EDUCATION 543 



the subject is important enough to justify time in the formal schooling 

 curriculum or the dollars to make it possible. Fundamental to the 

 break-through necessary to secure time in the curriculum and dollars 

 on the budget is to convince people on school committees and city 

 councils that it is to their financial best interest. 

 There are several fundamental needs : 



1. Documentation of the financial value of a healthy human en- 

 vironment: what beauty or the lack of it does to the tax rate; to 

 demonstrate the impact on people as reflected by the occupants of 

 our mental and penal institutions and by the gigantic bill for urban 

 renewal. 



2. We need testimony from the highest levels, such as is being 

 provided by this White House conference, of the basic importance 

 and need to conserve natural resources and beauty in the human en- 

 vironment as documented by Recommendation No. 1 above. 



3. We need a master "cutter of red tape" a solution to the 

 complexities of Federal aid programs that are so narrowly interpreted 

 and enmeshed in red tape that as a practical matter a local organiza- 

 tion finds it impossible to secure the help it needs from legislation that 

 was enacted to provide that help ; to find a solution to such mundane 

 problems as providing academic credit for conservation teacher 

 workshops so that the teachers will in fact participate again, be- 

 cause it is to their personal monetary advantage to do so. 



Rev. S. T. RITENOUR. The President began his address on Natural 

 Beauty to the 89th Congress with this observation : 



For centuries Americans have drawn strength and inspiration from 

 the beauty of our country. It would be a neglectful generation in- 

 deed, indifferent alike to the judgment of history and the command 

 of principle, which failed to preserve and extend such a heritage for 

 its descendants. 



And the President concludes in this vein : 



The beauty of our land is a natural resource. Its preservation is 

 linked to the inner prosperity of the human spirit. 



The tradition of our past is equal to today's threat to that beauty. 

 Our land will be attractive tomorrow only if we organize for action 

 and rebuild and reclaim the beauty we inherited. Our stewardship 

 will be judged by the foresight with which we carry out these 

 programs . . . 



