Highly Employable

RHODE ISLAND

In the tiniest state in the Union, tucked away on the rocky New England coast, a young and, in national terms, little-known Republican Governor emerged last week as one of his party's most potent vote getters. He was John Chafee, 42, who was re-elected to a second term in Democratic Rhode Island with a plurality of 85,604 votes.

Assault in Three Ways. Chafee comes naturally by his political interests. His great-grandfather, Henry Lippitt, was Governor of Rhode Island from 1875 to 1877. A great-uncle, Charles Warren Lippitt, was Governor from 1895 to 1897. His uncle, Zechariah Chafee, a noted Harvard law professor, ran for the Providence board of aldermen in the early 1900s, took what Governor Chafee calls a real "shellacking."

Chafee himself, a product of Providence Country Day School and Deerfield Academy, left Yale at 19 during his sophomore year, enlisted in the Marines and landed with assault troops on Guadalcanal. Back in the U.S., he finished Yale and Harvard Law. In 1951 he was recalled to the Marines and captained a rifle company in Korea. In 1952 he got his baptism by fire in the political wars as a campaign aide to unsuccessful Providence Mayoralty Candidate Christopher Del Sesto. In 1956 he struck out on his own, was elected to the state house of representatives, and two years later became minority leader.

In 1962 he was elected Governor.

As Governor, Chafee was confronted by a Democratic legislature, but he pushed through a state medicare bill that covers an estimated 45,000, expanded the state vocational program to provide training for the unemployed, authorized the acquisition of land for seven woodland and waterfront parks, and provided for a new state junior college.

Still, just over the past year he vetoed 55 Democratic bills. Some, he insists, were"dangerous" to the state. Others were downright silly. One, for example, would have provided that every car sold in Rhode Island be equipped with a device that would sound a warning when the ignition key was on but seat belts were left unfastened. Says Chafee: "There wasn't a manufacturer in the country who put out such a device."Fee Saving. Chafee also presents an image in the best tradition of New England frugality. He saved architects' fees by designing his own home, a concrete block abode on 20 acres near Providence. Trouble is, he neglected to put in a garage to house the 1962 Plymouth station wagon that he ordinarily drives instead of the state limousine that is one of his perquisites. The father of six children, Chafee laughingly tells Rhode Islanders that he wants to be Governor because he needs the job-"I have to work for a living." On the basis of last week's returns, voters seemed willing to keep Chafee employed for quite a while.

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