Edge to Paris

"Sometime in October" Walter Evans Edge will walk out of the Senate chamber for the last time, submit to Governor Larson his resignation as senior Republican Senator from New Jersey, sail grandly overseas to France, establish himself, his beauteous wife, his four chil dren, his entourage of valets, maids, nurses, cooks, butlers, chauffeurs, in the U. S. embassy at Paris. President Hoover last week sanctioned publication of news that Senator Edge will be the next Ambassador to France, succeeding Myron Timothy Herrick, deceased (TIME, April 8). Rich, social, commonsensical if not brilliant. Senator Edge worked long and late as a Hoover _ cam paigner last year. In Paris he will be happy indeed because "just across the channel, Charley" (TIME, May 27) will be his good friend, Ambassador Dawes. As Senator Edge was not immediately to take up his hard-won diplomatic assignment, the White House delayed official announcement of his appointment. The surface explanation: As a Republican member of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Edge was needed through the special session to "help" President Hoover on tariff revision.* The real political reason: If Mr. Edge resigned from the Senate before Oct. 5. New Jersey voters under the law would pick his successor at a general election on Nov. 5. This would mean a cat-&-dog fight among New Jersey Republicans, who are split. The split might be wide enough to let a Demo crat through. If Senator Edge resigned after Oct. 5, Governor Larson, not the People, would choose his successor, thus preserving a Republican in the U. S. Senate, harmony in New Jersey G. O. P.

*Senator Edge is classified as a tariff super-protectionist. Super-protectionists revising tariff rates skyward have so far not been ''helpful" to President Hoover whose_ desire, so far as known, is for ''limited" revision.