Evening star., 1926-10-03
FEW LORD MAYORS
IN SIGHT IN LONDON
Crop of Candidates Must Be
Increased to Avoid Future
Vacancies in Office.
ocrrespondence of The Star and New York
World

Correspondence of The Star and New York
World.
LONDON, September 2e-The pos
sibility Of London being without a
lord mayor would seem to be such
an "impossibility" as to he hardly
worth consideration, ye' unless things
are ''jazzed up" BIT during the next
two or three years. or unless cen
turies-old tradition is ignored. in the
next three or four years there is a dis
tinct chance of London being without
candidates properly qualified for the
higher and picturesque office.
It all ar.ses from the ancient tradi-
ton, nobody seems to know whether
II is a Law or not. that candidates
for the mayoralty must he not only
aldermen. but must have served AS
sheriffs. Examination Of the stock OF
ma yoralty timber" discloses that.
after Sir Rowland Blades who Is
scheduled to he elected lord mayor
September %, there are only !
other qualified aldermen among the
13 left out Of the 26 members OF the
court of aldermen who have not yet
been lord mayors.
One Is II Years Old.
Also as one of these. Sir Frederick
Barthrope. is now -. he may not he
disposed to accept the lord mayor
job in 1928. after Blades, even if stlli
alive and healthy. The ages of the
other three are respectively. 49, "a
and 81. and the last mentioned would
he Sc before his turn for office comes
In 1881. In any event, 1t does not al
ways follow that the senior alderman n
is willing to take the lord maYoralty,
apart from health ar age consldera
tions, for although there is stipend
nf n
holder has 10 spend three or four
times that sum out Of his own pocket,
so that II Is not everybody who can
afford the luxury"
Never has there been such short
age of ex-sheriffs among the list of
aldermen for Of late years aldermen
putting up for election to the office ot
sheriff in due rotation have been de
feated owing to certain disadvantages
they labor under at election time. Al
dermen--by ancient custom-are not
allowed to canvass voters when they
seek election as sheriffs. They must be
content to have their name on the
nomination and ballot papers and
trust to voters remembering their
civic merits and signifyins their graft
tude in the usual way.
Other Difficulties Noted.
There are several ex-sheriffs among
the common councillors, but these
must first he elected aldermen before
qualifying for the mavoral chair. and
It by no means follows that they are
certain Of election, even il vacancies
occur in the aldermanic court. which
is equally uncertain, short of special
designations in order to create va
cancies
The difficulty might he temporarily
bridged by inviting a lord mayor to
accept a second, or even third term Of
office. but just as it is not every alder
man VINO can afford tn accept the
mayoralty there are even fewer who
can afford the expense of second or
subsequent term. The last lord mayor
TO hold office twice within recent years
was the late Sir George FaudelPhil-
lips. who was lord mayor in Queen
Victorias diamond jubilee year, 1897,
and the succeeding year.
The diamond jubilee celebrations
cost Sir George an enormous addition
al sum. estimated variously from 20, 900
to 100000 pounds, a figure which few
present day candidates could afford.
And all aldermen are by no means
multimillionaires like Fsudel.Phillips.