Wm. H. Murray

              WM.H.MURRAY

ALFALFA BILL

CONGRESSMAN AT LARGE FROM OKLAHOMA


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A DUNBAR ATTRACTION





ALFALFA BILL
 MURRAY



E
VERYBODY calls him 
Bill
 too, this interesting and most unique member of the present House of Representatives at Washington, although the decorous Congressional Record prefers 
William H. Murray of Oklahoma, Congressman at large.
  When he speaks, the galleries are jammed, and when he presides over the House of Representatives, as he is very frequently called upon to do, every member is in his place, for there is sure to be 
something doing.
  No man, not a product of American life, could be found who would combine so many qualities of rugged excellence.  Murray was born a farmer and ranchman, but always was about as far from being a plodder as could be imagined.




He is by nature a progressive, and his early recognition of the marvellous qualities of alfalfa as a farm crop and his unselfish and monumental work in getting the settlers and homebuilders of the new and wonderfully fertile commonwealth of Oklahoma to see its value and to plant the wizard forage crop won for him the rough and ready sobriquet of 
Alfalfa Bill.
  
Bill
 got off right at the very start, the regular Jackson-Lincoln-Garfield salutatory.  His first work was as a farm hand, but that was his side line.  His main endeavor was to get an education, and the night reading, schools and colleges which figured in his getting it were in importance secondary to Bill's ambition.  His habit of employing every spare minute on something worth while accounts for his most unusual fund of knowledge on such a wide variety of subjects and led him to become a lawyer, of which class there is none shrewder.




The actual building of a new state out of ready-made material, as was done in Oklahoma required real men and 
Bill
 was on the job.  Prior to this, it was generally known that in physical worth and natural resources, the

Indian Territory
 was a veritable Golconda.  This was in the days of the 
old politics
 too, the 
spoils system,
 and those who were only slightly acquainted with the facts knew that the tribes of uncivilized Indians who made this fertile plain their final stand, and who, while making phenomenal progress toward complete civilization were accomplishing miracles as homebuilders, were being fleeced out of their lands, their wealth and their rights under treaties with the government.  The list of men charged with using dummy entrymen to secure land and town lots and of presenting for payment assigned claims of fictitious Indians for their share of the tribal estate, included men high in business and politics, and Murray became their most formidable antagonist.  He stood for the legitimate rights of the Indians against the swindlers.  It will be remembered that the 
five civilized tribes
 have known nothing of uncivilized life for a century.  They have maintained a stable and equitable government, similar to any state government.  Their daughters went to college and their country estates, in many instances were rural mansions.  They were the leaders in the movement of assimilation and have so intermarried with whites that their physical racial characteristics have largely disappeared, and they are now just Americans.  Murray married one of these cultured daughters, whose grandmother was a full-blood Chickasaw.



Murray was one naturally looked to by the great mass of people as a leader in the formation of the new state.  He was selected as the president of the constitutional convention whose work was widely criticised at the time of its adoption, but which has made good, and now many states have adopted some of the features which were considered the most radical.





Mr. Murray was the first speaker of the Oklahoma Legislature and is one of the keenest parliamentarians in public life.  More talked about than the initiative, referendum and recall was the provision guaranteeing bank deposits.  It is noteworthy that this principle of guaranteeing deposits, 
Alfalfa Bill's
 proudest achievement, has been absolutely established and it is only a question of a short time until it will be everywhere in use.




As a platform speaker he is inimitable.  There is only one 
Alfalfa Bill
 Murray.  He looks like George Stewart, and in fact there is further and marked resemblance to George, in that he is a homely philosopher with a wonderfully big and resonant voice.  His power as a wielder of invective, an arraigner of folly as well as to uphold the highest standards of living and thinking are nothing short of marvellous, and he carries great audiences with him by the power of his lovable personality and homely good sense.  Those who hear him now are meeting a man whom every chautauquan of a few years hence will regard with pleasure and pride as a leader in the movement.




As a member of congress he opposed the secret party caucus.  In these caucusses, roll calls are the only part of the proceedings which can be made public.  Murray secured a roll call on motion which was lost on viva voce vote, but on 
roll call
 it carried by a two-thirds majority, a very significant illustration of the workings of the secret caucus.  He was largely instrumental in changing the new currency bill so that the reserve board would not be a politically created body.  He worked persistently for government co-operation in the establishment of good roads and has important plans under way in that line.




Designed and Printed by
 FRANKLIN C. HOLLISTER 500 SHERMAN STREET, CHICAGO