New Britain herald., 1929-08-23
LkER,LAGUARDIA
 ARE FINE SH0WMEN
New York Electoral Campaign Bound to Be Picturesque Affair

SS>AN w w AStAA SSHAN AAAASAA New York, Aug. 23-While New York Republicans were wondering who could possibly give the cele- brated Jimmy Walker a run for his mayoralty, Major Fiorello H. La Guardia stepped out of the hat in answer to their question-if not their prayer.
 For although La Guardia is not the fair-haired boy of his own party. it's admitted that he's the one man who could play opposite the dapper Jimmy Walker in the coming elec- tions and not be submerged in the role. In his own right. the Major is a national figure. and he yields to nobody when it comes to putting on good show.
 If Walker is a typical Broadway musical comedy hero, La Guardia is a perfect type for good old political melodrama, making up in histrionlc ability what he lacks in inches.
 Six times he has represented New York as a congressman in Washing ton. Because of his socialistic ten- dencies he used to be called the two- party man in the House, and one day, in rage, Senator Blanton Of Texas referred to him as the "one- man party"
 A Political Snowman
 A seasoned campaigner, he also is a good snowman, as full of tricks as a magician. You have only to hear him roll the R in graft" Che can and does do it in three languages) to know that his oratorical ability is something to conjure with.
 Tn appearance, La Guardia is as Italian as his name-short, stoclly, with a tendency toward a waistline. He has quick, nervous movements, and bounces around, never quite still. Conversationally. too he bounces-never at a loss for a word or comeback, though his diction is forceful, rather than elegant
 He frequently offended Washing tonians by his use of the aiective lousy" applied rather indiscrimin- ately, and once the Postal Telegraph company refused to carry the word over its chaste wires.
 Full of Amendments
 In Washington. where he paid little attention to social life, but was constantly in evidence in the House, he had the reputation of Of fering as many, if not more amend ments, to all pending legislation than anyone else in the House, and next to Blanton, talked more than anyone else on the floor.
 To keep him quiet they once put him on the alcoholic liquor traf- fife committee. mainly because it was a dead issue. He quickly revived the corpse, and forced meeting after four years of inactivity.
 When the legislators affected sur- prise that there might be some vii olation of the liquor law. he pro- ceeded to manufacture some quite passable 3.76 beer with only malt extract and beer flavoring. That they did not arrest him was a great dis appointment to him.
 Wet-ssut Upholds Laws
 Politically, the Major is wet and doesn't care who knows it, but he believes that federal laws should be upheld. When the Indianapolis drys once went after him in Congress for his wet stand, he revealed how some $50 cases of confiscated whiskoy had been removed from the federal building in Indianapolis and secret ly bootlegged-a bit of information he had found out and saved to dis close at the most dramatic time.
 Like Mayor Walker. La Guardia is native son of New York He came from the west side, of Italian percentage, has known hard times and poverty-and says he still knows them. His father was a band leader, which is probably the reason La Guardia plays trombone with apologies to none. Much of his boy hood was spent in Prescott, Ari- zona.
 In 1902, he was 20 years old and went as a clerk to the consul general at Budapest and later be- came consular agent at Plume in 1904. Diplomatic entanglcments brought him home to become inter- preter at Ellis Island. At this time he worked his way through the law school of New York University. Dur ing the war he served in the avia- tion corps, whence the Major" that has become the title by which every one calls him.
 As president of the board of al dermen, he denounced policies SC vigorously and offended everyone SC generally that he was instrumental in getting all the aldermens salar- ies raised but his own.
 He Makes Self Heard
 When La Guardia is opposed tc from the housetops. He protested making Queen Mary an honorary colonel of the 10Gth Infantry on her recent visit here. He protested wal tactics and declared wealth should be conscripted as well as men. It is not surprising, therefore, that his political platform includes a sweep, ing denunciation of Tammany Hal and everything that it has done 1T
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