CITIZEN ACTION 573 



is new is the attention being given by the President and by his First 

 Lady to these programs, to the 230 million more Americans, to the 

 ugliness of this land. What is new is the opportunity for 190 million 

 energetic, wealthy, and incalculably effective American citizens to 

 turn their attention and their drive to this task. Let's not underesti- 

 mate these American citizens. 



In Washington State, in 1961, several of us felt a stab in the 

 heart at the billboards along the highways. There was a drive to 

 prevent the blight of those billboards. We went to architects, 

 women's clubs, Democratic clubs, Republican clubs, and dozens of 

 others. Some persons told us it was impossible attempts like this 

 had been made for 30 years in the legislature of Washington. 



Well, thousands of letters poured into the Washington State. Leg- 

 islature. The minority leader received 2,000 letters from his dis- 

 trict. Delegations called daily on the governor. Busloads of la- 

 dies filled the galleries of the House and Senate. The Washington 

 Highway Advertising Control Act of 1961 was the result, the best 

 law of the kind in the Nation but far too modest to meet the chal- 

 lenge of the highways of America. We still look to the President 

 for assistance in this field. 



The next year, in 1962, some of us were a little amazed at what 

 had happened, so we took stock and decided we had underesti- 

 mated the American citizens of Washington. We were appalled by 

 the growing population and by the possibility of losing the greatest 

 heritage of forested mountains, clean lakes, and open fields of any 

 place on earth. 



We started again this time to raise money and to raise it in 

 unprecedented quantity in order to buy and improve waterfront 

 lands, streambanks, wetlands, game ranges, and city, county, and 

 State parks. The legislators wouldn't do it for us. They were 

 caught in a partisan snare. Everybody thought the other fellow 

 ought to vote for it. We went to the voters again. An initiative to 

 the people was drafted, and a referendum was held. Initiative 215 

 received over 170,000 signatures, the second largest number of 

 signatures ever obtained in our State's history and ( I hesitate to note 

 in the presence of our First Lady) the vote of approval was a little bit 

 better than Lyndon Johnson did in our State. 



Before these actions, State spending on recreational land acquisi- 

 tion and conservation was about $300,000 per biennium. Today we 

 look forward to a program of $40 to $50 million of spending in the 



