CITIZEN COLE 
 OF CHICAGO 
 
 By HOYT KING 
 
LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 STEWART S. HOWE 
 
 JOURNALISM CLASS OF 1928 
 
 STEWART S. HOWE FOUNDATION 
 
 B 
 
 C6872k 
 cop. 3 
 
 I . H . S . 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/citizencoleofchiOOking 
 
George E. Cole 
 
 1845-1930 
 
CITIZEN COLE 
 OF CHICAGO 
 
 By HOYT KING 
 
 Distributed by 
 
 HORDER'S, INC. 
 
 231 South Jefferson Street 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
Copyright 1931 
 By Hoyt King 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
 By MUNROE & SOUTHWORTH, Inc. 
 
 Chicago 
 
fc 
 
 3 
 
 C ££ 7 a A- £#£' 
 
 In Token of Affection 
 
 This Work Is 
 
 Dedicated 
 
 to the Memory of 
 
 George E. Cole 
 
 by 
 
 His Former Secretary 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 The Little Stationer Becomes the Human Buzz Saw . I 
 
 Dips into Ward Politics II 
 
 Supports Walker Against Alderman Madden . . Ill 
 
 Selected for President Municipal Voters' League . IV 
 
 Organizes League to War on Yerkes Council . . V 
 
 Council a Market for Franchises VI 
 
 The Stanwood Incident VII 
 
 Bathhouse John Protests VIII 
 
 How Cole Played the Game IX 
 
 A Victory in Verse X 
 
 Backbone of the Gang Broken XI 
 
 A United States Senator Sunk XII 
 
 Yerkes Institutes Libel Suit XIII 
 
 Election Crooks Go to Joliet XIV 
 
 Yerkes Gets Allen Bill Through Legislature . . XV 
 
 Ropes for Aldermen — Exit Yerkes XVI 
 
 Libel Suit Abandoned XVII 
 
 Cook County Combine XVIII 
 
 Citizens' Association XIX 
 
 Attacks Township and County Frauds .... XX 
 
 Finds Conditions in Legislature Bad XXI 
 
 Cole Picked to Clean Up Legislature .... XXII 
 
 Cole Incites Revolution in House XXIII 
 
 Revolutionists Control . . . . . . . XXIV 
 
 The Legislature Redeemed XXV 
 
 Reform Council Reforms Police XXVI 
 
 Attacks a "Carnival of Thievery" XXVII 
 
 Finds Basic Law Wrong XXVIII 
 
 Starts Fight for Constitutional Convention . . . XXIX 
 
 Convention Drafts New Constitution .... XXX 
 
 Proclaimed State's Greatest Public Servant . . . XXXI 
 
 The End XXXII 
 
 Tribute Page 151 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This is a story of a successful fight 
 over years against political corrup- 
 tion in Chicago. It tells what was done 
 and how it was done. It shows the per- 
 manent effect of the early years of work 
 of George E. Cole, a little man with 
 broad shoulders, a hard head and a bull- 
 dog jaw. Without prestige or money he 
 led forlorn hopes to victory. 
 
 If this were a sermon the text to the 
 reader of today might well be, "Go and 
 do thou likewise." 
 
 Hoyt King 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 The man for the hour George E. Cole was found to be when 
 from the glory of the World's Fair of 1893 Chicago turned 
 to face the shame of its political corruption in alliance with social 
 evils. He was found in the ranks of minor business men and of 
 his fellow citizens. He never thought of himself as belonging 
 anywhere else, least of all in any leadership. Back to the ranks 
 he always went after being called forth to lead now and again. 
 
 He lived one life — straightforward, forthright, wholehearted 
 — at home, in business and in citizenship. This he could do be- 
 cause he saw life whole. Therefore his citizenship was not any- 
 thing to be taken on or put off. It was always on or in the very 
 soul of him. He was it. "George Cole, Citizen," defines him and it. 
 
 This oneness and single-sightedness of his whole life made 
 his influence decisive. So upright and downright, yet human 
 withal, was he, in thought, speech and act, that no one had to 
 look or think twice to know where he stood, or wonder what he 
 meant, or understand what he said and did. His contacts were 
 direct, man to man. There was nothing aloof between him and 
 those whose attitude and actions he opposed, any more than be- 
 tween him and his comrades. No ulterior motive, double meaning, 
 
reserved intention, personal aim or animus could be suspected of 
 him. There seemed to be no place for duplicity in him. This 
 made double dealing with him very difficult. Those accustomed 
 to it were thrown off their guard, as the man with whom they 
 dealt stood revealed before them. Those whom he unmasked 
 found him not to be unfriendly. Although never compromising 
 right with wrong, he was kindly in pointing out errors in men's 
 ways, considerate in conceding how human it is to err, and yet 
 showing how much more manly it is to turn from self-seeking and 
 stand for public rights and to serve the public welfare. 
 
 His deeds speak for him. Few words of his own or of others 
 about him need to be quoted to tell the story of his acts. Thrilling 
 it was for us to be with him at crises in the city's experience and 
 his own, when these acts of his were like trumpet calls to united 
 action. No one knew the motive and the meaning of what he did 
 so well as he who makes them understood and inspiring in this tale 
 of the man who chose Hoyt King to be at his right hand and his 
 confidant throughout his public career. No greater heritage has 
 been left to Chicago by any citizen than that which this book 
 holds in trust for all to inherit who would make their own the 
 ideals, the courage and the service which Citizen Cole exemplified. 
 This far younger follower lets the very spirit of his old leader win, 
 inspire and guide those who would and could be effectively active 
 citizens. 
 
 This brief, graphic, interesting narrative is more than a mem- 
 oir in being a manual of citizenship. And it is more than a 
 manual in making citizenship more impelling by showing how a 
 
plain man in the ranks practiced and lived it. Citizenship is not 
 
 only seen but felt to be alive and at work in these pages. Chicago, 
 
 in all that it has been, is, and may become, challenges its citizens 
 
 to answer the categorical imperative, Who follows in the train of 
 
 George E. Cole, Citizen? 
 
 Graham Taylor 
 
CHAPTER I 
 The Little Stationer Becomes the Human Buzz Saw 
 
 By this time I suppose it is fair to assume that this audience 
 is not in favor of electing aldermen who sell their votes. 
 The next thing, I suppose, will be to call a meeting to discuss the 
 multiplication table. It is a reflection on civilization that we have 
 to call a meeting to stir up sentiment for honesty." It is our 
 sarcastic Clarence S. Darrow who is speaking. 
 
 It is the year 1896, day March 16th. Not a nice night to 
 be out; fifteen hundred people, however, crowd Central Music 
 Hall, corner State and Randolph Streets, Chicago. At eight 
 o'clock Judge Murray F. Tuley, benign, white-haired and with 
 flowing beard, has advanced to the rostrum. It was Dr. Newell 
 Dwight Hillis' pulpit on Sunday; before that, David Swing's. 
 Tuley is chairman of the meeting. On the platform besides the 
 speakers are Chauncey J. Blair, Charles Bergner, Frank B. Tobey, 
 Henry M. Bates, W. A. Sheridan, Judge Adams, W. H. Colvin, 
 J. W. Burton, W. T. Baker, Seymour Coman, Nicolay Grevstad, 
 Joseph Badenoch Jr., W. C. Boyden, L. C. De Praft, F. Talia- 
 ferro, C. N. Roberts, John Anderson, Robert L. Nelson, Judge 
 Dunne and W. A. Vincent. Members of the Municipal Voters' 
 
 CITIZENCOLE [15] 
 
League executive committee are also on the platform with these 
 merchants, lawyers, judges, labor leaders, publishers, tradesmen 
 and bankers. The meeting is the embodiment of the spirit of 
 Chicago. 
 
 Judge Tuley's gavel had come down. He opens by saying, 
 "We are trying to rescue the city from the band of conspirators, 
 known as the council *gang,' which is degrading Chicago before 
 all the world." He quoted from the platform of the Municipal 
 Voters' League, organized to clean out the Chicago city council, 
 and added "The League has no machinery." Then, turning and 
 viewing the pugnacious face and stocky form of George E. Cole, 
 president of the League, he corrected himself. "I have said we 
 have no machine in the League. I will take that back — we have 
 this little sawed-off giant of reform. He is our machine, tireless 
 and fearless. He has X-ray eyes, and can look right through a 
 candidate and see whether he is a boodler at heart or not. Alder- 
 man Stanwood has already run up against this human buzz saw." 
 
 This was George E. Cole's first introduction to the public. 
 He had tackled a job in which others had failed. He had tackled 
 a job prominent men had refused as impossible of accomplish- 
 ment. What this job was was revealed that night by Judge Tuley. 
 "No city council ever before known in Chicago has attained the 
 degradation of the present one. For willful disregard of duty, 
 for unfaithfulness to trusts, for open and barefaced corruption, 
 it is unparalleled in the sublimity of its infamy." 
 
 John H. Hamline, lawyer and civil service advocate, speaks. 
 He tells a story of the historic Rhenish robber baron, and adds, 
 
 [16] CITIZEN COLE 
 
Reprint from Chicago Times-Herald, March 16, 1896 
 
 George E. Cole 
 As the newspapers saw him in 1896 
 
"If the shade of that baron should come to Chicago he would 
 say of its citizens that they are not in it with the Rhenish burghers 
 who hanged him, but the aldermen would be right in his class and 
 men after his own soul." And this was not all he said. 
 
 Then Washington Hesing gave testimony: "If a blow for 
 good government is ever to be struck, the time to strike is now. 
 The thieves and boodlers have taken the alarm." 
 
 Many of this audience asked themselves, "Who is this George 
 E. Cole who is to do the mighty task outlined?" Many who read 
 these lines will ask it. To the present generation, George E. Cole 
 was a man of eighty-five, young in mind, whose ripe years were 
 happy with memories of service to the citizens of Chicago and of 
 Illinois. A grateful acknowledgment of his long and effective 
 public work is his merited and only reward. 
 
 He was a short man, mainly in the legs, for he had a well- 
 developed body. If Abraham Lincoln is correctly quoted as to 
 how long a man's legs should be, Cole's were long enough: they 
 reached the ground. At the time of this meeting he was fifty 
 years old. His eyes then bored right through a crooked politician. 
 He had a decidedly bulldog jaw. It attracted the newspapermen 
 he had to deal with. One of them said of it, "It is as awe-inspiring 
 as the ram-bow of a ship." He wore a number eight hat on a 
 hard head, set on broad shoulders. 
 
 Previous to 1896 he had little history, at least none that stood 
 out in his own memory. Old residents of Jackson, Michigan, 
 admit that he was born there. It happened on March 2, 1845. 
 So far as can be learned, like the average boy, he attended school, 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [17] 
 
milked the cow, worked in the garden, and sawed wood, because 
 he had to. He admits he dodged these chores when he could. He 
 might have been at the old swimming hole sometimes when the 
 school bell was vainly calling him. 
 
 But when the Civil War was calling him he listened. It was 
 calling able-bodied men, not boys. He was sixteen. War and 
 fighting appealed to him much more than school and work. But 
 the country did not want its boys, especially sawed-off ones. It 
 amused the recruiting officer when a boy only five feet high and 
 weighing scarcely one hundred pounds offered himself. But let 
 Cole tell his story: 
 
 "It was simply a stalemate. I couldn't go to war, and I 
 wouldn't do anything else. This condition lasted for a time, when 
 my mother, realizing that I was simply drifting downward, con- 
 sented to sign my enlistment papers, if I could get any one to 
 accept me. I was not long in finding my man in Lieutenant 
 Welling of the Tenth Michigan Infantry (then home on a fur- 
 lough) , who agreed to accept me, provided I could pass an ex- 
 amination by the surgeon in charge of the state recruiting office, 
 in Jackson. I applied at once to Dr. Chittuck, who made it a 
 condition that I must get a letter from either my father or mother, 
 both of whom he knew personally. It happened, fortunately for 
 my desire, that my father, who had steadily opposed my enlisting 
 and blocked me once after I had nearly succeeded, was out of 
 town. My mother, more wise in that she would rather have me 
 go to the front and face the possibility of death than have me 
 drop to the rear and become a mere flotsam and jetsam, at once 
 
 [18] CITIZENCOLE 
 
wrote to the doctor expressing the hope that he could pass me. I 
 was subjected to a most critical test, at the end of which the doctor 
 remarked, *Well, George, you are about as big as a pint of cider, 
 but as far as you go you are the most perfect specimen I have 
 examined in three years and I will pass you.' 
 
 "Two things happened when I joined the regiment which 
 rather jarred me at the time, but I look back on them now with 
 amusement. The first was the remark of a big veteran who, after 
 looking me over with a half frown, half smile on his face, re- 
 marked, Well, the war must be about over when they get to 
 sending us babies from Michigan.' The other event was my first 
 and only drill. The sergeant spent about an hour in futile en- 
 deavor to get me to load one of the old Springfield rifles according 
 to regulations. When I could not do so, because I could not 
 reach high enough, he exclaimed in disgust, T do not propose to 
 waste my time trying to teach you. It can't be done according to 
 tactics. I will just put you in the ranks between two old soldiers 
 and you can imitate them the best you can.' 
 
 "I served all through the Atlanta campaign, marched to the 
 sea with General Sherman, followed him through the Carolinas 
 and through Richmond, marched in the review of his army at 
 Washington, and was finally mustered out at Louisville in August, 
 1865, having drilled but the short time mentioned. 
 
 "I came out of the army at the age of twenty, with no tech- 
 nical education or occupation, to find my father a prematurely 
 old, broken-down man, having failed in business and lost every- 
 thing. The only thing to do was to start again in a new town, and 
 
 CITIZENCOLE [19] 
 
for three years I kept the pot boiling as a common day laborer, 
 because I found nothing else to do. It seemed a little hard at the 
 time, but I have had reason to be mighty thankful for that ex- 
 perience. I learned two things: first, that no honest labor is or 
 can be degrading; second, that the men I saw seemingly at the 
 bottom of the ladder are generally just as intelligent, patriotic and 
 independent as any apparently more favored class. Whenever I 
 hear people talk of a few leaders swinging the labor vote to this 
 or that man, I smile to myself. I know better. You may as well 
 talk about swinging the lawyers' vote or the ministers' vote or 
 the doctors' vote. The average laboring man does his own think- 
 ing and voting just as thoroughly as the professional man, and 
 just as intelligently." 
 
 In 1868 George Cole came to Chicago. His uncle offered 
 him a position in his carpet store. For the next twenty-seven years 
 he strove to make a living. He built up the business of George 
 E. Cole & Company, stationers and printers, after leaving his 
 uncle's employ. He was, at the age of fifty, a moderately success- 
 ful man. "I worked out from under the burden of poverty, and 
 was not cursed with the burden of riches," said Cole, and added: 
 
 "He who has no money is poor; 
 He who has nothing but money is a pauper." 
 
 He had achieved success in his business and could now at 
 least furnish comforts and some luxuries to his family. He had 
 married Lois T. Milnes of Chicago on June 20, 1878, and now 
 had two boys. 
 
 [20] CITIZEN COLE 
 
CHAPTER II 
 Dips into Ward Politics 
 
 This was Cole's history up to 1894, and then he began to 
 "sit up and take notice." He had discharged his obligation 
 to his family. They were cared for. "But," said he, "it did not 
 take much looking around to show me that I owed a debt to the 
 community. I had voted more or less independently, but that 
 was all — just about what the great majority of our citizens do. 
 Mine was not the sin of commission, but of omission, of indif- 
 ference, of laziness, if you please. I was of the eighty-five per 
 cent who were interested in honest, economical government, but 
 not actively so. Opposed to the indifferent eighty-five per cent, 
 there were then, and there are now, the payroll, their families 
 and friends, the merchants and contractors interested in public 
 contracts, the criminals and those interested in being protected in 
 unlawful pursuits. These probably do not exceed fifteen per cent. 
 This fifteen per cent is permitted to dominate the eighty-five per 
 cent. It is bound together by self-interest. These are not all cor- 
 rupt, but, with the lack of independent support, the honest ones 
 close their eyes to the corruption of the dishonest. So municipal 
 government was in a bad way in 1894." 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [21] 
 
Cole began to learn. During the World's Fair, in 1893, 
 William T. Stead, editor of the Review of Reviews in London, 
 visited Chicago. He delivered some fiery speeches and wrote a 
 book, "If Christ Came to Chicago." Out of his visit was born 
 the Civic Federation of Chicago, with Lyman J. Gage (afterwards 
 secretary of the treasury under President McKinley) as president. 
 
 The Federation formed branches in many of the thirty-four 
 wards of Chicago, and Cole received notice to attend in his 
 neighborhood, the Fourth Ward. He was elected president of 
 the Fourth Ward Council. 
 
 The wards were in filthy condition. The downtown streets 
 were no better than pig wallows. In mild weather the slush at 
 some corners was ankle deep. Horse droppings, accumulating 
 during the winter, piled up in the gutters and overflowed the curb. 
 In its campaign for street cleaning and garbage removal the 
 Civic Federation undertook, by private subscription, to clean the 
 downtown streets and alleys. Under direction of Harry G. 
 Selfridge, General Joseph Stockton and J. W. Brooks, appointed 
 for the purpose, the streets and alleys were cleaned up and kept 
 clean. Two hundred and fifty sheet-iron receptacles for waste 
 paper were planted. Seventy-five men were steadily employed 
 with carts and brooms. 
 
 The ward councils were also at work. Cole found himself 
 trying to clean streets in the ward and dispose of garbage. 
 Between times he held meetings to talk about "the city beautiful." 
 A women's auxiliary was formed, with Mrs. Cole a leading spirit. 
 The women campaigned against uncleanliness with such effect that 
 
 [22} CITIZEN COLE 
 
citizens were ashamed to throw their waste material in public 
 places. Through their activity and watchfulness, the women se- 
 cured the removal of the ward inspector — a saloonkeeper, ap- 
 pointed by the alderman, who drew pay without rendering any 
 service. 
 
 "It seemed at last a false start," said Mr. Cole. The Federa- 
 tion council was trying to cure the evils of local government by 
 doing the public work. Cole thought this was about as sensible 
 as "trying to cure consumption by poulticing one's thumb." Some- 
 thing was wrong. The alderman of the ward had appointed the 
 garbage inspector, and Cole and his forces were doing the in- 
 spector's work. So, after repeated failures to interest this alder- 
 man in reforming his inspector, the inspector's removal was forced, 
 and Cole went deeply into the study of aldermen in general. 
 This alderman did not at the time sense the mistake he was mak- 
 ing in ignoring an indignant citizen. Subsequently it cost him an 
 election to the United States Senate. He was Martin B. Madden. 
 Cole found him to be an able and influential leader of the "gang" 
 in the city council. Cole had voted for him twice. 
 
 Cole said, "I found the local government rotten to the core. 
 The city council was owned by one man, a Napoleon of fraud and 
 chicanery, Charles T. Yerkes." Yerkes had a more or less firm 
 grip on all the administrative departments. The question "What 
 are you going to do about it?" was thrown at Cole so frequently 
 that he took it seriously. When he talked about organizing an 
 opposition to Madden's re-election, he was told, "It's no use." 
 Then the bulldog in Cole began to assert itself. 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [23] 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Supports Walker Against Alderman Madden 
 
 Cole at once determined to fight Madden and decided that 
 there was no use appealing to the republican primaries. 
 Very few independent citizens paid any attention to the primary. 
 Those who voted were mostly the precinct workers and their 
 friends, and others who received or expected favors of the alder- 
 man and the assessor. Those who voted against the "organi- 
 zation" thought they could look for little consideration at the 
 hands of the assessor. 
 
 The archaic personal property law was on the statutes then, 
 as it is now. The old township, since abolished, elected a super- 
 visor, a collector, an assessor and a clerk. This body made the 
 assessments and collected the tax. To avoid false swearing a 
 citizen was expected under the law to list all the personal property 
 he owned on April 1 — furniture, savings, bank account, money 
 due him on notes, mortgages, bonds, etc. — and after deducting 
 his debts, pay on one-half the actual value the same rate of tax 
 he paid on his home or real estate. At times the tax would amount 
 to five per cent on savings that earned only three per cent. So 
 tax payers perjured themselves to get justice. When a tax payer 
 
 [24] CITIZEN COLE 
 
did that, he had to walk circumspectly. He could not fight crooks 
 who knew he was vulnerable. Anyway, as a voter could not then 
 and has not yet been able to get the law changed, he overcame 
 conscientious scruples and laid himself open to servility. So the 
 republican primary belonged to Madden and his friends. Trades- 
 men and property owners generally stayed away from the primary. 
 
 Primaries then elected delegates to the ward convention. The 
 convention system was in line with the spirit of the constitution 
 which created, not a democracy, but a representative form of 
 government. In theory, able minds would meet in convention and 
 use good judgment in nominating party candidates. In practice, 
 delegates were a grade above the ordinary ward workers. Some of 
 the best workers were honored. Sometimes a local business man 
 was flattered and made tractable by selection as a delegate. The 
 convention theory was good, but lack of popular interest made 
 it not workable. 
 
 Originally, primaries for the nomination of delegates were 
 entirely a matter of party arrangement. Then party machines 
 were built up that deprived the opposition within a party of any 
 rights at a primary. In 1889 the law stepped in. Before this, the 
 primary election that selected delegates, that named the candidate 
 dictated by the leader, practically worked like this: The average 
 voter appeared at the primary polling place, if he could find it, 
 and took a printed ballot handed him by a man he did not know. 
 This ballot he poked through a window or the crack of a door to 
 a political worker. If he poked in a ballot of his own, or an 
 opposition ballot, he had no means of knowing what happened 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [25] 
 
to it. This system prevailed for some time after the law of 1889. 
 Under that law the county central committee could elect to 
 proceed under the new primary act, fix and publish the time to 
 hold the primary, select the judges and clerks from the regular 
 election lists (their own previous selection) , group precincts into 
 primary districts of not more than nine hundred voters, and des- 
 ignate the polling places. The new law provided for challengers 
 who could raise a question as to a voter's right to vote and for 
 watchers who could oversee and insist on an honest count. 
 
 The ballot or ticket of delegates must be printed on "white, 
 common print" paper, 3 1 / 2 by 6 inches. There is a great difference 
 in quality of white, common print paper. How many of these 
 ballots were "the other fellow's" was no secret to the judges han- 
 dling them. Word could easily pass out to the workers, if a few 
 more votes were needed to keep the organization's lead. So the 
 opposition still had this handicap, only overcome by heavy voting. 
 Heavy voting is unusual in a primary fight. 
 
 It was under this system that the Civic Federation through 
 its ward councils undertook to secure honest judges and clerks, 
 the location of polls in accessible places, and police protection at 
 the polls. The ward councils were to see that watchers and chal- 
 lengers were at the polls. The councils were to put up good men 
 as independent candidates for aldermen where none fit were nomi- 
 nated by the parties. 
 
 Cole's "mad" was up. He took conditions in his ward as he 
 found them. He began to agitate the question of organizing an 
 opposition to the alderman. He was told, "It is impossible to 
 
 [26] CITIZEN COLE 
 
defeat him and will only make us ridiculous." No, not by every 
 one. "When I reached my neighbor Frank Wells," says Mr. Cole, 
 "I found a man, one of the most lovable and gentle characters 
 that I ever knew. He dared to do right and fight for truth as 
 he saw it." 
 
 With Wells' help, Cole turned to the democrats, who had 
 never carried the ward. They were glad to use their machinery 
 for any democrat who might appeal to the independent vote. 
 Cole, Wells, John T. Richards and the democrats agreed upon 
 Francis W. Walker, lawyer, who had achieved a reputation, as 
 assistant to State's Attorney Grinnel, in the prosecution of the so- 
 called anarchists held guilty of inciting the Haymarket Riot that 
 resulted in the death of several policemen. 
 
 Walker had also prosecuted the county boodlers in 1887, on 
 evidence that grew out of the discovery by J. Frank Aldrich, then 
 county commissioner and later congressman, of some unpaid and 
 padded county bills. The county institutions were controlled by 
 notorious gamblers, whose bills, padded from fifty to one hundred 
 per cent, were approved by the county board. Also, sums ranging 
 from $500 to $1300 were paid for votes on lighting, printing, 
 coal, meat and other contracts. Bills included costly and unique 
 furniture, table luxuries and elegant rugs that went into private 
 homes. Grinnel and his assistant, Walker, convicted McGarigle, 
 McDonald, Van Pelt, Big Dan Wren, Varnell and McClaughry, 
 commissioners and county officials. 
 
 Walker was nominated for alderman, a stiff fight was put up, 
 and Cole won his first defeat. He called it that, because Madden 
 
 CITIZENCOLE [27] 
 
was elected by a much reduced majority and the ward became 
 debatable ground. Cole said to Wells, "We can lose a battle and 
 not a war." He was not then conscious that in enlisting in that 
 battle he was enlisting in a thirty years' war. 
 
 [28] CITIZEN COL 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 Selected for President Municipal Voters' League 
 
 Most of the other wards had organized and had attempted 
 to elect better aldermen. In this they were supported by 
 the Civic Federation, and, except in one or two instances, their 
 candidates were defeated. President Gage and Secretary Easley 
 and their associates were convinced that to succeed the movement 
 must be broadened. They invited all the clubs and organizations 
 that might possibly be interested to meet in conference. At this 
 meeting as many plans were suggested as there were speakers. 
 One influential and patriotic citizen urged at length that an en- 
 tirely new party be formed devoted to civic purity. He acknowl- 
 edged that it might not succeed at first, but that, if it remained 
 true to its ideals, its efforts would be crowned with ultimate suc- 
 cess and would usher in a "civic millennium." Another equally 
 prominent and sincere delegate argued that the calling of this 
 conference was a mistake — that if good citizens would join their 
 ward and precinct partisan clubs all would go well. Between these 
 two extremes all sorts of "isms" found their advocates, and chaos 
 reigned. After hours of wrangling, some of the cooler heads, 
 to avoid disintegration, put through a resolution authorizing the 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [29] 
 
chairman to appoint a committee of fifteen to report a plan. This 
 committee appointed a committee of one hundred, two from each 
 of the thirty-four wards, and thirty-two at large. This committee 
 in turn named a second committee of fifteen, to form a plan and 
 nominate officers to carry on a campaign. 
 
 Mr. Cole said he looked upon the movement as one of those 
 flashes in the pan that so often occur in local affairs. These 
 preliminaries had consumed the fall of 1895 and had run into 
 February, 1896. Then, on Lincoln's birthday, about 4 p. m., 
 as Mr. Cole was just closing his desk for the day, the telephone 
 bell rang. He received a request to come to the Federation's head- 
 quarters to meet Mr. William T. Baker, who had succeeded Mr. 
 Gage as president. When he arrived, Mr. Baker merely said, 
 "Follow me," and conducted him across the hall to the office of 
 Edwin Burritt Smith, where the committee of fifteen was in 
 meeting. He was offered a seat and, still mystified, sat down. 
 Mr. Gage, the chairman of the committee, opened by saying, "As 
 you probably know, Mr. Cole, this committee is charged with the 
 duty of nominating officers and presenting a plan of operation to 
 the committee of one hundred, and, after full deliberation, we 
 have unanimously decided to offer the presidency to you." Mr. 
 Cole was quick to grasp the situation. We will quote him: "I 
 saw the whole thing in an instant. They had been together for 
 hours and days, trying to hit upon a leader, and failed. One man 
 has refused the task; another was too old or too lazy; still another 
 couldn't stand the criticism which was sure to follow; and so on. 
 As a last resort they took up the names of the committee of one 
 
 [30] CITIZENCOLE 
 
hundred, man after man, and in some way stumbled on my name. 
 In a moment of desperation they had agreed to offer me the place 
 and 'save their face.' I said to them: 'Gentlemen, you have not 
 named me as your first, second or third choice; it is merely "Hob- 
 son's choice." But I made up my mind over a year ago that I would 
 act the coward's part no longer, and would assume whatever civic 
 duty came to me unsought. I will accept the appointment, as the 
 leader of a forlorn hope, on condition that I am to name the 
 secretary and the executive committee, and am given full authority 
 to run things to suit myself. You are to furnish $10,000 and I 
 am not to know who contributes.' " Cole spent less than $7,000. 
 "In fact, as one of them afterward told me, they were but too 
 glad to be pulled out of the hole so easily. I went immediately 
 home from that conference, into my room and locked the door 
 and reviewed the situation alone with my conscience and my God." 
 This was the situation in Cole's mind. On the one side was 
 an intrenched camp of experienced and able political freebooters, 
 supported by financial, social and moral interests, relying on the 
 indifference, the laziness and the ignorance of the people; on the 
 other side was a man without prestige, experience or peculiar 
 adaptability to the work in hand. The solution in Cole's mind, 
 and the only road to success, lay in arousing the people. He had 
 a firm conviction that if they were once made to understand the 
 issue, the honest men, who are vastly in the majority, would win 
 the victories. 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [31] 
 
CHAPTER V 
 Organizes League to War on Yerkes Council 
 
 Two days later, on Saint Valentine's Day, the newspapers 
 announced, "The Fourth Ward man is chosen unanimously 
 as president of the new municipal reform movement." Seventy- 
 five members of the committee of one hundred had met at the 
 Palmer House the day before, and Cole had accepted the presi- 
 dency in a speech about as long as he ever made. We can quote 
 it in full: 
 
 "I will try and try hard to make this movement a success. I 
 realize that we are enlisting in a war which will last until every 
 scoundrel is turned out of the city hall and honest men get their 
 due. I have no friends to reward and no enemies to punish. Every 
 honest man is my friend and every dishonest one my enemy, no 
 matter how high his position. But we have a hard fight before us. 
 The strength of the machine arrayed against us lies in its unity. 
 No matter what personal differences the members may have, they 
 band together and present a solid front to the foe. Let us, 
 therefore, exercise the same self-control as they, and no matter 
 what our individual views may be, unite on the common ground 
 of 'one for all and all for one.' " 
 
 [32] CITIZEN COLE 
 
Mr. Gage summed up these requirements of a leader: that he 
 should be devoted, pure, honest, without political ambition, pos- 
 sessed of some leisure, courage, industry, patience, and ability to 
 take a good deal of calumny — a pretty large order, and, un- 
 fortunately, a rare combination. It remained to be seen whether 
 Cole filled the bill. 
 
 The next morning Cole came down to business an hour or 
 two earlier than usual, and cleaned up his desk with a view to 
 practically abandoning business for the time being. He had hardly 
 finished his mail before William H. Colvin, one of the committee 
 of fifteen, came in to express his gratification. Cole tells the in- 
 cident this way: "Before he finished his story I had made up my 
 mind that he must be one of the campaign committee of nine, and 
 I said to him, 'That is all right, Mr. Colvin. I fully appreciate 
 your kindly talk, and the motives that brought you here, but ac- 
 tions speak louder than words. You have helped me get into this 
 scrape, and now I am going to retaliate by appointing you a mem- 
 ber of the executive committee. I propose, as soon as we get 
 organized, to call a meeting every afternoon at three o'clock, 
 during six days of the week, until the election is over. You are 
 a man of substance and leisure, and have enthusiasm for the work 
 at hand. I want to utilize all of these qualities.' He replied, Well, 
 Mr. Cole, I have arranged to take my daughters to California 
 this spring, and, in fact, we have already begun preparations.' I 
 said, 'That is all right, but this whole campaign is a matter of 
 self-abnegation, and here is a chance for you to pay your debt to 
 the community in which you made your success.' He thought for 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 33 ] 
 
a minute, and then he said, ? I will go home and ask my daughters 
 to excuse me. If they consent I will be at your disposal, and will 
 give you your answer this afternoon.' He did give his answer, 
 and it was in the affirmative, and from that time until after the 
 election he was a strong and positive factor in all our doings. A 
 few weeks after the election was over I heard of his sudden death, 
 and I have wondered many times since if the work and worry he 
 gave to the campaign did not hasten his departure to the other 
 shore. I can get no answer to the question now, but I expect to 
 meet him there some day and that is the first question I propose 
 to ask. 
 
 "Immediately after my conversation with Mr. Colvin, I went 
 over to the office of my friend Frank Wells, told him what I 
 proposed to do, and said, 'Frank, I want you to go on the executive 
 committee and help me.' He said, 'George, I am a pretty busy 
 man and would like very much to be excused.' I said, 'That won't 
 go. I must have you, and I appeal to you as a matter of duty. I 
 don't pretend for a moment that there is not a lot of hard work 
 and worry and trouble connected with it, but I had you in mind 
 as the first man to approach.' He said, 'All right, if you put it 
 that way, I am at your disposal.' I then proceeded to the office 
 of Hoyt King and secured his consent to act as secretary. 
 
 "From there, I sought out Edwin Burritt Smith and James 
 L. Houghteling, who were, at that time, somewhat closely con- 
 nected in business, and said to them, 'Gentlemen, I haven't quite 
 nerve enough to ask you both to go on the executive committee 
 and to abandon your business for half the time for the next six 
 
 [34] CITIZEN COLE 
 
weeks. But I do expect that one of you will accept such an ap- 
 pointment, and you can settle between yourselves as to which one 
 it shall be.' The result was that Mr. Smith consented to become 
 a member of the executive committee, and Mr. Houghteling, not 
 giving this as an excuse for non-action, accepted the onerous posi- 
 tion of chairman of the finance committee. A great deal of the 
 early success of the League was owing to his able, disinterested 
 and energetic efforts in that capacity. 
 
 "By this time the shades of evening had fallen, and I went 
 home with three members of the executive committee and a secre- 
 tary as a result of the first day's work. With this as a nucleus, 
 I started out next morning to find headquarters. It happened that 
 a private banking office opposite the city hall had just been va- 
 cated, and with Mr. Wells' help we got permission from the 
 Potwin Estate to move in until May 1st, unless the place should 
 be rented before then. 
 
 "Having thus succeeded in procuring headquarters without 
 money, I started out to get furniture on the same liberal basis. 
 I called on my old friend Frank Tobey, told him what I was 
 trying to do, and asked him for the loan of such furniture as was 
 necessary to furnish the office, which was to be returned May 1st. 
 He said, 'All right, Cole, I will gladly let you have the furniture, 
 and I hope you will succeed beyond your expectations, but I have 
 my doubts. This thing has been tried before and has never 
 amounted to anything but a flash in the pan, and I have become 
 skeptical of all movements of this kind.' I said, 'That is all right, 
 but I know that you will be enthusiastic on the other line before 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [35] 
 
we get through.' This remark has been vindicated in many sub- 
 sequent conversations with my friend Tobey. 
 
 "I still had four members of the executive committee to pick 
 before we were ready to open headquarters. The next man I 
 tackled was an old printer friend of mine, who had been a labor 
 leader, and was then an editorial writer on a trade paper, Mr. 
 M. J. Carroll. I went for him in the same way I had the others, 
 and he reluctantly consented. I then tackled another friend, R. R. 
 Donnelley, president of one of our largest printing and publishing 
 companies. I called on him at his house. We went into the library, 
 and I told him the whole story — how I came to be and what I 
 hoped to do. I said, 'Now, Donnelley, I want you to jump into 
 the ring and hold up my hands.' 'Well, George, I'm getting along 
 in years and am a pretty busy man, and I don't feel that I could 
 afford to give the time.' 'That would be all right,' I said, 'if I 
 were asking you to attend some combination for pleasure or money 
 making. Then I would accept that as an excuse. But here is a 
 fight to the finish. I have got to have men that I can bet on, and 
 I know I can bet on you, and I need you. I appeal to your sense 
 of duty as a citizen.' He thought for a few moments, and then 
 said, 'You put it in a way that obliges me to say yes.' 
 
 "I had as a result of three days' work found headquarters 
 and furnished them; had a secretary, a finance chairman, and five 
 strong men to act on the executive committee, making seven in all, 
 including the president and the secretary. There I paused. I 
 thought of several men whom I would have liked on the com- 
 mittee, but who, for various reasons, either could not or would 
 
 [36] CITIZEN COLE 
 
not accept. The next day I opened up the office with the com- 
 mittee of seven, and the whole campaign was run with that num- 
 ber only. I will add in this connection that all of these men, 
 except the president and the secretary, have departed this life 
 full of honor. I am sure they were all received with 'Well done, 
 good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few 
 things. I will make thee ruler over many.' " 
 
 Edwin Burritt Smith acted both as legal counsel and literary 
 editor of the organization. All matters for publication, if not 
 originated by him, passed through his hands. He was an adept at 
 brevity of expression. Allen B. Pond was an assistant head- 
 quarters man. Later Graham Taylor, added to the committee, 
 was busy with northwest side wards. Colvin, Wells, Carroll and 
 Donnelley were present at daily sessions with helpful advice and 
 backing. 
 
 Judge Tuley's interest in the League movement was intense 
 and his advice and judgment were sought, freely given and grate- 
 fully accepted. Judge Tuley, on the bench of the Circuit Court 
 since 1879, had been a soldier from Illinois in the Mexican War. 
 When New Mexico became a part of this country, Tuley remained 
 in Santa Fe, practiced law and became attorney general of the 
 territory and a member of the legislature. Later, in Chicago, he 
 was a partner of Joseph E. Gary. They became associates on the 
 bench. So Tuley was a man of wide experience. 
 
 William Kent was frequently present and swung a vicious 
 pen. Later in the season he was to be defendant in a hundred 
 thousand dollar libel suit on account of his literary work in the 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [37] 
 
legislative campaign. He favored Joseph Powell, independent 
 republican in his district, and Powell was elected. Kent's lambast- 
 ing of Powell's opponent included seven different charges, serious 
 and specific. Some of the misdoings quoted were of a criminal 
 nature. Kent pleaded the facts, provable facts, and the suit fell 
 flat. 
 
 [38] CITIZEN COLE 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 Council a Market for Franchises 
 
 The people had heretofore picked aldermen for the Yerkes 
 council as democrats and as republicans. Breaking down party 
 lines was the task imposed on the League. The tariff and free 
 silver were national party issues. Voters were "yellow dog" repub- 
 licans and straight-laced democrats. A yellow dog republican was 
 one who boasted he would sooner vote for a yellow dog than vote 
 for a democrat. Would they break party lines to vote against 
 crooked aldermen, running under their party labels? A hint came 
 from old Arthur Dixon, long an alderman from the first ward, 
 but retired — an out-and-out republican party man. This from 
 him: "Party lines in the Council? Why, party lines in the Coun- 
 cil are a joke!" This was encouraging. It would be unfortunate 
 to have to wipe out parties. This was not attempted. The plan 
 was to wipe out party fealty so far as aldermen were concerned, 
 and pick the best man. Where neither party put up a good man, 
 independents were to be encouraged to run by petition. 
 
 The investigation disclosed that the City Council was a market 
 for the sale to corporations of rights in the streets, over them and 
 under them, with no adequate compensation to the city. Charles 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [39] 
 
T. Yerkes had come to Chicago in 1884. He was from Phila- 
 delphia, where he passed through being bookkeeper, cashier, note 
 broker, up to banking and dealing in municipal securities. In the 
 depression of '71, he used public funds to try to tide himself over. 
 He failed, and his indictment for diverting public funds followed. 
 Subsequently he bought into the street railways there and profited. 
 It was in 1884 that, having established a branch bank in Chicago, 
 he purchased a majority of the stock in the North Chicago Street 
 Railroad Company, and a year later in the west side lines. In 
 1895 he had changed to electric power and turned his attention 
 to elevated railways. And then this little stationer turns up, with 
 no experience and no money, to oppose him. Yerkes had brains, 
 long experience, money, and no conscience. He had built up a 
 complete control of the Council, fixing a market value for votes. 
 Other corporations fell in line. 
 
 When sales to these corporations were slow, the aldermen 
 granted rights to mushroom concerns — "born in mystery and 
 cradled in seclusion," the newspaper said. They were organized 
 to secure rights to sell out to existing rivals. Street, elevated and 
 underground railways, gas and electric companies, compressed-air 
 and smoke-abating companies were among the beneficiaries. Public 
 subscription was cleaning the streets, and the Council was giving 
 them away. Amendments by the minority to protect the public 
 were ruthlessly defeated. Vetoes by the mayor were overridden. All 
 these motions and votes made records showing clearly where the 
 aldermen stood. It was necessary to refresh and clarify the minds 
 of the voters. There was no way of getting around these records. 
 
 [40] CITIZEN COLE 
 
And Cole was calling for facts, facts, facts. Money was 
 needed sometimes and not on hand. Cole went ahead. "The 
 ravens will feed us" was his comforting assurance. "Take nothing 
 for granted" was his political maxim. "Let's get down to brass 
 tacks" was a daily salutation from Cole to his headquarters men. 
 They soon learned that a caller was not necessarily honest because 
 he was well dressed. That eye of Cole's was boring through every 
 tricky caller who came to mislead the League. "Don't like his 
 weak mouth" or "He has a shifty eye" decided a man's fate with 
 Cole. "I think" and "I guess" were taboo at headquarters. To go 
 off half-cocked came to be regarded as a grave infraction of the 
 law of the League, and over all was injected the firm belief that 
 "God helps those who fight like the devil." One thing more: 
 Cole distinguished a gangster in public affairs from a politician. 
 He himself was soon to be a good politician. 
 
 It seemed to dawn on the enemy that this man Cole could not 
 be cajoled or deceived; so they searched his record, which wasn't 
 much of a record. One day a Chronicle man dropped in to ask 
 Mr. Cole if he had ever served time at Leavenworth penitentiary. 
 Evidently some man of the same name had. But Cole had not 
 served in any penitentiary — had never even been in jail. So that 
 lead fell flat. 
 
 The newspaper men liked this new kind of reform body. They 
 sized up Cole and liked his slogans and his action. They bided 
 their time to see how pulls and politics would be side-stepped by 
 this reformer. Did his expression "No friends to reward and no 
 enemies to punish" mean anything? Here was a new kind of 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 41 ] 
 
reformer, not rich, not well known, with no record to speak of. 
 Was he vulnerable? Was there a flaw to be dug up in his past 
 life — some weak or dishonest act? Was he self-interested? 
 Would he be subservient to wily politicians or big business? 
 
 Daily visitors were Malcolm McDowell of the Record, now 
 Secretary of the Indian Commission in Washington, but at that 
 time political reporter and a source of invaluable information and 
 guidance; Ed Lahiff of the Herald and afterwards secretary to 
 the mayor, who later went home to Ireland and died on the old 
 home soil; John Cor win, Springfield man for the Tribune; Tom 
 O'Neill of the News; and Hi Fargo and Elton Lower of the Post. 
 John Lane dropped in once in a while for the Inter-Ocean, and 
 Florence Sullivan for the Chronicle. When the campaign pro- 
 voked an editorial comment, William (Billy) Hard of the Tribune 
 and George C. Sikes of the Record (crack writers) called. 
 
 Peter Finley Dunne, of "Dooley" fame, would drop in to find 
 William Kent and tour the saloon districts with him. They en- 
 joyed the consternation growing in the wicked wards and came 
 back to report, jubilant but fagged. William Kent, later to move 
 to California and become a congressman, had been elected to the 
 Council in 1895. He was the son of Albert E. Kent, one of the 
 early packers. Young Kent was a graduate of Yale. He inherited 
 real estate in Chicago and cattle ranches in the west. He spent 
 much leisure in hunting and was reputed to be a crack shot. Per- 
 haps his association with western characters was responsible for 
 the fearlessness he displayed in public life. Having a competent 
 agent handling the Chicago holdings, and a fellow classmate han- 
 
 [42] CITIZEN COLE 
 
dling the Nebraska cattle ranch, he became a militant figure in 
 Chicago politics. In his ward James R. Mann, later congressman, 
 was alderman. In 1894 Mann was a candidate for renomination. 
 Primaries were rough affairs even in staid Hyde Park. They 
 were conducted in the old-fashioned way that has been described 
 earlier in this work. They were determined by physical force. 
 Kent, who favored Mann and did not like his opponent, deter- 
 mined to carry his district for Mann. He got the support of some 
 athletic classmates and hired some prize fighters. They were 
 present at the polling place. Kent already had the votes, and it is 
 said everything was peaceful in his district on primary day. His 
 votes were received and counted and the district was carried for 
 Mann. 
 
 Mann thought young Kent would be an excellent colleague; 
 so he brought him out the following year for alderman. Kent was 
 elected and became a thorn in the flesh of crooked aldermen. 
 Without a strong voice, but with an art for good-natured abuse, 
 he voiced his sentiments on every boodle ordinance. He became 
 sincerely disliked, but he was respected by his many wayward col- 
 leagues. His knowledge and experience were valuable to the 
 League and were enthusiastically given. 
 
 CITIZENCOLE [43] 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 The Stanwood Incident 
 
 Things waxed warm. Round robins became Cole's almost 
 daily diet. Among the many comebacks from a record 
 printed, signed and circulated in a ward, was this letter addressed 
 to George E. Cole, Esq., President of the Municipal League. One 
 paragraph is enough. "I have known Alderman Stanwood for 
 some time, and I have no hesitancy in saying that he is one of the 
 best aldermen in the city, and should you take the trouble to see 
 him and talk with him you will find that in every instance where 
 he is charged with having voted for a so-called boodle ordinance 
 it was not done corruptly but for the purpose of securing votes 
 for some meritorious measure that would benefit the whole 
 people." This letter was signed by Joseph Downey, then Commis- 
 sioner of Public Works, and its sentiments were supported by the 
 signatures of three judges and five men of high standing and large 
 business interests in the city. 
 
 Mr. Cole, who had previously been interviewed by the pastor 
 and two members of Stanwood's church, had asked them to put 
 their objections to the Stanwood report in writing. This letter 
 was the result. After conferring with the full committee of the 
 
 [44] CITIZEN COLE 
 
League, Cole sent a reply to Hon. Joseph E. Downey et al. One 
 paragraph of this also is enough: "We regard this defense of Mr. 
 Stanwood, which is put forth by men of your standing, as painful 
 evidence of the low standard by which the public conduct of city 
 officials has come to be measured by even good citizens. Gentle- 
 men, has it not occurred to you that the defense which you sug- 
 gest — that he gave his vote for corrupt measures, in exchange 
 for meritorious ones — is a defense which is equally available to 
 the most notorious boodler in the Council?" 
 
 The remonstrance and the answer were published. They were 
 also printed and circulated in Mr. Stanwood's ward. He was 
 defeated. 
 
 There were other objections voiced against Cole's records. One 
 record he never published. The candidate, a bank director, owned 
 a building rented to a gambling club. This man was notified that 
 unless he withdrew, Cole would be compelled to publish the in- 
 formation as the League's ground for opposing him. He with- 
 drew, but not until the efforts of the president of one of Chicago's 
 great banks and other "prominent" citizens failed to move Mr. 
 Cole. He said, "I would not back my own brother under the 
 circumstances." This was a safe statement: he had no brother. 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [45] 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 Bathhouse John Protests 
 
 The First Ward came in to protest. Justin Smith in his book 
 "Chicago" mentions the incident. Elaborated, it occurred 
 like this: Mr. Cole and his secretary were alone at headquarters. 
 It was the close of day. No one was expected when in walked a 
 long man and a short man. Every murder in those days involved 
 a long man and a short man. This is mentioned to emphasize the 
 solemnity of the occasion. The secretary knew the long man. 
 Cole knew neither. Cole was behind the counter of the old bank- 
 ing room. On the raised floor inside he could lean on the counter. 
 The tall man towered over it. The short man's eyes just about 
 reached its level. The tall man said: 
 
 "Mr. Cole, I am John J. Coughlin." (Bathhouse John.) 
 
 "Glad to meet you, Mr. Coughlin." 
 
 "This is my friend, Michael Kenna." (Hinky Dink.) 
 
 "How do you do, Mr. Kenna." 
 
 "Now, Mr. Cole, I have come to see you as man to man, to 
 say you have done me a very great injustice in your report." 
 
 Mr. Cole is handed a printed copy of record. Cole reads: 
 "Proprietor, turkish bath establishment; owner of Silver Dollar 
 
 [46] CITIZEN COLE 
 
saloon; voted for nearly every questionable measure that has 
 come before the Council; supported Metropolitan Gas, Cosmo- 
 politan Electric, Ogden Gas, General Electric, Calumet and Blue 
 Island; with exception of Ogden Gas, voted to pass all over 
 mayor's veto." 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Coughlin, if we have made any mistake we will 
 be glad to correct it. Our records show you voted for all these 
 questionable ordinances." 
 
 "That is not the point, Mr. Cole. In this record you say I 
 was born in Waukegan. Now, Mr. Cole, I was born right here 
 in Chicago, and I am proud of it." 
 
 Of course, the correction was made next day in the newspapers 
 as requested. 
 
 CITIZENCOLE [ 47 ] 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 How Cole Played the Game 
 
 Mr. Cole relates one instance to show what deep root the 
 League movement had taken in a short time: "A few 
 days after the publication of the Stanwood letters, a man of 
 about fifty, evidently a laborer, came into headquarters. He said: 
 'Are you Mr. Cole?' I said, 'Yes.' Well, a lot of us men over 
 in the Twenty-eighth Ward got together last night and your state- 
 ment and publications were read, especially the one in which you 
 condemn both the democratic and republican candidates in our 
 ward. We concluded it was about time for us to do something to 
 vindicate our manhood. We are all poor men. I, myself, work for 
 two dollars a day and have taken a day off, while the other boys 
 chip in to make up my loss, and I have come down to lay the case 
 before you. We have a man living in our neighborhood who 
 would make a good alderman. He has always been a laboring 
 man, but has worked up by his own ability until he has an income 
 of eight or ten dollars a day as an expert house mover. He is a 
 natural leader of men and absolutely honest. We believe that if 
 he could get the endorsement and financial help of your League, 
 we could elect him.' I said, 'All right, send in your man and I 
 
 [48] CITIZEN COLE 
 
will look him over.' When can you see him?' 'Tomorrow after- 
 noon, or the next day.' 'I cannot come tomorrow afternoon, but 
 the day after tomorrow I will have him in here with the com- 
 mittee.' When the day arrived the committee came in and the 
 chairman introduced Charles H. Rector. It was not many minutes 
 before I made up my mind that all the first messenger had said 
 about Mr. Rector was true. He was a man of strong natural 
 ability, sound common sense and a natural leader of men, honest 
 and a winner. I said to him, 'How much would it cost to circu- 
 late your petition, file your candidacy and make a winning cam- 
 paign in your ward?' He said, 'With the work that I could do 
 myself, and the help that my friends will give me, I think that 
 $250 would pay all necessary expenses.' I did a little figuring on 
 my own hook and told him that I would give him $400 for ex- 
 penses and would send him speakers, etc. With the help of 
 Clarence Darrow and other speakers we made the campaign, ex- 
 pending a little more than $400 and winning against both the 
 regular party candidates. Mr. Rector served several terms in the 
 Council with credit to himself and to the benefit of his constit- 
 
 uents." 
 
 So Cole played the game. The League was republican in one 
 ward, independent in another, and democratic in another — any- 
 thing and everything to beat boodlers and land honest men. Cole 
 admits that he did everything for success except to lie and steal 
 or to buy and sell votes. As he put it, "We must be willing to 
 compromise everything but a principle, and not be afraid of being 
 misunderstood." 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [49] 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 A Victory in Verse 
 
 The day after the election, the League and the newspapers 
 supporting the League were jubilant. Napoleon Yerkes had 
 met his Waterloo. No better story of the results could be told 
 than that told by John T. McCutcheon in his cartoon in the 
 Record on April 14, 1896. The picture showed a battlefield 
 strewn with the bodies of many dead, labeled with the names of 
 defeated aldermen. But there were, ranked up, four dejected and 
 battle-scarred survivors with army caps at various unmilitary 
 angles on their heads. They wore bespattered uniforms. These 
 four survivors were Coughlin, Howell, Mulcahy and Martin. 
 Before this squad stood John Powers with the roll of the old 
 Council in his hand. He was calling the roll. 
 
 McCutcheon's conception of the victory was in rhyme, as 
 follows: 
 
 Stained with battle and weak and sore, 
 
 The "gang" men fell into line once more, 
 
 And Johnny Powers wept aloud 
 
 When he counted the number and votes in the crowd. 
 
 "Oh where are Deist and Engel?" asked he; 
 
 "Have all my soldiers deserted me?" 
 
 [50] CITIZEN COLE 
 
"They fell in battle," said Bathhouse John. 
 
 "Their constits would stand for no more con. 
 
 I see Tom Currier and Lammers run 
 
 Before the gazabos fired a gun, 
 
 But most of the boys went into the fight, 
 
 And the way they got done was a holy sight. 
 
 Slepika got it and Stanwood too, 
 
 And they give Fred Rohde the old razoo. 
 
 Watson was slewed and it give me a pain 
 
 To see how they walloped my friend Bigane." 
 
 The brave commander dropped a tear, 
 
 And remarked, "I don't see Mahoney here, 
 
 Or Brachtendorf, who voted right; 
 
 Did he get lost in the thick of the fight?" 
 
 Then Charley Martin replied, "W'y, boss, 
 
 They give old Brach the doublecross; 
 
 We can't find Ehlert anywhere, 
 
 And I see Henry Schendorf go up in the air." 
 
 "But Maurice O'Connor," the captain cried, 
 
 "The scrapper who was our joy and pride; 
 
 Surely he didn't go down in defeat?" 
 
 Said Howell, "They jumped on him with both feet, 
 
 And little Mike Ryan was slaughtered too, 
 
 While Merchant got scared and then he flew." 
 
 "Where's Colvin, then? Didn't some one say 
 
 That he was coming to save the day?" 
 
 John Coughlin answered, "W'y, boss, that man, 
 
 He wasn't even an 'also ran.' " 
 
 Then the captain exclaimed in loud dismay: 
 
 "Oh comrades, this is a tough, tough, day, 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [51] 
 
With Chapman and Chadwick not to be seen, 
 And Ackerman lost in the vast tureen; 
 And even Larson, that statesman bold, 
 Who always voted the way he was told, 
 Has disappeared from the public view 
 And will be no more help to me and you." 
 So of all the "gang" the valiant five 
 Were the only ones reported alive. 
 
 There were other rhymsters. Rabbi Hirsch for the Third 
 Ward offered this effusion: 
 
 Things have gone without a hitch: 
 Hull and Fisher are in the ditch; 
 Our Alderman is Henry Fitch. 
 
 Fitch won as an independent. 
 
 The News next day said, "Enshrouded by cigarette smoke, 
 laid out in blocks of ice and transported to its grave by the street 
 railway corporations of Chicago, the most unworthy City Council 
 the city has yet suffered from will be indecently interred tonight." 
 
 In the afternoon, Judge Tuley came into headquarters, calm, 
 happy. He cautioned the members of the executive committee 
 against being overexultant. A mass meeting to exploit their suc- 
 cess had been suggested, but was abandoned on advice of Tuley. 
 A little dinner of jollification was held at the old University Club 
 rooms, where Kent, Harlan and such as would, relieved their 
 minds by spellbinding. 
 
 Editorials in the press demanded the continuation of the 
 League. The name, Municipal Voters' League, adopted rather 
 offhand, was now a name of value. "Municipal" was a mouthful 
 
 [52] CITIZEN COLE 
 
for many of the gang; "mu-ni-cip'i-al," with emphasis on the third 
 syllable, was the best they could do. The value of the name was 
 recognized by Johnnie Rogers, saloonkeeper, with occasional gam- 
 bling privileges. He was a candidate in the old Eighteenth Ward, 
 along West Madison Street, and he successfully used the name 
 against his opponent William F. Mahoney, also a saloonkeeper 
 with a bad Council record. In the terse language of the League 
 and signed Municipal Voters' League (a very good imitation in- 
 deed) Johnnie set out the disqualifications of his opponent Ma- 
 honey and defeated him. 
 
 When some of these imitations of their style of literature fell 
 into the hands of League officials there was much resentment that 
 such a character as Johnnie Rogers could be so bold. Counsel 
 for the League, Edwin Burritt Smith, was consulted. He deemed 
 it necessary to get proof of publication. Mr. Cole called upon 
 Melville E. Stone, then local manager in Chicago for the Asso- 
 ciated Press, and asked advice. Stone thought the way to get 
 proof was to go where it was and get it. He paused a moment 
 and said: "I'll tell you a story. When I was on the News, I was 
 much interested in the glorious display of expensive fireworks 
 shot off in honor of Carter Harrison Senior's return from his 
 trip around the world. I believed, and many with me, that Carter 
 bought and paid for the fireworks shot off in his honor. I figured 
 he would buy them at Spalding's. So I called in a young reporter 
 and told him to go over to Spalding's, walk up to the cashier's 
 cage and, without misrepresentation but with an air of authority, 
 ask for Carter Harrison's bill for fireworks. He did. The cashier 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [53] 
 
turned to a ledger, made out the bill and handed it to him. I 
 printed it that evening." 
 
 Cole got the idea. He sent to Johnnie Rogers' saloon an 
 emissary who walked up to the bar and ordered a glass of beer. 
 Not knowing what to do with it he drank it, and then tossing on 
 the bar a card of a printing company (not Cole & Company) , he 
 casually remarked, "I see Mr. Rogers has a lot of printing and I 
 would like to get some of it." 
 
 "Well, you'll have to see Mr. Rogers." 
 
 "Who does his campaign printing?" 
 
 The bartender told him and he walked out. It would have 
 been simple to have verified by the printer that Rogers ordered the 
 circular, but the case ended abruptly. Counsel found the League 
 had no right to its name. So the League incorporated. 
 
 [54] CITIZENCOLE 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 Backbone of the Gang Broken 
 
 The Waterloo cracked but did not break the enemy ranks. 
 The election was just fifty-two days from the day Cole was 
 chosen president of the new municipal reform movement. That 
 night, after the returns were all in, he gave an interview to the 
 newspapers, claiming a possible honest majority. Among other 
 things, he said, "I retire from active politics this evening." And 
 he went back to George E. Cole & Company's office as printer and 
 stationer, at 86 Dearborn Street. 
 
 Before the end of the week he changed his mind. He said 
 later: "I saw what a slight conception I had of the magnitude 
 and permanency of the struggle. I claimed the election of twenty- 
 seven good aldermen out of thirty-six candidates. I was sure of 
 six of the holdovers, and then drew on my optimism for the 
 balance to make up an honest majority. All of which shows how 
 green I was in undervaluing the resources of 'boodle.' I saw the 
 weakness of reform in expecting to beat permanent and organized 
 graft by an occasional spurt. It was like the 'minute man' against 
 the 'regular.' " 
 
 In less than a week Cole was back in the fight harder than 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [55] 
 
ever and working tooth and toenail to hold a compact minority 
 of one-third in an agreement to sustain the mayor's veto. There 
 had been formed a company to operate a street-car line in the 
 southwest portion of the city. This company had put through 
 one of the Council's notorious free gift franchises (for a con- 
 sideration on the side) , which included Jackson Street (now Jack- 
 son Boulevard) — the only street running east and west in the 
 heart of the city and not already occupied by a street-car line. 
 The people were up in arms against this ordinance and the mayor 
 had vetoed it. The consideration of this veto was to come up at 
 the first meeting of the new Council on Monday evening, April 
 13. On the afternoon of the Saturday before this meeting Cole 
 was informed that the so-called "gang" had planned to pass this 
 measure over the veto before the newly elected aldermen were 
 sworn in and given their seats. 
 
 Cole went into action. "I immediately subsidized the local 
 messenger service," Cole said, "got in touch with reliable aldermen 
 (both holdovers and prospectives) and brought together twenty- 
 nine at the Union League Club on Sunday afternoon. After 
 I had explained the situation to them they agreed that the newly 
 elected aldermen should present their credentials to the city clerk 
 and be sworn in before the meeting and demand their seats in 
 time to support Mayor Swift's veto. We adjourned to meet at 
 the League headquarters next day at 2 p. m. About nine o'clock 
 Monday morning alderman elect (later to become a Federal 
 judge) Charles M. Walker came into my store. He told me that 
 he had just applied to city clerk Van Cleave to be sworn in. Van 
 
 [56] CITIZEN COLE 
 
Cleave had put him off with the statement that he did not have 
 proper forms to be filled out and would meet him at the Council 
 rooms in the evening. We both concluded that this showed the 
 ^African in the wood pile.' I asked Mr. Walker to draw up a 
 proper form and I printed it immediately, and arranged to have 
 some one with legal authority present to administer the oath at 
 our afternoon meeting. However, the city clerk in some way 
 found out what was up and consequently had been able to find 
 the right forms and was ready to perform his duty. The new men 
 were all sworn in that afternoon, came to the council meeting, took 
 possession of their seats, supported the mayor's veto, and saved 
 Jackson Boulevard in its present form." 
 
 Before June 26, when the Yerkes Union Loop ordinance was 
 to be brought up for passage, the reliable aldermen had built up 
 a strong organization with such leaders as William S. Jackson, 
 William Mavor, John M. Harlan, A. W. Maltby, Charles M. 
 Walker and others, fully prepared for the contest. The ordi- 
 nance was fought over until past midnight and they were de- 
 feated, but at no time was the vote opposing the measure and 
 supporting compensation amendments lower than the one-third 
 necessary to support the mayor's veto. 
 
 Cole immediately sought out Mayor Swift. Cole gives an 
 account of the interview: "He asked me what I thought we ought 
 to have in the way of compensation, and when I suggested the 
 amount he said, ? Why, Cole, you're crazy. It would be impossible 
 to put it through on that line.' I said, 'Mr. Mayor, there are at 
 least twenty- four men who will stand by your veto absolutely.' 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [57] 
 
The mayor said, *I don't believe for a moment that you can hold 
 that number.' I said, *A11 right, Mr. Mayor, I will try and prove 
 it to you.' " 
 
 This led to an immediate meeting of a half-dozen aldermen 
 in Mr. Harlan's office. An agreement was drawn up to stand by 
 the mayor's veto and signed, and the half-dozen and Mr. Cole 
 and Mr. Harlan started out to get signatures. Harlan and Cole 
 toured by carriage until after midnight, getting some aldermen 
 out of bed. The next day the group laid before Mayor Swift a 
 communication urging him to veto the Van Buren Loop ordinance 
 for lack of any compensation to the city in exchange for an 
 enormously valuable franchise, and insisting upon the compensa- 
 tion provided for in an amendment offered by Alderman Fitch. 
 This was supported by two typewritten pages of argument and 
 signed by twenty-two aldermen. They needed one more. There 
 were two more who were out of the city but could be counted on. 
 Mayor Swift, however, decided to make his own bargain with 
 Yerkes' forces. Mr. Cole admits that the mayor probably did 
 what he thought was best and used the backing of the reliable 
 aldermen to force through a bargain under which the city is get- 
 ting some compensation. 
 
 The fight showed that the backbone of the "gang" was broken. 
 The name "gray wolves" was now coined for them by Walter 
 L. Fisher, indicating a hungry pack on the outside trying to get in. 
 
 [58] CITIZENCOLE 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 A United States Senator Sunk 
 
 Preparations for the April election were begun by adding to 
 the League committee Professor Graham Taylor, Allen B. 
 Pond, the architect, and Francis Lackner, lawyer. The League 
 now consisted of three lawyers, two merchants, a real estate man, 
 a labor leader, a professor and an architect. 
 
 The summer and part of the winter of 1896 had been devoted 
 to covering the Council proceedings, page by page, on all motions 
 and votes on "boodle" ordinances. Thirty-four aldermen, the 
 other half of the Council, were to retire in April, 1897. Five 
 of them had consistently good records: Noble B. Judah, lawyer; 
 Anton Novak, cigarmaker; A. W. Maltby, coal merchant; Wil- 
 liam R. Manierre, warehouse owner; and William Kent, land 
 owner and rancher. John O'Neill had thrown his influence with 
 the decent aldermen and was approved. The records of some 
 were clear. They were uniformly good or uniformly bad. Some 
 were mixed. One of these was Madden's. His record was gone 
 into in detail. He was absent sometimes when a questionable fran- 
 chise was passed and was present and voted for it over a veto. 
 He supported nearly all motions to amend or strike out in favor 
 
 CITIZENCOLE [59] 
 
of the franchise-seeking company, and seemed privileged then 
 to vote against the ordinance he had whipped into shape. This 
 kept him off the newspaper black list next day. The record 
 showed him a leader for Yerkes and consistently against adequate 
 compensation. 
 
 The records of these thirty- four retiring aldermen were printed 
 in pamphlet form and Cole mailed 400,000 of them, one to each 
 registered voter. Madden had given up. He was candidate for 
 United States Senator. It was all fixed. The machine control in 
 1896 seemed invincible. The big leaders were Henry Hertz, Wil- 
 liam Lorimer, coal man; Martin B. Madden, president Western 
 Stone Company; and James Pease, painter. There were Doc 
 Jamieson, druggist; Joe Braden, head of a New York life in- 
 surance agency; lesser leaders; and numerous first and second 
 lieutenants. 
 
 They were business men, with politics for a specialty. Or- 
 dinarily kaleidoscopic in its changes, this combine was held to- 
 gether by self-interest. But each watched the other; each was 
 valued by the number of delegates he could bring into the county 
 and state conventions. If the combine had a near-control it could 
 count on swinging the balance of power its way — buying it with 
 the promise of little or much in the way of offices. It controlled 
 as a corporation controls — through those who hold almost a 
 majority of the stock. 
 
 This combine was composed of men who had risen from small 
 beginnings. William Lorimer, ex-street-car driver, later coal man, 
 with large profits for supplying the county, had risen, by degrees, 
 
 [60] CITIZEN COLE 
 
to control of the primaries in a string of west side wards. Elected 
 to Congress in 1894, he was a candidate for renomination in 1896. 
 Henry Hertz, born in Denmark, rising from bank teller to various 
 clerkships in the recorder's office, criminal court clerk's office, then 
 to coroner, then chief clerk of the election commissioners, had 
 taken such an active and continued interest in the politics of his 
 adopted country that he held sway over a number of northwest 
 side wards. He was the agreed candidate for state treasurer. 
 James Pease, sheriff since 1894, and former assessor, was up for 
 re-election. Madden owned the Fourth Ward and reached over 
 into the territory on the south for some support from Joe Braden, 
 Drainage Trustee, and Thomas N. (Doc) Jamieson, Clerk of the 
 Appellate Court and national committeeman. To the north, 
 Madden could sometimes get the help of Perry Hull. Madden's 
 ambition required state-wide support. The legislature named the 
 senator. It was to meet in December. So John R. Tanner was 
 taken in, as the combine's choice for governor. 
 
 All went welL Madden delivered to the county convention 
 and, with Lorimer's help, Pease was named for sheriff. The con- 
 gressional convention, in the Second District, had dutifully named 
 Lorimer for Congress. The state convention met. The combine 
 delivered to Tanner and Hertz. The election followed in Novem- 
 ber, 1896, and the McKinley vote against free silver elected a 
 republican legislature and carried the four into office — all but 
 Madden. In December the legislature met. Following the theory 
 of representative government, advocated by the constitution mak- 
 ers, this deliberative body, chosen with care (theoretically) , was to 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [61] 
 
pick one of Illinois' distinguished sons to send to Washington. 
 The legislature was hand-picked, all set to follow orders. It was 
 slow to act. In February a monkey-wrench was thrown into the 
 machinery. Cole circulated his record of retiring aldermen. Mad- 
 den's was included. His defeat for senator followed. The mem- 
 bers from Cook County had knowledge of the potency of public 
 records in blasting political ambitions of aldermen. Some of the 
 Cook County members, and some from down-state, regardless of 
 Tanner, could not be whipped into line. They were not anxious 
 to send to the Senate a man the people would not re-elect alder- 
 man, and they did not. 
 
 Some think that Madden saw the light. In 1905 he was elected 
 to Congress, became chairman of the appropriations committee 
 and was a hard-working and efficient Congressman. He died at 
 his post and in his country's service. He outlived the taint of 
 Charles T. Yerkes. 
 
 [62] CITIZEN COLE 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 Yerkes Institutes Libel Suit 
 
 But all was not primroses in Cole's path. Mr. Yerkes was 
 resourceful. He now owned the Inter-Ocean, purchased 
 from William Penn Nixon, and had George Wheeler Hinman for 
 managing editor. Cole and his committee could imagine Mr. 
 Yerkes and his astute criminal lawyer meeting at the railway of- 
 fices of the magnate to scan the aldermanic report carefully. It 
 bore Cole's signature. It called a spade a spade. And these two 
 heads came upon the statement, "This type of alderman (refer- 
 ring to James L. Campbell) is a greater menace to the community, 
 and more dangerous to free institutions, than is the notorious and 
 self-confessed boodler." 
 
 "Ah!" probably the learned counsel says. "We have him. 
 This is criminal libel." 
 
 They consider that point. The probability of success in this 
 line does not look good to them. 
 
 "Well, a suit for $75,000 damages will be an effective method 
 of putting this little stationer out of business," finally concludes 
 Mr. Yerkes. 
 
 So Mr. Campbell is consulted, is ordered, probably, to con- 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [63] 
 
sent to the filing of a suit, and Cole receives a summons to answer 
 to damages to the tune of $75,000. 
 
 Of course, this was disturbing, and the League officials met. 
 Did they mean, as the innuendo in the complaint stated, "that the 
 said Campbell was a boodler"? It was not exactly so stated. But 
 Cole knew that he did mean it, and said, "We meet the charge. 
 The League's life depends on it." They did meet it. Edwin Bur- 
 ritt Smith filed the general issue, which meant that if Campbell 
 proved that Cole said what he said, and that it was printed and 
 circulated by him, with his signature, he was guilty. But there is 
 a rule of law that if a person utters a truth, with good motives, 
 and without malice, he is not liable for damages. This was covered 
 by a plea of justification. 
 
 So we leave this case hanging over Cole for the next two years, 
 trial being postponed apparently indefinitely. 
 
 Meantime, the second campaign progressed. New head- 
 quarters had been secured in the old Real Estate Board rooms at 
 Randolph and Dearborn. A rail separated the lobby from the 
 working force. The gate was simply a piece of scantling on a 
 hinge. Cole's greeting in the morning was to lift this scantling 
 and slam it down as he passed through. The effect was like the 
 crack of a rifle. It said as plainly as words, "Man the guns. We're 
 in action now." He called this "stirring up the animals," and woe 
 betide the man with a duty assigned and not performed. 
 
 Cole claims he made a bad blunder in this campaign, in yield- 
 ing to a request that the League stand for four independent can- 
 didates for assessor. "We tried to clean up another cesspool be- 
 
 [64] CITIZEN COLE 
 
fore we had purged the first," he said. "It tended to divide our 
 forces, and to increase the number of our enemies." Never again 
 did the movement step aside from the one issue of fitness of alder- 
 men. 
 
 What brought about the mistake was this: Chicago is ruled 
 under a charter, passed in 1873, when it was not nearly so large. 
 The constitution prohibits special legislation. So Chicago is tied 
 to a government in some respects absurdly inadequate. There is a 
 dual government, city and county. At this time there were also 
 seven township governments, lying wholly or partly within the 
 city. Each had an assessor, collector, supervisor and clerk, all 
 receiving excessive salaries, and spending money in gross disregard 
 of the law. Gentlemen in high standing in the Real Estate Board 
 proposed that the League back independent candidates of good 
 reputation, for assessors in four townships, because there was a 
 possibility of beating the regular candidates and getting an honest 
 assessment. The independents were put up and backed by the 
 League. The republican leaders complained to Cole that the 
 movement would elect democratic candidates of bad reputation. 
 Cole called the bluff. "Gentlemen," he said, "I grant you there is 
 something in what you say, but the difference between the partic- 
 ular democratic candidates to whom you refer and their republican 
 opponents is just the difference between a meat ax and a Damascus 
 blade. The former will be open and brutal, but no more vicious 
 and effective. The important point is that it will be you and your 
 friends that will be stuck, if the democrats are elected. You and 
 your party have control of the legislature, and in this way you 
 
 CITIZENCOLE [65] 
 
may be forced to grant relief by a change in our system of assess- 
 ments, which has so frequently been asked for." 
 
 The independents were overwhelmingly beaten, and several 
 of the meat axes were elected, and their looting was so coarse, 
 open and brutal that within three years townships in Chicago were 
 abolished by legislative act — this after twenty-five years of bat- 
 tling for their abolition. 
 
 Mayor Swift was to retire immediately after the election in 
 April. The campaign to select his successor had developed into 
 an intensely bitter four-cornered fight between Judge Nathaniel 
 C. Sears, republican; Carter H. Harrison Junior, democrat (his 
 first venture) ; John Maynard Harlan, independent republican; 
 and Washington Hesing, independent democrat. Harlan made 
 Yerkes and compensation for the streets his issue. While the 
 League managed to avoid taking sides, the intensity of the fight 
 and important issues absorbed public attention, and the aldermanic 
 contests were lost sight of. As the returns came in it looked like 
 the reform movement had lost ground. Cole was disappointed. 
 He came to headquarters next morning with a glint in his eye. 
 His first words were, "My boy, we can lose a battle, and not a 
 war. We have a fight on our hands." 
 
 [66*] CITIZEN COLE 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 Election Crooks Go to Joliet 
 
 A fraud against the independent candidate, in the Seven- 
 teenth Ward, had been committed. An "invincible" bi- 
 partisan machine controlled the election of aldermen in the ward. 
 Stephen P. Revere, republican, saloonkeeper and Yerkes alder- 
 man off and on in the Council since 1885, was a candidate for re- 
 election. Maurice M. O'Connor, democrat, gas inspector and 
 former alderman, was backing Maggio as democratic candidate. 
 Revere and O'Connor played into each other's hands against out- 
 siders, and James Walsh, independent, backed by Cole, was an 
 outsider. 
 
 Graham Taylor, professor of Social Economics in the Chicago 
 Theological Seminary, had come to Chicago in 1892. In 1894 
 he founded and became resident warden of the Chicago Commons, 
 located in the Seventeenth Ward. He had classrooms for study, 
 for sewing and dressmaking, and for cooking, and rooms for 
 play and entertainment. The Commons was a club for the lowly 
 workers and the foreign-born, mostly Italians. Professor Taylor, 
 aided by Joseph A. O'Donnell, secured James Walsh, at one 
 time a wholesale liquor dealer, as a candidate worthy of League 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 67 ] 
 
support against Revere and Maggio. Walsh was in good standing 
 and fairly popular. He was nominated by petition as an independ- 
 ent. Cole backed him with a small appropriation for printing 
 and postage. Election day rolled around. Taylor's man was 
 elected in this ward of lowly workers and foreign-born, according 
 to the returns that came in up to four o'clock in the morning. 
 
 It seemed that the invincible machine was not invincible. The 
 bosses who had dominated the ward seemed not to be bosses at 
 all. Then the hitch came. The returns from the Fifteenth 
 Precinct were delivered to the election commissioner's office with 
 the ballot box at four o'clock in the morning. They gave Revere 
 the necessary votes to overcome Walsh. This precinct was under 
 suspicion. Walsh watchers had been refused admittance. The 
 delay in the returns seemed unnecessary. There was nothing to 
 do but await the canvass of all the returns by the canvassing 
 board, consisting of the election commissioners, county judge and 
 city attorney. Here the sealed envelopes from all the precincts 
 were opened. The tally sheets in each precinct — showing the 
 number of tallies for each candidate and the signed return of 
 the judges — were inspected, and the vote announced, and all 
 precincts added together to give the official figure. This showed 
 Revere elected. But, in the Fifteenth Precinct, the tally sheets 
 showed that eighty tallies for Maggio (democrat) were roughly 
 scratched off. Maggio was out of the running anyway, and some 
 of the democratic votes might be useful to Revere. 
 
 Cole began proceedings in the Council to contest the election 
 of Revere on the ground of fraud. The only way to get a right 
 
 [68] CITIZEN COLE 
 
to open the ballot boxes to find what became of those eighty 
 votes was by a contest. The contest was referred to a committee. 
 The committee failed to act, and Cole, through Walsh's at- 
 torneys, Joseph A. O'Donnell and Clayton E. Crafts, applied to 
 the Supreme Court and secured a writ of mandamus, directed to 
 His Honor, Mayor Harrison, and the City Council members, to 
 open and count the ballots. The recount seated Walsh, October 
 25, six months after the election. 
 
 The recount had showed the returns to have been falsified. 
 Cole laid the facts before State's Attorney Charles S. Deneen. 
 Indictments were secured and capiases given to Sheriff Pease to 
 make arrests of the three judges in the Fifteenth Precinct. No 
 arrests were made by the sheriff. Albert C. Barnes, then Deneen's 
 assistant, called on the sheriff's office. The deputy in charge of 
 the writs said that he had called on Maurice M. O'Connor and 
 had been told not to serve them. Next day Cole called upon 
 Charles M. Faye, managing editor of the Daily News, and laid 
 all the facts of the whole fight before him. Mr. Faye said, "Mr. 
 Cole, I will publish whatever you write, over your signature." 
 So Cole told his story to the people. In less than twenty-four 
 hours the deputy called on Cole. The deputy palavered. Cole 
 said, "If you don't have these men in court in time for trial, I 
 will publish you and your office from the housetops, and appeal 
 to the people so loudly and persistently that either I will be 
 kicked out of the community as a nuisance or they will compel you 
 to obey the law." O'Connor brought in two of the judges (one had 
 skipped), and Assistant State's Attorney Barnes tried the case 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 69 ] 
 
immediately and vigorously before Judge Waterman. Cole's 
 investigators reported a rumor that the jury had been tampered 
 with. The jury disagreed. State's Attorney Deneen immediately 
 ordered the case on trial again, and again Barnes prosecuted, and 
 Patrick Ferris and John J. Hanrahan were found guilty and 
 sentenced by Judge Chetlain to an indefinite term in Joliet prison. 
 Neither Boss Revere (republican) nor Boss O'Connor 
 (democrat) counted very much in the Seventeenth Ward after 
 Graham Taylor took an interest in affairs, supported by lowly 
 workers and foreign-born. In 1901, Taylor and his Community 
 Club elected a republican, a young Polish lawyer named John 
 M. Smulski. He had first served in the Sixteenth Ward and 
 then was moved to the Seventeenth, by change of ward lines. 
 He became city attorney, treasurer of the state and president of 
 the West Park board of commissioners, and later retired to con- 
 duct a banking business in the ward. In 1902, the Community 
 Club, meeting at Chicago Commons, picked another lawyer, a 
 democrat this time. He was William E. Dever. When ap- 
 proached, he at first refused to run because he could not afford 
 it, but Raymond Robins, who had joined the Commons staff as 
 resident worker in 1900, lately returned from the Klondike, was 
 comfortably well off and backed Dever financially. The campaign 
 was bitterly fought. Robins and Carl V. Wisner, young lawyer, 
 also resident worker, manned the two most lawless precincts. 
 They insisted on a square deal, and they got it. Dever was elected. 
 Both Smulski and Dever served together for a year. After nine 
 years in the Council, Dever was elected judge of the Superior 
 
 [70] CITIZEN COLE 
 
Court and resigned that office to become a candidate for mayor. 
 He was elected and served one term. 
 
 It didn't make any difference whether a man backed by Taylor 
 and Robins ran as a democrat, an independent or a republican. 
 The question was, "Is he honest?" 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [71] 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 Yerkes Gets Allen Bill Through Legislature 
 
 In the campaign of 1896 Yerkes' control of the Council was 
 broken. This was shown by his failure to put through the 
 Union Loop ordinance in the customary form over a veto without 
 adequate compensation. He now turned to the legislature. It 
 was the same body that had been picked by Lorimer, Hertz, 
 Pease, Madden and Tanner. In the winter of 1897 Yerkes 
 caused a bill to be introduced in the Senate containing a clause 
 to take away from the Council the franchise-giving power and 
 give it to the legislature. Professor Graham Taylor, in his book, 
 "Pioneering on Social Frontiers," credits George C. Sikes, stu- 
 dent of street railway affairs and scholarly writer for the Daily 
 News, with discovery of the "joker" in this bill. This bill was 
 defeated. But in the house another measure, the notorious Allen 
 law under which the City Council could grant fifty-year fran- 
 chises, was passed. The bills were both denounced by the press 
 and the public as "conceived in sin and born in corruption." 
 
 The future of the members who supported the bills was left 
 to the voters. No criminal proceedings followed. Perhaps the 
 situation was correctly stated by Ex-Governor John Peter Altgeld, 
 
 [72] CITIZEN COLE 
 
who had vetoed a somewhat similar bill. He said, "While there 
 are probably not many outsiders who can go before a grand jury 
 and swear to definite acts, yet there are such a multitude of facts, 
 there are so many and such conclusive circumstances, there are 
 so many things all pointing in the same way, that today there is 
 hardly an intelligent man in the State of Illinois but who feels 
 just as certain that the passage of these acts (including the Gas 
 Consolidation bill) was secured by wholesale bribery, and is a 
 stain upon our government and a stab at the life of the republican 
 institutions, as he is that George Washington lived." 
 
 Yerkes was not through, and Cole must fight on. The 
 Council could still grant franchises, and Mr. Yerkes and Mr. 
 Cole lined up again for the aldermanic fight of 1898. The elec- 
 tion would settle the question whether the Council was to repre- 
 sent private or public interest. Cole so directed his end of the 
 fight that every ward was hotly contested. The reform ticket was 
 made up of republicans, democrats and independents. The "gray 
 wolves" were shown to have money galore, and it was used freely. 
 On the other hand, Cole played all the politics he knew, and 
 played it to a finish. The people, still aroused over the brazen 
 acts of Yerkes in corrupting the legislature, accepted the recom- 
 mendations of the League. The result on election day was a most 
 complete victory for honest government. 
 
 That night one of Chicago's papers said this: "Charles T. 
 Yerkes ceases to be a factor in Chicago politics; he is beaten, 
 banished, driven from the city hall, with his chief bandits who 
 had laid plans to loot the city of its rights for fifty years." 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [73] 
 
Cole went home the night of the election, April 4. He sat 
 down and thought over the situation. The street car status under 
 the Allen law was decided. Yerkes was no longer a factor. "I 
 had given the work nearly all my time for over two years, and 
 felt that I had accomplished all that I could. I concluded it was 
 time to turn over the work to some one else." The next morning 
 he presented his resignation as president of the Municipal Voters' 
 League. 
 
 But this was not the first nor by any means the last time that 
 he thought he was through. The day after the election Alderman 
 Charles M. Walker called on him. Walker said he thought they 
 were strong enough to name the committees, assume the initiative 
 and begin some constructive, affirmative work. Cole said, "All 
 right, work out your plan, and I will do what I can to help you." 
 Walker, a democrat, got together ten other democrats who were 
 willing to have Mayor Harrison name good, non-partisan com- 
 mittees. Cole went to work on the republican aldermen. There 
 was much delay. Finally, as Alderman Coughlin put it, "We 
 hooked and gaffed a few more reformers," and committees were 
 named by the usual party caucus. It was another of those initial 
 failures that led up to final success. A year from then the Coun- 
 cil began and continued to name its committees through a non- 
 partisan committee of the better aldermen. 
 
 [74] CITIZEN COLE 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 Ropes for Aldermen — Exit Yerkes 
 
 This slight victory of Yerkes' friends encouraged him to be- 
 lieve that he could yet win out. Either that or his desperation 
 decided him to move in the fall to put through a fifty-year fran- 
 chise under the terms of the Allen law. This brought the whole 
 conflict to a focus, and it was hot indeed. There were rumors of 
 boodle, threats of lynching, meetings of citizens in the central part 
 of the city and throughout the wards, and resolutions passed. 
 
 One of these resolutions showed the temper of the public. 
 It was adopted by the Scuth Water Street merchants. It is worth 
 quoting in full: 
 
 "Whereas, A condition exists in the city of Chicago that is 
 contrary to the expressed wishes and detrimental to the interests 
 of the citizens of the city, contrary to the principles of honor, 
 honesty and good citizenship in the unmistakable intent of certain 
 aldermen, known as the *gang,' to betray, deceive and feloniously 
 barter away the privileges of the streets of Chicago in exchange 
 for boodle that represents the stealings of years from the traveling 
 public of Chicago; and 
 
 "Whereas, The individual suspected of corrupting the alder- 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [75] 
 
men, known as the 'gang,' is known to be a dangerous ex-convict; 
 and 
 
 "Whereas, The laws of the State of Illinois are found to be 
 impotent in dealing with financial anarchists now threatening the 
 interests of the three next generations of Chicago citizens; and 
 
 "Whereas, The patriotic impulse of American citizenship is 
 now moved to commit necessary violence, bloodshed and murder 
 in defense of its inherited rights; be it therefore 
 
 "Resolved, That the Mayor of the City of Chicago be re- 
 quested to cause the instant arrest of said ex-convict under the 
 statutes governing dangerous, disreputable and suspicious charac- 
 ters. And if the Mayor should find no laws existing whereby the 
 personal liberties, rights and property of citizens of the City of 
 Chicago can be protected, that he be called upon to issue a procla- 
 mation to the said citizens of Chicago, calling upon them to protect 
 and defend their liberties, rights and property in such manner and 
 through such effective measures as may be deemed necessary to 
 accomplish that end." 
 
 The Council met. It is said some citizens came with ropes that 
 they trailed over the balcony rail. There is at least some ground 
 for the story. Ropes were talked of freely. Mayor Harrison had 
 announced that under no circumstances would he allow the fran- 
 chise to go through while the Allen law was on the statutes. It 
 was an absolute certainty that there were more than enough votes 
 to sustain his veto. 
 
 Yerkes gave up the fight, and a few weeks later the legislature 
 obliterated the Allen law. By 1900 Yerkes had disposed of his 
 
 [76] CITIZEN COLE 
 
interests in Chicago. Later he turned up in London, but his history 
 there is not a Chicago story. 
 
 Mr. Cole again quit. His resignation was accepted, and Wil- 
 liam Kent, professing his inability to perform the work, but 
 anxious to see it go on, became president of the League and Allen 
 B. Pond, the architect, became secretary, to be succeeded by 
 Walter L. Fisher as secretary, who later became president. Under 
 these men, with better organization and resources, greater results 
 were accomplished than in preceding years. 
 
 CITIZENCOLE [77] 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 Libel Suit Abandoned 
 
 After his "retirement" Cole anticipated a breathing space. 
 fc But the Campbell vs. Cole $75,000 libel suit was pending. 
 Preparation was necessary and had been made, and Cole wanted 
 to get rid of the suit by trying it. He had admitted calling Camp- 
 bell a boodler. Was Campbell's record sufficient to justify that 
 statement? It would be much better to prove he took money for 
 a vote. The citizens who pay aldermen for their votes do not 
 talk: they themselves are guilty of bribing. Persons who know of 
 such acts do not care to get mixed up in the matter. 
 
 But there are ways to get facts, if they exist. And the League 
 had large experience in getting facts. It had many friends among 
 the newspaper people; and newspaper people, if they have not the 
 facts, at least know where to get them. 
 
 After much preliminary investigation, the way led to Charles 
 M. Faye, managing editor of the Daily News. Mr. Faye knew a 
 man, who told him he knew a man, who said he knew from an- 
 other man that Campbell received $500 for securing the last- 
 named man a contract for disposal of the garbage in his ward. 
 The last man was a teaming contractor. The second man was a 
 
 [78 } CITIZEN COLE 
 
stockholder in the teaming company, who was sore because he 
 found his company had paid out the $500 and he had not re- 
 ceived any of the profits. 
 
 The first man was a grocer and a friend of the stockholder, 
 and to him the stockholder had confided. The grocer would not 
 tell Cole's lawyer what he had told Mr. Faye until after he con- 
 ferred with Mr. Faye. Then he told the story to Cole's lawyer. 
 
 Notice to Campbell's lawyer that Cole would take the deposi- 
 tion, that is, the sworn statement, of this stockholder who lived 
 out of town, and notice to the garbage man that he would be 
 called as witness to the facts within his knowledge. So the gar- 
 bage man knew what Cole purposed to do — and he was a friend 
 of Campbell. It was fair to presume that he got word to Camp- 
 bell promptly. 
 
 The case came up. Cole insisted on setting the case for trial. 
 A day's delay was asked by Campbell's attorney and granted. 
 Campbell left town. There was no trial the next day. The case 
 was ignominiously dropped. Cole had a burden lifted from his 
 shoulders that had not weighed so heavily on him as it had on 
 Mrs. Cole. That is why he wanted action. The outcome was his 
 final victory against his arch enemy, Charles T. Yerkes. 
 
 Cole was a private citizen, again printer and stationer, at 
 86 Dearborn Street. This privacy lasted until the fall. 
 
 The three campaigns to purge the Council had brought many 
 new men into public life. Ambition to serve had been awakened. 
 
 The Council became from then on a valuable school in politics, 
 in legislation and in public work. Aldermen with publicly ap- 
 proved records behind them have been useful public servants in 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [79] 
 
higher office. Henry F. Eidmann was elected to the Sanitary 
 Board. Charles M. Thomson, elected to the Council as an in- 
 dependent, went to Congress and later to the bench, being ap- 
 pointed to the Appellate Court. Others have distinguished them- 
 selves as judges and in city and county departmental work, and 
 still others have made excellent members of the Illinois legislature. 
 
 When Lincoln Steffens came to Chicago to find out what the 
 League fight was all about, he wrote up Chicago as "Half Free 
 and Fighting On." He was writing a series of articles for 
 McClures Magazine, upon instances of municipal corruption and 
 municipal reform, later incorporated in a book, "The Shame of 
 the Cities." He picked Chicago for an article on municipal re- 
 forms. He summed up his findings: "They have beaten boodling. 
 That is about all they have done so far, but that is about all they 
 have tried deliberately and systematically to do, and the way they 
 have done that proves that they can do anything they set out 
 to do." 
 
 He saw Cole. "George E. Cole described himself to me as a 
 r second-class business man.' Standing about five feet high, he 
 knows he is no taller, but he knows that he is tall enough. Cole 
 is a fighter." But Steffens did not know at that time that Cole 
 had just begun to fight. 
 
 Sitting in a little old swivel chair, low enough for his short 
 legs to reach the floor, before a flat-top desk that might have 
 survived the fire of 1870, Cole continued to advise young men 
 of ambition to go into the City Council. One day a young man 
 called upon him and was invited to sit down. "Mr. Cole," he said, 
 
 [80] CITIZEN COLE 
 
"I have graduated from Yale University, am not busy, and can 
 afford to do my bit politically. What can I do?" Knowing the 
 young man's family connection, and confident of his fitness, Cole 
 blurted out, "Run for alderman." 
 
 The young man did, was elected, and before his term was out, 
 at the age of twenty-nine, was elected president of the Sanitary 
 District of Chicago. He gave his whole time to mastering the 
 great construction jobs in progress, including the completion of 
 the power plant at Lockport, the distribution and sale of its power, 
 the building of the Evanston channel to give an outlet for sewage 
 of the North Shore towns, planning for the Calumet-Sag channel 
 to connect with the main channel and give the towns south an 
 outlet for sewage disposal. He increased the revenue of the dis- 
 trict by promoting use of its lands and docks by manufacturing 
 plants at an annual rental. This caller on Cole who was induced 
 to begin as alderman was Colonel Robert R. McCormick, the 
 grandson of Joseph Medill, founder of the Tribune. 
 
 But all young men who tendered their service were not so 
 willing to step into a place assigned. "I remember an instance," 
 Mr. Cole said, "of a young man who wanted to *enter politics.' 
 I asked what ward he lived in and advised him to join his ward 
 club." 
 
 "But, Mr. Cole, you don't understand. I feel I should have 
 a place as an official of the Club, not a mere member." 
 
 "What could you do with a fellow like that?" 
 
 CITIZENCOLE [ 81 ] 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Cook County Combine 
 
 Easily and naturally corrupt city politics hooked into state 
 politics. The Allen and Humphrey bills sealed the fate of 
 Tanner for governor, as well as that of many of the legislators 
 who had voted for the bills. As the primaries for 1900 approached, 
 four candidates for governor appeared in the field: Judge Elbridge 
 Hanecy, then judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County; Judge 
 Orrin N. Carter, judge of the County Court of Cook County and 
 head of the election machinery; Richard Yates, son of the war 
 governor; and Walter Reeves, a former congressman. The latter 
 two from down-state. 
 
 Judge Hanecy was an able lawyer and an industrious judge, 
 but was looked upon as a politician; that is, he sat actively in 
 party councils and had some political appointees credited to him. 
 Judge Carter had been fearless in his administration of election 
 affairs and had given the people a well-organized and efficient 
 administration of the election machinery. 
 
 Madden, Lorimer, Hertz and Pease, aided by Doc Jamieson 
 and John M. Smyth, threw themselves behind Judge Hanecy. 
 
 Cole, in his home ward, the Fourth, had caused to be organized 
 
 [82] CITIZEN COLE 
 
 
what was called the Fourth Ward Political Club, a body of in- 
 dependent citizens, ready to swing the balance of power for the 
 interests of the ward. The members, naturally, sympathized with 
 Judge Carter's campaign because of the high character of his 
 public service. The combine anticipated trouble in the Fourth 
 Ward because of the enmity between Cole and Madden. Cole, 
 not Madden, picked the aldermanic candidates in the ward. Mad- 
 den was succeeded by William S. Jackson, member of the Board 
 of Trade, a man of the highest caliber. In 1899 Milton J. Fore- 
 man (General Foreman) , then a young lawyer, became the col- 
 league of Jackson. They served together until 1904, when Jack- 
 son was succeeded by another high-grade citizen, William J. 
 Pringle, lawyer. Foreman and Pringle served together for the 
 next succeeding seven years. 
 
 Efforts were made by the county central committee to secure 
 Madden's withdrawal from the committee and replace him with 
 John T. Richards. Madden stood pat for the time, but after the 
 election in November following went so far as to offer his res- 
 ignation at a packed meeting of the ward club and to have it 
 unanimously turned down. Mr. Richards then resigned as presi- 
 dent of the club. So the Fourth Ward Republican Club was still 
 controlled by Madden. The primary election was to be con- 
 ducted under the law providing that each ticket of delegates be 
 printed on white print paper, 3 l / 2 by 6 inches, already mentioned 
 as not being a secret ballot because of variance in the quality of 
 the paper. Madden had friendly judges and clerks. They were 
 selected by his ward club and recommended to the managing com- 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [83] 
 
mittee and in the absence of objection were approved by the 
 county judge. 
 
 The ward club obediently endorsed Hanecy, and the lines 
 were set to put in a solid delegation — two delegates from each 
 primary district in the ward. But the Fourth Ward Political Club 
 was not for Hanecy. One of its members, on the Sunday after- 
 noon following Madden's endorsement, called a mass meeting in 
 the office of a greenhouse on Michigan Avenue and organized for 
 Judge Carter. This man was elected chairman and the florist 
 vice-chairman of the Thirteenth Precinct Fourth Ward Orrin N. 
 Carter Club — a long name for a small body. All who had been 
 notified were there, but not enough to fill four offices; so the 
 secretary and treasurer were combined in the third person present, 
 a young lawyer. 
 
 Newspapers friendly to Carter carried announcements Mon- 
 day morning of the new Carter organization. The suggestion was 
 sufficient. Other precinct organizations for Carter quickly fol- 
 lowed, and there was a fight against Hanecy in every primary 
 district in the ward. At the primary election, of course, no close 
 districts were carried. It was too easy to get three or four votes 
 if needed by the Madden crowd. Their judges knew by the feel 
 of the little paper ballots how many were needed, and with the 
 usual light voting in a primary the vote would be close. But in 
 two districts the Carter vote was heavy enough to carry, and 
 Madden, for the first time, had a broken delegation. Four dele- 
 gates from the Madden ward went to the State Convention at 
 Peoria for Carter. This was a sore subject to Madden, and his 
 
 [84] CITIZENCOLE 
 
being twitted by Hertz and Pease for loss of a solid delegation did 
 not please him. 
 
 Hanecy was not nominated. Neither was Carter. In the 
 course of a long deadlock, one of the Carter delegations switched 
 to Reeves. Immediately others attempted to and there was such 
 confusion no count could be kept. The Hanecy delegates, led by 
 Lorimer, who leaped upon the stage with a Yates banner, started 
 a stampede for Yates that lasted thirty minutes. Lorimer per- 
 spired that warm day, as he lustily shouted and waved his pennant. 
 Delegates formed in marching order and paraded through the 
 hall, some chanting the name of Yates, others that of Reeves. 
 During the pandemonium the Lorimer men got in their work, and 
 order was not restored until they were assured that Yates would 
 get the governorship plum on the next ballot. 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [85] 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 Citizens' Association 
 
 This fight for Carter, Cole viewed and approved from the 
 sidelines. He was still a private in the rear ranks, but sud- 
 denly and unexpectedly he was called upon to reorganize the 
 Citizens' Association. The Citizens' Association of Chicago was 
 organized in 1874, following a big fire in July, and primarily to 
 organize for fire protection. But its field was larger, as shown by 
 an extract from the address of its first president, Franklin Mac- 
 Veagh, delivered in September, 1874, as follows: 
 
 "Let me first say, then, that a prime purpose of this Associa- 
 tion is to conserve the good public impulses of this community. 
 The city is always, but especially after an emergency like the fire 
 of July or an exhibition of unusual official immorality, full of 
 good public impulses and good thought. Hitherto these have been 
 allowed to waste themselves like the harmless flashing of powder, 
 because there was no organization that had the force to conserve 
 and crystallize the best public sentiment of the people. Ours is 
 such an organization. Not only will it conserve, it will promote 
 these best public impulses and this larger thought. I will assure 
 the citizen that if the public grievance he has is real, or if the 
 
 [86~] CITIZENCOLE 
 
public thought he has is worthy, there is here an organized body 
 that can and will exert a large force to realize the purpose for 
 which he, single-handed, is too weak." 
 
 Joined with Mr. MacVeagh in what proved to be a stupen- 
 dous and continuous program prolonged over a period of fifty- 
 six years were Mark Skinner, C. M. Henderson, Marshall Field, 
 Henry W. King, R. T. Crane, E. G. Mason, Murry Nelson, 
 Jacob Rosenberg and George Armour. Some of these were in 
 the service for a number of years. 
 
 Through the early efforts of the Association a fire limits or- 
 dinance was passed, the water supply thoroughly tested and the 
 fire department improved under General Shaler. Ballot box 
 stuffing was dealt a deadly blow. The county commissioners' 
 ring and the south town ring were attacked. This attack in 1876 
 was a beginning of a fight on corrupt township organization that 
 was successfully concluded in the year Mr. Cole took hold. Al- 
 most continually, efforts were made to secure the abolition of the 
 townships by law, but were successfully opposed by those profit- 
 ing by the large town funds and payrolls. A petition for abolition 
 had been presented in 1874 and turned down by the county com- 
 missioners. Consolidation of the then three towns was proposed 
 but obstacles prevented. Later a special law was secured, sub- 
 mitted to popular vote and carried, but afterwards declared un- 
 constitutional. In 1881 an amendment to the constitution was 
 asked of the legislature and defeated by the Cook County rep- 
 resentatives. The fight was continued at the polls, before the 
 county board and in the legislature, and by a proposed constitu- 
 
 CITIZENCOLE [87] 
 
tional convention, but political opposition blocked the abolition 
 of townships. 
 
 Blazened on the Citizens' Association's banner of achievement 
 are the adoption of the civil service law and the inception of the 
 drainage canal, each a story in itself. The Association's reports 
 on main drainage, water supply and waterways fill a volume. 
 Track elevation, the jury commission and the Torrens law were 
 among the Association's advocacies. 
 
 Succeeding Mr. MacVeagh as presidents up to the year 1900 
 were A. A. Sprague, Edson Keith, John L. Thompson, A. A. 
 Carpenter, Edwin Lee Brown, Francis B. Peabody, J. J. Glessner, 
 J. Harley Bradley, I. K. Boyeson, Melville E. Stone, R. J. Smith, 
 E. Fletcher Ingals and John McLaren. 
 
 During all this time the Citizens' Association had for secre- 
 tary James C. Ambler. In 1895, Mr. Ambler, after a long career 
 of usefulness, became ill. During his illness the Association 
 drifted. In 1900 he died. The membership had fallen from 1200 
 to 300. Along in October of this year a letter signed by Murry 
 Nelson, Francis B. Peabody and John McLaren asked Cole, who 
 had long been a member, to attend a conference at the offices of 
 the Citizens' Association. Cole came. The advisability of merging 
 with a new society organized along similar lines was discussed. 
 Cole's opinion was asked. He said, "It seems to me that this As- 
 sociation has such a record of achievement and has gained the 
 public confidence to such a degree that the directors have no 
 right to surrender its individuality while there are yet important 
 and necessary reforms to be accomplished." 
 
 [88] CITIZEN COLE 
 
"To what reforms do you refer?" Cole was asked. 
 
 Cole paused. There came into his mind his futile attempt to 
 reform the townships by electing good assessors. 
 
 "We must get rid of these rotten township governments/' he 
 said. 
 
 "We have been trying that for years," some one said. 
 
 "Yes, but you probably have not gone to work the right way. 
 The time has come to stop throwing grass and start throwing 
 
 stones." 
 
 "How would you go about it?" he was asked. 
 
 "I would rap these thieves on the knuckles until they let go 
 of the plunder." 
 
 In addition he suggested that the county civil service law was 
 being crucified in such a way that it was worse than no law at all. 
 Cole was thanked and he retired. A few days after, Eugene E. 
 Prussing called and said the directors had adopted Cole's sug- 
 gestions and had asked him to become president. He accepted, 
 saying, "I never yet gave advice that I was not ready to accept for 
 myself. If it is up to me, I will take the job, but you must guar- 
 antee me full swing." They did. The executive committee con- 
 sisted at this time of E. Fletcher Ingals, Murry Nelson, Francis 
 B. Peabody, Christoph Hotz, Charles H. Mulliken, John Mc- 
 Laren, Robert E. Jenkins, George Merryweather, J. Harley 
 Bradley, Julius Stern, William Kent, Herman B. Butler and 
 William F. Hall. "Unlike the start of the Municipal Voters' 
 League," Mr. Cole said, "I came to the Citizens' Association fully 
 equipped with an excellent executive committee. I needed a secre- 
 tary; so I secured Hoyt King and was all set to go." 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [89] 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 Attacks Township and County Frauds 
 
 Immediately upon his election Cole substituted action for re- 
 ports; indictments and convictions for petitions to the political 
 powers. If he desired facts from a public record, he sent an 
 emissary to get them, armed with a petition for a writ of man- 
 damus, prepared for filing in case of refusal. Armed with this, 
 its use was frequently unnecessary. The Grand Jury and the 
 Criminal Court seemed to Cole the means to secure instant reform 
 of a corruptly conducted office. When Cole began to shout from 
 the housetops public officials began to sit up and take notice. 
 He trained his guns on the corrupt township officials. 
 
 The town government, with no necessary functions since the 
 creation of the County Board of Assessors, voted unlimited com- 
 pensation to officers and for deputy collectors, whose only service 
 was rendered to party machines. To obtain these funds, town 
 officers, without conforming to legal requirements, would file with ' 
 the county board, estimates based on illegal salaries and padded 
 expense accounts, and ask for a levy of these sums. 
 
 Cole's first act was to appeal to the County Board to refuse 
 these levies. He showed that the law allowed the towns two per 
 
 [90] CITIZENCOLE 
 
cent of taxes collected, to cover their expenses. This was more 
 than enough. No extra levies were needed. The County Board 
 passed the levies. President Irwin vetoed them. Al F. Gorman, 
 supervisor of the town of Lake, for the combine of plundering 
 townships, sought by court action to compel the county clerk to 
 extend the tax anyway. Cole, with Julius Stern as special counsel, 
 stepped in — having the consent of the county clerk and the 
 county attorney. The case was heard before Judge Dunne, and 
 Julius Stern presented the argument that dealt the township its 
 first effective blow. Defining what were legal salaries and legal 
 expenses, Judge Dunne stripped them of extra levies and limited 
 even the amounts that could be spent out of the two per cent of 
 taxes to be collected by the towns. The town officers made another 
 attempt before the County Board, but the presence of a Citizens' 
 Association committee prevented action. 
 
 On the heels of this success, Cole had the Association's at- 
 torney file an injunction against the town of Lake, whose board 
 threatened unlawful expenditures. The writ was granted by Judge 
 Dunne and his act affirmed by Judge Adams of the Appellate 
 Court. Here were four knockouts. But the towns hadn't had 
 enough yet. "With the boldness of outlaws, in the face of public 
 denunciation," Cole's report says, "the town officers still threat- 
 ened unlawful expenditures." 
 
 Cole announced his determination to prosecute criminal viola- 
 tions of the law. Two south town deputy collectors were indicted 
 for extortion. Cole secured an injunction against members of the 
 west town board who threatened illegal expenditures. At the final 
 
 CITIZENCOLE [91] 
 
meetings of the boards of auditors, information of their ex- 
 penditures was secured. Expenses had been greatly reduced, ex- 
 cept in the south town and in the north town. On the south town 
 collector's payroll 585 political workers had been taken care of. 
 One man drew $20 per day, Sundays included. His duty was 
 "watching things" night and day. Another served the legislature 
 at Springfield and the township in Chicago at the same time. 
 The saloons were filled with these collectors, whose presence in 
 the town office would crowd it, and who had no service to per- 
 form. Illegal salaries were paid the officers without audit and 
 charged to expense. In one instance, pocketbooks, stationery and 
 bric-a-brac used for Christmas presents were included in a print- 
 ing bill, but not so itemized. Suits against the supervisor's and 
 collector's bondsmen were filed and the two officials were indicted 
 for embezzlement and for withholding public funds. The north 
 town clerk was enjoined from collecting a warrant for excess 
 salary allowed him. The collector of Lake was brought in and 
 fined for violating the injunction. He had paid salary to a man 
 who had not served. 
 
 Several of these cases were prosecuted by State's Attorney 
 Deneen. Several were yet untried, when one day Cole was ap- 
 proached by Fred M. Blount, republican politician and banking 
 associate of John R. Walsh, democrat. "Mr. Cole," he said, "I 
 think I know you well enough to know that your main object is 
 not to send a lot of cheap skates to Joliet. Now, what are you 
 after?" 
 
 "Frankly, now," said Cole, "my main object is to wipe out 
 
 [92] CITIZEN COLE 
 
township governments, and I propose to keep this fight up as long 
 as I have any ammunition to fight with — or until you people at 
 Springfield grant our petition and do away with township govern- 
 ments. You and I know that these governments are utterly use- 
 less and are strongholds of fraud and corruption." 
 
 Well, Blount happened to have a friend who was on the bonds 
 of some of the officials, and who would like to avoid the publicity 
 of their trial. "I tell you what I will do," Blount said. "If you 
 will agree not to try these cases, I will promise to see that your 
 bill is passed during this session of the legislature." The Civic 
 Federation had introduced a strong anti-township bill providing 
 for their consolidation, and making certain county officials ex- 
 officio township officials. This would wipe them out. The bill was 
 being held up in committee. 
 
 Cole promised to do what he could to see that this man's 
 friends were not tried before the legislature adjourned. "I will 
 say further that if the law is enacted wiping out township govern- 
 ments, I will be more than willing to use any influence I have 
 toward postponing the trials indefinitely." That is now thirty 
 years ago, and the cases have not yet been tried. 
 
 Cole defends the miscarriage of justice in this case. "If I had 
 refused this overture, it is probable that the law would not have 
 been passed, although these men might have been convicted. As 
 it was, the township governments were wiped out and Chicago was 
 made permanently better by the act." 
 
 Cole next turned his attention to the County Civil Service 
 Commission, the conduct of whose members had been investigated 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 93 ] 
 
by him. These members, of no particular fitness for their positions, 
 were James D. Morrison, Walter A. Lantz and George W. Love- 
 joy. Lovejoy acted as secretary. They were seldom in the 
 office. The law required a competitive examination, advertised in 
 advance. The system they used is described by Cole: "A political 
 leader wanted a job for John, say, who was a handy worker in 
 carrying primaries. He would ask a county commissioner to put 
 him on the County Hospital payroll. The county commissioner 
 sent John to the clerk of the Civil Service Commission. The clerk 
 would ask John his name and address, how many days there were 
 in the week, how many weeks in the month and how many months 
 in the year. If John could not answer all three, but could answer 
 two questions correctly, he would pass him and certify him for 
 the appointment." This was Cole's way of describing the system 
 that selected the six hundred employees in the charitable and 
 penal institutions of the county. 
 
 The commissioners were amused at the investigation of their 
 office and ignored demands that they comply with the law. Cole 
 submitted evidence to State's Attorney Deneen. He issued a 
 subpoena to the commissioners to produce their records. The 
 commissioners refused. Deneen sent two assistants to the com- 
 missioners' office to secure the records. The commissioners them- 
 selves could not be found. Deneen's assistants broke open a desk, 
 secured the records and took them before the Grand Jury. 
 
 In the meantime, one of the commissioners had called on Cole 
 and appealed for mercy on the ground that his conviction would 
 bring his wife down with nervous prostration. Cole remembered 
 
 [94] CITIZEN COLE 
 
that his own appeals for lawful examinations had merely amused 
 this man, and was not moved. 
 
 Indictments were voted, vigorously prosecuted by Assistant 
 State's Attorney Albert C. Barnes and the three commissioners 
 convicted. This removed them from office and disqualified them 
 from holding office for five years. The case was not final, however, 
 in effect, until a Supreme Court decision confirmed this conviction. 
 
 New commissioners were appointed, who respected their oath 
 of office and made the county civil service effective. 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 95 ] 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 Finds Conditions in Legislature Bad 
 
 Interest in clean legislation now turned Chicago's eye on the 
 state body. Again Mr. Cole's work was interrupted. In Oc- 
 tober, 1901, a notable dinner was given at Kinsley's restaurant. 
 The work of the Citizens' Association was commended. Its work 
 had met with public approval and its membership had doubled. 
 This was its annual meeting and two hundred members were 
 present. The dinner was notable in that it included among those 
 present a man who was to become governor of the state, one to 
 go to Congress, two to occupy places on the Republican National 
 Committee, three to become members of a President's cabinet and 
 one to become mayor of Chicago. There were present judges, 
 aldermen and members of the city council. In addition there were 
 men high in the business life of Chicago, and public-spirited citi- 
 zens from all walks of life. 
 
 Rollin A. Keyes, partner of Franklin MacVeagh, was there. 
 It was at his suggestion that conditions in the Illinois Legislature 
 were made the subject of discussion. Judge John Barton Payne 
 was introduced as chairman for the evening. 
 
 Lawrence Y. Sherman, ex-speaker of the house, later to be 
 
 [96] CITIZEN COLE 
 
Lieutenant Governor and still later United States Senator, ad- 
 dressed the meeting. Speaking of the causes of corrupt politics, 
 he said: "Few men whose names serve to swell the payroll absent 
 themselves from the primary. They can be successfully met only 
 by a like body. Unfit men get upon party tickets because of the 
 apathy of the non-office-holding voters. They justify what Gov- 
 ernor Ford exclaimed in the bitterness of his heart, that 'One 
 party is governed by the office holders and the other by the office 
 seekers/ In the republican primaries held in Chicago in May, 
 1900, fewer than one-fourth of the votes given for McKinley at 
 the following election were cast. More than three-fourths of the 
 voters absented themselves from the primaries. An overwhelming 
 majority of any political party wish a good government. A de- 
 cisive majority of all people regardless of party ask for the best 
 government possible. Eternal vigilance is its price. The source of 
 all political power is in the people." 
 
 Judge Payne introduced Samuel Alschuler as "the man many 
 of us would like to greet as governor." Mr. Alschuler, former 
 house leader of the democrats, said in part: "If you want a good 
 legislature, go there yourselves. Any of you would raise the 
 legislative standard — anyway you think you would, else what 
 are you here for? Scatter, then, to your homes in the various 
 senatorial districts. In due time stand as candidates for nomina- 
 tion for legislative office. Bid outside bosses and big corporations 
 'Hands off' and organize and enforce your demands. Some of 
 you will be sure to be elected." 
 
 In this gathering was Francis W. Parker, elected next year to 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 97 ] 
 
the state senate, vigorously to oppose the senate combine. Sher- 
 man himself went to Springfield and led the opposition to the 
 lawless house organization. John P. McGoorty was present and 
 later was elected Representative. 
 
 Walter L. Fisher stressed the importance of street railway 
 legislation for Chicago in the coming session. 
 
 Many of the supporters of the Allen bill in 1897 had been 
 relegated to other fields. Some, unable to retain their seats in the 
 legislature, went to Congress; some back to their old counter jobs 
 in the county or city building. But the taint of Yerkes remained, 
 and the sandbagging industry in the legislature had waxed strong. 
 A sandbagger, regulator or holdup bill poses as a bill to regulate, 
 tax, license or prohibit some industry. These are directed against 
 insurance, banking, transportation and other companies. The 
 Board of Trade was attacked annually. This was Augustus W. 
 Nohe's favorite victim. Nohe was dubbed "Fire escape Gus" 
 because of a bill he pushed in a previous session favoring use of 
 a special design of fire escape, made by a company in which he 
 was interested. He was a protege of William Lorimer. He had 
 been in the bucket shop business. 
 
 Some members and some of the public were indifferent to this 
 sandbagging practice. The fact was, these bills crowded the 
 calendar and forced trading with crooks for votes. It was not 
 unusual that ten per cent of the bills introduced in the house were 
 such bills. They would come from about fifteen members, mostly 
 from Cook County, and go to the committees on municipal cor- 
 porations, corporations, railroads and license. The clique was given 
 
 [98] CITIZEN COLE 
 
control of these committees as a reward for support of the organi- 
 zation candidate for speaker in the republican caucus. In a fight 
 between two factions of the party ten or fifteen votes were decisive. 
 
 It was clear that party lines had little to do with the work of 
 the legislature. Yet partyism was used to divide honest men and 
 the party caucuses were adhered to. 
 
 It was the sense of the meeting of the Citizens' Association 
 that the legislature lay aside factionalism and partisanship and 
 elect a speaker who would respect his oath of office and appoint 
 committees promptly and on lines of honesty and fitness; that it 
 abolish the vicious and heavily padded payroll used to buy votes 
 for the speaker; that the legislature give its time to consideration 
 of legitimate legislation, the sessions shortened and business 
 methods pursued; that it become in fact what then it was only in 
 theory, a truly deliberative body. 
 
 As Mr. Fisher had said, Chicago was particularly interested 
 in street railway legislation. Its principal street railway grants 
 were about to expire under the terms of the ordinance. The com- 
 panies were claiming a longer term under an ancient act of the 
 legislature. Chicago feared the legislature. The election of men 
 on their merits, regardless of party, was the suggested remedy. 
 
 John H. Hamline offered a resolution: That the chairman 
 appoint a committee of ten to take charge of the movement to 
 secure fit representation from Cook County and invite the co- 
 operation of all suitable local organizations and voters of all 
 parties. 
 
 The ten selected were Rollin A. Keyes, Murry Nelson, Judge 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 99 ] 
 
Tuley, John H. Hamline, E. B. Butler, John V. Farwell Jr., R. M. 
 Bissell, A. C. Bartlett, J. Harry Selz and George E. Cole. Later 
 Judge Payne, Elmer Washburne and Joseph A. O'Donnell were 
 added to the committee. Two representatives each were selected 
 from the Iroquois, Union League, Standard, Columbus, Commer- 
 cial, Bankers' and Merchants' Clubs and from the Citizens' Asso- 
 ciation and the Civic Federation. 
 
 It was quite natural that Mr. Keyes, as chairman of the sub- 
 committee on organization, should call upon George E. Cole to 
 accept the responsibility and labor of organizing and carrying 
 through the campaign. But Cole was preparing to retire again. 
 Six years of public work, at a loss of time, of business and of 
 money, and the wear and tear on a man of fifty-six years, was 
 beginning to tell. Keyes admitted the weight of Cole's argument, 
 but he said he could find no one to assume this new obligation. 
 After repeated efforts to find a leader, again Keyes appealed to 
 Cole. Cole said he realized the necessity of the work — that mu- 
 nicipal relief required an appeal to the legislature — and replied, 
 "If you and the committee agree that it is me or nobody, I will 
 put myself in your hands and take your orders." 
 
 [ 100 ] CITIZEN COLE 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 Cole Picked to Clean Up Legislature 
 
 Again Cole was elected to lead what looked like a forlorn 
 m hope. The name "Legislative Voters' League" was 
 adopted and a platform approved. The platform was just a rep- 
 etition of the oath of office — that the member of the legislature 
 would support the Constitution of the United States and of the 
 state and discharge his duties faithfully; that he had not made 
 any promise in the nature of a bribe to influence any vote at the 
 election; that he would not accept any money or anything of value 
 for his vote or influence in matters of legislation. Just one step 
 further: the platform demanded that a candidate have intelligence 
 enough to understand the meaning of this oath and that his record 
 should be such as to justify the belief that he would keep it. 
 
 Executive committee members were elected. They were Wil- 
 liam T. Baker, John H. Hamline, Joseph A. O'Donnell, Murry 
 Nelson, John B. Farwell Jr., Rollin A. Keyes, Frank H. Jones, 
 Richard M. Bissell, George E. Dawson, B. J. Rosenthal and 
 Arthur M. Barnhart. 
 
 An advisory committee consisted of representatives of the 
 Union League, Commercial, Merchants' and Iroquois Clubs and 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [101] 
 
of the Citizens' Association and the Civic Federation. Judge 
 Tuley, getting along in years though he was, headed this com- 
 mittee. 
 
 Mr. Cole proceeded at once with Mr. King as secretary to 
 prepare for the primary set for May, 1902. He organized his 
 secretary and assistants into a working force. The records of 
 retiring members were examined. Where a new candidate sprang 
 up, his neighbors and business men in his locality were interviewed. 
 Criticism was run down to be substantiated or found baseless. 
 
 The legislature was made up of three house members and one 
 senator from each of fifty-one senatorial districts throughout the 
 state. That made one hundred and fifty-three house members and 
 fifty-one senators. Nineteen of these districts were in Cook Coun- 
 ty, giving Cook fifty-seven house members and nineteen senators. 
 This apportionment still maintains, although the constitution 
 provides that a reapportionment shall be made every ten years. 
 
 Only forty-six of the seventy-six from Chicago were found 
 good or passable, and the facts were published. No libel suits 
 resulted, although the Daily News almost had one. Cole's report 
 showed that a candidate had been indicted for election frauds and 
 acquitted. The Daily News proof read "indicted and convicted." 
 When shown the error, Mr. Faye, managing editor, dashed for 
 the composing-room. It is needless to say that the papers already 
 printed went — well, they went wherever newspaper scrap goes. 
 Newspapers do not court dead-open-and-shut libel suits. 
 
 Thirteen of the unfit thirty members were renominated. Un- 
 fortunately nomination to the house, in most instances, is as 
 
 [ 102 ] CITIZEN COLE 
 
good as election. By the so-called cumulative vote sponsored by 
 Joseph Medill each voter has three votes for representative. There 
 are three to elect, and the voter can give one vote to each, one 
 and one-half to two or all three to one candidate. The idea of 
 Medill was that the minority party could always be sure of one 
 representative in a district by nominating one and casting all three 
 votes for him. It became the practice for the majority party in 
 a district to nominate two and the minority party one candidate, 
 and that settled it unless an independent came in by petition. So 
 the League placed ten independents in the field and three were 
 elected. 
 
 The result of Cole's first campaign was to send some new and 
 excellent blood to Springfield from Cook County for the session 
 of 1903. John McManaman came down, an independent from 
 Graham Taylor's territory. Clarence Darrow, lawyer of excep- 
 tional ability, was elected as an independent, and Oliver W. 
 Stewart as a prohibitionist. Stewart, of course, was practically 
 an independent. He soon captured the legislature by an eloquent 
 and remarkably able address, nominating his party's candidate 
 for United States Senator. Though an ex-minister and a prohibi- 
 tionist, he was a wonderfully good political mixer and he made 
 friends. Francis W. Parker, patent lawyer, wealthy and independ- 
 ent in action, kept the senate stirred up with his denunciation of 
 bills containing "jokers" — bills of good-sounding titles but con- 
 taining an apparently innocent little sentence that served some 
 special interest. 
 
 There was also in this legislature Joseph Medill Patterson, 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [103] 
 
of the Tribune family, cousin of Medill and Robert R. Mc- 
 Cormick. All three of the grandsons of Joseph Medill, one-time 
 mayor of Chicago, were to serve in legislative bodies. Also a 
 notable member was Abel Davis, now General Abel Davis of the 
 Chicago Title 6C Trust Company. He distinguished himself by 
 making Gus Nohe sit down in the house by a threat of personal 
 violence. Nohe was objecting to Cole being on the floor. Edward 
 J. Brundage, later Attorney General of Illinois, and Michael L. 
 McKinley, who became a militant judge on the Cook County 
 bench, were members. Richard Burke, also to ascend later to the 
 bench; Henry W. Austin, Oak Park banker; Robert E. Pendarvis, 
 lawyer; and M. B. McNulty, lumberman, were among those sent 
 down in the first reform fight. These and other good men went 
 to Springfield in 1903 and made the Leland Hotel a more fit 
 place to live out a session than it had been in many years. 
 
 Then commenced the long wait for the house to organize. Two 
 days a week for six weeks were needed to set up the pins for 
 organization of the house and to arrange distribution of the ap- 
 propriation for payroll. During this lazy period news must be 
 picked out of thin air, but a good time was coming. The magi- 
 cians sent to glean facts were the best men on the political staffs. 
 Leroy Vernon was there for the News, "Hi" Fargo for the Post, 
 John Corwin for the Tribune, John Lane for the Inter-Ocean, 
 Malcolm McDowell for the Record, and "Barney" Mullaney for 
 the Times-Herald. 
 
 Privileges of the press gallery were given the League rep- 
 resentative through the courtesy of Victor F. Lawson, proprietor 
 
 [ 104 ] CITIZEN COLE 
 
of the Daily News. For doing this he was vigorously attacked 
 by the Inter-Ocean. The adoption of the League representative by 
 Lawson gave facilities for news gathering and record making by 
 the League that were not pleasing to the Gus Nohe element con- 
 trolled by Lorimer. 
 
 Lorimer had been disappointed in the campaign. The Daily 
 News had cartooned him leaning dejectedly against a tree within 
 a pasture surrounded by a barbed-wire fence. He had a large plate 
 with a very small piece of pie on it. The piece of pie was labeled 
 "majority." Beyond the barbed-wire fence was a bulldog, "the in- 
 dependent vote," with the seat of Lorimer's pants in his jaws. 
 
 The Daily News for November 5 thus summed up the result: 
 "The good work of cleaning up the legislature has begun, and it 
 will not be abandoned until Chicago has secured such representa- 
 tives at Springfield as it needs." 
 
 The so-called machine, at that time, however, powerful in the 
 state, organized the legislature defeating L. Y. Sherman in the 
 republican caucus and electing John H. Miller of McLeansboro 
 speaker. Miller gave Lorimer followers the "good committees" 
 as a reward for their support. 
 
 The treatment accorded citizens coming before these com- 
 mittees merely in the interests of the public was shameful. H. N. 
 Higinbotham appeared before a Gus Nohe committee in behalf 
 of Marshall Field to offer to build the Field Museum on the lake 
 front. State consent was necessary. Mr. Higinbotham not only 
 did not get respectful consideration but the matter in that year 
 did not get beyond the committee. 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [105] 
 
But the end of this regime was sudden, startling and magnifi- 
 cent in its results. Reform did not await another election. The 
 republican house organization, a majority of the caucus but a 
 minority of the total house members, carried things too far and 
 with too high a hand. The happy issue was forced by the fight 
 to pass the traction bill, a bill to enable cities to own and operate 
 their street railways. The railway grants in Chicago were about 
 to expire, under the ordinances. As stated, the railways were claim- 
 ing a longer term under an old act of the legislature. The people 
 of Chicago were determined to get rid of these claims before 
 granting new franchises. In the new franchises they proposed to 
 reserve the right to purchase at or before the expiration of the 
 extended terms. The city was without legal authority to exercise 
 this right. With such authority it was obvious that in the ap- 
 proaching negotiations with the companies the city would be in 
 far better position to protect its rights and make valuable reserva- 
 tions for the future. Lorimer and the editor of the Inter-Ocean 
 had asserted that there would be no traction legislation at this 
 session. It was believed that the street railway companies, espe- 
 cially those formerly controlled by Charles T. Yerkes, desired the 
 defeat of any bill that would really give the city the power it 
 desired and needed. A carefully prepared and conservative bill 
 for municipal ownership had been drawn by Walter L. Fisher, 
 then secretary of the Municipal Voters' League. It was introduced 
 by Senator Carl Mueller and became known as the Mueller bill. 
 
 [ 106 ] CITIZEN COLE 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 Cole Incites Revolution in House 
 
 The dominant faction of the republican party was in control. 
 Opposed was the better element of the republican and the 
 democratic parties. The plan of the machine in the house was to 
 kill the Mueller bill which had come over from the senate and 
 then to substitute for it a sham bill conferring no effective power 
 on the city. 
 
 Mr. Cole was on the ground. He held a meeting in a little 
 back room in the Leland Hotel. There were three republicans, 
 three democrats, a prohibitionist and a pitcher of ice water. There 
 were also three chairs, one bureau, one bed and a box of cigars. 
 It was a packed meeting. Mr. Cole stated his belief that the 
 holdup organization of the house should be overthrown. "It will 
 be necessary," he said, "to start a movement that will bring the 
 good men of the republican and democratic parties to work 
 together." They agreed with him. A steering committee was 
 formed at once, with the prohibitionist for chairman. He was 
 Oliver W. Stewart, by this time respected by both the democrats 
 and the republicans. He handled the organizing work so well that 
 before the impending battle came, the committee consisted of 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 107 ] 
 
nine democrats, nine republicans, one prohibitionist and one in- 
 dependent. They debated nightly over the methods to be pursued 
 to secure fair play in considering the bills. Representatives of this 
 committee had waited upon the speaker to ask if he would allow 
 members their constitutional right to roll-call and to recognition 
 on the floor. The speaker's answers had been non-committal and 
 evasive. Unfair exercise of the speaker's power was anticipated. 
 
 To explain the importance of having the speaker friendly it 
 is necessary to discuss the parliamentary rules and tactics used in 
 steering a bill through the house. A bill must go to committee, 
 be printed, be reported out to pass, and be read on three different 
 days. It may be amended after second reading; it must be en- 
 grossed before third reading. Then it is in the order of passage 
 and requires in the house seventy-seven votes to pass. With a 
 friendly house and speaker, it may be introduced by unanimous 
 consent (wholly dependent on the speaker's hearing objections if 
 made) , be read a first time without reference to a committee, read 
 a second time on the following day and the third day passed. This 
 is the short route. The bill to provide for incidental expenses, 
 including the padded payroll, invariably follows this route. 
 
 When reported to the house a bill goes on the calendar to be 
 read a first time in its order. Then begins advancing of bills by 
 unanimous consent without waiting to reach them in order. Here 
 is where the organization has absolute control. Unanimous con- 
 sent is subject to the speaker's acuteness of hearing. His hearing 
 is sharpened or dulled according to the good standing of the ob- 
 jector or of the member pushing the bill. If one not friendly to 
 
 [ 108 ] CITIZEN COLE 
 
the house organization wants to have his bill considered over an 
 objection, he must move to suspend the rules. The speaker may 
 refuse to recognize him, or may put his motion and declare it 
 carried or not, as suits his and the organization's desire. So the 
 pet bills are jumped over others ahead of them on the calendar, 
 while the ones not having the backing of the house organization 
 are retired farther and farther down until their ultimate passage 
 becomes hopeless. If the bill of the independent member reaches 
 second reading it may be killed by striking out the enacting clause 
 or by tacking on some obnoxious amendment that makes it repul- 
 sive to its former friends. To carry out the will of the organiza- 
 tion the speaker declares amendments carried or the contrary on 
 viva-voce vote. Demands for roll-calls are ignored by him in 
 violation of the members' constitutional rights. This is called 
 gaveling a bill through. Formerly the gavel was used to carry 
 through political measures of the majority party and to prevent 
 obstructive and dilatory tactics of the minority party. By gradual 
 growth it has come to be used to help or to defeat legislation in 
 which the organization has an interest, although the majority may 
 have a contrary view. 
 
 The foregoing will explain the importance of capturing the 
 house organization and why speaker John Miller was beseeched to 
 allow members their constitutional rights in considering the 
 Mueller bill. 
 
 Day by day the little committee headed by Oliver W. Stewart 
 grew, until just before the battle it included half the membership 
 of the house. Practically all the Cook County democrats and all 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 109 ] 
 
the Cook County republicans (except the strictly organization 
 men), together with the three independents and some members 
 from down-state, joined in the determination to secure their con- 
 stitutional rights. Force was openly advocated in the meetings of 
 this voluntary steering committee. No peaceful method of secur- 
 ing those rights could be advanced by the shrewdest lawyers or 
 the most experienced politicians. Mandamus could not correct 
 the journal. Criminal prosecution was deemed inexpedient and 
 of doubtful success. 
 
 On this memorable day in April, true to prediction, came the 
 crisis. The antis were roused to white heat at the methods threat- 
 ened by the organization to suppress fair consideration of the 
 street railway bill. On the floor were Mayor Carter H. Harrison 
 Junior and many of Chicago's best aldermen. Graeme Stewart, 
 Harrison's opponent for mayor, and John M. Harlan, Stewart's 
 rival for republican nomination, were there. Judges, representa- 
 tives of the Municipal and Legislative Voters' Leagues and many 
 citizens of Chicago were occuying seats about the lobbies awaiting 
 developments. The excitement was intense. 
 
 In dead silence, at noon, when the business of the morning 
 had been disposed of, the reputed author of the organization's 
 measure rose. He offered his bill as a substitute for the Mueller 
 bill desired by the Chicago City Council. Pandemonium broke 
 loose. Fifty members were on their feet demanding a roll-call. 
 Under the constitution five would be entitled to it on demand. In 
 the face of this demand, the speaker's lips were seen to move, the 
 gavel would go up and come down, and it was known that the 
 
 [110] CITIZEN COLE 
 
substitution had been made and the organization had done its 
 work. Holding the floor, the organization leader moved in rapid 
 succession six amendments to his bill so substituted, and six times 
 the gavel fell, in the face of ever-increasing cries of "Roll-call! Roll- 
 call!" Women filled the seats back of the speaker, too frightened 
 to move, in the face of the mob demanding their retirement. 
 The most dignified members were in a frenzy and were held 
 in check only by the presence of the ladies behind the speaker — 
 placed there, it was suspected, for this purpose. But when the last 
 act of arbitrary power had been exercised, with one accord the 
 majority, already on their feet, made a spontaneous move toward 
 the speaker's chair. The move was precipitated by a hurtling 
 volume of the legislative proceedings propelled through the air 
 toward the speaker from the hand of Representative Richard 
 Burke, democrat of Cook County. In an instant, a struggling, 
 maddened crowd of members was battling at the right of the 
 speaker in an attempt to seize him, and it was prevented only 
 by the political henchmen of the organization, paid to wear titles 
 as janitors and policemen. All this time the Western Union wires 
 were hot with dispatches to the Chicago newspapers, and pencils 
 and typewriters were doing double duty that day to pave the way 
 for the startling headlines that must appear in extra afternoon 
 papers on the streets of Chicago. 
 
 Headlines in letters an inch and a quarter high across the 
 whole front page were not then the fashion. The Daily News 
 headlined the story in double column as follows: 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 111 ] 
 
WILD RIOT IN THE HOUSE 
 
 Miller, Surrounded by His Friends as Bodyguard, 
 
 Gavels Through the Lindley Bill Amid Bedlam on the Floor 
 
 The Fleeing Officer Takes Refuge in His Room, 
 
 And the Legislature Is Reorganized, with Chas. Allen as Temporary Speaker 
 
 Obnoxious Measure Is Considered with Ninety- Seven 
 
 Members Present— It Is Thrown Out and Mueller Bill, with One Amendment, Is Substituted 
 
 Rump Organization Orders 100 Dinners and Police 
 
 Guard Asked — Trouble Is Expected This Afternoon and State Militia May Be Called Out 
 
 Talk of Calling an Extra Session Should Proceedings 
 
 of the Rump House Be Declared Illegal — Several Members Hurt in Riot That 
 Resulted from Autocratic Rulings of Miller 
 
 Richard Burke was on the casualty list. He sprained his wrist 
 hurling "Proceedings of the General Assembly" at the speaker. 
 Al Glade, Lorimer henchman, clashed with John Werdell, fighting 
 democrat, and both were listed as casualties. 
 
 [112] CITIZEN COLE 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 Revolutionists Control 
 
 The speaker escaped. He did not run, perhaps, but his move- 
 ment was not deliberate. He retired with as much dignity as 
 great haste permitted him to assume, and left on that side where 
 the disorder was least and between a double row of house police- 
 men. It was some hours before he was again seen. The house 
 members remaining in session (ninety-six of the one hundred and 
 fifty-three) did not at first intend that he should return without 
 the state militia as an escort. They prepared to and did organize 
 the house. Homer Tice engineered the parliamentary proceedings. 
 As soon as the turmoil had ceased, after many efforts he made 
 himself heard. He was not heard until it was known that his 
 object was friendly, and then to make a motion to elect a tem- 
 porary speaker in the absence of the regularly elected speaker. 
 L. Y. Sherman expounded on the house's parliamentary status. 
 He held the proceedings regular in that a quorum was present and 
 the regularly elected speaker absent. A clerk, a doorkeeper and 
 a sergeant-at-arms were duly elected, and by this time, order being 
 restored, the house proceeded with business. The matter of im- 
 peachment of the speaker was referred to a committee of lawyers 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [115] 
 
— Sherman, Darrow, Rinaker and Bowles. While nothing came 
 of this, it was a worth-while gesture. In an orderly and parlia- 
 mentary way, the work of the organization was undone and the 
 Mueller bill again placed in its regular order on the calendar. 
 The proceedings were of questionable legality but were effective. 
 And what was transacted at this rump meeting was afterwards 
 in substance duly repeated in regular session and became embodied 
 in the laws of the state. Although the ninety-six allowed the 
 regular organization to resume peacefully, the decent members 
 ran things after that. 
 
 When Miller appeared again in the speaker's place, he made a 
 statement in writing. The opening paragraph was: "I have been 
 approached at different times by parties who intimated that I 
 could make money by allowing the roll-call on what is known as 
 the Mueller bill or permit its passage." Instantly motion was 
 made to appoint a committeee to investigate the charges. As rep- 
 resentatives of the house revolutionists, the following six were ap- 
 pointed: Thomas Rinaker, M. L. McKinley, John C. McMana- 
 man, W. F. Bundy, E. D. Shurtleff and William Trautman. 
 No showing was made that any one wanted to pay Miller to allow 
 the house majority its constitutional rights. 
 
 On top of this explosion in the house came news that the 
 Union Traction Company had gone into the hands of receivers. 
 Cole in Springfield was interviewed. "The opponents of the 
 Mueller bill are glad to grasp at any straw to beat it," he said. 
 "The Union Traction Company has been practically bankrupt 
 for a year past, and I am not surprised at the news. Yerkes sold 
 
 [114] CITIZEN COLE 
 
the company a gold brick and the stockholders have been trying 
 to get out from under ever since. It cannot possibly affect pending 
 traction legislation. As a matter of fact, Chicago is here to fight 
 for constitutional rights of the members. She is willing to go 
 down to defeat upon the question of whether or not the members 
 are to have roll-calls when demanded by a constitutional number 
 of them." 
 
 The general consensus of opinion was expressed by the Daily 
 News the day following the riot. It said, "Such an utter rout of 
 boss rule and gag rule in the name of decency and constitutional 
 rights has not been in Illinois in many a day." 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [115] 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 The Legislature Redeemed 
 
 The goats of the battered house organization were duly 
 marked in the sixteen-page pamphlet of facts published by the 
 Legislative Voters' League before the next spring's primaries. 
 There were twenty-four of them in Cook County, including some 
 senators of the same stripe, and but ten were renominated. On 
 the other hand, all of the revolutionists who would accept were 
 renamed. Five declined, five were named for other offices and one 
 had died. 
 
 The election placed enough strong men in the house to attack 
 with success the vicious payroll. The bill to provide for contingent 
 expenses including payroll is about the first thing to be considered. 
 As soon as passed, the work of payoff commences. In the early 
 days of the session a host of apparently unattached individuals 
 are loafing in the lobbies. They are there to get on the payroll. 
 
 Among them in the preceding session was a young colored 
 attorney holding a political job in Mound City. A conversation 
 reported with him revealed that he was not there in the interest 
 of any particular legislation but that he "just came down to get on 
 the payroll." He was asked in what particular capacity he wanted 
 
 [ 116 ] CITIZEN COLE 
 
to serve the state. "Oh," he said, " 'most anything. Want to get 
 it fixed up so I can get away. I got some business to do in St. 
 Louis." Forty days elapsed and the young man drew his job and 
 he and all applicants received back pay for the time they had 
 waited. Rice — that was his name — became assistant super- 
 intendent of ventilation, in charge of three windows on one side 
 of the house. If the session had lasted into warm weather he 
 might have had to raise them. 
 
 Another patient waiter in that session became watchman. He 
 had been a traveling salesman — had sold horsewhips. This was 
 no longer an occupation. A reporter with a sense of humor de- 
 scribed his duties: "Donathan went faithfully to work at 10:00 
 a. m. and sat with a bunch of cronies in the capital rotunda and 
 watched. He watched his cigar smoke as it wafted upward, 
 spread and disappeared. He watched the dancing of the super- 
 heated atmosphere. He watched the frescoed ceiling and safe- 
 guarded the frescoes until noon. He came back and worked 
 until four. He was a great watcher." 
 
 Ninety-three janitors and seventy policemen formed a por- 
 tion of the four hundred and twelve jobs paid out of the fund. 
 
 Cole attacked this corruption by bulletins and in the press. 
 Again he was crying from the housetops. Old heads said, "This 
 is not news. It always has been and you can't do anything." But 
 the new men and the honest holdovers in the session of 1905 
 put their heads together. They resisted the bill for incidental ex- 
 penses until the payroll was cut to two hundred and eleven — 
 not enough but a good compromise. They passed a bill placing 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 117 ] 
 
nineteen hundred state employees under civil service, improved the 
 primary law, created the municipal court abolishing the vicious 
 justice-of-the-peace system, gave the city some additional powers 
 — notably to regulate the price of gas and light — and gave the 
 Sanitary District the right to sell its surplus electricity to private 
 consumers. They passed an anti-policy gambling law and a loan 
 shark law, clipping the ten-per-cent-a-month loan man. All these 
 reforms had vigorous opposition. The legislature was pronounced 
 the best Illinois had had in years. 
 
 [118] CITIZEN COLE 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 Reform Council Reforms Police 
 
 Cole retained his unbroken connection with the Citizens' As- 
 sociation by remaining on the executive committee. Mr. 
 Louis Seeberger was now president, and Shelby M. Singleton 
 secretary. The City Council had steadily improved in character. 
 Police administration was inefficient. So Cole was asked to urge 
 the City Council to reform the police department. A Council 
 committee was appointed with Ernst F. Hermann at its head to 
 hear under oath testimony upon which to base recommendations 
 to Mayor Harrison. The Union League Club, William Kent, 
 Victor Lawson and other individuals backed the Citizens' Asso- 
 ciation with funds. 
 
 The City Club, just organized, joined in. On December 5, 
 1903, this new force came into Chicago's civic life. The purposes 
 of the club, stated in a call, were "simply to bring together in 
 informal association as many as possible of those men who sincere- 
 ly desire to meet the full measure of their responsibility as citi- 
 zens." The call was signed by Walter L. Fisher, George E. 
 Hooker, Frank H. Scott, Allan B. Pond, George E. Cole, Louis 
 A. Seeberger and Alfred L. Baker. The list of one hundred and 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 119 ] 
 
seventy-four charter members included most of the officers and 
 directors of the three fighting reform bodies. At the organiza- 
 tion meeting, Ernst F. Hermann, chairman of the investigating 
 committee, and Brode B. Davis, its counsel, detailed police con- 
 ditions already exposed. 
 
 Following this meeting the City Club, backed by funds fur- 
 nished by Charles R. Crane, brought on Captain Alexander Piper 
 of New York on advice of District Attorney William Travers 
 Jerome of New York, and the word "Piperizing" was added to 
 the dictionary. It meant a system of inspection of police condi- 
 tions and of records and the surveillance of patrolmen on duty 
 to reveal the real inner workings of the force. The Piperizing 
 showed existence of a gross lack of discipline. Loafing, "holing 
 in" and drinking when patrolmen should have been on patrol 
 duty were so prevalent as to be the rule rather than the exception. 
 The time, place and nature of the infraction of the rules and the 
 star numbers of the offenders were reported and published. 
 
 Evidence of infractions that amounted to criminal offenses 
 were presented to the Council committee. State's Attorney 
 Deneen's assistance was enlisted and he assigned his assistant 
 Harry Olson to cooperate in any criminal proceedings recom- 
 mended by the committee. Olson sifted facts down for the Grand 
 Jury. Indictments were returned against patrolmen for assault, 
 levying tribute on prostitutes and upon slot-machine owners, for 
 theft, for shoplifting, for bribery, for conducting confidence 
 games and for obstructing justice. 
 
 The trial board of the Civil Service Commission was called 
 
 [ 120 ] CITIZEN COLE 
 
upon to perform services with an ax. Many dismissals followed. 
 It was necessary to institute proceedings against police who used 
 their power to intimidate witnesses and to whom use of perjured 
 testimony was part of their day's work. 
 
 And these were mere incidents of the lack of morale. The 
 facts disclosed that the patrolmen knew and could and would 
 close every illegal joint and criminal den on their beats if they 
 were not compelled to read between the lines of their orders. 
 
 It was found that Chief O'Neill did not control his own force 
 nor Mayor Harrison the Chief. Orders came from persons who 
 controlled the various forms of gambling and prostitution. The 
 fund to support organized crime ran into millions. Policy gam- 
 bling alone was worth five million a year, race-track gambling 
 and bookmaking another three and a half million. Bets were 
 estimated to reach tens of millions. Gambling dens, prostitution 
 and dope-selling added another million. All, of course, were 
 operated under paid protection, and this fund supported the vice 
 ring. The city was parceled out to the vice lords in divisions. 
 Tom McGinnis controlled gambling on the near south side and 
 Bill Lewis, a recognized professional bondsman, prostitution. 
 Policy gambling belonged to Patsy King (no relation to Hoyt 
 King) and prostitution in a limited territory on the west side was 
 levied on by the police direct. Officers Walter Bullis and John 
 J. Fitzmaurice were indicted on the charge. Mont Tennes owned 
 north side gambling privileges, and the stock yards district was 
 operated by Jim O'Leary. 
 
 Before the investigation could be completed there occurred, 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [121] 
 
on December 30, the Iroquois Theater fire, wiping out the lives 
 of five hundred and seventy-five patrons, mostly children. The 
 people, the administrative departments, the council and the news- 
 papers, moved by the horror of this disaster, turned their attention 
 to an investigation, and to providing adequate protection against 
 any possible repetition of such a holocaust. 
 
 Police were forgotten. Surviving the intensive campaign was 
 one outstanding revelation: the patrolman could wipe out crime 
 on his beat if protected from the vice ring and its agents in 
 political office. He could be protected from the crooked politician 
 by the people through an organized body that would demand that 
 he clean up his beat and that would protect him and even force 
 his promotion for meritorious service. 
 
 To this end the Citizens' Association cooperated with the 
 police. In the following year "policy" shops were wiped out, the 
 keepers indicted and several convicted. Race-track gambling was 
 suppressed in the city but not in the county. Sheriff Thomas E. 
 Barrett failed to cooperate. In 1905, with the help of State's At- 
 torney John J. Healy and the Grand Jury, race-track gambling 
 in the sheriff's territory was practically ended — for the time 
 being. 
 
 [ 122 ] CITIZEN COLE 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 Attacks a "Carnival of Thievery" 
 
 At the end of the 1907 campaign Cole retired from the presi- 
 . dency of the Legislative Voters' League. He was succeeded 
 by Mr. Clifford W. Barnes, organizer and president of the Sunday 
 Evening Club. 
 
 Meantime he had remained one of the directors of the Citi- 
 zens' Association. County affairs in 1905 had again absorbed 
 him. He found the county institutions were being better manned. 
 Knowing one's own name and address, how many days there were 
 in the week, how many weeks in the month and how many months 
 in the year was no longer sufficient educational foundation to 
 qualify for the care of the poor, the sick and the insane. But in- 
 formation came to Secretary Shelby M. Singleton of the Citizens' 
 Association that all was not well in the county administrative of- 
 fices not under civil service. Padding of payrolls in a fee office 
 was directly charged by one of the employees of the Superior 
 Court clerk's office. That padding of payrolls was a practice in 
 other fee offices was hinted at. The fee offices partly supported 
 by fees charged for services were the offices of the clerks of the 
 courts — Circuit, Superior, County, Criminal and Probate. Other 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [123] 
 
fee offices later included in investigations were the offices of 
 Recorder, Sheriff, Coroner and County Clerk. 
 
 It was the same old story. "I had planted my foot in the 
 mud in one place," said Cole, "and squeezed it out into another 
 place. The boys who couldn't pass a civil service examination 
 were being crowded into the offices not under civil service." So to 
 Cole was delegated the work of correcting another bad situation. 
 He was made chairman of a committee to investigate the fee of- 
 fices. The final revelations of an estimated loss of millions to the 
 county started with a very small beginning. The evidence in the 
 county boodle cases in 1887 started by J. Frank Aldrich's discovery 
 of some unpaid and padded bills and grew into the discovery of 
 wholesale looting of the public treasury. So now other men were 
 to be punished for like offenses — not indirect but direct stealing 
 of payroll money and fees due the county running into thousands 
 of dollars. 
 
 The specific proof, so frequently a slight matter in the be- 
 ginning of an investigation, came about in this way. Complaint 
 had been made by an attorney for James J. Healy, of payroll 
 stuffing and theft of fees in the office of Superior Court Clerk 
 John A. Linn. Under Cole's direction, Secretary Singleton under- 
 took a task that unearthed proof of a steal of #65,447 and an 
 estimate that ran it up to #200,000, in two fee offices. 
 
 "Beyond question, millions of dollars have been wasted in 
 addition to the millions that have been stolen in the county of- 
 fices in the last thirty years," Cole's report says. 
 
 Colonel Healy had for many years been chief clerk in the 
 
 [124] CITIZEN COLE 
 

 Superior Court Clerk's office but was excluded from its financial 
 management. In signing the payroll in November, 1901, he had 
 noted five names of persons who had not worked in the office. 
 This was the starting point. It grew to thirty names of persons 
 who had not worked in the office. In few instances had they 
 signed the payroll or endorsed the pay warrants. During a series 
 of years this had been done by one Frank J. Chaiser, Linn's book- 
 keeper and cashier. Now, this discovery was not shouted from the 
 housetops nor submitted to an investigating grand jury. Instead, 
 Mr. Chaiser was visited at his home at night, where, convinced 
 that the "jig was up," he admitted he had sworn to false payrolls 
 on order of John A. Linn and deposited the pay warrants with 
 forged endorsements to Linn's credit in bank. 
 
 The wisdom of visiting Chaiser at once was proved during 
 the evening. The doorbell rang. Linn had sent a messenger sum- 
 moning Chaiser to his house a few doors away. Chaiser hesitat- 
 ingly replied that he could not come that night because he was 
 sick. Then, closing the door, he turned, trembling, to the in- 
 vestigator and said, "That is the first time in my life I ever dis- 
 obeyed an order from John Linn." 
 
 But that was not the end. He had hardly pledged to lay bare 
 to the Grand Jury all the facts within his knowledge when the 
 doorbell rang again and John A. Linn himself walked in. But 
 Linn was too late. 
 
 Two months from the time Cole's investigation was started 
 the first witness went before the Grand Jury. Chaiser, sick and at 
 West Baden, was again approached by an agent of Linn and 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [125] 
 
offered a sum of money to stay out of Illinois. He refused. His 
 testimony with that of other witnesses was submitted to the Grand 
 Jury by State's Attorney John J. Healy and Linn was indicted, 
 charged with forgery, embezzlement of fees and conspiracy. On 
 trial before Judge George A. Dupuy, he pleaded guilty and was 
 sentenced to a term of from one to five years in the penitentiary. 
 His proven peculation amounted to $31,543, but the amount 
 stolen was estimated at exceeding $100,000. Linn made restitu- 
 tion of the provable amount a few months later. After he had 
 served twenty-one months the Citizens' Association backed his 
 family's petition for parole. The Association was satisfied that 
 he was in danger of becoming insane. 
 
 The investigation of Linn's office was only well under way 
 when Cole directed that conditions be examined in the office of 
 John A. Cooke, clerk of the Circuit Court. Inside facts were not 
 the starting point here. But fifty names were found to have been 
 receipted for each month in the handwriting of Charles H. 
 Bradley, chief clerk, and the salary warrants endorsed by him. 
 Bradley seemed to be playing the same role as Chaiser under 
 Linn. Also forty or fifty cases were discovered where fees paid 
 in had not been accounted for. Bradley was faced with the facts 
 and was defiant. The evidence was laid before State's Attorney 
 Healy. Bradley was called in and confronted with the evidence. 
 He broke down and made a clean breast of matters within his 
 knowledge. 
 
 Three months after the Linn indictments Cooke was indicted. 
 He was tried before Judge Ben M. Smith and found guilty of 
 
 [126] 
 
 CITIZEN COLE 
 
defrauding the county. His total thefts amounted to $77,482.56. 
 Cooke carried his case to the Appellate and Supreme Courts of the 
 state and, failing there, appealed to the United States Supreme 
 Court for a writ of supersedeas and again failed. He began 
 serving his time in January, 1908 — a year and a half after being 
 sentenced. He, too, was pardoned subsequently at Mr. Cole's 
 instance. 
 
 Then shortages were discovered in the office of Probate clerk 
 and restitution made. The upheaval resulted in the appointment 
 by President Edward J. Brundage of the county board of an 
 official investigating committee consisting of George F. Steele, 
 Charles D. Richards, Frederick Greeley and County Commis- 
 sioners Edwin K. Walker, William Busse and John P. Garner. 
 Their work was more of a corrective nature and resulted in em- 
 ployment of public accountants to recommend a thorough revision 
 of the bookkeeping and accounting systems in the fee offices. 
 
 The net result was an enormous increase in the fee receipts of 
 the county. The following year netted an increase of $400,000. 
 Cole's investigating committee in its published report summed up 
 the condition that had existed in the two county fee offices in- 
 vestigated as a "carnival of thievery." 
 
 Another great saving in county expenditures resulted from a 
 very simple and practical suggestion made by Mr. Cole and 
 reported by Mr. Robert Catherwood, former president of the 
 Chicago Civil Service Association, as having attracted attention 
 in far-away London. Sir Stanley Leathes, K.C.B., commissioner 
 of civil service, London, publicly remarked that "Several useful 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 127 ] 
 
plans now in operation in our service originated in America, among 
 them one inaugurated by Mr. George E. Cole of Chicago." In 
 Sir Stanley's address he explained our practice of loading with 
 political workers the payrolls of the offices having to do with 
 assessment, extension and collection of taxes. The assessment and 
 the review of assessment were over in January; the extension in the 
 county clerk's office was completed in February; and the heavy 
 work of the treasurer in collecting was fairly over by June — yet 
 practically full staffs were maintained in these offices, even after 
 the pressure was released. 
 
 Mr. Cole suggested that by pushing such seasonal arrange- 
 ments to the utmost the regular staff of each of these depart- 
 ments could be greatly reduced and their work done by a com- 
 paratively small staff, moving from department to department. 
 His suggestion was adopted in the county and resulted in a large 
 saving; also the work was better done because of the wide 
 experience of the members of the movable staff. In concluding 
 his address, Sir Stanley said, "The plan, while not entirely new, 
 was widely adopted and has been developed and applied to analo- 
 gous situations. It is one of the debts which the British Civil 
 Service owes to her American daughter." 
 
 Meantime Cole was suffering loss of customers due to political 
 antagonism. He had a good organization of old and faithful em- 
 ployees, but his personal attention was needed. Fortunately his 
 son, Theodore, was to step in. Theo was endowed with unusually 
 sound judgment, and a good constitution. He carried on for 
 two years. Then, attacked by lassitude not natural to him, he be- 
 
 [128] CITIZEN COLE 
 
gan to decline in health. Nothing more serious than needed rest 
 was suspected, after a doctor's examination, and he was sent to 
 Florida. He came back showing no improvement, and a thorough 
 examination followed. His ailment was diagnosed as tuberculosis. 
 Open air and a health-building diet were prescribed. Cole sold 
 his home on Grand Boulevard and moved his family to Wilmette. 
 On Greenwood Avenue he found a home and on the south built 
 a spacious sunroom. Here, greeting friends with his enduring 
 cheerfulness, Theo lay through the snow of winter, the budding 
 spring and into the summer, till one day the young and promising 
 life ended. This was a crushing blow to the father. His sturdy 
 constitution withstood the shock. Again he was at the desk of 
 Cole & Company. His second son, Munroe, was too young to 
 step into the harness. 
 
 CITIZENCOLE [ 129 ] 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 Finds Basic Law Wrong 
 
 His wide experience with maladministration in township, city, 
 county and state affairs had now brought Cole to one con- 
 clusion. Again he considered whether he had made a false start. 
 There was so much the matter with government; it needed basic 
 remedies. 
 
 Cole's next fight was for a constitutional convention. He 
 plunged in. Though not an official of the Citizens' Association 
 prior to 1901, he was familiar with its efforts for constitutional 
 revision. 'Way back in 1884, fourteen years after the constitu- 
 tion was adopted, under John L. Thompson as president, the As- 
 sociation stated its belief that "a fundamental change in the system 
 of local government of Cook County, or at least that portion 
 which applies to Chicago and the towns immediately adjoining it, 
 is necessary." It could be brought about only by a constitutional 
 convention. Even at that time the extraordinary growth of the 
 city and suburbs since the convention of 1870 and the changed 
 relation to the rest of the state in population and wealth were 
 given as reasons for change of provisions that were sufficient for 
 government of rural districts and small communities. The Asso- 
 
 [ 130 ] CITIZENCOLE 
 
ciation had sought a resolution for a constitutional amendment 
 in the preceding legislature without success. 
 
 In 1887, under President Francis B. Peabody, a resolution for 
 amendment permitting special legislation for Cook County failed. 
 The report of President Peabody stated: "Any proposed altera- 
 tion designed for our relief is always met by one from some other 
 section of the state for some other object." 
 
 So in 1891 a resolution for submitting to the people the 
 question whether a convention should be held was introduced in 
 the legislature. It was defeated. But the legislature submitted to 
 a vote a resolution to permit two amendments at a time instead 
 of but one as fixed in the constitution of 1870. If adopted it 
 was proposed to use the two amendments to bring about a con- 
 solidation of the city and county governments. This too failed 
 when submitted to the people. 
 
 In 1893 a resolution for a constitutional convention failed. 
 In 1895 a resolution to permit three amendments to the constitu- 
 tion at one time passed the legislature and was submitted to a 
 vote in 1896. It was defeated. 
 
 In 1898 a proposed constitutional amendment to enable the 
 city and county to consolidate failed. 
 
 With this history in mind, Cole started toward accomplish- 
 ment of another forlorn hope — a revision of the state constitu- 
 tion to bring it down to date. Cole was president of the Citizens' 
 Association, having been re-elected in 1911. He re-enlisted the 
 interest of the Citizens' Association directors. They gave him 
 full swing and backed him. 
 
 CITIZENCOLE [ 1^1 ] 
 
When it was evident the legislature would not submit to the 
 people any of the resolutions proposing constitutional amendments 
 presented to them in 1912, a joint resolution for a constitutional 
 convention was submitted by the Citizens' Association under Cole's 
 leadership. It was defeated in the house. The pressing need then 
 and now and since 1884 when first broached by the Citizens' As- 
 sociation was and is: revision of the taxation system; consolidation 
 of local taxing bodies; reduction in the number of elective offices; 
 and home rule. 
 
 The Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency noted that there were 
 nineteen distinct governing bodies in Chicago; that at the Novem- 
 ber election in 1912 fifty-seven officials were to be voted for; 
 that there were altogether 236 local elective officials; that the 
 number local, state and national totaled 368. As many as 170 
 candidates would appear for fifty-six offices at a single primary 
 election. The archaic personal property tax, so unjust as to be 
 unenforcible, must needs be abolished and some method devised 
 to levy a just tax on intangible property or the income from it. 
 This would tend to relieve the homeowner, upon whom the burden 
 was getting very heavy. 
 
 For forty years the door had been closed to amending the 
 constitution by: the restriction to a single amendment at a time; 
 the requirement of a two-thirds vote in each house before an 
 amendment could be submitted to the people and by requiring 
 that it receive a majority of all the votes cast at the election. This 
 made a failure to vote on the amendment a vote against it. The 
 amendment, submitted to a vote in 1896, received 163,000 votes 
 
 [132] CITIZENCOLE 
 
for and 66,000 against, and still was defeated. The total vote 
 in the state that year was 1,090,000. Thus the 861,000 voters 
 who cast ballots but did not vote on the proposition defeated it. 
 
 In this year of 1912, Ohio cities had been released from bond- 
 age. Of forty-one amendments to the constitution of Ohio sub- 
 mitted to the people, all but eight were adopted. To Brand Whit- 
 lock of Toledo home rule for cities was of crowning importance. 
 "And the people did approve, with vast majorities, and among 
 all the principles of democracy they wrote in their fundamental 
 law that day was that of municipal home rule, so that all those 
 cities, undreamed of when the old constitution had been written, 
 and all those little towns, silent and sleepy in the drowse of that 
 Sunday afternoon, might own and operate their public utilities, 
 might draft their own charters, have that form of government 
 they pleased, in short, become free. And so the great dreams of 
 Johnson ('Tom') and Jones ('Golden Rule') came true at last." 
 
 Ohio's success inspired hope that Illinois might now be ready 
 to bring itself also down to date. So Cole and his committee, in 
 order to make state-wide the campaign for a constitutional con- 
 vention, set about organizing the Constitutional Convention 
 League of Illinois. Cole was elected chairman of the League. He 
 was now sixty-six. He perhaps did not at the time know he had 
 laid out for himself a job that was to require all the bulldog 
 tenacity he had displayed in his earlier work. It was to be a ten- 
 year campaign, ending on December 12, 1922, with a special elec- 
 tion to adopt a new constitution. 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [133] 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 Starts Fight for Constitutional Convention 
 
 The League proceeded with powerful help from leading news- 
 papers. More than 300 of the 386 legislative nominees of 
 the various political parties throughout the state signified their 
 willingness, if elected, to vote in favor of submitting to the people 
 the question of calling a constitutional convention. The platforms 
 of all parties declared for constitutional revision. Mr. Cole and 
 Secretary Singleton were credited with the most of the work that 
 brought about these results. 
 
 But again, as had occurred on two previous trials in the pre- 
 ceding twenty-eight years, the joint resolution submitting to the 
 people the matter of holding a convention was defeated in the 
 house, after passing the senate. With twenty-nine members absent 
 or not voting, it failed by only ten votes to receive the two-thirds 
 required by law. To Cole it was just another battle of the war 
 lost. He was now vice-president of the Citizens' Association. It 
 was typical of Cole that its report of results was headed "Con- 
 vention Deferred." The outcome was called a temporary defeat. 
 
 Seventeen members of the house who had given assurances they 
 would support the resolution either opposed it or failed to vote. 
 
 [ 134 ] CITIZEN COLE 
 
Nine of these were from Cook County and had violated a written 
 pledge. This breach of faith made something for Cole to live for. 
 
 All Europe was now aflame with war and President Wilson 
 busy keeping us out of it. In spite of the distraction, in the follow- 
 ing year Cole was busy forming another organization. It may not 
 have been larger than the Constitutional Convention League, but 
 its name was longer. The name was "State- Wide Constitutional 
 Advisory Committee of the Citizens' Association." The commit- 
 tee was composed of sixty-nine members, including judges, con- 
 gressmen, members of the legislature, the mayor, the two United 
 States senators (Lawrence Y. Sherman and James Hamilton 
 Lewis) and merchants and lawyers. Chicago and its suburbs were 
 represented by forty-three members. The rest came from twenty- 
 six towns in the state at large. Cole was chairman. 
 
 Political leaders were at once consulted. Both the republican 
 and democratic parties at their conventions adopted strong planks 
 for action by the General Assembly to secure the calling of a 
 constitutional convention. Cole got in touch with Governor 
 Frank O. Lowden, elected on this platform and just inaugurated, 
 and tendered his services. The governor expressed his gratification 
 and said: "This program was the basis of our campaign. It must 
 be carried out if we are to retain the confidence of the people. 
 Party pledges must be held as sacred as obligations incurred in 
 other fields." Governor Lowden had received a tremendous popu- 
 lar vote, and this was looked upon as an unmistakable mandate 
 to the General Assembly to further the principal reforms ad- 
 vocated by him during the campaign. The memorable victory that 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 135 ] 
 
followed was the fruition of work begun a third of a century 
 before and carried on vigorously by Cole for the preceding five 
 years. The resolution carried by 47 to 1 in the senate and 112 
 to 30 in the house. 
 
 To Governor Lowden's strenuous efforts at a critical time the 
 final adoption of the convention resolution in the house was 
 credited by Cole, and he added in a letter, "If we can but com- 
 memorate Illinois' centennial year by carrying the proposition for 
 a constitutional convention by a popular vote your administration 
 assuredly will deserve an illustrious page in the history of our 
 
 state." 
 
 The final passage was aided by a woman's lobby, led by Mrs. 
 Grace Wilbur Trout, Mrs. J. W. McGraw, Mrs. Catherine 
 Waugh McCullough, Mrs. DeWitt J. Garrison and others. Roger 
 C. Sullivan for the democrats and Senator Medill McCormick 
 for the republicans were active lobbyists for the resolution. 
 Julius Rosenwald and many civic organizations and most of the 
 leading newspapers splendidly supported the convention resolu- 
 tion. 
 
 It was expected to submit the proposal to the voters at the 
 November election, 1918; if adopted, to elect delegates in the fall 
 of 1919 and be able to adopt a new constitution in the spring or 
 fall of 1920. It proved to be another five years before final action. 
 The hope was that it might be submitted in the form of separate 
 amendments, as was done in Ohio, so that each of the various 
 proposals would stand or fall on its merits, thus avoiding rejection 
 of the bulk of the convention's work. 
 
 [ 136 ] CITIZEN COLE 
 
The opening gun in the campaign for adoption was fired at 
 Springfield. At a preliminary meeting held in Governor Lowden's 
 office in the state capitol building, the nucleus of a non-partisan 
 campaign organization was formed with Judge Orrin N. Carter, 
 Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois, as chairman. The 
 invitations were sent out by Cole to the active supporters of the 
 movement. Those present regarded themselves remarkably for- 
 tunate in securing Judge Carter's consent to lead the campaign. 
 Cole served with him on the committee. The proposition carried 
 by a majority of 74,239 on November 5, just six days before the 
 armistice that declared the end of the World War. 
 
 And now Cole was to suffer another domestic tragedy. Mrs. 
 Cole had not been a particularly strong woman, though in good 
 health. The loss of Theodore had been a severe shock to her, 
 philosophical though she was. There had been no warning to 
 cause any real anxiety about her physical condition. Just three 
 days after Cole's victory at the polls Mrs. Cole suffered a stroke 
 and sank into a coma. This was in the daytime and Mr. Cole was 
 at his office. He hastened home as quickly as possible. Mrs. Cole 
 never recovered consciousness. That evening painlessly and peace- 
 fully she slipped away from him. No one but Cole knows how 
 much he owed to the patience of a wife who would give up so 
 much that he might pay what he considered was his debt to the 
 public. It was for Mrs. Cole that he had refrained from attend- 
 ing public meetings at night and had been able to spend most of 
 his evenings at home. He was now to go it alone. 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 137 ] 
 
CHAPTER XXX 
 
 Convention Drafts New Constitution 
 
 Armistice Day found Cole again at his desk at George E. 
 . Cole & Company's. He was vice-president of the Citizens' 
 Association. It was highly desirable that the one hundred and two 
 delegates now to be chosen be elected, if possible, on a non-partisan 
 basis. In Ohio, by special act of the legislature, delegates were 
 nominated by petition only, and the ballots bore no party label. 
 As a result, many high-grade men were led to become candidates. 
 
 To determine if such an act would be consistent with our 
 constitution the Citizens' Association submitted the question to a 
 group of lawyers. They were Charles R. Holden, John P. Wilson, 
 John S. Miller, S. S. Gregory, Levy Mayer, Silas H. Strawn, 
 Frederick B. Johnstone and Clarence Darrow, all members of the 
 Association. The group was not unanimous that such an act 
 would be constitutional. Most of the members agreed that there 
 was enough doubt to make it inexpedient to pursue the Ohio 
 method. An advance opinion could not be had from the Supreme 
 Court. It was certain the legislature would not pass an act in 
 time for the Supreme Court to review it before the election. 
 
 It was with much regret that Cole and his co-workers found 
 
 [ 138 ] CITIZEN COLE 
 
that they would have to adhere to the party plan. They knew 
 that whether Illinois would become a better place in which to 
 live depended upon the average caliber of its delegates. The 
 non-partisan selection of delegates in Ohio and Massachusetts 
 had resulted satisfactorily. The New York convention, elected on 
 party lines, had resulted in the overwhelming defeat of its pro- 
 posed new constitution when submitted to the voters. The people 
 of Illinois must now depend on their party leaders to nominate 
 and elect fit men in the various districts. 
 
 The vital issue was at last in the hands of the people. After 
 so many years a celebration might have been justifiable, with flags 
 out and torchlight processions and brass bands, for the proposi- 
 tion carried. 
 
 It was a victory for Cole. He had now worked nearly eight 
 years to bring about the issue. Was it to be a barren victory? The 
 Tribune summed it up this way: "This state may or may not get 
 a new constitution. After many years of discouraged effort it has 
 at least and at last elected delegates to the convention and the con- 
 vention will begin its work. The campaign for the convention 
 required perseverance and resolution. . . . You may have forgotten 
 who was the pioneer. He was George E. Cole. A reader suggests 
 that it is a good thing to hand a man a bouquet once in a while 
 if he deserves it, and that Mr. Cole does. We agree with him. 
 This is not a bouquet. Maybe it will pass for a small flower. It 
 is for Mr. Cole's buttonhole." 
 
 Some outstanding lawyers, business men and political leaders 
 of good standing were elected. But on the whole the partisan 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 139 ] 
 
method put in too many who viewed the convention work through 
 political spectacles. The Tribune, a staunch advocate of constitu- 
 tional revision, became disaffected. It was not pleased with the 
 makeup, and on June 23, 1920, it commented editorially to the 
 effect "that the state will continue to operate under the constitu- 
 tion of '70. It has many defects but they will be preferred." The 
 Tribune regretted a parting of the ways with Cole, whom it 
 proclaimed the "grandfather of the convention." 
 
 Cole and his co-workers began immediately a bombardment 
 of the convention members. The first shot was directed against 
 a proposal adopted by the convention to limit Chicago's representa- 
 tion in the legislature so that it would never have a majority in 
 either house or senate. A protest signed by Moses E. Greenebaum, 
 president, and George E. Cole, vice-president, of the Citizens' As- 
 sociation, directed to Charles E. Woodward, president of the 
 convention, was sent. The convention rescinded the action to limit 
 Chicago in both houses. Next a bulletin was sent urging the con- 
 vention to abolish the cumulative vote for representatives that 
 enabled the parties to nominate for the legislature only three 
 members in a district that was to elect only three. 
 
 The Citizens' Association appealed to the convention to cut 
 down the number of elective offices, as a material aid to good gov- 
 ernment in Chicago, and closed with the statement, "In our judg- 
 ment, submission of the proposed constitution as a single proposal 
 will be almost certain to result in rejection by the people." 
 
 Next an assault was made to secure provision for consolida- 
 tion of the courts of Cook County. This was contained in a 
 
 [ 140 ] CITIZEN COLE 
 
stirring letter to Frederick R. De Young, chairman of the 
 judiciary committee. The courts were charged with non-adminis- 
 tration of justice. "An indictment," it said, "by the Cook County 
 Grand Jury is regarded by the average criminal as a mere in- 
 convenience." Adoption was urged of a proposal made by Frank 
 J. Loesch, chairman, and Walter F. Dodds, secretary, of a com- 
 mittee of lawyers, to consolidate into a single body all the courts 
 of Cook County, headed by a chief justice to be selected by the 
 Supreme Court. 
 
 Elected in November, 1919, organized in January, 1920, the 
 convention finally submitted its work to the ratification of the 
 voters at a special election in December, 1922. It was not an 
 ideal constitution; it was a compromise. The proposals sought 
 and vigorously fought for by Cole and the directors of the Citi- 
 zens' Association were incorporated. Chicago was to have home 
 rule and was authorized to call a charter convention; provision 
 was made for consolidating the taxing bodies; Cook County courts 
 were to be consolidated with 71 judges, each having equal and 
 complete jurisdiction in criminal and civil cases, and the Supreme 
 Court to choose the chief justice, make assignments to the civil 
 and criminal bench and prescribe rules of pleading, practice and 
 procedure; the cumulative voting system used in electing state 
 representatives was to be abandoned; the legislature was em- 
 powered to substitute a tax upon incomes from intangible property 
 for the archaic and unenforcible personal property tax, relieving 
 to some extent the homeowner of the unjust burden that falls 
 on real estate. 
 
 CITIZENCOLE [ 141 ] 
 
Cook County's representation in the house was to be un- 
 restricted. Its representation in the senate was to be limited to 
 one-third. 
 
 General Abel Davis, a member of the convention, said of the 
 proposed constitution, "The greatest change in the new constitu- 
 tion is the grant to Chicago of the right of home rule. It may 
 write its own charter; it may pass its own laws of local significance; 
 it may settle its own transportation problem without appealing to 
 the state; it may own and operate the means of local transporta- 
 tion; it may own the same and operate through a lessee; grant or 
 renew franchises; it may do either, neither or nothing; and what- 
 ever is to be decided upon, we ourselves make the decision." 
 
 Judge Orrin N. Carter, in accepting the chairmanship of the 
 state campaign committee for ratification, said, "The high charac- 
 ter of the personnel of the convention has impressed all thoughtful 
 citizens with confidence in the result of their efforts to bring about 
 a revision of the basic law of the state. I believe that the proposed 
 new constitution is a great improvement upon the constitution of 
 1870." 
 
 The Citizens' Association said, "While in our own opinion the 
 new constitution might have been improved in some respects, we 
 are aware that such a document is necessarily the result of com- 
 promise, and we are fully convinced that it offers the people 
 enormously important gains." 
 
 Cole, now honorary president of the Citizens' Association, ad- 
 dressed a letter to Judge Carter stating, "As one of those who 
 for years carried on the tedious and uphill fight to induce the 
 
 [142] CITIZENCOLE 
 
legislature to submit the calling of the convention to the people, 
 I do not hesitate to say that failure to ratify this constitution will 
 end all chance of getting relief through a constitutional convention 
 for at least twenty years." 
 
 It was unfortunate that the new constitution was not all that 
 everybody wanted. Limiting Cook County's representation in the 
 senate was resented by many. Others feared the proposed income 
 tax. These and all objectors to any provision or to failure to 
 provide for their pet idea voted against the document as a whole. 
 The new constitution was rejected. 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [143] 
 
CHAPTER XXXI 
 Proclaimed State's Greatest Public Servant 
 
 If this were fiction our story might end now with "Little remains 
 to be said," but it is Cole's story. For several years honorary 
 president, Cole was in 1923 acting president in the absence of Mr. 
 Augustus B. Peabody. Mr. Peabody had served continuously as 
 president of the Citizens' Association since 1920 and was to serve 
 for many years to come. 
 
 In the Association's annual report for that year appears Cole's 
 brief statement of the outcome of his long fight for constitutional 
 revision: "We were not greatly surprised by the overwhelming 
 defeat of the proposed new constitution when it was submitted to 
 the voters last December by the constitutional convention. That 
 convention, which was called into existence by the people of the 
 state, largely through our efforts, had been elected on partisan lines 
 despite our protest and so probably did not receive as large a 
 measure of public confidence as it might have had if the delegates 
 had been chosen on a non-partisan basis. Its deliberations were 
 overshadowed by the unsettled conditions which prevailed im- 
 mediately after the World War, and at the close of its sessions 
 the constitutional convention made the fatal mistake of submitting 
 
 [ 144 ] CITIZENCOLE 
 
the proposed new constitution as an entirety instead of permitting 
 the voters to adopt or reject each important proposal separately." 
 
 It would naturally take some time for a man, even of Cole's 
 dogged persistency, to get over the bitter loss of that battle. It 
 would seem to many the loss of the war. It was seven years be- 
 fore Cole's next move. Though eighty-five years of age, he was 
 again agitating the basic needs of the state: home rule; the short 
 ballot; unification of local governments; reform of the tax system; 
 and consolidation of the Cook County courts. 
 
 In a letter to Senator Harold C. Kessinger of Aurora, Illinois, 
 he says: "I have been much pleased to learn that you hold the 
 view that Illinois should take steps to call another constitutional 
 convention in the near future, as the only practical means of ac- 
 complishing improvements in our local and state governmental 
 machinery. As one who has given much time and effort to this 
 cause and who has long held the opinion that the convention 
 method is the best if not the only one by which these highly 
 desirable changes can be effected, I have been extremely glad to 
 hear of late that thoughtful men in different parts of the state 
 are again doing what they can to promote discussion of this im- 
 portant matter." 
 
 In closing his letter, Cole assigns to the public one task, so far 
 unable to complete, to the accomplishment of which he at least 
 shows the way: "In my opinion, public-spirited citizens of Illinois 
 now have an opportunity to perform a patriotic service by urging 
 the calling of another constitutional convention as the only feasible 
 plan for accomplishing such reforms as those above mentioned, 
 that are essential to the welfare of the state." 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [145] 
 
And Senator Kessinger published this appeal in his Mid-West 
 Review and paid Cole this tribute: "If asked to name the Illinois 
 private citizen who is the state's greatest public servant your mind 
 would consider with all other names, and perhaps ahead of all 
 others, George E. Cole, of Chicago, veteran fighter for good gov- 
 ernment, city and state." 
 
 And the Chicago Tribune immediately joined editorially: 
 "George E. Cole, one of the most disinterested and level-headed of 
 the men who, in our local history, have worked for political reform 
 and good government, makes appeal for the calling of another 
 constitutional convention. Any appeal made or backed by Mr. 
 Cole deserves respectful consideration, and there is much to be said 
 for a constitutional convention." 
 
 And other papers throughout the state joined in this appeal 
 of Mr. Cole, octogenarian. 
 
 [ 146 ] CITIZEN COLE 
 
CHAPTER XXXII 
 The End 
 
 And so Cole filled the requirements of leadership summed up 
 ta by Lyman J. Gage thirty-five years before, when Cole was 
 placed at the head of a movement to clean up a Council "un- 
 paralleled in the sublimity of its infamy." 
 
 He proved to be devoted, pure, honest, without political am- 
 bition and possessed of courage, industry, patience and ability to 
 take a good deal of calumny. And in the stocky body below the 
 head that bore the bulldog jaw, there beat a kindly heart that won 
 him the love of those who fought with him; and his honesty and 
 courage won the admiration of many who opposed him. 
 
 The writer speaks of him from an intimacy that began with 
 his fight to clean up his own ward — an intimacy that continued 
 uninterrupted for thirty-five years. He had faith in the honesty 
 of the great majority of the voters and he inspired their con- 
 fidence in him. He achieved his successes through vigorous at- 
 tacks on one evil at a time, and he fought each fight to a succes- 
 ful conclusion. His successes placed in public life men of merit 
 who still serve, and he established policies that are still observed. 
 He told the truth bluntly and sometimes sacrificed a friendship. 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 147 ] 
 
He stood to the front to receive the attack and the denunciation 
 of opponents and to ward off attacks on his co-workers and sub- 
 ordinates. He did not butt up against political stone walls, for 
 to him there seemed to be no political stone walls. 
 
 When he renewed his appeal for a constitutional convention 
 his health was such that many hoped he might yet live to win the 
 war for a revision of our basic law. Suddenly, on a day in July 
 of the year in which he renewed his fight, the warrior was stricken. 
 He lingered, conscious at times, and with occasional flashes of 
 that prevailing humor which marked his life and which could not 
 be suppressed even in the face of death. On August 18, in his 
 eighty-fifth year, the unseen and expected Hand beckoned to him, 
 and his spirit followed it out of the world in which he found so 
 much to do — so much yet to be done. 
 
 [ 148 ] CITIZEN COLE 
 
TRIBUTE 
 
TRIBUTE 
 
 A memorial meeting commemorating the public service of George E. 
 . Cole was held October 19, 1930, at the City Club of Chicago. 
 Professor Graham Taylor presided. He presented the speakers, whose 
 estimate of Mr. Cole's character and work is in part here set out. 
 
 Mr. J. Frank Aldrich: 
 
 I haven't any doubt whatever that after George Cole had early witnessed 
 the raping of the ballot boxes in Chicago and the growing corruption in our 
 city and county governments, he made mental note of it, and vowed that if the 
 chance ever did come to him to hit at civic corruption in Chicago he would 
 hit it and hit it hard. We all know how well he succeeded. 
 
 "George E. Cole," said the Times-Herald in the spring of 1896, "is regarded 
 by municipal thieves and political sharks as a rare type of reformer. To the 
 ordinary reformer, boodlers and their backers pay but little attention — they 
 scoff at him and jeer at him. They don't scoff or jeer at Mr. Cole, but they 
 hate him. And why? Simply because he hurts them. He is a rare type." 
 
 "The typical bad citizen of Chicago," said Mr. Cole on November 13, 1899, 
 "is that man who is a good husband, a good neighbor, a charitable man who 
 gives to churches and charity, who is fairly honest in his everyday dealings, but 
 who will form one of a pool to put up the money to purchase the vote of a 
 councilman or legislator for the acquirement of a franchise." 
 
 His chief characteristic was honesty of thought, word and deed, and he 
 was as modest as he was brave. He considered it his duty to love his country, 
 support its Constitution, obey its laws, respect its flag, and defend it against all 
 enemies. To paraphrase a couplet which referred to Lincoln: 
 A better man there never was; 
 An humbler one there will never be. 
 
 And as we look back at George E. Cole we say, "What a masterpiece 
 of God was he!" 
 
 CITIZENCOLE [ 151 ] 
 
Mr. Hoyt King: 
 
 I was introduced to Mr. George E. Cole in 1895. I was conducted up the 
 stairway of a building on Dearborn Street to the balcony of George E. Cole 
 & Company, where he had his desk. He accepted me on sight for secretary of 
 the Fourth Ward Council of the Civic Federation. He was a printer and 
 stationer. He had never dabbled in politics other than to vote regularly. 
 
 One of his first acts as head of the Municipal Voters' League was in 
 reference to the newspapers. The newspapers must not be used to exploit mem- 
 bers of the League. News was to be given to the press — not claims of what 
 Cole was going to do. He did not know what he was going to do. He built 
 his plans to suit circumstances. He took things as they were, and used the law 
 and the machinery of election as he found them. I was amazed at his ready 
 grasp of the situation. I have sat at a committee table and have heard him 
 analyze the situation ward by ward in thirty-four wards. He would tell who 
 should be defeated, who was a good candidate, who was a candidate not so 
 good but who might be used to defeat a known boodler, and point out where an 
 independent candidacy could be fostered. He could predict the probable result 
 — where we would win, and where after a good fight we would lose but drive 
 the wedge for success in the following election. 
 
 I think he liked to fight, and the cause that he was engaged in was one 
 in which he had every faith. His preparation was so thorough that his fight 
 was frequently a short one. When Cole went before a grand jury his case was 
 complete and the indictment a formality. He prepared his facts, backed by the 
 affidavits of witnesses and by documentary proof, before he even went to the 
 state's attorney, and then the matter was not submitted to the grand jury until 
 little links of evidence suggested by the state's attorney were secured. 
 
 We know that the good he has done will not end with his passing, Mr. 
 Cole has left a legacy to this generation, an example of civic patriotism, and this 
 generation will do well to profit by knowledge of his motives, his methods, and 
 the successes he achieved. 
 
 Mr. Walter L. Fisher: 
 
 When George E. Cole retired from the presidency of the Municipal Voters' 
 League it was not merely because he had already made as great a sacrifice as his 
 personal circumstances justified, but because he was in real doubt as to the pos- 
 sibilities of the future development of the League beyond the point to which 
 he had brought it. Whatever those possibilities were, he thought that new men 
 and new methods were essential if its usefulness was to be continued and en- 
 
 [ 152 ] CITIZEN COLE 
 
larged. This modest, civic soldier did not realize how completely he had already 
 established the essential principles upon which the League was to achieve all 
 of its subsequent successes. Adaptation of method to changing conditions there 
 undoubtedly was, but the fundamentals remained unshaken. Honesty, courage 
 and common sense coupled with the absence of all personal animosity — these 
 were the qualities which Cole had established in the Municipal Voters' League 
 at its very beginning, and which he had so impressed upon it that they remained 
 its distinguishing characteristic after he ceased to be its leader. 
 
 His first effort was to establish the confidence of the public in the honesty 
 of himself and his organization, in its single-minded sincerity of purpose and its 
 freedom from any taint of political or personal self-interest. In this he was 
 singularly successful, and the real secret of this success was that sincerity of 
 purpose and straightforwardness of method were the very essence of his own 
 character. Unflinching courage in the statement of facts and the adoption and 
 execution of policies was the essential supplement of honesty and sincerity. The 
 third characteristic of Mr. Cole which he impressed upon the Municipal Voters' 
 League was that uncommon thing called common sense — uncommon at least 
 in movements for political reform. What we mean by common sense may be 
 difficult to define, but we all have a very clear conception of what the words 
 mean. To me they mean practicality — the quality of being capable of accom- 
 plishment at the time, as opposed to that which is theoretically desirable but 
 not within the reach of actual attainment under the existent conditions. The 
 application of common sense in public affairs always seems to the idealist to 
 involve a sacrifice of ideals, and it does involve in every case the determination 
 of whether we shall in the long run come nearer to the attainment of the ideal 
 by adhering rigidly to it than by gradual ascent through the acceptance of the 
 best that is immediately attainable. 
 
 George E. Cole was a rare character, whose unselfish services to this com- 
 munity can never be adequately recognized because they can never be adequately 
 made known. To recall them in this memorial service and even in this frag- 
 mentary way is not only a duty but a privilege that should be an inspiration. 
 
 Mr. Lessing Rosenthal: 
 
 When I myself — and this was in the year 1902 — became a member of 
 the Municipal Voters' League Committee and began actively to participate in 
 its work, I got to know more and more about what George E. Cole had done 
 not alone for the Municipal Voters' League but for the cleansing and upbuilding 
 of the City of Chicago. 
 
 Mr. Cole at that time took every opportunity to speak to members of the 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [153] 
 
executive committee of the League when he chanced to meet them of the work 
 they were doing, and this was particularly gratifying to the younger men — 
 men like myself — who loved to hear his words of encouragement, loved to 
 hear him tell of some of his own experiences, and loved to hear him speak in 
 that very modest way of his of some of the things that had been done in the 
 earlier years. 
 
 It was the following year, in 1903, that through the efforts especially of 
 Walter L. Fisher, to whom you have just listened, the City Club of Chicago 
 was formed. Mr. Cole, modest man that he was, never wished to hold office 
 in this club. He was never even a director. He was later elected an honorary 
 life member and kept this membership until death took him from us. But the 
 fact that Mr. Cole did not hold an official position did not, by any means, mean 
 that he was not active in the affairs of the club. In a way I have known of 
 no one more active. No meeting at which any important public discussion took 
 place or which was devoted to the consideration of any measure of real concern 
 to the people was ever held at which George E. Cole, if he was in Chicago, did 
 not appear and at which his counsel was not given and at which he did not 
 express views that carried weight. 
 
 George E. Cole's life will ever remain an inspiring example. It is a won- 
 derful thing that we had in him not only a man who in time of the Civil War 
 was ready to die for his country but who after that war was over and he had 
 returned to peaceful pursuits was ever ready to live for his country. 
 
 He who has studied history knows that republics have fallen, that states 
 have become decadent and fallen and that corruption has played an important 
 role in bringing about this end. Mr. Cole realized this. He wanted to preserve 
 this city, this state and this country. He wanted the good work to go on and 
 on, and he is responsible for much of it that is being done today and will be 
 done hereafter. Mr. Cole's memory will remain immortal. 
 
 Mr. Henry P. Chandler: 
 
 I shall begin by reading in part a statement of the directors of the Citizens' 
 Association: 
 
 "The Directors of the Citizens' Association of Chicago record their sorrow 
 and deep sense of loss in the death of George E. Cole, the honorary president 
 of the Association. 
 
 "He was born at Jackson, Michigan, on March 2, 1845, and served during 
 the Civil War for two years as a private in the 10th Michigan Volunteer In- 
 fantry. He engaged in business in the City of Chicago in March, 1878, and 
 was for a number of years president of the printing and stationery house of 
 George E. Cole & Company. 
 
 [ 154 ] CITIZEN COL -E 
 
"In the year 1896, he organized the Municipal Voters' League and became 
 its first president. He was also active in the Legislative Voters' League, in the 
 Initiative and Referendum League of Illinois and in other civic movements for 
 the betterment of municipal and state government. He was one of the last 
 surviving members of the George H. Thomas Post of the Grand Army of the 
 Republic. 
 
 "He was a director of this Association for nearly thirty years, president in 
 two different periods, from 1900 to 1902 and 1912 to 1914, vice-president from 
 1914 to 1920, and honorary president since 1920. Thus he has had an outstanding 
 part in the life of the Association for a generation. He has caused the exposure 
 and prevention of corrupt practices in government, and promoted efficiency and 
 integrity. He has shown the need of far-reaching changes in governmental or- 
 ganization through a new constitution, and labored in season and out of season 
 to secure popular support for it. 
 
 "More important than specific accomplishments, he has set an example of 
 devotion, courage and self-sacrifice by which only can corruption and evil be 
 overcome, and the public interest maintained. These qualities are peculiarly needed 
 in the present time. His uprightness and sturdy integrity as a business man 
 were apparent to the entire community. He was best known, however, as a 
 good citizen and as a champion of the cause of honesty and civic virtue against 
 all forms of corruption in public life. He fought the good fight until his name 
 became synonymous with courage, high ideals and rugged patriotism. 
 
 "May his memory always be treasured and may the Citizens' Association re- 
 main forever faithful to the ideals for which he strove so unselfishly and so well." 
 
 To relate the work of Mr. Cole in the Citizens' Association would be almost 
 to recount the history of the Association for a generation. There was little that 
 it did in which he did not take an active part. 
 
 Mr. Cole's greatest contribution through the Citizens' Association was the 
 example which he set of vigilant and courageous defense of the public interest. 
 His was no spasmodic zeal but a steady flame of patriotism. It not only diffused 
 its own warmth but kindled others. How could one stand in the presence of this 
 octogenarian and in the face of his lifetime of devotion refuse aid to a public 
 cause? One could not and one did not. Mr. Cole thus exerted a far-reaching in- 
 fluence which in his modesty he would have disclaimed and which certainly he 
 did not realize. 
 
 We shall miss the meaning of his life if we do not accept it as a challenge 
 to us who remain. Political standards in our community are at a low ebb. 
 Candidates are willing to sell their souls for preferment, and, elected, they are 
 loyal to their political masters and not to the people. In a time of urgent need 
 the public interests are disregarded in the ignoble pursuit of partisan and selfish 
 
 CITIZEN COLE [ 155 ] 
 
aims. But there is a saving conscience in the body politic which, if we will only 
 appeal to it, will again speak. The man whom we honor today would bid us 
 take heart; with courage denounce the wrong; unite in support of the right. 
 The degree to which we respond with self-sacrifice in this critical hour will be 
 the real measure of our appreciation of George E. Cole. 
 
 Mr. Clifford W. Barnes: 
 
 In his service as organizer and president of the Legislative Voters' League, 
 Mr. Cole showed the same rare qualities which had distinguished him in his 
 other relations: sane judgment, invulnerable will, fearless courage, high ideals, 
 love of country, and above all a spirit of self-sacrifice. In an age noted for its 
 materialism, its eager quest for wealth, its search for pleasure and preferment, he 
 gladly gave up all he had for the common weal. The soldier spirit of his 
 boyhood days, which led him to enlist at such an early age in the army of the 
 Union, remained with him throughout his long and useful life, and he counted 
 the loss of money, time and effort — as he would have counted the loss of life 
 itself — a sacrifice none too great to lay upon the altar of his country's welfare. 
 
 The following resolution was passed at the meeting of the board of directors 
 of the Legislative Voters' League, October 13, 1930, and was unanimously 
 adopted: 
 
 "George E. Cole was a stalwart, fearless and dependable citizen, who dem- 
 onstrated on many occasions a courageous support of those things which make 
 for better Americanism. 
 
 "A soldier in the Civil War, he carried his militancy into times of peace 
 and fought vigorously for the ideals which visioned the aspirations of those 
 devoted to the public welfare. 
 
 "An organizer and first president of the Legislative Voters' League, he was 
 an organizer and first president of the Municipal Voters' League and four 
 times president of the Citizens' Association. His achievements in these and other 
 activities are part of the records of the community to which he gave unsparingly 
 of his time and effort. 
 
 "Both in public and private life his service was sincere and effective, and 
 his integrity unquestioned. 
 
 "In his passing, the Legislative Voters' League loses a friend and counselor 
 to whom it can ill afford to say farewell. 
 
 "As a testimonial of the esteem of his associates it is directed that these 
 words be placed in the archives of the League, and that an engrossed copy be 
 sent to his family as an expression of the regard in which he was held by his 
 fellow members." 
 
 [ 156 ] CITIZEN COLE 
 
Mr. David E. Shanahan: 
 
 To my mind Mr. Cole was the highest type of an American citizen. He 
 stood for principle and principle alone. He was guided by a high sense of public 
 duty. He believed that every citizen should participate in the affairs of his city, 
 state and nation. His participation in public affairs was not for gain nor pub- 
 licity. He never sought nor wanted public office, nor public favors of any kind. 
 His desire was for public officials who would bring to office honesty, integrity 
 and service for the benefit of the entire community. He was much interested 
 in legislative affairs, and for more than a quarter of a century worked long and 
 earnestly for a constitutional convention in Illinois. 
 
 George E. Cole's long life in Chicago was one of usefulness on behalf of 
 the public. He was a fearless, outspoken man in condemnation of public offi- 
 cials who betrayed the people. He was an upstanding fighter for the right. He 
 asked no quarter and gave no quarter. He believed that public office was a 
 public trust. To him must go the credit of raising the standard of the City 
 Council of Chicago and of the General Assembly of Illinois. 
 
 His passing was not only a loss to Chicago but to the entire State of Illinois 
 and to this great nation. 
 
 Professor Graham Taylor: 
 
 I reserve for the last word a message which comes from a young minister, 
 pastor of the Congregational church which Mr. Cole attended during his subur- 
 ban residence at Wilmette. Just before he left the city for the South last winter, 
 he called me aside in the club one day and said: "Should anything happen to me 
 while I am gone, I wish you would ask Roy E. Bowers to conduct the service. 
 Somehow I love that young fellow: he is so kind and natural and brotherly. I 
 have never been a member of the church, but I have been a reader of the Bible 
 all my life, and I have been a man of prayer." Then he added, "If Clifford 
 Barnes and Raymond Robins are anywhere near and would add a word about 
 me, I would like it." 
 
 Mr. Bowers came back from his Cleveland parish, and at the home of Mr. 
 Cole's son in Winnetka he conducted the service with heartfelt sincerity. I 
 asked him if he would write something that I could read here today, and he 
 has written these words: 
 
 "It was some years after his first great battle for a better city that I came 
 into personal contact with ^Citizen Cole.' I soon found that, like most execu- 
 tives whose tasks involve a large amount of physical and moral courage, he was 
 a mystic. 
 
 CITIZENCOLE [ 157 ] 
 
"He had gone into the struggle with the purpose to see it through. Many 
 reformers are like the amateur, who feels himself under no necessity or compul- 
 sion to play the part assigned him: the moment things become too hot for him 
 he may quit. So, as one after another failed to stand by, he came to realize 
 that he would have to plant his fulcrum squarely on God. 
 
 "Often I have heard him say, 'In those first three months I did more pray- 
 ing than in all my life before. I had to have God's help. I never could have 
 succeeded without that.' Having got his life on that Center, nothing budged him. 
 
 "I came to know him shortly after his first great bereavement; a second and 
 a third followed. Still a rugged warrior ready for any call of duty, much of 
 his conversation, was in heaven. Serenity and a beautiful gentleness and sympathy 
 possessed him. To the very end he remained a believer in man because he was 
 a believer in the spiritual nature of the Universe; in God as the source and 
 guarantor of ideal values and moral success." 
 
 [ 158 ] CITIZENCOLE 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA 
 
 B.C6872K C oo3 
 
 CITIZEN COLE OF CHICAGO CHGO