Hats Off!

Next week will be National Pickle Week. All over the country, strong arms and keen minds will move as one man towards the culmination of the annual celebration of this vegetable. The National Pickle Packers Association will hold a convention that will turn the American Legion green with envy. From a line of glorious stars of the screen, the chairman of the group will crown a Pickle Queen. Once more, America will acknowledge the stupendous role the pickle has played in the flowering of the human spirit.

Yet, for all of this pageantry, the bitter fact remains that Americans know all too little about the pickle. What schoolchild, for example, realizes that Amerigo Vespucci, who gave his name to a hemisphere, once dealt in the pickle traffic in Spain? It is probably safe to say that few college graduates could supply the answer to such a question. Furthermore, how many citizens know that in a broader sense, the term "pickle" can be applied to any saline or acid preservative solution?

It is just these wider vistas that the pickle packers are endeavoring to bring to the surface. The job will be a difficult one. There is a disturbing cultural lag in the realm of the pickle. We are satisfied, however, that the future of the pickle is in good hands; given the proper facts, given the freedom of discussion in the market-place of opinion, given the technical know-how, the American people can be counted on to weigh all factors impartially, and give a rising vote of confidence to the pickle--a vote that cannot be gainsaid.