Smoldering Fire

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Whichever office becomes vacant, two men are in the strong running to fill it. They are Interior Minister Mieczyslaw Moczar, 54, the dark, somewhat mysterious boss of Poland's secret police and leader of the party faction of "partisans," or World War II underground veterans; and Edward Gierek, 55, youngest member of the Politburo and party chief in the Silesian mining and manufacturing district. Though Gierek advocates partial economic reforms in Poland's lackluster industries, neither he nor Moczar shows any inclination toward political reshaping of the kind that Poland's restless student-and intellectuals are agitating for.