Talk:Wayne Morse/Archive 1

Ideas for expansion?
I have a friend who is quite the expert on Morse's life, having written extensively about him in the past. He is not too familiar with Wikipedia, though. He sounds willing to pitch in here, but wants to know what the article needs.

So...ideas for expansion? What's in most need of work? I'll direct him here to find any suggestions. -Pete (talk) 00:20, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
 * 1900 to 1923 is pretty sparse, and we do not even have his parents. Aboutmovies (talk) 00:55, 12 November 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm tracking down a copy of Mason Drukman's Wayne Morse: A Political Biography, Oregon Historical Society, 1997. I'm hoping it will be useful. I don't really know what the article needs because my knowledge of Morse is skeletal. Finetooth (talk) 05:09, 12 November 2008 (UTC)


 * My friend Carl points out that the Oregon Encyclopedia has a good entry on Morse -- also by Mason Drukman, as it turns out. http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/entry/view/morse_wayne/ -Pete (talk) 01:26, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

Presidential run
The new text on the presidential run (provided by Carl) is far superior to what was there before -- both in being well-sourced, and in providing a clearer picture of what happened. However, I think it needs a little work, to be as clear as possible.


 * The old text said that Kennedy's nomination was considered all but locked up by the time Morse entered the race. Is that true? If so, is there a source that says it?
 * The "favorite son" bit could use a bit more exposition. Did she say he was "merely" a favorite son, in order to suggest he had no chance of winning on the national stage? The old text said she was Kennedy's state chair -- is that true? What was the context of her speech?
 * The role of the Oregon Republican Party is unclear to me. What does "their" governor have to do with it? (I assume he's referring to Mark Hatfield, but...why??) If the ORP was planning to gather signatures to get Morse nominated...what was their motivation?

-Pete (talk) 21:00, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

Pete-
 * There is probably some truth to that line about Kennedy having it "locked" (whatever that really means) However, with so few primaries, even after Oregon, Kennedy was still required to go around to various states in an attempt to persuade uncommitted delegates to join him at the convention. Also lots of these primaries were rarely contested or had favorite son candidates. I would have probably said that the "stop-Kennedy" forces probably gave up after he won the Oregon Primary.


 * the newspaper article just references it, just mentions, I would have to go back further on the Micro film to see what she said in the speech. Throughout 1959 Green asked Morse at least three times about if he intended on running. Three times he told her No. This is how by late 1959 she had agreed to be Kennedy's campaign chair. When I go back and do another edit, I'll try to clear up some confusion. I am attempting to do this without re-writing and posting my entire paper. Most folks think that had Morse just said yes to Edith Green she would have fallen behind him in support as Oregon's Favorite Son.


 * The Oregon GOP needs more explanation. Basically Morse and Neal came to the conclusion that winter, that if they did not put Morse up on the ballot, the GOP would in an attempt to embarrass him for his 1962 race. Kennedy later in the campaign would say, not to worry about it, that the people of Oregon are smart enough to know a political trick and would re-elect Oregon's senior Senator. Hatfield was strongly thinking and leaning towards running against Morse for most of the year of 1960, but decided against it by 1961.

-Carl —Preceding undated comment was added at 21:56, 13 November 2008 (UTC).

Drukman book
I've acquired a used copy of the Drukman book, and I've read the first chapter about three times. From this came my distillation, the three paragraphs I just added to the childhood section. I now must read the rest of the book, take some notes, and check to see if any answers to any of the questions raised above might be found there. I think the bit about Morse commuting to school 22 miles a day on horseback might make a good DYK. I've never submitted a DYK. Should I try this? Finetooth (talk) 21:09, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
 * That's great -- an excellent section expansion! Unfortunately, a "Did You Know…" for this one will be tough, since DYK require a 5x expansion over a short period of time (for articles that already existed). A silly and arbitrary rule, but one that gets followed pretty closely. -Pete (talk) 21:59, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
 * I second that! Wonderful expansion, just wonderful. I would love to see a DYK for this. If the article does expand more soon, keep it in mind. -- Good Damon 00:02, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Presidential run
Wow Carl, the expanded coverage of the 1960 run for president is great. It seems this was a significant moment for the United States and Oregon, and I'm glad to see it documented in such detail. There are a few places where it would be nice to have more detailed inline citations -- in the analysis, etc. (For instance, Morse knowing "that he had an extremely steep hill to climb.") Also, it seems that there is maybe more weight on the less notable aspects of Morse's life -- his education, and the presidential run -- but that's probably best addressed by simply expanding the material on his activities as a Senator.

By the way, I watched The Last Angry Man last night -- found it on VHS at Movie Madness in Portland -- it's a good film. There are some good quotes, etc. in there; I may watch it again and try to extract some useful bits for this article. -Pete (talk) 18:50, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Senate Years
I think one area for expansion is that of his career in the United States Senate. I don't think you can talk about Morse and the Senate without discussing his horrible working relationship with Oregon's Junior Senator Richard L. Neuberger. They just didn't get along. Neuberger was a law student when Morse was known as Dean Morse at the University of Oregon. I can't recall how much of that feud the Drukman book mentions, but I recall the Smith book had at least a whole chapter on the "letters" they would send each other instead of talking face to face.

There is also a book that Morse put out for campaign '68, called Morse: Record of a Working Senator, that lists the major legislative accomplishments of Morse all in one book. It is something you don't see anymore. I have a copy, but like my Morse biographies they are all in storage right now.

--Emk4ever (talk) 02:30, 18 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Ironically, I found a bit about how Morse actively campaigned for Neuberger in his first race for the Senate (before Morse had become a Democrat). I added that bit. I wonder if the bad working relationship resulted, in part, from an expectation on Morse's part of Neuberger repaying his efforts? Though, that doesn't sound quite like Morse's style.

Clare Boothe Luce should also be mentioned. She and Morse made the papers for a few weeks in the late fifties. She was appointed Ambassador to either Brazil or Chile (some South American country) and Morse was an outspoken critic of her appointment. Even though she passed confirmation in the Senate, she was forced to resign eventually because of her comments on the debate surrounding her, she said I think, Morse was acting up because he was "kicked in the head by a horse". He was actually kicked in the head by a horse. I just can't remember the specifics.

Here is a link  Not sure how the literature at the bottom of the page can be used.

--Emk4ever (talk) 04:46, 20 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes, sounds like a good story to pursue. -Pete (talk) 09:43, 20 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Reading Drukman bit by bit late in the evening, I've come upon the Luce stuff and added a bit about the horse-kick comment. If Luce had resisted the cruel jibe, she would have been off to Brazil, but it was more than the Senate could abide. I've also read Drukman's chapter about "Morseberger", as the press once called the two Senators from Oregon, and it's full of odd and interesting things. I'll try to capture the encyclopedic essence of it and add it to the article. Finetooth (talk) 20:00, 20 November 2008 (UTC)
 * And I have. Finetooth (talk) 01:17, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

Excellent work, Finetooth. I have a grammatical quibble in the Luce text: the way it's currently phrased; it reads as though Luce and Morse knew each other when he was kicked by the horse, when (I think) what she meant was that his reasoning or judgment was impaired by that long-ago incident. Is that correct?


 * Thanks. Luce and Morse had a long history. Luce and others tangled with Morse in 1951 over Morse's support of President Truman, when the president recalled General Douglas MacArthur from Korea. Morse, a Republican, defended Truman, a Democrat, because he thought that giving in to MacArthur "would have been tantamount to surrendering the White House to the military brass." This infuriated Luce and her husband Henry and other members of what was called the China lobby, and they ran articles suggesting that Morse was a Commie. Morse being Morse, returned fire by calling for Congressional investigation of the China lobby. Truman fired MacArthur in April 1951, and the horse kicked Morse in the face in August 1951. So, yes, Luce knew Morse then, and she did mean to suggest that the kick had addled his brains. I'm not sure how much of this to try to include here. Finetooth (talk) 05:12, 21 November 2008 (UTC)


 * OK, thanks for explaining. I had misread this to say 1931, and thought it was unlikely they had known each other that long. It makes more sense now. -Pete (talk) 22:06, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

Also, the journal article I found focused on the substantive, rather than political, reasons for Morse's opposition, and said his concerns were borne out in the following years. I wonder if we should give a nod to that aspect -- though I can't say I understand the issues well enough, from the paragraph in that article, to do it justice myself. Does Drukman comment on that? -Pete (talk) 02:30, 21 November 2008 (UTC)


 * He says that Morse had concerns about Luce's abilities as a diplomat. Luce had been ambassador to Italy from 1953 to 1956, and some of the things she said, generally while Commie-bashing, caused diplomatic uproars and hard feelings in Italy. Morse also had reason to suspect that Luce was the author of an anonymous quote in an issue of her husband's Time magazine to the effect that the best solution to Bolivia's problems would be to abolish Bolivia and let its neighbors divide it among themselves. She had also said that internationalism was "globaloney". So, yes, Morse had good reason to doubt that she would be a good ambassador. Morse also knew that Luce had undergone psychiatric care and that she had had some problems in Italy with lethargy, disorientation, and other symptoms of something gone wrong. I'm not sure how to put all this succinctly. Finetooth (talk) 05:12, 21 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes, it's a challenge. I'm not sure I'd consider it top priority, but I'll mull it over a bit, and maybe add something. -Pete (talk) 22:06, 21 November 2008 (UTC)


 * I got to worrying that maybe the gory details of the horse kick were a bit over the top and perhaps not quite fair to Luce. I can't know what she was thinking. I removed the broken teeth sentence. This still leaves open the question of why she mentioned the horse kick. On the complications of their relationship and the tangles of McCarthy-era politics, I decided to punt. Finetooth (talk) 20:42, 22 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Supposing anybody felt like visiting the Library of Congress, there are a number of interesting documents there…

Post Senate Years
Well I did some work last night at trying to construct WM post Senate life, mostly looking at the 72 and 74 elections. Morse did a variety of things, speaking tours, lectures, etc. Need some feed back on this, should it just be the 72 and 74 sections as they are now or should it just be one huge section called Post Senate Years? --Emk4ever (talk) 20:17, 18 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Not sure I'm in much of a position to weigh in, but I'd suggest one section on the 1960–1968 portion of his career (focusing heavily on opposition to the Vietnam War), and another section called something like "Later runs for office." Single-paragraph sections are not generally desirable, and it doesn't appear likely that either election (72 or 74) merits more than a brief mention. Of course, it's entirely possible I'm missing something there. -Pete (talk) 10:45, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

I think once I track down the 1966 and 1972 articles I have I'll contribute to a little bit of the Morse-Hatfield relationship. Morse first crossed paths with Hatfield in 1958 when he brought up an auto accident in Hatfield's past that resulted in the death of a child. This was when he was running against Holmes for Governor. Then by 66, Morse was campaigning with Hatfield and then in 72 he was trying to take his seat. If one of us has the Durkman book, they could probably just summarize what it says about Morse and Hatfield.

--Emk4ever (talk) 21:52, 21 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Was his relationship with Maurine Neuberger any better than that with her husband? They overlapped for a while too. -Pete (talk) 22:07, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

From my recollections their relationship was a little bit better, but not a whole lot.

--Emk4ever (talk) 02:41, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Committee controversy
Here's an extensive article on the committee assignment controversy. (Not sure if the link will work unless you log into the Mult. Co. Library site). http://0-www.jstor.org.catalog.multcolib.org/stable/1952194 -Pete (talk) 22:19, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

Copyvio
I found a copy of this article on the BU School of Theology web site, which does not comply with the terms of the GFDL. I submitted a complaint; the report key for the complaint is 2S2D3XI7. The URL of the document is: http://sthweb.bu.edu/index.php?option=com_awiki&view=mediawiki&article=Wayne_Morse&Itemid=176

-Pete (talk) 22:42, 21 January 2009 (UTC)
 * It does, it says right at the bottom of the page! Million_Moments (talk) 07:04, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Gah!
Sorry I didn't notice that the article had gone to GA. I'm quickly able to confirm that Caryl was 14 years younger than Morse. Mason Drukman writes on page 4 of Wayne Morse: A Political Biography: "Until his sister Caryl was born when he was fourteen, Wayne was the youngest in his family." Finetooth (talk) 05:10, 1 February 2009 (UTC)