Oklahoma's Third

Senator Joshua Bryan Lee, ex-professor of oratory, adopted his middle name in deference to his own silver tongue. He clung noisily to New Deal coattails, handed out lavish patronage to the "Rover Boys" who helped elect him in 1936, found spare time to work for Prohibition (TIME, Nov. 2). Last week Josh Lee was so shocked that he holed up at his hotel for two days before facing newsmen.

Oklahoma Republicans had beaten him with wealthy Oilman Edward H. Moore, had thus elected their first Senator since 1924 and their third since Oklahoma became a State in 1907. Senator-Elect Moore, 71, is a onetime farm boy who worked his way through Chillicothe Normal as a janitor, taught rural schools, drove his horse nine miles to study law in Kansas City at night, finally struck it rich with a $2,000,000 Oklahoma oilfield.

He is an ex-Democrat with a rugged individualist's distrust of the New Deal: he opposed the Third Term as a delegate to the 1940 Chicago convention, became a rabid Democrat-for-Willkie, was drafted by the Republicans this year when their original candidate died. Says Individualist Moore: "I consider money a tool with which to work. It's a responsibility and I've used it to give employment to thousands of men. ... I want to use my money in my own business to help build my country. That's my religion."

Except for Moore, Democrats held the G.O.P. revolt in check. They squeezed in New Dealish Robert S. Kerr as Governor by 15,000 votes, elected seven of Oklahoma's eight Congressmen. Because Republicans underestimated their own strength, dozens of local offices went to the Democrats by default.

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