In his budget address on Wednesday, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker compared the state’s woes to those faced in the early 1930s by a new governor from Chicago, Henry Horner.
Despite challenges including the Great Depression and widespread flooding “Horner approached his job with optimism, with wit and with a dogged work effort,” Pritzker said.
So who was Henry Horner?
A probate judge in Cook County for many years, Horner was a Democrat like Pritzker. Horner became Illinois’ first Jewish governor when he was elected in 1932. His grandfather had been one of the first four Jews to settle in Chicago, 91 years before.
In his speech Wednesday, Pritzker repeated his call for a graduated income tax that will weigh more heavily on the wealthy. Horner also took on a tax issue, successfully pushing in 1933 for a state sales tax, a 3 percent levy that was roundly denounced by business interests.
An opponent of patronage and corruption, Horner sparred with powerful Chicago Mayor Edward Kelly. In 1936, Chicago’s Democratic machine sought to defeat Horner, but with strong Downstate support he won re-election. Two years later, a state ticket he supported in the face of machine opposition “triumphed,” the Tribune reported.
But, according to the Tribune, “the successful effort he then made to overcome the bosses cost him his health.” Horner suffered a stroke in 1938, and died while still in office in 1940. He was 61.
In the late 1950s, the Chicago Housing Authority named a West Side complex along Lake Street after the late governor. The Henry Horner Homes were decimated by gangs and violence in the 1980s and ’90s. Demolition of the last buildings in the Henry Horner Homes was completed about 10 years ago.
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February 20, 2019 at 04:06PM
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