Milton Friedman

"The Philadelphia Society gives the beleaguered minority of intellectuals favoring a free economic and political system a home base, an opportunity to discuss common concerns in a supportive and sympathetic environment, a way to meet and to get to know their like-minded colleagues, to recharge their batteries for their day-to-day life in generally hostile surroundings.

The Society has succeeded magnificently in these respects. The meetings have been lively and stimulating, have engendered many published contributions, and attracted increasing numbers of attendants. Most important, it has offered a way of bringing younger scholars into contact with one another and with their elders, as well as of establishing relations between academics, journalists and businessmen. All in all, I regard it as having been a most successful venture."