Evening star., 1933-01-02
PRESIDENT LAUDS
SOCIAL RESEARCH
Calls Survey First Effort to
Study Both Facts
and Problems.
~ the Associated Press.

~ the Associated Press.
In a statement issued at the White
House President Hoover last night de-
scribed the report of his Research Com
mittee on social trends, issued from
New York. as "a cooperative effort on
social problems.
The Presidents comment was pre-
pared before he left for his fishing trip
in Southern waters, He characterized
the report as the first attempt ever
made to study simultaneously the fun
damental social facts underlying Amer
lean social problems.
THE effort here has been to relate
all the facts and present them under
a common standard Of measurement,
he said.
Scientifically Studied.
The text Of the Presidents state
Ment follows:
in commenting upon the publication
of the report of the Presidents Re
search Committee on Social Trends. I
deem 1t worth while to expand some
what the predatory note which l pre-
pared some months ago for publication
with it. That foreward IS as follows:
IN the Autoumn Of 1929 ! asked q
group OF eminent scientists to examine
into the feasibility of national survey
OF social trends in the United states,
and in December Of that year named
the present committee under the chair
manship Of DR.. Wesley c. Mitchell to
undertake the researches and make a
report. The survey is entirely the work
OF the committee and its experts, as II
was my desire to have complete, inn
partial examination OF the facts. The
committees own report. which is the
first section of the published work and
is signed by members, reflects their coll
lective Judgment of the material and
sets forth matters Of opinion as well
as OF strict scientific determination.
Cites Unstable Elements.
'tSince the task assigned to the COM
mittee was to inquire into changing
trends. the result is emphasis on ele-
ments Of instability rather than stabil-
ity in our social structure.
This study is the latest and most
comprehensive of series. some of them
governmental and others privately spon-
sored, beginning in 1921 with the re-
port on Waste in Industry under my
craftsmanship. 1t should serve to help
all of us to see where social stresses are
occurring and where major efforts
should be undertaken to deal with them
constructively"
II wish to add to the foregoing the
observation that the significance OF this
report lies primarily, first, IN the fact
that it is a cooperative effort on a
very broad scale to project into the
feld Of social thought the scientific
mood and the scientific method as
correctives to undiscriminating emo
tional approach and to insecure factual
basis in seeking for constructive reme-
dies Of great social problems The sec
ond significance of the undertaking is
that, so far as l can learn, 1t is the
first attempt ever made to study stimuli
taneously all of the fundamental social
facts which underlie all our social pro-
blems Much ineffective thinking and
many impracticable proposals OF remedy
have in the past been due to un-
familiarity with facts in fields related
to that in which given problem lies.
The effort here has been to relate all
the facts and present them under a
common standard Of measurement.
II regard these aspects of the re-
port as of far greater significance and
value than any Of its details. admirable
though these studies are"