Partner Up; Revision Down

WillB Hadley of Philadelphia was a shy master of municipal finance when he picked up a flamboyant jack-of-all-political-trades named Samuel Davis Wilson to dramatize him for political purposes. After Philadelphia's late Republican Boss Vare refused them nominations for City Treasurer and Controller respectively in 1933, Political Partners Hadley and Wilson helped junk the Republican machine by winning their jobs on the Democratic-Town Meeting (Fusion) ticket. This year their friendship turned to bitter rivalry when each one decided to go after the Republican nomination for Mayor (TIME, Sept. 16). Philadelphians, curious to know which member of the onetime partnership had been its political brains, watched their contest eagerly. So did outsiders interested in seeing how the third city of the land would choose between a brilliant but colorless student of finance and a seasoned, shouting, arm-waving politician.

Last week Philadelphia Republicans went to their primary polls, gave Politician Wilson 168,106 votes to Student Hadley's 145,205. Sheriff Richard Weglein, who claimed to be "the only real Republican of the lot," ran a poor third. As expected, Democratic Boss John Bernard ("Jack") Kelly, contractor and famed oarsman, took the Democratic nomination for Mayor hands down. His winning ticket-mate for District Attorney was Curtis Bok, liberal young grandson of the late Publisher Cyrus H. K. Curtis.

Statewide question put to Pennsylvanians at their local primaries last week was one close to the heart of Democratic Governor George H. Earle. Pennsylvania's 62-year-old constitution may be amended only once in five years. Impatient to let his citizens share in "the more abundant life of the Roosevelt New Deal," Governor Earle proposed to revamp the whole document at one clip. He wanted to up the State's borrowing power, shift taxes from real estate to incomes, lop off or consolidate antique political offices and divisions, lay the ground for social security legislation. First step was to get Pennsylvanians to say Yes to a Constitutional Convention in 1936. Last week after a hot campaign in which Republicans fought fiercely against revision, Pennsylvanians said No, 3 to 2.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.