Changes

{{Infobox person

{{Infobox person

|name=Clement Steele "Clem" Clarke​

|name=Clement Steele "Clem" Clarke​

(Oilman and Louisiana political activist)

(Oilman and Louisiana<br>political activist)

|birth_place=Marietta, [[Ohio]], [[United States|USA]]​

|birth_place=Marietta, [[Ohio]], [[United States|USA]]​

|birth_date=October 9, 1897​

|birth_date=October 9, 1897​

Benedum subsequently asked Clarke to develop a geological report on the  state of [[Florida]]. Clark, Benedum, and Trees leased a million acres, mostly in Collier County in the Everglades. They hired Gulf Oil Company to perform vital geophysical work. On September 26, 1943, the Humble Oil Company, which had bought out Gulf for $1 million in investment, drilled a well at a depth of 11,726 feet. This was the first oil discovery in Florida in the Collier County field developed by Benedum, Trees, and Clarke. Trees had died a few months before the Florida discovery.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://aoghs.org/states/first-florida-oil-well/|title=First Florida Oil Well|publisher=aoghs.org|accessdate=February 9, 2015}}</ref> Then Clarke with the permission of Generalissimo [[Rafael Trujillo]] took a concession with mineral rights in the Azua Basin of the [[Dominican Republic]]. Clarke leased alone another million acres in Florida through Sun Oil Company.<ref name=interview/>​

Benedum subsequently asked Clarke to develop a geological report on the  state of [[Florida]]. Clark, Benedum, and Trees leased a million acres, mostly in Collier County in the Everglades. They hired Gulf Oil Company to perform vital geophysical work. On September 26, 1943, the Humble Oil Company, which had bought out Gulf for $1 million in investment, drilled a well at a depth of 11,726 feet. This was the first oil discovery in Florida in the Collier County field developed by Benedum, Trees, and Clarke. Trees had died a few months before the Florida discovery.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://aoghs.org/states/first-florida-oil-well/|title=First Florida Oil Well|publisher=aoghs.org|accessdate=February 9, 2015}}</ref> Then Clarke with the permission of Generalissimo [[Rafael Trujillo]] took a concession with mineral rights in the Azua Basin of the [[Dominican Republic]]. Clarke leased alone another million acres in Florida through Sun Oil Company.<ref name=interview/>​

​

​

Clarke recalled that unlike [[John D. Rockefeller]], Benedum encouraged independent oil drillers. Clarke went to Pittsburgh for the occasion of Benedum's 80th birthday dinner held on July 16, 1949. He recalled:​

Clarke recalled that unlike [[John D. Rockefeller]], Benedum encouraged independent oil drillers. Clarke went to Pittsburgh for the occasion of Benedum's 80th birthday dinner held on July 16, 1949. He recalled:​​

<blockquote>​

<blockquote>​

There were governors, senators, men of industry, and I've never heard from any group of men in my whole life the amount of nice things that these people had to say about Mr. Benedum during that birthday dinner. ...<br>​

There were governors, senators, men of industry, and I've never heard from any group of men in my whole life the amount of nice things that these people had to say about Mr. Benedum during that birthday dinner. ...<br>​

==Political life==

==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|Democrat]] 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 his Senate campaign, Clarke faced opposition from two Democratic tickets: (1) the  Truman-Barkley national slate, placed on the ballot through a special session of the state legislature, and (2) the official state party line taken that year by [[Strom Thurmond]], then a [[Segregation|segregationist]] governor of [[South Carolina]] and later an eight-term member of the U.S. Senate. Thurmond switched allegiance in 1964 from the Democrats to the Republicans to support [[Barry  Goldwater]] over President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. Clarke considered the two opposing Long slates "illegal". Though no such situation of this kind had been undertaken previously in Louisiana,  candidates in New York could then and still may combine their general election votes from rival party slates. Clarke sued to prevent the Truman-Thurmond slates from both offering Russell Long as their senatorial nominees, but the appeals court declined to hear the case.<ref name=interview/><ref>Billy Hathorn, ''The Republican Party in Louisiana, 1920-1980'',  ([[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]]: [[Northwestern State University]], 1980), p. 49</ref>​

In his Senate campaign, Clarke faced opposition from two Democratic tickets: (1) the  Truman-Barkley national slate, placed on the ballot through a special session of the state legislature, and (2) the official state party line taken that year by [[Strom Thurmond]], then a [[Segregation|segregationist]] governor of [[South Carolina]] and later an eight-term member of the U.S. Senate. Thurmond switched allegiance in 1964 from the Democrats to the Republicans to support [[Barry  Goldwater]] over President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. Clarke considered the two opposing Long slates "illegal". Though no such situation of this kind had been undertaken previously in Louisiana,  candidates in New York could then and still may combine their general election votes from rival party slates. Clarke sued to prevent the Truman-Thurmond slates from both offering Russell Long as their senatorial nominees, but the appeals court declined to hear the case.<ref name=interview/><ref>Billy Hathorn, ''The Republican Party in Louisiana, 1920-1980'',  ([[Natchitoches, Louisiana|Natchitoches]]: [[Northwestern State University]], 1980), p. 49</ref>​