116 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



the electorate for the quality of the urban environment. They in 

 turn will rely heavily upon skillful and imaginative planners, archi- 

 tects, landscape designers, and other experts. But something more 

 is needed citizen support, indeed, citizen demand, for urban en- 

 vironments that are beautiful, pleasant, and varied. Such support 

 is the essential ingredient, the base of the pyramid. 



Citizen interest must have not only a voice, but access to expertise, 

 and a means to communicate its views. Then it is capable of per- 

 forming tasks that cannot be done well by government, if at all. No 

 single force has greater capability for achieving the objectives of this 

 conference. 



Organizations like the Nature Conservancy, the National Trust for 

 Historic Preservation, the Federated Garden Clubs, and the newly 

 formed Urban America, Inc., have tremendous opportunities for 

 enhancing the quality of the urban environment and the country- 

 side. A disadvantage, however, is the very abundance and diversity 

 of these groups, which makes it nearly impossible for them to oper- 

 ate together in a fully effective way. As a final suggestion, therefore, 

 I would like to suggest that these organizations associate themselves 

 in a way that will provide them with staff assistance, keep them 

 abreast of what other groups are doing, and otherwise assist in mount- 

 ing a unified and coherent attack on ugliness in America. 



A practical advantage would be that these organizations, in con- 

 cert with public agencies, could do much to develop local programs of 

 urban beautification and improvement, a necessary prerequisite to 

 receiving Federal assistance under the proposed urban improvement 

 and beautification section of the pending administration housing bill. 



Mr. ELIOT. If we are going to preserve or create beauty in our 

 urban environment and before we talk further about natural 

 beauty in and around our cities perhaps we should devote a minute 

 or two to discuss these terms : 



"Beauty." Don't be disturbed. The professor is not going to 

 compete with Plato or Santayana in a philosophic discussion of 

 aesthetics. But I do want to call your attention to some of the many 

 aspects of "Beauty" which apply to our problems in the exploding 

 metropolis. Among them are harmony, balance, sequence, and 

 order. 



I would emphasize "order" or man's eternal search for a grand 

 design to find where he belongs in a fearsomely complicated world. 

 We all want to know where we are and who we are. In our cities 



