The Lady & The Tiger

(See front cover)

There was a young lady from Niger,

Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.

They returned from the ride

With the lady inside,

And the smile on the face of the tiger.

Three weeks ago, a racketeering young lady from Manhattan named Benita Franklin Bischoff alias Vivian Gordon was taken for a ride in Van Cortlandt Park, was later found in the shrubbery, strangled (TIME, March 9). When it became known that five days prior she had gone to court with frameup charges against a New York City detective, her murder was regarded as a crowning outrage in the long series of revelations about the city's bench and police force. A storm of bitter indignation from New York's citizenry wiped the deprecatory smile from the face of the Tammany Tiger.

Up to last week the Police Department, smothered with a plethora of "leads," was unable to produce a single clue to the woman's death. Meantime, enterprising newspapers were able to print "true stories" of the whole case with only a few names omitted for libel's sake. When the wheels of justice seemed incapable of budging in the Bischoff case, conscientious citizens began to think that the legal machinery of their town had been allowed to grow rusty with disuse, that it was high time that an investigation be made higher up. Fortnight ago, the City Club, a potent civic organization, petitioned Governor Roosevelt to remove Thomas C. T. Grain, New York County's aged little District Attorney, because of "inefficiency, incompetency, failure to enforce the criminal law and malfeasance in office."

Crain. The nomination and election of Mr. Crain in 1929 were commonly regarded as a feat of window-dressing by Tammany Hall. Chief qualifications of Mr. Grain for his job were that he had a reputation for austerity on the bench, was a Tammany sachem, had been a jobholder for 33 of his 70 years and was a prominent Episcopalian. It is Tammany precedent to nominate a Protestant district attorney lest the ticket be too topheavy with Roman Catholics.

Assuming office Jan. 1, 1930, Sachem Grain proceeded to set an impressive record for ineffectuality. He has not yet made known who shot Gambler Arnold Rothstein (TIME, Dec. 24, 1928) or Racketeer Jack ("Legs") Diamond (TIME, Oct. 20). He was lax in prosecuting unscrupulous bondsmen, dock racketeers and ambulance chasing lawyers. He failed to obtain an indictment in the case of retired Magistrate Ewald, suspected of buying his judgeship for $10,000, which was later thrice tried unsuccessfully (TIME, Feb. 2). Of 623 grand jury indictments for grand larceny sent to his office, only 32 were tried and convicted. From this ecord it appeared that instead of diligently executing his trust, Sachem Grain had merely been a placid front-row spectator at the Scandals of New York (1930-31).

Acting on the City Club's charges, Governor Roosevelt took advantage of the public office law. To hear Sachem Grain's defense at a private trial he appointed Samuel Seabury, the referee of judiciary and police inquiry, which last week sent its first policeman to jail for perjury. When Mr. Grain learned whom his judge was to be he protested, pointing out that Referee Seabury was not only a well-known Tammany foe, but a member of the City Club; and that he had already publicly criticized the District Attorney's office.

Hue & Cry. The scent of corruption growing stronger, the hounds of public conscience began to break loose with an increasing halloo. Church, Press and Business set up a tremendous hue & cry directed against the entire city adminis- tration, but particularly against its dapper little Mayor James John ("Jimmy") Walker. Public feeling, which had smiled tolerantly at his wisecracks and philandering, which had overlooked his do- nothing policy on the unified transit problem and Unemployment conference, now flared up at what appeared to be culpable laxity. The Society for the Prevention of Crime urged Governor Roosevelt to invoke a little-known section of the city charter which empowers the Governor of New York to remove the Mayor of New York City. Many another prominent body joined in demanding a thoroughgoing municipal cleanup: The Citizens Union under Henry Morgenthau, onetime Ambassador to Turkey; the Public Affairs Committee under Socialist Norman Thomas; the City Affairs Committee under Rev. John Haynes Holmes and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise. The Greater New York Federation of Churches next threw its weight into the movement, and then the New York Board of Trade. The latter appointed a Vigilantes Committee of 20, announced that it had been spying on City Hall for the past year. The Roman Catholic Church remained silent. In the absence of Patrick Cardinal Hayes, a spokesman said: "The business of the Catholic Church is saving souls and not meddling in politics. . . . It would appear that the current allegations are solely political."

Meantime the metropolitan newspapers went for the city administration hammer- &tongs. Mindful of the crusading tradition inherited with its recent purchase of the World, the World-Telegram editorialized, in language less elegant, less thunderous but no less clear than Joseph Pul-itzer's writers used to use: ''Soon the idea may get across to Tammany. Soon Tammany may wake up and realize that even a political machine can get gummed up with too much politics." World-Telegram Colyumist Heywood Broun began organizing a mass meeting "in answer to the average citizen's question: 'What can I do?'" The Daily News thought that the municipality's only salvation lay in draft- ing Alfred Emanuel Smith for Mayor.

Laugher Walker. Meantime, Mayor Walker had left town. Having previously announced that he would take a vacation on Samuel Untermyer's estate at Palm Springs, Calif, the Mayor slipped out of his office, crossed to Jersey City to avoid prying eyes and newshawks, boarded a Baltimore & Ohio R. R. official car with A. C. Blumenthal, Fox film executive, and Mr. Blumenthal's wife. A hat pulled down over his pinched face, he allowed a vigilant newspaper photographer one picture, said he "wanted to get away from all these investigations" (TIME, March 16).

As soon as he had put his city behind him, however, Mayor Walker brightened. At Chicago he was asked about the proposed investigation into his office. "My only answer to that," said he, "is the smile on my face." By the time he reached Kansas City, he had evolved a neat retort to any suggestion that he was fleeing New York. Said he: "They can find me in the desert if they want to investigate me. . . . It's funny, isn't it, that the first investigation of me should come when I'm out of town. I wonder why they didn't investigate me while I was in New York?" And at Dallas, Texas he was laughing out loud. "I'm a laugher," he told reporters. "We need more laughers. I've just talked an hour and a half with New York," he added.

At the other end of the line the situation was certainly not a laughing matter. With the revelation that no report has ever been made on the Mayor's own city investigation, begun last July, people began to wonder if it was Mayoring or fun-having that made a vacation seem imperative for the city's chief executive. Even his severest critics, however, could not place the entire responsibility for shortcomings in the city government on the playboy Mayor's slim shoulders. It was recalled that two years ago he said: "If reelected, I will take my advice and leadership from John F. Curry."

Boss Curry. The present leader of Tammany Hall (and hence New York City's Boss) is 57-year-old, blue-eyed, thin-thatched little John Francis Curry. He is a shrewd pinochle-player, but by no means the most potent leader the Wigwam ever had. He is a lifelong resident of the "San Juan Hill Section" (middle West Side). His election to Tammany's leadership in 1929 was hotly contested by the East Side, whence came Alfred dEmanuel Smith. Like most New York bosses, Mr. Curry is of Irish descent and distinguished himself by early physical prowess, in his case footracing. Until his election in 1903 to the State Senate he was a Western Union telegraph operator. He is a devout churchman, speaks quietly and--unlike Bosses Tweed, Croker and Kelly--prefers to remain out of the picture as much as possible.

Fashions in bosses as well as fashions in political livelihoods change. Boss Tweed (1861-72) went in for peculation and bribery. Boss Murphy (1902-24)-brought the city contract racket to its juiciest fruition. Nowadays construction bonding is the most remunerative of Tam-many-controlled activities, and judgeships are the most luscious appointment plums which the Hall can bestow.

Well aware is Boss Curry of the Hall's present ticklish situation, for which there is an interesting parallel in the last great Tammany scandal. In 1912, the year before Boss Murphy had Governor Sulzer impeached, a gambler named Herman Rosenthal was killed on the eve of his giving damaging evidence against venal policemen. Within four months Police Lieutenant Charles Becker, "Lefty Louis" Rosenberg, "Gyp the Blood" Horowitz, "Whitey" Lewis and "Dago Frank" Ciro-fici were sentenced to death for the murder. The reaction to this affair gave the State a Reform Governor (Charles S. Whitman), the city a Reform Mayor (John Purroy Mitchel). Last week there was as yet no indictment in the three-week-old Bischoff case, and Boss Curry knew that his constituency wanted one. He knows that the strength of Tammany lies in keeping the populace lethargic and contented: providing food for the needy, releasing important Republicans from jury duty and other irks, taking care of traffic summonses for the rich. Tammany does not fear the ructions of its Republican enemies. But it does fear the loss of public confidence.

In addition to his other difficulties, Boss Curry last week found himself in a divided camp. The four big chiefs of New York Democracy are himself, Alfred Emanuel Smith, Mayor Walker and Governor Roosevelt.

Boss Curry only controls Tammany by a small majority. He dislikes Smith, whose presence in the city overshadows the Curry prestige. On the other hand, Mayor Walker is his man. Governor Roosevelt conferred with Boss Curry before turning District Attorney Grain over to investigation. Al Smith is no friend to either Boss Curry or Mayor Walker, whom he is said to regard as "getting away with too much." And between Governor Roosevelt and Al Smith there is the possibility of rivalry for the Presidential nomination.

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