The Exodus Begins

Like Adlai Stevenson before him, Hubert Humphrey somehow seemed taller in defeat. His final, fierce effort to overtake Richard Nixon had already won back the respect of many. His gracious acceptance of the loss disarmed most of the remaining critics. On his desk in Washington lay mountains of mail from Democrats and Republicans alike, nearly all of it favorable. Even while he relaxed last week in the Virgin Islands, he relayed word to friends in Washington that in any planning for the future of the Democratic Party, he was to be counted in.

For the time being, of course, he will be busy enough. He will serve out his term as Vice President, including the painful task of supervising the electoral-vote count the first week in Jan uary. He will dedicate himself to speech-making at fund-raising dinners to help pay off the party's campaign debt, which may reach as high as $7,000,000. He will press Larry O'Brien to stay on as National Democratic Committee Chairman to help reconstruct the party for 1970 and 1972.

As for his own political future, he might well run for the Senate in 1970 if Eugene McCarthy adheres to his decision not to seek re-election as a Democrat. He could run for Governor of Minnesota in 1970--a choice that Muriel Humphrey, who prefers life in Waverly to that in Washington, would particularly appreciate. And he could be important in the fortunes of Teddy Kennedy. "Some day you will lead the nation," Humphrey told the young Senator several months ago, "and I'm going to help you get the chance to do it."

Humphrey's options, in any event, are many. Others in the departing Administration will find it harder to remain near the center of power, and some, who have served ever since John Kennedy took office eight years ago, have no desire to do so. Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman, one of J.F.K.'s first appointees, announced even before the election that he would resign to head Washington's EDP Technology International Inc., a firm which uses computer technology to solve client countries' sociological and military problems. Wilbur Cohen, who joined the Kennedy Administration as an Assistant Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare in 1961 and eventually succeeded John Gardner, will go back to teaching at the University of Michigan in the School of Social Work. Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, who won the capital's respect both as Attorney General and Under Secretary of State, will become general counsel to International Business Machines.

Uncertain Futures. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Robert C. Weaver, the first Negro to serve in the Cabinet, accepted appointment as president of Bernard M. Baruch College, a separate college of the City University of New York that is expected to be built in a Brooklyn renewal area. Secretary of State Dean Rusk may go back to a foundation job (he was president of the Rockefeller Foundation when J.F.K. named him Secretary of State). The future is uncertain for others, like Labor's Willard Wirtz and Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

Some Cabinet members, and many sub-Cabinet and agency administrators, will return to the law (Defense Secretary Clark Clifford's practice is one of the nation's most successful). Alan Boyd, Secretary of Transportation, would like to stay on to develop his young department, but probably will reluctantly return to law as well. Interior's Stewart Udall plans to open a Washington law office with a branch in Phoenix--where he could challenge Arizona Republican Paul Fannin for his Senate seat. Yet Udall may be asked to stay on; Nixon reportedly likes him, and Udall offers a familiar New Frontier face for the bipartisan Cabinet that the President-elect has said he will appoint.

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