Local Pressure Group Gets "God Help You" Reply When Interviewing Curley

"God help you," joked jovial James M. Curley when a local pressure group including three University students and two from Radcliffe told him the colleges they attended.

Catching Curley at the psychological moment when he was writing the speech which he delivered to the Democratic State Convention Saturday afternoon, the Cambridge quintet attempted to persuade the Democratic gubernatorial candidate to take a specific New Deal platform and push it through the Convention.

Curley Was Distracted

But Curley was surrounded and distracted by scores of other lobbyists who also thronged about his desk. "Are you sure you are in the right convention?" he asked the Harvard-Radcliffe band.

When finally forced to get serious by a question from the group as to his views on the need for extending the civil service, Curley said, "A college boy hasn't a chance today. There are more college graduates loafing than laborers. We ought to do something for them."

Discloses Educational Aims

Curley thought quite highly of the group's proposal for a municipal or state university in or near Boston and was enthusiastic about the Massachusetts extension courses. He disclosed that a program for a municipal or state university was already in the Democratic platform and would form part of his campaign platform.

The impromptu pressure group felt that if it could persuade Curley to assume a definitely liberal stand it could spike the Republican Liberal guns under Leverett Saltonstall '14, former speaker of the state House of Representatives.

The group had no illusions about Curley's past record, but felt that it was politically expedient to support him in order to assure Massachusetts of a thoroughly New Deal form of government.