Mr. Curry, whose horse has been stumbling along to ignominy in the Gotham mayoralty race, demonstrated in the Albany caucus that Dr. O'Brien can be not only a joke but a joker. For he has Secretary Farley's vote on a resolution pledging unanimous support to regular and trademarked candidates of the Democratic Party. Although the perplexed secretary made awkward efforts to rule out the resolution, he was doomed to failure, for in a party caucus such a resolution is a conventional thing, and cannot be ruled out with any degree of urbanity. This makes his position as the godfather, through Roosevelt, of the candidacy of Joseph V. McKee, and his scorn, also through Roosevelt, of Dr. O'Brien, pretty thoroughly embarrassing. Possibly the Secretary can slide out from under, but he is a man physically and mentally bulky, and not suited to this kind of legerdemain. And Mr. Curry, we may be sure, will look with unexampled vigilance on the Secretary's patronage list, and additions thereto during the New York campaign. All of which merely reinforces Castor in his previous conclusion that Mr. Roosevelt is getting to feel encumbered by Secretary Farley, who, although he served well by the free lavish of his trick for inflaming Rotarians last November is a mite too fast on the trigger for political comfort. The anti-Tammany democracy would have done more wisely if they had supported LaGuardia and forgotten the specious McKee, for the Major will be too heavily saddled with his colleagues to undertake any really unpleasant reforms, and would thus combine safety for Roosevelt with boon for the metropolis.

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The Labor government's minister of education,. Sir Charles Trevelyan, has done at last that which Conservative Labour long feared. A resolution forcing trade union members, the actual backbone of the Labour party, to universal strike in the event of war, will soon be steered by him into Parliament. This will mark the first real test of Labour's genuineness, and its success would imply victory, however belated, of one of the great principles of its patron saints. Ramsay MacDonald, professional politician that he is, always shied away when Labour's concretion was mentioned; the trade union heads themselves were weakly unresolved; Bernard Shaw was unable, and Sidney Webb unwilling to accomplish it. The forces of inertia with in the party and the forces of opposition without may stay Sir Charles' hand, but in this event something quite as important would have happened; Labour would be shown up for a toothless dog, fit not for Passfields and Trevelyans, but for the Hon. MacDonald, and for him alone.

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This brings us, as Castor might remark, to another of the champions who have recommended universal strike as a deterrent to the military. Professor Einstein, speaking at London's Alfred Hall, mentioned many things, among them the necessity for international brotherhood, but nary a word of strike. For only last month the Professor, asked by Belgian friends whether the Nazis would menace Belgium, advised them to leave their university and join the army. This shift in position was loudly applauded by the Hearst editorial writers as a sensible adjustment to circumstance; none the less, the Professor would like to have it forgotten before he speaks again for strike or pacifism. Even in a relativist, this must be reckoned inconsistency. POLLUX.