The New Administration: Secretary of Agriculture

EZRA TAFT BENSON, 53, farm marketing specialist, one of the twelve apostles of the Mormon Church.

Family & Early Years: His great-grandfather, Ezra Taft Benson, was a Mormon apostle. His father, George Taft Benson, was a farmer at Whitney (southern) Idaho, where Ezra was born. As the middle name indicates, he is a remote relative of Ohio’s Senator Robert A. Taft. Said Benson: “We have a common ancestral progenitor about six generations back. My great-great-grandmother was a Taft.” Benson attended Oneida Stake Academy (Mormon) at Preston, Idaho and the Utah State Agricultural College, got his bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University in 1926, a master of science degree in agricultural economics from the University of Iowa.

Career: He was a livestock farmer at Whitney in 1923-29, county agent for the University of Idaho extension service in Franklin County, Idaho in 1929-30, economist and marketing specialist for the university’s extension service in 1930-38, executive secretary of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives in Washington in 1939-44. As the council’s chief operating officer, he was the agent and helper of thousands of farmers in 4,600 cooperatives (group buying and selling associations) which did an annual business of $1.3 billion. He started active church work in 1921 when he spent two years as a missionary in Europe. He was president of the Boise, Idaho stake (division) of the church in the late ’30s, headed the Washington, D.C. stake in 1940-43. In 1943, he became one of the twelve apostles and since then has devoted almost all his time to church duties. In 1946, he went to Europe for nearly a year as head of the Mormon European Mission.

Politics: Never active in politics, Benson quietly favored Bob Taft for the G.O.P. presidential nomination this year. He got excellent recommendations from farm organization leaders. He favors a farm price support program, but in a speech to a farm group he warned against “leaning on Government aid instead of your own initiative.”

Personality: A big (6 ft., 220 Ibs.) farmerlike man, with huge hands, an open, oval, red face and a direct, purposeful manner, he lives in moderate circumstances on a “cost-of-living” allowance for his work as a Mormon apostle. He is married, has two sons (the elder, Reed A., is a Mormon chaplain with the Air Force) and four daughters. After his appointment was announced, Ezra Benson said: “While I had never met General Eisenhower until today, I have great confidence in his ability and his power of leadership. Therefore, obedient to the call and consistent with the principles which have guided my life, I shall do my best, God being my helper.”