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9· MARTIN H. KENNELLY: THE MUGWUMP AND THE MACHINE Arnold R. Hirsch He was a nice man. It is not the sort of thing one usually says about Chicago's mayors, but the description suits Mayor Martin H. Kennelly. The incongruity stems not from his personality, but rather from his accidental occupation of city hall. Unlike those who clambered to the top of Chicago's political heap by stepping on the fallen bodies of their rivals, Kennelly ascended the ladder of business success and simply found himself the most "available" candidate as the Cook County Democratic organization desperately sought respectability after Ed Kelly's forced retirement in 1947. He was thrust into a political maelstrom for which he was ill-prepared, and yet he was, most notably, the Chicago machine's political savior. His fresh face and clean image saved the Democrats from almost certain defeat. The organization subsequently survived its postwar electoral scare, utilized the time and freedom bestowed upon it by Kennelly's lax administration, seized the credit for the mayor's achievements, and finally dumped him when he no longer served its purposes. Popular legend portrays Kennelly as a naive reformer. It is a label that flows out of the inevitable comparisons with both his immediate predecessor and his· successor. Next to Edward Kelly and Richard Daley, he did appear to be a political babe-in-the-woods. But there is more to it than that. His emphasis on civil service reform, his crackdown on open gambling, and his frequently expressed desire to upgrade the moral tone of Chicago's government all contributed to his squeaky-clean image. And it was a portrayal that was trumpeted in the contemporary press. Not only was he the darling of Chicago's media, but after a year in office even national publications such as the Saturday Evening Post marveled at the city's "new moral climate." 1 Martin H. Kennelly was as close as the Chicago machine could come to Puritan respectability. A Bridgeport-born Irish-Catholic, Kennelly could cite 126 Martin H. Kennelly (1947-1955) only his poor background as a reason for his otherwise ill-fitting Democratic affiliation; indeed, he remained a Democrat more out of inertia than conviction . He was a self-made businessman and millionaire who had left the old neighborhood for the North Side's Gold Coast. A bachelor, he lived with his widowed sister in a posh apartment that belied his humble origins. In his connections with Chicago's business community, his concerns for efficiency and respectability, and his circumspect personal life-he took only an occasional drink and that often only to prove that he was "one of the boys"-he seemed a mugwump out of season. Even sympathetic observers believed him to be, personally , a "cold fish," and if Kennelly fit any popular stereotype at all, it was not that of the glad-handing, back-slapping ward politician, but rather than of the distant, proper, civic leader.2 The image, however, obscures reality. Kennelly was neither naive nor areformer . There is no question that he struck an apolitical pose, content to leave party matters in the hands of chairman Jake Arvey, while cultivating the image of an administrator concerned only with the broader public interest. If he remained aloof from politics, though, it was not out of naivete or ignorance, but because of the certain knowledge that he would be soiled if he descended into that arena. "All I have in the world is my reputation," Kennelly declared as he accepted the party's nomination for mayor, "and I don't propose to have it dirtied up in politics." 3 He had no taste for that kind of action, and his refusal to engage ill the rough-and-tumble ofeveryday politics thus suited his inclination, philosophy, personality, and talents. And on social issues he was, simply, quite conservative, displaying none of the New Deal activism that animated Ed Kelly's administration. Moreover, the sharp division between political and governmental authority meant that Kennelly-despite some good intentions-accomplished a good deal less than he might have desired. It also left him exposed and vulnerable to those political professionals who respected neither his intentions nor his personal attributes. Forty-third Ward Alderman Mathias "Paddy" Bauler derisively dubbed him "Partin' Martin," and other regulars, even more indelicately , referred to his large, round features, his lifestyle, and, perhaps, his habitual flight from political combat, and christened him "the capon." 4 Obviously , Kennelly's dalliance with...

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