Ssues an En Fiorello H

August 30, 19331 The Nation 231 ssues an en Fiorello H. La Guardia HAT manner of man is this La Guardia who has what it seemed and determined to do his best to make the been nominated formayor of NewYork? This postbellum world a liberal as well as a better one. Since is the question I encounter at every turn.Not his return to Congress his whole career has been a fighting unnaturally people all over the country are interested in the one. He has been ridiculed,jeered at, liedabout. He has man whom the local reform forces have picked to head the been called a littleItalian crook and a cheap politician. fusion movement againstTammany in this critical yearin Big business has hated him as ithas hated few men in our nation’s history. What happens in the metropolis in the Congress. But year inand yearout he gamely fought his next two years will be enormously important and may even fight, and before his defeat for reelection, after fourteen years influencedeeply the conduct of other municipalities. The of service, won recognition as about the most efficient Con- city’s financial situation is critical. If times do not improve, gressman inprotesting against Hooverism and the sale of the keeping alive of foodless and workless citizens will be- government to the big-business interests. come a problemtranscending every other. Never did New Naturally he made mistakes. Often he seemed to go off York more greatly need a statesman and a man with toler- half-cocked andthen sometimes timewould catch up with ance, broad vision, and a kindly heart in the mayor’s chair. him and demonstrate the correctness of the positions he had A bigot, or a reactionary, or just a plain stupid man like the taken. It is frankly to be confessed that he did not do very present Tammany mayor, John P. O’Brien, might do infinite well whenhe ran far mayorin 1929 on thefusion ticket. harm. The vote that he gut in! 1929 wasalmost the lowest ever Let it be said at once that Mr. La Guardia, or Major, polled by ananti-Tammany fusion candidate. But as we orCongressman La Guardia if you preferone of these said then, so we say now: subject to certain political limita- titles, is not aconventional person. Thosewho think that tions, he has been a genuine progressive, has usually had the thegreatest city of Americashould be presided over by a courage of hisconvictions, has been sound on questions of I highlyeducated and sophisticated person of the type of warand peace, andhas repeatedly shown a readiness to Seth Low or Nicholas Murray Butler will not be satisfied sacrifice his careerfor his beliefs. He onceeven ranfor withthe choice of Mr. La Gualdia.He is short-uite Congress on the Socialist ticket when the Republicans refused short-rotund, and his personal appearance shows his Italian to renominate him because of his independence-and he won. origin. If elected hewill not shine, as did the last reform Personally, it has seemed to me that the best leader for mayor of New York, John Purroy Mitchel, in the salon of the fusion forces would have been Norman Thomas-1 do Generaland Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt. But Fiorello not believe that La Guardia will quarrel with me for saying La Guardia will never for one moment be out of touch with so. But I amheartily for the Major’s election because I or fail to understand the humble people of New York City believe thathe will bring to the mayoralty what it most and their needs, for he is himself as much a self-made man needs-a warmheart inspired by theopportunity to serve as is A1 Smith. He too was born in New York, but he got the common people. I hope he realizes that the city of New part of his limitededucation in Prescott, Arizona. At the York is not going tobe redeemed by merely giving it another age of nineteen he was employed in the American consulates good reform administration ; there must be radical changes . at Budapest and Trieste. When he wastwenty-two he was in the charter and the form of the city governmental struc- appoinbed Americanconsular agent atFiume, where he tule,and above allwe must have proportional representa- served for two years. He then returned to New York and tion, which is now being urged by many who have hitherto for three yearsserved as interpreter at Ellis Island, where failedto see how necessary that change has become. I feel he certainly must have learned many lessons in the way a sure he will be a far better candidate this year; for one thing government should not treat those who enter its doors. the situation is vastly more favorable. Meanwhile the young interpreter was studying law at Finally, let me tell my readers that there would have New York University,beginning his law practice in 1910. been no fusion ticket at a11 if it had not been for a singularly Five years later he became deputyattorney-general of the ,fine, able, :fearless, anddevoted citizen of NewYork, Stateand was a member of theSixty-Fifth Congress in Charles C. Burlingham. If any man deserves the title of 1917. He is one of thefew-members of the House of the First Citizen of this municipality, it is Mr. Burlingham. Representatives who, after having voted the country into the If there is any good liberal cause which has not had his aid war, had the simple decency to go abroadand offer them- and support, I shouldlike to knowwhat it is. Only his selves as targets for the bullets to which they had condemned age and his modesty, I believe, prevented his being compelled the flower of ‘our youth. It is hard to think of La Guardia to be a candidate himself. Isn’tit wicked thatwhen there as n flyingofficer. Me began as a firstlieutenant and was areAmericans of this admirabletype we get so damnably promoted,not for politicalleasons but for efficiency, to be few of them into our public life? captainand then major commanding the American flying farce which was attached to night and day bombing squad- Ions on theItalian front. He came back fromthe war without any illusions, knowing perfectly well that it mas not .

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