NATIONAL GOVERNORS' CONFERENCE 929

creed. Here, whites and Negroes share common bonds and interests,
from pride in their new homes to worries over their new mortgages.

Finally, it cannot be emphasized enough that the key to national
unity rests where it always has in America's enduring values. It rests
with the laws of our land and with private initiative, private enter-
prise and, quite frankly, with politics-as-usual.

The Kerner Commission's portrait of the typical counter-rioter
proves this point. This was the person risking "injury and arrest to
walk the streets urging rioters to 'cool it'.... His actions and his
attitudes reflected his substantially greater stake in the social system;
he was considerably better educated and more affluent than either
the rioter or the noninvolved. He was somewhat more likely... to
have been a migrant. "

The counter-rioter represents individual responsibility and per-
sonifies the citizen regarded by American political philosophers from
the time of Jefferson and Hamilton as the bulwark of the democratic
system — a free man with a stake in society.

Permanent peace in our cities depends on the development of more
counter-rioters. Peace depends not on the negative indictment of
white racism or black power but the positive use of green power —
the power of the purse.

Equally important is the development of grass root political or-
ganizations. A persistent theme throughout the Kerner Report is
the failure of local government "to respond to the needs and prob-
lems of ghetto residents. " The best way to assure rapid response is
through the vote. While I am not advocating the resurrection of the
old fashioned political machine, I cannot help but recall the success-
ful force political organization provided waves of immigrants. These
machines withered as the immigrants assimilated into the American
mainstream.

Ultimate resolution rests with our system of free enterprise, good
old American capitalism. I don't apologize for our materialistic suc-
cess; it is the source of our strength. Basically, the rioters aren't con-
demning the system as much as seeking a piece of the action.

The Congress of Racial Equality recognized the force of private
enterprise when, even as it lauded black nationalism, it adopted
"economic development" of Negro-controlled businesses as its primary
aim.