RECONSTRUCTIVE ACTION 113 



The situation calls for concerted action. It 

 must be aroused and energized. The remedies 

 are of many kinds and they must come slowly. 

 We need a redirection of thought to bring about 

 a new atmosphere, and a new social and intellec- 

 tual contact with life. This means that the habits 

 of the people must change. The change will come 

 gradually, of course, as a result of new leader- 

 ship; and the situation must develop its own 

 leaders. 



Care must be taken in all the reconstructive 

 work to see that local initiative is relied on to 

 the fullest extent, and that federal and even state 

 agencies do not perform what might be done by 

 the people in the communities. The centralized 

 agencies should be stimulative and directive, 

 rather than mandatory and formal. Every effort 

 must be made to develop native resources not 

 only of material things but also of people. 



It is necessary to be careful, also, not to copy 

 too closely the reconstructive methods that have 

 been so successful in Europe. Our conditions 

 and problems differ widely from theirs. We 

 have no historical social peasantry, a much less 

 centralized form of government, unlike systems 



