Word: warded
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...city worker he grinned at, also a precinct captain in the mayor's own 11th ward, returned his smile. He knew tonight was important. Mayor Richard J. Daley wanted this to be the largest parade ever held for a single individual. It would be bigger than the torchlight parades he organized for JFK and LBJ. The mayor is no Carter fanatic, but he needs a Carter victory to help carry his gubernatorial candidate, Michael J. Howlett, into office. So for Daley, control of the state is at stake; control means patronage, and patronage is power...
This summer I worked as a planning intern in City Hall, where I befriended some of the cigar-chomping politicos who make the place their ward headquarters away from home. The following description of the Chicago patronage system was provided by men who admit they owe their livelihoods, and often their social lives, to the machine. All the detailed information was necessarily supplied by well-connected precinct captains, and as usual, the names are changed to protect the guilty...
Patronage jobs doled out by the city and county number not in the hundreds, but in the thousands and probably the tens of thousands. Johnny, a precinct captain in the mayor's ward, estimates that of the more than 35,000 employees the city hires directly, 80 per cent got their jobs through political connections. This figure does not include another 33,000 policemen, firemen and Board of Education personnel, many of whom also got their positions through a "sponsor." Even though I was only a summer intern in City Hall's "cleanest" department, seven fellow workers asked...
Most city job seekers have to be sponsored, which means they better have a letter from their ward office when they report to personnel. This infamous "letter," signed in most cases by the ward committeeman, states that the applicant has been faithful and useful to the ward organization (the Democratic one, of course) and is thus recommended for a position the committeeman knows is his to give out. Hiring is not automatic, though. If the applicant is totally unqualified for the job, the ward may be told to sponsor someone else--but this is far rarer than are incompetent employees...
...than ever. Attendance was up 5% despite the absence of rousing pennant races. Happiness, as usual, was a warm winner. The World Champion Reds rolled methodically through their season, clinching their fifth division title in seven years. For the Reds, titles are so routine, and the dressing room after ward was so subdued, that Presider Robert Howsam had to splash champagne himself. Said he: "Some of these guys are acting too dignified...