aurice C. Townsend, the
34th Governor of Indiana, elected by an overwhelming majority of 180,968
votes during the 1936 elections, M. Clifford Townsend, Indiana's present
Governor, began meeting serious governmental crises as soon as he moved into
the executive mansion in January 1937. So well has this drawling farmer-governor
solved many critical problems of Hoosier agricultural, business, and labor,
that, shortly after his inauguration, he gained widespread acclaim as one
of the most able New Deal Governors in the nation.
Governor Townsend's activities as Indiana's chief executive have been marked by a clean-cut decisiveness that is tempered by a friendly, democratic way of doing things. His prompt, efficient organization of a co-ordinate disaster program during the perilous flood of January 1937, won him nation-wide praise. A short time later, newspaper headlines told the nation how, in similarly decisive fashion, M. Clifford Townsend had satisfactorily settled two dangerous steel strikes and sent 20,000 workers back to the mills. That accomplishment won him praise of President Roosevelt.
Governor Townsend's close understanding of the problems confronting industry, agriculture, and government is the result of practical experience, for he has been a tenant farmer, teamster, factory worker, teacher, school superintendent, state legislator, Indiana Farm Bureau educational director, and Lieutenant Governor. That background, too, indicates why he is a firm New Dealer.
Governor Townsend was born October 11, 1884, in Blackford County, Indiana, the son of David Townsend, a poor tenant farmer, and Lydia Townsend. After receiving his elementary and high school education in Blackford County, young Townsend went out into the oil fields as a teamster in order to supplement the family income.
With less than $50 in his pocket and wearing his only suit of clothes, Townsend entered Marion Normal College at Marion, Indiana in 1901. For six years he taught during the winter and attended college during the summer, graduating in 1907. Two years later, at the age of twenty-five, he was elected superintendent of Blackford County schools and in 1925 he was chosen Grant County school superintendent. Director of the Indiana State Teachers' Association for three years, he became educational director of the Indiana Farm Bureau in 1929, a position which enabled him to meet farmers in every county. Governor Townsend owns two small farms, one in Blackford and another in Grant County.
Governor Townsend's political career began by accident. The Democratic candidate for state representative resigned a few days before the last date for filing in 1922 and several of Townsend's friends suggested him for the office. He was elected despite the fact that his district was strongly Republican. In the legislature he began hi fight for tax reform, a battle that he carried on as Lieutenant Governor and now as Governor.
As the candidate of Indiana farmers and organized labor, Townsend was nominated and elected Lieutenant Governor on the Democratic ticket in 1932. He presided over three memorable sessions of the state senate and played an important part in the drafting and passage of the state government reorganization act, gross income tax law, and social security legislation.
That was the background Governor Townsend brought to the state's high office after his election as Governor in 1936. His wide knowledge in those different fields has served him well and under his guidance Indiana has kept pace with the economic and social needs of the day.
Governor Townsend's flood disaster program won the praise of Harry L. Hopkins, National Relief Administrator, who said, "No state was better managed during the flood than Indiana." No lives were lost by drowning during the 1937 inundation, all refugees were taken care of and there were no fires or typhoid epidemics in the more than twenty counties effected. Twenty thousand flood victims were transported to refugee camps.
The legislature was still meeting and the disaster program just swinging into action when sit down strikes closed General Motors plants in Anderson and Muncie. At the request of union leaders and local officials, Governor Townsend placed Anderson under martial law, thus protecting unionists from vigilantes and preventing a mass invasion of auto workers from Michigan. Then the Governor paved the way for a peaceful return to work.
A few months later, the steel workers' organization committee called a strike at the Inland Steel Company and the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company plants in Lake County. When federal mediation efforts failed, the Governor called conferences with steel executives and unionists found out their differences and a short time later 20,000 workers were back in the mills.
"Governor Townsend has done more for labor than the Governor of all the rest of the states put together," Van A. Bittner, S. W. O. C.'s Midwest Director, said after the controversy was settled.
With customary foresight, Governor Townsend saw the necessity of a governmental labor conciliation service and under his recommendation the legislature created the Indiana Division of Labor, which has done outstanding work in settling Indiana's labor controversies.
The present administration has held out a "helping hand" to Indiana businessmen and has encouraged reputable and reliable business and industry to locate in Indiana. The Indiana State Chamber of Commerce recently gave Governor Townsend a vote of thanks for his industrial program.
Indicative of the Townsend administration's attitude toward business, in addition to its industrial program and the efficiency of the State Division of Labor, are important laws passed by the 1937 state legislature, including a measure providing for taxation of tax-exempt property in competition with private business. The last legislature also passed bills strengthening securities laws, enacted a garnishee law, and drew up a measure authorizing the State Department of Financial Institutions to take charge of insolvent banks and giving savings banks authority to liquidate.
Farm leaders come to Governor Townsend with their problems, knowing they will reach a sympathetic ear. Tax reform and limitation and soil conservation laws were passed at the 1937 session of the state legislature. Last November Governor Townsend called a twelve-state meeting at Indianapolis that united Congressmen, state officials, farmers, and agricultural leaders of the Midwest in support of s "sound, workable, and equitable agricultural policy for the corn belt.
Rural electrification has spread rapidly in Indiana since Governor Townsend took office and through his efforts electric rates for farmer co-operatives were lowered. The Governor advocated loans to corn growers to prevent a price collapse and arranged for farmers to sell their surplus supplies to the federal government for relief supplies.
Governor Townsend's efforts in behalf of agricultural have not gone unrecognized, for the last annual convention for the Indiana Farm Bureau passed a resolution praising him as a friend of the Indiana farmer.
M. Clifford Townsend's political philosophy centers around the belief that good government is the best advertisement the Democratic Party can have. As Governor, he believes that government should be honestly representing the people and throw its forces behind sound social and economic progress.
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