COLLEGE MEN SHOULD ENTER POLITICS IN SPITE OF ALL ITS DRAWBACKS SAYS HYLAN

Declaring the Mayor's reputation, private life, and aims are "tossed about like leaves in an autumn wind," John F. Hylan, Mayor of New York, attacks the interests and defends his own regime in the following special article to the Crimson on the subject of "College Men in Politics":

I believe that there is a practical value to the training received in a college or a university. Through the opportunities afforded at college for the cultivation of a broad viewpoint, sound judgment, initiative, and a capacity to grasp social and economic problems, the college graduate is better able to help himself, his community and the world at large.

Shameless Abuse Bars College Men

Though I am unable to point to an Alma Mater of my own, recent facts and figures demonstrate that the trained and logical thinker in the executive's chair is being drawn more and more from the ranks of college men. This is particularly true of bank and railroad presidents. There is no reason why it should not be equally true of elective or appointive political places. When candidates for and incumbents of such offices are not made the victims of shameless abuse and willful misrepresentation, we may find more college and university men entering public life.

That some men may occasionally achieve greatness or success without the advantage of a college training is no proof that the average individual would succeed as well nor that the gifted person would not have accomplished still more if college-trained.

Wore Overalls for Nine Years

Of course, colleges and universities must have good material to work upon, or the results will be disappointing. In addition, the knowledge acquired in an institution of higher learning is of little value unless it is put to practical usefulness. If, in studying for higher things, the young man becomes unfitted for lower things and regards his diploma as an Open Sesame to the wealth of the world, he may find himself outstripped by the shrewd, sure-footed, less cultured and less finicky competitor. I admit dreaming of big things, but I also admit wearing overalls for nine years.

The beneficiaries of higher learning should make a compensating return to the State for the privileges received, not limited to the success which may be attained in the pursuit of a particular profession. The practicality of college training will receive genuine endorsement when college men take an active, personal interest in public affairs through the exercise of the ballot, after sound appraisal of candidacies and platforms, as well as through participation in various civic and social activities inuring to communal betterment.

College Men Should Enter Politics

And there is need and room in public office for the college man with his clear and logical mental processes. Is not the desire to hold public office as honorable as the aspiration for the ministry or medicine or law or the other professions? Yet we often find a timidity upon the part of college men to enter the arena of politics. Are the compensations adequate? This may be an important factor. A good lawyer can command greater fees in a single week than he would receive in an entire year in salary as a member of the President's cabinet. But there is a glamor to public life and a consciousness of being engaged in vitally important work that frequently offsets the financial disadvantages.

New York Mayor Second to President

Are there other considerations tending to keep the sensitive, highly-cultured man from submitting himself for public approval? Let us take the mayoralty of the City of New York. That office has been considered second in importance only to that of the Presidency of the United States. But ask any man who has been a candidate for that office what a flood of abuse he must wade through to reach the Mayor's chair; and, if successful, how difficult it is to keep the people currently informed of administrative projects and accomplishments when a hostile press is arrayed against him.

The Mayor is denied the same protection which is accorded to other citizens. His reputation, his private life, and his official aims and purposes are often tossed about like leaves in an autumn wind. There is no exaggeration in that statement.

Mayor Must Develop Rhinoceros Hide

Of what unheard of wickedness is the Mayor not accused; and of what manner of perfidy is he not deemed capable. To maintain equanimity it is necessary to develop the hide of a rhinoceros to withstand the daily assaults and at the same time keep one's faith alive in the fundamental goodness of human nature despite manifestations of baseness.

Fighting for the rights of our citizens, opposing by every means in our power the selfish interests which would exploit them, the present administration of the City of New York has fought continually against higher carfares, higher telephone, electric light and gas rates, and against every attempt of corporations or individuals to gouge the people. Enforcing economy, oposing waste and extravagance, this administration has not denied to the people of New York the necessities required for their welfare and for the growth of the city.

Lists Achievements of Hylan Regime

Here are some of the things which the present administration has done, but which it has been next to impossible to have treated fairly in the columns of most of the newspapers:

One hundred and ninety-four new schools built or under construction-- Greatest program of public school construction ever undertaken by any city.

Huge terminal markets under construction--Estimated saving to the people in food purchases of $150,000,000 a year.

Purer water, increasing the supply to a billion gallons a day; better police and fire protection; cleaner streets; improved health conditions--Contributing to New York City's conspicuous place among the safest and healthiest cities in the world.

New streets, roads, sewers, piers, parks, playgrounds and public buildings.

Constructed at the lowest possible cost, they are permanent investments of the utmost value.

Five-cent fare maintained--Saving of over $420,000,000 to the traveling public in the past seven years.

New subway system begun, to be owned and operated by the city.

Mayor's Words Garbled By Interests

These are specific examples of municipal accomplishments, but their achievement has meant the curtailment of profit and privilege for certain traction and utility groups as well as the newspapers owned, controlled, subsidized or amenable to them. Consequently, every statement of the mayor, no matter how buttressed with facts, has been distorted or garbled or ridiculed. But greater than the power of the newspapers and selfish corporate groups is the power of public opinion formed by a day-to-day observation of actual conditions and always dependable at the polls. This may be a consolation for the man who would enter public life but who dreads being misunderstood or misinterpreted.