption for newsprint paper
stored or used within the State when the Use Tax was passed in 1935. In
the 1937 Legislature they obtained the exemption and then argued that they
were exempted fronn the payment of use taxes on their newsprint during
the two year period prior to the repeal in August, 1937. Appellate Justice
Ray Peters took the pains to come up to my office and tell me that I was
being watched to see if I would chicken out on issuing an opinion holding
the newspapers liable.
I accepted the challenge and issued the opinion on March 22 (1 Ops,
AG 272). The newspapers had to pay a tax of $200, 000. 00. Fortunately,
they were then enjoying a boom period and wo\ild otherwise have had to
pay federal excess profits taxes amounting to about 90% of that which I
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had compelled them to pay to the State. However, John Long, Secretary
of the California Newspaper Publishers Association, felt that his old friend
Kenny had really stabbed him in the back. The fact that the stab was only
a pin prick made no difference.
On May 13, 1943, I appointed J. H. Clelland, former Long Beach
chief of police, to be the chief of the Department of Investigation, Joe
Clelland was well known throughout the state for his progressive record
as an honest cop, Oscar Jahnsen had held this job under Earl Warren
and also during the first four months of my adnninistration. He had just
joined the United States Coast Guard, creating this vacancy.
On April 14, 1943, I went to Santa Fe, New Mexico to meet the
representatives of other Colorado River basin states to consider the newly-
proposed water treaty between the United States and Mexico, This treaty
would annually remove one million acre feet from the Colorado River and
give it to the cotton growing area of Lower California. In return, the
treaty proposed to take a naillion acre feet of Rio Grande water away from
small farmers in Chihuahua and give it to the big citrus growers of Texas,
Under the treaty, Mexico came out even, but California lost a million
acre feet of water to Texas, In August, 1943, I called on Cordell Hull,
Secretary of State, to complain about this proposed treaty, I argued that
it had nothing to do with the Good Neighbor Policy, since Mexico just
came out even. One of California's problems then was that Senator Tom
Connally of Texas was chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the
Senate, where the treaty would go for approval, I finally persuaded the
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Roosevelt administration not to send the treaty to the Senate for ratifica-
tion until after the 1944 elections. However, the treaty was promptly
ratified in 1945.
Prof. Max Radin canne over from Berkeley one day in May, 1943 to
introduce me to Langdon Post, Regional Chief of Federal Public Housing.
Langdon and his wife, Miggs, became very close friends of ours during
our stay in San Francisco. Max and Langdon asked me to accept the
presidency of the California Planning and Housing Association, a citizens
group organized to back up the work of the public housing administration.
I accepted and served in that capacity for several years.
The work of our Economic Planning Committee for the establishment
of nursery schools became the subject of legislative action in May, 1943.
Proponents of these schools for the children of working mothers were
successful in persuading the Legislature to appropriate $500, 000 toward
their establishment. Nursery schools remained on a temporary basis
from year to year for the next fifteen years, but finally became a perma-
nent part of the state school system.
The 1943 Legislature placed the employees of the Attorney General's
office under Civil Service. I had promised this to Warren's deputies when
I was a candidate. Governor Warren was dubious about the measure, since
his experience had always been with non-civil service lawyers, both as
District Attorney and Attorney General. I assured him from nny own
civil service experience in the County Counsel's office, that I was
confident civil service worked just as well with lawyers as with any other
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kind of public employee. Warren signed the bill and the office went
under Civil Service beginning January 1, 1944.
Two of my early opinions dre^v statewide attention, I held that the
small claims courts should be open to handle OPA price violations. It
was important that speedy justice be available to tenants who were over-
charged by landlords. The State Suprenne Court later upheld this opinion.
I also ruled that Filipinos were not aliens, but were American non-citizen
nationals. This opinion was the subject of an O. W.I. broadcast to South-
east Asia,
Under my administration, the opinions of the Attorney General were
first published for general distribution. I believe the fact that these
opinions were published in book form and placed in all of the law libraries
of the state was a good influence on their legal scholarship and literary
quality.
Oregon Dennocrats invited me to come to Portland to speak to them
on May 15, 1943. During this trip I made the friendship of many Demo-
cratic Party leaders in the Northwest. I nnade several other visits to the
Northwest during my term. Curiously there is very little north- south
cultural traffic between California and the Northwest. This may result
from the way the wire services operate. News originating in the North-
west is never sent directly to California. Similarly news originating in
California never reaches the Northwest directly. All news originating
on the Pacific Coast is sent to a bureau in Kansas City or Chicago. If the
wire editor there happens to think that the news is of sufficient importance
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to concern the other half of the Pacific slope, it may be relayed back, but
most of it dies back there. The result is that Californians know less about
what goes on among our Pacific Coast neighbors than they know about the
Middle West and the East. My trips to the Northwest made nne a specialist
on that region --a terra-icognita to most California politicians.
On May 22, I issued an opinion that a third Ham and Eggs initiative
petition was legally qualified to go on the 1944 ballot (1 Ops. AG 514).
The Ham-and-Egger s had secured thousands of signatures in 1940 but they
were insufficient to qualify the measure for the 1940 ballot. Eight percent
of the vote last cast for governor must sign to qualify a petition. The
vote for governor in 1942 was much less than in 1938, thus reducing the
number of signatures required for initiative petitions to qualify. My
opinion brought a roar of protest from the Chamber of Commerce groups
who had associated with me in opposition to previous Ham-and-Eggs
proposals. They appealed my opinion to the Supreme Court which ruled
against me the following year ( Gage v Jordan, 23 Cal. 2d 794). The third
Ham-and-Eggs proposal never went to a popular vote.
While I was in Portland on my visit to the Oregon Democrats, I
received a telegram from Los Angeles informing me that George W.
Walker was dead. I immediately flew to Los Angeles to be with his
daughter, Mrs. Evelyn Jarnigan, and his deceased wife' s sister, Mrs.
Hattie Malloy. Mr. Walker had appointed me co-executor of his estate
with the Citizens National Bank of Los Angeles of which he was chairman
of the board of directors at the time of his death. The estate ammounted
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to over $8, 000, 000. As co-executor, I voted the Walker stock in the bank
and in many other corporations. This probably gave credence to the ill-
founded belief held by many that I was a man of wealth. I just represented
wealth but did not possess it.
At that time the Walker stock constituted the balance of power in a
struggle for control between the Transamerica forces under A, P.
Giannini and the established management of the bank under the brothers
H. D. and L,. O, Ivey, president and vice president respectively. Just
about the time of Mr. Walker's death, Transamerica had acquired
twenty-five percent of the control of the bank. The Walker stock was
pivotal on the issue of control. Mr. Walker had always been opposed to
merging the bank into a larger concern and, consequently, during the en-
suing eight years that I served as director of the bank, I always voted with
the local management.
Mr. Giannini, however, had always been very friendly to me and had
attended a San Francisco cocktail party in my honor when I was running
for Attorney General. Through a clerical mix-up, I was not elected to
the board of directors at the stockholders meeting in 1944. It was my first
election loss. In my files there is a telegram from Mr. Giannini expres-
sing sympathy about what happened in the bank election. In a few days
this was cleared up when a vacancy occurred and I went on the bank board
of directors. A fe'w years later, my close friend Stewart McKee joined
me on the board of directors of the Citizens bank. The Transamerica
people had voted their stock to put him on the board.
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Maury Maverick, former Texas congressman and mayor of San Anton-
io, had been a friend of mine since nny visit to Washington for the National
Lawyers Guild convention in 1937. President Roosevelt had given him
a wartime job as head of the Governmental Requests Section of the W. P. B.
Maverick was in charge of the priority requests of cities, counties and
states. He performed this job masterfully.
By coincidence, his assistant in this work was Jim Bolger, who had
been a new^spaper reporter with me in Los Angeles, and later, a lawyer.
Maverick and Bolger arranged for me to come to Omaha to speak to the
convention of the National Association of County Officials. I appeared
there on May 25, 1943 and delivered an address under the title "Declara-
tion of Inter-Dependence. " In it I said;
"We have seen, in the last decade, that no nation can ignore the events
of any other nation without the greatest peril to itself. We have learned
that complete independence, in a world made small by radio and air traffic,
is myth loaded with dynamite. Each country is, as a matter of fact, linked
to every other country. The only question is whether the linkage shall be
steel, dynamite and destruction, or whether it shall be a common under-
standing, cooperation, and furtherance of peace,
"This is not less true in the relationships between the federal govern-
ment and the local government. We must recognize and build our local
governments on a theory of joint action toward a common goal.
"In the last quarter of the 18th century, the times demanded a Declara-
tion of Independence. To serve the same ends today, I believe that Thomas
Jefferson, if he were alive, would write a Declaration of Inter-Dependence. "
/
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Earl Warren had appointed nne chairman of the California Commission
on Inter-State Cooperation on March 10, 1943. This commission was
one of 44 similar connmissions set up in other states for the purpose of
joint consideration of interlocking economic problems. Our concern
then was partictolarly centered on post-war planning. The first 1943
meeting of the California Commission was held in San Francisco on
June 5, I pointed out then that the West had achieved an industrial de-
velopnnent in the previous eighteen months which would have taken two
decades in normal times, and that the Pacific Coast states should jealous-
ly preserve their favorable economic conditions to make certain that they
did not relapse after the war into helpless dependency upon the East.
I told the Commission that every effort should be made to assure
California and the other Pacific states of fair access to basic patents
which then were generally controlled by Eastern cartels:
"It would be little use to have a big steel mill in the West if we could
not obtain the latest developments in electric blast furnaces to use in such
a mill. "
The matter of the seized Gernnan patents was then under current dis-
cussion. Senator Harley Kilgore of West Virginia had urged that the
German patents be made available to all Americans, not merely the
existing patent cartels. Kilgore made several visits to the Pacific Coast
during my term as Attorney General and we became very good friends.
On June 13, at the President's Dinner of the California Housing and
Planning Association in San Francisco, I spoke of the necessity of
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planning for post-war employment:
"The war has brought a feeling of unity between Western communities,
areas and states of which we may well take advantage. We all recognize
that no city, or region, or state, or nation can solve its problems by
itself, but we should also recognize that coordination begins with the
smallest groups; it does not begin at the top. Right now, for instance,
we are hoping that some of our wartime team work in California may
spread to Washington, D. C. If we had waited for complete integration
there before attempting it here, we'd have worked under a needless
handicap. "
The 1943 Legislature had created a new planning agency which it
named the Reconstruction and Re-employment Commission. The Legisla-
ture had deliberately omitted the word "planning" from the title of this
new agency. I told the banquet guests that it was too bad that the word
"Planning" had been allowed to beconne so odious.
On June 14, at the request of Justice Homer Spence of the State
Supreme Court, I made the Flag Day speech at Alameda, California. I
took that occasion to speak of the broadening concept of democracy that
had been brought about by the Fourteenth and Nineteenth Amendments:
"The Fourteenth Amendment said that all men, regardless of color
or former servitude, were created equal. It said that America is more
than a white republic; that it is a republic of all men, the black, the brown,
and the red, as well as the white.
"It is an amazing thing to us less than a quarter of a century after
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the Nineteenth Annendment, when we see women doing the work of nrxen,
and often doing it better, to think that until so recently most states
denied women an active part in government. This was a quirk of history
which long outlived the erroneous conception that had fostered it and
the stifling traditions that had nourished it.
"Today, our flag which started as a symbol of a limited democracy,
a democracy which was limited and qualified by concepts of creed and race
and wealth and sex, today our flag is the symbol of a new democracy which
truly means that all men -- and womien -- are created equal. The
meanings behind the symbol have expanded. They have grown with our
ideas of democracy, "
One other speech that I gave that month was before the 300 Negro
prisoners in Folsom penitentiary, as part of an Emancipation Day pro-
gram. The Warden had written that the Negro prisoners had specially
asked for me as the speaker. I made sure this request had actually been
made, because this was indeed a "captive" audience.
Trouble had been brewing in Los Angeles for over a year between the
police and the Mexican-American minority group. The Sleepy Lagoon
trial had taken place during 1942, when twenty-two Mexican-American
boys were put on trial for murder before Judge Charles Fricke. A death
had occurred in a gang fight in a Los Angeles area known as the Sleepy
Lagoon, near Slauson and Atlantic Boulevards.
In the Fall of 1942, the Sleepy Lagoon Defense Committee was organ-
ized. Bob Morris, then an associate in my private law office, was elected
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its treasurer. Twelve of the young Mexican -American boys were
convicted and an appeal taken.
The trouble continued to spread. During the week of June 6,
1943 full scale rioting between Mexican-Annerican boys and uniformed
servicemen broke out.
Carey McWilliams called me from Los Angeles and told me how
much more serious the situation was than appeared in the newspapers.
These were the so-called "Zoot Suit riots. " Many Mexican boys wore
costumes of an exaggerated cut, called "zoot suits. " Unfortunately such
suits probably represented the boy's entire wardrobe. Many young
servicemen, uncontrolled by the police, ran down these boys in downtown
theatres and ripped the clothing from them.
Immediately after receiving the call from McWilliams, I drove
from San Francisco to Sacramento to see Governor Warren. He had
called in Ray Hays, a former state senator, who had become Adjutant
General of the National Guard. I suggested that the Governor appoint
a citizens committee in Los Angeles. The Governor asked if I had any
nominees and I gave him the name of Joseph T. McGucken, then
Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Los Angeles.
McGucken' s name had been suggested to me by McWilliams. I did not
tell Governor Warren this, because V/^arren then only identified McWilliams
as an Olson appointee who had earned the hatxed of the Associated
Farmers.
I proceeded to Los Angeles to meet with Bishop McGucken and his
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committee, which included Dr. V/illsie Martin, of the Wilshire Methodist
Church, Karl Holton of the Youth Authority, Waiter Gordon, of Berkeley,
and Leo Carrillo, the actor. The comnnittee's report stated on June 12,
that it was "a mistake in fact and an aggravating practice to link the
phrases 'zoot suit' with the report of a crime. Repeated reports of this
character tend to inflame public opinion on false premises and excite
further outbreaks. " Our conimittee met with the publishers of the news-
papers at a private luncheon and asked them to minimize the publicity
on these disturbances. V/e also met with police administrators and asked
them to cease the practices of mass arrests and dragnet raids on these
boys.
The report also said: "It is significant that most of the persons
mistreated during the recent incidents in Los Angeles were either persons
of Mexican descent or Negroes. In undertaking to deal with the cause
of these outbreaks, the existence of race prejudice cannot be ignored.
Youth is particularly sensitive; to be rejected by the community may
throw the youth upon evil companions. Any solution of the problems in-
volved, among other things, is an educational program throughout the
community designed to combat race prejudice in all its forms. ":
I undertook to work on this community education program in relation
to law enforcement agencies. The Governor appointed a Peace Officers
Committee on Civil Disturbances, of which I was chairnnan. I retained
Carey McWilliams to make a study of race relations and race riots, and
to make recommendations to the peace officers of the state. This interina
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report was published later in 1943, and was widely circulated through-
out the state and nation, particularly when the zoot suit riots were
followed by the riots in Detroit in June, 1943, with 34 fatalities, and
the Harlem riot in August, 1943, with 5 deaths, 307 injured and
destruction of $5, 000, 000 worth of property. For the balance of my
term I was continually alerted to the explosive problem of race relations
and riots. It was to be complicated by the return of the excluded
Japanese-Americans in 1945.
Jack B. Tenney had succeeded me as State Senator for Los
Angeles County. Our names sounded very imuch alike, and I always
' ma^intained that Jack was elected on the principle of Idem Sonans. In
addition the L-. A. Times had supported him against Joseph Crail, Jr.
for the Republican nonnination. When I was chairman of the Small
Business Committee of the Senate, Tenney was conducting hearings
of his state Un-American Activities Committee. A confused San Francisco
newspaperman said "Oh, yes, you are Tenney of the Little Dies
Committee. " I denied it saying, "No, I'm Kenny of the little guys
committee. "
As soon as Bishop McGucken's committee had completed its
good work and the rioting had disappeared from the headlines, Senator
Tenney came into Los Angeles with his committee on June 21, 1943, for
the announced purpose of determining if Communists had deliberately
fostered the zoot suit riots. Tenney paid particular attention to the
defense of the Sleepy Lagoon case and the activities of the National
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Lawyers Guild in connection therewith. He announced the National
Lawyers Guild was an effective communist front.
Tenney devoted space in his annual report to the Sleepy Lagoon
case and the zoot suit riots. Throughout, he ignored the point of view
expressed by the McGucken committee, and he also ignored the fact
that the convictions in the Sleepy Lagoon case had been unanimously
reversed by the appellate court on October 4, 1944 in an opinion written
by Justice Thomas P. White. (People v Zammora, 66 C. A. 2d 166).
The zoot suit riot episode had serious repercussions on our
relations in Latin America, On June 21, Mr. Nelson Rockefeller, Co-
ordinator of Inter -American affairs, came to San Francisco. My friend
Duncan Aikman was then his public information officer and arranged a
meeting for me with Rockefeller. Mr. Rockefeller said that McGucken
committee recommendations, if followed up, would help repair the
damage done in Latin America by our careless police methods.
The Supreme Court supported my original stand in the William
Schneiderman case, and restored his citizenship on June 21, 1943
(320 U, S. 1 18). V/endell V/illkie had argued this case after I had lost in
the trial and appellate courts.
On August 9, 1943, Sara broke a bottle of champagne on the
hull of the S. S. George L. Kenny. This Liberty ship had been named
after my grandfather, through the good offices of Mrs. Hal Rorke.
Millie Rorke had an interesting job during the war with California Ship-
building Corporation. One of her functions was to think up nannes for
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the Liberty ships that were being turned out every week or so at the Long
Beach yard. I never heard of the S. S. George Kenny after that day. It
must be resting in mothballs sonaewhere.
In the summer of 1943 an army officer had been brought seriously
wounded from the Pacific theatre to Letterman Hospital in the San
Francisco Presidio. Upon his death, the newspapers printed the text of
his will, which contained the simple request that his ashes be scattered
by airplane over the Golden Gate. The next day I received a call from
the lobbyist for the morticians. "You can't let them do this to us, Bob, "
he said, "You know, we have always supported you. " I kne'w that I had
received a campaign contribution from the morticians, but I never
understood why. I asked nriy caller what it was that was being "done" to
his group. He replied: "It's that cloud scatter over the Golden Gate.
It's against the law. " I inquired who had ever voted for such a damn
fool law, and he informed me that I had, along with all the other members
of the legislature in a recent session. I said I would call him back. After
giving the matter some thought, I telephoned him, and said, "I think
this is bad public relations for all of us. I am going to rule that your
law is not effective in this particular instance, because the death occurred
at the Presidio which is a federal enclave, ■where the state law does not
apply. " He seemed relieved at this "out" and I was very much relieved
too.
Sheridan Downey was in San Francisco on August 17, 1943. He
told me that he was worried about his prospects for election the following
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year. He then surprised me by offering to withdraw in my favor if I
entered the race. I was moved by his generosity and candor. On re-
turning to my office, I immediately wrote and had delivered to the
Senator a letter in which I thanked him for his past kindnesses to me and
urged him to seek re-election. I promised to campaign in his behalf.
Downey's people publicized nny statement. Attorney J. Ray Files,
veteran Los Angeles Democratic leader, was disappointed and wrote me
on August 27, 1943 that there had been two meetings attended by five
Los Angeles Democratic congressmen, the national committeewoman,
Mrs. Helen Gahagan Douglas, the county chairman and others. He
said:
" -- \7ith perhaps one or two exceptions, I think the sentiment at
both meetings was all but unanimous in the view that you should be in
the race for the United States Senate. Such expressions were unique in
that in almost every case they were not manifestations of anti-Downey
sentiment. It was simply acceptance of the fact that we are up against
a grim situation. I want to tell you as frankly as I can of the prevailing
notion expressed by nearly every one to w^hom I have talked, both in
these meetings and out of them. It was particularly true at the tea held
last Sunday at the home of Miss Gahagan where nearly 2000 ^vere present.
The tea was sponsored by the Wonnen's Democratic League. "
I was naturally flattered and grateful for these expressions. How-
ever, if I had been elected to the U. S. Senate in 1944, it would have
nneant deserting the California Democrats at a crucial time. My election
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as Attorney General had given the Democrats a tenuous toe-hold in
Sacramento. Next to Governor, it was the most powerful office in the
state. If I relinquished it, the party's chances would be greatly diminished
for a come-back from the debacle of 1942.
My vacancy would be filled by the Republic Governor and the
Republican would be restored to the complete stranglehold of State
Government that had been their's until the Olson victory in 1938. The
post of Attorney General was extremely important to local party-
building. A U.S. Senator was 3, 000 nniles away and lacked influence on
the local scene. Besides, I was optimistic about Senator Downey's re-
election. The Democrats' grim experience of 1942 had occurred in an
off-year election. In 1944, FDR's coat-tails would be once more
available.
On October 1, as chairman of the California Commission of
Interstate Cooperation, I presided over a two-day conference of the
eleven western states held in San Francisco. The principal subjects for
discussion w^ere aids to business during conversion from war to peace-
time production, taxation policies to build up reserves to meet the loss
of high war-time tax revenues, a program to bring new industries to
the West, and state aid to returning veterans. Among those who came
were Allen Bible, then Attorney General of Nevada, Gail Ireland,
Attorney General of Colorado, Grover Giles, Attorney General of Utah
and many legislators and officials from the other Western states.
On October 29, I returned to the subject of post-war planning in a
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speech entitled "Swords into Plowshares that V/ill Turn Up Jobs. " I
delivered to the California Housing and Planning Association dinner in
Los Angeles. I said that "enterprise is not an exclusive attribute of
private industry, though we have gotten into the habit of talking as if it
w^ere. There is enterprise in our federal government, and in our state
and local governments too, available to meet the needs of our citizens in
post-war days as well as now. "
On Tuesday, November 2, the municipal election was held in San
Francisco. Ednaund G. "Pat" Brown was running again for District
Attorney against Judge Matthew Brady who had served in that post for
over twenty years. Four years previously. Brown had run against Brady
and, to the surprise of everyone, came very close to beating him. This
time Brown won. Brown had been very helpful to me in ray campaign
and I had done what I could to help him in his. In the week follo^ving
the election, I invited Brown, then on his way to Southern California, to
look in at a Sheriffs' Zone meeting which was being held at Bakersfield.
I wanted him to become acquainted with the law enforcement officers of
the state. After a stag banquet with the sheriffs, Pat w^as called on for
a speech. He was still full of his victory over Brady and concentrated
his speech on that fact. It was not greeted enthusiastically. Later he
asked me what was wrong. I explained that those sheriffs represented
political longevity, and most of them had been returned to office as many
times as Matt Brady. "From now on, Pat, " I told him, "you are a
member of the incunnbents protective association. The only speech you
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make henceforth is the one entitled 'There is no substitute for experience'. "
It was not long after Brady was out of office that he came to me
for help. Although Brady had done thousands of favors for people during
his years as District Attorney, there was no one to help him out with a job
when he needed one. I put him on as a deputy attorney general, and
assigned him to the tidelands matter. He was very happy. He said,
"After practicing law forty years, I have finally struck oil. " Brady was
very popular with the other district attorneys of the state and helped
me with zone meetings and conventions.
After a year or so, he ran for municipal judge and was elected.
Every year after that at Christmas, I received a remembrance from
Matt Brady. V/hen he died in the middle 1950's, I was informed that he
had left me $50 in his will. I picked up many a bar check on the strength
of that $50 bequest, saying that "This one is on dear old Judge Brady. "
Then I received a letter from Judge V/alter Carpeneti, executor of his
estate. It acknowledged Judge Brady's bequest, but said unfortunately
the estate had turned out to be insolvent and I would not receive the $50.
Arthur Ohnimus was a member of Brady's staff. He served many
years as chief clerk of the Assembly when the legislature was in session,
but earned his regular livelihood as a deputy district attorney of San
Francisco. I appointed Arthur Ohnimus a deputy attorney general just
in time to qualify him as a permanent civil servant. Wilkie Ogg,
Sergeant at Arms of the Assembly was also only a part-time legislative
employee. Before civil service took over, I was also able to blanket in
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Wilkie as an investigator for the attorney general. Today the legislature
provides year -around employment for its faithful attaches, but at that
time subterfuges like this were necessary.
In November, 1943, I was in Washington as master of ceremonies
of a National Lawyers Guild banquet in honor of James Lawrence Fly,
chairman of the Federal Communications Comtmiission. This was the
first time I ever met Henry V/allace, who was to be on the program, I
found that Wallace was one of the few men in public life who cannot think
and talk at the same time. He was sitting alone at the head table when
I came up and introduced myself. Most politicians would immediately
employ their talents at small talk while trying to identify the person
conversing with them. Not so, Henry V/allace. V/hen I said, "I am
Bob Kenny, the master of ceremonies here tonight, " he remained
silent. I could almost hear the wheels in his head going around. After
a thirty second pause there was an almost audible click. "Oh, " he
said, "how are things in Califcar nia ? " He had finally placed me on one
of those 3x5 cards that we politicians carry in our heads. It simply
took V/allace longer to operate his card file system than it did most of
us.
By November, 1943 most of the New Dealers had gotten over their
fear of the National Lawyers Guild and there was a big turn-out for
the dinner in honor of James Lawrence Fly. Wallace had just made his
famous "Common Man" speech and in introducing him, I praised him
for "finding the words and courage to say what the people deeply want
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to hear. No other man has captured so well the hope of our century and
put it into a call for real things to fight for. "
On December 1, I sent a five -page memorandum to all the members
of the attorney general's staff to assess the events of the first year of
my administration. I opened by saying: "The ultimate goal for the
attorney general's office is to make it truly a state department of justice,
modeled as closely as possible on the functions of the Federal Department
of Justice. "
I had long believed that more of state government should be centralized
in Sacramento in order to correct the trend tov/ards decentralization and
I took this occasion to announce that all replacements to the Attorney
General's staff would be assigned first to the Sacramento office. I
had recently made an address to the Exchange Club in September entitled
"The People's Lawyer and His Job. " I told the deputies that they were
people's attorneys, too.
On December 13, 1943 I filed a complaint in the Superior Court
charging the City of Los Angeles and nine other municipalities with
creating a nuisance by illegal operation of the Hyperion Disposal Plant
and its outfall in Santa Monica Bay. Six months previously, the State
Board of Health had revoked the permit for further operation of this
delapidated and obsolete plant. The beaches had also been ordered
quarantined by the State Board of Health. Despite this, the cities stubbornly
refused to do anything about their methods of sewage disposal. Bayard
Rhone, a deputy attorney general in the Los Angeles office, worked with
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the State Health Officer Wilton Halverson and ultimately an order was
obtained from Superior Judge Joseph Vickers directing that the officials
of the cities be jailed for contempt of court if they did not take immediate
steps to install a new sewer outfall.
Inexplicably, Mayor Fletcher Bowron of Los Angeles flew into a
rage when this suit was filed and charged that it was the act of "a politically
minded attorney general. " I made a statennent attempting to mollify the
Mayor. After a few months had gone by, the Mayor was ready to agree
with me that the nuisance abatement action was a good thing, because it
brought the matter to a head and compelled the doing of a job that sinrvply
had to be done.
A book entitled "Undercover" was published that year. It exposed
the doings of the "right wing extremists" of that day. Its author, John
Roy Carlson, came to California in December, 1943. I introduced him
at well-attended meetings in both San Francisco and Los Angeles.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR -196-
CRESCENDO - 1944
With the presidential elections in 1944 coming up, my non-partisan-
ship began to disappear. On January 12, 1944, I spoke to the Hollywood
Democratic Club, predecessor of the Hollyw^ood Independent Citizens
Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions (HICCASP). I reminded
my hearers that the California Republicans had never conne out openly
under a party label, nor dared to combat the chief planks of the Democratic
platform, even \vhen they won in 1942.
"With the defeat of 1942 came Denraocratic disorganization, but not
extinction. On the contrary, there is not one of us today that does not
feel even more keenly the justice of our own political program. We must
therefore, reassemble these political atoms and organize them into a
functioning party. California is Democratic and can swing its twenty-
five electoral votes in favor of a Democratic nominee, but this will re-
quire a moratorium on back fence arguments. We need harmony for
this common task. A well organized Democratic Party in California
must take leadership and bring into its organization all of the nunnerous
one-man fractions and dissidents. "
I reviewed the history of Annerican political parties at the Stanford
Law Association banquet at Palo Alto on March, 1944. I recited the
benefits and lessons taught us by the development of the American party
system and said that: "To carry with us those lessons when we go into
the furor of name -calling and the sly news slanting of an election year is
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to carry light into a growing darkness. It is as natural and American as
Tom Paine and Sam Adams to have to cry of 'politics' thrown from all sides.
It takes a level sense of perspective and humor to realize that we
would not have it any other way if we could. We want no single party, even
in time of war. In time of stress we welcome bi-partisanship and regular
elections for what they may bring; criticism or confidence, each as it is
deserved. Sensible Americans regardless of party, recognize that all this
shouting, this criticism and condemnation, is American; it is the voice of
the free citizenry expressing its political rights. If its voice has many
tongues, so much the better. "
On January 2-, I visited with Jackson Ralston at his home in Palo
Alto. Judge Ralston then 86, was a distinguished American international
lawyer. During his days as an attorney in Washington, the State of
California had retained him to process its claim against the United States
for the payment of $2, 013, 867. 26, plus 80 years accrued interest. During
the Civil War the federal troops in California were paid in green backs and
California was on the gold standard. In 1862, Secretary of State Seward
asked Governor Downey of California to help by making up the difference in
pay between the value of the green backs and the value of gold. Although
the federal government promised to repay the state after the Civil War, re-
payment was never accomplished. For decades bills were introduced in the
Congress to accomplish this result. They passed the Senate, but always died
in the House. Nevada had similar claims and was successful in getting them
paid. However, our California House delegation could never bring this
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about. The state contracted with private attorneys to push the bill through
Congress. Their fees were contingent upon success.
I asked Judge Ralston to consider a new plan whereby the state might be
paid. Under it, California, instead of insisting on payment in cash, would
take paynnent in war surplus materials. Judge Ralston was agreeable, and
state legislation to permit it was passed. However, after I left office,
California reverted to its old demand for payment in cash. The matter was
finally decided by the Court of Clainms in 1964. California was only
awarded $8,985. 15 without interest (119 Fed. Supp 174).
On February 4, 1944 Vice President Wallace visited California on a
speaking tour. He was nnet in Los Angeles by former Governor Culbert
L. Olson. When he came to San Francisco two days later, I met hiin and
attended several occasions with him. While waiting for Wallace to conriplete
a speech at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, State Senator Jack Shelley
and I met a disabled sailor fronn a Naval hospital. He was a pleasant
fellow. Jack and I invited him to ride around with us and the Vice President
the rest of the day. V/ith Wallace in the back seat, out sailor guest turned
around and said, "Mr. Vice President, you ought to be able to use your
influence in my behalf. I would like to get out of this Navy hospital I am
now in. " Wallace was attentive. "Can't you fix it so I can get into a hospital
with a bunch of wounded WACs?" Wallace grinned. Our party attended the
opening ceremonies at an Army hospital in Oakland. We took the sailor
right up to the speaker's stand. The Arnay brass thought our sailor friend
must be some close relative of the Vice President. We explained that he was
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not, that he had just been designated the "common man" for that particular
day. I wonder if the sailor has ever been able to get anyone to believe his
story to this day.
It was during Wallace's visit that the California Democratic slate was
picked for the Roosevelt presidential primary delegation. This was done at
nny office in Los Angeles. Bill Malone came from the North with a slate
to which everyone in his area was agreeable. However, Culbert Olson, still
the National Committeeman, attempted to dictate the connposition of the Los
Angeles delegation. It was a repetition of the situation that had occurred in
1940. Only this time, I was the chairman and Olson was in the audience.
Olson w^as convinced that we treated him unfairly in making the final
selection. Sentiment for Wallace's renomination was growing among the
liberal forces in California. I had taken the public position that we should
wait until word was received from President Roosevelt before committing
the California delegation to any candidate for Vice President. Olson dis-
agreed and started a drive to pledge for Wallace as many delegates as he
could.
I spent the first two weeks of March, 1944, in Washington. While there
I invited Speaker Sam Rayburn to come to California to be the featured
speaker at the Jackson Day banquet in San Francisco. The Speaker was
also a possible candidate for Vice President.
On nny return trip, I stopped in Chicago on March 21 and 22, to attend
a meeting on race relations and law enforcement held by the American
Council on Race Relations. Law enforcement officials from many parts of
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the country were there to discuss the threatening prospect of racial distur-
bances. Upon my return to California, I secured the services of Robert B.
Powers, former chief of police of Bakersfield. Powers, a sensitive and
intelligent man, became my coordinator of law enforcement agencies. He
could talk like a policeman to the cops and he like a social worker to the
social workers and thus perforn". an extremely valuable liaison service.
The annual sheriffs' convention at Fresno on March 24, 1944 furnished
me an occasion to come out publicly in favor of stricter regulation of the im-
portation of "war souvenirs. " On March 8, an Emeryville policeman had
been murdered by bandits arnned w^ith an Army issued Thompson submachine
gun innported from the Pacific theatre. Ivly speech was innmediately seized
upon by the selfish propaganda interests serving the small arms manufacturers.
This is the group that would like to return, if possible, to the unregulated
sale of pistols by mail order. The National Rifle Association started beating
the drums against nne. Editorials appeared suggesting that my proposal
interferred with the constitutional right to bear arms, and was probably
communist inspired. Most of the letters came from so-called sportsmen.
Since the sportsmen had such a big vested interest on their side, I
looked around for help. I decided it would most likely come from the
insurance carriers who paid the losses on burglary insurance. Leland
Cutler, San Francisco vice president of the Fidelity and Deposit Company
of Maryland, arranged tlie proper introductions for me. I met in New
York with the group that called itself "The Burglars. " These were the
underwriters who fixed the rates on burglary policies of the various carriers.
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These gentlemen told nne that it was their experience that crime certainly
did pay, and that the machine guns and bazooka rockets that were being brought
back as souvenirs would enable the criminal element to make many a rich
haul. The lobbyists for the insurance carriers proceeded to help me in
Washington, In a few months we obtained a tightening of regulations by all
of the armed services against the importation of these lethal 'souvenirs'
into the United States.
In February, 1944, I retained Professor Max Radin to represent the
State of California before the United States Supreme Court in the case of
Flournoy v Wiener, (321 U. S. 253). This Louisiana case Avould have taken
away the income tax advantage enjoyed by married couples in community
property, such as California. Max made a splendid argument to the Court
upon the social benefits conferred on women by the community property
system. The case was not decided on its merits, and a few years later.
Congress adopted the marital deduction allowance which conferred all
states, the tax benefits previously enjoyed only by spouses in community
property states.
I found several other opportunities during my term of office to use
Max's brilliant mind in behalf of the State of California. He was special
counsel for the state in Speegle V Board of Fire Underwriters, (29 Cal. 34),
which reversed previous holdings and established that California's anti-
monopoly act, the Cartwright Act of 1907, was constitutional.
Sam Rayburn came to the Jackson Day dinner at the Palace Hotel in
San Francisco held on March 30. Senator Harry Truman was in town then
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vrith his investigating committee, and they v/ere also guests at the dinner.
A photograph taken at this affair shows Rayburn in the center, with me
next to hinri, and Bill Malone, State Chairman on the other side. Senator
Truman's seat was considerably removed from that of the guest of honor.
In another year, he was President of the United States.
At the request of Grover Giles, the Democratic Attorney General of
Utah, I went to Salt Lake City on April 29, to speak to the Utah State
Democratic convention. I told the Utah Democrats that it was up to our
party to show that we meant the things that we said we were fighting for:
"We must cut through obstructionism and give usable democratic
rights to all minorities and to all racial groups. We must oppose un-
warranted attacks on labor, and we inust start unravelling the repressive
laws which a congressional majority mistakenly thought was necessary to
keep labor in line during the war. We must recognize that free enterprise
means a real opportunity for every man to venture economically among the
giants of today; that free enterprise is the economic equivalent of political
democracy. "
I spent the first two weeks of May in Washington. Returning West, I
stopped over in Dallas, at the request of Tom C. Clark, then Assistant
Attorney General under Biddle. Torn told me he was then thinking of
returning to private law practice. He asked me as a favor to stop off in
Dallas to speak with Herman Brown, a wealthy Texan who was interested
in bidding on the properties of the Pacific States Building and Loan Association
then under liquidation in California. I was happy to oblige Clark. He had
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given a cocktail party in my honor when I first came to Washington as
Attorney General. Rep. Lyndon Johnson was one of his <^uests on that
occasion. I stopped over night in Dallas and had breakfast with Mr. Brown.
Nothing ever came of the Brown bid, because inflation in California carried
the prices of the Pacific States property far beyond any niodest Texas
ideas of property values.
The California state primary and presidential primary was held on
May 16, 1944. State Senator Jack B. Tenney ran against Sheridan Downey
for the Democratic nomination as United States Senator but finished fourth
in the Democratic primary behind Downey and two Republican cross -filing
candidates. Tenney received only 40,859 votes to Downey's 510,069. I
am sure he must have thought that the Democratic party >vas another
communist plot. A few years later he changed his registration to Republican.
In 1954, he vanished from state politics when he lost the Republican nom-
ination for Los Angeles State Senator to Mrs. Mildred Younger.
In the 15th Congressional District the Democratic incumbent, John
M. Costello, had become violently opposed to President Roosevelt. He
was defeated in the Democratic prinnary by Hal Styles, a radio emcee, who
had been selected by the Hollywood Democratic Committee. Costello was
nominated by the Republicans but was disqualified under California law
because of his failure to obtain the nomination of his own party. The
Republicans nominated Supervisor Gordon McDonough to take his place.
In the general election campaign the Democrats were shocked to learn that
Hal Styles, their candidate, had been convicted of criminal charges in
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connection with Ku Klux Klan activities in the East. McDonough won by
27, 000 votes and served in Congress until 1962, when his district was
reapportioned into a Democratic district.
Congressman Tom Ford retired that year and Mrs. Helen Gahagan
Douglas received the Democratic nomination to his seat in the 14th District.
She Avas elected in November.
Ellis Patterson, who had been out of office since the 1942 Republican
landslide, received the Democratic nomination in the 16th District and was
also elected in November. This position had been vacated by Rep. Will
Rogers, Jr. w^hen he joined the Army in 1943.
There was no opposition to the Roosevelt slate in the presidential
primary. The Republicans also elected an unopposed slate pledged to
Earl Warren as a "favorite son. "
Tv/o weeks after the primary, the Democratic National Chairman,
Robert Hannegan, came to California. I accompanied him on a trip to Reno
to meet with the Nevada Democrats and then to Seattle for a similar purpose.
In my remarks at the Democratic banquet in Seattle, I commented upon the
mysterious new project at Hanford, Washington. We later learned was a
part of the atomic bomb project, but at that time its purpose was still a
mystery. I offered the suggestion that night that the Republicans had
erected it for the purpose of putting mustaches on old Willkie buttons.
The newly-elected Democratic delegation to the national convention met
in Monterey on June 17, 1944 to elect a chairman and make plans for the
trip to Chicago. I was nominated for chairman and former Governor Olson
-Z05-
rose to speak against my selection. He accused me of lacking loyalty to
President Roosevelt, to the New Deal and to the Democratic Party. He
said: "When the communists flopped over and called us war -mongers,
Kenny was closely associated with them and was, in fact as much at home
in a communist faction meeting as in a Republican huddle. " When, despite
this, I was elected and took the gavel I replied, saying, "Ladies and
Gentlemen. You have just heard the swan song of a lame duck. "
In Los Angeles on June 20, I nnet with Chancellor Rufus von Kleinschmidt
of use and others to plan a Juvenile Control Institute. Preliminary studies
for such an institute for the training of juvenile officers had been made by
Deputy Chief Ervis Lester of the Los Angeles Police Department. It
seenned to me that one good way to attack the juvenile delinquency problem
was to improve the skills of the officers assigned to the juvenile detail in
the various police and sheriff's departments of the state. The Juvenile
Control Institute was set up at USC to take eighteen picked officers each
semester and acquaint thenn with available community resources and with
some of the academic considerations of the problems facing them in the
field. Later that year I was able to persuade the Hollywood Race Track
to donate $75, 000 towards the project. I had already obtained a pledge
of $2 5, 000 from the Columbia Foundation in San Francisco, provided
matching funds were produced. The Juvenile Control Institute graduated
hundreds of specially trained officers during the ensuing years.
In San Francisco on June 22, I spoke at the banquet of Council of
American Soviet Friendship, saying, "American scientists, musicians and
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dramatists join v/ith the common man in looking with justified expectation
toward closer cultural relations between our peoples. Few countries have
contributed so greatly to the learning and culture of the world as has Russia
in the past few decades, despite the war. Tons of propaganda notwithstanding,
reams of slander, and hours of radio libel, the cold fact remains -- the
Red Army has hurled back the damned Fascists, hurled them back and
humiliated them and saved, not themselves alone, but America and the
world from horrible disaster, "
There was a federal judicial conference in San Francisco in June,
attended by Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. The local Democrats
gave him a stag dinner at the Palace, at which Max Radin made a brilliant,
humorous speech.
I had been in touch with Eliot Janew^ay, the political analyst for a
national nnagazine. Janeway and Attorney Thomas Corcoran of Washington
w^ere trying to put together a Douglas for Vice-President movement. I
joined in their plans and prepared a nomination speech for Douglas ■which I
took with me to the Chicago convention.
The California delegation Avas still av/aiting word from Franklin
Roosevelt on his choice for the vice presidential nomination. No word
came.
On July 17, the California delegation took special trains to Chicago.
The Southern delegation train hooked on to the Northern delegation's train
at Ogden, Utah. Aboard the train were District Attorney Pat Brown of
San Francisco, State Senator Jack Shelley, Rep. George Outland, of Santa
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Barbara and many other prominent Democrats- However, the delegate who
attracted the most attention was Albert Chow of San Francisco. "The
Mayor of Chinatown. " He was the first Chinese-American delegate ever to
appear at a national convention. He drew more attention than the motion
picture stars w^ho canne along on this journey.
Upon arrival in Chicago, Culbert Olson, who was still the National
Comnnitteeman and Helen Gahaghan Douglas, the National Committeewoman,
introduced a resolution to have the California delegation go on record in
favor of V/allace. The delegation did so by a voice vote at the first caucus.
Up until this time, the only word from President Roosevelt relative to
the vice presidency had been "If I were a delegate, I would vote for Henry
Wallace. " After the convention got under way, the President passed through
Chicago on a special train. Bob Hannegan, the National Chairman, visited
hinm and returned with a letter from the President which said, in effect,
that in addition to Henry Wallace, both Bill Douglas and Harry Truman
would be acceptable to him. Hannegan immediately spread the word of the
President's action, but with the emphasis on Harry Truman. I nnet with
a caucus of Douglas supporters at the Blackstone Hotel. Those present
included Secretary of Interior Ickes and Attorney General Biddle. We
agreed that if there was a deadlock in the balloting between Wallace and
Trunrian, I v/ould rise and put Douglas in nomination. Of course, such a dead-
lock never came.
There were two ballots for the vice presidential nomination on July
21, 1944. On both ballots, the California delegation split identically, each
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time giving Wallace 30 votes and Truman 22. The totals of the first
ballot were Wallace 429-1/2, Truman 319- 1 /2, Scattering, 394. V/allace
Avas 160 votes short of the nonaination.
During the roll call on the second ballot, votes started changing all
over the floor from the "favorite son" candidates to Truman. When this
steannroller was going full speed, Secretary Ickes asked me to throw myself
in its path with a motion to adjourn the convention until the following day.
It \vould have been impossible to gain recognition from the chair at this
hectic moment.
Truman soon obtained the 589 votes necessary for the nomination. Ten
California delegates stayed with Wallace to the end and voted against a
motion to make Truman's nomination unanimous.
Months later, I nnailed the undelivered nominating speech to Justice
Douglas as a political curiosity.
In September, 1944, I had lunch with Tommy Corcoran in Washington.
He thanked me for my readiness to help in the abortive move for Douglas.
In the course of the lunch he told me his version of the events and particularly
of the President's attitude towards the vice presidency. According to
Corcoran, it was only a few months after Wallace had become Vice President
that Roosevelt started to regret having selected him in 1940. Roosevelt's
idea of the perfect vice president was one who would be the lobbyist for
the administration in the Senate. Garner had performed that role very well.
Roosevelt's connment on V/allace was that "Here I get hina elected to
the most exclusive club in the United States and after three years there, he
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hasn't a single friend in the club. " Like all stars, Roosevelt had no
affection for an understudy. But he did want a vice president who would
be popular with the senators and smooth the passage of the peace treaties
that were soon bound to be coming along. He felt that Wallace would be of
no use in such a role. He wanted a vice president who could call the senators
in and buy them a drink at crucial moments. Garner called this "striking
a blow for liberty. "
Corcoran told me that during the latter part of 1943, Roosevelt kept
hinting to Wallace that he should get lost. He tried to get the idea across
by sending Wallace on a trip to China. When Wallace returned from the
Orient to make his report, Roosevelt was significantly silent about the
vice presidency. He waited for the subject to be brought up by Wallace
but the latter also kept his silence. Upon the Vice President's departure,
Roosevelt became furious. He said, "V/e'U beat him. We'll beat the Vice
President with the Assistant President. "
The "assistant" president was James Byrnes who had resigned from
the Supreme Court to take over the economic direction of the war effort.
Byrnes was given the word and went to Chicago to open up campaign
headquarters with a direct line to the WTiite House.
Then the anvil chorus started on Byrnes. It was pointed out that as
a Southerner he was unacceptable to Northern liberals, particularly
Sidney Hillman of the C. I. O. .
When the California delegation first arrived in Chicago, Ed Pauley,
who was to be the new Democratic National Committeeman from California
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had told Bill Malone and me that he had been given the name of the
President's choice for vice president but was not yet authorized to release
it. The name was allowed to seep out, and it was Harry Truman. Accepting
Corcoran' s version of President Roosevelt's limited criteria for a vice
president. Senator Truman was quite satisfactory. He was not from the
South, but from a border state, and he certainly was a popular senator
entirely able to find it within his heart to pour a drink for senators to help
along the cause of peace and the United Nations.
The Democratic leadership honored me at that convention by making
me chairman of its Rules Committee. The most thing useful we accomplished
was the final abolition of the two-thirds rule, which had plagued the
Democrats for so many years. The conventions at Baltimore in 1912 and at
Madison Square Garden in 1924 had been deadlocked for days because no
candidate could get the support of two -thirds of the delegates. The Republicans
had alw^ays gotten along with a simple majority to nominate. At the 1944
convention our Committee succeeded in bringing the Democrats into line.
In the ■week following the convention in Chicago, I went to Mexico City
for the annual convention of the Inter -American Bar Association. The
Ecuadorian delegates had introduced a resolution to put the convention on
record requesting the United States to honor the Chamizal Award. The
Chamizal was within the city of El Paso, a parcel of several hundred acres
which had been in dispute between the United States and Mexico since the
Rio Grande shifted its course in 1864. The dispute had been referred to
arbitration and the Canadian arbitrator had aw^arded the area to Mexico.
-2U-
However, the award was made just before the revolution of 1912 and the
United States had simply ignored the decision.
The pro-Chamizal resolution created a furor at the convention. Many
of the Mexican delegates were ambitious lawyers anxious to maintain their
good relations with the conservative lawyers from the United States who
constituted the largest portion of our delegation.
During the debate I spoke in favor of the resolution. I had the bilingual
assistance of Richard Ibanez, a Los Angeles lawyer, later my law partner.
Those against the resolution said it was no matter of concern to lawyers. I
replied that a large part of the practice of many lawyers was the collection
of unpaid judgments. The Chamizal Award was just a judgment that had
been long unpaid by the United States. I therefore suggested that it was
germane to the purposes of a convention of lawyers. The conservative
leadership of the convention tabled the resolution as being out of order.
The chair then adjourned the meeting. The pro-Chamizal delegates refused
to leave their seats and immediately started to organize a rump organization
to take the place of the Inter -American Bar Association. They urged me to
become president of such an association. I declined and left the meeting.
I rode back to the Reforma Hotel in the same taxicab as President Joseph
Henderson of the American Bar Association. He said he had never heard
of the Chamizal controversy and did I know anything about it ? I admitted
that I did not know a great deal about the controversy but that luckily I had
read a description of it just that week in a new book by Sumner Welles.
In 1963, nineteen years leter, one of the last acts of the Kennedy Administration
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was to accede to the award and to restore the disputed acreage in El Paso
to Mexican sovereignty.
My long absence from California had put me behind in my work of
reviewing the briefs and opinions to which my name was signed. Re-
turning to Los Angeles I discovered to my horror that my name had been
signed to a brief asking for the affirmance of the conviction of a young
woman who had been arrested in the hotel roonn of an Army officer. The
young woman was helplessly intoxicated , had been taken to the room by the
officer. They were followed by police officers. The police officers peeked
into the bedroom from a fire escape and saw the officer committing an
unnatural sex act upon tlie helplessly intoxicated woman defendant. Both
were arrested. By a quirk of military justice, a court martial acquitted
the officer, but a civilian jury convicted the woman defendant. The case
had already been argued before the Appellate Court and submitted for
decision. I rushed up to my friend, Presiding Appellate Justice Walter
Desmond. I told him that if his court could find any way of reversing the
conviction, I promised that the People would acquiesce. Happily I discovered
that without any suggestion from me the court had already decided to
reverse the case. There were soine interesting points of law decided and
the case has been many tinnes followed in subsequent decisions, without
awareness of its true background, (People v Rayol, 65 Cal. App. 2d 462).
A good deal of attention was given by me to the long pending claims of
the California Indians. Shortly after California became a state in 18 50, the
federal government negotiated 19 different treaties with various tribes of
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California Indians. For sonne obscure reason the Indians had always been
treated as if they were foreign nations. Formal treaties made with them
were ratified by the Senate of the United States, as if the tribes were
foreign powers. Under these 19 treaties, the Indians- relinquished their tribal
rights in California lands in exchange for definite reservations, supplies,
tools, teachers and medicine. When the treaties were up for ratification
before the Senate in Washington in 18 53, California legislature passed a
resolution asking the U.S. Senate to refuse ratification. Some mining
interests had become fearful that the reservations assigned to the Indians
might have ore bearing possibilities. The Senate followed the instructions
of the California legislature and the United States reneged on its promises
to the Indians. The Indians had given up their lands but received nothing
in return. After a lapse of fifty years, the old treaties were uncovered and
the Commonw^ealth Club in San Francisco began agitation for delayed justice
to the Indians. In 1929, the California Legislature authorized the Attorney
General of California to act without fee as attorney for the California
Indians to prosecute a claim in their behalf before the Court of Claims at
Washington. Suit was then filed, but dragged on for many years.
This suit against the United States had been authorized by a special
enabling act of Congress. I read this act carefully and it was obvious that
under its terms that the Court of Claims could not award any judgment in
favor of the Indians exceeding $5, 000, 000. Chief Justice Richard Whaley
of the Court of Claims told me that he had been a Justice for fifteen years
and that the California Indian case had been on his docket ever since he
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went on the Court. He wanted the matter settled before he retired. I
conferred with the attorneys at the Federal Department of Justice who were
in charge of the litigation. We worked out a settlement for $5, 024, 842. 34
and I prepared an illustrated booklet describing its terms. The booldet
was circulated to members of Congress and to the various Indian tribes.
Antonio Satomayor of San Francisco furnished the illustrations.
In August, 1944, Attorney General Francis Biddle came to California.
I presented him with a copy of this booklet. Settlement was approved by the
Court of Claims and a few^ years later each of the 25, 000 enrolled Indians
of California received a per capita payment of $150. Subsequent litigation
carried on by private counsel is designed to increase this amount. If
successful it will certainly be an act of delayed justice.
During his visit to California I invited Attorney General Biddle to
come with me for a swim at The Beach Club at Santa Monica. Stewart
McKee and Rep. James McGranery of Pennsylvania, later to become an
Attorney General of the United States, came with us. While we were in
swiiTiming, I pointed out to Biddle that we were now on the Tidelands which
some time nnight become a matter of controversy between us. There had
been rumbles of federal clainns to the California Tidelands, but nothing
formal had ever appeared. This was August 18, 1944. Biddle treated my
suggestion as a joke. However, ^vithin less than a year he had filed suit
against California to recover control of the Tidelands for the federal
government.
During the month of August, I also conferred with Federal Security
-2)5-
Agency representatives who were concerned with the spread of venereal
diseases during the war. They desired to cooperate with a state Attorney
General on a manual for the legal control of venereal disease. I was agree-
able and John Goldsmith of Virginia was sent out from Washington to work with
me on a- booklet which was published later that year, under the heading
"Combating Venereal Disease. " It outlined quarantining procedures and
other methods of using the law to control the spread of syphilis and gonorrhea.
It soon appeared that the newly discovered antibiotic drugs would be much
better at this kind of control than anything we lawyers could devise.
In early September I went to Memphis, Tennessee, to attend a regional
zone meeting of southern attorneys general. At their last national convention,
I had persuaded the National Association of Attorneys General to set up
zon e meetings for the various states, similar to the arrangement we had in
California for zone meetings of local prosecuting officers. I attended the
southern zone meeting because the southern states were then greatly con-
cerned with the discrimination of inter-territorial freight rates against
their region. California had a similar grievance, and I was anxious to learn
what I could about meeting the problem.
The subject of freight rates was brought up on September 15, at a
regional meeting of western attorneys general in San Francisco. At this
meeting in San Francisco Governor Warren attended as well as the attorneys
general of New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Nevada and Vv''yoming. For
some reason of sectional hostility, no representative from Arizona ever
appeared at any of the inter- state meetings that I arranged. Sara and I
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gave a cocktail party and Chinese dinner for our visitors. Governor
Warren was very much impressed by Wendell Berge of Washington, D.C.,
head of the Anti Trust Division, and Joseph Borkin, Anti- Trust economist,
and attorney who accompanied Berge. These two men did much to awaken
us to the economic disadvantages likely to face the West in the post-war
period.
The Republican candidate, Thomas Dewey, canne to San Francisco on
Deptember 21. Earl Warren rode with him in a parade. I wanted a good
view of the procession and crawled out of my window on the sixth floor of
the State Building to sit on the ledge. When the parade went by. Earl
Warren looked up to see what was gcing on at his old office, and saw his
successor sitting on the parapet. Someone snapped a picture of me out
there, and it later appeared in News Week m.agazine. Dick Wiley called
this "ledge-art. "
Late in September, I went again to Salt Lake City for a meeting of the
Interstate Cooperation Commission. Our principal topic of discussion was
the Geneva steel mill that had been erected in Utah, with a heavy con-
tribution of government funds. The delegates were all hopeful that this
steel mill would remain in independent western hands, and not return to
the eastern steel cartel after the war. We felt that independent steel
production was most important for the post-war economy of the West.
Our hopes were in vain. After the war, the Geneva steel project was merged
to become a subsidiary of United States Steel. A 5 to 4 decision of the
U.S. Supreme Court approved the merger. (334 U.S. 495)
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On October 15, Senator Truman, as candidate for vice president,
came to California. George Allen was his advance nnan. George, a native
of Mississippi, was the Washington insurance man who later w^rote a very
funny book, "Presidents Who Have Known Me, " The night before Truman
arrived, I took Allen to a Hollywood party at the home of screen writer
Dalton Trumbo, later one of the "Hollywood Ten. " There were two or three
mixed couples there, Negroes and Caucasians. Allen was a broad-minded
Mississipian, but this gave him pause. "Bob, " he said to me, "I've heard
about this sort of thing, but believe me, this is the first time I have ever
seen it. " Allen managed to have a good time, however, and everyone at
Trumbo' s liked him very much.
Early the following morning Allen and I, accompanied by Max Wagner,
a very old friend of mine, famed as Hollywood's oldest extra-man, went to
the Alhambra Station to meet the candidate for Vice President. Senator
Truman spoke at a mass meeting at the Shrine Aduitorium the following
night. Afterwards, I drove his party to Bakersfield where we all took the
Southern Pacific Lark to San Francisco.
On October 17, Albert Chow, the "Mayor" of Chinatown gave a
wonderful Chinese dinner for Senator Truman. Among those present was
Bartley Crum, a progressive Republican attorney who had been one of
Wendell Willkie's campaign managers. Now, Crum was campaigning with
us for FDR's fourth term. Senator Truman thoroughly enjoyed the dinner.
For many years afterwards he maintained a close friendship with Albert
Chow,
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The Senator had to leave the Chinese restaurant for Oakland to catch
the Southern Pacific train to Portland. He was seated in the Attorney-
General's limosine next to Sara. I noticed Sara had a strange look on her
face. After we deposited Senator Trunnan on the train, she whispered,
"Do you know what your candidate just said when we came out of the restaurant'
He said, 'those Chinese are wonderful, they are the only colored people
I trust. '" Later in the campaign, when the Republicans made the charge
that Senator Truman had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan Sara gave me
the "I told you so" look. My neutrality in respect to Wallace in Chicago
^vas not readily forgiven by her.
On September 8, 1944, I drove to Bishop, California with my old
friend Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz of Los Angeles County. Jesse Hession, a
former district attorney of Inyo County and then head of the Criminal
Division of the Attorney General's office had invited us to attend a peace
officers barbecue at Bishop, the county seat. Biscailuz and I were friends
from the days when I was a newspaper reporter covering the sheriff's
office. He was then the under-sheriff and a dependable source of news.
In that same month I attended a National Lawyers Guild banquet in
Los Angeles given to honor Carey McWilliams when he was retiring as its
local president. Morris Cohn was to take over this position. Carey
McWilliams had been Housing and Imnaigration Commissioner under
Governor Olson, always an unflinching liberal. Olson resisted demands
that he fire McWilliams because of his active espousal of decent housing
conditions for migratory workers, and similar political offenses. Carey's
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name had become known throughout the country. When the L-aFoUotte
Toland Committees came to California to learn the facts about abuses and
discriminations against minorities, they did not call on the people who
had tried to smear Carey with unpopular labels. Instead, they asked Carey
to testify as an expert to shed light on the work they were doing. By this
time Carey had published "Factories in the Field, " "111 Fares the Land"
and most recently "Brothers Under the Skin. " He was then writing a book
on the Japanese-Americans of the West Coast, entitled "Prejudice. " Carey
did much to shape my own ideas and the opinions of most California liberals
of that period. In the early 1950's he \vas called to New York to become
editor of the "Nation. "
The anti-labor forces had circulated an initiative petition to enact a "right
to work" law, which became Proposition 12 on the November, 1944 ballot.
On October 2, I spoke over the Mutual California network against this
proposal, saying: "Proposition 12 is a declaration of war. It is a bid by
a small group of agitators to build industrial antagonisms and disrupt the
plans for econonnic conversion. If this measure passes, it will disrupt
California's industrial future when millions of California sons will be re-
turning to seek a place in our expanding industry. "
The November, 1944 election was the high water mark attained by the
California Democratic Party. in the 20th Century and remained unequalled
until the 1958 sweep. We had achieved connplete unity among all of the
formerly dissident factions. The right to work proposal, Proposition 12,
was defeated by 600, 000 votes. President Roosevelt carried the state
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against Thomas E. Dewey by nearly 500, 000 votes and Sheridan Downey
was re-elected United States Senator over Lieutenant Governor Frederick
F. Houser by 150,000 votes. California Democrats took three more seats
in the House of Representatives, giving the party sixteen out of twenty-three.
Frank R. Havenner unseated Congressman Thomas Rolph in San Francisco,
Assemblyman George B. Miller, beat veteran Republican Albert E. Carter
in Oakland. Ned Healey defeated incumbent Norris Poulson in the Los
Angeles Silver Lake District and Clyde G. Doyle, with the support of the
liberal and left wing forces that he denounced as Reds a few years later,
unseated Ward Johnson in Long Beach. The only Democratic seat lost was
that of incumbent John Costello, in the Wilshire District, where the
Democrats met w^ith the strange political accident of nominating Hal Styles
in his place and then discovering that Styles had been a Ku Klux Klan leader
in the East.
My part in the November, 1944 California campaign earned me the
following generous comment from the San Francisco Argonaut of November
10, 1944: "Robert W. Kenny, the Attorney General of California, is an
intellectual leader in practical politics. He is genuinely interested in
legislation designed to serve the best interests of all the people and in
measures enabling business to provide opportunities for jobs in the post-
war era. He has been distinguished for the clarity of his vision and the
industry with which he frames the programs he sponsors. "
On Novennber 18, Sara and I went by train to Omaha to attend the
national convention of the Association of Attorneys General, I later joined
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her in New York where I was the master of ceremonies on December 13,
for a National Ijawyers Guild dinner given to honor Senator Robert F. Wagner.
Mayor LaGuardia was one of the speakers. Mayor LaGu?rdia had originally
been elected on an anti-Tammany Fusion ticket, as a Republican. Wagner,
though a progressive, had always been a strict party-line Democrat.
LaGuardia said he was proud to honor Senator V/agner that evening, and that
he had voted for the Senator in every election, although he was certain
Wagner had voted against him every time he ran. I praised Senator Wagner
for his authorship of the Labor Relations Act and the Social Security Act.
In Washington on December 16, I was the guest of honor of another
National Lawyers Guild banquet which was attended by Justices Reed and
Douglas of the Supreme Court. Justice Douglas told the banquet guests
that the greatest problem then facing the world was the maintenance of a
free society and the way that we managed it might mean the life or death of
our civilization.
During my stay in Washington, Abe Fortas, Under-Secretary of the
Interior, informed me confidentially that the order excluding persons of
Japanese descent in California would shortly be revoked. Similar word
was also relayed to Governor Warren. Upon my return to California, I
conferred with Governor Warren and plans were set in motion for the return
of the Nisei with a minimum of community disturbance. The Plan met
with objection in many quarters. Mayor Fletcher Bowron said to me in
Sacramento: "I understand you are back of this move to return the Japanese
to California. " I admitted this, and added that I thought he should agree
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with me that the Constitution required it. The Nisei had been left un-
disturbed in Haw^aii throughout the war. Bowron was not convinced. "If
they come back to Los Angeles, " he told me, "I will not be responsible
for their safety. " To Bowron' s credit he repented of this view a few
months later.
Two coiinty sheriffs, one in Nevada County, the other in Orange County,
openly defied our efforts to obtain peace officer cooperation for the peaceful
relocation of the Japanese. Governor Warren backed me up, and said that
if local constabulary did not protect the returning Nisei, he would see that
state forces did so. Incidentally, only two sheriffs were beaten for re-
election in the fall of 1946, and they were the sheriffs of Orange and Nevada
Counties.
Robert Powers, as law enforcement coordinator, worked very closely
with Robert Cozzens and Pat Frayne of the A'/ar Relocation Authority. I
had rewards offered for the arrest and conviction of anyone caught harassing
the returnees. The War Relocation Authority did an excellent job. Members
of the 442 Battalion, the Hawaiian Nisei who had made such a splendid record
in the Italian campaign, came to California for public relations appearances
throughout the state.
There were serious acts of terrorism committed against the returnees
in Fresno County. My investigators found that most of this hatred came
from the activities of a small town banker who had been very close to the
Japanese at the time of their evacuation. As their "friend" he had volunteered
to care for their property during their absence. Now that they were returning
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he was soon to be called to account. It was this man who had been en-
couraging the small town hoodlums to try to frighten the Japanese-Americans
out of California. We had just about perfected our case against him and
were ready to take it to a Grand Jury, when Providence intervened. The
small town banker had a heart attack and died. Anti-Japanese agitation in
that area ceased alnnost immediately.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE -224-
WAR TO PEACE - ROOSEVELT TO TRUMAN
On January 3, 1945, the opening day of the Seventy-Ninth Congress,
a parliamentary maneuver by Rep. John Rankin of Mississippi saved the
House Committee on Un-American Activities from the dennise that had
been widely predicted for it. The Committee had been so generally dis-
credited in the 1944 elections that its foes in the House of Representatives
were asleep. They were taken by surprise when Rankin introduced an
amendment to the rules which established the Un-American Activities
Committee as a permanent standing committee. It carried by a vote of 207
to 186.
On the same day, Rankin attacked me and several other Californians
for our membership in the American League for Peace and Democracy,
a successor of the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League. Rep. Cecil King took the
floor and defended me against Rankin's charges (P. ill Cong. Record,
IstSess. 79th Congress).
Sidney Hillman of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers came to
California in January, 1945. I attended an Oakland banquet given in his
honor by the CIO Political Action Committee. Hillman was the head of this
organization. Hillman was given deserved praise for his great organizational
work in 1944 and its contribution to the Democratic victory.
I spent from January 22, to February 11, in Washington as head of
the California delegation opposing ratification of the Mexican Water Treaty.
Senator Hiram Johnson was a inember of the Senate Committee on Foreign
Relations. He did the best that he could for us, but his health was failing
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and he was opposed by the Committee Chairman, Senator Tom Connaily
of Texas, who strongly favored the treaty because of the benefits his state
would receive from it. Mrs. Johnson acted as the Senator's liaison to the
California protest group. She was a brave lady and most helpful to us, I
had been able to persuade the Roosevelt administration to hold up pre-
sentation of this treaty until the November, 1944 election. However, once
the election was passed there was no chance of stopping it. It was soon
favorably recommended by the committee. Senator Sheridan Downey led
the fight against the treaty on the floor. Paradoxically, Downey was handi-
capped by his thorough knowledge of the minute details of Western water law.
During the floor debates, the Senator became lost in these details and the
other nnenribers of the Senate were bored stiff. If our other senator had
only been the Hirana Johnson of the 1920s, it might have been a different
story. California had received a raw deal on treaty's allocation of water.
Our urgent need was a senate spokesman with a capacity for outraged
indignation.
A campaign against racial restrictive covenants was then being con-
ducted by the National Lawyers Guild. A forum on this subject was held
at the First Congregational Church in Los Angeles, on February 24, 1945.
"The Folklore of Segregation" was the title of my speech there. I argued
that segregation was being kept alive by the myth that occupancy by
minorities depreciates the value of property, saying, "Once the myths
and folklore are exposed and peeled off -- once the horrible, medieval
practice of segregation is shown to have nothing more to support it than its
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own doing and continuation, I predict that the practice will cease. "
Several new Democratic legislators had been elected and I spent
considerable time in Sacramento in March 1945 attending caucuses with
these new members.
Governor Warren had startled his ow^n followers that session when he
proposed a compulsory health insurance bill quite similar to the one proposed
by the C.I. O. Under the title "Strange Doings in California, " Carey
McWilliams wrote in the January 30, 1945 'New Republic': "To understand
fully the Governor's position, it is necessary to consider one of the most
peculiar political relationships in California - that between Governor Warren
and Attorney General Robert W. Kenny. In a sense Bob Kenny is responsible
for the Governor's successful career in state politics. V/hen Earl Warren
ran for Attorney General in 1938, he faced the likelihood of defeat, despite
the fact that the Democratic nominee w^as not a strong candidate. The
registration was overwheliningly Democratic, more so than it is today, and
the people were determined to oust the entire Republican machine. In this
ennergency Warren appealed to Kenny for support, setting forth in a letter in
his own handwriting his undying devotion to civil liberties. Always inclined
to be unpredictable where personalities are involved and often motivated by
a remarkable generosity toward political opponents, Kenny proceeded to
endorse Warren. It was really his action which tipped the scales, for even
with the endorsement Warren was elected Attorney General by an extremely
narrow margin.
"Today Governor Warren is uneasily aware of the formidable Mr. Kenny,
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■whose lengthening political shadow he sees whenever he looks guardedly
over his shoulder. He fears that Robert W. Kenny can defeat him for the
governorship in 1946. His position would be quite different were the
Dennocrats without a strong candidate. But Bob Kenny is the ablest
politician California has produced since the emergence of the Hiram Johnson
of 1910 - to be distinguished from the aged and embittered relic of isolationism
who still survives in the Senate. In 1938 V/arren w^as the only Republican
elected to an important state office in California; in 1942 Kenny w^as the
only Democrat elected. Just as Warren has been successful in w^ooing
Democratic votes, so Kenny has shown a still more remarkable ability to
draw strength from the Republican camp. Kenny's left flank is securely
guarded, and he knows how to maneuver his right flank in an extremely
dextrous fashion. Warren has a fairly secure right flank, considerable
support in the center, and no support -^vhatever on the left. The personal
relationship between the two men is cordial, and they have cooperated
effectively since V/arren has been Governor, but the rivalry is intense if
not overt. The older and naore experienced politician. Governor V/arren
watches every move of his younger rival and has shown a surprising ability
to innitate, and in sonrie cases to anticipate, Kenny's genuine liberalism. The
nation is likely to hear a great deal more about .these two personalities in
the future. For the Governor hopes to be President in 1948; and liberal
Democrats throughout the West hope, some day, to send Bob Kenny to the
White House. Without showing his hand. Bob Kenny is setting the political
pace for the Governor. "
.228.
Several mountain county sheriffs had been reviving the old western
practice of offering rewards for the apprehension of criminals "dead or
alive. " In some cases there was strong reason to believe that suspects
were deliberately killed in order to earn such a reward. I obtained the
introduction of a bill in 1945 which outlawed such bounties on human beings.
This bill passed and became law (Sect. 652 Cal. PC).
My activities of the previous year drew some national attention. In
the March, 1945 issue of "Harpers" C. Hartley Grattan said, in "The
Future of the Pacific Coast, " "Mr. Kenny is today seeking to break down state
provincialism, to promote a sectional perspective of the West's problems,
and -- without sacrificing sectional interests --to fit them sensibly into the
national picture, a useful and necessary job. In February of last year, Mr.
Kenny played a strategic role in arranging a meeting at Carson City, Nevada
of the Western state committees on inter-state cooperation for the specific
purpose of discussing the problems of Geneva. This emphasized that Utah
might have a steel mill, but its operation was a western problem, not
Utah's alone. Out of such events, and the ideas which inspire them, one
can clearly see emerging the elements of a western way of thinking. "
In April, 1944, Ernest Lindley, writing in the "Washington Post" of
possible candidates for the Navy Secretaryship said:
"The most powerful and popular Democrat on the Pacific Coast
is State Attorney General Robert Kenny of California, and he might well
feel that his present office as a springboard for the governorship of
California is better than a Cabinet post, "
-Z29-
On March Z2, I spoke before the Los Angeles Chapter of the American
Veterans Committee. There were great hopes then for this organization
--a liberal veteran's group which would counteract the reactionary American
Legion. The previous evening I had dinner with Michael Blankfort, who
\vas then writing a book about Colonel Evans Carlson, the Marine hero.
Blankfort had served with Carlson's Raiders. He told me enough about
Carlson that evening to cause me to share his enthusiasm for Carlson as
a candidate for United States Senator in 1946.
Fletcher Bowron was re-elected to another four-year term at the Los
Angeles Municipal primary on April 3, 1945. His principal opponent was
Clifford Clinton, the cafeteria naan, who had been Bowron' s principal supporter
w^hen he w^as first elected in the 1938 recall.
On April 6, 1945, the Delano Record editorialized that I had "comnnitted
political suicide" because of a speech in which I had blamed the scarcity of
vegetables in California upon the exclusion of the Japanese and that I had
taken "a dig at Japanese baiters for good measure. " Obviously anti-
Japanese sentiment still prevalent in the San Joaquin Valley.
On April 9, I drove to San Diego with Bill Malone, State Chairman,
and Edwin W. Pauley, National Committeeman, to attend a banquet of the
San Diego Democrats. I returned to Sacramento, and was there on the
afternoon of April 12th when the news came of the death of FDR. The
following week, I spoke at Democratic memorial meetings in Long Beach,
at the request of attorney Joseph Ball, and at Stockton. I spoke at a
memorial meeting at the Civic Auditorium in San Francisco on May 4th
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with Harold Stassen and Jo Davidson, the sculptor.
On April 22, I drove to Reno to meet the special trainload of
Eastern newspapermen on their way to San Francisco to cover the opening
of the United Nation Organization Conference. Duncan Aikman was
aboard. He and some others left the train and drove with me by automobile
over the Donner Pass to Sacramento. This is the nnost magnificent w^ay to
be introduced to the beauties of California. Aikman pointed out the sights
and described them as "Gods greate'st scenic cocktail. "
The United Nations conference filled San Francisco to the brim.
Martin Popper, Secretary of the National Lyawyers Guild, and I had been
appointed consultants to the American delegation by Secretary of State
Stettinius. About 100 such consultants had been appointed, representing
everything from the American Bar Association to the Anti-Saloon League.
They all came to San Francisco, but none found very much to do. Aikman
described us as the "unconsulted consultants" who had been called to
San Francisco to work out the "Conditions of Unconditional surrender. "
Steward McKee came up from Los Angeles and stayed throughout the sessions,
until they adjourned on June 26.
On the opening day of the session, April 25, 1945, it was my good
fortune to be able to drive three important American writers to the summit
of Mount Tamalpais. My guests were Norman Corwin of radio, E. Y.
Harburg, the lyricist, and Earl Robinson, ■who had just written his
"Ballad for Anaericans. " From that scenic peak we could see seven Bay
area counties spread out below us. It was one of those brilliantly clear
-231-
days that San Francisco occasionally provides. Over the automobile
radio, we heard the speeches of Stettinius, Molotov and Anthony Eden.
The majesty and beauty of the occasion were breath-taking. It seemed like
the promises of a great new world were really to come true,
Benjamin Dreyfus, then San Francisco head of the National Lawyers
Peters
Guild and Appellate Justice Raymond/set in motion plans for a banquet to
be attended by all of the lawyers who were delegates to the United Nations
meeting. There had been a thirty-day blackout on social activities following
President Roosevelt's death. The lawyers banquet, held at the Palace
Hotel on May 15, was the first big party after the period of mourning had
ceased.
Dick Wiley persuaded the California Wine Institute to provide large
quantities of California champaign for the guests. The California Wine In-
stitute had an annual appropriation for gifts of wine "for educational
purposes. " Wiley convinced the Institute that this would advance the
California's educational project throughout the civilized world.
The occasion was a happy one, but nearly everyone drank too much,
and the speakers talked too long. Circuit Judge John J. Parker came
out from North Carolina to deliver the speech of the evening on "World
Government by Law. " When he finally came on, after six previous
speakers, it was midnight and there was no one much left to talk to, except
a few sonnnolent guests and some pretty impatient waiters and bus boys.
The Attorney General's office was in the State Building directly
close by the Opera House where the United Nations sessions were being held.
-232-
Duncan Aikman was given carte blanche to invite visiting newspapermen
and delegates to my office . Nearly every evening there was a motley
international crew on hand. Aikman called these sessions "the Mernnaid's
Tavern of the World. " One welcome attendant on these occasions was
Rev. E. A. Conway, S.J. who had come to San Francisco to cover the
sessions for "America, " the Jesuit weekly.
During the month of May there was a District Attorney's convention at
Hoberg's. I was asked to provide some speakers and I brought Father
Conway and Jack Winocour of the British Information Service. It was the
first time I had ever seen the District Attorneys show any group interest
in international affairs.
P. L. Prattis wrote in the Pittsburgh Courier on June 2, 1945: "Duncan
Aikman had been after me to come over . . . after hours. . . to the eyrie of
Bob Kenny, California's attorney-general. . . . also president of the National
Lawyers Guild. Couldn't quite make up my mind to go ... after hours in
the attorney general's office oughtta be sort of informal with strange folks,
male and female, strange white folks, -- relaxing. Was it necessary to
go, even to hear so renowned a liberal as Kenny expatiate on the issues of
the day . . . was it necessary to go and probably get hurt? Kenny didn't
know me. I'd never met him. Had seen hina, of course, at Sherman
Hotel, Chicago, early in'44, but had never been introduced to him. Hov/
could I claim him as friend?
"But, folks, I went -- and I am glad. This doggone newsprint situation
makes me mad sometinnes. . . there's so much I want to tell you about and
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there just isn't space. I'd just like to run on and on about Bob Kenny and
the folks who drop in on him for relaxation and spiritual and intellectual
stimulation. Kenny's got the stuff you gotta watch. He wasn't there
when I arrived, but Aikman was. Grabbed my hand, shepherded me
around, giving me the nod to first this one and that one, male and female,
in the splendiferous offices of the attorney general in the State house. Big
wigs of San Francisco, big wigs of the Old U. S. A. , big wigs of the world. . .
all foregathered to while away the evening hours with Bob Kenny. After an
hour or so, he caine. Aikman ran to me. He says, 'The Attorney General
is here -- you met him?' 'V/ell, not exactly, ' I admit as he shoves me
along to where a small group of men and wonnen surround California's
cherubic law enforcer. His face is suffused \vith good humor, there is
sparkle in his eye. He turns as I'nn shoved through the crowd, . , Aikman
waits to see what happens. . . so do I, 'cept that I do say, 'Remember when
we last saw each other?' There was a flashing trace of recollection on his
face, then even a broader smile and he counters, 'In Chicago!' Folks, I
was just sort of struck dumb. For the rest of the evening, I just could
not help but think about the money I could make if I could promote a battle
of menaory bet^veen him and Ira Le'wis. Had awful nice time throughout
evening, met awful nice people. - - - -"Another word -- and we'll be
through with Bob Kenny. You know, there are some lynch-minded Californians.
They had been shooting into the homes of returned Japanese-Americans.
Three soldiers, AWOL,, from the Army, tried for such an attack, acquitted.
Attacks continue. Ickes, you know the darling ol' curmudgeon, issues a
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blast that's calculated to make Californians feel ashamed of themselves for
acting so much like Georgians. It does make some Californians feel ashamed,
notably Frank Clarvoe, the tough and able editor of Scripps -Howard's Daily
News here: Clarvoe, stung, rips off an edit, insists as how the law enforce-
ment officers of the State ought to do something about this mienace of pre-
judice against Americans who happen to be Japanese also. The edit is a
sort of big stick aimed at the head of Kenny. So I asks Kenny if he'd seen
this edit. 'Seen it?' he smiled. 'You bet I have' and he led me into another
room where he had 100 copies. 'I'm gonna send a copy to every sheriff in
the State and tell them they got to get the hell to work on this thing.
Editorials like this help nne to. do my job -- I like 'em. ' 'Scuse me, folks,
for taking so much time with him, but a few years from now, Kenny'U be
in the Governor's chair or in Washington and you'll be glad that I gave you
this itsy, bitsy glimpse of him. "
Judge Matt Brady gave a luncheon to introduce some of his San Francisco
friends to the visiting foreigners. Two guests on this occasion were Maurice
Bathhurst, attorney for the British delegation, and Charles Cannpbell, a
British newspaperman. Since most of Judge Brady's friends were of Irish
extraction, it seemed a wonderful occasion to erase old Anglo-Hibernian
hostilities. Charlie Campbell was a devastating refutation of the notion that
the British lack a sense of humor. During the sessions, I asked him if he
was being amused in San Francisco. "Amused, " he said. "I am so tired,
I couldn't take 'yes' for an answer. "
On May 23, President Truman announced that he had appointed Tom
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Clark Attorney General of the United States. However, the incumbent,
Francis Biddle, was to continue holding office for another two weeks. On
May 29, Biddle filed suit against California to quiet title to the Tidelands.
These tidelands had been the source of several million dollars annual,
revenue to the State of California; by 1963 the state had received over
$500, 000, 000 in oil royalties. During the early 1930s, some oil men had
discovered a process of slant drilling by which the oil beneath the Tidelands
could be produced from on-shore drilling sites. It had always been assumed
that the States owned these tidelands. The State of California had given
leases to the drillers in return for royalties from the oil produced.
Of course, there were not enough of these oil leases to go around.
Some of the oil companies that were left out consulted land title lawyers. A
theory was evolved by then that the tidelands really belonged to the federal
government. These imaginative oil men immediately worked out leasing
arrangements with Secretary of Interior Ickes. These leases would be-
come enormously valuable if the State's title was held defective and the
Federal claim upheld.
I strongly suspect that Biddle believed Tom Clark's friends in Texas
wanted to keep the title in the State, since the State of Texas had also
issued many oil leases to off-shore drillers. Biddle put the suit on file
before he left office. Once this egg had hit the fan, it was impossible for
Clark to drop the matter.
I alerted the Attorneys General of the other states similiarly affected.
We obtained the prompt introduction of a bill in Congress which would quit-
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claim the title to the Tidelands to the various states. While the United
Nations conference was still in progress in San Francisco on June 18, I
was able to hitch a ride in the Secretary of State's plane to Washington, to
testify before the House Judiciary Committee in favor of this quit-claim
bill.
The U.N. conference finally came to a close on June 26. President
Truman came to San Francisco to give a farewell address to the delegates.
The Sacramento Bee of June 27, reported the following conversation I had
with President Truman at his suite in the Fairmont Hotel.
"'Why don't you run for governor, Bob?' queried the president,
'"Say, I'm running from office not for office. ' replied Kenny with a
broad smile.
'"I've been doing that all my life. Bob, and look where I landed, ' snapped
Truman with a twinkle in his eyes.
"Responded the genial attorney general: "Yes, and now^ you are in a
job without a future. "
On June 22, Gould Lincoln wrote in the Washington Star, as follows:
"Democrats in California are wondering just w^hat the death of the late
President Roosevelt may mean to their party strength in this state .
"The man to whom many of the party leaders are looking, either as
a candidate hiinself for Governor or Senator or as a builder of the party
organization, is Attorney General Robert W. Kenny. Dynamic, hard hitting,
Mr. Kenny is devoted to politics. He is the only Democrat holding high
state office, having come through successfully in the 1942 election, when
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Republican Governor Warren was rolling up a 300, 000 lead over his Democratic
opponent. Governor V/arren hinnself had held the office of attorney general.
Despite party differences, each man thinks highly of the other.
"Mr. Kenny insists he is not interested in running hinnself next year
for Governor or for the Senate seat now held by the veteran Senator Hiram
Johnson. According to his friends, he would prefer to continue in his present
office if he is to hold office at all, and be the pov/er behind the throne, the
real political boss of the Dennocratic Party of California. As attorney general
of the State, Mr. Kenny wields a lot of power. As the Democrat with the
highest State office it is to him. deserving Democrats go when they want a
job or some other form of aid. He is progressive, president of the
National Lawyers Guild. He has independent means and does not have to
hold a job. At one time he was a judge of the Superior Court in Los Angeles
County and at another State Senator.
"Mr. Kenny does not believe the death of the late President is going to
sink the party .
"California Democrats are already considering a slate, a 'cast' to put
it in HoUywoodese. For their ticket next year Henry Grady, president of
the San Francisco Chamber of Connmerce, is talked of for the gubernatorial
nonnination and for Senator they propose to put forward that hard-fighting
Marine Colonel Evans Fordyce Carlson. With such a ticket they feel they
would have an excellent chance of winning all down the line. "
On June 20, Governor Warren, Mayor Roger Lapham of San Francisco
and I flew in a Navy plane to Portland to attend a meeting of the Commission
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on Interstate Cooperation. I took this as anotner occasion to renew my
acquaintance with the active Democratic leadership in the Northwest. I flew
North again on June 30, to address the Oregon Press Association, at Eugene.
Justice Williann O. Douglas and E. Palmer Hoyt, then of the Portland
Oregonian, were also on this program.
John Gunther was in attendance at the U.N. sessions. He was then in the
process of compiling material for his "Inside U.S.A. " I invited hinn to ride
with me to Sacramento and Nevada to fill in those chapters of his book. We
spent three very plesant days together. Alan Bible, then Attorney General
of Nevada, entertained us in Carson City.
On July 18, Drew Pearson said in his colunnn that I was one of several
Democratic politicians who had made a killing by speculations in rye. This
caused a flap and I had to write letters to the editors denying it. What
actually happened was that when I had been in San Diego with Ed Pauley in
early April, he gave me a tip that May wheat would be a good buy. I had
never speculated in the commodity market before, but I plunged in and
bought an option on 100, 000 bushels of May wheat. President Roosevelt
died a few days later, the market broke and, about the tinne my option was
to expire, I called my friend, Mr. Pauley, to find out what should I do with
all of this v/heat because the broker was threatening to deliver it to me
within 48 hours. Much to my dismay, I found that my great commodity
market adviser was then in Moscow. I let the broker sell me out and I was
lucky to get out of the thing with a net loss of $650.
This flap put me on guard, however, and I took steps to sell out my stock
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in the Oceanic Oil Company. I was a director of Oceanic and I also resigned
my director shiip. The Oceanic Oil Company did not have a well within one
hundred miled of the Tidelands. However, the name would certainly
attract the suspicions of the columnists. As long as I was leading California's
fight on the tidelands, I thought it best to divest nnyself of anything that
sounded like an ocean.
I did renriain a director of Stewart McKee's brewery and of the Citizens
Bank, since I could not see any fancied conflicts of interest there.
On July 14, I visited with Colonel Evans Carlson and his family at
their home in Escondido, San Diego County. Carlson was a magnetic leader
of men and this meeting confirmed everything that Mike Blankfort had told
me about him.
The progressives of Hollywood were full of activity at this time. They
filled the Philharmonic Auditorium in Los Angeles at a mass meeting on
June 27, 1945. On this occasion, I devoted my speech to the events of the
United Nations Conference and the signing of the International Charter. The
letterhead of the Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts,
Sciences and Professions tlien bore the names of such stars as Humphrey
Bogart, Charles Boyer, Abe Buroughs, Eddie Cantor, Mark Connolly,
Norman Corwin, Joseph Cotten, Olivia DeHaviland, Albert Dekker, Walter
Huston, Jeronne Kern, Gregory Peck, Artie Shaw and Orson Welles.
On July 20, a crowd of 17, 000 came to the Olympic Auditorium to
protest the appearances of Gerald L. K. Smith in Los Angeles. Smith had
held three meetings in Los Angeles, and the progressive forces Avanted to
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give him some competition by this counter rally at the Olympic. The meeting
was called under the auspices of an ad-hoc organization known as Mobilization
for Democracy. The representation at this meeting was impressive, and
included the AFL, CIO, Veteran's organizations, the Church Federation,
leaders of the Jewish community, the League of Women Voters, the NAACP,
the Democratic and Republican County Central Committees and the Council
for Civic Unity. I was the Chairman of the meeting. Speakers on the
program included Burgess Meredith, Orson Welles and Gregory Peck.
Albert Dekker, the actor-legislator, made the collection speech. A
captured Nazi flag was spread on the platform and was covered with checks
and currency, more than $10, 000 being contributed that night to organize
a fight against native Fascism.
That $10, 000 later turned out to be an embarrassment. The organizers
of the meeting had never expected to raise any more than would be necessary
to pay for the meeting itself. However, since such a large surplus had been
accumulated, various organizations started asserting their claims to it.
The organizers of the Mobilization for Democracy finally settled the problem
by making their own organization pernnanent and keeping the money.
Another meeting of the Mobilization was held on August 26, at the Los
Angeles City College. This was attended by Mayor Bowron and many city
legislators. The star of the occasion was Colonel Evans Carlson. I had
not heard him speak in public before. I discovered that he was the only man
in California public life who was literally able to inove his hearers to tears.
He told how he had led men to their deaths in a war to end Fascism, and
-Z41-
that the sacrifice v^ould all be wasted if Fascism could be revived by men
like Gerald Smith, preying upon latent bigotry and prejudice.
A few weeks later I attended a sheriff's zone meeting in Markleyville,
Alpine County. This is the smallest county in the State with no more than
50 voters. How^ever Colonel Carlson's father, Rev. Thomas Alpine Carlson,
had been the first white child born in Alpine County and I wanted to visit the
place to gather some local color for his son's campaign.
On July 27, 1945, liberals in the United States were greatly heartened
by the Labor Party's victory in the United Kingdom, which made Atlee
the Prime Minister in place of Churchill.
On August 6, 1945, Senator Hiram Johnson died. While I was listening
on the radio for the details of the Senator's death, the news kept coming over
about a new weapon that had been exploded at Hiroshima that day. It was
the atomic bonnb.
I had nnade arrangements some weeks before for an August meeting in
Fresno ^vith Robert Cozzens of the War Relocation Authority to visit the
areas where returning Nisei had been victims of scare shootings. Bob
Powers and I joined Cozzens. The day we had selected turned out to
be V-J Day, Our party visited many homes where rifle bullets had pierced
the walls. It was a touching experience. In all of these homes, the radios
were on, and the occupants were listening delightedly to the news of V.J.
Day with the hope that it meant the end of the persecution they had suffered
ever since Pearl Harbor. No one was injured by any of these vigilante shoot-
ings but there had been many narrow escapes.
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On August 30, the Democrats of San Francisco held their annual
Jefferson Day dinner at the Palace Hotel. The principal speaker was
Governor Robert Kerr of Oklahoma, who had been the keynoter at the
Democratic national convention in Chicago. A few days later. Governor
Kerr and I visited the Oakland Dennocratic Club for luncheon. The Governor
observed that the Dennocrats there were trying to draft me to run for Governor.
He urged me to run.
On September 14, a unique experiment in law enforcement took place
in Richmond, California. A police seminar on race relations was held
there. There had been some racial incidents in Richmond, a town that
had greatly expanded during the war. Bob Powers conducted this seminar with
Davis B. McEntire of the American Counsel for Race Relations. Based on
this seminar, We published a booklet entitled "A Guide to Race Relations
for Peace Officers. " This was widely distributed throughout the country
to police departments in areas vAhere racial tensions existed.
On September 29, 1945, the San Francisco Chronicle held a forum
to which it invited speakers from all political groups. In my speech,
I called attention to the fact that California's manufactured. products increased
from less than three billion dollars in 1939 to eleven and a half billion in
1944. In five years California had converted its economy from that of a
predominantly agricultural state to a predominantly industrial region. We
therefore had a coniplex conversion problem, differing from any other part
of the county. I said, "To my mind, we Californians no longer have a
choice. We must either grow, go forward to prosperity, expanded native
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industry and full employment --or we bring upon our sieves our own ex-
tinction. Events have caught up with us. V7e must adopt a course of
planned, cooperative and conscious progress. "
In October, I was invited by Chief Justice Phil Gibson to address the
students newly admitted to the Bar. I told the new lawyers that: "I wish
that when I had been admitted to the Bar somebody had told me not to be
awed by legal print, by the mountains of judicial opinion, and the piles of
legislative enactments. I wish it had been pointed out to me at that time that
all of these tomes were the products of people, had in most cases quite
recently elbowed out earlier books, and v/ould in many instances soon be
crowded out by fresh things that the people wanted. It usually takes a number
of years before the practitioner achieves just the right proportion of respect
for the utterances of the sovereign state and irreverance for the transcience
of its usefulness. "
I was absent from California for a six week period beginning October 15,
1945. My trip took me to Mexico City, Panama, Santiago, Chile, where I
attended another convention of the Inter-Arnerican Bar Association, Buenos
Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Washington, D. C, Jacksonville, Florida, where I
attended the annual convention of the National Association of Attorneys
General and finally, back to Los Angeles by way of New Orleans.
At the Santiago convention there were no repetitions of the incident of
the Chamizal resolution. The administration of the Bar Association had
amended the rules so that no resolutions could be introduced at the con-
vention without at least 30 days previous notice. This blocked the efforts of
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some delegates who had hoped to do a little Yankee -baiting by introducing a
resolution in favor of granting Puerto Ricans a plebiscite on their right to
independence.
I found many new friends among the law faculty of the University of
Chile. The law was not taught there as an isolated science, but as a
component of the other sciences. The Chilean law professors had long ago
given up the siesta. After being out with some of them until late hours I
heard a knocking at my hotel room door early the next morning. It was
Professor Figueroa, who taught medical-legal subjects. I had forgotten
his invitation of the night before to go on a Sunday picnic with one of his
classes. The students collected in two or three automobiles and we drove out
of the city to the grounds of the State Insane Asylum. There, in the presence
of many of the patients, the student lawyers proceeded to barbecue the goat,
open wine and enjoy an al fresco banquet. The inmates naingled freely with
us. Professor Figueroa explained that this was good therapy both for the
patients and his students, who would learn something about the actual nature
of mental disorder.
V/hile in Santiago, I advanced my idea of forming an international bar
association of liberal lawyers somewhat similar to the National Lawyers
Guild. I also promoted this project with the liberal lawyers of Buenos Aires
and Rio de Janerio. The idea was received with considerable enthusiasm.
Nothing came of the plan, however, because cold war tensions started mounting
almost imniediately. Liberals began to fear associating with other liberals,
particularly on international basis.
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I spent ten days in Rio, Duncan Aikman, who had written a book on
South America a few years before entitled "The All American Front, " had
been with me in Panama. He came down to Rio to join me. One day he
asked me to come over to the U. S. Embassy to meet an old friend of his
who was the Counsellor there. I had forgotten that the Ambassador ■was
Adolph Berle ■with w^hom I had had such difficulty over the La^vyers Guild
five years before. When I arrived at the Ennbassy there was no way to
prevent him from taking me to naeet the Ambassador. I tried to keep our
conversation on neutral grounds, but it was only a few minutes before
Berle congratulated me on my political success in California, and added:
"I suppose there must be a very large Connmunist vote there. "
I told Berle that during the Mexican Water Treaty fight I found that
he made more sense than any other man in the State Department. I told
him that I also admired him for his writings on the American corporate
system. However, when it came to politics, I said I thought he was demented
upon the subject of communism.
Drew Pearson's column in the L. A. Daily News on December 3, re-
ported subsequent events:
"On a tour of Brazil, Kenny made the rounds of Rio de Janeiro,
foiind Brazilians perplexed at the way the eccentric United States Envoy
operates. 'Tell me, Mr. Kenny, ' one Brazilian asked, 'ho\^' come Mr.
Truman lets Berle stay on here as Annbassador ? ' Kenny was all primed
for the answer. 'You see, my friend, ' replied Kenny, 'when Mr. Truman
took over, he had just seen a delightful show on Broadway called "Springtime
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in Brazil, " starring Milton Berle, who he thought was very good and very
funny. V/ell, when he looked over the list of his ambassadors and saw
that Berle was representing the United States in Brazil, he thought it was an
excellent choice. You see, no one has told Truman yet that it isn't the
same Berle. '"
The Attorneys General convention at Jacksonville provided an occasion
for me to mobilize the states against the federal government's suit against
California on the tidelands. I convinced my colleagues that similar en-
croachments could take place in their own jurisdictions wherever the federal
government wanted to lay claim to the lands below navigable waters. Tom
Clark came to the convention in his new capacity as Attorney General of
the United States. Although we had long been friends during the years he
■was Assistant Attorney General, he greeted me with unexpected coolness.
The federal-state fight apparently had extended to our personal relations.
The delegates accepted my invitation to hold their 1946 convention in Los
Angeles.
During nny absence from California, a development took place of which
I did not approve. Gerald L. K. Smith had returned to California for
additional nneetings. In fighting his brand of native fascism, I did not think
that liberals should ever adopt fascist methods of censorship. The nnass
meetings of Mobilization for Democracy had been designed as counter-
demonstrations. However, while I was in Latin America, many of the liberals
of Los Angeles staged a fiery protest against the city school board for per-
mitting Smith to speak at the auditorium of Polytechnic High School. The
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Los Angeles School Board permitted the Smith meeting to go forward.
However, the San Francisco Board capitulated to "liberal" protests. The
State Supreme Court held that pernnission could be denied on school days
but not on weekends when there could be no interference with classes. In
the following year, the Suprenne Court clarified this decision with an opinion
that furnished a valuable precedent in subsequent years, Danskin v Board of
Education (June 26, 1946 28 Cal 2d 536). Liberals were reminded that the
right to speak belongs to those with whom they disagree, not merely to
those who agree with them.
During my absence, the executive council of HICCASP adopted a
resolution on November 18, 1945, calling for a draft of me as "the only
logical candidate to defeat Earl Warren in 1946. "
\7hen I finally reached honae, I was interviewed by the San Francisco
Examiner, which reported on December 4, 1945 that I had found awaiting
me "a noisy 'draft Kenny for Governor' campaign" that had been started
in the CIO press. "The Democratic Party big wigs are busy thumping the
tub for him, and Southern California Democratic legislators are getting
up a petition urging him to run, " The Examiner said I retained my com-
posure and said that there had been no change in my belief that anyone who
ran for governor ought to have his head examined. "'I haven't got this
job even half licked yet, ' Kenny modestly asserted. "
A few days later it was announced that I would be co-chairinan wtth
Bartley Crum, of a non-partisan state-wide emergency legislative con-
ference to be held in Sacramento January 5 and 6th. The Associated Press
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on December 5, said: "He (Kenny) does not expect a new political party
will be born at the conference, but out of it 'will come a yardstick for
the measurement of progressivism in California, ' Primarily the objective
will be to exert pressure on the legislature on the subjects of full employment,
child care, housing, fair employment practices and other issues which failed
at the last regular session.
'"As I see it, this conference will give Governor Warren a great
opportunity to grab a popular and progressive program and have some re-
organized support, if he adopts it. '
"Asked if he might head the progressive program as a candidate for
governor, Kenny said: 'We will cross that bridge when we come to it. "
"All the newspaper morgues in California are full of Kenny statements
that he is not running for governor; he is running for re-election as Attorney
General. "
The United Press that day reported me as saying that I thought that
Senator Downey would run for Governor on the Democratic ticket and that I
had joined others in urging Downey to run:
"Kenny, whose political plans created a guessing game in the State,
talked readily about next year's election, but he was more interested in
the legislative conference scheduled to precede a special legislative session
next month. "
On December 16, I attended a Los Angeles meeting of Youth for
Democracy. The theme was "V/elcome Home, Joe. " Colonel Evans
Carlson made a magnificent speech on the right of returning veterans to
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live in a democratic society. When Dorothy Parker introduced the Colonel,
she referred to his "rag rug. " Colonel Carlson had so many ribbon
decorations on his chest that it did resemble one. Ingrid Bergman was one
of the many Hollywood personalities at this banquet. In those days, liberalism
was definitely "in, " in Hollywood.
On December 29, 1945 there was a caucus in Fresno of Democratic
State Central Committee members for the purpose of drawing up a slate of
candidates for the June, 1946 primary. The meeting was augmented by
many persons who were also in Fresno to complete plans for the Emergency
Legislative Conference. Senator Downey and State Chairman V/illiam
Malone were there. Senator Downey said he might run for governor on a
platform of creating an emergency commission to handle California's peace-
time problems should the 1946 special session of the legislature fail to
produce satisfactory results. I urged Senator Downey to seek the nomination
and promised him my support if he would run.
Roland IvicNitt, chairman of the Los Angeles County Central Dennocratic
Committee reported to Kyle Palmer, political editor of tlie Los Angeles
Times, that while he was disappointed that the Fresno committee had not
drawn up a 1946 slate, he said "I am certain that we will still have a slate
of candidates for state-wide offices. The majority sentiment at Fresno was for
the idea, but Malone felt that it was not the thing to do for the State Committee
to express a preference in the primary. We will develop a technique, some
form of a state-wide caucus, to do the work. "
Kyle Palmer, reporting an interview with McNitt in the L.A. Times of
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January 1, 1946, said: "Asked about reports that Senator Downey's move
for the gubernatorial spot rather flattened out at Fresno and that the big
sentiment was for Kenny, McNitt's only observation was that there was
plenty of Kenny sentiment. He would not comment on Downey's fate. "
Palmier closed the interview with some predictions of his own;
"We will stick with our original prediction of a couple of months ago: If
the CIO can't make Kenny run, nobody can. The CIO w^ants him to run.
We will also stick to our own prediction of old that Representative Ellis
Patterson will run for U. S. Senator. "
On December Z9, Nate WTiite of the Christian Science Monitor, had the
following to say: "The biggest political question mark in California right
now is the very personable, popular, and unassuming Attorney General
Robert W, Kenny.
"This young businessman-lawyer, a member of Republican Governor
Earl Warren's 'nonpartisan' State Administration, is extrennely popular
with labor, and \vell-liked among politicians, members of his ow^n Democratic
Party, and members of the 'big business' world.
"Bob Kenny is, in one sense, the current Calvin Coolidge of California
politics. He sinnply doesn't 'choose' to run for Governor next year, although
pressures from highest, lowest, and middle levels are being brought upon
hinn. An increasing number of people and organizations would like to "draft
Kenny, " as evidenced in the recent meeting here of the State convention of
the California Congress of Industrial Organizations.
"Meanwhile the Kenny situation is disturbing politicians of both parties
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and the'nonpartisans' because they recognize Judge Kenny's great popularity
and vigor. Certainly he has demonstrated he talks the language, and acts
the acts of the common man. He doesn't mince words. He is a liberal and
he admits and advertises it.
'"The present moment indicates that we still live in a major continuing
crisis whose stakes are total victory, or, reaction and death, ' Attorney
General Kenny recently told labor.
'"To carry on the struggle for the future, we must recognize the enemy
here in the present, ' he warned. These are the reactionary thinkers who
employ political indifference of the people, national disunity, and economic
monopoly to achieve their power. Mr. Kenny calls them the 'tin-pan alley
crowd of disrupters, defeatists, and dollar-grabbers. '
'"V/hen you poison the mind, when you create distrust and suspicion
among nnen, when you set parents against children, worker against worker,
farmer against industry, when you create sectional differences, when you
play the Negro against the white, enaployed against unemployed, veteran
against civilian, then you have created the conditions for destruction on a
scale no atom bomb can match, ' the Attorney General said.
"He called for unity within the ranks of labor as 'the absolute condition
for democracy in America, ' assailed 'Jew-baiting, Negro-baiting, labor-
baiting, ' urged recall of United States Marines from China, opposed use of
Annerican lend-lease materials against the Indonesians, and the use of
American influence to 'perpetuate the colonial imperialism of Great
Britain. ' He called for political action by labor and 'pigeon-holing of the
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pigeon-holers' of legislation introduced in State and Federal legislatures for
the benefit of working people. "
East-V/est tensions were tennporarily eased by the Moscow meeting of
Secretary Byrnes, Ernest Bevin and Molotov in December 1945. It
appeared that Byrnes had made a tactical retreat from the "get tough with
Russia" line he followed at the London Conference of Foreign Ministers in
September, 1945.
Domestically, there w^ere also encouraging signs that the Roosevelt
coalition would be maintained. Both President Truman and Secretary Byrnes
had spoken in favor of the Wagner -Murray Full Employment Bill - the pro-
gram of 60, 000, 000 jobs advocated by Henry V/allace.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX -253-
A COALITION DISINTEGRATES - 1946
Bartley C. Crum and I were co-chairmen of the emergency legislative
conference held in Sacramento January 5th and 6th, 1946, In attendance
there were 699 elected delegates from 366 civic, labor, farm, church and
veteran's organizations. Several hundred observers were also there. It
must have been a disturbing spectacle for the reactionaries of the State.
The opening session was broadcast state-wide by CBS.
"By 1946, " I told the delegates, "our problems have become raging
difficulties. Not enough houses for our families and our veterans. No
guarantee of employment. No plan for reconversion. No protection of
our minorities. A limping social security. A disregard for the welfare of
our children.
"Meeting here today and tomorrow^, representative citizens of California
will draw up a definite series of proposals, which if made law, will organize
the human and material resources of California to meet our most pressing
needs. The farnmer, the worker, the housewife, the mother and the child,
the businessman, and the veteran will have their problems integrated into
a single pattern of progress and security. "
The sponsors of the conference included a wide spectrum of the
leadership of California: Joseph A. Ball, Long Beach attorney. Professor
Thomas Barclay of Stanford, District Attorney Edmund G. Brown, of San
Francisco, Colonel Carlson, Phillip Connally of the State CIO, John
Cromwell, Hollywood director, Mrs. Harriet Eliel, San Francisco, Super-
visor John Anson Ford of Los Angeles, Judge Thomas L, Griffith, Jr. of
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Los Angeles, Norman Huston, Los Angeles insurance executive, Professor
Alexander Kidd, Berkeley, Cyril Magnin, William Malone and Supervisor
Dewey Meade of San Francisco, Patrick W. McDonough, Oakland industrialist,
Roland McNitt of Los Angeles, Judge Edward Murphy, of San Francisco,
Oscar Pattiz, Los Angeles insurance executive, Mrs. Charles Porter and
Senator Jack Shelley of San Francisco. The conference divided among
seven panels for the work of analyzing the most urgent problems facing
California.
The panel on Full Employment called for the adoption of a state
Full Employment bill to augment the Murray-Wagner bill then pending in
Congress, a minimum 75^ wage law, and a state -financed housing program
under a state housing authority. This panel also proposed state operation of
a system of FM radio stations for education.
The panel on Social Security proposed extension of unemployment in-
surance coverage to agricultural, domestic, public and non-profit organization
employment. The minimum age for old age pension should be reduced from
65 to 60 years of age, and the mininnum payment raised from $50 per
month, to $60. The Governor was requested to include health insurance in
his call for the special session.
The panel on Housing and Community Redevelopment was chaired by
Langdon W. Post, Regional Director of the Federal Public Housing Authority.
It recommended outlawing racial restrictive covenants, and to make it a
misdemeanor to discriminate in the sale, lease or renting of housing
accommodations. It recommended state rent control, if the Federal
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government dropped it for the erection of permanent dormitories and
family units to meet the expanding needs of the state educational institutions.
The Veterans Affairs panel recomnnended an increase of California
Veterans' loans to $10, 000 for homes and $15, 000 for farms or business
purposes, with the reduction of maximum interest rates from 4% to 2-1/2%.
The Legislature was asked to memorialize Congress to include in the
Federal GI Bill of Rights a provision that no funds be granted to educational
institutions discriminating on the basis of race, creed, color or nationality.
The establishment of a statutory right to equality of job opportunity
was urged through the creation of a state agency with power to eliminate and
prevent discrimination because of race, religion, color, national origin or
ancestry, through conciliation, education and legal procedures. The
campaign for a proposed FEPC initiative was endorsed.
The Urban-Rural Relations panel was chaired by George Sehlmeyer,
Master of the California State Grange. It considered the lack of understanding
existing between farmers and urban people regarding problems affecting
their joint welfare. Joint conferences to overcome this condition were
recommended. It urged support of the prograin of the Bureau of Reclamations
program for the comprehensive development of all of the water resources of
the Central Valley. This program would provide the multiple benefits of
irrigation, municipal and industrial water supply, power, flood control,
navigation, salinity repulsion, development of fish and wild life resources
and recreation.
The Child Care panel recommended state support for child care centers
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for all working mothers and all nnothers incapacitated by illness.
In its concluding session, the conference adopted a resolution calling
for an abolition of the Tenney Un-American Activities Committee because
it was "fradulently nnisusing its powers, utilizing \indemocratic methods
and practices to spread fear and confusion in the ranks of progressive
individuals and organizations and those w^ho believe in academic freedom. "
I made the closing statement for the conference over state -wide radio
saying: "I do not think we are going to lose the battle for peace and
plenty. If these past two days in Sacramento are any indication of the
months to come, then the hundreds of organizations represented here have
joined ranks, consolidated forces, and are prepared to wage a relentless
battle against economic chaos, indifference to human needs, and social
selfishness. Let us tell ourselves what victory means. It means for
Californians: Jobs, homes, security in childhood and old age, equality
and dignity. Defeat for us means a return to a California which is a colony
of Eastern monopoly, a California that cannot support its present population,
a California undeveloped, unhappy, insecure. Defeat will bring about all the
attendant evils of such a condition: Unemployment, racial stress, social
tensions, all the horrors which America experienced long ago in the unhappy
decade following 1929.
"We cannot afford to be defeated within in America anymore than
America could afford to be defeated by the Axis. "
The following Sunday, January 13, Kyle Palmer, political editor of
the Los Angeles Times had this to say: "A plump, short, affable wise-
-257-
cracking product of California's muddled politics -- Attorney General
Robert Kenny, who began his career as a conservative and may end it as
a leader of the left -- appears to be on the verge of precipitating one of the
hottest and most embittered contests in the State's political history.
"While continuing to veil his plans behind a demeanor which can be
described only as coy, Kenny in Sacramento during the last few^ days has
given every indication of being in the state of mind of a man who has reached
a momentous decision.
"Long a holdout against increasin^yinsistent demands that he become
the Dennocratic party's man on horseback in California, Kenny has yielded
at least to the extent that he is looking over a collection of bridles and
saddles deemed fitting for one who expects to ride in an important race.
"In fact, to all intents and purposes, Kenny has decided to become a
candidate for Governor against Earl Warren.
"And while he will have the good wishes and active support of many
conservative Democrats, Kenny, as the Democratic gubernatorial nominee,
will spearhead the hopes, dreams and designs of a bewildering assortment
of left-wingers, pinks, CIO, extremists, Communists and self-styled
'liberals. '
"Professional politicians in his party will rally to Kenny almost to a
nnan, but his close association with the C.I. O. and its Political Action
Committee, along with the marked enthusiasm for his candidacy among
extreme radical elements, will lose him the support of a very large block
of Democratic party regulars.
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"Both by Republican and Dennocrats, Kenny is regarded as the only
individual likely to give Governor Warren a real tussle in the November
runoff. If clamor and ballyhoo can determine a political contest, Kenny will
have an edge. "
Early in February, I went to Washington. The Senate Judiciary
Committee was then considering the Federal legislation which would grant
to the states a clear title to their tidelands. Secretary of Interior Harold
Ickes was iny principal opponent in this fight. I found it very difficult to
oppose Ickes. He was a master of public relations. Anyone who ever opposed
him was ipso facto a crook, furthermore, he could prove it.
Ed Pauley was one of those aligned with me and against Ickes in the
tidelands fight. During Roosevelt's regime, Pauley had become National
Treasurer of the Deinocratic Party. Roosevelt admired the way Pauley had
lifted the burden of deficit that had always hung over the Democratic National
Committee. One of the ways that Pauley accomplished this miracle was by
obtaining large contributions from the oil companies. During all of those
years, the Federal claim on the tidelands remained merely an unexercised
threat. However, with Roosevelt dead, Pauley's contributions were forgotten
by Ickes.
President Truman appointed Ed Pauley assistant Secretary of the Navy.
When his name came up for confirmation in the U.S. Senate Committee on
Naval Affairs, Harold Ickes appeared before the committee on February 2,
and opposed Pauley's nomination. Ultimately, President Truman withdrew
Pauley's nanne at the latter' s request on March 13, 1946. Ickes' resignation
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had been accepted on February 12, 1946.
On February 15, I presided over a National Lawyers Guild dinner
given in Washington in honor of Chester Bowles. For several weeks prior
to the banquet there had been some doubt as to whether or not President
Truman would appoint Bowles to Byrnes' old post of Director of Economic
Stabilization. He finally acted on the afternoon of the banquet, giving Bowles
the appointment. In introducing Mr. Bowles that night, I said I was reminded
of an old comic strip character and referred to the President as "Hairbreath
Harry. " The Lawyers Guild was still in good standing and the meeting
was attended by most of the former New Dealers. Governor J. Howard
McGrath, then Solicitor General of the United States, was one of those in
attendance.
On February 19, Assemblynnan Thomas Werdel, of Bakersfield, in-
troduced a resolution condemning me for lending my name and prestige to
subversive groups. Assemblyman Walter Fourt of Ventura, Warren's
floor leader, opposed it. The resolution condemned me in particular for
sponsoring the Mobilization for Democracy, since some of the other sponsors
were "Communist Party members, fellow-travelers, window-dressers
and leaders expounding the doctrine of confusion. " The text of the resolution
declared that subversives seek to confuse issues by advocating such objectives
as child care and veteran's legislation. Assemblyman Robertson of Santa
Barbara, hooted at this argument and said that these were items that were
included in Governor Warren's call for the special session. The resolution
was defeated 19 to 57. The 19 "aye" votes all came from Republicans, but
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20 Republicans voted "no. "
Upon my return from Washington, I told the L. A, Tinnes that miy
mind was still not made up on the race for Governor and that I would not
reach a decision for another two weeks. The Times reported that my
continued indecision "came as a distinct surprise to those who have been
assured by local Democrats and their CIO allies that Kenny positively
had agreed to enter the governorship contest. Until Kenny dropped his
miniature political atom bomb into the camp of those who have been
attempting -- with minimum success -- to write a so-called 'harmony
slate' of candidates for national and state offices, plans have been going
ahead for publication of the harmony selections with the Attorney General's
candidacy for governor heading the list. According to some members of
the harmony faction, when informed of Kenny's current position, he is so
far committed to the matter that a withdrawal at this time for any reason
would be so unfavorably received as to nnake it impossible for him to be
re-elected to his present office. Serenely indifferent to the consternation
his announcement created, Kenny said he was to find out a few things for
himself before taking the final plunge. Conjecture as to possible reasons
for Kenny's indecision included the possibility that the politically astute
Attorney General is anxious to discover the effect upon California politics
of the controversy now waging in Washington around his friend and political
ally Edwin W. Pauley."
In the L. A. Times of February 3, Kyle Palmer reminded his readers
that Hiram Johnson was the only Governor who had ever managed to win a
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second term, and that Earl Warren now faced that jinx in 1946. Palmer said
all indications pointed to an early announcennent by me that I would oppose
Earl Warren,
"The reason? Or reasons?
"Well, a part of the explanation is found in the anxiety of the professional
Democratic politicians to hold California in line when the next President of
the United States is chosen. They feel they will stand a better chance in
1948 if a Dennocratic Governor is elected in California this year.
"From such a standpoint, their reasoning is sound. By itself,
however, this argument is not likely to have moved Kenny to adopt a course
avowedly so distasteful to him,
"The fact is that Bob Kenny, originally a conservative in politics,
has become a sort of Bright Boy in the political plans and program - not
of regular and traditionally loyal Democrats - but of the leftish groups
which have moved into the Democratic party and now threaten to take it
over lock, stock and barrel.
"If you were to look around this State for a nnan who can turn your
suspicions aside with a friendly jeer or apt wisecrack, who can make you
seem ridiculous to yourself for even suspecting he has ulterior motives or,
perhaps, to close sympathies with extreme leftists, you could begin and
end your search with Smiling Bob.
"He is equally at ease in the California Club or in the councils of the
C. I. O. and its Political Action Committee. Yet it is the C. I. O. leadership
in State and country w^hich has found in Kenny a fine stalking horse, and it
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is this leadership, rather than the top Democrats, who have virtually forced
Kenny's hand.
"Kenny has a ready and a stock answer to leftist friends who question
his friendships among 'economic royalists, ' and, oddly enough, he gives
the same rejoinder to the conservatives who chide him for his radical
associations.
"'Elect me, ' says Smiling Bob in effect, 'and you will have a man
who can control those elements. '
Later that month, Kyle Palmer made another political prophecy.
Under the heading "Warren Can Win in June" Palmer said:
"This year Warren, a candidate for re-election, seems likely
to have Attorney General Robert Kenny as his Democratic opponent.
"Warren can polish Kenny off in the 1946 primaries if his advisers
conduct their campaign w^isely and agressively.
"His own following, having - as its leaders believe persuaded him
against his inclination to abandon the office of Attorney General and enter
the Governorship contest against Warren, is both perturbed and resentful
as a result of Kenny's persistent refusal to make any public statement of
his intentions. Conservative Democrats of the nonprofessional variety
will be against Kenny from start to finish.
"In confidential discussions of Democratic leaders and C. I. O.
Political Action groups, Kenny is being roundly denounced as a prima
donna, a political opportunist who thinks solely of his own personal ambitions,
as one whose commitments - 'in the presence of witnesses' - are not
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dependable.
"Many of the offside remarks accompanying such cover sations are
not printable.
"His ultimate decision to contest with Warren will find this dissatisfied,
disaffected and decidedly suspicious coalition lined up, nevertheless, to
elect him and to sweep into office at the sanne time various other handpicked
candidates. Any last-hour declination by Kenny will merely add to flames
already flaring high and hot, "
In the midst of all this speculation, I received an invitation from
Justice Robert Jackson to visit Nurennberg as an observer of the war
crinnes trials. Martin Popper and I were invited as official observers
for the National Lawyers Guild along with two representatives of the
American Bar Association. The United Press dispatch for February 28,
said: "Kenny's decision to go to Germany at this time prompted speculation
that the Attorney General, who has frequently expressed a reluctance about
seeking the Governor's nomiination because he likes his present position,
might be giving the Democratic Party an opportunity to select another
candidate. "
However, before I left for Germany, the so-called "Harmony forces"
in the Dennocratic Party insisted that I sit with them to make out a slate
of candidates for the 1946 primary. The meeting was held in the Attorney
General's office of San Francisco, in late February. It was a political
disaster, since we failed to recognize that a "harmony slate had beconne
impossible. "
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The Democrats could only win in California in 1946 if a coalition
was preserved, ennbracing the entire political spectrunn. This had been
the essential ingredient of the 1944 victory, But» in 1945, the Communists
decided to end their wartime collaboration. They overthrew Earl Browder, whr
long had advocated a coalition of all progressive forces. "Independent"
political action became their watchword. I called it "misplaced militancy. "
At the same tinne, many organization Democrats were also anxious to see
the end of this uneasy partnership. They suspected, with considerable justi-
fication, that the egg heads and radicals wanted to supplant their leadership.
The candidacy of Colonel Carlson for U. S. Senator had seemed the
perfect solution to maintain harmony. He was acceptable to the Left and
the Right was unprepared to oppose the political mystique of an undeniable
hero of the war just fought and won.
But Colonel Carlson was then a dying man. In January, 1946, he
told me that his physicians forbade his entry into the race. His war-tinne
injuries were far more serious than they were first believed to be. He
died later that year.
Upon Carlson's withdrawal, it was my happy inspiration that L,t.
Col. James Roosevelt, who had served under him, should take his place
as the candidate. Manchester Boddy of the L.. A. Daily News also urged
Roosevelt to run. At that time Roosevelt was a paid executive of HICCASP.
However, Roosevelt declined to enter the race.
With these two broadly acceptable candidates out of the race, the
Left then insisted that Rep. Ellis Patterson becoxne the candidate. Ever
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since Patterson had bolted the Roosevelt slate in 1940, he was anathema
to the regular Democrats* He would not fit on any "harmony" slate.
I then had my final inspiration for a solution but it did not turn out
to be a happy one. I hit upon Will Rogers, Jr., as the candidate. Bill
had fought Martin Dies during the 1943 session of Congress. He had
surrendered his seat in the House to enter the Army and had recently
returned from overseas with a fine war record,
Rogers' enlistment had created a vacancy in the House to which Ellis
Patterson had been elected in 1944. This was a real reprieve for Pat,
who had been out of public office since his defeat for Lieutenant Governor
in 1942.
I had the naive belief that Patterson would feel himself under deep
obligations to Rogers for giving him this chance to make a comeback. I
therefore invited Bill Rogers for lunch and urged him to enter the race for
the U, S. Senate. He accepted readily.
The leak in this wonderful arrangement was that Patterson stayed in
the race. I should have remembered that gratitude in politics is a keen sense
of favors to conne.
Therefore when the "harmony" caucus met in my San Francisco
office in late February, 1946, we had two senatorial candidates on our
hands. Representatives of both Rogers and Patterson were present. Neither
candidate would withdraw.
I tried one final solution. This one was a fatal political blunder. My
luck as a coalitionist finally had run out. The "solution" which solved
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nothing, was that we select a harmony slate but with two candidates for
U. S. Senator. "A package deal with an option, " was the way I described it,
I had been carried away by the blind optimism that afflicts candidates
for public office. Anyone retaining his normal political sagacity should
have recognized that if party discipline was insufficient to enforce a
decision for a single Senate candidate, then there should not be any slate
at all. It was a question of whether group action or individual action should
control.
My solution was accepted by the caucus that night. The slate finally
selected had me on it as the candidate for Governor, and Senator Jack
Shelley, Lt. Governor, I. insisted that there be one woman on the slate
and Lucille Gleason, wife of James Gleason, the actor, was selected as
the candidate for Secretary of State. She had nnade a brave race for
A-ssembly in a Republican district in 1944.
There were two good men available for designation as Attorney
General on this slate - Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, District Attorney of
San Francisco and State Sen. Oliver Carter, son of Suprenne Court Justice
Jesse Carter, I threw my weight to Brown and he was selected by the
caucus.
These four candidates, - Kenny, Shelley, Brown and Gleason
formed the basis of a unified Democratic campaign, and our names v/ere
carried jointly on all of the literature subsequently issued during the
primiary campaign of 1946.
No slate candidate was selected for Controller. State Senator
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Thomas Kuchel had recently been appointed to this post by Governor
Warren, upon the death of Controller Harry Riley.
The race between Patterson and Rogers provided the side show
that took all the customers away from the main tent. All of my efforts to
consolidate the Democratic Party in 1944 disappeared when the real split
developed between the left wing adherents of Patterson and the conservative
Democratic adherents of Rogers. Rogers was not really a conservative.
As a freshman Congressman, Bill had led a fight against Martin Dies and
his un-American Activities Committee in February, 1943. The inevitable
polarization of political sentiment occurred, and Rogers was drawn more
and more to the right as the campaign continued. It soon became apparent
that Rogers was also going to win. Much of my labor support was drawn
into a desperate effort to save Patterson.
For several years, I had always taken my own post card straw votes
to determine the outcome of elections. My own poll demonstrated that
Kyle Palmer was right, that Earl Warren was going to beat me for the
Democratic nomination. It was in vain that I showed these findings both
to the Patterson supporters and the Rogers supporters. I was assured by
both that I should not worry, and that they would reunite immediately after
the primaries. This was obviously wishful thinking. Political scars are
never that quickly healed. All my efforts for four years to bring about
a coalition of all wings of the Party were destroyed in that spring of 1946.
On March 5, 1946, I went on the air to announce my candidacy for
Governor and the formation of the slate. I tried to brush the Patterson-
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Rogers split under the rug with the statement that: "The leadership of
this state had pledged that the candidates for the U. S. Senate will conduct
their campaigns with the proper attitude of mutual respect that one
progressive owes another, and that the natural aggressiveness of such
candidates will be directed to the Republican opposition and not to candidates
or leaders within their own party. With this kind of ticket and agreement
I am confident that we will all be able to campaign together joyously and
hopefully in 1946."
The subsequent campaign was hopeful enough but certainly not joyous.
On the following day I left for Germany. The visit to Nuremberg was
important to nne as a lawyer interested in international cooperation. The
prosecution and judges represented four different legal systems - British,
American, French and Russian. The lawyers of these four nations were
able to work out understandings so that all four legal systenns were welded
harmoniously together. Ever since the U. N. meeting in San Francisco, I
had been working on the formation of an international association of lawyers.
The Nuremberg trials demonstrated to me that the legal profession easily
adapted itself to international cooperation. Lawyers are trained in the
settlement of controversy.
My first day in the old courthouse at Nuremberg was the one on which
Herman Goering was being cross-examined by our prosecutor, Justice
Jackson. Goering knew that under the English and American systems, a
witness always has a right to explain his answer,
Jackson asked Goering if it was true that the German General Staff
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already had a plan for invading Russia -- Plan Barbarossa - at the same
time that Germany had nnade its August 1939 agreement of friendship and
amity with Russia. Goering replied affirmatively and then asked if he
could explain his answer. Over Jackson's objections, the judges ruled
that he could. Goering then said, "Yes, it is true that we had the Plan
Barbarossa, but it is also true that the American and British General Staffs
both have plans to invade each other's countries. This is the practice of
all general staffs. "
The court adjourned for the day and I walked out with Jackson, He
was furious with our American judges for ruling against Mm, Our judges
were Francis Biddle, former Attorney General, and Appellate Judge John
J. Parker of North Carolina. I tried to mollify Jackson. I told him that he
had been on the bench too long to be an advocate. After all, this was a
police court trial, and he should use police court tactics.
The following day it was the turn of the British prosecutor. Sir David
Maxwell Fyfe to cross-examine Goering. He phrased his questions with
great civility, but in fact, he was really as hard-nosed a police court
practitioner as ever badgered a witness. He would say, "Now, Mr.
Witness, I wish to be perfectly fair with you, " and then ask a question
compared to which "Have you stopped beating your wife?" was a paragon of
fairness.
Sir David asked questions of Goering which could not be answered
with any "explanation. " He pursued Goering about the executions of British
flying officers following attempts to escape prison camps. Goering prided
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himself as anofficer and a gentlemen, despite his present fall of estate.
He readily conceded to Sir David that it was the duty of an officer to try
to escape, and that he should not be punished for attempting to do his duty.
He attempted to shift the blame for the executions upon the SS Guards,
but was forced to admit that the camps where the executions had taken
place were camps controlled by the Luftwaffe, which was under his special
command. Goering then offered the lame excuse that the executions had
occurred when he was "on leave, " but then had to admit that at all times
he could have been reached by long distance telephone. Sir David continued
crowding him, and Goering then said that the executions had taken place
upon the direct order of Der Fuhrer. Goering said that he had protested
this so violently that Der Fuhrer would not speak to hina for several months.
This was the first break in Goering' s constantly expressed loyalty
to Hitler. Sir David attempted to exploit it: "Now, Mr. Witness, do you
want to retract now any of your previous statements about your unwavering
loyalty to Der Fuhrer?"
It was Goering' s chance to re-establish himself as an officer and
gentleman.
"In the good days, Der Fuhrer was my friend. Now that the bad
days have come, I will not say one word against him. "
Upon my return to California, my first act was to take District
Attorney Brown to Los Angeles to introduce him to my friends in the South.
The Daily News published a picture of Brown trying out for size my chair
in the Los Angeles Attorney General's office. Brown and I told reporters
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that all the Democratic candidates were going to campaign through a central
headquarters for the entire ticket and not set up separate campaign offices
as the Republican candidates had done.
In this same interview, I spoke of what was going on in Nuremberg:
"The inter -allied trials are showing Hitler to be just what he was, a tragic
clown. What is being done at Nuremberg should have been done to
Napoleon 120 years ago. They merely exiled Napoleon after he brought
ruin to a continent. Napoleon was the same kind of a gangster that Hitler
was. But Napoleon was not put on trial. Because legal processes were
not used against Napoleon his deeds were glannorized and he became a hero
to many. We are now engaged in making Napoleonism disgraceful so that
no man like Napoleon or Hitler will ever be popular again if he follows their
example. History is going to be straight on that score hereafter. "
On April 19, I made a campaign speech on the educational crisis,
pointing out that 120, 000 veterans were expected to apply for 48,. 000 class
room vacancies. I blamed the Warren administration for not having met
this emergency.
On May 4th, at a cannpaign lunch meeting at the Palace Hotel, I
took a leaf out of Hiram Johnson's book and said the slogan of the campaign
should be "Kick the P. G. & E. out of politics in California. " In announcing
our strange bifurcated unity slate, I had described it as a "package deal
witli an option. " This phrase had been seized upon by the opposition as some-
thing sinister. At the Palace luncheon I said: "We're proud of what we
have in our 'package' but you'll notice Governor Warren isn't saying what
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he has in hiis. Ke doesn't have to tell us, because we know. We know he has
such choice morsels as the National Association of Manufacturers and the
Pacific Gas and Electric Company.
''.Warren had the greatest opportunity any Governor ever had to
streamline our horse-and-buggy state governn^ent. Back in 1937, nearly
ten years ago, business men of the State recognized the necessity of lowering
the cost of government. With their own funds they hired Griffenhagen and
Associates to nnake a survey. The result was a series of recommendations
on state government, which eventually became known as the Keesling Report.
While I was State Senator, I battled to convert that report into law. But we then
had a Democratic Governor and a Republican Legislature and the Republicans
immediately howled that it was a Democratic plot to oust Republican job-holders,
"When Warren canne into office, he had his own Legislature. He
had a great opportunity to put into action the recommendations of the report
because we were at war and there was a man-power shortage. But did he make
any attempt to streamline the State government? For four long years the
Keesling Report, the product of the best Republican minds in the State, has
gathered dust on Governor V/arren's desk.
"Warren's slogan on his billboard is 'Let's keep a good governor. '
What's good about a governor who ignores the serious recommendations of
the most responsible members of his own party?"
Other speakers that day were Shelley, Brown, Mrs. Gleason and the
battling candidates for senator - Rogers and Patterson. John H. Toland, Jr.
who had become my close friend in Washington as Naval Aide to the Truman
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Committee, had become the Democratic campaign chairman for Northern
California.
During the month of May, Tom Tower, publisher of a weekly paper
in the San Bernardino Mountains, wrote me that the Ku Klux Klan had been
revived in his area. Tower was the Los Angeles Times correspondent at
Big Bear Valley but none of his dispatches about the Klan revival had been
published. Bob Morris had returned from the armed services and was
again a Deputy in the Attorney General's office. I asked him to go to Big
Bear with some investigators and find out from Tower what had actually
gone on. I also called my former city editor James Richardson, then
city editor of the Examiner. The Hearst papers had traditionally fought the
Ku Klux Klan. True, they were also fighting me, politically, but I felt that
they had to give me a good press for a fev/ days on this effort against the
Klan. The investigation showed that the resort areas of California had be-
conne a hotbed of Klan activity. Rev. Wesley Swift was the 'chief organizer.
Many of the resort owners were afraid that Negroes w^ould insist on equal
rights to accommodations. In the San Bernardino Mountains and at Palm
Springs, the burning of fiery crosses had become an outdoor sport, aimed
at discouraging Negro trade.
Rev. Swift was summoned to my office for interrogation. I learned frorr
hinn that there was still a Klan headquarters in Los Angeles. To my chagrin
I discovered it was located in the Walker Auditorium Building. This was
George Walker's building, and I was the executor of his estate. I literally
was the landlord of the Ku Klux Klan at that time. We promptly raided the
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Walker Building and seized a portable electric fiery cross, a collection of
white hoods and robes, and about a half ton of anti-Semitic literature.
I also discovered that the Klan still operated under an official
corporate charter from the State of California. I began a quo -warranto
suit to revoke this charter and strip the Klan of any claim to legality.
R.S. W. Friday, an attorney, appeared for the Klan, but Superior Judge
Alfred Paonersa ruled with me, and the Klan charter was revoked. The
state charter had been granted to the Klan in 1920 as a "charitable and
eleemosynary" corporation. It had not lived up to those corporate purposes.
While I could not prevent people from joining the Klan, I could prevent it from
using an official state charter in future operations.
At about the same time, I had a superior court receiver appointed
for Christ Church of the Golden Rule. Arthur "The Voice, " Bell
had used this new church
to collect millions of dollars from aged persons upon the promise that
"God would take care of them," if they gave their property to God. Once
they had given their money to Bell, the oldsters were given jobs as bellboys
and maids in the chain of hotels and beach clubs which Bell had purchased
with their donations.
There was no regulatory agency in the state authorized by statute
to police such operations. However, at common law, the Attorney General
had the power to inquire into the financial health of charitable corporations.
Warren Olney, III, who had been deputy attorney general under Earl
Warren, had just returned from the Marine Corps. I appointed him special
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deputy in charge of the Christ Church of the Golden Rule case. My general
instruction to him was "All's well that ends Bell. " Bell's attorneys
promptly put him through a voluntary bankruptcy proceeding in the federal
court and the state receiver was discharged. Frederick Napoleon Howser,
my successor as Attorney General in 1947 dismissed Olney as special
counsel, and the case was dropped.
I received a few nev/spaper endorsements in my campaign for
Governor. On March 30, the Los Angeles Daily News assailed Earl Warren
for his charge that I had failed to do anything to control the black market
in California,
"Warren is on rather soft ground indeed when he pictures himself
as the champion of price control and his Democratic opponent as a friend
of black market operations.
"To take a really firm position, the governor will have to repudiate
the activities of his own party in Washington. He will have to say, in
effect, 'I am for full price control. I am against any Republican and any
Democrat who has perpetrated this betrayal of the American consunner. '
"Until he makes some such clear statement, the governor can
scarcely deny his opponent's allegation that he is aligned with groups
attempting to subvert stabilization nneasures. "
A small paper in San Francisco, The Reporter, endorsed me upon
the stated ground that, "Kenny has the nnoral courage of his convictions.
He is responsible only to his conscience. He does not truck to the influence
of the rich at the expense of the poor. He is not a tool of corporations,
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newspapers and land companies.
"Kenny is a chainpion for the underdog. 'Inasnnuch as ye do it unto
the least of these ye also have done unto me' said the Lord, and on May 8th,
he stood before a Legislative Committee in Sacramento and denounced police
brutality and certain judges who have a practice of giving floaters to so-
called undesirables. Kenny told the committee: 'I think it is serious and
subversive for a judge to tell an American citizen where he can or cannot
live. ' Kenny said, 'Some police and some judges need to go to school to learn
more about the bill of rights. '
"Kenny threatened to supercede local courts and prosecutors and
bring before the bar of justice cowardly persons who attacked American-
Japanese when they sought to return to their homes and their property with
the O.K. of the U.S. Government.
"Kenny believes in the working people. He believes in their right
to organize and bargain collectively. He has fought all efforts on the part
of organized wealth to destroy labor unions. In him as Governor the work-
ing people will have the same type of friend in Sacramento as they had in
Roosevelt at Washington. Those who live in the past have called Kenny a
radical because of his advanced social views. Such people have always
called men radical who seek to translate ideas into action. "
The forces of disunity began working overtime after I announced
for Governor. Only a few days later President Truman sat on the platform
with Winston Churchill at Fulton, Missouri on March 7, 1946. Churchill
there delivered the speech which has been frequently described as the
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original declaration of the Cold War. In the week before the California
primary election, President Truman threatened on May 2 5, 1946, to draft
striking railroad workers into the army. This innpetuous proposal was
defeated in the United States Senate through the opposition of Republicans,
led by Senator Robert A. Taft.
On May 27, there was a mass meeting at the Oakland auditorium. All
of the candidates on the "harmony slate" spoke. Judge Monroe Friedman
was chairman. Shelley warned that "It is a historical fact that after every
war the nations are exliausted, the victors as well as the vanquished. The
forces of reaction wait for these times of let-down, when the people are
tired of fighting. The physchologists of reaction tell us that everything is
sweetness and light. Good men are running our state. No need for a change.
Besides, it is too much bother and you had bother enough. Don't fall for
that. If we are not awake to this peril we will lose everything we gained
before the war struck us. "
District Attorney Brown said that the struggle for democracy was
nowhere more sharply defined than in the field of law enforcement. He
warned against irresponsible demagogues who "will attempt to stir up
racial intolerance and religious bigotry as they did after the first world
war. " Brown praised my "swift and energetic action" in obtaining revocation
of the Ku Klux Klan charter. "This is what I mean by Democratic leadership.
There is no place in this state for the fiery crosses of bigotry and intolerance.
Arthur Caylor of the San Francisco Daily News said just before the
election on June 3, that "you can be sure if this campaign wasn't big
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national medicine, Kenny wouldn't be in it. A thundering Kenny success
could put the Attorney General in the White House, although perhaps not
with anything like the innmediacy that attends Warren's chances. In any
event it would make him an authentic national figure. That's why Kenny's
running. That's why the eyes of the nation will be on California tomorrow --
and they will be slightly goggle-eyes at that. "
Well, what the eyes of the nation witnessed was easily predictable.
Warren defeated me in the Democratic primary in every county of the state,
except my own county, Los Angeles, and his own county, Alameda. Even
San Francisco went against me. Shelley and Brown survived the primary,
but Lucille Gleason was defeated by her Republican opponent. Will Rogers
Jr. received the Democratic nomination over Representative Ellis Patterson.
The following day I received a telegram from Clore Warne, a Los
Angeles attorney long active in civil liberties. It said: "Dear Bob: Welcome
back to the practice of law. The politbureau of the church pulled another
boner, but good. Packaging you with Patterson was suicidal. I am convinced
some of our friends thought they could get a senatorial stooge for national
political purposes and didn't give a damn that the Democratic Party should
go to defeat in California. You are still my choice for anything you want.
Cordial regrets. "
Commenting on the outcome of the election, the San Diego Daily
Journal said on August 5: "Attorney General Robert W. Kenny calls himself
a 'dead duck' as he prepares to return to private law practice following his
defeat for Governor.
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"He declines to rehash his defeat or place any blame because 'that
would make people sore. ' He thus bows out with more than ordinary
graciousness. There is a touch in his farewell of the gallant warrior retiring
fronn the field without victory but with abundant honor.
"But we do not agree with Bob Kenny that he is a dead duck. His
kind are never dead ducks because they stand for things that will not die.
They stand for liberalism, humanity, frankness and good humor. Few, if
any attorneys general in California have been so equable and yet so firm; so
earnest and yet so free of bombast as Kenny. He did not simply fill the
office. He adorned it. His defeat was due principally to the backwash of these
post-war times, and the confusion which California's mugwump cross filing
creates among the electorate. "
Carey McV/illiams wrote in the New Republic on June 12: "Patterson
and Rogers being both liberals with good voting records, the struggle between
them developed into a struggle for the control of the liberal movement in
California. This started out as a polite intramural contest but was transiorme;
into a bitter feud by mounting dissatisfaction with the Truman administration.
A clear majority of Democrats realized the necessity for nninimizing talk
of a third party 'independent action' when the immediate task was to elect
a slate of liberal candidates who happened to be running as Democrats. But
the left wing seized upon the Patterson-Rogers fight as a means of pointing
up a need for independent action and of sharpening the third party question.
In consequences, 'democrat' suddenly became the ternn of opprobrium,
"In Los Angeles County where the bulk of the Kenny strength was
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concentrated, all semblance of unified support for the state ticket was
destroyed. Left wing elements set up 'coordinating councils' to support
Kenny and Patterson, with most of the emphasis placed on Patterson, in-
sisted that precinct workers carry Patterson campaign material, and
wittingly, or unwittingly, rebuffed many middle of the road Democrats who
still thought of the Dennccratic Party as the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Liberals who supported Will Rogers, Jr. were suddenly pilloried as
'reactionaries, ' although most of these same liberals had been enthusiastic
supporters of Colonel Carlson. On the other hand, the right wing of the
Rogers' supporters made things worse by launching an ill-advised personal
attack on Mr. Patterson. Ai the center of the campaign, where the nnajor
strength should have been concentrated, a vacuum was created, and Mr.
Warren proceeded, almost without a campaign, to fill it.
Harold Ickes, who had taken a job with the Independent Citizen's
Committee for the Arts, Sciences and Professions at $25, 000 a year, was
not too disconsolate about my defeat. I was in his Black Book after resisting
his claim to the tidelands. In a column published in the Washington Star on
June 24th, he said: "The supposedly liberal Attorney General Kenny (of
tidelands fanae) got a terrific lacing in California from Republican Governor
Warren even in the Democratic primaries. "
John Gunther attributed my defeat to a "fierce intramural quarrel in
the Democratic cannp, between leftists and superleftists, which left Kenny
bouncing in thin air. He was unable to lead a unified ticket, because of the
murderous fight between Will Rogers, Jr. and Ellis Patterson for nomination
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tc the Senate, a fight so mixed up with splinter leftism that any independent
liberal needed a slide rule and a protractor to find out where the lines met,
interlocked and parted. "
"Kenny did not particularly want to run for Governor in 1946. He
liked being Attorney General, he set up a splendid record in the job, and he
could probably have been re-elected to the end of time. On finally accepting the
nomination, he declared, 'I guess I should accept congratulations in about
the way that a pregnant woman does. She didn't want to get in that condition,
but as long as she is --' Then he slipped over to Europe to see the Nuremberg
Trials. His explanation: 'The first month of a campaign is when things go
wrong and all the silly little decisions have to be inade . . . I'll be away. '
"What beat him when he returned was not his wisecracking or in-
souciance but Warren's unassailable popularity and the fact that he himself
was pushed into a position where he had to carry Avater on both shoulders.
The Democratic Party is a crazy hodgepodge in California; he had to hold the
balance on both wings. Also the tidelands issue hurt him. In Chicago in
1944, where he was leader of the California delegation, he backed Truman a-
gainst Wallace; in 1946, despite this, he got CIO benediction but by trying
to satisfy everybody in all camps he alienated what should have been his
most solid liberal support. He told me once that his technique was, in
general, to try to nail down the right, then cultivate the left. 'If you see
anybody more extreme than you are, you have to run over there and rub
him out -- never get caught in the middle of a field with a loose ball. ' This
sounds very pretty, but it didn't quite work out, Kenny got caught with two
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or three loose balls -- and was kicked all over the place.
"No one, however should think that his political career is over.
He is one of the ablest liberals in California, and still something of a white
hope for the entire West. " (p. 19, pp 22-23, "Inside U. S. A. " Harper's 1947. )
In the week following the election, the annual District Attorneys
Convention took place at Santa Catalina Island. Governor Warren was in
attendance. Iviost of the delegates were personal friends of both of us and
were nervous about our first meeting after the campaign. It went off very
well. We met on the excursion steamer to Catalina and after greeting each
other, proceeded into a private cabin where the district attorneys joined us
in a round of drinks. There were two nominees for attorney general among
the delegates, Pat Brown, the Democratic District Attorney of San Francisco
and Fred Howser, the Republican District Attorney of Los Angeles. To keep
everything evenly balanced. Governor and Mrs. Warren invited Sara and
me to dinner along with the Brov/ns and the Howsers.
I had to cut short my Catalina visit to fly to Washington for purposes
connected with the passage of the tidelands quit claim bill. The bill was
passed by Congress, but vetoed later by President Trunnan, The law suit
originated by Francis Biddle came on for hearing in the Supreme Court
in 1947, and resulted in a victory for the federal side. Ultimately, in
1953, another quit claim bill was passed by Congress and signed by
President Eisenhower. Tideland drillings operated from 1921 to June, 1963
produced $520, 625, 949 in royalties for the state treasury.
A unique thing occurred in my cannpaign for Governor. After the
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primary was over, we discovered that instead of the usual deficit, my
campaign fund had a sinall surplus. Donald McKee, the campaign treasurer
in Southern California, invited all of the contributors to a cocktail party
at the Biltmore Hotel. They came reluctantly, thinking that they were going
to be called upon to make up a deficit. They were delighted to find that their
sole function was to drink up the surplus and eliminate all administrative
difficulties about returning any contributions.
Late in June, I went to Cincinnati for the annual convention of the
National Association for the Advancennent of Colored People. Walter White,
Executive Secretary, had asked me to come there to present the Spingarn
medal to Thurgood Marshall, Chief Counsel of the organization. Marshall
had won many important cases in the courts for minorities. He was to win
even more important victories in subsequent years.
On June Zl, 1946, Attorney General Tom Clark, spoke to the
Chicago Bar Association. On this occasion he said that the United States
was the target of a sinister and deep-seated plot on the part of "communists,
ideologists, and small groups of radicals. " The Attorney General said he
had discovered a plot to capture important offices in labor unions, ferment
strikes and raise barriers to the efforts of lawful authorities to maintain
civil peace.
The Attorney General warned that the 'plotters' were protesting
that civil rights of minority groups were being abridged. He cautioned the
lawyers in his audience that they should discriminate between "sincere and
honest claims" by groups of citizens who feel their rights have been violated
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and the efforts of "outside ideologists who stir up trouble. " He then centered
his attack on lawyers who had not helped repress the "conspiracy" by
refusing to perform legal services for the "conspirators, " saying: "I do
not think there is anyone more subject to censure in our profession than
the revolutionary who enters our ranks, takes the solemn oath of our calling,
and then uses every device in the legal category to further the interests of
those who would destroy our government by force, if necessary. I do not
believe in purges because they bespeak the dark and hideous deeds of
conamunism and fascism, but I do believe that our Bar Associations, with
a strong hand, should take these too bright brothers of ours to the legal
woodshed for a definite and well-deserved admonition. "
Two weeks later I was the principal speaker at the National Lawyers
Guild Convention in Cleveland. I said that Attorney General Clark's attack
upon the lawyers who fought most actively for the liberty of the people was
":a call for legal vigilantism. "
Clark's speech in June, 1946, was an early warning of the coming
witchhunt that was to disfigure our history for the next ten years. Clark had
been one of Presiden Tuuman's advisers back of the President's un-
fortunate proposal on May 29th, that the railroad workers who went on
strike should be drafted into the army. This anti-labor proposal was only
defeated by the stout resistance of Republican Senator Robert Taft. Occurring
just the week before the California primary, it had contributed to the breaking
of the Democratic coalition that had been fashioned together by Franklin
Roosevelt.
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I deliberately took a back seat at the Democratic State Convention in
Sacramento on July 20. James Roosevelt had asked me, before the primary
to support him for state chairman, I promised I would. At the convention,
James Roosevelt and Will Rogers, Jr. favored a clause in the preamble of the
state platform which equally condemned Communism and Fascisnn.; This hackneyec
formulation had long been a source of disunity. I opposed its revival.
Chester G. Hanson of the L. A. Times described the scene in a Sacramento
dispatch, dated July 21: "In a grueling day-long meeting here today the
Democrats tore the pink shirt off the political back of Colonel James
Roosevelt, dressed him in the habiliments of a respectable middle-of-the-
roader and made him their State Chairman.
"The election of young Roosevelt was accomplished in an alnnost
weird political drama. He promised to have done with the leftists and
fellow-travelers, resign from all connections with the leftist HICCASP and
to go down the middle of the road as a plain Democrat. Will Rogers, Jr.
said that the election of Roosevelt over Tom Scully, Hollywood businessman,
'represented the strengthening of the central core of the Democratic Party
and will be, I hope, a body-blow to the groups on the left wing red frings. '
Rogers added, 'We are going to crack the left wing independent groups. '"
I decided that the most useful chore available for a lame duck was
to promote an initiative petition to repeal cross filing. Circulation of such
petitions started on July 23. Mrs. Langdon Post volunteered to take on
the job of the organization and Langdon raised several thousand dollars
to get the job done. I received a curious reaction from the new command of
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Democratic Party. Many of them refused to have anything to do with cross -
filing repeal, because they suspected that it had sonaething to do with left-
wing "plotting. " The organized Democrats sat on their hands and we
received no help from the Republicans. The petition failed to qualify.
On July 31, the August issue of Coronet magazine appeared, containing
an article about me by Dean Jennings entitled "Knight in Legal Armour:
California's Vigorous Attorney General Hasn't Lost a Round in His Fight
for Human Rights. " It had been set in type before the election and Coronet
had to do a rapid re -editing job. The second paragraph spoke of my personal
and political creed, and then said: "It is no reason why Bob, as he is known
to millions of Californians, will not be the State's next and youngest
Governor, but is likely to sit in the White House some day. "
The emergency "not" was a timely insertion after the primary election
results, but unfortunately it failed to modify the prediction that I might
sit in the White House. The Sacramento Union published an account of it
under the heading "Magazine says Kenny due to be President. " The United
Press reported from San Francisco the next day that: "Attorney General
Robert W. Kenny, who is howing out of official California politics after
his defeat for the Denaocratic nomination for Governor, indicated that he
would not support President Truman's renomination. His choice for the
nomination, he implied, was still William O. Douglass of Oregon, a U.S.
Supreme Court Justice whom he supported in the 1944 Democratic Convention.
"In connmenting on a magazine article declaring he was still
presidential material, Kenny said he was not a candidate, but that he did have
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a candidate "and it isn't Kenny, Warren or Truman. "
Sara and I spent a week-end in late August with Justice Ray and
Marian Peters at their cottage at Zephyr Cove in Tahoe. Several of the
older deputies in the Attorney General's office were also on vacation there
at the time and we had a reunion with them and with Alan Bible, Attorney
General of Nevada, who came over from Carson City.
Early in September, Senator Claude Pepper of Florida came West
and addressed large crowds in San Francisco and Los Angeles. In Los
Angeles the HICCASP filled Hollywood Bowl to hear the liberal Senator.
Pepper did what he could to re-unite support for the remnants of the
Democratic ticket in California.
During the month of September, I filed an amicus brief in the Federal
Court of Appeals of San Francisco, opposing segregation in the schools of
the Westminster School District of Orange County (161 F. 2d 774).
Another brief filed by me that September was the one single act of
which I was most proud during my four years of service as Attorney General.
This was an amicus brief, written by Prof. D, O. McGovney, of Berkeley.
McGovney had hit upon an entirely original theory that racial restrictive
covenants could not be constitutionally enforced because such enforcement
constituted discriminatory "state action" contrary to the 14th Amendment.
With the permission of Chief Justice Gibson, I appointed Prof. McGovney
special counsel for the State of California, and filed his brief. I took the
position that enforcement of racial restrictive covenants was state
action, I wanted to be heard on behalf of the State against it. The McGovney
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brief was filed in Anderson v Anseth (JLA No. 19759).
Although Governor Olson had appointed four Democrats to the seven-
man Supreme Court, only three of them voted for the McGovney doctrine -
Chief Justice Gibson, Roger Traynor and Jesse W. Carter. The fourth
Democrat, Justice B. Ray Schauer, voted the other way and the result was that
McGovney's brilliant legal theory was never approved by a majority of the
Supreme Court of California. However, the McGovney concept was adopted
by the Supreme Court of the United States two years later when Shelley v
Kramer, was decided on May 3, 1948, and the enforcement of racial restrictive
covenants was finally outlawed (33 4 U. S. 1).
The general election on November 6, resulted in a Republican
landslide. Senator Knowland defeated Will Rogers, Jr. , Fred Howser won
over Pat Brown, and Jack Shelley was defeated by Superior Judge Goodwin
Knight for Lieutenant Governor. The Democrats lost five progressive
congressmen in this sweep. George Outland of Santa Barbara, Ned Healey
of Los Angeles, Clyde Doyle of Long Beach, Ed V, Izac of San Diego and
Jerry Voorhis of Pomona. Voorhis lost to Richard M. Nixon by 1, 500 votes.
The final stages of the national campaign in 1946 had been marred
by the episode on September 20, 1946, when President Truman demanded
Henry Wallace's resignation as Secretary of Commerce, after his Madison Squar
Garden speech opposing the "Get Tough with Russia Policy" of State
Secretary James Byrnes.
I had one important legal victory just before I left office. This was
the State Suprenae Court's decision in Speegle v Board of Fire Underwriters,
-289-
(29 Cal 2d 34), which declared the California Anti-monopoly law - the
Cartwright Act of 1907 to be constitutional. Professor Max Radin had acted
as special counsel for the State in presenting this matter. As soon as this
decision became final, I announced that an anti-trust division would be
established in the State Attorney General's office and that Deputy Attorney
General Clarence A. Linn would be in charge. This division would act in
conjunction with the District Attorneys of the various counties and the
federal anti-trust division. In announcing this I said:
"It is nny hope that this program will free us from the restraints
of trade which affect the econoniy of the State and will permit us to raise
the State's stature as one of the inost highly developed economic areas of
the Union. " .
I quoted Wendell Burge of the Federal Anti Trust Division who had
said in his book "Economic Freedom for the West, "
"The West is once more the frontier on which the question of
American's economic expansion •will be decided. All its trails have not
yet been blazed. Even though its mountains have been mapped, its rivers
charted and its elements classified, the full economic greatness of the
West is undiscovered. "
I said that California should be permitted to assert its right to
grow and that it should be able to enforce this right "by relentless enforce-
ment of the State anti-trust laws, alert utilization of the federal Anti Trust
laws and ready cooperation with the Federal Anti Trust Division. "
In Washington on November 8th, and in Chicago, on December 1st,
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I attended meetings called by C. B. "Beanie" Baldwin, Director of the C.I.O,
-P. A. C. The purpose of the meetings was to rally the old New Dealers to
discuss how to pick up the pieces after the defeats of 1946. The ineeting
in Washington was attended by Harold Ickes and the meeting in Chicago by
Henry Wallace and former Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morganthau.
These meetings culminated in a meeting in New York on December 30, which
I did not attend. On this occasion, the PAC and ICC were naerged into a
new organization, to be known as the Progressive Citizens of America.
Jo Davidson, the sculptor, and Dr. Frank Kingdon, of New Jersey, became
the co-chairmen of the new organization.
In December there had been a Klan burning of a partially constructed
dwelling in San Mateo, California, The building was owned and was to
be occupied by John T. Walker, a Negro. I persuaded Jack Strauss, a
San Francisco broker, to guarantee the offer of $1, 000. 00 as a reward for
the arrest and conviction of the persons who had committed this outrage.
Re\Yards had been offered by me in several other instances of this kind. I
believed the bigots might betray each other if the price was right.
I had a curious clash in the fall of 1946 with Iviayor Fletcher Bowron.
He becan:ie defensive about his own Los Angeles Police Department when I
criticized ineffective law enforcement against Klan terrorists. He
complained to the Los Angeles County Grand Jury. Both the Mayor and I
appeared before that body. I urged the Mayor to give his police a training
course in race relations such as my Department had conducted in Richmond.
The Grand Jury agreed w^ith me.
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A farewell dinner for Sara and me was given by a group of San
Francisco friends at the Fairmont on December 19. The printed menu
and program carried a picture of my grandfather's octagonal house at Leaven-
worth and Green Streets. Hartley Crum was the toastmaster, and speakers
included Chief Justice Gibson, Judge Raymond Peters, Professor Max Radin,
Langdon Post and Mayor Laphann. The menu credited the wines to the
courtesy of the California 'VVine Institute. They were undoubtedly of
superior educational wine. The guests included Harold Berliner, Collector
of Internal Revenue, Federal Appellate Judge Homer Bone, the Pat Browns,
Senator Oliver Carter and Judge and Mrs. Jesse Carter, Colonel and Mrs.
E.H. Heller, Mr. and Mrs. Francis Keesling, Mr. and Mrs. Cyril
Magnin, Judge and Mrs. Robert McWillianns, Mr. and Mrs. Robert S.
Odell, Bishop Edward L. Parsons of the Episcopal Church, an old fighter
for civil liberties, Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Politzer, Senator and Mrs.
John Shelley, Judge and Mrs. Roger Traynor, and, of course, Dick and
Nell Wylie. Wylie and Ray Peters had organized the affair.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
THE UNITED NATIONS PERMANENT SITE
While the delegates to the United Nations Conference were in San
Francisco, many informal invitations were extended to them to conne back
againaid make San Francisco the permanent home of the organization. On
March 9, 1945, Dr, Henry F. Grady, President of the San Francisco
Chamber of Commerce, issued a statement saying that a committee would
be appointed so that San Francisco could takeieps to invite the organiza-
tion to San Francisco if the United Nations was sympathetic to the
establishment of its permanent headquarters there. The special committee
was appointed consisting of Walter Haas, President of Lev Strauss Conn-
pany, Adrian Falk, General Manager of S & W Fine Foods, Leland Cutler,
Vice President of the Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland, Maurice
Harrison, attorney, and Brayton Wilbur, President of the V.'^ilbur-Ellis
Company and Chairnnan of the Foreign Trade Committee of the Chamber.
I was invited to become a member of this committee and joined it
on September 26, 1945. Two days later I had an opinion prepared orl the
methods by which California territory might be set aside as a perma-
nent site for the United Nations. During the conference Drew Pearson
and David Karr, then his assistant, were both vastly enthusiastic about
having the United Nations permanently located in San Francisco. I inform-
ed them of our plans and in November, Drew Pearson furnished me with
the original transcript of a meeting of the Executive Committee of the
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U. N. Preparatory Committee held in London on October 3. We discover-
ed from this that San Francisco had only two real friends on the Commis-
sion -- Dr. Herbert Evatt of Australia and Dr. Hoo of China, who spoke
in our favor. The British representative had taJcen the position that San
Francisco was not easily accessible, that the Old World needed encourage-
ment in rebuilding, and that the location of the United Nations' permanent
seat should be in Europe. The French and Dutch concurred.
Andrei Gromyko then said that the Soviet Union was definitely oppos-
ed to Geneva as a place for the U, N. organization, and that his govern-
ment favored the United States.
"The United States is located conveniently between Asia and Europe.
The Old World has had it once, and it is time for the New World to have it.
I am not going to say anything about the past in connection with Geneva.
It is well known to everybody."
Gromyko then said something that gave us San Franciscans some
hope. China and Australia had already spoken in favor of the San Francis-
co site. Gromyko said:
"I am in agreement with what has been said by my colleagues fron:i
China and Australia on this subject. "
Based upon this, our committee from then on believed the Slavic
bloc would vote with us when the final site selection was made. V/e were
also very nnuch heartened by what Dr. Herbert Evatt, the Australian
delegate, had said:
"San Francisco is a city which breathes the very spirit of freedom.
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Freedom of expression isgiaranteed in the country to which San Francisco
belongs, freedom of expression is enforced by courts, no where in the
world is freedom more secure. It is a city of progress. It looks with
courage and confidence to the future. In drawing up the Charter in San
Francisco, we all recognized with gratitude and admiration the debt we
owed to the city and its people. In fact, the charter was worked out in
the spirit of San Francisco -- the spirit of freedom and tolerance. "
The final vote that day was nine to three in favor of placing the head-
quarters in the United States; For: Australia, Brazil, Chile, China,
Czechoslovakia, Iran, Mexico, Russia and Yogoslavia; Against: France,
the Netherlands and Britain; Abstaining: Canada and the United States.
The selection of the actual city in the United States for the location of the
site was left to the General Assembly which was to meet in London in
November.
Mayor Roger Lapham was widely admired by the delegates during
the San Francisco convention, and was truly a citizen of the world. He
was, therefore, the ideal man to represent us before the General Assem-
bly. He went to London but was only given a few minutes to present our
case. On December 22, 1945, the General Questions Committee voted
against locating the headquarters on the Pacific Coast by 22 to 6, with
12 abstentions. An Interim Committee was appointed to inspect various
sites offered on the Eastern seaboard. Months went by without any final
selection.
After my defeat for Governor at the June primary election, I decided
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to devote a large share of the balance of my term in office to reviving and
promoting the San Francisco case at the U, N. I found a sympathetic
interest in the project existed at the Washington Post. On June Z5, 1946
that newspaper published an editorial entitled "Hospitality to the U. N. "
and in it said that: "It is now evident the choice of the New York area was
not the best the organization could have made. At the time we took an
'any place but' point of view and everything that has happened since that
time has confirmed us in our opinion. "
By pre-arrangement on the next day, the Washington Post published
a letter from me to the Editor, in which I said:
"I have not seen any disposition on the part of the United States Gov-
ernment to aid the U. N. in establishing a permanent home within our
borders. This hands-off policy was adopted in the summer of 1945 so that
no favorites would be played among the American communities then vig-
orously competing to duplicate the successful conference just completed
at San Francisco.
"Perhaps this period of drift had to be. We passed up San Francisco,
the only city in the New World with the know-how on staging a conference
that would make the whole world feel welcome. In the bustle of post-war
readjustments, no other American community has had the time or patience
to learn to do the job satisfactorily. But a whole year has now passed and
the location of a permanent home for the United Nations is still unsettled.
Can you not urge Senator Warren Austin, our representative at the U. N. ,
to formulate a positive federal policy on selection of a permanent head-
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quarters? Unless the U. N. is to be perhaps fatally handicapped in its
inevitable difficulties by a local landlord-tenant squabble, a strong definite
federal position must be taken now before the General Assembly meets in
September. "
To make certeiin that we had a unified state-wide approach to the
San Francisco site, I checked with the executive comnnittee of the Los
Angeles Chamber and they went on record supporting the San Francisco
bid. With the Assembly meeting coming up in September, the committee
selected Belford Brown, an able young banker, to go to New York and set
up a headquarters for the California delegation. I sent announcements of
the opening of our California "embassy" to Charles Campbell at the British
Embassy, Dr. Ivan Cerno, Assistant Secretary General of the U. N. ,
with whom I had renewed acquaintance at the Lawyers Gmld meeting at
Cleveland, Alan Cranston, then in Washington, David Karr, Washington
Merry-Go-Round, and Herbert EUiston, director of the Editorial page
of the Washington Post. I also enlisted the support of Father E. A,
Conway, who became the unofficial chaplain of our California resistance
movement.
I went to New York on October 15, to join Belford Brown and
Walter Haas, President of the S, F. Chamber of Commerce. I drafted
a plan for financing the U. N, site in California which was submitted to
the Governor. This proposed the creation of a state agency entitled the
U. N. Area Authority, with power to issue and sell revenue bonds to the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation, The bonds would be paid off by a
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thirty year amortization plan from rental revenues received.
N. D. Bassov, a Soviet engineer attached to the U. S. S. R. Ennbassy,
asked me to prepare a report on available sites in the San Francisco area.
At that time we only hoped that we might have the Presidio available to us.
I recommended to Bassov the site at Crystal Springs in San Mateo County
which was principally owned and used by the City of San Francisco as part
of its municipal water supply. A ten square mile area could be carved out
of this site.
On October 29, Governor Warren came to New York. Senator Austin
was a fellow Republican and we were encouraged by the discussion between
Austin and our Governor.
On November 1, San Francisco Supervisors Dan Gallagher and
Marvin Lewis joined us in New York. Mayor Lapham, Belford Brown and I
issued a joint statement with them, expressing our elation over Senator
Austin's agreement to ask the General Assembly to consider sites in the
San Francisco Bay area in addition to considering sites in New York
On Novennber 5 Senator Austin asked that his proposal be put on the
agenda of the General Assembly, On November 9, the General Assembly
adopted Senator Austin's proposal after broadening it to provide that
locations in other American cities should also be investigated. The
matter was referred to the Headquarters Committee.
Between November 17 and the 29th, the Headquarters Committee of
the United Nations investigated the sites offered by Philadelphia, Boston,
New York, and San Francisco.
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On November 13, Walter Haas reported back to the San Francisco
Chamber of Commerce. He praised the fine cooperative spirit shown by
our delegation. In the San Francisco News of November 11, 1946, Mr.
Haas was quoted as follows:
"There was Governor Earl Warren and his recently defeated political
opponent, standing shoulder to shoulder for the Bay area and there was
Mayor Laphann, representing San Francisco and Mr. Kenny who hails
from Southern California. They all presented a completely unified front
for the Bay Area suitability as a permanent home for the United Nations. "
Before the Site Committee arrived in San Francisco, we had re-
ceived unofficial word that the Federal Government was willing to offer
the Presidio as a site. This news seemed too good to be true but we be-
lieved it.
The Headquarters Committee included Charles LeCorbusier,
famous French architect, Sir Angus Fletcher, United Kingdom, Dr.
Stephan Gavrilovic, Yugoslavia, Malmud Hammad, the Egyptian Ambassa-
dor, Nikolai Bassov, Soviet engineer, and representatives of Australia,
Belgium, China, Cuba, Netherlands and Poland. The chairman of the
committee was Dr. Eduardo Zulueta Angel of Colombia,
The Crystal Springs site was inspected first, but it was a foggy day,
and the delegates were not nauch impressed. However, on the following
morning we went to the Presidio. It was a beautiful, clear fall day. The
Golden Gate panorama lay before us. Earl Selby of the Philadelphia
Bulletin looked helplessly at me and said: "Bob, the fight's over. This
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is the greatest site in the World. "
The Washington Post editorialized again on November 12, to force
the Government's hand. In this editorial the Post said:
"The unprecedented enthusiasm for the Presidio of San Francisco
evinced by members of the U. N. Site Inspection Comnnittee leaves the
next nmove clearly up to our Government. The General Assembly Head-
quarters cannot yet recommend the Presidio as a permanent home for the
U, N. because it has no definite assurance that the Presidio will be avail-
able. This assurance should be forthcoming immediately. The Federal
Government has an opportunity to end in one stroke the humiliation and
frustration that have beset the U. N. in its home-hunting endeavors ever
since it came to this country."
The Post had originally suggested the Presidio on July 1. It said
that sentimentally, San Francisco had a claim that no other city could
offer, "It has unsurpassed scenic attractions, and enviable climate for
work and concentration, and no hubbub. "
Senator Austin told the Headquarters Committee upon its return from
San Francisco:
"I am able to report that the President of the United States will do
everything in his power in cooperation with the Congress to make the
Presidio available to the U. N. In the present situation, when the Congress
is not in session, the only branch of the government that can make such a
statement is the Executive branch. I am giving you this statement with
full knowledge that the Constitution gives to the Congress sole power to
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transfer property in the United States. What I say, therefore, is subject to
the authority of Congress. "
The Headquarters Committee found that the Presidio was "an ex-
ceptionally outstanding site for the official buildings of the U. N. It is
doubtful that a more dramatic site could be found. If this site were select-
ed the permanent headquarters development problems of the United Nations
would be held to a minimum. "
All of these developments convinced the San Francisco delegation that
selection of that city was now but a formality. However, strange develop-
ments soon beset us.
On December 4, the Headquarters Conr\mittee was scheduled to dis-
cuss the report of various site inspections. The meetings were held at the
Sperry Gyroscope Building at Lake Success. Mayor and Mrs, Lapham
motored out with me on this occasion, to await the good news. The debate
was going along favorably when Secretary Trygve Lee asked a disturbing
question. He wanted to know if San Francisco could take care of the
United Nations at once, because if the United Nations decided to move out
of New York, New York would want to check them out right away. The
Ukrainian delegate arose. We relaxed. Ever since Gromyko's friendly
remarks in London in October, 1945, we had counted upon the support of
the Slavic nations. To our dismay, we now learned that the Ukrainian
delegate was against us. He said that Dr. Koo of China and General
Romulo of the Philippines, who had just spoken for San Francisco, were
using very heavy artillery to bolster a bad case. Ho^vever, their
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arguments were only oratory and not good business. The Ukrainian object-
ed to distance and pooh-poohed the arguments of San Francisco's favorable
climate. "The United Nations is not building a hospital, this is a business
proposition. Arguments will always be heated wherever they are made. "
The Ukrainian confirmed what we had gathered from Trygve Lie's rennarks.
He said: "The secretariat doesn't want to move out of New York. They
have already moved once and they are now settled in New York. "
Dr. Van Karnesbeck of the Netherlands stated that his country had no
preference between the East or the West, although he was impressed with
the advantages of San Francisco.
The Australian delegate spoke in favor of San Francisco, praising it
as having the most congenial of surroundings. He reminded the delegates
that San Francisco had been selected at Yalta by Franklin Roosevelt,
V/inston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. He argued that the U. N. site should
not be located in close proximity to the national capital.
The bombshell then burst. The Soviet delegate, Saksin, apparently
had decided that the Washington Post was speaking for the Government of
the United States and that the United States really wanted the headquarters
to go to the Presidio in San Francisco. His position seemed to be that if
the United States wanted San Francisco, then he was against it. As the
Laphams and I sat there in stunned surprise, the Soviet delegate went on
to say that it would take a two-thirds vote to abrogate the London decision
of Novennber, 1945 to locate the headquarters in New York. If a two-thirds
vote was not available, the Assembly had no right to consider the West
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Coast.
The Russian delegate said that the General Assembly had now reached
a dead end, out of which it could not escape. He predicted that the South
American nations would follow the United States in favoring San Francisco.
There was a second group of member nations (principally the United King-
dom) who recognized the difficulties of New York, but wanted to go to
Philadelphia. The third group were those who remained loyal to the ori-
ginal London decision in favor of New York.
The Russian delegate had convinced himself that Senator Austin was
partial to San Francisco. He said that "by action of the United States, all
of the former decisions of the General Assembly are put at naught. This
is intolerable. The extraordinary activity of the United States delegation
is causing us to break the basic law. The will of Vi'ashington must not be
imposed upon the rest of us. To get to California we would all have to fly
over two mountain ranges. If the site is put in San Francisco, the United
Nations will be an organization of second-raters. No self-respecting
nation would send its best men to San Francisco. Even if the United
States manipulates the votes as it did in Paris, the independent nations
will not permit the United Nations to go to San Francisco. "
He concluded: "How can we get out of this dead end? We shoxold re-
ject the idea of transferring our headquarters to the West from the East.
If it is difficult to stay in New York, the U. S. S. R. will be willing to join
the United Kingdonn and go into Philadelphia. We beg the United States
not to insist on this San Francisco proposal. "
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The meeting adjourned for the night.
On the following day, Decennber 6, Senator Austin was the first to
take the floor. He said that the United States, in response to what it be-
lieved was the desire of other nations, had departed reluctantly from its
previous neutrality, foreseeing the embarrassments which would confront
it as the host nation. However, the United States had been careful to say
that it would take an active part in assisting the United Nations to find a
permanent home. Senator Austin pointed out that at no time had the
United States tried to persuade any other delegation as to a particular site.
He had always emphasized that our benevolent purpose was to select the
locality most suitable for the efficiency of the United Nations in accom-
plishing its tasks.
The Senator then thanked the Cuban delegate for having observed the
night before that the act of the United States in pointing out the availability
of a site on the Pacific Coast was not an intrusion, but was done at the
request of the Site Committee. It was only then that the United States
answered the question asked by the committee, as to whether the Presidio
would be available. The answer as to the Presidio's availability was not
given to throw any weight in the scales. The answer was to afford every
courtesy and help and hospitality that the United States could give.
Senator Austin said that the United States' answer had been postponed as
long as possible so that its timing would not influence the decision.
The report of the Site Committee had already described the advan-
tage of the Presidio, but left open the question of its availability to be
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filled in later, said Austin. It was only then that the United States Govern-
ment had spoken of the availability of the Presidio,
The Senator said that the United States' position had never changed,
that the United States wanted to know the position of its guests before any
announcement was made of its own views. He said he doubted if any
sound claim could be made that the United States had violated its hospital-
ity in this matter. Senator Austin then said that the time had now come
where the United States no longer could postpone a statement of its posi-
tion. Then the axe fell.
Senator Austin said: "The United States is not for locating the U. N,
headquarters on the Pacific Coast. It is in favor of locating the headquar-
ters on the Atlantic Coast."
I was ready to leave right then, but I remained to hear the Senator
say, with great piety and unction, that the choice had been a difficult one
because "the United States loves California" and there is no favoritism
between the states. He said that the United States favored a location in
the East primarily because the United States was devoted to the United
Nations and its functions must be managed from a location easy of access
to Europe, the Mediterranian basin and China. He was confident that the
Secretary General, Mr. Lie, would show the delegates that the burdens
of cost and time would be prohibitive in locating the U. N. on the West
Coast.
Referring to the opposition of the Soviet Union to the AVest Coast, the
Senator said that if one or two of the great powers should be hostilely
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opposed to the United Nations it would be a bad thing indeed.
"V/e must have a spirit of sacrifice," he said. He appreciated the
youth and wonderful social spirit of San Francisco; he would have liked to
have spent more time there. However, the U. N. delegates were not at
liberty to consult their own personal connfort and pleasure, they were
engaged in a serious enterprise. What will make the United Nations
work? He had in mind no particular spot on the Eastern coast. He sug-
gested that while the delegates were waiting for the return of Chairman
Zulueta from his sick-bed, that they think over a proper procedure to
select between the East and the West Coasts. The first action should be
a vote to settle the question between the East and the West. He concluded
by saying the United States would rather not vote, "but our hand has been
forced. "
The connmittee then adjourned until December 9. At that time
Senator Austin receded from his request for an immediate vote between
the Eastern and Western sites. Instead he asked that final action on
permanent headquarters be deferred for another year, and that there be
further exploration and study of the sites of Philadelphia, New York and
Boston. However, Senator Austin asked specifically that the Presidio
site be excluded from further studies.
In the evening session on the same day, the Senator presented
another resolution. The bewildering feature of this resolution was that
it restored the Presidio site to the list of other possible sites on which
the Secretary General was to make a report by July 1, 1947.
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On December 11, the news came that John D. Rockfeller Jr. , with
the assistance of William Zeckendorf, had connpleted work on a plan
whereby he now offered to the United Nations an $8, 500, 000 site on the
East River in New York City, all free of charge.
This explained all of Senator Austin's moves of tlie past week. The
Federal Government had been using the San Francisco delegation as un-
witting shills in the auction it was conducting with Mr, Rockefeller. We
had been permitted to dangle the bait of the Presidio site in order to get
Rockefeller to raise the sights of his own offer. We should have suspected
this. The armed forces have never been known to relinquish any valuable
real estate voluntarily. In a century and a half of our national history,
the Army has shown positive genius at real estate site selection. Witness
the Presidios at Monterey and San Francisco and Fort Baker, Fort
Winfield Scott, Fort Mason in San Francisco and Fort de Russey at
Waikiki Beach.
The Russians fell into a perfect mousetrap set for them by Senator
Austin. They had misinterpreted Austin's offer of the Presidio exactly
as we had. They assumed as we did that Austin was really in favor of the
Presidio. Since they operated on the primitive reasoning that anything
that the United States was for, they had to be against, they proceeded to
s^vitch their previously friendly position on San Francisco and became
our loudest antagonists. This was exactly what Austin had planned on.
As soon as the Slavic bloc had firmly committed itself to the East, Austin
was then able to say graciously that their desires should be respected
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and he, too, in proper deference, would favor an eastern site.
During the previous October, when we were canvassing the various
delegations, we called on Jan Masaryk of Czechoslovakia. He and Mayor
L-apham had become good friends in San Francisco. The Mayor mention-
ed his efforts at Lake Success. Masaryk said, "I don't call it Lake
Success; I call it Pond Failure. " After the events of December, 1946,
we agreed with him.
On December 27, I received a letter of thanks for my efforts from
Chairman Walter Haas of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce
Connmittee. He said:
"In sight of the promised land victory escaped us for causes well
known to all. Special thanks to you as a member of the resistance move-
ment and expeditionary force. "
During our stay in New York, an old Hollywood friend of mine,
Charlie Bourne, a great natural piano player, was entertaining at Nick's
in Greenwich Village. Bob Letts, the Assistant Mayor of San Francisco,
and I entertained various delegates down there. Charlie had a special
United Nations trilogy he played for us. It opened with "The World is
Waiting for the Sunrise, " then "San Francisco, Here I Come, " and finally
"To Each His Own. " It was a musical prophecy.
308
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
RETURN TO PRIVATE LIFE - 1947
In January v/e moved back to Los Angeles. Morris Cohn, Maury
Maverick and Bob Morris had moved from the Broadway-Temple Building
to the Bankers Building at 629 South Hill. Just about then, Maverick once
more heard the call of Texas politics. He left California to run again for
Mayor of San Antonio, Maury came in second. He told me that both the
very rich and the very poor voted for him. The poor counted on Maury
to improve their conditions, and the rich counted on him for honest and
cheaper government. But Maury was too far advanced for the middle
class Texans who controlled the outcome. His son, Maury Maverick, Jr.,
who studied law in Los Angeles, has been elected several times to the
Texas House of Representatives.
Maury died in the late 1950' s. He had become a great student of
China, accumulating a rennarkable library. Whenever the United States
recognized the new reginne in China, it was Maury's ambition to become
our first ambassador.
Some fan nnail still drifted in after I had left office. Dr. Wilton
Halverson, Earl Warren's director of Public Health, wrote me:
"I do not think of anything that has made me feel so badly as the
train of events which brought about a change in the Attorney General's
office -- you were always ready to fight the battle of the underdog and for
the cause which, although right, might not be popular. "
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Halverson was a truly modern Health Officer. Soon after he took
office he had asked me to render an opinion on whether he could legally
operate a state birth control clinic. I had to tell him that as Health Offi-
cer his duties were confined to infectious disease and that the law was
not yet ready to so classify pregnancy.
lioren Miller, attorney for the N, A. A. C.P. , wrote to say that:
"You were the first person in the history of this state to nnake the
office of Attorney General more than a mere legal department. In time,
the stand you took on race restrictive covenants and in the Westminister
School case will be acceptable to all people who believe in the democratic
process, "
On January 7, 1947 I became a national vice chairman of the newly
organized Progressive Citizens of America. In another year, this or-
ganization was to disappear into the third party -- a suicidal course which
I constantly opposed. At the time, the significance of the following
language in the organization's preamble had escaped me:
"If the Democratic Party woos privilege and betrays the people, it
will die and deserve to die. We cannot, therefore, rule out the possibility
of a new political party, whose fidelity to our goals can be relied upon. "
This was the position of the political purist -- the kind of progressive
who would rather see a reactionary elected than a "lukewarm liberal. "
I told the Hollywood Press-Times on January 7:
"In the election of a reactionary the pendulum might swing too far to
the right and get stuck. Then it would take a cataclysm to get it loose again.
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Early in January, I joined the legal defense of the thirteen leaders
of the Conference of Studio Unions who had been indicted by the Los An-
geles District Attorney on a felony charge. This felony was an asserted
conspiracy to commit misdemeanors by disobeying court orders against
mass picketing during the 1946 Hollywood strike. This was the last
occasion in Los Angeles labor history where the courts were ennployed in
an all-out attack upon labor union activity.
The Conference of Studio Unions was led by Herbert Sorrell, head
of the Hollywood painters. It was a federation of all of the A. F. of L.
studio locals of carpenters, painters, and machinists opposed to the
I. A. T. S. E. , the stagehands union. The I. A. T. S. E. leaders, George
Browne and Willie Bioff, had been exposed as recipients of $1, 100,000 in
bribes from the producers. The producers and the I. A.T.S. E. decided
late in September, 1946 that the time was ripe to crush the independent
unions. A jurisdictional issue was deliberately created. C. S. U. mem-
bers were ordered to work on "hot" sets which had been constructed by
I. A. T. S. E. members working outside of their prescribed jurisdiction.
When the C. S. U. members refused to work on these sets, they were
immediately discharged and ordered fronn the studios. Over 9, 000 men
and women were locked out of their jobs in a single day.
The C. S. U. retaliated by setting up mass picket lines around the
studios. Work was paralyzed. The producers went to the courts for
relief. However, civil injunctions were not enough for their purposes.
They insisted that the District Attorney obtain felony indictnnents against
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the leaders of the C. S. U. , including Averill Berman, a pro-labor radio
commentator, who became my particular responsibility to defend. At the
sanie time, the City Attorney issued hundreds of misdemeanor comolaints
against the rank and file picketers. The municipal courts were clogged
for months with mass trials of the picketers. The Court dismissed the
felony charges once the strike had been broken.
I had taken part in drafting the Community Redevelopment Act which
passed the L,egislature in 1945, This Act permitted the compulsory
clearance of blighted areas by eminent domain. As a native of Los An-
geles, I had always thought the Bunker Hill area was ideal for an urban
redevelopment project. Upon my return to Los Angeles, I spoke to the
planning section of the Los Angeles Town Hail on February 19. I told
them of Le Corbusier's plan for a "radiant city" -- one where men could
walk to their place of business. The redevelopment of Bunker Hill would
do this for downtown Los Angeles. I agreed with Le Corbusier that man
should be restored to the use of his legs.
Early that year, I also worked with Bob Powers on a project to cir-
culate a documentary film on race relations among the police departnnents
of the nation. Fred Howser, my successor as Attorney General, had
dismissed Powers as soon as he took office. Bob then published a series
of articles in the Saturday Evening Post entitled "Crinne is My Business. "
We tried very hard to interest various foundations in the project for police
training films, but nothing ever came of it.
Organization of the P. C. A, was going forward. Will Rogers, Jr.
- 312 -
was asked to become a Southern California sponsor. He refused, saying
on February 1:
"I will join no liberal group until it contains an anti- communist
plank in its platform. American communists have no part in the liberal
movement. They work only for Russia's foreign policy. Until the PCA
cleans them out, true American liberals should have no part of it. "
Harold Ickes, who had been a paid official of the I. C. C. , also did
not join the PCA. He had become identified with the Democratic Action
Committee which ultimately became the Americans for Democratic Action.
The A. D. A. was then being organized in Southern California by Melvyn
Douglas, husband of Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas, and Dr. Harry
Gervetz of Santa Barbara.
Jo Davidson, the national co-chairnnan of P. C, A. , came to Los
Angeles and spoke at an organizing meeting at the Embassy Auditorium
on February 11. Local sponsors of the meeting were Dr. Linus Pauling,
Gene Kelly, the dancer, and Carey McWilliams.
In mid-February, I was retained by the International Fishermen's
Union to defend their officers against an anti-trust indictment brought
by Attorney General Tom Clark. The Truman Administration was itching
then to find an excuse for prosecuting a C.I. O. labor union.
The fishermen indicted were those who fished for the fresh fish
market and not for the canneries. They were small boat owners whose
livelihoods were at the mercy of the weather, the supply of fish and the
prices paid by the market owners at the docks. Their average income
- 313 -
was $1, 800 a year. They were indicted because they struck for the right
to have the price of fish agreed upon before they put out to sea. The
government called this "price fixing. "
The fishernnen's grievance was that whenever they managed to catch
halibut, the fish buyers told them on their return that the market for
halibut had broken while they were at sea and they should have caught
bass instead.
The trial lasted for six weeks before Federal Judge Peirson M. Hall.
We made a thorough effort to attack the jury selection system in the fed-
eral courts. The Supreme Court had ruled that a party was entitled to be
tried by a jury drawn from a fair cross section of the comnnunity. We
contended that hourly wage earners were systematically excluded from
Southern California juries. To prove this we called as an expert witness
on demography, Professor W. S. Robinson of U. C. L. A.
There was one interesting innovation in trial technique. We were
permitted to show the jury a docvimentary film of the activities of the men
who fished for the fresh fish market. The fishermen were convicted and
$12, 000 in fines imposed.
In March, 1947, President Truman announced his Loyalty Order for
all federal employees. This was around the time when Elizabeth Bentley's
revelations to the FBI had begun, and Louis Budenz had left the Daily
Worker to take a teaching position at Fordham, the Catholic University.
Duncan Aikman sent me some verses he had written upon this event:
- 314 -
"When Budenz leaps with heave and lurch
From Mother Church to Mother Church --
Oh, yells of anguish, roars of glee
Split wide apart infinity. "
In March, President Truman announced his plan for $400, 000, 000 in
economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey. As Southern California
Chairman of P. C. A. , I opposed the progranr^, saying:
"The new Truman doctrine of American action on its own is an
attempt to by-pass the United Nations and involve the American people in
a false and individual crusade. V/e are trying to save the King of Greece
from his own people. "
On April 8, the Los Angeles County Central Democratic Committee
also urged the Truman administration to reconsider its policy towards
Greece and Turkey. The County Central Committee was soon to become a
battleground for right wing and left wing resolutions and counter-resolutions,
reflecting the ever-widening breach in the democratic coalition.
The gathering force behind the proposed Taft-Hartley bill caused
the Los Angeles C. I. O. to call a protest meeting at the Shrine Auditorium
on March 28. On that occasion, I said:
"Day by day, continuously, while Congress debates, the courts are
acconnplishing the purposes of the anti-labor bill. The courts feel free
to do this because Congress and the Administration is behind them. The
courts are doing this because labor fell down on its political job in the
last election and a host of anti-labor senators and congressmen were
- 315 -
elected. We have to prove to Congress and the President that while we
make mistakes, we don't go to sleep over them. "
Elliott Roosevelt had visited Moscow after the war. When he return-
ed, his views were quite close to those of Henry Wallace. He, too, was
opposed to the "get-tough-with-Russia" line of Secretary of State Byrnes.
He spoke at the Shrine Auditoriunn, Los Angeles, on April 18, 1947,
under the auspices of the P. C. A. RoUin McNitt, chairman of the Los
Angeles Democratic Central Committee, was also a speaker on this
occasion.
I introduced Elliott Roosevelt. Two years had then passed since
the death of his father. I said:
"No man in American history, not even Lincoln, was abused and
villified more than Franklin Roosevelt. When he insisted that labor
should have rights and protections equal to those of property, they called
him a communist. When he demanded a limitation on income, they call-
ed him a socialist. V/hen he spoke to the people, they called him a
rabble-rouser and a demagogue. He armed his country for the war
against fascism and he was never afraid to use the word "fascism" when
he spoke of his enemies. He contributed largely and creatively to that
unity of the Big Three which won the war; and he had dedicated his re-
nnaining years to maintenance of that unity in the peace-time world. He
was never stampeded into witch-hunting. He never believed in labels.
He judged men and nations by their acts. "
Encouraged by the great success of the Elliott Roosevelt meeting,
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the P. C, A. decided to use the Hollywood Bowl for a mass meeting at
which Henry V/allace woiild speak on May 19th.
On April 24, the Bowl directors rejected the P. C. A. application,
saying: "The Association does not believe that cultural interests are
served by making the Bowl a forum for the dissemination of propaganda,
or a sounding board for controversial issues. "
We were taken by surprise since the Bowl had been the scene of
addresses by such controversial persons as Charles A. Lindbergh and
Senator Claude Pepper. However "controversy" had become a very
dirty word, indeed, in the American vocabulary of the late 1940' s.
Bert Witt, an extremely able young man who had become the secre-
tary of the P. C. A. , obtained a firm contract to hold the V/allace meeting
at Gilmore Stadiunn in Hollywood. This arena had previously been devoted
to such cultural activities as the racing of midget autonnobiles.
On May 13, Chairman James Roosevelt sent me a copy of a resolu-
tion of the Executive Committee of the State Central Committee deploring
the refusal of Hollywood Bowl "to any speaker presenting any political
views no matter what they may be. " The qualification was attached that
"be it understood that this does not indicate the committee's approval or
disapproval of such views. " Relations between the P. C. A. and the
regular Democrats were still cordial. The same letter that forwarded
the resolution also enclosed 25 contribution cards for the June 5 Los
Angeles Jackson Day dinner.
The Los Angeles County Democratic Committee debated on how to
- 317 -
greet the former Vice President when he came to Los Angeles. A motion
by James Roosevelt would have limited the greeting to one by an approved
welcoming committee, but this was defeated by a vote of 44 to 37. Instead
the organized Democrats decided to greet Henry Wallace with an "informal
reception. " The vote on this was 51 to 20. Wallace and the Democrats of
California were still on speaking terms, although somewhat standoffish.
On April 30, Associated Press carried a Moscow dispatch reporting
a statement in Pravda that many "sincere friends" were grouping around
the organization of the National Council of Soviet-American Friendship.
Annong the American friends of the U. S. S. R. mentioned by Pravda were
former Ambassador Joseph E. Davies, Albert Einstein, Claude Pepper,
Paul Robeson, Henry A. Wallace, Elliott Roosevelt and "the California
prosecutor, Kenny. " My political opponents made note of this front page
story and later used it in circulars on several occasions.
The Wallace meeting was held as scheduled on May 19th at the Gil-
more Stadium, Twenty- seven thousand people attended and the collection
netted $31, 625, Mrs, Elliot Dexter, widow of the silent screen star,
gave $1, 000, Charles Chaplin $400, and $100 contributions were made
by Hedy Lamarr, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. , John Garfield, Budd
Schulberg, Paul Henreid and Edward G. Robinson.
Katherine Hepburn, wearing a bright scarlet dress, gave the keynote
address. The actress declared that American culture was under attack
by Rankin and Tenney for the purpose of creating disunity.
Dr. Linus Pauling, of the California Institute of Technology, warned
- 318 -
that the threat of atomic warfare made it imperative that the United States
formulate and carry through at once a program for permanent world
peace. "The Trumian proposals constitute aggresive unilateral action."
I was the master of ceremonies. I introduced Henry Wallace,
saying: "I give you Henry Wallace -- the man for 1948. "
The crowd took this up as a chant, shouting in football rooter fashion:
"V/allace in '48. Wallace in '48. Wallace in '48. "
We finally had to blink the lights in order to reduce the tumult suf-
ficiently to permit Wallace to deliver his address during the radio time
which we had purchased. Vi'hen his address faded off the air, after the
15 minutes of purchased time had expired, the radio station's switchboard
was flooded with calls from persons who thought Wallace had been
"censored" again.
In his speech, Wallace said:
"I am not afraid of Comnnunists. If I fail to cry out that I am anti-
Communist, it is not because I am friendly to Communism but because at
this time of grov^ing intolerance I refuse to join even the outer circle of
that band of men who stir the steaming cauldron of hatred and fear.
"There are many acts of intolerance in our history which we now
regret. We drove 100, 000 innocent men and women from their homes
in California because they were of Japanese ancestry. We kept Tom
Mooney in jail for seventeen years.
"I speak of only one source of shame to decent Americans who want
their country to be admired by the world. I mean the group of bigots
- 319 -
first known as the Dies Committee, then the Rankin Committee, now the
Thomas Comnnittee -- three names for fascists the world over to roll
on their tongues with pride.
"Once again innocent men are called before a kangaroo court and
smeared without the right of defense.
"No one who dares praise V/illkie's vision of 'One World' is safe
from attack. "
In Wallace's speech, some traces of the third party idea appeared
when he said:
"If the Democratic Party betrays its tradition by refusing to give
expression to the liberal will of the people, then the people will find
expression in other ways. "
Before the meeting, Wallace met with mennbers of the County Cen-
tral Democratic Committee at the "informal reception" for which they
had voted. He refused to give them a categorical answer to the question
of wrhether he would head a third party movement, but he did say, "If the
Democratic Party departs from the ideals of Franklin D. Roosevelt, I
shall desert altogether from that party. "
The following night. May 20, I introduced V/allace again at an over-
flow meeting at the San Francisco Opera House. We had no difficulty
hiring a hall for V/allace in San Francisco. I told the San Francisco
audience that with the Hollywood Bowl closed to us, cultural activities in
Los Angeles had been transferred to the Gilmore Stadiunri for nnidget
racing. However, the real midgets were on the board of directors of the
- 320 -
Hollywood Bowl. I feared the creation of an American Iron Curtain, with
the denial of permission to Wallace to speak at various places, and the
efforts of investigating committees to silence protest and isolate dis-
senters. I predicted that the Wallace movement would stir a sweeping
and searching wind across the country, uncovering the nation's latent
idealism beneath all of the recent double-talk and double-crossing.
"Prople are tired of hypocrisy. Henry Wallace is the first positive evi-
dence that 1948 will offer a better choice to the people than another
Missouri compromise. "
On May 21, V/allace spoke on the street at Berkeley, after the Uni-
versity of California had refused campus facilities. Thousands of students
came to hear hinn. I'm afraid they were somewhat disappointed. Wallace
was so delighted with the great crowds that had come out to hear him in
California that he simply loved everybody. The students had come out to
hear a fighting speech and Wallace was in too blissful a mood to give
them one.
None of nny old friends in the Democratic organization of San Fran-
cisco came to the Wallace meeting. Arthur Caylor pointed out in the News
that the "name" Democrats of San Francisco had left the platform to me
and Benny Buffano, the sculptor, then Mayor Lapham's Art Commissioner.
I had offered V/allace as a speaker to the Commonwealth Club of
San Francisco. They declined on the grounds of "quality, " writing to me
that his last address before the Club (in 1944) "was not worthy of the
Commonwealth Club platform. "
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On May 23, I was one of the speakers at the Los Angeles Norris
"Pig Dinner" of my college social fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta. The
novelist, Frank Norris, had introduced the Pig Dinner ceremonies when
he was an undergraduate brother at Berkeley. Still carried away by the
tremendous meetings that had been held for Wallace, I told the brothers
that Frank Norris, whonn they were honoring that evening, was a great
non- conformist and had introduced a whole new school of realism into
American literature. From that I branched out to the stimulus just given
non-conformism in California by Henry Wallace. The brothers didn't
like that. I was hissed and heard the call "Go back to Russia. "
I told them that I didn't have to. I illustrated my point by telling of
the old congressman who finally protested against the carelessness of a
fellow passenger who left open the smoking car door every time he passed
through. When the congressman finally asked if the passenger was "born
in a barn, " he received the reply, "You can kiss my ass. " "I don't have
to, " replied the old congressman, sadly, "You don't live in my district. "
I had received a special written invitation from the arrangements
committee to sit at the head table of the June 5 Jackson Day Dinner. The
honored guest was to be Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. This invitation
feeemed i]*npoi*t&nt to accept becauee I wanted to preserve unity in the
Democratic Party in L,6s Angeles ^- to show that it was possible to dis-
agree with Trtiman and still remain a Democrat* Oflfe reason for the
California Direct Presidential Primary Law was to eliminate "Ja" voting
for incunnbentsv
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I paid my $100 for a ticket and on June 5th I appeared at the banquet.
After meeting Mrs. Roosevelt, I started looking around for my place at
the head table. I was then informed that there was no place there for me.
I went honne. The next day the newspapers asked if I had "walked out of
the nneeting. " I replied that I had not, I had just been "edged off" -- the
dais. The Herald reported me saying, "This is certainly a funny way to
get purged. "
On June 26, I was in Pueblo, Colorado to take part in the ABC net-
work broadcast of the Town Meeting of the Air over Station KGHF. This
show then specialized in controversy and was nnoderated by George V.
Denny, Jr. It had been very popular for many years. However, its life
on the air was soon to be cut short when "controversy" was considered
no longer fit for the ears of American listeners. In Pueblo I met
Gifford Phillips again, I had met him in Denver the previous year, when
I attended a meeting of the Council of Civic Unity. Phillips then owned
the Pueblo station where the program originated. Phil Kerby, who later
became editor of Frontier Magazine here in Los Angeles, was in charge
of the arrangements.
The topic of the broadcast was "How Can We Halt the Spread of
Russian Power in Europe?" The other speakers were Senator V/ayne
Morse, Oregon, E. Palmer Hoyt, publisher of the Denver Post, and
Charles A. Graham, Denver attorney and chairman of the Rocky Moun-
tain Social Action Council. The discussion was supposed to turn upon the
policy of containing Russia. However, Secretary of State Marshall had
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just delivered his June 5 Harvard Commencement speech, and all four
speakers wanted instead to discuss the Marshall Plan. We all favored
the United States aiding the economic recovery of Europe. Palmer Hoyt
took a pot shot at Henry Wallace as a "fellow traveler. " I defended
Wallace as one who had conne out for the equivalent of the Marshall Plan
even before Secretary Marshall had delivered his Harvard address.
During the question period, the following question came from the audience:
"If Russia continues to weaken Europe from the back door while we
try to feed it from the front, why don't we stop Stalin first?"
Mr. Kenny: "I assume that you are asking why we don't bomb Russia
right away. Well, assviming such a plan was a great success, that our
A-bombs worked just beautifully, and that we were able to pull it off
with only another million Americans killed, wouldn't we then have to deal
with a conquered world? Wouldn't we have to set up a police state? About
the time we got a conquered 200, 000, 000 Slavs under control, wouldn't
we then have our mothers and sisters demanding to bring the boys back
home, and wouldn't another 15 years see us having to stage another one
of your preventive wars? I think the whole thing is not only silly but
terrifying. "
Senator Morse: "I want to say that I think Mr. Kenny is quite right
in the position he has just taken. War is not the solution to our problenn
with Russia. We've got to demonstrate to Russia our determination to
enforce the peace, but we've also got to demonstrate to her that we are
willing to cooperate with all the Allies in rehabilitating Europe so that we
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can have peace; and we're simply asking her to conne through with her
pronnises to work with us as an ally that helped win this war. "
Mr. Kenny: "Today we think that this is more than ever 'One
World. ' We see Europe and America in the Atomic Age as Siamese
twins. One cannot live without the other. It would be just plain suicide
for America, the healthy twin, to refuse to give a blood transfusion which
would save the life of her European sister. The hungry European today
cannot eat any ideology, whether it is democracy, or free enterprise, or
communism. Use the United Nations to feed him, assure him a decent
economic future, and then the ideologies will take care of themselves.
"Don't let our native saber- rattlers frighten you with words like
'war' and 'aggression' and 'appeasement.' We are in a world economic
ennergency, and we mustn't lose our heads. If we plan, we can have a
world of peace and plenty for all of us in the world. "
District Attorney Pat Brown of San Francisco was one of my listen-
ers on that broadcast. He wrote me on June 30:
"I know from past experience with you that you are moved only by
what you consider the best interests of your country. I share with you
some hesitation with respect to the program in Europe but I ann with-
holding my judgment until all the facts are before me. I hope that it is
not too late. I invite your attention to two recent editorials in
L'Osservatore Romano wherein it is stated that each country must decide
for itself the particular form of government under which it desires to live.
I know your inner feelings about what you consider the reactionism of the
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Catholic religion and can well understand some of your rriticism. How-
ever, I believe that you would do a great service if you would try to
implement this fact with the people with whom you are working. The
deterioration in feeling between Russia and this country is frightening in-
deed. There is a need for sonne agency with an understanding of the
problem to bridge the gap. Even the most reactionary person believes
that Russia is entitled to her form of government even if it is Communism
and, I am sure, is willing that the other Balkan, or, for that matter,
any other states, may decide what form of government they desire. Ke
does, however, deeply fear the fervor of the Russian Communist who
desires by revolutionary means to impose it upon people who do not want it.
"I heard your speech on the radio and though it was excellent. You
and Senator Morse were outstanding. However, I did think you emphasiz-
ed needlessly your support of Wallace, and introduced an issue that was
conapletely foreign to the problem.
"I am writing this letter because of my deep friendship and admir-
ation for you and whatever course you take; although I may disagree with
you, you may count upon me as a true friend. I do feel, however, that
you owe a debt of consultation with those who have supported you over
the years. You will recall that in the campaign you received very little
support from those with whom you are now associating. "
I replied to Pat as follows:
"There has been too much needling going on between both sides and
this is a very terrifying pastime in an atomic age. I have long been
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convinced that an institution like the Catholic Chutch could not have lasted
2, 000 years without a strong sense of realism and certainly the only
realistic approach today is one which -works to lessen needless aggrava-
tions of conflicting ideologies.
"I hope sometime we can get the same desire for harmony in the
Democratic Party. We almost had it in the Roosevelt delegation in 1944
and sometime we can have it again when our friends stop reading each
other out of the party. It is pretty silly to fight for power when we have
already lost it. "
I continued East from Pueblo after the broadcast, and attended a
meeting of the National Board of Directors of P. C. A. at Chicago. Jo
Davidson's health had failed him again, and his physicians had advised
him to go to Paris for a long rest. I was elected co-chairman in his
place. Frank Kingdon and I presided at the directors' meeting. Among
those present were Dashiell Hammett, the mystery writer, Aubrey
Williams of Montgomery, Alabama, and A. F. V/hitney of the Railroad
Brotherhoods.
From July 9th to July 13th, the Southern California P. C.A. took
over the Beverly Hills Hotel for a conference on "Thought Control. " An
all-star cast of California progressives took part in the discussions.
My partner, Morris Cohn, read a paper on thought control by legis-
lative investigating connmittees, a topic that was to become much more
immediate in the ensuing months.
In closing the session, I said that P. C.A. 's answer to the reac-
- 3Z7 -
tionaries was "if you don't like it in this century, go back to the one you
came from. "
The July 14th issue of Newsweek devoted itself to a discussion of
the California Dennocrats. It said that James Roosevelt had been trying
to reconcile "the Kenny left wing" and the "Pauley right wing" factions
around his own "center" position. This was incorrect. As yet, the
P, C, A. had not come into collision with the conservative Democrats. It
was the A.D.A. and the P. C. A. who were struggling for leadership of
the liberal wing of the Democratic party. Roosevelt was doing his best
to keep the peace between these two liberal factions.
On July 19th, the California Democrats for Wallace were organized
formally at a meeting called by me in Fresno, California. Three hundred
and twenty-five delegates from all parts of the state attended. The or-
ganizing committee had ordered up a supply of buttons reading "VJallace
in '48. " Political writers from all over the country were in attendance.
They had conne West for a Republican function and had justified their
expense accounts by also looking in on the Wallace naeeting.
I told the delegates: "A race between Dewey and Truman would be
as phoney, and as meaningless, as one of those wrestling matches in
which both contestants grunt and groan for an hour and a half, and then
ride home in the same automobile. And divide the prize money.
"... Truman has led the pack of witch-burners with his shameful
executive order authorizing a so-called 'Loyalty Check' of government
employees -- an investigation which will cost the voters $25, 000, 000 in
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cash, and infinitely more in the curtailment of American liberties.
"We didn't need it during the war. Why do we need it now? Could
it be because the bi-partisan bloc seeks to stifle all possible criticism of
its policies? We honor two California Democrats who fought this pro-
gram -- Helen Gahagan Douglas and Chet Holifield.
"... Let me remind you, in case any of you haven't heard, that
the GOP is expecting to win the 1948 election practically by default, be-
cause they are assuming Mr. Truman will head the Democratic ticket.
The only way we can make a real fight of it is by nominating Henry Wallace.
"... There's another question I've heard a thousand times these
last few weeks -- and it's an important question, too.
"Will a fight for Wallace split the Democratic Party?
"The answer is no, it will strengthen the Democratic Party!
"The Democratic Party was united in 1944 -- and in 1940. It was
united within itself, and united with the independent liberals who hold the
balance of power on Election Day.
"What has destroyed the unity of the Democratic Party is Mr. Tru-
man's abandonment of the policies of Franklin Roosevelt. Party unity
can only be restored by a return to the Roosevelt principles, as enuncia-
ted by Henry Wallace.
"The Democratic Party, no matter what you read in the papers,
does not consist of Mr. Truman and a half dozen leaders whose names
appear in the columns of political analysts.
"... We intend to get Wallace on the ballot in the Dennocratic
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primaries here in June, 1948. California is one of the few states in
which it will be possible to have an absolutely clear and clean contest
between Wallace and Truman, in a Democratic primary. That's because
of the way the ballots are printed, under our state election code. The
ballot will say -- 'Delegates preferring Flenry Wallace -- and 'Delegates
preferring Harry S. Truman. ' The delegates are not nanned -- the
voters simply choose whether they want a delegation instructed for
Wallace, or for Truman.
"If California Democrats roll up an impressive plurality for Henry
Wallace -- which I have every reason to expect -- this California vote
will have a profound effect on convention sentiment.
"It will be the clearest possible demonstration to the stand-pat
guardians of the Truman banner, that the people want Wallace, not Tru-
man. And the delegates from other states realize there's nothing peculiar
about California. They know the folks back home in Pennsylvania and
Massachusetts are much the same as the people in California -- in fact,
they all have relatives out here.
"There is the same ground swell of sentiment for Wallace in New
York and Michigan and Illinois and Ohio and Pennsylvania. Politicians
in other V/estern states than California are aware of it. What is needed
is a clearcut demonstration at the polls -- and that is the job we Califor-
nia Democrats have got to undertake.
"... Now -- another question. This one has been asked not only by
Dennocrats from every quarter, but the newsmen have shown particular
•■ 330 -
interest in it.
"Are we starting a third party?
"The answer is no, we are not starting a third party. We are here
as Democrats, fighting for a live and progressive Dennocratic Party. We
are fighting for the nomination of Henry Wallace as the presidential can-
didate of the Democratic Party. We are starting the machinery for a
delegation to the Democratic National Convention that •will be for Wallace
all the way, with no compromise.
"... The only reason the possibility of a third party is even men-
tioned is because the Democratic Party is no longer a second party.
Today, a Democratic president sees eye to eye with a Republican chair-
man of a Foreign Relations Committee on a policy which, under the old
slogan of fighting Communism, is supporting reactionary governments
everywhere, fighting the democratic upsurge where it can. Mr. Truman's
War Department sends Chiang Kai Shek 135,000,000 rounds of ammunition,
though we still pretend to take no part in China's tragically prolonged
civil war.
"... There was no third party talk in the days of F. D. R. , because
the Democratic Party, as the party of the people, held out hope to inde-
pendent voters.
"... Henry Wallace can and must be the champion of the people in
1948. Events are rushing to a clinnax in Europe, in Asia, and here at
home, while the atom bomb hovers over the world.
"At such a tinne, we must remember that the Democratic Party is
- 331 -
not the party of Rankin and Bilbo. It is not the party of Truman and the
Missouri gang. In California, it is not the property of any group or clique.
The Democratic Party, numerically, ideologically, and historically, is by
a vast majority, the party of liberal voters. It is the party of Claude
Pepper and Glenn Taylor, of Franklin Roosevelt and Henry Wallce. The
strength of our party -- all of its strength -- can only be mobilized around
a fighting liberal program -- for the sake of America and of the world. "
The delegates adopted the plan to place a vVallace delegation in the
California presidential primary in 1948.
Chairman James Roosevelt had called a special meeting of the Demo-
cratic State Central Comniittee for July 26, in Los Angeles. Many mem-
bers of the Wallace Democratic caucus were also members of the State
Central Committee. The principal objective of the handful of V/allace
supporters who attended this meeting was to prevent any endorsennent of
the Truman foreign policy. One of these, Robert Condon, later a Demo-
cratic member of Congress, spoke. He said that the foreign policy sec-
tion of the Resolution Committee statement of July 26 was a retreat from
the original statement that had been issued by James Roosevelt on
June 3, just before the Jackson Day dinner.
Roosevelt's first position had caused John W, Snyder, Secretary of
the Treasury, to cancel his engagement to speak at the Democratic dinner.
It had declared that the United States should abide by and use the United
Nations in international relations. However, the amended statement had
said that if it suited our convenience, the United States could bypass the
- 332 -
United Nations as it had in the case of Greece and Turkey.
Condon offered to substitute the original statement in place of the
later amended version. Condon's nnotion was tabled. Chairman Rosse-
velt gave me permission to address the convention, I addressed him
instead.
"We were with you when you signed the original statement on for-
eign policy. That was the statement that kept Snyder from conaing here.
Vv'e wanted to be -with you before this retreat from the original statement
on policy was forced upon the Democratic Party of California by Snyder. "
Michael Fanning, Los Angeles Postmaster, and I had reached a
private understanding designed to prevent an outright clash between the
P. C. A. and the regular Democrats. The P. C. A. group agreed to sup-
port a resolution that would commend President Trunnan for his veto of
the Taft-Hartley Act. In turn, the regular Democrats would then present
a resolution which would recognize the right of any Democrat to run for
office in the presidential primary. This was to have the unanimous sup-
port of Fanning' s group.
I got my friends to vote for the first resolution and then, through a
slip-up, the second resolution was never presented. Fanning wrote me
later in detail concerning his chagrin over this slip-up.
On July 31, I travelled to Vancouver, British Columbia to appear
on another Town Meeting of the Air broadcast on the subject of "What
Should Be Our Role in Aiding Europe Now?" The other speakers were
Dr. vVilson Compton, president of Washington State College, Mrs.
- 333 -
Dorothy Steeves of the C. C. F. (Cooperative Commonwealth Federation)
party, Major General George Pearkes, then Progressive- Conservative
member of Parliament fronn British Columbia, later Lieutenant
Governor of the province. I said:
"All three speakers agree, and I do, too, that it is to the economic
interest of North America that we aid Europe immediately.
"... I'm afraid, however, that in the United States, until we get
past the next election, we are just going to continue to debate and play
politics with European recovery.
"... \7hen v^e do get around to aiding the people across the Atlantic,
I want us to help the rebirth of a new Europe, a new Europe that is eager
to provide a better life for its people and not to re-establish an old pre-
1939 model of a "Mittel Europa" -- a Europe that furnished prosperity
only for a few and a fearful insecurity for everyone else.
"... V/e must not forget the Potsdam agreement and we must not
permit Germany to become an industrial nation again. I think we should
remember that the Potsdam agreement was written while Belsen and
Buchenwald were still an actual stench in the nostrils of the civilized
world.
"... I ann more interested in the recovery of our former Allies
than in the recovery of our former enemies. I am optinnistic about
tonight's meeting. There wasn't a speaker who said a word in defense
of that precious Truman Doctrine. Two months ago, it would have been
treason not to cheer it and say that it was the greatest doctrine ever
- 334 -
conceived by the mind of man. And nobody's even dared to defend it
two months later. That's human progress. "
While in Vancouver I nnet Nathan Nennetz, a brilliant young lawyer
of Vancouver. He is now Mr. Justice Nemetz of the Supreme Court of
British Columbia. After the meeting, Mr. Nennetz took nne and Rhys
Williams, author of many books on Russia, to visit the home of the head
of one of Vancouver's department stores. Williams and the department
store executive were enthusiastically talking of plans for a trip to Russia.
I expressed my amazement. I knew no department store head in the
United States who even had an open mind on the subject of the Soviet
Union, much less wanted to visit it.
The Southern California P. C. A. organized a "Liberty Caravan"
to take the story of the findings of the Thought Control conference to the
hinterlands. During the weekend of August 8, I travelled with a group
of actors and writers to Salt Lake and Denver. One group included
John Garfield, the actor, Paul Draper, the dancer, and Larry Adler,
the harmonica virtuoso. They performed and I made speeches -- a sort
of talkaphone concerto. In Salt Lake City none of my old Democratic
friends came out to m.eet me, but I made several new friends, including
several members of the University of Utah faculty.
The National Lawyers Guild held a Far Western conference at
Santa Monica on the weekend of August 15. Panel discussions were held
on Monopoly and Development of the West; the Taft Hartley Act; and
Legislative Investigating Committees and Freedom of Thought.
- 335 -
Fiorello LaGuardia had listened to my broadcast from the Vancou-
ver Town Hall meeting. He wrote me on August 4, saying:
"It was too bad time did not permit you to make a sustained state-
ment pointing out the belated recognition of the rai stakes in the so-called
Truman Flan. The American people need a good dose of information.
"Things are moving so fast that some of the statements made in
support of the military aid to Greece and Turkey now seem silly.
"There are so many things that I want to talk over with you, but I
am not physically able to do so now. As soon as I am able, I should like
to pick up the various threads and make preliminary arrangennents for a
small conference of Eastern, Midwestern and Far Western progressives
and independents. You hold a key position and could be very helpful. "
Mayor LaGuardia asked me to take over his weekly national program
on Mutual Network on August 23. I accepted and said on the LaGuardia
broadcast:
"There is a new Europe in the making today -- one whose leaders
are anxious to provide a better life for their people. Despite the devas-
tation of war, a really heartening comeback is being staged by many
countries. This new Europe deserves our help. However, this people's
revival is threatened by the same selfish interests which prospered in
the old pre-war Europe when I. G. Farben ruled the economic roost. So
today, whenever you hear a denunciation of the Potsdam Agreement or
the Morganthau Plan, look around for a would-be successor of the old
Farben cartels.
- 336 -
"Remember that before the last war the great German cartels were
operating in a conspiracy with allied monopolies in other nations, includ-
ing our own. Through this operation, Germany's great industrial region,
the Ruhr, attained an economic domination over all of Europe. Other
countries could produce raw nnaterials at low wages and living standards
and these products were brought to the Ruhr for conversion into manu-
factured articles. Large portions of the European population remained in
abject poverty so that Thyssen, Stinnes, Krupp and their American, Brit-
ish and French collaborators could prosper enormously.
"... Two years ago, when President Trioman, Premier Atlee and
Marshal Stalin sat down at Potsdam, they were in one general agreement
-- a different kind of peace would be imposed on Germany this time.
"... The great decision at Potsdam was that Germany's war poten-
tial, its industrial plants, would be broken up and distributed among the
victorious allies as reparations.
"... It all seemed so logical that peace-loving Americans went to
sleep. But the 'soft peace' for Germany boys never stopped working.
The stakes were too high. To thenni Germany was a prize, not a problenn.
They reasoned that those who would inherit the Ruhr industries would
inherit a large share of the earth. Germany's productive capacity had
been damaged only 13% by Allied bombing.
"Just get control of the machinery -- get it rolling -- and happy
days would be here again for the old cartels.
"... Apparently, the first plan was to quietly slip the Potsdam
- 337 -
handcuffs off the German industrial giant while we were bravely defending
the democracy of corrupt Greek kings and Turkish dictators.
"However, this move alerted liberals all over the world. Most of
the non-Communist European governments were disturbed at the unpopu-
lar spectacle of American money and munitions being used on the side of
former collaborationist governments.
"Therefore, on June 5th, the Marshall Flan was announced to erase
the fears aroused by the Truman Doctrine. Europe would only be helped
to help herself. But how would the bill be paid? On this the Marshall
Plan was silent.
"Then the answer came. On July 11th the United States rescinded
the 'hard peace' directives and the cat was let out of the cellophane bag.
It turned out that we were going to pay the bill for European aid by letting
German industry produce for us. Well, after all, this was just where we
came in. It was the same old movie all over again -- the Versailles
mistake that let us in for World Warr II after World War I. "
A few days after my broadcast, Mayor LaGuardia wrote me:
"Doesn't it seem strange that with all the daily news items that
come from Greece, with the situation as it is developing, no one who
sponsored the plan of military aid to Greece has stood up and said, 'Yes,
we were wrong. V/e had better approach this from another angle'?
"The Senate was provided with all the information, even though the
reports submitted to the President naight have been one-sided. Every
single, solitary event that has taken place was predicted, and the Senate
- 338 -
was informed: that we were by-passing the United Nations; that it was
not a task to be taken unilaterally; that it would not in and of itself sub-
due opposition to the present government of Greece.
"Seemingly, it is all being taken in stride, and the first thing we
know we shall be involved in some very delicate situations, the money
spent, no friends made, and nothing accomplished.
"Again, I want to express my thanks and the hope that we may
meet real soon. "
Less than a month after this letter was written. Mayor LaGuardia
died of cancer on September 20, 1947.
On August 24, six hundred people met at the Rodger Young Auditor-
ium in Los Angeles to launch the organization of the Independent Progres-
sive Party of Californis. I had been opposed at all times to the formation
of a third party in California and I did not attend this affair. Hugh
Bryson, head of the Marine Cooks and Stewards, C. I. O. , became the
chairman of I. P. P.
On August 26, the Truman Loyalty check produced its first offspring
in Los Angeles. The Board of Supervisors adopted a County employee
loyalty oath test. A long list of suspect organizations was provided and
the employees were required to indicate their past or present member-
ship in thenn. Some of these organizations were the Mobilization for
Democracy, H. I . C. c. A. S. P. , even the Tom Mooney Defense Committee.
A test suit against the oath program was immediately started, but the
litigation was protracted and inconclusive.
- 339 -
Another nation-wide broadcast of Town Meeting of the Air took place
in Los Angeles on September 2. Albert Dekker and Emmett Lavery,
President of the Screen Writers Guild, were on one side and Jack Tenney
and Mrs. Leila Rogers, mother of Ginger Rogers, were on the other.
Mrs. Rogers was spokesnnan for the Hollywood Committee for the Preser-
vation of American Ideals. This was a conservative group which had be-
come greatly agitated after the Wallace meeting at Gilmore Stadium.
The conservatives really believed that the "Hollywood Reds" were collect-
ing millions of dollars for subversive purposes. These fears ultimately
triggered the Hollywood Un-American Activities hearings which took
place in Washington, D. C. the following month.
On September 5, James Roosevelt was interviewed in New York on
the "Meet the Press" radio program. The Los Angeles Times for Septem-
ber 6 reported this:
"Asked why Republican Gov. Warren is 'able to carry so many
Democrats in California' and why he was 'able to get both the Republican
and Democratic nomination and win so overwhelmingly, ' Roosevelt said:
"'Well, I think there are two answers to that. The first answer is,
very frankly, that I feel the cannpaign conducted against Gov. Warren by
Mr. (Robert) Kenny, who was the leading Democratic man running in the
Democratic primary, was such a half-hearted effort that nnost people
felt that it was not a true contest. '
"Roosevelt told his radio questioners there is dissension in the
California Dennocratic Party 'because I think the Democratic Party in
- 340 -
California is made up, as it is in many other States in the nation, of
extreme leftists and extreme rightists and, naturally, as the result of
that, there is a considerable difference of opinion, '"
In response to this, on September 6, I said:
"I recognize that political ingratitude is a necessity in a republic.
But Mr. Roosevelt overdoes it when he deliberately kicks a man when
he is down. In 1946 iVir. Roosevelt was paid $25, 000 a year by
H.I. C. C. A. S. P. to support progressive candidates. But he was too busy
selling insurance to make more than a few perfunctory appearances dur-
ing the primary campaign. Many progressives lost. Now he blames it
on nay 'half-heartedness. ' Well, at least I retained my amateur standing.
I am still able to act independently. I am for Henry Wallace. I don't
have to bow to the will of the Democratic machine and come out for
President Truman as Mr. Roosevelt did last night. "
C. B. "Beanie" Baldwin, Executive Vice Chairman of P. C. A. , sent
me the schedule of Wallace meetings to be held in the East under the
auspices of P. C. A. He also asked nny advice on the date for the P. C. A.
National convention. On September 9, I replied that I believed the
convention should not be held until the following January, saying:
"The reason I favor delay is because of the current confusion in
California between the Democrats for Wallace movennent and the third
party activity. Our Chicago political statement represents the correct
position for P. C. A. nationally. You remennber that we said that we
should support both those who work for progressives in the Democratic
- 341 -
Party and those who set up machinery for a third party.
"However, I think we should have added a proviso that in those
states such as California (via the independent nomination route) and Ne\v
York (via the A. L. P, route) where the election machinery pernnits
deferment of selection of third party presidential candidates until after
the Democratic Convention, all work should be concentrated within the
Democratic Party, I notice this is exactly what is being done in New
York. However, in California a promising Democrats for Wallace move-
ment has been immobilized by the current quixotic attempt to obtain
half a million signatures for a third party. "
I left on September 24 for a protracted trip. My first stop was
Berkeley, where I attended a meeting of approximately 500 "Students for
Wallace. " In Portland, I found that many of my old Democratic friends
were ready to enter Henry Wallace as a candidate in the Oregon Denno-
cratic presidential primary.
I flew from Portland to Boston, Mass. to appear with Henry Wallace
at a meeting in the Boston Arena. This was the first occasion I ever
witnessed the ugly conduct of fascist hecklers. Politics in California
were fairly genteel -- some picketing, perhaps, but no heckling. I was
shocked with the undercurrent of violence displayed by Henry Wallace's
Boston opponents. The open hatred ■was frightening.
On October 3, I was in Ebbett's Field, Brooklyn, attending a
Yankee-Dodger World Series game. The Yankee pitcher. Bill Bevens,
had a no-hitter going with two out in the bottom of the ninth and a one run
- 342 -
lead in his favor. A Dodger pinch-hitter, Cookie Lavagetto, broke
up the no-hitter with a boonning hit to the right field wall, scoring two
base runners ahead of him and winning the game. The Brooklyn fans
walked out of Ebbett's field in a stunned, low- mumbling delirium.
I left immediately for Philadelphia to attend a P. C. A. board meet-
ing. On arrival there, there was a telephone call from Hollywood. The
Thomas Un-American Activities Comnnittee had served subpoenas all
over town. I was wanted back home to discuss the legal aspects of the
scheduled hearings. It was a good thing I had gone to that ball game. It
was to be the last relaxation I was to know for a good naany months.
The Hollywood people were subpoenaed to appear in Washington
before the House-Un-American Activities Committee on Monday,
October 20.
On October 15 there was a P. C. A. mass meeting at the Shrine
Auditorium. The subpoenees who appeared on this occasion were
Alvah Bessie, writer, Herbert Biberman, associate producer, Berthold
Brecht, author, Lester Cole, writer, Edward Dymtryk, director,
Gordon Kahn, writer, Howard Koch, writer. Ring Lardner, Jr. ,
writer, John Howard L-awson, writer, Albert Maltz, writer, Lewis
Milestone, director, Samuel Ornitz, writer, Larry Parks, actor,
Irving r-ichel, director, \¥aldo Salt, writer, Adrian Scott, producer,
Robert Rossen, director, and Dalton Trunnbo, writer. Opening the
meeting, I said:
"I have the honor to speak for a group of distinguished American
- 343 -
artists. Most of them are known to you personally. All of them are
known by their work. They are good men and, in a way which history
will light up more and more, I believe they are great men.
"I am permitted to say what perhaps modesty would forbid them to
say. I have never counselled a group of men so learned, so courageous,
and so thoroughly understanding what the case is about. Americanism
today is what the debates, wars, elections, and litigation of the past
have brought us. These nnen know a great deal about Americanism and
about the struggles by which it was won. They know that it nnust be
fought for in the legislatures, as well as on the battlefield. "
"... I am one of several lawyers for these men. We have all
advised them that the powers of Congress are less than the force of the
Bill of Rights . . . 'We have advised that when questions go beyond the
powers of the committee or into the immunities of the witness, they
need not answer. In short, we have advised that the Constitution of
Holnnes, Brandeis and Cardozo is as powerful as ever and worthy of
confidence by all who respect it.
"... It is my proud privilege to tell you that each and every man
we represent has individually determined he will not yield at any point
in upholding the constitutional rights of the American people and of the
industry of which they are a part. "
On the following day the Hollywood Nineteen and their la^vyers
flew East together in a plane which Gordon Kahn called the "Flying
Tumbril. " There was a stop-over in Chicago for an enthusiastic mass
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meeting.
The Hollywood group took a large suite at the Shoreham in Wash-
ington, D. C. On the night of October 19, on the eve of the hearings, the
lawyers for the Hollywood Nineteen met with Eric Johnston, head of the
Producers Association and the producers' lawyers. Lawyers for the
Hollywood Nineteen included Bartley Crum of San Francisco, Charles
Katz and Ben Margolis of Los Angeles, Martin Popper and Sam Rosen-
wein of New York,
On the occasion of the meeting with Eric Johnston, I asked him the
question uppermost in the minds of all of us: "Are you going to blacklist
these men if they defy the committee?" Johnston replied: "You know
that I would never sponsor anything so un-American as a blacklist. "
The producers had fought the Wheeler-Nye Committee in 1941
when it sought to investigate Hollywood for producing too many "Pro-
Allied" pictures. On that occasion the producers retained Wendell
Willkie to represent thenn. He took a resolute stand for the freedom of
the screen against Congressional interference. The producers told us
that their position was unchanged and that they would resist the Com-
mittee's investigation as a form of censorship.
The producers had retained Paul McNutt, former Governor of
Indiana, to represent them. McNutt took his assignment seriously and
made many brave speeches in opposition to the Committee. Later,
when the producers abandoned their original position and capitulated to
the Committee, McNutt's retainer was dropped and his voice was not
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further heard in behalf of the producers.
The hearings began October 20, The first week was devoted by the
Committee to hearing witnesses who were friendly to the Committee's
investigation of Hollywood. Some producers, notably Louis B. Mayer
and Dore Schary, spoke out bravely against any censorship of the content
of filnn by Congress. Louis B. Mayer, a former Republican National
Committeeman, was bullyragged by the Committee because he had pro-
duced "North Star, " a film portraying the Soviet Union in a friendly light.
Ayn Rand, a "friendly" witness, said that this was a false picture because
it portrayed laughing children, a thing which was simply never to be seen
in Russia.
The nnost picturesque of the "friendly witnesses" was Adolphe
Menjou who told the Committee: "Any one attending any meeting in
which Paxil Robeson appears and applauds can be considered a Communist. "
Not only was "Mission to Moscow" said to be Comnnunist propaganda,
but any play which represented rich industrialists as guilty of harshness
and oppression was similarly attacked.
V/itnesses like Mr. Menjou were treated with extreme deference
by the Comnnittee and permitted a wide latitude of connment. However,
only one of the Hollywood Ten was permitted to make a statement. Nor
was their counsel permitted to cross-examine the witnesses who had
testified about them. Even Dies, on a number of occasions, had per-
mitted such cross-examination.
At the end of the first week, Allen Drury described my activities
- 346 -
in a syndicated column from Washington:
"Of all the interesting performers at the un-American activities
committee hearings on Hollywood, perhaps the most interesting of all
for Californians intrigued by the political ups and downs of their lively
state is the rotund and witty Robert W. Kenny, erstwhile attorney general
and present backer of Henry V/allace for president.
"Mr. Kenny is counsel for some 19 stars and screen writers alleged-
ly involved in activities which the committee says are communistic. In
this new role he is, as always, squarely in the limelight and apparently
having a wonderful time,
"Faithfully each day he appears with his clients, smoking cigars
and cigarets in indiscriminate profusion and uttering exasperated wise-
cracks in a belligerent murmur as the committee proceeds to develop its
case. He makes no secret to the press of his general contempt for the
type of hearing being conducted, and although his attempts to interfere
have so far been successfully overruled by Chairman J. Parnell Thonnas
(R. , N. J. ), he indicates that he is by no means beaten yet. Fireworks
are his specialty and it will be surprising if the investigation ends with-
out a few from him.
"As for his political operations in California, w^e re he has suc-
cessfully split the Democrats wide open by organizing a V/allace-for-
Fresident ticket to run in the primaries next June, he remarks with his
customary engaging candor that what he is really doing is 'giving the
party a shot of adrenalin. '
- 347 -
'"And they'd better take it,' he observes with a chuckle, 'unless
they want to get trounced with Trunrian. '
"Win, lose or draw for Wallace, he says his campaign for the
former vice president will be bound to have a healthful effect on the
party. It will stir up interest, get a big turn-out at the polls in the
primary, and keep the Dennocrats on their toes clear through the general
election in November. Under the inspiration of his 'shot of adrenalin, '
he predicts, registered Democrats will vote Democratic in 1948. If that
happens, the party will carry the state.
"... There is a certain haphazardly entertaining quality about his
zig-zag course through public life which is hard to explain unless it can
be explained as the record of a man who is living the most enjoyable life
he knows how within the framework of contemporary politics.
"... When all is said and done, Bob Kenny perhaps can be said to
add up into the Puck of politics -- always in the thick of a battle, having
a grand time raising hell for its own sake, but not following too much of
a connected pattern or animated by too many consistent purposes. As
such, although he has now lost a great deal of his influence and has be-
come one of the less effective figures on the current political scene,
he continues to hold unchallenged title as one of the most entertaining. "
On August 27, the real fireworks began when my clients, "the
unfriendly witnesses, " were called. John Howard Lawson and Dalton
Trumbo were the first two. Their defiance of Chairman Thomas and
his committee so angered the chairman that he ordered both of them re-
- 348 -
moved from the stand. The next day Albert Maltz was called and after
he left the stand Thomas surprised everyone by calling me as a witness.
He had a story in a Washington afternoon paper in which I was quoted as
saying that all of my clients might have to "walk the plank" before his
connmittee. Seeking to develop a conspiracy charge, Thomas asked me
if I had given that advice to my clients,
I informed the chairman that since he was not a lawyer he did not
realize the impropriety of the question he had asked. "If I answered
your question and revealed the confidences of my clients, I would stand
disgraced before every one of the 100, 000 lawyers in the United States. "
This gave Thomas pause, and he conferred with the other members
of the connmittee. He turned back to me: "V/ell, you got out of that one,
but don't forget there are conspiracy laws in the United States. "
I smilingly replied: "Well, I think you got out of one, too. Pro-
fessional confidences remain inviolate. Let us say that neither one of
us is intimidated."
At the end of the week it seemed to most observers that the Holly-
wood people had the best of it. Ten of nny clients had stood upon First
Amendnnent grounds and refused to answer questions on their political
affiliations, particularly the question: "Are you now, or have you ever
been a mennber of the Communist Party?"
I represented one more client before the committee. This was
Berthold Brecht, the great German playwright. Brecht had been driven
out of Germany by an un-German Activities Committee. Then he was
- 349 -
forced out of Denmark by the approaching Nazis and their Un-Danish
Activities Connmittee. This was repeated in Sweden. He then travelled
across Russia and Siberia. Just as his ship had cleared Vladivostok
for San Pedro, California, word was received of the attack on Pearl
Harbor. The ship did not turn back, and Brecht ultimately arrived in
Hollywood. His story, "Hangmen Also Die, " was produced on the
screen. Then the Un-American Activities Committee caught up with
him. When he appeared in V/ashington, Brecht had an airplane ticket
in his pocket which would take him back to Europe,
Before he took the stand, Brecht gave me two cigars. "One is for
you and one is for me, " he said. "If you think I am getting excited,
please hand me a cigar and we will both light up. "
The questioning took nearly an hour and we set up quite a smoke
screen while it was going on.
When the Committee came to the Commuxiist membership question,
Brecht said: "I am not in the same position as my friends who have been
on the stand. They are citizens of your country, and I am not, I do not
intend to get into a legal quarrel with you, since I am going to leave this
country as soon as I can. "
Under these conditions Brecht answered the crucial question, say-
ing that he had never been a member of the Communist Party. Investi-
gator Robert Stripling tried to contradict Brecht' s assertion by reading
some translations of Brecht' s verse. The translations were unrecogniz-
able and the matter soon became too ridiculous even for Thomas.
- 350 -
Stripling was waved away and Brecht excused from further interrogation.
A few days later, Brecht told a friend in Paris that the Committee
had been very kind. "The Nazis wouldn't have let me smoke. "
I returned at once to California where there was much work to be
done to help the men keep their jobs in the studios. A clamor for a
blacklist was set up by the Hearst newspapers. The producers capitu-
lated and, one by one, the contracts were broken. On November 24, the
House of Representatives adopted the Conamittee' s recommendations
and the ten "unfriendly" witnesses were cited for contempt of Congress.
From then on, the group became known as "The Hollywood Ten. "
While Congress was acting that day, the producers were meeting
in New York at the Waldorf Astoria. It was at this meeting that the pro-
ducers agreed to capitulate to the Comnnittee and to discharge any em-
ployee who refused to answer questions on Communist Party membership.
The breaking of the contracts with the writers precipitated litigations
that continued for the next seven years.
Beanie Baldwin again solicited my views on the Wallace campaign
and on December 3, I wrote him:
"Mr. Wallace should announce that he will be a candidate for
President and express the hope that he will be supported by the Demo-
cratic Party as well as by any independent groups already formed or
which may be formed before the 1948 campaign.
"Immediately after this announcement, Mr. Wallace should tele-
graph leaders of the Democrats for Wallace movement in those states
- 351 -
where they are now active, i. e. California and Oregon. Such wires
should say that he appreciates their efforts in his behalf and that he will
make himself available personally to come to their states and speak dur-
ing the Presidential primary campaigns. The primary election in
Oregon is May 8th and in California June 1st. "
I thought it impossible to qualify a third party in California by ob-
taining 275, 970 valid petition signatures before the February 26 deadline.
I was wrong. One factor was that many Republican County clerks were
glad to cooperate by giving the petitions a most charitable count. Very
few signatures were thrown out for technical reasons. When the final
tally was made in November, 1948, Wallace only received 190, 381 votes
in California, many less than the signatures that had been approved on
the petitions the previous February.
On December 17, there was a meeting of the P. C. A, executive conn-
mittee in New York. I was not there. The Committee disregarded the
advice I had given and came out in favor of the formation of a third party.
Dr. Frank Kingdon resigned as co-chairnnan because of this. This left
me the boy on the burning deck; I was the only P. C. A. chairman left.
I never resigned from any organization during those days, but some did
resign from me. Leslie Claypool, political editor of the Los Angeles
Daily News, quoted nne on December 18 as saying:
"I am not tying up with the third party. I am not fighting it. I'm
just not crawling into bed with it. I suspect they will be back in the
Democratic party some day. I ann for Wallace, but I want hinn as the
- 352 -
candidate of the Democratic party. You know, the progressives have
taken the Democratic party over before and they may again. "
Another I. P. P. mass meeting was held at the Shrine Auditorixim in
mid-December, and I pointedly did not attend.
Henry Wallace phoned me after Christmas and asked me to meet
with him in Chicago. I did so. I learned from him then that he would
momentarily announce as a candidate on the third party ticket. I begged
hinn not to close the door to his candidacy in the Democratic primaries
in those states where the prinnaries were open. I could obtain no com-
mitment from him, Harold Young, the genial Texan who had been
solicitor of the Department of Commerce when Wallace was Secretary,
agreed with me. Young and I left Wallace in Chicago and went on to
New York. The next day, when Wallace's announcement came out, I told
Squire Behrens of the S. F. Chronicle that despite Wallace's third party
announcement, his name would still be entered in the California and
Oregon primaries if he would give the necessary consent:
"I am not speaking for Wallace. I am speaking for West Coast
Democrats. I don't see anything inconsistent between Wallace's third
party statement last night and his running in the regular Democratic
party primary in California."
I celebrated a strange New Year's Eve in New York. It was in the
midst of the worst blizzard in many years and took place at Hannah
Dorner's apartment. Paul Robeson was there and Beanie Baldwin. So was
Harold Young. There was a tremendous effort made that evening to per-
suade Young and me to go along with the third party idea but we declined.
353
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
HENRY WALLACE'S CAMPAIGN - 1948
The P. C. A. staggered along to its ultimate dissolution. It held
its convention as scheduled in Chicago on January 16. A. F. Whitney of
the Railroad Brotherhood had left the P. C. A. and Henry Morganthau had
announced his support of President Truman. Since Jo Davidson was in
Europe and Frank Kingdon had resigned the previous month, I was elected
as a stop-gap chairman, despite my opposition to a third party. In a few
months the P. C. A. resigned from me, its chapters all over the country
dissolved and merged into the Independent Progressive Party.
Frank Rogers of the Los Angeles Daily News discussed this in a
Chicago dispatch, dated January 16:
"Kenny said he saw nothing anomalous in his advocacy of Wallace's
entrance into the California election picture as a Democrat while at the
same time the organization which he heads is plugging mightily for a
Wallace third party wherever possible.
"But, as he talked freely with a large group of Washington political
writers here for the P. C. A. convention, Kenny left little doubt as to
what he thought the Wallace campaign might accomplish.
"For one thing, he observed on a couple of occasions, it could very
well result in the dumping of Harry S, Truman as the Dennocratic nominee.
"'Wallace can take the Democratic nomination from Truman in
California and Oregon, ' he said flatly. 'And if Trunnan loses these two
- 354 -
practice bouts, the Democrats won't nominate him at Philadelphia --
unless the party's leaders have a greater suicidal instinct than I think
they have. '
"Kenny said he was not ready, however, to predict that the Demo-
cratic convention would nominate Wallace if Truman were dropped. There
has been some talk, however, that if such a thing were to happen, Wallace
might then give up his third party candidacy in favor of a compronnise
Democratic candidate.
"Some observers feel that Kenny's choice in that event might be
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas. Kenny was one of the early
supporters of Douglas for the vice presidential nomination which the
1944 convention later gave to Truman.
"As for Ceilifornia, Kenny said V/allace could capture the Democra-
tic nomination there with the votes of the same people who in the past
have voted for Upton Sinclair, Culbert L. Olson and for California's
several progressive Democratic congressnnen.
"Kenny several times indicated that his chief interest in the
Wallace movement was its possibilities as a weapon for re-shaping the
Democratic Party.
"... Kenny said he was not yet ready to predict that the Independent
Progressive Party will fail to qualify as a third party in California and
he made it plain he believes there are states where the third party may
be necessary -- but California isn't one of them,
"'But if they nnake it in California, ' he said, 'it will be the greatest
- 355 -
piece of political water walking I have ever seen. "
By now my hands were full with the affairs of the Hollywood Ten.
For a few months, I lost practically all track of politics. The ten men
were indicted and had to come to Washington in January for their arraign-
ment. Jack Lawson was put on trial in April, and we conducted a spirited
defense before the Federal District Court in the District of Columbia.
Most of the jurors were goverrunent employees, subject to the loyalty
program, and the conviction canae almost as a foregone conclusion.
A few weeks later Dalton Trumbo was also tried and convicted.
Defense counsel then worked out an agreement with the government.
If the other eight men had to be tried separately, defense funds would be
exhausted. It was agreed that the trials woxild be halted until appeals of
Lawson and Trumbo had been passed on by the United States Supreme
Court. We had associated Charles Houston of Washington, D. C. as co-
counsel in the Trumbo case. On the day that Trumbo' s case was going
to the jury, Houston's father came in from the United States Supreme
Court. He was all smiles. He informed us that the Supreme Court had
knocked out racial restrictive covenants that afternoon, in deciding
Shelley v Kraemer, (344 U. S. 1, May 3, 1948). Both Houstons had been
attorneys for the N. A, A, C. P. and national leaders in the fight against
segregation in housing.
On June 17, 1948, the Southern California P. C. A. finally dissolved
and merged into the Independent Progressive Party. Robert Morris, my
partner, had been treasurer of P. C. A. He announced that both he and
- 356 -
I were not joining the I. P. P. Bert Witt, executive director of P. C. A. ,
became director of the I. P. P. I told the press that I still intended to be
active in "Democrats for Wallace" which, by then, I said, was "mostly
a state of mind with a small deficit. "
At the Republican convention in Chicago on June 25, Earl Warren
was nominated for vice president, with Dewey for president. If the
ticket had only been reversed, I ann sure the Republicans would have won
that year, and Earl Warren would have made as great a president as he
later made a Chief Justice.
A few days later, on June 29, I spoke once again at a Town Hall
broadcast from the Pasadena Auditorixim, The other speakers were
Will Rogers, Jr. , Victor Hansen, then Adjutant General of the State of
California, and Adela Rogers St. John, the writer. The subject of the
debate was "What Are the Major Issues in the Coming Election?" WTien
moderator George V. Denny, Jr. introduced me, he said:
"Although Mr. Kenny remains a Wallace supporter, he insists, and
I quote, 'I'm still a Democrat. Very still. ' Judge Kenny, will you
please speak for yourself?
Mr. Kenny: "You're right, Mr. Denny. I'm still a Demiocrat,
despite the present administration. However, I'm for Henry Wallace
because I believe that the American people deserve a better choice this
year than one between Tweedle-Dewey and Tweedledum.
"... One of the most important of the present issues is our rela-
tions to the United Nations. That question is usually phrased in terms
- 357 -
of United States versus Russia. Well, while it's more dramatic and, in
some quarters more explanatory to say it that way, it misstates the
problem. It puts the question in terms of who shall prevail.
"The real question is whether the United States, which prides itself
on being one of the most advanced governments, is prepared to accept an
international system of law, whether it is really prepared to accept the
council table as a substitute for the atomic bomb; in short, whether it is
prepared to accept the United Nations.
"... One of the most critical issues today is our growing tendency
to distrust ourselves. As a result, we have an investigating staff in our
country which is no doubt the greatest staff in our history. The index of
the F. B. I. and the Un-American Activities Comnnittee runs into
millions of names.
"This is a difficult issue to bring up because just nnentioning and
criticizing it causes one to be suspected of disloyalty. Nevertheless,
my feeling is that the candidate who ignores the issue of civil liberties
is the most disloyal. Let's quit blaming each other and adopt a con-
structive attitude towards the issues of the day. "
The speakers directed questions to each other.
Mr. Rogers: "I have one for Bob Kenny . . . Now the Independent
Progressive Party is working for the defeat of Miss Douglas. How can
you justify that, and should not the name of your party be changed to the
Republican Co-operative Party?"
Mr. Kenny: "There goes another poor wife getting beaten again.
- 358 -
That isn't my party. I agree with you most sincerely that Mrs. Douglas
is one of the most valuable members in Congress that we have. She
deserves re-election and shouldn't be opposed by anybody wearing the
name 'Progressive. '
"... I would like to hear what Mr. Rogers thinks of Mr. Truman's
handling of Palestine policy. I know that Mr. Rogers is a sincere
student of the subject. " (At this time, the Administration was fearful
that friendliness to Israel would endanger our cold war oil supply lines
from the Arab nations. )
Mr. Rogers: "I could see that one coming up. I knew that I
couldn't get out of here without that one. I don't think any one in this
country can defend very strongly the American position and change of
position so rapidly on Palestine, and I offer no defense whatsoever for
the Administration's action on Palestine, which I wholeheartedly condemn.
"I should like to point out, however, that that is just one segment
of our foreign policy. The principal issue, which was to stop Russian
aggression and implement the Marshall Flan, that has been a Democratic
program and that was a Democratic proposal and that is more important
than our miserable failure in Palestine. "
In concluding, I summarized my own position: "I'm the happiest
man up here tonight because, being for Wallace, I don't have a President
to apologize for and I don't have a Congress to apologize for. "
Just before the July, 1948 Democratic convention in Philadelphia,
the press reported that James Roosevelt, although elected in California
- 359 -
as a delegate pledged to Truman, was meeting with Eastern Democrats
in an effort to persuade General Eisenhower to become the Democratic
candidate in place of Truman.
On August 1, Morris Cohn left our firm to practice by himself in
Hollywood. The firm of Kenny and Morris was then formed. I spent
most of the month of August attending deposition sessions. Each one
of the Hollywood Ten who had contracts with the producers had filed suit
for breach of contract. In addition, all ten of them joined in a single
action against all of the major studios, charging a general conspiracy to
blacklist. Irving Walker and Herman Selvin, attorneys for the producers,
had subpoenaed the ten complainants to appear to give their depositions.
This process occupied several weeks.
On October 4, 1948, Dick V/iley was suspended by my successor,
Attorney General Fred Howser, from his civil service position as Public
Information Officer for the State Departnnent of Justice. The charge
against Wiley was that he had used a state car without permission.
Howser had begun to suspect many people, including Wylie. The San
Francisco News had started a campaign against Howser' s conduct of his
office. Mary Ellen Leary and Al Ostrow, writers for the News, both
harped on the fact that his middle name was "Napoleon. " Early in 1949
Drew Pearson stated that Howser was "the associate of big-time gamblers. "
Ho\vser brought suit for libel and I was one of the attorneys retained to
defend Drew. At the same time, Warren Olney III became director of
a Crime Commission appointed by Governor Warren. This commission
- 360 -
was also casting a critical eye at Howser's activities in connection with
the suppression of gambling in various areas of the state. Howser tried
to discharge Wiley permanently from the state service but the State Per-
sonnel Board ruled against him.
George Arnold, then a son-in-law of Drew Pearson, came to my
office in 1949 and spent a year collecting all the information that was
available about Howser. This culminated in taking a lengthy deposition
from Howser, with Drew Pearson in attendance. The matter finally went
to trial in Washington, D. C. and the jury ruled in Pearson's favor. It
was an illustration of the old politician's principle "Don't never sue for
libel, they might prove it on you, "
On October 21, 1948, the City of Los Angeles joined the parade of
communities instituting loyalty checks upon their employees. Mayor
Fletcher Bowron signed an ordinance designed to impose this senseless
ritual. Two years of litigation resulted in the ordinance being upheld by
a divided vote in the United States Supreme Court.
On October 23, two weeks before the general election campaign.
The Nation ran an article entitled "Lessons from California, " in which
I said:
"Whatever reasons Henry Wallace may have had for forming a third
party, it is now painfully apparent that the move was ill advised in Calif-
ornia. Given California's free-wheeling style of politics and its system
of cross-filing in primaries, it has been a major accomplishment to create
a second party in the state, not to mention the difficulties involved in
- 361 -
creating a third. Except during the short lifetime of Hiram Johnson's Pro-
gressive Party, California was essentially a one-party state from the Civil
War to the E. P.I. C. campaign of 1934. Today the Democratic Party is
undeniably a second party, that is, a genuinely progressive party, in
California. Though a few local satraps still cherish the illusion that they
are 'bosses, ' the California party is almost wholly free of bossism and
machine control. The state chairman and national committeemen are
progressive Democrats, the party's state platform is a progressive
document, and the Los Angeles County Central Comnnittee -- the largest
elected Democratic organization in the country -- is headed by and largely
made up of progressive Dennocrats. In fact, a sizable minority of this
connmittee was supporting the candidacy of Mr. V/allace. Under these
circumstances it is indeed difficult to understand the reasoning that led to
the formation of the Independent Progressive Party.
"... Whatever the intentions of the third party leaders may have
been, the party's emergence has been a factor in the failure to form a
successful coalition. But responsibility for the failure does not rest en-
tirely with the Progressive Party. In the past few weeks its leaders
have been willing to be seen in public with their former colleagues, but
not too many of these former colleagues are willing to be seen with them.
Moreover, certain anti-third party elements of former successful coali-
tions are in part to blame for the party's creation, for after the 1946
election they devoted no snnall part of their time and energies to 'reading
out' of the coalition the groups which today make up the new party.
- 362 -
"... In the absence of a coalition neither the Progressive nor the
Democratic Party can hope to salvage much from the 1948 election. Had
Henry Wallace remained in the Democratic Party, he might easily have
captured the California delegation. By the tinne of the June primary
California Democrats of all shades of opinion were resorting to the most
desperate and amusing strategems to avoid having to support Truman.
The situation which some of us had foreseen in the spring of 1947 had
come to pass even more fully than we had anticipated; but by then the
possibility of using this situation to advantage had been lost -- through
timidity, lethargy, and the lack of bold and far-sighted leadership.
"As delighted with their new political apparatus as youngsters with a
new toy. Progressive Party leaders remained indifferent to the necessity
of forming a coalition until the last few weeks. Facing up to political
realities, they finally realized the folly of entering candidates against
Chet Holifield, Helen Gahagan Douglas, and Frank Havenner. But while
Holifield, Mrs. Douglas, and Havenner now seem assured of re-election,
the belated withdrawal of their Progressive Party opponents has not
brought into being the coalition necessary to win a major victory in
California. If one can say of the Progressive strategy of the last few
weeks, 'Too little and too late, • one can also say that a slightly larger
measure of forbearance on the part of the liberal Democrats might have
prevented the present innpasse. Unfortunately, the bridges are still down
in California. If California liberals want to win in 1950, they had better
start building new ones. "
- 363 -
The regular Democrats had selected George Luckey, a former col-
league of mine in the State Senate, to be vice chairman for Southern
California. George's primary duty was to organize Truman's California
campaign. In practical terms this meant that it was his high privilege to
pay the bills. There really was no Truman campaign in California in
1948 --no billboards, or radio, and no precinct work. Not more than
$35, 000 was spent state-wide. Truman won in California in spite of his
campaign.
After the Truman miracle occurred on November 2, Luckey was
praised for a time and then quietly shuffled into the background. The
regular leaders took over. The victory made the amateurs superfluous.
The 1948 balloting brought three additional California congressional
seats to the Democrats. B. W. "Bud" Gerhardt, veteran Republican, was
defeated in Fresno. Democrat Clyde Doyle won his seat back from
Willis Bradley in Long Beach, and Clinton McKinnon, publisher of the
San Diego Journal, defeated Republican incumbent Charles Fletcher.
A few days after the November election, the California Appellate
Court upheld the County loyalty oath (88 Cal. App. 2d 581). A petition to
the State Supreme Court was denied, with only Justice Jesse Carter
dissenting.
The year did end on a favorable note. On November 30, the trial
of Lester Cole's case against Metro Goldwyn Mayer began before
Federal District Judge Leon R. Yankwich. We had a fair judge, un-
frightened by the hysteria of the period. Louis B. Mayer was called
- 364 -
by us as a witness and repeated his former statements of opposition to
the tactics of the House Un-American Activities Committee. On Decem-
ber 17, the jury brought in a unanimous verdict in favor of Lester Cole,
and Judge Yankwich denied applications for a new trial. Curiously, juries
were less frightened then of the "red nnenace" than were appellate judges
with lifetime jobs. After two years on appeal, the Cole verdict was
eventually taken away from us by a decision of the Ninth Circuit Court
in San Francisco.
-365 -
CHAPTER THIRTY
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GOOD NEWS - 1949
On February 18, 1949 I attended the National Lawyers Guild conven-
tion in Detroit. I was finally relieved of my duties as national president
of that organization after nine years of service. Clifford Durr, Chairman
of the Federal Communications Commission, was chosen to succeed me.
Cliff was a liberal lawyer from Montgomery, Alabama, a former Rhodes
scholar.
I went from Detroit to Washington to take part in the argument be-
fore the Court of Appeal on the verdicts against Lawson and Trumbo. We
had mobilized a great number of amicus briefs in our behalf, the most
notable of which was written by Alexander Meiklejohn, former president
of Amherst and then professor emeritus at Berkeley.
In 1946, I had started investing in television stocks. Farnsworth
Television shares had been distributed widely in California, and I had
bought some. By 1949 my investment in it amounted to about $12, 000.
In March, 1949, an announcement was made that Farnsworth was to be
merged into International Telephone and Telegraph Company. The terms
of the merger virtually wiped out the Farnsworth interests. I brought
suit in New York on March 31, 1949 to enjoin the holding of a stockholders
meeting to approve this merger. Judge Bernard Botine of the New York
Supreme Court heard my injunction application. He conducted a very
careful hearing, even holding night sessions, but ruled my showing
366
insufficient to justify interference with the meeting of the corporation.
The vote on the merger at the nneeting was a close one; if only a few
of the irregularly-executed proxies were thrown out, we would have pre-
vailed. I began another suit to compel a recount without these proxies.
This suit was filed in the Federal Court in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I went
there on August 31, 1949 for the trial. We were unsuccessful; I. T. & T.
gobbled up Farnsworth, patents and all.
A testimonial banquet was given for me at the Hollywood Athletic
Club on May 2 1 by the National Lawyers Guild, upon the occasion of my
retirement as its president. Albert Maltz introduced me as senior counsel
of the Hollywood Ten, saying: "Robert Kenny has not profited from our
case, not in money nor in career. But it will be written down that in
this difficult time he was not confused and he was not afraid and that he
walked through difficult years with conscious morality. "
On June 13, the Appellate Court in Washington affirmed the convic-
tions of L-awson and Trumbo (176 Fed. 2nd 49). This defeat had been ex-
pected but we were quite confident that the matter would be reviewed by
the Supreme Court. Only four justices are necessary to vote for a Supreme
Court review, or certiorari. We were almost certain that Justices Black,
Douglas, Murphy and Rutledge would vote for us.
Justices Douglas, Murphy and Rutledge had dissented when the
court denied certiorari to Leon Josephson on February 16, 1948 (333 U. S.
838). Josephson had raised the constitutional issue in its most absolute
form by refusing even to be sworn as a witness before the House Un-
- 367 -
American Activities Committee (165 F. (2) 82). On November 11, 1948,
the Supreme Court granted certiorari to Gerhard Eisler, also convicted of
Congressional contempt (335 U. S. 857). However, Eisler fled to East
Germany while his case was under submission following the hearing of
oral argument, and the Supreme Court voted to remove his petition from
its docket on June 27, 1949 (338 U. S. 189).
Unfortunately for the Hollywood Ten, Justice Murphy died on July 9,
1949 and Justice Rutledge died on September 10, 1949.
In the 1948 general election, George McLain, Chairman of the Citi-
zens Committee for Old Age Pensions, had scored a surprising victory.
He had qualified an initiative petition on the ballot, Proposition No. 4, and
it had carried. This measure removed the various County Boards of
Supervisors fronn all control of old age welfare programs. The power to
administer the program was put under a state agency. By the terms of
Proposition No. 4, Myrtle Williams, George McLain's faithful assistant,
was named to head the new State Social Welfare Administration.
George's victory earned him the active opposition of the State Cham-
ber of Commerce and a majority of the State Senate. He was investigated
and subpoenaed many times. An initiative petition was circulated by the
State Chamber to repeal Proposition No. 4. I joined forces with George
McLain. Acting without fee, I represented the old age pensioners in an
action to keep the repeal measure off the ballot. For a few months we were
optimistic about our chances. However, on June 22, 1949, the Supreme
Court ruled against us, Perry v Jordan (34 Cal. 2d 87). The measure
- 368 -
went on the ballot in a special election called by Governor Warren on Nov-
ember 29, and Proposition No. 4 was then repealed.
Assured of McLain's support, I decided to try a come-back in Calif-
ornia Democratic politics. On June 8, 1949, I announced that I would run
in 1950 for State Senator from Los Angeles County. This -was the post
held by Senator Jack B. Tenney, chairnnan of the Joint Legislative Commit-
tee on Un-American Activities.
Other progressive Democrats had plans for 1950. James Roosevelt
was going to run for Governor, and Helen Gahagan Douglas for Senator.
Many Democrats felt that my presence on the ticket with these candidates
would embarrass them. I believed my presence would re-activate many
disaffected liberals. A few months later Assemblyman Glenn Anderson,
a legislator with a good progressive record, was persuaded to enter the
race and make the contest with Tenney a three-cornered one.
On November 11, 1949, the firm of Kenny and Morris moved into
its own building at the corner of Temple and Hope Street, 250 North Hope.
In December, 1949, I went to San Francisco to take part in the first
trial of a law suit that was to occupy my interest for the next six years.
I had been asked to represent some minority policy holders of Industrial
Indennnity Exchange, a mutual industrial compensation carrier, owned by
its policy holders. The management of the Exchange had formed a stock
company owned by the officers under the nanne "Industrial Indennnity Com-
pany. " As the business of the Exchange came in for renewal, it was
switched to the new company. The Insurance Commissioner had protested
- 369 -
this practice, and the management had then arranged a purchase agree-
ment whereby the interests of the policy holders in the mutual exchange
were acquired by the new privately owned connpany. Some of the minority
policy holders tried to block this sale upon the grounds that it was double-
dealing. I represented them, with attorneys Maurice Hyman and Jeronne
Politzer of San Francisco.
The case was not finally decided until after two appeals, the final
decision coming down in 1957. I lost then by a four-to-three vote of the
State Supreme Court. At least I had the connfort of Justice Carter's
dissent, which he opened with the statement that the majority decision was
"a crime in ink" (49 Cal. 2d 280).
Prospects for the 1950 election were already taking shape before the
close of the year. Mrs. Helen Gahagan Douglas announced her candidacy
against incumbent Sheridan Downey for the United States Senate on Novem-
ber 5. Two days previously, Congressman Richard Nixon announced he
was entering the race on the Republican side.
The County loyalty oath case reached a disappointing conclusion in
the United States Supreme Court on December 5, 1949. Justice Frank-
furter ruled that it would be premature for the United States Supreme
Court to decide the case and that the matter should be returned for a
ruling by the Supreme Court of California.
Perhaps the most revolutionary event in California politics of 1949
was the publication in Collier's August 13 issue of an article on Arthur
Samish, entitled "The Secret Boss of California, " by Lester Velie.
- 370 -
Somehow Velie had persuaded Arthur Samish to pose for a picture with a
puppet on his knee. The caption read: "Said the big man: 'And how are
you today, Mr. Legislator?'" Gov. Earl Warren told Velie that "On mat-
ters that affect his clients, Artie Samish has more power than the Governor. "
This article started Samish' s downfall, which culminated with his
conviction and sentence to federal penitentiary for income tax fraud in 1955.
Samish had invented the indivisible lobby in California. For instance, if a
legislator should attempt to move against the banks then the oil companies,
insurance companies, trucking concerns and railroads all would join in
helping out the banks. Similarly, this alliance would go in to work if any
move was made against the interests of the other dominant lobbies. The
system was entirely bi-partisan. It made no difference to Arthur Samish
whether the Democrats or Republicans were nominally in control of the
Legislature.
- 371 -
CHAPTER THIRTY -ONE
THE BRAVE BURNT CHILD - 1950
Battle lines were drawn tighter for the coming campaign when on
March 29, 1950, Sheridan Downey announced that he would not seek re-
election and had withdrawn in favor of Manchester Boddy, publisher of the
Los Angeles Daily News. Boddy' s subsequent campaign for the Democratic
nomination reflected little credit upon hina. His supporters issued a "pink"
pamphlet devoted to showing that Helen Douglas' voting on many issues
was the same as that of Vito Marcantonio, the American Labor Party
Congressman. Boddy had supported me for Governor in 1946, but now
that he was a candidate on the same ballot, he attacked me, too. On May
20, he published an editorial under the heading "Kenny in Bad Company. "
The "bad company" seemed to be some Kenny signs in front of Independent
Progressive Party headquarters.
Several of my Democratic friends in the Assembly asked me to with-
draw in favor of Glenn Anderson. I should have done so, of course. How-
ever, I then suffered from that special variety of deafness that overcomes
candidates for public office. In my more lucid moments I had described
this disease as "candidatitis, or delusions of invincibility. "
Early in January, 1950, I undertook the defense of Luisa Moreno
Bemis, She had been an important C.I. O. organizer in the food and
tobacco field, and was the first woman vice president of that organization.
She had retired to the life of a housewife in San Diego after she married
- 372 -
Gray Bemis. Then the Tenney committee, on one of its forays into San
Diego County, subpoenaed her and returned her to the limelight. Soon
thereafter, the Immigration authorities started deportation proceedings
against Luisa on the ground of past Communist affiliations. Luisa had
been born in Guatemala. As a girl she had becomie a leading poet of that
country. At the deportation hearings, the government produced an expert
on red ideologies. I prepared to cross examine him by having several
quotations typed out without identification of the source. Some of them
were Stalin's more conservative co-existence utterances, others were
excerpts of A. F. L. union constitutions and One World statements origina-
ting from Wendell Willkie. The "expert" did exactly what I expected
him to. He attributed Stalin's statements to Robert A. Taft, and one of
Robert A. Taft's statements to Stalin. But Luisa was deported to
Guatemala,
In May, I was retained to appear for the new regime of China to
recover bank deposits held by the Wells Fargo Bank of San Francisco, in
the name of the Bank of China. The Formosa regime had claimed these
deposits, announting to $750, 000.
In May, 1950, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce had gone
on record in favor of the recognition of the new regime in China. David
Drucker of New York, then on his way to China to establish trade connec-
tions with the new reginne, came to San Francisco. Businessmen there
were anxious to meet hinn. I arranged a luncheon for him with Roger Lap-
ham, the former Mayor, who was president of the American Hawaiian
- 373 -
Steamship Lines. George Killion of the American President Lines also gave
Drucker a cordial reception. Resumption of the China trade would fill nnany
empty American bottoms.
Federal Judge Louis Goodman ruled that the money should remain
impounded in ths bank until the matter of recognition was finally settled.
We were entirely satisfied with this ruling. However, a few months later,
the No-^th Korean episode changed popular sentiment. The Federal Appel-
late Court returned the Wells Fargo case to Judge Goodman with a sugges-
tion that he reconsider his decision in the light of the realities of current
events. He did so. The deposits were then ordered paid over to the Park
Avenue Chinese. My clients in Peking were offended by this and declined
to appeal.
Throughout February and March, Harry Bridges was on trial before
Federal District Judge George Harris in San Francisco on a charge that he
had committed perjury in obtaining his American citizenship. I was shock-
ed when two of Bridges' close associates, and good friends of mine, George
Wilson and Mervin Rathborn, testified against him. I appeared as a char-
acter witness for Bridges. Later I also appeared as counsel for Vincent
Hallinan, his attorney, who had been charged with contempt in connection
with his conduct of the defense. On April 4, however. Bridges was con-
victed. The conviction was later reversed by the United States Supreme
Court.
April 10, 1950 was Black Monday for us. On that day I received a
telegram from the Supreme Court of the United States that the petition for
- 374 -
review of the case of the Hollywood Ten had been denied (339 U. S. 934).
Justices Black and Douglas dissented. A rehearing was denied on May 29
(339 U. S. 927), with the same dissenters.
For over a year, we had been preparing for the trial of an anti-trust
action brought by Herbert Sorrell and the Conference of Studio Unions
against the major producers and the I. A. T. S, E. The action was brought
under the Sherman Act on the theory that the two groups had combined
against the Sorrell union and the independent producers in restraint of trade.
Unfortunately, a somewhat similar case had been urged in another federal
court by the Screen Carpenters. This case was dismissed. When our case
came up before Federal Judge WUliam Mathes on May 1, he followed this
precedent and dismissed our action.
On May 9, my close friend Stewart McKee died in his sleep in his
room at the California Club. We had always feared that one day a blood
clot would do him fatal damage. Duncan Aikman wrote Stewart's father
that Stewart "adorned and charmed an age which has made a fetish of aban-
doning courtliness, but he never used his courtly manners to stuff a shirt. "
Stewart was a renaissance character, sonnewhat on the splendid and
princely side, and too much above the battle to care about people's ideologi-
cal splits, so long as he personally liked the people.
My campaign for the State Senate seat against Jack Tenney was the
first political campaign in Southern California which widely ennployed tele-
vision. My writer friends in Hollywood devised many unusual programs.
Professor William A. Fowler of Cal Tech appeared on one program to
- 375 -
demonstrate atomic working models. Loren Miller and Dan Marshall pro-
vided the connmentary during the running of a film which exposed the des-
perate housing needs of 200, 000 families in Los Angeles County. Others on
the programs were Judge Isaac Pacht, Ignacio Lopez, editor of "El
Espectador" of Pomona, Robert Rossen, writer-director, and Rollin
McNitt, former L. A. County Democratic Chairman. George McLain did
everything he could to activate the pension movement in my behalf. His
support earned me an adverse editorial in the Santa Monica Outlook of
June 1, under the heading "Birds of a Feather. " This stated I was the
"Cataline of California Politics" who had been defending Communists and
was presently defending George McLain against the State Senate Investiga-
ting Committee.
I debated Jack Tenney twice, once at the Santa Monica Auditorium
and another tinne over television.
We were buoyed up by the results of a postcard poll I had taken. This
indicated that I would get 4C% of the vote, Tenney, who had cross filed,
would get 35% and Glenn Anderson would get 25% of the Democratic primary
vote,
I believe this poll was accurate as of the time it was taken. However,
in the last week of the campaign, Glenn Anderson's name appeared on a
mailing that the A. F. of L, sent to every Democrat in the county. This
slate was headed by James Roosevelt for Governor and Helen Gahagan
Douglas for Senator. There was a lot of excitement engendered in my cann-
paign, but the fact remains that State Senator is an obscure office. For
- 376 -
such offices, an independent campaign is usually ineffective in a large
county like Los Angeles. The average voter is inclined to go along with
the candidate who has been selected on a slate headed by favorite candi-
dates for the more prominent posts.
When the results came in on June 6, we were dismayed to see that
Tenney had beaten both Anderson and myself. Even worse, I had fallen
into third place, behind Glenn Anderson. Unfortunately, there is no way to
unring a bell.
On June 29, I went to Washington. The Hollywood Ten came up for
sentence and all were sent to jail and given the naaximum fine. Judge
Richmond Keech only imposed six months jail sentences upon Herbert
Biberman and Edward Dmytryk, Different judges imposed a year's im-
prisonment on the other eight members of the Hollywood Ten.
Shortly after my return from Washington, I had breakfast on July 13
with District Attorney Brown. Pat had just won the Democratic nomination.
Fred Howser, the Republican incumbent, had been defeated in his own
primary by Edward Shattuck. The attrition of the Drew Pearson libel suit
and all of the other unfavorable publicity had finally undermined Howser.
In the November election, Pat was able to duplicate my feat of 1942. He
was the only Democrat elected on the state-wide ticket that year. James
Roosevelt was swamped in November by Earl Warren's vote for Governor
and Richard Nixon beat Helen Douglas in a campaign that saw a repetition
of the ugly charges made by Manchester Boddy in the primary campaign.
I scored two appellate court victories for George McLain in late
377
August. On August 21, the Third District Court of Appeal ruled that
McLain could not be required to stand trial on a bribery charge in Sacra-
mento. A Senate Comnnittee had obtained an indictment of McJLain for
bribery because he had placed a Democratic Assemblyman on the payroll
of the Old Age Pension Comnaittee.
McLain had made his books available for this committee, revealing
the fact of this employment. The Appellate Court agreed with me that
McLain' s evidence before the Legislative Committee earned him immunity
from any prosecution based thereon (99 C. A. 2d 109). The Assemblyman
was required to stand trial on the bribery charge but was acquitted.
On August 30, the Appellate Court in Los Angeles reversed a con-
viction that held McLain in contempt of the Senate Committee. This arose
from an occasion when McLain had refused to answer any further ques-
tions of the Senate Committee that had been harrassing him. I obtained a
reversal upon the ground that the committee was not acting under any spec-
ific legislative direction by the State Senate (99 C. A. 2d 274).
On July 19, the State Appellate Court upheld the Los Angeles City
loyalty oath. The State Supreme Court denied a hearing, with dissents
by Chief Justice Gibson, and Justices Carter and Traynor. As soon as
the Appellate Court's ruling becanne final. Mayor Bowron, on August 18,
broadcast a speech over Radio KFI in which he said:
"A goodly amount of most valuable information is being collected,
but more reports about undesirables or questionable individuals shovild be
forwarded to the Police Department, I refer primarily to those identified
- 378 -
with or suspected of alliance with subversive activities. The names and
doings of all persons suspected should be reported. The information will
be kept confidential.
"Let us begin identifying those who are seeking to tear down rather
than build up in this crucial period. Let us get for the confidential reports
the names, description, habits, and information about potential saboteurs.
Let us know their associates, their activities. This will be one of the
functions of civil defense, to lessen the effects of what our potential or ac-
tual enemy may do, either before or after actual hostilities. "
A recall petition against Bowron had qualified for the November 7
ballot. George McLain urged me to run and his organization put on an ex-
tensive billboard and radio campaign for me. The race attracted me be-
cause it would be confined to the City of Los Angeles where I had run best
in June. Since the recall election was being held at the same time as the
general election, there would also be a larger vote than that usually cast
in nnunicipal elections. What I forgot was the rule that recall elections
never prevail in major cities unless connected with some major upheaval.
The recall failed. This time, I was finally cured of my candidatitis.
On November 22, the Federal Appellate Court had reversed Lester
Cole's verdict against Metro Goldwyn Mayer (185 Fed, 2d 641). Lester
had gone to jail for contempt of Congress after he had won his verdict be-
fore Judge Yankwich. This factor strongly influenced the Appellate judges.
The case was returned for retrial before Judge Yankwich. Early the
following year, most of the major producers entered into a settlement
- 379 -
with us and $140, 000 was paid to the Hollywood Ten for the dismissal of all
pending litigation. The contract suits of Adrian Scott against RKO and
Ring Lardner against Twentieth Century-Fox remained pending, since these
two producers had not joined in the settlement.
We also lost one client that fall. Eddie Dmytryk, the director, had
been one of the two men who had received only a six month sentence com-
pared with the year that had to be served by the others of the Hollywood Ten.
On September 10, word came from federal prison that Dmytryk had recant-
ed. Magazine articles soon appeared under his signature in which he regret-
ted ever having been a Hollywood Red. Dmytryk found employment with
the major studios as soon as his jail term was up. His suit against RKO
for breach of contract ^vas dropped.
George Arnold had vacated our extra office at 250 North Hope after
concluding the work on Drew Pearson's libel case. He opened a legal
partnership of his own. Eleanor Jackson, formerly a deputy Attorney Gen-
eral, and law clerk of U. S. Judge Louis Goodman in San. Francisco and
U. S. Senator Sheridan Downey in Washington, moved into George's space.
She had returned from Tokyo where she had been a member of the prosecu-
tion staff in the war crimes trials. She remained with us until her nnarriage
in June, 1955 to Gerard Piel of New York, publisher of the Scientific
American.
Paul Jarrico, a writer, sent me a check after the Novennber defeat.
He said that from now on out he was only going to contribute to losers, I
replied, saying, "I am now becoming one of the most talented losers in
- 380 -
the political business and am looking forward to soliciting and receiving
many further contributions from you. "
381 -
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
THE HOUSE UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE IN 1951
From October, 1947 to July, 1950, when the Hollywood Ten finally
went to jail, a truce had existed in Hollywood. Dozens of people kept their
jobs in the industry because of the fight being made in the courts for the
Hollywood Ten. However, when that fight was finally lost, the truce was
over. The Committee started pressing for blacklisting and the producers
were ready to oblige. Everyone in Hollywood who had ever been connected
with a progressive organization was interviewed by agents of the Committee,
The Committee found several who were ready to become "friendly witnes-
ses. " In 1951, these friendly witnesses were called to the stand to name
those formerly associated with them in the Communist movement. After-
wards the persons they nanned were called. If they were "unfriendly, "
i. e. if they stood upon the Fifth Amendment and refused to name others,
they were then blacklisted from further employment in the industry where
they had earned their livelihood for years.
The curtain rolled up on this operation on March 21, 1951, when
Larry Parks, the actor who had been one of the original Hollywood Nine-
teen but had not been called in 1947 as a witness, was called to the
stand. I was in the audience in Washington, D. C. to represent several
other Hollywood persons who had been subpoenaed. Larry had become a
"friendly" witness. However, when it came to naming others, he begged
the Committee "Don't drag me through the mud. " The Washington News
- 382 -
that afternoon carried headlines "Jolson Sings Again. " This had reference
to Parks' role as Al Jolson in a currently released motion picture. The
Committee spared Parks the pain of naming his friends in public. It was
done in executive session, instead. The clients I represented on that
occasion all took the Fifth Amendment,
On April 10, I returned to Washington with another group of Holly-
wood persons who had been subpoenaed by the Committee. This time the
first witness was Sterling Hayden, an actor. He turned out to be a friend-
ly witness and named several former associates. Richard Collins,
another one of the original Hollywood Nineteen, also took the stand the
following day as a friendly witness. On April 23, Edward Dmytryk
also testified about his Communist associations.
In the week of September 17, 1951, the Committee had its first
wholesale hearing in Los Angeles, examining forty-two witnesses. All
but six of these were unfriendly. The Committee also called Rev.
Stephen Fritchman of the First Unitarian Church as a witness in execu-
tive session, I represented him. However, the Committee lost its
nerve when it came to calling a nnan of the cloth before a public session.
The day that Rev. Fritchman was due to appear publicly, I received a
telegram saying that his appearance had been cancelled. In another year,
however, the Committee had grown bolder and there was no immunity
for clergymen.
My own fortunes underwent a considerable change that year. On
January 2, 1951, Ethel wyn Walker Jarnigan died. She was the daughter
- 383 -
of George Walker. Her father had made me co-trustee of all the assets
of his estate and she was the sole beneficiary. When she died the trust
terminated. It was found that her will gave everything in her estate to
L. Otis Ivey, Vice President of the Citizens National Bank, the other co-
trustee. The bequest to Ivey was subject to provisions for the care of
Ethelwyn's invalid husband, V/illiam Jarnigan. I was retained by Jarnigan
as his attorney. Since Jarnigan was hopelessly bedridden and crippled
with arthritis, I had Roy Allen appointed his guardian. We then petition-
ed the Superior Court for authority to contest Ethelwyn's will. The court,
in effect, rewrote the will to give Jarnigan a vested right to the income of
the trust during his lifetime but denied him permission to contest the will.
When Jarnigan died in February, 1953, I becanne the executor of his
estate, and then brought sviit against Ivey and the Citizens Bank for breach
of trust. Before bringing this suit against the bank, I rennoved myself
from its board of directors, a position I had held since 1943.
The case of Kenny, as Executor, vs the Citizens National Bank was
thrown out of court by the trial judge, but a reversal of this was obtained
in the District Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court granted a hearing,
but the case was settled for $150, 000 before the Supreme Court ruled
upon it. This ended my career as a bank director.
On April 5, 1951, good news came from Sacramento. The Third
District Court of Appeal decided, in an opinion written by Justice Paul
Peek that the loyalty oath imposed by the Regents upon faculty members
at the University of California was illegal. However, the Supreme Court
- 384 -
granted a hearing on this, and Justice Peek's splendid decision never
appeared in the permanent volumes of the California Reports. However,
Henry Steele Commager printed large excerpts of it in a book published
later that year.
The City loyalty oath was upheld by the United States Supreme Court
on June 4, 1951 by a five-to-fcur decision, the dissenters being Justices
Black, Douglas, Frankfurter and Burton.
- 385
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
THE EISENHOWER-STEVENSON CAMPAIGN - 1952
There were two remaining contract suits to be tried against the pro-
ducers. On February 15, 1952, the jury brought in a verdict of $130, 000
for Adrian Scott and Ring Lardner in their suits against RKO and Twentieth
Century-Fox. Judge Ben Harrison denied Twentieth Century a new trial
in the Lardner case, and an appeal was taken. He did grant a new trial
to RKO in Scott's case, and that matter was held off calendar until the
determination of the Lardner appeal. On November 9, 1954, the Lardner
verdict was reversed (216 Fed. 2d 844). We were able to settle Lardner' s
claim for 50 cents on the dollar before retrial. However, on the retrial
of Scott's case, the court ruled against us and our appeals to the Appellate
and Supreme Courts were useless.
On March 21, 1952, I debated Senator Jack Tenney again. This
debate was held at U. C. L. A. The students there were starved for some-
thing controversial and Royce Hall was jammed to hear us. I talked to
Tenney backstage, before the debate. He asked me who I thought was
going to receive the Republican nonnination. I told him I thought it would
certainly be Eisenhower. Tenney shook his head: "Bob, this will be the
end of the Republic. " Poor Tenney had gone so far to the right that he
regarded General Eisenhower as a dangerous radical, a position later
taken by Robert Welch of the John Birch Society.
There was a contest in the Republican presidential primary in Cal-
- 386 -
ifornia in 1952. Earl Warren ran, as he had many times before, as
California's favorite son. An anti- Warren ticket was placed in the field by
John Francis Neylan and others. Neylan had been one of the Regents who
was in favor of the University loyalty oath which Warren had opposed. The
candidate of the anti- Warren forces was Congressman Thomas Werdel of
Bakersfield. There was also a contest in the Democratic presidential
primary. A ticket had been entered by the regular Democrats in favor of
Harry Truman. Senator Estes Kefauver had his own slate in opposition.
When Truman withdrew from the race in the early spring of 195E, the
regular Democrats were left high and dry with a slate but no candidate.
They persuaded Pat Brown to permit himself to be substituted as a
"favorite son" candidate. The Kefauver ticket won over the "favorite son"
ticket by a large margin. Warren won over Werdel by a two to one mar-
gin. It is interesting to note that later that year Werdel was the only
Republican congressnnan to lose his seat in the Eisenhower sweep in
November. Cross-filing was still potent in 1952. At the June 3 primary,
Senator William Knowland took the Democratic nomination away from
Congressman Clinton McKinnon of San Diego,
The Republican convention took place in Chicago in July. Ten years
later I made a study of the events that led to Nixon's nomination as vice
president, and Nixon's relations with Gov. Warren and his delegation.
Frontier magazine published this April, 1962, under the heading "The
Crisis Nixon Forgot, " referring to Nixon's book, "My Six Crises. "
During the spring and summer of 1952 the leaders of the California
- 387 -
Communist Party were on trial in Los Angeles for violation of the Smith
Act. On August 5, 1952, they were all convicted. I was later associated
in their successful appeal before the United States Supreme Court
( Yates vs U. S. 354 U. S. 298).
On August 29, 1952, Frank Wilkinson, of the Los Angeles City
Housing Authority, appeared as an expert witness in a condemnation case.
In cross examination he was asked if he had ever been a mennber of the
Communist Party. Judge Otto Emme deferred ruling on the question until
the following Monday. Bob Morris, Dan Marshall and I immediately went
into conferences with Frank. When the court reopened Monday, we were
prepared to take a constitutional stand. However, before counsel said a
word, Judge Emme announced he had thought the matter over and over-
ruled the question as improper cross examination.
The Un-American investigators, however, were relentless. The
state committee came to Los Angeles and interrogated both Frank Wilkin-
son and his wife, Jean. When they both refused to answer questions on
the grounds of the Fifth Amendment, Frank lost his job with the City
Housing Authority and, on October 29, the Los Angeles City Board of
Education fired Jean Wilkinson as a school teacher. We carried Jean's
case to the Appellate Court but were unsuccessful in her behalf.
The House Committee on Un-American Activities came to Los An-
geles in late September to turn its attention to the professional men of the
city. It subpoenaed twenty- four lawyers and twenty-four doctors and
dentists. I represented most of the unfriendly witnesses in these groups.
- 388 -
On October 17, the State Supreme Court upheld the State (Levering)
Loyalty Oath legislation in a series of cases. Justice Jesse Carter wrote
a splendid dissent (39 Cal. 2d 688):
"The only word of commendation which I can speak for the opinions
of the court in these cases is that they bring into sharp focus the loyalty
oath hysteria which has pervaded this country and particularly this state
during the past five or six years. The concept that a person exposed to
subversive activity may be innmunized against such exposure by the taking
of a so-called loyalty oath opens the door for vast exploration in the field
of metaphysical research. While this process is taking place the loyalty
of every public employee is impugned even though he has taken the oath
prescribed by the Constitution many times and has obeyed it religiously, "
The Levering Loyalty Oath was on the ballot as Proposition No. 5.
Earl Warren publicly opposed this measure, but it carried by a vote of
2, 902,695 to 1, 359, 970.
This was the election when cross-filing met its doom. While Jack
Elliott's proposal to repeal it outright was defeated by 3, 700 votes, Prop-
osition No. 7, requiring the listing of party designation on the ballot,
carried by a 2 to 1 vote.
When Nixon became Vice President, his Senate seat became vacant.
Earl Warren filled this vacancy on December 23, by appointing Thomas
Kuchel, once a colleague of mine in the State Senate. Kuchel had been pre-
viously appointed by Warren as State Controller and had done an excellent
job. It was a popular appointnnent.
389
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
THE EVENTS OF 1953
Justice Jesse Carter was invited to be the principal speaker at the
National Lawyers Guild convention in New York City on February 21. He
and his wife, Jean, were introduced by me to Father Conway, who took us
on a tour of the newly- constructed United Nations headquarters. The
Eastern lawyers were tremendously impressed by Justice Carter's rugged
Western liberalism and honesty.
On April 4, I received the good news that the Appellate Court in San
Francisco had ruled in my favor on the Industrial Indemnity case. This
case was ultimately to be lost by me in 1957, but this good news sustained
me for the tinne being.
Early in 1953 I was retained to represent some independent movie
exhibitors on Hollywood Boulevard. They had been excluded from first-
run films in favor of other Hollywood Boulevard theatres owned by the
major producers. I was engaged in this Sherman Act litigation for the
next two years. The cases were ultimately settled upon payment of sub-
stantial dannages.
With the election of Eisenhower, the Republicans again took control
of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Rep. Harold Velde of
Illinois became the new chairman. A most pathetic case occurred on the
occasion of Velde's first committee visit to California. The principal of
the grammar school in Laguna Beach was subpoenaed before the Connmittee
- 390 -
on April 13. I represented her. She took what was known as a "dimished
Fifth, " ansv/ering all questions about her political beliefs, except as to
the years 1935 to 1940. From then on the bigots of Laguna Beach devoted
all their time to devising some way to oust the principal from her job.
They finally succeeded, after a court fight that took nearly two years.
In April of 195 3 I was one of a group of counsel who filed suit against
the major producers for conspiracy to blacklist the writers and actors
who had been unfriendly witnesses before the Un-American Activities
Committee in 1951 and 1952. This case, entitled Wilson v Loew's,
ultimately reached the Supreme Court of the United States in 1957.
However, none of our appeals were successful.
In the April, 1953 municipal prinnary, Norris Poulson defeated
Fletcher Bowron for Mayor. Bowron had made a real fight for public
housing. The landlord interests were deternnined to defeat him and the
L. A. Times supported them in this effort.
On May 5, 1953, Attorney General Brown announced that he wotold
not oppose Earl Warren for Governor. Since Pat was then the only leaf
on the Democratic tree, he had been under increasing pressure to become
a candidate and wisely declined before an embarrassing draft movement
got iinder way. He had before him the horrible example of what had
happened in 1946 when another Democratic Attorney General had been
drafted to run against Earl Warren.
On September 1, 1953, Sara and her mother, Mrs. William
Duffield, left for the island of Madeira. Sara had become quite interested
- 391 -
in the Ba'Hai religion and had been assigned to represent that faith in this
Portugese island. A year later, she was assigned to Nice where she re-
mained until after her mother's death, returning to California in May,
1963, after a ten years' absence.
On September 3, Governor Warren announced that he would not seek
another term as Governor, and that the field would be open in 1954. Just
five days later. Chief Justice Vinson died. On September 30, President
Eisenhower appointed Warren to the Vinson vacancy.
392
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
DIMINUENDO - 1954-1962
This book has been based upon a retrospective diary compiled from
old appointment books and correspondence files. From 1954 on, there
were very few entries covering any personal participation in politics.
The protracted cold war had made me a political untouchable.
In the early part of 1954, I was one of the many who encouraged Dr.
Robert M. Hutchins to become a candidate for United States Senator.
Hutchins was then a resident of Pasadena, where the headquarters of the
Fund for the Republic were located. He concluded that it was not feasible
for him to consider leaving the Fund for the Republic for the United States
Senate.
Senator Joseph McCarthy had made the fatal political blunder of
attacking the Establishment. On April 22, 1954, the Army-McCarthy hear-
ings began. This finished McCarthy as a political force, although Mc
Carthyism continued on for several years.
In January, 1954, I flew to New York to meet William N. Copley and
his bride. Noma Rathner Copley. They had just been married in Europe.
Bill had inherited a four-ninths interest in the Copley chain of newspapers
in Los Angeles and San Diego counties and downstate Illinois. His brother,
James Copley, had also inherited four-ninths of the property. The ninth
ninth went to a half-sister. Untangling this kind of an arrangement was
a lawyer's dream. Many clients were staying away fronri me in those days
- 393 -
because my "independence" was regarded as a handicap. However, Bill
and Noma Copley wanted a lawyer who was independent and retained me
for that reason. For the next several years I devoted a good deal of time
to Bill's affairs. Much of the litigation was in Cook Covinty, Illinois.
Barnett Hodes, former Corporation Counsel (City Attorney) of Chicago,
came in on our side of the litigation against James Copley. Hodes and I
had been friends since the Democratic convention of 1944, where we
were introduced by Sen. Claude Pepper. A settlement was finally effected
whereby James Copley acquired Bill's interest in the Copley newspapers.
On January 9, 1954, Richard Graves, Secretary of the California
League of Cities, announced his candidacy for Governor on the Democratic
ticket. Graves was an extremely able nnan, with whom I had been asso-
ciated on the State War Council. I supported his candidacy enthusiastically.
The Democrats, tired of getting beaten every year by Republican cross-
filers, had formed the California Democratic Council to endorse primary
candidates. At C. D. C. convention at Fresno on February 7, Graves was
endorsed over the protests of former Governor Olson, who refused to
consider him a "true" liberal. This was a special Olson standard that I,
too, had been unable to meet. For United States Senator, the CD. C. en-
dorsed Rep. Sam Yorty, then serving in the Congressional seat vacated
by Mrs, Helen Gahagan Douglas when she made her unsuccessful run for
U. S. Senate in 1950. James Roosevelt was elected to Yorty's seat in
Congress.
The 1954 general election produced another Republican sweep.
- 394 -
Goodwin Knight was re-elected Governor by a wide margin, over Dick
Graves; incumbent U. S. Senator Thomas Kuchel defeated Yorty. Pat
Brown had been re-elected Attorney General at the primary. No impor-
tant Republican candidate appeared against him with the exception of
former Attorney General Fred Howser. Pat obtained the L. A. Tinnes
endorsement, and carried the Republican nomination. He was the last
state-wide candidate ever to win a cross-filing nomination in California.
In 1955 I advised with a group of doctors in Los Angeles who were
disturbed about a bill pending in the legislature that year which would re-
quire professional disciplinary action against any doctor who claimed the
Fifth Amendment when interrogated by an Un-American Activities Com-
mittee. This bill was introduced by Assemblyman Charles Chapel of
Ingelwood. Eleanor Jackson recommended Roberta Johnson to represent
my doctor clients in Sacramento. The two girls had been on George
McLain's staff at Sacramento in the 1951 session and Eleanor had encour-
aged Roberta to study law. Early in 1955, Roberta was admitted to prac-
tice and I was responsible for bringing her first clients to her. These
were the Los Angeles doctors who needed her to represent them in Sacra-
mento.
I appeared in opposition to the Chapel Bill before the State Bar
Board of Governors at a public hearing at Los Angeles. Eleanor Jackson
made a similar appearance at the San Francisco hearing in April, 1955,
The Chapel bill was defeated in Assembly Committee.
In March, 1956, Duncan Aikman died in Washington. In the previous
- 395 -
year he had published a brilliant commentary on American social trends
entitled "The Turning Stream. " Unfortunately, it turned out to be an
unread classic.
In April, 1956, I represented some of the many musicians who were
summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Los
Angeles. These appearances gave rise to the comment that my clients
must have been attempting to overthrow the government by "force and
violins. "
At the June prinnary of 1956, Sam Yorty was again a candidate for
United States Senator. This time, however, the C. D. C. nominated
State Senator Richard Richards against him. Richards had succeeded
Jack Tenney as Los Angeles State Senator, after Tenney had been defeat-
ed in the 1954 Republican primary by Mrs. Mildred Younger. Yorty lost
to Richards.
In the Eisenhower sweep of 1956, Senator Kuchel defeated State
Senator Richards by 450, 000 votes. On October 8, 1956 I was one of the
attorneys participating in the arguments before the United States Supreme
Court in Yates v United States (354 U. S. 298). This was the appeal from
the 1952 conviction of the Communist Party leaders in Southern Calif-
ornia under the Smith Act. The World Series was then in progress. The
day I argued was also the day that Don Larson of the Yankees became the
first pitcher in history to set down in consecutive order all 27 Dodger
batters.
I spent Christmas and New Year's of 1956 in Mexico City with Noma
- 396 -
and Bill Copley. During my absence, our building at 250 North Hope
was physically moved to its present location at 1557 Beverly Boulevard.
1958 was the year which saw the complete demolition of Republican
control of the state which had persisted since 1942, despite a three-to-two
Democratic nnajority in registered voters. The prelude to the Republican
disaster came from a musical chairs game played in the summer of 1957
by Vice President Nixon, U. S. Senator William Knowland and Governor
Goodwin Knight. When the music finally stopped, it appeared that the un-
loved Mr. Nixon was occupying all three chairs. Knowland was running
for Governor when his real objective was the I960 presidential nomination,
and Knight was running for U. S. Senator when he wanted re-election as
governor.
At the general election of November 5, 1958, the Democrats elected
Fat Brown as Governor, Superior Judge Stanley Mosk as Attorney General,
Alan Cranston as Controller, Glenn Anderson as Lieutenant Governor and
wide majorities in both the Assennbly and Senate.
Justice Jesse Carter was delighted by this turn of events. I attended
a party at his home in Marin County on December 13, at which the Governor-
elect and Mrs. Brown were guests of honor. Justice Carter did not live
long to enjoy the new regime for which he had so long hoped. He died of a
heart attack on March 15, 1959. Governor Brown appointed Raymond
Peters in his place, delighting the liberal lawyers of the State.
On December 11, 1959 Bartley Crum died in New York. He had left
California to take over publication of the daily newspaper PM when
- 397 -
Marshall Field dropped it. After the suspension of publication of PM,
and its successor "The Star, " Bart had remained in New York to practice
law.
In I960, I undertook the representation of Synanon House. This was
an organization of narcotic addicts who were attempting to work out a
self-cure program. They occupied an old beach club in Santa Monica and
were doing excellent work in the rehabilitation of addicts. Some neighbors
protested their presence on the beach and obtained the cooperation of the
Santa Monica authorities. Charles Dietrich, the organizer of Synanon,
was sentenced to serve 30 days in jail for violating the Santa Monica zon-
ing ordinances. His conviction was appealed all the way to the United
States Supreme Court. Ultimately, he was required to spend the 30 days
in the Santa Monica City Jail. However, during the protracted battle, the
institution itself became firmly established, not only in Santa Monica, but
in many other sections of the United States.
On May 13, I960, the House Un-American Activities Committee
conducted hearings in the San Francisco City Hall. Students picketed the
Committee. Some police panicked, water hoses were turned on, and a
serious distrubance ensued.
I made two trips to Honolulu during I960, one for pleasure in January
and one for business in November when I represented minority stock-
holders protesting the merger of the Pioneer Mill Company on Mauai into
the American Factors Company.
In October, I960 I went to Sofia, Bulgaria to attend the convention of
- 398 -
the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. This association was
the outgrowth of a movement I had advocated back in 1945. It was a sort of
international Lawyers Guild comprised of liberal lawyers from all parts of
the world.
The early part of I960 was devoted by me to participation in the
movement to obtain a commutation for Caryl Chessman who was executed
that year.
In 1961, Roberta Johnson was again in attendance at the legislature.
Senator Richards presented a bill which would bring a pension to me for
my judicial service. Roberta saw that the measure was successfully
steered through both houses of the legislature and signed by the Governor.
In June, 1961, former Representative Sam Yorty defeated Norris
Poulson for Mayor of Los Angeles,
In 1962, I made two trips East early in the year. One was to New
York to testify as an expert witness in an anti-trust case in Brooklyn,
and the other to Detroit in February to attend the annual convention of
the National Lawyers Guild.
The June, 1962 primaries were mostly a Republican affair. Former
Vice President Richard Nixon beat Assemblyman Joseph Shell for the
Republican nomination for Governor and U. S. Senator Thonnas Kuchel
defeated Loyd Wright, former president of the American Bar Association,
by an overwhelming vote.
On July 21 and 22, 1962, I attended the track meet at Stanford be-
tween the United States and the Soviet Union, The occasion was an
- 399 -
unforgettable display of international unity and sportsmanship.
In the Novennber, 1962 election, Pat Brown earned another term as
Governor by defeating former Vice President Nixon by a vote of
3, 037, 109 to 2, 740, 351. Dick Richards made a brave run for United States
Senator but was defeated again by incunnbent Thomas Kuchel. The Novem-
ber election was marked by the number of minority candidates elected to
the legislature -- three Negroes were elected out of 80 members in the
Assembly, and an equal number of Americans of Mexican or Oriental an-
cestry.
The Francis amendment, an omnibus initiative to curb subversive
activities, Proposition 24, was beaten by 2, 928, 350 to 1, 978, 520. This
represented a vast advance in popular enlightenment over the 1952 vote of
2, 902, 695 to 1, 359, 970 in favor of Proposition No. 5 aimed at "subver-
sive persons and groups. "
INDEX
Adler, Larry 334
Aggeler, W. T. 47
Aikman, Duncan 77,94,95,137,
230, 232, 233, 245, 313-14, 374. 394
Alexander, George 7
Allen, Don A. 142
Allen, George 217
Allen, Roy E. 29, 30, 57, 60,
63, 67, 79. 87, 90, 94, 133, 383
Amidon, Judge 110
Anderson, Dewey 115,129,131
Anderson, Glenn 368, 371, 375
Anderson, William H. 110
Angel, Dr. E. Z. 298
Armstrong, Louis 75
Arnold, George 360, 379
Athearn, Fred 51
Atkinson, Lynn 144
Austin, Sen. Warren
295,297,299,303-05
Baine, Harry 104
Baldwin, Dr. Benjamin Beecher
31-2
Baldwin, C. B. ("Beanie")
290, 340,350, 352
Ball, Joseph A. 229,253
Bancroft, Celia (Kenny) 2, 3
Bancroft, Hubert Howe 2
Bancroft, Phil 117
Barclay, Thomas 2 53
Barr, Wesley 120
Barry, John D. 115
Bassov, N, D. 297,298
Bathhurst, Maurice 234
Beardsley, John 103, 123
Becker, T. J. 6
Beckett, Dr. W. W. 5
Beesemeyer, Gilbert 64
Behrens, Earl "Squire" 136,352
Beilenson, Lawrence 131,133
Bell, Arthur ("The Voice") 274
Bemis, Luisa Moreno 371-72
Bender, Robert 24
Bentley, Elizabeth 313
Berge, Wendell 216,289
Bergman, Ingrid 249
Berle, Adolph 139,245
Berliner, Hal 291
Berman, Jack 44-5,48,49,60,61
Bessie, Alvah 342
Biberman, Herbert
Bible, Allen
Bickel, Karl
Biddle, Francis
342,376
190,238,287
20
168, 169,207,
214,235.269,282
Billings, Warren 64
Bioff, Willie 310
Biscailuz, Eugene 28,218
Bishop, Judge Edward T.
63, 105, 169
Black, Hugo 149
Blackburn, John 29
Blake, Judge Samuel 40
Blankfort, Michael 229.239
Bledsoe, Judge Benjamin F. 36-7
Boddy, Manchester E.
67,96,98, 154,264,371
Bogart, Humphrey 239
Bolger, James 46,96,180
Bond, Carrie Jacobs 103
Bone, Judge Homer 291
Bonelli, William P. 56, 57, 138
Borba, Harry 17
Borkin, Joseph 216
Borough, Reuben W. 25,68,78,103
Botein, Judge Bernard 365
Bourne, Charlie 307
Bowles, Chester 259
Bowron, Fletcher 33,54,78,99,
107, 108, 109, 113, 195,221-22,229.
240,290, 360, 377-78, 390
Boyer, Charles 239
Bradley, Willis 363
Brady, Matthew 191,192,234
Brecht, Berthold 342,348-49-50
Bridges, Harry 63.149,163,373
Brieglieb, Rev. Gustav 57,61
Briggs, H. B. R. 78
Browder, Earl 264
Brown, Belford 296,297
Brown, Herman 202-03
vBrown, Edmund G. ("Pat") 86,155,
191, 206, 253, 266, 270, 272, 278,
282, 288, 291. 324-25, 376, 386,
390,394,396,399
Browne, George 310
Bryson, Hugh 338
Budd, James 147
Budenz, Louis 313
Bufano, Benny 320
11
Bullock, Mrs. Georgia 49
Burroughs, Abe 239
Burton, Philip 86
Butler, Judge Edward 50
Buzzell, J. W. 152-53, 154
Byrnes, James 209, 252
Caldecott, Ernest 115
Caminetti, Anthony 124
Campbell, Charles 234, 296
Cantor, Eddie 239
Carberry, Jack 30-1
Carleton, George 2, 14
Carleton, Minnie Minerva 2
Carlson, Evans 229, 237, 239,
240, 248-49, 253, 264, 280
Carl son, John Roy 195
Carlson, Oliver 115
Carlson, Rev. Thomas Alpine 241
Carnahan, H. L. 45, 49, 84
Carnarvon, Lord 24
Carpeneti, Judge Walter 192
Carrillo, JLeo 185
Carruth, Dr. William Herbert 16
Carter, Albert E. 220
^^Carter, Jesse W, 118, 122,
130-31, 167,283,291, 363,
369,377,388,389. 396
Carter, Sen. Oliver 266,291
Caylor, Arthur 277, 320
Cerno, Dr. Ivan 296
Chandler, Harry 8,19,37
Chandler, Norman 155
Chapel, Charles 394
Chaplin, Charles 317
Cheseboro, Judge Ray 89
Chiang Kai Shek 330
Chow, Albert 207,217
Churchill, Sir Winston 276
Clark, David 66
Clark, John G. 118
Clark, Tom C. 202,235,246,
283-84,312
Clarvoe, Frank 234
Claypool, Leslie 351
Clelland, J. H. 175
Cline, Herman 40
Clinton, Clifford 112,229
Clock, Ralph 163
Cochran, George 5
Cohen, Benjamin 173
Cohn, Morris
133, 168,218, 308,326,359
Cole. Lester 342,363-64,378
Collier, Judge Frank C. 61
Collins, Richard 382
Commanger, Henry Steele 384
Compton, Dr. Wilson 332
Condon, Robert 331-32
Connally, Phillip 253
Connally, Tom 175,225
Connolly, Marc 239
Conv/ay, S. J. , Rev. E. A.
232,296,389
Cook, "Doc" 28
Cook, Ted 24,25
Cooney, Patrick J. 115
Cooper, Grant 113
Copley, Noma Rathner 392
Copley, William N. 392
Corcoran, Thomas
109,206,208, 209,210
Cornell, Roger 10
Corwin, Norman 230,239
Costello, John M. 203, 220
Cotton, Joseph 239
Cozzens, Robert 222,241
Craig, Justice Gavin 35,36,61,104
Crail, Judge Charles 102, 130
Crail, Joseph Jr. 186
Cranston, Alan 296, 396
Crawford, Charles 51,61,66
Creel, George 98, 101
Cromwell, John 2 53
Crowe, Earl 17, 20
Crum, Bartley
217,247,253,291. 344,396
Crusaders 75
Cryer, George 36,37,47,56
Cummings, W. E. 5
Curran, Robert O. 133
Cutler, Leland 200,292
Darrah, Dave 23
Darby, Mrs. George H. 3
Darrow, Clarence 35
Davidson, Jo 230,290,312,326
Davies, Joseph 317
Davis, Buddy 33,34,39,48,60
Davis, George T. 107,108,115
de Haviland, Olivia 239
Dekker, Albert 239,339
Ill -
Denny, Jr. , George V. 322, 356
Derby, George H. 2
Dewey, Thomas 216,220
DeWitt, Gen. J. L. 170, 171
Dexter, Mrs. Elliot 317
Diamond, Jack 35
Dickson, Edward 91,102,212
Dies, Martin 265
Dietrich, Charles 397
Dills, Ralph G. 142
Dilworth, Nelson 152
Dmytryk, Edward
342,376,379.382
Dockweiler, Isidore 15,136,153
Dockweiler, John 50,119,153
Doran, Judge William C. 48, 49, 54
Dorner, Hannah 352
Douglas, Helen Geihagan 154, 189,
207,328,362,368,369,
371,375,393
Douglas, Lewis 144
Douglas, Melvyn 312
Douglas, William O.
206,221,238,286, 354
i-Downey, Sheridan 98,107,117,
108, 189, 203, 220, 225, 248,
249,250, 369.371, 379
Doyle, Clyde 220,288,363
Draper, Paxil 334
Dreyfus, Benjamin 231
Drucker, David 372
Drury, Allen 345-46
Duffield, Dr. William 20, 36
Duffield, Mr. William 390
Durr, Clifford 365
Eddy, Johnathan 33
Einstein, Albert 3T7
Eisenhower, Dwight 282, 389
Eisier, Gerhard 367
Elier, Mrs. Harriet 253
Elliston, Herbert 296
Elliott, John B.
85,86, 117, 154.388
Emerson, Lloyd 30
Emme, Judge Otto 387
Ernst, Morris 109
Evans, John W. 142
Evans. Ralph 108
Evatt, Dr. Herbert 293-94
Falk, Adrian 292
Fall, David
Fanning, Michael
Farben, I. G.
Ferguson, Bill
Field, Marshall
Field, Sara Bard
Figueroa, Prof.
Files, J. Ray
Fish, Dr. Charles W.
Fish, Dr. George W.
Fxsh Brothers
92
332
335
28
397
115
244
189
9.165
165
87
(^Fitts, Burou 39,41,48,49,50,
51, 54, 57, 59-60, 61, 62, 63, 67, 88,
89.91.92,99, 100, 107, 103
Fletcher, Sir Angus 298
Fletcher, Charles 363
Flint, Motley 61
Fly, James Lawrence 193
Ford, John Anson 104,112,135,253
Ford, Joseph W. 37
Ford, Tom 204
Fortenbury, Carl 145
Fortas, Abe 221
Fourt, Walter 259
Fowler, Prof. William A. 374
Frank, Jerome 139
Frankfurter, Justice Felix 369
Franklin, Bert 3 5
Frayne, Ed 24
Frayne. Pat 222
Fricke, Charles 47, 57, 183
Friday, R. S. W. 274
Friedlander, Jack 45. 51
Friedman, Judge Monroe 277
Fritchman, Rev. Stephen 382
Fuller, Clarence 87
Gale, Ted 19
Gallagher, Dan 297
Garber, Hilda 124
Garfield, John 317,334
Garland, Gordon 134,149,153,156
Garner, John Nance 203.209
Gavrilovic, Stephan 298
Geisler, Jerry 137
Gerhardt, B. W. "Bud" 363
Gerson, Dr. T. Percival 115
Gerson, Sirnon 129
Gervetz, Dr. Harry 312
Getzoff, Ben 49, 50, 60
Geyer, Lee 155
XV
Giannini, A. P, 42, 179
Gibson, Phil 118,122,131,
140, 143.243,287,291, 377
Gilbert, Wilbur 115
Gilbert, Sr. W. I. 40
Giles, Grover 190,202
GiUelen, Warren 4, 5
Gillis, Lindsay 13
Gillis. R. C. 5, 13, 19
Gleason, Louise 266, 272, 278
Glide, Miss 42
Goering, Herman 268-69. 270
Goldsmith, John 215
Goodcell, Rex 123
Goodman, Judge Louis 373
Gordon. Walter 156,185
Grady, Henry F. 237, 292
Graham, Charles A, 322
Grattan, C. Hartley 228
Graves, Richard 393, 394
Green, Williann 116
Gregory, George 87, 99
Grey, John 75
Grider, Frank 61
Griffenhagen Report 124, 272
Griffith, Judge Thomas L.(Jr.)253
Gromyko, Andrei 293
Groves, John B, 61
Gunther, John 238, 280
vOoy, "Curley" 91
Haber, Phil 13
Hague, Mayor 114
/Haight, Raymond
87,88.89.98,99, 100, 123
Hall, Chapin 19
Hall, Pierson 56,57,117,313
Hallinan, Vinvent 373
Halve r son, Dr. Wilton 308-09
Hammett, Dashieil 326
Hannegan, Robert 204, 207
Hansen, Victor 356
Hanson, Chester G. 285
Harburg, E. Y. 230
Harding, Warren 25
Hardy, Judge Carlos 52-3, 88
Harris, Judge George 373
Harrison, Judge Ben 385
Harrison, Maurice 292
Harrison, Robert 167
Hart, John 110
Haas, Walter 292,296,298,307
Hatfield, George 101
Havenner, Frank 362
Hawkins, Gus (Augustus) 115,142
Hayden, Sterling 382
Haynes, Dr. John R. 36
Hays, Ray 184
Healey, Ned 220,288
Hearst, W. R. 26, 100
Heller, Col. E. M. 291
Henderson, Joseph 211
Heney, Judge Francis J. 5, 68
Henreid, Paul 317
Hepburn, Katherine 317
Hession, Jesse 218
Hillman, Sidney 224
Hodes, Barnett 393
Holifield, Chet 328, 362
Holton, Karl 185
Hoo, Dr. 293
Hoover, Herbert 17
Hopkins, Ed 66
Horn, John 103
Houston, Charles 365
Houscr, Frederick F.
137,220, 311.359, 376, 394
Howser, F. N. 275,287,288
Hoyt, Palmer 238,322,323
Hull, Cordell 175
Huls, Harold 47
Houston, Norman 254
Houston, Walter 239
Hutchins. Robert 392
Hyman, Maurice 369
Hynes. Bill 71, 138
Ibanez, Richard A. 211
Ickes. Harold
136, 207, 235, 258, 280, 290, 312
IngersoU, Ralph 160
Ireland, Gail 190
Isaacs, Stanley 129-30
Ivey, H. D. 179
Ivey, L. Otis 383
Izac, Ed V. 288
Jackson. Eleanor 379, 394
Jackson. Robert
139, 150,263.268-69
Jahnson, Oscar 17 5
Janeway, Elliot 206
Jarnigan, Mrs. Ethelwyn Walker
178, 382-83
Jarnigan, William
Jarrico, Paul
Jenkins, Ruth
Jennings, Dean
Johnson, Charles W.
383
379
124
286
167
Johnson, Hiram 59,68,83,85,
100, 135, 142, 224-25, 227, 241
Johnson, Lyndon 203
Johnson, Roberta 394, 398
Johnson, Ward 220
Johnston, Eric 344
Jones, William Mo sely 82,115
Jordan, Frank 134, 157
Julian, C. C. 44, 51
Kahn, Gordon 342, 343
Karr, David 292, 296
Katz, Charles 344
Keaton, Frank 61
Keech, Judge Richmond 376
Keen, Ed 21,22
Keesling, Francis 163, 291
Keetch, Judge Arthur 37
Kefauver, Estes 169, 386
Kegley, Carl S. 88, 114
Kelly, Gene 312
Kelly, Tom 25
Kemp, Thatcher 88, 89
Kennedy, Anthony "Bud" 89
Kennedy, "Ma" 40
Kenny, George Lee 2, 3, 187
Kenny, Col. H. Torrens 10
Kenny, Robert Wolfenden
1, 3.4, 5,6, 10, 11, 14
Kenny, Rev. Walter Wolfenden 10
Kerby, Phil 322
Kern, Jerome 239
Kerr, Gov. Robert 232
Kerr, William 53
Keyes, Asa
34, 40, 44-5, 48, 49, 50, 51, 60
Kidd, Alexander 2 54
Kidwell, George 114
Kiesling Report 272
Kilgore, Sen. Harley 181
Killion, George 143, 373
Kilpatrick, Vernon 142
Kimmerle, H. J. 50
Kincaid, Judge Clarence 70, 72
King, Cecil 142,154,164,224
Kingdon, Dr. Frank 290,326,351
Knight, Goodwin 54, 85, 288, 394, 396
Knowland, William F. 8 5, 288, 386
Knudson, Gen. William S. 150
Koch, Howard 342
Kragen, Adrian 167
Kramer, Charles 76-77
Kuchel, Thomas
267,388,394,395,398,399
Kynette, Earl E. 112
LaFoUette, Robert "Bob" 35
LaGuardia, Fioreilo 221, 335, 337-38
Lanr.arr, Hedy 317
Langdon, W. H. 41,64,111,131
Lapham, Roger
235,291,294,297, 300,372
Lardner, Jr. , Ring 342, 385
Lavery, Emmett 339
Lawson, John Howard
342,347,355,366
Lea, Clarence 82
Leary, Mary Ellen 359
LeBerthon, Ted 25
Le Corbusier, Charles 298
, -Lee, Trygve 300
Legg, Herbert 104,118
Leiser, William 17
Lennon, Thomas J. 35,41
Lester, Ervis 206
\ Letts, Arthur 5
\ Letts, Bob 307
\ Levine, Morris 27
\ Lewis, Marvin 297
\^ewis, S. C. 44-5,48,51
Lincoln, Gould 236
Lindley, Ernest 228
Lindley, Dr. Walter 36
Lindsey, Ben 103, 127, 128
Linn, Clarence 166,289
Linney, Hartwell 167
Locke, Bishop Charles E. 14-15
Loeb, Arthur 50
Long, John 175
Lopez, Ignacio 375
Luckey, George 363
Magnin, Cyril 254,291
Malloy, Mrs. Hattie 178
Malone, William 118,148,154,
157, 163, 199,202,210,229,249,254
Maloney, Tom 86
Maltz, Albert 342, 366
VI
Marcantonio, Vito
Marco, Albert
Margolis, Ben
Marshall, Dan
Marshall, George
Marshall, Ross
Marshall, Thurgood
Martin, Dr. Willie
Masaryk, Jan
Massion, Jack
371
49,94
344
170,375, 387
322, 323
52
283
185
307
142
Mathes, Judge William 374
Mattoon, Everett 46, 52, 63
Maverick, Maury 180,308
Mayer, Louis B. 345, 363
Meade, Dewey 254
Meade, James 169
Mencken, Henry L. 22
Menjou, Adolphe 345
Meredith, Burgess 240
/Merriam, Frank 41,84,98,99,
100, 102, 105, 123, 127
Milestone, Lewis 342
Miller, George 85,115,220
Miller, Justin 168
Miller, Loren 309, 375
Mills, John P. 99
Mines, W. W. 87
Minute Men 88
Mitchell, Homer 52
Moffat, Dr. 11
Mooney, Tom
64, 107,111,114,122,318
Moore, Judge Minor 68, 131
Morgenthau, Henry 290, 3 53
Moritz, Carl
52, 59-60, 67, 84, 88, 98, 100
Morris, Robert S. "Bob"
133. 183,273,308,355,387
Morse, Sen. Wayne 322
Mosk, Stanley 54, 396
Murphy, Daniel 116
Murphy, Edward 254
Mushet, W. C. 7
'McAdoo, William 68,78,79,
84, 101, 107, 117, 118, 136
McBride, Sen. James 123
McCann Kenny, Sara 17, 19, 20,
22,23,24, 32,36, 122, 133,
165. 166, 167,187,216,218,
220,282,287,291,390
McCarthy, Sen. Joseph 392
McClelland, J. H. 175
McComb, Marshall 47,60-61
McDonough, Gordon 96,203-04
McDonough, Patrick W. 254
McEntire, Davis B. 242
McGranery, James 214
McGrath, Gov. J. Howard 259
McGovney, Prof. D. O. 287-88
McGucken, Bishop Joseph I. 184
McGuiness, H. 83
McKee, Henry S. 80-81.142
McKee, Stewart 80-81,107,108,
117, 142, 165, 179, 214, 230. 283, 374
McKesson, William 46
McKinnon, Clinton 363, 386
McLain, George
367.375,376-77,378.394
McNamara Brothers 7, 35
McNitt, Rollin 249-50,254.315,375
McNutt, Paul 344
^McPherson, Aimee Semple
39,43,44, 52
McWilliams, Carey
115, 184, 185,218-19.226,279,312
McWilliams, Judge Robert 291
Nemetz, Justice Nathan 334
Neylan, John Francis 386
Nix, George 37
Nixon, Richard M.
288,369, 386,396.399
Noble, Robert 147
Norcott, George Gordon 30-1
Norris, Frank 321
Nourse, John 140
Odell, Robert S. 291
Ogg, Wilkie 192
O'Hara, Pat 31-2
Ohnimus, Arthur 192
Olney III, Warren 274,275,359
>^ Olson, Culbert 82,85,101,102,
108, 110. 118, 120, 123, 129-133,
134, 136, 141. 143. 157. 158. 161.
- 198,199,205,207.288.354
Olson. Richard 117, 118
Ormiston, Kenneth 44
Ornitz, Samuel 342
Ostrow, Al 359
Otto. Edward 89
Outland, George 206,288
VIX
Owls, The
Pacht, Isaac
Palmer, Harlan
Palmer, Kyle
13
68,375
107, 108
19,20,249-50,
256,260-61,262,267
Palmer, William 104, 138
Pantages, Alexander 57
Paonessa, Alfred 274
Parker, Dorothy 249
Parker, John J. 231,269
Parks, Larry 342,381-82
Parrott, Kent K.
36,37,39,41,45, 56, 77
/Patterson, Ellis 115,116,118,
135, 136, 137, 141, 157, 161, 204,
250, 264-65, 267. 272, 278,
279, 280
Pattiz, Oscar 2 54
Pauley, Edwin
126-27, 309, 229, 238, 258, 260
Pauling, Dr. Linus 312
Pearkes, Maj. Gen. George 333
Pearson, Drew
238,245,292.359,376
Peck, Gregory 239, 240
Pedrotti, Senator 55
Peek, Paul 121,134,157,161,383
Pegler, Westbrook 21-22
Pelletier. John 115,142
Pennell, Sarah 2,3
Pepper, Sen. Claude 287,317
Peters, Justice Raymond
174,287,291
Petifils, Raymond 13, 50
Philbrick, Howard 113,127,134
Phillips, Al 30
Phillips, Clara 27-8
Phillips, Gifford 322
Phillips, John 150
Phillips, "Pete" 161
Pichel, Irving 342
Pictorial Review, The 16-7
Piel, Gerard 379
Pierce, Fred 52, 148
Pierovich, Andrew 123-24
Plunkert, William "Bill" 129
Politzer, Jerome 148,291,369
Pope, James H. 33
Popper, Martin 230, 263, 344
Porter, Mrs. Charles 254
Porter, John C. 56,57,77,94-5,96
Post, Lang don W.
86, 176,254,285,291
Poulson, Norris 77,220,390,398
Powers, John 14
Powers, Robert 100,222,242,311
Pratt, Anthony 78,115
Prattis, P. L. 232
Preston, John W. 41
Pringle, Eunice 57
Quinn, J. H. 156
Quinn, J. R. 56
Radin, Max
140, 176,201,206,289,291
Ralston, Judge Jackson 197-98
Rand, Ayn 345
Randall, Charles 79, 80
Randau, Clem 17
Rankin, Rep. John 224
Rathborn, Mervin 373
Rayburn, Sam 199,201,202
Raymond, Harry 112
Reaves, Fred 115
Reiley, George 157
Rhone, Bayard 194
Richards, Richard 395, 399
Richardson, Gov. Friend
20,39,41,42
Richardson, James 71,273
Ritchie, Paul 115
Ritz Brothers 145
Robertson, Assemblyman 259
Robeson, Paul 156-57,317,352
Robinson, Earl 230
Robinson, Judge Elmer 155
Robinson, Edward G. 317
Robinson, Prof. W. C. 313
Roche, Michael 138
Rochester, George 66
Rockefeller, John D. Jr. 306
Rockefeller, Nelson 187
Rogers, Frank 353
Rogers, James 13-14
Rogers, Mrs. Leila 339
Rogers, Jr., Will 169,204,267,
272, 278, 279, 280, 285, 288,
311-12,356,357
^^Rolph, James 59,60,62,67,88-9,
96,98, 102, 105, 147, 162
Rolph, Thonrvas 220
- Vlll
Roosevelt, Elliot 315,317
Roosevelt, Franklin D,
20,207,209.220
Roosevelt, Mrs. Franklin D. 321
Roosevelt, James 264, 285,
316-17, 327,331,339-40,
358-59.368,375,393
Rorke, Hal 17, 57
Rorke, Millie 127, 187
Rosenberg, Ed 48,49
Rosenthal, Ben 115
Rosenwein, Sam 344
Ross, Judge Erskine 5
Rossen, Robert 342,375
Roth, Jack 51
Roth, Lester 110
Ruef, Abe 68
Rudolph, Michael 115
Rush, John 106
Russell, Rosalind 145
Russell, H. P. 116
Rutledge, Aaeoc. Justice Wylie 169
Ryan, Don 25
Ryan, Joe 40
Pyland, Dr. E. P. 115
Sabin, Mrs. Charles 75
Sacco &t Vanzetti 47
St. Francis dam disaster 47
St. John, Adela Rogers 356
Saksin 301
Salt, Waldo 342
Samish, Arthur 113,369-70
Sawyer, Harold 115
Scattergood, E. F. 36
Schary, Dora 345
Schauer, B. Ray 62,288
Schmidt, Reuben 109
Schmidt, Matt 6
Schneiderman, William 137-8,159
Schulberg, Bud 317
Scott, Joseph 45
Scully, Frank 142
Scully, Tom 28 5
Sebastian, Frank 76
Segure, Rose 129
Sehlmeyer, George 254
Selby, Earl 298
Selvin, Herman 359
Selznick, Myron 145
Shattuck, Edward 376
Shaw. Artie 239
Shaw, Frank 95,96,103,105.112
Shav/ 1 5
Sheean, Vincent (Jimmy) 23
Sheldon, Judge Caryl 34
Shell, Joseph 398
Shelley, John F. 136,154,198,
206, 254, 266, 272, 247, 278, 288, 291
Sheppard, J. C. 132.141.170
Sheppherd, Harry 164
Sherman, Gen. M. H. 8
Shields, Peter 148
Shinn, Judge Clement 68
Shortridge, Samuel 77,84,104
^Shuler, Rev. Robert 40,41-2,47,
49.56,57,59-60,61,62,63,68,
69,78,79,84,88, 149
Siegel, Seymour 13
Sinclair, Upton 62,98,99,
100, 101, 103, 115,354
Sleepy Lagoon 186-7
Smalley, William D. 16
Smith, Alfred "Al" 51
Smith, Gerald L. K. 239.240,246
Smith, J. T. R. "Bunny" 28
Smith, Marcus Aurelius 12
Smythe, James 148
Snyder, John W. 331
Sorrell, Herbert 115,310,374
Sotomayor, Antonio 214
Spencer, Herbert 31,66
rSperbeck, Ivan 156
Stassen, Harols 230
Steeves, Mrs. Dorothy 333
Steffens, Lincoln 94
Stephens, Jesse 56
Stettinius, Edward 230
Stevens, William D. 20,59
Stewart, Fred 93,124,137-38,156
Strauss, Jack 290
Stripling, Robert 349
Styles, Hal 203,220
Summerfield, Minnie 1,4,133
Summerfield, Morris 4
Squires, Eiwood 52, 94
Swan, Sen. John Harold 167
Sweigert, William 167
Swift, Rev. Wesley 273
Taft, Sen. Robert A. 277,284
Talbot, James 37
IX
Tannenbaum, Ned 13
Tapaan, Judge Clair 47, 88
Tavener, Reginald 30
Taylor, Ken 38
Taylor, Ted 25,26-7
Teel, Courtney A. 103
Tenney, Jack B. 115,135,142,
146, 186.203,339. 368,
374,375,376, 385,395
Thatcher, Hugh 104
Tnomas, J. Parnell 346, 348
Thompson, Walter B. 63
Toland, Jr. , John H. 272
Torrens, S. H, 2
Tower, Tom 273
Townsend, Dr. Francis 97
Traynor, Roger 141,288.291,377
Truman, Harry 201,202,207,208,
210,217,218,236,277,282,
288.313-14,328,329
Trumbo, Dalton
217, 342,347.355,366
Tubbs, Tallant
75, 77, 79, 84, 85, 88, 136, 148
Tunney, Judge Raymond I. 53
Turner, Ralph 22
Turney, Art 26, 34
Tnrney, Raymond 33-4
Vallee, Paul 131, 133
Vandeleur, Ed 163
Vanderbilt, Jr. , Cornelius
26, 57,317
Van Dyke, Comm. William 5
Van Karnesbeck, Dr. 301
Van Wickle, Melvina 3
Velde, Rep. Harold 389
Velie, Lester 369
Venator, Lui 29
Vickers, Judge Joseph 195
Vinson, Fred 391
Viven, Capt. John L, 9
Viven, Mrs. May Kenny 6, 9, 10, 149
von Kleinschmidt, Rufus 20 5
Voorhis, Jerry 288
Wagner, Max 217
Wagner. Sen. Robert F. 221
Walker, Frank C. 171-72
Walker, George V/. 9, 10, 17
Walker, John T. 290
Walker, Irving 359
Walker, James "Jimmy" 75
Wallace, Henry 193.198,207,
208, 209, 288, 290. 315-21, 323,
325,327, 328, 329, 330, 340,
341, 351, 352, 353-64
Walsh, Stewart P. 151.166
Wanderwell, Walter 91
Ware, Wallace 155,161.163
Warne. Clore 278
Warren. Earl 85.102,113.114,
127, 131, 140, 147, 150, 152-53, 157,
160, 162, 166-67, 171. 173. 176, 181,
184, 204. 216.221-22,226-27. 237.
271. 72, 275. 232, 297, 356, 386
Waste, W. H. 41, 140
Weaver, Landis 17
Webb, U. S. 113, 132, 160, )63
Wellborn, Judge Charles 5
Welles, Orson 239,240
Welles, Sumner 211
Werdel, Thomas 259, 386
Werner, Erwin "Pete" 56.89
Werner. Helen 56
Whaley. Richard 213
Wheeler. Lucian 99
White. Nate 250-51
White. Justice Thomas P. 68. 187
White. Walter 283
Whitney. A. F. 326.353
Wilbur, Brayton 292
Wiley, Dick 216,231,291,359
Wilkie, Alfred 16
Wilkie, Wendell 138,159.187
Wilkinson, Frank 387
Willett, Dr. Hugh 11
Williams, Aubrey 326
Williams, Ben 5, 144
Williams, Charles 31-2
Williams, Myrtle 367
Williams, Rhys 334
Willis, Margaret 31-2
Wilson, C. T. 1
Wilson. George 373
Wilson, Lyle 22
V/ilson. Woodrow 12
Winocour. Jack 232
Wiseman, Mrs. Lorraine 40
Witt, Bert 316,356
Wood, Gen. Charles Erskine Scott
115
Woolwine, Thoinas Lee 34
Wright, Loyd 398
Wrigley, William 14
Wylie, C. E. 166
Yankwich, Judge Leon R.
37,47, 87, 107,363-64,378
Yorty, Sam
112, 115. 135, 393-94, 395. 398
YoTxng. Gov. C.C. 39,41-2.43,
47,49, 59,62,64,67,93
Young, Harold 352
Young, Milton K. 62
Younger, Mildred 203,395
Zeckendorf, William 306
Zemansky, J. H. 53
Zoot Suit Riots 184
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