Richard Neuberger Book & Items

 

This Fall, OSU Press published Stephen Forrester's long-awaited biography of Oregon Senator Richard Neuberger. You can learn more about Neuberger from the Oregon Encyclopedia or Wikipedia. Better yet, go buy Stephen's book! He was a founder of Willamette Week, served as a Washington correspondent, and spent thirty-three years as the editor and publisher of The Daily Astorian. Stephen has spent many years researching and writing this work. I had pre-ordered my copy as soon as OSU Press made the link active and was thrilled when it finally arrived.



Over the years, I had met people who knew or worked for Neuberger, and it was fascinating to learn the full story of his life and how he navigated politics to find himself in a race for office that would determine the balance of power in the United States Senate.



The book includes a few pictures of some Richard Neuberger campaign items, and it made me think it has been a while since I had seen a Neuberger campaign item show up online. I decided it was time to showcase known items. The following items are from my collection and that of longtime Oregon APIC members John Silvertooth and John Gearhart.

 

Charles McNary Notification Celebration

In Spring/Summer 1994 edition of The Keynoter, William Alley gives us a great background on the selection of longtime Republican Senator Charles McNary as the running mate of 1940 Republican presidential nominee Wendell Willkie. McNary was the last Oregonian to be nominated by a major party ticket for President or Vice President. We have written here in the past about a number of major and minor party nominees for Vice President Oregon has produced over the years. We are now at the 80th anniversary of the notification ceremony of Charles McNary on his selection as the 1940 vice presidential nominee. Democratic nominee Henry Wallace was also to have a notification event in Des Moines, Iowa during the same few weeks. Hopefully there is some Iowa and Wallace fan that can write that article.

First, it is important to know what a notification ceremony is, as political parties no longer hold such events. The closest thing that might come to a notification event in modern times is the press conference where a nominee will announce their selection of the vice presidential nominee.What is a committee of notification?  According to An Introduction to Political Parties and Practical Politics written by noted Berkeley Professor of Political Science Perley Orman Ray in 1912.

With the naming of a candidate for vice president, it only remains for the convention to authorize the appointment of a committee consisting of one from each State, formally to notify the presidential candidate of his nomination and a similar committee to notify the vice-presidential candidate. The business of the convention then being at an end, it adjourns sine die. These committees on notification subsequently visits the nominee at his home, or meet him at some appointed place. The chairman, or some other previously selected member, makes a formal speech notifying the candidate the action of the convention. Thereupon the candidate delivers his "speech of acceptance"           (p.164-165)

Modern conventions have no notification committees that travel out to nominees homes to hear of their acceptance. Now this all takes place at the highly choreographed political conventions we are accustomed to experiencing today. The 1940s were still the infancy of television. Most families did not see televisions enter their homes until after WWII in the 1950s. The political campaigns of the 1940, '44, and '48 were the last to be done before the majority of Americans owned televisions. Conventions were still affairs for the newspaper and radio services.

Modern day conventions wrap the whole process in a bow for the media. Instead of nominees being selected and ending the convention to travel to them to hear if they accept, the nominees now accept nomination before the actual convention. Nearly all nominees for vice president are known well in advance of the convention. The final night of the convention culminates with the presidential nominee and vice presidential nominee awash in a sea of delegates, balloons and bands. This was not the case in 1940, when Charles McNary accepted his nomination.

Epic Willkie McNary Poster

One of the great aspects of being members of the American Political Item Collectors  is that we get to see items from other collectors around the country. A few months ago this 1940 Willkie-McNary poster was being shared with members on the facebook group. 

McNary Items Do Exist!

An APIC member posted these on facebook recently. Pre-1940 Charles McNary campaign items. His items are super rare and very few are known to exist. If there are more out there, they are most likely tucked away in attics, boxes in the back of antique shops, and storage unites. At least now, Oregon collectors can know at least two items they can look for.

You are probably more familiar with McNary from these kind of buttons that were produced in the millions in 1940 for the Republican ticket. McNary and Willkie would do a little better than the 1936 ticket of Landon & Knox, and chip away at FDR's support. The ticket picked up 74 more electoral votes, but still not nearly enough to get to the White House.

From wikipedia

McNary was an Oregon Supreme Court Justice before becoming a United States Senator. He first served from 1917-1918 and then from 1919 to his death in 1944. By the 1930s, he was the Minority Leader in the United States Senate for the Republican party. At the time of this death he was the longest serving United States Senator in Oregon History. This record now is held by Republican Mark Hatfield. An interesting fact, both Willkie and McNary died in 1944. If they had won the election, both would have died before the end of their first term.

Here are the early McNary items.

From a private collection

From a private collection

These are both just small business card sized handouts. For the elusiveness of McNary items it doesn't get much better than these. It is a lesson to all of us, that you just have to keep on looking.