The Commission has already addressed itself to the need for immediate action at the local level. Because the city is the focus of racial disorder, the immediate responsibility rests on community leaders and local institutions. Without responsive and representative local government, without effective processes of interracial communication within the city, and without alert, well-trained and adequately supported local police, national action-no matter how great its scale-cannot be expected to provide a solution.

Yet the disorders are not simply a problem of the racial ghetto or the city. As we have seen, they are symptoms of social ills that have become endemic in our society and now affect every American-black or white, businessman or factory worker, suburban commuter or slumdweller.

None of us can escape the consequences of the continuing economic and social decay of the central city and the closely related problem of rural poverty. The convergence of these conditions in the racial ghetto and the resulting discontent and disruption threaten democratic values fundamental to our progress as a free society.

The essential fact is that neither existing conditions. nor the garrison state offers acceptable alternatives for the future of this country. Only a greatly enlarged commitment to national action compassionate, massive and sustained, backed by the will and resources of the most powerful and the richest nation on this earth-can shape a future that is compat

ible with the historic ideals of American society.

It is this conviction that leads us, as a commission on civil disorders, to comment on the shape and dimension of the action that must be taken at the national level.

In this effort we have taken account of the work of scholars and experts on race relations, the urban condition and poverty. We have studied the reports and work of other commissions, of congressional committees, and of many special task forces and groups both within the Government and within the private

sector.

Financing the Cost

The Commission has also examined the question of financing; although there are grave difficulties, we do not regard them as insoluble. The Nation has substantial financial resources-not enough to do everything some might wish, but enough to make an important start on reducing our critical "social deficit," in spite of a war and in spite of current budget requirements.

The key factors having a bearing on our ability to pay for the cost are the great productivity of the American economy, and a Federal revenue system which is highly responsive to economic growth. In combination, these produce truly astounding automatic increases in Federal budget receipts provided only that the national economy is kept functioning at capacity so that actual national income expands in line with potential.

These automatic increases-the "fiscal dividend"— from the Federal revenue system range from $11 billion to $14 billion under conditions of steady economic growth.

The tax surcharge requested by the President, including continuation of excise taxes, would add about $16 billion to the fiscal dividend of about $28.5 billion over a 2-year period.

While competing demands are certain to grow with every increase in Federal revenues, so that hard choices are inevitable, these figures demonstrate the dimension of resources-apart from changes in tax rates— which this country can generate.

Federal Program Coordination

The spectacle of Detroit and New Haven engulfed in civil turmoil despite a multitude of federally aided programs raised basic questions as to whether the existing "delivery system" is adequate to the bold new purposes of national policy. Many who voiced these concerns overlooked the disparity between the size of the problems at which the programs are aimed and the level of funding provided by the Federal Government.

Yet there is little doubt that the system through which Federal programs are translated into services to people is a major problem in itself. There are now over 400 grant programs operated by a broad range of Federal agencies and channeled through a much larger array of semiautonomous state and local government entities. Reflective of this complex scheme, Federal programs often seem self-defeating and contradictory: field officials unable to make decisions on their own programs and unaware of related efforts; agencies unable or unwilling to work together; programs conceived and administered to achieve different and sometimes conflicting purposes.

The new social development legislation has put great strain upon obsolescent machinery and administrative practices at all levels of government. It has loaded new work on Federal departments. It has required a level of skill, a sense of urgency, and a capacity for judgment never planned for or encouraged in departmental field offices. It has required planning and administrative capacity rarely seen in statehouses, county courthouses, and city halls.

Deficiencies in all of these areas have frustrated accomplishment of many of the important goals set by the President and the Congress.

In recent years serious efforts have been made to improve program coordination. During the 1961-65 period, almost 20 Executive Orders were issued for the coordination of Federal programs involving intergovernmental administration. Some 2 dozen interagency committees have been established to coordinate two or more Federal aid programs. Departments have been given responsibility to lead others in areas within

their particular competence-OEO, in the poverty field; HUD in Model Cities. Yet, despite these and other efforts, the Federal Government has not yet been able to join talent, funds, and programs for concentrated impact in the field. Few agencies are able to put together a comprehensive package of related programs to meet priority needs.

There is a clear and compelling requirement for better coordination of federally funded programs, particularly those designed to benefit the residents of the inner city. If essential programs are to be preserved and expanded, this need must be met.

The Commission's Recommendations

We do not claim competence to chart the details of programs within such complex and interrelated fields as employment, welfare, education, and housing. We do believe it is essential to set forth goals and to recommend strategies to reach these goals.

That is the aim of the pages that follow. They contain our sense of the critical priorities. We discuss and recommend programs not to commit each of us to specific parts of such programs but to illustrate the type and dimension of action needed.

Much has been accomplished in recent years to formulate new directions for national policy and new channels for national energy. Resources devoted to social programs have been greatly increased in many areas. Hence, few of our program suggestions are entirely novel. In some form, many are already in effect.

All this serves to underscore our basic conclusion: the need is not so much for the Government to design new programs as it is for the Nation to generate new will. Private enterprise, labor unions, the churches, the foundations, the universities-all our urban institutions must deepen their involvement in the life of the city and their commitment to its revival and welfare.

Objectives for National Action

Just as Lincoln, a century ago, put preservation of the Union above all else, so should we put creation of a true union-a single society and a single American identity as our major goal. Toward that goal, we propose the following objectives for national action:

■ Opening up all opportunities to those who are restricted by racial segregation and discrimination, and eliminating all barriers to their choice of jobs, education, and housing.

Removing the frustration of powerlessness among the disadvantaged by providing the means to deal with the problems that affect their own lives and by increasing the capacity of our public and private institutions to respond to those problems.

Increasing communication across racial lines to destroy stereotypes, halt polarization, end distrust and hostility and create common ground for efforts toward common goals of public order and social justice.

There are those who oppose these aims as "rewarding the rioters." They are wrong. A great nation is not so easily intimidated. We propose these aims to fulfill our pledge of equality and to meet the fundamental needs of a democratic and civilized society-domestic peace, social justice, and urban centers that are citadels of the human spirit.

I. EMPLOYMENT

Introduction

Unemployment and underemployment are among the most persistent and serious grievances of our disadvantaged minorities. The pervasive effect of these conditions on the racial ghetto is inextricably linked to the problem of civil disorder.

In the Employment Act of 1946, the United States set for itself a national goal of a useful job at a reasonable wage for all who wish to work. Federal expenditures for manpower development and training have increased from less than $60 million in 1963 to $1.6 billion in 1968. The President has proposed a further increase to $2.1 billion in 1969 to provide work experience, training, and supportive services for 1.3 million men and women. Despite these efforts, and despite sustained general economic prosperity and growing skill demands of automated industry, the goal of full employment has become increasingly hard to attain.

There are others who say that violence is necessarythat fear alone can prod the Nation to act decisively on behalf of racial minorities. They too are wrong. Violence and disorder compound injustice; they must be ended and they will be ended.

Our strategy is neither blind repression nor capitulation to lawlessness. Rather it is the affirmation of common possibilities, for all, within a single society.

Today there are about 2 million unemployed, and about 10 million underemployed, 6.5 million of whom work full time and earn less than the annual poverty wage.

The most compelling and difficult challenge is presented by some 500,000 "hardcore" unemployed who live within the central cities, lack a basic education, work not at all or only from time to time, and are unable to cope with the problems of holding and performing a job. A substantial part of this group is Negro, male, and between the ages of approximately 18 and 25. Members of this group are often among the initial participants in civil disorders.

A slum employment study by the Department of Labor in 1966 showed that as compared with an unemployment rate for all persons in the United States of 3.8 percent, the unemployment rate among 16- to 19year-old nonwhite males was 26.5 percent and among

16- to 24-year-old nonwhite males 15.9 percent. Data collected by the Commission in cities where there were racial disorders in 1967 indicate that Negro males between the ages of 15 and 25 predominated among the rioters. More than 20 percent of the rioters were unemployed; and many of those who were employed worked in intermittent, low status, unskilled jobs-jobs which they regarded as below their level of education. and ability.

In the riot cities that we surveyed, Negroes were three times as likely as whites to hold unskilled jobs, which are often part time or seasonal, and "dead end" a fact that's as significant for Negroes as unemployment.

Goals and Objectives

We propose a comprehensive national manpower policy to meet the needs of both the unemployed and the underemployed. That policy will require:

■ Continued emphasis on national economic growth and job creation so that there will be jobs available for those who are newly trained, without displacing those already employed.

■ Unified and intensive recruiting to reach those who need help with information about available job, training and supportive aids.

■ Careful evaluation of the individual's vocational skills, potentials and needs; referral to one or more programs of basic education, job training and needed medical, social, and other services; provision for transportation between the ghetto and outlying employment areas, and continued followup on the individual's progress until he no longer needs help.

Concentrated job training efforts, with major emphasis on on-the-job training by both public and private employers, as well as public and private vocational schools and other institutional facilities.

■ Opening up existing public and private job structures to provide greater upward mobility for the underemployed without displacing anyone already employed at more advanced levels.

Large-scale development of new jobs in the public and private sectors to absorb as many as possible of the unemployed, again without displacement of the employed.

■ Stimulation of public and private investment in depressed areas, both urban and rural, to improve the environment, to alleviate unemployment and underemployment and, in rural areas, to provide for the poor alternatives other than migration to large urban centers.

New kinds of assistance for those who will continue to be attracted to the urban centers, both before and after they arrive.

■ Increasing small business and other entrepreneurial opportunities in poverty areas, both urban and rural.

Basic Strategies

To achieve these objectives, we believe the following basic strategies should be adopted:

Existing programs aimed at recruiting, training, and job development should be consolidated according to

the function they serve at local, state and Federal levels, to avoid fragmentation and duplication.

We need comprehensive and focused administration of a unified group of manpower programs.

High priority should be placed on the creation of new jobs in both the public and private sectors.

In the public sector a substantial number of such jobs can be provided quickly, particularly by government at the local level, where there are vast unmet needs in education, health, recreation, public safety, sanitation, and other municipal services. The National Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress estimated that there are 5.3 million potential jobs in public service. But the more difficult task is to provide jobs in private industry for the hardcore unemployed. Both strategies must be pursued simultaneously, with some arrangements for a flow of trainees from public sector jobs to on-the-job training in private companies.

■ Creation of jobs for the hard-core unemployed will require substantial payments to both public and private employers to offset the extra costs of supportive services and training.

Basic education and counseling in dress, appearance, social relationships, money management, transportation, hygiene, health, punctuality and good work habits-all of which employers normally take for granted-may have to be provided. Productivity may be low for substantial periods.

■ Special emphasis must be given to motivating the hard-core unemployed.

A sure method for motivating the hard-core unemployed has not yet been devised. One fact, however, is already clear from the experience of the Job Corps, Neighborhood Youth Corps, and Manpower Develop ment and Training projects: the previously hard-core unemployed trainee or employee must understand that he is not being offered or trained for a “dead-end" job. Since, by definition, he is not eligible even for an entrylevel position, he must be given job training. He must be convinced that, if he performs satisfactorily, after the training period he will be employed and given an opportunity to advance, if possible, on a clearly defined "job ladder," with step increases in both pay and responsibility.

Artificial barriers to employment and promotion must be removed by both public agencies and private employers.

Racial discrimination and unrealistic and unnecessarily high minimum qualifications for employment or promotion often have the same prejudicial effect. Government and business must consider for each type of job whether a criminal record should be a bar, and

whether a high school diploma is an inflexible prerequisite. During World War II, industry successfully employed large numbers of the previously unemployed and disadvantaged by lowering standards and by restructuring work patterns so that the job fit the level of available skills. We believe that too often government, business, and labor unions fail to take into account innate intelligence and aptitudes which are not measurable.

Present recruitment procedures should be reexamined. Testing procedures should be revalidated or replaced by work sample or actual job tryouts. Applicants who are rejected for immediate training or employment should be evaluated and counseled by company personnel officers and referred to either company or public reinedial programs. These procedures have already been initiated in the steel and telephone industries.

Special training is needed for supervisory personnel.

Support needed by the hard-core unemployed during initial job experience must be provided by specially trained supervisors. A new program of training entrylevel supervisors should be established by management, with government assistance if necessary.

Suggested Programs

We are proposing programs in six areas in order to illustrate how we believe the basic strategies we have outlined can be put into effect:

Consolidating and concentrating employment efforts.
Opening the existing job structure.

Creating 1 million new jobs in the public sector in 3 years. Creating 1 million new jobs in the private sector in 3 years. Developing urban and rural poverty areas. Encouraging business ownership in the ghetto. Consolidating and concentrating employment efforts. Recruitment. There is an urgent need for a comprehensive manpower recruitment and services agency at the community level. The Federal-state employment service is not serving this function in many urban areas and cannot do so unless it is substantially restructured and revitalized. This was recommended in 1965 by the Employment Service Task Force but has been only partially achieved by the Employment Services' new Human Resources Development Program.

We believe that every city should establish such a comprehensive agency, with authority to direct the coordination of all manpower programs, including those of the employment service, the community action agencies, and other local groups.

The Concentrated Employment Program established by the Department of Labor last year and now operating in the ghettos of 20 cities and in two rural areas is an important beginning toward a unified effort at the local level. A related effort by the Department of Housing and Urban Development is underway

in the Model Cities Program, now in the planning stage in some 63 cities.

Placement. In order to match men to jobs, we need more effective interchange of information. A computerized nationwide service should be established, as recommended in 1966 by the National Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress, with priority of installation given to the large urban

centers.

An information system of this sort would simplify placement including interarea placement and placement from ghetto to suburb. This in turn will often require transportation assistance and counseling.

The existing experimental mobility program, under the Manpower Development and Training Act, should be greatly expanded and should support movement from one part of a metropolitan area to another. Aid to local public transportation under the Mass Transportation Program should be similarly expanded on the basis of an existing experiment with subsidies for routes serving ghetto areas.

Job development and placement in private industry is critical to our proposed strategies and is now handled separately by a wide variety of agencies and programs: the Manpower Development and Training Act program, the vocational education programs, the Vocational Rehabilitation Program, the Job Corps and, recently, the Neighborhood Youth Corps and several new adult work experience and training programs. All seek to place trainees with private employers, sometimes with and sometimes without training assistance, through a wide variety of local agencies, as well as through the employment service, community action agencies and others.

A single, cooperative national effort should be undertaken with the assistance of business, labor, labor, and industrial leaders at national, regional, and local levels. It should reach both individual companies and trade associations, systematically and extensively, with information about incentive programs and aids, and with authority to negotiate contractual arrangements and channel incentive funds to private employers.

The recently created Urban Coalition, with its local affiliates, brought together many of the interested parties in the private sector. The National Alliance of Businessmen just established by the President will be concentrating private industry efforts in on-the-job training of the hard-core unemployed. We believe that it may be helpful now to create a federally chartered corporation with authority to undertake the coordination of the private sector job program outlined below.

Opening the existing job structure.

Arbitrary barriers to employment and promotion must be eliminated.