Policy Cuts
Chap 8
Southern Political Machines
The Memphis Machine:
Edward Hull “Boss” Crump began to construct his machine in earnest around 1910, extending his purview to the state-level in 1928m Washington (Democratic National Committee) in 1936-1945, then returned to Memphis, and finally left the scene permanently in 1952 when his mayoral candidate was defeated. He died in 1954. He was a major figure in Memphis politics for over a half-century. Crump was a Gilded Age immigrant from a small Mississippi cotton town, arriving in a Memphis that had emerged relatively unscathed from the Civil War. In the thirty years following, the city grew by over 250% and would grow another 60% by 1920 and 56% in the Twenties–Memphis was a “son” of the New South, settled by post-Reconstruction immigrants from its rural hinterland. A 1918 school survey found 75% of the city’s population were born in surrounding towns and villages. Crump was far from being an outsider.
The Memphis economic base centered around cotton and lumber, and the city lacked an industrial base. Wage levels were low, even by southern standards. The city dramatically grew in 1899, just in time for the 1890 census, with a doubling of its land area; it continued its aggressive annexation program (four subsequent annexations) through 1919. Despite this growth, Memphis fell from second (1870) to fifth place in the southern hierarchy of cities. By 1930, about 38% per cent (61,000) of the city’s residents were Afro-American, mostly settled in the older, beaten up riverfront and southeast neighborhoods. Racial tension was real, but a small black middle class did develop. Afro-Americans did provide considerable and consistent support to Crump’s machine, and were able to draw some level of support and sustenance from it. Crump’s machine did not wholly rest upon Afro-American votes, however, he amalgamated business support, the saloon vote, and Irish and Italians as well. In this coalition, Crump mastered the critical machine problem of the day—forming a multi-ethnic voting behemoth. Policy-wise, Crump embraced the commission form of government (which stayed in place until 1967), lax Prohibition enforcement, annexation, and low taxes were cornerstones of his policy system.
In his early years, Crump actually served as mayor (1911-1915) but afterwards, until the final end of his machine, he managed affairs off to the side—as the Boss. He controlled the municipal nomination process. Crump’s move into state politics (while maintaining his firm hold on the city) was characterized in large measure by his competition with rapidly rising Nashville; in 1830 Crump was elected as a Democrat to Congress, representing Shelby County. In 1936 he was named by FDR as a member of the Democratic National Committee and Crump accordingly left Congress. He served on the National Committee until 1945. Despite his outside interests Crump’s hold on Memphis politics is best demonstrated by his 1940 last minute entry in the city’s mayoral race. Without a speech, or a platform, and without opposition, he was duly elected. He took the oath of office in a snowstorm at the railroad station, waiting for a train to the Sugar Bowl. He resigned seconds later, and the Vice-Mayor became Mayor. The next day the City Commission followed his instructions and elected a new mayor to actually serve. In less than 24 hours Memphis had four mayors in office[1]. That is an effective municipal machine!
It didn’t last forever, however. By the late 1940’s Crump lost ground at federal and state levels, but held onto municipal control until 1952. Left unmentioned thus far is that Crump lost control over Memphis politics between 1920 and 1928. These were the mayoral terms of Rowlett Paine[2], a business anti-Boss reformer—with a southern twist, of course. Vowing to clean up municipal government and bring the virtues of professional bureaucratic administration to Memphis, Paine with the active support of the KKK swept into office and stayed there for two terms. [For some reason Paine is never mentioned as an anti-boss social reformer?].
In a city wracked by chronic yellow fever, he professionalized the city’s public health program, disciplined the police force [Paine was a WWI army sergeant], and appointed a woman as a juvenile court judge. He raided saloons and brothels. Paine paid no attention to Crump, and in return Crump fought Paine at almost every instance. In 1927 election campaign, Paine, to counter Crump’s relatively pro-black platform, pledged never to hire an Afro-American to jobs in municipal government. He lost the election to a Crump-supported candidate. To lend further confusion to our summary of Crump and his machine, a widely-respected scholar of Progressive Age politics, Melvin Holli, excludes Crump from being a social reform mayor, but rather an advocate business efficiency, i.e. structural reformer, in government. He cites Crump’s compelling railroads to build overpasses and bridges, his fixation on low taxes, his determination to require an honest day’s work from municipal employees, embraced accounting and audit systems, and consistently reduced municipal waste—including putting restrictions on purchase of stamps and requiring the city’s selling of empty coke bottles for revenues.[3] If so, we now have an example of a political machine as a structural reformer. Where that leaves Mayor Paine is anyone’s guess.
[1] This cute story was taken from Wikipedia. I couldn’t find a page number-deal with it.
[2] Robert A. Lanier, Memphis in the twenties: the second term of mayor Rowlett Paine, 1924-1928 (Zenda Press, 1979)
[3] Melvin G. Holli, Reform in Detroit: Hazen S. Pingree and Urban Politics (New York, Oxford University Press, 1969), p. 249.
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Ron W. Coan 