National Affairs: Landes Out

Once aroused, there is no more potent politician than the Better Element. It lifts politics right out of Politics. But then, successful, the Better Element forgets. Last week, Seattle reached the turning point of the same sort of Better Element cycle by which New York got a Hylan after a Mitchell, Chicago a Thompson after a Dever, and by which Detroit will inevitably get a question mark after its Lindberghian granduncle, Mayor John C. Lodge.

Four years ago, while underworldly Mayor Edwin J. Brown of Seattle was away, the president of the Seattle City...