626 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



park acquisition, park development and recreation and beautification 

 programs, including grants-in-aid for local operating budgets for 

 recreation and maintenance. Altogether, this could mean a Federal 

 expenditure of several hundred million dollars annually, over and 

 above the $160 to $200 million anticipated for the Land and Water 

 Conservation Fund, HHFA open space funds and other Federal 

 programs in this field. 



The Honorable Elinor Guggenheimer, of New York City's Plan- 

 ning Commission, puts it simply. She has called, symbolically, for 

 national parks on 20- by 1 00-foot lots in our city slums. 



In spite of some fine statements about putting the parks where the 

 people are, Federal policy continues in the great outdoors tradition. 

 Even increased attention to urban areas is not enough. It is in the 

 older cities at the core of these urban areas where the most people 

 live with the least natural beauty. 



Undoubtedly, we must protect the Nation's wilderness and country- 

 side, beautify our roadsides, our waterways and our suburbs. But 

 providing a few dots of green in our squalid cities should command 

 Federal funds on a large scale. 



ROBERT P. WEATHERFORD, Jr. The silver thread woven into the 

 fabric of discussion in these two days is beauty in all America. The 

 numerous suggestions on accomplishing this seems to express a desire 

 for additional national legislation or to superimpose authority upon 

 some existing overworked agency. 



For the sake of practical politics, which must be applied even in 

 the fields of national aesthetics and natural beauty, I would propose 

 if immediate necessity or a public sense of urgency seems to be re- 

 quired, that a commission or board, with few members, be created 

 to explore the use of existing powers within such programs as Federal 

 highways, Federal housing, urban renewal and others wherein 

 Federal grants are provided. 



This would place the responsibility for enforcement upon the 

 recipient unit of local government. Through the various agencies, 

 beauty, cleanliness and green areas could be built into our cities and 

 rural regions, and where Federal funds are required these could be- 

 come factors required for the securing of such funds. 



By enlisting the best practical minds in America and using ex- 

 isting responsible agencies, you may avoid a crash program and the 

 inherent mistakes or oversights which would accompany it. This 

 would evidently launch this great program, which the President 



