A Letter From the Publisher: Mar. 11, 1985

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."