Harold Be Humble

Clutching his robust, rosy-faced companion by a lapel last week, Baltimore's lame-duck Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. grunted a political watchword through the haze and hubbub of an election-night hotel room. Said Tommy: "Be humble, Harold, be as humble as you can when you say it." Nodding politely, J. (for Joseph) Harold Grady, 42, retrieved his lapel, rushed off to deliver his televised victory statement. Grady had small reason to be humble. Two months earlier, in only his second campaign, he had knocked off wily Three-Termer D'Alesandro for mayor in the Democratic primary. Last week, Grady mowed down equally seasoned (onetime mayor, two-term Governor) Republican Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin by a record 81,000 votes.

Old Campaigner McKeldin--like D'Alesandro before him--found himself the victim of time's toll and the itch for change. In a dull campaign, pleasant, smiling Harold Grady paraded his past (onetime FBI agent, state's attorney for Baltimore city) and his children (four), vaguely mentioned urban renewal and the city's sagging transit system. But taking office next week, Grady will undergo a sudden, cold-shower lesson in humility. Like every large U.S. city, Baltimore is staggering under booming population, a tax squeeze, demands for more schools, housing and municipal services.

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