THE VERY WINDY CITY

Following the unfortunate discovery that many of the books in the Chicago Library were the gift of prominent Englishmen after the great fire. Mayor Thompson has as yet found no rebuttal to the charity of Queen Victoria and her generation. Meanwhile, in New England and other parts of the country still under British domination, the flames of sedition are unchecked. Professor Albert Bushnell Hart, in an address before the Schoolmasters Club of Massachusetts, speaks openly of the "laugh that is sweeping the country" as a result of the Mayor's activities; and although Professor Hart denies that he is in the pay of a foreign power, on one can expect Mayor Thompson to believe such a patent effort at deceit.

Enough, however, of irony has been heaped on his unfortunate head. He is, after all, only fulfilling his election promise--to keep Chicago from the clutches of King George--and it is time that some of the ridicule descended on the voters of America's second city who elected him on such a basis. If widespread and uncharitable laughter pursues a town already famous for the antics of gunmen, the blame lies more with its citizens than wit hits Mayor, who is after all only their representative; and if Chicagoans weary of being told to make their city streets safe for Americans before bothering themselves about the British menace, the remedy, as is usual in such cases, lies only with themselves.