Again, Thompson

It was election night in Chicago. No one had been killed in Chicago all day. In the Mayor's office at City Hall gathered a noisy, sweaty crowd of jobholders, petty politicians and hangers-on--the Thompson Gang. Waiters brought them heaping trays of food & drink. Free cigars were chewed and waved. Backs were violently slapped, greetings bellowed. The sour grey air vibrated with the full blare of a brass band. In the centre of the boisterous human pack stood beefy, bloodshot Mayor William Hale ("Big Bill") Thompson, He was in his shirtsleeves. His flushed face was damp. His eyes bulged with excitement. His voice was hoarse from gleeful roaring.

What "Big Bill" & friends were celebrating was his fourth Republican nomination to be Chicago's Mayor. Throughout the city, election boards were adding up primary ballots which would show that he had beaten Judge John Homer Lyle by some 67,000 votes.

When, about midnight, a congratulatory telephone call came through from New York's Mayor James John ("Jimmy") Walker, the Mayor of Chicago sang him this song to the tune of the "Sidewalks of New York":

Tony, Tony, where's your pushcart at?

Can you picture a World's Fair Mayor

With a name like that?

What a job you're holding!

And now you're trying for two.

Better start thinking of one for me,

Instead of two for you.

The "Tony" of this jingle was fat-faced, bespectacled Anton Joseph Cermak. who at the moment a few blocks away at his hotel headquarters was receiving primary returns which overwhelmingly gave him the Democratic mayoral nomination. Nominee Cermak's present job is president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, second in political importance only to that of the Mayor.

While the good wishes of New York's Democratic Mayor were going to his Republican opponent, Democrat Cermak was receiving this telegram: CORDIAL CONGRATULATIONS ... I WISH YOU EVERY SUCCESS. A DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATION IS WHAT CHICAGO NEEDS.

ALFRED E. SMITH.

The Republican campaign between Mayor Thompson and Judge Lyle had been rough and raucous, bombastic and brutal. Yet in the election itself there were no shootings, no sluggings, no kidnappings, no ballot-stealing, only a few bloody noses. Against the Mayor had been arrayed the Tribune, the News, the Snow-Harding organization, the Deneen forces. That he had won the nomination even by a minority vote was due chiefly to the good work of his payroll machine, the Negro vote, the solid support of the "gang wards." Two also-ran Republican candidates took enough anti-Thompson votes away from Judge Lyle to give him an alibi in defeat.

When asked if he had contributed $150,000 to the Thompson campaign fund, Gangster Capone laughed indulgently.

Supported by a strong and united party, Democratic Nominee Cermak has a good chance of beating-Mayor Thompson. To his aid came Senator-elect James Hamilton Lewis whom Mayor Thompson last November helped to sweep Mrs. Ruth Hanna McCormick off her political feet.

Judge Lyle, chastened, went back to his bench. Gangster Capone, happy, went into Federal Court to answer contempt charges (see p. 12). Mayor Thompson, exhausted, went to a Michigan sanatorium to build up strength for the campaign against Nominee Cermak which ends with the election April 7.

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