GEORGE EDWARDS: DETROIT'S NEXT MAYOR?
Drob, Judah
George Edwards: Detroit's Next Mayor? By Judah Drob New Leader Correspondent in Michigan WHEN THE DETROIT TIGERS opened the baseball season at Briggs Stadium recently, the first ball was...
...Since he has taken office, Van Antwerp has seen the transit system sink deeper and deeper into debt...
...By Judah Drob New Leader Correspondent in Michigan WHEN THE DETROIT TIGERS opened the baseball season at Briggs Stadium recently, the first ball was pitched by Governor G. Mennen Williams to Acting-Mayor George Edwards...
...The vote for Jeffries was therefore, surprisingly, a vote for better race relations in Detroit...
...On the other hand, although the Democrats did not do too well in Detroit, two liberal-labor candidates were elected to the school board in a nonpartisan election to fill three positions...
...It appears likely that the 1949 election will follow the pattern of previous campaigns...
...For Williams' surprising victory last November had whetted their appetites, and thev are preparing for an all-out battle to make Edwards the next mayor of Detroit, For Edwards the mayoralty appears to be no mere rung on a carefully planned ladder of political success...
...Democrats took a beating in the early April state-wide elections, largely because they could not draw a sufficiently large vote in Detroit to offset Republican majorities outstate...
...If he finds any consolation in the situation, and he must if he is to sleep nights, Edwards must tell himself that after all the lost opportunity to be Senator would have been an unexpected leap, and that the slower route was the one he had always laid out for himself...
...It was because of this sponsorship by Jeffries that Edwards held off unt;l this year for the mayoralty...
...The fare has beerkraised to 13 cents and severe cuts have been made in every line that did not show a profit...
...He was held responsible for the continued exclusion of Negroes from public housing projects in which Caucasians live...
...Fear that Ballenger would be replaced led most liberals to vote for Jeffries, while they held their noses...
...He has demonstrated to labor and to liberals that he is completely opposed to all they stand for...
...Van Antwerp, although nominally a Democrat, appointed arch-Republican Harry S Toy to the job of Police Commissioner Toy appears to have undone all the good work initiated by Ballenger...
...They haven't yet, and there isn't much time left...
...The biggest vote-getter in this campaign, however, was the conservative winner of the third spot...
...What Edwards' campaign platform will be has not been publicized...
...Candidates are nominated in a general primary which cuts the number contesting each post down to twice the number to be elected...
...It will also be the first clear-cut victory of the liberals in Detroit over the race-baiters and Negro-haters...
...From the UAW-CIO he moved int-> politics, appointed by Mayor Edward Jeffries as director-secretary of the Detroit Housing Commission...
...It is a rung, as he must ruefully tell himself frequently, he might have avoided, had he recognized last year's ground - swell and entered the race for U.S...
...GEORGE EDWARDS on hardly require much introduction to The Neu Leader's audience...
...A public opinion poll conducted by the conservative Detroit News confirmed that belief, if that means anything to anybody in 1949...
...HOW LIKELY IS EDWARDS to win'' The portents are contradictory...
...Given enough time, he might very well have built Detroit's police into a capable body of men and women, whose major aim would be to minimize, not maximize, the city's difficult racial problems...
...Jeffries lost, and when he left office so did John Ballenger...
...The liberals in the crowd, and there were a tew, hoped that this was a portent for the 1949 municipal elections in Detroit...
...It is almost certain to be backed, however, by widespread public discussion of his record as an UAW-CIO organizer, and his votes on behalf of democratic race relations in the City Council...
...i « JEFFRIES SURVIVED two campaigns in which the CIO backed his opponent, but succumbed in 1947— when he had the tacit support of much of labor—to Eugene Van Antwerp, former national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and long a member of the City Council...
...Those unionists and liberals who gave quiet support to Jeffries in 1947 did so with little enthusiasm...
...He has been wellknown for more than fifteen years as an exceptionally gifted young man, first as a leader of students, later as a pioneer in the organization of the auto industry...
...Jeffries had made several good appointments, among them Police Commissioner John Ballenger...
...The same voters who were appealed to in vain in April will be the mainstay of the Edwards campaign...
...Next step was into the City Council, as the protege of some sections of the UAW-CIO and of Mayor Jeffries...
...While three councilmen went to jail for graft in public housing, not a breath of scandal was ever attached to Edwards...
...He had behind him an unsavory record of appeasement of race-baiting real estate interests...
...Above all, he was despised for his charge that Negroes were responsible for the wartime race r,iot...
...This means there will be a pretty clear class division, with organized labor as chief whipping boy, and the race issue uppermost in many voters' minds...
...BALLENGER HAD BEEN a social worker, and was Superintendent of the Department of Welfare1 when he was appointed Police C ommissioner...
...There isrtherefore, an excellent basis for a campaign against Van Antwerp...
...He made a startling record there...
...DETROIT'S GOVERNMENT is technically non-partisan...
...It was a good issue, for Detroiters endure more indignities in public transportation than a free people can easily accept...
...Senator from Michigan...
...VAN ANTWERP'S CAMPAIGN was based almost exclusively on criticism of the city's publicly owned transit system...
...If they do a good job, soon enough, the liberal slate may draw every vote to which it is entitled...
...This would probably be enough to put across Edwards and a liberal City Council...
...He would not run against the man who had helped him get his start...
...Will they build that machinery...
...Nevertheless...
...Conditions are worse today than they have ever been...
...Against this background, Edwards' announcement that he will run for Mayor promises dramatic consequences...
...They gave Van Antwerp their votes in the hope that he would provide them more and better transportation...
...He brought a decent attitude on race relations, on juvenile delinquency, and on police work in general, to the department...
...Will they be sufficiently aroused In November to vote, although they stayed at home in April...
...Probably the decision will rest in the hands of those in labor and in the Democratic Party who are responsible for building a liberal ward and precinct machinery...
...Interest in the municipal election will be increased by the likelihood that several City Council members will not seek re-election, leaving openings for newcomers...
...Edwards is reported during that campaign to have remarked to Jeffries that he could easily have beaten either of the two candidates...
...Thus two candidates are selected to fight it out for Mayor, and eighteen for the nine-man council...
...Among unionists and minority groups, Toy will make an* excellent target, while the transit mess wilt be a fine talking point for the general populace...
...If Edwards is elected, it will be the first time since the organization of the CIO auto workers that a labor man will be mayor...
...He is sure to be one of the major issues in the next mayoralty campaign...
Vol. 32 • May 1949 • No. 20
