Americanization; Civics; Immigrants -- United States; Naturalization -- United States; Noncitizens -- United States
Of the native-born precincts, so called, five indicated almost
straight Democratic tendencies; three were consistently Republican;
and two were of varying complexion as between the two great parties.
It should be remembered that the prevailing general complexion of the
city of Cleveland in recent years, and regardless of the “landslide”
of 1920, has been Democratic. Therefore the districts selected to
show the tendencies of the native born were fairly representative of
the situation.
The first election, 1911, was a straight partisan contest between Mr.
Baker, a Democrat, and Mr. Hogen, a Republican. In 1913, the city
tried, for the first time, its municipal nonpartisan ballot; but in
that year the old political parties were as powerful as ever. In the
election of 1915, Mr. Baker was not a candidate, but Peter Witt, long
associated with Mayor Tom L. Johnson, was the Democratic candidate.
This election exhibits circumstances and results significant not only
of the attitude of the foreign-born voter and his responsiveness to
political cross-currents, but of the extreme difficulty of isolating
particular factors as especially influential upon these voters.
Mr. Witt had just completed four years of service as Street Railway
Commissioner, and among the business and professional classes of
the town had won a rather reluctant recognition for efficiency, the
reluctance being largely due to the fact that in days when he was
campaigning for Tom Johnson he had been regarded as ultra-radical.
But his opponent in this campaign had no recognized record of
administrative capacity, and the Republicans themselves acknowledged
some doubt as to his ability, compared with the known ability of
Witt, to fulfill the duties of the mayoralty. Both candidates
were regarded without opposition by the “wet” element, though Mr.
Davis was perhaps more circumspect in his utterances on the liquor
question. The campaign did not touch the questions involved in the
European War until the very end, when, on the Sunday before election,
some supporter of Davis published and widely circulated among the
Bohemians (Czechs), Russians, and Italians a pamphlet in which Witt
was bitterly accused of being pro-German.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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