Government: What Kind of Monetary Men?

This month's departure of Robert Roosa as Under Secretary of the Treasury highlights an important question about monetary policy in Washington. A substantial number of the highest fiscal posts in the U.S. Government will soon be held by new appointees. The question that concerns businessmen, and that there is no way of answering now. is: What kind of men will they be?

President Johnson is expected soon to appoint a replacement for Roosa, who resigned to take a partnership in the banking and investment house of Brown Brothers Harriman and write a book on monetary policymaking. Leading candidates for the job: Fred Deming, an able economist and president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, who leans toward easy credit. and Charles Coombs, vice president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, an international monetary expert who helped Roosa line up the $3 billion emergency loan for Britain.

Beyond this, nearly a dozen other important economic posts in Washington will soon change hands. At Treasury, a major turnover is in the offing. Aside from Roosa's job, a successor is still to be named for Henry Fowler, who last spring quit as the second-ranking Under Secretary. The department's No. 4 man. General Counsel G. D'Andelot Belin, intends to return soon to his Boston law practice. And Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon has reportedly served notice that he intends to resign by next July.

Two of the three members of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, including Chairman Joseph McMurray, have announced that they are leaving by Jan. 1. Internal Revenue is headed by a careerman who is acting only as interim boss. On Johnson's appointment of a new Attorney General, of which there is yet no sign, depends the future of William Orrick Jr., the Justice Department's chief trustbuster. The five-man Federal Power Commission has one vacancy and one holdover member, Vice Chairman Charles Ross, who is serving month to month. Because of President Johnson's longtime Texas ties with oil and gas, Washington is particularly watching his FPC appointments for signs of the direction he will take in his dealings with the regulatory agencies.

In all of these cases, Johnson has given no hints as to what kind of men he is looking for—whether liberal or conservative, consumer-or producer-oriented. The men the President chooses and the policies they make and follow will be of great importance to business and industry.