Time talks. It more than words. The message it conveys comes through loud and clear. Because it is manipulated less consciously,it is subject to less distortion than spoken language. It can shout the truth where lie. a member of a mayors' committee on human relations in a large city. My assignment was to estimate what the chances were of non-discriminatory practices being adopted by the different city departments. The first step in this project was to interview department heads, two of whom were themselves members of minority groups. If one we to believe the words of these officials, it seemed that all of them were more than willing adopt non-discriminatory l practices. Yet I felt that, despite what they said, in only one case was there much chance for a change. Why? The answer lay in how they used th silent language of time and space. Special attention had been given to arranging each interview. Department heads were asked to be prepared to spend an hour or more discussing their thoughts with me. Nevertheless, appointments were forgotten; long waits in outer offices (fifteen to forty-f minutes) were common, and the length of the interview was often cut down to ten or fifteen minutes. I was usually kept at an impersonal distance during the interview. In one case did the department head come from behind his desk. These men had a position and they were literally and figuratively sticking to it! wh the wh