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It works—in the same way that a college faculty comes to a collective decision or the State Department resolves a series of position papers. TIME believes in the reporter on the spot, and has more men on more spots than any other publication, filing some 700,000 words a week to the editors in New York. But it is a rare story today on which one man, on one spot, can report all that it is necessary to know. That's why we gather information from many spots and employ many minds to try to arrive at the truth. All of these individuals make a vital contribution to the result on their own individual terms.
The man with the overall authority in the process of reaching the consensus is the managing editor, who reads every line before it is set in type. The editor-in-chief, constantly in close touch, does not try to impose his will from the top, but engages in the process of reaching the consensus. Putting it somewhat wryly, he said on that Columbia lecture platform: "I will confess that there are times when I think people ought to pay more attention to what I say. I just don't seem to be able to give orders effectively. But everybody is very nice to me. One thing people at Time Inc. seem to know is how to handle the top bosses."
It is true that one of the most important parts of TIME'S editorial process is the discussion, the argument that often is heated. Certainly everybody who works for TIME (and who reads TIME) does not agree with all the views in all the stories. "But I believe," says Editor-in-Chief Luce, "that every journalist who works for us feels more individual freedom and responsibility because he knows basically where we stand. He knows where he agrees or disagrees. He is free to do his own job in our organization, knowing that all are working, in a broad consensus of conviction, for definable goals."
LOOKING toward the future, it will take even greater effort and skill and imagination to attain those goals. For perhaps the great reality that faces us is that there is so much to be done in the world, in so many fields of human activity. Year by year the world's unfinished business seems to grow greater. We want to send men to the moon, to nourish the underfed billions on our productive planet, to war against insects and disease, to unsnarl the tangled traffic in and around our cities, to draw fresh water from the sea and energy from the sun, to improve the human condition for all, and finally to establish both at home and abroad a more rational economic and political order.
To inform, and indeed to lead, an intelligent readership while that great reality unfolds is TIME'S aim for the years to come.
*To coincide with this week's dinner honoring some 300 TIME cover subjects. Exact anniversary: March 3.