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Mayor John Lindsay spoke over lunch at Gracie Mansion about the myriad problems facing the American city. Time Inc. Board Chairman Andrew Heiskell presided over a symposium on the changing nature of corporate responsibility, with Henry Ford II as the principal speaker. Following a session on Black America featuring Vernon E. Jordan Jr., newly appointed executive director of the Urban League, the travelers were guests of honor at a dinner attended by such notables as Evangelist Billy Graham, Playwright Lillian Hellman, Actress Gloria Swanson, Psychologist B.F. Skinner, Broadway Producer Harold Prince, Columbia University President William McGill, Metropolitan Museum Director Thomas Hoving and chief executives of a number of American companies. The speaker of the evening was Secretary of State William P. Rogers, who answered questions about neo-isolationism in the U.S. and President Nixon's planned visit to Peking.
Accompanied by a Time Inc. contingent that included Editor in Chief Hedley Donovan and Editorial Director Louis Banks, the visitors went next to the serene Dartmouth College campus, which was emblazoned with New Hampshire's brilliant fall foliage. The visitors had two marathon sessions—on the economy with members of TIME'S Board of Economists and on the environment with business and government leaders.
The next chapter of Report on America took place in Washington with Time Inc. President James Shepley, who had been a Washington correspondent for eleven years, as a particularly skilled guide. The tour members began by quizzing a trio of possible presidential contenders—Senators Hubert Humphrey, Henry Jackson and Edward Kennedy—on world trade, international cooperation, and global defense. Later, they met with Senate Leaders Mike Mansfield and Hugh Scott, then moved off to the Executive Office Building for a brisk, candid exchange with Presidential Advisers Henry Kissinger and Peter Peterson. As the briefings and interviews continued, Sir Eric Drake said wearily: "If this is how Americans always work, you should have no economic problems." Nevertheless, none of the visitors to Washington was willing to drop out.
The climax of the trip came only a few hours before the President's speech. Lunching with John Connally, TIME's cover subject this week, they questioned him about the things that most concern them as European businessmen—the import surcharge, the magnitude of the trade and monetary concessions the U.S. wants from other nations, and the possibility of a change in the price of gold. Additional meetings with Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird and House Ways and Means Chairman Wilbur Mills added to the variety of personalities and subject matter. At a dinner with NASA officials, the group met Wernher von Braun.
By the time the tour ended, the participants had proven themselves adept at asking the right questions. Said the News Service's Gart: "They have all the makings of first-class correspondents." Joachim Zahn of West Germany remarked: "All of us here are used to giving orders. This week we listened."
MEMBERS OF THE TOUR
GIOVANNI AGNELLI, chairman, Fiat, Italy
UMBERTO AGNELLI, managing director, Fiat, Italy
GIUSEPPE BERTOLA, executive vice president, Brown, Boveri, Switzerland