Clinton Anderson

In October 1917, an extremely sick young man sat in the lobby of an Albuquerque sanatorium waiting anxiously. He was alone, worlds away from the small South Dakotan community he was used to and desperately needed a bed to open up–he had been given less than five days to live. (Baker, 1982)

Clinton Presba Anderson was born on October 23, 1895, in the small town of Centerville, South Dakota, the youngest of three children. His parents, Andrew Anderson and Hattie Presba, were advocates of Populist thought, hardworking farmers, and rarely frivolous. As Anderson grew, he drifted toward bigger cities, perhaps enjoying the radical change of pace. After graduating high school in 1913, his speaking and writing impressed faculty at Mitchells Dakota Wesleyan University, and he was encouraged to develop his journalistic talent.

Anderson applied at larger universities, such as Colombia, but was not admitted despite his academic abilities. Deciding he was "too much of a hick" to be accepted to a 'big time' school, he settled for the University of Michigan (Baker, 1982). Anderson worked several jobs there, including writing for the Michigan Daily and a campus magazine. His prospects brightened as more people saw his work. An editor of The New York Sun offered the 22-year-old a job. Anderson planned the move to New York.

Everything changed, when, back home, his father was disabled in a terrible accident. Instead of packing his bags for New York, Anderson hauled them back home to South Dakota, and with his chance at The New York Sun in the rearview mirror, he worked as the only reporter for the small local newspaper in Centerville. True to his deep sense of freedom, Anderson reported what he wanted, not as small-town politics dictated. He became known for his quick temper.

Anderson had been sickly his entire life. When he tried to join World War I in 1917, he was instead diagnosed with tuberculosis and given less than six months to live. His family was unable to pay for the care he needed close to home, so Clinton Anderson found himself in the lobby of that Albuquerque sanatorium that October. The five days of the rest of his life passed. But, defying doctors' predictions, his body regained strength slowly, steadily. After nine months in the sanatorium, writing articles and stories and poems, his body fully recovered.

There is a spiritual value to conservation, and wilderness typifies this. Wilderness is a demonstration by our people that we can put aside a portion of this which we have as a tribute to the Maker and say–this we will leave as we found it.

A job at an Albuquerque newspaper convinced Anderson to forgo his return to South Dakota. He covered the state's legislative session and drafted amendments for bills and strategy for the Democratic Party. Instead of spending his time in South Dakota wooing his new love Henrietta after the session ended, he was courted by smallpox in Albuquerque. Once that association ended, Anderson worked for the New Mexico Public Health Association to create a better public health system.

By 1921, Anderson, his parents, and Henrietta gave up South Dakota for good. The two lovers married. Anderson's visibility grew around New Mexico as he investigated the famed Teapot Dome scandal. In 1922, he and Henrietta dabbled in mortgage investments and then, in 1923, founded an insurance business, the Clinton P. Anderson Agency. He also developed interest and concern for the environment and conservation. Inspired by Aldo Leopold, Anderson promoted the idea that natural resources needed protection, especially from big business. His ideals were backed by science and his approach unfailingly progressive.

Anderson was well-known and taken seriously within the political realm, thanks to his contributions to Albuquerque. He served in many positions during the 1920s and 1930s–as Democratic Party chairman, the youngest chief in Rotary Club history(at age 36, New Mexico state treasurer, New Mexico's Emergency Relief Director, the Mountain States Relief Coordinator, and finally the Western States Field Coordinator. This last position ended when national director Harry Hopkins fired him, possibly because of  Anderson's tough standards–he once fired 156 California employees himself in a single day. His name and influence spread across the country, and he held many national posts with the Democratic Party. But his contributions to conservation largely began in the U.S. Congress in 1941.

Anderson's first two terms in Congress were focused on war issues. But he made his his stance on conservation and agriculture public, and President Truman enlisted him to serve as the Secretary of Agriculture in 1945 as the first person to be appointed directly to the cabinet from the House of Representatives. This three-year stint tested Anderson. During the war, Europe's food crisis affected America immensely. Anderson was often blamed for depressed prices and the lack of agricultural output that developed as the war progressed. Although President Truman didn't blame Anderson for the difficult circumstances of WWII, Anderson resigned from this post in 1948. 

Truman encouraged Anderson to run for the U.S. Senate, saying that Anderson had done all he could do for his cabinet. Anderson won a Senatorial seat in the 1948 New Mexico election and was reelected again in 1954, 1960, and 1966. He and Lyndon Johnson, the President who would later sign the Wilderness Act into law, both joined the Senate as newcomers in January of 1949. Anderson served on several committees, including the Committee of Interior and Insular Affairs. This committee gave Anderson the opportunity to make his imprint on conservation legislation. Committee hearings often related to the environment as the committee reviewed various water development projects, including the San Juan-Chama Reclamation Project and Navajo Indian Irrigation Project (HR 2352 and SB 72, 1960) and early Wilderness bills. Anderson sponsored the final wilderness bill which passed the Senate by a vote of 73-12 on April 9, 1963, then the House of Representatives by a vote of 373-1 on July 30, 1964, and was signed into law on September 3, 1964. According to Richard McArdle, former chief of the Forest Service (1952-1962), "Without Clinton Anderson there would have been no Wilderness Law." 

Anderson was unquestionably one of the principle architects of other environmental achievements that occurred during the 88th Congress (1963-1964), sometimes termed the "Conservation Congress." These other major accomplishments included the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Outdoor Recreation Act, the Public Land Law Review Commission, the Water Resources Research Act, and measures establishing Canyonlands National Park. Anderson also wrote several essays and articles, including "Protection of the Wilderness," "Conservation Is Our Constant Task" and "This We Hold Dear." Anderson often felt the odd man out with his emphasis on environmental preservation, and in 1970, he wrote a book titled An Outsider in the Senate.

While many report he was no outcast in the Senate, he was set apart partially because of his promotion of civil rights and the environment. Richard Baker (the author of Conservation Politics, a book on Anderson's achievements) wrote, "Throughout Clinton Anderson's Senate career, he displayed characteristics of balance and perspective that came to few legislators. With a sharp eye on New Mexico's needs, this unusually complex man never lost sight of the broader natural resources conservation." In effectively advancing the nation's interests, he created an environment in which his state could also flourish. His receipt of the 1963 National Conservation Award confirmed the singularity of this achievement.

Wilderness is an anchor to windward. Knowing it is there, we can also know that we are still a rich Nation, tending our resources as we should—not a people in despair searching every last nook and cranny of our land for a board of lumber, a barrel of oil, a blade of grass, or a tank of water.

Anderson's level of focus on environmental protection made him a leader in the movement. His contributions to the 1949 Agricultural Act affect American farm policy and international trade today. The 1949 act called for parity in the farm market –for agricultural product prices to reflect the costs of goods and services to farmers. This system eventually evolved into a network of subsidies, some of which encourage farming practices that protect land and water. Anderson's input to the Bureau of Reclamation affected water rights and usage in many Western states, and the standards set in his era still hold true, with amendments and provisions as time requires. His driving force behind the Wilderness Act in 1964 helped designate nearly 9.1 million acres of wilderness. In 1998, a bill to commemorate his contribution to the Wilderness Act was passed, and an area of the Gila Mountains was named the "Senator Clinton P. Anderson Overlook." 

After four terms in the Senate, Anderson chose not to run again. He passed away on November 11, 1975. His focus on the things all humans need–water, productive agriculture, and healthy, functioning environment–has had lasting impact on  environmental policy and wilderness protection.

References

Kestenbaum, L. (07/1/96). The Political Graveyard.

Pickens, D. (2000). Anderson, Clinton Presba. American Council of Learned Societies.

Lipton, K., & Pollack, S. (1996). Major Agricultural and Trade Legislation, 1933-96. Provisions of the Federal Agriculture and Reform Act of 1996.

Baker, R. (1982). Conservation Politics. Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press.