CASH EQUALITY

The lot of a scapegoat is never an enviable one, and when one person hears the burden of a whole organization's misdeeds sympathy will probably be slow in coming. The case of Mrs. Florence Knapp, who has just been convicted of larceny committed while Secretary of State of New York, is not quite the same because it was unusual enough to arouse public interest. Women have been singularly unfortunate in their political adventures of late years, and no one forgets the debacle of "Ma" Ferguson in Tex, but when prominent Republican leaders admitted that her only fault was in not covering her tracks well enough there would seem to be ample reason for sympathy.

In light of the consequences of the case, however, the finding of the jury was the only possible one. If there is really to be an attempt made to clean up the graft in the state government a beginning had to be made somewhere, and even the citizens of New York, accustomed as they are to the manipulations of Tammany, might object to such open toleration of dishonesty as an acquittal would indicate. On the other hand, the more cynical can see good advice to future feminine aspirants to office in the results of the trial. It will not need many more years of experience before they can take their place as accomplished politicians along with their brothers and husbands, but meantime they had best either walk a bit more softly or let their male relatives manage the trouble some details.