For Alexander Buel Trowbridge, it was like a ticket to oblivion when he was appointed Acting Secretary of Commerce last January. The President had just announced that he aimed to eliminate Trowbridge's department—and his job—by merging Commerce and Labor into one superdepartment. Last week, in the face of unrelenting resistance to the merger in Congress and among labor leaders, Lyndon Johnson gave Commerce a new lease on life and, providing "Sandy" Trowbridge with at least temporary job security, nominated him full-fledged secretary of the reprieved department.
At 37, the handsome, athletic six-footer will be the youngest Commerce Secretary in history...
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