The other half of the Hayakawa-Gardner poll might have been both a good choice for the Corporation and a good guess for the Corporation watcher.

A graduate of Stanford with a Ph.D. from the University of California and a host of honorary degrees (including one from Harvard in 1966), Gardner has not only the academic credentials but also the administrative experience and government connections necessary to run a bulky bureaucratic university which relies on the federal government for 40 per cent of its income.

He has been both president of the Carnegie Foundation (1955-65) and Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under Johnson. A fellow at the Kennedy School of Government for a year and the Godkin lecturer here two years ago, Gardner is also well-connected and much admired in the liberal Eastern establishment which holds the final power over the choice of a president. This is perhaps one reason why his name keeps cropping up on the Harvard lists.

Gardner's reputation as a liberal, however, is based largely on books and writings which are not only eloquent, but perhaps a bit too logically precise for the likings of Harvard. "He's an essayist rather than a writer, an executive more than a leader, and has the air of being prestigious rather than important," one Harvard Faculty member said. "I think he's probably more universally admired than he is liked."

"HED probably run into giant problems with the Faculty," a friend admitted. "The number of cliches John uses would get him into trouble."

Despite such theoretical objections to Gardner, there have been hints in the last few weeks that the man is just not planning to come to Harvard. Traditionally, the kiss of death in the presidential sweepstakes is being named as the leading contender. When Harvard announces that Gardner is the alumni's leading choice (whether it's true or not), it probably means he's unavailable.

What they know is that Gardner has already turned down several university presidencies equally as prestigious as Harvard's. His rejection of the presidency of Stanford, his almamater, and a chance to work in the same state where his children are now living signaled his general coolness to the idea. And his new Washington project which he just started with the Urban Coalition is expected to tie him down there for at least two years.

Kingman Brewster, 51, president of Yale University: "Kingman Brewster is the perfect model, but I think everyone is afraid he wants to be president of the country, not Harvard," one man who sat in search committee meetings said last month.

At 51, Brewster does indeed have all the qualifications which the Corporation is looking for. Many people are now contrasting Brewster's handling of the May Day Panther demonlast Spring with Pusey's handling of the Harvard Strike in 1969. And they are the people who like what they see.

A dynamic figure, well-liked by his students, Brewster is known for being cool in crises-and it is not unreasonable to assume that Harvard's next 20 years will have plenty.

During the Spring, his decision to throw open the doors of Yale to incoming demonstrators and his statement of "skepticism" that a Black Panther could get a fair trial in this country are credited with saving Yale from physical destruction.

THERE are many, however, who themselves are skeptical that Brewster can do at Harvard what he has done at Yale. First of all, he entered Yale without any reputation to live up to or enemies to stave off. His reputation is now well established; were he to come to Harvard, he would be expected to at least meet that reputation and most probably surpass it.

More important is the fact that Harvard is a very different school from Yale. Harvard is only one of many major powers in Boston where Yale, situated in an otherwise desolate New Haven, is the power in the city. The students are also quite different. Last Spring, one-third of the Yale students left town for the May Day celebration, another one-third locked themselves in their rooms with their KLH's hidden under the bed, and the last third served soup through the weekend.

For these reasons, the name Kingman Brewster is always followed by the word "type." He is a model for the next president and nothing more.

From Brewster's own perspective, he has nothing to gain by switching from number two to number one. His name is forever linked to Yale, and if his eye is looking anywhere beyond Yale, it is most probably pointed toward Washington rather than Cambridge.