Last week an unobtrusive little booklet quietly joined the glut of magazines on local news-stands. Devoted to "analyzing, discussing, and interpreting American affairs," U.S.A., The Magazine of American Affairs is the National Association of Manufacturers' contribution to the nation's reading habit.

But those who assume that U.S.A. is just the same old N.A.M. diatribes wrapped up in slick monthly installments will be surprised by the March issue (U.S.A.'s inaugural). They will find out that it is more than a house organ.

The March issue's contents eight of the fifteen articles are primarily informative, while the rest are exercises in axe-grinding. There are also a few features--a meandering poem about rights and a condemned book about the American people.

So far, the N.A.M. has been able to attract several well-informed and smooth writers to its columns. Dr. Herold C. Hunt, general superintendent of Chicago's public schools has written an incisive account of the crisis in public school education. Two General Electric executives are the authors of another excellent article which debunks the roseate notion of automobiles, railroad trains, and electric light bulbs running perpetually on a thimble-full of plutonium. Although these topics have been discussed again and again, U.S.A.'s comment on them is authoritative and interesting.

More original in subject matter, though no less instructive, are the articles on the trouble that differentials in the pay of Allied country's soldiers is causing NATO and the German co-determination system of management union relations. Even the International Labor Organization and the federal government's valley authorities receive careful if not unbiased treatment.

The remaining articles, however, are a little short on information, and they serve to remind the reader that, after all, U.S.A. is the N.A.M.'s publication. Perhaps the worst of the lot is Senator Byrd's un instructive and strangely familiar epic on federal expenditures. The Senator gives us a "Byrd's eye view of federal spendorama," and not content with turning this phrase, he explains how many dollars of OUR money the bureaucrats, politicians, and pinks are spending each second of the day. Beyond these gimmicks, Senator Byrd has very little in the way of analysis, discussion, or interpretation. The lead article by former Saturday Evening Post editorial writer Garet Garrett is not so trite, but in the attempt to prove that American intrusion into European affairs is responsible for that continent's present impotency, the author is forced into the extraordinary argument that Russia's power is simply a product of American interference as well.

Though they may differ as to their value to the reader, there is no basic contradiction between the informative articles and the others. The magazine's tone is always consistent: big government, slow attrition of basic American rights, and a back-to-the-good-old days philosophy. U.S.A. expresses with documentation and with restraint an attitude too often represented by the Hearst press, the John T. Flynns and the N.A.M. itself. As such, it is a welcome addition to the news stands.