Talk:William H. Murray

Untitled
I have moved this ifo from the article and put it in the duscussion becasue it needs a lot of work before being used. Carptrash 19:08, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

= = = = = = = = = = THE FOLLOWING ARE QUOTES AND INFORMATION FROM BOOKS ABOUT GOVERNOR MURRAY

 Oklahoma Governors 1929-1955; Depression to Prosperity Edited by Leroy H. Fischer Paraphrasing by Dan Branum, www.xanga.com/seeking_truth_now, seekingtruthnow@yahoo.com

Pages 5-6 “William Henry Murray (1931-1935), unlike Holloway, was controversial. He emerged as the champion of the masses of people suffering from the Great Depression, and this sincere concern brought him into the executive office. His basic program called for softening the effects of the Great Depression by decreasing taxes for lower income people, by enforcing strict governmental economy, and by aiding the destitute and unemployed.” Page 6 Murray faced the oil crisis of 1931, where he used very unconventional methods to solve the problem. The problem was that Oklahoma oil production exceeded consumption. To solve the problem, Murray closed over 3,000 oil wells and enforced these closures with the national guard. This started a pattern for Murray’s use of the National Guard. During his governorship he used them 34 times. Sometimes it was justified, others times it was not. Pages 7-8 Murray was loved his power and showing it through such things as the use of the National Guard. Murray started getting national media attention due to his flamboyancy. “His picture appeared on the cover of Time Magazine less than week after he formally announced his candidacy for the presidency of the Untied States in February, 1932. His electioneering took him to many states….His platform provided for unemployment relief, old age insurance, extension of credit, revised protection tariff laws, more foreign commerce, and the reduction of international armaments. At the Democratic National Convention, Murray received twenty-three votes on the first ballot. Twenty-two were those of the Oklahoma delegation and one other was cast by his brother, a delegate from North Dakota.” Page 8 Murray “worked vigorously to fulfill his inaugural pledge that the poor and unemployed would receive care. Because of his urging, Oklahoma became the first state to appropriate money for the needy. These funds soon proved inadequate, and next Murray unsuccessfully promoted a bill levying an emergency tax on public employees for relief of the poor. He even gave part of his own salary to aid the needy. He sharply opposed the practice of sending debtors to jail and took action to prevent mortgage foreclosures on farms and homes. With the New Deal in operation, general funds for direct relief and employment relief reached Oklahoma in quantity to supplement Murray’s state program for the poor and unemployed.” Murray was blunt and swift. He worked very vigorous towards what he believed was the best way to fix things.

Page 73 “Since his retirement from office, he had become bitter about President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, and attacked both in speeches and lectures. The president revenged himself during a speaking tour in Oklahoma in 1938 and denounced Murray as “nationally known as a Republican.” ” Murray ran for governor again in 1938 and attributed his lose mainly to FDR’s speeches. Page 74 “His views became more and more extreme, and in his later years he was known for his blatant anti-Semitic and anti-black attitude.” He wrote several books, most importantly Memoirs of Governor Murray and The History of Oklahoma.

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 03:36, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Many references to Alfalfa Bill in the book...
Title: The Worst Hard Time Author: Egan, Timothy Information from the dust jacket of the audio book produced by www.tantor.com:

"This is can't-put-it-down history." - Walter Cronkite

"The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl"

The narrative centers on the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles, and northeast New Mexico.

There are many references/quotes about/from "Alfalfa Bill" William H. Murray. Based on the quotations he was one mean, racist guy!

Read the book for the story as well as "Alfalfa Bill" info.

Rwiringa (talk) 16:52, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Article reclassification
This article meets the requirements for Class C; I have made the change for WP:Oklahoma. Also, I think Gov. Murray had a sufficiently large impact on Oklahoma history to merit an importance of High for this project. Bruin2 (talk) 20:30, 13 February 2014 (UTC)