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Hylan Intends to Dupe Nazis, His Crony Says

October 18, 1934
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If John F. Hylan has made any promises to the anti-Semitic leaders who are supporting his candidacy for the Governorship, he has done so with his tongue in his cheek, one of Hylan’s trusted lieutenants told the Jewish Daily Bulletin yesterday.

Two stunning blows have been dealt Hylan’s aspirations since Tuesday night. One was a temporary injunction against placing his name on the ballot, granted in Albany by Supreme Court Justice Gilbert V. Schenck. Whether this restraining order will be made permanent will be decided at an Albany hearing next Tuesday.

A second attack on the former mayor’s candidacy came in the form of a statement from the Bar Association of the City of New York, censuring him for “entering upon a political campaign while continuing in his judicial position.”

As a measure to compensate for the possible success of his antagonists at next Tuesday’s hearing, Hylan conferred with his workers, among them many men notorious for their Nazi activities here, and drew up skeleton plans for educating voters to write in his name if it is barred from the ballot.

FRIEND DOUBTS CHANCES

Although Hylan himself has steadfastly refused to come into the open on the racial issue, a Jewish Daily Bulletin reporter spoke yesterday with one of his closest political intimates in the current campaign, who was perfectly willing to talk provided his name wasn’t mentioned.

“Judge Hylan is too shrewd a politician to imagine he can actually put anything over on the Jews in this state,” this informant explained.

“I doubt that he’s made any promises to these fellows whom you describe as anti-Semites, but if he has, you can bet your shirt he has no intention of keeping them.

“Of course, as the present campaign shapes up, he’s had to take what has been offered in the way of support, without asking too many questions.

“He figures there are enough dissatisfied people in the state right now to roll him up a pretty sizeable vote, and it just happens that these Nazis fall into the disgruntled class, because all the main candidates this time are Jewish.

“If by some political freak Judge Hylan should actually become governor, you can take it from me that he’d dismiss his obligations to these German-American societies with a pretty curt ‘thank you.'”

“Then you don’t think your candidate has much chance?” the reporter asked.

His informant chuckled.

“As long as I’m not quoted by name,” he said, “you can say I don’t think he has a Chinaman’s chance. I have to humor him along, though. We’ve known each other for a long time, and he isn’t as young as he used to be.”

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