This year the C. C. A. still retained that majority, but two of the C.C.A. endorsed councillors--Crane and Deguglielmo--were distinctly dissatisfied with Atkinson's policies. They bolted from the other three, and teamed up with three independents to form the crucial majority.

The unholy alliance brought immediate speculation: does it mean the end of good government for Cambridge? But merely because Crane and Deguglielmo broke from the C.C.A. did not mean they would not follow C.C.A. policy on other matters. Indeed they both felt Atkinson was not following C.C.A. policy himself, particularly on capital financing and school lighting. They saw him as an absentee manager who still had outside business interests despite the $20,000 yearly salary.

But others did not think the overall issue counted. They saw one thing: Atkinson brought reform, so Atkinson should be kept. The Boston Herald commented editorially: "John J. Curry will begin his term of office under a shadow . . . he will never be able to forget that the man who preceded him was a strong man who could say no and who was fired because of it; who left office with few political friends, but with high honor." What these Atkinson proponents evidently forgot, at least the majority of the councillors thought, was that Atkinson was elected by a good government coalition; that he flouted this coalition; and that at times even superceded the authority of the elected body, the council.

Steady Faith

But Atkinson still had faith in the Plan E form of government. Said he: "It is the most democratic form of municipal administration in the world. Why, I was even removed from office through its democratic process."

Schoolmaster Curry reported for work the next morning at 8 a.m., and tackled some of the big headaches left over. A deligent worker, admittedly "politically inexperienced," Curry would make "no promises whatsoever" but appeared ready to carry out the C.C.A.'s program.

Cambridge lost a city manager in its growth, a man who had refrormed a corrupt city. It gained a new manager, ready to develop the city into better financial and academic avenues.