City bosses show upstart Hillman
Veteran scrappers defend reputations
By Charles T. Lucey, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Chicago, Illinois –
Mayor Frank Hague, pearl stickpin in figured cravat and dressed like a banker, was unperturbed. Ed Flynn of the Bronx was bland and confident. Mayor Ed Kelly, in soft, double-breasted brown and bowtie, and keeping his own counsel.
America’s three biggest political-machine bosses, veterans of a thousand rough-and-tumble scraps from precinct clubhouse to the White House, were fighting for their reputation against Sidney Hillman and the CIO political newcomers with him who were leading the drive to renominate Henry Wallace for the Vice Presidency.
The bosses sit tight
All day long, the convention had heard reports Mr. Wallace was gaining. But Flynn and Hague and Kelly sat tight. All week they had worked quietly in the red-carpeted suites of the Blackstone Hotel, and they hoped they had done their work well. There was a hint of revolt in the big Illinois delegation, and of some dissension elsewhere, but the word went out that the lines must be held.
Behind the bosses worked Robert Hannegan (Democratic National Chairman), his predecessor in that job (Postmaster General Frank Walker), Foreign Economic Administrator Leo Crowley, and others. Mr. Walker was supposed to have been on the telephone for hours, putting out the word to delegation chieftains that Senator Truman (D-MO) was OK with President Roosevelt and that he would strengthen the ticket.
Propaganda attacks
All kinds of stories flew about as to who had the final word with Mr. Roosevelt. Mr. Hannegan had talked to him. So had Mayor Kelly. So also, it was claimed, had Senator Guffey, generalissimo of the Wallace forces.
Both sides peppered each other with propaganda they hoped would make a dent on delegates. Harry Truman, said Wallace men, was a fine fellow – but it was a shame the way he had been tied up with the foul Pendergast machine in Missouri. Mr. Truman had even praised this boss to whom he was beholden, in a speech in the Senate – and what Tom Dewey could do with that!
The other side attacked the Wallace movement for Mr. Hillman’s alliance with the Communists in New York, and said it would cost the Democrats that state, perhaps others, if Mr. Wallace were nominated. Mr. Wallace, it was argued, didn’t have the confidence of the country, and the people wouldn’t vote for him because of fear that he would be no fit man to step into the Presidency.
Perkins: Hillman joins – after he’s licked
Biggest CIO venture results in failure
By Fred W. Perkins, Pittsburgh Press staff writer
Chicago, Illinois –
Sidney Hillman, chairman of the CIO Political Action Committee, adopted the customary political tactic just after the defeat of Henry A. Wallace, whom he had backed without reservation for the Vice Presidency.
Mr. Hillman declared in favor of the Roosevelt-Truman ticket – thus carrying out the adage: “If you can’t lick ‘em, jine ‘em.”
Mr. Hillman had nothing else to do, for he and his associat4es had pledged themselves so thoroughly in favor of a fourth term for Mr. Roosevelt that they would have had no other place to go even if the Democrats had named Tom Girdler for Throttlebottom.
Biggest adventure fails
Politicians analyzed the Wallace defeat as being partly due to his identification with Mr. Hillman and his political committee.
This was the biggest adventure into American politics of a labor group – bigger even than that unsatisfactory 1936 endeavor of John L. Lewis, then head of the CIO, which included the lending or giving to Democratic campaign funds of about $500,000. It results in failure in its first phase – the attempt to force the renomination of the Vice President.
GOP win embarrassing
If Mr. Roosevelt should be defeated in November, the CIO politicians would be expected to revamp their political methods.
The older and more conservative American Federation of Labor will not be embarrassed, no matter which party wins in November, but the CIO will be in a delicate position if the decision goes to the Republicans.