National Reports
CARMICHAEL", "ALBERT N. VOTAW, JOHN
National Reports Chicago Set for Mayoralty Election By Albert N. Votaw Chicago The old mansion of merchant prince Marshall Field has become another casualty to progress. Built 79 years ago at a...
...In the good old days, apparently, conspicuous consumption stopped short of elaborate press-agentry...
...The scene of the most elaborate ball ever held here—the $75,000 "Mikado Ball" in 1886, held in honor of the two teen-age Field children—the mansion most recently housed an aviation school...
...Merriam and the IVI and labor groups have been calling Kennelly the "do-nothing Mayor" because of his failure to act vigorously enough to suit them on issues of housing and race...
...On the other hand, Kennelly also has been under fire for such measures as strengthening civil service and cutting down on vice...
...The issue arose when it was revealed that Becker, while an Alderman, shared fees with another lawyer in 18 zoning cases...
...He was a State Legislator and a member of the Stevenson team during the latter's term as Governor, and has generally been ranged against the boodle-hungry old guard of the party...
...As a result, to this day it is not known if the silver door knobs are solid or plate...
...A completely optimistic picture, of course, cannot be painted...
...The parquet floors of rare wood still show no signs of wear and, braced by 2-by-8 rafters spaced a foot apart, have never sagged...
...Kennelly has remained silent...
...The structure was built to last a thousand years and probably would have were it not now slated to be razed...
...The general feeling seems to be that, if one convention had to be lost, it might just as well be the Republican...
...His first charges of "fraud," an issue he apparently plans to hit hard in the weeks before the April 5 election, were based on alleged tampering with pro-Kennelly ballots...
...There have been numerous instances in collective bargaining where the AFL and CIO have cooperated...
...At last summer's meeting of the State Legislature, representatives of both organizations conferred together almost daily to plan strategy...
...were ready for the move...
...The primary itself, for the statistically-minded, brought out more than a million voters (about 52 per cent of those registered...
...The primary opened wounds in the Democratic organization, but between the Mayor and the reforming Alderman lie years of antipathy...
...The 1952 conventions, for all their historical impact, were a big disappointment...
...The situation is further complicated by the withdrawal of one of Daley's running mates...
...Daley is running for Mayor because the party didn't think the current office-holder, stolid and unimaginative Martin Kennelly, could beat Merriam...
...The 267,000 votes for Kennelly, who ran as an independent after the organization dumped him, represent potential votes for Merriam, who picked up 108,000 in the desultory GOP primary...
...Built 79 years ago at a cost of a million dollars, it was the first house in Chicago to be equipped with electric lights...
...After a soul-searching, five-hour session, the board of directors of the Independent Voters of Illinois (ADA adjunct here) voted 28 to 6 to support the GOP nominee, Alderman Robert E. Merriam...
...Nevertheless, the background for the merger has been formed on the grassroots level over the years, and this will make the merger machinery roll much more smoothly...
...There was so much politicking that the delegates couldn't find time to get away and spend money...
...Republicans, it seems, are not the easy spenders that Democrats are...
...On the political battlefield, the GOP decision to take its 1956 nominating business to San Francisco generated, as might be expected, a certain amount of comment...
...And the fact that the octagonal reception-room walls were covered with gold leaf was not discovered until the leaf started to come off during a scrubbing...
...CIO unions collected food and trucked it to the hard-pressed strikers...
...Becker's resignation presents Democratic slatemakers with a more than usually unpleasant task...
...It was in the political arena that cooperation came easiest...
...Their axes could only nick them when they laid on a few years ago in response to a fire alarm...
...Both these gentlemen, however, back Daley and may be called upon for duty in the campaign...
...So Daley now finds himself open to charges of wanting to throw the city back into the hands of hoodlums and grafters...
...Alderman Benjamin M. Becker, candidate for City Clerk, was found guilty of misconduct by a special committee of the Chicago Bar Association...
...Rank-and-File Unionists Brought About Merger By John Carmichael New Orleans When labor's top brass announced plans for the AFL-CIO merger, the rank-and-file unionists of the U.S...
...When one of the many merger proposals was made several years ago, William Green, late AFL President, who happened to be in New Orleans at the time, told reporters: "The rank-and-file union members want unity very much...
...AFL and CIO members manned their candidates' headquarters and played a strong role in the election of a City Councilman...
...Local peddlers of food, flesh and fashions are lifting prayers for a harmonious get-together in 1956?as least as far as the Democrats are concerned...
...This has nothing to do with politics...
...One of the most dramatic demonstrations of this spirit came last year, when Louisiana AFL sugar-cane workers struck...
...Hence the necessity of involving a U.S...
...He received the top vote in the primary, running ahead even of Daley, nominal head of the ticket...
...The three-inch walnut doors withstood even the ravages of firemen...
...Walter Reuther sent $5,000 on behalf of the CIO Auto Workers...
...Albert N. Votaw will analyze the results of Chicago's Mayoralty fight immediately after the elections...
...He was slated in a last-minute maneuver to add "class" to the ticket, having previously made a reputation as a member of the anti-machine "economy bloc" in the City Council—a bloc whose most prominent member was Merriam, then a Democrat...
...Although the move was unsuccessful at that time, Green at least recognized the pressure from the bottom for merger action...
...There have been many nasty battles between the AFL and CIO unions in organizing drives here...
...Meanwhile, the local liberal-labor coalition has split over the Mayoralty campaign...
...Senator and the party's titular national leader in a local election...
...There will also be a number of problems and some strong differences of opinion as the amalgamation is brought about on a state and city basis...
...Daley polled 369,000 votes...
...Disciplinary proceedings have been started against him, through which, of course, he may be cleared...
...They have honored each other's picket lines and planned mutual aid for quite some time without waiting for a formal merger...
...And, even with Kennelly support, reforming Republicans have a long, hard row to hoe...
...The 113,000 votes going to opponent Benjamin Ada-mowski are considered faithful Polish Democrats...
...In the Congressional primaries, also held last summer, the united labor committee again served as a center of cooperation...
...Labor groups, on the other hand, are largely in the camp of Democrat Richard E. Daley...
...Merriam is busy wooing Kennelly backers...
...On the state and regional level, in fact, some unions had moved ahead of their national leaders...
...Daley is a progressive-type Democrat who, both as County Clerk and as county party chairman, has been applauded by liberals...
...His most recent triumph was the slating of a high-caliber "blue-ribbon" ticket that swept last year's county elections...
...The IVI called Merriam a candidate similar to Adlai Stevenson and Senator Paul Douglas...
...In Louisiana (and many other states have far more advanced programs) , AFL and CIO union members have been working together on a united labor committee in politics...
...But this is not the only area where the two groups have been talking and acting together...
...Professional gamblers make it Daley, 3-1...
Vol. 38 • March 1955 • No. 12
