The Michigan chronicle. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-current, 1944-06-17
THE MAYOR AND THE PEOPLES SPIRIT

The Mayor of our town went to Chicago last
week and in that rare reactonary atmosphere
where Samuel Avery and Colonel Mccormick are
irving TO create forty-ninth state for Tories and
PlutocratS, he announced TO warning world that
the present administration has broken the spirit OF
the American people. While our first impulse was
to laugh as we reflected upon what our Mayor said
we grew alarmed that our great city should be gov
erned by such pompous fool.
With millions of our American boys fighting
10 preserve the principles of our republic, with our
entire nation girded for every sacrifice with the
great battle of production over half won ana with
the final defeat of the most powerful enemies any
nation has ever faced in history almost in sight the
Mayor of our town tells the world that the spirit
of the American people is broken. Further, he in
sists that the administration which set these tre
mendous forces in motion and which is guiding them
to certain victory is responsible for what he calls
our broken spirit.
Indeed, our little Mayor is greatly confused he
has confused his spirit with the spirit of the Amerl-
can people Like an ancient despot or modern
tyrant like the scourge of the world today, Adolf
Hitler. our Mayor has looked into some cracked
mirror and said unto himself, II am the people"
Bv attributing his own weaknesses to the
American people the Junior Jeffrles has won ac-
claim in crack-pot circles and has joined hands with
all the defeatists who have been such comfort 10
those who would destroy democracy. he is trying
desperately to break out of the iron ring OF his own
mediocrity and he lashes out angrily at the Pres-
dent because he hates the sight of truly great man.
.Jeffries has made an unholy mess out of his
Fob Of running Detroit while the President has made
b success out of running the affairs of the entire
nation in peace and in war. He has had to ask TOR
federal aid in running this city because he is not
b;p enough to run it without this aid. He is angered
bv his own incompetence To cover up his failures,
he blames the so-caled bureaucracy of the New Deal
for cumming up his affairs when everyone knows
that without this administrations help in scores OF
important home-front problems Detroit would be
paralyzed today.
The blind hatred of our Mayor for the present
administration in Washington has cost Detroit many
important and sorey needed benefits. The housing
scandal which threatens to disrupt the lie OF our
town can be attributed in part to the stubborn re-
fusa of the Mayor to cooperate with the feoeral
agencies which prepared many months ago
to alleviate our crisis. He has to be pampered and
caioled like Maltese cat before he will act Having
slipped back into office by exploiting popular racial
preiudices. he believes that the people of Detroit
really support his pose as non-partisan prlm
donna.
While we believe that you cannot fool all OF the
neople all of the time one of the most vulnerable
aspects of democracy lies in the fact that you can
fool majority of the people some of the time This
happened in Detroit at the last municipal election.
The majority of the people were fooled by cam
paign of racsm which the intellectual gangsters
around Jeffries deliberately concocted to save him
from Reputation at the polls. Today, however, the
people are no longer under any illusions They know
that their "non-partisan" Mayor who purports to
be wise and just executive is nothing but cheap
tory who wants to be Caesar.