The Michigan chronicle. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-current, 1945-08-04
SUNSHINE AND DEW

With less than week 10 60 the expected
stormy" primary election campaign has turned out
"a be matter of sunshine and dew How long this
fair election weather will last is anybodys guess
ou 50 far the candidates have been as decorous as
an old maid in a church pew 1t is delightful con-
trast from other years but we hope the voters will
not be mlled to sleep and fail to show up at the polls
on election day.
We are greatly confused however, by the re-
port Of the Detroit Citizens League on the candi-
dates for the primary election. On the one hand we
thought the League showed excellent judgment py
listing the Reverend Charles A. Hil and George
Edwards as preferred candidates. On the otner
hand we think the League exhibited very crude taste
by trying to hit Dick Frankensteen below the belt.
The Leagues bulletin The Civic Searchlght
has dshed out once more some of the same old labor
batting trpe which sounds as phoney as 1t really Is.
Saws the Searchight I'm Detroit the issue is clear
Shall the administration of the city government De
turned over TO organized labor unions, or shall the
controls of government be retained IN the authority
of all the people including the workers, as the city
preScribes? In the national American constitution,
as in the constitutions of the states and the charters
of the cities are embedded the principles of popular
government which today are being challenged by a
w -
national tradition,
who has lived in Detroit for the last
ten years knows thatius the reverse of what the
League says is true The League might well have
asked: Shall the same odd Lafayette and Griswold
street gang retain control of the city government
or shall real leader of the people be given chance
to direct our municipal affairs?
Again does the League mean to say that Dick
Frankensteen is out to destroy the principles OF
popular government? This is unadulterated hog
wash and, what's more, the League knows it's hog
wash. Not even Frankensteens worst enemies
would accuse him Of any such subversve motives or
intentions The truth is that Frankensteen actually
believes and acts upon the great democratic prln-
ciples "embedded' in our national American Con-
sttution and that is why he is feared in some
quarters
The DOGGY Of labor domination Of the local gov
eminent ought to be examined very carefully. No
one not even the League will question the fact that
the majority Of the citizens Of Detroit are aborers
and they all belong to some union or another. The
League and other civic organizations are always
quick to point out that ma orty rule is fundamental
in democracy Yet when candidate from the
ranks of labor aspires to municipal leadership the
swive-chair boys yell labor domination
We hope that the time is not far away when
the masses Of the people will no longer be frightened
by the various bogeys which are paraded before
them Like scare-crow in vegetable patch, these
bogeys should not brighten human being who has
an ounce of intelligence. Dick Frankensteen is a
straight-guy who wants to do good job for De-
troit. With Reverend Hill and George Edwards sit
ting on the Council, Mayor Frankensteen would
take some Of those cob-wells out of the City Hall
and give the town needed relief from those cookie
pushers who haven't got enough energy to come in
out of the rain