Horatio Alger in Illinois

...Examples of Percy's gumption include the four jobs he held simultaneously during the depression to help support his family, the $150,000-a-year supply business which he ran as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago (and which later led former Chancellor Robert M. Hutchins to remember him as the richest kid who ever worked his way through college), and his meteoric career with Bell & Howell Company, where he ascended to the presidency at the age of 29...

...Ogilvie was interested in running for governor, but Chicago newspapers had reacted hostilely to the idea of the Sheriff quitting in mid-term...

...Illinois is lagging behind the rest of the Midwest, and the Midwest is lagging behind the rest of the nation...

...With Percy as the Republican nominee, some observers believe that Sargent Shriver will be brought back to run for the Democrats, while Kerner will be shunted off to a Federal judgeship...

...When the Illinois Republicans chose Percy as an heir to Charley the Tough in their primary, they did more than select someone for the Democrats to fight...

...His associations with the Eisenhower Administration have garnered for Percy a reputation as a liberal or an Eisenhower Republican — both dirty words in the lexicon of many Illinois Republicans...

...Although visibly less than enthralled by Goldwater's candidacy, Percy has pledged to vote with the majority of elected Illinois delegates at the convention in San Francisco...

...But the liberals, who have gained control of the party machinery in the Eastern states, who have chosen our candidates and written our platforms in the past six conventions, are determined to steal the nomination from Barry Goldwater if they can I will do anything short of murder to get Goldwater nominated next summer...

...They also indicated the direction they can be expected to take in the decade ahead...

...For 24 years," he said "I have been waiting for the opportunity to vote for a conservative candidate for President...

...It was a suspicion that the voice of Midwest conservatism, the Chicago Daily Tribune, did everything it could to arouse...

...Chuck Percy," as his campaign literature puts it, "is a self-starter with plenty of that old-fashioned gumption that is still admired here in the Nation's heartland...

...But with Carpentier's withdrawal and, two days later, his organization's endorsement of Percy, Ogilvie and Scott's future leadership of the party was threatened, and they frantically began to cast about for a way to stop the Percy bandwagon...

...And then, on schedule, lightning struck...

...On April 3, he suffered a second, fatal attack...

...No one, incidentally, was less surprised at his winning the primary than Percy himself...

...For in 1972 "Chuck" Percy will be 53-years old and nearing the end of two brilliant, scandal-free terms as governor of Illinois...

...In Percy, the party has its most dynamic, progressive figure in years...

...Calvin Fentress, who here makes his first contribution to these pages, is a freelance journalist...

...He would, therefore, definitely not be a candidate...

...The state has not provided the GOP with a Presidential nominee since 1872, and the best it could come up with then was General Grant...

...Great Scott...

...Though rather clumsy, it was an attractive offer, especially for Percy who was already being linked to "Eastern interests" and needed conservative support...

...They are not going to surrender Illinois without a fight...

...Hayes Robertson's offer had been made on January 18, and it marked the beginning of what has since taken its place in Illinois Republican folklore as "that week...

...Caught between the ambitions, ideologies, and pride of Eisenhower, Nixon, Rockefeller and the conservative members of his own platform committee, Percy could do little more than act as a mediator...

...But in 1972, if everything goes according to Charles H. Percy's unspoken plan—and it almost always has—Illinois will be ready with a Republican ideally suited for the White House...

...While party leaders were still discussing the miscarriage of Robertson's move, the second and greatest of the week's bombshells exploded...

...Scott campaigned on his record of thrift and efficiency in the Treasurer's office, on his vote-getting ability as demonstrated in 1962, and on his opposition to a notorious group of state legislators who conspire to block anti-crime bills (and who, Scott intimated, would control a "politically naive" Percy...

...Carpentier's campaign credentials were impressive...

...During the primary, Percy spent a good deal of time answering challenges to his conservatism and explaining his position on Barry Goldwater...

...Flanked by Ogilvie and Robertson, Scott then concluded the incredible day by explaining that he had finally decided to run as a declaration of war on "the wheelers and dealers" in the Republican party...

...To many, their victories signified that with a new generation of Republicans at its head, the party's fortunes were at last on the rise...

...Lord knows, Chuck is able enough," one Republican leader has said, "but he is so damn self-sufficient, so cocksure, so righteous...

...Governor Kerner has not had an easy time coping with the Republican-controlled Legislature, but he must shoulder part of the blame for a reapportionment fiasco which is resulting in the at-large election of the entire 177-man Illinois House next fall...

...Although a majority of Illinois Republicans shared Robertson's allegiance to the Senator from Arizona, Robertson himself was not running well...

...Answer: "It is well established that both have mellow voices an affinity for weaving college professors into a campaign staff and strong affiliations in the East...

...With typical thoroughness, Percy had first consulted GOP leaders across the country, including Pennsylvania's William Scranton (who discussed the value of industrial development as a campaign issue), Oregon's Mark Hatfield (who told Percy to add "He Can Win In November" to his campaign literature), and Dwight Eisenhower, who, like almost everyone else, urged him not to start running so early...

...The morning after he heard the diagnosis, Carpentier withdrew from the primary...

...And running far deeper than any personality irritants was the suspicion that Percy is a liberal with Eastern friends and Eastern ideas...

...With every reason to be confident, Carpentier announced his candidacy last August, but saw no reason to start campaigning until January...

...Chuck thinks he's destiny's child," a friend has observed...

...I have never had an unbalanced budget in my life...

...He believes in lightning...

...There are a lot of people who would like to see him fall on his face...

...Among other things, now that he has won the Illinois Republican primary by a substantial majority, Percy must next be elected governor in November...

...But whatever his role in hammering it out, the 1960 platform was the most forward-looking in Republican history, and it established Percy as a national figure in the party...

...As Cook County's able Republican Chairman, Robertson personified the accumulated frustration of a great mass of mid-America Republicans...

...Percy is the kind of guy who's hard to get by a primary," says one supporter, "but then he's made...

...cried the headline in an afternoon Chicago paper...

...Meanwhile, Percy spent the summer visiting 43 downstate county fairs, exuding dynamism and talking about the issues that remained the watchwords of his campaign: "Economic development and growth is our number one problem, and if we fail in this endeavor, we fail in mental health, in education, in public aid...

...Before this dream can be realized, there are one or two details to be dispensed with...

...This time, Scott announced that he would, after all, be a candidate, and Robertson (who two days earlier had said that under no circumstances would he withdraw) withdrew to support Scott...

...The Tribune is perhaps more mistrustful than most, but it was not alone in worrying about Percy's brand of Republicanism...

...Not long ago, the Tribune published a long piece asking, "Is Charles H. Percy the Adlai Stevenson of the Republican party...

...As of January, both men had been in office a year, both had won praise for their work, and both, it was clear, were contemplating loftier plateaus...

...Political allies and old friends, Ogilvie, 40, and Scott, 37, had both won office in 1962 by upsetting Democratic incumbents...

...On the night of January 20, just two weeks after he had begun to campaign strenuously, Carpentier entered a Springfield hospital with a coronary thrombosis...

...In the Democratic sweep of 1960, Charlie the Tough, as he liked to call himself, had been the only successful candidate on the state GOP ticket, winning re-election by 385,000 votes...

...Overnight Percy became the front runner, and Illinois Republicans were given a rare chance to unite behind the only serious contender left in the race...

...He will have traveled extensively abroad and had his picture taken with President de Gaulle...

...Inevitably, the gifted young executive with an interest in public and party affairs was called to the attention of Dwight Eisenhower...

...NATIONAL REPORTS Horatio Alger in Illinois By Calvin Fentress Chicago Illinois may be the Land of Lincoln, as its license plates suggest, but there, at least as far as Republicans are concerned, the boasting ends...

...Almost automatically, the party, and then the nation, will turn to him...

...in his hands, the charge of vacillation —which state Republicans are particularly fond of hurling at Governor Kerner—was pretty much meaningless...

...I intend to be the best salesman this state ever had...

...What pressures and doubts assailed Scott during the next nine hours can only be conjectured, but at 10:00 A.M...

...This, however, was not to remain the case for long...

...We rank 41st in defense contract awards—the Space Age is passing Illinois by...

...Percy himself has said: "The Democrats have lost the state houses in New York, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania...

...Though an attractive campaigner, Scott had little new to offer the voters...

...And as a threetime Secretary of State, his name was a familiar byword on more than five million Illinois driver's licenses...

...Percy turned down a choice of subCabinet posts, but in 1959 he agreed to head a committee to develop future goals for the Republican party, and this chore led to his appointment as Platform Chairman of the 1960 Republican Convention...

...In addition, he suffered from his late start, and his image was badly tarnished by his January gyrations...

...press conference in the Sheriff's office to announce that Bill Scott was entering the gubernatorial race...

...Percy, however, felt that he was unknown in the state and would need to campaign at least nine months before the primary to have a chance of winning against Secretary of State Charles F. Carpentier, the best Republican votegetter in Illinois...

...Now that Percy has won in the primary, however, the liberal tag should prove an asset come November in a state which is fairly evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans...

...Like Carpentier, however, he immediately and indignantly rejected the deal, and Hayes Robertson was finished as a major contestant in the race...

...As all this was going on, Percy had been gaining on Carpentier, but not enough...

...it would be abhorrent to me to have one as governor...

...a second press conference was called at which he not only repudiated the earlier announcement, but now declared that he would not desert those who had elected him Treasurer for four years...

...He could very well lead Illinois out of the backwaters of the Republican party and—the way he silently forsees it—end up by giving the state its first Republican Presidential nominee since Ulysses S. Grant...

...Publicly, he offered to withdraw and throw his support to Carpentier or Percy if either would promise to "unequivocally and irrevocably" support Goldwater for the Presidential nomination...

...At 67, ruddy-faced Charlie Carpentier had decided to culminate his 40 years in the Illinois political wars by taking the governor's seat in 1964 away from the Democratic incumbent, Otto Kemer...

...Instead, there began a flurry of stop-Percy activity directed by two of the party's most promising young talents, Cook County Sheriff Richard B. Ogilvie and State Treasurer William J. Scott...

...It has always struck before —why should it fail him now...

...While everyone was trying to fathom this revolving-door act, a third press conference was called for 3:00 P.M...

...While widely admired for his intelligence, integrity, and initiative, few consider Percy an endearing figure...

...While Carpentier was waiting and Percy was crisscrossing the state 18 hours a day, a third candidate, Hayes Robertson, entered the lists...

...He had actually suffered a heart attack a week earlier, but thinking it was nothing more than a stomach ailment Charlie the Tough had continued stumping until the pain forced him to see a doctor...

...As the spark plug of the National Governors' Conference eight years running, he will have come to the attention of James Reston, George Gallup, and Life magazine...

...I am a good team player," he has said...

...Although the Tribune professed editorial neutrality in the ScottPercy race, it rarely ran a story on Percy without reminding readers that " . . until recently, Percy served as a member of the board of the Rockefeller family bank, Chase Manhattan of New York," or that a "liberal publication" (the Saturday Review) once named him its Businessman of the Year...

...In Charlie Carpentier, the Old Guard professionals recognized not only an established votegetter with a statewide patronage machine but one of their own kind, and the great majority found it more comfortable in his camp...

...It was only a matter of timing before Percy would run for office, and last summer he made his move, announcing his candidacy for governor...

...In the 14 years he headed the firm, sales increased from $13 million to $160 million, and Percy was dubbed "the Boy Wonder" by the Chicago press...

...Scott was looking ahead to 1966, when he planned to run for Paul Douglas' Senate seat, and he had decided not to enter the gubernatorial contest, and said so repeatedly...

...instead, he would support Goldwater-supporter Robertson for the nomination...

...The result was that on Friday, January 24, a spokesman for Scott and Ogilvie called a 1:00 A.M...

...Percy is often mentioned in the same breath with Horatio Alger, and it is a comparison he does nothing to discourage...

...By midJanuary, it was apparent that the all-American boy was going to be licked by the old pro...

...His sole motive for entering the gubernatorial race had been to help Goldwater, and in January he tried an exit which he hoped might still benefit the conservative cause...

...Nonetheless, for a time it appeared that Scott was closing the gap and could have beaten Percy, a fact which says more about Percy than it does about Scott, and which points to the underlying issue in the primary campaign...