STATES & CITIES: Lehman v. LaGuardia

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Lehman v. LaGuardia

"No man in this country has ever asked for or received the dictatorial powers which would be yours through enactment of this bill. . . . The powers you require go far beyond those granted even to the President during those unparalleled days."—The Governor of the State of New York in a letter, last week, to the Mayor of New York City.

To straighten out the city's muddled finances Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia had sent to the State Legislature an emergency economy bill giving him temporary blanket power to reorganize New York City's government, to fix salaries arbitrarily, to declare null & void any provisions of the city charter which conflicted with his program. Occupied with fighting opposition from Tammany legislators at Albany, he was not prepared to be stopped in his bold career by a high-minded Governor. As everyone knows, Democrat Herbert Henry Lehman is the great and good friend of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Very sick (appendectomy) last autumn when Mayor LaGuardia won the first reform vic tory in New York City in 20 years, mild-mannered Governor Lehman was dutifully on deck last week for the opening of his Legislature. A question affecting the governing laws of New York City (pop. 7,000,000) is always the most important question in New York State (pop. 12,600,000). Therefore, the Governor, himself a member of a rich, respectable banking family of New York City, eyed carefully all the LaGuardia proposals. Then he called in his stenographer and let fly the hottest statement in his career. Extracts: