CHAPTER 14 



AUTOMOBILE JUNKYARDS 



1:15 p.m., Tuesday, May 25 



The Chairman, Mr. HAAR. This panel with its rather unfancy 

 title "junkyard," cuts across all the other themes that have been raised 

 at this Conference on Natural Beauty. It deals most obviously with 

 the highway problem; it deals with the city, since in many places, 

 it is a city problem ; it deals with the landscape and the rural areas, 

 as well. 



And, of course, it is an area of great concern for citizen participa- 

 tion and for citizen action. In a way, the automobile junkyard is 

 symbolic of the entire proceedings here. It is the one clear and 

 present danger. It is the obvious sore often picked on, perhaps at 

 times unwisely. It has become a symbol and a legend of what hap- 

 pens in an affluent and technical society. It typifies the problem of 

 disposing of discards which a higher, continually higher, standard of 

 living has made possible. 



This panel is composed of members of industry, those who pro- 

 duce and dismantle automobiles. In a sense, we will be dealing with 

 the recycling process, one which epitomizes what President Johnson 

 has said of the need of cooperation between government and indus- 

 try and the citizen. 



I need only remind you of the references made in the message on 

 natural beauty which has been distributed at this conference. Sev- 

 eral times the President alluded to the urgent need to work toward 

 the elimination or screening of unsightly views and the need to 

 destroy junkyards and auto graveyards along our highways. And 

 Mrs. Johnson in an interview placed automobile junkyards No. 1 

 on her priority list of the uglies to be gotten rid of. 



Members of the Panel on Automobile Junkyards were Roy Aber- 

 nethy, Charles M. Haar (Chairman), Harry Marley, Raymond E. 

 Morris, James Owens, Richard Sentner, and Paul Zinner. 



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