New Jersey Deal

Brass tacks are what politics is made of, and last week the Democratic high command at Washington got down to them with Frank Hague, perpetual mayor of Jersey City and boss of populous Hudson County. So sharp is the contrast between ironfisted, authoritarian Boss Hague and the libertarian New Deal that last summer Franklin Roosevelt felt obliged to reprimand the Boss publicly, if anonymously, for his suppression of civil liberties in Jersey City (TIME, July 4). The Department of Justice even went to the extent of sending G-Men to investigate Socialist Norman Thomas' complaint about being bums-rushed out of Jersey City. (Although the State Supreme Court found against Mr. Thomas on another complaint last week, he still has the solace of a hearing against two of Boss Hague's policemen before a Federal grand jury at Newark.)

But the free-speech issue is child's play compared to the brass-tack problem of carrying New Jersey for the New Deal, and last week Franklin Roosevelt sent his No. 3 Cabinet officer, Secretary of War Harry Woodring, to Hudson County to do business with Boss Hague. The occasion was a rally for the Senate candidacy of William Harvey Johnson Ely, who has been administering WPA in New Jersey and who, though a Hague protege, has promised to be a 100% New Dealer. Secretary Woodring's business with Boss Hague was to find out whether, in return for continued control over WPA and generous Federal patronage, Boss Hague would really turn out his Hudson County vote for Mr. Ely. Boss Hague's answer was to show Secretary Woodring a mammoth, slam-bang political jamboree for Candidate Ely in the Jersey City armory, complete with red-fire, bands, entertainers and an overflow crowd that brought the cheering total to at least 100,000. Franklin Roosevelt's emissary thereupon inserted into his prepared speech a hearty Roosevelt endorsement of Candidate Ely, predicted his election and added: "I know that the President will be thrilled when I give him that report." Opposing Democrat Ely is able, hulking, frizz-haired William Warren Barbour, a Republican who very nearly fits the "liberal" definition of Franklin Roosevelt and who was beaten out of his Senate seat in 1936 by William H. Smathers. Until Boss Hague and Boss Roosevelt joined forces, it had looked unlikely that Democrat Ely could head off ex-Senator Barbour in his comeback. Even now, a plurality of about 100,000 votes from Hudson County will probably be required. Knowing this, Mr. Barbour last week pressed the New Jersey Legislature to carry out an investigation of electoral funny-business in Hudson County which involved--Republicans charge--as high as 50,000 fraudulent votes in last year's gubernatorial race, and which resulted in the indictment of 108 election officials by a grand jury--only a handful of whom have yet been brought to trial by Boss Hague's Hudson County prosecutor.

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