Evening star., 1938-05-13
BY RAY TUCKER.
blood Of the last Irish kings
roars through the veins of the

roarS through the veins OF tne
man from midtown Manhat-
a tan who headed the Scrappy
gang that licked President Roosevelt
In the rowdiest, merrieSt brawl Capitol
Hill has witnessed in all the mad New
Deal-the battle over Government re-
organization. In this old-fashioned
street fight the political gamins who
tnumbed their noses at the combined
House and White House leadership
had an ideal swashbuckler for cham
pion--John j. O'Connor of New York.
No other member except descend
ant of Rory O'Connor and Charles F.
Murphy-O'Connor was the king and
Murphy the most ruthless Tammany
boss since Richard Croker-could have
handled the political bricks hurled at
him with such deliberate deftness-
without losing his own head. He had
to be a hard-boiled fellow used to
giving and taking boilermaker blows
who asked and offered no quarter
who knew from bloody experience at
other barricades how to meet surprise
strategy and frontal attack. He had
to be a man whose flamboyant Ian
guage of denunciation would sting
and stick in the public mind. No
polite Alphonse- and-Gaston generals
simo would have sufficed in this Shin
dig. no matter his political or parlia-
mentary skill
For such an affray it seems as if
the red headed. husky, reckless Irish
man with a Phi Beta Kappa key. a
Beacon Hill accent and a longshore-
mans vocabulary WAS divinely cast.
For almost a quarter Of a century,
since he swapped Harvard sheep
skin for a Tammany district workers
badge. he has reveled, flguratively. in
mitigating, where biting and gouging
and kicking made a man, and where
the lack thereof often spoiled a fine
broth Of a beginner.
Moreover, he had trained with such
heavyweights in political assault and
battery as Al Smith, Jimmie" Walker,
the late Tom Foley, Jim" Farley,
Bob" Wagner. Fiorello LaGuardia.
William Randolph Hearst, the Squire
Of Hyde Park himself. He had the
advantage of knowing the other fell
lows style, which was not unlike his
own.
A Skillful Fighter.
Even so. he was an unbiblical David
IN this scrap He had to face the
most remarkable demonstration of
presidential power and pressure, of
a we'll financed party machine, that
veterans have seen and shrunk from
in many, many years 1t exceeded
the heat applied in the Supreme Court
controversy. for a victory on reorgan-
ia ton was needed to erase the earlier
setback from peoples memories
Each noon, when MIR. O'Connor
some private had surrendered in panic
or that a first lieutenant had sue
cumbed to promises of funds or con-
tracts or jobs for hungry constituents.
Then, on the eve Of the main engage
ment the President equipped his boys
WIFI dIlO VI dSS kIluChlcS-
the pledge Of 81 500 ,000,0 900 building
program.
That the Rules Committee chair
man landed on top of the heap Is
a tribute to his fighting spirit and
parliamentary ability. Even those
who dislike him for his abrupt man
nerisms. his belligerent attitudes, his
apparent cockiness. his sharp. spicy
repartee. concede that all the honors
were his. Not since George Norris
vanquishment of another speaker
"Uncle Joe" Cannon-and another
Chief Executive - William Howard
Taft-has any individual cornered
such acclaim inside and outside Con-
gress. To lead 108 Democrats off the
sacred reservation against so popular
a man as Mr.. Roosevelt rates Con-
gressional Medal of Honor.
THE O'ConnOr."
In Tammany Hall-in It's humblest
precincts-the most sincere compli-
ment they can pay a man is to prefix
a the" to his name-an old Irish
custom transplanted to this country