"AN EYE FOR AN EYE..."

Governor Curlcy's determination to force a referendum upon the Judges Retirement Plan has raised such an unsavoury smell around greater Boston that the odor of his rotten egg has seeped up Beacon Hill into the State House and irritated the gubernatorial nostrils. Being a man accustomed to a parasitic circle of "Yes" men, this unusual opposition has annoyed him considerably. In fact the Governor has become so aroused that he has started libel proceedings against a Boston Newspaper, alleging that marked copies of newspapers distributed several days ago had articles in them stating that he had ignored the Constitution of the State.

The Governor's tactics of retaliation seem to be as crude and as clumsy in this instance as they have been in the past, and the whole affair is not likely to increase his prestige, or what is more important, his votes next Fall. By showing his anger in this vindictive manner, he is letting the people of Massachusetts know that the sting of criticism has sunk deeper that was expected. The old adage of "It's the truth that hurts" would seem to apply in this case, for His Excellency has taken the matter very much to heart.

Article 48 of section 2 of the State Constitution states clearly that initiative and referendum petitions do not apply to the appointment, qualification, tenure and removal of judges, but yet Mr. Curley feels that by subterfuge or bluffing he can circumvent this restriction. As Representative Bowker of Brookline said yesterday, "The use of the threat to do this if you don't is old stuff with the Governor and I hope that this specific case where he has made his bed and refuses to lie in it will make some people realize what kind of a man we have as Chief Executive". Unfortunately Mr. Bowker is too optimistic, since Mr. Curley's whole career in politics had been marred by many incidents of such nature. The unpleasant breath of scandal has touched him often, but yet many voters still have failed to realize the character of their Governor, or to do anything about it.