Granduncle

Detroit went to its primary polls to nominate two men to run for mayor. No parties took part. No issues were raised. And the man Detroit chose by a margin of 30,000 votes as leading nominee had made no campaign, posted no posters, mailed no cards, spoken no speeches. When this leading nominee heard the returns he said: "The vote of the people is a tribute for which I am deeply grateful. ... I believe that the people of Detroit know there is not an intolerant bone in my body. . . ."

The nominee was John C. Lodge, onetime Michigan State Senator, 18 years a Detroit Alderman. In 1919, Mayor James Couzens of Detroit said to Alderman Lodge: "You ought to be mayor of this town." As President of the City Council, Alderman Lodge virtually was the mayor later, for four years. Not until friends came to him with 50,000 names on a petition did he resign as Council president and enter his name in the primary.

Believers in the maxim, "Blood will tell," made much of this story of John C. Lodge, whose grandnephew, as all Detroit knows, is Charles Augustus Lindbergh.