Evening star., 1938-09-25

mind OF the time when she spent an
hour sitting III the office of Tam
many district leader, back in that age
of innocence when Tammany was con-
sidered the last word in streamlined
political corruption. The leader, it hap
pened, was also q real estate agent,
and the reviewer had an apartment to
sublet; that is how she happened to
spend her little hour there. Well, in
that selfsame hour she saw the leader
and his wife, working without cessa-
ton, dispense loads of coal, orders for
groceries, advice as to jobs and assur-
ances of undying loyalty to a regular
stream OF persons who came (also
without cessation) and were later de-
scribed indulgently by the wife as
lust some of our neighbors." She
and her husband, she said, liked to be
neighborly.
Now, the reviewer is Just simple
country girl and thinks neighborliness
is lovely. But she was not so simple
as that. She did not believe that the
leader was paying for those loads of
coal out OF his own pocket, and she
asked herself where the money came
from. This elected no information,
so she asked acquaintances less rustic
and was told, Out Of party funds. "
Party funds. as she understands 1t,
are voluntarily contributed by persons
who expect to profit on the invest
ment. either materially or in moral
satisfaction. 1t seemed all right that
their money should be used for the
purpose OF financing the leaders
neighborliness. if that was the pur-
pose for which it was given.
But the picture changes somehow
when one sees that the money for such
'neighborliness" comes out Of the
taxes. Taxes are not given volun-
tarily, and they are not assessed to
finance any political party. That they
should be used, as the writer in Cur
rent History puts it, for campaign
purposes seems the last degree OF
political immortality. 1t makes Tam
many look like an orphan wailing on
the doorstep. And Tammany, of course,
was local to one wicked city. The relief
racket Is Nationwide.
THE reviewer further applauds Cur
rent History's observation that
Americans should stop agitating them
selves over Europe. That ever-messy
continent has surely been suficiently
disgraced before enlightened eyes not
to require further exposing. The same
peoples have been living there within
the same boundaries since early Middle
Ages, and the same hatreds, suspicious
and manias burn among them. Amer.
ica, in little more than a century. has
absorbed millions Of individuals from
dozens Of races and produced q free
dom-loving, humorous and pacific
breed and a civilization which, grant
ing its worst faults. still offers the
world the highest living standard ex-
tant. And are We to concern our
selves-in heavens name-over Eu-
rope? Over Franco and Henlein and
racial purity DISQUALIFICATION
prosecutions? Is it not better that
we guard our own birthright, remem-
ber our own genius, set our house in
order and our faces, once more. to-
ward the future? If Europe is to learn
anything, it must be from ourselves
and We cannot teach her by descend
ing to her level. We might pull her
olN IN, Ia DC ~ 6n
faintest chance Of it.
CONTINENTS Of much the same
sort are to be found also in the
September "a issue of Ken, periodical
which occasionally does talk sense but
lacks, to this reviewers mind at least
any conviction Of sincerity. Ken Is
too uneasy: there Is a neurotic violence
in its method Of expression. 1t has
indeed a quality which one often en-
counters in individuals who make a
career Of reform; they may be working
for an end which Is laudable, but about
themselves one senses nothing excep,
hatred and nervous self-interest
This detracts, of course, from the good
which they might bring about, for Il
cannot escape destroying confidence
which they might otherwise arouse
Ken, with its rabid prejudices and
equally rabid championing. lacks very
noticeably the quality which would
enlist responsible people to support its
policies.
Yet it is a good thing to find that
such sentiments as those quoted from
Current History are appearing with
growing frequency in our periodicals
Not only Ken, but also the Commen-
tator, in a recent issue expressed th<
belief that the only sane position fol
America to ADOPT in any European