Mr. Walters has invited me to write a few prefatory lines to his
volume of “Civil Service Jingles and Other Things”, and I cheerfully
comply, although it may be at the risk of doing harm to his really
meritorious enterprise. It has been my privilege to read many of these
selections in manuscript, and some of them have already seen the
light of day in print. I have frankly encouraged him to make up the
present collection and give his fellow civil servants an opportunity
to have it in library form. He may have been influenced in a positive
way by this advice, and to that extent I find an excuse for adding my
commendation now. I really like these aptly named “Jingles”, which
have clearly been written more for the idle hour than the study. They
appeal to me as revealing a bright and observing mind, combined with
the rare gift of putting ideas into an entertainingly satirical shape.
They are witty without being unwholesome, and while they are not in any
sense pretentious, they are nevertheless distinctly creditable to Mr.
Walters’ genius.