Tribute

A veteran of the Washington beat for 37 years, Political Columnist Thomas L. Stokes, 59, won a Pulitzer Prize (in 1939 for exposing a WPA scandal in Kentucky), a raft of other awards through the decades, and the respect of his colleagues as a skillful reporter who does not let his admitted bias as "an old-fashioned progressive" keep him from playing fair. Last week Atlanta-born Tom Stokes won a rare new tribute. His column, which appears in 105 dailies, has not appeared since Jan. 3. It was a casualty of the illness that sent Stokes to the hospital last month for a brain operation. Back from the hospital but still bedded indefinitely, he learned that an old friend, Oklahoma's Democratic Senator Mike Monroney, has rounded up an impressive roster of guest columnists from both sides of the Senate aisle and Washington-at-large. Among Stokes's pinch hitters, who took over last week: Senators Margaret Chase Smith, William Knowland, Lyndon Johnson, John Kennedy, CIA Director Allen Dulles, Under Secretary of State Christian Herter, Army Chief of Staff Maxwell Taylor, Secretary of the Interior Fred Seaton, ex-Secretary of State Dean Acheson.

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