◆ SpookStack

APRIL 14, 1947 ry by Herman Kogan PRIL 1 was April Fool’s Day for the A Republicans in Chicago. Having "-gtabbed important Cook County offices from the Democrats in last November’s election, a combination of over-conft- dence and dizziness ‘tripped them up in the contest for the key city’s mayoralty, with the result that Democrat Martin J. Kennelly came through with a plu- tality of 275,000 over his bumbling Republican opponent, Russell W. Root. “Although some Democtatic observets wete quick to detéct a trend in. the Re- publican defeat, actually Kennelly’s election has more significance , locally than nationally, © *” ‘Last winter McCormick and Governor . Dwight H. Green had handpicked Root because he was ready to respond to the slightest crooking of a big shot's finger. An unknown precinct captain in an up- per-middle-class South Side ward three years ago, Root had held minor state jobs; anid whenever he opened his wide mouth he seemed to be teciting the lat- est Tribune editorial. Believing that old Boss Ed Kelly,:or at least one of his ptotégés, would be Root’s foe, the Re- publicans had preparéd for another slaughter in April. a But that political wise man, Colonel Jack Arvey, Kelly’s successor as boss of the Cook County Central’ Democratic Committee (see the NR, March 24), crossed them up. It was time, he. said, to pick a non-machine .man, free from. the taint of professional politics as prac- tised in Chicago. And he chose Kennelly. ———— 4 Chicago newspdperman for 15 years, Herman Kogan is the co-author of Lords of the Levee, 2 political‘ bi- ography of Bathhouse John Coughlin and Hinky Dink Kenna, Chicago’s famed First Ward aldermen. During the war he served as a Marine combat correspondent. ’ The Republicans, caught off-guard, were bewildered. Here was a foe who had actually fought the Kelly machine in previous elections; a genial, silver- ‘haired bachelor of 59 with lots of sin- cetity, ideas and audience appeal; a successful, ‘wealthy, conventional busi- nessman; a candidate who said firmly, |, in accepting the nomination: “I have not made nor will I make any com- mitments to anybody. We miust get away from the idea that the govern- ment belongs to a party and realize that it belongs to the people.” | As a result Root rode off in a dozen directions. He called Kennelly a “poli- tical faker” and a “shars independent.” He ‘insisted that Kennelly discuss the “issue of the hour—the clouds of World War III.” Before Negro voters the Re- publican speakers blamed -the - local Democrats for the Bilbos and Rankins. Representative Alvin O’Konski, the Wisconsin spellbirider, was imported to advise the Polish constituency that a: vote for Martin Kennelly would make Joseph Stalin very happy. In Jewish neighborhoods Root spoke for a “free Palestine.” “Curly” Brooks, McCor- mick’s Senator, bustled in from Wash- ington to let the people kriow that Ken- nelly’s election would be the signal for . a third World War. ; 7 Root did manage to discuss local is- sues, But ‘a “pood‘deal of his dtatotical fire was concenttatéd on American for- eign policy, a matter in which many Chicagoans have a deep interest except when they are looking for someone to clean up the streets and alleys, solve the traction mess, improve the woeful schools, reduce taxes and build houses. _AS amateur politicos often do, Ken- Ava waged a clean, intelligent cam- paign. He stayed away from official patty headquarters, had no manager, and came forth with concrete proposals for stimulating home building, solving the traction tie-up, constructing super- highways and subways and strengthen- ing the civil-service system. In the closing days of the campaign, a tragedy in downstate Hlinois put the torch to Republican hopes—if any still existed, An explosion in a Centralia mine trapped 111 men. GOP Governor Green’s appointees were charged with negligence in enforcing safety rules; a pathetic letter from miners before the blast had been sent by Green into labor- ious “official channels”; the papers started yelling for Green's impeachment. “The whole god-damned house of cards is falling in,” grumbled a Repub- lican préss agent a few days before the election. Kennelly’s was a personal triumph rather than a victory for the Democratic machine, His running mates, city clerk Ludwig Schreiber and city treasurer Joe Baran, both regular party men, had pluralities of little more than 100,000... In the wards, Democtatic aldermen were mowed down in two’s and three’s. In heavy Democratic sections, there was little difference between Kennelly’s vote percentage and those of Kelly in earlier elections; but in Republican wards the Kennelly percentages had leaped from six to 12 points higher than Kelly’s had ever been. An old-timer from the city’s rollick- ing First Ward put it this way: “You can't win with just any guy. Them days are over when you can put up some " stooge. Maybe the people are gettin’ ~smarters- -——-~ - UT it would be an error on the part B of national Democratic leaders to think that the Kennelly triumph was a complete repudiation of McCormick iso- lationism. Certainly, thousands switched allegiance on Election Day. That does mot mean, however, that these thou- sands would refuse to vote for an iso- lationist Republican Senator or Repre- sentative—or even a President. It does mean that on strictly local issues the McCormick cry of nationalism - amounts to but a whisper. It does mean that the hackneyed technique of drag- ging in red herrings at mayoralty elec- tions doesn’t always work in Chicago. Just as the election shoved Governor “Pete” Green out of the running as a vice-presidential possibility and surely damaged McCormick’s standing with the Republican hierarchy, so has it suddenly brought Kennelly to the atten- tion of the Big Democrats. Already there is talk of grooming him for “bigger things.” “A natural,” the boys call him. At the moment, Ken- nelly is neither ready nor willing to yield to such temptations. For he has carved himself a mighty job of building a “Chicago whose great- ness will be unchallenged throughout the world.” Unless he is very naive, he must realize that one of the hardest parts of that job will be to convince the remaining members of the Demo- cratic machine that he meant what he said about “no favors” and “no com- mitments” and of being “the people’s mayor.” Kennelly is no Fiorello H. LaGuardia, but he is the most hopeful, encouraging thing that has hit the rough, tough town in many decades. Even if he fulfills only half his promises, he probably can stay in City Hall as long as he wants to.