Chalrborne Pilot

The "Man Wanted" sign was finally taken down last week by the Civil Aeronautics Board. President Truman found someone willing to be CAB chairman. The job had gone begging since James M. Landis left almost three months ago. It had been turned down formally by two candidates and informally by half a dozen others, chiefly because the pay ($10,000 a year) was too low.

The new nominee is a friendly, easygoing lawyer named Joseph J. O'Connell Jr., 43, an old Government hand. He started work with the Government in 1933 as a public works attorney after he had worked his way through night classes at Fordham law school by selling plumbing equipment. He moved to the Treasury in 1938, became its general counsel in 1944, but quit last year "to provide for the financial security" of his wife and two daughters. He changed his mind about Government work, which he enjoys, because "I was flattered by the President's request and couldn't find any good reason for saying no."

This willingness seemed to be the reason he had been picked to help supervise the billion-dollar airlines industry. "If they're looking for someone with an expert knowledge of the aviation industry," said he, "they've got the wrong guy. What I know about the CAB and its problems is no different from what the average citizen knows about it from reading the newspapers."

Nevertheless, the Senate is expected to confirm him, so that headless CAB can get to work again. Last week the Senate confirmed Harold A. Jones, 50, Los Angeles lawyer and World War I Marine pilot, thus filling the other vacancy on the five-man board.

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