CHAPMAN OF COLORADO
Frank, John
Chapman Of Colorado By JOHN FRANK OF ALL the major administrative agencies of the Government, the Department of the Interior most nearly reflects the spirit of the early days of the Roosevelt...
...His contacts, with the members of Congress are necessarily frequent and are almost always amiable...
...Mike Straus, Assistant Secretary, ^blustery ex-newspaperman...
...Chapman was appointed by President Roosevelt as a member of the Interdepartmental Committee on Subversive Activities, a five-man group that has final jurisdiction over all cases of Federal employes charged with membership in subversive organizations...
...Thomas of Utah, O'Mahoney of Wyoming, and La Follette of Wisconsin...
...These agencies are not mere administrative units performing routine tasks...
...A trip to Washington at Costigan's invitation developed into visits to President Roosevelt and the newly appointed Secretary of the Interior, Harold L. Ickes...
...Chapman Of Colorado By JOHN FRANK OF ALL the major administrative agencies of the Government, the Department of the Interior most nearly reflects the spirit of the early days of the Roosevelt Administration...
...Chapman induced the Smithsonian, which had never before given prominent display to a picture of a Negro, to accept it as a gift, but was left with the need of raising the fund to pay the artist...
...A liberal in the traditions of the early Roosevelt era, he, almost alone among the New Dealers in the Government today, has kept a host of friends on Capitol Sill...
...Champion Of Negroes Born near Richmond, Va., in 1896, Chapman grew up much the same as any other poor man's son in the neighborhood...
...Unlike so many of Washington's administrators in recent years, he has somehow managed both to do the job he thought ought to be done and keep his friends while doing it...
...Up to now he has always declined these suggestions, preferring to do his job in the Department, but it is possible he may decide to run—and thus reestablish the Costigan tradition in Colorado...
...As a consequence of Chapman's efforts, Vice President Wallace recently officiated at the presentation of a picture of the Negro scientist, George Washington Carver, to the Smithsonian Institute...
...Sufficiently a practical politician to have successfully managed two U. S. Senatorial campaigns and President Roosevelt's 1940 campaign in 11 Western states, he has won the admiration and respect of the administrators on his staff...
...From almost any viewpoint, Oscar Chapman is a paradox...
...The committee as a whole has tended to be harsh in its judgments, but Chapman throughout has been a consistent defender of the Federal employes...
...and Oscar Littleton Chapman, Assistant Secretary, lawyer, Westerner, and practical liberal...
...Since no man alone can administer more than a dozen bureaus and more than 40,000 employes, a considerable share of the work and responsibility falls upon the Secretary's three chief aides, all competent administrators, all thorough-going New Dealers, a combination found perhaps on no other cabinet member's staff: Abe For-tas, Under Secretary, quiet, top-notch lawyer, and one of the ablest administrators in Washington...
...a group in California may want to turn a national park into a sheep run...
...a segment of the fishing industry may want protection from the anti-trust laws or seek monopoly rights in the waters of Alaska...
...All his efforts recently have been devoted to raising funds for higher education for Negroes...
...He proceeded to get both, receiving his LL.B...
...Lindsey's campaigns were far from quiet, colored often by suicides, fights, and every other form of sensationalism...
...But for Chapman the local battles were great practice for statewide political struggles, and he had his first taste of real success when he managed a campaign in Colorado in which Lindsey was the only Democrat elected in the state...
...His most substantial successes' are attributed to these swings around the circuit...
...At the same time the legitimate oil and fishing industries must be encouraged, the usefulness of the parks must be increased, and the Indians must be aided to capitalize on their resources...
...i Will He Run...
...after legal study in Colorado and New Mexico, while his job provided another side to his education...
...Costigan was the leader of the Progressive movement in Colorado, and was, during his term in the Senate from 1931 to 1937, one of the foremost liberals in that body, along with Hugo Black, Bronson Cutting, and Bob La Follette...
...They are the custodians of the conservation program of the Government, given tiie double job of encouraging development of America's natural resources without permitting their extravagant exploitation...
...It was Chapman who proposed to the Secretary the holding of the Marion Anderson concert at the Lincoln Memorial at which the Secretary presided and Chapman took over largely the administrative details...
...The problem was solved by the creation of a committee of non-Govei*nment employes, who were interested not only in securing funds for the purchase of the portrait but also in the development of the George Washington Carver National Monument recently authorized by the Congress...
...In the general elections, he always takes time out to do his job for the Administration...
...He was on his way to France three days after he enlisted...
...Chapman is equally active in behalf of Jewish groups, particularly refugees...
...Chapman had managed two Senators into Washington and was soon to follow after them...
...Welfare activities of this sort are virtually his only hobby and his time-consuming occupation outside office hours...
...Secretary Ickes is a former president of the Chicago Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and has done his best to give employment opportunities to Negroes in his department...
...While most of these agencies are' of relatively minor importance east of the Mississippi, in the Western states and in Alaska they in some degree affect the lives of most of the people...
...For seven years Chapman served as probation officer and chief political aide to the Denver Juvenile Court Judge Ben B. Lindsey, who in the '20's was one of the most controversial' figures in American law and morals...
...An oil operator may want a lease on the public lands at unduly favorable royalty...
...He has spoken in the Western states in both Congressional and Presidential campaigns...
...Born a Southerner, he is one of the most constant and aggressive friends of the Negro in Washington today...
...As Assistant Secretary, Chapman is responsible to the Secretary and the Under Secretary for about half of the department's agencies...
...and his 1941 trip with hearings in 11 states on development of light metals helped steer the War Production Board and Metals Reserve Corporation into cutting Western industry in on war production...
...These include the Indian Office, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Grazing Service, the National Park Service, the General Land Office, the United States Board on Geographical Names, and a portion of the,Geological Survey...
...Among his closest friends on the Hill are Sen...
...In the last nine months he has participated in Congressional hearings in Albuquerque, considered grazing matters in Salt Lake, and held hearings on oil regulations in Denver...
...Under such circumstances, mere prevention of maladministration is a triumph...
...In his three years of service he traveled 80,000 miles and never received his pay twice in the same place until he was hospitalized himself...
...After being honorably discharged, he settled in Colorado for his health, and except for one year spent in New Mexico, has been a resident of that state ever since...
...In promoting Negro welfare, Chapman has been Ickes' loyal aide...
...In 1930 he managed Costigan's successful campaign for the Senate, and when Costigan came to Washington Chapman remained behind to keep the law practice going...
...He has been particularly vigorous in support of the many employes against whom the principal "charges" unearthed by the FBI have been association with Negroes or Jews...
...There were sharp clashes of opinion over some of these details, with especially strong difference over ¦whether or not to have a large force of soldiers present in case of race riots...
...During the World War, Chapman enlisted in the Navy and was assigned to a hospital ship...
...and in May 1933, Chapman became Assistant Secretary of the Interior...
...In 1928 Chapman began his many years of association with the late Edward P. Costigan by entering his law office...
...Drawing the lines of public policy is difficult, and the difficulties of the job of protecting the nation's lands and minerals from grasping local interests while fostering their proper development is almost insuperable...
...In Colorado, Chapman has been particularly active as a leader of the Young Democrats...
...This hatred, heightened when, as a boy of 14, entrusted with the responsibility of selecting a gift from his class to the school, he brought back a picture of Abraham Lincoln and was promptly suspended by an indignant school board, has brought him to the position today of one of the most effective champions of Negro rights...
...The artist, who specializes in Negro subjects, came to Chapman with a request to help him find a place for the picture...
...His friends have bi-annually asked him to be the Party's candidate for Governor or Senator...
...In 1940 he had a major responsibility for President Roosevelt's campaign in 11 states, 10 of which went for the President...
...As an administrator of Western problems, Chapman is a believer in the necessity of getting out of Washington to the West as much as possible...
...No trouble resulted...
...They are, for the most part, agencies which, within the broad framework of Congressional acts, make policy...
...Since 1933 there have been no Teapot Domes in the Department's administration of our natural resources...
...For example, the basic grazing regulations under the Taylor Grazing Act, which divided the western range between sheep and cattlemen, ending the historically bloody battle between the two, were based on Chapman's hearings held in the Western states...
...and always someone may have a slick scheme for defrauding an Indian tribe of its few remaining resources of land or minerals...
...A Protestant himself, he has devoted much effort to the support of Jewish welfare activities, and has put his support behind Catholic political candidates in Colorado despite bitter Ku Klux Klan opposition...
...The picture was paid for in due course and given to the Smithsonian, which Chapman had meanwhile persuaded to receive it with an all-Negro art exhibit...
...In 1932 Chapman also managed the successful Senatorial campaign of Alva Adams...
...He has also taken the position, not always successfully, that when employes against whom actions are pending enter the armed services, no steps should be taken which would jeopardize their military careers or their reemployment rights...
...For 11 years Secretary Ickes' powerful personality and infinite energy have kept the Department not only the most liberal, but one of the best administered of all Government agencies...
...Chapman urged a minimum of police and the Secretary sided with him...
...He helped to organize the Washington chapter of the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People...
...Somewhere in the course of his childhood, however, he acquired an intense hatred for the anti-Negro prejudice he found around him...
...The years in Colorado gave Chapman a knowledge of practical politics that has been carried over into application in practical government...
...Five feet nine inches tall and weighing 170 pounds, he has been in excellent health in recent years...
...The perpetual Lindsey fighting ended when he published his book Companionate Marriage and his political career went into temporary eclipse as a result...
...Law, Politics In Colorado When Chapman arrived in Colorado, he needed a job and an education...
...The joint pressure of law and politics—for Chapman was supposed to be the official dispenser of patronage' for both Senators in 1933—became unendurable...
...The job of developing and protecting resources necessarily involves fights and plenty of them...
...All friends of Chapman's who admired the picture were amiably encouraged to donate to the committee...
Vol. 8 • October 1944 • No. 40
