ROADSIDE CONTROL 255 



I am reminded a little bit of one of the recreation activities that we 

 used to have in Portland, Oreg., which was to take young people down 

 to the Union Station to see the trains pull out for Chicago. Great, 

 yellow-painted Union Pacific diesel engines would be there, and 

 it was great excitement to see them pull out. One time a little boy 

 had his hand on the engine as the wheels slowly began to move and 

 as it pulled out of the station, he said, "Whee, daddy, I pushed it." 



For some time it has been a spring ritual, like the swallows return- 

 ing to Capistrano, for Senator John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky 

 and me when we met, maybe, at a party or on the little tram going 

 over to the Senate to discuss reintroducing our billboard bill. He 

 would say to me, or I would say to him: "getting time to think 

 about reintroducing the billboard control bill" and that time is 

 with us again. 



We have legislated piecemeal by offering a carrot instead of a 

 stick to induce States to come into the billboard control orbit. 



Now, with the present law expiring in June of this year, Senator 

 Cooper and I and other members of the Congress are tired of this 

 method of legislating, and with the help of the President of the 

 United States, and, I gather, with the Outdoor Advertising Associa- 

 tion and many other groups, we are about to introduce a bill which 

 has no more of this hanky panky. I hope this bill says from now 

 on out: "If you want any money from the Federal Government 

 for your interstate highway system, control those billboards." That's 

 what we are going to work for. 



I have heard this old story about self-policing by various industries 

 for all of my legislative life, which goes back only to 1950. It doesn't 

 work, my friends, until there is a law or the threat of a law or the 

 threat of activity from big pressure groups. This time I hope it is 

 the public. These people don't police themselves. They don't re- 

 move billboards. They don't control them. But when they see that 

 we mean business, then of course they want to come around. 



Now, let me tell you of my experience in the Oregon legislature. 

 We are proud of the scenic beauty of our State. As you are going to 

 hear from the distinguished lady from Hawaii, we know about Switz- 

 erland, we know of many other scenic areas where the people take a 

 great deal of pride in conserving. So we attempted to set up bill- 

 board control in scenic area preservation activities in the State of 

 Oregon. Who was there to be lobbying against it with all its might 

 and money and strength? The billboard industry the Outdoor 



