562 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



Mrs. DICKERSON. The biggest problem at this conference is how 

 to translate the vast knowledge and creativity here to the individual 

 and how to translate it so the individual does something about it. 



As there have been many Washington conferences before ours, 

 there will be many in the future that meet, keep records, adjourn, 

 and that's the end of it. Our conference will be like those unless 

 we find some way to translate the great umbrella word "beautifica- 

 tion" to the individual. 



There are many ways of doing this. Take the Washington visit 

 of Ethiopia's Emperor, Haile Selassie. To the rest of the world this 

 was a diplomatic encounter to cement relations between an African 

 nation and the United States. So it was. But to those of us in a 

 small section of Washington, it had a far more personal meaning. 



Across the street from our house is the Ethiopian Embassy. There 

 was a great flurry of activity at the Embassy months before the ar- 

 rival of the Emperor, the King of Kings the towering Lion of Ju- 

 dah. Painters, cement mixers, gardeners, and sandblasters came each 

 day. Each day we watched with fascination as the Embassy be- 

 came more beautiful. Also watching, as neighbors everywhere will, 

 was the man who lives next door to us. He's Russell Wiggins, Edi- 

 tor of the Washington Post. So impressed was Mr. Wiggins with the 

 Ethiopian progress that he employed the same sandblasters to clean 

 the front of his house. The Dickersons watched their progress, too. 



There comes a point when keeping up with the Joneses, or the 

 Wigginses, or the Ethiopians, reaches home literally. So, my hus- 

 band talked to the same sandblasters, and now the front of our 

 house is a gloriously clean stone. And what was an international 

 exchange to most people on two continents became a clean-the- 

 block campaign for us. 



That's one way of translating beautification to the individual. 

 For those not likely to become involved with the visit of the Ethio- 

 pian Emperor, there are other ways. 



Fortunately, making the individual aware is not as difficult as 

 it once might have been. There's a national ferment in the land 

 that has made beauty a politically hot subject. In its March 1 

 issue, the National Observer tells us that the politicians find it 

 an asset to support beauty projects. Politicians from Capitol Hill 

 tell us that constituents who do not become personally involved in 

 Vietnam or the Dominican Republic (unless a relative is sent 

 there to fight) do become personally involved in local commu- 



