It must, first of all, maintain a level of format and content which will be representative of the Corporation. This has called for professional standards of printing, proof-reading, art work and layout virtually unheard of in a publication of such modest circulation, a fact widely recognized in publishing circles. Our professional colleagues never cease to wonder how so much quality can be achieved from such limited

resources.

Next, the Magazine, as does every aspect of ONE, has a mission. That mission is to help homosexual men and women to live a better life. They must be encouraged to think clearly about themselves and about the mainly hostile society in which they find themselves. If this means the administering of large doses of courage, even of belligerence, then this must be done, for at all costs they must be roused and awakened to see themselves as citizens and as people. Secondarily perhaps, the Magazine must also concern itself with making the outsider understand the homosexual in his almost infinite variations and aspects.

This latter purpose is sometimes widely misunderstood by those who fancy that understanding can come only through placation, persuasion and the "soft sell." For a century the Negro tried persuasion. Only today is he gaining much recognition of his rights and this appears to be coming about less by the soft sell than by the sharp edge at times of the bayonet and the acrid fumes of tear gas. ONE Magazine, by pointing out such truths, continually earns for itself the charge of being flamboyant or irresponsible from those whose knowledge of the dynamics of social change is undeveloped.

In another direction ONE Magazine continually challenges the claims of any and all persons claiming to speak with authority concerning homosexuality, on the basis that centuries of these authoritarian procedures have not yet produced any very commendable results, a situation that unfortunately or not, makes every pronouncement from nonhomosexual sources suspect and subject to the minutest scrutiny.

On top of all these weighty obligations, and many more which space prevents mentioning here, ONE Magazine must try to be interestingeven entertaining, else no one will read it. Were no one to read it, or few, it is quite obvious that still fewer pages could be paid for. This is the vicious circle which faces every publisher: how to please enough readers to pay for publication of worth while material.

Here again, without undue smugness we trust, the editors have over the years watched sadly the demise of magazine after magazine having immense circulations and meritorious contents, which their highly paid professional staffs were unable to save from failure. It is a thin line that must be walked by the Magazine's editors: their duty to the Corporation's mission, their obligations to homosexual men and women everywhere and the necessity to keep the Magazine solvent, if possible. That the Magazine now concludes its Volume X is plainly a victory of sorts, however much remains to be done.

William Lambert

Associate Editor

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