National Affairs: Leaving Tower

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For nine years, the man to see at the White House on problems involving Negro, Jewish and other minority groups has been a roly-poly bachelor named David K. Niles. A Russian tailor's son who learned politics in the political cauldrons of Massachusetts, Niles entered the White House under Harry Hopkins' banner, soon got to be one of President Roosevelt's six assistants with "a passion for anonymity." When Harry Truman moved in in 1945, shrewd Dave Niles stayed on, before long was the only New Deal relic left in the President's "little cabinet."

Niles's job was to push minority causes before the President, placate the sponsors when he failed, and work hard to keep their votes in the Democratic corral. He was probably more responsible than any other man in the Truman Administration in 1948 for swinging U.S. policy behind the Zionists and making possible the birth of Israel.

This week, tired of office and longing to travel to Israel "as a private citizen," Dave Niles resigned his $15,000-a-year White House job. Reluctantly, Harry Truman let him go. "You have been a tower of strength to me," said the President.