McKee for Walker

Until last week nobody considered "Jimmy" Walker a quitter. Even after he turned out to be the first Mayor of New York to resign under fire, hundreds of thousands of citizens refused to think the worst of him. Radio Crooner Morton Downey, Publisher Generoso Pope (Il Progresso-Italo-Americano) and Theatre Man Alfred Cleveland Blumenthal were among the first to rush to his flower-filled Mayfair apartment on Park Avenue where he was lolling around in blue silk pajamas and assure him that, even out of office, he was still "the greatest fellow on earth."

Mayor Walker had spent three weeks at Albany trying to convince Governor Roosevelt that he was innocent of the charges filed against him by Samuel Seabury. They were not accusations of overt graft and corruption which would bring a conviction in a criminal court and Governor Roosevelt was not trying them like a criminal case. Rather were they charges of indiscretion and bad judgment indicative of a public and private carelessness about money and men. Taken together they created the impression of wrong-doing but legal proof was lacking of specific violations of the law. The Mayor was left looking morally shoddy.

When it became apparent that Governor Roosevelt was on the verge of removing the Mayor, Walker defense attorneys fled to court for a restraining order. The Mayor complained that the Governor was not giving him a fair hearing.

Early last week Supreme Court Justice Ellis J. Staley, a Republican, ruled that he had no power to restrain the Governor where responsibility was "to the people and his own conscience."

Justice Staley then proceeded to give his personal opinion on Governor Roosevelt's handling of the Walker case. He opined that the Albany hearings had been unfair because: i) the Governor had not called witnesses to make out a direct case against the Mayor and be cross-examined by the defense; 2) the Mayor's private life was not ground for removal unless moral turpitude were disclosed; 3) the Mayor's first-term activities had been passed on by the people and were therefore beyond the Governor's scrutiny. Though he lost his plea. Mayor Walker's lawyer hailed this decision as "a great victory" for his client. Later it was to prove the springboard by which the Mayor leaped out of office.

Followed a four-day hiatus, due to the death of the Mayor's younger brother George. The Mayor was put to bed with a case of "nervous exhaustion." He could not attend the wake. For George Walker's funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral most of Tammany Hall turned out as mourners. The ceremony and crowds were more a tribute to the Mayor than to his unknown brother. At the interment in Long Island City the Mayor looked wan and hollow-cheeked.

Two hours later he shook off sleuthing reporters and disappeared alone in his $17,000 nickel-trimmed Duesenberg. Somewhere about the city he met John Francis Curry, leader of Tammany Hall and John H. McCooey, Democratic boss of Brooklyn. At 10 p. m. he returned in high spirits to his Mayfair apartment on Park Avenue.

Reporters in the lobby asked him how he felt. "Great!" he grinned.

"How about going to Albany tomorrow for the hearings" was the next question.

Mayor Walker thumbed his nose north ward in the direction of Albany.

"Are you going to resign?"

"Get down to City Hall. There's a statement there for you." And the Mayor went up to his apartment, tried to tele phone the news to his wife on Long Island (she was out), took a cold shower, went to bed.

At City Hall 20 minutes later newsmen were handed the following from the Mayor to the City Clerk: "I hereby re sign as Mayor of the City of New York, the resignation to take effect immediately."

Also passed out was a Walker statement in which the Mayor intemperately flayed the "unAmerican, unfair proceeding conducted by Governor Roosevelt against me." Excerpts:

"I was being subjected to an extraordinary inquisition. . . . The proceedings before the Governor developed into a travesty, a mock trial, a proceeding in comparison to which even the practice of a drumhead court martial seemed liberal. . . .

"The unlawful invasion of my rights is due to a Governor who has a personal interest in the outcome of the proceeding. ... He has been studiously unfair. ... He has acted as a prosecutor. . . . He has allowed questions that even a first-year law student would recognize were not permissible. . . . Shall I permit myself to be lynched to satisfy prejudice or personal ambition? ... I have gone as far as anyone could. . . . Why then continue before him when there is another forum open to me? To that forum, the people of the City of New York, I leave my case. . . ."

Next day at Albany Governor Roosevelt closed the Walker case in 90 seconds without comment.

Samuel Seabury, sailing for Europe, compared the Governor to Grover Cleveland and the Mayor's resignation to a confession of guilt. And seven million New Yorkers had a new chief executive in the person of 43-year-old Joseph Vincent ("Holy Joe") McKee.

Without even the formality of an oath Mr. McKee automatically succeeded to the $40,000 job of Mayor from his $25.000 position as President of the Board of Aldermen. The first day he arrived at City Hall by subway, worked eight hours in his shirtsleeves, took 35 minutes off for lunch alone at a soda-fountain restaurant. His job was not new to him; he had filled it often and well during the protracted junkets of fun-loving "Jimmy" Walker. A thrifty Scot, he promised to economize, to cut the $631,000,000 city budget to the bone. With the change of mayors, municipal bonds rose two points.

"Holy Joe" McKee, grave, handsome, scholarly, was born & bred in the sprawling Bronx north of the Harlem River. As a boy he sold newspapers. At Fordham University he was an honor graduate. Before studying law he taught Latin and Greek at his Alma Mater, English in one of the city's high schools. He still writes magazine articles under the name of James W. Dawson. A good Democrat, he is not a Tammany man. His political mentor is New York's Secretary of State Edward J. Flynn, Bronx boss and Roosevelt supporter. In 1925 he was first elected to head the Board of Aldermen. In 1929 he was re-elected with more votes than even Mayor Walker. Once he nearly broke up a Board of Estimate meeting by correcting a Tammany clerk who persisted in reading a petition for the Goethe Society as if it were spelled "goat." Mayor McKee is married, has two sons, spends his summers at Mamaroneck. To Broadway and its night life he is unknown. He does not smoke, drink, wisecrack. He golfs in the 90's. Modest and self-effacing, he referred to himself last week as "acting mayor."

Would Jimmy Walker try to win back his job at the November election? First to be settled was the legal question of whether or not New York should choose another Mayor this year. The law provides that a "vacancy occurring before Oct. 15 shall be filled at the next general election." But was the mayoralty "vacant" with Mr. McKee in City Hall? Only the courts can answer.

But could "Jimmy" get the nomination? If the Governor had removed him he would be legally barred from running to succeed himself. His resignation circumvented that. Boss Curry was silent about another Walker candidacy. Boss McCooey was undetermined. It was reported that Alfred Emanuel Smith was against Walker because he "quit under fire." Republicans and independent Democrats scuttled about to find a winning fusion candidate.

Citizen Walker was worried about his health. After nearly seven years of hard play and some work he was burned out. His physician spoke of a "long rest." Interviewed in flowered blue silk pajamas at his apartment the ex-Mayor declared: "I have no plans at all. I have a job on my hands to regain and restore my health. I want to be let alone in my grief--not my political grief."

The political effects of the Walker case on the presidential campaign remained a matter of public guesswork and individual speculation. The most widely held view was that developments had hurt Governor Roosevelt and helped President Hoover. The Mayor's resignation had deprived the Governor of a spectacular chance to remove him and thereby win support outside New York as the honest foe of Tammany Hall. Yet Tammany's bitterness toward the Governor was as intense as if he had actually ousted its favorite. The Democratic nominee had lost in New York City without a compensating gain elsewhere. A Walker candidacy on the same ticket with him would be Tammany's method of knifing Governor Roosevelt in the election. Such a knifing might well cost the Democrats the State. Without New York Governor Roosevelt would have a precipitously uphill fight to the White House. Only one man (Woodrow Wilson in 1916) has gained the Presidency in the last 52 years without New York's electoral votes.

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