Oral History Program Ira Huggins Patricia Buchanan 14 July 1980 i Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Ira Huggins Interviewed by Patricia Buchanan 14 July 1980 Copyright © 2012 by Weber State University, Stewart Library ii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in Special Collections. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Weber State College/University Student Projects have been created by students working with several different professors on the Weber State campus. The topics are varied and based on the student's interest or task for a specific assignment. These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Huggins, Ira, an oral history by Patricia Buchanan, 14 July 1980, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Ira Huggins. The interview was conducted on July 14, 1980, by Patricia Buchanan. Huggins discusses the history of the Democratic Party Collection in Weber County, as well as a brief history of his own political involvement with Weber County Politics. PB: Mr. Huggins, could you tell me something about growing up in Weber County, and how you personally became active in Weber County Politics? IH: I didn’t grow up in Weber County. I came to Weber County in 1923. I was 25 years old when I came to Weber. In 1918, I was about 25, I became a secretary of the Weber County Democratic Committee. Subsequently, I was made Weber County Chairman and remained in that office for 6 or 8 years. In 1930, I was nominated to the Utah State Senate, against my Republican opponent from the Weber County Products Company. I became successful in there and served in the Utah State Senate for 16 years. In that time, I was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senate house and Senate Appropriations Committee, and I was in the Revenue Taxation Committee. In 1945 and since then, I was president of the Utah state senate. PB: My gosh! That is really an illustrious career. You’ve just done all kinds of things in politics. Did you know Frank Francis, the mayor? Well, I guess he was the mayor of Ogden during the time when you were chairman of the party… IH: I knew him very well. PB: Can you tell me some of the things about the problems that Ogden faced during those years and maybe what was the party platform like in those years? 1 IH: In 1930 there hadn’t been a Democrat elected in Weber County for years and years. In 1930, half of the Democrats served on committee and half the Republicans. Beginning in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt won the election for the US Presidency. Every Democrat in Weber County unintelligible text and they continued to up until recently. Unintelligible text Republican unintelligible text of the officers. Frank Francis was mayor. Frank Francis Senior was mayor of Ogden for two or three terms, I guess. He was a liberal, who I like, very personable, and served efficiently in that office. On the county platform in those days was oriented largely for labor. Its beginning in conservative labor at very little legal standing as part of the requirement, but essentially what we had was less absence. In favor of labor was an ordinance compensation form. That was recommended by an attorney from Ogden, Joseph Chairs, who became the Attorney General. His platform inevitably would continue on the liberal side. I would suppose, he is now on the liberal side. PB: Why haven’t any Democrats been elected? Was that due to the railroad, or kind of what has been going on in Weber County that had kept it look at Republicans? IH: It was Republicans. The reason why was that the people in Weber County were Republicans. Labor was now organized and so most labor were Republicans. PB: I see, and now Weber County is really the Democratic stronghold in the state for what would happen. IH: Carbon County, Weber County is democratic second. PB: To what do we attribute this to? Do you know offhand what has changed Weber County’s politics? 2 IH: Well, largely, I think President Roosevelt, who had a wonderful personality and was a real nice person for president. He seemed to win the blue collar people over including labor and including unintelligible text the president was largely unintelligible text . PB: What were some of the problems of Ogden City during those days? We still had the streetcars and this kind of thing. What was kind of going on the face of Ogden? IH: Yes, we had streetcars. Ogden didn’t have very much of a business section. Most of the shopping, really good economic shopping, was done in Salt Lake City. We have a struggling junior college. The junior college belongs to the Mormon Church along with Snow College at Ephraim and unintelligible text College at Snow. PB: In those days it was still the Weber Academy? IH: No, Weber College. PB: Weber College? IH: Up until 1932. It continued on until probably sometime in 1950 it became Weber State College. But very early in its history it was Weber Academy. David O. McKay was president of the Weber Academy when it was the Academy. Ogden was always a labor strong town because of the railroad. Not much mining around here, but the railroad was the center, the destination center, for the West. It was very heavily populated by labor people who were here with the railroad. PB: Were there more ranches, maybe on a larger scale, farming in Weber County at that time than there is now? IH: More than there is now, because of the highways and churches and much of the agricultural area that the land had been taken out of agriculture. Much of it. 3 PB: What probably were the primary crops in Weber County during that time? IH: Fruit was the primary crop. Sugar beets was a large crop. Alfalfa, sump weed, barley, some corn, and some peas, and tomatoes. Largely, up until 1940, many of the farms were devoted. 4