NEW FACE in tne CABINET

Appointed last week by President Eisenhower as Secretary of the Interior: Frederick Andrew Seaton, 46, newspaper publisher, of Hastings, Neb.

Family & Early Years: Born Dec. 11, 1909 in Washington, D.C., where his father, Fay N. Seaton, was secretary to Kansas' Senator Joseph L. Bristow (who in 1910 appointed Dwight Eisenhower of Abilene to West Point). Went home to Kansas with his parents in 1915, when his father bought the daily Manhattan Mercury. Worked his way at Kansas State College in Manhattan, where he compiled a respectable scholastic average, but failed to graduate because he rebelled against the science-heavy required curriculum. Undisputed highlight of his college career: a scene in a student production of Chip the Miner's Daughter, where, as the hero, he shouted: "What ho! The villain steals the gold!" then was slugged by the villain with a bag filled with nuts, bolts and nails. Surgeons had to repair his fractured skull by installing a metal plate above his right eye. Met and married, in 1931, a fellow journalism student, Gladys Hope Dowd. They have four adopted children, including two World War II war orphans (one French, one German).

Political Career: At 18, in 1928, headed the Kansas State College Republican organization for Herbert Hoover, rose through the Young Republican organization to become state chairman, later campaign secretary for Kansas' Republican Presidential Nominee Alf Landon. Moved from Kansas to Nebraska in 1937 to take over the Hastings Tribune (and subsequently to control, with his brother Richard, seven other dailies and two weeklies in Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota and Wyoming and the semimonthly Western Farm Life magazine in Denver, plus three radio stations in Nebraska and Kansas). Elected to Nebraska's Unicameral Legislature for two terms (1945-49), managed Harold Stassen's successful Nebraska primary campaign in 1948. Appointed to the U.S. Senate in December 1951 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Republican Floor Leader Kenneth Wherry of Nebraska.

Through fellow Nebraskan General Alfred Gruenther, Seaton met Dwight Eisenhower in France in 1952, later became a key strategist on Ike's campaign team. In September 1953 the President called Seaton to Washington to straighten out Defense Secretary Charles Wilson's troubles with Congress and the press. As Assistant Secretary of Defense for legislative and public affairs, he played an effective behind-the-scenes role in the Army's 1954 wrestle with Joe McCarthy. Last year he was drafted into the White House as a key presidential assistant, became a troubleshooter and adviser, not only on politics but also on policy, e.g., the farm bill veto (which he recommended).

Personality & Prospects: Razor-sharp, affable, cool, sensible, he has been popular in the Pentagon, at the White House, with both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, and with the press corps, which has found him straightforward and helpful. Long in the ranks of progressive Republicans, he has been considered somewhat too "liberal" by some of the Taft-wing leaders of the G.O.P. in Nebraska and in Washington. But most knowing observers who have watched him operate agree with the evaluation of G.O.P. National Chairman Leonard Hall that he is "a damn smart politician," and perhaps the most politically promising member of the Cabinet.

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