CORRUPTION IN NEW YORK

Taranaki Daily News, 30 April 1931, Page 7

CORRUPTION IN NEW YORK

CHARGES AGAINST MAYOR

GOVERNOR DISMISSES THEM ELECTION CHANCES FEARED TAMMANY HALL’S VICTORY By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. New York, April 28. The Governor of New York State, Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt, has dismissed the misfeasance charges against Mr. James Walker, Mayor of New York, states an Albany report. The Governor stated in a memorandum that the charges were so general in character and referred so generally to the Mayor’s subordinates that the cause was insufficient for his removal. This is considered a notable victory for Tammany Hall, which was seriously aroused by the threat of the reform element to overthrow its regime in New York. ■Politically no small significance is attached to the Governor’s actions. Mr. Roosevelt is the most outstanding aspirant for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1932 and any alienation of Tammany would seriously affect his presidential chances.

GREAT CIVIC CRUSADE.

What amounts to a great civic crusade against Tammany Hall and the present municipal administration begun recently in New York City. Its basis is the recent revelations of wholesale corruption in many departments of city government and particularly in ' the police force. Perhaps the chief factor in the indignation of the citizens is the discovery that the police have habitually arrested and imprisoned innocent women’on trumped up charges of misconduct for the purpose of blackmailing them. The New York district attorney, the official who would ordinarily be charged with the duty of investigating and ending the corruption, was himself the subject of an inquiry by order of Governor Roosevelt. This district attorney, Mr. Thomas C. T. Crain, is a Tammany Democrat and Mr. Rocsevelt is a member of the Democratic party. Mr. Roosevelt’s courageous action. iu ordering Crain to be examined may have cost him the Presidential nomination of hie party in. 1932, since Tammany is bitterly angered at what it calls his “betrayal.” INQUIRY INTO ADMINISTRATION. The. citizens are asking' for a full inquiry into all aspects of municipal administration. 'Several mass meetings have been held for the purposfe of pressing this demand. A. secret vigilante organisation of 1000 citizens was formed in a manner reminiscent of the days of-the Forty-niners of San Francisco. The official Tammany defence is that all the charges and demands for investigation are an attempt to draw a red herring across the trail of the inquiry into the affairs of the Bank of the United States, which recently closed its doors' The argument is that the political foes of Tammany are implicated -in the bank failure and are seeking to divert public attention from it. Formal charges that Mayor Walker discharged his duties in a “wasteful and incompetent” fashion were made by the City Affairs Committee. The committee, which is a private organisation of leading citizens, said: “His conduct in office is incompetent, inefficient, and futile, and as a result the machinery of government has failed to function and administration in the city has been brought into disrepute.’’ A petition by the Society for the Prevention of Crime was sent .to Governor Roosevelt which, without impugning the Mayor’s integrity, denianded “some proof that he really desired to clean up the city.”