Newsmen and Adlai

Patricia Milligan Harris, Adlai: The Springfield Years. Aurora Publishers (Nashville/London), 1975, 194 pp. $7.95

THE RELATIONS of the governor with the state house press corps were often less than cordial 25 years ago, a former Springfield news bureau manager recounts in Adlai: The Springfield Years. Patricia Milligan Harris (now with the Tennessee state education department's public relations section) followed Stevenson's progress from candidate for governor until his presidential candidacy in 1952; she later returned to work in his pre-convention headquarters in Chicago for a few months in 1955-56. Her memoir of these years reveals as much about the newsmen of that era as it does about the governor who grew into a world figure.

When word got around that Stevenson was planning to hold the traditional governor's dinner for the press at a local hotel instead of the Executive Mansion, Ms. Harris realized the reporters were offended. So, she picked up the phone and warned him, and Stevenson avoided this mistake. Yet despite her continued concern for his press relations, one of her last recollections is of his bitterness toward reporters. At a staff dinner at Stevenson's home in Libertyville in 1955, she saw a scrapbook of clippings and remarked to him, "You'd be surprised to know how many friends you had among the press in Springfield."

"Instantly, his pleasant smile vanished and he stared at me incredulously. Then, in an icy tone, he snapped:

"'I certainly would!' "

This book is a useful addition to the writings about Stevenson, but it will be read in Illinois also because of its anecdotes about such newsmen as Pete Akers, Charles Cleveland, Don Chamberlain, John Dreiske, George Tagge, and Charles Wheeler and the news they covered—gambling raids, the cat bill and its veto, the horsemeat scandal, sale of race track stock to insiders. However high Stevenson's own standards of official morality were, the political environment was sordid. How it compares with the present, each reader can judge for himself or herself.

But the book does not pretend to be a political or governmental history and is quite incomplete on that score. There is a bare mention of the Gateway Amendment to the Constitution, and no mention at all of the Schaefer Commission which prepared a plan for the reorganization of state government and which included on its staff a young lawyer, Dan Walker, too obscure to be noticed then. For that he can be grateful; most of those in official life whom Harris recalls are the ridiculous objects of newsmen's private jokes. This makes for entertaining reading but the picture that emerges is two-dimensional at best. / W.L.D.

BOOK REVIEW By JOSEPH A. TECSON
A member of the Regional Transportation Authority, he was a delegate to the Illinois Constitutional Convention.

A 'how-to-do-it' book

Illinois' Constitutional Convention: A success story of revision

Samuel K. Gove and Thomas R. Kitsos, Revision Success: The Sixth Illinois Constitutional Convention. National Municipal League, 1974. 177 pp. $4.00.

IN THIS ERA of "how-to-do-it books," Professors Gove (University of Illinois) and Kitsos (University of Colorado) have provided for future state constitution planners, revisors, and implementors, a handbook on "how to successfully revise a state constitution." The experiences of the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention are utilized by extracting from those experiences, certain ingredients necessary for successful constitutional revision. The authors, who were present during the entire process in Illinois, reveal that pre-planning commenced three years before the convention with the appointment of a study commission by the General Assembly.

Voter approval for the calling of the convention, and the election of delegates required strong support and efforts on the part of various groups who had to be mobilized and financed. The news media played a major role. Preliminary studies to provide physical and financial convention needs were carried out. Issue papers were drafted, and proposed convention rules were written so that the delegates would have a running start when the convention convened on December 8, 1969.

Without attempting to probe deeply into the substantive issues, the authors identify basic issues facing the delegates such as "home rule," revenue, judicial selection, the structure of the General Assembly, and the length of the executive branch ballot.

Personal and subjective insights into the leadership of the convention and attitudes of delegates are provided.

Although the convention, in theory, was non-partisan, it had strong political influences, both internally and externally. It did, however, manage to prevent political influences from coloring all of its decisions. Independents are described as holding the swing votes between Democrates and Republicans. The delegates are described as "a mosaic of interesting similarities and differences; a curious mixture of some political 'pros' and many novices."

Although pre-planning and issue papers were important, it was the delegates themselves, their willingness to work steadily and hard; and some of their very human qualities which contributed immensely to the convention's ultimate work product.

The last seven days of the nine-month convention involved exciting and unpredictable events which impacted upon the important decisions relating to the selection process of public officials in the legislative and judicial branches of government. These decisions resulted in determining the strategy of placement of the issues on the ballot. The delegates decided to submit the main document to the voters on a "yes or no" basis and the politically controversial items relating to how the legislators and judiciary would be selected, were presented to the voters as alternatives to be voted on separately. Also, the emotionally controversial items, the abolition of the death penalty and the lowering of the voting age to 18, were voted on separately so as not to endanger the approval of the main document.

Although the authors frequently express opinions on minor matters, giving the impression that the convention was a "qualified" success, an analysis of the main ingredients in their monograph reveals that the convention was successfully called, successfully held and completed on schedule, and most importantly, the convention work product was a strong success with the ultimate decision-makers, the voters.

Perhaps the comprehensive lesson which is implicit in this study of the constitutional revision success in Illinois is that the delegates simultaneously and appropriately manifested the characteristics of politicians, statesmen, pragmatists, and students of political science. In other words, it is a recognition of the real world "give and take," where every major faction in a state must "win a little" and "lose a little," which results in the writing of a well balanced constitution. Only such balance will attract the broad-based support from civic, business and professional groups, and especially from the news media which is essential for voter approval of constitutional revision. ˛

September 1975 / Illinois Issues / 277