POLITICAL NOTES: Bankrupt Chicago

Chicago’s fiscal fix last week began to involve the state of Illinois, which derives 60% of its income from the city. Long-legged Governor Louis Lincoln Emmerson went to Chicago with fire in his eye. His complaint: Cook County owes the state $30,000,000 in back taxes. Illinois defaulted on a $300,000 waterway bond issue due Jan. 1, averted serious trouble only by persuading bondholders not to present their certificates for redemption. The state may _ be’ unable to meet soldiers’ bonus bond’s due Aug. i. or to pay $4,856,602 due the Cook County School Fund May i, or to keep the University of Illinois in operating funds after July 1—all because of Chicago’s bankruptcy (TIME, Feb. 3).

Governor Emmerson called together state and local tax officials. They wrangled, shouted politics, fired fierce accusations in every direction. Exasperated, the Governor jerked out:

“Quit your quarreling. Get down to work. Collect the taxes. Quit worrying about who will be nominated and who will be elected. Eliminate politics from this tax matter. Perhaps the assessment is not perfect. It would be wonderful if it was. I am not mixing in your local affairs; but let me tell you this; that you later will be asking for a special session of the legislature. When that comes, it will deal with taxes and nothing else.”

Meanwhile 40,000 Chicago employes missed another pay day. Their plight spoiled an otherwise comic-opera effect. A troop of landlords marched into the courts, demanded eviction orders against city jobholders who had defaulted their rent. Orders were issued against four women with dependent children. A janitor was ordered into the streets; he owed $20; the school board owed him $127. Law made these and six other evictions mandatory, but the court in each case granted an extension. United Charities was swamped with calls for help.

The only potential source of relief seemed to be Silas Hardy Strawn’s “Citizens’ Rescue Committee.” With from 20 to 50 millions as its goal, the committee found taxpayers unwilling to help out without definite assurances as to how their money would be used. The building managers association pledged $10,000,000 provided it be applied solely to police, fire and health department maintenance. President Howard Elmore of the sanitary district promised complete cooperation. Said he:

“I am staking everything on Mr. Strawn. He is bigger now than the whole Sanitary District, the Mayor, the City Council, or the County Board. With $20,000,000 in his hands ready to dole out, with restrictions, to money-hungry governments, he has Chicago eating out of his hands.”

But strong man Strawn did not have $20,000,000 in his hands. Successof his plan depended wholly upon the compliance of the city administration. The city council had shown signs of sympathy, but Mayor William Hale (“Big Bill”) Thompson and his cronies, with no definite plan of their own, offered only bitter opposition. Members of the Thompson cabinet charged, perhaps accurately, that Mr. Strawn’s object was to discredit the administration, force Mayor Thompson out of office. The Mayor, apparently insensitive to the city’s shocking condition, merely sneered at the Citizens’ Rescue Committee as “reformers.”

“I have not received suggestions from the reformers’ committee in regard to the solution of our present financial difficulties.”