Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-05-15
NAMED new
CHIEF OF TAMMANY
IS NEW ERA" TYPE

New York, May 14-Surrogate
James A. Foley tonight was. elected
successor to the late Charles F.
Murphy as leader Of Tammany hall.
Only two OF the 20 members of Tam
many's executive committee voted
against him.
Tammany men say Surrogate Fo-
ley is a model of the new era" type
of politician which the hall has been
moulding in recent years.
His predecessors were mostly men
of humble parantage and lowly en-
vironment; men born in the city's
teeming tenement and waterfront
districts where by sheer force of
physical prowess and inherent po-
Htical acumen, fought their way to
place and power.
Charles f. Murphy was one of
these. Richard Croker, John Kelly
and William Marcy (Boss) Tweed
We're others, and so on backward
through many of the years of Tam
many's existence. Theirs was the
school of hard knocks. Their tutors
We're men often gang leaders and
ward heelers.
Murphy. 1.-The Sphinx" was the
highest development of that old
oS'AOOA' AAAo VI u WI puSllCu IllliI up
the ladder and his brain balanced
him at the top.
1t was he who encouraged the
new era" type of politician and
founded the school from which such
men as Surrogate Foley, Governor
Alfred E. Smith, Supreme Court JUS
tlce Robert f. Wagner and Senator
James j. Walker, leader of the state
senate, and others matriculated.
Thus the election of Surrogate
Foley as chieftain of Tammany's
main wigwam is viewed by political
leaders as the passing of a regime
and the ascension of a new kind of
boss to the controlling throttle of
probably the most powerful machine
in municipal politics in America.
AT an age when their predecessors
were winning votes by overcoming
opponents with their fists, Foley and
those of his clique were winning vo-
the state legislature
The new chieftain is AZ years old,
graduate of the local public schools,
and, with honors, Of the College of
the City of New York and the New
York Law School. At the age of %
he entered politics and straightway
was elected to the assembly. Six
years later he was elevated to the
state senate, where he remained I'M
til, in 1919, he was elected to the sur
, rogates bench by plurality of
$4,000 when every other Democrat on
the ticket went down to defeat.
In the assembly, where he was
f1oor-leader, and in the senate, Foley
was considered one of the most
nimble minded and glib-tongued or
ators on either party. In the consti-
tutional convention he, Governor
Smith and Justice Wagner. scored
forensic victories over the best legal
talent of the state.
His record of legislative achieve
ments covers a wide field He spon-
Sored, in the senate. the first compre
hensive bill providing a living wage
for women. He fathered the work.
mems compensation law. the eight
hour day for women, the teachers
salary increase bill, IL municipal own
ership bill. measure which created
the transit construction commission,
and water power development bill
giving the state control of all hydro
electric development. He was the
prime mover in legislation which
saved New Workers an estimated
$7,500,000 annually in telephone rate
reductions. Always he has been a
leader in the fight for "home rule
for this city.
Foley's reputation for reform fol-
lowed him into the surrogates office,
where one of his first acts was to
obtain legislation increasing the fees
revenue Of the county by 100000 a
year.
The new chieftain is a step son-in-
law of the late Charles f. Murphy,
and lives on Stuyvesant Park, in the
neghborhood of the Murphy home.
He is an ardent collector of rare
volumes, has noted library and is
n great reader