STORMS WITHIN STORMS

Amid all the gloomy smoke and fire which the Teapot Dome Scandal has spread over the national Congress, it must be refreshing to have there the naivete of a Magnus Johnson. Although the reports of his milking contests have of late simmered into quietude, the Senator from Minnesota has by no means yet emptied his bag of tricks. The latest is an excursion to the Senate press gallery to challenge a home-state newspaper correspondant to a verbal duel. If all Minnesota citizens are as frank and as earnest as their radical senator, the roof of the Capital Building would probably have received some severe shocks. Fortunately the superintendent persuaded Senator Johnson to come with him for some air before the correspondent had an opportunity to get his Minnesota oratory into action.

The Senator's action must call up some interesting questions. Does farming develop impetuousness? Is radical bias ear-marked by wildness of behavior? The first is impossible to answer because in spite of the number of expert milkers in Congress, there are few professed farmers. The answer to the second must be no, for before and after the time Senator Sumner was eained many an exciting scene has been enacted within this august body by radical and conservative alike. Flying off the handle is ingrained in human nature and until evolution has evolved a race of intellectual and moral supermen, Congressmen and senators will continue at times to descend to the plane of "us mortals".