Changes

In 1920, Clarke at twenty-three obtained a [[patent]] for a metal casing used in the oil industry.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.google.com/patents/US1462131|title=Patents: Clem S. Clarke|publisher=google.com|accessdate=February 11, 2015}}</ref>​

In 1920, Clarke at twenty-three obtained a [[patent]] for a metal casing used in the oil industry.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.google.com/patents/US1462131|title=Patents: Clem S. Clarke|publisher=google.com|accessdate=February 11, 2015}}</ref>​

==Oil interests=​

==Oil interests==​

 

Cal Clarke's leadership role in the petroleum industry allowed young Clem Clarke access to many figures in the business, particularly Michael Late Benedum, the [[West Virginia]] native who rose to prominence in [[Pittsburgh]], [[Pennsylvania]], but had early holdings in Shreveport and Caddo Parish. Benedum was self-educated in his petroleum career when little was known of geology, and geophysics had not materialized as a field of study.<ref name=interview/>​

Cal Clarke's leadership role in the petroleum industry allowed young Clem Clarke access to many figures in the business, particularly Michael Late Benedum, the [[West Virginia]] native who rose to prominence in [[Pittsburgh]], [[Pennsylvania]], but had early holdings in Shreveport and Caddo Parish. Benedum was self-educated in his petroleum career when little was known of geology, and geophysics had not materialized as a field of study.<ref name=interview/>​

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Clarke recalled that Benedum had a "sentimental attachment to Caddo Parish. He has spent a lot of money around this area ... just because he wanted very badly to get something more ... [from] where he made his first big strike."<ref name=interview/>​

Clarke recalled that Benedum had a "sentimental attachment to Caddo Parish. He has spent a lot of money around this area ... just because he wanted very badly to get something more ... [from] where he made his first big strike."<ref name=interview/>​

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==Political role==​

==Political life==

 

In addition to his oil holdings, Clarke was the federal postmaster in Shreveport from 1926 to 1930 during the administrations of [[U.S. President]]s [[Calvin Coolidge]] and [[Herbert Hoover]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/LA/ofc/shreveport.html|title=Postmasters at Shreveport (1838-1972)|publisher=The Political Graveyard|accessdate=February 10, 2015}}</ref> He was an alternate delegate to the 1948 [[Republican National Convention]] in [[Philadelphia]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/clarke.html|title=Clarke, Clem S.|publisher=The Political Graveyard|accessdate=February 9, 2015}}</ref> which nominated [[Governor]] [[Thomas E. Dewey]] of New York and Governor [[Earl Warren]] of California to challenge, respectively, President [[Harry Truman]] and [[U.S. Senator]] [[Alben W. Barkley]] of [[Kentucky]] for vice president. Benedum encouraged his fellow Republican Clarke to run in the [[special election]] for the two-year seat in the U.S. Senate created by the death of the [[Democratic Party|Democra]] John H. Overton. Clarke was the first Republican Senate candidate since  [[Reconstruction]], at which time senators were chosen by state legislatures. He could not overcome Louisiana's strong Democratic hegemony and the failure of the Dewey-Warren ticket to defeat Truman-Barkley or of the Republicans to retain their two-year majority in the U. S. Senate. Clarke was hence handily defeated by Russell Long, who just short of his thirtieth birthday was making the first of his seven successful Senate races, the first having been for the two-year term. Long had won the Democratic nomination over subsequent Governor [[Robert F. Kennon]] of [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]] in Webster Parish. In the general election, Long polled 306,337 votes  (75 percent) to Clarke's 102,339 (25 percent). Clarke outpolled Dewey in Louisiana by thirty thousand votes.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, U.S. Senate election returns, November 2, 1948</ref> Clarke received some 97,000 more votes than did Harrison Garey Bagwell, Sr. (1913-1973), an [[attorney]] from Baton Rouge, who on April 22, 1952, polled just 4 percent of the gubernatorial vote in his general election race against Robert Kennon, who had won the Democratic nomination in a runoff election against Kennon's fellow judge, Carlos Gustave Spaht, Sr. (1906-2001) of Baton Rouge.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=PCUXAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA103&lpg=PA103&dq=Harrison+G.+Bagwell#v=onepage&q=Harrison%20G.%20Bagwell&f=false|title=United States Gubernatorial Elections, 1932-1952: The Official Results by State and County|pages=103–104|publisher=McFarland and Company|location=Jefferson, [[North Carolina]]|isbn=978-0-7864-7034-1|author=Michael J. Dubin|accessdate=January 6, 2015|date=March 17, 2014}}</ref>​

In addition to his oil holdings, Clarke was the federal postmaster in Shreveport from 1926 to 1930 during the administrations of [[U.S. President]]s [[Calvin Coolidge]] and [[Herbert Hoover]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/LA/ofc/shreveport.html|title=Postmasters at Shreveport (1838-1972)|publisher=The Political Graveyard|accessdate=February 10, 2015}}</ref> He was an alternate delegate to the 1948 [[Republican National Convention]] in [[Philadelphia]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/clarke.html|title=Clarke, Clem S.|publisher=The Political Graveyard|accessdate=February 9, 2015}}</ref> which nominated [[Governor]] [[Thomas E. Dewey]] of New York and Governor [[Earl Warren]] of California to challenge, respectively, President [[Harry Truman]] and [[U.S. Senator]] [[Alben W. Barkley]] of [[Kentucky]] for vice president. Benedum encouraged his fellow Republican Clarke to run in the [[special election]] for the two-year seat in the U.S. Senate created by the death of the [[Democratic Party|Democra]] John H. Overton. Clarke was the first Republican Senate candidate since  [[Reconstruction]], at which time senators were chosen by state legislatures. He could not overcome Louisiana's strong Democratic hegemony and the failure of the Dewey-Warren ticket to defeat Truman-Barkley or of the Republicans to retain their two-year majority in the U. S. Senate. Clarke was hence handily defeated by Russell Long, who just short of his thirtieth birthday was making the first of his seven successful Senate races, the first having been for the two-year term. Long had won the Democratic nomination over subsequent Governor [[Robert F. Kennon]] of [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]] in Webster Parish. In the general election, Long polled 306,337 votes  (75 percent) to Clarke's 102,339 (25 percent). Clarke outpolled Dewey in Louisiana by thirty thousand votes.<ref>Louisiana Secretary of State, U.S. Senate election returns, November 2, 1948</ref> Clarke received some 97,000 more votes than did Harrison Garey Bagwell, Sr. (1913-1973), an [[attorney]] from Baton Rouge, who on April 22, 1952, polled just 4 percent of the gubernatorial vote in his general election race against Robert Kennon, who had won the Democratic nomination in a runoff election against Kennon's fellow judge, Carlos Gustave Spaht, Sr. (1906-2001) of Baton Rouge.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=PCUXAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA103&lpg=PA103&dq=Harrison+G.+Bagwell#v=onepage&q=Harrison%20G.%20Bagwell&f=false|title=United States Gubernatorial Elections, 1932-1952: The Official Results by State and County|pages=103–104|publisher=McFarland and Company|location=Jefferson, [[North Carolina]]|isbn=978-0-7864-7034-1|author=Michael J. Dubin|accessdate=January 6, 2015|date=March 17, 2014}}</ref>​

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