CONCLUSION

The five preceding program areas are recommended by the Committee as those of greatest human need and therefore as the areas of greatest opportunity for the advancement of human welfare. The Committee is unanimous in its recommendation that these areas receive the preferred attention and support of the Foundation.

In formulating these five program areas and their objectives the Committee deliberately refrained from recommending priorities among them, for three reasons. First, relative importance will shift with changing conditions. Second, the opportunity for Foundation activity will vary with the availability of competent personnel and suitable facilities. And, finally, the permanent staff of the Foundation, if it is to achieve maximum effectiveness, must be given a wide range of discretion in developing program plans and selecting projects. In the sections of the report which discuss each program area, as well as in the supporting monographs, will be found some suggestion of the relative importance of programs and approaches, and somewhat more specific guidance for the staff.

In recommending that the five program areas receive preferred attention the Committee makes explicit its wish to avoid any suggestion that programs in other areas should be excluded from subsequent Foundation consideration. This report is based upon the opinions and judgment of hundreds of informed persons who viewed the problems of human welfare in the perspective of 1949. Each year brings change, and some changes will be significant enough to alter substantially the relative