Will Navin Receive The Honor?

It is more than likely that the great pressure which is being brought to bear upon Governor Bliss to induce him to appoint Thomas J. Navin member of the Jackson prison board will be successful. The McMillan men are working for Navin, and these men are influential. Then, the ex-convict has a large following of political friends in Detroit and is himself a shrewd and successful politician of the baser sort. He has the rather questionable taste of wanting to be trustee over the prison in which he was himself at one time an inmate, "doing time" for a very serious crime.

The fact that Mr. Navin bas at one time been a criminal would not of course constitute in itself an insuperable objection to his appointment, though it would seem a very good reason why a man of finer sensibility would not desire such an honor. If he has "lived down" his disgrace and regained the esteem of his fellow men, his past career may properly be overlooked and his present worth alone recognized. He certainly has shown himself to be a man of strong will and engaging personality to have so far overcome the odium which attaches to flagrant transgression of the law, as to have reached a leading place in Wayne county politics.

But aside from his personal history, is Toni Navin the right man to appoint to a position that should demand the highest civic virtues in the incumbent? Can a man who has figured conspicuously in ring politics in a large city, command the esteem of the people of Michigan? Is there anything whatever in his career, except the fact that he is personally familiar with the workings of the prison, that shows and fitness for the position he asks for? Would a man possessed of any delicacy of sentiment, any refinement or sense of fitness, any genuine, heartfelt repentance for his past misdeeds, think of asking for this honor, but would he not rather wait until such a compliment came to him unsought if it came at all?

It would seem like questions of this sort would arise in the minds of the governor, and of the senators, and cause them to hesitate before gratifying the strange, not to say impudent, request of Mr. Navin. But the indications point to the Detroiter's appointment. The influence of the political bosses is strong and the governor will yield. Nevertheless it is pretty safe to say that Tom Navin's appoiutment to the prison board board will not be approved by the better sentiment of the people of Michigan.— Hastings Herald.