Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-18
No Time for a Jester.


Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, speaking be-
fore the League of Political Education
in New York yesterday, declared that
Mayor Jimmie" Walker should resign
He advocated for the government of
New York City city management sys-
TEN and the abolition of party lines.
Needless to say, Rabbi Wise was not
voicing the view entertained in Tam
many Hall in any of his suggestions
for an improvement Of conditions in the
country's largest municipality.
Still later in the day Rabbi Wise, vice
chairman, and John Haynes Holmes,
pastor of the Community Church, chair
man of the City Affairs Committee,
presented formal charges against Mayor
Walker to Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt
at the latters home, in New York City.
The Governor OF New York has the
power to remove Mayor Walker If he
considers the charges of sufficient merit
These charges accuse Mayor Walker of
neglect Of duty.
In his address to the League Of
Political Education Rabbi Wise said.
I'VE have had nothing less than the
collapse of city government, a col
lapse made inevitable by the cheap
sneers of the city's chief magistrate
whenever wrongdoing and corruption
were exposed in one or another of
4ba o;+x,,g SaoarFroan4r THE Truth 3e
that no word of stern or terrible rebuke
could have come from a mayor who
seems to be oblivious TO the truth that
he was not elected to preside over a
race track establishment or a place
of dubious entertainment
When the mayoralty election was
held in New York last year Mayor
Walker, with the backing of Tammany,
was overwhelmingly reelected. There
are those who contend that the mayor
would be a victor again at the polls
today, If another election we're held,
despite the assaults that have been
made upon him. The result of such
an election would depend upon the
seriousness with which the people Of
New York regard the revelations of
corruption that have gone on within
the last year. In the meantime
Jimmie" Walker is seeking a rest in
California.
Rabbi Wise, however, will not be
satisfied with the removal of Mayor
Walker and other city officials. In his
opinion such action would not go to the
root Of the evil which he finds in the
farce of partisanship in city affairs"
He demands a change in the system
of government for the city, making it
non-partisan, and the high determi-
nation of the people of New York to
regard it's government not as sty but
as a shrine
The suggestion of Rabbi wise that
the system Of city government be
changed so as to prevent a recurrence
of evil conditions goes to the problem
Of municipal government. The CITY,
manager system. with the manager
appointed by a city council after that
council has been selected in nom
partisan election, has many advocates
in the United States. Literally hun
dreds of cities have adopted some such
plan, with notifications here and there.
On May /, 1923. 1854 cities were operat-
ing under city manager foym Of gov
eminent Among the larger cities hav-
ing this form Of government are Cleve-
land and Cincinnati in Ohio, Kansas
City, Mo, and Rochester N. Y. The
old plan Of electing a mayor, with a
partisan campaign and election and the
election Of many other city officials at
the same time, was abandoned, because
it was found impossible under the older
system to clean up" conditions or,
which is more important, to keep them
clean. The encouragement plan has
been regarded as the fruit Of the move
ment in this country to improve NUM-
ctpal government. 1t has been growth
OF the last quarter century. The new
system might prove boon TO New
York, 10 Chicago, where the people
today are struggling to rid themselves
Of "Thcmpsonism. and to Philadelphia,
which has had troubles Of its own.