Damon and Pythias Reconsidered

Abstract

TO STUDENTS OF PHILADELPHIA'S POLITICAL HISTORY, the names
Damon and Pythias mean only one pair of politicians: Joseph Sill
Clark Jr. and Richardson Dilworth, the men who inaugurated the
current era of Democratic rule in Philadelphia. Although they had been
politically active for nearly two decades, their names were relatively
unknown in the Quaker City until Dilworth splashed onto the front
pages in 1947 and declared virtual war on the rapacious Republican
organization that had held sway in Philadelphia since the Civil War.