TWO INTERESTING SPEECHES

Hon. John D. Long '57, ex-Governor of Massachusetts, and Hon. William McAdoo, ex-congressman and police commissioner of New York City, spoke in the Living Room of the Union last evening, before a very large audience, on the subjects of "The Guarding of the State," and "The Guarding of the City," respectively. Professor F. G. Peapody '69, a member of the Social Service Committee, presided.

The gist of Mr. Long's speech was that it is the common, everyday things of life which are most worth while. In speaking of the civic and social duties, of each individual citizen, he said that, practically, the "State" may be considered as an enlargement of the "City," and the "Commonwealth" as an enlargement of the "State." How far the powers of each of these three divisions shall go is a very difficult question, but it must be admitted that a great degree of centralization is necessary to the proper control of this great "Commonwealth."

The "State" is guarded by its constitution; and the legislature guards it by its yearly statutes, which are a transcript of the best public opinion. Public opinion is thus the government of the "Commonwealth," and, therefore, each individual must have a high ideal of personal purity and character if the government is to be sound and good. Finally, the government is not outside of us, but it is in us; it is for us, the people--as individuals and in a body--to guard the "State."

Mr. McAdoo, in speaking of "The Guarding of the City," said that in New York City, which contains four and onehalf millions of people, representing every race, tongue, and clime, the greatest problem of government is to keep up a thoroughly honest and efficient police force. Could such an organization be maintained there, New York City, the most cosmopolitan and the wealthiest community in the world, would be an orderly, safe, and law-abiding place. As New York is the biggest city in America, its police force should be the best, because the police are the medium through which the ignorant foreign immigrants receive their first impression of American law and government. The Slav of yesterday is the citizen of tomorrow, and it depends upon the police how much he likes his new home.

Mr. McAdoo suggested that the best way to make an ideal police force in New York City would be to make it independent of politics, to separate the detective and the patroling branches of the service, to reduce the graft, blackmail, and mismanagement of officials, to make promotion in the ranks depend upon personal merit only, and to use some method whereby each policeman would keep to his beat. Finally, he said, that unless the good predominates and the morartone of the majority is good, laws are in vain.