In an age which is scarcely conducive to the maintenance of faith of whatever sort, Lucius N. Littauer, donor of $2,000,000 to the Harvard Graduate School of Public Administration, has managed to celebrate his eightieth birthday with words of good cheer and hope. "I can be classified," he told reporters without wavering, "as one who has confidence for the future in spite of the present."

Mr. Littauer, clearly, is no theoretical idealist. He translates his vision into action, within his compass. The school at Harvard, for example, is designed to train superior administrators of public office, a worthy objective, and the Littauer Foundation was founded to promote "better understanding among mankind."

If this phrase sounds a trifle odd and strained at the moment, surely it is not because of any inherent peculiarity, but because our ears of late have been assaulted with catchwords of far different and more ominous connotations which appear to sway the world.

Even in the best of times it is not the easiest thing to reach eighty without a bundle of besetting doubts of Things as They Are and at least a modest core of downright skepticism. To have retained poise and serenity and faith against recent developments is an achievement of which Mr. Littauer may well be proud. Boston Transcript.