Purple Shamrock Wilts

Over 400,000 voters had registered in October--some 25,000 more than ever before in Boston's history. Furthermore, Tuesday, election day, was fine and most of those registered could get to the polls. In the morning papers, Secretary of Labor Maurice J. Tobin, the darling of Boston politics, came out in favor of John B. Hynes. By ten p.m. that night, James M. Curley, the aged and colorful ruler of the Boston political world, had been beaten by Hynes, the man who replaced him when he served his jail sentence in 1916.

The change is welcome in Boston. The city is well-rid of the crowd of mourners in City Hall who waked Curley's political corpse on election night because they had lost their jobs. With a new major, the city can expect new employees who, at least for a time, will stimulate the city's functioning More than that, the voters who elected Hynes can now demand a strict accounting of their tax money.

It is the earnest hope of the Hynes' supporters that he will not be overwhelmed by the job of reconstructing the city's financial set-up. In the past, the hopelessly confused accounting has been the curse that Curley has placed on the head of his successors. The Boston voters elected the new mayor on the hope that he could untangle the Curley mess; with his experience as acting mayor and city clerk, Hynes has the background to satisfy this hope. But the job is ahead and the work, more than the wishes, of the Hynes supporters will be required to accomplish it successfully.