Armistice in Illinois

Illinois Democrats put aside local squabbles and asked their showiest vote-getter to run for governor. Cook County's third-term Attorney Thomas James ("Honest Tom") Courtney, 49, whose silver hair and slanted smile are not lost on feminine voters, flatly demanded the support of Colonel Frank Knox's Chicago Daily News and Marshall Field's Chicago Sun. Getting it, he graciously accepted the draft. If he wins the Democratic primary, he will fight it out next November with the G.O.P.'s handsome, grey Governor Dwight Green, able, amiable yes-man of Colonel Robert R. McCormick's Chicago Tribune. The New Dealish Sun gave a well-modulated cheer: "[Courtney] has an opportunity to spearhead a fighting campaign to rescue Illinois from ... the G.O.P.'s worst tory-isolationists."

From his home at swank Edgewater Beach Hotel, Candidate Courtney eyed Illinois's rural downstate vote, mapped a campaign that would emphasize his longtime feuding with that old city slicker, Mayor Ed Kelly. There were two minor flaws in this bid for the farm vote. First, Tom Courtney is no bumpkin himself, but the son of a Chicago policeman. He spent his childhood selling papers on the city's streets. Second, his feuding with the Big City's Kelly is temporarily suspended. The new spirit of sweet harmony among Illinois Democrats was keynoted when Tom Courtney announced his candidacy: "Surely there is no quicker or better way of winning the war than by upholding the hands of our President, Franklin D. Roosevelt."

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