By Mark Rhoads -
When I rate past governors of Illinois, I always to put Gov. Henry Horner in the top rank. He was a fiscally conservative Democrat back when that was still possible. Horner was the first Jewish governor of Illinois when he was elected in 1932 during the Great Depression. He was also a Lincoln scholar. He saw his mandate as saving state money and meeting the pressing needs for public services.
My favorite legend about him was confirmed for me by a former Chicago American reporter that I knew and trusted. The legend is that when Horner took office in January 1933, his secretary found many boxes of stationery left over from his Republican predecessor, Gov. Louis Emmerson. Horner told his secretary to draw a line through Emmerson's name and write in Henry Horner at the top and he said she could not order any new stationery until all the old boxes had been used up.
This was typical of Horner's frugality and integrity with public money and his respect for taxpayers. He saved money any way he could from allowing prisoners to grow their own food to using long-lasting carbon-filament lights in the Capitol and other state buildings. Some of them lasted 25 years. Horner was hatred the Kelly-Nash Machine in Chicago because he removed no-show patronage jobs from the prison system and other state agencies. But he was liked by downstate Republicans some of whom crossed over into the Democratic primary of 1936 to protect Horner from attacks by the machine in his own party so Horner won the nomination a second time and in the fall Horner was re-elected to a second term.
Because of the severe state fiscal crisis during the Depression, Horner did sign the first statewide sales tax at 2 percent in 1933 and raised it to 3 percent in 1935. But the urgent state need and his reputation for frugality and integrity insulated Horner from GOP criticism when the taxes went into effect. Because he was Jewish, Horner was disliked by the incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator from Illinois, William Dieterich, who was of German heritage and who was anti-semitic. Dieterich came to office the same year that Horner did and the same year that Adolph Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Horner succeeded in helping his ally Sen. Scott Lucas of Cass County win the nomination to succeed Dieterich when Dieterich retired in 1938. Lucas became Senate Minorty Leader but lost to Republican Sen. Everett M. Dirksen in 1950. But when Horner died in office just before the end of his second term in October 1940, one of his political enemies backed by the machine, Lt. Gov. John Stelle, became governor for only three months because Stelle was defeated in the election of 1940 by Republican and former federal prosecutor Dwight Green who had successfully prosecuted Al Capone for income tax evasion in 1931. The integrity of Horner's administration from 1933 to 1940 is a good example for both parties.
