Second Thought

When The Churchman, the nation's oldest religious journal, offered its annual "Good Will Award" to Secretary of State George Marshall last fall, a State Department aide readily accepted for the secretary. In previous years the award had gone to such distinguished figures as Madame Chiang Kaishek, Wendell Willkie and General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Then someone took another look at The Churchman and its editor, Guy Emery Shipler.

As most U.S. Episcopalians already knew, the unofficial Churchman had long been noted for its friendliness to the friends of Russia, its frequent blasts against U.S. foreign policy. Editor Shipler himself had been in hot water last fall after his firsthand report that there was no suppression of religious freedom in Communist Yugoslavia (TIME, Sept. 1). Last week, Shipler admitted that Marshall had suddenly decided not to accept the award.

Ruefully, Editor Shipler announced that he would settle for a special citation to the new State of Israel--whose U.N. delegate warily declined. Cracked Manhattan's Daily News: "Better late than never, of course. But we can't help wondering . . . Don't any of Mr. Marshall's advisers read the papers?"

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