Frank Zeidler was just 47 when he quit his job as mayor. It was not over some shining principle but because he couldn’t take the strain: “I’m tired all the time,” he said. “It’s a hard thing to swim upstream all the time.”
Zeidler never stood for election again, save a quixotic 1976 run as the Socialist candidate for president that he surely knew would end in defeat.
Media obituaries couldn’t resist clucking about today’s more compromised politicians, but such comparisons are bunk. Zeidler wasn’t like the elected officials of any time. He was barely a politician at all. Reporters calling the mayor at home would sometimes find he was up in the attic with his telescope looking at the stars.
Yes, Zeidler was modest, honest and idealistic. He didn’t drink or smoke, never learned to drive and took the bus everywhere. He wouldn’t move from his modest home in what became the heart of the inner city but said it was mostly because of inertia. Zeidler lacked the personal ambition that drives most politicians, which is admirable but may also help explain his lack of staying power.
His politics are easily misunderstand. Years ago, legislator and mayor-to-be John Norquist referred to himself as a “fiscally conserva-tive Socialist.” The line drew laughs, but, in fact, it precisely describes the old Socialists like Zeidler and longtime Mayor Dan Hoan. They were tightfisted budget crunchers and so opposed to paying interest to banks they would “pay as you go” for all public projects. Few governments in the nation were so cautious about debt.
The Socialists created remarkably efficient city services but oversaw a rather dour city where no money could be borrowed to create great institutions. It was the business community, led by the Greater Milwaukee Committee, that pushed officials to borrow and build things like the Arena, County Stadium, a new museum and new zoo. Zeidler was always suspicious of the GMC.
Few politicians have been as unbending as Zeidler. He fiercely opposed the creation of suburbs, announcing that “we do not be-lieve they have the right to exist.” His administration pushed hard to absorb all of the land in the county, requiring any municipality that wanted a drop of the city’s water to agree to annexation. Zeidler doubled the size of Milwaukee, one of the most important ac-complishments in the city’s history. But he won this with a hard stubbornness that few Waukesha residents, who now want Milwau-kee’s water, are likely to see as saintliness.
Zeidler did back the creation of expressways, calling them “a citizens’ highway.” The result, ironically, tore up huge stretches of city homes and paved the way to the suburbs he opposed. He backed the creation of many public housing projects. There were no high-rise disasters like Chicago’s Cabrini Green, but any such projects are now out of favor with urban theorists. Zeidler, however, never changed his mind about any of the issues he championed.
His idealism was admirable, but political change more often comes through compromise. Zeidler was an exception who accom-plished much, but the effort took a toll on him.
Politicians live in a fishbowl of relentless scrutiny. So they find ways to shelter themselves. Not Zeidler. Journalists came into his office without knocking. He would go through his mail with reporters and let them sit in on his meetings. But this very openness gave the newspapers more ammunition to criticize him.
Successful politicians reward friends and punish enemies. But there were no consequences for opposing Zeidler. The business community, the two daily newspapers, opposing aldermen and suburban officials could all take potshots. It was always open season on Mayor Zeidler.
The peak of such attacks was the absurd claim that Zeidler, who backed racial equality, had put up billboards in southern cities in-viting African Americans to move here. The criticism was vicious, and Zeidler’s children were taunted by it at school.
Zeidler was a fluke of history. His 1948 election was an upset, he once conceded, because the voters linked him to his brother, Carl, the singing mayor elected in 1940 who died a World War II hero. Frank had no political machine, had not one Socialist ally on the Common Council and was re-elected twice largely due to the advantage of incumbency and his transparent decency.
But by 1959, he was worn out. Zeidler had passed a pension for city employees but felt he therefore couldn’t personally benefit from it. He accomplished much for Milwaukee but not a dollar’s legacy for himself. He had difficulty making a living, mostly get-ting part-time jobs as a labor arbitrator and university instructor. “Who wants to hire an ex-Socialist mayor?” he once asked.
It would be wonderful if we could expect such principled unselfishness from all of our politicians. But that may be asking too much of any human being. Even Zeidler could only pull it off for three terms. Still, what a remarkable 12 years it was.
