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Hizzoner Big Bill Thompson 
 
JONATHAN CAPE AND HARRISON SMITH, INCORPORATED, 
 
 139 EAST 46TH STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y. AND 77 WELLINGTON 
 
 STREET, WEST, TORONTO, CANADA; JONATHAN CAPE, LTD. 
 
 30 BEDFORD SQUARE, LONDON, W. C. 1, ENGLAND 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
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 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/hizzonerbigbilltOObrig 
 
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 BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 (CARICATURE BY CARRENO) 
 
BY JOHN BRIGHT 
 Introduction by Harry Elmer Barnes 
 
 Hizzoner 
 Big Bill Thompson 
 
 An Idyll of Chicago 
 
 NEW YORK 
 JONATHAN CAPE & HARRISON SMITH 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1930, BY 
 
 JOHN BRIGHT 
 FIRST PUBLISHED 1930 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 BY J. J. LITTLE & IVES CO. 
 
 AND BOUND BY THE J. F. TAPLEY CO. 
 
TH r i 
 
 This Book Is Respectfully 
 Dedicated to 
 
 MR. WALTER LIPPMANN 
 
 ". . . . Here and there some have found a way of 
 life in this new world. They have put away vain 
 hopes, have ceased to ask guaranties and are yet 
 serene. But they are only a handful. They do the 
 enduring work of the world, for work like theirs, 
 done with no ulterior bias and for its own sake, is 
 work done in truth, in beauty, and in goodness. 
 There is not much of it, and it does not greatly 
 occupy the attention of mankind. Its excellence is 
 quiet. But it persists through all the spectacular 
 commotions. And long after, it is all that men care 
 much to remember." — American Inquisitors. 
 
BIG BILL THE BUILDER 
 
 A Campaign Ditty 
 
 Scanning his fry's pages, we find names we love so well, 
 Heroes of the ages — of their deeds we love to tell, 
 But right beside them soon there'll be a name 
 Of someone we all acclaim. 
 
 CHORUS 
 
 Who is this one, Chicago's greatest son? 
 
 It's Big Bill the Builder, 
 
 Who fought night and day to build the waterway, 
 
 To stem the flood he stood m mud and fought for all he's 
 
 worth. 
 He'll fight so we can always be the grandest land on earth. 
 Big Bill the Builder, we're building with you. 
 
 — Milton Weil * 
 
 * Mr. "Weil became widely known as the mayor's bard, sustaining the 
 reputation symbolized by the slogan of his music publishing firm: "Worth 
 Weil" songs. He was an assistant member of the state commerce com- 
 mission in the latter days of William I. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Following the usual custom, these lines of explana- 
 tion and acknowledgment are written after the finishing 
 touches have been given to the manuscript. And the curs- 
 ing and perspiring contingent upon any artistic enter- 
 prise suspended, a mellow mood settles upon me. Weeks 
 of setting words on end, reading, clipping, revising and 
 blaspheming have expelled most of the pretentiousness I 
 had at first blush, and doubt seeps in to fill the vacuum. 
 Bill Thompson, after all, is but an average man, one of 
 universal interest to be sure, but in his essential impulses 
 and ideas just another American. Of course, he has often 
 occupied the High Places, even gained the first page of 
 the New York Times, but this eminence is more the result 
 of certain sequences of circumstances than any intrinsic 
 uniqueness in Thompson — so why glorify him further 
 with this detailed biography ? The answer quickly emerges 
 to justify my preoccupation with his tale for so many 
 moons: this droll person's field of operations has been, 
 largely, politics, and getting into and retaining public 
 office in a democracy requires such strange conduct, is 
 such a crazy-quilt of shouts and moans, that any investi- 
 gation of its inner workings and outer manifestations 
 should be fascinating and instructive. 
 
 Wherever the intelligent snout is poked it detects poli- 
 tics: in business, in amour, in sport, in education, in 
 churches is it present as one of the prime determinants 
 of change : there isn't a pants factory, a country club, a 
 sodality of Odd Fellows where politics is not played. And 
 
 xi 
 
xii PREFACE 
 
 in government politics finds its most overt expression. And 
 in municipal government politics finds its rawest and most 
 flamboyant expression. 
 
 Patriotism is usually attended by a kind of awed respect 
 for the machinery of the federal government : it is assumed 
 to be Better, Finer, More Efficient than the state and city 
 governments. As a general assumption this is true, and 
 holds up until some particularly creditable state admin- 
 istration, like that of New York under Governor Smith, 
 is compared to a disreputable reign on the higher level, 
 such as Harding's. But because the United States 
 Supreme Court is a more competent body than the Kan- 
 sas or Arkansas Supreme Courts, because Congress is 
 slightly more enlightened than the legislature of Ten- 
 nessee — it does not follow that the Republican National 
 Committee is any more than the sum of its parts. And 
 if some curious son of a patriot wishes to find out how 
 Presidents are made, let him commence with an examina- 
 tion of the tactics of the alderman in his ward. Dr. Hoover 
 may sling a mean statistic, but you may be sure Mother 
 Work and Jim Good and C. Bascom Slemp talked the 
 coldest turkey with dozens of men of no great acquaint- 
 ance with the Quaker ethics. 
 
 This volume, however, is not intended to be a serious 
 contribution to the literature of political science. I would 
 be vain and presumptuous indeed if I aspired to improve 
 upon the works of scholars who in the past have focused 
 trained minds upon various phases of the American politi- 
 cal scene. There are didactic nuances, but in the main my 
 purpose has been to present significant facts, some of 
 which are grotesque and almost unbelievable, and let the 
 reader theorize for himself. 
 
 This book was conceived and executed, I hope, in the 
 
PREFACE xiii 
 
 spirit of objectivity Mr. Walter Lippmann believes to be 
 the principal requisite of adultness. I have no axes to 
 grind; not one politician mentioned subsequently is my 
 personal enemy or friend; and I have plighted my troth 
 with no political party extant. It seems to me, though, 
 that one must have a faith in the democratic process equal 
 to Mussolini's belief in himself to withstand the insinu- 
 ating empiricisms of Chicago's political history, especially 
 when the gaze is extended to taking in other choice 
 national sights: the Anti-Saloon Legrees lolling on the 
 federal benches, the Smoots and Fesses outvoting the 
 LaFollettes and Couzenses in the Senate, and Andrew 
 Mellon the greatest secretary of the treasury since Alex- 
 ander Hamilton. If one is caught in the bog of melancholy 
 disenchantment at this point, let him be reminded that it 
 is the penalty of all who smoke the opium of Rousseau 
 and wake up in modern America. 
 
 William Hale Thompson has been noisy in Chicago a 
 long time: all through the eras of William the Hearty, 
 Woodrow the Snobbish, Warren the Generous, Calvin the 
 Economical and Herbert the Precise. His story, as I have 
 indicated, is one of an average man who was able to obtain 
 high political preferment by exploiting the anthropoid 
 mind with leather lungs and imposing manner. Left alone 
 he might have given the town tolerable administration: 
 executing the job of mayor of Chicago does not call for 
 more than the talents of a capable business man. But, 
 intoxicated with absurd ambitions, corrupted and seduced 
 by flattery, he ran amuck and has been jeered into the 
 limbo of the ill- famed. Despite its juicy humors there is 
 an obbligato of pathos perhaps not obvious in my clumsy 
 counterpoint. For evil can stand on its own feet and take 
 it on the chin ; weakness should call forth pity. 
 
xiv PREFACE 
 
 This book has not been the product of one mind. Incal- 
 culable assistance was rendered the author, however, un- 
 knowingly, by the astute and often witty judgments of 
 many political writers for the press — Mr. Jack Lait, Mr. 
 Parke Brown, Mr. Oscar Hewitt, Mr. Charles Wheeler, 
 Mr. Arthur Evans, Mr. Paul Leach, Mr. William Stuart, 
 Mr. Duncan-Clark and many others who unfortunately 
 remained unidentified. 
 
 My thanks are herewith proffered to Professor Charles 
 E. Merriam and his colleague, Dr. Carroll Wooddy, for 
 their advice and the wisdom inherent in their works. 
 
 My gratitude is profound for the cogent criticism of 
 Professor Harry Elmer Barnes. Without it, and the intro- 
 duction he has so generously written, I would have lacked 
 the audacity to aspire to the climaxing conceit of publica- 
 tion. 
 
 Several books, dealing with specific phases of the politi- 
 cal spectacle in Chicago, have been shamelessly used to 
 considerable advantage. Particular thanks are extended 
 here to Professor George S. Counts for his "School and 
 Society in Chicago," Dr. Wooddy for his "Chicago Pri- 
 mary of 1926," and to Mr. Walter Lippmann for his 
 "American Inquisitors"; the rest may be found in the 
 bibliography. 
 
 Most important of all, certainly, has been the relentless 
 and persecuting presence of Mr. J. J. Glassman, a drug- 
 gist by sour economic compulsions but a philosopher by 
 temperament and inclination. He has been my colleague 
 in research and critic in creation, and only his modesty 
 prevented his name from joining mine on the title page. 
 
 John Bright. 
 Chicago, Illinois. 
 July, 1929. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I BIG BILL : PERENNIAL BOY 1 
 
 II WHEN BIG BILL WAS NOT SO BIG 7 
 
 III ALDERMAN WILLIE AND COMMISSIONER THOMP- 
 
 SON 13 
 
 IV A BOLD NOT SO BAD SAILOR 20 
 V BILL SITS AT THE FEET OF THE MASTER 26 
 
 VI THE ANGEL GETS HIS WINGS CLIPPED 33 
 
 VII A COWBOY CHALLENGES THE GODS 39 
 
 VIII THE CITY HALL GOES BURLESQUE 55 
 
 LX BILL ROLLS UP HIS SLEEVES 68 
 
 X BILL SPITS ON HIS HANDS 89 
 
 XI KAISER BILL 103 
 
 XII "insignificant me" 129 
 
 XIII TRILBY AND SVENGALI GET A CURTAIN-CALL 149 
 
 XTV A NOT VERY PROGRESSIVE PAGEANT 170 
 
 XV THE STORM BREAKS 177 
 
 XVI DEVER REIGNS WHILE THOMPSON ROMPS 202 
 
 XVII BILL AS STUDENT OF WORLD AFFAIRS 223 
 
 XVni BILL SCOTCHES THE DRAGON GEORGE 242 
 
 XLX ST. WILLIAM THOMPSON AND SIR WILLIAM 
 
 MCANDREW 261 
 
 XX THE EVOLUTION OF A BAD REPUTATION 282 
 
 XXI DECAY AND LASSITUDE 297 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 301 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 At the close of March, 1927, the writer of this introduc- 
 tion was lecturing for a week in the city of Chicago. It 
 was at the height of the famous mayoralty campaign of 
 that year, which turned on the question of whether the 
 great metropolis of the mid- West should become a fief 
 of the occupant of Buckingham Palace. The atmosphere 
 was that of Boston during the protest against the Stamp 
 Act and the Writs of Assistance. At times two solid pages 
 of advertising in the Chicago Tribune carried a gigantic 
 picture of George Washington, accompanied by a text in 
 bold face type demanding forthright of Chicago citizens 
 whether they intended to remain loyal to the principles 
 of the Father of His Country or proposed to turn their 
 fair city over to the agents of the immaculate descendant 
 of the German Tyrant, against whose forces Washington 
 and his men had fought and bled. There was much more 
 lavish paid advertising in similar vein. Chicago decided 
 by an impressive majority to remain true to the "prin- 
 ciples of '76" and retain the independence which our fore- 
 fathers had won. 
 
 Three years later all this had changed. George V, weak 
 in convalescence from a near-fatal illness, was no longer 
 able to strike terror into the hearts of the citizens of 
 Chicago. The situation no longer resembled Boston of 
 1765. It had come, as Professor Paul Douglas has well ob- 
 served, to duplicate much more closely Central America 
 of 1910. The city was in debt some $200,000,000 through 
 borrowing on two years of anticipated tax collections. 
 Teachers and other city employees were going unpaid, 
 and some branches of city administration faced a complete 
 shut-down. A system resembling that of ancient Rome 
 in reverse had demoralized the assessment and tax collec- 
 
xviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 tion system of the city. Whereas Rome farmed out tax 
 collections to the politicians and their henchmen, Thomp- 
 son and his friends farmed out tax reductions through po- 
 litical leaders in the form of reduced reassessments granted 
 to the favored ones who came through sufficiently hand- 
 somely. Hysterical efforts were being made to borrow 
 money outside of Chicago to meet the running expenses 
 of the city. A committee was put to the humiliating neces- 
 sity of visiting the rival metropolis of New York in an 
 effort to float adequate loans. Such was the shadow and 
 the substance of party history and municipal politics in 
 the domains of "Big Bill" Thompson in less than three 
 short years. Meantime, Big Bill himself had shrunk from 
 the position of a popular gladiator to an obscure scape- 
 goat for the collective evils of Chicago politics which had 
 accumulated during a generation. 
 
 The current financial crisis in Chicago has drawn the 
 attention of the public to this city to a degree unmatched 
 since the campaign of 1927 and the textbook inquisition 
 which followed, where Dr. Thompson attempted to link 
 Professors Van Tyne, Muzzey et al. with Benedict Arnold. 
 It is as fortunate as it is timely that at this moment we 
 should have placed at our disposal so competent and 
 lively biography of Mayor Thompson as that which has 
 been prepared by Mr. Bright. But the book is far more 
 than a biography. It is a social history of our times and 
 a clinical picture of municipal politics in contemporary 
 America. In these respects it will remain a permanently 
 valuable addition to our historical and governmental lit- 
 erature long after Mr. Thompson has become an even 
 more ephemeral figure than he is today. 
 
 He who looks upon the book solely as a satirical sketch 
 of a colossal buffoon in his grotesque and colorful setting 
 will be missing the more important half of the picture. It 
 is in reality the presentation of a vast and wild pageant 
 with a pointed focus. It is the epic of the application of 
 democratic ideals and party methods to a rapidly evolving 
 economy and a growing urban community, complicated 
 
INTRODUCTION xix 
 
 by issues of race, nationality, religion and cultural diver- 
 sity. Inseparably interwoven through all this is the "noble 
 experiment," with its innumerable and labyrinthian ram- 
 ifications in the mazes of police corruption, special racial 
 or national talent for crime, the debasement of judicial 
 ermine and the collusion or paralysis of the public prose- 
 cutor. A political jungle indeed. It is the merging of the 
 era of the common man and of the melting-pot. 
 
 As we have indicated, the permanent value of the book 
 consists in its remarkably vivid instruction in the real 
 nature of American municipal government, with the 
 mechanics starkly bared. The political methods of "Bath- 
 house John" Coughlin and of Bill Thompson are to Chi- 
 cago what Tammany Hall, with John F. Kylan and 
 Jimmy Walker, have been to New York City. Only the 
 background of the Chicago pageant is rawer than that 
 of New York and the story more colorful. Those who in- 
 terpret the situation in terms of Mayor Thompson as the 
 personality who created and directed the events during 
 much of the last two decades in Chicago, after the manner 
 of a Carlylian conception of the trend of history, will miss 
 most of the lesson. Mr. Thompson could not have suc- 
 ceeded if his methods had not been adapted to his public 
 and his purpose. The material presents the story of every 
 day American democracy at work in a major city com- 
 munity. 
 
 Thompson possessed the qualities which bring a man to 
 the top in contemporary party politics. His arrested ado- 
 lesence was captivating to the masses. He was a boy emo- 
 tionally along with the majority of the voters. His stimuli 
 and responses were theirs also. His eminence as a sports- 
 man provided the basis of a vast popularity in any Amer- 
 ican group, where Babe Ruth or Red Grange is known to 
 a million for every one who has heard of Willard Gibbs, 
 Albert Michaelson or Herbert Osgood. It also gave him 
 the reputation for being "he-mannish" which, combined 
 with his youthful playfulness, made him irresistible as a 
 
xx INTRODUCTION 
 
 campaigner. Added to this was a positive genius for pub- 
 licity which enabled him to hypnotize the mob with seduc- 
 tive stereotypes, shibboleths and catch-words that aroused 
 loyalties, stirred hatreds and fanned the fires of prejudice 
 as the occasion demanded. 
 
 As Graham Wallas pointed out long since in his "Hu- 
 man Nature in Politics," it is not cerebration, statistical 
 thoroughness or impeccable logic which counts in party 
 success in a democracy. It is the ability to catch and 
 hold the imagination of the mob. For this Mayor Thomp- 
 son was perfectly equipped by nature and experience. And 
 we need not doubt that he amplified his native equipment 
 by no little study of his raw material and of the play which 
 was needed at any particular moment. He did not suc- 
 ceed wholly by sartorial originality, bellowings, jibes and 
 gesticulation. Mr. Victor Yarros has given us a severe 
 but roughly accurate picture of Mayor Thompson and 
 his methods in the following words : 
 
 The truth regarding Mr. Thompson can be stated in a few 
 words: he is indolent, ignorant of public issues, inefficient and 
 incompetent as an administrator, incapable of making a re- 
 spectable argument, reckless in his campaign methods and 
 electioneering oratory, inclined to think evil of those who are 
 not in agreement or sympathy with him, and congenitally 
 demagogical. He can make extremely effective speeches on 
 the lowest of political planes. He can capture audiences and 
 make them feel he is one of them — but there are few thought- 
 ful people in his audiences. His charges against opponents 
 are wild and often preposterous, and it is sometimes felt and 
 said that no sane man would descend to the billingsgate and 
 the depths of absurdity that mark his utterances. 
 
 We may well doubt if one could better formulate the 
 ideal prerequisites of a successful political campaigner 
 in a democracy. If Big Bill had faced no other responsi- 
 bilities than continuous electioneering he might have re- 
 mained an eternal success and a perpetual celebrity. Un- 
 fortunately for him and his like, being a mayor of a great 
 modern metropolis imposes not only the duty of getting 
 
INTRODUCTION xxl 
 
 elected but also that of administering the office. And ad- 
 ministering Chicago demands talents which are not evoked 
 in the rhetorical defiance of the reigning representative 
 of the House of Hanover. Here is the clue to the trans- 
 formation of Chicago in three years from a magnified Bos- 
 ton Commons defying the Stamp Act to a financial replica 
 of Venezuela or Nicaragua of two decades ago. 
 
 Yet when all is said and done regarding the political 
 methods and results of Thompson and his outfit in Chi- 
 cago, many of his more high, mighty and publicly virtuous 
 opponents are hardly in a position to cast the first stone. 
 When the writer was in Chicago during that momentous 
 week of the early spring of 1927 he was astonished to find 
 that some of his most intelligent and progressive friends 
 proposed to vote for "Big Bill" in preference to Mr. 
 Dever. Inquiring with astonishment into the reason for 
 such an apparently incredible decision, the answer came 
 forth unhesitatingly that Thompson and his crowd grafted 
 for the common man, while Dever and his polished asso- 
 ciates grafted for the great traction interests and the 
 public utilities. Between the two types of graft it was 
 believed that the Thompson brand was less menacing to 
 the permanent well-being of Chicago and was far more 
 equitably distributed. It was exactly the same answer 
 which the writer had received with equal astonishment 
 just ten years earlier when he had asked some clear-headed 
 friends in New York City why they supported the mud- 
 dled and illiterate Hylan rather than the gifted John 
 Purroy Mitchel. 
 
 We need not here take up the question of the accuracy 
 of the charge of dignified but colossal grafting against 
 the associates of Dever or Mitchel, but the attitude in- 
 volved furnishes the clue to a type of support which men 
 like Thompson and Hylan are able to draw from a group 
 as far removed from the Chicago mob as Charles Edward 
 Merriam or Paul Douglas. This point also throws a flood 
 of light on the reason why academic and white-collar 
 reformers are able to make such slight headway in the 
 
xxii INTRODUCTION 
 
 face of a system presided over by a Tammany Hall or by 
 the machine of a "Bath-house John" or a "Big Bill." 
 What the reformers forget is that these practical poli- 
 ticians are engaged in a homely charity and comprehen- 
 sive helpfulness which no social work agency has ever 
 been able to approximate or duplicate. Loyalty to a party 
 machine is not begotten wholly by sonorous phrases or 
 slanderous charges during a campaign. It rests in part 
 upon an unending and ceaseless devotion to getting a job 
 for Tom, taking care of Dick's sick mother, and getting 
 Harry out of the clutches of an over-savage or vindictive 
 public prosecutor. Until the academicians and professional 
 social workers grasp this vital truth they will continue to 
 stare blankly at the election returns. 
 
 One of the most amazing and arresting phases of Mayor 
 Thompson's career was his attitude towards the World 
 War and its issues. That will remain a standing tribute 
 to his record and that of Chicago centuries after the dev- 
 otees of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson will 
 hasten to soft-pedal this phase of the career of their 
 hero. It may long remain a standing puzzle why the 
 uninformed Thompson came far closer to the bull's-eye 
 of war issues than the learned and statesmanlike Charles 
 Edward Merriam or the erudite archivist of the University 
 of Chicago, Dr. Bernadotte Schmitt. Whatever the rea- 
 son, Thompson was the only conspicuous American in 
 public life, outside of Senator La Follette, who sized up 
 the situation in a manner consistent with the facts which 
 have been subsequently established by scholars and pub- 
 licists in all civilized lands. When the writer remembers 
 his own fervid polemic on "America's Peril from Ger- 
 many's Aggressive Growth," prepared at the behest of 
 the National Security League, he must bow down in 
 humility before the Sage of the Sherman House. 
 
 Though he recognized the hokum in the "war aims" 
 rhetoric of Woodrow Wilson and in the ragings of a 
 Roosevelt, Mayor Thompson flawlessly executed his du- 
 ties as a patriotic city executive once we were in the War. 
 
INTRODUCTION xxiii 
 
 One of the most amusing and instructive anecdotes of 
 the period relates to a visit made to Mayor Thompson 
 during the War by a great Chicago magnate of British 
 birth and at that time still of British citizenship. The 
 Chicago Midas had been instructed to call and inquire 
 of the Mayor as to whether he intended to administer 
 his office in keeping with the honor, dignity and interests 
 of American citizens. Big Bill referred to his long Amer- 
 ican lineage with no little pride and reminded his visitor 
 that, as Mayor of Chicago, he would act in accordance 
 with the interests of Americans and not solely in behalf of 
 those who were thinking in terms of relatives dwelling 
 on the banks of the Thames. No further questions were 
 asked. 
 
 While the writer does not share the viewpoint of those 
 who regard the British menace as the chief bane of mod- 
 ern world politics, it is necessary to remember that "Big 
 Bill" gained no little portion of his national reputation 
 from the fact that he was the most articulate spokesman 
 for millions of his fellow-countrymen who snared his 
 avowed suspicion of our mother-country. He took up and 
 voiced the wide-spread prejudice which sprang from gen- 
 erations of instruction in American history out of the 
 pages of eagle-squawking textbooks. It is well that British 
 propaganda was so effective and omnipresent during the 
 World War, if we desired to cooperate effectively with our 
 Allies. 
 
 Nor must we forget the significance of Mayor Thomp- 
 son in fixing the attention of foreign observers upon us 
 and in shaping their impressions of our national opinions 
 and spokesmen. Not a few of the false and distorted no- 
 tions which prevail abroad relative to the international 
 thinking of Americans are due to the reverberations of 
 "Big Bill's" lusty challenges to George V. 
 
 The above are only a few of the arresting themes and 
 issues which may be extracted from the volume which 
 now lies before the reader. But the outstanding contribu- 
 tion which it makes, it may be well to state again at the 
 
xxiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 expense of repetition, is its gorgeous and lavish display 
 of clinical material relative to democracy at work in the 
 second largest, and perhaps the most typically American, 
 of our metropolitan centers. 
 
 The style and conception of the book departs as widely 
 from the solemn conventional treatise on government or 
 history as does its subject-matter. To say that the work 
 reads like a novel is to record a characterization as trite 
 as it is inadequate. Let the reader judge for himself. 
 
 Harry Elmer Barnes. 
 
ONE 
 BIG BILL: PERENNIAL BOY 
 
 CHICAGO is one of the bell-wethers of the present 
 industrial civilization and a symbol, in many im- 
 portant respects, of the cultural direction of modern 
 man. It has been the subject for millions of lines of news- 
 paper copy, hundreds of magazine articles and books, and 
 has engaged the attention of multitudes of thinking peo- 
 ple. It has been referred to as "the railroad center of the 
 United States," "the Hog Butcher of the World," and 
 once, by a famous critic of letters, as "the literary capital 
 of America." Its poet laureate is Carl Sandburg, its lib- 
 eral Clarence Darrow, its plutocrat William Wrigley, its 
 philanthropist Julius Rosenwald — and its politician is 
 Bill Thompson. 
 
 Perhaps the most obvious difference between Chicago 
 and New York or Frisco lies in its inferior sophistication. 
 Now this can or cannot infer a deprecation, according to 
 one's philosophy, religion and blood count; but it does 
 imply, by the very nature of the term, a difference not 
 only in finesse and slickness but in adultness as well. And 
 in all the cultural manifestations of Chicago there is 
 present to annoy the Oxonian a certain comparative pu- 
 erility, a certain wistful ingenuousness, a certain adoles- 
 cence of spirit. Lake Michigan's biggest daughter is a bit 
 awkward, conscious of the redness and largeness of her 
 hands, and there is a faltering quality in her loud voice. 
 Carefully though she combs she cannot rid her blonde hair 
 of the traces of hayseed, and underneath the eau de 
 
 1 
 
2 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 cologne may be detected the faint odor of manure and 
 fresh milk. Her suitors embarrass her. She's not quite a 
 grown up lady yet. 
 
 Into this atmosphere Big Bill Thompson blends as well 
 as Jimmy Walker fits gracefully into Times Square. Each 
 is the logical political hero of his town. To philosophers 
 concentrating on such things Thompson is a Pungent 
 Force synthesizing and correlating other and relative 
 Forces, but to more earthy and possibly astigmatic ob- 
 servers he is simply the kind of fellow most Chicagoans 
 like and respect. And that is the chief reason for his elec- 
 tion to the city's principal office three times. Other and 
 not inconsiderable factors intrude to complicate matters : 
 factional and party issues, maneuvering of diverse ma- 
 chine bosses, economic and social phenomena like Prohibi- 
 tion, the World War and unemployment, and the person- 
 alities of Bill's associates in public service — but whatever 
 the shibboleths and distempers of the moment, and how- 
 ever the local politicians behave, William Hale Thompson 
 is always dear to a majority of the citizens of Chicago. 
 There is nothing false in the cheers welling up from the 
 populace for him, for he is liked unaffectedly. 
 
 This personality is not complex. It is not a case for 
 Dr. Freud or even possibly for Dr. Kohler. It presents 
 no morbidities to enthrall the psychiatrist and his audi- 
 ences of furtive old ladies. It is at once healthy, robust, 
 simple and unafraid. Not profound and shot through with 
 subtle traits and fine nuances, just breezy, forthright and 
 immensely good natured. 
 
 His size has a great deal to do with his popularity. As 
 he towers above his audiences, hoarsely and smilingly 
 soliciting votes, he looks so dependable, so worthy of 
 respect and confidence — like a successful uncle. He com- 
 mands their regard because in all the efforts that seem 
 important to them he is successful: he is a millionaire, a 
 
BIG BILL: PERENNIAL BOY 3 
 
 sportsman of wide fame, an impressive public office-holder. 
 Hence when he talks of remote and awesome problems — 
 international capitalism, international intrigue, wars, po- 
 groms, monopolies, plots — they feel sure he's right, like 
 Henry Ford was right when he called history bunk and 
 science a fraud. And after gaining their respect he obtains 
 their love by talking in their language, vulgar, slangy and 
 alive ; never is he dull or didactic, rather is he vivid, pyro- 
 technical, abusive in his addresses. As a result he is one 
 of the best showmen in America, and one of the best shows. 
 And this is the land of Heflin, Billy Sunday, Aimee and 
 Mabel, Nicholas Murray Butler, Morris Gest and Bill 
 Borah. Beating his breast and waving his arms before his 
 public, Bill Thompson resembles a Don Quixote out of 
 Rabelais: he's almost unbelievable. 
 
 Take the way he wears his cowboy hat. Calvin Coolidge 
 wore one too for a while, but there are enormous differ- 
 ences in cause and effect between the two gestures. Cal did 
 it grudgingly, sourly, as a sop to the free American's lust 
 for versatile demigods. The idea flopped sadly, for the 
 country united in an immense guffaw : Cal did look terribly 
 funny in that hat. But Bill Thompson looks quite natural 
 in his picturesque top-piece. It suits him as Roosevelt's 
 soft lid perfected that worthy and Al Smith's derby 
 blended with his personality. 
 
 As every sophomore is aware, politics is the art of 
 clutching and retaining public office; government the 
 administration of that office. Thompson takes politics very 
 seriously, for to him it is swell sport, and Americans are 
 notorious for plunging into the sporting life with deadly 
 vigor. Government, on the other hand, Bill looks upon as 
 a boring and depressing contingent upon his lively voca- 
 tion, like road-work is to a prize-fighter. So he tries to 
 make it all interesting and tolerable by all kinds of diver- 
 sions, like the Pageant of Progress and picnics and fairs, 
 
4 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 into which he pours all the boyish energy of a campaign. 
 
 To be sure, he tackles the puzzlers of municipal admin- 
 istration with enthusiasm too. But unfortunately youthful 
 enthusiasm is not adequate in solving the ticklish problems 
 of an adult world. If it were Theodore Roosevelt might 
 have been a great general and Edgar Albert Guest a fine 
 poet. Hence it must be admitted that Bill isn't the most 
 efficient of mayors. 
 
 But he is a luxurious leaven. In an age and a country 
 that produces two Presidents of the United States in suc- 
 cession unable to smile, it is refreshing to behold a chief 
 executive of a mighty metropolis who places the result of 
 a yachting regatta higher in importance than the dispos- 
 ing of the sewage dilemma. For its own good health this 
 nation has too many Coolidges and Stratons and too few 
 Tafts and Thompsons. 
 
 It is widely held that Mayor Thompson is a good busi- 
 ness man, that he has a gift for large-scale promotion, 
 that he is the essence of good fellowship. Then why does 
 it not follow that he is adequate for the mayoralty of 
 Chicago ? Perhaps Mr. Walter Lippmann had Bill in mind 
 when he wrote that "it is possible to be a sage in some 
 things and a child in others, to be at once precocious and 
 retarded, to be shrewd and foolish, serene and irritable." 
 Mr. Lippmann goes on to point out that genuine maturity 
 depends on "a breaking up and reconstruction of those 
 habits which were appropriate only to our earliest experi- 
 ence." And whatever a man's technical equipment may be 
 he is lost without the character of an adult. 
 
 Bill is imaginative but his imagination is not lofty and 
 refined, like that of a Shelley or a Newton, rather is it 
 adolescent, like that of a Wilsonian or antivivisectionist. 
 Sometimes he thinks in terms of low comedy or bur- 
 lesque, but usually it is in terms of melodramatic 
 hyperbole: wars, alarms, fires, plots, heroes and villains, 
 
BIG BILL: PERENNIAL BOY 5 
 
 virgins and whores. His patriotism is that of a bright 
 grammar school child, a confused and excited panoply: 
 Old Glory, Washington, the Constitution, Lincoln, the 
 Union Indissoluble, Jefferson, Hamilton, the War for Lib- 
 erty, the War Against Tyrants, the War To Protect 
 Weak Nations, the Spirit of '76, Farragut ("under whom 
 my father fought"), the Declaration of Independence. It 
 is an idealism slightly tipsy and noisy — like an Elk in his 
 cups boasting of his wife. 
 
 No, his virtues are not those of the intellect. But he has 
 many admirable characteristics. Above all he is loyal to 
 his friends, unshakably so. And they will never lose him, 
 not until the biggest funeral in the city's history fades 
 into a scarlet-gray memory of the past. To them he will 
 always remain a "swell fellow," a sympathetic and 
 thoughtful pal, a drinking and cabaret partner of excep- 
 tional prowess and force, and a vote-getter and mob- 
 master of magnificent proportions. 
 
 He likes people, most people. When he rides in his open 
 car over the city he waves to lowly cops and bridge tend- 
 ers — and this gesture is not merely political hokum. He 
 really likes people. 
 
 He pities them too. When a macabre tale is told him, 
 the usual narrative, say, of the widow with sixteen kids 
 driven by sickness and despair, he shakes his head soberly 
 and utters sentiment full of vague fatalism and sympathy. 
 Everyone who knows him speaks of his big heart. Many, 
 many times pal Gene Pike has phoned him of the plight of 
 some family on the west or south side and Bill will dig his 
 big hand down into his pocket and order coal, food and 
 clothing to "give them a break." And as he is a bit 
 ashamed of his chicken-heartedness, most people never 
 find out his frequent acts of charity. In this role, anyway, 
 he prefers to be anonymous. 
 
 He obviously is pleased to be alive. Further, he likes 
 
6 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 everybody around him to have a good time too. There is 
 nothing of the uplifter in him. His is a temper robustious 
 and gay, not sour and green. The mundane blisses of life 
 — good food, fine liquor, beautiful women, good clothes, 
 fraternity — charm him exceedingly. 
 
 The racy, graphic nature of many of his speeches leads 
 many people to imagine him coarse and insensate at home 
 and at his clubs, forever telling dirty jokes. This is wide 
 of the truth. Actually he is not profane, nor obscene, nor 
 leering at all in his private conversation. He is, rather, 
 courteous, somewhat mellow and sentimental. And he is 
 capable of the utmost tenderness, as his behavior with his 
 wife indicates. 
 
 Perhaps the best description of Bill Thompson, full of 
 all sorts of flattering and damning implications when in- 
 terpreted rightly, is that he is human — yes, Big Bill is 
 very human. 
 
TWO 
 WHEN BIG BILL WAS NOT SO BIG 
 
 BOSTON in the sixth and seventh decades of the last 
 century was a quiet town. Back Bay had not yet 
 been pushed very far back; the citizens seriously prayed 
 for a Tory victory in Parliament; William James and 
 Charles Pierce had not yet come to Harvard College to 
 make ideational whoopie ; and all seemed peaceful on the 
 Charles. The abolition movement was dying of the gout, 
 slavery having been successfully abolished in New Eng- 
 land, and the textile mills were again humming a pleasant 
 dollar-song. 
 
 Into these surroundings, all colonial serenity, was born 
 a tiny baby on May 14*, 1869. There was nothing dis- 
 tinguishing at all about the cute little creature. It was a 
 boy, flushed and squealing — and it is extremely likely that 
 he often wet the bed. 
 
 But Bill's life in the British province offers slender 
 substantiation for the behavioristic thesis, for he only 
 remained nine days. But in this fact, perhaps, lies the 
 kernel of his passionate sedition of later years. Within a 
 week after his birth he was repelled by the subservience 
 his neighbors paid to the Crown and, as Dr. Edgar Guest, 
 the eminent pediatrician, has said, "baby is czar" in all 
 families. So he removed his parents, brothers and sisters 
 to a city more democratic — and except for numerous pros- 
 elyting forays he has been in Chicago, for this is the 
 idyllic retreat he chose, ever since. 
 
 However evangelical fifty years later, Bill's beginnings 
 
 7 
 
8 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 were certainly inauspicious. He spent the greater part of 
 his first few years in quiet contemplation of the nature 
 of the universe, interrupted by periodic and insistent 
 demands for nourishment. 
 
 Mayor Thompson once let us in on one of the cardinal 
 precepts of his life when he said, in a paper read before 
 the American Philosophical Society, that the best way to 
 bring about success in manhood is to put "a strong mind 
 in a strong, healthy body." This is no mean assignment 
 but evidently its idealistic author failed to realize the 
 difficulties impinging upon his admonition for the simple 
 reason that it has only been necessary for him to concen- 
 trate on the physical aspects of self-improvement, his own 
 mind being adequate at birth for all the major problems 
 arising in his long career. 
 
 However he enrolled in Skinner grammar school, where 
 he led his classmates in history, geography and reading. 
 The school was not far from his home on Sangamon Street 
 and, as his lessons were facilely disposed of, he found 
 ample time for running errands for the housewives nearby, 
 and worked in Klinenberger and Yates' grocery store on 
 Peoria and Madison streets. He didn't work all the time 
 though. He entered into all the games of childhood with 
 enthusiasm, that is excepting parchesi and flinch. As a 
 small child he hated dolls but this animadversion was soon 
 supplanted by an adoration of fires, which passion was 
 nicely climaxed by his becoming one of the heroes of the 
 tragic Iroquois Theater conflagration in 1903. 
 
 Of the small, important events in Billy Thompson's 
 early years little is known. We do not know, for example, 
 the circumstances of his first fist-fight, his initial beating, 
 how he conducted himself at the marble ring, at the dia- 
 mond, at duck-on-rock, run-sheepie-run, et cetera. It is 
 
WHEN BIG BILL WAS NOT SO BIG 9 
 
 likely, though, that he was a leader among his playmates 
 and was noted for his insistence on fair play and loyalty 
 to the gang. 
 
 William Hale Thompson, Senior, Big Bill's father, was 
 born in New Hampshire. In the Civil War he served under 
 Farragut as his lieutenant commander, participating 
 creditably in the Mobile Bay exploit, during which the 
 doughty admiral lashed himself to the mast of his flag- 
 ship and delivered himself of the inspiring bellow, "go 
 ahead — full steam — and damn the torpedoes." When Bill 
 employed the spicy phrase in campaigns decades after- 
 wards, reminding Republicans of his father's part in mak- 
 ing the democracy unsafe for Democrats, he towered above 
 them titanically, the same brave blood flowing through 
 his veins, their candidate. So by some confused sequence 
 of exchanged personalities, thousands of meek little office- 
 workers envisioned themselves lashed to antiquated flag- 
 ships, shouting magnificent orders to disciplined sailors. 
 
 When the Union was safely preserved (or rather jel- 
 lied), Jeff Davis awaiting hanging from a sour apple tree, 
 and the whole business nicely rounded off by proper loot- 
 ings and carryings-on and the martyring of Lincoln, 
 William Thompson the elder returned home. He per- 
 suaded his wife, nee Medorah Eastham Gale, to move west. 
 In Chicago he interested himself in the real estate profes- 
 sion and the begetting and raising of a large family. He 
 begot and raised two girls and three boys, Helen, Florence, 
 Percy, Gale and William Hale, Junior. 
 
 Chicago was Medorah's home. Her father had been one 
 of the first twenty-eight voters electing the trustees of the 
 new town in 1838, and he had organized and captained 
 the original volunteer fire brigade. His daughter was born 
 in a tiny house on Dearborn and Washington streets, 
 
10 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 almost on the site of the present city hall. You see it took 
 just two generations to move across the street. 
 
 Thompson became quite a figure in the growing border 
 city. He served in the state legislature and had the honor, 
 dubious only to the unpatriotic, of nominating General 
 John A. Logan to the United States Senate. Further, he 
 had the distinction of serving as colonel of the second regi- 
 ment of the Illinois National Guard, although the valor 
 he had displayed under Farragut was not again called 
 upon. He died too soon to distinguish himself in the haz- 
 ardous war against determined and powerful Spain. 
 
 That Colonel Thompson had civic consciousness to pass 
 on to his illustrious son is undeniable. He fought aggres- 
 sively to prevent the introduction of elevated transporta- 
 tion lines and was as successful at this as was his boy in 
 building a municipal subway later. 
 
 His civil life was a prosperous and happy one, as are 
 the lives of all who are selfless enough to rise and defend 
 their nation at war. He shrewdly bought many pieces of 
 land, strategically placed, sat back and watched himself 
 get rich. Hence he was able to leave a large estate to his 
 wife and children. 
 
 Meanwhile young Bill had ideas which sharply con- 
 trasted with the plans of his parents. No, he wasn't a 
 Young Intellectual at the sacrifice of papa's Republican 
 peace of mind: he merely wanted to go west and become 
 a cowboy, having earned enough money to take himself 
 there. He had been attending the Fessenden Preparatory 
 School as a prelude, so everybody thought, for Yale. But 
 fifteen-year-old William didn't want to go to Yale. So 
 his father and mother grudgingly yielded to his argu- 
 ments, providing only that he return home each winter 
 for additional schooling. 
 
 He landed in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with eighty cents in 
 his pocket, but immediately cinched a job as a cook with 
 
WHEN BIG BILL WAS NOT SO BIG 11 
 
 a cattle outfit there, necessitating the expenditure of half 
 of his wealth for a cook-book. One day a cowpuncher was 
 hurt in round-up and Bill got the fellow's position, and 
 it wasn't six months before he knew most of the tricks of 
 the trade. After the Metropolitan Business College had 
 brought his knowledge of economics up to date (i.e. from 
 Smith, Mill and Bentham to Keynes and Laski) he de- 
 voted his winters to acting as brakeman for the Union 
 Pacific Railroad. 
 
 After being initiated into the esoteric mysteries of the 
 round-up and the daily routine of fence-fixing, practical 
 cow therapeutics, et cetera, at the 101 Ranch, he was 
 filled with the laudable ambition to go in business for 
 himself, although by this time he was a ranking foreman. 
 He convinced a banker, in his forthright, direct manner, 
 to back him in his first venture, which consisted simply in 
 sitting astride a horse and driving a substantial herd of 
 longhorns up the overland trail from Texas to the short- 
 grass country, there to grow fat and lazy before taking 
 their last journey to the great American dinner plate. 
 The idea was not complex but it was sound and resulted 
 in profit for both Bill and his "angel." 
 
 He worked on ranges of the Standard Cattle Company 
 for several years, the life appealing to him thoroughly. 
 Unlike Frank Harris he did not spend the long prairie 
 nights in meditating the premises of diverse philosophers, 
 for his education had been completed — he just lived, 
 freely and happily. It was the most satisfying seven years 
 of his long and active life. 
 
 By the time he was twenty-one he was worth $30,000 
 and the manager and part-owner of 6000 head of cattle 
 in Nebraska^His ranch was a little beyond the corn area, 
 so that gooa munching abounded in summer and cheap 
 fuel in the winter. 
 
 In 1891 his father heard his last bugle-call, dying one 
 
12 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 of the most popular and respected men in Chicago. This 
 compelled his cowboy son to return home to manage the 
 large estate. He has carried on admirably in this capacity, 
 the fortune swelling pleasantly each year until, when Bill 
 decided upon Public Service, he was able to boast, with 
 Andrew Mellon, that the most benign altruism actuated 
 his entrance into politics, so rich was he. 
 
 Although patriotic pursuits kept him from his beloved 
 ranges he never wholly severed his old connections. Tom 
 Wilson and the rest of the boys have always been welcome 
 at the city hall. And in the late nineties the fraternity 
 recognized his inherent cowboyishness by electing and re- 
 electing him president of the Live Stock Exchange. In 
 this capacity he was able to meet and entertain the cattle- 
 men on their frequent visits to market. It wasn't much for 
 a man who loved the West — but it was something, surely. 
 
THREE 
 
 ALDERMAN WILLIE AND COMMISSIONER 
 THOMPSON 
 
 IN those days the second ward extended from the south 
 branch of the Chicago River to the lake. It contained 
 the residences of the snootiest millionaires in town, in- 
 cluding the Thompson home ; but it had a seamy side too, 
 the southern fringe, which held a goodly number of col- 
 ored folk and the district dedicated to the oldest pleasure 
 of the race. 
 
 Bill Thompson was widely-known and well-liked in his 
 region. His early success in business, his jovial personality 
 and his flair for the sporting life favorably disposed 
 people toward him. He was deferential with women; he 
 dressed almost as well as Kitchen, the local Ward McAl- 
 lister; and his adequacy with the whiskey flask was the 
 envy of his friends. From Rector's to the Yacht Club 
 everybody liked Bill, particularly because he was a good 
 sport and a big spender. Certainly a logical person to 
 enter politics with avidity and relish. 
 
 Yet young Thompson didn't want to. His pal, Gene 
 Pike, was in the city council and wanted Bill to join him 
 there, but Thompson resisted the arguments of his bud- 
 dies for many months — until it was put up to him as a 
 sporting proposition. One day the boys were sitting 
 around a table at the Chicago Athletic Club, earnestly 
 pleading with Bill to make the aldermanic race. Suddenly 
 George Jenney reached across the table with fifty dollars 
 in his hand, offering to bet Pike that Bill was afraid to 
 take the leap. Before Gene's hand could bridge the dis- 
 
 13 
 
14 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 tance Big Bill had clutched the money, and the bet was on. 
 
 Most men enter politics to further their careers in a 
 fashion pleasing to their vanity and fattening to their 
 purses; some drift into it from its side-door, the law; a 
 scant few have the "messianic urge" to uplift, to cleanse, 
 to do good. Bill Thompson strode into the fray as an 
 adventurer, because a friend told him he did not dare. 
 
 It wasn't easy. He had to work as hard as he ever had 
 on the ranges, for he was opposing Charles F. Gunther, 
 one of the veterans of the council and a man smiled on by 
 Mayor Harrison. Worse, it was a Democratic ward and 
 the election machinery was in their control. At first 
 Gunther was contemptuous of the young upstart, but 
 when he saw the earnestness of the fellow's campaigning 
 he began to worry and bawl for assistance. The mayor 
 heard the noise and spoke in his behalf at Freiburg's Hall. 
 He urged the amused citizens to tell "Willie Boy Thomp- 
 son to run home and play for ten years" before enter- 
 taining such high aspirations. 
 
 "The first thing he would do," asserted the mayor, 
 "'probably would be to introduce an ordinance removing 
 the tax of $100 a year for the privilege of selling ciga- 
 rettes. 'Deah Boy' Gene Pike passed a resolution that all 
 lunch carts be ordered out of the second ward! Gunther 
 was doing good work in the council when Gene and this 
 other Willie Boy, Thompson, were drinking milk from a 
 bottle. Are you going to send Willie Boy to the council? 
 What would be the result? Why, if you went down to 
 visit him you would have to send in your card by a valet 
 on a silver salver and then wait until he was through 
 chewing gum." 
 
 But this kind of raillery wasn't enormously effective. 
 Despite his tender years, thirty-one in all, he was recog- 
 nized as a success. But what put him over more than his 
 personal popularity among his peers was his marshaling 
 
ALDERMAN WILLIE AND THOMPSON 15 
 
 of the negro vote in the south of the ward. By discrimi- 
 nating usage of Abraham Lincoln's charitable deed, and 
 rich exploitation of his father's part in cutting away their 
 chains, he packed them solidly behind him — and never lost 
 them. In 1915 this entrenched position as the Black Man's 
 Friend came in very handy. In 1900, running for alder- 
 man, it gave him a plurality of 403 votes, not much per- 
 haps, but enough to put him in the council and win his 
 bet with George Jenney. 
 
 There is a rumor about that has persisted for more 
 than a decade to the effect that Thompson was sponsored 
 for his first political office by Mathew Kent, later famed 
 as a radical and then known as a militant foe of spoils 
 tactics in municipal government. Also, gossip has it that 
 Bill initially received the endorsement of the Municipal 
 Voters' League. Both of these tid-bits may be true, and if 
 they are the joke is on Mathew and the M. V. L. For 
 Thompson lived and flourished after his tender beginning 
 and two decades later witnessed the reform organization 
 calling him the worst names any previous mayor ever 
 endured. 
 
 Although breathing heavy council-chamber air was a 
 novelty to the young politician he soon acclimated him- 
 self. He didn't find time to attend very regularly, but 
 when he was present the G. O. P. had a valuable member 
 in his seat. In his two year term he served on several 
 strategic committees and was chairman of the committee 
 for harbors, viaducts and bridges; and although apple- 
 cheeked civics students are told by their schoolmarms 
 that this honor goes to a specialist on harbors, viaducts 
 and bridges, more sophisticated people can tell them 
 differently. 
 
 Tipped off by a friendly editor, Alderman Thompson 
 was the first to move for a municipal playground for 
 children and influenced his colleagues to appropriate 
 
16 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 $1200 to experiment with one at 24th and Wabash 
 Avenue, the first in America. Remembering his many 
 friends in the prize-ring, and his own enthusiasm for 
 boxing with his pals at the club, he moved for the estab- 
 lishment of an athletic commission to regulate this sport. 
 
 When he realized how perfectly suited he was for poli- 
 tics, vague and colossal ambitions began to form in his 
 breast. He pricked up his ears when casually mentioned 
 as mayoralty timber in 1901, but sat back when the boom 
 failed to carry beyond the walls of his clubs, cognizant 
 of the time it takes for a man to reach such a command- 
 ing height. But the seed had been planted in his mind 
 and took but fourteen years to flower, and was ten or 
 more years in returning to seed. 
 
 In Beverly Nichols' colorful and astute account of his 
 visit to the mayor in 1926, he notes four pictures hanging 
 in the anteroom, depicting Thompson at various stages of 
 his career: one is of Bill the cowboy; another shows him 
 with a football team ; a third as a yachtsman ; a fourth is 
 a caricature of a gigantic Bill atop the city hall. Adja- 
 cent is a significant photograph of the White House at 
 Washington. From these Nichols draws the inference that 
 Thompson is a man of violent ambitions. Unquestionably 
 true. But Bill the cowboy had no dreams of governmental 
 splendor ; and Bill the yachtsman was j ust the best sailor 
 in town. But once he had tasted of the voluptuous and 
 intoxicating fruits of election victory he secretly lusted 
 for more. When he was alderman he dreamed of being 
 mayor; when he got that he had hallucinations of don- 
 ning a senatorial toga; failure to win this but spurred 
 him to stranger illusions of grandeur: the Presidency, 
 and using the power of this office to put John Bull in his 
 proper place on his knees before the Greatest Nation on 
 Earth! 
 
 But one has to begin somewhere. So he decided to move 
 
ALDERMAN WILLIE AND THOMPSON 17 
 
 into the first ward and contest with "Bath-house John" 
 Coughlin for his place in the council. This was shortly 
 after his own term had expired in 1902. But when the 
 puissant ward committeeman, George Bibbs, indignantly- 
 objected, Thompson retired in confusion. 
 
 He was able to avenge his humiliation immediately, 
 when he aspired to a squat in the county commission. 
 Again he campaigned with gusto and skill. His reward 
 was not only victory but victory of such an overwhelming 
 nature that the boys of the racket raised their eyebrows 
 over it. He led the entire ticket, with the sole exception 
 of Fred Busse, who was the biggest vote-getter of his day, 
 with a total of 129,130. And this without the overt help 
 of any machine, his strength resulting entirely from his 
 campaigning and widening personal following. It is amus- 
 ing to note the recommendations of the Chicago Daily 
 News at this 1902 election: among others it endorsed 
 Clarence Darrow for the state legislature, Roy O. West 
 for the board of review, Joseph Medill Patterson and 
 William Hale Thompson. Twenty years conspired to 
 shunt these four men down four widely-separated tracks. 
 
 On November 7, 1902, the following statement poured 
 forth from the full red lips of the hero of this narrative : 
 
 I have no political ambitions — at least not so far as the 
 mayoralty is concerned. I have been a member of the city council 
 and have just been elected to another office. In my opinion, how- 
 ever, the time is ripe for Republican success in the spring. The 
 public is tired of a negative government and that is what Chicago 
 has been given by Harrison. This is a young man's age and if a 
 clean, liberal, bright young man of broad ideas and with a desire 
 to give Chicago a business administration is given the nomination 
 in the spring he can be elected. While I am not a candidate I am 
 more than anxious to do my part toward supporting and aiding 
 in the election of such a man. 
 
18 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 This is stumbling, clumsy expression — but the hint is 
 unmistakable. In 1905 he was again boomed for mayor, 
 this time with some little insistency. But it just didn't 
 seem to click with the party bosses. 
 
 In 1907 Fred Busse wanted the nomination, and, as 
 nobody doubted he would get it, Bill Thompson insisted 
 he was just a sportsman, had but an academic interest in 
 politics. But being a good party man he felt compelled 
 to render Busse some assistance in the election. He organ- 
 ized the Young Men's Fred A. Busse Club with Eugene 
 Pike. After Busse's induction Bill was rewarded with a 
 key to the mayor's inner office, which meant influence and 
 an easy access to the High Place. But in the winter of 
 1908 an incident occurred which offered fresh proof that 
 Bill Thompson has always been a sportsman first and a 
 politician second. 
 
 The story is that Mayor Busse, unpopular with his less 
 uncouth acquaintances at the Illinois Athletic Club, was 
 the victim of a frame-up in a card game. The ex-iceman 
 couldn't see the joke and slapped back with a raid. This 
 surly indecency made Thompson furious, and he instantly 
 mailed back his key of special privilege. When the ob- 
 scenities of the Busse regime were exposed by Charles E. 
 Merriam Bill chuckled. Not because a mayor had violated 
 public trust, but because Ananias was dying on the cross. 
 
 So in the winter of 1909-10 Thompson looked about 
 him for another machine, in the tonneau of which he could 
 ride comfortably. He hadn't abandoned his poorly-con- 
 cealed wish to be Chicago's swellest mayor, born when he 
 first smelled political fish a-frying in the council kitchen, 
 and affiliation with a strong organization was the best 
 method of realizing his dream. 
 
 The logical connection for him was the heavy-slugging 
 outfit of William Lorimer, for Lorimer had noted with 
 approval Thompson's fine flair for getting in the public 
 
ALDERMAN WILLIE AND THOMPSON 19 
 
 eye and staying there. Bill hoped to obtain the boss's sanc- 
 tion for the 1911 mayoral nomination, but all machine 
 aspirants were doomed that year. Merriam's baring of the 
 Busse derelictions somehow caused the primary plum to 
 drop into his lap, and only Carter Harrison's superior 
 organization prevented Chicago from having its best 
 possible mayor. 
 
 As for Thompson, he had just stood aside and enviously 
 looked on. But during this period he made a contact which 
 eventually made his dream come true : he met and listened 
 to Fred Lundin, the "poor Swede." 
 
FOUR 
 
 A BOLD NOT SO BAD SAILOR 
 
 HP HE first few months after the death of his father, in 
 -■» 1891, young Bill spent in setting his financial affairs 
 in order. But the life of investing and re-investing money, 
 and studying land values and profiting thereby, soon 
 palled. He was just a youth (tall as we see him today but 
 possessing then none of the fat he later added by weary- 
 ing devotion to the public weal) and he sorely needed an 
 outlet for his boyish energy. So he turned to sports and 
 games. He joined the old Marquette indoor baseball team, 
 which boasted George Jenney, Bill York and the Pelouze 
 boys (one of whom became Bill's brother-in-law), and 
 assisted in its many triumphs. 
 
 The Chicago Athletic Association had been founded in 
 1872, but in the nineties it was still in its teething stage, 
 so when such an enthused and wealthy fellow as Bill 
 Thompson applied for a life membership in '92 he was 
 welcomed graciously. In those virile days the large ath- 
 letic clubs supported football teams. It was not until 
 recently that they became effete and concentrated on 
 track and tank activities. And football was made to order 
 for Big Bill. He captained the elevens of '95 and '96 and 
 in the latter year they won the championship of the entire 
 nation. This aggregation included such gridiron lumina- 
 ries of the mauve decade as Sport Donnelly and Doc 
 Stewart, who with Thompson made up the formidable trio 
 which brought about most of the victories on tour. Thomas 
 Beer doesn't mention it, but that team was criticized up 
 
 20 
 
A BOLD NOT SO BAD SAILOR 21 
 
 and down the land as a "crew of ruffians," and after the 
 game with Harvard they were almost lynched. Thomp- 
 son's initial experience in the organizing and leading of 
 men was a success, of the kind journalists call "signal." 
 Furthermore, the club became nationally famous and has 
 not pined for members or money since. That his football 
 days are dear to Thompson is indicated by a remark he 
 wistfully let drop a decade later. "I'd let all the political 
 glories slide if I could wake up the C. A. A. and see the 
 Cherry Circle winning football games once more." And 
 he meant it. Bill's sporting blood has always been upper- 
 most in his ample veins. 
 
 He was active in the C. A. A. until 1898, when he served 
 as vice-president, then he became too absorbed in politics 
 to give much time to it. In 1904, however, his political 
 aspirations slightly dampened, he organized the Illinois 
 Athletic Club with the aid of a few friends and fifty dol- 
 lars in postage stamps, and acted as its president for the 
 first four years. During his incumbency he promoted the 
 building of the present million dollar clubhouse and 
 shrewdly secured a 99-year lease on the property. It too 
 is now prospering, having grown enormously since Presi- 
 dent Thompson gave it the initial push in the right 
 direction. 
 
 But his favorite recreation for thirty years of his life 
 has been navigation. For almost three decades his ruddy 
 skin has frequently faced the breezes of lakes and seas. 
 This happy predilection prompted his joining the Chi- 
 cago Yacht Club and, later, the Columbia Yacht Club. 
 
 The C. Y. C. twice elected him commodore and he has 
 done valuable duty as chairman of the executive com- 
 mittee. In 1912 he was elevated to the position of commo- 
 dore of the Associated Yacht and Motor Boat Clubs of 
 America. 
 
 His many honors at the hands of the sailing fraternity 
 
22 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 have not been idle academic gestures, however, but have 
 been, rather, recognitions of his extraordinary skill at the 
 helm. With his beloved Valmore under him he won the 
 Mackinac Race, the longest fresh water race in the world, 
 three times in succession. All kinds of sailing and boating, 
 save canoeing in the moonlight, appealed to him and he 
 was proficient in the handling of every sort of craft. 
 Throughout his sailing career his colors, black and gold, 
 have always commanded respect. 
 
 As the twentieth century grew old enough to shed its 
 diapers, the Thompson monicker gained steadily in news 
 value. On May 13, 1908, one of the papers bowed to the 
 public's curiosity concerning the great, and indicated the 
 scaring vicissitudes of the sporting life thus : 
 
 Friends of William Hale Thompson, president of the Illinois 
 Athletic Club, were alarmed yesterday by reports that his yacht, 
 Valmore, sailed by himself and George R. Pease of Chicago, 
 had foundered off New London, Connecticut. Telegrams sent by 
 Mr. Thompson to his wife and his business partner, Dwight 
 Lawrence, dissipated the rumors. 
 
 The storm raged two days around the Valmore and forced 
 her into Digby, Nova Scotia, for repairs. However every one 
 on board is safe and they will start for Quebec tomorrow. 
 
 While commodore of the Chicago Yacht Club, Thomp- 
 son complained of the desuetude of motor boat racing as 
 an international sport. So he planned a large feature for 
 the annual aquatic of 1912: a series of races for the 
 "championship of the universe." To interest foreign com- 
 petition he went abroad for a month, visiting France, 
 Germany, Italy and England for this purpose. 
 
 When the chief returned, the boys of the club gave a 
 banquet in his honor at the University Club. He was 
 showered with compliments for the successes of his trip, 
 for it had brought about assurances of an international 
 
A BOLD NOT SO BAD SAILOR 23 
 
 scope to their approaching water festivities of August 
 10-17, for which William Wrigley, the cause of all the 
 wagging jaws about, had donated a $22,000 trophy. 
 Charlie Burras was the captivating master of ceremonies 
 and led in the singing. The following songs, bellowed by 
 some, nasally noised by others, dulcetly crooned by a few, 
 are illustrative of the esteem and warmth Bill aroused in 
 the hearts of his fellowmen : 
 
 BILLY. 
 
 (To the Tune of Kelly.) 
 
 We're all here for Bil-ly, 
 
 B I double L Y, 
 
 And everybody here knows Bil ly, 
 
 You'd know him by his smile, 
 
 For his heart is staunch and his word is true and he's a 
 
 Sportsman through and through. 
 
 We're all here for Bil-ly, for 
 
 Billy is worth the while. 
 
 WELCOME. 
 
 (To the Tune of Sailing.) 
 
 Welcome! Welcome! from over the bounding main, 
 Let every man here drain his glass for Bill is home again. 
 Welcome! Welcome! back to your native land, 
 We greet you like true sailors all, with warm clasp of 
 the hand. 
 
 And a few drinks later (for this was before the Blight) : 
 
 DEAR OLD BILL. 
 
 (To the Tune of Dear Old Pal.) 
 
 Dear old Bill, 
 Jolly old Bill, 
 
HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Always remember, 
 
 In June and December 
 
 That I am your friend, 
 
 And will be to the end, 
 
 No matter what happens to you. 
 
 In 1915 Thompson endeavored to mix patrioteering 
 with sportsmanship, for he had discovered that it mixes 
 with almost everything in America. He proposed that a 
 huge motor boat fleet be established on the Great Lakes to 
 defend our northern boundaries from a possible foe. This 
 magnificent stratagem was received with yells of appro- 
 bation by the yachtsmen, a saber-rattling editorial being 
 written about it in Cruiser, the club paper, but Secretary 
 of the Navy Daniels and Admiral Sims did not appreciate 
 its possibilities for national defense. 
 
 The pleasures atop the waves have consistently at- 
 tracted Bill Thompson the most, but he has found time 
 for dozens of fishing and hunting excursions, attendance 
 at boxing matches, football and baseball games and nu- 
 merous other manly exhibitions. In 1912 he was director 
 general of the Sportsman's Club of America, but unkind 
 aldermen and newspapers insisted that this was no sport- 
 ing club at all but merely a political clique. 
 
 In addition Big Bill has somehow managed, without 
 serious loss of sleep or neglect of his other duties, to par- 
 ticipate in the doings of many lodges and fraternities: 
 he is a Regent in the Loyal Order of Moose ; a member of 
 Hesperia Lodge 411, A. F. & A. M., Lafayette Chapter, 
 Saint Bernadine Commandery; he is also affiliated with 
 the Shrine (Medinah Temple), Odd Fellows, B. P. 0. E., 
 Woodmen of the World, the Maccabees and the Sons of 
 Veterans. 
 
A BOLD NOT SO BAD SAILOR 25 
 
 For a man who has never been accused of morbid mis- 
 ogyny Thompson married rather late in life. There was 
 nothing suggestive of Paul of Tarsus about the Bill of 
 his twenties, but it is difficult to posit him as ever having 
 been the breast-heaving, movie lover type. The boys at 
 the city hall or the I. A. C. would hoot at the vision of 
 Big Bill lyrically intoning Shelleyan odes, for the picture 
 they have of him is playing a stiff hand of poker in his 
 shirt sleeves, or issuing cryptic orders to an assemblage of 
 precinct captains. No, the kind of affection Maysie 
 Wyse engendered in the heart of Bill Thompson can 
 hardly be described as analogous to the love of a D'An- 
 nunzio for a Duse, nor is it on the low plane of the 
 feeling Dr. Warren Gamaliel Harding had for the miss 
 who became his biographer; rather is it normal, healthy 
 and genuine. 
 
 Thompson was married to Maysie Walker Wyse in St. 
 Joseph, Michigan, on December 7, 1901. Thompson was 
 thirty-two years old, his wife twenty-six. They were 
 married in secret, only the bride's mother being aware of 
 the breath-taking news. 
 
 Alderman and Mrs. Thompson hustled back to Chicago. 
 When the story leaked out, as such stories will, they at 
 first denied its verity, but finally gave in with defiant 
 blushes. The honeymoon came later, the pair visiting 
 Louisville, the bride's birthplace, and other points in 
 the Confederacy. 
 
 For some reason the match has failed to result in what 
 prosperous poets of the American Hearth quaintly call 
 "tiny blessings." It is now doubtful if there ever will be 
 a William Hale Thompson III to continue the chauvinistic 
 tradition in the city hall in Chicago. 
 
FIVE 
 BILL SITS AT THE FEET OF THE MASTER 
 
 AS has been indicated, the span between the time 
 Thompson adorned the county commission until he 
 became Chicago's most celebrated and celebrating mayor 
 was not as bleak as "Who's Who" records. For in 1910 
 he joined up with the crew of William Lorimer. And this 
 meant something in those ferocious days. 
 
 Lorimer smacked of Tweed and the unsung members of 
 the Pittsburgh Mellon Gang. He had a vast contempt for 
 honest, earnest souls in politics, even, forsooth, doubting 
 the very existence of the gent whom Diogenes pursued 
 so disconsolately. He was blandly innocent in public but 
 cryptically cynical in private, and reminded one more of 
 J. Rufus Wallingford than C. Evans Hughes in appear- 
 ance and attack. He was sure of himself, energetic and 
 ruthless. He asked for quarter but granted none. He de- 
 spised reformers, the Chicago Tribune and all other peo- 
 ple who opposed him. Dr. Harding's magnanimous attor- 
 ney general, Mr. Harry Mica j ah Daugherty, must have 
 used Lorimer as his model. 
 
 He rose on Chicago's southwest side, surely a fallow field 
 for lilies. Entering ward politics after an admirable ap- 
 prenticeship in the stockyards, slaughterhouse, he shoul- 
 dered his way into the party caucuses, finally managing to 
 cadge a seat in Congress from his district. Subsequently 
 he voted in seven congresses, pyramiding his strength by 
 patronage, contracts and aggression until he became the 
 "Blonde Boss," with Doc Jamieson, John M. Smythe, 
 
 26 
 
AT THE FEET OF THE MASTER 27 
 
 Henry Hertz and Fred Lundin, the head of the most for- 
 midable machine in the state. Charles Yerkes, the traction 
 "baron," held the money bags with Edward Hines, the 
 lumber "king," and soon the crew descended upon the 
 state legislature with blood in their eyes and a determina- 
 tion to push Lorimer into the United States Senate, this 
 being before direct election made that august body pure 
 and wise. The only opposition was the faction of Charles 
 S. Deneen, governor of the state and boss of Chicago's 
 south side, and a handful of independents. Pressure was 
 exerted from all possible quarters. Finally, with the aid 
 of Lee O'Neill Browne, the Democratic floor leader, a 
 large enough bloc was effected, and Senator William Lori- 
 mer joined his friend Boies Penrose in Washington. 
 
 The dramatic poem of the investigation, exoneration, 
 re-investigation and the climaxing expulsion is stirring 
 and familiar, and will be dealt with here but sketchily. 
 
 What is immensely important about the Lorimer scan- 
 dal, to those wishing to understand what has happened 
 to their country, is the enormous difference in the attitude 
 of the public and the press at the height of the probe into 
 his election, and their reactions today to more ambitious 
 corruption. All that was proven in 1912 was that Lorimer 
 gained his seat by corrupting seven of the legislators at 
 Springfield, using a $100,000 "jack-pot" to turn the trick. 
 When this slightly heterodox tactic was exposed the 
 papers became as emotional as middle-aged opera singers, 
 almost every sheet in the land forming a chorus of loud 
 indignation with the Chicago Tribune and the Record- 
 Herald. Hundreds of thousands of letters were written 
 by the voters, and clubs and organizations everywhere 
 published resolutions condemning Senator Cullom (the 
 senior Senator from Illinois who voted after the first 
 investigation for the vindication of his colleague) and the 
 original whitewashing committee. For months the Tribune 
 
28 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 devoted almost a complete section every Sunday to com- 
 ment on the case, and for a solid year the din was febrile 
 and terrific. When the New York World said, after the 
 exoneration debacle of 1911 : "The Senate has vindicated 
 Lorimer ; now who will vindicate the Senate ?" — it articu- 
 lated the sentiments of most people in all literate areas 
 of the country. 
 
 As a result of Lorimer's indiscretions he was ruined 
 forever, and everybody connected with him had to send 
 their skirts to the laundry. 
 
 On January 9, 1911, the United States Senate com- 
 menced an inquiry into the validity of Lorimer 's election. 
 This was brought about at the insistence of the Chicago 
 Tribune and the Chicago Record-Herald. Senator Dill- 
 ingham of blessed memory headed the committee, and 
 after a cursory examination of some of the facts sub- 
 mitted a majority report vindicating their colleague of 
 the Old Guard. This the Senate sustained by a vote of 
 46 to 40, Penrose of Pennsylvania bludgeoning all the 
 regular Republicans and the timid Democrats into line. 
 All the Progressives, headed by La Follette and Borah, 
 and many of the Democrats, constituted the dissenting and 
 accusing group. 
 
 The roof of the old Tribune building almost blew off 
 when the news came over the wires. It immediately com- 
 menced a campaign of vituperation, bombast and polemic. 
 Every day its front page flamed with the reflected ire of 
 the people ; editorials castigating Cullom, the Dillingham 
 whitewashing experts, and the brazenness of Lorimer 
 appeared frequently; on Sunday, as has been said, whole 
 pages were given over to letters of aroused opinion. 
 
 The Chicago Inter-Ocean, however, being controlled by 
 Lorimer, chortled and clucked, not only at the victory of 
 its chief but at the discomfiture of the Tribune and Victor 
 Lawson's News and Record-Herald. 
 
AT THE FEET OF THE MASTER 29 
 
 The Lorimer henchmen, quite naturally, kicked up their 
 heels in undisguised joy, but there was an undertone of 
 anxiety. In addition to the unpleasant publicity, the in- 
 vestigation, superficial though it had been, had brought 
 many facts to light which they heartily wished concealed. 
 And the most intelligent of them, Lundin and Hines for 
 instance, must have smelled the ultimate disaster in the 
 offing. 
 
 But Bill Thompson wasn't worried. Just robustiously 
 exultant and happy at the verdict which exonerated his 
 master. So he planned a mammoth celebration to receive 
 Lorimer when the Senator arrived from Washington. 
 Several of the boys met in his real estate office to work 
 out the details and parcel out labor. Among other things 
 they decided upon Bill as chief marshal and head of a 
 committee of reception intended to include as many re- 
 spectable names as possible. J. Ogden Armour's name 
 appeared on the first published list, but he phoned hastily 
 for its deletion. 
 
 On Sunday, May fifth, the "Blonde Boss" stepped off 
 the train, and Big Bill's smiling face was the closest to 
 his in the newspaper pictures of the next day. The ensuing 
 celebration was pretentious and tedious. Bands, a parade 
 of two hundred automobiles through the Loop and out 
 to Lorimer's home near Garfield Park, and many speeches 
 impressed upon the curious throngs the affluence and ex- 
 uberance of the machine. Len Small, local federal sub- 
 treasurer, represented the national government, and 
 praised the maligned Senator highly; the conspicuous 
 presence of prominent county and city dignitaries added 
 tone to the occasion. 
 
 The Tribune account of the festivals was sour and fore- 
 boding. It doggedly stuck by its resolve to oust Lorimer 
 from the Senate at any cost. 
 
 On June first the Senate re-opened the investigation 
 
SO HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 into the right of William Lorimer to sit and vote in that 
 body. This revival of the ghost came about as the direct 
 result of an editorial written by the publisher of the 
 Record-Herald, a gentleman named Kohlsaat, which flatly 
 set forth some hitherto unrevealed facts. This spurred the 
 Great Body to action, for the ballyhoo of the past few 
 months had made it nervous. 
 
 Kohlsaat hinted darkly of precise knowledge of the 
 election, and told of the relationship of Edward Hines to 
 the $100,000 that put over the deal. He was summoned at 
 once to Washington to submit to a thorough grilling. For 
 some time he concealed the name of his informant. When 
 the Senate threatened him with contempt, it received a 
 telegram from Mr. Clarence Funk of Chicago, admitting 
 his identity as Kohlsaat's little birdie and expressing his 
 willingness to testify. He spilt what was left of the beans : 
 that Hines had boasted to him at the Union League Club 
 of the bought legislators which made Lorimer's election 
 possible. The repercussion was instantaneous at the Union 
 League Club: they tossed out their indiscreet brother, 
 two books written in his defense by his attorneys being 
 insufficient to save him. In Washington the investigation 
 was propelled to a heated pace. Finally, on July 14, 1912, 
 a reorganized and chastened Senate voted overwhelmingly 
 to eject Lorimer, and this time Cullom voted with the 
 majority. The pressure had been too great for the man. 
 
 When the Senate re-opened the old wound in June of 
 1911 the Lorimer crowd became worried lest all this 
 publicity injure the fortunes of the machine locally, and 
 determined to cover up their activities with some effective 
 drape. So in the fall the Lincoln Protective League of 
 Illinois was instituted. Until its collapse the following 
 year it was the pseudonym of the Lorimer gang. William 
 Hale Thompson was the chairman of the executive com- 
 mittee. Fred Lundin, whose idea it was, became nominal 
 
AT THE FEET OF THE MASTER 31 
 
 and real head of the Cook County organization. The Inter- 
 Ocean gave it much publicity, often printing applications 
 for membership, with instructions to fill out and mail to 
 William Hale Thompson, 120 W. Randolph Street, Chi- 
 cago. The Tribune and News and the other opposition 
 sheets gave the organization notices of a different sort, 
 always referring to it as the "Lorimer Lincoln League," 
 which was unkind but true. 
 
 Whenever some one took exception to the motives, or 
 alleged motives, of the League, usually prefaced with a 
 moan that the name of Abraham Lincoln should be ex- 
 ploited in this shameless fashion, Chairman Thompson 
 answered the objector flamboyantly, usually with an 
 attack upon the Tribune. On January 18, 1912, an open 
 letter was received by the League written by Rev. W. T. 
 McElween, the following excerpt of which indicates the 
 attitude of the Better Element toward the League: 
 
 . . . No, the Tribune is not the designing agency that in- 
 stigated me to criticize your use of the name of Lincoln. . . . 
 Nobody, not even the Tribune, owns me. I am a free man of 
 the kind Lincoln would glory in. 
 
 Frankly, you need therapeutic treatment. You have what 
 the physicians would call an obsession: you see the Tribune 
 everywhere. To your diseased mind it is behind every criticism 
 of your leaders and your organization. Why, to you the Tribune 
 is almost as omnipresent as William Randolph Hearst thinks 
 he is. . . . 
 
 The Reverend McElween made a very penetrating ob- 
 servation about Thompson in the above letter. All his 
 political life Bill has accused the Tribune of persecuting 
 him, in fact every criticism or impugnment, however 
 casual or innocuous, directed his way he thinks of in this 
 light. 
 
 Immediately after its inauguration, with fanfare and 
 
m HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 beery gestures, the Lincoln League prepared for the 
 county primary election in February. In this campaign its 
 chairman, Big Bill Thompson, cavorted in the biggest 
 role. 
 
SIX 
 THE ANGEL GETS HIS WINGS CLIPPED 
 
 IT must not be assumed that Thompson's advice 
 was eagerly sought and religiously followed because 
 his name was prominently connected with the Lorimer 
 faction. Some historians and psychopathologists of the 
 period sniffishly set him down as an "angel," one whose 
 money and time were taken but whose rating was not quite 
 as a professional; others say he was just jovial at- 
 mosphere, somebody Bill Lorimer kept around to cheer 
 him up and tell him funny stories : a sort of court clown. 
 This last opinion is not quite fair, however nicely it may 
 coincide with the same people's attitude during the school- 
 book debacle. The first slant is true only in a very limited 
 sense. Technically, an "angel" to a party or faction is one 
 whose business interests are advanced by his favorite's vic- 
 tory at the polls: Samuel Insull, Harry Sinclair and 
 Andrew Mellon are archetypes. Bill Thompson cannot be 
 shoved into this category very easily. His business in- 
 terests were not that important and, further, he personally 
 lusted for office. There is much doubt that his tactical 
 schemes, if he had any, were very assiduously carried out. 
 Lorimer himself and Fred Lundin and Percy Coffin were 
 the chief strategists of the outfit. Big Bill's exact status 
 with the organization was that of a "front," an official 
 glad-hander and prominent dispenser of sonorous balder- 
 dash. He was widely known for his sporting proclivities 
 and inherited wealth; he had hundreds of friends of im- 
 
 33 
 
34 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 peccable respectability; and his name lent warmth and 
 the illusion of altruism to the machine he worked with. 
 
 From his point of view it was excellent sport. It kept 
 him in the public eye, a situation unpleasant to few and 
 a vital necessity to him, considering the size of his am- 
 bitions. Furthermore, his boyish instinct for melodrama 
 revelled in participation in the dark intrigues of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Unfortunately for the measured sycophancy of our 
 breathless young friend he was given his opportunity to 
 perform for the Master at the wrong time, just two years 
 too late. If Bill had been picked for the same office, with 
 the same opponent, in 1910, he would have grabbed the 
 prize with easy splendor, for then the Lorimer steamroller 
 had everything its way. But in 1912 the sun was in rapid 
 descent. For twelve months the boss had undergone savage 
 bombardment by the press. And the public worm, long 
 apathetic to machine exploitation, was beginning to show 
 disturbing signs of turning. That it turned and crawled 
 under the heel of another machine is but a tedious illustra- 
 tion of the biologic truism that worms have a motor sense 
 but rather deplorable discrimination. 
 
 So poor Bill, at last given his Big Chance to shine for 
 teacher, went down with the entire ticket in the Lorimer 
 Repudiation Act of 1912. 
 
 But he didn't campaign with even the slightest suspicion 
 in his lion heart that doom awaited him at the polls. He 
 was the most optimistic and effective campaigner on the 
 slate. 
 
 It was a shrewd move on the part of the faction bosses 
 to push Thompson forward for membership to the county 
 board of reviewers. This body reviews the justice in the 
 tax assessments for Cook County and its verdicts are final. 
 Bill's wealth lent plausibility to his plea: why should he 
 wish to filch from the public cupboard? 
 
THE ANGEL GETS HIS WINGS CLIPPED 35 
 
 The campaign during the winter of 1911-12 was ad- 
 mirably planned and executed and would have brought 
 home the coveted bacon at any previous time. It bristled 
 and stank with just the kind of accusations and bathos 
 which delight and convince the voters, who apparently be- 
 lieve that if politician A calls politicians B and C "crook" 
 and "blackguard" it follows that politician A and all his 
 associates are avenging and irreproachable saints. And in 
 this gas attack Bill Thompson, of course, manned the 
 biggest and deadliest pump. 
 
 His first bid for public notice was in the form of a pro- 
 test at being discriminated against, the hoary attempt to 
 appeal to the American public's familiar sympathy for the 
 mistreated. He instituted proceedings in the circuit court 
 to force the county clerk to put his name at the top of the 
 ballot, contending that Mathew Mills, whose petition came 
 in first, had an unfair advantage over him. It probably 
 never occurred to Thompson, and many of the voters too, 
 that if he won his point in court he would then have the 
 same "unfair advantage" he was moaning about. The 
 court, unmoved by sentiment, monotonously intoned the 
 law and the case was lost. 
 
 There were several candidates struggling in the pri- 
 mary for the honor of representing the Republican party 
 in the election, but all but Thompson, the Lorimer choice, 
 and Mills, the Deneen man, were merely wasted ink on the 
 ballot. The reform group put up a gadfly named Blocki 
 who irritated Mills by screaming the allegation that he 
 was "the Coal Men's Choice," but the real contest was 
 between the two big machines. Of the two the Lincoln Pro- 
 tective League was the strongest. They had most of the 
 federal patronage, most of the county jobs not held by 
 the Democrats, and registered heavily in Chicago. But, as 
 mentioned above, Deneen stood to benefit by the current 
 Senatorial scandal — and he did. 
 
36 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 The Lorimer-controlled paper, the Inter-Ocean, en- 
 dorsed the ticket of the Lincoln Protective League with no 
 reservations, and opened its pages to numerous pictures, 
 propaganda and the speeches in full of its favorites. The 
 "news" write-ups of Thompson read very much like the 
 encomiums of the New York Herald-Tribwne on the 
 Coolidgead. And the skillful cartoons of Harold Heaton 
 captured the Chicagoan's sense of humor, the American 
 substitute for thinking. The Tribune and the Lawson 
 papers concentrated on flaying the "Lorimer-Lincoln 
 League" slate in toto. 
 
 At the beginning Thompson gave off the conventional 
 rubbish of the Lorimer crowd (and all political gents 
 everywhere), but something occurred which he seized upon 
 with the gusto of a Baptist jumping upon a copy of "Only 
 a Boy," and which almost brought him victory. A repre- 
 sentative of the League procured from the county 
 assessor's files documentary evidence that Victor F. Law- 
 son, who was militant in denunciation of Thompson and 
 Lorimerism in his News and Record-Herald, had paid only 
 $17.32 on his $1,500,000 residence on Lake Shore Drive, 
 whereas he should have paid $25,580 in taxes on his 
 mansion ! 
 
 Simultaneous with Thompson's braying of the socio- 
 logical tid-bit in a speech was a spectacular exploitation 
 of the same material in the Inter-Ocean, the feature of 
 which was a first page spread, tabloid style, depicting the 
 contrast in the assessment on the mighty publisher's prop- 
 erty and that on some convenient widow's modest dwell- 
 ing — with huge photographs of each. 
 
 The city was on fire from the allegation. Unshaved zea- 
 lots harangued on the subject in the parks and on West 
 Madison Street, and it was conversational fodder wherever 
 the naive congregated. Clearly it was up to the opposition 
 papers to say something. The Tribune of the next morn- 
 
THE ANGEL GETS HIS WINGS CLIPPED 37 
 
 ing refused to give the item display space, relegating their 
 retort to the inside pages. It was headed: "An Exposure 
 of an Expose," and went on icily to remark that a "cleri- 
 cal error" was the cause of the under-assessment, Mr. 
 Lawson having over-paid his taxes for the preceding year. 
 The News carried much the same story, only it gave more 
 space to its chief's defense. 
 
 Obviously Big Bill had discomfited his enemies by his 
 charge. Their answers were weak and colorless and too 
 technical and involved to repair the damage. Right or 
 wrong, Bill Thompson had surely put over a fast one. 
 
 Noting the effect of his coup, Thompson and his man- 
 agers lost little time in following it up with a bombshell 
 almost as startling. Before packed audiences the next week 
 he hoarsely accused the Tribune of defaulting on taxes as 
 well, contending that it paid but $5,500 on property 
 worth $10,000,000, when it should have paid $167,000. 
 He told the alternately gaping and cheering masses that 
 "Mat Mills went to school with Bob McCormick, who 
 owns the Tribune" and that Mills was hand-picked by the 
 powerful corporations for the job of reviewer. 
 
 This kind of ballyhoo continued up until election day. 
 Although the Senatorial scandal had made the betting 
 fraternity on the Rialto chary of placing any real money 
 on any of the Lorimer candidates, Thompson had been so 
 successful in obscuring the larger issue with a smaller one 
 that he was a favorite when the nags trotted to the tape. 
 
 On the morning of the primary the Tribune failed to 
 endorse the Deneen men specifically, but gave them sup- 
 port of a negative sort by heading a column: "Do Not 
 Vote For These Men : They Are the Puppets of Lorimer." 
 The name of William Hale Thompson gracefully headed 
 the list. 
 
 Big Bill led all morning and late into the afternoon, 
 but when the ballots from the north and south sides of the 
 
38 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 city, and those from the country towns, came in, Mills ran 
 away from him. The final count was: for Mills, 62,053; 
 for Thompson, 48,217. 
 
 The entire Lorimer ticket was buried, with the exception 
 of one minor aspirant. Public morals, the Chicago 
 Tribune, and Charles S. Deneen were sitting on top of 
 the debris. The Tribune solemnly voiced the epitaph: 
 "There is nothing left but the ruins and the odor." On 
 the other hand, the Inter-Ocean offered another proof of 
 the wearying commonplace that a good loser doesn't exist 
 in politics, captioning a long wailing article, "In Every 
 Election Contest the Candidates Holding the First Pos- 
 ition on the Ballot Win When All the Votes Are Counted." 
 
 The following July William Lorimer walker dejectedly 
 out of the Senate Office Building, his portfolio hanging 
 limply at his side, his one-way ticket to Chicago in his 
 upper-left vest pocket — a private citizen. When he arrived 
 home a meeting of welcome was tendered him at Orchestra 
 Hall. Most of his beneficiaries of the past were present to 
 console the Blonde Boss, now boss no longer, but the rats 
 who smelled cheese in some other pantry deserted. But 
 Bill Thompson was no rat. He presided. 
 
 The following November The Republican Club of 
 Illinois was born. It never was weaned. For its brief career, 
 before it was smitten with infantile paralysis, Dr. John 
 Dill Robertson was president, Fred Lundin was secretary 
 and William Hale Thompson was treasurer. Lorimer and 
 Cicero J. Lindly, former downstate dictator, were billed 
 as stars of the opening. 
 
SEVEN 
 A COWBOY CHALLENGES THE GODS 
 
 fpHE political situation in the spring of 1913 was 
 * anarchical. With the collapse of the Lorimer faction 
 hundreds of ward-heelers, committeemen, aldermen, hang- 
 ers-on and legislators were left stranded on the beaches 
 of isolation. Some made deals with Deneen; a few went 
 into business or the law, and tried to make an honest 
 living; but most of them just sat tight and waited for 
 something to happen. Deneen himself had been defeated, 
 the previous November, for re-election as governor, due 
 to his failure to support Roosevelt against Taft, making 
 possible a Democratic victory in Illinois as elsewhere. But 
 when the Progressive movement proved to be just sound 
 and fury, and a schoolmaster had roundly caned an im- 
 pudent Teddy, the Illinoisians who had rallied around 
 T. R. at the expense of their Republicanism peddled their 
 wares to Charlie Deneen, who gratefully enveloped them. 
 Carter H. Harrison, the incumbent mayor, was making 
 an unsatisfactory comeback with the public, although his 
 administration was quite excellent. Strife and ill nature 
 pervaded the Democratic ranks. Maclay Hoyne, the 
 Democratic state's attorney, was a grand-stander given to 
 fighting his cases in the papers, and was using his power- 
 ful office as a whip over the heads of everybody attempt- 
 ing to thwart his ambitions. Threats, indictments of police 
 and underworld bosses unfriendly to him, and sonorous 
 mouthings about the rampantness of crime, came from 
 
 39 
 
40 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 him daily. The brazenness of vice and organized mischief 
 was a favorite topic for perspiring editorial writers. 
 
 Still smarting from the trouncing he had received the 
 spring before, Bill the Fighter looked things over with 
 much patting of stomach and rolling of eyes. Susceptible 
 to flattery, he took to heart the adulations of his coterie 
 and gave two erect ears to their suggestions that he again 
 run for office because this idea occurred to him inde- 
 pendently. It was buzzed his way that he hurdle the 
 intermediary jobs and run for mayor — sweet music to Bill. 
 To be sure, there were many men about quietly nursing 
 the same ambition, but few had the resources to finance 
 a long campaign; and with the nomination a long way 
 off, prying donations out of business men was not easy. 
 
 Thompson had money, and a willingness to spend it to 
 reach his goal. So he was surrounded by friends, all of 
 whom winsomely granted advice and encouragement. To 
 sterilize what little scepticism Bill had, Lundin decided 
 to feel out the public in regard to his candidacy. A par- 
 lor in the Sherman House was rented for Tuesday eve- 
 nings and the bunch went to work. This was in the summer 
 of 1914, eight months before the primary. 
 
 The Thompson board of strategy was a quartet: 
 Thompson, Lundin, Pike and James A. Pugh. This last- 
 named gentleman about town was widely known as a 
 millionaire and sportsman. Bill had met him at the Chicago 
 Yacht Club, and Pugh succeeded him as commodore. Of 
 all the men associated with Thompson in the ten years 
 he has been in office, Pugh was the least reprehensible. He 
 was honest, sincere and a man of tremendous energy, a 
 kind of epitome of the old spirit of the plains : they called 
 him "Dynamite Jim." For his friend Thompson Jim 
 worked harder than anyone else in the outfit, not even ex- 
 cepting the plotting Swede. He was insistent that 
 Thompson's campaign photograph bring out all the vote- 
 
A COWBOY CHALLENGES THE GODS 41 
 
 cadging characteristics : benevolence, democracy, good 
 humor, dependability, wealth without snobbishness. So he 
 superintended the fancy camera work. More than two 
 hundred pictures of Bill's visage were taken and rejected 
 before the choice was made. Further, he labored like a 
 Trojan to make a good public speaker of Bill. The big 
 fellow's handicap in addressing his peers, strange as it 
 may seem, was an all-pervading soberness: he could not 
 smile when talking to a large crowd. Pugh and Lundin 
 realized the lack was a damaging one, so they set about 
 rectifying it. At all of the early meetings Pugh would sit 
 in a front row, and every time he considered a smile or 
 a laugh was an efficacious punctuation he dropped a brick 
 on the floor. Bill would catch the cue and smile broadly. 
 
 In addition to his prodigious working, Pugh was the 
 financier of the crusade. Excepting Lundin, perhaps, he 
 was responsible in greater measure than any other man 
 for the election of Thompson. 
 
 Toward the end of October names of possible entrees 
 rode the winds of the Loop. Harrison had not yet re- 
 ceived the consent of his wife to run for a sixth term, so 
 the Democrats were in as great confusion as were the 
 leaders of the party of Lincoln and Harding. Everyone 
 of importance above the level of bailiff was mentioned. 
 The defunct and nearly bankrupt Progressive party was 
 trying to raise its gaunt head, its county committee of 
 Harold Ickes, M. J. Dempsey and Charles H. Sergei 
 listening prayerfully for the clarion-call which might join 
 them with the G. O. P. regulars and the Non-Partisan 
 League. It finally came and they hastened to answer it. 
 
 On November 10, 1914, the William Hale Thompson 
 For Mayor Club broke into public notice. More than two 
 hundred beaming and chattering men and women crowded 
 into their headquarters in the Sherman Hotel, and heard 
 the announcement that 110,000 persons had pledged their 
 
42 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 support to Mr. Thompson. Loud demonstrations greeted 
 the news, and when Big Bill and seven coadjutors spoke 
 their thanks and promises, the mob became out of hand. 
 Resolutions were subsequently adopted asking for a mass 
 meeting at the Coliseum for December nineteenth. The 
 formal opening of the campaign was also determined. 
 
 The Republican county committee decided, on Decem- 
 ber fourth, to call the ward committeemen together for 
 a balloting the following Saturday, to ascertain the or- 
 ganization candidates for mayor, city clerk and treasurer. 
 By a vote of 29 to 4 it was decided that the mayoralty 
 candidate be chosen by a vote of twenty-four of the com- 
 mitteemen participating, the twenty-nine agreeing to enter 
 a binding caucus. This resolution was entered by Edward 
 R. Litzinger. 
 
 The friends of Thompson in the county committee 
 opposed the Litzinger resolution, both on Wednesday and 
 on the following Saturday, Mr. Thompson signing a for- 
 mal letter of protest : 
 
 The Primary law in no way suggests or authorizes the com- 
 mittee as a body to select or recommend candidates. It seems 
 to me that the Republican voters themselves should be given the 
 opportunity to make their own nominations, and let the Republi- 
 cans in letter and spirit give the direct primary law a true test. 
 Permit every member of the committee to support his choice 
 or the choice of the Republican voters of his ward. 
 
 By so doing the committee will eliminate from the successful 
 candidate the taint of being a machine man. If the committee 
 refrains from using its power as a committee, which power it 
 should exercise to its fullest extent after the Republicans have 
 chosen their candidate, then every candidate participating in the 
 primaries must be honor-bound to support loyally and heartily 
 the candidate receiving the greatest number of votes, and I 
 pledge to this successful Republican candidate, the Republican 
 voters of Chicago, and to your committee my hearty and loyal 
 
A COWBOY CHALLENGES THE GODS 43 
 
 support in the event of a defeat at the primaries on February 
 twenty-seventh. 
 
 This was canny strategy. Obviously, Thompson had no 
 objection to machine support, or aid from any quarter 
 guaranteeing votes, but as Deneen's strength in the county 
 committee was overwhelming, he was thinking furiously 
 (i.e. Lundin was) to forestall any attempts of the others 
 to give blanket endorsement to one of the stronger men. 
 
 On December twelfth the first formal caucus of the 
 Republican party was held. Everyone was present, one 
 committeeman from each of Chicago's thirty-five wards, 
 and nothing much was done but trot out into the open, 
 By a vote of 29 to 4 it was decided that the mayoralty 
 candidacy. Thirty names were read into the minutes, the 
 most important of which were: 
 
 Judge Harry Olson, chief justice of the municipal 
 court. 
 
 Judge Marcus Kavanaugh. 
 
 Judge Theodore Brentano. 
 
 Alderman J. J. Fisher. 
 
 Congressman Martin B. Madden. 
 
 John R. Thompson, former county treasurer and 
 prominent restaurant owner. 
 
 Alderman Charles E. Merriam. 
 
 Judge Kickham Scanlon. 
 
 Edward J. Brundage, former corporation counsel. 
 
 William Hale Thompson, sportsman, realtor, ex-alder- 
 man, ex-county commissioner, ex-candidate for board of 
 review. 
 
 Some of the above, and all the rest, knew in advance 
 that they had no chance whatsoever, but permitted their 
 names to be entered as feelers, or to perpetrate the demo- 
 cratic illusion before the voters. 
 
 A few days of quietude followed, then Thompson flared 
 
44 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 into public print by opening headquarters in the twenty- 
 fifth ward, a locality recognized up and down the city as 
 Deneen-Olson private ground. Verily, Thompson was 
 challenging the gods, and many smart fellows shook their 
 heads and muttered something about Bill being brash. 
 
 On Saturday, January seventeenth, the committee lis- 
 tened to the following resolution presenting Olson's name : 
 
 We, the Republican committeemen who vote this day in the 
 caucus of the Republican committee, endorse the candidacy of 
 Honorable Harry Olson, chief justice of the municipal court of 
 Chicago, and recommend his candidacy to the Republican voters 
 at the primary to be held on February 23, 1915. We believe that 
 the old time Republicans should get together and support the 
 candidacy of a man who is acceptable to a majority of the 
 Republicans, Progressives and independent political organiza- 
 tions of the city, and whose ability and experience and knowl- 
 edge of the city's life and needs will appeal strongly to the 
 citizens of Chicago. We represent 1784 of a total of 3236 voters 
 (precincts) of the Republican county committee of this city. 
 
 This sonorous attempt at steamrollering was signed by 
 seventeen men, the name of Charles S. Deneen heading the 
 list. Eight declared themselves for Judge Kavanaugh, four 
 for Judge Brentano, one for Alderman Fisher. 
 
 The stumbling block in the caucus, and the direct cause 
 of the deadlock, were the five who were recorded as present 
 but not voting: August W. Miller, Chris Mamer, Morris 
 Eller, George Hitzman and Charles Todd. This silent 
 quintet was known to be openly allied with the candidacy 
 of William Hale Thompson. Never voting on the candi- 
 dates, they nevertheless came forward solidly to oppose 
 all roll-calls to adjourn. 
 
 Eighteen of the committeemen, although bound to four 
 different men, had one thing in common, besides a desire 
 for Divine Grace: a strong disinclination for an Olson- 
 
A COWBOY CHALLENGES THE GODS 45 
 
 Deneen victory. So they stood together against all the 
 frenzied efforts of the Deneen seventeen to shoulder their 
 man through. An Olson man moved to adjourn the com- 
 mittee and permit each man to act in his ward as he saw 
 fit. This was defeated, 18 to 17. Former-Governor Deneen 
 then requested permission to retire his contingent to an- 
 other room for fifteen minutes to effect a solution of the 
 dilemma. This also was circumvented. 
 
 After the fourth fruitless ballot everyone was tired, 
 and the motion to dissolve offered by Victor P. Arnold, an 
 Olson man, was unanimously adopted. 
 
 Clearly a tactical triumph had been registered by the 
 Thompson-Lundin forces. They had successfully pre- 
 vented a blanket endorsement of Judge Olson without dis- 
 closing their hands. In the Deneen camp the result was 
 the grim and presumptuous decision, laconically voiced by 
 the boss himself, that as the majority of the Republican or- 
 ganization was for Olson, the workers should proceed 
 at once to marshal strength in all the wards opposing him. 
 
 What is perhaps puzzling to the uninformed is the 
 stubborn unity of the anti-Olson men. Here is how this 
 solidarity had been effected. 
 
 Two evenings previous to the critical caucus described 
 above, Homer K. Galpin, an ex-Lorimerite who had re- 
 cently divorced himself from the regular organization, 
 invited the eighteen men known to be antagonistic to Olson 
 to his home. Chief among these was Elward Brundage. 
 He and Thomas Cur ran were backing Brentano and 
 Kavanaugh, respectively. In a deadlock over the speaker- 
 ship in the state legislature shortly before, Curran had 
 maneuvered so skillfully against Deneen that a Lorimer- 
 Brundage-Curran faction was created. Through the bom- 
 bast of Brundage and the diplomacy of Curran, the dif- 
 ferences of the eighteen were ignored, and they resolved 
 
46 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 to fight the Olson candidacy to the end, and decide later 
 what one man they would get behind. 
 
 Thompson chortled his glee in a signed statement, issued 
 shortly after the caucus of the seventeenth : 
 
 In view of the stand taken by a few self-appointed committees 
 and leaders presuming to represent the Republican and Pro- 
 gressive parties as to the selection of mayor and other offices in 
 the approaching city primary election, I take the liberty of call- 
 ing to the attention of the voters of Chicago the fact that when- 
 ever any clique of politicians or any faction of any party under- 
 takes to use the official party committee as an instrument through 
 which and by which to foist personal selections upon the elec- 
 torate, they violate the letter and spirit of the direct primary 
 law. ... If these political cliques would refrain from using 
 the party committees to serve their own ends and allow the voters 
 themselves to nominate their own candidate, I feel sure that the 
 people would choose the man in each party best qualified to serve 
 it and in whom the majority have the utmost confidence. 
 
 It will cost the city of Chicago hundreds of thousands of 
 dollars to conduct the coming municipal primary. Why should 
 this money be taken out of the taxpayers' pocket ... if the 
 party committees or the self-constituted cliques are better quali- 
 fied to select the candidates ? 
 
 I am assured that the temper of the people is such at this 
 time that no man stamped with the brand of a political machine 
 can hope to win at the polls. . . . 
 
 Committee domination was the rock upon which the Republi- 
 can party split asunder in the last Presidential election. Why 
 repeat the same blunder again ? 
 
 I do not believe the people should conduct the coming primary 
 by proxy. They must thoughtfully examine the credentials of 
 the candidates and make their own selections. . . . 
 
 This flamboyant pronunciamento rambled on for an- 
 other page. It was the typical "beef" of the politician, one 
 fat pot forever calling the stout kettle black. 
 
A COWBOY CHALLENGES THE GODS 47 
 
 Meanwhile both factions were busily calling the public's 
 attention to their virtue and integrity, working to build 
 up their machines in secret. Deneen's machine was by far 
 the strongest, in fact Lundin hadn't much of an organi- 
 zation to work with at the beginning, but within six months 
 he had patched up the old Lorimer aggregation to some 
 semblance of harmony. Apparently, however, Thompson 
 was an independent candidate, and the electorate swallowed 
 this bait whole. 
 
 When Big Bill had formally announced himself as an 
 active candidate for mayor on December twenty-third in 
 the Auditorium Theater, the crowd yelled with joy at 
 every utterance given off by him and his consorts, which 
 surprised Thompson as much as it did the scouts of the 
 regulars. Nobody thought he would click so well and so 
 quickly. The theatrical mechanics were admirably planned 
 by Lundin. Bands and marching clubs were planted con- 
 veniently to stimulate enthusiasm, and the stage was 
 jammed with grinning servants of the people. Piled at one 
 side of the proscenium were the petitions alleged to have 
 been signed by 140,000 men and women. 
 
 Mr. Thompson denied the right of the Republican 
 county committee to pick an organization candidate, and 
 withdrew his own name from any consideration by that 
 body, signifying his intention of going into the primaries 
 with no strings attached. Consider carefully his speech. 
 
 In political contests, whether local, state, or national, the law 
 of Illinois gives preference, recognition and legal standing to 
 candidates regularly nominated by political parties in direct 
 primary election, free and open to all who may desire to enter. 
 In partisan affairs I am a Republican, and when party issues 
 are properly at stake I rejoice in the victory of my party, but I 
 desire to state plainly that I do not believe a candidate for the 
 office of mayor of Chicago should use as a platform the achieve- 
 
48 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 ments of a national administration. Our campaign is essentially 
 local, and so far as I have influence it will be developed on local 
 issues. (Sic!) 
 
 One of the most serious problems that confronts the mayor 
 of Chicago is to break the alliance of politics and crime that 
 now exists in the police department. The state's attorney, a 
 Democrat, Maclay Hoyne, during the last four months has made 
 the statement through the public press that many of the most 
 important officials of our police department are working hand- 
 in-glove with notorious criminals. He has procured the indict- 
 ment of a number of prominent officials and promises to indict 
 many others. 
 
 I promise you if the citizens of this city elect me mayor I 
 will clean out all faithless police officials in high places in the 
 department, and completely divorce that department from 
 politics. The plan of sending honest patrolmen to the cabbage 
 patches at the instance of some politician, who derives his in- 
 come from protecting criminals, merely because they have per- 
 formed their duty, will not prevail if William Hale Thompson 
 is your mayor. 
 
 One of the most serious problems is the lack of proper trans- 
 portation. During the year more than 500,000,000 passengers 
 rode on our surface lines alone. During the rush hours these 
 surface cars are crowded to suffocation. Not only are they over- 
 crowded but, due to lack of ventilation, they are a menace to 
 public health. The present laws are sufficient, if enforced, to 
 remedy this evil and compel the street-car companies to give their 
 patrons efficient passenger service. 
 
 I am a firm believer in the policy of home rule and if elected 
 mayor will use my influence toward having the public utilities 
 in which the citizens of Chicago are exclusively concerned under 
 the control and direction of the city government and our own 
 people." 
 
 This array of promises is printed as a guide to the be- 
 havior of Bill the Fighter after he secured his plum. 
 The Olson crowd had not yet gone in for theatrics but 
 
A COWBOY CHALLENGES THE GODS 49 
 
 they were stirring about, seeing more to organization than 
 pervasive ballyhoo for the present. Deneen had been adroit 
 in pocketing the echoes of the Roosevelt boom and Ickes, 
 Dempsey, Sergei and Devine were out doing their bits for 
 Judge Harry. When Professor Merriam realized the abor- 
 tiveness of his personal candidacy, he too put his follow- 
 ing behind Olson, and later stumped for him. The non- 
 partisan units, headed by Alexander H. Revell, a wealthy 
 furniture merchant and club brother of Thompson's, all 
 scrambled for comfortable seats in the Deneen-Olson-Ickes 
 bandwagon. Merriam, Deneen and Miss Jane Addams 
 toured the city for Olson — which made it clear that this 
 side was counting heavily on the more respectable and 
 literate portions of society to win. 
 
 Willie, the foe of machine politics, hammered away daily 
 at the forces of evil which were subverting and evading the 
 letter and spirit of the direct primary law, and indicated 
 time and again his complete preparation to enter the lists 
 as an unsullied Republican. Fred Lundin must have 
 grinned as he concocted this stuff. 
 
 Accusations flew about to cynicize the simple citizenry. 
 Thompson accused Olson of being a Jekyl-Hyde, a judge 
 by day and a machine politician by night. He supple- 
 mented this literary reference, which he feared might be 
 too hifalutin for the bulk of the voters, with the charge 
 that his opponent had made a deal with Anton J. Cermak, 
 the Democratic chief bailiff of the municipal court, ex- 
 changing patronage for Tony's influence in obtaining 
 him a $2500 raise in salary. Also, he filed protests with 
 the Bar Association declaring that Olson was violating 
 their rules, which glowered upon judges participating in 
 politics. 
 
 Alderman Buck, an insurgent barnstorming for Olson, 
 threw vicious handfuls of mud on Thompson's record in 
 the city council of fifteen years before: 
 
50 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Mr. Thompson is urged upon the voters of Chicago as a 
 sportsman, a man of red blood, a square, frank, open, manly 
 man who is willing to stand up and face that which faces him 
 and deal directly. He has been in office before, so his record 
 may be examined to see just how much of a sportsman he may 
 be expected to be if elevated to office again. He, in 1900 to 1902, 
 was alderman from the old second ward. On June 18, 1901, 
 during his term, there came up in the council an ordinance as 
 an aftermath to the notorious Ogden Gas Ordinance of 1895, 
 making possible the sale of the Ogden Gas Company to the 
 People's Gas, Light and Coke Company for a sum reputed to 
 be about six million dollars. The Municipal Voters' League said 
 of the ordinance: "The boodlers lined up solidly. Party bosses 
 cajoled. The ordinance was passed but, however, was vetoed by 
 the mayor and there died. This is the most serious blot upon 
 the council of 1900-02." 
 
 Thompson created a flurry by addressing an open letter 
 to Olson, which said in part: 
 
 . . . Is it not a fact that you have agreed that your appoint- 
 ments will be parcelled out by Mr. Deneen, your political boss, 
 of whom Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, the leader of the Progressive 
 party, spoke as follows: "During the convention of 1912, I be- 
 came convinced of his shuffling and double-dealing, and I grew 
 to feel a very hearty contempt for him and entirely to mistrust 
 his sincerity and loyalty to the people's cause." 
 
 Big Bill's exploitation of the Roosevelt remark about 
 Deneen was clever, for Teddy was the kind of hero, in the 
 eyes of his followers, that could do no wrong and be guilty 
 of no smallness. In reality, of course, this remark had been 
 just pique and bile because Charlie Deneen had chosen 
 to be a faithful party man and support Taft rather than 
 jump the fence with T. R. 
 
 Thompson's campaign buttons were red, with BIG 
 BILL glaring from the faces. That the spirit of '76 was 
 
A COWBOY CHALLENGES THE GODS 51 
 
 not yet dead, even in this money-grubbing age, was in- 
 dicated by the activities of a fife and drum corps of thirty 
 members, instituted by the William Hale Thompson 25th 
 Ward Club. 
 
 Most of these features were brain-throbs of Fred Lun- 
 din, the ex-patent medicine hawker who knew his public 
 so thoroughly. As for Thompson, it gave him exquisite 
 pleasure to strike the pose of the patrioteer. It was in this 
 campaign that he first attracted notice as a leading 
 American loyalist, dissipated a trifle by his war record, 
 but flowering effulgently in 1927, when he routed the 
 minions of Downing Street by exposing their insidious 
 work in the school system. 
 
 As has been indicated, the division of labor was a 
 quartering: Lundin occupied himself with unifying the 
 old Lorimer machine, coined numerous slogans, wrote 
 many speeches, and thought out the platform; Pugh 
 scurried all over town getting money and attended to 
 many of the details ; Pike likewise assisted in the financial 
 end, besides interesting the sporting element, with whom 
 he rated highly, in the candidacy of one of their kind. 
 Bill's wife was bustling about attending parties, teas, 
 bridges and coffee Matches, and entertaining unceasingly 
 at the Thompson residence at 3200 Sheridan Road. 
 Maggie Hale, the talented household cook, materially 
 aided her mistress, and hence her master's cause, during 
 these trying weeks. 
 
 Harry Olson was having an easy time of it. He had a 
 smooth-running and puissant organization behind him; 
 the Progressives were being whipped into line by their 
 leaders; the churches of the city rang with his praises; 
 the press endorced him; he even had the reform leaders 
 massed behind his effort. He wasn't at all worried. Hence 
 his campaigning was desultory. He postponed his debut 
 before the public until late in the contest, February 
 
52 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 fourth, which was but nineteen days before the primary ; 
 and the last week he went out of the city, confident of an 
 easy triumph and intent only on resting for the more 
 strenuous campaign against the Democrats. 
 
 For the sixty days preceding primary day Thompson 
 talked himself hoarse. He concentrated particularly on 
 arousing enthusiasm in the ward organizations, and keep- 
 ing it at fever heat. Lundin wanted Thompson to have 
 personal contact with every voter in the city. And this 
 ideal was almost realized. 
 
 Henry M. Hyde, a sagacious and cynical writer for the 
 Tribune, wittily painted a picture of one of these ward 
 meetings which may well be included in any comprehensive 
 compendium of the workings of a democracy. It can serve 
 for any large city in the United States. 
 
 "When surrounded by them that are near and dear to you, you 
 go to bed in your humble domicile — no matter how lowly — and 
 a thief or enemy breaks in; do you not awaken and yell, 'Where 
 is the government?' And so, my dear friends, I say to you in 
 all honesty, all candor, and in all sincerity that we should see 
 to it that we should select as a candidate for public office only 
 a man we hope much for, a man whose noble life is a public 
 benediction, a man into the deepest depths of whose inmost 
 heart the golden rays of God's own sunshine penetrates. When 
 this man comes, his magnificent physique will awe the house, 
 his financial acumen will go down into the archives of the 
 nation, his touching voice will echo and re-echo and resound to 
 the lofty dome above. It is needless to say that the noble candi- 
 date to whom I refer is ." 
 
 It should be quickly explained that nobody takes this efferves- 
 cent spell-binder seriously. He is merely a curtain-raiser, kept to 
 fill in time when the automobile which is rushing the candidates 
 from hall to hall is for some reason delayed. He ranks no higher 
 politically than the Murphy twins, two little boys in green tights 
 who box three rounds between speeches. People who did not at- 
 
A COWBOY CHALLENGES THE GODS 53 
 
 tend the little ward meetings, held all over the city, twenty or 
 thirty nightly, missed a wonderful opportunity to study democ- 
 racy in action, with plenty of amusement thrown in. 
 
 The real proceedings begin when the motor car bearing the 
 Men of the Hour pants up to the curb in front of the meeting- 
 place. A noisy group of small boys, three of whom are honored 
 by being allowed to hold sticks of red fire, mark the place. 
 
 Out of the auto steps three or four ponderous and solemn- 
 looking men, their faces worried, their shoulders bowed. In the 
 entrance and along the hallway are distributed about fifty young 
 fellows with political aspirations and campaign cigars. The cam- 
 paign luminaries tramp up the stairs and enter the hall at the 
 rear. As they march down the aisle to the platform all the pa- 
 triots looking forward to payroll appointments burst into hearty 
 and unrestrained cheers. 
 
 The chairman reaches forward and plucks the coat-tails of 
 the spell-binder. "In all candor, in all sincerity, in all honesty — 
 I thank you fellow citizens and ladies." He sits down to beam 
 and lead in the applause. 
 
 What the candidates say depends on their personality and the 
 audience they are addressing. Here is a sample. He is a huge and 
 heavy man. He clasps his ham-like hands before his stomach and 
 clears his throat. 
 
 "You gimme a good vote before and I ain't had a chanct to 
 thank you before. Much obliged. I hope you gimme as good a 
 vote on Tuesday. In conclusion I hope you vote a straight ticket 
 from start to bottom, so we can give you a business administra- 
 tion and furnish plenty of jobs for the boys who vote right." 
 
 More impressive and less to the point is the statesman. 
 
 "Fellow citizens, I am not ambitious to shine as an orator. But 
 all my life I have been accustomed to hard labor. I began to 
 work as a boy of nine years. I have been working ever since. 
 If you will send me to ... I shall continue the habits of 
 industry which have become my second nature. In my own poor 
 way and to the extent of my limited ability, I shall attempt to 
 hold up the hands of our far-sighted President to the end that 
 
54 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 peace, prosperity and contentment shall continue to prevail 
 among all the people of these United States." 
 
 Big Bill Thompson had acquainted the common people 
 with his personality, and they liked him. Olson's sloth, his 
 snubbing of the masses and his icy nature cost him the 
 nomination. The final count was: for William Hale 
 Thompson, 179,048 ; for Harry Olson, 84,825. 
 
 Chicago was shortly to be introduced to a unique per- 
 sonality: a cowboy had challenged the gods, and gotten 
 away with it. 
 
EIGHT 
 THE CITY HALL GOES BURLESQUE 
 
 HE was flushed with his success at the primary. So 
 was his quiet mentor, Fred Lundin, but the latter 
 realized that the hardest lap of the race lay ahead. After 
 all, it could be seen in retrospect how easy it had been. 
 Olson was a capable man but almost utterly devoid of 
 political "it." He was late in getting into his stride, and 
 when he did he couldn't travel as fast or as effectively as 
 Big Bill. Harry Olson was a good judge, and would have 
 given Chicago a judicious administration. But he wasn't 
 a promoter of votes. And Bill Thompson was. 
 
 In the election, however, Thompson was facing a dif- 
 ferent kind of opponent. The Democratic primary had 
 been a bitter affair between Mayor Carter Harrison and 
 the county clerk, Robert M. Sweitzer. The mayor had 
 the support of Governor Dunne, but Sweitzer was directed 
 by Roger Sullivan, to whom Woodrow Wilson owed his 
 high place. Another boss of the faction was George 
 Brennan, who later succeeded Sullivan and was primarily 
 responsible for the prompt nomination of Al Smith in 
 Houston in 1928. Fred Lundin was crossing swords with 
 a crew of strategists worthy of his skill. 
 
 Further, there was little inequality in the personalities 
 of the candidates. While Sweitzer probably had more ad- 
 ministrative ability than Thompson, he was a great glad- 
 hander, possibly a bit oleaginous but withal quite forceful 
 in his appeal. Everything augured for a campaign that 
 would be bizarre, noisy, lowbrow. Sullivan had just been 
 
 55 
 
56 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 beaten for the Senate and was thirsting for a fat Republi- 
 can scalp in retribution. To make the outlook blacker for 
 the Lundin-Thompson fortunes, Tom Scully, a Democrat, 
 was county judge, which meant that the election ma- 
 chinery was in their hands. From the tap of the gong 
 Sweitzer was a 2 to 1 favorite in the betting. 
 
 Obviously, the first thing to be done was to sit down and 
 think it all over. So after a few days at home, Bill Thomp- 
 son took the arm of pal Jimmy Pugh and went to Mt. 
 Clemens. Of course they didn't go alone. There was the 
 usual crowd of super-strategists, boon companions, syco- 
 phants. Bill never did relish solitude and would perish 
 as a Trappist. He needed a chorus to sing his praises, men, 
 women and children to hail him as the conquering hero. 
 Within twenty-four hours Pugh was able to transmit this 
 message over the long-distance wires: "Bill is fine. The 
 jaunt up here is doing him worlds of good." 
 
 The sturdy and combative Sweitzer didn't need a 
 sycophantic choir but it was the part of wisdom to enjoy 
 a short cabal; so the Democratic contingent — Sullivan, 
 Brennan, O'Brien, Igoe, Sweitzer and a few others — re- 
 tired to Hot Springs. 
 
 The Republican primary had been so invidiously fought 
 and the result had been so unexpected and humiliating to 
 the regulars that party amity looked doubtful. Deneen 
 promised his support ill-naturedly, and Olson had signed 
 a reluctant truce. Merriam was silenced, for he was com- 
 ing up for aldermanic re-election, and as he was the leader 
 of the refractory forces in the council he was unwilling to 
 sacrifice his constructive program for the pleasure of 
 assailing Thompson; besides, he didn't see much of a 
 choice between Sullivan and Lundin. With Deneen, Olson 
 and Merriam apathetic, the entire burden fell upon the 
 broad shoulders of Big Bill. 
 
 Gaining the nomination had been expensive but the 
 
THE CITY HALL GOES BURLESQUE 57 
 
 Thompson outfit still had a comfortable war chest. Pugh 
 continued to be financially behind his sailing companion, 
 as was Pike, and one of the cogs in the machine, Bernard 
 Snow, was on the Board of Trade and had good connec- 
 tions with several well-heeled gentlemen there. 
 
 The situation with the newspapers was disheartening to 
 the group who wished to carry on the tradition of Alex- 
 ander Hamilton in the Chicago City Hall. The sheets that 
 weren't hot for Bob was indifferent to Thompson. The 
 Tribume shelved its moral indignation and former loath- 
 ing for everything tainted with the Lorimer touch and 
 treated the campaign strictly as news. Evidently they 
 looked upon a disciple of Sullivan as dourly as they did 
 upon a graduate of Professor Lorimer's School of Fine 
 Political Arts and Sciences. 
 
 But Bill got along with the boys of the press personally 
 in fine style. Daily they carried his words of wisdom and 
 optimism to the interested public. With the malleable 
 memory of a true servant of the people, Thompson forgot 
 the primary barrages of the "World's Greatest News- 
 paper" and wrote them frequent open letters full of sweet- 
 ness and light. 
 
 These epistles were not awarded first-page space, how- 
 ever, despite their vital content. There happened to be a 
 war going on in Europe, and — even more important for 
 virile Americans — Jess Willard was training for his fight 
 with the champ, black Jack Johnson, at Havana. Chicago 
 is a good sporting town, one of the best, so the people were 
 compelled to divide their attentions three ways : Johnson- 
 Willard, France-Germany and Thompson- Sweitzer, the 
 big contests of the hour. 
 
 The Republican campaign motto, drenched as usual 
 with significance and purpose, was the child of Thompson 
 by Lundin : "All for Chicago and Chicago for All." It was 
 hollow enough to make a big hit with the electorate. 
 
58 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 On March third Thompson sent the Tribune a signed 
 message which stamped him as a man of unrelenting 
 courage: "As the nominee of the Republican party for 
 mayor, I believe it is my duty immediately to give evidence 
 that what I said in the pre-primary campaign I said with 
 sincerity — that I would not, if nominated and elected, use 
 the power of the mayor's office to build up political 
 machines." The evidence did not follow. We are still wait- 
 ing for it. 
 
 The return of Thompson and his cohorts from 
 Michigan and the Sweitzer wrecking crew from Arkansas 
 took the campaign from the mails and brought it with a 
 whoop onto the speaking platform. The fifes were polished 
 once more and the drumheads were tightened; the flags 
 were unfurled and flapped their red-white-and-blue beauty 
 to the winds — for ideals were at stake, and the best Ameri- 
 can wins. 
 
 Meetings were held by both sides with dizzying fre- 
 quency. From morning until night the rival headquarters 
 buzzed with the activities of political chicane. Professional 
 orators, with visions of the pork-barrel setting them afire, 
 took turns at impressing huge crowds of the merits of the 
 respective aspirants. Bill's virtues as a sportsman, busi- 
 ness man, husband and friend were bellowed nightly from 
 convenient rostrums. They hurled the charge of Sullivan- 
 ism at Sweitzer, which caused the taunt of Lorimer-Lun- 
 dinism to rebound back. Sweitzer was accused of using 
 his office of county clerk to further his political ambitions, 
 and of using the taxpayers' money recklessly as well. 
 Staunch Republican blood congealed when the haranguing 
 hordes shrieked that a Sweitzer victory would mean the 
 loss of home rule for Chicago, in addition to a city-wide 
 business depression which was the inevitable backwash of 
 the municipal application of the Democratic tariff. A full 
 dinner pail for the working man. Work for Chicago's 
 
THE CITY HALL GOES BURLESQUE 59 
 
 150,000 unemployed. Removal of the police department 
 from politics and the protection of the board of education 
 from the vile corrupters. . . . The Thompson orators 
 were a busy lot. 
 
 Clubs and groups were organized by hungry zealots and 
 given space in the general headquarters. Special privileges 
 were promised them. There were ethnic groups: Polish, 
 Lithuanian, German, Italian; vocational divisions: doc- 
 tors', lawyers', law students'; and theological categories: 
 Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic. Trade unions 
 were exploited. Lodges and fraternal bodies were ad- 
 dressed. And Lundin placed special emphasis on the mar- 
 shalling of the Negroes and the Jews. 
 
 On the south side, in the Sepia Sector, an open town 
 was promised. Even the familiar flair of the Aframerican 
 for crap games was exploited by speakers seeking to tempt 
 the black man again to stand back of Big Bill, who had 
 been the friend of the dusky for twenty years. In pale- 
 face sections Thompson men went around calling upon 
 the great god Public to strike down Sweitzer, the pro- 
 Negro, the carpet-bagger. 
 
 The promised assistance of Deneen and Olson was slow 
 in coming forward. Charlie himself was conveniently ill 
 and was advised by his physician to stay at home, lest 
 death relieve the state of Illinois of its most ardent servant. 
 Olson, having neglected his duties on the bench during the 
 primaries, suddenly realized the responsibilities of his 
 exalted office and buried himself in repentance and catch- 
 ing up. Both of them, however, anticipated the day when 
 they could lend their personalities and power to the cause 
 of Big Bill's candidacy, for was not his crusade the con- 
 cern of all loyal Republicans? 
 
 Sweitzer's Catholicism and Thompson's Shrinishness 
 was bound to bring friction among the papists and anti- 
 papists on this plane. A quasi-secret organization, pre- 
 
60 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 tentiously calling itself the Guardians of Liberty, mys- 
 teriously came into being, and existed long enough to fan 
 the flames madly underneath the boiling pot of the cam- 
 paign. There was a prevalent notion among the Protest- 
 ants that the public schools were being managed in a 
 fashion unjust to their faith. And a lot of flamboyant 
 Irishmen working for Sweitzer didn't relieve the tension 
 of this question a bit. 
 
 Although many Republicans, disappointed at Thomp- 
 son's nomination, were sullen and verged on the con- 
 tumacious, a small but loudly vocal faction of Democrats 
 almost filled the breach. The Jeffersonians had been split 
 wide open in their primary, the Dunne-Harrison- 
 O'Connell protagonists looking upon the Sweitzer- Sullivan 
 victory dourly and with scorn, a few of them actually bolt- 
 ing the party and assisting Thompson. Among these the 
 most sedulous was John Kantor, a man possessing the 
 fetching and imposing appearance of the popular orator, 
 and plenty of enthusiasm for Bill's cause. Announcing 
 theatrically (in the proper locality) that he was of the 
 Jewish faith and hence stood for racial equality, he would 
 assail Sweitzer for his injection of the religious element 
 into the campaign. Bearded Hebrews, grubbing for a liv- 
 ing in the Maxwell Street markets, with the Cossack's lash 
 still stinging upon their backs, were not difficult to per- 
 suade to vote for William Hale Thompson, Zionist and 
 Friend of the Jew. Kantor labored so zealously and ef- 
 fectively that he was rewarded both politically and socially 
 by Thompson, becoming a close friend of Bill and his wife 
 for the years following. 
 
 Another vigorous person championing the Lundin- 
 Thompson sodality was Robert E. Crowe, a former assis- 
 tant state's attorney and Lincoln Leaguer. He did much 
 to carry his west side ward for Bill, but it was not until 
 
THE CITY HALL GOES BURLESQUE 61 
 
 a few years had goiie by, as shall be pointed out, that he 
 received full reciprocity for it. 
 
 Post-election analyses revealed the two biggest issues of 
 the campaign — that is, as determinants of the result — as 
 the religious and racial issue and the public utilities issue. 
 The Thompson speakers vociferously branded Roger 
 Sullivan as the tool of the Interests, contending that he 
 and his candidate reeked of gas and that Sweitzer re- 
 ceived much financial backing from the large department 
 stores as well. It is amusing to note in this connection that 
 on July 1, 1914, Thompson was the recorded owner of 
 1,100 shares of Commonwealth Edison stock, the corpora- 
 tion controlling the gas company, although this juicy tid- 
 bit was not brought out until later. 
 
 When the campaign reached the final week the high 
 potentate, Charles S. Deneen, made the supreme sacrifice, 
 dragged his emaciated and illness-torn body up onto the 
 rostrum, and managed weakly to articulate the urgency 
 of the G. O. P. flag waving over the city on election day. 
 Following his master's voice could be heard the frail 
 seconding of Judge Olson, glancing up a moment from 
 his bench. 
 
 The last abusive fling of the Sweitzerites was aimed at 
 Thompson for his connection with Frank 0. Lowden, po- 
 tential candidate for governor in 1916. Lowden had 
 married into the Pullman family, hence it was charged 
 that Lundin and Thompson were being subsidized by rail- 
 road millions. This stroke was an effective one, but based 
 on rather dubious assumptions. 
 
 The color and vigor of the Thompson- Sweitzer scramble 
 is well illustrated in the following press report, published 
 just before the campaign closed: 
 
 That the vote will be unusually large was indicated yesterday 
 and last night in the rioting, smashing of heads, breaking up of 
 
62 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 meetings, and general bedlam and turmoil that swept over the 
 Loop district. This intense feeling and high tension, excitement 
 gripping both men and women in all walks of life, means that 
 the purpose of the red fire campaign has been realized: to get 
 the voters to the polls on Tuesday. 
 
 Nothing in the political history of Chicago, not even the 
 demonstrations of presidential years, approximated the unbridled 
 uproar and rioting that swept over the downtown district in the 
 closing hours. 
 
 Hatreds bred of the religious issue, injected into the cam- 
 paign with no attempts to conceal them, burst forth in scores of 
 places. 
 
 Downtown theater meetings were broken up at noonday by 
 bands of rowdies. Clashes of the partisans were frequent on the 
 streets, and even the police were rushed off their feet by mobs. 
 
 The Thompson parade of the afternoon, the biggest thing of 
 its kind staged up to that hour, was featured with disorder. 
 Banners were torn from the automobiles and crowds rushed 
 across street intersections yelling for Sweitzer, breaking into the 
 parade and pushing policemen to one side. Heads were smashed 
 in both the indoor rallies along the line of the parade. . . . 
 
 The outbreaks of brutality and confusion caused grave fears 
 among the party leaders as to probable trouble in the voting 
 Tuesday. If the same hatreds exhibited on the last day of the 
 canvas are carried to the polls, they say, both parties can expect 
 to be disgraced. 
 
 The parade referred to above was an interesting com- 
 mentary upon the Lundin tactic and its efficacy. It was led 
 by three elephants, representing the three Republican fac- 
 tions, a bull moose representing the Progressives, and a 
 donkey symbolizing Democracy. 
 
 Thousands of automobiles and a dozen bands supported thou- 
 sands of men and women marchers in the parade. At one point 
 it was blocked by a clash when a large truck carrying Sweitzer 
 boosters butted into the line of march. The Sweitzer wagon 
 finally won out and continued on its way. 
 
THE CITY HALL GOES BURLESQUE 63 
 
 One feature of the parade got by without a riot. It was a 
 company of boys with a banner reading: "We Want More 
 Swimmin' Holes." 
 
 Most of the marching women carried American flags, while 
 others in automobiles fluttered handkerchiefs and Thompson 
 bunting. Women from Lake Shore Drive and "back of the 
 yards/' from Michigan Avenue and the melting pot district, rode 
 side by side in the cars and on the big floats. 
 
 The campaign had been an amusing one, replete with 
 thumbing of noses and beating of breasts. Although both 
 sides hoped for the votes of the Better Element, i. e., the 
 men who did not whip their wives very often, they were 
 better equipped for, and more desirous of, bringing out the 
 gay and careless proletariat. One slick scheme of Lundin's 
 in this latter regard was the detailing of two declamatory 
 fellows to address the refused applicants at the McCor- 
 mick Harvester Works between eight and nine o'clock 
 every morning. This stunt proved so fetching it was used 
 regularly at other large plants and factories. Naturally 
 the unemployment gag was used in all speeches every- 
 where. The Thompson economics was sure to bring about 
 a cessation of this lamentable Democratic condition, if 
 only given the opportunity to operate. "A full dinner pail 
 for everyone" worked as well as a slogan as it did for 
 Mark Hanna, and it rang out over the heads of the largest 
 army ever marshalled. 
 
 The campaign officially closed on the Saturday preced- 
 ing election. Such terms of the Hooverian Golden Age as 
 "static," "condenser," "tube" and "national hook-up" 
 were not then integral parts of the popular vocabulary, 
 so the public was given a respite of two days from the 
 jabbering of the men whose lust for serving them induced 
 them to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to obtain 
 
64 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 jobs paying considerably less. Hinky Dink Kenna, Bath- 
 house John Coughlin, Barney Grogan, Morris Eller and 
 the rest were admonished by their respective leaders to 
 keep plugging out in the wards, but the candidates them- 
 selves shut up. On Sunday the pious of the citizenry went 
 to church, and many were the prayers offered up, to a God 
 probably not greatly concerned, begging for the victory 
 of Bob or Bill. 
 
 It seemed as if the town voted en masse. The polls 
 opened at 6 a. m. but long lines had formed before this 
 hour. "A civic awakening," some journalist bitten with the 
 democratic germ called it. As the sun ascended the activity 
 increased. The cops were kept more than busy, whether 
 contributing to the disorder or restraining it no cynic 
 recorded. As had been predicted, violence was rampant, 
 many enthusiasts carrying bruised bodies for weeks after- 
 wards. 
 
 As the returns began to come in it looked close, but by 
 eight o'clock the Sweitzer bosses conceded defeat. At mid- 
 night it became clear that a Thompson landslide had taken 
 place. Randolph Street, from the Sherman House to Mar- 
 shall Field's, was choked with a mob gone mad. The 
 Sweitzer fans, bitterly disappointed, retired — but not 
 quietly. Many of them engaged in acrimonious brawls with 
 the boasting Thompsonites in the saloons and restaurants 
 all over the city. They paid their bets grudgingly. It was 
 tough to lose after confidently offering 2 to 1 odds. 
 
 Bill was expansively occupied all day. In the morning 
 he voted for himself. In the afternoon he shook dozens of 
 hands, smoked almost as many cigars, held numerous 
 whispered telephone conversations with Fred, Jim, Gene, 
 Homer and the rest. 
 
 The official count, made a few days later, was: for 
 Thompson, 398,538 ; for Sweitzer, 251,061 ; but the result 
 
THE CITY HALL GOES BURLESQUE 65 
 
 was so lop-sided that nobody doubted the verdict that 
 flamed from the extra editions at midnight of election day. 
 
 Big Bill arose early the next morning, donned his cow- 
 boy sombrero (which had never left his head during the 
 campaign) and posed for pictures. The choicest of these 
 was one with Mrs. Mary M. Conrad, Chicago's oldest 
 voter, who although 102 had been greatly moved by 
 Bill's cogent rhetoric. Then our hero went for a walk with 
 the Missus, in the course of which he bowed 433 times and 
 shook 77 hands. 
 
 While waiting for the official red-tape to unwind to 
 make him formally the mayor-elect, Thompson accepted 
 a few invitations to get off some speeches which lay un- 
 delivered in his chest. They were not articulated in the 
 pitch that won him so many thousand votes, but in the 
 solemn tone of a man who has heavy responsibilities and 
 realizes them. He reiterated his promise to do much for 
 the great city which had so honored him. 
 
 He attended the anniversary banquet and ball of the 
 Hamilton Club as its guest of honor, and when he saw 
 himself surrounded and respected by high Republican 
 dignitaries he forgot he was soon to be mayor and dreamed 
 of himself as Woodrow Wilson's successor in 1916! He 
 wasn't alone in this hallucination. 
 
 The following Sunday he graced the pulpit of the 
 South Park Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church at the 
 request of its pastor, Reverend Brushingham, an emissary 
 of God who had found piety and politics a congenial and 
 remunerative combination. He was pleased when Bill spoke 
 in his church, and with one eye on Heaven and the other 
 on the city hall he rubbed his palms together in high satis- 
 faction. The mayor-elect spoke on "Children First." After 
 justifying his title by references to his record in behalf of 
 the kiddies in the council, and a brief analysis of the crime 
 situation, he closed with the following words : 
 
66 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 "As mayor of Chicago I will do my best, as God gives me the 
 light to see the right. I will be fair and just to all. I will keep 
 my ear close to the ground to try to learn the wishes of the 
 majority. Having learned it I will act." 
 
 The above is not re-printed in a sardonic spirit. Bill 
 really meant what he said. The sincerity of his intentions 
 is well borne out by an incident, passing unnoticed by the 
 press, which occurred while he was taking the oath of 
 office. 
 
 It happened on April twelfth, an unctuous and mean- 
 ingless function administered by the city clerk. As James 
 Pugh handed his friend the pen to sign the document 
 pledging him to abide by the state and federal constitu- 
 tions, the big moment of Bill's life so far, some hint of 
 impending disaster must have flashed across his mind: 
 "Jimmy, I know I'll have to make good now," he said. 
 And while he signed, with ardent flourishes, he brushed 
 away a tear with his large left hand. 
 
 Early the next morning he departed with a party of 
 forty-six for Peoria, where the steamboat Kabehoona lay 
 at anchor. The scheduled trip was down the Illinois and 
 Mississippi rivers to Memphis. Unfortunately, the boat, 
 with its precious cargo, ran out of coal before it reached 
 St. Louis. Mayor Bill reverted back to Commodore 
 Thompson and ordered all hands on deck, and coming 
 alongside some friendly coal-pile the bunkers were soon 
 filled. Then, when Parke Browne, the Tribune correspon- 
 dent, had telegraphed his daily story, the trip was re- 
 sumed and all made merry. At Cairo William Nelson 
 Pelouze, the mayor's brother-in-law, and Col. E. E. Racey 
 got shore leave and hurried back to Chicago to prepare 
 for the big doings planned for the inauguration a fort- 
 night away. It had been planned, at one of their cabals, 
 that a pretentious Prosperity Day parade impress upon 
 
THE CITY HALL GOES BURLESQUE 67 
 
 the populace the kind of leader it was getting. The idea 
 was Lundin's. 
 
 Mr. Pelouze underlined his return by contributing 
 stories to the press about the private life of Mr. Thomp- 
 son, the first of which bore the quaint caption: "Mayor 
 Jumps on Water-Wagon. " He told the enthralled re- 
 porters that Bill had renounced the jug when the cam- 
 paign started. "While not a drinker to excess, he couldn't 
 stand the strain of campaigning and then a hard adminis- 
 tration if he handicapped himself by drinking. He cut out 
 smoking too while he had to make many speeches, but he 
 smokes a little now." The public cheered at this revelation. 
 They like their heroes to be sensible about such things, 
 like Lindy. But as most of the impious know, a seat on the 
 water-wagon is uncomfortable, except perhaps for a novel 
 ride around the block. 
 
 The next person to leave the boys of the Kabekoona was 
 Charlie McCullough, friend of the mayor and manager 
 of the Parmelee Company. His objective was matrimony. 
 The absence of women and liquor aboard had hastened his 
 desire to have a wife and cellar of his own. 
 
 At East St. Louis Thompson and his party were 
 accorded an elegant fete by the Elks, who were proud of 
 Brother Bill. History records that Thompson made a 
 speech, but is silent on the point of his turning his glass 
 down. It is probable, though, that he stuck to his vow and 
 drank lemon pop, with a sarsaparilla chaser. 
 
 He left immediately for home. The Prosperity Day 
 parade was on April twenty-sixth and he had to be on 
 hand to assist in the elaborate preparations. He hadn't 
 yet learned to leave everything to his oberleutnants. Con- 
 fidence is not so easily created. 
 
NINE 
 BILL ROLLS UP HIS SLEEVES 
 
 THE primary obligations of the mayor-elect to his 
 public had been taken care of before he sailed away. 
 He had been photographed with the thrilled Mrs. Thomp- 
 son with his sombrero on, with it off, with cook Maggie 
 Hale, with the frightened family canary bird, with his 
 sleeves rolled up and with his sleeves rolled down. 
 
 Job-seekers gathered around him like hungry little 
 sucklings about a sow. He told the reporters he was 
 annoyed by these mendicants. The publicists snickered be- 
 hind their fans. They knew he loved it. 
 
 Upon his return from the river voyage Thompson called 
 together a body of two hundred business men to pass on 
 the appointments he had decided upon. Being friction- 
 despising fellows, like most gentlemen pledged to Service, 
 and hand-picked besides, they endorced his entire list with 
 the spontaneity indigenous to their ilk. Most of the selec- 
 tions elicited no surprise, for the papers had been indulg- 
 ing in the usual "inside dope" speculations for a week, but 
 the men of dollars were polite and cheered roundly. 
 
 Thompson had taken out a roster of his nearest and 
 dearest friends, added a name or two for tone, and had 
 written "Cabinet" in large letters at the top. Whatever 
 derogatory may be said of Bill Thompson, no one can 
 accuse him of failing to stand by his friends. Very often 
 he was loyal at the sacrifice of the best interests of the city 
 he was hired to serve. Not that he did not love Chicago, for 
 he did, much as a boy loves his dog, heavily and senti- 
 
 68 
 
BILL ROLLS UP HIS SLEEVES 69 
 
 mentally. But most of the time he could not see any dif- 
 ference or conflict between civic compulsions and the de- 
 mands of friendship. Weren't these men his buddies, and 
 hadn't they put him in office ? Hence were they not capable 
 men? And if the newspapers and the reform organizations 
 attacked his appointments he laid it to "persecution." To 
 be sure, he could not help realizing that many able men 
 existed outside his clique, but that cognizance created no 
 dilemma for Bill : it was fealty to his pals first, and usually 
 he thought he was best serving the city by this adherence. 
 
 His reasoning completed, his conclusions convincing to 
 him, he grunted and grimly prepared for the inevitable 
 fight with the council to put his friends over. Like Hard- 
 ing, the first obligation was to the men who made his 
 success possible. And to be charitable, they both may have 
 considered this tantamount to living up to the faith in- 
 dicated by their pluralities. To expect more is to be un- 
 fair to a fine yachtsman and a skillful poker player. 
 
 Before the altercations with the council occurred, Big 
 Bill had to be inaugurated. Now Fred Lundin had a motto 
 which illustrates his affinity with that other great exploiter 
 of simians, Phineas T. Barnum: "When in doubt give 
 a parade." Fred was not in doubt about anything but he 
 did think a day of flubdub would properly impress the 
 people with the new regime. So Thompson's inauguration 
 day was the occasion for the Prosperity Day Parade. 
 
 Mobilization in Grant Park began at eleven o'clock in 
 the morning. By two o'clock the parade was ready to start, 
 aerial bombs and displays of fireworks setting it in motion. 
 With approximately one-fifth of the city's population 
 looking on in fascination, the twelve mile-long caterpillar 
 toured the downtown district. There were 50,000 in the 
 line of march, 350 floats, 6,000 automobiles, and all this 
 took over four hours in passing a given spot. The ultimate 
 objective for which all the participants were primed was 
 
70 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 the reviewing stand on the west side of the city hall, in the 
 center of which was the mayor's box. This was graced by 
 Bill, his wife, his two sisters with their husbands, Pelouze 
 and Burkhardt, Dr. and Mrs. William A. Reid, James 
 A. Pugh and Frederick Lundin. 
 
 The spectacle was typical of America, of Chicago and 
 of Big Bill Thompson. Hundreds of marching policemen 
 led the way. Mounted cowboys and cowgirls from the 
 stockyards yelled and ki-yied. Students from the Art 
 Institute in grotesquely-daubed smocks pranced for Cul- 
 ture and Thompson. They were followed, appropriately 
 enough, by clay and brick artisans, waving mortar-boards 
 aloft. Then came the employees of the Illinois Central 
 Railroad, riding in a great float resembling a passenger 
 coach, labeled "Chicago. Big Bill, Conductor." 
 
 A thousand street-cleaners, resplendent in fresh white 
 uniforms, strode along; and for fear some nervous horse 
 might not remember this was a holiday, each man had a 
 carnation in his lapel. There was a large cinnamon bear 
 in a wicker cage, wearing a sign "My Name Used To Be 
 Buster. Now It's Bill." 
 
 The water department was represented by a big water- 
 wagon, giving Bill the gentle razzberry for his pledge of 
 abstention. 
 
 Education was indicated to be an important comple- 
 ment to prosperity by the presence of a little red school- 
 house, surrounded by children. Also in this section was a 
 float bearing several girls in not very opaque white gowns, 
 holding a banner which read, "The Chicago Schools — We 
 Teach the Three R's to 331,567 Children." This was fol- 
 lowed by a kitchen on wheels, with young ladies going 
 through the motions of baking cakes and scrambling eggs 
 for husbands in the oiflng. Another float, with lassies sew- 
 ing industriously on quilts and unmentionables, brought 
 up the rear of the feminine contingent. 
 
BILL ROLLS UP HIS SLEEVES 71 
 
 The first ward, the Loop region, made a gay appear- 
 ance with a flowery horn-of-plenty and a big money bag, 
 typifying the wealth of its constituents. 
 
 The Protestant Women's League, triumphant that the 
 Pope had been frustrated, walked proudly along, with a 
 sour-visaged dame in purple leading, her eyes buried in 
 the Holy Scripture. 
 
 The mayor's pals of the Illinois Athletic Club were out 
 en masse. They presented a motley sight, for the swim- 
 mers were in bathing suits, the fencers in padded outfits 
 brandishing foils, and the stars of track and gym in shorts 
 and thin shirts. 
 
 A unique feature was a Chinese band hired by the Chi- 
 nese Merchants' Association. Opera virtuosos from China- 
 town, with attendants on horseback, nonchalantly tossed 
 forth coins of the old regime. 
 
 There were floats from the large hotels. One showed a 
 baby in a cradle, surmounted by a sign: "Prosperity. 
 Born April 26, 1915, and Good for Many Years." 
 Another, depicting a whale, bore the caption : "Who Says 
 Bill Isn't a Whale?" 
 
 An entire circus passed by, menagerie and all. Slightly 
 less grotesque were the Shriners and the Elks, in full 
 regalia, and to these Thompson gave the high-signs 
 peculiar to rituals dear to them. 
 
 Despite the absence of the recently supplanted mayor, 
 Carter Harrison, who had a pressing engagement, Pros- 
 perity Day was a salutary success. Even the newspapers 
 said so. If prosperity wasn't instantaneously inducted, 
 what difference did it make? The purpose of the affair 
 was to afford a lot of fun and excitement for the masses 
 of grown-up children throughout the city. And Big Billy 
 shook the biggest rattle. 
 
 Mrs. Thompson voiced the popular sentiment of the 
 
72 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 day as she watched the vast procession file past before 
 her husband: 
 
 "Isn't everyone enthusiastic though? See, there is an auto- 
 mobile filled with men and women I personally know opposed 
 him. There are some Democrats. 
 
 "They're all Thompson men now. That's going to make pros- 
 perity come sure." 
 
 The charming wife of the new mayor was correct. 
 Plenty was not long delayed in arriving. Five years later, 
 following the example set by Chicago, the nation unseated 
 a Democratic theorist and installed a practical Repub- 
 lican newspaperman in the presidency, with a realistic 
 New England lawyer to aid him. By 1928 the country had 
 become so impressed with the synonymity of Republican- 
 ism and prosperity that an even more practical man, an 
 engineer, in fact, rode easily into the White House — and 
 prosperity became a universal attribute. 
 
 William Hale Thompson was inaugurated mayor of 
 Chicago at 8 p. m. of that day. From nine until after mid- 
 night inauguration and Prosperity Day balls celebrated 
 the twin occasion. 
 
 But Mayor Bill didn't linger for all the festivities. The 
 people's interests are above mere frivolous pleasure. So he 
 left at 12 :01 with a party of aldermen for Springfield, to 
 appear before the public utility committee of the lower 
 house of the legislature in support of the "home rule" bill. 
 He was greeted with an excited demonstration there, and 
 later dined at Governor Dunne's mansion. 
 
 Bill breezed into his new office at 9 :13 a. m. His stride 
 was elastic, his eyes sparkling, his "prosperity hat" on 
 his head. A new mahogany desk, presented to him by the 
 yacht club, awaited his leaning elbows. On it, among other 
 things, was a telegram from Billy Sunday: 
 
BILL ROLLS UP HIS SLEEVES 73 
 
 I believe a great wave of prosperity and religion is soon to 
 sweep our land. I congratulate Chicago on the election of an 
 administration that represents such high business and moral 
 ideas. Having lived there so many years I know by reputation all 
 of your cabinet and some of them personally. I extend to you 
 my heartiest and sincerest wishes. 
 
 "Great little advertiser, Billy is," mused the mayor. "I 
 wonder what he does with all his money. He won't do 
 Chicago any harm when he comes." 
 
 Mayor Thompson's first act, the announcement of his 
 cabinet, was an excellent intimation of the kind of service 
 he was to render the city which had chosen him to lead it. 
 Also, it commenced the large-scale abuse by the papers 
 which became their habit for ten years. He was denounced 
 as having "a low sense of official responsibility," of hav- 
 ing "reverted to his previous self," of "betraying the pub- 
 He trust." He was accused of filling the city hall with 
 Lorime rites. 
 
 What was more natural for a thoroughly average man 
 like Thompson than to remember his friends at this time 
 of exultation and first taste of power? To the three he 
 owed the most he gave carte blanche. Pike, Pugh and 
 Lundin made up the administration patronage board. 
 Jim Pugh, it was reported, had invested $50,000 of his 
 personal fortune in the mayoralty campaign. Further, he 
 was the co-endorser, with Pike and the Swede, of a 
 $50,000 note which was discounted during an urgent 
 moment at the Harris bank. Just how much Pike gam- 
 bled on Bill's political star is not known, but he was 
 Thompson's most intimate and convivial companion and 
 he managed as much of the campaign as Lundin allowed. 
 As for Fred Lundin, everybody deferred to him, "the 
 Sage of Lake County." 
 
 Lundin and Pugh were clever enough to stay out of the 
 
74 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 cabinet, both feeling they could be of more service to "the 
 chief," the party and themselves by advising from the out- 
 side. Pike however became city comptroller at $10,000 a 
 year. He was the first of the millionaires Thompson was 
 to introduce to run the city. 
 
 Eugene Rockwell Pike was a year older than his friend 
 Bill. He was one of the largest holders of real property in 
 Chicago, using his large income therefrom to mingle in 
 society and actively engage in sports. After graduating 
 from Yale he had studied and practiced law some little 
 time, but this was an avocation, his principal function 
 being that of sportsman. Like Bill, politics appealed to 
 him as an interesting and not too expensive sport, and he 
 allowed it to usurp and finally demolish his law work. 
 Back in 1898 he had been an alderman. Later he man- 
 aged Busse's successful campaign for mayor. But despite 
 his association with the graceless Fred, Gene Pike has 
 always been a gentleman, and has had little relish for pub- 
 licity and brummagem fame. 
 
 William R. Moorhouse, another son of EH, a clubman 
 and millionaire as well, received the assignment of com- 
 missioner of public works. Of him Thompson said: "He's 
 used to big jobs. He's worth over a million dollars and 
 was getting a salary of $20,000 from a tobacco company. 
 That's the caliber of a man he is." 
 
 The health commissioner plum fell into the ample lap 
 of Dr. John Dill Robertson, an old timer of the Lincoln 
 Lorimer League, in fact its president when it gasped its 
 last. The pet protege of Fred Lundin, he had been excep- 
 tionally industrious for the cowboy's candidacy, being in 
 charge of the noonday rallies in the Loop. When his ap- 
 pointment was rumored, protests inundated the mayor, 
 reform organizations joining with the Chicago Medical 
 Society in indignantly denouncing this selection. But 
 Lundin was especially insistent for Dill, "the only health 
 
BILL ROLLS UP HIS SLEEVES 75 
 
 commissioner ever named after a pickle," as the Herald 
 said; and Dill got the job. 
 
 Thompson had promised, with many flourishes, to sepa- 
 rate the police department from politics. To this end he 
 made Charles C. Healy chief of Chicago's coppers. Healy 
 was a captain in charge of the traffic division, and had 
 made a first-class record. He was probably as good a chief 
 as a poor police department afforded, but was only the 
 first of many incumbents in Bill's turbulent terms. He was 
 let out before long because some one said he was a poor 
 thief-catcher. In his defense it was said that "he couldn't 
 strike too close to home." The official reason, as is cus- 
 tomary, was bad health. 
 
 A position of trust and complicity very close to the 
 mayor is that of corporation counsel. He shows the legal 
 ways and means of getting things done or avoiding doing 
 unpleasant things. At the insistence of Pugh, Richard S. 
 Folsom was selected by Thompson. He was a fine man and 
 a fine lawyer, having been the partner of James Hamilton 
 Lewis, the general counsel for the board of education, and 
 former master-in-chancery for the circuit court. This ap- 
 pointment agreeably surprised Bill's critics, for Folsom 
 was a Democrat and had not lifted his finger to bring 
 about Thompson's election. Unfortunately, though, he 
 kept stumbling over the horde of assistants Lundin foisted 
 upon him, and before eighteen months had elapsed he was 
 removed to make way for Samuel Ettelson, a more agile 
 and obliging fellow. (Just why Folsom and Lundin, 
 couldn't get along, and why Ettelson was chosen to take 
 his place, will be told in a subsequent chapter.) 
 
 Thompson took a number of men out of private life 
 into politics. Among these was his brother-in-law, William 
 Burkhardt, who was known everywhere as "Little Bill." 
 He had been confidential man and adviser to Bill for fif- 
 teen years. Earlier in his career he had been paymaster 
 
76 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 for an express company. During the campaign he was 
 the corpulent candidate's secretary and alter ego, and 
 after Lady Luck kissed them he refused a big job in pri- 
 vate life to become deputy commissioner of public works 
 at $5,000. It appears that the itch for public service will 
 make men sacrifice money, private ambitions, everything. 
 
 Charles J. Forsberg had given up his aldermanic seat 
 back in 1912 to further the reform campaign of the Lin- 
 coln Protective League. In the abortive campaign of that 
 year he worked lustily for Len Small, the gubernatorial 
 candidate, and William Hale Thompson, Lorimer's choice 
 to give taxpayers full equity before the board of review. 
 Undaunted, he delivered his Democratic ward in such fine 
 style for Thompson in 1915 that he was rewarded with the 
 city collector's position. He was a former business partner 
 of Fred Lundin. 
 
 Michel J. Faherty, always present at alumni gather- 
 ings of the old Lorimer School, was made president of the 
 board of local improvements at a salary of $5,000. The 
 family being large, son Roger helped sustain the house- 
 hold with his salary from the city prosecutor's office. 
 Faherty was really a capable man and a prodigious 
 worker, but, as the indictments later rather verbosely 
 pointed out, he had a habit of closing his eyes at the 
 right time. 
 
 William H. Reid, a dentist, was made smoke inspector. 
 A former Salvation Army leader was given a high place 
 in the health department, in open defiance of the civil 
 service commission. 
 
 Charles Bostrom, associate in the building business of 
 M. J. Faherty, was made building commissioner over the 
 protests of the Illinois Society of Architects. A sport 
 writer supplanted a university-trained engineer in another 
 place. 
 
 Percy B. Coffin, a close friend of Lundin and high in 
 
BILL ROLLS UP HIS SLEEVES 77 
 
 the old Lorimer pow-wows, was made president of the 
 civil service commission, a strategic post for the Swede 
 to control. Joseph Geary, another loyal Lorimerian, did 
 service in the commission as well. 
 
 A brother-in-law of Lorimer, Gregori, became assistant 
 superintendent of streets. Lorimer's stenographer became 
 the court reporter for the legal department, a plum said 
 to yield $20,000 annually. 
 
 And so it went. Lundin had many men whom he thought 
 were "right," and he succeeded in planting all of them in 
 situations of affluence. These are but a few: 
 
 Morris Eller, committeeman from the 20th ward, old 
 Lorimer man : inspector of weights and measures. 
 
 W. J. Keith, unknown to the electrical profession : city 
 electrician. 
 
 H. B. Miller, active for Lowden and Thompson, close 
 to Lundin: prosecuting attorney. 
 
 William Stocker, former superintendent of barns for 
 West Park Board : assistant transportation supervisor. 
 
 August W. Miller, adept at running with the wind, 
 lately with the Lundin breeze: member of the board of 
 local improvements. 
 
 J. J. McComb, deliverer of the 15th ward: inspector of 
 municipal piers. 
 
 George Fesser, who surged with the Lorimer spirit: 
 chief clerk for the board of local improvements. 
 
 George Hitzman, committeeman from Lundin's ward: 
 real estate expert (fee office). 
 
 Charles K. Todd, a plumber and committeeman from 
 35th ward : real estate expert. 
 
 John P. Garner, close friend of the mayor and guided 
 by Lundin : public service commissioner. 
 
 George E. Nye, an ardent Lincoln Leaguer: boiler 
 inspector. 
 
78 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Virtus C. Rohm, relative of Lundin, active Lorimer 
 worker: city purchasing agent. 
 
 Charles Roloff, ex-Lincoln League enthusiast: city 
 prosecutor's assistant. 
 
 John Richardson, young protege of Lorimer's lawyer, 
 Hanecy: assistant prosecutor. 
 
 Reverend Archibald Carey, who prayed for Lorimer: 
 investigator in corporation counsel's office. 
 
 The list could be extended ten pages more to illustrate 
 completely how well the boys were taken care of, but 
 prolixity was risked above only to familiarize the reader 
 with a few of the names of those who assisted Bill 
 Thompson in ruling the great city of Chicago. 
 
 The merit law was rudely pushed aside, and within four 
 months Thompson had made 9,163 temporary appoint- 
 ments — Lundin's method of circumventing the civil service 
 requirements for his sheep. These temporary jobs were 
 renewed indefinitely, that is as long as the holder demon- 
 strated the proper loyalty. Another scheme that did much 
 to strengthen the machine was that of doing away with a 
 job and its occupant and creating a new title and new 
 incumbent; in many cases this meant the disposal of an 
 uncongenial competent in favor of a sociable incompetent. 
 
 Over in the real city hall, in the Sherman Hotel, Fred 
 Lundin carefully thumbed his card indexes, in which were 
 tabulated the names of worthies to be patronized and lists 
 of the jobs at his dispensation. No department of the city 
 administration was safe from his slim fingers. Even the 
 municipal tuberculosis sanitarium, supposed to be run by 
 an independent governing body, was invaded. And herein 
 lay a moving tragedy, involving a greater loss to Chicago 
 than a refrigerator car full of Thompsons, Lundins and 
 Robertsons. 
 
 The raw deal handed Dr. Theodore B. Sachs is the 
 darkest blot on the Thompson administration, and for the 
 
BILL ROLLS UP HIS SLEEVES 79 
 
 ignoble role Bill played in it he should say ten thousand 
 paternosters, or whatever the Mystic Shrine designates as 
 a penance for an affront against decency. 
 
 This selfless gentleman, Dr. Sachs, after many years of 
 medical research work among the poor at Hull House set- 
 tlement, concluded that tuberculosis was a social disease 
 and should be handled like other plagues. His researches 
 were so exhaustive and intelligent that medical scholars 
 everywhere recognized him as a leader in his field. At his 
 insistence the Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium 
 was constructed under the Busse and Harrison regimes, 
 with the cooperation of Dr. W. A. Evans, then health 
 commissioner and now health editor for the Tribune. Dr. 
 Sachs was placed at its head, and for the many years of 
 his incumbency his services were donated to the institution. 
 
 Shortly after Thompson's inauguration spoils politics 
 began to interfere with the creditable work the doctor was 
 doing at his sanitarium, judged by competent physicians 
 and surgeons to be "the best of its kind in the world." 
 Naturally, Sachs resented these insinuations of irrelevant 
 elements into his project and protested vigorously. This 
 led the Thompson crew to look upon him as "unfit." 
 
 Mayor Thompson delayed his reappointment in the 
 summer of 1915 as long as he dared, but powerful agen- 
 cies, professional and social, appreciated the scientist's 
 value and exerted compelling pressure upon the mayor, 
 who grudgingly yielded late in November of 1915. But 
 evidently Lundin and Robertson were determined to push 
 aside this obstacle to the enlarging of their dominions and 
 persuaded Bill to assist them in ousting Sachs. 
 
 An aldermanic election came along in the early part of 
 1916, and Thompson campaigned for his favorites in the 
 council. He seized upon Sachs as a fit and defenseless 
 object for his vilification, just as he selected McAndrew 
 later. He knew that the best target is one that can't, or 
 
80 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 won't, fire back. "The appointment of Dr. Sachs is the 
 worst one which I have made thus far," asserted the 
 mayor. "The sanitarium is a one-man affair." He went 
 on to score the doctor for extravagancies in administering 
 his post, citing absurd illustrations to prove his case, as 
 baseless and idiotic as his accusations of McAndrew. 
 
 "There are five hundred physicians in the city just as capable 
 of holding down the position as Dr. Sachs. I have been led to 
 believe that he had a cure for tuberculosis. As an actual fact, 
 upon investigation, I found that he had no such cure. The last 
 year Dr. Sachs has had 1,700 cases of tuberculosis, and his re- 
 port shows he has not effected a single cure, and only fifty-five 
 instances of arrested cases. Other people may know what an 
 arrested case may be, but I don't." 
 
 While the mayor was thus mercilessly castigating Sachs, 
 the doctor was preparing to leave the field to his enemies. 
 He was primarily an experimental scientist, and in this 
 capacity no difficulty could daunt him. But politics, with 
 its brutal disregard for the higher interests of man, 
 wearied and dismayed this gentle humanist, and he sud- 
 denly resigned. All he said was that "the institution was 
 being made a political football by the administration," 
 and quietly withdrew. Feeling ran high in the medical 
 profession, and soon the public signified its annoyance. 
 Health Commissioner Robertson attempted a justification 
 of his boss and himself by instigating a civil service in- 
 vestigation. But Big Bill persisted in his badgering of 
 his fallen foe. 
 
 Almost simultaneous with a particularly vindictive 
 assault upon Dr. Sachs, just before election, the good 
 man, his hypersensitive soul tried beyond endurance, took 
 his own life. He died without having uttered a harsh word 
 against his cowardly defamers. The simple letter that he 
 
BILL ROLLS UP HIS SLEEVES 81 
 
 left behind closed with the statement that he had "con- 
 ceived the sanitarium for the glory of Chicago." 
 
 All the newspapers were choked with denunciations of 
 Thompson and his gang, clergymen, publicists and law- 
 yers joining with physicians in expressions of grief and 
 rage. The Jews were particularly incensed. The next issue 
 of the Sentinel carried this dramatic editorial adequately 
 reflecting the disgust of Dr. Sachs' race at the incident : 
 
 The rank and file of our people hear plainly the call to 
 Chicago's decent citizenship to avenge the murder of Dr. Sachs, 
 vindicate his memory and complete his task. . . . Let our people 
 do their share in a demonstration to be held in the streets of 
 Chicago which will scornfully recall the pretentious "prosperity 
 day parade," the sop thrown to Chicago at the inauguration of 
 the sordid Thompson administration to blind her to the evil de- 
 signs that the promoters of that pompous spectacle had in view, 
 which slowly, however, are coming to light. . . . 
 
 Mayor Thompson is the figurehead in this wretched business. 
 However he cannot be overlooked. Let him never again be per- 
 mitted to defile the high office to which the people of Chicago, 
 attracted by his openness of manner, impulsively elected him. 
 Let his name go down in the city's annals as that of a tin 
 cowboy, fit rather for a role in comic opera than as director 
 of the destinies of the world's greatest city-to-be. . . . 
 
 Dr. Robertson must not continue as health commissioner. A 
 man who could lend himself to the base part assigned to him 
 by the corrupt conspirators is not fit to serve even as the city's 
 scavenger. . . . 
 
 One evil spirit remains, the malignant soul who is, after all, 
 to blame for this tragedy, as well as for the confusion and dis- 
 trust which mark the public life. Fred Lundin must be driven 
 from the city of Chicago. The city's limits cannot harbor such 
 a cunning foe of civic idealism. His harsh mandate that no con- 
 secrated public servant can hope to serve the city unless he 
 first of all "take orders" from this diabolical spoilsman must be 
 at once nullified by the city's decent citizenship. . . . 
 
82 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 The tone of the above is, of course, Rabbi Wise in 
 E flat; but the death of Sachs certainly was shameful, 
 and even such florid eloquence as the Sentinel 9 s was justi- 
 fied. The Herald voiced the epitaph and pronounced a 
 coroner's verdict : 
 
 Mayor Thompson has one less "four-flushing reformer" to 
 fight. Dr. Theodore B. Sachs is dead. 
 
 Dr. Sachs is dead. Dr. Sachs, the man who gave unselfishly 
 and without price all he had — time, brain, heart, skill — to the 
 creation of something for the public good, and whose only reward 
 was crucifixion. . . . 
 
 Dr. Sachs is dead. His was the will to labor for humanity 
 but not the temperament to bear slander and injustice. . . . He 
 learned the oppression of petty larceny spoilsmen, the tyranny 
 of a cruel political machine. . . . 
 
 Spoils politics has had its perfect work and its most damning 
 revelation. 
 
 The following day all the Thompson-supported candi- 
 dates for the council were buried. Bill's attack had been 
 a boomerang. 
 
 To do him full justice, it is doubtful if Thompson real- 
 ized the extent of the Lundin-Robertson machinations at 
 the municipal sanitarium, or the effect his reckless and 
 ignorant abuse was having on Dr. Sachs. To Bill the 
 whole matter was just politics, and Lorimer- weaned, he 
 proceeded to demolish what had been painted to him as 
 a political enemy with all the weapons he could lay his 
 tongue upon. Like many immature men, Thompson is 
 easily convinced that some one is plotting against him. 
 Lundin shrewdly noticed this quality and exploited it 
 ceaselessly to gain his own ends. But even clever Fred 
 hadn't anticipated the death of Sachs and the subsequent 
 repercussion and defeat of the machine council aspirants, 
 
BILL ROLLS UP HIS SLEEVES 83 
 
 and the fortified intransigeant bloc caused him much 
 trouble. 
 
 Six men stood solidly opposed to practically every 
 measure bearing the city hall stamp: Merriam, McCor- 
 mick, Buck, Kimball, Kennedy and Rodriquez. Ignoring 
 patronage temptations, this group was legion when any 
 bill or resolution arose which they thought was inimical 
 to the public weal; and the opposition of these men was 
 not political in kind; they were genuinely honest men. 
 Merriam, for example, effected the academic-practical 
 synthesis, teaching political science at the University of 
 Chicago and sedulously applying his wisdom to specific 
 municipal problems in the council, much in the manner 
 of Professor Munro in Boston. His expose of the Busse 
 maladministrations in 1911 had swept into his surprised 
 lap the Republican nomination for mayor, but he was 
 defeated by Harrison in the election contest. 
 
 As Thompson submitted his appointments, the half- 
 dozen rebels voted against them, one by one, skipping 
 few. But they weren't strong enough to cause Hizzoner 
 more unpleasantness than a little sweating and cursing. 
 When Oscar Woolf's name came up for confirmation to 
 the board of local improvements, the refractory six so 
 vociferously delineated the extent of his shady operations 
 in South Chicago that eleven more aldermen voted with 
 them ; seventeen were not sufficient, however, to invalidate 
 the selection, for the rest jumped through the hoop. 
 
 The insurgents also bothered the mayor by carefully 
 showing him how he could standardize the law department 
 of the city, and save $75,000 in salaries and fees the first 
 year. They were sufficiently realistic to know that the sug- 
 gestion would be refused, but they craved Bill's discom- 
 fort. But Thompson asserted his independence, and the 
 majority admired his manliness by sustaining him. 
 
 When the board of education appointments were read 
 
84 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 off for ratification the objectors were more effective. Such 
 appointees are subject to investigation and have to sat- 
 isfy several prerequisites: residence, educational back- 
 ground, et cetera. Alderman Merriam seized this oppor- 
 tunity and amused himself mightily by baring the shoddy 
 quality of the Thompson "educators," and was successful 
 in disqualifying all but one. They dealt similarly with 
 subsequent lists handed in. Thompson considered the con- 
 duct of what he called "my opposition" highly reprehen- 
 sible, in fact a personal insult, but the insulting aldermen 
 weren't at all disconcerted by Bill's press denunciations 
 and dragged out his board of education appointments 
 until he was forced to compromise. 
 
 The following incident explains why the mayor dis- 
 liked council meetings and avoided them whenever feasible. 
 
 Apparently Thompson's city boiler inspector, George 
 Nye, had recently discharged Alderman Bergen's brother. 
 Bergen arose in the council and informed his colleagues 
 that his brother had been "made the goat in this board 
 matter." "My brother was discharged," said Alderman 
 Bergen, "because I would not promise Nye that I would 
 support the administration. I don't know if this is 
 attempted bribery or not. It is said you can bribe a man 
 by other means than money. I want the council to know 
 this, and also whether the mayor stands for appointees 
 who use such methods to get support for the adminis- 
 tration." 
 
 Mayor Thompson arose ponderously. 
 
 "The mayor should say something," he began. "I don't 
 know what interest the boiler inspector could have in the 
 financial affairs of the city." 
 
 "You have no right to address this council or to make 
 a speech at this time," Alderman Bergen fairly shouted 
 at Bill. 
 
 "I am trying to answer your question," said the mayor. 
 
BILL ROLLS UP HIS SLEEVES 85 
 
 "I asked no question of you," Bergen said tartly, "so 
 I don't want your answer." 
 
 "Had I not understood that you wanted me to answer 
 I certainly would not have tried to talk," lamely retorted 
 Thompson. 
 
 "Let the roll-call proceed. That's all I ask," Bergen 
 said briskly. 
 
 The mayor of Chicago seemed somewhat crestfallen as 
 he resumed his seat. He hated those moments. He felt too 
 alone up there in the chair, so thick-witted before these 
 barbarian hosts, many of whom made him appear ridicu- 
 lous before the body every day. Inwardly he blustered. 
 Wasn't he the boss of the town, and they but mere alder- 
 men? But somehow he never could think of the juste mot 
 to throw back in their grinning faces. 
 
 Thompson executed the same function for Lundin as 
 he had for Lorimer a few years before. He was the "front 
 man" for the machine. But unlike Deneen and West and 
 Lundin he wasn't sagacious enough to keep his mouth 
 closed when taciturnity was the part of wisdom. What- 
 ever happened he had to blurt out some opinion, usually 
 an injudicious one. On the occasion when the council de- 
 feated his plan for a special parks commission, he said 
 to an interviewing reporter: "I am sorry the special 
 parks commission has been knocked in the head. When 
 there were citizen members we had a scheme worked out 
 whereby public-spirited citizens could donate funds for 
 playgrounds. The city council decided that the citizen 
 members of the commission could have no vote, and the 
 plan fell through. I don't know whether it's illegal or " 
 
 "It was your law department, not the city council, 
 which ruled that the citizen members could not spend the 
 city's money," the newspaperman corrected. 
 
 "Oh, was it?" Thompson seemed a bit dampened. 
 
86 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 "Well, I'm not criticizing anyone for it." And the inter- 
 view ended. 
 
 When the real estate experts picked by that shrewd 
 estimator of competence, Dr. Lundin, director of employ- 
 ment, sent in their first expense vouchers, the total was 
 $30,000. A reporter immediately located Hizzoner and 
 asked for a statement. Bill opened his eyes at the figure 
 and exclaimed : "Extravagance !" The papers carried his 
 observation in flaring type. But this was just another 
 illustration of his jumping at conclusions before analyz- 
 ing the facts; for after a consultation with Lundin, he 
 O.K.'d the voucher and the experts returned to their vital 
 tasks. 
 
 What with all the routine of office and diverse obliga- 
 tions to the machine, Bill didn't have time for all the 
 exercise of high idealism his spirit craved. But this facet 
 of his soul was not neglected altogether: he accepted the 
 honorary chairmanship of the National Choral Peace 
 Jubilee, which had for its lofty purpose "to carry to every 
 home the greater realization of the value to all humanity 
 of peace." The N. C. P. J. took but three years to accom- 
 plish its purpose. 
 
 Thinking of jubilees reminds one of the debt Bill 
 Thompson owes to the negroes of Chicago. Since the year 
 they sent him to the city council they have steadfastly 
 remained loyal to him. Charles Fitzmorris had been Mayor 
 Harrison's secretary, and he had been retained by Thomp- 
 son because of his knowledge of the routine of the office. 
 When "The Birth of the Nation" was filmed, Fitzmorris, 
 naturally, granted the exhibitors a permit to show it in 
 Chicago. The dusky voters of the second ward raised a 
 tremendous racket, alleging the screen epic fostered race 
 prejudice; and they called on their great champion to 
 rescind the permit. This Bill did at once. But the cause 
 was lost, for the exhibitors referred their case to a nearby 
 
BILL ROLLS UP HIS SLEEVES 87 
 
 judge, probably a descendant of Jefferson Davis, and 
 procured an injunction. 
 
 A very enthusiastic negro thumper of Bill's drum was 
 Rev. Archibald J. Carey. As spiritual adviser to a large 
 number of his race, Carey had been able to do valuable 
 duty for Lorimer in the past, and now was praying and 
 getting votes for Thompson. Immediately after election 
 the mayor discovered Carey's versatility ; from then on he 
 vacillated between his pulpit and the corporation counsel's 
 office. 
 
 Rev. Carey, together with Louis B. Anderson and 
 Edward H. Wright, the former the administration floor 
 leader in the council by day and a mortician by night, 
 promoted an ambitious mass meeting at the Coliseum to 
 celebrate fitly the fiftieth anniversary of the day Presi- 
 dent Abraham Lincoln pushed the black man up to a 
 political equality with the mint- j ulep-guzzling planter. 
 Fifteen thousand colored folks jammed into the building. 
 Mayor William Hale Thompson, whose father had so 
 materially aided Farragut, the Union Cause and the 
 American Negro, was the principal speaker and the guest 
 of honor. 
 
 Rev. Carey made a short speech of introduction. Most 
 governmental executives, it appeared, were guilty of eth- 
 nic discrimination in their appointments; but not so 
 Thompson : 
 
 Whatever Mayor Thompson has done, whatever he will do, 
 he will not do out of sympathy for the descendants of a race once 
 enslaved, but for American citizens who have earned their 
 positions. By his appointments Mayor Thompson is merely recog- 
 nizing the worth of a people. . . . 
 
 William Hale Thompson may not be elected President in 
 1916, but I am sure he will be in 1920. I helped elect him alder- 
 man; I helped elect him county commissioner; I helped elect 
 
88 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 him mayor — and my work will not be completed until I have 
 elected him President! 
 
 In a solemn and dramatic voice the mayor began to 
 read his speech. It was a review of the oppression of the 
 negro in America, with final release from the yoke occur- 
 ring in Chicago under the first Thompson administration. 
 But he grew impatient with its didacticisms, threw it on 
 the table, and finished extemporaneously: 
 
 My task is not easy. Prejudices do exist against negroes. 
 Such expressions as this are commonplace: "Why, what do you 
 think? The mayor has put some niggers to work out at the 
 garbage plant!" 
 
 But to deny equal opportunity to the negro in this land would 
 be out of harmony with American history, untrue to sacred his- 
 tory, untrue to the sacred principles of liberty and equal rights, 
 and would make a mockery of our boasted civilization and justice 
 and render meaningless the word "opportunity." 
 
TEN 
 BILL SPITS ON HIS HANDS 
 
 THE Prosperity Day parade had been intended to keep 
 the minds of the electorate from dwelling too mor- 
 bidly upon the regrettable economic depression. But there 
 were disturbing rumors of a walk-out by the street-car 
 men, and the building trade had been tied up for weeks 
 because the allied workers of that industry were insist- 
 ing upon a higher wage. It was clear that Thompson must 
 act soon. When the garment workers struck he was peti- 
 tioned to attempt a settlement. He evaded them by say- 
 ing: "It is not the duty of the mayor to settle strikes. 
 It is the duty of the state board of arbitration." 
 
 As the traction magnates were not hastening to grant 
 the transportation workers a greatly merited increase, the 
 men convened to debate the feasibility of striking to ob- 
 tain it. They turned for counsel to the man they had 
 elected Chief Executive of the city. After carefully listen- 
 ing to their arguments, Big Bill threw them a pearl: he 
 told them that the Prosperity Day parades and celebra- 
 tions would be an annual affair. 
 
 Having impaired even his amazing vitality by devotion 
 to the perplexing affairs of administration, Thompson 
 badly needed a rest. So he accepted State Senator Clark's 
 invitation to join the boys at his trout and mallard duck 
 farm in Eagle Spring's Lake, Wisconsin. All the gifted 
 officials of the state and municipal government were there. 
 Fred Lundin's smiling face was much in evidence, and 
 Jimmy Pugh, and Captain Percy Coffin, head of the civil 
 
 89 
 
90 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 service commission which wasn't functioning much, and 
 State Senator George F. Harding, and Harry Ward, 
 former secretary to Lorimer, and Frank O. Lowden, the 
 gang's choice for the next governor — all welcomed the 
 tired mayor gayly. But it wasn't simply pleasure and 
 recuperation for them. They had to plan a coalition which 
 would beat Deneen, and land Lowden in the coveted guber- 
 natorial berth in Springfield. 
 
 With the mayor's return all the boys around the city 
 hall began to pack for their big trip westward. They all 
 wanted to be in San Francisco for Chicago and Illinois 
 days at the Panama Pacific International Exposition. But 
 before leaving for the land of oranges, evangelists and 
 injunctions, Thompson was to have a hand in an event 
 which made him newspaper copy all over the land — the 
 traction workers' strike. 
 
 Unable to satisfy their demands peacefully, the labor 
 leaders had called their 15,000 men from the job. Traffic 
 was tied up. That morning people got to work in auto- 
 mobiles, buses, carts, on horseback, any old way at all. 
 The papers were full of the calamity. 
 
 Big Bill arose magnificently to the occasion. He loved 
 it. He knew little about the financing of a transportation 
 system, but he did have a sense of the melodramatic, and 
 the situation thrilled him to the core. He sent out a ukase 
 to the union heads, the employers and the transportation 
 committee of the council, demanding their presence at his 
 office. Before long an agreement was reached whereby the 
 power of arbitration was to be vested in the mayor, if 
 he was willing. And he was willing. 
 
 The session lasted all night. Bill locked the door, sent 
 out for sandwiches, and told them to "go to it." The citi- 
 zens of Chicago were not going to be discommoded another 
 day, not while he was mayor — no sir ! 
 
 For several hours both sides were obdurate and things 
 
BILL SPITS ON HIS HANDS 91 
 
 looked black for the strap-hanger. Suddenly Bill got an 
 idea. He remembered reading somewhere about how Car- 
 negie, or somebody, when faced with a similar problem, 
 had taken the minds of the combatants off the difficulty, 
 shunted them from stubborn monomania, by interesting 
 them in some water-color sketches. So he and Jim Pugh 
 turned on the water in the bathtub, and a miniature re- 
 gatta was staged with toy boats, the warring factions 
 losing their frowns as they wagered over whose craft 
 would reach the end of the tub first. 
 
 Finally, by morning, the races were over and the set- 
 tlement consummated. The workers went back to manning 
 the public's vehicles after an absence of only fifty-three 
 hours. Bill Thompson had been triumphant, a rip-roaring 
 success as an arbiter. 
 
 Perhaps the real credit for the peace doesn't go to Bill 
 at all but to diverse occult forces working for him. The 
 mayor said so himself. Later, when asked how the strike 
 came to an end so soon, he pointed to a grotesque and 
 grinning idol on his desk, born in Siam but educated in 
 Chicago. 
 
 "You see that? That's Billiken. When they couldn't 
 agree I just rubbed him on my desk — and you see what 
 happened. That was on the mast of my yacht Valmore, 
 and she won every race I ever started her in." 
 
 Alderman Nance was not superstitious, nor did he 
 admire the diplomatic skill of Thompson ; he said the 
 mayor had little to do with it, Busby and the strikers 
 being forced into agreement by the council committee. 
 Few in the council looked upon Thompson as a Talley- 
 rand. 
 
 But in the eyes of his humble supporters the mayor 
 was a hero. Hundreds of letters of thanks poured in. 
 One of these, signed by "A Daily Rider," was typical: 
 "I am a poor hard working girl and a daily rider of 
 
m HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 streetcar and elevated trains. I thank you a 1000 times 
 for ending the strike. I walked % days, so my feet were 
 blistered. I think the public ought to give you a gold 
 medal. I am willing to give a quarter toward it." 
 
 The migratory train to California included almost 
 every important public servant in the state. There were 
 three long loads of them. The first of these, the William 
 Hale Thompson Special, contained, besides the mayor and 
 his wife, Pugh, Pike, Lundin, Harding and over one hun- 
 dred others. The second train carried the first regiment 
 of the Illinois National Guard and the entire band. The 
 third was heavily laden with the party of Governor 
 Dunne. 
 
 The Thompson Special traveled slowly, giving village 
 after town the privilege of seeing and hearing the famous 
 Mayor of Chicago. Afflicted by the presidential itch, Bill 
 was soothed by the cheers of the remote western masses. 
 
 If the town was proximate to a lake or river, Com- 
 modere Thompson, the intrepid sailor, addressed the 
 throngs; if on the plains, the gaping clodhoppers heard 
 Bill the Cowboy ; if the town was sophisticated enough to 
 boast a large organization of Elks, Bill the Elk horned in 
 and drove around with his party in open automobiles. 
 Many eyes throughout the Sears Roebuck Belt watched 
 his train disappear across the prairie with moist regret. 
 For most of them it was the one big thrill of the month. 
 
 In Los Angeles Bill was asked point blank about his 
 candidacy for the Highest honor. The inquisitive jour- 
 nalist was modestly referred to Fred Lundin. The Swede's 
 answer was characteristic : "Well, now, I don't know. He's 
 big enough and he's good enough for the job, and if he 
 tries it no doubt he'll make it — and be the right man for 
 the position. But the answer must come from him. I can't 
 speak for the mayor." 
 
 Before "Chicago Day" at the exposition gave Mayor 
 
BILL SPITS ON HIS HANDS 93 
 
 Thompson a fine excuse for rotund rhetoric, a tragedy 
 occurred back home which propelled the shepherd east t6 
 his flock. A lake excursion steamer, the Eastland, wearily 
 and groaningly resigned its buoyancy and flopped over 
 on its side in the Chicago River, carrying more than a 
 thousand passengers with it. 
 
 When the news came over the wires to the mayor and 
 his party in San Francisco, the entire crowd forgot about 
 "Chicago Day" and hustled home. Thompson announced 
 his return by issuing a proclamation setting the next day 
 aside as a period of mourning for the dead. All business 
 was suspended and the whole city joined its mayor in 
 praying for the souls of the departed. 
 
 It must not hastily be assumed by the irreverent that 
 Mayor Bill was insincere. The jeremiads welling up from 
 the people really reached his heart-strings. Fred Lundin 
 didn't exist for a week, and Bill reverted back to the ad- 
 mirable selflessness which had characterized so much of 
 his club and sporting life. Acting-Mayor Moorhouse had 
 turned the city hall into a first aid hospital and morgue 
 for the recovered bodies. When Thompson arrived he 
 assumed full charge of everything. He organized a relief 
 fund, promoting it strenuously until it reached happy 
 fruition within a week; he ordered an investigation into 
 the causal negligence behind the tragedy. Verily, Chicago 
 thanked God for its humanitarian mayor. 
 
 Within a fortnight Bill was again in his political stride. 
 Once more Lundin became his most frequent consultant, 
 and the pair commenced preparations for pushing friend 
 Lowden into the governor's easy chair at Springfield. And, 
 as Fred Upham had had salutary success in obtaining the 
 Republican National Convention for Chicago in 1916, 
 Thompson decided to enter the field against Deneen's 
 man, Roy O. West, for national committeeman. 
 
 Bob Sweitzer, like most metropolitan Democrats, had 
 
94 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 been a wet, and during the campaign had said so with 
 scant circumlocution. Thompson, due to his connections 
 with the remnants of the wet Lorimer machine, had been 
 looked upon as a somewhat dubious quantity by the tem- 
 perance groups. But in those days they knew how to 
 compromise. They accepted him as their candidate and 
 gave him full support. 
 
 But the drys were insistent that the mayor live up to 
 his campaign pledge of enforcing all the laws. So in the 
 spring of 1915 Thompson appointed a commission to 
 study the many-faceted hooch problem in Chicago. In 
 response to certain inner compulsions and also secretly to 
 the demands of the United Societies for Local Self-Gov- 
 ernment (an organization of militant wets headed by the 
 most consistently drenched public figure in town, Anton J. 
 Cermak), he picked nine wets for the commission of nine. 
 The drys, of course, howled in dismay and redoubled their 
 activities. They pegged away all summer, and on Octo- 
 ber 3 Mayor Thompson addressed the following message 
 to the city council: 
 
 I have recently received communications from citizens of 
 Chicago that liquor is sold in this city on Sunday in violation 
 of the state laws. I referred these communications to the corpora- 
 tion council for an opinion as to what is the law in regard thereto. 
 
 He advises me that the state law provides that "whoever keeps 
 open any tippling house or place where liquor is sold or given 
 away upon the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, 
 shall be fined not exceeding $200," and that the city ordinance 
 permitting under certain restrictions saloons or dramshops to 
 remain open on Sunday does not and cannot nullify the state 
 law. 
 
 This being the law, as I am advised, and it being my duty 
 as mayor to take care, so far as lies within my power, that the 
 law is faithfully executed in the city, I hereby direct that saloons 
 or dramshops shall comply with the law and close on Sunday. 
 
BILL SPITS ON HIS HANDS 95 
 
 And the city collector is hereby ordered to notify in writing 
 all persons to whom he has issued licenses for saloons and dram- 
 shops that such persons must comply with the requirements of 
 the state law. 
 
 [signed] William Hale Thompson, Mayor. 
 
 This was the famous "Sunday Closing Order," and it 
 was a bombshell that stunned everyone. The man who had 
 fought with such moral fervor for "home rule" in public 
 utilities was using his executive power to put teeth in a 
 state blue law seventy years old ! 
 
 In this decision, this tacit yielding to the enemy, Big 
 Bill w r as actuated by two motives, both political. One, the 
 least important to him, was a desire to quiet the pes- 
 tiferous drys; the other was the frantic wish of Lundin 
 to steal the rumbling thunder of Deneen. The latter usu- 
 ally received the favors of all the diverse reform and dry 
 groups for his candidates. Normally, Roy O. West, a 
 prominent Methodist, would be smiled upon by the Better 
 Element leaders for national committeeman. But by this 
 stroke Lundin diverted much of this support to Thomp- 
 son. A minor consideration of Lundin's was the stimula- 
 tion to his business, the manufacture of "Juniper Ade," 
 a temperance beverage, bound to result from the saloons 
 being dark one day a week. 
 
 The drys exulted. A parade of 10,000 human camels 
 celebrated the first blue Sunday Chicago had suffered for 
 many decades. The vanguard carried a large sign, "We 
 Knew Chicago Wouldn't Stay Out in the Wet," while the 
 thirsty stood by gloomily, cursing the mayor. 
 
 Concomitant with the order to the city collector, 
 Thompson suddenly experienced the urge to travel. He 
 didn't relish staying in town to face the angry wet leaders. 
 So he left with a large party for San Francisco to attend 
 the postponed "Chicago Day" at the exposition there. 
 
96 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 En route he gave out two statements in answer to the 
 flood of press and individual protestations at his action. 
 One was official: "I followed the dictates of my con- 
 science" ; the other, casually and painfully murmured to 
 a reporter, was : "Deneen made me do it." 
 
 One of the wet yelpings was in the form of a serious 
 charge. The United Societies claimed that Thompson's 
 ruling was in direct violation of a pledge he had given 
 them; hence he was a "double-dealer" and a "double- 
 crosser." Cermak published adequate proof of this con- 
 tention, a paper signed by Thompson and drafted by 
 Pike, who had wanted the officials of the society to "make 
 it strong." This pledge embodied the following promises: 
 (1) Opposition to all blue laws, especially the Sunday 
 closing law, the signer believing the Sunday lid to be 
 obsolete. Opposition to all laws tending to abridge lib- 
 erty for the individual on Sundays. (2) Favor of special 
 bar permits until 3 a. m. to reputable societies. (3) "As 
 mayor he will use veto power" on any ordinance to curtail 
 the rights of personal liberty or to repeal the "bar per- 
 mits" ordinance. (4) Unalterable opposition to making 
 Chicago "anti-saloon" territory. (5) No other pledges 
 have been signed or given. 
 
 Below was the handsome signature of Big Bill. 
 
 This was hot news for the papers, and they eagerly 
 gave first-page space to the photographed pledge. The 
 Herald went to the trouble of wiring the mayor about it, 
 eliciting the formal response of : "My message to the coun- 
 cil is self-explanatory and answers your inquiry." But it 
 didn't. So the Herald's Lincoln correspondent was wired 
 to petition the uncomfortable Thompson further and more 
 explicitly. The mayor, perspiring heavily, and praying 
 for Lundin, answered: "All this talk of my having 
 changed front in regard to the Sunday closing in Chi- 
 cago is politics. All this row my order is causing is due 
 
BILL SPITS ON HIS HANDS 97 
 
 to politics. The whole thing is bosh and politics. That's 
 all I have to say." 
 
 As the proof of his perfidy seemed damning, he didn't 
 dare call Cermak a liar and the pledge a forgery. But 
 calling the mayor names was the most the wets could in- 
 dulge in. They had to drink their own tears, for the "tip- 
 pling places and dramshops" stayed shut on Sundays. 
 Despairingly they staged a parade a little later, but 
 Thompson failed to attend it. Mrs. Grundy cackled and 
 adjusted her hat. 
 
 By this time Bill's trips and vacations began to annoy 
 the newspapers and the public. The Tribune referred to 
 him as "one of Chicago's most frequent visitors," and 
 City Treasurer Sergei complained that execution of his 
 official duties was rendered almost impossible by his supe- 
 rior's absences. 
 
 One of the obligations of his high office, of vital civic 
 importance, that the mayor was unable to fulfill because 
 of his California trip was the formal opening of the Dixie 
 Highway. But his wife came nobly to bat for him. A tab- 
 leau was to be held in Grant Park to impress this signifi- 
 cant occasion upon the minds of the natives. To supple- 
 ment the aesthetic demonstration a "Miss Chicago" and 
 a "Miss Dixie" were needed. Mrs. Thompson was of mate- 
 rial assistance in selecting these two girls, so representative 
 of Chicago and the South, by weeding out all but thirty- 
 four. Two were then selected by the committee of judges 
 for these honors. 
 
 While Mayor Thompson was in the movie state sound- 
 ing the praises of his city, somber rumors flew about the 
 Sherman lobby relative to the estrangement of James 
 Pugh and his cowboy-sailor-politician pal. That at this 
 time they were but idle gossip was brought out by a well- 
 informed and sagacious person writing in the Herald 
 under the pseudonym of "The Senator" : 
 
98 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 You say that you hear that Jim Pugh has thrown his cow- 
 puncher hat in the alley ? You need an ear trumpet, says I. Don't 
 listen to half the stuff you hear in politics and forget the other 
 half. But keep your ears open for the things they don't tell 
 out loud. Jim Pugh and Fred Lundin and Bill Thompson have 
 had no break. Jim's the guy who really made Bill mayor. He 
 kept the fellows together when everything was going to smash. 
 Lundin furnished the strategy and Pugh the juice. 
 
 After election Lundin hypnotized Bill. Pugh and Charlie 
 McCullough and Gene Pike were high cards — kings and jacks 
 and ten spots — but Bill treated Fred as the only ace in the deck. 
 Fred became the sole patronage dispenser. Pugh and Pike were 
 supposed to help, but had nothing to do. Appointments they sug- 
 gested had to get Fred's O. K., and Fred kept his rubber stamp 
 in his pocket. 
 
 Lundin is also the lad who dopes out all the political moves for 
 Bill. He's got him mesmerized. 
 
 Well, Pike can't complain much because he's got a good job 
 as comptroller which keeps him busy. Besides, he doesn't know 
 politics, and is satisfied to learn the rudiments from Fred. 
 
 Pugh hasn't much kick over Lundin's disposal of the patron- 
 age, because Jim's line is big business rather than the piffling 
 little details of precinct and ward politics. From the start it was 
 supposed Jim would be the "outside man" to help on the big 
 things that would loom up. He was very active in helping the 
 mayor settle the street-car strike. 
 
 "The Senator" was accurately observing things when 
 he wrote the above account in the fall of 1915. There had 
 been no open rift between Lundin, Pugh and Thompson 
 then. Minor quarrels, to be sure, there were ; but Big Bill's 
 hearty desire for factional amity ended these in a hurry. 
 Lundin and Pugh were involved jointly in a $20,000,000 
 mail-order-house business, and this temporarily compelled 
 peace. But when the solicitors of this corporation became 
 too raw in approaching prospects, Pugh fired them — and 
 
BILL SPITS ON HIS HANDS 99 
 
 this resulted in friction. They differed over an adequate 
 working definition of decency. 
 
 Fred Lundin and Commodore Pugh never did have 
 much love for each other. The former was power-drunk 
 and Pugh resented the Swede's hold over his friend Bill. 
 He was a man of character but he was also a good fellow. 
 Attracted to Thompson originally by his robust person- 
 ality, he was the best friend the big chap had for many 
 years. But when Lundin seduced Bill into all sorts of 
 sordid political bayous, Pugh was revolted and made 
 ready for the break. When the Sportsman's Club went 
 into receivership as a result of an altercation between the 
 two, the Commodore began to pull up his stakes. 
 
 Pugh wanted the Sportsman's Club to justify its title, 
 as Bill did at the beginning. But Lundin tried to exploit 
 everything to his political ends, and influenced Thompson, 
 who was its director-general, to make the club an adjunct 
 to the machine. Pugh protested in nettled language. Hot 
 words were indulged in when Thompson prevented a prize- 
 fight from taking place there, because the proceeds were 
 to go to charity rather than to the war chest. Finally, 
 State's Attorney Hoyne, lusting for publicity, exposed the 
 political nature of the club, and Pugh fell away from the 
 administration in disgust. By the end of the summer of 
 1916 he had diminished into nothingness in the regime, his 
 power seized eagerly by the insatiable Lundin. A little 
 later he publicly denounced the Scandinavian in a long 
 statement. When Thompson ran for reelection in 1919, 
 Pugh had traveled so far away from his former sailing 
 mate that he helped finance the campaign of Charles E. 
 Merriam. 
 
 With Pugh's demise, and the replacing of the upright 
 Folsom by a more amenable corporation counsel, Mr. 
 Samuel Ettelson, the machine began to function with 
 Mellonesque smoothness. But the loss of two old friends 
 
100 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 and the constant harping of his many critics was begin- 
 ning to tell on Big Bill, however nicely Fred Lundin was 
 bearing up under it. Almost daily the mayor was con- 
 fronted by such comments as the following, written by 
 the severest and most brilliant critic the administration 
 had — Charles Merriam : 
 
 I understand our mayor wishes to play the role of David 
 against Goliath. To me he seems more closely to resemble in 
 his character and action David's son, Absalom, who started out 
 well, but fell into bad company, ran amok and came to a bad 
 end. The mayor's real enemies are not the decent aldermen but 
 his false friends, who are attempting to use the administration 
 for their own evil ends. Fred Lundin, from his seat outside the 
 city hall, distributes jobs and favors, performs the work no real 
 mayor would designate to another. . . . The carnival of crime, 
 the re-opening of the redlight district, the assault upon civil 
 service, the levying of assessments upon officials and contractors 
 . . . are bound to follow the abdication of the mayor's power in 
 favor of the unseen boss, whose sinister activities are frustrating 
 the hopes of Chicago for a real administration of city affairs. 
 
 On the heels of this came an open accusation, addressed 
 to Thompson and written by the nine aldermen so often 
 earning the mayor's curses by their opposition. One sen- 
 tence must have seared its way into the very remotest 
 sector of Bill's ample soul: "A cunning public enemy 
 named Fred Lundin has taken from a slothful mayor the 
 work and power of his office, leaving the title-holder free 
 to orate and parade and boast of deeds never done and 
 dream vain dreams of high political preferment." 
 
 To say that Bill was annoyed is to put it mildly. He 
 said he was drawing up an answer to the aldermanic in- 
 dictment, which he characteristically dubbed "rat poison 
 for rats." But the reply was never forthcoming, probably 
 because he couldn't think of anything fitting which 
 
BILL SPITS ON HIS HANDS 101 
 
 wouldn't shock his Presbyterian supporters. Lundin re- 
 plied only with a grin, and returned at once to thumbing 
 his indexes expertly. 
 
 A few nights after the aldermanic attack Thompson 
 talked before the Rotary Club. "I get discouraged some- 
 times and wonder why in the devil I worked so hard to 
 get such a tough job." Rev. Brushingham, a Methodist 
 parson who had long shouted halleluliahs from the tail of 
 Bill's kite, became alarmed. His star was trembling in the 
 firmament, and work loomed ominously in the offing. So he 
 loudly declared that "the Thompson bandwagon is headed 
 for the White House!" And the incorrigible optimists 
 cheered and stamped their feet. Bill beamed. He was 
 heartened. One good friend makes up for a hundred 
 enemies, he thought warmly. 
 
 The following summer Big Bill took another respite 
 from his arduous labors. In July, 1916, he left with a 
 group of friends to attend the annual round-up at Los 
 Vegas. Many of his old pals were there, and to them he 
 introduced his new and more scholarly associates: Ettel- 
 son, Lundin, Len Small, Charlie Francis and some dozen 
 others. No one recorded how well the cowpunchers reacted 
 to the suave tenderfoot colleagues of Bill, but there was 
 no doubt about their genuine admiration for the mayor. 
 They honored the occasion by declaring it "Bill Thomp- 
 son Day" and carried him around for half an hour on 
 their shoulders, cheering and throwing their sombreros in 
 the air when he told them that "in the days when I weighed 
 a hundred pounds less I could throw a rope with the best 
 of you," and that his heart was "still with them." That 
 night he led the grand march at the Cowpunchers' Ball 
 with the round-up queen, Miss Hazel Gerard. Out there, 
 with no aldermen to embarrass him, no Tribune to spoil 
 his breakfast, no News to interrupt his noonday siesta 
 with pointed editorial finger, no job-seekers to force him 
 
102 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 to look up from his yachting catalogues, no leers, insults, 
 calumny — out there Bill was truly happy. 
 
 The same season Hizzoner escaped twice from the ex- 
 hausting strain of his public duties. He spent two weeks 
 with Gene Pike fishing in the Wisconsin lakes, and many 
 was the fiscal problem the Comptroller straightened out 
 with the boss while idly landing a bass. A month later he 
 took his yacht Tringa for an excursion up Lake Michi- 
 gan, with a party which included Pike and State Senator 
 George F. Harding. Big Bill wasn't going to dissipate 
 the constitution he had won, Roosevelt-like, on the blis- 
 tering plains, by prolonged application to the public weal. 
 He knew he could serve the people better and longer if he 
 was feeling tip-top. 
 
 There was much obfuscation, cant and political tick- 
 tack-toe in the ensuing campaigns for national committee- 
 man and governor. In the former battle Thompson was 
 successful, thanks to his gesture of desiccating the city on 
 the Lord's Day, and Lundin's masterful generalship. The 
 gubernatorial scramble was even more confused. Lowden's 
 opponent was Colonel Frank L. Smith in the primary. 
 (This is the gentleman who later followed Lorimer's prece- 
 dent and, with Vare, was judged too corrupt for his seat 
 by the beatific Senate.) Lundin and Thompson worked 
 for Lowden in Cook County, and although some of the 
 Swede's lieutenants bolted over to Smith, Lowden was 
 squeezed into the nomination and later the chair itself. 
 Once in, Lowden repudiated the Lundin-Thompson ma- 
 chine, and during the war to end war actually persecuted 
 the boys, but nobody was shocked at this, for Lowden was 
 a farmer; and are not husbandmen noted for their 
 ingratitude? 
 
ELEVEN 
 KAISER BILL 
 
 CHICAGO, in common with all the large American 
 cities, is a melting pot that doesn't melt very well; 
 or, when it does, the process is slow and provoking to the 
 smug natives who implicitly believe that God will rest 
 more easily in His Heaven and George Washington in 
 his grave if only the immigrants can be transformed 
 into images of themselves within a fortnight after arri- 
 val. For a century hundreds of thousands of Germans, 
 Irishmen, Poles, Russians, Italians, Jews, Croats and di- 
 verse others had fled from adverse economic, religious and 
 social conditions in Europe westward to a land holding 
 forth an abstract charm of political equality and a pano- 
 ply of golden opportunities concretely. A considerable 
 portion of these hopefuls, drawn by friends, relatives and 
 adventurousness, traveled farther than a stone's throw 
 from Castle Gardens ; of these a great number settled in 
 Chicago, to participate eagerly in the perennial scramble 
 to lift themselves by their bootstraps. 
 
 These immigrants, immersed in the brine of Old World 
 memories, and disillusioned by the bewildering bustle of 
 the dollar pageant spread out before them, steadily 
 refused, or were unable, to become assimilated. They 
 organized vereinen, clubs and social groups, not out of 
 contrariness but because they were conscious of their 
 anomalous position, and managed to preserve themselves 
 as integral microcosms. This situation was viewed with 
 alarm by such theatrical fellows as Lothrop Stoddard and 
 
 103 
 
104 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Madison Grant, but people with imaginations more culti- 
 vated, like Miss Jane Addams, realized that the important 
 thing to be done was to re-orientate the foreigner, to 
 equip him for life in this new land, not merely to trick 
 him into hurrahs for Old Glory. As for the philosophy of 
 assimilation, Mr. Horace M. Kallen, in "Culture and 
 Democracy in the United States," has ably advocated 
 the thesis that cultural pluralism is the rich reward of 
 preserved political pluralism. 
 
 But there they were, and still are, these groups. In 
 Chicago the German settlement on the northwest side con- 
 sistently elects German- American politicians and spokes- 
 men ; the Swedes in a neighboring region do the same ; the 
 Irish likewise — and so on. Quite naturally, they feel their 
 interests will be better cared for by men of their own 
 race. 
 
 Robert Sweitzer, running for mayor, had gathered 
 about him so many Irish Catholic leaders that he was 
 able to poll almost the entire Irish vote. It was not diffi- 
 cult, for the metropolitan Celts have always been, fol- 
 lowing Tammany precedent, loyal disciples of Thomas 
 Jefferson. Being himself a German of the Roman Cath- 
 olic faith, Sweitzer was able to cadge the Bavarian ballots 
 also. Thompson, with covert aid rendered him by many 
 who later defied the Pope in white nightshirts, drew to his 
 banner thousands of sturdy Protestants from Saxony, 
 Prussia and the other German states more moved by 
 Lutheran than Jesuit casuistry. Fred Lundin, elected 
 originally to Congress by his blonde countrymen, was 
 successful in diverting the Scandinavians over to his 
 charge ; and later, by shrewd dissemination of patronage, 
 contracts and bathos, they were welded with the Germans 
 into a solid bloc that was legion behind Big Bill and his 
 fellow machinists. They knew that if they could keep the 
 
KAISER BILL 105 
 
 Germans, the Swedes and the negroes shouting for them 
 the future was bathed in pink light. 
 
 With the outbreak of the European War came demor- 
 alization and high feeling in all parts of the United 
 States touched heavily by alien invasion. But although the 
 arguments were bitter, a convincing majority was firmly 
 opposed to American intervention, as Wilson's plurality 
 indicated. But one by one the prominent national figures, 
 infected with the fever from across the sea, catapulted 
 their sympathies over to the winning side of the fence. 
 Finally Wilson, forgetting all the wisdom he had learned 
 at Princeton, sent his famous war message to Congress, 
 and soon American soldiers joined the British and French 
 at the Western Front. 
 
 With Walter Hines Page giving full cooperation to the 
 British Foreign Office; with Roosevelt lusting to become 
 the hero of another San Juan Hill, and avenge himself 
 upon the man who had humiliated him ; with the National 
 Security League, the organs of the munitions industry 
 and dozens of special-interest organizations rousing the 
 country to indignation and arms because, for example, a 
 German submarine had attacked a British transport 
 loaded with the tools of slaughter ; with credulous or mali- 
 cious correspondents, ambassadors and consuls trafficking 
 in lurid tales of Belgian ladies' breasts being hacked off, 
 of crucified crippled children, of the raping of half of 
 Gallic young womanhood; with tracts being written de- 
 picting the race of Goethe and Schiller as a horde of 
 demons from an accursed world; with learned scholars, 
 scientists, doctors, lawyers, merchants, thieves daily mak- 
 ing fools of themselves — the country was quickly reduced 
 to the gibbering level so necessary to carry on idealistic 
 massacre among Christian peoples. 
 
 In the midst of all this stood the Germans who had 
 naively and hopefully left their homes for the Land of 
 
106 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 the Free. They were confused and frightened and unable 
 to understand what had caused the cataclysm or why they 
 should be so bitterly hated. They gathered on street cor- 
 ners, in saloons, in clubs and in homes to whisper of their 
 plight and speculate despairingly about what to do and 
 say. Thrifty and decent men saw their property looted 
 and their earnings destroyed. Men who refused to kill 
 their countrymen faced contempt and the penitentiary. 
 Butchers and bakers and candle-stick makers who had 
 outdone the veriest Alsatian Revanchard in hatred of an 
 aristocracy which they thought oppressed them, were 
 raided as cleverly disguised spies because they bore names 
 suggestive of the feared Teuton. 
 
 They felt alone, leaderless. Where could they turn? 
 Who would protect them from a society gone insane? Let 
 such a protector rise and be forever worshiped. 
 
 La Follette, brave fellow, fought savagely, grimly, like 
 a grizzled bear for his cubs. Inch by inch he was pushed 
 back. With impassioned speeches, proofs, legal technicali- 
 ties, he battled on. With Norris and Stone and Mason and 
 Hardaman, he stood against a Congress and press and 
 nation which thundered for blood, German blood, thei: 
 blood. They were rewarded only with abuse and repudia 
 tion, cheered only timidly by the masses whose sentiments 
 they articulated. 
 
 Congressman William Mason of Illinois was a member 
 of the small band in the House that opposed their col- 
 leagues and their President. He kept his head amidst an 
 anarchical mob and voted against war, against conscrip- 
 tion, against cooperation with England. 
 
 Mayor William Hale Thompson was his friend. He 
 cryptically seconded the judgments of Billy Mason and 
 Champ Clark. 
 
 The great number of Germans m Chicago wept for joy 
 in their beer. Here was their friend, their hero! Thou- 
 
KAISER BILL 107 
 
 sands of militant Irish, not averse to a brawl, plurally or 
 singly, but beset by pungent memories of riots in Dublin 
 and Cork, cheered loudly for a mayor who would arise 
 and confute the thesis of an English Holy War. Scandi- 
 navians, ethnic cousins of the belabored Boche, joined in 
 to applaud the integrity of Big Bill. Russians and Poles 
 and Jews, unable to posit the Little Father as a messianic 
 crusader for the right, lent their voices to the chorus of 
 approval. And the black man, too, huzzahed. He knew 
 what an army was like. His mammy had told him of Sher- 
 man's little visit through the Confederacy in the sixties.^ 
 y' And so it came about that the son of a sfeaJg&jd com- 
 
 / mander in the Civil War, a man whose office was decorated 
 with swords and flags and pictures of America's military 
 
 \ heroes of the past, a man whose vocabulary and speech 
 had been copiously loaded with the catch- words and jingo- 
 is ms o f nationalism and war — this man was called traitor ! 
 His scorn for the Wilsonian idealism from the begin 1 
 ning might well have emanated from a sterner and finer 
 mind. This statement came from him in the summer of 
 1916: 
 
 For three and one-half years American citizens have been 
 murdered in Mexico. For three and one-half years the property 
 of Americans has been destroyed in Mexico. For the same length 
 of time the American flag has been insulted there. Yet the Presi- 
 dent waits until he has been re-nominated to make a move toward 
 righting wrongs in Mexico. It is an example of the coldest politics 
 I have ever seen. 
 
 The President sent the fleet to Vera Cruz to punish an insult 
 offered to the American flag, yet the fleet put its tail between 
 its legs, so to speak, and came home without doing anything. 
 The President has talked peace incessantly, and then goes to war 
 when the country is not prepared for it. His action certainly 
 has all the earmarks of politics. That's all I have to say about it. 
 
108 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Lundin, missing the carefully directed editorials of the 
 defunct Lorimer Inter-Ocean, founded a weekly news- 
 paper called the Republican, and put one of his numerous 
 relatives, Walter F. Rohm, at its head. Until its collapse, 
 a little over four years later, it was the official organ of 
 the Thompson administration. From its birth it was vig- 
 orously anti-war, as the following excerpt, published 
 shortly after Wilson's sobbing war message to Congress, 
 indicates : 
 
 Why are we in the war ? In what way and to what extent were 
 the interests of this government, as a government, involved in 
 the European situation? 
 
 If we were not inextricably involved, would it not have been 
 the part of wisdom to have stayed out and at the same time to 
 have prepared for possibilities? 
 
 What, if anything, has Germany done to us since last Novem- 
 ber which justifies our declaration of war, which differed in 
 character from what she had done before Mr. Wilson was re- 
 elected on his plea that he had "with honor" kept us out of 
 war? . . . 
 
 Did the countries which have successfully sought our support, 
 seek it to save democracy, as has been suggested, or as a means 
 of promoting their own selfish interests, national and com- 
 mercial? Were they or any one of them interested in "democracy" 
 when they entered the war? 
 
 This sort of thing kept up all during the hostilities. It 
 adequately reflected the sentiments of Bill Thompson. 
 
 How does it happen that this man militantly refused to 
 follow his country in its hysterical crusade? He certainly 
 was no pacifist, objecting on humanitarian grounds to 
 armed conflict, as Romain Rolland did in France ; nor was 
 he in the high company of men like Bertrand Russell, 
 whose reasoning condemned war as horrible economic 
 waste, breeding not universal peace but more and worse 
 
KAISER BILL 109 
 
 wars; nor was he a Germanophile, like Roosevelt before 
 he saw an opportunity to grab off a messiah role. On the 
 contrary, he did not disapprove of war as a method of 
 settling international disputes: he had frequently de- 
 fended even such a shameful looting as the conflict with 
 Spain on idealistic grounds, in the manner of his friend, 
 its protagonist, Mr. Hearst. The Big Stick fallacy he had 
 often alluded to as the part of wisdom, and saber-rattling 
 was his favorite indoor sport. As a boy he had been given 
 '76 and '61 hero stuff with his porridge, and later in life 
 his mental processes never underwent the harrowing ex- 
 periences which make up the daily atmosphere of the intel- 
 lectual pursuits. 
 
 The wiseacres allege that Fred Lundin converted our 
 friend to see a case for the Central Powers, which is a 
 very facile explanation, for everyone knows that Fred was 
 the boss and that he had Bill pretty much under his 
 thumb ; and the Swede figured it out from the standpoint 
 of pure politics: that the war would prove to be very 
 unpopular in Chicago, particularly with the bloc he 
 wanted most to preserve. This is too simple. Thompson, 
 in the first place, is a stubborn fellow, quite sure of him- 
 self in such matters as loyalty to country; and for any- 
 one, even Lundin, to attempt to argue him into disloyalty 
 is well nigh impossible. No, the clever Scandinavian's per- 
 suasions did not take the form of dressed-up political ex- 
 pediencies : in this case he must have talked the very flower 
 of idealism, strange as this may sound. 
 
 For four hours, way up in the Sherman House, with 
 Thompson lounging easily on the divan, interrupting 
 occasionally, and his mentor getting off a cascade of logic, 
 the metamorphosis of Bill the Warrior into Bill the Parlor 
 Pink took place. And it is extremely likely that Lundin 
 proceeded upon an assumption that Bill would grant at 
 the onset, a contention of his for many years: that the 
 
110 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 cause of Great Britain could not be the cause of right- 
 eousness. Further, it was not difficult to convince the 
 mayor that the French were a bunch of shrewd sophists 
 working both ends to the middle. Then, it is probable that 
 Lundin indulged in a little fancy deprecation of Wilson, 
 a man Thompson disliked instinctively, what with his snob- 
 bishness and college airs and lofty phrases. Lundin, a pro- 
 fessor of fine and applied propaganda himself, must have 
 also seen through a goodly portion of the Allied efforts in 
 that direction too, and it should not have been hard to 
 destroy some of the effectiveness of the atrocity debacle in 
 the eyes of Bill, who pretended to a cynicism as devas- 
 tating as his colleague's. 
 
 So, after selling Hizzoner on the higher patriotism, that 
 is, the brummagen quality of the British-French-Italian 
 crusade to save western civilization from the Hun, Lundin 
 was able to predict that he (Thompson) would be a new 
 St. George in shining armor to the masses of his constitu- 
 ency, with whom the war could never be anything but a 
 nightmare. 
 
 From that day on the Republican was sedulously, al- 
 most violently, anti-war, anti-proscription of wealth, anti- 
 conscription, in fact anti everything connected with the 
 war or calculated to win it. With his paper Thompson was 
 in full agreement. 
 
 For once Fred Lundin failed to size up his public with 
 complete accuracy. He was not the only person who shot 
 wide of the mark here, for few thought Allied propaganda 
 would work so well, that an entire nation could give itself 
 over to the psychiatrist so readily and so swinishly. It 
 was to be expected that the men who later distinguished 
 themselves in the Ku Klux Klan muckery would rise up 
 to whoop for the blood of Wilhelm; that the Christian 
 clergy would find plenty of passages in the Old Testament 
 to justify black hate and red bloodshed; that the Na- 
 
KAISER BILL 111 
 
 tional Security League yeomen would howl like a pack 
 of hounds ; that men of English, French and Italian birth 
 or extraction would toss their hearts over to the side of 
 their respective motherlands. But nobody anticipated the 
 extent of the ferocity really engendered, especially in a 
 country whose boasts of bravery had made the welkin 
 tremble for ten decades, and whose only peril was that 
 inherent in the visit of a lone submarine creeping silently 
 up Chesapeake Bay! It is fascinating to speculate as to 
 what low levels of terror the courageous American people 
 might have reached had they suffered the nightly air raids 
 that London endured, the shelling that Paris experienced, 
 the blockade that England inflicted upon the Germans, or 
 the mile-long bread lines so common in Vienna and Ber- 
 lin ! Would Creel and Company have conducted their mag- 
 nificent enlightenment with such intrepidity had they ex- 
 pected a shell to separate their alert heads from their 
 bodies at any moment? 
 
 Immediately after the United States, through its repre- 
 sentatives in Washington, cast its lot with England, 
 France, Russia, Italy and the diverse stepped-on small 
 nations, Entente commissions hurried across the sea to 
 arouse the new ally to the proper pitch for murder and 
 see to it that full cooperation ensued. To one of these, 
 headed by General Joffre, M. Viviani and Lord Balfour, 
 Mayor Thompson of Chicago turned a cold shoulder, re- 
 fusing to extend them an official invitation to his city. The 
 council chambers resounded with horrified rebukes and 
 vituperations, and voted unanimously (that is, with but 
 the three Socialists dissenting) to apologize to the august 
 personages and obsequiously invite them west. Governor 
 Lowden, his blood boiling, leapt forward to speak for the 
 state in like fashion. 
 
 For his snubbing of the Allied evangels Thompson was 
 attacked from pulpit and press almost as viciously as 
 
112 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Senator LaFollette was for similar sins. The mildest re- 
 proof was the motion of the Rotary Club to eject him ; the 
 most violent was the sermon of Bishop Kinsolving of 
 Texas, referring to the incipient move to impeach Thomp- 
 son for his insult to the propaganda commission : 
 
 My idea of what ought to be done is somewhat different from 
 the action of the Chicago people. I think that he is guilty of 
 treason and ought to be shot. There is only one way of punish- 
 ing treason: that is by death to the man that is guilty. I am in 
 favor of the firing squad and a stone wall as the proper means 
 of combating treachery to the United States. What this country 
 needs is a few first-class hangings. Then we could go on with 
 our work of mobilization without fear of being stabbed in the 
 back. 
 
 Thus was the spirit of the Nazarene demonstrated in 
 the Panhandle State. 
 
 When, early in the conscription controversy, he was 
 asked his views, he tersely remarked: "I hate to see our 
 fellows go into the trenches in Europe." The interviewer 
 asked the mayor if he knew of a better method for this 
 government to prosecute a war. Thompson deliberated a 
 moment and answered: 
 
 I might refer you to the teachings of George Washington, who 
 advised his countrymen to keep out of European entanglements. 
 I have great respect for the teachings of Washington and Lin- 
 coln, whose wisdom has greatly helped this country. Their great 
 thought was to preserve this nation, and that is good enough 
 for me. 
 
 The uncompromising journalist was puzzled, and asked 
 if it wasn't better to send our troops to fight Germany 
 while the other nations were attacking her. Bill said in 
 reply: "Germany has never been over here yet. I think 
 
KAISER BILL 113 
 
 it best for this country to prepare to meet foreign in- 
 vasion by Germany or any other country." 
 
 The perplexed reporter rather impatiently asked 
 Thompson if he wanted this country to win the war. "I 
 do not want the United States defeated in anything," the 
 mayor answered quietly after a moment. 
 
 This stubborn attitude of opposition to the cause his 
 fellow citizens were supporting so zealously continued for 
 many months. He harangued against the shipment of food 
 and munitions abroad and he fulminated sourly against 
 the Liberty Loans. His economics weren't always sound 
 and his politics were ill-advised, but his grit was unques- 
 tioned. 
 
 A group of pacifists cryptically calling themselves the 
 People's Council of America for Democracy and Terms of 
 Peace asked the mayor for permission to assemble. Grate- 
 ful for the opportunity, Thompson granted the permit, 
 being backed by Corporation Counsel Ettelson in his 
 judgment. Fury flared up among the patriotic, and Gov- 
 ernor Lowden threatened to break up the meeting with 
 the state militia, to which Thompson angrily replied that 
 his policemen would defend the right of any body to con- 
 gregate peaceably and discuss anything. Lowden, blinded 
 and harassed by the flag-wavers, one eye on the Presi- 
 dency, ordered out the troopers with as many oaths as 
 are permitted a gentleman farmer. But, due to fatigue or 
 the intervention of Lucifer, they arrived too late for the 
 immanent clash with the Chicago coppers, and were de- 
 nied the head-smashing orgy so dear to troopers' hearts. 
 The result was that everybody was satisfied: the protes- 
 tants had a chance to air their feelings; Thompson had 
 an opportunity to back up his contentions with threats 
 of force; and Lowden moved nearer to the White House 
 by making the familiar American political gesture of 
 brandishing the heavy bludgeon without being compelled 
 
114 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 to use it. Only the unfortunate troopers lamented. The 
 result of the affair ultimately was the frustration of Low- 
 den's big ambition. Bill Thompson came to hate him so 
 cordially from this time on that later, when Colonel Frank 
 had the coveted plum within his grasp, the mayor struck 
 it from him in a rage, at last able to get even. 
 
 His most frequently quoted utterance was a phrase 
 designating Chicago as "the sixth German city in the 
 world," when called upon to defend his seditiousness. The 
 idea had been Lundin's, but Bill had not the rhetorical 
 skill of the former street fakir and blurted out the faux 
 pas unadorned, without proper bathos to lessen the shock. 
 He was correct in his fact, of course; but the expression 
 was seized upon by the publicists busily engaged in the 
 mechanics of hatred, and poor Bill was belabored merci- 
 lessly. 
 
 A movement was begun to impeach him ; another, with 
 a similar objective, for malfeasance in office came into be- 
 ing. Yet another was launched by District Attorney Cline, 
 to indict him for "disloyalty and treasonable utterances." 
 A racket was raised over the Lundin-Thompson paper, the 
 Republican, and recommendations were sent to Washing- 
 ton to bar it from the mails. The paper was suppressed, 
 quite successfully, in Aurora. 
 
 Harsh criticism came from high places in abundance. 
 The following year, when Thompson bucked the National 
 Security League's repudiation of his candidacy for the 
 Senate, Elihu Root energetically seconded the League's 
 encyclical. To Judge Olson, some time before, "his face 
 flushing with spirit," he had said: "You ought to be 
 hanged, drawn and quartered for allowing a man like that 
 to defeat you." 
 
 But Roosevelt, never a man to allow the papers to 
 neglect him, and forgetting his own defense of the German 
 invasion of Belgium, was even more decided in his con- 
 
KAISER BILL 115 
 
 demnation of Chicago's traitorous chief official. The en- 
 suing report, published in the Chicago Herald, indicates 
 the attitude of one famous cowboy towards another. It is 
 part of an account of what transpired in Pittsburgh at the 
 Moose convention, to which Thompson was a delegate. 
 
 T. R. was also a guest, and the presence of the ex-President 
 was a thorn in the chaplet that Mayor Thompson expected to 
 place on his brow. In the first place, the mayor wanted to eat 
 breakfast with the colonel at the William Penn Hotel. The 
 colonel said "No," and didn't stop at that. He served notice that 
 if Thompson were allowed to speak at the big open-air meeting 
 in front of the Alleghany Courthouse they would have to get 
 along without him. The Colonel spoke. Thompson didn't. 
 
 The declination to break bread with him did not, apparently, 
 have any effect on the "Burgomaster." He declared he would 
 make another attempt to see Teddy, but didn't succeed, much 
 to the deep regret of a number of persons who were seeking 
 listening-posts in the hall, just under the opened transom of 
 the colonel's door. 
 
 The officers of the convention had a hard time explaining the 
 Thompson presence to the delegates. The explanation given was 
 that the invitation to him was extended three months previously, 
 before his pro-German tendenz became known. 
 
 And this took place shortly after the Republican had 
 ebulliently told of Thompson's admiration for Roosevelt 
 (not sufficient to support him in 1912, however), with 
 whom he shared a fondness for boxing and other sports. 
 Their boyhoods had been spent in the same manly atmos- 
 phere, and these things, combined with his "brusk de- 
 cision of manner and such genuine forcefulness as he dis- 
 played in settling the Chicago traction strike" suggested 
 to the editors of the Republican a man of the Roosevelt 
 type. But, unhappily, T. R.'s anger broke the robust 
 analogy down. 
 
116 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 The New York Times accused the favorite son of Far- 
 ragut's assistant of fostering a second secession ! "Thomp- 
 son has drafted a new Declaration of Independence, with 
 the purpose of severing Chicago from the nation with 
 whose present ambitions and desires he has no apparent 
 sympathy." 
 
 But from the above citation it must not be inferred that 
 William Hale Thompson was the kind of conscientious 
 objector Debs and LaFollette were. In many respects he 
 displayed the tenacity of these men ; but not having their 
 mental equipment, he was unable to develop his thesis 
 as convincingly as they. He merely stated his convictions 
 and doggedly stuck by them — but not to the extremes 
 of martyrdom. The accusations of "Benedict Arnold" and 
 "copperhead" had been too much. 
 
 When Judge Landis scored him viciously from the 
 Olympus of his federal bench, when impeachment pro- 
 ceedings got under way, when the nation's press jumped 
 on him with hobnailed boots, Thompson began to weaken. 
 He and Lundin saw the political and physical folly of 
 talking themselves into Leavenworth. So, inch by inch, 
 the mayor backed water. 
 
 Joffre's commission came, and was grudgingly met by 
 an unsmiling Big Bill. The Belgian propaganda com- 
 mission arrived, and was greeted meekly and officially. To 
 Landis the mayor said he was sorry he was provoked and 
 regretted that Kenesaw thought him unpatriotic, adding, 
 in substance, that his kind of patriotism was just as valid 
 a sort as the jurist's. 
 
 In the spring of 1917 he had sourly refused to allow 
 Liberty Loan solicitors to canvass the city hall. A little 
 later he gave in, but wouldn't buy any himself. By Octo- 
 ber he had given in completely and was seen subscribing 
 $5,000 to that Christian endeavor. 
 
 Likewise in other and subsequent affairs. His campaign 
 
KAISER BILL 117 
 
 for the Senate was under consideration and he couldn't 
 afford to jeopardize his future further. So he compro- 
 mised. He offered to contribute to a relief fund for sol- 
 diers' families ; he made a flamboyant patriotic speech to 
 a group of men departing for Camp Grant; and in gen- 
 eral shut up about the justification for the war. For this 
 he shouldn't be censored. One man couldn't change things, 
 and it surely wasn't pleasant to be scorned by the very 
 people who had formerly sung his praises. To be sure, 
 he joked about his unpopularity, but his smiles were 
 usually rather wry. For example, when the reporters asked 
 him, with many a sly cough behind their hands, if he 
 still aspired to be president, Bill answered with a grin: 
 "Well, a choice of berths running all the way from the 
 White House to Fort Leavenworth lies before me. I have 
 noticed, though, that the dollar patriots are more anxious 
 to send me to Leavenworth." 
 
 This last dig was intended for J. M. Dickinson, a Na- 
 tional Security League luminary who was Thompson's 
 most savage enemy. When the gentleman was instru- 
 mental in severing Bill's old connections with this band, 
 the mayor caused a mild sensation by shouting that "Jacob 
 M. Dickinson once bore arms against the United States. 
 Ask Mr. Herrick if he knows that." Which was embar- 
 rassing but true, Dickinson having enlisted when a youth 
 in the Confederate Army. 
 
 In order to do justice to all, and to clarify the entire 
 issue, it is germane at this point to pause and review the 
 war controversy, to ascertain just how much justification 
 there is in continuing to consign Thompson, LaFollette, 
 Debs, Clark, Norris and the few other conscientious ob- 
 jectors to the limbo of the unreservedly damned. 
 
 In the first place, there was very little genuine pacifism 
 in the United States in 1917. The mood of most of the 
 Germans in Chicago and Milwaukee was not, of course, 
 
118 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 pacifism at all, but a resentment at the idea of their new 
 country warring with a nation for which they had so many 
 sentimental attachments. The Irish were, as it is well 
 known, not anti-war, but anti-English; the Poles and 
 Jews, anti-Russian. 
 
 In 1915 public sentiment, especially in the West, was 
 firmly crystallized around a policy of isolation. The 
 masses liked Champ Clark and approved his pacifism, but 
 supported Wilson because his solemn promise to work for 
 peace was believed in. The Jacksonian prairies contained 
 millions who looked down upon the Atlantic seaboard 
 with suspicion and disaffection, thinking this region effete 
 and peopled with international bankers, imitation Eng- 
 lishmen and other such dangerous fauna; and only the 
 eastern states were pro-Entente. The Chicago Tribune, 
 whose editorials are usually an excellent gauge of the 
 middle-western temper, bespoke the slant of its customers 
 in the spring of 1915 when it said: "Any American who 
 suggests or even hopes that America should go into the 
 war on the sides of the allies because he loves France, or 
 because he sorrows for Belgium, or because of the Lusi- 
 tania, or because it would be unfortunate for humanity in 
 general to have Germany triumph, is a traitor to Amer- 
 ica." 
 
 This is not quite the civilized attitude, when the pre- 
 war diplomatic documents are considered, but it is ex- 
 traordinarily astute for a newspaper, and it is certainly 
 not pro-war. 
 
 But gradually, insidiously, the hysteria penetrated into 
 the hinterland. Those whose special interests were ad- 
 vanced by the dissemination of poison poured skillful 
 propaganda into the minds of the cautious and the scep- 
 tical; these were aided by the misguided many who, like 
 Wilson and Page, looked upon the English as the shock 
 troops of civilization, and considered the Germans "wild 
 
KAISER BILL 119 
 
 beasts," and their defeat one of the prime categorical im- 
 peratives of humanism. The virus spread. 
 
 On March 9, 1916, the Tribune indicated its changed 
 attitude, which was, in turn, a valid indication of the 
 shifting of the winds on the plains. The Northcliffe press 
 reports from the front had been extremely effective, 
 apparently: "We cannot sit in smug and snug security 
 while other men die for our common cause. Great Britain 
 is straining every nerve to put more men in the field. If 
 we enter the war it should be with proper security for the 
 future. This will mean a definite relinquishment of our 
 policy of European entanglements and a definite alliance 
 with England and her allies." 
 
 Note carefully that last sentence. When the sublime 
 Woodrovian altruism bubbled over in April, 1917, the 
 Tribune was one of the waves in the inundation. They 
 whooped and yelled and bellowed for war and all its 
 niceties, and abandoned isolationism with the recklessness 
 of an unfrocked monk giving himself over to sin. But when 
 the destruction was over the Tribune shrieked warnings to 
 America to retire into its shell, and because Wilson and 
 Lansing were wretched diplomatists they opposed the 
 League of Nations, the World Court and sniffed at the 
 disarmament conferences, Locarno and the Kellogg Pact. 
 While the learned Colonels Patterson and McCormick 
 favored a policy which would carry American soldiers 
 abroad to kill, they couldn't see anything but harm in 
 later sending over diplomatists and economists to do con- 
 structive work! 
 
 While the world was compliantly bowed before the fear- 
 some god Mars, America ran the entire gamut of hysteria 
 complexes. Few were exempt. Staid and other-worldly 
 philosophers, like Royce of Harvard, joined with practi- 
 cal and earthly journalists, like George Creel and Adolph 
 Ochs, in shouting down the barbarian Boche. Albert Bush- 
 
120 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 nell Hart, a professor of history, wrote passionate trea- 
 tises for the National Security League. Another organi- 
 zation for the selling of the war idea to the country was 
 headed by Professor James T. Shotwell, Fellow of the 
 Royal Historical Society. Charles E. Merriam, professor 
 of political science of whose praises this book has so far 
 been copiously loaded, distributed copies of the "Star 
 Spangled Banner" and patriotic buttons and ribbons in 
 Italy. A roster of the scholars who lost their heads at 
 this time reads like a catalogue of "Who's Really Who 
 in American Savantry" : Archibald C. Coolidge, Carl Rus- 
 sell Fish, Franklin H. Giddings, William Bennett Munro, 
 Robert McNutt Elroy, William Roscoe Thayer, Munroe 
 Smith and scores of illustrious others. Even the pro- 
 tagonists of the Christian philosophy howled like a 
 Judean mob for the blood of the German. With idealistic 
 philosophers, professors of history and gentlemen of the 
 cloth beating the drum, is it surprising that mere con- 
 gressmen and other plain citizens lost their heads too ? 
 
 After the Armistice western civilization resigned its 
 weary body to grief and regret, and turned its mind to 
 reconstruction. The treaties of Versailles, St. Germain and 
 Trianon were drawn up, and troops were left on the 
 Rhine to warn the "enemy of mankind" never again to 
 run amok. 
 
 While the economists and diplomats were wrangling, the 
 historians were deliberating over documents which had 
 surprising contents. The Russian Revolution had carried 
 a party into power which wished to discredit in every way 
 the monarchy just overthrown, and welcomed with alacrity 
 scholars bothered with the itch to seek out the truth about 
 the origins of the World War. Subsequent changes in the 
 governments of many of the nations of Europe opened 
 several other archives to the curious and equipped. A 
 tremendous quantity of diplomatic correspondence, state 
 
KAISER BILL 121 
 
 papers, military communications, telegrams and other 
 material was unearthed and analyzed and, after intelligent 
 interpretation, went a long way in spoiling the air of 
 injured innocence affected by Izvolski, Sazonov, Poincare, 
 Grey, Cambon et alter. The "revisionist" school of war 
 guilt was born. 
 
 In America the lead back to sane thinking was taken by 
 Professor Sidney Bradshaw Fay of Smith College. In 
 July and October of 1920 he published in the American 
 Historical Review essays very disquieting to the historical 
 fraternity about the part played by Austria in precipitat- 
 ing the disaster; these were followed by an illuminating 
 series of articles in Current History on the Sarajevo 
 crime, telling of the complicity of high Serbian officials 
 in the murder of the Archduke Ferdinand. More docu- 
 ments were discovered; memoirs of generals and states- 
 men were penned; and special studies of certain phases 
 of the pre-war situation shed light on the whole period. 
 Such works as Gunther Frank's on the Russian mobiliza- 
 tion, Boghitschevitch's on the Serbian plot, Hermann 
 Lutz' and Montgelas' studies of the foreign policy of Sir 
 Edward Grey, Ernest Judet's book on Franco-Russian 
 relations, Alcide Ebray's analysis of treaty violations from 
 1815 to 1926, the works of Arthur Ponsonby and Irene 
 Willis on war-time propaganda — these investigations, to- 
 gether with perusal of the documents themselves, have 
 eradicated all the notions created by misinformation, ob- 
 scurantism and prejudice in the minds of all the his- 
 torians of repute. The lay public, in turn, has ably been 
 served by several of the revisionists. Professor Fay has 
 written what is, by all odds, the most comprehensive work 
 on the subject, his monumental two-volume study, "The 
 Origins of the World War," a book calm in tone, cogent 
 in conclusions and heavily documented. The finest book on 
 the decade preceding the war is "International Anarchy," 
 
122 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 by G. Lowes Dickinson. Other recommended labors deal- 
 ing with this important subject are Ewart's "Roots and 
 Causes of the War," Gooch's "History of Modern Eu- 
 rope," and Montgelas' "Case for the Central Powers." 
 
 But "The Genesis of the World War," by Professor 
 Harry Elmer Barnes, is the most trenchant and brilliant 
 demolition of the Entente epic. Dr. Barnes has taken the 
 lead in America in acquainting the public with the extent 
 of their error in assuming the idealism of the French and 
 Russian leaders, the fortitude of Grey and the tireless zeal 
 for the preservation of neutrality of Wilson, Page and 
 Herrick. His controversies with the "die-hards" and the 
 "straw-clutchers" have shaken the historical profession to 
 its very foundations, and, due in great measure to his 
 courage and forensic skill, only a handful of the formid- 
 able Creel gang now cling to the nonsense that so dam- 
 ages their reputations. Professor Albert Bushneil Hart 
 sobs aloud : "If Barnes is right, then Roosevelt was wrong, 
 Wilson was wrong, Elihu Root was wrong, Ambassador 
 Page was wrong, everybody was wrong." Which jeremiad 
 should strike the cynical as exceedingly funny. Barnes 
 continues to smash heads right and left, to the vast delight 
 of many who relish a corking show. But to him it is not 
 exercise in refined sadism, but sincere and practical en- 
 deavoring for permanent peace. "The plant of Locarno 
 cannot flourish in the pot of Versailles. . . . The crying 
 injustices of Transylvania, the Tyrol, Bessarabia, Mace- 
 donia, the Polish corridor, the Saar, the occupied cities 
 on the Rhine, and Silesia, to mention but a few of the 
 more atrocious fruits of Versailles, must be rectified be- 
 fore Europe can aspire to peace." 
 
 And all candid scholars who have examined the docu- 
 ments agree that Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles, 
 which flatly asserts the sole responsibility of Germany and 
 her allies for the slaughter, is horribly invidious, unfair 
 
KAISER BILL 123 
 
 and false. Professor Fay, the judicious founder of the 
 revisionist school, states his position thus: 
 
 While it is true that Germany, no less than all the other Great 
 Powers, did some things which contributed to produce a situation 
 which ultimately resulted in the World War, it is altogether 
 false to say that she deliberately plotted to bring it about or was 
 solely responsible for it. On the contrary, she worked more 
 effectively than any other Great Power, except England, to 
 avert it, not only in the last days of July, 1914, but also in the 
 years immediately preceding. 
 
 To be sure, there is a lively and unpleasant disagree- 
 ment over details and the precise distribution of blame. To 
 the Left we have Barnes, Fabre-Luce, Demartial, Mont- 
 gelas, Bausman and Margueritte, who insist that Poin- 
 care, Izvolski, Sazonov deliberately plotted to bring about 
 a general conflagration for the purpose of gaining the 
 Straits, Alsace-Lorraine and the crippling of the Dual 
 Monarchy and the German Empire; hence, speaking of 
 nations in terms of their guiding spirits, France, Russia 
 and Serbia are more guilty than any other country for 
 the promotion of the war. A relatively more conservative 
 sodality is headed by the aforesaid Fay, and includes sucn 
 impeccable scholars as 'Hermann Lutz, George Peabody 
 Gooch and Raymond Beazley ; this group places the bulk 
 of the blame upon Austrian aggressiveness, Serbian 
 complicity and Russian premature mobilization. Lowes 
 Dickinson, on the other hand, is more deterministic: he 
 exonerates the politicians, in effect, and attributes the 
 cataclysm to the system of alliances, trade rivalries and 
 economic influences in force before 1914. Dropping down 
 several pegs there is a trio of academicians skillfully work- 
 ing to piece together the vestigial remnants of the Entente 
 epic: Bernadotte Everly Schmitt of the University of 
 Chicago, M. Pierre Renouvin of the French War Museum, 
 
124 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 and M. Alphonse Aulard, the dean of living French his- 
 torians. The first two have done exhaustive research and 
 have earned the compliment of being referred to as revis- 
 ionists, but a close comparison of the works of Barnes and 
 Schmitt, Renouvin and Fay, and Aulard and Demartial, 
 is rather damaging to the ultra-conservatives. 
 
 It is amusing and astounding, in retrospect, that Wil- 
 liam Hale Thompson, guided by historical illiteracy, 
 prejudice and political expediency, was far nearer the final 
 and definitive historiographical truth than William Roscoe 
 Thayer, A.B., A.M., LL.D., Litt.D., Knight of the Order 
 of the Crown of Italy, and of the Order of Saints Mau- 
 rizio and Lazarro; Albert Bushnell Hart, Ph.D., LL.D., 
 Litt.D., of Harvard University; Charles Downer Hazen, 
 A.B., Ph.D., LL.D., L.H.D., Litt.D., Chevalier of the 
 Legion of Honor, and Fellow of the American Academy of 
 Arts and Sciences; Robert McNutt Elroy, Harmsworth 
 Professor of History at Oxford University, and Fellow 
 of the Royal Historical Society ; Munroe Smith, Professor 
 of Roman Law and Comparative Jurisprudence and 
 Bryce Professor of Legal History at Columbia Univer- 
 sity. 1 
 
 But whatever the motives determining his conduct, 
 thousands of his constituency in Chicago will support him 
 ardently as long as he is in public life. For, largely due 
 to him, existence was made bearable for them in their 
 adopted country during the febrile months when reason 
 was just a word occasionally mentioned in college philos- 
 ophy courses, truth and justice the phrase of liars and 
 fools, and brotherly love the name of a large city in a 
 nation drenched in hatred and curses. . . . 
 
 Mayor Thompson's yearnings for the privilege of draw- 
 
 1 F<w a brilliant and witty summary of this collapse of scholarship 
 before the blasts of war, see Hartley Grattan's essay, "The Historians 
 Cut Loose," in the American Mercury for April, 1927. 
 
KAISER BILL 125 
 
 ing on his pyjamas in the bedroom previously occupied 
 by McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft were well known ; and 
 Fred Lundin flattered him by asserting that the plum 
 was well within the range of possibilities by 1920. But for 
 the present Thompson had to aim at a target more within 
 his reach. Presidents aren't chosen from the ranks of 
 mayors. 
 
 So in the spring of 1918 Bill became an open candidate 
 for the Republican nomination for Senator, to fill the 
 seat of the retiring Sherman. His opponents were Con- 
 gressman Medill McCormick and Congressman Foss, the 
 former backed by the powerful Chicago Tribune and the 
 latter of downstate influence. 
 
 Thompson opened his campaign with a parade, starting 
 at the city hall and continuing to Kankakee, where the 
 state fair was being held. It was a miserable fiasco. On the 
 way the procession was met by jeering mobs ; the banners 
 were torn off the cars ; and everywhere the name of Chi- 
 cago's mayor was greeted with derision and contempt. 
 The opposition appeared so strong that State Treasurer 
 Len Small and George F. Harding advised Bill not to 
 further aggravate the people by addressing them at the 
 fair. The counsel was heeded. 
 
 The Thompson candidacy was based on several assump- 
 tions, none of which were fanciful. Lundin and his coad- 
 jutors anticipated the easy cadging of the following ele- 
 ments: the pro-Germans, the pacifists, the Socialists, the 
 rabid wets, the anti- Wilson Democrats and the anti-war 
 Republicans. In addition they hoped that the Sunday 
 Closing order would be remembered by some of the fanati- 
 cal drys. They still prayed that the war would prove 
 unpopular and that Thompson would profit by a reaction 
 to its brutalities. 
 
 The men who formulated their tactic upon these prem- 
 ises were not fools, but, like most people, they badly mis- 
 
126 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 judged the effect engendered by highly emotional propa- 
 ganda, enlistments and obituaries, and ballyhoo. Locally, 
 they failed to see the wide gulf between the Main Street 
 mind and the city mind. 
 
 Big Bill attacked the most difficult part of his task first. 
 He barnstormed downstate with his usual vigor and 
 frontal attacks. But most of the citizenry would not even 
 listen to his speeches. In Peoria he was hooted and driven 
 from the stage; in Edwardsville he was not even allowed 
 to begin ; in Champaign the patriotic rose up to shout him 
 down ; and everywhere he went the small town papers im- 
 pugned his character and insulted his name. The Tribune, 
 with a large circulation all over the state, denounced him 
 as roundly as they pointed with pride to McCormick. 
 
 From the beginning Medill McCormick was granted 
 heavy odds. He was Congressman-at-Large, generally 
 smiled upon with a record colorful and properly patriotic. 
 The other entrant, Foss, was not as widely known, but as 
 his chauvinism was unquestioned he might have defeated 
 Bill by himself. 
 
 But Big Bill stubbornly continued campaigning, ignor- 
 ing the pleas of his friends and the jeers of his enemies 
 that he had better retire and save his face. He wound up 
 with a dozen gigantic meetings in Chicago, and the re- 
 ception accorded him by the Germans and Scandinavians 
 gave him heart and the faint hope of victory. 
 
 A hot, unpitying September sun saw the Lundin- 
 Thompson effort to extend itself take its first blow on the 
 chin, Bill going down for the full count of fourteen. He 
 carried Chicago by a bare 18,000, due almost entirely to 
 the functioning of the machine. McCormick buried him in 
 the remainder of the state, thereby gaining the privilege 
 of facing James Hamilton Lewis for the toga. 
 
 Fred Lundin looked things over ruefully. If his Little 
 Boy Blue had won he would have had a better position 
 
KAISER BILL 127 
 
 than he had ever enjoyed under Lorimer. But real benefit 
 had accrued from the lacing. He was now able to judge 
 with precision just how much the Thompson reputation 
 had been injured by his war attitude, and, further, how 
 well the boys out in the wards were delivering the goods. 
 With exact knowledge of this sort in his files, he set about 
 preparing for the campaign to re-elect Bill mayor. 
 
 The city hall crowd still maintained their strength in 
 the county, state and national Republican committee, and 
 they concentrated on gaining the 1920 presidential con- 
 vention for Chicago. Thompson was expected to put this 
 over, as he was a national committeeman. 
 
 When the Republican statesmen were debating this per- 
 plexing problem, that is, the site for their convention, 
 Thompson arose and launched into his address thus : "The 
 great heart and mind which led the Revolutionary War 
 and which presided over the convention which framed the 
 Charter of Liberty was none other than George Wash- 
 ington, who became first President of the nation whose 
 foundations he had laid deep and strong in the pro- 
 visions of our Constitution." 
 
 The assemblage rose in a body and cheered. Didacticism 
 is rarely concealed as adroitly as this. Then, after a shower 
 of compliments at Washington, Lincoln and McKinley, he 
 pulled out all the stops of persuasion : 
 
 Come to Chicago, where the people support real Republicans 
 who loyally stand for the principles of the Republican party, 
 and where frauds and counterfeits are repudiated ! 
 
 Come to Chicago and let us revive our Republicanism at its 
 fountain-head, and there, in the words of my father's old com- 
 mander, Admiral Farragut, "with full steam ahead" we will sail 
 into the fray. 
 
 Come to Chicago, where the people stand resolutely for the 
 Americanism of our forefathers and believe in getting out of 
 
128 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Europe and staying out. Nothing can shake their pro-American 
 faith! . . . 
 
 Although our city contains as many Americans of foreign 
 birth or parentage as the largest cities of the countries from 
 which they came, they have no divided allegiance. They are pro- 
 American and would, if need be, die to protect our country 
 against any foreign foe. . . . 
 
 The elephant wagged his ears and decided on Chicago, 
 Illinois, for its convention site. Bill's stirring rhetoric had, 
 apparently, turned the trick. 
 
TWELVE 
 
 "INSIGNIFICANT ME" 
 
 r |^HE most startling utterance coming from any public 
 * figure in the history of Chicago is attributed to Fred 
 Lundin, an expression that is but the forthright articula- 
 tion of what all public servants think: "To hell with the 
 public. We're at the feed-box now !" It is perhaps not im- 
 pertinent at this point to pause and turn our attention 
 to this man who is by all odds the most interesting figure 
 connected with the Thompson destiny. 
 
 In his long and eventful career Fred Lundin has been 
 given many compliments to his astounding diabolism, none 
 of which are aimed to enhance his reputation with the 
 pious. But all are tributes to his genius: the Boss, the 
 Man of Mystery, the Wizard, the Generalissimo, the 
 Croker, the Tweed, the King-Maker, the Supreme 
 Prophet, the Joshua, the Old Medicine Man, the Me- 
 phisto, the Svengali, the Sphinx, the Prime Minister. But 
 he would only laugh when glorified thus. He was just the 
 "poor Swede" to himself, "insignificant me." 
 
 Suave and fantastic in appearance, mystical and pliant 
 in temperament, he came to be an apotheosis of political 
 originality, a shrewd manipulator of pageants, parades, 
 pyrotechnics, bands, floats, calliopes. This classical stra- 
 tegist, educated in the Lorimer school, but living to sur- 
 vive his teacher and exceed him in erudition and ability, 
 possessed of oriental indifference for the people, has 
 boldly written his name across the political canvas in 
 
 129 
 
130 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Illinois. Throughout his life he has been unmoved by 
 caricature and abuse, has flinched from no indecency, has 
 been ruthless with his foes and false to his friends. He 
 has arisen from abject poverty to extraordinary wealth, 
 from a ridiculous neighborhood freak to a position of 
 commanding power, from a man taken seriously by no 
 one to the bane of the uplifters' existence. Like all men 
 rising from nothing to really something, he has a life- 
 maxim, one which has governed his conduct and which 
 greatly explains his success: "People have short memo- 
 ries." 
 
 He came to America from Sweden at the age of eleven, 
 having been born in Ostergotland three months before 
 William Hale Thompson was conceived. The family 
 joined some friends and relatives in Minnesota, but the 
 beginning of the eighties found young Fred down in Chi- 
 cago on the northwest side, on his own. His first earnings 
 were procured according to the best Horatio Alger tradi- 
 tion, by selling newspapers and shining the shoes of the 
 local German, Swedish and Irish Lotharios on Saturday 
 night. Soon he was supplementing his income with the 
 sale of fresh-water fish to the dozens of immigrant house- 
 wives who liked his affable, unobtrusive mien. 
 
 The northwest side of Chicago had been settled chiefly 
 by Scandinavian and German families, and was popularly 
 known as Hertzville. Henry L. Hertz, a Dane whose po- 
 litical despotism caused the region to bear his name, had 
 built up his strength by dominating his neighbors only 
 to turn about and bestow favors upon them. Attracted by 
 the prosperity of the Republican party and unwilling to 
 join with their Irish Catholic neighbors, who were Demo- 
 crats, the majority of these Scandinavian stalwarts be- 
 came full-fledged, straight-voting Republicans, and their 
 mobile solidity went far in establishing the political im- 
 portance of their wooden-legged dictator, whose bluster- 
 
"INSIGNIFICANT ME" 131 
 
 ing, excitable temperament amused and startled his col- 
 leagues of the Republican county committee. With Bill 
 Lorimer, Doc Jamieson and John M. Smythe, all of the 
 west side, the Chicago machine was well generaled during 
 those rough years. 
 
 Fred Lundin looked about him restlessly. His first four 
 years in Chicago had supplied him with many vocations 
 besides peddling papers and fish. He had worked for a 
 clothing house and attended school concomitantly ; he had 
 gone into the milk business and been successful; but the 
 age of twenty discovered him with his ambitions un- 
 quenched. He pondered until inspired. One day he sold 
 his overcoat and his watch, and with the cash in a money- 
 belt encircling his waist, set out on a unique economic 
 adventure. What transpired has been delightfully de- 
 scribed, in the journalese of the period, by an eye-witness, 
 a man writing for the Tribune under the pseudonym of 
 "A Politician": 
 
 Of a summer evening, some forty years ago, a one-horse truck 
 moved slowly through a street on the northwest side. The impact 
 of the horse's hooves upon the pavement was accompanied by 
 a shrill jingling of bottles, which became increasingly pro- 
 nounced when the driver struck the reins upon the animal's con- 
 spicuous ribs to encourage the beast to greater endeavor. 
 
 The driver himself was a youth of odd appearance. A cowboy 
 hat of colossal proportions topped a mass of yellow hair and 
 shadowed eyes that scanned the hurrying throngs on either side, 
 mysteriously, through huge, amber glasses. The occult effect of 
 the glasses and the hat was enhanced by a full-tailed coat of 
 black which might have been designed for an undertaker, and 
 did in fact embrace the wearer in the mournful manner of a 
 shroud. . . . 
 
 The wagon partook in no small measure of the bizarre effect 
 of its custodian. Its intimacy with its coat of paint had evidently 
 been of several years standing, while one of its wheels swayed 
 
132 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 toward and away from its business associates in a fashion rem- 
 iniscent of the barrel houses of similar thriving institutions of 
 the period. 
 
 But principally the wagon was remarkable in a vocal sense. 
 Besides the bottles' raucous chorus, which ascended with each 
 inequality of the pavement, it emitted every now and then shrill 
 complaints in various keys from an unaccountable number of 
 bearings and joints, as if in proclamation of the fact that it had 
 found its burdens too great to be endured and intended to lie 
 down and die upon the spot. . . . 
 
 Attracted by the sounds that emanated from the curious rig, 
 pedestrians paused and gave it more than passing inspection 
 (for the evening was young). And when their vision had dwelt 
 compassionately upon its staggering bulk, and with simple won- 
 der on the driver in his funeral coat-tails and full dress vest, 
 and had appraised systematically the mortal expectations of the 
 ancient horse, their gaze wandered to the placards, where in 
 circus type appeared the legend, "Juniper Ade." 
 
 The cryptic import of that message, as well as the decrepit 
 wagon's mission, was in part explained by the presence of two 
 negroes, who perched upon the tailboard, flanked on either side 
 by gasoline torches. . . . 
 
 It was not long, however, before the driver, quietly observant 
 of the human tide upon the sidewalks, noticed an eddy in its 
 orderly ebb and flow, and brought his vehicle to a halt alongside. 
 
 Instantly all was activity aboard the van. The negroes, jump- 
 ing up from the tailboard, stood grinning at the crowd in the 
 full glare of the torches. The driver, not to be outdone in prompt- 
 ness, secured his reins and swung himself into the body of the 
 cart with a flourish of his long legs. 
 
 Then, casting aside the plainsman's hat, and easing the pres- 
 sure of the flowing tie upon his throat, he beckoned the by- 
 standers to draw close, and raising his voice he shouted in sub- 
 stance as follows: 
 
 "Step up closer, ladies and gentlemen. The great free show 
 starts right away. It costs you nothing to hear the Black De 
 Rezkes — the sweet singers of the south — direct from New York's 
 matchless Academy of Music, where they sang for the nabobs 
 
"INSIGNIFICANT ME" 133 
 
 of Fifth Avenue. Offered for the first time as an open-air attrac- 
 tion under the auspices of that wholesome, delicious, incom- 
 parable, refreshing, foaming but non-alcoholic beverage, Juniper 
 Ade !" The crowd moved in. 
 
 "I thank you, madam," the speaker continued in an aside, 
 improving the interlude by erecting a small table in front of 
 himself and deftly stocking it with bottles. "By stepping closer 
 you make room for somebody else." 
 
 "Remember, my friends, that all is free." He resumed address- 
 ing the crowd at large. 
 
 "It costs you nothing to hear the Black De Rezkes, whose 
 marvelous vocal powers charmed the greatest art critics of the 
 new world. This wonderful attraction is arranged exclusively for 
 your benefit by the most surpassing of all surpassing drinks — 
 Juniper Ade! By Juniper Ade, my friends, which is in itself a 
 human boon — delightful and refreshing alike to young and old, 
 recommended by physicians ! "But as yet, folks, nothing is for 
 sale. The Black De Rezkes are about to sing! . . ." 
 
 Historians agree that whatever else might be said of them, 
 the Black De Rezkes could sing: and it followed that on the 
 night in question, when the last of the familiar stanzas of "Home, 
 Sweet Home" had risen to the moon, there were moist eyes 
 among the recently expatriated Irish, Germans and Scandin- 
 avians who comprised a large part of the street corner con- 
 gregation. 
 
 Seizing this psychological moment, the orator of the evening, 
 whom scrutiny revealed to be a Swede himself, went to his prin- 
 cipal business. He spoke fondly of distant lands in tones that 
 had the mournful reverberation of cemetery bells; of mothers, 
 wives and sweethearts; of fathers made old before their time 
 by grim struggles against poverty and despair; of former friends 
 and once familiar scenes. 
 
 "Our hearts are hungry, my friends," he cried, "and are thirsty 
 too — thirsty !" 
 
 This was the climax toward which he had built. His eyes 
 seemed suddenly to dart through their amber masks and to 
 transfix the crowd, bird-like. His form towered to an amazing 
 height, his arms flew out in the all-embracing gesture of a wind- 
 
134* HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 mill, while his mortuary raiment, sorely beset by these unex- 
 pected movements, struggled desperately to keep its grip upon 
 him. 
 
 "Thirsty for the old home drinks our mothers used to brew! 
 Remember the pitcher that stood in the sink? Remember how you 
 used to go to it when tired and dusty, and how its magic coolness 
 made new life surge through your veins? Remember how you 
 drank — Ah — deep and full? That wonderful drink, that life- 
 giving drink, that invigorating drink is with us tonight! That 
 historic libation of our forefathers — the old home beverage — 
 Juniper Ade ! My friends, it is delicious, refreshing, wholesome, 
 foaming but non-alcoholic! Recommended by physicians. Good 
 for young or old. Liked by young and old. Can be prepared by 
 any housewife in a few moments. 
 
 "Step right up ! I thank you sir. Add a teaspoonful to a gallon 
 of water. The bottle contains enough to last your family for a 
 month. Who'll be the next? . . . 
 
 From "A Politician's" account it can readily be seen 
 that Fred Lundin was a successful spell-binder. And he 
 prospered happily. His personality, if not the merits of 
 the refreshing but non-alcoholic Juniper Ade, resulted 
 in increasing wealth. Later he demonstrated his economic 
 versatility by adding other sources of income to his Ade- 
 hawking business. He manufactured a malt beverage and 
 also sold pills that were purported to cure all human 
 ills, from the indigestion caused by imbibing too freely 
 of Juniper Ade to fallen arches and female ailments. 
 
 His fame spread through Hertzville, and where at first 
 he was looked upon as a freak; later, when he opened a 
 good-sized factory, the natives tempered the jibe by say- 
 ing he was "wealthy, but eccentric." 
 
 One night there appeared at Lundin's open-air show a 
 man whose temperament was not such as to be attracted by 
 the haranguing of a street fakir. But Fred's unusual at- 
 tire, his acrobatic voice and the effectiveness of his exhibi- 
 
"INSIGNIFICANT ME" 135 
 
 tion won the attention of Henry Hertz, the bristly 
 inoustached politician. The boss recognized the medicine 
 man, or rather boy, as the kid who used to drink in bar- 
 room gossip in Quincy No. 9, while shining the shoes of 
 the tipsy ward heelers and selling them papers from his 
 stand in front of the saloon at the mouth of the LaSalle 
 Street tunnel. The recognition was mutual, and Fred out- 
 did himself in persuasion that evening. Lundin sold Hertz 
 no Juniper Ade, nor did he sell him any malt brew or 
 cure-all pills ; but he did efficiently sell himself. 
 
 The next day Hertz sent for him. And on that after- 
 noon the master politician of the period was propelled 
 from hopeful incipiency to rapid growth. Fred gave up 
 his paper-peddling and fish-selling, but continued his bev- 
 erage business and acted as an aid to the Dane in his 
 spare time. A series of increases in revenue spurred him 
 to add more side-lines, among which was a mail-order 
 business which hoped to serve his countrymen who had 
 settled in other parts of the new land than Hertzville. 
 
 He was a capable lieutenant in politics. His knowledge 
 of man's gullibility gained during years of street peddling, 
 his limpidity of principle, and his ability to handle and 
 impress people made him an ideal buffer between the boss 
 and his constituents. With each campaign Hertz' respect 
 for his assistant grew. The lean horse and the rickety cart 
 became the recipients of more and more leisure, and finally 
 the streets of the west side saw them no longer. The Black 
 De Rezkes left for other parts, and politics claimed most 
 of Lundin's time. 
 
 Another anonymous scribe, "The Senator," reminis- 
 cently tells of an incident occurring in the nineties : "I re- 
 member the day Henry Hertz brought Lundin before 
 the county committee. Lorimer was presiding. Hertz said 
 Lundin was the guy to run the old 35th ward. He was 
 an odd-looking chap, with his yellow mane and his spec- 
 
136 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 tacles, and the boys kidded Hertz unmercifully. 'Never 
 mind,' said Henry, 'he's got a cunning brain.' " 
 
 Lorimer had many advantages. In a normally Demo- 
 cratic bailiwick on the southwest side he stood at the head 
 of a compact minority which controlled the ward, and 
 hence there were more job-holders per capita in his domain 
 than in stronger Republican sections that were less readily 
 delivered en masse. With this mobile force Lorimer, after 
 an alliance with Doc Jamieson, began to enlarge the 
 sphere of his influence, their particular objective being 
 Hertzville. But it was very difficult to defeat the one- 
 legged boss in his own territory. Scouting around, Jamie- 
 son discovered Lundin, and prevailed upon the young 
 fellow to desert his benefactor and work for the interests 
 of his more influential machine. Soon Hertz was treated to 
 the spectacle of his former protege stealing his region 
 from under his nose. Within three months Hertz was 
 forced into a compromise and, with Lundin, became a 
 bower to Lorimer, the Blonde Boss. 
 
 His entrance into the Lorimer- Jamieson- Smy the 
 creche as the equal of Hertz and the particular aide-de- 
 camp of the chief was a red-letter day in his life. From 
 then on his rise was rapid. He met the other members of 
 the Round Table: Len Small, Mike Faherty, Cicero J. 
 Lindly and the rest. And although they had laughed at 
 him when he was first presented to them, they learned to 
 accord him respect of a kind they gave no one else. 
 
 When the slates were being drawn up in 1894, Lundin 
 demanded a prominent place. The veterans of the outfit 
 considered his insistence premature and presumptive. 
 Thinking to put him in his place, they granted him the 
 nomination from the seventh district for the state legisla- 
 ture, a plum usually gotten by a Democrat. But their 
 double-dealing was predicated upon an underestimation 
 of Lundin's ability. He carried his section in grand style, 
 
"INSIGNIFICANT ME" 137 
 
 flabbergasting his colleagues and earning the respect of 
 the machine's "angel," Charles Yerkes. 
 
 Yerkes was the Samuel Insull of his time. 1 The traction 
 magnate liked Lorimer and they did many favors for each 
 other. Yerkes wanted to obtain a street car franchise in 
 Chicago, and, with Lorimer and Lundin, framed a bill 
 which would give the legislature power to grant franchises 
 of fifty-year duration. It was call the Humphrey Bill, 
 and the civic uplifters still see red at its mention. But 
 despite the smooth maneuvering of Fred and Bill and the 
 boys it went down in defeat in the senate; so the Allen 
 Bill was drawn up, and pushed with the added vigor 
 stimulated by Yerkes' previous disappointment. It passed 
 both houses at Springfield, but Mayor Carter Harrison 
 made an issue of it in his campaign for re-election and 
 the measure died. 
 
 Originality and daring have always been outstanding 
 characteristics of Fred Lundin's make-up ; in the legisla- 
 ture he demonstrated both. One of the children of his 
 singular mind was banally called Senate Bill No. 76. This 
 aspired to divide all the requisites of human life on this 
 planet into seventy-eight classes, and subdivided these 
 further into twelve categories. They were intended to de- 
 fine what articles a merchant could and could not sell. 
 Everything from a herring to a brassiere was included. 
 For example, if a shopkeeper were to sell a customer a col- 
 lar he could not preface the sale by an attempt to in- 
 veigle the man into buying a cake of soap to wash his 
 neck before donning the collar, without being declared a 
 public nuisance and being subjected to a $500 tax. 
 
 The companion piece to this bill was even more gro- 
 tesque. It would have bestowed upon city councils and 
 
 1 For an excellent study of him and his relation to his day, read 
 Dreiser's 'The Financier" and "The Titan." 
 
138 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 village boards the authority to regulate and police trade, 
 and license or tax commerce upon the basis of gross sales 
 or net profit. 
 
 The Swede was not crazy, nor was he merely amusing 
 himself. On the contrary he was indulging in the most 
 practical economics. Publication of the contents of his 
 bills sent lobbyists and corporation lawyers scurrying to 
 his side, and although the private conferences ensuing re- 
 sulted in the death of his babies, it is to be supposed he 
 received at least a box of cigars for the infanticides. 
 
 Lundin also introduced a measure providing a method 
 whereby subscribers of the telephone company would be 
 issued identification cards permitting everyone with a 
 phone at home to use any other phone in the city free 
 of charge. This new element of humor in public utilities 
 legislation was greeted with hoots and cat-calls. Some 
 reporter asked how the operator was to recognize the per- 
 son addressing her as the legitimate holder of the card. 
 Lundin explained that the druggist, or the proprietor 
 of the premises of the telephone, should act as the judge 
 of identification. The press, with its notorious lack of an 
 adequate sense of the ridiculous, indicated the possibility 
 of dishonest people allowing their friends to use their 
 cards. As the papers were giving the bill annoying pub- 
 licity, the attorneys of the telephone company took the 
 train for Springfield and sought out its author. In a 
 few days Lundin's pet died on his desk of exposure. 
 
 It was during this period, while rendering yeoman ser- 
 vice for Lorimer and Yerkes in the state legislature, that 
 Lundin received his first taste of public abuse, the papers 
 attacking him with cartoons and editorials and making 
 mock of his manners, his dress and his past. Since that 
 time he has never ceased alluding to "the crooked trust 
 press," by which he means particularly the Tribune and 
 the Lawson sheets. When his term was up in 1897 he 
 
"INSIGNIFICANT ME" 139 
 
 returned to Chicago, to witness shortly afterward the de- 
 feat of the Yerkes traction program in the city council, 
 which ultimately resulted in the collapse of their sponsor 
 and the damaging of the entire Lorimer clan. 
 
 Bill Lorimer made a comeback and was returned to the 
 House of Representatives at Washington, leaving Lundin 
 to manage the local aggregation and distribute most of 
 the patronage. Fred kept the home fires burning so 
 well that in 1908 Lorimer picked him to run for city 
 clerk. He was beaten in a Democratic landslide, but led his 
 ticket by many thousand votes. His showing was so re- 
 markable that he was nominated and elected to the na- 
 tional Congress from the seventh Illinois district the 
 following year, joining Lorimer, who had just been placed 
 in the Senate. 
 
 They lived together at the Y. M. C. A. in Washington, 
 both being models of virtue for two years. When a curious 
 progressive bloc of the Senate suspected that a dark past 
 was being covered up by a Christian present, and in- 
 stituted investigations into the right of Lorimer to retain 
 his seat, Lundin was loyally and piously by his side dur- 
 ing those trying days. 
 
 William Lorimer felt the axe in 1912, and Fred Lundin 
 busied himself in organizing the Lincoln Protective 
 League to aid in proving that LaFollette and Borah were 
 just being nasty, and to affix martyrs' crowns upon the 
 brows of the lads of the school. When this organization 
 flopped, Lundin framed the Republican Club of Illinois, 
 but, as has been shown in a preceding chapter, this proved 
 a feeble and short-lived gesture as well. 
 
 Some time before the Lorimer decapitation, the grizzled 
 group had been augmented by two wealthy young sports- 
 men, both ambitious to succeed in this new sport of poli- 
 tics. One of them, Eugene Pike, had been prominent in the 
 Busse campaign in 1907, but his part in the Lorimer 
 
140 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 operations was, due to tender years and lack of experi- 
 ence, chiefly that of financial backer. The other, William 
 Hale Thompson, didn't rate any higher, but as his desire 
 to shine in the public firmament was unbridled he was 
 treated as a person of more importance when the curtain 
 was up. In the party councils they met Fred Lundin and 
 became very friendly with him. 
 
 The cunning Swede realized the possibilities inherent 
 in the jovial, booming manner of Thompson, and sug- 
 gested him for the board of review in 1912. After his 
 trimming in the primaries Bill was discouraged and 
 tempted to retire and devote all his time to business and 
 sports, but he was fascinated by the attentions Lundin 
 paid him and was soon drawn back into the fold, his old 
 hopes revived. In 1913 Lundin flatly, asserted to the inner 
 group that Bill Thompson would be the next mayor of 
 Chicago. Jim Monaghan had suggested it in 1911, but 
 Lorimer had considered the boom premature and unwise. 
 In 1913 Lorimer was politically dead; Lundin controlled 
 the remnants of the machine ; and Bill clung to the Swede. 
 Here was his Big Chance. 
 
 To make the contract binding Lundin tied up the big 
 fellow's business interests with his own through inviting 
 him to participate in his mail order concern. It was then 
 that Fred was brought in close contact with another of 
 Bill's rich friends, James A. Pugh. 
 
 In this campaign Lundin was almost the whole show. 
 With the exception of a few dodges of Pugh's mind, every 
 effective trick of the effort had its Genesis in his subtle 
 brain. He planned most of the speeches, saw to the dis- 
 tribution of pledge cards, arranged the mass meetings, in- 
 terviewed countless ward bosses and precinct captains. 
 He pulled in all the old Lorimer crowd to add strength 
 and wisdom. And he worked twenty hours a day. He knew 
 that the biggest stakes of his life lay just around the 
 
"INSIGNIFICANT ME" 141 
 
 corner. With Bill Thompson as mayor he would be the 
 boss: no one — not Lorimer, or Jamieson or Hertz or 
 Smythe or Yerkes — would be above him. The idea pleased 
 him immensely. 
 
 The efficacy of the Lundin-Thompson relationship from 
 the former's angle has been well described by the New 
 York Sun: 
 
 Thompson was just the kind of man Lundin was looking for, 
 because he was young, wealthy, amiable, likeable — in short, a 
 good mixer. It is true he never gave much evidence of political 
 sense, nor was he ever accused of being overburdened with 
 brains. But for Lundin's purpose these things were merits. It 
 is obvious that a boss can best maintain his supremacy by operat- 
 ing through a man who is altogether reliant on him not only for 
 political preferment but for political sense as well. 
 
 Thompson disclosed another quality which Lundin shrewdly 
 discerned to be perhaps more valuable than anything else. This 
 was a stubborn, bulldog tenacity once he was aroused. He could 
 stand his ground in a rough-and-tumble encounter and he could 
 take punishment. He has grit, and once he has determined to 
 go through with a thing he will do it. 
 
 This element in Thompson's character was essential also for 
 the operations of a boss who intended to ride his way, roughshod 
 if necessary, to power. . . . 
 
 From Thompson's point of view Lundin was just a 
 political necessity. Long before he came under his influ- 
 ence Bill had learned to respect the Swede's prowess, be- 
 cause everybody in politics did. But they were never close 
 personal friends, like Thompson and Pike were. Fred was 
 exceptionally skillful in flattering the corpulent fellow, 
 and Bill was susceptible to it, but the thrifty, somewhat 
 ascetic and quiet Lundin was not the type of man to invite 
 the hearty, generous, swaggering Thompson to personal 
 intimacy. 
 
142 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 For more than ten years, roughly since the 1904 con- 
 vention when Deneen had bested the Lorimer-picked Frank 
 Lowden for the gubernatorial nomination, Lundin had 
 nursed one pet ambition : "to put the skids under Charlie 
 Deneen." In 1908 it was again frustrated, for Deneen 
 easily disposed of another Lorimer-Lundin candidate, 
 Richard Yates, for re-nomination. In 1912 Len Small, 
 still another man selected by Lorimer and Lundin to gain 
 the coveted governorship, walked the plank in the pri- 
 maries. Apparently it was impossible for the boys Lundin 
 considered "right" to obtain a foothold downstate; but 
 he doggedly kept trying, and with each setback his ani- 
 mosity for his ancient enemy flamed afresh. 
 
 With the nomination of William Hale Thompson for 
 mayor Lundin gave the Deneen outfit its first sound beat- 
 ing in many years. And it was doubly gratifying to the 
 Scandinavian because everyone had predicted a walk- 
 away for Olson in the primary. 
 
 Then he set about the difficult task of taking the control 
 of the county committee from stolid Charlie. His attempts 
 were ineffectual in 1915 and continued to be for over two 
 years; but he made up for this repulsion by working 
 hard for Lowden in 1916 and securing most of the Cook 
 County patronage when he put the colonel over. Lowden 
 wasn't precisely Lundin's choice for governor, as the 
 Thompson-Lowden war feud showed, but neither did 
 Deneen control him, so it was a clear tactical triumph. 
 
 With a man as easily handled as Bill Thompson, the 
 incumbent mayor, Fred Lundin was in his glory. He es- 
 tablished headquarters in two loop hotels (called by the 
 papers City Halls Nos. 2 and 3), and there kept card 
 indexes of the jobs at his disposal and the merits and 
 demerits of the respective applicants. Naturally, the 
 remnants of the old Lincoln-Lorimer League had first 
 preference, two of them, John Dill Robertson and Percy 
 
"INSIGNIFICANT ME" 143 
 
 B. Coffin, being given important places in the initial cabi- 
 net, while the rest were taken care of up and down the 
 line. In this task of patronage-dispensing, which pleased 
 him more than the vending of the temperance beverage 
 ever had, he had three assistants, all capable and trust- 
 worthy: Leslie P. ("Ike") Volz, who had been his secre- 
 tary for many years; Virtus Rohm, his nephew; and 
 Harry Ward, who had learned how to keep secrets when 
 he was the silent accomplice of Blonde Bill Lorimer. It 
 was a congenial quartet, ruthless and uncompromising, 
 and of the lot the boss was the smoothest and the most 
 able. 
 
 In mesmerizing Thompson Lundin had to work slowly 
 and carefully, for Bill was easily aroused and possessed 
 of uncommon loyalty to his friends, many of whom hated 
 Fred cordially and had plans sharply counter to his. For 
 example, Pugh, though he wanted to keep out of the 
 cabinet himself, was set on establishing his friend Richard 
 Folsom in the office of corporation counsel, and Fred had 
 to acquiesce, despite his strong affection for State Senator 
 Samuel Ettelson in this regard. Again, Thompson wished 
 to see his closest chum, Gene Pike, in the city comptroller's 
 chair, so Lundin was deprived of another plum. 
 
 But by and large he had things pretty much his way. 
 After all, the health commissioner was his own private 
 protege, Doc Robertson, and through him he had sway 
 over hundreds of jobs and contracts. And with Percy 
 Coffin as civil service commissioner he could crucify the 
 offending merit system at his pleasure. 
 
 But never was he content ; always did he lust for more 
 power. Folsom was the first to feel the glowering gaze of 
 the boss, for this high-minded lawyer was not only a 
 Democrat, which fact was no aid to party strength, but 
 was incorruptible as well, and it was imperative to Fred 
 that the law be interpreted to suit his piratical schemes. 
 
144 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 So Folsom was bluntly told to work for the good of the 
 machine or get out. Disgusted at such effrontery, and 
 with a pitying glance at Thompson, Folsom retired. 
 
 The next person to feel the sting of Lundin's lash was 
 Morehouse, another Pugh choice. He was commissioner of 
 public works, and too many jobs impinged on this office 
 for it to be sacrificed to Pugh's zeal for decent govern- 
 ment. The scuttling of this ship was easier, for whereas 
 Pugh had raised a rumpus over the disposal of Folsom, 
 he was deep in fiscal hot water by this time, and the More- 
 house demise happened stormlessly. His shoes were oblig- 
 ingly filled by Charles Francis, an old Lorimer man who 
 had, as city clerk, inducted the mayor into office. 
 
 And so it went. When Thompson was elected the civil 
 service barely exceeded 20,000 positions; by the end of 
 the first year 30,675 temporary appointments had been 
 made, oiling the machine to excellent effect but at the 
 expense of a city not too flushed. 
 
 While he was grabbing off everything in sight, Lundin 
 remained cleverly back in the shadows, black-frocked, 
 amber-bespectacled, smiling and silent. Few letters rele- 
 vant to politics bore his signature ; no telephone conversa- 
 tions with the city hall not over private wires were per- 
 mitted his three assistants ; and great secrecy surrounded 
 all the doings in his suites in the Sherman House and the 
 La Salle. 
 
 Hence when public indignation was aroused by the 
 mangled corpse of the merit system, Big Bill Thompson 
 was left out in the open to face the blasts from the press 
 and the reform organizations. Fred never darkened the 
 door of the city hall from one year's end to the next. And 
 when the wholesale buccaneering of the tuberculosis sani- 
 tarium which resulted in the suicide of Dr. Sachs took 
 place, most of the bitter castigations of the newspapers 
 and the medical societies were directed at the mayor and 
 
"INSIGNIFICANT ME" 145 
 
 the genial and slovenly Dr. Robertson. Lundin continued 
 to occupy the wings, allowing his puppets to receive the 
 vegetables cast by an insulted and outraged public. He 
 didn't want a place in the sun ; he wanted power. 
 
 He realized that all this gnawing upon the public bone 
 could not be accomplished without some sort of obfuscat- 
 ing nonsense to divert the masses. So he planned and 
 executed in quick succession the Prosperity Day Parade, 
 the many trips of Thompson and his retinue, and took 
 advantage of every civic event to broadcast ballyhoo and 
 claim credit for the administration. 
 
 The closing of the saloons on Sunday was, of course, 
 his idea. Pike had pledged Bill's support to the wets 
 and had persuaded him to sign a written promise to that 
 effect. But Lundin ruled otherwise. His reasons were 
 many : he wanted to steal the thunder of Deneen, who was 
 receiving strong backing from the drys ; he wanted to be 
 able to bestow favors upon saloonkeepers who worked 
 with him ; and — though this was probably the least impor- 
 tant of his motives — he knew that his Juniper Ade busi- 
 ness would flourish with most of the tippling-places dark 
 one day of the week. This was in the teeth of a $40,000 
 campaign fund the brewers, at Pike's suggestion, had 
 raised for Thompson. When the brewers raised hell over 
 the perfidy, Lundin sent his charge away on a trip. 
 
 He followed up his advantage at once. He sent the pro- 
 testing mayor, who wasn't exactly comfortable under a 
 halo, around to the churches to tell the good people what 
 a moral public official he was, and how the spirit of Jesus 
 had at last come to Chicago. 
 
 Then, cognizant of the peril involved in the contemp- 
 tuous shouts of the wets, he sent for Samuel Ettelson, a 
 lawyer for diverse liquor interests, arid promised him the 
 corporation counsel chair, recently vacated by Folsom, if 
 he would square the administration in the eyes of the 
 
146 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 imbibing hosts. This Sammie did quite promptly. The 
 extent of his successes is indicated by the votes and cam- 
 paign contributions garnered from the saloon men ever 
 afterwards — that is, until Professor Volstead rendered 
 the country a barren waste. (Another reason, and prob- 
 ably the most important one, why Ettelson was desired by 
 Lundin for this post was his connection with the redoubt- 
 able Samuel Insull, and Fred knew an old hand was needed 
 to shove through the kind of public utilities legislation 
 he yearned for. Ettelson was a partner in one of the law 
 firms retained by Squire Insull.) 
 
 Oddly enough, the appointment of Ettelson was fol- 
 lowed immediately by a publicity campaign featuring 
 Thompson in his favorite role: trust-busting. But this 
 must be explained lest the reader draw a false impression. 
 Lundin recognized the rabble's love of a good show, and 
 no show is complete without someone or something re- 
 ceiving a few good socks in the midriff. Like Hearst and 
 other famous muck-rakers, Fred saw the sadistic streak 
 in the herd; when the stepped-on fellow sees a prominent 
 person attacked he applauds the Roman holiday enthusi- 
 astically. So the Swede began to give Bill lessons in the 
 abuse of corporations, not real abuse, mind you, but sham 
 abuse. Lundin didn't, of course, approve of any Upton 
 Sinclairen-Thorstein Veblen stuff; he merely wanted to 
 cover up the Ettelson selection with a little calculated 
 bathos for the benefit of the great unwashed, who love to 
 watch the high-bracket boys writhe on the spit. 
 
 Hence, "Down with the gas bills!" cried the mayor. 
 "Down with car fares," he added bellowingly. The 
 thunderous wave of approbation welling up from the 
 masses reached the ears of Svengali in his suite at the 
 Sherman House, and he smiled and stroked his chin. It was 
 so infernally easy. 
 
 Gas bills weren't lowered and car fares remained the 
 
"INSIGNIFICANT ME" 147 
 
 same, although the administration controlled the utilities 
 commission; but even the alert press's reminders to the 
 public of these facts failed to eradicate the impression 
 originally made by Big Bill's ballyhoo. 
 
 This strange person continued his anti-social machina- 
 tions for many years without any really damaging blows 
 to his increasing power. With his outlandish dress, his 
 disconcerting manner, his craftiness, and his inevitable 
 card indexes he built up a political machine in Illinois 
 which would have excited the envy of William Marcy 
 Tweed. About him esoteric legends hovered, and many were 
 the weird tales told of him among the credulous. In some- 
 thing like the vogue established by Dr. De Franca, the 
 tyrant of Paraguay who forbade his subjects to refer to 
 him otherwise than as El Supremo, Lundin's drove of 
 sycophants spoke of him only as "the Congressman," for- 
 getting that their idol's term ended abruptly when the 
 public discovered his intimacy with the meretricious Lori- 
 mer. The Swedes especially loved him. They never ceased 
 worshiping him as a countryman who had gained wealth 
 and influence in the new nation, despite the fact that he 
 never went one step out of his way to advance their in- 
 terests. 
 
 In 1919 Lundin again put over his blustering mayor, 
 re-electing him, though, with a margin considerably re- 
 duced; in 1920 he steered the weak and easily managed 
 Len Small into the governor's chair and another col- 
 league of the old Lorimer clan, Robert E. Crowe, into the 
 tremendously powerful state's attorney's office ; and there 
 were many judiciary and sanitary board victories as well 
 in this period. 
 
 Finally, as will be recounted later, he became so confi- 
 dent of his grip upon the public throat that his excesses 
 grew as raw as rotgut, and ,public indignation descended 
 upon him and his machine. Only with the help of God and 
 
148 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Clarence Darrow did he escape the penitentiary. He ex- 
 perienced what he had inflicted on so many others: vic- 
 timization by treachery. Bob Crowe, swollen with the same 
 ambitions that had actuated Lundin, saw an opportunity 
 to dispose of his political benefactor with one blow, re- 
 spond to the public applause, and leap into the ermine. 
 The nurturing and placing of Crowe was Fred Lundin's 
 greatest mistake, for it ultimately destroyed the most far- 
 reaching and strongest machine Chicago politics ever suf- 
 fered under, a machine almost an autocracy, with smiling 
 Fred wielding the sceptre. 
 
 He pledged a vendetta on all who had brought about his 
 demise. Within a few years he was able to watch them 
 hurtle into oblivion. He himself was never quite scotched. 
 Many sunsets saw him writhing with apparently mortal 
 wounds ; but soon he would reappear, deadly, implacable, 
 smiling. His private businesses — he still retains his pen- 
 chant for side-lines — continue to flourish, and politics 
 takes up but a small portion of his time. The Illinois poli- 
 ticians align themselves, break up, re-align — and Lundin 
 still makes himself heard and felt, often with fearsome 
 emphasis, in the interesting political vista of the state. 
 Perhaps he will until he dies. 
 
 But it will never be the same as during those ripe, rich 
 days of 1915-23, when Fred Lundin was the mentor, 
 advisor and mesmerizer of Big Bill Thompson, the alter 
 and vastly more clever ego of Chicago's cowboy mayor. 
 
 No doubt the city hall will seethe with intrigue, hokum, 
 sham and dishonesty until it is razed by the Communists, 
 but it is doubtful if it will ever again see eight years of 
 such splendid banditry as it did with Lundin in the throne, 
 for he is the master tactician of them all. 
 
THIRTEEN 
 TRILBY AND SVENGALI GET A CURTAIN-CALL 
 
 BILL THOMPSON was ruffled and disappointed by 
 his poor showing in the Senatorial campaign of 
 1918 and, being anxious to resuscitate his failing reputa- 
 tion before the people, readily gave ear to Lundin's argu- 
 ments that he make a smashing attempt to regain the 
 mayorality the next season. Fred was of the firm opinion 
 that a long campaign was preferable to a short one: he 
 felt that it wore out the opposition and eventually com- 
 pelled them to cut down on their activities for want of 
 cash. Three fat years had bulged the war chest with gold, 
 and the Lundin forces had dozens of resourceful men will- 
 ing to work like the very devil to sustain their situations 
 of public trust, even at personal expense and discomfiture. 
 
 So in the fall of 1918 he again tossed his sombrero, 
 now a bit soiled and worn, into the ring. This prompted 
 his opponents likewise to declare themselves. Judge Harry 
 Olson was once more the Deneen choice, this time with 
 better-grounded confidence. Olson's reputation as an ex- 
 cellent jurist had perceptibly increased; he had polled a 
 nice vote before in a campaign badly bungled; and he 
 was the logical candidate for the large number of patriots 
 alienated by Thompson's anti-war gyrations and his 
 diverse exposed corruptions. 
 
 It turned out to be a three-cornered fight. The third 
 man to announce his candidacy to the people was Pro- 
 fessor and Captain Charles Edward Merriam, who as 
 leader of the nine militant aldermen had made the council 
 
 149 
 
150 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 chambers ring with pungent denunciations of the Trilby- 
 Svengali histrionics. Once previously, in 1911, Merriam 
 had offered himself to the voters as the Republican candi- 
 date for mayor, following his brilliant exposures of the 
 fiscal peccadilloes of Fred Busse, only to fall before the 
 superior machine of the Democratic Carter Harrison. In 
 the last four years he had made a name for himself as 
 the gadfly of the Thompson carcass, and had earned the 
 support of several thousand civilized citizens as a con- 
 sequence. Equipped with a clear and practical head and 
 a fund of erudition relative to municipal government un- 
 matched in Chicago, with a good speaking manner and 
 plenty of zeal and indignation, he was in position to make 
 the Lundin-Thompson cause ridiculous before all who had 
 eyes to see and ears to hear. Unfortunately for the man- 
 agement of the city there were, as the figures subsequently 
 revealed, only 17,000 so qualified. 
 
 Lundin, remembering the efficacy of the old pledge card 
 and petition gag, repeated the ruse. Further, he advised 
 Thompson in a course of modesty, which manifested itself 
 thus, when he was besieged with press questions concern- 
 ing his candidacy: "If the people of Chicago want me, I 
 will. I owe it to them and will abide by their judgment. 
 They have the say in such matters." It was best to proceed 
 with caution at the beginning. 
 
 Naturally, the pressure of the machine was exerted to 
 the utmost. Everyone on the city pay-roll was told to work 
 like the devil or be compelled to seek honest toil. The fol- 
 lowing excerpt from the papers is an illustration of the 
 absurd lengths of enthusiasm resulting from the boss's 
 edict : 
 
 Garbage and ash-wagon drivers placed on the city payroll 
 by the Lundin-Thompson organization are charged with refus- 
 ing to haul away refuse unless the property owners sign petitions 
 
TRILBY AND SVENGALI 151 
 
 asking Mayor Thompson's re-election. The charge has been in 
 circulation at the city hall for mere than a week that the drivers 
 of city wagons were spending their time getting signatures to 
 Thompson petitions and pledge cards, while the ashes are piling 
 up in the alleys. George Pretzel, alderman of the 26th ward, 
 confirmed the report by this incident: 
 
 "One of the garbage wagon drivers in my ward, Gierke by 
 name, called at my home and insisted my wife sign a petition 
 for William Hale Thompson before he would haul away the 
 garbage. I was surprised at the fellow's nerve in calling at my 
 house, but I suppose he didn't realize where he was." 
 
 But despite the protests of public-spirited Pretzels, 
 zealous Thompsonites like Herr Gierke continued to 
 thump the drum for their boss. Bill was keeping his ear, 
 in true western fashion, close to the ground. Every cheer 
 for his candidacy, whether stimulated by "Support Big 
 Bill or no garbage removal" or some other coercion, 
 counted heavily and influenced his decision to run. 
 
 On January 14, 1919, Mayor Thompson favored a 
 large crowd at Arcadia Hall, on the north side, with 
 his formal declaration that he was ready to serve their 
 interests again in the style long favored. The mayor's 
 cabinet sat with him on the platform in easy contentment, 
 smiling and clapping always at the proper time. 
 
 Preceding the arrival of the man of the hour, Mrs. 
 Irene Pease Mantionya, daughter of the late James Pease, 
 pal of Thompson and long boss in the Lakeview district, 
 presided. A musical program followed Mrs. Mantionya's 
 remarks, and included in this lyric prelude was a clever 
 parody on the popular ditty of the moment, Navy. 
 Painted in large type on a sign erected in full view of 
 the audience were the words, which everyone liltingly 
 rendered, led by the beauteous chairman: 
 
 Over here we have a leader who's been fighting for you and me, 
 Ever since he has been elected he's been square as man could be, 
 
152 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Though lying newspapers may lie, 
 
 You hear the honest voters cry: 
 
 We'll elect Big Bill for our next mayor 
 
 Because he'll fight for everything that's fair; 
 
 From both gas and traction he'll get satisfaction, 
 
 The same old five cent fare. 
 
 Hail Big Bill! . . . 
 
 Dr. John Dill Robertson then spoke of the outstanding 
 features of his department under the passing regime but, 
 strangely, omitted reference to the biggest feather in his 
 cap, the death of Dr. Sachs. He did, however, speak feel- 
 ingly of babies and mothers and children and the aged 
 who had been given such efficient and humane care by the 
 Thompson hand. His pious prattle was interrupted, un- 
 fortunately, by the arrival of the beneficent ruler himself, 
 who pushed his way through applauding citizens until 
 he reached the platform littered with his minions. Mrs. 
 Mantionya then diagnosed him (the song evidently still 
 ringing in her ears), as "honest and true," and closed with 
 the expected superlative : that his administration had been 
 "the best the city ever has enjoyed." The not- very-arca- 
 dian hall rang with applause as Big Bill lumbered to his 
 feet. 
 
 He claimed for his administration a "record of con- 
 structive achievement, honest and economical." Chicago 
 under him, he added, was "the most orderly and law-abid- 
 ing city, by reputation, in the country." (Sic!) 
 
 In his attacks upon the press he used the same exposes 
 he had employed in 1912. The files of the old Lincoln 
 League had come in handy when dusted off. He concluded 
 that part of his address: "Because I have stood against 
 these selfish interests and for the interests of the public, 
 these papers have tried by false and malicious statements 
 to drive me from public life, so that I may no longer stand 
 
TRILBY AND SVENGALI 153 
 
 in the way of their greed and their desire to manipulate 
 the city government in their own interests." 
 
 Then he held up for approval, one by one, the planks 
 of his platform : home rule ; reduction in gas rates ; main- 
 tenance of the five-cent fare; opposition to all forms of 
 corruption, Democrats and aldermen who block the "con- 
 structive programs of your mayor." He urged a refer- 
 endum vote by the people on the question of municipal 
 ownership and operation of public utilities corporations, 
 and pled for the abolishment by law of the Public Utilities 
 Commission. 
 
 He made no attempt to defend, categorically, the dis- 
 solution of Mayor Harrison's surplus, the raping of the 
 merit system, the burdening of the taxpayers with hun- 
 dreds of unnecessary "experts," the piratical seizure of the 
 municipal tuberculosis sanitarium. But he did talk at con- 
 siderable length of things of more general interest: "the 
 equal rights of men and women," the "divorce of police 
 from politics," "justice for returning soldiers and sailors," 
 and the importance of "free speech and liberty for all." 
 
 All the really choice omissions in the Thompson lectures 
 were the high points in the speeches of Olson and Mer- 
 riam. Every dereliction of the last four years was dragged 
 out into the open and played up mercilessly. Lundin was 
 given his proper place in the sun and dignified with many 
 titles. The politics back of every move of the administra- 
 tion was explained and emphasized. And in this hot cam- 
 paign of abuse and counter-abuse the papers seconded 
 and detailed every indictment issuing from the aspirants 
 for Bill's chair and scalp; only the Hearst papers, the 
 American and the Examiner, stuck with the mayor. 
 
 The day before the primary an amusing incident 
 occurred which throws light on the temper of the cam- 
 paign and particularly on one of the chief characteris- 
 tics of Hizzoner, to wit, that while he has tenacity and 
 
154 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 the fighting spirit, his wits are slow and he is easily 
 discomfited. 
 
 It seems that Lundin and Thompson had organized a 
 large group of soldiers and sailors to distribute pro- 
 administration literature in the Loop, which fact implied 
 an endorsement by the veterans of Big Bill's candidacy 
 and served to mitigate the bad impression created by his 
 war record. This stratagem enraged one Lieutenant 
 Tharp, advocate of Merriam, and he had marshaled sev- 
 eral dozen ex-soldiers into a "vigilantes" legion. Clashes 
 between the rival veterans were frequent and hot-headed, 
 the climax being a dramatic scene involving Tharp and 
 Thompson. At a noon meeting in a Loop theater Thomp- 
 son said: "One of my opponents who is supposed to have 
 fought in the war has been bringing disgrace to the uni- 
 form of our country's soldiers by hiring men in uniform 
 to parade the streets and insult the mayor." 
 
 "That's not true," shouted Lieut. Tharp, who was 
 standing in the rear of the theater. "I happen to know 
 that not a single one is being paid. I am the organizer of 
 the vigilantes club for Captain Merriam." 
 
 "Put him out !" "Toss him out on his ear !" The crowd 
 rioted and seethed angrily. 
 
 Bill kept his head for the moment. "Bill Thompson is 
 glad to have any soldier of the nation talk in this meet- 
 ing." And he assisted Tharp to the stage. 
 
 The ungrateful hero started speaking at once. "I was 
 over there with the fifth division and I want to tell you 
 how your soldiers felt when they received the newspapers 
 telling of the pro-Germanism of your mayor." He got no 
 further. Thompson asked him if he had received his dis- 
 charge. The lieutenant replied that he had. Bill then hur- 
 riedly adjourned the meeting, and Tharp experienced a 
 little roughing up before he could get away. 
 
 That night, at the Masonic Temple, Thompson was in 
 
TRILBY AND SVENGALI 155 
 
 the midst of an account of the noon rally. From the back 
 of the hall came a thunderous voice; it belonged to the 
 pestiferous Tharp : "Yes, and I am here tonight too." 
 
 Bill cursed to himself. "You are here to make more 
 trouble," he responded quietly. 
 
 "Not to make more trouble ; to defend the uniform you 
 say is being disgraced by efforts to help elect an American 
 mayor and to defeat pro-Germans. Can I come up on the 
 platform?" he challenged. 
 
 "You cannot!" roared Bill, red in the face and twitch- 
 ing with anger. "Officers, remove that man from the hall !" 
 
 But before this could be accomplished the intrepid fel- 
 low had made a short speech about fighting Germans over- 
 seas and fighting them in the city hall. He said that the 
 mayor stood for free speech when applied to I. W. W. 
 meetings, but not when it concerned men in uniform voic- 
 ing their plea for an "American mayor." During this 
 annoying interlude Thompson stood on the platform, first 
 on one foot and then on the other, sweating not a little. 
 Somehow he just couldn't think of the right thing to say. 
 
 Olson's final statement to the voters said : "There is but 
 one paramount issue : shall the political machine of Mayor 
 Thompson and Fred Lundin, which has been exploiting 
 the city and citizens of Chicago, remain in power another 
 four years?" 
 
 Unhappily for Olson and Deneen, in so far as that pri- 
 mary determined things, the answer was "yes." Lundin 
 had built up his organization well; and the bosses and 
 heelers went out on primary day with a temporary burst 
 of energy born of a frantic desire to maintain the pork 
 diet they had, Jew and Gentile alike, fattened upon. 
 
 Thompson's astounding plurality over Olson in 1915 
 was severely reduced, but he again made the grade com- 
 fortably. The results were: for the Best Mayor Chicago 
 
156 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Ever Had, 124,194; for Olson, 84,254; for Merriam, 
 17,690. 
 
 The poor showing of Charles Merriam was passed over 
 by the large papers as signifying little but the futility 
 of a man attempting to run for an important office in a 
 metropolis without a semblance of a machine; but in 
 reality it meant more than that. Adequate publicity had 
 been given this man's name for ten years in the past; 
 his creditable and courageous record in the council had 
 clearly shown him to be honest and practical; and his 
 academic position testified to his grasp of what it was all 
 about. Yet only seventeen thousand people in the city 
 granted him their vote : a tragic comment on government 
 in a democracy. 
 
 In the Democratic primary Robert Sweitzer had an 
 easy time of it. He and Brennan had full control of the 
 Democratic county committee and the organization func- 
 tioned without flaw on election day. His record as county 
 clerk had been good and there was nobody about to give 
 him serious competition. 
 
 The campaign from the primary forward was rather 
 quiet. There were, of course, parades and pyrotechnical 
 displays, attacks and counter-attacks, reviving of old 
 issues and the introduction of new ones; but in the main 
 it was a struggle for supremacy between two puissant 
 machines. 
 
 Homer K. Galpin, the chairman of the Republican 
 county committee, took formal charge of the Thompson 
 crusade, but this was just a gesture to hide the identity 
 of the real leader. Fred Lundin continued to see that 
 things were not bungled. 
 
 There was little disaffection. The Deneen forces were 
 more amenable to reason this time and a solid front seemed 
 assured. Most of the leaders of the 1915 effort still worked 
 in behalf of Big Bill. Gene Pike had been nettled several 
 
TRILBY AND SVENGALI 157 
 
 times by the insolence of Lundin but remained loyal to his 
 pal. The most conspicuous absentee was James Pugh. 
 After his split with Lundin and later with Thompson he 
 had retired to nurse his badly mangled fortune. He did, 
 however, look up from his business long enough to indi- 
 cate his unqualified repudiation of the administration, and 
 to espouse the candidacy of Merriam in several long 
 statements. Shortly afterwards he died. 
 
 Like the primary, the election campaign was a three- 
 cornered contest, but this time the odd man was not merely 
 an academic figure; he was Maclay Hoyne, the state's 
 attorney of Cook County. This Hoyne was a flamboyant 
 fellow, exuding plenty of blarney of a brand particularly 
 effective with the Better Element, who seemed to regard 
 him as somewhat of an uplifter. There is little evidence 
 to support this contention, although Hoyne was skillful 
 in cadging publicity of a nature to give this impression. 
 As a loyal Jeffersonian he frequently attacked the law 
 enforcement under the Republican administration, but 
 there doesn't seem to be overwhelming proof of his own 
 competency in this direction. Most well-informed observ- 
 ers looked upon his mouthing-s as simply balderdash, with 
 a selfish objective, furthering his own career ; in short, just 
 another politician. Many people considered his candidacy 
 as a piece of Brennan strategy, but if it was it reflects 
 sorrowfully on George Brennan, for Hoyne took more 
 votes from Sweitzer's column than from Thompson's. The 
 basis for such a notion lay in the nature of the Demo- 
 cratic attack. Sweitzer, being a German with a large fol- 
 lowing among his countrymen, couldn't very well abuse 
 Big Bill for his lack of enthusiasm for the Entente altru- 
 ism; so, the theory has it, Hoyne was put up to seduce 
 as many patriots from the Thompson banner as possible. 
 In addition, he was expected to deliver the thousands of 
 
158 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 those who had become irritated by the Lundin presence 
 and operations. 
 
 This may be true. But it is just as likely that Hoyne's 
 incumbency in the prosecutor's^ chair had inoculated him 
 with delusions of grandeur, a disease afflicting all politi- 
 cians in some measure everywhere. And he made a strong 
 bid to increase his political stature. Most of the citizens 
 believed in his independence and non-partisanness, and 
 thousands of mild little men cast their vote for him think- 
 ing they were aiming tiny arrows against the machine 
 Moloch. Hoyne talked a good deal about crime, corrup- 
 tion, inefficiency, and devoted some attention to reviving 
 wartime hates, gaining as a consequence the endorsement 
 of the leading haters of the town. 
 
 Sweitzer's appeal was chiefly to the common people, the 
 working classes. And to these the war was only something 
 to be regretted. They had profited not at all from it, and 
 lost a great deal ; so Sweitzer couldn't assail Bill's conduct 
 in that category. He concentrated largely on corruption 
 and the "invisible government." 
 
 A number of authorities have said that the deciding 
 factor in this election was the Irish vote cast for Big Bill. 
 How it happened that any son of Erin could conscien- 
 tiously mark his ballot for William Hale Thompson, mem- 
 ber of Hesperia Lodge 411, A. F. & A. M., when a per- 
 fectly qualified Knight of Columbus faced him, is a puzzle 
 to an outsider familiar with the blazing piety of most 
 Irish Catholics. But understanding comes easier when one 
 of the distempers of the hour is brought to the fore. John 
 Bull was having a difficult time bludgeoning the Irish into 
 the idea of their own inadequacy for home rule ; and Chi- 
 cagoans with a brogue and a long upper lip were inclined 
 to take sides against the British in the matter. Bill 
 Thompson, his long-standing animadversion for the Crown 
 crying for expression, took up the cudgel for the Dub- 
 
TRILBY AND SVENGALI 159 
 
 liners and Corkers in no uncertain terms, as was his 
 wont. And although Home-Rule-for-Ireland had a rather 
 strained relevancy to the Chicago mayoralty issue, Bill 
 was hailed as a new St. Patrick, driving the English 
 snakes out of the Emerald Isle. 
 
 Still, the result was close. Thompson rolled up 259,828 ; 
 Sweitzer trailed him dangerously with 238,206; and 
 Hoyne did fairly well with 110,851. True enough, party 
 lines had been disregarded, but, as is customary, the 
 strongest machine won. Not by much — a meager 21,000 — 
 but Bill had made the grade. On April Fool's Day, 1919, 
 the electorate played a vast and cynical prank on itself: 
 it reelected Bill Thompson mayor for the second time. 
 
 The reactions in the newspapers of the land were in- 
 stantaneous, for Thompson had become a familiar national 
 figure during the war. The headlines announcing his vic- 
 tory were livery and amusing : "Poor Old Chicago," "Un- 
 American Wins," "Chicago's Shame," "Copperhead Vic- 
 torious." The Springfield Republican called him "the 
 worst mayor Chicago ever had," while the State-Journal 
 of Lincoln, Nebraska, remarked cleverly: "Everybody to 
 his taste, as the old woman said when she kissed the cow. 
 A plurality of Chicago voters wanted more of Mayor 
 Thompson, and they have got him. That is their business 
 and their funeral." The New York Times was, as usual, 
 more explicit, William Chenery contributing a long article 
 which read in part : 
 
 He had been elected in 1915 as an anti-machine candidate, and 
 at once by a cruel and reckless demolition of the merit system 
 he had begun to build a machine of his own. He had assembled 
 ... a large gathering of business men behind his administration. 
 Within a brief space he had affronted them and squandered 
 their support. Later he was heralded as a friend of labor and 
 a few months thereafter the leaders of the Chicago Federation 
 
160 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 of Labor were excluded from the council chamber by his hench- 
 men. He had announced himself as an "American" mayor, and 
 before his term was half over every citizen who cared about 
 the honor of the nation at war hung his head when he remem- 
 bered Mayor Thompson's "sixth German city" utterance. He 
 was shown to have been on both sides of the wet and dry issue, 
 and he consistently had the friendship of neither the anti-saloon 
 leaders nor of the liquor dealers. He had at one time or another 
 represented nearly every available partial interest, and he had 
 never stood for the common welfare. 
 
 Thompson was not without a journalistic defender, 
 however. The Illinois Staats-Zeitung hailed the election as 
 a German triumph, implying it to be the first since the 
 Teutonic offensive of 1918. Also, the Northwest Tribune, 
 founded by Lundin to point out the real and final truth 
 to the voters living in that outlying district, gave out a 
 chortling explanation of Big Bill's return to office. 
 
 In its editorials, of course, the Daily Tribune expressed 
 regret over Bill's reelection. It had attacked him vigor- 
 ously in the campaign and continued to be his most im- 
 placable critic. But, as has been frequently indicated in 
 preceding chapters, the boys of the press liked Bill per- 
 sonally, and the Tribune reporters were not exceptions to 
 this rule. The following excerpt from an anonymous 
 article appearing in this paper shortly after the inaugu- 
 ration is an illustration of this popularity with the scrib- 
 blers and also of the writer's skill in painting a sym- 
 pathetic picture with no concessions to sentiment and no 
 distorting of the truth. In short, it is admirable under- 
 standing of Thompson's true nature: 
 
 Thomas De Witt Talmadge used to say in the manner that my 
 father called "the manner of a cooper going around a barrel," 
 "The scientists tell us whence we came; the theologians tell us 
 where we are going; the fact remains for us to consider that we 
 
TRILBY AND SVENGALI 161 
 
 are here." Such a fact is the mayor. Human and forthright as I 
 found him, I don't think I have any blinding illusions about him. 
 Often he has shown himself brazenly demagogic, expedient, 
 limited, and neither having the capacity nor invariably solicitous 
 to surround himself with the best type of public servant. Some- 
 times he has compromised when he ought to have stood firm and 
 sometimes he has manifested amazing bull-headedness when 
 with advantage to the public weal and with benefit to himself he 
 might have conceded much. 
 
 But he is here. . . . 
 
 Can he be enthused, cajoled, encouraged to decisive action? 
 That he cannot be whipped to it seems certain. He has not that 
 bull neck and those unwinking eyes for nothing. He has received 
 criticism of a kind that would have driven most men out of public 
 life or broken their hearts, and he has received it, if not stoically, 
 with a certain stolidity, and he has won against it. . . . 
 
 I have heard it told that he is indolent. He thinks otherwise. 
 "If a man is looking for an easy time/' he said the other day, 
 "I can think of a lot of places he'd better seek than this office. 
 The job's a man-killer. Busse called it that too; but 'Hell, Busse/ 
 I used to say to him, 'Cheer up ; you ain't elected for life !' " 
 
 On the whole, in thinking over my impressions of him, I am 
 led again to a conviction that has been the growth of nearly thirty 
 years of journalistic observation of men and affairs: that no 
 public man is either as good or as bad as his public reputa- 
 tion. . . . 
 
 And he's so human — human when he was relishingly recount- 
 ing his grandfather's joke about the old north side, "always cry- 
 ing for improvements, so finally they gave 'em the jail;" and 
 when with "what's the matter, honey?" and a low spoken con- 
 ference he comforted a child whom we found crying bitterly 
 because her big sister had run away with her dolls. 
 
 A listening, pithy man, I found him. No babbler. Perhaps 
 his prime attribute now is that he can listen intelligently. Whether 
 the qualities that have taken him so far in a hard game have 
 their source in strength of character or only in vehemence or 
 bravado, who can say? He can prove all that. 
 
 Anyway, he's here. 
 
162 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 With very few exceptions, the leaders of the municipal 
 government remained the same. The biggest change was 
 the resignation of City Comptroller Pike, whose warm 
 regard for Bill had not been able to counterbalance his 
 spasms of disgust at the Lundin tactics. His place was 
 filled by George F. Harding, who as state senator had 
 long been affiliated with the Lorimer-Lundin machine. He 
 was a valuable man for the cabinet, for he was experienced 
 in politics, wealthy, and no believer in gross highwayman 
 methods. Homer Galpin, too, spoke up for the share of 
 the patronage he felt he had earned by his management 
 of the campaign. 
 
 With a cabinet that pleased him and a reasonably well- 
 knit organization pyramided up to the fine point of his 
 wand, Lundin prepared for the future with grinning 
 equanimity. The following year was to decide the most 
 important bulge in his swelling ambitions. He was going 
 to try to obtain as vice-like a grip on the county and 
 state as he had on the city. 
 
 It was taken for granted that the Thompson-Lundin 
 choice for governor would be Len Small. His years of 
 fealty to the Lorimer escutcheon had proved to Lundin 
 that he could be trusted if he finally was greased into the 
 chair for which he had struggled so long. His chances 
 were bright. His downstate following was fairly prepos- 
 sessing, especially in his native region of Kankakee, and 
 if Lundin could be counted on to deliver Cook County the 
 total would be sufficient to ensure nomination. Unlike 
 William Lorimer, whose return to Congress Lundin had 
 just failed to engineer, Small had been detected in no 
 malodorous offenses and was a good drawing card, as 
 his plurality for state treasurer indicated. 
 
 Another office Lundin considered imperative to control 
 was that of state's attorney. With an unfriendly person, 
 like Maclay Hoyne, threatening indictments against the 
 
TRILBY AND SVENGALI 163 
 
 boys and pressing the papers to scream forth the news, it 
 was too uncomfortable. And besides the negative aspect, 
 there was the positive one that much patronage came 
 from this source. So, with considerable care, Fred made 
 his selection, Robert Emmet Crowe. 
 
 Bob Crowe was young, extraordinarily ambitious, hard- 
 shelled and aggressive. He had more polish than most of 
 the politicians of the period, had a Yale education, and 
 could be relied upon (so the Swede thought) to give the 
 machine all the cooperation required. Shortly after 
 Thompson's election in 1915 he had been given support 
 on a non-partisan ticket for a seat on the circuit court, 
 and soon rose to be chief justice of the criminal court, 
 where his decisions had acquired wide publicity. Best of 
 all considerations, he was willing to finance his own cam- 
 paign, due in part to his recent marriage into the family 
 of a rich Italian merchant. 
 
 In 1912 Lundin had witnessed what damage can be 
 done by a county judge not easily persuaded to reason, 
 for this office oiled the election machinery. This time the 
 candidate, Frank S. Righeimer, was hand-picked and 
 given the full support of the machine. 
 
 The primary was bloody and prolonged. Small pegged 
 away at an issue which touched everybody in Chicago, the 
 recent raising of the traction fares, and contended loudly 
 that this annoyance was due to the Public Utilities Com- 
 mission created by Lowden, who was aiding Oglesby, 
 Small's opponent. For the rest of the state Len promised 
 good roads, always the broadest plank in his platform 
 when addressing his fellow-farmers. Crowe, of course, 
 talked a great deal about crime, although he must have 
 referred to crime only in that part of Cook County out- 
 side Chicago, for Thompson had modestly confessed to 
 cleaning up the metropolis the season before. 
 
 The Republican primary turned out exactly as Lundin 
 
164 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 had hoped and planned. Small, Crowe and Righeimer 
 all won. In the election Small faced former Senator 
 James Hamilton Lewis (unkindly dubbed "pink- whiskered 
 Ham"), an able lawyer and administrator and a genuine 
 gentleman. Unfortunately, Lewis' machine was not united 
 behind him, votes were traded right and left, and he went 
 down before a man not fit to attend him as valet. 
 
 But Lundin's extensions of power were not solely the 
 result of superior strategy and campaigning ; he benefited 
 immeasurably by the Harding-Coolidge landslide. But 
 before Harding was offered to the people as a palliative 
 for the national nausea produced by too much Wilsonian 
 idealism, he had to be nominated. And in the June con- 
 vention of 1920 Big Bill Thompson played a most signifi- 
 cant role. 
 
 The convention was in Chicago, and Fred Lundin, with 
 Bill as one of the national committeemen, had sway over 
 the Illinois delegation. This bloc was publicly pledged to 
 Senator Hiram Johnson of California, with whom Lundin 
 was friendly and for whose anti-World Court views 
 Thompson had great sympathy. As the hot days of the 
 farce succeeded each other it became increasingly evident 
 that Johnson could not be nominated, for he was not 
 acceptable to the easterners. The two leading candidates 
 were General Wood and Colonel Lowden, deadlocked for 
 the plum. This deadlock would have been obviated, and 
 Lowden would have been the nominee, had his own state's 
 delegation been as enthusiastic for him as it was against 
 him; but Thompson's 1917 feud with Lowden interposed 
 to prevent the coup. Some writers incline to the view that 
 Bill figured if the deadlock was maintained he stood an 
 excellent chance of riding in as a dark horse himself. This 
 is extremely unlikely. Thompson was pleased, naturally, 
 when the press occasionally carried his name in a long 
 list of possible compromise candidates; but he wasn't so 
 
TRILBY AND SVENGALI 165 
 
 numbed mentally that he took his chances very seriously. 
 However, he was bitterly pledged to thwart Lowden's 
 dreams — and he did. 
 
 As every criminologist with a long memory will recall, 
 Harry M. Daugherty, with much scheming and sledge- 
 hammering, pushed Warren Gamaliel Harding of Marion, 
 Ohio, upon the G. O. P. delegates as their choice for 
 President of the United States ; and a man by the name 
 of Coolidge, from Northampton, Massachusetts, was 
 picked as his running mate. 
 
 Poor Lowden, really a competent man and not at all 
 deserving the treatment he received, left the convention 
 hall with bowed head, cries of "bought delegates" and 
 "steamroller" ringing in his ears. Shortly after his de- 
 parture a man whose only qualifications for the high 
 honor tossed his way by a crowd of perspiring and irre- 
 sponsible politicians were a handsome head, a propensity 
 for a stiff game of poker, and a comely miss in his closet 
 was nominated. 
 
 Bill Thompson exulted. His vendetta had come to 
 happy fruition. He didn't know who this Harding fellow 
 was, but he looked like the right sort. In order to satisfy 
 himself of a few stray doubts he drew up a list of ques- 
 tions relative to international affairs, which he flung at 
 Harding shortly after the convention had adjourned. 
 Senator Warren's answers to Bill's catechism were pleas- 
 ing to Hizzoner, so he gave him unequivocal endorsement. 
 
 Lundin, Thompson, Galpin, Ettelson, George and War- 
 ren Harding prepared for the autumn campaign with 
 songs in their hearts. In common with all politicians 
 in the country, excepting Calvin Coolidge, the eternal 
 skeptic, they saw a Republican triumph as a certainty in 
 November. 
 
 They were right, of course ; Calvin's fears proved to be 
 so much myth and Congregational mysticism. The Demo- 
 
166 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 crats were defeated up and down the land, and in Illinois, 
 a safe state for the elephant anyway, it was a positive 
 massacre. Almost everyone on the Harding ticket was 
 swept into office. 
 
 Unrefined joy prevailed in the city hall. A gathering of 
 more than 5,000 associates of Thompson and Lundin grew 
 festive in the corridors and rooms. At one o'clock the 
 orchestra was still playing for the dancing of the "Vic- 
 tory Ball." Mayor Billy was in his glory, surrounded by 
 his congratulating friends, bubbling over as each fresh 
 batch of returns further emphasized the sweeping laughter 
 of the Grand Old Party. At nine o'clock he called Fred 
 at the Hotel Randolph (nee Bismarck) and leaving the 
 wire open expressed his sentiments thus: "Let's have the 
 Star Spangled Banner right now. It becomes apparent 
 that we will not have to sing God Save the King!" 
 
 In the month of November, 1920, Fred Lundin's strong 
 teeth took a firm grip upon the public throat; his power 
 rivaled that of old Governor Tanner back in the nineties. 
 Small did his bidding with alacrity and entrusted him with 
 practically all the state patronage, the best part of which 
 in Chicago were the West and Lincoln Park Boards, ad- 
 ministering the city's extensive park system. The South 
 Park Board, functioning the same on the south side, had 
 its members elected, because of a strange technicality, by 
 the circuit court judges. These Lundin did not as yet 
 have under his scepter, but as a judicial election was im- 
 pending soon he had hopes of stealing this patronage 
 from the Brennan Democrats. 
 
 Another Thompson-Lundin man coming into the pic- 
 ture at this time was Charles V. Barrett, destined to share 
 with Crowe the dictatorship of the machine after Lundin 
 was unseated. Two years before he had been elected to fill 
 a vacancy in the board of review, and in 1920 was elected 
 
TRILBY AND SVENGALI 167 
 
 to serve the full six-year term. His bailiwick, like Crowe's, 
 was the west side. They had been school chums. 
 
 All three Lundin entries for trustees of the sanitary dis- 
 trict, Morris Eller, Lawrence King and Alexander Todd, 
 rode easily into office for six-year tenures. This enabled 
 Fred to have a sizeable wedge in talking business with 
 Brennan, who had a majority here also. Thus, part of the 
 appropriation of the sanitary district, over $40,000,000, 
 was put at the disposal of the expanding Swede. 
 
 Nineteen-twenty marked the apogee of Fred Lundin's 
 influence in Chicago, Cook County and Illinois. He was 
 to loll in grandeur for two more years before the break 
 came. And Bill Thompson was to loll with him. 
 
 Did the latter, expert yachtsman that he was, experi- 
 ence some hint of the imminent squall? Was he entirely 
 happy ? There is small doubt that he often suspected that 
 all was not well, that many nights, just before falling into 
 the deep sleep permitted the strong, he stirred uneasily, 
 bothered with unpleasant memories. Not the least of these 
 was the repudiation of him by Jim Pugh. And there was 
 Pike, too. He had quit the cabinet cold. And Folsom — that 
 bothered him too — one of his oldest friends. And Billy 
 Morehouse. And that Sachs incident that seemed still to 
 annoy the Jews. And then there was that nasty race riot 
 of the summer of 1919. Its genesis had been a minor alter- 
 cation between some Negroes and Italians on the 29th 
 Street beach. The virus had spread, and before all the 
 clubbing, shooting and bitterness had subsided, thirty- 
 eight people had been killed, over five hundred injured 
 and a thousand rendered homeless and destitute. Of 
 course, it was the colored folk who bore the brunt of the 
 suffering. They had appealed to their mayor, their pro- 
 tector, to save them. He had delayed and delayed. Not a 
 few curses were directed his way from the Black Belt, 
 where formerly had come only hosannas. He had deserted 
 
168 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 them at the hour of their greatest need. Bill didn't like 
 to think of that. 
 
 It was much more pleasant to recall the opening ol the 
 Michigan Avenue Link Bridge the previous May, a 
 $10,000,000 project greeted by cheering crowds and the 
 pronouncement of D. F. Kelly, head of the State Street 
 Stores' Association, that it was "the greatest event since 
 the World's Fair in 1893." Bill forgot that the Chicago 
 Plan, of which this bridge was a part and which included 
 park improvements, embroidery of the river and other 
 laudable enterprises, had been set in motion under Busse, 
 and that the burden of the litigation impinging upon its 
 execution fell to the lot of Mayor Harrison, who worked 
 so diligently in knocking down these legal obstacles that 
 everything was all set for Thompson when he was inducted 
 into office. But Bill seized the credit and led the strutting 
 procession of the unfolding Wacker Plan. 
 
 So Bill soothed himself with selected memories and was 
 able to sleep soundly. Soon he was off with a large party 
 for West Baden, Indiana, to confer with the party leaders 
 over the reorganization of the machine brought about by 
 the November elections. Senator-elect William McKinley 
 was there, and Frank L. Smith, the state chairman, Len 
 Small, Lundin, Crowe, Righeimer, Virtus Rohm, George 
 F. Harding, Coffin, Francis. They worked and played 
 for more than a week before returning to their respective 
 tasks. 
 
 The year 1920 closed with Chicago's mayor making his 
 first visit in five and one-half years to the police depart- 
 ment. It was Christmas Eve. He entered casually, alone. 
 The loitering officers of the law were as agitated as hill- 
 billies at a revival meeting. Thompson strolled about sev- 
 eral minutes, inspecting the pictures and athletic trophies 
 lining the walls. When he came to a group of photographs 
 of policemen killed in performance of their duty, he re- 
 
TRILBY AND SVENGALI 169 
 
 marked: "That's a shame. It's too bad. What you ought 
 to have here, alongside, is a cabinet bearing the names of 
 the men hanged in this city." The lounging coppers 
 nodded sympathetically. Big Bill was introduced to Mike 
 Hughes, chief of detectives, a man later to become his 
 chief of police. Then he sauntered out the door. Outside 
 he breathed a sigh of satisfaction. That department was 
 taken care of, anyway. 
 
FOURTEEN 
 
 A NOT VERY PROGRESSIVE PAGEANT 
 
 "Throw away your hammer and get a horn, A booster 
 is better than a knocker." 
 
 THE unceasing reminders of the newspapers that the 
 Thompson stream was muddied with dozens of cor- 
 ruptions and inefficiencies was beginning to have its effect 
 upon the prominent business men of the town. They were 
 growing restless and resentful as they noticed the adverse 
 publicity Chicago was receiving in consequence, invali- 
 dating the paeans of their public relations counsels, which 
 daily heralded the virtues of the city as a summer resort 
 and as a center for sausages, hay, chewing gum, farm 
 machinery and furniture. Once legion in support of Big 
 Bill, they were now dropping his bandwagon in droves. 
 So the city hall board of strategy conceived an idea which 
 they believed would circumvent this feeling. 
 
 The first move was the organization of the Chicago 
 Boosters' Publicity Club, with a slogan calculated to make 
 a deep impression: "Boost Chicago. Boost it at home. 
 Boost it to the country. Boost it to the world." Two hun- 
 dred leading Midases, representing over two billion dol- 
 lars capital, met with the mayor and agreed enthusias- 
 tically with his plans to spend four million dollars of their 
 money to boost the city, Bill having convinced them boy- 
 ishly that the return would be one hundred million in busi- 
 ness. This money was to be spent by a board of directors 
 presided over by Samuel Insull and which included the 
 
 170 
 
A NOT VERY PROGRESSIVE PAGEANT 171 
 
 mayor, D. F. Kelly, department store magnate, Frederick 
 Bartlett, real estate operator, Everett C. Brown, president 
 of the International Live Stock Exchange, and Robert 
 McLaughlin, wholesale hardware manufacturer. Exten- 
 sive ballyhoo was planned also, to be concocted by local 
 talent. And the executive work was to be handled by 
 Thompson, Barlett, Kelly and Brown, in addition to their 
 obligations to the finance committee. 
 
 An information bureau and a bureau of vital statistics 
 were established ; signboards were placed at vantage points 
 between Chicago and New York, to inform the emigrating 
 Chicagoan that he was leaving something grand, and the 
 approaching New Yorker that he was about to see a great 
 city. Special articles filled all magazines west of the 
 Atlantic Monthly; arrangements were made to film the 
 wonders of the Windy City and impose them upon an 
 eager world. The "Greater Chicago" spirit pervaded the 
 land and the engendered effect greatly disquieted less 
 gifted chambers of commerce. Verily, Big Bill was put- 
 ting his charges over with a bang and a boom, demon- 
 strating the verity in the Evening American's gurgle that 
 "the horn is more constructive than the hammer." 
 
 But even poetry of such high ecstasy could not be 
 wholly convincing. A land cannot subsist upon cream 
 puffs. So the boys planned something more substantial 
 as a sequel to the shouting. 
 
 It was the Swede's idea to have a tremendous and soul- 
 sweeping Pageant of Progress Exposition on the Munici- 
 pal Pier. This pier jutted into the lake almost a mile from 
 the foot of Grand Avenue and had been built in Thomp- 
 son's first term "to alleviate unemployment." 
 
 No sooner was the idea born than Big Bill fell upon it 
 with the avidity of a Mississippian reaching for the tar- 
 brush. He elucidated its merits to the assembled capital- 
 ists. He told them, and later the public, how the pageant 
 
172 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 would nail the unemployment bugaboo to the cross of 
 prosperity; how the date of its opening would coincide 
 with the week the wholesale buyers arrived from the dregs 
 of the Basin. 
 
 The opening of the Exposition was an event of such 
 gigantic importance to the entire United States that 
 Mayor Thompson asked for the attendance of President 
 Warren Gamaliel Harding. But it was on a Saturday 
 night and a battle of minds was scheduled at the "Crow's 
 Nest," so Warren declined with regrets. However, he did 
 empower his brother Elk, Secretary of Labor John J. 
 Davis, to act for him and deliver the words of congratu- 
 lation he felt clammering for expression. 
 
 All was not myrrh and frankincense in the Chicago 
 atmosphere, however. The larger newspapers failed to 
 share Bill's enthusiasm for the activities of the Boosters' 
 Club. Mr. J. Lewis Coath, long a Thompson sycophant, 
 was very indignant: 
 
 These papers [the Tribune and the News] have scandalized 
 and thrown so much mud at the city that it has been necessary for 
 the business men of Chicago to get together to raise $4,000,000 
 in order to put clean paint on our house to cover up the dirt 
 thrown by these papers. We should not only refuse to advertise 
 in these papers, but we should refuse to buy and read them. If 
 they do not like Chicago, why in hell don't they get out of it? 
 
 Mr. Coath became president of the school board shortly 
 after this sally. 
 
 For the two weeks of the Exposition there were 55,000 
 visitors to the pier daily. Fireworks, dancing, guzzling 
 of pop and lemonade, boat races, excursions, contests of 
 one sort and another, and many speeches served to make 
 the fortnight a gala one for Chicagoans and tourists not 
 too urbane. 
 
 A day or so after the pageant closed Mayor Thompson 
 
A NOT VERY PROGRESSIVE PAGEANT 173 
 
 was tendered a banquet at the Congress Hotel by the one 
 thousand business men whose money and altruism had 
 made the magnificent affair possible. Big Bill averred that 
 they had "knocked the t out of can't" by putting it over 
 in a time of industrial depression. He went on to say that 
 the Pageant of Progress would be an annual institution 
 and that 85 percent of the exhibitors had signed up for 
 the following year already. D. F. Kelly, treasurer of the 
 pageant, made a "rough and preliminary" report of the 
 finances, confessing that the profits would be about $355,- 
 000. This amount, it was stated, would be split three 
 ways : $100,000 was to be kept in the Pageant of Progress 
 Exposition treasury; the remainder was to be divided 
 between the Health and Sanitary Exhibition, in which 
 Dr. John Dill Robertson was interested and of which 
 Thompson was chairman, and the Chicago Boosters' Pub- 
 licity Club. "Many are asking what is to become of this 
 money," said Mr. Kelly. "If our critics will just have 
 patience I can assure them that under the guidance of 
 the mayor and Dr. Robertson the money will be spent for 
 the welfare of Chicago." 
 
 The critics referred to by the affable Mr. Kelly had 
 patience until fall. Then Attorney Samuel Grossman filed 
 a taxpayer's suit asking that a receiver be appointed to 
 take charge of all the money belonging to the pageant 
 company. In the legal tangle ensuing some interesting 
 facts came to light. 
 
 The court held that leasing the Municipal Pier to city 
 officials for private use was illegal, and that leases which 
 permitted the subletting of space on the pier to exhibitors 
 at a greatly increased rental were null and void because 
 of the private interest of Thompson and the others who 
 managed the pageant. 
 
 It was revealed that the Great Lakes Concession Com- 
 pany, organized to give the visitors indigestion, had also 
 
174 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 been authorized to give out the electrical, painting and 
 carpenter contracts. When Attorney Grossman pressed 
 Robertson about the intricacies of relationship between 
 the concession company and the contractors, the man of 
 science reluctantly admitted that the electrical work was 
 done by an electrical company but that the concession com- 
 pany received 10 per cent of the amounts of the contracts 
 for "clerical work." The two leading figures in the Great 
 Lakes Concession Company were F. Bowden De Forest 
 and Edgar A. Jonas. The former was one of the directors 
 of the Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium, controlled by 
 Robertson since the death of Dr. Sachs ; the latter person 
 had been an assistant to Ettelson and was now working 
 in the office of State's Attorney Crowe. 
 
 As the case wore on the high altruism of Bill and his 
 colleagues became less and less apparent, and was, finally 
 reduced to an absurdity when they sued for salaries for 
 the time they had spent on the project. 
 
 Part of the profits of the pageant had gone into a 
 dental clinic which was pledged to repair the crumbling 
 molars of Chicago's poor children. Even this fine gesture 
 was impugned by the relentless newspapers, for they 
 pointed out that never a tooth was repaired in it and that 
 the investment was lost. Suggestions were subsequently 
 made that the building be utilized for a nurses' home, but 
 this was never done. For a while it served as an election 
 board office ; then it became a detention home for girls not 
 properly inculcated with Methodist morals; now it is a 
 resting place for weary hobos desiring only peace and the 
 latest edition of Jim Tully. The Tribune announced the 
 other day that the "empty, windowless building is for sale, 
 and another of Thompson's whirlwinds relaxes into a faint 
 zephyr." 
 
 Half the profits of the Robertson institution was sup- 
 posed to go to the School for Home and Public Nurses. 
 
A NOT VERY PROGRESSIVE PAGEANT 175 
 
 The spike was cast into this when it was brought out that 
 Doc was one of the owners of the Bennett Medical School, 
 which in turn ran the nurses' school. (This college has 
 since been purchased by the Jesuits and has become an 
 adjunct of Loyola University. Out of courtesy the new 
 owners failed to rescind the degree given Thompson 
 shortly before the sale.) The doctor's attempt to take 
 money from the jeans of Robertson the Public Official and 
 slip it into the pocket of Robertson the Private Capitalist 
 was frustrated. 
 
 By 1923 the litigation was at an end. The brothers 
 Grossman's prolonged efforts on the part of the taxpayers 
 were finally victorious, at least technically. The officials of 
 the exposition — Thompson, Harding, Robertson, Francis, 
 Jonas and the rest — were forced to give over what was 
 left of the profits to the city. That the triumph was only 
 a moral one was indicated by the substance of the trans- 
 mission : a dilapidated building (the remnant of a $200,- 
 000 investment for the dental clinic) and $77,000 in cash. 
 
 Such is official responsibility in a democracy. No one 
 was prosecuted. Apparently no felony had been committed. 
 
 But before equity in the matter had been decided upon 
 the time came for another pageant, and hadn't Mayor 
 Thompson promised it as an annual world's fair? The 
 second Pageant of Progress, in 1922, earned only $22,000 
 profits. It was, though, a gay and ostentatious occasion. 
 
 The big feature of the exposition was a contest to deter- 
 mine the most beautiful woman in America. Elimination 
 tournaments were held at neighborhood conters in Chi- 
 cago, and the rest of America was invited to send its fair- 
 est Junos to compete. Besides money and glory, the girl 
 ultimately chosen as "Queen of the Exposition" and "Miss 
 Chicago" was to receive a trip to Atlantic City, to enter 
 the contest there. The officials of the pageant, the Chicago 
 
176 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 American and a few other artists were the judges. Mayor 
 Thompson did the crowning. 
 
 This was the last of Chicago's Pageants of Progress; 
 1923 witnessed the involving of the forward-looking civic 
 leaders who planned them in considerable hot water. And 
 the next mayor, William Dever, bothered himself more 
 with economical administration and law enforcement than 
 mighty promotional ventures like the pageant expositions. 
 Gradually it receded in the memories of the people, until 
 by 1928 the Tribune was referring to it as "a historic 
 event of the twenties." 
 
FIFTEEN 
 THE STORM BREAKS 
 
 ALMOST from the tap of the gong in 1915 the Chicago 
 newspapers, with the exception of the Hearst sheets, 
 had consistently assailed Thompson and Lundin and 
 featured every cupidity of the administration. Bill him- 
 self, more sensitive to criticism than his behavior would 
 seem to indicate, resented the unremitting barrages of the 
 press and instructed his busy attorneys to file libel suits 
 against the offending organs. In rapid succession he insti- 
 tuted proceedings against the Chicago Evening Post (two 
 suits, $100,000 and $500,000 respectively), against the 
 Daily News and Victor F. Lawson, its publisher, for 
 $250,000, and against the New York Herald-Tribune for 
 $500,000. There were four suits by Thompson against the 
 Chicago Tribune, for $500,000, $250,000, $100,000 and 
 $500,000 respectively. William Bither, an appointee of 
 Bill's, also sued the News at this time for $100,000. All 
 of these were for personal libel, and came to precisely 
 nothing. 
 
 Then, his indignation at what he looked upon as 
 invidious lampooning fanned to white heat, Thompson 
 caused the municipal corporation of Chicago, through 
 its attorney, Samuel Ettelson, to enter suit against the 
 Tribune company for the sum of $10,000,000! Its stag- 
 gering dimensions attracted wide publicity and eventually 
 it came to trial in the autumn of 1920. Harry M. Fisher 
 of the Circuit Court of Cook County was the sitting judge. 
 
 The suit was based on articles appearing in the Chicago 
 
 177 
 
178 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Tribune alleging that the plaintiff was "bankrupt, in- 
 solvent, broke, in a bad financial condition, and so improp- 
 erly and corruptly administered by its officers that its 
 streets were not properly cleaned and its laws not effi- 
 ciently enforced." The action was predicated upon the 
 assumption that inasmuch as a municipal corporation 
 owns property, conducts business and requires credit it is 
 subject to injury by libelous allegations and may bring 
 action for civil damages. 
 
 The Tribune demurred on several grounds, chief of 
 which was that if recovery was granted in this action it 
 would be a violation of the free press clauses in both the 
 Illinois Constitution and the Constitution of the United 
 States. In a long and brilliant opinion Judge Fisher sus- 
 tained the demurrer of the Tribune. 
 
 Soon after the trial the Tribune issued a brochure, 
 handsome in format and well written. It commenced with 
 a quotation from Milton's "Areopagitica," contained a 
 concise history of the development of freedom of speech, 
 and closed with an account of the suit just past. 
 
 It is extremely unlikely that Messrs. Thompson, Ettel- 
 son, Lundin and Harding had any notion about stran- 
 gling free discussion when they filed their many suits. The 
 Tribune pamphlet implies such, but whatever the extent 
 of the gang's rage at the heckling of the press, that wasn't 
 their idea in going to court about it. They felt that the 
 expenses of the litigation were justified if they could some- 
 how turn public opinion against the "crooked trust Dress" 
 and grab the martyr's crown. But it didn't work. 
 
 Thompson and Lundin, despite their 1920 successes and 
 the encomiums of the Hearst sheets, badly needed press 
 support. But one more favorable election was necessary 
 to ensure them almost absolute control of affairs. That 
 was the placing of judges on the bench who would be 
 
THE STORM BREAKS 17!) 
 
 respectful of their wishes. Overtures were made to three 
 of the larger papers, but the reception was churlish. 
 
 The judiciary election was to be in June of 1921, and 
 the Lundin-Thompson men were picked with careful eye 
 for vote-cadging ability. A considerable sum of money 
 was spent in behalf of these candidates, and the result 
 was awaited with genuine anxiety. 
 
 Opposition came from an unexpected source. The legal 
 fraternity resented the preparations of the Lundin ma- 
 chine to extend its tentacles over the courts, and the bar 
 association moved to give aid to any non-partisan ticket 
 which would arise. So the Deneen organization, the 
 Brundage faction (Edward Brundage having been put 
 into the attorney general's office in 1920 by Senator Medill 
 McCormick) and the Democrats formed a coalition ticket 
 which gained the approbation of the barristers, the 
 women's clubs and the anti-administration newspapers; 
 and from that day on the campaign was brisk and savage 
 until the last hour. 
 
 The outcome was surprising and significant : the hand- 
 picked ticket was buried, with not a Lundin-shaped head 
 showing. 
 
 This didn't mean, as the Tribune and the News cackled, 
 that the public worm had turned against the administra- 
 tion: their optimism was premature. But it did indicate 
 the shifting of the winds a bit. No real inroads were made, 
 but the machine was prevented from extending itself to 
 invincibility. It had required the coalescing of a number 
 of elements ordinarily not on speaking terms, but it had 
 been done. The really important effect was psychological. 
 The more timid rats deserted the ship, a bad omen for 
 any political machine. The morale of the outfit grew a bit 
 shaky, and gray rumors sped through the corridors of 
 the Sherman House. 
 
 Domestic disputes began to disturb the blissful calm of 
 
180 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 the administration, to corrupt its strength and render it 
 sterile. Eugene Pike, who had resigned from the cabinet 
 because of Lundin's high-handedness, daily whispered in 
 Bill's ample ear cancerous remarks concerning the tactics 
 of the Swede. It became noised about, further, that George 
 Harding was dubious of the efficacy of such iron-blooded 
 control. And Bob Crowe, an autocrat himself by tempera- 
 ment, resented the intrusions of Boss Fred into his baili- 
 wick and had an open squabble with Chief of Police Fitz- 
 morris over the division of authority in certain esoteric 
 matters. This led to a serious argument between Crowe 
 and Thompson, who backed his appointee. When the clan 
 retired to West Baden in November to posit a feasible 
 strategy for the county campaign the next spring, the 
 state's attorney was absent. His sullen disinclination to 
 work with the gang caused quite a stir. 
 
 Obviously everything was not rosy, and the passage of 
 time soon revealed broad fissures across the surface of 
 the machine. By the spring of 1922, a definite cleavage of 
 the Lundin-Thompson outfit became manifest. There was 
 the still dominant Lundin group, which included such men 
 as Virtus Rohm, Mike Faherty, Pat Moynihan, of the 
 Illinois Commerce Commission, William Bither, a lieuten- 
 ant of Faherty, Charles Bostrom, the building commis- 
 sioner, also a Faherty man, Congressman Michaelson and 
 Charles and Harry Ward, the last three former Lorimer 
 confidants. The Thompson wing embraced Pike, Harding, 
 Congressman Martin B. Madden, Dr. William H. Reid, 
 the commissioner of public service, and Chris Mamer. 
 Samuel Ettelson and Robert Crowe tried to be impartial 
 and steer a safe and middle course. The latter was not as 
 yet strong enough to break away and form a separate and 
 belligerent faction, although that step would have suited 
 his disposition. As for Len Small, he was known to be 
 heavily indebted to Lundin. 
 
THE STORM BREAKS 181 
 
 This internecine warfare had much to do with the sub- 
 sequent defeat at the hands of the coalition forces. For 
 the moment the opposition was better organized than 
 the administration forces, and in politics organization is 
 almost everything. 
 
 While the ground under Bill's feet was getting shakier 
 every day, something happened to hurt his feelings even 
 more, an incident far-reaching in its effects. It concerned 
 Thompson's Masonry, whose doings occupied a large 
 place in his heart. 
 
 It appears that a circus was given by the Memorial 
 Masonic Temple Association for the purpose of raising 
 funds for a temple to this distinguished sodality on the 
 south side of the city. Believing that the noble end justi- 
 fied usually questionable means, the circus committee 
 planned to swell the proceeds by the use of paddle wheels, 
 surely an innocuous swindle. The worthy Masonic breth- 
 ren experienced some difficulty in obtaining a permit and 
 appealed to Will H. Wade, an illustrious potentate of the 
 Mystic Shrine, to circumvent the annoyance by going to 
 the mayor, his friend and temple-brother, and informing 
 him of the silly scrupulousness of his police captains. 
 Wade's story is that he went to Thompson, was told every- 
 thing w r as 0. K., and that his secretary would take care of 
 the matter. That night he was notified, he said, that the 
 cops had refused to allow the wheels to operate, necessi- 
 tating Wade's second visit to the city hall. There he was 
 told by Bill's secretary to see the first assistant corpora- 
 tion counsel, who informed the fuming illustrious poten- 
 tate that paddle wheels were illegal, an irrelevant but 
 familiar point to Wade. The next development was a little 
 business transaction involving the Masons and the neigh- 
 borhood police lieutenant: for $100 a night the law would 
 be overlooked. This fee proved exorbitant in the light of 
 that evening's profits, so the lodge Scotsman was sent to 
 
182 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 the station to bicker for a halving of it, and won his case. 
 But this, too, proved inadvisable commerce, so they flatly 
 refused to pay any further tax; whereupon the police 
 discovered the law and stepped in to enforce it. 
 
 Quite naturally, Wade was humiliated, the Masons on 
 the south side were irate, and Big Bill lost caste with his 
 fraternity brothers. Wade's story got the public ear first 
 and caused a lot of chatter. Pressed for a rebuttal, 
 Thompson said: "Wade came to me and asked about the 
 permit. I told him that if it was not gambling he did not 
 need a permit, and that if it was gambling I presumed he 
 did not want a permit for the Masonic lodge. I referred 
 him to the corporation counsel's office. The verdict there 
 was that it was gambling, so no permit was issued." 
 
 An exceedingly unpleasant repercussion followed, some- 
 what complicated to trace to its source. Through William 
 Wesbey, a Shriner and the machine appointee to the 
 superintendency of the Lincoln Park Board, Potentate 
 Wade sent Thompson word to appear at the next Shrine 
 meeting and answer serious charges. At the gathering 
 Wade gave his version of the now famous paddle wheel 
 incident, with illustrations in the form of photographs of 
 wheels operated elsewhere, formally charging Thompson 
 with discrimination against Masons, apparently a grave 
 indictment. Poor Bill, humiliated by these accusations, 
 rose and attempted to cover his confusion with a patriotic 
 oration, his usual dodge when befuddled. Influenced by 
 Wade's sharp talk, and by his and one Thomas Houston's 
 undercover propaganda against the mayor, the Shriners 
 hissed the unhappy Thompson from the stage. 
 
 The Shrine affair affected the destiny of the Thompson- 
 Lundin machine considerably, but a few months earlier a 
 new uneasiness shook things up a bit, a blow more direct 
 and deliberate. Len Small became immersed in scalding 
 water up to his neck. Attorney General Brundage, under 
 
THE STORM BREAKS 183 
 
 instructions from Medill McCormick to cast as many spit- 
 balls at the Lundin gang as he could, unearthed some 
 facts about the governor which propelled him to the initia- 
 tion of criminal proceedings, charging a conspiracy in 
 connection with the withholding of more than a million 
 dollars in state funds. This departure from the punctilio 
 was alleged to have occurred between 1916 and 1918, 
 while Small was state treasurer. It was brought out that 
 the fraudulent transactions were conducted through the 
 Grant Park Bank, now defunct, but then flourishing 
 under two of Len's buddies. As the late trial of Harry 
 Sinclair and Mr. Harding's boy friends shows, conspiracy 
 to defraud is a very hard thing to prove, and Brundage 
 was unsuccessful in pinning this peccadillo on Governor 
 Small, despite the explosive quality of the facts in the 
 case. Shortly afterwards he ran for reelection, using the 
 persecution theme liberally in his speeches. His wife died 
 and he blamed this on Brundage's viciousness. So with the 
 power of the machine, plus a lot of sentimental rubbish, 
 he was again the victor. At once a civil suit was filed, 
 demanding that he return the million dollars he borrowed 
 from the commonwealth of Illinois. This, after lengthy 
 and technical litigation, he was forced to do. But not sub- 
 stantially the same million. Authoritative gossip from the 
 front has it that he shrewdly demanded contributions from 
 beneficiaries of his patronage and that these made up his 
 deficit to the state. 
 
 Small was very bitter that Brundage should be so un- 
 sporting. The latter, of course, was merely buttering his 
 own parsnips: Small's demise meant his gain, and some 
 say he wanted the 1924* nomination for himself. The gov- 
 ernor soon showed his few teeth. He vetoed a piece of 
 legislation which would have given his enemy several high- 
 priced assistants, and in general did all he could to trim 
 
184 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Brundage's patronage tree of every sprig and leaf giving 
 it life and strength. 
 
 Fred Lundin, in building up his synthetic Moloch, had 
 incurred a number of glowering antagonists, most of 
 whom were in his own party. (The Democrats, in the main, 
 were expediently friendly with the Swede, for he was 
 always willing to trade city patronage and contracts for 
 county favors, and lend support to their tickets when the 
 issue was between Jeffersonians and Deneen or Brundage 
 men.) Charlie Deneen was a foe of long standing, but the 
 two men who worried Fred the most were Brundage and 
 Crowe, both incumbents in offices of law enforcement. 
 Lundin realized, by the time Crowe had been state's attor- 
 ney twelve months, that his selection had been ill-advised, 
 for the fellow was ambitious, intelligent, and as iron- 
 handed a spoilsmaster as the boss himself. 
 
 Brundage's morbid curiosity about the intimate fiscal 
 life of Governor Small incurred the profound displeasure 
 of Lundin, who pledged himself to the task of evening 
 things up. But in 1922 Robert Crowe insulted the Swede 
 personally by causing a grand jury to probe into the 
 connections between the school board and the city hall. 
 
 All summer the grand jury listened to evidence relative 
 to the politics being played in the educational system. In 
 the fall Brundage, becoming impatient for indictments 
 which would wreck the Lundin-Thompson machine once 
 and for all, seized the investigation for his office and the 
 situation began to look black. The July grand jury had 
 discovered many irregularities but had dissolved without 
 returning any indictments. The August body had drawn 
 up a number of true bills but had not proceeded any fur- 
 ther. Brundage's interest in the investigation resulted in 
 some forty-odd indictments, but by spring of 1923 this 
 number had dwindled down to fifteen. They involved 
 Lundin, Edwin Davis, school board head, William Bither, 
 
THE STORM BREAKS 185 
 
 Albert Severinghaus, Charles Forsberg, Patrick and Fred 
 Moynihan, all charged with conspiring to defraud the 
 school board. 
 
 The largest factor in the investigation and prosecution 
 of Lundin and his colleagues was the Chicago Tribune, 
 whose editorial insistence had spurred Crowe to action 
 originally, and whose puppet Brundage was. This paper 
 wanted to discredit thoroughly the Lundin-Thompson- 
 Small crowd. 
 
 But before the trial is recounted, the school board 
 history must be sketched to facilitate understanding of 
 its impingent scandal. Professor George S. Counts, in his 
 lucid and admirable study of "School and Society in 
 Chicago," places most of the difficulty in the regime of 
 Mayor Busse, who in 1907 arbitrarily removed seven 
 members of the board of education from office, initiating 
 the struggle between the forces of politics and education 
 that is still waging. 
 
 Under a state law, enacted in 1891, the Chicago Board 
 of Education consisted of twenty-one members, appointed 
 by the mayor with the advice and consent of the city coun- 
 cil. In 1897 Mayor Harrison was responsible for the crea- 
 tion of a commission to investigate education in Chicago. 
 This body was headed by President William Rainey 
 Harper of the University of Chicago. After twelve months 
 of research the report of this commission was made public, 
 and as a direct result legislation was enacted in 1903, 
 1908, 1909 and 1917. This last was called the Otis Act 
 and revised things drastically, following closely the sug- 
 gestions of the Harper Commission. Although conceived 
 in good faith, it embodied two points which became the 
 seeds of future contention: it reduced the number of the 
 board to eleven (retaining the method of selection, how- 
 ever), and it provided that "the Board of Education shall 
 by a vote of a majority of the full membership of the 
 
186 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Board appoint, as executive officers, a superintendent of 
 schools, a business manager and an attorney." As Pro- 
 fessor Counts has clearly shown, this made for consider- 
 able friction and confusion, for "authority being divided, 
 divergent and even conflicting policies may be pursued in 
 several departments." But however inadequate the law has 
 proved itself to be, it nevertheless did seek to liberate the 
 schools from political influence and, by its tone and inten- 
 tion, did much to recognize the professional character of 
 the superintendent's office. 
 
 It was further provided that the board meet but twice 
 a month, that the members work without compensation, 
 that its meetings be open to the public, and that it be 
 divided into six committees by its president: rules, finan- 
 ces, buildings and grounds, school administration, health 
 and sanitation, and school supplies. 
 
 Mrs. Ella Flagg Young had been superintendent from 
 1909 to 1915. Working her way up from the bottom of 
 the system, she came to be the best superintendent Chi- 
 cago schools ever enjoyed. With the full backing of Mayor 
 Carter Harrison, and with the advice of John Dewey, then 
 at the University of Chicago, she fought for the profes- 
 sional rather than the political control of the schools. She 
 had many ructions with the school board, resigned in dis- 
 couragement on one occasion, but got along famously with 
 the teachers, an accomplishment not even approximated 
 by any of her successors (save one, Peter Mortenson, who 
 did so by truckling ignobly to them). 
 
 When Bill Thompson first came into office, trouble of 
 an unprecedented sort began. He found his school board 
 appointments, like most of his selections, vigorously op- 
 posed by Alderman Charles Merriam and the few other 
 enlightened militants of the council. Finally he was com- 
 pelled to submit a tentative board that did not include 
 such out-and-out incompetents as Rev. Brushingham. This 
 
THE STORM BREAKS 187 
 
 board was passed, and it selected John D. Shoop for the 
 superintendency. He served uneventfully through the war 
 months, and died in 1918. 
 
 In the meantime the Otis Act had been passed by the 
 legislature, and Thompson seized this opportunity to 
 scramble things enough to secure a board more easily 
 manipulated than the one permitted him by the council. 
 The law called for a board of eleven, and the mayor acted 
 quickly. He submitted eleven names to the council, includ- 
 ing two of the old board, Mr. Loeb and Mrs. Thornton, 
 and attempted to steamroller the list through with argu- 
 ments of expediency. The council 0. K.'d his choices condi- 
 tionally, with a reservation that it might reconsider within 
 four days. In this interlude Thompson's eleven met, 
 appointed an attorney and a business manager, and pro- 
 ceeded to transact the duties of the board, brazenly 
 assuming their legitimacy. However, after the four days 
 had elapsed the council reconsidered and refused to en- 
 dorse the Thompson appointees. The city was confronted 
 with the unique and disconcerting fact of two school 
 boards, both claiming authority! The Thompson board 
 remained in office until June of 1918, when the state 
 supreme court, at the insistence of the old board of 
 twenty-one, threw them out and restored the previous 
 body to power. According to this decision, only Loeb and 
 Mrs. Thornton had been legally appointed. The board of 
 twenty-one served until May, 1919, when the mayor recon- 
 stituted the board under the Otis Law with eleven new 
 members. 
 
 But in the interim the old board, following the death 
 of Shoop, set about finding another superintendent. It 
 caused a committee of nine representative citizens to can- 
 vass the nation for a man well suited to handle the diffi- 
 cult Chicago educational post. The committee discovered 
 
188 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 such a man in the person of Charles E. Chadsey, at the 
 time doing excellent work in Detroit. 
 
 Thompson and Lundin, casting about desperately for 
 a means of ingratiating themselves with the public, seized 
 upon the Chadsey selection as good campaign material, 
 and Bill pledged himself to remove him from office if he 
 (Thompson) were elected mayor again. His real reason 
 was that Chadsey could not be manipulated and domi- 
 nated ; the reasons he gave the voters were his usual sense- 
 less tirades about British invasion, appeals to jingo patri- 
 otism and local pride. 
 
 Once inaugurated, Thompson bore down upon the 
 superintendency with characteristic western vigor, con- 
 tending with only technical verity that "the gentleman 
 from Detroit" had no legal right to his four-year tenure. 
 He then caused his hand-picked board to dignify Peter 
 Mortenson with the title. Chadsey sought vindication in 
 the courts, who sustained his plea. The court order restor- 
 ing him to his job, however, was circumvented by the 
 board, and Chadsey resigned in disgust. But the matter 
 was not allowed to end thus. The court, annoyed at the 
 frustration of its order, asked for indictments against the 
 school board members on charges of conspiracy, tried 
 them and slapped them with sentences and fines. As for 
 Thompson's pet superintendent, Mortenson, the court 
 said, in handing down its verdict concerning the rest, 
 "that he had knowledge of the conspiracy to prevent Dr. 
 Chadsey from holding the office to which he was legally 
 entitled, and that he was perfectly willing that the con- 
 spiracy succeed, appears clearly. While legally he must 
 be found not guilty, yet from an ethical and moral stand- 
 point he presents the meanest figure in the case." 
 
 During this burlesque Thompson made an enemy of 
 Loeb by failing to appoint him to his reconstituted board. 
 The slighted one went to court and forced the mayor to 
 
THE STORM BREAKS 189 
 
 pick a new board in the fall of 1919, which included him. 
 
 When the board members' jail sentences had expired 
 and they returned to office, Professor Counts says that 
 "the way was clear for a raid upon the schools that for 
 boldness and unabashed cupidity has few parallels in the 
 written history of public education in the United States. 
 . . . The schools were in the clutches of the politicians . . . 
 and the educational treasury (some fifty millions a year) 
 lay open to the greed of members of the political machine." 
 
 Rumors of fancy corruption spread over the city, 
 reaching the ears of the local uplifters, who immediately 
 demanded an investigation. This was finally instigated, as 
 most reforms are, at the behest of other politicians long 
 jealous of the incumbents' privileges and power, and 
 anxious to shine as avenging angels. 
 
 Some of the rumors were verified. The following report 
 of the Municipal Voters' League is a clew to the zeal of 
 the Lundin-Thompson henchmen in attaining their ends : 
 
 The plundering crew grew more daring and ambitious in their 
 schemes. Plans were formed to seize for the board the sole power 
 of selling lands, to which the additional consent of the city 
 council is required by law. They dreamed of selling valuable 
 school lands to fortunate friends for real estate speculations 
 which would bring in millions to the ruling favorites. In their 
 eagerness they caused Attorney Bither of the board to spend 
 weeks at Springfield lobbying for this amendment. The school 
 teachers were told that, if the proposed law did not pass, their 
 salaries would be cut $50,000 a year. Angered and aroused at 
 this attempt at intimidation, the teachers went to the public with 
 the story, and the amendment, after passing in the house, was 
 defeated in the senate. Nothing daunted, the ring turned to the 
 quick and big profits to be made on the purchases of school and 
 playground sites. Their followers were tipped off to "go out and 
 get a school site and make some money on it." Here arose the 
 scandal which started the grand jury investigation. Something 
 
190 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 slipped. One of the trustees revealed irregularities in the pur- 
 chase of the Forestville site and told of secret meetings of the 
 board at which its open actions were planned. 
 
 As the above report suggests, the blunder of Bither in 
 trying to bulldoze the teachers into supporting the amend- 
 ment for which he was lobbying received wide publicity. 
 This brought down upon the fellow's head the ire of Boss 
 Fred, who despised bunglers, and almost cost him his 
 career. With so much at stake, Lundin had small patience 
 with inept spoilsmen. 
 
 The same report reveals the following startling facts 
 brought out in the investigation: 
 
 "Incidentals" cost the board, in 1921, $8,714,065 — a sum 
 greater than the entire cost, twenty years ago, of the whole public 
 school system. Apparently every contract and business trans- 
 action was scanned in search for graft. "Companies" sprang into 
 existence and began doing nourishing business with the board. 
 If business did not come fast enough, they accelerated it by 
 telephoning the school principals arrogant commands to order 
 equipment they did not need or had not asked for. The grand 
 jury got stories of electric potato-peelers costing $133, of phono- 
 graphs, dear at $40 each, costing the board $187. . . . Moving 
 pictures, pianos, rugs, were forced upon the schools. Desks and 
 tables were smashed and burned to make way for other tables. 
 The jury was told of kitchen tables costing $160. Plumbing was 
 torn out to make way for other plumbing at fancy prices. Some 
 of the furniture, it was reported by a Fox Lake farmer, was seen 
 moving in school board trucks, driven by school board employees, 
 in the direction of Fox Lake and the summer cottages of certain 
 prosperous politicians. 
 
 After weeks and weeks of such inflammatory stuff as 
 this, the state finally decided that enough had been 
 reported to justify a set of indictments. At first every- 
 one even remotely connected with the school board was 
 
THE STORM BREAKS 191 
 
 accused, but charges were dropped against the bulk of 
 the pikers and small fry until at last Chief Prosecutor 
 Young thought he had the ringleaders in the bag, and 
 proceedings were begun against Fred Lundin, Edwin S. 
 Davis, William Bither and twelve others alleged to have 
 been guilty of conspiring to defraud the children and the 
 children's parents of their lawful property and money. 
 
 Fred took no chance of being "railroaded by political 
 enemies," as he phrased it. The Swede was not going to 
 be disposed of without a stiff fight. So, opposed to prose- 
 cutors Young and Barnhart, both skillful pleaders, was 
 the finest array of criminal lawyers Chicago could boast 
 of : Patrick H. O'Donnell, now dead but long looked upon 
 as the dean of courtroom shouters and Bible-quoters, 
 whose record in defending maligned innocents was longer 
 than his lanky arms; Benedict Short, a keen little man, 
 cryptic and relentless, whose experience in pounding home 
 facts to skeptical juries and talent for ferreting out tech- 
 nicalities to befuddle them had earned him scores of tri- 
 umphant exculpations; Charlie Erbstein, with his shady 
 California past and brilliant Chicago present ; and lastly, 
 to head the defense corps, was a man whose liberta- 
 rian and humanitarian sympathies had made his name 
 respected throughout western civilization — Clarence Dar- 
 row — whose magnificent pleas for Debs, Haywood, 
 Mooney and other liberals compelled the insinuation that 
 Fred Lundin was likewise the victim of social hysteria 
 and persecution. 
 
 For more than twelve weeks the trial wore on. A long 
 time, surely, but never was there a dull moment, for the 
 perspiring crowds who packed the courtroom of Judge 
 McDonald, some to see where the taxpayers' money went 
 when turned over to trusted public officials, others to cheer 
 for their accused friend and bite thier nails in anxiety 
 as the case fluctuated this way and that, but mostly just 
 
192 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 the morbidly alert who delight in seeing another's dirty 
 washing displayed. 
 
 All during the shifting metabolism of the trial, when 
 the state would build up point after point with savage 
 deliberateness only to have the logical structure tumble to 
 the ground before the polemical arrows of the defense, a 
 little group sat on one side of the room, strangely alien to 
 its surroundings. These men concentrated on the words of 
 the combating attorneys more intently than did the judge 
 and the jury; but while the ultimate verdict was crys- 
 talizing in the minds of the twelve good men and true 
 these men became more puzzled, more aghast, more pro- 
 foundly interested. They were the flower of Japanese legal 
 talent, a mission sent to America to study our court sys- 
 tem at first hand, and they received more direct enlight- 
 enment on the methodology of criminal justice in these 
 States from the sessions in McDonald's court than they 
 had learned in Tokyo in a year. With weird and unbe- 
 lieved tales they must have told their friends of the state 
 of civilization in the Land of the Free when they returned 
 home! 
 
 The prosecution painted the Swede precisely as the 
 newspapers had described him for the past eight years: 
 cunning, a flatterer, the corrupter of his fellows, demo- 
 niacal, conscienceless, ruthless. 
 
 Mr. Darrow disagreed. His philosophy, developed over 
 forty years of cogitation and experience, decried such a 
 thing as criminality as a mere figment of the rhetoric of 
 the moralists: Who is to separate the sheep from the 
 goats? Are we not all bobbing corks upon the waves of 
 vast and uncontrollable oceanic forces ? So he sent for wit- 
 nesses to testify to the purity of Fred Lundin and the 
 others, men whose words under oath would bring into clear 
 relief the injustice inherent in accusing Mr. Lundin of 
 
THE STORM BREAKS 193 
 
 any other motives in his public affairs than those of 
 sweetness and light. 
 
 Among these was William Hale Thompson, whose repu- 
 tation for veracity had not been impugned even by his 
 bitterest enemies. He came all the way from Hawaii to 
 scourge the Pharisees who were casting aspersions upon 
 the character of his associate. 
 
 Before God, and presumably the Heavenly Hosts as 
 well, Bill vigorously asserted the innocence of his former 
 adviser. After speaking generally of patriotism, America 
 first, public service and other topics of general interest 
 to the jurors, Thompson and Darrow got down to busi- 
 ness, the climax of which was the former's calm remark 
 that "in talking of public policies Lundin always has 
 taken the position that the Republican Party should 
 guard against politics in the police and on the school 
 board. It was a religion with him." In describing prospec- 
 tive appointees to city positions, Big Bill used the term 
 "serviceably sound," implying that this was their cri- 
 terion. Challenged to define this phrase, Bill delved into 
 his past, fishing forth an anecdote: 
 
 When I was a cowboy I bought my first horse when I earned 
 my first $35. I went to an old Texan who was selling several 
 hundred head of Panhandle Texas horses at Cheyenne, Wyoming. 
 I was a youngster. . . . 
 
 He said: "Well, let me sell you a horse." 
 
 So he roped a big horse and led him up to me. 
 
 I looked at him and said: "That horse has got a splint in his 
 front leg." 
 
 He said: "Yes, but it won't hurt him." 
 
 I said: "That may be, but I don't want a horse with a splint." 
 
 He looked at me, smiled, pulled the rope off the horse, let 
 him go and brought another one. I showed him something wrong 
 with that one. 
 
194 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Finally, he said: "Say, young fellow, what kind of a horse 
 are you trying to buy, a perfect horse?" 
 
 I said: "Well, I do not look at it in that light. I do not want 
 to buy a horse that has anything the matter with him." 
 
 He said: "Well then, you want a perfect horse. There is not 
 one of these horses that I have led up to you but what would have 
 given you your money's worth, and carried you further than you 
 want to ride, but none are perfect. 
 
 "My boy, if you want to make a success in your life, you want 
 to change your point of view. You do not want to look for per- 
 fect countries, perfect climate, perfect men or perfect women, 
 for if you do all you will do all your life is hunt, and you will 
 never find them. Now, if you will change your standard and look 
 for things that are serviceably sound, then you will always find 
 them, and you will accomplish things and get somewhere." 
 
 So when they would complain about some of my appointees, 
 we had rather a joke, if they were pretty good in the main and 
 worked hard and did a lot of good things for the people. 
 
 This whimsical rubbish had a profound effect upon the 
 jury, the majority of whom had probably voted for 
 Thompson largely because of the persuasiveness of similar 
 anecdotes told during the previous campaigns. Possibly 
 even Darrow, something of a philosopher himself, digested 
 it and fitted it into his cosmological scheme of things. 
 
 Finally, on July 10, 1923, Frederick Lundin took the 
 stand in his own behalf, the only man of the sixteen 
 trusted by counsel to so do. His testimony, guided by the 
 clever Darrow, was a masterpiece of adroit persuasion. 
 With the slightly pained air of a man falsely accused, he 
 portrayed himself gently as "the poor Swede," "insignifi- 
 cant me," the "errand boy" of the administration. He told 
 of his rise from poverty to wealth by hard work, priva- 
 tion and suffering. His manner was quiet, somewhat 
 quaint and sweet, certainly innocuous; only when the 
 questions reflected on his character did his manner become 
 
THE STORM BREAKS 195 
 
 firm. Never was his poise shaken as he sat there in easy 
 and humble candor, his long legs crossed, his white hands 
 in his lap. 
 
 He told how he had urged Thompson to run for mayor 
 and had been of some assistance to Bill in that regard. 
 "It was a pleasure and a devotion of mine, because I 
 believe him one of the greatest men I have ever met, a man 
 of strong character, integrity and courage; and so few 
 have that in public life." 
 
 When asked if he was on any of the patronage com- 
 mittees during the first or second administrations, Lundin 
 answered: "I was on a patronage committee that had no 
 name. I called it a committee of kicks. It was to take the 
 abuse of the disappointed office-seekers." 
 
 Darrow asked: "What did you do?" 
 
 Lundin replied: "I took the applications. Volz helped 
 me and we made a questionnaire. Reports were sent to the 
 mayor. I was his errand boy." 
 
 Darrow: "Was Volz ever your private secretary?" 
 
 Lundin: "No, sir. I have only one private secretary, 
 and that is my wife. She has been that for twenty years. 
 She is sitting over there." (He indicated a motherly-look- 
 ing woman sitting in the front row of the crowd. She 
 smiled timidly.) 
 
 Darrow: "Did you ever try to influence the mayor in 
 any of his appointments ?" 
 
 Lundin : "No, sir. I never asked the mayor or any other 
 official in connection with the city government for any 
 favor, nor recommended any man for any position." 
 
 On Friday the thirteenth the case went to the jury. 
 The fate of Fred Lundin was in the hands of twelve men 
 assumed to be his intellectual equals. Before retiring they 
 listened to long final addresses by both Young and Dar- 
 row. Mr. Young said he believed that "the evidence here 
 warrants the conviction of every single defendant." Mr. 
 
196 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Darrow, on the other hand, after over an hour of wit, sus- 
 pender-twanging, homely philosophy and logical acro- 
 batics, closed with these words: "If Fred Lundin or any 
 other man in this case could be convicted on this evidence, 
 made up of suspicion and cobwebs, then I would want to 
 retire to a cannibal island, where I would be safe." 
 
 But, alas for the hungry cannibals, Darrow's confidence 
 in the jury was justified shortly. It took the dozen savants 
 but four hours to whitewash the edifice that the news- 
 papers had taken eight years to blacken. Apparently the 
 dung heap of William Lorimer had produced one fair 
 white lily : Frederick Lundin. 
 
 While the jury was out the Swede paced the court- 
 room nervously. The lawyers grouped about Darrow and 
 laughed heartily at his jokes. The Japanese delegation 
 conversed in whispers, eyeing the door of the jury-room 
 expectantly. The crowd was restless and rather sober. 
 
 After the foreman had pronounced the verdict, excite- 
 ment reduced the order of the court to chaos. Everybody 
 congratulated the acquitted men. Somebody started a 
 cheer for Lundin, which was taken up by the entire mob 
 and could have been heard for blocks. Fred himself smiled 
 broadly, and confessed that he hadn't been worried for 
 a moment. 
 
 A great deal had happened while the grand jury in- 
 vestigations and subsequent trials were running their 
 uncomfortable gamuts, political events of exceptional im- 
 portance. In the summer of 1922 Bill Thompson was 
 undecided as to whether he should run to succeed himself. 
 Lundin advised against it, sagely averring that it was 
 impossible to win with such a load of scandal saddling the 
 administration. So saying, the politician who knew the 
 electorate better than any of his colleagues repaired to 
 the Mayo Clinic to nurse his failing health and, inciden- 
 tally, stay away from Illinois jurisdiction. 
 
THE STORM BREAKS 197 
 
 But Bill was not easily convinced on this point. His 
 incorrigible optimism tempted him to yield to the persua- 
 sions of Percy Coffin and a few other zealots and feel out 
 the people thoroughly before formally deciding that 
 "business and ill health" compelled his retirement into 
 private life. The old pledge-card dodge was again em- 
 ployed and finally, in the fall, Thompson threw his som- 
 brero in the circle with a characteristic speech at Medinah 
 Temple. There was a ripple of applause at the gesture, 
 and when he followed it up with several lectures elsewhere 
 in the city some said a Thompson bandwagon was again 
 looming in the offing. But the "click" was not as of yore, 
 and the smarter leaders admitted it. Coffin, who had taken 
 Lundin's place as coiner of slogans and author of speeches, 
 wasn't a bit elated. 
 
 Thompson and Coffin made a secret and hurried trip 
 to Minnesota to consult with Lundin. They couldn't con- 
 tinue without his advice, criticism and a few words of 
 hope. But by this time Fred was more positive than ever 
 of the inanity of the attempt; so the pair returned de- 
 jectedly home. Not quite sure yet, Big Bill left for the 
 East to talk things over with his old friend, William 
 Randolph Hearst. They liked each other, these two, and 
 practically they were of use to each other. The deal cooked 
 up at this meeting, the wiseacres allege, concerned a mu- 
 tual admiration movement, that is, Hearst agreed to sup- 
 port Thompson for the Chicago mayoralty in 1923 if Bill 
 would blow the publisher's horn in 1924 for the presi- 
 dency. It was rumored that a Hearst-Hylan-Thompson 
 sodality came of this cabal. 
 
 But the Hearst third party proved to be just ink 
 on paper; Tammany devoured John Hylan; and Bill 
 Thompson ultimately stepped out of the picture before 
 the primary. His statement of his withdrawal was wind} 7 
 and evangelical. It assailed his enemies, reiterated his, 
 
198 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 position on all the large questions of his day and Wash- 
 ington's, and closed leaving the way open for public in- 
 sistence at a later date: "in announcing this decision, 
 however, I wish to make plain my continued interest in 
 public affairs and my willingness to lead or follow in any 
 contests as the people may make manifest their desire." 
 
 This left the field clear for several men who had been 
 toying with high ambitions for eight years. Edward R. 
 Litsinger had been the Deneen incumbent in the board 
 of review, and he came forward with prodigious leaps. In 
 his campaign he was the recipient of not a little aid from 
 the lieutenants of Fred Lundin. Opposing him were Ber- 
 nard Barasa, looked upon as something of a Garibaldi 
 by the local Italians and awarded the support of Mayor 
 Thompson, Arthur C. Millard, a prominent Free Mason, 
 and Postmaster Arthur C. Lueder. As usual, the strongest 
 organization prevailed. Lueder had the up-and-coming 
 Crowe-Barrett machine behind him, and the Brundage- 
 McCormick faction too, which meant the Chicago Tribune 
 to a marked degree. The fight was short and snappy. 
 
 Then an arduous and complicated battle ensued between 
 Lueder and Judge William E. Dever, who had taken the 
 Democratic nomination with negligible opposition. Boss 
 Brennan would have preferred some one other than Dever, 
 but acquiesced to the plea of Raymond Robbins and his 
 friends that a respectable candidate was needed to beat 
 Lueder. Both men were anti-administration in their plat- 
 forms, and hence were not discriminated against by the 
 Tribune and the News. Lueder marshaled the Germans 
 to his flag, and drew the bulk of the Protestant and Klan 
 element, for Dever was a Roman Catholic. What really 
 decided the outcome was not personal vote-getting 
 strength, for they were about equally respectable and 
 dull in this respect, but the mobility and solidarity of 
 the party machines. Here the Democrats were superior. 
 
THE STORM BREAKS 199 
 
 The Republican ranks were torn with ill-nature and bil- 
 iousness, the Thompson leaders in the negro quarter even 
 going to the surly length of boasting that they would 
 keep the black men from voting. 
 
 Judge Dever rode into office with more than 100,000 
 to spare. 
 
 With induction of the new administration the familiar 
 faces around the city hall disappeared, with but few ex- 
 ceptions. The month succeeding the shake-up saw Bill 
 Thompson setting out for Honolulu. Atop the Pacific, 
 alone with his thoughts when the bar was closed, Bill must 
 have ruminated heavily about his political future; and it 
 is extremely doubtful if he visioned himself as the has- 
 been that many newspapers and publicists did. It is more 
 likely that he seconded the judgment of the West Town 
 Bulletin, a small sectional sheet whose loyalty to Thompson 
 had been both consistent and lyrical : 
 
 William Hale Thompson, through his eight years' incumbency, 
 will probably hold the distinction of more public construction, 
 more genuine effort to do effective work, to his credit than any 
 other in the history of his office. In that, and in that alone, lies 
 his undoing. With his fighting spirit, his undaunted courage, he 
 set out to make good. . . . 
 
 Yes, he made mistakes. A careful analysis may show that the 
 number of mistakes were in proportion to the efforts made to 
 serve the people. 
 
 From a practical politician's standpoint his greatest mistake 
 was in drawing on himself the enmity of the two largest news- 
 papers of the city. He could have had their good will only by 
 stultifying his own belief as to what his duties were to his con- 
 stituents. . . . All the smoke against his administration created 
 by his enemies will die out during the next four years and will 
 prove to be simply malicious persecution, and the meritorious 
 results of his administration will stand out in bold relief against 
 the pigmy efforts of his successors and predecessors combined. 
 He will come back with greater acclaim than the Harrisons did. 
 
200 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Of the above all is preposterous balderdash but the last 
 sentence. Bill was to come back with great acclaim. But 
 then, in 1923, nobody thought so — save Bill himself. 
 
 The most significant impression one gets in reviewing 
 Thompson's eight years in office is that he dearly loved 
 to promote things. To be sure, he was often, like his friend 
 Bill Borah, strong at the beginning and weak at the end. 
 Bill liked action ; of that we can be positive. The situation 
 of being in the midst of febrile activity, the sensation of 
 standing in the forefront of the stage, was the biggest 
 part of his happiness. So, when the props were kicked 
 from under him, he was plunged in gloom, and his smiles 
 were simulated smiles. 
 
 For a time he had a chance to shine from the head- 
 lines, though not in the fashion most pleasing to him. He 
 was the star witness in another criminal trial. 
 
 While the Lundin conspiracy case was giving the public 
 the idea (proved erroneous by the verdict of the jury) 
 that the school system had been corrupted by the political 
 gentry, another grand jury investigation was going on. 
 This was launched to ascertain just how much graft (if 
 any, forsooth) went on in the other departments of the 
 city. Thompson's presence was required by the jury, but 
 his barristers said he was away on a duck-hunting trip. 
 The News remarked dryly that he had been seen at the 
 opera. 
 
 Two weeks later Bill offered himself for questioning. 
 He didn't relish the task in the least, for he had been sub- 
 ject to no little unpleasantness a short while before. He 
 had affably aided one of his former appointees, G. E. 
 Carlson, on trial for the alleged looting of the city treas- 
 ury of $250,000, by testifying to the good reputation and 
 character of the accused. 
 
 On this occasion the jury was curious to know why one 
 Mortimer Flynn got all the city coal business. Commis- 
 
THE STORM BREAKS 201 
 
 sioner of Public Works Francis had testified that his chief 
 had told him to "see that Flynn gets the business." 
 Thompson's answer was that Flynn was "the only one of 
 five or six coal contractors who never welched on a con- 
 tract with the city." He denied any personal interest in 
 Flynn. At each question he arose to deliver a speech, and 
 each time he was rudely silenced. 
 
 To most of the queries put him, which lasted an hour 
 in the aggregate, his response was the same : "I left every- 
 thing to the department heads. I never had any personal 
 knowledge connected with those matters." 
 
 When asked if he knew that Flynn had given $23,000 
 to William H. Reid, his commissioner of public service, 
 Thompson replied rather heatedly in the negative. 
 
 "Would you believe it if you were told that both of 
 them had admitted it under oath?" he was asked. 
 
 "It would be difficult to convince me if such things 
 really went on. I would have discharged any guilty em- 
 ployee immediately," responded the perspiring Thompson, 
 horror warring with discomfort in his mind. 
 
 The ordeal finally over, Bill mustered his sporting in- 
 stincts, told the amused jurors that he "had a pleasant 
 little visit," and walked out. The investigation seems to 
 have accomplished little. 
 
SIXTEEN 
 DEVER REIGNS WHILE THOMPSON ROMPS 
 
 WILLIAM E. DEVER set about his duties seriously, 
 diligently, and with full cognizance of the respon- 
 sibilities attendant upon his new office. Unlike his prede- 
 cessor, he did not commandeer his pals to run the town; 
 rather, tried to surround himself with the ablest men of 
 his party, hoping to build a clean, progressive, econom- 
 ical administration. The affairs of the city were in a badly 
 muddled state, and only by the most Spartan application 
 could he anticipate straightening things out within his 
 allotted span. There was no time for ballyhoo. The new 
 mayor was not a politician primarily and was greatly 
 relieved to turn over the details of patronage and diplo- 
 macy to Brennan. However, the relation of the latter to 
 Dever was in no way comparable to that of Lundin and 
 Thompson. Dever had a mind of his own, a square jaw 
 that meant something, and a way of speaking that 
 stamped him as anything but a tool. 
 
 Bill Thompson's interest in politics during the year 
 1924 continued keen, notwithstanding the fact that his 
 name was tarnished by the grand jury probes and the 
 trials of the leading figures of the past oligarchy. Per- 
 sonally he was anything but scotched. He retained a great 
 portion of his following among the petty politicians who 
 had done yeoman service previously, and thousands of 
 the public still looked up to him as a demigod unhappily 
 maligned. He had withdrawn from the race for reelection 
 only because he had been convinced of the hopelessness of 
 
 202 
 
DEVER REIGNS— THOMPSON ROMPS 203 
 
 the attempt, but the lust for power and the desire to 
 prance and preen still moved him, and he had no notion 
 of allowing people to forget him. 
 
 It was a big year for the gentlemen whose lives were 
 dedicated to selfless service. The voters of Illinois were to 
 nominate and elect a governor, an attorney-general, a 
 United States Senator, and take a hand in the selection 
 of a president for the nation, while the electorate of Cook 
 County were to choose a state's attorney, in addition to 
 numerous other officials. 
 
 The tastiest plum was that of senator, and the incum- 
 bent seeking reelection, Medill McCormick, found his way 
 barred by a man of equal strength, Charles S. Deneen. 
 As nomination in the Republican primaries ^ was tanta- 
 mount to ascending the Capitol steps at this time, the 
 fight promised to be a bitter one. The Tribune, fronting 
 for its favorite, McCormick, endorsed Brundage for attor- 
 ney-general and Essington for governor. Small, of course, 
 ran to succeed himself and lent his valuable influence to 
 Oscar Carlstrom, a downstate figure whom he wanted in 
 the legal job to spite his "persecutor," Brundage. 
 
 Deneen was in a ticklish position. He had often let fly 
 at Small's head, but he knew he could not expect to sur- 
 vive in this contest unless the Kankakee farmer gave him 
 some support. This Small would ordinarily have refused 
 to do, but his intense animosity toward Brundage, who 
 had almost sent him to the penitentiary, and his grudge 
 against the Tribune inclined him favorably in the direc- 
 tion of Deneen. They gave each other no overt assistance, 
 but there is little doubt that a common enemy lined them 
 up side by side. 
 
 The faction of Robert Crowe and Charles V. Barrett, 
 which came close to dominating the Republican voters 
 of the county, worked for McCormick, Brundage and 
 Essington. 
 
204 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Bill Thompson was in a more peculiarly uncomfortable 
 situation than Deneen. His support of Carlstrom against 
 Brundage was certain, for the latter had labored for his 
 destruction. He was opposed to McCormick because of the 
 latter 's affiliation with the Tribune. Moreover, hadn't 
 Medill McCormick made him look foolish in the senatorial 
 campaign of 1918? 
 
 However, most people expected Thompson to step for- 
 ward and declare himself roundly for Len Small. But Big 
 Bill manifested a strange unwillingness. Why this hesi- 
 tant attitude towards his old pal of the Lorimer-Lincoln 
 League, whom he had installed in office originally in 1920? 
 What brought about this apparent change of fate? 
 
 Fred Lundin was the reason. Just as the Swede's hog- 
 gish tactics had alienated Crowe, nauseated Pugh and 
 Pike, angered Harding, so finally had Thompson yielded 
 to the pressure of his friends and repudiated his former 
 boss. The grand jury investigations and subsequent trials 
 had revaled to the public and to Bill the full extent of 
 Lundin's power. And, although Thompson had done the 
 sporting thing and testified in the fellow's behalf, their 
 friendship had steadily waned until, by the spring of 
 1924, they were in competition for the county patronage 
 given out by the governor. 
 
 Governor Small regretted Thompson's petulance. He 
 wanted the big chap's booming aid in his campaign; but 
 he also wanted the counsel of Lundin. Frank L. Smith, 
 chairman of the state committee, cautioned Small not to 
 incur Big Bill's displeasure, so for several months nego- 
 tiations went on between the two which finally resulted 
 in a compromise: Thompson was to get the bulk of the 
 Cook County patronage in exchange for stump service in 
 Small's reelection effort. 
 
 Small had little difficulty in defeating Essington for the 
 nomination and even less trouble in downing the Democrat 
 
DEVER REIGNS— THOMPSON ROMPS 205 
 
 who faced him in November, the Coolidge walkaway facili- 
 tating matters considerably in the latter contest. 
 
 To the surprise of many, Brundage lost to Carlstrom ; 
 McCormick was nosed out by Deneen in a bitter scrap ; 
 Crowe, of course, had an easy time of it. Shortly after- 
 wards Medill McCormick died, and the crimp was put in 
 the Brundage destiny for some time. 
 
 The Republican National Convention in the summer of 
 1924 had stirred things up distressingly. Thompson at- 
 tended as a delegate, but he found himself quite friendless. 
 The Coolidge nomination was assured and most of the 
 wrangling was over the choosing of a proper running- 
 mate. When General Charles Gates Dawes was picked, 
 Big Bill amused the reporters by attacking him, but this 
 very choice of a prominent Deneen politician as vice- 
 presidential candidate, and the election of another, Roy 
 O. West, as secretary of the national committee, meant 
 that the assembled bosses didn't regard Bill Thompson as 
 a person of very great importance in the party. 
 
 Thompson entertained the delighted journalists further 
 by hinting darkly that he might back Robert LaFollette 
 in a party bolt. He had many surreptitious conferences 
 with young Bob and conducted himself generally like an 
 uninvited guest. When the elephant had formally decided 
 on Coolidge and Dawes, Thompson gave out vague inter- 
 views in which he stated his preference for the isolation- 
 istic attitude of the Wisconsin liberal rather than the 
 World Court position the little man from Massachusetts 
 inherited from the late Harding. As the autumn leaves 
 were falling Thompson was still undecided about lending 
 open aid to LaFollette, and he maintained an air of mys- 
 tery until all the shooting was over. He hadn't dared to 
 take the leap. There was a rumor that he was the man 
 scheduled to oppose Deneen and the Democrat, Colonel 
 Sprague, in the Senatorial contest; but after Fighting 
 
206 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Bob had conferred with the labor leaders and they had 
 objected violently to placing any obstacles in the way of 
 a Small and Carlstrom victory, the whole movement to 
 have a complete third-party ticket in the state died, and 
 Thompson dramatically announced that he wouldn't think 
 of injuring Republican chances of victory that way. 
 
 Bill's feud with Lundin, commencing in simple expedi- 
 ency, soon became an acidulous personal enmity. At first, 
 when Thompson was hoping for a third successive term, 
 they conferred often; but the grand jury investigations 
 made it imperative that he must repudiate the Swede or 
 die politically. Then Lundin left the state and flatly 
 refused to help Thompson gain the mayoralty nomina- 
 tion. When Bill sought him out he coldly discouraged him 
 from making the attempt. During this haphazard inter- 
 course between the pair, the vacillating Thompson was 
 being besieged by his friends to break with Lundin once 
 and for all. Their estrangement following the trial devel- 
 oped into overt antagonism in the summer of 1924. 
 
 Dr. John Dill Robertson had been, from the start, a 
 loyal disciple of Lundin. Near the end of the second 
 Thompson administration he had resigned from his job 
 of health commissioner to take up the more important 
 task of presiding over the school board. When Dever was 
 elected, Lundin secured for Robertson the presidency of 
 the West Park Board from Governor Small. This posi- 
 tion controlled an enormous amount of patronage, and 
 Robertson managed Lundin's interests in Chicago. His 
 new office brought him in conflict with Thompson, who 
 felt that he was entitled to distribute all the gubernatorial 
 dispensations in the county and city, and balked at sup- 
 porting Small's candidacy until this privilege was recog- 
 nized. As has been said, this situation put Len in an 
 uncomfortable dilemma. He needed Bill's support in his 
 campaign, but he was in the habit of relying heavily upon 
 
DEVER REIGNS— THOMPSON ROMPS 207 
 
 Lundin and his coterie of Swedish intellectuals. For over 
 a month he begged the issue with agreeable evasions. 
 Finally, with the election two months away, Small yielded 
 to the pleas of Frank Smith for a unified front and 
 granted some of Bill's demands. The particular bone of 
 controversy had been the Lincoln Park Board, of which 
 Lundin handled the patronage through William Wesbey, 
 the superintendent of the park system. Thompson wanted 
 to oust Wesbey for more than one reason. It would benefit 
 him and at the same time injure Lundin; and, moreover, 
 Wesbey had been one of the instruments in Thompson's 
 humiliation before the Shriners. So out went Wesbey, his 
 place being taken by a man more respectful and loyal. 
 
 Thompson continued telling everyone that he was an 
 active candidate for the mayoralty in 1927 despite the 
 fact that he was without the support of any party fac- 
 tion. Crowe and Barrett were cold to him; Deneen had 
 never liked him, and, besides, had a few men in his own 
 group openly desirous of the same post; Lundin and 
 Robertson had for him only contempt and talked of his 
 candidacy as if it were merely a tempest in a teapot; 
 Brundage had done his best to ruin him and was not even 
 on speaking terms with him; and the Progressives, with 
 whom his thinking was always suspect, were disappointed 
 at his failure to campaign bravely for LaFollette. When 
 Senator Bob came to Chicago for a series of speeches he 
 was met at the station by Ickes, Darrow, Zona Gale, 
 Donald Richberg, Jane Addams and numerous labor 
 leaders. Bill Thompson was not there. And he made no 
 genuine efforts to sway his personal following over to 
 LaFollette, although he often threatened to do so. 
 
 Shortly after the election of the "America First" ticket, 
 which he spoke up for, Thompson attended a banquet for 
 Attorney-General-Elect Carlstrom, which was a veritable 
 love feast. The guest of honor exchanged compliments 
 
208 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 with Thompson, and everything looked serenely joyful., 
 Bill was particularly pleased with the presence of Bob 
 Crowe, whose air was gracious now that Lundin had been 
 read out of the coterie. Thompson took advantage of the 
 genial occasion to announce his candidacy for mayor. He 
 saw no signs of disapproval on Crowe's square face; 
 George Harding and Eugene Pike were responsive. In 
 fact all those present — Lou Emmerson, Frank Smith, 
 Fred Sterling, Peter Hoffman, Frank Righeimer, Barney 
 Barasa, Morris Eller, all of the important local politi- 
 cians — seemed to be glad to be breaking bread with 
 Thompson. Lundin, Deneen, Litsinger, Robertson, Dawes, 
 West, those whose presence would have been an embar- 
 rassment, were all absent. Even Fred Mann, who owned 
 the Rainbo Gardens, at which the dinner was held, was 
 Bill's pal. He was reassured. 
 
 The rest of the winter he spent in belaboring his erst- 
 while colleague, the grinning Swede. He talked against 
 him unceasingly and once traveled to Springfield to aid 
 in the defeat of a pet Lundin tax measure, a revival of 
 a piece proposed four years previous. When the Thomp- 
 son-Lundin organization had introduced this bill orig- 
 inally, the faction was cut in two, Barrett leaving the city 
 hall crowd and joining Crowe in great anger. For it aimed 
 to circumscribe the power of the board of review, which 
 Barrett controlled, and transfer much of this power to 
 the city hall. Now Thompson was endeavoring to recon- 
 cile the Barrett-Crowe wing to his ambitions, and loudly 
 repudiated the legislation. "You mean the Lundin bill?" 
 he shouted. "I should say not! Most of Governor Small's 
 troubles grew out of this measure four years ago. It was 
 one of the worst moves our organization made. We've had 
 troubles enough without looking for a fresh batch of 
 brick-bats." 
 
 Thompson was doing his best to make peace with the 
 
DEVER REIGNS— THOMPSON ROMPS 209 
 
 enemies he had made while hooked up with Fred Lundin. 
 And during his frantic attempts at running down his 
 ex-boss he was suddenly spurred to added frenzy by an 
 expensive reminder of his former waywardness. A print- 
 ing company, Severinghaus, sued the members of the 
 William Hale Thompson Republican Club for a bill long 
 past due. Among the defendants, besides Bill, were Pike, 
 Harding, Ettelson, Davis, Faherty, Dr. Reid, Morris 
 Eller and a few other stalwarts of the regime just ousted 
 by public wrath and Democratic strategy. The bill was 
 $150,000; after lengthy litigation it was paid. 
 
 It was during these trying days that Mr. Thompson 
 turned his mind to the arts, in this case the art of the 
 cinema. As a favor to Mr. Hearst he reviewed "Under the 
 Red Robe" for the Chicago Evening American: 
 
 "Under the Red Robe/' now showing at the Roosevelt Thea- 
 ter, is a wonderful picture. No money has been spared in this 
 great production, and the screen held my attention for every 
 second of the entire presentation. I drew from the picture a 
 great moral for Americans: Stand United Within. It recalled to 
 my mind what Abraham Lincoln said, "if the allied armies of 
 the world attacked this country, not a single foreign soldier could 
 take a drink from the Ohio River — if we stood together." 
 
 It is the danger from within, not from without, that menaces 
 this country. All we need to do is stand together. Let us keep 
 away from intrigues and trickery. 
 
 The acting is splendid. No citizen should miss seeing this 
 really great picture. The producers are to be congratulated on 
 this scenic triumph. 
 
 This was Thompson's first venture into the chosen field 
 of Robert Sherwood and Gilbert Seldes. He did not 
 continue. 
 
 Big Bill's vanity was the cause of no little annoyance 
 for Governor Small at the scene of his inauguration in 
 
210 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 March, 1925. This ceremony, aiming to be impressive, 
 is usually on a par with Masonic funerals, evangelical 
 prayer-meetings and Zenith Chamber of Commerce pic- 
 nics. Thompson badly needed publicity to propel his wob- 
 bling and incipient campaign to succeed Mayor Dever. 
 So he determined to make the inauguration of his friend 
 and colleague a big affair for him — and for himself. He 
 led a mob of a thousand people, all of whose bread he had 
 well buttered during his eight years in office, to Spring- 
 field for the doings. Three trains groaned under the col- 
 lective weight of the ample-girthed ten hundred, and in 
 the center of the middle train were Thompson and 
 Alexander Fyfe, president of the Hamilton Club. They 
 planned to announce, on the evening of the Small cele- 
 bration, that William Hale Thompson had been so over- 
 whelmed with urgent requests to run for mayor in 1927 
 that he was forced to yield to the will of the electorate, 
 who would not allow him to retire from serving them. 
 
 Big Bill hogged the whole show. Poor little Len Small, 
 supposed to be the man of the hour, was pushed into the 
 wings, nay, even relegated to the office of prop-boy. A 
 foreign visitor, someone from New York, Hoboken or 
 Berlin, say, unacquainted with Illinois political personali- 
 ties, might well have judged that the big fellow everyone 
 called "Big Bill" was being crowned President of the 
 League of Nations, whereas the little chap at his side was 
 his secretary, allowed on the platform as a reward for 
 forty years of faithful service. 
 
 It was the scandal of the month, and, like most scan- 
 dals it was very funny to non-participants such as news- 
 papermen, who aren't, as a class, very respectful. The 
 only person who rivaled Thompson in calling attention 
 to himself was Frank L. Smith, who formally began his 
 campaign for United States Senator against the incum- 
 bent, William B. McKinley. 
 
DEVER REIGNS— THOMPSON ROMPS 211 
 
 Fred Lundin was more intelligent. Following his long- 
 regarded custom he stayed quietly in the background and 
 watched Bill perform. Then, the excitement over, he paid 
 a visit to Governor Small to congratulate him warmly on 
 his latest honor. He was careful to overdo the compli- 
 ments. The Swede knew Small as well as he did Thompson. 
 
 A few hours after the inaugural nonsense, at the Leland 
 Hotel in Springfield, the staggering news of Bill's will- 
 ingness to govern them was broken to the chattering and 
 applauding multitude. Richard W. Wolfe, prominent 
 LaFollette leader, was chairman and his announcement 
 was to the effect that George F. Harding would be in 
 charge of the preliminary canvass. When Harding arose, 
 they "yipped and yelled," according to the colorful 
 account in the American. He impressed upon the gath- 
 ering his pleasure at the privilege of leading the victo- 
 rious march-to-office for "this great American, the great- 
 est mayor Chicago ever had." Finally an accordion, which 
 had been concealed under some trickster's greatcoat, broke 
 into the strains of "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here" — 
 and Big Bill himself elbowed his way jovially through 
 the joyous throng. After a few jocosities, he articulated 
 the substance of his platform: municipal ownership of 
 traction lines for the purpose of obtaining a five-cent 
 fare; cooperation with Governor Small's good roads 
 project; and continuance of his liberal public improve- 
 ments policy, for which he fought during his first and 
 second administration and as a result of which (although 
 Bill forgot to mention it) Mike Faherty was still grimly 
 fighting prosecution. 
 
 Harding had said that he expected 600,000 pledge 
 cards to be signed for his favorite. The mildewed device, 
 apparently, was again to be employed. Fred Lundin's 
 1913 sagacity was still good. This plea for signatures to 
 pledge cards was not, however, received with hand-springs 
 
212 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 in all circles. The Better Government Association, one of 
 the reform organizations contributing to the insomnia of 
 machine politicians, issued a stinging slap to the Big Bill 
 candidacy : 
 
 It appearing from the press that the candidacy of William 
 Hale Thompson for re-election as mayor of Chicago is being 
 launched and that an organized and widespread effort is being 
 made to secure petitions in his behalf, it becomes pertinent to re- 
 fresh the public's memory as to the circumstances under which 
 his administration came to an inglorious end less than two years 
 ago, in a flood of indictments and prosecutions extending into 
 almost every department of public service, thus leaving the im- 
 pression upon the public mind of: 
 
 1. General inefficiency, systematic grafting and neglect of 
 public business in all departments of the city service. 
 
 2. The debauching of the public schools and humane in- 
 stitutions of the city, culminating in the arrest and indictment 
 of the president and other members of the school board and 
 employees. 
 
 3. The scandals in the department of public works, including 
 the extortionate fees of so-called "real estate experts" and vast 
 sums paid to contractors for work never performed and for 
 materials never delivered, resulting again in indictments even at 
 the hands of a friendly prosecutor. 
 
 4. The demoralization and corruption of the police depart- 
 ment, resulting in a reign of terror throughout the city from 
 organized criminal gangs and the open operation of black and 
 tan resorts and gambling dens from which the city still suffers. 
 
 5. The looting of the police and fire pension funds. 
 
 6. The oppression and robbery by enforced contributions from 
 legitimate business by hordes of inspectors and political workers 
 promoting fake fairs, expositions, benefits and catch-penny 
 enterprises. 
 
 7. The political assassination of honest and independent alder- 
 men and the wholesale stealing of elections while the election 
 machinery was in the administration's hands. 
 
 8. The sale of public offices and the bribery of the public 
 
DEVER REIGNS— THOMPSON ROMPS 213 
 
 officials and the prostitution of the courts and prosecuting 
 agencies. 
 
 9. The deliberate deception of the people by false economic 
 issues and political masquerades to the delay of the proper 
 solution of our transportation problem. 
 
 10. The brazen attempt to capture the judiciary of Cook 
 County, prevented only by the uprising of decent citizens. 
 
 In view of these notorious facts the Better Government Asso- 
 ciation urges its members and all other citizens jealous of the 
 good name of Chicago not to sign these petitions. 
 
 This admonition was heeded carefully by a number of 
 people, but many sneered at such depressing prose and 
 whooped it up for the balmy poetry of Bill's press agents. 
 
 The business men have always liked Bill. His is the 
 Rotarian kidney and they are pleased with his idealistic 
 shouts. In the winter of 1925 the members of the Associ- 
 ated Fur Industries had an enormous banquet at the Con- 
 gress Hotel. Thompson was the principal speaker and of 
 everything he said nothing rang the bell with his auditors 
 more convincingly than his assaults upon their indif- 
 ference to politics. "My answer to that," said Bill the 
 Realtor, "is that the business man who doesn't interest 
 himself in politics is penalized for his indifference in 
 higher taxes. I believe the latest figures show 87 percent 
 of the men in Congress are lawyers. That's too damned 
 many lawyers. I would like to see the day when Congress 
 will have 87 percent business men. Then you wouldn't 
 have to send delegations to kill foolish laws — they'd be 
 killed before they could get half started." 
 
 Although getting along famously with his blood broth- 
 ers, the business men, Thompson was having his troubles 
 with the politicians, the lawyers. Lundin had said that 
 "when the mayoralty swings around Big Bill will not have 
 a single political leader with him," and this looked like it 
 was going to be true. The powerful Crowe-Barrett fac- 
 
214 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 tion appropriated his patronage right and left, with no 
 blushes or apologies. Lundin held frequent conferences 
 with his new mesmeree, Len Small, with the ultimate ob- 
 jective in mind of grabbing complete control of the Lin- 
 coln Park Board, the only sizeable plum Bill possessed. 
 Gene Pike was president of this board and Thompson's 
 sister, Mrs. William Pelouze, was one of its members. 
 Lundin anticipated their demise before the snow fell and 
 worked cleverly towards this end. Small's petulance over 
 the inauguration incident was fertile soil for Lundin to 
 plant his seeds of disaffection. Almost immediately results 
 were noticed. Percy B. Coffin, who had elected to travel 
 with the Swede rather than with Thompson when they 
 split, was appointed public administrator of Illinois over 
 the pleas of both Thompson and Carlstrom. The job was 
 an important one and paid more than $100,000 a year in 
 fees. Coffin displaced a fellow named Van Meter, who was 
 a disciple of George Harding, Thompson's former comp- 
 troller and present campaign manager. 
 
 Whether due to lowered vitality superinduced by his 
 fight with Small, or some mysterious juxtaposition of the 
 stars, or possibly merely some vulgar physiological de- 
 rangement, is not known to historians of the period, but 
 anyway Thompson suddenly became very ill and departed 
 for the Atlantic Seaboard with his wife. Hard luck pur- 
 sued him even in this idyllic region. A few hours after 
 they arrived at Palm Beach their hotel was destroyed by 
 fire, and they lost everything but the clothes on their 
 bodies. But before they returned home they received com- 
 forting words from a source as remote as the Holy Land. 
 Before leaving Chicago Thompson and Richard Wolfe, 
 head of the Cook County Real Estate Board and former 
 LaFollette yeoman, had organized the William Hale 
 Thompson Real Estate Men's League of Chicago. And 
 in March this group set out on a Mediterranean cruise. 
 
DEVER REIGNS— THOMPSON ROMPS 215 
 
 Mr. Wolfe, writing from Palestine to the Evening Ameri- 
 can, tells of a meeting of the league held at the wall of 
 Solomon's Temple, at which the following amazing docu- 
 ment was unanimously adopted : 
 
 Whereas, the historic places we have visited — Carthage, Rome, 
 Athens, Jerusalem, Thebes — are graveyards not of cities or 
 towns but of dead empires and civilizations; and 
 
 Whereas, these ruins and graveyards of empires were in no 
 instance due to the faults of the working and producing peoples 
 of their times, but instead were in every instance due to the sins 
 of the exploiters, profiteers, profligates and tyrants at the top; 
 and 
 
 Whereas, the hungry faces and ragged clothes of children, 
 the worried faces of mothers, and the hopeless looks of the thou- 
 sands of unemployed men we have seen everywhere on our travels 
 are due in large measure to the World War brought on by the 
 blind greed of the exploiters and profiteers of our times; and 
 
 Whereas, our American republic, American institutions and 
 the peace, security and prosperity of the American people are 
 now threatened by the alien-hearted, native-born American Tory 
 in alliance with the autocracy of Europe; and 
 
 Whereas, these Tories, in alliance with the European cap- 
 italists, have seized control of our public utilities, insurance 
 companies, banks and natural resources and many newspapers, 
 with an army of hirelings and propagandists ever intriguing to 
 supplant in America the rule of the grand dukes for the 
 democracy of Jefferson and Lincoln; and 
 
 Whereas, through control of our money and business they 
 therefore control our government, legislatures and courts; and 
 
 Whereas, Honorable William Hale Thompson is a genuine 
 native American who has inherited the love of liberty possessed 
 by the fathers who founded the republic; therefore be it 
 
 Resolved, that we, here in the shadows of the temples and 
 scenes of the great ones who labored and died for love of man- 
 kind, urge Honorable William Hale Thompson to offer himself 
 as candidate for re-election to the office of mayor of Chicago, 
 not only for the service he may render the people of Chicago as 
 
216 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 their mayor, but also for the opportunity it will give him to help 
 preserve the American Republic and its institutions and safe- 
 guard the people against their enemy. 
 
 [Signed] Richard W. Wolfe, President. 
 Joseph M. Browarsky, Treasurer. 
 
 Mr. Richard Wolfe is today, in 1929, commissioner of 
 public works. 
 
 When he returned from the east, Thompson threw his 
 energies into politics with an avidity born of a fear that 
 his candidacy might prove to be as dismal a flop this time 
 as had been his 1928 effort. The indications weren't much 
 better at the beginning. He promoted two publicity stunts 
 that he felt did his reputation much good. One was the 
 establishment of a radio broadcasting station on the top 
 of his office building, the Wrigley Tower, the call letters 
 of which were WHT. Ostensibly the station was to push 
 Governor Small's good roads project and the Lakes-to- 
 Gulf Waterway (of which Thompson was chairman) and 
 provide entertainment for the masses owning receiving 
 sets ; but you may be sure that plenty of good words were 
 thrown in for Candidate Thompson between piano rendi- 
 tions of "To a Waterfowl" by little Minnie Glumpf , tenor 
 renditions of "Irish Eyes Are Smiling" by Jacob Gins- 
 berg, and the "Nut-Cracking Hour" featuring the Cute 
 Trio, Addison Sims of Seattle, Cracker Barrel Joe and 
 Sylvester Lee (Sil-ly), and Gladys Moan and Her Moan- 
 ing Jazz Band. The other stratagem was a mammoth pic- 
 nic sponsored by the Citizens' Good Roads Association, 
 William Hale Thompson founder and president. Over 
 75,000 people attended the picnic, which was given at the 
 Great Lakes Naval Training Station. Baseball games, 
 cutter races, drilling, band concerts, soccer contests, an 
 Indian show, dancing, fireworks, a vaudeville show — in 
 short, everything was given the proletariat to convince it 
 
DEVER REIGNS— THOMPSON ROMPS 217 
 
 that Big Bill was a "swell fellow," the most valuable com- 
 pliment a politician can win in the eyes of most of the 
 voters. It was his first appearance in public after his 
 illness, which in itself was a neat stroke. 
 
 However fetching all this nonsense may have been with 
 the masses, most of the influential political personages still 
 opposed Bill's ambitions and resented many of the items 
 of his tactics. And in the fall of 1925 things went from 
 bad to worse. The ax fell on his biggest patronage tree, 
 thanks to Lundin. Governor Small asked for the resigna- 
 tions of Eugene Pike, Colonel Morse and Mrs. Pelouze, 
 Thompson's faithful adjuncts of the Lincoln Park Board. 
 These places were immediately filled by eager Lundin 
 men. Shortly afterwards Big Bill, in fierce resentment at 
 this pillaging of his property and friends, ceased his 
 activities in behalf of Small's waterway scheme. 
 
 The year of Our Lord 1926 rolled around, and William 
 Hale Thompson found himself without one major political 
 faction supporting his campaign for mayor. With the 
 primary twelve months away Bill was out in the cold. He 
 had no patronage cadets on his payroll and but one news- 
 paper with him, and that one feebly. His outlook was not 
 bright and he must have shuddered over it often. But he 
 squared his shoulders and prepared to fight. 
 
 Meanwhile Mayor William E. Dever was running the 
 municipal government as it had not been run since Harri- 
 son. He did not look upon the city hall as a sort of book- 
 ing agency for performers; hence, no picnics, pageants, 
 fairs or parades originated there while he was the chief 
 executive. He was not the best mayor Chicago ever had, 
 but he certainly was a good one, head and shoulders above 
 his predecessor. He was attacked viciously by the profes- 
 sional boosters and boomers for his inactivity in calling 
 attention to the fact that Chicago is a wonder city. There 
 
218 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 were two reasons for Dever's lack of noisy "civic ideal- 
 ism," one studied, the other temperamental. He realized 
 that the prime imperative of his job was running the 
 civic machinery well, and he placed little faith in the pre- 
 posterous flub-dub that had characterized Thompson's 
 two terms ; further, he was a gentleman, and as such was 
 averse to making a circus clown of himself. This desire 
 for a reasonable decorum and conservatism, for some 
 dignity and privacy, made for unpopularity. 
 
 His administration was shot through with political chi- 
 cane, too. But there was a great difference in degree, for 
 Dever had more character than Thompson for one thing, 
 and then Brennan had not the uncontrollable lust for do- 
 minion that Lundin had had. His hold over the mayor 
 was inconsiderable compared to the previous relationship 
 of the Swedish Svengali and his beefy Trilby. 
 
 Men received jobs for services rendered in the cam- 
 paign, as is the irrevocable custom everywhere and at all 
 times in a democracy. But with Dever a certain compe- 
 tence was required in addition, at least with the important 
 jobs. Under Thompson, for instance, a dentist had been 
 smoke inspector, merely because the dentist was a pal of 
 Bill's and a functioning member of the machine. Few such 
 examples of brazen disregard of competence occurred in 
 the Dever reign. 
 
 The case of health commissioner is in point. Dr. Her- 
 man Bundeson had been a minor personage in the depart- 
 ment of Health Commissioner John Dill Robertson. When 
 "the only health commissioner ever named after a pickle" 
 considered the city robust enough for him to turn his 
 genius to running the school board, he designated Bunde- 
 son to complete his term. This Herman did with an alac- 
 rity common to all Avho squirm after political preferment, 
 and he did the job well, both professionally and politi- 
 cally. When things looked greased for Dever, Bundeson 
 
DEVER REIGNS— THOMPSON ROMPS 219 
 
 indicated that he was above partisan politics and became 
 a Democrat with gustatory whoops, working hard for 
 Boss Brennan. Hence he forced himself upon Dever as the 
 logical man to guard the public metabolism. He was no 
 Osier or Halsted, or even a Collins, but the medical so- 
 cieties did look upon him as far preferable to the impos- 
 sible Robertson and gave him their endorsement. 
 
 So it was with many other high offices. Under the new 
 president of the civil service commission, this branch of 
 the municipal government was slowly nursed back to the 
 health routed by Lundin's bruises. Colonel Albert A. 
 Sprague, commissioner of public works, was a capable 
 and high-minded gentleman, obviously the superior in 
 every way to Charles Francis, who had gone out under 
 a heavy cloud of suspicion set in motion by the grand 
 jury. Francis X. Busch, the new corporation counsel, was 
 as clever a lawyer as Ettelson but of finer moral caliber. 
 
 Despite the admittedly excellent integrity of Dever and 
 most of his cabinet, many people pointed to the presence 
 of George Brennan as prima facie evidence that spoils 
 politics had not buried its head in Chicago with the demise 
 of Lundin and his piratical crew. 
 
 And, indeed, it had not. "Peg Leg" Brennan was no 
 lily. He had learned the game from Roger Sullivan, or, 
 rather, he had learned the peculiarities of the Chicago 
 scene from Sullivan, but he was suited for politics from 
 boyhood. Possessed with perhaps the most winning per- 
 sonality of any politician in the state, a conciliatory dis- 
 position and a shrewd, calculating brain, he rose in the 
 ranks rapidly after arriving in Chicago from New York, 
 where he had been educated. When Sullivan died, in the 
 spring of 1920, Brennan became the boss, because for ten 
 years previous he had been Jolly Roger's most trusted aid. 
 His ability to get along with men was famous, even Davis, 
 the tight-lipped Anti- Saloon League dervish, capitulating 
 
220 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 to his charm. He appreciated fully the value of bi-parti- 
 san alliances, trades, deals, patronage and fat contracts, 
 and he could talk business as readily with Reverend Elmer 
 Williams, the self-appointed guardian of the public mor- 
 als, as with Fred Lundin. But this much should be said for 
 him : he firmly believed, with George Harding on the other 
 side, that a machine cannot be successful in the long run 
 if it slapped the public face too often and too hard. So 
 he made countless genial concessions to Mayor Dever's 
 earnest wish to manage the city as it should be managed. 
 
 The blackest mark on the preceding administration had 
 been the mismanagement of the school system. Perhaps it 
 is no more essential to good government that this depart- 
 ment be engineered honestly and ably than, say, the health 
 department or the department of public works ; but there 
 is an understandable sentimentality about children preva- 
 lent these days, and a vast faith that somehow the mil- 
 lennium will be introduced if they are conditioned prop- 
 erly — so Brennan determined not to repeat the mistake 
 of Thompson and Lundin. 
 
 He told the politicians that he wanted to make the 
 schools the "window dressing" of the administration, and 
 this policy of "hands off" was assiduously followed for 
 four years. A superintendent, William McAndrew, was 
 brought from New York City and was not annoyed by 
 the city hallers in anything like the fashion suffered by 
 the incumbents of the past. This position was first offered 
 to Charles E. Merriam, a man of impeccable reputation 
 in both educational and political circles and a Republican, 
 but the professor preferred to scourge sophomores for 
 confusing Lasky with Lecky to guiding the destiny of 
 Chicago public education for four years. 
 
 When Dever was introduced into the labors of office he 
 was given, along with some inelegant furniture and ban- 
 quets, a police force already formed by civil service and 
 
DEVER REIGNS— THOMPSON ROMPS 221 
 
 tinkered with by politicians. The best he could do was to 
 appoint a chief that would reorganize it in such a fashion 
 as to eliminate graft, inefficiency and "fix" But in Chi- 
 cago this seems almost an impossible task. Due to the 
 peculiarities of the local situation but six months on the 
 force is sufficient to make a thug and a cad of an honest 
 and respectable man, it is said. Dever was faced with a 
 much more difficult task of law enforcement than Thomp- 
 son had been faced with, for by 1923 the booze trade was 
 being organized on the grand scale that Big Business was 
 organized everywhere, and Chicago was the best liquor 
 market in the middle west and the clearing house for the 
 northern region of the Basin : the Fords and Raskobs of 
 bootlegging had millions to spend for protection, and the 
 city was wet and willing. 
 
 Furthermore, it is the racketeering fraternity which 
 chiefly patronizes the gaming houses, the ladies of joy 
 and countless other illicit seductions. Hence, the Noble 
 Experiment accelerated business all along the red line. 
 Perhaps any police force in the world would have been 
 unequal to the task of checking crime in a metropolis with 
 a large minority bent on flouting the law and a majority 
 indifferent to the attempt; and Chicago particularly has 
 and had a notoriously rotten and inept police system, 
 inadequate per se and the football of the political gents 
 besides. 
 
 To head this force Dever appointed Captain Morgan 
 Collins, surely not the worst selection but obviously not 
 the best. He, like his predecessors, failed to leave the city 
 any purer than he found it, although in his favor is the 
 negative point that he got little cooperation from the 
 state's attorney. 
 
 But by and large the criticisms of the Dever regime 
 were more temperate than those aimed at the Thompson 
 reign before it. During his administration he had the 
 
222 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 sympathy and endorsement of all those civic agencies that 
 had shouted themselves blue in the face at Thompson and 
 Lundin. And when he passed out his cabinet did not have 
 to face a flood of criminal indictments. He was intelligent, 
 worked hard and conscientiously. If he was tainted a 
 trifle with Puritanism, he should be forgiven readily : com- 
 pare him, virtue with virtue, vice with vice, with Thomp- 
 son and he gains stature with each step of the comparison. 
 He was not a popular mayor. He could not force him- 
 self to mountebankery. He was a gentleman. 
 
SEVENTEEN 
 BILL AS STUDENT OF WORLD AFFAIRS 
 
 IN the spring of 1926 the people of Chicago read of 
 a new political alliance, the Crowe-Barrett-Brundage- 
 Thompson-Galpin faction. Most readers passed over the 
 news with a shrug: it meant little to them. But to many 
 it was a piece de scandale. Let us examine the previous 
 relationships of these men, as demonstrated by their own 
 appraisals of each other. 
 
 Of Brundage, Thompson had once said: 
 
 The administration of Brundage (as attorney general) is what 
 might have been expected of a corporation lawyer whose prin- 
 cipal business before election was to aid rich tax dodgers in 
 escaping their just share of the expenses of government. 
 
 Brundage returned the compliment in 1920 : 
 
 The issue ... is between efficient, economical government 
 and Lundin-Thompson Tammanyism. 
 
 Crowe, in 1922, said: 
 
 I quit Thompson because he indicated he did not wish me to 
 live up to my oath of office. The immediate cause of my breach 
 with Mayor Thompson was my efforts to close hell-holes of 
 prostitution and vice. 
 
 Two years later Thompson, with his usual flair for 
 indiscreet drama, shouted : 
 
 Any time you'll find that I am in the same political bed with 
 Bobby Crowe, the Barrett brothers, Ed Brundage, who was 
 the cause of killing Governor Small's wife, the Chicago Tribune, 
 
 223 
 
224 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 profiteering from Canadian free lands for their pulp paper, and 
 their Medill McCormick who voted for war — then you'll know 
 that Bill Thompson has turned out to be a crook. 
 
 In addition, Thompson had referred to Crowe as a rat ; 
 Crowe had charmingly replied that Bill was a skunk ; Gal- 
 pin had once accused Thompson of lying and double- 
 crossing; and Brundage, by an adroit metaphor, had 
 insinuated that Crowe was an ass. In the spring of 1926 
 these gentlemen attended a gaudy banquet at which they 
 threw verbal powder-puffs at each other, joked and 
 feasted in quiet harmony. Where formerly, at various 
 times, they had buried hatchets in each other's skulls, now 
 they were burying the hatchet in true Indian fashion, in 
 the ground. The pipe of peace was sent around the circle, 
 and they plotted the death of Deneen and his tribe of 
 office-seekers. 
 
 Just how all these fellows came to be gathered under 
 the same tent will be explained shortly, but first the stakes 
 of victory must be listed, for that was the magnet that 
 attracted them all. In the main it was a county election, 
 the posts of county treasurer, county judge, sheriff, 
 county clerk, several county commissioners, two members 
 of the board of review and three members of the board 
 of assessors becoming vacant at this time. But a few city 
 jobs were to be filled: three trustees of the sanitary dis- 
 trict and a group of municipal judges. To complete the 
 ballot were a scattered few state offices, notably state 
 treasurer. Most important of all to the voters, and head- 
 ing the ticket, was the office of United States Senator. 
 . . . A prize list, certainly worth scrambling for. 
 
 When the politicians sobered up from the traditionally 
 American New Year's Eve spree, they looked dourly upon 
 an anarchical situation in factional affairs in the Repub- 
 lican party. The only definite cleavage visible was that 
 
BILL AS STUDENT OF WORLD AFFAIRS 225 
 
 separating the Crowe-Barrett group from the henchmen 
 admiring Senator Deneen. The latter was ambitious to 
 invade the county territory of State's Attorney Crowe 
 and County Reviewer Barrett and in his menage could be 
 found County Recorder Haas, County Reviewer Litsinger 
 (who badly wanted to be mayor and anticipated the sup- 
 port of his boss), Roy O. West, the secretary of the 
 Republican National Committee, and a few less luminous 
 but equally loyal stalwarts. 
 
 On the other side, kissing Crowe's index finger, could 
 be seen Homer K. Galpin, prominent ward leader and 
 chairman of the county committee, Sanitary Trustees 
 Morris Eller and Lawrence King, both influential ward 
 bosses, Edward H. Wright, whose ancestors had been 
 slaves but who now had slaves of his own, being in fact 
 the most successful rouser of the black rabble — and hun- 
 dreds of lesser lights, white, black and saffron. 
 
 These alignments were impressive, still several of the 
 biggest figures in the city were unattached for the mo- 
 ment, the most valuable of which were Bill Thompson, 
 Ed Brundage and George Harding, all capable of 
 marshaling thousands of votes. Thompson and Harding 
 wanted company, for Bill's campaign for mayor needed 
 organization support in the worst way. 
 
 At first Bill made tactical overtures to Deneen, recall- 
 ing the assistance he had given Charlie in the Senatorial 
 race of 1924. This embarrassed Charlie mightily, for in 
 his fold were two loyalists lusting for the same office Bill 
 wanted; so Deneen had to send Thompson his heartiest 
 regrets. 
 
 However, Deneen did want to avoid a bitter primary. 
 Acrimonious contests vitiate the party and sometimes 
 make for Democratic victory; and he has always been a 
 staunch party man, convinced that the trumpeting of the 
 elephant suggested the voice of God. So he tried to engi- 
 
226 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 neer a "harmony conference" in December of 1925. This 
 met for several days at the Hotel LaSalle, all the big 
 Republicans joining in the pow-wow. But it was for 
 nought; they could not agree. The Crowe-Barrett boys 
 repaired to one hotel and the Deneenites to another, and 
 they prepared to fight it out at the polls. 
 
 Thompson never did like Crowe. The latter was too 
 arrogant and icy a person for the democratic, easy-going 
 Bill to stomach without a chaser. But he had to if he 
 wanted to be mayor, for Crowe was the boss in Cook 
 County. The opportunity to force himself on the state's 
 attorney came through his manager, George Harding. 
 
 Sheriff Peter B. Hoffman was the original Crowe- 
 Barrett choice for county treasurer. But before this could 
 be ratified by the people, a scandal flared up which ruined 
 Hoffman's career. Two newspapers led in the exposure of 
 interesting pecadilloes in the administration of the county 
 jail. It seems that two famous distributors of the city's 
 booze, Mr. Terence Druggan and Mr. Frank Lake, were 
 extended extra-legal favors during their little vacation 
 behind the bars. So Hoffman had to be shelved. 
 
 Immediately George Harding spoke up for his place on 
 the Crowe-Barrett slate. His arguments were many and 
 cogent: he was wealthy, nicely able to finance his own 
 campaign ; he controlled a goodly portion of the votes on 
 the south side, the seat of his real estate operations ; and 
 his reputation was untarnished. It worked superbly and 
 he was accepted into the inner councils as the accredited 
 candidate for county treasurer. 
 
 This created a wedge for Big Bill. All the boys recog- 
 nized him as the best advertiser a ticket could have: his 
 bellows were invaluable and had put over many an office- 
 seeker. But it took a little time for Harding's tact to 
 thaw out the impressions existing about his friend. George 
 proved an able diplomat and soon their surliness was 
 
BILL AS STUDENT OF WORLD AFFAIRS 2»7 
 
 diminished to tolerance and Bill joined the strategy board 
 to help plot out the best method of copping the bacon. 
 
 After Thompson was well ensconced in the Crowe- 
 Barrett faction, Brundage made gestures of returning. 
 He had been wobbling back and forth for months. In the 
 "harmony conference" he had sponsored Judge Walter 
 Steffen for county judge, this being very satisfactory to 
 Deneen. It displeased Crowe greatly, however, for he had 
 firmly decided to elevate one of his assistants, Joseph 
 Savage, to this bench, and resented Brundage's proposal 
 of anyone else. This caused a split between Crowe and 
 Brundage, who inclined then towards Deneen, threatening 
 dark reprisals. This move proved to be one of folly, for 
 Deneen was unable to give him any patronage to sustain 
 his following. Brundage's political family had to be fed, 
 or they would turn berserker and devour him. So he had 
 to turn lamely back to Crowe, licked, because Bobby con- 
 trolled the Republican segment of the rich sanitary board, 
 the milkiest pap in the city. He had no alternative, that 
 is except being a man and retiring, but of course this 
 never occurred to him. 
 
 While Brundage was shilly-shallying around, desper- 
 ately trying to keep his machine together and force his 
 man Steffen on Crowe, Thompson and Harding were 
 shouldering their way into the Crowe-Barrett wing. 
 Finally Brundage, smarting with frustration and humili- 
 ation, was forced to shake hands with Thompson and 
 Harding as faction brothers. Which was, in classical 
 phrase, adding insult to injury. 
 
 The end of January saw things pretty well 
 patched up. The Crowe-Barrett-Thompson-Harding- 
 Galpin-Brundage flank of the Republican party in Cook 
 County, prepared for business. But where was Small, 
 with his formidable patronage strength, and Lundin, 
 whose finger was in every pie? The Small machine tended 
 
228 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 to affiliate with Deneen, although many minor personages 
 dependent on the governor thought it more to their indi- 
 vidual interest to work with Crowe in this county matter. 
 As for the Swede, his course was clear: there was three 
 of his arch enemies lined up against the same wall, Crowe 
 and Brundage, who had almost sent him to jail, and 
 Thompson, of whom he was generally contemptuous. For 
 some time he had resolved to sink all of them. He had 
 helped dispose of Brundage in 1924, gaining consider- 
 able satisfaction thereby. Now he hoped to spike Crowe's 
 county ambitions and throw the monkey-wrench into the 
 machinery of Thompson's early campaign for mayor. 
 
 The Senatorial contest was the most confused of all. 
 The opponents were William B. McKinley, running to 
 succeed himself, and Frank L. Smith of Dwight, chair- 
 man of the state Republican committee. McKinley was 
 looked upon with favor by Crowe and Barrett but not by 
 Thompson and Brundage. The Senator had voted for the 
 World Court, thereby displeasing the Tribune, backer of 
 Brundage. Smith, one of Thompson's best friends, saw 
 that United States participation in the World Court 
 would prove unpopular in Chicago, so he lined himself up 
 with the sheet which had so often moved for his execu- 
 tion, agreeing with the "World's Greatest Newspaper" 
 that this was the real issue in the campaign. The old bro- 
 mide about politics making strange bedfellows surely holds 
 up here. 
 
 The ear-chewing and nose-punching over the selection 
 of candidates having been peremptorily ended by the 
 frightening fact of Crowe's power, the next step was the 
 determining of the platform, the "issues" and the proper 
 slogans for trimming. "Home rule" was discussed. This 
 moth-eaten dodge was good — they had all tried it — but 
 it presented certain difficulties. First, it failed to set the 
 Crowe group as distinctly apart from the Deneen faction 
 
BILL AS STUDENT OF WORLD AFFAIRS 229 
 
 as desired, and hence lacked punch; second, they did not 
 wish to alienate the governor by making him the target 
 of the campaign, despite his quasi-alliance with Deneen. 
 
 Then someone, probably Big Bill, suggested the Anti- 
 World Court issue. It had plenty of advantages: it was 
 timely, the controversy being the one major subject for 
 prolonged debate in the current Senate sessions; it was 
 remote from county affairs, surely a point in its favor; 
 and Senator Deneen had voted for it. Only one argument 
 arose to stay immediate adoption. McKinley had also 
 voted for United States entrance into the Court, and he 
 was a Crowe ally by long-standing arrangement. But this 
 was soon smoothed over. These genial political gentlemen 
 were not really worked up over the possibility of their 
 country entering the World Court. Perhaps Bill Thomp- 
 son was, for he is a strangely sentimental and credulous 
 politician, often sincerely believing his own speeches. But 
 the others seized upon it as simply effective hokum to 
 shove their candidates onto the bench and the sanitary 
 district, their sole concern. 
 
 Why was the average Chicago voter militantly against 
 American participation in an agency designed to promote 
 international justice? For the passably judicious reasons 
 advanced by Jim Reed and the liberal Messiah, Borah? 
 These may have influenced a few. With the masses it was 
 rooted deeper, in emotions, traditional fears and suspi- 
 cions, and the newspaper exploitations were but ration- 
 alizations upon these feelings, half -thoughts piled on top 
 of vague impressions originating back in the Jacksonian 
 era and before. The quintessence of the matter, perhaps, 
 lies in the fact that political unity in America is but a 
 confusing mask for disturbing economic disunity. The 
 economic needs of one region are at wide variance with 
 those of another. The New England cotton-mill owner 
 has nothing but Betsy Ross's flag in common with the 
 
230 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Oregon apple grower or the Dakota wheat farmer; and 
 the international banker has nothing but the common 
 desire for salvation and immortality to link him with the 
 potato grower of Idaho. Hence the fussing over the tariff, 
 farm debentures, cancellation of war debts, foreign loans 
 and United States participation in the World Court and 
 the League of Nations. Most solutions of these dilemmas 
 are but temporary or evasive, mere political sops of the 
 moment. 
 
 So Charles V. Barrett ran for the office of Cook County 
 Reviewer on the plea that he would rigidly insist, once in 
 office, that the United States remain out of the World 
 Court ! All the other candidates for offices in Chicago and 
 Cook County pledged themselves to the same principle. 
 And Bill Thompson did the shouting for the entire ticket. 
 
 Early in the campaign Bill caused his colleagues 
 marked discomfort. After the committee had finally de- 
 cided upon campaign tactics, a large gathering of petty 
 oligarchs and camp-followers was held at the Sherman 
 House ; 3,500 people were present, and the intention was 
 to impress the enemy and themselves with the united front 
 they presented. Thompson was chairman of the resolutions 
 committee and outlined the platform with a patriotic 
 speech, delivered in the bang-up fashion of which he is the 
 acknowledged master in Chicago. All the men on the 
 "America First" ticket were lined up before him and 
 pledged to adhere to the tenets of the high-sounding plat- 
 form. Then a parade of ex-service men trooped about, 
 headed by a plumber and an iceman dressed up to resem- 
 ble the Virginia gentlemen who were the first and third 
 presidents of the United States. These were followed by a 
 trio of ward-healers in costume, representing the "Spirit 
 of '76." 
 
 This was the beginning. As the crusade wore on it 
 became increasingly obvious that Big Bill, as usual, was 
 
BILL AS STUDENT OF WORLD AFFAIRS 231 
 
 filching the whole show. It was rumored that he and 
 Crowe had truculent words over it and that Bill almost 
 poked Bob in the face. When this unseemly gossip was 
 printed in one of the papers both men denounced it heat- 
 edly as a lie, the result of a conspiracy to defeat the ticket 
 and ensnare the nation into the World Court, and they 
 sued the unpatriotic sheet for libel. 
 
 But the condition remained the same. Bill continued 
 leading the attack and the rest continued being churlish 
 about it, although undoubtedly he was rapidly bringing 
 about victory. The following speech, delivered at the 
 height of the campaign, with all the arm-waving and 
 chest-thumping required for punctuation and emphasis, 
 is illustrative of Thompson's fine adjustment to the emo- 
 tions of his audiences, and this justifies its reproduction 
 in full. It is perhaps his most typical address : 
 
 All this argument for the World Court is a lot of propaganda 
 for the King of England. They tell us that we oughta trust 
 England, that she is our friend. Well, the King got control of all 
 the rubber and raised the price enough to pay all their debt to 
 us. That shows they're pretty friendly, doesn't it? The King 
 got control of coffee and is doing the same thing. I shouldn't be 
 surprised if the King had something to do with slipping over 
 the Volstead Act on us so that all their distillers can make for- 
 tunes selling us bootleg liquor. You are paying them a billion 
 dollars on those three items alone. 
 
 How do they do it? By using our pro-British senators to vote 
 down Old Glory ! I admit I never expected much of McKinley, 
 with his running over to see the King every summer. He likes 
 it so well that with your help we'll fix it on April thirteenth so 
 that he can spend his winters there too ! 
 
 I helped elect Charlie Deneen senator. I thought he was an 
 American. But he hadn't been in Washington a year before the 
 King got him. I apologize for what I did. 
 
 For the second time in the history of the United States of 
 America they voted for gag rule. They were afraid and ashamed 
 
232 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 to let any one know what they were doing. They won't tell you 
 now. Ask them about the Court and they reply: "Watch me 
 throw this hunk of mud." That bell-hop McKinley refused to 
 debate with Frank Smith. If the two had ever stood on a plat- 
 form together, McKinley wouldn't get enough votes to know he 
 was running. Smith looks, talks and acts like a senator. 
 
 That poor, miserable reprobate McKinley says: "Don't blame 
 me — the party wanted me to vote for the Court," and tries to 
 hide behind that great American, Calvin Coolidge. I predict that 
 Coolidge will before long announce that he wants us out of 
 the Court. He keeps his ear to the ground. 
 
 I hear that McKinley is on his second million now. They say 
 he's a good business man. What kind of business do you call it 
 to spend a million to get a $7,500 job — unless there's some 
 business going on we don't know about. You might expect any- 
 thing of a man who voted to haul down the flag and destroy 
 American institutions. 
 
 It's a lie to say they voted for the World Court. What it is is 
 the Permanent Court of International Justice of the League of 
 Nations. One of the reasons they stopped debate was to keep 
 us from finding out what their World Court really is. 
 
 The international bankers put the World Court planks in both 
 party platforms. Let's hope the people will find some new way 
 to nominate the president and make a platform so we can get 
 out of the clutches of the international bankers. 
 
 They say we are bi-partisan because the Democrats are help- 
 ing us keep Old Glory at the masthead, when thirty-one Demo- 
 crats helped them pull it down! 
 
 Charlie and Willie think it takes seven Yankees to lick a 
 Britisher. Well I'm pretty old and fat, but I'll guarantee to lick 
 any Britisher my weight. If they are so good, why don't they 
 send some one over to lick Jack Dempsey? Why couldn't they 
 lick Jim Jeffries? It seems to me I remember that dear old 
 John L. Sullivan used to go over to England and lick a couple 
 of Britishers every night. 
 
 We'll get rid of one of our pro-British senators on April 
 thirteenth. 
 
 I'm not in this campaign for anything for myself. I think 
 
BILL AS STUDENT OF WORLD AFFAIRS 233 
 
 there is great danger ahead. We stand at the cross-roads. You 
 always stood by Bill when he needed you. When they called me 
 "Kaiser Bill" and the newspapers bribed with British money 
 called me a traitor, you reelected me to prove I was right. When 
 you need me I owe it to you, and I'll be there. 
 
 I see a picture in my mind of the nations gathered around 
 the table at Geneva, where John Bull has seven votes to our 
 one. The different ones are telling about unemployment and dis- 
 tress in their countries. They suggest that the American tariff 
 be lowered so they can sell us goods and start their factories 
 moving. Uncle Sam protests — that would throw American 
 laborers out of work. "You object?" says John Bull, "well, 
 majority rules: call the roll!" 
 
 After the war I saved Chicago from the bread line and the 
 soup kitchen with my Pageant of Progress, and I don't ever 
 want to see anything like that in America. 
 
 All this may happen if you're not alert. McKinley and Deneen 
 will vote you into the League; the flag of internationalism will 
 be raised above Old Glory, the Constitution nullified, all Ameri- 
 can institutions as laid down by the Fathers struck down ! 
 
 They'll call the roll on the repudiation of all war debts, and 
 what they don't pay, you've got to pay. Thirty billions ! No 
 wonder McKinley is willing to pay a million to save that much 
 for the King! 
 
 They've had twenty-eight wars since the Armistice, one for 
 every ninety days. After they get Uncle Sam in they'll have one 
 every sixty days. 
 
 The King wants it so. McKinley and Deneen are voting so. 
 Let's get rid of them at the first possible time. 
 
 I'm here to prevent you from suffering. I need not be in this 
 campaign at all. But I love our flag, and I want nothing over it. 
 I want us to be left alone. 
 
 What, in the name of the gods, is this all about? Is it 
 possible that this muddled rubbish had any effect on Bill's 
 audience ? The crowd went wild with enthusiasm ! 
 
 When Crowe and Barrett heard the echoes of the reac- 
 tions of the crowd to such speeches as the above, they 
 
234 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 cursed. McKinley was supposed to be the candidate of 
 their organization, and Big Bill was making him the tar- 
 get for the fanciest billingsgate he had ever concocted. 
 And there was the personal angle that they, as bosses, 
 were being pushed into the shade by a man that wasn't 
 even on the ticket. They had to take it out in curses ; noth- 
 ing could be done about it. Unwittingly they had acqui- 
 esced to the World Court issue, and it was proving a 
 boomerang. 
 
 By the time the campaign was fully launched it was 
 obvious even to the most disinterested fish-wife that Bill 
 Thompson was the major domo of the outfit, at least so 
 it appeared from the amount of newspaper space given to 
 him; he was the outstanding personality of the primary 
 ballyhoo. And Brundage, Crowe and Barrett^ were forced 
 to boil in silence. 
 
 Thompson, in addition to his own shouting, was respon- 
 sible for the most grandiose feature of the campaign : the 
 securing of the services of Senator William E. Borah for 
 the Cause. Thompson sent Borah an invitation to stump 
 for Old Glory. Borah accepted, but only on the condition 
 that his visit was to be assumed of more than local signifi- 
 cance. This, of course, was facilely agreed to. 
 
 The Great Progressive's visit to assist in placing Morris 
 Eller on the Sanitary board of Chicago on a "No World 
 Court" platform was singularly prepared for. Letters 
 were sent to local patriots inviting them to aid in "keep- 
 ing Old Glory at the masthead by taking part in the dec- 
 orated automobile parade" which welcomed the important 
 man to the city. Delegations from all over the state, and 
 from far-flung provinces of the hinterland, added their 
 voices to the din of brass bands as Borah stepped off the 
 train. He was escorted to the Field Museum and honored 
 there with the Congressional salute of seventeen bombs. 
 After this gesture to the dignity and esteem of the famous 
 
BILL AS STUDENT OF WORLD AFFAIRS 235 
 
 statesman, Thompson showed him through the town. 
 Finally after toasts to Washington, the Flag, the Con- 
 stitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Spirit 
 of '76, the gifted lawyer was left to ruminate over diverse 
 problems of international jurisprudence in the Presiden- 
 tial suite in the Sherman House. 
 
 "With the technique of a Morris Gest and the sense of 
 Yankee Doodlistics of George M. Cohan, William Hale 
 Thompson staged the Borah rally." Thus spake the 
 American. Bill appeared in his campaign sombrero and 
 the mob was out of hand from that moment on. It received 
 Borah nicely, if inelegantly, and reacted properly to his 
 lecture. His opening remark, read from his manuscript in 
 solemn tone, piqued the audience not a little: "George 
 Washington is the most massive figure in the political 
 history of the world," for most of the men and women 
 present thought Bill Thompson was ; but this temporary 
 annoyance was soon submerged in effulgence for the re- 
 mainder of his address, which didn't deal in controverted 
 personalities but was confined to a passionate denuncia- 
 tion of the spirit that was causing the country to drift 
 gradually and perilously into the League of Nations. 
 After thirty minutes of such stuff he closed with a stirring 
 re-statement of his thesis that the ideas of George Wash- 
 ington are still sound and very applicable to our present 
 dilemma. 
 
 It was this speech that set the pace for the rest of the 
 campaign and formed the factual basis for Thompson's 
 addresses in the future. Also, the essence of Borah's stern 
 logic was used as the nucleus of the widely-circulated plat- 
 form of the faction. It was headed : 
 
 We stand for Home Rule in 
 
 CITY COUNTY STATE NATION 
 
 AMERICA FIRST ! NO WORLD COURT ! 
 
236 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 At the close of the Borah gathering, which was marked 
 with great applause and carryings-on, Thompson an- 
 nounced that Senator Shipstead, "that stalwart Scandi- 
 navian American," would be imported for the St. Pat- 
 rick's Day rally. The celebrated dentist-statesman did not 
 register as heavily as had his Progressive brother before 
 him. A rather inane attempt at constitutional analysis 
 bored the audience, nursed as it was on Thompson's bil- 
 lingsgate, but when he viciously scored the League of 
 Nations they were all for him, and he sat down trium- 
 phant. 
 
 Thompson was not content with pushing his fellow Illi- 
 nois politicians in the shade ; he did the same thing to the 
 Sage of the Northwest. Introducing Shipstead to the 
 radio listeners, he became so carried away with the foul 
 machinations of George V and the international bankers 
 that he usurped all but ten minutes of the Senator's sched- 
 uled time on the air. How much Shipstead resented this is 
 not known to anyone but his wife and patients at home, 
 but Bill's colleagues were furious. In executive session 
 they voted down his resolution that this highly successful 
 Anti-World Court balderdash be continued until the 
 primary. 
 
 Thompson's ferocious yeoman service for Frank L. 
 Smith, coupled with the strong newspaper support he 
 received, made Smith's candidacy for the Senate so pop- 
 ular throughout the state that Crowe and Barrett, who 
 were pledged to McKinley by a previous deal, had to get 
 on the band-wagon or risk defeat. So just before the elec- 
 tion they instructed their ward leaders to do as they 
 pleased in marking the Senatorial square on the sample 
 ballots. 
 
 Deneen was in a hot spot. Thompson's assaults upon 
 McKinley, and Crowe's dropping away from that man, 
 added to the fact that he too had voted for the Court, 
 
BILL AS STUDENT OF WORLD AFFAIRS 237 
 
 compelled him to link his ticket with the McKinley des- 
 tiny, which he finally did in several speeches. Lundin too 
 gave aid to McKinley, although Smith was close to Gov- 
 ernor Small; Thompson's affiliation with Smith, plus his 
 later forcing of the latter down the throats of Crowe and 
 Barrett, pushed the Swede irrevocably into the McKinley- 
 Deneen camp. As for Small himself — he stayed out of the 
 campaign, endorsing no one. He had followers on both 
 sides and had to keep his peace. But Thompson was not 
 content to allow the Governor's personal following to 
 make up its own mind. He linked McKinley with repudia- 
 tion of Small's good roads policy by reminding his audi- 
 ences of the former's support of Small's opponent in 1924, 
 Essington. 
 
 Clearly the big fellow was mussing things up with a 
 vengeance, reducing every major politician in Illinois to 
 discomfiture. It was his campaign from start to finish. 
 Due almost entirely to him, Lundin was alienated from 
 Smith; Crowe and Barrett were pulled onto the Smith 
 wagon; and Small was associated in most people's minds 
 as approving of both the candidacies of Smith and Bill 
 Thompson in 1927. 
 
 Meanwhile Deneen was directing a less spectacular 
 campaign. He considered the World Court issue irrele- 
 vant and unwise and ignored it until the last week. He 
 confined his strategy to genuine county issues, chief of 
 which was the "bi-partisanship" issue. His speakers 
 alleged that the Crowe-Barrett-Thompson faction failed 
 to represent the Republican party in Cook County be- 
 cause of an illegal marriage with the Brennan Democrats, 
 tantamount, they charged, with party treason. Further, 
 they complained of favoritism, accusing their enemies of 
 connivance with the Democratic county clerk to discrimi- 
 nate against them in the placing of names on the ballot. 
 And although they went a long way in proving their con- 
 
238 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 tentions of bi-partisanship, it was a feeble weapon com- 
 pared with the "international super-dictatorship" issue 
 bellowed by Thompson and Smith. 
 
 Deneen's organization was soon corrupted by internal 
 strife. Dozens of its leaders felt that the Smith candidacy 
 was making grievous inroads in their territories, and 
 reasoned that the coupling of McKinley's name with the 
 rest of the ticket was injuring it mightily. 
 
 Many personal attacks on the candidates amused the 
 voters. Grotesque appeals were made to the electorate by 
 members of both sides. All in all it was the bloodiest, most 
 acrimonious, most interesting primary Chicago had seen 
 for many years. At the last moment it was garnished by 
 Fred Lundin's breaking of his legendary silence, which 
 consisted of a delineation of a few of the more glaring 
 Thompson hypocrisies : his alliances with Brundage, with 
 Crowe and Barrett, with Galpin. The statement was bit- 
 terly written and amused many people. 
 
 A record vote was cast. In the county the Crowe-Barrett 
 contingent took almost everything it wanted. Barrett won 
 easily over Coroner Wolff for the board of review nomina- 
 tion; Eller and King and the Lundin man, Todd, ran 
 away from the Deneen choices for the sanitary board; 
 Savage disposed of Trude for county judge, gaining the 
 dubious privilege of facing Jarecki, the most popular and 
 praiseworthy Democrat on the bench, in the fall ; a Crowe 
 fellow, Boutell, won the presidency of the county com- 
 mission ; so it was with sheriff, county clerk and the board 
 of assessors. It was almost a clean sweep. 
 
 The henchmen of Governor Small had a tougher time 
 
 of it in the state, surprising many close observers. The 
 
 chief setback for Len was the downing of his man for 
 
 state treasurer, an office he wanted to control badly. 
 
 Frank L. Smith, of course, buried William McKinley 
 
BILL AS STUDENT OF WORLD AFFAIRS 239 
 
 for the Senatorial nomination, this having been conceded 
 a month before the primary by the astute. 
 
 The neat plurality piled up by George F. Harding for 
 county treasurer and, in a measure, the nomination of 
 Smith, indicated the reviving personal popularity of Bill 
 Thompson. There was a well-authenticated rumor at the 
 time that Crowe and Barrett slyly worked against Har- 
 ding, and even planned to use him, in the event of his 
 nomination, as the subject of a trade with the Democrats. 
 But Big Bill spiked that nicely. He saw to it that Harding 
 was put over with a bang. 
 
 The recommendations of the bar association, the Mu- 
 nicipal Voters' League and the other civic organizations 
 had been tacitly ignored by the voters. Dr. Carroll 
 Wooddy, whose "Chicago Primary of 1926" is one of the 
 best analytical surveys of its kind, summed up the social 
 significance of this election when he wrote: "The majority 
 of the nominations on the Republican ticket went to men 
 pledged to perpetuate the lowest standards of official con- 
 duct, to maintain the degrading system of patronage and 
 spoils, to exploit rather than serve the public." This tri- 
 umph of the Devil may have disappointed the sagacious 
 Dr. Wooddy, but certainly it did not surprise him. 
 
 The meretricious nature of many of the campaign alle- 
 gations drew the curiosity of several of the intelligent 
 members of the Senate. Hence, in the summer following 
 the primary, Jim Reed arrived with a committee to find 
 out whence the odors came. They interrogated dozens of 
 the local politicians about the management and financing 
 of their tickets. Most of them were too reticent to please 
 the testy Reed, although young Bob LaFollette was pal- 
 pably amused at his colleague's ire. Crowe flatly refused 
 to tell the sources of his machine's campaign money; 
 Samuel Insull and his attorneys were likewise coy; as a 
 result they were all cited for contempt by the Senate and 
 
240 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 later, in Washington, spent many uncomfortable moments 
 when the investigations into the crusades of Smith, Vare 
 and Pepper took on serious dimensions. 
 
 William Hale Thompson was one of the first called on 
 the carpet. "I have tried," Bill quietly said, "to do my 
 part in carrying out the policies laid down by George 
 Washington and the twenty-six Presidents who succeeded 
 him on the great American principle that it shall be for 
 the best interests of the United States for all time to 
 maintain friendly relations with all European nations but 
 entangling alliances with none." 
 
 Reed and LaFollette smiled. They appreciated the les- 
 son in international jurisprudence, but it wasn't exactly 
 what they wanted. Reed gently questioned Thompson fur- 
 ther. Bill confessed that the intricate details of finance 
 hadn't greatly concerned him; with him, he said, the big 
 issues were the World Court, the waterways from Chicago 
 to the gulf, and Prohibition — and he had been very firm 
 about these points when the alliance with Crowe and Bar- 
 rett was under discussion. Pressed by the inquisitors a bit 
 more, he admitted carrying $25,000 from the Smith man- 
 agers to Crowe; but apparently he didn't know where it 
 came from or how it was being spent. This caused such 
 mirth among the committee that Reed took pity on Bill 
 and changed the subject to a lighter vein: Bill looked so 
 fat and harmless there on the stand that it would have 
 been cruel to proceed seriously. Jim asked Bill what a 
 bunco party was. Thompson patiently and naively told 
 him that it was a game played by ladies which politicians 
 often attended for the purpose of addressing them on 
 governmental subjects as they played. Reed told him he 
 was a bold man. 
 
 Fred Lundin was in the audience as Thompson testi- 
 fied, awaiting his turn. They did not speak to each other, 
 although their eyes met a score of times. The Swede was 
 
BILL AS STUDENT OF WORLD AFFAIRS 241 
 
 much at his ease and laughed heartily at Thompson's in- 
 genuous answers and Reed's biting wit. When it came his 
 turn on the stand he outdid all the witnesses in naivete. 
 There was a marked difference in Reed's manner of ad- 
 dressing Lundin and his manner of addressing Thompson : 
 the Missourian had heard of the canny Swede and scruti- 
 nized him closely and respectfully. The committee had 
 found out a little scandal from Thompson by numerous 
 rhetorical devices and icy interpolations, but they found 
 Lundin's defense impenetrable and finally gave it up as a 
 bad job. If his testimony is a criterion, Frederick Lundin 
 knew no more of the inner workings of politics in Illinois 
 than a civics instructor in one of the high schools. 
 
 The Senatorial investigation over, Big Bill was in high 
 spirits. He departed immediately for the west with Eugene 
 Pike and spent two weeks on William Randolph Hearst's 
 ranch in California. 
 
 Back in Chicago, his campaign sombrero atop his skull, 
 he prepared for the fall and winter campaign happily. 
 Litsinger had to be bowled over in the primary, and the 
 Democratic nominee, probably Dever, had to be defeated 
 in April. Yet things looked very bright. His popularity 
 had been immeasurably enhanced, and now he was an 
 integral part of a strong machine. There was hard work 
 ahead, surely, but of fear he had none. 
 
EIGHTEEN 
 
 BILL SCOTCHES THE DRAGON GEORGE 
 
 A T periodic intervals for the past ten years the metro- 
 politan newspapers had carried stories to the effect 
 that a large person named Thompson had political con- 
 trol of the city of Chicago. And during the war they had 
 featured the scandal that the Windy City harbored a 
 traitorous mayor. But Europeans had never heard of him. 
 Suddenly, in the spring of 1927 and for more than a year 
 following, the entire civilized world was made painfully 
 aware of the existence of Big Bill Thompson, every paper 
 on both sides of the Atlantic flaming with the news that 
 this man was waging a furious campaign for reelection to 
 the mayoralty of Chicago by viciously attacking the mild 
 and remote little man acclaimed by the British as king! 
 He was asking the people of his constituency, fancy it, to 
 elect him mayor on the grounds that he was their protector 
 against the insidious machinations of George the Fifth of 
 England ! 
 
 In the preceding chapter we have shown how Deneen's 
 ambition to cut some ice in the county, and Crowe's 
 inability to get along with Small, divided the boys into 
 several confused factions ; how Thompson and Harding 
 recognized in this chaos a wedge for their careers, and 
 shouldered their way into the Crowe-Barrett machine ; and 
 how Bill was greatly instrumental in obtaining victory for 
 the candidates of his outfit. Now politicians are not men 
 of salutary honor, but generally it is regarded the part 
 of expediency to pay debts of this nature — and Thompson 
 
 242 
 
BILL SCOTCHES THE DRAGON GEORGE 24$ 
 
 had obligated the Crowe-Barrett faction immeasurably. 
 Hence they were tied to his mayoral candidacy irrev- 
 ocably. This situation displeased Charles Barrett not a 
 little, for he wanted to be the Republican choice for mayor 
 himself ; but Crowe convinced him to ride along with Bill, 
 which Barrett did sullenly and unwillingly. There was no 
 alternative. Bill had sewn things up too well. 
 
 Thompson was not content with putting over the Crowe 
 men in the primary. Realizing that his boom for mayor 
 would die of undernourishment unless he redoubled his 
 noise, he campaigned in behalf of the entire Republican 
 ticket against the Democratic nominees in the fall of 1926, 
 with particular emphasis on the Senatorial aspirations of 
 Frank L. Smith. The latter's opponent was George E. 
 Brennan, the boss of Illinois Democracy. Thompson found 
 Brennan unassailable at most of his favorite points of 
 attack. First, he ran as a dripping wet; also, he had no 
 Senate record to scorn; further, he was Irish and could 
 not, of course, be accused of fostering the interests of 
 King George and his coterie of international capitalists. 
 Bill was nonplussed, and his speeches lacked punch as a 
 result. 
 
 But in Cook County the powerful Republican machine 
 functioned flawlessly, delivering one hundred per cent, 
 and downstate, where Smith had an organization of his 
 own, and where Brennan's wetness scored few votes, he 
 cleaned up. Financed by Samuel Insull and other inter- 
 ested parties, with Small, Crowe, Deneen, Brundage and 
 Thompson working for him, Colonel Smith had an easy 
 time of it. The Democrats broke even with the rest of 
 their ticket. 
 
 Smith never took his seat among his peers at Washing- 
 ton. With Vare of Philadelphia, he was ruled out by that 
 Great Body in one of those occasional moral upheavals 
 that had scotched Newberry and Lorimer in the past. 
 
244 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 They closed the door to Frank Smith because it was re- 
 vealed that he took money from a public utilities magnate 
 when a member of the state commerce commission. 
 
 Big Bill gave his friend tearful consolation, sticking by 
 him to the end, just as he had done for Bill Lorimer. But 
 as nothing could be accomplished by weeping, he laid his 
 plans for a triumphant return to the mayor's chair, which, 
 he told Smith, would be a kind of vindication for him. 
 
 The World Court issue had been so fetching the pre- 
 vious spring that Bill and his plotting pals decided to 
 trot it out again, along with the tommy rot about the King 
 of England. It was deemed canny to focus the prevailing 
 hatred of the common man in Chicago for all things Eng- 
 lish upon something or someone peculiar to the local 
 scene. This target, inviting bombardment, was inherent in 
 the person of William McAndrew, the superintendent of 
 schools ; and at him, for the five months remaining to the 
 campaign, Big Bill leveled most of his braying and 
 mooing. 
 
 Why was McAndrew selected to be the goat in the mat- 
 ter? First, he was a very unpopular official, for reasons 
 which will be outlined shortly; second, he was of Scotch 
 origin, which could easily be twisted into the charge that 
 he was English to local ignoramuses not too fussy about 
 ethnological distinctions; third, he was an outsider, 
 brought to Chicago by the Democrats acting upon the 
 advice of certain non-political educators; fourth, 
 McAndrew himself was not acquainted with the Chicago 
 political atmosphere, or any political atmosphere for that 
 matter, and was in no position to fight back if jumped 
 on vigorously; and fifth and most important, Thompson 
 himself had been destroyed because the public was sensi- 
 tive about the education of its young, and he judged that 
 he could dispose of the Democrats by exploiting their mis- 
 takes, or alleged mistakes, in this direction too. 
 
BILL SCOTCHES THE DRAGON GEORGE 245 
 
 From the day McAndrew took office it became obvious 
 there would be grave trouble. Before he left New York his 
 friends had warned him of the necessity of tact and diplo- 
 matic juggling in holding the Chicago assignment, not a 
 few pleading with him to refuse. 
 
 The school superintendency in Chicago has as its prin- 
 cipal function the reconciling of two perennially wran- 
 gling bodies, the school board and the teachers. The 
 former group feels that it represents the people and the 
 administration that created it; the latter aggregation 
 considers that it is close to the problems under discussion 
 and that its will should always prevail. It is the job of 
 the superintendent to put both of these elements in their 
 proper places, tactfully and with good humor. 
 
 Early in his administration Mayor Dever gave a 
 luncheon for McAndrew and invited Merriam, President 
 Moderwell of the school board, Corporation Counsel 
 Busch and some others, hoping to lend harmony to the 
 school department problem, beginning to look acute al- 
 ready. After the meal Merriam had a talk with McAndrew 
 and suggested that it would be the part of wisdom to 
 adopt a more conciliatory attitude towards the teachers, 
 who were showing signs of getting out of hand. McAndrew 
 set his bearded jaw, his most characteristic gesture by the 
 way, and said his ideas would be carried through to the 
 finish. Thus snubbed, Merriam shrugged his shoulders 
 and walked away, probably thinking that the finish Mac 
 referred to would be his finish. 
 
 For more than a decade the teachers had been led by 
 Miss Margaret Haley, a stormy little woman who acted 
 as business agent for the Teachers' Federation, the school- 
 marms' union. Her position was that of a Portia, a special 
 pleader. She was not so much concerned with justice, 
 although she talked about it constantly, as she was with 
 gaining the ends of the special group that paid her 
 
246 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 salary. A very capable person, she had made life miser- 
 able for several superintendents before McAndrew, but 
 rushed headlong against a stone wall with him. He had 
 small patience with the teachers' councils and did his best 
 to circumvent their work, even abolish them. This and 
 other evidences of intolerance were rewarded by the cor- 
 dial hatred of the teachers. 
 
 The politicians fared no better with the indomitable 
 fellow. Occasionally one of them came to him for some 
 petty favor. What usually happened in such an event is 
 illustrated by this widely-circulated story, culled from 
 Counts' book. A visitor from the city hall approached 
 McAndrew on a bright spring day with a list of teachers 
 to be promoted, probably friends of his or workers in his 
 ward. McAndrew, pointing out the first name on the list, 
 asked: "How is she on question distribution?" The un- 
 happy ward-heeler was puzzled and embarrassed, and 
 admitted to ignorance. McAndrew glared a moment, then 
 queried: "Well, how is her apperception?" The fellow 
 again looked blank, stared out of the window vaguely, 
 and stammered that he hadn't any idea. "Haven't you 
 ever seen her teach?" roared McAndrew. When the poli- 
 tician confessed in the negative, the Scot lost all control 
 of his ebbing temper and threw both the man and his list 
 of recommendations out of his office. 
 
 This story traveled rapidly among the gentry of public 
 service, and soon, after it was joined by countless others 
 equally indicative, they were all agreed that the superin- 
 tendent was a "wrong guy," and that the first move to 
 get rid of him would have their concerted support. 
 
 When Thompson made it plain that his antagonism for 
 McAndrew would lead him to ousting the educator imme- 
 diately after his election, the teachers flopped over to him 
 with shrill yip-yips. At a meeting held especially for them 
 at the Studebaker Theatre, Thompson said : 
 
BILL SCOTCHES THE DRAGON GEORGE 247 
 
 I'll lead in any fight to protect the Chicago public schools 
 against propaganda of the King of England, and will help kick 
 out of the public school system any one who has anything to 
 do with such propaganda. 
 
 Mayor Dever permitted Charles E. Merriam of the University 
 of Chicago to dictate the selection of William McAndrew of New 
 York City, who is now carrying out the bidding of those re- 
 sponsible for his appointment, and is permitting the teaching 
 of propaganda to the end that the people of the United States 
 should repudiate the Declaration of Independence and the doc- 
 trines of George Washington. 
 
 After a few moments more of such stuff he closed with 
 the battle-cry: "Put back the 'Spirit of '76' upon our 
 schoolroom walls !" 
 
 All this is, of course, sheer nonsense. But did the 
 teachers think it so, and clap out of mere courtesy ? They 
 did not! For several minutes the lady savants sent their 
 soprano applause to the ceiling, almost rivaling the ova- 
 tions accorded Bill by his colored friends on the south side. 
 
 Thompson's two adversaries in the primary contest were 
 Edward R. Litsinger and Dr. John Dill Robertson. The 
 former, it will be remembered, had been itching for the 
 mayoralty with even greener eyes than Bill himself, for 
 whereas Thompson had glutted his ambitions with eight 
 years of it, Ed Litsinger hadn't so much as smelled it. 
 At this time he was decorating the board of review. He 
 received, naturally, the benign endorsement of Deneen 
 and all his minions: Roy West, Joe Haas (who wanted 
 the nomination himself but had been pushed aside by the 
 superior drawing ability of Litsinger), County Commis- 
 sioner Boutell, Alderman Albert and the rest. Shortly 
 after the start of the campaign two influential men "ral- 
 lied to the standard" and gave Litsinger signal assist- 
 ance^ — Edward Brundage and Col. Noble Brandon Judah. 
 Brundage hadn't gotten along very well with Crowe and 
 
MS HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Barrett and Thompson, and their 1926 alliance had 
 broken down right after the primary of that year. 
 
 According to Crowe, Brundage had offered his services 
 to Thompson a few days following Christmas, was told 
 that he wanted too much, and had mosied into the Deneen 
 camp. This rings true, for Brundage's reputation as a 
 political peddler is notorious. At any rate, there is little 
 doubt that he was happier with Charlie and that the 
 arrangement was mutually advantageous. Colonel Judah 
 was a prominent professional banner boy. His assignment 
 was to pull the American Legion onto the Litsinger 
 band-wagon and to enlist the hatred of the Germano- 
 phobes; every week he issued sizzling statements to the 
 patriotic, asking them to bury this "brazen traitor" 
 Thompson under an avalanche of red-white-and-blue 
 votes, for, as he said, "the traditional loyalty of citizens 
 to 'America First' is a sacred thing and no demagogue 
 has a right to claim it for his private property." 
 
 The Litsinger speakers did their best to capitalize on 
 all the unsavory items of the previous Thompson admin- 
 istrations. The ghosts of the Pageant of Progress, the 
 Prosperity Day Parade, the Municipal Tuberculosis. Sani- 
 tarium and the Sunday Closing Order were revived, and 
 other delicatessen, such as the charge that over two mil- 
 lion dollars was paid to "experts" in 1920 alone, made 
 lively reading. Litsinger referred to Thompson repeatedly 
 as "Big Fees Bill." One of the remarks liberally exploited 
 was that of Professor William Bennett Munro, who in 
 speaking of the two Thompson-Lundin terms, had said 
 that Chicago is "a place where some of the worst munici- 
 pal government in the world can be found." Litsinger's 
 lecturers carefully explained to their audiences that Pro- 
 fessor Munro is the most famous living authority on such 
 matters. 
 
BILL SCOTCHES THE DRAGON GEORGE 249 
 
 Robertson was not beset by the urge to pose as one of 
 the Four Hundred. Like Thompson he talked the lowly 
 man's language because he liked to and because it brought 
 in the votes. But he has always failed to put himself over. 
 To be sure, he's genial and fairly well educated for a poli- 
 tician, but apparently he is too obviously the shopper for 
 votes, the typical office-seeker. As usual, Fred Lundin 
 pulled the strings behind him. The Swede had no illusions 
 about Doc. He knew that he had no actual chance to win. 
 But he entered his man solely to feel out the people as to 
 Thompson's strength, and possibly bother the big fellow 
 a little. Robertson ran on a "people's ownership of the 
 traction system" platform. He and his speakers threw as 
 much mud as possible at Thompson but avoided mention 
 of the derelictions of 1915-28, for he was uncomfortably 
 involved here himself. His machine, that is Lundin's ma- 
 chine, consisted of the two park boards and everything 
 else in the city controlled by Small and Coffin. 
 
 From the start the odds favored Thompson heavily. A 
 fortnight before primary day Robertson withdrew, con- 
 firming the prevalent rumor that Lundin was backing 
 Litsinger. This brought about, in fact, a coalition of the 
 Deneen, Lundin and Small forces, all massed against 
 Thompson. This was a formidable machine, truly, but 
 Bill had one even stronger behind him, the Crowe-Barrett- 
 Harding-Galpin faction. Homer K. Galpin formally man- 
 aged Thompson's campaign. 
 
 But the candidates themselves were too unequal in firing 
 the imagination of the populace. So, on Washington's 
 birthday, quite appropriately, William Hale Thompson 
 was nominated the Republican candidate for mayor of 
 Chicago. His plurality was overwhelming and surprised 
 everybody. He received more than twice as many votes as 
 Litsinger and carried forty-nine wards of the city's fifty. 
 
250 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 William E. Dever was the Democratic nominee by a 
 plurality of 200,000. Dever was reluctant and half- 
 hearted in accepting the nomination. He did it because he 
 didn't wish to disappoint his friends and party, who told 
 him he was the only man strong enough to save them from 
 Thompson. But it was with a wry face that he commenced 
 campaigning. Four years of municipal administration had 
 been enough. He had made the dismaying and vitiating 
 discovery that constructive work cannot be done without 
 careful consideration, step by step, of political exigencies 
 and expediencies. This irked him, for on the bench he had 
 enjoyed a relatively free hand. Further, as a sitting jurist 
 there were few Rotarian compulsions, idiotic banquets and 
 inane meetings to attend — and these things annoyed him 
 greatly. 
 
 His friends almost had to throttle him in the presence of 
 reporters. His impulse was to tell them the truth, that he 
 was weary and anxious to retire, that he was making the 
 race unwillingly and at a sacrifice. His advisers — Bren- 
 nan, Igoe, O'Brien, Busch, Sprague, Merriam, Ickes — 
 well knew the peril of such candor : the public would only 
 laugh and gabble of chicane and pose. It was best to stand 
 up robustiously and say he never felt younger, that he 
 was aching to engage in battle with Big Bill Thompson. 
 But Dever would not. 
 
 He had numerous handicaps as a campaigner. He was 
 dignified, proud and a little haughty, and he certainly 
 was not the actor Thompson was. He believed in waging 
 a forthright, calm and urbane effort. He didn't want the 
 job if he had to sink to cheap tricks and dodges to rouse 
 the rabble to intense enthusiasm. 
 
 A typical incident of the campaign well illustrates the 
 difference between the two opponents in this respect. 
 Through some accident it was brought to the notice of 
 the Democratic leaders that Dever possessed a union card, 
 
BILL SCOTCHES THE DRAGON GEORGE 251 
 
 that he was still a member of the tanners' union, a trade 
 he had worked at when a young man. His board of 
 strategy seized upon this fact with a whoop of joy: their 
 man was the only mayor of Chicago ever belonging to the 
 American Federation of Labor — and Thompson was a 
 rich man's son ! A fortuitous discovery, for right then Big 
 Bill was pounding away on the thesis that "Bill Dever is 
 the silk-stockinged choice. The King likes him — the nice 
 people like him — do you want a mayor that snubs you 
 that way?" So it was planned that Dever dispatch him- 
 self to some tannery, don overalls and be photographed 
 as a Son of Toil. Neat theater. But Dever set his jaw and 
 glared, shaking his head: it was undignified and it was 
 cheap and it gravely misrepresented the truth. His friends 
 finally gave up trying to persuade him and wearily turned 
 their heads to less effective stuff. 
 
 Throughout, Dever's attitude was that of a thoroughly 
 civilized man. He refused to dress up in clownish clothes 
 and kick himself in the seat to arouse laughter and 
 sympathy. 
 
 While Thompson was passionately shouting of "strik- 
 ing a tender chord in the mother-heart of Chicago," of 
 the "battle of human liberty," of himself as "a red-blooded 
 American whose forefathers helped rock the cradle of lib- 
 erty," of his crusade against the "poisoning of the educa- 
 tional wells by British-bought propaganda mongers," and 
 similar flamboyant balderdash — Dever was asking the 
 voters of the city to reelect him because he had provided 
 seats for the school children instead of looting their treas- 
 ury, because he was attending strictly to business and 
 giving the people honest, efficient administration and not 
 junketing about the country tilting at grotesque wind- 
 mills 
 
 Professor Counts amusingly comments on the sort of 
 appeal Mr. Dever made to the people: 
 
252 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 And there is another appeal, if the word is not overstrong, 
 through which Mr. Dever's supporters also apparently hoped 
 to reach the wavering citizen: "Do you want clean, wholesome, 
 adequate schools for your children, and a school board free from 
 politics? Then vote for Mayor Dever." Could words be better 
 chosen to put the ordinary voter to sleep — clean, wholesome, 
 adequate ! Consider the word adequate in particular. From the 
 standpoint of political agitation it possesses all the qualities of 
 somniferous anodyne. That such an unadorned recital of virtues 
 will not drive loyal supporters away from a candidate is prob- 
 ably true, but that it can scarcely be expected to start a popular 
 movement in his direction would seem to be equally true. It is 
 political agitation of excessively low potential. 
 
 In vain did certain of the shrewder members of the 
 Dever clan, Merriam and Igoe and Brennan, for instance, 
 protest against this sterile stuff. Evidently it was the kind 
 of campaign Dever himself wanted to wage. 
 
 Dr. Counts summarizes Thompson's seductions suc- 
 cinctly, thus: 
 
 Where there was strong discontent, he fed the fires of hate 
 with an ample supply of fuel; where there was moderate dis- 
 content, he fanned the smoldering embers into a steady flame; 
 and where there was no discontent he did what he could to kindle 
 it. He found the public school system ready to his hand, and he 
 proceeded to make the most of the good fortune which fate 
 turned his way. 
 
 A full-page advertisement in the Tribune just before 
 election day embodied the quintessence of his claims. At 
 the top of the page was a large picture of George Wash- 
 ington, with this worthy's advice to his countrymen re- 
 garding entangling alliances with European nations. A 
 large caption shrieked from the top: "Why America 
 First?" The answer followed immediately: "Because the 
 American who says 'America Second' speaks the tongue 
 
BILL SCOTCHES THE DRAGON GEORGE 253 
 
 of Benedict Arnold and Aaron Burr." Then ensued a 
 strong hint that insidious enemies of the United States 
 exist in modern times just as in Washington's day, clearly 
 implying that Dever and McAndrew were the present 
 counterparts of Arnold and Burr. The accusers became 
 more explicit: 
 
 Never had the slogan "America First" a finer significance than 
 right to-day in Chicago. In the schools of this great city, with 
 one-fortieth of the population of the United States, the children 
 — the future men and women who must carry on — are being 
 taught that the American Revolution was an act of villainy 
 against a benign king — that Washington was an ungrateful rebel 
 — that Von Steuben, Kosciusko, Pulaski and other heroes who 
 came to America to fight with Washington the battle of human 
 liberty — were a lot of undesirables and merit the scorn rather 
 than the gratitude of the nation. 
 
 The ideals you were taught to revere — the great Americans 
 you were taught to cherish as examples of self-sacrificing devo- 
 tion to human liberty — are subtly sneered at and placed in a 
 false light so that your children may blush with shame when 
 studying the history of their country. Read "A History of the 
 United States" by William Fiske Gordy — "Our United States" 
 by William Backus Guitteau, and Lewis and Rowland's "The 
 Silent Reader" — the textbooks that have been revised and re- 
 written for the Dever-Merriam-McAndrew School Board, falsi- 
 fied and distorted to glorify England and vilify America — and 
 then you'll understand why America First should stir to action 
 every red-blooded man and woman in Chicago until the city is 
 rid of pro-British rats who are poisoning the wells of historical 
 truth. 
 
 The indictment finished, Thompson pledged his en- 
 thralled and uneasy readers to replace "pro-English 
 histories" with ones properly American; to teach the 
 school children to love their country ; to appoint "a patri- 
 otic school board, who will rid the city of Superintendent 
 
254 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 McAndrew, the Boss Brennan-Mayor Dever Eastern im- 
 portation, and his pro-English 'yes' men and women"; 
 to work to the end "that Chicago will be an example of 
 patriotic devotion to American ideals, not a pest-hole of 
 anti-Americanism" ; arid to make the schools the "nursery 
 of good citizenship." 
 
 An historical society of dubious origin and more dubi- 
 ous constituency came forward to testify to the verity 
 of Bill's allegations about the offending textbooks. Upon 
 investigation this "non-partisan" group of citizens and 
 scholars, sixteen in all, was discovered to contain not one 
 historian of any standing. But the effect was instanta- 
 neous. It worked beautifully. 
 
 As a final tribute to Big Bill's strenuous alarmistics, 
 Professor Counts says: 
 
 Whatever else may be said of Mr. Thompson, he has a sense 
 for the dramatic and is a consummate actor. He cut issues out 
 of whole cloth and made them seem important. He appeared 
 before the people of Chicago as a knight in shining armor chal- 
 lenging the powers of darkness. While to many he resembled 
 Sancho Panzo tilting at windmills, to others he was Richard 
 Coeur de Lion doing battle with the infidels. 
 
 Most outsiders who didn't watch the Chicago political 
 drama too closely assumed that the windy nonsense about 
 British propaganda in the schools was what decided the 
 electorate between the two candidates. This is not true, 
 for although shibboleths about the future of civilization 
 constituted the bulwark of the Thompson attack, another 
 issue, this time local, was exploited near the end to clinch 
 the struggle definitely. Dever, championing his record in 
 office, despite his many handicaps of personality, stood 
 an excellent chance of beating Willie the King-baiter. But 
 an argument was introduced into the feverish campaign 
 
BILL SCOTCHES THE DRAGON GEORGE 255 
 
 as a nuance which registered so well that it became the 
 issue during the closing week. 
 
 It will be remembered that Thompson, because of his 
 manner, avocational proclivities and assertions, was widely 
 regarded as a sporting chap, a "swell fellow." In the two 
 previous campaigns this accrued to his advantage because 
 it was circulated surreptitiously that Chicago would be 
 a "wide open burg" if he was put in office. With the pass- 
 ing of the Volstead Act, vice, mildly speaking, became 
 popular and suddenly much was heard about "personal 
 liberty," that is, the privilege of a man to go to Hell in 
 his own way. So, as an antidote to the Dever-and-Decency 
 slogan, Thompson satirized it with alternately humorous 
 and bitter appeals to the wets. In his unique and collo- 
 quial fashion he denounced Mayor Dever as a dry, 
 asserted that he had given specific orders to his policemen 
 to enforce the Prohibition law. Into his discourses he in- 
 troduced one of his pithy, vivid phrases that got wide 
 publicity, to wit, that if he was chosen mayor "no copper 
 will invade your home and fan your mattress for a hip 
 flask." 
 
 This was, in point of fact, just another one of Thomp- 
 son's trick paintings. Personally, Dever was more of a 
 dripping wet than Thompson was; but he took his oath 
 of office a bit too conscientiously in some particulars ; and, 
 naturally, there was the factor of a corrupt police force, 
 ever anxious to persecute men unwise in matters of graft. 
 But Thompson blared to his audiences that their personal 
 liberty was being usurped, that their homes were no longer 
 their castles, and they should rise and smite this tyrant 
 who oppressed them. The idea that sober, upright William 
 Dever was robbing them of their inalienable rights would 
 never have occurred to most people; but Thompson's 
 reminder was just vivid enough and vulgar enough in its 
 
256 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 implications to draw thousands of the undecided to his 
 banner. 
 
 But two high lights of a fascinating low comedy remain 
 to be divulged, one happening at the very close of the 
 campaign, the other at the beginning. Both are rare and 
 typical. 
 
 Haranguing on the McAndrew-British-Dever theme, 
 Thompson had charmingly shouted : "If George comes to 
 Chicago I'll crack him in the snoot," which, pronto, sent 
 dozens of level-headed English journalists headlong into 
 the Freudian bog: that, to them, was the very limit. But 
 a strange thing resulted. The summer previous had seen 
 the Eucharistic Congress, the international conclave of 
 Roman Catholics at Mundelein, Illinois, and many savage 
 anti-papists had been stirred to fearful rage at the spec- 
 tacle of Mayor Dever kissing the Papal Ring on the finger 
 of Cardinal Bonzano. They snorted impotently at what 
 they klannishly called "truckling to frippery and frump- 
 ery." Hence, when Thompson roared that he would crack 
 George in the snoot, these fellows construed the remark 
 as a threat directed against George, Cardinal Mundelein ! 
 Certainly Bill meant George Windsor, but the gents who 
 prance about in white, white nighties, obsessed with other 
 fears, obscenely applauded his courage and resolved to 
 vote for him at the polls. Thus Thompson was secretly 
 believed to be the Enemy of both Roman and British 
 imperialism, and Dever to be the tool of both a King and 
 a Pope! 
 
 The other nicety had occurred back in the summer of 
 1926, when the only adversary Thompson had was Dr. 
 John Dill Robertson, now arrayed against him in the 
 three-cornered contest of the election. About this time, 
 when opposition to Thompson was confused and the only 
 man concentrating on disposing of him was Lundin, a 
 rumor floated the brisk Chicago air that Bill was unwell, 
 
BILL SCOTCHES THE DRAGON GEORGE 257 
 
 was, in fact, suffering from an esoteric ailment damaging 
 to his reputation. It was said that Lundin and Robertson 
 (who had been Bill's personal physician while he was the 
 city's health commissioner) set the meretricious tale in 
 motion. At any rate, Thompson alleged they did, burst 
 into flame upon first hearing of it and immediately laid 
 plans for revenge. And it was a singularly Thompson- 
 esque revenge, as indicative of his temperament as his 
 cowboy hat, as indicative of his intellectual processes as 
 his speeches. Naturally, he staged a show. 
 
 Bill had been in the habit of promoting his interests at 
 noon meetings in the Cort Theater, owned by his friend 
 U. J. ("Sport") Hermann, later appointed on his library 
 board. One day in the spring the signs in front of the 
 Cort carried an unique advertisement, announcing to the 
 amazed passersby that the next noon would bring to the 
 theater a one-act play called "The Rats." Long before 
 twelve the auditorium was packed ; by the time Thompson 
 was introduced not even standing room was available. 
 
 Big Bill strode to the footlights bearing two strange 
 articles in his hands. The audience gaped, scrutinized 
 closer, then gasped in horrified amazement. For there, on 
 a low table in front of his comfortable girth, were a pair 
 of cages, each having within a large gray rat ! 
 
 With no preface Bill launched into his little puppet 
 play. The animal to the left he addressed affectionately 
 as "Fred," the other as "Doc." He poked "Fred." "Don't 
 hang your head, Fred. That's better now — always active." 
 He laughed grimly. "Fred, didn't you send me that cable 
 to Honolulu and didn't I come back and save you from 
 the penitentiary? Didn't I get the best lawyers in town — 
 Darrow, Short, Erbstein and O'Donnell — to keep you 
 outa jail? And return from my first vacation with my 
 wife in ten years to testify for you and, as Ben Short 
 said, turn the tide in your favor? I knew a year before 
 
258 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 that you were double-crossing me, but I wanted to live 
 up to the last letter of the cowboy code. Don't you think, 
 Fred, in view of all that has happened, that you have 
 earned the name of rat?" 
 
 Turning to the other cage, Bill said gently: "Doc, 
 didn't the medical profession and others protest against 
 my plan to appoint you health commissioner? Didn't I 
 stand by you in the face of all opposition and give you 
 that position? Don't you think, Doc, that you shouldn't 
 lie about me after what I've done for you? I know what 
 you've been saying. You have circulated the story that I 
 am in bad health and will die soon. Well, Doc, I'm not 
 going to die just to please you and Fred." 
 
 He smiled ever so slightly and continued in the same 
 low voice. "Didn't you tell me, Doc, that as you had been 
 in Springfield in the interest of your health bill that you 
 knew more about legislative conditions than I did and that 
 Lundin had double-crossed me and had stirred up opposi- 
 tion and complications purposely with his tax commission 
 bill? Now, Doc, you are the mayoralty candidate of the 
 man you told me was crooked." 
 
 The crowd staged a feverish demonstration. When a 
 modicum of quiet had been restored, Big Bill said he 
 would turn the two rats loose into the audience, as an 
 illustration of the menace of "Fred" and "Doc" at lib- 
 erty. The theater was emptied in a trice, the hub-bub 
 punctuated sporadically with the screams of women and 
 the loud nervous laughter of the stronger sex. Everybody 
 shouted encouragement to Thompson, who stood laughing 
 heartily on the platform. 
 
 It was the sensation of the month. The exhibition was 
 vulgarly conceived and executed, but it was dramatic and 
 it was effective. With one stroke Bill had gotten even — 
 and cadged many votes. To be sure, there were some whose 
 squeamishness had been offended ; there were sharpers who 
 
BILL SCOTCHES THE DRAGON GEORGE 259 
 
 thought they detected Bill in an admission of perjury; 
 and there were a few cautious politicians who judged the 
 whole affair unwise and apt to be a boomerang. But it 
 wasn't. It was a huge success. 
 
 Fred Lundin's reaction to Big Bill's histrionic indict- 
 ment of his was characteristic. The reporters found him 
 walking on his farm at Fox Lake. According to the 
 American: 
 
 He was clad in the picturesque garb of the country squire, 
 the long flowing Windsor tie, with a smile from ear to ear and 
 his blue Viking eyes sparkling behind amber spectacles, as he 
 swept the whole countryside at a glance and pointed to the 
 grandeurs of nature. Ecstatically, even sentimentally, he poured 
 forth a flood of paeans to the Gods of snows, the mantled lake 
 and the maternity of Spring, just reddening the tender shoots 
 of the willows. 
 
 "Thompson? Who's he? Look at yonder trees. Politics? Who 
 could think of politics on a morning like this? See the winding 
 shore of the beautiful lake, so peaceful under its white blanket ! 
 Thompson? Why speak of such things when the sun shines in 
 such loveliness and friendliness ? Isn't it worth a man's life work 
 to stand here on the shores of our sweet lake, soon to carry 
 away the mountain of snow and give us the flowers and the fish 
 and the ducks and call to our little home here the birds from 
 all the earth?" 
 
 Thompson continued to be angry at what he considered 
 the caddish trick Lundin and Robertson had played on 
 him. For several months he slapped back at them. Rob- 
 ertson offered a particularly vulnerable target. This 
 charming statement, used frequently in Thompson's 
 speeches, is typical of the form his resentment took: 
 
 The doc is slinging mud. I'm not descending to personalities, 
 but let me tell you that if you want to see a nasty sight, watch 
 Doc Robertson eating in a restaurant. Eggs in his whiskers, 
 
260 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 soup on his vest: you'd think he got his education driving a 
 garbage wagon! 
 
 All this had little effect upon the genial Robertson and 
 the serene Lundin. Doc merely grinned and returned to 
 his examination of microscopic and human organisms, 
 real and political bacteria ; the Swede sauntered about his 
 farm communing with the birds, stopping now and again 
 to inspect the tender shoots of the willows, just reddening 
 with the advance of spring. 
 
 The campaign progressed to an excited close. The news- 
 papers did their very best for Dever. Every day their 
 straw ballots showed slumps in the Thompson popularity 
 and their editorials tried vainly to buttress the logic of 
 their arguments with the emotional appeal that a Dever 
 bandwagon was traveling down Randolph Street, hell-bent 
 for heaven. But it was no use. The Chicago electorate was 
 moved, frightened, amused, delighted, enthused and finally 
 convinced by Big Bill's overwhelming personality — and 
 it chose him mayor of the city for the third time, by a 
 plurality of over 80,000 above William Dever and with 
 a total ten times that of Dr. Robertson. 
 
NINETEEN 
 
 ST. WILLIAM THOMPSON AND SIR WILLIAM 
 McANDREW 
 
 HP HE day after Bill's triumphant reentry into the city 
 * hall the papers sourly paid him the courtesies f amiliar 
 in our sentimental and chivalrous country. All but the 
 Hearst sheets had been well pleased with Dever and had 
 opposed Thompson's candidacy with frequent squawks 
 and jeers, but as the citizenry had spoken out loudly and 
 decisively to the contrary the editors had to stomach the 
 reality. The Daily News epitomized their state of feeling 
 on the matter : 
 
 Doubtless Mayor Dever and the other citizens, many thou- 
 sands of them Republicans, who opposed Mr. Thompson's elec- 
 tion as a public duty, will be glad if by his coming administration 
 he proves that his official faults of the past have taught him 
 wisdom. It would be idle to recall threats and promises made 
 by him in the recent campaign that tend to raise doubts on this 
 particular question. Justice requires that the official stature of 
 the mayor-elect be measured only by his future actions; with 
 the slate wiped clean by his present victory he has an untram- 
 meled opportunity to serve his city well or ill henceforth, accord- 
 ing to his own deliberate choice. . . . 
 
 Mayor Dever loses after a gallant fight, a clean fight. He made 
 it as a faithful servant of the people of Chicago, made it against 
 his personal desire and at a large personal sacrifice. Defeated 
 he remains a winner, for he carries into private life the grateful 
 appreciation of all who have marked his devoted service. Chicago 
 has made remarkable advances during the four years of Dever. 
 To wish Mayor-Elect Thompson an administration equally fruit- 
 
 261 
 
262 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 ful in beneficial services for this city, as the Daily News now 
 does, is to wish him a conspicuously successful term of office. 
 
 This is not pellucid and beautiful prose, but its impli- 
 cations are very plain. And with the News, every good 
 newspaper in Chicago signified their regret at Big Bill's 
 election. They went through the conventional gestures of 
 wishing him well, but as their memories of his previous 
 peccadilloes were more vivid than those of the public obbli- 
 gatos of skepticism ran through their posturings of hope 
 and prayer. Quite obviously they intended to keep a close 
 critical eye upon him for four years. 
 
 An opportunity to voice shrill protest came immedi- 
 ately, when the list of executive appointments was made 
 public. It became evident that Bill Thompson was the 
 same easy-going, generous fellow he had always been, 
 willing to pay his political debts in the calmly reciprocal 
 manner of all public servants in a democracy, for favors 
 received. 
 
 Quickly, and quite naturally, he assembled his old 
 friends about him, that is, those who had been loyal dur- 
 ing the dark days of '23, '24, '25 and '26. His closest 
 adviser continued to be County Treasurer George F. 
 Harding, who had made the present glory possible by 
 forcing Bill upon the Crowe-Barrett machine in the 1926 
 primary. Eugene R. Pike stayed his chum's right bower. 
 Samuel Ettelson soon became the most influential person 
 in the city hall, by resuming his old post as corporation 
 counsel. Richard Wolfe, the author of the astonishing 
 resolution endorsing Big Bill in the shadow of Solomon's 
 Temple, was rewarded with the job of commissioner of 
 public works. Judge Bernard Barasa, who always laughed 
 at the mayor's jokes, was given a nice portion of patron- 
 age, this to be distributed among the Italians who had 
 worked so hard for Bill. Charlie Fitzmorris, the police 
 
ST. WILLIAM AND SIR WILLIAM 263 
 
 chief during Thompson's second term, took to himself the 
 comptroller's desk. Faherty got his old position again, 
 the presidency of the board of local improvements. Chris- 
 tian Paschen became building commissioner. Morris Eller, 
 boss of the famous twentieth ward, which included the 
 Maxwell Street neighborhood, supplemented his income 
 from the sanitary board with the returns from his new 
 cutcherry, city collector. 
 
 Bob Crowe and Barrett and Galpin, of course, had a 
 great deal to say in the new administration. Crowe, grap- 
 pling with the task of prosecuting criminals, had his 
 cousin, Mike Hughes, appointed head of the police force ; 
 and although the decrease in crime was not readily notice- 
 able, the cousins worked very well together. And Bobbie 
 extended his power further with frequent clutchings of 
 contracts and patronage for those properly loyal to his 
 Irish Majesty. 
 
 Bill's family physician, young Arnold Kegel, was smil- 
 ingly awarded the important and strategic situation of 
 health commissioner, taking Bundeson's place. . . . All 
 the boys were taken care of. 
 
 Thompson took the oath of office on April 11, 1927, in 
 the presence of a large crowd in County Clerk Sweitzer's 
 suite. The next day he executed his first major assignment 
 in finished style: he tossed out the ball formally to open 
 the season at Bill Wrigley's Cubs' Park. After the home 
 team had won, Bill expanded to a reporter : "I used to be 
 a football player and I know the value of teamwork. The 
 Cubs have had great stars in the past, but they have not 
 always pulled together as they used to do in the days of 
 Frank Chance. But I see teamwork out there now. It looks 
 like another flag for Chicago. And you can say that that 
 is true in other respects. What we see in the future is a 
 greater and more beautiful Chicago." 
 
 Thompson, as after the two previous inaugurations, 
 
264 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 had a number of important duties to carry him out of the 
 city before settling down to the grind of directing the 
 machinery of the municipal government. A few days fol- 
 lowing the ceremony he left with five hundred others for 
 New Orleans. Ostensibly, they were half a thousand rol- 
 licking waterway boosters, and possibly this momentous 
 project was mentioned three or four times in the course 
 of the voyage south on the Mississippi, but as the per- 
 sonnel of the junket included every major administration 
 politician it is very likely that the trip was more of a 
 sailing pow-wow, the kind that usually took place at 
 French Lick or West Baden. 
 
 Concomitant with the embarkation hilarity of the 
 Thompson party occurred a serious regional tragedy. 
 Miles of territory adjacent to the Mississippi were del- 
 uged by the capricious waters, horrifying the rest of 
 America. Amidst the despairing shrieks of the unfortu- 
 nates two figures arose to assume the mantles of Men of 
 the Hour: Herbert Clark Hoover and William Hale 
 Thompson. The former investigated the causes of the 
 calamity with typical thoroughness; the latter procured 
 more publicity by informing the world of the exact state 
 of affairs. At Memphis Big Bill presented the mayor 
 with a check for $1,000 to alleviate the suffering there- 
 abouts, made an appropriate speech, and sailed south to 
 New Orleans. En route he saved one of the passengers, 
 an intrepid reporter, from drowning. More speeches en- 
 sued at New Orleans. The two guests of honor there were 
 Bill Thompson and ex- Senator William Lorimer. Upon 
 his return to Chicago Bill characterized the results of the 
 trip as "a new awakening — a new union of North and 
 South, a spectacle of Democrats entertaining Republicans 
 in the common cause of doing things for America for 
 mutual benefit." No one smiled. 
 
 The malevolent Tribune, forgetting the arduous and 
 
ST. WILLIAM AND SIR WILLIAM 265 
 
 fatiguing nature of the mayor's job, constantly criticized 
 Thompson for the frequency of his out-of-town forays. 
 And at the end of the year it published a capitulation of 
 these mild derelictions, Bill's "important journeys": 
 
 DATE DESTINATION PURPOSE 
 
 April 18 . . . New Orleans Flood control 
 
 May 27 ... . Phelps, Wisconsin .... Hunting 
 
 June 9 Washington, D. C. . . . . Flood control 
 
 July 12 ... . St. Louis Flood control 
 
 July 26 ... . Mackinac Vacation 
 
 August 17 . . Toledo America First 
 
 August 25 . . Springfield State fair 
 
 September 6 Eleven cities Flood control tour 
 
 October 2 . . . Manitowish, Wisconsin . Fishing 
 
 October 7 . . . Huron, S. D Hunting 
 
 October 30 . . Toledo America First 
 
 November 7 . Washington, D. C Water meters 
 
 December 3 . Washington and Boston America First 
 
 These excursions involved usually from a few days to 
 several weeks each. He set about advertising his country 
 much in the manner that Morris Gest advertises Max 
 Reinhardt, with especial emphasis upon the impresario. 
 He organized the "America First Foundation" for this 
 purpose, and circularized all the mayors to join it, fee 
 ten dollars. Generously he extended the privilege to in- 
 clude everyone possessing love for their fatherland and 
 ten dollars. George F. Getz, a pal of Thompson's, aided 
 him in extirpating anti- Americanism by serving as chair- 
 man of the board of directors. The name of Getz carried 
 great weight with cultivated voters about town, for it was 
 he who promoted the Dempsey-Tunney fight. He sold the 
 city coal, also. 
 
 But all this did not mean that Thompson failed to find 
 time for ample consideration of the business of office, that 
 
266 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 is, the real business of his office. During the summer he 
 concentrated on a problem he had often said was the most 
 grave of any impinging upon him, the condition of the 
 school system. With the assistance of the fawning and 
 adoring Mr. Jack Lewis Coath and a docile city council, 
 the mayor was successful in gaining mastery of the school 
 board before the fall session convened. Thompson's inau- 
 gural address had reiterated many of the arguments and 
 promises loading his campaign speeches, and fairly reeked 
 with hatred for poor little King George ; clearly Bill was 
 intent on ousting McAndrew, just as in 1919 he had been 
 determined to displace Chadsey. 
 
 On the twenty-ninth of August the school board, heavy 
 with a Thompson majority, took formal action against 
 the superintendent. On "charges of insubordination and 
 conduct incompatible and inconsistent with, and in direct 
 violation of, his duties," Mr. McAndrew was peremptorily 
 suspended. The initial hearing was set for one month 
 later. The strategy inherent in this move was simple. As 
 school opened on the sixth of September, Thompson and 
 his confederates had by this stroke prevented McAndrew 
 from assuming his post on time, and by prolonging the 
 suspension until January, when his contract expired, they 
 hoped to dispose of him without his having worked one 
 day of the Thompson incumbency. 
 
 The Scot, his dignity ruffled, failed to prove a push- 
 over. A few weeks before his suspension he had gone to 
 the courts to settle an old dispute with the school board, 
 one hinging on interpretation of the Otis Law: hence the 
 technical accusation of insubordination. Apparently it is 
 a misdemeanor in Illinois for a public official to disagree 
 with other public officials on questions of public policy. 
 With appalling lack of humor, McAndrew took the 
 charge of insubordination to heart and retained expert 
 legal counsel to prove to the board its error. His conten- 
 
ST. WILLIAM AND SIR WILLIAM 267 
 
 tions were cogent and proper but the board tacitly shoved 
 them aside and presented a new set of indictments, framed 
 in a bill of sixteen counts. This "placed the issue of the 
 trial not on a basis of insubordination at all, but on the 
 vague and comprehensive charge of incompatibility." The 
 board was, figuratively, accusing McAndrew of being a 
 poor husband and it was suing for divorce. 
 
 It commenced quietly enough, but within a few days it 
 descended to the level of riotous farce, with feeling run- 
 ning high and the courtroom packed by the entertained. 
 Mr. Coath presided, munching pretzels continually, paus- 
 ing in his meals to add spice to the proceedings. The 
 burden of the prosecution was carried by Frank S. 
 Righeimer, one of the school board attorneys and promi- 
 nent in the past in the Lundin-Thompson machine. The 
 defense was ably handled by Francis X. Busch, Mayor 
 Dever's corporation counsel, and Angus Roy Shannon, a 
 famous legal wit. Mr. McAndrew was not present until 
 late in the festivities. 
 
 One of the first blows was struck by the teachers, who 
 relished this opportunity to strike back publicly at a man 
 they had long looked upon as an oppressor. Seventeen of 
 them were presented as witnesses by the prosecution. They 
 said, in various keys and dictions, that Supt. McAndrew 
 had been a "Simon Legree," a "faker" and a "cruel task- 
 master," and they cited a mass of evidence to prove it. 
 That these witnesses were satisfactory was indicated by 
 the just Mr. Coath, who with pretzel on high smiled and 
 said in dismissal: 
 
 "I cannot but remark on the beautiful sentiment of 
 simplicity, honesty of purpose, and integrity demon- 
 strated here tonight in the hearts of the men and women 
 who testified. It is one of the most gratifying spectacles in 
 the history of my school board experience of six years, 
 
268 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 and I thank God for the real, human, honest people in 
 the Chicago public schools." 
 
 With that he returned to his dry and crackling meal, 
 the schoolmarms so complimented blushing prettily for 
 the crowd. 
 
 After each witness had testified, Attorney Shannon 
 moved that the testimony be stricken from the records 
 as being in no wise germane to the indictment. Chairman 
 Coath indignantly refused in every case. 
 
 Thompson and his advisers decided that the most vul- 
 nerable point in the McAndrew armor, and that calculated 
 to bring about the most publicity, was his sponsoring of 
 certain textbooks in American history. These were care- 
 fully combed for evidence reflecting on their authors' 
 patriotism and McAndrew's and this stuff was introduced 
 into the trial. It fanned the flames remarkably well and 
 precipitated international comment. 
 
 One of the star performers in this phase of the doings 
 was Frederick Bausman, former justice of the supreme 
 court of Washington. He was summoned to do yeoman 
 work for Big Bill because of an essay he had written 
 called "Under Which Flag?" appearing in the American 
 Mercury. Although he never once mentioned the name of 
 McAndrew, and admitted that he knew nothing of Chi- 
 cago's textbooks, he was allowed to deliver a long speech 
 attacking England for her propagandists activities in 
 this country. Mayor Thompson he praised as "one Ameri- 
 can who will not remain supine under that sort of thing." 
 Bausman went on to score the American Library Associa- 
 tion for aiding in the dissemination of subversive litera- 
 ture in the libraries throughout the countryside. Among 
 other naughty pamphlets he mentioned one that included 
 a recommendation of "America" by Dean Inge ! He closed 
 in a blaze of fury: 
 
 "England has chosen the easiest way to conquer a coun- 
 
ST. WILLIAM AND SIR WILLIAM 269 
 
 try. It is not by cannon, but by 'propaganda! It is the first 
 instance I have known in which a nation was so insidiously 
 attacked!" 
 
 Attorney Shannon asked that all of Bausman's testi- 
 mony be erased from the record, due to its complete irrel- 
 evancy to the question under discussion. "Overruled," 
 tersely clicked Chairman Coath defiantly. 
 
 A famous personage holding forth before the board was 
 one J. J. Gorman, a politician long connected with the 
 Thompson destiny, formerly a Congressman. This Solon's 
 contribution to general enlightenment took the form of 
 long haranguings on the thesis that, historically speaking, 
 the entire city was honeycombed with sedition, libraries 
 and schools alike being tainted. His particular target was 
 Schlesinger's "New Viewpoints of American History," in 
 which the statement is made that George Washington was 
 a rebel, had renounced his country and was hence a 
 traitor. 
 
 Professor Charles Merriam's activities in behalf of his 
 king were brought to light on not a few occasions. It was 
 said that 
 
 as a part of the propaganda of the English-Speaking Union, 
 Superintendent McAndrew entered into an unlawful conspiracy 
 and confederacy with Prof. Merriam and Prof. Judd to destroy 
 love of America and loyalty to its purposes, reverence to its his- 
 tory and traditions and faith in its destiny in the minds of 
 Chicago school children by urging teachers to take special courses 
 at the University of Chicago, where the text used is Schlesinger's 
 "New Viewpoints in American History/' a pro-British, un- 
 American and unpatriotic text, which is replete with false and 
 disloyal statements, and goes so far as to refer to George Wash- 
 ington as a rebel and great disloyalist. 
 
 Merriam laughed heartily when reporters told him this. 
 "The whole affair is a prime piece of political humor," 
 he chuckled. "Tell me — does one have to pay for his seat, 
 
270 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 or is admission to the big show free?" A moment later he 
 added, more seriously: "The McAndrew trial violates 
 every principle of the square deal. The school board is 
 acting as judge, jury and prosecution. I regard its ses- 
 sions as ridiculous, as I do the hope that a body, the mem- 
 bers of which have already formed their opinions, should 
 give a fair decision." 
 
 The next performer on the bill was Frederick Franklin 
 Schrader, editor of the Progressive. His chief bugaboo, 
 evidently, was the Cecil Rhodes scholarships, which mean 
 "2000 or 3000 Rhodes graduates in the prime of life scat- 
 tered over the English world, each impressed with the 
 dream of union of our people." This dreadful possibility 
 had also frightened Judge Bausman. "The work is mer- 
 rily going on to annex the United States," added Schrader 
 ominously. 
 
 Mr. McAndrew was compelled to face the charge of 
 "pacifist" as well. It seems that the Scotchman had refused 
 to concur in a plan to solicit funds for the patching up 
 of the historic vessel, "Old Ironsides." The superintendent 
 had objected to any alms-mongering in the schools, and 
 this was one of the drives coming under his ban. This tid- 
 bit was asserted to be prima facie evidence that McAndrew 
 was disloyal and pacifistic. Worse, he had written an 
 article for the Educational Review deploring the preva- 
 lence of paintings depicting the spirit of carnage and 
 slaughter hanging on school walls, and had suggested 
 their removal. Some teachers testified to the truth of this, 
 Mr. Charles Grant Miller, New York newspaperman, act- 
 ing as master of ceremonies. Mr. Miller continued his tes- 
 timony with telling blows at international bankers, the 
 leaders in the work of the Carnegie Foundation, Dr. 
 Nicholas Murray Butler, the late C. H. Levermore, the 
 Rhodes Foundation, the English- Speaking Union — these, 
 the learned Mr. Miller contended, working with certain 
 
ST. WILLIAM AND SIR WILLIAM 271 
 
 historians "as cogs in the great machination to inculcate 
 pro-British ideals in the American children through texts 
 in the public schools." Professor David Saville Muzzey 
 particularly offended Mr. Miller, for this savant's books 
 "create doubt as to the clean-cut and practical idealism 
 of the causes of the revolution." 
 
 It was recommended, as an antidote to all this treason- 
 able matter read as evidence, that the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence be read into the records. 
 
 Mr. Charles Edward Russell, a writer, was the next 
 important entertainer on the program, and his work 
 moved Chairman Coath to delighted comment. Mr. Russell 
 lectured for three hours on the subject of British propa- 
 ganda, buttressing the proofs of Schrader, Bausman and 
 Miller admirably. WTien he finished Coath cackled : "He's 
 got the stuff !" and slapped his thigh resoundingly. 
 
 During Russell's session on the stand, directly under a 
 banner inscribed with "America First," Coath nodded 
 often. At the close he was unable to check his own unbiased 
 reflections. Referring to Professor Carlton J. Hayes, he 
 savagely remarked : "He may be a professor at Columbia, 
 but the president of this board says he's a cad!" A few 
 minutes later, when Russell had finished, Coath shook his 
 head even before Attorneys Shannon and Busch could 
 arise to request the erasure of his evidence. 
 
 All this nonsense, of course, was very insulting to 
 McAndrew's intelligence, but until now he had patiently 
 listened through it, taking notes to occupy his time. Rus- 
 sell's three-hour war broke the back of his stolidity. The 
 press was shouting that the trial was a burlesque. Finally 
 Mac got mad and walked out of the crowded room in dis- 
 gust. In leaving he remarked that the hearing was gener- 
 ally regarded as a "travesty on justice," before a "packed 
 jury" and "an admittedly prejudiced judge." Preceding 
 his dramatic exit, Trustee Walter Raymer, a Dever ap- 
 
272 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 pointee, had made things hot for Coath for more than 
 twenty minutes, bitterly assailing the chairman for con- 
 ducting a trial that was preposterous and unfair. Then 
 categorically he refuted many of the main charges against 
 McAndrew. 
 
 Prosecutor Righeimer slapped back at once. He re- 
 viewed the entire Revolutionary War, recounting the 
 parts played by all the heroes slighted in the cited text- 
 books, closing with the words : "When a man teaches that 
 the revolutionary soldiers were smugglers, bums, petti- 
 fogging lawyers and loafers, the board of education should 
 refuse to be cowed." Then : 
 
 Raymer: You've been looking for a goat. Now you've got one. 
 Go ahead. 
 
 Righeimer: You haven't heard all of the evidence yet. 
 Raymer: Thank God I didn't have to hear all of it. 
 
 It was at this point that McAndrew stalked out, cheered 
 and jeered by the large gallery. At home he told reporters 
 that he wouldn't return until the burlesque ended. 
 
 Bausman had been such an excellent witness that the 
 Thompson crowd looked about for more like him. They 
 thought they recognized a potential ally in Henry Louis 
 Mencken, the editor of the magazine in which the Baus- 
 man essay had originally been published. The famous 
 critic refused to be commandeered "to help us rid our 
 schools of the influence of King George of England." 
 Mencken commented : 
 
 That is certainly a good show Mayor Thompson is running 
 over there in Chicago. I would like very much to go over and 
 see it, but I can't possibly spare the time now. Mayor Thompson 
 said: "My idea was to run McAndrew out on small stuff, such 
 as spitting on the ceiling. But I said No — the issue is America 
 First." Now if they have actually caught McAndrew spitting 
 
ST. WILLIAM AND SIR WILLIAM 273 
 
 on the ceiling, as the mayor intimates, there is nothing pro- 
 British in his make-up. Spitting is a peculiarly American habit. 
 
 By this date the trial had attracted wide publicity, edi- 
 torials flaring forth about it every day somewhere in the 
 world. And as the business was instigated by Mayor 
 Thompson, most of the censoring comment made him the 
 headliner. His curiously forthright and buffoonish cam- 
 paign had made his name known wherever civilized people 
 congregated, and with his outlandish persecution of 
 McAndrew interest in him sprouted afresh. Each session 
 of the trial so amused the audience that Chairman Coath, 
 lost in pretzel-munching most of the time, had to warn 
 repeatedly that it was "not a vaudeville show." Which 
 goes to show, if anything, that Dr. Coath, whatever his 
 educational propensities, was no judge of vaudeville. 
 
 At the beginning the reaction among the editorial 
 writers was mild, sober and analytical. The following 
 paragraph from the New York World is typical: 
 
 It may be a fair guess to say that the Klan expresses the 
 hysteria of the lower-grade mentalities in the old American 
 stock and that this anti-Britishism expresses the hysteria of the 
 lower-grade mentalities in the newer American stock. The Klan 
 is inspired by the notion that a one hundred per cent American 
 is a descendant of those pioneers who originally came from 
 Great Britain. The Thompson crusade seems to be the obverse 
 of this: its notion is that nobody is a one hundred per cent 
 American who maintains any connection with the old British 
 tradition. 
 
 In England, the literary gentlemen were thrown into 
 a terrific furore by all the verbal bombing in Chicago. 
 The London Nation viewed with alarm: 
 
 If we turn from Mayor Thompson's imbecilities, and from the 
 infantile rubbish offered at the hearing as evidence of the British 
 
274 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 conspiracy for the overthrow of the sovereign independence of 
 the United States, we shall find that the attack upon Mr. Mc- 
 Andrew has a quite serious aspect. Again and again during the 
 affair the assertion has been made that underground influences 
 are working for nefarious purposes through the Rhodes Scholar- 
 ship Trust, the English-Speaking Union, the Pilgrims, the Sul- 
 grave Foundation and kindred bodies. We are apparently driven 
 to accept the fact that there are some millions of Americans 
 who, though shocked by the antics of a Big Bill Thompson, 
 are yet convinced that all the associations for promoting Anglo- 
 American friendship are part of a vast conspiracy for the 
 re-absorption of the United States in the British Empire. . . . 
 There is only one danger to the American tradition and the 
 American spirit. ... It is the danger lying in the strange 
 American neresy of Know-Nothingism, in the belief that knowl- 
 edge is evil and free inquiry a thing to be denied. 
 
 In Scotland, among the gay and careless students, the 
 reaction was not so somberly philosophic: the youngsters 
 were, as they often are, wiser because less grave. They 
 rechristened Thompson "Big Bull" and bounced him 
 about the streets of Glasgow in effigy. A student imper- 
 sonating Bill boarded a down river Clyde cattle boat 
 from America. The Tribune's Scottish correspondent 
 continues : 
 
 After a reception by the students at the quayside, Mayor 
 Thompson's buffoon was carried a mile through the city streets, 
 chewing a huge cigar. He was dressed in typically English 
 fashion of the Pickwickian period. 
 
 At Glasgow University, "Big Bull" opened his campaign by 
 burning a copy of the English encyclopedia. In his address he 
 complained of the distorted news appearing in the British press 
 regarding Chicago. 
 
 "Why," he exclaimed, "only yesterday I read that there 
 was only one murder a day in normal times in Chicago. That is 
 press dope. During the height of the Christmas rush the murder 
 rate rose to the laudable figure of 44.5 per thousand. 
 
ST. WILLIAM AND SIR WILLIAM 275 
 
 "Our electric chair utilizes so much current that we have had 
 to substitute busses for trams in Chicago. And the Chicago 
 divorce figures are something to be proud of. Our matrimonial 
 maxim is: 'Early and often' or, as they say in the stockyards, 
 'One good wife deserves another.' " 
 
 "Big Bull" then proceeded to the city chambers, where he was 
 received by leading councilors and Arthur Henderson, labor 
 member of parliament, who, although English, was cordially 
 greeted by "Big Bull." 
 
 Police took the "mayor" in charge and insisted on registering 
 him as an alien, after which he was mounted in a state carriage, 
 represented by a huge water barrel spurting water front and 
 rear, to drive off English attackers. 
 
 Throughout the afternoon "Big Bull" paraded through the 
 streets. To-night he attended a cabaret, and the "rag" was con- 
 tinued into the early morning hours at a students' dance. 
 
 Fortunately, most of the American newspapers took the 
 trial in the same hilarious light, poking fun at Bill un- 
 mercifully while it ran its gamut of stupidities in high 
 key. 
 
 By New Year's Day it was obvious to all that 
 McAndrew would be unsuccessful in retaining his posi- 
 tion, although a majority of the board desiring it had not 
 yet been effected by Thompson's ballyhoo and back-stairs 
 maneuvering. The teachers exulted : Legree was to go. Six 
 hundred of them, including many who had testified at the 
 trial, held a little celebration. With not one drop of 
 schnapps as an excuse, they burst into a song of taunt- 
 ing, dedicated, so the singing director courteously shouted, 
 "to the old man with the beard." It was sung to the tune 
 of "School Days": 
 
 School days, school days, 
 Who would want such school days? 
 Printin' and checkin' and provin' too, 
 Hundred per cent or a hullabaloo; 
 
276 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 Nothin' but average, scale and graph — 
 Nothin' to make you want to laugh; 
 If I had a million I'd give you half 
 To bum with a couple of kids. 
 
 Finally, March twenty-second, the school board had 
 been whipped into shape. It voted, eight to two, to remove 
 McAndrew from the superintendency of the Chicago 
 schools. Among the one hundred per cent Americans who 
 comprised the eight were Theophilus Schmid, Charles J. 
 Vopicka, Walter A. Brandenburg and Oscar Durante. 
 Who says America ain't no melting pot! 
 
 McAndrew made several ineffectual attempts to gain 
 redress for the indignities he had suffered, among which 
 was a $250,000 libel suit against Big Bill. But it was 
 eventually dropped. Ironically enough, the bearded edu- 
 cator then accepted an offer to act as editorial adjunct 
 for a series of textbooks ! In other circles than political 
 his reputation hadn't been damaged in the slightest, it 
 seemed. 
 
 But the show was not yet over. The eyes of the world 
 had not yet been shunted away from Chicago. Something 
 still more amazing than the McAndrew proceedings was 
 propelled by the indomitable Thompson. Surprised and 
 shocked by the revelations of the trial, especially those 
 reflecting on British-corrupted libraries, Bill caused the 
 Chicago Public Library to be investigated by a commit- 
 tee. This body of bibliophilic snoopers was headed by Mr. 
 U. J. ("Sport") Hermann, owner of the Cort Theatre, 
 man-about-the Sherman House, and friend of the mayor's. 
 
 Reporters, hiccoughing gayly, flocked to his side. First, 
 they asked him if there was any room for objection to 
 taking "anti-American" books from the library shelves. 
 Hermann answered unhesitatingly: "Not a bit of it. The 
 library's supported by public taxes and if this thing of 
 
ST. WILLIAM AND SIR WILLIAM 277 
 
 undermining Americanism isn't stopped — why the coun- 
 try'll go to pieces — that's all." When interrogated as to 
 his attitude towards books about Washington that make 
 him less a hero than tradition, Dr. Hermann answered: 
 "Any book that makes less a hero of George Washington 
 I'll take over to the lake shore and burn, by God ! Or any 
 making Lincoln less a hero — especially as I'm an Illinois 
 man — or any belittlin' any of our heroes — I'll burn them 
 up." Pressed for his views upon a specific work, Rupert 
 Hughes' biography of Washington, Hermann confessed 
 he hadn't read it. He added, further and defiantly, throw- 
 ing back his padded shoulders, that he'd be his own judge 
 of the offensive literature. He wasn't going to ask the 
 aid of any professional historian — no, sir. They were an 
 impractical lot, they were. Only the investigating com- 
 mittee and Mayor Thompson. 
 
 Hermann's indiscretion caused a loud and angry storm 
 from the newspapers all over the country. Soon he was 
 compelled to back water considerably, but the investiga- 
 tion continued anyway. In the course of its labors it came 
 across a rather startling fact, one which would have made 
 more sensitive souls than Drs. Hermann and Thompson 
 uncomfortable, to wit, that after the Chicago fire of 1871 
 a host of prominent Britishers had stepped forward to 
 present books to the wasted library. Among these thought- 
 ful contributors were Queen Victoria, Disraeli, Gladstone, 
 Tennyson, Oxford and Cambridge Universities — in fact, 
 almost every well known English writer and institution 
 sent over something. It would have been too cavalier and 
 raw, even for Bill and Sport, to burn this collection as 
 pro-British, so it was passed over with a blush. 
 
 Hermann was not allowed to exercise his literary pyro- 
 mania, a number of taxpayers threatening to use an in- 
 junction if he dared to go ahead. So, according to the 
 papers, Sport had his sport anyway : he purchased a copy 
 
278 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 of Schlesinger's text and had a private little conflagration. 
 Clarence Darrow, arriving from abroad about this 
 time, spoke up for the intelligent of the citizenry on the 
 subject of the library fiasco: 
 
 It's the craziest thing I ever heard of. How far does Mayor 
 Thompson purpose to go? When he gets through throwing out 
 English books, or rather books written with a bias in favor of 
 England, he can start with an endless chain favoring France, 
 Germany, even the Turk and any other country you can name. 
 In the end he will have nothing left but fairy tales. This thing 
 has its serious side, since it perpetuates the insanity that swept 
 the world as an added curse to the war. We should now be allay- 
 ing the murderous rancor purposely aroused to inflame people 
 against each other. 
 
 Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, lecturing the members of the 
 N. E. A., got off one of his customary apt phrases about 
 the scandal: "As an American citizen I hang my head in 
 shame to witness the scene that is half opera bowffe, half 
 tragedy, now being enacted in Chicago." 
 
 Throughout the investigation, Carl B. Roden, the head 
 librarian, kept his fine head, realizing that his beloved 
 Stendhals, Montaignes, Fieldings and Smolletts stood less 
 chance of perishing in a politicians' Roman holiday if he 
 said nothing. Preston Bradley, the liberal minister, dem- 
 onstrated his intelligence in similar fashion, for, as chair- 
 man, infinite tact was needed to restrain these political 
 persons from really damaging invaluable property: the 
 taxpayers' money could be replaced, but many of the 
 books in the library could not. Dr. Bradley arose to the 
 occasion. 
 
 The whole "America First," anti-British pish-posh 
 finally petered out. A county campaign was in the offing 
 and, besides, Big Bill was beginning to writhe under the 
 ridicule that pelted him from all sides. It wasn't so bad 
 
ST. WILLIAM AND SIR WILLIAM 279 
 
 if located in Glasgow, but when he was lampooned just a 
 few blocks from his office it got under his skin. A show 
 called "The Scandals of 1927," a travesty on politics, was 
 presented at the City Club. Bill was depicted a modern 
 Nero, fiddling while library books went up in smoke. 
 
 A scene depicting the mayor's city hall office in which the 
 mayor's secretary told inquirers where the mayor could be found 
 brought loud applause. "Where is the mayor? How should I 
 know. This is the city hall/' was the secretary's answer to one 
 visitor. "He was at Boston last week, Washington the week be- 
 fore, and hunting in northern Wisconsin the week before that. 
 He had to come back the other day to open the jai alai season. 
 He may be in Chicago a day or two during the winter." 
 
 Chris Paschen, Michael Faherty, "Sport" Hermann, Presi- 
 dent Coolidge and Senators William Vare and Frank Smith were 
 other characters in the revue. 
 
 All was not comedy, though; some men went to great 
 pains to abuse Bill soberly. The crudest job was done by 
 Victor S. Yarros, analyzing Thompson for the readers of 
 the Independent. Coldly and unequivocally he reviewed 
 Bill's record, ending his essay with these harsh words : 
 
 The truth regarding Mr. Thompson can be stated in a few 
 words: he is indolent, ignorant of public issues, inefficient and 
 incompetent as an administrator, incapable of making a respect- 
 able argument, reckless in his campaign methods and electioneer- 
 ing oratory, inclined to think evil of those who are not in 
 agreement or sympathy with him, and congenitally demagogical. 
 He can make extremely effective speeches on the lowest of 
 political planes. He can capture audiences and make them feel 
 he is one of them — but there are few thoughtful people in his 
 audiences. His charges against opponents are wild and often 
 preposterous, and it is sometimes felt and said that no sane man 
 would descend to the billingsgate and the depths of absurdity 
 that mark his utterances. 
 
280 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 This must have stung Bill a bit, although he probably 
 recovered in a trice when he recalled that Mr. Yarros was 
 connected with the Daily News, his ancient enemy and 
 persecutor. So it was with most of the ridicule he got. He 
 steamed like a porpoise when Beverly Nichols' article ap- 
 peared, and roared that the meticulous little Englishman 
 was a "crook." 
 
 But what really cut him to the quick were the jeers and 
 cat-calls of the crowd at Cubs Park. That almost broke 
 Bill's spirit. It has but one parallel in his career : the occa- 
 sion of his being hissed by his fellow Shriners at Medinah 
 Temple. Bill thought nothing could ever shake the loyal 
 affection of his brother sportsmen, high and low. But even 
 they, preoccupied principally with base-runners and mud- 
 runners, turned on Bill and gave him the merry razz. The 
 library burlesque had alienated his last line of defense. 
 . . . He has not been the same jovial Bill since. 
 
 The years 1927 and 1928 have wrought many changes 
 upon Thompson. Unmistakable signs of decay are present. 
 He is mayor of the second city in America, but his plight 
 is not a happy one. His machine is in shreds, his popular- 
 ity almost gone. Heavy bombardment when it was indig- 
 nant and from the uplifters has never phased either him 
 or his enthusiasts; but ridicule, prolonged and skillful, 
 has at last taken its toll. 
 
 Before the final and definitive glance is cast upon his 
 bowed form, a survey will be taken of his organization, 
 how it slumped into its present nondescript condition, and 
 why. To do this a short history of the relationship of 
 crime and politics in Chicago must be indulged in, for 
 the primary election of 1928 brought about the demise 
 of the famous and apparently unbeatable Crowe-Barrett 
 faction, and forced its iron- jawed boss into retirement. 
 This shelving of State's Attorney Crowe was alleged to 
 be the direct result of a "public upheaval," a "civic awak- 
 
ST. WILLIAM AND SIR WILLIAM 281 
 
 ening" ; it was said that people finally grew weary of de- 
 fending Chicago to outsiders, got tired of inhabiting a city 
 notorious for its lawlessness, and hence tossed its prose- 
 cutor into the dump-heap and commenced with a clean 
 deck. 
 
 Let us see just how much of this is true. 
 
TWENTY 
 THE EVOLUTION OF A BAD REPUTATION 
 
 PERHAPS the first crime against property in Chicago 
 was committed when the site of Fort Dearborn was 
 filched from the Indians, the first crime of passion when 
 said Indians resented the swindle. But scores of years were 
 to pass undistinguishedly before the eyes of the western 
 world were to be turned upon this city in horrified curi- 
 osity at its persistent villainy. In truth, the story of organ- 
 ized mischief in Chicago does not begin grandiosely with 
 the Industrial Revolution, nor even with a sordid deduc- 
 tive account of the social malaises arising out of immigra- 
 tion. It can be oriented, roughly, at a period circa 1910. 
 
 Big Bill Thompson, running for mayor as an independ- 
 ent candidate, was the recipient of thousands of votes 
 controlled by underworld bosses. How did this happen? 
 There was, indeed, nothing in his past to justify it: he 
 had not risen from the ranks of saloonkeepers, policemen 
 or gamblers, but was, on the contrary, a rich man's son, 
 with few disreputable friends and no connections at all 
 in the tenderloin. How then did he command an over- 
 whelming percentage of its votes? 
 
 He personally had nothing to do with it; it had 
 occurred as a direct result of a strenuous campaign of 
 propaganda, conducted by diverse political small fry. 
 These men were those "on the outs" with the prevailing 
 Harrison administration, those with no power but with 
 strong desires to gain the privilege once more of plying 
 their principal trade, which was the levying of revenue 
 
 282 
 
EVOLUTION OF A BAD REPUTATION 283 
 
 upon all of their constituencies trespassing against the 
 law : operators of gaming houses, "blind pigs," bordellos, 
 "fences," et cetera. They seized upon the Thompson can- 
 didacy as an opportunity to gain, or in some cases regain, 
 the position of men of affluence and prestige. 
 
 The method they used was that of circulating the 
 rumor that Big Bill would countenance a "wide-open 
 town," that under his rule the "fix" would be easy. Now 
 it is well known that those who transgress the statutes are 
 very sensitive to information of this kind, so the tale 
 spread like fire on a prairie, fed by countless imaginative 
 men, until it reached the dimensions of an epic. Further- 
 more, Bill's personality lent itself readily to such an im- 
 pression, however false it may have been, for one glance 
 at his jovial face should be enough to dissipate any 
 notions that he might be an uplifter. And then his some- 
 what festive past, involving as it did acquaintance with 
 every famous cabaret, bar and restaurant in the city, gave 
 added credence and velocity to the flying whisper. 
 
 It may be that Fred Lundin had something to do with 
 it. The Swede had, as a rightful heritage of his Lorimer 
 affiliations, many antennae in the netherworld. But Big Bill 
 himself was surely not at fault. It was the work of the 
 men whose only concern was the obtaining of votes, by 
 any promise, cajolery or chicane possible. 
 
 Once Thompson's election had been effected, these wily 
 fellows assumed the dignity of petty oligarchs. Some were 
 aldermen, some were ward committeemen, all were minor 
 functionaries of the faction in office — for they had deliv- 
 ered votes, the meat, bread and whiskey of a political 
 organization. They were the connecting links between 
 crime and politics, the men to approach with everything 
 from a speeding ticket to a warrant for burglary. 
 They knew bondsmen, shady lawyers, wire-pullers, fixers, 
 
284 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 judges, police captains. They were the district bosses, 
 indispensable for the criminal to know. 
 
 Contrary to popular idea, the higher-ups in a machine 
 seldom make any money by protecting lawbreakers. Their 
 incomes derive from more subtle and respectable doings, 
 to wit, padded appropriations, contracts, patronage, real 
 estate speculation, large graft. It is the ward bosses and 
 the coppers that clean up with the trifling stuff. . . . 
 That was the situation in 1910, the arrangement now and 
 perhaps the way it always will be. But about that year 
 something happened which introduced a new factor in the 
 relationship of criminal and politician, the gang chief; 
 the year 1920 altered the layout even more vitally. 
 
 About two decades ago the unionist movement began 
 to assume colossal proportions in the United States. 
 Succumbing slightly to the Marxian Katzen jammer, the 
 sweating labor units organized themselves and commenced 
 formidable war with their respective employers. In many 
 trades regimentation was not difficult, for the racial homo- 
 geneity in some of the trades facilitated matters greatly 
 for the organizers. In Chicago, for instance, the bulk 
 of the street-cleaners were Italians, the bricklayers and 
 structural-iron workers Irish, the carpenters Swedes and 
 Germans, and so on. The union agitators were, in the 
 main, reasonably idealistic men, actuated by the grim 
 desire to lift their co-workers and themselves out of the 
 sucking rut of laissez-faire. 
 
 As each successful labor sodality was a blow to their 
 open-shop philosophy, the employers looked about for 
 means to intimidate the workers, seeking to stifle the move- 
 ment before it got too strong. They retained sluggers, 
 strong-arm men, bruisers, for this purpose. From where 
 were these sluggers recruited? From the heads of Chi- 
 cago's criminal gangs, of course. Professor Thrasher, who 
 has made a profound study of this urban phenomenon, 
 
EVOLUTION OF A BAD REPUTATION 285 
 
 estimates that over a thousand gangs exist in Chicago 
 simultaneously. Most of these are, naturally, boys' gangs, 
 but youths grow up and carry into adult life the habits 
 formed in streets and alleys, poolrooms, saloons and club- 
 rooms. In their early teens, untutored by any designing 
 Fagin, they learn to pick pockets, perhaps; then they 
 graduate into occasional stick-ups ; often by twenty they 
 are hardened yeggs, some specializing in safe-blowing, 
 some in second-story work, the more refined in various 
 confidence games and gambling; a few degenerate into 
 pimps and peddlers of narcotics. All are taught by their 
 environment that the world is a cruel place for those whose 
 wits are slow and whose hearts are faint. 
 
 Once the employers had commandeered gangsters for 
 their dirty work, the unions did likewise. It was force 
 versus force, with the most puissant side winning. After 
 the sluggers got into the unions, and had proven their 
 value, they used every available means to turn about and 
 dominate them. This they have had salutary success in 
 doing, and today almost all the unions in Chicago are 
 ruled by former bruisers. 
 
 The relation between the footloose gangster and the 
 politician has been explained above. So, when the gang- 
 ster metamorphosed into a labor slugger, or rather an- 
 nexed this activity to his career, he exploited the same 
 connections he had had as an outside criminal. And this 
 time the ward bosses cultivated him assiduously, for the 
 unions had assumed great political importance due to the 
 mobility of delivery of large blocs of votes. Hence the 
 tie-up of politics and crime more firmly, through the 
 medium of organized labor. 
 
 Barters involving protection and patronage and votes 
 were very beneficial to everybody but the public, and 
 crime flourished in Chicago. The police force, being an 
 
286 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 adjunct of politics, was exploited freely in the trans- 
 actions. 
 
 At election time the hoodlums proved invaluable to the 
 political machines, for against their tactics the wishes of 
 the honest citizens were of small moment. Ballot boxes 
 were stolen and stuffed, election clerks and judges were 
 intimidated, merchants were blackmailed for contribu- 
 tions, the gangsters not even hesitating at murder to 
 accomplish their wills. 
 
 To cite a notorious example, the forty-second ward had 
 always been solidly Democratic. But when Bob Crowe ran 
 for state's attorney he found an ally in Dion O'Banion, 
 whose pirates so terrorized the storekeepers and lay voters 
 that the ward went Republican by a large margin. 
 O'Banion, it will be recalled, was shot down in November, 
 1924j, in the florist shop he used as a cover-up for his 
 booze-peddling and hi- jacking operations. 
 
 Practically all the political factions tacitly employed 
 gangsters to further their ends. And the power of the 
 killers rested not only upon engendered fear but upon real 
 respect. Very often they were philanthropic with their 
 own people, and some were looked up to as the only men 
 of affairs of the neighborhood. Joe Saltis has been ex- 
 traordinarily munificent with the Poles on the southwest 
 side; Al Capone bestows many favors upon the Italians 
 and Sicilians, who worship him; Moran and O'Banion 
 have patronized the Irish. So, with their labor racketeer- 
 ing, in which many of the prominent hoodlums have 
 become interested of late, and the practical assistance 
 they render on election days, the gangsters are persons 
 of much weight with the political gents. Also, and maybe 
 heading the list of indebtedness, the enormous sums the 
 gang lords are willing to pay to police heads, prosecutors, 
 judges and fixing lawyers break down all resistance. 
 
 On one occasion, merely a few words from Joe Saltis 
 
EVOLUTION OF A BAD REPUTATION 287 
 
 were sufficient to bring about the demotion of Captain 
 John Stege, a police officer Polack Joe didn't like. And 
 it is no secret that Al Capone has reprimanded certain 
 judges in the forthright manner of an irate schoolmaster. 
 
 State's Attorney John Wayman was the man largely 
 responsible for the scattering of the old red-light district 
 of Chicago. Previous to his famous drives of 1912, Big 
 Jim Colosimo, Ike Bloom and a few others governed 
 Illicia with steady hands. Colosimo owned the vice syndi- 
 cate which ran most of the houses of prostitution around 
 the Twenty-second Street region. Annoyed and frightened 
 by blackmailers, Colosimo sent for John Torrio, a man 
 high in his profession and one of the leaders of the Five 
 Points Gang of New York. Al Brown, or Al Capone as he 
 is known, came from the same source a little later at 
 Torrio's request. Torrio, a shrewd and genial fellow, lived 
 to outgrow his patron in power, being the first to extend 
 his bagnio business outside Chicago, after Wayman had 
 made the Twenty-second Street region too hot for comfort 
 and easy profits. 
 
 With the advent of Prohibition, all the gangsters 
 rushed to supply the gigantic Chicago demand. Fortunes 
 were made almost overnight, and with millions involved 
 what was a life — or a hundred lives? Within three years 
 the city was divided, like ancient Gaul, into three parts. 
 The south side was ably governed by Torrio and Capone, 
 both of whom saw more money in booze and beer than in 
 girls ; the west side was generated by Terry Druggan and 
 Frank Lake and the Genna brothers; the north side was 
 administered by O'Banion and his two brainy aides, Hymie 
 Weiss and Schemer Drucci. The conflicts between these 
 murderous factions arose, naturally, out of greed and the 
 overlapping of interests. But there was a psychological 
 factor in the ferocious enmity of the Irish and the Ital- 
 ians. The latter, from the start, had demonstrated the 
 
288 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 inherent amorality most Americans usually associate with 
 the Latin culture, had trafficked generously in women and 
 narcotics, and had kept these pursuits as sidelines even 
 after beer and liquor came to be the more remunerative 
 merchandise. The Irish hoodlums, more sentimental than 
 logical, hated the Italians cordially for their prostitu- 
 tional flair. Before Prohibition they (the Irish) had made 
 their livings at gambling and theft, after Prohibition 
 confining themselves to brewing, peddling and hi- jacking. 
 With bitter contempt they referred to the Italian gang- 
 ster as a "guinea McGonigal" and a feud with men of 
 this stamp was entered into with pious glee. 
 
 The terrible and fascinating drama of gangdom's wars, 
 killings, tortures, alliances, profits and armistices, begin- 
 ning with the slaying of Altman by Mossie Enright in 
 the Briggs House and having as its last world-famous epi- 
 sode the mowing-down of seven men in a garage on St. 
 Valentine's Day in the spring of 1929, is a familiar one 
 and shall not concern us here. It has been told by Edward 
 Sullivan in "Rattling the Cup on Chicago's Crime" and 
 by James O'Donnell Bennett in "Chicago Gangland." 
 Suffice to say that, one by one, all the principal Chicago 
 killers have either fled to safer localities or have been mur- 
 dered. Colosimo, O'Banion, Hymie Weiss, Schemer Drucci, 
 the Gennas, Scalisi and Anselmi, Esposito, Tony Lom- 
 bardo, Tim Murphy — all have "taken it" as they had so 
 often given it to others. Capone is still czar in Cicero; 
 Bugs Moran, heir to O'Banion and Weiss, still prevails 
 on the north side ; Saltis, Druggan, Lake, the McErlanes 
 — are alive but may not be tomorrow. The stakes are too 
 large in Chicago for any one man or faction to hold sway 
 very long. They flower darkly for awhile, then pass out 
 of the picture, melodramatically or quietly. 
 
 Prudent and highly moral men, like Bennett of the 
 Tribune, are shocked and depressed by the panorama. 
 
EVOLUTION OF A BAD REPUTATION 289 
 
 But even they admit that brilliant splashes of color have 
 been given the city's annals by the type of men whose 
 proclivities and butcheries they deplore. For instance, 
 Cosmano, waiting to murder Enright at Tim Murphy's 
 command, fell asleep over his weapons. Dion O'Banion, 
 although rough and merciless, had a swagger and eclat 
 when he entered a saloon murder-bent that is the quin- 
 tessence of high histrionics. Any Chicago raconteur can 
 extend the list for hours. A rich vocabulary, the sole lan- 
 guage of the hoodlum, has sprung up which should com- 
 mand the attention of scholars. Hymie Weiss invented the 
 ominous phrase, "taken for a ride" ; Tim Murphy is given 
 credit for the new usage of the word "racket." Already 
 the Illinois criminal milieu has thrown up one fine novel, 
 Burnett's "Little Caesar," and two first-rate plays, "The 
 Front Page" and "The Racket." Others will follow. 
 
 Is Chicago distinct among cities in the matter of crime ? 
 To say yes would be going too far. To be sure, it has pro- 
 duced a greater quantity of colorful criminals and crimes 
 and hence has been a target for literary and journalistic 
 arrows, but careful consideration of all relevant factors 
 takes much of the sting from the taunts of other cities. 
 First, a goodly portion of Chicago's gangsters received 
 their training in other places, coming to Chicago after 
 maturity: Capone and Torrio and many of their hench- 
 men came from New York; Scalisi, Anselmi and the 
 Gennas had been notorious in Italy; others came from 
 Detroit, Frisco, St. Louis, Brooklyn. It is perhaps perti- 
 nent to remark that there has been no gang in Chicago 
 that has turned out as many successful crimials as has 
 Egan's Rats in St. Louis. Chicago has attracted these 
 fellows because it is the booze and beer depot of the Mis- 
 sissippi Basin, and with the passage of the Jones Law 
 and similar attempts to put teeth in Prohibition the stakes 
 have raised, and with the increase in possible profits come 
 
290 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 more and more warfare. This fact was intelligently noted 
 by Lloyd Lewis in his excellent analysis of the situation 
 for the New Republic. 
 
 But our concern here is with the juxtaposition of poli- 
 tics and crime, and we are wandering far astray. A few 
 instances should be adequate in shedding light on this 
 relationship ; the reader can follow through with his own 
 conclusions. 
 
 Harry and Alma Guzik ran the Roamer Inn in Posen, 
 a few miles from Chicago. John Torrio was their master. 
 In 1921 they were indicted and convicted for coercing a 
 farm girl into what is quaintly known as "white slavery." 
 Awaiting their appeal before the Illinois Supreme Court, 
 they were pardoned by Governor Len Small, full in the 
 face of vehement protests by a dozen organizations of the 
 uplift. Why did Small jeopardize his reputation so fla- 
 grantly, merely to save two brothelkeepers ? Because two 
 Torrio confederates, Ben Newmark and Walter Stevens, 
 had been of material assistance to Small in the latter's 
 trial for absconding state funds in Waukegan. Once 
 released, the Guziks opened a new place immediately. 
 
 The case of William McSwiggin attracted more com- 
 ment. In April, 1926, Assistant State's Attorney McSwig- 
 gin was killed while in the company of two gangsters, one 
 of whom he had prosecuted just a short time before. No 
 one was ever indicted for the murder, although the inquest 
 brought a good deal of juicy scandal to light. It was 
 revealed that McSwiggin frequently caroused with gang- 
 sters and was, in point of fact, the school chum of one 
 of the hoodlums in the "death car." 
 
 Capone, drawn into the investigation, denied all knowl- 
 edge of the crime: "I had nothing to do with the killing 
 of my friend, Bill McSwiggin." Harry Eugene Kelly, 
 president of the Union League Club, remarked, apropos 
 of the probe: "State's Attorney Crowe is unfit to conduct 
 
EVOLUTION OF A BAD REPUTATION 291 
 
 the inquiry into McSwiggin's death because it is mixed 
 up all down the line with politics." 
 
 Diamond Joe Esposito owned the Bella Napoli Cafe. 
 In charming addition he was a labor racketeer, a pro- 
 tector of gamblers, bootleggers and alky cookers who 
 belonged to his ward machine, which was a valuable cog 
 in the bigger machine of Senator Charles S. Deneen. 
 Esposito was famous for his expensive dinners, at which 
 could be seen every major Deneen politician in the county: 
 Litsinger, Haas, Olson, Eberhardt, Sabath and many 
 others, including often the Senator himself. Diamond Joe 
 was the Deneen- West candidate for county commissioner 
 in 1926 and their presidential elector a little later. Less 
 than a month before the stiffest primary that Chicago 
 politics had ever seen, when the forces of Crowe, Thomp- 
 son and Small were locking horns with those of Deneen 
 for control of the county and state, Esposito was shot 
 down near his home, fifty-eight bullets being found in his 
 large corpse. It was said that he had double-crossed some- 
 one in a booze deal. 
 
 The year 1927 marked the demise of William Hale 
 Thompson as a persuasive fact in the minds of the voters. 
 His outlandish campaign against Dever, the most pre- 
 posterous, perhaps, in American political history, and 
 the gesture of burning pro-British library books called 
 down upon his large head the hee-haws of an entire nation. 
 No politician can survive that. But he had been elected 
 mayor of Chicago before the storm of laughter broke, 
 and mayor he will remain until 1931. 
 
 But however much his reputation as a statesman was 
 damaged by his tilting against the British windmill, his 
 political machine continued intact. Men who draw $5,000 
 a year for doing nothing are not going to desert the man 
 who made it all possible just because the newspapers rich- 
 
292 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 cule him; the only cataclysm that can ruin a political 
 organization is one involving the snatching of these jobs. 
 And that is what was threatened in 1928. A primary elec- 
 tion was imminent, with the fate of Crowe and Small im- 
 pinging upon it, and Thompson's faction was so closely 
 aligned with that of Crowe, Barrett and Small that their 
 victory meant his survival, their defeat his defeat. One of 
 the questions in this election was who would win the drain- 
 age board, with its magnificent patronage tree? Another 
 point to be settled by the voters in April was the dispen- 
 sation of the gubernatorial chair, with its fine crop of 
 jobs ; and the most important issue was that of the state's 
 attorneyship, the seat of criminal prosecution for the city 
 of Chicago and the county of Cook. 
 
 Deneen seemed determined this time to seize control of 
 the county. Many failures to do this in the past had irri- 
 tated him mightily; now, he felt, his chances were of the 
 best to make a clean sweep. His candidate for state's attor- 
 ney, opposing Robert Crowe, was Circuit Judge John A. 
 Swanson, a man of fine reputation but indifferent vote- 
 getting ability. Edward Litsinger was chosen by his chief 
 to run to succeed himself on the board of review, opposing 
 former Judge Bernard Barasa, the Crowe-Thompson 
 choice. Deneen was unable to decide upon a puppet of 
 his own to run for governor, that is any one who could 
 hope to beat Small, so he struck a bargain with Secretary 
 of State Louis L. Emmerson. This man was the strongest 
 man on the Deneen ticket, for although he had long been 
 a party hack the public liked him immensely, hundreds 
 of thousands of them appreciating the "personal" letter 
 they received from him in answer to requests for automo- 
 bile licenses. 
 
 It was a riotous and obscene campaign from the very 
 beginning. The odds were heavy for the "America First" 
 ticket, particularly in the light of two early Deneen casu- 
 
EVOLUTION OF A BAD REPUTATION 293 
 
 alties. During the second week of the campaign, County 
 Recorder Joseph Haas died, causing over six hundred 
 jobs to fall into the lap of the Crowe-Thompson-Galpin 
 faction, and depriving Deneen's men of genial Joe's per- 
 sonality. Then Diamond Joe Esposito, the Deneen leader 
 among the Italians, was killed in a private little booze 
 feud, crippling the machine the more. Seemingly, they 
 couldn't shift into high. Meanwhile the other side was 
 knitting its organization together in admirable style, pre- 
 paring carefully for the last minute drive which would 
 push all its men into the nominations desired. 
 
 Then a few things happened which turned the tide in 
 the other direction with startling velocity. A fortnight 
 before primary day two bombs exploded on the south side, 
 one at the home of Senator Deneen and the other, five min- 
 utes later, at the home of Judge Swanson. It was a most 
 fortuitous brace of explosions, for the sentimental public 
 arose in a body to denounce the outrage and to extend 
 sympathies to the politicians attacked. To complicate 
 matters further, Crowe, informed of the near-catastro- 
 phe, tersely observed: "They did it themselves to gain 
 sympathy." 
 
 There is a bare possibility that Crowe was correct, that 
 the bombing was not committed by mysterious Italians, 
 angry at Deneen for the padlocking of their wine-serving 
 restaurants; but the public at large was nettled at the 
 cynicism, and sentiment began to flow away from the 
 America Firsters. 
 
 Chief among the campaign lecturers was Edward Lit- 
 singer. Until the bombings he had been concentrating on 
 making Bill Thompson's schoolbook twaddle more of a 
 boomerang than it already was: "Crack King Len and 
 Wilhelm der Grosse on the snoot and watch crime go" — 
 was his slogan, and it was drawing blood daily. The bomb- 
 
294 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 ings gave him a wonderful opportunity for employing 
 the bitter invective and raillery of which he was a master : 
 "Say it with bombs" became his battle-cry. And the cam- 
 paign became known up and down the land as Chicago's 
 "pineapple campaign." "Pineapples and Plunder." 
 
 Poor Bill Thompson proved to be a feeble adversary 
 for the clever Litsinger. Unable to cope with this new and 
 unexpected situation, he fell back on billingsgate. Hoarsely 
 he shouted : "Ed Litsinger lived back of the gashouse and 
 when he moved to the north side he left his old mother 
 behind !" It so happened that Litsinger's sister was in the 
 large audience hearing this. She jumped up and cried: 
 "Mayor Thompson, you are a liar! My mother died 
 twenty years ago, before my brother moved !" In hysterics 
 she was escorted from the hall. Big Bill continued his 
 tirade, not a little nonplussed. 
 
 In a moment there ensued more excitement. A Thomp- 
 son zealot seized the notes of a Tribune reporter and 
 threw them up on the stage, precipitating another riot. As 
 the reporter ducked to a safe corner of the room, Big 
 Bill, red in the face and swearing to himself, shouted: 
 "Tell your boss you work for the dirtiest, lousiest sheet 
 in the country !" The crowd was delighted at the sally. 
 
 Litsinger struck back immediately. The next day, before 
 an enormous and expectant audience, he asserted that 
 "Bill Thompson had the carcass of a rhinoceros and the 
 brains of a baboon !" He went on to assail "Barney Pine- 
 apple Barasa," Sam Ettelson, "the Insullated lawyer," 
 and the "Gold Dust Triplets, Thompson, Small and 
 Smith," the "Three Must-Get-Theirs." It was low comedy 
 but it panicked the public. Litsinger pegged away in his 
 acidulous fashion for the two weeks left of the campaign. 
 The newspapers were all with him, Arthur Evans lending 
 such aid as this in the Tribune: 
 
EVOLUTION OF A BAD REPUTATION 295 
 
 With the pineapple as its symbol, the Republican county fight 
 goes to the primaries Tuesday with the whole nation watching 
 the spectacle. All the modern, up-to-date Volsteadian phenomena 
 — bombings, gunnery, booze gang wars and shootings, wet and 
 dry reprisals, and the general permeation of politics by the 
 racketeering motif of gangland — have drawn the eyes of the 
 outside world to what is regarded as something unique in politics. 
 Political correspondents from far and near are trooping in and 
 looking for observation seats in the bombproof s. . . . Reduced 
 to practical essentials, the battle Tuesday takes on the following 
 aspects in the eyes of observers: the Deneenites have the public 
 opinion and the popular uprising, while the Thompson-Crowe- 
 Galpinites have the organization and the jobs. 
 
 The public reacted quickly to Mr. Evans' distinction, 
 embodied in the last sentence of the passage quoted above. 
 It didn't want to be exploited by a machine if it knew it. 
 Bob Crowe, in the opinion of most of the voters, was to 
 blame for all the crime of the last eight years, for Chi- 
 cago's bad reputation abroad. The papers fostered the 
 notion. Let Mr. Evans, one of the best political corre- 
 spondents in the country, give an inkling of what tran- 
 spired. 
 
 It was an epic in politics. The miracle which the America 
 First machine with its county, city and state patronage said 
 could not come to pass, did come to pass. The uprising actually 
 arose, the revolt was actually registered at the polls, and in 
 the contest between public opinion and the political machine, 
 Chicago cast its largest primary vote since direct primaries were 
 invented. 
 
 And the public planted a pineapple of its own under the 
 machine. 
 
 Emmerson, with a strong machine of his own and aided 
 by his affiliation with the now popular Deneen outfit, was 
 an easy victor over Len Small. Judge Swanson surprised 
 
296 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 every one with his plurality, for when all the ballots were 
 counted it was found that he had almost doubled on Crowe. 
 Litsinger, after his vigorous campaigning for the ticket, 
 buried Barney Barasa. The Deneen men broke even on the 
 sanitary board, a condition more than pleasing to the 
 boss. With other and minor offices Deneen likewise fared 
 better than well. 
 
 Best of all, the mighty Bob Crowe was tumbled from 
 his high place. And King Len, for eight years governor 
 of the state, was dethroned. The Thompson-Crowe-Small- 
 Galpin machine was no more. It was in shreds. 
 
 In the fall the Hoover landslide did the rest, pushing 
 most of the Deneen men into the coveted offices. 
 
 With the new crowd in office, an investigation was com- 
 menced to determine the causes of various disturbances 
 on primary day. Not the least of these was the killing of 
 Octavius Granady, a negro lawyer who had dared to 
 oppose Boss Morris Eller for committeeman in his own 
 ward, the twentieth. For this and other violence the ward 
 was dubbed the "Bloody Twentieth." It was a Crowe- 
 Thompson section. Sixty indictments ensued, involving 
 Boss Morris, his son, Judge Emmanuel Eller, State Sena- 
 tor Leonardo and United States Representative Oscar 
 De Preist. Not much has come of it, but no one can deny 
 that the trial dealt the Crowe-Thompson machine a mortal 
 blow. 
 
 One by one, Bill Thompson's props have been kicked 
 from under him. He curses sadly into his beer, but there 
 isn't much he can do about it. 
 
TWENTY-ONE 
 DECAY AND LASSITUDE 
 
 QUIT? Resign? Me?" It was Thompson talking, his 
 cowboy hat pushed back on his head. The scene was 
 the mayoral suite in the Sherman House. The reporters 
 were badgering the mayor, weary-eyed and petulant, on 
 the evening of primary day. He had promised, in an im- 
 pulsive moment at the height of the campaign, to resign 
 if Swanson defeated Crowe. "Well now, let's analyze this 
 situation," continued Hizzoner. "I haven't lost out so 
 much in the election. I've got a majority of the ward 
 committeemen and the sanitary board. You'd think I'd 
 lost the whole fight. Why should I resign?" Shaking his 
 head Big Bill turned towards his room slowly. "But you 
 said you'd get out if Judge Swanson were nominated," 
 persisted the interviewer, mercilessly. "Well, I'll say defi- 
 nitely now, that I'm not getting out. That ought to sat- 
 isfy the newspapers and give me some peace." He closed 
 the door of his room angrily. 
 
 But the papers didn't give him any peace. All summer 
 they heckled him and his administration, constantly re- 
 iterating that the people had spoken, that it was up to him 
 to acquiesce, to fire Mike Faherty, whose bond issue had 
 been refused at the polls, and step down. But stubborn 
 Bill hung on, grimly. Finally they ceased talking about 
 him at all. 
 
 Nels Anderson, writing in the Century Magazine at a 
 time when Big Bill was at the apex of his career, had 
 said: "He reigns like a monarch in a conquered city. It 
 
 297 
 
298 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 is a purely emotional relationship, which is the basis of 
 all mass movements." By the spring of 1929 this emo- 
 tional tie that bound him to the masses and the masses to 
 him had spent itself. Nominally he is the ruler yet, but 
 the city is no longer his chattel. It has passed him by. 
 
 Ever optimistic, the public greeted Swanson and 
 Emmerson blithely, as if the millennium had come. Soon 
 it was evident that one set of politicians had been ex- 
 changed for another, if better, set. The hoary game of 
 alignments and re-alignments began to be played again. 
 Emmerson, seeking to preserve his machine strength, bar- 
 gained with Lundin through the Swede's wedge, Secretary 
 of State Stratton. Deneen, forgetting his appointments 
 with the uplifting gentry, set up at his old stand, trading 
 federal for state and county patronage. Litsinger flirted 
 with the newspapers, prettily. State's Attorney Swanson 
 commenced with a bang and hurrah, gathered the best 
 legal talent in the city around him, and looked very much 
 like a winner. But, like Wayman and Hoyne before him, 
 he rapidly learned that uplift is too expensive for prac- 
 tical politics. He had secured the faith of the entire city 
 by clasping to him, as first assistants, grizzled old Frank 
 Loesch and young Dave Stansbury, both of whom sacri- 
 ficed lucrative law practices to serve their city. But when 
 the sanitary board probes, instigated to further macerate 
 Thompson and his crew, began to embarrass too many 
 people, Loesch was told to go easy and was shorn of his 
 authority. Now he investigates the nation's badness for 
 Dr. Hoover. And in a short while most intelligent citizens 
 realized that John Swanson, although vastly preferable 
 to Crowe, was nevertheless using the state's attorney's 
 office for building up a political machine just as had all 
 his predecessors. When he played Torquemada and 
 scourged Morris Eller, many decent citizens applauded, 
 glad to see a vandal fall ; but they could not help but see 
 
DECAY AND LASSITUDE 299 
 
 that, after all, the persecution of Eller was the purest 
 and the best of politics. 
 
 No, the new monarchs are no more idealistic than the 
 old. They are an improvement solely because their defini- 
 tion of what is politically expedient places a higher value 
 upon caution and constant wooing of the public cow. But 
 the principal objective is still, as in the days of Lorimer 
 and Lundin, the extraction of milk, however softly they 
 stroke, however mild their voices. 
 
 And what of Bill? 
 
 His sycophantic choir has been trimmed to a duet. 
 Where formerly he had been surrounded by a sturdy 
 group of bassos, now, on a throne somewhat moth-eaten 
 and frayed, he has but Lou and Bob — and, alas, they sing 
 "Big Bill the Builder" in trembling falsetto. 
 
 The Sherman headquarters are deserted. Over in the 
 Conway Building, in a suite that resembles an up-and- 
 coming law firm rather than the offices of a political fac- 
 tion, the heirs to the Thompson dynasty hold forth. There 
 Bernard W. Snow, George F. Harding, Charles V. Barrett 
 and Edward J. Brundage attempt to gather the vestigial 
 remnants of the old machine for future battles. Reporters, 
 seeking to discover Thompson's connections with this new 
 alignment, are told that Bill never visits them, that they 
 would prefer that his name was omitted in newspaper 
 mention of the faction. Apparently it is a taint. 
 
 The city plunges forward madly, never noticing the 
 chief. It is busily preparing for its World's Fair in 
 1933, and all is bustle and excitement. It is tacitly assumed 
 that the men who are engineering this super-project will 
 pick the next mayor — and it is likewise tacitly assumed 
 that they don't even consider Big Bill. It is a shame, for 
 he would love the role. To meet celebrities from all over 
 the world, to speechify roundly, to unveil, to introduce, 
 to expand — ah, that would make Bill truly happy again. 
 
300 HIZZONER BIG BILL THOMPSON 
 
 He stands in Chicago today alone — bowed, old, beaten. 
 With all its activity, his life must seem strangely empty 
 to him. His fondest dreams have been unrealized, his 
 prayers of yesteryear return to mock him. He must think 
 the political life a most unsatisfying life, for at sixty he 
 is but a ridiculous memory to most of those who once 
 adored him — and hailed him as saviour. 
 
 Bill's not the worst politician Chicago has seen, and 
 time may be more gentle with him than the present thinks. 
 Certainly one thing is true: 
 
 That at some remote day, perhaps when Chicago has 
 been inundated from the east by the Reds or from the 
 west by the Yellows, when archeologists sit down to write 
 the final and definitive history of the second city of Amer- 
 ica in the twentieth century, one page, colored red, white 
 and blue, should be given, freely and generously, to one 
 of the most interesting characters who ever rode its 
 streets — Big Bill Thompson, its cowpuncher mayor. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Books 
 
 "Gargantua and Pantagruel" by Francois Rabelais. 
 
 "Gulliver's Travels" by Dean Swift. 
 
 "Don Quixote" by Miguel Cervantes. 
 
 "School and Society in Chicago" by George S. Counts. 
 
 "The Political Primary of 1926 in Chicago" by Carroll Wooddy. 
 
 "Chicago: A More Intimate Study of Urban Politics" by Charles 
 
 E. Merriam. 
 "American Inquisitors" by Walter Lippmann. 
 "A Preface to Politics" by Walter Lippmann. 
 "Culture and Democracy in the United States" by Horace M. 
 
 Kallen. 
 "Politics and Criminal Prosecution" by Raymond Moley. 
 "The Star Spangled Manner" by Beverly Nichols. 
 "Masks in a Pageant" by William Allen White. 
 
 The Files of the Following Magazines 
 
 The Literary Digest 
 The Nation 
 The Independent 
 The Nation (London) 
 Century 
 The Outlook 
 The New Republic 
 Current History 
 World's Work 
 The New Statesman 
 
 Cruiser: the official organ of the Chicago Yacht Club 
 
 301 
 
302 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The Files op the Following Newspapers 
 
 The Chicago Herald 
 
 The Chicago Examiner 
 
 The Chicago Daily News 
 
 The Chicago Evening American 
 
 The New York Times 
 
 The London Times 
 
 The Chicago Herald-Examiner 
 
 The Chicago Tribune 
 
 The Chicago Evening Post 
 
 The Chicago Evening Journal 
 
 The New York World 
 
 The Paris Temps. 
 
 Miscellaneous Literature 
 
 The bulletins of the Better Government Association 
 
 The reports of the Municipal Voters' League 
 
 "Big Bill the Builder: A Chicago Epoch" 
 
 Numerous leaflets, dodgers, programs, pamphlets, et cetera.