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When blind Minnesota Senator Thomas David Schall ("it is not eyes that make men") has something on his mind, he must be heard. Last spring (TIME, June 28) he was told by Senator Ashurst, Arizona, that as the years rolled on he would "regret" the speech he was then making (calling his attackers "pettifoggers, blackmailers, skunks"). The Senator from Minnesota proceeded with his speech.

Senator Schall is a Minneapolitan from the city 15 miles from St. Paul, though some would put it that St. Paul is 15 miles from Minneapolis.* St. Paul has recently been congratulating itself upon its pre-eminence at Washington. Though both U. S. senators come indeed from Minneapolis, yet the St. Paul roster includes Secretary of State Kellogg, Assistant Secretary of State Robert Edwin Olds./- Solicitor General William D. Mitchell, Rush D. Simmons, in charge of Internal Revenue probes, and a number of others in lesser position."* Last week to this total was added another. Senator Schall, performing one of the most important of Senatorial duties, secured (by buttonholing Mr. Mellon) the promise of appointment for another St. Paul citizen, Carl T. Schuneman, businessman, to be Second Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, with direction of government building programs. St. Paul papers shook metaphorical hands with St. Paul; spread the news in eight-column headlines.

Last week came the gratifying report that the first St. Paul-Minneapolis intercity banquet in 35 years had been held, healing a onetime particularly acrimonious census controversy which destroyed the good will of the original Twin Cities Good Will Club. Leaders from both cities last week claimed a combined present population of 900,000, predicted an eventual 2,000,000, pledged combined effort in developing the "Hub of the Great Northwest."

/-Allegedly he inspired the Associated Press to make its widely flayed charge (TIME, Dec. 20) that a "Bolshevist hegemony" is being set up in Nicaragua with Mexican support "between the U. S. and the Panama Canal." The United Press refused to spread this report, which was popped conveniently on the eve of a statement by Secretary Kellogg envisioning a sterner attitude toward Mexico.

*Though this job-roster is certainly impressive, yet by contrast with Massachusetts, New York or Ohio it is scarcely more than the black frock of the priest to the scarlet of Cardinals.