THE NEW ADMINISTRATION: THE NEW ADMINISTRATION

MARTIN P. DURKIN, 58, president of the A.F.L. Plumbers & Pipe Fitters.

Family & Early Years: Born in Chicago, son of an Irish immigrant stationary fireman (boilers) and ardent trade unionist. He went through grade school and three years of night school, at 17 started work as an apprentice steam fitter, became a journeyman, then went off to World War I as a private in the 332nd Field Artillery. .

Career: Like the A.F.L.'s new boss (see Labor), he got his start in union politics as a business agent for the Plumbers & Pipe Fitters (with Chicago's Local 597, the union's largest). He resigned in 1933, after twelve years, to take an appointment from Illinois' Governor Henry Horner as state director of labor. During the next, eight years, he successfully pushed through legislation setting up unemployment compensation, a state employment service, a state conciliation & mediation service. In 1941, he resigned, moved to Washington to become secretary-treasurer of the union (225,000 members, 829 locals), was elected president in 1943. Present salary: $20,000.

Personality: Softspoken, stocky, with white-streaked black hair and heavy eyebrows, a conservative, old-line unionist who likes a round-table conference but dislikes public speechmaking. He is the Cabinet's only Roman Catholic, is vice president of the Catholic Conference on Industrial Problems, goes to Mass every morning even when he is traveling, does not swear, drink or smoke. He has three sons, four grandchildren, lives with his wife in suburban Chevy Chase, Md. The first Secretary of Labor drawn from labor's ranks since Herbert Hoover's Railroader Bill Doak, he favors unification of the A.F.L. and C.I.O., thinks the Taft-Hartley law can "be amended to satisfy labor and no doubt satisfy employers as well." His appointment, said he, came as a "complete surprise." Reason: he is a Democrat, voted for (but did not campaign for) Adlai Stevenson.

SECRETARY OF COMMERCE

SINCLAIR WEEKS, 59, Boston businessman, finance chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Family & Early Years: Born in the Boston suburb of West Newton in 1893 of a well-to-do family. His father, John Wingate Weeks, was a Boston broker, onetime Senator from Massachusetts, and Secretary of War under Harding and Coolidge. At Harvard, "Sinnie" Weeks was a classmate (1914) of Massachusetts Senator Leverett Saltonstall and Harvard's President James B. Conant. A World War I artillery captain in the 26th (Yankee) Division, Weeks is still a faithful member of the Dugout Club, an association of former Y.D. officers.