To Be Continued

The Bricker amendment serial ran on and on, and Georgia's veteran Democratic Senator Walter George was fed up. When the White House turned down his substitute amendment (TIME, Feb. 8), George rumbled: "There is no hope for compromise now." He took his proposal to the Senate floor and pressed for a vote. But in the U.S. Senate last week, patience was a necessary virtue--and Walter George would have to wait until a few more chapters ran their course. Among last week's episodes:

P:Ohio's Republican Senator John Bricker, badly in need of some face-saving after moving far from his original position, wanted to make it appear that the Administration was also being forced into a compromise. He offered to accept a modified version of the George amendment on condition that President Eisenhower also publicly endorse it.

P:The President would have none of it. He told his press conference (see above) that he would not compromise by one word with any amendment which alters the constitutional balance of the three branches of Government. Besides, said Ike, the whole question is very intricate, and there should be no hurry. The Eisenhower stand caused Bricker to backpedal toward his starting point. He introduced a reworded version of his famed "which" clause. Cried Bricker: "I will never surrender on the basic principles involved."

P:Missouri's Democratic Senator Thomas C. Hennings Jr., spokesman for an anti-Bricker group which never had an idea of compromise, recognized the George substitute as the chief threat. He pointed to George's key provision, which would make international executive agreements effective as U.S. internal lawonly when approved by both branches of Congress. If this right were given to the House, said Hennings, the traditional power of the South to block a two-thirds Senate vote would be diluted. Hennings was fully aware of George's main source of support: the Senate's Southern bloc.

P:Majority Leader William Knowland, caught in the crossfire between the Administration and the Brickerites, produced still another amendment draft. It was a makeshift effort with little support. Knowland finally announced that there would be no vote on any of the schemes until next week so as to give the U.S. public "an opportunity to look and study."

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