Walter M Smith
A couple of years ago I got reacquainted with a childhood friend from Pauls Valley, Mel Smith. As I mentioned in my book, Wenonah’s Story, all during my childhood, my parents and I went to Pauls Valley every other weekend to visit my grandmother, Victoria Paul. We ran errands for her, and took her driving – she usually wanted to go out to the cemetery to take flowers and clean up around the grave sites of our family members, and in the spring we always drove around town to see the iris in bloom.
While my mother and father were doing what they could for Grandmother, I was left to entertain myself, and that usually included going down the street – nothing in Pauls Valley is very far from anything else – to visit my cousin, Phillip, My uncle Haskell’s son. That’s how I got to know Mel. He was Phillip’s best friend.
Anyway, I Mel and I hadn’t seen each other since childhood when he showed up at a little talk I gave in Pauls Valley about my book. As it turns out he’s also a history buff, and knows a lot about the history of the region. He actually worked with Mike Tower, who wrote the book, Outlaw Statesman, that I used a lot in researching my family’s history. Mel was good enough to send me pictures of several areas where my family used to live.
Since then, Mel and I have been exchanging e-mails. Here is one that particularly interested me about a connection between Mel’s father and my uncle, Homer Paul, who was in the Oklahoma state legislature for 22 years.
Dr. Walter M. Smith
& Oklahoma Senator Homer "Snip" Paul
My father, Walter
Melvin Smith, Sr., graduated from the Northern Illinois College of Optometry in
Chicago, Illinois in 1933. He returned to Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, where
his father Melvin Brice (M.B.) Smith was in the jewelry
business. They came to PV from Cordell in 1924 when my grandfather
bought a jewelry store in Pauls Valley.
After my dad
established himself in his Optometric practice he was approached by members of
a group of optometrists who solicited his help in establishing a legal basis
for the practice of Optometry in Oklahoma. Apparently their motive
for soliciting father's help was the fact he was from Pauls Valley and Homer
Paul was as well. As my dad often said (when mentioning Snip as he was termed
by family and those who knew him) "he was the wheel horse"
of the Oklahoma legislature.
[21st President Pro
Tempore Homer Paul - Democrat from Pauls Valley - 20th
Legislature from 1945 to 1947.]
Actually Homer was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1926, serving until 1932, when he ran for the Senate, and won, serving until 1948, when he was finally defeated. He was the youngest person ever elected to the House at the time, and also the senate. When he campaigned for a seat in the House, he hadn’t yet turned 21.
They asked my
father's help in that they wanted him to talk with Snip to see if he would
support the passage of new laws governing the practice of Optometry in
Oklahoma. My father said he would if after reviewing their proposals
that he believed the legislation would be fair, honest and protective of the
public. After checking things out he agreed to go to Snip's office
and approach him about his support of same. After Snip's personal
review of the proposed legislation and finding my father's assurances were
true that the legislation would benefit Oklahomans Snip was receptive and
agreed to support it.
He asked my dad to
come to the legislative session during which he planned to introduce the matter
to the Senate. He asked my father to sit in the gallery above
the floor of the Senate and introduced my dad to the assembly. Following the
introduction of the proposed legislation and its subsequent approval, the
measure was passed into law.
My father was
appointed by the Governor to be the Secretary of the five member Optometry
Board of Examiners that was established by the new law and was reappointed
under four subsequent Governors. My youngest brother Mike has an
Optometric practice in Oklahoma City and told me that the Oklahoma
Optometric law has been used as model legislation in several other states.
There are or have
been six optometrists or ophthalmologists in my family. (Oklahoma
(1-OKC, 1-PV, 1-Alva) Texas (Dallas), Colorado (Canon City), and California
(Palm Springs)
That's the story. Mel
Since Mel sent me this e-mail I’ve been looking for more information about what the issues were at the time, and what changes were made to the law. All his father told him was that there was an issue with optometrists or people claiming to be optometrists working out of jewelry stores and department stores. I called Dr. Russell Laverty, Secretary of the Oklahoma State Optometry Board, who referred me to Dr. George Foster, former dean of the Northeastern State College of Optometry, who was kind enough to give me a useful outline and some colorful stories about the history of Optometry in Oklahoma.
1911: First Optometry Practice Act passed. Licensing standards were established. The law prohibited price advertising of eye exams. This restriction was supported by the medical association, possibly to prevent competition. This led to the issuing of a warrant for the arrest of two optometrists in Duncan, Oklahoma, for advertising. They escaped into Texas on horseback.
1923: Price advertising restriction repealed.
1931: Optometry Practice Act amended.
1933: Governor (Alfalfa) Bill Murray proposed repeal of Optometry Practice Act but was blocked in the legislature.
Murray moved to Indian Territory in 1898, where he became a prominent attorney, dealing with Indian land claims. After chairing the state constitutional convention in 1906, Murray represented Oklahoma in Congress for two terms. After a failed run for governor, he disappeared into Bolivia where he spent the next 12 years, and $84,000 on a scheme to set up an agricultural colony. In 1930 he returned to Oklahoma penniless, just in time to run for governor. He borrowed $42 from the Bank of Tishomingo, bought a newspaper, and announced his candidacy, traveling the state, proclaiming his plan to tax the rich and provide jobs for the poor. Murray’s ideas resonated with the struggling farmers and many others hit by the Depression, and he was elected by a landslide.
Living up to his eccentric image, Murray
turned his inauguration into a square dance, with himself as caller. He plowed
up the front lawn of the governor’s mansion to grow potatoes for the poor, and
he released over 2000 prisoners from state prisons as a cost cutting measure.
In spite of his outlandish behavior, Murray was a shrewd politician. He filled key government positions with loyal allies to protect himself from impeachment, the fate of Oklahoma’s two previous governors. Then he proposed a complete overhaul of the state’s tax system, eliminating property taxes which were drowning the farmers, increasing corporate taxes and taxes on the rich, and creating a tax commission, to improve collections.
Used to dealing with rebellious governors, the state legislature ignored Murray’s proposals, all except for the tax commission, and increased appropriations by $9 million. Murray countered by submitting his plan to the people, but was defeated, probably because it rained the day of the election, and the rural vote turnout was light. As a result, the state sank further and further into debt.
Defeated by the powers that be, Murray continued to do what he could by executive order. He halted tax sales of farms, nullified Oklahoma City Health Department’s order to stop distribution of food to the poor, and trimmed expenses in the government departments he controlled. His attempt to repeal the Optometry Practice Act in 1933 was probably part of this austerity program, although he had originally signed the bill in 1931.
1937: Comprehensive Optometry law passed. Included eye exam requirement to drive car. Used as model for other states.
This 1937 act initiated
by Dr. Walter Melvin Smith, my friend Mel’s father, and supported by Homer Paul,
my uncle, was a revision of the Optometry Practice laws passed in 1911 and 1931.
I couldn’t find any newspaper articles about the act, and there is no record of
the senate debates at the time, but I was able to get copies of the legislation. The
part about requiring an eye exam to drive a car was probably part of another
bill.
The 1937 law made several important changes:
It raised the standards for granting a license, requiring that the candidate be a graduate of a school of optometry, whereas the prior law had recognized apprenticeships. Also it required that the candidate pass a much more comprehensive exam, including basic sciences, physics, chemistry, bacteriology, pathology, general anatomy, psychology, physiology, neurology, as well as optics and skills used in the eye exam, whereas the 1931 law only required knowledge of anatomy of the eyes, laws of optics and refraction, and use of the ophthalmoscope and retinoscope.
Another change in the 1937 act was to list offences for which a license could be revoked. Whereas the 1931 law only listed fraud, conviction of a crime, unprofessional and unethical conduct, drunkenness, excessive charges, false representation of goods and contagious disease, the amended version prohibited house to house sale of glasses or exams, the employment of an optometrist by a store or company, or practicing under an assumed name, and it gave the optometry board the power to expand these rules at its discretion.
The 1937 act also repealed a 1931 clause that allowed licensing of someone who had practiced optometry for five years in another state.
1939: Gov. Phillips introduced legislation to eliminate bd of examiners, but was blocked by the legislature.
The 1937 Optometry Practice Act was only challenged once in the next 18 years, by another eccentric governor, Leon Phillips. I won’t bore you with another biography, but Governor Phillips was a demagogue. He silenced opponents by hiring investigators to dig up dirt on them. Like Bill Murray he tried to cut spending, but without Murray’s concern with the poor. He claimed communists were behind FDR’s New Deal, and discontinued programs as soon as their terms expired. He attacked patronage and bureaucracy and tried to eliminate departments that he considered superfluous. His attempt to eliminate the Optometry Board was probably part of this effort.
The Optometry Practice
Act of 1937 stood until 1955, and was a model for other states. By helping get
the legislation passed, and by serving on the Board of Examiners for many years,
Dr. Walter M Smith was a true pioneer in his field. He deserves recognition by
his profession and the pride of his family.
Homer Paul
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