THE OUTLOOK FOR SMITH

With the publication of the New Outlook last week. Alfred E. Smith revealed another strong bid to keep himself in the public eye. He has taken over a magazine with a tradition of independent thought and allegiance to no group, political, religious, or financial; and has brought it back to prominence without, apparently, sacrificing these traditions. Yet the peculiar position of Smith and most of the other contributors points towards a more definite and more useful and than the magazine has previously shown.

It is a well recognized fact that many of the most able men of each party, especially the Democratic minority, are passed over for public office merely from the lack of some minor qualification. Men like Smith, and to a far greater extent, Young. Davis, Byrd, Baker and others, lose thereby the chief means of reaching the public with their much needed ideas. In this position they have dwindled into comparative obscurity, hastening the degeneration of their party and of the nation as a whole. The sole recourse for such men is a prominent, respected magazine such as the New Outlook purposes to be.

Wisely enough, Mr. Smith has not given the magazine over to Democrats alone, but to liberal thinkers of any party. Yet it gives the Democrats an opportunity to express their views which they have sadly needed ever since "Puck" went out of existence.