Part: 1234         Session: 1234         Page 188189190191192193194195196197198199200201202203204205206207208209210211212213214215216217218219220221 of 512

that Bill May had done earlier, who's head of American Can, in another connection, I felt that to have directors with outside interests of this sort put this kind of pressure on the publishers, and it was a rather strong letter to the publisher, involved a conflict that I had to resist, and did resist.

I wrote the publisher a memo which I'll also gladly insert in this record, expressing my views on this issue.

Here again, the publisher did not insist on our changing our view, but - and I cite this, as I've cited practically every one of these instances, simply to illustrate the kind of pressure to which he was subjected as well as I.

But you didn't have any sense that it was building up, as the seventies wore on, that it intensified?

Yes. Yes. I did, because I remember discussing this in the last few years more than once with both Raskin and Hechinger, and Silk, our economics man. All three of us were concerned about this, and I guess it made us dig in a bit.

None of them ever got any direct indications from Punch - or did they? Did he always go through you?

I think that it always or virtually always would go through me. Yes. And it's certainly essential for me to say in all this that what I have been stating to you are