City-management experts Wil l iam Sommers, Jake Dunielle and Roy Anderson are amongthe young (average age -Jü) enthusiasts the reformers brought in to help clean up Peoria.

City manager George Bean gets a sharp word from councihvoman Mrs. MymaHarms, ni-w majority leader and critic of the PCM-n-rnrm administration

THE TOWN THAT REFORMED By John Bortlow Mortin

Corrupt and vice-ridden Peoria threw its rascals out and

imported some bright young idealists to manage things.

Now the town seems to hanker for the bad old ways.

Mayor Roljt-rt .Morgan The windiiw was shattered bya bomb racketeers planted to cool him off on reform.

O\LT the years, Peoria, Illinois, has bcctiI knoun as a steamboat town, n whi.sky

town, a railroad tuivn, a river town, aconvctilion town, a wide-open town. At onetitne it seemed less a city than a vaudevillejoke. Renowned fur its gamblinç, proslitutionand political corruption, it was accoutitcd al-most a classic case of American municipaldecay.

Two years ago the citizens voted tt» get ridof the old aldermanic form of governmcttt andto install the city-manager plan. The new ad-ministration assiduotisly scrubbed the cityelean, amid loud praise. And then, in an elec-tion a few months ago, the people issued asomewhat murky tnandate that seemed to in-dicate they thouglu maybe reform wasn't soyood after all Why .ind huw did all this eomeabotJt?

On a hot day in June, down by the edge ofthe Illinois River, where diesels hunk in therailroad yard.s and men make earth tnovcrs intlangorous factories, heat and smoke and the5tench from the stockyards press down on the«ray cottages and broketi streets in the sectioniif town known as The Valley. High on TheUliill and farther uut in The Knolls, the air iscleaner and trallie moves quietly pasi the man-

sions along Moss Avenue, I'eoria is built on-Steep-rising hills above the Illinois River, andit is sharply divided ititu Tlie Valley and TheBluff —the workers in The Valley, the ownerson The BlufT.

Tall oflïee buildinçs rise near the courthouse.SCI on a bench of land above the river, and outiti ihe wide one-way street a neat polieemanprowls up and down, chalking the tires ofparked automobiles. ("We're pushing ourchalking program vigorously," says ihe youngman in ihe city adtninistration who is givingme a conducted tour.)

The City Hall was built in 1 897-99, and theeopper on its dome is peeling away, and waterhas come through the roof, cracking theeeilingof the gritny council chamber. The new admin-istration has cleaned the tobaceojuiee of yearsfrom the marble walls of the tirst-floor hall-ways, has auctioned off the old spittoons, hasput fluorescent lights and brand-new steeldesks and business machines into the aiieientolTiees.

Across the street from City Hall is a patkinglot where onee stuod the headquarters of thepamblinii .syndicate-a gambliny easino, anaecounting office and a tavern. Citizens whoreceived tt afTic tickets used to go into th.- lav-

crti ¡IIKI d top llie liekets iiKit a linle'hnx, andon Friday sntneoiie wotild unover to C'ily Halland fix all ihe tiekels. And frotn this lie.id-qiiartcrs, loo, the gatnbiers brcughi tlirirmnnlhly tribute, paid diicelly iiil<j tlie rilytrea.siiry —as iiutili ;is S'i.''.iiiKi in one year

"The town is down" —everyone says so.No more organized gambling, no more organ-¡7ed prostittnioti. Tlie bars, once crov\de(l. arealmost deserted. The tliree latt-c n;iiiilillrig l a -sinos near CÜty Halt which lor years ollcrederaps, poker, loulette and horse betting areclosed. Slot machines have disappeared. Thehouses on Tlu- Lini-, ihe rtd-light districtfamed ihrouglmtii ibe Midwest, are dark. Abartender says, "This used to be the best tow iiin the country. Then we got a reform admin-istration. Now it ain't worth a damn . "

Students ofloeal lore traee Pcoria's predilec-tion for fronlier-siyle living lo the misteringstcatnboat days. Tiic town's recent bistory luisbeen enlivened by gunplay and the periodicbombing ofthe homes of law-enforcement olîï-cials. IVoriatts talk about corruption ihe waypeople elsewhere talk about ba.seball.

Oft and on, V.d WoodruH' was Peoria'smayor for tweniy-four years. An old-timer pol-itician recalls fondly, "Old i-.d Woodruff,

VOTE FOR INDEPENDENT ÇOUNCILMEN"PCOMJIKS tor PEORÍA

The opposition likesKiearicaiurellcmasihriiianwIiowams hi* own way wirh the i;ixpiiyi-r'i |WM-kr-ilMiiik.

T h e r e was a tnaii tha t was a l ibera l . Wlia im a d e the town a wide-opc ti l iberal town wasthat Kd W o o d n i i r M a r t e d in l f in .kmd lasted tilll.'H'.. If some reformer gol in Inr a wliili- aiulIIR- lown wasslowcfl tip a liltle, lie'tl get li.ii k inand opt-n her up- lU- poured out the jolis amiseen thai everybody tnade a little tnoni y .iiidcalcred lo T h e \ ' ; i l lcy and never paid any at-lenlion to the v\ssin i;ition of C u m m e r i ( \ l l fnever look a C[uarti-r himself '(bourse, he di i ln ' tmind his friends m a k i n ' soine of it. A n d liem a d e ihe g a m b l e r s b'-ing ii in a i c n i n p a i u n

Union spokr\n)an Richard F.' ti'p and councilman Jamrs Nfanning l<-d the recent campaign to "save Proria'' from(be rt-fonners. RcsuU: in the ckciions only OIR* PCM-approvcd man won—and he had renounced PCM support.

lime. But, lii-ll, they overdid it. They pul slotmachines in driigsion-s and s« liool znnes andgroLcries and beauty parlors.,

"Old lid had an old liiniseboat e.illcd thelltuiibiiat lunili'd up un tlir b.ttik of the river,and he and Ins cronies used to run the cityfrom it. I b a i was where they chopped theheads off" —that is, dispcMiM-d patronage."Thry'cJ go clmvii ihere aiicl they'd eat andchink and—you know, decide the t:ity policies.He was a tough Republican, but he"d play wttbthem Democrats. He didn' t bar any holts."

There were no applies linn forms fort ity jobs[ill the prcsctit administration came in Ex-cltiding firemen .itid pulicc, llie city etnployedabout •H*t people, and they were swept outwhen ihc mayor's office changed hands livenpolii-emu-n were iired and replaced with friendsof politieian.s. Who ran I lie police force?"Wel l ," says a veteran policeman, " there weretwenty-iwoalderttien. And eaeh alderman hadfive friends. How many's thai? Abaut a hun-dred ¡Hid ten?"

The presitit chief says, " I rtiii the policedepar tment ."

III lü.'tl the state legislature authnrÍ7edI'cotia lo adopt the t i ty-ii ianagrr pi.in if itwi,slifd. C:ivic groups loriurd the Peoii.uis forC;otinril-Man¡n;i r. They sny lliiit membershipwas upen to ilir publie, but I'C'M critics sayFClM was a closctl corporation. Mostly, PflM\va.s led hy men who Mv« Tlie Bluff andrr'presen I ihe IHISIIHSN mlerests of Peori;i.

One of ils yoting leaders, Joe Kelly, a cus-tomer's man in a slutk-brokerage firm, a big,crew-iut man of thiriy-t\M», has said, "Theywere all just gixid citizens sold on tbc idea ofthe need Itir ihc cicanttp of the city—hadsireets, bad streel lighting, plus the general de-crepitness of the eity. The pn^i(lcnl c»f PC:M,111(1 llie campaign manager were both leading

Jaycces. One was voted The OutstandingYoung Man of lihTI, We pui oui literature.We set up ;i speakers' bureau and Uilked lo fivehundred organizalions. The opposition wasti r r i f i c ' It came from ()rganizecl labor andoUl-lasbioiud politicians. But ihe plan wasadopted, l'..(MKI lo 7O(K).

The next step was tn eirri a mayor aitd eightcotincilmen i[i nonpailisan hailoting. PCM de-cided to endorse candidates.

Kelly has said, "Xot everybody thought weshould. But there has to be some group to getgoud peuple lo i un for government. If not, theKoverntiient \\'\\\ Tall back to the graflers andcrooks. T o get a top industrialist or any honestman to run for IConuimed on Pa(e 107)

Under the rrlVirm rrçinir."Tbc Line," Pcoria's inf

padlock houses onred-light district

October \,\9S5 107

The Town That Reformed(Conliniicil ftom Pane 27)

public ofiîceisver)'. ver>' hiii"d. They wuii'isubject iheiiuelves lu |>ililics."

For mayor PCM sljicd Rnhori Morgan,an upright man of forty-three, king activein civic affaira, a hrother of ihe president ofPCM and himself a leading lawyer whorepresents corporations in ihcir dealingswith labor unions. For cuuncilmen PGMflated thf president nf tin- Li-Touriicauearth-moving-equipmcnt-manufa( tiiringcompany, the comptroller of a washing-machine cumpany, ihc employee-relationsmanager of Caterpillar Tractor, a mer-chant, a mmcT, a ne^^paper distributor,ihe president of the Wumen's Civic Feder-ation, and a banker.

Independent candidates filed againstthem. The campaign w.w nois>. PCM wasaccused of being a machine, tr>'ing lo runthe cit>'. But PCM elected the mayor anduve councilinen, gîvitig it a 6-3 majority incouncil.

Council, taking office in May of t.'i,53,hired as tlie new city manager George Bean.Bean, a professional cily manager nf seven-teen years' experience, was then managingGrand R:ipids, Michigan, and could nolcome to Peoria till July. Mayor Morganand council, however. Ion no lime in cimi-mcncing reform.

Mayor Morgan recalls. "Tlie job of »ewerSuperinlendL-nt had for years been a sine-cure for the rciircd head nf ihe bricklayersunion. We called him in and asked whathis duties tt-cre. He said.'I help Mr. Knsan-ovich.' Ko«ano\neh was hi» iissisiani. Weasked when he helped him. 'When he needshelp,' So we just cut off his job and <'lc-vated Kosannvich. That made the brick-layers mad, of course." They also apjioid teda new police chief, fire chief, comptrollerand street suijcrintendeni. And MayorMorgan oi-dctcd the ptjiiie 10begin raidinggambling games and brothels.

Actually, big-lime organiïcd gamblinghad already stopped, ruined by politicalturnover, itie enactment of a Federal tawtaxing gamblers, and ilii- murder uf thehead of the gambling syndicate. UnderNfayor \forgan iho police closed the sur-viving poker games and lotteries. Prmtitu-tion, however, was still running wide o|x:n."We had to root 'em out," police chiefFrank Evans recalls. They made more thanfifty raids on brothcb.

The couri fined the keeper and the in-mates S 'Ki apiece. Tliis was costJy; a raidmight C031 a madam SlHTX), (Fines havetotaled about S3ií,0üü.) Moreover, afterthe police raided a house three times thecit>' asked the state's attorney to obtain aninjunction padlocking ihc house pcnna-nently as a public nuisance, Onre uimvbody planted a dynamiie lM>nib at ihe may-or's house and ble v a hale in tiie founda-tion. But the {wlice raids continued. SoonThe Line was down. The police think acall-girl o)>cration haa l cgnn. Now andthen, they find a girl in a car or a tavern,

duch furtive operations do far less dam-age than a wide-open Line: they dn notcorrupt olTiciiils or spread distast. Themonth the raids started, I .id new venereal-disease cases were reponed in Peoria, andihe average for the preceding two yean hadbeen eighty-eight new liises a month. In1055 it has Ix'en twenty-six.

When Xfanager Bean arrived he foundthe city's alfairs in d deplorahlc state. Thisdid not stirpriM- him.

Bean, a tall, red-haired man of fifiy-livc,»aid recently, "The city-manager plan in atool that d«iKTaie people reach for wheneverything rlst- has broken down. Pcuria'sservices were ineiïeciive. There waa a bigbackk>g of r>ecdcd physical improvementsafter forty yi ars of neglect, and the city wasbroke—we had three hundred thouKUid

dollai-ü in unpaid bills. The budget hadLx-en iinhalüiicid since IÍÍVH."

One (rf Beati's .lids recalLi. "Nearly all•he department lie.tda were alioni fixty-fivcyear» old. Evei^thing was olvuileiiv Theywere using uld iiiiatidesccnt l.iitips in thedrafting depanmt ni ; I worked ihere awhileand kepi getting licadaches frnin the poorlightiiiR. Some dep^irtmcnt hcads never got10 iravol around lo see whal other citieswere duing."

William Somrnei-s, ihc new personnel of-ficer, says, "In the nld da« ttu- aldermenwould hire men for the street department,then lav them olT. mostly old men. couldn'twork anx'whcre elw, old winon. helplessdrifli-rs.So ihe sirrei department was reallya kind of relief agency. I fell s<irr\' for theold guys. But you i an't run a street depart-ment that way. We've been building uppersonnel files. We introduced physical ex-anDÍna(Íon,probiilionarysix months'period,projtress reports, training program and amerit system."

JVliiiiuger Bean began his work in Peoriaby rcrniitinç a professional alaff, All five ufhis recruits were voiinq and all but onecame from oumide Peuria. Jake Diimcllewas iwenty-cight when he bci.inie Bean'sadministrative assistanl, a mechanical en-gineer wilh a dt'gri'c in public administra-tion ivlin had been a.uisiant to another cit>'manager Dumellc brought in a classmate,Roy Anderson, a ihirty-year-old certifiedpublic iiicounLint, to reptaie the citycom|itriitler, William Sommers, mlh agraduate degree tVotii Harvard in publicadministra lion and experience wilh theCnliwadi) Municip^il League, brcjme (x-r-sonnel officer at tlie age of iwenty-scvcn.Dean DuBoff. an architect just uui of iheNavy, WÍIS ihe only local man: he Ix-camedirector of inspections. The youngest of allwas Dun Hanson, who, at Iwentv-fuur, washired aivay fn>m the Chicago Motor Clubto bccutnc Pcoria's fn-sl Iraffit engineer.

The young administratnni are Imuncyand brii;hi and eager. One of them AIÍCIreccnilv, "It's surprising how much we geldone :u jiaff mee tings, considering the num-ber nf prima donnas there are aniung us."On an avL-iage they |>os,v:ss Iwo college de-grees each. Their average age is nowtwenty-nine, all but Dumellc arr married.They sometimes refer 10 themselves as "thecrew-cuis."

Watching them at work, you get the im-pres.<iion they can- mure deeply ab-jul thecity than many peuple who have lived hereall their lives Their youth and cigerm-sshave led them to make some "bonci-s," asthey term them. Miinager Ik-an lia.s said,"Young people tend to go 100 fasi." Oncethe traffic engineer. Dan Hanson, beganenforcing the parking-meter ordinance onMonday until nine o'clt>ck at night, some-thing that hadn't lx-< n done for years Po-lice handed nut .1O<i tickels in une night.Amid ti>ud public outcr>', council 1 tiangedthe ordinance.

Dumetk' recalls, "Once coumit lx>ughtsome parking inelers ti> be paid for at twothous iiul dollai's a miinili out of revenue.The comptrotler tlmugtit this nas silly andasked the manufacturer for a five per centdisiouni forcash. got it, issued ta.<(*anticipa-tion w,irr;ints, and p.iid them ufT. Councildidn'l tind out about il till ihe end of theyear. The comptixjllcr hadn't lunsultedthem and they wcie indignant. He couldn'tunderstand that as ;i private CP.A he hadhad only one bou, but now, an ,1 publicofficial, he had more than a hundred thou-sand. .\ lui of public relations is needed inthis work. You get in a town like this, >oucan'i change it all overnight."

When Hanson, the traffic engineer, camelo Peoria he spenl .itxjui six month» com-

For Your Safety Ask for the New-^/'/¿JJ

^jnmHere is a $3.50 value offered in theinterest of highway sjfcly al J speciallow price. After the check—and anywork you may need—is completed,you will receive a Raybeslos cer-tificate—proof of brake safety.

IF YOUR BRAKES NEED RELINING . . .your dealer will recommend Ray-bestos Proving Ground Tested BrakeLinings—the only ones made by 7dif-ferent manufacttiring processes toprovide exactly the right combina-tion of factory-packaged linings foryour make and model car. Backed bymillions of milei of lest driving—made for longer life, safer stops.

POINTBRAKECHECK

tNCLUDES ADJUSTMENT

HERE'S WHAT VOUR

DEALER

2. Chvck brake drumi

RIIVBESTDS DIVISIONolHirbtitm-MinhjttJn, Int. ^ B | 9 ^ 1 ^ | G. Adiun broke,BRIDGEPORT. CONN.

3 . lntp*tl IronI wbeoflngi 7< Rood teil braliGi

A slick chici(,MrMurqa-b-oy«JBut you should see

MY SISTER EILEEN*

EVERYBODY AMD HIS AUNT wjnis lo see MY SISTER EILEEN, a Columbialufc, starring Janet Leigh, Jock Lenuncn and Belly GinetL The IrestiesL lun.st Technicoto' musical that i « i went singing acrois the Cinemaicope screen!

Quicken way to a girl's heart —vour ¡cweler.. .and

70 MILEI PER GAL, GAS

CHILD'S AUTO WITH MOTOR

POP CORN 0/i YOUR Mo/tey BACH/

I n,'lt t l E S A T U R D A Y E V R N t N O P O S T

f .nf .IIHIIII tr.tltir—.itvitlriit sl,itis-Uiw viiil.iiitnw, tiiillii How—then waded

ill. l ie in.st.ilWI new stivi t-it.iiiic signsihiuiitihuut till- litv. He .id<i|itccl ii tity-wide thnimih-ütnTt pi.HI He i h.iiiui-«! Inisnniies. He |MÍntixl foii\-fi\<- niiliv<iiil i rnit rMii|N-<i ;IIH1 l.ntivi. lVih.i |» hin l>ii;t;r!ii JobW.15 iTdiovinii .1 liH of su>p s'mm.

H;uis(in s,iiil i i i rn t ly " I ' n t l n the oldfmin ol' i;oM-miuiiU. .ikk-niKii wcir del-illjcd wilh iri|iii'sl\ lui sto|iMi;us. .Stii|>.<>i(Fiisweiv eivi trd nt \\vr\ pLur whciv j m'drmiss cxvunrd . or whciv thciv w.u n « himt.or whciv till- akli'iiium's wife w.is inviilvi-din j i i acLidcnt. The citv h;i^ sivtecn htin-diTti strwt inieisf» tions and it h.id overthirtivn hundred Stop signs. We went ii> thefouncil with \i pl.in to roinovr ihriv htin-dred and ten sii;ns TIK-V .iiliipli-<l it. .Sincethen we've hud i>nl\ three priitions askingtliJi signs hr irinstallcd."

A blond vtmnc tnan. crew-cut, pink-chocked, shurt jnd compact. Hanson spends;t5 much time M he can driving ¿irouttd jndlooking for iratlii irnublc s|>its. One d.iyrcccniiv he left tin- downtown district andhr^idrd up The Bluff on Knoxvillr .\vcntie,traffic s^vi^linc sinooihlv atuni; on newpavement, jnd he said. ".MOOR licrr is thefirst place in the ( ity thai wi- insiallH iiish-hnur parking rmilrol. Thfv'd tried it s-.-v-crjl years j ^ o and it lasted thirty days— toomanv complaints from the neiçlilyn^s Wlicnwe (¡Qt ready to do ii, the capLiiii o( trafficand I went loeven house aloni; here, doorto door, and explained whv it was ncies-sar>. We've had \cr\' few' complaints."

Driving on. Hanson poinied m a w-l oftmfFiC lighls and laid. "Here's a new inter-section we s\nchronizi.-d. Wv put in greenarro^t-s to let them turn on the led andhead for downtown; then we lanrd it off-tcntcr to çive 'cm room to turn, and wetook off pdrkinc on one side That's thekind of stuff we're alway's lookinu for."

In an outlyiiic nrighborluiod. w-einR amoiorcyile jioliieiiun lying in wail forstop-sign violatiirs. he said. "He's nut therejust because he happens to live nearby oranvthinç. He's there because the\'v<: an-al>-zed the accident reports of Scvenü tnonthsjnd found that they «ere caused by stop-sign violation al about this time of day. It sreally scientific now."

iLnforrcmcnt ,ind engineering were get-ting results. 1-isc vear only three (»copiewere killed in traffic accidents—fevvrr thanever before. Injuries and accidents de-clined. In liW.'i the National Safety Councilranked Peoria's traffic-safety program íorty-third out ofCifty cities. Last \i-:ir it rankedthird. "So." Hanson said, "we i<el some-thing's beiîinninç; to happen. Of course, it'sslow. Vou can't move ans faster than thetown will let you."

At the end of its fint year in office thenc4v adminisinition issued a rt-jxirt tn the|X'oplc. pûiniinc pmudK m it.s achieve-ments. Peoría h,id been termed an ".\ll-.Amcrican City" by the National Munii ipalLeague. The adminbtration had improvedthe city's housekeeping, bought rv-w equip-meni. bought a n.-w police hí-adc^uarn-rs.improved law (-tifnrcement. cut ai i idents.taken politics uut of rity st-rvitr. and bal-anced the budgrt. It had bjlaiurd its cur-rt:nt budget by funding S'««".'«»" of unpaidbills, by re-cnaciing a ritv vehii k- lin-nsewhich ihe outgoing aldermen had r<-[x-ati-d.and by impiAsing J new ciqaretK- tav.

But it siil! had not Síílved lis \>.im finan-cial problem. The city badly ne<ded S'jn,-OiiO.OfX» worth of new strecu and .wwcraand olhcr capital improvements. In raist-thc money the toumil submitted to thepeople a pnj|XKal to !«•>- a one-half-ccntcity sales tax. It promised to tut Iwck theproperty tax and take olT the vehit le licenseand cigarflte ta.\, Bui labor viewed this asan attempt to shift the tax burden lo theworkingman. And thr .^ssociation of C>im-mcrce objected that a city sales lax would

chivr shii|i|k-i-soiit ol thfi iiy. Ihi ' | n14m-1.itwa,« Ixatrn t iti I,

\lin\ (lid I'i'oi iaiis likr ihi'ii luw govcni-iiieiit!' Mii-ii ofihetn likid the vii r and i-am-bhiig I li',iii\i|), ihotjgh Wime felt nostalgialoi ihr old days. I hrv liki'd tin- hous>-ki-i-|>-iiiL> iiiipiovrnKiits in gviM-i.il. though in.inygimtilili'd s|K-cîlu.ill\ alxHit tin- stii-ets,M.iiiy !i.iid Ihi-y didn't know whom to 111111-plain til, iiiiw ih.it inutn i lmin woro noteli'ctrd Inim n'ai-ds. Sume H.iid ihu iifw ad-iiiinislr.iiion's innovations had iM-en ;ilirii|jtand .iibttiai->. Soim- s.iiil ihr in-w legime«.m tiHi ct^tly and had raised taxes; theycoiiiplaint-d about Bean's Sts.OOO s^ilaryand dijoul " iheoutsidem" hr had Íii)|xjrtedto mil the < ity,

OiTjaiiiied op|Hv>ition i .mu- from tnvcrn-keejx-i-s, who felt the cleanup kept big cun-ventions dway and huri dav-to-day busi-ness, and frofn organized labor. The stateFt-deration of Libor ha.s long o(Iiciall>' op-jxiwd ilic citv-mjiiagL-i' plan as not beingR'piesí'Titalive govi'iniiirnt. L.iljor was notincluil<-(l in ilie original PCM which brr>utililthr manager plan to Peoii,«,

Tin- new administration firtd a citypainting contractor and merely hired apainter; thi.s antagoni/i-d the union. Theadiniiiisinition ended "l.ilxir jjatrondge"—took till- job ofscwc-r siijN'rinli-ndcnt jwayfrom th<- brieklayrrs union, ilu-jubof hnild-ing commissioner awav íiom the carix-nii-isuttii)n lilxiiightcigarrtti--[a\«tampsfromanonunion luinpanv. ollending the printersunion It tmught prison-made traHic sit;iis,

Diik Estep, who sptaLi for ihe AI'l.,compl.tin.t bitterly abinu PCM, "They üildthi' |K-oplr on the idea th.ii tlii.t typcofgov-ernini-(it was going tn lx- inde|M-ndeni. Nopotitiis at all. But FCM has .i slate, ii hasa treasury. it has officei-s— to me. it's Jusi apolitiul party," .\nd Coy Lutes, of theL'nin-d .Auto Workers (C:IO). said. "We're1101 .igainst the manager fonn as such, butontv against the way in Pcoria il has Ix-i npacked with managi-ment [jiople. They areall aniilalior to start out with,"

The adniinistration faced its first test inthe cifuncilmanic election of ifW."». Fourcouncilmen had to stand fw re-election.Three iif them originally had been su|>-¡xirterl by PCM; th<- fourth, a labor m.iti,had nol. This time PCM c-ndurscd tlu-niall. The Inbor man [irompilv renuuncedPCM suppori, PC:M iKKan runnini; adspraising him; he ran adsderwuncing PCM,Otherwise the campaign was quiet untilthe last couple of wt-<-ks Then all ihc indc-pendcnl.s began attacking PCiM, An organ-i/ation called Pcorians for Peoria sprang uptu aid ihi- independents. Its cartoons cari-ratured Bean. lis ads kept asking: "Who IsMr. Syndicate?" and hintitig that Bean

W.IS "Ml S\ ndii a l l " and wiu involvi'd in.loiiK- devious ]ilot III ,111 uiis|x'i.ilied iijtiiri;.ll s.iifl. " M l , .Sviuiiiati- Orcli-rerl I'i" furt i iand Kapiih .nul Now Pcoti.i," nol sav-ini; what " I T " wa«. \ 'otei^ wi-ir tiigi-d to"vv.itih tomoiTow's ni-wsjM|x-ii íof dc-taiK" .IIKI lo "Save Pcoria" on April fifth,

?CM disdaitK-d lo answer any of iliis, haadü simply jn.iis'il llu- iniiunlH-nh atid re-called IIR- IJIKI iild days of the aldrrinanic»ystfin: "ini-IIn inn \ . " "waatt-," "p.iviollp.idding." "gi.ift." "shadv deals " Onr oftl>e ifulependent candidates. James | , Man-ning. J shrovd, genial former aldermanwho had becomr a symbol of the old re-gime, promptly r;m an ad listing numrroiismembers of the old regime ami askingwhether PCM was accusing tlirse "dístin-guishc-d Ptorians" of diiraner%-.

Nclearly everyone cxpîcetcd ihc PCM can-didates to sail throtigh. So, whrn the blowfrll. it wa.s .1 III'.ivy one. Nol ¡1 single PCMman won f\ie]»t the labor man who hadi-cpudiatcd PCM rndorscmrni

What had h.ip|xncd? .Mniost milxidy in-terpri-tc"d tin- rlrni'in as a repudiation oftli(- citv-manager plan iuvlf. Sltwt |xoplc.PC'M and labor k-aders alike, tlxiiight theelection indie.ited rt-wntriient nf "PCMdomination," M.iMir Morgan attributedtill' rcstilt to ilii- small vote—"the aginnersalways get out and vote," The vot«' was in-deed vcr\- light—only II \M-T irnt of thereg ist ral iun. R«it it was light .ill over toM-nand om-of the elected (ouiKihtK-n said. "IfThe X'allrv had got out and voted, we'dluve beaicii i in wois« , ' How did he ac-count for ihe lighl vote? "li 's ihe .ume allover the lountry. The |jcoplf ligiin- whyshould ihey vole; they cot a nuc big hnuse,nice big car. thcv gul television, they goteverything ihi-v «ant. tiny got inont-v." Hefound Ihe |)i-o|ik-'s mandate soimwhat1 luiidy, "The (x-opk- definin-ly want athange. ^'ou'vc got to (hange s^imetliing,"Probably, he ihonghl. they wanlcd t;<-tlerstrcrts and alleys and mure slop ligiis.

After the elci. tirin. many peoph- esjx-ctcdthat Bt-an would Ix- Hr»-d forthwith. Citi-zens boui;ht I hanccs in a pool, betting onthe d.iy nf the mnnth the city managerwciuld lx- liicd. The nicht the ni-w ctiuneilwa.s inaiigiir.iif<l a si/itblc crowd turneduul. Builkaii wasn't fired, and four monthslalcr hr still hadn't Ix'en,

Council. iKiWfvi-r. adopted a resolutionasserting its authority over thr managerand iis soir |«j>vri to determine polit y andlimiting thr manager's authority to admin-istering council's (Hilicies. Ciiuncil estab-lished committee.s tti "investigate" ciiyproblems. The indi'j>cndcnts say that for-merly one or tw-o PCM ecuncilmen. meet-

¥0'^" H i . thi-ri-. ^'lm fclkTS dour vmii' qood tvini loday y e t ? "

ing .'M-cretly with Bean, made major policyduLJaiiins and presented them lo councilfor iul»l>rr-.>itamp approval, Tliey insist thatthey will Mruiinizc the i iiy's i yci-y act andreturn government to ilw |K-oplc.

They have certainly worked at it. Theformel i oiincil had nn-t only twice a month,and tlirnonly briefly; the new council holdglong mei'tings twice a week or oftcncr,Council vot(-d lo "adopt a |HilÍLy of havingwiiiiJow.Huri ity buildings wa.ihed every twoinontlw," Otuttcil voted to reinstall stopsigns at one intersection whence Hansonhad rcmmed them. Council spent weeksstudying the comparative merits of a brasspum|) .liid a r.Tst-irnn pump on a new fireirurk. As a consequence of this attention todetail, husint-ss is transacted slowly and ma-jor problems tend to pilr up.

Bean appears to have adopted a strate^of asking council's i^idante before tnakingthe moit unimportant decision, Po^ibly hehupi-s 111 bort- council to death, so that itwill resiiire to him some of his duller prerog-ativi's. Council leadership has devolvedujKin IWO holdover anit-PCM council-men— Robert McCord. an attorney; andMyrna Harms, a young woman of consid-erable «harm, .-\t almost every couneilmeeting otK nf them takes a ]joi shot fromthe door .il Bean or PCIM, Recently, Mn.Harms' nilici.'im of lire-department ptir-<:ha.HÍng l)|i-w up a scandal that rt-sulted in avitiiolii dispute Ix-Uvren Mi's Harms andMayor Mollgan, the indit liiK-nt of the lirechief, and a councilnunic vote of confi-dcner on Manager Bean, which he sur-vived, 0-3.

JDeaii. .1 lii;ih<;adcd, upright man, hustried to avoid brawling tvitli his critics. Hesaid retently ihat thr manager plan func-tions Ix-st in cities where the tnanager andCouikil fo-l a mutual conlidence. That thisis nti long<-r so in Pciiria disiuibs him, notonly lx-< ausc he is involved hut because thepLin ÍLsrlf is involved.

Why lias a govcmmi-nt so widely ac-claimed arou.wd so much op|)o<iitiun7 Somehas been arousc-d by councilmanic hcadliíKhunting Bui PCM invited opposition at theoutset by failing to embrace all segments ofthe city, iodudini; labor, PCM was blindedby its mistnist of jxilitiuians. It blamed allihe city's wix.-s on them and sjiid that oust-ing tln-m would solve all problems. It for-got that politicians perform a real scr%'ice:they ies|)c>nd to the ¡x-oplc's wishes, PCMlejdei-s neglected lo do this. The council-mrn, rnlhusiaslic about thr plan and an.\-ions Io make progics,s rapidly, were tooeager to hand over rrs|xinsibility to theman.igrr The administrators reckoned toomuch with slide rulos and too little withpropli-, Thrir dctenninaiion to solve thecitvs linaiHial problem led them to pro-]jos(- thr un[>opular .tile.i lax. And yet nir-prisinnly few )>cople in Peuria si-rm lo thinkthe manager |)lan is on ihr way out. Many[xnplr. howeyer. do think the ciiy m.iy ir-tiirn lo ihr ward sysicin of electing council-nH-n. to mret the mnsi widespread objec-tion to the plan: propir frei their govern-ment is remote,

Re( ently the state legislature authoriïcdeouiicil Io enact a onc-half-cent city salestax withoiii referendum, .nul it did so, re-|H'alirig ihc vehicle and i igarette ta.\cs. Thenew tax solves Peoria's linaniiul problem.It will iixan Ix-tter streets and »ewers. Butit il siill jn unpopular ia\,

TIK- ekdion demorali/id Bean's aids.Oiuniilnien talked of alx)lisliing some oftheir JOIM, Recently, lunvi-vcr. the staff hiUtaken heart. One of them said, "At first theelection «eincd a rriiudiation of everythingwe st.KkJ for. But maybe it wasgotxi for us.We e\jx-rts have a tendency to take our-selvei too seriously, to think that 'pai»kno«!tU,'M,' 10 jusi goahf-ad and do things.Ill iidministrative f-ovrrninrnt you forget[|)at |X)litics undcclii'S ever\-thinB in adcmo<r;«v." THt; END