HAVE FAITH IN MASSACHUSETTS

There is sound common sense as well as a notable feeling for fair play expressed in the Transcript editorial of last evening which concludes that "a high sense of justice would seem to admit that Mr. Delacey should not go to jail." In calling upon Governor Allen to exercise his power of executive clemency the Boston paper expresses the sentiment of a large majority of those who have followed the details of the Dunster House Book Shop case.

The public condemnation of the tactics employed by the New England Watch and Ward Society in the prosecution of the case furnishes the Governor with sufficient cause to intercede in a matter in which the hands of the usual judiciary machinery of the Commonwealth have been tied with legal technicalities. For just such instances as the present one the chief executive has been vested with powers beyond those the Supreme Court.

Most literary radicals will admit that under even the new Censorship laws public distribution of the pirated editions of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" violates public standards. If the laws are to be respected and enforced there is a certain technical justification for the decision of the courts. But the circumstances envolving the sale, plus the personal character of Mr. Galacey produce a situation which only the Governor can now consider. If the letter of the law demanded a technical conviction to insure its validity, the human principles behind the law demands again for its validity the exercise of executive clemency.