GOVERNMENT: G.O.P. for SEC

When the five Securities & Exchange Commissioners picked a chairman last week, they surprised and cheered Wall Street. Their choice: Harry A. McDonald, 55, the first Republican boss of SEC since it was set up in 1934. SEC’s three Democratic commissioners voted for McDonald to succeed Edmond Hanrahan, who resigned as SEC chairman last month (TIME, Oct. 24). Although the White House was mum, President Truman apparently approved also.

An SECommissioner since 1947, burly, good-natured Harry McDonald has plugged hard & long for a wider understanding of the securities markets by the public, has a wide understanding himself. He worked his way through the University of Chicago, but after two years in law school, dropped out in favor of selling-first ice cream, then securities. Later, he started Detroit’s H. A. McDonald Creamery Co., built it into one of Michigan’s biggest dairies. He branched out into investment banking, became a partner in Detroit’s McDonald-Moore & Co. (a connection he severed when he joined SEC). Still a salesman, McDonald’s first step as SEC boss last week was to call in his division chiefs and tell them to “make this agency one of the best in town to do business with.”