NEW TREASURY BOSS

Named by President Eisenhower last week to succeed George Magoffin Humphrey as Treasury Secretary: Robert Bernerd Anderson, 47.

Early Years. Son of a Texas cotton and dairy farmer, Bob Anderson worked his way through two years of college, then taught high school in home-town Burleson (pop. 800), and coached an unbeaten football team on the side, until he could save enough to start himself through the University of Texas law school. During his final year of law school, Democrat Anderson campaigned for the state legislature on weekends, was elected the day he graduated (with the best scholastic record in the school's history) in 1932.

Career. Appointed state tax commissioner at 24, he became at 31 general manager of the W. T. Waggoner estate, a land, cattle and oil empire sprawling over six Texas counties. Turning down inviting offers--among them the $75,000-a-year presidency of the American Petroleum Institute-- he stuck with the estate, expanding it steadily. In late 1952, on the advice of Texas' then-Governor Allan Shivers, Dwight Eisenhower nominated Anderson as Navy Secretary. Never before aboard an ocean-going vessel, Anderson navigated the Navy expertly from his swivel chair. Item: with rare courage he reversed the decision of senior Navy brass, recommended the promotion of passed-over Captain Hyman G. Rickover, able "father" of the atomic submarine, to rear admiral. He succeeded Roger M. Kyes as Deputy Defense Secretary in May 1954. Sitting in for Defense Secretary Charles Erwin Wilson at National Security Council sessions, he impressed Dwight Eisenhower with his penetrating, cool-headed summary of the case for defending the Nationalist-held islands of Quemoy and Matsu during the Formosa Strait crisis in 1954-55. Over Ike's protests, Anderson left Washington in 1955 to take over the presidency of sprawling Ventures, Ltd., a Canadian mining firm, where in a short time he rang up a reputation for good sense and audacity.

Politics. A longtime Democrat and friend of Texas Democratic politicos (including Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson and House Speaker Sam Rayburn), Anderson backed Ike in 1952, switched his registration to Republican in 1956. In general outlook, Anderson could well serve as a model Eisenhower Republican. George Humphrey, who became an Anderson friend and admirer through Cabinet contacts, recommended him as the best man for the Treasury job.

Personality. Anderson combines an easy grin and mild manner with businesslike drive and savvy, has little time for the social circuit, plenty of time for such interests as the Boy Scouts. Stricken with polio at three, he still walks with a slight limp that keeps him out of active sports and kept him out of service in World War II. Uncomfortable about missing military service, he once said, holding a forefinger a quarter-inch above his desk top: "When it comes to measuring who has given up most for his country. I measure about this high.'' But in the opinion of official and unofficial Washington. Bob Anderson is well on the way to measuring much higher than most men can reach.

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