LBJ's Man in Chicago

FOUR years ago, from the topmost balcony of Atlantic City's Convention Hall, a middle-echelon staffer from the Democratic National Committee watched Lyndon Johnson accept the nomination. Today John Criswell is hardly better known outside Democratic politics, but he has nonetheless managed to become the most powerful figure within the Democratic National Committee and the individual in complete control of arranging the Chicago convention.

Criswell's shadowy role is the surest sign that it will be a Johnson convention in form, if not in its decisions. The President posits his confidence in the Oklahoman on his ability to operate invisibly and with unquestioning loyalty--Johnson's prime criterion for any political trusty and the secret of Criswell's success. Thus in his two years as National Committee Treasurer, Criswell has regarded personal publicity as almost sinful. He makes a habit of not returning phone calls from the political provinces, and has exacerbated the estrangement of the national organization from state and local Democratic of ficials. Johnson once passed the word that the National Committee "isn't worth a damn except to raise funds." Under Criswell's regime, the party's $2,000,000 deficit from 1964 has been erased.

Despite his obscurity and youth, Criswell at 36 is no stranger to politics or to Washington. He was a newspaperman before becoming former Governor J. Howard Edmondson's press secretary. He moved to Washington when Edmondson had himself appointed Senator in 1963 but was out of a job upon the Senator's defeat in a 1964 runoff primary. Jim Jones, a fellow Oklahoman working for Johnson, arranged a National Committee post. Jones was rising in status at the White House as an aide to Marvin Watson, now Postmaster General, and with his help Criswell moved up notch by notch in the National Committee. When a new treasurer was needed, Jones immediately recommended Criswell. "Can we trust him?" Johnson asked. "He's my roommate," said Jones. These days, Criswell shares rooms with no man and confidences with only one.

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