Evening star., 1928-12-04
SMITH MAYORALTY
RACE IS SECUTED
Walker Expected to Run
With Tammany Aid; HyIan
as Independent.
BY LEMUEL F. PARTON.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, December At was
learned from a reliable source today
that Gov Alfred E. Smith positively
declines to become a candidate for
mayor of Greater New York.
According to this informant, the
pressure on Gov. Smith has not come
particularly from Tammany, but from
citizens of both parties. alarmed by in
creasing complexity of traffic and other
purely economic problems which. they
believe, Gov. Smith alone is qualified to
master. They also believe tilat unless
the more urgent of these issues are met
and solved, the business aScendancy of
New York will be seriously imperiled.
During and after the presidential
campaign, there were rumors that the
rift between Gov. Sp1ith and Tammany
was widening.
Three -COrnered Fight.
Mayor Walker, it is believed, will un-
questionably run again, with Tammany
support. AS former Mayor John F.
Hylan has announced that he would
run independently, there is three
cornered fight in the offing, which the
Republicans hope to win through a
division of the normally Democratic
vote by the Hylan candidacy.
Judge Otto S. RoSalsky has been re-
peatedly mentioned as possibility for
the Republican nomination. While he
has given no word as to whether he
would accept. there has been noticeable
within the last two weeks a drive in
his direction.
Encouraging word is reported to have
been received from Washington to the
effect that H. Edmund Machold would
participate in the distribution of Fed
eral patronage, and that there would
be little change in Federal appointments
here. This is regarded as greatly
strengthening the organization group
and the Republican camp has more the
appearance of compact and effective or
ganization than it has had for several
years past.
Charges Irregularities.
Mrs. Ruth Pratt, former member of
the Board of Aldermen, and elected to
Congress at the last election, has
charged various irregularities in the ad-
ministration of the city's affairs.
Unquestionably, the entire New York
traffic situation will be thoroughly over
hauled in the r1ayoralty fight. The
scent fare has been maintained here,
but by municipal subsidy to the SUBJ
way company. While congestion in
creases to the point not only Of dis
comfort but of danger, the fight of the
companies for 7-cent fare has dragged
slowly on its way up to the Supreme
Court.
Projects Mixed in Politics.
The proposed building of the tri-
borough bridge, the Richmond-Brook-
lyn vehicular tunnel, the Spuyten Duy-
vii tube, the vehicular tube for traffic
up and down the island also are enmesh-
ed in political controversy as we'll as
the plans for the West Side elevated
highway, and the projected plan of a
great integrated system of belt line
roads and subways. unifying the entire
metropolitan district and solving the in
creasingly urgent problem of traffic ia
cilitieS.
These various undertakings would
carry the city far beyond the legal
limit of its charter indebtedness, but
it would be possible to carry through
the construction under the port au-
thority of New York, a quasi-public
body, which can issue and sell its own
bonds and retire them out of returns.
On the whole. the political situation
in the metropolis has been galvanized
by pressing economic issues which
promise to make the coming mayoralty
campaign anything but a sham battle.
tCopyright. 1881