AN AGE LIMIT FOR ALDERMEN
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sra,—I am sure all your readers will agree with " Diogenes " regarding the value of your provincial correspondence which, I venture to think, might supply an independent and dis- passionate survey of local affairs of general significance such as we are unlikely to get in the localities themselves.
The special point " Diogenes " raises—that is, the decline in the personnel of local councils—deserves very serious consideration. That the decline is fairly general no one can doubt and the reasons given by " Diogenes " are probably very near the truth. In the public life of this city we have to-day hardly any men of outstanding eminence and the public are apt to accept men as important for no better reason than that their names are constantly appearing in the daily and evening Press. Talkers, even when they are business men, are, it seems to me, a real danger to a community. Any way, the simple fact is that the best type of young citizen is not now coming forward to serve in the city council. In such circumstances, the prospect for local government is very gloomy, and it would be interesting and helpful to hear from other cities what has been or is being done to combat such a condition.
The part the Press could take in stimulating an interest in public life is obvious. But there must be active and independent criticism.. The sort of acquiescence in everything that does not happen to be Labour, which is now so charac- teristic of journalism, will do nothing to raise the standard of public life.--I am, Sir, &c., LIVERPUDLIAN.
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