National Affairs: Hague Pays Up?

The size and source of the personal wealth of Jersey City's Mayor Frank Hague, Democratic Boss of New Jersey, has long been one of the State's chief political mysteries. Suspicion that the size was large and the source illicit cut his normal 7-to-1 majority down to 3-to-2 when he was re-elected last year (TIME, May 27, 1929). Two Republican legislative committees had cited him for contempt when he refused all information on his financial affairs. Cleared of contempt by the courts, he sailed for Europe (TIME, Sept. 9, 1929), returned to the U.S. contrary to all political prediction, to resume his job-holding and party-bossing.

Meanwhile the U. S. Internal Revenue Bureau was after him for nonpayment of taxes. He charged he was being persecuted by the Republican Administration in Washington because the Republican Administration in New Jersey could "get nothing on him." Last week the able Newark News ferreted out a Washington report that Mayor Hague had settled his fiscal quarrel with the Treasury by payment of $60,000. It was further gathered that the payment had been made not by Mayor Hague himself but by Theodore M. Brandle, Jersey City's building tsar. Because tax matters are secret by law, Treasury officials could not and Mayor Hague would not confirm the settlement.