National Affairs: The Unthinkable Happens

To Chicago's boodling, buccaneering Democratic machine, the idea of a reformer as state's attorney (county prosecutor) has long been unthinkable. Last week the unthinkable happened: Benjamin S. Adamowski, a onetime Democrat who turned Republican in protest against the machine's wide-open rule, was elected Cook County state's attorney, with his own detective force, the power of subpoena—and the personal ability and determination to give the organization some days it will never forget. In an election that saw Republicans carry Cook County for Eisenhower, for U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen and nearly all county offices, Reformer Adamowski's victory was the one that hurt the...

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