A Letter From the Publisher

By John A. Meyers

More than two decades ago, TIME inaugurated its Newstour, an event in which U.S. corporate, philanthropic and educational leaders take on the role of guest journalists, interviewing key personalities in nations that are in the news. A Newstour in 1978 covered 8,000 miles in the Middle East and Africa; three years later the destinations were Eastern Europe and the Middle East; in 1983, Mexico and Panama. TIME has also reversed the process: in May 1981 the magazine arranged for 22 leading European and South African businessmen to meet U.S. policymakers in Washington. Last week, in a similar exercise, TIME invited the chief executives of some of Canada's largest corporations and financial institutions to the U.S. capital for three days of discussions with such officials as Secretary of State George Shultz, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole.

The 17 Canadians, all members of Canada's Business Council on National Issues, cheerfully faced up to 14-hour days that began with breakfast meetings and ended with after-dinner speeches. With them were TIME editors, correspondents and company officers, led by Time Inc. Editor in Chief Henry Grunwald, Board Chairman Ralph Davidson and TIME Managing Editor Ray Cave. The topics ranged from acid rain to Star Wars, but it was the U.S. budget deficit and its effect on interest rates and the dollar that dominated the discussions. Most Administration officials and Congressmen agreed with Senator Dole, who described his effort to forge a bipartisan coalition in favor of budget cuts as "the only priority" this year.

New York Representative Jack Kemp sounded a very different note, insisting that deficit reduction should take second place to economic growth. Said Kemp: "We have a central bank that believes that too much economic growth causes inflation." The Canadians heard a rebuttal from Federal Reserve Board Governor Henry Wallich, who warned that economic growth of more than 4% would be inflationary.

Senator John Danforth of Missouri, who heads the Senate's International Trade Subcommittee, expressed concern about the U.S. trade deficit. Danforth avoided attributing the strength of the dollar to the federal budget deficit, but he said, to the general agreement of the Canadians, "Something has gone terribly wrong with the international trading system. This is not free trade as we envisioned it." A telling comment on Danforth's view emerged at the beginning of the week during a meeting with Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige, when the Canadians learned that talks with Japan on telecommunications had been suspended that very day.

TIME's guest journalists were relieved to learn that there was little resentment in Washington over Canada's $20.4 billion trade surplus with the U.S., largely because the government of Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is perceived to be opening the country to increased U.S. investment. Said Alfred Powis, chairman of the giant resources company Noranda Inc.: "Whoever is in charge (in Washington) isn't spending a whole lot of time worrying about Canada, and that's all to the good."

In a lighter moment, Defense Secretary Weinberger began by noting that he would much prefer to have an uncontroversial job like director of the National Gallery of Art. But he went on to defend the Administration's military buildup as well as the controversial Star Wars plan. Later, Senators Joseph Biden, Gary Hart, William Cohen and Nancy Kassebaum gave a bipartisan critique of the Administration's defense and foreign policies, amid some jovial byplay between Hart and Biden on the approaching 1988 presidential campaign. After a vigorous exchange on policy, several of the visitors expressed surprise at how prominent an issue defense was in the U.S. Said Rowland C. Frazee, chairman of the Royal Bank of Canada: "I could go to a similar group in Canada and the subject would hardly be mentioned."

The Newstour participants, of course, have all had plenty of business and personal dealings in the U.S. Nevertheless, they were glad to have the chance to talk firsthand with so many U.S. policymakers. "Learning what makes a political system go, and what the concerns are, has to be of value," said Warren Chippindale, chairman of Coopers & Lybrand. "We saw a lot of people who have clout." John Stoik, president of Gulf Canada Ltd., seemed to speak for many of his colleagues when he said, "I never have had very much exposure to the Government in this country, and I have been very, very impressed with the quality of the people." And, in turn, the Americans were impressed by the sophisticated world view of their visitors.