One of the hundreds of stories about Richard Joseph Daley making the rounds in Chicago these days concerns a trip he made to Harvard in the mid-60s. The idea, concocted by Daley's then-press secretary (since convicted), was to show academic types that the mayor of America's second largest city used more than "des, dems and dose" when he spoke. Daley gave a dull, technical, very formal speech and questions followed--mostly hostile ones,. Suddenly, the stiff, unnatural Richard Daley gave way to the mayor millions of Chicagoans worshipped. Malapropisms and Chicagoese returned--his blunt words chopped through the air. A student charged bossism. The answer to that was easy. "You either run the party or the party runs you," the mayor said.

And run the Democratic Party of Illinois he did; and Cook County; and the City of Chicago. He helped run the General Assembly in Springfield and he ran the slate-making process, which, months before the primary, anoints the candidates who will represent the Democrats on the local, county and state-wide level.

And he helped run things on the national stage too. All the honchos for over twenty years trooped up to the fifth floor of City Hall. Everyone knows John F. Kennedy '40 owed his election in part to the kingmaker and Carter clinched the nomination last June on the day Daley endorsed him. Even if the mayor failed to carry Illinois for Carter and got crushed by the Republicans in the gubernatorial election, Daley ran the party in Illinois up to the day he died.

The things Daley really ran, though, were closer to home. Schools, parks, housing, transportation, sewage, libraries--they all came under his control. His connections to the business community allowed him to decide on most major building construction. He ran many labor negotiations. Licensing? Building Inspection? Property assessment? Daley ran those. Much of the judiciary in Illinois is "elected", so a large number of the late mayor's men are on the bench. Same thing with the University of Illinois trustees.

The Fire Department, of course, was his (What Chicagoan can forget when the mayor's buddy, the fire commissioner ordered the air raid sirens turned on when the White Sox--Daley's favorite--won the pennant in 1959?).

Daley's running of the Police Department proved one of the more visible examples of his power. Everyone watched in April of 1968 when he issued his famous "shoot-to-kill" arsonists order after the riots following the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. In August of that year the nation watched again as policemen's billy-clubs did their work in Lincoln Park, clubbing Democratic presidential chances along with the demonstrators.

Even considering Chicago's weak-mayor, strong-council municipal system, it hardly needs to be said that Daley ran the City Council, and when a few aldermen refused to be run, well, their microphones sometimes got turned off and their "legislation" always lost.

Yes, "you either run the party [city, county, police, etc.] or it runs you," but now Mr. Big from which all emanated, is gone. Without someone running things how is Chicago going "to work?" Because Chicago has "worked" up to now. That's what they say all over.

The streets are clean and well-lighted and the garbage gets picked up. For those who play ball (a large percentage) favors are granted with regularity. Chicago is stable, too--a very important fact. But there is more to making a city work than that, and "works" is a relative phrase.

Daley's Chicago worked for the rich land-owing friend of the mayor whose downtown property was assessed at a fraction of its real worth, but it didn't work so well for the small homeowner trying to get a mortgage from a nearby savings and loan which refuses to lend money in its own neighborhood. The LaSalle St. banker, profiting from the city, probably lives in the suburbs; the neighborhood resident may well be on the verge of joining the white flight to less affluent communities, in part, because of something that doesn't work at all in Chicago: the schools--among the nation's worst.

Daley's Chicago worked downtown and along the lakefront where the beautiful buildings he gave the city serve as a testament to his ability to improve Chicago. But the skyscrapers and architectural wonders--for all their importance--distract visitors from seeing the decaying inner city, which doesn't work so well. No public housing has been built recently. Daley refused to put the projects in white areas and lost federal funds as a result. Chicago remains statistically the most segregated major city in the nation. And the Machine can't and won't do much for ghetto dwellers. The infant mortality rate is higher in Chicago than in any other large metropolitan area.

Daley's Chicago worked for the party faithful, for the guy who could call his "clout" to get his alley fixed or his brother a job with the Park District. But it didn't work so well for the guy who voted against the Machine and couldn't get his alley fixed, or the voter who didn't want to support feather-bedding in city government, or the store owner who receives a surprise visit from the building inspector after an anti-administration poster appeared in his window, or the tavern owners forced to pay extortion fees to corrupt policemen.

It didn't work for blacks and Latins wanting to join the Fire Department--one of the nation's most discriminatory. As for the Police Department, a federal judge held up millions of dollars in revenue-sharing funds to Chicago because Daley refused to change police hiring practices.

Daley's Chicago worked for dozens of his cronies who got rich off knowing in advance which land would soon contain expressways, public buildings, etc. It didn't work so well for his close friends now behind bars, but there are plenty more for whom Chicago is still working just fine.

Daley's Chicago worked for those who like to drive, and for the building contractors who profit from expressway construction. But it didn't work for the ethnic neighborhoods uprooted by his pet projects. Hizzoner didn't have much sympathy for citizens who prefer public transportation--a mess in the city.