Fiorello La Guardia

Fiorello La Guardia

Introduction

Fiorello La Guardia was born in December 11th 1882 in a city called New York. He was brought up in a place called Arizona, spent some time in Hungary together with her mother and other relatives and later went back to New York. He went to the New York University to study Law and graduated. He went direct to practicing law which later made him find his way in politics. During his second trial in 1916, he won elections and became a Republican in the Houseof Representatives. He served for some few months and in 1017, he did not participate in the House and was enlisted in the efforts of war. This was a promise he had given to his voters that he would enlist if he was for the war. His seat in the house was kept vacant and he possessed a good record in war. This made him be elected the second time but he declined and resigned towards the end of 1919. He wanted to concentrate on his role as the New York Board of Alderman President. From the year 1923 to 1933, he was elected in Congress. He was a very outspoken leader and supported a person known as Woodrow Wilson in the efforts of declaring war. He also advocated for the reforms in social welfare but opposed prohibition. There are many contributions he made that led to him be regarded as important in Life. This paper looks at the reasons why He is important. I will also provide my opinion on the same at the end of the paper.

Why La Guardia is important

When He was elected in the year 1916 in US House of Representatives, La Guardia was a very devoted reformer. In his capacity as a congress man, he was able to represent a slum district which was ethnically diverse in the East Harlem. Even though he was very much barred not to attend certain committee posts due to his political independence, he was a vocal leader who worked tirelessly in progressive causes. He took office in March 1917 and later commissioned in the US State Air Service Army where he rose to be the Ca.44 bombers unit Major in Command on the World War 1. He later resigned the post on December 1919.On the same year he vied for the President of New York City Board of Aldermen and won.

La Guardia won the seat of Congress of East Harlem from the strongholds of Italian in 1922 and worked in the house upto March 1933. He was not an isolationist at any given time. He always supported making use of the American influence instead of democracy (O’Brien, p247). He therefore supported anti czarist Russian Revolution and Irish independent movement. He however did not support Vlasimir Lenin. The man stood on his grounds and unlike his colleagues like Norris, he was always for internationalism and spoke in the League of Nations, disarmament conferences, peace together with Inter-parliamentary Union favor. He also wanted to make socialism be regulated and nationalized.

Like a congressman, He was very vocal and worked tirelessly in all progressive causes. He allowed a lot of immigration. He also removed the troops of US from Nicaragua who were to speak out the rights of impoverished farmers, struggling families, striking miners and oppressed minorities. La Guardia was able to fight for the great government Wall Street oversight, progressive income taxes together with national employment insurance which was for the workers who had been idled by Great depression.

The man we are talking about was among the first Republicans who voiced their opinions on the act of prohibition and urged people to note that the dry cause was likely to be disastrous later on.

In the year 1933, the New York Mayor Walker together with Tammany Hall were removed from the office because of having a scandal. La Guardia had all the determination to succeed the mayor. However he had a big challenge because he had to be the one nominated by both “Fusion” independent group and Republican Party. The big challenge was that he had not been selected as first choice in any of the parties because of their distrust on the Italians. However, he had support from Samuel Seabury the reformer, high visibility and great determination. He also had a great ability of ruining the prospects of the rivals by what is known as divisive primary contest. He was able to obtain the nominations and therefore had high hopes of winning against the competitor John O’Brien. However, Joseph McKee joined the race towards the end to be nominated with Recovery party. He was a formidable opponent in that he was being sponsored by Edward Flynn who was the boss in Bronx Democratic. He also acquired favor from President Franklin Roosevelt. This did not reduce the morale of La Guardia. It even made him stronger and thought of using corruption as a tool for campaigning. He called it the far left Red where John O’Brien was the boss’s pawnand Joseph McKee the anti Semite. La Guardia was able to win where the victory was based on the coalition complex of regular Republicans. The victory was mainly contributed by the Germans who are in middle class level living outside Manhattan, few democrats with reformed minds, socialists a good number of Jews in middle class and some Italians.

When he was joining the office in 1934, he had the following goals that he wanted to achieve. One, bring back the financial health and get rid of banker’s control, two, broaden the work relief program that was funded by the federal to support the unemployed, three, eradicate corruption in the government and other areas in economy, fourth, Change patronage and bring civil service that is merit based which has high prestige and finally make modern infrastructure in areas such as parks and transport sector.

He was able to achieve four goals out of the five in his first 100 days in office and then worked together with Governor Herbert Lehman to improve the infrastructure. He therefore left a legacy as being one of the best Mayors in the history of New York.

He is important due to the fact that he has achieved quite a lot. To mention but a few, he received an award of gold medal for the hundred year association of New York for his tremendous contribution in the city. He was also honored by US Postal Service and was given a 14c postage stamp.

La Guardia was fond of music and loved it. He was well known for conducting student and professional orchestras. He created a high school of Art and Music in the year 1936 called La Guardia High school. On top of this other institutions have been named after him for instance La Guardia community college.

Conclusion

In conclusion, La Guardia is an important man in history. He was a devoted man with principles. A man who believed that everything is possible even when all others had lost hope. Before he became the Mayor of New York, the city was terrible. The administration was poor, decaying parks, poor health and social services, rusty bridges among others. He was able to attract funds and made the administration look attractive; he was able to construct bridges, dug water tunnels, and built water reservoirs, parks, sewage systems among other things. His main aim was to see that the people living in New Yolk enjoyed and had enough security. He was able to fight gambling, cleared burlesque houses among others. La Guardia is a role model to many leaders. He was able to provide the best and honest leadership during his tenure. He served with a lot of dedication that many leaders should emulate and offer services to the people without fear or favor.

It is therefore necessary to mention that La Guardia became one of the domineering leaders in New York and in history. His leadership involved addressing the grievances and sentiments of the people. He was able to fight corruption, presided the world war and made the city the best for people to live in. He is therefore an important leader in the history and therefore deserves to be honored.

Works Cited

Bayor, Ronald H. Fiorello La Guardia: Ethnicity and Reform. Harlan Davidson, 1993. Print.

Kessner, Thomas. Fiorello H. La Guardia and the Making of Modern New York.McGraw-Hill, 1991. Print.

La Guardia, Fiorello Henry. The Making of an Insurgent: An Autobiography, 1882-1919. Greenwood Press, 1985. Print.

O’Brien, Steven G, et al. American Political Leaders: From Colonial Times to the Present. Abc-Clio Inc, 1991. Print.