THE PRESIDENCY: Advice from Chicago

Mayor Ed Kelly of Chicago had a two-hour lunch last week with President Roosevelt. That day and the next he conferred at length and stormily with Harry Hopkins, John Daniel Hertz (ex-Yellow Cab magnate and now with Army’s Motor Transport Division), who is a friend of Kelly’s, a father confessor to Hopkins; Federal Lender Jesse Jones, and other key insiders. What Mayor Kelly said was not reported in the press. It would have made big headlines if it had been.

The U.S. at large does not regard Chicago’s curly-haired mayor as a thing of beauty, or even of great use. But Ed Kelly prefers to keep out of the spotlight. A tough guy, a political slugger who does not want to goto Washington, prefers to operate his own political barony, he swings much weight in the White House Inner Circle.

Unlike most Presidential hatchet men, Kelly has no interest in policy. All he wants from the President is patronage. He is not in politics for moral reasons, would deliver the vote for cannibalism if he thought cannibalism would win. And the President listens to him, because he knows that when Kelly advocates a policy Kelly is thinking of votes, not the public good —he is not a biased barometer of public sentiment.

The President still gives Kelly great credit for his Third Term reelection. Kelly was the only boss who had his heart in the campaign. When he invented the slogan “Roosevelt and Humanity.” he meant it. And he was the one who pounded the table last October, told the President brusquely to call off the so-called “defense inspection tours”; brushed aside Hopkins (who thought the election was in the bag) and told the President he was licked unless he fought.

Last week Ed Kelly again pounded the table, again gave Franklin Roosevelt advice. Its gist:

> You’re going at this all wrong. You won’t get a decisive majority behind you until you handle the war-&-peace debate like an election campaign. Your secrecy and double-talk have confused the people. You have confused even the newspaper men.

> Most of the lower-bracket people are for you because they believe you will keep the U.S. out of the war indefinitely.

> The main reason the lower third is for you is gratitude for domestic favors, has nothing to do with the war. If most of them had any real belief that you are going to cut into their new high living standards, they would call you a double-crosser and throw you out.

> If the 1942 elections were held tomorrow, your Midwest supporters would not number enough to keep you in control of Congress.

> You made a mistake in taking Lindbergh’s commission away: you thereby built him up. You have been skipping Wheeler, slugging Lindbergh. This is wrong. Lindbergh is the one to be afraid of, simply because he is not a politician.

> People are angry over the spreading of unemployment through little businesses being crushed out. Small business is being crucified. And you let big Wall Street guys run the show: you bring Floyd Odium in from Wall Street.

>You had better show the poor people that they will not have to do all the sacrificing. And make everybody feel that the fellow who makes $1,000 a year more than he does is also making more sacrifices.

> Everyone knows that the big businessmen you have been using haven’t much sense. You had better bring in some new blood, new faces. Bring in all the businessmen you want, but make them household names, who do things well.

> Democratic National Chairman Ed Flynn doesn’t understand that all the patronage appointments of U.S. marshals throughout the 48 States won’t lick the peace party in 1942 unless you win the poor people solidly to you.

Thus spake Boss Ed Kelly to Franklin Roosevelt in the White House last week.