Connor of Allied

Being Secretary of Commerce has always been a feckless job. After two years in the post, John T. Connor did something about it. He argued that his own job should be abolished.

No sooner had President Johnson proposed that the Commerce and Labor departments be merged than Connor said he thought this was a fine idea. Thereupon he announced that he would shortly be leaving Government to return to the business world. Last week, after sorting many offers, he found a likely berth. Allied Chemical Corp., a $1.2 billion company that ranks fifth in the chemical industry, named Connor, 52, as its next president. The retiring Secretary will not become chief executive of Allied; that post is still to be held by Chester M. Brown, 59, who has been acting as both chairman and president. Nevertheless, in a job that will pay about as much as the $130,000 he earned as Merck & Co.'s president before going to Washington, Connor will have plenty of responsibility. At Merck and in Commerce, he was known as an able and aggressive administrator--and this is precisely the kind of man that Allied wants. After an unspectacular period as a wholesaler of chemical products, the company has lately moved into more sophisticated--and more profitable--consumer items. It has also reorganized itself into separate industrial, agricultural and plastics divisions, which call for Connor's kind of administrative talent. In addition, Allied intends to step up its marketing overseas, which is an area that the former Commerce Secretary knows well.

While Connor insisted, as he prepared to leave Washington, that he had no regrets, it was no secret that he had felt left out of major economic decisions. When Lyndon Johnson wanted to talk to businessmen, he issued his own invitations, without reference to his Commerce Secretary. Not long ago, Connor told a newsman: "Frankly, the standards of business are higher than those of Government." That must have shocked the President. Johnson, who holds onto restless key people by ignoring their resignations, not only accepted Connor's, but also honored him last week with a White House reception.

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