John Dill Robertson

John Dill Robertson (March 8, 1871 – August 20, 1931) was a medical professional and politician. He served as Health Commissioner and President of the Board of Education in Chicago. In 1927, Robertson ran a third-party campaign for Chicago mayor.

John Dill Robertson
Robertson in 1915
Personal details
BornMarch 8, 1871
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
DiedAugust 20, 1931 (age 60)
Fontana-on-Geneva Lake, Wisconsin
Political partyRepublican
ResidenceChicago, Illinois

Early life

Robertson was born on March 8, 1871 in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.[1][2][3] Robertson, as a young man, worked as a telegraph operator.[3]

In 1896, he moved to Chicago to attend Bennett Medical College.[3]

Career

In 1898, after serving as an intern at Cook County Hospital, he was appointed attending surgeon, a position he held there through 1913.[3] He was also surgeon-in chief at Jefferson Park Polyclinic Hospital from 1904 through 1915.[3]

Robertson organized the American College of Medicine and Surgery in 1900, and was its president until it merged with Loyola University Chicago's own medical school.[3]

Politically, for many years, he was a close associate of Republican political boss Frederick Lundin.[3] He was also an ally of Mayor William Hale Thompson.[4]

City Health Commissioner
Robertson (center left) rides with Mayor Thompson (center right) in an automobile during a 1915 parade

For seven years, under Mayor William Hale Thompson, Robertson served as City Health Commissioner.[3] He was appointed in 1915 and served through 1922.[5]

At the same time, Robertson also headed the Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium.[6] He hired architect Jarvis Hunt to design multiple additions to the complex.[6] Under his direction, in 1916, the sanitarium also added more beds for children.[6]

Robertson worked to cut down on public spitting.[7]

1918 Spanish flu pandemic

Robertson oversaw the city's health department during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.[8] Ultimately, 8,500 Chicago residents died during the pandemic.[9]

The first local diagnosed cases occurred at Great Lakes Naval Training Center in North Chicago, Illinois on September 8,[10] and, despite all leaves being canceled for enlisted men, the flu found its way to the City of Chicago two weeks later, likely as visitors had not been prohibited at the training base.[9] A week after cases were diagnosed at Great Lakes, cases were diagnosed among Northwestern University's SATC unit,[10] and days after that cases were diagnosed among the Lewis Institute SATC on South Honye Street in Chicago itself.[10]

Robertson's public proclamations greatly underestimated/undersold the severity of the pandemic.[8] On September 21, brushing off fears of the flu spreading from army camps into the city's general population, Robertson declared, “I see no cause for public alarm, but every one developing any symptoms should be careful.".[8] On September 23, due to the number of new cases decreasing at Great Lakes, but at only the beginning of Chicago's outbreak, Robertson insisted that, “We have the Spanish influenza situation well in hand now.”[8][10] On October 7, a full week before the peak of death rates, he was already declaring, “The backbone of the epidemic is broken.”[8]

The city initially only engaged in campaigns to ask Chicagoans to and cover their mouths when coughing and sneezing.[9]

September 16, Robertson made the flu a reportable disease.[10][11]

A public health notice that was displayed in a Chicago theater amid the flu pandemic

The city did not close schools during the pandemic.[9] He opposed dismissing schools, believing that the citys school higeine program was capable of sufficiently identifying probable cases of infected students who should be sent home and taking care of the healthy pupils remaining in the classrooms.[12] Robertson ordered for any student who coughed or sneezed to be "sent home at once".[9] Robertson urged residents to wear protective masks.[11]

Robertson advised Chief of Police John Alcock to have officers stop all "persistent sneezers and coughers" that failed to cover their faces with handkerchiefs. Violators that pledged to obey instructions in the future would be released, but individuals who gave officers trouble would be arrested, lectured on the hazards of the flu, and sent to a judge for arraignment.[10]

Robertson warned the managers and owners of theaters to make sure their consumers used handkerchiefs, threatening to otherwise close their businesses.[10]

Churches, schools, theaters, restaurants, streetcars, and other locations in which people gathered were ordered to maintain proper ventilation.[10]

Robertson suggested commuters walk whenever it was possible in order to avoid overcrowding in public transportation.[13] Laws were passed which banned public spitting and which outlawed smoking on L trains.[13]

On October 1, Robertson ordered a virtual quarantine for all those diagnosed, ordering that they remain at home and have no visitors.[14]

The city waited until cases spiked before closing most public gathering spaces.[9] An Emergency Commission formed to deal with the pandemic.[9] On October 12, the Emergency Commission ordered the cessation of public dancing, determining this necessary due to the "close contact between dancers, the exercise of the dance and the frequent chilling of the body that is to follow”.[9] On October 15, theaters, cinemas, skating rinks, night schools, and lodge halls were ordered closed.[9] On October 18, the commission finally ordered, "all public gatherings not essential to the war, such as banquets, conventions, lectures, social affairs, athletic contests, of a public nature stopped. Music, cabarets and other entertainments stopped in restaurants and cafes. Crowding prohibited in poolrooms, saloons, etc."[9] The 18th, incidentally, happened to be the peak of the pandemic in Chicago.[9]

Churches were permitted, amid the pandemic, to continue holding services, as they were viewed as essential to morale.[9] Robertson, however, requested that church services be short, that windows be kept open throughout the services, and that congregations quickly leave for home as soon as services ended.[15]

On October 12 the Emergency Commission recommended that the Chicago Surface Lines leave streetcar front doors open in order to allow a constant stream of fresh air to enter the cabins.[10] They did not stop a Liberty bond parade from being held the same day, believing it had been too late to cancel it.[10]

The pandemic's worst impact in Chicago was roughly a month long. By October 21, Chicago had received 100,000 doses of influenza vaccine.[15][13]

In November, by which time the Spanish Flu had already greatly infected much of the population and had begun to recede, restrictions were loosened.[9] One ban implemented during the pandemic which remained following it was a prohibition of smoking on public transportation.[9]

Robertson has been accused of scapegoating African Americans coming to the city amid the Great Migration for the city's pandemic.[16]

By January 1919, with the pandemic largely over, Robertson began moving to fix some of the problems revealed by the pandemic. Highest on his priorities was addressing the nursing shortage it had experienced.[10] In February 1919, the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill which would make it easier to become a registered nurse in Illinois.[10]

Subsequent career

Robertson served President of the Chicago Board of Education.[3] He was appointed by Mayor Thompson to the Board of Education in 1922, and immediately after elected by the body to serve as its president.[17]

Robertson was appointed President of the West Park Board by Governor Len Small.[3]

In 1927, as Thompson was staging a political comeback to retake the mayoralty, Robertson split with him and challenged him.[3] He ran first as an opponent in the Republican primary, but withdrew to support Edward R. Litsinger's campaign (at the request of Frederick Lundin).[18] After Thompson won the Republican primary Robertson reentered the race as a third-party candidate, running on a "smash crime rings" platform.[3] he promised to enforce Prohibition while it was still on the books and to smash organized crime in thirty days if elected, comparing gunmen gangs to boils and the bootleg industry to an appendix, and promising to "find another Theodore Roosevelt" as police chief .[19][20] Robertson was still President of the West Parks Board at the time of his mayoral campaign.[21]

He resigned as President of the West Parks Board to become the safety and medical director of the Motorists' Association of Chicago.[3]

In April 1930, he campaigned heavily on behalf of Republican John H. Lyle's campaign for Judge of the Municipal Court of Chicago.[3]

Death

Robertson died at age 60 on August 20, 1931 of angina pectoris at his summer home in Fontana-on-Geneva Lake, Wisconsin.[3] He was survived by his wife Helen Robertson, who he had married only months earlier, and his son, Dr. Tomas Sanderson Robertson.[3]

Personal life

Robertson married his first wife Bessie M. Foote, and was widowed when she died February 9, 1930.[3]

He remarried May 2, 1931 to his secretary of nine years, Helen Remy Hughes.[3]

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References
  1. 'The American Journal of Clinical Medine,' vol. 22, no. 1, January 1915, Dr. John Dill Robertson, pg. 501
  2. "The Online Books Page Online Books by John Dill Robertson (Robertson, John Dill, 1871-)". onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  3. "DR. J.D. ROBERTSON OF CHICAGO DIES; Former Health Commissioner Succumbs to Heart Disease at the Age of 60. RAN FOR MAYOR IN 1927 Broke With Thompson to Head Independents--Organized Loyola University's Medical School". The New York Times. 21 August 1931. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  4. Schottenhamel, George (1952). "How Big Bill Thompson Won Control of Chicago". Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. 45 (1): 32. JSTOR 40189189.
  5. "Dr. Robertson Resigns". The Daily Pantagraph. 76 (28). February 2, 1922. p. 1. Retrieved March 28, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "LANDMARK DESIGNATION REPORT MUNICIPAL TUBERCULOSIS SANITARIUM COMPLEX SANITARIUM BUILDINGS IN THE BLOCK GENERALLY BOUNDED BY NORTH PULASKI ROAD ON THE WEST, WEST PETERSON AVENUE ON THE NORTH, NORTH CENTRAL PARK AVENUE ON THE EAST, AND WEST BRYN MAWR AVENUE ON THE SOUTH Final Landmark Recommendation adopted by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, Nov. 1, 2018" (PDF). City of Chicago. 1 November 2018. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  7. O'Connor, Patrick J. (2015). "A Public Revolt against Spitting: Education and Politics in the Progressive Era". University of Montana. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  8. "Exploring Chicago's Spanish Flu of 1918". Circulating Now from NLM. NIH U.S. National Library of Medicine. 5 November 2013. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  9. McClell, Edward (17 March 2020). "How Chicago Dealt With the 1918 Spanish Flu". Chicago magazine. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  10. "Chicago, Illinois and the 1918-1919 Influenza Epidemic | The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918: A Digital Encyclopedia". Influenza Encyclopedia. University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine and Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  11. Shefsky, Jay (February 26, 2019). "How, and Why, Chicago Has Nonpartisan Elections". WTTW. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
  12. Stern, Alexandra Minna; Reilly, Mary Beth; Cetron, Martin S.; Markel, Howard (2010). ""Better Off in School": School Medical Inspection as a Public Health Strategy During the 1918–1918 Influenza Pandemic in the United States". Public Health Reports. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Health Resources Administration. 125: 68. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  13. "In 1918, The Killer Flu Hits Chicago". WBEZ Chicago. 17 October 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  14. "October 1918: A virtual quarantine ordered for every case of influenza in Chicago". chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune. 3 October 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  15. Sawyers, June. "UNDER SIEGE BY THE SPANISH-FLU EPIDEMIC OF 1918". chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  16. McDonald, Soraya Nadia (1 April 2020). "In 1918 and 2020, race colors America's response to epidemics". The Undefeated. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  17. Journal of Education, Volumes 95-96. Boston University, School of Education. 1922. p. 176.
  18. Evans, Arthur (February 9, 1927). "Litsinger cites fee scandal of Thompson rule". Chicago Tribune. 86 (34). p. 1. Retrieved January 4, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. Evans, Arthur (March 22, 1927). "Robertson dares razzer to face him in person". Chicago Tribune. 86 (69). p. 4. Retrieved October 3, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. Douglas, W. A. S. (January 3, 1927). "Dr. Robertson Puts Out Poetry To Win Chicago Women's Votes". The Baltimore Sun. 180 (40D). p. 1. Retrieved January 4, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. Schmidt, John R. (1989). "The Mayor Who Cleaned Up Chicago" A Political Biography of William E. Dever. DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press. p. 154. ISBN 0-87580-144-7.
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