THIS MAN SOAPY

...After a nightmarish election that left both candidates claiming victory, Williams won on a statewide recount...

...Government is good, he thinks, when it keeps up with society's needs and makes life for everybody a little better this year than it was last year...

...Although he has been consistently handicapped by an unfriendly press and a hostile legislature, Williams can point with some pride to a record in Michigan as impressive as Adlai Stevenson's in Illinois...

...The big problem facing Michigan is a rapidly-increasing treasury deficit, which Williams wants to solve with a corporation-profits tax, or reasonably modified facsimile, that the Republican legislature will do almost anything to avoid...

...From an admitted novice in politics Williams has turned into an expert on state government, and it is safe to say that he probably knows more today about state administration than most political scientists...

...The two covered 12,000 miles, talked about issues, and the people liked it...

...He regards his proposed tax as nothing but assigning to industry its fair share of the tax burden, and claims that he has spent more time trying to help Michigan business than he has helping anyone else...

...Michigan liked Ike on Nov...

...Anyone who reversed the Eisenhower trend in a normally Republican state in 1952 is worth watching, and by 1956, if all goes well, Williams could look good on a national ticket...

...After two years of tug-of-war with the legislature, Williams ran again, this time against Fred Alger, his Republican Secretary of State, who again challenged Williams' winning margin of 8,000 to a recount...

...What the state needs most, he feels, is a complete reworking of its labor laws, but he has little hope of getting it out of a solidly Republican legislature...

...It is very hard not to like the man on sight, and a good many Republicans privately admit his charm...

...Business men themselves are respectful to Williams, but definitely wary...

...He is already an excellent politician, but he needs a chance to show the nation at large that he is ready to move into something bigqer than Michigan...

...He has made solid achievements in the area of social legislation—improved facilities for education, mental health, alcoholism, and model narcotics laws...

...His principles are sound and deeply held, but faced by an intractable legislature for four years, he has ably skirted open conflict, preferring to proceed by negotiation, maneuver, and reasoned argument, at which he is very skillful...

...Nor should it be forgotten that his two great idols are Frank Murphy and Woodrow Wilson, both men with a deep sense of social duty and a humanized view of politics...

...To complete the maturing process that began in 1948, Williams needs to show how he will handle himself when his career is at stake in a battle over basic liberal principles...

...nobody in his right political mind is going to refuse its support...

...It was more than a "meet-the-wife, let-me-shake-your-hand" routine...

...An intellectually curious man with a consuming passion for politics, he has absorbed in two terms more than a majority of politicians learn in a lifetime...

...4, 1952, by a majority of 320,000...

...This is political responsibility...

...He has a well-developed ability to make people feel that he understands them and their problems...

...But Soapy won...

...Williams' capacity for progressive, liberal leadership has never yet been put to the test, despite three ding-dong races for governor, nor has he ever been involved in a knockdown, Pier Six brawl over an issue of major importance...

...You can't solve today's problems," he said in 1949, "with yesterday's solutions...

...Look," he said recently, "you go to a meeting and meet people, maybe eat their food and shake hands around—they see you don't have horns and you see that whether they're Republicans or Democrats they've got opinions and troubles...

...Since he must keep contact with a hundred state agencies, the legislature, his own party organization, the opposition party, and the press, while at the same time planning ahead, he has built up a smooth-working staff of aides to whom he assigns specific tasks requiring periodic reports...

...After four years of campaigning, Williams probably knows more of labor's rank and file than the CIO and AFL leaders themselves...

...Essentially, Williams' political philosophy is a matured and broadened version of long-ago bull sessions and early New Deal thinking, with harmonic overtones of Wilson and Murphy...

...It might be FEPC again, but more probably it will be the tax issue, which after four years of stalemate has exhausted gubernatorial and legislative patience and has left tempers short and frayed...

...Except for a brief period in 1949, Williams has never faced a real economic crisis during his governorship...

...IV Whether or not Soapy Williams is ready to move into the major leagues is still to be determined...

...On FEPC in 1949, and legislative reapportionment in 1952, both good issues, Williams let them pass, checking them for the future...

...Socially he can hold his own at the Detroit Athletic Club or the Michigan Manufacturers' Association, though the truce is sometimes an armed one...

...at the same time, he may decide to oppose Sen...

...He rarely makes a major decision without a "strategy conference" with his staff, who are accustomed but not resigned to phone calls for sudden meetings at one a.m...

...There is not much on the surface of Williams' background to explain what keeps him going or how he came to be...

...Several CIO-PAC and AFL leaders got into the act, and, with the help of the young Turks from Detroit and outstate, Williams cracked the party wide open by winning the primary...

...Ill His staff agrees, however, that he is not often wrong...

...One Republican state official who accompanied him to Washington for Eisenhower's inauguration came back swearing Soapy was the finest man in Michigan politics...

...An inveterate traveler, Williams manages to visit every one of Michigan's 83 counties about once a year...

...I knew during law school," Williams recalls, "that I wanted to enter public life and make my ideas count, the hard way...

...Steadman treats Williams as an extremely bright pupil who does well on examinations, though he is occasionally nonplused at the answers he gets...

...Since his own bank account includes a sizable chunk of money derived from corporate profits, there have been mutterings of "traitor to his class" and "enemy of business" that puzzle him...

...A scion of two wealthy Grosse Pointe families (Williams—¦ pickles, Mennen—soap) he went to Princeton, stroked the crew, made Phi Beta Kappa, and was graduated from the University of Michigan law school with honors...

...the function of government, he believes, lies in its assumption of social, economic, and educational obligations that only government can properly discharge...

...During the war years he collected ten battle stars, two decorations, and three citations in the Navy, emerging a lieutenant commander...

...As an administrator, Williams has an executive sense that allows hjm to squeeze a maximum of result out of a minimum of time...

...Kim Sigler put him on Michigan's Liquor Control Commission...

...In Washington in the thirties, Williams was just another young lawyer at a desk in a federal agency until Murphy called him back to Michigan to serve in the attorney general's office...

...A recount," said one Republican ruefully, "means that Williams licks you twice...

...Anyone who has seen him enter a crowded room, usually a few minutes late, and envelop the place with one big grin, can feel the instant rapport he establishes with the entire crowd...

...So G. Mennen Williams, at the ripe age of 37, held his first elective office...

...all the way...

...If he does, it will be the battle of the century in Michigan Senatorial races, one that he stands a good chance of winning...

...When it does, Soapy will come out swinging, and the Democratic Party will have a new contender at the convention in 1956...

...He also recalls that he had Nancy pushing him...

...Somewhere along the way what should have been an Ivy-League socialite, settling down to inherited wealth and a polite law practice, turned out to be an enthusiastic young political liberal, "an out-and-out New Dealer," Williams says, "with F.D.R...

...The bridge across the Mackinac Straits, one of his pet projects, is scheduled for construction this spring, and he keeps pushing the St...

...For another, he met and married Nancy Quirk, an attractive and energetic social worker from a wealthy Ypsi-lanti family, and a young woman with determined liberal ideas of her own...

...At least part of Williams' vote-getting ability lies in his sincere liking for people...

...As an expert square-dance caller, he has standing invitations all over the state, and he can say, "Hello, I'm glad to be here," in a dozen languages...

...II Any analysis of his vote shows that he draws from much more than the CIO or AFL, including white collar workers, young professional people, small town business, and the egghead vote, which he has thoroughly sewed up...

...It also liked Soapy, and returned him to Lansing for an unheard-of third term by a narrow but sufficient margin of 8,000, thereby handing the Republican party of Michigan the shock of its life...

...Furthermore, labor is the largest segment, of Michigan's population uncommitted to Republicanism...

...Strictly an after-dinner brandy man himself, Williams shook hands with half the population of Michigan and tested the political temperature in every county...

...Williams' strength in Michigan lies in the urban-rural split that has marked state politics since the turn of the century...

...He often prefers to ride along with a well-meaning but weak or incompetent man, and tends to overlook mistakes, or even party disloyalty...

...Michigan politics is not an inadequate proving ground for a bright politician, and his supporters feel he is about ready for a larger arena...

...There has been a moderate gain in the number of new industries started in the state...

...Since it is farther from Lansing to Copper Harbor than it is from Lansing to Charleston, South Carolina, or Tulsa, Oklahoma, this is no mean feat...

...Probably his greatest flaw as an executive, observers feel, is his reluctance to knock heads together or chop them off...

...Far from being labor's captive, Williams has captured labor, which supports him not because he serves as its errand boy, but because it recognizes him as its leader...

...Old age benefits, unemployment compensation, and industrial accident payments have all been boosted, airports and highways improved, and the state police and public service systems overhauled...

...My son ought to shoot me for this," he said when he proposed an increase in gift and inheritance taxes, but he proposed it anyway...

...Six feet three, 225 pounds, with unruly black hair powdered with gray and a loud cawing voice, Williams makes an impact in even the most remote corner...

...He holds a solid block of counties in the Upper Peninsula, and in the belt of middle-sized cities across Southern Michigan—Saginaw, Flint, Lansing, Jackson, Kalamazoo, and Benton Harbor —he has cut into Republican strength sufficiently to give Wayne County the balance of power in gubernatorial contests...

...Williams' approach to political problems is almost exacly what one would expect from an intelligent, socially conscious, politically-minded man who attended Princeton and Michigan 20 years ago...

...This Man Soapy By Russel B. Nye NOW THAT the post-mortems of the 1952 elections are over, it is time to take a closer look at Gerhardt Mennen ("Soapy") Williams, the Democratic governor of Michigan who rolls on like Old Man River...

...That Williams is indebted to labor for support is unquestioned, but it is also true that labor went Democratic in 1932, long before Williams came into politics...

...An elected official, he thinks, ought to be close to the people who elected him...

...Williams has never considered himself labor's candidate, nor does he feel that he has ever tried to get the CIO or AFL more than its share...

...Williams was conceded not much more than an outside chance, since Michigan tradition holds that no Democrat can be elected in an off-year contest...

...Soapy and Nancy, in a weary convertible, turned up in cross-roads hamlets where a politician hadn't appeared since the days of Zack Chandler...

...In 1947 Republican Gov...

...There is in this, of course, a clear ring of the thirties, when liberals looked to government for security, economic stability, social progress, and rehabilitation of a clanking, sputtering system...

...The Republicans assumed philosophically that this was a mistake the voters would rectify in 1950...

...Early in his first term, drawing perhaps on his Navy experience, he organized a system of staff work that makes his office the most efficient Michigan has had in years...

...He is also an established institution at country fairs, where he is recognized as an ace judge of pickles and 4-H queens...

...Williams learned a lot from Murphy, and when Murphy became Attorney General in Roosevelt's Cabinet, Soapy went back to Washington with him and learned a great deal more...

...Homer Ferguson in 1954...

...Michigan gave Thomas E. Dewey, a native son, a majority of 35,000 for President, but it put Williams in by a whooping 164,000...

...He sticks out that German jaw of his and gets stubborn," one of his aides says, "and nobody can move 'him, even if he's wrong...

...Williams' political philosophy is based on a well-integrated concept of socialized politics...

...Liberals, in his definition, are merely "people who want to make our system work under changing conditions...

...That year the Republicans chose Harry Kelly, who had been a two term governor, to oppose him, and put on an able, energetic campaign...

...He is an indefatigable handshaker, not solely for political purposes, but because he likes people and is happy to meet as many of them as he can...

...But no responsible corporation executive, whatever the grumblings about "that man in Lansing," has ever cast doubt on his political integrity...

...Where labor is strong, Williams is strong, which has aroused talk of his "captivity" by the CIO...

...The Democratic Party in Michigan in 1947 was an old-line, county-court-house style organization, plagued by an internal revolution of eager young New Dealers...

...This caused some merriment at both Republican and Democratic headquarters...

...Robert Steadman, a round, choleric public administration expert Williams brought to Lansing from Wayne University as state comptroller...

...Democratic Detroit and Wayne County usually give him enough of a majority to offset the predominantly Republican rural outstate areas...

...All this is obviously good politics, but Soapy's motivation lies somewhat deeper...

...Williams keeps three young university political scientists on his staff, and also gets lessons in practical politics from Paul Weber, an oldtime newsman from the Detroit Times who serves as press secretary, and from Larry Farrell, his ex-boss from OPA days, who is executive secretary and liaison with the old Democrats...

...he finds out things by meeting hundreds of them he could find out in no other way...

...One of these days a spark will set off the combustible mixture brewing in that statehouse since 1948, and Soapy will take on the entire Republican party singlehand-ed...

...Whatever the occasion, it will have to come before Williams can be a factor in the national political situation...

...He has gone about as far in Michigan as he can go...

...A great deal of the credit for this should go to Dr...

...You talk and maybe argue a bit, and then see what you can do...

...When the primary elections of 1948 approached, he informed Sigler of his intention to resign from the Commission to campaign for the Democratic nomination for Governor...

...For one thing, he met Frank Murphy, later governor of Michigan, to whom he acknowledges a deep and lasting debt for his intellectual and political opinions...

...Labor, to his way of thinking, is simply "a very large lot of people," and the point of successful politics is to satisfy the needs of a lot of people...

...They are not fully convinced they want his help so long as a corporation tax is in the offing...

...Williams thinks that there are many things still undone in Michigan and that he would not refuse a fourth term...

...Lawrence Seaway...

...By reason of his early environment, Williams has a sympathetic understanding of management's point of view, but is not wholly reconciled to it...

...Memories of his campaign against Sigler in 1948 still make Republicans RUSSEL B. NYE is the author of three works in American history, including "George Bancroft: Brahmin Rebel," which won the Pulitzer prize for history, "Fettered Freedom," and "Midwestern Progressive Politics...

...He can listen to a three-hour discussion, summarize it succinctly, and in ten minutes reach a decision consistent with his own philosophy—not always in agreement with his advisers...

...However, Williams is long past the novice stage, and can give or take advice as he wishes...

...His economic polices are not fully formed, though it is apparent from his record that he wants a state economy equally balanced among the needs of producer, wage-earner, and consumer...

...He has successfully blocked increases in consumer taxes year after year...

...Sigler didn't have a chance...

...This interest stems first of all from his belief that the chief fact about government is that it is founded on people...

...The answer lies with Williams alone...

...quiver...

...Williams classifies himself as a liberal...

...A great deal of his energy since 1948 has been devoted to extending the social responsibilities of state government— improved hospitals and institutions for mental care, sanatoria, prisons, pensions, education, and legislation on sex deviation...

...He has neither Stevenson's wide-ranging mind and agility of phrase, nor Kefauver's bland aplomb, but he does have a rugged purposefulness and a far more nimble and perceptive brain than many realize...

...Minority racial and nationality groups give him solid backing, and his picture hangs in dozens of Armenian, Polish, Lithuanian, and Hungarian clubs...