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The article focuses on a comment on the paper "Is Group Choice a Part of Economics?" by Bushrod W. Allin published in the August 1953 issue of "Quarterly Journal of Economics." To the question propounded in Allin's title -- "Is Group Choice a Part of Economics?" -- the only possible answer is, "Yes, and no; it depends." If "economics" means everything a practicing economist or teacher of the subject ought to know, then it is "yes, by all means -- up to a point." But in that case vastly more still would have to be included, and Allin gives no indication as to where he would set a limit to his insistence on more breadth and inclusiveness than he finds prevalent. What Allin evidently means, in the main, by "group choice" is governmental action. Here, two very different questions are presented by the effects of such action and by its mechanism and its non economic implications. A useful treatment of economics may no doubt properly include "a good deal" of the first, while very much of the second would trench unduly on the sphere of the other specialism, politics or government.

This paper deals with two polar models of community power structure, the elitist and the pluralist, and shows how certain organizational strategies are appropriate to communities of each type. Tentative guidelines are suggested for the community organization practitioner who needs to know which type of power structure his community has. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores some of the methodological Implications of the role of the social worker as advocate, especially in the case when advocacy requires political behavior. Although manipulation is proscribed in social work, professional purity may be most costly to the victims of social problems. Political behavior is, in any case, inevitable and guidelines must be developed for its use. Four are suggested here: (1) who benefits and who loses by the political behavior, (2) who is subject to or the target of the political activity, (3) which values are inherent in the substantive end or principle that occasions the political behavior, and (4) what is the nature of the act itself? Circumstances that Impinge on the effectiveness of political behavior are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is the military policy public in the United States--those attentive to and interested in military issues of foreign policy--similar to or different from the foreign policy public generally? This paper identifies this military policy public, specifies some of its demographic characteristics, and compares it with the American foreign policy public and the attentive public policy public. It adds a significant refinement to the understanding of public opinion and public policy relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents sociological concepts published in different periodicals. If the existing tendencies toward peace can be organized as fully as the tendencies toward future wars are organized, the hardest task of this generation will be accomplished, writes C. Delisle Burns in the September-October 1924 issue of the "American Review." He sees three spheres of work, governmental policy, education, and labor organization, open to efforts of those who are trying to abolish war. In thus educating the world for peace the available moral leadership of the U.S. will have to be called out. With Canada and the other white parts of the British Empire, a cooperative scheme can be worked out that shall operate under principles, says W.B. Smith in a thoughtful paper from the November issue of the "Educational Review." The presence of more than a million drug addicts in the country has shown that this evil cannot be stamped out by forbidding the importation of narcotics, but only by restricting the cultivation of plants from which they are made.

The article presents the atomic energy commission's interest in bioenvironmental research. This paper focuses on the requirements needed for the development, usage and control of atomic energy for the benefit of the national defense and national security. It has been proposed by the Atomic Energy Act (AEC) that atomic energy be used for the general welfare of humankind in uplifting the standard of living, promote world peace, and for strengthening free competition in private enterprises. AEC has developed and been pushing for various researches in the advances of technology in atomic energy.

International trade theorists have been almost alone in considering seriously the question of devising the optimal economic policy when social utility, defined as a function of the currently available flow of goods and services, cannot take the maximum value that is attainable within the framework of technological, resource and trading opportunities, owing to constraints provided by "non-economic" objectives. Four major varieties of non-economic objectives can be distinguished: (1) the output level in specific activities may be considered to be of strategic importance and hence may not be allowed to fall below specified magnitudes; (2) self-sufficiency, that is, the value of imports (or exports, under balanced trade), may be considered to be sufficiently strategic to entail that its level not exceed a specified magnitude; (3) factor employment in certain activities, for example labour in agricultural activities, may be considered vital for defence or "national character" and hence may not be allowed to fall below specified levels; and finally (4) domestic availability of certain commodities may be considered to be relevant to "social policy", requiring that it not exceed certain specified levels, as for example with "luxury" consumption. In each of these cases, the question of maximizing social utility becomes a problem in the theory of the second-best, for each such non-economic objective constitutes an additional constraint subject to which the social utility function would be maximized. And corresponding to each such constrained solution, there is an optimal form of policy intervention that will enable a competitive system to maximize social utility. This paper is addressed to an analysis of the optimal policies, when the economist is faced with these non-economic objectives (each taken in turn, during the ensuing analysis). Throughout, the model assumed involves two primary factors, two final outputs, production functions embodying constant returns to scale and diminishing returns along isoquants, a well-behaved concave social utility function, and fixed supplies of factors of production. In Section I, it is also assumed that there is no monopoly power in trade, so that the external terms of trade are fixed throughout the analysis. This assumption is relaxed in Section II. The analysis involves the derivation of necessary (and under our assumptions, sufficient) conditions for a solution to the constrained maximum problem implicit in each case. However, all cases in Section I are illustrated diagrammatically as well, so as to bring out the essence of the analysis more clearly. It can be shown that an optimum solution exists in all cases, and the analysis will be devoted to a characterization of the optimum solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The remarks of Bohm, McManus and Negishi, as well as the earlier pieces by Lipsey and Lancaster and ourselves, bear witness to the fact that there is a lack of a consensus regarding the purpose or aim of a theory of second best. Further, many of the critics of and contributors to this emerging theory give no indication of having considered the practical difficulties associated with the policy implications of either their work or proposals. The analysis of second best problems has largely been conducted in an idealized world where it is implicitly assumed that the policy-maker has all knowledge and is a beneficient as well as omniscient being. It can be argued that this lack of a concern for the practical aspects of policy, as well as the implicit assumption of an all-knowing policy maker, are basic causes of this lack of a consensus. Where there is no agreement on purpose, both confusion and apparent contradictions are likely to be found. The primary goal of this essay is to express and argue for the acceptance of one particular view of the purpose of a theory of second best. It is believed that the relevant issues can be better understood, the apparent contradictions resolved, and much of the confusion cleared away by viewing the problem in this light. Of course, the secondary goal of commenting upon the remarks of the critics of our paper is not overlooked; and in practice these two goals are not always distinguishable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the general neoclassical statement of the labor absorption problem in the manufacturing sector in the developing countries, particularly in the Philippines. Like other developing nations, the Philippine government has imposed minimum wage legislation on industrial firms, introduced modern labor laws, and required firm contribution to social security, all of which has tended to raise the legal price of labor. No one has attempted to estimate the short-and-long-run impact of these policies. the one percent annual increase in real wages would result in a reduction of employment growth by 0.5 percent.

The article focuses on alien labor in the United States. There are in excess of six million aliens in the U.S. Estimates indicate that once economic recovery is well on its way, the country will have a fixed unemployed population of five million persons. Although much has been written about unemployment as a purely economic and industrial problem, little thought has been given to the degree to which it is aggravated by the denial of work to persons of foreign birth, who are not actual or potential American citizens. Statistical and objective studies show that large numbers of the present alien group in the U.S. are out of work because they are not citizens of the country. Until they become naturalized, there is the probability that they will be thrown upon public charities for support, and the further unhappy circumstance that even that very public support, in certain parts of the country, may be denied to them on the ground that they are aliens. An example of this attitude is a bill introduced in the New York State Senate barring aliens from receiving any work relief under the unemployment aid program.

The South as a culture area is characterized by certain rather unique population problems,' and it is important that careful and critical thought be given to the field. Many questions come immediately to the attention when one thinks of a population policy for the South. A policy infers a rather definite course of action to be pursued, and the pursuance of this course implies that some means should be available for the accomplishment of the aim or policy. It would be very difficult to outline such a definite course of action at present; one that should be put into actual effect, or even one that leaders in various walks of life in the South might be able to agree upon. It is obvious that any policy would have to be initiated "by the consent of the governed" and carried out with the full and complete sympathy of the people in the region. In this paper no attempt will be made, in fact, to outline such a definite population policy for the South. Another alternative will be adopted; namely, the formulation of certain broad principles that must necessarily be involved in a population policy, and the statement of the more important essentials which should be considered in shaping such a policy. The important thing at present, it seems, is to direct thinking in channels that may some day lead to a population policy for the Southern Region.

In this article, the author describes numerous ways in which social science research training is useful in the solution of problems faced by government policy makers. He also makes several suggestions about ways in which research in communications might be more helpful in solving foreign affairs problems. According to the author, three most common complaints about research operation are, sometimes research personnel are unable to state their findings in such a way that potential users of the research understand its meaning, the second complaint is closely allied to the first problem, that is, sometimes social researchers neglect doing a good job of market analysis of their product. The third complaint is that researchers sometimes fail to meet job deadlines. Nothing is more irritating to users of research than to have a research product arrive at their desk five minutes, five days, or five weeks after a policy or operational decision has been made. An exhaustive tome which covers every conceivable aspect of a problem may be a nice thing to have in files and it undoubtedly gives the author a sense of professional thoroughness in his work.

The article focuses on the legislation requiring the Secretary of the United States Department of the Treasury to purchase silver bullion to use for the creation of silver dollars in the United States. The act of February 28,1878, requires the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase every month not less than two million dollars' worth nor more than four million dollars' worth of silver bullion, and to coin this bullion into silver dollars, which are legal tender without limit. When the act of 1878 was passed, it seems to have been expected that the actual silver dollar would go into circulation without difficulty. Finally, beginning in the latter part of 1886, the volume of the silver currency expands, and gains rapidly on the total coinage, causing a steady decline in the amount of the dead silver. Even in 1885 when the general movement was strongly towards a reduction in its volume, there was an increase in the closing months of the year. The Treasury has made every effort to get them out of its hands, going so far as to pay the cost of transporting them from the sub-treasuries to any point where they may be wanted. The premium so offered to persons who have occasion to use money in small denominations, and especially to large employers of labor, causes considerable quantities of them to be sent for and used but the great bulk of them return to the Treasury almost at once.

Replies to a comment on the stability of economic theory of Harrod's model. Expression of gratefulness for pointing out the mistake; Model proposed is necessarily stable in the limit; Model now appearing to lie farther back.

The article presents information on two official publications from Ireland and Canada, respectively. The first book is "Economic Development in Northern Ireland," and the other is "Impact and Implications of Office Automation," by J.C. McDonald.

This article presents the attempt to reconcile the approaches by considering the notion of compensation. If the economic activities of a community were organized on the principle of making no alterations in the organization of production. The reward matrix describes the geographical incidence of governmental policy, while the transition matrix describes patterns of geographical mobility. It will be assumed that each state corresponds to a level of personal income.

This article presents an economic analysis of highway services in the United States. In the United States the government provides public highways on which individuals operate vehicles largely at their own discretion, within defined safety regulations. In recent years many highways have become congested, and the government has attempted to relieve congestion by building more roads. The first section of this article will be devoted to a model of the market for highway services--the demand for and supply of space on the highways. It will be seen that congestion is, in part at least, the economic response to the existing method of highway pricing. The second section will use the model to suggest why government policy, oriented almost entirely towards expanding the highway system, has failed to resolve the congestion problem. It is assumed that a single governmental unit provides public highways that are utilized by a single class of private vehicles. Nominal operating costs per vehicle-mile include time, fuel, tire wear, insurance, and depreciation.

The article explores whether formal reasoning can make a contribution to the understanding of how economic reforms may be brought about. The authors take as starting point a situation in which reform can be achieved legally only if parts of both conservative and progressive groups in the constitutional decision-making body join forces to vote for it. The authors suppose that the reform can be graduated, that is, can be more or less sweeping and assume at this stage that progressives prefer the more sweeping to the less sweeping reforms, all the way, while the opposite holds of course for the conservatives. How much reform can be achieved without prior revolution may be subject to considerable differences of judgment, but one may assume the existence of some degree of sweepingness which undoubtedly requires prior revolution. The definition of progressives implies then that they are unafraid of revolution and that they in fact welcome it, not for its own sake, but because it permits the realisation of the more sweeping reforms that are inconceivable without revolution.

The article examines the theory of economic development in relation to underdeveloped countries from the view of economist Joseph Schumpeter. It presents the role of government in an underdeveloped country and the problem of financing innovations in underdeveloped countries. Schumpeter's theory is one of the very few theories, which aim at systematically explaining the process of economic development. Since the theory is exciting, widely known, and the major contribution of a great economist, it is inevitable that attempts have been made in the recent years to apply it to the case of present-day underdeveloped countries. It has been argued by many economists that the role of government in an underdeveloped country becomes essential either because the private sector has not the strength or lacks the willingness to enter certain activities or the private sector is willing to enter but sufficient ground has not been prepared for it to enter. It is this second reason which strongly suggests that, insofar as the public sector aims at providing basic facilities, it should be considered as enhancing the bourgeois interest.

The article comments on the article "Politics of Political Economists," published in the November 1959 issue of "Quarterly Journal of Economics" on the views pertaining to the generation of radical political viewpoint by quantitative economics. In the first place, statistics are desperately needed for any sort of government planning of the economic system. In a free market economy, the individual business firm has little or no need of statistics. It need only know its prices and costs. In short, statistics do not have to be developed originally for politico-economic ends; their own autonomous development, directly or indirectly, opens up new fields for interventionists to exploit. Each new statistical technique, whether it be flow of funds, inter-industry economics, or activity analysis, soon acquires its own subdivision and application in government. Another reason why statistics and political pragmatism are mutually congenial is that the very hallmark of the pragmatic approach is to begin by looking for problems or "problem areas" in the society. It appears that the economic discipline, per se, imposes a rightward shift in ideological belief.

The article focuses on the importance of construction of science and welfare in economic policy. Gunnar Myrdal, an economic theorist, sociologist, Swedish Minister of Trade and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe, has recommended the approach called indirect approach to objectivity. The direct approach to objectivity has a practical basis in a demand for information common to different interest groups and historical information. Rationality is a primary assumption for the greater part of economic theory, while the advantage obtained by the exchange between economic subjects is the classical gospel of economic. The main object of wise statesmanship is to balance the time and place of human activity.

The article discusses the balance of payments during the recession period in the U.S. The discussion includes the effect of the recession on economic development of other countries and the U.S., the analysis of change in the balance of payments, and the ways to improve the balance of payment position in the country. According to the author, the international economics experts agree that the recession in the country is bound to cause a serious recession in the rest of the world, and the recession in the United States is bound to cause a serious deficit in the balance of payments of the rest of the world with the U.S.

The article explores the essential features of the national wage policy in Australia. The determination of wage rates in the country is in the hands of a large number of tribunals, constituted under state and federal law. The centralization of decision-making in wage-fixing has been encouraged by the centralized structure of unions representing nearly 60 per cent of all wage and salary earners, and employers' organizations. However, the present constitutional provisions, the federal government has no powers to fix wages and prices.

The article discusses the reasons for the establishment and the operations of the International Material Conference during the Korean emergency and discusses the appropriateness of economist Adam Smith's dictum, that restrictions on international trade are justified when some particular industry is necessary for the defense of the country, as guide to economic policy. When the Korean emergency began, the domestic economy was approaching full employment. It was likely that additional large demands for raw materials arising primarily from the emergency might have to be met by creating or discovering additional productive units rather than from existing facilities. Temporarily, certain "nonessential" or "less essential" demands might have to be administratively curtailed unless prices were to be allowed to serve as a rationing device. In the 1950s the United States had adopted and was implementing a political policy of collective defense under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program and had adopted and was implementing a long-term policy of freer international trade, which also applied to raw materials.

The article focuses on intangible property as a tool for analyzing the relationships between government and private enterprise. Beginning with the radical ideas of the classical economists, government was viewed as an outside force which contributed to the elimination of competitive conditions by grants of special privilege and interference with free exchange. The early classicists implied, and sometimes explicitly stated, that competition was a normal state of human relationships which would largely maintain itself if freed from governmental interference. When it became apparent that competitive markets could be destroyed by private combinations as well as by governmental favor, the view of the government's role changed. Governmental interference with the private economy was now justified and defended as a means of maintaining competitive markets. At the same time there was general agreement that certain areas in the economy could not be maintained feasibly on a competitive basis because of their naturally monopolistic character.

The article discusses the functioning of Soviet planning with especial focus on the Fourth Five-Year Plan (FYP). If by a plan is meant a well integrated combination of goals for all, or at least all major, economic sectors and factors, the Law on the Five-Year Plan of Restoration and Development of the National Economy of the USSR in 1946-50, hereafter referred to as the Fourth FYP Law, was not a real plan. It was actually an incomplete collection of poorly integrated or entirely unintegrated plans for individual sectors of the Soviet economy. The fragmentary nature and lack of proper tie-ins of the fourth FYP may have been due to insufficient time for its preparation. But the fourth FYP may also have been a step away from the comprehensive, fully tied-in long-range plan which was believed necessary at the inauguration of the FYP's. A subtle implement like good planning is incompatible with dictatorship, with its secrecy, its prosecution of free thought, its encouragement of parrot faculties and other accessories of Soviet "democracy."

This article presents information on issues related to full employment policies. The analysis presented in this article, of the causes of unemployment and the means by which governments can remove or prevent it, is "Keynesian" in the simplest and most mechanical sense of that adjective. All of the operative analysis could be reduced to a small set of algebraic equations. Moreover, these could be interpreted as strictly mechanical equations or as identities. Economic process is treated as simple and mechanical and completely responsive to political regulation, and political process is treated as consisting in the reaching of decisions by unified and sovereign authorities and of their subsequent execution or enforcement by government officials. The analysis can also be summarized verbally with great brevity without leaving out anything. The volume of employment is a function, a simple, stable, and unique function, of the level of effective demand, allowance being made for a small amount of genuinely frictional unemployment.

The article discusses four essays written by economists on the economics of free society. Talking about the political climate of that time the author has stated that western democratic world, economists and laymen alike were more than ever involved in the old, perpetual debate over economic freedom versus governmental and group controls. Political economy is a much broader subject than economic science. It involves the latter plus all other social or human sciences, plus philosophical, ethical and political reflection, plus thoughtful study of human history. And like philosophy, into which it overlaps, it must forever remain in essential part a theater of controversy, and never can become entirely a branch of research leading to agreement on the truth. That is why, as one of the central controversies in this field, the debate about the proper spheres of individual freedom and collective control in the "good" economy is eternally recurrent, wherever thought and discussion are free.

The article discusses the pre-war undervaluation of price control by economists as the instrument of emergency policy in the U.S. The issuance of the General Maximum Price Regulation (GMPR) was an act of desperation which is by all odds the most important single step in war-time price policy. A Statement of Considerations that accompanied the GMPR states that there can be no effective price control while at the same time there is a large amount of power to purchase. The passage of the Price Control Act in 1942 was believed by the Congress and the Country to insure reasonably stable prices.

This article evaluates the economic coverage of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 in the United States. The basic provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act are applicable to employees who are engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce. This phrase constitutes the sweep of the powers exercised by Congress in 1038. The coverage resulting from it has been limited by a considerable number of exemptions written into the Act, and of course by the definition of the terms themselves. The word commerce is defined by the Act as trade, commerce, transportation, transmission or communication among the several states or from any state to any place outside thereof. It is to be noted that this definition includes not only the instrumentalities of commerce such as railways, telegraph and radio, but also all types of trade across state lines. The phrase production, of goods for commerce is defined in very broad terms by the Act, and the courts have construed these terms broadly. The word produced is defined to include manufactured, mined, handled, or in any other manner worked on, and covers not only those who actually produce goods but also all workers engaged in any process or occupation necessary to the production thereof.

The article presents a discussion related to the concept of unemployment. Unemployment is a family name for a whole brood of concepts, but the concepts vary so widely in size and character that no one of them represents the others. The single, all-use measure is not unemployment at all, but some magnitude of illegitimate conception with the courtesy title. The father of the magnitude is more likely to be statistical expediency than economic theory, social philosophy, or even government policy. The magnitude, forced to serve all purposes, cannot safely be used to serve any important purpose. Certainly one cannot use it to indicate the involuntarily unused productive power of the nation or the morale efficiency of the system, for it does not count the enforced idleness of the most productive workers, either because they do not have the nominal status of employees, because they are employed part of the time or at token work, or because they do not seek work, though desperately needing and wishing work and definitely employable. One cannot even use the magnitude as an index of fluctuation of unemployment, for these classes of uncovered idleness, especially part-time unemployment, vary out of all proportion to the covered idleness, indeed, they have become institutional devices to suppress unemployment.

The article examines whether rational distribution of resources and free choice to consumers are possible in an interventionist economy that is not completely planned. In terms of economic theory, the tools of analysis by the concept of collective demand offers the best means of treating. The main issue is whether collective interventions, in terms of the general theory of value, can be analyzed and whether the conditions for rational consumer's choice can be met in a government intervention. Furthermore, it is concluded that the mechanism of government by free agreement must be available if democratic government rests upon the proposition that government must be conducted with the free agreement.

The article examines the process of industrial concentration in the United States. During the later stages of industrialization the variety of methods of bringing about concentration has been considerably increased. One method of concentration is the merger. The merger is probably a more sensitive response because business men are more willing to resort to it because it casts the costs of shifting business in the form of a capital sum. Price cutting does not always operate as effectively as is suggested by many defences of free competition to select for survival in each industry, during periods of transition, the most efficient firms. Where concentration of control is aimed at securing power over prices rather than improving methods of production, and price competition is selected as the means of attaining control, purchasers benefit during the period of concentration. Existing social policy permits the concentration of power to deal with the problems in industries where price leadership has emerged.

Reports on the transition in the United States from government control of the sugar industry to competition conditions. World sugar market during 1919; Problem of the surplus, shortage and decontrol; Conditions in 1920.

The article presents helpful guidelines to help the social workers in instituting an institute. Two ingredients are essential: a "cover" and efficient administrative machinery. A cover is a well-known figure in the field, a new brand of therapy popularly described in a best seller, or adherence to a serious, privileged subfield, still a little arcane and scary, preferably psychoanalytic. Human relations personnel do a lot of consulting work, but they also set up workshops to help people's interpersonal relations. The various psychodrama and theater-games outfits are first cousins and are busily elaborating their structures. Last year a small group of professionals in the fields of community organization and development, laboratory education, and personal growth groups formed the International Association of Applied Social Scientists. Much more important than the cover, organizationally, is an efficient administrator who does all the scut work.

The article focuses on the effects of private pensions on public policy. Social policy analysts have not traditionally been concerned with the pension system for workers retired from private industry. careful study. The following three factors make the private pension system a subject of continuing concern to those analyzing, planning, and developing social policy: This large private benefit system has an enormous effect on the public well-being because of its magnitude, cost, and power; Past and present operation of the system clearly illustrates the negative consequences of a high degree of selectivity in pension programs; The economic impact of large existing private systems that distribute benefits, such as this one, must be taken into account in any significant efforts to redistribute resources in the society. At present over 28 million workers, or more than half the active labor force, are covered by private pension plans.

This article discusses potential policy issues and challenges surrounding the institution of a national day care program for preschool children, predicted to be enacted soon within the United States. Topics addressed include analysis of several program models on their strengths and weaknesses with regard to certain clienteles and suggestions for ensuring that the models adopted are more suited to consumers than providers.

Social welfare programs should not be developed for nonwhite minorities alone but should be included in plans for the bottom half of the population--black and white Guidelines and strategies for planning and implementing such programs are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Options of cash and services in social provision are viewed from three perspectives. The author also presents guidelines for providing services, describes the compromise voucher measure, and points out merits of universalism in both services and income maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing interest in group care for children highlights the fact that present theory consists of a patchwork of theoretical remnants, practice models, and traditional values. This article presents a historical analysis of the development of group care in the United States-and this society's ambivalent attitudes toward its children - from which are derived guidelines for planning and implications for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social policies for the aged are examined in terms of the five action-dilemmas outlined by Talcott Parsons. It is observed that individual performance remains a dominant criterion in evaluating people and that one of the challenging social problems of the future is to devise new patterns of leisure activities. The study points out that the aged are receiving basic services, but are still deprived of a meaningful place in the family system, a measure of social authority, and activities that are functionally valuable and personally satisfying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Once faced with the problem of not enough adoptable children to go around, adoption agencies find themselves with the opposite dilemma today-where to find adoptive parents for the thousands of children in their case loads. The author suggests solutions to be implemented at all levels-local, state, and national. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A strategy is proposed for the antipoverty community action programs, namely, a third party stance aimed at increasing the demand for services by the poor and also assisting "suppliers" of these services, the established and new agencies, so they can provide relevant services more readily and humanely. Specific methods for improving demand and supply are suggested briefly, and some of the difficulties in this third party orientation are cited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the role played by social workers in society of the United States. No element in the history of social work can claim greater significance than the part played by social workers in gaining acceptance of measures to advance the standard of life of the American people. The social worker often fails to appreciate the breadth of the public social policy areas relevant to his practice, which may be defined as those that affect social welfare functions under public auspices, such as social insurance, public welfare rehabilitation services and recreation program. Social policies derive from executive legislative and judicial sources of governmental authority at federal, state, and local levels. The expansion in public welfare services and other governmental programs has widened the policy forming scope of administrators. While administrative functions derive their authorization from legislation, many public social policies are shaped by the executive element in government.

The article presents information on the status of social work. As a restless response to a dynamic society, social work in the United States has continued to evolve, adding new functions, surrendering certain old prerogatives, accumulating knowledge, developing new skills, and modifying certain of its underlying assumptions. In this process of gradual transformation there has been, of course, a basic continuity. There is substantial evidence behind the assertion that the professions have a uniquely important place in our culture and that their functioning has a vital impact on the entire society. One important key to an understanding of the nature of the decisions with which social work is faced is to be found in the profession's status problems. At the present time it must be admitted that social work is not yet a high status profession. Be that as it may, the fact of relatively low prestige is well established as is the existence of strong professional strivings for higher status. Yet, paradoxically enough, social workers are very different from most status-seeking middle class groups in so far as they tend to identify, on matters of social policy, with their clients rather than with the other professions or with the dominant socioeconomic class.

The article presents the principles of regional planning in the U.S. Regional planning has always been part of intelligent living. The only issue is concerning "planning by and for whom?" The laisseza-faire point of view should be quickly rejected. Those who believe in laissez-faire hold that the planned effort of every individual will automatically result in the welfare of all. But this is a false and unrealistic belief. The line of participation in planning from the grassroots on to the top level of decision must be channeled through the regional level. It is not necessary that the region have legal status and authority if the local, state, and federal governmental agencies will recognize it as an effective unit for which adjustments must be made. In order to bring out the full meaning of regionalism, it should be contrasted with sectionalism. By sectionalism is understood an attempt on the part of an area to set itself up as an independent and relatively sell-sufficient unit in respect to economic, political, or social matters.

The article focuses on various aspects related to regional planning organizations. Regional planning should meet a problem that does not exist at the other levels, namely, the absence of governmental implementation of a regional character. For national, for state, for local planning the U.S. has existing establishments on which planning responsibilities can be placed, and which must plan if their normal activities are to be carried on successfully. But planning in regional terms must be more inventive. Regional planning functions can be performed, and are being performed, by the ordinary federal departments, bureaus, boards, and commissions. The use of regular federal agencies, which customarily operate in a restricted subject-matter field, but with nation-wide jurisdiction, for regional planning purposes has certain advantages. Discussion of the regular federal agency as used for regional planning purposes must also take into account the extent to which planning and action responsibilities are combined in the same organization. A second device for performing regional planning functions is one which brings together, on a more or less formal and regularized basis, a number of federal agencies concerned with a particular region or regional problem.

The article presents a discussion on the unemployment compensation benefit law for seasonal workers in the U.S. It analyzes present legal provisions regarding seasonal workers and to point out the relation of unemployment compensation theory to the problem of seasonal benefits. There are two common ways of defining seasonal industry and seasonal worker in the law. The first are those laws which define seasonality in terms of a group or class of employers who find it impracticable or impossible to operate for a period or periods of one year in length without laying off a specified percentage of workers. The second type of law defines a seasonal industry as one which operates less than a specified number of weeks. It is generally assumed that unemployment compensation benefits help to stabilize the standard of living of insured workers. That is its main social reason for existence. If laws are so drawn that vast numbers of workers are disqualified on the grounds that they were employed in seasonal industries, then it may be questioned whether unemployment compensation has the value which has been attributed to it by organized labor, many governments, and large numbers of students of the social sciences.