The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-07-12
New Ways of Old Politicians

New Ways of Old Politicians
The conviction of few minor Tammany Of
ficials in the last chapter of the graft serial
which the wigwam itself has been running for
the edification of it's gullible readers would be
highly amusing were it not for the fact that
thousands of workers will undoubtedly be de-
ceived into believing that the tiger is attempt
ing real house cleaning
Al Smith, that pure and sweet flower that
has blooned forth from out of the dunghill of
Tammany corruption, may now venture to
watt his delicate fragrance to the national pol
itical winds without the least suspicion on the
part of his innocent Ku Klux Kan countrymen
of what oderous stuff the perfume has been
compounded
Have not Al Smith and the New Tammany''
themselves taken the initiative in eliminating
the aged-in-the-wood aroma of Tweed, Croker
and Murphy!
This is the meaning of the mighty and cour-
ageous graft hunting now going on under the
direction of the tiger No doubt the tiger is
anxious for its prey A few clews would set
him on the trail of new victims He might even
if properly directed catch up with the real
grafters, those "higher-up." Let us see
There sits at the head of Mayor Jimmie
Walkers Department of Transportation a gen
y.
laney has one of the most responsible jobs ever
held by public official in the city of New
York. Through his hands pass contracts for
subway building amounting to billion dollars.
This is the same John H. Delaney who for
many years was the go-between Thomas F.
Ryan, |. R. T. traction magnate, and Boss
Charles f. Murphy, leader of Tammany Hall.
John H. Delaney's fingers have felt the touch
of Ryan's dolars-sonle of which he turned
over to 'the Chief" For this Delaney has al
ready once been exposed. But there he stands.
The head of the street cleaning department,
Alfred A. Taylor, has been accused of being
the chief culprit by no less an authority than
Controller Charles W. Craig, chief watchdog
for Al Smith in New York City. Here is an
opportunity for some real head hunting.
But why consider the lesser culprits. There
is Jimmie Walker himself, chief Tammany
cake-eater, man about town and patron of the
fine arts in New York night clubs, Jimmie
Walker was able on a salary of $4,000 to re-
port an income to the government last year of
$287,000 Looking at the genial Jimmie you
might suppose he hardly knew enough to go
into his regular Greenwich Village speakeasy
from the rain. Not-so, however. Early in 1926
after his election, he began buying INTERIOR
ough stock at about 26. Now it stands at
about 45. And watch it after election. 49,.
Who really expects that Tammany Hall will
clean house? Who believes that AL Smith will
expose his connections with the Brooklyn
Manhattan Transit Corporation, their temper
airy differences and their present reconcilia-
ton? Who supposes that Jimmie Walker will
expose the scheme by which he and former
Controller. Craig with the sanction of Al Smith
and the republican state legislature planned to
sell to the city for paltry seven millions three
systems of junk called the Eighth Avenue Rail-
road, the Ninth Avenue Railroad and the
Fourth and Madison Avenue Line 1t was not
their fault that the scheme did not go through.
Investigations have their purposes. There
was the recent mine Investigation" as an ex-
ample. It helped do the trick expected of John
. L. Lewis by the Mellon coal companys. The
J present Tammany graft hunt also has its pur-
pose that of helping put over AL Smith.
Graft is an integral part Of the capitalist
system, just as exploitation of the workers
is its main characteristic. To eliminate graft
i Just as to eliminate exploitation only one rem
! ady is adequate: the overthrow of capitalism
There is way to prepare the ground for
that task: Vote Communist! For the Workers
Against the Bosses! Join the Workers Com
, munist Party