A REPUBLICAN PROPOSITION

His Honor, Mayor James M. Curley is one of those delightful people who are always saying perfectly ridiculous things with straight faces, and thereby getting themselves gossiped about and quoted on all the front pages. And when he comes forth with an abandoned statement as his latest concerning the responsibility of the Republican party for Boston's bootleggers, he deserves all the space he gets, as a worthy exponent of the national unconscious humor.

In a "sarcastic" letter to the Police Commission, Mayor Curley says that "a better spirit of cooperation between the Republican agencies in control of the enforcement of the Volstead, Act in Democratic Boston would in a measure solve the bootlegging problem in our city. Bootlegging in Boston is a Republican proposition and the odium for its continued existence rests with the dominant party in the State". This is indeed sarcasm. Perhaps Democratic Boston prefers to patronize Republican bootleggers, but to say the least, that is not a very loyal thing to do. The Democratic Party has always been especially noted for its solidarity, and it cannot be believed that Democratic Boston withholds its entire liquor trade from dealers of the true faith.

Enforcement, however, appears to rest entirely with the Republican police Commissioner, the Republican Licensing Board, the Republican District Attorney and the Republican judges, who have been saddled on the city, and continue to pour illicit beverages down the unwilling throats of the populace. It would probably be immoral to commend all these Republican functionaries for their generosity in allowing Democratic Boston to be supplied; it is tolerably safe to condemn their iniquity in foisting the Republican bootleggers upon a reluctant Democracy.