THAT OX, THE PUBLIC

One unfortunate effect of a presidential campaign is that it drains the public mind of political interest. Having cast a ballot, the voter returns to his cares and amusements, vaccinated against any immediate recurrence of the political fever. The consequence is that questions which before election arouse the greatest heat are decided after election without striking a spark of interest: for example, Muscle Shoals.

The disposition of these properties, upon whose development hangs the industrial future of the central South, was determined yesterday. The voted against public operation, and this means that the only question remaining is that of deciding to what private enterprise the plant's future is to be assigned. This will, of course, be determined by much political junketing and financial intrigue.

Last summer each political party included an equivocal plank in its platform, and one presidential candidate devoted much breath and labor in explaining this plan of exit from the situation. The important factor in the decision is public indifference. That a principal resource of the South, providing heat, light, and factory power, is to be chiefly freed from public control and left within the decision of private interests, seems a step of no importance.

Those who still support the theory of democratic omniscience may well be disheartened. The public refuses to be in the least regardful of momentous decisions. The public mind, naturally lazy, untangles more easily the web of the latest divorce case than the threads of economic and social policy. It cannot think for itself, yet dare not let others think for it. It arrogates to itself all political intelligence and refuses to exercise it.

Last summer each political party included an equivocal plank in its platform, and one presidential candidate devoted much breath and labor in explaining this plan of exit from the situation. The important factor in the decision is public indifference. That a principal resource of the South, providing heat, light, and factory power, is to be chiefly freed from public control and left within the decision of private interests, seems a step of no importance.

Those who still support the theory of democratic omniscience may well be disheartened. The public refuses to be in the least regardful of momentous decisions. The public mind, naturally lazy, untangles more easily the web of the latest divorce case than the threads of economic and social policy. It cannot think for itself, yet dare not let others think for it. It arrogates to itself all political intelligence and refuses to exercise it.