Buckle
on the corn belt:
Galesburg
wins 1957 All America City Award
by
Mike Kroll
the
Zephyr, Galesburg
We're singing G A L E
S, We're glad to B U R
G Yes!
We're singing Gee, We're glad to be the buckle on
the corn belt!
We're in the heart of the US, the perfect part for
happiness,
We're singing Gee, we're glad to be the city
All-American!
We're a college town with Old Siwash,
We're a railroad town where the railroads cross,
Mister Lincoln spoke, Mister Sandburg wrote, in
Galesburg Illinois!
Fifty years ago Galesburg music store owner Charles
Gamble wrote the words and music to the Galesburg Buckle Song and while it
never made it to the pop charts (for obvious reasons) it was indeed popular on
Galesburg area radio stations and available as a 45rpm vinyl record at
Gamble's, Lindstrom's and other area music stores. The song was published in
January 1958 Òin celebration of the National Municipal League and Look magazine
award of the ÒAll American CityÓ designation to Galesburg publicly announced
January 8, 1958.
The public announcement was made Wednesday, January 8,
1958 by Galesburg Mayor William Small who was privately given advance notice of
the award by officials of the two award sponsors. Galesburg was one of ten
cities honored that year with an award that was initiated in 1949. The designation
was actually earned for the year 1957 and the various local accomplishments or
projects commenced or committed to that year by city officials and other local
entities. On November 18, 1957 a small committee representing Galesburg made a
short presentation in support of the award before a committee of judges
selected by the National Municipal League.
Galesburg was nominated for this award by the
Galesburg Register-Mail and the Galesburg Council of Churches. Not
surprisingly, the Register-Mail gave the award significant coverage that
continued well past the initial announcement. In an non-bylined front page
article announcing the award the paper wrote: ÒAnnouncement of this award will
bring Galesburg the greatest spread of favorable publicity, nationally and even
outside the nation's borders, that we have ever received on any occasion.Ó
Mayor Small was quoted as saying at the time of the
announcement, ÒThere is a $13 million story behind Galesburg's qualification
for this award.Ó He was referring to the long list of civic and community
improvements and projects that were hailed as evidence justifying Galesburg's
award. Some of the examples were the beginning of the $5 million project to
construct a water pipeline to Oquawka,
the school district's commitment in 1957 to build four new middle
schools at a cost of $5 million, a $1 million commitment from area churches to
expand and renovate their facilities, a community fund raising project that
netted $785,000 toward improvements at both Galesburg hospitals, a $400,000
fund drive to expand and renovate the Knox College Library, $125,000 to make
improvements at the then downtown YMCA, relocation of the Galesburg airport
from what is not the northwest corner of Henderson and Fremont streets to its
current location on West Main Street, and creation of off-street downtown
parking lots. That same year the city council committed to conducting a
comprehensive plan that was completed a few years later and officially began
economic development efforts with an initial commitment of $75,000.
This was really big money back in 1958. Adjusted for
inflation according to the Consumer Price Index that compares the buying power
of money at different points in time, one million dollars in 1958 had the
buying power of $7,272,560 in 2007. Translated to Mayor
Small's reported civic improvement projects that means that Galesburg spent or
committed to spend the equivalent of $94.543 million in 2007 dollars. This is a
scale that would be unthinkable in today's Galesburg where our city council is
struggling to fund and support a $20+ million renovation of that water pipeline
and treatment facilities that had fallen into disrepair over the past half
century. Even more interesting is that these projects not only enjoyed
wide-spread public support conceptually, many citizens willingly contributed
time and dollars above and beyond their tax bills in support of the various
tasks.
Time and personal commitment are just as telling as
the magnitude of the dollars involved. At the time of this All American City
designation a much broader cross-section of the local residents participated in
the local community. Serving on a wide array of local committees and boards as
well as running for public office. In fact, the entire character of elected
officials has changed. Back then the city council and the county board was
composed of local professionals and successful business owners, the people with
the most stake in the success of the community ran for public office and
served. That can hardly be said today.
One notable ÒaccomplishmentÓ that no doubt played a
major role in Galesburg's winning the All American City award was the then
recent transition from a strong-mayor/aldermanic form of government to the
council-manager form. The National Municipal League, now known as the National
Civic League, was an early and strong advocate of the council-manager form of
government. The League was founded in 1894 by political progressives of that
time such as Theodore Roosevelt, Marshall Field, Frederick Law Olmsted and
Louis Brandeis as Òan advocacy organization vigorously promoting the principles
of collaborative problem-solving and consensus-based decision making in local
community building.Ó This was a direct reaction to the then wide-spread
corruption and management incompetence of many city governments across America
and spurred a nationwide municipal reform movement.
The All-America City award has been award more than
500 times since 1949 with ten annual recipients and an honor roll of 28 cities
that have won the award three or more times. Three cities have been so honored
five times including Cleveland, Ohio; six cities including Des Moines, Iowa
have won four times and 19 others including Peoria have been three-time
winners. The award recognizes communities Òwhose citizens work together to
identify and tackle community-wide challenges and achieve uncommon results.
...For a community to be named an All-America City, it must be able to
demonstrate successful resolution of community issues through collaborative effort.
Award winning criteria include the following: active citizen involvement,
effective and efficient government performance, maximized local philanthropic
and volunteer resources, a strong capacity for cooperation and consensus
building, community vision and pride, intergroup relations, community
information sharing, and intercommunity cooperation.Ó
From the very beginning the award has been sponsored
by Cowles Publications who
published Look magazine until 1971. During the 1980s USA Today sponsored the awards
and began the tradition of recognizing the winners at a White House ceremony
each December. For many years pollster George Gallup served as chair of the
jury that selected the winning cities. In 1953 Gallup wrote an article for
National Municipal Review, the magazine of the National Municipal League, in
which he described a near Utopian viewpoint of local government that
nevertheless is valuable to consider today.
Two of the chief problems Gallup saw plaguing American
cities were Òhow to improve the structure and administration of local and state
governments and how to arouse citizens to greater activity in governmental
affairs. These problems, like sin, are are ways with us. We have made great
progress but it is my impression, as I look back over the 60 years of the
League's existence, that we have achieved greater success in the first area
than in the second. We have been more resourceful, more inventive in dealing
with the structure of government, than we have in creating greater interest in
government on the part of our citizens.Ó Gallup bemoaned the small number of
citizens who actively participate in their communities and that number has
actually declined in the 55 years since the Gallup article. ÒWe cannot expect
people to keep their interest high if their only chance to play their part in
good government is in casting a vote at election time. We must develop ways by
which more citizens can help with local and state problems. ÉIf we are to
arouse citizens to greater activity, then, we must find ways of recognizing and
rewarding their efforts.Ó
The Register-Mail reported the day of the 1958
announcement, ÒIn the promotion of these and other worthy community causes more
that 1,200 individual participated on the major committees and they labored so
energetically and effectively that Galesburg pulled itself up from its
bootstraps – a $13 million lift for 1957.Ó Written in an editorial that
day the Register-Mail said: ÒToday the entire city of Galesburg has the
extraordinary privilege of knowing that experts regard this community as a
model of civic progress. ...the only way to capitalize on past achievement is
to prepare for building on it with continued improvements.Ó That message echoed
statements by Mayor Small: ÒWe do not claim to be a model city, but we are
proud to compete with the best of them. Everyone realizes that there will
always be things to be done and that our gains must be guarded vigilantly.Ó
The level of civic commitment that accompanied the
civic pride of the late 1950's Galesburg needs to be resurrected today if this
community is to successfully tackle the many challenges now facing us. The
issue is one of self-control and unselfishness. Few of us have lots of extra
time or money but if we are to insure the survival and resurgence of this
community we as citizens need to find ways to give more of both back to our
community. Winning awards like the All American City designation are nice but
what is more important is creating a community commitment toward participation
and progress. While we don't want to squander resources such as time and tax
dollars we nevertheless must increase our investment of both in the future of
Galesburg.
SIDEBAR
All American City Award
Criteria
(National Civic League)
á
Participation
of the public, private and nonprofit sectors and key constituencies to the
maximum extent possible;
á
Recognition
and involvement of diverse segments and perspectives (ethnic, racial,
socio-economic, age, etc.) in community decision-making;
á
Creative use
and leveraging of community resources;
á
Significant
and specific community achievements;
á
Projects
that address the communityÕs most important needs;
á
Cooperation
across jurisdictional boundaries;
á
Clear
demonstration of project results and impacts (dollars raised or lives
impacted);
á
Projects
which have impacted the community significantly within the last three years,
and have potential to continue improving the quality of life; and
á
At least one
project should document ways in which the lives of children and youth have been
tangibly improved.
1/10/08