RECLAMATION OF THE LANDSCAPE 337 



and implementing national policy in rehabilitating and preserving 

 the landscape. It could provide an effective mechanism to balance 

 the important competing economic interests involved. 



The concept that underlies such a commission is not too far from 

 that which resulted in the formation of the Resources Program staff 

 of the Department of the Interior. 



But advice and consultation are not enough to meet this challenge 

 and there are jobs to do that require a high degree of independent 

 action. 



I have now proposed a commission charged with three important 

 and interlocking functions. First, it would work on cooperative pro- 

 grams with the States in correcting static scenic blight. Second, 

 it would work on the national level developing better methods for 

 correcting and avoiding the epidemic blight. Third, it would report 

 to Congress and recommend legislation necessary to turn that re- 

 search into effective action and would implement such policy as Con- 

 gress prescribes. 



There is a fourth function that is equally important for such a com- 

 mission and that is the quasi- judicial function of acting as fiscal arbiter 

 of Federal incursions on natural beauty. 



The worst single offender against scenic resources today is the 

 Federal Government itself. Through such organs of national policy 

 as the Bureau of Public Roads, the Federal Power Commission, the 

 General Services Administration, the Atomic Energy Commission 

 and a host of others, endless violations of the American landscape 

 are approved and carried out. 



The superhighways that are planned with strict attention to eco- 

 nomics of motion, often ignore the economics of beauty and space. 

 Power line decisions are made on the basis of the efficiency and cost 

 of power alone, disregarding the cost of ruining the landscape. In 

 such decisions beauty will always suffer as long as we are not able to 

 set a comparable value on it, and you can hardly blame an agency 

 that is charged with promoting power or highway development for 

 regarding beauty as the expendable element, even where the margin 

 of difference is mils. As they see it, that's their job. 



The commission I am proposing should be vested with sufficient 

 force of law to guarantee that scenic resources and their implica- 

 tions for health, welfare, and economics will be considered adequately 

 in all Federal actions. This would include projects constructed as 

 well as those licensed by Federal agencies and also projects to which 

 Federal funds are applied. 



