Sane Professor

By way of a curtain raiser to the drama of the giants, Dr. Thomas Sewall Adams, Professor of Political Economy at Yale University, resigned from government work. The eminent economist had been employed as special adviser to the committee investigating the Internal Revenue Bureau. Writing to Senator "Jim" Watson, he said: "To probe for the sake of probing impresses me--if I may say so without offense--as a particularly demoralizing form of child's play."

He pointed out that a force of 19,000 collected $2,500,000,000 in taxes and pay $100,000,000 refunds annually, and said:

"Under such circumstances there must inevitably occur mistakes in judgment, instances of favoritism and sporadic cases of actual graft. The committee will have no difficulty in finding cases of each kind. But they signify nothing unless there is reason to believe that graft and favoritism are widespread and chronic in the work of the Bureau."

It was almost unanimously agreed that the Professor's remarks made perfect sense.