Threat Ticket

When Joseph Vincent ("Holy Joe") McKee withdrew (TIME, May 15), the field of New York City politics looked cleared entirely for Tammany Hall. A mayoral election comes this autumn and on the scene loomed no figure of importance except Distinguished Citizen Al Smith, who almost certainly would not lead a fusion ticket against his good friend and fellow Tammany Sachem, Mayor John Patrick O'Brien.

Suddenly last week the silence and serenity were rent by a voice not heard in New York since it was stilled by the death of the 72nd Congress last March. Short, swart, muscular Fiorello Henry La Guardia, insurgent Republican from Manhattan's Italian district who lost his House seat to a Tammany man in the Roosevelt landslide, raised his voice loudly to demand public support for one of the most startling coalition tickets ever proposed.

He called for Al Smith for Mayor. For President of the Board of Aldermen he named Socialist Norman Thomas. For New York District Attorney he proposed Frederic Rene ("Fritz") Coudert Jr., smooth young Republican from the silk-stocking district. He resurrected onetime Mayor John Francis ("Red Mike") Hylan for Borough President of Queens and balanced him with Louis Waldman, New York State Socialist chairman, for Borough President of The Bronx. Mayor O'Brien was tactfully reserved his old job as Surrogate.

Unless his anti-Tammany ticket was accepted "as is," swore Mr. La Guardia. he would take the field himself. In 1929, as a fusion nominee, he gave glib little "Jimmy" Walker an embarrassing time, charging to Tammany most of the scandals later revealed in the Seabury investigation. But his "radicalism" lost him most of the Republican silk-stocking vote.

Al Smith promptly replied to the La Guardia threat: "I am not a candidate. ... I shall not accept any nomination. . . . There is no compulsion or persuasion that can affect my decision. It is final."

Boomed next to oppose Mayor O'Brien for the country's No. 3 elective office was pontifical Samuel Seabury, inquisitor of Tammany last year.

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