MAYOR OF CHICAGO

Northern Advocate, 9 April 1931, Page 5

MAYOR OF CHICAGO

A DEMOCRAT ELECTED MR THOMPSON BADLY BEATEN. MAJORITY OF 200,000 VOTES.

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) „ (Received 9 a.rii.)' CHICAGO, April 7.

Mr Anton J. Ccrmak, a Democrat, has been elected Mayor of Chicago by a majority of about 200,000 votes. He had thus administered to the sitting mayor, Mr William Thompson, what appears to bo the worst beating ever sustained by a candidate for the mayoralty of this city. The votes cast constituted a record. Mr Thompson failed to do as well as he expected, even in sections where he had hoped to find most favour.

The result of the election has considerably strengthened the power of the Democrat Party in the State of Illin-

ois. The election was quiet and devoid of disorder, except for a few minor bouts of fisticuffs.

Mr Cermak, whose candidature was markedly dignified compared with that of Mr Thompson, who was responsible for some extraordinary exhibitions, will take office on Friday, and will "clean out the City Hall" and remove from it as far as possible all traces of "Thompsonism." »-

The new mayor is 58'years old. He was born near Prague, Czecho-Slo-vakia, and was brought to Chicago as an infant. He has earned his own living since he was II years old and has been a coalminer and a mule driver.

Mr Wm. Hale Thompson, cowboy, man of wealth, politician and three times Mayor of Chicago, is best known as the initiator of the anti-British campaign in that city. To his friends he is always “Big Bill.” He was born at Boston in 1869, but spent many years of his early life on ranches in the West. In 1915 Mr Thompson was elected Mayor of Chicago, and a second term followed. He introduced “free* dom,” which gave the city a reputation of unbridled lawlessness. Eventually, in 1923, a reform movement drove him from office. When Mr Thompson was elected Mayor for the third time in 1927, by a majority of 35,000 votes, he defeated Mr Wm. E. Dover, who had shown himself one of the ablest, straightest and most courageous mayors that city had ever had.