LUTHER GULICK 133 



Madison Avenue should have no difficulty in building a valid new 

 idea into our fundamental culture within a single generation. 



Something also needs to be said about the governmental and ad- 

 ministrative task. Without organized action, things don't happen ac- 

 cording to rational plans in a complex social and economic world, 

 where men live elbow to elbow. The bulk of this action will be per- 

 sonal, voluntary, and corporate, based on human beliefs and spiritual 

 commitments. But in dealing with the conservation of natural re- 

 sources and the maintenance of a general policy of drawing down 

 current production rather than capital resources, there must be also 

 a broad framework of conscious and authoritative social control. 

 This is government action. It involves the determination of policies 

 in words after debate and compromise — that is legislation; it in- 

 volves enforcement and management — that is the executive func- 

 tion; and it involves the settlement of individual grievances and 

 broad interpretations of law through independent courts. 



The essential thing here, as we have learned in other fields, is to 

 identify the few key things that must be rationalized or regulated and 

 to set the action priorities, so that we may leave the bulk of life and 

 action to free enterprise, and still achieve the goals we seek. 



As to the problems identified earlier as arising primarily out of 

 the new pressures of urbanization on our resources, this approach 

 suggests that there are now four matters for priority action, without 

 even waiting for extensive research. 



These are allocating water resources, eliminating flood dangers 

 and water pollution, reserving open spaces, and controlling the gen- 

 eral pattern of land use particularly around metropolitan regions 

 and thruway interchanges. These last tasks must be related to the 

 total circulation pattern, i.e., transportation, a matter I am not dis- 

 cussing in this paper. 



These are the four key factors I would identify as now calling for 

 containment. If the American people will take a firm hold of water, 

 open spaces, air pollution, and the land use pattern around the urban 

 centers, they will be able to bring urbanization into reasonable and 

 rational balance with the major national resources we have identified. 



It is not possible in this paper to discuss at all fully the type of 

 action required for each of these four key subjects, and the appro- 



