190 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



Mr. WHITTON. I am happy that the highway is now being rec- 

 ognized as a possible potential for a more beautiful America. I 

 think that is eminently justified because more people are going 

 to see America through the windows of the highway than any 

 other way. It behooves us to do all we can to make America beauti- 

 ful from the highway. 



Now, of course, I must warn you that there is a difference of 

 opinion among us as to what is a beautiful highway. We have 

 changed our ideas through the years and we have developed differ- 

 ences of opinion and I am talking personally now. When you are 

 in this work as long as I have been, you do change your mind, re- 

 gardless of what people in the highway departments think. 



Highways are for people and I am reiterating what Mr. Bu- 

 chanan said for people who ride on them, and for people who live 

 by them. We must keep this in mind as we design and locate them. 

 The highways must be beautiful as seen from the driver's seat and 

 the backseat driver, and they also must not be a scourge on the 

 community through which they pass. 



Highways can be attractive. I am convinced of that, in either 

 the rural or urban areas. They can be attractive by their location, 

 as some of my cohorts have said, by the proper selection of the routes 

 and by the proper selection of the areas through which they pass. 

 They can be beautiful by the design of the highway itself, by how it is 

 fitted into the landscape and how the roadway is graded. They can 

 also be enhanced by plantings along the roadway. All three of these 

 items contribute to making a more beautiful highway. 



Highways should serve the local people and meet the local desires 

 as well as the needs of through traffic. We must keep this in mind, 

 too, as we locate and design highways. 



Each city and each rural section is an individual problem within 

 itself. It should be approached in that way. Certainly we should 

 work together, and by "we," I mean the local government, the State 

 government and the Federal Government. All these groups should 

 work together in determining what is best for each individual city, 

 and each individual city should take a tremendous interest in what 

 is being done about its highway transportation. Highway transpor- 

 tation is a part of the total transportation and total transportation is 

 a part of the urban planning of the city. 



So I would urge, as many of my cohorts have said before, that we 

 utilize each skill that is available in the city and import some if 

 necessary the skills of architects, landscape architects, highway en- 



