Evening star., 1939-01-15

NEW YOfth.-AlmOSC all the pOl1tl-
cal stufing has been knocked out of
the Tammany tiger during the past
five years, but the walloped and weary
beast is not to have rest.
They're turning the schoolboys loose
on him now.
Mayor Fiorella La Guardia and his COM
missioner of investigation, William B.
Herlands, hope, the once most power
full ruler of political patronage in Amer
lea won't even have place to sit
down.
All the colleges in the city have taken
down their intellectual shooting irons
for this Safari-of- of-the-skyscrapers. They
will aim at.
Firing their brightest students point
blank into municipal affairs.
These young men with young ideas will
study government in operation, and on
the basis OF their observations will
recommend reforms.
They will become trained for public
office through actual experience in it,
and consequently better fitted for ap-
pointment than politicians with no bet
ter qualifications than party pull"
Tough on Spoils System.
If trained men are prepared for Of
nee, there will be little left for politi-
cal spoils.
And the Tammany tigers power came
from the spoils system.
determination of the tigers happy
hunting grounds-as Commissioner Her
lands puts it. "perpetuation of the i'm
portant gains of the Fusion administra-
tion,' whose most important gain politi-
cally in its five years in Office has been
to subjugate Tammany by starving it of
patronage-is the immediate purpose OF
the cunning expedition Of the school,
boys. But there is a broader aim: To
take government out of partisan poll
tics and put it into the hands of trained
civil servants
"1nterheship for public service is
Commissioner Herlands' phrase for it.
The idea Is not entirely new Civil
service, which now covers three and a
quarter million public job-holders in the
United States, attempts to do the same
thing on a0ess ambitious scale intellec-
tually. Seven Of tfAlarger cities of the
country-Berkeley. .eincinXti, Dallas.
Los Angeles, Louisville. Philadelphi. q nd
Seattle-have one arrangement or IN
other to absorb a chosen few university
students into municipal offices. Colleges
in all but five of the 48 States have in
recent years been offering regular courses
Of preparation for public administration.
In the Federal Government, "G-men"
are all college trained. And key figures
like White House Adviser Thomas Cor
coran, former Securities Commissioner
James M. Lands and former Undersecre-
tary of the Treasury Dean Acheson have
been bright young men, placed through
professors like Felix Frankfurter, the
newest appointee to the Supreme Court.
But none Of these moves have been as
sweepingly experimental as this new
brainchild of New York Fusion.
Free Rein on Use Of Ideas.
The biggest innovation in it is that
instead of putting man into job and
letting it 60 at that, the "interneship"
plan gives men free opportunity to put
their ideas to use.
1T lays the groundwork for reforms
to be made from within" Mr.. Herlands
explains, instead Of waiting for them to
be imposed from without"
Two examples of the assignments which
already have been made for the student
'internes" will illustrate the possibilities
of political repercussions:
Cd A study of patronage in the courts.
CD Analysis of the Government re-
form proposals that have been made by
civic groups, with recommendations on
how they can be correlated and applied
practically.
Other subjects for study concern:
Taxation.
Assessments.
Unemployment Relief.
Housing.
Industrial relations.
Industrial migration to and from cities.
These are not mere objects of diver
sion for young and curious minds. They
are definite part of the official work
Of the research division of the ONCE
of Commissioner Herlands who launched
the interneship idea with Mayor La
Guardia's approval two months ago.
They are long-range studies of social
problems which Herlands, himself a
bright young man" under former United
States Attorney George Medalie's tutel-
age few years past, considers a major
duty ranking with his more immediate
and more sensational investigations. II
they are not accomplished by "internes."
they would not be accomplished at all
because Herlands' stan is too small.
Work Is Grueling.
A genuine interest in government is
essential to an "interne," for the work
is grueling. One study may last from
six months to two years, depending on
whether the "interne" is an undergradu-
ate working for . bachelors degree or
. postgraduate building his masters or
DOCTORS thesis. Every available refer
ence work on the chosen subject must