National Affairs: Compromise?

The long-awaited "great debate" on the Bricker amendment in the U.S. Senate did not materialize—the real struggle was in the cloakrooms, corridors and hotel suites where leaders of both parties worked for a compromise. The major Bricker amendment speech on the Senate floor was delivered by Tennessee's Democratic Senator Estes Kefauver, who hovered near his point for two days with the drone of an overfed bumblebee while a handful of his colleagues slouched drowsily in their chairs. One reason for the sad quality of debate was that many Senators .were too busy elsewhere—arguing the Bricker amendment in the desultory non sequiturs...