Evening star., 1940-02-04

SLeSL COI1LeT US re JOIeCuSL HLS Tc-
NEW YORK, N. Y-If any party in
this uncertain political year is looking
for hfe-size bolt of lightning to enliven
the national ticket, it is available here
in New York The name is Fiorello
Henry La Guardia and the address is
City Hail.
For seven years this force of nature has
been harnessed to one of the toughest
political jobs in the United States, run
ming the affairs of the greatest city in
the world, city with more people than
Sweden or Nepal or Australia. Now the
end of that job is in sight. In national
national role.
But how and when and where the
lightning will strike is question. The
politics of this mass of energy on the
loose has never been very predictable.
In the &c picture Mayor La Guardia is
major question mark, and question
mark that cannot be ignored.
Thoughtful Republicans predict, and
it may be no more than wishful thinking,
that there will be no reward on the 40
Christmas tree for the Mayor. They
predict that IN order to keep his own
political career alive he will be COM
PEELED to run next year for third term
as Mayor of New York. And they add
that the third term is likely to be much
tougher than either of the other two.
"How could man stand another four
years in this ofice?" the Mayor says with
bitterness in his voice which is under
standable when one has followed him
through a typical day in New York S
handsome City Hall
without Party.
Mr.. La Guardia is man without a
party. He was never very closely allied
with the Republicans, who tolerated
rather than encouraged him. And after
he was reelected Mayor in 1897, with
the blessing of the conservative Herald
Tribune and the Communist Daily
Worker, he decided to throw in his lot
with the American Labor Party.
At that time the American Labor
Party looked like a good bet, the begin
ming of the third-party movement that
has been so much talked and written
about. The creation of trade unionists
and intellectuals on the left, it was to
unite all liberals and radicals in party
with realistic mass appeal In 1888 the
party sent one Representative to Con-
gress and helped re-elect Gov. Herbert
Lehman over his Republican opponent,
District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey.
Today the American Labor Party is so
torn by inner dissension that its strength
has been almost wholly dissipated. For
this, the Mayor largely blames the Com
munists, whom he roundly curses as in
terlopers acting under foreign orders.
In any event, the remnants of the Amer
ican Labor Party are busy reading each
other out of political organization that
is all but non-existent.
Mayor La Guardia is not Republican,
certainly not Democrat and only by
implication New Dealer. He is identi-
fed with no intrenched national political
organization with ancient roots. Never
theless, there are at least two good rea-
sons why he must be taken into account
in this year Of political reckoning. One
is his great personal popularity and the
other is the demonstration in decent
government that he has put on here un-
der most trying and difficult circum-
stances.
When Mr.. La Guardia took over in
1888 the city was in nearly as serious q
plight as is Philadelphia today. The
condition was worse, the Mayor says.
Years of Tammany misgovernment had
piled up not only huge debt, but a cur
rent deficit for relief. The city's services
were atrophied or decaying. A kind Of
decentralization was everywhere.
Performs Herculean Task.
In seven years Mayor La Guardia has
performed Herculean labors. He has
balanced a current expense budget that
last year was close to $500, ,000, 900. He
has paid for local relief out of special
taxes He has established efficient civil
service for all city employees. He has
gone long way toward unifying New
York's chaotic transportation system.
Through the building of parks, high
speed highways, bridges, tunnels,
beaches, sewage disposal plants, schools
and other institutions, he has made over
the face Of the city. In variety Of
Vays, large and small-such as COM