Evening star., 1937-11-28
CURRAN TO SHARE
MANY-S|DED TASK
New York's New Deputy
Mayor Is a Former News
man and Crusader.


Beginning January /, the No. 2 man
in New York will be former news
paper man with a gift for language
and q love of law and politics. His
name is Henry Hastings Curran and,
at 60, he is abandoning a 10-year
term as a 10,000-a-year magistrate
to accept an uncertain and stormy
$l3.000-a-year job as Deputy Mayor.
The Office of Deputy Mayor is almost
unique in the United States, the only
thing corresponding to it being San
Franclco's city manager. 1t corre-
spends, on a small scale, to a fulfill
ment of President Rooseven's dream
OF six assistants with a passion for
anonymity. Judge Curran is not six
men, although his friends insist he
Is pure in heart and has the strength
OF 10. But he does have a passion
OF anonymity The passion has been
frustrated many times, particularly
when, as leader of the Association
Against the Prohibition Amendment
and of the National Economy League
he received national publicity. But
Judge Curran, literary man, with
love for well-turned sentence, likes
to work in the quiet of the shade.
While the title of Deputy Mayor
L. new here, neither the job nor the
need for it is. In past administrations
graced by Mayors who were intent on
getting work done, the city chamber
lain generally filled the role of staff
assistant. The Office of city chamber
lain is highly paid sinecure and city
chamberlains with a civic itch, par
ticularly Henry Bruere, now president
OF the Bowery Savings Bank, and A.
A. Berle, the present chamberlain and
former member of the Roosevelt brain
trust. pitched in and took over part
OF the Mayors work Mr. Berle, for
instance, handled the involved prob
lem OF transit unification for Mayor
La Guardia and also carried his burden
In the ticklish work of forming the
American labor party in the State.
Duties Unknown.
The Charter Commission, according
to Richard S. Childs, a member of
It and president of the City Club
abolished the Office of city chamber
lain and created the Office of Deputy
Mayor. beginning next January /, be-
cause it felt "the job of being Mayor
required more talents than can be
found in one man"
The mayor" said Mr.. Childs, must
be an executive of one of the largest
businesses in the world, business
taking in and spending close to $780,
100000 year. He must supervise an
extraordinarily variegated personnel.
He must act as little father to all kinds
OF people in all kinds of neighborhoods
from peddlers in Canarsie to bourbon
taxpayers on Fifth Avenue He is re-
quired to give up three and four
months out of every year to making
speeches in obscure little halls in
order to bring city government close
to the people. He has to play the
game of politics. He has to be banker,
lawyer, corporation president, press
agent, salesman, fight manager,
fighter, negotiator, peace maker,
speech maker, reception clerk and
buck and wing dancer. 1t doesn't seem
that two men are enough for the job"
Judge Curran doesn't know yet
what duties Mayor La Guardia will
deputlze to him, nor, as matter of
fact, does the Mayor himself. The
charter empowers him to assign to his
deputy all but few special tasks.
However, there is one part of the job
that he is prepared for. He knows he
will be fired regularly once week.
Nav Re UTpS;doD AToo
The Mayor, rough-and-tu
fighter with an impatience of the
forms required for the efficient opera
ton of so large business as New York
City government, has habit of jump
ing over the heads of executives to
''get things done" and precipitating
designations or arguments that wind
up in requests for designations. There
is credible report to the effect that
he has mimeographed form refusal
for Park Commissioner Moses nu-
merous designations.
The technique in these matters is
quite simple and Judge Curran is we'll
aware Of it. The discharged executive
simply goes on working. Sooner or
later, the Mayor comes up and de-
mands to know What the hell are
you doing around here?" The stock
reply, then is, There are few things
have to clean up" The Mayor goes
on muttering. In few moments he
is back again with sheaf of papers
Here" he says. get after this right
away" And work goes on blissfully
until the next explosion.
The Mayor has distinguished him.
self as an outside" man and it is
probable that Judge Curran will be-
come the Mayors inside" man, doing
the detail and administrative work.
While the judge is not the sort of
man who has an ardor for detail, he
has shown that he can do it and
that he knows his way around the
vastly intricate legalisms involved in
doing the business of the Mayors Office.
The Mayors desk always looks like
. haystack. Judge Curran is a pro-
fessor in the clean-desk school Of
thought.
Was Once Newsman.
The judge was born November 8,
1877. in New York and is an alumnus
Of Yale of the class of '98. He was
a baseball player at Yale, and, when
he returned to New York he went to
work for the old Tribune as a ship
news reporter and copyreader. He
studied law In his spare time and was
admitted to the bar in 1901. A life
long Republican. he has held his most
important city jobs during the recur-
rent waves of reformation that have
swept the electorate in the last 25
years. He was an alderman and in
1914 was majority leader. Mayor John
Purroy Mitchell appointed him city
magistrate, but he quit the bench to
go to war as major in the 77th
Division overseas. He has been
borough president Of Manhattan, un-
successful Republican nominee for
Mayor and commissioner Of immigra-
ton Of the Port Of New York.
He ie s,ey,tlo kind1u man ~,,I,,