A Refreshing Possibility

Although it was not yet a certainty, the first Cabinet appointment of the Ford Administration seemed to be on the horizon. It not only looked like a refreshingly high-quality choice but may well mark the beginning of a Ford drive to replace Nixon appointees with his own people. The University of Chicago's witty and independent-minded president, Edward Levi, 63, will probably be named Attorney General. If he accepts the appointment and is approved by Congress, Levi will replace Richard Nixon's unconventional appointee, William Saxbe, who resigned last week and was nominated ambassador to India. A Levi appointment would undoubtedly be challenged by Congressmen who feel that he would be too liberal in the highest U.S. law-enforcement post.

Levi neatly combines academic and practical qualifications for the job. Born in Chicago, he has spent nearly his entire scholastic life within the university, from its laboratory kindergarten through his B.S., initial law degree (he earned his doctorate at Yale), and up to the presidency. He has taught law there almost continuously since 1936, headed the law school for twelve years, and rose to the presidency in 1968. But he also served for five years (1940-45) as special assistant to the Attorney General under President Franklin Roosevelt.

Protest Ignored. Levi's views have never been doctrinaire. Asked recently if he was registered in any party, he copped a plea: "I can't remember." When radical students staged a 16-day sit-in at Chicago's administration building in 1969, Levi, as president, both refused to negotiate and declined to call police to oust them. He ignored them, and the protest collapsed. Levi's respect for law has been clear. "Universities are not the major controllers of value in our society," he has said. "Law itself, for better or worse, is perhaps the chief educational force. For most people obey necessity rather than argument, and punishment rather than the sense of what is noble."

If that view suggests a more vigorous Justice Department under Levi, his Chicago colleagues foresee a more immediate result. "He would restore a sense of professionalism and dignity and quiet to the Department of Justice," predicts Law Professor Gerhard Casper.

While the Justice Department may be about to benefit from improved leadership, the diplomatic service may suffer. There is nothing in the background of Saxbe, a maverick Republican Senator from Ohio, to suggest any diplomatic skills or much expertise in foreign affairs, except that he is an India buff, has visited the country five times in as many years, and was reportedly the Indians' own choice for the post.

A far less controversial diplomatic appointment was also reported last week, again involving a former Attorney General. Elliot L. Richardson, 54, who won widespread admiration for his resignation from the Justice Department when he declined to carry out President Nixon's instructions to fire Special Watergate Prosecutor Archibald Cox, has been selected ambassador to Great Britain, to replace Philadelphia Publisher Walter H. Annenberg. The choice effectively removes Richardson as a possible challenger to President Ford for the 1976 Republican nomination, a move that he was reluctant to make in any case since he declares that he has few policy disagreements with Ford. Richardson also seems to have laid to rest speculation that he might run against Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy in 1976. Experienced in domestic affairs, he now plans to gain more solid credentials in international relations by remaining ambassador to the Court of St. James's at least through the end of Ford's current term.

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