Will Hurley Hurl His Hat?

In its brief history Oklahoma has given the U. S. a smattering of notables. One of them is onetime Secretary of War (under Hoover) Patrick Jay Hurley, who got his start as a mule boy in a coal mine. When Pat Hurley took office in 1929, no finer figure of a man had ever graced a Cabinet meeting. Six feet tall, erect as a wooden Indian, blue-eyed, black-mustached, Secretary Hurley was a sight for sore eyes. From far-off Oklahoma they watched him with love. "Due to Pat," wrote Oklahoma's late Will Rogers, "we're liable to wake up some day with Presidential timber on our hands right down home."

With his tall and beauteous wife, Pat Hurley trod the social paths of Washington with dignity and zip. When flying was still adventure he flew 100,000 miles, came to be called Hoover's "Eyes & Ears." His Irish temper made him the fighting man of the Hoover Cabinet. He got blamed (unjustly) for the Bonus Army casualties. As the Ickes of his day he took on Democrats by the carload.

In 1932 many a Republican was ready to concede Pat Hurley the Vice-Presidential nomination, but, like other gorgeous men, he had made enemies on his own side. When old Charley Curtis was given another shot at the Vice-Presidency, it looked as if Pat Hurley's political life was over.

Last week there were indications in Washington that Pat Hurley, greyer but still stiffly handsome at 57, was about to rise and argue the point. Reporters prowling about Washington's Shoreham Building, which Mr. Hurley owns and uses to house his rich law practice, discovered that: 1) one of the seven Hurley law partners spends his time answering (encouragingly) letter-writers who think the Republicans this year need more color and less pussyfooting; 2) at least one State's Republican boss had already offered his delegation to Hurley; 3) Hurley biography brochures were getting wide distribution.

"The New Deal never had but two things worth-while," cracked Pat Hurley, his hat in his hand, all ready to toss into the ring. "One of them was NRA. The other was Hugh Johnson and he's from Oklahoma."

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