THE ADMINISTRATION: Hard-boiled

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The U.S.'s hens, bustling and industrious (though by act of Congress they are bureaucratic workers), hatched a Government crisis. Despite all the Agriculture Department could do to curb them, hens have laid 270 million dozen more eggs than in the same period last year. The nation will not buy enough eggs at the current high prices, so—under the mad terms of a foolish farm law—the Government has to buy the leftovers, dry them and stuff them into caves and warehouses, with all the powdered eggs left over from other years.

Even though the Department of Agriculture last December cut 10¢ a dozen off the support price of eggs, the farmers and their hens kept cackling away. Obviously, it was time for a hard-boiled solution. Last week it came. Secretary of Agriculture Charles F. Brannan announced that the Government was canceling egg supports after Dec. 31. (The eggs on hand represented a loss of about $85 million to the Government.) The order also meant that U.S. consumers should be able to get cheaper eggs at the grocery store after New Year's Day.

On the day that he capitulated to the hens, Secretary Brannan paid a call on President Truman and paused on the way out of the White House to discuss a Washington rumor with reporters. Since many politicians were claiming that the Brannan Plan was discredited at the polls, was he on his way out of the Cabinet?

"I don't know how the dickens to answer a thing like that," said smiling, candid Charlie Brannan. "As far as I know, I'm staying. I don't know anybody who suggested my getting out who was for my being there in the first place."