606 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



2. The antipoverty program should be examined in detail in this 

 respect and extended in every way possible to wipe out the ugliness 

 that poverty produces. The process of wiping out the ugliness can 

 itself be tremendously job-producing. The inculcation of standards 

 of cleanliness and taste must be part of raising the economic 

 standards. 



H. WENTWORTH ELDREDGE. The conservation, rehabilitation, and 

 development of both natural and manmade beauty is a massive task 

 clearly calling for the upgrading of our planning technology, or 

 resource allocation for agreed-on goals, from a micro- to a macro- 

 scale level in three specific ways to match the ever-growing increase 

 in the socio-economic complexity and extent of the rapidly expand- 

 ing American scene. Specifically, considerations of area, function, 

 and time, are all too limited in our planning capabilities. 



First, the amount of area covered by plans should be continually 

 enlarged. There is a distinct need for a national urbanization 

 pattern or locational strategy for the entire United States; moreover, 

 this should be coordinated with Canada and Mexico on a conti- 

 nental level. Second, the number of functions that must be bundled 

 in comprehensive plans must be broadened to include all major 

 sectors of the economy (the rationalization of the steel industry for 

 example) as well as sectors of social, aesthetic, and political import 

 and action not of immediate economic consequence in a unified 

 approach. Stated in another fashion, aesthetic and humanistic 

 values and institutions must be in a planned relationship to economic 

 and political values and institutions. Thus all such activities must 

 be designed as a unit both physically and as social structures. 

 Clearly both the public and private sectors must be meshed. The 

 poverty program and urban/rural redevelopment are cases in point. 

 Population planning is a precise and absolute base for the entire 

 macro-planning endeavor. Thirdly, the United States seems strik- 

 ingly incapable of planning long-range macro-scale programs in 

 time. We seemingly can't get much further ahead than next year's 

 administrative budget on a national scale except in some specific 

 areas of defense, space, and resource planning of relatively limited 

 scope. Planning-in-time we do well enough for a micro-space or 

 for a micro-function, but 10-, 20-, 50-, and 100-year national plans 

 are still beyond us. Leadtime must be stretched. 



The amount of capital needed for these massive operations, both 

 public and private, will run into many tens, even hundreds, of bil- 



