Publisher's Notes

• HANK CLAY, R.I.P.: We at REASON would like to make note of the untimely death of one of our first financial supporters in our publication venture, as well as one of Senior Editor Tibor Machan's best and closest friends, Hank (Ernest H.) Clay of Annapolis, Maryland. Machan met Hank in Washington, D.C., in 1961 at an early Nathaniel Branden Institute lecture. Hank, whom editors Poole and Klausner had just recently met in Washington, D.C., was not a verbalist supporter of liberty, but one of those rare persons—a genuine entrepreneur. The son of American missionaries, he was born in China, grew up there and later in California, where he met Jean, his wife, at Whittier College. He was one of the original founders of ARB, a company that later developed into one of Nielsen's strongest competitors, especially in the radio broadcast market testing fields.

It is unfortunate that in our day persons of Hank's caliber in business are not recognized as the outstanding individuals they are. It is left to very good friends to place the names of such quiet, courageous, and honest individuals into some sort of belated limelight. Friends are so rare in one's life, and Hank was a friend to some of us as well as someone who could be admired without any qualification. He died quickly, at the age of 49, at the most successful point of his life, because of heart ailment. We would like this small notice to be an encouragement to all good persons who may not receive the sort of praise given to people who make their words known everywhere. Silent heroes, we are grateful to you. And we are sad when such heroes, especially those who are also friends, are no longer. We can say with confidence that if you had known Hank, you would have wanted at a time like this to say at least these few words, if not a great deal more, about him.

• LIBERTARIAN PARTY RESULTS: We noted last month in this column that the Libertarian Party received more votes nationally in the last presidential election than any other third party. Although he finished behind the independent candidacy of Eugene McCarthy (who received over 700,000 votes), LP presidential candidate Roger MacBride's vote total of 183,000 exceeded the votes received by the individual candidates of all other political parties, including Lester Maddox of the AIP.

MacBride received his highest vote count in California (56,000) and his highest showing on a percentage basis was in Alaska (nearly 6% of Alaskans voted for MacBride, and he got close to 10% of the vote in Fairbanks). Although the closeness of the Ford-Carter race deterred many voters from voting for a minor party presidential candidate, the LP candidate for State Senate in Idaho received over 30% of the votes cast. Also significant is the balance-of-power role occupied by the LP in Ohio, where MacBride received more votes than the difference between Carter and Ford.

More detailed LP election returns are included in the November-December 1976 issue of the LP News, available from the National Headquarters of the LP, 1516 P Street, N.W., Washington DC 20005 (subscription price, $3 per year).

• NEW COLUMNIST: Beginning this month, contributing editor Alan Reynolds becomes a regular "Viewpoint" contributor. His viewpoint will appear every third month, alternating with the viewpoints of Murray Rothbard and Tibor Machan. Reynolds' viewpoint replaces that of David Brudnoy, who continues as a contributing editor. We look forward to publishing more articles by Brudnoy and Reynolds in future issues.

• BRANDEN ARTICLE: The important new article by psychologist Nathaniel Branden describing how political ideas can be effectively communicated to others, originally scheduled for this issue, will appear in a future issue.