Frank Merriam

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Frank Merriam

Frank Finley Merriam ( December 22, 1865 in Hopkinton , Delaware County , Iowa , † April 25, 1955 in Long Beach , California ) was an American politician and the 28th Governor of California from 1934 to 1939  .

Early years and political advancement

Frank Merriam spent the first few decades of his life in Iowa and the Midwest . In 1896 he was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives. From 1898 to 1903 he was a State Auditor for Iowa.

In 1910, the now 44-year-old emigrated to California and was elected to the California State Assembly in 1916 , where he served until 1926. In 1922 he became the campaign manager of Friend Richardson when he ran for governor . In 1923 he became Speaker of Parliament. In 1926 he was under discussion with the Republicans as a candidate for the office of lieutenant governor , but was not nominated. After a two-year political break, he was elected to the California Senate in 1928 , where he was politically active for almost three years. For the gubernatorial elections of 1930 he was nominated by the Republican Party as a candidate for the office of lieutenant governor. After the successful election he was introduced into office in January 1931 at the side of the new governor James Rolph .

Governor of California

With Rolph's death on June 2, 1934, Merriam became the new governor of California under the constitution. At 68, he was the oldest governor to date based on his inauguration age. Only Jerry Brown was four years older at the time in 2011.

Governor Merriam assumed his new office amid the Great Depression in the early 1930s. His biggest problem was a dock workers' strike in San Francisco in May 1934. The workers demanded, among other things, a six-hour day and the right to be able to organize freely. The strike temporarily paralyzed the entire port. A quick end did not seem possible and now other workers and many unemployed people joined the demonstrations. Soon the situation began to escalate and escalate into violence. On July 5, 1934, tensions reached their peak. Violent clashes ensued, in which two people were killed. The governor now decided to deploy the National Guard and even asked the US Army for help. Heavily armed troops marched in the port area of ​​San Francisco. The striking workers now called for a general strike that paralyzed the city for four days. But because of the military presence, there were no further outbreaks of violence. Radical leaders were arrested and after four days the strike leadership gave in; the pressure from the authorities was just too great. They wanted to wait for an arbitration from the federal government. With that, the strikers got back to work. The conservative press praised the governor for his military intervention in the strike.

The Republican Party nominated him for re-election in the fall of 1934. He prevailed at the party primary against the former Governor CC Young . Allegedly, Merriam is said to have made the nomination a condition for the deployment of the National Guard. His Democratic challenger in the election was former socialist Upton Sinclair . In the election campaign, both conservative and moderate forces rallied behind Merriam. The campaign slogan was Stop Sinclair , referring to his socialist positions. The MGM studios and media tsar William Randolph Hearst also supported Merriam. Sinclair has been labeled a communist threat. In the end, Merriam won the election on November 6 of that year by eleven percentage points over Sinclair. He described the result as the defeat of the socialists and communists. The 1934 election campaign was one of the first campaigns in the USA in which television played a (minor) role. He was also together with his counterparts from Kansas , Alf Landon , who was re-elected this year, the only Republican governor.

After Merriam took the oath for a full four-year term in January 1935, the governor was faced with a growing national debt. Merriam saw the solution to the problem in tax increases, which met with incomprehension and rejection from many of his conservative voters as well as parts of his party. The Hearst press in particular now massively opposed the state's new tax laws. Since he also campaigned for the introduction of old age insurance, which was promoted by the Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt , he lost much of his previous support with the Conservatives. A popular vote aimed at reversing the tax increases made in 1936 failed.

Although it was re-established by the Republicans in 1938, it lost the next election in November 1938 to Culbert Olson , who became the first California Democratic governor since 1899. Merriam received 44 percent of the vote, while Olson was able to secure a comfortable majority with 52 percent. Merriam's tenure as head of government of the West Coast state ended on January 2, 1939 with Olson's swearing-in.

During Merriam's tenure, the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco fell in 1937, at which he was personally present.

Old age and death

As a result of his defeat, Merriam withdrew from politics. After the death of Senator Hiram Johnson in 1945, supporters of Merriam briefly brought him into play as his successor, although the former California governor did not seek this mandate. In the early 1950s, his health began to deteriorate. Frank Merriam died on April 25, 1955 in Long Beach at the age of 89 .

Private life

Merriam was long unmarried. On January 25, 1936, at the age of 70, he married Jessie Lipsey. He was the first California governor to marry during his reign. After him, only Goodwin Knight did so in 1954.

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personal data
SURNAME Merriam, Frank
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Merriam, Frank Finley (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH December 22, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Hopkinton , Iowa
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1955
Place of death Long Beach , California