BREAKING THE CAMEL'S BACK

It may usually be safely assumed that the kind of story which appears on the front page of large metropolitan newspapers is the kind of story in which newspaper readers are interested. But the persistent appearance of Messrs. Sinclair, Doheny and Fall in large black headlines arouses one's curiosity as to whether the dailies know after all, what the public wants. Even divorce reports become a trifle stale after the first two weeks; the Teapot Dome has occupied the center of the stage in one guise or another for two months.

Probably there are certain evil persons,--no friends of the present Administration,--who derive a soul-satisfying pleasure from reading carefully every shameful account of corruption, of damaging testimony, of venal politics. Possibly there is a righteous feeling among the publishers that this governmental scandal should have the widest publicity to impress its iniquity upon the public more emphatically. But for the great majority, who are merely sickened by the reappearance of the "sordid detail" after another, who have no axe to grind, and who are well aware that this is not the first instance of corruption in American politics, the "Teapot Dome" has long since lost its news value.

As a matter of record, perhaps, everything should be printed. But the "scareheads" which each morning announce a newly-discovered offender are beginning to pall. The relegation of the Naval oil leases to the financial section or the "classified ads" would be a welcome departure.