THE FEDERAL-STATE-LOG AL PARTNERSHIP 45 



zational and policy relationships among the three levels of govern- 

 ment which are taking increasing form along constructive lines. 



As we consider this problem of the organizational approaches to 

 improving the coordination of Federal agencies or Federal-State- 

 local coordination of recreational affairs, I think we ought to recog- 

 nize two important points. One, that the operating agencies on the 

 State level will vary from State to State and will permeate the entire 

 structure of State government. The operating agencies on the Fed- 

 eral level also permeate the whole structure of government and will 

 vary from those on the State and local government levels. To estab- 

 lish a vertical relationship through the Federal system which will 

 tie in these variations in operating agencies on the Federal-State- 

 local level is a considerable problem, but we ought to avoid getting 

 so involved in the organization problem that we overlook what it 

 is that we are really trying to do. 



What we are trying to do here is to inject the concept and a feeling 

 of urgency about beauty and conservation into existing programs, 

 rather than to try to restructure everything that we are doing on the 

 State and local and Federal levels in these fields. 



For example, the States vary in their highway programs with re- 

 spect to their policies and with respect to the urgency that they feel 

 about the impact of highway construction upon the beauty of 

 America. And these variations relate not only to billboard control 

 and to roadside picnic areas, but to junkyard control and many others. 



Now, I don't think dealing with the problem of beauty as it re- 

 lates to highways requires that we restructure our organization for 

 building highways, but rather that we find a way to create a new 

 sense of urgency and to incorporate into our highway program a 

 new concept, a new perspective on its relationship to the landscape in 

 our States. 



Carrying this thought further, then, we have got to recognize that 

 natural beauty and recreation are really functions of land or water 

 use by people in one way or another and that these functions and 

 our way of dealing with them in government are spread throughout 

 both levels of government and will continue to operate in that way. 



I think the recommendations that we are considering this morning 

 for dealing with this problem of natural beauty on the Federal level 

 recognize the points that I am trying to make. I think we have 

 to recognize that the primary responsibility in this field rests at the 

 State and local level, and that it should rest there not only because 

 of the concept of States' rights involved as a matter of fact, I 



