(See front cover)
Next to the job of President who rules over all 48 United States, next to the job of Governor of New York who runs the affairs of the most populous and wealthy State, stands the No. 3 political job of the U. S., the job of managing 299 sq. mi. of territory whose importance to civilization has more than once been questioned. The importance of the job if not the bailiwick is undisputed.
It pays nominally $40,000, but because of economy, actually $22,500 a year— more than the U. S. pays members of the Supreme-Court or the Cabinet, more than any State save one pays its Governor (New York's Governor gets $25,000). It involves trying to please more constituents than the Governors of the 14 least populous States have all together. It is the job of Mayor of New York City.
Last week the quadrennial campaign for that job began under such extraordinary circumstances that even New Yorkers felt like voters in wonderland. For it appeared that 1) when they go to the polls on Nov. 2, they may find no Tammany candidate for mayor, and 2) if there is a Tammany candidate, he may well be found on the Republican ticket.
Topsy-Turvy-For decades it appeared that New York City was created by a special dispensation of Providence for the benefit of the patriotic Society of St. Tammany. Tammany's serious troubles began in 1932 when the Democratic Governor of New York, Franklin Roosevelt, with his eye on the Presidency was obliged to investigate charges of graft and corruption against Tammany's dapper, wisecracking mayor, Jimmy Walker. When the hearing got too hot, Jimmy Walker resigned. Automatically Joseph V. McKee, president of the city's Board of Aldermen succeeded to the job and made motions of starting a cleanup. Then & there the current overlord of Tammany, Boss John Curry, made a mistake. Instead of nominating McKee for a special election to fill Walker's place, he chose a Tammany wheelhorse, Surrogate Judge John P. O'Brien, and maneuvered McKee off the ballot. O'Brien was elected but 125,000 angry citizens wrote in McKee's name on the ballot. Next year at the regular election, Tammany backed O'Brien again. Jim Farley, with whom Tammany had been on the outs since Walker's trial, arranged a Recovery ticket headed by McKee. Outraged citizens of all parties united to form a Fusion ticket headed by Fiorello LaGuardia. In the election LaGuardia ran first, O'Brien last. Even Tammany saw that Boss Curry had blundered. He was deposed.
This defeat was nothing new for Tammany. Fusion mayors were elected before, about once in a generation, and on the whole their election was all to Tammany's advantage. After the city had been run to the verge of bankruptcy where there was little profit left in running it and scandal was getting knee deep, it paid to let a Fusion mayor clean house and undertake the unpopular duty of raising taxes and cutting expenses until the city was once more a profitable institution for Tammany to run. And no Fusion mayor was ever reelected.