CHICAGO’S NEW BIRTH

Taranaki Daily News, 14 October 1933, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHICAGO’S NEW BIRTH

NEW ZEALAND CRUSADER

(By

T.C.L.)

Reference has been made in earlier articles to the complicated nature of local and general government machinery in the United States and surprise expressed that in a highly efficient and organised country like America the people tolerate the conditions making for such circumlocution, inefficiency, patronage and corruption. These conditions and their effect on the mind and life of the nation can scarcely be exaggerated, They are, and have been for years, a blot on the country’s escutcheon, a fact which is freely admitted by its best citizens, but the difficulty is to change the conditions. In Chicago proper there are eight governmental bodies, and in the metropolitan district of which it is the centre there are no fewer than 1673 independent governments. At election times the unfortunate ratepayer in the city is presented with a list of candidates for as many as 161 official positions. He has no possible chance of knowing anything about their fitness for the work, neither does he know, in the case of the ordinary positions, the party affiliations of the numerous candidates. And it does not suit the book of the political party in power that he should be enlightened. The more complicated and obscure the personalities offering for the public positions, the better The Machine likes it. It naturally wants to retain control and power, and therefore it will do nothing to facilitate the deluded public to express an intelligent and informed vote. The Machine, however, leaves nothing to chance when it comes to dealing with its own supporters, the proletariat and the foreign elements that account for so large a proportion of the population of Chicago. The organisation is well nigh perfect, and no vote is overlooked. Hence the maintenance of The Machine and all it connotes.

In Turkey, in the days before the Revolution, when the government of the Sublime Porte was perhaps the most corrupt of any on earth, an old fable was applied to the Government. The camel driver said to his camel, “Why is your neck so crooked ?” The camel replied, “What part of me is straight that you should enquire about my neck ?” Responsible Chicago citizens will tell you that all the works undertaken by the city have been sullied by graft, and the ordinary administrative operations honeycombed by it. The “Big Fix” disfiguring the municipal life of the city has been defined by a local historian, Professor Merriam, as “the combination and influences and agencies designed to control the political situation and to be able to give immunity from the law.” Thig is the explanation of the crime and corruption situation in Chicago—the political machine which is “able to give immunity from the law.” The night before a recent campaign the component parts of The Machine were thus addressed by one high in authority: “You’ve got the governor, the State attorney, the sheriff and—if you need him—a judge with you. If anybody gets in your way push him out. Come prepared; come well armed.”

Although a clever, unscrupulous politician may manipulate the forces of society for his own advantage and that of his cohorts he is simply the manipulator, not the creator, of these forces. It is the system rather than the individual which is mainly responsible. Before the system can be altered public opinion has to change. Like so many other people the Americans had construed material progress and money-making into the chief ends and the greatest virtues of life, and made material success and prosperity the be-all and end-all. The devastating experiences they have passed through during the past four years have shaken their faith in their whilom idols and now they are paying more attention to the invisible and imperishable, eternal things of life', to the simple virtues, to the fact that life is more than stocks and business, that wife and children, home and friendships are worth more than material possessions, and they are realising now as never before that the city must be regenerated or sink deeper and deeper into the mire created by manipulators of the political machine. Hardships and suffering have brought about an awakening and a consolidation of the moral and spiritual forces of the community, and with it a determination to rid the city of the canker that has been eating out the vitals and -besmirching the character of the city. Singularly enough a potent influence in the direction of these forces is an ex-New Zealander, a brilliant graduate of the Dominion’s university who elected to take a postgraduate course at Yale University. The figure is Dr. Ernest Guthrie (brother of Mr. Harry Guthrie, past Governor of Rotary in New Zealand), who in 1927 accepted the position of minister of the Congregational Union in Chicago. The church had always been interested in the city’s social work and upliftment of the large foreign elements, making direct contacts with them, and endeavouring •to break down the pernicious political and other, interests that surrounded and permeated them. The church had done its best to bring about a consolidation and coordination of the various religious efforts in order to fight the evil forces—and with considerable success.

One of Dr. Guthrie’s humblest supporters was Victor Lawson, the aged proprietor of the Chicago News, a very lucrative business. At his death he left not only four million dollars for the erection of a Y.M'C.A. building, but also many millions to the Congregational Union for the purpose of assisting it in the fine work in which it was engaged in making direct contacts with the foreign' and “submerged” classes and influencing and educating them to a realisation of their political duties and obligations. And to-day, Dr. Guthrie has gathered around him as fine an organisation as can be found in the country and is busily engaged in making a close survey of the whole situation with a view to the preparation of a city-wide, extensive campaign of education of these masses. Already they are finding amongst them veins of goodness, an idealism, and a responsiveness that are cheering them on in their splendid work, and the visitor is impressed tremendously not only with the fine conception of the movement for the regeneration of Chicago but with the enthusiasm and the inspiration and the marvellous scope ofthe chief crusader, the gifted ex-Dunedin boy, Dr. Ernest Guthrie.