After Orval?

Ulcer-ridden and looking somewhat haggard, Arkansas' four-term Governor Orval Eugene Faubus, 52, had just announced that he would not seek re-election this year--and last week a motley line of would-be successors was forming.

Among the likely Democratic candidates: U.S. Representative Dale Alford, an ophthalmologist who became a career segregationist; ex-Governor (1949-53) Sid McMath, a moderate who prides himself on his progressive attitudes on most issues; Attorney General J. Frank Holt, also a moderate; former State Senator Marvin Melton, onetime president of the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce; Kenneth Coffelt, an out-and-out segregationist who has promised to "expose the scandals in the Faubus Administration." Even Arkansas' moribund Republican Party hopes to present a serious candidate, and G.O.P. National Committeeman Winthrop Rockefeller, younger brother of New York's Nelson Rockefeller, has been mentioned; he will announce his decision this week.

During his seven years as Governor, Orval Faubus in many ways has racked up a respectable record. With the help of Winthrop Rockefeller's Arkansas Industrial Development Commission, he has brought unprecedented industrial growth to the state, increased teachers' pay, built new schools and hospitals, raised average old-age welfare payments from $32 to $60 a month. He is plainly proud of such achievements. Said he, in a farewell television speech to the people of Arkansas: "We have done many good things and made much progress together." It seemed a pity, therefore, that he would be longer remembered as a symbol of the violent resistance to integration that gave Little Rock a bad name round the world.

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