Dear Time Reader: Last July President Eisenhower's International Development Advisory Board made a recommendation. It suggested that representatives of private business, industry and finance from both the U.S. and Latin America get together in a privately sponsored conference to discuss the mutual advantages of increasing the amount of private U.S. investment capital in Latin America.

The President promptly sent his personal endorsement of the plan to the board's chairman, Eric Johnston. Even before this, the City of New Orleans had become interested in the board's idea. Rudolf S. Hecht, on behalf of International House, and a group of the city's private business organizations undertook the job of sponsoring just such a conference.

Later I was approached by Mr. Hecht with the proposal that TIME act as co-sponsor of the conference. I was pleased to accept the invitation. We have long had an interest in Latin American affairs; the Latin American edition of TIME, started in 1941, was the first of our four international editions. Immediately, Edgar R. Baker, managing director of the international editions, set to work with Mr. Hecht organizing the meeting. It was decided to call the meeting the Inter-American Investment Conference and schedule it for four days in New Orleans early in March.

Announcement of the plan evoked immediate and widespread interest from leading businessmen in the U.S. and Latin America. Some 50 business organizations got to work on the project in Latin America. In the U.S., such organizations as the Investment Bankers Association of America, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Chamber of Commerce of the U.S., the U.S. Inter-American Council and the U.S. Council of the International Chamber of Commerce came into the plan as cooperating groups. In addition, the Organization of American States gave its active support.

From the number of invitations already accepted, it is obvious that the idea has caught the imagination of the individual businessmen for whom the conference is designed. Every day we are getting mail from others who have heard about the meeting by word of mouth and want to be there too.

Although the New Orleans Conference was planned before last November's Rio economic conference, it is the logical sequel to the proposition advanced in Rio (TIME, Nov. 22 et seq.) that private enterprise can profitably do much on its own to stimulate inter-American investment.

The conference will, in effect, be a forum where Latin American businessmen can explain what kind of investments they want in their countries. They will come supplied with specific recommendations and specific proposals for private-capital investment. In turn, they will learn the conditions under which U.S. businessmen will be interested in investing.

We feel that this first Inter-American Investment Conference is a step in the right direction -- a means of stimulating interest in the opportunities for private-capital investment in Latin American countries for the greater strength of all the Americas.

Cordially yours,

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