Star of Albany

The busiest man in New York's granite State Capitol last week was its boss, Governor Thomas E. Dewey. In eight months, he had come back from darkest political limbo to glisten again in the Republican constellation. In the last 30 days alone, Tom Dewey had studied, signed or vetoed a record 1,065 bills--some of striking importance.

In three years as Governor, he had:

P: Built up New York's cash surplus to a staggering $500 million--the greatest ever accumulated by any state.

P: Cut state income taxes 50%, and reduced business taxes. Total cut: $122 million.

P: Furnished temporary housing for 1,500 veterans and their families. (Seven thousand more temporary units and 22,900 permanent family units are in the works.)

P: Expanded New York's educational facilities by establishing a School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University and sponsoring establishment of a new junior college for veterans, to be known tentatively as Dewey College.

P: Signed and plugged for New York's anti-discrimination law.

P: Planned to spend some $120 million of his surplus to improve the state's highways, canals and mental hospitals by year's end.

He had also found a new urge to keep himself in the public eye. He had welcomed the U.N. to Hunter College, paid tribute to Cardinal Francis J. Spellman on his return from Rome, spoken at a dinner honoring Winston Churchill, opened the season for the New York Giants by tossing out the first ball, been guest of honor at the Washington correspondents' Gridiron Dinner, taken his family to the circus at Madison Square Garden (see cut), and averaged some three speeches a week in Albany.

Last week, as Tom Dewey looked forward to his first week's vacation in 17 months and to his campaign for re-election in November, no shrewd political dopester counted him out of the 1948 Presidential race.

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