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Little Flower of Indignation. Fiorello LaGuardia is not a Fusion mayor such as the Hon. Seth Low, elected in 1901 or the Hon. John Purroy Mitchell elected in 1913, gentlemen whom the silk stocking element of the city looked on with respect and pride. Fiorello inherited a volcanic temperament from his father, Achilles LaGuardia, an Italian musician and his mother, Irene Coen Luzzatti, a Sephardic Jewess from Venice. By luck he was born on New York's East Side, shortly after his parents immigrated, but his boyhood was spent in Army posts in the Dakotas and Arizona because his father had become bandmaster to the 11th Infantry. At 19 he began his career by getting a post in the U. S. consular service which kept him for several years in Hungary and Italy. There he became a polyglot—learned German, French and Italian. When he returned to the U. S. he became an interpreter at Ellis Island, learned Yiddish and studied law.
He was born a spitfire and a revolter against the established order. When he was elected to Congress in 1916, it was not as a member of Tammany but as a Republican. As soon as war was declared he turned his back on Congress and, taught to fly by his friend Giuseppe Bellanca, went overseas as an aviator. When he returned to Congress, he consented as a political favor to the Republican machine to run for president of New York City's Board of Aldermen. It was a polite gesture because Republicans were practically never elected, but LaGuardia, the hero of the city's Italian colony, was elected. For two years he sat on the city's Board of Estimate with the same Mayor Hylan who started Grover Whalen and Dr. Copeland toward fame. Moreover, he got along with the mayor rather well, since he had a very bitter enmity with City Comptroller Craig, who was also at odd's with the mayor. Later Fiorello went back to Congress and when the Republicans refused him nomination, shifted labels and won election on the La Follette Progressive ticket. There he was a New Dealer before the New Deal.
The respectable citizens of all parties rose up to oust Tammany in 1933. At one of the last big Fusion rallies before the election, LaGuardia shouted, "You've nominated me but don't expect any patronage if I'm elected!" The crowd applauded such a pious sentiment. LaGuardia stuck out his chin. "I mean it!" he yelled. When office seekers began to call upon him after election they were surprised to find he did. Regardless of New York City votes, he picked a health commissioner from New Haven, Conn., a commissioner of correction from the Federal prison service. For his fire commissioner he chose a stanch Democrat who was said to have voted against him. There was not a vote-controlling politician in the lot. The result is that today he has no political machine and most of the Republican leaders who supported him four years ago on the Fusion ticket do not want to see him renominated or reelected.