Seat-Warmer

When one of the Massachusetts Salton-stalls has a big decision to make, he retires to the bosom of his family, and there takes family counsel. The problem is mulled over with the welfare of 1) Massachusetts, 2) the Saltonstalls, in mind.

After six days of consulting his family, and of sawing wood and saying little, Governor Leverett Saltonstall reported his decision to Massachusetts. He will not resign and have himself appointed to fill the U.S. Senate seat of Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., now on duty as a U.S. Army major. Instead the lean, salty Governor will finish out his present job and run for the Senate in November. The Bay State applauded his decision. To keep the Senate seat warm for eleven and a half months, Governor Saltonstall then appointed his friend, Harvard classmate ('14) and townsman (Newton), balding, genial Sinclair ("Sinnie") Weeks, 50.

Sinclair Weeks has been a Republican from his cradle. His father was the late John Wingate Weeks, prosperous Boston broker (Hornblower & Weeks), who went through the House and Senate to become Harding's Secretary of War. In the 1916 G.O.P. convention, John Weeks ran second to Charles Evans Hughes in the balloting.

An artillery captain in World War I, Sinclair Weeks, like his father, began his political career as an alderman, became mayor of West Newton. He tried for the Senate in 1936, was nosed out for the nomination by Cabot Lodge. He fathered six children, built up a solid fortune as president of Reed & Barton (silverware) and board chairman of United-Carr Fastener Corp. (metal fasteners, buckles, clips). An able businessman in politics, he put the Massachusetts G.O.P. on a sound financial basis, is now treasurer of the G.O.P. National Committee.

An ardent Willkieite, in 1941 he urged Republicans to forget party and support Franklin Roosevelt's foreign policy. He was credited with changing many a Republican's mind on intervention bills. But on domestic issues he is squarely anti-Administration.

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