“BIG BILL” THOMPSON ILL

Hokitika Guardian, 5 November 1930, Page 7

“BIG BILL” THOMPSON ILL

•*v‘~ STOPPED FROM MAKING HIS SPEECH.’ (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright).

CHICAGO, November 1\ 4 The Mayor, “Big Bill” Thompson, after asserting that he would make a. political announcement, said: “Whether I get put doAvn or not ” Ho then become suddenly il;l from appendicitisl. He was removed to the hospital and operated upon successfully. However, peritonitis set in, and his condition will cause much anxiety for the: next fortyeight hours, since Mr Thompson’s general condition is rather poor. His speech was delivered later by a supporter, and was a. direct attack upon Chicago newspapers and Mrs Ruth M’Cormick, Republican candidate for the Senate. ' The speech caused astonishment in political circles in Chicago, since the newspapers found it “too violently yituperative and filthy to print fully.”

‘if 4 ’ V- ’■ Mrs Ruth. whose- father and husband have been United States Senators,; and who herself is a member of defeated Charles Deneen in the State primaries. Mr Deneen defeated Mrs M’Cormack’s'husband six years ago for the same nomination. The campaign was extremely bitter. At the primary'election last April, State Attorney Swanson threatened that indictments would follow if the police under the control of the Mayor, “Big Bill” Thompson, showed any partiality in enforcing the election laws.

Charges were made that 50,000 fraudulent names had been registered for voting, and reports all day long

"V from the “bad land” wards ..of Chicago J indicated that “strong arm” methods / were playing their usual part. William Hale Thompson; cowboy, man of wealth, politician and twice Mayor of Chicago, is best known as the initiator of the anti-British campaign in that city. To his friends he is always “Big Bill.” He was born at Boston, Mass., in 1869, hut spent many years of his early ylife on ranches in the West. His father, however, made money; and Thompson became the. pampered son of a ■wealthy parent; He turned to yachting, tennis and golf, and acquired l...fame throughout the Middle West as -f a sportsman. Polities then attracted him. A friend; who had a great ad- ■ miration for his beaming good-fellow-ship said in later years. “1 like Bill as a man, but I detest him as a politician.” It has also been said of Him that he is “not a reaBoner, but . a shouter of statements.”