The Make-Do Man

Nearly everybody in Louisville felt something personal about Mayor Charles Peaslee Farnsley's way of running the city. He had put television into the city libraries ("Only city in the country where you don't have to go into the saloons," said he), had conducted weekly open "beef sessions" for irate citizens, had roped off special streets for roller-skating and games, had set up "tot-lots" on unused property for the benefit of weary mothers, had found many a way to make do on a narrow budget. Sample: paving only the center lanes of streets to make his repair funds stretch twice as far, a practice Louisville refers to as "half-soling" the streets.

Charley Farnsley, 42, is a friendly, free-wheeling lawyer who always wears a black string tie (the "Farnsley tie" is for sale in the city's department stores), poses half-jokingly as a professional Confederate. Part showman, part philosopher, part politician, he was first appointed to a mayoralty vacancy in 1948 because the aldermen were deadlocked over two other candidates, knew Charley had "a million friends and no enemies."

Thus when Charley Farnsley last week ran on his record--without a harsh word about his Republican opponents--he rolled into a four-year term with a whopping majority.

Other winning mayors: P:In Cleveland, Tom Burke, cherubic protege of Governor Frank Lausche, won a third term with majorities in every one of the city's 33 wards, looked like the hottest candidate the Democrats could put against Republican Senator Robert Taft in the crucial Ohio battle next year. P: In Detroit, City Treasurer Albert Cobo, backed by the A.F.L., inundated Union Official George Edwards, who was blessed by the C.I.O. Powerful as are the C.I.O. Auto Workers in Detroit, they have never been able to elect one of their own as mayor.

P:In Pittsburgh, stubby David L. Lawrence,* Democratic boss of western Pennsylvania, was re-elected to a second term in the biggest vote ever cast in a Pittsburgh mayoralty election by the biggest majority in the city's history.

P:In Bridgeport, Conn., Jasper McLevy, 71-year-old Socialist who runs a tight, thrifty administration, was returned for his ninth term.

*Not to be confused with Columnist David Lawrence, no kin.

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