William Emmett Dever

William Emmett Dever (born March 13, 1862 in Woburn , Massachusetts , † September 13, 1929 in Chicago , Illinois ) was an American politician . Between 1923 and 1927 he was mayor of the city of Chicago.

Career

At the age of 15, William Dever began to work in the family's own tannery business. In 1882 he moved to Boston . From there he went on sales trips for the leather products of the tannery. In 1887 he came to Chicago, where he was also employed by a tannery. After studying law at the Chicago College of Law and being admitted to the bar in 1890, he began to work in this profession. At the same time he embarked on a political career as a member of the Democratic Party . In 1902 he was elected to the Chicago City Council. Since 1910 he worked as a judge.

In 1923, Dever was elected mayor of Chicago. He held this office between 1923 and 1927. Dever was an opponent of the then very powerful organized crime. While his predecessor and successor William Hale Thompson had cooperated with gangsters like Al Capone , Dever fought with them and at least tried to make life difficult for them. Due to circumstances such as the desire of many citizens for alcoholic beverages during the prohibition period , this undertaking was not crowned with great success. After all, he was the only mayor in Chicago in the 1920s who dared to stand up to the criminals. He himself was an opponent of the alcohol ban, but wanted to enforce it since it was the law. Criminal violence increased in those years and the shootings in the streets of Chicago, which are legendary to this day, broke out. Independently of this, he improved the city's infrastructure. Among other things, the city's first airport was built at that time. In 1927 Dever was defeated by his predecessor Thompson, who availed himself of the help of organized crime and won the election by 83,000 votes. Four more years of Al Capone's absolute rule over Chicago followed.

In 1924 and 1928 Dever took part as a delegate at the respective Democratic National Conventions . In 1908 he had already been a substitute delegate to the then federal party congress. After retiring as mayor, he worked for Bank of America , where he held the position of vice president. He died of cancer on September 13, 1929 in Chicago.

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personal data
SURNAME	Dever, William Emmett
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American politician
DATE OF BIRTH	March 13, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH	Woburn , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH	September 13, 1929
Place of death	Chicago , Illinois