Stephen Arnold Mitchell

Background

Stephen Arnold Mitchell was born on March 3, 1903, in Rock Valley, Iowa. He was the son of Stephen Arnold Mitchell, a dairy farmer and banker, and Dorothy Norton Higgins.

Education

A Catholic, Mitchell attended local parochial schools, Creighton University, and Georgetown University School of Law, where he received his LL. B. in 1928.

Career

After receiving his law degree Mitchell moved to New York City, where he worked in both legal and executive capacities for General Motors until 1932. In 1932, he moved again, this time to Chicago, where he was associated with the firm of Taylor, Miller, Busch, and Boydon. At the beginning of World War II, Mitchell became chief of the French Division of the Lend-Lease Administration in Washington, D. C. , a position he held from 1942 to 1944. He then served as an adviser to the State Department on French economic affairs in Washington and Paris. After the war, Mitchell returned to Chicago and resumed private practice. One of his most prominent clients was Samuel Cardinal Stritch of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Mitchell coveted the post of U. S. attorney for Chicago, a jealously guarded political plum controlled by the senior Democratic U. S. senator from Illinois. It has been alleged that Mitchell tried to bypass the party patronage by using his powerful church connection to get the post, an action that not only cost him the job he wanted but also earned him the undying enmity of Boss Jack Arvey, head of the Chicago Democratic machine. Arvey blocked Mitchell and gave the office he wanted to Otto Kerner, who would again frustrate Mitchell's ambition later in his life. Mitchell was an early political backer of Adlai Stevenson. In 1947, he organized a Stevenson for Senator Committee that included in its membership many powerful Chicago figures but few machine politicians. Again Mitchell ran afoul of Boss Arvey, who had already decided to back Paul Douglas for senator. Mitchell's committee was then hastily recast as the "Stevenson for Governor Committee. " Mitchell's new goal of putting Stevenson in the governor's chair was acceptable to both reformers and machine politicians, and Stevenson won the governorship of Illinois in 1948. Allegations that tax lawyers who were defending cases before the Internal Revenue Bureau had given expensive gifts to officials in the Justice Department prompted Chairman Emanuel Celler of the House Judiciary Committee to ask Mitchell to act as special counsel to his committee during the investigation of the scandal. Mitchell was engaged in this activity when Adlai Stevenson was drafted in 1952 as the nominee for president by the Democratic party. Stevenson wanted a new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, someone who would put the Stevenson stamp on the party. Stevenson had been advised that he should appoint a Catholic to provide balance to the organization, but he also wanted someone whom he could trust and who would be loyal to him. Mitchell fit all these criteria. Moreover, Stevenson believed that the Republicans would use the recent Justice Department scandal as campaign ammunition, but that this attack would be blunted by the fact that Mitchell had been engaged in cleaning up this scandal. Traditionally, the Democratic party chose a professional politician as its chairman. Thus Stevenson encountered opposition to Mitchell's appointment from the city bosses, including Jack Arvey of Chicago. Stevenson not only stood his ground but required Arvey to nominate Mitchell before the Democratic National Committee. The New York Times noted that "Stevenson had picked a political amateur as party chairman, " and commented that the choice was "personal and a split with tradition. " Mitchell ran the unsuccessful Stevenson campaign in 1952.

This experience, perhaps coupled with his earlier run-ins with Boss Arvey, convinced Mitchell that the Democratic party must rid itself of the domination of big-city bosses and southern reactionaries. He stayed on as chairman until 1955 and helped to pay off the campaign debt of $830, 000. He also worked out a plan to ensure the loyalty of party officials, requiring them either to support the party nominee or relinquish their posts. Mitchell had a hand in picking his successor, Paul Butler of Indiana, whose rise to the party chairmanship was regarded as a victory for clean politics.

Although no longer a party official himself, Mitchell worked in the Stevenson presidential campaign of 1956. In an effort to put his ideas into action, Mitchell entered the 1960 Illinois Democratic primary as a candidate for governor. The machine candidate that year was his old nemesis Otto Kerner. The race was complicated by the entry of Joseph Lohman, the state treasurer. In the three-way race, Mitchell was defeated. Mitchell commented, "I knew I didn't have a chance but I did it to challenge the machine. I was badly beaten, even though I got over 200, 000 votes. " In 1968, Mitchell joined the quixotic campaign of Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota. McCarthy forced President Lyndon Johnson to withdraw from the presidential race, but seemed unable to sustain a campaign. Mitchell served as his floor manager at the violence-ridden Democratic National Convention in Chicago. After the failure of the McCarthy effort, Mitchell served as vice-chairman of the Humphrey-Muskie Citizens Committee. This was his last political campaign. Mitchell returned to the practice of law in Santa Fe and Taos in New Mexico, and also in Chicago. He died of an apparent heart attack in Taos.

Achievements

• As a backer of Adlai Stevenson, Mitchell organized a Stevenson for Senator Committee that included in its membership many powerful Chicago figures but few machine politicians. Stevenson won the governorship of Illinois in 1948; thereafter he always counted Mitchell as one of his most trusted and loyal supporters, and a federal scandal of the Truman administration brought Mitchell a degree of national prominence.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Elm Street Politics

Views

Reflecting on his experience in politics, Mitchell came to regard the use of political clubs as a way to increase participation by the general public. He published a book entitled Elm Street Politics in 1959 in which he described how he had organized a club in his neighborhood and described ways in which ordinary citizens could get involved in politics. He wrote, "The trouble with politics is that it is too much of a spectator sport. " Mitchell believed that more voter participation in party primaries was essential. He wrote that "Bosses are built by people who ignore primaries, " and further noted, "For every five persons who vote in the general election, only one votes in the primary. This plays directly into the hands of the political boss. He can handpick his candidates and get his choice ratified by his own organized minority. By ignoring the primary those who call themselves independents permit the political boss to select the only candidates for whom they will be allowed to vote. "

Connections

Mitchell married Evelyn Josephine Miller on February 16, 1931. The Mitchells had three children.

Father:

Stephen Arnold Mitchell

Mother:

Dorothy Norton Higgins

Wife:

Evelyn Josephine Miller

References

• Adlai Stevenson and the World: The Life of Adlai E. Stevenson
• As We Knew Adlai; the Stevenson Story By Twenty-Two Friends