Fifty-Fifty Agreement

The Fifty-Fifty Agreement was a bargain between James “Alderman Jim” Pendergast and Joe Shannon to divide political patronage equally between their rival Democratic factions after every election, whoever prevailed. It was designed to keep either faction from losing its share of county power, but it did not end their contests; when the agreement’s promise of balance collided with the Pendergast organization’s control of county government, the arrangement gave way to one-sided rule.

Origin and Terms

The agreement arose during James “Alderman Jim” Pendergast’s political era, after he concluded that Shannon’s faction was there to stay. The two leaders agreed that the patronage prize following each election would be divided evenly, regardless of which faction won. In practice, this meant sharing the county jobs and other largess controlled through local government. The bargain offered each side a continuing stake in the system: neither would be shut out simply because it had lost an election.

The arrangement was a political settlement, not a reconciliation. In Jackson County, the Pendergast Democrats were known as the Goats and Shannon’s supporters as the Rabbits. Their labels reflected local lore, but their loyalties were real; Democrats identified with one faction or the other, in town and in the countryside. The agreement acknowledged the Rabbits’ staying power while preserving a place for the Goats in the same political order.

A Bargain Amid Rivalry

The factions continued to compete even while the agreement promised an equal share of patronage. Their primary contests were the decisive battles in a county where Republicans rarely commanded enough support to win the general election. The Goats were associated with strength and large election-day turnouts; the Rabbits with cleverness. Both sides could also resort to intimidation and fraud, including vote-buying, ballot-stuffing, ballot-box theft, strong-arm tactics, and street fights. The object was not reform but control of jobs, influence, and business.

That rough competition helps explain both the agreement’s function and its limits. Sharing patronage could keep the rival faction inside the arrangement, but it did not dissolve the struggle for power or prevent either side from seeking advantage. The bargain’s promise of equal treatment depended on those who controlled the organization continuing to honor it; it offered no protection once that political choice changed.

The Agreement Abandoned

The sharpest test came when the new Jackson County court took office on New Year’s Day, 1923. Elihu Hayes, a Rabbit, was the presiding judge and might have been expected to lead the court. Instead, Henry McElroy, a Goat and close associate of Tom Pendergast, took charge. With Harry S. Truman voting alongside him, McElroy had the votes to govern without giving the Rabbits their anticipated share. As Truman later put it, McElroy ran the court with his vote.

The county’s road overseer roster was filled with Goats; Goats received county jobs large and small; and Rabbits already on the payroll were the first to be dismissed. The decision, the book recounts, had come from the Pendergasts: Fifty-Fifty was finished. The former bargain was thus displaced not by a new equal division, but by the victors’ exclusive use of the spoils.

Political Significance

The episode shows how a rule of political balance could coexist with, and ultimately yield to, machine control. The Fifty-Fifty Agreement had recognized the Rabbits as a permanent rival and distributed patronage accordingly. Its breakdown revealed that the real safeguard was not an independent enforcement mechanism but the willingness of political leaders to maintain the bargain. When that willingness disappeared, county appointments followed factional power.

Truman participated in the new court’s alignment with McElroy, even as he concentrated on economy, improved services, and better roads. At the time, he did not see the political danger in the end of the agreement. The contrast between his administrative aims and the exclusion of the Rabbits marks the arrangement’s significance: equal patronage was not a lasting principle of county government, but a contingent pact within a continuing contest for control.