"United States, one of the rarest things the world has ever known -- a country with a surplus of food. Most of the world, even today, lives almost literally from hand to mouth, on the verge of famine and starvation. Indeed, famine and starvation are an annual way of life in far too many areas of the world. The United States is a most happy exception.

"If the average American -- the common man, which I suppose includes pretty much all of us -- could be made to understand the importance of this question to him, and the fact that he has a major responsibility to make sure that his selfish and personal interests are protected, then I believe our economic structure would be invulnerable.

"We have here what ought to be the most salable product on earth, and yet all available evidence is that the great bulk of those advantaged by it do not appreciate it, do not know or care whether any of it is in any danger, and do not consider, if it is, that they have any responsibility to do anything about it. This adds up to perhaps the worst selling job in the long history of mankind.

"This becomes especially evident when you consider that those who have failed in this task have always been considered as pretty impressive in the field of selling. I mean the representatives of American business and industry. Who else can be held responsible? When you come right down to it, who else is interested in tackling this selling job? I'm afraid the answer is nobody. It's up to us.

"Because of this, some have become discouraged and feel it is an impossible task to win the active and dynamic support of American men and women for the system that has provided a way of life that not even kings and emperors enjoyed a century ago."

"There is deep concern that technology is not working as it should in the service of man, and that organizations closely identified with technology -- including our industry very pointedly -- are steered by the profit motive into projects that are low in priority or even destructive.

"It is said that too much technical skill is wasted on projects that are glamorous but essentially frivolous, while too little is focused on problems such as hunger, pollution, the decay of our cities, and the psychic destruction of the people who live in them.

"There is concern about the side effects of technology, the `accidents' that seem to occur all too often. There is concern about the long-term effects of the use of chemical materials, as in the case of agricultural chemicals. There is a growing fear that we have unleashed a force we can no longer control, a force doing irreparable damage to the biological balance of the planet.

"More and more, we are hearing serious questions about the meaning of the word `progress'. It is no longer taken for granted, as it was for many years, that more technology and more economic growth automatically add up to improvements in the human condition.

"They are as likely as anyone else to raise the question we hear so often today: `If we can put men on the moon, how come we can't clean up the mess down here?'

"Perhaps to an extent we have brought this on ourselves by claiming so many wondrous products and monumental discoveries."