The Gazette

HOW WE LOST
DIRECTORSHIP IN MAYOR HARRY L. DAVIS
CABINET BECAUSE
OF
"THE
BLOSSOM TRIPLETS "
Who Again Turn Their Backs on Their Own People for Small Jobs for Constituents, Most of Whom, Like Themselves, Were Not Loyal to Davis.

A pledge to do everything in his power to protect the merit system in public employment was made, last night, by Clayborne George, who yesterday was appointed by Mayor Harry L. Davis as a member of the Civil Service Commission for a six-year term to succeed Harry E. Davis.-Sunday's Plain Dealer, Dec. 31, '33.

Four years ago, last fall, Councilman Clayborne George, when a candidate for re-election to City Council, made a pledge to his constituents when campaigning for votes, "to do all in his power to help oust Director of Welfare Dudley S. Blossom, for his color-line stand in barring our internes from training in City Hospital and barring our girls from the nurses' training school in that public institution, maintained by all the tax-payers of the community."

Did he keep that pledge?
HE DID NOT! What is his latest "pledge" worth when one recalls his broken pledge of four years ago?

With the election of Mayor Harry L. Davis, George was thought to be in line for a cabinet post but (early in November last) made it plain that he did not aspire to the place.- Saturday's Cleveland News, Dec. 30, '33.

Then George joined with the other two "Blossom Triplets" (Councilmen Payne and Bundy) and went to Mayor Davis pleading for the appointment as a cabinet member of a member of another group which was already represented in the mayor's cabinet in the person of Law Director Ezra Shapiro.

Apparently, "The Blossom Triplets" were determined that our people should not have such representation, even one member of the Mayor's cabinet, when we are entitled to two because our vote constitutes practically one-third of the Republican vote of the city of Cleveland and there are seven members of the "The Blossom Triplets."

George.
Bundy.
Payne.

Mayor's cabinet.
Lord, have mercy!
What is the pledge of such a person worth?

Six years ago, the Hon. Harry E. Davis, whom George succeeds, was appointed a member of the city's Civil Service Commission. Whereupon Clayborne George, a Republican member of the City Council, announced, publicly of course, that he would NOT vote for the confirmation of the Davis appointment but intended to vote for Davis' Democratic opponent, Ex-Councilman Orlikowski, and stuck to that determination right up to the very night the Council acted.

It was only the "mass pressure" of our people of this community that finally forced him to vote for Davis' confirmation.
Even
then he arose in Council and gave that august body the silliest "explanation" (of his vote) ever heard in the Council chamber of this city.

Now he has been appointed to succeed Davis though he is a "lame-duck" councilman who at the recent election polled the smallest vote, as a candidate for a judgeship of the Municipal Court, ever received by an Afro-American candidate for that position. He simply was not in the race at all, judging by the small vote he received. Our people of this community, for good and sufficient reasons, simply could not "see" his candidacy.

George had served six years in City Council and his constituents of the 18th Ward and the fourth Councilmanic district had absolutely nothing to show for the three terms he served.

His support of Color-Line Welfare Director Dudley S. Blossom in the City Hospital controversy was not enough, it seems. Now comes his somewhat similar act of disloyalty to the race in his opposition to the appointment of a member of the race to membership in the Mayor's cabinet, and his support of a member of another group, which was already represented in the Mayor's cabinet, again turning his back on his own people. Little wonder, therefore, that his appointment of last Saturday to the Civil Service Commission, irritates rather than pleases the great mass of the loyal members of the race in this community.

Hon. Harry E. Davis, who has been chairman of the Civil Service Commission for a year or two, was the first Afro-American to be chosen a member of that body.

He was appointed in 1927 when the commission was elected by the City Council. He had served four terms in the Ohio Legislature. Immediately after Mayor Davis' election in November, some of George's friends started to urge his appointment as a member of the Mayor's cabinet, but George indicated that he did not want such a position, saying that our people did not ask and were not expecting such recognition at that time. Can you imagine it? The civil service commissioners' pay has been cut 25 percent -to $2250 a year, while a cabinet member gets about twice that amount.