Indiana Bicentennial 10.7: Harry Schricker (again) (1949-1953)

Harry Schricker (again) (1949-1953)

After sitting out a term, Harry Schricker ran for re-election and won. Senator Jenner had sought the Republican nomination but, due at least in part, to some bad blood between Jenner and Governor Gates, Jenner lost the nomination to Hobart Creighton. Creighton was a native of Kosciusko County and had served in the Indiana House of Representatives from 1932 to 1948, six years of that as Speaker. Originally, he was a math teacher. But then he went into business with his brother, Russell. First they tried hogs, but the bottom dropped out of the market. Then they went into chickens. During the depression, they managed to keep afloat. Homer remembered, “Luckily feed costs fell faster than egg prices.” They continued to expand and, by 1955, they had “20 farms, ranging from 12 to 320 acres, mostly close to Warsaw. On them [were] 50 modern, 2,600 bird laying houses. They also [had] an egg plant, a 365,000-chick hatchery, a $250,000 feed mill, their own genetics program and, on the side, 1,000 beef cattle to utilize the outdoor pullet runs which must be alternated from year to year.”

Despite Creighton’s business success, his fortunes were not so good during the gubernatorial campaign. Schricker beat Creighton by a healthy margin, 53% to 45%. The Democrats also regained a narrow majority in the Indiana General Assembly.

The Creightons weren’t the only ones prospering during this period. Indiana’s per capita personal income which had lagged far behind the national average up until 1930 began to rise in the late 30s and, exceeded the national average through most of the 40s and 50s. Industrial workers joined the middle-class, often getting a new car when new models came out, , were able to take family vacations, bought television sets, and sent their kids to college. Historian James Madison notes that this came during a period of extensive government intervention which never turned out to be quite as consequential as its proponents hoped or its opponents feared. He also noted that welcoming government intervention was not new to Hoosiers. During the pioneer era, Hoosiers had “allowed and even welcomed significant government intervention.”  Labor unions were also significant during this period. In 1939, over 20% of Indiana’s nonagricultural workers were union members. By the 1970s, that number was 38%. (That’s not to say that labor was necessarily popular in Indiana. The Chamber of Commerce and Republicans who resented labor’s alliance with Democrats often fought the labor movement aggressively.)

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Schricker had taken office in 1949 with a friendly General Assembly, however the Republicans re-took the legislature in the elections of 1950. One measure that caused controversy was legislation that made welfare records open to the public. Specifically, Senate Bill 86 in the 1951 General Assembly provided that the names of welfare recipients and the amounts they received would be filed with the county auditors and could be inspected by the public during regular business hours. This was ostensibly to “tear away the veil of secrecy” from welfare records. Governor Schricker vetoed the bill, but the legislature overrode the veto. The Social Security Administration determined that this was in violation of the rules of the federal program and cut off funding, creating an $18 million budget deficit for the state.

A special session was called by Governor Schricker but the General Assembly was unsuccessful at coming to a resolution that would prevent federal funding from being cut off. What saved the money for Indiana was Congressional effort by Senator Jenner, passing a provision that said states couldn’t lose their money if they made welfare records open to the public. This resulted in a number of other states passing similar provisions.

It doesn’t appear that the efforts to repeal “secrecy” were necessarily worth the effort because, by and large, the public wasn’t interested in knowing. Very few county auditors were approached by anyone wanting to look at the records. Supporters of the public records legislation contended that the mere risk of being exposed prevented welfare “chiselers” from attempting to get on public assistance. The Indianapolis Star was an enthusiastic advocate of this position. It asserted that welfare money was going to “cheats, bums, prostitutes, irresponsible parents, and well-heeled sons and daughters of the aged.” (I can’t help but notice that a lot of those categories are the sorts of people targeted by the White Caps back in the late 19th and early 20th century.)

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A couple of random items here, and I’ll complete Schricker’s term in this post today and have a section next time devoted to “The Shortridge Problem.”

-In 1951, Howdy Wilcox, Jr. founded the Little 500 at IU.   He modeled the race after the Indy 500 which his father had won in 1919. This, of course, would be the basis for the 1979 movie, “Breaking Away” along with too many hangovers to count.

-In 1952, the Indiana Congressional delegation would send 10 Republicans and one Democrat to D.C. The lonely Democrat was Ray Madden from Lake County.  Governor Schricker ran against Senator Jenner for the U.S. Senate seat but was defeated.

-Governor Schricker gave the speech to nominate Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 Presidential campaign at the Democratic National Convention. Schricker would retire to his home in Knox and passed away in 1966.