Nation: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Named Secretary of Commerce last year at the age of 37, Alexander (“Sandy”) Trowbridge surprised many of the business leaders who felt that he lacked the maturity and experience for the job. Despite the creation of the Department of Transportation and the demoralizing prospect that Commerce would be merged with the Labor Department—a Johnson proposal that is now at best dormant—Trowbridge worked a 16-hour day, boosted his department’s morale, and performed creditably in one of the Cabinet’s least enviable posts.

However, Trowbridge had other problems. Eighteen months ago he suffered a heart attack, and last month he was hospitalized for a coronary deficiency. Last week President Johnson announced that Trowbridge is leaving for health reasons. He is the third Cabinet member to resign in the past three months —after Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and HEW Secretary John Gardner.

To replace Trowbridge, Johnson made an expectably unexpected choice: Cyrus Rowlett Smith, 68, a salty, poker-loving Texan who took over American Airlines in 1934 and guided its growth through the ’50s (1967 revenues: $842 million). A brilliant executive, “C.R.” helped organize the Army’s wartime Air Transport Command, of which he was deputy commander, and wound up a major general at war’s end, when he returned to American to steer it into the postwar age of commercial aviation. He resigned only last month as American’s chief executive officer and remains chairman of the board, a post he will probably have to relinquish in order to avoid conflicts of interest at Commerce.

The President also appointed a 15-member board of the new Public Broadcasting Corporation, a noncommercial educational venture to be financed by the Government and private sources. To be chairman of the board, Johnson named Frank Pace Jr., onetime Secretary of the Army and former head of the General Dynamics Corp.