Word: daley
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...model of Harvard in Widener caused Daley to ask, "How many acres?" When no one could answer, Daley cocked his head, appraised the model carefully, and guessed "about a hundred, that's a lot of land you know." And the sight of the Faculty Club set off a series of questions about the "caste system" in the university. What was the faculty pecking order? Who had the power...
Power, says Daley, must be joined with ideals. But first one must have the power, the "clout" as they say in Chicago. The son of a sheet-metal worker, Daley has spent his life on the public payroll and in the "organization," to reach what some consider the third most important elective office in the United States, following the President and the Mayor of New York. After helping Jake Arvey, boss of Cook Country's Democratic organization, boost Adlai Stevenson for the governorship in 1948, Daley became county clerk which, in effect, put him in control of patronage and voting...
...Daley sees himself as one of a new breed of bosses, those who use extensive powers for public good. "Good government is good politics," he says, and in the nine years he has been mayor, Chicago has begun the most comprehensive urban renewal program in the United States. But city-wide planning may result in local discontent. Daley's voice sharpens when he discusses a small group of citizens who refused to make way for a new branch of the University of Illinois. "Everyone wants public works somewhere else besides their own block. We have a majority government...
When he considers the problem of de jacto segregation, however, Daley's tone changes and so do his ideas. He thinks a "betterment of human relations" is the greatest problem facing the city, and looks to a few integrated communities as the examples which others in the city must follow. But government, in this case, must act more cautiously. "If people have made up their minds about the matter, then the city can only suggest and persuade," he declares. "People have the right to decide their own neighborhoods...
...contradiction between his general support of comprehensive planning and his invocation of local decision making in the touchy question of de facto segregation demonstrates Daley's extreme sensitivity to political pressure. Although there does not seem any contradiction to him, his opponents charge that his failure to act on such a controversial question is mere political expediency...