To fill a troublesome spot on the Surplus Property Board, Harry Truman once again reached out to Missouri. He got set to call in 43-year-old W. Stuart Symington Ill, president of St. Louis' Emerson Electric Manufacturing Co., and a topflight U.S. industrialist.
Handsome, Massachusetts-born "Stu" Symington, Yaleman and husband of once-famed society chanteuse Eve Symington, would replace Iowa's silver-haired ex-Senator Guy M. Gillette, who had never wanted the job anyway.
The new appointee, who will supervise the sale of billions of dollars' worth of war property to U.S. business, is no stranger to U.S. businessmen. In 1938, when he took charge...
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