Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg said in his speech at the closing session of the Cleveland Council on World Affairs' 21st Institute: "I congratulate the Cleveland Forum upon the powerful program it has produced from all quarters of the globe in a striking exchange of international opinion. This process of reciprocal candor is one of the major forces which can beat swords into plowshares on the anvils of mutual understanding and goodwill."

Cleveland's "town meeting," of which TIME was a cosponsor, produced plenty of "reciprocal candor." Most of the speakers were, in one capacity or another, officials of their countries. Generally, officials speak only to officials. In this instance, however, they came to talk to the citizens of Cleveland--and over their shoulders to the rest of the U.S.

After the three-day forum's close one enthusiastic foreign speaker said he was certain that more meetings like Cleveland's would go a long way toward clearing the atmosphere of international politics. Such meetings, however, will depend upon the presence throughout the world of such civic-minded communities as Cleveland, whose citizens speak English and 40 other languages. The 20,000 Clevelanders who came to hear the Institute's 23 speakers represented all those groups. As an audience, they were earnest, intent, and responsive. They listened hard, pulled for the speakers who were not at home with the English language, and, significantly, stayed straight through to the end of each session.

Young Clevelanders were there, too--198 representatives of the Council's forums in 22 Cleveland secondary schools. They came--armed with research, arguments and ideas--to discuss current affairs at three special sessions with three TiMEmen (Foreign Editor Max Ways, Washington Bureau Chief Robert Elson, Berlin Bureau Chief John Scott). Later, they were to report back to their student assemblies on what had been said. Ways, Elson and Scott, who got a Grade-A goingover, found them a highly informed and knowledgeable audience.

To single out all of the people responsible for the success of the Cleveland Institute is not possible in this space, but TIME, as cosponsor, would like to convey its thanks to the citizens of Cleveland and the members of its Council; to Cleveland's Mayor Thomas Burke and Ohio's ex-Governor Frank J. Lausche; to the National Broadcasting Company (for producing nine special programs on the forum and broadcasting them coast-to-coast); to Cleveland's local radio stations (for the 31 forum programs they sent out over their transmitters); to the U.S. State Department (for the thousands of words it transmitted daily to listeners overseas in English and other languages); to all the members of the Cleveland press and the 100-odd reporters and photographers from U.S. and foreign newspapers, news services and magazines who covered the three-day Institute.

Speaking for TIME, and paraphrasing the words of the Institute's main speaker, retiring Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, we are glad we were invited to Cleveland.

Cordially,

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