PAGE B2 The Knoxville FOCUS March 26, 2012 March 26, 2012 www.knoxfocus.com PAGE B3 Edward Hull Crump The Boss Part 2 Pages from would have the strong sup- port of Luke Lea, who soon the Political concluded he needed to Past divert the attention of E. H. Crump by encourag- ing the candidacy of West Tennessee Congressman Finis Garrett who was run- ning for the Senate against incumbent K. D. McKellar. Garrett was the Minority Leader of the U. S. House By Ray Hill of Representatives and had been in Congress twen- [email protected] ty-four years before chal- lenging McKellar for the ollowing his Democratic nomination for ouster as Mayor the United States Senate. of Memphis, E. H. CrumpF ran for and was elect- Lea realized launch- ed Shelby County Trustee. ing a Garrett candidacy His removal from the may- against McKellar would not or’s office was be a humili- only divert the attention ation Crump never forgot of Crump and his Shelby and he certainly never for- County machine, it would gave anyone he considered also mean the urban bosses to have played a part in his would have to divide their removal. Crump attributed resources between con- his removal from office as tests for the governorship having been engineered by and McKellar’s Senate seat. greedy private power com- Lea had also acquired daily panies who naturally feared newspapers in Knoxville his support for publicly-own- and Crump’s own Memphis, er power. giving Lea tremendous influ- ence at a time when radio Crump was able to settle was not widely in use and one political score in the Tennesseans got their news 1916 election. Republican from newspapers. Governor Ben W. Hooper had been an important factor in Once again Crump sup- Crump’s removal and had ported Hill McAlister and lost his reelection cam- FROM THE AUTHOR’s PERSONAL COLLECTION. the gubernatorial campaign paign in 1914. Crump had E.H. Crump at Football Game-1949.jpg was brutal, with both sides strongly supported Hooper’s using every means to win. Democratic opponent, but as his running mate. The Austin Peay. McMillin had The Memphis Boss had rue- Governor Peay was renom- The entry of a third candi- Hooper was seeking to Republicans also nomi- been governor from 1899 fully come to the conclusion inated in the Democratic pri- date concerned Governor make a political comeback nated an Ohioan, Senator – 1903 and had been a the Peay administration was mary, albeit only narrowly. Horton’s supporters, as in 1916, seeking election Warren G. Harding, and the frequent aspirant for the favoring rural counties at McAlister ran very well in Lewis Pope had been a as Tennessee’s first popu- GOP won a smashing vic- United States Senate, but the expense of Tennessee’s the urban areas, while Peay highly respected member larly elected United States tory at the polls in the first never quite managed to get more urban areas. Peay remained very popular with of the late Austin Peay’s senator. Hooper’s opponent presidential contest where elected. McMillin had been was collecting tax revenue his rural base and the gov- administration. Horton was in the general election was women could cast ballots. President Woodrow Wilson’s from the urban counties and ernor did especially well profoundly embarrassed Congressman Kenneth D. Ambassador to Peru and using the money to improve in traditionally Republican when Peay’s widow publicly McKellar. Tennessee Democrats Minister to Guatemala and conditions in the poorer, East Tennessee. Much of endorsed Lewis Pope’s can- were horrified when Harding Wilson remained highly pop- less populated rural coun- Peay’s popularity in East didacy while the governor McKellar had been a not only won the presidency, ular in Tennessee. Despite ties, something that did not Tennessee was due to his was in Clarksville to make close friend and ally of the but also managed to carry being seventy-seven years sit well with Mr. Crump and strong support for the Great a speech. Memphis Boss for some Tennessee. Democrats old at the time, McMillin his Shelby County base. Smoky Mountains National years and had unexpectedly were even more horrified, campaigned hard for the Crump was also becoming Park. The election results were won the senatorial nomina- if possible, by the election Democratic nomination. uneasy with the possibility mixed; Horton scraped by tion by defeating two power- of a Republican governor. the popular governor might Peay, only fifty-one years McAlister to win the guber- ful opponents in the primary, Democrat A. H. Roberts had At forty-six, Austin Peay be eyeing K. D. McKellar’s old at the time, died sudden- natorial nomination, but incumbent Senator Luke first been elected in 1918, was a generation young- Senate seat, a suspicion ly on October 2, 1927 from Senator McKellar crushed Lea and former Governor running on a platform that er than Governor McMillin. shared by Senator McKellar. a cerebral hemorrhage. Finis Garrett to win a third Malcolm Patterson. Hooper promised not to give women Although E. H. Crump had While Peay denied having Peay’s influence with the term in the U. S. Senate. was likely the strongest the right to vote. That stance yet to fully consolidate his senatorial ambitions, nei- state legislature had seri- candidate the Republicans put Roberts at variance with power in Shelby County, ther McKellar nor Crump ously receded and his bat- Practical as always, E. H. could field, but McKellar Senator K. D. McKellar and Crump supported Peay for was convinced. tles with legislators and Crump knew Henry Horton won the election decisively, E. H. Crump, both of whom the nomination and was problems with his health was going to be Governor of a victory that would effec- strongly supported suffrage gratified when Austin Peay Crump was also increas- may well have contributed Tennessee for at least two tively end Hooper’s political for women. The Tennessee received a handsome major- ingly unhappy with with his untimely death. years, which meant Luke career. legislature became the last ity in his domain. Peay’s Governor Peay’s choice of Lea would continue to be state necessary to ratify the convincing victory in Shelby friends. Luke Lea, former Speaker of the State the power behind the throne. Crump, with the large Nineteenth Amendment County more than account- United States senator from Senate Henry Horton suc- Crump soon concluded an income he earned as Shelby to the Constitution and ed for his margin of victory Tennessee, had acquired ceeded Austin Peay as uneasy alliance with both County Trustee, turned his Governor Roberts rightly statewide. Peay barely man- enormous influence from his Governor of Tennessee. Lea and the Horton admin- organizational genius to pri- feared many women would aged to edge out the elder- ownership of the Nashville Horton was serving his istration, knowing all too well vate business, forming an retaliate against him at the ly former governor Benton Tennessean newspaper. first term in the Tennessee the power of the state gov- insurance company with polls. McMillin in the primary, Lea had enthusiastical- Senate and was distressing- ernment to cause trouble partner Stanley Trezevant. winning by just over four ly supported Austin Peay’s ly inexperienced, both as an inside his own fiefdom. Crump’s insurance compa- Alfred A. Taylor, then sev- thousand votes, while his political ambitions and was administrator and as a politi- ny eventually became the enty-two years old and a majority in Shelby County one of the governor’s closest cian. E. H. Crump watched Henry Horton was again largest underwriter in the seasoned campaigner, was alone was in excess of sev- advisors, a fact little appre- with increasing alarm as elected governor in 1930, South. Crump would later the Republican nominee for enty-five hundred votes. ciated by E. H. Crump. his rival and hated neme- but mere days after the add to his holdings own- governor and displayed a sis Luke Lea moved quick- election came news that ership of a Coca-Cola bot- shrewd sense of showman- Peay went on to defeat Despite Peay’s friendship ly to fill the power vacuum would transform Tennessee tling plant in upstate New ship while crisscrossing Governor Alf Taylor and with Luke Lea and Lea’s left by Austin Peay’s death. politics, topple the Horton York. In time, Crump would Tennessee, accompanied proceeded to significantly obvious political clout, the Governor Horton was grate- administration and send become a millionaire. by a hillbilly band and his reform Tennessee’s state independent-minded gover- ful for Lea’s support and fol- Luke Lea to a North Carolina hunting dog, “Ol’ Limber.” government. Peay reor- nor did not hesitate to refuse lowed the Colonel’s advice penitentiary. As the decade of the Taylor entertained crowds ganized the structure of requests from Colonel Lea. so closely many critics 1920s began, E. H. Crump with his a seemingly end- Tennessee’s government, Lea saw nothing whatever believed Luke Lea to be gov- was taking a greater inter- less supply of folksy stories made needed changes to wrong with using the expan- ernor in all but name. est in Tennessee poli- and humor while the hap- existing tax laws, revitalized sion of Tennessee’s highway tics. 1920 was not a less Governor Roberts tried and reformed education, and system for political purpos- It soon became readily happy year for Tennessee his best to avoid the wrath vastly improved Tennessee’s es, something the governor apparent Horton would seek Democrats or Democrats of angry female voters and antiquated highway system.