NEW YORK: Right Arm Off

Last week in Manhattan Tammany Hall uncorked some of its long-bottled dislike of New Deal operations in New York State. From potent Tammanyite Daniel Florence Cohalan to State Democratic Chairman James Aloysius Farley went a tart letter inquiring how on earth he justified a third term for Governor Herbert Henry Lehman. “Can it be,” asked this Catholic onetime State Supreme Court Justice, “. . . because he is a Jew? . . . If, in order to give Roosevelt a chance to carry New York … he and you must appoint a Jew as candidate . . . can you not select for us a candidate who . . . will exalt the Jewish reputation and know what it is all about? . . . This matter of Lehman seems to be only a pawn in the game of politics to you two who are trying to hold on to your fine jobs.” Three days later Tammany and Tam-manyman Cohalan were again content, the Republicans were chortling with unsuppressed glee, and Roosevelt & Co. was putting its collective head together to dig up another “pawn.” To dumbfounded newshawks in Albany Governor Lehman had just handed a mimeographed statement: “I feel that the time has come when I may ask release from the cares and responsibilities of the Governorship. Accordingly I shall not be a candidate for re-election this autumn.” A shock to all but Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had known it “for some time,” Herbert Lehman’s firmly-worded refusal to run for the third time sprouted a crop of rumors. Some said it was due to Mrs. Lehman’s dislike of Albany as a residence. Others reported that the failure of the Governor’s Social Security program to pass a hostile State Assembly last fortnight had directed his decision. Explanation most widely accepted was that the death last fortnight of his brother Arthur (TIME, May 25), preceded by the recent deaths of his nephew and sister, made him anxious to get back to his family and the potent family firm of Lehman Brothers. Whatever the reason. Democrats made no attempt to pooh-pooh their loss. From 1929 to 1933 as Lieutenant Governor, Herbert Lehman was Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “good right arm,” performing the duties of Governor for long periods while Mr. Roosevelt was out of the State. Since 1933 he has been President Roosevelt’salter ego in New York, ramming through the State Legislature a mass of crime legislation, over 100 labor bills, a State NRA, higher taxes. Quiet and capable, Governor Lehman is tremendously popular with his 2,000,000 fellow-Jews in the State—a fact which partly explained President Roosevelt’s desire to have him head the State Democratic ticket this autumn and thereby help win New York’s much-needed 47 electoral votes for the New Deal. Democrats hastily analyzed their list of other possibilities. They could hardly spare Postmaster General Farley from his management of the Presidential campaign, though he craves the position of Governor. Tammany also dislikes 44-year-old Robert Houghwout Jackson, now an Assistant AttorneyGeneral whom New Dealers regard with fond eyes for his work as assistant general counsel of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (TIME, March 4, 1935 et seq.). More likely possibilities, if Governor Lehman refuses to accede to a frantic ‘”draft” movement which developed in the wake of his announcement, are Senator Royal Copeland; New York’s Attorney General John James Bennett Jr., 42-year-old Brooklynite and American Legionary; Senator Robert Wagner; Morris S. Tremaine, five-time State Comptroller; and Albany’s Mayor John Boyd Thacher II, who gave Herbert Lehman a fight for the 1932 nomination with Tammany’s ardent backing. In Albany Governor Lehman remained aloof from the shouting. To newshawks a close friend remarked: “It would take an earthquake to make him change his mind.”