U.S. At War: Berkley to the Rescue

Democrats, who have lost all but one of the past eight Congressional by-elections, were taking care not to lose the next one. They were rushing one of their top-drawer attractions, Senate Majority Leader Alben W. Barkley, off to the Oklahoma hills to help swing next week’s Second Congressional District election their way. Normally this would be considered sending a man to do a boy’s job.

The last time a Republican won in the Second District was in 1920. Democratic majorities are as normal a product of the Second as corn and cotton. But in 1942 Democrat Jack Nichols squeaked through to re-election by only 365 votes. The Republican who almost beat him in 1942 is the man the Democrats are worried about now: Edwin O. Clark, 6 ft. and 63.

Clark is one-quarter Choctaw. Indian blood is a political asset in the Second, which lies in onetime Indian territory.

Democrats have gone the Republicans one better at red-blooded vote-getting. Their candidate is half-Choctaw. Bill Stigler, 53, dark, with straight black hair, has been for several years the Choctaw Nation’s attorney. He is also a World War I veteran and past American Legion state commander. Democrat Stigler and Republican Clark are the rival attorneys of the town of Stigler (pop. 1,572), named for the Democrat’s family. Dopesters are backing Stigler to win, but the Democrats who sent the hurry call for Alben Barkley were in no mood to trust to form.