College Men and Public Office

Stuart Chase, commenting on the report of his class of Harvard '10, finds that twenty years after graduation, there is among his classmates in general "no interest in the problems of government, little concern for public questions, and a tendency to leave the field clear to cheap politicians." His conclusions are rather substantiated by the fact that of the 619 known living graduates, only two are members of Congress.

Mr. Chase seeks a measure of consolation with the guess "that a parallel study for Yale or Princeton would prove even more melancholy." Whether he is correct or not in this surmise is unimportant. The fact remains that college men as a whole are not entering the field of politics, but at the same time are as rigorous as any in expressing their dissatisfaction with the government of today.

The Washington's Birthday issue of the Princetonian which appeared last February had as its title "Princeton in the World's Service" and purported to show that Princeton men have made themselves felt in national, as well as international progress. While we may be proud of having had such men as James Madison and Woodrow Wilson spend their undergraduate days here, still an investigation of the actual number of Alumni who are, or have been in political life is far less gratifying.

Most political writers, though differing on so many points, generally agree that the chief trouble with modern government is that the higher type of individual does not associate himself with it. That college men with their background and training, could do much to raise the tone of politics by entrance into a field which has degenerated is unquestioned. Princeton men could do worse than to develop "a sense of state." --The Daily Princetonian.