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CO U NCIL 01" ~ C ONOMlC ALJV lb.t.;Hb WASHINGTON, D . C. FOR RELEASE UPON DELIVERY Substance of a Commencement Address by Paul W. McCracken Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers Given at Huron College Huron, South Dakota May 24 , 1970 and Iowa Wesleyan College Mount Pleasant, Iowa June 1, 1970 UNITY IN DIVERSITY What is to be the strategy for assuring orderly social and economic progress as we mo v e through the remaining decades of this twentieth centur y ? This question is not , of course, t o be answered by producing a shopping list of specific problems that we would like to see resolved or ' • programs that we would like to see implemented. All of us have our lists - - of problems, of personal aspirations, of goals and objectives for ourselves and ou r nation. The question posed here is more fundamental. Gan we reach that basic degree of agreement about our strategy which is so essential if we are to have some assurance that these decades, which will close out the twentieth century and begin the third hundred years of our nation's independent existence, will be an era of hope and promise and accomplishmen t? -2- This question is an important one for all of u s, but i t is particularly urgent for the young men and w omen wp.om w e honor here today. It is during this period that their c areers will b e unfolding . They will be reaching the peak of their pr o ductive y ea r s as the bells on that midnight toll in the third millenium of o ur C hristian cal endar . And the dollars deducted from their initial pay ch ecks for social security will not return to them until well into the second decade of the twenty-first century. These are, therefore, the l r years about which we are concerned here today. Ind e ed, the t r aditional name for this occasion itself emphasize s n ot the c o nclu s i on of college years but the commencement of those f o r which thes e college yea r s were made. I The first element in our strategy for the futur e m ust be t he assurance of that open system where there is full s c op e fo r t r ying out t h e new - - new approaches to education, new pr odu c t s and services ih the economy, new techniques in agriculture, new a rt f o r ms in music and the theater and literature. By definiti on pr ogr ess means moving on from the old to something new and better. If w e are to realize our full potential for progress, our social and e con omic system must then obviously accord to all the opportunity for a f ull e x pression of their creative and innovative powers. A society that c o n fin es itself to the innovations and creativity that can be initiated by only a small part of the population is limiting itself to a s mail fr acti on of the creativity -3- that is potentially available. A people that excludes from the creative process members of racial or religious or political or class minorities is therefo r e sacrificing a part of its potential for innovation and progress as well as perpetuating an immoral arrangement. This point is more important than it seems. One of the striking features about mankind's long march upward is that the creative acts making possible each advance have not usually come from a source. 11 logical 11 Was it logical to expect that the son of a Michigan farmer would revolutionize the world of transportation? Was it logical to assume that a Kentucky farmer of no great pretense would be the father of the Great Emancipator? We shall never know if through the centuries a profound philosopher or a major contribution to medicine or a musical genius or a great and wise political leader may have been denied to this country and to the world because some of our people were forced to live as second class citizens, never having the opportunity for a full development and expression of their creative powers. This is why all forms of discrimination are so costly to any society. On recalls here words often attributed to Talleyrand, a blunder. 11 It is more than a crime, it is 11 Our failure through the years to bring racial minorities fully into the mainstream of the national life has had incalculable moral and social costs, and they are the most important, but the economic cost can be measured. If the productive and earning power of these citizens had not been subj ect to spe cial limitati ons t h rough a cumulative heritage of poverty and inadequate edu catio n from discrimination, our productive capability today would be greater by about $25 billion per year. This shortfall is exceeded by the gros s national product of only 13 other nations of the fre e world. II Now progress is not assured by dre aming up new and different things. The new is not always, or even usually, better . Indeed, most ideas for new things are vi sion ar y, impractic al , and found not to be relevant to the needs o f the wo rl d. This brings us to the second element in any effective strategy fo r pr ogress. Our social and economic systems must have a w ay of sorting out the oddball from the relevant a mong the new id eas , and then have a means to as sure that the new does not remain an i solated fact. The new that is better must also be diffused widely acr oss our society. It must prevail. This is the second element of any stra tegy for progres s, and it is the most difficult. It has been the most difficult for nations and societies to solve because it threate n s t he displacement of the old and established and entrenched. It i nv o l ves the necessity for continu- ing disestablishmentarianism. A t otalitarian system or s ociety is not well organized, in principle, to accomplish this continuing dise s t a bli shmentarianism. In highly centralized decision-making systems people with an inherently vested -5interest in the status quo t end also to be the ones who must rule on whether something new might be better . disinclined to do. This, naturally, they a r e That is why highly totalitarian societies or systems, whatever the brand name, are almost always ultraconservative operationally. And it is here that a free and open society has, in principle, the great advantage . Do you have a new style of fiction? Try it out . If people, free to read it or not as they prefer, like it, the new will prevail and the old will be displaced. There is no Department of Fiction in Government, which by definition would be dedicated to the old, whose approval must be obtained. If Henry Ford, with his new idea for transporting people, had then faced the necessity for approval from a Ministry of Transportation (which would certainly have been dominated by the railroads), most of us would not be here at all today. The new prevailed because people were free to make a choice, and then established and powerful organizations (the railroads) gave way to something which people clearly considered to be better. Indeed, if this comment is not inappropriate from a Michigan citizen, the automobile, with all of our current problems of congestion and pollution, has made a singular contribution to freedom by emancipating the ordinary citizen from the tyrannies and regimentation of awkward timetables, trains and buses not on time, and even the bilious conductors of legendary fame. It is this freedom fmm control of V others -- a fifth freedom, Wa lter Reuthe:t' once aptly called it -- that goes a long way to explain the prefe r ence of people gener ally to have command over their transportation - - vexing as this is to thos e who would like to package them up morning and evening into neat bus -sized bundles. This, then, is the strategy for progress. We mu st have individuals giving full scope to their creative and inno vative powers. And for the new that is better to prevail it must pass only the im.pe1·s onal "marketplace" test of whether people, free to express their preferen ces, choose the new over the old. III If our strategy for progress is to work, we must kee p certain things in mind. One is that we shall call upon Government at all levels - - Federal, state , and lo cal - - to accomplish for us som e urgently needed things. We cannot ignore the fact that people begin the race of life unequally positioned around the starting line. People have little to say about the family circumstances into which they are born. Som e through good fortune are born into families with the means and the concern for education, for a secure family Hfe, and for other factors that contribute to effective adult •" hood. That is why many of you are here toda y. Others, through accidents over which they also had no control, find their lives shaped in ways that, if events are simply allowed to take their course, tend to put effective adulthood beyond their hori:1,011. today are not. 'l' lwt lH why A society connnitted tt) 8 01111-• equality tlf wll,) 0 11 ~ht t. o h e h e 1·1• (lpp or hinity cannot ignore these uneven advantages with which peo ple t't,ach t h e i r adult y ~a r,; , and it must constantly probe for ways to 1node1·ate the star ting handicap of tho se who would otherwise be disadvantaged. We must also recognize that, through no fault of their own, others falter along the way. obsolete. Skills which they had painstakingly acquired became Some breadwinners are a casualty of po o r h ealth . A society of growing affluence and sensitivity to the needs of s o cie ty w ill i nsist on sharing the fruits of its abundance more equitably to a ll. And much of this will be through goverrunent. There was a time when Mother Nature h e rs e lf c ould easily handle the smoke and debris and wastes that the few p e ople in this relatively empty land created. With vastly more people or gani zed into an increasingly urbanized and industrialized society, we can n o l ong er count on this ea s y and automatic absorption of wastes and therma l and noise pollution. The solution is not, of course, to lash out at economi c progress but to recognize that some part of our growing produ c tiv e capability must be devoted to greater regard for our envirorunent. A n d this w i ll tend to add to the budgets of Federal, state and l o cal government s . This is not to say that the nation has be e n mis e r ly i n the resources devoted to things we want to do through government. The increase in total 0 taxes paid since 1965 is equal to 55 cents for each increase of one dollar in the national income. And the increase in non-defense government spending at all levels has been equal to 31 percent of the increase in our gross national product since 1965. Much has been done, but demands and needs for more remain insistent . We must also remember, however, that most of our material, social, and spiritual needs will continue to be taken care of in the private sector. It is there that we can accommodate ourselves to that complex diversity which can contribute so much to the ri chness of life in a free and open society. This is why the nation can have the unique contributions to higher education from our small colleges and from our large universities. Both are needed, and many of us are the beneficiaries of having been the product of that unique contribution which each can make. The government process does tend to give all of us what only the majority want. The great virtue of making provision for our needs through the private sector as much as possible is that we can thereby be more sensitive to the diverse and -varied needs and preferences of minorities, of small groups, even of individuals. The majority "vote" for Chevrolets, but a smaller group prefers Fords, another small group Plymouths, and there is the sensitive tailoring of resources to differing preferences require d to satisfy those few who do not want a car at all but prefer something else. Hwnanity took a great step forwa rd when political and so cial institutions made it: possible for the majority to rule, but a still greater step forward occurred when we recognized that our society and our economy must be organized so that the majority cannot tyrannize the minorities. IV Perhaps the most urgent need at this hour in our history, if we are to move with confidence through the years ahead, is a ministry of reconciliation . O ur people are divided. Deep fissures have emerged. 'There is an embitte ring sense of alientation among different groups in the nation. Each has its own just grievance but all bear a heavy responsibility for reconciliation. Many in our colleges and universi- ties feel a sense of estrangement from certain currents of contempo"" rary life and society . They do see inequities and hypocrisies and a disregard of ethical standards that older eyes, too long familiar with these conditions, perceive less vividly. Seeing these evils more sharply and impatient about getting on with this unfinished business, young people in our institutions of higher learning will be a great force that can lead to a better world for us all. There are others in the nation, among them young people who moved directly into employment after high school, who reflect a growing sense of alienation toward the academic community. As one only momentarily on leave from academe, I have found myself increasingly disturbed by 10 the emerging hostility of even thoughtful citi zen s toward our colleges and universities. The insistent question of the ,hour is how we can achieve a sense of unity in our diversity. The answer is clear. It is to be found only in the basic liberalism that had been fundam ental to any free society. This is the principle that each person be as fr ee as possible to pursue as fully as possible the preferences and the goals that to him seem good. It requires that in our diversity we shall agr ee to defend and to respect . the rights of others to hold views with which we do not agree. If any one group insists that only it possesses the Truth, and that other views are Error deserving only of suppression, w e are then inevitably on the way to grave and bitter polarizations in our society, a stifling atmosphere of intellectual totalitarianism, and Holy Wars. V As we look ahead to the four decades o r so that will constitute your working years, we can see great problems but also great potential for further social and material and spiritu al progress. possess the means for great material pro g r ess. affluence will grow further. We shall Our already great We can confidently expect that our productive capability will grow 50 percent i n each of t hese decades. This will bring the average family's inc ome to something well over $20,000 per year (in terms of present pri ces ) fo u r decades or so hence. 11 The great challenges will come in things of the mind and spirit and heart. We should set as our objective nothing less than to be the first nation where people of sharply differing ethnic characteristics and social and religious be liefs live in full amity and true equality. We must regain that sense of dynamics and progress that comes from unity in our differences and enriching differences fiercly defended within our basic unity. with destiny. These will be your challenges, your confrontation The stakes are high, the problems will be formidable, but in the words of Emerson: 11 So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When Duty whispers low, Thou must, The youth replies, I can. 11