Breaks in the Dike

Every President since Woodrow Wilson has urged that the U.S. get into the St.

Lawrence Seaway project--and Congress has just as consistently refused. Chief stumbling bloc: the Congressmen from the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts who fear that the seaway might divert trade from ports in their states. Last week, however, another seaway bill went to the floor of the Senate, and breaks soon appeared in the traditional anti-seaway dike.

Massachusetts' Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy, realizing that the seaway is inevitable (Canada is already set to build it, with the U.S. or without), saw a chance for some Yankee trading, announced that he would support the bill.

His reasoning: if New England helps the states that stand to benefit from the seaway, then those states might be more willing to help lift New England from its economic slough. Soon to follow Kennedy's lead was New Jersey's G.O.P. Senator Alexander Smith, who said he would switch from opposition to the bill as a matter of loyalty to Eisenhower.

The defections left the anti-seaway bloc weakened, but not dead. With Senate passage virtually assured, the opposition gathered its forces for a strong stand in the House.

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