Worldly Infant

So that one new magazine could be born last week, three magazines were killed. Subscribers to Asia, Inter-American and Free World were asked to switch--sight unseen--to a new monthly, United Nations World. Only a handful refused to; U.N. World started life with a circulation of 50,000.

It also began with an impressive list of editors, a worthy mission and a rich uncle. U.N. World originally had the backing of three rich men's sons, Nelson Rockefeller, Jock Whitney and Michael Straight--but Rockefeller and Whitney backed out. The money now comes out of the gold-lined pockets of the ElmhirstStraight family, which has patiently paid the New Republic's deficits throughout its 32-year existence. (Rich young Michael Straight is also currently shooting the works to see that the New Republic's new Editor Henry Wallace* gets all that money can buy.) Unlike the ad-lean New Republic, which gives an outward appearance of respectable poverty, U.N. World's So pages were on slick paper, carried plenty of ads, and looked a little like a cross between Business Week and Survey Graphic.

Out to plug U.N., but strictly unofficially, Vol. I, No. 1 tried to warm up to its subject with intimate facts about top U.N. delegates (i.e., 13 1/2% of them are polygamous, 6 1/2% won't tell); a crossword puzzle emphasizing global words (No. i across: "goal of the U.N." in five letters); and a four-page picture sequence showing U.N. delegates shaking hands and grinning vaguely at each other. In its table of contents were names like Pearl Buck, Arthur Compton, Trygve Lie, Edouard Herriot; on its editorial masthead were names like William L. Shirer, Thomas Mann, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vincent Sheean and Lin Yutang. The magazine's real head is Publisher Egbert White, a former Manhattan advertising executive who ran Yank and the Mediterranean Stars and Stripes for the Army.

U.N. World expects soon to come out in Sweden, England, Mexico and Uruguay. In charge of its global ambitions is International Editor Louis Dolivet, founder of the late Free World, who married into the Straight family. Says Publisher White: if there is ever a conflict between the United States and the United Nations, this magazine will support the United Nations.

* For other news of Henry Wallace, see MILE-STONES.

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