National Affairs: WHO'S WHO IN THE GOP: MARTIN

Before the Philadelphia convention next June, a major job of the nation's voters will be to absorb, weigh, and compare the records in the Republican Who's Who of presidential candidates. Herewith, in the fifth* of a series, TIME publishes the condensed biography and political record of Massachusetts' Joseph William Martin Jr.

Vital Statistics. Age: 63 (born Nov. 3, 1884 in North Attleboro, Mass., in a two-family frame house across the street from John Stanley's blacksmith shop). Ancestry: eldest son of eight children of Joseph William Martin Sr., a Presbyterian Scotsman who worked in the blacksmith shop, and Catherine Katon, an Irish Catholic; both his parents were born in New Jersey. Educated: North Attleboro public schools through high school. Not Married. Church: none.

Personal Traits. He is a stocky, black-haired little man with broad shoulders and a wide-lipped Irish face and a slight trace of brogue. He is humorless; shy around women, but an easy mixer among men. He neither smokes nor drinks, wears ill-fitting blue suits and policemen's box-toed shoes. His health is good. Said a friend: "He lives, eats, drinks, sleeps and dreams politics."

Career. An insurance broker and newspaper publisher on the side, he has been elected to three public offices (Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1912; State Senate in 1914, re-elected 1916; U.S. Congress in 1924, re-elected ever since).

He was defeated in the 1924 G.O.P. primaries for U.S. Congressman but chosen by party chiefs as the nominee after the man who beat him died. He was chosen as minority leader of Congress in 1939; chosen to preside at the G.O.P. National Convention in 1940 (which he enjoyed) and to run Wendell Willkie's presidential campaign (which he did not enjoy). He was elected Speaker of the House on Jan. 3, 1947. If Harry Truman dies in office, he will become President. In 1939, when the New Deal was popular with Washington newsmen, they nevertheless voted him the best all-around Congressman.

Private Life. In Washington he lives at the quiet, dignified Hay-Adams House, across Lafayette Square from the White House. He rises at 7, eats breakfast in the House restaurant because he likes the toast and can talk to fellow Congressmen, lunches either in the House restaurant or cloakroom (sandwich and pie), dines at the Hay-Adams and is in bed by 9:30 or 10.

He is an Elk and a Moose. In North Attleboro, he lives in a frame house on Grove Street with his invalid mother, a widowed sister and his brother Charles. His favorite recreation: walking. His only hobby: collecting miniature elephants.

Early Years. Father Joseph's $15 a week as a blacksmith's helper did not go far. Young Joe began selling newspapers at seven, later worked in nearby jewelry manufacturing plants.

He played second base and shortstop on the high-school team and was offered a scholarship to Dartmouth College. He turned it down, worked as a $10-a-week reporter on the Attleboro Sun, played semi-pro baseball on the side. By the time he was 24, he had saved $1,000.

With his savings and $9,000 borrowed from local businessmen, he bought the North Attleboro Evening Chronicle in 1908. One of his backers was G. K. Webster, president of a silverware plant and a power in Massachusetts' 14th District.