THE WIT AND WISDOM OF CONGRESS

Editor Edward Boykin should give a pleasant jolt to many Americans, especially the apolitical ones, with his surprisingly stimulating bit of symposia called The Wit and Wisdom of Congress. Though many might doubt that august body having the above-cited attributes, just a slight dip into Funk and Wagnalls' offering should convince, for the pages there really bristle and beam with the best, from nasty Dixiecrat digs and clever Midwestern sallies to verbal Pacific somersaults and an occasional worldly gem, almost always from the East. To be sure, there's nothing around to excite the shades of Oscar Wilde or Goethe, but Kentucky's Proctor Knott could easily equal Will Rogers, the wonderfully 'retort-ical' Tom Reed resembles the stiletto-styled Noel Coward, and Machiavelli might have enjoyed an enclosed 'Rules for a Congressman'. Besides the famous Webster, Calhoun, Clay and LaFollette contributions, Boykin has revivified the little known Taft-Fulbright debate on tariffs, a very funny Huey Long-Lewis debate on Huey Long, MacArthur's orotund 'Old Soldiers' speech, Senator Kennedy's resolution to close the world's economic gap, Kenting-Dirksen- et al dissecting what constitutes the national flower, and many-many-many Lincoln stories told, retold or on-the-spot invented by all those determined to bend the ears of their colleagues and constituents. A treasury indeed.