NEW YORK: But Not Goodbye

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Tom Dewey managed to keep the secret a secret until he walked into the governor's office in Albany, N.Y. one morning last week, handed eager newsmen copies of his ten-word statement: "I shall not be a candidate for re-election next fall."

Then he sat down to explain why he was abandoning all claim to the most powerful governorship in the U.S. at an age (48) when most politicos are just hitting their stride. First, his blood pressure was low from fatigue, and the bursitis in his right shoulder had reduced his usual eight-hour nightly sleep to two or three. Then there was money: after taxes on his $25,000 governor's salary, he had hardly enough to support the family and put his two sons (ages: 14 and 17) through college. He had been offered the presidency of two universities, a large corporation, an insurance company and partnership in half a dozen law firms, the governor said, and he leaned toward the law.

But lest anyone think he was going to fill his ears with wax to keep out political siren songs, Tom Dewey quickly reminded his hearers that he had twice before "retired" from public office like this. Dewey and Republican leaders had already agreed on whom they wanted as Tom Dewey's successor in Albany: ruddy-cheeked, back-slapping 74-year-old Lieut. Governor Joe Hanley, onetime jockey, Presbyterian minister, lawyer and silver-tongued speaker on the Chautauqua circuit. In case any Democrats wanted to make something of Hanley's age, Dewey said pointedly, let them remember that their own Senator, Herbert Lehman, up for reelection, was 72. Dewey's ten-word withdrawal shocked

New Yorkers into realizing they were about to lose a first-rate governor. As the only presidential candidate the Republicans have ever renominated after his failure to make it the first time, Dewey had missed the White House; he had been too assured, his personality did not charm the voters, and he had tried to win without discussing the issues. But when all of this was said, his had been a remarkable career: a racket-busting prosecutor at 33 who put behind bars "Lucky" Luciano, Irving ("Waxey Gordon") Wexler, Tammany's Jimmy Hines, .Wall Street's Richard Whitney and many a little name in the loan and extortion rackets; at 40, an honest, efficient governor and able politician who had cut taxes, backed a veterans' bonus, rent control, and the nation's most workable law against racial discrimination, had cleaned out graft in workingmen's compensation and renovated cobwebby mental and public health programs. When it came right down to brass tacks, most New York Republicans and many Democrats hated to see Tom Dewey go.