72 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



which would make it mandatory. No one has either a God-given 

 or man-given right to profit purely as a result of the accident of 

 location rather than his own ingenuity or initiative. Congress 

 should freeze the price of land in which it is interested before it 

 starts debating whether it will or will not buy it as a national park, 

 for example. Short of this, it should itself tax 100 percent on the 

 inflated purchase price. 



Another type of legislation needed is that which would put teeth 

 into the designation "National Historical Monument." It does little 

 good for the government to so designate a house, building, river, 

 or site, if it has no power to protect such an object or site from the 

 despoilers. An object so honored should be worthy of the full 

 protection of government regardless of ownership. 



HAROLD F. WISE. Throughout the conference, constant refer- 

 ences were made to the necessity for increased attention to regional 

 planning. The report of Mr. Bemiss, chairman of the panel on 

 the New Suburbia made particular recommendations to this end. 

 Other panelists urged similar action. 



The environment around San Francisco Bay, for example, is a 

 single, organic environment, even though it contains nine counties 

 and 83 cities, to say nothing of the untold hundreds of special purpose 

 districts. 



The Detroit metropolitan area contains 214 local general purpose 

 governments, including six counties. 



This pattern can be repeated over and over again in every metro- 

 politan area in the country. 



Individual actions of individual, independent local governments, 

 without the identification of common cause or the opportunity for 

 common regional action, can only continue the present visual and 

 emotional chaos as among local governments so prevalent in our 

 metropolitan areas today. 



However, regional planning acting solely in an advisory capacity 

 is not enough. Some form of regional decision making machinery 

 must be devised if the organic unity that is the region is to be recog- 

 nized and have the opportunity to have an effect. 



I have four recommendations to this end : 



1. S. 561, The Intergovernmental Cooperation Act of 1965, must 

 be passed. This is really very mild legislation, calling only for a 

 report from a regional planning agency on applications for Federal 

 loans and grants in specific programs. This proposed law should 



