Publisher’s Letter, Oct. 15, 1956

Dear TIME-Reader:

NEWSPAPERMEN generally keep a sharp eye on TIME’S Press section, which always keeps a sharp eye on them. Last week Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Political Reporter Frank M. Matthews prefaced a story with an excerpt from TIME’S Oct. 8 Press report, “The Campaign Trail”: “The Nixon and Stevenson campaign tours are models of efficiency. The pampered newsmen with Stevenson need not even bother to register at their hotel stopovers.” Then Pittsburgh Reporter Matthews whooped: “Well, Mr. Luce and TIME Magazine, we’ve got news for you.”

His news: Clouds grounded the newsmen in Elkins, W. Va., buses bounced them over back roads to Pennsylvania, hotel rooms were reserved and unreserved in Pittsburgh, and eventually, when they caught up with Candidate Stevenson in New York, the rally for him in Harlem was over. In short, wrote Reporter Matthews in his light-hearted spoof, most of the efficiency and all pamper had been lost on the campaign trail.

SOME of us were a little afraid that perhaps the revealing cover story on Michigan State Football Coach Duffy Daugherty and the detailed diagrams of some of his key plays (TIME, Oct. 8) might have given powerful Michigan the edge to win again this year. Gamblers around New York made Michigan a 2½-to-5-point favorite, but Duffy’s team knocked over the Wolverines (see SPORT) and now appear headed for another Big Ten title.

WHEN Contributing Editor Spencer L. Davidson went down to Herman Talmadge’s 2,400-acre plantation below Atlanta for a closeup of this week’s cover subject, he discovered that his visit was a bit untimely. It was the tail end of the dove season, and Governor Talmadge, an ardent hunter, was eager to get out into the millet fields. Writer Davidson, a city boy from Baltimore, went along. “I guess,” he says ruefully, “I’m the only guy who ever went dove hunting in a grey flannel suit.” On the second afternoon afield, “Spence” fired and missed one shot at a dove, gave up and contented himself with watching his sharpshooting host.

AS this issue of TIME closed, our editorial staff discovered it had some lovely reasons for an impromptu party: three orchid-decked researchers ablush and abeam with plans for marriage. Education’s Marjorie Burns will be married to Research Physicist A. Bruce Brown Jr. on Oct. 19, Art’s Joan Dye to Artist Alan Gussow on Oct. 21, and Foreign News’s Monica von Swogetinsky to Lawyer Dudley Devine in December or January. Cheers and best wishes to all!

Cordially yours,