Walker Again

That a great political machine is built above all else on loyalty was demonstrated at 10 o'clock one morning last week when a Tammany attorney appeared in the offices of New York City's Transit Commission. Greeted by newshawks and photographers, he chatted, wisecracked, amiably took poses. Dapper little James J. Walker, for the first time since he resigned as mayor of New York City under the fire of a sensational investigation (TIME, May 30, 1932, et seq.), was back in a full-time municipal job.

Denied by Jimmy Walker and his Tammany friends as firmly as it was believed by everyone else was the most obvious reason for the end of his exile: on Sept. 2 he would have been out of the city employ for five years, thus ineligible to receive the $12,000 yearly pension to which he is entitled by his long public service and by virtue of having reached the age of 55 last year. Should Jimmy Walker keep his new $12,000-a-year job, which has to do with prosecuting grade crossing cases, he will eventually be entitled, if he holds it long enough, to a pension as high as $16,000.

To the Transit Commission Judge Samuel Seabury, the special investigator who hounded Mayor Walker out of office, caustically wrote: "As lawyers you are familiar with the oft-quoted statements of the Appellate Division in People ex rel. Hardy v. Greene that 'The pension roll is a roll of honor--a reward of merit; not a refuge from disgrace.' I would suggest that your new expert remain on the payroll at least 60 days before claiming the benefit of the pension law."

Stung by the implication, Public Servant Walker pouted: "If I were coming into this job just so I could get a pension there are a lot of softer jobs I could have picked. . . ."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.