The Week

• The Sierra Leone government has offered a three-hundred-dollar prize for “a simple, distinctive and stirring melody of dignity and relevance” that can serve for a national anthem. It is assumed that there will be no trouble with the words, once we can whistle the tune. Dag Hammarskjold has so far overlooked this almost universal problem of our fledgling nations. As each new anthem is adopted, it must, of course, be sent, in sheet music form, along with specifications for the new flag, to all the bands that play official welcomes to official parties at all the world’s ports, capitals and airports. A suggestion has been made by a despairing band leader to have just one international welcoming anthem (“We’ll Fight! Fight! Fight! For the UN Tonight!,” say) with the others reserved for domestic occasions.

• The friends of Adlai Stevenson are annoyed with Senator Kennedy for refusing to name Stevenson his choice for Secretary of State. Before they go out and work in the Kennedy campaign, they want a firm commitment in behalf of the man who has written that we have less to fear from Communism than from the complexities of modern life. Chester Bowles has announced that he won’t seek re-election to the House, and his fans are at work trying to get a commitment from Kennedy. On top of that, Averell Harriman has hopped off to Africa this week, whence he is sure to return with fresh misinformation, and therefore with all the qualifications to become Secretary of State—adding another unemployed foreign policy expert to the Kennedy brain trust. Slipping at the polls, facing a rebellious South, a split in the New York Democrats and risky television debates—plus the support of the Stevenson, Bowles and Harriman factions; now indeed is the time for Mr. Kennedy’s solemnly-proclaimed greatness.

Featured Tags

• The Sierra Leone government has offered a three-hundred-dollar prize for “a simple, distinctive and stirring melody of dignity and relevance” that can serve for a national anthem. It is assumed that there will be no trouble with the words, once we can whistle the tune. Dag Hammarskjold has so far overlooked this almost universal problem of our fledgling nations. As each new anthem is adopted, it must, of course, be sent, in sheet music form, along with specifications for the new flag, to all the bands that play official welcomes to official parties at all the world’s ports, capitals and airports. A suggestion has been made by a despairing band leader to have just one international welcoming anthem (“We’ll Fight! Fight! Fight! For the UN Tonight!,” say) with the others reserved for domestic occasions.

• The friends of Adlai Stevenson are annoyed with Senator Kennedy for refusing to name Stevenson his choice for Secretary of State. Before they go out and work in the Kennedy campaign, they want a firm commitment in behalf of the man who has written that we have less to fear from Communism than from the complexities of modern life. Chester Bowles has announced that he won’t seek re-election to the House, and his fans are at work trying to get a commitment from Kennedy. On top of that, Averell Harriman has hopped off to Africa this week, whence he is sure to return with fresh misinformation, and therefore with all the qualifications to become Secretary of State—adding another unemployed foreign policy expert to the Kennedy brain trust. Slipping at the polls, facing a rebellious South, a split in the New York Democrats and risky television debates—plus the support of the Stevenson, Bowles and Harriman factions; now indeed is the time for Mr. Kennedy’s solemnly-proclaimed greatness.