John Henry Stelle (August 10, 1891 – July 5, 1962) was an American politician who served as the national commander of the American Legion from 1945 to 1946. He previously served as the 29th governor of Illinois (1940–1941), the 34th lieutenant governor of Illinois (1937–1940), and the treasurer of Illinois (1935–1937). He was also the chairman of the American Legion Executive Committee that, in six short months, drafted what would become known as the G.I. Bill of Rights and be known during the remainder of his life and in the years since as "The Father of the G.I. Bill".
Early life, education, and prewar career
Born in McLeansboro, Illinois, Stelle graduated from McLeansboro Township High School, where he played baseball and football. After graduating, Stelle began a career as a professional baseball player. He played for teams in the KITTY (Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League) and, briefly, with the Decatur Commodores of the Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League (Three-I League) in the 1912 season. Stelle ended his baseball career after the 1913 season. But he would maintain his love of baseball throughout his life and would later be an owner of the St. Louis Browns baseball team. He briefly pursued the purchase of the New York Yankees while serving as Governor of Illinois. Stelle attended Western Military Academy in Alton, Illinois. He also attended the law school at Washington University in St. Louis during the 1914-1915 school year as a special student, after which he returned to McLeansboro, where he read the law under Johnson H. Lane, a prominent local attorney. He was admitted to the Illinois bar on October 16, 1916.
Service in World War I
Stelle enlisted in the U.S. Army on April 17, 1917, eleven days after war was declared. He was wounded at Baccarat, France, while serving with the 77th Infantry Division, and evacuated to an Army hospital in Paris. Stelle recovered from his wounds and returned to serve with 28th and 30th Infantry Divisions in northern France in a series of major battles, including Mount Kemmel, the Somme, and Marne. Stelle rose to the rank of captain during the war and was serving as the commander of Company B of the 315th Machine Gun Battalion (30th Infantry Division) when hostilities ended. Stelle arrived back in the United States with his unit on March 22, 1919, and soon thereafter settled in McLeansboro, where he would maintain a home for the remainder of his life.
Political career
Stelle was a lifelong Democrat although he noticeably split from the party in supporting Everett Dirksen, a Republican, in his run for the Senate in 1950 against the incumbent, Scott Lucas, and Dwight Eisenhower in his two presidential campaigns against a former Illinois governor, Adlai Stevenson. He served as a delegate to most of the Democratic National Conventions from 1928 to 1960. In 1928, Stelle was one of the organizers of the Illinois Democratic Service Men's Organization, a group designed to unify members of the Democratic Party who were veterans. The Service Men's Organization soon became politically active in the successful 1930 senatorial campaign of James Hamilton Lewis. That race introduced Stelle to many Chicago Democrats, including a young up-and-coming politician, Edward J. Barrett. Barrett and Stelle would remain close friends for the rest of their lives. In the 1930 election, Barrett ran for Illinois state treasurer and Stelle's Service Men's Organization actively supported him. Barrett won his election and, in 1931, appointed Stelle assistant state treasurer. Stelle and his family then moved to Springfield, where they would remain until 1941. Stelle's first elected statewide office was as state treasurer from 1935 to 1937. He ran for, and was elected, lieutenant governor in 1936, keeping that job until Horner's death almost four years later. Stelle and Horner, in 1936, ran separately but served together. But, despite both being Democrats, they frequently disagreed publicly on issues of the day. Stelle succeeded Horner after Horner's unexpected death on Sunday, October 6, 1940. As Horner's 99-day successor, Stelle served the second-shortest period in office in Illinois gubernatorial history.
Stelle's tenure as lieutenant governor was tumultuous. Horner was ill during most of his second term. He was often out of the public eye after his 1936 re-election. The governor spent significant time in Miami recuperating from what was reported to be a heart condition. During his absences from Illinois, Stelle would serve as the acting governor. In the last year or more of his term, Horner spend much of his time in Springfield in bed, on the second floor of the governor's mansion. With the governor in an impaired condition, corruption ran unchecked. The affairs of the state were managed by a "Bedside Cabinet" of Horner lieutenants. A "2% Club" developed whereby the Democratic Party assessed a two percent charge on the checks of state payrollers. Stelle became openly hostile to the Bedside Cabinet, the 2% Club, and the other abuses and corruption of the Horner administration.
When the Democratic Party slated its candidates for the 1940 election, and knowing that Horner would not be able to run again, Stelle was offered another run as lieutenant governor. He made it very clear publicly that he would run for governor or not run at all. After being denied the governor slot on the Democratic ticket, Stelle, Barrett, and Benjamin Adamowski, another Chicago politician, split with the Horner and Chicago's Kelly-Nash Machine and launched a maverick campaign in the 1940 Democratic primary. They all lost their races (Stelle ran for governor in the primary) but the result was that the Democratic Party in Illinois was split in the 1940 and 1944 statewide elections and Republicans swept every statewide office in both. Stelle's split with the Kelly-Nash Machine in 1940 effectively ended it as a power broker in Illinois statewide politics. Stelle was a powerful downstate politician and, with his Democratic Service Men's Organization, his prominence in the American Legion, and his solid political support in the downstate counties, he could exert a powerful influence on statewide election results. Stelle, despite numerous efforts to draft him to run for office after his 1940 primary defeat (he was touted as a candidate for both the United States House of Representatives and the Senate in the years after he left office), never again served in either an elective or appointed office in Illinois. During World War II, Stelle would utilize his political skills, as well as his prominence in the Legion, to usher the G.I. Bill of Rights through Congress and to President Roosevelt's desk on June 22, 1944.
Governor of Illinois (1940–1941)
Stelle, upon losing his Democratic primary race for governor, moved his family back to McLeansboro in August 1940. He had a farm in Hamilton County and was busy that fall drilling wheat. In October 1940, when he heard Horner's health had taken a turn for the worse, he naturally assumed Horner would rally and recover has he had so many times before during his second term. But Horner did not; he died on Sunday, October 6, 1940. Stelle deferred moving his family back to Springfield and the governor's mansion until well after Horner's funeral. The governor's mansion had devolved during Horner's long absences and the periods during which he was bedridden into a "club" with political cronies using it day and night as a respite; drinking and cigar smoking occurred on a daily basis on the first floor of the mansion while Horner was bedridden in the governor's quarters upstairs. As a result, the mansion's staff often complained of the increased demands being placed on them. The mansion as a result of years of abuse, which accelerated during Horner's terms, fell into disrepair and was, by Horner's death, badly in need of redecorating. As one of Stelle's sons, Russell (who lived in the governor's mansion with his parents) later recalled, "it was a dump." Stelle directed the rooms housing the Lincoln Library be redecorated. Many nights during Stelle's ninety-nine-day tenure, which spanned the holiday season in 1940, the mansion was "lit up like a Christmas tree," as thirty to forty guests were often entertained at one time, a number of them friends from Southern Illinois and Springfield. Horner, a bachelor, had rarely entertained at the mansion during his eight year tenancy - especially so during his second term - so the change Stelle and his family brought was a welcome one in Springfield. The new governor's social agenda at the mansion involved no overspending as the entertainment budget had scarcely been touched during Horner's long illness and his repeated absences from Springfield. Notwithstanding his new quarters, Stelle continued his practice, developed over his many years of owning and managing a farm, of rising early every morning, He would typically have breakfast in the company of the mansion's staff.
Eight days after Horner's death, Stelle declared an end to Horner's 2% Club. He also make it clear that Horner's Bedside Cabinet would no longer manage the state. But he did not fire all of the members of the Bedside Cabinet; several remained state employees until the end of Stelle's term. Stelle made changes to some state directorships but his appointments were generally completed within a month of Horner's death; the state had an election coming up on November 5, 1940, and mass firings of state workers would have been a distraction. Horner had appointed thousands of individuals during his eight years in office. Most of those appointees were going to be terminated at the end of Stelle's term (the Republican Party swept all the statewide offices in 1940 including the governorship and had its own appointments to make). While Stelle replaced some department heads within the government, his changes were modest, especially compared to the thousands appointed by Horner. There is no empirical evidence that Stelle's appointments involved more than a couple of hundred individuals out of a total state payroll at the time of more than almost 25,000. As Governor, Stelle had the prerogative to appoint men and women loyal to him, even if the appointments were likely to be only for the remainder of his short term.