ALL IN ONE LIFETIME

In this personal memoir the Governor of South Carolina reviews his career of 50 years in the public service beginning with his election as solicitor in his home state in 1908 up to the present. In recalling a career which has encompassed all branches of the government -- 14 years in the House, 10 in the Senate, Justice of the Supreme Court, Roosevelt's Director of Economic Stabilization in 1942 (a position which was, for all practical purposes, assistant president), Director of the Office of War Mobilization, Secretary of State under Truman, Governor of his own state since 1951 and, since 1953, a representative to the General Assembly of the U.N. -- Governor Byrnes has, of course, been witness to events of great political importance. He deals here very much in memoranda, retracing situations and circumstances such as: New Deal legislation, the choices of Wallace and Truman for the vice-presidency in 1940 and '44, FDR at Yalta, Truman at Potsdam, the Alger Hiss incident, the subsequent misunderstanding between the Governor and Mr. Truman after General Marshall had been appointed to succeed Mr. Byrnes, the role of the southern states at the '52 and '56 Democrat convention, his position, as a southern governor, on segregation. An important addition to the record of an era. Of interest to the student of politics and the serious citizen.