THE SENATE PICNIC

It may be true that a senator leads a precarious existence, but who will gain-say that he can at times indulge his sense of humor at the public expense? For nearly a month now the Senate has wrangled over the Alabama Muscle Shoals disposal without any apparent results. Mr. Ford's offer for the contract was alternately condemned and praised for a fortnight. Then Mr. Engstrum made the fight three-cornered by throwing his hat into the ring. Now the question has been further complicated by a doubt as to just what the government owns or has under lease there and also as to just what the Muscle Shoals really are.

It was a big situation which big men could meet only in a big way, so Congress has appropriated $2000 for a free-for-all Senators' trip to the very grounds under debate. Thermos bottles in hand and lunches on the hip the austere reservationists are becoming as little children: it is the Senate picnic. As yet there is no tradition to demand outing clothes such as grace out Seniors on their festive day but grant more time. When the fragments of the picnic have been gathered into baskets and the Senators resume their places in the councils of the nation, a firmness of step, a flush of youth, a clearness and simplicity of thought will mark them as the successful Ponce de Leons par excellence, and the picnic will become a stock remedy for legislative stagnation.