ROADSIDE CONTROL 269 



too diverse and too complicated to expect a unified attitude on almost 

 any subject.* 



IRSTON R. BARNES. I would like to make a recommendation 

 that follows up and goes a little beyond Mr. Hornbeck's criterion. 



It seems to me we are faced with new dimensions of billboard 

 blight. I am thinking particularly of billboards that are erected 

 on high scaffolding above the treetops and of such size they are 

 visible for a half a mile or a mile away. 



Mr. Ives, I know you are familiar with that Howard Johnson sign 

 that you can see in Stratford, crossing the Housatonic. I went to 

 Williamsburg this weekend and saw signs that were as wide as the 

 stage at treetop level, well beyond the right-of-way. 



It seems to me that these are obvious attempts to appropriate values 

 that have been created by public investment. They are a trespass on 

 public property and I should like to recommend that Mr. Hornbeck's 

 staff and Mr. Ramsey Clark's legal staff study this matter and dis- 

 cover if it isn't possible to apply the laws of trespass to those bill- 

 boards that are visible from the highway. I don't care whether 

 they are 1,000 feet away or 5,000 feet away. If they are built on 

 a scale where they intrude on the highway, they are an attempt to 

 appropriate and to destroy values which the taxpayer has created. 



MARVIN BURNING. Contrary to Mr. Sargent whose remarks 

 are in the tradition of good sportsmanship and contrary to the re- 

 marks of Mr. Hornbeck who would have us back up in the State 

 of Washington from the regulation of billboards in commercial and 

 industrial zones for that would be the effect of his recommenda- 

 tion and contrary to any disapproval of the lady from Phoenix, 

 Ariz., I believe that you had a true statement of an honest indigna- 

 tion from the ladies of America. For a long time we have heard 

 the kind of smooth talk that says, "We want to get along with you, 

 take our billboards, we are for children, we are for beautiful, Join 

 Seattle Beautiful, the Chamber of Commerce will finance it. See 

 the pretty America? Nothing will happen." That's what we have 

 heard in the State of Washington for a long, long time and Mr. 

 Tocker undoubtedly is sincere in his belief that the outdoor adver- 

 tising companies will cooperate. But what he proposes, for example, 

 would mean that in Washington two-thirds of the mileage of the 



*It was necessary because of other duties for Senator Neuberger to leave the 

 meeting at this point. 



