Word: curleyism
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...week ago James Michael Curley's Campaign Headquarters, the Hotel Brunswick, was a blaze of flags, posters, and retouched photographs. But when we visited the hotel last Thursday to find out how sincere Curley's campaign withdrawal was, nothing remained but tattered stickers peeling off the windows. It seemed as if the "Governor," as his party workers call him, was really pulling out of the election race...
Climbing a flight of stairs and entering a barren room with dirty green walls, we found that things weren't so dead after all. A switchboard operator was busy directing the heavy traffic of telephone calls, and rough-looking men were pushing bales of "Curley, Courageous, Capable" posters from one back room to another. We asked one of the poster-pushers where we could find Curley's publicity director. After looking us over thoroughly, he pointed to a diminutive man in shirtsleeves and shouted "Callahan! These two guys want to see Smith." Callahan said Smith was on the telephone...
...Smith was an unassuming man with horn-rimmed glasses and a shifty voice. When asked if Curley was moving out of the building, he took us down a back corridor, opening door after door, and saying, "Look, look in there, there are eighteen rooms and they're all empty. The only reason we're here is to take care of Mr. Curley's mail, see? But look at these rooms, empty, all empty...
...amending the Boston charter to allow clearing the ballot of Curley's name, the State Legislature could make short work of this strategy. But the House of Representatives, full of Curley Democrats, will balk. Curley made sure of additional support on Beacon Hill by praising Dever and the state Democrats to the limit in his "withdrawal" announcement...
However, the final decision on Curley rests with Boston voters. After many years of the old pirate, they ought to see through his political trickery...