.VOLUME -XLIX • " NUMBER 33
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, EUGENE, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30. 19-17
SNELL DEAD IN CRASH
Speaker to Take Office
New Law
Designates
Successor
PORTLAND, Ore., (UP)—John
H. Hall, . Portland attorney and
speaker of the Oregon house be
comes Governor of Oregon as a
result of Gov. Earl Snell’s death
in a plane wreckage 36 miles south
of Lakeview, Ore. Hall succeeds,
since the governor’s immediate
follower-in-line, State Senate Pres
ident Marshall Cornett, also was
killed.
The 1947 legislature passed a
new governor-succession law be
cause the procedure theretofore had
been vague.
Under the new law the senate
president would have been first in
succession, speaker of the house
second, followed by the secretary of
state and the state treasurer.
Hall was confined to bed in his
Portland home Wednesday night
with a bad cold. He expressed
grief upon learning that the three
high officials, including Secretary
of State Robert Farrell—all his
personal friends—had been killed.
Hall withheld any comment con
cerning the possibility of calling
a special session of the legislature.
Political observers here said that
a special sesion undoubtedly would
be called, if for no other purpose
than quickly to elect a new pres
ident of the senate and a new
speaker of the house. They pointed
out that with Farrell also killed
in the crash, only one successor
remains at present for Hall as
governor, State Treasurer Leslie
M. Scott.
Victim Onetime
Special UO Student
Although not a graduate of Ore
gon, Governor Earl Snell is listed
on alumni files as a "special stud
ent, spring term, 1943.” The next
line of the card shows that Snell
withdrew the same term.
Governor Snell registered at the
University for the purpose of be
coming a member of Beta Theta
Pi fraternity. His son, Bill Snell,
is also a member of the fraternity.
Phone Changes
Hold Up Directory
Publication of Piggers Guide is
being delayed pending proposed
changes in the campus telephone
system. In the event that changes
are made, phone numbers of nearly
2000 students will be affected.
However, the directory staff has
reached final steps in preparing
the directory and it will go to press
soon after definite arrangements
concerning the telephone system
are made.
Two of Yesterday's Victims
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Killed yesterday in one of the major tragedies in Oregon's political
i history were Governor Earl Sne 11, left, and Robert S.' Farrell Jr.,
I secretary of state.
Governor Snell Was
Serving Second Term
PORTLAND, Ore., (UP)—Gov
ernor Earl Snell was born at Olex,
in eastern Oregon, July 11, 1895.
He attended the Oregon Institute
of Technology in Portland for
three years and saw service in
World War I.
He was elected to the state
house of representatives in 1926,
was re-elected in 1928, 1930, and
1932 and was named speaker in
1933. In 1935 he was elected sec
retary of state and served until
1942.
Snell was nominated as Repub
lican candidate for governor in
1942 and was elected the following
year. He was re-elected in 1946.
He was married to Edith Welshons
of Condon, Oregon, in 1920, and
has one son, Dr. William Earl
Snell.
Son of Pioneer
Snell was the son of a pioneer
Oregon family. He received his
SnelljThird to Die
In Governorship
The late Governor Earl Snell
was the third governor of Oregon
to die in office. All three were Rep
ublicans.
Governor Janies Wihtycombe,
first elected to office in 1914, died
on March 3, 1919 at the beginning
of his second term. He was suc
ceeded by Secretary of State Ben
W. Olcott.
Second governor of Oregon to
share this fate was I. L. Patterson
who passed away on December 21,
1929, during the last year of his
first term in office. Successor to
his position was A. W. Norblad,
president of the senate as that
time.
. VjU
» i > iB • « * it t • -1
public school education in Arling
ton and Condon.
He was first a country news
paperman, then automobile dealer.
Later he served Gilliam, Sherman,
Wheeler and Morrow counties as
a member of the house of repre
sentatives in regular and special
sessions of the Oregon legislature.
Snell was re-elected secretary of
state in 1938 by the largest ma
jority ever given an opposed can
didate in the state’s history.
o. i ur,1,1.
Robert S. Farrell, Jr., was born
at Portland, Oregon, in 1906. He
attended the University of Wash
ington and the Northwestern Col
lege of Law. Farrell was sent to
the state legislature in 1935,
served again in 1939 and 1941, and
was elected secretary of state in
1941. He was re-elected in 1946.
He was married to Nancy Jane
Carpenter, Portland, in 1929 and
has two daughters, Joan and Sally.
MARSHALL CORNETT*
Marshall Cornett was born at
Burning Springs, Kentucky, in
1898 and graduated from Berea,
Kentucky college. He moved to
Oregon and became active in poli
tics as a member of the port com
mission, at Astoria in 1921.
In 1926 Cornett moved to Kla
math Falls and entered the oil
distribution business. He was elec
ted to the state senate in 1940 and
again in 1944. Cornett was mar
ried to Olive Van Decar Byram in
1922.
Fogdall to Speak
Senior boys of University high
school in Eugene will hear assis
tant dean of men, Vergil S. Fog
dall, talk today on the general
topic, “The High School Senior
Looks Ahead To College.
Governor; Next in Line,
Cornett; Farrell Killed
Enroute to Huntina Area
Accident Leaves Three State Offices Vacant;
Rescue Crews Discover Plane Wreckage
KLAMAIH 1'ALLS. Ore., (UP)—Oregon’s Governor Karl
Snell, his immediate successor, and the Oregon secretary of
state were killed in the wreck of a private plane whose veteran
pilot, flying them to hunting- grounds, lost his way in bad
weather and hit a tree, state police reported last night.
A rescue party of police, sheriff's deputies and forest rangers
came across the shattered remains of the red and silver Beech
craft scattered in the snow beyond a shcared-off pine tree in
Lake county, 36 miles south of the intended destination, Lake
view, Oregon.
Killed in addition to Snell were his second in line of succes
sion, Senate President Marshall Cornett, Robert S. Farrell, Jr.,
secretary of state, and pilot Cliff Hogue.
Southern Oregon Hunting Trip
The state executives had been on a half-hour flight last night
from Klamath Falls, heading for a goose-hunting junket into
the most rugged part of Oregon to relax from their official
duties.
"All aboard the plane are dead,” was the brief word received
from the search party that pushed into the relatively isolated
area after pilot Robert A. Adams, participating in Oregon’s
I greatest air search for a missing plane, spotted the smashed
remnants south of Dog Lake.
State Adjutant General Raymond F. Olson confirmed tlidt
all aboard, were definitely identified and dead.
It was right down in the southern portion of the state, only
six miles north of the California border and not far from where
the Nevada line makes a three-state border. It was an area
where the flying could get the toughest, with mountain ranges,
and desolate valleys usually filled with rainstorms at this time
of approaching winter.
Plane Sheares Pine Tree
Apparently pilot Hogue seeking the Lakview airport only
70 miles east of Klamath Falls, groped lower and lower in the
darkness until he was too low and the tree loomed up. It was
eight inches thick where the plane cut it off like a bolt of light
ening.
Darkness stalled all attempts to bring the bodies out tonight.
Capt Paul Parsons, of the state police at Medford, Ore., said
there was no hope of “doing anything more tonight.’The bodies
will be brought out tomorrow, he said. All bodies were iden
tified by state police.
Lee Brown assistant superintendent of state police at Salem,
said Parsons told him CAA officials had reached the wreckage
and seen and identified the bodies.
CAA Confirms Identification
The CAA at Klamath Falls confirmed that a party of their
officials had reached the scene and identified the dead. News
of the identification was relayed from the scene by mobile
radio transmitter.
The fatal accident stunned the state. Governor Snell, 52, was
a popular figure and a leader in Republican political circles. Me
was serving his second term as chief executive.
This week, as soon as possible after absolute identification
is made, a special session undoubtedly will be called. Even be
fore that John H. Hall, Portland attorney, and speaker of the
Oregon house will be sworn in as governor to replace Snell.
New Succession Law
Under a new governor succession law, passed by the 1947
legislature to take care of heretofore vague succession steps,
the senate president would have been the first in succession.
The speaker of the house is second followed by the secretary
of state and the state treasurer.
Political observers speculated that the special session would
be called to quickly elect a new president of the senate and a*
new house speaker, since the deaths of Cornett and Farrell
shattered the chain of succession, leaving one successor, State.
Treasurer Leslie M. Scott.
The governor’s plane took off from Klamath Falls at 10
p.m. Tuesday and was due at the Kittrcdge ranch about 10:50
p.rti. Tuesday. Shortly before it was scheduled to arrive, a resi
dent of Bly, on the Klamath Falls-Lakeview routs, reported
seeing a plane with running lights fly overhead and then
turn back westward.