Even Stephen

Harry Truman had some big appointments to make. For a while he was racked with indecision. Then suddenly he made up his mind.

To the Court. To be the 13th Chief Justice of the U.S. he chose Frederick Moore Vinson, 56, the old friend and versatile Kentuckian who had ably managed the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion and been Treasury Secretary for eleven months.

The Chief Justiceship had presented a tough problem in high politics. The divided and disorganized Court (TIME, May 13) had made the elevation of any of the Associate Justices just about impossible (the President's early choice had been Justice Robert Jackson).

The situation called for a jurist who might be able to bring harmony out of dissonance, stand at the balancing center of gravity. After weeks of searching, middle-of-the-road Fred Vinson seemed to Harry Truman to be just the man, even though he was known as a tax expert and a skillful politicker rather than a jurist (he had spent five years on the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia).

To the Treasury. To succeed him in the Treasury, the President nominated the man who had twice before come in behind Vinson as he moved upward--Reconversion Boss John Wesley Snyder, a virtual unknown until Harry Truman moved to the White House. John Snyder and Harry Truman were buddies in World War I. They are the closest of cronies now. Perhaps that fact alone was enough for the President to pick him for the second "highest Cabinet post (and second in succession to the presidency).

The President's advisers pulled few punches in telling him that upping John Snyder would not be good politics.

Harry Truman well knew that organized labor would never forget that it was Snyder who urged him into his hasty draft-labor proposal. But Mr. Truman is fiercely loyal to his friends. Cried the New Dealing New York Post: "It is doubtful whether John Snyder could do as much harm in his new post as he did in his old."

To the U.N. Harry Truman's third appointment got warm applause from the Senate, official Washington, the press & public. As permanent U.S. member of the U.N. Security Council, he picked Vermont's able, conservative, solidly internationalist Republican Senator Warren Robinson Austin, 68.

Ever since Munich Senator Austin had been a valiant anti-isolationist. He had risked political extinction and the taunts of many a Republican colleague by fighting for a compulsory military training bill in 1940. When other Senators argued that Lend-Lease would surely lead the U.S. to war, Warren Austin replied: "There are many things worse than war. A world enslaved by Hitler is much worse than war; it is worse than death. And a country whose boys will not go out and fight to save Christianity and the principles of freedom--well, you won't find such boys in America."

To the World Bank. The $30,000-a-year (tax free) presidency of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development had gone begging for months. Several prospects had rejected the job. Then Democratic National Chairman Bob Hannegan began thumping the drums for ex-Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, now a real-estate and Scotch-whiskey tycoon. That got action, but of an unexpected sort.

When Secretary of State Jimmy Byrnes heard of the Kennedy boom, he jumped to head it off. When the President asked for an alternative, Jimmy Byrnes suggested his friend Eugene Meyer, the rich, respected owner of the Washington Post. Within the hour, a surprised Mr. Meyer had the job.

Gene Meyer is no stranger to large affairs. He made his first million (Wall Street) before he was 30, has added many more. He first got into Government finance as director of the War Finance Corporation of World War I. He was the Governor of the Federal Reserve Board when Herbert Hoover made him the first chairman of the RFC. In his 13 years as owner-publisher of the Post he has converted it from a discredited, down-at-heel, old-line G.O.P. organ into a prosperous, independent journal.

Thus, for two domestic jobs, the President had chosen two old friends, both dull and uninspiring appointments. For two positions of international import, he had picked two Republicans--which should remove forever any small taint of isolationism that might still dog the G.O.P.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.