Remember Somewhere Our Union's Sewing

In the interest of observing Women's History Month, today's Graphical History Tour returns to 1924 and the Chicago Garment Workers Strike.

Today's cartoons are all by Fred Ellis, cartoonist for the Daily Worker and the monthly Labor Herald, both published in Chicago by the communist Trade Union Educational League (TUEL). The Daily Worker accused the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Daily News, and Hearst newspapers (the American and the Herald Examiner) of ignoring the issues of the garment workers strike; I can only confirm that neither Carey Orr or John McCutcheon addressed the strike in their cartoons.

"The Strike Is On" by Fred Ellis in Daily Worker, Chicago, Feb. 29, 1924

The Chicago chapter of the International Ladies Garment Workers union went on strike on February 27, unable to negotiate a satisfactory agreement with management over a 10% increase in pay; a 40-hour, five-day work week; and establishment of an unemployment fund for workers.

Under the headline "Riots, Slugging Mark Strike of Dress Workers," the Tribune did report the next day on page 3 that

South Market street, between Van Buren and Adams streets, the center of Chicago's dressmaking industry, became a riot zone yesterday. Sluggings, a stabbing, and window smashing followed immediately after the calling of a strike of union garment workers and their attempts to force nonunion workers to join in the walkout.

The reported stabbing victim was the owner of Bloom and Templar, who told police that strikers had attacked him and a colleague in his office with knives and clubs.

"Jailed" by Ellis in Daily Worker, Chicago, March 10, 1924

The legal crackdown by state authorities came swiftly. Cook County States Attorney Robert E. Crowe (better remembered for prosecuting the Leopold and Loeb murder case) filed for an injunction against the strikers picketing or molesting nonunion workers, which was granted by Judge Denis E. Sullivan on March 4. Women on the picket line were arrested and hauled off to Cook County Jail, often after having been roughed up by the employers' goon squad and/or the police themselves.

"Know-Nothing Dever" by Fred Ellis in Daily Worker, Chicago, March 11, 1924

Chicago Mayor William E. Dever was a reformist Democrat who served a single term bracketed by those of the flashier "Big Bill" Thompson, Republican. He doesn't seem to have played a major role in the CGLU strike. He has been called "Chicago's forgotten mayor," and, by Studs Terkel, "Chicago's Calvin Coolidge."

"So far as I know, there has been nothing wrong with the handling of the strike by the city police," Dever told the Daily Worker over the phone from his home. "I have no information to the contrary. I have asked for a report."

"Remember Sophie Altschuler" by Fred Ellis in Daily Worker, Chicago, March 18, 1924

"Sophie Altschuler, one of the left-wingers and and active militant, was beaten up by policeman #3181 so badly as to be confined in bed for some time. Dozens of other girls have felt the policeman's fists and clubs and bear their marks. Nine of them have been convicted of violating the Sullivan injunction, and one of them, Florence Corn, has already been sentenced to thirty days in the county jail." — I.L. Davidson in Labor Herald, Chicago, April 1924

"The Girls Want to Know" by Fred Ellis in Daily Worker, Chicago, March 20, 1924

The strike came at a time when leaders in the labor movement, particularly American Federation of Labor President Samuel Gompers, were actively purging member unions of the communists in their midst. That purge had included several TUEL members of the Chicago Ladies Garment Workers the previous August and would continue at the IGLW's national convention in May. Both factions were nevertheless active in the Chicago Garment Workers strike, yet the AFL and TUEL both thought the other was damaging to the cause.

Ellis's cartoon suggests that other unions were reluctant to support the CLGU strikers. They were, however, joined on the picket lines by carpenters, printers, and members of the Amalgamated Clothing Union ... but not by Oscar Nelson, vice president of the Chicago Federation of Labor and an alderman on the Chicago City Council. He was also a member of the CFL's "Committee of 15" and the ILGU's lawyer. He offered the Daily Worker his excuse that he needed to avoid giving offense to the court.

"Crowe—State's Attorney" by Fred Ellis in Daily Worker, Chicago, March 21

With the dress manufacturers backed by all the power of law enforcement and refusing arbitration offered from Washington D.C., the strikers were at a distinct disadvantage.

"Students Show 'Committee of 15'" by Fred Ellis in Daily Worker, Chicago, March 24, 1924

The strikers did receive some support from a group of University of Chicago students who defied Judge Sullivan's injunction to join the picketers. University Liberal Club President Ida Terbush organized the student picket squad. The Daily Worker didn't report how many students showed up, but did report that two, Eugene and David Siskind, were arrested.

"The So-Called Majesty of the Law" by Fred Ellis in Daily Worker, Chicago, April 1, 1924

The strike lasted through April and at least into May. I haven't yet come across any reporting on a settlement; what press coverage there was after that focused on the trials of strikers for violating Judge Sullivan's injunction. One such account in the May 9, 1924 Daily Worker quoted one of the manufacturers' lawyers, Charles Hyde, telling Judge Charles Foell, "Unless this picketing is stopped, the injunction might better never have been issued."

So, until I find the outcome of this strike, I'll leave you with this exchange between Prosecutor Coleman and defendant Mrs. Caroline Heim, as reported in Daily Worker of May 10, 1924, and let a woman have the last word:

Coleman: "You admit your were walking up and down May 2. Why did you walk back and forth?"
Heim: "Because the police told us to keep moving."

To Talk of Many Things

"News Note..." by Clifford Berryman in Washington (DC) Evening Star, March 27, 1922

Today's graphical history tour pays homage to the human interest stories and other distractions from the Truly Great Issues Of The Day.

Even cartoonists who aspire to become the Nast or Daumier of their day will, from time to time, settle for the inspiration provided by such trivia as the painting of a tree in Cleveland, Ohio.

"You Dirty Boy" by Wm. C. Morris for George Matthew Adams Service, March, 1922

Since we have been flooded as of late by cartoons inspired by a certain movie star slapping that comedian, here's a Hollywood cartoon about Will Hays, who resigned as Warren Harding's Postmaster General (a cabinet position in those days) to become the first chairman of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. The Presbyterian deacon would institute the infamous "Hays Code" in reaction to clergy complaints about hedonism and sin in the movies, and such scandals as the rape and murder trial of comic actor Fatty Arbuckle.

"Grandpa Hears a Strange Language..." by Leo Bushnell for Central Press Assn., March, 1922

The exploding popularity of radio didn't escape the attention of cartoonists — or of the federal government, which wasn't about to let the airwaves become the den of iniquity it believed movies had become. Especially because the kids those days could and did build their own radio sets.

"Merrell Shudders Every Time He Thinks of It" by Dorman Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., by March 29, 1922

Dorman Smith's crystal ball didn't quite get the future of radio right, but he did sort of foresee the boombox and the cell phone.

"Spring Fiction" by Magnus Kettner for Western Newspaper Union, by March 31, 1922

But since the iPhone was still 82 years in the future, Americans ignoring each other at the dinner table had to make do with newspapers and magazines.

"Keen Disappointment" by Dorman Smith for NEA, by March 28, 1922

'Twas spring, and a young man's thoughts turned lightly to thoughts of Prohibition. And trying to find some new joke to make about it three years on.

"When East Meets West" by Burt Thomas in Detroit News, by March 20, 1922

Henry Payne's predecessor at the Detroit News has left us this car toon, and an object lesson in cartoon structure. Whereas the punch line in Dorman Smith's maple syrup cartoon is so large that it attracts the reader's eye well before the lead-up to it does, the text in Burt Thomas's cartoon is easily overlooked.

Meanwhile, there was still no shortage of serious issues for cartoonists to tackle. Coal miners went on strike on April 1 after negotiations with the mine owners stalled. Since most American homes were heated by coal, a lot of cartoons expressed the obvious opinion that John Q. Public would be adversely affected.

"The Initial Shock Won't Hurt Him..." by Billy Ireland in Columbus Dispatch, by March 30, 1922

Any cartoonists inclined to depict the United Mine Workers as unreasonable socialists might have had second thoughts because seventeen miners working for the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company were killed in an explosion on March 24.

"Anxiety at the Shaft" by Callaghan (?) in Oklahoma Leader, March 27, 1922*

I have not yet uncovered any information about the Callaghan who drew the above cartoon, save that he produced a number of pro-labor cartoons in this period. I found the cartoon in the Oklahoma Leader, a solidly pro-labor newspaper published in Oklahoma City from 1918 to 1928; the Leader often credited syndicated cartoons to their source, but I have so far not found it including a byline with any of the Callaghan cartoons it ran. It could be that, like John Baer drawing for the labor publication of train workers, Callaghan drew for a similar newspaper for a miners' union.

"Watchful Waiting" by Harold M. Talburt for Scripps-Howard News Service, by March 31, 1922

What interests me about this Harold Talburt cartoon is that I had been accustomed to his cartoons drawn with grease pencil and charcoal, whereas this early work is in pen and ink. 1922 is the year that Talburt began working for Scripps-Howard; he would be their chief editorial cartoonist until he retired in 1963, being awarded the editorial cartooning Pulitzer along the way in 1933.

"The Last of the Barons" by Winsor McCay for Star Company, April, 1922

Anyway, we'll come back to this strike on future Saturdays. The miners' strike was to last for several months, and the prediction by Talburt's cartoon officer Harding, "Wait'll they begin to shoot," would come true.

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* In Minnesota Daily Star, March 20, 1922. See D.D. Degg's comment below.

Dashing Through to 1920

It's Sledback Saturday at Bergetoons, and with an election year right around the corner, it's time to check out who's running for president in 1920.

"The First Snow of the Season" by Cy Hungerford in Pittsburgh Sun, December, 1919

In December, 1919, The Republican Party selected Chicago as the site for their national convention in June. There was no shortage of Republicans angling for their party's presidential nomination. These first three cartoons include one past president — William Howard Taft — and three future presidents — Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge, and the 1920 winner, Warren Harding. At the moment, in December of 1919, the favorite according to conventional wisdom was General Leonard Wood, who appears in the forefront in these three cartoons.

"The Early Bird" by Grover Page in Louisville Courier-Journal, December, 1919

Other Republican contenders in these cartoons include Senators Hiram Johnson of California, Miles Poindexter of Washington, William Borah of Idaho and Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts; and Governors William C. Sproul of Pennsylvania and Gov. Frank Lowden of Illinois.

Cy Hungerford adds Democrats Sen. Atlee Pomerene of Ohio, former Ambassador to Germany James Gerard, and former Treasury Secretary William MacAdoo in his cartoon. Can you guess which one of them won the Democratic nomination?

"The Line at the Ticket Window..." by J.N. "Ding" Darling in New York Tribune, December 17, 1919

Okay, that was a trick question. But I will have to return to the Democrats another day.

Instead, here's a quick run-through of the major issues candidates in both parties would address:

"Jump" by Magnus Kettner for Western Newspaper Union, by December 20, 1919

First and foremost among issues of the day was the High Cost of Living, which was commonly abbreviated "H.C.L." in cartoons and newspapers of the time. ("H.C.L." virtually disappeared from cartoons and newspapers in December for some reason* — pressure from holiday advertisers perhaps? — even though cartoons critical of profiteers did not.)

I neglected to explain the acronym a few weeks ago when I posted a John McCutcheon cartoon depicting "H.C.L." as a woman at Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving dinner. One reader's first thought was that McCutcheon was depicting Senator Henry Cabot Lodge in drag, a connection I had missed and which I doubt ever occurred to McCutcheon, either.

"The Closed Shop" by Edwin Marcus in New York Times, ca. November, 1919

If profiteers caught some of the blame for the High Cost of Living, few cartoonists expressed any sympathy for workers doing anything collectively to catch up with it. Coalmen, railroad shop workers, food producers, steel workers and the Boston police were among some 3,600 strikes declared in 1919, and were roundly condemned by all but the socialist press. Even the New York Times smeared "strikers" as "labor radicals" deaf to "Reason."

"Where Do We Go From Here?" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 15, 1919

Turning now to foreign policy: negotiations between the Democratic administration and the Republican Congress over the Versailles Peace Accord and League of Nations completely broke down. With neither side willing to compromise, the issue was sure to remain on the table throughout the 1920 campaign.

"The Mexican Merry-Go-Round" by Ted Brown in Chicago Daily News, December, 1919

A rash of kidnappings for ransom of U.S. citizens by Pancho Villa's rebels returned U.S.-Mexican relations to the front burner. Villistas demanded $150,000 ransom for the release of a U.S. consular official; other kidnap victims included oilmen and cattle ranchers.

"Put Up the Bars" by Fred O. Seibel in Knickerbocker Press, November, 1919

Finally, immigration was another hot-button issue — not so much against Mexicans, but rather against leftist agitators from eastern and central Europe, and especially Italy. Cartoonists, as well as other journalists, politicians, and the Attorney General, drew no distinction between communists, socialists, anarchists, and union leaders. Dangers real and imagined made immigrants, who up to this point could come to America at will (except for the Chinese), increasingly suspect and unpopular.
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* P.S.: I found one.

"The Weapon and Point of Attack" by John T. McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, December 18, 1919

I'm 100% positive that McCutcheon and his editors were not accusing Henry Cabot Lodge of burglary.

Drawing Board of Education

Your kids may be on spring break, but here at Bergetoons, it's Back-to-Schoolback Saturday.

I started my editorial cartoon career forty years ago by drawing about our education system — a topic of interest to me since I was still in school at the time. The 1970s in my hometown were marked by union strikes interrupting every other school year, starting with a custodians' union strike in 1970. Most of the strikes lasted a couple of weeks, but a teachers' strike my senior year lasted 50 days — starting in January and lasting all the way through February and into March.

With plenty of time on my hands, I took ballpoint pen to paper and drew the next two cartoons, my first editorial cartoons to be printed in an honest-to-goodness daily newspaper. (Caricatured on the left of this first one is union negotiator Jim Ennis, who had a conveniently round face; on the right is school board negotiator Thatcher Peterson, who didn't.)

To make up for lost school days once classes finally resumed, the district scheduled classes on Saturdays and extended the school year until June 30. We seniors were graduated weeks earlier, however, in order for schools to send our records to colleges and universities on time. It also gave us a slight edge getting summer jobs.

Racine's experience with teachers' strikes was hardly unique. Between 1969 and 1974, there were 50 teachers' strikes in Wisconsin, most notably the 1974 strike in Hortonville, during which the school district summarily fired 86 of its 88 teachers; townsfolk formed vigilante groups against the union members, and the union leader was hanged in effigy from the town water tower. Teachers unions from around the state sent members to support the Hortonville strikers, but to no avail. The Hortonville teachers appealed their firing all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which found in favor of the school district.

I've encountered quite a few people locally whose sour opinion of labor unions is directly a result of  those days. A  jaundiced view  of schools and a reluctance to fund them adequately, on the other hand, predates the union issue. Funding schools through local property taxes makes sense from the point of view of having community-wide support of a community service, but it does require convincing property owners who have no children in school of the value of other people's education.

My generation went through four years of "split shift" middle schools because the community hadn't built enough schools to accommodate the baby boom. Even after we were graduated out of the system, voters only very grudgingly voted to repair or replace older schools that were literally crumbling to pieces.

Sex education has always been a thorny issue for schools. How much information is too much? How much education is not enough?

Sex Ed has been one factor pushing some parents to take their kids out of the public schools; not wanting their kids taught science is another. It furthermore stands to reason that children do better in schools where the whole class is motivated and all parents are invested in the kids' education. Public schools must teach the talented and the indifferent alike, whether the parents have the time or inclination to get involved or not.

Along the way, private school parents have become convinced that it's not fair that they should still have to pay for public schools as well as their private tuition. Thus arose the idea that kids going to private schools should be entitled to public tax dollars, too; its proponents gave their voucher programs the name "School Choice."

The above cartoon fairly encapsulates one of the problems I have with subsidizing private schools. But when I was drawing for the Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee, their editorial stance was firmly in favor of school choice, and they occasionally wanted cartoons that reflected that viewpoint. It can be a good exercise every once in a while to try one's hand at drawing a cartoon with which one disagrees, although I wouldn't recommend making a career of it.

Along came Scott Walker and Republican control of all levers of state government after the 2010 elections. Recognizing them as the last institutional support of the Democratic party, teachers' and other public employee unions were the Republicans' first target. Koch brothers radio and TV ads stoking public resentment of public sector workers. For 30 years, private sector workers had seen their jobs sent overseas and their wages, at best, stagnant. The students of Hortonville and all the other stricken schools in the 1970s were now all grown up and ready to pay those teachers back.

With Republicans now in charge of all levers of the federal government, this will become a national issue yet again. I just posted this last cartoon only a month ago, but I think it's worth another look, since mercurial American President Donald Trump hasn't flip-flopped on subsidizing private education.

Yet.

WisToon: Six Degrees of Scott Walker

Paul Berge✒Jan 21, 2015

The other day, Mark E. Andersen posted a blog entry on Daily Kos titled "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Claims to Have a Master's Degree." Some of my liberal friends were quickly offended by what appears at first glance to be yet another example of college drop-out Walker fabricating fictitious facts — it's kind of like politicians who pretend to be war veterans, isn't it?

I obviously have no sympathy for Darth Snotwalker, but if you read what he actually said — copied right there in Andersen's post — you can easily tell that his ersatz master's degree was not so much a lie as it was as a metaphor:

"I've got a master's degree in taking on the big government special interests, and I think that is worth more than anything else that anybody can point to."

 Still and all, I think there's plenty of room left to lampoon Master Walker for this claim. 

Southeast Wisconsin Redistricting, part II

In discussing the Republicans plan to join the City of Racine and the City of Kenosha into one state senate district, I described Kenosha as a solid union town. I neglected to contrast it with Racine except to say that the 21st Senate District has swung between Republicans and Democrats.

At the risk of sounding like I think Racine is a lousy place to live, and admitting up front that I'm going to be talking in stereotypes and broad generalizations, here is how I see Racine as being quite different from Kenosha.

Where Kenosha is Union Strong, Racine has developed a significant aversion to unions, and progressivism generally. It was not always thus: during the Great Depression, Racine got the nickname of Little Moscow due to its labor unrest. It even elected a Socialist Mayor in 1934, William Swoboda.

But not all major workplaces in Racine were union shops. S.C. Johnson & Son. Johnson Wax held off unionization by being one of the most progressive employers in the nation (recognizing same-sex domestic partner benefits in the 1990's when politicians were still afraid to stand up for LGBT citizens in any way.)

My generation -- the baby boomers -- grew up during a period when the public schools were repeatedly closed by public employee union strikes. The school janitors went on strike in 1970, and the teachers struck in 1972, 1974, and 1977. That last strike lasted 50 days -- from January until March -- and required Racine Unified School District to make up days by extending school through June 30, including six Saturdays (the maximum number of Saturdays allowed by law). Union president Jim Ennis proclaimed that he represented his union's interests, not the public interest, and people remember that. This winter, during the furore over Scott Walker's union-busting "budget repair" bill, I overheard a woman my age in a restaurant telling her fellow diners that the 1977 strike was the major reason she is against unions.


Augmenting Racine's skeptical view of unions is the longstanding attitude among many of its citizens that if something doesn't directly benefit me, I'm against it. If my children have grown up and moved away, I don't see why my taxes should pay for schools. If I don't exercise, I don't see why my taxes should pay for bike trails. If I'm scared to go downtown because of all the dark-skinned people who live there, I don't see why my taxes should pay for making downtown attractive.

In addition to school strikes, my generation was beset with Racine's reluctance to deal with school overcrowding. Year after year, voters rejected referenda to build a new junior high school, so my class and the one before it went through three years of "split shifts": seventh graders went to school from noon to 5:00 p.m., and eighth and ninth graders went to school from 7:00 a.m. to noon. (This coincided with a year of year-round daylight savings time, so everyone got a taste of walking to or from school in the dark.) Classes were only 35 minutes long, which is a pretty short time in which to teach geometry, to accomplish anything in shop, or to practice band. It's even less time to get anything done in gym class, factoring in changing into gym clothes, showering, drying off, and getting dressed for the next class. Finally, Gilmore Junior High (now Middle School) was built; but now, Racine's voters keep rejecting referenda to repair or replace the century-old elementary schools that are crumbling around today's students.

Here's another example of Racine's If It Doesn't Benefit Me, I'm Against It attitude. Saturday, I mentioned the recall of Republican State Senator George Petak. In 1996, the Milwaukee Brewers wanted to replace County Stadium. Since he couldn't sell the idea of a state tax to pay for a new stadium, Governor Tommy Thompson had the bright idea of a .1% sales tax limited to Milwaukee County and the five counties that border it: Ozaukee, Washington, Waukesha, Walworth, and Racine. Petak supported the new stadium, but knew how unpopular the tax was in Racine and promised to vote against it. As legislators wrangled over the bill into the wee hours of the morning, it was clear that the stadium bill would fail unless Petak voted for it.


He changed his vote to Yea, and Democrats rode the wave of popular outrage to take over the 21st District Senate seat. Unlike this summer's recalls, the outrage was bipartisan: Petak had to win a primary against a Republican challenger before falling to Democrat Kim Plache (which also resulted in Democrats seizing a senate majority). It was a mean campaign, however, and the venomous atmosphere was long-lasting. It's still not a good idea when at a Brewers game to let other fans know you're from Racine.

Given their similar size and geographic location, what makes Racine and Kenosha so different? Is it that Kenosha has two colleges and Racine has none?

By and large, Kenosha was settled by Italian immigrants, and Racine was settled by Scandinavians (primarily Danes). Italians have a reputation for adhering less to the state than to more immediate sources of authority: family and clan on the one hand, and the Catholic Church on the other. Scandinavians came here with a greater respect for the institutions of the state, but as Protestants (Lutherans), expecting more control over their religious institutions.

I work at a Lutheran church in Racine which claims the title of the oldest Danish congregation in the United States. I've thorougly researched the history of this congregation, which is marked by decades of squabbling over doctrinal matters and the personal conduct of its pastors. In one episode, the congregation voted whether to denounce their pastor, a Dane living only temporarily in the U.S., for attending a dance held to honor visiting Danish dignitaries. Congregational action of that sort would be unthinkable in a Catholic congregation.

My point here is that Kenoshans have a greater willingness to pull together as a community and Racinians display a greater demand for personal autonomy. When Sarah Palin castigates Barack Obama for having been a "community organizer," Racinians laugh with Palin; Kenoshans laugh at her. Kenoshans also seem more likely to carry through with a majority decision once it has been decided; Racinians are more likely to continue attacking the leader associated with whatever majority decision doesn't go their way.

The effect has been that when Kenosha faced the disaster of the closing of the Chrysler plant and all the companies that supplied it with material, Kenosha pulled together to determine its post-industrial future. Racine spent the age of industrial decline unable to agree what the future should look like and unwilling to spend a penny on anyone else's vision for it. Kenosha facilitated growth by forging agreements with its neighboring townships; Racine and its neighboring townships erected virtual Berlin Walls. Kenosha strengthened its ties to Chicago by becoming the northernmost stop on the Metra line; Racine is dead set against any form of interurban mass transportation.

It will be interesting to see how the difference in style plays out in elections for the 21st Senate District. And -- fair warning, Senator Wangaard -- the 22nd as well.

A prison guard speaks out

I came up with this cartoon while I was still drawing the cartoon I posted this morning -- before coming across this "Letter to Wisconsin Republicans from a conservative prison guard." (It is where I came up with the salary figure of $40,000 -- that much came after the rest of the cartoon was already sketched out.) It's a very angry letter from "a 46 year old lifelong conservative Republican" who "will now be very involved in my community and others if possible to drive you out." The letter includes an aside to Democrats:

"To all you Democratic lawmakers, I apologize for voting nothing but Republican all these years. They are not who I thought they were!! Don't you Republicans see the protests throughout the state? Hey, I'm a taxpayer too!! Don't tell me that you're protecting the taxpayers. This is simply a way to attack some of the finest middle class workers and I for one am considering moving out of Wisconsin as I am so distraught at the lack of honest wholesome government."

This week's Racine Post cartoon

When Mercury Marine told its union employees at its Fond du Lac, Wisconsin plant, that it would move their jobs to a non-union factory in Stillwater, Oklahoma, unless the union voted to allow M.M. to break the current contract, the union voted against the proposed pay freeze and benefit cuts. They must have thought that there was still room for negotiation, but M.M. management decidedly said NO.

The union scrambled to hold another vote on Merc's unchanged demands, but Merc announced they would refuse to recognize the vote. Meanwhile, Fond du Lac city leaders scrambled to offer Mercury Marine tax breaks and their firstborn sons to remain in town.



Mercury has deigned to allow a third vote, taking place today -- so now, of course, the Stillwater Chamber of Commerce is upset that Mercury Marine is breaking their promises to the good people of Stillwater. Mercury Marine breaking promises! Imagine that.

But Stillwater civic leaders know how this game is played. They are prepared to offer Mercury Marine a permanent tax holiday, plus conjugal rights to citizens' wives and daughters.