The Rebel in the Red Jeep: Ken Hechler’s Life in West Virginia Politics

440 Pages·2017·22.528 MB·English

by  Carter Taylor Seaton

THE REBEL IN THE RED JEEP

THE REBEL
IN THE RED JEEP
Ken Hechler’s Life in
West Virginia Politics
CAR TER TAYLOR SEATON
WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
MORGANTOWN 2017
Copyright 2017 by Car ter Taylor Seaton
All rights reserved
First edition published 2017 by West V irginia University Press
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
ISBN:
pb 978–1-943665–61–7
epub 978–1-943665–62–4
pdf 978–1-943665–63–1
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available from
the Library of Congress
Cover design by Than Saffel
Cover photograph courtesy of the author. Photographer unknown.
Prayer
God, though this life is but a wraith,
Although we know not what we use,
Although we grope with little faith,
Give me the heart to fight— and lose.
Ever insurgent let me be,
Make me more daring than devout;
From sleek contentment keep me free,
And fill me with a buoyant doubt.
Open my eyes to visions girt
With beauty, and with won der lit—
But always let me see the dirt,
And all that spawn and die in it.
Open my ears to music; let
Me thrill with Spring’s first flutes and drums—
But never let me dare forget
The bitter ballads of the slums.
From compromise and t hings half done,
Keep me with stern and stubborn pride;
And after the fight is then won,
Oh, Lord, keep me still unsatisfied.
Louis Untermeyer

CONTENTS
List of Photo graphs ix
Acknowle dgments xi
Introduction 1
1. Behind the Wrought Iron Gates 4
2. Big Man on Campus 18
3. Over There! 43
4. Prince ton’s Professor of Politics 67
5. The Truman White House 82
6. The Road to Congress Winds through West Virginia 102
7. Rogue Campaign 122
8. Your Servant in Congress 139
9. Congressional Campaigning, Hechler Style 153
10. Space . . . Where Hechler Didn’t Expect to Go 173
11. Win Some, Lose Some 186
12. Marching to Selma 198
13. Fighting for Miners’ Lives 209
14. Hechler vs. Big Coal—Round Two 228
viii Contents
15. Saving the New River 245
16. Heckling Congress 253
17. The Interregnum 266
18. The People’s Office—The First Term 279
19. The People’s Office—The Rest of the Story 291
20. Walking with Granny D 302
21. From Rebel to Hell- Raiser 315
22. Into the Sunset 330
23. Twilight 338
Notes 351
Bibliography 407
Index 411
LIST OF PHOTO GRAPHS
Figure 1.1 Ken Hechler at age five 5
Figure 1.2 The Hechler family 9
Figure 2.1 Hechler’s picture in the Swarthmore
College Annual 23
Figure 3.1 Hechler working in the U.S. Army Public
Relations Section, 1943 52
Figure 3.2 Jane Chippendale Stewart 58
Figure 4.1 Hechler demonstrates his amplified
telephone system 72
Figure 5.1 At Truman’s Beach, Key West, FL, 1951 94
Figure 5.2 Hechler on Stevenson’s campaign trail, 1952 97
Figure 6.1 Hechler’s class heads to Washington,
D.C., 1957 115
Figure 7.1 Hechler for Congress, 1958 125
Figure 7.2 Hechler catches train engineer
while campaigning, 1958 127
Figure 8.1 Week in Washington students, 1963 143
Figure 8.2 Hechler’s outside office 147
Figure 8.3 Carl Albert congratulates Hechler on
voting rec ord 151
ix