Sixth City

Of the six largest States, all except No. 6 (California) are governed by Democrats. Conversely, in the six largest U. S. cities only Chicago has for its Mayor a Democrat. In this independence of the local electorate Republicans glimpse the brightest ray in their infinitely gloomy skies.

Last week some 190,000 Cleveland voters trooped to the polls in a non-partisan primary to cull surplus candidates, leaving the two high men to choose from as Mayor of U. S. City No. 6. While a Mayor will not be elected until next month, observers knew the primary would hint whether Cleveland was ready to switch from Republican to Democrat.

Anxious to regain control in a normally Democratic city, Boss Burr Gongwer, Congressman Martin L. Sweeney and ex-Mayor Harry L. Davis, Democrats long at outs, joined in supporting City Engineer John O. McWilliams in a supreme effort to bury the hatchet in the stout neck of Republican Mayor Harold Hitz Burton. They managed to line up organized labor. Representative Sweeney, mindful of next year's Congressional elections, sang the theme: "The election of McWilliams will deprive Mrs. Hanna of her caviar and champagne."

Handsome, bemustached Democrat McWilliams found himself pitted against the most popular Mayor Cleveland has elected since city managership was abandoned in 1929. Son of a professor of civil engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harold Burton migrated to Cleveland fresh from Harvard Law School, started practicing in 1912. He rode into the City Hall as a reform candidate in 1935. Now chunky, athletic and 49, Mayor Burton arrives at City Hall each morning at 8:30, works twelve hours a day, takes pride in his clean-up of the Cleveland police force, and although a Republican, claims credit for wangling $40,000,000 of WPA money in two years.

Six other candidates (including Charles H. ("Time Clock") Hubbell, who had One-Eyed Connolly for a campaign manager and got 724 votes), were also rans when the primary vote was counted. But Burton-McWilliams division of votes caused Clevelanders to open their eyes. Mayor Burton turned up with an unprecedented 10-7 margin over his Democratic opponent, although some 50% of the voters, including most of the independents, stayed at home. Astute observers foresaw Mayor Burton re-elected next month by a 50,000 majority.

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