Frank Hague

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Frank Hague
30th Mayor of Jersey City
In office May 15, 1917 – June 17, 1947
Preceded by	Mark M. Fagan
Succeeded by	Frank H. Eggers
Born	January 17, 1876(1876-01-17) Jersey City, New Jersey, United States
Died	January 1, 1956 (aged 79) New York City, New York, United States
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Jennie W. Warner
Children	Frank Hague, Jr.
Residence	Jersey City, New Jersey
Religion	Roman Catholic

Frank Hague (January 17, 1876 – January 1, 1956) was an American Democratic Party politician who served as the mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey from 1917 to 1947, Democratic National Committeeman from New Jersey from 1922 until 1949, and Vice-Chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1924 until 1949.

Hague has a widely-known reputation for corruption and bossism and has been called "the grandaddy of Jersey bosses."^[1] By the time he left office in 1947, he enjoyed palatial homes, European vacations, and a private suite at the Plaza Hotel.^[2] His wealth has been estimated to have been over $10 million at the time of his death, although his City salary never exceeded $8,500 per year and he had no other legitimate source of income.^[3] His desk, which is still located in City Hall, has a specially designed lap drawer which could be pushed outward towards the person with whom he was meeting. This allowed his "guests" to discreetly deliver bribes in the form of envelopes containing large amounts of cash.^[4]

[edit] Early life

Frank Hague was born the second of eight children to John D. and Margaret Hague (née Fagen), immigrants from County Cavan, Ireland. He was raised in Jersey City's Second ward, an area known as The Horseshoe due to its shape which wrapped around a railroad loop.^[5] The ward was created when the Republican-controlled legislature gerrymandered a district within Jersey City in 1871 to concentrate and isolate Democratic, and mostly Catholic, votes.^[6]

By age 14, Hague was expelled from school prior to completing the sixth grade for poor attendance and unacceptable behavior.^[7] He worked briefly as a blacksmith's apprentice for the Erie Railroad. While training at a local gym for his own potential debut as a prizefighter, he arranged to become manager for Joe Craig, a professional lightweight boxer. Craig was successful enough to allow Hague to buy a few suits that made him appear successful.^[8] In 1896, Hague's apparent prosperity gained him the attention of local tavern owner "Nat" Kenny who was seeking a candidate for constable in the upcoming primary to run against the candidate of a rival tavern owner.^[9] Kenny provided Hague with $75 to "spread around", and Frank Hague quickly won his first election by a ratio of three-to-one.^[10]

[edit] Political career

[edit] Early success

Hague's victory in the Constable election brought him to the attention of Hudson County Democratic political boss "Little Bob" Davis, and Davis asked Hague to help get out Democratic votes for the upcoming 1897 Mayoral election. ^[11] Hague's efforts were credited with generating large voter turnout in the Second Ward for the 1897 and 1899 elections. As a reward for his work, Hague was appointed as a Deputy Sheriff at a salary of $25 per week. ^[12] Over this time, Hague took a leadership role in the Second Ward Democratic club. ^[13]

In the 1901 Mayoral election, Republican Mark M. Fagan was elected. Hague's second ward was one of only two that voted Democratic. Hague survived a Republican challenge for a third term as Constable the following year.^[14]

[edit] The "Red Dugan" affair

As a ward leader, Hague was approached by a woman to provide assistance for her son, who had been arrested for passing a forged check. The son, Reg Dugan, had been a classmate of Hague's in school. According to the Boston Evening Transcript of October 4, 1904, Dugan had deposited a forged check for $955 in the Peoples Bank of Roxbury, Massachusetts, and convinced the bank manager to let him withdraw $500. Hague ignored a subpeona to testify in Hudson County Court and traveled to Massachusetts to provide an alibi for Dugan. Hague and another deputy sheriff, Thomas "Skidder" Madigan, claimed that they had seen Dugan in Jersey City on the day of the alleged offense. Both were threatened with perjury charges.^[15]

Upon returning to Jersey City, Hague was found guilty of contempt of court for ignoring the subpeona. He was fined $100 and stripped of his duties as Deputy Sheriff.^[16]

In spite of the resulting press coverage of the event, Hague was more deeply embraced by his constituency. Thomas Smith wrote: "But to the residents of the Horseshoe, Frank Hague had gone out of his way to help a friend - had practically given his livelihood to aid a brother."^[17] In the succeeding municipal election of 1905, wich saw the return of incumbent Fagan to the office of mayor, Hague was elected to a fourth term as constable.

[edit] Ward leader

Hague rose through the Democratic machinery of Hudson County, which drew much of its strength by providing newly arrived immigrants with the rudimentary social services.^[18] Hague took a job as a collector for a local brewery, leaving him with time to spend in the streets and the local taverns which were hubs of political activity.^[19] He also spent his time cleaning up the loose ends of the second ward's south-end Democratic Club to consolidate his power.

As a reward for his efforts in turning out votes in the 1905 election, Bob Davis named Hague as the party leader for the Second Ward and arranged for Hague to be appointed as Sergeant at Arms for the New Jersey State Assembly.^[20]

[edit] Political reformer

Hague broke ties with "Boss" Davis in 1906 over a difference of opinion on a candidate for appointment to the city Street and Water Board.^[21] As a result, Hague supported H. Otto Wittpenn for mayor in the 1907 election. Wittpenn was a reformer who opposed the control Davis held over Hudson County politics. Over the objections of Davis, newly-elected Mayor Wittpenn appointed Hague as chief custodian of City Hall - a "cushy" job with plenty of patronage opportunites.^[22] During the Wittpenn administration, Hague also became friendly with Wittpenn's secretary - a Presbyterian Sunday school teacher named A. Harry Moore.^[23]

The resulting battle for control of the Hudson County Democratic machine would ironically result in one of the greatest boosts to Hague's rise to power - the Walsh Act of 1911.^[24] In 1909 Davis, seeing support for Hague increasing, supported Wittpenn's re-election against former mayor Fagan. Hague's second ward produced the largest plurality of Wittpenn votes of any of Jersey City's 12 wards.^[25] Davis then arranged the appointment of Fagan to the Hudson County Tax Board. When Wittpenn's administration beagn facing troubles, including Fagan's discovery of a Pennsylvania Railroad property that had paid no taxes for four years, Wittpenn blamed Davis.^[26]

Seeking to curb the influence of Davis, Wittpenn announced his candidacy for Governor, stating "I have endured the machine as long as possible, but patience is no longer a virtue."^[27] Davis, in turn, prevailed upon Woodrow Wilson, then President of Princeton University, to oppose Wittpenn's candidacy.^[28] Wilson's victory was overwhleming, even in Hague's ward depsite heavy-handed tactics used there. The Jersey Journal wrote: "Cops on duty were using clubs and blackjacks to assist Mayor Wittpenn and Frank Hague defeat the Davis men."^[29]

Wilson's reform-minded term as Governor saw the establishment of Presidential primary elections, introduced workers' compensation, and brought about passage of the Walsh Act which provided for a non-partisan commission form of municipal government that was greatly reflective of his academic writings in Congressional Government.

"Little Bob" Davis died of cancer shortly after the 1910 gubernatorial election leaving a vacuum in the power structure of the Hudson County Democrats.^[30] Wittpenn quickly endorsed the idea of converting Jersey City to a commission form of government, but was opposed by forces, including Hague, attempting to take control of the party. Hague campaigned heavily against the idea in the Horseshoe, claiming that such a system of city-wide elected commissioners would erode the influence of the working-class and consolidate power among the cities elite.^[31] Wittpenn's opponents successfully petitioned for a change in the date of the vote on the charter chage, moving it from September to mid-July, and the proposal was defeated. As a result of this campaign, Hague came under the scrutiny of the Jersey Journal, which had supported the proposed charter change. It was reported that Hague's older brother, a battalion chief on the city fire department, had been on "sick leave" for three years at full pay.^[32]

Hague reconciled with Wittpenn to support his re-election in 1911. Wittpenn then supported Hague's nomination for Commissioner of Streets and Water. Both were elected. The new position greatly expanded Hague's patronage authority. While City Hall employed a few dozen custodians, there were hundreds of wokers in the Street and Water Department.^[33] Hague's work as head of the Department of Street Cleaners even convinced the Jersey Journal to endorse him as a "reform candidate" in the next election.^[34]

In the spring of 1913, having gained confidence in his own ability to assure himself a place on the commission, Hague supported the renewed effort to change the Jersey City government from the Mayor-Council model to the commission form. The vote for charter change passed, and the stage was set for Frank Hague's rise to power.

[edit] Commissioner

The first election for the city commission saw 91 men on the ballot competing for five available seats on the commission. Wittpenn, who was running to succeed now-President Wilson as Governor, was not on the ballot A slate he supported survived to the runoff election.^[35] Hague received 17,390 votes and, along with three others who had opposed Wittpenn on the "Unbossed" ticket, was elected to the first City Commission of Jersey City. Only A. Harry Moore of the Wittpenn-supported bracket was elected.^[36] As a result of having garnered the most votes (21,419) former mayor Fagan became the first mayor under the new form of government, and the last Republican to hold that title in Jersey City for 75 years.

When he was named public safety commissioner, Hague set about reshaping the corrupt Jersey City police force with tough Horsehoe recruits, of which an inner cadre was personally loyal to Hague alone.^{[citation needed]} His reputation as the man who cleaned up the police force brought him into the mayor's office in 1917 and Hague set about turning Hudson County's Democratic organization into one of the most powerful and long-lived political machines in America.

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Hague, a friend of Al Smith, backed Smith against [Franklin Delano Roosevelt|Franklin D. Roosevelt]] during the race for the Democratic nomination in 1932. When FDR won the nomination, Hague adroitly switched his allegiance and offered to organize the biggest political rally anyone had ever seen if FDR would launch his presidential campaign in New Jersey. Hague was as good as his word, and when Roosevelt formally began his campaign with an event at the Jersey Shore town of Sea Girt, Hague's machine made sure there were several thousand Hudson County voters looking on and cheering. (Farley, James. Behind the Ballots: The Personal History of a Politician, Harcourt Brace, 1940.)^{[citation needed]} For his support of Roosevelt in 1932, Hague was rewarded with money for a massive ([1]) medical center complex complete with a maternity hospital named after his mother, Margaret Hague.^{[citation needed]}

His employment of voter fraud is the stuff of legend. ([2]) See How to Steal an Election, John Fund, City Journal, Autumn 2004).

Though Hague, like other political bosses of the time, was not above outright fraud at the polls, the keys to Hague's success were his matchless organizational skills and demand for complete loyalty from his subordinates. His command over the Democratic voters of Hudson County, a densely populated urban area in a state that was still mostly rural, made him a man to reckon with among state Democrats and Republicans alike. He was a close friend of Al Smith, the New York governor who became the first Irish-American presidential candidate in 1928. However, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt trounced Smith during the 1932 primary, Hague switched his allegiance to FDR and was rewarded with a steady stream of perks that sustained Hague's organization throughout the Depression.^{[citation needed]}

In 1947, with enemies in the state government finally able to curb some of his power, Hague abruptly announced his retirement. He attempted to call the shots through his nephew, Frank Hague Eggers, whom he appointed mayor.^{[citation needed]} This ended in 1949 when John V. Kenny, a former Hague man alienated by the appointment of Eggers, won a landslide victory in the mayoral election and set about ruling through his own machine, which proved every bit as corrupt but far less efficient at providing services.^{[citation needed]}

Hague's pride and joy was the Jersey City Medical Center, which he began creating almost as soon as he became mayor. By the 1940s it had grown into a 10-building complex that provided virtually free medical care to Jersey City residents and was one of the biggest medical facilities in the country. Even at the time it was too large to operate cost-effectively.^{[citation needed]} As of 2006, only two of the buildings were still in use. The remainder were slated to be redeveloped as a luxury condominium complex called the Beacon.

[edit] Friend and foe to labor

Though Hague was accommodating to labor unions during the first half of his mayoral career -- Jersey City police were known for turning back strikebreakers, something unheard of during the period -- he became a savage opponent of organizers in the 1930s. The turnaround came about during a dispute with labor boss and former supporter Theodore "Teddy" Brandle, whose attempts to organize the work crews on the Pulaski Skyway construction project (1930-32) touched off a labor war so intense that local newspapers called it "the war of the meadows."^[37]

The rise of the CIO in the mid-1930s represented a threat to Hague's policy of guaranteeing labor peace to the sweatshop type industries that might otherwise have fled Jersey City's high property taxes. When Socialist presidential candidate Norman Thomas came to speak on behalf of the CIO during a May Day rally in Journal Square, Hague's police swept Thomas and his wife into a car, took them to the Pavonia ferry and sent them back to New York.^[38] Hague spent much of the decade inveighing against Communists and labor unions, and his attempts to suppress the CIO's activities in Jersey City led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision, Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization 307 U.S. 496 (1939), that is a cornerstone of law concerning public expression of political views on public property.

[edit] Death

Hague died on New Year's Day in 1956 at his Park Avenue penthouse in New York.^[39] While hundreds gathered to see the casket depart the funeral home, only four men were seen to remove their hats for the passing of the coffin.^[40] One woman present held an American Flag and a sign that read, "God have mercy on his sinful, greedy soul."^[41]

Hague was interred in a large mausoleum at Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City.^[42]

[edit] Quotes

"We hear about constitutional rights, free speech and the free press. Every time I hear those words I say to myself, 'That man is a Red, that man is a Communist.' You never heard a real American talk in that manner." - speech to the Jersey City Chamber of Commerce, January 12, 1938^[43]

"I am the law!" - speech on city government to the Emory Methodist Episcopal Church in Jersey City, November 10, 1937^[44], ^[45], ^[46]

[edit] See also

• List of mayors of Jersey City, New Jersey

[edit] References

[edit] Sources

• Connors, Richard (1971). A Cycle of Power: The Career of Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-81080-435-7. 
• Hart, Steven (2007). The Last Three Miles: Politics, Murder, and the Construction of America's First Superhighway. New York, NY: The New Press. ISBN 978-1-59558-098-6. 
• Leinwand, Gerald (2004). Mackerels in the Moonlight: Four Corrupt American Mayors. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-78641-845-9. 
• McKean, Dayton David (1967). The Boss: the Hague Machine in Action. New York, NY: Russell & Russell Pub. ISBN 978-0-84620-821-1. 
• Smith, Thomas F.X. (1982). The Powerticians. Secaucus, NJ: Lyle Stuart. ISBN 0-8184-0328-4. 
• Van Devander, Charles W. (1974). The Big Bosses. New York, NY: Arno Press. ISBN 978-0-40505-903-2. 

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Frank Hague

• 307 U.S. 496 (1939) Full text of the decision from FindLaw.com
• Frank Hague Page at Jersey City History
• The Pragmatic Populism of a Non-Partisan Politician: An Analysis of the Political Philosophy of Charles Edison
• Frank Hague at Find A Grave
• The Life and Times of Frank Hague (2001) A five-part radio program