Word: pendergast
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...where his self-confidence comes from. He did not aim high in politics, but he was, in the main, successful in what he did, and he was respected by the people whom he respected. He makes an apparently straightforward story of his long relationship with Boss T. J. Pendergast of Kansas City. His first contact with Pendergast, who was "interested in county patronage and county purchases," came after Truman was elected Presiding Judge of the Jackson County Court (a nonjudicial administrative office). "Pendergast was interested in having as many friends in key positions as possible, but he always took...
...proceed to the state or national level of office and politics. In the locality, however, the moral tone of his later service - as Governor, Senator, Ambassador or President - has usually been set . . ." That sounded like a slap at Harry Truman's early career in Boss Tom Pendergast's locality. With this prelude from Kefauver, the stage seemed set for a fascinating campaign season among the Democrats...
...When the Commissioner of Customs recently tried to cut expenses by firing 180 excess employees, he was bombarded into retreat by the protests of Congressmen. For importers, heavy tips to customs agents are a necessity. In their eager study of U.S. institutions, Filipino politicos had learned from Hague and Pendergast, as well as from Madison and Jefferson...
...machine found itself in need of a shining, bright-eyed new face. The reform forces of Governor Lloyd Stark were bearing down on Kansas City and threatening to put the corrupt police department under state control. Pendergast & Co. kicked out Onie Higgins (he later went to prison) and put Onie's diplomatic doorman behind Higgins' desk. Boyle was told to "clean up the town and keep it clean." Police Director Boyle followed his orders enthusiastically. In person, he raided gambling houses, broke up slot machines, closed up the red-light district, shut down saloons, and even tossed some...
...Moves & a Jump. But it was later than Tom Pendergast thought. In three months the State moved in, and Bill Boyle was no longer police director. He moved over to the Pendergast redoubt at City Hall, became commissioner of street cleaning. A reform mayor fired him in 1940, and he moved again: this time to the job of assistant prosecuting attorney in the county courthouse, the last Pendergast citadel. It was dull work; his main assignment was to take confessed criminals before the court to enter guilty pleas. "To my knowledge," said Bill's good friend, Lawyer Shannon Douglas...