A Search for Solutions

Luck notwithstanding, it will take an unprecedented combination of power and principle to resolve the plight of America's cities. Last week in Washington, the beginnings of such a partnership were welded at a day long "convocation" of the newly formed Urban Coalition. The group included Henry Ford II, Walter Reuther, David Rockefeller, George Meany, A. Philip Randolph, I. W. Abel, Whitney Young, John Lindsay. The list, 1,200 strong, comprised mayors and millionaires, bishops and union bosses.

The delegation, commanding an impressive proportion of the nation's economic, spiritual and intellectual resources, had assembled neither as a creature of Congress nor of the Administration, but out of its own desire to grapple with the crisis of the cities --a crisis that will not be solved with mere rhetoric or even the force of law. The Coalition's members gathered at Washington's Shoreham Hotel in full awareness that it will take a stupendous effort, financial as well as philosophical, to meet the gravest internal threat to the nation since the Depression. Their differences forgotten, the cross-section of American leadership offered the most clear-cut program yet devised for the ills of the cities.

Enlightened Self-Interest. Founded last January as an outgrowth of Urban America Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to the study of city problems, the Urban Coalition meets the need for a concerted effort on the part of all the institutions and individuals most concerned with the city.

Time Inc.'s Board Chairman Andrew Heiskell, the Coalition's cochairman, underscored the sense of enlightened self-interest that motivates its members.

"The problem is too vast and complex to be resolved by any one sector," he said. "The failure to move on urban problems is not only socially disastrous but also economically unsound. Each year of delay in funding programs will inexorably require enormously greater expenditures in the future." Added Pittsburgh's Mayor Joseph Barr: "Regrettably, it took a national calamity to provide the urgency and concern which makes this meeting possible."

Turn Around. By bringing the resources--both monetary and managerial --of the private sector to bear on the plight of the cities, the Urban Coalition answers demands raised by such disparate political figures as New York's Democratic Senator Robert Kennedy and Illinois' Republican Charles Percy, both of whom have urged far greater participation of industry in meeting the cities' needs. As the London Economist noted last week, "If Litton Industries can work out a scheme for economic development in Greece, why not in

Watts?" Litton President Roy Ash, a member of the Coalition, could hardly disagree. Said the Urban League's Whitney Young: "The people gathered in this room can turn the country around."

The big question is whether the country is willing or ready to be turned around. Concern over "rewarding" Negro rioters could still result in a series of repressive measures by Congress. One such, an antiriot bill passed by the House, is pending in the Senate, where the Judiciary Committee last week heard former CIA Director John McCone ad mit that a check on incitement might sometimes be helpful. However, McCone, who headed the presidential commission that investigated 1965's Watts riot, warned that antiriot legislation would be no panacea. "What worries me," he said, "is the climate that might prevail in the country. I feel very deeply that unless we answer this problem, it is going to split our society irretrievably. The temptation is to say this is hopeless, but I think we have to stay at the job until we find the answer."

The program outlined by the Urban Coalition (see box opposite) provides cogent answers to the cities' most immediate problems. For the long term, it calls for a reexamination of the nation's priorities and interests. However difficult that may be, no attempt to alleviate the social despair and economic disparities of U.S. cities can succeed until all Americans are willing to search their hearts, consciences and pocketbooks. The Urban Coalition may well have given that effort its initial impetus.

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