All through 1948 the senior editor, writers and researchers of TIME'S Business & Finance department have had in mind the year-end review of U.S. business which appears in this issue.

In effect, it is a summation of their year's work. It is also, TIME'S editors feel, an obligation to our readers that is implicit in TIME'S kind of journalism.

Actually, we did not attempt this exacting job of putting the year's events in the world of business in their proper perspective until TIME was 17 years old. From that first year-end review to this one, however, a significant transformation in the viewpoint of our readers toward the review and toward business has taken place. In the beginning very few of you wrote to us about either of these matters. Since the war, we have received more and more letters from you--written by men and women, laymen and experts alike--containing knowledgeable comment on the facts and theories and the news of the business world.

From this evidence we feel entitled to conclude that the news and interpretation of business itself has become increasingly important to TIME'S audience.

This year's review of Business in 1948 is the most extensive TIME has ever run. The work of committing it to paper, however, was considerably helped by the insistence of Joseph Purtell, Senior Editor for Business & Finance, that everyone concerned with it--from researchers to correspondents in the field--keep his facts at hand and the review in mind throughout the year. Pertinent oddities like Businessman Baxter's hymn to his country, to Texas and to Dallas were also stored away; TIME'S editors and the members of its business departments made their contributions. One of them was a firsthand account of the significant business expansion going on in the Chicago area and a neat symbol thereof: the sign on a Peoria barbershop which read, "Joe's shop is a two-chair shop now."

When the time came for assembling all this material coherently, Researcher Mary Elizabeth Fremd took over. The result of all this work was a no-page report covering the year's economy, segment by segment, giving the pertinent opinions of outstanding business and government leaders, earnings figures, a chronology of events, new products, debt-financing and its inflationary effect, etc. Altogether, her report listed about 10,000 confirmed figures.

For final or fourth-quarter figures on the national income, bank deposits, department store sales,etc., which would not be released until after the year's end, Business & Finance had to go directly to the sources (the Federal Reserve Board, the Bureau of the Budget, the Departments of Commerce, Agriculture, Treasury in Washington, etc.). Figures for the last few months were very important this year because of diminishing department store sales and price cuts, which indicated a change in the economy. Otherwise very little querying was necessary beyond a check-up on Detroit's auto industry and the layoffs in Cleveland and Cincinnati.

As for the actual writing of the review itself, because, like all TIME stories, it must be written as close to

the deadline as possible, Business & Finance's William Miller turned out his draft a few days before the year's end, Editor Purtell got in his licks, and Executive Editor Roy Alexander had the final go at it. The result begins on page 73 of this issue.

Cordially yours,

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