SAY IT WITH FLOWERS

William E. Hurley yesterday took a job in the railway mail service as the conclusion of one of the most unjust and scandalous political incidents Curleydom has seen this year. After thirty-seven years of efficient and honest service in the Post Office Department of the Government of the United States, Mr. Hurley had finally reached the Postmastership of Boston. Suddenly he was removed. And reason enough, we say,--Mr. Curley did not like him.

In his place Peter F. Tague was yesterday sworn into office as Boston's new Postmaster. Equally with reason. He had been the election commissioner of Boston, which surely is a far better qualification for the postmastership than a mere thirty-seven years in the postal service, after all, a postmaster in these days when wishes are Farleys, and beggars may ride, has important responsibilities besides the prosaic work of delivering the mails. Mr. Tague had shown, both as Congressman and as Election Commissioner, that he could admirably fulfill all demands made by the New Deal upon its officials.

As though the lily needed gilding, Mr. Roosevelt saw fit to send to the Tague inauguration a "beautiful floral piece." Pretty sentiment, indeed, but unfortunately this reminds us that the Post Office Department is a Federal affair under the jurisdiction of the President, and that throughout Mr. Roosevelt's choppy career, he has been making speeches, as he alone knows how, about the corruption of the Civil Service under the incredibly dishonest Republican Regime. Sincerity, as the President himself so neatly put it, must be proved by deed as well as by word.

Which reminds us further of the statement by one Mr. White, Civil Service Commissioner down in Washington, that not since Andrew Jackson has Civil Service received such a set-back as in the present administration. Mr. Hurley got a job in the Railway Mail Service; Mr. Tague got a "beautiful floral piece". The President always does things in the nicest way.