THE WEEK

The Editor-in-Chief of Life (and Time and Fortune and Architectural Forum, and Sports Illustrated) , Mr.Henry R. Luce, has graciously bailed out the Secretary of State. The most heated national and international debate on U.S. foreign policy in years was, it seems, merely about a kind of printing mistake in Life: the notorious article, says Mr. Luce with flamboyant regret, should have been presented as “our own review of the historical record,” based on just a “background conversation” with Mr. Dulles, rather than as the Secretary’s self-evaluation. We are shattered by the admission that Life, after twenty years of omniscience, is capable of making a mistake. We deem it healthier, for Life’s proverbial pride as well as U.S. foreign policy, to assume that Mr. Luce was a trifle too generous and Mr. Dulles meant what the article said.

President Eisenhower’s Economic Report asserts: “We have succeeded in expanding the scope of free enterprise, and yet increased the sense of security that people need in a highly industrialized age.” This is followed by twelve recommendations. One says taxes must not be cut, the other eleven are for greater government activities in banking, mortgage-lending, insurance, grain trading and exporting. All these activities were not long ago within the scope of free enterprise. If Mr. Eisenhower thinks that Hillary and Tensing climbed Mt. Everest by simultaneously moving their base camp back toward New Delhi, we must regretfully inform him that they didn’t.

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The Editor-in-Chief of Life (and Time and Fortune and Architectural Forum, and Sports Illustrated) , Mr.Henry R. Luce, has graciously bailed out the Secretary of State. The most heated national and international debate on U.S. foreign policy in years was, it seems, merely about a kind of printing mistake in Life: the notorious article, says Mr. Luce with flamboyant regret, should have been presented as “our own review of the historical record,” based on just a “background conversation” with Mr. Dulles, rather than as the Secretary’s self-evaluation. We are shattered by the admission that Life, after twenty years of omniscience, is capable of making a mistake. We deem it healthier, for Life’s proverbial pride as well as U.S. foreign policy, to assume that Mr. Luce was a trifle too generous and Mr. Dulles meant what the article said.

President Eisenhower’s Economic Report asserts: “We have succeeded in expanding the scope of free enterprise, and yet increased the sense of security that people need in a highly industrialized age.” This is followed by twelve recommendations. One says taxes must not be cut, the other eleven are for greater government activities in banking, mortgage-lending, insurance, grain trading and exporting. All these activities were not long ago within the scope of free enterprise. If Mr. Eisenhower thinks that Hillary and Tensing climbed Mt. Everest by simultaneously moving their base camp back toward New Delhi, we must regretfully inform him that they didn’t.