FiorelloLaGuardia Fiorello La Guardia was an ambitious man who wanted great successforhimself–buthealsowantedtoadvocateonbehalf ofthepoorandforgotten.Throughhardworkandperseverance hemanagedtoachieveboth.Thisworkexaminesthelifeofthe manwhonotonlybecameoneofNewYork’sgreatestandmost renownedmayors,butwhobroughtaboutsomeofthemostim- portantchangesinthehistoryofthecity. ThisthoroughlyrevisedsecondeditionofFiorelloLaGuardia: Ethnicity, Reform, and Urban Development looks at the many events of the popular mayor’s life – his early beginnings as a politician,theeventssurroundinghislifeandcity,hismultiple termsasNewYorkCity’sMayor,hispersonalandprofessional disappointments,andhisultimateplaceinhistory.Italsoexam- inesthebroadersubjectofcitiesduringtimesofstress,theability ofmayorstoenhanceurbanlife,andtheoriginsoffederalaidto cities. Ronald H. Bayor, PhD, Emeritus Professor of History at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is a historian who specializes inurban,ethnic,andimmigrationhistory.Heisfoundingeditor oftheJournalofAmericanEthnicHistoryandauthor,editor,and co-editorofnumerousbooksandpublications.ProfessorBayor has also been the recipient of numerous awards including the ImmigrationandEthnicHistorySociety’sDistinguishedService AwardandtheAssociationforAsianAmericanStudiesLifetime ServiceAward. Fiorello La Guardia Ethnicity,Reform,andUrbanDevelopment SecondEdition RonaldH.Bayor EmeritusProfessorofHistory GeorgiaTech Atlanta,USA Thiseditionfirstpublished2018 ©2018byJohnWiley&Sons,Inc. EditionHistory 1993,HarlanDavidsonInc. 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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Names:Bayor,RonaldH.,1944– Title:FiorelloLaGuardia:ethnicity,reform,andurbandevelopment/RonaldHBayor,Emeritus ProfessorofHistory,GeorgiaTech,Atlanta,US. Description:2ndedition.|Hoboken,NJ:Wiley,[2017]|“Originallypublished:HarlanDavidsonInc., 1993.”|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.| Identifiers:LCCN2017014339(print)|LCCN2017014925(ebook)|ISBN9781119103523(pdf)| ISBN9781119103530(epub)|ISBN9781119103493(cloth)|ISBN9781119103509(pbk.) Subjects:LCSH:LaGuardia,FiorelloH.(FiorelloHenry),1882–1947.|Legislators–United States–Biography.|Mayors–NewYork(State)–NewYork–Biography.|UnitedStates.Congress. House–Biography.|NewYork(N.Y.)–Politicsandgovernment–1898–1951. Classification:LCCE748.L23(ebook)|LCCE748.L23B382017(print)|DDC328.73/092[B]–dc23 LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2017014339 CoverDesign:Wiley CoverImages:(Background)©Jitalia17/Gettyimages;CourtesyofLaGuardiaandWagnerArchives Setin10/12ptWarnockProbyAptaraInc.,NewDelhi,India 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 v Contents PrefaceandAcknowledgments vii  BridgingDifferentWorlds 1  AFightingCongressman 21  “TheConscienceoftheTwenties” 49  LaGuardiaasMayor:TheFirstTerm 79  ReelectionandDisappointment 133  LaGuardia:HisPlaceinHistory 177 BibliographicalEssay 185 Index 195 vii PrefaceandAcknowledgments Inthelatenineteenthandearlytwentiethcenturies,theUnited States had many seemingly intractable problems: political cor- ruption; large-scale poverty; labor strife; massive immigration; ethnicandracialconflict;andurbanissuesinvolvinginadequate housingandinfrastructure.Moreover,thenation’swealthiestcit- izenshadenormouseconomicandpoliticalpowertothedetri- mentoftheaveragecitizenandworker.Intothismorassstepped a few individuals intent on forging positive change. Fiorello H. La Guardia emerged as one of the most important of these people. La Guardia appeared at the right time with the right back- ground. As a multilingual spokesman for the newly arrived Americans,anurbanreformer,ascrupulouslyhonestpolitician, a dynamic congressman and mayor, and a voice for a politics aimed at eliminating corruption and reaching out to the poor, hebecameasymbolofhistimesandanillustrationthathonest, energized,politicianscouldmakeadifferenceinimprovingsoci- etyandsettingstandardsforthefuture.Ashrewdpoliticianwho understoodtheethnictensionsofhiscity,heknewhowtowin votes,andthenusehispowerforthecommongood. He also served as a bridge between different generations of reformers:fromProgressivestoNewDealers.LaGuardia,there- fore, allows us to better understand the essence of reform in Americaandthemovementsthatstillshapeourlives. Reaching his apogee of power as New York’s mayor during the Great Depression, and working closely with another force for change, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New Deal, La Guardia managed to form a close New York-federal viii PrefaceandAcknowledgments cooperationthatenhancedthecityimmeasurablyandservedas aguidelineforfurthercollaboration. Improvementsininfrastructureincludinghighways,bridges, housing, and parks occurred. Employment improved as jobs becameavailableduetofederallargesseandcityleadership.The development of these and many other facets of New York life enshrined La Guardia as the best mayor New York ever had. Elected to three terms, he oversaw the city during Depression andWarandfoundhimselfinthemiddleofothermajoreventsof thosetimes.LaGuardiawasactuallyinvolvedinsomanyimpor- tantissuesthathisbiographyisakintoahistoryofthefirsthalf ofthetwentiethcentury. Hislifeisalsoinstructiveforourowntimes.Citiescanberun well;politicianscanforgehonestandusefulcareers;andpeople canbehelpedthroughgovernmentaction.LaGuardia,anambi- tious man who wanted great success for himself, also wanted significant help for the poor and forgotten. He achieved both. Lookingback,weseethatunderdynamicandconcernedlead- ershipevendismaleventssuchasDepressionandWarcanlead toimprovementsinAmericanlife. IwouldliketothankAndrewDavidson,formerlyofWiley,for hisusefulcritiqueandencouragementofthisbook.Idoubtthat thisprojectwouldhavestartedwithouthisinput.Mythanksalso toDenishaSahadevanofWiley,whoreadthechapterscarefully, for her help. Special thanks to my wife Leslie N. Bayor for her loveandsupport.   BridgingDifferentWorlds TheUnitedStatesintheyearsfromtheendoftheCivilWarto theturnofthecenturywasacountrygoingthroughenormous changes.Industrializationspurredmonopolizationandconcen- tration of wealth while providing Americans with cheaper and moreplentifulproducts.Decliningpricesforfarmproductsled farmerstoformprotestorganizationstoattempttoredresstheir grievances.Inthisageofmaterialismandgreed,corporateinflu- enceinpoliticsgrewsubstantially.Unionactivity,someofitvio- lent, intensified. The immigrants overwhelmed cities, particu- larly after 1882, when the source of immigrations shifted from northernandwesterntosouthernandEasternEurope,andthe numbersincreased.Bytheendofthenineteenthcentury,New York had grown substantially in area as well with the annexa- tion of the city of Brooklyn, the expansion of New York into Manhattan’snorthernsections,andtheadditionofthelocalesof Queens,StatenIsland,andtheBronx.Thecitypopulationstood atapproximately3.5million,thenation’slargestcity. New York City became the center of immigrant arrival with Ellis Island opening in New York harbor in 1892 as the main United States entry point. From 1892 to 1924, over 14 million immigrantsdisembarkedattheIsland,andalthoughmanywent elsewhere in the country, New York’s foreign-born population roseto14%ofitsinhabitants.InadditionNewYorkexperienced a substantial migration of Southern Blacks fleeing destitution and violence. Most new arrivals, whether domestic or foreign, camepoverty-stricken,anddesperatelyneedingajobandhous- ing. Adding to the ethnic mix already present, the newcomers FiorelloLaGuardia:Ethnicity,Reform,andUrbanDevelopment,SecondEdition. RonaldH.Bayor. ©2018JohnWiley&Sons,Inc.Published2018byJohnWiley&Sons,Inc.  FiorelloLaGuardia helpedcreateadiversityuniqueintheworldandexacerbateda numberofurbanproblemsparticularlyinrelationtopovertyand housing. Certain neighborhoods evolved into ethnic enclaves andghettoes,areaswhereaforeignlanguagewouldbethemain speech on the streets, stores catered to ethnic tastes, foreign- language newspapers were widely read, and politicians wooed groupswithethnicallybasedcampaigns. Theseethnicgroupsalsocompetedandconflictedwitheach other, trying to secure limited resources, challenging cultural values,andattimestearingthecityapartinraceriotsandeth- nicconflicts.NewYork’shousing,jobs,andpoliticalpositionsall becamepartofthecompetitionthatemergedespeciallybetween theIrish,Jews,Germans,Italians,andBlacks.Furthermore,what happened in their ancestral homes often impacted New York’s politics.TheeventualriseofRussianCommunism,ItalianFas- cism, and German Nazism had strong implications for New York’simmigrantpopulations. As New York emerged into the twentieth century, problems abounded and opportunities appeared. The new population’s povertyresultedinthegrowthofslumhousing,sweatshopcon- ditions in factories, and crime. Jobs became available with the building of the New York subways, opening in 1904, and with thegrowthofthegarmentindustry.Butthesejobsdidnotpay much, workmen’s compensation and unemploymentinsurance were not yet available, employers abused child labor, and they foughtanyunionattemptstobettertheworkers’lives. ManyAmericansbecameconcernedaboutthispovertyinthe midstofplenty,corruptcitygovernments,exploitationofwork- ers,childlabor,andthethreatthenewindustrialwealthposed todemocraticinstitutions.Asthenationtriedtocometoterms withindustrializationandurbanization,responsesvaried.Some, suchasfinancierJ.P.Morgan,fitwellintothisperiodandreaped enormous profit from it. Other, like Yale professor William Graham Sumner, became spokesmen for Social Darwinism, whichjustifiedthegreatwealthofthecorporateentrepreneurs. Still others railed against the essence of the Gilded Age and offeredcriticismsandsuggestionsthatwouldcreateamoreequi- table system and smooth away the harsh edges of nineteenth- centurycapitalism. 1 BridgingDifferentWorlds  Fiorello Enrico (later Henry) La Guardia, born on Decem- ber 11, 1882, in New York City in the midst of this turmoil, was to provide a unique response to the economic and social upheavalsofhistime.La Guardiabridged theerabetweenthe earlyyearsofprotestagainsttheindustrialsystemandthelater outburst of reform in the 1930s, and he took part in all the major issues and events of this period: immigration and eth- nicity,Progressivism,thefightagainstthecorrupturbanpolit- icalmachines,WorldWarI,the1920sconservativeandnativist reaction,the1930seconomiccollapse,FranklinRoosevelt’sNew Deal reforms, World War II and its immediate aftermath. He emerged as a spokesman for good government, unions, immi- grants,Blacks,theurbanpoor,miners,andfarmers.Fiorellocon- nectedthephilosophiesandactivismofanearliergenerationof reformers–amongthem,housingcrusaderJacobRiis,Theodore Roosevelt,andSenatorsGeorgeNorris,RobertLaFollette,and William Borah – to the later reformers of the New Deal gen- eration. He interacted both with the older reform generation and with his own cohort in New York. The latter group pro- vided various alternatives for coming to terms with the indus- trialage.JamesJ.(Jimmy)Walker,born in1881andlaterNew Yorkmayor,acceptedandprofitedfromtheurbancorruptionof histimes.FranklinD.Roosevelt,bornin1882,broughtreform withanewandsurprisinginfluencethatupliftedthenationas wellasNewYorkCity.Futuregovernorandpresidentialcandi- date Alfred E. Smith, born in 1873, Robert F. Wagner, born in 1877andfutureUSSenator,andSalvatoreCotillo,bornin1886 and later justice on the New York State Supreme Court, rep- resentedtheTammanypoliticalmachine’sapproachtoneeded reform. (Tammany was New York County’s Democratic party organization). The bridging of a generational gap among the reformers is only part of La Guardia’s story. He also connected the values of the Old and New Worlds, immigrants and the native-born, and western and eastern America. As such, La Guardia linked a New York City immigrant reform tradition represented by thesocialist-orientedgarmentunionswiththereformofmiddle America’sfarmer-laborgroups.Moreover,asbiographerArthur Mannrelates,LaGuardiawas“amarginalmanwholivedonthe