Portentous Primary

From the sunkissed shores of Staten Island to the rock-bound coast of The Bronx, New York City voters went to the polls last week to vote in a primary election. One hoodlum was shot to death, a score were slugged and when the ballots were counted the local Republican leader had been ousted, the Democratic chief went hopping out of Tammany Hall to do plain & fancy fence-mending, the Fusion party had a bad scare thrown into it from the White House. Not since the days of "Red Mike'' Hylan had the political affairs of the nation's No. 1 city been so thoroughly scrambled.

Republicans, irritated by his 22 years of connivance with Tammany, overthrew Samuel S. Koenig, a very practical Jewish politician. As chairman of the county committee, Mr. Koenig had for a long time been at odds with State Chairman William Kingsland Macy and the Hooverites. Sponsored by Elihu Root, Ruth Pratt, George W. Wickersham, Henry Lewis Stimson and Ogden Mills to step into Mr. Koenig's well-worn shoes was Chase Mellen Jr., slender 36-year-old banker, socialite and until last year a nov ice to politics. On the eve of the elections, Mr. Koenig announced: "I call upon Chase Mellen and his wealthy back ers to accept in a spirit of true sportsmanship inevitable defeat." Mr. Mellen & friends as strongly urged Mr. Koenig to resign from his post "in the interest of the party." Of the 2,964 county commit-teemanships, Chase Mellen won an estimated 2,000. Disgruntled Mr. Koenig refused to acknowledge his defeat until duly notified by the county elections board. A year ago Chase Mellen helped get out the Republican vote in the grimy ward which surrounds the oasis of respectability in which he lives on East 72nd Street. Last month he gave up his position in the foreign department of Bankers Trust Co. when his Republican friends persuaded him to assist in a "rebirth" of the party in New York City. Mr. Mellen comes suddenly but naturally to G. O. Politics. His father, a distinguished Manhattan barrister, was twice (1895-97. 1900-03) assistant corporation counsel. His grand father worked hard for Elaine and McKinley. During the War Chase Mellen rose to a commission from the ranks, served at Yosges, at St. Mihiel and on the Champagne front, where a shell fragment shattered the sciatic nerve of his left leg. He released himself from the Army in 1920 by defiantly hobbling out of a Bronx military hospital, going down to Washington and resigning his commission. Two operations since then have removed first the left foot, then the left leg to the knee. As chairman-designate of the reborn New York G. O. P., Chase Mellen's first act was to reindorse the Fusion candidacy of one-time Congressman Fiorello Henry La Guardia for Mayor in the November elections. Tammany's leadership suffered no overthrow, but it got an internal shaking. And although Boss John Francis Curry was not renounced by his national organization as was unhappy Boss Koenig, post-election developments widened the breach between Tammany Hall and the White House. Prognathous Mayor O'Brien was nominated to succeed himself, beating Congressman Loring M. Black Jr., no titan of political strength, by an unimpressive 3-to-1. Across the river in Brooklyn, a departmental plug-horse rallied thousands of other city employes and surprisingly beat Tammany's choice for the city comptrollership nomination, and three of Boss Curry's eight district leaders were unseated. One was deposed Sheriff Thomas M. Farley,-- whom Franklin Roosevelt, as Governor, removed from office when his witless bumblings failed to explain satisfactorily the source of his swollen income (TIME, Feb. 29, 1932). Boss Curry, like a college boxing coach, encourages in his men a reasonable amount of ferocity in fighting out their local battles, thus keeps the organization healthy, assures himself of a strong team when the common foe is to be faced. He congratulated the nominee for Comptroller, set up campaign headquarters for him adjoining those of Mayor O'Brien, began figuring ways & means to work the three new district leaders into the Hall. What did worry Boss Curry, and Fusionist La Guardia, too, was a trip which Secretary of State Edward J. Flynn made to Washington to see Postmaster General Farley, who is the Democracy's New York state as well as national chairman. Mr. Flynn is Democratic boss of The Bronx, represents the national party organization in New York City, has received most of the Federal patronage and dislikes Tammany. Unenthusiastic over Mayor O'Brien's showing at the polls, he knew that in recent straw votes conducted by the police for Tammany, Mayor O'Brien had made a poor showing. The chances of Joseph Vincent ("Holy Joe") McKee, last year's able and economical Acting Mayor, against Fusionist La Guardia in the November elections appeared considerably better than O'Brien's. Anxious lest a Fusion victory in New York weaken the state ticket in 1934, the national ticket in 1936, Boss Farley went to New York for the weekend and into a deep huddle with Boss Flynn. A laconic announcement from Washington that "the President is giving no approval to any local candidate in any state," by no means allayed Boss Curry's and Fusionist La Guardia's apprehension that their contest might become three-cornered, dominated by a Flynn-Farley-(Roosevelt) entry. In such a contest Mr. McKee would doubtless draw from the La Guardia support, perhaps open the way for Mayor O'Brien to step back into office.

--No kin to Postmaster General James Aloysius, whose brother Thomas L. is Sheriff of Rockland County, N. Y. Last week Rockland County's Sheriff Farley went down to the basement of his jail, turned off the heat in the adjacent County Building because the County Board had fired seven of his jail janitors.

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