St. Louis Post-Dispatch
March 1, 1914

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LOUIS, SUN DAY MORNING, MARCH i, 1914 — — — — — mamas 8 — wo Ex-Convicts, F ighting for e Payton S New “Boss o-|—|- o o-|—|-0 ‘ o-|—]-0 o-|—|-e o-|—|-0 o-|—|-o ir Oklahoma With Picturesque Campaign ‘ection nf Crump’s Candidacy Is Credited to tire Anti- Jennings Element, Which Hopes to Quash the Former Train Robb:r’s Growing Strength by Adding an Excess of Prison Flavor and Thus Disgusting the Voters With Too Much of This Ex- Convict Business. artheless, Jennings Says He ill Not Be Ridiculed Out of Running, That He Is Cer- n to Win and That the Size His Vote Will Confound s Enemies—He Denies Out- ers Have Put Up $100,000 ind to Help Him to “Beat wk” to Respectability and igh Political Honor. | OKLAHOMA CITY, Ok., Feb. 28. lies of Al Jennings believe they have : a masterly political maneuver by ninging George Crump Jr., another ex- to the race for the Democratic nomina- or against him. gs’ friends admit that the candidacy of . @ Serious blow at the former train rob- | firations to “beat back” not only to 87 ity but to high political honor. ve no fear of the individual 7 y gather, but they are alarmed lest the 5 among the voters that there is too ‘his ex-convict businéss,” and that. in | de, the people will not be Inclined to} ings an equal chance. because cf the ö le advertisement that his election would g ne State. ö ance ith the Gore case showed that they Wing the old “army game” in Okla- ) and that anything is fair if it will? 00ds. 0 is charged that his enemies used a) effort to get his job. This is still 1 dar. in Oklahoma. So would 0 Politics it Al Jennings could t oo -_ till. ——ů—ññ—— 2 —ñ—ññ — — . at ex-convict against {. “not expect to divide what one wot local conditions has defined cohvict-sympathizer” vote, but | ö U hope to raise the question f ‘ative voters whether Okla- victs to fill its ottices. ings kind some encourage- { ywwever. They say it shows sition is, and they hope being employed to blast tely will react strongly ‘ggrously to met | } t picturesque in the olitics is always ex- ) | State had two men, re social outcasts, | ‘ing the criminal ) t political honor ' use of this un- de whole conn- { mwealth until ) determine be honored | — — 1 — ‘ @ certain deded that uting At- n 0 —ũuL ——— wö2— 2 — ¢ | 1 in the years to come, people to point to me as the ex-Gov- ernor. of Okla- homa instead of the ex-convigt— to the man who made the best Governor the State ever had. That would make amends, wouldn't it? Maybe, then they wouldn't re- member quite so much that I was a convict as that I was a good Gov- ernor. Just as sure as you're sit- ting. there, [ll be the next Governor. They can’t count me out this time. AL JENNINGS. e rate, you have never tried to break yourself of the habit. Mr. Jennings, you started in running as delegate to the constitutional convention. Since then, when not running in Oklahoma, you have made a very strenuous and suc- cessful campaign in New York and else- where. Do you think you are the’ only. ex-convict in the world who is entitled to a chance to beat it back? In the name of justice, human- ity and for the sake of sdciety that has con- demned us both, I ask that you withdraw from the Governor’s race and give me a chance to beat it back. The other is addressed to “The People of Okla- homa.” It reads: ‘Iam asking the governorship of our State at your hand with all sincerity. I feel in my. own heart that I have com- mitted no wrong. If sincerity. honesty and a desire are qualifications, I feel that I am as well qualified as any of my opponents. My discharge from the United States army reads: “Character excellent; services, honest and faithful.” I fought with the English through the Boer War and now have a medal from the British Government, proving that in the face of foe or in: the monotonous lite of the camp, my conduct was that of a soldier and a gentleman. I have a commission as Second Lieutenant of the Arkansas National Juards, signed by Gov. Jeff Davis. I have no newspaper clip- pings, no bar ‘resolutions, nor am 1 com- mended vy any commercial clubs. Union labor has not indorsed mé, nor am I making the race at a great personal sacrifice. As to my recent trouble, I have nothing to say. As ong as my own soul is satisfied and my own ynecience clear, 1 fear not the voters nor my * Rer. t elected Governor, 1 Promiae a ente sane sensibie administration of State affairs; ‘ne can do more. I won't say that I am utely ineorruptible, ° but do say that "can’t buy mer if T am bought it will ause I am your friend. Promises Wholesale Pardons > says in an interview that} the State | GIEORGE UM JF ingrate to accept their money and then not recog- ‘nize them in jaking my appointments or other- wise, and that @ the first downward step to ruin for public officials, isn’t it? “I am going to keep myself clean of all prom- ises and entanglements with a single politician of any stripe, or with anyone else, and stagger m is the greatest financial burden of ymmon wealth, and that if elected he self-supporting by. pardoning half ‘a and putting the rest in solitary qe gays that fully half ot the pris- who did a reckless think after) 1 whisky, akes himself and his candidacy standing the latest inancuver shes’ “y “ite stick and on . " through my campaign on the $3000 which the law permits a candidate to spend in seeking an office. Already. one candidate has paid a newspaper $10,- 000 to support him, and has subsidized a hundred little weeklies; the other candidates are figuring on $8000 and $10,000 campaign funds, and some as high as $25,000. What, then, is to become of the people in case one of them is elected? It will be the same old order of things, the people will, after ali, pay the campaign expenses, and the same gang will fill the offices and rob the people.” “You expect to be elected Governor?” he was asked. “My Election Certain,” He Says. 66 UST. as sure as you're sitting there, I'll J be the next Governor of Oklahoma,” he shapped out. “They can't count me out this time, as they did when I was elected Prose- cuting Attorney of this county last year. I won then by 3000 votes and the politicians counted me out and gave my opponent 500 majority. “I will get a vote this time that they can’t over- come. I am going to speak In every county in the State and in some counties a good many times. and I see my way clear to My book will be out in ‘from the Sat Even- ‘& 4 g ö AS HE CALLS \ HIMSELF © ad * HE IS THE TEA CHER OF A NE . IDEA, CI TIZENS ARE HIS. Works Under Genital Super- vision of the Five Commis- sioners, Who Are Intrusted With the City’s Government, but He Chooses His Own De- partment Heads—Fitness the Only Consideration in Select- ing Them and He Says He Doesn't Know the Politics of One of Them. * were handing out identification tag: ness Men's League luncheon and the sharp-faced man with glasses was filling out his tag. Under the head .“Business,” without hesi tation, he wrote: BOSS. Which was correct. He was Henry M. Waite city, manager of Dayton, O. Waite has been boss of Dayton since the first {of the year—a legally constituted, responsible, removable boss, with directing and controlling power, and drawing a salary of $12,500 a year. That is two and one-half times what St. Louis now pags its Mayor, and 25 per cent more®than the salary which the Mayor of St. Louis will get under the new charter, if it is adopted. Waite is the second boss Dayton has had with- in a year. I had the fine privilege, last March, of seeing the first boss of Dayton at work on the job. That job was an extraordinary one, dealing with con- ditions which were little less than appalling. Not a downtown business house open, except as shattered windows left it open; no gas or elec- trie current, no train or street ear service, pave- ments torn up, and water everywhere except in the city water mains. Dayton Isn’t Seeking Sympathy. N that flood-time crisis, the people of Dayton | forgot that they had an organized city gov- ernment, and turned to the one man who at the Mercantile Club before the Busi-. | a BX, . e * * * 1 aa ow” * * * * Pa. „ ‘ 3 ‘ ; * 7 * — * 4 1 2 . TEN Mf WAITE a short-ballot election, choose a commission of five, and the man getting the highest vote for membership in the commission wins the title of Mayor, and.a salary of $1800 a year, as com- pared with the $1200 of his four associates. The commission acts as the legislative body, and it elects the city manager and fixes his salary. He then becomes the executive, the appointer of) minor officials, the boss. > A 4 2 1 . — 4 | — 5 * em * > * Improvements for Pianned by Wait O abolish the city jail and and substitute a detention a prison farm. i To Sega firemen to flush tb at night, and perform other dutie. nection with the streets. To put the police force on an basis, and to give 3 a bearing and an anti-fat co To unify public charities.» To establish a municipal lodging with work required of lodgers. To abolish the segregated distric. provide its present inmates with: re able employment. To establish new safeguards tor w and girls. To extend the waterworks and ¢ railroad service. To motorize the Fire Dep ‘ment. To improve all streets and vs. I predict that he will make a n and for Dayton by his admin! 83 “As Director of Law, one of the Ypayton charter was named, one o lawyers, who sacrified his busines order to accept the place. i “as Director of Finance, I nan man who had been connected with ness institutions in Dayton, and member of a firm of public accou “When it came to choosing a i Service, the commission threw up and had no suggestion to make. 8 man from Cincinnati, who had been u. in the Engineering Department there. “No Director ot Safety has The commission had the power to elect @ non- Trained Men soi resident as manager, and it took occasion of a timely opportunity to advertise Dayton, by mak- ing a formal tender of the job ito Canal-builder Goethals. . The offer, published in nearly every our city government O we have work. put’ 3 That mean s merely that / principles Into 2. The three requis K was strong enough to handle the situation, and Paper, in the country, was followed by the Colo-) tenure of office in Dayton today are 6. who, through the happy location of his great nel’s declination, also published everywhere, and { economy and loyalty. jusiness establishment outside the flood’s path, the Dayton commissioners, chuckling over the “These same requirements are mad. had the place and the equipment to handle it. clever publicity stroke, then proceeded to choose filing of subordinate positions by the And that man was the boss, whose authority none Gisputed, and in whose praise all united. So it was that, in the few minutes’ talk which J had with Waite after his Mercantile Club speech, my first question was, “What is John Hi. Patterson's relation to the new city govern- ment?” “Mr. Patterson,” replied Waite, “was chairman of the body which drafted the charter for Day- ton’s new form of city government. He is not now Officially connected with the city govern- ment. His business affairs occupy his time, as they did before the emergency period of nearly a year ago.” Manager Waite is trying to make it clear that Dayton is not seeking sympathy, having recov- ered fully from the flood, and that the new business form of government was, not forced on the city by that catastrophe. “More than a year before the flood,” he said, “the movement for a new government was start- ed with the organization of a Bureau of Munic- ipal Research. It investigated municipal gov- ernment and its functions and methods in other places, and sought, in a constructive, not a de- structive way, to draw attention to the need for a change. How the New System Works. “T) ciency and, in fact, made efficiency impossible. 1 think that, without the flood, something “ke the present plan would have been adopted, flood, perhaps, hastened matters, by giving people the feeling that, as they were making a new start in a business way, they might as ven start over in a municipal way.” Under their new charter, the people of Da 10 not elect their boss directly. The pe AYTON, like other cities, had come to realize that the old political forms) of government did not make for eff a man whom they could get. They picked } directors, who are held responsible for t Waite, who was chief of the city Engineering under them. Their appointments are ov Department of Cincinnati (corresponding some- the city manager’ what to our Board of Public Improvements), and flxed his salary. Waite began work Jan. 1. “Every day the directors 0 the eit have a meeting, lasting usually for His first task was These cabinet meetings, and the to pick five department heads, whom he had the the commission are not. the only mr power to appoint, subject to the commission’s{it is planned to hold for muni approval. Waite favors the re-introduction The five departments are those of Service—({ioned town meeting, such as Ne streets, waterworks, .sewers, public utilities; Safety—police, Fire Department, building inspec- will try to get citizens Law—the City and he and the directors tion, weights and measures; used to hold, and some of the. li. rep: Jounselor; Finance—accounting, treasury, pur-/answer questions and he complnte . chasing; and Welfare —charities, corrections, Kreation, parks, playgrounds, hospitals. Nun of division is almost identical with . that schoolmaster (This) ager of Dayton’s busin ae Waite says he intends to be not merely in munict followed in the proposed new St. Louis charter.) {class numbers approxta “There was no politics in my appointments,” said Waite. of the men whom I appointed. Preacher Heads Welfare Work. N Dayton, I needed ATURALLY, not being acquainted in} be solved. in suggestions, and we want the the ‘commission gave me lists of men) way we hope to 3 “No form of govif “I can't tell you the politics of one he said, “unless ths ¢ b 0 its workings. 4 ou do tor Dayton this Year is terested. When ¢ h at 1 dor N wi * : a whom they thought qualified for three of the ability to govern = the positions, and I went over the lists with them, profitable Je P ; acquainted myself with the men, and made my} Watte, who is selections as soon as I could. tive of | “The position of Director of Welfare is the tice due which relates to what is called the human He wa 8 ae wide of city government, as distinguished from into oad its strict business side. For this place I named ging * the Rev. D. Frank Garland, a Lutheran clerxy- he man, who during a long pastorate in Dayton had 4 6 been a student of its social needs, and who . de a number of visits to American and N eities, studying just the sort of work 3 Director of Welfare will have to do. wir ds ier Inis church work to Wal the Urec * five stories they are to prepare for the Saturd Evening Post, of which he will receive 0 time for campaign use. © eee! It has been reported frequently thet Irwin w. “Beating Back” from interviews with map Many Oklahomans, however, know that true. Jennings wrote the story several! and tried to get it printed but invariab. ‘vised to have it edited a “ned up 1 a literary etandpoin! "" mar” “we 41 4 . toed fabian: ce received flattering offers from moving a 5 » 5 11 concerns who want to enaet ome of ti 28