There is no reason why a President should not appoint a friend or the friend of a friend to a distinguished office, if the appointee have superior fitness and qualifications for the position. But this is not by any means the universal thought in making appointments. The nomination of Col. Colman as Commissioner of Agriculture is therefore the more remarkable. No man knows more than he about the agricultural needs of the nation; no one has a more practical or intelligent acquaintance with the subject than he, and to this as a legislator and Lieutenant-Governor of Missouri he has had that training in public affairs without which experience has fully shown that highest intelligence goes for nothing. It is so rare that the right man and the right place happen to come so fitly together, that it is well worthy of special congratulation.