A Letter From The Publisher: Aug. 9, 1968

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The lights went out, amber and purple auroras spread from the ceiling. Sousa rapped with his baton. His band struck up The Star-Spangled Banner . . . and National Chairman John T. Adams launched into a brief address: "It is only 60 years since Lincoln was President ..."

THAT was TIME, just a little over a year old, reporting on its first presidential nominating convention 44 years ago. The story, while distilling all the essential facts, leaned heavily on the color of straw hats flying, placards pumping and delegations drowning out one another in a near unanimous renomination of Calvin Coolidge. Then, few Americans ever got a chance to witness a convention; today, millions watch the spectacle on TV. As a result, though colorful detail is still an important element in good reporting, it is only the beginning of the reporter's search for what really happened. That search may mean bringing greater knowledge and understanding to a scene that the camera merely records, or seeking out the facts and drama not visible to the viewer: the behind-the-scenes action, the why of what is happening and, not least, the way in which each event relates to a larger sphere.

TIME'S correspondents aim week to week for such reporting, but their efforts reach a peak at convention time. When Senator Everett Dirksen last week had security forces thoroughly check the room in which the G.O.P. platform hearings were being held, he said it was because a similar hearing room at the 1960 G.O.P. Convention in Chicago had been bugged. The nonelectronic "bug" was actually TIME Congressional Correspondent Neil MacNeil, who had ingeniously managed to get firsthand intelligence about what went on in the room. MacNeil was in Miami last week, scouting for more information—and, inevitably, informing New York of the contents of Senator Dirksen's first draft of the Republican platform, which he had somehow managed to obtain.

Washington Correspondent Richard Saltonstall, who extensively interviewed this week's cover subject also had a preview of another important document. Since his days as a Seattle newsman, Saltonstall has been a longtime friend of Governor Dan Evans; he listened critically as the Governor delivered his keynote address into a tape recorder in Olympia. Before he flew off to Miami Beach with Evans, Saltonstall was able to give the editors in New York in advance a good idea of just what the G.O.P. keynote speech contained.

This week, TIME'S principal editors and the writers of the NATION section also flew to Miami Beach to join MacNeil, Saltonstall and other TIME reporters and helpers already on hand. There they found ready for them, in the 1,600-sq.-ft. Jade Room of the Fontainebleau Hotel, a home away from home: a complete news bureau equipped with desks, a battery of Teletype machines, wire service tickers, and a private switchboard with direct lines to key locations in the Convention Hall.