Civics Lesson

At a stag luncheon in a Brooklyn restaurant last week, Abraham M. Lindenbaum, a member of the New York City Planning Commission, rose up over the coffee cups and asked the 43 guests how much they were prepared to contribute to Mayor Robert Wagner's campaign for reelection. Each guest stood up in turn and announced his pledge. In the end, the mayor's campaign purse was some $25,000 heavier. Not one of the guests--all builders and real estate men, many of whom do business with the city--failed to pledge at least $100, and some offered as much as $5,000. Bob Wagner smiled benignly.

Wagner's two opponents in the mayorality race reacted furiously. In telegrams to the city's Board of Ethics, Republican Louis J. Lefkowitz suggested that the pledges might have violated the city charter, which forbids city employees from accepting gifts "from any person, firm or corporation which, to his knowledge, is interested directly or indirectly in any manner whatsoever in business dealings with the city." City Controller Lawrence E. Gerosa, running as an independent, was less delicate. "The mayor has set one of the worst examples in municipal history," he said. "He should resign."

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