Campaigns

In some half dozen big U. S. cities, Nov. 2 will be election day, and in such places last week off year political campaigns were at their height. Some which enjoyed pleasurable excitement:

Philadelphia. Having been a Republican in 1905, a Wilson Democrat in 1912 and 1916, a Republican officeholder in 1927, a successful candidate for Democratic city controller in 1933 and for Republican mayor in 1935, Philadelphia's boisterous Mayor Samuel Davis Wilson was last week plunking his oratorical hardest for the Democratic slate in a city election for four job-dispensing offices--controller, treasurer, coroner, register of wills --for all of which the Democrats were conceded a better-than-even chance. Mayor Wilson had most fun with two rich but politically unsophisticated socialites who undertook to revive Philadelphia's Republican organization--City Chairman Jay Cooke, descendant of the Civil War financier, and Vice President Joseph Newton Pew Jr.. of Sun Oil Co., who financed Wilson's last mayoralty campaign. Cried the irrepressible mayor: "I'm going to take all the oil out of Pew. There isn't anything to take out of Cooke. . . . Why, every time 'Jumping Jay' Cooke hands out a statement prepared by the high-priced utilities' publicity department, the stench of crude oil causes the public to say 'phew,' sometimes pronounced Pew.'

Stung by his opponent's tactics, bald, amiable Mr. Cooke charged that Mayor Wilson and his allies had succeeded in ''muffling" a Grand Jury investigation of Philadelphia vice ordered by Socialite Judge Curtis Bok, who is also up for reelection. Ordered to explain to the Grand Jury what he meant by "muffling," Mr. Cooke last week took the witness stand, floundered: "Well, the word--muffled--as I understand it, is generally applied to drums. In other words, you have heard of a muffled drum The muffling . . . simply insulates the drum from the outside influences which in that case would be the drumsticks." Judge Bok calmly dismissed the charges. Crackled Mayor Wilson: "... A complete repudiation of the . . . innuendos made by Mr. Cooke."

Cleveland. Reform Republican Mayor Harold Hitz Burton was embarrassed when his Democratic opponent, Engineer John O. McWilliams, accused him of collecting a "slush fund" to swing votes in tough wards. The Board of Elections, investigating, found that Mayor Burton had spent $12,860 more than he had reported, bringing his total to $41,212. Cried Engineer McWilliams, who reported an expenditure of $4,700: "The Mayor is carriying deception and falsification even into his campaign." Mayor Burton's campaign treasurer explained that he had borrowed and supplied the $12,860 personally. Betting odds continued to favor Mayor Burton 2-to-1.

Detroit. Back from Atlantic City went C. I. O. delegates, back from Denver A. F. of L. delegates, to Detroit where their union differences were practically the sole issue in a non-partisan city election. At Labor Temple last week A. F. of L. members, led by their local President Frank X. Martel, endorsed for mayor cautious, longtime City Clerk Richard W. Reading, who was put into the field by conservative Detroiters fearful of the C. I. O. tide, polled 137,000 primary votes. Next night an A. F. of L. rump caucus met with a delegation of C. I. O. members at the Wolverine Hotel to pledge their support to the C. I. O.'s candidate, 69-year-old Patrick O'Brien, once Michigan's liberal attorney general, whose primary vote was 99,000. With betting odds favoring Candidate Reading 2-to-1, C. I. O. tacticians devoted their attention to the next best thing, electing their straight slate of five candidates to Detroit's nine-man city council.

New York City. Scurrying out of the grand ballroom of Manhattan's Hotel Astor, where he had just attended a dinner of the Honor Legion of New York's Police Department, New York City's little Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia ran smack into a large, grinning Irishman. "Hello, Jerry, how are you?" piped the Mayor. "Take care of yourself, Fiorello," boomed his Democratic opponent, Jeremiah T. Mahoney, slapping Mayor LaGuardia's broad back. It was the first time that Fusion's LaGuardia and Democrat Mahoney had met during one of the bitterest mayoralty campaigns in New York's municipal history.

Energetically smiting Tammany's reputation hip & thigh in a succession of Sunday evening radio talks was Special Rackets Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey (TIME, Feb. 1), Fusion candidate for District Attorney, who challenged Tammany District Leader Albert Marinelli to have his poll watchers fingerprinted, predicting that the authorities might thus "pick up another 20 or 30 fugitives from justice."

With Mayor LaGuardia leading by more than 2-to-1 in the tabloid Daily News's straw poll, the New Deal preserved its tactful even hand. Just as Postmaster General Farley was planning to deliver a series of speeches for Candidate Mahoney, Secretary Ickes paternally patted Candidate LaGuardia at ceremonies celebrating the completion of a $30,000,000 sewage disposal plant. "I may say," hinted Secretary Ickes, who earmarked an $11,000,000 PWA grant for the project, "that I have always found it difficult to say no to your eloquent and persuasive mayor."

Something new in campaigning was shown all candidates by Bruce Barton, adman and biographer of Christ (The Man Nobody Knows), who was running for a Congressional by-election in Manhattan's silk stocking 17th District. Big, wavy-haired Republican Barton, whom Fusionist LaGuardia took time out to endorse, was also recommended by friends and clients of his big advertising agency (Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn). His campaign included the praises of friends inserted in the personal columns of the New York Times, press agent pictures showing him in many intimate poses (see cut).

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