MAYOR RESIGNS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21278, 3 September 1932, Page 9

MAYOR RESIGNS

NEW YORK SCANDAL ACTION BY GOVERNOR CIVIC ADMINISTRATION RECENT GRAFT CHARGES CASE LEFT TO PEOPLE Ey Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received September 2, 5.35 p.m.) NEW YORK. Sept. 1 The Mayor of New York, Mr. James J. | Walker, has resigned that oflice as a ! sequel to the inquiry by a committee i into civic administration ajid a hearing J of the case by the Governor of the State, i Mr. Franklin Roosevelt .

The resignation was announced after a day of many rumours that it was impending. Nevertheless, it caused a sensation and threw the city's affairs into turmoil, as well as considerably confusing the national political situation. Mr. Walker uccompanied his resignation with a remarkable statement. He said: "Shall I permit myself to be lynched in order to satisfy prejudico or political ambition ? Why, then, continue to appeal to the Governor when there is ! another forum open to me, that forum j being the people of New York?

" I have not been given an opportunity to prove my record of service to the city as Mayor for two terms. To the people of New York I leave my case in a spirit of true democracy, conscious of the rectitude of my official acts and with faith in the fair judgment of my fallow citizens." Whether Mr. Walker can stand for reelection this year or must wait until the regular election in 1953 has not been decided, and the question may be, submitted to the courts to determine. The chairman of the City Council, Mr. Joseph McKee, automatically becomes Mayor, but his tenure of office is uncertain. It is a matter on which there is legal disagreement whether an election must be held immediately or whether Mr. McKee should complete the term until 1933. The latter course eventually would make Mr. Walker's personal fate more, unsettled than it is to-day, since time may. completely change the political situation.

Tammany lias sworn an open vendetta against Mr. ftoosevelt, and there is every prospect that he will lose. New York State in the Presidential election.i He will gain supporters, however* in other parts of the country.

Mr. Samuel Seabury, a former New York Judge, who had been investigating charges of graft in New ork's municipal administration, recently found that the Mayor, Mr. James J. Walker, was the fountain-head of New \ ork's huge graft operations. Mr. Seabury demanded Mr. Walker's removal from Uie Mayoralty at the hands of the Governor, Mr. Franklin Roosovelt.

Mr. Walker has been twice Mayor of New York. He was born in Greenwich Village, a suburb of the city, in 1881. His father was an emigrant from Dublin who, though in humble circumstances, managed to give the lad a good education at the College of St. Francis Xavier. Later he attended the New ork Law School and took the LL.B. degree. Admitted to the Bar in 1912, he practised with great success for several years. He was also elected a member of tho New "York Senate. Meanwhile, as a Roman Catholic Irishman, he entered municipal politics by joining the Tammany Society—an organisation representing the Democrat Party in national issues and famed for its motto: "To tho victors belong tho spoils." In 1925 he was elected Mayor. ! All kinds of charges were made against Mr. Wnlkor's administration, such as wastefulness, neglect, inefficiency, overtaxation, tacit, sanctioning of illicit drinking places and the encouragement of graft and corruption in the public services. But his genial, cheerful and frceI and-easy personality acquired for him a i very strong body of admirers and even the ! fiercest, attacks on him came to nothing. At the election in November, 1929, Mr. | Walker was returned for another four 1 years' term with 865.549 votes against tho Republican candidate's 368.384—an unprecedented majority. Ono item in his programme was an increase in the wages of policoinen and firemen from a minimum of £SOO to £6OO a year, involving an annual addition to the city's budget of from £1,000,000 to £1,500,000. A month after his return ho got his yearly "compensation" increased from £SOOO to £BOOO, and agreed to additions of £IOOO to £3OOO to the salaries of other city officials. Mr. Walker stated that he proposed to give his increase to charities. The charges against him were soon revived, in view of the "vice racket" and other scandals, and in April, 1931, the Now York State Legislature appointed a committee to investigate them.