"THOSE IN AUTHORITY"

Recently his Honor, the Mayor of Boston had occasion to refuse the invitation to sit on the same lecture platform with Admiral Sims in the words:

"I have no desire to sit on any platform with Admiral Sims, retired, whose best service to the American Navy was his retirement from it. I would suggest that when he is done shooting off the only weapon he is expert at--his mouth--he be escorted to the Cunard or White Star dock and given an opportunity to follow the trail and example of his ante-type, Benedict Arnold".

Still more recently 154,000 out of 220,000 registered voters failed to vote in the last city election, and Governor Cox remarked, "the people of Boston are getting just the sort of government they deserve".

Last year Senator Walsh was quoted in an address at Georgetown University as saying, "Don't blight your career by becoming mayor of your home city".

These three statements by men "in the public eye" have naturally attracted much attention. Each, apparently irrelevant, throws an interesting sidelight on the question which is put forward at every favorable opportunity, why do so few college men go into politics? With city government at the low level it has reached in the last few years: Curleys, Hylans and Thompsons, replacing mayors like Mitchell, or Nathan Matthews, or Patrick Collins; it is evident that reform is necessary and that reform can only come by stirring up interest from the present inertia. This interest, in its turn, can be developed consistently only by strong leaders of intelligence with high ideals who will make a profession of politics. A powerful machine can only be defeated by another machine as well organized and as effective. As long as men with college training hold themselves aloof or indifferent, so long will city politics he the weakest point in American government.