IF, in retrospect, a journalistic enterprise could have preordained its date of birth, we wouldn't have done it any other way. Time Incorporated officially became a business in November 1922. In March 1923, "TIME The Weekly News-Magazine" appeared on the newsstands, editorially designed "to serve the modern necessity of keeping people informed." So these next few months mark the 50th anniversary of the company. A fabulous half-century, like no other in history. And today the charter of Time Inc.--to keep people informed--remains the same.

TIME was the brainchild of Henry R. Luce and Briton Hadden, both under 25, burning with curiosity, enthusiasm and energy. TIME was an invention, something completely new in journalism, and its success underwrote in later years the development of equally innovative magazines: FORTUNE, LIFE and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. This month Time Inc. is introducing still another magazine, MONEY. Its publication affirms our belief that the public's need and appetite for news and information has not diminished.

In the half-century since its founding, Time Inc. has become a broadly based communications company. Visionaries though they were, neither Luce nor Hadden could have predicted in 1922 the course their company would take. The corporate imprint of TIME-LIFE is now on books, films, newspapers, broadcasting, cable television, recordings, audio and video cassettes, fine arts reproductions and educational material. Apart from all this "communicating," we are also operating successfully in the fields of paper and paper products, printing materials and services, and marketing data.

So we are 50 years old, and we intend to celebrate. We are planning a series of events for the months ahead--some small and rather personal and sentimental, others on a bigger scale. In all, we hope to reach-a lot of people .to whom we owe thanks--not only our working colleagues within the company but also the legions of readers arid believers who through the years have helped us grow.

>This week, in association with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, we are presenting the premiere showing of an episode of the BBC-TIME-LIFE Films coproduction, America: A Personal History of > the United States, at historic Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. The full series of 13 parts was written and narrated by the noted journalist-broadcaster Alistair Cooke and produced by Michael Gill, and will be sponsored by Xerox on the NBC Television Network starting Nov. 14.

>Beginning in mid-October at New York's Carnegie Hall, Time Inc. will have the privilege of sponsoring the 1972 U.S. tour of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London. In the course of 36 concerts, this renowned orchestra will play to audiences from New York City to Provo,

Utah, from Corvallis, Ore., to Washington, D.C. Prior to its visit to the U.S., the Royal Philharmonic will have presented four gala TIME-LIFE concerts at Festival Hall in London. Rudolf Kempe is the conductor, assisted by Lawrence Foster. The tour is under the management of Impresario Kazuko Hillyer.

>Henry Luce once wrote that journalists should "tell as many of the citizens as possible, as effectively as possible, what the res publicae are, and what the rational debate on those subjects is." It is in the spirit of those words that Time Inc.'s publications, utilizing their unique resources, will this year undertake a study of the U.S. Congress, and ways of restoring that body to coequal status with the Executive Branch. At the same time we will hold a series of dinner meetings in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles, at which Senators, Representatives, civic leaders and scholars will be invited to offer their views. These meetings will lead to a final dinner in Washington, at which a full report will be made to the nation in general and Congress in particular just after Inauguration Day.

>In March, Atheneum will publish The World of Time-Life: The Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise, 1941-1960. It is the second volume of the story of this company written by Robert T. Elson, and it is our hope that it will be regarded as an indispensable account of a major force in American journalism.

> Before 1972 is over, members of the New York staff will celebrate another, more personal anniversary: the 50th at Time Inc. for Roy E. Larsen, vice chairman of the board and for 21 years Time Inc.'s president. He was TIME'S first circulation and promotion director, the first publisher of LIFE, and the editor of the famed radio and movie documentary series of the 1930s and '40s, the MARCH OF TIME. At age 73 Larsen "is not only an active member of our board of directors but continues to contribute to our daily operations with his wisdom and good humor.

>Climaxing the golden-anniversary observance will be a tribute to the man whose heritage we share. The Smithsonian Institution has elected to establish the Henry R. Luce Hall of News Reporting in the National Museum of History and Technology in Washington. To be opened in April 1973, the Hall will contain the first permanent record of the impact of media on the development of our country. Its displays will range from pre-Revolutionary pamphlets, newspapers and magazines to the most sophisticated of today's news-disseminating techniques. It will be a permanent treasure of information for journalists, scholars, students and visitors to the nation's capital--and a tangible tribute to Luce's exceptional creativity and intellectual curiosity.

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