BOOK REVIEW
Adlai E. Stevenson: Portrait of a collector, patrician,
candidate, political strategist, governor
John Bartlow Martin, Adlai Stevenson of
Illinois. Garden City, New York:
Doubleday & Co., ix plus 828 pp. $15.00
"STEVENSON was a string-saver; he almost literally never threw anything away. Among his papers one can find not only the longhand first drafts of famous speeches but also football game ticket stubs and old dance programs. His archive is enormous." In preparing his mammoth biography of Adlai E. Stevenson, John Bartlow Martin has sorted through the public and private papers and memorabilia of the archive. The definitive biography is a massive but engrossing account of Stevenson's life from February 5, 1900, when he was born in Bloomington, until his defeat for the presidency in 1952. (A second volume, Adlai Stevenson and the World, is planned.)
The result is an extraordinarily searching examination of the first 52 years of Stevenson's life. As such, it gives unusual insights into the life style of one of Illinois' privileged class; explaining how the patrician Stevenson maneuvered his way into the sordid politics of Illinois; how the demands of public life affected his private life (his wife, Ellen, divorced him while he was governor of Illinois); and finally, how he faced up to the demands, philosophical as well as physical, of campaigning.
Stevenson's first real exposure to the public came after his election to the presidency of the Chicago Council of Foreign Relations, an activity of those prominent in Chicago society. His associations with these wealthy North Shore Republicans deepened his conservatism, and in the 1952 campaign he told labor audiences more than once that he was not the "captive" of labor.
Reluctant candidate
As early as 1930, he toyed with the idea of
running for the legislature. In 1947, he was a
reluctant, but successful candidate for
governor, and in 1952 he was able to hold off
on a commitment to run as the Democratic
presidential candidate until he was drafted
by the party's convention in Chicago.
Martin's record of his actions leaves it to the
reader to decide whether Stevenson was
purposefully coy in both elections. Was
Stevenson's diffidence in 1947 genuine or merely an attempt to strengthen his own position with the Chicago party bosses? Did he hang back in 1952 to avoid too close an association with Truman (who tried to persuade him to run), or because he feared if Eisenhower was nominated by the Republicans , he would be (as it turned out) unbeatable, or simply because he wished to avoid the ordeal of candidacy?
Stevenson's ostensible reason for refusing to seek the Democratic presidential nomination was that he had made a prior commitment to run for governor again. When he became the presidential candidate, he continued as governor and, indeed, at one point had to interrupt his campaign to fly back to Illinois and deal with a riot at Menard prison. His campaign was directed from Springfield, and liaison with national Democratic headquarters in Washington was poor. He had a number of talented (and famous) speech writers in Springfield, including his biographer, Martin, but he was forever revising speeches and neglecting political contacts.
A warm man
Yet he was a warm man, one of whose
major characteristics was his concern for
people. Martin quotes George Ball as saying
of the U.S. navy secretary during the war
who failed to retain Stevenson in the Navy
department: "Forrestal really hated Stevenson.
They were completely different temperaments.
Forrestal was brutal and a son of a
bitch. He made a fetish of being tough-
minded — the kind of thing Stevenson
abhorred."
Stevenson's years as governor are over- shadowed in the book by his rise to national prominence. While Martin writes of his governorship with authority, a reference to the "little Hoover" commission (to reorganize state government) headed by Walter Schaefer is relegated to a footnote. Yet there is much here of his relations with the General Assembly and such rising Democratic leaders as Richard J. Daley, now mayor of Chicago. (Pete Akers in the Chicago Sun- Times congratulated Stevenson on his appointment of Daley as state revenue director.)
How did Stevenson rate as a governor His son, Adlai 111, now a U.S. senator, said in an interview with Martin that if his father "had had more experience in politics and he had better understood the dimensions of his power, he might have done more to reform the government and his party." Carl McGowan, his closest staff member and now a federal judge, thought his weakness was his failure to spend enough, to ask for a sales tax increase: "he didn't think in terms of spending enough money." (But he did obtain a gas tax increase.) Congressman Abner J. Mikva, drawn into politics by Stevenson blames Paul Powell for the "myth" that Stevenson was "an ineffective governor" arguing on the contrary that "the truth is that to this day you can't turn anywhere in Illinois without seeing his mark." Martin himself concedes Stevenson was less successful in his legislative program than his Republican successor, William G. Stratton, but points out that Stevenson had to deal with a Republican Senate during two sessions and a Republican House during one session. Nor was he outstanding as a political leader, Martin says, except for slating Schaefer for the Illinois Supreme Court (certainly a high mark there!). Still, Martin concludes, "by bringing good men into government, he did improve the tone ... of state government. This, in a state as big and corrupt as Illinois, is no small accomplishment."
Martin, an able journalist now on the faculty of Northwestern University, had written an article about the Centralia mine disaster during the Green administration before he knew Stevenson. Later he was associated with him as a writer and advisor. The book was undertaken six months after Stevenson's death in July 1965, with the full cooperation of the Stevenson family and access to the Stevenson papers. Despite this close relationship, no overt partiality is apparent; he has dealt as openly with Stevenson's shortcomings as with his successes. At the same time, Martin's ad miration for Stevenson galvanizes the book and makes it a great biography, moving and full of life./ W. L.D.D.ž
24/ July 1976/ Illinois Issues