National Affairs: Hot Tips

In their very own barbershop not far off the Senate floor, U.S. Senators can get free haircuts, shaves and shoeshines. Their needs are cared for with a smile by three barbers, a shoeshine boy and a porter, all on steady Government salaries. Last fortnight the root of all evil temporarily upset this happy situation.

Most Senators tip the barbershop staff generously (standard: 25¢ for a shine, $1 for a haircut). But some, who remained nameless throughout the incident, got to thinking that free should mean free. So Forest A. Harness, the new Republican sergeant at arms, told a sad barbershop crew: no more tips. When South Carolina's freshly clipped Democratic Senator Burnet Maybank reached out with a dollar and was told the barber couldn't accept it, he roared: "I won't break the rules but that rule has got to be changed. I been paying a dollar every haircut since 1941."

The view of Maybank and other willing tippers prevailed. By last week the new rule had been withdrawn and everything had been tipped back into place.