COMMISSIONER CASEY

The appointment of Edward L. Casey to the Massachusetts State Boxing Commission caused not a little surprise yesterday and probably will occasion even more when the news reaches groups of Harvard men throughout the country. He is not the first Harvard coach to be connected with an outside athletic enterprise and some of the present coaches have other sport relations. But the boxing game has come to have a certain stigma attached to it and it will be hard for many to reconcile the fact that Harvard's name and the name of one of her head coaches will be mentioned continually in connection with professional boxing, which today is less an athletic pursuit and more a well controlled "racket."

If Governor Ely's efforts to reduce graft and spurious practices in the game are sincere he has made an excellent move. The coming of Mr. Casey into the boxing world may well be a warning to its racketeers. It is doubtful, however, if even a person with his conscientious integrity can single-handed do much to improve a game which has consistently resisted a house cleaning. Able legislators and competent public-spirited citizens have tried before and failed and if it is possible that Mr. Casey does not understand the character of the field which he is entering he should be warned of its nature. In all his transactions he will be carrying the name of Harvard to which he owes his first responsibility.