Cleveland: Man to Watch

Clevelanders knew they had a good thing two years ago when they elected Frank John Lausche mayor by the greatest majority in the city's history. Last week, up for reelection, gangly, earnest Frank Lausche (rhymes with how shay) got 71% of the vote--the biggest percentage in Cleveland's history. He captured 32 of the city's 33 wards, lacked only a hundred votes of carrying the 33rd. A Democrat, he swept Republican wards with ease. On his coattails, Democrats elected their first city council in 30 years. He was the only Democrat of stature above the Mason Dixon line to win in last week's Republican sweep.

Sandlot Star. Lausche is 48, tall, modest, curly-haired (see cut). Son of a Slovene steelworker, he grew up in the factory section, helped support nine brothers and sisters after his father died. On Cleveland's sandlots he became a star third baseman, was playing pro ball for Duluth when World War I broke out. He came out of the war a second lieutenant, rejected baseball for law. By 1934 he was police judge. Friends used to find him after court, brooding, haunted by doubts of the justice of his decisions. They guessed he was upward bound, unless his intensity broke him physically.

Long before Pearl Harbor, Lausche was interventionist. His election in 1941 was virtually a Cleveland referendum on the war; and he soundly trounced rabid isolationist Congressman Martin Sweeney. Cleveland, under Lausche, has feared no Detroit riots. (His ticket last week included three Negro Councilmen.) As mayor, he has helped settle many a labor dispute, has had labor unions with him from the start. So are local G.O.P. businessmen: his Republican opponent had a hard time getting campaign finances.

Big League? Overnight, Lausche became the hottest Democratic prospect in Ohio. Though he is a Roosevelt supporter, he owes nothing to the party. He won his record majority in 1941 as an independent; then the party got on his bandwagon.

Cleveland's mayoralty is a good springboard: Newton D. Baker became Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of War; Republican Mayor Harold Burton, Lausche's predecessor, is a rising U.S. Senator. More than Ohioans will watch Frank Lausche.

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