INTRODUCTION

The mission of the Study Committee was to make recommendations based upon the best available thought concerning the ways in which The Ford Foundation can most effectively and intelligently put its resources to work for human welfare.

In preparing this report and its supporting monographs and memoranda the Committee has consulted more than a thousand persons, men and women of recognized ability and reputation in varied fields of activity and in many parts of the country. Among these were business, labor, and professional leaders, all of whom gave their time and counsel without stint. Numerous university faculties spontaneously organized meetings and conferences and voluntarily prepared reports for the Committee. Unsolicited letters, many containing valuable suggestions, were received from numerous parts of the United States and from several foreign countries. The dominant tenor of these reports and letters was one of unselfish eagerness to assist the Committee's work. The knowledge that at this critical time a great new foundation dedicated to human welfare was seeking counsel on basic policies and programs seems to have caught the imagination and raised the spirits of individuals throughout the world. All were quick to appreciate both its tremendous opportunity and its equally great public responsibility.

The Study Committee had four major objectives as it collected and analyzed data from hundreds of interviews and conferences and from thousands of pages of written materials. The first was to arrive at a clearer understanding of the meaning of "human welfare", as this term, though the keystone of the Foundation's charter, is not further defined or elaborated there. The Committee's conception of human welfare is stated in