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or semi-public nature. Whalen was more and more important as more and more people found that they couldn't deal with the mayor. He either wouldn't see them, or when he did see them, he couldn't understand what they said. They didn't know what he had agreed to, or what he hadn't. So they gladly saw Grover Whalen as the go-between. He was bright, intelligent, could understand, knew what it was all about and was a very good man.

Mayor Hylan used him as a social go-between and without him he would have been sunk. A great many distinguished Europeans began coming to America to make a visit of thanks giving for the help they had received, among them the Queen and King of the Belgians. On one occasion the King and Queen of the Belgians attended a large public review of police, firemen and so forth in front of City Hall and presentation of the Board of Aldermen to them in the old Board of Estimate Hall - quite a handsome occasion. The Queen turned to the mayor and said, “You have presented to us today some of the finest people I have ever seen in my life.”

He said to her, “You've said a mouthful, Queen.” That was the lingo of the moment and was repeated all over Christendom. But for the most part the mayor didn't get an opportunity to make direct remarks like that to crowned heads because Grover Whalen was there. He would be between the mayor and the crowned