"I KNOW A SECRET"

There is no special significance in the refusal of the University authorities to affirm or deny the bulletin of a morning newspaper that Henry Lee Shattuck has been chosen Treasurer of Harvard. Until the appointment of Charles Francis Adams as Secretary of the Navy has been confirmed by Mr. Hoover, Mr. Adams will not resign his post as Treasurer. Until he has resigned, there can be no election of a successor, and no official statement on the question.

But the announcement was made with an assurance limited only by these facts, which, owing to the meagre likelihood of Mr. Hoover's withdrawal of his offer are scarcely limited at all. The implication of private privilege contained in the story--an implication which is the right of every newspaperman--has behind it, in all probability, the substance of actual fact. Only the members of the Harvard Corporation knew what passed in their meeting on Monday. In the absence of an official statement of the transaction, it appears evident that whatever news there was, found its way into print through a friendly medium in the Corporation itself.

Now there is no sin in the communication of truth in this way. Where the fact, however probable, still waits the confirmation of circumstance, to publish it abroad was impolitic, but that charge is the heaviest than can be made against the informant. The incident, has, however, a larger significance.

The CRIMSON has criticised the happy earlessness of the University administration in its policy of releasing news. Time and again the authorities have shown themselves ignorant of publicity values, lax in their handling, and reckless of the consequences of inaccuracy and misrepresentation which are traceable directly to their sluggishness. When there is news to be given out officially, none is given; it is permitted to seep out through any one of many channels.

The leakage of the latest bit of information contributes testimony to strengthen the indictment. When there is not yet occasion for an official announcement, the news still finds a way. If Harvard has adopted a policy of keeping information until it has lost the chance of novelty, let her follow it without showing the favor of premature publication to newspapers fortunate in their connections.