Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-cnmwb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-22T01:45:52.527Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What Bonded Immigrants to Urban Machines? The Case of Jacob Arvey and Chicago’s 24th Ward

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2013

PERI E. ARNOLD
PERI E. ARNOLD*
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Policy History , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , October 2013 , pp. 463 - 488
Copyright
Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1. Cornwell, Elmer E. Jr., “Bosses, Machines, and Ethnic Groups,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 353 (1964): 27–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Oscar Handlin, The Uprooted, 2nd ed. (Boston, 1973), esp. chap. 8.

2. Perlman, Robert, Bridging Three Worlds: Hungarian-Jewish Americans, 1848–1914 (Amherst, 1991), 207.Google Scholar

3. Wolfinger, Raymond E., “Why Political Machines Have Not Withered Away and Other Revisionist Thoughts,” Journal of Politics 34 (1972): 365–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4. Trounstine, Jessica, Political Monopolies in American Cities: The Rise and Fall of Bosses and Reformers (Chicago, 2008), 36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5. Handlin, The Uprooted, 190.

6. See Craig Brown, M. and Halaby, Charles, “Machine Politics in America, 1870–1945, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 19 (1987): 587–612Google Scholar; Erie, Stephen P., Rainbow’s End: Irish Americans and the Dilemmas of Urban Machine Politics, 1840–1985 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1988), 193.Google Scholar

7. Stone, Clarence, “Urban Political Machines,” PS: Political Science and Politics 29 (1996): 448.Google Scholar

8. Trounstine, Political Monopolies, 34–35.

9. Banfield, Edward C. and Wilson, James Q., City Politics (Cambridge, Mass., 1963)Google Scholar; Guterbock, Thomas M., Machine Politics in Transition (Chicago, 1980): 7–8Google Scholar; and Erie, Rainbow’s End, 102–3.

10. For example, see Beunker, John D., “Dynamics of Chicago Ethnic Politics, 1900–1930,” Journal of the Illinois Historical Society 67 (1974): 175–99.Google Scholar

11. Reid, Joseph D. Jr. and Kurth, Michael M., “The Rise and Fall of Urban Political Patronage Machines,” in The Strategic Factors in Nineteenth-Century American Economic History, ed. Goldin, Claudia and Rockoff, Hugh (Chicago, 1992), 433.Google Scholar

12. McGerr, Michael, A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America (New York, 2003), 18–19Google Scholar; See Higham, John, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1865–1925 (New York, 1966).Google Scholar

13. Howells, William Dean, “An East Side Ramble,” in Impressions and Experiences, ed. Howells, W. D. (New York, 1896), 127–49.Google Scholar

14. Kantowicz, Edward R., Polish-American Politics in Chicago, 1888–1940 (Chicago, 1975), chaps. 15–16.Google Scholar

15. Wirth, Louis, The Ghetto (Chicago, 1928), chaps. 11–13.Google Scholar

16. Nelli, Humbert, Italians in Chicago (New York, 1970), 191Google Scholar; Walker, John, “Italians in Italy and America: A Study of Change Within Continuity for Immigrants to Three American Cities, 1890–1930” (Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota, 1972), 163.Google Scholar

17. Wierzbicki, Zbigniew T., “The Polish Schism in the United States,” in The Dynamics of East European Ethnicity Outside of Eastern Europe, ed. Portis Winner, Irene and Susel, Rudolph (Cambridge, Mass., 1983), 88.Google Scholar

18. Handlin, The Uprooted, 125.

19. Allswang, John M., A House of All Peoples: Ethnic Politics in Chicago, 1890–1936 (Lexington, Ky., 1971), 101–8.Google Scholar

20. Gosnell, Harold F., Machine Politics: Chicago Style (Chicago, 1937); Handlin, The Uprooted, 186.Google Scholar

21. Geertz, Clifford, “Religion as a Cultural System,” in The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays, ed. Geertz, Clifford (New York, 1973), 92.Google Scholar

22. Walsh, John P., “Abe Ruef Was No Boss: Machine Politics, Reform, and San Francisco,” California Historical Quarterly 51 (1972): 6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23. Gerald and Pomper, Miles, “Movers, Shakers, and Leaders: Jewish Party Politicians,” in Jews in American Politics, ed. Sandy Maisel, L. (Lanham, Md., 2001), 86.Google Scholar

24. Granger, Bill and Granger, Lori, Lords of the Last Machine (New York, 1987), 122.Google Scholar

25. Gordon, Albert I., Jews in Suburbia (Boston, 1959), 86.Google Scholar

26. Feingold, Henry L., A Time for Searching, Entering the Mainstream, 1920–1945, The Jewish People in America Series, vol. 4 (Baltimore, 1992), 193.Google Scholar

27. “Arvey Rises to Power in Fast Strides,” Chicago Daily News, 16 October 1936.

28. Mazur, Edward H., Minyans for a Prairie City: The Politics of Chicago Jewry, 1850–1940 (New York, 1990), 324–27.Google Scholar

29. David Levy, interviewed by Janet Adams, 20 August 1979, transcript, Baltimore Neighborhood Heritage Project, University of Baltimore Special Collections.

30. Mazur, Minions, 334.

31. For voter registration by ward, see Chicago Daily News Almanac and Year Book, 1936, 833.

32. See Gamm, Gerald H., The Making of New Deal Democrats: Voting Behavior and Realignment in Boston, 1920–1940 (Chicago, 1986), chap. 2.Google Scholar

33. Daily News Almanac, 1924, 738.

34. Daily News Almanac, 1925, 780.

35. Mazur gives voting data in percentage terms. Minyans, 304.

36. Daily News Almanac, 1928, 766, 762.

37. Fuchs, Lawrence H., The Political Behavior of American Jews (Glencoe, 1956), 131.Google Scholar

38. Mazur defines a Jewish precinct as over 55 percent Jewish. Minyans, 407.

39. Daily News Almanac, 1931, 818.

40. Map of Chicago Census Areas, “Economic Status, 1934,” Social Science Research Committee Maps, University of Chicago Library at http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/maps/ssrc/.

41. Illinois Commerce Commission, “Transcript of Hearing on July 2, 1935,” 658, Jacob M. Arvey Papers, box 14, folder 9, Chicago Historical Society, Chicago.

42. “Ghetto Safer Than Rich Zone as Birthplace,” Chicago Daily News, 13 May 1929.

43. Notebook, Record of Patronage Jobs, n.d., box 1, folder 1, Arvey Papers. David Fremon estimates that in the 1930s Chicago’s machine wards each had about 285 patronage positions. Chicago Politics Ward by Ward (Bloomington, 1988), 101.

44. H. Dicken Cherry, “Effective Precinct Organization” (M.A. thesis, University of Chicago, 1952), 70.

45. Emmet, Boris and Jeuck, John E., Catalogues and Counters: A History of Sears, Roebuck and Company (Chicago, 1950), 289.Google Scholar

46. Kerwin, Jerome J., “Electoral Administration in Chicago,” The American Political Science Review 21 (1927): 830–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47. “335 Voters of One Precinct All Vote Alike,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 10 November 1923.

48. Forthal, Sonya, “The Precinct Worker,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 259 (1948): 30–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49. The Reminiscences of Jacob M. Arvey, Interviewed by Kenneth Davis, transcript, 24 May 1967, in the Oral History Collection of Columbia University, New York.

50. Report, Disposition of Vote Fraud Cases, to the Honorable Edmund K. Jarecki, n.d., box 25, folder 193, Edmund Jarecki Papers, Special Collections, Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois Chicago.

51. Bombs were a commonplace weapon in Chicago’s 1920s political strife. See Nelli, Italians in Chicago, 107–10.

52. Burgess, Ernest W. and Newcom, Charles, eds., Census Data of the City of Chicago, 1930 (Chicago, 1933)Google Scholar, data for census area 29, table 5, p. 636.

53. Rosenthal, Erich, “This Was North Lawndale: The Transplantation of a Jewish Community,” Jewish Social Studies 22 (1960)Google Scholar: 69; Memo, “Facts and Services Regarding 24th Ward,” January 1929, box 8, folder 14, Arvey Papers.

54. See Berman, Hyman, “Political Antisemitism in Minnesota During the Depression,” Jewish Social Studies 38 (1976): 247–64Google Scholar; and Riesman, David, “The Politics of Persecution,” Public Opinion Quarterly 6 (1942): 41–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

55. Cohen, Steven M. and Fein, Leonard J., “From Integration to Survival: American Jewish Anxieties in Transition,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 480 (1985): 75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

56. Wirth, The Ghetto, 255.

57. Sarna, Jonathan D., American Judaism: A History (New Haven, 2004), 222.Google Scholar

58. Schneider, Dorothee, “Naturalization and United States Citizenship in Two Periods of Mass Migration: 1894–1930, 1965–2000,” Journal of American Ethnic History 21 (Fall 2001): 50–82.Google Scholar

59. Jacob Arvey, transcript of speech, box 14, folder 14, Arvey Papers.

60. See “Golem Legend,” in The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, vol. 1 (New Haven, 2008), 614–16.

61. Jacob Arvey, transcript of speech, n.d. (mid-1934 by internal evidence), box 14, folder 14, Arvey Papers.

62. Benjamin Ginsberg, “Identity and Politics: Dilemmas of Jewish Leadership in America,” in Jews and American Politics, ed. L. Sandy Maisel, 15.

63. Burns, James McGregor, Leadership (New York, 1978), 19.Google Scholar

64. News clipping from 1929 without title and date, “Arvey’s Home Dedicated by Chicago Rabbis,” box 16, folder 1, Arvey Papers.

65. Goren, Arthur, The Politics and Public Culture of American Jews (Bloomington, 1999), 46.Google Scholar

66. “Candidate for Alderman of the 24th Ward,” The Sentinel, 23 February 1923.

67. Cleveland, Charles B., “Col. Jack Arvey: A Master Politician for the Democratic Organization,” Illinois Issues 34 (1977).Google Scholar

68. Letters, Max Shulman to Arvey, 25 November 1931; Shulman to Arvey, 9 December 1931, box 9, folder 6, Arvey Papers.

69. Letter, Rabbi M. B. Sacks to Arvey, 2 June 1932, box 9, folder 8, Arvey Papers.

70. By “authentic,” I mean Jewish practice understood as consistent with rabbinic tradition and law. On Orthodox Judaism in America during the 1930s, see Sarna, American Judaism, 227–42. On Orthodoxy as “normative,” see David Gelernter, Judaism: A Way of Being (New Haven, 2009).

71. Jacob Arvey, transcript of speech to the Kehilla Bazaar, n.d., box 14, folder 14, Arvey Papers.

72. Samuel A. Goldsmith, transcript, “The Functional Agency and the Federation in Community Planning,” May 1932, box 3, folder 37, Samuel A. Goldsmith Papers, Special Collections, Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois Chicago.

73. “Federation Receipts and Disbursements, 1930 and 1932, box 8, folder 69 and box 9, folder 77, Goldsmith Papers.

74. “Jottings,” Chicago Jewish Chronicle, 2 June 1933.

75. Telegram, Sacks to Arvey, 4 May 1936, box 14, folder 10, Arvey Papers.

76. Arvey’s appointment books, spanning 1932 to 1939, offer evidence of his organizational memberships and day-to-day service activities; box 1, Arvey Papers.

77. “The Second Chanukah Festival—And Why There was a Festival Performance—The Reason: Alderman Jacob M. Arvey,” Chicago Jewish Chronicle, 15 December 1933.

78. Standard Opinion, n.d. (but located in folder of 1929 newspaper clippings), box 16, folder 3, Arvey Papers.

79. Mazur, Minyans, 313.

80. Quoted in Leon Despres, “A Candid Assessment of Jews in Chicago Politics Since 1920,” Chicago Jewish History (2008): 13

81. Letter, Arvey to his family, 17 March 1959, a copy of which is found in box 1, folder 1, Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Papers, Special Collections, Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois, Chicago.

82. “Your Passover Duty,” The Jewish Express, 27 March 1936.

83. Jacob Arvey to every elected judge, by name, 8 June 1933, box 1, folder 2, Arvey Papers.

84. Letter, Sweitzer to Arvey, 18 April 1934, box 1, folder 2, Arvey Papers.

85. For example, concerning the 1939 contest, letters, Lawrence J. Bernstein to Arvey, 3 March 1939, and Arvey to Bernstein, 16 March 1939, box 8, folder 6, Arvey Papers.

86. Letter, Arvey to candidates, 2 April 1936, box 18, folder 7, Arvey Papers.

87. Arvey gained wealth through fees from probate court and strategic investments in Chicago real estate. He described the relationship of his finances and politics in a 1973 interview by Joe Mathewson, “Jacob Arvey, Boss,” Chicago Tribune, 18 May 1973; Arvey had expanded his city council finance committee staff payroll to $167,172 from his predecessor’s $79,410. “Arvey Relatives Crowd Payroll,” newspaper unidentified, 24 August 1939. Clipping located in box 1, folder 1, Marovitz Papers.

88. “For Dever,” Chicago Jewish Chronicle, 2 March 1923.

89. Arvey was in a minority on the education committee, defending the mayor’s reform-minded 1927 school board nominations. However, after months of conflict, the full board confirmed the nominees. “Reports of the Committees,” 16 February 1927, box 3, folder 5, Arvey Papers.

90. “Alderman Arvey Makes Excellent Record,” Chicago Jewish Chronicle, May 8, 1929.

91. “No More Missionaries in Lawndale,” The Sentinel, July 27, 1923, 16.

92. “Good Morning,” Daily Jewish Courier, 20 March 1924.

93. Letters, Arvey to Collins, 23 June 1923; Collins to Arvey, 26 June 1923; and Arvey to Collins, 10 July 1923, box 8, folder 1, Arvey Papers.

94. “Missionaries Acknowledge They Are Hit in a Vital Spot,” The Sentinel, 24 August 1923. 34.

95. “In Union There Is Strength,” The Sentinel, 6 July 1923, 12.

96. Daily Jewish Courier, 5 March 1924.

97. “City Council Protests Against Immigration Bill,” The Sentinel, 7 March 1924, 14.

98. Letters, Edith Eisman to Arvey, 30 December 1924; Arvey to Eisman, 14 January 192; and William Hale Thompson to Arvey, 6 January 1926, box 3, folder 17, Arvey Papers.

99. Standard Opinion, 23 February 1929.

100. Allswang, A House for All Peoples, 106.

101. “Arvey Presides over Council for First Time,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 11 May 1933.

102. Allswang, A House for All Peoples, 212.

103. Trounstine, Political Monopolies, 86.

104. Letter, Bernard Bolotin to Arvey, 9 November 1938, box 15, folder 4, Arvey Papers.

105. Jacob Arvey, transcript of speech to City Council, 2 October 1939, box 9, folder 11, Arvey Papers.

106. McDonald, Terrence J., “The Burdens of Urban History: The Theory of the State in Recent American Social History,” Studies in American Political Development 3 (1989): 3–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Erie, Steven P., “Bringing the Bosses Back In: The Irish Political Machines and Urban Policy Making,” Studies in American Political Development 4 (1990): 269–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

107. Gosnell, Machine Politics, 77.

108. Letter, Arvey to Horner, 15 July 1936, box 14, folder11; Telegram, Kelly to Arvey, 7 July 1936, box 14, folder 11; and Arvey “list of donations,” box 14, folder 11, Arvey Papers.

109. Littlewood, Thomas B., Horner of Illinois (Evanston, 1969), 86–169Google Scholar. Ultimately it was the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration that supplied the city’s government with sufficient jobs to sharply reduce those on relief. Gosnell, Machine Politics, 74–75; Erie, Rainbow’s End, 110, 126; Edwin Amenta and Drew Halfmann, “Who Voted with Hopkins? Institutional Politics and the WPA,” Journal of Policy History 13 (2001): 251–87.

110. “Kelly and State Leaders Confer on Governorship,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 9 December 1935; “Drop Horner; Pick Bundesen,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 13 January 1936.

111. “Judge Fisher’s Son Is Ousted in Horner Rift,” Chicago Tribune, 12 March 1936.

112. “Costly Treachery,” The Sentinel, 9 January 1936, 4.

113. Mazur, Minyans, 376–77.

114. Letter, Julius Klein to Arvey, 1 March 1936; and Rabbi Abraham Abramowitz to Arvey, 3 March 1936, box 14, folder 14, Arvey Papers.

115. “Arvey Stepping Down as 24th Ward Chief,” clipping from unidentified paper (14 February 1936), box 17, folder 3, Arvey Papers.

116. Quoted in Littlewood, Horner, 173–74.

117. Jacob Arvey, transcript of address for “Jewish Hour,” 12 April 1936, box 20, folder 6, Arvey Papers.

118. Jacob Arvey, speech, n.d., box 14, folder 14, Arvey Papers.

119. Tally Sheet, box 19, folder 3, Arvey Papers.

120. Mazur, Minyans, 358–59; “Vote by Wards in Democratic Governor’s Race,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 16 April 1936.

121. Letter, Patrick Nash to Arvey, 17 April 1936, box 18, folder 7, Arvey Papers.

122. Littlewood, Horner, 182.

123. Letter, Joseph Lowitz to Arvey, 18 April 1936, box 18, folder 8, Arvey Papers.

124. Jacob Arvey, text of speech for WIND Radio, 3 November 1940, box 20, folder 9, Arvey Papers.

125. Letter, Arvey to Jacob Seigel, 18 March 1941, box 1, folder 3, Jacob Seigel Papers, Special Collections, Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois Chicago.

126. “77.59 Percent Against War in Latest Tribune Tally,” Chicago Daily Tribune, 7 July 1941.

127. See Roger Biles, Big City Boss in Depression and War: Mayor Edward J. Kelly of Chicago (DeKalb, 1984).

128. Erie, Rainbow’s End, 150.

129. Harry Eckstein, “Case Study and Theory in Political Science,” in Strategies of Inquiry, ed. Fred I. Greenstein and Nelson Polsby, vol. 7, Handbook of Political Science (Reading, Mass., 1975), 118.