The Social Report would be prepared by social scientists recruited for stated periods of public service from among the nation's best scholars, just as the members and staff of the Council of Economic Advisers are today. They could be organized as a Council of Social Advisers, as are the Economic Advisers, or in some other visible and independent form. A major function of the social science staff would be to develop tools for measuring the comparative effectiveness of social programs. While we have learned a good deal about social stresses and the gross causative factors that require correction, we still know very little about whether particular remedial programs work at all, which ones work better than others, and why. We lack practicable means for measuring cost-benefit ratios, for establishing and observing parallel programs with significant variables, and for putting an end to programs which have failed to justify their continuance.12 A central staff charged with this responsibility could do much to improve the accuracy of our social planning and the efficacy of on-going programs.

Two decades ago, the Council of Economic Advisers was created by the Full Employment Act of 1946, amid much skepticism about the "science" of economics and particularly about the wisdom and effect of governmental efforts to stimulate or restrain economic activity. Today we recognize the importance of the government's economic role and of national economic measurements, imprecise and imperfect as the economist's tools still are. The other social sciences may now have as much potential for informing wise government policy as economics had twenty years ago.

In a democratic society, the citizens possess the basic social power, and national priorities reflect the value judgments of the majority. Skeptics may thus take a pessimistic view of this Commission's recommendation that our national priorities be reordered. They will point, for example, to the reluctance of the public, despite the penetrating reports and the excellent recommendations of previous presidential commissions, to take the comprehensive actions needed to curb 12. Daniel P. Moynihan, Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding (New York: MacMillan, 1968), pp. 190-203.

crime, eliminate racial discrimination, and alleviate the problems of the ghetto poor. They will point especially to middle-class America-to the "forgotten American"-and his concern over some consequences of racial integration, his rebellion against rising taxes, his distrust of dissent on the campus and protest movements in the capital. How realistic is it, they will ask, to think that the majority of Americans will support a reallocation of our national resources to deal with social problems?

Skepticism is understandable. But the majority of Americans have always responded constructively to national crises when they have been fully informed and responsibly led. The "silent majority," like most other Americans, do not wish to surrender any of the most important freedoms of our open society-freedom of movement, freedom from harm, freedom from fear. They stand to benefit from the programs necessary to retain these freedoms just as much as any disadvantaged minority. All Americans-the majority and our various minorities-must come to grips with the basic causes of violence in our society and do what must be done to achieve liberty and justice for all.

Some, with little faith in our nation, predict that majority indifference will result in a violent revolution of some kind. Indeed, nihilists and anarchists openly espouse this course. We see signs, however, that a peaceful revolution is already under way: a spirit of needed reform is rising steadily among the people and in the ranks of local and national leaders. We see a growing readiness to formulate new values, to set new priorities, and to make firm commitments now, to be honored as soon as resources are available.

Some ordinary citizens feel they can do nothing to influence the direction and the destiny of their nation. But more and more Americans are proving this to be a myth. A growing number of our citizens have found they need not stand idle while our cities rot, people live in fear, householders build individual fortresses, and human and financial resources flow to less urgent endeavors. A new generation of Americans is emerging, with the energy and the talent and the determination to fulfill the promise of the nation. As it ever was, the young-idealistic but earnest, inexperienced but dedicated-are the spearheads of the drive toward change,

and increasing numbers of adult Americans are joining their ranks.

When in man's long history other great civilizations fell, it was less often from external assault than from internal decay. Our own civilization has shown a remarkable capacity for responding to crises and for emerging to higher pinnacles of power and achievement. But our most serious challenges to date have been external-the kind this strong and resourceful country could unite against. While serious external dangers remain, the graver threats today are internal: haphazard urbanization, racial discrimination, disfiguring of the environment, unprecedented interdependence, the dislocation of human identity and motivation created by an affluent society-all resulting in a rising tide of individual and group violence.

The greatness and durability of most civilizations has been finally determined by how they have responded to these challenges from within. Ours will be no exception.

APPENDIX 1

SUMMARY OF

RECOMMENDATIONS

THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS

Introduction

1. that "the time is upon us for a reordering of national priorities and for a greater investment of resources in the fulfillment of two basic purposes of our Constitution-to establish justice and to insure domestic tranquility."

2. that "when our participation in the Vietnam War is concluded, we recommend increasing annual general welfare expenditures by about 20 billion dollars (stated in 1968 dollars), partly by reducing military expenditures and partly by use of increased tax revenues resulting from the growth of the Gross National Product."

3. that "as the Gross National Product and tax revenues continue to rise, we should strive to keep military expenditures level (in constant dollars), while general welfare expenditures should continue to increase until essential social goals are achieved."

4. that, to aid in the reordering of national priorities, consideration should be given to establishing a counterpart of the Council of Economic Advisers to develop tools for measuring the comparative effectiveness of social programs, and to produce an "Annual Social Report," comparable to the present Annual Economic Report.

Chapter 2

Violent Crime

5. that "we double our national investment in the criminal justice process, that central offices of criminal justice be created at the metropolitan level, and that complementary private citizen groups be formed." (See Chapter 6 for detail.)

6. that cities provide "increased day and night foot-patrols of slum ghetto areas by interracial police teams, in order to discourage street crime against both blacks and whites; improved street lighting to deprive criminals of hiding places from which to ambush victims; increase in numbers and use of community neighborhood centers that provide activity so that city streets are not deserted in early evening hours."

7. that cities undertake "increased police-community relations activity in slum ghetto areas in order to secure greater understanding of ghetto residents by police, and of police by ghetto residents."

8. that there be "further experimentation with carefully controlled programs that provide low cost drugs such as methadone to addicts who register, so that addicts are not compelled to resort to robbery and burglary in order to meet the needs of their addiction; increased education about the dangers of addictives and other drugs in order to reduce their use."

9. that we devise means of "identification of specific violence-prone individuals for analysis and treatment in order to reduce the likelihood of repetition; provision of