Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 17.pdf/148

 GOVERNOR CHARLES S. DENKEN came in 1901 over the mayoralty nomina tion. Lorimer won, and Deneen bided his time. The breach widened until in the spring of 1903 the break came at Spring field, Lorimer favoring the street railway corporations and Deneen the people of Chi cago touching some bitterly contested street railway legislation then pending. Deneen won and returned home openly to contest with Lorimer the leadership of their party in Cook County. In connection with this fight, and partly in aid of it, Deneen an nounced himself as a candidate for the gov ernorship. In desperation, Lorimer adopted as his candidate Mr. Frank O. Lowden, a man of public spirit and excellent standing — in fact, personally much better known about town than Deneen himself — who had ren dered valuable public services in advocacy of civil service reform. The overwhelming success of Mr. Deneen at the primaries in June, 1904, placed him in undisputed leadership of his party in Cook County and gave him a large majority of its great delegation to the Republican State convention. The success of Mr. Deneen in thus gain ing the leadership of his party organization in Cook County was made possible by the achievements of independent Chicago voters within recent years. These voters, under competent leadership with powerful news paper support, have within the past ten years made the City Council representative of public interests, held the public service corporations at bay, and inspired the entire community with new confidence in really democratic government. Incidentally, they have brought to confusion some of the schemes of spoilsmen engaged in exploiting the public authority of the State. In vari ous ways they have made their power felt at Springfield. Largely through their initi ative the people of the State have come to demand and expect the passage this year of a civil service law governing the service of the State and its various penal and charitable institutions.

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While Mr. Deneen has confined his efforts in the main to party channels and has never avowed himself a reformer, those ac tive in non-partisan reform movements have had his sympathy and cooperation. They in turn have given him their confidence and support. Thus it became possible for him to transform an odious party machine into an organization responsive to the best pub lic opinion and to go into the State conven tion of his party enthusiastically supported by the great public newspapers of Chicago and about one-third of the delegates com prising that body. Ex-governor Richard Yates, the son and namesake of the famous war governor of Illinois, bears a name widely honored. He took a just pride in having achieved the high station once occupied by his father, and greatly wished the indorsement of a re-election. His administration had been in most respects creditable. Wherein it had met the wishes of the "Federal crowd" and the Lorimer machine it was discredited. The managers of that unholy alliance, per fectly aware that association and coopera tion with them had affected the governor's availability, sought to banish him to a minor foreign mission. This sort of promo tion not being in the line of his ambition, he proved unexpectedly obdurate, and made an aggressive campaign for delegates to the State convention. When the convention met it appeared that rather more than onethird of the delegates were committed to the governor and that most of the others were divided about equally between Lowden and Deneen. The Governor was strongly supported by delegates from many parts of the State out side of Cook County. The United States Senators, Speaker Cannon and Congressman Lorimer and the shattered remnants of his machine were there supporting Mr. Lowden. Mr. Deneen, backed by about four hundred delegates mostly from Chicago, appeared, representing in fact though not in name the reform movement. The convention was