Logical Choice

Harry Truman did not have to look far for someone to succeed W. Stuart Symington as Secretary of the Air Force. The logical choice was the man who headed the President's Air Policy Commission in 1947 and produced the report recommending a 70-group Air Force. Last week the President nominated bald, sharp-eyed Thomas Knight Finletter for the job. Never a flyer himself, 56-year-old Tom Finletter comes from a socialite Philadelphia family and is a Manhattan corporation lawyer, a United World Federalist, an avid student of history and an expert in international economics. When appointed to the Air Commission, he knew little about air power but he impressed all comers with his conscientious fairness and his ability to grasp and marshal facts. After the Finletter Commission report was finished he was appointed head of the EGA mission to Britain, stayed on until last summer.

A friendly, even-tempered Democrat who lives quietly with his wife (the daughter of Conductor Walter Damrosch) in Manhattan, Tom Finletter seemed a good choice to settle the boiling controversy over aircraft procurement. Best bet was that Secretary Finletter would follow Secretary Symington's line: agree to a 48-group Air Force now, as the President ordered; keep plugging for a 70-group Air Force as the minimum safe air defense of the U.S.

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