Evening star., 1927-03-08

Chicago's primary, in which big
Bill" Thompson won the Republican
! nomination for mayor after contest
featured by murder, rioting and ballot.
box stealing. has set the country to
speculafing on what may be expected
of the city's forces for good govern.
ment.
What is happening? The air Is
filled with smoke and shouts Of rioters
The ballot is in conflict with the
bullet" exclaims the Los Angeles
Times independent Republican,. 1.-TWO
hundred gun.toters keep the police
busy around the polling places, to test
whether the law can shoot as quickly
and as accurately as the lawless. Vote
repeaters and stringers are arrested
rescued, rearrested, and scuffies and
scrimmages end in bloodshed. Rowdies
steal two boxes Of ballots. A can.
vasser is shot and killed by the agent
of a rival candidate in front of a poll.
ing place. In another candidate s
headquarters the police seize 26 armed
men and rifles and revolvers and ma
chine guns. In other pre-.
cincts large automobile filled with
armed gangsters succeeds in carrying
off many ballot boxes after six ruffians
had held up at the gun muZZle police,
election officers and a crowd of intimi.
dated bystanders. Two election judges
are kidnapped, and rioting and shoot.
ing scare timid citizens from exercis
ing their rights as citizens.
All these manifestations of uncivilized
savagery occurred in the second larg'
est city of the most lawfrespecting and
God-fearing Nation Of the twentieth
century,"
THE Republicans of Chicago" &C.
cording to the Worcester Telegram
Republican), managed to nominate a
| mayor with only little more of blood
shed and disorder than would have
been the case in the election OF a
Sioux war chief had the Sioux pos
sessed the modern advantages of boot
leggers, machine guns and graft.
The Louisville Courier-Journal re
| marks that lit was regarded as a tame
| exhibition for Chicago" but wonders
| what class of citizenship is chiefly
represented in the 40 per cent of the
! voters who abstained from expressing
their preference in the primary"
X X y
"The latest Chicago question, which
| will be settled at the polls on April
s." In the opinion of the Syracuse
Herald independently. lis whether the
voters are capable Of restoring thai
| city to the tender mercies of as dis
| reputable a municipal gang as Ameri
! can politics ever spawned.
For the sake of the Nation, Of which
Chicago Is the second city in point CT
population, we may all hope for the
| best. But hopes and predictions are
different things in a city where
| Thompsonism has been reincarnated
by 10000 primary majority"
! The Rockford Morning Star dnde
| pendent suggests that "Chicago's prl
mary, campaign did not help its de
mand for redistricting the State
| Donwstate citizens will hardly be
blamed" continues that paper ''foi
| not turning over control to men who
call each other rats and crooks II
is not conceivable that such men rep
resent the citizenship of Chicago ol
anything like a majority Of 1t. but
they are powerful, blatant and dis
| graceful enough to arouse justifiable
fear among the DOWNSTAIRS"
I'VE believe that Chicago as a
whole" states the Champaign News
Gazette independent Republican,. "de
sires clean municipal government
But unless Chicago as whole finds a
method of curtailing the power of the
gang leaders. the future looks dark
for the better element" Decent Re
publicans, declares the Topeka Daily
Capital Republican), will vote fol
Dever. the unopposed nominee of the
Democrats. for a second four-year
term, but they will be offset by inde
cent Democrats who will flock tc
Thompson. 1t is a lineup. not of Re