676 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



or to raise our gross national product. The purpose of this Nation 

 cannot be listed in the ledgers of accountants. It is to enrich the 

 quality of people's lives to produce the great men and women 

 which are the measure of a Great Society. 



And that is what you have been here trying to do. 



We have also built the most powerful defense in the world, and the 

 power is now on guard in the Caribbean and in Southeast Asia, and 

 in a dozen other quieter places. But we did not forge this shield for 

 freedom simply to be safe and secure, or free from risk or sacrifice. 

 We built it to liberate our energies for a society where each person 

 could use all of his full powers a civilization for the flowering of 

 man. And this, too, is what you are trying to do. 



Crisis and conflict command the headlines. But it is your work 

 that will shape the future. 



For natural beauty is not a luxury for the satisfied. It is not a 

 pleasant frill or a superficial enjoyment. Natural beauty, as you 

 and I conceive it, is the world that we live in. It is the environment in 

 which we were born, and grow to maturity, and live our lives. 



It is more than a rich source of pleasure and recreation. It shapes 

 our values. It molds our attitudes. It feeds our spirit, and it helps to 

 make us the kind of men and women that we finally become. And 

 the kind of men that we finally become in turn makes this great 

 Nation. 



The importance of natural beauty cannot be easily measured. It 

 cannot be coded for computers or calculated by economists. But it is 

 proven beyond doubt by the history of the race, and the experience 

 of our own lives. 



The force of natural beauty its meaning to the life of man in- 

 fuses art and culture throughout the Western civilization. Each 

 generation from the beginning has drawn from it strength and mean- 

 ing, and even truth, and nowhere has it played a greater role than 

 here in our beloved America. 



At first there seemed no end to the limitless wonder of the land. 

 And then, the country grew. There came a time of greed and ig- 

 norance and ruthless exploitation. 



Farsighted leaders, from Theodore Roosevelt to John Kennedy, 

 acted to halt decay and tried to preserve our natural splendor. 



Last year, I signed more than 30 important conservation bills into 

 public laws the greatest record of conservation since the Republic 

 was born. But this accomplishment was only the beginning. This 



