Fight Postponed

Having fallen flat on his face last Nov. 7 when he failed to produce enough Chicago votes to re-elect Scott Lucas to the United States Senate, egg-bald, ulcer-plagued little Jake Arvey made good his threat to resign as boss of the Cook County Democratic organization. He did it, he said, "for reasons of health." To make him feel better, Democratic leaders promised him the job of Illinois National Committeeman, which has been vacant since Boss Ed Kelly died.

Who would now be boss in Chicago? The machine professionals wanted a benign-looking, dependable party wheelhorse named Joe Gill. Illinois' Senator Paul Douglas, chief federal patronage dispenser since Scott Lucas' defeat, wanted energetic young County Clerk Richard Daley, who also had the backing of Governor Adlai Stevenson. That equivocating enigma, Chicago's Mayor Martin Kennelly, wanting to get re-elected in April, and needing the old guard's machine support, took a position in between. Result: a compromise, with Gill as interim chairman until the mayoralty election, and Daley as vice chairman. The solution merely postponed the real fight. Said Paul Douglas, quoting from Cardinal Newman's famed hymn: "I do not ask to see the distant scene; one step enough for me."

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