628 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



incompatability between beauty and efficiency that holds us back; 

 we have architects capable of the necessary synthesis. We need an 

 awareness, an awakening of our people to the magnificience of the op- 

 portunity within our reach. Let us go forth from this conference 

 dedicated to the fulfillment of a new synthesis of American beauty, 

 armed with the knowledge that all the necessary physical tools are at 

 hand to carry out the President's injunction for American beauty. 



Many are here in the cause of preserving our great scenic spec- 

 tacles. With this we can all concur. In this, government has made 

 a great contribution and must continue to do so. But beauty must 

 be everywhere. As the First Lady said "perhaps most important is 

 the single citizen who plants a tree or tends a flower." It is the 

 planting of trees and flowers by Europeans that does so much to send 

 Americans home from Europe aglow with stories of its beauty. Let 

 us concentrate the light of this conference on the gentle, subtle and 

 placid, homespun beauties of our cities and our farmlands. 



Few Americans as they race from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from 

 the Appalachians to the Rockies, pause to contemplate the greatest 

 physiographic feature of our continent, the vast interior lowlands 

 and plains. Let me draw attention to just one opportunity in this 

 great interior for education, for history, for play, and for beauty. 

 Interstate 80 parallels the Platte River within a mile for over 100 

 miles from Grand Island to North Platte, Nebr. The stream is 

 almost totally developed for use which has created a new, beauti- 

 ful, and productive diversity in the valley and even beyond it. The 

 entire valley is sand and the least excavation of a few feet results in 

 a pool of pure, clean water. Many pools have already been made 

 as a source of sand for the road. Let the people acquire this strip 

 a mile wide and 150 miles long. High accessibility is already 

 achieved by the interstate and its many interchanges. In the midst 

 of this great agricultural province let us use this strip to develop a 

 park or outdoor museum in a new dimension to tell the story of our 

 land and water. Let the history be told here of the great romantic 

 achievements of the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, the Pony 

 Express, the cross-continent railway. Let us rehearse here the open- 

 ing up of a new empire on the great plains by our pioneers, our 

 irrigators, our farmers, and our ranchers. Let us incorporate a few 

 real farms and ranches so the millions from our cities can see how 

 they are fed and can really appreciate the productivity and pastoral 

 beauty of our farms. Let them see that beauty and efficiency go 



