RES PUBLICA

It is an unfortunate fact that American college students take very little interest in politics or the rather important business of governing the nation. Any discussion of politics foreign or domestic ends briefly and in a yawn.

At present with the prospect of three mildly exciting and not very dangerous wars in the offing Nicaragua Mexico or Shanghai there is a certain curiosity as to what it is all about. The possibility of a little tropical or oriental fracas for a summer's amusement is worth thinking about.

The situation is very different in Oxford and the older Cambridge. British college men feel that are themselves or by proxy of some friend or relative the future governors of some part of a world fagging empire. The possibility that many of them will after graduation go out to the colonies or into the Government at home makes their Debating Unions of great importance. But over here who cares? Those who are thinking of going into politics never talk about it; because of certain happenings of the past few years it is almost as if one should announce his intention of becoming a wildcat oilstock salesman.

It is a generally acknowledged and rather serious fact that fewer and fewer of the right sort of men enter American politics every year; and the more evident this fact becomes the less inclined are college men to consider public life as a career or to take any personal interest in the Government. The country is rich and prosperous; the college man who is a lazy individual is perfectly content to let the Government sink as it has been sinking gradually for many years into the hands of selfish not too greedy and fairly competent men. A recent novel of Washington life only increased this feeling of apathy by painting an even blacker picture of corruption than has ever been brought to light. Those who read it were less inclined than ever to touch political pitch and be not only defined but plundered by the experts in the business.