Evening star., 1940-02-04

tention. AS matter of fixed principle
there is no telephone in his private Office.
That makes for only three or four calls
day, when he steps out into his secre-
tarys Office to talk to some one who
must be talked to.
Sometime between and he leaves
his Office, stopping in midtown as rule
Engineers Club. He may have with
him friend from City Hall. One of his
best friends is 37-year-old Newbold Nor
ris, president of the City Council, which
was created under the new charter that
Mr.. La Guardia put over. OF distin-
guished family, Mr.. Morris was swept
into Office with the La Guardia victory
of 1897. They are likely to engage in
friendly kidding that reflects mutual
admiration and loyalty.
Proud Of His City Family. .
The Mayor is proud of the men and
women he has brought into his admin
istration, fond Of saying that he has
$100 ,000-a-year men who are being paid
$4,000. Several of his commissioners
are wealthy men whom he has enlisted
in the city's service. One Of his closest
friends is Adolf Berle formerly city
chamberlain and now Assistant Secre-
tary of State in Washington. Mr.. Berle
has been a kind of one-man brain trust
to the Mayor-a liaison officer between
him and the New Deal since going to
Washington:
Friendly critics of this hard-driving
executive say that his weakness lies in
failing to delegate duties and RESPONSE
bilities, trying to do it all himself.
Sterner critics call him egocentric.
They say that he has yielded too often
to pressure groups. Recognizing his
great achievements, they add that he
has failed to solve the city's funda-
mental problems of housing and debt.
With the latter the Mayor might be
inclined to agree. He knows the limi-
tations imposed on him by the politics
of the moment and the entangling re-
strictions of the complex structure of
government inherited from the past.
Six housing projects with room for
about 10000 families have been COM
pleted and four more are in construc-
ton or projected.
Facing the future with no sign of
alarm or despair, he has a whole bag
full of tricks that apply to the national
scene. He talks about parity for agri-
cultural prices with the surplus to be
dumped abroad. He would rationalize
the countrys tax system around a CEN
trail collecting Office. He would finance
public works out Of special employ
ment tax.
Talking freely of national plans and
ideas, he will not discuss his own future
In national terms. Cautious about the
prospects for 40, he does not criticize Mr..
Roosevelt, saying, HE had a mighty
tough situation to meet" Conceivably if
President Roosevelt should run for a
third term, Mayor La Guardia might
give him the same tacit backing he did
in 1886, but that Is not probable. Mr.. La
Guardia's name on the ticket would give
either party big boost toward carrying
New York State
The Mayor has said that there is no
place on the national ticket for man
whose name ends in two vowels, meaning
for man who is part Italian and part
Jewish. Certainly New York is more
democratic than the rest of the country,
and the name of Forello La Guardia
has never been tested outside this poly
glot city. Nevertheless in an uncertain
political year anything may happen. La
Guardia has always come up smiling. He
is a man who believes in the future Of
his country and in the future of Fiorello
La Guardia.