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Michael DiSalle

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Michael V. DiSalle
DiSalle in 1962
60th Governor of Ohio
In office
January 12, 1959 – January 14, 1963
LieutenantJohn W. Donahey
Preceded byC. William O'Neill
Succeeded byJim Rhodes
Director of the
Economic Stabilization Agency
In office
December 22, 1952 – January 20, 1953
PresidentHarry S. Truman
Preceded byRoger Putnam
Succeeded byAgency abolished
Director of the Office of Price Stabilization
In office
December 1950 – January 23, 1952
PresidentHarry S. Truman
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byAlan Valentine
46th Mayor of Toledo
In office
January 1948 – November 30, 1950[1]
Preceded byLloyd Emerson Roulet
Succeeded byOllie Czelusta
Member of the Toledo City Council
In office
1942–1950
Member of the Ohio House of Representatives
In office
1937–1939
Personal details
Born
Michael Vincent DiSalle

(1908-01-06)January 6, 1908
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedSeptember 16, 1981(1981-09-16) (aged 73)
Pescara, Abruzzo, Italy
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse
Myrtle Eugene England
​
​
(m. 1929)​
EducationGeorgetown University (LL.B.)
ProfessionLawyer

Michael Vincent DiSalle (January 6, 1908 – September 16, 1981)[1][2] was an American attorney and politician from Ohio. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as mayor of Toledo from 1948 to 1950, and as governor of Ohio from 1959 to 1963.

Early life

DiSalle was born on January 6, 1908, in New York City,[1] to Italian-American immigrant parents, Anthony and Assunta DiSalle. His family moved to Toledo, Ohio, when he was three years old. He graduated with a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University in 1931. He married Myrtle E. England; the couple had four daughters and one son.[1][2]

DiSalle was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1932.[2] In 1949, the University of Notre Dame conferred him an honorary doctorate of law.[1]

Political career

In 1936, DiSalle was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives;[1] he served one term and lost an election for the Ohio Senate in 1938.[2]

Following the loss, DiSalle held a series of offices in the city government of Toledo, Ohio. He was assistant law director from 1939 to 1941.[1] In 1941, he was elected to the Toledo City Council;[1] the council selected him as vice-mayor in 1943 and 1945.[1]

In 1946, DiSalle ran in the U.S. House election in the Toledo-based 9th district, but he lost narrowly to the Republican incumbent, Homer A. Ramey.[3]

DiSalle was elected as mayor of Toledo in 1947 and re-elected in 1949, and served from 1948 until his resignation on November 30, 1950, to accept a federal appointment.[1][4] During his mayoralty, Toledo fully re-paid its debts.[1]

In 1950, he ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate.[5] He lost to then-state auditor Joseph T. Ferguson, who in turn lost the general election to the Republican incumbent, Robert A. Taft.[5] In December 1950, President Harry S. Truman appointed DiSalle as director of the Office of Price Stabilization, a sub-agency of the Korean War-era Economic Stabilization Agency which established and enforced war-time price controls.[1] DiSalle resigned as director on January 23, 1952, in order to run again for U.S. Senate.[6] He won the Democratic nomination but lost the general election to the Republican incumbent, John W. Bricker.[7]

In December 1952, President Truman (now a lame duck) appointed DiSalle as director of the Economic Stabilization Agency, replacing Roger Putnam.[8] The appointment lasted less than one month, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower abolished the agency on April 30, 1953.[9]

In 1956, DiSalle was the Democratic nominee for governor of Ohio, losing to then-state attorney general C. William O'Neill.[10] In their 1958 re-match, DiSalle defeated O'Neill.[11][12] The gubernatorial term had in 1954 been lengthened from two years to four years, starting with the 1958 election; so DiSalle served as governor from 1959 to 1963.

In July 1959, DiSalle signed a bill designating "with God, all things are possible" as the official motto of the State of Ohio. The motto is derived from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 19, verse 26.[citation needed]

DiSalle was a favorite son candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 1960. He ran only in the Ohio primary, which he won with 60.25% of the vote against Albert S. Porter,[13] who had run against him in the gubernatorial primary in 1958.[11] Of the total popular vote in the primaries, DiSalle placed sixth behind eventual nominee Sen. John F. Kennedy, as well as Gov. Pat Brown, perennial candidate George H. McLain, Sen. Hubert Humphrey, and Sen. George Smathers.[14]

President John F. Kennedy attends DiSalle's birthday party

In 1962, DiSalle lost re-election as governor to then-state auditor Jim Rhodes,[15] after voters disapproved of several aspects of his administration, including his opposition to capital punishment, a tax increase, and a policy which billed wards of state for living necessities.[4]

Opposition to capital punishment

DiSalle was an opponent of the death penalty and commuted a number of sentences,[16] despite allowing six executions as governor.[17] DiSalle personally investigated all cases of people scheduled to be executed by electric chair and even personally met with some of them.[18] "To demonstrate his faith in rehabilitation, [DiSalle] made it a point to hire convicted murderers to serve on his household staff."[19]

One of DiSalle's primary concerns regarding the death penalty was that poorer defendants did not have the same access to counsel as rich defendants, and therefore would suffer the death penalty disproportionately. He recalled: "I found that the men in death row had one thing in common: they were penniless".[20]

After leaving the governorship, DiSalle co-founded and served as a chairman of the National Committee to Abolish Federal Death Penalty.[20][21] His 1965 book, The Power of Life or Death, discusses this issue and chronicles his difficult experiences as the man charged with making the final decision regarding a sentence commutation.[22] He is quoted in the book Mercy on Trial: What It Means to Stop an Execution as saying, "No one who has never watched the hands of a clock marking the last minutes of a condemned man's existence, knowing that he alone has the temporary Godlike power to stop the clock, can realize the agony of deciding an appeal for executive clemency".[23]

Electoral history

Michael DiSalle electoral history
U.S. House election (Ohio's 9th district), 1946[3]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Homer A. Ramey (incumbent) 59,394 50.14%
Democratic Michael DiSalle 59,057 49.86%
Total votes 118,451 100.00%
Republican hold
U.S. Senate primary election (Ohio, Class 3), 1950[5]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Joseph T. Ferguson 159,191 39.38%
Democratic Michael DiSalle 105,601 26.12%
Democratic Henry M. Busch 53,048 13.12%
Democratic William L. White 27,863 6.89%
Democratic Walter A. Kelley 22,814 5.64%
Democratic John Martin 22,802 5.64%
Democratic Edward Welsh 12,960 3.21%
Total votes 404,279 100.00%

Later life

In 1966, he joined the Washington, D.C., law firm of Chapman, Duff, and Paul.[2] In 1979, he co-founded the Washington, D.C., law firm of DiSalle & Staudinger.[2]

The same year, DiSalle also authored the book Second Choice, a history of the U.S. vice presidency.[24]

DiSalle led a draft movement for a potential 1968 presidential campaign by Sen. Ted Kennedy. He served as the honorary chairman of Kennedy's 1980 presidential campaign.[2][4]

DiSalle died on September 16, 1981, of a heart attack while vacationing in Pescara, Italy.[25]

Legacy

DiSalle has two current structures in Ohio named for him:

Also, the DiSalle Center (no longer standing) at the Ohio Expo Center and the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, Ohio, was named in honor of DiSalle.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Loftus, Joseph A. (December 1, 1950). "Key price job goes to Toledo's mayor; price stabilizer". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on July 22, 2018. Retrieved April 22, 2020. WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 --- President Truman named Mayor Michael V. DiSalle of Toledo, Ohio, today to be Director of Price Stabilization. ... He flew to Washington today, met Mr. [Alan] Valentine and President Truman, and then flew home to quit the Mayor's job. His term has another year to run. He was elected a [Toledo] City Councilman, and the Council elected him as Mayor. ... Mr. DiSalle was born in New York [on] Jan. 6, 1908. He has lived in Toledo since 1911. He attended the public and parochial schools there and was graduated from Georgetown University in 1931 with a Bachelor of Law degree. Notre Dame bestowed an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1949. He began his law career in Toledo as assistant district counsel of the Home Owners Loan Corporation in 1933 and served in that post for about two years. He was a member of the Ohio Legislature in 1937 and 1938 and was Assistant City Law Director from 1939 to 1941. He has been a member of the City Council since 1942 and served two terms as Vice Mayor before his election as Mayor in 1947 and again in 1949. During his service the city paid off its entire indebtedness. ... He is a Roman Catholic, is married and is the father of a boy and four girls, the oldest a student at St. Mary's College in Indiana.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Michael V. DiSalle, 73, former governor of Ohio". The New York Times. September 17, 1981. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on July 7, 2019. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  3. ^ a b "U.S. House election results (Ohio's 9th district, 1946)". Our Campaigns. November 5, 1946. Archived from the original on March 24, 2016. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d e Zimmerman, Richard. Call Me Mike: A Political Biography of Michael V. DiSalle. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-87338-755-4.
  5. ^ a b c "U.S. Senate primary election results (Ohio, 1950)". Our Campaigns. May 2, 1950. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  6. ^ Egan, Charles E. (January 24, 1952). "DiSalle to enter race for Senate; O.P.S. head seeks nomination in Ohio to unseat Bricker; Lausche aid counted". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  7. ^ "U.S. Senate election results (Ohio, 1952)". Our Campaigns. November 4, 1952. Archived from the original on March 16, 2016. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  8. ^ Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T. (December 16, 1952). "Letter to Michael V. DiSalle on his appointment as administrator of the Economic Stabilization Agency". The American Presidency Project. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  9. ^ Knowles, Clayton (December 23, 1952). "Revived pay board sought by DiSalle; inducted as the stabilization chief, he calls on industry to return to agency". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  10. ^ "Ohio gubernatorial election results (1956)". Our Campaigns. November 6, 1956. Archived from the original on March 25, 2016. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  11. ^ a b "Ohio gubernatorial primary election results (1958)". Our Campaigns. May 6, 1958. Archived from the original on October 23, 2012. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  12. ^ "Ohio gubernatorial election results (1958)". Our Campaigns. November 4, 1958. Archived from the original on March 22, 2018. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  13. ^ "Democratic presidential primary election results (Ohio, 1960)". Our Campaigns. May 3, 1960. Archived from the original on January 20, 2019. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  14. ^ "Democratic presidential primary election results (1960)". Our Campaigns. February 1, 1960. Archived from the original on March 20, 2020. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  15. ^ "Ohio gubernatorial election results (1962)". Our Campaigns. November 6, 1962. Archived from the original on March 5, 2018. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  16. ^ Stephens, Martha. The Treatment: The Story of Those who Died in the Cincinnati Radiation Tests, 2001, p. 201.
  17. ^ "Ohio executions". Archived from the original on February 23, 2008. Retrieved April 14, 2008.
  18. ^ Jones, Tim (April 8, 2007). "Resistance to death penalty growing". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  19. ^ Gottschalk, Marie (March 16, 2011). "Is death different?". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Archived from the original on November 10, 2018. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  20. ^ a b "Negating the absolute". TIME. July 12, 1968. Archived from the original on June 24, 2013. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  21. ^ Tompkins, Dorothy C. (1967). "Across the Desk". Criminology. 5 (3): 60–65. doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1967.tb00711.x. ISSN 1745-9125 – via Wiley Online Library.
  22. ^ DiSalle, Michael V. The Power of Life or Death. New York: Random House, 1965.
  23. ^ Sarat, Austin. Mercy on Trial: What It Means to Stop An Execution. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-691-12140-0.
  24. ^ DiSalle, Michael V. Second Choice. Stroud, Gloucester, United Kingdom: Hawthorn Books, 1966.
  25. ^ "Ex-Ohio governor dies of heart attack". Wilmington Morning Star. Associated Press. September 17, 1981. Pg. 3B. Retrieved March 18, 2011.

Further reading

  • DiSalle, Michael V. The Power of Life or Death. New York: Random House, 1965.
  • DiSalle, Michael V. Second Choice. Stroud, Gloucester, United Kingdom: Hawthorn Books, 1966.
  • Marcus, Maeva. Truman and the Steel Seizure Case: The Limits of Presidential Power. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977. ISBN 0-231-04126-8.
  • Sarat, Austin. Mercy on Trial: What It Means to Stop An Execution. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-691-12140-0.
  • Zimmerman, Richard. Call Me Mike: A Political Biography of Michael V. DiSalle. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-87338-755-4.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michael DiSalle.
Party political offices
Preceded by Democratic nominee for
U.S. Senator from Ohio (Class 1)
1952 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Democratic nominee for Governor of Ohio
1956, 1958, 1962 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Mayor of Toledo
January 1948 – November 30, 1950 		Succeeded by
Ollie Czelusta
Preceded by Director of the Economic Stabilization Agency
December 22, 1952 – January 20, 1953 		Agency abolished
Preceded by Governor of Ohio
January 12, 1959 – January 14, 1963 		Succeeded by
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