Following the tradition of pre-war days when Congressmen were sure of getting home every summer and their biggest worry was the New Deal, the eightieth Congress has spent its first few weeks busily doing nothing. The Senate has been in session 36 days, the House 40. Legislative oratory filled almost 3500 closely printed pages in the Congressional Record. Over 4000 measures have been introduced. By the first of this week 13,442 nominations from the executive department had been received. Innumerable hours have been spent in tedious, boring committee meetings.

This mountainous load of work resulted in 17 bills being sent up Pennsylvania Avenue for the President's signature. Only two are of even passing importance--one an exemption from taxation of Mr. Rockefeller's gift to the United Nations, the other an extension of the war-time rate of certain excise taxes. The rest concern such vital issues as annual rates of pay for Senate clerical staffs, the Philadelphia National Shrines Park Commission, installation of a storm drain under certain lands in Los Angeles, and payments to Switzerland for the sinking of the Awa Maru.

The Lilienthal controversy, budget estimates, various proposals concerning labor, and consideration of an amendment to limit Presidential tenure have consumed a goodly amount of time without producing either bills or resolutions acceptable to both Houses. But a sizable proportion of Congressional proceedings and almost half the space in the Record have been allotted to material designed for constituent consumption--eulogies of Luther Burbank, St. Patrick, and William Sibert; condemnation of Reds, the New Deal, and executive extravagance; reading excerpts from local editorials, school girl essays, or telegrams from prominent citizens. These opi, printed in the Record (and no Congressman is ever refused permission to insert anything in the Record) will some day appear in the mail-boxes of voters who will be properly amazed that their Congressman can be so well informed on everything from Moscow to Main Street.

Uppermost in the mind of every solon is the fact is the fact that a Presidential election is less than two years away. There are 51 potential Presidents among Senate Republicans. Even the baby Senators are getting illusions of grandeur. No one wants to tie himself to a party program until he has had more time to sound out public feeling, and Republicans are still in doubt as to the exact meaning of their November "mandate." For these reasons the eightieth Congress is likely to be notable for what it does not do.