Books in Brief: Don’t Make No Waves-Don’t Back No Losers

Don’t Make No Waves-Don’t Back No Losers, An Insider’s Analysis of the Daley Machine, by Milton L. Rakove (Indiana, 296 pp., $10).

The author, a Chicago political science professor, portrays machine-politics-with-a-human-face-in this case, the relatively pretty visage of Richard J. Daley, Chicago’s mayor since 1955 and, more significantly, chairman of the Cook County Democratic Central Committee since 1953. The secret of Daley’s political success, Rakove writes, is his skill “in the art of not making decisions.” When a subordinate asks Daley’s advice on an administrative matter, he is likely to get a noncommittal grunt in reply. Most mayors seem to have developed this technique, but in Chicago the city official who makes a wrong decision “may be looking for another job in the very near future.” Or he may not. Rakove is more convincing with his theory that Daley-even in his exalted office-”is still a precinct captain” and never forgets that voters “can be influenced most by ministering carefully to their daily and personal needs.” To some old party hands, a seat in Congress is a valid personal need. One Chicago politician, sent to the House for his maiden term when well over seventy, was asked by Speaker Rayburn why the machine had ever endorsed him. “Because it was my turn!” he replied. With Cook County’s changing demographics, the old-line organization cannot indefinitely afford either waves or losers. But for anyone interested in starting a machine of his or her own, Rakove’s insights into the ethos of ward heeling and his romantic account of precinct-level organizing will be invaluable, and possibly even valuable. WHIT STILLMAN

WS

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Whit Stillman

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Don’t Make No Waves-Don’t Back No Losers, An Insider’s Analysis of the Daley Machine, by Milton L. Rakove (Indiana, 296 pp., $10).

The author, a Chicago political science professor, portrays machine-politics-with-a-human-face-in this case, the relatively pretty visage of Richard J. Daley, Chicago’s mayor since 1955 and, more significantly, chairman of the Cook County Democratic Central Committee since 1953. The secret of Daley’s political success, Rakove writes, is his skill “in the art of not making decisions.” When a subordinate asks Daley’s advice on an administrative matter, he is likely to get a noncommittal grunt in reply. Most mayors seem to have developed this technique, but in Chicago the city official who makes a wrong decision “may be looking for another job in the very near future.” Or he may not. Rakove is more convincing with his theory that Daley-even in his exalted office-”is still a precinct captain” and never forgets that voters “can be influenced most by ministering carefully to their daily and personal needs.” To some old party hands, a seat in Congress is a valid personal need. One Chicago politician, sent to the House for his maiden term when well over seventy, was asked by Speaker Rayburn why the machine had ever endorsed him. “Because it was my turn!” he replied. With Cook County’s changing demographics, the old-line organization cannot indefinitely afford either waves or losers. But for anyone interested in starting a machine of his or her own, Rakove’s insights into the ethos of ward heeling and his romantic account of precinct-level organizing will be invaluable, and possibly even valuable. WHIT STILLMAN