New Boss

Ailing Bob Hannegan was finally out as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. To run his 1948 campaign Politician Harry Truman chose Rhode Island's hard-driving freshman Senator J. Howard McGrath.

To the bitter end Bob Hannegan and some of the old big-city bosses--Chicago's Ed Kelly and The Bronx's Ed Flynn--had plugged hard to get the job for Gael Sullivan, the committee's executive director and a favorite of the C.I.O. Sullivan, they insisted, was the man to rally labor and the party's liberals and left-wingers. But Harry Truman insisted on making his own choice. The appointment of McGrath continued the tradition, begun with Jim Farley, of naming an Irish Catholic as chairman of the Democratic Committee.

Senator McGrath is the political protege and law partner of Rhode Island's other U.S. Senator: 80-year-old Theodore Francis Green. In Providence, McGrath has banking, insurance and other interests, including part-ownership in Rhode Island's Lincoln Downs race track (McGrath reputedly has about $8 million). His talent for politics is as well developed as his ambition and business shrewdness. He started ringing doorbells for the Democratic Party before he was out of Providence College, has held almost every party job from ward heeler up. He was his state's governor three times. He demonstrated his vote-getting talent in 1944, when he ran 10,000 votes ahead of Franklin Roosevelt. In the Senate, McGrath has been serious, hardworking, unafraid of the toughest Republican jousters, and New Dealish.

There was some minor rumbling against him, but there was no doubt that the National Committee, when it meets late this month, would ratify Harry Truman's man.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.