Line of Succession

If President Truman should die in office, his successor would be the Secretary of State, under the Presidential Act of 1886. The fact that as of today that man would be young, enthusiastic Ed Stettinius, had only an incidental meaning to many a U.S. citizen.

Last week an old White House adviser criticized the Act itself, urged that something be done about it. Said James A. Farley, onetime Democratic National Chairman: "Under our present method, a Vice President who succeeds to the Presidency is in the unique position of being able to choose his own successor--without reference to the electorate."

Actually none of the six previous Vice Presidents who succeeded Presidents by death has himself died in office.*But Jim Farley thought the Succession Act still marked a gap in democratic procedure. His prescription: a commission charged with finding some other way to choose a new President if two died in office in a single four-year term.

*There was one near miss. In 1844, President Tyler, who had succeeded to the Presidency on the death of William Henry Harrison, was a visitor aboard the U.S. war steamer Princeton when a gun exploded. Killed were the Secretaries of State and Navy and several others of the presidential party, but John Tyler lived to serve out his term.

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