It's encouraging to see that the forces of public safety in this Common wealth have responded to the challenge of a new era in warfare. They have followed the lead of the national administration in adopting a policy of massive retaliation to deal with the forces that threaten us. Faced with the recent uprising in Charlestown, they did not attempt simply to put more men under arms than the enemy could muster. Realizing that the salaries paid penal officers could never compete with the quick riches to be won by a criminal career in appealing to the underprivileged masses, they spurned the tactic of infantry legions, and brought lumbering over the roads from Fort Devens (at the risk of putting a few more kinks in Massachusetts' great new highway system) a tank--a weapon that could wreak more havoc against the enemy than they could possibly do to us. The fact that the warden would not let this weapon within his gates (and, incidentally, that it would not fit through the gates) is, we feel sure, only a temporary problem. We congratulate the forward-looking law enforcers of this Commonwealth, and are sure that the next prison riot will afford them an opportunity to give even more bang for the buck. Maybe an aircraft carrier.