University of Nebraska at Omaha DigitalCommons@UNO Student Work 12-1-1996 McCook's Man on Main Street: Publisher Harry D. Strunk and the politics of water reclamation in southwest Nebraska, 1928-1938 Charles E. Real University of Nebraska at Omaha Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/studentwork Recommended Citation Real, Charles E., "McCook's Man on Main Street: Publisher Harry D. Strunk and the politics of water reclamation in southwest Nebraska, 1928-1938" (1996). Student Work. 537. https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/studentwork/537 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Work by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. "McCOOK'S MAN ON MAIN STREET:” PUBLISHER HARRY D. STRUNK AND THE POLITICS OF WATER RECLAMATION IN SOUTHWEST NEBRASKA, 1928-1938 A Thesis Presented to the Department of History and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts University of Nebraska at Omaha *>y Charles E. Real December, 1996 UMI Number: EP73175 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. DisssttaiiiBrn PtMsMng UMI EP73175 Published by ProQuest LLC (2015). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 THESIS ACCEPTANCE Acceptance for the Faculty of the Graduate College, University of Nebraska, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, University of Nebraska at Omaha. Committee Name Department — t- Chairperson ABSTRACT By the time Harry D. Strunk arrived in his new home of McCook, Nebraska in 1909, he had set his sights on becoming a newspaperman. While only seventeen years-old at the time of his first job with a McCook newspaper, he had already worked as a printer's devil and itinerant printer since the age of fourteen. With his arrival in McCook and first job in that city with the established Tribune, he soon found that his future in the newspaper business lay with starting his own paper. In 1911, without benefit of a formal journalistic education, Strunk opened the Red Willow County Gazette. With his own newspaper, he immediately challenged the community's recognized editorial voice at the Tribune. In 1924, he established a daily newspaper. For the next forty-seven years until its publisher's death in 1961, the McCook Daily Gazette served as the newspaper and editorial voice for Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas. In 1926, when he built a new office building for the Gazette on McCook's Main Street, Strunk had etched in the concrete above the building's entryway his concept of service to the community. With the motto, "Service is the Rent We Pay for the Space We Occupy in This World," Strunk set the tone and direction for both himself and his newspaper. Strunk's dedication to community service was no more evident than in his lifetime work on behalf of flood control and irrigation along the Republican River. For a span of some three decades, "McCook's man on Main Street" hurled editorial challenges at state and national politicians to fund water control projects in Southwest Nebraska. Within his editorial demands for government programs to benefit his community, Strunk maintained a healthy dose of political pragmatism. In 1928, Strunk began an active role in the foundation and work of the Twin Valley Association of Commercial Clubs. That organization stood in the forefront for planning irrigation and flood control programs along the Republican and Frenchman rivers. As a member of the group's executive committee and chairman of its flood control committee, Strunk played an important role in making the goals of the organization known to elected officials. Among the politicians who felt the wrath of Strunk's editorial attacks on sometimes inattentive politicians was a fellow townsman, the popular five-term senator from Nebraska, George W. Norris. In a volatile exchange of correspondence in advance of the 1930 senatorial election, the two men engaged in political polemics over their differing visions of water control in semi-arid Southwest Nebraska. With similar visions about water control but different methods for achievement, the two men sparred over how best to bring both flood control and irrigation to a land of sparse water resources. It was over the issue of water control that they had their greatest disagreement. Norris favored combining hydro-electric power with irrigation and flood control, while Strunk believed that water power had no place along the Republican River. Their differences would largely disappear when they found common bond after a devastating flood hit along the Republican River in 1935. Strunk became well known throughout the state and much of the Midwest because of his dedication to water control and reclamation on the upper Republican River. His importance in bringing federally funded water programs to southwestern Nebraska was recognized by Congress. Congress passed legislation in 1952 designating the body of water held by Medicine Creek Dam near Cambridge, Nebraska, as Harry Strunk Lake. From an itinerant printer to newspaper publisher to a recognized water reclamationist, Harry Strunk fulfilled his motto of service to his community of McCook and Southwest Nebraska. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Special acknowledgment is given to a number of people whose help on this study has been immeasurable. First, I wish to specifically recognize the perseverance of my thesis chairperson, Professor Harl A. Dalstrom. While working on his dissertation on Kenneth S. Wherry, Professor Dalstrom became acquainted with Harry Strunk. Given my hometown of McCook and own memories of "McCook's man on Main Street," my thesis subject became obvious. Thanks is extended to the other members of the thesis committee: Professors William C. Pratt and Warren T. Francke. Along with Professor Pratt, I wish to give special recognition to Professor Lorraine M. Gesick. Both professors provided opportunity for me to do research on my thesis while doing assigned work for their classes. That research led to information gathered on early McCook history and the 1935 Flood. Both subjects are discussed in this study. I would be remiss if I did not mention Linda Hein, curator at the George W. Norris Home Site in McCook. Linda helped with research on both McCook and Senator Norris. Thanks to friend and business associate, Denise Cyr, for her helpful editing comments. Special note is made of the art work of another business assoicate, Linda McGloin. Finally, thanks to my parents, Charles Sr. and Agnes, for their "leg-work" at the High Plains Museum in McCook, the George W. Norris Home, and with Gene Morris, Editor, McCookDaily Gazette. No acknowledgment would be complete without noting the support and many "quiet" afternoons and evenings provided by Josie, my wife, and Myla, my daughter. TABLE OF CONTENTS Title P age.....................................................................................................................i. Thesis Acceptance..................................................................................................... ii. Abstract................................................................................................ iii. Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................... v. Table of Contents ..................................................................................................... vi. M ap .......................................................................................................................... vii. Photo of Harry D. Strunk......................................................................................viii. Chapter One: River, Railroad, Community . Strunk's M cCook.....................1. Chapter Two: From Printer's Devil To Innovative Publisher ........................ 16. Chapter Three: Service To His Community......................................................... 35. Chapter Four: Strunk And Depression Politics....................................................59. Chapter Five: Water . Strunk's Vision Of The Future.................................. 89. Chapter Six: Strunk and Norris . The Political Polemics Of Water 126. Conclusion......................:.................................................................................... 161. Bibliography ............................................................................................ 167. REPUBLICAN RIVER TRIBUTARIES: Blue * vii Map 1 Republican River Basin Adapted from: Jon Farrar, sr. ed., “Down the Republican,” Nebrnskaland 73 (Arp. 1995): 26-36. Harry D. Strunk From the Centennial Edition 1882-1982 viii CHAPTER I RIVER, RAILROAD, COMMUNITY . STRUNK'S McCOOK For five decades, Harry D. Strunk controlled the editorial and publishing policy of the primary local news source for Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas.1 As a young man of nineteen