The broad ax. [volume], May 12, 1923, Image 1

About The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
No. 34
“ . — "" — " 11 " ■
Mayor William E. Dever, and the Members of His
Official Family, or Cabinet, Have Re-established the
Wide Open Door Policy in the City Hall. The Chief
Executive of the City Has Set the Example Himself
In That Direction and During Business Hours the
Humblest Citizen, White Or Colored, Can Walk
Right Into Their Offices and Transact Their Business
Without Any Red Tape.
THE PAST WEEK THREE COLORED
LAWYERS HAVE BEEN APPOINTED
BY MAYOR DEVER TO GOOD POSI
TIONS. ONE IN THE OFFICE OF THE
LOCAL-BOARD OF IMPROVEMENTS
AND TWO AS ASSISTANT CORPOR
ATION COUNSELS; ONE DRAWING
DOWN $6,000 PER YEAR, WHICH IS
THE LARGEST SALARY SO FAR
PAID TO ANY COLORED MAN IN
CHICAGO
HON. GEORGE E. BRENNAN, THE
GRAND HIGH CHIEF OR GRAND
MAJOR GENERAL OF THE DEMO
CRATIC PARTY IN THIS CITY AND
ILLINOIS, MUST HAVE RECEIVED
SOME LIGHT OR WISDOM FROM ON
HIGH WHEN HE URGED HON. WIL
LIAM E. DEVER TO RUN FOR
MAYOR OF CHICAGO, FOR IT IS
FREELY PREDICTED THAT HE
WILL BECOME THE NEW MOSES OF
THE AFRO-AMERICAN RACE IN
THIS CITY
Not since the days of Mayor Ed
ward F. Dunne and Mayor Carter H.
Harrison has the open door policy
prevailed throughout the City Hall,
for the past eight years the following
were the only colored men who were
permitted to break into the private
quarters or the inner rooms occupied
by Mayor William Hale Thompson,
nor to be caught near the offices of the
other City Hall officials, namely, Rev.
Archibald James Carey, the political
bishop, Hon. Edward H. Wright,
Hon. Louis B. Anderson, Hon. Robert
R. Jackson, Col. “White Jack” Tipper.
Even for some time Col. Oscar De
Prifst, who bitterly fought Mayor
Thompson at one time, was barred
out of his rooms and come to think of
it Col. DePriest will fight anyone at
least due time if they fail to dance to
his music; but under the wise and
liberal reign of Mayor William E.
Dever there has been a complete
change in the City Hall, along that
line.
For no sooner than Mayor Dever
was inducted into office His Honor
set the example himself in the way of
re-establishing the open door policy
by ordering all the doors leading into
his rooms to be thrown wide open
and to remain open during business
hours, so that the humblest citizen of
Chicago, white or colored, can come
in contact with him, relate their
•
—s—
troubles to him, grasp him by the
hand and either exclaim “Howdy do,
Mr, Mayor,” or “Thank you, Mr.
Mayor.”
Just as soon as the members of
Mayor Dever’s cabinet observed
which way the wind was blowing,
without the loss of any time they fol
lowed in the footsteps of Mayor Dever
and now the most critical and ordi
nary citizen is forced to believe or feel
that the City Hall really belongs to
all the people of Chicago yd that it is
not owned by a few ponjpious poli
ticians who would not be ace high
without the votes of the great mass of
the people who are deeply interested
in the future welfare of this marvelous
city, which will for ages to come
continue to stand on the beautiful
shores of Lake Michigan. •
Mayor Dever, who firmly believes in
the plain and simple life, who is' an
alround-<real good fellow), capnot be
excelled as a good mixer. He is far
superior to the late Mayor Fred A.
Busse in that respect. Mayor Dever
is right at home when he is able to
walk up in front of his whole regiment
of friends and slap them on the back
and exclaim: “Hellow Charley, John,
Mike, Julias, Denney, Martin," and so
on, and whenever he beholds any col
ored men or women standing around
in the large outer room leading into
the mayor’s quarters he will invariably i
HON. MARTIN J. O’BRIEN * I
City Comptroller of the City of Chicago, Who Is One of the 1
Most Affable and Popular Public Officials in this City or
Cook County. He reflects Much Credit on Mayor William
E. Dever and His Administration. He Has a Whole Army
of Warm and Steadfast Friends Among all Classes of His
r>i m.z gy |
approach them and inquire of them if
they wished to see him on any kind
of business.
As an evidence of his Democratic
simplicity, when lunch time arrives he,
in company with his popular and pro
ficient private secretary, Mr. “Artie”
O’Brien, will rush cross to Thomp
son’s eating house right in front of
the City Hall on the La Salle street
side, rush up to the counter and grab
off a ham sandwich and a cup of cof
free and so on and in less than forty
minutes he is right back in his quar
ters ready for business. He will stride
right in through the main door and if
the rooms are full of big politicians
and other visitors he will stop, shake
hands and smile at every person whom
he comes in contact with.
That act on his part largely accounts
for his wonderful popularity and his
strong hold upon his fellow citizens.
The past week Mayor Dever select
ed two colored lawyers as assistant
corporation counsels of Chicago: At
torney Earl B. Dickerson, Commander
of the Robert L. Giles Post of the
American Legion, salary twenty-four
hundred dollars per year, and the other
colored lawyer will receive six thou
sand dollars per year, which is the
largest salary that has ever been paid
to any colored man in Chicago.
The colored people in this city
thought it was a wonderful thing
when Mayor William Hale Thompson
decided to pay Hon. Edward H.
Wright five thousand dollars per year
but Mayor Dever, Democrat will pay
his leading colored lawyer six thou
sand dollars per year, which is one
thousand dollars per year more than
Mayor Thompson paid the Hon. Ed
ward H. Wright.
It is evident,from the above actions
of Mayor Dever that ■lie is fully deter
mined to give the colored people a
square deal for the loyal and splendid
support which they rendered him at
the very time that he needed their
votes.
* * * s, -''
Hon. Martin J. O’Brien, City Comp
troller of Chicago is fast proving him
self to be one of the best public of
ficials in this city or Cook county and
he is a very valuable asset to Mayor
Dever and greatly relieves him of
much of his hard labor.
Mr. O Brien was the campaign man
ager for Mayor Dever and as such he
was the smoothest proposition that
has ever come down the pike. During
the late city election it was no uncom
mon sight to observe three or four
colored men sitting on one side of his
desk; buzzing into his ear and three
or four white men sitting on the other
side doing the same thing and 10 or 12
men standing around the door waiting
to get a chance to talk with him, and
with all of the excitement and commo
tion around tym he never lost his
poise nor attempted to flare op and
jump up in the air and do a whole lot
of loud cussing like many politicians
or political managers do but on the
contrary he would continue to smile
and smile and shake hands all around
proving far beyond a doubt that he
was the right man in the right place.
As City Comptroller Mr. O'Brien
occupies the most prominent and
responsible position in Mayor Dever's
cabinet and the doors on his inner
office always stand wid^ open. He
has no private office for any fanny
busness; his rooms are always crowded
down with politicians and with the
BOOK CHAT BY MARY WHITE
OVINGTON, CHAIRMAN OF THE
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR
THE ADVANCEMENT OF COL
- ORED PEOPLE. -
“WHERE THE TWAIN MEET”
By Mary Gaunt. Published by F. P.!
Dutton & Co. Price $6.00. Postage
10c Extra
This is a history of the Island of
Jamaica and the author ends her tale
as follows:
“I hope that if a dark man reads i
this book he will not think unkindly |
of me for writing as if there were a
difference between black and white. I
There is, it would be foolish to ignore
it, but it is only the difference of edu
cation and training. We must remem
ber that in past ages the Anglo-Saxon J
stood in the market place of Rome
chained and in slavery, that blue eyes
and flaxon hair marked the savage,
and dark complexion and black eyes
the civilized man. The time of servi
tude of the dark man is a little closer.
He has come up to the same stony
path that the white man trod, and he
will do it more easily and more quick
ly—he is doing it—because the white
man has prepared the way.”
The history of Jamaica is full of
tragedy. | This beautiful island, as
lovely as any in the whole world, fell
first into the hands of Spaniards. They
went as adventurers, and left death
behind them, killing, it is believed, all
the native Indian inhabitants. One can
take satisfaction that the Climate,
coupled with too much akohol, killed
the Spaniard as welL Then came the
English, and by the aid of the African
slave the land was cultivated and great
estates grew up. Mrs. Gaunt is most
interesting when she tells of the Af
rican slave trade. She has herself
visited the West Coast, has travelled
for three hundred miles by the Atlan
tic and haf seen the most important
of the “Castles,” those fortresses about
which the Europeans had their settle
ments. One obtains a vivid picture.'
both in words and in the admirable il
lustrations, of the thick grey walls, the
terrible dungeons, the waiting ships
with their new, strange torture of suf
focation in foul holes. There is noth
leading business men in this dty and
everybody, white and colored aliie,
*ake their turn in walking up to his
desk and conversing with him. All in
all, Mr. O’JIrien, who is the acting
Mayor whenever Mayor Dever is ab
sent from the city, reflects great credit
onTTayor Dever and his administra
tion.
• * * '
It seeml to a blind man sitting away
up in the top of the tree that Hon.
ing left of .white superiority when the
author has finished with the slave ship.
And if the torture on sea was ter
rible, the torture in the new land was
little better. Mrs. Gaunt has made a
study of various plantations and shows
the Jamaican as cruel as any Georgia
lyncher today. One realizes, reading
her story, and comparing conditions in
the West Indies with those in our
southern states, that man cannot be
trusted to remain kindly and humane
if he is isolated and be given the
power of life *and death over other
men. Indeed, one does not need to
confine one’s1 comparison to the south
ern states and slavery. Wardens of
prisons, superintendents of orphan
ages, again and again, have been found
to practice cruelty toward those in their
power. It would seem that it is mere
ly the desire to hold the good opinion
of his fellow that makes most men
decent toward those over whom they
have control. Thus slavery was more
humane in Virginia, near the center of
population, ihan in remote Mississippi.
In the West Indian plantations, aloof
from all European influence, the plant
er could do as he willed, and often he
willed horror.
If the planters were cruel the slaves
were insurrectionary. Brawley in his
“History of the Negro in the United
States,” brought out clearly the gravi
ty of slave insurrections in this coun
try and the constant fear under which
the planter lived. It is this lingering
sense of danger that accounts today
for much southern lawlessness. In Ja
maica there were several uprisings and
the story of the Maroons, who for one
hundred and forty years defied the
British government is a chapter in
romance, though, as are almost all
these chapters, a bloody one. In the
mountain fastnesses the blacks lived
as free men and again and again con
quered the British soldiers sent out to
reduce them to slavery. It is an
amazing story.
Mrs. Gaunt’s book should be in our
libraries. Its almost prohibitive price
makes it likely that it will only be in
our public ones. It is beautifully
printed, a pleasure to hold and to read.
George E. Brennan, the Grand High
Chief or the Grand Major-General of
the Democratic party in this .city,
county and throughout the State of
Illinois, tpust have been endowed with
a large amount of wisdom from on
high when he induced and urged Hon.
William E. Dever, to enter the race
for mayor of this city, for we honestly
feel that he will make one of the very
best and most popular chief executives
that Chicago has ever had.
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