The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-03-21
BY PAUL HARRISON
NEA Service Writer

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OF il. Virtually every step in the
career of New York's amazing mayor
represents a personal victory, some
of them won by attributes entirely
contradictory to the impressions
and legends surrounding him.
Most of the world by now knows
Gotham's mayor at-large for his
personal charm, his talent for
friendship, his ready wit and bril-
lance as a speaker, his sartorial ele-
gance and playboy pendants, and
his gift for winning support from
the most unlikely quarters.
But it is the practical picture
that makes Jimmy Walker para
dox. Even his enemies credit him
with the alert intelligence, the civic
sagacity and the potential driving
energy necessary for good govern
ment. His disposition, sincerity and
motives are what they question.
Product of Tammany
Walker the politician is a de luxe
product of Tammany hall. There
were no f1shmarkets in his early
life, nor a very intimate association
with the sidewalks of New York.
He ment into politics because
nothing, including parental in
huence, was able to stop him. He
went into Tammany politics because
he had been reared under its in
iuence.
He was born June 10, 1881, the
SON of an Irish immigrant and an
Irish mother. But the Walker home
was a comfortable one in Greenwich
Village, then a staid and respectable
residential section occupied almost
entirely by Irish Catholics
William H. Walker, the father,
was a prosperous lumber dealer by
vocation, and a politician thorough
ly trained in Tammany traditions.
He served as leader of an assembly
district, as member Of the board
/ Of aldermen, and later for two terms
as an assemblyman at Albany.
Lived in Luxury
Young jim Walker-it was not
until he entered politics that he was
called Jimmy-knew no hardships
in his boyhood. He went to private
schools, and in the summers was
sent to a resort in the Catskills,
with a group of cronies.
Jim was a mediocre scholar. dis
tinguiShed mostly by his indiffer-
ence to discipline and an eagerness
to make speeches.
He was star athlete for his
slight size, and clever boxer with
any one in his weight. But because
he was a member of the white
Collar" gang Of Leroy street, and
probably something of loquacious
little smartalec, he was the target
of many a bigger fist.
Particularly was his nose the tar
get, for he was known as a bleed
Ter" who spouted crimson in every
encounter.
Became Night Owl
At an early age he developed a
tendency to stay out late at night,
and about the only parental wal
lopings he received were for steal
ing over to the vaudeville house on
Union Square, where he usually re-
NAMED for the performance to be
repeated at midnight.
He was a Strikingly handsome
boy, and from all accounts, he sell
dom missed a social function.
1t was when Jim Walker was Is
that he began friendship which
was to have an important influence
on his later life.
A young man named Alfred
Smith, 2S-year-old clerk in the
Office of the commissioner OF
jurors, and already politician of
promise, called at the Walker home
on New Years day of 1895. He was
flattered and attracted by the boys
eager questions on politics.
The senior Walker. hoping Jim
would become a business man, sent
him to La Sale college for busi-
ness course. But he left this and
entered New York university, where
he rather casually studied law.
Tries Several Jobs
1t was not until 1912 thss he took
his bar examination. but before that