2 LI E> HAHY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS B T478b cop. I . H . S . 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 in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/hizzonerbigbilltOObrig ->-^ 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. — r TH 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.