Our economic system persuades men to their best efforts by rewarding the enterprise of individuals and encouraging those who contribute to our progress. Economic incentives and cultural opportunities must be implicit to those who choose to live in nonmetropolitan circumstances. Economically viable communities in rural areas promise to maximize the multiple incentives which motivate men. Public investment in the social infrastructure of roads, schools, and public facilities must be employed to maximize the private investments which produce homes, businesses, industries and services. These coordinated investments, public and private, are the prime means to the end of rural area development. Differentiated approaches will be required to stimulate the environmental growth which produces a wide range of economic opportunities. Our rural areas are both undeveloped and under-developed, and development capabilities among them vary tremendously. A national economic growth policy must be framed frankly to maximize private economic opportunities in our rural areas, and incorporate a searching minimizing of our dependence on soft loan programs. The aims and objectives of rural America must be framed and articulated in terms of national perspectives. To be effective we must develop the competence to devise, recommend and support public policies and private efforts which tend toward realization of our goals. We must be able to create viable alternatives to those proposals which do not contribute to constructive resolution of the problems of Rural America and the Nation as a whole. The most scientific tools and our most sophisticated processes must be employed to address the tasks we have set for ourselves. Most of all we must proceed upon a firm base of knowledge-knowing who we are, what we are about, where we propose to go and how we intend to get there. To get there, first, we need the services of an organization that can compile, coordinate, interpret and disseminate knowledge that is increasingly rapidly being developed; second, the fruits of these efforts must be implemented by the development of legislation in both the National and State legislative halls. The future of the Coalition for Rural America is clearly in the legislative field, creatively as well as analytically. It must proceed on premises at least as elevated as those envisioned herein. To aspire to anything less would brand us unworthy of our heritage. 78-617 O - 72 - 2 How will " Coalition for Rural America The problems resulting from mass crowding together are awesome and well known slums, crime, pollution, blight . . . every ill known to mankind's history, and some now identifiable only with our times. The crisis of urban America has vastly overshadowed recognition of the needs of rural America. Against the vision of open spaces and winding roads, quiet towns and a world at peace, the realities of rural America stand in stark contrast declining job opportunities, poor housing, inadequate medical care, irrelevant education. Just as is urban America's promised quality of life rapidly diminishing, so is the true quality of life in rural America. Getting Destiny Back in Hand... In a free nation governmental institutions, cf themselves, cannot envision and execute major societal changes. Our government merely reflects changes and reacts to the dilemmas brought by change. So great have become the problems resulting from the phenomenon of our growth pattern in the past half-century that government finds itself in a now constant state of ineffectual re-acting. It can be fairly said, as a result, that the destiny of American society is at least momentarily out of hand. It is inconceivable that a nation so sophisticated in technology as to be wondering, almost literally, which Planet to aim at next cannot find solutions to the problems of its own people. America can solve these problems. We have the wealth, the intellectual capacity and the national will, but we have not coordinated these resources in dealing with the problems before us. What We Have Lacked Is A Plan... The Coalition for Rural America has been formed to advance the broad interests of rural America, defined as that part of the United States lying outside the major metropolitan areas and embracing non-metropolitan cities, towns, villages, and the open countryside. We do not propose that rural America can or should be restored as history knew it. Least of all do we support unrealistic and cosmetic preservation, through Federal programs, of rural communities where no longer exists the required inner-vitality for healthy community growth. It is our belief that the interests of rural America can be advanced only through policies that recognize the achievement of an improved quality of life for all Americans. Such a quality of life in our conviction can be ensured only through the creation of a viable new environment on America's essentially unspoiled countryside an environment of new hope and opportunity, of new choice for America's citizens now and in generations to come. The Coalition, which is non-partisan in its thrust, but has its greatest strength in the fact that it is bi-partisan, will pursue its objectives by serving as a spokesman for rural America in the nation's councils. It is public advocate and public educator, and it seeks to mobilize in a common effort all at the na tional, regional, state and local levels who share its goal. We are aware of much which is good and available. We seek to distill the best of our national energies and thinking, and sell the collective product in the legislative halls of America, thereby molding the limitless opportunities before us as a free people. As concerned Americans, to proceed on premises less elevated than these would brand us unworthy of our heritage. Will you work To make maximum effectiveness of our concern for our national future it is essential that we talk and understand the same language. There is by no means a consensus on even the most basic definitions in the problems before us. What is rural America? What is a healthy community? What makes up a viable environment? How do we measure a "quality of life?" These and other questions are explored in a working document which the Coalition for Rural America would like to send to you. We urge you to write for this document and become an associate in the efforts of the Coalition for Rural America. Coalition for Rural America 1001 Connecticut Avenue Washington, D.C. 20036 |