Leland J. Kennedy Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

in Edwardsville, and you had to pay your own way, and there was ten guys that wanted
to be delegates from Alton - I don't think we had any female members, we could have,
I don't recall that. Not that we ostracized, maybe they weren't as active then as they are
now.
And I was a delegate to one of the conventions and I just liked politics and I didn't run
for committeeman for ten years but I was always active. I was always working for some
candidate for free or - I remember, hell, one candidate gave me two dollars and a half
one time to work a precinct for him. I had to pass out cards. That was back in some city
race in the mid-1930's.
Now it wasn't in thc general election, but I just was proud to vote
and my mother would work in the polls and that was a big thing and I was a Democrat,
and she was a Democratic clerk or a judge - not too often, but maybe half a dozen times
in her life. And she liked that. And I mentioned my grandfather had been in politics and
my dad died in 1937 so he saw me getting started. He never got to see me get elected to
any state or federal office but - or city office.
But the Young Democrats was an active organization and I don't know whether they've got
a Young Democratic organization anymore. When I was starting, I think there might have
been maybe a little over a hundred precincts in the county. And a precinct committeeman,
always to me, was the chief Democrat in that precinct. I mean he got elected and he
appointed a precinct committeewoman. And the Madison County Democratic precinct committeeman,
and precinct committeewoman, organizations have always been active. They're
active today. They were the dominant party and they helped make it the dominant
party. They worked their polls, they took people to the vote that had to have a ride to the
polls. Some women worked their precincts better.
I remember - these are things that you hear - one of the committeewomen was telling
my wife she had to give a woman a douche to get her to go to the poll, and things like
that. (laughter) And that really happened. Just you know, amusing things. Now that
didn't happen to me as a Young Democrat, but just those things.
The Young Democratic organization was a potent political organization in the 1930's.
SESSION 3, TAPE 6, SIDE 1 (extract)
Q: What do you remember about the Edwardsville convention that you attended in 1932?
A: Well I remember they elected a man by the name of Powell and he later dropped out
of politics. Of course that was the height of the Depression. A lot of people thought they
could get jobs. Some guys got jobs.
Now there was two theaters on the Main Street of Edwardsville. I think therc was a Lux
Theater and the Wilder Theater, and I believe our first convention was held in the Lux Theater
and of course the county elected officials would attend that. I believe in the election
of 1930 we elected a sheriff, an off-year, wrested the office of sheriff from the Republicans,
and the office of county treasurer. Of course the office of county clerk seems like it's been
in the Hutch family far - or the present incumbent, her cousin or old-time friend. And
they would appear and there'd be coffee and donuts and soda water and singing. And I
guess maybe if there was any drinking I don't know about that. That drinking problem
never bothered me. But you'd frolic and have a good time and get to meet the fellows. 1
always tried to sit up front so I'd hear what was going on and . . .
Q: Do you remember any of the individuals that you met at that . . .
A: Well, I mentioned Ed Pyle. Thcre was - see, having grown up in Alton and living in
Upper Alton and going to school in North Hall, I knew a lot of people. I had that advantage