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Illinois has a long tradition of corruption. A high state official once complacently defined good government as one in which 50¢ of the taxpayer's dollar went to the state and 50¢ into the politicians' pockets. And the tradition comes down to very recent times. Three years ago, when Dwight Green was governor, the boodling pols still waxed fat in the land. Nevertheless, in its 133 years, the state has had some really good governors. One was John Peter Altgeld, "the eagle forgotten." One was Henry Horner, a great Depression governor. And Illinois has a good governor now: Adlai* Ewing Stevenson, a political amateur turned pro. In his three years in Springfield, Stevenson has:
¶Sent state police out to stop commercial gambling downstate, when local officials failed to act.
¶Lopped 1,300 political hangers-on off the state payroll.
¶Established a merit system in the state police force, where the 500 jobs had been political plums.
¶Increased state aid to school districts. CJ Launched a broad road-improvement program, which includes enforcing truck weight limits, a higher gasoline tax and higher truck license fees to pay construction costs.
¶Overhauled the state's welfare program, establishing a merit system, forcing financially able relatives to pay for the care of patients.
¶Pushed through 78 bills to streamline the state government. CJ Reorganized the political State Commerce Commission, the utility rate setting agency, to make it bipartisan.
Stevenson looks and acts more like a hurrying, harried diplomat than a politician. Nearing 52, he has earned a small tendency to paunch and jowl, but he still gives the impression of slightness, and is light enough on his feet to play a fair game of tennis. His manner is lawyerlike, earnest and—sometimes patiently, sometimes anxiously—engaging. He has a rueful laugh, nervous and sudden, a tongue in his head, and a head on his shoulders. When he has a hard decision to make, he sometimes holds his head as if it hurts him. He has had to make a good many hard decisions as governor of Illinois.
He is a Democrat whom thousands of Illinois Republicans have voted for and probably will vote for again. Even the Chicago Tribune has on occasion mildly approved some of his statesmanlike acts. Again & again he has said in speeches: "I think government should be as small in scope and as local in character as possible."
Although Adlai Stevenson was a rank amateur in practical politics when he became governor of Illinois in 1949, he inherited a rich family tradition of public service. His ancestral hero is great-grandfather Jesse W. Fell, who trudged into Illinois with a knapsack over his shoulder in 1832. Jesse Fell was a lawyer who became a real-estate developer and city planner, and was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln. He was the first to describe Lincoln as presidential timber. A staunch Republican, Fell proposed the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and played an important part in the Lincoln-for-President campaign.