RESTING IN THE HIGHEST GOOD: THE CONSCIENCE OF A UTAH LIBERAL by Linda Muriel Zabriskie A dissertation submitted to the faculty of The University of Utah in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History The University of Utah August 2014 Copyright © Linda Muriel Zabriskie 2014 All Rights Reserved The University of Utah Graduate School STATEMENT OF DISSERTATION APPROVAL The dissertation of Linda Muriel Zabriskie has been approved by the following supervisory committee members: Larry Gerlach , Chair 04/29/13 Date Approved Alan CooMbs , Member 04/29/13 Date Approved L. Ray Gunn , Member 04/29/13 Date Approved Stephen TatuM , Member 04/29/13 Date Approved Ronald Smelser , Member Date Approved and by Isabel Moreira , Chair/Dean of the Department/College/School of History and by David B. Kieda, Dean of The Graduate School. ABSTRACT Resting in the Highest Good: the Conscience of a Utah Liberal is a limited biography of Elbert Duncan Thomas, who served as United States Senator from Utah between 1933 and 1951. He was defeated by Wallace F. Bennett in the election of 1950. Elbert Thomas was a civilized man living in an uncivilized time who served the people of the state of Utah for nearly eighteen years from the floor of the United States Senate. He did so by drawing from an emotional and spiritual wellspring of ethical humanitarianism that lay at his moral center from birth to death. It is not intended to be a comprehensive recounting of his Senate career, but rather focuses on the moral and ethical worldview that guided his work by recounting specific events that are illustrative of those strongly held beliefs. It can also be argued that his strong sense of decency and fair play helped to lay him low in the election of 1950, since he refused to conduct his campaign on the uncivil level of his opponent. The bulk of research for the book was conducted in the personal papers of Elbert D. Thomas (housed at the Utah State Historical Archive), Frank Jonas (University of Utah Marriott Library Special Collections), Reed O. Smoot, Wallace F. Bennett, and Arthur V. Watkins (Harold B. Lee Library Special Collections, Brigham Young University). Additionally, approximately 153 book length secondary sources and numerous articles were consulted. As noted, no man evolves in a vacuum and I felt it necessary to construct a contextual landscape on which to place my subject. Chapters cover his early life, but the greater part of the text deals with his Senate career and the humanitarian causes he chose to champion there, including civil liberties, Japanese-Americans, American labor, the Holocaust, and the establishment of the state of Israel. Chapter 9 deals with the election of 1950 and the emerging climate of anti- Communist hysteria that was beginning to infect America during those years. In all cases, I have, successfully I hope, reiterated Senator Thomas’s dedication to making moral decisions. iv For Patrick and Nicole The Way of the Great Learning consists in clearly exemplifying illustrious virtue, in loving the people, and in resting in the highest good. Only when one knows where one is to rest can one have a fixed purpose. Only with a fixed purpose can one achieve calmness of mind. Only with calmness of mind can one achieve serene repose. Only in serene repose can one carry on careful deliberation. Only through careful deliberation can one have achievement. Things have their roots and branches; affairs have their beginning and end. He who knows what comes first and what comes last comes himself near the way. The ancients who wished clearly to exemplify illustrious virtue throughout the world would first set up good government in their states . they would first cultivate their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they would first rectify their minds. Wishing to rectify their minds, they would first seek sincerity in their thoughts. Wishing for sincerity in their thoughts, they would first extend their knowledge. The extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things. For only when things are investigated is knowledge extended; only when knowledge is extended are thoughts sincere; only when thoughts are sincere are minds rectified; only when minds are rectified are our persons cultivated; only when families are regulated are states well governed; and only when states are well governed is there peace in the world. From the emperor down to the common people, all, without exception, must consider cultivation of the individual character as the root. If the root is in disorder, it is impossible for the branches to be in order. To treat the important as unimportant and to treat the unimportant as important—this should never be. This is called knowing the root; this is called the perfection of knowledge. --Confucius The Great Learning TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................iii LIST OF TABLES ...........................................................................................................viii PREFACE ........................................................................................................................ix Chapters 1 ROOTS AND BRANCHES .....................................................................................1 2 THE EXTENSION OF KNOWLEDGE ...................................................................22 3 GOOD GOVERNMENT ..........................................................................................51 4 THE INVESTIGATION OF THINGS .....................................................................85 5 CAREFUL DELIBERATION ..................................................................................131 6 A FIXED PURPOSE ................................................................................................168 7 TO TREAT THE IMPORTANT ..............................................................................188 8 PEACE IN THE WORLD ........................................................................................215 9 THE ROOT IN DISORDER .....................................................................................241 10 RESTING IN THE HIGHEST GOOD ....................................................................282 Appendices A: “THE GOLDEN SPIKE” – JOHN BEECHER ..........................................................291 B: LEGISLATIVE RECORD – SENATOR ELBERT D. THOMAS ............................297 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................315 LIST OF TABLES 1. Utah Population 1880 Census ......................................................................................4 2. Utah vs. Nation ...........................................................................................................62 3. Origin ...........................................................................................................................62 4. Ethnic Characteristics ..................................................................................................62 5. Congressional Elections, November 3, 1932 ...............................................................94 PREFACE In 1947 Edward Moore Kennedy was fifteen years old; his older brother, John, who had recently been elected to the House of Representatives had just taken him on a tour of the Congressional building and grounds. “You’ve just seen all the buildings that symbolize what is important about this country,” he said. “But remember it isn’t just the buildings. It’s what happens inside the buildings that matters.” 1 Being a Senator, Ted Kennedy believed, changes a person fundamentally and profoundly, creating within him or her a heightened sense of purpose. “If ever the sight of [Capitol Hill] does not move me,” he told his wife, “I will know it is time to step aside . .a desire to do the right thing, to serve the national interest, is inspired by the surroundings.”2 Cynics could note that Senator Kennedy was making these observations at a time when he knew his career—and indeed his life—were nearing the end, but his deep and sincere attachment to what he considered the physical and emotional heart of American democracy should not be minimized. His descriptions of the magnificent murals, frescoes, and portraits that decorate the interior walls, the forty-eight Senate desks that date back to 1819, the tradition of new Senators scratching their names into the bottoms of desk drawers going back to the early 1900s, the Old 1908 Senate Office building in the Beaux Arts style that contains within it an intangible closeness to history, bespeak a deeply rooted faith in the potential inherent in American political idealism. The breakdown of the old style of camaraderie that had so long pervaded the Senate began, Kennedy believed, during the years of extreme pressure in the 1960s created by the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, but a sense of community remained. That sense of community, the face-to-face interaction, he maintained, has since deteriorated significantly for a variety of reasons: BlackBerries, cell phones, and the vast shift of responsibility onto Senatorial staff workers who do 95% of the drafting and negotiating. We have, he said, lost “what the Senate is” and “our relationships with people and of what all that should lead to, which is the unfettered and vital exchange of ideas. I think of the withering away of the collegiality and