THE TAMMANY TIGER RUNS SCARED

...The spark was provided by Representative Adam Clayton Powell, minister of Harlem's largest congregation, the Baptist Abyssinian Church at Seventh Avenue and 138th Street...

...Faced with the changing complexion of Manhattan, Carmine De Sapio has an increasingly demanding job in cultivating his forest...

...f An insurgent clearing house, the Council of New York Democrats, set up under the tutelage of wealthy industrialist George Backer...

...My wife doesn't want me to take it...

...It is a loose combination run by an expert manipulator, Ray "Tiger" Jones, and held together through a political dependence on Powell and the prospect of patronage...

...The clubhouse man, as an insider, is not much interested in the mass of the voters, who are "outsiders...

...Another lush source of "honest graft" is court patronage and favor...

...The selection of the candidate by the leader of the New York City machine, over the glowering anger of the Governor, wrecked any hopes the Democrats might have had to win the election...

...Filling the worst-paid jobs in the city's hotels and industries, the Puerto Ricans have not yet developed a middle class, and the younger generation has not been knocking at the doors of high schools and colleges with the enthusiasm of earlier immigrants...

...and who sells the insurance on it—these are the matters which are of vital importance to the organization...

...The network of social welfare services is one of the most comprehensive in the nation...

...At the turn of the century, George Washington Plunkitt, the Tammany Socrates, explained that reformers were like "morning glories" which quickly withered "while the regular machine went on flourishing forever, like fine old oaks...

...From that point it was all over...

...But few attacks on the organization during its long and wayward life have equaled in scope and intensity the current assault against Tammany Boss Carmine De Sapio and his once powerful machine...

...The Negro leaders, rather than aid the Puerto Ricans, prefer to exclude them from politics—and patronage...

...The result has been the emergence of four different levels of reform action: ^ The successful liberal clubs...

...And it is here that the Republicans have great strength—in Rockefeller, Senator Jacob Javits, and liberal young DAVID CHALMERS, assistant professor of history and social science at the University of Florida and summer lecturer at the City College of New York, has made a special study of Tammany and its opponents...

...Manhattan Representative John Lindsay, who had to beat the regulars in his own party for the nomination...

...Conspicuously absent in both regular and reform clubs are the Negroes and Puerto Ricans, who will soon be New York's largest population groups...

...For the moment, however, public pressure has become too hot, and despite judicial disinterest a mild official campaign is being waged against the slum landlord...

...Their large numbers, their use of the English tongue, and their political cohesiveness and experience enabled them to take over leadership of the newer, less adjusted immigrant groups which began to flood into New York in the 1880's...

...These rich and idealistic Democrats are concerned both with defeating the deadly image of "boss-ism" which hangs over the party in New York and with removing the roadblock the machine places in the way of selecting a liberal Democratic Presidential candidate...

...The officers and district captains of De Sapio's own local Greenwich Village club, and their families, are on the city payroll to the extent of $273,325 a year...

...Governor Rockefeller's victory revealed the decay in the Democratic Party...

...To the charges that the regulars refused women a voice in club affairs, the judge indignantly explained: "We don't discriminate against women...

...The Tammany chief and his associates feel they can also work with the Symington forces, many of whom were with De Sapio in the Harriman camp in 1956...

...New York City is traditionally ruled by a small group of patronage-minded politicians and the business interests clustered around them, to the exclusion of a whole spectrum of other interests...

...The maverick Powell supported President Eisenhower in 1956, in what was widely believed to be a deal with the Republicans to escape prosecution for tax evasion...

...To back up a truck to the city hall and steal the shingles from the roof would not only be dishonest, but foolish...

...The once-dominant Irish politicians are grumblingly unhappy over their displacement by the Italians, and the younger Italians feel that the older generation is hogging the good jobs...

...Differences in policy and procedure within and between liberal clubs often tend to develop serious schisms...

...This is "honest" graft, and as Plunkitt pointed out: "more money and no penal code...

...De Sapio had been badly informed...

...As long as the organization helped elect progressive candidates, it was tolerated as a necessary evil...

...The success of the liberal insurgents in appealing to a broader electorate would strike at the heart of the power of the "old pros...

...In the supercharged emotional atmosphere kindled in every Negro community by Little Rock, an explosion was set off two summers ago...

...The bathrobed mayor appeared at the door and shook his head...

...In addition, the organization has considerable influence in selecting qualified civil service applicants for appointment or promotion...

...If Stevenson is the candidate, his supporters would provide a base for the expansion of liberal insurgency...

...In cases of condemnation proceedings, court awards to the politically favored are often scandalously unrelated to land values...

...At the eleventh hour a delegation called on Wagner at his hotel room...

...Civic-minded leaders want more playgrounds, hospitals, permanent teachers to replace substitutes, and better, less-crowded schools...

...Congressmen and members of the state assembly are usually patronage-minded district leaders...

...Membership in a struggling underdog reform movement often implies a tendency toward viewing issues in moral terms...

...On the road to success, they have become campaign-hardened "new pros...

...On the other hand, Carmine De Sapio has been adroit in reaching accommodation with reform groups, and there is a marked tendency for such clubs to become somewhat more conservative, particularly under the influence of patronage...

...It has been divorced from the lower-income and ethnic blocs of voters and has almost no lines of communication with the rising tide of Negro nationalism...

...Of course, the landlord overcharges, overcrowds, and undermaintains—it's good business...

...When the court must appoint officials to handle these choice legal plums—at substantial fees—it does so from a select list of lawyers who enjoy the favor of the organization...

...Although most city jobs are under civil service, the party in power can usually take care of its "faithful...

...f A higher policy organization formed by the "Old Turks," Mrs...

...As a Tammany judge, Louis T. Chimera, described it, De Sapio's Greenwich Village has a Mason-Dixon line—West Fourth Street...

...The Kennedy candidacy, however, causes some alarm because the Massachusetts Senator is not regarded as sufficiently regular...

...Reform insurgency has been primarily a college-bred, middle-class movement, in the almost exclusively white sections of the city...

...Most Negroes believe that white politicians "rake off" astronomical amounts of money...

...Kennedy has great allure for he offers De Sapio the possibility of consolidating the Catholics of Manhattan behind a De Sapio-run party...

...the Puerto Ricans, grateful but suspicious, are not yet involved in politics...

...The major struggle for power is at present between the old-line machine and the liberals, and the big question is the staying power of political idealism...

...Only Mayor Wagner would have been reasonably acceptable to everyone...

...By the 1940's the Irish were tending to merge into the general population as they went up the social and economic ladders, and their cohesiveness and bloc loyalty to the Democratic Party declined...

...However, an official of De Sapio's own Tamawa Club grasped an inkling of the benefits of a contested primary: "Carmine used to be too busy to come down to the club very often, but now he's there almost every week, asking, 'Can I do anything for you?' " The reform Democrats believe that the party should not be the private corporation of the leaders, and that democracy must function in the making of decisions...

...The Negro tends to feel that neither party is much concerned about him...

...It is this group, known as Tammany Hall, or Tammany, which rules New York City politics today as it has almost since Tammany was founded in 1789...

...Furthermore, unlike the timid immigrants of an earlier day, the Puerto Ricans are not afraid of government and do not need the intercession of the clubhouse...

...The extent and fierceness of last year's campaign, as well as the Eleanor Roosevelt-Lehman-Finletter leadership, has brought the liberal clubs closer together and in more overt opposition to the machine...

...However, the party in power must also bear the brunt of the Negro's bitterness over his second-class role in society...

...who gets to build the new housing project, fire house, or school...

...someone has to take away the old roof and put on a new one, so why not a Tammany man—and at a good profit...

...He surprised friends and enemies alike when he kept his promise to challenge Tammany in the leadership primaries in Harlem, and now that Hulan Jack has joined him he controls three of the sixteen votes in the Hall...

...De Sapio, chairman and controlling power of Tammany Hall, probably cost the Democrats the 1958 election by his steamroller tactics at the state convention in Buffalo...

...Having made a vital contribution to the insurgent victories in last September's primary, the "Old Turks" intend to expand into other boroughs and upstate...

...Independent Democrats may occasionally win major office, but only the capture of the party machinery at the local level would substantially change the nature of New York City politics...

...all are deeply rooted in the established pattern of the community and the clubhouse...

...He is the author of a forthcoming book on the Muckrakers in American history and is at work on histories of the Ku Klux Klan and the vigilante tradition in the United States...

...While Nelson Rockefeller is personally well-liked, as a Republican he offers the Negro little economically...

...For almost a hundred years the Irish dominated New York City Democratic politics...

...In turn, Tammany quietly collects a "voluntary" tithe from many city workers, although this is not the major source of private and party income...

...If the landlord is not a member of the regular club, his lawyer almost certainly is...

...Accustomed to social services on their home island and well briefed by the large Manhattan office of the Puerto Rican Department of Labor, they are not timid about applying for relief, registering at a clinic, or hauling errant lovers and delinquent children to the police station...

...We've all grown up together, and they know we'll take care of them...

...f A growing number of insurgents...

...To the mind of the regular, insurgency comes from an unseemly drive for power by those who should wait their turn...

...Judges tend to display a like tenderness toward greedy landlords who subdivide deteriorating, rat-infested buildings into "rooming houses" or "hotels" to evade rent control laws, and who extract exorbitant rents from their Negro and Puerto Rican tenants...

...Sorry, boys," he said...

...However, if a man had political pull, then the city might decide a new roof was needed...

...But when the Tammany tiger arrogantly turned on popular, liberal candidates and brought defeat upon the party, a great many Democrats suddenly discovered that Tammany was a dangerous evil and not nearly so necessary as they had complacently assumed...

...His flexibility of action is also handicapped by conflicting financial commitments and by his fondness for the spotlight...

...Every year, estates, guardianships, and receiverships worth more than two billion dollars pass before the benches of Surrogate Judges Cox and De Falco...

...This will create as many difficulties for the reform as for the old line Democrats...

...Who is awarded the contract to haul or supply...

...The biggest danger would be Adlai Stevenson whose 1952 and 1956 volunteers later formed the core of many insurgent clubs...

...This gave De Sapio an excuse to rid himself of Powell, particularly when Harlem's regular Democratic leaders assured him Powell could be beaten...

...how much is paid for the land...

...The general sessions judge, who had previously suspended sentence on two dozen top policy bankers, explained that he had been profoundly moved by the fact that some of the stolen money had been returned...

...The discontent of the Irish is another, but probably the least serious, of De Sapio's problems...

...The power structure of New York's Democratic Party derives from a fairly simple organizational plan...

...White men skim the cream off the illegal spoils— the well-protected numbers, prostitution, and dope rackets—and the slum landlords seem almost untouchable...

...The Negro membership of the club is growing...

...In each of Manhattan's sixteen Assembly districts there is a Democratic "club," which controls policy and patronage in its district...

...Between the ages of forty and seventy, there is no one except likable but ineffectual Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr.—and Carmine De Sapio...

...Although able men may reach the bench, the primary qualification is service to the party...

...A suspended sentence was given to the former chief accountant of the Real Estate Bureau after he had been convicted of stealing almost $40,000 from the city...

...In the home state of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Robert F. Wagner, Sr., and Herbert H. Lehman, there seemed to be no progressive leaders left...

...Harlem's intellectuals and middle classes had long considered Powell self-seeking, but they, too, jumped on the bandwagon, responding to the appeal of his Negro nationalism...

...The Harlem Negro, angry over rule by the Downtown white world, is finding leadership in a growing middle class, and an increasing number of young, college-educated liberals are fighting to take over organizational control of the party at the roots...

...North of the line is New York's famed Bohemian quarter: "Show-offs," the judge snorted...

...He had promised the Senate nomination to Manhattan District Attorney Frank Ho-gan, hoping to pacify the increasingly disaffected Irish vote and at the same time "open up" the district attorney's office, which has been the cleanest and least political office in the city...

...The Irish resent it, but their forces are now too dispersed to do much about it...

...New York's political history has been that of a liberal city run by an ultra-conservative Democratic machine...

...Each District has its own political and procedural problems...

...The alternative is inferior government run on a patronage and personal favor basis, and a less dynamic party...

...The charges that Powell cheated on his income tax and the scandal over the "loans" made by a wealthy builder to Borough President Jack have not hurt either of them detect-ably in Harlem...

...To many Negroes, including Powell himself, his cause and that of his race are inseparable, although in some informed liberal circles Powell is under bitter attack as a demagogue given to massive bouts of hypocrisy...

...In addition, there is serious question about the long run ability of the present leadership to integrate the expanding Negro, and the as yet dormant Puerto Rican, claims for recognition...

...The prospect is that the Democrats will continue to hold New York City, but the image of "bossism" in the party organization appears sufficiently repelling to give the state to the Republicans whenever they can muster an attractive candidate...

...Seven active reform clubs, casting three and five-sixths of sixteen votes, are represented on the Executive Committee...

...This has made De Sapio increasingly dependent on the right wing in the Hall, reducing his room for maneuver...

...The revolt in Harlem should not come as a surprise...

...In New York City, as elsewhere, much of the power of boss control rests upon voter apathy...

...More than half a century ago, Tammany philosopher George Washington Plunkitt set down basic truths about municipal government when he distinguished between "honest" and "dishonest" graft...

...Still another, and possibly fatal, problem for the head of Tammany Hall is the expanding revolt of the young liberals...

...Four additional reform clubs came close to winning last September, and in Greenwich Village, where he was defending his own district leadership, Carmine De Sapio staggered to a less than 600-vote victory...

...Boy scouts and megalomaniacs," the judge sniffed...

...Powell attacked the Tammany regulars as "Uncle Toms on Massa Carmine's plantation," and rode the growing tide of discontent to a three-to-one triumph...

...He is liable, however, to exhibit amazing leniency toward those with "good connections...

...Hence the antagonism of Harlem (Uptown) is focused against De Sapio (who represents the Downtown which dictates to Harlem...

...They don't like the idea of patronage, so we appeal to them with the 'community service' pitch...

...It got little patronage even in the office of Borough President Hulan E. Jack, whom many Negroes scornfully call a "black Italian...

...It is not committed to an anti-De Sapio program, and Tammany will probably be willing to make an arrangement in order to protect its hold in East Harlem and other interests...

...The judge (or policeman) who has traveled this path will usually deal sternly enough with an act of violence which is destructive of property and the social order...

...The existence of graft, honest or dishonest, is the principal reason for the existence of the machine...

...As marginal men in a white man's society, Negroes hailed the chance to thumb their noses at the white man's Downtown world...

...Roosevelt, Thomas Finletter, and former Senator Herbert Lehman, and staffed by young insurgents...

...Governor Harriman had waited too long to have a say in picking the candidate, and his promised, last-minute floor fight "against bossism" never materialized...

...By working through the Negro politicians who owe their position to the white folks Downtown, he is accused of accepting the widely-disliked "stooge system...

...To take over as "regular" clubs, each of the seven had to collect thousands of nominating petition signatures and win elections while facing obstacles ranging from lawsuits tried before Tammany judges to tapped telephone wires, glued-up keyholes, and election eve sidewalk repairs in front of their headquarters...

...The elected leaders of the various clubs form the Executive Committee of the Democratic Party...

...The Italian areas south of the line are "our" people, he explained...

...A self-led, patronage-dispensing Harlem, as an autonomous unit within the Democratic Party, is the only path acceptable to the Negro community...

...They like fellow-regular Lyndon Johnson for President, but they realize he is too Southern and conservative for New York voters...

...There are no deep divisions between the insurgents and the regulars on most national issues...

...This is Carmine's club...

...Handsome, intelligent, talented as an orator and phrasemaker, Powell has been one of the nation's most blazing advocates of Negro rights...

...Under the dynamic leadership of former Assistant District Attorney William Ryan, probably the ablest reform leader in the city, Riverside made the housing scandals into a public issue and finally forced the city fathers into belated action...

...De Sapio and the regulars will control most of the huge New York delegation at the Democratic National Convention...

...New York City's government is run, at the top, by many eminently able public servants...

...As a Northern, big city Democratic organization, Tammany supports progressive legislation, particularly in Albany and Washington, as "patronage to the liberals and the voters...

...Predominantly a member of the lower-income bracket, the Negro's economic interests in particular lie more closely with the Democrats...

...Nor do the payoffs made by the citizen, whether bartender or builder, to policeman or building inspector, go to the machine...

...Liberal Democrats considered Hogan too narrowly qualified for the Senate...

...It is regarded as another sign of discrimination that the only leaders Harlem has in the white world are set upon for what are regarded as comparatively minor indiscretions...

...So are the numbers racket, prostitution, and dope peddling...

...The size of his victory came from Harlem's huge working class population...

...Negro businessmen would like to be cut in on the profitable city contracts...

...Powell's future plans are not clear in his own mind...

...City contracts, court patronage, and a favorable atmosphere for specific business interests are of greater importance, for New York City is one of the world's largest businesses, with a budget of more than two billion dollars a year...

...While not an immediate threat to De Sapio's power, Harlem is no longer safely manageable, and that is trouble enough for the boys in the back-room...

...As the campaign rolled on to its humiliating end, Democratic frustration was turned inward in painful self-examination...

...The outcome of the June primary election, in which De Sapio experienced the worst defeat of his career, is a measure of the strength of the new wave of reform...

...Most of the prominent liberals, such as Aver-ell Harriman, Thomas Finletter, Herbert Lehman, and Mrs...

...Although Puerto Rico has become the required vacation spot for all Manhattan politicians, no single leader commands the loyalty of the city's 650,000 Puerto Ricans, and until they show greater progress in learning English, there will be no significant Puerto Rican vote...

...In the June election, Ryan won nomination for Congress in a smashing victory over De Sapio's candidate, incumbent Ludwig Teller...

...All the reformers were denounced by the "old pros" as Communists...

...These traits make the Puerto Rican oddly inaccessible to both reformer and machine...

...Any arrangement between Powell and De Sapio, however, will be of a temporary nature, subject to Powell's ambitions, combined with an ever greater demand for patronage...

...The current revolt gained momentum when the election of Republican Nelson A. Rockefeller as Governor split open the Democratic ranks, and the divergent, discontented forces that Tammany did not represent began to coalesce more rapidly...

...The Negro was so grateful to the New Deal that in the 1930s even Republican poll watchers voted for F.D.R...

...However, no program is any better than the way it is carried out at all levels of government...

...The reform clubs are seeking to do just that...

...Frequently the result is mediocrity in office and a strong bias toward the vested interests which the political clubhouses represent...

...This sudden championship of downtrodden tenants suggests a new awareness that something has happened to Tammany's grip, especially on the Harlem vote...

...In reality, Harlem has long wanted a great deal, but had had no way to express its desires...

...Nobody votes in this clubl What is there to vote for...

...Because any movement against the machine must be waged through separate struggles in the individual assembly districts, attempts have been made to unify the numerous reform groups...

...Most of the "new pros" strongly favor Stevenson and the possibility of his candidacy is one of the major reasons the Lehman-Roosevelt senior leadership is involved in city politics...

...Only the Riverside Club around Columbia University has been in a position to reach out to bottom-income Puerto Ricans and Negroes...

...For years Harlem's growing Negro population has voted Democratic while seeming to ask nothing in return...

...Eleanor Roosevelt, are aging and have become the elder statesmen rather than the leaders of the party...

...Under their own expanding middle-class leadership, Italian-Americans gradually replaced the more Americanized and integrated Irish as the mainstay of the Democratic Party in New York City, and took over the machinery and the patronage...