Kennedy Hits the Trail

Joseph Patrick Kennedy, now 57 and with red hair greying, came out of self-imposed political exile last week and went back to work for his native state of Massachusetts.

At the behest of young, earnest Governor Maurice J. Tobin, Joe Kennedy had become chairman of a "special commission relative to establishing a state department of commerce." His job was to prepare legislation to rejuvenate Massachusetts' rapidly deteriorating industry.

Joe Kennedy had taken the job reluctantly. His last public service, as U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James, had ended badly when he told newsmen that democracy was through in England. Then he had broken with his good friend Franklin Roosevelt and retired to write a book (still unfinished) to prove that he was right in the beginning about the war and the world.

Joe Kennedy was not embittered; he is not a bitter man. And he had had worse troubles: within two months last year, his eldest son, Joseph Jr., and his son-in-law, the Marquess of Hartington, had both been killed in action. He had tried to take his mind off his troubles; he had bought property in Manhattan and Albany, finally paid $17,000,000 for the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. The antidote did not work. Said Kennedy: "I thought I'd get a kick out of such trading, but I didn't."

Last Chance. But last week Joe Kennedy seemed to have his old zest again. In a midnight blue Chrysler, he rode like a Paul Revere through the textile, shoe and machinery-producing towns in Middlesex, Essex, and Berkshire counties. All the way from Greenfield to Salem, in some 30 speeches within ten days, he spread the alarm:

"I'm willing to come back [to Massachusetts] to live because this is where my heart is. But I don't expect to come back to stay until I think there has been a change for the better. For the past 25 years Massachusetts has consistently been losing business--in that time 2,300 industries have left the state. . . . We haven't done a blessed thing to find out why they are leaving or to keep them here. During the next five years Massachusetts will have its last chance to keep itself out of the grave."

This medicine was too strong for many a conservative New England stomach. Cracked some critics: If Kennedy is so interested in the future of his state, why did he spend $17,000,000 for a building in Chicago? Joe Kennedy shot back: "Because the condition of real estate in Boston is scandalous and that of politics is worse. The only property offered to me in Boston was a building in bad condition that was 20% vacant."

After he turns in his report in November, Joe Kennedy will go to Palm Beach for the winter. He says he has no political ambitions, that he is too old to return to public life. But he and Secretary of State Jimmy Byrnes are close friends, and he and Harry Truman have high regard for each other. Joe Kennedy might still wind up in Washington.

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